Hopeless Magic (37 page)

"You didn't do anything," Jericho conceded, and his rigid shoulders slumped. He pressed down on the gas even harder and we accelerated past all acceptable speed limits. "It's just that.... Well, I was looking forward to taking this trip alone."

"And you're mad that I'm tagging along?" I asked tentatively.

"I don't know. I just felt like I really needed some alone time."

"I can understand that," I said honestly, feeling like I needed the same thing. "I won't say a word.

You'll completely forget I'm here." I pretended to zip my lips closed with two fingers pressed together, and turned to face the window.

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"You are the one person that I actually don't think I'm capable of forgetting

about," I turned my head quickly, watching as heat crept up the back of his neck.

"So, you're ok with me being here?" I asked hopefully.

"Ugh, yes," he sighed exasperatedly. "only if you hand me my coke," he held out his hand and I looked around for a soda.

"Sure," I said energetically, "Where is it?"

"It's in the cooler in the trunk, Lilly and Roxie packed us some snacks so we wouldn't have to stop."

I unbuckled and leaned across the back seat, reaching with an extended arm into the trunk, awkwardly pulling a blue cooler across the seats.

Jericho jerked the car to the left suddenly and I fell clumsily on top of his shoulder, before right-ing myself and giving him a disapproving glare.

"Sorry," he offered sheepishly, his face red, matching the tone of his neck.

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I opened the cooler and took out two plastic bottles of Coke before turning around and sitting back down in my seat.

"So, where are we going?" I asked, realizing I had agreed to a mission I knew nothing about.

"The Mexican Border," Jericho replied casually.

"Really?" I was surprised, I hadn't been expecting Mexico, but then again, I hadn't really known what to expect. "What's there?"

"I don't know exactly," Jericho said pensively.

"Amory just asked me to deliver a letter for him.

He said it was of the utmost importance but that I couldn't tell anyone and that my contact would find me and not the other way around."

"Oh, well that sounds.... confusing," I laughed.

"Yes, it does," he agreed with me.

"So, the Mexican Border? Alright. When do we have to be there by?" I folded my arms and smiled, this was fun, I was beginning to feel like a real spy.

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"We have to be in Ell Paso by four AM, but I'm hoping to get there a little bit early and stake the place out." he said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, right," I tried not to laugh. "We don't want to be walking into a trap."

"Exactly," he replied seriously and when a laugh escaped me, he turned around, a little offended.

"It's called due diligence, Eden, we have to be careful."

"No, I know. I'm sorry," I couldn't stop laughing.

"It's all fun and games until someone gets caught and sent to prison."

"No, you're right. It's just that, this is my first mission, come on, give me a break," I pushed his arm a little and his bicep flexed rigidly beneath my fingers.

"Just this once," he mumbled, turning his full attention back to the road.

"Is this what all the missions are like?" I asked a question I had been wanting to know the answer to for a long time.

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"No, not really. Well, sometimes," he answered vaguely.

"What are they like, when they're not like this one?" I dug deeper.

"I don't know. We do all kinds of things."

"Like what?" I pressed, not willing to let him get away with avoiding my questions. "Like what were you doing in London before Amory asked you to come back here?"

"Just a lot of surveillance stuff. I had a list of dig-nitaries that I was supposed to watch and report back to Amory about. He wanted to know if Lucan was planning on arresting anyone, or if there had been Shape-shifters turned in. Stuff like that," he admitted.

"That sounds kind of boring, actually," I mumbled, without thinking.

"Yes, boring, but necessary."

"Why?" I had a hunch, but I wanted to hear Jericho say it out loud, for some reason I loved to hear him talk about the Resistance.

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"Well, I don't know, depending on the person being arrested, Amory would make a decision whether to rescue them or not. Or like the Shape-shifters, we always rescued them and depending on the arrest, Amory was always worried Lucan would find the colonies."

"What colonies?" I asked, completely enthralled.

"Over time, most of the Shape-shifters have moved into secret colonies in remote places of the world. Some of them still live in populated areas, but most of them try to stay completely hidden from all civilization."

