I was the queen of the mecca.
I need a portal. I spoke directly to the stone in the Manhattan royal estate. Power flowed into me, swift and fast, and I buckled for a beat but recovered just as quickly. My capability to contain and direct the power was growing.
I opened my eyes to see a four-inch, square portal appear between my fingers, the mecca room visible within it. I pulled my hands open wider, pushing more mecca through, until the portal widened. It was hard to hold. If my thoughts strayed at all, it shimmered and wavered. All of Calista’s hours of forced meditation and mantras were paying off right now. Once I’d finally gotten it big enough to let a grown man through, I kept my voice calm and low.
“Go through,” I stated, unsure how much longer I could hold it.
Kade turned to Kian and they embraced quickly. “Thank you, brother,” Kian said. His voice was hoarse, but he was already looking stronger.
“Stay safe,” Kade said, before he turned and walked into my portal.
You better be right behind me.
His voice in my head made me smile. Once Kade was inside, I lifted the portal above my head, bringing it down over my body. There was a feeling of constriction and pressure, then a rush of warm winds, and I was inside the room. Spinning around, I lifted my arms back above my head, still holding the whirling square. Shelley and Kian were waving, smiles on their faces. With a weak smile, I nodded to them, then there was a crashing noise behind me and the portal blinked out.
The fight had already begun.
Chapter Fifteen
You can’t choose your parents. But you can choose where you stash them.
The figure which had popped into the room, crashing into Kade—the noise I’d heard—was almost blasted by my power. I only managed to halt my attack at the last second.
“Violet!” I whisper shouted. “What are you doing in here? I almost killed you.”
She shook her head. “Not a chance. You weren’t even close.”
I narrowed my eyes on her and she just lifted one brow in my direction, letting out a huff. “Okay, so I might have kind of … putalittletrackingspellonyou,” she said in one huge rush, slowing as she tried to reassure me. “Just an alert so I could find you at all times, no matter where you were. I sensed you the moment you stepped into Manhattan, and I followed your energy here.”
I blinked at her a few times. “You and I need to have a serious talk about boundaries.”
She shrugged. “You’re probably right. I seem to have developed some codependency issues, but we should save that psych eval for another time.”
If she was spelling me so she could have a direct line to me at all times, then codependency issues might be a small understatement. But, honestly, whatever my best friend needed to do at this point to be okay was fine with me. I could put up with it, no matter what.
“Just stay out of our bedroom,” Kade said with a grin, “and there won’t be a problem.”
She just winked at him, but didn’t give an affirmative to that.
I stepped closer, the flickering light of the mecca stone casting shadows across Violet’s features. “Are you here alone? Do you have any intel which could help us?”
“I came alone, but the others will follow — now that they know you’re back. We’ve been waiting for you both to return before we attack. Baladar and Calista will bring the shifters here. They’ve had a few hundred stationed in Baladar’s loft.” She looked over her shoulder toward the hall that led from the room, turning back to me. “We’re hoping with your help we can take out his weapon. It’s really hindering our ability to best him. You need to know that everyone in this building is compromised. Even if they were loyal to you before, Luca has some sort of power that can manipulate their minds. Change loyalties. Brainwash.”
“We heard,” I muttered. Why did the bad guys always get the best toys?
Violet eyed me. “Well, I mean, you have a weapon too, right? Something to counteract him? The dark staff?”
She looked me up and down, turning to Kade. “Right?”
I shook my head. “We don’t have anything like that—”
Kade interrupted me before I could finish. “We have a very powerful weapon actually.”
Violet’s eyes got very wide, and she was bouncing on her feet with both hands out in the typical gimme-gimme pose. Kade reached over and pushed me gently into my friend’s arms.
“Arianna is the weapon,” he said.
Violet let out a low whoop, her eyes practically dancing. “I knew it, I knew it from the first day I saw you. You had so much mecca hanging around you. I kept waiting for you to do something with it, but you never did, so I assumed you just had a powerful aura…” She stepped back and looked at me with a specific sort of concentration and her mouth fell into a perfect oval shape. “I … I didn’t notice because of the energy from the mecca stone but … you’ve changed. You kinda look the same as the stone now, strength-wise.”
I wasn’t surprised by this, I could still feel their pull, the stones’ magic flowing through me, from the Otherworld and Earth. There was no way Luca could best me. I would not let him.
Arianna…
A whisper filled the room, strong and commanding, and completely unmistakable. The Red Queen. I spun around, facing the stone. Kade and Violet moved to stand on either side of me, and there was no doubting — from the look on their faces — that they had heard it too.
“I’m here!” I pushed my words across the mecca with ease. I couldn’t believe how simple it was to use the power now. All those months of training, all the times the easiest of tasks felt impossible … now that I had broken through my mental block — the block that told me there was a limit to the level of energy I could control — everything was different.
There was silence for a beat, and then, Daughter, I need your help. Please do not leave me here for eternity. I crave an end. Living forever isn’t as I thought it would be.
The stone pulsed with the words, purple light flashing like a disco ball around the secret room. I couldn’t see the Red Queen, but her presence was strong.
“She sounds so weak,” Violet whispered to me.
My heart pinched; Violet was right. And the Red Queen was anything but weak. I hadn’t forgotten my promise to free her, but it had been pushed into my “deal with later pile.” But now that I had accepted my role as a literal queen of mecca, it should be an easy task. Right?
Focusing my inner sight, I sifted through the mecca energies, through all the lines of power, until I felt her presence, the line that tied her soul to the stone, preventing the final release. I pulled, trying to extract her from the grasp of mecca, but she slipped through my grasp like water in a sieve.
I felt her despair. I was hoping your powers would override the spell Sabina did. Unfortunately, it looks as if there is only one out clause for me. One life for another. I cannot leave unless I am replaced.