Lost Causes (28 page)

I claimed everything that made me good, all the best parts of me, and I let them explode.

I annihilated myself, and I sent the atoms of power created by my obliteration toward Eila.

She was in her solid form, and I wrapped the wreckage around her, grabbing onto her flesh and slicing into the skin. Blood welled to the surface and slid down her arms and neck and face, and still I cut, burrowing into her, seeking whatever organs lived within and crushing them.

Eila gasped and faced me, her movements sluggish. She was covered in a thick veil of my ruined magic. It slowed her, as water would a human, and I dug in deeper. I coated her in my destruction and waited for her to be destroyed in turn.

Ozone filled my nostrils, stronger than anything we’d found on the hilltop. That first had been decaying slowly. Eila was dying before our eyes.

I felt rather than heard her howl. I staggered as her power detonated, causing my own to rocket through the clearing. I gathered it for another strike, but it was already gone. Destruction happened in an instant. It was only the fallout that lingered.

I had nothing left to give. Aidan Brook no longer existed.

A shell dropped to the earth, bones and blood and flesh, but that was all. When Eila reached for Mac, it meant nothing. My eyes drifted shut.

My head jerked up as energy rushed into me, a magic so familiar I latched onto it without thought. It belonged to another, but it came from the same source my own once had.

Sera’s fire ripped into me and became my own. Josiah’s magic belonged to both of us, and she shared hers with me. Her fingers dug into mine so hard I thought she would break bones, but I felt nothing but the fire.

She panted with the effort, and sweat rolled down her temples and cheeks, but she held nothing back. She knew something I’d forgotten.

I was an elemental, not an empty husk. I was meant to be magic, and my body knew it. It grabbed hold of her gift and fed. I had no right to it, but I took it anyway.

I shuddered at the second onslaught, as water rushed to meet the fire. My mother and Grams stood on my other side and poured their power into me. As I’d been born from them, so I would be reborn.

In my core, the fire and water danced together, father and mother reunited in my body.

The single thread formed again, knit more tightly than Eila had ever managed. Hope and love and belief collided, and they rebuilt me.

It was pure creation, the first gift the universe gave us. I let it fill me. I let it make me stronger than I’d ever been. Stronger than the woman who knew how to kill, stronger than the woman who thought destruction was the answer.

As my magic was created from nothing, so was my knowledge.

I reached for Eila and found the gaps, the lost parts where her magic had weakened as the gift of creation faded, and I filled her with all she’d lost or perhaps never had.

I would never understand the original magic, but I knew the other kind. I knew the human side, and the elemental side, and I gave her both. All her missing parts, I patched with love and faith, sacrifice and forgiveness. All I’d learned, I shared with her. Everything the firsts had given us when they joined with humans, I returned it, and I took away the loneliness and fear that had torn at her for more millennia than I could count.

Eila’s form was one we’d never seen before. Ethereal and glowing, a thousand stars held together by invisible threads, she expanded before our eyes.

I whispered to this oldest of creatures that it was her turn. Her chance to create one last good thing in a world that hadn’t needed her for a very long time.

She didn’t fight me. I felt only peace as her magic burst. The ethereal shape faded as one thread after another came loose.

Something shoved me, and I fell to the ground. My family lost their grip on my hands, but it no longer mattered. It was my own magic crashing into me, and as it soared through my body, it found the single thread my family had built. My restored power followed their lead, creating a perfect cord of both fire and water.

Memories returned, and everything that made me what I was, and I could only shake at the wonder of it all.

My family’s gift unwound and returned to them. That wasn’t the only power filling the clearing. All that Eila had once been filled us, curing our pains before rising into the sky. It hovered for a long moment before exploding, a white firework that coated the entire sky.

As magic rained over Lake Tahoe, the shifters’ eyes opened just before I let my own close for a long time.

CHAPTER 29

I
died. It was the only explanation. I died, and I went to heaven.

If I wasn’t so comfortable, I might have been a little sad about being dead, but it seemed a small price to pay for the absolute peace that filled every cell of my being.

Oblivion faded slowly. As my senses returned, it occurred to me that heaven—my heaven, at least—probably didn’t ask the celestial choir to cover The Clash.

I was, however, floating on a cloud. I pried my eyes open to find a white ceiling rather than blue sky, and four walls, and a mattress that cost more than many cars underneath me.

Next to the mattress sat a chair that had likely cost the same, though it barely held the man sitting in it.

“Where?” I croaked.

“Your hotel.”

“I have a hotel?” It took me a minute to figure out what he was saying. “Sera didn’t die and give it to me, did she?”

“Pfft.” I blinked toward Sera in the doorway. “It was always half yours. Now it’s official. Besides, you need a home, what with the cabin not being there anymore.”

“Why not the trailer?” I asked, though I wasn’t complaining. In fact, I was wondering if it was feasible to live full-time in this bed.

“The trailer wasn’t big enough for all of us.” The bed became even more appealing when Mac sat on the edge. “Move over.”

I didn’t argue. His arm wrapped around me, and I melted into him. “I’m sorry you had to do that.”

