Enchanter's Echo (22 page)

He’d never expected to feel jealous of a girl. From the satisfaction hinted at in her smile, he wasn’t doing a good job keeping it off his face.

“You don’t get to
let
me either, Gwyn.” His enchantress straightened tall.

“Don’t make me get mad.” Gwyn put her hands on her hips. “He doesn’t belong here. You know it as well as I do. This is a junkyard, not a castle. Oh, starry night, I’m already mad. Where is Haines? I need someone to take my anger out on.”

“He’s searching the neighborhood for our bomber,” Edmund said, his voice sharp. He did belong here. A hard, bitter kernel rattled in his gut at yet another person who believed otherwise. He tried to soften his tone. “Gwyn, let me assure you that not all founding families are the same. Don’t judge us all by the actions of one.” He didn’t wait for her answer. “Did you see anyone as you were walking here?” He tuned in for the cricket chirps of lies but anticipated hearing Wasten’s name as the answer. The man was Vincent’s problem now, but if the overseer was near, Edmund would track him himself.

“I didn’t see a soul.” She frowned. “If Haines is out searching, I might as well put myself back to bed.” She spun around and stomped off toward the forest.

No crickets. No Wasten.

He watched her go. “She doesn’t like me.”

“She has some issues.”

“Where does she live?”

Aurora stiffened until he thought she might break. She glittered, nervous again. He’d bet every one of Aurora’s delicious sparkles that Gwyn lived in the forest. How many people did she have hiding in there?

She shuffled away from him, but he snagged her hand and changed the subject before she could start to agree with her friend’s sentiments.

“We have a fissure to fix.”

“Another one? You didn’t tell me that.” She stepped right back in line with him, a willing partner in this at least. He’d take what he could get.

“My car’s over there.” He nodded toward the left and pulled her along.

“We have elephants to mother, too. We’re taking the Donninger?” Her tired voice perked up. “Can I drive?”

He blinked, surprised. “Next time, yes. When we’re not tracking down fissures or elephants.”

He was determined that day would come.

Revving the engine with his vibes, Edmund sped out of the junkyard and turned on to Front Street. The Drainpipe slept as he shot down empty streets, quiet except for a stray cat’s hunting vibes.

“I’ve missed this,” she said with a sigh, rubbing her hands over the leather of the seats and the shiny wooden dashboard. Her delicate hands traveled over the surfaces with a lover’s touch. He didn’t want to look away.

“You’ve ridden in a Donninger?”

“I used to own one, but the Nobles wouldn’t let me take it with me.”

A thrill shot through him that she was sharing her past. “They must have paid you extraordinarily well or was the car part of your salary?”

She smiled, a hint of pride in her eyes. “Neither. I used to work in Donninger’s lab. I learned so much from that man. Then again, I think I taught him just as much. After every model came out of the lab, I got to test drive them. Most of the cars have a lot of my ideas in them. Poor man. Stuck in Noble. Did you know he was originally from Bradford Territory?”

He studied her. “So Donninger was the amazing, smart, kind, charming, hardworking man in Noble who kept you occupied.” This was what love had done to him. It tied him tight to a woman who kept secrets and freed her truths one at a time. He studied her, determined to discover all her secrets, to lay bare her every nook and niche.

“You remembered all that?”

“When it comes to you, my mind is too greedy to forget.” He headed north. Judging from the pain, this was the right direction. They’d head to the fissure first, and then they’d deal with the elephants. “Can you sense it?” he asked.

“I assume you mean the fissure and not your mind.” She shook her head. “No, but from the High Councilor’s talk, maybe it’s with the elephants at the zoo.”

From the ache, it was possible. They fell silent as he drove them past Livingston and out of the Pipe. Again, the pain ratcheted up. Tracking fissures had become his least favorite activity, but at least this time he had Aurora by his side. He glanced over at her.

She leaned her head against the seat, twisting toward him, eyes soft. “We’re off to save the city together this time. If we had capes and purple boots, we’d be like Mageman and Vibe Girl,” she said with a sleepy smile. “Saviors of the city,” she quoted.

Good goddess. He’d already thought she was perfect. “You read comic books.” He might have howled at the moon if not for the clouds.

“I’d like to see you in purple boots,” she said. Her eyes shined, a teasing sparkle in their depths.

