by Esme Addison
“Yeah. Apparently, she’s been working for them—Jasper and his organization—for years. It’s a team, I guess, and they used their resources to find out where the weapons were hidden. She’d come in to confirm the location and set up the time for acquisition—her words, not mine. Someone would come in, take the weapon, and then they were off to the next assignment.”
Alex thought of the first time she’d seen Neve with Dylan. She’d been watching the news of a Japanese tidal wave and had become upset. She reminded Dylan of that.
“Yeah, she said she was the cause of that wave. She’d created a beautiful mural of the Japanese sea god and the Tide Jewels and brought that chaos to life.”
Alex thought back to the list of mythological weapons sent to the blogger. The Tide Jewels was on it. “Someone recently purchased the Tide Jewels and created a tidal wave in Japan with them. The Chinese must’ve used it as a distraction while they occupied the Senaku Islands,” she said.
He nodded. “They’ve been purchased. And I’ve seen them. They’re exquisite and placed in a tiara. No one seeing them would know what they are. Neve shared the details with me. But after I gave her a tour of my property, she told me she was tired of her life and that she feared adding more pain and suffering to the world. I wasn’t sure what she meant. She’s an artist, after all, and she created beauty for everyone to share.”
Alex thought of the portfolio with the horrific sketches in it. “She wasn’t creating beauty; she was creating pain and destruction.” She told Dylan about the sketchbook. “I don’t think she saw the beauty in her work anymore.”
“She told me she was worried about the world she was creating for generations to come, and the part she played in it. She felt she’d made things worse. She worried about karma,” he said.
“She was pregnant when she died,” Alex said. “I think that’s why she didn’t want to continue.”
Dylan sighed. “That makes sense.”
“But what are you going to do with the shield?”
“Keep it safe.” He turned his gaze back to the shield. “War is bad—we can all agree to that. But this … this is beautiful. It’s a part of our heritage, but it can also do some ugly things—in the wrong hands. All mythological weapons can. Have you actually read the accounts of mythological weapons being used? It’s brutal. Horrifying.”
“But also … lucrative?” She frowned at him. “You’re not planning on monetizing the mermaid gene, it’s this.” She turned to look at the shield. “You’re in the weapons business now. Mythological weapons.”
“There’s a hot market for mythological weapons and when I found out that they were being recovered and sold, mostly on the black market, I knew I had to find the Warsaw Shield first. If anyone is going to take ownership of this artifact, it should be me—someone who will respect the weapon and it’s heritage.”
Alex’s laugh was harsh. “Ever the businessman, aren’t we?”
“Don’t.” He shook his head. “I’m trying to do the right thing. Who would you rather have it? Me or Montgomery?”
“Montgomery? He’s after it too?” Alex threw up her hands. “Which of you is the lesser of two evils?”
“Me,” he said, frustration edging his voice. “Montgomery is not in Bellamy Bay just so he can fund a mermaid festival. He wants the Shield. He wants to sell the technology to Russia and then maybe China. Iran. He wants to sell it to the buyer who promises to cause the most chaos, the most damage.”
Something cold slipped down Alex’s spine as she looked at Dylan. And that’s why Montgomery was spending time with Tegan. He knew the Wesleys were looking for the shield. Montgomery wasn’t a Mundane collaborator. Jasper had lied. He was a Dragon Descent. But how did Dylan know that?
“I know,” he answered aloud.
“You heard me?” Alex asked surprised.
“Do a better job of guarding your thoughts. You forget to do so when you’re emotional.”
Alex took a moment to use the technique Minka had shared with her to guard her thoughts.
Dylan grinned. “Better. Now your mind is like Fort Knox as it should be.”
Alex rolled her eyes. “How do you know about the Dragons?”
“My mother.” He gave her a dark look. “Told me and Bryn about them as children. They were our bedtime stories.”
“Your mother told you stories about monsters before bedtime?” Alex stammered.
“They weren’t monsters to her.” He looked at her, eyes dimmed with sadness.
Alex went back to the shield, holding her hand over it close enough to feel the heat radiating from it. “Who do you want to sell it to?”
