Chapter Twenty-Four
Roman felt ground beneath his feet again, and at once also felt the heat of the sun on his skin. Pain arced up through his neck and into his head. He ran a hand through his hair and came away with blood. He looked down at the red smear across his palm and fingers and felt a little mystified. It had been a long time since someone had drawn his blood.
“You okay?”
He dropped his hand and turned around. Malcolm Cole and Lily Kane were with him. Beyond the two werewolves stretched a vast expanse of red dirt. There was no other sign of life as far as the eye could see. The sun was hot on his skin, despite his protective spells. The time had changed while they were in the Land of the Dead.
Now and here, it was high noon.
He smiled at the irony, but it was a wry smile and it felt bitter. If he had to guess, he would place them somewhere in Australia. In the Outback. In the middle of fucking nowhere.
“I’ll live,” he said. He couldn’t believe it was strictly coincidence that he’d been cast out of the Duat to the same location that Cole and Kane had been sent to. But it was sure as hell lucky. For them, anyway. Neither one of them knew any magic.
“Any sign of the others?” he asked of the off-chance that some of the others had been transported to this general area as well.
But they shook their heads.
“Come close,” he instructed. “I’ll transport us out of here.”
The two werewolves moved closer, their expressions distinctly relieved. It was obvious neither one of them had known what to do when they’d arrived in the middle of a hot Australian desert. Their phones – if they were carrying any – probably wouldn’t even work out here. Plus, their batteries were probably dead, having been drained in the Duat.
Roman concentrated. It was hard with the ball of fire directly above him. He had a love-hate relationship with the yellow star. He hated that he loved it. It terrified him. Standing there in direct sunlight with no shade or shelter in sight felt like teasing a Great White shark from behind a layer of plastic wrap.
But he was able to shove the words that he needed to speak between his teeth, and within seconds, the three of them were surrounded by a swirling portal of color and light. Malcolm Cole ran his hand over his face, and Lily Kane crouched down, so relieved to be out of what had probably appeared to be a dreadful and deadly situation that she put her head in her hands and closed her eyes.
He couldn’t blame them. He was pleased to be out of it too.
The portal opened in the foyer of one of Roman’s safe houses, and the three of them stepped out onto a marble floor. Lily Kane was the first to speak.
“Thank you so much,” she said, turning a bright smile on him. “I honestly thought we might die back there.”
Roman returned the smile. It was hard not to. She was charming.
But as he began to tell her to think nothing of it, her expression changed. Her smile slipped. Her eyes glassed over. Then they began to glow.
Roman felt a wave of magic wash over him. It was emanating from Lily’s form.
Cole’s gaze narrowed, and he placed a hand at her back. “She’s having a vision,” he said calmly.
Roman lifted his chin. Ah, he thought. So this is what it looks like when the seer sees. Or at least one of them. He’d heard they could each look different.
Seconds passed, Lily’s lips parted, and then the light faded from her eyes, her head snapped back, and she fell. Cole easily caught her, holding her aloft until she was steady enough to stand on her own.
“What did you see?” he asked.
“Not what, but who. I saw Adelaide Lane,” she said breathlessly. Her brow was furrowed and her expression was tight. Roman listened carefully, catching the rapid-fire beat of her frightened heart.
Lily took a shaky breath and looked up at Roman. “She was dead.”
Roman stared at her a moment in confusion. Then he asked. “What? How?” He looked around, wondering if this was it, and the Entity was going to finally win after all. He wondered if one of the Kings was going to become a widower before he’d even rightfully taken his place back on his throne and at the Table. He wondered a lot of things, all very quickly. And then he turned back to her. “When?” he asked desperately. “Where?”
Lily shook her head. “You don’t understand. I didn’t see it happen. All I saw was her body with blood all over her chest. Unfortunately,” she said, staring at him hard, “I have no idea where, how or when she’s going to get that way.”
*****
Jesse Graves didn’t have a chance to take a breath before he hit the water and dove deep. By the time he stopped descending, his lungs were all but empty and begging him to inhale. He opened his eyes and felt an immediate sting of salt. He was in the sea.
All sense of direction was gone. He floated, slowly turning, and tried to make heads or tails of the water around him. But it was all the same color deep, dark blue.
He tried to think. Pain from his lungs was distracting. He gritted his teeth and released a bubble of air. It rose past his cheek, and he blinked.
It’s rising!
Christ, he thought. You moron, it’s rising! He followed the bubble, clawing his way up through the water with strong strokes. He kept climbing and kept climbing, and as the emptiness inside him stretched and sliced at the nerves in his lungs, he began to wonder if he was actually diving deeper and had made the wrong decision. Or maybe he’d switched directions somewhere along the way. Or maybe he was actually unconscious and slowly drown –
But the blue lightened from indigo to turquoise, and the water began to shimmer. Yes! he thought, leaving his former thoughts unfinished. A few seconds later, he violently broke through the surface and instantly inhaled.
Some of the water entered his throat along with the air, and he was just as quickly coughing. He hacked and coughed, inhaled, coughed some more, and treaded water. He heard his heart beat in his ears and his head was pounding. But eventually he closed his eyes and just enjoyed not being dead.
“Hey mister former werewolf council overseer.”
Jesse opened his eyes and turned in the water. Imani and Dannai were both treading water a few yards away from him. Imani smiled “Good to see you’re not dead.”
“Shit,” said Jesse a little breathlessly. “We were sent to the same place?”
The girls nodded.
“It’s lucky,” said Dannai. “In a way, anyway. At least we’ll die together.”
Jesse’s gaze narrowed. He ran her words through his head and turned a full circle. Nothing but water as far as the eye could see. He turned back to face Dannai. “You’re joking, right? Tell me you cast a spell.” His head really hurt. Maybe he could turn into a wolf and dog paddle his way to shore. Wherever that was.
“Okay, I’m joking,” admitted Dannai with a water-logged shrug and a grin. “Come closer and we’ll transport.”
Jesse shook his head and felt overwhelming relief wash over him like a wave of warmth. “I kind of hate you right now,” he said.
Imani laughed, and the three of them drew together.
“I only hope the others ended up together too,” said Imani as Dannai pulled up a portal and the three of them sloshed into it like washed up shipwreckers. Dannai wiped her face with her hand as the portal swirled around them and whisked them through space. “Roman’s the only one left who can cast a transport spell.”