Stone Cold Seduction

Chapter Ten

By the time we arrived at the airport, I’d managed to get my fear under some semblance of control.

Barely.

It made sense that Luke was a hunter. But it was my worst nightmare come true.

Again.

Jax and Teryl constantly scanned our surroundings, and I let them. I had to get on the plane. One step at a time. If we could just get on the plane…I’d feel safe for a few hours.

Airport security was doing a thorough search of each passenger, and the lines didn’t seem to be moving. Teryl was writing on a piece of paper, and Jax looked more dangerous with every passing moment. I could hear planes taking off and landing. The noise in the airport was at a tolerable level. Throngs of people stood in lines or rushed to their destinations. Suitcases, purses, and briefcases were jostled around as passengers came and went.

My irritation was growing by the minute. I felt antsy, angry, and overwhelmed. I wanted out of here. I watched the airport employee methodically searching everyone, and the urge to scream grew stronger.

“He really needs to hurry,” I muttered.

To my complete amazement, he did.

Teryl whistled quietly, his eyes wide with shock. “What did you say?”

“I…I just said he needed to hurry.”

The man was moving twice as fast, and he was starting to attract attention.

“Tell the people around us to ignore him,” Jax whispered.

“What?”

“Just do it,” he growled in my ear.

I zeroed in on the people around us and whispered, “Ignore him.”

Teryl cursed when they all, miraculously, did. I looked around in growing horror as everyone shifted their attention to something or someone else. The airport employee continued to move at a remarkable speed.

We were through in five minutes. My legs were heavy as we walked to our gate. Teryl was stressed and alternated between scribbling notes on his paper and pacing. Jax looked angry. I didn’t know what to say.

Hey guys, I just manipulated a whole bunch of people effortlessly. What do you think of that? Is this what you mean by scary magic? Because you’re right.

Silence seemed like a great idea. I was actually afraid to open my mouth. What if I said the wrong thing and made people get hurt? This had big, freaking disaster written all over it.

When we boarded, Teryl took the window, and Jax seated me between them. I still didn’t say a word. Teryl grabbed a book from his carry-on bag and placed it on my lap. It was dark blue, slim, and worn around the edges. The title on the binding said History. That was it. No author was listed, and there was nothing on the front or back. Just History.

I raised my eyebrow at Teryl, but he was looking out the window. I opened the book. It was handwritten in a sweeping, cursive script.

A brief accounting of the lines of the otherworld. As told by the Oracles, as decreed by the gods.

The gods? Great. Like I needed the reminder of my potential unknown bloodline. Frowning, I flipped to the next page.

The oldest lines begin with the shadow and light elves. Light elves were created for the sun, and shadow elves for the moon. Shadow and light elves are blessed to watch over the continual flow of life, from dusk to dawn and back again. Light elves monitor the sun and sky, and ensure fertility of crops and creatures. Shadow elves monitor the moon and shadows, and the cycle of death.

Death? I nudged Teryl, and pointed to the sentence. He read over my shoulder, and gave me a strained smile.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds.” He spoke in a low voice, casting a furtive glance around at the other passengers. “I know it’s kind of hard to understand, but to give you a basic run down, originally, the light and shadow directed the cycle of life. The light would direct the birth and growth of everything from flowers to humans, and the shadow would control the ending. Things like the harvesting of the crops, or death. Here.” He took the book and flipped ahead, then handed it back and tapped on the page. “Start here. Most of this is seriously outdated because of the weak lines, and it doesn’t apply to modern day. It was started hundreds of years ago, and the last entry was about fifty years ago. It’s been passed down from oracle to oracle. But this will give you a better idea.”

I suppressed a small shiver. I didn’t want anything to do with death, if that’s what a shadow elf had to do. I could hardly handle life right now.

The page Teryl had turned to contained small, neatly written entries, and they were slightly easier to understand.

The lines continue to change. The blessed have become cursed. The cursed have become blessed. Shadow elves transform into the shadows. Strong family lines exhibit some forms of mind control. Light elves now influence fire and light. Seers are dying. Oracles are exhibiting more power, and fate readers are abundant.

Some forms of mind control? Dozens of people had obeyed my command, like puppets. If my father could do anything like that, no wonder he was able to get away with murder and who knew what else. No one should have that kind of control.

The handwriting changed with a new entry.

The strongest fate readers die young. Their minds cannot withstand the strain. None have lived beyond the age of twenty and five. The phoenix is created from the light elf line. Cursed to rise from the ashes, again and again. A family line was shamed, and it is their punishment. The gods are angry, for they have cursed some of their children to live as gargoyles. The gargoyles serve the shadow elves. Fierce creatures, armored in stone, they instill fear.

The gargoyles used to be gods? Phoenix began as cursed light elves. Gargoyles were cursed children of the gods. This was information overload.

“Teryl?” I leaned close. “Where does it talk about the demigods?”

He tapped the page again. “The children of the gods are demigods. Lesser gods. I wasn’t able to do much research last night, but the more I think about it, the more I suspect your mom was a demigod.”

