Reluctant Adept: Book Three of A Clairvoyant's Complicated Life (31 page)

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes momentarily, and then let it out in a rush. "Perhaps— " He frowned and then shook his head as if to clear his mind. "We should get back." Gaze darting to the ground, he strode a few steps to my right and bent down to pick something up. A pine cone.

"I'll take you anywhere you want to go, Tíer. You know that. Anytime. All you have to do is ask." When he straightened and looked at me, I grinned. "And sometimes even when you don't."

Feeling lighter than I had in weeks, I swathed him in my magic and whisked us back home.

We sidestepped into the stuffy confines of the conference room, a few feet from where we'd departed. In our absence, Wade and Fisk had backed away from the table and now stood in our prior footprints. I'd adjusted our landing instinctively, eliminating another one of my unfounded worries—that I'd accidentally sidestep us into a wall or table or, God forbid, inside a person. Now that I'd done it a couple times, I could see how such a thing wasn't remotely possible, since my magic forged the conduit before I sidestepped along its path. If there was something in the way, I felt around until I found a safe spot to slide into.

We materialized behind Wade and Fisk as the two men faced off against an angry Kim, Kieran, and Alex.

Wade and Fisk whipped around to see the reason for Kim's shocked gasp.

Tíereachán didn't miss a beat. He tossed the pine cone at Kieran, who jolted in surprise but managed to catch it. Looking mystified, he turned it over in his hand and then cast his inquisitive gaze at the two of us.

"
Búancodail
sends her regards, cousin," Tíereachán said. "The valley's as breathtaking as ever." He sauntered to his chair. "Now that we've gotten that detail out of the way, shall we continue with our business? I believe
Cúairtine
was about to contact our lost tracker."

I rolled my eyes, but inside, the warmth of satisfaction blossomed and spread through me. Instead of tearing me down by pointing out how wrong I'd been, Tíereachán built me up, made me feel strong and capable. The guy was better for my ego than getting
Final Jeopardy!
right. I didn't even mind him using the nickname.

"World walker?" Wade asked. "She took you to
Búancodail
? Just now?" He frowned at the pine cone in Kieran's grasp before stepping around Kim, Kieran, and Alex to follow Tíereachán to his chair.

"Of course," Tíereachán replied. "Don't tell me you doubted it."

"No," he said. "Only surprised she learned to do it without training."

"Hello. I'm right here," I muttered.

"There's no doubt. She is
Anóen
. The One," Tíereachán said. "The prophecy will be fulfilled, with or without training."

"Adept,
Anóen, Cúairtine
, the one …" I stomped to my chair, grumbling, "I swear, if anyone calls me anything else, they're in for the mother of all atomic wedgies." I leveled an accusing finger at Tíereachán. "Dude, you've been warned."

He laughed. "After two thousand years of waiting, what did you expect? Both sides have come up with several. If you don't like that one, may I suggest another?"

I growled inarticulately at him.

He grinned back, chuckling. "Lire, sit down. Caiside waits."

I landed in my chair and snatched up my abandoned gloves.

"I take it you did something significant, something you've not done before?" Alex asked once he'd retaken the seat adjacent to me.

"Not merely significant," Tíereachán replied. "It changes everything. It means she can go where she pleases. Now, no one can hold her."

"Would you stop! I'm sitting right here," I exclaimed, although the pride in Tíer's voice tempered my exasperation.

"So, it's as Caiside described. You can move instantaneously between locations. But more than that. You can take people with you." Alex frowned, his gaze briefly flicking to Tíereachán. "Or, perhaps, only him, because you're mated."

"You know damned well that we're blood-bound, not mated," I said, looking up from putting on my gloves to shoot him an irritated look. "And I can sidestep whoever I want."

"Excellent. When you go to Caiside, you'll take me with you," he announced as if it was a foregone conclusion.

"Whoa, wait a minute," I said. "I thought I was invoking the
ríutcloch
. Who said anything about going
anywhere
?"

"If he could escape, he would have done it by now," Alex replied. "Invoking the
ríutcloch
may not be enough, a fact you and everyone here already suspects."

