Author: Rachel Higginson
Date: 2000-01-01 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Paranormal; Young Adult; Magic; Romance; Paranormal Romance; Witches; Supernatural; Shapeshifters
Description: Jericho Bentley is disillusioned by life. He feels lost in a world of peace and restless in a time threatened by war. He has given up on love, forgotten how to trust others and decided a lifetime of bachelorhood is all that remains for him. Olivia Taylor was struggling to find her way in a human world. Now taken from the only life she’s ever known and changed on a molecular level, she is more lost than ever. With her sister struggling to survive the after effects of one of Dmitri Terletov’s experiments, Olivia sets off with Jericho to find a cure for both herself and her sister. Together, Jeri
Publisher: Rachel Higginson via Smashwords

The Relentless Warrior

The Star-Crossed Series

Book Six

By Rachel Higginson

Copyright@ Rachel Higginson 2014

This publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws, and all rights are reserved, including resale rights: you are not allowed to give, copy, scan, distribute or sell this book to anyone else.

Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if we use one of these terms.

Any people or places are strictly fictional and not based on anything else, fictional or non-fictional.

Other Books Out Now by Rachel Higginson

Love and Decay, Episode One

Love and Decay, Episode Two

Love and Decay, Episode Three

Love and Decay, Episode Four

Love and Decay, Episode Five

Love and Decay, Episode Six

Love and Decay, Episode Seven

Love and Decay, Episode Eight

Love and Decay, Episode Nine

Love and Decay, Episode Ten

Love and Decay, Episode Eleven

Love and Decay, Episode Twelve

Love and Decay, Volume One (Episodes One-Six of Season One)

Love and Decay, Volume Two (Episodes Seven-Twelve of Season One)

Reckless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 1)

Hopeless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 2)

Fearless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 3)

Endless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 4)

The Reluctant King (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 5)

Starbright (The Starbright Series, Book 1)

Sunburst (The Starbright Series, Book2)

The Rush (The Siren Series, Book 1)

Bet in the Dark (An NA Contemporary Romance)

To Candice,

Thank you for always reading whatever

I send you. Even if it’s in bits and pieces,

Half-finished sentences and you have

To wait for months before you get

The rest of the story.

But more, thank you for loving

My characters as much as I do.

Prologue

Olivia

Worst day ever.

Worst fricking day ever.

The world felt dark around me, and not just because it was nighttime. It was more than the time of day; it was the palpable evil oppressing the air around me, sucking the oxygen out of my lungs…. trying to infect my bloodstream.

To infect me!

How did one simple vacation turn into this hellish nightmare?

I looked down at Ophelia, my baby sister. She was worse off than me. Her sunken-in eyes were closed with unconsciousness and her shoulder-length, choppy blonde hair was matted and plastered to her head with sweat and filth and God knew what else. I slipped my arm around her and used the last of my waning strength to pull her closer to me.

I shut my eyes and prayed for unconsciousness, too. Or death. Death didn’t seem so bad at this point.

From the loud screams that surrounded us it sounded like some people were lucky enough to die. Why not us?

I shook my head. I couldn’t die. I wouldn’t die. And I wouldn’t let O go out this way either.

I was stronger than whatever was making us sick and I was more determined than the bastards that kidnapped and tortured us.

The nuns were deep in communal prayer, clutching their rosaries and crossing themselves simultaneously. Their whispered petitions floated around my head, bouncing off the stone at my back and catching the wind that would float them toward heaven.

At this point in our imprisonment I was honestly surprised that the nuns still believed in God, despite their lifetime commitment to their faith. Even dedicated religious women like them had to know better than that. We had been through too much, seen too much to still be naïve enough to believe that a god existed.

And if He did, He stopped caring about our prayers a long time ago.

Ophelia whimpered next to me and I bent my head down to press a kiss to her matted hair. I promised her two weeks in the Andes while we figured out what to do with our lives, I promised a life-changing, soul-altering experience. I told her it would make choosing a college crystal clear, it would make her decision between staying close to Mom or following her dreams easy. I promised my parents I would take care of her, and that I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

I promised myself we would have the best time of our lives. This was the trip that we would talk about forever. When we were older, fatter, married and moms of gaggles of children we would always talk about this trip to Peru…. remember it together.

Damn it.

I lifted my ear to the suddenly quiet night sky around me. The fighting had stopped. What kind of men destroyed one of the Seven Wonders of the World? Machu Picchu? For real? This would be major headlines across the world tomorrow. They would be exposed and maybe, finally, somebody would know that we were missing and have a lead on how to find us. Our captors had to know the risks they were taking to fight here. So what kind of men would treat this sacred place with such blatant disrespect?

I actually knew that answer. The same kind of men that would kidnap two American tourists and then, instead of trading them into the sex slave industry like any normal mercenaries, they spent the last two weeks torturing us and running ungodly experiments on us.

The same kind of men that would kidnap nuns and destroy churches and kill each other without blinking.

Those were the monsters that had no qualms about destroying ancient artifacts.

Let alone, human life.

The mountain was now eerily quiet. The last of the gun shot had echoed into the night and the sounds of fighting stopped. A shiver slid across my belly, igniting a new fire of fear that burned fiercely inside me.

What now?

Our captors had deposited us here on the ground with orders to stay out of sight and keep silent. As if we could have moved or called out if we wanted to. We were helpless. They had seen to that. Made sure we were forever incapacitated from their torture and experiments.

Holy hell. We were sitting ducks.

I should have used this time- their distraction- to escape. I should have gotten my sister and me the hell out of here. The nuns could save themselves. They had religion after all; they had prayer. All I had was a crackling underneath my skin that felt like my blood had been turned into a live wire and an unconscious baby sister who was even worse off than me. I couldn’t have moved us anywhere, but I should have at least been thinking about moving us.

I couldn’t give up now.

Ophelia had been unconscious for three days; she hadn’t even opened her eyelids so her eyes could roll into the back of her head like on the movies. She just kept them closed, shut deep into her own personal hell. She was completely out of it. And I wasn’t going anywhere without her.

I thought about asking the nuns to help me, but they didn’t seem like the get up and run for it types. Especially since they were all ancient and didn’t speak any English. It was hard to say what the nuns were thinking anyway, between the prayer and their own respective bouts of blackout they weren’t really up for conversation with hand gestures and my broken Spanish.

Footsteps clattered on the stone above my head. Someone was rounding the corner, ready to find us. The fear fire spread from my belly to my guts, the metaphysical part of my body that was now quaking in terror. Same bad guys or new ones? My heart pounded against my chest, my pulse rushed against my ears. My quickened breathing felt magnified and obnoxiously loud as I once again fell into the depthless chasm of terror, my constant companion these last few weeks.

I wasn’t optimistic enough to believe this was some kind of rescue. These weren’t the type of people that drew the attention of the police or anyone in authority, until maybe now. These people operated completely off the grid. I had somehow landed in an all too real, frighteningly tragic spy movie, only there was no box office promise for me. In fact the only box promised was the kind that they submerged six feet under, if I was lucky enough to be buried.

The realization we would never be found had hit me two minutes after I was in their possession.

Still, the promise to my parents to bring my little sister back to them and unharmed bound me like a tether to home. I didn’t know if I called it hope, or blind stupidity, but it was there all the same.

Despite my previous bitterness toward God, I couldn’t stop the small prayer of desperation that left my lips. Please God, don’t let them kill us. Don’t let them kill Ophelia.

I tilted my chin in defiance with stubborn boldness against my weak state and the evil plans for whatever came next. My grip tightened on my sister, I clutched at her clothing with a ferocious determination that no one would take her from me. She was my sister. I was the one who promised to protect her. They would have to get through me first.

Two of their kind came around the corner but I didn’t recognize either of them. I knew my captors faces with perfect clarity. I had memorized every small detail and facial feature in hopes that one day I would be free, one day I would take this unbelievable story and hand it over to the authorities or the press- whoever would be more active in spreading the word. I would remember every single relevant description and I would pass it along. If I could help it, nobody else would suffer at these psychopaths’ hands.

One girl and one guy appeared in front of me. The girl was in my face first, her hands framing my jaw tenderly and huge tears falling from her big brown eyes. She was pained and horrified. She seemed to be Ophelia’s age and was absolutely beautiful in that aristocratic way… clean cut and refined.

I wanted to spit in her face but I couldn’t find the energy.

At least she hadn’t pulled out a syringe to inject in my arm.

That was a pleasant change of pace for us.

“Are you going to kill us?” I whispered through a rasping voice I hardly recognized. My lungs felt like they were going to cave in on themselves with the effort it took to speak. One sentence might as well have been a marathon for the energy it took. Geez. I was screwed. I wanted to believe I would be alright, that there was an antibiotic out there, somewhere out there that could fix me. But in the marrow of my bones I knew the truth; I knew that they had damaged me beyond modern medicine and time. There was no fix for this disease, there was no cure. Whatever had been injected inside of me and made my blood charged like electricity had changed me irreparably.

There was no going back.

“No,” the girl hiccupped on a sob. “We’re not going to kill you. I promise.” And then she was a hysterical mess.

Now instead of spitting on her, I wanted to laugh. Was she serious? I should be the one crying! I should be the hysterical one!

She was replaced by the guy. I had started to fade. I could feel unconsciousness sucking me back into the black depths of nothing. The ringing in my ears had steadily grown louder and my peripheral vision had begun to fade. But the boy was in my face, his eyes anchoring me to the Earth, to here, to now.

He was beautiful.

Even through the blinding fade of sickness and the utter hatred I had for him and the people he associated with, I could admit that he was absolutely the most incredible guy I had ever been face to face with. His strong jaw was set in grim determination and his hazel eyes, more green than brown, held me in place, prevented me from leaving consciousness. He meant something for me, something I couldn’t define or comprehend. But beyond the haze of pain and suffering, I felt his entrance into my life settle deeply in the inner most parts of my bone and soul. He changed everything.

He held my gaze for just a little bit longer, never wavering, but never speaking either, before I slipped into the abyss that claimed my mind and gave me a few moments relief from the painful static bouncing around my veins. And in the darkness I completely forgot his face, what made him so attractive or why I had thought we were so connected.

Except for his eyes. They did not disappear. Their depth and concern stayed with me even while I floated through the vast space of nothing. It was like I was tied to those eyes now, they held the life preserver that would keep me from drowning, keep me from floating away forever.

Brown at first, but then green when you really focused on them. So brilliantly green.
There had been the low buzzing of murmured conversation until one voice made it clearly into
the jumbled mess of my head, “Jericho?” the stranger asked.

It wasn’t the voice that caught my attention.

It was the name.

Jericho.

Instinctively I knew Jericho belonged to the eyes.

And those eyes were not going to hurt Ophelia or me anymore.

Those eyes were going to save me.

Chapter One

Four months later…

Jericho

Stop knocking.

Stop it.

That was the only thing that ran through my head as I flipped over onto my back. I squinted at the clock, trying to make out the time: 3:28am. A string of curses flew out of my mouth in a raspy, tired grumble.

I had been asleep for all of an hour and a half. This just wasn’t fair.

“Jericho, man, open up!” Sebastian shouted out from the other side of the door.

More cursing from deep in my chest. Why me?

“Give me a minute,” I yelled back, the duty side of my brain winning out over the self-preserving, sleepy side.

I sat up slowly and peered through the darkness for my pants. I had stumbled in here, utterly and completely bone-tired after another endless and exhausting day. I started stripping before the door even shut and lost clothes along the way before collapsing face first onto my claimed guest bed. Since this was my routine for the last however many days, my floor was an intricate maze of discarded clothing.

“O’s thrashing again, Jericho,” Sebastian explained impatiently through the heavy wooden door. His voice was all refined British gentleman that belied his mixture of human culture and Immortal. “It looks like another seizure. Olivia is screaming for you. She’s out of control.”

O. Ophelia. One of the human girls we rescued from Machu Picchu. She hadn’t once been conscious since we brought her back to the Citadel months ago, but at least she’d stayed alive.

So far.

A week ago she started having these violent seizures that bruised and battered her body. They lasted anywhere from full hours to sometimes only a few seconds. I hoped this was one of her shorter episodes, because they completely freaked her older sister out. Not that they weren’t scary; even I could admit they were awful to watch and did not bode well for her condition. But with each new symptom that decreased Ophelia’s health, her sister became that much more impossible to handle.

Olivia.

A flood of unpleasant feelings rushed and tumbled my insides. Frustration. Irritation. Disbelief…. Attraction.

That girl knew exactly how to get under my skin. And it was like she loved to live there. Right under it, making me feel scratchy and irritable and…. off-center. She was relentless with her demands and issues, constantly nagging whoever was in charge of watching over Ophelia. And then she brought all her problems and complaints to me! Like I could be the one to heal her sister…. Or like it was my fault they were here to begin with.

I found some athletic shorts buried underneath yesterday’s leftover dinner tray and socks that I was sure were rotten. I gave the shorts a long sniff to make sure they didn’t smell as awful as the leftover food that had been sitting out for way too long. I needed to send my clothes to be washed, but I hated being a guest in the Citadel, let alone using the servants to carry out my bidding. Even though, technically Avalon was paying them now and servants were now considered employees, being here brought back all the memories of the evil Monarchy I fought against for so many years.

And worse, it brought back every repressed and buried recollection of Eden.

Well, almost all of them.

With a shaky breath and steely determination I pulled on a t-shirt from a different dirty clothes pile and slipped into some running shoes, not bothering with the gross socks. I didn’t take the time to look in the mirror either, while I rinsed my mouth out with mouthwash, and then gave myself the mental pep talk I knew I would need to deal with Olivia for the next…. however long this would take.

I left my bedroom with a silent, pleading prayer to be patient and understanding. I locked the door to my room behind me. I wasn’t worried so much about somebody stealing something from me, but more embarrassed by the volcano of destruction I had turned the elegant room into. I should really use the maid service at this point, but my hesitation had more to do with embarrassment over the filth I was capable of than resistance to change. Plus, I was never in there for more than a few hours at a time anyway. Either Olivia needed to yell at me, Ophelia’s situation was deteriorating or Avalon was on the phone demanding that I carry out his bidding.

This Terletov situation had turned into a nightmare. And with Lilly and Silas still missing, the Kingdom had dissolved into utter chaos overnight. Avalon, Amelia and Talbott were currently scouring the globe for our friends while I was stuck here, in a castle, with an ex-girlfriend and an angry, bitter human girl that hated me.

“How bad is it?” I asked Sebastian when I realized he was waiting for me.

“Not as bad as it has been,” he remarked tiredly, pushing off from the stone castle wall and falling into step with me. “Well, at least, she wasn’t that bad when I left her. I wouldn’t have woken you, except….”

“Except Olivia enjoys making me miserable,” I finished for him when he trailed off.

“I think she enjoys more than that,” Sebastian intoned suggestively. I would have punched him if I wasn’t so tired. Instead I made a disbelieving grunting noise.

“I need sleep!” I groaned, running rough hands over my face.

“That you do,” Sebastian agreed as we ambled down the staircase and through dark corridors to the opposite side of the castle.

After we found the humans on Machu Picchu, Sebastian and I set up a sick ward in the south tower as soon as we returned to the Citadel so that Gabriel’s nuns, Olivia and Ophelia could recuperate. The nuns were under the least amount of strain of the humans, so it didn’t take long for them to heal and get back to their work in Peru. I didn’t know exactly where they returned to, though. I was told that Gabriel’s church had been burned to the ground in their absence- something else that was probably eating him alive.

Olivia also healed quickly, or so she said, although there were moments when we were together that she was completely freaked out, like something was still wrong with her. It was clear whatever was left haunting her, whether painful memories of her time in captivity or injuries from her torture, the feelings were separate from her sister. Whatever happened with Ophelia left her vocal and angry. Whatever was going on inside of Olivia, she kept to herself. Her reserve had inched deep inside my curiosity so that I was almost desperate to find out what was bothering her. As obnoxious as she could be, I felt responsible for her pain and suffering. It was my people that did this to her, and it was my failure that kept her sister from getting better.

Ugh.

Sebastian and I climbed the south stairwell in silence, lost to our own thoughts. We were put in charge of the Citadel until Kiran and Eden came back; then we would be relieved of our duties. But now with Lilly and Silas gone, and Eden pregnant, we were left in a sort of limbo. Eden and Kiran were back, but not really back at the same time. Somehow, without anyone ever really making it final, we were put in charge of this sick ward that now consisted only of Ophelia but was left maintained and stocked for the unmentioned, future patients.

Everyone knew without a shadow of a doubt there would be more Immortals coming, maybe even humans, too; it was just a matter of time. Although, so far, everyone else we’d found had been dead. We were always too late to give them help.

My prayers at night were pleading and desperate that whoever would come through these doors needing medical attention wouldn’t be my friends or my loved ones. I knew my silent petitions were the worst kind of selfish, but after watching Olivia grieve her sister, I couldn’t help but beg to God that wouldn’t be me on my knees, next to the bed of someone I cared about.

I had lost too much already to Lucan.

And to Kiran.

“Go easy on her,” Sebastian practically whispered as we neared the top of the staircase. “She’s exhausted, and been through hell. She’s just worried about her sister.”

“I know,” I growled in response. As if Sebastian was Mr. Sensitivity. Plus, where did he get off telling me how to behave? I had been practically attached to Olivia for months trying to get her through this. “What else do I need to know?”

“Eden’s in there,” Sebastian said somberly before slipping into the bedroom where I could hear the bed creaking under Ophelia’s seizing.

My heart stopped.

Damn it, Eden.

I placed a hand against the doorframe to steady myself, and sucked in a sharp breath. I was over Eden. Completely over her. It had been years since we were together, and I was the one that ended things between us.

So my chest shouldn’t hurt when I was in the same room with her, and my breath shouldn’t quicken whenever she was around. She was a married woman that was now pregnant. There was nothing left between us, not even echoes of a love we shared or kisses we stole.

Still, she was this ethereal creature that occasionally haunted my dreams and left scars on my wounded heart. I knew she chose the better man for her when she picked Kiran. They were created for each other out of the same mold, destined for each other since the beginning of time or whatever soul mates crap was left to spew in this world. Even Amory had acknowledged the undeniable fate they shared.

I was just the speed bump along their road to eternal happiness.

Well me and a shitload of other problems.

It was less about still being in love with her and more about wondering if I would ever recover from the heart lobotomy she performed on me after just a few short months together. Eden was the kind of supernatural creature legends were told about, the unearthly being that haunted dreams and drove men to insanity. When my life was lost and all hope dead and buried, she was the North Star that pointed me home, the lone light in utter darkness.

And her heart had always, always belonged to another.

I had been a fool to fall for her. And I was still a fool for letting her affect me.

I finally found the determination to enter the sprawling room that was usually reserved for regents and cabinet members. Ophelia’s frail frame flopped stiltedly on her large rumpled bed while a few of Avalon’s Titan Guard stood around her awkwardly. Syl had told us to let her be when one of these happened, but it was almost impossible to stand and simply watch. They weren’t very successful at hiding their discomfort either, but I knew they were as afraid of Olivia’s wrath as I was if anything happened to her beloved sister.

Olivia was there, sitting on the side of the bed, her deep blue eyes tired and tear-filled, her hands gripping the sheets so tightly her knuckles turned white. Her light blonde hair was pulled up tonight, sitting on top of her head in a very short ponytail; not the kind that girls tried to style artfully, but the kind that made me think she hadn’t touched her hair in at least twenty-four hours, the kind that was actually messed up. Her hair was short to begin with; I idly wondered how she got it to stay up that high.

She lifted her eyes when I walked through the door and her sharp gaze caught mine from across the room and held it.

My lungs lurched in despair after taking her in, my chest contracted empathetically from her obvious agony. I hated that this girl was suffering, that her sister was suffering.  She didn’t deserve this…. hell, nobody deserved this. And even though I had nothing to do with her initial pain, or how she got involved in this whole mess to begin with, I couldn’t help but feel the stinging bite of responsibility. Whether I wanted her or not, I had made her my issue and I wouldn’t rest until she and her sister were tucked safely back home, completely free of my people and what they had done to her.

I tilted my chin, beckoning her closer. She stared me down for a moment longer with those intense, unnerving blue eyes before fleeing from the bed and crashing against my chest. The solid thud of our bodies colliding reverberated through the room above the struggling of her sister. I wrapped my arms around her and held her as tightly against me as I could without crushing her. I knew, from many nights before, that she needed to feel my heart beat to remind her that there was still hope, that she needed the warmth of my body to heal her open wounds and that she needed my strong arms wrapped around her, caging her in and offering her protection.

She needed me. Nothing else mattered. Not lack of sleep, or keeping a job that I wasn’t qualified to oversee. Not dealing with her outrageous demands or denying the overwhelming instinct to hunt that swelled up inside my blood. That bloodthirsty drive shouted that I find my missing friends and extract vengeance for all the wrongs recently done, but it couldn’t compete with my call to protect this girl. Nothing could.

“What took you so long?” she sniffed with a muffled voice since her face was crushed against my chest.

“I was sleeping,” I whispered in her ear, using my most soothing voice. My hackles had risen and inside I was eager to defend myself. But I kept my irritation where it originated and stayed quiet. She needed me and I wasn’t here; that was the only thing she could understand right now. So I wrapped her up in my embrace, even closer than before and did my best to make up for my absence. “She’ll be alright, Liv. You know she will be.”

“I don’t know that,” she sniffled, burying her face deeper into me, as if she could open a door to my soul and crawl inside. She was tiny against me. At least eight inches shorter than me, she fit perfectly molded to me; her body bent to mine naturally. Her hair tickled my jawline as I bent to press a comforting kiss to the top of her head. We were a bizarre pair, most of the time we stayed at each other’s throats, spurring the other on to make this situation better by shouting at each other and barely restraining the urge to rip each other apart. But there were a few times, like right now, when I knew she needed me more than breath, when my friendship was all that mattered in the world; in these moments we became the closest of allies.

“Yes, you do,” I reminded her gently. “She was much worse last night and she came through it. It’s scary, but she’s strong Liv. And she has you. You won’t let anything happen to her.”

She shook her head to let me know she agreed with me and snuggled in deeper. I leaned against the wall to support the force of her. For such a little thing, she was so strong and not just physically. She was a fighter and even I could be scared of her at times.

I lifted my gaze to the room, but kept my cheek resting on the top of her head, because I knew she wanted as much physical contact as possible. She just needed to be comforted and that nearly broke me. Especially while her family, her real family and the people that actually cared about her, were still off in America completely ignorant of their daughter’s struggle for survival or the hell their children had lived through.

She had called home the day after we rescued her to check in with her family. They hadn’t heard from her in weeks and were beyond anxious, but she soothed their fears as best as possible. Apparently, it wasn’t strange for her not to check in. She was something of a lone wolf, even at home. Now she called them regularly to keep them updated on her and Ophelia’s change of plans. They never asked to speak to Ophelia, so I wondered if they knew something was wrong and were just afraid to ask or if Ophelia was worse at communication than even Liv.

My eyes scanned over Ophelia as her seizing receded and she let out a strangled whimper before falling still on the bed. The Witch, who was the only other constant staple to this room walked over to check her vitals, his billowing ivory robes flapping behind him. I watched him for only a moment, familiar with the routine before I scanned the rest of the crowd for Sylvia. She had been an important addition to the castle recently and not just for Eden and her well-being but also for Ophelia. Even though it was an Immortal issue, she understood the human body better than any of us.

My searching stopped when my gaze met Eden’s across the room. Her thick, insane mess of black hair tumbled over her shoulders and her onyx eyes glittered with concern. She was breathtaking. And I was afraid she would always be breathtaking…. that she would literally always steal my breath when she was near, that I would never recover from her.

A small, curious smile pulled at her full lips and I watched as her gaze dipped to Olivia’s head in question. I shook my head as if to assure her it was nothing like that, but she didn’t look convinced, which kind of irritated me. I had the absurd urge to take Eden aside and assure her there had been plenty of girls between her and now and that if I wanted Olivia I could have her. But obviously, that was irrational. I would sound contrite and bitter, like I was using those girls to get over her, the Queen.

And what would suck the most would be that it would sound like the truth…. That I was just trying to get over her, trying to find someone, anyone that would replace the dynamite-sized hole in my chest our breakup had created.

But I still had my pride.

And Olivia. I would never do that to Olivia. Never. There wasn’t anything physical between us other than the determination to make her sister better and get them home. For some, unexplainable reason she had latched on to me through this whole ordeal and I would never take that away from her. How could I when everything else had been ripped out of her arms?

“Who’s that?” Olivia whispered against my chest. I looked down at her and followed her gaze across the room only to realize she was talking about Eden.

Eden and Kiran had been back to the Citadel briefly after they were attacked in Omaha, but Olivia had still been unconscious at that point. They had left almost immediately to escort the nuns who were kidnapped by Terletov back to Peru and have a visit with Gabriel before he took off to find Silas. From there they spent time with Kiran’s mother before returning. Analisa was shut off from the world, recovering from years of trauma with an abusive, bastard of a husband and hadn’t heard about Terletov or the new baby.

The golden couple only recently returned to the castle, and introductions had yet to be made. I looked down at Olivia to answer her question and almost laughed out loud at the extreme distrust I registered in her expression.

“That’s the Queen,” I whispered against her disheveled head of matted hair. “I’m sure she’s here to help.”

Olivia snorted sarcastically and I wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t believe there was help for her sister or because she didn’t think Eden could help. Either way I found her amusing; she was such a firecracker.

“She’s pretty, isn’t she?” Olivia asked, but it didn’t sound like a compliment.

I made a noncommittal noise and then put some space between us, suddenly not comfortable with how wrapped up in each other we were with a room full of people watching us. “Tell me what happened tonight, and how her seizure started.”

“Only if you promise not to leave again,” she demanded fiercely. I looked down at her, taking in her steely expression and the way she pressed her lips together in determination. She was a gorgeous girl, with pale, creamy skin that heated to a pretty pink when she was angry, pouty lips that she was constantly mashing together making them bright red to stand out even further against her softly milky skin. And if it wasn’t for her huge, deep blue eyes I would have believed that she was completely full of herself. But it was in those depthless cobalt orbs that I saw the myriad of emotions that defined her and right now she was flooded with fear. Of course I would stay, I was her friend, or at least her friend during this terrible time in her life. If she needed me here, I had no place else to go.

“I won’t leave you again tonight,” I promised and the terror that was there before dissipated into the briefest expression of relief.

I was tired and grumpy and completely overwhelmed, but that little bit of reprieve, the little bit of stress I just removed from Olivia’s shoulders made certain that sleep was not important.

Olivia needed me.

And I would give her what she needed.

Chapter Two

Olivia

I walked over to Ophelia once I came back from my shower and brushed her bangs out of her eyes. She slept calmly again, and the tranquility on her face made her appear angelic and peaceful.

I knew better.

My heart ached in my chest and my blood pulsed with fire from the remnants of what they did to me- those horrible creatures, those monsters that kidnapped us.

My thoughts flashed back to the three minutes of stupidity that sealed our fates and turned our world upside down.

And it was all my fault.

A Peruvian beer… in a Peruvian bar… I’d wanted the whole experience! Instead, we’d walked into four guys that couldn’t stop leering at us. Of course, I had to make an issue out of it.

If I would have backed down… If I would have taken O’s advice and just walked away. If I would have let it go. Then where would we be? Enjoying the sights on the top of mountains or maybe back home by now?

But that wasn’t me.

I didn’t let things go and I didn’t back down.

Besides, after seeing what these freaks of nature could do, I didn’t think my actions mattered. They would have been able to catch us no matter how fast we ran or how determined we were to get away. We fought as hard as we could, but in the end they were superhuman, they were…. mutants.

And we were just… nothing special.

Normal.

Human.

Unlike our attackers.

And unlike the people that now held us in this outdated, Dracula-esque-circa-Middle-Ages castle. Even though they were kind, even though they seemed to want to help, they were still inhuman and part of this weird freakish alternate universe. How could I ever really trust them, when they were just like the people that tortured us, held us captive and changed us? Ophelia was comatose and violently ill. And I was…. different. They did something horrible to me; something I feared was irreversible.

I would never be the same again, and it was because of these people.

“See? She’s alright,” Jericho murmured next to me. We were alone in the room after I’d kicked everyone else out once I returned from getting clean. Everyone except him, because he’d refused to leave. Typical.

I felt his presence linger over me; he was everywhere. His body heat seeped into my back, his large, masculine hands rested on my shoulders; his aura seemed to eat up every bit of air in the atmosphere that filled the space we occupied. He was this dichotomy of everything I loathed and the one constant thing in my life that felt real…. that felt safe.

The only thing that felt safe.

At the same time he sucked every last breath from my lungs with his unnatural skillset and cult-like community, he seemed to breathe it right back into me, filling my chest with reassurance and hope. And in the exact way my emotions walked the same thin line, teetering between trusting him completely and running as far from him and his bizarre world as fast as I could.

Which, in my current, volatile state, wouldn’t be very fast.

But it was he that kept me here. It was because of him that I stayed.

“For now,” I finally agreed.

“Hey,” Jericho turned me toward him and I stared into those deep hazel eyes and stifled a shiver of paranoia. I hated that he seemed to see too much, as if my thoughts and emotions were laid bare for him to browse through and manipulate in any way he wanted. He promised he couldn’t read minds- although he said there was some of his kind that could. I didn’t really believe him. He always seemed to see more of me than I wanted him to. “We’re going to get her through this, Olivia. I’m not going to let anything happen to her, I promise.”

I looked away from him, afraid he would see just how much that promise meant to me- just how much I couldn’t allow myself to trust him.

“And you’re the guy that keeps his promises, aren’t you?” I stood up and put space between us. I ignored the confused look that crossed his face and changed the subject before he could ask me any questions. I didn’t exactly resent him for being a good guy- although sometimes I wished I could. He was too good. Too perfect. I wanted to hate everything about this place, as much as I hated getting abducted, as much as I detested what those men did to my sister and me and as much as I hated the foreign entity now living in my blood. I wanted to hate everything and everyone that represented the horror of the last several weeks. But then there was Jericho with all his thoughtful gestures and concerned authenticity.

He screwed with my angsty, die-hard obsession with revenge.

He made it impossible to continue hating the mutants with that stalwart bitterness I’d worked so hard for.

Damn him.

“Her color looks better today,” I gestured with a shrug of my shoulder. “She seems…. pinker.”

“I agree.” He looked down at my sister with the affection of a human being that actually knew her. He didn’t though; she’d been unconscious ever since he picked us up in Peru. But this wasn’t the first time I’d seen him look at her like that… like he’d do anything for her… like she was his responsibility. He continued on after a few moments of staring down at my gorgeous-even-on-her-death-bed sister. “I’ll have Syl look in on her in a little bit.”

“Don’t bother,” I answered quickly. “We’ve been here before. I don’t want to get my hopes up. It’s just her color. We’ll call the good doctor in when something really happens.”

He frowned down at me, and the corners of his eyes lost that happy crinkle I was kind of obsessed with. “Alright,” he nodded. “But a change in her color is something really happening.”

I rolled my eyes. “For all we know she could be on her way to turning purple.”

He chuckled at my joke but quickly narrowed his eyes and grew serious. “You know none of us are purple, right?”

I raised my eyebrows at him, and met that hazel gaze. “I am not ruling out anything at this point.”

Jericho stalked over to me- a feral animal on the hunt for his prey. He was two parts refined gentleman, one part primal savage. I wondered what happened in his life to make his nice, clean edges so ragged and frayed. Most of the time he was the kind of guy that always came through for his friends, the one that treated women with respect and obeyed traffic laws. And then something would slip from his meticulous veneer and I would catch glimpses of a man on a ledge- a lost, wild barbarian that stared down the side of a rocky cliff debating his chances of surviving the jump, knowing he would free fall anyway.

I didn’t know how to explain it, but I knew something floated beneath his sophisticated surface. Something I wanted to discover, investigate, explore in depth until he was no longer a mystery to me, until I could reconcile the feelings of absolute safety that ballooned inside me whenever he was near and the contrasting feelings of nervous energy that always seemed to buzz back and forth in my blood like bumble bees.

Jericho laid his hands down on my shoulders, cupping the bone with his strong, masculine fingers. A current of hot, electrified energy hummed just below my skin and I forced myself not to flinch at the contact. I was steadily growing used to this whenever another one of Jericho’s kind touched me; but the unpleasant feeling seemed to shock me first and then settle into a tolerable vibration.

“Not all of us are scary, Olivia,” he murmured in a low, rumbling voice. “Not all of us want to hurt you.”

I met his hazel gaze and tilted my chin defiantly. “It’s enough that some of you want to hurt me.” I shook my head quickly when he opened his mouth to argue. My blonde bob bounced around my face and stuck to my lips. “Some of them already have, Jericho. Or, er, not me. But they’ve hurt my sister and that’s enough for me. “

“I wouldn’t hurt you,” he promised. “Or your sister.”

I walked away from him again. I couldn’t take it anymore. “Ok, seriously, Jericho, stop with the good guy stuff.”

I felt his scowl all over my back, since I refused to look at him and because it was so palpably strong. Was this another one of his super powers? Scowling people to death?

“What is this? Trust issues?” he scoffed from O’s bedside.

I barked out a bitter laugh and spun around to face him, “Are you kidding me? Of course these are trust issues! I was abducted, Jericho! Lunatics ran experiments on me! And now you want me to believe, that even while you can do everything those monsters could, you are the good guy! Can you even imagine what this is like for me? You’re basically an alien! And you’re holding my little sister’s life in your hands. The smartest thing I can do right now, is not trust you. Stop asking me to.” My enthusiasm dwindled to a helpless plea and I hated the irony that I was essentially trusting him with my emotions whilst asking him not to make me trust him.

Gah!

Boys were confusing no matter what species they were.

“I’m nothing like the men that kidnapped you, Olivia,” he growled back and took three steps towards me. “And I’m not asking you to trust me, I’m telling you to. I’m the only thing you got, woman. And I have been nothing but generous and accommodating! Do you think I like staying here? That my long-term goals include this godforsaken castle and playing nurse? There are other things I should be doing. At least you’re alive! At least Ophelia is alive! I have loved ones out there too right now. People I care about that have been kidnapped and are undergoing exactly what you went through or worse. Only, I don’t know if they will survive or not! I should be out there! I should be hunting them down! Not here, trapped in the exact place I never wanted to be again, listening to some human scream all her daddy issues at me!”

Probably I should have listened to everything he said and cooled down. Instead, I lost my mind just a little bit. “These are not daddy issues! My dad is perfectly fine and normal and my childhood was fine and normal. And my adult life until four months ago was fine and normal! It is you I have issues with! You!”

And then I dissolved into a heap of tears on the floor. My hunched over my knees, curling them to my chest as if I could pull my body inside an invisible protective shell. My usually-voluminous short hair hung limp in front of my face, plastered to my skin with snot and tears. I covered my face with my hands in order to shield myself from Jericho’s angry eyes, but I couldn’t shake my awareness of him, of my body’s constant acknowledgment of his presence.

My chest heaved and stuttered with racking sobs, my shoulders convulsed, my body trembled.

Let’s be honest, I was a hot mess with an audience.

This was officially the lowest point in my two decades of life so far.

“Don’t do that,” Jericho groaned exasperatedly. “I’m trying to stay pissed at you! Stop crying.”

Which, of course, only made me cry harder.

“Don’t fight me,” he bit out at the same time he swooped me up into his ridiculously muscled arms.

The thing was, I wanted to fight him. I really wanted to punch him. But I was crying too hard to have complete control of my motor functions. I’d turned into a human-sized puddle and I didn’t know how to solidify my body again.

He stomped over to the couch on the far wall. Through the cracks in my fingers and blurry vision I watched him kick away the blankets and sheets that usually made up my make-shift bed. There was some cursing involved when his motorcycle-booted foot got caught in the tangle of linens; there was some definite Magic as he flung them across the room and extracted his foot with careless ease. He slumped down to the springy seat with the temperament of a three-year-old child having a tantrum and fitted me against his chest like a mother bird.

This boy, so full of contradictions, so at odds with everything in himself, was pissed at me- and yet he was comforting me.

His hand tangled into the back of my hair and stayed there, forcefully keeping my head against his rapidly beating heart. His thumb traced soothing patterns on the nape of my neck and his other hand gripped my waist with two parts out-of-place possession and one part fear.

My tears slowly subsided as I tried to make sense of the boy humming softly next to me, the vibrations of his body pulsating under me. I sniffled into the sleeve of my long-sleeved t-shirt and unashamedly wiped away the dripping snot.

“Who are you Jericho Bentley ?” I whispered against the thump-thump of his heart.

A derisive laugh pushed against my body and I fought the strongest but most irrational urge to wrap my arms around his neck and comfort him this time.

“I’m not the good guy you think I am.” He turned his head to the side and swallowed loudly.

I thought that over for a few silent moments, knowing he was wrong, but not all that anxious to change his mind. It didn’t really matter to me how he saw himself or what his self-esteem charted at. He was a stranger. He would remain a stranger. And I was so out of here as soon as O was better.

Still… I asked, “Why? Because you want to go find your friends? Because you don’t want to be stuck here with a bitchy girl you don’t even know?”

I slid off his lap, feeling the moment lapsing into oblivion, leaving only awkwardness in its wake. I crawled to the other side of the couch and when I turned back around to face him, I propped my feet in between us, putting up a very tangible wall.

“Olivia, I didn’t mean all that.” He stared down at his empty hands and then back at O. “I am happy to be here. Happy to help. I can’t help but feel responsible for what happened to you and your sister and I want to help make it right. But I am anxious to get back in the field. I’m anxious to get some justice for my friends, for O…. for you.”

“Then why don’t you just go?” I asked sincerely. Holding him back here caused nothing but frustration and depression.

His gaze swung to mine where it proceeded to paralyze me and turn me into an entirely different kind of puddle than before. “Justice starts with Ophelia’s recovery- with your recovery.”

I gulped.

And then managed a very sarcastic, “See? Good guy.”

A soft smile tilted his lips and he shook his head slowly. “It’s only because you don’t know me that you think that.”

“You’re probably right,” I agreed and then quickly flashed him a cheeky grin.

We fell into a kind of uncomfortable silence then, neither of us sure whether to go back to the sarcastic-argumentative relationship we usually shared, or if we had moved into something more serious and profound.

Was this the beginning of a friendship?

Or had we simply both lashed out because of the high-stress situation.

“I hate to lose,” Jericho confessed in a low rumble.

“Excuse me?”

“I hate to lose. Loathe it. In fact, I’m such a sore loser that unless I know I’ll win the game, I won’t play.” He paused for a moment and then explained, “I know you don’t feel like you know me, but that’s something important. I hate losing.”

“Truly?” I laughed and relaxed a little at his attempt to open up. “You only ever play games you know you’re going to win?”

“Most of the time.” He nodded but something about his far off look made it seem like there was a reason for his obsession with winning- possibly a very good reason he hated to lose.

“That’s so…. boring!” I bounced forward on the couch until we were only three inches apart. He sat normally, with his outside arm slung over the arm rest and I hovered over him on my knees.

“It’s not boring,” he grumbled. “It’s safe. Safety is important. Safety first.”

“First of all, I highly doubt you were ever a Boy Scout. Unless aliens have something similar like… Alien Scouts?”

“I’m not an alien!”

“Shush,” I reprimanded him. “I’m speaking.” Okay, that was just to get under his skin. I hid my smirk and continued, “Second of all, safe is boring. Duh. Present circumstances excluded, of course.”

“Of course,” he nodded. “That still doesn’t change anything. I like to win.”

I wiped at the left over snot hanging at the end of my nose and shrugged, “Oh, well that’s too bad.”

“And why’s that?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Because I’m about to kick your ass in a thumb war and I just know it’s going to ruin the rest of your day.”

He laughed before he could stop himself. “I’m afraid to even ask what that is,” he drawled.

“Are you kidding me? You don’t know what a thumb war is? Oh my gosh, you’re so lucky you met me!” Sure, there were all kinds of stinging barbs that dug in nice and hard with those words and the implications of why we had to meet in the first place, but I pushed them all into the deep pit of emotional trauma I would deal with later. Right now I needed distraction; and not even Magic could help the big, bad Immortal win this game.

Chapter Three

Jericho

“Does she do that often?” Eden asked in a hushed tone. She was sitting across the room from me on the window sill, swinging her feet nervously and letting heels bounce against the wall.

I looked down at Ophelia from where I sat on the couch, with Liv tucked in against me. Ophelia had been still for a while; her eyes were moving rapidly behind her closed lids, but her body had stopped thrashing. She’d made it through another night, and a feeling of unbelievable relief settled over me. Every long night was like this. I just kept hoping she would make it one more night, just one more- and then the same thing the following night.

There had to be some kind of cure for her, some kind of help we could find.

“Yeah,” I answered in a whisper. Olivia was finally asleep and I didn’t want to wake her. After our intense thumb….war she deserved a few hours of peace. “Almost every night.”

“Her sister has to be freaking out,” Eden sighed, true sympathy brightening her black eyes with tears.

I remembered what it was like for Eden when Avalon was held in captivity without Magic. She knew exactly what it was like to be the sibling forced to watch someone they love suffer. “You would know,” I offered. I rubbed a hand over my face in an effort to step out of those memories. When Avalon was being held by Lucan it was one of the darkest stretches of my life, but it was also the only period of time I could call Eden mine.

Eden made a wincing sound of agreement and then stood up. Her hands went subconsciously to her slowly-swelling stomach and I smiled before I could stop myself.

“Congratulations, Eden,” I said sincerely. “That’s amazing.” I nodded to her stomach where she rubbed at it self-consciously.

“Thank you, Jericho,” she smiled. She looked around the room a little suspiciously and then in a whispered hush she said, “It’s twins.”

I felt my mouth drop open in shock. Holy hell. “What?”

“It’s twins!” She was beaming now, Magic floating excitedly around her, filling up the room with her overflowing joy. “Syl did an ultrasound last week, and we could see the babies. I’m having twins! She had suspected it at the beginning because of the heart beats. But when the ultrasound machine arrived, she could finally confirm it.”

“Eden, that’s…. that’s-”

“It’s alright, Jericho. You don’t have to say anything,” she laughed lightly at me. “I was just dying to tell someone. Kiran thinks it might be best to keep the entire pregnancy quiet, especially now that we know we’re having twins. It’s just that you and I used to be so close, and I know I can trust you. I probably shouldn’t have said anything, I just-“

“Eden, seriously, stop.” I smiled up at her as she stood over me. I didn’t make a move to join her, in fact my arm tightened around Olivia and I adjusted her a little so that she was draped even further over my body. She was probably going to be pissed when she woke up. I was pretty sure falling asleep had been an accident. We played game after game, tangling our thumbs together and laughing at stupid things. Eventually her head had dropped to the back of the couch and her eyes slowly closed. I drifted off too then and while we were both out we’d become connected. I woke up when Eden stepped in to check on Ophelia, but I hadn’t found the willpower to move Liv off me just yet. “I’m really happy for you. And of course, I won’t tell anyone. I’m glad you still think of us as… friends.”

Eden’s entire expression turned emotionally serious, “Of course, Jericho.”

“You’re going to be a great mom, E,” I confessed before I could think about it. She was right, at one time we were really good friends and it was stupid that our relationship had to suffer just because she’d given in to her destiny.

A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and she blushed bright red. This was the Eden I knew and remembered, not the regal queen she had turned into, but the emotional, unpredictable girl just trying to figure her life out.

“Thank you,” she whispered. She swiped at the tear, seeming embarrassed by her loss of control. After a moment, she pulled herself together and said, “Avalon’s coming home in a few days. He wants to get Mimi back here, and safe. I think he’s staying this time. For good.”

“He wouldn’t leave Mimi behind. I know that,” I sighed. “Good for him.” Avalon belonged here, especially since he was so newly married. Hunting down the sick bastard that was trying to rip our Kingdom apart was no way to spend his honeymoon. Besides, he’d spent enough of his life on a similar mission. He deserved rest. He deserved happiness.

Not to mention the Kingdom was restless and insecure with the news of Terletov and his terrorist attacks spreading rapidly throughout the people. They needed to see all their Kings and Queens on their Thrones, safe and secure.

“That’s how I feel,” Eden nodded. She looked up at me with those huge black eyes and I instinctively knew what she was asking; good thing it was a decision I had made weeks ago.

“I’ve already decided to go. I’ve been dying to get back out there ever since your bastard brother ordered me here.”

“And you’ll be alright leaving?” She glanced over at O whose eyes were still flashing rapidly behind her closed lids.

“I’m not doing anything productive anyway. I’d rather have the chance to hunt down Terletov and force a cure from him than sit here helplessly and watch her die.” The pure honesty behind my words churned my stomach at the powerlessness I felt here trapped in the Citadel.  I was a soldier, a warrior. I belonged on the front lines of battle making tangible changes for the good of this Kingdom.

I was not a nurse.

Or even a very good friend.

“I was hoping you would say that,” Eden said sadly. “Especially since I can’t do anything about it this time around.”

I laughed a little at her feistiness. “I thought we decided when you tried to take down Lucan that you weren’t exactly the go-into-battle type?”

“Shut up!” she squealed. “I rebuilt the Resistance with my bare hands! I took down the Monarchy single-handedly!”

“You know it’s funny how all those details slipped my mind,” I drawled.

She tried to look mad, but burst into laughter instead. And in that moment, all the tension, the awkwardness, the weird-after effects of declaring your undying love to someone who never really loved you back to begin with disappeared and we really were just…. friends again.

Liv shifted in her sleep, a pained moan escaping her full mouth on a quick breath. She arched her back like a cat, trying to get comfortable. I looked down at her and noticed the scowl she had, even in the oblivion of sleep. I lifted a hand and rubbed at the juncture where her eyebrows had drawn together. My hand slid down to cup her jaw, and I watched her expression visibly relax as she settled back into peaceful slumber.

“You guys seem close,” Eden noted, taking a few steps toward us. She hesitated at the foot of Ophelia’s bed and gave her a look of pure frustration.

Where Eden’s healing blue smoke had once been the saving grace and miracle cure to hundreds of Immortals afflicted with the King’s Curse, it was powerless against the experiments Terletov was running.

She hadn’t been able to save a single Immortal thus far, and even Ophelia seemed untouched by powers that had once healed me faster than anything I’d experienced before.

“Liv and I?” I asked on a laugh, then I shrugged when I realized she was serious. “Not really. I don’t’ know. She doesn’t have anyone else. And she’s desperate to save her sister.”

“She trusts you,” Eden’s black gaze found mine and her face was perfectly serious.

“Hardly,” I grunted. “Maybe she trusts me more than she trusts anyone else here, but that’s not exactly a compliment. She hates me as much as she likes me.” Olivia was a firecracker, something wild and untamed. Yes, she was unhinged with grief for her sister, but her explosive personality came from a much deeper place than her current tragic circumstances.

While Eden was occasionally feisty, Liv was always a fighter.  She was stronger in personality and character than any woman I’d ever known and she was determined that things go her way- including the health of her little sister.

There was this unexplainable need raging inside me to figure out why she fought so hard, demanded so much. I was almost desperate to unpack the complex puzzle that was Olivia Taylor.

I had never spent time around humans before, not in relational settings- other than Ileana and the Gypsies. But even they had a measure of Magic and enchantment to them. Plain, simple humans had never held my attention for very long, or given me a reason to notice them.

Until Olivia.

She demanded my attention, my focus. She walked into a room and lit it up with either her charismatic light or her biting fire. She was a destructive force of nature, an unrelenting, claiming question that demanded answers and fought mercilessly when they weren’t given to her; she was a fierce warrioress that would burn this world to the ground if things didn’t go her way.

And whether or not she admitted it, she’d set her hopes on me and my ability to save her family. I felt inadequate and useless. Never before had insecurity plagued me more than this moment. Not when Eden- the only girl I’d ever loved- chose another man, not when she chose me even while I was unworthy, not when she left me any of the times she left me. Those moments, even while horrible, were healable. I survived.

I looked down at the petite girl in my arms, sleeping in tranquil silence, and wondered if I would be as lucky with her. She was infinitely more dangerous. She could be utter annihilation- she could be the end of me.

So why wasn’t I running in the other direction? Or at least walking that way?

Eden’s gasp pulled me out of whatever crazy direction my thoughts were headed in. “What is that?” she demanded.

Her fingers floated to her belly again and a look of pure anguish contorted her pretty features. Her onyx gaze met mine, panicked filled- not light-panic either, but pure, raw, undiluted hysteria.

Tears immediately swelled in those black depths and spilled over her long lashes, “Jericho,” she whispered. “I need, Kiran.”

“Of course,” I quickly agreed. I stood up and deposited Olivia not as gently as I probably should have on the long couch.

She slumped down with a thump against the fabric and immediately let out a groggy, “Hey!”

Eden swayed on her feet, looking utterly confused and disoriented. I ignored Olivia and reached for Eden’s arm, steadying her. “What’s wrong, E?”

“I think,” she started but her trembling chin kept her from continuing. Visibly pulling Magic from around the room to strengthen her, the blue smoke instantly pooling at her feet, she tried again, “It’s the babies, I feel Magic. But-“

She stumbled forward, frantic to get to Kiran. I caught her again and a sick feeling of something toxic and poisonous filled my stomach. The babies were in danger? How?

Eden straightened, struggling so hard to pull her shit together, but it was no use. She was out of her mind with anxiety- one look at her would make that clear to anyone. But then she hurried past Olivia and the entire world seemed to tilt on its axis and something ominous and threatening entered an already screwed up world.

Eden stopped abruptly and swung her gaze to Olivia with a ferocity that reminded me of the night we killed Lucan- she was that focused, that determined. She was the Immortal Queen in this moment, she was the last Oracle.

“It’s not the babies,” Eden breathed in an infinitely relieved voice.

“Eden, what is going on?” I demanded. Her intense gaze on Olivia ignited an instinct in me I had never known before, something so primitive, so protective it scared me in its ferociousness.

“Jericho, I felt another Magic in the room.” Eden’s gaze was still fixated intently on Liv who was looking back and forth between us like she had woken up in the twilight zone. Again…. “It’s faint- barely there. I thought it was… I mean, I assumed it was the babies. I’m supposed to feel their Magic any day now.”

I cleared my throat and deduced, “But you only felt one Magic.”

“I was worried that maybe one of the babies was in danger,” she confirmed. And then she said something insane- completely and totally insane. “But it wasn’t the babies I felt.”

“That’s not possible,” I shook my head and crossed my arms, my stance wide. I loomed over Olivia daring Eden to explain her accusation, daring her to just spit it the f out.

She ripped her focus away from Olivia and met my gaze. Her obsidian eyes were steady and confident, if not tinged with a little sadness. “I feel it Jericho. She’s Magic.”

“That’s not possible,” I repeated, feeling like an incompetent tool.

“But it’s the truth,” Eden argued.

Olivia stood up next to me and her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Jericho, what is she talking about? Who’s Magic?”

At that moment Kiran burst through the door, a man on a mission- a man who had felt his wife in extreme distress not moments before. His eyes darted around the room in frantic scrutiny, trying aggressively to ferret out the culprit.

“I’m fine,” Eden waved him off casually, returning her confused stare to Olivia. “False alarm.”

“What do you mean, ‘false alarm?’” Kiran demanded in that pompous British accent.

Eden’s gaze swung to her husband’s and she softened just a little for him. “I mean, I thought something was wrong. But nothing’s wrong,” she shrugged but it quickly turned into a cringe, “with me. Nothing’s wrong with me.”

“Avalon then?” Kiran demanded, his rigid intensity not softening even with Eden’s assurances.

“Oh no, we haven’t-“ Eden cleared her throat and then in a quiet voice shared, “I’m giving him the same privacy he gave us.” A fiery blush heated her cheeks and I wanted to laugh at the awkward connection she shared with Avalon now that they were both married. It amused me greatly- especially after years of finding it utterly obnoxious how easily they communicated and how it always felt like they were sharing some ultra-secret, private joke. Now the joke was, more or less, on them.

But the situation had grown too grim to find any humor in anything now.

“Eden, Love, you’re killing me!” Kiran growled. “Tell me what upset you.”

“I know what’s wrong with your sister,” Eden addressed Olivia, ignoring Kiran again.

“What?” Liv gasped, taking a subconscious step forward. “Is it curable? Will she be alright? Is she going to live?”

“You did,” Eden whispered.

“I know, but,” Olivia shrugged, not understanding how the two were connected now. “But she’s different than me. I’m a, a, a survivor. She’s so much more fragile….”

“Obviously,” Eden agreed.

“Just tell me what’s going on!” Olivia demanded at the same time Kiran shouted, “For god’s sake, Love, just tell us!”

“She can feel Olivia’s Magic,” I shared in a gravelly voice thick with ominous innuendo. “She thought she was feeling a baby- one baby, Kiran. But it wasn’t the babies at all.”

“It was her,” Eden finished, staring at Olivia again.

Silence crashed into the room, heavy and oppressive. We stared at Olivia as if waiting for her powers to suddenly manifest in front of us. I half expected her body to start blowing things up, the same way Eden’s had revealed when she’d tried to suppress it too long.

Finally Kiran gasped, “What do you mean Magic?”

“She is full, brimming, explosive with Magic,” Eden answered in a trembling accusation. “I can feel her fused blood. Terletov, whatever his intentions…. he succeeded. He turned a human into an Immortal.”

I fell back onto the couch in astonishment, too shocked to do anything else. Kiran shoved two rough hands through his hair, gripping at it by the roots, clearly as much at a loss as I was.

While the three of us veteran Immortals took in Eden’s words with a solemn seriousness that rocked us to our core, that shook our most basic beliefs and convictions, Olivia might have had a minor mental breakdown. She dissolved into hysterical laughter, clutching at her stomach and bending in half. Two lone tears escaped the prison of her closed eyelids and she continued to laugh, shaking her head, slipping into stress-induced madness.

It was the edge to her voice, the freaked-out strain that motivated me into action again. I leapt to standing and pulled her into my arms again. She crushed her body against mine, her laughter immediately gone, the tears falling freely again in sobbing hiccups of fear.

“It’s going to be alright, Liv,” I promised, whispering against her matted blonde hair.

“I felt different,” she shuddered out. “But I just thought…. I never imagined that he could do that to me. I thought it would go away, that I would be fine. That if I could make it, so could O.”

“She will make it,” More promises I didn’t know if I could keep.

“I want it out, Jericho,” she demanded. She lifted her tear soaked face from my chest and met my eyes in resolute fortitude. I had seen this girl in a lot of different places emotionally over the past few months, especially as we dealt with the issues surrounding her sister. But never before had I seen her lose it like this, never before had I experienced tears like this- or at all. She was walking a precipice between sanity and the heavy burden of experiencing too much too fast.

Believe me. I had been there.

“Liv, I’m not sure-“

“I want it out of me, Jericho.” Her voice was scraped open with desperation, her eyes filling with those unwanted tears again. I couldn’t let her cry anymore. I couldn’t witness those tears. They were too much for me. “Get it out!” she demanded in a voice so hoarse and rough she sounded possessed. “I’m not you, I don’t want to be you! I just want to go home. I just want to go back to normal!” She was pleading with me, clutching my t-shirt in her fists and consuming every manly, protective instinct in my body and bending it to her will.

“You will,” I whispered, cupping her delicate face with two hands. “You’ll go back to normal. We’ll get this out of you. You’re going to be okay,” I swore. I leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. “O will be fine, too. Don’t worry, we’ve got this.”

She nodded at my words, accepting them as her reality. Damn it, I already felt the painful cuts of what it felt like to disappoint her. This task, her demands, destroying Terletov… all of it felt impossible, the farthest thing from my reach.

But I would do anything for her. I would try until I couldn’t try any longer. I would make this right for her.

“Do you have a plan?” She whispered in a hopeful tone.

“Not exactly,” I shrugged. When her face fell, I shot Eden a quick glance and admitted, “But I do have the foremost expert on the transition from human to Immortal. So even if you don’t want to stay this way, I can make your life easier for you almost immediately.”

“Who?” Liv demanded- probably thinking whoever it was had gone through something similar to her situation.

“Our fearless leader,” I answered confidently, shooting Eden a grin.

“Wait,” Eden raised her hand immediately. “What makes you think I can help her? My smoke doesn’t even work.”

Kiran and I let out simultaneous laughs and he swung around to face his wife, “Because, my lovely Queen, as you like to remind us, you were raised human.”

Chapter Four

Olivia

“I feel like this is a waste of time,” I complained from the middle of an enormous ballroom. “I should be with O.”

In his most patient voice, Jericho said, “The Witch is with her; and Syl is there too. They will let us know if anything changes. You need a break anyway.” He used his do-not-argue-with-me voice and crossed his arms. This was supposed to intimidate me?

I didn’t take him seriously. I didn’t need a break. And I really didn’t need to be here, in this room.

I needed to be with my sister.

“Jer, I do not want to learn how to use this…. thing inside me,” I whispered fiercely. “I just want it out of me. There is no point in learning how to use it since I have no plans to keep it around long term.”

I caught the other boy’s- king’s?- amused eyebrow lift from across the room. He mouthed “Jer?” at Jericho like it was some kind of phenomenon that someone had given Jericho a nickname. I rolled my eyes. I had a nickname for everyone in my life. It was like my thing. Plus, it just seemed so tedious to use everyone’s full name. Ophelia had been O since she was a baby and I was a toddler. That was a given since what two year old was capable of spitting out O-phe-li-a? My younger brother also had a permanent nickname. But that was my parent’s fault. Their obsession with Greek mythology had culminated in Orion. O and I nicknamed him Rion (Just like Ryan) to give him some chance at one day being able to lock in a girlfriend. Most days we just called him “Ry” though. And it wasn’t like Jericho didn’t call me “Liv” all the time.

Jericho’s King was kind of a pompous douche.

Jericho at least ignored him and chose to focus his full attention on me, “Liv, you have to exercise your Magic. It’s necessary to your health. If you let it fester and build inside of you, then it will find a way to escape whether you want it to or not. Eden had this problem constantly at the beginning. She was raised in the human world- had no idea that she was Immortal. When she refused to explore her powers, she started blowing things up, setting things on fire, destroying almost everything she touched. I don’t want that to happen to you. I want you to feel better. I want you to be able to manage the change that’s happening to you.”

“You don’t think I can manage it?” I demanded, meeting his fierce gaze. I could handle this. I could handle anything.

Except losing O. I could never handle that.

Apparently Jericho felt braver than usual because he had no problems poking the beast. Possibly, he  knew it was the easiest- if not sneakiest- way to get me to agree. But also possibly, this was part of Jericho’s complex with winning. He shrugged nonchalantly and issued the challenge, “We won’t know until you try.”

I narrowed my eyes and pressed my lips together in a haughty pout. He might hate losing, but I hated backing down from a challenge more than anything in the world. “I know what you’re doing. You can’t manipulate me, Jericho.”

His lips twitched when I said his full name, as if he were holding back a smile.

“I’m not trying to manipulate you; I’m trying to help you. Give it a shot; if it doesn’t work or if you hate it, we will stop. But Olivia, something tells me you would enjoy being able to destroy things with just a wave of your hand. There is a small chance you might like your new Magic.” He leaned forward so our faces were just a few inches apart and grinned wickedly at me.

“Fine,” I growled accepting the fact that, okay, I might like being able to blow things up with a flick of my fingers. And being able to harness this alien power could potentially put me on equal footing with the monsters that did this to me. I couldn’t rain down revenge on them with the fury of a thousand suns without some kind of bodily upgrade. My physical prowess went as far as finishing a half-marathon last spring. And while I liked to think I dominated in the middle of the pack, eight minute miles didn’t exactly mean I was conditioned to be Robocop.   “But I’m only doing this for O. I might be able to help her, if she ever wakes up…. I could help her transition.”

“Thatta girl,” Jericho beamed at me. He closed what little distance lay between us and physically moved me in front of his Queen.

The Queen that had no regal grace or royal pretentiousness.

She was shockingly ordinary- almost unnervingly so; especially after being around so many of these people that weren’t normal.

It was almost hard to remember that she was royal. She smiled too easily, laughed too loudly and seemed way too friendly. I caught myself gaping at her several times, wondering what brand of Monarchy raised their future royals with the same kind of barely-existent manners my siblings and I shared. Her husband was well on his way to winning Pretentious Snob of the Year, but Eden would never be mistaken for the ruler of a nation outside of her own people.

Jericho leaned in murmuring his words directly in my ear, “Not knowing what to do with the energy inside you is something neither Kiran nor I can relate to. Magic is as natural to us as breathing. But Eden knows what it’s like to struggle to use it, to remember it’s available to her. She’ll be able to walk you through this and help you. I promise.”

I sucked in a deep breath and nodded slowly. Truthfully, I was only doing this for Ophelia. I had no interest in becoming familiar with whatever was setting my blood on fire.

“Do you think learning how to use it will make it somehow more permanent?” I asked in a strangled voice. The idea that something foreign and inhuman was mixing with my blood started to sink in- like all the way in. Hysteria was rising to the surface and I was about forty-five seconds from puking. “I mean, I don’t want to try to use it if I can’t get rid of it later.”

“Do you truly not want the realm of Magic at your disposal?” The King/Kiran asked incredulously.

“I truly do not want… to be like you.” I couldn’t even use the word “magic.” Too weird. “I want to go back to normal.”

He stared at me like I was the alien and an arrogant smirk tilted his full lips. Could he be more conceited? I stifled an eye roll.

“You’re disgusted by us?”

“Freaked out,” I clarified. “But more importantly, I’m human and I intend to stay human. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t enlist. I just want my sister to get better and then I want to go back home. That’s it.”

“Incredible,” Kiran mused. He turned to his wife and raised his eyebrows, “Couldn’t we just take her Magic? That would solve everything.”

Eden pursed her lips and Jericho’s grip on my shoulders tightened.

“We could try,” Eden replied.

“Not you, Love,” Kiran grabbed her wrist when she took a step towards me. “Not with the pregnancy. I’ll do it. Or Jericho? If you’re up for it.”

Jericho stiffened behind me and replied with a short, “I’m up for it.” I spun back around to face him, already trembling. I felt sick, terrified of the process in which I would have to lose the Magic. It was hell going into my blood… I didn’t want to think about what it would feel like to come out of my skin. “Are you sure you want to get rid of the Magic?” Jericho asked levelly. “It’s not all bad, Liv. We’re not all like the men that did this to you.”

I smiled shakily and nodded. “I’m not scared,” I deflected. “I just… it didn’t feel so great going in. I’m nervous.”

Jericho’s brow furrowed and he stepped into me. “I don’t blame you for being nervous, but I won’t hurt you, not like Terletov did. Actually, to take the Magic out is a very simple process.”

“Oh, really?” I didn’t believe him, but I just wanted to get on with this.

“Really,” he promised. “Just don’t fight me and I’ll be able to absorb everything in a matter of minutes.”

“Will it hurt you?” I whispered. Stupid question. Of course it would! For the first time I wasn’t afraid of how I would feel. Thinking Jericho would have to go through what I went through in those bright, scientific labs made my stomach churn. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, not even one of the nicer Immortals.

Jericho smiled at me- a little patronizingly. He lifted his strong hand and cupped my jaw gently. “No, Liv. It won’t hurt. This is what we do. This is our weapon against each other. You’ll feel the Magic leave your body, and I’ll feel the power added to mine. But it won’t hurt since we’re not fighting. Alright?”

I jerked my chin out of his hand and glanced away. He thought he was helping. He was not, in fact, helping.

He was kind of pissing me off.

“Sure, Jericho. It won’t hurt.” But, I knew that it would.

Jericho took a step back and his eyes did that narrowing-crinkling thing again. He didn’t like that I pulled away from him. He expected me to trust him unconditionally. Silly boy.

“Ready?” he asked.

I nodded and then braced myself for… for whatever was about to happen. I slid my feet to shoulder-width apart, I shoved my hands deep into the tight pockets of my skinny jeans. I cracked my neck by snapping it to the side quickly and then I waited.

Jericho’s palm reached out toward me, stiff and alive with energy. I could feel his “Magic” pop and crackle in the air around me, slowly move around the room in a swirling wheel of intent until I was the epicenter of his entire focus.

I had never felt another person’s energy field so strongly before. Sure, there were moments when I could swear Jericho’s Magic was communicating with the live wire that replaced my blood. But this was different. This was a palpable force that lit the room on fire with intensity and lightning-like sparks.

My breath stuttered in my chest, a true feeling of panic ripping through me from toes to hips, from the pits of my stomach to my tingling scalp. I closed my eyes and counted to ten, hoping I could at least hold it together until something actually happened.

