Kissed by Eternity (18 page)

"Would you shut it?" I snapped. "My head hurts bad enough without you yelling."

"Are you all right?" he asked.

I rubbed my chest. "A little sore, but I think I'm okay. You?"

"Fine. I'm not the one who connected with the portal energy."

"Yeah, wouldn't recommend it." I staggered to my feet and saw Alister lying unconscious on the floor not far away. "Did you knock him out?"

Jack shrugged. "No more than he deserved. Let's get out of here."

I wanted nothing more. Jack leaned down, grabbed the still unconscious Alister by the wrist, and began dragging him along the tunnel.

"There's no cure, is there?" I whispered. Jack didn't answer.

We stepped out of the portal into Emory's backyard. Above us the sky was dark, the stars dancing their never-ending minuet. A small fire burned cheerfully in one of those metal fire pits. All four witches stood inside the circle: Emory, Kabita, Veronique, and Lene. Each still held their white candle. Cordelia was there, too, clearly enjoying her moment of magic.

The only difference was that outside the circle stood Eddie, Inigo, Haakon, Trevor, and Tommy. I blinked. Why was the whole gang here?

The witches stopped chanting and blew out their candles. Behind us, the portal snapped shut. Jack and I waited with Alister lolling between us while Emory banished the circle. Then she waved us to gather around the fire pit.

"How did it go?" Kabita asked, not even glancing at her father.

"We got the grimoire," I said, holding it up. The firelight glinted against the wrought gold and gemstones. "Of course, we still don't know what it means and Alister hasn't told us his plans yet."

"He will," Jack said grimly.

A warm hand wrapped around mine, and I turned to find Inigo standing close behind me. He said nothing, but the look in his eyes warmed me inside and out. I squeezed his hand, acknowledging our bond, and he squeezed back.

I love you.

It whispered through my mind like the remnants of a dream. So I whispered it back. I knew he heard me because his blue eyes began to turn gold. The dragon was close to the surface, as it often was when our emotions ran high. It was a relief to see it. It meant Inigo was himself again. Maybe not the same as before, but himself.

"Trevor, why are you here? And Tommy? What about the djinn?"

"I left my men to guard the border," Trevor said grimly. "All is quiet for now."

"That's a relief." I rubbed the bridge of my nose, suddenly feeling exhausted. "No sign of the queen?"

"None," Trevor said. "But knowing her, it's only a matter of time. I'm here because I'm hoping whatever is in that damn book has something to do with what's going on, and I plan to help you stop it."

It was a safe bet. I had no doubt Alister was in this war nonsense up to his eyeballs. Whatever his plans were, they somehow played into the queen's.

Jack tossed Alister into a chair. The man stirred a little and groaned. He was coming around. Good. We needed answers.

I knelt in front of him and waited, my mind still full of my dream of Amaza. What did it all mean? I knew Emory was involved, but the rest of it was a mystery, one maybe Alister could solve.

He opened his eyes and stared at me. "He promised."

"And he'll fulfill his promise once you tell us what you were going to do with the grimoire."

"Say the spell, of course." He smirked, some of his cockiness back.

"It's in a form of ancient Atlantean no one alive knows."

His smile grew wider. "The queen herself promised to translate."

How did the queen know ancient Atlantean? And an obscure dialect at that? "Why? What does it do, this spell? What's her angle?"

He cocked his head to the side and stared at me for a long beat. "Truly? Don't you know?" He grinned a little madly. Okay, a lot madly. "It will finally rid the Earth of this pestilence with me as supreme leader of all!" He cackled. Yep. Definitely gone around the bend. Several bends, probably.

"That doesn't make any sense," I pointed out. "The queen would never allow anyone but herself to reign."

He snorted. "All I know is that our goals align, and she has promised her assistance."

"If you believe that, you are a bigger fool than I imagined. The queen has but one agenda. Her own."

"And the friend of my enemy may be my enemy, but she is a means to an end."

"Your end, no doubt."

"Perhaps," he said calmly, "but you'll be long gone. And that's really all that matters."

"What do you mean?"

He smirked at me in that smug, superior way of his. Rat bastard.