"Right. And if any of them were asking to go, I could understand. But you?" Eying him suspiciously, I leaned in and said in a pointed undertone, "Why would you risk yourself for a sidhe you haven't seen for a hundred and fifty years?"

"Why did you choose to bind yourself to your prince?"

I blinked. "Is that supposed to answer my question?"

When he stared back silently, one superior brow raised, I rolled my eyes. What was it with immortals and their cryptic responses?

I shifted in my chair. "If you must know, his bond helped me break a transfixing that had been laid on me without my knowledge." Heat sprang to my cheeks as I pretended not to feel Kieran's stare boring into the back of my head.

"Presumably that wasn't your sole reason," Alex said.

Someone at the other end of the table coughed. It might have been Fisk.

I sat back in my seat, frowning at him. "You asked why. That's why."

"Ah." He stared at me, amused. "Breaking this spell was so dire that you simply bound yourself to the nearest sidhe. Is that it?"

"Of course not," I snapped. "Tíer's a friend and a good guy and I— "

The light turned on.

I scowled at him. "You know, you could have just told me that Caiside is your friend. Would that have been so hard?"

Instead of a reply, I got the
look
—the one that said my unique brand of naïveté charmed him to bits. Although, I couldn't fathom what I'd said that was so foolish.

"Fine," I grumbled. "I'll take your
request
under advisement."

After straightening in my seat, I mumbled something about getting started. With the Between's unique tune in my mind, I pushed my telekinesis into that remarkable, desolate place. Easy peasy.

Once again, the sheer number of resonances vibrating through the nexus left me feeling light headed. In fact, the idea of finding Caiside's resonance was so overwhelming, it was hard not to resign in defeat without even trying.

But if I'd done it once to find my own string, surely that meant I could do it for someone else's, right?

Pressing the
ríutcloch
to my chest through the fabric of my blouse, I recalled my previous visit, weeks back when I'd been trapped in the Between. Last time, I hadn't searched the strings so much as
played
them. With that in mind, I cast my magic wide, allowing it to slip over countless resonances at a time, touching upon the individual connections like chords in an otherworldly instrument. Covering territory fast as a thought, I couldn't have said how many strings my magic caressed at any given moment, but the drive to find Caiside propelled me ahead with blinding speed.

I wasn't sure how much time passed, but when I least expected it, I touched upon Caiside's intimately familiar tune, lighting me up like the Eiffel Tower on New Year's Eve.

My surprise came out in a gush. "Oh my God. I found him."

"How is he?" Alex asked. "Is— "

Eyes closed in concentration, I cut off Alex's inquiry with my outward facing palm.

I latched onto Caiside's vibrating string and then slid my TK down its nebulous length toward its source.

The moment my magic slipped to his body, the Otherworld's answering sonority reverberated through my conduit like the tolling of countless bells, all of them ringing in a resplendent, captivating symphony that was as familiar to me as a long forgotten lullaby. With a start, I realized why. I'd felt a strikingly similar tune before, whenever I'd touched the depleted
draíocloch
—the one that was sitting, even now, in my backpack upstairs.

Holy cow!
I'd made it to the Otherworld and Caiside's body. Or, more precisely, my magic had made it.

I tentatively spread my invisible fingers over the sidhe, cataloging every square inch, relieved to feel his heartbeat vibrating down my conduit. From what I could tell, he was lying prone on a firm surface. As I moved my magic over him, intent on his condition, it took me a moment to notice that he'd turned to stone beneath my touch. In fact, it wasn't until his heart rate had nearly doubled and he began slapping his hands over various parts of his body that I realized my intrusion was freaking the hell out of him.

Horrified, I withdrew my magic so he could no longer feel it.

Idiot! Of course he's going to freak. What else would he do?

I was reluctant to release him completely, but I didn't want to scare him any more than I already had.

"Do you have him or not?" Alex asked tersely.

"Yes."

But I still didn't know his situation. Unceremoniously grabbing him and yanking him out of there struck me, now, as a bad idea. Besides scaring him senseless, he might not be there against his will. And wouldn't
that
be embarrassing?

"What's the problem? Get him out." I could practically feel the anxiety coming off the strigoi domn in waves.

"Lire— " Kieran began, but I overrode him. I didn't need to hear any more of his admonitions.

