Hels's Gauntlet [Forbidden Legacy 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (16 page)

Applause interspersed the cheers, applause for the Wizards saving the day. Helcyon spared a smile and knew before he looked back that Kramer was gone. He’d allowed the distraction, allowed the Wizard to flee. The urge to kill him remained, but Cassandra’s hand folding into his, the kiss of forgiveness and love weaving through her irritation and fury of earlier gave him a reason to not pursue.

“Son of a bitch.” Jude swore. “I’ll go after him.”

“You don’t have to.” Helcyon couldn’t help the order in the words, but he tried to keep the phrasing to a suggestion. His nephew was already furious at the turn of events.

“He’s Kramer. He’s dangerous to Cassie.” The immediate need to protect Helcyon’s lady was just one of the many qualities Helcyon respected in the boy.

“No. He’s not. At least not right now. You heard what he said about the bonds of allegiance flowing both ways, the increase of power to both sides?” Helcyon didn’t wait for his answer. He swept his gaze around the area. Rescue workers and relief agencies continued to pour in, as did the number of police personnel and military figures. “Magic is much the same way. What you put out into the world always has consequences. It always has a rebound effect. Kramer’s spells, ripe with vitriol and hate, rebounded on him. He has no magic left and he won’t until we have all awoken, until the dregs of his spell are shattered fully.”

“But he’s still alive.” Cassandra frowned. “If he has no magic, how is he five or six hundred years old?”

Helcyon shrugged. “He is a Wizard. Just as your father was a Wizard.” Gustav, the former inquisitor general, sought to usurp the Danae’s plans for her changeling daughters by seducing Cassandra’s mother. He failed, spectacularly, because not only did the woman not enhance his power, she took it all. She drained every ounce of his magic to create Cassandra. Whether she knew or was a victim of her own heritage no longer mattered.

Cassandra existed.

Cassandra mattered.

Cassandra shattered the spells binding the Fae, the Wizards, and the humans. One by one, they toppled under the weight of the choices she made.

Choices that include us.
He sent the gist of the thought and the revelations along to Jacob. The friendly epithet Jacob sent back only widened his smile. Her love could bring down mountains.

“I don’t get it,” Jude said quietly, and Cassandra’s shoulders lifted in response.

“Sometimes I think he forgets we’re not all as old as time like he is.” The smile on her face removed the sting from the words. A chill breeze picked up. Overhead, clouds darkened the horizon. The air carried the promise of snow.

“It could be.”

Helcyon only half listened to their banter. Cassandra relaxed against him, her troubled gaze firm on the rescue effort and cleanup. Jude bracketed their position, his gaze sweeping their surroundings. Whether he sought out Kramer or not, Helcyon ignored it. Kramer wasn’t the issue. But the weight of a foreign stare prickled the hair along the back of his neck.

Someone watched them. Someone not present in the heavy crowd or part of the press that surrounded them earlier. Helcyon surveyed the crowd, slowly skating over every face, and made note of the postures of those looking away.

He found him on the third sweep, leaning against the hood of a black-and-white police vehicle.

Kyrian.

His brother inclined his head, a small smile curving his lips when their gazes met.

“Jude.” The decision was a risky one, but the boy was on the fence and he wanted to be treated as a man.

“What?”

Helcyon nodded toward Kyrian. “That is your father.”

The younger Wizard jerked as though punched, and he followed Helcyon’s pointed gaze. His brother lifted both eyebrows, surprised, perhaps that Helcyon would reveal him, or that he wouldn’t just attack him.

Too many threats to Cassandra kept Helcyon rooted to the spot, but battles could be fought on many fronts. If his nephew wanted to be treated as a man, Helcyon would oblige him.

Instead of rushing off, Jude seemed frozen. “What’s he doing here?”

“I have no idea.” Not entirely the truth, but not a direct lie either. Kyrian could have any number of reasons for his presence, not the least of which was Jude himself.

“Should I go talk to him?”

