Sacrifice (27 page)

By that which has no price
.”

“That’s completely different.”

“It’s completely pointless. The prophecy means nothing. Raphael said it was something Aiden came up with to throw humans into the mix and make it more difficult for Alex and Raphael to win.”

“So then why did Jake give me a different prophecy from the one the Vinco Potentia has? Why not just give me the same one if it means nothing?”

“I don’t know…That’s a good point.” She gazed out the windshield. “And Alex and Raphael talked about you, the Chosen One. That I, or rather the Emmanuella before me, had never fallen in love with her protector before. That it went against the prophecy.”

“So the prophecy
does
mean something.”

“Maybe.”

“Jake’s version says
promised ones
, plural. Who are they?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Me and Jake?”

“So then who are the Elevated One and the Supplanter? ‘
The Elevated One arises in sorrow in the full moon of the summer solstice
.’”

Emma shifted in her seat, tucking her legs underneath her. “The Vinco Potentia said that was the baby. There’s no baby now. The prophecy means nothing.”

“Let’s not dismiss it so quickly. Are you the Elevated One? The Elevated One rises up to rule the land and the Supplanter challenges him. It says you’re the queen. Queens rule.”

“It says
him
. It’s not me.”

“It could be like the Bible. You know, a generic
him
.”

“You’re grasping at straws, Will.”

“You’re damn right I’m grasping. We’ll sort through every line of this book if we have to. I’m trying to save you, Emma.”

She reached over and put her hand on his. “I know you are.”

His fingers curled over hers. “We’ll figure out how to read it. We’ll find Water somehow.” Not that he’d ever admit it to her, but part of him balked at the idea of finding Water. Will had to admit he was jealous that she needed someone else to help save her and that he wasn’t enough, but he wasn’t petty enough that it stopped him from helping her find the bastard.

Raphael and Alex wanted to join with her. What if Emma was right and it meant more than joining powers? From what little Emma had said, Raphael insinuated it was much more intimate. The water mark on her back meant something, but the possibility of
what
it meant was what frightened him. Could Will help her find the man who she might be destined to join with? Could he willingly give her up? Yet he knew the answer, no matter how much it would destroy him.

The fear that Water was just as evil and manipulative as Aiden, Alex, or Raphael gnawed at Will’s gut, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that. His only hope rested on the fact that Water hated the other three. That alone made Will like him already. Almost.

Emma lay her head on Will’s shoulder and sighed. “Thank you.”

Kissing the top of her head, he decided if he was forced to give her up, he’d spend every minute he could with her.

***

Emma was exhausted. The stars lit up the desert sky in a blaze she’d never seen before, turning the Milky Way into a creamy band that ran across the horizon. But she didn’t have the inclination or energy to enjoy it.

“You have to do it again. Longer this time.” Will sat on the hood of the car, thirty feet away.

Nodding, she took a deep breath and held out her hands, one pointed toward the metal towers strung with electrical wires. She twisted her right foot into the sandy ground, trying to get a better foothold. Closing her eyes, she focused on energy and felt it, realizing it felt stronger every time she reached out to it. Her core called to it and, as with every time she’d attempted this tonight, she gasped when raw, powerful energy flooded through her arm into her chest and then out through her opposite fingertips toward a bush. It instantly burst into flames, the desert wind making the fire dance and crackle.

“There’s nothing left to practice on,” Emma said, slightly winded. She had to be doing something wrong if she felt so tired and breathless. Raphael never appeared this exhausted.

“How are you feeling?”

“Fine. Now what?”

He pushed away from the car. “I don’t know. I’m surprised you got it this quickly without passing out.”

“But there has to be more. I have to be able to do more than blow things up.”

“Which you’re quite good at, by the way.”

She snorted. “Yeah, whatever.”

“You said you could control minds. You could practice that.”

A shiver ran down her spine. “No.”

“You can practice on me.”

“First, we’re here for me to practice using outside energy sources. I don’t need electricity to control someone’s mind. Second, the only other person I see out here is you, and that is not happening.”

“Just one little—”

“Which part of
no
do you not get? For all I know, it could cause you permanent brain damage. No.”

“Emma, you need to practice—”

“Yeah, I got plenty of practice on Kramer at the Vinco Potentia compound, and I freaked out that I’d turned him into a zombie.” Thinking about Kramer in the compound reminded her of all the people she had killed. If her dreams were any indication, this was only the beginning. “For now, we’ll stick with fire.”

***

When they returned to the motel in the early morning, Emma collapsed on the bed and fell asleep within minutes. Will had a harder time, his mind a tangled mess as it sorted through the events of the past week. He lay in the dark with his hand behind his head, listening to the slow, steady breathing of the woman next to him.

For the first time, he let his mind go to the topic he had avoided since he left Morgantown.

James
.

Never in a thousand lifetimes would Will ever think James capable of betraying him. Not after everything they had been through. Through twenty-five years to hell and back, James had stuck with him through everything. Even after the court-martial and dishonorable discharge. His own family may have disowned him, but James had taken him in and had been the one to kick his ass after he’d spent two solid weeks drinking to forget it all. Not that he could forget what happened.

Ever
.