His face was blank for several seconds before he understood. “You mean Deborah? I’m not.”

“But…”

“We know what it would have done to you to kill her. You’re finally climbing out of the pit. I’m not letting you fall back in.”

“Now you have to live with the guilt, though.”

Mac circled a strand of my hair around his index finger. “Yes. It helps that I don’t feel any.”

I started to argue, but he dropped my hair to put his finger against my lips. I met his gaze, and his eyes were the same chocolate brown they’d always been, warm and full of quiet certainty. Mac wasn’t at risk of falling into his own pit.

I curled in closer, just because I could. I might have stayed there for quite a while, had my stomach not chosen that particular moment to growl as loud as Mac ever did.

“Room service,” I announced. “Pancakes.”

“No pancakes,” Sera said. “Pizza’s on the deck, so get your lazy water ass out of bed.”

“Half fire,” I corrected. I’d worked too hard for that side of me to let anyone forget it. “You guys have to stop watching me sleep. It’s getting creepy.”

“Then stop passing out,” she said. “Come on. People are asking for you.”

“Wait.” I stopped her from leaving. “How long was I out this time?”

“Two and a half days. We’ll let it slide, but if you do it again now that you’re healed we’ll start thinking you’re a drama queen.”

Fair enough. “Are you all going to yell at me if I go up? Cause if so, I’m staying put.”

“Why would we yell?” Sera furrowed her brow.

“Cause I did that whole sacrificing myself thing. You’re not a big fan of that.” I braced for the lecture.

Instead, she shrugged. “It was the only choice left.”

My chin dropped, and I used a hand to lift it back into place, in case she missed my utter shock.

She rolled her eyes. “Please. You used to go all martyr at the first opportunity. You waited this time. I think that’s an improvement. And if I’d been able to do what you did, I’d have done the same. We all would have. What you did is why we’re here now.”

“We’re all here?”

She called over her shoulder as she walked away. “Come to the deck and find out.”

I bounced out of bed after her, surprised at how easily I moved. In the clearing, I’d broken myself completely and been put back together. I assumed that would come with some scars.

Instead, I felt like I’d slept for a week, then spent the day at the spa. I felt fresh and awake and new.

I showered and pulled on a clean pair of jeans. My red sweater hung in the closet in a dry cleaner’s bag. I put it on. I was going to need to shop for a new wardrobe.

While I slept, we’d moved to the hotel’s premium suite. It had been Josiah’s home when he was in Tahoe, which meant a sheikh or monarch would feel perfectly at home with its amenities. If I recalled, it even came with a personal assistant/butler.

Later, I’d abuse that power with requests for three bonsai trees and a VHS copy of
Xanadu
. Right then, I needed to see my family.

The suite had a spiral staircase leading to the deck. I began to feel at home.

I climbed upstairs. Mac was behind me, taking a little too much pleasure in pinching my ass to make me go faster.

It wasn’t so much a deck as a rooftop patio, complete with high-end barbecue, lounge chairs, pool and hot tub, and a large dining table. Everyone was gathered around the table, their plates piled high with pizza from the mountain of cardboard boxes stacked on the bar. I was greeted with a chorus of hellos when I appeared.

Sera stood at the front of the table. She tapped a metal knife against her beer bottle to get everyone’s attention. “Now that she’s here, let’s do this once, for the record. Aidan is as normal as she’s ever going to be. Still a freaky dual, still more powerful than she has any right to be, and she’ll likely make a mess of it, but she’s okay. That loose piece of fire is all sewn up now. From here on out, any crazy is all her own. Those two threads aren’t coming apart, not ever.”

Some cheered. Some smiled. Some teared up. No one appeared to doubt Sera’s proclamation.

I waved, making sure it looked like a sane wave, then moved to the railing, gesturing for Sera to follow. Lake Tahoe stretched below us, blue and pristine and filling me with life.

“How did you know?” I asked.

“About the neat and tidy magic mix?”

“Yeah.”

She was a little too proud of herself. “Who do you think made sure the fire behaved itself this time?”

I grabbed her beer bottle so I could toast her with it. “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”

“Hell no.”

“So, I’ve been thinking.”

“Since when?”

“They’re all here. Everyone we love is on this patio right now. Well, everyone we love and Jet.”

Sera’s eyes softened. “We’ve waited a long time to get here, haven’t we?”

“There is one person.”

They hardened again damn fast. “No. I’m not ready to talk about it.”

“I’ll make it quick. I’ve been trying to figure out why she changed her name from Helen to Ani. Maybe she was trying to start over, forget her old life, but it’s an odd choice, isn’t it? I think my brain spent some time on it while I was sleeping, cause it finally came up with something.”

Sera didn’t answer. She watched me, her expression inscrutable.

“You’ve seen me play with letters when I’m bored. Did you know my name works both ways? I’m Nadia backwards. Most names aren’t that good. I don’t want to date Cam or hang out with Mairim or Nomis. Probably not Anifares, either.”

It took her a second. After her mother left, Josiah was the only one to call her Serafina.

“I’d probably end up calling you Ani for short.”

