The Terrible Gift
Empath Found Book 1
Colette Rhodes
Copyright © 2020 Graimarie Limited
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
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Fi
The cold wind blew in from the River Thames through the shattered window of the grimy club storage room I was standing in.
I gaped out the broken window in horror at what I’d just done. I didn’t regret stopping Kayden, the guy was a creep — he’d definitely been planning on assaulting me — but I wasn’t 100% sure I hadn’t killed him. Crap, murder is not what I had in mind for my Thursday night. Honestly, I’d just come out with the intention of getting laid.
Kayden’s creepy friends had herded me through the club here, into the downstairs storage room, and locked the door behind me. I remember him advancing on me. I saw red, then somehow he went flying — flying — through a closed window behind him. And then another few feet over a stone wall before I heard the splash of him landing in the River Thames.
Kayden had stayed in the same group home as me for a while, and he’d always struggled with taking no for an answer. And he wanted me. I’m not saying that because I’m cocky, or I think I’m irresistible. I knew he wanted me because I could feel it. Feeling other people’s emotions is sort of my bag. It’s exhausting. I’d always assumed I’d been cursed or something as a baby. After blasting 150 pounds of man through a window without laying a finger on him, I was beginning to question if I was even human.
Perhaps I’m a demon? Maybe just half-demon, since my dark brown eyes had never once glowed red.
I also have an absurdly high sex drive which is why I was at the club looking for a quick fix for my raging libido.
Maybe that makes me a succubus? Whatever I am, I’m pretty confident it’s evil.
The other theory is that I’m just plain crazy, and all of my quirks were a figment of my imagination. I think I’d rather be a demon. No one wants to admit they’re crazy.
I hovered at the broken window, panicking. Should I go look for Kayden? What if he retaliates? I don’t know if I can do my blasting trick again. Or worse, what if he’s dead? Oh god, I really hope I haven’t murdered someone. Even if he was a monster, I don’t want his death on my conscience.
Screw it, I need to at least check he’s alive. I pushed a crate of beer over to the remains of the window and climbed out, scratching my arms and stomach on shards of glass and cursing the tiny crop top and low slung skinny jeans I wore out tonight. My jacket was in the club’s coat room but there was no way I was risking going back in there, god knows what Kayden’s mates would do if I emerged from that room and he didn’t.
Clambering up onto the footpath, ignoring the pounding in my head from all the emotions pouring out of the club behind me, I reached out with my spidey senses and pinpointed Kayden’s confused rage. Ah, definitely alive then. I couldn’t determine his exact location, but I doubt he’d have been able to climb out of the river that quickly.
Counting my blessings that I hadn’t accidentally killed a person, I slipped down a side street and walked quickly to the nearest tube station. I wasn’t about to hang around and wait for Kayden to turn that anger on me. Or worse, wait for the authorities to catch up with me. After a lifetime in foster care, I had several issues with the man, plus an inconvenient inability to tell lies.
What a bust. I'd developed a new freaky skill, almost killed a dude, and had zero sex. Plus I had to get up for my shitty, pre-dawn cleaning job in a couple of hours. Maybe I’d try a club in a different part of London tomorrow. It looks like I’d be getting myself off tonight.
◆◆◆
Bryn
I made my way through the winding forest path to Master Gwyneira’s treehouse cabin. Now I was in my third year at the Academy of Avalon; the dean had been entrusting me with more and more tracking missions to collect new students. Master Gwyneira had been gifted guardian magic by the gods that helped her identify young fae in need of the Academy’s guidance, and my gods-gifted tracking magic led us right to them.
“Bryn, come in,” Mawrth, one of Master Gwyneira’s mates, ushered me into the small reception room at the front of the treehouse. The cabin was more luxurious than most at the Academy but it was fitting since Gwyneira was one of the most revered faes in Avalon. She also needed the space for her three mates. Only powerful fae women had enough magic to need more than two mates.
I sat on the couch while I waited for Gwyneira to arrive. The large tapestry of the gods that dominated one of the walls drew my attention. I don’t know why Gwyneira still displayed it, the gods had forsaken the fae. Many fae now were lucky to have any magic at all, they were practically human. I had been granted an exceptional gift with both a fire affinity and tracking magic.
“Ah Bryn, I am glad you are here,” Gwyneira said as she glided into the room and sat in the armchair opposite me. She was incredibly powerful, 400 years old, and there were few fae I respected more. “I have a sensitive assignment for you to undertake, and I would like you to go alone.”
“Alone?”
I had never been on an assignment alone before. Often we were rescuing young fae from dangerous situations. At 20 years old, I was hardly qualified for solo extraction work.
“This is an unusual case. You will be collecting her from Albion. So far as I can tell, she was raised there. The young woman is not being held against her will or poorly treated, so far as I can tell. However, it is highly unlikely that she knows that she is fae. I think you will find that she believed herself to be a human, perhaps until she used a large blast of magic a few hours ago.
"That is how she came to my attention. I believe she was in danger but is not in imminent danger now.”
