Enchanted Ever After (Mystic Circle) (23 page)

Chapter 24

LATHYR GAVE HER
a tug, and she went with him. She sensed echoes of old water in the wood door, what had been in the living oak, but that was all.

Then she was outside in the high-altitude, dry and sunny air and she shrank and struggled a bit,
sensing
the next set of water droplets she could move to, reaching, striving and moving. Less than a walking pace, now.

Outside was dazzling. With the odd other-sight, the sun gleamed in the air around them, bright and yellow. The water droplets looked like half-filled bubbles, not full and turquoise like in the pool area, but gray or sky blue.

Feel Jenni’s balanced magic. It is RICH. Draw on it!
Lathyr reminded.

So she did. Yes! Great streams of magic—earth and air from Tamara’s house, a rainbow of colors and essentially human-descended-from-Lightfolk from Amber and Rafe Davail’s, hot fire and cool green from the Emberdrakes. Other types lingered from the houses. Dan and Frank’s Spanish-style home also showed human-descended-from-Lightfolk, but she couldn’t figure it out.

Kiri’s tissues plumped...or
she
plumped, full of perfumed magic. She even thought she tasted chocolate.

Before she obediently condensed after Lathyr. In the koi pond.

Which was fine until Dan and Frank showed up to feed the fish and caught them naked. Despite everything, making illusion clothes was beyond Kiri. So cutoffs and shirt appeared on Lathyr and she looked bare.

He doubled over with laughter and she dashed away to the Castle, muttering curses as her feet met pebbles. Magic or not, Mystic Circle had loose rock and gravel on the street.

She was back in the pool, soaking up water and magic, when Lathyr returned.

“You did very well. Now, I think, you should try it on your own.” His mouth still twitched.

“All right.”

“But not in the pool. We will practice dispersing in the pool later. Perhaps tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

She tromped out of the pool, then dispersed into droplet form, condensed and spoke to Lathyr mentally all the while, for a good hour, until her cell phone rang and she became human. Fingers dripping, she eyed it, drew in a big breath, and with the inhalation tried to absorb all the water on her skin. It worked! And the puddle around her feet was gone, too.

She went to the table and picked up her phone. Jenni was calling. “Hey, Jenni.”

“Was that you I saw streaking from the park to the Castle a little while back?” Jenni asked, amusement lacing her voice.

“Yeah. It was me,” Kiri admitted. “I’m doing pretty well with the droplet form of Waterfolk, but I still haven’t mastered how to make an illusion of clothes.”

Lathyr joined her. “It should be easy,” he said.

“Yes,” Jenni agreed.

Kiri fiddled with the phone. “The thing is, I can’t decide.”

“What?” Jenni asked.

“I can never decide on the clothes.”

“Really?” Jenni asked as Lathyr stared at Kiri.

“Whether the clothes I imagine should be my own clothes, and if they are, are they really illusion or will I find them in my closet? And if they aren’t my own clothes, how can I manifest them? I hardly pay attention to how my clothes feel on my body, let alone imagining how something else might.”

“Hmm.” Jenni sounded thoughtful. “I think Eight Corp should give you a clothes budget and we should go shopping. I’ll be right over and we’ll head out to a mall.”

“Okay.”

Lathyr sent her an appalled glance, and left.

* * *

Jenni and Tamara and Amber all went shopping with Kiri. Jenni informed her that she could become lightning and zap from one place to another, but that was it since she was only half-human. The idea still was enough to have Kiri’s mouth drop open. Tamara, being fully magical, though half-Earth and half-Air, could vanish completely, like Kiri in her droplet state. But Tamara had learned that skill on her own, since the technique wasn’t quite what Airfolk or Earthfolk did. She demonstrated, but didn’t talk about it much.

Amber took charge of the shopping expedition, and they got clothes that had definite texture or weight to them, so Kiri would
feel
them on her body.

