Bones Of Contention: The McKinnon Legends - The American Men Book 3 (34 page)

His mental state was stronger and his control growing by the day. Josh was relieved that she had finally agreed to see him. He and Gage were leaving tonight and going to London to see her in the morning, and he was anxious to get this day behind him.

She said she would be happy to see him.

Yet, he still felt her reserve, not that he blamed her. He had tried to kill her by all accounts. That was not how he remembered it; however, he had no reason to think Gage would lie to him. Jamie refused to talk about the events of that morning which confirmed all that he actually needed to know.

They had talked about the imminent battle. If VanDarious did manage by some twist of fate to get to her and open the portal, she had begged him not to kill her father since her father had no way to control the rogue group. After all, she argued, it was her mother who locked the king and his troops inside keeping him from dealing with his own subjects. The information she gave him was well and good, but not enough to make him feel capable of leading this battle.

“I can think of no other more capable,” she had offered honestly in their last conversation. “Josh, you were born for this. This is what you do. It is what you must do. I understand that it is your destiny to defend the treaty, and I’m grateful there are those of you still out there prepared to squelch any force in violation; just don’t kill my father, please.” She begged dreading the outcome of the battle on the horizon. “I would never forgive myself for being the cause of his death.”

“I cannot make that promise.” Josh would promise almost anything, but that he could not do, not anymore. It would be a lie and a promise he might not be able to keep. Again, what and who he had become stood squarely between Jamie and himself. It was just as Trey had predicted.

“Then eventually you will have to kill me, too, for I would have to avenge his death. It is the Sidhe way, Protector. And I am more Sidhe than I am human.”

He prayed fate would not be so cruel as to force him to make a choice between his duty and the father of the woman he loved. It wasn’t looking good for him because up to this point in his life, duty had always seemed to win the day.

“Jamie, come,” the eerie chorus of voices called her.

Jamie snapped her head up suddenly from her examination table. Her guards were nowhere in sight. “Steve? Doug? Tracy?” She called to them as she pushed back from the table. Was she in the twilight zone? That was what it felt like to her.

She opened the door to the hallway expecting to see at least one guard seated outside the door. No one was there.

“All right guys this isn't funny,” she called out.

Silence greeted her, yet she still felt secure.

As she traversed the long tiled hallway, a florescent fixture flickered overhead. She pushed the button on the elevator which took her to the very depths of the museum.

Jamie could feel them long before she ever made it to the storage room door located at the very end of the hallway. The fine hairs stood on end as if a small electric static current was passing over her skin. She was beginning to wonder at the wisdom of accepting this interview, as if she really had any option not to accept. This visit was sudden and quite unexpected. She was not even going to ponder exactly how they got into the museum at this hour. Her curiosity was killing her as her heart pounded in her chest.

The wizards had resurfaced.

To her knowledge they had been silent for over three thousand years.

The door swung open even before she knocked, and the magic sweeping past her almost took her breath. It was not soft or subtle, but stifling as if it pushed out all the air making it almost impossible to breathe.

“Back off!” It was her first reaction as she forced the magic back at the originators completely forgetting whose presence she was in for a moment.

“Welcome,” they all three said in unison. “We are honored with your presence Princess Jamie of the Sidhe Fae.”

Jamie took a deep breath, the pressure easing as she regained her composure. They were just creatures just like her. There was nothing to fear, she kept telling herself over and over for courage, and she wished Josh was there to run interference. The magic lessened. It was less threatening now.

“I beg forgiveness for my brutish outburst.” She quickly reverted to her court protocol. “I am graced with the invitation. May I be so bold as to inquire what occasion this day marks with the meeting of a Fae and the fabled wizards of Atlantis?”

“It is we who should beg forgiveness, for we forget you are only half Fae. The magic is much stronger against you than would be were you full Sidhe. But to your point, we have great respect for your father, Jamie. He has taken unto himself a creature that needed a firm hand. His helping to tame and corral the Fae was a brave undertaking, a deed to which we can respect and relate.”

