Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (97 page)

Step Into The
R
ing

Russell

My stomach churn
s lik
e it got pulled through the antique
book portal along with Anya and Red.
Holdin’
the
media
tab
le for support, that feelin’ does
n’t go away when Zee shut
s
their gateway to Ireland, closin’ them off from me.
My knuckles turn
white as I cr
ush
the clear, glass surface causin’ it to crack
like expandin’ ice.
I ca
n
’t even look at Zee, but watch
the minutes tick by on my watch, w
aitin’ for the time when I can
follow them to Ireland using the other portal.

“Do not dwell on what could happen to them
,” Zephyr advises
with a frown
. “Think
instead
of all the problems that you plan to lay at Brennus’ feet.”

“There’s room for all of that in my mi
nd now,” I reply
wryly, easin’
my
hands off the table. “I can obsess on everythin’
s
imultaneously, but it’s the thoughts ‘bout
Anya that are rippin’ my guts apart.”

“Yes,” Zee replies
grimly
, “I understand that problem…Buns is a force of nature.”

“She is
,” I say
with a reluctant smile, “
y
ou’
r
e
kinda screwed, dude.
She’s definitely got her own ideas.
”

Zee grins
, too. “Do not laugh too hard, playa, yours is a Throne
…
karm
a…” he says
, noddin’
his head before
grimacin’ and addin’, “o
uch.”

My smile broadens
involuntarily
. “
Zee,
when did you
become funny?” I ask
.

“It i
s difficult
to be funny in H
uman,” he says
,
before lookin’ at his watch and then
gra
spin’
the cover of the
portal
computer. “Learn my language and you will think I am hysterical.
” After a second he sobers and asks
, “Are you ready to do this?”

I gi
ve him a look full of hubris, while s
ayin’, “Shoot, I’ve already turned
pro…
this is like headin
’ back to the minors.”

Zephyr flashes
me an evil grin, “You are
becoming more of
an
Angel every
day.
”

He opens
the l
aptop and immediately we swirl
into the
dark tunnel woven with coursin’
blips of light and circu
itry. In the next instant, I’
m
squeezed out of
a CD slot and deposited into a
supple, leather seat of a luxury automobile.

Lookin’ ‘rou
nd at the high-polished shine from
the tortoise
shell dashboard, my eyes widen
at Zee in the driver’s seat. “Do portals come st
andard on all Bentleys?” I ask
, feelin’
the perfection of the
hand-stitchin’
on the seam of my seat
.

“No, this one is custom. Buns installed it be
fore we had to leave,” he states
proudly,
while touchin’ the steerin’
wheel in front of him as if it were a lover.

“Remind me to have her bling
my ride when this is over,”
I say,
assessin’ the garage outside my window. It seems a shame to call it a garage, ‘cuz it’s more like a homage to luxury vehicle
s
.
I’d like to live here
beneath the vaulted ceilin’
with its ribs tha
t turn into columns of support.
“Where are we?” I ask
.

“The carriage house—
it’s across the lawn from the kirk,”
he replies,
depressin’
a button
.
Immediately, the wooden garage door
in front of the vehicle
sli
d
es
soundlessly sideways, allowin’
bright sunlight to spill into the dim interior.

“Can I drive?” I ask after he orders
t
he car to start with some kind of
Faerie-soundin’ word.

“No,” he says
with a smile, “I’m the driver.”

“C’mon, Zee,” I beg. “T
he only car I’ve
ever had wa
s the
beater I bought when I turned sixteen
.”

“All the more reason for me to drive. You cannot han
dle her…she’s European,” he says with a smug smile,
pullin’ out of the garage and headin’ down the gravel drive to
ward the estate. When he glances at me and sees
my hostile look
, he adds
, “Do not be angry, I wi
ll buy you one when this is all over.”

“I’m
not angry,” I say
with a frown.
“I’m concerned.”

I point
up ahead of us to Xavier standin’ with his arms crossed beneath a rosette window of the kirk.

“How’d he
know we’d
be here?” I ask
.

“He caught one of them,” Zephyr
replies
, his face goin’ ashen.

“W
ould he hurt them?” I ask as Zee dri
ve
s
the car recklessly now in the direction of Xavier.

“Would you if th
ey could lead you to your love
?” he counters.
I growl
in response.

