Chapter 8

 

Julian blinked. His eyebrows lifted. He opened his mouth, closed it, and glanced out the window. Yep. He couldn’t have been less interested in what she was saying if he’d been trying. What difference would it have made if she’d met him a few weeks or a few months later? If he wasn’t into her, then it wasn’t going to happen. Clearly she was boring him with her talk of scrying and her fiery future.

Leira had been enjoying his company up to that point. With him she didn’t have to pretend to be something that she wasn’t. She was able to talk about the things that were important to the Albah, things that she’d never been able to share with anyone but her sister. Saba didn’t get excited about six-hundred-year-old history. Even her mother had just smiled, glad that her daughter had found something to do with her like that she liked. Julian had seemed interested.

Maybe she was too young for Julian and that was the problem. Six years could be a lot—she’d asked Saba how old he was, since Saba knew everything about the Ryder family. Julian had a house and his degree and a career and she was still studying.

Julian shook his head, frowning. Clearly her happy vision of them together was disturbing him. “I’m not going to ask, not because I don’t want to know, but because it’s already screwed up and I might make it worse if I know what you saw.”

Nice save. But it wasn’t quite enough. He’d mucked up her future and she wasn’t going to let that go. At the moment, it wasn’t even about regaining the life she’d seen with him. It was simply about not dying in the fire she’d seen in her future, and she was convinced that it was her death that she was feeling. She could almost taste the ash in her mouth when she checked on her future. “You might be able to fix it.”

“How, when I don’t know what went wrong in the first place?” He was frowning more; deep lines had formed between his eyebrows.

Leira drew in a breath and decided to jump off the cliff without a parachute. “Would you even be interested in fixing it, or trying to fix it, or is a future with me in it too much?”

His lips twitched, but the frown remained. “That’s…I…” He laughed and shook his head. “Are you asking me out in a roundabout way?”

“No. I thought I was clear. I don’t want what I am heading toward. It doesn’t mean what I saw has to happen.” It might be too late for that to ever happen now. “But we have to fix it so I don’t die.”

She had his full attention now. Whatever had caught his eye out the window was forgotten. “Do you want me in your future?”

Leira leaned back and crossed her arms. “I haven’t decided yet.” He wasn’t allowed to know those things. And she hadn’t decided yet because none of this was the way it should’ve been. She’d expected their meeting to sweep her off her feet. A whirlwind romance. Something amazing. An Albanex and a Guardian showing up might be some people’s definition of amazing, but not hers. “You have dangerous baggage.”

And she wasn’t sure that she liked the way he talked about his relationship with Emily. There was something dismissive about it. She almost felt sorry for Emily. One minute she was his girlfriend the next she was yesterday’s leftovers.

Julian was quiet for a moment as he studied his half-eaten lunch. “I’ve never had a reading done.”

“What? Really?” It was one of those things that had been done frequently when she was growing up. Either her mother teaching Saba and using Dad or Leira as the guinea pig, or later when she and Saba had returned to Perth, Leira begging for a reading for some small high school problem until she’d mastered the ability to do it on her own.

Julian sighed and lifted his gaze. “Who was going to do it? I was six when Mum died. When your mother left and took you and Saba with her, there were no female Albah around.”

“You never saw any in Sydney?” The Ryder and Venn families couldn’t be the only ones in Australia. He’d gone his whole life without a reading. Was he scared of what she might see?

“None in Sydney. There is a family in Melbourne.”

Had they been online the other night? “Has your father called to make sure they are still alive?”

“They aren’t the kind of family that takes calls from the cops.” He lifted an eyebrow and gave her a look.

It took a moment for his words to sink in. She gave up on playing cool and leaned forward again. “Oh… You mean they’re criminals?”

“Big time. Next time there’s a flare up in Melbourne, watch the news very carefully.”

“And they use magic?” She couldn’t imagine how Quinn would react to a criminal family of Albah using magic openly to get away with whatever they wanted. But what could he do from here? And who in the police force was going to listen if he started to talk about magic?

“I don’t know, I assume so. Dad told me how they avoided police raids. It’s why he wouldn’t let me study in Melbourne and one reason he was worried about me being in Sydney. It was too close.” The smile was back on his lips. He had nice lips.

“Was he worried they’d recruit you? Did they try?”

“Dad’s a cop and the king.” He wrinkled his nose just a little as he said it. “I think they would’ve avoided me even if I’d knocked on their door.”

His dad was the king of the Albah, yet he didn’t get around in a crown and rarely pulled rank. “So, Prince Julian, are you brave enough to let me do your first reading?”

“I swear if you call me that one more time, I will never talk to you again.” It was the first time she’d heard a bite in his words.

