Fire Kissed (30 page)
But ... the implications were spinning in her mind, everything that was dangerous before, now going deadly. Especially for Bastian. “If I don’t show up at Grey’s tonight, he’ll come after you. He’ll think I’m sleeping with you again.”
Bastian shrugged. “So he’s smart.”
A flame burst into being inside her, sparks fizzing through her blood, and she buried her face in his neck to catch her breath. He smelled so good, felt so solid. He’d been there the whole time. With his arms around her, she could feel herself growing stronger.
“Are you with me then?” he said. The anger was gone.
Her heart was going wild against him, but she managed to say, “Yes.”
Tonight. If they were lucky, they could have tonight.
“All right.” He put his chin on her head. “Let’s go with the rest of your plan, just faster.”
She thought back to the plan she’d conceived on the way over. All the puzzle pieces she’d been trying to figure out. The Council—the seat she’d hoped for was as good as lost. She’d barely touched her rear end down before the upset about the pureblood. She’d have liked to have truly acted the Council member before leaving Grey. At least she knew where the mages met.
Grey’s plans for a widespread mage resurgence weren’t going to go smoothly, thanks to Adam Thorne and Bastian’s Order. The war between Shadow and light was coming, but the information from Grey’s files bought them time to minimize the damage for everyone else.
And Mason and her father would just have to deal with her relocation. She’d meet with her father tomorrow and make sure he understood that she wasn’t his puppet anymore. She wouldn’t be sold to Grey for anything. Brand House, like the future, was hers.
Which left, “My House?”
Bastian nodded. “I agree that the stones make the difference. Like a seat, only the most powerful mages have them. You won’t be ignored among your kind once you have a warded House in place. It’s safety and power all at once. You have no idea how much power. Just ask Adam.”
“Houses take time to build.”
“Then we’d better start right now.”
Chapter 15
Ferro paced Kaye’s bedroom, missing Penny fiercely. Penny, who’d been loyal until she’d died in his arms. She’d lived a little longer inside of him, a wisp of her umbra; then that Shadow too had perished. And now he was alone.
Magekind would mock him behind his back. They’d whispered that his prick had killed Penny. Kaye’s defection would be worse.
He didn’t have time for this today. The world had shaken, and now the lights would go out. Watts House was in place, each family doing its part. The domino effect would begin in the Midwest. As transformer wires melted under the electrical current overload, systems would fail, spreading east from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Coast, casting half the country into darkness.
Kaye had said her affair with the bodyguard was over. She would’ve had to have believed it or he would’ve felt the lie in Verity’s Shadow. If he’d seen her for what she was, he would’ve known the truth. Like a
whore
she’d gone out to attend her client, that Adam Thorne of the Segue Institute. She’d met with her lover, and the romance had been rekindled. That, right there, had been Ferro’s mistake. He never should have let her leave the house. He’d trusted her, and gotten burned.
whore
she’d gone out to attend her client, that Adam Thorne of the Segue Institute. She’d met with her lover, and the romance had been rekindled. That, right there, had been Ferro’s mistake. He never should have let her leave the house. He’d trusted her, and gotten burned.
She’d burned him. And without her fire, he couldn’t even be sure how close the fae were. Sounded like they were snickering in his ear. Having a laugh at his expense.
Had she allied with the pureblood? Must have. Segue would be rubble when he was through—not today or tomorrow, but as soon as his plans would allow. The pureblood and that human nothing of a woman he owned would be hounded. No warded House would take them in.
He would have given Kaye everything.
Ferro paced the length of the bed. Smelled like her—expensive and sensual. He was already getting hard.
His sister, Zelda, had been right all along. If he could, he’d set a wraith on Kaye now too.
No time for this.
Was Kaye Brand worth calling in a favor? He could set retribution in motion, then get back to the matter at hand.
He pulled out his mobile phone. Dialed a number, but the phone lit up in his hand before he pressed SEND. He listened in stony silence, his skin flashing icy hot. “And when are they meeting tomorrow?”
Kaye; her father, Aidan Brand, presumed dead; and Mason, another nuisance. Select others were coming too. Probably Segue as well.
Mage children were taught from birth not to romanticize marriage. Passions were permitted, to a certain extent. Affairs begun and ended as appearances permitted. Overall, he thought he’d been very tolerant.
But this was outright betrayal.