But I could feel him everywhere! I could feel him in every blood vessel, in my molecules and atoms, in the bits and pieces of whatever made up those basic elements. His Magic wrapped around me like a mummy’s gauze, closing in like the lid of a coffin, suffusing me in blinding, suffocating confusions like being plunged to the ocean’s depths.

I could feel his Magic tightening in on me like murderous hands around a delicate throat.

And then we collided. I kept my body as relaxed and vulnerable as I could but I couldn’t stop the scream from tearing out of my chest as soon Jericho’s Magic attacked mine.

I felt the pull, the torturous yank as he struggled to rip the foreign entity out of my skin. My blood boiled beneath the skin, my newly-acquired alien instincts screamed at me to fight back and whatever inhuman species had been planted inside me dug down roots and refused to let go.

The onslaught of riotous sensations went as fast as they came. One moment I was stiff, shrieking and blind with pain and panic; the next I was in a crumpled heap on the ballroom floor, swiping at unwanted tears and thanking God I hadn’t peed my pants.

Sure, Magic was uncomfortable.

But an out of control bladder was simply unforgivable.

I forced myself to face the room, pulling in confidence and composure from some place outside of me, because I had neither of those things in any great supply. I blinked away the remains of blurry tears and came face to face with Jericho.

Because he was also on the floor.

“Shit, Olivia,” he growled with a roughened voice. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I whispered. “But I told you so.”

A small smile twitched the corner of his mouth, “I’ll never doubt you again.”

“Jericho, are you alright?” Kiran asked from above.

“I’m fine,” Jericho mumbled in that voice that sounded like he’d been a smoker for the last forty years.

“You don’t look fine,” Eden said. She walked over to us and squatted down next to Jericho. Putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, she forced him to look at her. “Seriously, are you alright?”

“Her Magic is immovable,” Jericho sighed, dodging Eden’s question. “That was the most painful thing I’ve ever felt. There is no way to remove that from her body manually.”

“Manually?” I snorted, but nobody was listening to me.

“Did it hurt to connect? Or just when you tried to remove it?” Kiran loomed over us, his arms crossed and his eyes tracking every one of his wife’s movements.

“Everything felt fine, felt… normal, until I tried to syphon her Magic. She seemed just like any other Immortal. Her Magical current is strong and answers easily. But the minute I tried to manipulate it, it lashed out against me. I don’t even think she knew what was happening.”

Three sets of eyes swung towards me. I shrugged and shook my head.

“I want to try,” Eden met my gaze and held it.

I tried not to shiver against the blackness of her eyes. It just wasn’t natural. She belonged in a horror movie. I mean, logically, I knew she was nice, or, er, nice enough. But meeting her coal black eyes made me feel like at any moment she was going to flip over and start walking on her hands and feet with drool dripping down her chin.

“No,” Kiran said firmly. “You saw what happened to Jericho.”

“But I could help,” Eden said gently, her eyes still fixed on me.

“You could also hurt the babies. Eden, no,” Kiran reinforced, but this time it was more pleading desperation than command.

“Damn it,” Eden spit. “If only my smoke worked! This is so stupid!”

Jericho chuckled, “E, it’s not like I’m so much weaker than you. Your super Oracle powers wouldn’t have any more luck than my ordinary Magic. Whatever Terletov did to Olivia, he made it irreversible. Or at least impenetrable without a cure.”

“If only we could be sure,” Eden mumbled. “Well, Avalon comes home in a few days. He can try!”

“No,” Kiran barked. “You might have closed down your telepathic connection with him, but you’re still connected to Avalon in every way that matters. If something were to affect his Magic, then it would spread to you. Just like the King’s Curse. I’m not going through that again, Eden. And I’m sure as bloody hell not endangering the babes. Sorry, Olivia, but you must understand my wife’s condition.”

“Of course,” I agreed quickly. “I didn’t ask her to do anything! I knew it wouldn’t work.”

“It will work,” Jericho argued. “Or something will at least.”

I pulled myself to standing- which was no easy task and looked down at Jericho who still sat slumped but perfectly still under Eden’s hand.

“You should stop all that, Jericho,” I warned him. “Or you’re going to start believing all these lies you’re telling me.”

“They’re not lies!” He was quick to defend himself and shot into standing so he could be at eye level with me.

“Kiran could try!” Eden piped up helpfully- or non-helpfully, depending on whose side you took.

“We are also connected, Love,” he explained exasperatedly. “Stop trying to hurt your Magic and the babies. You’re like a hamster, I swear. I’m going to have to separate you from them, I just know it!”

“I am not a hamster!” Eden shrieked. “And I’m not trying to hurt them. I’m just trying to come up with a solution! One that doesn’t involve Olivia suffering anymore. And I love the babies,” she finished on a mumble, wrapping her slender arms around her delicate stomach. She sniffled while tilting her face away from Kiran, “Besides,” she said. “They’re Immortal. No matter what I do to them, they’ll be just fine.”

Kiran cursed under his breath and yanked two frustrated hands through his hair. “I give up.”

“Me too!” I commiserated. “There’s nothing that can be done. I think we’ve established that. I’m going to go check on O then.”

Jericho stopped my retreat with a yank of my sleeve and huffed out an impatient sigh that reminded me of Kiran’s vexation with his wife. “There is something we can do, Liv. You’re not going anywhere.”

“Ugh! What? What is it that you think I can do that will possibly help me?”

“You can learn to use it.”

I clamped my mouth shut, mostly because he was right. Apparently it wasn’t going anywhere. I might as well become a little familiar with it. What was that saying? Keep your friends close and your enemy’s closer…? This situation might not exactly apply, but this Magic did feel like an enemy. It felt very much like an imposter struggling to take over my entire body and bend it to its will.

It was time to fight back.

But first, I had to learn how to use it.

Chapter Five

Jericho

Olivia grunted a feral sound of frustration and whipped her head violently to the side, trying to get her bouncing hair out of her face. I suppressed an amused smile.

Olivia and Eden had been working for a while but my skin still tingled from our failed attempt at extracting the Magic from her blood. It was like nothing I’d ever felt before. It was like nothing I ever wanted to feel again. That hurt like a son of a bitch.

Kiran walked over to me as Eden explained the electrical current now attached to Liv’s blood. We watched with macabre curiosity as the girls reluctantly shared the same space. It was obvious to anyone that Olivia did not want to be here and she was taking those frustrations out on Eden. Kiran’s jaw clenched with frustration but he remained silent. Whether it was because Eden could easily take care of herself, or because Olivia had already been through so much and he was simply granting her grace this time, I couldn’t be certain, but I was thankful for his silence.

The instinct to protect Olivia was like a burning and consuming fire inside me. I didn’t exactly trust Kiran to remain benevolent. Eden was his life and he would do anything to keep her from getting hurt. Likewise, I had been out of the field for long enough I was itching for a fight. There was a warrior buried inside my casual demeanor that had been deprived of fight, starved of conflict and vindicating bloodlust. Kiran and I were matches poised, waiting to be lit. Add in the layer of our past competition for Eden’s attention and the feelings between us weren’t exactly friendly.  There wasn’t any need to provoke that sleeping giant.

Well, it wasn’t exactly like we didn’t get along. More like we simply co-existed. But there was no lost love between us. That was for damn sure. The silence between us was the strongest evidence to this.

An hour passed with Eden handing out patient direction and Olivia getting nowhere. She was frustrated, exhausted and because I was paying such close attention, I could tell she was also buzzing with the excess energy floating inside her tainted blood. She was pushing through her irritation, but barely. And her eyes kept drifting to the huge double doors that would lead her back to her sister.

It was time to intervene.

“Isn’t there a different tactic we can take?” I asked, stepping forward and joining Eden and Olivia in the middle of the expansive dance floor. “She obviously can’t produce Magic, and I don’t blame her. This concept is entirely foreign to her, how is she supposed to feel what to do or let go of something that feels like an intrusion to begin with?”

“What are you suggesting?” Eden asked, seeming open to any idea at this point.

“Is there a gentle way to force it out of her?” I asked carefully.

“What do you mean, force it out of me?” she demanded. She shot me a betrayed look and shook her head at my smirk. Her just-below-chin-length blond hair bounced around her elegant jawline and her big blue eyes grew wide with disbelief.

“I won’t hurt you again,” I promised her. “What I mean, is that whenever Eden’s Magic exploded out of her, there was usually a reason behind it. She got angry, or really worked up. Something was driving the Magic to need escape.”

“I don’t want anything to explode out of me!” Olivia complained, looking somehow determined and frightened at the same time. She had such a tough exterior but behind those deep blue eyes was a vulnerable girl that called to some primitive part of me. She had been through hell, at my people’s hands. I wanted to fix that for her, pay for their sins, and make up for the unnecessary but lasting trauma she’d suffered. And I didn’t really understand my pull to this girl. She was human and as soon as we could fix her she would be gone- back to her human life in her human world.

I wondered if it had anything to do with how unnervingly beautiful I found her. I’d been through all kinds of girls between Eden and now- enough to forget any kind of painful past. But I’d never been able to find a girl that could compete with Eden’s wild black hair and matching depthless eyes. She was beauty personified for me.

Until Olivia.

Her porcelain pale skin, her electric blue eyes and all that shiny golden hair seemed to step directly out of my fantasies- fantasies I didn’t even know I had until her. And while half the time we were at each other’s throats thanks to the stress we were both under, the other half of the time I wanted to drag her back to my room and relieve the tension between us in an entirely more creative way.

Kiran and I looked at Eden expectantly. She scrunched her dark black curls and cleared her throat before sending us a sheepish smile.

“The thing is….” she started and then let out a nervous laugh. “Most of my episodes were brought on by a trigger.”

“Exactly,” I quickly agreed. “We just need to find that for Olivia.”
“Jericho, my trigger was Kiran!” she exclaimed exasperatedly, as if I should have known that.

Okay, probably I should have known that.

Kiran smirked in that cocky way of his and I rolled my eyes at Liv. She shot me a confused look, clearly not understanding why I would find that irritating. Where was Avalon when I needed him?

“So unless there’s an obnoxious, potentially already engaged soul mate wandering the Citadel grounds, you’re telling me Olivia can’t be triggered?” I asked in disbelief.

“Hey!” Kiran glared at me.

“Really?” I challenged, raising my eyebrows.

His face broke out into a wide grin and he let out an amused chuckle. “Alright, you can have that one. I was a bit obnoxious.”

“Wait, this Magic is triggered by love?” Olivia clarified. Her voice dragged over the word “love” like it was the filthiest, most disgusting word she had ever heard.

Eden was quick to dispel the idea, “Not necessarily love, per se, but the mixture of feelings and excitement that come with falling for someone. It’s the easiest trigger I can think of. Or at least it was for me. Of course… I was sixteen at the time. Anyway,” she shook her head and quickly moved on. “Is there a boyfriend back home? Or someone perhaps in this castle you’ve had your eye on?” Her eyebrows waggled while her gaze shot to me suggestively. I shook my head, scraping a hand over my mouth. Eden was not known for her tact. “We would use all that delicious tension to, you know, build some more…. energy inside you. Eventually it won’t have a choice but to escape in some way.”

“By blowing something up,” Olivia deduced dryly.

“Or setting something on fire.” I offered, helpfully optimistic.

Liv snorted at my attempt to lighten the mood but shook her head, “Nope, my ovaries went on sabbatical several years ago. The boys back at school are all grade-A douche nozzles and you guys are basically aliens. Unfortunately I’m not feeling an interplanetary connection to anyone skulking around your creepy medieval castle while you hold me and my sister hostage. However, if the Stockholm Syndrome instinct ever kicks in I’ll shoot you a text.”

Eden found Liv’s sarcasm hilarious. I, however, was strangely wounded- or at least my vanity was.

“Aliens?” Kiran demanded. “We’re not aliens. We’re just slightly different than humans. More evolved.”

“Sure, all the humans I know can shoot lightning beams out their fingers and turn into animals,” she groaned. “Did you say frustration was a big part of your trigger? I’m starting to feel quite a bit of that. Maybe we can skip the whole butterflies and rainbows and dwell on all the pissed off rage I’m drowning in?”

Holy hell, she was a spitfire. Strangely instead of feeling any of the annoyed, wounded pride feelings I should have been feeling, mostly I wanted to kick Eden and Kiran out and then see how fired up I could really get her. I was quickly becoming obsessed with all that hot lava simmering under her surface. The way her eyes flashed with heat or how her full mouth puckered whenever she was annoyed. She was so different than anything I’d ever known. And human or not she was starting to grow on me in a way that made me want her to think of myself as more attractive than an alien- at the very least.

“Sure, we can use that,” Eden laughed. “I remember a lot of that too, at the beginning.”

“So do I,” Kiran muttered.

Eden ignored him and went back to instructing Olivia on letting the electrical feeling build inside of her. I stepped out of the way, knowing that if anything could motivate Liv it was anger and frustration.

My cell phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out to check the caller ID. Expecting Avalon, I was more than surprised to find Talbott calling me. He was with Avalon right now, but soon they were supposed to part ways. Avalon would return to the castle and Talbott would stay with Gabriel.

Those two men were the most motivated Immortals on Earth at this point; Talbott to save his future-bride after she was kidnapped from Omaha last fall at their engagement party, while he lay unconscious on the floor, helpless to save her; and Gabriel to rescue his life-long best friend, Silas, who was taken from the same gathering.

The thought made dangerous anger rise in my throat like bile. I would find Terletov if they couldn’t. I would hunt him down and kill him with my bare hands.

“Hello?”

“Jericho?” Talbott asked. He sounded different- like a hollow version of himself. Even without being able to see him, even after hearing only my own name I could tell he was haggard and exhausted by grief. His Romanian accent was thick and dragging, like it was too much work for him to try speaking English coherently. This was not the Talbott I knew, the Talbott that greeted me with a smile and laughter only months ago.

“Yes, what is it, Talbott?” My concern was rising with every second that ticked by.

Kiran turned after hearing his bodyguard’s name and followed me to a remote corner of the ballroom.

“Avalon is headed back now. We ran into more conflict near the Paraguay border. He’s bringing Amelia home. I think he plans to stay with her.” His voice was devoid of emotion- even for Talbott’s standards. He recited facts like he was reading an encyclopedia. I felt frustrated by my inability to say something comforting. But at this point, I couldn’t even think of something reassuring to bullshit to him. It was probably best to ignore the entire sentiment.

“Good, he belongs here,” I answered, hoping that meant I didn’t.

“He should be there tomorrow afternoon.”

“The Paraguay border?” I asked. There was an itch on the back of my neck, under my skin and out of reach. That was familiar to me. Too familiar.

“We followed a lead back to Peru, through Bolivia.”

“Did you find anything?”

“Nothing but dead bodies and empty facilities,” Talbott sighed.

“How many?” My heart stopped moving in my chest, completely turned to stone by dread.

“At least a hundred and fifty.” Talbott sounded like he was choking on the words. “Not all Immortals.”

The blood drained rapidly from my face, I felt it flow from my brain to my toes in a rapid rush of panic, “More humans?”

“A lot more humans.”

“What the hell, Talbott?” I bit out. My vision was washed in red, my hands shaking with barely controlled rage.

“We’re hunting a ghost, Jericho.” His voice was muffled for a moment and I imagined him running a hand over his face in frustration. “There is nothing but a trail of his victims. We’re stuck chasing him while he moves three steps ahead of us.”

“And Lilly?” I asked because I couldn’t help myself, even though I felt like the worst kind of bastard for bringing her up.

There was silence for a long time, so much so that my head started to hurt from the pressurized force of it.

Finally, on the end of a drawn out breath he whispered, “Nothing.”

“But no bad news?”

“Just….. nothing.”

The silence came from my end now. I should have known better than to bring her up. But I had hope for her. The girl had been through much- too much. She knew how to survive. She’d been surviving her entire life. And hopefully she had Silas.

“I’ll check back tomorrow, when I expect Avalon to arrive,” Talbott said with finality.

I quickly thought over the points of our conversation, just to make sure I got everything and all my questions were answered when a thought- an out of place, impossible, horrifying thought- popped into my head.

“Hey, Talbott,” I said before he could hang up. “Did you say you’ve gone from Peru, to Bolivia and now you’re almost to Paraguay?”

I pulled up a mental map of South America and traveled the same route in my head, all the way around Brazil.

“Yes,” Talbott sounded just a touch more alert now. This was the soldier in him, the instinct to pick up a lead.

“My parents have a vacation house in Cuiaba,” I revealed. “It’s not exactly close to any of those borders, but it’s more west than their main house in Sao Paulo or their weekend home in Rio.”

“How many homes do your parents have in Brazil?” Talbott asked quickly.

“Three.” It was a simple word, a simple honest truth. But, in this moment I was probably betraying my family. A family I had hoped was wayward but never evil. “Rio’s the third. And they have a residence at Canesburry.”

“Your father was the South American Regent,” Talbott stated as fact not question. He seemed to taste the words carefully, practiced them even while he expected them not to fit.

“And he was not happy with the fall of Lucan.” Now I sounded defeated. I hadn’t spoken with my parents since the summer after our infamous coup. They quietly disowned me the night Eden and Avalon took power. They had been at the dinner, at the All Saints Festival, just like everyone else. Only they fought for the crown not against it. They fought with Lucan and against me- the son they had refused to acknowledge since I first left Brazil with Avalon all those years ago. There were just a few bad feelings between us.

We had gone our separate ways. They seemed to accept defeat, even if they didn’t like it. And after making it perfectly clear they wanted nothing to do with their “traitor” son anymore, left to return to the life they’d made for themselves in Brazil, until about six months ago when my father tried to get in touch with me for the first time. Now his calls came in regular instances, but I ignored them all.

Even without any power of his own, my father was a proud, strong-willed man. I thought he meant to live out his remaining years in self-induced exile, but maybe he and my mother had simply changed factions.

Talbott let out a long, growling sigh. “You couldn’t have thought of this before?”

“He’s my father. He’s been misguided his entire life, but not evil,” I bit out slowly. “Not exactly the front runner for Terletov’s psychotic army in my mind.”

“I apologize. It might be the break we have been looking for. I did not mean to offend you.”

“Forget about it, Talbott,” I ordered. “Just check on him. Go to his houses, see if there’s anything weird going on.”
“Already on our way,” he promised.

“Maybe, while you’re down there,” I shot a fast glance to Kiran before braving my next sentence, “Maybe check on Analisa.”

More weighted silence from Talbott’s end. “You don’t think she would…”

“No,” I cut in. “But she would be a target. If they were rounding up important Immortals. She might be of some significance to them.”

“It’s not exactly public knowledge that she’s down here.”

“But my mother would know,” I argued. “My mother and every other politician’s wife.”

“Alright,” Talbott agreed without any more opinions. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” I echoed. And then we both disconnected.

Kiran was staring at me with a mixture of pure loathing anger and disbelief. I hoped the anger was not directed entirely at me.

“Good work,” he finally relented. “Your parents. I wouldn’t have thought of them either.”

“I might be the biggest asshole of a son and they could be perfectly innocent,” I shrugged, trying to play this off casually. Inside my blood was boiling with the need to destroy something. This wasn’t right. My dad was a hard, egotistical racist, but he did not condone genocide. And he wouldn’t bring the human race into this.

“It’s not the worst thing in the world to find out that your father is the devil himself,” Kiran promised solemnly. “It would be much worse to wake up one day and realize you turned out to be just like him.”

Kiran’s words fell heavily on my shoulders, like a physical weight I would have to carry around with me every day forward. He was right, of course. If my father was involved, I would be able to survive. I would be able to move on with my life, knowing I was nothing like him.

I opened my mouth to say thank you. I was cut off by Olivia shrieking from across the room and light as bright as the sun shooting out of her palm and into the marble portico across the room. Centuries-old stone and debris scattered and crumbled to the floor. The smell of gritty smoke and hot rock drifted through the air, and all of our ears rang with the memory of the explosion.

“Impossible,” Kiran gasped.

“Apparently not,” I mumbled. Humans. Into Immortals. It didn’t make sense. This went against God, science and the laws of nature.

Olivia had Magic. Terletov had created an Immortal out of humanity.

And that meant nobody was safe.

Chapter Six

Olivia

I turned around to face Jericho. Slowly, so slowly I had to talk myself into it inch by freaking inch. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to see the look in his eyes or the expression on his face. If he felt sorry for me, I knew I would just die. If he was proud of me…. I thought I might get so angry I would have to punch him in the face. I didn’t know how to feel about what just happened.

Truthfully, I thought I might be numb. I couldn’t distinguish my own emotions or differentiate one of my thoughts from the other. My head was a whirlwind of chaos, but it was all white noise. The only thing that ran clearly through my body was the after-effects of what just happened. I’d gotten to the point where I’d felt like a two-liter of Diet Coke that had been shaken and jostled until the fizz filled three-fourths of the bottle. My entire body hummed and vibrated with palpable energy that did not belong in my blood. And then someone removed my top and dropped an entire pack of Mentos down the spout.

I exploded.

Everywhere.

I destroyed an entire wall of expensive-looking marble.

Me. I did that. With something that now lived inside my body!

I really hoped they weren’t going to ask me to pay for it either. There was no way I could explain that kind of expense to my parents, or any way in the realm of reality where I would be able to cover it.

I met Jericho’s intense gaze and felt my stupid chin wobble. I wouldn’t cry. Not again! I was stronger than this- tougher. So what? So what if I could blow things up with Magic? So what if I wasn’t human anymore! I mean, really, this was only temporary. I would find a way to fix this. Jericho would find a way to fix me.

Our eyes collided with the force of a thousand things unsaid and my head moved back and forth desperately, like I was coming out of a dream. I actually prayed this was a dream. I pleaded silently with Jericho to confirm that this was some subconscious apparition and I would wake up in my old bed, late for class with the smell of fresh coffee drifting up from the kitchen downstairs. I begged him to declare that I hadn’t just shot Magic out my fingertips like I had seen them do so many terrifying times, like I hadn’t really just blown something to bits and pieces with only a thought and wave of my hand.

But he didn’t do any of that.

“It’s going to be alright,” he promised in a calming voice from where he stood across the room. He lifted his hands as if soothing a frightened animal and took a slow step towards me. “You’re going to be fine.”

Something cracked inside my head. Broken, I was broken- and the dam of emotion I’d been holding back broke free. My body crumpled with the weight of every emotion that had been pressing against me since the moment we were abducted and I sunk to my knees in defeat. I covered my face with my hands, trying to disguise my uncontrollable fear; my hair fell over my hands, curtaining me in.

Fragmented. Damaged. Changed.

So different I didn’t even recognize myself anymore.

And that was what scared me the most.

I had been through a lot in my life- too much. And now this? The only thing I’d had to hold myself together year after agonizing year had been me. Myself.

Sure, my family had always been supportive and my siblings were great. But at the end of the day, the only thing that had gotten me through each and every day sane and whole, was that I knew myself. I knew my strengths and I knew my weaknesses. I knew how much I was capable of withstanding and I knew when I’d hit my limit so that I could back off.

But I couldn’t back off now. I was stuck with this. And now I was a stranger in my own body.

Jericho was at my side in an instant. I glanced up at him through a crack in my fingers and watched him communicate silently with his friends.  He nodded his head toward the hallway and the King and Queen disappeared quietly through the wide, brassy doors.

I appreciated that. I felt grateful that he knew me enough to get rid of any audience. It was bad enough he wanted to stick around. I hated the idea of anyone else witnessing me mid-nervous-breakdown. I was strong and independent sometimes… most of the time… well, up until I’d been changed. I didn’t need an audience in the few moments I was overwhelmed by circumstances.

The ballroom felt hugely empty now that just Jericho and I remained, but I was too overwrought to care. I tucked my knees to my chest and gave into the trembling sobs. I felt Jericho’s presence above me, hot, heavy and desperate to do something for me.

He squatted in front of me and slowly reached for my hands. Removing them with gentle force, he held them in the space between us.

“Hey,” he whispered in a commanding voice that immediately grabbed my attention. I expected gentleness or pity. I did not expect him to turn into an impatient alpha male. Yet somehow his tone and behavior felt exactly right. “You’re okay. You did a good thing, not a bad thing. You got the Magic to work. Don’t you feel better?”

My eyes lifted off the glossy floor to meet his as he hovered above me. I nodded slowly, even while tears continued to stream down my face.

I did feel better, at least in the physiological sense. My body didn’t feel quite as out of control and the suffocating buzz of electricity had softened.  My head seemed clearer, my vision more focused. Releasing the energy had done wonders for my apoplectic heart that usually felt close to beating ferociously right out of my chest.

“And it will get easier next time, and every time after. You won’t blow something up every single time you use it, alright?” Jericho promised with that firm but patient tone.

This time I disagreed with him by shaking my head vehemently. “I don’t want to use it again,” I whispered. “I don’t want it to get easier. I just want it gone.”

“Liv, is this what’s going to break you?” he demanded. He tipped my chin up by gripping it firmly between his thumb and forefinger so I was forced to look at him. His hold was tight but when I obeyed his action, he swept his thumb across my bottom lip. The anger and resentment dropped immediately and my heart lurched in my chest at the sweetness of his gesture. “How long did you spend in that sick scientist’s captivity?”

“Two weeks,” I confessed with real, true tones of hatred and loathing. I was only twenty-one but these feelings I had for Terletov, this abhorrence and disgust, was the most real thing I’d ever felt in my entire life.

My body flashed hot and electrified. The force of that energy was back, buzzing in my blood and ringing in my head. But at the same time I felt my old confidence flare to life, too. I gulped in lungfuls of air and with it my resolve for revenge, my commitment to my sister.

“And were those two weeks easy?” he pressed.

“Jericho, you know they weren’t,” I glared at him. Now he was being cruel. “You know he tortured us. You know he tried to kill us.”

I spit out the words, even while an ugly, sinister whisper echoed something else. The truth was, he was doing the opposite of killing us. If these people were real, if they were telling the truth… then Terletov had risked our lives in order to fuse our blood with immortality. Whether we wanted it or not. But I couldn’t bring myself to think those thoughts completely through.

At least not yet.

He quirked a challenging brow at me. “So? You fought then, why are you giving up now?”

My head lifted a little higher, my eyes hardened with a little more resolve. “I don’t want this,” I hissed at him. As if I needed to remind him. I felt like I’d been saying that constantly for hours. “I don’t want to be like you. I just want to be normal. I want to be like I was before. And I want that for Ophelia, too. I didn’t ask for this to happen to me- to be changed. I just want to go home!” Tears were falling again, but these weren’t the same self-pitying tears as before, these were emoting frustration and determination.

I pulled my hands from his and balled them into fists in my lap. My chin quivered again, but just for the smallest second before I grappled back control of my body or as much control as I was given these days. Jericho watched me carefully as I pulled myself together. Slowly, but determinedly, I reigned in my emotions, choosing confidence over fear and strength over weakness.

I watched Jericho, too, as he sat before me, leaning in so that he consumed my entire field of vision. His dark hair had fallen over his forehead, just brushing over his equally dark eyebrows. His hair was that awkward length that was neither short, nor long. I doubted he used product, but there was enough volume and unruliness about it that I thought maybe he should use some. Not that his untamed hair diminished his looks, but it did something to them, distorted them in a way that made my breath quicken and my mouth go dry. His skin was olive-toned and perfect. His mouth was wide and full; his smiles came easily enough but so did his frown. His body a flawless specimen of male, testosterone and virility hovered perfectly toned in front of me. But it was his hazel eyes that truly held my attention. That was the only way to describe them. Sometimes they were so green they looked like cut emeralds. And sometimes they were such a deep, rich chocolate they seemed to liquefy in front of me. And then at other times they seemed to find the perfect balance of color between the two, a color not even present in real life, a color so complicated and luminescent that it couldn’t possibly be real.

That’s what color they were now. That indefinite blend of a priceless jewel and dark coffee.

The color of his eyes, more than anything else, nudged something immovable inside of me. I felt it crawl beneath my skin and fuse together with the other foreign entity living inside there. This man was Magic. He was Immortal. And maybe those things had something to do with the way he was looking at me. Or maybe he held the ability to look into my eyes and see me in a way nobody else ever could. But he didn’t just look at me. He devoured me with his gaze, with his presence, with his soul. He ate me up in a way that consumed me entirely. And I just sat there, bared, naked and confused.

“I’m not giving up,” I swore with the confidence he had given me back. “I won’t.”

“Good,” he tried to smile, but it wobbled unsteadily across his mouth. His gaze stayed in place, but his entire body tensed and jolted.

“Good,” I echoed. I jumped to my feet, feeling the atmosphere shift around us. This wasn’t innocent anymore. We weren’t safe together right now. Trying to change the subject, I looked down at him and demanded, “Show me what it does, Jericho. Show me how to use it.”

“Alright,” he answered gruffly. He hopped up to his feet and held out a hand.

“And don’t you dare go easy on me.” I ignored him, not feeling able to touch him just yet.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” He shook his head but finally smiled at me.

And we were back to normal again. We were in familiar territory again. I exhaled a staggering breath and bit down on my bottom lip. I felt like I’d dodged something huge but I didn’t know exactly what that was yet.

And I couldn’t decide if I wanted to know.

We got to work. Immediately.

I was the kind of person that threw myself into everything. I had an unquenchable need to ensure that I was the best at everything I did. I was a perfectionist to an obnoxious degree, determined until I was blinded by my tasks and neurotic when it came to learning something new. Most people found me extremely hard to handle, especially when pitted against me.

I was ruthlessly competitive and I didn’t enjoy people standing in my way.

Running had always been an outlet for me. I liked the challenge of races. I liked to challenge myself to meet better times. But it was also therapeutic for me, sometimes even soothing. But most importantly, it was something I could do alone.

My grades and goals in life were what really drove me. And in the highly competitive field of culinary arts, I needed to be the best at everything in every way or I would fade into the background as a line cook at Denny’s. That was unacceptable.

And so was failing at this.

When the Magic didn’t instantly fly from my fingers again, I growled with frustration. When the Magic didn’t obey my every whim and command, I blew something up just to spite it. When Jericho didn’t explain something perfectly to me, I tried to turn my Magic on him.

“You know I can be just as dangerous, if not more so,” he threatened after I tried to start him on fire. Again.

I laughed loud and a bit out of control; there was an edge of hysteria to the sound. Mostly because he was right. He was infinitely more dangerous to me than I was to him. But still, he was trying to be funny and I appreciated that. An easy smile stretched across his face and made him look boyish and sexy all at the same time.

“Sure you can,” I agreed patronizingly. I shook my head and went back to trying to elevate chairs.

I had all but destroyed the ballroom during our “practice” session. Pieces of the walls and ceiling littered the floor in destroyed piles of plaster; the once-shining wood floor was coated in dust and debris with heavy chunks missing from its previously impeccable style. The stage set in the corner now modeled the Grand Canyon and all the glass from the patio door laid in shattered and jagged remnants scattered across the floor. The only thing that kept the winter’s biting wind from whipping through our space was the sealed tarp Jericho magically hung in place of the glassed panes.

I was pretty sure Eden and Kiran were going to be pissed. As ridiculous and unimaginable as it was to me, this was their home… and I was all but destroying it.

I really tried to get nervous about that, but I just couldn’t find the will power or the effort to care. And Jericho didn’t seem at all worried about the destruction.

“I am very dangerous,” he promised in a low voice. He took a few steps toward me, distracting me from my current exercise. The chairs crashed back to the ground in heaps of rubble.

We barely noticed.

“I know,” I nodded enthusiastically. “You keep telling me that. I’m sure I’ll start believing you very, very soon.”

I took a step back from his advance, not exactly sure what he had in mind. I knew he was teasing about being dangerous, but in this moment he had never felt more hazardous.

And my fear had nothing to do with his Magic.

“Where are you going?” he asked with a sly grin. I stepped out of his reach again and felt my breathing accelerate in my lungs.

“Nowhere,” I promised. “Where are you going?”

“Nowhere.” But he kept advancing and I didn’t trust his innocent expression.

Suddenly he lunged forward trying to grab me. I shrieked an embarrassingly girly sound and took off running. He sprinted after me, and I had to put everything into my muscles to stay just a step ahead of him. He was insanely fast and his long arms were reaching for me.

I tried not to laugh as I ran through the mess I created, leaping over piles of rubble and avoiding shattered glass that spread out across the floor like fallen confetti. Trying to catch him off guard, I flung my hands behind me and blindly tried to blast him with my Magic. I didn’t really want to hit him, but I did want to slow him down. He dodged it easily and waved what he couldn’t avoid out of his way with a simple flick of his own Magic.

I was a little shocked at how easily I’d picked up the Magic. It took a little while to get used to, but honestly I hadn’t even thought about using it before I threw it at him. There was an innate instinct attached to it that was somehow finding a home inside my violated body.

I’d known I had Magic at my disposal for mere hours and was already using it to my advantage. I didn’t like how quickly my mindset and goodwill toward immortality had altered, but I also didn’t feel like it was something I could stop. The Magic was part of my blood now, at least until I could get it removed. And by being so alive inside in my body, I had no choice but to accept it.

With another shot of Magic at his feet, I noticed my aim was getting better with all this practice.

He jumped over my relatively weak attempt and then used his own power against me. He trapped me there, frozen and still in the beam of his buzzing electricity.

My face contorted into amused surprise and even while I couldn’t use my arms or legs to run away, a laugh still bubbled out of my throat.

“Very nice,” I consented. “You win.”

“Yes, I do,” he walked towards me slowly. He spun me around so I had to face his advance. He was proud of this; his cocky satisfaction was written all over his smug face.

He came to stop right in front of me and just grinned at me. Idiot. I huffed out an impatient breath.

“Now show me how to do it,” I demanded. I was anxious to get out of this laser beam of Magic. I wiggled my shoulders against his unbreakable hold. I could feel his power all around me; I could feel his strength, his energy, his aura wrap around my body and hold me tightly to him. We were separated by a few feet, our bodies not even touching; but I felt pressed flush against the length of his body. The game had turned intimate somehow and I didn’t know how to go back to that friendly truce we’d reached before.

“Not a chance.” He shook his head at me and then stopped with only inches between us. I got the feeling he meant to intimidate me, but when we were so close his breathing picked up instead. My body felt electrified and charged in a completely different way than the Magic affected me. In a rough voice he said, “I kind of like you like this.”

“Oh, yeah?” I managed to ask in the barest whisper. I looked up from under my heavy lashes and met his heated gaze of perfectly blended hazel eyes with such a depthless intensity that captured me regardless of his Magic and held me utterly captive.

“Yeah,” he murmured softly. “You’re much easier to deal with. I bet the Titans upstairs would offer me their first-borns if I kept you like this all the time.”

The spell broke a little with his sarcasm and I shot him a derisive smirk, “They are such babies.”

His Magic dissipated around me and slowly I felt the control of my body return to me. We stood close still, neither one backing off. I couldn’t make myself move. I couldn’t wiggle my limbs to shake off the remnants of his lingering power. I felt hypnotized in place.

“They just don’t know how to handle you like I do.” He leaned toward me and his tongue swept across his lower lip. I gulped. Somewhere in the back of my mind there was a rational voice that was screaming at me to step away, to gain some breathing room, some rational-thinking room. But there was another part of me- a completely foreign and confused but most definitely feminine part of me- that pushed me into him, pulled me closer to his hooded eyes and wet lips. I felt my heartbeat pulse in my throat rapidly. My vision narrowed to his mouth, and only his mouth; my body seemed to tune into every perfect piece of him. His body heat wrapped around me in a lure all of its own and I wanted to explore it further- how hot his skin would be to touch, how the heat of his palms would scorch me if he were to lay his hands on me, touch me, hold me.

“You do know how to handle me,” I whispered almost curiously, thoughtfully. I wasn’t the kind of girl that responded well to “handling.” But with Jericho… he seemed to calm all those rebellious, stubbornly independent parts of me. I listened to Jericho. And truthfully, I didn’t listen to anybody.

I tilted my head up to meet his steady, heated stare. Now that he was standing so close to me, he towered over me. However, even though I was shorter than him, the tables seemed to have turned. He was entranced by me now. I held him still. He dipped his head just an inch closer to mine and I stopped breathing. There were no thoughts in my head, no sensible motives or logical intentions. This was so wrong- on so many different levels. I wasn’t here for a quick hookup. I was here for my sister- to get her better. To get me better.

And then I was gone.

Jericho had no part in my future and especially not in my present. I had bigger issues to deal with than a hot boy with magical powers that wanted to kiss me.

All of a sudden I was hot, needy and completely blind with lust.

I didn’t have room for Jericho in my life, but I wanted him.

At least for right now, this small, insignificant moment.

The need, the desperation grew too much, too fast. I had to find out what his lips tasted like. I simply had to or I would die. I knew that. I would die if he didn’t kiss me. If I could just-

An electrical pop sounded behind me and there was a blinding flash of mismatched color so bright that it stung my eyes and heated my skin. Just as quickly as it came, it disappeared with the sound of a palm hitting skin- my palm hitting his skin, as in cheek. I slapped him!

I was pretty sure I was more surprised than he was. Oops.

“Ow!” he growled, cupping his reddening face in his hand. I took a step back, not entirely unaffected by him even after my knee-jerk reaction to that surprising blast of Magic. “What was that for?” he demanded.

I wasn’t entirely sure… I had been in a trance with that almost-kiss. I really didn’t want any of that, yet he had mesmerized me with those seductive eyes and his perfect lips. And then all the color and tingling energy. I panicked.

But I couldn’t let him know that.

“You were going to kiss me!” I accused while doing my best to sound shocked and outraged.

“I-I… I was not!” he stammered. His face betrayed him and his eyes burned bright green. He took a step back and put a hand up. I wondered if he was afraid I would slap him again.

“You were!” I hissed, finally feeling the full capacity of my anger.

He forced out a sarcastic, “Ha! You wanted me to kiss you. That’s what that was. You were trying to get me to kiss you!”

I struggled to swallow against that frustrating truth and took a moment to collect myself. Finally, I took a step back, a step further from his reach and threatened, “Don’t do it again, Jericho.”

“I wouldn’t!” He threw his hands up in the air when I shot him a “yeah right” glare. “I won’t!” He repeated. “You’re perfectly safe from present kisses or future ones.”

I struggled for just a second to compose my disappointed expression again, and then growled, “Good.”

“Good!” He all but shouted.

“Bout done in here?” Sebastian, Jericho’s friend, asked from the doorway.

Perfect. We’d had an audience. This castle grew more annoying by the hour.

Jericho spun around to meet Sebastian’s questioning stare. He looked idiotically amused and I suddenly had the urge to slap him, too!

“I need to check on my sister,” I declared and then stomped from the room, leaving the stupid boys behind in the wake of my ruin. Both literally and figuratively of course.

Sebastian watched me walk past him with a bemused smile that I chose to ignore. As soon as I was in the hallway, I heard him ask Jericho, “Your doing?”

I wasn’t sure if he was talking about the ballroom or my pissed-off air of escape. So I paused around the corner to listen to Jericho’s reply. I shouldn’t care what he had to say either way, but curiosity got the best of me. Except Jericho didn’t reply. It was Sebastian who spoke next.

“You look a little beat up,” Sebastian remarked.

“I feel a little beat up,” Jericho admitted.

“Are you going to clean this up before Eden finds it?” Sebastian asked sounding highly entertained.

Jericho grunted and then bit out a decisive, “Nope.”

“She’s going to be bloody pissed, my friend.” Sebastian sounded a little more sincere this time.

“Yep.” Jericho seemed to have trouble with words longer than one syllable. Had I really pissed him off? Probably slapping him was overkill…

“And you’re not… concerned with Eden’s feelings?” Sebastian asked his question like he was asking something else entirely. It was an odd question, even if she was Queen. My curiosity peeked further.

“Not at all,” Jericho answered casually. “I’ve got more perplexing females to sort through right now.”

“Huh,” Sebastian mumbled.

“Huh,” I whispered into the empty hall. And then I escaped up to my sister’s room where things seemed to be less confusing and more in control.

Which was some kind of sick joke since she was in a torture-induced coma.

Chapter Seven

Jericho

“Where are you going?” Kiran asked in the same tone that Sebastian had been using with me since he caught Olivia and me in the ballroom yesterday. Some surprise, a lot of asshole mixed in, rounded out to completion with some concerned confusion.

Bastards. All of them.

So, I’d almost kissed Olivia? So what? It wasn’t exactly the breaking news everyone was treating it as. I’d kissed plenty of girls in my twenty-four years.

“Out,” I barked in reply.

I stalked past him and into Ophelia’s room where Titans surrounded her. Olivia sat leaning over her, whispering secrets to her comatose sister. O lay oblivious to it all, eyes flickering quickly behind closed lids, golden blonde hair spread out on the pillow beneath her head.

My demeanor and surely attitude softened immediately as I watched Olivia laugh at something she was telling her sister. She didn’t even acknowledge my presence, didn’t even look up to scowl at me for not coming in earlier today.

But I couldn’t help the way I relaxed around her. I hadn’t been worried about her. I hadn’t been thinking constantly about what it would have been like to kiss her.

And I finally had gotten a full night’s sleep.

Or at least I had lain in bed for an entire eight hours convincing myself I wasn’t doing those things.

“Tell her you’ll be back in a little bit, Liv. You’re coming with me.” We hadn’t spoken since she slapped me in the ballroom. I thought it was probably best if I didn’t give her the option to decline my invitation. Plus, my good feelings for finding her so settled and peaceful quickly disappeared the longer she chose to ignore me.

She finally glanced up, her sapphire eyes flashing to a darker color. “Where are we going?”

“We’re taking a break,” I offered, careful not to reveal how.

“I took a break yesterday. I want to stay here today.” She kept her gaze intently on her sister, brushing away hair from Ophelia’s sweat-shiny forehead.

God, she was stubborn. Almost as stubborn as me.

Almost.

“No, you worked on something life-changing yesterday that tore your whole world apart. Today, we’re doing something that’s not work and won’t destroy every single thing you’ve ever thought was true in life.” I smiled wryly but she just kept glaring at me. “I won’t keep you long, I promise.” I softened my tone and gave her a pleading look, one that always worked with the ladies. Slowly I watched my charm break down her doubly-enforced defenses.

She was just so traumatized from her time with Terletov and shaken up from yesterday’s ballroom exercises. I hated that she was fragile; not because I didn’t understand, but because I knew that wasn’t her. She wasn’t a weak person and she wasn’t the kind to play victim. I hated that my world had forced her to be both.

I couldn’t exactly relate to why she hated Magic so much, but I tried to understand it.

There was nothing that represented strength more to me than my Magic. It was my life’s blood, my most defining feature, everything I lived for and lived to protect. And she hated it.

That thought alone did terrible things to my mind and self-esteem. How could I make her see that this was a good thing? That she wasn’t this monstrosity she’d worked up in her head? She was something more now. I wouldn’t say that she was better because she possessed Magic, but she was just more. And even if she hated what the Magic had done to her family and her, she didn’t have to hate herself.

Or me. A voice whispered in my head. I stamped it down quickly. There was something absolutely crazy about thinking of Liv like that.

Something crazy about wanting to kiss her.

But now wasn’t the time. I needed to push her to accept this new part of herself; I wanted to show her there were good parts of this world too.

I hated that I asked so much of her. I really hated that I couldn’t just wrap my arms around her and let her cry it out. But she wasn’t ready for that. Hell, I was ready for that. So, I would do this instead. I would do what I could and hope she found that luminescent internal strength that blinded me. I wouldn’t let this be what ruined her, I wouldn’t let her give up now.

“Fine,” she growled. “But this better be fast.”

She stood up from the bed and arched her graceful back. She wasn’t very tall, even for a girl, but her limbs and frame were very nicely proportioned. She had the body most girls dreamt about, with muscular but willowy legs, deliciously shaped curves that drew a man’s eye and a long, slender neck. She was like a pin-up girl that packed a punch, and I found myself mesmerized by her.

She had showered sometime since I saw her last and her blonde hair was loose and wavy around her face. It wasn’t as long as I usually preferred hair on girls, but it looked soft and silky to touch. It framed her face and, depending on her mood or the weather or whatever, she either wore it straight or wavy; either looked good on her. She was just…. gorgeous. I couldn’t say that in a different way.

After all these weeks I finally realized how attracted to this girl I was. I had been ignoring every part of her body that demanded my attention, stamping down the male instinct in me because she was traumatized, vulnerable and… human.

But knowing there was Magic inside her flipped my switch. Suddenly I wasn’t the elevated Immortal and she wasn’t an untouchable human. Now, she was just a girl and I was just a boy.

And we met on even ground.

I wasn’t sure what to do with any of that, so I wisely decided to go back to ignoring those pieces of her that made my fingers itch and my entire body harden.

She would be gone soon enough. I had committed myself to a lifetime of being the playboy bachelor and for the last three years I had been doing a bang-up job.

Literally. Ha!

I wouldn’t draw Olivia into that web of debauchery. I respected her too much for that. But I also respected her enough to keep my distance.

Whatever happened yesterday, wouldn’t happen again.

I enjoyed her as a friend. We were good at the whole love-hate thing. We could keep that up, especially when the hate part ran a little hotter than the love part. She was good at witty banter; she was smart and funny and so ridiculously sarcastic that she kept me always on my toes. It wasn’t just that I was attracted to her; I liked her.

And I hadn’t been able to tolerate other people in a long time. Even Avalon had been on my nerves lately.

She needed my help. And I had been told on more than one occasion, mostly by Avalon and Sebastian, that I got off playing the white knight, the savior to every damsel in distress.

It was patronizing and obnoxious.

But maybe they were right. And right now she was a girl that needed help and I saw an opportunity.

If that was true, then helping her learn to use her new Magic, so that she was proficient enough to protect herself, would remove her damsel attributes and my intrigue.

“Stop whining,” I ordered. “Grab your coat and shoes.”

She muttered something under her breath, but obeyed. I stood by the door while she threw on a coat and tennis shoes that had been donated by somebody in the castle when she first got here. When she arrived she only had the tattered clothes she was wearing, and by her request, we burned those.

When she was ready, we walked silently through the castle hallways. I took her through the ballroom again. The enormous room was already in the beginning stages of repair. I didn’t know what Eden thought about the whole thing, because I had so far successfully avoided her, but it looked like she hadn’t hesitated to get her maintenance men on it. They used Magic to repair the bulk of the damage, but because she was particular and for some reason respected this place, they were going slowly and meticulously from section to section.

We stepped through them without drawing anything more than a friendly nod in our direction; apparently they didn’t associate us with the destruction… yet. I lifted the tarp that still sealed the shattered windows and we walked over broken shards of glass and into the bright winter afternoon. Blustery January wind gusted at us, whipping us in the face and crawling beneath our layers of clothing to grab hold of our bones. I sent a current of Magic through my body and led Olivia further onto the balcony.

Thick, pure white snow covered the Citadel grounds and beyond. The balcony had been shoveled clear, and so were the steps leading down to the wild maze of gardens below; but the railing was packed high with inches of the powdery stuff. Our breath puffed out in front of us in frosty clouds; the chill was there, instantly on every inch of our skin. Without Magic my lungs would have frozen in my chest and the snot in my nose easily turned to icicles. But Magic kept my blood pumping and my skin heated.

My Magic was a seamless part of me, reacting before there was conscious thought or action. But from my experiences with Eden, I knew this would take careful consideration on Liv’s part. She just wasn’t used to the benefits Magic offered her.

I was setting out to show her the good parts of Magic, the life-changing-in-an-easy-way parts. I wanted her to embrace this new aspect of herself and what it could do for her.

Because while she was determined to rid herself of the Magic infused in her blood, I wasn’t sure that was possible. Not if she didn’t want to end up like the withered and emaciated Immortals we kept finding discarded like trash all over the world.

“What are we doing out here?” Olivia asked carefully.

“We’re going for a walk,” I shrugged. “I want to show you something.”

“But it’s freezing,” she argued. “Remember I’m just a lowly human. I’m susceptible to things like frostbite, hypothermia, misery…”

“But you’re not just a lowly human anymore. You’re Immortal, or at least part-Immortal. So those aren’t issues you struggle with. You’ve evolved.” At her purely death-ray glare, I amended quickly, “So to speak. You just have to use Magic.” I grinned at her silent outrage, watching her carefully out of the corner of my eye as we walked down the steps and started trudging through shin deep snow.

“Magic keeps me immune from the cold?” she asked skeptically.

“Do I look cold to you?”

For the first time she seemed to take in my t-shirt and jeans, my not-blue skin and my leather flip-flops. She reached out and ran her hand up my arm, feeling the warmth of my skin in her cold palm.

“Huh.” She narrowed her eyes and didn’t remove her hand. “That’s Magic?”

“Sure, it’s Magic,” I agreed. “It doesn’t always have to be a weapon.” I used Magic in front of me, melting more of the snow, clearing an easy path for her to walk. Then when we faced the impossible maze of barren, snow covered branches I gently lifted them out of the way so we could follow the path toward the back wall of the Citadel. “It’s a living force inside of me, Liv. If I’m good, the Magic is good. If I’m bad, the Magic can be bad, but it doesn’t always have to be. The majority of Immortals are peaceful, with the exception of those you met in Peru. A few years ago, we were ruled by an evil man, too, and there were plenty of people that supported him. Still, the population as a whole wasn’t evil; they didn’t use their Magic for bad things. They just didn’t use their Magic for good either. You met someone terrible and he changed you, but you are a good person, Liv. Your Magic can be good, even if it’s different. Your Magic can be useful, even if you don’t want it.”

I watched as her skin heated inside her, her body temperature rising to normal. She was a natural at this, which was so shocking to me. I wondered if it was Magic in particular or if it was her level of intelligence that helped her catch on so quickly. Immortals had the tendency to look down on humans for everything. They weren’t as smart as us, fast as us, talented as us, wise as us; whatever it was, we excelled.

But Liv was an exception to every rule. She was an exception to every one of my rules.

“Alright,” she grumbled. “This isn’t so bad.”

I shot her an I-told-you-so look and she finally broke her surly attitude and her luscious mouth tilted into a smile.

“What’s with you today?” I asked as we made our way to the Citadel wall. I noticed my Magic was almost independently refusing to lift the stark branches far enough out of our way, so that we had to lean into each other to squeeze through the tight spaces. I should have probably analyzed that, but I was preoccupied waiting for her answer.

“What do you mean?” she looked ahead of us, lifting her arm to hold up a branch, before changing her mind and testing her Magic on it.

Her Magic snapped the branch in half and sent it flying down the path until it impaled a wall of dead shrubbery. She shot me a sideways glance daring me to say something. I bit back my grin and wisely chose to ignore it.

“You’re acting weird today,” I nudged her with my elbow. “Since yesterday, you’ve been acting weird.”

“I’m not acting weird,” she defended herself quickly. “You’re acting weird.”
“How am I acting weird?” I demanded. This conversation was feeling a little juvenile, but it was
like I was trapped inside it, unable to leave without answers. And if I had to play the part of immaturity in order to win, I would.

I was competitive like that.

“You know how!” She huffed.

I paused our conversation to open the hidden door for her. Kiran and Avalon used to meet this way back when Lucan was still alive. There was a special key that required Magic and the right royal DNA or a Titan. But since Lucan died, Kiran had switched up the lock so that a certain number of us could use it. This entrance was still very hush-hush, even though the land on the other side of the door was private, guarded and difficult to access. It wasn’t exactly human hikers we worried would find it, but the rest of the Immortal Kingdom.

“I don’t know how,” I assured her after I’d melted more snow with my Magic and led the way up an incline.

“Ever since you found out I’m… I’m… like you! You’ve been looking at me differently!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I sounded confident, but internally I was starting to worry. Was that true? Was I looking at her differently now that she wasn’t so fragile? So…. mortal?

Or had I always been traveling this path?

“It was like the minute you knew I was magical,” she whispered that word like it had filthy connotations, “You got hungry!”

I cocked my head back, abashed by her word choice, “Hungry?”

“Yes, hungry,” she hissed.

I wanted to argue, but we were over the ridge now and a private lake stretched out before us. Snow rose from every bank in thick, mounds of perfect white purity. The lake itself was iced over at the beginning of December, with drifts of snow scattered across its smooth surface. The only disruption to the untouched purity was animal prints as they tracked from one side of the lake to the other. Huge trees rose from every side, snow replacing leaves, and icicles hanging from their branches like Christmas lights.

“Oh my gosh, Jericho,” she exclaimed in a breath of astonishment. “This is amazing.”

She walked ahead of me, moving the snow out of her way a little less gracefully than me- and by that I meant she sent it up in a blizzard of flurries around us.

She looked at me over her shoulder, her teeth nibbling on her bottom lip, her expression impish and excited. I had that obnoxious urge to kiss her again, to explore her mouth with mine, her body with my hands. I wanted to find out exactly how hot the Magic made her skin, how sweet the inside of her mouth tasted.

I shook my head, trying to clear it of those thoughts. Was I really looking at her like I was hungry?

Maybe I was. It had been a while since I’d even been alone with a girl other than Liv.

I definitely needed to fix that. Now.

“I know you’re planning something extraordinary. So just get on with it. I’m too impatient to play guessing games,” she was laughing while she ordered me around. I should have been irritated with her commanding presence, with the way she just assumed she would get her way.

But it was not irritation racing in my blood or pounding against my chest. It was something so much more like obsessive curiosity and affectionate indulgence.

“So bossy,” I murmured playfully as I moved to stand next to her on the bank.

She waited with eyes lit with anticipation and her fingers fidgeting anxiously. I couldn’t stop the smile that spread almost ear to ear across my face. I kicked off my flip-flops and stepped onto the frozen ground that didn’t feel cold to me at all.

I walked further onto the iced-over lake and released some Magic from my feet, from my hands from everywhere around me. The air sizzled with the force of my electricity, crackling and popping as I freed whatever I wanted into the atmosphere around me making whatever I wanted happen.

The ice beneath my feet melted and I sunk down with a drop as the solid ground disappeared around me. My jeans were wet, but it didn’t bother me; I would just dry them with Magic when I stepped out.

The water at my feet heated to hot tub temps and sluiced over and between my toes like a Jacuzzi. It was fantastic. All around me the water stayed frigid and the ice stayed frozen, but this small space was just for me.

“Come here,” I demanded without turning around. She wasn’t the only one that liked to get her way.

I heard the sounds of her shoes slipping off and her jeans being tugged up, but I waited patiently for her to join me without turning around. I didn’t want to give her the attention I seemed to be paying her subconsciously. She wasn’t part of my world, no matter what happened to her.

She stood next to me, enjoying the hot water and the bubbling relaxation that came with it.

“Magic isn’t all bad,” she admitted in an awed voice. “Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

I raised one hand and the snow around us became a swirling cyclone of white. I wrapped us up in it so that we were in the center as it spun and moved around us. She watched with an awed smile and then slipped her hand into mine. She laid her head on my shoulder and we just stood there in silence, enjoying the phenomenon.

Finally I released the tornado of snow and let it fall around us in soft flakes- like a shaken up snow globe. They landed all over us, dotting our heads and catching on her eyelashes. She looked up at me and this time she looked hungry.

“Magic isn’t all bad,” I finally echoed.

“Tell me something about yourself, Jericho. Something I don’t know. Something about your life before I crashed it.” She was still holding my hand, but I didn’t think she realized it anymore.

“I’m important,” I confessed, surprising even myself. I hadn’t exactly intended for the conversation to go this way. And I wasn’t sure what made me say that. But here we were. I’d said about the dumbest thing I could and now I needed to explain. “And I don’t want to be.”

“More words,” she growled adorably.

“A few years ago, we had this thing. A rebellion, an overthrown government, a changing of the crowns or whatever. The bad king died, so a good king could live. I was on the rebellion side, second in command I guess. Since then, the Kingdom, the King, the Queen…. The other King, they’ve all looked to me as a leader. I’ve been put in charge of a lot. The Kingdom respects me and expects a lot from me. I’m important.” I shrugged and tried to look away from her ice blue eyes but couldn’t.

“But you don’t want to be?” She prompted.

“It’s not the responsibility or the sacrifice,” I assured her quickly. “I’m fine with the long hours and spontaneous travel. In some ways I feel born and bred for these tasks that I do. It’s mostly, I’m bored. I was better when we were at war. I was better when there was something to do. I’m good at playing the diplomat but I was better at being the warrior.”

“Well, aren’t you getting to be the warrior now? Aren’t you guys kind of at war again or whatever?” Olivia turned to face me completely. Her eyes bore into mine and I knew this wouldn’t make sense to her. It wasn’t like the human world was without war or conflict, but Olivia was. From the first moment I picked her up off the ground in the ruins of Machu Picchu, it was obvious she wasn’t a warrior. A fighter, yes, that girl could survive anything, but she wasn’t a trained soldier.

“Yes, there are people at war,” I answered vaguely.

“But you personally are not at war,” she concluded.

“The reasons I’m here are very important,” I argued, more with myself than anyone. “And my duty to the crown is bigger than my personal aspirations. This isn’t about you or O, though. This is more than that, bigger picture kind of stuff. This is about me and what my life will be like after this conflict is over. Terletov is a terrible Immortal and he will pay for his crimes. Avalon, Kiran, any of my friends will ensure that happens. So what happens after he’s gone? It’s like I’m restless for a fight. And I can’t imagine living agitated and bored for the rest of…. however long I live.”

“O and I are the reasons you’ve stayed back?” Olivia whispered and I wondered if she heard anything else I said. Her eyes were big with surprise and her expression was so confused I wanted to rub my thumb in between her eyebrows and soothe out her adorable wrinkles.

“Liv, don’t look so surprised,” I laughed. “You have to know I stayed back for you.”

“I never thought about it,” she shrugged, shaking herself out of her stupor. “I just assumed it was your job to help us.”

“It is,” I answered quickly.

“No it’s not; your job is to fight.” Her eyes were glinting with resolve now.

“And I will fight,” I promised her. “As soon as my king gets back, I’m planning to go. I need to be part of this.”

“I know you do,” she whispered.

There was a moment of utter stillness between us, where neither of us moved or spoke. I wasn’t sure we even breathed. She looked into my eyes, or through them or beyond them into a place so deep and hidden inside of me I felt torn open and exposed before her. She unsettled me with her perceptive intelligence and intuitive thoughts. She was different than any girl I’d ever met or known- she was something more than every girl before her.

And I realized I had a little infatuation with her.

Hungry. The word echoed in my head.

There it was; I could admit that she was right. So much strength, tenacity and beauty wrapped up into her tiny, heart-stopping package. How could I not crush on this girl? How could I not think about her as more than a friend? Or at least an object of desire?

“Tell me something about you, Liv,” I echoed her earlier words. “Something I don’t know.”

She hesitated for a few seconds, as if deciding which secret to share. Finally, she let out a heavy sigh and said, “O and I took that trip to find ourselves. She was deciding what school she wanted to go to and I was…. I don’t know what I was doing. But I needed a break.”

“From what?” I was suddenly desperate to know everything about this girl. She was answering questions that had been bothering me since I found her; the few short facts and vague answers she did share seemed to be accidental and followed with regret. I forced myself to wait patiently for the explanations I’d been dying to hear.

“School,” she shrugged. “Where I go… it’s intense. There’s a lot of competition and I’m an underdog just for being a girl. The guys I go to school with can be huge pricks. The very thought of a girl accomplishing more than them is like incomprehensible. And I just want to be good at what I do. You know? I just want to erase all that competition and do what’s best for me. But it’s constant. It’s so bad I’ve thought about quitting and just walking away; but that’s not me. I don’t give up; I don’t walk away. But here I am… Or there I was in Peru. Except I had decided to tough it out. I only have two semesters left anyway. But it was almost the exact moment I decided I could handle everything, those guys kidnapped us. I have to wonder if that was some kind of sign. Right?”

I didn’t want to answer that question. The idea of her returning to humanity with all this untapped, unpracticed Magic seemed too dangerous to consider. But I wanted to root for her at the same time; I wanted her to succeed, to show those idiots how incredible she really was.

“What were you in school for?” Deflection. Nice.

“To be a chef. I was in culinary school,” she answered like a prayer. It was obvious how passionate she was about this just by the reverence in which she intoned the words. She felt like this was her calling and threw the entire force of her dedication and loyalty into it.

I smiled down at her, “I love to cook.”

Her forehead creased in confusion and I watched a hundred different responses flitter through her eyes. “Like macaroni and cheese from a box?”

“Like more than macaroni and cheese from a box,” I leaned forward as if telling her a secret. “But I’m pretty good at that too.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Then I’ll have to show you.”

“You’re not making me feel better.” She crossed her arms and shook her head. She was adorable and feisty and so much more when I got beyond the attractive surface. This girl had layers upon layers. And the more I fought my way through them, the more lost in them I became. Suddenly the water felt higher than my shins, higher than my head. I was drowning in something and I couldn’t even begin to describe what it was. The only thing I knew though was that I could still breathe. Even under all this water, my lungs moved in and out easier than they had in years.

Now it was my turn to feel hundreds of thoughts spin through my head. I wanted so many things in that moment… to pull her into me, to kiss her senseless, to prove to her I knew how to cook, to turn her around and send her back to wherever she came from, out of my life and out of my thoughts forever.

Instead I took a small step forward and tucked some loose hair behind her ear. My finger trailed down the line of her jaw, along the slender curve of her throat. I was pretty sure I knew which thought I decided on.

“I’m making you feel just a little bit better,” I coaxed.

Her breathing picked up and her Magic faltered a little bit before she recovered like it tripped into mine, accidentally, clumsily and unsurely. “Not at all,” she shrugged.

“More than a little.”

She shook her head and I leaned forward. I would kiss her this time… I would. Nothing could stop me. Then I would get her out of my system and move the hell on.

I just needed to taste her, just once. I just needed to break the spell of misplaced fascination.

Her hands reached forward and I felt her fingers slide along my waist. She wasn’t fighting it this time. She was pulling me closer.

And I had to view this as an opportunity.

I dipped my head, and wrapped my hand gently around her throat, tilting her chin up with the pad of my thumb. Digging the fingers of my other hand into the inviting curve of her hip, I tugged her closer to me with enough force that her feet splashed in the hot water.

“Olivia,” I whispered worshipfully just before the logical part of my brain kicked in. I detoured to her nose and lamely planted a weak kiss on just the tip. “We should get back.”

She blinked up at me, confused and a little dazed. “What?” Her tone was as dry and brittle as anything I’d ever heard.

“We should get back,” I repeated. I held back the wince that ripped at my throat. God, this was stupid. And embarrassing.

At least Sebastian wasn’t watching this time from the doorway.

Olivia’s forehead dropped to my chest with a guttural growl of frustration. My fingers slid into the back of her luscious hair before I could stop them and I had to count back from one hundred just to keep my resolve strong.

However, my desire ebbed the minute she flung me backwards with the surprising force of newly-born Magic. Her hands were like missiles on my chest and I didn’t have the presence of mind to catch myself. I crashed through the icy surface of the lake that had been made weak by the trick I’d been showing off with. Freezing-cold water swallowed me whole and my breath stopped in my lungs and I made an embarrassingly high-pitched gasping sound.

We were still in the shallows, so my ass landed in murky mud and my knees poked out of the sharp edges of a body-sized hole.

“I swear, Jericho!” Olivia growled. “Stop trying to kiss me!”

And then she stomped out of the water and swooped down to grab her shoes and socks. She didn’t even bother to put them on, she just kept marching back to the Citadel while I stared after her.

I scrambled to standing and let my body heat and dry. I watched her go, the ground steaming under each of her barefoot steps while she used her new Magic to stay warm.

She would have to wait for me by the back gate; otherwise I would have run after her.

But right now I needed some space between us. This was twice now my idiot advances had pissed her off. Obviously she wasn’t interested in me. And I should be happy to know that.

Except for some reason, the urge to kiss her was even stronger now.

And there was that small, evil voice that whispered she wanted to kiss me too. For at least five seconds she had been as wrapped up in the moment as I was.

She might be pissed at me now, but I could get her back to that place.

If I wanted to.

That was the most important question. Did I want to?

Chapter Eight

Olivia

What an idiot! What an annoying, pushy, demanding, stupidly attractive idiot!

And I was no better.

I couldn’t believe this had happened. Twice! Why did he keep trying to kiss me?

More importantly, why did he chicken out this time?

Was it me? Did I have bad breath or something? Or food in my teeth?

I showered last night, so I knew I didn’t smell. Or at least… I didn’t think I smelled.

Shoot. Did I smell?
No, none of that mattered. I didn’t want to kiss Jericho. I didn’t want him to keep trying to kiss me.

