Fearless Magic (5 page)

But I couldn't think.

I couldn't move.

Jericho stood before me, hands tied behind his back and the softest smile playing at the corner of his lips. He was alone, waiting for us.

I wanted to run to him, to throw my arms around him and never let go, but I resisted. The rest of the Guard stood just beyond the trees, just far enough away to stay out of my sight, but there nonetheless. I couldn't let myself become vulnerable; I couldn't so willingly open myself up for attack. But it took everything inside of me to keep the distance between us.

Every ounce of willpower I owned.

“You're giving me Jericho?” I whispered, putting the pieces together. “For what?”

“For Avalon's magic,” Talbot stated soberly; the weight of his offer hit me in the chest with full force. “Lucan has offered Jericho in exchange for your brother's magic. As soon as Avalon has his magic back, I am authorized to hand Jericho over to you and you will both be free to go. If you agree, Lucan will not bother you any longer; he will leave you alone, completely and forever. You have his word. If however, you refuse.... then, I'm afraid you will be escorted back to Romania where you can discuss the terms of your agreement with Lucan face to face.”

I turned my head, needing to breathe and working desperately not to be sick. I couldn't look at Jericho and betray him at the same time. I couldn't long to touch him, long to hear his voice and know that I would not be able to set him free.

The compromise sounded so easy, but it would be the death of this race and I wasn't capable of extinguishing an entire people.... my people. Instead of saving Jericho, I was going to sacrifice him. That alone rang out loud and clear how unfair this journey I was on would be. I would never have an easy decision again. Every thought, every move, every conclusion I made would have heavy and lasting consequences. And Jericho would be the first, the first to suffer from my direct decision to sacrifice his life for the greater good.

Lucan asked too much of even an enemy. He was truly the worst kind of evil. If I lost Jericho, I decided then and there that he should also lose someone he loved, someone he cared for. Not later, not in the long term, but soon.

It would be my next move.

“Never,” I whispered hoarsely, my gaze turning to ice and my fingers trembling with an overwhelming hate that grasped at my heart and flooded my veins.

“I told you,” Jericho said arrogantly to Talbott and my eyes flickered to his for the briefest moment. His hazel eyes burned with pride and the smile that played at his lips took full form. He was satisfied with me, proud that I would refuse the trade. He knew the stakes and his willingness to be martyred echoed painfully in the empty chambers of my heart.

“You'd better give me the engagement ring back,” Talbott changed the subject without warning; caught off guard, I stepped back unsteadily. I was poised to fight, my body radiating with the need to protect Jericho. When Talbott moved on so flippantly my mind raced to catch up.

“What?” I shrieked, “Are you kidding me?”

“Well, Kir-”

“Do not speak his name in front of me, Talbott Angelo, unless you have a death wish,” I threatened in a low voice and watched his lips curl into the faintest and most unexplainable smile.

“Excuse me, the Crowned Prince is engaged to Seraphina.... again. The ring is a family heirloom,” he explained.

I felt the bile rise in my throat, not from jealousy, but from the obvious cliche of it. I shouldn't have expected anything less.

“Of course he is,” I mumbled venomously. “He can't have it.”

I expected a fight, but again Talbott moved on without even the smallest protest, “The necklace, will you destroy it?” His eyes turned serious, and he leveled his gaze at me, raising his eyebrows as if his question was the most important thing he asked yet.

“No,” I replied confidently, “I want him to find me.”

“He will not be able to do that, Eden. He is very ill, too sick to leave the palace,” Talbott spoke softly again, pulling his hands behind his back.

“The King's Curse?” I asked nonchalantly, feeling indifferent, and almost disappointed that I wouldn't be the one to kill him.

Talbott cleared his throat, “No, not the Curse. Something else, something they can't explain.”

“Will he die?” I asked flatly, with no emotion for my voice to betray.

“It looks that way,” Talbott said, and his sad eyes revealed his attachment.

“Pity, I hoped to witness the end of him,” I grumbled. “Actually, I hoped to be the one to end him.” I looked out into the density of the surrounding mountainside and tried to find the Immortal Guard that was staying very carefully hidden. “Talbott, are you sure you're not the only one here?” I asked, gauging his reaction carefully.

“They're out there, Eden, they're just a little more afraid of you than I am.” He smirked casually.

“Are we done here?” I asked abruptly, Jericho's presence was painful. I glanced up at him quickly, not able to read his expression.

Talbott took a step towards me, bringing his hands forward and ripping his watch from his wrist. With one swift movement, he threw the watch in front of him and stepped on it, crushing it beneath his hiking boot.

“Listen carefully, they have already started to move,” Talbott whispered harshly and I was too stunned to react. “You have to destroy the necklace. If you don't they will track you wherever you go. They will find you again. Take Jericho and run. You have to run. And you'll have to knock me out. Ok, go!” Talbott reached out his hand, pressing something small and cold into my palm and then closed his eyes tightly, readying his body for the blow.

When I stood frozen, staring at him, still unable to move, he grew impatient.

“Eden, do it now! But please, don't take my magic. Please don't take my magic.” He shut his eyes again and squished his face.

I glanced at Jericho who gave me a confident head nod and looked behind him, making sure the other Guard was not here yet.

I released my magic forcefully against Talbott, sending him soaring through the air and against a tall, sturdy tree twenty feet away. I was a vessel of rage and vengeance and Talbott became the tool, allowing the bottled cruelty to escape. I used my magic to insure that his head hit hard against the rough bark; I watched him fall limply to the ground, the blood from his head injury pooling around his unconscious body.

