Reluctant Adept: Book Three of A Clairvoyant's Complicated Life (36 page)

Right
. It was all my fault.

"What was I thinking?" I said with mock gravity before glowering. "The world might explode or something if anyone other than Tíer and Red actually had faith in me."

I had to remind myself that I liked Kim. She was an intriguing combination of sweet and irreverent that I found endlessly entertaining. I loved hanging out with both her and her partner Jackie. Their camaraderie and mutual affection was adorable, plus they were a hell of a lot of fun to be around. Whenever the whole demon-invasion-you're-the-one thing was getting me down, the two of them never failed to cheer me up.

Today, though, there'd been no trace of fun-loving Kim. I'd mainly seen dour-and-moody Kim, thanks to Brassal's influence. Granted, she had a job to do as King Faonaín's emissary, and, as far as I knew, they hadn't added any new ones to replace the part-bloods who'd been murdered. Kim and Brassal were it—the king's sole means of communication. Heck, Brassal was no doubt standing—or kneeling—in the Lord on High's presence, right now, which put both Kim and Brassal in a difficult spot. I kept reminding myself of these things, but when she came across like such a jerk, it was hard to not take it personally.

Nothing was ever easy with these people.

Ignoring her pinched expression, I closed my eyes. This time, I eschewed the beacon still around my neck, in favor of my sidestepping ability, and reached into the Between in search of Caiside's essence.

I'd realized something profoundly important when I matched Drustan's resonance in order to escape Caiside's prison—I could sidestep through a ward, even one as powerful as the
enebráig
.

But that wasn't all.

I could sidestep my telekinesis through a sidhe's shroud too. And once I knew an individual's resonance, I could go through the Between to do it from afar.

Even from a trashed conference room on Earth.

Levering my heels up and down with excitement, I sought Caiside's resonance within the Between's infinite nexus and, upon finding it, followed the tremulous string to his body. As I sidestepped my TK to envelop him within my grasp, he jolted, his body tensing, but he didn't swat at my ministrations. And, unlike the time I'd used the necklace, there was no tell-tale reflection of my magic, which told me definitively that I'd bypassed the prison's ward. If I'd done it this way in the first place, instead of going through the necklace, the whole fiasco with being sucked into his prison wouldn't have happened. Of course, I wouldn't have learned some important lessons either.

Before I sidestepped him to stand in front of me, I stroked his cheek with my magic.

A split-second later, he materialized three feet away, blinking back the bright lights and breathing hard.

Yes!

"Am I cooking with gas or what?" I exclaimed, jumping to my feet.

After a moment of awed fascination, Caiside's expression turned to alarm and his focus snapped to Alex, who was struggling to a sitting position within the confines of the djinn's last remaining bubble.

"Alexei," Caiside rasped, settling to his knees near the injured strigoi.

He pressed the flat of his hand to the shimmering prison and then considered me, his eyes turning angry. "He needs blood to fully heal. Release him."

I stepped closer. "Is he in control?"

The more I looked at Alex, the less I liked the idea of setting him loose. He was breathing erratically with extended fangs and hooded eyes, and I could hear him growling.

"Release him. I will care for his needs," Caiside replied.

"Fuck that. Give him the Deceiver," Fisk sneered. "He's the asshole who started this shit storm."

"Sidhe blood will empower him," Kim said, striding closer, her lips curled in disgust. "It's forbidden!"

As I considered them, with their ruined clothes the sole evidence of their dust-up, I realized Wade must have been busy healing everyone while I'd been distracted with rescuing Caiside. Now, Alex was the only one left with injuries.

"I won't let him suffer," I said curtly. "And if he ends up empowered, all the better for when he helps me save my friends." I nodded at the djinn. "Release— "

"Lire, no. With a shroud, he'll be invulnerable," Kim said, dismayed. "It was already hard enough to keep him from killing Kieran. Your friend is more powerful than you can imagine. Why do you think your djinn had to interfere? Even my lightning was hard pressed to subdue him."

"It won't get that far now that I'm here," I said. "Caiside, you ready?"

"Yes," he replied.

Kim huffed, but she didn't interfere when I nodded at the djinn. "Okay, release Alex, please. If things spiral out of control, you'll restrain him. I don't want anyone getting hurt."

