Atone: A Fairytale (Fairytale Trilogy) (3 page)

BOOK: Atone: A Fairytale (Fairytale Trilogy)
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Alex grinned. “Touchy aren’t you? And as much as you dislike Nicholas, you’re still too nice to not worry over someone falling off the face of the earth.”

They’d reached the porch. Becca knocked loudly on the front door a few times for good measure.

“I actually think it would be awesome if Nicholas actually fell of the face of the earth. If he could just go away and I could know for sure that he wasn’t a threat to either of you, then I’d be perfectly happy.”

“Mmm hmm.” Alex murmured again as she reached out and tried the door knob. “It’s locked.”

“Yup.” Becca agreed.

“Well, what are you going to do about it, metal shaper?” Lilia teased. Becca’s fae power was strongest with metals. Gold especially seemed to amp her power up to high levels, but she was able to bend almost any metal to her will. Lilia insisted this meant she was a metal shaper and probably would have been a heck of a jeweler in early times. Becca found this slightly ironic as she’d never been much for jewelry before discovering her powers. Her interest in metals had always been along more scientific lines, which was why she’d interned at the Gem and Mineral Museum with Alex.

Lilia and Alex had given her a white gold ring set with two small gold nuggets for her birthday and imbued it with a protection spell. Becca loved the ring, loved the running her thumb over the uneven surface of the nuggets and feeling the raw power of the unworked gold.

Becca placed her hand on the steel lock, feeling it warm beneath her hand as she let some of her power seep into it. She felt the metal begin to bend to her will. Within a few seconds there was an audible click as the lock opened.

Becca turned the knob and swung the door open. A blast of cold air hit her in the face. The air conditioning was on so high in the house that it felt like opening the door to a deep freeze. There were no lights on, and the interior of the house was dim and murky compared to the brilliant sunshine behind them.

“Wow, that’s cold. Who leaves the air on this high?” Alex came up next to Becca and stuck her head inside the door. “Hello?” she called. “Is anyone here? Nicholas?”

There was no answer, just more cold air streaming out the door. After a brief look at each other, Alex and Becca stepped over the threshold and into the foyer of the house. It was impressive. It looked even more “old Hollywood” from the inside, complete with a two-sided, winding staircase that led up to the second floor at the far end of the massively large entryway.

“And here I forgot my ball gown,” Alex joked.

“Maybe we can find you some curtains.” Becca smiled at her friend’s slightly nervous giggle.

“Is it me or is it kinda creepy?” Alex asked.

“It is more than kind of creepy,” Lilia replied from behind as she closed the front door. “What?” she asked when Becca raised her eyebrow. “We’re cooling the entire Los Angeles basin.”

“Yeah, maybe we should find the AC and turn it down,” said Alex. “It’s pretty obvious Nicholas isn’t here…unless he’s…” she paused and swallowed, looking a bit pale.

“Dead as a doornail?” Becca filled in. “Not going to lie, as much as I am not a Nicholas fan, finding his dead body is not on my bucket list.”

“Yeah, my bucket list is pretty dead-body-free, too.” Alex squared her shoulders. “But if poor Nicholas is dead, we need to alert the authorities, so I guess I’ll deal.”

Becca shook her head at Alex’s use of “poor Nicholas,” and Alex shot her a frustrated glance.

“That’s not the former crush talking—but if he’s dead I’ll call him poor Nicholas all I want.”

“Meanwhile, I’m freezing.” Lilia’s teeth were chattering and goosebumps were visible on her legs and arms. “Do not even bring up the shorts again, Becca, it is almost a hundred degrees outside.”

“The temperature control has to be somewhere on the first floor. Let’s look for that first,” Becca answered. “And let’s stick together—you know, so we can all be equally traumatized by poor, dead Nicholas.”

Alex smacked her in the arm. “Stop it!” But she laughed as she followed Becca to the opening on the left of the foyer. They walked through three or four rooms, each seemingly larger than the apartment Becca shared with her mom and two younger brothers, and finally found the temperature control on a wall in the shiny, modern-looking kitchen.

