It wasn’t as if you didn’t warn him.
“This all started when she showed up,” Ray shouted, the veins in his neck popping out in stark relief. “I knew you were keeping secrets, but I never thought you would do this. Are you working for her now? Are selling information to the other side?”
The atmosphere around them darkened, the air charging with negative energy. It was resonating within Doyle’s indignation and betrayal. Loki grabbed the back of her jacket, glancing at the sky apprehensively, but the humans were too engrossed in their argument to notice.
“Ray, you just have to trust me.” Romero was pleading now. “This isn’t what you think. This is way over our heads.”
“If it’s not what I think, then why does that woman have the report?” the other agent said, making woman sound like a swear word.
“Serin needed the information off that cell phone. She’s the one who found it in the first place.”
Doyle threw up his hands. “So now we’re doing her dirty work? Why?”
The gun swung back in her direction, shaking with Ray’s growing agitation. The man was starting to crack. She didn’t want him to lose control.
“I’m very sorry, Agent Doyle,” she said, altering her accent. The British clip softened, knocking it down a few social classes. “But your partner is right. This is above your pay grade.”
Slowly, gesturing that she had something to show him, she reached into her back pocket for one of the handy badges she and her sisters carried around for occasions like this.
When she held it out to him, he squinted at it. “I’m supposed to believe you’re Interpol?”
“This is a real badge just like this is a real investigation.”
“The hell it is,” he said, raising the barrel of the gun again, his finger on the trigger. “There are rules about conducting investigations on American soil—paperwork needs to be filed. There would be a trail.”
Serin’s smile was derisive. “And what makes you think you’re important enough to be read in on this?”
Doyle stiffened, but he didn’t lower the gun.
“C’mon, Ray,” Romero said. “The only reason I got read in was because I wouldn’t let it go. I wanted to tell you, but I was ordered not to by Serin’s superiors. They leaned on me kind of hard, but after everything was explained, I understood. Sensitive information can’t be spread all over the place or people die.”
“Is that why you came up with that crazy story? Fuck, Daniel, I’m your partner. What did they tell you to make you leave your partner in the dark?”
Romero’s face darkened, his eyes going slitted. “They said there was a mole.”
Serin leaned back on the balls of her feet. She had to hand it to Romero. He was one of the finest liars she’d ever seen—and she’d rubbed elbows with enough politicians to know some accomplished dissemblers.
“What the fuck?” Doyle exploded. “Do you think it’s me?”
“Of course I don’t think it’s you,” Romero said, his hands up. “But the powers-that-be were very clear. This was need-to-know, and you didn’t need to know. They were afraid the mole might get tipped off if word leaked. But trust me when I say Serin is trying to stop those next-gen guns from getting on the market. I’m just pitching in since she doesn’t have her Interpol resources on hand.”
Doyle scowled. “So now it’s all about the guns. It has nothing to do with the fact you’re in love with her.” He sneered, gesturing to her with the firearm.
Romero’s mouth tightened. He glanced at Serin to gauge her reaction, his expression…was that worry? No, it was something closer to embarrassment.
No one said anything. Romero stood there, watching her.
Oh. This was awkward. What was she supposed to do now?
Loki piped up, gesturing at the mouth of the alley. “The bar is still open in case anyone needs a drink.”
Romero rubbed his face. “I sure as hell need another one. I actually have to go back there to pay the bill I kind of ran out on.” Shrugging, his face turned sheepish. “It was an accident.”
Ray’s stance relaxed, his face sagging. “You know, I think I could use a drink.”
He started to put down the gun. The blast caught her unawares.
Serin clapped a hand to her ear before realizing her midsection was stinging. Dropping her head, she stared dumbly at the blood pouring down her front. The bullet had caught her high in the stomach.
Fire and ice exploded across her stomach. Her ears were ringing, but she could just make out Loki screaming and Romero yelling. Agent Doyle gaped, his feet fixed to the ground. He looked as shocked as she felt.
