Enchanter's Echo

Aurora Firenze lives a quiet life hiding in a junkyard. Her repair shop is the last hope for gadgets and gizmos before they get tossed onto the trash towers. Fortunately, Aurora can fix almost anything, including mages, though repairing people with metal enchantments is highly illegal.

Edmund Rallis, heir to the Rallis senate seat, has spent months hunting down his errant enchantress. He’ll play every game he knows to win her back and entice her to share the secrets she hides. But he’s inadvertently put her on the frontlines of a new game, one with an opponent who’s determined to destroy Rallis Territory and drive the Republic toward war. If the new enemy isn’t stopped in time, Edmund will lose his enchantress again—and this time there won’t be another chance.

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Mayflower Mages Series

Syphon’s Song

Enchanter’s Echo

Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

Mayflower Mages Series

Anise Rae

LYRICAL PRESS

Kensington Publishing Corp.

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Copyright © 2014 by Anise Rae

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First Electronic Edition: February 2015

eISBN-13: 978-1-61650-539-4

eISBN-10: 1-61650-539-7

First Print Edition: February 2015

ISBN-13: 978-1-61650-540-0

ISBN-10: 1-61650-540-0

Printed in the United States of America

For Lizzy and Charlie. Thank you for always being so excited about my good writing news and so appropriately disappointed about the bad news.

One of my favorite places is Columbus, Ohio. I only lived there for a year, but it still feels like home. That’s mostly because my mother lives there. Though the old saying goes that home is where the heart is, no matter how old I get, there will always be a part of me that feels that home is where my mom is. I’m so lucky to have her for a thousand reasons. The least of which is how willing is she to help me with the settings of the Mayflower Mages books. As I was writing this story from Georgia, I called and emailed her dozens of times asking for details about Columbus. On many occasions, she traveled around the city taking photos of various sites for me. Thanks, Mom.

If you’re familiar with Columbus, you’ll likely recognize a few landmarks or streets. You might also notice that I’ve played havoc with some parts of the city, adding a large dose of magic to many locations and completely trashing others. For those of you who love the city, I hope you’ll forgive me for that last part.

As for the other of the aspects of this book, Katie Askue read every word of the original manuscript, as she has with each book I’ve written. I’ve come to depend on her wise council, and I’m so thankful for her time and insight. Above all, I’m thankful for her friendship.

I’m also grateful for my editor, Jennifer Herrington. Someone was smiling on me the day my manuscript landed in her inbox. This book matured greatly under her expert eye. She showed me how to ignite a spark in Aurora and Edmund that I couldn’t figure out on my own. I’m moving on to the next book a better writer because of her.

I must thank my kids as well for putting up with an embarrassing number of take-out dinners while I was editing this book. In fact, life in our house got so chaotic that my ten-year-old said to me, “Mom, can you show me how to do the laundry?”

Finally, thank you, dear reader. I hope you enjoy Aurora and Edmund’s adventures. As for the third book in the Mayflower Mages series, stay tuned. Gregor’s story is next.

The keep-out spell awoke at her approach. The enchanted mesh of vines and branches that blocked the entrance to Rallis Territory’s forbidden forest vibrated in welcome as its creator returned. Aurora Firenze cast her vibes along the perimeter of her spell, testing and prodding. Its strength resonated back. It was as strong as it had been six months ago when she’d created it and hid her secrets within the forest’s depths. She let go of a relieved breath, but it didn’t cure her tension.

Her nerves were strung tight, as if she’d spent hours placating customers in her repair shop. But the day had been quiet. She’d even made decent progress—fixing a curling iron with a too-hot heating spell and a stapler that had a bad habit of chasing the boss around the conference table. Yet a restlessness itched at her skin with an unpleasant persistence. She’d closed up early and headed out for the short walk to the forest. Within its heart, she’d find the peace to wash away this unease.

She sent another stream of vibes into the keep-out spell. A discreet doorway formed. With a quick glance around the barren field and the junkyard behind her, she stepped beneath her illegal spell.

As she brushed against the branches, a faint thump sounded at her feet—the soft crash of a pinecone or a weak branch falling to the ground. A normal forest noise. She flinched anyway. Her glitter puffed around her in an anxious cloud as her mage energy escaped her control. It was the fifth time today. Enchantresses did not make good criminals. She should probably let the other three in existence know, in case they were considering lives of crime. Those blasted sparkly clouds would blow their covers wide open.

She lifted her foot to continue into the small forest that was tucked inside the territory’s capital city, but stopped. A proper lawbreaker should investigate mysterious noises outside her lair. She turned and scanned the ground for the culprit. A gold coin glinted in the crisp weeds. That wasn’t normal. She reached to pick it up, scanning the field and the junkyard beyond with a twitchy gaze. Empty. She was alone.