“Our government of course. This technology can be used to protect our armed forced, help our allies. Why wouldn’t I do that?”
“And that’s what you mean by Pro-Tek being set up for the business, having the contacts, the structure in place.”
“Yes, that’s what I meant.”
“How can you sell Magical weapons to Mundanes?”
“There are Magicals in government and Mundanes who know about us and will keep our secrets as long as we’re beneficial to them.”
“Bryce knows, doesn’t he?”
Dylan nodded. “But you don’t have to worry about him. He’s trustworthy.”
She gave him a knowing look. “You have a lot planned for your weapons division, don’t you?”
His smile was genuine. “Sky’s the limit. We’ll be working with the Navy and Marines at Camp Malveaux to develop these technologies.”
“You have to let the Council know.” she said. “This isn’t something you can just keep to yourself.”
“I know,” he says. “But I think we can both agree there are some dangerous people looking for it. For now, let’s just keep it safe here, shall we?”
“It’s beautiful.” Alex turned to look at the shield. “It’s magical.”
“You’re beautiful,” he said, coming to stand behind her so close she could feel the heat from his body. “You’re magical.”
For a moment, Alex allowed herself to lean into his warmth. And then she stepped away, alarmed at the way he drew her in, the feeling that she should just give in. It reminded her of something. Of someone. The magnetism she’d felt from Montgomery. The magnetism that had bound Celeste to Jasper. She exhaled sharply and put space between them.
He watched her for a moment, his eyes wary. “What is it?”
“Dylan …” Her throat was dry. “What kind of Magical are you?”
His jaw hardened. “What do you mean?”
“You’re Mer, like me, like my family?”
He averted his gaze, and she saw his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed. “How’d you know?” he asked, his voice low.
A pain sliced through her heart. “I know what it feels like now, to be near a Dragon Descent. I saw the way Celeste was irrationally attracted to Jasper, felt a pull toward Montgomery, even though I didn’t like him … and I feel it now, with you.”
He raised his chin and stared at her. “My mother thinks I should be proud of it, our dragon heritage.” He shook his head. “But I’m not. And you can see why.”
Alex took a step backward, unable to hide the revulsion on her face, and he looked stricken when he saw it.
“I’m only half,” he insisted. “My father was Mer, but my mother …”
“Is a Dragon Descent.” She exhaled slowly. “Well, I guess that makes sense. And Bryn?”
“Takes after our mother. Clearly.” He stepped toward her, his arm out to touch her. “You can’t hold this against me. Can’t you see? I’m at war with myself every single day. I want to be good. I want to be so good.” He almost looked like he would cry, and Alex’s heart softened just a bit.
“I told you back when we were kids.”
“What?”
He nodded. “And you reacted the same way. Revulsion. Disgust. I’d made a mistake. I thought—we’d been playing together all summer, and you were so sweet and trusting, I felt
like I could tell you anything. So I did. Told you about the dragons, how much I disliked them … Told you about me—”
“But I don’t remember anything. I don’t recall—” She gasped, her hand going to her mouth. “Dylan, you didn’t?”
He turned his back to her, his voice low. “That’s why you don’t remember practicing magic when you were a child. That’s why you don’t remember the tricks we did with the water. I wiped your memories so you’d forget about my secret. Only you forgot almost everything about that summer.” He turned to face her, his eyes sad. “I’m sorry, Alex. I’m so sorry.”
“I don’t understand. When I first arrived, you were the one who told me someone had wiped my memories—I thought it was my parents and I was angry with them. But it was you.”
His head hung. “I know. It was deceptive. And wrong. I just didn’t want you to look at me the way you’re looking at me now.”
Every time Alex took one step forward with Dylan, he did something to make her take not two, but three steps back. She took a deep calming breath, determined not to respond in the same way she apparently had when she was seven. “At least that solves one mystery: why I can’t remember practicing magic as a child.”
“Guilty as charged.” He turned to face her, looking her squarely in the eyes. “Go ahead. Hate me. I deserve it.”
