Enchanter's Echo (35 page)

“Edmund needs time to heal.”

“Time’s up,” he snapped. “For everyone.” He took her arm and helped her stand.

Even with his assistance, the room spun. She was so drained that fixing the fissure would probably kill her anyway. He guided her across the cold, hard floor and down a flight of wooden stairs. At the bottom, she found herself in a living room, then a dining room, and finally a kitchen. Every room was filled with black-clad military mages.

Against the kitchen wall, a landline rang, its bell vibrating with a shrill clang.

An older, bald man turned from the stove and answered. “Farm,” he said. “Uh huh. Just a second.” He turned, revealing an apron that said
Eat My Muffins
. In his other hand was a wooden spoon covered in creamy batter. His black apron covered camouflage pants tucked into black boots and topped with a black shirt. He held out the receiver. “It’s the apprentice again.”

“You’re not doing your job, General! She should be dead already.” She screeched over the landline loud enough for all to hear.

Aurora jumped at the anger that vibrated through the connection. She stepped away, seeking distance from that voice, but the general’s grip on her arm gave her nowhere to go.

“We are very displeased,” the girl continued. “You, Rallis, did not deserve this position. We’ll take care of the job ourselves. I love a good death chamber!” A click sounded through the receiver.

Aurora gasped. She couldn’t die yet. Her people weren’t safe. She’d done nothing to help anyone.

The bald man hung up the receiver. “Sure. Who wouldn’t love a good death chamber? But what this girl doesn’t seem to understand is that death chambers only form if the High C touches the one who’s marked for death.” He shook his head. “I don’t get this. The territory’s bond has gone to hell, draining out beneath the shields and we’re all going to get sick and die. Yet the High C wants the one person who can fix it dead.”

Edmund’s brother took charge with a single word. “No.” All eyes in the kitchen drew to him. “We’ve only heard from the apprentice. We haven’t heard from the old crone herself.”

The baker nodded thoughtfully. “We’re missing a number of factors in this equation. You’d think the High Councilor doesn’t like my replacement or something from the sound of her apprentice, but I happen to know that’s not the case. The old crone was damn excited about me retiring and you taking over, Vin. Something ’bout the new General Rallis owing her a favor and wasn’t that fun.”

“Fuck,” the general muttered.

The baker pointed his spoon at General Rallis. “You need my help on this? Sounds like a doozy.”

“I’ll let you know, sir. In the meantime, your muffins are burning.”

The bald baker rushed back to the oven. While he was distracted, the general steered Aurora to the door. “Can you spell yourself warm, enchantress?”

She eyed the snowy ground from the door’s window.

“She looks like hell,” the captain muttered. “She’s wearing a stake-burn dress for Homer’s sake, and she’s so pale her freckles are gone.”

The general frowned. “I suppose a walking on air spell wouldn’t be remiss.” His compassion surprised her.

“Remiss?” Beard spat with an angry whisper. He sneered at Gregor. “Fuck me. Now you’ve got Vin using words like remiss.”

“He’s an educated man, Dane. He didn’t grow up in the swamp with his brains boiling out of his ears in a steamy mist like you did. Pull yourself together. You’re being an ass.”

Gregor began a low chant that was soft mix of nasal tones and vibrations from deep in his throat, ignoring the other man’s taunt about being second-lander trash.

Her feet were suddenly standing on clouds, the power of Gregor’s chant protecting her from the cold ground. He pushed the door open and winter gushed in. She shivered. She pulled her vibes to warm, but they refused to coalesce, too weak. She hunched over, hugging herself with her arms, her hands icy.

The general gave her a gentle push from behind and she stumbled out the door, buffered on air.

She was returning to Edmund and Merida, to Lily and Tera, with the might of the law at her side…a law that deemed them all unfit to live. Though the men moved with a sense of urgency, tension in their shoulders, their weapons at hand, Aurora couldn’t keep up.

“Keeping walking, enchantress,” the general whispered from behind.

She looked back at him and then slammed to a halt, as if she walked into a glass wall. The smack reverberated through her ears. If she hadn’t turned her head, she would have broken her nose. The invisible wall pricked at her skin like a thousand needles lined up to catch her skin.

Her yip echoed around her. She stepped back, her bare heel bumping another needle-lined wall. Her mage power puffed around her in a glitter cloud and seeped into the walls that surrounded her. She could see the sphere now, enclosing her from top to bottom. Only the captain’s spell of air kept her from being pierced through her feet by the chamber’s needles.

