For the record, no mystical cups were recovered on this adventure, but I did learn that most of the answers we seek can be found within our own hearts if only we have the courage to trust our inner voice.
In her unstable state, Greer didn’t want to risk taking the flight of the baobhan sith, so we had a hike ahead of us. We walked out of the Moss Forest and onto a rocky path beside a gorge that would give a mountain goat vertigo. That’s when I should have listened to my instinct instead of dropping my guard.
You’d think after all the suspense movies Tori and I have watched, I would know that you never say things like “that was easy” or ask “is it over?” You don’t even think that kind of stuff. Why? Because the instant you do, everything goes wrong in a big way. Still, I admit, when the clean mountain air hit my face, I let myself breathe a sigh of relief.
Leaving the forest or not, we weren’t out of the woods.
The range we entered presented us with vistas of towering snow-covered peaks. The Golem told us that if we followed the path, it would lead us over a suspension bridge and down the far side of the massive gorge to the first of the seven cities of Cibola.
I have no idea if that suspension bridge was the scary kind you see in the movies. You know the one. The hero gets out there in the middle. The rope frays. The boards start breaking. The bad guy is on the other end hacking at the supports with a sword. It’s a classic.
Why don’t I know? Because our disaster hit before we ever made it to the bridge.
Magic didn’t have anything to do with what happened. It was just an accident. A stupid accident. Tori thinks she stepped on a round rock. One minute she was walking beside me talking about the craggy landscape and how it looked like something out of a movie, and then she was over the edge.
We didn’t find out until later that the pocket mirror she was carrying had been activated the moment we entered the Middle Realm or that the people back in the Lair heard bits and snatches of everything that happened.
They were still listening when Tori went over the ledge. They watched the mirror spiral out of her pocket and fall with her toward the rock ledge where she landed. And just before the glass shattered, they saw the blood that gushed across its surface.
I had a different perspective on the fall, one that may have been even more terrifying because the instant Tori plunged downward, Chase went after her. He moved so fast, I had no time to call out, only to lunge for the cliff myself. I might have been the third one to go over if Lucas and Greer hadn’t caught me and held me back.
Instead, I went to my knees, the weight of the world crashing around me. I couldn’t imagine losing Tori or Chase, but both of them at once? That I could not survive.
Not trusting me to stay where I was, Greer kept hold of me while Lucas cautiously crept to the edge. When he looked over and exclaimed, “Bloody hell!” I didn’t know if it was good or bad. Then he said, “Greer, get that rope from my pack.”
“They’re alive?” I choked.
“McGregor is,” Lucas said, “I can’t tell about Tori. She’s on a ledge about 50 feet down.”
When I joined him, he put out a restraining arm. “Don’t get too close, we don’t need you down there with them.”
Peering cautiously over the lip of the gorge, I saw Chase clinging to a gnarled, weather-worn tree that appeared to be growing out of the rock itself.
“Chase!” Lucas yelled. “We’re throwing down a rope. Grab it! We’ll pull you up.”
Over the wind in the chasm, a resounding “No!” traveled up to us.
“What the hell are you talking about, man?” Lucas shouted. “Grab the damned rope.”
“I will,” Chase yelled back, “but I’m going down to Tori. She’s alive.”
Equal parts relief and terror washed over me. “Do you have enough rope to reach her?” I asked.
Lucas nodded. “Yes, but just barely,” he said, throwing the coil over the edge.
The rope unwound as it went. Chase leaned precariously away from the tree and caught the end. Quickly tying a makeshift harness, he called up. “I’m starting down. Brace me.”
“Wait!” Lucas answered. “We have to find something to belay the rope.”
In the end, they had to settle for a boulder. Lucas and Greer prepared to play out the slack against the surface of the rock while I shouted directions from the edge. In those moments, I learned the meaning of the word “eternity.”
When Chase landed on the pitifully narrow ledge where Tori lay crumpled, the only prayer I could summon was “please,” over and over again in my mind like a mantra. I saw him unbuckle his belt and use it on the blood-soaked leg of her jeans as a tourniquet, and then we tried to raise them.