But she shook her head. “I’m not angry, Dylan. Disappointed. Saddened … but not angry. You were just a little boy.”
The muscles of his face relaxed slightly, and he shook his head slowly. “You’re amazing, Alex. Simply amazing. Thank you for understanding.”
But Alex didn’t feel amazing. She felt torn. Conflicted. She liked Dylan so much, in spite of the fact that every cell in her body told her to run away from him as fast as she could. But she was older now, she couldn’t—wouldn’t respond the same way. He was half Dragon. Okay. So what? She made herself smile, tried to sound normal. “I’m guessing not practicing magic helps you with your internal conflict?”
He looked relieved and nodded. “Yeah, it just takes the option to fully give in to my reptilian brain off the table.”
Alex kept the smile in place, swallowing back the bitter taste on her tongue. “And Montgomery?”
“Is my uncle. My mother’s older brother.”
Alex took a moment to let this information sink in. “I thought he was Russian.”
“My mother is a mix of Polish, Russian, and Welsh. Uncle Montgomery spent a lot of time in Russia after college, reconnecting with family. He owns mines there.”
“I get that he wants the shield, but is there another reason he’s in town?” She gazed at him, and then she knew. “He wants you to join him?”
“Something like that.” His laugh was harsh. “He’d love for Wesley Inc. and Leviathan to merge. But he thinks I’m too soft. Too much like my father and that I’ve suffered not having a strong male role model in my life. He wants to stick around and be … I don’t know, a mentor or something to me.”
“You don’t need to change anything. You are by all accounts a success, Dylan. And I know your mother is proud of you.”
“She’d be prouder if I embraced her heritage like Bryn did. For all the good it’s done her.”
Alex looked at the Warsaw Shield. “And you’re trying to protect the Warsaw Shield and other magical weapons from your family and others like him.”
“Yes.” He bowed his head, suddenly looking very tired.
For an insane second, Alex thought of tiger moms, the super strict mothers who pressured their children to succeed, and wondered about dragon moms. She laughed. Was that a thing too?
Remembering him as the shy little boy who’d played with her. Who’d been afraid to tell his parents he’d asked his chauffeur to stop at her house on the way home from piano lessons so they could play together. He’d been so afraid that he’d never even told her his name. And Alex had wanted to go to him then. But she couldn’t. She just couldn’t.
He was so, so dangerous for her. “We should go,” she finally said, making sure her voice didn’t waver or crack.
His gaze seared through her. “You can’t tell anyone about this.”
“About the shield?”
“About the shield, of course. But I meant about me being a Magical hybrid.” He looked stricken. Desperate. “I’m just like all of the other Magicals flying under the radar. Okay? I don’t want to be treated differently. Like I’m evil. A monster.”
She didn’t say anything, and he went her to then, grabbing her in both arms and crushing her against his chest. He rubbed his face against her hair, breathing in the fresh scent of her. The power of his magnetism almost overwhelmed her, and she swayed on her feet, but then she wrenched free, pushing him back.
He stumbled backward only once, hands in the air. “Sorry. Sometimes it just happens. It’s a thing—the attraction, the charisma? It’s almost like an unconscious spell that I can cast, and I’m constantly having to forcefully, purposely turn it off. Especially with you. I want you”—the words tumbled out of his mouth—“I want you to want me as much as I want you, but it has to be real. I need for it to be real.”
Alex could hardly breathe. The air in the room was stifling, and she wanted nothing more than to be held in his arms while he kissed her. But was that really what she wanted? Or was it a trick?
She couldn’t look at him. The feeling in her heart … it hurt too much. “Please take me home. I won’t say anything.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The air smelled of cotton candy, buttered popcorn and funnel cakes.
The outdoor portion of the mermaid festival had begun in earnest, and Alex had never seen so many mermaid lovers in one place. The sun was bright and the sky was streaked with puffs of cloud while she managed the Botanika booth. Aunt Lidia and Minka had just stepped away to grab some food.
