Breathless Magic (3 page)

Chapter Three

“There,” Avalon pointed to the distant jet stream that
approached our general area.

Avalon and Amelia had come out of hiding with the news of
Lilly’s arrival. I’d sent Seraphina off with Sebastian, Roxie, Xander and
Xavier to go help Jericho rescue his mom and Kiran’s mom back in Brazil.

And the rest of us waited anxiously for Lilly’s arrival.

The four of us gather in the ballroom and held a silent
vigil through the night. Syl had checked on us a few times as we struggled
through the idle hours, but she was needed with Ophelia until Lilly came. Syl
wasn’t sure what she could do for Lilly if she needed help beyond what my blue
smoke could do; but just like with the babies, we were all exceedingly grateful
Syl decided to give up her human life and stay with us.

With the jet in sight and the distant Magic growing
increasingly stronger as they prepared to land, we filed out the
recently-restored doors- that Olivia had destroyed when she’d discovered her Magic-
and walked quickly down the deck steps.

Kiran had thoughtfully had the Guard bring out snowmobiles
for all of us. They were waiting on the other side of the Magically protected
Citadel wall. We each had one for the ride to the tarmac, but would double up
on the way back with the passengers from the plane.

We were silent still as we arrived on the frozen airstrip.
The Guards had been out earlier, melting snow and ice to prepare for the
plane’s arrival, but the temperature was below freezing and snow piled higher
than my head on every side of the airstrip.

We stood back as the small, luxury jet dropped down. Titus,
the pilot for this particular trip, landed without incident and soon the engine
was whirring to a stop and the stairs descended.

We took off running then, anxious to get inside. Before the
staircase even touched the tarmac I leapt onto it and sprinted up the stairs.
The door opened and I rushed into the small cabin, expending my blue smoke
before I could even visually assess the situation.

Lilly lay across Talbott’s lap like a petite, wounded bird.
My heart shattered at the sight of her so frail and helpless. Her already pale
skin was nearly translucent in this light. Her closed eyes were sunken and
black and blue with fatigue or trauma. Probably both. Her body had wasted away
to nothing but thin frailty and her clothes were filthy rags that stuck
unnaturally to her protruding bones, like they’d been glued on with blood or
other unthinkable liquids.

I pushed more blue smoke into the small space that was
cramped with people now. Talbott looked up at me with desperate, pleading eyes.
He silently begged me to fix her, bring her back from the precipice of death.

I held his unsettling gaze for only a moment, promising that
I would do everything in my power to heal her.

But then my eyes were back to her, back to watching her as
the blue smoke took hold of her beaten, broken body and went to work.

I felt the Magic between us. I felt the smoke as it
connected to her very weak energy. A thin stream of violet electricity leaked
out from her limp hand and floated into the smoky air.

Slowly my special Magic began to infiltrate her energy field.
Slowly, so slowly I wanted to cry, my smoke reversed the effects of that deadly
knife that had taken Lilly’s life by force. Slowly, I began to feel the
smallest blossom of hope as it took root in the pit of my soul.

And then without warning, Lilly sat up on her own and sucked
in a deep, gasping breath. Her eyes fluttered open for just a moment and her
skin
pinkened
with new life. She collapsed back onto
Talbott in the very next second, but the wound on her finger was healed and her
body pulsed with life again.
 

I crumpled at Talbott’s feet, too relieved and overwhelmed
to stay standing. Grateful tears poured from my eyes and my chest heaved with
sobs that represented a hundred different emotions. I felt Talbott’s own tears
as he clutched Lilly against his chest, leaning over her and openly weeping.

Kiran lifted me from the ground and pulled me tightly
against his body where I could continue sobbing into his warm sanctuary. My
arms held tightly around his neck, but he supported my weight since I was incapable
at this moment.

My friend, my closest, most loved friend who had been to
hell and back countless times in her short life,
lived
. She was alive and she was with me again.

My vow to keep her safe for the rest of her life had to have
been as strong as Talbott’s in that moment. She had been through
too much
. Always the victim whenever
conflict raged against this Kingdom.