"Look, my magic totally freaked him out. I can't just grab him like a claw in one of those cheesy arcade prize machines. I need to talk to him, first."

Alex and someone else, Wade, I think, spoke at the same time. All I heard was: "Take me—use the—there—
ríutcloch
," but I managed to parse out who said what.

"Alex, if I take us there, he'll probably wig out. I don't want to die doing this, okay? Unlike you,
I'm
not immortal."

"He won't hurt you," he replied forcefully. "Not if I'm there with you."

"You can't know that," I shot back, my eyes still closed as I struggled to keep my magic pinned to the Otherworld. "You haven't seen him in one hund— "

"He'll know me," he snapped. "We're bound."

Fisk erupted, "The fuck you are."

"Do you accuse me of lying, half-breed?" Alex snarled, the sound so low and guttural it made my skin crawl.

My eyes didn't need to be open to know Alex had vamped out. The caustic, putrid smell of death wafted over me, and it was all I could do to maintain my tenuous grip on Caiside.

"Stop," I wheezed as I hunched over the table, fighting the overwhelming urge to slide to the floor and crawl away.

The atmosphere cleared, and Alex's voice soothed me. "I'm sorry, Clotilde. Please, take me to him. We are bound in the same way you and your prince are bound. I assure you, he'll know me."

"If that's true, then you can speak to him through your bond," I rasped, straightening in my chair, but I didn't dare open my eyes for fear of losing my line on Caiside. "Tell him what I'm doing so he doesn't freak out."

"I can't. How is it you don't know this? He can't hear me in the Otherworld."

"It's why we bind our souls, Lire," Wade said. "Only a soulbinding can span between worlds."

That explained why I'd been cut off from my building's djinn when Paimon had pulled me into The Between. Stupid that it hadn't occurred to me sooner.

"I could grab and sidestep him here," I said. "But I don't want— "

"Do it."

Disregarding Alex's command, I released Caiside and withdrew my magic.

I opened my eyes to find the strigoi chieftain on the edge of his chair, his black gaze boring into me and his body taut enough to bounce quarters off. "Alex, calm down and listen. He's more than a little worked up. Put yourself in his shoes for a minute: Out of nowhere, an invisible entity starts groping you in your sleep. What you experienced down in the lobby was a small taste. To sidestep someone, I have to learn their body down to the last cell. Ask Fisk or most of the others here. It's intrusive and aggressive and, unless the situation is dire, I try not to do it to someone without their consent."

I pulled the pendant from under my blouse. "Fortunately, we have a way to do that. How do I use this?"

He sat back in his chair and folded his arms. "Caiside told me you invoke it the same way you'd close a circle. Blood and an investment of will."

"Terrific. Guess it's time to bleed again," I muttered.

Before I could turn to ask Fisk for his knife, Alex extended his hand, palm up. "May I?"

When I frowned down at it, he added, "Give me your hand. I won't bite … much."

My entire focus snapped to his face, and he snorted, plainly amused. "Clotilde, trust me. After three centuries, I do have
some
self-control."

I removed my left glove and, hesitantly, placed my fingertips on the center of his palm. With a speed and efficiency that drew a small gasp from my throat, he nipped my middle finger and returned my hand, releasing it with considerable formality.

Sweet baby Dracula.
I hadn't even noticed his fangs elongate, much less seen him move. Stunned, I blinked down at the drop of blood that welled from my tiny wound. Beyond a mere pricking sensation, it had hardly hurt.

Steeling myself, I pressed the crimson drop to the smooth stone at the center of Alex's former pendant, investing it with my will. Having been through a similar ritual with Tíereachán, I wasn't surprised by the answering surge of magic that plowed through me, raising goosebumps and instantly telling me that the
ríutcloch
was now mine. Shield firmly in place, I waited for the onslaught of thoughts and emotions that would accompany the new connection.

And waited.

When nothing untoward happened for a full thirty seconds, I cautiously lowered my shield and searched my mind for a new presence. After the surge of magic, I was certain that I'd managed to invoke the
ríutcloch
, but while I could feel Tíer's ever-present rumbling at the fringes of my consciousness, I didn't feel anyone else's.