And I would have remembered that if he hadn’t forced me into that winter wonderland perfection with big, fluffy snowflakes drifting all around us and that picturesque lake that belonged in a Thomas Kinkade portrait stretched out at our feet. It was like we walked into a snow globe and we were playing parts from an old school Christmas musical.

The whole scene was obnoxiously romantic and I had been charmed by the ambiance he’d created and not by his personal questions or inquisitive eyes.

Yeah, sure, Livie, you were seduced by frozen water….

Plus, he’d done the whole vulnerable-open-up-his-soul thing to me and I was a sucker for tough guys with insecurities.

Damn it.

Damn him!

I made it back to the wall we’d walked through earlier and realized too late it was still locked. I pushed and tugged on the handle, but nothing happened.

I groaned, knowing I would have to wait for Jericho to let me back in.

I briefly entertained the idea of walking around the enormous wall that gated in the castle. Stupid idea, but at this point I was willing to try anything to avoid Jericho. However, there would be no guarantee any other door would be open and I didn’t know how big this place truly was. I’d seen glimpses of a town that stretched out on the other side of the castle, but I’d been so contained to O’s room that I only vaguely remembered antiquated buildings. Who knew what the people were like down there? Would they be warm and inviting? Or ready to burn me at the human-stake.

But I wasn’t really human anymore….

The thought both depressed and excited me. While I was more angry than upset about the intrusion into my blood stream, I was also quickly learning how useful Magic could be.

I aimed my hand down at the locked handle before me and let lose a stream of my newly acquired Magic.

And then I shot back into a pile of snow when the Magic bounced off and hit me in the chest instead. The air rushed out of my lungs along with a string of curse words. I rubbed at my chest and dropped my head back into the soft snow, defeated, depressed and oddly feeling harshly rejected.

“Olivia?” I heard Jericho call faintly from over the ridge.

“Ugh,” I groaned when I grasped that he would be coming to my rescue again.

I had just decided to take my chances with the Great Wall of Weirdville when the stone door swung open and a tall, tattooed guy with longish hair and a crown poked his head out. He looked up the incline and then back down to me with the most confused expression on his face. His golden crown tilted sideways on his head and he rubbed a finger under his earlobe with a look of pure consternation mingled with mild amusement.

“Are you trying to break in?” he demanded in perfect English.

I didn’t know why I expected an accent or a different language, but whatever the reason, I definitely didn’t expect him to be an American.

“Break in?” I laughed. “More like break out!”

His eyebrows furrowed and he stared down at me, waiting for more. I hauled myself into standing and brushed the snow off my legs and frozen butt.

“I’m not breaking in; I’m just trying to get back in. My sister’s in there. I need to go see if she’s alright.”

“Your sister?” Crowned guy glanced back at the gardens behind him and then to my face again.

“Ophelia Taylor,” I explained with forced patience. “The human.”

“She’s not your sister.” He shook his head, sounding adamant.

“Pretty sure she’s my sister,” I huffed and took a few steps toward the door.

“But she’s human,” the guy answered obstinately.

“I just told you that!”

He shook his head slowly and then said, “But you’re not human.”

“Oh geez.” I looked around for Jericho but he hadn’t appeared yet. “Who are you?”

“You first,” he demanded.

I dropped my head into my hands and shouted out a muffled, “Jericho!”

“Jericho?” crowned guy said. “You’re Olivia!” He snapped his fingers together and a slow, mischievous grin tilted his lips.

He looked completely different now. Where one might have found him intimidating before, or at the very least, surly, now he was ridiculously handsome. He had bright green eyes, perfectly olive-toned skin and dark, black hair. He was well built, but overly casual. Even the maintenance guys in the ballroom had been dressed nicer than him. The crown on his head hinted that he was possibly the other King Jericho had briefly mentioned, but something about this guy made the idea of him ruling a kingdom sound like a corny joke.

He also reminded me of someone… but at the moment I couldn’t remember who.

“I’m Olivia,” I confirmed with a tight-lipped smile. “Now can I please go inside?”

“Is that Jericho chasing you?” the guy gestured with his chin over the rise of the hill.

“Yep.”

“And he pissed you off in some way?”

“You’re very perceptive.” I intoned dryly.

His roguish smile grew and something wicked glinted in his eyes. “And you’re welcome to enter now.” He stepped out of the way and made a sweeping grand gesture with his arm.

“Uh, thanks.” I stepped past him and jumped when the door slammed shut behind me. I shot him a look over my shoulder, but he was concentrated on the lock. “Jericho was right behind me.”

“Sure, sure,” he finished whatever he was doing with the lock and looked up at me.

“Did you lock him out?” This was so confusing.

“No,” he answered quickly and then amended, “Not permanently. He’ll be able to get back in… eventually.”

“Ok?”

“I’m Avalon,” the guy introduced himself with an outstretched hand. “I’m the King. Or one of them at least.”

“Hi,” I shook his hand and jumped at the pulse of electricity beneath his skin. “I’m the human. Or one of them at least.”

He grinned at me and then ushered me back through the mess of a maze that Jericho had taken me in before. The wild, tangled shrubbery reminded me of something from Alice in Wonderland gone terribly wrong. Branches reached out to grab at my skin every other step and I was forced to duck and weave. Avalon didn’t seem bothered at all by the aggressive bushes, he just walked beside me, bouncing with energy.

“So, where were you?” He asked that question like we were friends.

I wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Uh, with Jericho.”
“Did he take you for a walk?” Avalon pressed.

“Sure.” I said.

He looked down at me and waited until I turned to face him before flashing me another huge grin. “Was he trying to teach you how to use your Magic?”

“Yep.”

“How’d that go?”

“Fine.”

“Jericho’s my best friend, so feel free to open up to me.”

I did a double-take, not entirely sure what to make of this King. “I’m good.”

He cleared his throat and tried again, “Plus, I’m the king. You’re supposed to tell me everything. It’s the law.”

I was pretty sure that was not the law. “I’m not part of your cult. I don’t have to tell you anything.”

“Cult’s don’t have kings.”

“Tell that to the KKK.”

“I, uh…” It was Avalon’s turn to do a double-take. Sounding exasperated he said, “I’m not sure where to start with this. The KKK doesn’t have a king, they have a grand wizard.”

“Aren’t you a wizard?”

“I’m a witch.” He ground out, clearly becoming frustrated.

“Right, and aren’t witches and wizards pretty synonymous?” I sounded as serious as I could, but truthfully I was just as confused as he was.

“This is not the KKK!” He had about lost his temper, but it was Okay since we’d reached the ballroom again.

“Sure, whatever you say, Grand Wizard.” I scurried forward when one of the maintenance guys called out to Avalon.

Avalon looked back and forth between us as if he couldn’t decide what to do. I hid my smile and turned my back on him. This was my opportunity to escape. I wasn’t exactly sure what Avalon wanted from me, but my intuition told me it had something to do with Jericho and why he was trying to kiss me. I didn’t need to hear about Jericho’s commitment issues, or excuses for why he so clearly didn’t know what he wanted. I didn’t want Jericho, so whatever Avalon had to say, he could save for a different female, one that actually cared.

“Jericho is in so much trouble with you!” he called after me anyway, confirming my fears.

“Jericho is in more trouble trying to get back inside the wall than he ever is with me!” I called back and then escaped into the hallway.

I pressed my back against the cold stone wall once I was through the doorway and let out a steadying breath. The last hour had been…. weird.

I didn’t get Jericho’s sudden interest in me, but I had an idea that it revolved around my new Magic. Too bad for him, the Magic was only temporary.

Too bad for me, this new twist in our precarious friendship had me shaken up and more confused than ever. One part of me was flattered that I could catch the attention of a guy like Jericho. I mean, well, honestly he was super-hot. Plus, he was clearly respected here. People looked up to him, leaned on him for leadership and respected what he had to say. I mean, this guy was a catch.

Just somebody else’s catch. Not mine.

Maybe if it were at a different time in my life, or if my life would have gone differently to begin with. But it didn’t. Even apart from this whole kidnapping-changed-on-a-molecular level thing, I wasn’t the kind of girl that was fishing for a relationship or even a boy’s attention.

I had issues.

Issues that I was willing to let run my life for the rest of it.

And that was the other part of me, the one that resented his attention and felt itchy whenever he got too close. I had spent the last six years of my life avoiding boys; evolving into an entirely different species was not going to change my life plan.

I just needed to keep my head on straight.

I just needed to survive the second half of this vacation from reality just like I’d survived the first part of it.

“There you are,” Sebastian called down the hallway in his crisp English accent.

I lifted my head and forced my eyes open. “Is Ophelia alright?” I asked immediately.

“She’s the same,” he promised quickly, before the fear and dread had time to change my blood to ice. “I just hadn’t seen you in a while and I’d begun to worry.”

“Jericho took me for a walk,” I admitted easily, as if it was no big deal, because it wasn’t. “I was headed back there now.”

“Where is he?” Sebastian asked.

“Who?”

“Jericho? You said he took you for a walk?”

“Oh, he’s, er, your King locked him out I think? I’m not exactly sure.” Once I caught up to Sebastian, he led the way back to O’s room.

“That makes sense.”

“Does it?” I asked skeptically. Because it definitely didn’t make sense to me. Sebastian and I walked the rest of the way up the stairs in companionable silence. He had been around almost as much as Jericho, but we had never bonded in the same way. He kept his distance and I kept mine. I appreciated that he wasn’t trying to become lifelong friends with me; his lack of initiative in our friendship seemed born from respecting my privacy and a healthy fear of my temper.

I could be a lot to handle. I knew that. But I also had a sister in a coma and Magic in my blood; I mean, I was allowed a temper tantrum every once in a while, wasn’t I?

Just before we reached O’s door, Sebastian put a gentle hand on my bicep to slow me down. “Listen, I know that Jericho can be….”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” I cut him off. “I don’t need your well-meaning excuses for him. I get that he doesn’t know what he wants. And I also get that I’m this big cloud of confusion over whatever plans he was laying out. But honestly, I’m not interested in him and I’m pretty sure he’s only interested in me because I’m shiny and new. You don’t have to share his sob story. It’s obvious that he doesn’t trust girls, and it’s even more obvious that he was hurt by someone. That sucks for him, but I am not the girl that can fix his issues. I’ll just add so many more problems to his life. Trust me.”

Instead of getting annoyed with me or angry, he smiled. “Olivia, you are quite the surprise.”

“I don’t want to be. Honestly, I just want to get my sister better and go home.”

“Alright,” he conceded.

“Thank you.” I turned away from him and opened the door.

“But if you change your mind,” he started slowly. I whipped around to glare at him and he finished with, “I’m single too, you know.”

I just rolled my eyes and slipped into the quiet room. I knew he was joking, or at least I assumed he was joking.

It didn’t matter either way; the outcome was the same. I allowed myself a small smile at Sebastian’s playful side and then focused on my sister.

The room wasn’t as empty as I was hoping it would be. Eden was sitting in the corner, on the couch I used as a bed. There were three guards standing around the room and two girls standing on either side of O’s bed. One was tall, with blindingly bright blonde hair. She was willowy, with a perfect body most girls would die for. Her stance was casual, one hand cocked on her hip, the other dangling at her side in a way that screamed super-model-posing-for-a-cover-shoot. I instantly had my guard up against her.

The other girl was significantly shorter, with tumbling golden brown hair that hung around her shoulders. She wore a dainty golden crown on her head, and her petite frame hovered over O’s body like she could figure out what was wrong with my sister if she stared long enough.

I had to admit that I was intimidated, walking into a room full of beautiful women. I didn’t have many friends outside of my family. Okay, I had no friends outside of my family. School was too competitive for me to take time to befriend one of my classmates and besides I didn’t live on campus, so there wasn’t really an opportunity for me to get to know anyone outside of class. And high school was a completely different story, but sadly the source of all my issues. Now, or before this fiasco, my life revolved around school, the part-time job I’d quit right before O and I left for Peru and my family.

I wasn’t good with people anyway, and these girls screamed “in crowd.” I didn’t just want anything to do with them except to get them out of my sister’s room now. Right now.

I swallowed down whatever insecurities their obnoxious beauty had plagued me with and cleared my throat. “Hello?”

Eden whirled around immediately and smiled at me, “Hey, Liv.”

I swallowed against the urge to correct her. We were definitely not on a nickname basis yet. “Hey. How’s my sister?” I tried to tone down the territorial tones in my voice, but it was a losing battle.

“Oh, sorry.” Eden stood up and walked toward me. “Mimi just arrived and was desperate to check in on you two. She was with Jericho when he found you. She was at Machu Picchu.”

“Oh,” I answered a little deflated. I felt bad giving her attitude if she was one of the people that rescued us.

The short brunette marched forward next and offered her hand. In a crisp British accent she introduced herself, “I’m Amelia. Uh, Mimi. Mostly everyone calls me Mimi. And this is Seraphina.” She gestured toward the tall blonde who was watching me with one perfectly arched eyebrow raised contemptuously.

“I’m Olivia.” I shook Mimi’s hand and then offered Seraphina a small wave.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Mimi continued. “I’ve just been so worried about you two. I knew you’d recovered, or, er, at least woken up. I had hoped your sister would have, too, by now.”

“Me, too,” I croaked through the emotion lodged in my throat. “So you were on the mountain? I just, I don’t really remember.”

“Yes,” Mimi answered.

Awkward silence fell on the room and we all shifted uncomfortably. I looked longingly at my sister, wishing these other girls would just disappear. I usually convinced the guards to wait on the other side of the door if I was alone. And that was what I desperately needed, to be alone.

“So you were really changed?” Seraphina broke the silence first. She didn’t sound like she believed the rumors and I was in no hurry to put on a show for her. She could believe whatever she wanted; it didn’t matter to me.

“Yep,” I answered shortly.

“I can feel your Magic,” Eden told me. “Your current is getting strong by the day.”

“That probably means it’s getting more permanent too, right?” I felt my shoulders sag with that news.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Eden said. “It won’t matter though. We’ll figure out a way to reverse this.”

“Wait,” Seraphina piped up. “You don’t want to be Magic? Why not?”

“Sera!” Mimi scolded her. “Stop being rude.”

“I didn’t want Magic either when I first found out,” Eden pointed out.

Seraphina snorted and said, “No, you wanted it, you just didn’t know how to use it. Or was that just your ploy to get my boyfriend’s attention?”

“Oh my gosh!” Eden gasped. “We are not going back there!”

“No, that sounds fun!” Mimi giggled. “Let’s go back there. Let’s hash out all the sordid details of when Kiran dated you both!”

Both of the other girls groaned and I wished I had a bowl of popcorn. This was ridiculously entertaining.

“Don’t start with me, Amelia Catherine Cartier-St. Andrews,” Eden warned. “Or we can also talk about Avalon’s little crush on Sera.”

“Avalon was into me?” Seraphina asked, sounding a little stunned.

Mimi groaned, “Not like into you, into you. He thought you were hot for just a bit. That was before you started dating Sebastian.”

“You’re dating Sebastian?” I asked dumbly.

Seraphina leveled me with an angry glare, “Not anymore.”

Yeesh, this was like a season of Gossip Girl all packed into one tiny conversation. Who were these people?

“Got it.” I held my hands up and walked over to Ophelia’s abandoned side.

The girls continued to talk in the background. “Have you seen him since you’ve been back?” Eden asked Seraphina.

“Briefly,” Seraphina answered quickly. “Trust me, we’re over. That is a bridge that has been well and fully burned. No offense, Mimers, but your brother is such a douche when he wants to be.”

“Says the girl who’s madly in love with him,” Mimi quipped in return.

I sighed and sat down next to O. I brushed her tangled hair out of her face and pressed my forehead to hers. She was warmer today. I could feel the rise in her temperature easily. It wasn’t like she was feverish or anything, but she was further than being the temperature of cold death than she had been since she fell into her coma. I breathed her in and allowed one small tear of thanksgiving to slip from my eye while the girls prattled in the background.

Couldn’t they take this somewhere else?

“We’re being insensitive,” Eden announced firmly.

I shook my head, but couldn’t find the energy to argue with her. I just wanted my sister. I was so tired of being in the unfamiliar, of everything feeling strange and foreign, even my own body. I just wanted to curl up next to her and hold her.

“We’re sorry, Olivia,” Mimi called from where they stood, but I still didn’t look up at them. “We just haven’t been together in a while. We shouldn’t have intruded.”

“It’s fine,” I sighed. “I’m just tired and worried about O.”

There was some whispering in which I heard Eden explain that O was short for Ophelia.

“Well, we’ll let you get some rest then,” Eden finally announced.

“Thank you,” I forced myself to be polite and crawled up next to O before they’d even left the room.

I felt their curious gazes on me as I tucked myself into her, wrapping a protective arm around her slim waist and burying my face in her shoulder length blonde hair. The door opened and closed again, but my eyes were already shut and I let my exhausted mind drift into the sweet oblivion of sleep.

Finally.

Finally, these strange people would leave me alone. Finally, I would get some sleep. Finally, I would get to hold my suffering sister and will her to get better.

There were other things going on around me- important things, mundane things, strange things. But the only thing I cared about was getting Ophelia better. Terletov, revenge, my own cure, even Jericho faded into the background of what was truly important. It wasn’t until this last moment, where I hovered between unconsciousness, tangled in the concerns of my new reality that I realized how unimportant everything else was.

Everything else was just distraction.

Especially Jericho.

Especially a boy who made my heart flutter and my skin tingle. I had no room in my life for him and no room in my heart.

I just had to remember that.

Chapter Nine

Jericho

“God, you’re such a bastard,” I groaned as soon as I saw the bastard in question face to face for the first time in months.

“Who me?” Avalon asked innocently.

“I had to walk all the way around the wall. All the way around, Avalon!”  I shouted at him. We were in the Throne room. Everyone had convened here for a meeting. And while I was happy to see Seraphina and Amelia return to the castle, that brief joy was eclipsed by my outrage at my idiot friend.

“Why didn’t you just climb over it?” he asked but couldn’t completely disguise his laughter.

“You know why I couldn’t climb over it! There’s enough protection spells on the Citadel wall to send it into another realm!” I rubbed a hand over my face, trying to hold back my rage. “You locked me out!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Avalon was avoiding the Thrones- as usual- and hovering around Amelia while she chatted with Angelica.

“You’re telling me Olivia figured out how to change the lock?”

“Maybe. Did she have a reason for wanting to keep you out?” He stared at me with his blazing green eyes and waited for my honest answer, an answer I would never give him in a room full of people.

I groaned. Did she?

Yes.

“She’s not your biggest fan, Jericho,” Avalon pointed out.

“Jer,” Kiran added helpfully. Bastards. All of them.

“We’re fine,” I mumbled.

“Why wouldn’t you be fine?” Seraphina asked. “Are you like, a thing?”

“No.” I could have toned back my enthusiasm, but it needed to be known. Not only didn’t I want rumors starting, but I didn’t want Olivia to have to deal with this lot. I loved these people, I really did. Of course, it was harder to remember that when we were all together and I had to deal with them.

Seraphina laughed and Kiran shot Avalon an I-told-you-so look. This was all very irritating.

“Aren’t we here for a reason?” I asked dryly. Avalon, Sebastian and Kiran broke down into laughter.

“Yes,” Eden spoke up. “And leave Jericho alone!”
“Oh, here we go again,” Sebastian exclaimed. “Eden’s taking Jericho’s side again. I thought we
were all over the love triangle?”

Avalon choked on his laughter.

“You’re such a wanker,” Kiran growled.

And I had to agree. I knew Sebastian was just trying to get us to react, but this felt so much more like grade school than an adult meeting of the minds. We were supposed to be discussing Terletov, not my love life, or lack thereof.

“This is a waste of my time.” I took another step into the Throne room and met Avalon’s stare. “We have more important things that need to be discussed.”

“You’re right,” he agreed easily. His expression grew serious and he slowly put on the persona of King. Pointing a finger at me he said, “But this isn’t over.”

“Of course not,” I answered sarcastically.

Avalon stepped up to the platform the solid gold Thrones were set on and clapped his hands together. We were already paying attention, but tension in the room notched up about a hundred degrees and we all put on our game faces.

“We all know why we’re here. Terletov is destroying my Kingdom one city at a time. He’s so far managed to always stay ahead of us. We’ve picked up clues only to have them lead to a dead end or go cold. We’ve found secret lab after secret lab, but abandoned and empty. He is managing to kill my people and stay completely off radar. This cannot go on any longer. Our friends are at risk, my people are at risk, and now we know the human population is in just as much danger. If this continues, they will start to pay attention and they will start looking for answers. But most importantly, we need to end this before any more lives can be taken. I need to stay here. Mimi and I are moving home permanently. Eden and Kiran will be staying here full time, as well. At least until the, uh, until the baby is born. Talbott is investigating Jericho’s parent’s places. As I’ve understood it, you think there could be a lead there?” I confirmed with a firm nod. “And Gabriel has gone off on his own mission. There are other teams around the world, but this is our strongest lead. I’m going to leave it up to the rest of you to decide what you want to do. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you want. Or if you’d rather take off, no one will hold that against you. You’ve all done your share. You’ve all fought a war before. I’m not asking you to be a part of this one unless you want to be.”

“And our other option?” Sebastian demanded.

Avalon hesitated, but finally he said, “Talbott is waiting for you to join him.”

“Then that’s what I’ll be doing,” Sebastian declared.

“Me too,” Seraphina echoed.

“Oh no, oh no. No, you’re not,” Sebastian argued. “I already said I was going. You can’t follow me over there, Sera. It won’t work.”

She scoffed with so much attitude that even I felt wounded. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

“So you’re not volunteering for this mission in some desperate attempt to gain my attention?” Sebastian was being more than a little harsh, but Sera could give as good as anyone. I was still surprised that their breakup had been so volatile. When it originally happened they seemed kind of amicable, but over the months, Sebastian had been growing steadily more bitter and Seraphina couldn’t seem to hate him more. They were strange. They’d been an odd couple when they were together and now they were a series of explosive confrontations that could be dangerous to bystanders.

“Ugh!” Seraphina’s voice dripped with acid. “You’re so full of yourself it’s disgusting! Lilly is my friend. I care about what happens to her. Stop being a selfish prick and let me do what I need to.”

“Selfish prick?” Sebastian demanded. “That’s hilarious coming from you!”

“Enough,” Avalon growled. “Work out your sexual frustration later. Much, much, much later. Seraphina you will stay behind, just so I don’t even have to listen to this again.” Seraphina turned her fury on Avalon but he held up a warning hand. “Besides, Eden and Mimi need you here. We’ve shut down every upcoming event or gathering in light of Terletov’s activity, but we’ve opened the Citadel up to those who might feel in danger. The town is going to be flooded in a few days, and the girls need you to help organize.” She seemed just barely pacified by this, but wisely stayed quiet. Avalon’s irritated gaze swung to me and he demanded, “What about you Jericho? Are you in or what?”

“I’m going,” I said. “I’ll meet Talbott.”

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely.” I shifted on anxious feet. Now that departure was within my reach my body hummed with excitement for action.

“And what about Olivia?” Eden demanded.

My overly enthusiastic body lurched at the mention of Liv. My excited energy quickly turned to nausea and I felt my entire aura revolt at the idea of leaving her here by herself. And this time it honestly had nothing to do with my lustful feelings for her. I was the only stable, familiar thing she had here; and I was abandoning her.

She trusted me more than anyone else and I was choosing to leave her behind.

That pummeled my chest like missiles of inadequacy. What kind of guy abandoned a girl like that when she needed him?

Me? Was that the kind of guy I was?
Most of me wanted to say no. I stuck around, sometimes for too long. I didn’t let people down. I was loyal to a fault.

But then why was I in such a hurry to get away from Liv?

Yes, I wanted to be back out in the field, but Olivia was important too.

Was she simply not important enough?

I didn’t have the answer. Or maybe I did, but it was too scary to admit it to myself. Because maybe it wasn’t that she wasn’t important, but that she was too important.

And if I stuck around much longer, than I wouldn’t be able to ignore those obvious feelings anymore.

I shook those thoughts off and forced myself to sound level, “She’ll be fine. She has you guys. Eden can still work with her. Her sister has been showing signs of improvement lately. She’s not going to be here much longer, anyway.” Geez, that was like ten answers for one question. Pretty sure, I couldn’t get more obvious than that.

The room just stared at me, silently letting me decompress from my overeager answer.

Avalon cleared his throat and said a little dazedly, “Well, if you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.” I answered quickly.

A knock on the door drew our attention and we remained silent while a pair of Titan Guards entered the room in their relaxed uniform.

They both bowed in their stiff, military-style and then one of them spoke up, “Sir, the Gypsy Queen is here to see you.”

Avalon tried to suppress a smile, but he couldn’t quite manage to dim the curiosity in his eyes. Even Eden and Kiran started whispering animatedly.

Avalon looked around at us and waggled his eyebrows. “Illeana has never been here before. This must be a big deal.” Then assuming the look of Lucifer himself, Avalon told the Guards, “Tell her I’ll be with her in a minute.”

The Titans shifted uncomfortably and then one cleared his throat, “She said to tell you to stop stirring mischief and to thank you for gathering everyone for her benefit.”

Avalon’s smile grew, “Fascinating. Alright, show her in.”

The Titans turned on their heels and marched from the room. I had been ready to bolt just moments ago, but was just as guilty at succumbing to curiosity as Avalon.

She really had never been to the Castle before. She always waited for Immortals to visit her. Of course, before us, she had never been welcome here. Although, I didn’t think that bothered her. She didn’t want anything to do with the Citadel or reminders of a Monarchy that killed her parents and treated her like an outcast.

I didn’t blame her.

But what could she want now? Hopefully information regarding Terletov and where to find him.

Avalon looked at me and asked, “Do you think she’s pissed I haven’t been down there to visit her again?”

I refrained from laughing and said, “I hope so. I hope she beats you with a stick again.”

“How about I beat you with a stick this time, General,” Ileana’s scraggly voice sounded from behind me.

I had to assume she was talking to me. I jolted to attention and offered her a genuine smile. “Hello, your Highness. You’re looking lovely as usual.”

She snorted loudly at that and rolled her violet eyes. “You can’t charm me, Jericho Bentley. In fact, from what I’ve heard, you’re having a hard time charming anyone.”

I felt my face heat from uncharacteristic embarrassment. It was one thing to be ribbed about my failures from my friends, but that the Gypsy Queen had found out or foreseen my screw-ups was an entirely elevated degree of humiliation.

Avalon burst out laughing until Ileana leveled him with a ferocious glare. “Enough, young King, your own journey to matrimony was equally difficult. But that is not why we’re here. We have important matters to discuss and then I want to meet her.”

“Meet who?” Avalon asked carefully.

“The Immortal human. We are so much alike.” She looked around the room, her tiny frame somehow filling up the room with her presence. She wore a purple bandana tied tightly around her head, but her gray curls still escaped in chaotic wisps around her face. Her nose was pierced with a large golden ring that matched the three sets in her ears. Her clothes were layered rags that puffed her up to four sizes larger than she really was. But it was winter, and she lived in a hut, so she did what she had to in order to stay warm. And her nails were as dirty and chipped as ever. She did not look like a queen per se, but she chose this life, she chose this style and anyone that knew her realized how much respect she demanded. She cleared her throat and said, “But there are two Immortal humans, aren’t there? One with an eternal life and one in an eternal sleep.”

My heart twisted inside my chest and my Magic jolted in my blood. “Are you saying that Ophelia won’t wake up?”

“Who is Ophelia?” Ileana asked in her thick Romanian accent.

I growled under my breath.

“He won’t be found until he wants to be,” she declared and we scrambled to keep up.

Terletov.

We settled in around the room. Eden, Kiran and Mimi took seats on their Thrones while Avalon stood next to his wife. There had been talk of commissioning a third Throne so that both sets of king and queen could sit, but Avalon had been dragging his feet- big surprise. Truthfully, I didn’t think either couple wanted to reside together at the same time. But they couldn’t change that for the moment. The Kingdom needed them to stand together.

Seraphina sat down next to Angelica in the chairs that were usually occupied by the Council, except that three of those members were off with Terletov. Silas had been kidnapped by him, and Talbott and Gabriel were hunting him. Sebastian sat on the other side of Angelica and I took my seat next to him. Ileana stood in the middle and gave her prophecy.

Ileana spun around and stared at Sebastian and me. “But when he finds you, there will be an opportunity to end this.”

Foreboding chills skittered across my skin. I didn’t like the way she said that. As if, it could end, but not in the way we wanted it to.

I also felt unnerved by her direct involvement of Sebastian and me. Usually her skill was reserved for the royalty. Avalon, Kiran, Eden and Amory had all benefited from her future-seeing words, but never before had she reached out into the commoners like myself.

Seeming to read my mind, she said, “A new era is born in your Kingdom, General. The royalty rule from their resplendent seats and you are left to fight their battles.”

Avalon made a choked sound of outrage behind her, but she held up a dirty hand and he slumped back against the side of Amelia’s Throne. Sebastian snickered next to me.

“The Kingdom is left to you two,” she croaked ominously. Sebastian sobered immediately. “God save you all.”

She whirled around to Avalon and immediately began discussing the Kingdom as a whole and her concern for her own village. Sebastian and I sat equally stunned, paralyzed by fear of the future.

“Holy shite, Jericho,” Sebastian eventually whispered.

I grunted something in response. There weren’t any other details to that, no more instructions or warnings, just… basically we win or lose this battle, so don’t f it up. Great. Fantastic. Awesome.

“We should probably meet up with Talbott then,” I suggested, still feeling dazed.

“Yes,” Sebastian agreed. “Tonight, today, right now.”

“She’s obviously lost her mind,” Seraphina hissed at us from across Angelica. “Before you save anyone or anything, Sebastian, you’re going to have to pull your head out of your ass.”

Sebastian cocked his head at me and smiled bitterly. “Isn’t she lovely? Is it any wonder why I broke things off before they got too serious?”

I averted my eyes. This was well on its way to becoming a train wreck.

“Too serious? You broke up with me?” Seraphina shrieked. “Hardly!”

“I’m going to check on….” I didn’t even finish. I just stood up and bolted.

“Jericho,” Angelica called from behind me.

I waited for her and offered her my arm. “They’re nuts.”

“Yes, yes they are.” She smiled up at me. I towered over her petite frame. Her long, curly hair had turned brilliantly white in recent years and her violet eyes dulled with time. I wondered how much longer she had left with us, or if the open Magic would affect her. None of us knew how that would work. The Magic was open again, flowing freely among us. Yet, marriages were still mostly segregated and there hadn’t been enough time to put theories to test.

“Do you think they’ll ever be able to be friends?”

She shook her head, “No. They weren’t meant to ever be friends.”

“Oh.” I shot her a dubious look but she didn’t give anything away. She left my side and joined Avalon as he talked over some strategies with Kiran and Eden.

I glanced at the door, wondering if I could sneak away now and go check on Liv. I had been avoiding her since the lake. I didn’t know how to explain my insane behavior, or that I would be leaving her sooner than I thought. She obviously needed time to cool off after our… intimate moment.

But probably by now she was better.

“You’re not going up there without me,” Ileana announced to the room and even though I wasn’t looking at her, I had the terrible feeling she was talking to me.

I turned back around and met her steely gaze, confirming my suspicions. “I’m not?”

“I told you, I want to meet the Immortal human.” Her harsh voice was firmly resolved.

I shot a pleading glance to Avalon, but he was absolutely no help. He just waved at me and nudged Kiran. Oh good, they could both have a good laugh at my expense. Another good laugh.

“Take me,” Ileana demanded. “Now.

“Yes, ma’am,” I smiled at her. Explaining Ileana to Olivia was going to be tricky. But probably explaining Olivia to Ileana was going to be worse.

I held out my arm and let the ancient Gypsy Queen lean on me for support, although I doubted she truly needed any help. We left the Throne room and made our way toward the sick wing. With each step we took, I felt Olivia’s place in the Immortal world slide more firmly into place.

And my mood lightened and my fears dissipated with that thought.

I should be concerned for Olivia; I should be trying to figure a way out of this for her. I should be glad that her time with us was temporary. Instead, I proudly led Ileana up the south staircase and decided it would be good for Liv to meet a half-Immortal.

I decided I liked thinking of Olivia as Immortal- as part of this Kingdom… as part of my life.

Chapter Ten

Olivia

A knock at the door pulled me out of the last hazy remnants of sleep. Ophelia hadn’t moved next to me, even while I was wrapped around her. I lifted my head and glared at the door. Maybe, if I ignored the knock, they would just go away.

Except this room wasn’t exactly private and people came and went as often as they pleased.

I groaned and rolled over. My hair stuck to my face, and sprung from my head. I could feel how wild it was from the little bit I’d been asleep. The thing about short hair was that it was impossible to hide the disarray. I didn’t need a mirror to know it would be sticking up everywhere in crazy angles, or flattened against my head in other spots. Super.

I brushed under my eyes as I stumbled to the door. No doubt, my mascara was smudged. My mouth felt dry and bitter; even a few hours was enough to give me morning breath. I rubbed my tongue along the roof of my mouth and groaned.

At least I wasn’t trying to impress anyone here.

Or I could keep telling myself that.

The door swung open before I could reach it and Jericho stuck his head in. Of course.

“Hey,” he murmured and then chuckled in surprise. “Were you sleeping?”

I grunted in reply.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. I have someone I’d like you to meet.” He truly looked apologetic, but that didn’t stop him from walking in the room and bringing his guest with him. “Olivia Taylor, this is Ileana of the Gypsies.”

He introduced us with some kind of respectful flare and I had point three seconds to ready myself. In the half moment I had, I pictured from his tone someone regal and royal. I expected to be intimidated and inadequate.

And then a tiny, squat woman covered in rags and facial piercings walked in the room. What in the world?

She looked up at me with shrewd violet eyes that were half hidden behind smudges of dirt and dark kohl. Her purple bandana attempted to contain the mess of wild gray hair springing from her head and clashing hideously with her dull plaid shirt that overlaid an evergreen sweatshirt with a bedazzled Christmas tree on it. She wore black work pants underneath a long, paisley peasant skirt. Her feet were covered in worn brown loafers that were scuffed and tattered; one had a hole through the big toe. Her fingers were gnarled and dirty, her nails chipped and broken. She was the opposite of intimidating.

I stared at her, wondering why she was here. My brain was still foggy from sleep and I knew my breath smelled bad, so I wasn’t exactly eager to speak.

Her oddly colored eyes narrowed on me and in a moment I understood Jericho’s reverence. “The Immortal human,” she declared. “Not exactly what I expected.” She walked around me while I stayed dumbfounded in the middle of the room. “And you took long enough to get here.”

I opened my mouth to defend myself, but I couldn’t find words to answer her accusation. She grabbed hold of my wrist with a surprisingly strong grip and forced my palm in front of her face. “So much Magic,” she whispered. “You are the first of your kind, yet you are like the old ones. Not so very many like you, my dear.”

“Ileana?” Jericho asked from near the door. He sounded concerned and his hazel eyes flashed chocolate brown with distress.

“General, it is time for me to be alone with your Olivia,” Ileana snapped at him.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he argued.

She looked up at me and winked. With her back to Jericho, he didn’t see the gesture, but after only knowing this woman for thirty seconds I could already tell she was up to something. “I have foreseen our time alone together!” she boomed authoritatively.

Jericho’s eyebrows slammed together and his body stiffened immediately. “Will you be alright?” he asked me gently. His protective Magic swirled around the room. I felt it at my feet first and then as it wrapped itself around my body.

“I’m fine,” I answered with false bravado.

I wasn’t fine. I was confused. But I didn’t think this homeless person meant to harm me. Plus, I knew he would be waiting right outside the door.

Jericho nodded and left the room, but his Magic stayed with me. I marveled for a moment at how attuned to other people’s Magic I was becoming. At first the energy that swirled around this castle felt like static electricity in the air. The longer I stayed though, the more defined and individual it became and now identifying a person’s Magic was almost second nature to me.

I also realized I’d started to recognize the electrical force as “Magic.” This either meant that I was adapting to my surroundings or losing my mind completely.

Maybe a little of both.

But neither felt alright to me. I needed to stay rooted in reality, stay tied to my real life, the real world. This was a foray into the impossible, just a quick, temporary trip down the rabbit hole. Someday soon I would wake up and remember this time fondly as that crazy dream I once had.

That kind of thinking was the only way I could keep my mind from shattering into little lunatic-sized pieces.

Once Jericho was gone, Ileana looked up at me and said, “I didn’t really foresee us together, but he was bothering me. Was he bothering you?”

I smiled a little at her question. “He’s always bothering me,” I admitted.

“Such is the way with young love, I think,” she said quietly in her thick obviously-Romanian accent.

“Oh, no,” I stammered quickly. “We’re not in love.” I cleared my throat. Could this get any more awkward? “We don’t even like each other.”

Ileana’s lips twitched and finally broke into a broken-toothed smile. “But I am the Gypsy Queen, child. I see everything!”

She danced away from me and over to my sister. Ophelia laid still, like usual, even while the Gypsy Queen got right down in her face. I cringed for O’s sake as the dirty woman pressed her face into my sisters. O’s hair fluttered from the old woman’s breath on her face and I had to close my eyes to shut out the scene in front of me before I reacted violently.

I steadied out my breathing and tried to think about less offensive things than snatching her by the collar and forcefully removing her from the room. When I opened them again, her filthy fingers were tracing a line down the curve of Ophelia’s jaw.

“You the Immortal human,” she crooned softly. “Your sister the human Immortal. And your brother the hunter.”

How could she possibly know about Orion?

I stilled, utterly froze.

“Your parents are very romantic, I think, to give you all such powerful names. And yet in Olivia’s story her brother has died and she falls in love with Sebastian.” Ileana was thoughtful as she recounted The Twelfth Night.

This was not a new story to me, since my father had been regaling us with Greek mythology and Shakespeare since we were in the womb. He was a high school English teacher and my mother indulged him when it was time to name us. She indulged him always. He was forever getting his eccentric way. And now each of us had a story that belonged with our names.

“There is a Sebastian just down the hall,” she whispered conspiratorially. “Wouldn’t that be a fun way to start your story?”

“Er,” I cleared my throat. “Not if my brother dies.”

“Good choice.” She turned around and plopped down almost right on top of Ophelia. I stuttered a step forward, unable to repress my protective instincts.

“What is the difference between an Immortal human and a human Immortal?” I asked on an edgy whisper. I began to understand Jericho’s respect for this woman. She didn’t seem like much, but there was clearly a powerful air of Magic about her. Her words were frightening though. And my head was spinning as I tried to keep up. Instinct flared to life in my blood, but I couldn’t differentiate between fear of her and shocked awe.

Her violet eyes brightened at my question and her body stilled attentively. “You are the first Immortal in years to ask me the right question. Usually, it’s all noise in my ears and buzzing around my head. But I am right about you. Smart. Intuitive. Perceptive. Immortal.”

A tingle covered me from head to toe. I did not like how final that word sounded on her dry lips. “Temporarily Immortal,” I whispered.

Here violet eyes softened and her expression became maternal. “Did you know that I also resented this life…. this calling? I was not changed, but born this way. Still, I hold both parts of both worlds. My father Immortal, my mother Gypsy royalty. In a different time, when a different evil ruled this world, their marriage was forbidden. They paid the price for my life with their own. And then I was left to live an eternal existence without them. I have seen centuries go by, yet I remain. The price of Magic is steep, and not one that we are allowed to pay easily. Yet, I ask you child, is it worth it?”

Her words confirmed all of my fears. Not only was I trapped in an endless existence, but this Kingdom was volatile. Evil tyrants, mad scientists, people capable of things that shouldn’t exist outside of fiction? I didn’t want any part of this.

“No,” I answered her.

She tsked a disappointed sound, “Not yet, Livie. You should have said, not yet.”

My mouth dropped at the sound of my nickname- a nickname that only my family used. She stood up and walked over to me. I was short compared to everyone but her. I stood above her small frame. And even while she was rounder than me, my bones seemed much larger, my frame a looming giant compared to the petite-ness of hers.

Unwanted tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. “Is it reversible?”

She reached out a gentle hand to my forearm, “You are more powerful than he could have ever hoped for. But it will be to his own downfall, not yours. You will survive in the wake of his changes, while he may not.”

“Jericho?” I whispered in confusion.

Her expression changed in an instant. Gone was the sweet grandmother figure that spoke in riddles and in her place was a haunting witch that ate small children for lunch. The shadows under her odd-colored eyes darkened, her fingernails dug into my skin and her teeth seemed to elongate in front of me. “The man who started this all. The man that would drink your blood and burn your sister to ash. The man that will hunt the hunter.”

“Terletov.” I guessed and she nodded. “Is he after my brother?”

“Not yet.” Ileana loosened her painful grip. “He doesn’t know what he’s done yet.” She let go of
me and walked to the door.

“And my brother?” I squeaked out desperately.

“Do not take the way of tragedies and the hunter will be fine,” she answered cryptically. I winced in confusion and she smiled. “Olivia and Sebastian’s love story was already written.”

“The Twelfth Night was a comedy,” I pointed out.

“Not for Olivia’s dead brother.” And then she was gone.

I couldn’t really argue with that anyway.

I spun around and looked down at O. She was the same- always the same. And possibly I could be losing my mind staying here with her. I had never been more frustrated, more helpless. I couldn’t do anything for her. I couldn’t force her to get better and I couldn’t make her wake up.

On top of everything, Ileana talked about Rion like he could be in trouble.

I didn’t belong in this world! Yet, they seemed determined to keep me here.

Not yet, she’d said. Is it worth it? Not yet. What did that even mean?

“You alright?” Jericho’s voice was soft and gentle behind me. I hadn’t even heard him come in.

“No.” I didn’t turn around. I couldn’t face him now.

“What did she say?”

I ran my hands through my still-messy hair, hoping to smooth it down. Jericho’s presence was more calming than I wanted to admit. But with his Magic’s reassuring grip on my own electrical aura and his calm, steady, even-keeled energy filling the room, I started to relax. Maybe this wasn’t as impossible as I’d made it in my head.

I didn’t even know that lady. She was a nut job as far as I was concerned. Jericho had never said anything about his kind being able to tell the future. And even if she could, how reliable was fortune-telling anyway? There were probably a thousand different ways the rest of my day could go, all dependent on each one of my millions of decisions.

It was silly to believe in something that wasn’t real, or at least hadn’t been real up until ten minutes ago.

I turned around and allowed myself to meet Jericho’s probing gaze. “She said not to fall in love with Sebastian.”

Jericho barked out an amused laugh and shook his head. “Like that will happen,” he smirked at me. I lifted a casual shoulder but didn’t respond. He was right about Sebastian so there wasn’t anything left to say. Except he didn’t take it that way. “Wait, will it happen? You’re not… Sebastian’s not… You guys have barely spent any time together. How could you possibly have feelings for him? He’s not even your type! Trust me, he’s way too full of himself. And his last girlfriend is a complete basket-case over their breakup. He’s not looking for anything serious. He just wants to… Listen, he’s a good enough guy. I mean, he’s one of my good friends, but he’s not… He’s not ready to settle down or anything. He has commitment issues.”

There were just so many things to unpack in that monologue. I wasn’t even sure where to begin. So, just to cause problems, I said, “Who said anything about settling down?”

Jericho gaped at me. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

“Have you paid any attention to me? At all?” I walked over to him, intending to go back to my own room and pull myself together and at least brush my teeth. “Since when have I ever seemed into Sebastian?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged and rocked back on his heels. “It’s hard to tell with you.”

“Says the guy who keeps trying to kiss me and then chickening out,” I huffed.

Jericho’s eyes darkened and he stopped acting like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He took a step toward me. My stomach dropped and I felt my Magic spike in my blood. His eyes were that perfect mixture of green and brown again; a rich chocolate background to the brightest greenish-gold flecks. His skin practically glowed with healthy color. His energy was intense, aggressive, confusing.

He cleared his throat, attempting to pull himself back together. “We need to talk,” he said.

I glanced over at Ophelia and then back at him. “In here?”

Apparently.

“I’m leaving, Liv.” His penetrating expression turned to that of concern and a little desperate. “Avalon, the other King, is back. I’ve been waiting on him. Sebastian and I are leaving later tonight.”

A riot of emotions erupted under my skin. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this. I didn’t want him to go, but I needed him to at the same time. I felt a little like he was abandoning O and me. I felt relief that I could go back to normal, or as normal as my new Magic would let me be. I knew I would miss him. A bond had been built between us that would be difficult to break. And there were a hundred different things I felt brewing, simmering, and bubbling up inside me.

But one forced itself out stronger than all the other thoughts and emotions.

“I want to go with you.” The words fell out before I could dissect them.

“You want to what?” He looked at me like I had two heads.

“I want to go with you, Jericho. I need to go with you.”

“Liv….”
“Wait,” I held up my hand. “Listen. Please.” His eyes narrowed but he respected me enough to listen to my opening argument. “O is not waking up and I can’t do anything for her here. If there’s a cure or any way for me to help her, I have to do it, I have to help her.”

“It’s too dangerous…”

I cut him off again, “But I’m not helpless anymore. I can fight back. Besides, what else can they do to me? They’ve already ruined me.”

“They could kill you, Liv.”

I shook my head vehemently, “There’s this chance… they might be… Terletov…” I couldn’t bring myself to even say the old lady’s prediction out loud. It seemed too insane even for this world. How could she know about Orion? And how could she know that he would be in danger soon?

“What is it?” He put comforting hands on my biceps and held me at arm’s length so he could watch my face. “Did Ileana say something to you?”

“It’s impossible.”

“What did she say, Olivia?” He spoke sternly, brokering no room for argument. Apparently he took Ileana seriously; maybe I should too.

“She mentioned my brother. She said he will be in trouble soon.” I stepped into him, breaking his distance-keeping hold and wrapped my arms around his waist. Things had been weird between us lately, but this was what I needed. I needed to borrow his strength and security. I needed to feel safe and untouchable for just a few moments.

He was kind of like a drug with all his warmth and refuge. And I was quickly becoming addicted to his sanctuary.

Probably another reason to stay behind.

His arms wrapped around me reflexively and he held me to him. “Avalon won’t let you go. Even if it was alright with me, I’m not the ultimate authority.”

“So you take her seriously?”

“She has this whole thing… where she can see the future.” Jericho smiled sheepishly at me and I groaned.

“I was afraid you were going to say that. How accurate is she?” I pulled away from him just a little bit so I could look up into his eyes and gauge his truth-telling.

“Well, she can’t see everything,” he answered immediately.

“Oh, good.”

“But what she does see, she’s usually right about.”

“Usually?” I asked hopefully.

“I meant always. She’s always right.”

I dropped my forehead to his chest and winced. “Then I’m going with you.”

“You would leave Ophelia to go on this mission?” Jericho’s words were like punctuations of accusation. I knew he didn’t mean them that way, but my own, personal guilt kept me from feeling like any decision was a good decision.

“If I stay here, I’m not doing anything to help her. At least out there, I’ll feel like I’m part of a solution.” I paused and then said, “If she wakes up, I’ll be able to come back, right?”

“I don’t know if Avalon is going to let you go,” he said somberly. “I don’t know if you should go.”

I could feel him wavering, weighing the pros and cons of taking me versus leaving me. It was probably a very stupid decision for him to take me with him. Still, that didn’t mean I was going to take no for an answer.

I stepped away from Jericho and yanked open the door. “I have some say left in my own life, Jericho. You can’t keep me locked up here forever.”

“Shouldn’t you be skeptical of an old gypsy with Magical powers?” He called after me. “You’re supposed to think it’s spooky!”

“Her parents were killed because they loved each other. She’s a half-Immortal, half-human.  She’s a gypsy queen! Everything about that story sounds impossible. And that’s exactly how I know it’s true.” I shot him an amused smile and then left him watching me go.

I felt a little better knowing Jericho wasn’t the final authority. I would make a good argument and I would get my way. I fought for what I believed in, and I believed in this. I belonged out on the field, out tracking down Terletov, if for no other reason than to make sure Orion stayed safe. I would deal with Ophelia waking up when and if that actually happened. But for now, it was time to start fighting back.

Chapter Eleven

Jericho

By the time I caught up with Olivia, she was half way through her plea. I should have followed right after her, but I had needed a moment. I thought I wanted to get away from her, clear my head and get my priorities in order.

But then Ileana kicked me out of that room declaring that she needed to be alone with Olivia.

I wouldn’t argue with the Gypsy Queen and I knew she would never hurt or harm Liv. However, the wave of protectiveness that surged through my blood nearly knocked me over. Olivia was mine to protect, mine to care for.

I belonged in that room with her.

I belonged with her.

But those thoughts were crazy! I barely knew this girl.

Okay, that was a lie. We’d been together non-stop for the last few months. I did know her. And she knew me a hell of a lot better than anyone else.

I was attracted to her. I could admit that.

She thought it stemmed from finding out she had Magic, but truthfully, my attraction to her looks was instantaneous. Even on the mountain, while she was dirty and beaten, I’d been aware of her staggering beauty. In that moment, seeing her broken and so savagely vulnerable, I had been murderous. I breathed fire with the need to avenge her, to hand her retribution. And since then? That desperation had deepened tenfold, because my attraction to her was deeper than the surface, than her pretty looks and biting personality. Whatever this was, it had been growing steadily every moment we were together. Maybe the Magic was what pushed me over the edge into this never-ending abyss of “Olivia”, but I had no doubt it would have happened whether she had manifested powers or not.

She demanded too much of my time and too many of my thoughts for me not to fall for her, at least a little bit.

But now what?

What did I do with that?

Bury it.

That’s what.

Even if I felt mildly attracted to her, there wasn’t a future for us. There wasn’t anything waiting on the other side of that attachment. She wanted to go back home, back to her “normal.” And I had a lifetime of…

I shook my head, unable to finish that sentence.

It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t see beyond this current conflict and when I tried I was filled with emptiness… with loneliness.

None of that meant anything unless I could defeat Terletov. That was my responsibility now. Maybe it always had been. Maybe I’d always known that, and that was why I felt so restless.

So utterly helpless here.

Except when I was with Liv.

I shook my head of those thoughts and took off after her. If she’d manage to catch up to Avalon, no doubt she was laying out her case and arguing all of her points.

I picked up my pace.

I ran into some Titans in the lower south hallway and asked them if they’d seen the human wandering around. She’d asked for directions to the King, so one of them had set off to show her.

While Olivia had been here for weeks, she’d been mostly confined to the south wing. That had been for her safety. We didn’t want her wandering around the castle, getting lost and then unable to find her because, at the time, she didn’t have a Magical current. Of her own accord, she’d quarantined herself in O’s room because she couldn’t tolerate leaving her sister. Today was the first time she’d been outside since she arrived.

After we brought Olivia here, we outfitted her with everything she would need to be clothed, comfortable and feel at ease. I’d expected her to explore the grounds as well. It wasn’t often that modern humanity was given a chance to walk into a place like our Citadel and enjoy the luxuries of the Immortal world and the history of an ancient Romanian castle at the same time. The Citadel was the best of both worlds and everyone loved it here. Except for Liv. She’d stayed in O’s room day and night, never curious about the rest of the castle or using most of what we gave her except toiletries and the necessary clothing.

She was like that though- easy-going, self-sufficient and achingly loyal.

I walked into the Throne room during the middle of her plea, and couldn’t stop the smile from instantly appearing on my face.

I didn’t want her to go, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t adorable, standing in the middle of the stone room, arguing her point.

“If my brother is at risk, I have the right to go,” she was saying.

Avalon acknowledged me with a tilt of his head and narrowed eyes. He thought this was my fault? That was hilarious.

Olivia noticed Avalon’s attention falter and glanced over her shoulder to spot me. Her expression tightened and she looked less sure of herself than before. My friends still lingered around the room, although Ileana was gone. Angelica was back in her council seat. Amelia, Seraphina and Eden filled the other three chairs. Kiran was slumped in his Throne looking bored and anxious to leave. And Sebastian sat at the edge of Eden’s Throne with his elbows resting on his knees- like the Throne was just for anybody to sit on.

“She didn’t even bow, Jericho.” Avalon gestured with a lazy hand at Olivia.

I suppressed my smile immediately. Olivia gaped over her shoulder at me. And because I was a bastard I played along, “It’s my fault,” I worked to sound apologetic. “I didn’t go over the proper etiquette with her before she ran off. Please be lenient with her, it’s her first offense.”

“Not quite her first offense,” Avalon tsked. “She also locked you out of the castle this afternoon.”

“I didn’t! That was you!” Olivia squeaked. “You locked him out…”

“Silence,” Avalon bellowed, as if he had any real authority in this room with these people. “Do not speak unless you are spoken to!”

Olivia glanced back at me, eyes wide with fear, “Help me!” she mouthed.

My guilty conscience took over and I stepped up to her side. “He’s just teasing you,” I whispered, pressing my lips to the shell of her ear for comfort. And then louder I said, “He think he’s hilarious.”

“I am hilarious,” Avalon countered confidently. “The whole Kingdom says so.”

“Because you made it a decree,” Eden put in. “Thou shalt admit King Avalon is hilarious at every opportunity they find, or thou shalt be putteth to death.”

“That’s not real,” Olivia muttered.

I went to reassure her that it wasn’t but…. “I’m not actually sure. Probably that’s not true.”

“Probably?” she winced.

“But the bowing thing is definitely not true. Avalon hates being King.” That was true, although he seemed more at peace with his calling ever since Amelia.

“Jericho, your human would like to go to South America with you.” Kiran brought the room back together. His gaze shot back and forth between Liv and me as if waiting for one of us to deny that she was “my human.”

“I know,” I said instead. “And she’s not exactly human anymore, Kiran.”

“Does that make her eligible for your team?” Avalon asked with surprising somberness.

“It was enough for Eden,” I answered seriously.

The room fell into hushed silence, nobody quite sure what to say.

Finally Avalon said, “That was different.”

“How?” I challenged.

“Jericho, I was… I am…,” Eden cleared her throat and tried again. “Avalon and I have always had each other. He was my failsafe. Amory always knew I would be fine.”

“And those were different times,” Avalon put in.

“You’re right. Last time we were able to leave the humans out of this.” I felt petulant and argumentative. I didn’t even want Olivia to go with me, so I wasn’t sure why I was petitioning on her behalf.

“Are you going to ask her to join the Resistance too?” Kiran asked snidely.
“What is the Resistance?” Olivia asked in a small voice.

“You’re missing my point,” I said firmly. What was my point?

“When it comes to Magic she’s greener than Eden ever was,” Avalon stood up and took a step forward. He thrust his finger at her and radiated with authority. This was a side of Avalon I hardly ever saw and never had it been directed at me. But I wouldn’t back down, especially now. I wasn’t intimidated easily, or at all. I had a valid point. Eden was more of a liability than Olivia would ever be.

So I thought I’d better drive home my point, “But Olivia’s not in love with the enemy!”

More silence. Damn, I was on a roll tonight.

“Is that what this is about?” Kiran jumped to his feet, ready to defend his wife.

“God, no. It’s not…” I answered honestly. “Look, Eden….” I cleared my throat and turned around to face her. She was white, ghostly pale with anger or hurt- I couldn’t tell anymore with her. I couldn’t read her anymore. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I just meant that, while there are a lot of similarities between you and Olivia, there are a lot of differences too. She has a real reason for revenge. She is motivated to work hard at this, especially if her brother truly is in trouble.”

“You forget that I also had a real reason for revenge, Jericho,” Eden’s voice was fire and acid. Her eyes were dark holes of crackling energy. Shit, I’d really pissed her off. And I hadn’t meant to. “I wanted vengeance more than anybody. And I did everything I could to accomplish it.”

I rarely let these particular feelings surface. There were just too many of them, too many emotions. Anger, hurt, betrayal, loss… I was the one to walk away from her all those years ago. I knew that. I reminded myself of that fact often. And it wasn’t as though I still pined away for the new Queen. But what I’d felt for her had been real- the most real thing in my life. It had taken a long time for those feelings to fade.

And some days I was convinced they never had.

“Don’t,” I begged in a quiet, hard voice I was embarrassed to use in front of everyone else in this room. Eden’s steel visage broke, cracked straight down the middle with pity for me. “You could tell that to anyone else, Eden, but not to me.” I flicked a glance at Kiran, who had also sagged with cold compassion. The ease in which they backed off from this fight made me burn with rage and self-righteousness.

Yes, I was the loser. Fine, I’d been passed over. But I’d moved one. We were all adults now. We were kids back then and I had been stupid enough to believe I was enough for a girl that had already given away her heart to another man.

I felt Olivia’s curious eyes on me, felt her confusion spike to an almost palpable being. I couldn’t look at her, though. I couldn’t let her see the hurt and regret reflected on my face or the self-loathing that I had let my past affect me so  deeply.

All I’d done was fall in love with a beautiful girl, but it was a mistake I felt like I would pay the rest of my life: a black mark on my otherwise perfect record, the great taboo that everyone was afraid to bring up in group gatherings but whispered about behind my back.

Avalon softened his tone as another person in love and watching my single-misery. I felt like announcing my current contentment. It was like they were all so blissfully in love they couldn’t bear to watch the poor single person struggle through life alone.

“Are you going to be responsible for her?” Avalon asked with a wary glance at Olivia.

“I didn’t set out to convince you to let her come,” I sighed. How did I get myself into this? “It’s your decision, obviously. I just thought she had a valid argument, that’s all.”

“I think she should go,” Mimi spoke from behind me. I felt myself instantly relax at her voice. She had become a good friend, maybe my best friend. Avalon and I had always shared a close friendship, but I didn’t talk to him the way I could talk to Amelia. Sebastian and I spent the most time together but only because of our assignments. We were okay friends, but he had been with Seraphina for the last four years and I wasn’t the kind of guy that opened up to… anyone. Amelia had become a voice of reason and friendship that I truly enjoyed. She’d been there for me when I needed a plus one and the circumstances surrounding our group had become awkward. She danced with me so I didn’t have to dance with strangers and daughters of hopeful politicians. She hung out with me when everyone else was tied up in Kingdom business. She was awesome and could be really funny. And right now confirmed it; I liked her best.

“Why?” Eden asked quietly.

“She’s not helpless,” Mimi started in a soft voice but picked up courage as she continued. “She has as much Magic as any of the rest of us. The ballroom is evidence of that. She is motivated, like Jericho said, but also, she’s got to be bored. We’ve trapped her here, or at least her sister. She can’t go anywhere. She can’t do anything. She can’t save her sister by just sitting next to her every day. I would go crazy if that were me. In fact, when Kiran was sick, I almost did go crazy. I would have done anything I could for him. If I could have hunted you down, Eden, I would have. She’s smart, she’s capable, she deserves more from us. And Jericho makes a good point. Eden, you were allowed to run missions and fight bad guys and you were no more prepared than Olivia. Jericho will work with her; he would never let something happen to her that could be avoided. There will be a team of people involved. And if it gets too dangerous, we should trust Jericho to send her back here. Avalon, you’ve already given him immense responsibility. You trust him with every life in this Kingdom, why won’t you trust him with just one more?”

Avalon regarded his wife carefully before saying, “What if the mission doesn’t pose as much of a threat as she does to the mission?”

“You know, I’m right here,” Olivia announced pointedly. “You can stop talking about me like I don’t exist.”

We ignored her.

“Then Jericho sends her back,” Mimi shrugged and came to stand next to me. “You trust him for everything else, Avalon. Are you really questioning his judgment now?”

Avalon huffed out a breath and turned to Sebastian, “And what do you think?”

Sebastian looked back and forth between Olivia and me, something surprisingly intelligent flashing in his expression. “You let Seraphina tag along on missions. How much worse could it get?”

“God, I hate you,” Seraphina snarled.

“I’ve heard that before you cheeky wench,” Sebastian smirked at her- looking so much like his arrogant cousin I rolled my eyes. “But last time there was a little more moaning involved.”

“Alright,” Avalon stepped in and held up his hands to keep Seraphina from flying across the room and clawing Sebastian’s eyes out. Not that I would blame her. “That was no help.” He glared at Sebastian.

Sebastian shrugged, holding both palms up. “Listen, like Jericho’s said, we’ve gone into these situations before with people that aren’t prepared. But we’ve always trusted instinct and Magic to get us through. I don’t know why now should be any different. If she’s a pain in the arse, we’ll send her back. But my sister makes a good point. I’m going crazy from the little time I’ve spent here and this is almost like home to me. She’s probably about batty by now. Why not take her along? At least she’ll be able to recognize some of Terletov’s henchmen if we should be lucky enough to run into them.”

“Kiran? Anything to add to this?” Avalon turned to his co-ruler and raised his eyebrows.

Kiran let out a slow breath and shared a look with his wife. “I’ve seen firsthand the destruction she’s capable of. I suppose the point has been made. She should go. She should be given the chance to prove herself at least.”

“Are there other women on the team at least?” Angelica spoke up for the first time.

I felt myself flush with embarrassment. In the heat of the moment, I’d forgotten she was here. Not only had I made an ass of myself in front of my friends, but someone I respected, too. Great.

“Roxie,” Sebastian shrugged.

Avalon snorted, “Oh, yeah, she’s super maternal.”

“I don’t need a mother,” Olivia bit out.

A beat of silence pounded in the air before Avalon narrowed his eyes on her and his skeptical scowl turned into reluctant admiration. “Maybe you’ll be better off than I’m giving you credit for,” he said.

“Are we good here, then?” I demanded. I needed to get out of this room, away from these people. I had never been gladder to leave my friends behind. And while I knew my resentment would die down and I would get these emotional ghosts under control again, I just wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible. “Can I go pack?”

“Yeah,” Avalon answered. “Yes, you’re free to go. Call me when you land. I’ll want a full brief of what you find.”

“Sure thing, boss,” I called over my shoulder just to be a jackass.

I walked out into the hallway, shaking off the tension and frustration of that brilliant meeting of the minds. I couldn’t even remember deciding I wanted Olivia along. In fact, I distinctly recalled wanting her to stay behind.

And now, I wasn’t only saddled with her, but responsible for her to.

This was just about worst-case scenario for me.

“Jericho, wait!” she called from behind me. She jogged to catch up and I had to command my body into silent submission when all I wanted to do was lash out at somebody- hurt somebody.

“I have to go pack,” I said shortly. “You should go do that, too. I want to leave in one hour.”

“Oh,” she cocked her chin back and seemed surprised by my attitude. A pang of guilt punched me in the stomach, but I was in too sour of a mood to care. “I will, uh, go pack that is. But I just wanted to say thank you for standing up for me.” She smiled at me, her full lips lifting into a mildly reserved expression of gratitude.

One that I couldn’t allow her to keep. I hadn’t done anything for her except argue against stupidity. And in the end I would be paying the price for it. “Listen, I said what I did because they were being completely hypocritical and I didn’t think it was fair to you. But honestly, Liv, I don’t want you on this mission. Their points were valid. You don’t know how to fight, how to use your Magic or even if you could use your Magic if you really needed to. You’ve never been tested and you’ve had only one day to practice your skill. This is a huge liability on my end, one that I didn’t intend to take on.” I pinched the bridge of my nose to cover the fact that I couldn’t look at her anymore. “Besides, you’ll be in danger and you could easily put my team in danger.”

“Then why did you stick up for me?” she bit out angrily but her hurt expression betrayed her.

“I told you why. Eden was just as inexperienced when she started out and we treated her like our goddamn savior. I didn’t think it was fair to you.”

“I’m not a charity case, Jericho! I don’t need you to stick up for me because you can’t live with a guilty conscience.” She was seething with ire, I could feel it hot and fiery on my skin. Her Magic lashed out around her whipping and stinging mine like the tail of a scorpion. Taking in her wild eyes and flushed cheeks, I didn’t even think she knew what she was doing.

“You just came out here to thank me,” I reminded her callously. I wanted a fight right now- needed it- and she was happy to oblige. “Apparently you did need my help.”

“No,” she shook her head and stumbled back a step. “That was when I thought you were on my side. I had no idea you were using me to win your own damn argument.” She whirled around as if she couldn’t stomach being around me anymore.

Guilt and regret slammed me in the chest then and I felt like a bastard for talking to her like that. She’d gotten the brunt of an old anger that didn’t even have any relevance in my life anymore. “Do you need me to show you back to your room?” I called after her with a gentler tone.

She didn’t even bother to turn around, “Ha! Believe it or not, Jericho, I don’t really need you for anything in my life.”

I watched her go without saying another word. I didn’t really feel like I deserved a chance to argue her accusation. And I wasn’t sure that I wanted to.

I’d just dug myself a huge hole and then walked straight into it. But maybe this was where I belonged. What Olivia and I had could barely be called friendship and whatever relationship did exist between us had an expiration date. She was leaving. She wanted nothing to do with me, my lifestyle or my future.

