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JAMES
Garnet shoots her magic at the targets, and each one lights up with a different power. The pink stream is most like lightning, crackling and sparking. Red sets the target on fire, blue freezes it, and purple soaks it as if a hard rain just fell. Green causes vines to grow, covering the target. Yellow makes the target glow, and black disintegrates it. I’m sure she has more colors to go through, but one look at her proves that she’s pushing too hard.
“Garnet, love. You need to take a break. You’re going to collapse from exhaustion if you keep pushing like that. Please,” I beg her.
She barely glances my way before throwing more magic at the targets. If I can’t make her stop, maybe Trevan can. I hate leaving her alone, but she doesn’t even notice when I walk away.
It doesn’t take long to find our Fae host, although I’m not sure what business he’s taking care of by lounging on his throne and letting half-naked women feed him grapes, or whatever fruit here looks like grapes. I suspect that he just needed a break from his daughter’s steely glare. I can’t blame him for that, but hiding isn’t the answer.
They need to hash it out and express their feelings. But how do I convince this man that it was his idea? Because the one thing I’ve noticed about father and daughter is that they would rather get their own way than admit that someone else had a good idea. Garnet is not nearly as bad about that as her father, but it’s still there.
“Oh! Your Majesty, there you are. I’ve been searching for you,” I say with over-the-top enthusiasm. Since we’ve been here for a few days, I know it’s better to use his title in front of other Fae than to call him by his name. It’s also something Garnet refuses to do.
The Fae king jumps out of his chair, swatting the fruit wielding women away. “Has something happened to the princess?” Yeah, he refused to keep her identity a secret once we were inside the palace. And that’s probably why my girl won’t use his title.
“Not exactly, sir. She is making progress with her training.”
“That is excellent news. Did you really seek me out to tell me that?” He eyes me skeptically.
I shake my head. “No, sir. I came to ask your opinion about something.” I pause, then continue. “Now that she’s figured out how to produce different types of Fae magic, Garnet is set on mastering it as quickly as possible.”
“Oh. That is extremely dangerous. She should take a break, especially if she’s producing more than one type of magic. Most Fae can only harness one color. How many has she done?” I’ve piqued his interest and I’m relieved.
“So far, she’s been able to produce seven different colors. When I walked away, she was working on testing more. She won’t take a break.”
LUCA
After a few days of searching and debating what we’ve learned from spying on Amber’s people, we settle in for a family meeting with Grammy. Eli is kind enough to loan us some of his bug-sized drones to use for listening in on the enemy, but he keeps his family away from the forest. Apparently, learning that the witch they’d all trusted wants to use his wife’s blood to create a hybrid army is enough to rattle even the toughest vampires.
I don’t blame them. If Red was here, I would keep her locked up, too. There is no way I would let her lead searches for Amber. It’s too risky. Thinking back to when Amber and her people held me captive, I remember hearing them talk about stealing Red’s power. It seems to me that Amber needs Red’s abilities to get the hybrid creation to work.
And if that’s true, Amber will never stop coming for her. We have to find her and kill her. I don’t know how to do that, since it’s become obvious nothing that we’ve done so far has even come close to stopping her. I’m not sure that we can defeat her without Red.
“Luca!” Ryland barks my name, and I know that I’m in trouble. I’m not paying any attention to what they’re saying.
“Sorry. I missed that. What’s up?” His face tells me everything I need to know. He’s pissed that I wasn’t listening.
“If you’d been listening, you would know. Please pay attention. This meeting isn’t just for my benefit,” Ryland scolds me, and I hang my head. I hate disappointing my alpha.
“Yes, alpha,” I say, baring my neck in submission. I’m not usually so docile, but I’ve found that since Ryland took Gunnar’s place, I am submitting to him more and more. It doesn’t bother me, because I know that ultimately, I’m doing it for Red. And I would do anything for her. Just to be near her, to take care of her, to prove my love to her.
To do that, I need to pay attention to what my family is discussing so that I can find Red and bring her home. “As we were saying, things are not looking good for James. If we can’t find a way to stop the magic from reaching his heart, it’s going to be bad. How bad? We don’t know yet.” Ryland holds eye contact with me while he speaks, just to be sure I’m paying attention.
“What options do we have?” I ask, hoping they haven’t already discussed this.
“None that we can think of. We’ve tried everything that I know how to do, and a few things that were long shots. Without a witch to help, I don’t know what else we can do besides say goodbye,” Grammy says.
“We can’t give up. If we can find Red, then she can save him,” I insist.
Orym shakes his head. “But she didn’t know what to do either, Luca.”
GARNET
I feel weak, and I’m barely staying on my feet. But I will not give up. I will master all of these powers, so that I can defeat Amber. I have to. The lives of everyone I love are on the line. I don’t know when James walked away. Once I realize that he’s gone, it’s a little easier to push everything away and focus on shooting magic at the targets.
I’ve figured out how to use pink, red, blue, purple, green, yellow, and black. What else can I do? Closing my eyes, I reach into the magical well inside of me and shoot a beam at a target. When my eyes open, I see that the beam is brown and landed in front of the target, digging a hole. That’s interesting.
I try again and make a stream of orange magic that looks like acid and melts the target into goo. I’ll definitely have to try that one on Amber. If I can hit her with that, this might all be over before it gets too much worse.
