Chapter 12 #2
Not her. Anyone but her. Because he would make good on his promise and introduce her to the man who killed her parents.
She followed his gaze to the waves rolling in only a few feet away. “You were a pirate, weren’t you?”
Her question surprised him. “Why do you ask that?”
She stopped and faced him, and the moonlight kissed her cheeks, casting her eyes in shadow. “The pirate memorabilia you have all over your dojo. If you’re that old—”
“I’m not old enough to have been a pirate. They were in the area in the sixteen hundreds to the early seventeen hundreds, right around the time I was born. But my Spanish ancestors were. I’ve tracked down some of the booty they availed themselves of.”
“A pirate heritage. Figures.”
“Figures?” He forced himself to continue walking, digging the stick into the sand.
“It fits you, that’s all.” She fell into step beside him. “Dark, dangerous.”
Murderer.
A few minutes later, Cyn pointed to one of the homes. “This is his place.” It was hard to miss the stained-glass windows, even in the dark. “Quiet. Whoever put the parasite on him could be here waiting. Once we’re in the privacy of the yard or the house, you can Catalyze if necessary.”
She followed him up a trail toward the sixties-era house, with its slanted roof.
A dim light was on inside the house, and classical music floated through the air.
Moonlight spilled onto the concrete deck but left shadows behind the many plants.
His nostrils flared as he sensed the area.
He picked up nothing human, Crescent, or magick.
He broke one of the rear windows and then opened the door for her.
“It’s clear.”
She grimaced. “Smells musty. Did he really go crazy? He looked crazy.” Revulsion edged her voice.
“After your parents died, he went crazy with grief. With impotency.” He flicked on a light switch.
“He had ED? Do I really need to know this?”
He laughed despite himself. “I forget that word is now used for sexual issues. It’s damned irritating when society changes what a word means.
Gay. Bitch. Ass. Somehow, they gained different meanings.
” He opened the fridge, finding no stores of food.
“Imagine having the power to see the future but not being able to save those who mean the most to you.”
“Leo said something about him saving a bunch of people.”
Cyn nodded. “That’s why his failure to save Justin and your mom pushed him over the edge.”
“And sent him to a mental hospital. I never heard from him, not even on Christmas or my birthday.”
And that hurt. He could hear it in her voice. “But now you know that he was actually trying to protect you.”
Her pained expression softened. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
He moved through Brom’s house, small by beachfront standards. Most homes of this era had been razed and replaced by ostentatious monstrosities. Some of the old Crescents relished the past and kept them as they were.
“What the heck?” Ruby said behind him as she must have also seen the claw foot tub in the middle of the formal living room. It was filled with water and a large glass prism.
“Brom had this set up when I brought you to him all those years ago. When he saw the vision, and your father didn’t want to believe it, Brom insisted they consult a guy Justin befriended at college.
Jay had figured out a way to see the Deus Vis.
Normally it looks like ribbons shifting like kelp in a gentle ocean current.
A solar storm will make it fluctuate, so it’s less stable.
But Brom said when he checked it, the ribbons were vibrating so hard they were almost breaking apart. He called it fracturing.”
Cyn picked up the long black light on the floor and flicked the switch.
He held the light over the surface, bringing ribbons inside the water to life.
Disintegrating ribbons. “This is why Brom came back. He must have had another vision about the Deus Vis fracturing, so he returned to Miami and put this together to confirm it.”
Ruby stared at the ribbons. “Whatever my father was doing all those years ago is happening again.”
“Looks like it. Mr. Smith wanted to make sure Brom couldn’t stop him this time.”
She met his gaze across the tub. “This is what keeps us alive, right? If these ribbons fracture, a lot of people could die.”
He snapped the light off. “Will die.”
Suddenly this was bigger than Ruby, demons, and Moncrief’s death. They remained there for several seconds as that sank in.
Finally, she blinked and looked down, then reached for a journal that was lying next to a pen on a small table. She flipped through the pages. “It’s blank, like Mon’s book. Does this mean he’s dead?”
“Moncrief’s book was created with illusion. It looks like Brom was writing in this.” Cyn searched the pages with his hands. “I feel magick. He’s hidden whatever he wrote. Did Brom try to touch you?”
“Yes.” Her mouth twisted in disgust. “He reached out like he was going to grab me.”
Yeah, she must have really thought he was mad. “Brom can impart his visions to others through touch. That may be the only way he can communicate with us. We need to find him.” He grabbed his walking stick. “Let’s go.”
They headed back down the beach, and once they were a distance from the house, he called Kade. “It’s Cyntag. Apologies for calling so early in the morning. I require your Deuce expertise. I’ve got a book I need deciphered.”
Kade’s voice was husky with sleep. “Is it in code?”
“It’s hidden. It belongs to Brom Winston.”
“The Brom Winston?”
“Yes, and you didn’t hear that name from me.”
“You taunt me, Cyntag. You know I can’t resist all this secrecy.”
He chuckled. “I do.” He slid a glance to Ruby. “I hear I’m a master manipulator, as a matter of fact.”
Kade’s low laugh rumbled over the phone. “Oh, yeah, I gotta hear this.”
“Where can we meet? Like now.”
Once he’d made arrangements and disconnected, Ruby asked, “Can you trust this guy?”
“We worked together in the Guard for a long time. Serving in the Guard is like being a cop or in the military. We’ve covered for each other, kept each other’s secrets, and saved each other’s lives.
He’s still there, so we haven’t had much to talk about since I quit.
Thus, the answer to your question about trusting him is… mostly.”
“Why did you quit? Seems like you were in it a long time.”
Careful. “It was time to do something else. I’d lost the fire.”
“That’s sad, a Dragon who’s lost his fire.”
Her words burrowed into him like a drill aimed for his heart. “It’s just the way of it, Ruby. The longer you live, the more you’ve seen, the less you care. Don’t worry, you’ve got a long way to go before you start feeling that way.”
She touched his arm but quickly let her hand drop. “I wasn’t worried about it happening to me. I was thinking of you.”
The breeze toyed with the strands of her honey hair that had escaped the braid. He resisted the urge to twine one around his finger. His Dragon strained, pulling him toward her. Want.
He held strong. No.
Something about her sparked his soul, the first time he’d felt such a thing in… he didn’t even know how long. She, of all women. Talk about karma.
He smacked the walking stick into his palm, feeling the sting of it. “Don’t feel sorry for me.” The words blasted out like bullets. “Don’t feel anything for me.”
The Book of the Hidden
Garnet returned to her castle at last, accompanied by Dragons to keep her safe on her journey. She had left her home a girl and returned a woman. A fighter. A widow. The Dragon Prince’s spell must still dwell inside her, as his death was an ache in her soul.
As they neared, they were met by a band of villagers who shared terrible news. Much of her kingdom was held under the dark reign of the Shadows, even though their master was dead. Now Garnet and those who would fight beside her would banish them.
The word spread through the hovels and exile camps throughout the woods that the princess had come back to save them.
Garnet gathered an army of Dragons and Deuces.
Elves and fairies joined, too. One fairy, Emerald, took the form of a dove.
Had her beloved Opal been a fairy all along?
This dove would spy on the castle and report on the enemy’s movements.
Emerald brought back both intelligence and the horrors of what was going on at the castle. The Shadows were killing Dragons and using their power to create a new master.
Garnet and her army readied a plan to take back the kingdom…