This brought back the nostalgic reminders of what it had been like to lose Eden, because even though, I had been the one to walk away, I had definitely been the one to lose her. I didn’t want to go through this with another girl that wanted something else in life.

Something else that wasn’t me.

Chapter Twelve

Olivia

“We’re here,” Sebastian’s crisp accent pulled me out of a dreamless sleep.

I groaned but sat up. I blinked away the exhaustion and jet lag, sending a surge of this new Magic through my body to give it the energy I needed to move in any way, shape or form.

After an eternally long flight across an ocean and continents and then a four-hour car ride through the winding, insanely dangerous roads of Brazil, we’d finally reached our destination. And apparently our destination was somewhere in a rain forest with negative light and a hundred different species of birds.

We’d left the throes of winter behind and landed south of the equator. It was hot, hot as hell. I’d just left temperatures in the teens with wind chills reaching below zero and now I was faced with sweltering heat and high humidity.

“I can’t breathe,” I whined when the doors to the sleek black Mercedes were opened and the suffocating tropical air flooded the cool interior.

Sweat beaded my forehead. My t-shirt stuck to my skin. My eyeliner started to smudge in the corners; I could feel it dripping. I scrambled out of the car and immediately tripped on the uneven ground.

Alright, I’m awake.

“Are you okay?” Jericho asked as if he could care less either way.

“Fine,” I bit out. “Just fine.”

I hopped up to standing again and then used the light of the car to gather my things from the backseat and trunk. I had packed a hiking backup of necessities and a messenger bag of things to occupy my downtime: a few books borrowed from the Castle, a fashion magazine, a deck of cards. I winced remembering my lost-forever Kindle that had been as much of a victim of Terletov’s cruelty as I had. In fact, all my belongings needed proper mourning. I didn’t consider myself a materialistic girl, but it sucked to lose everything important and necessary. There was just no way to spin that in a good light.

And now I was stuck with borrowed items or hand-me-downs. Okay, that was harsh. I knew most of my donated possessions were new and specially bought for me, but they still didn’t feel like mine. They were expensive, brands I would never waste money on and not really my style. They belonged in one world, while I belonged in another one completely.

Jericho closed the car doors, Sebastian slammed the trunk and we were shrouded in utter darkness once again. The tree tops were heavy and dense above us, blocking out whatever light the moon might have offered. The animals squawked and growled in the distance and some nearby bushes rustled with ominous vigor.

“Oh good, lord, I’m going to get mauled by a tiger before I ever meet Terletov again,” I groaned. I sent the Magic soaring through my veins, heightening my senses and bringing my night-vision to life. Now, this was a magical feature I could get used to. Hello, humanity-upgrade. They seriously needed to develop an app for this.

Sebastian snickered at my obvious sarcasm, while Jericho offered, “You can use your Magic to help you see.”

“Ten steps ahead of you, Captain,” I shot back. Why was he even talking to me? He’d been ignoring me since Romania and clearly I was raining on his get-away parade. “And you’re about to walk into a tree.”

He looked up just in time to see the attacking foliage and stutter-stepped to a halt. “Did you put that there?” he demanded as if I knew how to do that.

Seriously, could I do that?

“Like, I would waste time on pranking you,” I scoffed. “Especially when you’re so good at doing it all by yourself.”

He scowled at me.

“Did you text Talbott when we landed?” Sebastian asked Jericho. “Or are we going to have to meet a welcoming party that tries to blow us up?”

“I texted,” Jericho grunted.

We reached a stucco wall that ran through the thick greenery of the rain forest. We were just south of the Amazon, near a booming city called Cuiaba. Tourism was a major form of commerce there and it was the capitol city of the Brazilian state of Mato Grasso. Did I sound informed? I totally Wikipedia-ed it on Sebastian’s phone on the drive here.

That was after our flight over in a super swanky jet that cost more than my life was worth. Oh and it was just Avalon’s that Jericho was borrowing, like a pair of shoes. And then Jericho flew the jet himself! Sebastian and I hung out in the buttery leather seats watching Will Ferrell movies on the ginormous flat screen and sipping vodka and ginger ales, because Sebastian claimed they settled the stomach, while Jericho piloted the freaking plane!

I knew these people came from money by how luxurious the Castle had been; but planes, avoiding customs in order to land on private landing strips, hundred thousand dollar cars just locked up in storage in some random South American country and arriving at a private villa in the middle of the night didn’t match up with my middle-class-at-best lifestyle.

A door in the wall swung open and a massive man stepped out. He towered over the rest of us, huge, bulking and insanely muscled.

“Titus, how are you, brother?” Sebastian greeted tiredly.

Titus yawned in reply. “Took you guys long enough.” I was not expecting to see another American. What was with all the surprise Americans?

“We came here as soon as we landed,” Jericho explained shortly.

“Not what I meant.” Titus yawned again.

Jericho’s gaze cut to me and then returned to Titus with a hint of regret. “We got held up.”

“Yeah, well, we need leadership…” Titus glanced over his shoulder. “Talbott’s not… he’s in a pretty bad place.”

“You would be, too, if your fiancée had been kidnapped,” Sebastian muttered under his breath. “Again.”

Wait. What?

I glanced at Jericho mechanically, but his attention was on the building beyond the gate that I couldn’t make out yet. “At least Lucan simply locked her in the dungeons.”

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

Titus’s attention flicked to me for the first time and he lit up with instantaneous sex appeal. Obviously, a well-practiced reaction to the female gender. His whole face came to life while he took me in, his bearish features softened, his eyes danced with mischief and he radiated dangerous charm. Coming from such a huge man that looked downright dangerous completely disarmed me.

“And who are you?” He stared at me with smoldering eyes and a crooked smile.

“Uh, er, I’m…”

“Human,” Jericho bit out.

My mouth gaped open and Sebastian let out a low whistle. Titus looked back and forth between us with utter confusion drawing down his thick brows. He flicked a finger back and forth between us, slow and heavy. Jericho let out an exasperated sigh and Sebastian grinned wickedly.

“Why does everyone just assume that?” Jericho groaned.

Oh, that we were together. Poor him, always getting stuck with the pathetic human.

“It’s the obvious sexual tension crackling between us,” I quipped dryly. “We can barely keep our hands to ourselves.”

Jericho scowled at me but his hands remained impassively at his sides. Point proven.

Sebastian’s wide smile kicked up even further and now Titus matched expressions with him, twinkling eyes for twinkling eyes.

Ignoring Jericho, I stepped forward, clutching my messenger bag. “Can I be shown to my room now? I’m jet-lagged and cranky and I just want to go to bed.”

“This is a mission, Liv. There is no sleeping.” Jericho actually sounded a little apologetic, but it wasn’t enough to gain him any points. “I’ll show you to your room so you can freshen up, but you’ll have to use your Magic to stay awake.”

I grunted something like an agreement and fell in step behind him. I could hear Titus ask in a confused voice, “I thought he just said she was human?” I chose to ignore him.

We walked through the wrought iron gate on a path of red stone. I used my Magic to not only bring my lagging body back to life but take in the foreign backdrop of my new life-experience.

I’d gone off to Peru with the goal to “find myself” and if this wasn’t that very definition, I didn’t know what was. Granted, I was discovering a new self, one that could shoot lightning bolts out my fingertips and didn’t require sleep anymore… but still.

I was like Edward Cullen meets Storm from X-men. Next, my hair would turn silver and I would start glittering in the sunlight.

I could hardly wait.

To steady my rioting nerves, I breathed in the fresh, tropical air. It settled on my skin, hot and cloying, and dug deep in my lungs with a heavy pressure. The heat pressed against my clothes, forcing sweat to spring from my hairline and lower back.

Where Peru had been all mountain-glory with thin air and rocky terrain, Brazil was sultry heat and thick jungle. I swiped the back of my hand over my forehead and tugged my thin V-neck t-shirt away from my stomach.

Eventually the rain forest cleared and we walked into the “front yard” of a sprawling villa. Light from every window and door tumbled onto the mossy grass at my feet, lighting up the breath-taking structure like a backlit painting.

Cream stucco siding was broken up by arched porticos that led directly into the living space. The thatched roofing gave the surprisingly modern structure a feel of rustic elegance. The red clay floors sat beneath darkly stained all-wood furniture with woven leather upholstery. Lazy ceiling fans with straw paddles thumped listlessly in the heat of the night and a glistening pool sparkled in the moonlight to my right.

I gaped at the beauty of this hidden retreat.

All kinds of people lounged around inside the open-styled house. Their curiosity peeked as Jericho led me inside, but there was a tension about the room that prevented their twenty questions from becoming verbal.

Several of them smiled and called out to Jericho, clearly relieved that he was here. All were men that kind of blended together except for the one woman that kept her distance. She was tiny, Latina and obviously wary of me. Her exotic, deep chocolate eyes were rimmed with just enough eye-liner to make her face demand to be noticed, but that was the only makeup she wore. Her dark hair matched the exact hue of her eyes and was only trumped by the perfection of her tanned skin. She was stunning. And really, really scary.

I closed my open mouth and forced myself to swallow against the knot of nerves tightening on my throat. This was all just so intimidating.

Jericho took my hand and pulled me toward the back of the house where hallways branched off into what I assumed were bedrooms. I couldn’t tell if he took my hand because he wanted to reassure me, or if he had been trying to get my attention and all I could do was stand there and stare.

Either way, I was grateful for the tug in the right direction.

Someone shouted out a direction for Jericho to go and he followed it as if he’d spent time here before. We walked past an open kitchen with every appliance new and shiny, past a library that contained floor to ceiling bookshelves on every wall utterly crammed with books until they were bursting with the written word, past a dark wood-paneled room with a pool table, and finally past several bedrooms that blinked by with luxury and style. This house was insane.

“Party house, right?” I teased.

“Actually, it’s owned by a priest,” Jericho answered stoically.

Was he for real?

At the end of the hall he pushed open a door and led me into a quiet space with a four poster bed draped with an ivory mosquito net. The rounded windows were open directly to the outside and flanked French doors that walked out to a red stone patio. The room was simply styled with only a huge crucifix adorning the wall across from the bed. The wood and iron cross hung next to another door that I hoped led to a bathroom.

“This is me?” I whispered into the silent room.

“Yeah,” he answered softly.

“Alright, thanks.”

He lingered by the door, keeping it propped open with the toe of his foot while he leaned back against the frame. I glanced over my shoulder at him and met his hazel gaze with confidence I didn’t feel in this moment.

“Whenever you’re ready, you can come out to the kitchen. We’ll hold our meeting there in case you’re hungry.”

“Alright.”

“Liv?” He took a tentative step forward, and then another one. My breath caught in my throat and I turned around so that the backs of my thighs pressed into the soft bed. He didn’t stop walking until we were just an inch apart. He towered over me at this nearness, his body radiating heat like he was the sun. “There is a lot going on with Terletov. This conflict is deep, and a lot of people are suffering because we can’t find this man. Sebastian and I are taking over for a man named Talbott. He is in charge of our Guard and part of the Royal Council, but his fiancée was kidnapped last October. He is… he’s broken. There’s no other way to explain it. But he’s also more determined than I’ve ever seen another man.” Jericho paused and glanced up at the ceiling, seeming to put his next phrase together carefully, “What I’m trying to say is that he is walking a very fine line between sanity and… He won’t mean to scare you, but he might. I just don’t want you to get a bad impression of him or fear that he’ll hurt you. His fight isn’t with anyone but Terletov. Do you understand?”

I nodded with a heart already broken for this man.

Jericho’s fingers trailed across my cheekbone and a ragged breath left his chest. He closed his eyes against an unknown but powerful emotion and then spun around and stalked out of my room. I watched him go, trying my best to recollect my anger and hurt that had scattered across the floor the second he stepped into my personal bubble.

How did he do that? How did he just disarm me and turn me into a pathetically weak female?
I was strong, or at least stronger than him.

I wanted to take a shower, but didn’t think I had the time, so I grabbed my makeup bag and some
toiletries and slipped into the incredibly plush, luxurious bathroom to freshen up. I ignored the marble bathtub and the glass shower with four different heads and instead turned to face an atrociously exhausted looking version of me in the mirror.

This could not be right. My blonde hair laid flat against my head, half frizzed out from the humidity and half flattened to my neck in limp strands. My mascara and eyeliner were smudged under my bottom lashes, enhancing the dark circles of exhaustion and my cheeks were pale, completely lacking color or life.

This wasn’t me. This was the jet-lagged-emotionally-overwhelmed-ghost version of me. And I needed to fix that before I even thought about leaving this room.

I focused on my face, and the mess that was my hair and decided to let this Magic thing have its way with me. When I first started to get to know Jericho, I asked him what boundaries and limits Magic had. He explained that there weren’t many. It couldn’t create something from nothing, or put life back in the dead, but most physical things could be manipulated in some way.

However, I quickly learned that while I could warm or cool my own body temperature with Magic, I could not miraculously bring my hair back to life- it must fall into the “dead” category. So I pulled out an elastic hair tie and about a hundred bobby pins and went to work on a tiny little nubbin of a bun at the nape of my neck. Short strands of hair that sometimes passed for longish bangs, fell around my chin, framing my face. I applied a little dry shampoo and let them be. I fixed my makeup, reapplied the necessary good-smelling sprays and deodorants and changed from my stretched out t-shirt and jeans to some black leggings and a silk tunic-styled racer-back tank.

In a gesture of kindness, Seraphina, Mimi and Eden had invaded my space and brought more climate-appropriate clothes. They’d also helped me pick out outfits that were “mission suitable.” It had been kind of them to help me out, but mostly they just did their own thing and I watched from O’s bedside.

They were nice girls; I just didn’t know them. And honestly, friends weren’t really my thing. I had my family.

Feeling satisfied I no longer looked like the walking dead and somewhat stylish, I left the solitude of my bedroom and joined the gathered crowd in the kitchen. I sidled up next to Sebastian, who put a heavy arm lazily around my shoulders.

“You alright?” he asked with that yum British accent.

“Yeah.” I sighed and leaned into him. It felt good to feel like I had another ally besides Jericho- especially with Jericho’s swinging moods.

“You ready to meet all these strangers?” He grinned down at me and that same wicked amusement danced in his golden brown eyes.

I didn’t smile back. “No.”

“Good,” he said. “That’s exactly the right attitude.” And then he launched into introductions anyway. “You’ve met Titus. This is Xander and his little brother Xavier.” I snorted because “little” was a relative term. Both brothers were huge; obviously left-overs of some former race of giants. They were tall, muscled and nearly identical with their black hair and chiseled features. I would never be able to tell them apart and I probably wasn’t even going to try. Sebastian continued, “This gentle, demure lady is Roxie. She is a stickler for etiquette and propriety, so do be on your best manners around her.”

The girl I’d seen earlier made a gurgling sound in the back of her throat and flipped Sebastian the bird. “Keep it up, Sebastian. You must want me to kick your ass.”

“Please,” Sebastian taunted her. “You must want me to kick your ass, please.”

Roxie opened her mouth to spit something back at him, but Jericho walked into the room at that moment with his hand on the back of another guy. They were speaking in low tones and Jericho seemed to be comforting him. This must be the heartbroken fiancé that had lost his bride-to-be.

It had to be him, because he was utterly haggard looking. If I thought jet lag had destroyed my youth and beauty, this man’s good looks and vitality had been ripped from him during a violent mugging in a back alley somewhere. He looked terrible. His olive skin was pasty and dull, his dark hair much too long and unkempt. He wasn’t trying to be stylish with how he wore his hair, he was simply dealing with it because it was part of living. His eyes were sunken in black holes of despair and barely restrained rage. His shoulders slumped, his mouth turned down and his hands seemed to be shaking.

I had been through a lot with Terletov; but somehow this man had been through more.

“And that’s Talbott,” Sebastian whispered in my ear.

Jericho looked up then and met my gaze. His expression was soft and pained and while I wished for a moment that it was because he had started to feel bad for the way he was treating me, I knew better. He hated watching his friend suffer; he was in agony just because his friend agonized. That was the kind of guy Jericho was. He would take as much hurt as he could into himself, just so nobody else would have to feel pain.

Except me. Apparently he’d decided I could handle his ice-out.

Which I could. I could totally handle it.

“Sebastian have you introduced everyone to Olivia?” Jericho asked from the other side of the long kitchen island.

Everyone moved to take a seat at a tall bar stool around the island while Sebastian said, “I was just getting to that.”

“I’ll do it then,” Jericho said. “Everyone, this is Olivia Taylor. She is one of the humans we found on the mountain last fall.”

“One of the nuns?” Titus sputtered.

“What! No!” I suppressed a smile while Jericho cocked his chin back, completely grossed out by that assumption. Apparently he wasn’t up for nearly kissing nuns. Put that in the Plus Column, the boy has standards. “I said human. Her sister is unconscious still.”
“Oh, those humans.” Titus rubbed a hand over the top of his shaved head and avoided looking at everyone.

“Anyway,” Jericho continued. “Olivia is with us because she suffered through Terletov’s experiments and did not come out unscathed. He somehow implanted Magic inside of her. She…”

“Wait, what?” Roxie demanded. “She was human. And now she’s… Immortal?”
“Yes, she has as much power as any of us. Maybe more,” he added as an afterthought. “Her sister is in a coma currently, but she could very easily wake up just as Immortal. This seems to be Terletov’s plan. He kidnaps Immortals and humans in an effort to transfer power. We’re obviously aware that not all of his case studies survive. In fact, if I had to guess, I would say most of his tests end with death. But for whatever reason, Olivia survived. And her sister, while she is unconscious, is still very much alive. Before we left, she started to improve.” Jericho looked around the room and met each one of our eyes. “We don’t know how many are out there, like Olivia. But if he has succeeded beyond the Taylor sisters, then there are a lot of confused humans out there that suddenly have unspeakable power. The necessity to find Terletov and shut down his operation is greater than ever.”

“What’s the end game, Jericho?” one of the brothers asked. Xander? Xavier? I couldn’t remember. “What are your plans with the humans that have been pulled into this?”

“Take their Magic back?” the other brother asked.

The high planes of Jericho’s face heated and he cleared his throat nervously before answering, “Whatever Terletov is doing to the humans seems to be reinforcing their Magic. We’ve so far been unsuccessful in removing Olivia’s Magic.”

“Well, sure,” Roxie grunted. “Of course it would be a fight if they don’t want to lose it to begin with.” She glanced at me from the corner of her eye and I immediately stopped liking her.

What a little hussy!

But before I could rip her head off for accusing me of sabotaging efforts to remove my Magic, Jericho stepped in, “Olivia would like nothing more than to get rid of her Magic, believe me.”

“What did you do to her, Man?” Titus chuckled. “Why’s she so anxious to get away from you?”

“Trust me, Jericho hasn’t done anything to her,” Sebastian taunted.

“Maybe that’s the problem,” one of the brothers, obviously the stupid one, mumbled.

“Is it really so hard to believe that I don’t want your Magic?” I snapped. No matter what the Magic did to my body, my brain and spirit were still incredibly exhausted and I had no patience for this. “I don’t want anything to do with any of you people! If I could give you back the Magic this second, I would. Jericho couldn’t get the Magic out of my blood, but it didn’t have anything to do with me. Believe me, I want it out of me more than anything!”

“So it’s your fault then?” Titus glared at Jericho but I had to believe there was some humor behind his steely eyes.

“What are you doing here?” Roxie asked, turning her full, hateful attention on me. “If you want the Magic gone so bad, why are you here?”

“I also want revenge,” I hissed. “Just as bad as I want to forget this entire nightmare ever happened. And did you not hear him? My sister is in a freaking coma! The sooner I can hunt down this bastard and get a cure out of him, the better.”

Roxie seemed to size me up before nodding slowly. “Fair enough,” she conceded.

“So the plan?” Titus asked.

“We’re checking out my parent’s places one by one. Tomorrow we’ll go to their house closer to Cuiaba. If we find nothing there, then we’ll try their weekender in Sao Paulo.” Jericho looked at the group of people and waited for questions but they just nodded. “And Gabriel? Has anyone heard from him?”

The sad man lifted his eyes from the floor and let out a weary sigh. Finally, and in a thick Romanian accent that reminded me of the Guards from the Castle, he said, “He’s tracking Terletov’s brother, Alexi. He picked up a lead and said he would call us when he tracked it down.”

“Good,” Jericho nodded. “Then get some rest tonight and tomorrow we track down our own lead.”

Everyone nodded and then split up, or mostly moved from the bar stools to gather around Jericho or Sebastian. They fell into easy conversation and seemed obviously glad to see each other. I wasn’t the kind of girl to feel left out, mostly because I didn’t care if I was included or not. I preferred my “loner” status. But this felt like a family reunion of which I was an outsider. Besides that, I was tired.

I took a few steps back and planned to escape quietly to my bedroom when Jericho called after me, “Liv, you want to talk for a bit? I can explain more of what’s going on.”

“That’s alright,” I called out over my shoulder. “I’m going to go catch up on some sleep. I’m pretty exhausted. I wouldn’t be a good listener anyway.”

Jericho didn’t smile or even seem angry; actually he made absolutely no facial expression at all, just stared at me with impassive eyes. “Alright, see you in the morning.”

“Night,” I said and then made my escape.

I could tell myself I didn’t fit in with these people all I wanted, but the real reason I was hiding out in my room? Jericho. I knew people respected him from the time we’d spent at the Castle. And he told me he was an important person. But there hadn’t been much of this kind of quiet reverence at the Castle- this devotion and adoration that his kind clearly felt for him. They listened to him with absolute trust and gave him everything he deserved, even when they were ribbing him.

And on top of that, he was a good leader. He was a great leader. He knew how to control a room and he clearly felt comfortable at the helm. Listening to him brief his team with authority, decisiveness and compassion all at the same time did funny things to my heart. The meeting had been so short, so these feelings felt one hundred percent ridiculous, but they were there all the same. And I was losing the will to fight them.

I worried these conflicting thoughts of Jericho and my beloved single status would keep me up all night. But once I was safely tucked away in my own room, with the sultry breeze floating in through the opened windows and patio door, the ceiling fan making a soft, soothing lullaby accompanied by the distant sounds of the rain forest, put me flat on my face. I collapsed in bed, my head thankfully landing on the pillow and I was out.

Chapter Thirteen

Jericho

“You’re sure you’re up for this?” I asked Talbott first thing the next morning. We were the only ones in the kitchen so far, but I could hear the activity in the rest of the house. They had ten minutes to get out here before I left without them.

I probably wouldn’t leave without them, but they needed to live in fear that I would.

“It’s not a question of whether or not I’m up for this,” Talbott ground out. If possible, he looked even worse than the night before. I wondered if this was how all his days were, one shade darker than the last. “We find her today. That’s the only way I keep going, Jericho, by believing that this is the day I find her.”

I nodded but couldn’t find the right words to speak. I averted my eyes from his slumped over frame and let him stare down at the marble countertop with his head in his hands in peace.

Talbott and I had never been the closest, but there was a mutual respect between us and I admired what he had done for the Resistance over the years. What he had done for Lilly, Avalon and even Eden. Hell, even me. He was a good guy and did not deserve the special kind of hell he was suffering through.

Nobody did.

Olivia invaded my memory. Not the way she was now- strong, glowing with life and healthy; but the way she was the night on the mountaintop. Machu Picchu. That place was magical- or supposed to be. But the battle that night with Terletov’s men hadn’t been my first bad memory of the place.

The first time I’d been there, I was the one that was beat up and broken. Eden had saved me that day, with some help from Talbott and Kiran, even if I still felt reluctant to admit it.

But by far, the worst memory there had to be finding Olivia and her sister. Even though she still had the fight and determination to live and protect the sister that she loved so much, she’d been so very damaged.

My stomach turned at the memories of her lying on the ground, bloody, beaten… broken. At the time I felt abject horror and disgust that something like this could happen to someone so innocent. She didn’t deserve that kind of treatment; she shouldn’t have been pulled into our mess. But even then those feelings had been detached and clinical. I’d looked at her with an assessing eye and gone into soldier-mode immediately.

Now, thinking back to those moments, an unfurling rage, so hot and demanding that I felt the vibrations of it throughout every muscle, consumed me. I hated that she had been used by Terletov. That her body had been violated and changed, all because some madman wanted to create something that shouldn’t exist in the first place. I loathed that she had suffered anything, only made worse because of how deeply she’d suffered and because of how much she was still suffering. This girl was something more to me now than a stranger on the side of a mountain that had been treated unfairly. This was now Olivia, my Olivia, and the man that hurt her would have to pay.

“Jericho, you’ll warn me if you decide to blow this place up, right?” Talbott asked with the tiniest bit of humor in his dead voice.

I snapped out of my angry craze and went back to digging through the refrigerator. I shrugged, but didn’t know if Talbott was still paying attention to me.

“So, Sebastian was right?” Talbott continued. “You and the human?”

I grunted at a glass bottle of milk. “Not exactly.”

Ignoring me, Talbott warned, “Just be careful with her, Jericho. Don’t ever let her go. Never let her go. He’ll take her the minute you do. And you might never get her back.”

The bar stool Talbott had been sitting on scraped as he pushed it back and stood to his feet. I felt his presence leave the room, but couldn’t pull my head out of the fridge. Talbott’s words had sent ice slicing down my back and dread curdling in my stomach.

He was right. The minute Terletov found Liv and discovered what she was capable of, he would do anything to get her back in his custody. Those were real, hard facts and they affected my judgment in a way I didn’t think possible.

Because while there were some security risks and precautions I needed to take, the most lucid thought running around my head was how I would never let that happen. I would never let her be taken away from me, not in any circumstance. She belonged with me, by me, at my side. She wouldn’t go anywhere else. She couldn’t.

I shook my head out and demanded my brain to start functioning normally. She hated me right now and for good measure. And despite what my loco brain wanted to think, I was keeping her at a distance intentionally. We weren’t right together and there was no future between us. If I started to feel possessive of her now, I would ruin everything.

All she wanted to do was get home and I was on a mission to help her. We’d be separated in no time and  then she’d be free to live out her life as she pleased. And I would stay here, on this side of reality and help run the Kingdom like I was supposed to.

That was my future.

And I was fine with it.

But then why did I feel so disappointed with the direction my life was headed?

Everyone started filtering into the room then, wide-eyed for the task ahead, but reserved in an uneasy way. Their nervous glances fell on Talbott briefly before finding something else to occupy their attention. I knew they weren’t just wary of Talbott and his volatile moods, but truly concerned too.

We had to get Lily back to him.

We had to.

Olivia was the last to enter the kitchen and as soon as she appeared I took a calming breath. I hadn’t realized how anxious I had become standing there in the tense silence, but she seemed to smooth away some of my own fears just by being close.

I gave her a tentative smile before I remembered I’d been a right bastard ever since Romania. She did not return it.

Sebastian gave some last minute instructions, I explained the layout of my parent’s villa and then we walked out to the gravel drive. The Benz that brought us from the private air strip on the other side of Cuiaba was parked out front, but we decided to keep it out of the action today. Instead we filed into two different BMW M3’s- compact, light, fast.

“Liv, you’re with me,” I called over the roof of the car after watching her try to slip into the other vehicle with Titus and Sebastian.

She wavered for only a moment before joining Talbott, Xander and me. Doors slammed shut, engines revved and we were off. Sebastian followed closely behind us while I navigated the familiar roads to one of my parents many South American properties.

I drove in silence and no one in the car seemed anxious to break the blanket of quiet that had descended on us. We gradually put our game faces on and fell into the appropriate moods to deal with whatever we would come across.

I tried not to think about that too much, even though the success of our mission somewhat depended on me anticipating what we would run into.

That was hard to do though, when the enemy we might face could be my own parents.

Before I could change my mind and turn the car back around, I was pulling to a stop at the end of a hand-paved stone driveway. The extravagant Spanish-styled villa sat nestled on the edge of a cliff and seemed as ominous and foreboding as our mission.

I turned the car off and stepped out. I stared at the red tiled roof and cream stucco siding broken up by stone detailing and picture windows on nearly every wall. The rest of my team stood behind me, waiting for my command.

I looked around for Olivia and registered surprise when she already stood next to me. Her big blue eyes blinked up at me and her delicate face pinched with determination.

“This is my parents’ house,” I said unnecessarily. I winced at how afraid I sounded, at how weak I was being. Especially because everyone else crowded around me, listening to my embarrassing insecurities.

“Should we see if they’re home?” She asked casually at the same time she slipped her hand into mine.

I narrowed my eyes on her and asked her to explain her kindness. She had been livid with me for treating her the way that I had been. And good for her! I deserved it. But at the same time, I felt utterly relieved to have her here with me.

She gave me a tug and led the way to the front door. This was wrong; she was human and not a permanent part of our team. But she took the initiative and we followed behind her.

She wasn’t really in charge, and if the situation had been any more dangerous there was no way I would let her walk out in front. But as it were I stood in awe of her fearlessness, her endless courage.

“Do we knock?” she asked on a nervous laugh.

I shook my head, still too stunned to speak. I gripped the iron door handle and let my Magic infuse the lock. It clicked free without a fight and the heavy wooden door swung open.

The interior of the house gave nothing away. The lights were off and even the sunlight form outside seemed to be unable to break through the gloomy shroud covering the house.

I stepped into the familiar but different home and let the tense stillness of the empty place settle over me. The rest of the team followed behind me and Sebastian clapped his hands at the same time turning on all the lights with his Magic; he was showing off and thought he was funny… typical.

“Nobody’s home,” Talbott sighed.

“That doesn’t mean this is a dead end.” I turned to face the group. “We’re looking for evidence linked to my parents and Terletov. I’m hoping we don’t find anything, but there is a very real possibility my father is working for him.”

We split up, taking the house in pairs. I kept Olivia’s hand and pulled her along with me. I would be in charge of searching the rooms with more places to hide important clues.

We wandered through my father’s study, pulling at books and rifling through his desk. There wasn’t a whole lot here since this was only a weekend home, but there were enough of my father’s personal documents that something could pop up.

“What’s your dad like?” Olivia asked as she rifled through a first edition of something ancient.

“Old,” I grunted. Because he was in fact, old. My parents had been around for a while, not succumbing to the King’s Curse or the conflict with Lucan. They were like cockroaches.

“Neat,” Olivia added. “He’s very organized. I wouldn’t be surprised if we found evidence filed under “Things I Should Keep Hidden.’”

I laughed before I could stop myself.

“Does it bother you that you have to do this?” she asked.

I thought about that for a minute and I seriously contemplated not answering her. She didn’t push me, but she didn’t change the subject either. I was a twenty-four year old man and hadn’t made up my mind if I had “daddy issues” or not. I decided not to say anything. She didn’t need to know about my messed up parents and their prejudiced, bigoted ways. It wouldn’t even make sense to her, probably.

And then I heard myself say, “My father is different from me.”

She looked up from the desk, her dark blue eyes hitting me like a monsoon- dark with storm, intense with its heat and power. “I didn’t ask if you were like him. I asked if this bothers you.”

She held me there unmoving; I was bewitched by her fierce loveliness. She was both delicate and invincible, both thoughtful and independent. And I’d been a jerk.

“It bothers me,” I admitted. “We’ve never really been on the same side of anything before, though. Growing up he did the whole distant-father thing. And I was fine with that. He’s always had career goals that were more important than his family. Or at least me.” I cleared my throat and thought that was a great place to stop- you know, before I made myself look like a total tool.

“So he works for Avalon?” Liv pressed.

“Er, no,” I shifted uncomfortably and focused my attention on the bookshelf in front of me. I didn’t know why this embarrassed me, or why I wanted Olivia to have all these good thoughts about my family, but it was really hard to tell her the truth, to open up to her about how dysfunctional my family was. “He worked for the king before Avalon.”

“Ah, the other bad guy.”

I smiled at her dry humor. “Yeah, the other bad guy. His big issue was racism. He divided our kinds into individual sects- restricting our Magic until we were barely functioning. Things were… bad. But still, he never involved humans. Apparently, even Lucan had some kind of moral code.”

“So your dad?” she prompted.

“Yeah, he was a politician under Lucan, a regent in South America. But when Eden and Avalon took over, he willingly left his position because he didn’t agree with how they opened up the Magic. We lost contact then. He didn’t approve of my belief system or support of the new Monarchy and I never could agree with his intolerant way of thinking. I saw him a couple summers ago, right before I started traveling for Avalon. We met for lunch and he seemed… distracted. More so than usual. At the time I chalked it up to annoyance with me. In a way, I’d gotten a lot farther politically than he ever had. I think he’s bitter about that. He devoted his entire life to politics and serving the Monarchy, but when it came down to it… he bet on the wrong horse. It’s hard for him to see me have success when he failed.”

She let out a surprised laugh and said, “Yeah, if I were your dad that would probably be hard for me, too. But do you think that is enough of a reason to join forces with Terletov? I mean, come on. You turned out half-way alright, so your dad couldn’t have been all bad. Terletov is straight up evil. You really think your dad could be part of that?”

I shook my head; I had no idea. “We’re just following a lead. If my dad walked in the door right now, I wouldn’t feel the need to hide what we’re doing or anything, it’s just… something feels off. The activity is happening too close to where my parents spend their time. And Analisa’s down here. Plus, the sacred mountain. Something isn’t adding up, I’m just trying to put the pieces together.”

“Did you always know you didn’t believe what he did?” she asked in a quiet voice.

I looked up at her and fell into that hypnotizing gaze again. I found myself walking towards her, unable to ignore the pull of her seductive aura. “No,” I answered truthfully. Slowly I came to a stop in front of her, straddling her outstretched feet between my own. “Avalon talked me out of my beliefs. He showed me a different way to think and it made more sense than how I had been taught to think.”

Liv nibbled on her bottom lip and gave me her profile while she thought over my answer. “That’s all it took for you? Someone showing you a different way to think about something?”

Feeling that this was more about her than my personal feelings on the proper treatment of Shifters, I said, “It’s easy to get stuck thinking one particular way. And a lot of times it’s even good to be rooted in your beliefs. But every once in a while someone comes along and blows everything you ever thought to be true right out of the water. Sometimes it’s more important to be flexible than right.” I stepped into her and placed both hands on the desk near her hips. I dropped my chin to my chest and rested my forehead against her temple. She tensed underneath me and let out a shuddering breath, but didn’t ask me to move. “I’m sorry I’ve been a jerk lately.”

“Exactly,” she whispered, letting her breath fan against my lips. “You’ve been a jerk.”

I suppressed a smile and leaned in. She was so close. So very close. My Magic had started reacting to hers sometime back in Romania. Now, every time I got close to her, I felt the tug of her Magic and the eagerness in mine. I didn’t know if she noticed it or even understood what was happening between us, but I couldn’t deny the strong, magnetic pull her body had on mine.

I’d been denying myself this contact since I’d met her.

But I was so tired of stopping myself short. I was tired of not closing the distance between us.

I was tired of only fantasizing about what her lips tasted like.

I wanted to know how they felt, how sweet her tongue would be against mine, how pliant her body would be beneath mine.

Or would she be this feisty in every way?

“I said I was sorry,” I murmured, letting my lips touch hers with a teasing graze. Fissions of electricity popped and sizzled down my body, igniting my blood in a way that went beyond my Magic, even beyond a simple familiar connection with her; this was elemental… this was life-altering.

Potentially, this was suicidal.

“And if I don’t believe you?” she asked breathlessly. She hadn’t pushed me away. In fact, her neck had arched gracefully so that her bottom lip rubbed a sensual brushstroke against mine. I wanted to groan in frustrated pleasure.

“Then I’ll have to prove it to you.” And I planned on doing exactly that.

Finally, my mouth dropped down to hers with the lightest, most intense kiss of my entire life. I felt the tender press of her skin against mine, felt it all the way to my bones. Every cell in my body jumped to life, singing, humming and vibrating with an awareness that had never been there before. My Magic all but attacked Olivia’s in its fervency to unite. I felt my body lurch forward from the force of the connection. The sweetest whimper escaped her luscious mouth and every thought in my mind demanded I sweep the desk clean and lay her down on it to claim those lips as completely as possible.

“Look, Xander, Jericho finally closed the deal,” Sebastian drawled from the doorway.

Olivia jerked back out of my reach. Dazed and more than a little pissed off she blinked up at me.

“He’s been working on this for a while?” Xander asked around a mouth full of… popcorn?

Really?

I tried to drop my forehead to Liv’s, but she was already scooting out from underneath me. Her cheeks flushed prettily and her body trembled from the intensity of our connection. She pushed past the guys crowding the doorway and ripped her Magic from mine in a violently, irritated way.

My Magic recoiled into me, like a punished puppy. I felt it curl back into my body, neglected, painfully alone and pathetically disappointed.

“I swear to God, Sebastian,” I groaned. I flipped around so I could lean back against my father’s Peroba Rosa, Danish-designed desk. “I am going to murder you.”

He just grinned at me and stole some of Xander’s popcorn.

“Where did you get that?” I gave a pointed glare at the microwaved bag in his hands.

He shrugged. “It was in the cupboard. The kitchen was clean, by the way.”

The popcorn was imported from America.

Strange.

My father hated instant anything, and popcorn wouldn’t be an exception. He also didn’t order anything from America. He didn’t have anything against the country exactly, but he didn’t typically need to import anything. He lived with whatever he could find in Brazil.

“The popcorn’s a clue.” I stood up and walked over to the bag. I sampled a piece and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, but still, its presence was… bizarre. “That doesn’t belong to my parents.”

Sebastian eyed the bag curiously and Xander dropped his handful of buttery kernels back into the bag. They moved out of the way so I could head back to the kitchen.

I had the strongest urge to go after Liv and talk her through what just happened to us, but I could sense her Magic upstairs and I decided she probably wanted some space .

I couldn’t normally feel out other Magic; it wasn’t one of my gifts. But somehow Liv and I had gotten close enough so that I could sense hers.

And right now, it was screaming for me to leave her alone.

Damn it.

“What are you going to do now?” Sebastian trailed behind me sounding hesitant but definitely amused.

“I’m going to see what other foreign foods have taken over my parent’s kitchen.” My feet stomped across the Brazilian cherry floors so shiny I could see the shadow of my profile in them.

“No, about Olivia?” Sebastian clarified. “Was that a kiss we interrupted?”

“You damn well know it was a kiss, Asshole. Don’t bother playing stupid.” There was a new frustration building inside me and it was the opposite of the sexual tension I’d felt only moments ago. Why had she run out like that? Why was she hiding now?

Obviously, she felt something for me. So what was with this cat and mouse game?

“Touchy,” Xander grumbled. “I see what you mean now, Bastian.”

Oh, good grief. Only God knows what these two clowns had been discussing.

Thankfully, Sebastian ignored Xander so he could continue to grill me. “Really, Jericho, what’s your game plan with her? What’s your next move?”

“I don’t have one,” I admitted. I had no idea why I was being honest with these two clowns. It wasn’t like they were relationship experts. Xander had never settled down with one girl for any length of time. And Sebastian had dated Seraphina. I didn’t need to say anything else about that. I mean… he dated Seraphina. “I’m not really trying to start something with her… I just, I can’t seem to stay away either, though. I don’t know how I feel about her yet.”

“Bad move,” Sebastian grunted. “She’s not the kind of girl that gets pushed into the background. If you don’t do something about her, someone else is going to.”

“Oh? Like you?” I laughed derisively.

“What’s wrong with me?” Sebastian demanded in a tone that was a little high-pitched in my opinion.

“She can’t like you. The Gypsy told her if she falls in love with you then her brother dies.” I didn’t sugarcoat that; he needed to know I was serious.

“Bloody hell,” Sebastian groaned.

“Were you really thinking about making a move?” This needed my full attention. I turned around in the hallway and glared at him.

He had the decency to look slightly embarrassed. “She’s intriguing. You can’t blame me for being interested.”

Fury pinged through my blood, hot and justified. My vision clouded, narrowing until Sebastian’s face was only a pinpoint and the only thing I could see. “Don’t touch her,” I growled in a deadly voice. “Don’t talk to her. Don’t think about her.”

Xander let out a bark of laughter. “Don’t know how you feel about her, huh?”
“Shut up,” I snarled.

I turned back around and went to work in the kitchen, throwing open cupboards and then slamming them closed again.

“You got it bad, my friend.” Sebastian sounded sympathetic but Xander only snickered.

“I am aware,” I said.

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I’m fairly certain she’s as lost as you are.” Sebastian walked to the refrigerator and opened the door. Not that he would know what should be there or not, but I appreciated the help.

“I’m not sure you’re right,” I sighed. But I felt the slightest rallying of nerve because Sebastian believed she was.

I had no idea what to do with all these feelings. They were new to me. This was uncharted territory.

Sure, I’d felt strongly for Eden, but in the years since we ended things, I’d often wondered if I felt as deeply for her as I believed I did. I mean… love? If I really loved her as much as I thought I did, why was it so easy for me to walk away?

Obviously, it hadn’t seemed easy at the time. But after all we went through, it was as hard as any logical decision was. I knew there wasn’t a future with her that she would always belong to Kiran. So I cut my losses and got the hell out of Dodge. I’d moped about her for years after, but there wasn’t this true sense of heartbreak that could destroy me.

Mainly, my pride had been hurt.

Would the same be true with Olivia?

I didn’t know.

And I didn’t really know if I wanted to find out.

Chapter Fourteen

Olivia

“Whatchya doing?”

I looked up to see the girl with all the attitude staring at me intently from the doorframe. I let out a deep sigh and looked down at the blank piece of paper I’d torn into tiny bits of outwardly expressed irritation.

“Making confetti,” I answered dryly.

“Oh, yeah?” She raised her eyebrows at me like she hadn’t expected me to be funny. “What are you celebrating?”

I paused dramatically and then met her assessing gaze. “There’s just so much… how to narrow it down? There’s the fact that I’m trapped in this alternate reality in which my entire molecular structure has been changed without my permission. Or, there’s the very real possibility I’ll never be able to go home again. Oh, or my sister is in a coma. Or wait, there’s the fact that I’m ready to murder the man who did this to me and I can’t ever remember wanting to have real feelings about killing a person ever before.”

Roxie’s lips twitched in what, I had to believe, was a rare smile. “You’re going to need a lot more confetti if we’re celebrating all of that,” she said.

I allowed myself a shallow chuckle and then stood up, brushing the “confetti” from my lap. After that… thing with Jericho downstairs, I’d escaped to a room on the second floor that had guest bedroom-ish vibes. The deep rich woods still accented the floor and furniture. The large sleigh bed was made up with all white linens and a billowy sheer mosquito net that swayed from the breeze coming through the open window. The desk along the wall remained empty though, and the open closet door revealed more blank space. A slow ceiling fan thumped around above head.

“The electricity was left on,” I pointed up at the ceiling fan, noticing the switch next to the door Roxie leaned against.

“That’s not all,” she told me. “They’ve found something downstairs.” She turned back to the hallway and motioned with her hand to follow.

I let my fingertips run along the soft, pure white of the comforter on my way out. Little bits of electricity popped beneath my fingertips, leaving my hand buzzing and my arm tingling. I frowned down at my traitorous appendage. It wasn’t the Magic falling out of me like there was too much for my body to contain. It was… it was that this had started to feel natural, instinctive… innate.

“Coming?” Roxie asked impatiently.

“Yep.” I ran a hand through my frizzy hair, thanks to the suffocating humidity and heat, and hurried after her.

We walked down the hallway in silence. I admired the different pieces of unique Brazilian art that popped with bright colors against the stark whiteness of the paint behind them. Each painting had a unique point of view, clearly created by a different artist. Still, they flowed together in an effortless design scheme that impressed me. Jericho’s parents had good taste.

“So you’re freaking out, huh?” Roxie paused at the top of the stairs and just laid it all out there. No preamble, no softening interlude... just the meat of her curiosity.

I looked back at a portrait of a woman’s head, her obsidian hair whipped back to fade into little black birds. Her full lips, her dark lashes, her small chin depicted an exotic Brazilian woman while the color palate mixed and matched all over the painting. Her eyes were closed, her face tilted toward the burning sun in the top edges. The overall effect was breathtaking.

“A little bit,” I sighed in answer to Roxie’s question.

She stood there, silent and sentinel to the staircase escape I so desperately wanted to take. With the smallest hints of sympathy she said, “It wasn’t right, what happened to you. But we’re going to murder him. You shouldn’t doubt that. You’ll get your revenge.”

A small smile curled the corners of my lips. “Thanks.” I tried my best to sound genuine. “I appreciate that.”

I had just started to wonder if I was less concerned with the outcome of this mission than I was with how the middle part was working, the most damage on my head- the Jericho part of this mission.

“It’s not all about the mission, though, is it?” She turned around and started down the steps.

I felt a little annoyed at her perception, but not enough to lie to her. “No. I’m not just freaked about the assignment.”

“Jericho’s a good guy,” she shrugged. “Damaged, cynical about love, and maybe a bit… skeptical that anyone would choose him. But he’s still a good guy.”

I cleared my throat in an effort not to choke on my tongue. “That’s very… insightful.”

She threw me a rueful look over her shoulder. “Only because Jericho’s love life has been an open book since the beginning. He’s been through a lot in the heartbreak category. It’s natural for him to be careful. I mean… I don’t know how he’s been with you or anything, but he’s the most speculated bachelor in the entire Kingdom. We want to see him settled more than anyone else.”

“Is there a list?” I gaped. It was so weird to think of these people as a real, functioning society. I imagined them with a Most Eligible Bachelor’s Calendar that arrived in the mailboxes of Immortals around the world once a year with Jericho on the front cover, shirtless, glistening in baby oil and holding a puppy. Ridiculous.

“Not a legitimate list, but we talk. We’re a small Kingdom. You can’t really blame us. Plus, in case you haven’t noticed, he’s hot.” She reached the bottom step and paused. Looking around to make sure nobody was in hearing range, she said, “People want to see him happy.” She turned and started walking again, but not before she threw over her shoulder, “He deserves to be happy.”

What did she mean by that? And was she assuming I could be the one that made him happy?

What?

What?

Not possible. Whatever was happening with Jericho and me was a temporary attraction. I was on my way out. And he didn’t seem like the settling down kind of guy, no matter what Roxie thought about him.

Plus, there was the simple fact, that even if he was… I wasn’t. I didn’t have time for this in my normal life, let alone this fairy tale realm in which I hunted bad guys and shot lightning out of my fingertips.

I stood there for a few moments too long, trying to slow my spinning brain.

“We’re waiting for you,” Sebastian called from down the hallway effectively snapping me out of my internal maze.

I looked up at him and smiled confidently. “Sorry.”

Sebastian’s face froze and then became a mask of horror. “Whoa! Stop right there! You cannot fall in love with me. You might not care, but I’m concerned with your brother’s life! I’m putting a stop to this right now.”

Recognizing his teasing tone, I rolled my eyes. “Oh yeah? You’re really worried about my brother?”

“Obviously,” he snorted. “He’s the reason I’m ending this thing between us right now, before either of us gets in too deep.”

“What’s his name?”

“Who’s name?” I was just a few feet from him and took the flirty moment to admire Sebastian as a man, good looking, laid back and funny. Other than the whole doom and gloom prophecy from the Gypsy Witch, why couldn’t I fall for an easy guy like him.

“My brother’s,” I reminded him. “What is his name?”

His eyes narrowed for a moment and then he came up with, “Odysseus? No… Olag? Oliver Twist?”

“Getting warmer.” I stepped passed him into the kitchen where everyone had gathered.

He followed me in, announcing in that crisp accent of his, “Do not fear, peasants, I have convinced Olivia to stop falling in love with me. It took some… persuading on my part, but eventually she saw things my way.”

The room collectively groaned.

“Pretty sure, all she had to do was talk to Seraphina for thirty seconds before she realized you were a bad idea,” Xavier quipped.

I was a little surprised when Sebastian didn’t have a retort to that.

“We found something,” Talbott called our attention to the front of the room. “This house has been stocked with food and clothes that don’t belong to Jericho’s family. Whether his parents gave permission or not, someone else has been staying here.”

“Can you call your dad and figure out if he’s loaned this place to one of his buddies?” someone asked.

“We’re not exactly on speaking terms,” Jericho shrugged.

A pang in my chest sent unwanted feelings of empathy for Jericho oozing through my body. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he missed his dad. Their falling out had meant something hurtful to him. He didn’t have to say that for me to see the pain in his eyes and stiffness of his body when he told me about his parents earlier.

“What’s our next move?” Sebastian asked, getting back to the task.

“We’re going to go see my parent’s other weekend house. Check out the activity there and then…”

Before Jericho could finish his thought Talbott had surged to life and leapt across a long, bamboo-topped kitchen island. He had been listening stoically to Jericho’s plans when suddenly an electric charge zipped through the room and seemingly straight into Talbott. His whole body jerked into motion. His face became a steel mask of determination and his Magic ballooned through the room with aggressive force.

“What the hell?” I heard someone demand.

My Magic started thrumming, too, like a warning beacon that had been triggered. Something electric was outside this house, sizzling with Magic. I didn’t question my instinct, but just let it lead me.

Talbott had gone after something and from his behavior, I had to assume it was something bad. Nobody else seemed to get it, though, so as I turned to run after him, I called out, “There’s something out there!”

I raced after Talbott with everyone else hot on my heels. We burst through the front door and spread into a defensive formation. I fit somewhere in the middle, more of a spectator to their practiced movements than an active part of the play.

Magic clashing in the air, beyond where we parked, pulled at every single one of my senses and set me off in that direction. Thick, gray Magic flashed in front of us, clashing with a putrid green that I swore I could smell. It was just barely masked by the scent of singed earth and burning wood.

We broke through the line of cars and nearly ran straight into Talbott and an older gentleman with silver-streaked black hair and a large, patrician nose. Magic flew back and forth between the two men angry and dangerous.

“Don’t kill him, Talbott!” Sebastian shouted out.

I had half a second to wonder why Talbott would be tempted to kill him, since he was not familiar to me, before the rest of the group surrounded him and brought him to his knees with their combined Magic.

Jericho was at his throat in another second, his hand clamping around the corded muscles with a vice-like grip. I sucked in a breath and watched the struggle play about before me.

“Alexi?” Jericho seemed to guess the name.

“The one and only,” Alexi grinned up at him, some blood trailing from the corner of his smile-tight lips. “Were you expecting someone else? Perhaps… my brother?”

Jericho’s grasp tightened and the older man coughed out his struggle to breath. “I wasn’t expecting anyone at my home.”

“And here I was under the impression that the son of the politician had been disowned,” Alexi goaded. The group as a whole took a step forward, closing the circle and making their threat well known.

Jericho laughed cruelly, “I’m the politician now.”

“For a self-destructing King and an unfaithful people.” Alexi moved in a flash to grab something from the back of his pants but Jericho was too fast for him. Jericho threw him to the ground, maneuvering Alexi in such a way that his head took the brunt of the impact, cracking loudly on the smooth driveway.

I flinched in reflex and felt my blood go cold. I watched in wide-eyed horror as Jericho retrieved a gun from Alexi’s pants and checked the chamber. More dread sluiced through my blood while Jericho pointed it deep into Alexi’s neck. The skin around the barrel puckered and wrinkled, while the cold metal dug into the man’s skin.

“That won’t kill me,” Alexi gasped, sounding fearful for the first time.

“I don’t want to kill you,” Jericho growled.

Never had I seen such an image of pure testosterone-driven rage. I’d never witnessed a man so purposed in his task or possessed by conviction and decision. Jericho practically glittered with fury and I could have sworn my heart stopped beating with the tension of the moment.

“I won’t tell you anything,” Alexi growled out.

“We’ll see about that,” Jericho promised. Without taking his eyes off the man on the ground he called out orders to the rest of us, “Get him on the floor of my car. We’re taking him back to Gabriel’s.”

They carried out his orders immediately. Jericho handed the gun over to Sebastian who kept it trained on the stranger. I just stood there, like an idiot. It wasn’t that I’d been necessarily afraid to act… I just didn’t know how.

While the rest of the crew crawled into their cars, Jericho walked over to me and tipped my chin up with two of his fingers . “Are you alright?” he asked in a low, careful voice.

“I’m fine,” I told him. “I just didn’t…” I cleared my throat and changed directions, “You guys are really efficient.”

His mouth curved in a half-smile. “We are efficient.” His eyes gazed down into mine with unwavering intensity. “Ready to go?”

I felt breathless in my response, not because of his question, but because of the electrified Magic rolling off him in dizzying waves. His Magic had wrapped around mine minutes ago or that’s what it felt like. I felt cocooned, pressed against an invisible chest. I felt consumed.

“Sure,” I answered. “Is that a bad guy then?”

“Terletov’s brother,” Jericho answered in a voice that told me to wait on any more questions.

He opened the front passenger’s side door for me and I crawled in the car, gawking at the way the man had been apprehended with his hands tied behind his back, lying face down on the tiny, backseat floor.

Sebastian kept the gun pointed at the back of his head and Talbott rested his feet on the man’s prone calves. I turned back around, feeling more than a little uncomfortable.

“They are going to come looking for me,” Alexi’s voice sounded muffled and strained against the rough carpet.

“I hope they do,” Talbott answered.

Jericho set off into the dimming Brazilian sunset. Nobody acknowledged the man on the floor after that and he seemed to understand nobody was anxious to hear him speak again. By the time we pulled to a stop in front of the house we were staying at, tension had ignited into a blazing wildfire of danger.

I had no doubt that this man’s life would probably end tonight. I couldn’t say why I felt that way, but instinct and something innately Magical echoed in my brain over and over again, as if warning me… or maybe preparing me for what could happen tonight.

Jericho jumped out of the car and helped Sebastian and Talbott extract the man, since his hands and feet had been bound with some kind of handcuff system that carried a live-current. Or maybe I could just sense the Magic that sparked inside the metal. Either way, the man looked in utter discomfort and misery.

However, after hearing that he was Terletov’s brother, I couldn’t exactly feel bad for him.

We marched him into the house; Sebastian and Talbott took him directly to a door that opened to steps, apparently a basement. Jericho waited at the doorway while Xander, Xavier, Titus and Roxie disappeared down the steps.

I stood awkwardly in the entry way, waiting for some kind of direction.

I didn’t think I wanted to be a part of what was about to happen downstairs.

Jericho closed the door after Roxie and walked over to me. His eyebrows were drawn low on his forehead and his eyes had smoothed out- no more happy crinkles.

“Are you alright?” he asked in a low voice.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I challenged.

“Because you just watched us kidnap a man and hold him at gun point.” Jericho took another step toward me.

I snorted. “I didn’t sign up for this because I thought you guys passed out lollipops and balloon animals.”

“Always so tough,” Jericho murmured in that amused tone that drove me crazy. “Well, whether you expected this or not, this is about to get very real. We are going to torture that man until he tells us what we want to hear. Probably, Talbott will kill him afterwards.” Jericho cleared his throat and looked away for a moment. “I hope Talbott kills him afterward.”

“Because you can’t?” I didn’t believe Jericho couldn’t. I believed Jericho would be capable of whatever he needed to be. But maybe the thought of murdering an unarmed man bothered him.

“No,” he turned back to me, meeting my eyes and holding my stare. He was letting me see all of him… opening himself up so I could see this part of him along with all the others. “If Talbott doesn’t want to, I have no problem finishing this.”

“Oh,” I answered weakly. “Good.”

He quirked an eyebrow at me, but changed the subject. “I need to go down there with them.”

“Do you want me to go, too?” I asked uncertainly .

“No.” His fingers came up and gently traced a line along my collarbone. “There’s not enough room. It’s not a full basement. More of a… storage room. I’ll probably send Roxie up too.”

“I don’t think she’s going to like that,” I told him.

He smiled, his full, bright, blinding smile then. God, this man was perfection.

“I’ll come find you in a little bit, alright?”

“Sure.” I stepped away from him, the tenor of his voice changed and I didn’t think I liked the way it made me feel.

“We should talk,” he said.

“Sure.”

Yeah, definitely did not like where this was going.

“Alright.” He took another step forward so that we were only inches apart. I felt my breathing pick up and that damned Magic instantly react.

“Alright,” I repeated brightly. I playfully punched him in the bicep. “Go get ‘em, champ. Show ‘em who’s boss.”

“Me,” he laughed lightly, but the sexy atmosphere he’d been bringing with him disintegrated into the air around him, fizzling out with my mood-killing strictly-friends desperation. He took a few steps back and reached for the basement stairs. “I’m the boss,” he called out confidently and then descended into unseen basement.

I shook my head and muttered to myself. “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”

I stood there, unseeing and lost in thought until Roxie popped into the doorframe a few minutes later.

“Hey,” she greeted me. I snapped out of my funk and met her amused eyes. “Want to go for a swim? You look like you need to cool off.”

I scowled at her words but almost winced at how good her offer sounded. “I don’t have a swimming suit.”

“I’ve got a few,” she told me. “And you better take me up on this offer.”

“Why?” I asked, following her down the hallway to her room.

“Because I’m not usually nice to people. For you, this is like the equivalent of seeing a white unicorn in the flesh.”

“Do those really exist?” I asked sincerely. It was a legitimate question. I didn’t think Witches, Shape-Shifters or Psychics were real either until a few months ago. For all I knew, this meant Sasquatch, the Lochness Monster and Elvis were all really alive.

Roxie snorted a laugh. “Obviously not.”

“Obviously,” I echoed weakly.

Swimming with a girl that hated most people while a stranger got tortured in the basement of a mansion that belonged to a priest… At this moment, I was pretty sure my life could not get more f-ed up.

Chapter Fifteen

Jericho

Blood. Gore. A man, pulling against his constraints so that he can fall to the floor and die.

Yeah, typical.

While my stomach for this kind of information-torture-marathon was strong, my soul still managed to get the deathly ill feeling that this kind of activity would send me straight to hell.

And it probably would.

“He’s unconscious,” Titus grunted, wiping his blood slicked hands against his jeans.

“Well, that’s what happens when you hit a man in the face,” Sebastian lectured studiously. “Repeatedly.”

“I thought it would encourage him to talk,” Titus shrugged.

“Me too,” I admitted.

The three of us stood staring down at Alexi Terletov with mingled disgust and pity. This was a man somehow connected to Dmitri’s plan of world domination. But at the same time… not tied to it at all.

I remembered back to the fall, when I had been out hunting with Avalon. All of the men we’d captured or found had been murdered seconds after we found them. There was always a contingency plan with them. They knew too much, so Terletov could not risk them spilling their guts, in a metaphorical sense.

But nothing had happened with Alexi when we’d caught him. Although he had the faint putrid smell that the other captives had, he hadn’t reeked of that deathly, pungent evil odor. Nor had a sniper taken off his head before we could load him in the car. He had a gun but hadn’t shot any of us.

Was this a trap?

Or had Alexi been abandoned by his brother for reasons unknown?

I squatted down on my heels and peered up at the slightly younger version of Dmitri Terletov. Alexi’s hair was just barely salt-and-peppered, but as dark as Dmitri’s. His aristocratic nose was bloodied and healing from a severe break dealt not a half-hour ago. His black and blue eyes were also struggling to heal, but there was a tiredness about them that would remain, a deep gray that tainted the bags under his lashes and made his cheeks sallow and sunken. He was a mess before we got to him.

Something was up.

I slapped at his sagging cheek, hoping to rouse him. His Magic was constricted because of the cuffs we’d put on his wrists and ankles, but he was still Immortal.

Or, mostly, anyway.

He groaned as the palm of my hand connected with his face again. This time I hit him a little harder, needing him to wake up and confirm my suspicions.

“Hey,” I called loudly in his ear. “Wake up, you geriatric bastard!”

More groaning sounds rattled his chest, but his heavy eyelids wavered open. He stared at me with a deadly kind of malice, one that promised retribution and pain.

He spit into my face; the mucous-filled, bloody spray hit me all over and I reflexively slammed my eyes and mouth shut. I wiped at my now-tainted skin with the hem of my t-shirt and then broke into a wide smile.

“Now that I have your attention,” I crooned. “I want to know why your brother abandoned you. What did you do to piss him off?”

Truthfully, I was chasing instinct. But something he said to me earlier about how my father had disowned me, struck a nerve. I had told nobody, except Avalon, of my separation with my parents. I expected people assumed there had been a split because it was obvious where our differing loyalties lied, but I had never offered a reason and I highly doubted my father was the one spreading the rumors.

He stared at me without saying a word. I slapped his sagging cheek again, a Godfather-esque rendition of a man wanting another man to answer the freaking question.

His eyes narrowed, but he admitted, “Maybe we didn’t agree.”

“He left you.” I stood up and his head lolled backwards so he could follow me with his defeated gaze. “And you ran to my father for help. Is he hunting you, too?”

“He’s my brother,” Alexi spit and his Russian accent thickened until I could hardly understand him.

“What did he do to you?” I pushed. “Did he experiment on you? He had to have. You smell as rotten as the rest of them. Is that what’s happening? You’re rotting from the inside out. He took the Magic that was supposed to be yours and gave you something different? Is your body rejecting it? Is it painful?”

“Shut up!” he roared. “Shut your filthy mouth! You don’t know what you are talking about!”

“Maybe not,” I shrugged. “But I think I’m getting close.” I stepped close to him again and leaned in so that he could feel how intimidating I was, how much more powerful and in control I was. “I think it is painful. I think you might even wish you were dead, it hurts so bad. And I think you might get your wish soon enough if Dmitri finds you.”

Alexi’s eyes grew big, maybe surprised that I guessed this much. What he didn’t realize was that I had been interrogating for years now. This was what I was good at. This was what I would do for the rest of my life, all in the service of my King.

He clucked his tongue, but admitted, “But that is what you do not understand. He will not kill me. He will not let me die.”

There was a confession in his tone, but I didn’t understand why at first. I turned to Titus and Sebastian to see if they could read through his words.

“You were dying,” Sebastian announced. His entire face lit up with understanding and he pointed an accusing finger at Alexi. “You were dying. Before. That’s why you have the stolen Magic. And that’s why you had a falling out with your brother.”

Alexi winced and I knew Sebastian was onto something.

“The King’s Curse,” Alexi admitted, although we were all assuming that by now.

“He thought he could save you.” I fell back a step, sickened by the power Dmitri Terletov thought he had over people- that he thought he could remove unhealthy Magic, take from someone else and replace it, that he thought there were those deserving of Magic and that there were those that weren’t. He thought he could play God.

“He did save me.” Alexi’s dull eyes flashed with anger. “I’m alive. He succeeded.”

“At what cost?” Talbott demanded. “You’re sick, just in a different way. And who had to die so that you could live? How many had to die so that you could live?”

Alexi’s anger was immediately replaced with grief… regret… something sicker, something so soul deep and wretched I wondered if it was that pain killing him instead of the tainted Magic. “He’s my brother. He would do anything for me.”

“Then where is he now?” Sebastian was in his face this time and I could see his muscles, his limbs, his body shaking with restrained rage. “Where is he, Alexi? Let us right this! You ran from him because you know what he is doing is evil. He’s killing people! And not just Immortals, he’s murdering humans. You left because you knew he was sick. So tell us where he is! Let us find him and end this!”

“He is my brother,” Alexi gritted out. “He is the only family I have and you would have me betray him? After he saved my life?” He let out a dark chuckle and spit at Sebastian’s shoes.

Sebastian stood up and put some room between them. “Believe me,” he told Alexi. “I know what this is like. The King is like my brother. Kiran is my flesh and blood. But I have a goddamn conscious Alexi. I know when I should accept his behavior and when I should burn him. And if he was murdering innocent people, you’d better believe I would absolutely have done whatever was necessary to stop him.”

“You can’t say that for sure.” Alexi shook his head and seemed to lose some of the desperation he had a moment ago.

“I can say that for sure,” Sebastian confessed. “You forget what side of the war I was on when Lucan was in control.”

Alexi stared at him with confusion. I kind of doubted Alexi paid any attention to what Sebastian had been doing during those couple of years, especially because Sebastian lived in the Citadel the entire time. But Sebastian clearly believed his words and it was hard not to sense the die-hard conviction that resounded with his confession.

“The point is,” I said. “Whether you support the old Monarchy or the new one, you know what your brother is doing is a crime against humanity and Immortals alike. No one can stop him but us. And we will stop him, Alexi. With or without your help, we will find him and we will end this. You have my word.”

I watched Alexi shut down in front of me, stage by stage; he became a stone-cold wall. The other guys saw this too. Talbott cracked his knuckles and Sebastian let out a soul-weary sigh. I needed air. If we were going through round two with this guy, I needed to take a break.

I met Sebastian’s eye and jerked my head to the door that led upstairs. He nodded so I took my leave, turning my back on the carnage that was about to happen in that small room.