“No.” Cassandra tried to pull away, but Helcyon locked his shields and his arms around her.

“Your decision. I would only advise caution. He is a dangerous being these days, and he has his own agenda.” Cassandra’s fingers bit into his arms as he ignored her. But it had to be Jude’s decision.

“Can he glamour me? You know, while I’m still bound to you three?” The interesting question spoke of the younger wizard’s indecision in the matter.

“He can try.” Anything was possible with Kyrian. It went against Helcyon’s nature to even consider it. Jude was his to protect, his to shield, but only when the boy accepted it. “It will be far more difficult. But that is not the only threat he poses to you.”

“I can handle it.” But Jude remained where he was, his brow furrowed. Helcyon could barely make out the expression from the corner of his eye because he dared not take his eyes off his brother.

Before, Kyrian came with many supplicants. Did he even now plot to ambush Helcyon while Cassandra stood so close? The need to rip Kyrian’s arms off and beat him to death with them roared back. Across the decimated remains of the convention center, Jacob whirled.

Helcyon couldn’t veil the dislike or the hunger for vengeance.

“If you’re going to talk to him, you should go now. Jacob knows he is here.”

Indecision fractured the younger Wizard. He looked at Cassandra. “I won’t leave her. Not exposed out here.”

“Then you have made a choice?” Satisfaction ringed Helcyon’s words.

Jude sighed. “Yeah, I guess I have.”

The successful rescue of the twenty-two trapped in the rubble of the conference center headlined every news report. Within minutes of the broadcast, Wizards began to pour into the scene, including Elijah, Jacob’s
domovoi
.

Elijah found Jacob as a dark and dangerous youth and trained the rebellion out of him. He honed the potentially lethal combination of raw power and bad temper into the capable Wizard he was today. Of course, it was Helcyon who sent Elijah to find him. Helcyon who saved Jacob’s life after the Danae ordered it ended.

Just another drop in the bucket of blood he owed. Cassie was still on the scene, but Jude and Helcyon remained at her side. After a while, Jacob could almost ignore it. Paul fell back a step when Elijah joined him.

“They’re all gone, son. They just pulled the last of the ‘living’ out, but I doubt they’ll be alive for much longer. Crush injuries and poor air are killing those who weren’t dead already from the initial blast.”

“There could be more.” Jacob stared at the fairies as they flitted between the beams, disappearing into the tiny crevices no man, Wizard, or Elf could dream of squeezing through. Hours of sifting through the rubble, discovering the barely living in cramped pockets of space wore on him.

The number of dead rose to one hundred and sixty-three. Twelve dead en route to the hospital and another fourteen dying at the hospital. They’d rescued twenty-two. Twenty-two souls from an estimated three hundred and fifty, with at least one hundred unaccounted for.

They had to be in there.

“Son.” Elijah settled his cane against the ground, crossing one hand over the other on the crystal that occupied the cane’s handle. “You’ve done all you can. The fairies are looking now only to assuage the guilt in your soul. Guilt you do not have the right to bear.”

“The right to bear?” A low growl stalked through the words. “I don’t have time for games, old man. If you have something to say, just say it.” Once upon a time, speaking thusly to Elijah would have earned him a smack in the head with that weighted crystal cane. It would have led to hours toiling under a hot sun, performing manual labor, until he got his temper under control.

Today, it only earned a mild shrug and the very thing Jacob asked for, the bald truth. “You blame yourself for every crisis because you chose your woman over your orders. That horse has long since abandoned the barn and the fields where the barn rests. Let it go, Jacob. Humans die. It’s a crime when they are murdered, but the perpetrators of this travesty are to blame. Not you. If you want to embrace your guilt, do so. But stop feeling sorry for yourself. You’ll kill those fairies, and then you’ll add more guilt to your burden.”

With that, Elijah clapped a hand on his shoulder and walked away. Despite the uneven terrain, the ancient Wizard’s limp was barely noticeable. Jacob stared after him and then glanced around the debris field. Most of the rescue workers were falling back. Some scratched their heads and studied their sonic machines, looking for signs of life. Others washed their faces in cold water, sweating profusely despite the winter cold.