"As the Lire wishes," they answered.

In case things took a turn for the worse, I surrounded Alex with my TK and watched, stomach clenched, as he hungrily launched himself at Caiside. Although he may have looked the weaker of the two, Caiside enfolded Alex within the circle of his arms and fed him his wrist before the hungry strigoi could think about going for his neck. Eyes intent and gripping Caiside's arm like it might escape at any moment, Alex sank his teeth into flesh, driving a pained grunt from the sidhe. Caiside's expression, though, was far from injured. He lovingly held Alex's body, pulling the strigoi leader into his lap and rotating so that his broad back shielded Alex's feeding from our curious gazes.

Caiside's voice rumbled, rife with emotion, words too subdued from my distance to understand. Alex's labored breathing and wet suckling echoed through the room, but after ten seconds or so, the sounds diminished to a less frenzied level. I hoped this was an indication that Alex had gained control of himself and Caiside wasn't about to be sucked dry. Because it wasn't hard to see—Caiside wouldn't hesitate to give his life for his mate.

"Maya," I murmured, motioning the djinn toward me. "Don't allow Alex to take too much from Caiside, okay?"

"The djinn will not allow the sidhe Caiside to suffer unalterable damage," it assured me.

As Maya drifted toward Caiside's hunched form, I caught Diedra's suspiciously narrowed gaze as she observed the two men from the other side of the broken conference table. "Deed, you okay?"

She jerked at my question, her expression clearing, and then nodded a little too rapidly. After a beat, though, she seemed to think better of it, shrugging and giving me a small smile that said, 'Not really, but I'll survive.'

I could sympathize. But before I could return her smile, Kim issued a hair-raising shriek and crumpled to her knees as if she'd been summarily kicked in the kidneys.

Gasping and distressed, she raised her head and choked out something in Silven. I distinctly heard 'Brassal.'

All the sidhe stared wide-eyed at Kim, their bodies rigid, and then the room exploded with a riot of agitated Silven, all of them speaking at once. Nonplussed, I glanced in Diedra's direction—knowing, like me, she wouldn't understand what the heck was going on. Interestingly, though, instead of confused, she looked almost victorious.

Whoa.
She detested Kim that much?

I stared at Diedra, puzzled, until I realized she'd been helpless to do anything but watch when Kim attacked Alex with her lightning until he lost consciousness. No wonder Diedra disliked her.

My friend continued to observe the sidhe's animated discussion, her gaze bouncing avidly from one speaker to the next, looking as though she couldn't get enough of the conversation, until she caught me watching her. Her slender eyes rounded at my curious gaze and then a dizzying array of emotions flashed over her features—fear, anger, guilt—so quickly that I could hardly keep up. Finally, she frowned, looking bewildered, but even that expression didn't seem to sit comfortably on her face. It left me with the odd sensation that her confusion was feigned—which made no sense because it wasn't as though she understood Silven.

Proving my point, she jerked a thumb toward the agitated discussion and mouthed, "What's going on?"

They were no longer all speaking at once. Kieran knelt next to Kim and the others had moved closer as they all listened to her anxious, halting words. My stomach tried to dive into my shoes when I noticed Kim had tears in her eyes.

I shook my head at Diedra and mouthed back, "I don't know."

Plainly, though, something bad had happened. I got that in all caps from Tíereachán's emotions, which were strong enough to overpower his shield. His distress, mixing with the general feeling of turmoil in the room, formed a toxic cocktail that left me tense and jittery and somewhat queasy.

Just when I thought I'd gotten my stomach under control, Kim said something in a highly anxious tone that prompted everyone to stare at me.

Uh oh.

Kieran stood, looking about as conflicted as a person could look without imploding, and he might have started toward me if Tíereachán hadn't beaten him to it.

"Brassal's been gravely injured," Tíereachán said, moving close enough to touch my arm. "Kim isn't sure what happened, but she thinks he was attacked, and she can no longer communicate with him. There's reason to believe this is the work of an assassin. Kim thinks he'll die unless we can get to him in the next few minutes."

"Okay," I said, wondering what they expected me to do. "I'll help in any way I can, you know that, but I've never met Brassal. Without knowing his resonance, I can't bring him here like I did with Caiside. And I can't take us to him without knowing the plagency of where he was last standing."

