by Esme Addison
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Dylan smiled as Alex approached him from the opposite end of the boardwalk.
A breeze rolled off the ocean, scenting the air around her with sea salt and whipping her hair around her face.
When she reached him, he greeted her with a chaste kiss on each cheek in European fashion. “I was surprised to get your invitation to join you on the beach. I was hoping I could talk to you.”
Alex gazed at the ocean, hands on the boardwalk as she leaned into the breeze. “I think I owe you an apology.”
He followed her gaze to the sea. “For?”
She shrugged. “One again thinking you had”—she laughed self-consciously—“evil intentions.”
“‘Evil’ is a strong word.” He sighed. “I have nothing but the best of intentions. Bryce too—he’s a good guy.”
“Tell Bryce I’m sorry I thought he might have …” Alex struggled to say the words.
“Killed someone?” He laughed. “Sure, I’ll let him know.” He shook his head. “Believe it or not, it’s fine. He’s fine. I think everyone in this town knows you’re protective of your family—and that includes Celeste.”
“But you”—she grinned, jabbing her finger in the middle of his chest—“I thought you were going to make money off of people—Magicals. I thought you were going to do human testing. Sell bioproducts.” She shook her head. “I just couldn’t wrap my head around—”
His brow furrowed as he gazed at her. “What could I have possibly done or said to make you think I’d do that?”
“You said you were going to monetize the mermaid gene, the one Bryce’s company is researching.”
“I never said that. And I never mentioned the mermaid gene.” He leaned in. “Where did you hear that anyway? That’s not common knowledge.”
She blinked, staring into his intense chocolate-brown gaze. “Neve told me. Before she …”
He frowned, letting his arm drop to his side. “I didn’t buy Bryce’s company just so I could make money off that research. And I didn’t shut down those other companies just to put employees out of business.” He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “What kind of monster do you think I am?”
She stared at him. He didn’t really want to know what she’d thought of him.
“Why do you constantly think the worst of me?”
Her throat constricted. “I don’t know … your family? Your history …”
He sighed. “I think there’s been some sort of mistake.”
Alex sighed too. “Possibly. I know you’re producing handcuffs that can actually stop Magicals …”
“One of the companies that I purchased discovered a mineral-based blend that inhibits the frequencies that magic uses. I purchased the company and shut it down to keep it out of the hands of anyone who might use it for nefarious purposes. Same thing with the mermaid gene research. I own it—that and the database.”
Alex’s cheeks warmed in embarrassment. “But that’s wonderful, Dylan.”
“That’s just one of many products our defense division has purchased or created. It’s Magical and Mundane defense. We supply tools and weapons for Magicals on Mundane law enforcement forces and also for the Council’s enforcement wing.” He laughed at Alex’s expression. “Yes, that’s a thing too. You have a lot to learn, Alex. And if you spent more time with me than Detective Jack, I could teach you.”
Alex didn’t know what to say to that. She’d felt like she made the right choice with Jack.
“There’s something I want to show you,” Dylan said. “Walk with me to the marina?”
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, Alex was on a Jet Ski with her arms wrapped tightly around Dylan’s torso.
She tried not to be afraid. The last time she and Dylan had been in the water together, it was because his sister, Bryn, had created a tidal wave that almost drowned her, and Dylan had used his magic to save her.
“Don’t be afraid of the ocean,” Dylan told her over his shoulder and the roar of the engine. “You’re safe with me.”
Alex looked down at the bright yellow life jacket he’d given her at the marina. She’d put it on over a swimsuit and shorts paired with sandals. The water foamed around them and spray kicked up, cooling Alex’s skin, which was still heated—whether that was because of the hot summer temperatures or her proximity to Dylan, she couldn’t tell.
They were riding across the bay, past the lighthouse keeper’s cottage and the lighthouse, which stood tall on the peninsula and further still, by a few hundred yards, to a small uninhabited island, the one she’d seen briefly from the lookout. It was a large mound of sand, a few dunes and barely any vegetation, just a few patches of seagrass here and there. It couldn’t have been more than a mile both ways. When they reached land, Alex turned back and looked from where they came.
Dylan pointed. “See there? That’s our family homestead. I’m thinking about tearing down the Bennett house and building my own home there.” He gave Alex a look she couldn’t interpret before pointing farther down the coast. “Public access to the beach … and there’s downtown.”
Alex took off her sandals, rubbed her toes in the sand, and carried her shoes in her hand as Dylan began to walk. “Do you own this island too?” If you could call it that, Alex thought.
A lopsided grin appeared on Dylan’s face. “Yeah. My dad purchased it years ago. Named it Dylan’s Rock,” He laughed. “Annoyed the heck out of Bryn.”
“But there’s nothing here,” Alex exclaimed, scrambling to keep up with him as he covered the island in long strides.
His eyes sparkled with mischief. “No?” He waved his hand, and a large shimmery bubble appeared.
Alex looked around in wonder. The iridescent dome, at turns clear and then tinged with blue, green, and purple, covered all but the outer perimeter of the island. Like a magical dome covering a plate of … nothing.