Jericho turned his back to me, wiggling his tied hands in a bondage I hadn't seen before. His hands were bound in what seemed like metal handcuffs, except this silver metal flickered iridescently in the sunlight and radiated with a foreign magic that I felt but did not know.

I looked down at my hand, and found a small, silver key that matched the metal of the handcuffs. I hurried forward, unlocking Jericho's restraints. The shackles fell to the ground with a soft clanking sound, vibrating gently against the wet, stone pathway. I picked them up, not wanting to waste something so intriguing and shoved them into my backpack.

Jericho's wrists, raw and chaffed from the handcuffs, bled onto his hands, the blood dripping from his fingertips. But now that the handcuffs were off, he breathed in such a sigh of relief that I nearly wept at the sight of his now slumping body.

“Are you all right?” I gasped, coming to his side and helping him stand upright.

“We have to go,” he insisted urgently.

He was right. The wilderness, nestled against the mountainside, began to shiver, the thick greenery vibrating with heavy movement. Knowing the Guard was on their way, we had to leave now or face the unknown number of Titans with orders to kill us, or worse, take us back to Lucan. I was willing to face them alone, but I refused to let Jericho go back there and suffer any more.

I grabbed Jericho's hand; our magics met in a cataclysm of relief, an overwhelming feeling that if we could escape, something in this cursed world would be right again.

I pulled him behind me, around the building and into a full parking lot of tour buses and people. We rushed between vehicles and pushed through pressing crowds of tourists.

We must lose the Guard; we must escape. If I lost Jericho a second time, there would be no forgiveness, no reconciliation. He was my last hope, the saving grace that would rescue my soul from the pit of despair and hatred. If Jericho were by my side there was nothing I could not do. My road to redemption, to righting the wronged people I betrayed to a cruel prison, would begin. I would have saved my dear Jericho and not let him fall at the hands of a hateful tyrant.

At least I would save him from dying against his terms. Because even if we were running for our lives now, we both knew this was only the beginning of a war that would wage until goodness reigned once again. The next time Jericho's life would be in danger, it would be his doing, his decision.

We would meet evil together and fight against it with all that we had.

We just had to find a way to escape today.

Chapter Five

“Through here,” Jericho grunted, nodding his head between two tour buses parked closely together. “I have a plan, but you're going to have to destroy the necklace first,” he instructed through labored breath.

I turned my head and looked at him. A weakened, exhausted man, just seconds free from imprisonment and he was already giving me orders. I wanted to find him obnoxious, but his innate ability to lead, the very quality that was synonymous with breathing for him could not be silenced, especially in our very life-threatening situation.

I pulled the necklace from underneath my rain jacket and held it in my hand, trying to find the willpower to throw it on the ground and stomp on it. My hand was poised above my head and my mind screamed at my heart to let go, to destroy the detestable talisman.

I looked at Jericho, his eyes intent with urgency, and something more, something much like hope. I empathized with his expectancy, his desire to see me free myself from the tangled web I was trapped in. But I couldn't.

My heart betrayed the knowledge that what was done to me was done by the worst kind of monster. My heart, that treacherous, unfeeling organ, I had thought stopped moving when there was no goodness left to beat with, suddenly spoke up and refused to destroy a manipulative gift that led the enemy straight to me.

I glanced desperately at Jericho, wanting him to take it from me and annihilate the stone and every memory associated with it, but it was up to me. He made no movement and I wouldn't have let him pry the black stone from my firm fingers anyway.

So instead of crushing the precious gem beneath my foot, I used my other talents. With the rock grasped firmly in my hands I absorbed the magic into my own bloodstream and whispered a quick prayer that whatever made the stone a tracking device would not stay active once I owned the magic.

I slipped the chain around my neck again and marveled at the now dull, black rock that would no longer shimmer or shine in any different color. Whatever supernatural beauty and mysterious quality the gem once held was gone, it was now just a black stone.

“Ok, the magic is gone, we can go now,” I whispered to Jericho and watched his eyes flicker with obvious disappointment. “What's the plan?”

“Over there,” Jericho pointed to a tour bus reloading its senior citizen passengers.

“How are you at suppressing your magic?” I asked, wondering if his plan would work.

“Not good,” he said simply. “Can you just take mine and then give it back to me later?”

“Uh, no, that would not be a good idea,” I mumbled. “Let's just go.”

We walked carefully between the tour buses, watching our backs and taking our time around corners. A flare in my bloodstream warned that the Guard was getting closer, at least close enough that if I could feel their magic, they could feel mine.

We ran the last few feet to the tour bus, hand in hand and then pushed our way gently through the last of the boarding passengers and onto the bus. I pulled Jericho passed curious elderly tourists and to the very back of the bus where we had a few rows to ourselves.

I had no idea how we would explain ourselves to the humans should anyone demand answers, but I hoped my magic could get us through any real interrogations that would threaten our hiding place.

I suppressed my magic, making it vanish as best as I could. Jericho slumped down, below the tinted window and I followed suit realizing the dark tint would not stop the Titan Guard from recognizing us.

I was closest to the window and so even after Jericho lay completely down on the long row of empty seating, I could not stop myself from peeking through a corner of the window to find out if they had arrived yet.

They had.

Fifty Titan Guard walked slowly and in pairs from around the gift shop building and did their best to blend in among the other travelers. They scanned the crowd and talked back and forth through their wrist watches.

Our bus was still not moving and the sick, twisting feeling in my stomach warned that we were not even far enough away from this dangerous pursuit to have made any progress. One of the members of the Guard walked closer to our bus, his head perking up as if he had found something.