At the top of the stairs I had to grapple for self-control and force myself to continue to breathe steadily instead of gulping in the oxygen I really freaking wanted. This felt like weakness, even while I clung to the belief that these feelings meant I was better than this.

It meant that I maintained a moral compass instead of getting lost in the bloodlust and butchery that accompanied this job.

Alexi Terletov was not the first man I’d tortured, and if this ended how I suspected it would, he would not be the first man I killed.

But these tasks never sat well with me. I could finish them. But they took a piece of me with them every time they ended- a good, clean piece. And then they left something dark and inhuman in their place.

It was only a matter of time before all of the good pieces were gone and there were only the sinister, malicious parts left.

It was those thoughts that kept me up at night, that haunted me… hunted my consciousness. It was those thoughts and those ugly deeds that I couldn’t get past.

Maybe that made me less of a man, but I was comfortable enough in my own skin not to recognize my worth beyond my deeds. If I had to hold a standard to myself, I would choose to be a despicable man for a good cause over everything else.

Laughter floated in from the backyard and I found myself wandering to a window that overlooked the patio and pool. Called by the sound of something happy, something so drastically different from the carnage in the basement, I felt lured by some greater power, helpless to battle the hypnotic enchantment.

Roxie and Olivia were splashing around in the pool while Xander and Xavier sat at the edge with their feet dipped into the water. Irrational jealously shot through me as I looked down at my raw, angry knuckles and blood spattered shorts.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I drifted out the patio doors and walked to the clear, sparkling water with one purpose in mind. The further from the house I moved and the closer to the purity of the clean water, the more my spirit seemed to rise from filthy, gritty ashes and become some remnant of what it used to be, something whole. This was cleansing to me. This was necessary.

Conversation died out as my presence became known. Xander and Xavier looked up at me expectantly and Roxie floated to my side to hear an update on our prisoner.

Olivia was the only one that backed to the far side of the bean shaped pool. She ducked under the water and came up with wet hair that she slicked back and made come to a point just at the nape of her neck. She looked out into the rain forest that backed up to Gabriel’s stone wall. She seemed intent on avoiding me again. Unfortunately for her, she had all of my attention. Water-beaded body, skimpy bikini and her Magic already tentatively mixing with mine… I couldn’t have kept my eyes from her if I wanted to.

And I did not want to.

“How’s the prisoner?” Xander asked effectually breaking the tension that had begun to crawl up my back and take root in my gut. I had to force myself to stay rooted where I was when everything inside me urged me toward Olivia.

“Talking,” I told him. “Sort of.”

“That’s good news.” Xavier stood and tapped his brother on the back. “And are they, uh, coaxing him to keep talking?” He gave a furtive glance at Olivia and then grabbed a towel to dry off his feet.

I nodded without taking my eyes from Olivia.

She kept her shoulders below the surface of the water and her eyes drifted anywhere but to me. There was this itchy feeing all over my skin from the way she avoided connecting our gaze. I just wanted her to look at me. I just wanted her to see me.

But she wouldn’t.

And for whatever reason, her distance made me feel like more of a villain than anything else.

Did she know what I was a part of in the basement?

Did she think I was the same as those monsters that tortured her?

I hated that I was in a somber mood and that I’d destroyed whatever happiness was out here before I arrived, but the longer Olivia averted her eyes the edgier I became.

“We’ll just go help Bastian, then,” Xander offered with a pat on my shoulder.

Roxie followed them, jumping out of the pool and grabbing a towel without bothering to use it outside. They hadn’t even made it a foot indoors before they were a hysterical gaggle of laughing hyenas at my expense. Apparently I wasn’t very subtle about the direction of my thoughts.

At least they were nice enough to leave us the hell alone.

We had things to discuss.

I toed off my topsiders, noting the speckles of blood tainting the usually clean leather. I dropped down where Xander had been sitting and let my feet sink into the warm water. The freshness of the saltwater pool felt incredible after the stifling, suffocating heat of the basement.

“You scared everyone away,” Olivia said over her shoulder.

My eyes were riveted on the back of her head and the blurry body that moved beneath the surface of the water. She was a siren, calling me to the depths of the sea with a song that spoke to my very soul. And I was a sailor that would follow her down, lured by her beauty and by the light that promised me life more than any other thing that awaited me down in those fathomless depths.

“I didn’t mean to.” My voice sounded harsh and raspy to my own ears. I could only imagine what Olivia thought of me. She turned around to face me but stayed in the middle of the pool, shoulders moving beneath the surface. Her eyes glittered above the sparkling water, their ice blue color indefinable under the decorative patio lamps and moonlight. I felt lost, so lost my chest hurt and my stomach churned. But at the same time I felt found, so severely found that I knew there was no other place for me on this earth. This moment was important. This moment was profound.

This moment would change us both.

Forever.

And "forever" was one of those words that meant something to me.

“You sounded like you were having fun.”

She gave me a curious expression and admitted, “I guess we were having fun.”

“You sound surprised.”

“It’s just…” She turned back around and cleared her throat. “It’s just I haven’t had fun in a long time. I guess, I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it.”

My chest clenched in pain, “I bet it feels like forever since you were back home, back to a life without Magic and crazies that want to experiment on you.”

She snorted and my body pulsed with the need to kiss her. I almost laughed out loud at how ridiculously sexy I found that indelicate sound coming from her. I’d really lost my mind this time.

“It feels like years,” she groaned. She’d coasted a little bit closer to me, although I didn’t think she’d noticed yet. “But that’s not what I meant. There’s a reason I took this trip with my sister.”

An awkward silence fell between us, most of the discomfort coming from her. She seemed suddenly anxious to be anywhere but here. I guessed it had something to do with her confession.

So I hedged, “Because your family actually likes each other?”

She laughed with that throaty voice of hers and without consciously deciding to do so, I slipped into the water fully clothed. I yanked off my wet t-shirt, tossing it back to the patio. My linen shorts weren’t exactly easy to move in underwater, but I needed to be closer to her- I needed to share the same space with her before I took my next breath. Her hypnotic call had crescendo-ed into a gravitational pull. She was the sun and I was only Icarus, only a man. I would fly as close to her as I could until I caught fire.

Until her heat became my undoing.

Until I crashed back to the earth in a blaze of defeat.

Until she ruined me.

She watched me enter the pool with wide eyes, instinctively backed to the far wall again. “N-n-no,” she stammered. Visibly pulling herself together as she went on, “I mean, we are close. My family is very close. But I meant, because I don’t have any other friends. Other than them.”

“Is it your school? You said it was competitive,” I reminded her.

She cringed, wrinkling her adorable nose. I took three more steps toward her. If she was going to do things like that, she couldn’t blame me.

Our Magic met under the water, like fingers reaching out to intertwine with each other. The pool had recessed lighting along the edges and if I didn’t know better I could swear we’d started some kind of lightshow at the bottom. Pastel shadows of color danced beneath our feet, as if our Magics were already so fiercely connected they became tangible fields of light.

Olivia didn’t notice, so I didn’t bring it up. I didn’t want to freak her out.

Besides, I had my own agenda.

“What if it’s me?” she asked in a whisper.

“It’s not you.” And I meant that. I’d never met someone I wanted to get to know as badly as Olivia. And for weeks, there had been no one I’d rather spend time with than this human girl. She was the single most interesting person I’d ever met. There was no way people wouldn’t be as pulled in by her as me. It wasn’t possible.

Not even Eden had commanded so many thoughts in my head.

She stuck her tongue out at me when I was only two feet away and that solidified it, I was closing this distance between us.

“It is me,” she said. “I haven’t had friends since… high school. Not even the end of high school, but like the beginning. I was a loser.”

“Math club?” I teased.

“No, I wish,” she sighed. She put her back to the wall and her hands gripped the patio edge above her head. She let her feet kick out and for just the briefest moment her flat, exposed stomach broke through the surface and my blood, my body, everything that was me reacted immediately.

Holy shit, it was like she was created specifically to seduce me.

I kept it under control though; obviously she was opening up. I wasn’t the most complicated creature on the planet, and with all Olivia’s exposed skin and the fissions of electricity shooting through me from our united Magic I simplified very quickly. But this was important. I needed to listen.

And most shocking of all… I wanted to listen.

“Math club had each other. Jericho, you don’t understand, I had no one. Not until O got to high school with me. And even then, I didn’t let her hang out with me much. I didn’t want to taint her. I was poison back then.” She looked over the stone wall again, somewhere beyond the rain forest, beyond our present. “I still might be.”

“What happened?” I sensed something off with this story. I needed more details because this girl was in no way poison, not even a little bit. She hesitated and so I turned to her and gave her the full force of my smoldering stare. She could try to resist, but, come on, I had a good smolder.

She let out a frustrated little groan but then said, “Stupid high school politics.”

“Explain it to me,” I coaxed. “My high school politics revolved around literal politics. We competed for the best seat at royal events and who could date the girl with the highest title.” I smiled so she knew I was joking… mostly. “I have no experience with what you went through. You’re going to have to spell it out for me.”

She rolled her eyes but finally turned her body to face me, resting her arm along the hot cement of the patio to keep her body anchored. “Fine. Freshman year I started dating this guy.” I already hated where this was going. “He was a year older than me, a sophomore. We had Foods together. I, well, it’s obvious why I was taking the class. He was taking it for the easy A. Anyway, he was like this cool kid. Everybody liked him, even the upper classmen because he was really good at football.”

“The quarterback?” I grunted, surprised by my own jealousy. This had happened years ago. “Really, Liv?”

She let out an amused laugh and shook her head. “No, not the quarterback. The running back. Anyway, he was funny, and… cool, and a terrible cook.”

“That probably should have tipped you off right, then.”

“Probably,” but she didn’t find any humor in my joke. “He got invited to all these upper classmen parties. And I thought that was so cool. I mean, I was just trying to fit in, you know? My family had just moved to the area and I didn’t have a lot of friends. I just… anyway, stupid teenager stuff. But my parents let me go to a party with him one time. They are really overprotective, and so it was a while into our relationship before they agreed that I could go on an actual date with him. I mean, I was only fifteen at the time. They were nervous. But they trusted him after a while and his dad drove us to the party, so they figured it must be safe or whatever. The thing was… it was not safe. I knew the minute we got out of his dad’s car that I made a mistake. But what could I do? I was already there, and I was too embarrassed to call my parents to come get me after all the begging I’d done to get there. I was too young and immature to realize what my pride was going to cost me. That night did not end well.”

“ Did he?” I choked the words out on a strangled cough. I couldn’t even bring myself to say the words. I couldn’t bring myself to think another thought until she confirmed yes or no. I wanted to kill this asshole with my bare hands, drain the life right out of his goddamn face.

“No,” she answered quickly. “No, he didn’t. But he wanted to… tried to. We were on this balcony. He’d talked me into going out there with him. We were just sitting on these cute, pinstriped lawn chairs and then he put the moves on me. It was nice at first, I mean, fine. I didn’t mind it. But he pushed and kept pushing and kept pushing. Anyway, sorry about all the details, I kind of get lost…”

I waved her off, “No, I get it. When we’ve been through trauma, it’s amazing what our memory retains.” I knew that for a fact. The night Amory died, I could remember every insignificant detail so that those memories played like a horrific movie in my head. The way the snow felt when I went down. The jeans I was wearing that day. The taste of the shot of tequila Avalon fed me not an hour before- when he knew Eden was with Kiran… when he knew she was saying “yes.” Olivia had fallen silent, but I couldn’t let her stop her story there. “I need you to finish, Liv. I really need to know what happens.”

“Oh, right,” she laughed. I did not. “Anyway, I stood up and shoved him off me. He followed me and pressed me against the iron rail. He was not taking ‘no’ for an answer. I kept fighting him and then somehow… I’m not even sure how it happened to this day, but I shoved him at the same time he took a step back. It was just this thin railing and he was this huge guy. My push combined with his momentum… he flipped right over it.”

“Did you kill him,” I demanded- hoping she would say yes.

She gave me a confused double-take. “Thank God, no. Jericho, really? I’d have a whole different set of issues if that was the case.” I thought he deserved to die. But whatever, this was her story. “He broke his arm, in three places, and one of his ankles. I ruined his football career.”

“He deserved worse than that, Olivia.” This was something she needed to understand. Guys could not take whatever they wanted, especially not with her.

“I know that.” She rolled her eyes at me. “But the rest of the high school didn’t. I couldn’t even file charges saying he tried to rape me. It had just been some aggressive kissing that I didn’t feel comfortable with. And he had stepped away, so maybe he realized he was wrong. I don’t know, but obviously he freaked me out. His falling over the balcony was an accident. But the entire high school blamed me. They saw the loss of this great football player. Freshman year was bad- lots of upper classmen spreading nasty rumors about me. I hadn’t really had any close friends to stand up for me.”

“So what? They lost one football player, who cares? They didn’t move on after the season?”

“It became like this thing… They hated me because I was an easy target. And by default, I hated them. I’ve never been the kind of girl that plays nice with others. They backed me into a corner and I fought back.” She shrugged one shoulder out of the water and I wanted to lick it, starting at the edge, across her collarbone, right to the hollow of her throat. But we were bonding, so I kept my focus on her darkened eyes. “They didn’t need a reason to hate me after that. They just did. And I let them because I didn’t want any part of their world.”

“Was everyone like that? Everyone was mean to you?” I asked gently. Now that the rage had subsided, my chest started to feel a little like it was cracking open for her. My sometimes feisty, sometimes sweet, but always amazing Olivia had a miserable high school life and hadn’t made friends since. I wanted to go back in time and beat up every single douche bag that was cruel to her. I wanted to be there for her. Hang out with her on the weekends. Ask her on dates. Take her to prom. I wanted to remake every single bad memory she had and give her happiness.

“You make me sound like a victim.” She shoved my shoulder and shook her head. “I wasn’t. Well, maybe at first. But, I could have made friends. I mean, there were people outside of the popular crowd that could have cared less about some over-privileged football player. But by the time I realized that, I was just over… people. I did my own thing. I knew who I was and what I wanted out of life. I didn’t need friends.”

“So tough,” I murmured, taking a step closer to her. The movement of my body pushed a wave over the tops of her shoulders and left little droplets of water dotting her slender neck.

“At first, maybe. I did the whole goth thing for a while. I was like the girl you expected to carry a knife to school. Combat boots, dyed black hair, spikey jewelry... the whole thing. It took me a little while to figure out who I was. But when I did, I liked myself. And I had my family and my goals… I didn’t need other people to feel like I had worth or value.”

“I would have liked to see that.” I reached out and tucked some of her darkened hair behind her ear. She had run her fingers through it so it went straight back over the top of her head, hiding her usual part. She looked older like this, but in an undeniably sexy way. She didn’t look like a victim that got bullied, or even an angsty little thing just trying to find her way. No, this Olivia knew exactly who she was. This Olivia was strong and driven. This Olivia could survive being tortured and experimented on and come out of it with not only her sanity but an even stronger purpose. This Olivia had all of her dreams taken from her and her family and still bounced back, still believed she could make them all happen. This Olivia had me so completely pulled into her gravity that I couldn’t remember what life was like without her in it, or what my Magic felt like without hers inside it.

And I didn’t think I ever wanted to know again.

“You wouldn’t have recognized me,” she told me. “I looked really different with black hair. Trust me. My skin is way too pale too pull that off.”

I smiled because she was smiling, because I couldn’t help it. “Still beautiful, though.”

Her breath caught in her throat and I moved closer. She shook her head to disagree with me.

“No,” she said. “I was so ugly. I swear.”

I shook my head this time and laid my hand on the curve of her naked waist. She fit perfectly in my grasp. Her skin burned against my palm. I had never seen so much of her, both physically and emotionally and I was sure I would do anything to discover even more, strip her until there was nothing left between us. My attraction had escalated into something so much more… something so much bigger than the physical. I wouldn’t be satisfied until I knew more, saw more. I wouldn’t be able to stop until I had it all.

“You could never be ugly to me, Liv. No matter what you look like or what you do to your hair. When I look at you, all I see is beauty. Inside, outside, it doesn’t matter… you are beauty to me.” I hovered over her now. I’d slid her closer with that grip on her body. Her body pressed against me and I loved the feel of her bare skin against mine. She was hot, she was smooth, she was pure. She was everything that I wasn’t. And I wanted what she had. I told her she was beauty to me and she was. I wasn’t that… I was the opposite of that. I had been contaminated from these wars, from these battles I’d fought in the name of a greater good. I had been emptied. But my entire body and soul knew Olivia was the answer to that emptiness. She could redeem some of those terrible things I’d done. She could help me through this endless existence that I didn’t want.

She could fix me.

She could save me.

Her hands rested on my chest, neither pushing away nor bringing me closer. Her breathing had quickened and she was chewing on the corner of her bottom lip nervously. “Jericho,” she breathed as if in warning. “I didn’t tell you that story so you’d feel sorry for me. I just meant that, er, I don’t really need friends. I’m not looking for friends.”

“That’s good,” I said. “Because I’m not looking to be your friend.” Her breath shuddered against my chin when I dipped my head to meet her. “All you have to do is say ‘no,’ Liv. I’m not going to force you. And you don’t have to break my arm to get me to stop. Just say no.” I grabbed her hip with my other hand and brought her even closer to me. Slowly, so slowly I wanted to punch myself in the face for giving her so much time to back out, I let my lips touch hers.

Unlike in my dad’s office, she didn’t just stand there and let me do all the work. This time, when I increased the pressure on her mouth, she pushed back, and hell, if that wasn’t the most amazing thing I’d ever felt. I tried to keep this slow… tried to give her time to adjust to my escalating hunger; but soon the press of her soft lips wasn’t enough. I wanted more.

I swiped my tongue across her bottom lip, asking for permission to enter. She opened immediately and I took over her mouth.

I could not get enough of this girl.

I didn’t want to get enough of her.

I just wanted more.

I devoured her mouth, using my tongue, my teeth, my expert kissing skills. I set out to seduce this girl, but not just for sex. I wanted her to fall as hard for me as I had fallen for her. I wanted her to be as desperate for this kiss as I was. I wanted her to believe that she would die if I stopped.

Because at this point, I knew I would die if she ended this.

I pushed her against the pool wall and set about making her mine. My hands coasted over her bare skin, happy to seek out every exposed part, biding my time until I could also explore the unexposed places. I pressed a solid hand against her lower back and brought her as tightly to me as I could. The feel of her smooth stomach against my own… there were just not words. Bliss. Ecstasy. A whole different goddamn plane of existence.  Her hands reached up to tangle around my neck and she nibbled my bottom lip while one of her legs slipped around my hip.

Holy shit.

This girl.

I released my Magic fully into hers. Or rather, I stopped fighting the natural instinct to entwine us. I hit her with the full force of all my attraction and something deeper I still couldn’t define; and this time when our Magics crashed together around us I knew I wasn’t imagining the light show underneath the water, in the air around us, pouring out of our very skin. This was real… this was it.

Desperate for more of her, I followed my hunger and left her mouth, only to taste every other part of her. I trailed kisses across her jawline, down her throat, I licked that line across her collarbone I’d fantasized about earlier. She moaned this delicious sound that vibrated my lips and I lost my mind.

I followed that same path back to her mouth, my lips blazing a trail so hot and seductive my breathing had stopped being easy. I wanted this to never end, I wanted to taste her until I couldn’t remember how anything else tasted, I wanted to touch her until my fingers had every inch and piece of her memorized.

I pressed my hips into her, hating that there was any separation between us and she gasped against my mouth. Her other leg joined her first around my hips. She was feather-light under the water and I easily lifted her so that we fit together how a man and a woman were meant to fit together.

This time it was me who groaned.

Goddamn, this could never end and it would be too soon.

Her hands were frenzied at my neck and in my hair. Water sloshed between our bodies with our desperation and somehow my hand had found its way to playing with the thin string of her bikini top.

“Jericho,” she sighed against my mouth and I lost my mind.

Lost it.

She took it all, whatever it was, and left me with nothing.

And somehow that was okay with me.

I just wanted to hear my name on those lips again, just like that; breathy, needy and completely as out of her mind for more as I was for her.

I would do anything to hear her say my name like that again. But I was kind of excited to get to that part.

I pushed my hips into her again and this time it was her turn to moan. Dear, God, nothing had ever felt this good before and we were still relatively clothed.

“Jericho!” From across the patio. I was going to kill them. “Oh, er, uh, er, sorry.”

Olivia immediately pulled her mouth away and I felt my entire body sag in defeat. I rested my forehead against hers and kept my eyes closed so I could gain some control.

“What?” I bit out.

“Sorry, I didn’t know I’d be… er, interrupting something,” Xander apologized, but it was too late.

“What do you want?” I repeated giving each word gravity.

“There’s been a development,” he explained. “Sebastian asked me to come get you.”

“Tell him I’ll be right there,” I said. And I would be. Because as sweet as Olivia felt wrapped around me I still had responsibilities, not only to my people, but to my friends that were captured and my friends that were Kings and Queens, but I had a responsibility to her as well. She had been wronged in a great way and I would right that in an even greater way. She was a part of me now. She was mine now. There was no different way to say that. I wouldn’t let her go after this.

I couldn’t.

I would avenge her and I would give her back all those goals and dreams, the family that she loved so completely  again.

I sensed Xander leave and without opening my eyes I said, “We have something in common.”

“What’s that?” she asked, sounding amused but still very breathy.

Slowly I opened my eyes to meet her heated gaze. God, she was beautiful, so damn beautiful. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips swollen from my kisses. It took everything in me to hold back from taking her mouth with mine again. Plus her body was still wrapped around me even though her arms rested lightly on my shoulders instead of clutching me with passion and I felt it as though it were a physical loss of something incredibly vital to my survival.

“I don’t have any friends either,” I told her.

She laughed at that, completely carefree and unrestrained. I loved the sound. And I loved that she wasn’t shoving away from me and running. She was letting me hold her, she was letting this happen.

“What about the people in that house?” she teased.

“Those are not my friends,” I told her. “I hate those people.”

“Since when?”

“Since two minutes ago,” I told her honestly. “It’s deep-seeded. I mean, this is as real as it gets. I’m done with people. All of them.”

She laughed some more and I watched her face in happy rapture, completely transfixed by her smile and twinkling eyes. “All of them?”

“Well, maybe not all of them.” I leaned in for a few more stolen kisses and brought us as close together as we could be, just to remind her what kind of heat we shared, what potential pleasure we could bring each other.

She slapped at my chest. “Go,” she commanded. “Before I won’t let you.”

“I think I’m alright with that,” I confessed.

“Me too, but they need you. We have to finish what we started.”

“Oh, we will,” I smirked at her. She giggled and it was another sound to add to my growing list of obsessions.

“Not what I meant.” She dropped her legs and I had to stifle a wince. I needed that feeling back.

Now.

But instead of acting out those intense feelings of desire, I took her hand and dragged her to the shallow end. We walked up the stairs together while I openly ogled her hot little body exiting the water a step at a time.

Good God.

She was perfect. Her milky skin perfectly smooth and dripping with little beads of water. The bikini covered just enough of her important parts to leave my imagination running absolutely wild. Her delicious curves were completely exposed to my wandering eyes and it was all I could do not to put my hands back on her, back where they belonged.

When she wrapped a towel around herself I felt the need to pick my jaw up off the ground.

She caught me staring at her and her cheeks flushed pink at my obvious admiration.

“You’re exquisite, Olivia,” I breathed in a reverent one. “You make me forget everything. You make me want to start over and wait until it’s right.”

She didn’t understand me, I could see it in the dip of her brows. But it was true. Those words were truth, maybe truer words than I’d ever said.

She made my past seem silly and immature. She made me want to erase everything I’d ever done and just wait for her, wait until she walked into my life. She made me wish I knew what to do with her from the beginning. And she made me promise oaths to myself that I would not mess up this time.

I would win this time.

I would get what I wanted.

Only this time, she was more than what I wanted. She was what I needed… what I couldn’t live without.

We walked into the house and towards our separate bedrooms. I had to change before I went downstairs and I wanted to walk her to her door. When we got there, I leaned down and kissed her again, just because I could.

“I’ll see you later,” I told her with my face buried in the curve of her neck. I let my tongue taste the skin there and she shivered against me.

“Ok,” she gasped. “Later.”

“Later,” I confirmed. And then she walked into her bedroom and shut the door.

Our Magics separated in that moment and the feeling nearly brought me to my knees it was so acute.

I had a job to do know, a job to finish. But then I would pick this up right where we left it.

I would pick her up right where I left her.

Poor Alexi, he had no idea what kind of motivation I was working with.

He did not stand a chance.

Chapter Sixteen

Olivia

I stared up at the giant insect-like man and felt death creep around the edges of my body. His exaggerated bug eyes seemed to see every part of me, everything in my past and in my future. It didn’t matter if I tried to run, it didn’t matter if I stayed put. He would kill me no matter what.

And after me, my sister.

Ophelia lay in an unconscious heap on the cracked, dry ground behind me. Her body was limp like usual and her eyes moving rapidly behind her sickly transparent eyelids.

Did it even matter if I sacrificed myself for her?

If the evil creature in front of me didn’t kill her, would she just die anyway?

Those thoughts flitted through my brain as fast as hummingbird wings, mixed with opposing thoughts that gave me courage, mingled with confusing flashes that gave me hope, and intertwined with the core-deep feeling that someone I knew would save us both.

I tilted my chin and met the monster’s cold, black stare. I silently dared him to attack, challenged him with everything that I was. He gazed back, hungry and salivating with greed. He didn’t care how much resolve I’d found; he would destroy me no matter what.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Our world was shaken up by the loud sound. The ground quaked, debris fell from some unknown place and the half-human, half-super-sized-preying-mantis stumbled.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

And then the hideous creature said my name, “Olivia.”

But it wasn’t his voice.

I sat up in bed, clutching the soft, silky sheets in order to ground myself.

Dream. It was just a dream.

My heart pounded against my ribs and blood rushed in my ears. I sucked in gulping breaths of air and mentally willed my new Magic to relax. The energy sizzled out from my body, burning the room in hazy light that looked like a deep purple in the dark room.

Someone knocked on the door again and this time I yelled out for them to enter.

“Come in,” I croaked in a voice raspy with sleep.

The door slowly opened and light from the hallway spilled in so that I had to cover my eyes against the brightness.

“Liv?” Jericho asked with a voice that he had to force to be gentle. “Hey, sorry.” He walked all the way in the room and closed the door behind him.

My nerve endings electrified with awareness. We had shared the most intimate kiss of my life earlier, but why was he here now?

Finishing his kiss?

Or apologizing for the mistake?

“Is everything alright?” I asked because I was a big chicken and I didn’t want to hear about how he never meant to kiss me or spend so much time with me.

“No,” he answered and my heart leapt from my chest to my throat where I nearly choked on it. But then he went on. “We learned some pretty disturbing information tonight. One of our high ranking officials is in some pretty serious danger.”

“What kind of danger?”

“The kind that ends in death.” Jericho sounded flippant, but I could feel his pain as if it were my own. I didn’t know if this hyperawareness was a side effect of the whole Magic thing or if Jericho just projected his feelings more than most. I had always seemed able to read him better than others, but this kind of connection left me gaping with aching helplessness and desperation. “We’re leaving in ten minutes. We want to save this situation before… before we can’t.”

I scrambled to my knees on the bed when the physical ache pouring from Jericho became too much. “But he’s more than a government official, right?”

He nodded. “He’s a very good friend.”

I didn’t need anything more than that. I slid off the bed and flew to his arms in the next moment. My arms wrapped around his neck and I buried my face in his chest. He reacted immediately, with arms tightened around my waist.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

He didn’t say anything, just hugged me tighter.

Finally, after moments of just holding onto each other, he pulled back and whispered into my hair. “We need to get going. Are you alright to pack your own things?”

“I’m fine,” I told him. “I’ll meet you out there.”

He pulled back even farther so that I was forced to look in his dark eyes, mostly that deep chocolate color. There was no green. I could see that even in the dark. His face was etched with worry, but when our eyes met he softened just a little.

“We need to talk,” he said. “Not now, but after we get through today, we need to talk.”

“Sure.” I didn’t know how to feel about that. I wanted to talk to, I reminded myself. Well, maybe I didn’t want to talk. Mostly, I wanted to just pretend like that kiss never happened. He was too good, that kiss was too world-shattering for me to know what to do with. I just wanted to go back to my list of things to accomplish before I became human again. Jericho was seriously messing up the order of my priorities.

“Liv,” he all but growled. “We will talk after this is over today. You’re not going to get out of this.”

“I don’t want to get out of it.”

A small smile pulled at the corner of his lips. “Liar.” And then he leaned in and captured my mouth with his before I could say anything to defend myself. His kiss was short, sweet and just hot enough to leave me breathless and squirmy. When he pulled back he seemed much lighter, the severe tension and the heavy hurt had all but receded. With a tone of complete mystification he said, “You’re eyes have changed. They’re purple now.”

“Wait, what?” I didn’t understand any of that. Well, in some way I comprehended his words, but the meaning didn’t make sense to me.

He didn’t explain. Instead he said, “Don’t hate me for thinking they’re super sexy like this.”

I just shook my head. What could I say to that? I still felt the nagging panic that my eyes might have changed to a completely unnatural color. He pressed one more kiss on the top of my head and reminded me to pack quickly and meet him outside.

I shut the door behind him, immediately flipped on the lights and then sprinted to the en suite bathroom. I blindly grasped for more light switches in there as well. Once the vanity lights switched on, I gripped the cool granite counter and met the eyes of someone else.

Purple.

Not blue with a purple tint.

Not so dark blue that you could mistake them for purple.

Straight up purple.

Panic blurred my refined edges, the borders of myself I’d smoothed and sandpapered to keep my mind from slipping into hysteria. This new reality that I’d been shoved into had been overwhelming, freaky and seriously strange. But I’d held it together. I’d forced myself to remain calm and see this out.

I couldn’t let a little change in iris push me over the cliffs of insanity.

This was something small. Something so little compared to my blood electrifying and my sudden and super-human abilities.

But somehow this made everything more real.

More permanent…

Not to mention my entire body felt empty now that Jericho was out of the room. What was that about?

This was the second time. The first was after our kiss. We’d gone our separate ways and my Magic had drained immediately. I felt like I’d slipped into some weird, obsessive depression. It was like my Magic had a mind of its own and desperately wanted to seek Jericho’s out again.

It didn’t make sense to me.

But it should be noted, that I was not naturally clingy. The blame could be put entirely on my Magic. Which I didn’t even want! Not to mention, should it really be thinking for itself?

So very many things about what just happened completely freaked me out, I didn’t even know where to begin! Or what to think about first.

After three more seconds of internally spazzing the hell out, I sucked in a calming breath and did what I did best in these scenarios; I compartmentalized everything.

I pushed the weirdo, co-dependent Magic into a sealed tight little box and labeled it: Ignore for now. Then I dropped the whole purple eye color development into a slightly less guarded chest and labeled that one: Deal with soon. And then I got my act together.

No matter what was happening with Jericho and me, I respected him enough to want to help his friend. That meant I needed to pack up and be ready to go when he wanted to leave.

So I did just that. I quickly washed my face, tied up my short hair with a very high messy bun, secured it with as many bobby pins as I could find and then threw on some appropriate travel/mission clothes. By the time I’d gathered up whatever of my possessions were lying around the room into my borrowed hiking backpack and turned off the lights, the rest of the household was congregating in the front room.

“Morning, Sunshine,” Sebastian grinned at me when I walked into the room. His eyes flicked up to the backpack that felt bigger than me and threatened to topple me on my ass and his grin turned wicked. “You look about to tip over. Need some help?”

I shook my head and wondered if there was somehow a possibility we’d drive by a Starbucks on our way to the takedown. “I’m tough,” I told Sebastian and then winced when I thought about my purple eyes.

“I can see that,” Sebastian said sounding serious. He inclined his head toward the door and I followed him out. “Jericho wants you in his car.” There was an awkward pause in which he waited for me to explain what was going on between us to which I kept my mouth shut. If I didn’t even know how to explain it to myself, how could I explain it to Sebastian? I couldn’t. So I didn’t. “You’re so pocket-sized.” And then he pushed on my backpack, knocking me off balance.

I stumbled wildly, flailing my arms and straining my back against the heavy weight. Unconcerned with my surroundings, just hoping to stay upright so I didn’t end up on the ground like a turtle on his back, I rammed into another warm body.

I knew it was Jericho before I even looked. Firstly, my Magic felt whole again, absolutely and utterly complete. Secondly, his torso, head and muscled arms were so pathetically ingrained in my memory that it would have been a bigger shock to me if I didn’t recognize him.

“You alright?” He asked with a hand stretched out to steady me.

“Fine,” I squeaked.

He cast me a sidelong glance but didn’t argue.

The three of us walked back to the car we arrived in and I tried to ignore the bloodied and battered man Titus and the two brothers were shoving into the backseat of another car. The guy they’d kept down in the basement last night looked bad. So bad.

My stomach churned and my eyes watered.

I had been a victim of torture not all that long ago and not surprisingly, I’d developed very strong convictions about the whole thing. As in, it was never okay. Not ever.

“It had to be done,” Jericho said quietly as if guessing my thoughts. I turned my face to him and let him explain. “What happened to you was disgusting and in every sense of the word, wrong. But that man will heal. We did nothing to him that his body cannot recover from. You were changed in a way that could potentially alter you forever. What Terletov did to you was selfish, greedy and for his own gain. What we did to his brother over there was in an effort to save other people. He knew things that we needed to know. There was one way to get him to talk and we utilized our advantage. If we wouldn’t have, if we would have let him sit in silence and keep his secrets, people would die this morning. People I care about.”

I nodded slowly. His reasoning made sense. It wasn’t a pretty answer, and it wasn’t a morally rich answer. But it was truth. And I could accept his position.

“They still might die if we don’t get going,” Sebastian threw out dryly.

We got to the sedan and I shrugged my pack off to hand to Sebastian. He took the heavy backpack like it weighed as much as a pillow and tossed it in the trunk next to his and Jericho’s. Just as I was getting ready to tell him thank you he caught my eye and took a rushed step forward. He grabbed my forearms to hold me still and gazed into my eyes with a very tense expression.

“Your eyes are purple,” he announced almost angrily.

Oh, right. “Yep.”

Sebastian glanced at Jericho and then back at me. I could feel Jericho hovering behind me and even though I expected him to intervene or move us along, he just stood their silently.

“Did you do this?” Sebastian demanded and I understood right away that even though he was looking at me, his question was in no way directed at me.

“I’m not sure.” For the first time since I met him, Jericho’s voice sounded small.

I tried to whirl around and deal with Jericho and the way he sounded guilty, but Sebastian’s grip on my arms tightened and I couldn’t move. “Olivia,” he said in a low voice. Jericho put a protective hand on my shoulder but let Sebastian talk. “You’re changing.”

Feeling uncomfortable by his uncharacteristic intensity, I reverted to my usual way of dealing with serious issues: sarcasm. “Thanks, Mom. Are you going to explain what it will be like when I get my first period, too?”

He didn’t even wince at that. His bright brown eyes darkened and his mouth turned into a steeper frown. His eyes flicked to Jericho and then back to me. “The window for any kind of reversal is closing fast. Are you ready to live with this?” I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. Finally, the gravity of his attitude and harshness of his words settled over me, and an entire new series of fears started cycling through me. But Sebastian wasn’t finished yet, “And when I say live with this, I mean live with this forever. Do you understand how long forever is?”

“Sebastian, dude, knock it off.” Jericho no longer sounded nervous. He sounded pissed. “You’re scaring her,” he growled.

“She needs to be scared, asshole,” Sebastian snapped. “And apparently I’m going to be the one that has to scare her. Since you obviously it won’t be you.”

Sebastian’s words carried a meaning I didn’t quite understand but I could feel how important they were, and how unsettled Jericho became because of them.

“I didn’t know her eyes would change.” Jericho’s grip tightened on my shoulder, his fingers dug into my bone and the heat of his hand spread over my arm, all the way to my chest.

“You need to stop this until she’s sure.” Sebastian lifted a hand off my forearm and pointed an angry finger at Jericho. “You need to think about her.”

“I have been thinking about her,” Jericho returned. “You don’t need to worry about that. But you do need to worry about getting your ass in the car. We’re leaving. Now.”

Sebastian stared us down for a good thirty seconds before following the order. I let out a slow breath after the back passenger door slammed behind him. The air had grown so thick with the tension between the two guys I had all but frozen in the middle of their confusing argument.

I looked over my shoulder to gage Jericho’s reaction but he was staring at the back of Sebastian’s head. His grip on my shoulder was still tight, but he seemed unaware of holding onto me.

I turned around completely and forced his hand to move. His fingertips slid down my arm and across my stomach before they came to rest at his side. He looked down at me with such confusion and indecision in his eyes that his little-lost-boy expression made my heart hurt. I reached up a hand to cup his jaw but he flinched, cocking his head back and out of my reach.

“Are you all right?” I whispered as the ache in my chest spread to every finger and toe, infecting my entire body with anxiety and rejection. I knew his reaction to my touch was small, insignificant even; but I could feel his Magic withdraw from mine at the same time he seemed to emotionally shut down right in front of me. He was distancing us and I didn’t understand why, or why what Sebastian said had affected him so powerfully.

“I’m fine,” he answered flatly. “But we need to get going.”

I nodded and followed his order just like Sebastian. I climbed into the front seat, which was apparently my place since Sebastian had spread his legs across the entire backseat. His head tipped back against the glass and his eyes were closed. I imagined a Do Not Disturb sign across his forehead because that was the message he was sending out.

Jericho started the car and pulled out of the long drive before I even had a chance to buckle or calm my racing heart. I hadn’t given myself much time to think about last night or how kissing Jericho could have a long term effect. But now I was assaulted by doubts and regrets for my actions.

What had I done?
I had worked to keep Jericho at a distance for a reason. I hated that the one night I’d dropped
my defenses, he’d managed to break through and pull me into him. I never talked about my past, and I really never talked about my feelings, unless they were angry ones. Somehow he’d managed to get me to open up about both.

And then he’d kissed me.

He’d kissed me until I was a melting puddle of want and warmth, until I couldn’t remember my own name, until I’d questioned every single thing I was fighting for.

I’d woken up this morning with those same thoughts circling around my head. What if I was fighting for something I didn’t really want? What if the future I’d imagined for myself wasn’t a concrete path I’d created, but a journey I was meant to explore and adapt to.

I reviewed my present and my current convictions: I wanted to be human again, I wanted to go home to my family, I wanted to go back to school and kick ass.

But in one incredible kiss, Jericho had made me question all of that. What if I didn’t go back to being human? Could I live like this? Yes. And I could even be happy. What if when I went back home, it wasn’t to stay? What if I didn’t rely on my family for everything? Instead, I separated myself in order to protect this new part of me… the Immortal part of me? What if I didn’t go back to school?

What if I started a completely different life?

Every one of those questions revolved around the one who’d started them all. Jericho.

It seemed ridiculous to get this attached to a boy I’d only known for a few short months, one that was so different from me. But I couldn’t stop myself.

I seemed to be spiraling into something I didn’t and couldn’t understand. My life had become this tornado of confusion and upheaval. And while my biggest issues revolved around Terletov and what he did to O and me, there were bigger questions I had to ask myself, questions that I felt ill-prepared to answer.

I also needed to be honest with myself.

I liked Jericho.

I really liked Jericho.

Maybe I always had. Since the moment he found me in Peru, he had been by my side, fighting for me, first, for me to recover, then for me to trust him. Last night he’d fought for me to face my attraction to him. And while he seemed reserved now, I didn’t believe he was finished fighting for me.

He’d gotten his way with every other battle. There wasn’t any reason for me to believe that he wouldn’t continue to win.

Plus, he hated to lose.

I didn’t like being the weak link in this, always giving in, always being the loser. But until now, I’d never felt like the loser. Whenever he won, it also felt like I won.

I never felt like I’d ever lost until now.

I shook my head and let my thoughts drift elsewhere. I thought of Ophelia and said as many prayers for her recovery as I could think of the right words to speak. I thought about my family back home and the potential danger Rion was in. I thought of Brazil and how I’d never been here before. These were exactly the opposite circumstance I wanted to visit another country under. And I hadn’t even gotten a stamp on my passport, validating my efforts.

The luscious, tropical scenery flipped by the further south we drove. The Amazon was at our back and the coast lay somewhere in front of us. The only reason I knew that was because Sebastian eventually explained where we were headed when I couldn’t take the silence anymore.

Well, he explained that we were driving south towards Rio and Sau Paulo but that he didn’t exactly know where we were headed either.

Nobody did.

Sebastian said we would just know it when we got there.

I had to assume they were using Magic in some way to guide us, but I didn’t understand and I didn’t feel up to asking questions.

Jericho remained silent next to me. His jaw ticked with tightness, his hands gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles were stretched white. His heavy foot pressed forcefully down on the gas so that we had to be flying over the speed limit.

He hardly said a word for hours, but I could see the gears turning in his head. He was lost in whatever thoughts were up there, deeply lost. His distance hurt, especially after I’d given him so much in that stupid kiss last night. But some internal, instinctive thought told me this was what he needed right now. And so I let him have it.

“So Terletov is supposed to be there?” I turned in my seat and directed my question at Sebastian.

“Supposed to be,” Sebastian confirmed. His body was strung just as tight as Jericho’s but Sebastian seemed more concerned with the mission ahead of us.

“That’s kind of lucky, then. What are the chances that we show up in the exact country he’s hanging out in?” I thought it was lucky anyway. I’d only been out of America twice in my life, once to Canada as a child for a family camping trip and then to Peru with Ophelia. I wasn’t counting the rest of my intercontinental travel because truthfully I planned on erasing this entire segment of my life from my memory when I was human again. But it seemed these people hopped countries on a regular basis. Terletov had access to the entire world and yet he happened to be in the same country as us? Only a few hours away? What were the chances?

Sebastian confirmed my fears, “Not lucky. He’s here for us, Olivia. He knows we’re looking for him and he’s threatening to kill one of the King’s advisors. This is a carefully thought out plan and we are willfully walking into it.”

I probably should have responded to that in some way but I just didn’t have the mental capacity to unpack it.

So I just turned around and took a cue from Jericho. Maybe the whole riding-in-silence thing
was less brooding male and more I’m-trying-not-to-flip-the-freak-out.

As another hour ticked by I wondered if we really knew how to get to Terletov, but then something remarkable happened. Along the edges of my Magic, I started to feel the pull of more energy. I instinctively understood that it was different Magic, outside of my own and belonging to someone else, or multiple someones.

The further we drove, the stronger the Magic felt. Only, it wasn’t Magic… or was it? I couldn’t be sure. I didn’t like it though. Unlike Jericho’s warm, receptive and commanding Magic, this energy just felt… wrong.

It wasn’t trying to hurt me or anything, just kind of hovering on the horizon of my awareness. I wondered if it could feel me too. Something made me think yes.

“Who does it belong to?” I asked with as much nonchalance as I could balance while still keeping my sanity.

“Who does what belong to?” Jericho asked, the first time he’d used that beautiful mouth of his since we got in the car.

At the same time Sebastian demanded, “What are you talking about?”

“All that Magic? On our left?” Couldn’t they feel that?

Jericho reacted immediately. I put my arms over my head as we swerved through surrounding traffic going with us and against us. By the time we’d made it safely across four lanes of traffic and darted in front of a rickety wooden cart being pulled by a goat, my throat felt scratchy and raw from all the screaming.

“What the hell was that!” I shouted at Jericho.

He shrugged casually and began the agonizing trip across a super bumpy dirt road that lead us into a forested area.

I glanced back to see that the other cars had kept up with us and all seemed to successfully make it across all of the traffic without dying.

My breathing was still irregular and heavy when Sebastian spoke up, trying to excuse his friend, or that’s what I assumed he was doing. “Neither Jericho nor I can sense other Magics. We were waiting on a call from Talbott, but it never came. You must have some Titan in you if you can feel out other Magics. Jericho believed you and took a chance. Not every side road out here is drivable. He did what he had to in order to keep us on path.”

I felt warmed because Jericho believed me without questioning me or even asking me to repeat myself, not really anyway.

“Why can’t you sense other Magics?” I asked Sebastian while gripping the seat beneath me with every ounce of strength I possessed just to keep from bouncing to the floor.

“Because I’m a hybrid of Medium and Witch and Jericho is pure-blood Witch. Only Titans can really feel Magic. They must have mixed a little in when they gave you your super powers.”

I rolled my eyes at his superhero comment.

“Why do you think I only have a little bit of Titan? Maybe I’m all the way Titan,” I suggested. Since they didn’t really know what I was, it could be possible. I didn’t really understand the distinction between their “kinds” but apparently there were some.

Well, except for Shape-Shifters… I got what set them apart.

“You’re part Witch,” Jericho interjected. “You showed us that the first day we worked on your Magic.”

“And the purple eyes suggest you’re also part Medium,” Sebastian added. “While our eye colors have a larger range than humans, purple is specific to Mediums.”

“What does that mean? Am I some kind of mutt?” Nervousness attacked my senses as I waited for the answer to this question. I was already a freak of nature because of the Magic. I had no desire to be a freak inside the freakish world in which I now resided.

“Not a mutt,” Jericho reassures me. “In our culture the true Immortals hold each of the different Magics. An Immortal containing all four kinds would be a true Immortal. Sebastian and I are less pure than you right now.”

His answered shocked me. I didn’t expect that. “What’s the difference between you guys and an Immortal with all four kinds?”

“A true Immortal would be stronger, faster, more powerful and they would live out the meaning of our name. They would have complete Immortality,” Sebastian explained. “And they are extremely rare.”

“How rare?” I asked.

“There’s four of them,” Sebastian deadpanned.

“Six if you count the babies,” Jericho added.

I gaped. “Six true Immortals in your entire Kingdom?”

“Babies?” Sebastian demanded. “Amelia?”

“Er, no,” Jericho sounded embarrassed. “Eden’s having twins. I wasn’t supposed to say anything.”

“Twins?” This time I could hear the smile in Sebastian’s voice.

“Don’t say anything,” Jericho growled.

“He’s cheating, anyway,” Sebastian ignored Jericho’s warning. “You can’t count the babies yet.”

I sat open-mouthed for a minute, wondering what sort of world I’d gotten myself into for the thousandth time. “I’m kind of glad I’m not one of them then. I hardly know what to do with the Magic as is. I couldn’t take the added pressure.”

The boys remained silent. But not in a natural way that happens at the end of conversations. This silence was ripe with tension and practically palpable as it settled on my skin.

So, I decided to push my luck. “Good thing I’m not all four kinds. That would be crazy scary.”

“Sure,” Jericho mumbled.

“Oh, my gosh!” I slapped the back of my hand on his bicep before I could rein in my reaction. “Oh, my gosh, you think I’m all four kinds!”

“It’s just a theory we’ve been working on,” he mumbled.

“We didn’t know if it was true or not, but the purple eyes…” Sebastian trailed off and looked out the window when I glanced back to catch his eye. “Up for seeing if you can shift into an animal?” he asked with a playful smile even though he wouldn’t look me straight on.

I faced forward and slammed my back against the seat. “No, thank you,” I squeaked. An animal? Shift into an animal? I so totally couldn’t even comprehend that statement. I needed to be human again.

Now!

After long moments of silence while I watched the thick forest fly by the bouncing sedan, I decided to find out a little more information. “What does it mean? Tell me specifically what it means to be all four?”

Jericho sighed and then said, “It means you have a lot of responsibility. It means… it means your life would be changed forever. Not just for a short while, but forever, Liv. It means Terletov would have gifted you and cursed you in the same breath.”

My hands started shaking and my lungs seized up into frozen, useless organs.

“And it means that you mate once.” Sebastian sounded dismally grim from the backseat. I prickled at his terminology but he explained himself. “It means you find one person to share the rest of your life with because once you consummate the relationship, you transfer your immortality to them completely. You unite your Magics permanently. There is no going back. You can’t become human after that either. If you unite your Magic with someone else and you decide to give up your Magic and become human again, you would kill that person.”

“She wouldn’t kill them,” Jericho snapped, sounding the angriest I’d ever heard him. The tone of his voice actually made me jump in my seat.

“She would kill them,” Sebastian argued calmly. “I saw what happened to Kiran. I saw that he was about to die.”

“That didn’t happen to me,” Jericho argued and suddenly I felt like a spectator to a conversation in a different language. “When Eden broke up with me, I didn’t die.”

Eden and Jericho dated? What!

Jericho dated the Queen???

Stupidly those thoughts trumped every other epiphany for the few moments I was allowed to have them.

“You and I both know that what she gave Kiran was different than what she gave you,” Sebastian growled. His words made it seem like he was angry about something in their past, but his attitude pointed to something in our present. I didn’t understand, but I was too nervous to ask any important questions. “You’ve never played naïve before. I have no idea why you would start lying to yourself now.”

Jericho huffed out a frustrated breath and shot me a long, agitated glance from his periphery.

“No big deal,” I shrugged to ease the tension. “I won’t sleep around. That’s easy.” I held my body completely still in order to keep from glancing at Jericho.

I mean, we’d kissed… for just a few minutes. It was no big deal. And not anywhere close to what Sebastian was suggesting.

“Yeah,” Jericho echoed me. “Easy.”

Sebastian made an amused snorting sound but got cut off abruptly when Jericho slammed on the brakes suddenly. My body slammed into the seatbelt and it took me a minute for my head to clear and for the roadblock in front of us to make sense.

There were at least a dozen men spread out in front of us, armed with swords and guns at their hips. They were menacing and evil looking and their Magic was super potent- almost like it was rotten, like spoiled eggs, if eggs could be Magic. Terletov stood in the middle of them all, a sword raised over his head and an evil, menacing sneer twisting his features.

On the ground in front of him was another man. His dark skin was painted with crimson blood and his appendages were limp and broken at odd angles.

The sword was meant for that man.

“Silas,” Jericho’s voice broke on the name, and then we were scrambling out the door and I was thrown into my very first Immortal fight.

Good thing I was a fast learner.

Chapter Seventeen

Jericho

“Step back.” My hands were shaking and my blood felt on fire with rage. I was an inferno of intent and fear.

Terletov stood over Silas as he lay on the ground beaten and broken. I had never seen him look so utterly defeated before. He couldn’t even keep his eyes open, although he tried. He kept coughing, rasping gasps of breath that would rattle his chest and spray sticky, foul-smelling blood from his mouth.

Terletov just grinned at me- sick, sadistic, crazy.

“Step back from him or I will gut you,” I warned him with as strong a voice as I could manage. It wasn’t that I was afraid of him or that my nerves were getting the better of me, rather fury seemed to have wrapped around my body in a vice-grip of restrained wrath. I had just seconds before I would explode and bring down the sword of justice. My magically-enhanced gun rested in my hand, ready and willing to inflict as much damage as possible and my Magic tingled at my fingertips, just waiting to unleash hell.

Silas whimpered on the ground a sound that would haunt me for years to come. Silas didn’t whimper. Silas didn’t beg or plea or grovel. He was an ancient Immortal- centuries old. He’d survived Cedric, Lucan and a revolution. He had kept colonies of people alive for hundreds of years.

This was not the same man that I’d met in the desert to exchange plans with. This was not the man that sat on Avalon’s council and kept the reluctant Monarchy in line. This was not the man that once saved a gypsy village from the wrath of an evil king.

This was a shell of that man.

Red rage blurred my vision and I fought to keep it together until it was time to engage. I felt Talbott by my side, Sebastian on the other. Olivia had found her way behind me, which I was more than grateful for. We hadn’t exactly gone over her role should we engage the enemy, but she seemed to be smart about this. And Sebastian had gone over the procedure of firing a gun and fighting with Magic on the plane over here. Not that it was enough to prepare her for this moment, but it would have to be enough.

Hopefully she would stay by my side and be smart, because I could not babysit her just now.

I would protect her with my life, but I didn’t have time for the unnecessary stunts and acts of bravery. I understood that Terletov had done unspeakable things to her, and for that he would pay. But she couldn’t go rogue and expect results.

Not now anyway.

“So you got my message?” Terletov grinned at us. His eyes moved slowly from Sebastian to mine, to Talbott and beyond. I felt, more than saw, when he found Titus standing somewhere behind me. His entire energy changed immediately, somehow growing more aggressive, hungrier, angrier. Titus was our only Shifter. Of course, Terletov would want to deal with that. “I’m so happy you could join us. Your friends have been waiting for you.”

Friends?

Was Lilly here?

Please God, let Lilly be here.

“Friends?” Talbott echoed my thoughts.

“Yes,” Terletov sneered. “Friends.”

He then kicked Silas in the side and the old Shifter arched his back, contorting in some kind of unspeakable pain. Movement from their ranks drew my attention off Silas and revealed Gabriel standing near the back of the crowd. He was handcuffed, beaten and bloodied, but nothing like Silas. Not destroyed. Not devoid of everything that gave him life and vitality.

I had Xander calling Gabriel nonstop since Alexi had given up this information, but he never got through. I know why now. He was already here.

Gabriel’s fiery eyes stayed firmly fixed on his friend. He didn’t even acknowledge the rest of us.

“Is that my little brother writhing around in the back of your car?” Terletov asked casually.

“Care to trade?” I sounded equally nonchalant but nothing could have been further from the truth.

Terletov shrugged, “Keep him.” His eyes narrowed and a sick grin twisted his expression. “Or didn’t he tell you about our little falling out?”

“I’ll take back my friends one way or another, Terletov. I’m just trying to make this easy on you.” My words were all bravado. I tried to imagine the point of Alexi bringing us here while his brother still sold him out. None of this made sense to me.

“This is boring to me,” Terletov announced suddenly. His dark hair hung limp around his crisp collar and his razor thin mustache had a thin line of sweat beading his upper lip. He was a sick man- and not just in the head.

The rest of his mean, while strong and capable soldiers, let off a rotting smell that could only be likened to death. These men were not natural, not even a little bit. Whatever games Terletov was playing with science and nature, he was losing. Even if it seemed like success in some messed-up way, this was not right.

They could not last like this.

“Here are my terms,” Terletov continued. “You can have these… men. I will give them to you. But I want your Queen. She has what is mine. So, if you give her to me, I will give you what is yours.”

“No,” Talbott snarled immediately. I felt punched in the gut at Talbott’s insistence. As much as he wanted Lilly, as much as he would do anything to get to her, his loyalty to the Crown came first. Eden and the rest of our Monarchy would always be his first obligation- by blood oath. And that killed me for him.

“Not a chance,” Sebastian echoed.

“Then they die.” Terletov glanced over his shoulder and then back at us. “And so do you.”

“Wrong,” I told him. “It’s you who dies today.”

He looked at me like he just noticed me for the first time. His thick eyebrows raised high into his wrinkled forehead and his emaciated frame became cartoonishly animated. “I was hoping for a good…” His sentence trailed off when his eyes flickered behind me. Instinctively I moved in front of his focus, blocking his view from what had to be Olivia. “What’s this?” he demanded. “Why do you look so familiar? Step forward, I need to look at you better.”

“No.” I stepped forward instead.

Terletov lowered his sword so the tip rested in the hollow of Silas’s throat. The message was made perfectly clear; but I would be damned before I would let this sick bastard’s attention focus completely on Olivia.

“I want to see the girl.” As sadistic as this man was, this was the first time I’d actually heard him sound angry. Usually, he held casual tones and spoke with a kind of elegant but condescending amusement. He was born and raised an aristocrat in a world where malicious politics ruled. Despite the kind of criminal he’d become, he didn’t lose the old style of evil that Lucan and his father and his father’s father had instilled into this Kingdom.

“No,” I repeated.

Terletov put some weight behind his sword and Silas’s neck began to bleed. Silas lay there, choking and wriggling beneath the tip of the blade while I protected a girl that was so much more to me than a friend or attraction. Her eyes had changed. Her eyes were purple.

She possessed all four kinds of Magic, without a doubt. She had to. I had started to put a puzzle together in my head and Olivia was filling in missing pieces for me.

But beyond that, beyond this conflict, we were bonding. Our Magic was even now entwined. And I doubted she even realized it. I’d removed my Magic from hers earlier, after Sebastian started insinuating, well, the truth- that we were connecting, that our Magic was combining. I’d tried to keep myself separate from her since I realized our connection could have terrible consequences, but now, in the middle of this, I couldn’t bring myself to distance myself from her. I needed her, and I needed to know she was alright.

But this only strengthened our bond- a bond I had never believed could exist until now.

I had loved Eden. Loved her.

But we’d never shared this; we’d never even shared a percentage of this.

I’d sort all that out later though- as long as there was a later.

The tip of the sword pushed into Silas’s flesh further and our standstill had only moments left. It was time to act. Time to finish the chitchat and accomplish something.

“I’m going to kill him then,” Terletov shrugged.

For the first time since he’d stepped out of wherever they had been hiding him, Gabriel spoke. They’d pulled out his clerical collar and his tattered robes were filthy and bloody, but he still held the air of authority and conviction that always surrounded him. When he spoke, his Spanish accent was thick and his voice beyond pained, but his words rang out clearly. “You’ve already killed him. There is nothing left of him but agony.”

Terletov immediately bounced back to the happy politician then. Grinning like a crocodile he said, “As usual, the priest speaks the truth. I did do that, didn’t I? Ah well, then he probably won’t mind if I do this.” A collective gasp resounded the moment Terletov’s magically-enhanced sword pushed through Silas’s neck. Crimson red Magic drifted into the air, blinding, bright and free.

Agony clawed at my throat and disbelief and despair simultaneously clenched in my chest over and over again. Silas.

Silas.

If Eden were here she could save him, but she wasn’t. And maybe he didn’t want to be saved. Maybe he had hoped for death for far too long now.

Peace softened his features as his face finally relaxed. A small smile played at the corner of his mouth and finally, finally his body stopped writhing.

I knew that Gabriel was right, that whatever Terletov had done to him had killed him way before now. At this point, Terletov was granting him a favor by ending his suffering. But it was the image of one of my old friends and great mentors that spurred me into action.

A small hand pressed against my shoulder blade and I realized Olivia was trying to get my attention. I snapped out of my hypnotic state, watching Silas’s Magic leak into the atmosphere around his dying body and realized the rest of my team had gone to work on these guys.

It was time to join them.

“Do not leave my side,” I told Olivia. “Stay next to me and use everything we worked on before.” I handed her the gun. “Do you know how to use this?” With wide eyes full of fear and anxiety, she nodded. I clicked the safety off for her, just in case she was too panicked to remember the little things and pulled a dagger from my boot with the same magical properties as the swords these men carried.

I probably should have brought a sword. I was certainly trained with them, but they were cumbersome outside of fighting. I much preferred the easy handling of a long-blade knife.

I wanted Terletov, but I wouldn’t risk getting close to him while I had Olivia next to me. Besides, it looked like Talbott had already called dibs.

I decided I needed to get to Gabriel first and foremost. He was a wild man at the back of the conflict. His hands were bound but his feet were not. He kicked and threw his body around. He used his forehead to connect blow after blow, seeming uncaring of the blood dripping from his various wounds into his eyes and over his face.

He looked savage and out of his mind.

And I absolutely understood why.

If that had been Avalon… or even Sebastian. Talbott. Xander. Xavier. Titus. Roxie. Amelia. Eden. Even Kiran… If that had been any of my friends, I would have lost my mind in vindictive rage.

As it were, I still had the pounding retribution pulsing through me so loud and demanding, my hearing felt muffled and my vision narrowed into a tunnel of this fight and only this fight.

I struck out at the first of Terletov’s men I came into contact with. I let the pent up Magic explode from my palm and strike out at his feet. He blocked me, expecting my tactic. I adjusted my methods and went to strike out again when a secondary blast of Magic burst forward and succeeded in knocking him over where I had failed.

Olivia.

She’d taken the opportunity while his attention was on me and used some initiative.

Nice.

I lunged forward and had my knife through his heart before his body had even fully taken the impact of his fall. His green, putrid Magic immediately released from his chest while his entire body seemed to decompress like a punctured balloon.

The thing about these guys was they were super strong, even for Immortals. They seemed to be powerful beyond anything else. But they were also incredibly easy to kill. If you could get a blade into them, they just deflated. It was bizarre. But I suspected it had something to do with however Terletov had enhanced their Magic and the consequences of tampering with the natural order of things.

I was back on my feet and fighting again before I could even thank Olivia for helping me. She stayed close to me, just like I asked. It was easy to do until the hand-to-hand combat. But most of my fighting was Magic blast versus Magic blast.

I could hold my own even if these guys were stronger than me. I’d been doing this a long time and I didn’t give up, not ever. They were seasoned as well, so it wasn’t like I had an advantage, but I didn’t have a disadvantage either.

Olivia helped out when she could. Her blasts of Magic weren’t the strongest I’d seen, but they were surprisingly accurate. She had good aim. And she wasn’t afraid to push her body and her abilities to the limit. She used the gun as well. Her aim was worse with that, but a few times she knocked them on their asses and prevented them from reaching us.

The second guy we took down, took some work. But eventually my knife connected with his thigh and I ripped it upwards, using my Immortal strength to cut through flesh, tissue and muscle. He collapsed to the ground while his sickly Magic poured out of his gaping wound.

I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. Not until I knew he was dead.

Retracting my knife from his leg, I plunged it into his heart and twisted. I yanked my knife back and kicked him backwards. He was toast.

I whirled around to find another target when Terletov appeared before us. I glanced around for Talbott but he was currently engaged with two others. I knew he could hold his own, but I hoped he would get free soon so he could help with this takedown.

He needed to feel the success of gutting this guy.

He deserved that much after going through what he had.

“You were one of mine,” Terletov declared. His eyes were transfixed on Olivia, not me. I crouched in front of her, knife in hand, Magic at the ready. “You belong to me.”

“I don’t belong to anybody,” she snapped.

“I made you like this,” he persisted. “I created you. You owe me. You belong to me.”

“Actually, you owe me,” she hissed at him. “You owe me the cure for this! I don’t belong to you and I don’t belong to this crazy world. I want the cure. I want to go home.”

Terletov shook his head like he thought he’d heard her wrong. His caterpillar-like eyebrows dipped over his eyes and his lips pressed into a confused frown. “There is no cure.” I swallowed. I didn’t trust Terletov, but he sounded more outraged than deceitful right now, like he was appalled Olivia would even think of wanting to go back to human. “There’s no cure for this! I gave you immortality! I gave you a better existence than you even knew existed. And it worked! Look at you! And you’re mine, you know. I took your pathetic humanity and turned you into something beautiful and lasting. You should thank me, not demand that I retract my good will.”

“You tortured me,” Olivia argued with as much vehemence as I’d ever heard. “You ruined my life. My sister’s in a coma because of you! You just killed a man; an innocent man! You’re cruel and delusional. I want nothing to do with you except to get rid of this sickness inside me.”

Her words made even my gut twist.

Is that really how she viewed her Magic?

Is that how she saw me?

“It’s not a sickness!” Terletov screamed. “It’s a gift! I’ve made you into a soldier. I’ve made you the strongest soldier that’s ever lived. Did they take you back to the Castle? Did they try to fix you but failed? That’s because you cannot be fixed! There is no cure. They can’t even take your Magic. It’s bonded to your blood so tight you’d have to die first. But you can’t die. You can’t. I made sure you couldn’t.” His eyes were maniacal and his pitch heightened with his excitement.

I wanted to ask him a million more questions, but I wanted to kill him more.

Gabriel had managed to get his hands free, and suddenly he was flying through the air with a long sword raised overhead. His orange eyes flashed and burned like lava from a recently erupted volcano. His robes flapped in the air as he descended on Terletov from above.

But Terletov was ready.

I struck out with my own Magic at the same time Terletov turned and spun through the air like a freaking ninja. His Magic left his hands and shot through the air, connecting with Gabriel before he could land on the ground. The shot pierced straight to Gabriel’s chest and pushed him back, triggering him to land on his back with a cloud of dirt puffing up around him.

I shot more Magic at Terletov, constant bursts of deadly energy in an effort to destabilize him. He floundered as each shot hit a part of his body, but he was determined to ignore me. I held my Magic in, letting it build pressure so that with each new burst, I would more than annoy him, I would wound him.

He crawled along the ground, jolting and jerking every time I hit him, but he clawed at the ground, pulling himself along. Blood dripped from his body where I’d broken skin and his fingers were raw and wounded as they dug into the hard earth. I stepped closer to him, but when another one of his men approached, I had to worry about engaging him first. I alternated shots, making sure to keep myself protected but not wanting Terletov to get any farther.