Her hands trembled slightly as she touched her fingers to the front of her shirt. The sight of the dark red blood transfixed her.
“Something’s wrong,” she whispered.
Large hands grabbed her roughly. Romero was saying something, but she was having trouble making it out. “Something’s wrong,” she repeated.
“Yes, something is fucking wrong. Ray shot you. What the fucking fuck, Ray?” Serin had never heard him sound so menacing.
Ray Doyle was white as a sheet. “I’m so sorry. It just went off.”
She fixed her gaze on the wound, muttering the strongest healing spell in her arsenal. “This was one of their bullets…a newer one.” She pressed her hands to her middle, fighting the lightheaded swimming sensation.
It wasn’t her first gunshot wound. In her decades of service, she’d been shot, beaten, and stabbed. Such incidents grew less frequent as she gained experience, but they still happened occasionally. Getting injured on the job was a numbers game. It didn’t matter. She was somewhat skilled at healing herself. It was an aspect of her talent. The human body was mostly water.
But this wound wasn’t responding.
Romero was still holding on to her, but Serin pulled away, staggering backward and then forward, trying to walk through him.
But the water didn’t come. She couldn’t shift into her medium. With that not working, her chance at stopping the poison was gone. It coursed through her veins, leaving fire in its wake. Every passing second made it worse. The poison was burning her up from the inside out. The pain grew exponentially with every breath.
It should have been easy to isolate the toxin and expel it from her system. Whatever this poison was, it had instantly dispersed and bonded with her cells, making it impossible for her to get rid of without pushing out a large amount of her own blood. And maybe an organ or two…
She gritted her teeth, trying to will the burning pain away. It felt like she was being sliced up by thousands of razor blades while trying to staunch the flow of blood with lemon-infused towels.
“Where did you get that gun?” Romero sounded as if he were in a tunnel.
Serin staggered, falling to her knees. She reached down, using the last bit of her strength to break through the asphalt, thrusting her hand into the barren soil underneath.
Gia. Gia. I need you.
“I asked you where you got the goddamn gun?” Romero yelled louder, his hands pressed to her middle just over hers.
Agent Doyle said something. His voice was strained and desperate, but Serin could no longer make out of the words over the sound of her own fading heartbeat. She wanted to laugh. but she stifled it to conserve her strength.
It was ironic. Serin had survived pitched battles with vampires, black witches, and out-of-control shifters, but right now, she was in the worst peril of her life because of a cop with an itchy trigger finger.
Well, given the color of her skin and where she was in the world, that almost made sense.
She was having trouble focusing now, but she made one last desperate plea. Atabey, Mother mine, can you hear me? I need help.
Unlike her younger sisters Diana and Logan, Serin felt the guiding hand of their Mother, or at least she had at the beginning of her career. It was never anything as distinct as a voice in her head, not the way Gia felt their Mother. For Serin, it was subtle warmth
when it should have been cold, an answer when she’d been lost.
It’s been so long, please… But the Mother didn’t break her silence.
Serin closed her eyes, but Romero pried them open. He was still shouting. Her vision was darkening at the corners.
Then she got her answer.
It wasn’t from the Mother. Her body, always a little colder than normal, stayed cold. This was local, a rumble in the earth. There was a hazy vision of a body in motion, and Doyle went down, crashing to the ground in front of her.
Gia.
“Yes. I’m here.”
22
Daniel wheezed, hitting his face and spitting out sand that wasn’t there. He spat again, touching his mouth. Nothing. He had just traveled under the earth—and there was nothing in his eyes or mouth. The ground simply ejected him spotless and baffled hundreds, perhaps thousands, of miles from his last location.
On his right, Loki was whacking his ear and head, shaking out the imaginary sand. “Stop, stop,” Daniel said, grabbing the fae’s hand before he hit himself again.
“Where are we?” Loki asked, twisting his head left and right.
“I have no freaking clue,” Daniel said, staring at the vision in front of him. It was a beach, but not the same one Serin had dumped him at twice now. That one was as far from this place as night was from day.