She shivered clear through her gut as her energy leeched from her. Clouds of glitter spilled from her body, clung to the invisible walls, and then disappeared.

“Don’t touch the walls,” the general shouted.

“What is this?” she cried. The power drew on her soul, sucking life from the core of her being. Pain stole her breath in a exhale that wouldn’t end.

“Has the High Councilor ever touched you?” the general shouted through the walls of the chamber.

She closed her eyes, remembering the scene as it played out in her mind. The boat…the old woman’s sharp grip around her face…the vow forced upon her. She’d never forget that. Another puff of glitter. Her shoulders slumped as her energy was sucked away. She swayed on the air beneath her feet.

General Rallis held up his hand, palm out, face taut. Outside her dome of hell, the trees blew, leaning away as if they might break. The warriors scrambled to get behind their leader. A truck sitting on the far side of the sphere tipped to its side, blown over by the force of the general’s spell, but the chamber didn’t budge.

Aurora’s muscles clenched with terror, so tight it hurt. A sob yanked out as her vibes were ripped away from her in a steady wave.

Standing beside the general, Gregor chanted. But nothing was working.

The general dropped his hand, defeated. “Dane, get out of range of here. Contact the High Councilor. Only speak to her. Tell her if the enchantress is dead, then Rallis is, too, along with the rest of the Republic.”

“I’m taking a chopper.”

“Take a fucking broomstick, I don’t care. Just get out of here.”

“Won’t be fast enough. She’s as good as dead.”

A rhythmic swish sounded through his body, every beat full of her vibes. He pressed his hand over his heart, expecting to feel her there, but he was alone. He smiled anyway. Her invisible touch against his chest epitomized how she held his heart.

“And then, the goblins burst out the cave! And then, they ate the fairies! See, one flies right into his mouth,” Lily cried.

He flinched away from a hard poke to his cheek and a subsequent bump against his forehead.

“Sorry. I dropped the book on you. You ’wake? I told Grammy this was a wake-up story, not a bedtime story. It’s too scary to sleep for.”

Edmund opened his eyes to see shelves of battered appliances.

Lily sat beside him on Aurora’s workbench. “But you don’t have to worry, Uncle Monday.” She stared down at a book. “The fairies make bad food and give the goblins tummy aches and they barf them up. I know where they live, too. In the woods. Don’t tell Grammy.”

“Lily.” The rough growl that came out of his mouth sounded like he’d been asleep for days.

The book clattered to the floor as Lily clapped her hands around his cheeks, squeezing enough to purse his lips. “I knew my wake-up story would work! Can you go get Aurora now?”

Goddess, he felt like someone had exchanged his blood for sleeping potion. Worse, his mage power crawled over his skin like his control was threatening to shatter. He recognized that feeling. Fissures—bigger than he’d ever sensed before.

Lily bent down and whispered, eyes wide. “They took her. I saw it. I wasn’t ’spose to. Big men and lots. They were army guys. They put handcuffs on her and she fell asleep in the snow and didn’t wake up. Like you.”

“Army guys.” His voice was rough and weak. “They took Aurora? Why?”

She looked away. “I’m not ’spose to know that either. Not really. Well, kinda. It’s because they don’t like me.”

He reined in his questions that beat in his mind like a thousand knocking fists, carefully choosing a single one. “Who doesn’t like you?”

“Everybody.” Her lips drooped. “’Cept the junkers. Aurora went to explain to everybody else that I’m okay. And Tera’s okay.”

The swish in his chest quickened slightly, a twinge at her sadness that was so matter-of-fact. “Why don’t they like you?”

“They wanted me to die…with Daddy and Mommy and Rylie.” She drummed her boots harder against the workbench as she said the names. The sound vibrated into his skull.

He put a hand on her knee to stop her. Her small legs were so hard beneath his touch they felt like stone. He sat up. Stiffness pulled at every vertebra in his spine like he’d been laying there for days. He looked over the edge.

Little metal feet swung back and forth. Unnatural silver legs disappeared beneath her dress. He yanked his hand back. He scooted his hips away from her, repulsed. Instinct. The girl was unnatural. Her legs were not flesh and blood as the goddess intended. They were metal. His mind assimilated the knowledge and kept rolling forward toward the only possible conclusion. For the first time, Aurora’s secrets became clear.

