Redemption (The Chosen #4)

by Swank, Denise Grover

  Marcus nodded with a slight grin. “Emma no longer has a tie to Raphael, which meant she was free to choose anyone. If you were her protector, I had hoped her fondness for you would overshadow any advances from the other two and she would feel a loyalty to you. That she’d pick you. Then Aiden realized that she loved you, and I’m sure he suspected that would give me an unfair advantage when the whole power balance sorted out. So he changed the rules. Again. He stole your memories of Emma, thinking that would stop you two from joining. None of us expected the two of you to be so committed to one another, especially in the short time you were together. Past protectors had months with her, but Aiden insisted the timetable be expedited this time. Probably in hope of cutting any ties on Emma’s part to you.”

  “If you made the new rules, how could Aiden change them?”

  “Aiden’s a tricky bastard and he’s always looking for a way out. A loophole. I thought I had the bases covered. Obviously, I didn’t. Let this be a lesson to you: if you enter an agreement with Aiden, think it through very carefully.”

  Emma didn’t need that spelled out for her. And there would be no agreements unless they all agreed Aiden needed to die.

  “So he changed the rules.” Emma swiped stray hairs out of her face. “Now what? I take it that you have a backup plan.”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “I always have a backup plan.”

  They watched him for several seconds before Emma groaned. “Care to elaborate?”

  “No. Not right now, you’ll just have to trust I have things under control.”

  “The only person I trust is Will.”

  Marcus laughed. “Then you’re smart. But the day is coming when you may not be able to trust Will either.”

  She cast a quick glance in Will’s direction.

  Will’s eyes burned. “Why did you tell Emma that you were her worst nightmare if you say you don’t plan to hurt her?”

  “Because in the past, Emmanuella had to choose between Raphael and Alex, and with each new generation it became no longer a choice, but a given. But because of the changes I suggested and I confess, manipulated, she faces a much more painful choice this time.” He looked into Emma’s face. “The time is coming when you will have to choose, but your choices will be Will or Jake.”

  The blood in her head pooled in her feet, leaving her lightheaded. “What do you mean, choose Will or Jake?”

  Marcus studied her for a moment. “I think you know exactly what I mean. I’m sorry.”

  Will tensed.

  A chill shot down her spine. She’d have to choose one of them. But hadn’t her father insisted the same thing? Anger burned in her chest and she shook her head. “You’re not sorry. You’re an element and all an element thinks about is himself. So don’t give me your I’m sorry shit.”

  With a sigh, Marcus lifted his hands at his sides. “Fair enough. And while I’d love to give you more answers, I have an errand I need to run. Go stay somewhere outside of Albuquerque. I’ll come find you and we’ll discuss our next move.”

  Will didn’t answer as Marcus backed away and then hurried to his car. He opened the door, leaned down and grabbed something, tossing it toward the car parked in front of his. A moment later he drove down the mountain.

  Emma turned to Will. “You’re not seriously planning on going back to Albuquerque and waiting for him, are you?”

  “Hell, no. We’re going north. To Santa Fe.”

  Chapter Two

  As Will watched Marcus drive away, his emotions rolled into in a slow boil of anxiety. Will’s entire life was a fucking lie. Every single bit. Everything except for the woman standing next to him, and he had to get her out of here.

  “Why is Raphael’s car still here?” Emma asked, motioning to the sedan pulled off onto the shoulder, the driver’s door standing open. “I thought he took off.”

  “He tried, but Marcus took his keys out of the ignition. So he ran.”

  She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “How do you know that Marcus took his keys? When did you talk to Marcus?”

  It all made sense now. The voice in his head after Will had lost his memory. Still, he found the events of the last half hour overwhelming. He took a breath and released it. “He told me in my head. He was the voice in my head when Kramer and his men took me after I lost my memory.” Will looked over his shoulder into the trees. Raphael might have abandoned his car, but that didn’t mean he was gone. “We need to go before Raphael comes back.”

