Natural Dual-Mage (Page 58)

I was here, in No Man’s Land with Emery, looking for the place his brother had been ambushed and left for dead.

“What would they be doing way out here?” I asked, covering my eyes with my hand to block out the sun. An outcropping of jagged rocks rose up about a hundred feet to our left. A strange creature crouched there, looking at us. I didn’t know what he was, other than he’d followed us into the Brink from the Realm. The land stretched out before us, flat and barren, with a few cactuses standing in clusters amid a couple of scraggly bushes. Far to the right appeared to be a town of some sort, with small structures braced against the pale sky. “It looks like desert, almost.”

“It is. My brother came through here on camel. I think.” He shook his head, walking diagonally right. “As far as I know—and it isn’t much, because the Guild tended to destroy evidence of the crimes they committed—he was headed this way to meet a magical prodigy. That’s what he’d told me, anyway. Before he left.”

I put my hand on his shoulder. He still had down periods, times when he just needed time to himself to reflect, but he’d climbed out of the depths of his despair. Now that things had calmed down for us, and he wasn’t so anxious about the future, he laughed all the time. He joked and smiled. It was as though a weight had been lifted off him.

“What’s…” He stopped next to a cactus and a circle of stones, looking down in confusion.

I joined him, immediately feeling the vibe of a sorrowful power stone, missing…something.

A stone about the size of my fist sat in the middle of the circle. While it had likely appeared as mundane and innocuous as Emery’s Plain Jane, it now showed the effects of years spent in the desert sun. The effect was interesting, with unique color changes highlighting the little crags and flats.

“He…” Emery took a step back, his eyes glued to the rock. He glanced up and looked around before returning his attention to it. “He used to carry a stone about that size. Carried it everywhere. Like you do…” An incredulous expression drifted across his face as his beautiful eyes hit mine. “I didn’t know much about power stones at the time, just that they existed and I could sap power from them, but he…” His voice cracked and he put a fist to his mouth. “He had a favorite. This… Was it this one? But how…”

The creature hiding among the rocks, a bent thing with horns on its head and out of the sides of its mouth, watched us.

“How long has that creature been following you around?” I asked, not pointing, lest it decide that I was inviting it to fight. I’d had a similar experience with a minotaur on the way through the Realm.

Emery straightened up and turned, his eyes going distant. They focused quickly, and a look of knowing came into his eyes. He glanced back down at the rock and shook his head. “Couldn’t be…”

But his ragged sigh said he knew better.

“Years,” he said softly.

That creature, whatever it was, clearly knew enough about Emery—and his brother—to know he’d want this power stone. A misunderstood guardian angel of sorts, he’d built a shrine for it.

“The stone is sad,” I said quietly, looking at it. “It misses something. Or someone.”

Emery nodded.

“You should take it with you. Your brother wouldn’t want it left here. Not if it was his favorite. I’d hate for Red Beryl to be left on its own. Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky, however…”

He turned to me in a rush, putting his hand on the side of my face and tilting my head up. His lips met mine and lingered. Eventually he backed off just a bit so he could look down into my eyes. Then he sank to one knee in front of me.

“Penelope Bristol, will you marry me?” He took the ring box out of his pocket. “You can put the ring on your other hand and hide the engagement for as long as you want, but will you marry me?”

I smiled, elated. I sank down with him, throwing my arms around his neck. “Yes! And it’ll go on the correct hand. My mother can just deal.”

“That should make me happier, but…” He laughed, taking the ring out with shaking hands and slipping it onto my finger. This time, I let him slide it all the way down. It fit perfectly and vibrated against my skin pleasantly. “I love you. You are a gift that I don’t deserve, but will gladly accept and cherish for the rest of my life.”

He stood then, my hand clasped in his, and slowly bent for the power stone. Gingerly, he picked it up and turned it over, studying every inch. A tear leaked down his cheek and he quickly wiped it away with the back of his hand.

