Chapter 22
Wyatt
“This is stupid,” I muttered.
It was a stunning day, with temps in the mid-seventies. My skin prickled from the sudden warmth of the sun. It was overcast miles away on Skye’s island, where we’d been just moments before.
I squinted into the distance, hating how bright the morning sun was. I’d slept like shit, terrified Zephyr would come slit my throat or something equally as scary while I slept. Now that I knew he could fucking walk through walls, he more than scared me a little.
“You have any idea where he is?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at some of the trees around us. “This island doesn’t seem very inhabited.”
“No, it’s not. Wonderful observation skills, Craig.” Rafe snarked before striding away from me.
I rolled my eyes at his back before I followed. The asshole was still pissed at me about hiding my half-ass sensing ability.
Ability. Not affinity. There was no way it was a full-fledged affinity. There was no way the testing center would have hidden that from my father.
Although…Shafer had hidden that Skye was a Telekinetic.
An eerie breeze rolled by, sending some of my hair into the air.
How many Telekinetics had Shafer lied about?
I opened my mouth to ask Rafe that very question, but he began speaking.
“There’s three atolls in this island chain, and over twenty-five islands,” Rafe said ahead of me. He had an irritating lilt to his voice like he was giving a presentation to a group of tourists.
We were on the mid-sized atoll, I knew that much. Rafe had dropped us at the edge of the central lagoon and was making his way up one of the many hillsides at the foot of the main mountain peak.
“I assume you know where we’re going?” I called out.
Rafe stopped reciting island facts just long enough to call back, “Do I look lost?”
“I don’t know how to answer that,” I muttered.
“If you look to your left, you’ll see we’re at the southern edge of the lagoon, which is rimmed with a massive coral colony, one of the most colorful in the region.
” I groaned out loud. He ignored me. “It’s believed that this specific atoll slash island chain in the Gulf was created sometime during the last Inquisition, making it some of the youngest soil on the planet. ”
“Stop talking about the Inquisition so nonchalantly,” I barked.
“According to local legend, the final Telekinetics on earth came together to form this island chain in the Gulf of Mexico, as a last-ditch effort to hide their dying kind.”
“Rafe,” I snapped.
Rafe stopped, threw his head back and sighed into the sky. “I did a lot of research on this shit, Wyatt. Why can’t you let me live my dream of being a tour guide for ten minutes?”
I shouldered past him, and he scoffed before pushing my back. I was already pissed, already sick of hanging out with him, and I quickly turned, shoving him back. Rafe’s eyes lit up, and then a shadow tugged at my ankle.
I jumped with a yelp. The shadows freaked me the fuck out, and he knew it. I waved my hand, sending a flurry of sand into him. Rafe cursed as he stumbled back. The shadows dusted him off before locking around my ankles.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I snarled as I started to sink down into the ground.
Rafe laughed like a maniac, then tried to catch my hands an instant too late. I threw out both hands, gritting my teeth as the ground beneath us shuddered before the earth began to twist, two rock formations wrapping around one of Rafe’s legs and his arm.
I sunk further into the shadows, and freezing cold dread shot down my spine.
“Dude, I’m serious,” I said, not even caring enough to be pissed that my voice was a little higher than normal. “Rafe, stop.”
Rafe laughed again, then groaned as the rocks squeezed over his shoulder.
“Okay, okay,” he relented, his voice a little breathless, and I rose back to my normal height, then stumbled into the patchy grass as the shadows released me.
Rafe fell on his ass right next to me as the rocks melted back into piles of dirt around us.
“Fuck, you got me good.” He wheezed a laugh as he rolled onto his uninjured shoulder.
Panting, I reached out to heal him and he batted my hand away.
“Nah, I deserve this one,” he said.
“Rafe,” I started, feeling a little guilty. I could already see his skin was reddened, darkening into a bruise where I’d squeezed him. One of his ribs felt broken but I couldn’t be sure without touching him.
Fuck, all he did was scare the shit out of me. We’d broken each other’s bones before, but never this intentionally.
Not to mention, Skye was going to kick my ass if she saw Rafe like this.
“Oh, look,” he wheezed. “Our search is over.”
I whipped around just in time to catch sight of Vince Shafer, the Sensor, standing right at the edge of the trees, staring at us with wide, blue eyes.
“I’m not much for lyin’, so I’ll just tell you straight. I’m not happy to see either of y’all.” Shafer said, his lips in a flat line.
Rafe slurped loudly on the cup of tea Shafer had handed him while mine was slowly going cold on the coffee table. We weren’t here for tea. And Vince had always been a bit of a dick, so I wouldn’t put it past him to try poisoning us.
Rafe, not suspicious in the slightest, took another loud slurp before loudly clanking his teacup onto the saucer, then loudly clanking the two down onto the coffee table. He sat back in his chair and crossed one of his legs over his knee, then settled into a princely pose while staring Shafer down.
All these years of knowing him, and I still couldn’t tell when Rafe was riling someone up for his own amusement, or if he really was just as insufferable as he acted.
I’d long suspected he was insufferable.
“Vince, I see you’re as charming as always.” Rafe said with a grin. “We’ve got a lot to discuss with you today.”
“Yeah? I might have something to ask you as well.” Shafer said, raising a bushy white brow.
Rafe threw out his hands. “By all means.”
Shafer turned to me, then looked me over critically. “Since when do you shake the ground?” I shrugged. His jaw clenched but he looked to Rafe. “You know he has an affinity for sensing. Why do you need me?”
Rafe and I both went still.
“Ah, so y’all didn’t know about that.” Shafer sat back in his chair. “Interesting.”