This place was a vision that only existed in sci-fi movies or photoshopped pictures. The moon hung in the night sky like a giant pearl, illuminating a long stretch of sugar-white sand. And the water was glowing—literally.
Daniel knew it was phosphorescent algae that made the interface of water and sand light up like a carpet of bright blue stars. but that was too simple an explanation. It was as if the hand of God had taken a piece of the night sky and carelessly tossed it here.
“Oh my God, this is so cool!” Loki sprang up and ran a few steps, leaving a trail of sparkling footsteps in his wake as he disturbed the algae in the sand. “Where are we?”
Daniel lifted his hand, rubbing his face. “We just had this conversation. I also don’t know who that scary-ass woman was who brought us here.”
The vision of a small Hispanic woman tossing his two-hundred-pound partner like a sack of potatoes was burned into his brain. Dear Lord, dangerous things come in small packages in the magic world.
“Oh my God, I think that was Gia. The Gia. She’s Earth.”
“Earth as in Earth like Serin is Water?” Daniel asked. He vaguely remembered Loki mentioning her earlier, but magic travel had a way of scrambling the brain.
“Yes, there are four of them in total. Fire, Diana, is a ballbuster; you don’t want to meet her. Then there’s Air. Her name is Logan. She’s the youngest and she’s cool, but not as awesome as Serin. Earth is the most senior. I don’t know that much about her other than she’s really old.”
Daniel blinked. “So this Gia person is like Serin’s boss?”
He couldn’t picture anyone telling that woman what to do.
“I don’t think it works like that. It’s more like a cross between being an independent contractor and a Charlie’s Angel with superpowers. Some come, some go—they decide when. They can work together, but typically act alone unless something big is going down.”
“But this Gia person has more magic? Can she heal Serin?”
Loki hesitated. “I thought Serin could heal herself, but she wasn’t, was she?”
“No,” Daniel said. Still disbelieving, he murmured, “Damn it, Ray, what were you thinking?”
Daniel got to his feet, searching for signs of civilization. The beach was surrounded by a high cliff edge that stretched as far as the eye could see. Except for the moon and algae, there were no lights to indicate the presence of people.
“Fuck. Why do they all have to do this?” he said. “There must be a town or village or something here. They wouldn’t leave us stranded on a deserted island…would they?”
Loki gasped like a teenager who’d just found out Taylor Swift was coming to town. He smacked him on the arm. “Shit, shit, shit! I know where we are.”
The fae spun around, holding his arms out. “This is T’Kaieri.”
“And?”
Loki stopped, crestfallen. “Seriously?”
“That name means nothing to me.” Daniel started walking, searching for a break in the cliff line.
The fae hurried after him, catching up and trudging along beside him. “I was expecting a bigger reaction.”
The sand was pristine and sugar-fine, but it was hell to walk on. “And that would be why?”
“Because this is the legendary home of the Elementals. Well, the Water ones, anyway. It’s basically Atlantis, or as close as you can get without breaking into the realm of fiction.”
“They can call this place God’s Golden Butthole for all I care—as long as they know how to heal Water Elementals. I’m good. Now, where can we find everyone?”
Shrugging, Loki scrutinized the cliff line. “I honestly didn’t think it was this big. I don’t know how they keep it off the charts. Surely planes can spot this place from the air?”
Daniel cursed, his steps turning to longer strides. As the minutes stretched, he grew angrier and angrier.
“Didn’t we pass this damn shell already?” he asked, lifting a cartoon-level perfect conch off the sand.
“Why are you asking me?” Loki was still playing with the glowing footprints, drawing what Daniel assumed were fairy swear words with the toe of his shoe. The shapeshifter lifted his hand, pointing. “Look up there. Is that a torch?”
Daniel spun around, spotting a bobbing yellow light. The flickering flame grew closer and closer, weakly illuminating a thin path through the cliffs. He would have missed if someone hadn’t been coming down it.