  “You plan to take Raphael’s car? How can we if Marcus took his keys?”

  “That’s what Marcus tossed toward the car. I want to get out of here in case Raphael figures that out.”

  While he searched for the keys, she stood several feet from the sedan, her feet spread apart in a defensive stance, her hands at her sides. Her still damp, long brunette hair blew about her face in the light breeze. The sun had set and the glow of the fires in the valley behind her created a golden aura that gave her a magical look. The moon overhead cast its light on her face revealing her lifted chin, her dark brown eyes alert. She looked wild and ruthless.

  And she was his.

  She caught his gaze and smiled. “You going to stare at me all night or are we going to get the hell off this mountain?”

  “Get in the car.”

  Amazingly, she didn’t argue with him. She climbed into the passenger seat and he gave her a worried glance as he sat behind the wheel. She looked paler than usual, even in the moonlight. “Are you okay?”

  “Let’s see, in one day I’ve faced my megalomaniac father, had my son taken from me again, gotten attacked by two elements and destroyed a city, was forced to tell the man I love goodbye forever, had my car shoved off a cliff by one of the elements, nearly plunged to my death a couple of times, was magically married to the man I just told goodbye, and found out from another element that he was the cause of my impending Sophie’s Choice.” She gave him a sarcastic grin. “I’m fine.”

  “It’s been one hell of day.” He turned the car around and headed back up the mountain. He didn’t want to risk of encountering Raphael until he and Emma had a chance to regroup.

  “How did you get down to me so fast?” Emma asked. “I left you a couple of miles up the mountain.”

  “Marcus.”

  Her eyebrows rose, but she remained silent, leaning the back of her head into the seat.

  She’d left Will higher up the mountain after she tried to tell him goodbye forever, at Aiden’s insistence. But Aiden would soon find that his plan had not only failed, but literally spawned a new dimension to the playing field. When Emma had told Will goodbye, it had crushed him. Will knew she’d done it to save him from her father, but Will had pleaded with her to think of another way. Her concern for his safety overruled his protests, however, and she’d used her magic to release him to his destiny. And Marcus was right at his heels. “Marcus showed up and offered me a ride. He told me that I had to save you.” He snorted. “As though I needed any prompting.”

  “That makes sense after what he told us. It sounds like he’s been doing some master manipulating of his own.”

  Will’s hand tightened on the steering wheel. “He’s an element. We know they aren’t to be trusted.”

  “Even though he’s your father?”

  “Especially since he’s my father. He’s no better than Aiden as far as I’m concerned. He created me for the sole purpose of winning this fucking game. Just like Aiden created you.”

  “But why would he do that? What’s your purpose in all of this? I was created, or shall I say, my predecessor was created, as a game piece. They all used Emmanuella for their entertainment. Why would Marcus suddenly create you?”

  “He had no one in the game to swing things to his side. There are big stakes here. You were meant to be not only the prize in the game, but also the deciding factor. You were the one who was supposed to choose which elements survived. Whoever you chose would gain incredible power. Marcus never stood a chance, even thou
gh he wasn’t officially part of the game. No matter who won, Marcus’s own power would be weak in comparison. He must have created me for a shot at surviving, once the game was finished.” Will watched her for a moment. “He wanted us together. He needed you alive, which is why after I lost my memory, he told me to protect you when Kramer’s men questioned me. Tonight he said that I had to save you from Raphael.”

  “And that explains why Aiden was so adamant about keeping us apart.”

  “But now we’re together and joined.” He grabbed her hand. “Which is what Marcus wanted and Aiden feared, and that gives us an advantage. Together we could potentially be stronger than either one of them. Which makes me distrust Marcus even more. Obviously he wanted the power our uniting would bring, but he has to see it as a threat as well. Not to mention that you are Aiden’s daughter. There can’t be any love lost there.”

  “True.”

