Chapter 43
FORTY-THREE
Josiah
The nature of my species was that we generally knew when another of us was around. The knowledge was instinctual, a ripple in the vibrations and frequencies of the atmosphere, and often coupled with scent. Mostly, it was an innate knowing.
Stealth was not on my side, especially since I’d failed to perform any cloaking spells strong enough to truly hide on my way into the Second Realm. My parents’ questioning left my mistakes in the forefront of my consciousness, and I halted in their gardens to clear my head before I continued on my way.
I’d neglected the magic-heavy side of my heritage for far too long. Della would suffer more than anyone, a victim of my own stubborn pride and my residual sense of duty toward the High Court. Relying on strength and fear had served me well and I’d had no idea I’d ever need anything more. I’d become accustomed to a lifestyle of sheer force and servitude to those who practiced magic for me. Nearly a thousand years of propaganda had taken root in my psyche, and it was no easy feat to try and tear it away, even if by my own hand.
At the edge of the property, I stilled and focused my concentration, altering my vision until I could see the invisible webs of the ether that surrounded every living thing.
Some practiced with chants and carefully worded poetry-style incantations. I had skipped all that and was taught how to command the ether to bend to my will through a mere thought specifically for combat. I was a force to be reckoned with. Why waste time with anything else, especially when there were others to do it for me if necessary? My training had been so narrow, but I felt confident the same lessons and talent could be honed for different results. I just needed the time to practice.
When the mist settled around me, fully shielding my presence, I continued. I’d be mistaken for someone else—not human, but not Josiah Ipomoea, either. I was testing the boundaries of the laws in the Second Realm and fighting my innate inclination toward the Court. I could only hope I hadn’t tripped any unseen alarms through my disobedience.
Micha had the foresight to cloak his own identity and scent before exiting the Third Realm and entering the Second, and I met him in a bar a few blocks away.
It was what one could call a “hole in the wall” style establishment, frequented by worn out soldiers and the less well-off citizens of the Realm, tucked away in a forgotten corner of the community. Upon entry, we were lost in the crowd of many different classes of people. I recognized some palace guards, and others who were in service to the Lords and the Collective. No one paid either of us much mind due to our altered visages.
I found my friend in a back corner booth and slid onto the bench opposite him. He motioned to a waitress who brought over a carafe and poured us both drinks. Once she was out of earshot, he spoke.
“Ezra placed her under a sleeping spell. As far as I know, no one’s touched her,” Micha told me. “She has no idea what is going on but kept asking where you were. Sounds like Jude led her to believe she was supposed to meet up with you.”
A burst of anger gripped the back of my neck. Why would she blindly leave the relative safety of home? How was she convinced to go?
“They must’ve used magic to cloud her mind,” Micha said, continuing to talk. “She’s not stupid.”
“No, she’s not. Was it your contact who told you this?” Micha kept in touch with someone in the inner circles of the High Court, but he’d never been willing to divulge who it was. I didn’t press him on the matter. He was entitled to some privacy if it was useful, and it seemed it had become so.
Between his mysterious infatuation with a human woman and his Court spy, the things he was keeping from me were piling up. Even now, I could sense he wasn’t going to answer me, but I wouldn’t force it.
Micha pulled his glass of blood closer and wrapped his hands around it, deep in thought. “Her and Ashley are always watching those ridiculous movies.” He shook his head. “Maybe she’ll be all right with the things she may see.”
I glared at him. I wasn’t certain that was how it worked, as if observing something from a distance and actively participating in the actions were the same thing. But then again, she’d witnessed Brett’s execution just fine and it’d even turned her on. However, that scene had been under my protective control.
“You and Ashley discuss movies?” Lifting my hand toward him, I said, “Never mind, I don’t want to hear it. If she’s asleep, I can get to her easily.”
He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and skimmed the screen. “Kiam says he may be able to assist if needed.”
More anger rolled through me, heating my blood. The situation was such that it was entirely my responsibility. I may have taken down Sem, but I should’ve dismantled the entire group and obliterated their outdated rules and laws and spared us the trouble we now faced.
