“That is very tempting, but impossible, I am afraid,” Vlad said, and Emery frowned, clearly surprised by his answer. Charity’s gut churned. “If the elves capture even one of you, they will crack you open like an egg and extract all the information you are trying to guard. All the information I would like you to guard. So, with deep regret, I must leave you in the hands of your watchdog and his friends. It pains me to admit they are your best bet now. Given this is partially my fault for being waylaid by…an intriguing new adversary, I have brought something to aid you.”
He pushed his hand forward, his fingertips nearly touching the ward. Somehow he knew exactly where it existed. The vial lay on his palm.
“This is a vampire’s best kept secret. I cannot tell you what it is, but I can tell you that it is your only hope. It will restore your energy and then some. It is like a drug, however, and it will not last forever. You will crash at some point, but hopefully you will find your people before that happens.”
“We’re still days away,” Emery said.
Vlad shook his head, analyzing Charity. “You don’t have days. Take the fastest route.”
“But—”
Vlad held up his other hand to silence Emery. “The elves are following you. They have not guessed your destination yet, dimwitted and uninformed about the wilds as they are. If you take the fastest route, by the time they realize their error, you will be in the Flush. I will clear the way, have no fear about that.”
“What are you, the godfather of the Realm?” Penny asked. “You can’t have everyone in your pocket.”
He laughed. “Those who don’t want trouble will find somewhere else to be. Those who are more audacious are either in my employ, or are too stupid to realize their position on the food chain. I will simply…educate them.”
“And if they are minions of the elves?” Emery asked.
Vlad’s eyes sparkled with malice. “I will kill them, as they would me.”
Charity shook her head and took a step back, her eyes on that vial. “How can I possibly believe you?”
Vlad’s hand swung in Emery’s direction. “I trust you would believe him?” He raised his eyebrows. “He has no doubt heard certain rumors, and is wondering if one of those rumors could possibly allude to what is in this vial. Let him convince you. But do not dawdle. You have precious little time before that elf will break up this camp. You had best be on your way. Oh, and one more thing…”
He bent to place the vial on the ground next to the ward and extracted a piece of paper from his pocket.
No, not a piece of paper. A picture.
Charity’s stomach flip-flopped as he held it out.
“How did you find that?” she asked, nearly charging through the ward to get it.
“What is it?” Devon asked.
Vlad placed the picture next to the vial.
“A picture of a man,” Penny said, squinting down at it.
“It’s my mom’s. Her first love,” Charity murmured, staring at her BFF in blind rage. “She never spoke of him—I think he broke her heart—but she always kept his picture. It was in the package I left for her in the little cubby in the closet. How did you even find the cubby? Did you go through that whole package?”
“I do apologize,” Vlad said, taking a step away. “When it became evident your stepfather would not be very helpful, I had to investigate further. That picture struck a particular interest for me, so I needed to borrow it to ascertain the man’s identity.”
Charity gritted her teeth, the intense need to piece more of her mother’s life together fighting her outrage at the incredible breach of privacy. The feeling of longing won out. If Walt wasn’t her father, then maybe her father hadn’t been some anonymous fae passing through the Brink. Maybe her mother had actually loved him.
She wasn’t sure if that made his decision to leave better or worse, but she wanted to know more. Besides, she recognized him. How could she not? He’d been standing right next to her in her hallucination, wearing battle gear with pride sparkling in his eyes.
“And did you?” she asked, centering her weight, unconsciously preparing to fight out her feelings. “Did you find out who he was?”
“Of course I did.” Vlad’s smile was serene. “He is your biological father.”
Charity stared after Vlad with a slack jaw, watching him saunter away like he hadn’t just dropped a bunch of bombs. Once he made it across the path and between two leafy trees, he turned on the jets, giving the illusion that he had vanished.
The man sure knew how to make an exit.
Charity stared down at the photograph. She’d wondered why her mother had left the photo behind. Charity hadn’t known the man, after all—the photograph wasn’t sentimental to her. Now, it struck her that it had been her mom’s way of telling her about her real father.
It had taken a nosy, arrogant vampire to solve the riddle.
“He didn’t say who your father was,” Penny said, anger hot in her voice.
“Her father is exactly who Vlad always thought he was, or did you miss his smugness?” Emery waved his hand through the air and quickly bent to collect the vial and photograph. Even as he was straightening back up with them, Penny was working magic, probably putting the ward back in place. “Her father is Arcana, he’s warrior fae, and the elves are coming. We gotta move. Devon, get your people ready. Rest time is over.”
Emery handed the vial to Charity.
“We’ll talk about this on the road,” he said. “It could be a trap. But…”
“But what?” Charity said, searching Emery’s incredulous expression.
He laughed and shook his head. “But…it could be unicorn blood.”
Chapter Twenty
“Wait, unicorns are real?” Charity asked as Emery headed back to the camping site.
“Unicorns are real?” Penny echoed, hurrying after him.
“I don’t know.” Emery stuffed his thin bedroll back into his backpack. Devon stepped away for a moment to talk to Dillon. A couple of other shifters changed back to human and started grabbing up packs. From the way they were eyeing Emery, she suspected they’d heard the exchange with Vlad.
