Endless Magic (37 page)

“Just how the necklace was made, that’s all,” I answered innocently.

“Are you asking in general? Or specifically how I made yours?” he smiled at my pretend nonchalance, but I couldn’t drop the act now that I had committed to it.

“Sure, start with that,” I offered casually.

“Well,” he walked around the counter so that he stood over me, lifting the necklace out of my hands and inspecting it thoroughly, “at the time I made it, I loved you deeply, more than life itself…. So, when I made the necklace it was with the utmost care and devotion. Whatever you think of me now, know that when I gave you this necklace I simply meant to protect you from my father.” His eyes moved from the necklace to mine, gazing deep into my soul caressing my face with his very thoughts. “I didn’t trust him not to take you away from me, and when I gave you this necklace I only wanted to be sure that I could find you if that happened.”

I cleared my throat nervously, not sure how to respond to him. “And now? How are all of my tracking trinkets made now?”

“You don’t get that answer,” he smiled and his hand moved from the necklace to the glowing tattoo on my neck, he rubbed at it with his thumb and his fingers snaked their way through my hair. I felt transfixed by the moment, unable to think clearly or move from his touch. “But I will tell you that the only person I allow to make them for you is myself. I will not let anyone else touch them. So, if you disappear, I am the only one that will be able to find you.” He finished talking but didn’t move away from me. His eyes fell to my lips and then his face moved an inch closer to mine.

My magic flared, shocking my senses back to reality. I jumped in the seat, surprised by the approaching magics that I instantly recognized as my parents. Kiran slowly dropped his hand from my head, letting it brush along my neck before it fell to his side. We stayed like that for a moment longer, an eternal moment that made me doubt everything true and real in this world.

The front door opened and Kiran finally released me from his gaze. I breathed again, I felt again. I found myself again. His magnetic eyes and gravitational pull would destroy me unless I learned how to fight him, unless I learned to hold my ground. He was the risk I refused to take, the chance Fate itself decided to end before it was fully realized. He threatened everything I built, not just my emotional walls, but the purpose I stood for, the future of this kingdom. I could admit that to myself. I could admit I was scared of him.

He was dangerous.

“Delia, Justice, welcome,” Kiran turned to my parents and greeted them.

They mumbled something to Kiran, but their eyes, both sets, were locked on me. Delia ran to me, her long, black hair flowing behind her and when she wrapped her arms around me her hair flew around us both. It curtained our faces as she pressed her forehead against mine and said a million things to me without saying a word. Tears streamed from her black eyes and her hands trembled against my face.

Justice let her have the first few moments; but just like in Omaha, he grew impatient waiting on the sidelines. He put a comforting hand on my mother’s shoulder and she released me into his arms. He held me against his chest protectively. I felt the righteous anger in his blood, the way his magic flared at the unfairness of life, at the injustice of my situation.

I looked up at him, into the dark green eyes that Avalon inherited from him and held his gaze steadily. “I am fine, I can handle myself,” I promised. He nodded the emotion behind his eyes threatening to sweep him away, and I found myself choked up noticing it. I could cry with my mother and be perfectly fine, but if my father started I wouldn’t be able to stop.

“I know you can,” he choked out, patting my back.

“Let’s sit down,” Delia offered, noticing her husband’s struggle.

She reached for my hand and pulled me to the couch. Kiran mumbled something about starting dinner but he was generally ignored as we sat close together on the soft, worn leather couch. Justice sat on the other side of Delia, wrapping his arm around her and laying a gentle, but firm hand on my shoulder.

“What happened to Terletov?” Justice asked and I could see the hope in his expression.

“What had to,” I admitted, hating the regret that came after every battle as if I shouldn’t be used to struggling to survive, as if fighting for my life was an anomaly and not a routine I had grown accustomed to. I tried to convince myself regret and guilt over every magic taken were left over emotions from my human life, but I knew better. The parts of Immortality I had known so far were ugly and unfeeling, so I held the remnants of humanity close to my heart and secretly worshiped the blame, the remorse, knowing I hadn’t been brainwashed into this callous society like all the rest.