She’d been beaten, broken, experimented on and through so
much pain and torment I didn’t know how she kept her sweet spirit. But she did.
She was stronger than I could ever hope to be and more resilient than anything
else alive.

And now she was with us again.

No matter what happened, I would risk my life… I would risk
anything to ensure she never had to go through this again.

She deserved happiness more than anyone else alive, as far
as I was concerned.

“You did it,” Kiran whispered against my hair. “You saved
her.”

I shook my head, letting my lips press against the pulse
that beat at his throat. “She’s alive for some reason, Kiran. I saved her in
this moment, but she’s been saving herself for months.”

I felt through our united Magic that he agreed with me.

“Let’s get her back to the Citadel,” he suggested a little
louder.

I turned around, agreeing with my husband, but Talbott
clutched Lilly closer, looking like a feral animal protecting his young. Kiran
put a comforting hand on Talbott’s shoulder and just stood there for a few
quiet moments.

“We have a room for you to rest in,” Kiran told him. “Sylvia
wants to check on her. The Witch will look after her, as well. She should get
out of these reminders of what she’s been through, my friend. You could give
her a warm bath and clean her up. We could put her in fresh clothes and help
her feel healthy. And when she wakes up, she’ll feel almost like herself
again.”

Talbott didn’t speak, but he did nod his head indicating
that he understood. Eventually, he stood to his feet and cradled Lilly in his
huge arms. We walked down the stairs and split into pairs on the snowmobiles.

I wanted a moment with Olivia to check on her, see if she
had anymore symptoms of Immortality. I’d glanced at her a few times in the plane
and her eyes seemed purple instead of the bright blue color they were supposed
to be. I knew this couldn’t be right.

And so I was really hoping for an opportunity to corner her,
check out her eye color, get her opinion on Terletov and what had happened when
they found Lilly. And also… I wanted to be nosy about Jericho.

But I would keep that to myself. And I didn’t think I would
get the opportunity to talk to her just yet.

Back at the stone wall, we abandoned the snowmobiles and
entered through the secret door that only a select amount of Immortals knew
about. The entire wall was enchanted so that not even one of us could scale the
high structure or enter by going over the wall. Kiran, Avalon, Amelia, Jericho,
Talbott, Sebastian and I all were able to use our Magic to get in and out of
this door, but every other single person on this planet would have to go
through the main gates of the Citadel if they wanted in and we weren’t around
to open this particular door.

The main gate was guarded at all times and lately we had
Guards walking the wall to ensure Terletov or his goons couldn’t break in. This
was the most secure place in the entire world for my people and if things
didn’t improve soon, I would ask those that were willing to move into the town
that stayed mainly unoccupied in the shadow of our towering Castle.

We would take refuge here until Terletov could be sorted
out.

I wouldn’t be able to protect humanity, but my first
priority was to my people. And I would honor my vows to keep them safe.

We took a side entrance into the Castle and split up as we
sought out our different rooms. Amelia escorted Olivia to her sister. Avalon
and Titus went off to the War Room in order to go over everything Titus had
seen and been a part of. And Kiran and I walked Talbott and Lilly to the suite
of rooms that we’d cleared for them.

I wanted Lilly to have whatever she needed in order to be
comfortable and have the absolute best care I could provide for her.

We walked up to the east tower and I opened the door to
their room, letting Talbott pass by silently. He took Lilly to the bed
immediately and laid her down on the soft, fresh Egyptian cotton sheets. She
looked paler than ever against the pastel yellow flowers that spread out
beneath her in a pattern of swirling petals.

Talbott knelt down in front of her and slid his hand beneath
her sallow cheek. He whispered gently in Romanian, words I didn’t understand…
words that were meant only for her. I watched for longer than was appropriate.
I knew I was interrupting an intimate moment between them, even if she was
unconscious, but I couldn’t make myself leave. I wanted to watch her just to
make sure she didn’t disappear. I wanted to stay close just in case she needed
my Magic immediately. I wanted to protect her against every evil thing that
meant her harm.