“In the years I spent wandering the Realm, I heard a million rumors,” Emery said. “Most turned out false, as you might expect, but a year or so ago I heard from a reliable source that the vampires were hunting someone who was smuggling unicorn blood from under their noses and selling it in the Brink. The blood acts as a sort of magical booster, I guess. It was turning witches into mages, and they were organizing. Or trying to. I heard whisperings about them…until I didn’t.”
Devon returned to Charity’s side and slipped an arm around her waist as Emery continued. “The vampires must have taken out the culprits and all of their followers. My source disappeared not long afterward, which suggests they didn’t just go after the people directly involved—they went after everyone who might know their secret. Now, here we are, with an elder vampire handing us a little red vial to help boost Charity’s magic and energy. I’m guessing there’s some truth to it.”
“So, if that’s what Vlad left for Charity…then we can expect to be hunted and killed by Vlad and his minions to keep their secret?” Penny asked.
Emery laughed, and Charity had no idea what was so funny. Sure, the vampires were unlikely to go after her, but Charity wasn’t sure Roger could protect Devon’s pack from being picked off one by one. Not from a vampire like Vlad.
“When he’s done with us?” Emery waved his hand near the ward and walked through without looking back to make sure everyone was following him. “Probably. Those he deems useless, at least. The rest will probably be given an offer they can’t refuse.”
“That dirty cheat,” Penny said, her fists balled up. “He can’t just throw a big secret at us and then blame us for knowing it.”
“It’s Vlad,” Emery said as though it was reason enough. He was probably right.
“Look—” Charity struggled to keep up with Emery’s fast pa
ce. Devon kept by her side, clearly thinking this information exchange was more important than taking rear, a task that had been silently assigned to Dillon. “This doesn’t make any sense. Why would Vlad help me? I mean, he’s basically rolling out the red carpet to get me to the Flush. This is the same guy that tried, on several occasions, to kidnap me and kill the man I love.”
“He told you why.” Emery peered through the trees on his right. A slip of movement caught Charity’s notice, but when she looked that way, only empty trees and still bushes dotted the landscape.
The path rose steadily up an incline. The rocks on the side of the path got bigger, the plant life sparser. They were heading up the mountain.
“He thinks Fate has plans for you, and he wants to bend your journey to fit his own design.” Emery veered to the edge of the path to look behind them.
“We’re being followed,” Devon said, clearly reading Emery’s movements. “Vampires. I smell them.”
Emery nodded. “I figured.” He turned to the front again. “He tried to snatch you and force Fate’s hand, Charity, but that didn’t work, so now he is trying to work his way into your life so he can manipulate you. This approach is infinitely more dangerous for you. And if this vial holds what I think it does, and what I’ve heard is true, then he’ll have one more hook in you.”
“Knowing his secret won’t change my situation,” Charity said.
“Unicorn blood is said to be ten times more addictive than heroin. He’s got the lure of your mother, and now the hook of a highly addictive drug. Not to mention the drop on all your friends. Vampires have no problem killing—it wouldn’t be a stretch to think he’ll blackmail you with their lives.”
“Vampires have always tried to kill us,” Devon growled. “This is no different.”
“Vampires have tried to kill you when you got in their way,” Emery countered. “But if what I’ve heard is true, they’ll kill for this secret. Unless Charity plays along, they’ll all target you. He’s backing you into a corner.”
“Jesus, babe, you have been studying vampire politics,” Penny said with wide eyes.
“I promised I’d keep us at arm’s length from the vampires, Turdswallop,” he said softly, and took her hand. “I keep my promises.”
“Can I see that vial?” Charity held out her hand.
Emery must’ve been curious, and possession was nine-tenths of the law, but he handed it to her at once. Whatever else he was, he was honest and trustworthy.
She wound up and threw the vial down the small incline off the path. “Whatever it is, we don’t want it,” she yelled out, knowing that vampires would be able to hear. “I guess we’ll never know if the rumors are true, or if it was a trap.”
A rustle sounded not far off. Someone had just given their presence away. Not that it mattered. Emery didn’t slow or alter course.
Devon stared at her silently, his face blank. It wasn’t hard to guess what he was thinking.
Charity looked straight ahead, ignoring her aching body. And she’d keep on ignoring it until she trudged her way to the Flush and got a real cure. “I will not save myself at your pack’s expense, Devon. You must know that by now.”
“Sometimes I hope you’ll learn some sense,” he replied.
Emery huffed out a laugh. “That woman right there has rock-solid sense, are you kidding?” He glanced back at Devon. “You oughta try dealing with Reagan and her older dual-mage sidekicks for a week. Talk about no sense. Then mix in Penny’s mother—trust me, brother, you’ve got it good. Hold on for dear life and hope she doesn’t leave you.”
“See?” Charity said, raising her chin.
“The problem is, we have a trek ahead of us, and we don’t have the gas for it,” Devon said.
