Baladar, who must have followed me in, did the same. The mixed hues of purple and deep blue of my magic lashed out and saturated the dark mass, covering it like a magical cocoon. I stumbled as the room shook, a roaring filling my ears until I could hear nothing else. Somehow I stayed on my feet, funneling more of my magic at the thing. The roar then turned to a shrill whine. I was about to cover my ears when all noise abruptly cut off. There was an eerie silence for two heartbeats … then the ball exploded.
Kade was blown backwards, and using every ounce of my shifter abilities — howls rocked my chest as my wolf rose up, ready to save her mate — I sprinted and dived forward just in time to break his fall with my body. He slammed into me with such force that it knocked the wind out of me.
He was off me in a moment, and I reached across his chest to take his face in my hands. “Are you okay?” I asked him frantically, searching for any injuries.
A shadow moved across those stunning eyes, and for a moment the color wavered from its normal bronze to something more like a murky brown. By the time I blinked again it was gone, and the swirling copper tones were back.
“I’m fine, Ari,” he said, almost breathless. That dark mass had exploded with such huge force, he’d been launched across the room. My aching ribs could attest to that.
Needing more confirmation, I latched onto the mate bond again, pressing into Kade’s energy. The block between us had eased, but he wasn’t completely open either. From the flickers of information I was getting, he did seem to be okay. I couldn’t sense any major injury or pain, so … I’d accept what he said. For now.
Baladar knelt down and ran a hand up Kade’s arm, but before he got further than the bear’s shoulder, Kade pushed him away. “I’m fine. I promise.” He dismissed us by turning to Nikoli.
“Did you get a location on the stone?”
I exchanged a quick glance with Baladar. The ancient magic born wore a blank expression. Something told me he had as many thoughts and worries going on as I did.
Nikoli, whose face was pale and strained, nodded. “The other crystal is in Boston, but so is the Dark Fae Lord. He’s one step ahead of us.”
Shit.
None of us wasted another second. We grabbed whatever stuff we thought we would need for a few days and we piled into a black Suburban.
“We’ll keep an eye on everything here,” Baladar said to me through the car window. There had been an argument about who was staying behind. No one wanted that job, but it was almost as important to keep an eye on the royal estate. Calista and Baladar eventually took the role.
As hard as it was to leave the powerful magic born behind, I needed him to protect Calista and my city. Normally, it was a three to four hour drive to Boston. The speed we were planning on going, it would likely be much faster. But still, I wouldn’t get back quickly if anything happened.
“Hopefully we’ll return home by tomorrow at the latest,” I said to my advisor, who had a worried look in her eyes. She leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek, stepping back so that Kade could back the car out of the huge underground garage.
Jen, Monica, and Victor waved from where they stood with Baladar. It had been hard to convince them to stay behind too, but with this being a magical matter, facing a dark fae and all, I thought it best to keep our group small, limited to those who could harness the mecca. Even though mecca magic didn’t work directly on the dark fae, there were other things they could do to help me. They could also defend themselves against any others who might be waiting to attack.
I refused to lose any more of my dominants. Not today. I would just have to hope that between Kade, Violet, Nikoli, Rowan, Finn, Nix, and me we had enough firepower.
Thankfully, we beat the traffic and made great time. Conversation was stilted, most of us lost in our own thoughts. Finn snoozed in the back; Nix was travelling in the air since a giant eagle was one too many in the SUV.
When we were about ten minutes outside of Boston on the I-93, Kade met Nikoli’s eyes in the rearview. “Where to now?” he asked.
Kade had been quiet and closed off the entire drive, even more so than the rest of us. Which I chalked up to lack of sleep and stress. The bond between us was open … kinda. I could feel him there, and everything seemed okay. Sleep and stress, it had to be that.
Nikoli leaned forward. “In the town of Somerville there’s a park called Baxter Riverfront Park. It’s right on the Mystic River. The crystal is in the water there.”
An apt name for a river hiding a magical crystal.
I turned to see him better. “So it’s actually in the water?” I remembered the wolf council telling me that the original queen found our mecca stone in the water too.
He nodded. “Apparently everyone knows better than to swim in this river. It has claimed multiple lives, and the water is said to be tainted.”
Sounded about right. And it looked like one of us was going to have to go swimming in broad daylight in front of a bunch of humans to retrieve this thing. And if it was anything like the crystal in the book, it was going to be evil and try to corrupt us all.
Violet had been in the back, squished next to Finn for the entire drive, working on some type of protective magical case for it, but we had to get it out of the water first.
“You think it’s possible the fae lord already has it?” I pondered aloud.
Kade was the one to answer. “No. He has a general idea of the area, but is waiting for us to show up for its exact location.”
I gave my mate a side glance. He had sounded so sure when he said that, like he … knew. But how could he possibly know that? His instincts were sharp, of course, but this felt like more than instinct.
“I hope you’re wrong about part of that at least,” I finally said, trying to swallow my unease. I didn’t address the fact that Kade was not acting like himself, because I was afraid deep down to acknowledge that this might be fallout from filtering the dark energy.
Kade nodded. “I hope he’s not there too. It would be nice to get in and out without drama.”
He reached forward and plugged the Baxter Riverfront Park into the GPS. As we drove through the city, passing families and young children, a thought came to me.
I spun around and faced Rowan just as Kade was pulling the large SUV into a parking spot at the park. “When we do our training, you create a dome so the humans can’t see. Is there any chance you can make one big enough to hide us today?”
Rowan smiled. “No problem.”
I exhaled the breath I had been holding. If the Dark Fae Lord showed up and there was a fight in broad daylight, in public, it could turn into a magical bloodbath. I needed to hide us, and protect the humans. We couldn’t be worrying about that when we were fighting for our lives.
Luckily, the park and the bridge that looked over the Mystic River were pretty deserted, and as soon as I opened the door I knew why. It was freezing outside. Fall had descended on the east coast, and mercifully made this park uninhabited for our excursion, deserted except for an old man fishing on a bench. A quick scan told me that no stag-horned dark fae was milling about, but the knot in my stomach didn’t ease. As we all huddled together, Kade wrapped an arm around me; his warmth was like plunging into a bath.
Thanks, mate. I used our bond.