The weight was too much, even for all three of us.
I guess that was my “listen to the Force” moment. It was certainly a crossroads at learning about my power and knowing what I could do with it.
Focusing all of my attention on Chase and Tori, I cleared my mind and summoned my magic. When it answered, I saw Chase look up as if he’d heard me call his name.
“Try again,” I said quietly.
This time when Lucas and Greer strained against the rope, my telekinesis strained with them. Everything else faded from my consciousness. I became one with the tension in that thin tether to the people I loved. My strength reached out for the sinews in Chase’s arms and legs — for the bond I shared with Tori — and told her to hang on. And so, one agonized step at a time, we raised them out of that canyon and back onto the path.
In a blur, I registered Lucas gently taking Tori from Chase and then I threw my arms around Chase’s neck and held on for dear life. “Thank you,” I whispered against his ear. “Thank you for going after her.”
Chase’s arms tightened on my body, but I didn’t push him away. If I could have in that moment, I would have disappeared into his strength and let him do every hard thing that lay before us. Tori’s weak voice calling my name snapped me back to reality.
Releasing Chase, I fell to my knees beside my friend. “I’m here,” I said. “You’re safe now.”
Blood welled up through the cloth Lucas was pressing against the wound in her thigh. His eyes caught mine and I did not like what I saw there.
Some unknown portion of my brain kicked in and I heard myself say, “Loosen the tourniquet.”
Chase reached past me and released some of the tension on the belt. Blood flowed steadily from the wound, which stretched the length of her upper leg, but it didn’t spurt. The femoral artery wasn’t severed. We had a chance.
I’d like to tell you I remembered that from health class or that I trained as an EMT, but honest to God, the knowledge came from M*A*S*H re-runs. I’d have given anything to have Hawkeye and Hot Lips there with us.
Tori, still clinging to consciousness, had been watching my face. “Am I on the way out, Jinksy?” she asked in a voice so low I had to bend down to her what she was saying. “Because if I am, you gotta promise me some stuff.”
“You are not on your way out,” I said firmly, “and we’re not going to start talking like you are. Just lie still.”
“My arm’s broken,” she said, sounding oddly detached. “It hurts worse than the leg.”
“I’ll rig some kind of sling,” Lucas said, rummaging in his pack. “We need to immobilize the arm before we try to move her.”
“Move her?” Chase said. “How the hell are we supposed to get her down off this mountain?”
This was not the conversation they needed to be having in front of Tori when she was already scared she was going to die.
“Shut. Up.” I said. “Just get her ready to travel and quit arguing like a pair of idiots.”
I knew exactly how we were all getting off the mountain.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Tori. “You let Chase and Lucas take care of you.”
Even though my own clothes were now drenched in my best friend’s blood, I crossed the narrow ledge toward Greer who had positioned herself as far away from
the scene as possible.
As I drew nearer, she turned and hissed at me with her fangs bared. “Get back, Jinx,” she warned. “I can no longer control the hunger.”
“The hell you can’t,” I snapped, without breaking stride, stopping just inches from a creature who wanted to rip out my throat.
Greer’s breath rose and fell in heavy gasps. All traces of green were gone from her black and bottomless eyes. She inhaled sharply, drawing in the scent of the red gore staining my shirt and licking her lips in thirsty anticipation.
A smart person would have stepped back, but I didn’t have time to be smart.
“I trust you,” I said, never looking away from those searing eyes. “Do you hear me, Greer? I trust you. You’re our friend. You won’t hurt us. We need the flight of the baobhan sith. You have to get us to the Inn where we’re meeting Brenna and Aquila. If you don’t, Tori will die.”
Then, jumping off a cliff of my own, I said, “Get Tori to people who can help her, and you can feed on me.”
Something liquid and alive flowed through Greer then and like veins in marble, cracks of green shot through the ebony death in her eyes.
“That,” she said with effort, “will not happen.”
