20. Prima Power
20
PRIMA POWER
Up until the very last minute, Seth honestly hadn’t been sure whether his plan was going to work at all. Adam had dissuaded him from teleporting into Jasper’s house right away, saying that Devynn wouldn’t even be brought to the basement until the last minute, so the only thing he would have accomplished was showing up several hours earlier than he needed to and possibly alerting Jasper to his presence.
Seth realized Adam had a point, and instead allowed him to continue their drive to Flagstaff, where they stopped to see Lana so she could lay as many spells of protection on him as possible. Where exactly she’d learned to do all this, he wasn’t sure, but if all the books piled on the tables in the bungalow where she lived were any indication, she’d done a lot of work augmenting the powers she’d been born with through reading every esoteric volume she could find.
And once that was managed, the hour had inched close enough to the dark of the moon that Seth thought it was time for him to send himself into the basement. Because he’d already been there before, he knew exactly where he was going. What he hadn’t been so sure of was whether he could get his talent to do what he needed, which was to blink himself in and out and back and forth as fast as he could, hopefully confusing Jasper and whatever other Wilcox warlocks might be there with him so Seth would have a clear shot at freeing Devynn and then getting the hell out of there.
Without the amulet to give him the boost he needed, he was pretty sure none of it would have gone according to plan. The magical device had done the job, though, with those befuddled Wilcoxes — Jasper included — tripping all over themselves and looking like something right out of one of those Keystone Cops movies Seth had watched when his parents used to take him and Charles to the theater over in Prescott, years and years ago now.
He also hadn’t missed the impressive kick that Devynn had landed on that one Wilcox warlock’s groin. The man probably wouldn’t be walking straight for a week.
The living room of his bungalow surrounded them now, telling Seth they were safe, but he continued to hold her for a long moment, wanting to reassure himself that he really had managed to free her from Jasper Wilcox’s clutches and that they wouldn’t have to worry about the primus’s machinations ever again.
She snuggled against him, arms still tight around his waist, which seemed to tell Seth that she also needed as much reassurance as possible right then. After a long moment, though, she released her hold just enough so she could gaze up into his face.
“That was amazing,” she said, big blue eyes full of relief…and a decent measure of respect for the near-impossible feat he’d just accomplished.
“ You were amazing,” he replied, then bent so he could press his mouth against hers.
She kissed him back immediately, a sure sign she wasn’t so scarred by her kidnapping experience that she wanted to avoid physical contact. His body warmed at her touch, positively aching with need…and yet he knew they needed to go see Ruby and let her know everything had gone off without a hitch and that Jasper’s horrible plans had come to nothing in the end.
“But we should probably go see Ruby now,” he added, and Devynn’s brows lifted. He realized then that she could have no idea of what had happened over the past few days, how Ruby had become his ally in getting her away from Wilcox territory.
“It’s past midnight,” Devynn pointed out, and he only shrugged.
“I doubt she’s gone to sleep yet.”
Devynn still looked dubious, but she didn’t bother to protest. “Okay. I suppose it’s a good idea to let everyone know we got back safely.”
Well, Ruby first, and then Seth guessed the prima -in-waiting could spread the word from there. That kiss he’d just shared with Devynn had let him know the only thing he wanted this night was to get home as quickly as possible so he could take her in his arms and they could reaffirm their connection to one another in the comfortable, oversized bed in the master suite.
Hand in hand, they left the bungalow and walked down to the house Ruby shared with her mother and sister. At that hour, almost all the homes on the street were dark, but the light next to the front door at Ruby’s place was on, and Seth saw at once that a lamp in the living room still shone as well.
He knocked, but quietly, just in case Louise and her younger daughter were already asleep and the prima -in-waiting was the only one holding vigil on this dark, moonless night.
Almost as soon as his hand touched the door, it opened, and Ruby looked out, her expression one of utter relief.
“Come inside,” she said, although her words were pitched low enough that he thought his guess was correct, and her mother and sister were sleeping elsewhere in the house.
They sat down in the living room, where a single shaded lamp glowed from the far corner. A book lay face down on the coffee table, a signal that Ruby had been doing what she could to stay awake until she was able to get word as to whether their mission had been successful.