"Why?" I couldn't stop my questions.

"Well, for two reasons I suppose. The first being, that Lucan would arrest them if he found them; the second, that since the decline of magic they try to stay away from humanity."

"Why?" I felt like a toddler, but I couldn't help myself.

"Because, Eden, they used to be able to shift into anything they wanted, that's how they got their name. But since the ban of intermarriage, their 579/711

magic has been diminished and they are only able to shift into one thing, usually an animal. That's why they avoid humans, they want to shift naturally and in a habitat that makes the most sense."

"So like Lilly...." I started to put the pieces together.

"So like if Lilly were to find a colony, she would most likely go to the jungle regions because she is a tiger. I know there are colonies in almost every rain forest. There is a huge colony in the mountains of Peru, and one way in the north part of Russia. But so far, they have remained under the eye of the monarchy."

"Ah," I finally got it.

"You can't tell anyone about them though,"

Jericho demanded suddenly.

"I won't," I sighed, defensively.

"Eden, I'm serious. You can't tell
anyone,
" he said slowly and with more force.

"I'm not going to," I answered seriously, although I didn't really feel like I needed to explain that.

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"Ok, enough with the twenty questions. Why don't you try to get some sleep, we're going to have a long night ahead of us," Jericho reached for the radio, turning on mellow music, but turning it up loudly so we couldn't talk naturally anymore.

I followed his advice, leaning my head against the cold window and closing my eyes. I was finished talking anyway. I didn't understand Jericho, that was for sure. This road trip had been nothing but bizarre so far.

38.

"Eden, we're here," Jericho put a strong hand on my knee, shaking me awake.

I opened my eyes slowly and stretched. I had been tired. More tired than I expected. I had slept the entire way to the border. My muscles were stiff and my neck terribly sore from resting awkwardly. There was a cold spot on my forehead from where it had pressed against the window.

I sent a surge of magic through my blood, waking myself up and expelling the stiffness to my muscles.

"That was fast," I turned and smiled at Jericho who had removed his sunglasses.

The sky was overcast and black, I couldn't make out a star in the sky, not even the moon. I couldn't even see far beyond my window. We were in the middle of nowhere, completely alone.

"We are going to have to walk the rest of the way. It's a little bit of a hike," Jericho explained.

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"Like, walk the rest of the way out there?" I gulped, taking in the midnight scenery and losing courage.

"Yes, come on. I don't want to be late," Jericho reached for a black messenger bag behind his seat and jumped down from the luxury SUV.

I followed suit, shivering in the cold desert night air. I used my magic to turn on my senses and ex-amine my surroundings. We were in, what felt like, the middle of the desert. There was absolutely nothing around us except sand, rock and cactus.

Jericho took off walking on a dirt path headed south and I followed quickly behind him. Magic or no magic, I wasn't going to be left alone in the middle of nowhere.

We walked silently for an hour or more until Jericho consulted with a hand held GPS system he pulled from his messenger bag. Satisfied with our location, he found a few rocks to sit down on that surrounded a pit, that at one time had held a 583/711

fire. There were half-burned logs and twigs inside, ashy and charred.

"And now we wait," Jericho answered my question before I got a chance to ask it.

"This is exciting," I exclaimed, rubbing my cold hands together.

"What is?" Jericho asked, using his magic to start the old logs on fire. The heat from the flames felt good and I held my hands out to them, snuggling closer to Jericho's rock.

"The mission," I replied, obviously. "Aren't you excited?" When he shrugged his shoulders, I continued, "You know, because it's my first mission and I've never been on one before, it's just very exciting! And I think we make an amazing team.

They will probably want us to go on like, every mission together. Don't you think?"

"Well, enjoy this one, because there aren't going to be anymore missions for you," Jericho threw a rock into the fire.

"What do you mean? Why?" I was hurt by his response. Had I irritated him by sleeping all day?

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Did he not think I was good enough to be in the field? Or was he still mad that I had crashed a trip he was supposed to take alone?