She’d hit a nerve. “I was just teasing.” She brushed the back of his hand with her fingertips, half expecting him to pull away. He didn’t.

“If Finley decides he’s never going to step up, who do you think is going to end up running the meetings and trying to keep track of a few hundred people spread over the globe? Me.”

From what she’d read about Finley on the gossip sites, she didn’t like Julian’s chances on not taking that responsibility. Julian would be the next king. Something tugged at the edge of her mind. “Do you think the Guardians know that we have a leader? Or were you a random choice. the only one they’d seen here? Maybe they were here to hunt the Albanex.”

“I don’t know. You’re the expert.”

She laughed. Then realized he was being serious. “Don’t tell me I am the only person who has been studying the Guardians.” He remained silent. She was totally the only Albah who had been studying the Guardians. How could that be? “Do we have any historical information squirreled away?”

She’d stuck with very human sources for her thesis research, but this was no longer history or theory. This was real. Maybe there was an Albah out there who knew more about Guardians than she did. She hoped so.

“You’d have to ask Dad. I’ve been out of the loop. I didn’t exactly keep in contact while in Sydney. I didn’t even join the online meetings. The other night was the first one I’ve been to in a long while.” He lowered his gaze as though ashamed of that fact.

“Why did you come home?”

He exhaled and looked at her. “Gut instinct.”

Gut instinct, had he came back because of some invisible pull between them? Or had it been more about needing to be with family because something bad was coming? “If the Guardian had caught you over there, you would’ve been on your own.”

“But my family would have been safe.”

* * * *

Leira made it to the shop just in time for the start of her shift. She’d convinced Julian to let her do a reading—at least for Emily, if not himself. He was still wavering on that one. Was he scared about what she’d see? If he hated the future he was on the path toward, he could change it. That was a good thing. Not that changing the future was easy. She was still trying to get rid of the smoke. Anything would be better than smoke.

Saba was big on the ability to change, though she also said most people never made changes because changes were hard.

Nothing Leira was doing was changing the smoke in her vision. She could taste it now. Thick and choking. Fire may not burn her, but she could still die from smoke inhalation and that didn’t sound like a fun way to go.

“Hey.” Leira dropped her bag behind the counter, still a little out of breath from her jog from the multi-story car park.

“I’m starving. I have a few errands to run too, but I’ll be back in time for my appointment.” Saba tapped the diary. She had a full schedule of readings this afternoon. She could only do them when someone else was behind the counter watching the shop. That had been Leira’s job for the last six years.

Saba always had a full appointment book. She always knew what to say to people even if she’d seen something bad. Leira would never be able to read for other people the way her sister did. She didn’t have the people skills. Maybe Julian would be better off seeing Saba. She’d be able to take the nerves away. Saba had convinced Dale to get a reading and he hadn’t even believed in magic when Saba had first met him.

No. She didn’t want Saba and Julian to share that moment. It was Leira’s future that was tangled with his and they would deal with it. There was no need to drag other Albah into the mess.

The after-lunch lull was always peaceful and Leira used the time to do some research and reading. She didn’t have what she really wanted on hand, but she had enough of the websites flagged that she could search for references to female Guardians. There was no reason that there couldn’t be these days. Six hundred years ago, or even two hundred years ago they would have been trussed up in corsets and petticoats, trapped into marriage and wifely duties simply because they were women. If finding a secret society of men was hard, finding one made up of women was harder.

A dark-haired woman walked into the shop.

Leira smiled and put aside what she was doing. The woman didn’t smile back, but walked around touching things and looking at books as though interested. Leira kept an eye on her. There was something not quite right, almost as though the woman didn’t want to be here.

Leira eased out from behind the counter. “Hi, can I help you?”

The woman studied her for a couple of heartbeats. A little taller than Leira, her dark eyes were completely unreadable. Leira resisted the urge to step back. There was definitely something about this woman that wasn’t safe, but nothing that she could point to if someone had asked.

Her mind immediately started leaping to deadly conclusions.

The woman’s face softened for a moment. “I think my boyfriend is being unfaithful. Do you have a spell to bring him back to me?”

Did this woman really want a man who obviously didn’t care about her? But that wasn’t what she’d want to hear. Saba would be much more tactful, so Leira tried to be like her sister. “Are you sure he is cheating?”

“He had lunch with the other woman today.” Again that look. It was as though she expected Leira to know all about it.

Oh. Cold filled her belly. This was Emily. Emily, who Julian had broken up with. He wasn’t cheating. Hell she wasn’t even dating him. It was lunch. They hadn’t even kissed. Was Emily here to make a point? Or leave some more tacks?