Gabriel lay on the ground, unmoving. If it weren’t for the shallow rising and falling of his chest I would have assumed he was dead. But somehow he was managing to hold on.

“Cover me,” I told Olivia and then I dove for Terletov.

His henchman tried to intercept and for a few minutes we were a tangle of flying punches and zaps of Magic. The henchman grabbed me around the legs and while I tried to kick him off I reached out for Terletov. I punched him in the kidneys with rage and the breath expelled from his lungs in a satisfying whoosh. But still he struggled on.

“I’m going to kill your priest,” he taunted through a mouth dripping with blood.

I reached for him again, ignoring the excruciating pain the other guy was hitting and zapping into me. I kicked out wildly but his unrelenting strong grip could not be shaken.

Terletov noticed the advantage and continued his taunts. “And then I’m going to take my girl back. She had a sister too, didn’t she? Is she too weak to absorb all that Magic?” I didn’t answer, just kept struggling to get to him. I had his ankle in my own iron grip, preventing him from moving forward, but it was all I could do to hold on to him. He continued provoking me, though, as if I were no challenge for him at all. “Most of them are too weak. Most of them die. But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because there are ones that survive. My super soldiers. You can’t even steal their Magic, that’s how strong they are. Our one fatal flaw- our one weakness that anyone stronger than us can just steal what belongs to us, humanize us… kill us. But if we fix that. If we make our Magic permanent, then who can stop us? Who can slow us down?” He grinned that wide, toothy smile that made my skin crawl. His skinny, manicured mustached looked like a line of dust over his thin lips. “Nobody. Nobody can stop us. We will be invincible, with an army of invincible soldiers.”

I realized he spoke about himself in the third person that just cemented in the truth that he was absolutely out of his mind.

Crazy asshole.

Gabriel moaned as he rolled over, slowly, too slowly for him to have all his wits about him. He started cursing Terletov in Spanish. His words were vile, cutting and nothing but truth. Terletov just kept smiling.

“And what do you have left to live for, Man of God?” he struggled forward and I was momentarily distracted while I fought the man at my legs. But I kept myself focused on Terletov and Gabriel though. Gabriel needed me, if only I could get to him. “I’ve taken your church. I’ve taken your nuns. I’ve taken your friends. You have nothing. I have given you nothing!”

A guttural scream left Gabriel in a deafening roar and I finally found the angle I needed to knee this son of a bitch in the nose; at the same time I blasted him in the face with a full shot of Magic. He flew off me and rolled away. I picked up my dagger and jumped on him, sinking it into his back and ripping the blade through his flesh. It sounded brutal- it was brutal- but the bigger the hole, the faster the Magic left the body. This was important with Immortals who could regenerate and heal quickly. Not that we could regenerate from this kind of blade, but if the cut was small enough we could still inflict damage until the last of our Magic drained. The man’s body collapsed with a gust of disgusting wind and I jumped out of the way of his tainted post-mortem Magic.

I lunged to my feet just in time to watch Terletov’s blade disappear into Gabriel’s stomach. My brain overloaded with a million thoughts at the same time everything rational, coherent and important dropped from my body like a physical weight.

I refused to believe Terletov got to Gabriel. I refused.

And even if I didn’t refuse, I seemed physically incapable of processing what my eyes were taking in. Gabriel fell to his knees with the sword still imbedded in his lower abdomen. His hands gripped the decorative handle and clutched at it desperately. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to push it in further or remove it.

But it didn’t matter. Either way his orange Magic- as bright as his once brilliant eyes- already poured into the air around him. He was gone.

Terletov had taken another one of my friends.

Gabriel looked at me, the light in his flaming eyes flickering as his body weakened. He looked directly into my eyes and with a rasping, barely audible voice he said, “Protect the two. She is key. Citadel… get out of the Citadel…” And then he fell forward at an awkward but limp angle.

That was it. He was gone.

I scrambled to collect my senses and raise my weapon. But as I was gathering my courage again, I saw the black box fly through the air. I abandoned my plan and dove for Olivia instead. She was standing behind me, protected by my aggression; nobody could get to her while I had been fighting so wildly. I tucked her into my body and twisted in the air so that she would absorb our fall, but I would take the brunt of the blast.

Just before the bomb went off, time slowed way down- a trick of one of Terletov’s men. They would escape this way, they would get out.

But hopefully we were all Immortal enough to survive this particular blast.

Just before the explosion hit us like a blazing hot train at full speed, I heard Terletov’s last words ring out through the air, “You have two of my possessions now, General. I want your Queen and I want my soldier. We will meet again very soon Jericho Bentley . Be ready, or your regrets will be stacked as high as your priests and your fate just as pretty.”

I felt a little surprised that he knew my name just a second before the blast took my hearing and sight; the earth quaked and crumbled beneath me.

I could do nothing more than wrap my Magic around Olivia and hold her as tightly to me as possible.

But that was all I wanted to do.

All I needed to do.

Chapter Eighteen

Olivia

I couldn’t move. My entire body felt weighted down like a house had fallen on me. My feet stuck out from whatever lay on top of me and I could wiggle my toes. In the weird, dreamlike place I floated, I imagined myself as the Wicked Witch from the East with my sister cackling over my dead body.

Only that couldn’t be right because my sister was in a coma in some random Romanian castle and despite my penchant for all things sarcastic and pessimistic, I was not actually a witch.

Or was I?

Besides, in this dream, if I was going to be anybody it would be Dorothy.

As reality came crashing back around me, I tried the whole “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home,” thing, but unsurprisingly it didn’t work.

I didn’t have a wizard; I had a Gypsy Queen that could see the future. And I didn’t have a cowardly lion or a brainless scarecrow; I had very smart, very dangerous warriors around me that risked their lives to save their friends and mine.

And I didn’t have Toto… I had Titus, who I just recently learned could apparently turn into a bear.

What. The. World?

But most of all, I had Jericho, whose arms were cemented around my torso, protecting me from the still-falling debris. He had tucked me against his towering frame and protected me from an explosion that rocked this place, literally.

When I was able to lift my head I took in the singed fringes of the jungle: charred, scorching stumps of some exotic trees I couldn’t name, blackened ground that still burned with intermittent fires, a vehicle seared down to the metal frame.

This wasn’t just an explosion. It was a freaking big one!

We should definitely be dead right now.

I marveled at my mostly unharmed body. This had to be the protection of Magic and all things Immortal that I didn’t understand yet.

How could it be possible to live through something like that? How could it be possible to stand up and walk away?

“Are you alright?” Jericho’s voice grated like rough sandpaper across my skin, pulling my small arm hairs to stand straight and reaching beyond my skin to some metaphysical part of me that arched and bent to lean as close to him as I could.

“I’m fine,” I answered, but my voice was weak and shaking. Physically my body felt strong and able, but my brain screamed that I’d just lived through not only an attack where the sadistic monster that instigated it was particularly interested in me, but that I’d also just lived through an explosion. To say I was having some trouble coping would be a slight understatement- said the girl slipping into catatonic shock.

Jericho maneuvered my body so that he hovered above me and held me up by a strong grip on my shoulders. “You’re too brave not to be fine,” he whispered.

Strengthened by his words, I struggled to sit up. I sat on the hard, blackened ground with my legs outstretched and my hands numbly limp at my sides. I looked around at the savaged beauty that once seemed so lush and green and couldn’t believe my life had evolved into this.

Not six months ago I had been in Chicago learning to perfect my Scallop and Leeks Risotto. Now… this? I couldn’t reconcile the two lives.

“We need to get going,” Jericho pulled me to my feet; I surveyed the stumbling, coughing figures of the rest of our team.

It seemed we’d all made it.

Except the two men I didn’t know.

And not possessing any more Magic, their bodies were now ashes picked up by the humid breeze, scattering across the changed scenery like the after effects of a nuclear explosion.

I stared helplessly as the cindered bodies drifted through the air. I felt like I should do something, stop them from floating away… stop their physical remains from escaping their earthly confines without a proper goodbye.

Jericho watched the same horrific scene with pinched brows and tight muscles. “This should not have happened,” he growled more to himself than anyone else. “I should never have let this happen.”

“You didn’t,” I said quickly. His self-hate pulled me out of whatever isolated place I’d gone in my head. I rushed to reassure him, “You didn’t do this. Terletov did. You can’t blame yourself for fighting against his evil. This is not your fault; this is his fault. It will always be his fault. You can’t feel guilty for fighting against a criminal when you asked for none of this, didn’t want to be part of any of it. He did this. Not you.”

He turned so that we were facing each other and one of his hands lifted to press against my jaw. It wasn’t a gentle touch, it was rough and aggressive… it was primitively possessive. His mouth opened to say something, but no words came out. His eyes darkened until they were almost black and I knew he would have kissed me then, would have consumed me if we hadn’t been interrupted.

“Jericho, we have to go!” Sebastian called. He stood where the first man that died had been. Leaning down he picked something out of the wreckage and palmed it before I could see what it was.

Talbott also leaned over the remnants of the second man and came up with a black-beaded rosary. The religious memento looked wholly untouched by the explosion. He pocketed the necklace and finished the circle of survivors that gathered around us.

“We have three minutes to make a plan,” Talbott said with his thick accent that sounded just like the Guards from the palace.

“Orion,” I blurted out immediately. Thoughts, vague memories, confusion began to come together inside my muddled head. I had this distant image of my brother and Terletov. It wasn’t much, mostly flashing images like déjà vu. The memory was there, or the thought or vision or whatever, but I couldn’t grab it. It slipped from my mental fingers as psychological hands reached out to grab at it over and over but missed. “The Gypsy Queen… The man that will hunt the hunter,” I quoted. I looked up and met Talbott’s dark, hopeless eyes by accident. I flinched at the utter despair staring back at me and when my words came out I feared they echoed the hollowness that seemed to be consuming him. “My brother’s name is Orion, like the constellation. It means hunter.” The Immortals around me waved impatient hands as if those were obvious facts and I was wasting time. So I hurried on, “When I met the Gypsy Queen, she told me Terletov would hunt the hunter, meaning my brother. I asked her if Rion was in danger, but she said not yet because Terletov didn’t know what he had done yet. To me. Terletov didn’t know what he had done to me. And today he figured it out.”

“He must think it’s in your blood,” Sebastian deduced with perfectly clipped words. “All we’ve been finding are dead bodies. Heaps and heaps of dead bodies. What if all of his experiments have been for nothing? What if he hasn’t been able to get them to work yet?”

“But he has,” Jericho argued. “In some way. The Immortals that fight with him are changed. There is something distinctively different about their strength, but also about the way they die.”

“True,” Sebastian answered. “But those are Immortals. We’ve found dead Immortals too, but they tend to be Shifters. What about all the humans we’ve found? Olivia and Ophelia are the only humans we’ve found that have survived his experiments.”

“Is that his plan then? To create Immortals out of humans?” Titus sounded absolutely disgusted and I couldn’t help but share the feeling.

Sebastian snapped his finger and pointed at me excitedly, “Jericho, she’s all four. She’s true. That’s why she survived. And whether he hasn’t figured that out yet, or her changing was different, he knows how to make it work now.”

“And he’s going to go to her brother first,” Jericho deduced.

Cold, crippling fear exploded in my body, and my lungs felt as though they turned to ice in my chest. Jericho’s arm went around me again and his Magic seemed to take a tighter hold on my own. He was warmth when I had none; he was courage when I had little.

“We know where he’s going,” Jericho announced slyly.

“Will he think that we’re dead?” I looked around at everything else that was dead around us and wondered. Had he intended to kill us all?

“No,” Sebastian snorted. “This happens to be his favorite farewell. I know he believes it’s rather amusing, but I can’t help but find it a bit obnoxious.”

I couldn’t help but smile at Sebastian’s flippant attitude. He always seemed so unfazed by everything. I knew he cared for his friends and his Kingdom, but truthfully I couldn’t imagine him dating the girl from back at the castle. She seemed completely opposite of him.

“So we’ll be racing to the same place,” I said.

“But hopefully we can get there first,” Jericho said. “We’ll leave now.”

“How?” I pressed.

“Our car is untouched,” Titus spoke up. “We parked far enough away.”

“And ours is drivable,” Xander said.

Jericho took command again, “Alright, we’ll split up. I’ll take the palace plane and Sebastian can lead in Amory’s old Cessna. Sebastian you’ll have to return the beads to the Citadel along with the news. They’ll want to hold some kind of memorial for both men.” His voice broke a bit and I reached down for his hand.

“And what about Alexi?” Sebastian asked.

All of our heads swiveled to a sedan that sat just on the outside of the blast range. Alexi stared at us with wide eyes, mouth gagged, hands bound beneath where I could see. He looked like he’d fallen into shock too.

“Take him back with you,” Jericho ordered. “I know it’s inconvenient with the dungeon going through the remodeling and what not, but we have to hold him someplace.”

His comment met snickers and a lot of amusement for the aftermath of what we just went through, but I had to assume that was stress manifesting itself in all of us. We’d just been through hell; all those emotions and fears had to come out some way.

“I need people with me then,” Sebastian said.

“Xander, Xavier, Roxie go with him.”

“Do you want us to have them hold the ceremonies?” Xander asked in a more subdued voice.

Jericho looked at Talbott and had some kind of silent conversation before shaking his head. “No, it’s alright. Avalon won’t want to wait anyway. Silas might not mean something to the Kingdom at large, but Gabriel will. The people need to feel Terletov’s menace on a large scale.”

“Right,” the men confirmed together.

And then we parted ways.

Before I climbed into Talbott’s sedan, Sebastian grabbed me and pulled me into a crushing hug. His lips pressed into my ear and he whispered words that sent a chill down my already frigid spine. “If you let him get any closer and find a way to escape your Magic, you will kill him, Olivia. Kill him. Do you understand?” I nodded robotically, but he wasn’t finished. “He might already be in too deep. And he is one of my best friends. If there is a danger to his life, I will make sure that you never lose your Magic. I will hunt you worse than Terletov. I will be more of a monster than he could ever be. I have lost too much already. I will not lose my friend.” He released me abruptly and I almost fell over.

I was shaken to the core at his words. Suddenly the conversation in the car made perfect sense. Jericho’s Magic was uniting with mine and the more time we spent together, the worse the danger became. Sebastian had blamed Jericho for my eyes turning colors, as if our closeness was somehow cementing my changes into place.

And to some extent that made sense to me.

Not in the part of my brain that held steadfastly to reality, rather the imaginative side that at some bizarre level accepted all of these impossible things.

If I understood them correctly, then coming to terms with true Immortality had happened in stages. The first step seemed to be sensing the other Magics around me; this was the Titan characteristic. Then I’d been able to manifest the Magic- Witch. Last night had brought about the Medium step and I could have sworn the images of Terletov and my brother had been some kind of vision.

The only thing left to do was shift into an animal and finalize the process.

Or apparently get closer to Jericho.

One or the other would cement my Immortality

Terletov had sworn there wasn’t a reversal.

So if there wasn’t a reversal then my complete change was inevitable. And then the only thing left to decide was whether or not I let Jericho complete the process. Which would mean choosing him. As in forever.

I liked Jericho. A lot.

I could admit that.

But did I want to marry him? Or whatever the Immortal equivalent of that was? Because, in truth, my human idea of marriage was something entirely different than spending the rest of literal eternity with the same man. How could I even begin to decide whether I was ready for that kind of relationship? Or whether Jericho was that person or not?

Sure, he was in the forefront of the proverbial race… but that was only because there wasn’t anybody else for him to compete with!

I shuddered at the finality of Sebastian’s threat. I wouldn’t hurt Jericho no matter how much I didn’t want this life. I wouldn’t.

I owed him so much more than my life. And so if worse came to worst, then what? Could I commit myself to him forever on some shaky feeling of loyalty and gratitude? Was there enough of the other stuff, the attraction and affection, to make something lasting and eternal?

I barely knew him.

In fact, I knew exactly three things about him: One, he was a good man. Caring, loyal, sacrificing… he’d taken care of me before he really knew me and he’d encouraged me to become strong again, demanded I let go of the trauma from my time with Terletov and grab hold of myself again. Two, he and I were in some way already connected. Since the moment I saw him, my body reacted before my mind could catch up. There had been an easy friendship between us and an even easier attraction. I didn’t always want to like him, but I couldn’t help it. And I didn’t like that many people. So this was a big deal to me. And three, he was a hell of a kisser. Logically, I knew I couldn’t engage in that delicious behavior ever again, not if I wanted to leave this Kingdom behind some day. But physically… my body was already reacting to the idea of touching him again.

And I wouldn’t have trusted him so completely with that part of me, if there wasn’t already some link between us.

So what now?

“Are you alright?” Jericho asked quietly from the seat next to me. We were back in the private plane, on our way to my home-town. Talbott had asked to fly so that he had something to occupy his hands. And his mind, I assumed. If Talbott was the result of united Magic being severed, I did not want to experience that. I did not want to risk ending up like him with a lost his fiancée, who I assumed was in worse shape simply because she was imprisoned by Terletov. “You’ve been quiet since we left Brazil.”

“I’m just thinking,” I told him and tried to smile, although my lips wobbled pathetically instead. “A lot’s happened in the last twenty-four hours.”

“That’s saying something after the state of the rest of your life.” He nudged my foot with the toe of his boot. Yesterday he’d been all vacation-casual, in preppy, expensive clothes. Today he looked like the military leader he was with black fatigues, black long-sleeved t-shirt, black boots. His unruly hair as characteristically out of place and what little exposed skin he had was scrubbed clean since we took off a few hours ago. He looked like GI Joe, if GI Joe was my ultimate fantasy embodied in a man.

“Do you really think there’s no cure for this?” I asked in a quiet voice.

He didn’t say anything at first, but he did take my hand and pull me onto the luxurious couch he’d sprawled out on. We were alone back here. Titus had offered to co-pilot the moment after Talbott asked to pilot. Titus had exchanged a look with Jericho and was jumping up front directly after. I knew he’d gone up there by Jericho’s order, but I didn’t know if Jericho sent him up there to keep an eye on the seemingly-unstable Talbott or if Jericho wanted to be alone with me.

I was okay with one of those reasons, since it was important to me to get to Orion instead of crashing somewhere in between.

“Liv, I’ve doubted there was a cure for this from the beginning.” He put a comforting arm around me but it did little to alleviate the pressure hammering down on my chest. “I will help you look for one until we can say that for certain. I will help you in any way that I can. But the chances of reversing this are slim, I think. And the consequences of stripping your blood of Magic now might be fatal.”

“Oh.”

“The problem is we don’t know,” he went on. “There could be a cure and all you have to do is swallow a pill and the Magic is gone and you’re free to go back to whatever life you lived before this nightmare started. In that case, you have my full support. Or there might not be one and taking your Magic from you would be the equivalent of killing you. If that’s true, then I won’t let that happen to you. No matter how hard you fight me. I will not watch you kill yourself to get rid of this Magic. Besides, it’s not as bad as you think it is. I mean, it can be. But it can also be… good. And you can still live a full life despite it. You could still finish school, still spend time with your family. It’s not the end of the world, alright? I won’t let you believe that it is.”

“I don’t believe it’s the end of the world,” I told him quickly. “It’s not the life I wanted to live, but I can see that it’s not the worst thing that could happen to me. You know, now that I’ve adjusted somewhat.”

His grim face broke out into a breathtaking smile and he kissed me chastely on the cheek. His warm, surprisingly soft lips lingered against my skin before he forced himself to pull away. My heart beat wildly in my chest and my Magic seemed to flare around me. It took everything in me not to turn into him, not to meet his lips and let our bodies, and our Magics, lead us to forbidden places.

He seemed to read my thoughts and pulled away. Putting distance between us on the couch, he slid to the opposite side while I pulled my knees to my chest. He ran a rough hand through his hair and apologized, “I’m sorry about that. I guess Sebastian was right to some degree.” His bright eyes flashed to mine, more mossy green than any other color. His hand rubbed at the back of his neck and he looked very uncomfortable, “I didn’t know… I mean, I hope you believe me when I say that… that I didn’t know I would affect you like that. There was no way for me to know that we would connect strong enough to change you.”

“So this hasn’t happened to you before?” I gestured at the unseen Magic floating around us, already wrapped up in each other without either of us giving them conscious permission.

“Er, no.” He tugged on his collar and I fought the urge to smile. It wasn’t playing fair if he was going to be all adorable. “Not for lack of trying, though.”

“Will you tell me?”

With a sidelong glance and twitching fingers he gave me a slow, reluctant nod. “I know you heard in the car, earlier with Sebastian, Eden and I used to date. She’s the Queen now but back then we were just these kids trying to figure out life. Before she was Queen, Kiran’s dad was in charge. And Kiran’s family had been in charge for millennia, since the beginning. Our race was dying and Lucan was more of a tyrant than any of the other kings. Our Kingdom was suffering and until Eden and her brother Avalon, there hadn’t been a solution. They’re twins. That’s important to us.”

“I remember,” I told him.

He looked at me then, drinking me in with his intensity. “I forget how quickly you catch on.” Clearing his throat he continued, “Anyway, because Eden and Avalon were in so much danger from the moment they were born, their grandfather separated them at birth.”

“Where were their parents?” I asked out of sheer curiosity.

He waved off the question. “This is a really complicated story; we don’t even have time to get into that.” He shook his head and then with a rushed breath he said, “Kiran’s dad was in love with Eden’s mom and Eden’s dad happened to be Lucan’s closest friend and bodyguard. Eden’s mom and dad ran away and eloped in order to be together and lived on the run for the rest of their lives. When Delia gave birth to Eden and Avalon, she dropped them off at Amory’s house- her dad and the rightful King- and let him protect them. Amory split them up so they wouldn’t be found out.”

I sucked in a deep breath at the same time Jericho did. “You were not kidding. That is the definition of complicated.”

My head was spinning but Jericho went on with his story, a little bit slower this time. “Anyway, Amory didn’t have that many people in his life that he trusted. So, Avalon went to live with one of Amory’s oldest friends, an Immortal. You met her at the castle, her name’s Angelica. And Eden went to live with a human he knew, the doctor at the Citadel, Sylvia. Amory kept Eden in the same city where he lived so he could watch over her, since she wasn’t in the protection of an Immortal, but Eden mostly grew up human. She had no idea about Magic or her powers or the Rebellion or Monarchy. She knew nothing until she was sixteen. Her powers kept manifesting in these insane ways and so Amory was forced to enroll her at Kingsley. That’s uh, that’s a school for people like us.”

“Sure,” I said evenly. They had their own community and Kingdom; it only made sense that they had their own schools. “Is that in Romania, too?”

“No,” Jericho said with a faint smile. “Omaha, Nebraska.”

“Naturally,” I deadpanned.

With a bigger smile, he went on, “Anyway, by sheer coincidence, Eden started school at the same time Kiran moved to Omaha due to an arranged marriage. He was the Crown Prince at the time. Omaha was a safe enough place for him and his dad wanted him to get acquainted with his future bride.”

“Seraphina,” I put in. I’d learned that much before.

“Right, okay.” Jericho seemed a little put off that I already knew that piece of gossip but he continued, “Well, Kiran and Eden ran into each other and kept running into each other. They immediately developed a very strong connection but it was more than just physical attraction. Slowly, they grew into this relationship that kind of defied everything either one of them was supposed to be doing. Kiran, son of the King, Crown Prince and future Monarch was supposed to marry a politician’s daughter and rule the Kingdom in the same fashion as his father. He was supposed to perpetuate the prejudice and racism we’d lived with for centuries, continue to hunt and murder Shifters and above all keep the Magic separate. Eden on the other hand, was supposed to join the Resistance like her grandfather and brother and bring down the Monarchy. Amory moved Avalon and me to Omaha in order to kill Kiran. But then Eden and Kiran fell impossibly in love and everything changed.”

“So where do you come into play?” This was a long story and he hadn’t even dated Eden yet.

“I had a, uh, a thing for Eden. I mean, it was definitely mutual… but I was kind of the losing side of the love triangle. She was attracted to me. She was in love with Kiran. In reality, I didn’t stand a chance. And if I’d been any smarter I would have seen that from the beginning. But I was nineteen and full of myself. And I knew that Kiran was the bad guy. Like at his core, at that time, he was a bad guy. Just like his father and on his way to ruling just like his father. Eden saw something that honestly nobody else saw, something I was convinced she’d imagined. So while the two of them got closer, I sat back and fell for Eden all by myself. Somehow I convinced myself all I had to do was wait. Kiran would reveal his true stripes in a matter of time and then she would see. Besides, he was engaged to another girl and it was common knowledge that if Kiran’s dad found out who Eden was, he would kill her. Like I said, all I had to do was wait.”

I waved him on with my hand, impatient for the rest of this story. His eyes focused on something across the small cabin and I realized I’d lost him to the memories of his past. “So what happened? Obviously she’s with Kiran now, so did she never figure it out?”

“Oh no, the opposite. Like I knew would happen, Kiran revealed his true self. He managed to get her grandfather murdered and her brother, along with most of the Resistance, captured and thrown into the Monarchy’s prison. Kiran sold her out to his dad. In his mind, he did the right thing. Or he thought so at the time. His dad knew who Eden was from minute one and Kiran bargained for her life by handing over Avalon and Amory. Lucan immediately destroyed Amory as soon as he had him and there was proof of Amory’s plan to overthrow the Throne. And then Lucan took Avalon in hopes to absorb his Magic and then kill him as well. Kiran somehow imagined that all this would be okay with Eden because now they could be together. She obviously didn’t see things that way and politely declined his invitation to become his wife. Or, actually, retracted her initial agreement. For all intents and purposes, Eden’s affection for Kiran had killed any chance of a rebellion we’d had. She trusted the wrong person and he proved that.”

“But they’re married now,” I pointed out stupidly. I kind of liked Eden, but this story made no sense. How could she possibly be married to a person who betrayed her like that?

“Yes, they are. But in between then and now, I stepped in. We’d always had this... thing between us. And when we found ourselves working alone- the last of the Rebellion- we came together naturally.”

“You didn’t get captured?”

“No, I did,” he told me. “Kiran immediately saw the error of his ways. But so had Eden. She declared war on the Monarchy and dedicated herself to bringing it down. She was alone, and in danger. Kiran released me to be with her. He wanted her protected, even if they were enemies now. He couldn’t send her brother without his dad realizing what he was doing, so he sent me instead. The next best thing. And that’s when we… that’s when I fell in love with her. It was hard not to. She’s, well, she’s Eden.”

Irrational jealousy surged through my body. I felt my face flush with the intensity of it. I replayed his flippant words through my head and resisted the blinding urge to rip Eden’s pretty hair out of her pretty head. When there’s no other way to explain a girl except by saying her name, as if that sums her up completely, you can bet your life he had it bad for her.

“Finish the story, Jericho, it doesn’t make sense to me yet,” I snapped.

His lips twitched, but some concern for his own life kept him from smiling or laughing. “Anyway, it didn’t last long between us. I thought I loved her more than anything and I thought she felt the same way. But what Kiran and she had… It was just… I couldn’t compete with that. Actually, I didn’t want to compete with that. I didn’t want to be second choice or the alternate. I wanted what they had. I wanted that intense love that seemed to consume them, that ate them alive. I wanted to love that deeply and be loved that absolutely. And so I bowed out. I let her go. By that time they were pretty much working things out anyway. Not that Eden would ever admit that. But, I could see it. I could feel her pulling away and I knew I had to cut my losses before I couldn’t.”

I relaxed some at the admission that even though he thought he loved Eden, he realized there were ways to love someone more. I didn’t want to examine those feelings too closely, but they soothed my ego and my emotions.

“How did Kiran win her back?” I asked out of pure curiosity.

“He became the man she deserved,” he answered simply.

“And she was able to forgive him for everything he did to her?”

A small smile tugged at Jericho’s lips when he answered, “It wasn’t easy, for either of them. But they were young enough and naïve enough to make mistakes that only youth should make. By the time they came back together they had matured by necessity and could approach their relationship how two people that in love should love each other. I’m not saying I didn’t have hurt feelings, but Eden and Kiran belong together. They were meant to be.” He paused and then looked up at me through thick eyelashes, conveying some kind of emotion that I didn’t have a name for. When he spoke again his words carried an impossible weight that I didn’t know if I could shoulder, “In our culture, and because we spend so much time being married, we believe in soul mates. We believe in finding the right person to share forever with. Our Magic can connect with almost anyone if we try hard enough, but there are certain attachments that seem to bond quicker, where the Magic just naturally unites before there is even this conscious thought about it. Soul mate doesn’t necessarily mean love at first sight; it’s more like love at last sight… when we can’t pull apart or separate ourselves, when our Magics have fused and bonded beyond explanation… that’s when we know. That’s how we recognize our soul mate.”

I shivered. How could I accept those words? That was almost exactly the definition of what was happening between the two of us. And I just didn’t know how to process that.

“Jericho,” I whispered.

“Liv,” he said seriously, cutting off whatever I was going to say. “I’ve waited a long time for that… for what I gave up with Eden. There are things between you and me that make our relationship intense and draw us closer together. I feel them and I know that you feel them too. But you need to know that you’re not trapped. You’re in control. Always. Nothing happens unless you want it to happen. And I don’t mean that we simply keep kissing because we are too selfish to stop and then accidentally end up in a situation we can’t reverse. We know what’s going on now, yes? We aren’t going to be stupid about it. You decide. Make the conscious choice. Nothing happens unless you actively want it to. Now that we know the stakes, everything we do from here on out will be deliberate and thought through. okay?”

I nodded because I was physically incapable of speaking. How could I respond to that? What would I say?

He’d basically all but put the ball in my court without giving me a single insight into how he felt about us together? And not just casually hooking up! But like together forever.

I didn’t even get to butterfly my way through the honeymoon phase and then quit when I realized he actually irritated the bejeezus out of me. And I still didn’t know how he felt about me.

But it wasn’t exactly like I could ask and force some kind of declaration out of him. Either way I wasn’t sure I wanted to know yet. If he didn’t like me enough… ouch. If he liked me that much? Yikes!

With those crazy thoughts spinning through my head, he reached out and took my hand. At the contact I marginally relaxed and breathed just a little bit easier.

We rode out the rest of the trip in silence. But really… what else was there to say?

And now, on the brink of all that overwhelming knowledge I had to introduce him to my family.

Perfect.

Chapter Nineteen

Jericho

This was going to be awkward.

We pulled into the driveway of Olivia’s two story happy home in the suburbs of Chicago. She had been growing increasingly agitated the closer we got to her house and I didn’t know how to comfort her.

I didn’t want to brag or anything, but honestly , handling women was my specialty.

But I was at a loss with what to do with Liv.

She’d been pushing me away since the plane, both with her Magic and her words.

Now we were sitting in her driveway while gentle snow flurries drifted across the clear windshield of the rented Porsche Cayenne. The full moon reflected off the thick blanket of snow covering every inch of ground, even while the stars stayed hidden behind the haze of the city.

Talbott and Titus were hidden somewhere in between the neat rows of American suburbia, waiting for Terletov to arrive. We’d called in more Guard to back us up, but we’d had a good head start and they weren’t due to arrive in Illinois for another few hours.

The darkness of night seemed less oppressive because of the brightness of the snow that glowed in the moonlight; it muffled the world around us in hushed stillness, and now that the engine was off, the quiet between Olivia and I seemed to stretch into infinity.

“Liv,” I whispered, both afraid to let the silence continue and to break it. “What are you going to tell you parents?”

After several moments of thought, she asked, “Is the truth completely out of the question?”

“I think the truth is all you have to offer at this point,” I told her. “They will notice a difference immediately. And then there’s the whole thing with your eyes. I mean,” I cleared my throat, a little nervous to remind her. “I mean, they are purple.”

“My parents will be able to tell that I’m Immortal?” she asked sounding so pure and innocent I wanted nothing more than to erase my world from hers. If I could give her anything, I would take her back to the time she didn’t know about Immortals or what we could do to her… how we could hurt her… how we could bond her to us and erase every single things she’s faced and been through until there was only one.

Until there was only me.

I would do that for her, because despite my own selfishness and hope that maybe I wouldn’t spend the next three hundred years alone. I had begun to feel something for her that went far beyond attraction and an easy connection. Because even if I could have this girl in just her sweet, naïve human state, I would.

I had begun to feel something that went beyond my Magic.

I was falling for this girl.

And she wanted to leave me.

Not that I hadn’t been here before.

Shit, it was depressing in my head.

“Not exactly Immortal,” I explained. “But they will be able to tell something is different, off.”

“You’ll go in with me?” She sounded tiny and so insecure that all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around her, pull her into my lap and hold her there until the world was right again, not just any kind of right, but right for her. However she wanted it, that’s how I wanted it to be.

“I’ll go with you,” I promised. “Always. For as long as you want me to, I’ll stay.” In that moment, my heart felt like an empty glass: hollow, with breakable walls and an open mouth that could be filled with whatever she wanted to pour inside. It could remain empty or be filled with acid; it could be thrown on the ground and shattered or put high on a shelf and forgotten. I knew those words were true as they fell out of my mouth. I’d never said truer words, but they hurt despite their honesty. And they fell at the mercy of a girl that I had come to care deeply for, but that didn’t want me, my world or any part of the woman she’d been forced to become.

She turned her head without moving her body and met my gaze. Her blonde hair, clean and styled from the shower and bathroom on the plane, fell over one of her eyes, clouding her expression in seductive mystery. She had no idea how beautiful she was or what her beauty could do to me.

Nor, how quickly she could bring me to my knees.

“Thank you,” she said simply.

Nothing I said at this point would help my cause and I wasn’t at the point where I could declare something lasting to her. I had feelings, sure. But I didn’t know how deeply they ran and I knew I wasn’t in a place to ask her to find out with me.

That was playing with something neither of us could face yet.

So instead, I reached out and shoved her shoulder. “No more stalling,” I told her. “If this doesn’t work, we’ll just erase their memories and send them on a cruise.

“You can do that?” she gasped.

I waved my hand through the air, “These are not the droids you’re looking for.”

She raised one eyebrow and concluded dryly, “You’re joking.”

“That’s from Star Wars!”

She rolled her eyes and opened her door. A cold blast of January air assaulted the cab but I came prepared with Magic to fight against the ungodly Chicago winter temps. I honestly didn’t know how humanity suffered through these winters without Magic. It did not seem possible to me.

“All guys are the same,” she grunted and slipped down from the cab. “Cars,” she threw out with a careless hand, “Star Wars and sex. It’s honestly like you share one brain. You’re some kind of hive creatures or something. Where is the mother brain, Jericho? Underneath a football stadium? In the back room of a strip club? Tell me and I promise to keep your secret safe.”

“Hey!” I hurried after her. “We are not all the same.”

She hesitated with her finger poised over the doorbell. “Really? So you and Titus did not almost come to blows over which one of you would drive the Porsche and which one of you would get stuck with the BMW?”

“Titus got the Porsche last time,” I told her. “And it wasn’t a Cayenne, it was a 911. So… I mean, I’m still getting the short end of the stick here.” She ignored me and pressed in on the lighted doorbell. “Plus, I used Star Wars for your benefit, not mine.”

“My benefit?” she snorted.

“Well, you’re supposed to be human,” I pointed out. “But I’m starting to have my doubts.”

She laughed before she could stop herself or remember that she was depressed. The sound was natural and so happy that it actually reached inside of me to wrap around that empty glass. The sound was steadying, the sound was fortifying.

The sound was my new goal.

She would laugh like that again. And I would be the reason. I would bring it out of her, I would help her remember that bad things had happened to her but they didn’t define her. She was so much stronger than all this… so much stronger than me.

Her laughter died abruptly though when the red front door was pulled back and warmth rushed out of the house along with the perfect image of what Olivia would have looked like in another thirty years if she had been allowed to age naturally by human standards.

Short blonde hair, a cute button nose, flawlessly pale skin, big, bright blue eyes and a protective cynicism that swept over me quickly, calculatingly and conclusively greeted us.

“Mom!” Olivia breathed with forced enthusiasm.

“Livie?” Her mom gasped and for a moment true, undiluted happiness lit up the older Taylor’s face so that she looked so unbelievably full of joy that she could spread the emotion like an unstoppable plague. But then her eyes dimmed and her smile faded and with one simple question, Liv’s reality came crashing in around us and we remembered our task in coming here. “Where’s your sister?”

And then Mrs. Taylor fainted.

----

“Wait,” Liv’s dad, one Mr. Richard Taylor, held up his aristocratic hand and stopped the constant flow of words that had been falling out Olivia’s mouth since we were led into the kitchen where he had been grading papers with the TV playing some PBS historical special in the background. “I need you to start over, or at least explain this slower.”

Richard had light brown hair that was pushed up into wild, askew tufts from shoving his hands through it the more distressed he became. His gray eyes were hidden behind thickly framed glasses and his thick mustache rivaled Tom Selleck’s- truly a masterpiece.

He looked exactly like a high school English teacher, down to the cotton turtleneck shirt and dark brown corduroy pants.

Laura Taylor sat next to him, still shaking from her daughter showing up at her doorstep without any warning. She probably would have been icing her head too, if I hadn’t caught her with my Magic before she hit the ground. Trust me when I say that using my Magic before we’d even walked in the house, had not helped smooth things over in any way.

Still, Liv’s mom looked pretty hot in her trendy jeans that were distinctively not mom jeans and a fashionable top that seemed to fight against every societal norm set before her. I wondered if her daughters encouraged her closet and style or if it were the other way around. Maybe she was one of those moms that influenced their daughter’s style.

I realized then that I didn’t even know what Liv’s true style was. Maybe I could draw some conclusions from the way she wore her short hair, sometimes wavy and relaxed looking, sometimes straight but still bouncy. I could tell something from her makeup… but overall, she had been given all of her clothes and shoes. I’d never even seen her dress in something of her own. Well, besides that first outfit that was more rags than clothes that we’d burned it.

I wasn’t exactly proud that I didn’t know her better. I had all these feelings for her and I didn’t even know if she was a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl, or only wore dresses or what. Now that we sat in front of her parents and younger brother trying to gain their approval, everything I didn’t know about Liv started to pile up and point fingers at me.

Suddenly, it didn’t seem right that we’d kept her from her family. We made the decision to protect her in our way, but she had a way of her own and we hadn’t even taken that into consideration.

“Dad, everything you thought was not real, is definitely real,” Liv said finally.

Her family gaped at her, their three mouths dropping open in unison.

Uh, probably should jump in. “Ok,” I said pleasantly with a charming smile. “Not exactly everything. This isn’t one of those moments that just because one thing is real, everything is real. Actually, mostly the things you are imagining right now are still not real. There’re only a few exceptions to the rule.”

“Such as?” Richard pressed. He didn’t seem to like me yet.

I needed to work on that.

“Trolls,” I began randomly. “Trolls are not real.”

“Also, vampires,” Liv added. “Vampires are also not real.”

“So, to be clear,” Richard started and then paused dramatically. “You do not drink blood to sustain your immortality?”

“Dad, be real.” Liv looked around the room and steeled her courage for the hundredth time. “I’m telling you the truth. I know it’s hard to believe, but I can prove it to you. Although, I don’t want to have to prove it. I want you to believe me just because it’s me. And I wouldn’t lie to you about this.”

A heavy, weighted silence fell over Liv’s family and we sat there in pained stillness until Orion- the seventeen-year-old six foot three green bean that was Liv’s “little” brother- spoke up. “I believe you, Livie.”

Liv’s bottom lip trembled and she could only nod. I squeezed the hand that I was already holding and tugged her just a bit closer to me on the couch.

Olivia hadn’t been lying about living in the center of “normal.” Her house, family and life reflected quintessential middle-class America, if not maybe a little eccentric and a lot lonely, save for her family. She fit exactly in the center of this living room, sprawled out on the couch with her family surrounding her. Her feet were tucked beneath her and she held a throw pillow comfortably against her chest. One hand played with the frayed tassels and the other with my fingers.

Was I crazy to think that being here, with her, with her family… felt right?

Probably.

Definitely.

Laura looked me over again and I could see her shoulders stiffen even straighter. “So, Livie, if we believe you about this whole… Magic thing. Then your sister really is in a coma?” Her voice broke on the word “coma” and the same shoulders that seemed to freeze when her attention was on me now shook with fear and anxiety for a daughter she couldn’t see or help.

“She’s safe though, Mom,” Liv answered quickly. “She has the best medical care that she could possibly have. Anywhere. And she was showing signs of improvement before I left.”

“Why did you leave her, Olivia? Why aren’t you there with her now?” This time it was her dad who gave me the evil eye.

Sheesh, I wasn’t the one who caused all this mess!

No, my mind whispered, just the one who made sure it stayed a mess.

“I had to, Daddy,” she mumbled. “Watching O in that state was killing me. And I thought maybe there was a chance to reverse this. Jericho is currently hunting the man that did this to O and me, and I hoped I could help him bring the asshole down.”

“Olivia,” her father reproached. “Language.”

She didn’t apologize.

“I don’t know what’s worse,” her mom groaned. “Your sister in a coma or you trying to hunt bad guys?”

“I’m not like you remember me, alright? I’m a lot stronger now. I mean it, a lot stronger. And I have all these powers. I’m not some weak female at risk of getting mugged in a dark alleyway. I’m a capable fighter that can kick serious ass when provoked. You shouldn’t be concerned about me, you should be proud of me.”

Her parents looked like that was the craziest thing they’d ever heard. And I didn’t really blame them. While Liv’s speech was excellent, well thought-out and made with several strong points, they weren’t exactly vessels of laid-back enlightenment.

“Will O be alright?” Orion asked from across the room. His elbows rested on the kitchen table and he stared at us intently from underneath a low hanging, decorative light fixture. It was the only light on in that room and the surrounding rooms, kitchen, hallway, entryway, so it seemed to put him under a spotlight and give him greater attention than anyone else.

“Yes,” Liv promised with another tight squeeze of my fingers. “She’ll be fine.”

Orion didn’t look convinced, although her parents seemed to take her at her word.

“And now you think that this guy, this Russian guy, is going to come after me and put me through what you went through?”

“I don’t think he is, Ry. I know he is.”

“What could he possibly want with me? I’m just… average. Human or whatever.”

“Not exactly,” I spoke up, thinking this needed to be a kind of man-to-man talk. “You might seem average now, but I’m guessing he wants your blood more than anything else. He was surprised at Liv, surprised that her blood adapted and accepted the transfer of Magic. He was very interested in O, but seemed to think she might be too weak. Although we know that she’s not. We know she’ll be fine. He’s sick, completely deranged. He’s… building an army of sorts. Super soldiers or something along those lines. And he thinks you’ll be able to survive the transformation.”

Orion flinched and his face grew white with fear. He was young, so young. And despite his mature frame and build, he acted his age.

I took a moment to reflect on how old he was. He was the same age as Avalon when he ran the Rebellion… yet the two of them couldn’t be further apart in maturity. Of course, Orion was allowed to act his age probably his whole life where Avalon was raised to be a leader, to be a king. Avalon didn’t get a childhood, and he wasn’t allowed to be afraid.

I tempered my patience with those thoughts because as much as I wanted to dismiss Orion’s fears and weaknesses, I had to remember that he deserved to be worried and he had reason to dread what was coming.

“He won’t get to you, Ry,” Liv assured him. “We have people on the way. We’re going to protect you.”

“But,” his voice cracked a little and he swallowed to try to bring it under control. “But if you can’t… protect me, I mean. If this guy gets me, will I survive?”

Liv nodded. “Yes.” She looked around the room and met her parents’ eyes before returning bravely to face her brother. “You’ll just be different. But you will survive. You’re strong enough to live.”

“Olivia, I don’t like this,” Laura snapped, clearly worried for all of her children.

“I don’t either, Mom.” She sat up straighter and leaned forward. “I don’t like being different, I don’t like what happened to me or what’s happening to O and I really don’t like knowing that my life is forever changed. Forever, do you get that? Because I don’t think I can. It’s too much… it’s too long.” She shook her head out as if to make herself get back to the point. “But this is my life now. They’re not all bad people. I’ve met… I’ve met some really great people actually. And they make my transformation much easier. They make this whole thing seem possible. I don’t like what happened, but I have to face that it did happen and now I have to make the best of it. Besides, some of it is kind of cool.” Her mouth lifted in a shy grin and it was the first time I’d seen her smile since we walked into the house. I wanted to freeze time like this, with her looking relaxed and at peace. I couldn’t remember her ever looking peaceful, not in the entire time I’d known her. To emphasize her point, she used her Magic to lift an apple out of the fruit bowl on the center of the kitchen table and float it over to Orion as if offering it to him. He stared at the red fruit in cartoonish shock but eventually smiled back and took the fruit from the air.

Her parents both gasped at the sight and I couldn’t tell if they were just astonished, or if they were appalled by how different their daughter really was now.

“You sound resolved to this, Livie.” Richard removed his glasses with one hand and rubbed at his eyes with the other. “Is there really nothing you can do to reverse the… transformation?”

Liv’s smile immediately disappeared. “I don’t know, Daddy. I think… I think that this is permanent.”

“This isn’t a cult, is it?” her mother snapped. “Are you being brainwashed? Did they put something in your drink?”
“Mom,” she groaned. “You just watched an apple float through the air. I don’t think there’s a drug in the world that can make that possible. I’m not part of a cult. I’m not part of anything. I’ve just changed a little bit. And I’m staying with people I trust until O’s alright and I find out for sure, without a shadow of a doubt that there’s no going back. When this… danger is over, I’m coming home. And whether I’m permanently stuck like this or not I’m going back to my old life. I’m going to finish school; I’m going to get a job. I’m not saying goodbye to you guys and I’m not giving up on my goals.”
Richard’s body both snapped to attention and relaxed at the same time. “There’s my girl,” he said. “And you know we’ll support you in anything you do. You can finish school or wear tights with the underwear on the outside and fight crime for all we care. We just want to know that you’re safe and you’re going to be alright.”

“I am,” she whispered in an emotional voice. “And I will be.”

“So,” Laura’s voice dipped to that practical tone that all mothers were able to manage. “Will you be staying here for a while?”

“Yes,” Liv agreed immediately. “At least until we know that Orion is safe. But we’re also hoping this will lead us to Terletov, the, er, bad guy. We would like to catch him if he shows up here.”

“You don’t mean to… fight him, do you?” Richard’s face paled at the thought.

“Daddy, you just told me that I could be a super hero if I wanted to be! Fighting bad guys is kind of part of the job description… Besides, I know for a fact that this bad guy can’t kill me.”

“How do you know that?” Laura asked as if she couldn’t help herself.

“Because he told me. He told me nothing can kill me.”

If possible their eyes grew even bigger, but they tried to hide their outrageous disbelief. I hid a smile and admired Liv in a way I hadn’t yet. She was strong and brave, but she was also generous and compassionate. She was patient and gentle with her parents. She bulldozed palace Guards right and left when we were back at the Citadel, but here she treated her family as if they were made of delicate glass.

She seemed to read situations with a deeply innate discernment and then handle them appropriately.

I wondered if she did the same thing with me.

Was I just a problem for her to solve? Or didn’t the rules  apply when it came to what was between us?

That was true for me.

But it felt like too much to hope for if that was true for her.

“You’ll stay here, won’t you?” Laura’s hands twisted in her lap, revealing the motherly instinct that even revelations like tonight couldn’t squash.

Liv shot me a sideways glance, and I nodded to reassure her.

“Of course,” she replied sounding infinitely more relieved.

“And your… friend?” Richard asked with shrewd eyes directed at me.

“No, I can…”

“Of course, you’ll stay with us,” Laura interrupted.

“I don’t want to be an inconvenience,” I told her.

“Well, I don’t want my son kidnapped in the middle of the night and dragged off to who-knows-where. You’ll stay with us. You’ve protected my daughters this long; I won’t hesitate to ask you to protect my son, as well.”

My chest swelled at Laura’s words. I didn’t think a middle-aged mom had the ability to make me feel like Superman, but I was wrong. Her trust and acceptance of who I was made me feel like I could save the world from whatever dangers lurked out there. I felt invincible.

I felt respected and valued.

And it wasn’t until that moment that I realized I had been missing those feelings in my life. Not that I didn’t get them from my peers or the people I served, because I did. But from adults I truly esteemed, those valued opinions had been missing from my life for a long time.

“Sure,” I answered casually. I didn’t want them to see how much their faith in me moved me. I felt like a tool for letting a few simple words have such an effect on me. They were as bad as Olivia with how she could twist me up. It must be a Taylor family trait.

It was already late and our day had been filled with fighting, getting blown up and then traveling across continents; Liv and I were ready for bed. Laura showed us up to our rooms, Liv to her old bedroom and me to the guestroom and left us alone. Well, I had a feeling she was leaving us alone until I was settled, and then she was going to make up time with her prodigal daughter.

Liv walked me through the bathroom instructions and where the towels and amenities were. All of our things were blown up in the back of the Mercedes. Not that there was anything special in my pack, I’d learned that lesson years ago, only to pack the necessities and the barest ones at that. And anything in Liv’s was borrowed anyway. The plane stored clothes to change into, because most of our jets were equipped with full closets filled with anything we could need. But other than a small pack of something to wear tomorrow and a toothbrush, I didn’t have anything else with me.

“So, I’ll see you in the morning,” Liv smiled at me from the foot of the double bed neatly made up.

“Yeah.” I took a step toward her. Her thighs balanced her weight as she tipped back and forth on the footboard. I imagined picking her up by the backs of those very slim, very enticing thighs and tossing her on to the bed behind her. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

She looked so relaxed at home, so easy-going and stress-free. I couldn’t stop drinking in every new, beautiful feature that presented itself to me. Her rich, purple eyes looked up at me with an emotion I couldn’t name. Her skin seemed to glow now that she was back in her own space. She was very much the picture of perfect seduction.

And she had no idea.

She hesitated in place and I took another step into her space. “Jericho, I just wanted to…”

I closed the distance between us and took her hand, thinking this was as close to an invitation as I was going to get. My brain screamed for me to back off and give her space, let her come to her own conclusions. But my Magic wasn’t even mine anymore, it was firmly wrapped in hers. I didn’t know if it would ever be mine again… or if I was too far gone. And I didn’t want to know. I just wanted her to absorb me, draw me into her orbit and let me revolve around her until the sky fell around us and the sun burned out of the sky. She wiggled in place and then stopped moving completely. When she looked up at me from underneath thick, dark lashes, I knew I had never seen a more beautiful color than the bright, glittering purple blinking up at me.

I captured her mouth before I could take another breath. I pressed my mouth against hers insistently, not letting her break away, not letting her decide this was a bad idea. My hands went naturally to her waist and I planted one of my legs between hers. I urged her chin upward so that I could deepen the kiss, my tongue sweeping across her bottom lip, begging for entrance into paradise.

She obliged and I moaned at the contact of her wet, hot tongue against mine.

Goddamn, she tasted sweeter than anything should.

She whimpered under my attention, which only encouraged me to keep going. My grip tightened on her waist until my fingers dug into her lower back and my thumbs into her hips. I jerked her into me, barely in control of my own actions.

A color field of light flashed around us, the intensity of brightness rising with each second we stayed connected like this. There was a rush of searing electricity in my veins and my blood felt like it was boiling beneath my skin.

I grew desperate for Olivia, frantic for more of her, wild to keep her like this, to explore every inch of her.

Savage.

I felt savage in my need for her.

Something was breaking inside of me- the cool, calm, collected gentleman that I wore as a shield against every other person in this world. I wasn’t the same with Liv. I was a ferocious animal. She changed me. She drew out this raw, primal, greedy creature that would do anything to possess her. She stripped me of every good intention and polite response. She forced me to face feelings so intense I didn’t think I could survive them. She demanded that I become more than a man for her, more than a good guy and more than a spectator.

She didn’t have any idea what she was doing to me, but I couldn’t fight this any longer. This was stronger than me. This was some unexpected fate that I hadn’t seen coming.

And I was helpless against it and her.

So I decided I would do something I had never done in my life- I would fight for her.

I had fought for causes, and justice. I had fought for peace. And I had fought for equality.

But I had never fought for love. Not once.

I’d simply cut my losses and walked away.

When I’d risked my life for a Kingdom I half hated, I’d saved my heart and shielded it behind a wall so thick and guarded I was sure that it was impenetrable.

But I was wrong.

She’d gotten through every defense I’d put up. She’d slipped through my shields and security, she’d bent my resistance to her own will and she’d captured my soul completely.

And now I would fight for her. Because maybe she didn’t know if she wanted me forever, maybe she couldn’t imagine life as an Immortal that stretched into eternity. Maybe she was afraid that what was between us would die out and our relationship would burn to ash.

I would change that. I would prove to her that she wanted me- and no one else. And that this thing between us would last longer than us… longer than forever. I would give her a love that was so hot, so scorching and bright that it could never die out, could never fade. Things would not always be easy between us, but they would always be worth fighting for.

Starting right now.

I left her mouth to trail kisses down the column of her throat while she clutched at my shirt desperately. I released whatever little control I had left on my Magic and gave it to her. I infused her with everything that I was, every real, open and hidden piece of me. I sucked gently on the curve of her neck, right above her delicate collar bone and she pulled in a gasping breath. Nicking it a little roughly with my teeth, I brushed my hand beneath the swell of her breast and shuddered at the intimate contact.

She could reduce me to a shell of a man with one swift pull of her Magic and yet I didn’t care. Sebastian was right to be worried about me. I’d felt the uneasy emptiness whenever our Magics had separated recently. And she was a true Immortal- of that I had no doubt. If she decided that I wasn’t for her, I could likely die. And if not now, it was only a matter of time, just a few more encounters like this.

Yet I didn’t care.

I couldn’t.

I was too far gone. Soul mate. I’d found mine. I wouldn’t give up without a fight.

And if I lost this… her… then so be it.

She would be worth it.

I drew back before I pushed her too hard. With one last slow, lingering kiss on her deliciously swollen lips, I pulled away and gazed down at her. Her eyes stayed closed for a long minute as she struggled to catch her breath and come back to herself. I admired her porcelain skin and her thick lashes that fanned out against flushed cheeks. Her lips looked well and nicely ravished and I couldn’t stop smiling at them.

Slowly she blinked her eyes open as if coming out of a daze. The purple of her eyes had lightened just a fraction and practically glowed with some unspoken intensity.

“I just wanted to tell you thank you.” Her voice was a hoarse rasp of unsettled desire. My smile grew. “That’s all I was going to… I just wanted to say thanks for staying with my family, for watching out for Orion.”

“Olivia,” I promised her seriously. “I would do anything for you; especially protect you and your family. You can know that you are always safe with me. Do you understand that? Always.”

She nodded slowly. “Okay.”

“Okay,” I grinned again and pressed a tender kiss to those lips that were quickly becoming obsession to me. “See you in the morning.”

“Uh-huh,” she muttered.

Using every ounce of supernatural willpower I had, I pulled away from her. I let my fingers linger as long as they could against the soft heat of her body, but eventually separated us completely. I gave her enough room to stand up and walk away, which she did after another confusing few seconds. At the door, she did not look back at me.

But it was alright, because I didn’t remove my Magic from hers and whether it was her dazed state or her own conscious desire, she didn’t remove hers from mine either.

By the time I laid my head down and let my eyes close to end this day, I had begun to feel a welling hope that started somewhere in the very core of my being and spread slowly, like an unfurling fist, to every part of me.

Damn right, I would fight for this.

I had never known something worth fighting for more than this.

And I was bound and determined to win this.

To win her.

Chapter Twenty

Olivia

I was talking with my parents the morning after we arrived back home, when Jericho stumbled downstairs. His jaw held a few days’ worth of growth and his eyes seemed unusually warm this morning. He walked into the kitchen, never taking his gaze off me.

I stood over the island in my own pajamas feeling deliciously at ease now that I was back here, in my own space, in my own clothes, surrounded by people I loved. But his presence was unnerving.

Something had changed in him since last night. He had been running hot and cold since we left Romania and before that, he’d never really seemed consistent with his feelings or his affection. Sure, we’d gotten along and there were parts about him that I could read as easily as I knew myself. But, there were always these other pieces of him that remained completely hidden and mysterious to me. Before now, he’d always kept part of himself away from me. Whether that was self-preservation or natural instinct, I didn’t know, but it didn’t really matter at the time.

I did the same thing.

Except now, I was finding it harder and harder to keep space between us.

He looked at me less like I was a problem to solve and more and more like I was a problem he wanted to become. I wasn’t the damsel in distress anymore that he could save.

I was the hunted and he the hunter.

I was prey that he stalked with unrelenting focus, that he would pursue until he made me his.

But would he keep me gently?

Or devour me until there was nothing left?

That kiss last night… there had been nothing gentle about that. He was ferocious with need and completely debilitated me. It had taken me hours to fall asleep after that, even after the eventful day we’d had. He’d somehow kissed me deep enough to change some secretive part of me, some soul-deep, fundamental part. I would never be the same after that.

Never.

“Good morning, Jericho,” my dad greeted him. I sucked in a deep breath when Jericho’s eyes finally released mine from captivity.

Devour. Consume. Possess.

There was definitely nothing gentle about what he wanted for me.

That much was certain.

“Did you sleep alright?” my mom asked politely.

“Yes, thank you,” he smiled at her, charming her into believing he was the perfect gentleman, no doubt.

Which he was… or could be… or used to be.

This was confusing.

“Livie was just going to make us breakfast,” my mom told him. “Why don’t you sit down and keep her company.”

“I’d love to,” Jericho replied grinning like he just won some big prize.

I rolled my eyes and turned my back on my traitorous parents. They were surprisingly chill with him and all this. I knew they trusted me… but this was like, beyond normal parental expectations. Maybe I wasn’t the only one that had transformed.

Note to self: Ask Jericho if Pod People are real.

They gathered their coffee cups and their shared newspaper and slipped into the living room. They were supposed to have been crazy with worry and anxiety for me. They were supposed to hover until they drove me crazy and irritated me with thousands of questions. But they’d already told me how relieved they felt because of Jericho and how protective he seemed of me. They’d admitted this morning that while they still felt sick with nerves for me and O, Jericho seemed the kind of guy that would keep his word and keep us safe.

In a way, I knew that they saw exactly what I did. From the moment I met Jericho, I knew I could trust him. And I was glad that my parents felt that too.

On the other hand, it was really obnoxious that he’d won them over so easily.

They were the last line of defense against the assault of his Magic, intensity of emotions and mind-blowing kisses.

Now it was just me against him. The future I had always wanted against the fate he represented.

The biggest problem of all, though, was that my own priorities were starting to change. I couldn’t picture the same future I had imagined for myself all these years anymore. I didn’t have a clear image of what my life would be like in five years… in ten… in twenty.

My goals had always been my tether to hope and certainty.

And now I only had Jericho.

But was he enough?

“What are you making for breakfast?” Jericho asked casually from across the white-tiled island.

I nibbled on the corner of my lip. “Uh, nothing special. Eggs benedict.”

“Can I help?”

“Sure.”

And we got to work. I gave him the choice of the hollandaise sauce or the biscuits. He chose the sauce, which made me a little nervous, but after a few minutes he seemed to know what he was doing. I ignored the different spices he began to add before my control-freak tendencies took over. I focused on rolling out my world-famous cheddar biscuits. Okay, they weren’t exactly world-famous, but they were a family favorite.

When his sauce was thickening on the stove and my biscuits were rising in the oven, I handed over the Canadian bacon and let him fry it in a pan next to my pot of boiling water. I set about poaching the eggs and we stood side by side as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

But it also wasn’t natural at the same time. He hadn’t lied when he told me he could cook. He was absolutely proficient in the kitchen.

And it was by far the sexiest he had ever been.

I was such a goner.

He found as many moments as he could to touch me. His hand would brush mine, or slide across my waist when he leaned in to reach for something. Right now, his thigh pressed gently into mine and his muscled chest warmed my back while he pretended to inspect my swirling eggs.

By the time the table was set and my family gathered around it, Jericho had found a way to keep his hands on me for an entire hour. Even now he looked across the table in such a way that made his gaze feel like a physical caress.

What was he doing?

My family fell into easy conversation, despite our combined concern for Ophelia. I constantly assured my parents that she was safe and Orion that he was, too.

Jericho backed me up with every reassurance and explained a great deal about his Kingdom to my parents. He went over the old Monarchy and the new Kings and Queens and how there were four of them and why. He explained his position in the government and my parents were reluctantly impressed with the importance he held. He brushed it off modestly, but I could see how bothered he was by their clear respect.

I knew Jericho didn’t like his job, but I realized right then and there that I was the only one. He hadn’t told anyone else about his dissatisfaction. And how could he? His closest friends were Kings and soldiers, the very men that trusted him with their lives and revered his leadership. By the way he explained his station to my parents I could tell that it was natural for him to talk that way, to humbly but firmly reveal how much authority he held. He wasn’t playing a part; he was living a life that had been forced on him, but that he accepted because he was loyal and because he was good.

“Excuse me,” he stood toward the end of breakfast with his phone in his hand. “It’s the head of our Guard. I should take this.”

My parents waved him and his impeccable manners off. He conferred one more polite smile at them and leveled me with a smoldering look that I couldn’t even begin to describe or fight before he walked into the other room and answered his call.

As soon as he was gone, every eye swung my direction and pinned me with severe glares.

“That boy is in love with you, Olivia,” my father declared with no small amount of shock.

I blushed. “No, he’s not. We’re just close. We’ve been through a lot together.” Orion rolled his eyes but my parents just continued to stare. “He was the one that found O and me. He feels responsible for us, that’s all.”

My mom actually snorted at this. “That is not responsibility, Babe. That’s love.”

Before I could argue, my dad said, “I suppose you have a good reason for keeping him at a distance?”

“Are you saying you approve of him?” I couldn’t even believe this. “You barely know him! Plus, he’s one of them!”

“You’re also one of them now, Livie,” my mom reminded me sadly. “And maybe we just met him, but it’s easy to judge his character. You could do a lot worse than a man like him.”

“Maybe,” I agreed. “But you don’t understand. They’re relationships are like… one and done.” My parent’s eyes grew big and Orion tried not to laugh. “Seriously. It has something to do with their Magic. It’s like worse than marriage. They can’t ever separate after they’ve, uh, connected.”

“Oh,” my dad said with furrowed brows. “Well, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Did you want to have lots of affairs?”

I giggled before I could stop myself and my mom slapped my dad’s chest with the back of her hand.

“Well, no,” I laughed. “But it’s hard to know if he’s you know… the one. I don’t get a second pick. If I choose Jericho, then that’s it. And forever. Like forever. This relationship will never end, not even with death.”

My parents sat back in their chairs, equally contemplative. After several moments of only Jericho’s mumbled voice breaking the silence, my mom sat forward and held me with her steady gaze. “You know, I think it must be very hard for the parents of all these… Immortals. At least your dad and I had the reassuring thought that someday you guys would die.”

Orion and I both gasped out a stunned, “Mom!”

“No, I’m serious,” she said. “Forever is a very long time. Obviously, I don’t need to tell you about that. It’s overwhelming when I think about it. I can’t imagine what you’re going through trying to accept the idea. And I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Luckily, I know you’re strong enough to handle it, Livie. I know you are.” I warmed under her praise and confidence in me. Her words had done something I hadn’t been able to accomplish yet and that was to give me the courage to face forever, to meet it headlong and believe I could survive it. Maybe even thrive in it. “That being said, you’ve just added an indescribable weight to my job as your mom. I raised you believing I would only have to worry about what your life would become for a set amount of years. But now you’re telling me that I have to worry about you for eternity. You’re telling me that this life will never end for you and I won’t ever get to relax about how you’re doing and if you’ll be alright. You’ve added endless worries to my already long list of concerns.”

Her eyes were so intense that I could do nothing more than squeak, “Sorry?”

Her expression softened just a touch and she shook her head slowly at me. “But if that’s true, that these people love for life, without exception… then that would be one less thing for me to worry about. I would know that you would never be lonely or alone. I would know that someone else was worrying about you too, taking care of you, providing for you. I would know that someone else loved you enough to keep you for eternity. And that you could love for that long, too.”

“Mom,” I groaned in an effort to lighten the mood. “That’s very antifeminist of you.”

She didn’t relax, “No, this has nothing to do with women’s rights or what we have to prove. Love is a two-way street. You are provided for but you provide as well. You are taken care of but you care, too. You meet each other half way most days, but there are times when one of you gives more or takes more than the other. That’s not unfair or antiquated, that’s the beauty of loving beyond yourself. I don’t know Jericho very well; I hardly know anything about him actually, except that he loves you beyond himself. He sees beyond selfishness and greed and sees you. And honestly, Livie, that’s all I want for you, whether that lasts eternally or for just fifty years. That’s all I want for all my children.”