“You lost your brother. It’s okay to let go,” I said softly. “I won’t tell.”

He laughed. “I don’t care if you tell. I just know he would’ve made fun of me for it. Here.”

“No.” I didn’t take the power stone from his hand. “You’re—”

“I can’t feel their personalities. I take power when I need it. I have no relationship with them. My brother wouldn’t have wanted it left here, no, but he certainly wouldn’t have wanted it in my hands. I got a thumping every time I snatched it and threw it in the yard. Or through a window. Or into a lake.” He sucked in a breath, his eyes glittering and his smile beaming. “He gave me a black eye when I threw it into the lake. It wasn’t even that far in…”

I took it from his hands, and my first impression was what the hell?

“It might need a moment to warm up to me,” I said delicately, and moved things around so I could stuff it into the largest compartment of my utility belt. Even then, I couldn’t close the flap. “This might need to go to Reagan. She’d have room in her fanny pack.”

Emery smiled as he rubbed my back, looking down at the circle of stones again before glancing behind him at the creature hiding in the rocky cropping. “I’d always thought it was waiting to kill me. I might’ve developed my keenest magic trying to get it off my trail.”

“In a weird way, maybe it was your brother protecting you.”

Emery barked out a laugh. “Yeah, seems about right. He was probably laughing down at me the whole time.”

I rubbed his back and laid my hand on the stone within my compartment. It gave me a get the hell away pulse. “All right.” I removed my hand.

Emery stepped away, his gaze going to my utility belt. “Of all the things I expected, that wasn’t one of them.” He sighed, looking down at the circle of stones, and his arm came around me again.

“Conrad…I wish you could’ve met Penny. The two of you are much more alike than you and I ever were. You two would have gotten along great, but I probably would have been the odd one out.”

I hugged Emery tight. “He’s lying. I’d be the odd one out. Luckily, I’m used to it…”

Emery chuckled and exhaled a trembling breath, and I knew he was saying goodbye.

Emotion surged through me, adding moisture to my eyes. Slowly, he turned us, sad peace infusing his eyes. “I’ve really missed him,” he said, his voice quavering. “I’ll miss him always.”

“You have his memory. And now you have his moody power stone. You can guard those like treasures until you see him again.”

Emery hugged me tightly and nodded, before slowly leading me back to the scar in the sky, our entrance to the Realm.

Some amount of time later, which was impossible to tell when using the various paths in that strange, magical place, we stepped out into the countryside. Not the Seattle countryside, where we’d been staying, working on my training, and trying to work on the new version of the Mages’ Guild, but a foreign place with rolling hills covered in grapes and a dark sky dotted with pricks of light.

“Are we”—I hesitated to say “lost,” since Emery didn’t know that word unless someone else was leading—“taking a detour?”

“Just over here. I know I told you we’d go to a beach, but I thought maybe you’d like this place a little better.” He led me up a lovely stone path through fragrant rosebushes. A little stone cottage overlooking vineyards sat on a small hill. He brought out a rustic bronze key and fit it into the lock before turning. The rusty handle clicked as it flipped over, opening into a somewhat musty dwelling. He put his hand on my back and escorted me inside while he flicked a switch.

Light showered the simple accommodations—the round wood table, brick-red floor tiles, and a couple pieces of overstuffed furniture.

Magic flowered, hot and stinging, and I noticed someone sitting at the kitchen table, delicate fingers tracking the stem of a glass of deep red wine.

“Hello,” said Ja, the extreme elder vampire whom I’d accidentally roused from her stupor.

Emery shoved me behind him. “Watch our six,” he instructed me. “What are you doing here, Ja?”

Her smile was shy and sexy and predatory all at the same time. “I come to pay homage to a great player in the game. Please, make yourselves at home.” She gestured us toward the table, extremely hospitable even though it wasn’t her dwelling.

Emery didn’t step forward. “This is Darius’s house. Why are you in it?”