I stood up and swung around the table. “Move over,” I growled at Micha.
He slid to the far end of the booth. No words were needed; he knew what I intended. I leaned back against his chest and shoulder, kicking a long leg up on the bench as he slid an arm around me. To passersby, it’d look as if I were inebriated or spell-drunk, as if I were being cared for by a friend or partner and under an enchantment.
“You do this and I can’t go in after you,” Micha warned. We couldn’t leave both our bodies here unattended in public.
Quickly, I patted my sides, checking for my blades, and then snatched my glass from the table and gulped down the remains of my beverage. “I’m getting her back,” I gritted out.
“The net won’t allow physical relocation, not without a massive surge of power,” he said pointlessly, since I could sense the restriction already. Ezra had left no room for error, no weaknesses in the web he’d cast. If I was discovered, the entire area would be under lockdown, no one allowed in or out of the palace.
“Are you ready now, to let us learn higher magic?” he asked, whispering in my ear. “You shouldn’t stifle it.”
Micha had brought it up once, several years ago and I’d soundly chastised him. “We’ll discuss this later; we don’t have time for this.” A thought occurred to me. “Have you started?”
He sighed. “You forbade it.”
Closing my eyes, I filled my mind with images of Della. Her bright, honey eyes, her long silky hair, and the soft satin of her skin. I held the image of her in the foremost of my thoughts until I could taste her rich, decadent blood on my tongue. My gums ached, and my cock hardened, as I imagined her in my arms, her tiny form gazing up at me with love and bliss.
As I relaxed against my friend, I let my spirit seek her and felt my soul slowly prying free of the confines of my physical body. My heartbeat relaxed and my consciousness faltered, flickering between awareness of my current location and the pull of the void.
The extensive nets of magic the Ancients had installed throughout the palace grounds were formidable. I could feel the sticky webbing clinging to my aura and probing about, investigating the disturbance, seeking information.
The flower essence my mother had sprinkled over me connected with the filaments, sparking and sizzling, severing the connection in smaller spots. I flung my arms out and with a golden burst of light. I was free.
Della’s body was in one of the guest rooms in a wing of the palace, not far from where my own quarters were. Despite my ethereal form, the bed dipped when I sat beside her. Her figure lay in a tangle of fluffy sheets and her head on a plush pillow. She looked comfortable, snug, and entirely at home.
Waving my hand over her face to read her, I instantly knew she’d been placed under a spell. Magic to keep her as compliant and malleable as possible. There was that, and in addition, her spirit had left her body. She was fully conscious but wandering in the ether somewhere, somewhere I couldn’t reach her.
Her aura, the lemony yellow and gentle peach that breezed around her was nearly non-existent, the color bright right next to her skin but fading rapidly into the distance. Climbing up onto the bed, I stretched over her and licked her neck. The bitter sting of Ezra’s magic seared my tongue, and I spat it out after I sat up. I’d tasted his unique signature in the past, on the bodies of those sentenced to death while I played with their futile lives, and it was unmistakable.
It was up to me to bring her back. The risk I was taking was great, using what magic I could deep in the confines of the palace, and under the watchful eye of the many sentient curses and spells cast to catch someone just like me. My traitorous actions would be found worthy of my execution.
The blood in my veins thrummed with electricity as I slowly passed my palms over Della’s sleeping form. “Della, Little One,” I beckoned her softly. “Come back. I’m here.”
Her aura flickered lightly; she was so responsive to my presence. Her soul recognized me in some form though she may as well have been a million miles away. I leaned in, pressing my face to the side of her head, and continued to beckon her. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her aura brightening, retracting and coming back to her physical body as her soul returned.
I willed her to hurry up, I didn’t know how much time we had. We could be discovered at any moment, an undetectable alarm having been tripped, alerting the Ancients of my illicit plans. Della stirred lightly beneath my ministrations and a low moan sounded from her lips, sending a bolt of desire straight to the base of my spine.
