Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
Kainda
I wasn’t sure what I had expected this conversation to be like, but this wasn’t it. Nope, not even in the same universe as my expectations. Elijah turned all those preconceived notions on their ears today. It was a minor miracle that he’d sat here and for the most part just let me get all the information on the table with little to no fuss. Honestly, I needed to pinch myself to see if I wasn’t dreaming because there really should have been some ranting, raving, kicking and screaming, and a whole crap ton more disbelief and denial. Ow, fuck that hurt.
“Why exactly do you need my help?” He looked genuinely curious this time, but an edge in his dark eyes that told me he wasn’t going to be manipulated. Looks like the medications were leaving his system. My spell was working on fast tracking it. I need him sober and lucid.
“Elijah, you are the only man to ever come into contact with the demon Uttu that has been found alive. She never leaves survivors. I need to know everything you can remember and some things you don’t know that you remember. Why are you so special that she spared your life?”
When I said he was the sole survivor, his eyes had telegraphed his fear so loud, even a blind person would’ve seen it. It could’ve been the medication making him so calm and indifferent, or it could’ve been him numbing himself to everything to cope with what had happened. But the terror of his experience was still there, just boiling under the surface, waiting to erupt.
“Just who are you exactly, Ms. Lane?” The fog lifted from his eyes, and they drilled into my soul as if he was trying to read my mind.
“I’m a demon hunter on a mission to avenge my father and banish a murderous demoness who wields magic over the creepiest of all creepy crawlies?—”
“Wait, are you telling me you’re afraid of spiders?”
He was trying not to laugh from the pinch in his cheek and the quaking of his shoulders. I knew what he was thinking, too. It just seemed so ridiculous for me to be scared of spiders. I claimed I was a badass demon hunter after all. My eyes narrowed on his face as I felt my face heat. It’s not like I was proud to admit to a phobia of any kind.
“As I was saying. I’m also a witch on my mother’s side, and I’m fully planning on busting you out of this joint. I need your help, and I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“A witch, really?”
“Yes! You had no problem accepting the existence of gods, goddesses, demons and demon hunters, but witches give you a hang-up.”
“I never said I accepted anything of the sort, Ms. Lane.”
“Oh for the love of Gaia! Listen, I don’t have the luxury of time for you to acclimate to this information. I need to catch this evil arachnid entity before anyone else dies and spring you before this mirror illusion wears off.”
He just stared at me until I swore steam blew out of my ears. The most infuriating man on the whole planet was the key to my revenge— Gaia save me. I sighed in frustration and scrubbed my face with my hands. He was determined to not make this easy for me.
“Fine! You need visual proof, I’ll give you some proof. Give me your hand.” I held out my hand angrily, flicking my fingers for him to hurry. I took his hand and wrapped it around mine. His skin was warm and soft. “Do you feel any kind of hidden objects or anything anywhere on my hand?”
Elijah stroked his fingers over my palm, the back of my hand, wrist and fingers. Shuddering when he touched my wrist as it sent a chill up my spine, but he looked completely unfazed. I shook my head and gave him a small nod.
“Alright. Now support my hand with yours.” I waited until he cupped his hands before I gently placed my hand in his, palm up. Rotating my shoulders as I sighed, eyes closing. “Here goes. My hand will get warm as the magic I’m using pools here. Got a favorite flower?”
“Mom is partial to coneflowers.” He smiled for a brief moment before the frown returned.
Closing my eyes, my lips moved silently as I recited the words of the illusion spell that was nothing more than a parlor trick.
“ Flower rise from the Underworld. Grow tall and let your petals unfurl. Grow a coneflower. The pollen spores make all forget we were ever here. ”
My other hand came up, thumb and index finger pinched together. Touching the tips of my pinched fingers to the palm of the hand he held. Squeezing them together tighter on my palm, I slowly lifted my hand upward, as if pulling an invisible string through my palm. Only a second later, it wasn’t a string appearing to rise from beneath my skin. A green bulb and stem rose and began to unfurl its petals. Perfect yellow petals opened to reveal a black cone-shaped center as it continued to grow from my hand.