“We won’t keep you up for much longer,” he said after both he and Devynn had declined an offer of some water or tea. “But we thought we should tell you that everything worked out just fine. I’m sure Jasper is still gnashing his teeth over how we were able to escape, but — ”
“But he’s just going to have to suck it up,” Devynn cut in. “Maybe next time he’ll think twice about trying to sacrifice someone at the dark of the moon.”
Ruby’s eyes widened slightly. “Do you really think he would do something like that again?”
Seth wished he could say no, that Jasper Wilcox had learned his lesson. But considering how angry the primus had been when he realized his prize had been snatched away from him….
Devynn, on the other hand, didn’t seem to harbor any doubts on that topic. “No, I’m pretty sure we set him straight. Besides, I gave him a little dose of reality just before we left, and I have a feeling he’s going to be chewing on that for a while.”
Yes, her parting shot about the way Jasper was going to die alone. Seth hadn’t missed the way the other man seemed to go utterly still as he heard the terrible truth about his fate, although he wasn’t sure whether it had sunk in all the way yet.
That comment made Ruby’s eyebrows lift a fraction of an inch, but since neither Devynn nor Seth appeared willing to elaborate, the prima -in-waiting seemed to realize it was better to let the matter go.
“All the same,” Devynn continued, “you should probably keep beefing up your wards for the time being.”
“And pray to Brigid every morning that I’ll find my consort soon,” Ruby said. “Once I’m married, I have to believe Jasper will give up much of this nonsense.”
Maybe so. Seth wanted to think that the primus would realize he didn’t dare sacrifice any of the women in the Wilcox clan without facing horrible repercussions, but considering the way the leaders of the family always managed to find women to do their bidding, he wasn’t so sure.
Then again, if Jasper had made a career of killing off Wilcox witches to break the curse, surely Devynn would have heard of such a thing, wouldn’t she?
Hard to say. It wouldn’t be the first time a horrible family secret had been swept under the rug…and he doubted it would be the last.
But yes, Ruby would be much less of a target once she was bonded to her consort. Devynn hadn’t seemed to know exactly when the prima -in-waiting met her future husband, but it obviously had happened at some point, considering she’d run the clan for decades after Abigail passed.
“I’ll send word to the elders and Abigail,” Ruby went on. “You two must be exhausted after everything you’ve been through, while I only had to sit here and wait.”
“That sort of thing can be tiring, too,” Devynn said with a smile, but Ruby only dismissed the comment with a wave of her hand.
“Maybe so. It’s still not the same thing.”
No, it wasn’t. And since Ruby was the clan’s prima -in-waiting, Seth thought it made some sense for her to be the one to let everyone else know the danger seemed to have passed.
“We’d appreciate it if you did that,” he said. “Because you’re right — it’s late, and I know we’re both tired. We can talk more about all of this in the morning.”
Ruby nodded, even as Seth got up from the couch and Devynn followed suit. “You drop by when you’re ready,” she said.
“We will,” Devynn promised.
With that matter settled, the two of them headed back up the street to his bungalow. Once they were inside, she paused to rub her arms for a second or two so she could warm them— the air was quite chilly, and they hadn’t paused to grab their coats — before she sent him a glance that could only be described as mischievous.
“So…how tired are you, exactly?”
At once, he went to her and pulled her into his arms. “Not too tired for this.”
Her mouth came up to meet his, and any lingering chill from their walk was gone as if it had never been. Blood seemed to fairly burn in his veins, and he held the kiss, letting her know how worried he had been for her…how much he needed to know he would never lose her again.
No words, only the agreement that they needed to go into the bedroom, where they hurriedly pulled at one another’s clothing so they could collapse on the bed skin to skin, with nothing to keep them from reigniting the spark that had always been there and always would be.
It was a fast and furious joining, no long session of teasing foreplay, no knowledge that they had hours to indulge themselves. Instead, she pulled him into her almost at once, as if she needed that deep contact to reassure her that they truly were together and nothing would ever separate them again. She was ready for him, and he was all too glad to lose himself in her, to know that this was right, that this was what he’d been waiting for all his life.
