Chapter 27 Blaze
Blaze
I’m a mess trying to pile things into the trunk of my car. Books, drawings, basically anything I need from this bungalow that I’ve been studying the past couple of weeks. Anything we’ll need once we’re on the road because after we seal the island, it would be stupid to come back.
My trunk is loaded.
Gods, I hope Juniper had time to get a storage unit. I can’t risk losing any of this on the road, and I certainly can’t take it back to the Nether Realm yet.
North was taking Juniper to the bar so she can tell her friends goodbye.
We won’t have time tomorrow.
The anxiety of needing to wrap up every loose end before midnight has snow following me. I haven’t bothered to quell it. The island is already covered, and news outlets have poured in to broadcast the anomaly.
The chaos helps us. It’s diverting attention and crowding out a lot of the creatures I can feel moving in.
Everywhere I’ve gone this morning, I’ve left my mark—a growing red, symmetrical symbol like interconnected snowflakes embedding into the earth.
The same etchings that will be on Juniper’s body later.
North’s two jobs are to keep Juniper safe and leave his own symbol behind anywhere they go.
Which is why finding him standing in front of a black sprinter van outside Juniper’s house mid-afternoon stops me in my tracks.
“I bought a van,” North says, hands in the pockets of Juniper’s sweatshirt that he’s still wearing
I almost laugh at how proud he is of himself. “I see that,” I reply.
“Completely custom. Leather interiors. All the bells and whistles, including a sink, a bench seat, bed, and more fun things that I won’t spoil for you,” North goes on, waving his hands around like he’s trying to sell it to me.
Footsteps sound inside, and Juniper pops her head out of the open door, smirking at me. “You know, van life was not on my Bingo card, but I’m open to it,” she says as she jumps out of it and strides across the road to me.
“Already christened, too,” North says with a wink.
Juniper pinches his ass, and upon reaching me, she glides her hands up my chest and pulls me to her lips. The kiss makes my heart skip, reminds me why we’re risking everything and putting her through all of this.
I can’t stop the smile on my face when we part.
“Hi, angel,” I say, kissing her nose. “Did he distract you too much?”
“Just enough. I quit my job. Got cash out of the bank. Rented a storage unit just in case the fae decide to ransack my house. Told everyone I was going to travel the world and I would see them next winter… Hopefully…” She glances back at her house. “I just need to pack.”
I see the sadness in her eyes, and I tug her chin back to me. “Still your decision,” I tell her.
“And I’m still saying yes,” she says.
I kiss her again, and she groans into my mouth in a way that causes the hair on my neck to stand. I can smell her arousal in the air, and it nearly makes me feral.
North is smirking coyly at us when we part, as if he’s hiding something.
“Why does he look extra pleased with himself?” I ask her, though I have no complaints about how obviously titillated she is right now.
“Because I’m wearing the butt plug he bought earlier, and all I want to do is jump both of you,” she says, pursing her lips back at North.
“It’s equally as brutal for us, darling. Your scent is intoxicating,” North replies.
“All I heard was that you two went to the sex shop across the bridge without me,” I sulk.
“It was right by the RV dealership,” Juniper says.
“No trolls on the way back?” I ask North.
“Just one.” He taps the hood of the van. “This thing accelerates really well actually.”
I chuckle and bring Juniper closer. “How far did you get with the barrier?” I ask my brother.
“Decently far. How are you feeling? Strong?”
I stretch my hand in front of me, black electrical pulses rippling over my palm and fingers.
Power and strength seem to be pounding on what feels like a wall in my chest. I take a step out of Juniper’s arms, still holding onto one of her hands, and press my other to the hood of the van.
Orange and black light stretches out from my fingers and into the metal, creating the same snowflake design.
Except this time, as Juniper squeezes my hand, I feel that power grow.
It hardens and brightens into blinding beams that ripple in waves over the van’s entirety.
I feel my own wicked grin rise on my lips. I haven’t felt like this is decades… possibly even a century. The way it morphs and winds restlessly through my veins…
Fuck, this feels good.
And when the magic settles, North begins to laugh.
It’s maniacal and joyous. He’s still shaking his head in disbelief as he presses his own hand to the hood.
His crystal design crooks and bends erratically with no distinct pattern.
It cuts through my symmetrical needles and spires, somehow blending perfectly into a warning no being in the Nether Realm will be able to deny.
I can’t wait to see this same pattern on Juniper later.
“Every shit creature from home is going to lose their minds when they see this,” North says excitedly. “Your symbol at full power, pulsing and growing. And then on her? Fucking Nethers… Mother may not have an army willing to hunt us.”
North’s confidence makes my smile widen.
“I want to see what you’re doing,” Juniper says, and I remember it just looks like we’re touching metal to her.
I tug her hand. “Come here.”
The moment she’s against my chest, I kiss her and press my hand to her throat. Electrical pulses emit from my fingertips, sending a fraction of my magic into her. She gasps and flinches, and when we part, her eyes widen.
“It’ll only last a few seconds this time,” I tell her. “Look around.”
Her eyes widen as she takes it in—the rippling blue and red on the breeze, the road. The cracks in the van, the symbols on her house. The island is already glowing with our power, and we haven’t even finished.
“We can go back out while she packs. One at a time,” I say to North. “We have to finish before the sunrise.”
“We need to be off the island before sunrise,” North says.
“It’s beautiful,” Juniper says, wide-eyed as she looks around. “Wait. All of this… the symbols… This is just for me? To protect us?”
“Everything is for you,” I tell her.
“Will I always see this once you’ve hidden me?” she asks.
“You’ll see all of it. The magic. The creatures. Every space where the Nether and mortal worlds cross and collide… everything,” North says.
Juniper’s teeth tighten. She looks around us one more time before taking both North and I by the hand and pulling us closer.
“Can we do it now?” she asks, looking between us. “I want to see everything.”
I contemplate it for a moment, regarding North as I do. The surge of power once we do it could trigger an avalanche atop us, a chain of events the island could be vulnerable to if we haven’t completed the task.
“Tonight, angel,” I say, kissing her cheek. “We have to be ready first.”
“The fallout begins with you,” North says.