Enchanter's Echo (21 page)

He reached his hand over the stair’s empty space. Her nervous sparkles danced to him in a bouncy stream. “Princess, you know I’m not going to hurt her, don’t you?” He straightened. “Here,” he said, as if he were offering her something, though his hands were empty. “I vow to you, Aurora Firenze, I will not go hunting through the forest or anywhere else to find your secrets or the little girl.” The powerful words vibrated through the air.

She closed her eyes against what he offered. “You can still ask around though.”

“I won’t ask about her. Except to you.”

“Why are you doing this? Is this another game?”

“I want to earn your trust. We can build on that, can’t we?” The energy of his vow still shimmered in the air, playing with her glitter. “I want you. I want to make you laugh and battle your wits.” He straightened and took one step and then another toward the end of the railing. “I want to chase you around this tower naked.” He turned to pass the stairs, closing in on her.

Her skin tingled, a warning to run or be devoured by a dragon.

“I want to sit and hold you on that fluffy couch and watch the skyline spark to life on cold nights and warm nights.” He stopped in front of her and brushed the back of his hand against her cheek.

She glittered in silence. She couldn’t afford his desire. Even if it matched her own.

His vow wasn’t enough. But she wanted nothing more than to wrap herself in his offer, if only for a moment. She shook her head within his hands, staring up at him. He was so close she could see every color of blue in his eyes. “We’re too different, you and I. We can’t...there’s no future for us.” There could never be. No matter how her heart hurt.

“Then let’s just be together now. If now is all I can have, I’ll take it.” He pressed his lips against hers. A slow, sweet brush of a kiss. “Come on. I’ll make you dinner.” His eyes twinkled. “And then I’ll destroy the dirty dishes.” He reached for her hand, stepping back, their arms stretching between them as he waited for her to walk with him.

She took one step. “I don’t have much food and you will not destroy my dishes. You will wash them.”

“I brought food. And Bare Witches’ Whiskey. I’ve acquired a taste for it over the last few months.”

So had she.

* * * *

The fissure had woken him an hour ago, but he hadn’t moved. He ignored the pain. It had sunk into his soul, a deep stab of a knife, burning him somewhere he couldn’t reach. Worse, it was bleeding out a kind of strength that he’d never paid attention to before, as if souls had their own fuel. He cushioned the pain with Aurora’s presence, soaking up her vibes as if they could staunch the bleeding.

He watched her sleep, her head cradled on his lap and her hand on his thigh. His arm lay just beneath her breasts. She was warm and soft and peaceful. A just right happiness had settled into his soul like the piece he’d been missing his whole life. He’d savor it for just a while longer. He refused to let the evil stalking his territory steal this moment from him

Even as he thought it, a booming roar shattered the night’s silence. Outside. Somewhere close. He didn’t jump. Instead, he calculated. About ten hours, he thought. That was his longest record with inner peace since she’d abruptly abandoned him last spring.

Aurora jerked awake, opening her eyes while the sound still vibrated through the water tower. “What was that?” Her voice was quiet with sleep, but shaky from the startle. “That felt like the blasting they did when they made the sewer tunnels.”

He slipped her head off his lap and stood, placing a pillow beneath her. Someone was coming from the field in a hurry. His mage sense registered the presence.

“They finished that months ago. I don’t know what that was.” Striding toward the stairs, he yanked his suit jacket from the back of the chair as he passed. Proper dress was a habit.

The jingle of her homemade doorbell rang in the air.

“Oh, goddess, is it your mother? Is she arresting us? Wait! I’ll get the door!”

“It’s Keene,” Edmund hollered, recognizing the kid’s vibes. He jogged down the stairs. Did she really think he’d let her answer the door at three in the morning? Nothing good ever came from a knock at three. He much preferred a knock at five in the morning. Those were never quite as bad.

He parted the vines.

Keene stood there, grim faced and dirty. “Bull wants you at the towers. He thinks some kids just set off a charm bomb over there. He’s got most of the others out searching for ’em. I gotta go, too. I’m just relaying the message.” The kid ran off.

“I’m coming with you!” Aurora hollered from the platform.

The hell she was.

“Stay here where it’s warm, princess,” he hollered back as he straightened his tie. “I’ll tell you everything as soon as I get back.”