  “So that’s why we’ll head away from Albuquerque. Not that it’s a good idea to stay there with the city in chaos anyway.”

  Pain flickered in her eyes, and he cringed at his remark. Emma felt responsible for the destruction even though she’d had no choice in the matter. She’d kept the book from Raphael and Alex. Thousands may have died and been injured this afternoon, but millions would be at the mercy of the Air and Earth elementals if Will and Emma had lost the book.

  With a heavy sigh, she stared out the windshield. “So you really got all your memories of me back? You didn’t just say that to get me to stay?”

  He squeezed her hand. “No, I got them all back. Everything.”

  She was silent, watching the road. “I’m sorry.”

  He glanced at her in surprise. “For what?”

  “For not believing in you and me sooner. For not trusting you or your love for me.”

  His grip tightened. “Emma, you don’t need to apologize to me. I had to earn your trust. I’m just glad that I did.”

  “But if I’d said that I loved you sooner, if I’d just told you how I felt, I might not have lost you. We might not have been betrayed by James. I might not have lost the baby.” Her voice hitched before she continued. “Aiden might not have stolen your memories.”

  “You really think Aiden wouldn’t have taken my memories?”

  “Could he, if we were joined? We could have fought him together.”

  “We couldn’t have joined that night by the fire, because you didn’t know to release me, and I didn’t know that I was part Water.” He turned to her. “It all worked out. Aiden inadvertently set the wheels in motion when he forced you to release me. In a way, we can thank Aiden for helping me realize who I really am and what I’m capable of.”

  She scoffed her disagreement. “I’m not thanking that man for anything.” She paused. “How did Alex and Raphael not know who you really are? How did I not know? We can all sense each other’s presence through our power. In the warehouse, Raphael stood right next to you and he didn’t sense anything.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe the mark hid my true identity. But I do know that I became fully aware of who I was when you used your power to release me to my destiny. How did you know to do that?”

  She gave him a wry smile. “Raphael. Practically since the moment I met him he’s been encouraging me to release you. You said you loved me, but I worried that it was just part of the mark still in you somewhere. I didn’t want you to suffer any more so I thought if I could release you…”

  “Let’s make a pact. No more leaving one another. We’re a package deal now.”

  She laughed. “I think that’s a given with our joining and all.”

  “True, but Raphael and Alex wanted you to join with them for a reason. We have an advantage over the others now. And in a world of narcissistic men who will go to any lengths to ensure their own survival, we have to be prepared for anything. Particularly them trying to split us up.”

  “But is that possible? Our joining is for eternity.”

  Will’s hand tightened on the steering wheel. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean they might not try to physically separate us. And for that matter, we don’t know anything about the implications if that happened.”

  “I don’t want to live without you. It nearly killed me when I believed you were dead.”

  “Exactly. We have no idea what the effects are of separation. Or death. We need to study the book. Hopefully, we’ll find answers in there.”

  Emma shook her head. “I didn’t see anything about it, but then again, I didn’t get to read all of it.”

  “We can only hope there’s something in there to help us understand, but we need to be prepared to experiment with our powers and test their limits.”

  “You were never fond of my experimenting with them before,” she said sarcastically.

  “True, but in my defense, we didn’t know much about your power, and I was worried about your safety. But now we know we can’t survive without using our elemental sides. Plus, now that we both have power, and we’re linked, we need to learn how to work together. We’re going to need all the help we can get to save the two of us and Jake.”

  Her hand tensed. “How does that work, Will? Four shall fight, two shall remain. How can all three of us survive? Marcus said I’d have to make a choice.”

  “Fuck Marcus,” he growled. “Listen, just because he says he’s my father doesn’t mean we can trust anything that comes out of his mouth. For all we know, he told you that to psych you out and screw with your concentration. We can trust each other and no one else.”

  Emma turned to face him for a moment before she returned her gaze to the road, but it was long enough for him to see the fear in her eyes. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I think he’s right.”