"What my father means is his goal of eradicating every non-human on the planet will have been achieved. Every magic practitioner destroyed. Nothing else matters to him."

I stared down at him. "The queen would never agree to that. Not unless her people survived."

"Oh, there's definitely more to this," Kabita agreed. "Much more. That's Alister's plan, such as it is. I'm not even sure he knows what he's doing anymore. In any case, I'm certain the queen's plan is very different, but only she knows what it is."

"Tell us what you know, Jones," Jack said, leaning right into his face. "If you want the cure, you'd best spill everything."

"Cure?" Kabita asked softly.

I swallowed. "Jack thinks I might have infected him."

She stared at me for a long moment, then nodded. "I suggest you cooperate,
Dad
. I hate to have to explain to the boys that you turned vamp, and I had to stake you."

Yeah. Couldn't see that going down well with Kabita's brothers. Even if they were MI8 and Hunters in their own right.

Alister stared from his daughter to Jack and back again. "All I know is she required certain people to complete the task. The Key, of course." He nodded to me. "She tried to create a new Key with Darroch's help but failed miserably."

He was talking about Jade. The queen and Darroch had manipulated the Dragon Hunter to their own ends, those ends being a replacement for me. Not that Alister was innocent. I was pretty sure he'd had the same plan, but they'd gotten to Jade first and ruined things for him.

"But there were others," Alister continued.

"What others?"

"I don't know specifically, but she said they were required to finish the spell."

"A spell you don't know how to perform." And one he thought would make him king of the world.

He shrugged slightly. "I
will
change the world."

My guess was the queen was lying out her ass. The spell would achieve one goal: the queen's. But the book was written by an Atlantean, which meant it wasn't a Sidhe spell or even a Witch spell. It was Atlantean and therefore met their goals, not the queen's or Alister's. My guess was she planned to pervert it to her own ends somehow. I needed to know who these "others" were.

"The Four," I gasped.

"What are you talking about?" Kabita asked.

I pulled them away from Alister so he couldn't hear. "In the tunnel, when I got knocked out, I had a dream. A vision."

"You were knocked out?" Inigo demanded.

I waved him away. "I'm fine now." My chest still hurt, but I wasn't going to point that out. I didn't need anyone fussing. "I had a vision of a priestess of Atlantis. She told me it was almost time. She told me I needed a Spellwalker." Haakon's eyes flitted to Emory. "I also needed a Soulshifter, whatever that is."

Kabita stared at me. "A Soulshifter. Is that what she said? Did she say why?"

I shook my head. "She didn't. And she didn't answer when I asked her what one was. Anyway, she also said I needed to find the Four: Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. I have no idea what that means. The four powers, maybe?"

"You already have those," Trevor pointed out.

"And more besides," Inigo said drily. "She must be referring to something else."

"If I may," Eddie said, stepping forward and taking the grimoire from me. "I believe the answers are here." He flipped open the book. Scattered among the lines of the spell were symbols. Some I recognized, others I didn't. "This," he said, tapping his forefinger on a page, "is the Atlantean symbol for water."

I nodded. I recognized it from my amulet.

"And this." He moved his finger to the symbol next to it. "This is for the ancient water Titan, Nereus."

I stared at him. "You mean…?"

"This is the symbol for me. I am one of the Four."

Chapter 23

"Are you kidding me?"

Eddie peered at me over the rims of his glasses. "I'm afraid not, my dear. There are, ah, a few things you don't know about me."

I snorted. "That's an understatement if ever I heard one. Care to share?"

He smiled, his round cheeks and fringe of white hair making him look more like a cherub than a powerful Titan. "Not just yet."

Inigo took the book from Eddie. "Who are the other three?" He peered at the page where Eddie's symbol lay, then flipped to another page. "Wait. This symbol under the symbol for fire. This is my brother's symbol."

I peeked around his broad shoulder, ignoring his chocolatey s'mores scent. "What do you mean? What's Drago got to do with this?"

"Well, technically, it's the symbol for the Dragon King, but that happens to be Drago at the moment."

"That makes sense," Jack said from where he stood next to the fire pit, one booted foot braced against its rim. "My guess is the other two symbols are for the rulers of the djinn and Sidhe. Air and Earth."