“No way.” She appeared at the top of the stairs, grabbed her coat and hat from where she’d tossed it over the banister, and ran down. “If the towers are damaged I might be able to enchant them back into shape. We don’t have a metallist mage anymore.” She sucked in a breath. “Oh, goddess, I hope Gwyn is safe. She walks at night all the time.”

“Through the trash towers? Seriously, you stay here.” He slid his hands against her neck, wanting nothing more than to lean down and kiss her goodbye. But something told him not to take that step, as if it would signify something more permanent, sealing a deal she wasn’t ready to make. Instead, he stroked her cheek. “I’ll call you if I need you.” He wouldn’t need her.

She lifted her eyebrows. “No. I’m either coming now, or I’m following behind you.”

An image of the rope he kept in the trunk of his car drifted through his mind. Tying her up and securing her to the bed appealed on multiple levels. The image stoked his blood hot enough to solder together the edges of his bleeding soul…almost. A shame his car was at the far side of the metallist’s shop.

She stepped through the vines and held them open for him.

He pressed his lips together at his decided defeat and walked through. “This enchantment doesn’t lock, does it?”

“Not exactly.”

“We’ll fix that later.” He forced his voice to stay soft and calm.

Aurora had to break into a run a few times to keep up with him as they charged through the field, but he couldn’t afford to slow down. He pulled her along, their breath puffing in the cold as he scanned every inch of land.

When they finally reached the towers, she was panting from the rush.

“No one’s here,” she huffed.

He kept scanning, but she was right. “And you know this how? You certainly aren’t using your mage sense.”

“How’d you know I wasn’t?”

“Senators don’t live long if they can’t recognize when someone’s mage sense is vibing.”

They crept past the rows of towers, peering into the darkness. He sent a mage light to travel down each row. At the third row, a small pile of rough ash was scattered on the ground, barely noticeable. This was the one.

“I’m going first.” He took one step between the tall towers. The moment he stepped in, his mage sense screamed in protest. He had to shut it down.

“Do you sense any damage? I don’t,” she said, stepping in behind him.

Hell, he couldn’t sense a damn thing, and it only got worse the farther they went.

A sharp ring pealed through the air. Aurora jumped. Edmund didn’t exactly mirror her movement, but that was…unexpected. And, to him, instantly recognizable.

“What the vibing heck is that?” she asked. The sound stopped only to start again. “A landline connection?” She squinted at a spot in the tower, directly above the small pile of debris.

He could see its outline within the tower’s tightly crumpled metal. Here was the source of the landline call to the senator. His gut cramped. Whoever had made that call to his grandfather had been right here…so close to Aurora’s home and shop.

She crouched slightly to bring it to eye level. “I don’t think it’s part of the tower. It’s like it’s just sitting in there.”

It rang again. She reached out for it.

Edmund grabbed her hand. “Let me do it.”

“No. If it is trashed, I’ll be able to handle it, even if my instincts take over and I glitter everything. Better my instincts kick in than yours.”

He couldn’t deny that, still, his heart pounded as she reached into the dark hole. The ringing halted the moment she touched it. She lifted it to her ear, but kept it from touching her face. Smart girl.

“Hello?” she asked.

A click sounded from the other end.

She looked up at him and then carefully replaced the receiver back inside the tower.

Edmund crouched at the pile of debris. Aurora did the same.

“Don’t touch it,” he ordered. “Vin can get one of his people to examine it, figure out what kind of explosive this was.”

“What about the vow?”

“There’s no fissure here, so the silence vow isn’t in effect about this. But I’d bet our bomber wanted to destroy the phone.” He filled her on the landline call the senator had received. The caller had pointed the finger at the two of them.

“Oh,” she puffed, dismay and fear in the soft sound.

“Are you satisfied there’s no damage to the towers?” At her nod, he grabbed her hand and pulled her down the dark corridor between the towers. He needed out of here.

Before they made it out, another shrill call of the landline wailed through the air. Though they both halted, neither moved back toward it at first. But the ringing was persistent and hard to ignore.

Aurora caved. She went back and lifted the receiver. “Hello?”

“Where are you? What landline connection is this? Why are you so trashy?” The screech came through loud and clear.

