Origin of Angels: Elemental Legacy Book 1 (8 page)

Her sharp gasp hinted at her dark mood. “Not with my dad on the loose. It doesn’t really matter what happens to me. He needs to be stopped.”

“What can you do?” She stiffened at my question. The steely look in her bright eyes sent a shiver over my spine.

“I need to find him, Rayla. He’s the reason Sam died. Mom isn’t well, either. I can’t get her to see a doctor, though. Who knows what he did to her when she was locked up. For all I know he gave her some disease to get rid of her.”

I rushed in, refusing to believe such a horrible thing. “He’s not that evil.”

She scoffed. “He’s bad enough. What kind of father uses his own daughter as a guinea pig? Why would I think he’d let her go unscathed? All he cares about is power. He was willing to throw a twenty year marriage away for the idea of having control. If I’m going to die soon, I need to make sure he can’t do more harm. He needs to be stopped, and I intend to do it. For all I know, my illness has nothing to do with the bond, especially since Mom is sick, too.”

She was right about ending Lambert’s reign of terror, but she needed to realize she wasn’t the only one intent on finding him. “You might be right, but you’ll have to get in line. Travis already claimed the right to kill him.”

Cassie’s voice dripped venom. “Travis can go to hell. Lambert is my father. I’m the only one with a right to deal with him.”

What was I supposed to say? Sure, Cassie had lived with the man longer than Travis or I had, but I doubted she’d been through the trauma of knowing she was a constant experiment. No matter how much I wanted to argue with her, I couldn’t. Not now, when she was so vulnerable. For all I knew stress was making her condition worse. I hadn’t seen her mom in months, and I needed to pay her a visit. There really could be a connection to Cassie’s illness that had nothing to do with the bond, and the only way to figure out if it was something else was to have Amy Lambert tested. The last time I’d tried to talk to her, she couldn’t say anything about Nigel without crying. Keeping my thoughts to myself, I decided on a different approach for Cassie. “What do you think we should do?”

She paused, her body relaxing slightly. “Aren’t you going to tell me I shouldn’t worry about him, or I’m in no shape to traipse around the world just to find someone who will die on his own?”

I folded my arms against the unexpected chill in the air. “I don’t believe any of that. Just because the fae can’t discover what’s going on or how to help you doesn’t mean you should sit around and knit while you wait for the bitter end.”

She laughed. “And that’s why I love you.”

I pulled her in for a hug. “We’ll figure things out along the way. Even if you only have a year to live, I want to make sure you experience everything you want to and for you to find some peace.”

Her voice turned to a whisper. “What if we can’t catch him?”

I squeezed her hand. “We will.”

Breathy hesitation made her words difficult to hear. “How can you be so certain?”

I smiled. “We’ve got the best person for the job at our fingertips.”

She laughed. “You really think Heath’s that good?”

I gave her a sly smirk. “Who said anything about Heath?”

“Then who?”

Cassie hadn’t had the best experience with Gibbit, but she didn’t know him like I did. “Someone who can go places we can’t without being seen. Someone who has the ability to
drift and find lost things ...”

It didn’t take her long to catch my meaning. “Oh, no you don’t. He still has Gram’s broach!”

“All the better to get it back,” I said without missing a beat. “He’s reasonable when you know how to play him.”

She scoffed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “And you do?”

“Sure. Gibbit is easy to understand. He doesn’t trust anyone, but we don’t need him to. What we need are great items to bribe him with. He had his eye on a few Ignisian trinkets, and I just happen to know the current lord of fire. In fact, I’m sure Finn could come up with something acceptable.”

Her eyes showed interest, but the real excitement was in her tone. “Do you really think he’d give it back?”

As if. “No way, but he’d trade for something better.” A grin took my lips. “A broach isn’t nearly as interesting as a necklace.”

She sniffed and turned away. I caught her arm. “Where are you going?”

“I’m dying, remember? I have no time to waste chatting.”

With that, off she went. Cassie wasn’t much for running normally, but she had a good excuse. I let her lead the way back to my apartment. I hadn’t made time for connecting with nature, and I was starting to feel it. So her departure from the norm was a welcome change.

Normally, the wind carried the perfect level of warmth. Not tonight. There was a definite chill. Something strange was at work. The lights of the city beckoned us onward until we were in the shelter of the familiar walks near my home. The torches blazed along the arched entrance to the small building of four apartments. What surprised me was the glow coming from the upstairs window.

My heart jumped, and I stopped cold, not from fear of who might be there waiting for us but rather who might not be. As the days passed, I had grown ever more worried for my husband. Heath had been gone for more than a month, as I’d counted, although time had different meaning here.

I bypassed Cassie within three strides and raced up the stairs. With my fingers on the cool knob, I hesitated to ready myself for disappointment, then twisted and pushed open the door. His scent hit me before I saw him. My eyes searched frantically in the living room. When I didn’t find him, I rushed for the bedroom.

His back was to me. Taut muscles rippled along his golden back as he discarded a shirt. His dark hair was fastened at his neck, as usual. I’d only seen it free a few times. My fingers itched to touch the silky strands. With a quick intake of his breath, he straightened.

INSTEAD OF FOLLOWING ON HIS COMMENT, all Heath did was excuse himself. He said he’d catch me later, but I had to wonder what he thought would change my focus. As it was, my body ached from the fight, and technically all I’d done was use my power. It drained me more than I wanted to admit, especially since the lords hadn’t even broken a sweat.

I told myself I was still learning, but not being the best from the get-go was hard for me to swallow. I wasn’t worried, really. I excelled at everything I put an effort into, but I had to actually care to do it. And I still couldn’t say I cared about any of this fae stuff.