"Future queens do not go on missions for the Resistance, Eden," he answered,very condescendingly.

"How do you know?" I forced myself to be playful, hiding my hurt.

"Eden, don't play games. This is it for you,"

Jericho crossed his arms, and stared intently at the fire. "Tomorrow or the next day or whatever day Kiran asks you to marry him and you say yes, that's it. You're done with missions and the Resistance.... And you're done with me."

"Jericho, you don't mean that," I reached out, holding on to his arm.

"Yes, Eden, I do," he wrenched his arm out of my grasp, refusing to look at me.

"Why are you being like this?" I asked, anger and irritation finally catching up with me.

"Why am I being like this? Are you kidding me?"

he scoffed at me loudly.

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"No, I want to know," I crossed my arms defiantly.

"What do you want to know, Eden? Do you want to know how upset I am that you are not going to be around anymore, that I'm going to have to disappear out of your life completely? Would you like to know how scared I am that I won't be able to protect you anymore? Maybe you want to know how terrifying it is that you are choosing to hand yourself over to the monarchy; that you are going willingly to be slaughtered and I get absolutely no say in the matter. Or maybe you want to know how hurt I am. Is that what you want to know?"

"Hurt?" I swallowed the nausea I felt rising in my throat. I didn't want to hear Jericho's answer, but I couldn't stop myself from asking the question.

"Yes. Eden, I fell in love with you, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. But you fell in love with somebody else. And he gets to marry you. And then probably murder you. But you'd 586/711

still rather be with him than with me," he finished quietly, unable to look at me.

"Jericho, that's not fair," my voice was hoarse, and the tears had started to pool behind my eyes.

"I didn't know you loved me."

"Would it have made a difference?" he asked, tipping his chin my direction.

"No," I choked, the tears spilling onto my cheeks.

I couldn't even bend the truth for Jericho. I knew that.

"Why? Why him? Why not me?" he asked simply and I had to fight the emotion to answer him in a voice he could understand.

"It's not that it is 'not you.' And it's not that I don't love you too, because I do," I answered honestly.

"Jericho, I do love you. But, not in the same way that I love Kiran. It's like he holds the missing part of my soul." Jericho shook his head and I rushed forward to explain, "I know that sounds cheesy, but it's the truth. Ever since I met Kiran, it's like my body and mind and soul have been fighting to get to him. And not just when we're 587/711

apart; when we're together too. It's like this all consuming need; I need him. I need to be with him. What we have is love at the deepest meaning of the word. I didn't choose to love Kiran when I met him, in fact I wanted the exact opposite. But it's like I have always loved him, I just had to find him. He is my soul mate. Nothing less. And I can love you or anyone else, but it will never be complete like it is with Kiran. It will never be my calling. With him, there is no one else. There can be no one else. And it's the same for him. Does that make sense?" I placed a gentle hand on his, hoping he would look at me and understand.

"No, it doesn't make sense," he grumbled.

"Jericho please. I don't want you to hate me. I couldn't take it," I begged him.

"Eden, I don't hate you," he turned to face me and the emotion behind his blazing eyes took me aback. "I just, I want you to know that I do love you. It's not something I wanted either, but it happened to me too. As strongly as you feel for 588/711

Kiran, he isn't your only path; you have options."

He was so sincere that I wanted to believe him.

But I couldn't. I had tried to stop loving Kiran. I had tried to stay away from him before. We were drawn together and our destiny was clearly not in my control. I smiled at Jericho wanting to explain that, to make sure he was completely clear that there was no chance for us and that I had chosen Kiran forever, for the rest of eternity. I opened my mouth, but a dark figure moved over the rise behind Jericho and I jumped, startled by a tall black man, dressed in dirty work pants and a worn forest-green sweater.

Jericho turned around and stood up, walking over to the man and reaching out his hand.

"I am Jericho," he said plainly and the other man took his hand warmly.

"I am Silas," the man replied with a thick Jamaican accent. He smiled and perfect, white teeth shined in the firelight. "It is a pleasure to meet you."