“Good,” Justice whispered proudly. “I knew Dmitri as a child, his father was a politician. But I never thought he could be capable of something like this.” Justice’s eyes deepened with sorrow and his knuckles brushed my cheek affectionately. “I’m so thankful you’re all right. Tell me what happened.”

He commanded me more than he asked, left over habits of his Titan upbringing. I didn’t argue, but painfully dove into the story of the kidnapping and how I got out. I started with the shot to the chest in the stairwell which made my mother burst into heavy tears and finished with Dmitri pleading for death while I drained him of his magic and sent him to the prisons I disgusted so passionately. My father nodded along, and my mother wept at the struggle, but once the story was out I could close off my pained nerve endings and begin the healing process for my raw emotions. Relief washed over me after I explained myself, after I justified aloud my actions.

“So, then you have figured out your magic?” Justice asked for more details.

“I think so,” I admitted. “I seem to react to the old magic, even strongly at first, but eventually my magic, I don’t know if you can say…. out smarts it? Or overcomes it? I don’t know, but the old magic can’t hold me for very long. Even the handcuffs seemed to do the trick for a little while, but as soon as my magic connected with Avalon, I couldn’t even notice the restraint anymore. And the bullet obviously knocked me out, but the blue smoke just jumped right in and pulled it out. I think our new magic is stronger, has evolved even. Plus, I think everything is stronger because of my connection with Avalon.”

“You sound just like him,” Delia smiled at me. “That’s exactly what he says.”

“I’m so glad you are here,” I sighed happily, all but forgetting about Kiran clanking around in the kitchen. “I didn’t know if I would ever see you again.”

“Darling, you didn’t have to do what you did,” Delia whispered hoarsely, tears flooding her eyes again. “Our plan would have worked; we would have gone with you.”

“No, it wouldn’t have,” I argued, not wanting to sound like a rebellious teenager, but knowing I was right. “If Lucan finds you, he will never let you go. You don’t know what he’s like, he’s a monster! He’s…. He’s evil.”

“You’re right about Lucan,” Justice concurred, “he is the devil himself. But, this isn’t your battle. This is a war we should have joined a long time ago and you are left to clean up our mess.”

“No, that’s not true!” I gasped and then rushed forward, “I mean, Lucan is your fight, I get that, but this is something so much deeper than revenge. This goes beyond you and him. This is about the future of our people! This is about the magic.”

“Now you sound like your grandfather,” Delia grinned at me, silent tears slipping from the corners of her eyes. She reached up to cup my face with her hand; I never felt more loved in my entire life.

“If anything happens to you, I’ll never forgive myself,” Justice lamented, his green eyes darkening with gravity.

“No, don’t say that. We are all willing to offer our lives for this cause; I am no exception. But you have to know that it is different for me than it is for anyone else. Avalon went through hell during his imprisonment. You guys would be…. I can’t even think about what would happen to you. But seriously I’m fine. I’m treated like a princess…. A princess that has to watch other people die the minute I mess up, but still…. I mean, I go to parties, I go to balls, I get dressed up and pretend I’m in love with a prince. It’s really not that bad. So, just keep doing what you’re doing and know that I am perfectly safe and out of harm’s way. Well, until Kiran gets tired of me….” I turned around to smile at Kiran who stood at the counter watching us. Our eyes met and he jumped, trying to pretend like he was busy and not eavesdropping on our conversation.

“We
will
continue to worry,” Delia explained gently, “but with confidence like that I suppose we can go on doing what we’re doing too.”

“What is it that you’re doing?” I asked, my curiosity in all the parts of the Resistance that I couldn’t see flaring to life. “Or maybe you don’t want to say in front of Kiran?” I asked at the last second, realizing that just because he knew my secrets and Sebastian’s secret didn’t mean he owed the Rebellion any loyalty. In fact, the realization that I trusted him far too much dawned on me and a pit of anxiety started to grow in the base of my stomach.

Justice broke into laughter at the idea though until he lifted his eyes behind me and immediately died down into a soft chuckle. I turned half around to see what Kiran had done to silence my father but he seemed very busy draining noodles over the sink with his back turned to us.

