Redemption: Alchemy Series Book #4 (25 page)

"How long is this going to take?" I asked as we started to descend. I don't like heights, I don't like confined areas, and I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like deep dark depths, either.

"The longer he talks, the better. If we are out of there quickly, I wouldn't expect too much help."

I leaned my head against Burrom's chest and closed my eyes, trying to pretend he were Cormac. To Burrom's credit, he didn't mock my obvious distress once. I was certain I wouldn't have had the same willpower.

"Two more minutes."

Then he gave me a little pat on my shoulder as he heard me count to a hundred and twenty.

"We're here."

I took a step back until there was a few feet between us and I could pretend I'd had more dignity. As I looked down, I expected to see a packed dirt floor beneath my feet, not polished granite.

"Where are we?" My eyes started to adjust and I got a good look around. It was a cavernous hall as big as a theater. The walls also appeared to be a type of granite and the light from the many hanging candelabras bounced of
f the marbled surface, revealing the minerals and depth of the stone.

A single chair,
which sat in the center of the far wall and was made of scrolling copper, appeared to be a throne of sorts.

Burrom urged me further in.

"What is this place?"

"It's the hall of the Earth King."

"And you thought it was a good idea to bring me here? I'm probably enemy number one. Have you seen some of my handy work? Did you somehow miss the tornados, the blizzards in Vegas? I could go on, you know."

He squeezed my hand and shook his head. "I explained it wasn't your fault. He knows all the details. He's my king." He shrugged like I should've figured that out.

Tiny fairies, no bigger than my hand, exactly the way I imagined they would look as a child before I'd met any, flew in carrying chairs.

Then a wizened old man appeared. He slowly walked across the distance
, taking his time and not bothering to look at me until he sat upon his throne. Then his gaze locked onto mine. His golden eyes looked like they belonged to a much younger body.

He didn't speak but nodded his head at the chair near his. I didn't see an obvious exit as I hesitantly approached the seated man. He nodded again to the chair and I relented and sat.

His head angled to the side as his eyes took in every aspect of me.

"I apologize for our ill met earlier meetings. I really don't venture upward much and haven't projected in a long time. I don't always get the scale or placement right."

"You were the giant?"

He nodded.

"And on the strip?"

"Yes. My image tends to distort so I don't look exactly as I am. I used to have more practice
, but haven't had the need in a long time. I've gotten rusty after all these years."

"What did you want to speak to me about?"

"You've caused a good deal of trouble."

His voice didn't sound like the old man he appeared and I tried to focus on his shape. Was it a facade?

"I never meant for any of this."

He nodded. "If you had, you wouldn't be sitting here
, right now." His gnarled hands ran along the fabric of his grey silken robe.

I didn't know if that was a threat or
he simply meant I wouldn't have been invited for tea. Since he wasn't attacking me, I figured it would be best to not pursue it.

The only thing I was certain of right now was that I was out of my element. I had a strong feeling that no matter how old he appeared, he would be able to squash me like a gnat.

He leaned forward peering straight into my eyes. "What are your plans for the senator?"

"I'm not certain." Scary old weird man or not, he was crazy if he thought I was going to lay out my every thought for him. I shot a look over to where Burrom was standing in the back of the room.

"No, he has not divulged this information to me. I prefer to hear it from you, anyway."

"You'll understand my hesitance in sharing information with someone unknown to me."

"I'm aware of what is coming."

"Are you planning on taking part?"

"I haven't taken part in anything for a very long time, but I can't allow any more damage to occur."

"I'm not looking for trouble. This war is of the senator's making." I leaned back against the velvet of the chair.

"I don't know if my Earth can handle anything more from the two of you."

"I'm not looking for trouble, but I won't sit idly by either as I'm attacked."

"And what of the additional damage you might cause?" He leaned forward in his throne.

"What would you have me do?"

"Surrender to him." He slammed his fit down onto the arm of his chair.

"And what of the people I protect?"

"I care not," he sneered. "Whatever lives they will have will be better than nothing."

"Are you asking the same of the senator? Why don't you ask him to give peace when he is the one so determined to have war?"

"I have. He will not bend."

"But you think I will?"

"No. I think I can make you."

"Then you are mistaken."

I turned to look to Burrom. I found him right behind me. My eyes shot daggers, silently accusing him of a set up, but he wasn't looking at me but at his king. He was angry as I was.

Burrom took another step, now side by side with me. "You said you only wanted to talk to her."

"I will do what's necessary." His voice rose louder with each word until it felt like the entire cavern was vibrating.

I turned to Burrom. "Are you with me or am I on my own?"

"I am with you."

"You would side with her? After everything she has done?"

"You are wrong."

"I'm leaving."

"I'm not done." The Earth King said.

"I am." As I rose to my feet and went to take a step, I felt the pull of his magic. He was trying to glue me to the spot and the pull was strong. My impression of his great strength might have been an underestimation
of him.

Instinct made me want to push against it but instead of fighting, I pulled the magical energy toward me. Absorbing everything he sent into myself, freeing my legs. I took a step toward Burrom, holding back the shaking but just barely.  