Behind her, the forest shuttered closed, nearly catching her in its fortress wall. She jumped forward with a surprised lurch at the swat of vines and twigs. A basic rule of illegal enchantments: get out of the way or risk being incorporated into the spell.

Ignoring the sting of the swat, she stared at the coin. It was tarnished at the edges, a used-up charm.
See-me-not
was embossed on its golden surface. She jerked her head up. A man stood ten paces away. He was tall, broad…beyond familiar.

“Edmund,” she whispered. A shiver tiptoed across her shoulders like kisses, soft lips that hid a sharp bite. Her nerves stretched thinner yet, trapped in a battle between memories of lovers’ frolics and the promise of a dark fate that had just materialized from thin air.

Behind her, the forest’s trees rustled with the wind, a warning to retreat, one she dare not heed. Not until she knew why he’d finally come searching for her. She hadn’t thought he’d ever come back.

He prowled forward. “Hello, princess.” Though his words might have held some affection, nothing of the lover she’d once known appeared in his countenance. He lifted his left hand to reveal a glowing ball of mage vibes in his palm. His blue eyes reflected the tiny flashes of energy, and his power snapped in the air like a miniature electrical storm. The heir to the most powerful territory in the Republic had quite a steam of anger built up.

Dark hair waved across his forehead, and little curls peeked out at the edges of his neck. Though the wind buffeted and pushed at Aurora, winter’s boldness didn’t dare touch Edmund, not his hair, nor his dark gray suit or scarlet tie.

The hard slope of his nose matched the sharp lines of his jaw and cheekbones. When he smiled, he was deadly handsome. At the moment, he was simply deadly.

“Aurora.” He cast her name through the air and a piece of her soul tumbled away, as if it might dash toward him and cling like a forlorn, discarded lover. But he hadn’t discarded her….

“You stand accused of melding earthen metals to human flesh with an enchantment.”

Her heart thumped once, hard and loud, and then took off with a sprint, drenching her veins from head to toe with lightning sharp fright.

Goddess, he’d found out. How?

Even as she thought it, he revealed the answer. The glow faded from his ball of energy to reveal a small metal sphere. Her racing heart shriveled at the sight, pulling the rest of her organs with it, as if they thought to hide, seeking a chance to slip past this disaster unnoticed and, perhaps, survive. She shifted her feet on the ground, unable to resist the fear pumping through her core. Run, her gut whispered. She couldn’t afford to listen…not with the evidence sitting in his hand.

The sphere was heavier than it looked. She knew that. After all, she’d made it...and thought it long gone. He closed his fingers around it, capturing her fate within his fist.

“How’d you get that?” Her fast words shot out, hustling forward before fear, creeping up her legs with tingles and pricks, stole her voice.

“You ought to be down on your knees thanking me for confiscating it.” His voice was sharp and cutting. He sounded like a stranger, his jokes and teasing wit long gone.

“What did you do? Sneak into the junkyard and pluck his eye from his skull? Has it been hiding under your pillow for six months?” Not at all where she’d thought it was. Betrayal jolted through her. “Hardly actions befitting the heir of the mighty Rallis realm.” Her voice wavered.

“You have no idea what I’ve done. This is a direct violation of the Law of Natural Physique.” He slipped his other hand from his pocket and wrapped it around the nape of her neck, threading his fingers through her red curls. The move was entwined with some of her favorite memories and a small part of her quivering heart wept that fear was drowning her senses instead of the desire and affection that used to burn between them.

His energy rose around her. “You made this, didn’t you? Bound to plead true, speak, Aurora.”

Compelled—a difficult spell, one not in her repertoire, but he cast it with ease, demanding her confession.

Her answer boiled and bubbled inside her chest, pushing up her throat. She fought it, sealing her lips. They opened anyway…without her permission. His spell was too powerful.

“Yes.” She gasped the word, then panted for air as if she’d run miles.

“Foolish.” He shook his head, so close their noses nearly rubbed. Without taking his gaze from hers, he tossed the eye up and away. The air imploded. Thunder rumbled as the shockwaves undulated and grew with a tug impossible for her enchanter power to resist. She tried to pull back to see the damage, but he wouldn’t let go.

The implosion strengthened. Its energy reached toward them with a threatening hand. Once begun, a destruere mage’s distinctive spell had no end. Not until everything in existence was destroyed. Not unless an enchantress stopped it. Without looking, she tossed a stream of power toward it, countering his destruction.

Just like that, the evidence that would have earned her a death sentence no longer existed, at least not that piece of evidence.

His pale eyes—anger always drained their bright blue—were too wide for mere fury. He was afraid, too. “Never. Again.” A slash of power vibrated through his hard words as if he’d bind her to obey with a mere command. Impossible without her willing vow. She’d never give him that.