“Friends can have lunch.” Leira moved to the other side of the shop and picked up a small pre-prepared spell bag. “We do have love charms. However, you cannot mess with another’s free will.”

“What is the point of a love charm if I don’t get who I want?” Emily was pretty. It was easy to see why Julian had got with her. But it was also easy to see why he’d broken up with her if she thought using magic to make someone want her was an okay thing to do.

“Who you think you want and who is right for you are often two different things.” Only an Albanex’s magic could bend a person’s free will, and even then, it was easier to bend a mind that was already interested in death and murder.

“And who are you to decide who I love and who loves me? Why should I put my trust in a witch?”

You walked into my store. But she didn’t say that. Her heart was beating a little too fast now. Saba wouldn’t be back for at least half an hour. Maybe this wasn’t Emily. Yeah, but nothing was this coincidental.

“Magic can be used for good or ill. If you really wanted to bind your boyfriend to you, you could. But that wouldn’t be love and there would be negative consequences.” And she had no idea how to do something like that. Why would anyone want to force someone to stay in their life? That would be like casting a hex; until the curse was seen through the two people would be trapped in each other’s lives. It was much better to let the person go and never see them again.

Emily smiled. “Like what?”

Leira had no idea. The Albah didn’t mess with things that. Losing their entire civilization for breaking the laws of nature had kind of made everyone a little more cautious. No one was supposed to cheat death.

Leira held the bag in her hand. The bag held the trimmings of a spell. If someone put enough will into it, it would work. Most people didn’t, or couldn’t. But the act of going through the proscribed ritual could help change their mindset, which was often enough. Change the path they were on as Saba would say. Perhaps she should take one of her own spells.

“You might become miserable with him.” Leira didn’t think that Emily would be able to work the love charm, and she wouldn’t be able to modify it to bind Julian. He was Albah and could deflect magic like a duck could shake off water.

Emily shrugged. “Then I could set him free when I was done.”

“He might become miserable with you. Do you want that to happen?” If Emily loved him, she wouldn’t want to hurt him. But this didn’t sound like love to Leira.

“But he would be mine.” There was a flash of anger in Emily’s eyes. She was really burned about losing Julian.

“Would he? When in his heart he was anywhere else and looking for ways to escape, but finding them all locked because of the spell?” How could anyone do that to another person?

“Then how do I keep his heart?” There was an almost pleading note in Emily’s voice.

Oh my God. Emily really did feel something for Julian.

This was hellishly awkward.

Leira put the spell back on the shelf. “You can never truly own someone’s heart.”

“Unless it’s in a jar.” Emily smiled, all warmth gone from her eyes. She took a step closer. “Is there a spell to keep the mistress away?”

Leira’s fingers became warm as she summoned fire to her. It flickered against her palm where Emily couldn’t see it.

“You could try a protection spell.” This was a ridiculous conversation. But she didn’t know for sure that this was Emily and she couldn’t go around incinerating people on a suspicion, no matter how tempting it was.

Even if this was Emily, killing her would be bad. Killing the ex when she and Julian had gone out for lunch did make Leira look like the jealous new partner. Quinn would have a hard time getting her out of that mess. And then there was the magic to somehow cover up. The most unfair bit was that she wasn’t even doing anything with Julian. They were friends…at the moment.

“Does it go something like this? Stay away from what is mine, little witch. Or I will kill you.” Emily grabbed Leira’s wrist.

The fire in Leira’s hand swelled and became a ball. Emily’s eyes widened as though she’d never seen real magic before. She let go and stepped back but not before Leira saw the small tattoo on the inside of her wrist. A trident.

The ocean had swallowed the Albah’s civilization thousands of years ago.

“How did you do that?” The bravado was gone from Emily’s voice.

“This?” Leira tossed the ball to her other hand and made it go out. “Magic. Get out, Guardian of Adam. If you are smart, you will leave the country and never come back.”

Emily shook her head. “I won’t leave until you are all dead.” Then she picked up the spell bag and ran out of the shop.

Leira’s hands shook. She wanted to throw up. She’d survived talking to a Guardian. Did that count as the first threat?

She needed to call Quinn.

She grabbed her cell phone and dropped it. Her hands weren’t obeying. She forced slow breaths, but adrenaline was still kicking her in the ribs. She picked up her phone; the screen was cracked.

She swore, just what she needed. Despite the crack she was able to call Quinn. She didn’t know if she was ringing him because he was a cop or because he was the head of the Albah. Right now it didn’t matter.

* * * *

By the time Julian finished work and got back to the hotel, all he wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep. He’d spent the afternoon trying not to think about Leira and what she’d hinted at. He was in her future.

