Gold: A Bandia Novel Part 24

The sky is gray again, the clouds covering the sky in a blanket of dampness. The mist curls through the gra.s.s and covers the low wall.

Joe takes a seat beside me. "It's been a long time since I've seen this place."

"You know it?"

"Magic places are hard to avoid." He puts his hands in his pockets and stares at the ground. "Portia came down to breakfast yesterday wearing your necklace."

My stomach twists into a tight knot. "It's not mine. I gave it back to Blake."

"It doesn't belong to Blake any more than it belongs to Portia." He turns to me, his eyes serious. "You're the one who needs it."

I stand up. "I don't." It's nothing more than a reminder of Blake. "We've both moved on."

"You shared a soul once. That means something."

I wish I had my powers now. I want to set something on fire. "Blake and I were never meant to be anything but enemies. You should know that better than anyone." I dare him to argue with me. "And now Portia has the necklace. You do the math."

Joe's expression doesn't change. He still looks calm as ever. "You know about the bond."

"It doesn't sound so special now, does it? The whole bonding thing is just what happens when a Son and a bandia get together." The truth hurts more than it should. Jonah once told me that I would've bonded with any Son that got me on my back. I hadn't wanted to believe it at the time, but now it's hard to doubt it.

Joe stretches out his legs. "I've seen it before." Of course he has. He's been watching the Sons for how long? Centuries? "You and Blake were different."

"How?"

"The bond always ends in death. You're both still alive."

"It did end in death. I killed him."

Joe smiles. "You're only half right."

"I was there. He was dead."

"Last time I checked, he looked pretty spry." Joe takes a cigarette from the pocket of his long coat. "Might change if you don't get that necklace back."

"What does my having the necklace have to do with Blake living or dying?"

Joe stands up and puts the unlit cigarette between his teeth. The sky darkens above us. "Portia will kill him."

"Not if Blake kills her first."

"Same difference. Rush won't stand by after his daughter's been killed."

I knew that Blake and Portia had bonded, but all I saw was how it degraded what Blake and I shared. It hadn't occurred to me that Blake was in trouble. That it would kill him. Joe is right, there is no way for this to end well for Blake.

But Blake got himself into this mess. He can get himself out. The thought is smothered by the part of me that can't bear for Blake to die. Even now. "What am I supposed to do about it?" My voice comes out angrier than I intend. "I can barely lift a broadsword."

"Get the necklace."

"I'm still not following."

Joe puts the unlit cigarette between his lips and takes a step toward the trail leading into the forest, his back to me. "You will always be a bandia. Nothing can take it away completely."

"I can't access any of my power. I've tried."

Joe looks back over his shoulder. "The necklace."

I wait until Joe disappears down the trail before I step off the low wall. Joe thinks the necklace will help me access my power? How?

I test the theory against what I already know. My powers were supposed to disappear in halves until I couldn't access them anymore, but instead, I was stronger than I'd ever been. Right up until I gave the necklace back to Blake. And then my powers were gone.

Had my powers been declining all along without my noticing because the necklace helped magnify them? Was that even possible? If so, the wolfsbane charm had been infused with some serious magic. Just like the charm on my bracelet that kept people from noticing me.

And the horse that lets me travel a thousand years away.

I stare at the matching cut out in the stone wall. It's not too late to change everything. I place the horse against the wall and let it carry me into the mist.

I close my eyes until I feel warm sunshine on my face and solid ground beneath my feet. The field is empty, so I venture forward, into the trees and down the hill that will take me back toward Lorcan Hall. At a break in the trail, I see the house, still an imposing wall of stone.

A tall figure approaches through the trees. I duck behind a thick bush. Mick strides past, dressed in formfitting wool pants and a simple green tunic. His red hair is long, all one length that brushes his shoulders. He looks younger without the thick sideburns, his face clean shaven.

"Mick?" I step into the path behind.

"Mikel," he says, in the same stern tone he always uses, before he turns around. When he sees me his eyes go wide. "Are you the mystery girl?"

"The mystery girl?"

"The girl from the future that everyone speaks of?"

"Who's everyone?"

"The master and Gwyn and Bronwyn, and their mother."

"Danu? She knows about me?"

Mick's lips quirk. "Aye. And you had best stay far away from her. She is not at all happy that her matchmaking has been thwarted."

"Is that all?" At least Danu hasn't heard about my socalled murder plot. Then it occurs to me, maybe Danu is exactly who needs to know the future.

"It is enough." He walks forward. "Are you here to see the master then?"

I shake my head. "I don't think so. Do you know where I can find Danu?"

"You wish to press your luck?"