Zephyr tears up the grass in deep chunks as we speed
over the lawn.
Xavi
er does
n’t even flinch or move
at all when Zee stops
the car
a mere inch from him.
It’
s only when I fumble
for the doo
r handle that he sho
o
t
s
to my side of the car
, rippin’ off
my door
and pullin’
me out
like I stole it.

Without thinkin’, I send
a burst of energy at him, knockin’ him away from me in a stunnin’ flash of light.
He i
s only on the ground
for half a second
before he i
s up and comin’
at me again. But Tau lands
in front of Xavier
, holdin’
him
back from me.

“We need him!
” Tau says
fiercely to X
avier, who at once stops
strugglin’ against Tau. Evie’s father im
mediately turns to me and says
, “Evie went into the kirk with Anya, at which time they disappeared from the estate.”

“They’re still here,” I reply
gruffly, seein’ the anxiety in his eyes that are just like Red’s. “I’m here to help them.”

“How do we assist you?”
Tau asks
with a taut expression.

“
Ahh, you
wann
a help now?” I counter sarcastically. I glance at Zee who gi
ve
s
me a significant look. “
You
can start by bringin’
us our Reapers,
”
I sigh
in a relentin’
tone
.

“Cole, retrieve
them,” he orders
without takin’
a breath. “What else?” he asks
me succinctly.

“I don’t know. I need to check it out,” I say
,
brushin’ past them and lea
pin’ into the air. I fly
to a
n enormous,
flower-shaped
wi
n
dow and hover
there, tryin’ to look beyond the dark, starry patina, cloudin’ and distortin’ the
shiftin’
details of the church
below me.
It'
s like tryin’
to look through foggy
water.

“She
’s not in there!” Xavier snarls
next
to me, jumpin’ down m
y throat. “I’ve been through it—
questioned all the Powers!”

I scowl
back at
h
im, “I’m fixin’ to go off on you! Can you
sh
ut up for a second?” I ask
before continuin’ my recon
.

“Do you see them?” Zee asks
next to me.

“Yeah,” I reply
in a calmer tone
. “They’re alive.”
Then I
have
to clench my teeth as
Brennus slaps Red and
I
see
her sprawl on the ground
.

“What happened?” T
au asks
, his face turnin’ red at my expression.

“He’s
just slapped
Evie,” I re
p
ly
, not sugar-coatin’ it. “S
he can’t fight back—
”

“Why
? What’s
wrong with her?” Xavier demands
with a tone of desperation that I’ve never heard from him.

“I don’t know. S
he l
ooks weird…slow,” my eyes dart away from Evie as I evaluate
the other el
ements of the chamber
below.

“You have to go in there—
k
ill him!” Xavier urges
, proddin’ me in the shoulder.

“I’m plannin’ on goin’ in there! Just give me a second to figure out how not to get killed when I do! There are hundreds of armed Gancanagh in there and a bunch of freaky-lookin’ mermaids.
”

“Mermaids?” Tau asks softly, before his eyes snap
to mine.
“You mean undines?”

“They look like
mermaids to me—they have
gills,” I touch
the sides of
my neck, “and long,
flowing
hair
,
b
arracuda teeth—
”

“Undines,” Tau
growls,
his face turnin’ redder.
“The innocent bound to the damned…”

“They don’t look innocent
…they look totally vicious
,” I chime
in, pullin’ my hand
through my hair. “Okay,” I say
to Zee, “
I gotta check the way in
.”

I approach
the glassy
film of the window; it resembles
a perfect rendition of the night sky, but with planets in it that don’t belong to this solar system
…
and it’s orbiting like it’
s real
.
Tentatively, I touch
my finger to the glass and it si
nk
s
right through it,
tugg
in’ at me to follow it. I pull
my hand b
ack
,
feeling relief
to see I still have my finger
.

“
Now
, I just need to blend in
,” I mutter
to no one in particular.

I fly
down to
the ground
near the Bentley
. Closin’ my eyes I concentrate
on
my objective
.

Xavier lands
next to me, askin’ in a derisive tone, “What are you doing?”

“Shh,” I whisper
,
openin’ my eyes,
“I’m
gettin
’ somethin’
.
”

In a
few seconds, a small smile creeps to my lips as I hear
the sound like a couple of garbage can lids bein’ clapped together. Along the
low, gray
fieldstone wall, Brennus’
Faerie armor ru
n
s
toward us.
It does
n’t stop when it
nears me, but ru
n
s
right into me, meltin
’ ‘
round me and coverin’ me like a second skin
.