Just like that, contentment settled back into his soul despite the fact they were tracking down an evil that had the potential to destroy his land. “I’d look dashing and handsome in purple boots.”

“Naturally. The kingdom’s prince could be nothing less. Although, I’d rather be Energy Woman than Vibe Girl. She has that sleek suit and long legs. I always thought Vibe Girl looked kind of dumpy and fat next to her.”

“Dumpy and fat! No way. Her curves are essential to the Mageman/Vibe Girl team.” Just as Aurora’s curves were essential to every fantasy he’d had in the last nine months. “Mageman could never hold onto Energy Woman while he flies.” He drove them past City Hall and the Christopher Columbus portal. The pain pulled him on, but he focused on Aurora, forcing it away. “Energy Woman is all straight and slippery. She’d fall right out of his grip and smash to pieces against the ground. Vibe Girl’s curves give her man something to hold onto. Besides, her little skirt flutters in the air.”

“And if it would flutter just right then you could see what she wears under it?”

“You’ve wondered, too?” He grinned, foolishly happy.

She laughed. His heart fluttered just like that pink skirt.

“No.”

“Oh.” Well, that erased the smile. He turned onto Spring Street, heading west.

“But only because it’s obvious what Vibe Girl wears under her short, twirly skirt.” Her teasing tone brought a different kind of smile to his face.

“I’m hoping it’s nothing.”

Just before they hit Neil Avenue, the pain lessened. Wrong way. The discordant vibrations lessened like a whisper creeping away from his ear. “Not the zoo.”

“Then I don’t know where it is.”

“I’ll figure it out.” He made a U-turn in the middle of the road, heading east. The burn of the fissure worsened. This was the right direction. “Back to what’s under that skirt, please,” he ordered gently.

“She’s not naked under there. I hope you’re not too disappointed.”

“I’m hoping you’re going to make it up to me.”

“Obviously her panties have to match the color of her skirt.”

“Pink.” Panties. Blood rushed to his groin in such a flood that he probably shouldn’t be driving. “Go on.” His strangled voice rasped through the car. “Is it a thong?”

“No. I’m sure Vibe Girl refuses to wear a thong. She probably told Mageman she’d only wear one if he did.”

“Vibing hells. Not happening.”

Her smiled turned mischievous. “Exactly what he said, I’m sure. I bet they compromised.”

They crossed over Front. Wrong way again. They needed to head farther north. He turned on North High and refocused on her as the burning in his gut flamed higher. “Which means what exactly? What’s a panty compromise?”

“I’d have to guess she wears panties with minimal coverage in the back.”

“So there is some bare cheek under that skirt. I knew it.” He sat very still. His cock throbbed against too tight pants. He glanced around the neighborhood, searching for something to point out so she’d look away and give him a second to adjust himself, but there was nothing.

His gaze landed on her soft smile. Kissing those lips was exactly what this moment called for. He lifted his hand to caress her cheek.

At least she’d stopped glittering.

“We’re getting closer.” He focused on the task at hand. Get it over with and get her back home, to the couch, to her bed if she’d invite him.

She sat up with a suddenness, an alarming fright that singlehandedly cured the ache in his groin. A puff of glitter popped into existence.

“It’s not the zoo. It’s at the elephant fountain. I should have known.” She lifted her fingers to her lips as if in parody of a fright, but there was nothing false about her fear. “I don’t go there anymore.”

“Ror, it’ll be all right.” Apparently, heir-mailing a letter at the newly replaced mailbox hadn’t had any effect on her. “We’ll be quick. It will be just like all the other fissures. You yank the bond’s energy through, re-balance the spot, and we’re out of there.”

But his words didn’t help. The closer they got, the tenser she became, until her back was off the seat. She dug her fingernails into her cheek. Little curved marks imprinted in her soft skin. Glitter clouded the car until it might have choked them both if not for its ephemeral nature.

He took her hand in his, rubbing her fingers until they relaxed in his grip. He turned onto Buttles, made a left on Park, and pulled along the curb.

Goodale Park was surrounded by Victorian houses. The pond and its fountain sat in the northeast quadrant, engulfed in darkness at four in the morning but visible to his mage sense. All looked calm to him, but Aurora’s fear vibrated through the car.

He slipped his arm around her, would have pulled her onto his lap if not for the console between them. She stared out the window. “I was there…that day.” Her chest rose and fell as if she couldn’t get enough air.