“Fifty-five degrees?” Lilia pushed the up arrow until the digital read out read seventy-five. “This place is huge. I would not want to see that bill.”

Alex was looking around as she rubbed her upper arms. “It doesn’t look like anyone has used the kitchen recently.”

“What was that?” Lilia asked sharply. Becca had heard it too, a soft sound from the other side of the kitchen.

“I don’t know,” Alex looked around, pulling a face. “I don’t see anything. Maybe there’s rodents.”

Lilia paled. “I hate rats.”

“I doubt there’s rats. I mean, look at this place, it’s scary spotless. Maybe it was the air conditioning unit being weird,” Becca replied. “It sounded like it came from behind a wall. I doubt Nicholas is hiding behind the cupboards.”

“Rats could definitely be hiding in them though,” Lilia pointed out.

“Luckily, for the rats, they’re not on my hit list. The magic is definitely coming from upstairs. Should we go check that out first or check the rest of this floor?” asked Becca.

“Let’s check all the rooms on this level and make sure no one…and um, nothing…is here, and then we can focus on the magic,” Alex replied.

The bottom floor of the house yielded neither their former advisor, nor his cold, lifeless body. Becca was beginning to be creeped out by the stillness of the house. The size of it didn’t help either. Every time Alex called out Nicholas’s name, which was about once per room, the sound echoed hollowly around them.

As they made their way up the front staircase to the second floor, Becca could feel the pulse of the magic more strongly. It was old and heavy. Though it felt similar in ways to what she remembered of the spell entwined in the bed that had kept Lilia trapped, asleep for over eight hundred years, it didn’t seem to have the same dark feeling. It also didn’t feel anything like the good fae magic she’d experienced from either Lilia’s three aunts or anything she and the other girls had done themselves.

Which is why, when they walked into the large open room from which the magic pulsed, she had no idea what to expect.

Becca paused in the doorway, blinking slightly against the brightness. The entire wall on the left side of the room was floor-to-ceiling windows. They faced southwest, providing a panoramic view of the city over the tops of the trees on the edge of the property. But the spectacular view only held her attention for moment.

The room was empty save for a large, ornate mirror almost directly in the center of it.

The mirror frame was set on top of a heavy, three-footed stand that raised it up off the ground. The surface of the mirror was smooth and slightly beveled at the edges. It was tilted at an angle—Becca belatedly realized that it must swivel at the point where the frame connected with the stand—so that it reflected the sky outside the nearby window. The deep azure of the sky made it seems as if the glass itself was a large sapphire surrounded by an intricate setting.
Almost,
she thought,
like a ring for a giant
. It was just missing the band. Why anyone would position a mirror so it reflected the sky was beyond her. No one standing in the room would be able to see themselves in the glass.

The frame of the mirror was crafted out of pure gold. Strands of gold swooped out from, and then curved back toward, the glass of the mirror. Although the strands were elegant and delicate looking, Becca could tell that they were sturdily constructed. The mirror and its metal frame were causing an uneasy sensation in the pit of her stomach. Something more than just the deep, ancient magic emanating from it. It reminded her of something. She couldn’t quite place what.

She took a small step closer, coming up short as she felt Alex’s hand reach out and grip her forearm. Becca continued to stare, entranced, at the gold. It wasn’t just worked into random swoops as she’d thought at first. The tendrils were curved—thicker at the base and then thinner as they reached back toward the smooth glass.

Golden claws. Curved and deadly looking. They created the illusion that the mirror was being held in the palm of a golden beast, its claws curving in as if to scratch the glass.

“Whoa,” she breathed out.

“Yeah,” Alex agreed. “Tell me I’m not the only one that sees claws.”

“I’m more interested in that spell than the claws.” Lilia took several steps closer to the mirror, her arms crossed defensively over her chest. “It feels…odd.”

Alex nodded and dropped her hand from Becca’s arm. “Sorry, I was just startled.”

“It’s okay. It’s disturbing looking. I mean, gorgeous as hell and probably worth more than that fancy car Nicholas has parked in the garage, but disturbing.”