"I'm ready to leave."

"So am I."

At the king’s roared "No," I turned back to look at the king. The facade of the old man wavered over an image much closer to what I would have expected from the powerful being. A Fae, who didn't look a day over twenty-five, stood tall and proud in all his glory.

Waves after wave of his magic reached for me and I was absorbing it into myself. With each moment, his true form displayed a bit clearer, the glamour shredding from my eyes. I knew I owed the true vision to the amount of magic flowing into me.

"Now, Burrom."

"You got it
, babe."

He held me as he started to tunnel us back to the surface. I could still feel his king's magic
, reaching for me, as we made our way up.

"I didn't know."

I nodded. I was holding on by a hair and afraid to even speak.

"We're almost there. As soon as we reach the top, let it out."

I looked at him.

"I'm bringing you up somewhere uninhabited. I'll go immediately under again."

I nodded again and took a few breaths, afraid of even exhaling strongly. Magic was starting to seep from my very pores and I gripped Burrom harder, urging him to get there as fast as possible. I was thrust to the surface and I didn't even have a minute before I felt the power burst from me. I didn't check to see if he was underground, not having a second to spare. I thrust the magic from me with the energy of an atomic bomb splitting the atom. After it pushed out of me, I lay there on my back in the snow field, wondering how I was even in one piece.

I was exhausted and I might have
lain there forever, if I hadn't heard a whistling sound on the wind. Now what?

I opened my eyes to the too vibrant sky above me and pushed into a sitting position as I saw gray blurs on the horizon appearing. I felt like I'd just fought twenty rounds in a no holds barred fight. I really hoped this wasn't more trouble heading my way
, because I would lose for sure.

I spun around and saw Burrom rising from the ground amid the snowy fields.

"What is that?" he said as he noticed the gray blurs approaching quickly in the distance.

"I don't know."

He moved quickly, positioning his back to mine.

"I'm sorry about that. He told me he only wanted to meet you."

"No apology necessary." We didn't look at each other as we spoke, keeping our eyes on the newest threat.

"They're rippers," he said just as I was realizing the same.

"And new ones. They aren't solid."

Every part of myself tingled in true fear. It was me. Wherever they were from, was
I the link? Did I bring them to this reality? Did I in essence, bare them into this existence? Was it I who brought them into our reality?

"Burrom?"

"Don't say it."

He couldn't have said anything worse. "So you think it's me
, too."

"I didn't say that."

"Yes, basically you did."

They were coming closer and closer, their whistling noise becoming louder with their approach. They didn't stop until they were about five feet from me. As they stopped, I could see they were in different degrees of opaqueness. Only some of them must be new.

Slowly, they all started to bow their heads. I spun around, watching as hundreds, maybe thousands, of rippers slowly stopped.

"What are they doing?" Burrom asked.

I couldn't say the words. If I did, it would make it real.

When I saw Burrom spinning around frantically, I knew he was about to burst. "Fuck!" he yelled. "They're paying homage to you!" Then he turned to me. "Why are they doing this?"

Chapter Twenty-Three

The True Definition

"Why were they paying homage to you?"

"I told you, I don't know." Burrom must have asked me that question five times since we'd left the rippers out in the field. He'd tunneled us under the ground to the outskirts of the strip. It was a great enough distance from where we had been that it would be hard for them to follow. Not that they couldn't find me anyway
, but I was going along with anything that kept Burrom calm.

"Why do you think they did?" Burrom continued to press.

"I don't know." The castle was in clear view with people milling around the courtyard. I wasn't willing to have a hypothetical debate here and now about how I might be bringing the rippers into existence here.

"Bullshit."

"I know as much as you do. And stop looking at me like I'm a Goddamn alien."

"Whatever you are, it isn't human."

"You're right. I'm half Fae, half Keeper." I walked toward the castle and prayed he'd drop the subject.

"There isn't a Fae in existence that can do the stuff you just did. And Keepers are part human. You, are not human."

"Yes, I am."

"You're human the way a diamond was once a lump of coal."

"Stop it. This isn't the place." I signaled toward the bystanders trying to get some air.

"Is it what I think?"

"I really don't know."

Something seemed to click in him and he appeared to calm down a bit, as if he was moving from shock to acceptance. "I hope it's not what it looks like. Because
, from where I'm standing, whatever is between you and the rippers is a hell of a lot stronger than I ever imagined."

I turned away from him again and continued to walk.

We reached the courtyard as Cormac stepped outside. Burrom nodded a greeting and took off.

I saw his eyes shoot from Burrom's back to me.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Not here," I said looking at all the people still around who could overhear.

I spent the entire walk up to the penthouse deciding on what to say. I thought of every lie under the sun. He'd know I was lying, but it still might be better than the truth. What if he looked at me the way Burrom just had? 

I walked in the penthouse and I heard Cormac lock the door behind us. For all the mental wrangling I had just done and the crushing fear of him looking at me the same way Burrom did, I decided
, for once, I was done with the lying. The hiding. It was what it was. He'd left me before. I could get through it again.

So I told him every little detail and waited for the hammer to drop.