He sucked in a fast breath between clenched teeth, hissing. A helpless rage burst inside him. Fucking terrorists needed to die again. Painfully. Slowly.

“I was sitting under a tree.” She lifted her finger and pointed out the window. “Just over there. Away from the pond a little. On a blanket. By myself.” She spoke as if the memory came in pieces, as disjointed as the results of the damned terrorists’ bomb. “I was watching the paper boats floating. Helping them along as they got stuck.”

Of course she was. That was what an enchantress did. Or at least his enchantress.

“A family stepped in front of me. A mom, a dad, and their little girl, and her even smaller brother. The grandmother, too. I couldn’t see the boats anymore. They blocked the view, but I kept giving this one boat a stream of energy. It was soaked and should have drowned already, but the boy who’d made it was so happy.”

She stared out the window as if it were replaying before her. “The little girl looked at me, gave me a smile. And then....” She shook her head. “Reality was gone. Something else was in its place. Like I’d blinked and in that minute space of time everything ignited.”

She fell silent, caught in that wretched scene. He cupped her chin and pulled until she turned to him, wanting to wipe this away for her like tears, but he was helpless against her memories.

“There was blood everywhere.” Her eyes were wide with remembered horror. “Parts of people,” she whispered. “Parts. Do you understand? Because sometimes I still don’t. My mind doesn’t want to understand, so it switches back to disbelief.” She whispered as if it were a secret, as if speaking of it was wrong. “It doesn’t want to believe that feet and arms and legs could just lay on the ground without the rest of their people. Bits of clothing with bloody chunks of bodies. So much dying all around me, in front of me, behind me, beside me, but I wasn’t hurt. Because I was casting power at the time. I think it protected me.” She shook her head. “I had to help them. I had to help but….”

“But there was nothing you could do.”

She spoke over his interruption. “I had to help Lily. That little girl…” She shook her head and clamped her lips together. “Her family…they died. Except Merida. That’s how I met her.”

Merida. An unusual name, but he hadn’t made the connection. “Rylan and Petal Harland. He was a reader mage. She was a botanical. Their son was Rylan Jr., just turned two years old; their daughter was Lily, four years old. Her body was never found. Neither was Merida Harland’s.”

Aurora looked away and clamped a hand over her mouth, her skin flushed. One of her secrets. “You knew them?”

“No, but I know the names of all the Rallis mages killed in the three attacks in our territory. Merida. She’s your junkyard healer, isn’t she? And now you keep her safe, tucked inside the privacy of the junkyard. How are they?”

Aurora slid away from his touch against her cheek. She stared out into the darkness. “Fine.” She reached for the handle and stepped out of the car.

Crickets. The flat, bitter word was a lie.

He followed her, letting his car door slam shut behind him, a needless warning that he was coming after her. He’d never stop coming after her. Did she know that by now?

She stood four steps onto the park’s paved path, breaching the space. Pulling her hat from her head, she lifted her face to the night sky. Her breath puffed in the cold air. “I wish the moon would shine. I need light.” Tears drenched her voice.

He stepped up to her, pulling her back into his front, and rested his cheek against her hair. Her warm scent filled his nose, his lungs, his body. “You smell like sunshine to me even in the dark. Even among the hell that happened here, even with the fissure.”

Its chaos shimmered ahead and a bit to the right. High up. Exactly where the small elephants had sprayed their water. The bronze pair sat on top of four concrete tiers that resembled a wedding cake.

The baby elephants weren’t the only ones that needed mothering. The whole city needed mothering, the benevolent hand of the goddess to wipe this clean.

“People still bring flowers and stuffed animals.” His mouth moved against her hair. “They’d tapered off for awhile, but they’re back in piles now.”

“Since you mailed your letter.”

“Saw that, did you? There’s caution tape around the pond. It’s drained, but it’s cleared of the debris. They left the two big boulders in the pond though.” He described the scene to her, though she could see for herself.

“Those boulders look like their sculptor forgot to give them life.” That bitter tone was so foreign from her lips. “Like all these days without sunshine and these nights without stars. Unformed. Incomplete. All we have are clouds.” She stepped out of his hold, her voice lifting. “Where is the sun? The moon?” She turned to face him. “Do you know how long it’s been? Forty-eight days.”