“We are helping Shape-shifter colonies hide from Lucan,” Delia hushed her tones hoping to keep our conversation private. “Lately, he has been on a rampage trying to collect as many exiles as possible, so when we can find a colony before he has been there, we move them to safer locations.”

“And try to recruit them,” Justice added with a twinkle in his eye.

“That is very good work,” I nearly burst into tears with gratitude. I was filled with appreciation, not just because my parents were working side by side with Avalon and me now, but because the lives they saved were less prisoners for me to worry about.

“We think what you’re doing is pretty amazing too,” Justice’s voice still carried the soft Romanian accent all Titans have and I smiled at the comforting sound of how his words ran together like cursive.

“Dinner is ready,” Kiran called from the kitchen.

We stood up and walked to the counter where a simple meal of goulash without meat waited for us. Suddenly impressed with Kiran’s ability to not only lead a kingdom, but serve when the time called for it, I found it hard to look him in the eyes. I let my parents go first, pretending not to be hungry as they dished up their plates and then took them back to the couch. Kiran, too, dished up his plate after I insisted I needed a drink of water first and when he joined my parents in the living room he fell into easy conversation with them. They laughed together like actual friends and ate in laid-back companionship.

I stood at the counter watching them, finding it hard to want to join them, to interrupt their conversation and add my strange baggage to the mix. Delia noticing that I was still, missing stood up and came for seconds. She looked at me for one second before setting her plate down and pulling me into a hug.

“Oh, darling,” she mumbled into my hair, sensing instinctively that something was wrong.

“It’s nothing, it’s…. I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” I admitted truthfully, feeling the tears press hotly against my closed eye lids.

She pulled away just an inch so that she could look into my eyes and speak to me. “Do you know that I loved Lucan once?”

I gasped, shocked by the news. I shook my head frantically, not even able to find the words to argue with her. It couldn’t be true.

“Don’t look at me like that!” she scolded good-humoredly. “When we were younger, he could be…. He was very charming. He showered me with affection and worshiped me. I couldn’t help myself. I fell for him. But, it wasn’t long before I realized a relationship wouldn’t work between us. I needed someone to challenge me, someone who knew me better than I knew myself. I needed someone to complete me. My soul mate,” she spoke quietly but with the deepest emotion I had ever heard anyone speak with. “Lucan wasn’t that person for me. But while I struggled to realize that, I fell in love with your father at the same time. I loved two men and had to choose between them. Do you understand what I’m saying?” She asked and I nodded out of habit, even though I didn’t understand what she was trying to say. “I loved two men and had to decide which one was my soul mate and which one was the easy choice, the…. safe choice. Eden, true love, whether you live your life on the run or spend it in the same house where you raise your children, is never easy and it’s certainly never safe. It’s a risk we take believing the reward is greater than what we give up. And darling, I can tell you from first-hand experience that it is.”

“Thank you for that,” I sighed, leaning into her again, “Jericho is worth all that. I really do believe you.” I felt better already. She was right, it was a risk to love anybody, to hand your heart over completely to anybody, but I could do it if it meant true love waited for me on the other side.

“Oh, Eden!” She laughed hysterically. “You’re much more like your father in this area than I want to believe!” I looked up at her, trying to decipher what made her laugh at me. “I had to convince him he was in love with me too!”

I laid my head down on her shoulder, not having a clue what she meant, but thankful for the comfort anyway. After the day I had, I just needed my mom. Despite everything in my life, I was still a teenage girl after all, and my mom was the only one who would ever really get me.

We arrived back at the castle somewhere in the middle of the night, too exhausted to keep my eyes open for even a second, once I said goodbye to my parents, I fell, more than sat, into the passenger’s seat of the four door sedan. Falling asleep instantly, I didn’t stir until Kiran opened my door and attempted to lift me from my seat and carry me inside.

“I can walk,” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes and shaking my head from the hold of sleep.

“Then take my arm,” Kiran instructed, not at all convinced I could.