Leaning back down, I nipped at her neck, scratching her lightly and drawing a small, red bead from her luminous skin. I licked it, shuddering as her flavor burst over my tongue. Being a mere shadow of her natural taste, it wouldn’t have the same nutritional effect on me, but I would take whatever I could get, my spirit longing for her.
“Josiah,” she groaned, reaching for me.
“Little One,” I answered, lightly brushing her lips with my own.
Groggily, she sat up. “Why do you call me Little One?”
I pulled her into my arms. “Because you’re tiny and precious.”
“I’m not that small,” she countered. “They told me you needed me but wouldn’t tell me anything else.”
After she filled me in on how she ended up here, I warned her not to allow anyone but me to touch her. As far as I could tell, Ezra had spelled her when he touched her upper back. I could smell him on her and I would’ve loved to cover her with my scent and destroy the foul odor that clung to her in wisps and tendrils. While I didn’t have my full physical form, that was an impossibility because the proper spiritual connection could not be made.
“It was a trick. I’m not certain what they mean to do with you, but I know they have no intention of you leaving the grounds—ever.”
Della sucked in a breath. “They’re gonna kill me?”
“No, I won’t let them, but they don’t bring humans here to let them go. They mean to force me into mating with an elite creature of my own kind.”
I gestured with my hand. “Us? This was never supposed to happen, Della. You’re fully human. There’s not a drop of magic in your blood I could use to justify our union.” I’d told her before that our relationship was forbidden. I just hadn’t expected these consequences; the Collective had smashed the rules to pieces. I had the feeling I was going to have to do the same.
Her big eyes turned up toward me. “Can I get magic somehow?”
Shaking my head, I replied, “It doesn’t work like that. You’re either born into one of the families and it's passed down genetically or you’re not. Sometimes it doesn’t pass down even when you are born with the proper parentage.”
Clasping her hand, I pried her fingers from her palm. Small, half-moon shaped crescents had left red dashes on her skin. “Then what do we do?” she asked.
“I need to get you out of here. I need to get back into my body,” I said. Della’s eyes widened, her eyebrows shooting up. “I left it with Micha, in a pub,” I explained.
She reached for me as she slid off the bed and I froze her limb in place. “Don’t touch my clothing. My mother poisoned it and its lethal in any form.” I released the barrier, allowing her motion again.
Della stood quietly for a moment, staring at me as if seeing me for the first time. “I really need magic. If I get out of this, I’m going to buy some Wicca books and figure this out.”
“I’m going to get you out of here. What I need you to do is stay alive. Don’t let anyone touch you. Pretend to go along with whatever you’re told, cheerfully.”
I took a step closer to her. “Do not fear; they’ll sense it, and it will give them more power. You can survive this because you know I’m coming for you. Do not be afraid.”
A tremble ran through her, shaking her knees. “I can do that, I think,” she said quietly, her voice faltering. “Be quiet and agreeable and wait for you,” she said, nodding.
I glanced at the blankets on her bed. Somehow none of the flower poison had transferred. Her room may have been more spelled than I thought. “Get back in the bed.”
Della shuffled to the side of the mattress and climbed in. “How long? Do you know?”
“Time flows differently here,” I replied, not having an answer for her.
Visions of storming the grounds and destroying the compound flashed through my mind, tempting me to rain down hell. It never should’ve come to this; I should’ve killed them all during the Selection Ritual.
“Don’t eat any of the meat unless you don’t mind consuming human flesh. And don’t drink the water.” Water was an ideal system for poison and curse delivery. “Unless it comes in a bottle,” I clarified. She wouldn’t survive without water.
“I think you told me about the water before,” she mused. “I wanted to see your home, I just didn’t imagine this…that this would be how. I really thought I was doing the right thing.”
A tear ran down her cheek and I would’ve given anything to wipe it from her face and keep it. “Della don’t fear. I’ll come for you. They fooled you and that’s not your fault.”