"Looks that way."

"I do not suppose there will be any talking you out of it?"

I shake my head. If I can warn Danu, she can protect herself. She can stop Austin. I freeze.

What would stopping Austin mean? Could she hurt him?

Mick walks up the trail a few feet. "You coming?"

What if preventing the war means hurting Austin? Could I do it?

"Mick!" Austin calls from the trail below us. Or Aaron. It's hard to think of him as anything but Austin. He runs up through the trees, but stops when he sees me. "Oh."

I smile at his uncertainty, so at odds with the arrogant confidence he throws around so easily. "h.e.l.lo to you too."

He walks the rest of the way to me. He lifts a hand to touch my cheek, but drops it before his fingers make contact. "You came back."

I don't know how long we stand there, just staring at each other, before Mick clears his throat. We both turn to look at him at once.

"I was just going to check on the flock in the eastern field," Mick says. He turns and walks up the hill quickly.

As soon as Mick is out of view, Austin takes my hand in his, lacing our fingers together. "I was not sure I would see you again."

"You will. Maybe not so soon. Eventually."

"Ah yes. My future."

"What if I really could change everything? I could stop a war."

"Is that a rhetorical question? Because right now all that matters to me is that you are here."

"I thought all you cared about was getting the G.o.ds back to the earth."

Austin laughs. "If my future is so bleak, please find a way to make me mortal and shoot me."

My smile slips. I can't stop it. Austin has no idea how close his joke hits to the truth.

He squeezes my hand gently. "I am not serious. If you know me in the future, surely you know how crazy you sound."

"You don't want to bring the G.o.ds back?"

"I did not say that." Now he sounds like the Austin I know. "I would like nothing more than to get the G.o.ds out of the underworld. Believe me. It is why I spend so much of my time here, and leave Pwil to rule below."

Pwil. Liam. "Is he still your friend?" I bite back the question that I really want to ask. Do you still have a lover?

Austin tilts his head to the side. "Still? You mean we are mates in the future? I find that unlikely."

"You're not. I just wondered if you were friends now."

Austin guides me to a clearing between the trees and sits down in the gra.s.s. I sit beside him, folding my knees to my chest. "It is a long story."

"You never told me."

"Would you like me to?"

"Yes." At least I think so.

"A girl came between us."

Shannon's story is based in truth. I wrap my arms around my knees and stare out at the hillside. Austin lived for how long? Thousands of years? Of course there have been other girls. It's not like I can complain. I bonded myself to another boy.

Austin reaches for one of my curls and twists it lightly around his finger before he lets it go with a springing bounce. "Are you jealous?"

"Maybe."

His grin is sweet and not the least bit smug. "So there is hope for us, in the future?"

I can't help smiling back. It would be so easy to lean forward and kiss him now. But I need to know what happened with him and Liam. And this Austin will tell me. "Who was the girl?"

Austin looks out at the trees. "Girl is hardly the word to describe her. She is, after all, a G.o.ddess."

Of course she is. "And?"

And she was very good at manipulating things. Including me. Her name was Morrigan. It still is, I suppose. She is a G.o.ddess of war, so it's no surprise that she left blood in her wake."

"Yours?"

"In a manner of speaking. After the Milesians defeated the G.o.ds, she could no longer wage war with humans. Her dark side, with no outlet, grew restless. She resented my ability to walk with the humans. And so she waged a new war, inciting the G.o.ds against me. Convincing them I was not doing enough to free them."

"An uprising?"

"Led by Pwil."

"But he was your friend?"

"Morrigan can be very persuasive. The revolt was short-lived. I control the underworld and the G.o.ds can do little against me there. The only casualties were my ties to Morrigan and Pwil."

"You don't seem upset."

He shrugs. "It was a long time ago."

Hearing him tell the story, I'm not jealous at all. I'm furious. Austin's best friend and girlfriend betrayed him in every possible way. "I hate them both."

"You need not." Austin lifts his hand and lets his fingers graze my cheek. I turn toward him and his lips hover just inches from mine. His breath is hot against my mouth. "Tell me if I presume too much."

I lean closer, meeting him halfway as his lips brush mine softly. His hand slides behind my neck and his thumb rubs gently against my throat. He growls against my mouth. Then he kisses me so deeply that I can do nothing but yield to his tongue and claw at his shirt as I pull him closer.

I'm dizzy with his kiss, spinning until I am back in the gray mists, and the moment is lost to the past. To the future.

FORTY-ONE.

I find Austin in the blue room, reading a weathered book. He takes his gla.s.ses off as I storm in and sit on the couch next to him.