  “Emma, you can’t think like that. All three of us—you, me, and Jake—are going to get out of this. We’ll figure out a way. I promise.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Will.”

  “I don’t.” Now he just had to figure out how to keep his word.

  ***

  Aiden wasn’t happy.

  But it was more than unhappiness. It was rage, and the walls of the house shook with it.

  Jake hid in a linen closet in one of the house’s many halls, crying for his mother. He wiped his tears with the back of hand in a defiant swipe. Let Aiden yell and scream. The fact that Aiden hadn’t found him yet made him smile with pride.

  Jake could hide from Aiden. And what that meant excited him.

  Scrunching his eyes shut, the first image that popped into his head was his mother’s face. The fear and agony in her eyes as his nanny, Antonia, pulled him away from Mommy. Her grief had rippled off her in waves. The thickness of it still stuck in his lungs, making it hard to breathe.

  He shook his head. His mother couldn’t help him now.

  Mommy had left him with Aiden.

  He knew she had no choice. Mommy would have tried to fight Aiden if Jake hadn’t pleaded with her to stop. Aiden might have killed her. But part of him wanted her to fight harder, to find a way to save him.

  Because now he was at Aiden’s mercy.

  Aiden had taken everything he loved away. Before, he would have clung to Rusty, his stuffed dog, but Aiden had burned him to ashes as a punishment. Jake would have given anything to have Mommy hold him on her lap, rubbing his hair and whispering in his ear that everything was going to be okay.

  But Mommy wasn’t here and nothing was okay.

  Now Aiden stomped through the house and demanded retribution. Jake wasn’t sure what that meant, but he was pretty sure he wanted some too.

  “There will be hell to pay!” Aiden’s screaming was accompanied by crashing and breaking glass. Jake pushed even farther into the closet corner. If he pressed himself flat against the wall, surely he would become part of it and Aiden would never find him.

  “Jake!” Aiden’s voice carried through the air and through Jake’s head.

  Jake held his breath, his chest burning for release as he watched the light
under the door.

  Shadows lurked at the edges of the light, inching closer to him. Weeks ago, he’d been frightened of the moving shadows, but now he saw them as a comfort. They were the only things he could count on.

  Maybe he could hide forever. Water had come to Jake in the middle of the night and taught him how to hide small thoughts from Aiden, and so far it had worked. How long could he hide himself completely?

  Not long enough.

  The door flew open and Jake blinked from the blinding light, fear crashing through his body. Aiden stood in the opening, surrounded by a red glow.

  “Did you really think you could hide from me?”

  Jake lifted his gaze to Aiden’s angry eyes. “No,” he answered, his voice loud and strong. He was tired of being afraid.

  “Was this something your mother convinced you to do?”

  He shook his head, clenching his teeth to keep his chin from trembling.

  Aiden reached down and grabbed his arm, jerking him to his feet.

  Jake released a squeal of pain and Aiden’s mouth lifted into an evil grin. After dragging Jake across the hall, Aiden threw open doors that lead to a balcony overlooking the vineyard. “I’ve offered you all of this and so much more, yet you hide from me? What was your plan, Jacob? Surely you didn’t think you could hide from me for long.”

  Jake jerked his arm from Aiden’s grasp and clenched his fists at his sides. “I hate you! You took my mommy away! You promised to give her back to me! You promised! You’re a liar!”

  Aiden’s eyes widened in surprise.

  Burning filled Jake’s chest and rushed through his body, pooling in his palms. “You can’t keep me here! You can’t make me stay! I’m going to go find my mom and if you stop me I’m going to kill you!” The heat in his hand felt like fire and Jake flung out his fingers.

  Thunder rumbled and clouds swirled overhead. The dolphin-shaped hedges around the fountain burst into flames.

  A slow smile covered Aiden’s face.

  “I hate you!”

  Flames licked at the bottom of the drapes. The wind blew in a gust that made Jake stumble.