The women dropped her off at her own home, and as she opened the door and smelled the familiar scents of favorite candles, Kiri nearly cried. Yes, her home was bare and sterile compared to the Castle, but each and every bit of furniture was what
she’d
picked out and wanted to have around her. Exactly to her taste. She hauled the shopping bags to her bedroom, took off all the tags and folded them on a chair so she’d move them to the Castle later, then lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

This becoming a magical being—and the lack of a structured workplace schedule as she learned her new self and magical powers—was wearing. Not to mention she’d be lying to Shannon. She didn’t like that, but Shannon would never believe the truth. Hard to believe. So hard, Kiri wondered how many people, humans, would actually make the change. A lot would be more tied down with family and friends than she...but the twenty-somethings...yeah, the development team might want to market the game, the transformation, to them.

Yet the echoing in her heart made her think that they’d need some professional counselors. Jenni and Tamara and Lathyr were good, but they also had their own backgrounds, not someone who’d made the transformation, like she had.

Is that something she’d want to do? Maybe stay near, like Lathyr?

As long as she could work on the game. That would be helpful in the first place, and to her surprise, she still wanted to entertain as well as educate. Just in her makeup, probably. Though how she was going to work with the game when water and electronics didn’t exactly go together... Maybe she needed to understand more of this Meld business, get something going with magic constructs...she wasn’t sure.

Everything was so very different. Her body needed frequent submersion, and Lathyr was talking circumspectly about streams or lakes, and she was smart enough to do some deductions. The Lightfolk had been around for a long time, and there wasn’t much water in Colorado, probably all the choice places for naiads were already taken, so she’d have to move somewhere else. Just how many Waterfolk were there? And how many homes underwater, or whatever. In the ocean, you’d need more than caves, wouldn’t you?

More stuff she didn’t know, hardly knew where to begin to question. Maybe her brain was catching up with the fretting that she’d set aside to meditate and become droplet form. It would have been helpful in the game, Transformation, if she’d known becoming nonphysical was a possibility.

And she drifted off to sleep, only to wake a couple of hours later when Lathyr politely knocked at the door. She moved and her skin cracked, leaving bleeding scratches. Owie!

Damn. Trudging to the front door, she accepted her fate. She wouldn’t be staying in Colorado unless it was in a body of water.

When she opened the door, he stood impassive, once again in his tailored gray suit. Narrowing her eyes, she noted that he was
not
clad in illusion, the silk was real. He frowned. “We must get you into a tank as soon as possible.”

“Yes.” She got the new clothes and her purse.

“The day is more humid than usual for Colorado,” he said. “Perhaps you can draw some water from the air to soothe your sores and refresh your skin.”

“Yeah.” She grimaced and regretted it as her lips cracked and bled.

He offered his arm in an old and formal manner and she linked elbows with him. His expression lightened.

“I just needed a little time alone,” she said.

“Of course.”

“Not used to living with someone, or brownies to clean up after me.”

“It didn’t appear as if you had much to clean.”

She stared at him. “Did you just make a joke?”

“A statement.”

“No, it wasn’t. You were teasing me.”

The corner of his mouth that she could see, lifted. “Perhaps.”

She studied him, still a guy with a lilting accent and European sophistication, old-worldly manner. And a merman. “Hey, is Cherry Creek claimed?” That’s where he belonged, in upscale waters.

“Yes, there are strict boundaries for the naiads and naiaders who live in the creek, so they each have their own stretch.”

“Ah, and how does that work? The creek doesn’t seem deep enough to me.” She frowned. “Come to think of it, neither does the Platte River.”

“If absolutely necessary, we can adjust our size.”

“Huh.” Kiri thought of naiads being no larger than a trout, or a finger, for that matter. She shook her head. “I don’t think I’d like that.”

“I’m not sure that it is an option for you this century,” he said.

“Oh.”

And they were at the Castle, the brownieman swinging the door open for them and frowning disapprovingly at Kiri. As soon as they stepped on the porch, Melody popped out and took Kiri’s new clothes, tsking. “Put you in water elemental suite, too,” she said before she vanished again.

“Water suite?” Kiri asked.

“We checked out the elemental suites when you were gone. The royals occasionally stayed here, you know.”

“Nope, didn’t.” She stared at his handsome profile. “No wonder you didn’t want to stay there.”

“I do not overstep,” Lathyr said. “And the Water King is not a power one trifles with.”

“Oh.”

“He expanded the water suite at the expense of the air rooms. So there are two bedrooms and a small sitting room. The Water King wanted the second bedroom for staff.”