My mom hadn’t been a gargoyle, I was certain. I frowned. “So they didn’t curse all of their children?” When he shook his head no, I stared at the book in my hands. “Were the demigods allowed to marry…ah…mate with any of the lines?”

“No, not that I know of. At least, I’ve never come across an instance of it in any of the history books I’ve read.” He grew quiet and stared out the window, lost in thought. Teryl had a habit of doing that when he was working on a problem. It always amazed me that he could go from pacing a room to still and pensive.

I went back to reading.

The lines are beginning to cross and the children are flawed. Fates are shortened and grim. The oracles did not foresee the deaths the children would cause. The number of seers dwindles. Each of the lines suffers. The shadow and light elves have asked the Council for guidance. The gods are quiet.

I stopped reading to watch the flight attendant run through the safety procedures. My mind wandered as she demonstrated the oxygen mask. Where were the gods? Was this all their doing? I’d never really thought much about a higher power. Any prayers I’d offered up had gone unanswered. Every single one of them. If there were gods, why weren’t they punishing my father?

The plane started down the runway, and I felt Jax stiffen beside me. His fingers were curled around the armrests and his knuckles were white. It distracted me for a moment.

“Jax? Everything okay?”

He didn’t look at me. “Fine,” he muttered, in a deeper than normal voice.

It was hard to believe him when his jaw was clenched and I could see the fine sheen of sweat on his brow. “Are you sick?”

“No.”

Then what…? Oh, boy. Understanding dawned in an instant. I didn’t want to say too much, but dared to whisper, “Are you afraid of flying?”

He pressed his lips together and didn’t say a word.

A grin spread across my face. I couldn’t help it. “Do you realize how ironic it is, that you’re afraid of flying?” I shouldn’t poke fun, but really, it was funny. He could turn into stone, or spread his wings and fly when he wanted to, but he was scared of flying in an airplane?

Besides, I’d take all of the humor I could get.

The plane picked up speed and we began our ascent. Jax closed his eyes and his breathing became more shallow. “Yes, the irony is not wasted on me.”

He looked miserable. I sighed in sympathy, closed the book, and grabbed his hand. He squeezed tight, and I rubbed my thumb along the back of his hand. “Do you remember the first day you showed up at my shop?”

He popped one silver eye open and glared at me. “Why?”

“I’d been having a horrible day. One of my suppliers had screwed up a shipment of carrier oils. Not only was one broken and leaking through the box, but they’d sent me the wrong ones. I had just hung up after an hour on the phone, I was covered in oil, and then in walks this gorgeous, sexy man, and he says he wants to apply for the job.” I rubbed his arm with my other hand. “I thought the universe was playing a cruel trick.”

His face was pale, but I saw the ghost of a smile touch his lips. “You hired me on the spot.”

“Right, like I’m going to turn down a hard-working hunk of eye candy,” I teased. Well, I was sort of teasing.

That earned me a full smile. “Eye candy?”

“Absolutely. In fact, when I saw your jeans…”

Teryl groaned. “Honestly? Could you save this conversation for another time and place? You’re going to damage my psyche.”

I ignored Teryl and asked Jax, “What made you answer the ad? A burning desire to smell soaps all day? You love the idea of packing and shipping boxes? If you tell me you were desperate for work, I won’t believe you.” His apartment was far too nice for what I paid him.

Jax turned his head to look straight at me. “It was because of you.”

“Ah, because I’m a mega-talented scent creator, and you secretly wanted to test all of my creations.”

He brought a hand up and cupped my cheek. “I came because of you. I always will.”

I could have cheerfully flung the book of History out of the plane. I could have ignored my father and the hunters and my fate, and pretended like the rest of the world didn’t exist. I could even ignore the gagging noises Teryl was making, although I wanted to break my no-violence rule and bean him in the head with his own book.

When Jax watched me with those silver eyes and that serious expression and that sculpted jaw…

In that moment, I fell in love with Jax. And there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.

The pilot announced we were free to move about the cabin, and Jax slowly shifted in his seat, releasing the grip he had on the arm rests. He must have realized we had successfully made it into the air, because he exhaled and leaned his head back against the seat. “Thank you, my gem.”

“You’re welcome,” I said. I was pretty sure I should be thanking him for what he was doing for me. And for what he was coming to mean to me. Wrong time, wrong place. I could wait.

“Well, I hate to interrupt this Kodak moment, but…” Teryl let his sentence hang in the air until I gave him my full attention.

“Remind me why you’re my best friend again?”

He flashed his signature disarming grin. “Because you love me. You can’t help it. And I’ve been thinking about something important. Besides you and Romeo.”

I sighed. He was right. But sometimes, he was so damn irritating. “I hope you had an epiphany of some sort.”

“I suppose you could say that. You’ve probably figured this out already, but you’re going to need to be careful with what you say.”

My stomach twisted. “Yeah, I figured that one out. How do I opt out of my abilities?”

Teryl lowered his voice. “The bad news? You can’t. It doesn’t work like that. The good news? Not everyone is susceptible. It’s also about your intention behind the words. You really wanted the line to move faster, so you made it happen. But if you tell someone to get you a glass of water and you don’t really want one? It might not work.”

