Page 2 of Sea of Love

“Here, Brother,” Michael said, setting down the urn.

Troy stretched out his free hand, summoning the water inside with a flick of power. The stream formed an undulating mass over the bomb, and rained down in thin streams. It filled the satchel and immersed the device. When he removed his hand, the water froze around the bomb, containing it in a block of ice.

Troy glanced at Michael, who nodded. “We’re good now, love. Let it go.”

Another burst of green light swept through the chamber as the enchantment ended. Time snapped back into motion. Bowers shouted something in Latin, and Shelton shoved Elettra behind his massive body.

“What is a bomb?” the Fae woman asked as she peeked around the Templar. “Is it something bad?”

“Damn me,” Bowers said and strode over to stare down at the device. “Did you defuse it?”

“No,” Summer said.

Although the counter numbers glowed red through the ice, they remained stopped at two seconds. She stood up to cast the transport spell, but saw Kord Westbrook and Allan Banning rush in.

“Someone planted a bomb in our gear,” she told the head of the Magus Corps’s ruling council. To the captain, she said, “Troy has frozen it, but I don’t know how long it will keep it from blowing up. Will your anti-violence wards deactivate it?”

“Yes,” Allan said, his young face suddenly matching his old, shrewd eyes. “But not as long as it remains in this chamber.” He came over and carefully retrieved the satchel, his expression stunned as he looked in at the frozen device. “Gods. There is enough C-4 here to have incinerated the building, and they knew just where to put it.” He regarded Summer. “You have saved us all, my lady.”

“Captain,” Westbrook said, his voice tight. “Take it to the safe room, and have our seer examine it.” As Allan left with it, Westbrook turned to Summer. “Ms. Lautner, I will not rest until I discover who is responsible for this act of madness. I promise you.” He eyed the Templars. “And I know where to start.”

“We brought nothing to this place,” Bowers countered. “There were witnesses. Nor were we ever left alone.” He met Westbrook’s glare with one of his own. “This was none of our doing.”

Which meant a Wiccan had to be responsible, Summer thought, and concealed a shudder. “I think it’s best we go now, Council Member.”

“If there are any other acts of sabotage,” he said, his face grim, “use the spell-joined mirror if you can.”

She nodded as Elettra joined them. “You have a traitor among you,” she said to Westbrook. “It will likely be the one you least suspect, so start with those you think too simple, or too good. Or you may wish to kill everyone, just to be sure.” She leaned close to whisper. “That is what my king did.”

“Thank you, madam,” Westbrook said through white lips and left the chamber.

“I do not think he will take my advice,” Elettra said, frowning. “Perhaps we should go now.”

Summer saw the men had finished searching the satchels. “Yes, I think we should. Everyone, in the circle please, and join hands.”

Michael and Troy flanked her, and laced their fingers through hers. Elettra stepped between the two Templars, and smiled up at Shelton as he took her hand.

“God protect us,” Bowers muttered as he completed the circle.

Summer closed her eyes, and once more summoned the power of the Emerald Tablet.

“From this our time we journey away, take this circle of travelers to Pompeii, the day seventeenth, the month August, the year seventy-nine A.D. So may it be.”

• • • • •

Troy watched the spell chamber blur as the power of the Emerald Tablet poured into him from Summer. It filled him with verdant light before it streamed out of him and into the Templars, the Fae woman, and his sentinel brother.

A crackling sound made him glance up to see a large, murky portal forming over them. Something spun in the very center of the dark aperture, but he couldn’t make out what it was at first. As the Tablet’s power surge closed the circle by funneling back into Summer, an idyllic countryside scene appeared in the portal. Beyond it sprawled an archaic city built in the shadow of a towering mountain with its lower slopes reaching all the way to the sea.

Pompeii.

He felt his lover grip his hand tightly, and braced himself. The six of them lifted slowly into the air, hovered for a moment, and then were dragged into the portal. Troy expected to feel some sense of being hurtled through time, but a heartbeat later he found himself standing in a field of lush, tall grass.

“That was a piece of cake,” he said.

Sweltering heat engulfed him, as did the smell of rich soil. The air was so clean it made him a little dizzy. Beside him Summer staggered a little, and he quickly released her hand to put his arm around her waist.

“Still with us, love?”