At this news, Kim issued a strangled sob.

"My lady's nearest gateway is three hours away," Wade said. "But it is open for the emissary's use, should she wish it."

"He'll be dead in minutes, if he's not already," Kim cried through her tears. "Why didn't I tell Michael to bring me the draíoclochs? If I had— " She broke down, unable to finish.

I snapped my gaze to Tíereachán.

The draíocloch!

He frowned in confusion.

"Lire— " Red started, but I already knew what he was about to say.

"I know!" I shook my hands excitedly, looking to him for guidance. "My backpack … Red, where'd I leave it?"

"In your bedroom, I believe," he replied, standing on his chair, a few feet to the left of Diedra.

"What do you have in mind,
mionngáel
?" Tíereachán asked discretely. He glanced at Kim, who had stopped sobbing and stared at me with hopeful, red-rimmed eyes.

"I'm trying to figure something out. Give me a second," I said, looking down at the floor to better concentrate.

With my bedroom's resonance in my mind, I pushed my TK directly there and searched for my backpack. On my slipper chair, in the corner, I found it half covered by my bathrobe. I didn't stop to marvel at my new skills. I grabbed the bag and then sidestepped it through my conduit, depositing it on the floor at my feet.

I dropped to my knees, ripped open the drawstring top, and dug around inside until I found what I wanted—the depleted
draíocloch
.

"Yes," I hissed before transferring it to the palm of my gloveless right hand.

On contact, the familiar resonance coursed through me, reminding me of that fateful day, last month, when Maeve and Kieran first showed up to screw up my life. Although the magic had been drained, the captured essence of the Otherworld remained. As its wondrous tune flowed over my skin and permeated my senses, I opened myself to it. And this time, I memorized its unique symphony, so nothing could ever keep me from traveling to its source—
draíocloch
, in hand, or not.

As I ran my fingers over the egg-like object's delicately carved surface, I recalled Red's prophetic words, uttered after Vince had been abducted, back when I foolishly thought things were at their darkest.

True, the magic has been consumed, but I sense something more. It may yet have a role to play.

"Red, you were right. It did still have a role to play." I grinned at him as he regarded me from the other side of the broken conference table. "You're one smart cookie, you know that?"

Kim stood up with Kieran's help and shot a watery glare at Tíereachán and Fisk. "You told me you didn't have any of the
draíoclochs
!"

"They don't," I said, lurching to my feet. "This is the one Daniel invoked to call Maeve and Kieran, last month. The magic is depleted, but it's still attuned to the Otherworld." I turned it over in my hand and then looked at Kieran. "If I follow the resonance, where will it take us?"

"The Great Hall, inside the king's palace," he replied, watching me with growing alarm. "But you can't risk traveling there yourself. Send Kim and me, but you have to stay here."

Before I could get up a head of steam over being told what I could or couldn't do, Kim barked at him, "She has to come! What if Brassal needs to get to a healer? What the fuck is wrong with you? He's your best friend."

"You don't understand!" Kieran erupted, startling the hell out of me. Kim, too, jumped at the unexpected outburst. Staring at her, he shook his head violently, his face twisted into a mask of horror mixed with an undeniable dose of fury. "He'll take her! Don't you see? He is without compunction. He'll use her as he did Nuala. He'll rape her until she's with child and even then, he'll not let her go. He'll break her!"

"Oh, Kier." I pressed the flat of my hand to my chest.

Now, it all became clear. This is what drove his overarching obsession with my plight. King Faonaín had raped Nuala. He'd done to Kieran's mate what Evgrenya had done to Caiside (and who knew how many others), possibly for as long as Kieran and Nuala were bonded, until her death in that earthquake. And, by the sound of it, she'd had at a child in the process.

No wonder Kieran was so screwed up.

I looked at Tíereachán, but the shock coming through our connection already told me this had caught him flatfooted too. His expression only mirrored it.

"Fucking hell," Fisk muttered.

Diedra, oblivious to the gravity of Kieran's disclosure, echoed her earlier protestation, "Lire, if you go, you'll be taken to the king." Bizarrely, she looked almost as anxious as Kieran. She jerked her chin at Drustan. "You heard what he said earlier. You can't escape the Hunt."