That meant they ended up together.

Or they had. A part of him was disappointed that that option was off the table now. He’d been erased. That was bullshit. It was his life and he wasn’t going to be dictated by a vision. They could be changed. He knew that. It was in his mother’s diaries.

He didn’t kick off his shoes the way he would have at home. He turned on the lights and walked carefully through the room, which took about thirty seconds. Ever since finding the iron in his apartment he’d been more careful. There were no iron tacks on the floor of his hotel room. He flicked back the neat covers ready to flop down and flick on the TV. Sprinkled all across the sheets were iron filings. They looked silvery and innocent in the light.

The sheets fell from his hand. He checked his fingers to make sure there were no filings on his skin. Then he washed his hands to be sure. His heart thumped and sweat formed on his back. This was not random and not Emily being spiteful.

The Guardian knew he was here.

He might as well go home. At least there he had an advantage and he could strengthen the wards. He couldn’t go so far as to making the flat burst into flames if there was an intruder—there were too many other people living in that apartment block who might get hurt—that was more of an attack ward that the women could make. But he could still put together something that would stop a Guardian.

He should get Kirin to do something and his father too. If his apartment was warded by three elements, that would be better. He’d be safe. And what about when he was on the train or at work?

Would it be a bullet? Or would the Guardian go more old-school? Hanging? A fake suicide? Burning—he’d like them to try. Not all witches burned.

His phone buzzed from the hotel bedroom. Emily had texted him today. He hadn’t replied. He didn’t know what to say. As much as he didn’t want it to be her, that seed of doubt had been planted. How could he have been so stupid?

But they’d had fun at the start. It had been easy. It had been fake. The whole thing had been nothing but a scam to get him to reveal the other Albah in Perth.

He washed his face and threw his things back into his bag.

He checked the messages. They were from his father. Three missed calls. Then a text.

Emily is the Guardian. She confronted Leira in the shop.

Was Leira all right? His father hadn’t said. If something had happened he’d have said, wouldn’t he? He called his father, needing to be sure Leira was okay. At least they knew now who was hunting him. It didn’t feel any better, though.

Julian didn’t wait for any greeting when his father answered. “Dad, is Leira alive?”

“Yes. We’ve Emily on tape shoplifting, which means we can actively look for her.”

That seemed like a dumb thing for her to do. “What did she take?”

“A love spell. Is there anything you want to tell me?”

Fuck. “No. It wasn’t that serious.” It had never been that serious. They had both agreed that it was nothing but short-term, convenient fun.

“I think she thought it was,” his father said.

“She wants to kill me. She’s a Guardian.” That was entirely the wrong kind of serious for a relationship.

“She only started trying to kill you after you dumped her. Maybe she was hoping to find another Albah to kill instead of you.”

“Like Leira.” This was becoming a rather big mess. “Emily left filings in the hotel bed.” That was not the kind of thing one did if they were trying to win their lover back. Flowers, chocolates…a card that said sorry for being a Guardian and wanting to kill your kind. “I’m going to head home.”

“I’ll meet you there, and then we are going to the shop. It’s the most well-warded place. Plus she already knows about it. We need to see what’s coming.”

Julian winced. He didn’t want a reading and he didn’t want his father standing there for it. But his father was right. They did need to peek into the future and try to derail Emily’s plans. Maybe knowing was the only way to do that.

“Do you have anything of hers at your place?” His father was still talking and being completely cool and rational.

“Yeah, she left a toothbrush and a few bits. I’ll grab them.” Leira was going to do the highly unethical reading on Emily. That didn’t sit right, but what else could they do? Wait like tethered lambs until the axe came?

“Good.” Then there was a pause. “Julian, I want you to destroy your phone.”

“What?” It was the only way he could stay in touch with everyone.

“Just do it, before you leave the hotel room. I’m not asking, I’m ordering.”

He remembered Emily holding his phone the last night they had been together. Had she done something to it? That meant that she had seen him put in his passcode at some point. How many times had she been through his phone while he wasn’t in the room? Had she noted the phone numbers of all of his contacts just in case one was Albah? Was she working her way through that list, calling them up or doing some kind of search on them?

He swallowed. He’d only had the phone three months. “Okay.”

“And the sim. I’ll give you a prepaid at your place.”

That was going to be inconvenient. “Destroy the sim, or can I keep it for when this is done?” He didn’t want to be telling everyone he had a new number.

His father was silent for a moment. “You’re worried about your social life. I’m worried about your actual life. And everyone else’s.”

The line went dead. At least everything was all backed up as of a few weeks ago. It wouldn’t all be lost.