“I don’t even know what to say,” I admitted. “This is the last conversation I imagined us having after I came home.”

“You need to see that, little girl,” my dad chimed in, clearly in accordance with my mom. “You need to see that you’ve been both blessed and cursed. You are going to live a life that the rest of us mere mortals could only dream up in books and movies. You’ve been given a gift that surpasses anything else on Earth. And I know you; I know you will do something great with your time. But don’t be left alone. And don’t push people away. Otherwise that gift will turn into a never-ending hell. Liv, you don’t trust anybody, but we see how you trust him. You don’t even like most people, but don’t deny that you like him, maybe more than like him. We’ve seen the way you look at him, the way you let him in. Honestly, we never thought we’d see you open up like this to a person outside of your family. Don’t ignore these feelings. You might not be ready to give him everything he wants yet, but that’s a good man in there. That’s a man that will keep you safe and love you for as long as he promises to. That’s a man that will give you everything you want and need long, long after we’re gone.”

I swallowed against a thousand more fears and feelings I didn’t even know I could feel. How were my parents so perceptive? How could they see all these things in the short amount of time we’d been back together?

And how could they ask me to consider something so extreme?

I felt a little betrayed by their conviction over this; but it was buried beneath the strength of their love and concern for me. I knew they thought they had my best interest in mind. But Jericho was also the only other Immortal they’d ever met. They had no idea what existed in the rest of the Kingdom except for Terletov- which was obviously the exact opposite of Jericho.

Speak of the devil, Jericho finally reappeared in all his devastatingly handsome glory.

He spoke to everyone in that authoritative way he had. “The team’s here. The house is well protected. I know you have lives to live and all, but I’m going to ask you to stay here for right now, until we tell you different. We want to make sure that you’re safe. And the easiest way to do that is to protect one place. We can get you whatever you need. My lead Guard will introduce himself and he can send someone out for anything you want if you ask.” My parents nodded immediately and my brother paled. He did not want to be in the middle of this and I couldn’t say I blamed him. “They have the house surrounded, and will mostly stay out of sight. But if you see someone walking around in a black polo, black slacks without a coat, that’s one of our guys. I trust these men, and I think Liv does to, if that helps make this easier for you.”

“I do,” I agreed quickly.

Jericho smiled warmly at me. “Talbott has a lead if you want to go. You can stay here if you want, or check this out with me.”

“I’ll go,” I answered quickly. I hated the idea of sitting idly here, waiting for Terletov to come to us. My parents and brother needed to stay here. But I would go crazy if I had to wait for him to come to us. “Will we be gone long?”

“Depends on what we find,” Jericho answered cryptically but his eyes sparkled at me, which made me think this was a good lead.

“Alright, give me a few minutes to get ready.”

“I’ll meet you back here,” he agreed and then left to get dressed and armed.

I turned around to face my parents. I felt weird about leaving their house to go hunt down a man and try to kill him. I’d lived here since I graduated from high school, while I went to school, but they’d given me complete freedom ever since I turned eighteen. Of course, I’d always been a responsible child.

It was hard to get into trouble when you didn’t hang out with anyone other than your siblings.

But for some strange reason, I felt like I should ask their permission before I left. Maybe because I was actually searching out trouble this time? Or the consequences of my actions were lasting and final?

Either way when I raised an inquisitive brow at them they both snorted and waved me off. “You’re twenty-one, Livie. Time to make your own decisions,” my dad ordered.

“Why do I feel like this message is deeper than it appears?” I backed away from the table with a smirk on my face.

“Probably because it is,” he grinned at me.

Wanting to escape before I had to listen to another lecture on how amazing Jericho was, I turned to sprint up the stairs. “Sorry about the mess in the kitchen!” I called.

“You’re lucky I’m so happy you’re home again!” My mom called after me.

I met Jericho ten minutes later by the front door. We’d both changed into “mission” clothes. He’d packed an extra set of black fatigues and a tight fitting black t-shirt that I didn’t think could be originally his because of how it stretched across his broad shoulders. If I didn’t know he was Immortal, I would have been worried about him freezing to death the minute we stepped outside; but from experience, I knew his body could handle the freezing temps and the few feet of snow.

“So this is how Olivia Taylor really dresses?” he smirked at me like he was privy to some inside secret.

I shrugged, glancing down at my stylishly baggy army pants that sat low on my hips and my scooped neck black t-shirt. I was even wearing my own black pumas. I had to admit it was not at all like I dressed in the Citadel. The clothes there were trendy, expensive and refined, but nothing like my normal eclectic, bohemian style.

“I should grab a jacket,” I told him just to break hot tension between us.

“Why?” he almost laughed. “Are you going to get cold? Wasn’t that lesson number one?”

I smiled, unable to hold back. “No, that was not number one.”

He just grinned at me and then took my hand. We both easily ignored the cold weather and jumped in the rental SUV without saying another word.

On the way to the “mission” Jericho explained that Talbott had gotten a tip from some Immortals that lived in Chicago. A few Shape-Shifters had disappeared months back. Shifters, apparently, were not known for setting down roots in any one city because of the oppression they lived under for so many years. They usually moved around in colonies and stayed off the grid. However, since Avalon and Eden came into power, the Monarchy had been working hard to encourage them to settle permanently.

It was these kinds of Shifters that had disappeared from the city.

Talbott told Jericho that the Immortals that knew about the disappearances hadn’t thought anything more than Shifters being skittish about living surrounded by civilization. They’d assumed the Shifters had gone back into hiding out of habit. That seemed logical to me as well. The Immortals had reconsidered though after the announcement was made that Silas and Gabriel had died.

The death of those men was a huge deal to the Kingdom. Jericho said that Gabriel grew up in the Palace and was very close with Kiran’s dad, Lucan, before Lucan went in Jericho’s words bat-shit crazy. And Silas was apparently the head Shifter in the entire Kingdom, and led a colony of his own before Avalon asked him to join his royal council.

They were extremely important men and I could hear the strain and grief in Jericho’s voice as he told me about them. I desperately wanted to pull him to me and hold him while he recovered from his pain, but I kept my hands to myself. My parents’ lecture this morning had more than freaked me out. I just didn’t want to encourage anything with him until I was certain.

The Immortals living here remembered the missing Shifters as soon as they heard about Gabriel and Silas and immediately called Talbott.

We happened to already be in the city and so this was a lucky break. But I wondered if most big breaks tended to be a bit lucky.

Once the backup Guard arrived sometime very early this morning, Talbott and Titus had driven around the city trying to get a Magical trace, which Talbott could pick up because he was a Titan. They were assuming Terletov already landed in the city and went back to his original base of operations. And even if he didn’t have a “lab” to work from, they were hoping he set up somewhere.

Chicago was obviously huge, but they’d narrowed down the area to some sketchy parts of downtown. And now as we drove into the city from the small suburb of Wheaton, Illinois, that I called home, I could see why.

I could feel the same pull to the center of the city. It felt like a hunch at first, some tiny instinct that nudged me in one particular direction. But the closer we drove, the stronger the instinct became until it wasn’t just a feeling anymore… until I could clearly sense the other Magic and where it clustered together.

I didn’t have to tell Jericho where to go, because he already knew from Talbott’s directions. Talbott and Titus were staking out some abandoned warehouse, waiting for our backup.

Jericho came to a stop blocks away from where we were supposed to meet up with Talbott. I originally thought this was so we could manage some kind of surprise attack on Terletov, but Jericho quickly dismissed that theory.

“He’ll know we’re coming,” he shrugged. “He has as many Titans as we do, or at least their Magic. I’m parking the car here so that it doesn’t get blown up again. It’s really inconvenient when that happens.”

I laughed because I couldn’t help myself and because I was extremely nervous. It didn’t matter if I had Magic or not, my brain could not wrap around the possibility of not dying.

“Someone might steal it,” I suggested, gesturing around at the area of town we were traversing. He just shook his head. “Magic, remember? Doesn’t matter how tough they think they are, every human will be afraid of that car.”

“The car’s Magic?”

“Pieces of it,” he confirmed. “All our vehicles, planes, whatever we own or use regularly, we infuse Magic into. It not only puts our signature on the item, but keeps humans far, far away.”

“What if they aren’t afraid? My parents weren’t all that afraid of you.”

He grinned. “Your parents like me.”

I rolled my eyes. “They do not. And if they do, it’s only because they don’t know you yet.”

“Then we better be quick about this.”

“Why?”

“Obviously, so I can go convince them I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to you.” He flashed me a charming smile that the bastard knew would get under my skin.

“Then you better spend some time trying to convince me of the same thing.” My goal was to sound a bit bitchy.

But that didn’t work.

Jericho took the challenge and grabbed my hand. He yanked hard, tugging me to him so that we stopped in the middle of the snow-packed sidewalk, with abandoned metal buildings rising all around us. He pulled my body into his and his mouth was on mine before I could fully comprehend how I got here. With a swift, incessant kiss that left me spinning and breathless, he released me very slowly.

“Okay.” His eyes met mine with promised conviction.

“Okay?” I asked because I couldn’t remember anything before that kiss.

His mouth split into that devilish grin again and my knees actually wobbled under the force of it. Drawing his words out so that I couldn’t mistake his meaning even if I tried, he said, “Ok, I’ll spend some time convincing you that you like me.”

Before I could even struggle for breath, Talbott whistled from a block away. Jericho released my hand and body and then we were jogging across an empty intersection in order to meet up with Jericho’s teammates and prepare for battle.

Since I was about to fight the crazy maniac that got me into this mess to begin with, I should probably stop thinking about Jericho’s yummy kisses and get my brain straight.

Ugh.

Chapter Twenty-One

Jericho

The warehouse was as nondescript as all the rest. The windows were all broken, graffiti colored the gray concrete walls and the heavy, rusted metal door hung off its hinges. Wind whipped through the broken glass of whatever remained of the plated windows in a gusting howl that sent ominous goose bumps over my forearms.

I gave Talbott a questioning glance and he confirmed that this was the place with a nod of his head. I looked at the four of us and hated that there weren’t more.

But with the Guard split between the Citadel, where they were needed most, with Analisa, Kiran’s mom, Olivia’s house and random hotspots around the world, there wasn’t much else of an option. If we didn’t have Alexi to worry about, I would have at least had more of my own people, but necessity had drained us to this point. It was the four of us against whatever Terletov had with him.

My one consoling thought was that whatever happened to us, Olivia would at least survive. Even if Terletov managed to drain and kill the rest of us, Olivia, by his own admission, would live. And she would never become his perfect soldier. He had to be absolutely out of his mind to think that. I spent all of five minutes with her before I knew she wasn’t the kind of girl to submit or surrender.

Of course, she’d been trying to claw my eyes out in her tortured, exhausted, traumatized state. But… I couldn’t imagine Terletov fairing much better.

“Front door or split up?” Titus asked under his breath.

“They know we’re here,” I answered. “Why prolong the inevitable?”

Titus grinned at me and Talbott looked as if he wanted to kill me for hesitating even for a moment.

I gave Liv an encouraging head nod and then we stalked as one unit to the side of the building and pushed our way through the worn metal doorframe. The door shrieked on its dilapidated hinges and I had to use Magic to get it to budge, but when we finally walked into the dim, filthy building we stood face to face with Terletov and fifteen of his henchman.

“Clever fools,” Terletov greeted us immediately. “I truly hope you’ve come to return what’s mine.” His eyes traveled Olivia’s length in a slow, leering perusal and I decided just then that I would gouge his eyes out with my fists before I killed him.

Just to make it fun.

I stepped in front of Liv and met his depraved expression with my own deadly one. “I doubt that will happen.”

“Pity,” Terletov grunted. His head tilted to the side and he looked at us calculatingly before he ordered, “Kill them. Except for the girl, of course. But then again, you can’t kill her.”

Chaos broke out in that exact moment.

Guns, swords, Magic. Every weapon we contained clashed together in a cacophony of sound and onslaught of aggression. We each had a gun of our own, but they were a dangerous thing to waste when our time was spent flying through the air in an effort to dodge bullets.

We didn’t have Eden or Avalon with us, so if anyone of us were hit with a bullet we would drop and there would be nothing we could do about it. These bullets caused a magically induced coma that was as deadening as Ophelia’s, except that Eden could heal us.

Usually I fought with surety and confidence that could only be possessed after years of winning. Honestly, I was good at this. I could be clinical to a heartless fault and I could be as ruthless as I needed to be. Maybe it tore me up later, but in the moment all I had to rely on were my instincts.

And my instincts were brutally merciless.

But now I felt assaulted with as much fear and uncertainty as I did drive to win this. Olivia seemed a natural at fighting, dodging bullets and fighting back with an intuition that I could kiss her for. But still, the fear that she could get hit, or hurt, or taken, clung to my bones and gave me a marrow-deep chill that I could not shake.

Damn, this was one thing I wasn’t used to.

Even with Eden, I’d prided myself in being the kind of guy that trusted his female. If Eden said she could fight, I believed her. If Eden said she could handle whatever it was we were working on, I believed her.

In this moment, I could see that Liv could handle herself, I could watch her fight back viciously, and yet anxiety clawed up my throat and ripped at my flesh.

“Behind you!” I shouted at her just in time for her to dive out of the way.

I couldn’t afford the time to make sure she got up again. At least I believed she couldn’t die.

It didn’t mean I wanted to see her get even a little bit injured, but it would have to comfort my protective instincts for now.

I dove after some asshole that had run out of bullets and was coming after me with his sword drawn.

In any other battle, I would have gotten my hands on the guy and drained him of every last drop of Magic possible. But we’d learned early with Terletov not to take any of this Magic. It was tainted beyond evil, something sinister and sick that we couldn’t absorb correctly. We had to gut them, let the Magic dissolve in the air, or we’d suffer something akin to the King’s Curse with what their Magic would do to us.

Eden, Avalon and their spouses could handle the polluted Magic, but they were honestly the only ones. We didn’t even know if they could live through it because of their stronger Magic, or the valve that opened between all four of them. Even though Avalon and Eden stayed closed-off to each other for the most part these days, now that they were both married and wanted to avoid the awkwardness of their Magic, it still moved between them and now included Kiran and Amelia.

I pulled my knife out of the sheath at my ankle and engaged. Another goon joined the fight and I worked my body into a machine, accurate, precise and deadly. I got the first guy on the Achilles tendon as I skidded low to avoid a brutal swing of his sword. He arched his back with a shout and then fell to one knee where I took advantage and plunged my deathly sharp blade into his spine.

I used Magic to force the tip through his flesh, muscle, bone and whatever else lay beneath his skin. The slicing, ripping sound resounded in my ears and I cringed despite the necessity of the killing blow. Before I could be certain he would stay down I was forced to retract my knife and swing out against his friend.

Our blades clashed above my head, his long sword to my short but sturdy knife. He kicked out at me at the same time I jumped into the air and curled into a ball. I released my knife, along with my weight and pressure while his leg swept beneath me, meeting nothing but air. With my weight gone and his leg not connecting with anything, he lost his balance and stumbled forward. At the same time my feet found solid ground again and I raised my knife so that he fell into it. I braced myself for his weight and took him with a thrust upward, directly into his chest.

This time when I pulled the knife out, I made sure to leave a gaping gash that would leak Magic like a waterfall. Blood gushed all over my hand and his sickly green Magic burst into the air around us.

I jumped out of the way and directly into another fight.

The scent of death, the putrid, nose-tingly smell that seemed to follow these guys wherever they went and the tangy, sharp odor of metal permeated my nostrils and made this battle infinitely more real.

This was a different fight than Machu Picchu where I’d found Liv. That had seemed juvenile compared to this blood bath. And in a way that could be blamed on the scenery. Ancient ruins compared to a gritty, rundown warehouse gave us new reasons to fight… to kill… to win.

Besides that, in Peru, these guys had some place to run.

Not here.

This would not end until there were a lot of dead people.

I punched out at another wily bastard and connected with the edge of his jaw. I was aiming for his nose, but I would take any flesh I could find. My knuckles hit hard bone and I let my momentum carry me through so that his head swung around spraying spit, blood and one tooth. At the same time I brought my other hand down and sunk my knife into the curve of where his shoulder met his neck, just above the collar bone. With no bone in my way my weapon slid in easily enough and I dragged the sharp blade across the top of his shoulder to make the biggest hole possible.

These knives were not common, even among the Kingdom. But after Peru last fall and what happened in the Omaha club, I’d had the Witch at the Citadel make it specifically for me.

And thank God, I did.

It was coming in very handy.

Olivia had been outfitted with a gun we’d picked up at Terletov’s Hungarian estate around the same time last fall and a sharp blade that was Talbott’s. While the same principle applied to her blade as it did to mine, I swear, there was nothing better than my knife. The blade was insanely sharp, cutting through bone like it was butter. Even the tip could cause lethal damage.

I was in love.

With the knife.

And also, probably Olivia.

Nothing had ever pulled my hungry attraction like watching her fight to bring down a mutual enemy with grace, poise and savage instinct. She was created with this inhuman perception and awareness from even before she was Immortal;  I had to believe it was no accident that she survived the transformation. Honestly, this girl was so goddamn sexy, even covered in blood and sweat, I wanted nothing more than to finish this battle and then make her mine.

The thought alone spurred me into more action.

But more than the physical attraction that seemed to rule my body, there was this strong emotional connection with us that bonded our Magic and brought us together in some kind of unbreakable tie.

Our Magic had been united since last night, never leaving each other, never separating. And now in the heat of battle, we were both empowered by the strength of the combination. She made me stronger; she made me faster, her Magic made me invincible.

There was a reason my kill count was climbing so quickly. I had never been a greater warrior than in this moment.

I believed for some time now that I was born into the fate I belonged. I was a good killer. I was a good fighter. And I had honed and perfected my skills into a talent that was almost unsurpassed.

Yet, nothing had been a bigger boost to my talent than absorbing Olivia’s Magic.

She was like steroids, amphetamines and bones made out of titanium all in the same injection.

And I think I was addicted with just one hit.

At some point during the conflict, Terletov moved to the back of the “arena” and seemed to be enjoying this show. Titus, who had refrained from shifting until the bullets were gone and we were only using blades, had shifted to full-bear by now and was backed into a corner. It was one thing to fight as a Shifter when only Magic was in play. But when we were fighting with weapons as dangerous as these, his bulking size and less than accurate movements were not working in his favor.

On the other hand, Talbott was a killing machine. The man had a vendetta and he was not afraid to murder everything in his way. I could relate to his desperation to get to Lilly now that I had Olivia in my life.

I’d been reluctant to compare what I shared with Olivia to what Talbott and Lilly had. They’d been a couple for years and their relationship reached depths that I could barely imagine.

Still, I knew that if someone or something took Olivia away from me, there would be nothing that would stop me from getting to her. I would do anything to reach her, to save her, to keep her.

And as I realized those confirming thoughts, I started to grasp the depth of my feelings for her.

“Enough!” Terletov screamed out, sounding like a true mad man. “No more, or I will slit her throat and let her pretty purple Magic bleed out all over this floor.”

No.

I looked up and sure enough, Terletov held a limp, unconscious Lilly by her curly red hair. Her body drooped like a lifeless ragdoll and there was not so much as a breath in her lungs moving inside her body.

Talbott stilled immediately and because he was our brother in more important ways than blood, Titus and I also stopped. I had my knife hovering over another nameless/faceless throat and Titus dropped a man he had his meaty paw around. In another moment Titus was human again, fully-dressed and still covered in blood. The Magic in Immortals meant that Shifters didn’t have to shred their clothes like in movies; they stayed magically suspended in the place between human form and beast.

Olivia also stopped exactly where she was, in respect for us, although she’d never met Lilly.

Terletov’s grin became sadistic as it twisted across his face. “So for this girl, you’ll do what I say? How excellent!”

“Let her go,” Talbott growled with the promise of brutal violence. His chest heaved with the force of adrenaline in his body and his Magic pushed against everything in this room. Even I could feel the barbed sharpness of his anger in the electricity filling this large, empty building. Or maybe that was my connection to Olivia that had opened me up to the foreign Magics surrounding us.

“Why?” Terletov’s eyes narrowed and he surveyed his hostage with utter disgust. “You can’t possibly care about this creature. She’s not even worthy to be called Immortal and at this point I could hardly say she’s even breathing enough to be called alive.”

“You’re wrong,” Liv challenged him. “I can feel her pulse.”

“Look at you,” Terletov grinned at her. “Such a perfect specimen of Immortality and yet you associate with scum.” His expression turned to disappointment. “I could offer you so much more than this. So much more than what awaits you with that weak King and his even weaker Queen.”

“You mean, the Queen that has your Magic?” I demanded. I didn’t really think Liv would ever be convinced to change sides, but I wanted to make sure Terletov knew that. “I don’t think she’s interested in joining the losing team.”

Terletov’s Magic exploded from him in a rush of cold, debilitating Magic. Lilly was thrown with the force of it. I felt my body fly backwards, completely unprepared for that kind of eruption. Liv went into the air too and Titus who was closest to the blast, flew fifty feet in the air and didn’t land until his back hit a far wall. I could hear the snap of his head against hard concrete all the way from here and his unconscious body slid to the ground limp and lifeless.

Talbott was the only one of us able to hold his footing and that was only by his sheer willpower and love for Lilly. He managed to work against the angry blast of Magic and reach out and catch Lilly. She hadn’t moved of her own free will since Terletov presented her to us and she still wasn’t moving, even after all of that.

“She’s useless to me now,” he sneered at Talbott. “She couldn’t even do the small job I required of her, her duty to the people she contaminated with her polluted blood.” Talbott clutched her closer to his chest but Terletov kept taunting him. “Do you know how hard I tried? Do you know how many hours I spent trying to syphon what little Magic she has out of those disgusting bones of hers? And yet she gave nothing up. Which is really just too bad. I would have put her out of her misery much earlier if she’d given me what I wanted. Instead, I had to do what I thought best…”

His words trailed off and I felt sick to my stomach. How much had Lilly been tortured? And how had she managed to hold on to her Magic?

Talbott was shaking with an untouched rage that seemed to color every part of him into a vibrating, glowing mass of hatred and vindication. But he wouldn’t put Lilly down, and Terletov knew that.

“I’ll let you deal with that mess,” he said gesturing at Lilly. “While we take our leave.” his cold eyes flashed up to meet Liv’s for just a moment. “Your last chance to come with us. I will have you one way or the other.” And then to me, he said, “I would get your animal to medical treatment as quickly as possible. It seems where I failed to extract the Magic, my blade succeeded. It’s a small leak, but I wouldn’t waste any time.”

Talbott lifted Lilly’s limp hand where a prick from Terletov’s blade had opened the smallest gash in her finger, letting her Magic escape.

Damnit.

We had to get her to Eden. Now.

And it was at least an eight-hour trip, if we landed directly on the private royal airstrip behind the Citadel.

We had to leave this minute.

“We will find you, Dmitri,” I called after him. “And in the meantime we will treat your brother with the same respect as you’ve treated our loved ones.”

“Better hurry then,” he laughed at me. “You don’t have much time until I come for him.”

And with that Terletov and his men disappeared out the back of the warehouse. We heard tires screech. We had too many problems to follow them now, and that was exactly their plan. Just as the tides of that battle were turning in our favor, Terletov had initiated his backup plan with Lilly and given us a new priority.

I ran over to Titus and slapped him hard across the face until he roused. By the time Titus was up and running, Talbott was already laying Lilly down in his backseat. I could see the reluctance to leave her, even to drive the car.

At that moment, when I was about to offer to drive, my cell phone rang.

I pulled it from my pocket and answered it before I checked who it was. I needed to warn the Palace anyway that we were coming and what we would be bringing with us, and they were the only people that would be calling me.

“Hello.”

“Jericho, Ophelia’s awake,” Eden chattered excitedly in my ear. “She just woke up, she’s asking for Olivia.”

A relief so strong that it rocked my body washed through me; I met Liv’s eyes with a smile. I mouthed to her that her sister was awake and her whole face lit up through the dirt and grime that covered it.

“Amazing. We’re on our way now,” I told Eden. “We have Lilly, but you need to be ready for her. She has a gash. It’s small, and she should be able to make it back to the Citadel, but you have to be there as soon as she lands.”

Eden was absolutely silent on the other end and I shouted “hello” into the phone several times before Kiran talked back to me instead.

“Did you say that Lilly is alive?” he demanded.

“Yes, but not for long if we don’t get her help.”

“Thank, God,” Kiran breathed. “Will she make it here? I want the God’s honest truth, Jericho. Will she make it?”

I hesitated for a second before I answered confidently, “Yes, if she gets help as soon as we land, then yes, she’ll make it.”

“Let’s go!” Talbott roared.

“Jericho, there’s one more thing,” Kiran said quickly, clearly hearing Talbott’s anxiety. “You’re father called here. He said it’s urgent that you head back to Peru.”

“Well, he can wait,” I snapped.

“He called two minutes ago. I didn’t know Eden had called you because I was on the phone with him. I can’t believe that it’s a coincidence that he would call you at the same time you find Lilly, but he said to tell you that it’s life or death. He’s not in danger but your mother is.”

“My mom?” I choked out.

“And my mum,” Kiran said evenly, but I could hear the silent pleading in his strained voice.

“Son of a bitch,” I growled. “Are they in Rio.”

“Your dad is.”

“Fine,” I all but shouted. “I’ll send Talbott back with the girls and take Titus with me. I’m leaving the Guard with Liv’s family. Do you have anyone that can meet me down there?”

“Sebastian will go with you. I’ll let him take Xander and Xavier. Maybe Roxie and Seraphina if they can get away.”

“Good. Send them.”

“Keep me updated,” Kiran ordered.

“Did you want to come too?” I gentled my tone just a little bit. His mom? That had to be tough.

“I can’t,” his voice cracked a little before he could recover. “I can’t leave Eden. Not when she’s like this and not in a time like this.”

“I’ll find Analisa, Kiran. Don’t worry about her.”

“Right,” Kiran answered. “Now go and call me in the air. I’ll give you more details.”

I hung up and then cursed again. I was going to have to fly freaking commercial to get down there. Goddamn Terletov had planned this very well.

“They have my mom and Analisa,” I explained to Talbott, who cradled Lilly’s head in his lap and stared down at her unconscious face with such loving intensity I thought she might wake up just from the sheer force of it. “And Ophelia’s awake. Liv, you’re going to have to go back with Talbott and help him with Lilly.” I realized that Liv couldn’t fly a plane and Talbott was in no shape to get her back to the Citadel safely. “Titus you better go with them too. I’ll fly commercial down to Rio and meet up with the rest of the team. I was going to take you with me, but Talbott needs a pilot. Use the back airfield and Eden will be waiting for you.”

Titus nodded and slammed the door shut on Talbott before climbing into the driver’s seat and shutting his own door. He started the car and then waited patiently for Liv.

I yanked her to me and devoured her mouth in a hungry, desperate kiss. Letting her go was going to be the single hardest thing I had ever done. I wanted to spend the next five days alone with her after what we just went through simply checking her body over and over for any damage. It would obviously have to be a very thorough examination.

But I couldn’t do that now. I couldn’t even afford to kiss her for a second more.

Taking the sides of her head and holding her face as close to mine as I could, I pressed our foreheads tightly together and whispered a promise. “I will come straight back to you. As soon as I can.”

“Will you be alright?” she whispered and I could feel how impossible this was for her, too.

“I’ll be fine,” I swore. “But I’ll be better when we’re together again.”

“Jericho, I…”

“I know, Liv,” I finished for her when she didn’t seem able to find the right words. “I feel it too. And as soon as we’re together again, we’re going to put a name to it.”

“I’m scared,” she whispered on a broken voice. Whether it was our combined Magic or the tone of her voice, maybe the tears falling from the corners of her eyes, I knew that she wasn’t talking about Terletov in that moment.

“Then let go, Liv. Let go and feel everything that’s between us. I promise, that I will be there for you. And there will be nothing to be afraid of after that.”

“I don’t know if I can.”

“Trust me,” I urged her.

She shook her head, unable to form words.

Alright, well, we would work on that later.

“I’ll find you as soon as I’m back at the Citadel, alright?” This time she nodded. “Now go see your sister. She needs you.”

As she got into the car and left with Talbott and Titus I felt my soul leave with her. That girl owned me now, body, mind, Magic and spirit.

She was afraid of the future.

I had to prove to her how much our present mattered, how our future would one day melt into our present and that I would never go anywhere without her.

But first I had to go deal with my parents.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Olivia

Back to where it all began.

Or… almost.

It was bizarre to me that when the small plane touched down, I felt like I was back home. And I really did feel as though this was the place that marked the beginning of my journey.

I watched the flurry of Immortals circle around the dying girl and a miracle take place. This wasn’t my world. I didn’t belong here.

And yet, I was starting to wonder if that was still true.

Eden had been phenomenal the moment the door opened. Talbott hadn’t tried to move Lilly, who looked sickly pale and as fragile as an egg shell. Her wispy purple Magic had filled the plane cabin the entire journey. It took us ten full hours to get from the burning warehouse that Jericho set on fire before we left to hide all the dead Immortal bodies, to the tarmac behind the Citadel.

Who knew that this was even here?

I didn’t.

And I was very certain we were going to crash the damn plane into the side of a mountain since there didn’t seem to be a runway anywhere. But Titus found it easily enough and set the plane down smoothly.

And then the cabin had flooded with Immortals trying to bring Lilly back to life.

Eden stood over Lilly and bright blue smoke started to pour out of her and fill the cabin. Amelia sidled up to me and was generous enough to give me a play by play. She explained Eden’s smoke and that it came from India. She also explained that Lilly and Eden were best friends and that Eden had been as distraught as Talbott since Terletov attacked one of their clubs last fall. My heart broken even more for the unconscious Shifter when Amelia explained that this was not the first, or even the second time Lilly had been abducted and held prisoner.

I would never feel like I got the short end of the stick after hearing Lilly’s tragic story.

I prepared myself to choke on the cloying smoke, but the sensation never came. The thickness of it was cool against my skin and oddly soothing. The blue smoke settled over Lilly and seemed to breathe life directly back into her. Her skin started to brighten again and the thin stream of Magic that had been slipping out of her index finger stopped at once.

Suddenly she sat up with a huge, gasping breath. Our group collectively felt the palpable relief that Lilly would be alright, but then she immediately fell back down unconscious and we all let out a disappointed sigh. Talbott had crushed her against his chest and buried his face in her hair. Huge racking sobs had overcome him and he shook violently as he held her against him.

I felt tears fall from my own eyes at the heartbreaking sight. I didn’t even know either of them, but the moment was so deeply touching, I couldn’t stop the emotions as they overwhelmed me. And I was not the only one. While the other men weren’t reduced to tears, they were still affected by their distraught friend. They all generously comforted Talbott and laid gentle hands on his unconscious fiancée. Amelia sobbed into Avalon’s shirt and Eden collapsed in tears on the floor by Talbott’s feet.

Kiran gathered her close and whispered sweet reassurances in her ear.

The whole scene shattered me. And made me ache for Jericho in a way I could hardly comprehend.

It wasn’t just that I was surrounded by strangers and couples in love that made me wish I had my own significant other for the first time in my entire life. But it was that these were uncertain times and I cared enough about Jericho to want him near me, at all times. I wanted to know that he was alright. I wanted to feel his skin against mine promising me that he wasn’t hurt, that he wasn’t lost… proving to me that we had each other and that was all we needed to survive.

It was weird.

I was equally worried about my parents and Ry, but I didn’t feel this overwhelming need to stand over them and watch them breathe just to make sure their lungs were moving properly. I was worried and had been worried about O for months now, but I didn’t have this same urge to sit by her side for the rest of her life just making sure she didn’t fall back into her coma.

Nothing had even happened to Jericho and yet I wanted nothing more than to call him this moment and just double check that he was okay.

And then I wanted to demand he get his ass over here and never leave me again.

What was happening to me?

Oh, hell.

I was falling in love.

I was falling in love with him.

“You alright?” Ophelia asked me from the middle of her bed. She wasn’t feeling up to moving
around yet, but she had wanted to sit up.

“Yeah, of course,” I told her. “It’s just so great to see you up and moving again. I can’t tell you… I didn’t know if I’d ever get to see you like this again.” My voice broke with the reality of what could have happened to her, from the hard truth that I almost lost my sister. I hurried to the bed and sat down next to her, pulling her into the hundredth hug.

“Alright, I get it,” she laughed and tried to push me off her but she was just so weak. “Tell me what I missed,” she demanded when I finally pulled back.

I stayed next to her, crisscrossing my legs so that I mirrored her with my knees pressing into hers. She looked so much better with the feeding tube removed and the IV out. God, she looked like my sister again, and not some helpless victim in a hospital bed.

“Umm… I’m not even sure where to begin.” I played with the army pattern on my green cargos. It had been a while since I changed or showered, but I was more than reluctant to leave O, so I festered in my filth for her sake. “You’ve been out for a couple months. I stayed here most of the time. Literally right here,” I pointed at the edge of the bed I used to sit, sleep and think at. “But when you started to improve, I started to come down with these symptoms of my own.”

“Oh, no, you didn’t slip into a coma too, did you?” she reached for my hands, clenching them tightly in hers.

I shook my head, letting my short hair whip me in the face. “No, not a coma. But I’m like… whatever that horrible guy did to us, he changed me. I’m like them now. I have all their powers and stuff.” I looked up to meet her terrified expression. She looked utterly horrified at the realization I was like them now, like the monsters that hurt us.

And I could understand her fear because I had those same feelings not that long ago.

But I would be patient with her, like Jericho was with me. Well, er, for the most part like how he was with me. And I would prove to her in a gentle, understanding way that she wasn’t all bad, that she could be the same person she always has been just… upgraded.

Because even now I could feel the faintest hint of Magic in her blood and in the forty-five minutes we were alone, I’d already felt it start to intensify.

Terletov changed her too.

At least I had my sister for all this time that stretched out before me.

“It’s not all bad, O,” I promised softly. “Those guys that took us, hell yes, they were bad. The worst of the worst. But we’re not bad. And these people that saved us aren’t bad. There’s a lot I have to tell you about who I am now… but it’s kind of exhausting and I don’t really understand it all myself yet.”

She nodded slowly, trying to reconcile the only memories of Immortals she had, which were from the lab we were held prisoner in against the promises I was making to her now. I wanted to tell her that she better start accepting these people as soon as possible since she was going to soon become one of them, but I couldn’t bring myself to be so callous. She was just awake. A shock like that could do some serious damage to her delicate brain.

“Mom and dad are going to call a little bit later,” I told her. “I was just home with them and explained everything. They’re understandably very worried about us. It will help if they hear your voice.”

“Right.” Her eyes were big and she seemed even more shaken. I could empathize with those feelings, too. I practically stroked out from nerves when I told them the truth. I decided now was not the time to also inform her that Terletov had a hit out on our little brother and mom and dad were under constant Titan Guard protection.

“What else?” O asked. “What else did you do while I was under?”

“I, uh,” I laughed at myself, unable to stop myself from spilling my latest revelation even while hating myself for making such a stupid deal out of it. “I think I fell in love.”

She froze, clearly expecting me to admit something else. Or maybe, expecting me to admit anything else.

“You did what?” Her voice was as dry as a desert and her eyes challenged me as if I were calling her an idiot.

I smiled with just a hint of self-deprecation. “I think I fell in love.”

“Are you sure?” She gasped. “I mean, no offense, Livie, but I honestly didn’t even think it was possible for that to happen. I swear, I thought you were like… asexual.”

“Shut up, Ophelia Jane!” I crossed my arms and pouted. Yes, I pouted. My stupid nineteen year old sister thought I was asexual. Rude. “I’m not asexual. I’m sexual. I’m very sexual.”

She snorted a laugh, sounding so much like her old self that my anger melted and I had the strongest urge to hug her again. “Sure, sis. You’re super sexual.”

A knock at the door made us dissolve into giggles at the thought of someone overhearing this conversation. We hadn’t even gotten to the good stuff yet but it was probably for the best we were interrupted. O looked exhausted and while I was hesitant to let her close her eyes again, I knew that she probably needed to sleep.

The human doctor poked her head into the room and smiled genuinely at us sharing the bed. Her eyes were almost just as tired as O’s, but her expression was soft.

“I’m just making the rounds,” she told us. That’s probably why she looked so worn out- with Lilly back and O waking up, plus Eden was still very much pregnant, this had been an eventful day around the Castle.

“Come in,” O invited her kindly. O had been awake now for almost twenty-four hours. She said that Sylvia had spent a lot of time with her so far. And probably Sylvia felt like a safe person to Ophelia. She was human and she was very sweet.

“I just want to check your vitals,” Sylvia waved her stethoscope in the air and in her white lab coat pocket, an older style blood pressure cuff, or whatever those were called, stuck out. In her other pocket I could see tongue depressors and a digital thermometer.

“I’m feeling good, Doc,” O announced. She stretched out and scooted back so Sylvia could work around me.

“That’s great to hear,” Sylvia smiled down at my little sister and then pulled out the thermometer. “Sometimes it’s hard for me to know exactly what’s normal around here. But so far, you’re exactly as I think you should be. That’s nice for you, but it’s really nice for me.” We laughed at that and she went on, “It’s not like anyone gets sick around here, but this pregnancy has me about ready to pull my hair out.”

“How did you get here?” I asked before really putting together a nice sentence in my head. “Um, I mean, what brought you here?”

“I knew what you meant,” she dismissed my awkwardness with a wave of her hand. “I’ve spent most of my adult life running in Immortal circles. I once dated one of them. But I didn’t really understand how deep the rabbit hole went until my boyfriend at the time asked me to raise his granddaughter. It was kind of a shock. Mostly because I knew he was older than me, but I had no idea that he was a grandfather. I won’t even tell you how old he really was, I’ll just say that it actually made me pass out. I fainted when he told me his real age, no joke.” She held up her hand like she was swearing an oath and I couldn’t help but smile at her. She was adorable in that bubbly, tell-it-to-you-straight kind of way. “Anyway, I agreed to take the baby and I’ve been involved ever since.”

“Eden?” I asked, remembering Jericho’s story.

“Yep,” she confirmed. “I didn’t permanently move here though until Eden found out she was pregnant. And then Kiran asked me to help see the pregnancy through. I couldn’t say no. That’s technically my grandchild.”

Grandchildren, I thought. But I knew they were still trying to keep that a secret.

The happy moment ended abruptly when Sylvia flew forward from the force of an explosion outside. The windows rattled sharply before exploding inward. We all screamed with high-pitched, deafening shrieks of pure, raw fear.

Sylvia covered our backs with her outstretched arms, some maternal instinct that forced her into protector mode. Her bright blonde hair hung down in my face and blocked my vision from the rest of the room as the Castle around us continued to shake and tremble.

When the explosive sounds finally died down and the castle settled back down we lifted our heads slowly until our wide, terrified eyes reflected each other.

“What the hell was that?” O whispered.

Sylvia and I had no answers so we said nothing.

Sounds filled the eerie silence the explosion left behind. Sounds form everywhere and too many to be distinguishable. Men’s voices, marching feet, weapons firing, doors crashing open, furniture splintering apart… there was noise everywhere from every direction and the emptiness in the air that had seemed to inflate after everything blew to bits, was suddenly filled with angry, purposeful noise that just did not make sense to me.

“We’re being invaded,” Sylvia whispered, clearly understanding this better than us.

O looked down at her nurse’s scrubs and blanched. That was my sister for you. We were being invaded by who knew what, although I had a pretty good guess, and she was worried about what she was wearing.

“I’m not even wearing a bra,” she whispered frantically at me.

I would have laughed if I hadn’t been paralyzed by panic.

“Go put one on,” Sylvia whispered at her, yanking her from the bed. Ophelia stumbled to the side, but caught herself. “Oh, sorry,” the doctor apologized weakly. “We just have to hurry.”

Spurred into motion because I knew she was right, I jumped from the bed and ran to the closet. I pulled out some necessary clothes for O… undergarments, socks, shoes. And then I helped stuff her into them. We left her maroon pants on, but changed her uniformish top for a gray long-sleeve t-shirt. I grabbed a hoodie, just in case we were forced outside and O’s Magic couldn’t activate to keep her warm.

Activate… was that the right word?

Didn’t matter.

I tossed her an elastic hair tie and she quickly wrapped up her longer blonde hair into a knot on the top of her head. Our hair color matched exactly, but I kept my chin length and she had wisely let hers grow to her shoulders.

I would do anything for a ponytail in this moment.

“Come on,” Sylvia whispered harshly at us. She was already standing by the door with a gun in her hands and another stretched out to me. “Do you know how to use this?”

I nodded. “Where did you get it?”

She kicked at a table sitting near the door. “There are some of these in every room if you know where to look.”

“What’s the plan?” I checked the chamber for ammo and then clicked off the safety like Sebastian taught me.

“Who are you?” Ophelia gaped at me.

I ignored her and said, “Babe, if your blood starts to tingle, or, boil, you should probably just go with it.”

“Go with it?” she squeaked with new terror in her eyes.

“Trust me, I swear you’ll be fine. You just have to… embrace the change.” I patted her shoulder and turned back to Sylvia.

“We have to get to Lilly,” Sylvia decided quickly. “Talbott will be there, I’m sure of it. Maybe some others, but I have to make sure she’s all right. Her condition was volatile in the best of circumstances today. This is not good for her.”

“Lead the way.” I put my hand on the door and counted down under my breath from three.

I opened the door with as little sound as I could manage and then Sylvia stuck her head out into the hallway. It was clear so we stepped out of the room and into the dim, archaic stone hallway.

Sylvia glanced at me with pleading eyes and said, “Please remember that I’m human.” I went to assure her and she held up a hand. “Believe me, it’s easy to forget. Just remember I cannot get shot. I can hardly operate on myself and the more likely scenario is that I will die.”

I snapped my mouth shut at such a categorical response. “Alright,” I finally told her.

“Please remember that I’m human, too,” O squeaked.

Neither Sylvia nor I looked at her. This wasn’t exactly the place to have a call-to-your-new-destiny speech.

We moved stealthily down the hallway. I compartmentalized my fear and anxiety and imagined myself in a spy movie. Probably not the best tactic, but it helped me stay focused for now.

At the staircase, we headed up instead of down. In soft tones, Sylvia explained that the castle connected on the top floor and we would be able to get to Lilly’s wing through the upstairs corridor.

It worked. Whether they, whoever they were, didn’t know about the top floor passageways or they hadn’t infiltrated this far into the castle yet, we met nobody on the way.

On the other side of the huge castle was a staircase that would lead us down into a different tower. There were more stairs leading up to the very top of the castle, but we’d traveled a level beneath where the four different towers raised above the rest of the building.

Sylvia knew her way around and we followed her easily. I checked back on Ophelia a few times, to make sure she wasn’t out of her mind with exhaustion. Her Magic must have kicked in though because she kept up with ease and didn’t seem to be struggling.

Down on this side, there were more of those vague sounds from the mystery invaders. The distant popping of guns, heavy feet running through the castle… there was a man shouting orders at the tops of his lungs (five guesses to who that was) and screaming at everyone and everything.

A thousand different thoughts swam through my head, but they were too muddled to make sense of. Jericho was in more than half of them, but I couldn’t decide if it was because I wanted him here to protect me or if I was grateful he had escaped the danger here.

Sylvia slowed down and took a quick glance around the corner. When she looked back at us, her face was white and she pressed her back against the cold stone wall indicating there were people around the corner.

And probably not friendly people.

She held up three fingers at us and then pretended to shoot her gun making a soft “pew, pew” noise out of her mouth.

So, there were three bad guys that we were supposed to shoot? Hopefully?

She took a deep breath, mouthed one, two, three and then we leapt from around the corner and started shooting. I hit one guy in the leg and really, truly hoped he was a bad guy since I didn’t take any time to look him over.

Ophelia hung back while Sylvia cleaned up the other two.

They seemed to be guarding a door that I had to assume led to Lilly and Talbott.

The guns all had silencers, but I didn’t trust the halls to be empty. Sylvia didn’t seem to either and opened a room across the hall where we dragged the three unconscious bodies. The men were huge, out cold and smelled horrible.

I hated the way they smelled. The rotten, sickly scent tingled the insides of my nostrils and dive-bombed straight into the pit of my stomach where it mixed things up a bit violently. Then the flashbacks came, quick and haunting, of all my time spent back in that filthy lab.

I pushed the horrifying memories away and focused on using my Magic to give me enough strength to drag the impossibly heavy man into the dark room.

Just as we finished unloading the last body into an awkward pile just inside the door, Eden and Kiran appeared in the hallway behind us.

Eden’s hair was wild and floated around her body like a black flame- alive, wild and on the verge of destruction. Kiran had removed his crown but looked as kingly as ever with a fierce, brutal expression and a sword at the ready. But they both relaxed when Sylvia walked out of the room.

“Thank God, Syl. Have you checked on Lilly?” Eden ran up to Sylvia and threw her arms around her.

“We were just about to.” Without hesitating for a moment longer, Kiran shouldered open the door to Lilly’s room and we all piled in.

Talbott sat on the bed with Lilly’s pale, sleeping head on one leg, while a dangerous looking short sword rested on the other. I felt his Magic ease just a bit when he saw his intruders were friends, not enemies.

“I will not let him take her again,” Talbott snarled. His chocolate eyes had darkened with a storm of fury that I was afraid of, even though we were technically on the same team. He looked like a Greek god, chiseled from stone but with the power to destroy earth with a single, angry breath.

“We’re not going to let him take anyone, Mate,” Kiran promised him.

“We’re leaving,” Eden added. “Now.” Looking frantically around the room, she seemed to be mumbling to herself. “We need to get to the tunnel. It’s still dry, isn’t it?”

“Do you honestly think I would let them fill it in after all your hard work?” Kiran grinned at her.

“Shut up,” she groaned.

I wondered what they were talking about since even Talbott’s lips twitched in a slight smile. But in the next second he sheathed his weapon and scooped Lilly into his arms.

“Avalon and Mimi?” Sylvia asked. She swiped a few things off a table near the head of the bed and shoved them into her deep pockets. I assumed were medical necessities for Lilly.

“I can’t get him through our connection,” Eden growled. “Radio silence or something. They were on their way to find Angelica when we parted ways.”

We followed Kiran and Eden out into the hallway again, checking every direction for more of Terletov’s henchmen. The corridors were empty though and so O and I followed them down the stairs, moving as quickly as we could to keep up.

“Is there a contingency plan?” Sylvia pressed

“No,” Kiran shook his head vehemently. “Maybe… I’m not sure. The Citadel is supposed to be impenetrable.”

“Do you want to go by the courtroom or take the dungeons?” Talbott asked once we reached the main floor.

The Throne room was somewhere to our right, and on our left the hallway stretched out to the front entrance of the ancient building.

“Where is everybody?” Eden asked in hushed whisper.

“Waiting for you,” Dmitri Terletov’s satisfied call drifted down the hallway. As if on cue he stepped out of the Throne room and waved a melodramatic hand for us to enter.

I shook my head. “No, thank you.”

His cold eyes narrowed but a cruel smile warped his mouth in a way that was completely unnatural. “Well, you don’t all have to join me,” he told us without trying to hide his amusement. “I would just like you, my Olivia. Oh, and that darling Queen of yours.” His smile widened and I could feel the tension radiating off every single one of us. Nothing could make us go in that room. Well, nothing until he tilted his head and one of his armed men stepped into the hallway holding Amelia at gunpoint. “Oh, what the hell, why don’t you all just join me. I’m sure I can find something to do with a couple Kings and their servants.”

“Fine,” Eden sighed dramatically. “Thank you for the invitation.” She began marching toward Terletov with a stubborn nose lifted in the air.

Kiran muffled a laugh and I whipped my head around unable to find this remotely humorous.

“Don’t worry,” Kiran whispered. He stepped closer to O and me and waggled his eyebrows. “It never works out for them when they piss Eden off.”

“So, she’ll get us out of this?” My voice filled with quiet desperation relaxed a little at his unspoken promise.

“More likely she’ll blow us all up.” Kiran grinned and glided after her.

I gaped after him because he did not seem at all concerned. Talbott followed him on a long sigh, Lilly still draped in his arms.

Sylvia went next, but at least she offered some encouragement. “Eden might not be able to get us out of this, girls, but Kiran and Avalon will.”

“Tut, tut, Olivia. In you go,” Terletov gestured again. “And do bring your lovely sister with you.”

I looked down at O and felt the sickening clench of anxiety tighten my stomach. My sister just recovered, just woke up and I was now forced to walk her back into the lion’s den? This did not feel right.

My mind rejected the idea of following any order Terletov gave and my body vehemently overruled the idea of willingly walking into danger without Jericho by my side.

Jericho.

Where was he?

Chapter Twenty-Three

Jericho

“Son,” my dad greeted me as soon as I stepped out of the cab onto the slate driveway of my parent’s Rio estate.

The foothills of the mountains seemed to begin just behind my parents sprawling, modern home and the thick, tropical air wrapped around my skin, pressing down heavily with its humid thickness.

“Dad,” I replied without hiding my irritation. I hated traveling commercial; it was painfully slow and I’d just spent the last fifteen hours wasting time in filthy plane terminals, surrounded by sweating, angry humans and trying to pretend first class was something to celebrate. I hated customs more than all of that, especially when I didn’t have a passport handy and the fact that I didn’t have a hanger full of vehicles to choose from. When I arrived I was forced into grabbing a cab icing the final layer of this shitty-day cake.

Alright, I knew this behavior and my attitude were wholly unacceptable. Normally all of those things wouldn’t have been so bad except I added the weight of knowing my mom and the former Queen were in danger and I’d sent Liv off to Romania without me.

“Are you alone?” he asked.

“I have a team coming. They should arrive within the half hour.”

“Let’s go inside, there are a few things we need to discuss before they join you.”

He turned around without another word, leaving me to follow after him. My father looked every bit the politician he’d spent his life fighting to be. Sleeked-back, dark brown hair with just the hint of gray highlighted his age at the temples and streaked to the back of his head. His frame hadn’t deteriorated at all, despite his almost four hundred years; he still stood tall, coiled with muscle and an arrogance that could only be born from a position that terrified most others. His usually bronzed skin was the only indicator that he felt concerned for my mom. He looked pale and sickly flushed at the same time, almost like he could lapse into shock at any moment.

He pushed open the carved walnut door that represented my childhood and a lifetime of memories that should belong to someone else. Stepping inside my home I felt like a stranger here. I did not belong.

Somewhere in my teenage years my ideals and beliefs separated from my parents’ ingrained philosophies. I began to think for myself. I began to see the world through moral, equalized, compassionate lenses, shucking the prejudiced elitism my dad expected to instill in me.

The home I walked into had some good memories, but they were overshadowed by the tone of what my Kingdom used to be and the people my parents still were.

I did not like being back here.

And I did not like spending time with my father.

The few seconds we’d shared in each other’s presence only solidified that we had nothing in common. I didn’t celebrate that there was nothing of a relationship between us anymore, but I knew our individual isolation was necessary.

Until he realized that his racism and genocidal tendencies were wrong, there was nothing I could do for him, and even less that I wanted from him.

In the sunken living room, he gestured to a comfortable leather chair. I sunk down, exhausted from the last few days and my recent travel. I used my Magic to dispel the jet lag and bone-deep fatigue, but I felt it still hovering on my edges, threatening to sweep over me like a tsunami.

It didn’t help that Olivia was so far away, with her Magic closely at her side. I wanted her Magic.

Needed it.

Craved it.

Or rather… craved her.

Separating from her had been harder than I could imagine and I was more than anxious to get back to her. Even though our Magic hadn’t entirely split apart, despite our distance, something didn’t feel right about the connection. I wanted to get back to her as quickly as I could and fix that.

I wanted to do more than connect our Magic.

It was time for us to have a conversation. Time for me to lay down the law.

Or at least make a case why we could work out as a real, devoted couple.

“Tell me what happened.” My father stood before me, in tailored pants and a pressed oxford that had been unbuttoned at the collar. His tie was notably missing. He looked… stressed out. It was strange for me to see him this way.

His mossy green eyes came to rest on me and something ominous flashed in their depths. “I have never understood the Monarchy you support.”

This did not sound good.

He continued, “You murdered a King and overthrew a government that thrived for centuries. And you did it all on the whim of children.”

My hands gripped the arm rests of the chair I sat in, my fingers digging into the soft leather, scratching at the smooth fabric. “I did not come here to listen to another lecture on how Lucan deserved more. He was a tyrant. He killed at will. He was actively involved in eradicating an entire race of people.”
My father snorted, “People… hardly.”

“Where is mom? Where is Analisa?”

“Do you know what a good politician does, Jericho? You’ve so readily accepted your role in the new regime that I have to assume you’re equally ready to become the politician you portray. But underneath the pomp, the circumstance, the celebrity of it all… do you know your true purpose?”

I shook my head, too angry to speak.
“A good politician ignores what his people want and gives them what he knows they need.”

My father’s words landed in the room with the lilting cadence of a slogan, but with the depth and destruction of a suicide note.

“That sounds a little bit like civilization rape,” I drawled, hoping beyond anything that he wasn’t serious.

He laughed lightly, like I’d just told a mildly amusing joke. “It is a little bit like that, isn’t it? The masses are stupid, Jericho. They have been since the beginning of time. Sure, there’s intelligence to be found when we weed them out one by one; but as a whole they are ignorant, fickle and easily swayed. They don’t know what they want and they sure as hell don’t know what they need. That’s where we come in.”

“We? As in you and me?”

“You and me, Lucan, any of the Regents… Terletov. Politicians, Jericho.” He paused to survey his opulent house, breathing in the fresh air that drifted through the open windows, even if it was thick with moisture. “We have a responsibility, Jericho. We were born and bred to create countries and influence the future. Is it more important who leads a country or what that country stands for? Of course, you would assume that the two are closely related, and to some degree you would be right. But it is not the people that decide what the leadership believes, rather their leaders that decide what they believe. We tell them what to think and they think it. We tell them what to do and they do it. You are misguided when you think that handing them their free will can accomplish anything but confusion, chaos and delusion.”

“The only one confused is me.” I held onto my patience with a single thread of familial responsibility and nothing else.

“You’ve lost, Jericho. Again. Your Kings and Queens will die within the hour and the Monarchy will once again be placed in capable hands. We struggled for millennia to purify our Magic and within a few short years you and your friends have all but undone our hard work. We will stand for it no more.”

“This is about racism? The Shifters?” I couldn’t help but feel dumbfounded. The core of the Kendrick Monarchy had been about blood purity and racism, I knew that. But with Lucan especially, there had been so many other factors- greed, power, Delia and Justice… The Shape-Shifters were a huge part of Lucan’s ticket, but not more so than his thirst for true Immortality and hunger for power. Even with Terletov, I felt that he had some greater creed to live by. He wasn’t just murdering Shape-Shifters; he was using them, creating a race of super soldiers. Maybe he didn’t want the Magic free, but did his entire rebellion center on racial prejudice?

“Of course this is about those animals!” My father’s eyes darkened with cold, dangerous fury. His entire body seemed to vibrate.

“Are you working with Terletov?” I jumped to my feet and felt the gutting fury rip through me. Up until this moment I had believed it was a possibility but never really suspected my father of this kind of treachery. I knew he had sore feelings when Lucan fell; his pride had been hurt when his title stripped away, but I couldn’t make myself believe he would stoop to this level of depravity.

“Dmitri needed support. And he championed a cause I could stand behind.” My father’s expression became cocky, self-righteous with conviction.

“What have you done?” I demanded, barely recognizing the stripped, gravelly sound to my own voice.

“No more than what you did.” His nose lifted in the air as if he were examining an insect under his polished shoe. “You stopped believing the Monarchy perpetuated your causes and political opinions, so you found a way to propagate them anyway. You didn’t agree with the Monarchy that had been chosen by the people, supported by the people and revered by the people, so you forced a coup and then forced your will. We have used similar tactics with greater results.”

I was now vibrating with anger, my vision doused completely in red. This was the man that raised me? This was the man I called Father?

“You’re sick,” I told him. “You’ve bought into filthy lies and people are dying because of your sadistic illusions.”

“Your right is not better than mine. Your will is not farther reaching than mine. At least not when it comes to the majority. They don’t ask you to feel for them, Son; they simply ask you to think for them. Guilt is left for the weak man, regrets for the loser.”

“The people will fight this.”

“The people will follow whoever sits on the Throne. And the small percentage of the population that would object are being rounded up and used to serve a greater purpose.” He paused and smiled softly. “Most of the population is already on edge with the imbalance. They quake in fear and hide in their homes. They only care about stability, Jericho; not who gives it to them.”

“You will not get away with this,” I told him, feeling like every bad sci-fi movie since the eighties but unable to stop the words. They were true.

Absolutely true.

“I already have,” he taunted.

My mind flashed back to what he said about the Citadel being taken over. Could Eden, Avalon, Amelia and Kiran really be in trouble?

Oh, god, Olivia.

“Maybe the cause you fight for, but your personal aspirations die today.”

“I brought you here to save you.” This time when I met his cold gaze, I could see the traces of sympathy and concern wrinkling his expression. “The Citadel fell an hour ago. I didn’t want you near Romania when it happened.”

Olivia.

She was forefront on my mind. Not even my friends could add to the panic, not when I knew she was in danger.

My father must have noticed my panic because he held a hand out for me, but I stumbled back out of his reach and landed in the leather chair. I felt sick, so sick the room began to spin and a massive headache attacked my frontal lobe.

“It’s better that you’re here,” my father intoned with the same concrete authority he’d used my entire life. He spoke in facts, not suggestions.

“And Mom?”

“She’s alright,” he told me with a heavy sigh. “She’s with Analisa, that part was at least true. But they’re not in danger. At least not yet.”

“What do you mean not yet?”

“I need you to cooperate,” he shrugged as if that were obvious.

“So you would hold your own wife ransom if it meant I would concede to your will?”

“You are my son.”

“Not anymore.” I pushed to my feet and decided to call his bluff. My mind spun at a thousand miles an hours. Olivia. My mom. Analisa. The Citadel. My friends. Where do I start?

“Don’t make me do something we will both regret,” he warned. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a set of handcuffs. “I’ve been a generous father so far. I’ve let you act out your youthful rebellion and go off to sow your oats. But this ends now. It’s time to claim your place in this family and start doing what’s right.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. I expected an epic battle between the two of us, but I had overlooked the most important fact of our entire altercation. My father was a politician. He’d been one his entire life.

And he came from a Monarchy that only allowed their Guards to fight.

He had been constantly comparing us since I arrived: both of us politicians, both of us fighting for a cause we believed in by playing games and working for kings.

But there was a very important point he’d overlooked.

While he, in his own words, was born and bred a statesman, an aristocrat with the ability to sway masses and follow royal orders. He’s sat behind a desk or in front of a crowd his entire life. He threw money at causes and funded uprisings.

But he had never really fought for what he believed in.

Not once.

On the other hand, my training was born on a battlefield, my position gained and secured through blood, sweat and loss.

I wasn’t a politician. I was a soldier.

And I knew how to fight for what I wanted.

When I finally engaged my father, it was pathetically easy. All my life I had this image of him of being something he wasn’t. I had believed that he was strong, relentless… ruthless.

But in the end he was weak.

And I took his Magic before he put up much of a fight.

I started pulling on a force that had been with me since birth. I didn’t have the ability to sense other people’s Magic, but there were certain energy fields that would always be familiar to me, like my parents.

It nearly killed me to watch him realize what I was doing. His dark eyes grew big, his mouth twisted first with frustration then with painful realization. The handcuffs dropped to the floor, clattering against the polished wood.

He tried to talk to me, but the effort to hold onto his Magic kept his words from anything more than grunts and curses.

He fell to one knee and I nearly lost my resolve. His hulking, towering frame rattled with the effort to stay upright and then he jerked to one knee like Goliath before David. I sucked in a steadying breath and continued to pull.

His arm reached out to me, pleading, begging me to stop, but I couldn’t. I was beyond sympathy and compassion. This wasn’t exactly what he deserved; I couldn’t be the judge of that. It wasn’t my place. But this was what he had brought our relationship to.

If I didn’t stop him, then he would stop me.

The most frustrating part was that this was so unnecessary. He could have retired with grace. He could have stayed here and lived out the end of his life in a satisfying way.

But he couldn’t stay out of it.

He couldn’t even keep his racism and prejudice to himself. Instead, he had to join up with the worst kind of evil and plot and plan until it was impossible to forgive him, or save him.

He was beyond me, in the same kind of way I had to assume I was beyond him.

The tables could easily be switched and I could be lying on the ground, grasping for breath, clutching at my chest, cursing my own blood, but he underestimated me.

To his own peril.

“This is where we’re different, Dad,” I knelt down when the last of his Magic had been absorbed into mine. My body felt heavy with grief and my heart cracked open from the job I just completed. “We might both be statesmen, but I wasn’t born this way. I became what I am today through combat, through blood. You’re a politician. I’m a warrior.”

He was on all fours, barely able to hold the weight of his body. His labored breathing came out in ragged gasps; his limbs trembled with the effort to sustain his hulking, weakened frame. When he lifted his usually perfectly groomed head, his hair was wild and his eyes panicked and pale.

“You’re too late,” he wheezed with a sinister smile. “Terletov has the Citadel.”

The weight pressing against my back tripled at his words. So worried about his schemes and evil deeds, he couldn’t care less about what was happening between us.

Obviously, we grew apart over the last several years. Even before Lucan fell, we’d parted ways. I couldn’t support him while I fought for a new regime. Yet, in all these years, I tried to persuade him to see truth, to see justice.

And in that same amount of time he’d tried to convince me of the opposite. But never before had I realized the extent of his prejudice or how deep his belief system went.

“I’ve fought for that Citadel before,” I growled in pure frustration. “Terletov won’t be able to hold it. Not for long.”

“Your gaze is too narrow,” he gasped. “You don’t see the larger plan.”

“Dad.” My voice sounded hauntingly sad, even to my own ears. “You’re going to die. Doesn’t that mean something to you?”

“I fought for a good cause.” He shook his head as if agreeing with himself. “I did my part. There is nothing else that matters to me.”

“Not even me?” I asked because I couldn’t stop myself.

A weak laugh fell out of him and he collapsed onto the ground. With all the energy he had left he rolled over and held his hands to his rattling chest.

“You failed me since the moment you were born,” he confessed. “I wanted a strong son. I wanted a son that would carry out my legacy and serve his family with honor. Instead…” he sucked in a tortured breath. “Instead, I got you.”

Those words should have shattered me. That deathbed confession should have splintered me into a million insecure, disappointed, fragmented pieces.

Instead, I felt empowered.

“And I got you,” I growled before I took the last bit of Magic he owned. There was nothing left of him. Now he was the shallow shell he’d tried to make me into with his words.

His body contracted violently with the loss of life in his blood. His back arched awkwardly and his limbs bent in stiff, tightened angles. His face contorted with pain but he didn’t look at me. He kept his stare fixated on anything in the room but me.

And I felt… nothing.

Not yet, anyway.

Shock, possibly. But maybe there weren’t any lingering emotions to feel. Maybe whatever familial connection we shared had been severed years ago.

Maybe we had always been fighting on opposite sides of the war. No, not maybe. Definitely.

There would be sorrow that came later, there would be pain and grief; I knew that. But right now I just needed to get to Olivia. I could deal with the rest later.

“He’ll kill me,” my dad rasped when I moved to leave him.

“Maybe not,” I shrugged. “I’ve heard he has all these new techniques for exchanging Magic.”

“He won’t…” His voice was nothing more than a strangled whisper. “I’ve let him down.”

“Then at least you’ll die for the cause you believe in,” I called over my shoulder.

Outside of the house, I could finally breathe again. I leaned against the siding and rubbed my hands against my face. Holy shit, what a day.

The air was cleaner out here and I sucked it in with gulping breaths. My dad. My freaking dad betrayed me.

And all this time…

No, now wasn’t the time to worry about this.

I walked to the end of the driveway, thinking I would have to grab a cab. My parents would have cars in their garages, but I just couldn’t bring myself to take something of theirs.

Not ever again.

A cab would be a little difficult to find this far from the civilization though. The estate wasn’t exactly close to city limits.

Turned out I didn’t need to worry about any of that. Just as I reached the end of the driveway, Sebastian pulled up in a sleek, black Hummer, containing the team I’d sent for.

This was the first thing to go right in days, maybe weeks.

Xander rolled down the window in the front passenger’s seat and cocked an eyebrow at me, “What’s going on?”

Where to even start, “The Citadel fell. Terletov took it over an hour ago.”

I felt the atmosphere in the Hummer shift dramatically as the information rolled over them like an ocean wave.

