Retribution (33 page)

Layla's grandparents were among them, so she moved away from Quin to greet them with hugs, and he took the opportunity to wrap his arm around his mom's shoulders. “The energy on this lawn,” he observed, finding his dad, “it’s restless.”

“Yes,” Kemble confirmed.
 

Layla finished her greetings and moved back to Quin, so he pulled her under his free arm. He wore a contemplative expression as he looked from his mom's platinum waves to Layla's ebony curls. Then he shook his head and found his dad. “What's going on?”

“Several things,” Kemble answered, “but let's get the newest introductions out of the way first. We don't have time to waste, so make them as short as possible while remaining thorough.”

Quin gave a nod as headed for the circle of chairs surrounding the fire. “Should I be concerned?”

“No,” Kemble answered.

Quin stopped outside the crowd and kissed his mom's head. Then he let go of her and turned toward Layla. “How do you want to do this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, now that we’re involving strangers, secrecy is pointless. We don't need to go through the process of finding out why these guys are here, so we can skip the formalities and get to the point.”

Layla smiled and raised her eyebrows. “No sad stories and less time holding in our lights. Let's do it.”

He returned her smile then led her to their company. “Hi. I'm Quin, and this is Layla.” He went down the line, shaking their hands, and Layla politely followed suit.

The three newcomers were Brennan, Bryant and Broderick, brothers who hailed from a coven in New Hampshire. They'd been contacted by Arlen, who'd been good childhood friends with the trio.

Once the introductions were made, Quin cut to the chase. “Layla and I have a lot on our plates, so I'm not going into detail about our situation. I apologize for the abruptness, but anyone here will be able to answer your questions. I hope you won't find us rude for rushing this along. That being said, I'm sure you've noticed the extraordinary amount of gold floating around, and our situation has everything to do with that. Those two bonded couples there…” He pointed to Layla's grandparents then paused and looked at the brothers. “You've met them all, right?”
 

The three guests gave a nod, so Quin continued. “Good. Well here's the deal – their son and their daughter bonded.”

“What?” Broderick asked, sharing a look of confusion with his brothers.

“Two bonded children bonded themselves,” Quin clarified.

“That's not possible,” Brennan argued.

“I assure you it is,” Quin countered, “and I'll show you proof.”

Bryant raised an eyebrow and looked around. “Are they here?”

“No,” Quin answered. “Unfortunately, and with Agro's help, they died over two decades ago.”

Bryant smirked. “So you have no proof.”

“I'm not here to debate, gentlemen. If you'll let me finish, you'll get your proof.” Quin waited to see if they had anything else to say then went on. “They aren't here, but their daughter is.” He gave Layla’s shoulders a squeeze. “Layla is the biological daughter of two bonded children who bonded themselves.”

The three brothers scanned Layla from head to toe. Then they narrowed their eyes on Quin as the eldest spoke. “We can't just take your word on that.”

“You don't have to, but before I show you proof, there's more to the story.” He pointed to his mom and dad. “I'm Kemble and Cordelia's son, a bonded child myself, and four days ago, Layla and I bonded with each other.”

Brennan loudly laughed as Broderick looked at Arlen. “Are you kidding me, Arlen? You brought us all the way here as a joke?”

Arlen chuckled as he shook his head. Then he pointed at Quin, who smiled at Layla. “Let's rest our case, love.”

“Let's,” she agreed.

They released their concealment spells, quickly putting an end to the newcomers' doubt, and Quin gave them a moment to absorb what they were seeing before wrapping it up. “This is why we have a confrontation with Agro on the horizon. Now, we understand you probably have questions, and we welcome them, but someone else will have to field them.”

He shook each of their hands again. Then he led Layla to his parents. “So what's going on?”

“Conceal grandpa Cat,” Kemble instructed, waving Catigern over. “Belinos needs a break.”

Quin obeyed, working his magic on his great-grandfather. Then he turned back to Kemble. “Let's hear it.”
 

“The volunteers' clearing needs to be concealed,” Kemble explained.

“That can wait until morning,” Quin countered.

“No it can't,” Kemble disagreed. “There are already sixteen people there, and most will choose to fly in at night, so who knows how many will be there in the morning.”

“Sixteen?”

“Yes, and that's just a tip of the iceberg.”

“What makes you think so?”

“We just started spreading the word to strangers this morning, so anyone on the other side of the Rockies hasn't had time to make it here yet, even if they left right away. If sixteen have already shown up, there are probably many more en route, and most volunteers will spend one more night with their families before their morning departure.”

“Good point,” Quin conceded. “This is a good thing.”

“Yes, but the bigger this gets, the more hectic our lives will be.”

“I guess. Is there anything else we need to take care of before we go conceal the clearing?”

“Yes. We want you to start concealing the community guards. We've doubled the security, and with that many of them using their own spells, they're easy to spot. It’s probably not life or death considering we have eyes on Agro’s camp, but you might as well conceal them if you're around when the guard change happens.”

“That's fine,” Quin agreed. “Who's going out?”

Kemble led the way to ten wizards – five from their own coven and five from Kegan and Weylin's. “They'll be on guard until seven.”

Layla began concealing her own family members while Quin took care of the others, and Kemble continued divulging information. “Everyone will be here for breakfast in the morning, and we've invited the Cormac/Adair and Owen/Sullivan covens to join us. It would make things easier if the two of you were out here.”

Layla knew the Cormac/Adair coven was Weylin and Kegan's family, but she had no idea who the others were. After concealing her fifth and final person, she turned to Quin, awaiting his explanation, but it didn't come.

Pulling her into a hug, he looked at his dad. “We'll be here. Anything else before we go?”