The climax hit them both nearly at the same time, and they clung to one another afterward, neither of them wanting to let go. Body pressed to body, they at last surrendered to sleep.
Waking up with Devynn next to him was a dream come true…or an acknowledgment of how close they’d come to living a nightmare. But she was safe now.
They were all safe.
Not much real food in the house, but there was coffee, and that seemed sufficient until they could decide whether to cobble something together or go in search of breakfast in town. While several of the restaurants had closed, he’d spied a small diner occupying the ground floor of the Flatiron building and thought they could probably eat there if they wanted something more than toast.
“This doesn’t quite feel real,” Devynn said as he sat down next to her on the couch, both of them cradling cups of coffee in their hands.
“Why not?” Seth asked. To him, this bright morning with the cool November sunlight slanting in the kitchen window seemed much more real than any of the nightmarish scenarios he’d lived through over the past couple of days.
She smiled and sipped some of her coffee. “I suppose it’s because we’re here together, and Ruby is safe, and Jasper is probably licking his wounds. It just seemed for a while there as if we wouldn’t be able to find our way to a happy ending.”
Well, Seth could see why she might have felt that way. Everything had gone wrong…until it had finally gone right.
But even though they were safe here, this still wasn’t the future they’d envisioned together.
No, they were supposed to go back where — when — she’d come from.
He decided not to comment on that, however. While Devynn appeared remarkably unscathed, considering everything that had happened to her, it might have been pushing things to make her immediately begin to focus on how she could get her gift under control enough so they could jump ahead to her time.
“But we have,” he said, and leaned over to press a kiss against her cheek.
It looked as if she intended to reply, but someone knocked on the door right then. Since by that point the hour was well past ten o’clock — they’d slept in and taken their time getting ready, even though they’d shared the shower — Seth knew he couldn’t allow himself to be too annoyed by a visitor.
Especially since he thought he knew who it might be.
Sure enough, Ruby stood outside, looking fresh and bright and very unlike a woman who’d been up until the wee hours the night before. “Do you mind if I come in?”
“Not at all,” he replied, stepping aside so she could enter the house. “Would you like some coffee?”
“No, thank you,” she said politely. “I had tea hours ago.” Her gaze moved past him to Devynn, who’d set down her coffee cup and stood as soon as their guest entered the living room. “But I wanted to talk to you two.”
“Of course,” Seth said, now somewhat mystified. “Did you get word to the elders last night?”
“I did,” Ruby said. She went over to one of the armchairs that faced the couch and sat down, so he headed back to the couch so he and Devynn could resume their seats. “Everyone was very relieved, of course, but they want to talk to you sometime today when you’re ready.”
This didn’t seem too unexpected. Of course the elders — and Abigail and Charles — would want to hear their accounts of what had happened in Flagstaff the night before.
“We can go up before lunch — ”Seth began, but Ruby immediately shook her head.
“That’s not a good idea.” She paused there and glanced over at the front window, almost as if she expected to see someone peering in, eavesdropping on their conversation. “Seth, I’m fairly certain Abigail is going to demand that you hand over the amulet.”
“She what? ” he said, while next to him, Devynn stiffened.
“Why in the world would she do that?”
“Because she thinks it’s an abomination, and she wants it locked up.” Ruby’s red-lacquered lips tightened a fraction before she continued. “And she also thinks you no longer have any use for it, since Devynn’s been rescued and there isn’t any immediate danger of Jasper retaliating.”
Seth still wasn’t so sure about that, but he decided he should hold his tongue on that subject for now. “It isn’t Abigail’s to take.”
“Maybe not, but she doesn’t see things that way. And she’s the prima — she may not seem very strong to you, but she can still force you to hand it over if necessary.”
By this point, Devynn had set down her coffee cup. Frowning, she said, “So…what are you suggesting we should do?”
“Go back where you came from,” Ruby said promptly. “Isn’t that what you’ve planned to do all along?”
It was, although Seth had never come right out and said such a thing. However, his cousin was perceptive and had probably read between the lines of comments he’d made or the way he’d reacted to certain topics of conversation, not wanting to commit to anything when he knew so much was still up in the air.