Eddie nodded. "That would be my guess as well."

Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, just as Amaza had said.

"Oh, wonderful. The two people who are trying to kill each other are the two people we need for"—I waved at the book— "whatever this spell is."

"Unfortunately, yes." Eddie flipped through a few more pages, studying each one carefully. "Honestly, I haven't the foggiest notion what this spell involves or what the results will be, but it's clear these four people are critical to its success. Along with a Spellwalker and a Soulshifter to create the spell together. And you, Morgan. The Key to it all."

"Freaking fantastic."

"My sentiments exactly." Eddie snapped the book closed, his expression about as serious as Eddie ever got. "Whatever this spell is, it was important enough for the Queen of the Sidhe and Alister Jones to work together. My guess is that power of some kind is involved. It always is with these people." He sniffed as if he smelled something bad. I always felt that way around Alister.

"Alister," I said, striding toward him. He stared up at me from where he lay curled on the ground. "You ready to tell us the truth? Or do you want me to let you turn? Trust me, it's not fun." I'd never seen anyone turn vampire, but I doubted it was in anyone's Top Ten Fun Things to Do.

He glared at me as if looks could kill. Gone was the sophisticated British MI8 agent. The rumpled man on the ground looked half feral. He refused to say a word. Instead he rocked back and forth, his eyes slightly unfocused. He was getting worse. Dammit.

"We can't just go around casting random spells," Emory said, speaking up for the first time. She and her coven stood nearby. It was her backyard, after all. "You can't just blunder in blindly. Spells require intent, and without knowing the intent to put into the spell, things could go very wrong. Do you have any idea the kind of hell you could unleash on this planet?"

I shook my head. "The Atlanteans would never have done such a thing." Of that I was sure. The dreams convinced me. "This was something they meant for good. Something significant. They were a people of peace before…before the virus destroyed them. Whatever this spell is, it's important."

"My father and his little Sidhe partner probably figured they could pervert it to their own ends. That's what he does." Kabita scowled at Alister. "It's no doubt why they tried to make Jade into the Key so she could replace you." Kabita stared at her father, her face a mask. I had no idea what she was thinking. I didn't imagine it could be good.

"Peace," Eddie blurted.

We all turned to stare at him. "What?" I asked.

He had the book open again. He pointed to a page. "This symbol is Atlantean for peace. I recognize it. I think it was meant to bring peace to the world. Somehow."

"Well, that explains it." I crossed my arms. "As far as Alister is concerned, peace is eliminating anyone not human."

"And the queen returning to Earth as supreme ruler of all the races," Inigo murmured.

"Using each other to their own ends. Who do you think would win?" I asked.

He snorted. "My money's on the queen. Alister may be devious—or he was before something sent him over the edge—but that woman is pure evil."

"Not pure evil," I said. "Just nuts with a side of rampant egocentricity."

"We need to perform the spell, Morgan," Eddie said, his tone urgent. "We must ensure the spell occurs as the ancients planned. That it is not twisted by evil desires. This" —he placed his palm flat on the book— "is what we've all been working toward. This is what you were meant to do."

Eddie was leaning a little far into cosmic destiny for my liking, but he wasn't wrong. This was the reason the amulet had chosen me. So I could finish this. It would have been nice if it had asked me first.

"If we're going to do this, how are we going to get the rest of the Four to agree to it?" I asked.

"Drago's not a problem," Inigo pointed out. "You're family, remember. Dragon kin."

"Oh, right. The whole Fire Bringer thing." Apparently I was the answer to some ancient dragon prophecy. I still had no idea what it meant, but it was important to the dragons in a big way.

"I'm a little more worried about the Marid and the queen. The Marid would probably be okay with it except he's kind of irked with me right now. And the queen is batshit."

Kabita's eyes narrowed. "Unless she believes it's in her best interests to cooperate."

I grinned. "Excellent. We've got to make her believe if she helps us, she's somehow going to get what she wants."

"A Sidhe kingdom here on Earth. Masters of us all," Jack said drily. "Surely she'd never believe we'd allow that."