The sun was still up, a low blood-orange glow, when the earthmovers backed away from the plot of land. The dirt was hard, but not wet. Jack led Kaye from where they’d parked to the site for her house, some thirty miles from the inn. He’d used Adam’s map to make certain that there was an abundance of natural resources, that the area wasn’t prone to natural disasters, and that any possible territory disputes would be minimal, should the mages in fact become lords over individual fiefdoms.
She gripped the bag heavy with Brand ward stones and was shocked stiff that all this should be done for her.
“I don’t believe it,” she said, shaking her head while taking in the construction. “It’s so much... .”
“This is Order.” Jack’s chest expanded with pride. The actual building would take longer, of course, but they were even now mobilizing a workforce. The purchase and transfer of ownership had happened even more quickly, thanks to modern technology. A few memories would have to be altered, but the human impact was minimal. He was enjoying this more and more. The real frustration had been getting a construction company out there in the midst of the other chaos and speeding them to dig deep for her foundation. Money was not a problem, but many workers preferred to remain with their families during the upheaval and fear following the quakes, no matter how much was offered.
The sun was fire on the horizon, washing the land in gold, but they’d done it.
Once the stones were in place, set by Kaye’s hand, the building would begin. She’d permit the scores of workers past the wards for the duration. Even now, massive work lights were being trucked in. Tonight he’d review the floor plans with her. Weeks of around-the-clock labor—projections ranged from five to twelve—and she would have her stronghold. This part was easy.
Adam Thorne was hollering instructions, directing the workers to fall back. Jack relished the commotion of thought, everyone working together.
“They’re ready for you,” said Laurence, who’d come ahead of them.
Jack clapped him on the shoulder. His friend had been there when his heart was breaking; now he’d be here when history was made, when Order, humankind, and Shadow labored together to build. This was a momentous step. There was work to do elsewhere as well; tomorrow both Adam and Laurence would move on, but the three of them needed to be present for this: peace while their realms crashed together.
The hollowed-out earth went deep and was wide enough for generous square footage. Footings had been built, awaiting Kaye to set the ward stones so that they could be covered with concrete. The foundation walls would be framed and poured on top of those.
Kaye, Jack, and Adam used a ladder to climb down. Laurence looked on from above, and Jack’s heart leaped when other angels joined him around the perimeter to witness this moment.
Kaye was beaming too, stars in her eyes from the floodlights above. “Let’s get started.”
She walked to the nearest corner of the foundation, took a stone from the bag, and placed it on the ground. It glowed with fire and smoked with Shadow; the earth was invested with power. She stood and smiled. He could feel her strength returning as if it were his own.
“Where do I get me some of those?” Adam murmured.
Jack grinned at him.
She moved to the next point, set the stone, and watched it glow, Shadow snaking into the dusk. She set the next and the next, magic filling the air, until she came to the last spot that would hold a ward. She held it in her hand, and the light caught her profile—proud, scarred, beautiful, and strong.
“Brand,” she said, and put the stone in place.
Instantly, Shadow roared into the foundation space from all directions. It surged over Jack, flinging him off his feet and onto a slab of rock, breaking his back. His vision blanked with the pain, but there ... the itch of recovery was already working, though fainter than usual. But his sight didn’t return. Either that or they were lost in darkness.
Sounds of fighting clashed; then Adam yelled.
And a pillar of fire erupted in the dark—Kaye, eyes black and slanted like a faery’s. Her fire illuminated the black pitch of her House’s foundation, revealing the swirls and eddies of magic.
Right. Jack let loose his light as well, and the angel unfolded within. The Shadow wasn’t illuminated; it was pushed back from his person. The burn of healing grew more fierce.
He spotted Adam—bloody, being dragged unconscious into the earth—but Kaye was there first, brandishing fire to beat the opportunistic fae back like a torch. Gradually the fae retreated into a ghostly pulse of smoke.
She dropped and felt Adam’s pulse. “Alive.” She looked up. “Someone help me!” Angels suddenly leaped from above into the foundation to get Adam out.
Get him to safety.
Here, I’ve got him.
Coming around.
Dangerous.
Jack didn’t need their thoughts to know that no human workforce could be safe inside the demarcated boundary of her wards. Just looking around told him how potent the magic was here. Like Grey’s house, the area was maddening with the smell of passion and webbed with nightmare. The fae leaned in from the earthen walls of the pit to get a better look.
Twilight was close, so very close.