“We’ll have to leave that theory untested for now.”

“I think that’s best. Jax, what do you think?”

We both turned to Jax, who was watching me with an unreadable expression. “I think that we should assume Elle is going to exhibit a surprising array of magic between now and her birthday.”

“My birthday? What’s that got to do with anything?” I wanted to enjoy my birthday, damn it, not worry about what other weird, crazy things might crop up.

“You’ll be twenty-eight, correct?”

“Yes, why?”

“How old was your mom when you were born?”

“What does that have to do with anything? Instead of asking me questions when I clearly don’t have a clue, can you give me answers?” I clamped my mouth shut. I had to watch what I said. I wanted answers, but I didn’t want to force them out of anyone magically.

When Jax’s lips quirked, my anxiety eased. Despite my frustration, I was a sucker for his smile. He arched a brow, and I realized I hadn’t answered him.

“Oh, um, I think she was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight.” I narrowed my gaze at him. “What does that have to do with me?”

“If your mom was a demigod, that would explain why you didn’t get your powers when you were a child. The demigod genes are more confusing. Depending on who her parents were, it might help us understand why there was a delay in your magic. It might also be possible you’ll get your magic at the same age your mother was when you were born.”

Teryl snapped his fingers. “I knew it. I read a family text once. It was written by an oracle who was my great, great, great, great something or other. She was one of the rare oracles who had premonitions. She was half, well, mostly crazy. They usually are. But all she talked about were the gods and their children. About how they would ruin and sustain the lines. No one could make any sense of it, but they dutifully wrote it down, then stashed it away. I went through a phase where I wanted to read all of the family texts and came across it.”

“I bet you were the life of the party during that phase.”

Teryl ignored my sarcasm and went on. “I came across something really strange. She referenced the disgraced demigods and their children, and the end of the beginning of the war.”

Jax and I stared at him, unblinking.

He had the grace to look sheepish. “Right, I know. I told you, she was crazy. Most of what she said didn’t make sense.”

“Or maybe it does,” Jax said. “What if it’s a riddle? Another possibility is that her premonitions were unclear even to her, so she transcribed what she saw to the best of her ability.”

“I think she was plain crazy,” Teryl muttered as he tipped his seat back to get comfortable.

“That’s also a possibility. But consider it for a moment. If Elle’s mother was a demigod, why did she live her life as a mortal?”

Jax had a point.

“Would having a child make her a disgrace?” I asked. The thought was painful, but I refused to play the martyr. I swallowed my hurt. My mother had loved me, and I owed it to her to find the truth. About everything.

“I think that would depend on the father,” Teryl replied. “A shadow elf king is considered a highly favorable match for most lines, but for the gods? Probably not.”

“I agree,” Jax said, his voice low as the flight attendant rolled up with snacks. “I’ve never heard of the gods or demigods socializing with any of the lines. They keep to themselves.”

We all fell silent. Which was fine with me, because the more we talked, the more questions we came up with. It wasn’t getting us anywhere.

Jax closed his eyes and pretended to nap while Teryl took notes and stared out the window. We had a couple of hours before we landed in Las Vegas. I figured I might as well read and see if the book yielded any more clues.

By the time we touched down in Las Vegas, I’d learned oracles couldn’t spell and some of them tended to ramble. I’d learned how the lines’ magic had all altered, but not why. I’d learned a whole lot of nothing.

I fell in line between Jax and Teryl as we disembarked. The muscles in Jax’s shoulders were tense. I didn’t blame him. Our next flight left for London in two hours. I wished we could be on our way, because this airport was too big, with too many people.

“Stay close,” Jax said over his shoulder. Like I really needed the reminder.

We found our gate with little problem. Jax grabbed us a bite to eat.

I excused myself to the ladies room. I kept my head down as I washed my hands. Distracted by thoughts of my mother’s heritage, I barely noticed when a pair of well-manicured hands with blood red nail polish began using the sink next to me.

“Beautiful day for a cross-country trip, isn’t it?” a husky voice purred.

It took me a minute to realize she was talking to me. I looked up and saw a striking woman with medium length, straight black hair smiling at me. She was a few inches shorter than I am, with a slender build and dark, form fitting clothes. Her black eyes were unnerving, and her gaze never wavered from my face. Her smile, if you could call it that, was predatory.

Every instinct I had screamed for me to run.

I nodded and pasted a fake smile on my face. “Yes, it’s beautiful.” I walked past her and grabbed a paper towel, quickly drying my hands.

She followed.

“Where are you heading to?”

There was a note to her voice that put me on edge. I ignored her and walked out of the bathroom, making a beeline for Teryl. His eyes widened when he looked past my shoulder. I didn’t think that was a good sign.

“Teryl…”

I saw Jax walking up with our food. His eyes were glowing silver. I glanced around at all the people. Please, not here, I thought. The last thing we needed was a gargoyle running around a busy airport.

When Jax was only a few feet away, he revealed his teeth in a parody of a smile and greeted the woman I knew was behind me. “Hello, Maura.”