by Chloe Adler
The water churns, and I grow colder. A wind bellows, birthing sudden massive waves in the once-calm lake. “I will seriously consider helping you, Azotar, but I will not condone kidnapping.”
It lets out an ominous howl and then disappears.
I swim in a circle and yell up to the darkened sky, “Help! How do I leave this place?”
“Sing.” Its voice is soft, but unmistakable.
I don’t want to sing right now but I have no other option. I float on my back, facing a dismal gray sky, open my mouth and sing. I finish the aria and start another. I sing the lamentations of a misunderstood girl, about the pain of heartbreak and separation. After minutes, or agonizing hours, who can tell in this gray, dead place, the water under me finally shifts and moves. Waves lap at my arms and legs. I keep singing. Soon, there’s a whirlpool under me and I have about three seconds to catch my breath before I’m sucked back down.
I close my eyes and let the water take my body. I stop fighting and accept that whatever’s going to happen, will happen. And a heartbeat later, the lake spits me out onto the island on a wave.
“I thought you died!” cries Capatani.
“You and me both.” I clutch the cage in both hands and work on prying the door open but it won’t budge. Not that she could go anywhere if I did open it, since dryads don’t have wings and her tiny arms seem incapable of dealing with the angry waves still lapping at the shoreline. “This may seem counterintuitive but I’m going to swim back while holding you above the water.”
“No!” she says. “You’ll drop me and I’ll drown.”
I hold up both my hands, palms up, like a set of scales. “Drown.” I lower one hand. “Starve.” I lower the other one.
“Good point.”
I lift her carefully and balance her on top of my previously sprained left hand, palm up. Then I hook my fingers into the bottom of the cage and wade back into the water. Using my right hand to paddle, it takes some time, but I do reach the other side with the dryad captain alive and well, if not totally dry. Japheth tosses his mane and makes his weird abada noises as I place the cage on his back and then climb up behind it.
Chapter Forty-One
I’d like to insist that we go look for Vasily but there seem to be only two ways to find someone here. One is to bring Japheth an article of clothing or some other belonging that he can track with, and the other is my singing. After an hour of singing every aria I can think of and “Happy Birthday” to boot, I have nothing to show for it but a hoarse voice. I also have nothing of Vasily’s on me, which means I have to go back and ask for help. The very thing I’d rather not do. They’ve helped me enough already and what have I done in return? Lost their king, mooched off them and botched my horse-caretaking job. Plus I’ve given them a myriad of reasons to worry about me and put them in the position of having to rescue me time and time again. Screw it. Maybe I can just sneak into his room and take something without the others knowing.
We ride back atop Japheth in relative silence with me holding tightly to the cage so it doesn’t slip off. When we reach the dryads, they see their fearless leader and cheer.
“Capatani,” Basma calls out, running over to us. “Thank you for saving her,” she says to me.
“Careful,” I croak, and she scurries away so I can jump off the abada. I reach up for the cage and place it on the ground.
“I’ll get her out.” Crispeth approaches with a stick and works the lock mechanism until it clicks open.
The tiny captain waltzes out of the cage and addresses her peers. “I hope you didn’t try to kill my savior here.”
Some of them look sheepish and turn away.
“No, they were fine,” I hurry to add, then clear my throat of the frog stuck in it. “I’m glad you’re back with your group. I have to return to Earth for a short time but I’ll come back.” If I’m able to. My planeswalker ability seems to have developed a mind of its own.
“What about the fachan and our king?” asks Janay.
“I promise every single one of you, I will come back and I will find your king.”
“But why can’t you stay and help us now?” another dryad asks.
I understand their worry; right now I’m their best chance. “Do any of you have anything that belonged to the king in your possession or know where we can find something?”
They shake their heads.
“The castle,” Basma says excitedly.
“It’s cloaked,” says Capatani. “She won’t be able to find it.”
Basma shakes her head. “I forgot.”