Laughing, Dylan extended his arm into the force field, which, like a clear thick jelly, sucked it. “Is this cool or what?”
Alex stared at him in amazement, her heart melting just a bit. She could see the little boy she used to play with when she spent summers here. She’d forgotten the sound of that laugh, the way the darkness of his eyes brightened when he felt joy. He’d laughed like that and smiled like that when they’d played in her aunt’s gardens.
“Try it,” he said, pointing to the shimmering bubble, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “It doesn’t hurt.”
“You’re using magic?”
“My father’s magic. This is all his doing. It doesn’t go away just because he died.”
She went to his side and stuck her arm inside. The bubble felt warm and slick, almost like nothing at all. “It feels like—”
Dylan winked at her and then simply stepped inside. And then he was gone.
She gasped. Then looked around her. She was all alone. Did he want her to—surely he didn’t—
Heart pounding against her chest, she stepped inside. And he was there. Waiting for her. He held his hand out to her. And she took it without hesitation.
“I’m sharing this with you because as a Sobieski, this is your heritage too.”
She could now see the island held a small rectangular building made of glass and metallic beams that glistening in the sunlight. Dylan waved his hand, and the door, a large rectangle of glass, slid to the side. They walked inside and Alex gasped. Eyes wide, she turned to Dylan.
“Is that what I think it is?”
He nodded, his face as reverent as hers was shocked.
In the middle of the room, floating in the air but held firmly in place by glowing straps of pulsing blue energy, was the Warsaw Shield.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“It doesn’t look like what I expected,” Alex finally said when she could find her voice.
Dylan nodded. “Yeah, I think something was probably lost in translation and through the thousands of years,” he chuckled. “But it’s understandable.”
&n
bsp; “Can I?” Alex gestured toward the small round object, a little larger than a dinner plate. It was a perfect circle crafted out of a smooth, shiny black crystal with green veins running through it. A small knob with an oval shape carved into the material protruded from the underside of the mineral, a handle Alex guessed, with an opening for a leather strap so the shield could be worn on the body.
Symbols and some sort of lettering were carved on its face, and they appeared to be illuminated by a pulsing white energy.
Dylan nodded and Alex went to stand directly over the artifact. “It’s more like a fancy Frisbee than a shield.” She looked at him. “I was imagining something like the Roman soldiers used, or Captain America.” She laughed.
“I think the misunderstanding came from the purpose of the object versus the function of the artifact. It is not, in fact, a shield for battle.”
Alex nodded, thinking that she understood. “But it … creates a shield?” Dylan inclined his head in assent. “It’s beautiful,” Alex said reverently. The symbols on the shield, she realized, were what Minka had called “mermaid language.” At home, they had a sacred crystal bowl etched with the same type of characters, and they were also the same symbols on the Mer at the party.
“One of the companies I purchased is doing research on these symbols. Well, not exactly on this, but on dolphin intelligence. We have an endowed professor of linguistics at Bellamy College, a Magical who has linked our ancient language systems to the communication between dolphins. Of course, ours is much more advanced, but there are connections. He believes the language came from an as-of-yet undiscovered parent language.”
It was too much to grasp, really. Yes, Alex knew that dolphins were intelligent animals and that they were used by the military for various types of work. She also knew they were capable of communicating with each other and humans, but this—seeing the actual Warsaw Shield, learning about the language … it was a lot. And her head began to hurt.
Dylan turned to her, a look of concern on his face. He reached out to her, his thumb on her cheek, and he slowly dragged it down to her lips before he removed his hand. Peace and calm followed his touch.
“I thought you didn’t—”
“I’ll do anything to make sure you’re okay.” His eyes burned with intensity, and Alex had to look away.
“Thank you,” she whispered, suddenly overcome with longing to be wrapped up in his embrace. She put space between them because … just because.
“It’s strange. But since you arrived in town, I’ve practiced the most magic since I decided against it. You make me want to practice magic again.”
Alex’s throat tightened, but she forced a laugh. “That’s weird.”
Dylan turned back to the Warsaw Shield. “Say what you want about my sister, but she had the right idea getting our family property back. It was just her means that were—”
“Wicked?”
“Yeah. We grew up with our dad telling us stories about this shield and how one day we’d be the ones to find it. It’s why he created the shelter. And it’s why I had it brought here.”
“It’s beautiful,” Alex said, unable to stop looking at it.
“And powerful.”
“How did you find it? When did you find it?”
“Once I knew the location, I used deep sea mining equipment created by Montgomery’s company. I knew purchasing it would put me on his radar, but he’s sold the same equipment to other companies, so I hoped he wouldn’t realize that I’d actually found it.”
“What’s so special about his equipment?”
“It’s not the equipment per se. It’s what it can do. It’s created to find a very special mineral. Ozite?”
“I’ve heard of it. And that’s what the shield is made of.” Dylan nodded. “What is ozite made of?”