“It is,” he said, and realized what a relief it was to confess such a thing to Ruby. “I don’t want to stay here. This isn’t my time.”
No, it wasn’t, with both his parents gone and Jerome itself barely a husk of the boom town it had once been. Some might have argued that he still had his brother and his sister-in-law and the nephew he’d finally been able to meet during those tense days while he was waiting for the dark of the moon to arrive. Arthur was a sturdy boy of fourteen who took after his father and not his mother, thank the Goddess, and seemed like a good enough kid despite his parents’ tense relationship…but those missing twenty-one years now seemed like a yawning gulf, one that Seth would never be able to bridge.
Devynn shifted on the couch, almost as if she’d meant to say something and had decided against it. After all, the two of them had hashed all this out days ago…or decades, depending on how one wanted to look at the situation.
“I’m sorry,” Ruby said, her tone now quiet. “But I think I understand.”
“The real problem is my so-called ‘gift,’” Devynn said next. “Without any real control over it, I’m not sure I can get us where we need to go.”
“You were doing well when Jeremiah was helping you manage it,” Seth told her, but she only shook her head.
“I was doing better, but it still wasn’t enough. Even with the amulet amplifying my power, I still made mistakes. There’s no guarantee that we’ll end up in the same year I left.”
The prima -in-waiting had listened to this exchange with a small frown tugging at her brow, but now she seemed to perk up. “Maybe I can help.”
Seth tilted his head at her. “How?”
“This is just an educated guess on my part, but….” The words trailed off, and she seemed to gather herself to continue with her theory. “But maybe you were doing better with Jeremiah Wilcox, Devynn, because some of his power was joining with yours. I don’t think it was anything conscious, and yet — ”
“I think you might be right,” Devynn broke in, eyes now shining. “Or at least, when my mother traveled in time, the only way she was able to get back to her present while bringing my father along was because Jeremiah lent her some of his strength, some of his power, to get her across all those years.”
“Perfect,” Ruby said. “I’m not saying my powers are as strong as Jeremiah Wilcox’s, but you two have the amulet to help you along as well. I think the combination might be enough to do the trick.”
She sounded very confident, and Devynn didn’t seem too worried, either, her face shining in anticipation of finally returning to the place and time where she belonged.
And they had to make the attempt, especially now that they had to face the very real prospect of Abigail trying to take the amulet from them. Without it, they had no real chance of getting to the future they both knew they desired more than anything else, not with Devynn still concerned about her level of control over her somewhat shaky magical talent.
“Then we might as well go now,” he said. “I don’t want to give Abigail any excuse to come down here and demand that we hand over the amulet.”
True, the odds of his sister-in-law doing something like that might have been fairly low, considering how she rarely seemed to leave her back parlor, let alone the house. Still, why take the risk?
Devynn reached over so she could hold his hand. “You’re sure?”
More certain than he’d ever been of anything in his life.
He nodded. “Yes.” Looking over at Ruby, he added, “Is there anything you need us to do?”
“Just focus on where and when you’re going,” she said. “You and Devynn still have to steer the ship. I’m just giving it enough fuel to make it safely into port.”
A port in a time he still could barely begin to imagine. That was all right, though — the woman he loved seemed more than content to live in that world, so he knew he would be happy there as well.
Devynn’s fingers tightened on his. “I’m going to take us back as close to when I left as I possibly can. Okay?”
“Got it,” he replied.
She’d been in the abandoned mine shaft when she vanished, not sitting in this room.
He should be able to manage that.
“Thank you, Ruby,” he said softly.
Her lips curved in a smile. “Tell the future I said hello.”
The living room dissolved into darkness. For one unending second, the world shattered over and over again.
Until it resolved itself around him. He and Devynn were standing in the mine shaft, hands still clasped together, a small flashlight of some kind lying on the ground near their feet. It gave off just enough light to reveal the shocked face of a woman around Devynn’s age who stood about a yard away from the place where they’d just emerged.
“What in the world, Devynn?” the woman exclaimed.