Lily grabbed his cheeks again.

He flinched away.

Her brown eyes widened.

“Lily. Time to go home.” Bull stood in the doorway. “You need to stay with your grammy until we get all this sorted out.”

“What has she done?” Edmund’s voice vibrated with horror at the thought of Aurora’s actions. He blinked at the little girl, an abomination in the eyes of the Republic, one who should have been left to die instead of live with unnatural parts not granted by the goddess...parts that would make her a rogue when she came into her power.

He jumped to his feet, put a hand to his naked chest, his heart swishing like everything was normal, fine, routine. “What did she do to me?” he shouted, but he already knew the answer. Aurora’s unnatural work beat inside his body.

His lungs heaved as if the air was poisoned with the taint of her actions. Blasted hells, the room was contaminated. He was contaminated. Blindly swiping a tool from the counter, he fisted it, muscles tensing, ready to slam it through the walls. Red swamped his vision.

“Will you build a snowman with me when you get back?” Lily asked, small and sad.

Her little voice was like an icy knife against his hot wrath. He froze, harnessing his anger back. He moved the little hammer behind his back, hiding the rage that he’d been ready to let loose in front of her.

“Say yes. Please say yes. When you come back.” Longing gleamed in her dark brown eyes.

“That’ll do, rascal.” Bull strode over and took her by the hand. “I’ll make a snowman with you.”

“Right now?”

“No.” Edmund growled. “Not right now. Your Uncle Bull and I have to talk.”

She glanced over at Edmund, her chin tucked, and slumped out.

“What did she do to me?” The question roared out again.

“She saved your life.” Bull was calm, rational, as if creating rogue mages was an everyday occurrence in this fucked up place. “Risked her own life to do it. You’d be dead if not for her.”

“I should be dead!”

Bull shrugged. “We can arrange that.”

“How many people has she done this to? Lily. Blasted hells.” His yell changed to a harsh whisper. “What was she thinking?”

Bull crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head.

Edmund glared back with every joule of righteous anger burning on the surface of his skin. It crackled in the air.

“So you’re telling me you think Lily shoulda died?” Disappointment dripped from Bull’s voice as if it might smother and drown Edmund’s angry vibes. “That little girl and her flower crowns, skipping around with all her energy…her sweet hands that pat your face.”

“She’s a rogue. Or will be when she grows up. Rogues go crazy. They kill without remorse.”

“No.” He shook his head, the word short and tight. “She’s not a rogue. Neither are you. Aurora fixes that. She can re-bond the people to the mark.” He held out his hands like it was all so obvious. “It’s such a simple fix. All those rogues in the uprisings...all they needed was an enchantress’s touch and she could have stopped the whole thing. Of course, bringing an enchantress into a battle would drive her insane. Too much evil.”

“The girl is a rogue!”

“Fuck me blue.” The words sang from the fighter. “Ror needs to make you a hearing aid to go with that heart. Did you not hear me? She fastens people back to the bond. No one here is a rogue. Lily is not a rogue. You. Are. Not. A. Rogue.”

“It’s punishable by death!” His bellow vibrated around the space. A paper blew off the far counter as if hiding from his anger. “Is she going to hide forever? What kind of life is that?”

“It’s my fault.” Merida stepped into the room. “I convinced Aurora to fix Lily.”

He faced her, shirtless and barefoot, wearing his suit pants and his rage like a too-tight tie strangling his neck.

“It took her days to create legs for her. I held Lily asleep in a spell.” She stared him down. “I couldn’t lose her.” Shaking her head, her voice changed to a whisper. “Not her, too. They took everything from me. Everything, but Lily. And the answer to saving her was right next to me.”

“What the hell does that mean? The bomb goes off and Aurora says she can make illegal, unnatural abominations of legs and save your granddaughter?” He shook his hands in the air, gold hammer and all.

Bull rolled his eyes. “Vibing hells, you don’t deserve her heart. I wasn’t at the park that day, but I know her,” he spat. “Guess you don’t. ’Cause I can imagine how she’d react…surrounded by death vibes, violence, chaos, pain, hate…hell on Earth for anyone. But Aurora? She thrives on life and joy and love. That bomb wiped out her soul. I saw it in her eyes when she got back here, bloody, soot all over her, her power draining like a sliced artery. If she hadn’t kept moving, if she hadn’t focused her power on something…her vibes woulda shut down. She would’ve died from horror.