Their voices were a perfect pitch and vibrated through her almost like she was a tuning fork and their voices instruments.

“Yes, I agree. He is a great leader and a good father. However, I’m sure you did not call me here to discuss your opinion of the king.”

“No,” again they spoke in unison. It was a tactical move designed to gain and keep the upper hand. It was a very disconcerting experience for her. She tried to just focus on the wizard in the center and wished that she could see her face.

“Alexander, the one everyone calls Josh, is ours. We wish you to leave him to us. We control your destiny, and it is not with him.”

Jamie paused. These creatures were master manipulators. What she would do next would have far reaching ramifications. She had to move slowly and try to stay one step ahead.

“I am of the Fae. Can we not agree?” she asked.

“Yes, you are Fae as it is your father’s blood which defines you,” the oldest of the three spoke. Jamie sensed she was the spokesperson.

“Then as such you do not control my destiny. I am neither human, nor a feather free-floating on the wind waiting for the whim of some creature that is just as different as the Fae.”

“Oh, good one, Jamie. I, for one, did not see that coming,” the younger sister spoke. “However, Princess Jamie, you are also human and your mother has begged protection for you under the treaty.”

“Protection we have provided,” the middle sister said.

“All right, so we can agree I am both, and as a human, I beg continued protection and immunity from punishment under the treaty.”

“Of course, how else have you managed to use the gift of divining the bones out in the open all these years and not have a Protector on your doorstep before now?” Their voices were not patronizing, more like tolerant.

That gave her pause. It was something she had never given thought to before now. In essence she had been practicing magic in the light of day, something expressly prohibited by the treaty. No wonder Gage wanted to keep her and Josh apart. She was in direct violation. It was a death sentence for her.

“We may not control your destiny, Princess, nonetheless, our Protector is quite human, and we do control his destiny,” the three spoke together as one.

“He is distracted with you. Would you like to see the possible outcome of that distraction?” the middle sister spoke again.

Jamie saw a horrific scene unfolding in her mind’s eye. It was a disaster on the field of battle. Dead bodies were everywhere. The screams of the dead and dying filled the air. The stench of blood and gore filling her nose made her gag from the vile smell just as if she were actually there. Goblin, zombie, human, Fae, and Maji’s blood all run and mixed together into a cocktail of massive proportions. Her father lay on the field of blood, his eyes glassed over lifeless in death, his heart pierced with the magic Singing Sword. Josh was standing over him, he, too, with fatal wounds. As Josh clutched his side, blood gushed from his gaping wound. He was holding his side, and his insides threatened to burst out. Jesse was covered in blood, and gore matted her once beautiful hair. She was standing beside her father screaming and begging him not to die.

“ENOUGH!” Jaime yelled, her voice echoing down the stone walls. The images instantly stopped.

“What will it be, Sidhe Princess? Do you give into your flesh, your heart’s desire, or do you act the part of the future queen of the Sidhe Fae and relinquish your hold on him? Do you give him over?”

She thought a moment. What they were asking of her was a steep price which forced her to realize that leaving Josh was not at all what she wanted. Their demands would not come free for them either. If she were to pay the ultimate price, then she would hit them where it hurt.

“As a Fae I now ask for my rights under that same treaty.”

“Do you now?” the middle one questioned.

“Yes.” She stood firmly against the magic they were pressing against her. “The Sidhe have no love for me. If I am to be queen, I need strong magic that the Fae will fear and respect.”

“And exactly what are your thoughts, Princess?”

She found some paper to carefully craft her demands.

“Here is my list of desires.” She was careful not to say demands. She knew where that would get her.

They looked it over before pushing their hoods back. They were quick, but not quick enough to cover their collective surprise.