“It’s an alloy of diamond, gold, tourmaline, and several minerals created when mollusks and seaweed calcify together. Only certain instruments can find this mixture.”
“Jasper said ozite belonged to the Dragons.”
Dylan nodded. “Yeah.”
“And that he was certain the shield was here. How did you know where to look?”
For a moment he looked ashamed. “We’ve never been able to locate it before because we didn’t know what we were looking for exactly. But Bryn—she’s the one that discovered ozite and its properties, and hypothesized that it may be the material the shield was made of.”
“How and why could she even make that connection?”
“Our family has been looking for the shield for a very long time, using all of our resources. You will recall that Bryn thought that if she could find the shield for our mother, she would be given the CEO role at the company. But it began long before Bryn. It started with my great-grandfather, who established our company, and I’m carrying on the tradition. We knew what the shield could actually do, knew that the story was that mermen created the shield out of a special mineral found in the Baltic Sea. We reverse-engineered the properties of the shield to narrow down the probable minerals used in the creation and found in a specific area of the world.”
“And then, let me guess, Bryn used her … charms to get close to the one person in the world who had access to the mineral.” Dylan averted his gaze. “So, you knew why Bryn was hanging out with Montgomery. She was working. And working him,” Alex continued.
She closed her eyes, thinking. “And that’s why she killed Randy Bennett and Edwin Kenley. She knew the shield was somewhere on this land or off the coast of it.”
“Once we knew what the shield was made of, we could look for it. My mother used black magic to locate the ozite. We found it right on the edge of our property, in an underwater cave. Whoever stashed it there was smart enough to realize the ocean would be the ideal hiding place for it, as well as the best environment to maintain its structure, since Ozite is only found in the ocean.
“I brought in a team of specialists. Word probably got back to Montgomery—the sea mining world is small really—and they located it, and then I put on some scuba gear and went down with them, followed it back up, and placed a protective spell over it so that no one who was looking for it could find it. But it was vulnerable for a few seconds. And that was all it took for the vultures to descend.” He laughed darkly. “Remember when the power went out?”
Alex’s head began to pound again, but a feeling of calm quickly washed the pain away. Dylan’s magic was still at work in her mind. “How could I forget?”
“We were bringing it up then. The shield is powerful, and it provided a magnetic signature for those few moments for anyone looking for it with the right magical instruments—as well as frying everything and everyone around it. It made some people sick and disoriented, I heard.”
“And the cell phones?” Alex asked. “I always thought that was weird. A power outage shouldn’t affect cell phone towers.”
He nodded. “The shield jammed all cell phone frequencies. It’s formidable stuff we’re dealing with.”
“What does it do?” Alex asked.
“What doesn’t it do?” he countered. “It’s like an EMF—that’s electric and magnetic fields—weapon. It blocks anything: projectiles, frequencies, magnetic waves. And it can create a projected shield of invisibility thousands of miles around it.”
“Like around the city of Warsaw?” Alex asked.
He nodded. “The way the Mermaid of Warsaw protected the city was to form a barrier around it in so that nothing harmful could get in.”
“Was a magical weapon really necessary, though? Back then it was just armies with their Mundane weapons.”
“You think the shield was the only magical weapon in existence? Back then every royal court had a Magical—or magician—as an adviser for personal, governance, and military affairs. If another king wanted to invade, Warsaw had to have the same technology.” He quirked an eyebrow. “The only way to fight magic is with magic.”
Magical weapons.
They were real. When Neve
had given that information, it hadn’t been disinformation; it had been real. All of her information was real. Alex looked at Dylan. “Thor’s hammer?” she began hesitantly.
He grinned. “It’s been found. In a lake, I believe. It’s not exactly like the one in the movies, but pretty close.”
Alex pointed to the shield. “Neve knew?”
The grin slid away. “She knew it was in Bellamy Bay—rather, she had a strong idea it was here, based on her research.”
“So, she didn’t come here just to paint the mural. She was here on assignment.”
He nodded. “Yeah, and she asked me point-blank if it had been discovered. This was a couple weeks before we’d actually found it, and I told her no. But after the power outage, she knew. She said the people she worked with read the heat signature and knew. She told me that she was supposed to tell the organization she worked for where it was, but she didn’t want to. And I encouraged her not to tell anyone.”
He looked at his feet.
Alex thought she understood the look on his face. “You didn’t get her killed.”
He winced as if in pain. “I didn’t save her life either.”
“She never told me who she was working for,” he continued, “only that she used her profession as a cover. She told me that when she began, she thought she was doing the right thing helping to bring lost art and history to the world. That’s what she considered the Warsaw Shield—a work of art.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Later, she discovered that she was helping the bad guys, that they wanted to use these Magical weapons to bully and suppress other countries. She also said that the people she worked for would be very angry if she refused to help them.”
“She was working for Jasper. And apparently Montgomery was working for him too.”
Dylan sighed, his shoulders slumping as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders, and a part of Alex ached for him.
“Her work sounded fascinating. Did she explain what she did exactly?”