“It was a hunch,” I ground out. This old man was giving Rafe a run for his money in the irritating department. “I’ve always had a feeling but it was never addressed. By you, no less.”
Shafer shrugged, then took a sip of tea before saying three words that shook me worse than when I’d seen Skye teleport.
“Affinities can evolve.”
Rafe and I were like statues, barely breathing as we stared Shafer down.
Affinities can evolve.
“What does that mean?” Rafe asked sharply.
Shafer gave him a droll look. “It means exactly what it means. Affinities evolve, kid. Especially the strong kind. Like yours,” his cornflower blue eyes flashed toward me. “Your Sensing has gotten better since you were younger, am I right?”
My nod was stilted, even as my mind raced, trying to find reasons he was wrong.
“And you,” he turned back to Rafe while he rubbed his jaw. “I bet those shadows are taking on a mind of their own.”
Rafe, in a stunningly smart move, didn’t reply. I narrowed my eyes at him slightly. He’d always told me he didn’t completely control the shadows, I just never believed him. If what Shafer was saying was true…
“Yeah. I tried telling your grandfather, but he wouldn’t hear it. I suspect that’s why the cancer killed him.”
Rafe snorted, surprising Shafer. “My grandfather was an idiot. He still believed that old wives’ tale that fully connected affinates won’t get sick.”
“That’s not an old wives’ tale,” Shafer said gravely. “I didn’t have a simple cold for thirty years before my wife died. Woke up the next morning with a sore throat.”
Rafe flashed me a look, and we didn’t need to speak through the mind link for me to know he didn’t buy that at all.
But there was something about how he said it…
“Would a Healer confirm this?” I asked.
Shafer snorted. “Sure. Ask Holmes, she’ll tell you the same.”
Rafe made a sound of indignation. “If any of that were true, my grandfather would still be with us, Vince.”
“Not if he weren’t connected,” Shafer snapped suddenly, then froze. His eyes darted back and forth between us like he hadn’t meant to say as much.
I could tell the ground had opened up beneath Rafe.
My friend suffered from a photographic memory. He remembered everything he saw, for better or worse.
The way he went unnaturally still at Shafer’s declaration told me that Rafe had seen something at some point in time that proved Shafer right.
The implications of that could mean an end to the monarchy. The King wasn’t fully connected? That was a requirement in the old code, which was why Rafe’s mother still tolerated Alejandro even though she wanted him dead. The monarch had to be a fully connected Key.
Good God, this was turning out to be an awful fucking trip.
“How would you know that?” Rafe asked quietly.
“Affinities evolve,” I murmured, my mind still racing. “Has your affinity evolved to sense more than just affinities, Vince?”
Shafer glared at me, as if Rafe was the only one allowed to use his first name. But he didn’t reply. He clenched his jaw, looking away sharply to dismiss me.
Where are you going with that? Rafe asked sharply.
I have a hunch, I replied.
You and your hunches, Rafe huffed.
“My Key wants to speak with you,” I said, drawing Shafer’s attention back to me. “She wants to know why you lied for her.”
“Interesting,” Shafer said, narrowing his eyes. “From where I’m sitting, you don’t have a Key.”
“Well, that’s alarming.” Rafe said calmly.
Alarming was right. My eerie hunch seemed correct.
Shafer could sense connections within a Chain. He knew Skye and I had essentially rejected each other.
Rafe could sense my growing panic, and in a very rude move, he stood up and dusted off his thighs. “Let’s go, Wyatt. We’re not getting any real information out of him.”
I stood on shaky legs, and Shafer didn’t make a sound as we made our way around the coffee table to head for the door. It was another deliberately rude move from Rafe, who could have simply shadow-walked us out from where we sat.
“Wait!” Shafer cried just as we reached the door.
Rafe wiggled his eyebrows at me before turning around. “What?”
“I want to talk to her,” Shafer said. “Aria. Bring her here, and I’ll give you some answers.”
My jaw almost dropped.
The fucking nerve of this old man.
But Rafe only rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then decided to say the most unhinged fucking thing imaginable.
“Alright, deal. But if you don’t speak up, she’ll squeeze you like a pimple. And I already know no one will come looking for you.”
“You asshole, I am not squeezing anyone like a pimple!” Skye hissed.
“It’s a joke, darling, try to keep up.” Rafe said breezily.
Zephyr looked like he was the one going to squeeze someone like a pimple. That someone being Rafe.
We’d come back to the apartment to fetch Skye and Aiden, who were both still in bed at three o’clock in the afternoon and pissed to be woken up. Aiden was particularly pouty, which told me we’d probably interrupted some X-rated activity.
Rafe stumbled into the wall as Skye pushed him with her affinity, but he only beamed at her in response.
Skye was a little dangerous to be riling up, but that was his problem, not mine.
She crossed her arms, then looked at me, her silver eyes flicking over me assessingly before looking away.
My heart pounded slightly at just that little glance of awareness.
Rafe rubbed at his shoulder, and Aiden’s gaze zeroed in on it immediately.
“What happened? Did the old man fight you?” he asked.
Skye froze, slowly turning to face Rafe.
Rafe laughed easily, like nothing was wrong, but Skye was already narrowing her eyes at him.
“No, no. Wyatt and I just messed around a bit is all.”
Skye turned a glare toward me, and Rafe had the sense to look apologetic.
“Darling,” Rafe turned on his purr, slipping between me and Skye to grab her attention. Thankfully, it worked. “It’s nothing to worry about. Trust me, I wouldn’t lie to you, not even to protect Wyatt.”
Ouch, what the fuck? Rafe was being a dick, but it worked.
Zephyr laughed, because my pain was funny to him, and Skye shook her head. “Let’s go see him, then.”