Even now the screams of those kids echoed in his head. But James had shown him tough love, forcing him to get back into the world. Until he realized what Will’s new profession involved. He’d been on his ass to quit since the day he’d started three years ago. James wanted Will to come live with him at the lake, but the thought of spending all his time with nothing but peace and quiet made Will want to claw his eyes out. Still, he’d finally caved, telling James that he had a big job coming up that would pay him a shitload of money and then he’d retire. He had no intention of staying with James indefinitely. Just long enough to figure out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Turned out he’d found it during the past month with the woman next to him.

Seeing her in person had confirmed she wasn’t his usual preference. She was pretty enough but not stunning. At least until she smiled. When she smiled, the ice around his heart melted, releasing hope.

She whimpered in her sleep and her breathing increased.

He rubbed her arm. “Emma?”

She jerked upright, her eyes open in terror.

Will sat up and pulled her into a hug. “Hey, what happened?”

“I had the dream again.”

“The one with the fire?”

“Yes, it’s stronger. I think it’s getting closer.”

He lifted her chin, finding her eyes in the dim light. “No, it’s just a dream. Come here.” Pulling her down, he placed her head on his chest as he cradled her body against his, amazed at how perfectly she fit. He stroked her hair until her breathing steadied again.

When he woke later that morning, she still slept, rolled over on her stomach. He knew she had to be exhausted from all the work she’d done the night before. He wanted her to sleep as long as possible. His plan was to lay low during the day then go back out at night when it was cooler.

As he studied her face, he found the faint greenish tone of an old bruise on her cheek and near her lip. How had she gotten that? Raphael? His last remembrance of her, her face was bruised, her nightgown covered in blood. Had it been from the baby she lost?

She opened her eyes, looking up with a smile. “Good morning.”

“You should go back to sleep. You need more rest.”

She pulled him close. “No, I need more you.”

He kissed her before looking into her eyes. “Tell me about the baby.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh.”

“It’s…how… I was always very careful about things like that.”

Her mouth twisted. “Well, we were out in the middle of nowhere in Colorado and I thought Jake was dead. I pretty much begged you for it and there wasn’t anything to use for protection.”

He grimaced, surprised how little thought he’d given to taking precautions after years of paranoia. “Kind of like the past two days.”

“Yeah, but I just had a miscarriage. We’re probably fine.”

In the grand scheme of things, this seemed minor. “And how did I feel about the baby?” He already knew, given his grief when he realized she’d miscarried.

She smiled. “You were happy, which made one of us since the baby had a shitload of expectations on its head. I wasn’t sure how I felt at first, but then I knew I wanted it. I wanted to have the baby with you.”

“And how did you lose it? Aiden?”

Her smile fell away. “No. I don’t think so. One of Kramer’s men beat me up in the woods after I escaped and he kicked me in the stomach. I started cramping after that, although I refused to consider the possibility of losing it. I was worried you’d be upset with me.”

Tucking her hair behind her ear, he kissed her lightly. “How could I be mad at you?”

“You really wanted the baby.”

“It wasn’t your fault. And when this mess is taken care of, we can make a new one.” He tilted his head with a questioning look. “That is, if you want to have another.”

Tears filled her eyes as the corners of her lips turned up. “You, me, Jake, and a baby.”

A family. The thought nearly took his breath away. Was it really a possibility, or a fantasy?

“I think we should take it easy today, study the book, maybe go buy whatever you need since I left your bag in the car in Missouri. Then after we eat dinner, we’ll head back out into the desert and you can work again.”

Her eyes flew open in alarm. “Oh, my God. How could I have forgotten?”

“What?”

Terror filled her eyes and she shot out of bed. “I let my guard down to use my power last night and I never put it back up. Raphael can find me.”

Will followed her. “He can find you here? Over a thousand miles away?”

“I don’t know.” She sounded panicked as she pulled clothes out of the duffel bag. “But we can’t take that chance. How could I have been so stupid?”

“Hey. It’s okay. We’ll check out and figure out somewhere else to go. Water’s probably not around here anyway. We’d have to go somewhere else to find him.”

She nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for. This is all new to you too. It’s going to be okay.”

She smiled, but her eyes told him she didn’t believe it.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Will studied his maps and announced they were going to Arizona.

“But you hate Arizona,” she protested.

His eyebrows scrunched in confusion. Then he shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. We’re going anyway.”

Will assured her multiple times that she hadn’t done anything wrong, but she knew she’d been careless. She’d been exhausted the night before and hadn’t thought through the consequences. Will was right, it was new to her too. But she had a responsibility to protect him and she’d already failed him after only a couple of days.

She read the book as he drove, frustrated that she couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Alex said the new rules were in the book but all she saw were the ravings of a lunatic and language she didn’t understand.

They would never find Water at this rate.

Will cleared his throat. “We’re trying to look for Water, but maybe we should let him look for you.”

She lifted her eyebrows, incredulous. “How do you propose that? Don’t you think he would have found me by now if he wanted to find me? Besides, Alex is fairly certain that Water will kill me the moment he sees me.”

“Why?”

“Let’s just say Water isn’t a fan of Aiden.”

“That’s a club with a lot of members.”

She laughed. “True, but Alex thinks that as soon as Water realizes I’m the daughter of fire, he’ll kill me.”

“You keep calling him Water. What’s his name? Every one of you has a name that’s been handed down since the beginning of time, so what’s Water’s?”

“I don’t know and I’m not sure it’s in the book.”

“How can you tell? It could be in the part that’s untranslated.”

“Which I can’t read.” She rubbed her hand over her eyes in frustration.

“You need to take a break from that.”