“I can’t find him without one of his personal items. The good news is that I know where to find one. The bad news is that it’s back on Earth.”
“Let her go,” says Capatani. “She’ll be back.” The little fae smiles up at me.
I climb back onto Japheth and wave, leaning down to whisper in his ear, “Take me somewhere quiet, please.” And to my surprise the abada walks me deeper into the forest. He stops at a creek and bends to drink. I slide off his back and find a spot at the base of a tree. The horse creature waits while I situate myself. “Thank you,” I say and close my eyes. He doesn’t make a sound while I still my breathing and begin the visualization that I hope will return me to Earth.
Chapter Forty-Two
When I open my eyes I’m in my bathroom at the mansion, thankfully not at the house Bob took me to. Wait, Bob took me to a house? In the middle of the freaking night, and I let him? It’s as if the jog to Tara and back has jarred something loose in my head. But not all of it. I remember a strange pull, almost as if I’d lost all self-will. Then . . . Tara. Who can I ask about this?
The bathroom window is open and a fresh night breeze blows in the scents of pine and jasmine, pulling my mind back. It’s wonderful to be back home, where I don’t have to worry every hour that I might die. A knock on the door startles me but before I can respond it opens a crack.
“Amaya?”
“Bodhi!”
He flings the door open, Arch, Forrest and Cedar piling in the doorway behind him.
“How did you know I was here?”
He shakes his head and pushes into the bathroom. “I don’t know exactly, I sensed you.”
“You’re not the one who gets to ask the questions right now.” Arch pushes through after him. “Where were you? We’ve been sick with worry. You can’t just disappear like that.” His is higher than I’ve ever heard it and he trembles with fury.
“Why would you leave without saying anything to anyone?” asks Forrest, the only semicalm one of the bunch.
Cedar just stares at me, blinking as though I’m merely an apparition that will blink out of existence in a second.
“I’m sorry, it wasn’t exactly planned.” I conveniently leave out the part where I had tried to get to Tara by myself. “The last thing I remember is following Bob to some unfurnished house.”
“Bob?” Cedar places a hand on my back. “Your landlord? The one you told me about before?”
“What did she tell you before?” Arch growls.
Cedar looks at me, eyes wide.
“It’s not his fault.” I look at Arch. “I asked him not to tell you guys because nothing happened.”
“Goddamn it, Cedar.” Arch does not look at me. “This is not how our brotherhood works and you know it.”
“Shhh.” Bodhi puts a hand on Arch’s shoulder but Arch shrugs it off.
“Is this what else you saw in your crystal when it worked for you that night?”
Cedar nods.
“No fucking secrets,” Arch growls. “Especially not where Amaya is concerned.”
“I’m sorry, I . . .”
“This is not finished.” Arch narrows his eyes at his brother and my heart falls down to my feet and through the floor.
Great, I made another bad decision and someone else is paying for it. Again. Is there not one tiny thing that I can do right? I didn’t want Cedar to tell them so they wouldn’t worry and now it’s worse.
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I need to change the subject and fast. “When Bob led me into that house, there was . . .” I blink, trying to remember, but it’s like a faded dream. Wasn’t there another person? A female. But what female would Bob take me to in the middle of the night? His sister Cheryl? I shake my head, hair flying into my face, and rub my eyes to clear the cobwebs. No, couldn’t have been. Dammit, my memory is too fuzzy. “I’m not exactly sure what I saw but I think there was a pulsing light. After that, I woke up in Tara.”
Bodhi’s brows knit together. “Do you remember anything about the light?”
“It was blue?” I squint, trying to imagine myself back there, but I can’t.
“Are you sure it was a blue light?”
“No, I’m not sure. I hit my head pretty hard when I got to Tara.”
“What?” Bodhi reaches for me, his hand touching my face.
“It’s okay, it hurt for a bit but it’s better now. I’m just fuzzy on some details.”