My gamble paid off. It was tenuous, but she was back in control.
“Then let’s get this done,” I said.
She gave me a jerky nod and walked back with me to where Lucas and Chase knelt beside Tori. When we approached, both men stood up warily.
“Red?” Lucas said. “You good?”
“Pick her up,” Greer told him. “Be gentle, but secure her body. This may be a rough passage.”
Rough didn’t begin to cover it. We flew through a maelstrom, clinging to one another and shielding my injured friend as best we could. The landing came without warning. I hit hard on solid ground, catching myself with my hands and knees. Miraculously, Lucas stayed on his feet, and he didn’t drop Tori.
“Get her inside. Now!” a woman’s voice commanded. “Make way!”
Raising my still reeling head, I saw Brenna Sinclair pushing back the crowd milling around the entrance to a two-story wooden building with a gabled roof and bright red shutters. The sign hanging over the door read, “Travelers Welcome. Brigands Beware.”
I tried to stagger upright to follow, but I fell drunkenly backward into Chase who cushioned my fall. At the doorway, as Lucas swept past Brenna with Tori in his arms, the red-haired sorceress’ eyes locked with mine. Then she turned on her heel and disappeared inside.
36
“Why doesn’t Tori take the mirror out of her pocket?!” Gemma groused. “I wanted to see these Golem creatures, and now they’re in some Middle Realm version of the Alps. We’re missing all the good stuff.”
Kelly patted her hand consolingly. “Be glad we can at least hear the girls,” she said. “It’s more than we expected. Tori doesn’t even know the mirror is transmitting.”
“This is like the old timers sitting around the radio,” Jeff said, leaning toward the mirror. “Right down to the static.”
Myrtle chanted the soft phrases of an amplification spell, but bursts of interference still marred the signal. “The device is simply not powerful enough,” she said. “Kelly is right. We are fortunate to hear this much.”
“The fortunate thing is that we know they’re safe,” Kelly said. “I feel like I can breathe for the first time in . . . ”
The words died in her throat as a blinding burst of light shot across the surface of the mirror. Everyone turned toward the glass, now filled with roiling, tumbling images of blue sky and jagged rocks.
Gemma came up off the sofa, her hand reaching helplessly toward the mirror as the glass on the other side shattered. Just before the signal went dark, blood sprayed over the screen.
Wheeling on Myrtle, Gemma cried, “Get it back! Get the picture back!”
“I cannot,” Myrtle said, rising and taking the distraught woman’s hands. “When the pocket mirror shattered, its magic shattered as well. You know that, Gemma.”
Grabbing the Myrtle roughly by the shoulders, Gemma said, “Don’t tell me what I know. You’re the aos si. Get the picture back. Now!”
From beside her, gentle hands covered her own. “Gem, turn loose,” Kelly said. “Myrtle would get the signal back if she could. You know that. Let her go.”
Gemma turned wild eyes on her friend. “I lost Scrap,” she said. “I’m not losing my only daughter. I’m not, Kelly. I’m not.”
“I know,” Kelly said soothingly. “I know. Come sit down. Jeff, pour her a drink.”
Allowing herself to be led back to the sofa, Gemma sat down woodenly. “What . . . what are we supposed to do now?” she asked.
“Honey,” Kelly said, “there’s nothing we can do. We wait.”
Chase caught me when I fell and held me down when I attempted to stand again.
“Damn it, Chase,” I wheezed. “Turn me loose. I have to get in there.”
A fine-boned, slender hand wearing a ruby ring appeared in my field of vision. Greer.
Squinting against the bright sunlight, I looked up at the baobhan sith. Her eyes had returned to normal, and she seemed as unflappable as ever. I took her hand and allowed myself to be pulled to my feet.
“Go,” she said, “We will be behind you.”
I gave myself just a second to look down. Chase’s eyes were normal again. As soon as that information registered, I bolted for the doorway, bursting into a bar, not unlike O’Hanson’s. A bartender, rag in hand, didn’t wait for me to ask. “Upstairs,” he said. “End of the hall.”