“No,” Kemble answered, “but we’re not comfortable with you two traveling by yourselves. We know you’re more capable than we are, but your mom has been a wreck today, so from now on, we’re sticking with you.”

“Us, too,” Layla's grandparents added.

Quin smirked then looked at Layla. “Guess we have bodyguards now.”

“It would seem so,” she murmured, sharing a moment with his eyes.

He gently tapped her nose then found his parents. “That's fine, but if we want to be alone, we will be, and you guys will just have to deal with the nerves. Sorry.”

“We understand,” Cordelia insisted. “Just let us know when to get lost.”

Layla blushed, knowing she’d never take advantage of that offer, but Quin didn’t seem to have a problem with it. “We'll try to be polite about it. Is everyone ready?”

The three golden couples nodded, so Quin picked Layla up and kissed her forehead, filling her with magical heat.

“Let’s get this over with,” he said, and the eight of them shot toward the cloudy sky.

Layla kept her face tucked in Quin’s neck until he slowed to a hovering stop on the outskirts of the volunteers’ clearing – a remote glade located in a deep hollow snaking off the southwest side of Mount Hood. He revealed their cloaked bodies. Then the others did the same, but the auras and bonded lights remained hidden.

“We're not going to land,” Quin announced. “We'll shield the area from up here. Then we're going home. Meeting the volunteers is on the bottom of my to-do list, and I'm starving.”

“Why did you have to mention food?” Layla asked, wrinkling her nose.

Quin laughed as he tickled her ribs. “Your stomach mentioned it ten minutes ago.”

“You heard that, huh?”

“I did, and I didn't like it.” He paused and waved at Weylin’s uncle, who was one of six wizards patrolling the skies around the clearing. Then he looked at Caitrin. “Are we keeping the guards in place after we hide it?”

“Yes,” Caitrin answered. “We want you to cast a spell that will prevent anyone from entering without a guard's permission. We don't know these people, but we can't have them slaughtered if our plans are discovered by Agro. If you succeed in your spell work, we'll need the guards to allow entry for new arrivals.”

“That's complicated magic,” Quin noted. “With the security constantly changing hands, the details will be tough to work out.”

“What about a password?” Layla suggested.

Quin took a moment to consider her idea before responding. “A password would be easy to pull off, but it’s not ideal for secrecy. We’d be giving it to a lot of people – everyone in our family and Kegan's family. We trust them, but it could easily get out unintentionally.”

“There's touch,” Layla offered, “but that would mean placing spells on everyone, huh?”

“Yes,” Quin confirmed, “and aside from the hassle, Agro can cut off a person's hand as easily as he can get a code word out of them.”

“Ew…” Layla objected, “morbid.”

Quin laughed and shook his head. “Come on, love. This whole situation is morbid.”

“I guess. So what if we change it every few hours?”

“The password?”

“Yeah. We could have it change three times a day, morning, noon and night, a different set of three every day, and we only give the current password to the current guards.”

Quin raised his eyebrows. “That might work. Now we need to come up with a slew of passwords and set them to specific times, because I don't want to fly back here every morning to reset them.”

“Me neither,” Layla agreed.

Morrigan floated closer and gave Layla’s cheek a kiss. “You guys work your beautiful magic while we go check on our guests. Mind search if you need us.”

“Okay,” Layla agreed, returning the kiss, and Morrigan's aura slipped free, teasing the air around her with a touch of bright pink love.

Once Layla and Quin were alone, they began brainstorming code words, and within ten minutes they had enough phrases to get them through a couple of days. Talking into each other's heads to collaborate, they began the actual spell work, but Quin doubted success on the first try. In order to summon a combined spell instead of two individual spells, they needed to cast the magic with the exact same theory in mind – a feat that ended up being easier than Quin expected. After a short explanation to Layla about his own theory, they gave it a shot and ended up casting a flawless land shield. They'd been hovering on opposite sides of the clearing, and when they mentally conveyed their magical command, white fog rolled from their hands, spreading out to blanket the entire glade. When the mist met in the middle, it seemed to solidify then disappear altogether.
 

Layla cocked an eyebrow, wondering if they'd failed, but when she looked up, she found Quin walking, not flying or floating, but walking toward her. She smiled and hovered forward. Then she slowly descended, finding solidity on what looked like thin air. She cautiously released her magic, resting her weight on their spell. Then she giggled at the weird feeling of standing on... well, nothing. Only then did she realize the clearing below looked dark and empty now, whereas before it had been a bustling campsite.

“I guess it worked,” she happily noted.

Quin looked at her and smiled. “It would seem so.”

“It's crazy watching the rain go right through when we aren't.”

“It's an odd sensation, isn't it?”

“Yeah, but kind of cool.”

He laughed. “Yes it is. Let's check the password.”
 

They both knelt and touched a palm to the shield, thinking about a line from Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee
"
:
 
"We loved with a love that was more than love."

The invisible surface beneath their hands transformed into thick, white fog. Then it began spreading out until there was a hole big enough to fit through. They smiled at each other. Then they looked into the clearing, which held several tents, a table of food, a few fires, and more than two dozen people.
 

Quin mind searched his dad. '
We're done. Are you guys flying back with us?
'

'
Yes,
' Kemble answered. '
What's the current password?
'

'
We loved with a love that was more than love.
'

'
Appropriate.
'

'
Yes.
'

'
Go give it to the six guards. We'll meet you in five minutes.
'

Quin removed his hand from the barrier, and the fog rolled back together, solidifying into a deceptive shield. Layla curiously watched it, then followed suit. “Well that's just handy,” she approved, stomping a foot to test the shield’s durability.