He takes a deep breath and it looks like he wants to say more but instead he nods once and drops his hand. “What else do you remember about the light?”
“Not much. I remember I was scared and confused.” I screw my eyes shut and breathe deeply. “There was a long tunnel. The sides of it reminded me of a kaleidoscope, but they weren’t solid. I wasn’t sucked through, I fell.” Or was I pushed? I open my eyes again and look at each of the men. “I’m sorry, I can’t remember any more.”
“What the hell does this mean?” Arch growls.
Bodhi shakes his head at Arch, the movement halting. “I don’t know. Azotar can’t use its magic on Earth. It can’t cross over to our plane.”
“Who else uses magic that glows with such a light?” says Cedar, his quiet voice dropping like a grenade into the conversation.
The men exchange looks.
“Several members of the royal family also use blue. It’s a common enough color for magic users in Tara,” Bodhi says.
“But they’re not currently in Tara,” Arch snarls.
“She’s not even sure it was blue.” Bodhi looks at me, eyebrows raised and I shrug.
“No,” I look down at my feet, “I can’t be sure. But when the fachan and I spoke—”
“What?” Arch cuts me off. “Did it hurt you?”
The men flank me on all sides now and the overly crowded bathroom turns claustrophobic.
“Give her some space,” Arch growls when I squeak, and everyone backs out of the bathroom. Arch holds out a hand. I take it and he leads me into my bedroom, sits down on the bed and pats the seat next to him.
I crawl on top and sit against the pillows. The men pile around me, looking at me eagerly. Arch scoots closer to me and reaches for my hand. He seems to have calmed down, but that doesn’t stop him from shooting a glare at Cedar. Cedar ignores him, but I plant my hand in Arch’s, hoping to distract him anyway. Bodhi takes my other one, interlocking our fingers.
“It didn’t hurt me, it just wanted to talk, I think.” I tell the men how I came to meet with Azotar and what it said.
Bodhi shakes his head. “I don’t know much about this, but Vasily told me a little. He did say that the spell he used to attach it to the monolith required the others to help. It makes sense that it would take all of them working together to undo it.”
I could see Vasily doing something like that, making it so they’d all have to accept the creature together in order for it to live among them.
“But what is this human battery it mentioned?” asks Bodhi.
“Could it be Bob?” I spitball.
“Shit, that guy’s such an asshole,” grumbles Cedar.
“No surprise he’d be working for a nefarious creature then.” Forrest runs his hands through his snow-white hair.
“We have to get Vasily back. He’ll know what to do.” I straighten my shoulders, jutting out my chin.
“We’ve been trying.” Arch clenches his jaw, the sides bulging.
“What? How?”
“The other synergist,” Bodhi says. “Betty.”
The jealous rage surfaces and I grind my teeth so hard, I’m sure Vasily can hear it in Tara. Right. How could I forget dear Betty. “You used her?”
“We were desperate,” Forrest says. “Backed into a tree.”
“And?” I fold my arms over my chest.
“We met with her,” says Cedar. “We made plans to try a spell tonight.”
I’m spitting mad but I don’t say anything, yet. I get it, they did what they needed to, just like I did, but this isn’t over. After we rescue Vasily I’ll make it perfectly clear that this other synergist is out. For now, I shoot for a semblance of diplomacy. “Well now you won’t have to use her.”
“Exactly.” Bodhi reaches for me, nuzzling my neck. “We’re so glad you’re home.”
Arch wrap his arms around me and a few seconds later, the other two join in. The men hold me tightly for a few minutes, long enough to light up my hormones.
“I’m sorry I worried you.”
“We’re not the only ones who were concerned,” Cedar says, letting go.
I look up at Arch, his green eyes softer now. “Your best friend is furious and out of her mind. You may want to text her.”
Jules, shit.
“Siobhain reached out as well,” says Bodhi.
“What?” I look at him. “How did she know to contact you? Any of you?”