“We’re switching routes,” Emery said. “It’ll take us away from the cover of the wilds, but it’s easier to travel. We can move faster while still staying to the sidelines. Mostly. Hopefully the elves only have minions patrolling, and those have been cleared.”
“We’re trusting that Vlad has taken care of the danger?” Penny asked, aghast.
“We don’t have much choice,” Emery murmured.
Chapter Twenty-One
The rest of the day and into the night passed in a blur of fatigue for Devon. His limbs felt like they had weights tied to them, and his wolf kept struggling to break free. Charity’s magic was buffeting them both in faster and stronger waves, building up even though she had absolutely no energy to help it flower. Even so, Devon suspected the energy link between them wasn’t as open as they’d originally thought. That, or Charity had figured out (possibly unconsciously) how to keep more of the pain for herself and spare Devon, because they’d had to stop repeatedly for her to clamp down on a power surge that he didn’t feel as much as he should’ve.
“We should be able to get some rest up here a ways,” Emery said, leading them along a narrow path between bent and twisted trees and straggly, reaching bushes. The area was a no man’s land. Nothing seemed to be stirring on the periphery. No winged creatures flew overhead.
Devon counted his blessings. A few times on the trek, they’d seen creatures staring out of the trees at them, silent and watchful, keeping at bay when normally they would attack, or so Emery had murmured as they passed.
They still didn’t know why Vlad had cleared their path—was he being true to his word, or was he leading them into an elaborate trap? Only time would tell.
The soft pounding of danger thrummed in Devon’s middle. He had no way of knowing if he was right, but it felt like the elf or elves were catching up. He nearly said as much, but what choice did they have but to rest? Charity was staggering like a drunk with a pale, sweaty face and weak, useless limbs. She was in a bad way. Any farther, and they’d have to carry her.
Any farther, and they might have to carry Devon.
“We can drape an invisibility spell over the cave,” Emery murmured to Penny. “Any higher-powered elves would be able to sense the magic, so we’ll…have to get creative.”
“How much farther until the Flush?” Penny asked.
“At this pace and after a rest?” He paused for a moment. “A day, probably.”
A surge of Charity’s magic rushed into Devon, making his eyes water. She bumped into him before putting her hand to her sternum, slowing. A moment later, she bent at the waist and squeezed her arms around her middle.
“You okay?” Penny asked, turning to Charity with a concerned expression.
“The Realm…” Charity struggled for breath, coughing into her fist. “It’s boosting my magic.”
“This surge is more powerful,” Emery said, concern screwing up his features. “It feels like lava needles.”
“It feels like she is getting ready to blast us with something nasty,” Penny murmured, her hand on Emery’s arm.
“I’m good,” Charity said through clenched teeth. “It’s good.”
Devon could barely stand upright. He pumped out his shifter magic, the effort nearly taking him to his knees, counteracting the stinging pain of her magic. His pack backed off, probably a survival mechanism, except for Steve in his lion form.
Steve pushed in close, his strong shifter magic swirling around and within Charity’s and Devon’s magic. Helping them fight back the tide.
“More,” Devon said between clenched teeth. “More shifter magic.”
“Oh, I see,” Penny said. “Yes, that’s smart.” Her fingers started moving. Emery watched for a moment before he reached in between her hands, his fingers dancing.
Devon held on, working with Charity’s magic, using everyone else’s power to help balance it. To back it down.
“I’m good,” Charity said again, her fists balled up and her eyes shut. “I’m good.”
“More magic,” he said, his head getting light from the effort of calling up his magic.
Andy bumped Steve to make room and pushed in. Dillon and Macy crowded in behind him, the others behind them. Penny pushed her hands toward the group.
Charity sucked in a breath. Thankfully, the surge calmed. The tide turned.
“Almost there,” Devon said, taking a breath with her, pushing the hot agony of her magic away. “Almost there.”
Charity took deep, ragged breaths. She nodded and straightened up slowly, her whole body shaking. “It’s okay. We’re okay.”
This time, Devon thought to himself. This time they were okay, but it had taken the whole pack and two natural dual-mages. If these surges got any stronger, he didn’t know if they’d be able to pull her back.
* * *
Devon, in his human form, awoke with a start in the dim cave they’d chosen to hunker down in. A rock poked into his back and water dripped on his head from the cave ceiling. His pack fanned out around him, one and all in their animal forms, making the most of their rest. Deep breaths said they were still deep in their slumber.
Two shapes stood at the mouth of the cave, shadows against the glow of the coming day. Their hands worked together, the movements urgent.
That was when he felt it—danger, deep and intense. It thrummed through him, a warning he couldn’t possibly ignore.
He straightened up quickly, careful not to rouse Charity beside him. Dillon, who lay on his other side, snapped his eyes open and lifted his head to see what was wrong, quickly noticing the dual-mages at the front of the cave.
After pushing to his feet and stepping over the furry bodies of his pack members, who woke up one by one, Devon stopped at the mouth of the cave beside the dual-mages. His bones practically rattled with the pulse of warning just outside.
“The wards have been tripped,” Penny said quietly, her hands still moving. “We’re trying to invert our magic so a magical person can’t see or feel it. I think what we’re doing is going to work.”
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