I had been to Albion — the human realm — before on tracking assignments. Still, only for runaways, I don’t think there has ever been a fae raised in Albion as a human. I wasn’t entirely sure how it was possible.
“With all due respect Master Gwyneira, I’m not sure I’m the best qualified for explaining the situation to her. Perhaps Tesni should accompany me?” Tesni and I had worked together on multiple tracking assignments for the Academy. She had a way of keeping the newbie calm while we removed them from their situation and relocated them to the Academy. She was also pretty spectacular in bed, and I wouldn’t mind the company.
Gwyneira looked at me with an odd glint in her eye that I’d never seen before. “I feel strongly that Tesni’s presence would be detrimental for this particular assignment. In fact, I am confident that only you will be able to convince the young woman to accompany you back to Avalon.”
I wasn’t at all confident that she was right, but who was I to question a 400-year-old fae?
Gwyneira closed her eyes and cupped her hands in front of her, drawing forth the girl’s magic signature so I could latch onto it and track it to the source. Usually, a magical signature appeared as an orb of glowing color, influenced by the holder’s magical ability. The orb that appeared in Gwyneira’s hands now was like nothing I’d ever seen, it almost looked like smoke. It was a beautiful swirling globe of grey and silver, wispy yet powerful.
Gwyneira gave a quizzical look at the smokey orb in her hands, as I ran my hands through it. My tracking magic left a gold, gl
ittery trail behind it, each particle latching on to the magic’s signature. Something about this magic was calling to me, deep in my soul.
“May the gods be with you on your travels, Bryn Edan,” Gwyneira said with a parting smile, and I allowed my tracking magic to lead me out the door to the edge of campus, commissioning a carriage and rider to take me to the portal.
The comforting feel of this girl’s magic had set me on edge, it was time to find out who and what she was.
◆◆◆
Gods, Albion reeked. London’s stench was particularly potent — the smell of pollution was clinging to me. I was counting down the minutes until I could collect the girl and get the hell out of here, back to the fresh air and brimming magic of Avalon.
Once upon a time, the humans knew about Avalon. Some had even visited, but none since the human king, Arthur, had visited and died in Avalon centuries ago. Avalon has become a place of myth to the humans now, somehow becoming an island paradise instead of a different realm over the centuries of retelling.
They got the apples part right though. We do have a lot of apple trees in Avalon.
I watched the girl as she worked, cleaning the floor in a large, empty building. The wall was entirely glass, and at 4 am, the streets of London were still relatively quiet. She looked utterly human — too short to be fae, with caramel-colored skin, thick black curly hair that was bundled up in a mass on top of her head, and a plain face. I would dearly love a touch of Second Sight at times like these so I could see through glamour disguising her — this girl didn’t look fae at all.
If it was a glamour, it was a powerful one, and I couldn’t help but be curious as to how she’d ended up in Albion in the first place. I trusted that Gwyneira knew what she was doing in sending me to collect the girl. I had a sinking feeling that she might have been hidden from Avalon for a reason and it might come back to haunt her if she joined our world. I don’t know why the thought bothered me so much.
I waited at the back entrance that I’d seen the girl enter through earlier as she looked like she was getting ready to leave. Doing my best to look non-threatening, I hoped her curiosity would outweigh her nerves. Even if she knew nothing about what she was, I was confident she would sense I was like her. If the large burst of magic she’d used a few hours ago had been the first time she’d used it, she might be open to getting some answers.
The girl opened the door, and her big, dark brown eyes immediately latched onto mine. I inhaled deeply as an intoxicating hint of vanilla and wildflowers reached my nose. I felt a hard pull in my chest towards the shell-shocked girl, who was standing in the doorway staring at me. Fuck. That was the Pull of Cúpláil, the pull that indicated a compatible mate, and it was by far the strongest I had ever felt it. This practically human, abandoned girl was an incredibly strong match for me, and I wanted nothing to do with her.
Fi
This boy — no, man — was inhumanly beautiful. Literally. There is no way he could be human. I should probably be freaking out about that more, but maybe we were the same thing? Perhaps he could sense emotions and throw people around without touching them too. God, I hope we’re not related, or the response my body is having to him was going to be super awkward.
He was unusually tall, 6.5ft at least, and lean but clearly strong, built like a swimmer. His hair was a thick mop of loose black curls, they flopped across his forehead and were long enough to brush the collar of his shirt. Deep blue eyes were fixed on me, narrowed in irritation.
Something weird was happening to me that was completely separate from my usual, everyday weirdness. I felt like there was a magnet buried deep in my sternum and the opposing magnet was this beautiful man. I had a strong urge to go to him and climb him like a tree. Something about him ignited a fiery passion deep in my soul that I didn’t know I had. I wanted to fuck him and fight him, then do it all over again.
Oh god, he smelled so good. Like bonfire embers.
The only thing stopping me from moving forward — since my common sense had apparently gone out the window — is I could feel how much he would hate it.
I usually experienced other people’s emotions like they were a vast ocean of waves lapping against me. They’d brush up against my skin, touching me, but unless I sought them out or focused on them the sensation was fleeting.