Bodhi shrugs. “Benedict told her. People were worried, Amaya. You were MIA for four days.”
“Four days!” I leap up from the bed and run around my room, looking for my phone. But I didn’t leave from here, did I? I left from my parents’ house, where my cell phone is currently useless. I didn’t even bring it with me when Bob ushered me into his car. More proof of weirdness. If I had been in my right mind, I would have never left without my phone. I sink down on the bed and rub my forehead.
“I’m so sorry.” Bodhi sits next to me and throws an arm around my back. “They had to cast someone else as the understudy.”
It hurts no less for being unsurprising. I bite back the threat of tears. I knew this was going to happen. I actually deserve it. After all, my parents put their own dreams aside for me. I should put mine aside for them and my men. It’s the way of the world. We may not get what we want or, as the Stones would croon, what we need. But in my case at least, we do get what we deserve. I clench my jaw and lock up my heart, for now. Time to move on.
“I’m fine.” I turn to Bodhi and peck his cheek. “There are far more important matters at hand.” Like getting back my king.
Chapter Forty-Three
The next morning after breakfast, Arch volunteers to drive me back to my parents’ to get my phone. It seems like a ridiculous detour with the king stuck in Tara but the men insisted on a recuperation day and I had to agree. Traveling between worlds is too discombobulating. I need at least a day to ground myself back in reality. Plus one day here is only an hour in Tara, so the time difference works in my favor from this direction.
“About what happened with Bob . . .” Arch pulls out onto Discover Highway.
I shake my head. “It doesn’t make sense.”
He glances at me and I reach for his hand. That sideways look says so much and I don’t think I’m just reading what I want into it. His brow is soft, his eyes wide, and for the first time, he looks open, interested, with a kindness I haven’t seen before. He squeezes my hand and we interlock fingers. It’s a simple gesture but it feels like an intimate connection, deep and ancient.
“I can’t be sure but it sounds like the fachan may have found a way to manipulate Bob. I don’t know how, but there’s no other explanation that makes sense.”
“But what would the fachan want with me?”
“Something vile, I’m sure.”
I tap my other hand against the creamy Tesla leather. I don’t argue but from the short interaction I had with Azotar, I’m not convinced its agenda is all chaos and destruction.
“Amaya?” He brings our
connected hands up to his lips to press a soft kiss to the back of mine. His mouth lingers for several beats, the warmth flooding up my arm, down the center of my body and pooling between my legs. I squirm, biting back a moan. Our connection has grown but this is not the time, nor the place to spend dreaming about the what-ifs and whens.
He keeps a hold of my hand, placing it on his thick, muscled thigh. “You’ve been able to take both Candy and Vasily into Tara.”
“No,” I interrupt. “Candy was by mistake and Vasily and I got separated. I couldn’t even get there myself the last time I tried.”
“You tried to go alone?” His jaw tightens.
Shit. Didn’t mean to admit that. I look out the window instead of responding.
“I won’t lecture you right now; you obviously know how dangerous that is. What if I told you we may be able to boost your ability to bring someone back there with you?”
“I’d say I’m interested. Did you get some magic back?”
He glances at me and sets his jaw. “The other synergist, Betty, she gave us something to prove her worth. We haven’t used it yet.”
The other synergist. Deep breaths, calm down. “Why would she leave something like that in your possession?”
“She insisted it was her promise to return and transport us into Tara.”
Well isn’t that special. “I guess it won’t hurt to try it.”
He throws me a small smile. “Definitely not, especially since you’ll be there with the big gun.”
I smirk. “And by big gun, you mean . . .”
He winks. “I think you know who I mean.”
I tap the fingers of the hand not intertwined with Mr. Big Gun on my leg to an invisible rhythm and nod in agreement.
He eyes me. “Good, because it wasn’t a question.”
“A command?” Better yet.
He shrugs and presses my hand into his solid leg. “Call it what you like. The question I have now is, how do we find Vasily?”