Sebastian leaned forward and demanded, “What are we doing here?”

“This wasn’t meant for you guys.” I shrugged, trying to keep my anger in check. “My dad used this to get me out of there. He didn’t know I would call you in.”

“Analisa? Your mom?”

“They’re taken,” I confirmed. “But I don’t know where.” I glanced back at the house, wondering if he would give me that information if I asked… or applied pressure.

I shook my head, knowing he wouldn’t.

“So what do you want to do?” he pressed. “Go after them or back to the Citadel?”

“Is there really a choice?” I pulled open the back door and Seraphina and Roxie scooted over so I could jump in. “I don’t know where to start with Analisa. I’m not sure my mom is in any danger. But I know where to find Olivia.”

“Olivia?” Sebastian snapped.

“We’re good, Dude,” I told him. “Now get me back to her.”

“And your Kings and Queens, right?” Xavier didn’t even try to hide his amusement.

“Sure, them too.”

“This is going to be a hell of a fight,” Sebastian sighed. “But I guess your dad did us a favor in getting us out of there, yeah?”

I didn’t even know how to respond to that. Was it a favor? Could we have done something to stop Terletov? Or was the Citadel changing hands inevitable?

I wondered if I could trust his information to begin with, but when we tried getting in touch with anyone that should be inside, we were all unsuccessful. The faint tether to Olivia’s Magic I held seemed to weaken and strain with every passing moment.

My father hadn’t lied about the Romanian castle.

But had he also saved me? Had he also given me an opportunity to save those inside?

I didn’t- couldn’t- believe that he did it on purpose. But Sebastian was right; we were the only hope now.

“We need to prioritize,” Xander spoke up. “We don’t know how many men he has, we’ve never known. But I don’t think it’s a small number if he took the castle.”

“So it’s more important we get people out then try to take the Citadel back,” Roxie agreed.

“How did he even get in?” Seraphina practically glittered with anger. I had always held a fair amount of doubts for that girl, but it was moments like this when she seemed as dedicated to this cause as any of us.

“The tunnel?” Xavier guessed.

We sat in silence because none of us could answer her question.

“How are we going to get in?” Roxie asked the more important question.

“The same way we always do,” I answered, grinning. At least I knew that we couldn’t be stopped. Breaking into and out of the Citadel was basically like breathing for all of us.

Terletov had no idea what he was up against.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Olivia

That horrified screaming sound… that couldn’t be me, could it?

Could it?

But then my lungs felt the ungodly burning and fissures of pain pierced and stabbed at every nerve ending. As consciousness slowly seeped back into my addled brain, I realized my body convulsed on the ground like an out-of-water fish and my mouth was wrenched open to allow for the deafening shrieks that were falling out of me.

The pain lessoned just a smidge and I forced my body into submission.

It was one thing to be tortured.

Another thing entirely to act like a total wuss about it.

I would not scream again. I wouldn’t.

That resolve lasted for all of two seconds before the sword cut into my side again.

“Stop!” Eden screamed over me. “Stop hurting her!”

Over the last few weeks I’d seen the damage one of these Immortal swords could do to someone. With even a small prick, their Immortal bodies were helpless against the damage. Lilly was a perfect example of how one small cut could mean life or death.

Except when it came to me.

The special bonding that Terletov had forced on me confirmed all my doubts that the Magic was reversible. And he kept slicing me open just to prove his freaking point.

I was getting sick and tired of it.

The blade slowly slid out of my kidneys- maybe… kidney-ish area- and my hands flew to the rapidly healing wound. My blood vehemently rejected the idea that Magic would leave my body and decided to punish me for the effort.

“Do you see now?” Terletov’s malicious voice called out over me. I rolled to my back with my hands still pressed against my agonized flesh so I could see his face hover above me. A droplet of sweat rolled down his forehead to the tip of his nose before jumping off to splat in the crevice of my neck.

Ick.

“What a gigantic douche you are?” I wheezed. “Yes, we all see.”

He kicked me in my wounded side and I gritted my teeth so hard I expected them to all crack down the center.

But I did not scream.

“Do you see now what I will do if you do not comply?” he snarled at Eden. “Give me my Magic back so that I can stop this.”

“No!” I shouted, determined to be the biggest pain in the ass I could be.

We’d been here for hours. The Castle had been divided into those Terletov wanted to manipulate and those he needed to control. All of Jericho’s friends stood against a wall, facing me. They were held at sword point, beaten to some degree and looking a little bit nervous.

The tension in the room had broken just a little bit after Terletov initially stabbed me with the sword. I thought they all assumed I would die. Eden’s blue smoke had immediately surrounded me until I was both choking on the heaviness and sucking it in for comfort.

After repeated target practice on all my major organs though, the room had relaxed… a little. I wouldn’t die, so that was good. But I would be forced to suffer unending pain in front of them.

I hadn’t been his first choice, but it seemed the rest of the group was more than willing to die for their cause- although most of them couldn’t die either.

Kiran, Eden, Amelia and Avalon all shared some unbreakable Magic that was just as strong as mine. Lilly was worthless to Terletov and seemed already on the brink of death. Talbott had eagerly expressed that if Lilly were to die, he would be more than happy to follow her. Angelica and Titus were more than willing to volunteer as martyrs. And Sylvia and Ophelia had been held back as a last resort. Terletov’s evil stare had flickered to my sister a few times, but I had a feeling he would use me to my full potential before he started in on my sister.

Plus, I think over the last week, I’d pissed him off the most.

I wanted to explain to him that these people didn’t really know me and could probably care less, but Eden’s agonized scream made me second guess that statement.

Besides, I wasn’t exactly in a place where I could speak at the moment- you know, with the constant gasping for breath and whimpering going on.

“I can’t give you your Magic back!” Eden screamed at him. “That’s not how it works!”

“Eden,” Kiran bit out. “Enough.”

Terletov stepped over me, hardly acknowledging my presence prostrate before him. His shiny, polished shoes took careful steps to Eden. As soon as he was close enough, he placed a hand around her throat. She didn’t flinch and she didn’t react, she just left her hands at her side and shot Kiran a warning glance.

“How does it work then?” Terletov’s voice was grating fingernails against a chalkboard, sharp as razors.

“Let them go, and I will give it to you.”

“I’m not letting them go,” Terletov laughed. “Do you see what I’ve done? Do you see how  easily I’ve taken your precious Citadel?” He looked around while maintaining his grip on Eden’s delicate neck. “Do you know that we’ve needed a permanent place for a while? Your hunting parties seem very adept at finding us just minutes too late. We had to stop risking that, being found while we were in the middle of our… experiments. We need a stable place to set up our research facilities. And this will do quite nicely.” I could see his mouth tip up into a satisfied smirk from my position on the floor. “So no, your people will not be going anywhere. In fifteen minutes, in fact, you will prepare a statement to your Kingdom and advise them of the change in leadership.”

“It’s the middle of the night,” Kiran drawled. “I doubt anyone will be paying attention.”

This seemed to frustrate Terletov more than anything else that had happened since we were herded in here. He released Eden with a mighty shove and she slammed against the stone wall before she could get control of her body. Her head smacked against the hard surface and her hands flew to her stomach protectively.

Kiran reacted before I could suck in a surprised gasp. He attacked Terletov with his bare hands, tackling him to the ground. Terletov’s nose broke open with a satisfying crunch of bones underneath Kiran’s fist. Kiran continued to pummel Terletov’s face even when the monster pulled the sword and sunk it into Kiran’s side.

Kiran barely seemed to notice, his fists never slowed down, his aggression never weakened.

“You don’t touch my wife,” he screamed in his enemy’s face.

Eventually Terletov’s men intervened and pulled Kiran back- it took no less than seven armed men.

Terletov stood up slowly and brushed the fight from his trousers as if they were stray crumbs. I cringed at the blood flowing freely from his face, even as he began to heal in front of my eyes.

I stole a glance at O and noticed she was leaned against Sylvia as if she were on the verge of fainting. I felt bad that this was the day she decided to wake up.

I was glad she was conscious again, but what a welcome. Yeesh.

After patting at his face with a handkerchief, Terletov took several moments to calm down.

“Your father would be so disappointed in you,” he spit out. “Look at you. Look at you defend her. You’re nothing but a lapdog to traitors of the Crown.” Avalon took a step forward at this and Amelia tugged on his arm, anxious to hold him back. “Do you know that he and I worked together to capture her? Did you know that he invited me to that dinner specifically to take her out of here?” I didn’t exactly follow what they were talking about, but I struggled to sit up and listen. “He wanted her gone, away from you. He saw how she was destroying the Kingdom he fought for, fought to keep, fought to strengthen. And he wanted her to disappear.”

“He didn’t approve of you either,” Eden hissed. “And you didn’t approve of him. I remember that you were disappointed with his weakness.”

Terletov chuckled and nodded easily, “Yes, that is true. But the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.”

“Is that why he let you go?” Kiran laughed bitterly. “We’ve thought you escaped this whole time.”

“Of course he let me go. Why would he keep me? I carried out his plan.”

“Almost,” Eden reminded him gently. “You almost carried out his plan.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Terletov growled. I had to assume that Lucan’s plan had been to kill Eden, or something, from the soft taunting way she reminded him that she was still very much alive. “I’ve done something he couldn’t. The Kingdom is now mine, the Citadel is now mine and soon my own Magic will be mine. There will be no end then. We will eradicate the Shifter problem for good and by doing so we will create as many of these super Immortals as I want to.”

“Immortal humans,” I panted on the way to my feet.

“What?” he snapped, returning his attention to me with no small amount of reluctance.

“We’re Immortal humans,” I explained patiently. “Not super Immortals. That sounds stupid.”

The Throne room held at least thirty of Terletov’s men and only eleven of us and Lilly didn’t count. It was hard to see a way out of this and still my thoughts drifted to Jericho. He would come back eventually, and then what? Would he walk in here, right into their trap? Would he fight to save me?

What if he didn’t?

Or what if he did and didn’t make it?

He wasn’t like the rest of us in the room. The four members of royalty were the True Immortals, Jericho explained before and I didn’t think Ophelia was in much danger of losing her life either.

But Jericho didn’t have that forever guarantee.

He could die.

“Make that up on your own, did you?” Terletov leered at me.

I was standing now, pressed against a stone wall for support. I could feel my body rapidly heeling, but I couldn’t stand by myself yet. My limbs shook, my spine wanted to crumble in on itself and my brain wasn’t quite working at full speed yet.

Every once in a while a flash of pain would vibrate through my body so violently that my vision would black out for just a moment. This sucked.

“Er, the Gypsy lady,” I told him. It felt strange calling her a “queen” in front of Terletov. I couldn’t exactly place my hesitation, except that maybe I hoped to protect her by not associating with a title Terletov would covet. Not that he wanted to be a queen… but the royalty moniker in general.

“Ileana?” he laughed at me. “They took you to see the ancient Gypsy?”

“No,” I said honestly. “She came to see me.”

“And what did she say to you?” he demanded. “Tell me what she said.”

Okay, so Jericho and his friends weren’t the only ones that took her “prophecy” seriously. “Riddles mostly. I didn’t understand what she was talking about.”

“Don’t lie, Olivia,” he growled at me. “I do not forgive liars.”

“Well, maybe this will make sense to you then,” I snapped because I was actually being truthful with him. “She told me not to fall in love with Sebastian. We talked about The Twelfth Night; you know, the Shakespeare play. And then she called me an Immortal human and Ophelia a human Immortal. So there you go, you can figure it out.”

“Sebastian is who Olivia falls in love with in the play,” Terletov pointed out.

“Duh.” I know, real mature.

“She is… strange,” he finally conceded.

“I know.”

“Where is Sebastian Cartier?” Terletov’s shrewd gaze swung to the royalty pressed together on the other wall like a criminal line up.

“He went out for a bit. We were out of milk,” Eden answered with a straight face.

Before Terletov’s head could explode, a knock on the door pulled his attention. One of his slightly greenish men opened the door and gestured for him to join him in the hall. Terletov looked us over for another moment and then marched from the room.

I instantly relaxed against the wall I had propped myself on. It wasn’t that we were alone now; the aggressive guard stood carefully on watch all around us. But Terletov’s energy was especially insidious and I couldn’t help but breathe easier with his absence.

I met my sister’s gaze across the room and gave her a reassuring smile. She lifted her eyebrows until they disappeared behind her swooping blonde bangs. Sylvia put her arm around O and that seemed to relax her some, but not much.

Kiran and Eden whispering to each other drew my attention back to them and I watched silently while they seemed to form some kind of plan. Eden lifted her eyes and met my curious stare.

She mouthed, “On three,” and then looked pointedly at the men that were holding swords and guns. When she returned her focus to me, she mouthed, “Don’t get hit.” And then made a gun with her fingers.

Right, don’t get shot. It didn’t matter what kind of Immortal you were, those bullets put you down for the count. I could at least be positive I was not entirely immune to those.

Eden gave everyone a meaningful glance and the same instructions. I pushed off the wall and readied my broken body for a fight, ignoring my various aches and pains. This might be our only shot to get out of here.

Her fingers tapped against her jeans. One. Two. Three.

The color blue exploded out of her like a thousand indigo smoke bombs at once, dousing the room in hazy darkness. I inhaled the healing power of the smoke I did not understand but chose to accept anyway, and went to work.

Guns started going off in every direction, so I dropped to the floor and shot my Magic out from down here.

I connected with several pairs of feet, and sent them slipping backwards like they’d just stepped on an electrical banana peel. Once they were down, I could kind of make them out because the smoke was thinner down here.

I launched myself at the guy nearest me and went to work clawing at his face with my short fingernails and injecting him with as much Magic as I could. He had a gun in his hands that we started wrestling for. I couldn’t let him get another shot off.

We were grunting at each other, ripping and punching, our bodies slapped against the hard floor and every once in a while, the hard metal of the gun would connect with a sharp smacking sound against the stone. Similar struggles happened everywhere around us and nobody could tell which side was winning.

A gun went off, followed by a sharp shriek and then the sound of a body dropping to the ground. Another infusion of blue smoke darkened the room again and I had to assume helped whoever had taken the bullet.

It was impossible to stay hurt with all the smoke around us, which was both good for us, but also bad because we couldn’t get the upper hand on the guys who held all the weapons.

Eden seemed to read my mind because she called out to the room at large, “You have two seconds to get the upper hand and then I’m taking it back!” With her warning, I leaned down and bit the guy that I was wrestling with on the neck. I had hoped for a vampire like feel, but in reality it was more like a mangy dog with how viciously I grabbed hold of his jugular. Eden called out, “One! Two!”

I tasted blood on the guy’s skin and then the smoke disappeared. The guy beneath me let go of the gun, surprised by my savage attack. I turned it on him as quickly as I could and unloaded two shots right into his chest.

He fell limp immediately and I looked up just in time to fire my gun again- straight into the crotch of another bad guy.

Oops.

I hadn’t really meant to be so cruel, but it just happened to be at my eye level.

The door opened right as we were in the middle of the melee and I turned my gun to shoot whoever walked through the door. As soon as the body appeared I planned on unloading the rest of the clip as fast as I could. I didn’t know what was left in the weapon, but whatever was there would find its way to Terletov’s chest.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man raising his sword to bring it down on me, but I forced myself to stay focused on the door.

In just another second…

Jericho.

Oh my goodness, it was Jericho.

I swiveled around and shot at the man just three inches from me. His sword was raised over his head and I could feel the heat of the blade as it arced down toward me. I fired the gun at his abdomen and threw myself backwards. I didn’t quite escape the sweep of the sword tip and it sliced open my own stomach as the bullet ripped a hole through his. He dropped to the ground and I cursed at the horrifying pain.

I fought against the blinding agony and pushed to my feet, swaying only once I’d gotten all the way up. I swallowed back the nausea and then opened my eyes just in time to fight off another attacker.

The room was mass chaos, blood, gore and Magic seemed to be leaking everywhere. My gaze swung wildly around after laying out another henchman who trained his gun on me. Bullets whizzed around me and everywhere I turned it seemed I had to dodge another sword.

My sister pressed into the corner, covering Sylvia with her small body. They appeared to be going unnoticed so far, but I couldn’t imagine it would stay that way for long.

Swinging back the other way I found Jericho just a few feet away from me, fighting off three other bad guys. The room had filled with his team, all come to save the day.

Sebastian, Xander, Xavier, Seraphina and Roxie all expanded our ranks with some serious fire power and some even worse attitude. They were on a mission.

“Where’s Terletov!” I heard Avalon shout at the newcomers.

“Xander has Alexi!” Jericho called back with a casual shrug of his shoulders. “The diversion won’t last forever! We should probably get going!”

“You lead!” Avalon commanded him.

“Get me Sylvia and Ophelia first.” Jericho’s gaze met mine and he lifted his eyebrows in this cocky way that made me feel silly for doubting where he’d been or his ability to save us. Of course, he would come.

And of course he would put my sister first.

That was just the kind of good guy he was.

I gave him a smile and then mouthed, “We need to talk.”

“I know,” he mouthed back across the fray.

And he did know. I could feel it.

Part of me couldn’t believe I hadn’t realized he was back at the castle the moment he got here. His Magic was everywhere around mine, completely solidified inside and outside of mine as a combined entity.

We were united.

We didn’t need marriage, or sex or even more than a few hot make-out sessions. The intensity of our feelings for each other was so strong that we had come together in this perfect connection naturally. And as I gazed into his brightly lit green eyes from across the bedlam between us, I knew…

I loved him.

I did.

I had been falling in love with him for so long now that I hadn’t even noticed I was already gone.

He had saved me. And not just from acute peril, but from myself.

I had been alive, but not really living. I had been going forward but without direction. My goals were nothing more than markers to measure progress, but there had been no feeling behind them, there had been no passion.

Jericho had given me all of that: life, purpose… a future.

I hadn’t known if I wanted this world, or how I would live out this endless existence and give up my humanity. But that wasn’t the point.

None of that was important because no matter what happened beyond this moment, I didn’t want to do it, or be it, or live it without Jericho.

Whatever he was, I wanted to be. Wherever he went, I wanted to go. And that was it. That was the simplicity of love.

But it was everything to me.

Except that this was the absolutely worst place to have this epiphany.

Good thing, Jericho could cover for me.

He appeared in front of me with a knowing half-smile and held out his hand to me. “Ready, Liv?”

His words pressed down on me as more significant than even this life or death moment. “Ready.”

“Then let’s go,” he ordered gruffly. “And when we’re safe, we’re finally going to have that talk.”

“Yes, sir.” Okay, just because I loved him, didn’t mean I had to stop being a smart ass.

His smile grew, “Introduce me to your sister so she’ll trust me, you mouthy wench.”

Mouthy wench? Brat. Still, I was smiling. I then realized that O was next to us, shaking from fear and hugging Sylvia. The battle raged around us.

I had to shout to be heard, “O, this is Jericho! Jericho, this is my sister Ophelia!”

“I’m her boyfriend,” Jericho explained as if this was the place to come up with titles.

“Your boyfriend?” O cocked her head back, completely surprised by the news.

“I told you there was a boy,” I grinned at her.

She looked up and down Jericho’s restless frame. He stood before us in all his coiled muscle, tussled hair, chiseled face and overall sexy glory. She shook her head and then looked back at me as if she didn’t understand how someone that good looking could be a real person.

Shaking herself out of it, she said, “Get us out of here alive, and you can have my approval.”

Jericho shot her a devastating grin. “That’s the plan.”

And then he moved into action. His team surrounded us as if they had this exactly planned out and cleared a path to the exit. More gunshots and swords clashing sounded out behind us, but Jericho was pushing us through the door before I could turn around and assess the damage.

Out in the hallway was more fighting chaos. It seemed some of the Titan Guard had been freed and there were more of Terletov’s henchman to create quite the battle.

“This way.” Jericho took off, jogging through the darkened corridors as if he knew exactly where we were going. Which he probably did. He got on a radio and shouted some instructions to Xander, but then tucked it away and focused on where to lead us.

After a few fast turns we seemed to be descending into the castle instead of finding a way out. I forced myself to trust Jericho and his friends, even while nerves continued to prick at my neck and arms.

“Where’s Eden and Kiran?” Jericho suddenly growled when we’d rounded yet another turn and stood before a set of stairs that led downward.

Avalon seemed to think really hard about this, like really hard. He stopped in the middle of the hallway and didn’t say anything, but everybody seemed to be waiting on his answer.

Finally, he looked up with a horror-stricken face. “They were detained.”

“What do you mean, detained?” Sebastian snapped.

“The Guard fell,” Avalon quickly explained. “There weren’t enough of them. They… he… he stopped them.” A string of curses came next and then he shook his head violently. “They want us to go on. He’s… Terletov’s found out about the babies, but Eden’s promised him his Magic back.”

More cursing spewed from all the men and most of the women around me.

“They want us to go on,” Avalon kept explaining.

There was a way he was communicating with Eden or Kiran right now, that was obvious. I just didn’t understand how they were talking. Although at this point, it didn’t really matter. I was far enough into this world, that I knew how often the impossible happened.

“No,” Sebastian said vehemently. “We’re not leaving them behind.”

“They have a plan,” Avalon growled. “And they cannot be killed.”

“That does not mean we abandon them!” Sebastian shouted back.

Everyone looked around frantically, waiting for us to be found. But it had been quiet for a while as we descended into the bowels of the castle. I had a feeling that Terletov and his men didn’t know about this section we were traveling and it gave me hope that this was a way out.

“Bastion,” Seraphina said softly. “Avalon will always know what’s going on. We won’t go far. If they need us to come back for them, we will.”

Seraphina’s words seemed to frustrate Sebastian more than anything and he let out an angry growl. But after a few moments he settled down and turned to Jericho. With a sarcastic but trusting tone to his voice, he asked, “And what do you think, General?”

Jericho looked at me and then Ophelia, his eyes lingered on Sylvia, and then Angelica before finally landing on Talbott and Lilly. When he looked back to Sebastian, his shoulders sagged and I could feel the defeat rolling through his Magic.

“We have to go, Sebastian.” His voice was a harsh rasp that dipped so low it vibrated through my chest. “We’re too vulnerable. We have to get these people to safety.” He paused and rubbed his hands over his face. When his hand fell to a side, I snatched it quickly, squeezing it to give him strength. He looked down at our joined fingers and he took a deep reassuring breath. “Seraphina’s right. We’ll stay close until we know for sure that they’re safe. There’s nothing else we can do at this point.”

Sebastian shook his head, but his shoulders sagged, resigned. “Fine,” he snarled. “Fine, we’ll go.”

And then we went.

We continued down into the depths of the castle. Eventually the lights dimmed and then disappeared and we used our Magic to light the way.

At one point there was discussion to whether we had to suppress our Magic all together, which I didn’t totally understand. It was decided, via Avalon and his conversation with Eden, that Terletov’s men weren’t actively looking for us since they had Eden and Kiran and so we continued on in the same way.

The passageway eventually narrowed out until we had to squeeze by single file. I never once let go of Jericho’s hand, letting him pull me along, holding my absolute trust. My sister was behind me and I held her hand too, until we came to the ladder.

Sebastian and Avalon opened a panel in the floor. I couldn’t see past the heads in front of me, but basically it looked like a black hole.

It terrified the hell out of me.

But one by one, our group descended down into it. When it was my turn, I realized there was a ladder connected to the floor that I was supposed to take down.

“Use your Magic,” Jericho whispered. “There’s only dirt at the bottom. You’ll be safe and I’m right behind you.”

I swallowed but obeyed. My fingers grasped cold, flaking metal and I carefully put one foot on the thin, rounded rungs, before stepping down with my other foot.

Knowing I could live forever and survive anything was different than actually believing it. I couldn’t trust that I was fine. I couldn’t mentally comprehend that death wouldn’t be at the bottom of this endless ladder if I fell backwards.

I was too conditioned to be human.

Maybe one day I would adapt some kind of reckless mindset that would allow me to be hopelessly fearless, but until then I would grip my safety with all of my strength.

Finally, my foot swept out and hit only air. There wasn’t another rung beneath me. Looking down I could see that I was about five feet from hard dirt and so I let myself drop down. My feet hit the hard ground shooting tingles up my legs, but I made it.

I waited quietly with the others near the edge of another drop off. The rest of our party joined us, Talbott with Lilly over his shoulder, Ophelia, Sylvia and then Jericho. He closed the opening and seemed to put some kind of lock on it.

Once everyone was on the ground, we dropped down from another ledge and began a hike through a dark tunnel.

“This used to be a river,” Jericho whispered to me after we’d walked at least a mile.

“Really?” I looked around and decided that made sense. The stone walls were perfectly smooth underneath an obvious waterline. “What happened?”

“Eden and Kiran happened,” he said cryptically, but he was smiling.

“Terletov doesn’t know about this exit?”

Jericho shook his head and a few others laughed softly.

Avalon turned around and with a hint of a smile said, “This is for Resistance members only.”

I only vaguely knew what the Resistance was and his answer didn’t make sense to me. He made even less sense to me when he touched his finger to the soft place behind his ear and his skin lit up in the form of a small tattoo.

Everyone else seemed to really like this though and they all- well, except for Sylvia, Ophelia and Lilly who was still unconscious- lit up similar tattoos in the same place. Even Angelica beamed when she showed of the small circular snake that lit up under her ear.

“Jericho,” Seraphina taunted. “You’re going to have to get your girl a tattoo. She doesn’t fit in.”

Jericho smiled back, “And here I thought those days were over.”

Avalon turned around and walked backwards so that his focus was behind us, back at the Castle that we were fleeing. “I thought they were behind us, too.” The mood shifted dramatically again and we were back to the quiet melancholy that was more appropriate. “They’re still fine,” Avalon announced while he pulled Amelia into his body and wrapped an arm around her. “Eden and Kiran are still all right.”

“We’ll get them out,” Jericho promised his King.

“I know,” was Avalon’s short reply.

After another hour of walking, the cavern brightened with natural light. It took me a moment to realize it was the early dawn seeping in through cracks in the rocks ahead of us that enhanced the space and our vision.

O and I silently followed Jericho through a crevice just wide enough to squeeze through. On the other side of the broken boulders, snowy mountains lay before us in every direction. The faint sun peeked through the barren trees and reflected off the crisp, white snow.

The cold hit me in the face with an abrasive strength I wasn’t prepared for and I sent my Magic zinging through my blood in an effort to warm up. Jericho turned toward me while we stood above on the little peak of rocks that we’d come out on. He rubbed his hands up and down my arms, adding his delicious warmth to my skin. His piercing gaze caught mine and he looked into me with such an intensity that I knew beyond a doubt he saw inside me; he saw everything.

“Are you alright?” he murmured in that deep voice that sent shivers down my spine and made my toes curl.

“I’m fine,” I promised. “O’s good and we’re safe.”

“Good.” He tugged me to him and wrapped his arms around me. I gladly laid my cheek on his chest and drank in the soothing sound of his constant heartbeat.

“What about Ry, is he alright?”

“Your family’s still safe. I checked in with the Guard in Chicago right before we landed here. I haven’t heard differently and I think Terletov brought most of his forces here.”

“What about your family?” I asked after I allowed myself to take in a breath of relief.

He hesitated for such a long time that I knew things weren’t okay with them, but he didn’t tense and I didn’t feel anything disturbing in his Magic.

After several minutes of just holding each other, I had given up him answering but then he let out a short breath and said, “They’re taken care of.” I opened my mouth to ask what that meant but he quickly said, “We’ll talk about that later though. It’s a big, long complicated story and I don’t have the energy for it right now.”

The rest of our party had moved off the rocks by now and were discussing which way to go. Apparently there were a few neighboring small towns nearby and depending on which one we traveled to, determined the rest of our journey. It was important to get Sylvia and Ophelia inside though. Neither of them could warm their bodies in the frigid temperatures.

But we were safe.

I wasn’t afraid anymore.

Actually, I didn’t know if I was ever afraid.

I didn’t just trust Jericho. Somehow along the way, I’d learned to trust his friends, too. These weren’t my people, these weren’t even technically my friends, but they cared about me and they cared about Jericho. They took care of my sister and I knew they would continue to include us in their plans to get to safety.

I had been a loner most of my life. But I’d never really been okay with it. I just lived like that because it was familiar to me… because it came naturally to me.

And somehow in the last four months, I decided to explore Peru with my baby sister, got abducted, tortured, nearly killed, molecularly altered, and now identified with a completely different species… yet somehow that had been the best thing that ever happened to me.

I wasn’t exactly ready to thank Terletov yet for his role in changing my life.

But I no longer had an encyclopedia of regrets and I no longer feared the future or what would become of my life.

And I had Jericho.

“Do you trust O to go with them for a minute?” Jericho asked gently, pulling back so he could see my reaction.

“Yes,” I told him honestly. “Yes, I do.”

“Avalon,” he called out. “We’ll catch up in a minute.”

Avalon, along with everyone else, looked back at us and let out low whistles and raunchy cat calls. The guys suggested things that were not even possible… at least I didn’t think so… and the girls awed and oohed at what was clearly going to be the final moment of our friendship.

“Be quick,” Avalon instructed when everyone had gotten their piece out.

“Well, not too quick,” Sebastian laughed.

Avalon grinned at him and then turned back to Jericho. “I’m impressed, brother.”

“What? That I’m settling down?” Jericho smiled.

“No,” Avalon smirked, reminding me of his brother-in-law. “That she’s going to say yes. She’s the best you could possibly do. You picked well.”

Jericho chuckled and we watched the group crest a hill. Irrational tears pricked at my eyes with Avalon’s approval. I hardly knew him.

Yet, he approved of me for his best friend.

That meant something significant.

When we were alone, or as alone as we could be, Jericho turned back to me and smiled. It wasn’t teasing, it wasn’t flirty; it was so genuinely honest and affectionate that it stole my breath.

“I didn’t know what I was going to find when I arrived,” he confessed. “I imagined the worst from the moment I left you until I could get here again.”

“Did you know the whole time?”

“No, not until I got to Rio. I got here as fast as I could.” His smile faded and a clouded darkness haunted his expression. “The thought of you… I just couldn’t handle something happening to you…”
“Nothing can happen to me,” I promised him quickly. “Believe me, this theory was definitely tested. I’m fine. I’ll always be fine.”

His hand reached up and cupped my jaw tenderly. “Are you sure? I hate that he touched you… I hate that he put his hands on you.”

I could feel just how much he hated it in the ripple and tremble of his Magic. The ferocity shocked me. I knew he’d be mad, but honestly I didn’t know it was possible to get that mad without spontaneously combusting.

I turned my head and kissed the inside of his palm. “I’m fine, Jericho. I’m more than fine.”

“I love you, Olivia.” His words were a reverent prayer spoken on the early morning breeze. They floated all around me, tickling my skin, sinking into my bloody, wrapping so wholly around me that I felt irrevocably changed from the depth and devotion in them. “I’ve loved you for a while.”

I turned back to face him and let the intensity in his eyes hit me with their full force. I would have stumbled backwards from it if he hadn’t grabbed me around the waist and pulled me into him. A single tear escaped from the corner of my eye and my throat dried up completely.

I knew that I loved him too. I knew how I felt and even before now, I knew how he felt. But nothing could have prepared me for hearing those beautiful words out loud. Nothing could have readied me to feel the truth of his emotion and the consecration of his soul as it clung to mine.

But then he continued talking and I just continued to fall more in love with him. “Until you, I thought I would be alone forever. I didn’t see how I could find someone to match me. I’d been hurt in the past, sure, but it was more than that. I just felt… I felt like I was waiting for something that would never arrive. But then, you came. From the moment I saw you on the mountain, curled into yourself and afraid of everything that moved, I felt this consuming need to protect you. Protection turned into a friendship that is more important to me than any other. And when I realized that, when I realized I would rather have your friendship than any of my other ones- friendships that have been vital not only to my survival but my happiness- I knew that I would never be able to live without you. I know my world is strange, I know it’s different and I know it’s not what you want. But I want you to live in it with me, Liv. I want you to stay with me. I want you to be my girlfriend, and then my fiancée and eventually my wife. I can’t let you go. I won’t let you go. You can finish school, we can live near your family, you can do whatever you want to do, but I need you with me. I need you to accept my world and see if you can fit inside even just a small part of it, just the part that I happen to be in. I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything else in my life. And that feeling won’t fade; it will only grow stronger and more demanding with time. I love you Olivia Taylor. I’ve never loved anything or anyone like I love you. And that is a promise you can keep for as long as you live.”

His words hit me with their full force and my stomach bottomed out into a pit of butterflies. I felt blinded for a moment by the sheer intensity of his emotion. I couldn’t even put coherent thoughts together, let alone think through everything he asked me, everything he promised me. I was still getting used to the idea of being this thing for real… this Immortal human.

Yet, even if I didn’t know how to think, I knew how I felt and that wouldn’t change no matter what conclusion I came to. Jericho was it for me. I’d admitted this to myself, but it was time to let Jericho in on the secret too.

“Liv?” he whispered after my prolonged silence, letting just a touch of insecurity sneak out.

“I love you, too,” I finally admitted. “I didn’t want to, but I do. I can’t help myself.” His eyebrows creased downward as if he didn’t know how to take that. I tried to make sense of my tumbling thoughts one more time, “I can’t stop myself. And believe me, I tried.” My hands slid up his chest and rested over his heart. “I tried so hard to keep myself separated from this, from you, from this world you live in. I just wanted to go home; I just wanted to be myself again. But… but then, this started to feel more like me than any other moment I’d been human. And I stopped wanting to go home, because… this, you became home. I don’t belong anywhere but here, with you. I love you, Jericho. And I think I always will, no matter how long we live.”

“I know you will,” he whispered as he dropped his head to just an inch away from mine. “I know you’ll always love me. And I will always love you. You will take me into eternity with you, Liv, and I will gladly go. I cannot wait to spend the fullness of this life with you. You were made for me. And I know you didn’t come here through pleasant circumstances, but I am too selfish to regret that you are here. How can I, when you mean everything to me?”

He didn’t let me answer and that was probably a good thing since I didn’t have an answer for him anyway.

He kissed me instead, long, drugging kisses that left me senseless and desperate for more. His kisses were insistent but so much more at the same time. He wasn’t convincing me to kiss him back this time; he was claiming what was already his.

His Magic hugged mine, embracing it in such a way that made me feel both secure and utterly and absolutely loved. His mouth moved against mine so softly, so sensually, that I wanted to drown in him, to let go and let him pull me completely under.

God, this man.

He was my present. My future.

He was my everything.

And I had not one regret with him.

“Alright, we all feel it!” Sebastian called from the top of the hill. “Congratulations on your happy union now get your arses over here before they come for us.”

“Oh, my gosh,” I whispered against Jericho’s lips. “They can feel this?”

He smiled with his mouth still pressed to mine and squeezed my hips. “It’s a good thing,” he promised. “That means all the other bastards out there will keep their hands off you.”

“It’s so embarrassing,” I groaned, ignoring his possessiveness even though I found it adorable.

“Just wait till I really get you alone,” he murmured against my neck. “They won’t be able to look you in the eye for months.”

I swatted his chest. “You are so full of yourself.”

He pulled back and grinned at me. “But you love me anyway.”

I relented with a smile of my own. “I do love you anyway.”

We stared at each other adoringly for a few more seconds before he said, “Good, now let me save you one last time.”

And then he took my hand and pulled me down from the rocks and up over the hill. He seemed pensive as we went, but so very content.

I could relate.

His Magic filled in every empty place outside of me and his love erased all the vacant, hollow, hidden places inside of me. I couldn’t imagine wanting or needing anything else in life besides this, besides him.

And I didn’t need to imagine it.

I had him.

I had him forever.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jericho

“Let me taste, Woman,” I demanded.

Liv stood at her parent’s stove, stirring a béchamel that I was dying to get my hands on. She glanced over her shoulder at me and shook her head. She was so nervous about her clear talent that it was hard for me to take her seriously.

Even without her Immortal qualities that made school easy for her, despite her determination not to let it interfere, she was a really good chef. She put me to shame on a daily basis.

Although I was getting better; but only because I made her go over every new skill she learned at school with me once she got home. She’d begged me to just sign up for classes so I would stop bothering her, but we both knew she loved it. She loved getting extra practice in and she loved sharing something with me that we both cared about.

Besides, I had signed up for classes at her school, I just hadn’t told her yet.

I wanted to surprise her on my first day. It wasn’t easy to keep secrets from this girl, but as soon as the war was over, I wanted to quit being away from her. I wanted it to be about her and me and nothing and nobody else. I would do whatever it took to get us to that point.

Including culinary school.

Not that I was going to complain about it.

College had been interrupted for me when I followed Avalon to Omaha and joined the Resistance. With my pending resignation from the Monarchy’s staff as soon as Terletov was taken care of, I couldn’t think of something I’d rather do than go back to school and spend every waking and sleeping moment with the love of my life.

It had been two months since the Citadel fell.

Two months since the Kingdom had fallen back into turmoil and chaos reigned again.

Two months since I’d told this beautiful, spirited girl that I loved her and she had promised the words back to me.

Things were bad right now. I lived my life hunting Terletov’s followers and plotting ways to storm a castle that should already be in our possession. I’d killed more men in the last two months than the rest of my life combined.

And yet I had her to come home to. I had Liv’s Magic to keep me company and her sweet seduction to bring me back to her.

I would fight for this Kingdom with everything that I had; but the truth was, I had more now. Liv had given me more and demanded more from me.

She gave me hope and forced me to trust again. She let me love her and loved me in return.

This was more than a relationship between us, this was forever.

This was more than a connection, this was eternal.

And it still didn’t feel like enough time.

“How long are you home for?” she asked me softly.

“Just tonight,” I told her. I stood behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her back tight against my chest. I pressed my forehead into the curve of her neck and inhaled her. I loved that she said “home” like it was ours. This wasn’t our home, and we wouldn’t have one to ourselves in the foreseeable future, but we didn’t need one. We were home whenever we were together.

That was all there was to it.

“Is O doing alright?” I asked in a soft voice since she was probably just upstairs.

“She’s okay,” Liv shrugged and I felt the movement of her shoulders in my entire body. I let my fingers slide beneath the hem of her t-shirt and explore the silky softness of her perfect skin. “Her eyes changed a couple days ago. They’re pretty fiery orange. That freaked her out, but other than that, I’m teaching her how to control her powers and what to do with them.”

“How did you learn to do that?” I trailed kisses across her shoulder blade, so proud of her for how she was dealing with Ophelia and her sister’s frustrations.

“I had a pretty good teacher myself,” she murmured and then sighed when I let my tongue slide up the column of her neck.

She made a delicious little moaning sound and sunk into me. “How’s Eden? How are the babies?”

“Great,” I told her.

Eden and Kiran had made it out of the Citadel that night. Avalon and Sebastian had gone back for them. They were unsettled when they’d joined us and Eden had Syl do an immediate workup on her and the babies. But so far, everything seemed to be fine.

They were lying low and staying surrounded by their Guard.

I didn’t blame them.

It was funny how happy I felt for them now. I mean, I’d always been fine with their relationship, even though it had always felt like I lost. They were meant for each other, even I couldn’t deny that. But I’d also be a liar if I said there wasn’t a little bit of jealousy and bitterness mixed in there, too.

When I’d walked out of the tunnel, after we escaped Terletov, the early morning sun had hit Liv, making her glow in the soft light. In that moment, I knew that whatever feelings I had for Eden were long gone.

And not even comparable to the love and devotion I felt for Olivia.

The entrance to the secret tunnel into the Citadel was an odd place to confess all my feelings for her, but I couldn’t wait another minute.

Years ago, I’d helped Avalon rescue Eden and Amory after her fateful courtroom interruption at Lilly’s trial. I remembered walking over a hill and catching Eden looking up at the sun. The early light had hit her face in much the same way as it had shone on Liv’s that morning and I had felt my lungs lose breath completely. I had never seen anything more beautiful than Eden in that moment.

It was in that very second I started to fall for her.

She had been so brave to face Lucan and fight for her friend. She had been through hell and risked everything… and then she was just this vision of light and sacrifice, loyalty and purity.

I didn’t stand a chance.

Yet, that vision of Eden’s loveliness faded to black and white with the image of Liv I held in my mind. I couldn’t even compare the two. They belonged in totally different realms of reality.

Eden was my past and a short, temporary moment of time.

Liv was my present, my future… my forever. Our love would grow stronger through the ages and there would be nothing that could come between us or tear us apart.

“I don’t want you to go,” Liv sighed against me. She set her spoon down and laid her hands over mine.

“Then come with me,” I offered. “Come help me.”

“You want me to go?” she sounded truly surprised. “I’m not trained. I could get you killed.”

“You won’t get me killed,” I laughed. “You’ll probably save my ass faster than anyone else on my team.”

“Sebastian won’t be mad?”

“Who cares,” I grunted. “If I have the choice to share a room with you or that smelly bastard, I’m going to pick you every single day. Besides, if Lilly wakes up, he promised Talbott he would help secure a location for the wedding. I could use the backup.”

“Is she still the same?” Liv’s voice dropped with sympathy and my own heart squeezed at the pain and suffering Lilly and Talbott still had to face.

I just wanted her to wake up. I just wanted her to be okay, for once. For once I wanted her to be out of danger.

“Alright,” Liv agreed and I could hear the smile in her voice.

“Are you going to tell your parents?” I asked her cautiously. She was an adult, besides being an Immortal, but she had the opportunity to have a relationship with her parents while they were still around and she wanted to do everything in her power to preserve their relationship and cherish it.

I wholeheartedly agreed with her.

While my own mother was still missing, along with Analisa and my father confirmed dead… I could admit that family was important. Especially when you had one as good as Liv’s.

I’d had some issues with my dad’s death at first, but Olivia helped me work them out. I knew the grief would hit again, and continue to hit. And not just the grief, but the loss of any substantial relationship and of the man that I thought he could be but never was.

There were a lot of issues for me to deal with and sometimes they felt overwhelming. But other times, I held this girl in my arms, completely drowned in her love and her Magic and I knew that everything would be fine.

Everything would work out.

“I love you, Jericho Bentley ,” she whispered as she let the sauce bubble and burn.

“I love you too, Olivia Taylor,” I promised against her ear. “Forever.”

“Forever,” she sighed sounding truly happy.

Liv hadn’t been the only one afraid of forever, but now that we had each other I knew it would never be enough time together.

But I would live out the time we did have together to their fullness, with Olivia at my side.

Acknowledgments

To my God. Every book is yours. Every book is your miracle.

To Zach, the best man I know. Thank you for feeding the kids, cleaning the kitchen and reminding me that I need to get to work. Without you this wouldn’t be possible. Without you I wouldn’t know how to write love. You are the best thing that ever happened to me.

To my children. One day I want you to fight for your dreams and never, ever stop fighting. I can’t wait to see what you can do.

To my mom, thank you for being my biggest fan. Thank you for the hours upon hours upon hours of babysitting and encouragement. And thank you for knowing how a mother should react. A mother should faint.

Thank you to Sarah Hansen at Okay Creations for envisioning and creating such a phenomenal cover. I had no idea what this should look like. But you did. And I’m blown away by your talent.

Thank you to Carolyn for editing and the hours that go into that monumental task. Thank you for making me sound smart and educated. Thank you for putting up with my phrasing that doesn’t make sense and my thousands of dashes that don’t belong. Thank you for your advice and your tips and for taking time out of your life to help me follow my dreams.

Thank you to my dear friends Candice, Diana, Jenn and Lindsay. Your support means the world to me. And thank you for believing these characters are real. Because they are. I just need people to talk about them with. I should hug you all… you know, if I did that kind of thing.

Thank you to my Hellcats. Amy Bartol, Georgia Cates, Lila Felix, Shelly Crane, Quinn Loftis, Angeline Kace and Samantha Young you MAKE this industry. You all are the most talented women I know. And I’m so thankful for your advice, friendship and support. You make this lonely job feel like a community. I love you to pieces.

Thank you to my Reckless Rebels. You girls are some of the best people on this planet. I am so thankful for all of you! Thank you for your opinions and excitement and thank you for always being honest with me. You don’t feel like readers at all. You feel very much like friends.

And thank you to the readers!! You have been impatient and passionate for and about this book for way too long now! When I didn’t think I would be able to give Jericho what he needed, your enthusiasm pushed me forward. I hope this story gives Jericho the Happily Ever After you believe he deserves. And I hope that you fell as in love with Jericho and Olivia as I did. I love you all so very much. You make my dreams come true and there is no amount of gratitude that is enough for you. Thank you.

About the Author

Rachel Higginson was born and raised in Nebraska, but spent her college years traveling the world. She married her high school sweetheart and spends her days raising their growing family. She is obsessed with bad reality TV and any and all Young Adult Fiction.

Look for more from Rachel in 2014.

Love and Decay is taking a two month break and will begin again in February, 2014.

Other books by Rachel to be released in 2014 are The Redeemable Prince, the seventh book in The Star-Crossed Series and The Fall, the second book in the Siren Series.

Other Books Out Now by Rachel Higginson:

Love and Decay, Episode One

Love and Decay, Episode Two

Love and Decay, Episode Three

Love and Decay, Episode Four

Love and Decay, Episode Five

Love and Decay, Episode Six

Love and Decay, Episode Seven

Love and Decay, Episode Eight

Love and Decay, Episode Nine

Love and Decay, Episode Ten

Love and Decay, Episode Eleven

Love and Decay, Episode Twelve

Reckless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 1)

Hopeless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 2)

Fearless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 3)

Endless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 4)

The Reluctant King (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 5)

Starbright (The Starbright Series, Book 1)

Sunburst (The Starbright Series, Book2)

The Rush (The Siren Series, Book 1)

Bet in the Dark (An NA Contemporary Romance)

Follow Rachel on her blog at:

www.rachelhigginson.com

Or on Twitter:

@mywritesdntbite

Or on her Facebook page:

Rachel Higginson

Keep reading for a sneak peek at Rachel’s new Dystopian Serial about the Zombie Apocalypse.

Love and Decay

Chapter One

647 days after initial infection

Oh, god.

The smell was the worst. The absolute worst.

It wasn’t enough that I had to pick my way through dismembered and half eaten bodies, or that at any moment one of them could spring up from the ground and make an afternoon snack out of me.

It wasn’t enough that I hadn’t had a shower in over a year and a half, hadn’t worn eye liner in even longer than that and my hair was somehow simultaneously disgustingly greasy while frizzing into a perpetual fluff ball.

Oh no, that would never be enough. My ugly tan work boots were a size and a half too small, I ripped my too big Grateful Dead t-shirt off a very, very dead man, and my jeans…. or what was left of my jeans was the last of my stash from my once excessive closet.

After all of that- and I mean, the shower alone should have been enough suffering for any living being to suffer through- it was the smell that got to me.

Putrid, rotting flesh from both the dead that littered the ground around me and the remnants of stench that lingered in the air when the Feeders were finished was what triggered my gag reflex and watered my eyes. There weren’t enough words in the English dictionary to describe my revulsion, or the way my empty stomach flipped with every breath.

I probably would have puked if I had eaten anything in the last two days.

The best thing about the Zombie Apocalypse? I was no longer addicted to sugar and caffeinated beverages.

I wiped my forearm across my sweaty forehead and then re-aimed my handgun in the general area in front of me. This is the point of the story where I’m supposed to tell you what kind of gun I’m carrying, but let’s be real…. Before the end of the world I was a cheerleader at a small town school, where I was the debate team captain and student council secretary. I lived for throwing parties when my parents went out of town, making out with my football captain boyfriend and doing the occasional trip to the homeless shelter where I would put in my monthly two hours of good deeds.

I’d never even held a gun, scratch that, I’d never even been in the same room as a gun until the world went to shit. Who knew the cure for herpes would turn all those sexual deviants into people-eating, brain-dead, infection-giving assholes?

Not me.

The whole phenomenon gave a girl a serious complex about safe sex.

Not that I was having sex. Or would be any time soon.

I hadn’t even seen an eligible bachelor in a good six months and it wasn’t like I had exactly been interested when we passed each other with guns raised and a suspicious glint in our eyes. Although there was a sort of mutual give and take between us that could have been considered an instant connection, possibly love at first sight. I let him loot the dead gentleman that had his head literally severed from his body by Feeders, and he let me raid the vending machine with that literally only had a bag of Funions that had been smashed into pathetic crumbs.

But then we both went our separate ways and I will never know if he got eaten, turned or found the promised land of Zombie-free showers and espresso machines.

Plus, I was still pining over poor, deceased, Quarterback-Chris.

Just kidding! Quarterback-Chris had apparently been less than faithful to me during our two year relationship and after things with the government, army and general world went to hell, Quarterback-Chris tried to eat me!

So I did what any loving, devoted girlfriend that just found out she had been serially cheated on by her now zombie boyfriend would do. I plunged a butcher knife into his eye socket and when that didn’t effectively do the job, I drove over him with my mom’s Escalade until his head detached from his body.

God, I was glad I held onto my v-card.

Could you imagine me as a zombie?

Ugh, it made me shudder just thinking about it.

A rustling to my left had me bring my gun up, pointed and steady at whatever was stupid enough to make noise in a regular Feeder playground. I only had three bullets left, so this kill would have to be spot on.

That was the thing about living in a world in which it was a very likely possibility that you could end up as someone else’s meal before lunchtime, you got to be very good at shooting, very quickly.

So even though the most I knew about my gun was that it was a Berretta from the label on the handle, and the exact kind of bullets it took, .40 S&W- because those were an absolute necessity and I was always on the lookout- I knew exactly how to use it. I knew exactly how to get my bullet from my gun to the perfect dead zone right between the eyes.

In fact, it was kind of freaky how good I was at killing things.

Well, killing already dead things.

It was like I was born for the Apocalypse. No, I couldn’t find a hot shower, figure out how to make food last longer than twenty-four hours and effectively loot a Walgreens that still had hair products available. But I could stay alive.

I had an innate ability to stay alive.

And in this day and age, ninety-two weeks after the first recovering STD victim bit his doctor and the world fell apart, staying alive was very important.

Back to the rustling….

I slowed my breathing, stopped moving completely and waited for the sound to come to me.

One of the first things I learned about survival was that there was absolutely no need to go hunting down trouble. In the world I lived in, trouble would find you down soon enough. It was better to cover your back, stay calm and have a loaded weapon ready and waiting.

“Reagan, check this out!” Haley squealed in a loud whisper.

“Holy hell, Hales!” I whisper-shouted back, “I almost shot you in the f-ing head!”

She made a resigned grunting noise and I heard her mumble, “Too bad, I bet they have showers in heaven.”

“We are so not convinced you’re going to heaven,” I whispered back while stepping over a particularly decayed body.

Did I say the smell was the worst? I meant maggots.

The maggots were definitely the worst.

“It wouldn’t matter,” she countered with that distraught, depressed tone even the best of us were known to fall into. “This might as well be hell.”

We were still whispering, there was no other option, since Feeders were drawn by sound. And sight, and smell, and light and movement…. But since we were rummaging around a dilapidated department store somewhere in what used to be southern Missouri, we had a little bit of cover.

The floor was covered with dirt and grime, metal racks that had been looted a long time ago were scattered and broken across the floor and we’ve already discussed the body count problem. We were using what was left of the evening light streaming through the broken window fronts to see and from the sounds of things we were alone, at least on the first floor.

One of the best things about Feeders was their inability for stealth. They were heavy mouth breathers and tended to stumble over anything in their way. It was like they had their own warning bells.

Well, if you stayed alert, kept yourself surrounded by noisy debris and never fell asleep.

“What is it?” I asked at the exact same moment my stomach growled.

Haley shot me a sympathetic look and shook her head, sending her dark blonde hair bouncing around her shoulders. “Not that.”

I sighed, but continued to follow her down a dark hallway. Track lighting hung at awkward angles, the glass long shattered, the bulbs broken probably since the beginning. The once white walls were smeared with streaks of what I had to assume was blood and dirt. But the stench was less overwhelming here, the air easier to breath.

“I hit the jackpot,” Haley said excitedly in almost a full volume voice. We rarely spoke above a whisper so I was taken aback at first. I had almost forgotten what her real voice sounded like.

“In?”

“Jeans!” She turned back to look at me over her shoulder, giving me a goofy smile and waggling her eyebrows.

Now this was a jackpot.

We exited the hallway straight into the juniors section. The racks were less knocked over in this part of the store and still stocked with clothes. Racks and racks of fall fashions from almost two years ago filled the floor.  A discount shoe rack with boxes of clearance items sat in one corner and in the middle of the department was a makeup counter.

An f-ing makeup counter.

Eyeliner!!!

At this point, you might be wondering who I could possibly want to look good for. And that is a valid question. But it wasn’t like that.

In the last two years I had been forced to live as a homeless, basically starving person, with shredded, usually-covered-in-blood clothes, no shampoo, let alone conditioner and perpetually covered in dirt. I was tired of looking ugly.

Tired of it!

I just wanted a little bit of makeup; just something to make me feel like the world hadn’t completely blown apart in the prime of my life and left me a wandering vagabond.

I had given up on finishing my education. I had given up on feeling guilty for killing what once used to be human beings. I had given up on being happy again, living in a house, having a hot shower and whatever dream I had imagined myself living out. I had even given up on finding love.

Hell, I had given up on just finding sex.

I just wanted to look anything but tired, weary and worn out.

Was that so much to ask?

“Welcome to the promised land, my friend,” Haley whispered proudly before turning to a rack of longs-sleeved t’s.

I had a theory about why this section of the department store was untouched and it went something like this. In the beginning of the end, families were protecting their young. If you were a teenager, you were home, holding down the fort. Especially if you were a girl. The whole raping and pillaging thing didn’t apply to most kids that still had parents around. And if you were young and stupid enough to try to make it in a world where sane people spent their time looting, overthrowing local government and shooting at any and every potential threat, chances were your inexperience and still rose-colored-glasses-of-the-world made sure you ended up dead.

How Haley and I survived not only the Feeders, but the crazed militia, living on the street and all the old man creepers that thought we would make fantastic sister wives was a straight up miracle. We got lucky in the beginning by sheer location. Small town, middle of nowhere Iowa finally paid off.

Well, except for the whole Quarterback-Chris thing.

But it wasn’t like we didn’t get Feeders in Atlantic, Iowa. Of course we did. Herpes was a worldwide disease. Everybody got Feeders. Even remote islands in the middle of Oceans. If there were people there, then there were people having sex. And that meant STDs. Why? Because men would always be sluts. Always.

Was I a little bitter about Quarterback-Chris? Hell, yes.

Did I not mention he tried to eat me?

My parents were killed by Feeders. Hale’s dad was killed by a Feeder. I was almost killed by a Feeder.

They were everywhere.

What we did have was an absence of a lot of people and an abundance of guns. Thank you farmer Fred for your once unnecessary stash of ex-military contraband.

I hopped over the counter, sliding my butt across the filthy glass. My already grimy jeans smeared a dust coated path the size of my hips. I landed on the pads of my feet and my toes were smashed even worse in my small hiking boots, but it was a soundless landing I was kind of proud of.

I had the reflexes of a cat, thanks to living every minute of my life expecting an attack. If the world ever got its f-ing act together and cleaned up this mess, I imagined they would make a movie of my life about the whole Zombie thing. I’d obviously be played by that hot brunette from the Vampire Diaries in which I would run around in a sexy Cat Woman suit, totally playing the super hero.

I opened the cabinets behind the makeup counter and slipped my backpack off my shoulder. Inside my hiking pack everything was orderly and neatly packed for maximum space and easy access. But I didn’t have time for that now. I would reorganize everything later.

I started swiping handfuls of products into my bag, not caring about color or usefulness. This was what Haley and I called the Grab and Go- get as many supplies as we could now, as fast as we could, then leave the scene before either Feeders or protective townsfolk happened upon us and sort it out later. Without even having to discuss it with Haley, I knew she was picking out shirts and jeans for me and she knew I would cover her with whatever I could find.

After makeup, I hit up the clearance shoes, except there wasn’t anything hiking, nature resilient or weather-proofed. Haley’s shoes were in good condition actually, so I didn’t bother debating over her. She was tiny by nature, not just because we only ate every three days and probably had scurvy since we were lacking serious vitamin c. She barely cleared 5’3, and her feet were average size enough that she could double up on socks and fit almost any pair we found.

I had clown feet even for my 5’8 frame and most the time found myself searching the small-feeted men. There were plenty of feet to choose from, but we didn’t run across the right kind of shoe very often.

Like right now. There were a pair of tennis shoes that I could upgrade to, and they were my size. Or did I stick with the weather-proofed boots that would protect my feet from the elements?

The other debate I had to have was tennis shoes were much lighter than these things, easier to walk across country in and much, much easier to run in.

Still, I had to protect my feet. And I definitely didn’t want trench foot. Not that I knew what trench foot was…. but I knew it was a big deal for everyone on Band of Brothers- my go to reference for everything survival.

“Get the shoes that fit,” Haley said from across the room while digging through every style of jeans.

“You’re right,” I agreed. A shoe that fit had to be infinitely better than what I was wearing now. I toed off my boots and ripped off my socks. There was a whole rack of socks near the checkout counter, so I grabbed handfuls of them and stuffed them in the bag, saving a crazy-patterned neon pair for now.

“Sweatpants?” Haley asked, from a new rack.

Moving quickly was essential to our survival, and we had honed this skill in order to stay alive. “Absolutely,” I agreed. Jeans were practical and resilient, but there was nothing better than a pair of yoga pants when running for your life.

As I moved on to underwear-which might as well have been gold at this point- the light was growing dimmer in this department. We were already squinting and stumbling around in the dark, and I knew we had been here too long. I had a flashlight that hadn’t run out of battery yet, but I really didn’t want to use it if it meant drawing the attention of wandering Feeders.

“Haley, we need to go,” I whispered harshly.

I heard her zip up her pack and shoulder it, but I could barely make out her form anymore. We’d learned to just act as soon as a command was given between us. There was no time to hesitate anymore, so by the time I’d slipped my heavy backpack on again, she was already moving toward the exit.

One of the weirdest parts of the Apocalypse was the quiet. I couldn’t get used to it. Back in my old life, before the infection, there seemed to always be noise around. Cars on the highway, music from my iPod, airplanes overhead, my parents talking at me; there was always something in my ear. Now, there was nothing, no background elevator jazz to soothe us while we shopped, no other shoppers bustling around and bumping into us. The only sound to break up the silence was our careful footsteps and the heavy mouth-breathing from a Feeder in the next room.

Oh shit!

I grabbed the handle on Haley’s backpack and tugged her backward. Her head whipped around and she opened her mouth to probably ask what the hell, but I held my finger to my lips and motioned with me head toward the way we just came. It took her a second, but as soon as she heard the panting and wheezing in the next room she was instantly game for my plan of retracing our steps.

There was plenty of food for the bastard in the room he was in now, but I knew he would be able to sniff out our live, fresh flesh in the next two minutes and that was like the difference between prime rib and an old, moldy hot dog.

Best case scenario, he was going to lick the hot dog first, and come back for it later, after he ate his prime rib.

Which was me.

I stepped carefully until we were back in the junior department, always keeping my gun trained on the direction of the Feeder. Haley stood a little bit behind me, her gun aimed to the left where the junior department opened up to the children’s section.

“Son of a bitch,” she breathed on a strangled whisper.

A quick glance over toward the direction her gun was pointed showed the glowing red eyes of two different Feeders. That was the signature of the last stage of their digression into Zombie-hood: first came the cravings for flesh, then the heart stopping semi-death, the disgusting process in which their brain still worked, but their bodies started to decay and then the tell-tale red eyes, which were basically a sign that all humanity was lost, they were stronger, didn’t feel pain and only craved brains.

Basically, this sucked.

They could smell us, but couldn’t see us yet, and so they were still trying to pinpoint us before they attacked. Unfortunately, we could also smell them. What really sucked was that there were at least three of them, these two and the one munching away on all that delicious dead flesh.

They weren’t exactly pack animals, and usually they traveled- wandered aimlessly- alone but if they ever found themselves together it was like they shared a hive brain or something. They acted as a team, without speaking or seemingly communicating, and once their eyes were red they were a hundred times harder to take down.

Our backs were against the wall, literally, and I wasn’t exactly sure how we were going to get out of this one.

I glanced over my shoulder again and noticed for the first time an exit toward the corner of the room. A discounted clothing rack had been pushed up against it, and it was barely visible in the almost completely dark room, but a reflected Exit sign was still pasted on the top.

As quietly as I could, I whispered, “Behind us, Hale. An exit. Lead or Cover?”

Haley let my noise settle before she answered. The Feeders had already started moving toward us. Despite every Zombie movie I had ever seen, the real life versions were not exactly the dumb and easy to kill version of walking corpses. They were hunters, fast and intuitive. While humanity still had the advantage of a rationalizing, fully functioning, not-addicted to living flesh advantage, they weren’t exactly a helpless opponent.

“Cover,” Haley finally whispered back.

And with her blessing I turned on my heel and sprinted for the door. I could feel her behind me, but out of experience, I knew she was keeping her gun trained on the Zombies that were now chasing us down to make snacks out of our innards. I gave up on being quiet and threw anything that stood in my way.

The trip across the room took maybe five seconds, but it felt like the longest run of my life. I could already hear the Zombie from the other room tearing his way to join his friends. My heart was hammering in my chest, my vision focused only on the exit and my ears trained to listen for any surprises.

As soon as they were in my reach, I grabbed onto the clothes hanging on the rack and went to toss the rack, but it only swayed. Something was holding it to the ground.

Pure panic prickled my blood and my eyes watered immediately from the stress of the situation. I heard Haley’s gun go off behind me, but because the mouth-breathing was so loud I knew she had missed.

That meant she had four bullets left in her magazine.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I pulled again on the rack of clothes and this time it moved an inch. I realized then that it was tethered by something on the ground. While Haley shot off another bullet, I dropped to my hands and knees and felt blindly for whatever was holding onto the base of the rack. Once I found the thick rope that was tied to the base, I whipped out my pocket knife I kept in the pocket of my pants and began cutting at the rope frantically.

Another shot from behind me and one of the Feeders dropped to the ground. Good shot, Hales. There was still at least two more Feeders left, and I could hear more commotion from the front entrance. All these shots were probably drawing everything out there in here.

I finally got through the rope, but as soon as the slack was gone, something huge and clanging crashed to the ground just on the other side of the door. It sounded like pots or pans and a whole bunch of breaking glass.

Shit!!!

I didn’t have time to process that right now, so I stood up, this time effectively shoved the rack out of the way and went for the door handle. Another gun shot behind me and another Feeder dropped to the ground.

I lunged for the door handle, and turned it desperately. And nothing.

It was locked.

“No!” I screamed, not caring about the noise level at this point.

Haley’s last bullet exited her gun and the last Feeder felt the hit and fell to the ground directly behind me. These guys were dead, but there were who knew how many now headed toward us. Haley was out of bullets, and I had four left.

And our only exit was locked.

“What are you waiting for, Reagan. Let’s get the hell out of here!” Haley’s back was still to me as she faced her now empty gun at the hallway, just waiting for the rest of the Feeders to follow the sounds and find us.

“It’s locked! Damn it!”

Completely panicked I yanked on the handled and then kicked it with my new shoe. Nothing happened. The door stayed firmly locked, stubbornly unmoving. This was definitely worst case scenario.

And not ten minutes ago I had been really excited about all that eye liner and a new pair of jeans.

This was so not how I was going out. I’d survived Quarterback-Chris, the death of my parents and almost two freaking years of living as the most depressing version of Mila Jovovich in Resident Evil ever.

“Open, damn it!” I screamed at the door, giving it another kick with my foot.

Only this time, my foot didn’t connect with anything. The door was wrenched open and my body flew, following my foot, through the empty space I wasn’t expecting. I fell straight to my hands and knees in a huge pile of glass shards and broken ceramic. I felt the thick chunks of debris dig and slice through my skin immediately. My jeans would be completely irreparable after this and with my luck as soon as I was able to stop bleeding I was for sure going to get gangrene.

What the hell?

“What the hell, Reagan?” Haley practically screamed at me as soon as she was through the doorway. She slammed the door behind her and braced her body against it, meanwhile I was still doggy style in a pile of glass I was too afraid to stand up from.

The damage was going to be annoyingly excessive.

Before I could answer her though I heard the signature click of a bullet being loaded into the chamber. More dread slithered through my body; other humans were just as deadly and dangerous as Zombies these days. And apparently we were trespassing.

“Don’t move,” a deep, masculine voice ordered in a quiet, steely tone.

“Out of the frying pan,” Haley mumbled resignedly.

“And into the fire,” I finished for her.

I would never complain about eyeliner again.

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