“Oh. Well, I don’t mind a small bedroom.”

With an inclination of his head, as he led her upstairs, Lathyr said, “The earth suite also has two bedrooms and a sitting room, the fire chambers are one bedroom and sitting room and the air has one very large room with screen dividers.”

“Royals.” The notion had penetrated her mind. “The best of the best Lightfolk? The most powerful?”

Lathyr chuckled. “Your meritocracy again.” He dropped his arm and slid his fingers down until he held her hand. “But, in general, yes. The royals are the most powerful of the Lightfolk.”

“The Eight.”

“Yes.”

“The Eight of Eight Corp,” Kiri persisted.

Lathyr nodded. “That is true.”

“Can I see those rooms?” Her curiosity itched.

“Yes.” Melody appeared a pace in front of Kiri and she stopped and squeaked. “But only after you soak.” The browniefem glanced up at Lathyr, and Kiri was glad to see that she was less formal with him than before. The man—the merman—was nice.

“I have prepared the large tub in the water suite for her,” she informed Lathyr, hands on her skinny hips.

“Sounds fine,” Kiri said, but the browniefem kept her gaze on the guy.

“I will take care of her.” Lathyr’s voice was soft, but his words sounded like a promise.

Melody nodded decisively and vanished.

“I’m not used to that,” Kiri grumbled. “People appearing and disappearing so often.”

“You’re hurting and cranky.”

She couldn’t deny that, nor that when she entered the water suite, her mood improved at the sound and scent of water. She nearly ached to get into the tub. He led her through the suite that was furnished in deep blues and greens, and to the large bathroom, which neither he nor Melody had mentioned.

Even as Kiri just stood in openmouthed wonder at the gold-veined white marble sunken pool, Lathyr stripped her, then set his hands on places where her skin was good, and lifted her into the water...the healing water with jasmine petals and smelling of aloe.

She whimpered when she went in, and sank to the bottom of the marble pool and shifted to tailed form, her bilungs filling with cool water. Which let her know that Melody, and maybe her new mate, too, had worked with Waterfolk before.

Then Lathyr got into the white marble tub with her, curled up around her in his legged-mer form, and whispered mind-to-mind,
Go back to sleep.

He’d known, of course, that she’d remained tired, and was also afraid of sleeping in the water in case she drowned. He was there for her, and she could depend on him. Reliable and trustworthy. Like Shannon and Averill. Not like her parents.

Lathyr was with her. So she let go and slept.

She awoke alone in the large sunken tub. She panicked and writhed and sucked in water and
breathed
, in and out. No problem. When would her unconscious figure out that she could breathe underwater? Soon, she hoped.

You are fine,
Lathyr said telepathically. He sat in a large chair where she could see him from the tub, if she’d bothered to look instead of reacting.

Well, hell, she’d gone twenty-six years without being able to breathe underwater, what did everyone,
she,
expect? She arched her tail under her and found that the bottom fins were more powerful than she’d imagined. Not as useful as feet, but strong. She surged out of the water, actually rising above it, and as she did, she turned into legged-mer, used the water magic in the air to move her a few feet and land on her webbed feet in front of Lathyr, surprising herself.

He raised his blue-white eyebrows. “Well done,” he said mildly.

She didn’t feel naked. She wasn’t, the armor-flesh-skin panels encased all of her but her face. Turning in place, she noted the whole room was dry, though water should have sprayed everywhere. “Wow.”

“You are progressing extremely well,” he said.

She tilted her head to listen whether there’d been a patronizing note in his voice, stared at him with narrowed eyes. No. He looked and sounded sincere. Then she tromped flat-footed—her feet were larger in this form, that was so not fair!—to the towel rack, automatically reaching for it until she remembered she didn’t need it. Pivoting, she looked hard at Lathyr. No smirk. That was really good.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she said gruffly, “Well, it takes time to break twenty-six years of habits. What were
you
doing at twenty-six?”

He smiled at her first words, then his gaze went distant, considering, then blank as if he faced pain.

And she suddenly understood that she knew very little about this man...a merman she planned on having sex with later. She respected him, had affection for him, and so did the other residents, the more knowledgeable Lightfolk residents, of Mystic Circle.