That moment when Kaye had placed the last stone, Jack had felt that there’d been no boundary between Twilight and Earth at all. Even now, it was membrane thin, on the edge of the world. It would take a long time for the Shadow to dissipate, and not all of it would.
“Bastian?” Kaye called across the space, feathers of fire around her.
He’d thought building would be the easy part. They’d needed one easy part. But Shadow liked to break hearts as much as it broke backs.
“I’m good,” he said. Not five to twelve weeks to build. Much longer.
This was the kind of building, as in ancient times, that took lives, that had blood in its mortar, bones in its walls, souls pursued forever by wicked fae. How had Grey and the other Houses managed? The answer was easy: wraiths. The fae weren’t interested in them, so the wraiths could build unimpeded.
Well, wraiths weren’t an option here. And Jack could allow no human near the site either. Not anymore.
Never easy.
Fine.
If humans couldn’t build the house, he would. For her, anything.
Jack stripped off his jacket. Stripped off his shirt. Dropped them in Shadow as the whispers chattered around him. He’d bend the rebar with his bare hands if he had to.
The glow approached. “We’ll just make another plan. I don’t need a house right away. I like hotels better anyway. I’ve got my fire, and I’ve got you... .”
She’d come to all the same conclusions.
“Kaye,” he said.
“Let it go, Bastian,” she said.
“Not with what I’ve seen in your visions. Not with what we discovered today.”
He returned to the pile of building materials to find Laurence there before him, heaving a stack of two-by-six boards onto his shoulder. Old man still had it. Jack didn’t need to say anything, not even thanks, as he passed to get another for himself.
The Shadows grew brighter, Kaye revealing the entirety of the space with her fire.
Jack turned to tell her not to waste her strength. But he was shocked into silence when he saw something swing overhead. A brother angel rode the chute from a cement mixer as it descended into the murk. And above, others seemed to be organizing the job below.
Now
this
was Order. Her hard-won army was massing.
this
was Order. Her hard-won army was massing.
Jack lowered his gaze to Kaye again, who burned resolute, even if her expression was heart-stricken by the shift in labor.
Yes, for you
, he wanted to say. She, who’d been bought and sold, braved it all, was worth everything.
, he wanted to say. She, who’d been bought and sold, braved it all, was worth everything.
He filled his gaze with her, then went back to work.
“Kaye,” a careful, low voice said.
She was dazzled by flame, spinning in a kaleidoscope of hot color around her. She drank with her eyes to feed her umbra, to spark her blood, and to light the space for Bastian and the others. So many to help her. Her. Why? The magic went through her and out again in loops of infinity. Steady, constant, like she would be for him.
“Kaye, love,” the voice said again. “See me, sweetheart.”
She couldn’t let go or she’d lose the light. Constant. She rode the heat.
“Careful,” someone else said. “She’ll burn you like that.”
Burn whom? Why had she ever been afraid of being consumed by fire? She
was
the fire with her ward stones near.
was
the fire with her ward stones near.
“I’m tired, love,” the careful voice said. So weary.
Bastian.
She breathed in deep and took the flame. It went down like a scaly dragon’s tail and grumbled brimstone in her belly. Slowly the world came back into focus. The pit around her was now lit by strange white torches, the light akin to Bastian’s angel glow, pushing the Shadow back. When had those arrived? Men and women worked around her, but Bastian looked exhausted, streaked with dirt across his bare torso and haggard around his eyes. Laurence was seated on the ground, leaning against the dirt wall, also looking the worse for wear.
“The torches will keep the Shadow at bay,” Bastian said. The night sky was the black before dawn, the stars dimming. “You’ve done enough, and I’m past ready to go back to the inn.”
She couldn’t just leave while others worked on her behalf, but he was listing to the side with exhaustion. His jerky, uneven progress up the ladder made her even more worried. Another angel darted under his arm and added his two legs to Bastian’s stumble toward the car. Packed him inside. Belted him in.
She drove.
Fifteen minutes down the country road, she felt angel light shimmering across her skin, raising hot goose bumps. She glanced over to find him inhumanly beautiful, severe in his hard gaze, and yet beat up, sweaty, filthy, his defined muscles still swollen from exertion.
She felt a nervous tingle in her belly. She’d never been nervous around men in her adult life. Not like this. Which was very strange because no one knew her better than Bastian. And he’d made it clear that he still wanted her, still cared for her, in spite of everything.
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