She gave no indication she heard me, which told me she was considering every word I said.

“Told you I’ve been thinking,” I said, trying not to look smug.

I left her at the railing. I grabbed a slice of veggie pizza and perched on a lounge chair next to Simon. “So fill me in. What have I missed?”

The pause was longer than it needed to be, with a few too many meaningful glances.

“Seriously? Something happened in two days?”

“It’s not exactly bad,” Luke said.

“More unexpected.” Vivian stretched her legs before her. After her little speech to Deborah, her movement had a certainty I didn’t remember from before. She even appeared taller.

“Oh, just tell me,” I muttered, with as little grace as possible.

Sera answered from behind me. “Michael, Ruth, and Harriet held up their end of the bargain. They told the truth. So did Allison Ash. The FBI’s report and the voice recordings helped prove we were innocent. Deborah’s being blamed for everything she did, particularly how reckless she was releasing Eila, but there are still a lot of questions about duals and firsts. Other council members are heading here to get answers. You’ll need to answer them.”

That did sound pretty dreadful. “I’ll deal. We should probably rehearse something, though.”

My mother leaned forward, her eyes a little too serious. “It’s not only the water council, Aidan. They’ve told the other elements. Members of every council are about to descend on Tahoe.”

“I’m not seeing the problem. They’ll ask questions, I’ll answer, I’ll be all sane and stuff, and we’ll figure it out. If we can handle Eila, we can cope with an interrogation or two. We’ve got truth on our side, right?”

Vivian began to speak, but Miriam cut her off. “Just show her, Johnson.”

The quieter agent walked toward one of the potted succulents near the pool.

He touched its leaves, and it grew two inches.

“Vivian?”

“I’m not helping.”

“But… the… Johnson, when did you figure this out?” As far as we knew, he was descended from earth elementals, but separated by several generations from any true power.

Everyone watched me, waiting.

“No,” I announced. “No. Not again. Everything is good and happy and whatever doom and gloom you’re about to unload on me, take it back. I don’t want it.”

I glared at the lot of them. I may have been rebuilt in the clearing, but it seemed a gift for denial was encoded in my DNA.

Simon rested his fingers on my forearm, a calming gesture. Mac sat beside me and took my hand. I had the distinct feeling I was being managed.

“When Eila’s magic exploded, it didn’t go away, did it?”

I studied Johnson, then looked at Vivian, who was definitely taller than I remembered, her eyes a shade closer to an earth’s dark brown. “It went…”

“To everyone in the Lake Tahoe basin,” said Simon. I was pretty sure he’d waited to speak so he could make the big reveal.

I grabbed the nearest beer and took a long swig.

Luke was the one who said it out loud. He made it real. “Every human with any elemental blood and every shifter who was born without the changing gene, they’ve all been boosted, I guess you’d say. Elementals and shifters are appearing everywhere we turn. We’ve been out the last two days trying to find anyone who’s been acting out because they don’t understand what’s happening to them.”

“But this could be okay. More magical races are good. We like shifters. And elementals. Well, the ones who don’t try to kill us. This could be great, really.” I was babbling. I planned to keep babbling until this all went away.

Mac squeezed my hand. “It could be great, yeah, but the balance of power is changing. No one knows how, but everyone’s on edge. There were several fights between the races last night.”

“Plus, we aren’t sure what other effects the magic will have,” added Vivian.

I tried picturing the new world forming around us. “And the elemental councils are about to walk right into this mess and light a freaking match.”

The shifters, humans, and elementals in Tahoe had existed in a tenuous peace formed from a web of ignorance, denial, and contempt. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.

It was all about to change.

I walked to the bar, then picked up my own drink and wrapped my hands around the cold bottle, thinking.

When I set it down, I was ready.

“Cancel all hotel reservations. Keep only the employees with some magical heritage. Get everyone you care about under this roof. No more spreading out. No more separation. We’re better together. Safer. We all know this. So, from now on, we are officially hunkering down until this is over.”

Sera shook her head. “We can’t ignore this till it goes away.”

“That’s not the plan.” I rejoined the table, surrounding myself with the people I loved. “We’ve got two magical races fighting to build a new Tahoe where they get to be dominant. Screw that. We’re not letting elementals and shifters and crazy council members tear apart our home. No, we’re not ignoring it. We’re getting in the fight.”

The room’s energy changed, quiet doubts giving way to strength.

As much as I longed for peace, it wasn’t over. My friends and I still lived in a world that didn’t want us. It didn’t want shifters and elementals to be friends, let alone lovers. It didn’t want duals to exist, and if we insisted on doing so, it wasn’t sure it wanted us to live.

I sent my magic to my mother and Grams for a moment, then moved on to Sera and Luke, greeting their fire. I tested our joined power, reminding them how much we shared. I fed my strength into Mac, using the remnant of water magic he’d always hold. I looked at the friends and family who all, in their way, helped me achieve the impossible. I was here because of them. There was nothing they couldn’t do.

It was a damn good thing, considering our new situation. We might need to do the impossible again. When you lived in a world that didn’t want you, there was only one option.

You had to remake the world.