“You’re right about it feeling odd,” Alex said as they joined Lilia in front of the mirror. “Not that I’m an expert on all types of fae magic, but I’ve never felt a spell that was put together this way.”

“He must have brought it home with him,” Becca reasoned. “I bet it’s a piece from Dr. Gagnon’s excavation. We know he found pieces from Arraine. He found Lilia’s bed, after all.”

“If we had such a thing in Arraine, I certainly was unaware of it,” Lilia said thoughtfully. “It is heavy with magic. It feels fae…but different.”

“It’s got a bit of a different motif than the other fae pieces we’ve seen,” Alex said dryly.

“Yeah, the claws are a new one,” agreed Becca. Most of the fae-worked pieces they’d seen before had featured braids and flowers. Not that the flowers always turned out to be friendly. “Why would Nicholas bring it here? Could he tell it was enchanted? Maybe he thought it would help him prove the existence of magic. Dr. Gagnon said he was still on that kick.”

Alex shook her head, her eyes still glued to the swooping tendrils of gold. “I don’t think anyone who doesn’t know how to handle magic should be anywhere near this thing. It’s making me really concerned about his whereabouts.” She tilted her head, squinting. “I can just barely see the spell if I look hard enough.”

Becca tilted her head similarly and narrowed her eyes. She could see it. Shimmering along the edges of the gold, connecting each individual claw with a hazy, dull gleam. The power pulsed from the spell slowly and deliberately. It wasn’t frantic with energy like many new spells are, but it wasn’t dormant. She had no real hope of figuring out what the spell’s purpose was by just looking at it. “Whatever it’s supposed to do, it’s still doing it.”

“Becca’s right.” Alex pushed her glasses up and pinched the bridge of her nose. “This amount of magic sitting here in Nicholas’s house makes me highly uncomfortable.”

“It’s not like we can just haul it out and toss it in the back of my car.” Becca crossed her arms, mimicking Lilia’s stance. She had the strangest desire to reach out and run a finger over one of the swooping tendrils of gold. She wondered if Lilia was experiencing a similar urge.

“We might be able to move it by magic,” Lilia said thoughtfully. “But even then we might have to touch it. The thought of one us touching it without knowing what it does gives me the creeps.”

Becca grimaced. So she really was the only one suddenly fascinated with running her hands down the wicked-looking claws. “We just leave it here? A random piece of very powerful magic in the middle of a populated area?”

Alex nodded. “At least until we find Nicholas. Maybe we can get more information from him about where it’s from.”

“Yes,” Becca commented sarcastically, “I’m sure Nicholas will be very helpful.”

“It’s the best I’ve got right now.” Alex shrugged. “Let’s check the rest of the upstairs and then we can figure out where to go from there.”

Their search of the upstairs of the mansion didn’t yield Nicholas or his cold, lifeless body. They found a master bedroom; the bed was neatly made and didn’t look like it had been slept in recently. There were a few personal items on the mahogany dresser, including a man’s leather wallet. Becca opened it and stared down at Nicholas’s driver’s license.

Nobody took a good picture at the DMV, except, apparently, Nicholas. Her eyes flicked over his familiar features—the black hair, the dark blue eyes, the slightly insincere smile. She scanned the information on the license, slightly disappointed to learn his middle name was Adam and not “Creep” as she kept insisting to Alex. “Well, he
was
here. If he left, he didn’t mean to be gone for very long.”

“That’s really not good,” Alex said seriously. “We may need to involve the police.”

“Everyone needs to calm down,” Lilia said. “For all we know he just drove to the grocery store and forgot his wallet and will come back any minute and want to know why we’ve broken into his house.”

“Lilia’s right.” Becca flipped the wallet shut and tossed it back onto the dresser. “And there’s the little matter of the magic mirror in the other room. Until we know what that spell does, I’m not sure I want anyone asking questions about it or, god forbid, touching it. Nicholas may have even left when he saw me drive up. Maybe he’s skulking around out in those trees or something, waiting for us to leave.”

BOOK: Atone: A Fairytale (Fairytale Trilogy)
10.58Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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