Every Wizard that came to help ringed the destruction. They waited, hands folded together. If the fairies found anything, they would remove the debris, lifting it with thought, destroying it with magic, and seeking the living beneath.

But the fairies found nothing and pressed on, despite the sag to their wings and the very real lack of light to their beings. Pushed to their limits, they persevered because Jacob wasn’t satisfied.

Miller, DuPois, and Paul stood as silent sentinels when the time came. But it wasn’t coming. Giving up was wrong. He couldn’t just leave them.

Jacob, they are already passed on. You are not abandoning them. But night approaches, the temperature is dropping. The workers will stay, they will bring in light, and they will keep digging.

The last thing he wanted was Helcyon’s rationality and patience echoing in his mind.

So what? It’s on me to end this?
Was it his decision to say that somewhere, deep in the belly of the rubble beneath tons of melted steel and shattered concrete, no hearts beat?

Do you believe any are still alive? The fairies found many when they began this hunt. Hours have passed since they found the last survivor, and he did not live to reach their ambulances.

The assertion that Jacob knew the truth lay in the Elf’s reasonable tone. As he promised, he didn’t persuade. God, he wished Helcyon would just order him to quit.

No, you really don’t.
Amusement and sympathy pitched the words low, and Jacob twisted to see the Elf standing with his arms around Cassie. They remained outside the barricades and police tape.

Why haven’t you made her go home?
Jacob grabbed hold of the tendrils of anger he’d almost forgotten under his tense focus to save any he could.

Like you, she will not leave until there is nothing left that can be done. She speaks to your press, assuages their fears, and points the waving finger of blame away. She protects us all.
Admiration underlined every word clearly.

The cold didn’t seem to touch her, though her cheeks were ruddy. The air around them wavered, as though it were far warmer than the plummeting temperatures beyond. The threatening clouds from earlier in the day coated the night sky, blotting out any stars.

Snow was in the offing.

Looking back to the wreckage, the fairies rose in ones in twos and all shook their heads. They’d found nothing. Blinking rapidly, he cleared his throat. “We’re done. I’ll let the rescue workers know.” He glanced at the fire captain coordinating the effort. After their first successful find, the man kept glancing to them for any word.

Jacob shoved a hand into his pocket and came out with a small handful of sand. He infused the pile with the energy he promised earlier. Despite their earlier eagerness, the fairies didn’t swarm him. They waited as he poured life force into each grain cupped in his palm and poured them onto a flat rock.

“Thank you.” He murmured and one fairy floated up to his eye level. He could barely make out the being’s masculine face. But he understood the formal bow the slender male offered.

He nodded gravely and turned to find the fire captain studying him. Jacob shook his head once, and the captain sighed. No more survivors. With cold weather moving in, they could close down the site, leaving recovery for better light and conditions.

Beyond the tape, soft sobs rose up. Families of those still missing mourned.
Take her home, Helcyon. I will be along directly.

He didn’t have to look to see if the Elf listened. He felt them both leave, the ties binding them stretching across the miles separating East Coast from West.

“Boss?” Jude appeared at his elbow. “Kyrian was here. He watched for a long time, but didn’t approach.”

“Fantastic. Can this day get worse?” Jacob knew better than to tempt fate.

“Yes,” DuPois answered. “We found a spell, or at least the remnants of one.”

Jacob frowned. “Why didn’t you say so sooner?”

“Because.” Elijah exhaled as he limped slowly back into the conversation. “They asked me to look at it first.”

The unusual request set off the alarm bells in Jacob’s mind.
What the hell could they have found?
“And?”

“It’s definitely magic and it was definitely a spell, but not any we recognized. The words were inscribed on the stone and metal buttresses. They decayed, slipping apart, and almost melted. But several remained, trying to scroll and piece themselves back together again. But many faded altogether.”