18. Lucky
Lucky
The time it took us to get back to the resort was making me jittery.
When we finally arrived, I paid for the Uber and we hurried to my room.
Once we were safely inside, I slumped back against the door so it could hold me up while I called my grandpa back.
I’d wanted Nick to be able to hear what he had to say, and we couldn’t do that in the Uber because of the human driver.
“Grandpa, we’re here in the room. You’re on speaker.”
“You’re in the room together?” he teased.
My cheeks flushed as I avoided looking at Nick’s smirking face. “I told you I’m dating Nick, Grandpa. Now get to the news!”
He chuckled. “All right. As you know, our research has been twofold. Not only have we been speaking to the oldest supernaturals, but we’ve also been delving into their personal libraries, most of which are quite extensive.
“King Draven’s library wasn’t accessible to us at first because the bear working on it isn’t finished with it yet. But the king was finally able to move most of his books in, and he was kind enough to give us immediate access to them.
“We weren’t having much success at first. His library is massive, and none of it is catalogued.
It would have taken us months to look through everything.
But Dice got the word out, and before Finn and I knew what was happening, there were at least a hundred supernaturals that came to join us and lend a hand in the search.
The kind bear that they hired had to stop work because of the crowd, and she in turn pulled in most of her clan. It was really something to see.”
It was at this point that tears started running down my face.
People came to help them?
For me?
Nick pulled me into his arms and held me tightly.
“I can hear you sniffling, mo stórin. I know you think people don’t love you, but they do.” My grandfather’s voice was gruff. If I was a waterpot of epic proportions, he was no better. He wore his emotions on his sleeve and cried at commercials on TV sometimes, just like I did.
“It was the king, actually, who found it. He remembered that he had a very old book about elementals somewhere, and he thought he remembered reading something in there that would help us, but it took a while to find it.”
Elementals?
I didn’t know much about them because we didn’t have very many of them in Moonhaven, which meant that I hadn’t interacted with them very much. I knew there were different types, and that they had a king who ruled over them, but beyond that, I was pretty clueless.
“Ducky, it’s the king. The king of the elementals has the ability to give part of his elemental essence to another person.
It won’t hurt him or reduce his power, because after the procedure his essence will regenerate.
It’s essentially the same thing a vampire does when they turn someone, except he doesn’t have to bite you, of course. ”
I was pacing the room now. My pulse was racing, my palms were sweating, and my heart felt like it was trying to become roommates with my throat. “Is he willing, Grandpa? Is he willing to help me?”
“King Draven made a phone call and explained the situation you’re facing. King Asharien didn’t say for sure whether he was willing to help you or not, but he would like to meet and talk with you.”
“When?”
“As soon as you can get down there. He lives in Iceland.”
My eyebrows went up. Iceland? I knew almost nothing about Iceland, but I was pretty sure everything I’d packed for Maui would be useless there. I checked my weather app. 50 degrees. Perfect. I would be a frozen popsicle the minute I stepped off the plane.
“I’ll blink you up some things,” Nick said, as though he could read my mind. He was sitting stiffly on my bed, watching me ping-pong back and forth across the room.
Forgetting about my grandfather for a moment, and this huge piece of news that I was attempting to take in, I sat beside him and squeezed his knee.
“What’s wrong?”
His eyes flicked to the phone, and I nodded, getting his silent message. “Grandpa, can you send back the pilot who flew us here?”
“Already done, Ducky. He’s on his way. He’ll text when he arrives. He should be there in the early morning hours, so I’d get packed and be ready to go.”
I smiled, shaking my head. For all intents and purposes, my grandfather had been my parent growing up.
And it didn’t matter how old I got, sometimes he still slipped into parenting mode.
“I’ll do that. Grandpa? Thank you. And please thank Finn for me.
Are you going to be there in Iceland when I land? ”
“I would, love, but King Asharien has said that he’ll only allow you and Nick to be there. Nick?”
Nick straightened. “Yes, sir?”
“You take care of my Ducky for me.”
“I will, sir.”
“Cut the sir. Just call me Liam.”
“Yes, si— Liam.”
“Okay, bye grandpa. I love you.”
His voice got gruff again. “Love you too, Ducky. I hope everything goes well.”
When I hung up the phone, I just sat there for a moment, my mind reeling.
I was going to get rid of my chaos magic!
Maybe.
I threaded my hand with Nick’s as I tried to focus on his needs while my world was spinning. It felt like my breath had been ripped away, but also, there was so much hope beating inside me right now that it felt almost painful.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him again. “You seem upset.”
Instead of answering, Nick scooted us back so we were lying down, then he wrapped his arms around me. I freed a hand from his octopus grip, and gently ran a finger down his face. “Nick?”
“I don’t want to lose you,” he whispered, his voice husky with emotion.
I couldn’t give him any reassurances—I didn’t know how dangerous this would be—so I just lay there with him for a while until I found the courage to ask, “Do you not want me to do this? You get a vote now that you’re a part of my life.”
He shook his head. His eyes were still closed, as though he found it too painful to even look at me. “I know how important this is to you. I just... have a terrible feeling that the cost of this might be too high.”
“I’m willing to risk quite a bit to live a more normal life. A life where I don’t have to worry that my magic will hurt or kill those I love. But I understand that to you it might not feel that way.”
“Are you willing to risk your life?”
I disentangled myself from him and sat up.
“Yes, because I will always worry that my magic will hurt you, even unintentionally. I couldn’t live with that, Nick.
I can’t live with that. Before, I wanted to get rid of it to give me a better life.
But now... I need to get rid of it for us.
For you. This isn’t something I want to live with for the rest of my life, always hanging over me. Always hurting us.”
Nick got up to stand by my sliding glass door, looking out at the oasis beyond the window. After what felt like a long time, he finally turned. “Promise me you’ll keep fighting, no matter what.”
I nodded solemnly. “I promise.”
He stalked over and pulled me into his arms again, making my feet dangle above the floor, and then he kissed me.
This kiss was different. He was still gentle, but there was an intensity, a desperation, that hadn’t been there before.
After a few minutes, he gentled it again, and when he finally broke away, he clenched his eyes shut and just held me.
We stood in the middle of my room for a long time like that.