I could feel Elijah shaking in his seat as he watched. My hands felt like they were on fire. A moment later, the flower stopped growing, and I opened my eyes. Looking down at the flower growing from my palm, it brought a smile to my face. It was the most genuine smile I’d felt in what felt like forever. There was something connecting about doing small magic for the sake of doing magic.
“Go on, Elijah, touch it. It’s real.” My tone was hushed, infused with some of the delight I felt at just playing around with my magic for once. This was a rarity for me, especially since Uttu slaughtered my father and his team.
I watched as he carefully brought up his other hand and just using his index finger stroked the soft, golden petals. His eyes became the definition to the phrase windows to the soul. First awe then skepticism followed by shock and finally unease flickered in those gray orbs. Elijah pulled his hands away. I took my empty hand and used my index and middle fingers like scissors at the base of the stem. It snapped off and landed softly on the table. Pale yellow pollen puffed off the center and rose in the air like a cloud. Holding my palm up for Elijah to see the small cut where the flower had grown.
“Is that proof enough for you, dude?”
He nodded. I grabbed his hand and pulled him from his seat as I rose from mine. The mirror illusion spell was running out, and so was our time to escape.
“Let’s go!”
Elijah followed along behind me like a puppy on a leash, as in I was mostly pulling him along. Moving us quickly along until we were out of the building and to my car. I’d done it! Now I just had to get him somewhere safe for the next part of my plan.
“It won’t take them long to realize I’m gone, and they’ll come looking for us.” He clicked his seatbelt in place while looking over his shoulder out the rear windshield. No one was following us, though, and no one would be the wiser in a few moments.
The smile that spread across my lips now was more of a knowing smirk. I got us going down the road before I answered him.
“That flower I grew, well, it was a bit of a dual-purpose spell. It was the proof you needed to believe I wasn’t a raving lunatic, and it was our tree limb.”
“Tree limb?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the tone of his voice. Glancing over to the passenger seat, the look on his face matched his voice. Despite the scars and weight loss, he was still very handsome. Where the hell had that thought come from? Shake it off, Kainda.
“You know, like in the cartoons and movies, the escapees take a tree limb and go behind themselves to scrub away their footprints and tracks.”
He just kind of nodded at me. It was the nod that people give you when they have no idea what you’re talking about, but they don’t want to engage with you to figure out what you meant. Guess we’re back to him thinking I’m crazy.
“I used magic to make them forget we were ever there. It’ll only last for a few hours, but don’t worry. One of my teammates just slipped in, and she’ll present them with false documentation for a patient transfer. Her magic is stronger than mine, and she’ll plant a false memory with the staff that you were transferred.”
And just like that, the mood shifted in the car. It was like dark clouds had rolled in and the weight of the air was oppressive and cold. I risked a look over to Elijah. His head hung limply from his neck and his shoulders were hunched. Gone was the Elijah of moments before. The numb, blank expression Elijah had returned. He shook his head.
“After this is over, Kainda, you’re taking me back there, and you’re going to forget about me. I belong there.”
He believed it, and that crack my heart the tiniest fraction. Elijah no more belonged there than I did. Everything happening to him now had Uttu’s evil at the root cause. Once Uttu was gone, Elijah and those around him would be safe. He’d still need time to heal. I could argue with him about it later. We both had to focus and move forward from one moment to the next.
I’d rented a loft on the other side of town. A small space, but it would do for now, as we wouldn’t be there for long. Once inside, I went over to the trunk sitting open next to a small dining table. Elijah hung back near the door, taking in the sparse interior. I turned my back to him, gathering my supplies for the next spell once I reassured myself he didn’t immediately bail. This spell required time and a lot of power. Oh, and Elijah was going to hate it.