“Don’t they have flashlights around here?” What was up with this place?
They jogged toward the light, meeting the torch-bearer at the base of the cliff. The stranger was an attractive woman of indeterminate age. Her gauzy green dress fluttered in the ocean breeze.
She inclined her head. “Hello. My name is Noomi. The elders sent me from the village.”
“Are we really on T’Kaieri?” Loki asked, standing on his tiptoes. He craned his neck to peer behind her.
“Uh…yes. I’m here to tell you that Serin is with the healers.”
“Oh, thank fuck.” Daniel wiped his forehead. “I don’t know why Gia dumped us all the way out here. Can you take us to her?”
Noomi winced, her free hand fiddling with her robe. “I’m sorry, but no one can set foot on the island without invitation. That is why you were left here until one could be extended.”
Daniel nodded, arms out toward her in a get-on-with-it motion. “Great, let’s go.”
Noomi’s face crumpled as if she’d swallowed something foul. “I’m sorry. I understand Gia herself brought you here with the expectation you would be invited. But…”
“But what? What the hell is the problem?” Daniel could feel the blood rushing to his face, impatience and worry making him snappish.
“Well, Gia told us you were here and then she rushed to consult the healers with Serin’s parents, Caimen and Dalasini,” Noomi said, stumbling over the words. “The remaining elders held an emergency council meeting to discuss your presence. They voted whether or not to extend an invitation…and the final vote was no.”
She said the last as if someone were pulling out her teeth.
“Why the fuck not?” Daniel was an inch away from exploding.
“Calm down,” Loki said, putting a restraining hand on his arm. “It’s not her fault. She’s just the messenger.”
He was right. The poor woman cringed, shrinking away.
“Shit,” Daniel said, ashamed. “I’m sorry. I know it wasn’t your decision, but I have to see Serin.”
It was his fault she’d been shot. If he’d found another way to deal with Ray beforehand, his partner wouldn’t have come to the meet armed and she wouldn’t be in danger
now.
“You have my sincerest apologies,” Noomi said regretfully. “I know Gia wouldn’t have brought you here if she didn’t think you had a right to be, but things are very tense in the village. There’s been a lot of upheavals as of late.”
Her head hung as she cast her gaze at the ground. “I’m afraid I bear some responsibility for that. That is why the elders sent me down here to tell you of their decision.”
Loki’s face fell. “How are we supposed to get home from here?”
Her shoulders rose an inch. “I believe there was some talk of conjuring a boat.”
Daniel swore long and loud. “I’m not leaving this goddamn rock without seeing Serin. Once I know she’s out of danger then fine, I’ll fucking swim home if I have to. But not until I’m convinced she’s going to be all right.”
He pushed passed her, heading up the path. Noomi turned, chasing after him.
“I’m so sorry, but you won’t be able to go past the cliffs. T’Kaieri is protected, blessed by the Mother herself. The wards won’t let anyone pass, not without the incantation that allows you to enter,” she said breathlessly.
Daniel ignored her, continuing his stomping path. Loki and Noomi hurried after him.
“Please stop,” Noomi called. “I don’t know what will happen if you try to cross the wards!”
She lowered her voice to a hushed whisper, asking Loki in a slightly scandalized tone, “He’s a human, isn’t he?”
“Definitely. Well, mostly,” the fairy said, huffing after him. “Enough for the wards to register him as one. But damn, he moves fast for one, doesn’t he?”
Daniel ignored them and crested the ridge, sucking in a breath at the sight below him. The village of T’Kaieri wasn’t nestled in a valley. It rose to a peak behind the barrier of the cliffs that formed a half-circle around it. At the very top was something that resembled a castle or a cathedral, and all along the edges were the most spectacular homes.
The buildings were difficult to describe. It reminded him of Santorini or some other exotic Greek island, except instead of being uniformly white and square, the houses came in many shapes and colors. It was like someone had scattered flower petals on a hill.
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