Taking the stairs two at a time, I ran the length of a long hall, skidding to a stop when I saw Tori lying on a bed with Brenna Sinclair on one side and Aquila on the other. Lucas was nowhere to be seen. Without thinking, I raised my hands and ignited twin balls of blue energy.
In response, Brenna held her palms outward in placation. “Please,” she said, “we wish only to help. Your friend has lost a great deal of blood. The wound must be closed.”
“If you hurt her,” I said evenly, “I’ll kill you.”
“Understood,” the sorceress replied. “Please, you may observe everything we do, but let me work.”
Extinguishing the energy, I crossed the room to the bedside. Tori’s eyes were open.
“Look at you,” she whispered. “Going all Assassin’s Creed on their butts.”
Catching hold of her hand, I said, “I have no idea what that means, but I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”
My voice broke on the words and true to form, Tori comforted me.
“It’s okay, Jinksy,” she said. “Let Grams here do her thing.”
I looked at Brenna and nodded. “Go ahead.”
On the other side of the bed, Aquila used a single razor-sharp talon to slice open Tori’s jeans. I thought I’d throw up when I saw the damaged flesh below the soaked denim.
“That bad, huh?” Tori asked weakly.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “You won’t even have a scar to brag about.”
“Liar,” she shot back.
As we watched, Brenna brought her hands within a few inches of the gaping wound and closed her eyes. Her lips moved silently, and yellow gold light radiated from her fingertips. Moving slowly, a few centimeters at a time, the tissues below her hands began to rebuild themselves.
“What is she doing?” Tori asked. “That tickles.”
Then she passed out.
And then I panicked.
“Lift her head,” Aquila ordered, holding out an open bottle filled with clear liquid.
That part didn’t bother me. The smoke rising off the liquid did.
“What is that?” I asked suspiciously.
Annoyance flickered across his black eyes. “Either you trust us, or you do not,” he snapped. “She has lost too much blood. If she does not get this potion now, the effects may be irreversible.”
I did as I was told.
Hours later, I was still hold
ing Tori’s hand. I’d only let go long enough to get out of my blood-stained clothes and into a clean shirt and jeans at Greer’s insistence.
“This is not a land where one should wander about smelling of blood,” she said. “You will have to take my word on this point.”
After that, Chase came in and rested his hands on my shoulders. “You should eat,” he said quietly.
“I’m not leaving her,” I replied in a tone that told him not to even think about arguing with me.
When his strong fingers began to knead at my muscles, I allowed myself the luxury of leaning back against him. “Thank you for what you did today,” I said quietly.
“It wasn’t just me,” he said. “Without Grayson, Tori and I both would have died.”
Tilting my head back to look up at him, I said, “That’s awfully gracious of you.”
As he smiled down at me, Chase brushed a stray lock of hair away from my face. “I can be a good boy when I want to be,” he said.
The words sent a thrill through me I couldn’t deny, but this was neither the time nor the place to sort out my feelings. “Be good now,” I replied, with just a suggestion of entreaty in the words. “Please.”
Chase has always heard the things I say and the ones I leave unspoken. “I’m going to go fix a plate for you,” he said smoothly, “and you’re going to eat it. Deal?”
When I nodded, he took his hands off my shoulders. I instantly missed the reassuring weight of his touch and the warmth of this proximity. Even though I wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone, I was still shaking inside.
He returned after a few minutes with a tray, but then left me alone with my food and my thoughts. I’d just finished eating when a voice from the doorway asked, “May I join you?”
Brenna Sinclair stood behind me, a tentative expression on her face.
“Come in,” I said, “but be quiet. She’s still sleeping.”
The sorceress pulled a chair next to mine and sat down. “The after effects of the magic I used to close her wound and the potion Aquila administered will not wear off for several hours,” she explained, “but I assure you that your friend will make a full recovery.”
The Amulet of Caorunn (A Jinx Hamilton Mystery Book 7) Page 25