He sent a final message to his father. Leaving now.

Then he pulled the sim out. He held it in his palm and incinerated it in seconds, the flames like the caress of a lover. Then he crushed the phone on the bathroom tiles and walked out.

If anything happened to him now, he had no way of calling for help, but if she had been tracking him via his phone, she was screwed.

She couldn’t have been tracking Leira. That meant Emily had seen him at lunch and had followed Leira the old-fashioned way. That had been her in the crowd, not him being overly worried.

When it was just him being hunted, he’d been concerned. But Leira hadn’t asked to be dragged into this. Somehow she had been and her future, their future, had been replaced.

It wasn’t only his life Emily was playing with, and that pissed him off.

* * * *

Julian made the short walk from the train station toward his apartment block. He could hear sirens and see smoke rising into the night sky. He believed in magic, but he didn’t believe in coincidences. He was sure the fire was coming from his building.

There was no shock when he stopped across the road and saw that it was his apartment block on fire. Emily was closing off options. Playing with him, showing how much pain she could inflict before she did something. He put his hands on his hips and let out a sigh. There went his idea of getting something that Emily had left at his place. There went everything he owned.

His father was talking to the uniformed cops who were on the scene. Julian didn’t want to go over. He was now that guy with the stalker for an ex. He wanted to turn around and walk away, but he’d invited this trouble the moment he’d smiled at Emily. That had been the start. She’d seen him and taken the chance and he’d made it easy by agreeing to what she was offering. This could have been worse. It could’ve been his younger brother that she’d claimed.

It could have been anyone. This wasn’t about him at all. Emily would’ve done the same trick to any Albah male she’d stumbled over. He’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and dumb enough to think that something good had landed in his lap without him lifting a finger.

He crossed the road and approached his father. “What happened?”

“They think the gas must have been left on in one of the apartments.” The way his father was looking at him, it was clear that apartment was his.

He kept his mouth closed. The two other cops were looking at him. They weren’t the same men from the other night, but he was sure they’d heard about the ex who had left tacks in the kitchen. He did not need them looking into his life. Would they think he’d done it for the insurance?

He looked up at the building. Was Emily trying to force him to stay with his father and reveal where he lived? He was not putting his father and brother at risk.

His father finished talking to the cops and they walked around to the side of the building where his father’s car was. On the white paint was a fresh piece of graffiti.

A red trident.

It meant nothing to him, only that Emily had a much more delicate trident tattoo on her inner wrist. She’d said she was a Pisces. He hadn’t questioned it because he knew nothing about star signs.

His father pointed. “She wanted you to know this was a Guardian attack.”

“Tridents are the mark of Guardians?” He really should have known that.

“The mark of a branch of Guardians I’ve been told. Leira is looking into it.”

“Right.” Leira was fast becoming the Guardian expert. She must be thrilled with that. “But that’s three warnings.” It was meant to be two and then death. Had she planned for him to be in the apartment when it went up? He was glad he’d worked late and spoiled that for her if that was the case.

“Nothing is fitting the known MO of the Guardians, so I think we can forget about that.” His father handed him a cheap phone. “I’ve put the important numbers in there. We’ve all switched over. I’ve let Archie knew we’re having some trouble. It will be safer if Kirin leaves sooner to join her.”

Julian nodded. “And safer if I don’t see him between now and then.” He wouldn’t be able to see his brother to say good-bye. That wasn’t fair on either of them.

“Yeah. That would be for the best.”

“I’m sorry.” Julian lifted his gaze from the phone.

“It’s not your fault.”

“Four months and I didn’t pick it.” He should’ve known something was off. “How did I not see what she was?”

“She lured you in. You can’t suspect everyone you date otherwise you’d never leave the house. I’ve already disseminated the tattoo and the honey pot information to the other Albah.”

“Honey pot?”

“A pretty girl to lure info out of an unsuspecting man. It’s an old trick, but the Guardians have never used it before to the best of our knowledge. I’m surprised that you were intimate with her.”

He did not want this conversation. “Can we not go there? It’s been a shit day without discussing my relationship with my ex. Was Emily even her real name?”

“We’re still following up. It takes time, even though there are enough of us in law enforcement.” His father opened his car door and got in.

Julian got in on the passenger side. “What now?” He needed to find a new place to live. He was going to need new everything. He didn’t want to think about it.

“Now we go to the shop as planned.”

“Won’t she be expecting us there? Herding us so she can kill us?” If he were a Guardian, he’d be staking out all of their known hideouts. The shop was the one place that Emily knew about now that his apartment was gone.

“Right now she doesn’t know where you are.”