He stiffened.

“Who is this?” Aurora asked.

He knew the answer.

“Why do you people always ask me that? We need to meet more often, much more often, if you can’t recognize my voice. Interested in another boat ride?” The crackly voice spat each word with a sharp edge.

Aurora swallowed. “Would you be offended if I said no?”

“Yes!”

“Oh.”

“Now where are you?” the High Councilor demanded.

Aurora explained, “Tower thirteen in the junkyard. Another call came through just before yours, but they hung up.”

“Yes.” The High C was quiet for a long time. “Clever. Who? I wonder. Tell me, enchantress, do you have any suspects?” Her voice vibrated through the phone, its tone reaching out like a dull knife to scratch at his skin.

Aurora’s chest heaved up and down. She pinched her lips tight. His girl couldn’t bring herself to throw Wasten under the wand.

“Do I need to compel you?” the old woman screeched.

“Justin Wasten.” Edmund directed his sound waves into the receiver answering for her. “But he’s disappeared.”

“Your new overseer? The Wastens. Fourth family. Seventy-nine percent dark mages, though most are stone mages.” She gave a low hum. “Perhaps. We’ll have my favorite general track him down. Surely Wasten can’t hide from my army. By the way, baby elephants need mothering. Tonight! I’ve seen it.”

Aurora’s confused look landed on Edmund. Baby elephants had been born at the zoo a few weeks ago. Bronte had dragged Vincent, the High C’s favorite general, to go see them. That had made the newspapers.

“Well, go do it, for vibes sake!” She’d lost her patience at Aurora’s silence.

“How?”

“How should I know?” the High Councilor screeched. “You people think oracles are the end all be all fountain of answers. I hate to break it to you, glitter girl, but they’re not! I don’t have all the answers.” She huffed and continued, “This the kind of crap I deal with everyday.”

“I’m sorry?” His poor girl was grasping for the right words.

“So am I. Now get out there and start mothering before someone notices that my Republic is falling apart at Rallis’s seams. Which is going to happen any minute now because I’m the oracle and I’ve foreseen the papers hitting the stands.”

Aurora’s hand shook as she set the receiver back into the tower’s cradle. “I think she’s mad.”

“What the holy vibes are you doing in there, Aurora?” A woman stood outside the towers. Her beautiful face almost glowed in the dark night. Pale blond hair flicked out beneath her black cap. “And who is this? You two having a good time between the towers?”

“Gwyn, this is Monday. He’s the new Second.” Aurora introduced him. He kept his surprise hidden that she’d use his junkyard alias.

Gwyn gave a throaty laugh and crossed her arms over her chest, tucking in her bare hands. “Guess you’re not Thursday, after all. Though you’re not a Monday either, are you?” Her smile was knowing. She’d recognized him.

“Couldn’t sleep again?” Aurora strolled toward the entrance to the towers, but not fast enough for him. He put his hand on her shoulder, pushing her along. He needed out of this space so he could open his mage sense.

Aurora stepped faster but focused on her friend. “I had a feeling you’d be out here.”

Edmund opened his mage sense the moment they cleared the tower.

Gwyn gave a smile. “Couldn’t sleep. As usual. I was coming to get Haines to tuck me back in.” She winked. “The load of anger that man carries around always makes me feel downright chipper by comparison. Why are you here? Being out in the middle of the night isn’t going to cure the bags beneath your eyes, my friend.”

“Someone set off some kind of explosive device back here. We were checking out the towers. Fortunately, I don’t think they’re damaged.”

“Oh, good goddess! Are you serious? Thank the vibes there’s no damage. Wasten and I were talking a couple of weeks ago about whether or not a bomb could destroy a trash tower. Guess we have our answer. But still, Rallis let you come with him to check out a bomb?”

Aurora blinked, her eyes drooping for a moment, in mixed up sympathy for their suspect, he was sure. Then she squared her shoulders. “Edmund doesn’t
let
me, Gwyn. I decided on my own.”

Gwyn lifted a blond eyebrow. “Well, good for you, but are you sure he agrees with you on that? Men like him have a tendency to take over their girls’ lives. Believe me, I know.” She shifted her gaze to him. “Aurora can’t handle first families. You do know about her time in Noble, right?”