Children walked by with mermaid and merman face paint, holding Styrofoam shields and swords or giant balloons created to look like pink and purple mermaids. Men on tall stilts, dressed as pirates, stalked the park, much to the children’s delight. And on the stage, The Nymphets, a local all-girl rock band, raged about life as a mermaid on land. Several men walked around with accordions, playing Polka music while sporting the traditional dress of shorts, vests, and hats in red, white, and green.
Alex could see the mural from her booth, and as Celeste had predicted, it was a popular spot for photographs and selfies. Customers had been plentiful for the booth, and after four hours they were almost out of their bottled teas, soaps, and candles.
With a pink pouf of cotton candy in hand, Pepper, in a rust-colored dress and heels, skipped over to the Botanika booth, a wide grin on her face as she waited impatiently for Alex to finish a sale. When they left, she shimmied to the table. “You’ll never guess what happened to me,” she said, as her ponytail swung animatedly from side to side.
Smiling, Alex leaned forward, hands under her chin. “Do tell.”
“My news articles on Evelyn Robinson and Jasper Collins were picked up by all the major newspapers in the Carolinas, and TV news outlets in Atlanta and Washington, DC, want to interview me about the stor-eees,” she sang out. “I’m on my way! If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have been the first reporter to interview that evil, evil woman and share it with the world. And you were so right about Jasper Collins—he was an arrogant one. All I had to do was play up to his vanity and he told me everything—even though I still feel like he was holding something back. And he was also kind of handsome and intriguing—you know in that sexy psychopath way? Anyway!” She hurried around the table and wrapped her arms around Alex. “I just want to give you the biggest hug, girl.”
“Oh, my.” Alex laughed, her arms at her sides like a straitjacket while Pepper embraced her.
Pepper finally let go. “I’m actually on my way to the airport, but I had to stop by and let you know personally. My car is waiting, so love you—bye!”
Just as Alex was recovering from Hurricane Pepp
er, she saw Celeste approaching the table. She wore a festival T-shirt, khaki short shorts that highlighted her toned legs, and high-heeled wedge sandals. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun on the top of her head, and she pushed her mirrored aviator sunglasses onto her forehead when she reached the booth.
“How’s your first festival going?”
“It’s everything I imagined it to be,” Alex replied with a smile. “No issues with the vendors, so I’m pleased.”
“Same here. All of the food trucks and food vendors are here and selling as fast as they can prepare the food. No fires.” She laughed. “Yet.”
“How are you doing? I haven’t had a chance to talk to you since—everything happened.”
Her smile dropped slightly. “I’m okay.”
“You and your mom were amazing by the way. But you use black magic?”
Celeste gave a weak chuckle. “Mami Wata only sees magic and it’s neither good or bad. We’re taught to use whatever we like from whatever energetic source we choose.”
Alex watched her friend, wondering if she felt conflicted about her magic like Dylan. She didn’t seem to be. “I noticed your magic was pink? Why is that? Mine is white, and so are Minka’s and Aunt Lidia’s.”
“Because I’m a mix of mermaid, which visually expresses itself as a high vibrating white energy, while Mami Wata’s is serpent-like, lower in frequency and red—like Jasper’s—like a dragon’s.”
“Oh.” Alex laughed. “I get it: red and white make pink.” She had so much to learn. Would she ever feel like she had a handle on the Magical community? When she received one answer, it only created more questions. “You were speaking another language when you worked your magic?”
Celeste smiled. “Haitian Creole.”
“Wow. And that snake?”
“Cool, right? Sometimes my magic just appears in that form.” She laughed. “Usually when I’m angry.”
Alex wasn’t a fan of snakes. She tried not to wrinkle her nose in distaste. “Yeah, sure.” She looked at her friend. “But if it’s so cool, why do you look so sad?”
Celeste smiled, even though her brown eyes were flat. “Not sad, exactly. Disappointed with myself. It’s been a busy summer. I dated a murderer who was a Magical incognito, and I couldn’t even figure it out, and I was charged with a murder that I didn’t do but I thought I did, so a lot got by me. I can’t let that happen again. No more time for boyfriends.” Her jaw set in a determined line. “I need to be more. More focused. More driven.”