She was taken aback at their appearance. She recognized them as the three beautiful runners she had seen, admired for their physical conditioning, and then silently cursed in spite of her hangover that day at the beach. So, they had been following and watching for a while.

“A very tall order, Princess Jamie. Do you fully understand what you are asking?” the older one asked.

“Probably not, but there you have it anyway.” Jamie was in uncharted waters and felt she had everything to lose and nothing to gain without going for broke.

The pause was lengthy as the silence stretched on for what seemed hours. There was no sound. They did not talk, yet she felt them communicating. It was a buzzing inside her head like the sound of an old florescent light fixture.

“Very well. We have conferred and this is our answer. In exchange for our request for you to relinquish your place at our Protector’s side and thereby leaving before the sun rises two days hence, we will grant the following with the exception of item two, four, and nine. Item two - you being able to fly, although amusing, it will not happen. It is too open and blatant. Item four being your request for your life expectancy to match Josh’s and to only exceed him by one lunar cycle - we deny this request. You are the rightful, future queen of the Fae. You need this long life to lead properly. We have already agreed to the terms of the treaty, and within that treaty is the granting of long life. We stand firm. You will just have to find some way to deal with the fact you will eventually live to see him die.”

“Bitch,” Jamie did not bother to hide her anger.

“No, Jamie it is just a fact. You have come from a very different world than our Protector. Regardless of the fact these two worlds are tied together, they are not the same.”

“And Item Nine?” Jamie wiped the tears that managed to spring from nowhere.

“We cannot allow you to keep the child you carry. You shall carry him to term and then we will come for him.”

“No!” Jamie was reliving Melitta’s anguish of having these same three come for her child in the dead of night. “You do not have that right. Josh already has a first-born.”

That made her wonder about Jesse’s fate now that Josh was a full-blown Wizards' Warrior and Protector. The wizards were here. They knew of Jesse. What was Jesse’s future to hold? What was her child’s future to hold? He was her first-born.

“We know he does, Jamie, but you do not have a first born.” The younger one softened to her. “However, this child has nothing to do with the Brotherhood or our warriors. Have you learned nothing in your time at court? Do you wish your child to live the life you did in your father’s court? He will be even less Fae than you. Besides, I think we can all agree it is the blood of the father that defines the child. By terms of the treaty, the child is human and as such cannot dwell within the land of the Fae. It is forbidden.”

“No! No! No! You would leave me with nothing?” Jamie covered her ears not wishing to hear anymore. They were technically correct. She had only one final bargaining tool.

“We leave you with what we can,” their unified voices pierced painfully into her heart.

“All right, so you want me gone. I get it. You can have him all to yourselves, free of my presence and distraction. I see where that will take us, and it is a future even I cannot justify by staying. However, I agree only if you agree to let Josh raise my son unencumbered by your interference or the Brotherhood’s influence. Josh is a good and he is decent man. This child could have no better example or training than with his father. Those are my terms. Take them or leave them. Otherwise, we have no deal. I’ll stay and figure something out, so that I never see the blood of innocents spilled because of me.” She was thinking she would not be able to sacrifice herself because that would also sacrifice her child. She would figure something out.

“We agree. Your requests have been granted. You must leave and take your rightful place in the land of the Fae. You will be queen one day, Jamie, and with the gifts and magic we grant to you, at your request, you are now free to leave.”

Jamie was thinking how Josh was really going to be surprised. She had asked for the ancient Minoan wealth be bestowed upon him, which was rightfully his by birth and given by the treaty. It would eventually go to her son, so she was secure in the knowledge he would be taken care of financially.

The three huddled together whispering as she pulled the door closed behind her, but not before her new found acute sense of hearing picked up “unexpected,” “highly irregular,” “changes things.”

Less than six hours later, Jamie let herself into Josh’s quarters. It was easy. She had asked for the ability to bend space around herself to make herself invisible.

When she was penning her requests, she asked for all the superhero powers from the comic books. She could ask only once, so why not ask for the moon?