She was my best friend, a sister forged through the fires of
trial and tribulation and I had failed her when I let Terletov take her. And I
had failed Talbott when I didn’t find a way to bring her back sooner.

“Eden,” Kiran warned on a concerned growl. No doubt he could
feel the remorse and guilt that was tainting my blood right along with my
heart. “You did what you could. You might be Immortal, Love, but you have
limitations like everyone else.” He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled
me back against his solid chest. He bent his head down to rest his chin on my
shoulder and we watched Talbott worship his lost love for several, intruding
minutes.

A knock at the door brought all our attention that way and
we breathed a collective sigh of relief when Syl popped her head in.

“How’s my patient?” she asked with a frown.

We didn’t answer her. Nothing we had to say would be
different than what she could see.

She walked over to Lilly carefully eyeing Talbott as if he
would bite her. He didn’t.

Thank goodness.

When she needed him to, he stepped out of the way, but
didn’t go far. He hovered near the headboard, ringing his large hands and
making him look decidedly like a small child waiting for bad news.

“She was alive when she arrived?” Syl asked with a tender
voice as she went about a brief physical exam on Lilly’s unconscious body.

“Yes,” I answered. “Weak, comatose… but alive. I used my
smoke to seal the cut in her finger. And she opened her eyes for a moment, but
she’s been out of it the whole time.”

Syl made a noncommittal noise and went back to poking and
prodding Lilly.

Finally, she addressed Talbott, “There are no broken bones.
She’s not swollen in any way that I wouldn’t expect and her pulse is strong. I
want to give her an hour to see if Eden’s smoke continues to heal places that
we cannot see. I’m not surprised she’s unconscious after everything she went through;
but I don’t expect this to be permanent. I think she’ll be fine, Talbott. She
just needs some time.” Syl laid a dainty hand on Talbott’s bulking shoulder.
“She just needs to feel safe again.”

He nodded, too overcome with relief and emotion to speak-
which in turn made me distraught with my own hope. More grateful tears fell
down my cheeks and I turned into Kiran again as my emotion grew stronger with
each moment that passed.

Syl rubbed my back, reminding me so much of my childhood
that I wanted to crawl up on the bed and let myself believe I was back in our
happy house in Omaha and none of these terrible things had happened to the
Kingdom, to people I loved and respected or to my best friend. After another
minute of comforting me, Syl excused herself to check on Ophelia again.

Kiran and I stayed with Talbott. I helped him wash her in
the en suite bathroom, making sure we scrubbed every ounce of dirt, grime and
reminder of what she’d been through off her body. Her hair had been dulled and
lifeless when she arrived, but after we washed it and spent time with some
conditioner, it dried as brilliant and shiny red as it had ever been.

When she was dressed again and back on the bed, Talbott
curled up with her and I spent time cleaning and grooming her nails. Finally,
satisfied with a pristine-but-still-unconscious Lilly, I returned to Kiran’s
side and pressed myself against him.

“You guys could open a shop,” Kiran teased us. “Lilly looks
brand new.”

Talbott still didn’t say anything, but pulled her tighter against
his body and buried his face in the hair at her nape. More tears pricked at my
eyes but I decided to be stubborn this time and not let them fall. I was happy
that Lilly was home and I knew that she was going to be fine, that she was
going to make it… but with all the tears and sobbing, it felt like I was
treating this like she’d died and I was preparing for her funeral.

I needed to pull it together or she would never feel safe .

Kiran had just whispered into my ear that we should give
Talbott some privacy when I realized that Lilly would never feel safe- not ever
again, as long as Terletov was allowed to live.

It was those thoughts that renewed my purpose and drive to
eradicate him from this Kingdom and this world. He would not hurt another one
of my friends.

I swore that to myself and let the promise fill me with an
expanding strength that would see this vow through.

Not a moment after the promise was made, Kiran suddenly
threw me to the ground, his body acting as a shield. A terrifying explosion rocked
the Castle at its core; the ground shook and rumbled beneath our prostrate
bodies and the entire structure threatened to crumble around us. This room
didn’t have any windows, but I could hear the sound of shattering glass all
down the corridor outside.