Heath ditched me, leaving me with the other lords. I had absolutely zilch in common with these guys, so I opted to take off, too. There was only one person’s opinion I cared about right now. The man I’d always gone to for advice. It didn’t matter if he had turned out to be my
uncle, I had a deep-seated need to run things past him. The problem was he proved hard to track down these days. Seemed I wasn’t the only one trying to ditch fae life.

Knowing how to address my parents was a hard thing. It wasn’t like I could simply turn off years of training. John Keller had been Dad to me since I learned to talk. In fact, Dad was my first word, which had really pissed off my mom. I hadn’t looked like either of my parents, but I’d never thought twice about it until Nigel Lambert flipped my world on end. He was the first to tell me my life had been a lie. I was pretty sure his goal had been to disconnect me from my family, but the reality was it wouldn’t matter what label John Keller had
— he would always be important to me, and I would always go to him when I needed to talk. Unlike Grace, he didn’t push. He let me work things out and only gave advice when I asked. Maybe it was a guy thing, but less was more when he and I spent time together.

I found him at the river fly fishing. What he thought he would catch was beyond me. Fae fish had freaky qualities. Even the most beautiful had jagged teeth like piranha. And here my dad was knee deep in waders.

It was the second to last place I thought to look. Mom was at the new family apartment with Sarah, Jenny, and my birth mother, Alithea. It was all so confusing, I did everything in my power to avoid them, so I had poked my head in, said hello, asked where John was, then promptly left. I didn’t care if it was rude. The worst day of my life was when I found out I was essentially adopted, not because it changed how I felt about the Kellers, but because I had no idea how to handle having two sets of parents. I’d thought I avoided the whole multiple family thing when I’d made it through high school with my parents still married. Most of my friends hadn’t been so lucky. No matter how much they’d tried to tell me how great it was to get to spend quality time with both parents and the fringe benefits of those parents trying to one-up the other to show how much they loved their kids, I knew better. People handled the things they had to, but it didn’t mean they liked it.

When John saw me, he nodded before turning back to his task. Experience told me not to disturb the water. I also realized it would be a while before he’d finish, so I took the opportunity to enjoy the settling evening. Twilight never seemed so alive back home. Here, something compelling rested in the shadows. I
still wasn’t fully convinced Faeresia was safe for those of us who could die. There were too many creatures lurking in the vast forests, and who knew if one of the many plants that could get up and around would decide it wanted a snack. The main reason I hadn’t taken off for the borderlands was the stories I’d heard of the creatures living there.

I’d only ever seen Rayla’s hellhound once, but it was more than enough for me. On all fours, the creature stood nearly eye-to-eye with me. I would never understand where all the fae inhabitants originated. Supposedly, each house of fae came from a different universe. As it had been described to me, they were all banished from their respective spheres for rebellion. Once the word got out how misfits were welcome on Earth, a whole slew of them showed up looking for a new home. Throughout history, the fae have been responsible for global calamities and ruination of societies when the time for change in power had come.

Who could verify such a thing? I have no idea if there is a master creator out there who agreed to let the fae live here. Hell, I don’t even know if I believe there is a god. Looking at my dad, I saw a man of faith. Not in the sense of church and religion, but in a sense of belief of a higher power. I once asked him what was right. He told me every man had to decide such a thing for himself. He said it would do me no good to search for outside views. He advised me to seek truth for myself. It’s a noble idea, but how can a man go after truth from corrupted sources? All people think they are right, including the fae. Maybe one day I would find out for myself, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be today.

Since I was gonna be here for a while, I leaned back in the grass and watched the night sky take shape. Dad would most likely wait until the fish were visible in the water to leave. He told me it was no fun if he could see them.

My mind drifted to my problems, but no matter how I turned the scenario over, I never came up with a working plan of escape. I’d hoped with enough thought and privacy something would hit me, but the only thing I ended with was a headache from craning my neck so many times to see if dad was done.

When I’d nearly lost hope, rustling in the grass notified me of his approach. I sat up, giving him a thorough appraisal. I expected to see several fish dangling from his line, but he could barely lift the bundle he’d caught. I jumped to my feet and took the burden from him. He gave me a nod before taking off. I followed him along the path to where he’d parked some kind of contraption that might resemble a car. It was more like a hovercraft, but when it was parked, it shrunk to the size of a tricycle. On his approach the thing enlarged until it rivaled a Hummer. The boxy lines gave no hint of the swank interior or the jumping flight capacity.

With the slightest flick of his wrist, the rear gate lifted to reveal his old ice chest. I smiled, memories rushing in. Even though he’d worked a lot when I was older, he and I had spent quite a bit of time out on the rivers, and so had this chest. I tossed the lid aside and settled the fish as best I could. He caught a variety that even in this light glowed fluorescent blues, greens, and yellows. I didn’t bother replacing the lid because the fish hung out of the top.

Dad gave a grunt and moved for the front of the vehicle. I climbed in the other side, expecting one of the gadget ridden things I’d been in before, but there was a dashboard complete with steering wheel. There were no pedals, though, which kind of killed the effect. He didn’t even have to say a wor
d before the thing lifted soundlessly into the night sky. Lights flashed on. Then we were off at a blinding speed. He grumbled a few words and hit a few buttons before we slowed to a recognizable pace.

His head spun toward me, giving him ample time to appraise me. “What’s bothering you, Son?”

As was usually the case, I fumbled for words. “It’s just…I…well…I’m not like Rayla.”

He chuckled. “What a relief.”

I rolled my eyes, taking a deep breath. “It doesn’t look like I have power in all the elements like she does.”

His frown was immediate. “So?”

“I’m supposed to be this great thing…the first of my kind, but I’m nothing special.”

“Then you’re just like the rest of us. Having ability doesn’t make you special, boy; how you use your power is most important. If you’ve been given only one element, use it the best way you can. Forget about the rest. They are meaningless to you.”