Not so with the ridiculously fine specimen in front of me. I felt his emotions like they were embedded in my skin, burrowing into my bones.
I stood in shock, trying to process what he was feeling. A healthy dose of resentment sat like a heavy weight on my chest. His anger coursed hot through my veins like bubbling lava. It both irritated me and sent a wave of crushing disappointment through my chest that I really didn’t understand. I didn’t even know this guy. Why should I care if he didn’t like me?
I also sensed the faintest niggle of his curiosity tingling behind my ears, and a fiery, almost desperate lust that had all of my most sensitive nerves lighting up.
I was pretty confident the last two emotions were his anyway. I’d never found it so difficult to differentiate someone’s feelings from my own. Finally, I found my voice after staring for an inappropriately long moment.
“Who are you?”
“Bryn Edan.” His tone was flat, and his eyes bored into mine with an intensity that made me squirm.
Right, a man of few words then. His expression gave nothing away, but I could feel his emotions as clear as day.
“How can I help you, Bryn? You look like you’re waiting for something.”
“I was waiting for you.”
“Why would you be waiting for me? Do I know you?” I felt his irritation chafing at my skin, but I don’t know what he expected. He’d said all of seven words to me so far. I was going to need a little more to go on.
He looked around as if checking that we were alone in the alleyway, and I scanned his emotions again but didn’t pick up anything nefarious.
“It appears you got yourself in a spot of bother last night, fae.”
My heart dropped, shit was he one of Kayden’s friends here for revenge? Somehow I didn’t think so. Something in my gut told me this guy would never be friends with Kayden.
Hold on a minute. Fae?
“My name is Fi. F-e-e,” I said cautiously, “not Fae.”
Bryn snorted and his amusement tickled my skin. It was a weird, not entirely unpleasant sensation.
“I don’t care what your name is. Fae is what you are. What we both are. I’m here to take you back to your people in Avalon.”
Several questions were whirling around in my brain but before I had the chance to ask any of them, some early morning commuters started drifting into the building behind me.
Crap, this really didn’t seem like the right venue for this conversation. If nothing else, someone might hear us and call the asylum. I took a step forward so we wouldn’t be overheard and ignored the sting of rejection when Bryn immediately tensed.
My whole life, I’d had some kind of in-built lie prevention mechanism that had screwed me over on more than one occasion. If I tried to lie, the words would choke in my throat before I could get them out. I’d feel a whole lot better about continuing this conversation if I knew Bryn couldn’t outright lie to me either.
“Can you lie?” I asked in a low voice and felt another tickling of amusement.
“Obviously not,” he drawled and his sincerity pulsed through me like the strike of a gong. Odd. Well, at least I wasn’t a total anomaly.
“Good, let’s go somewhere we can talk and I’ll assess whether or not you’re insane,” I said with more confidence than I felt. I started heading down the quiet London footpath, rightly assuming Bryn would follow.
◆◆◆
Fae. Fae. I tried to remember everything I’d ever read about fae in fairytales. Were they the same as fairies? I’m pretty sure fairies were tiny. With wings. And pointy ears. Like Tinkerbell! I was definitely human-sized, wingless, and there was nothing remotely distinctive about my ears.
I led Bryn a few blocks away from the office building I cleaned, to a little courtyard garden outside an old Victorian church. I cut through it every morning on my way to work. It was a little slice of brightly colored heaven in a busy, grey city. I had always felt a strong pull to be close to nature but I hadn’t built up the courage to move away from the city yet. This is where I was found as an abandoned toddler. I guess the little girl inside of me couldn’t bear the thought of leaving, in case someone ever came looking for me.
I dropped down onto a bench in the courtyard and Bryn followed suit, sitting as far away from me on the bench as physically possible. The garden looked a little grim this time of year, it was nearly winter and nothing was flowering. I pulled my parka tighter around me and looked expectantly at Bryn to start talking.
I sighed when he continued to say nothing. “Look, I’m going to need a bit more information. You’ve just shown up out of nowhere and started going on about fairies. How did you find me? Why were you looking for me?”
Bryn scoffed as though the idea was utterly ridiculous. “First of all, ‘fae,’ not ‘fairy.’ Second of all, not me. The dean of the Academy, Gwyneira, possesses powerful guardian magic. She can sense when there is a young fae in need of help the Academy can provide. I have tracking magic, she showed me your magic signature, and I followed it here on her orders.
We assumed you came to her attention because you were in some kind of trouble and had to use a large amount of magic.” He raised an eyebrow at me, challenging me to respond.
“Right. Last night. Someone I knew from foster care. He's much bigger these days,” I murmured thoughtfully. I felt a hot flood of anger from Bryn, which was kind of odd considering he seemed to despise me.
“Anyway, he tried to grab me, and all I remember thinking is I really didn’t want him to. Somehow, he was thrown backward through a closed window and over the railing into the River Thames. I guess that was the, er, magic?” It sounded even more ridiculous out loud.
The Terrible Gift (Empath Found Book 1) Page 1
