Page 54 of Darkness Echoes (Echoes of Eternity #1)

“I bring the best of news, sir,” Withers says. “My contact in the Guild says a new Apprentice registered yesterday. My instincts were correct—there is a new magic user in Jay Rhodes’s pack.”

Carnell sets his teacup down with a sharp clatter, and at the sound of Jay’s name, he jostles the saucer.

“Go on—and I won’t remind you again—that is my son’s pack.”

“My apologies, sir.” Withers bows, but from Grayson’s hiding spot, he sees the way the man rolls his eyes.

“Your son has brought a brand-new magic user to Clearwater.”

“A child?” Carnell’s tone is skeptical. “Or the man you saw last week? He was incredibly powerful, no? But two magic users in his employ seems unlikely.”

Grayson frowns. Why would Withers think there were two magic users? He’d only seen Grayson at the safe house. It makes no sense.

“There has to be two, sir. Magic users are under the age of thirteen, and the one I saw was definitely all man.”

The teacup smashes against the patio.

Carnell stares at his minion. “A man and a child? Are you certain? What was his name? His guardian’s?”

“My contact couldn’t tell me anything. The Guild magically protects that information.” Withers shrugs.

“Ah, yes.” Carnell chuckles darkly. “The Guild protects its Apprentices’ personal information better than their Adepts.”

Grayson stiffens. Withers has an insider within the Guild feeding him information. That cannot be good.

Straightening, Withers’s tense expression flickers with distaste before he pastes a dark smile on his thin lips.

“You are correct, sir. Apprentices’ information remains private until they are licensed and of age.”

“Inconvenient.” Carnell sits in contemplation for a moment, nibbling on his scone, leaving Withers shifting subtly from foot to foot.

“Describe the magic user from your previous altercation.”

“Certainly. The man I saw accessing The Plain was lean, had longish dark hair, and was very beautiful,” he says lewdly, adjusting the front of his pants in apparent remembrance.

Ew.

“Yes, you said that before. Was there an address listed for this Apprentice here or in Nashville?”

Withers moves to deny access to that private information, but Carnell waves a hand dismissively.

“Why do I even bother asking?” He sighs. “And the other matter?”

“In the wind. But the magic is still in place—that’s all I can tell you. I’ve put a compulsion on the bond, but if I push too hard, I could accidentally terminate it. Then the entire arrangement becomes moot.”

“You mean, I’ll be a sitting duck.”

“I would never say it in those words, sir.”

“You would be the only one of you to hold yourselves back to date.” Carnell exhales sharply, brushing nonexistent crumbs from his lap.

“You say Apprentices cannot practice without a mentor or guardian. So we have two magic users in my son’s employ? Why, I wonder? Where have they gone? They were at the club, the hospital, and the Archive. Now they’ve disappeared again. What is that bastard up to?”

Withers huffs in barely concealed amusement at the implication that, while it’s technically Gideon’s pack—in Carnell’s mind, it is Jay who is thwarting him.

Carnell knew they’d been all over Clearwater and Tampa yesterday. He doesn’t realize the new magic user is Grayson. Or that he isn’t a trained Adept.

But more importantly, what does Carnell know about Jay’s parents’ murder? What about Nimue?

A frisson of fear skates down Grayson’s spine.

“Sir, we mustn’t forget the Adept was very strong. No doubt he’s hiding them. Our attempts to draw Rhodes out—”

“ Stop. Saying. His. Name, ” Carnell growls at the human and slams his fist on the top of the glass table. It’s followed by a crack as the glass shatters and the tea service crashes through the frame to the patio stones below.

The hair on the back of Grayson’s neck stands up as Withers subtly draws on The Plain, anticipating an attack. Where Nimue’s connection had appeared orange and alive, Withers’s is an oily brownish-black, carrying that same rancid odor of decay on the humid breeze.

How Carnell hadn’t gagged on his raisin scone is beyond him.

“My apologies, sir.” Withers bows again but doesn’t let his magic go. “Perhaps we could play our last cards?”

Carnell smiles, his brand of polluted slime oozing from every pore enough to make Grayson flinch in disgust. Standing, he stretches his arms over his head, the picture of nonchalance easily replacing his earlier fit of psychotic temper.

“Indeed. Let’s apply some pressure on both ends, then. Can you locate this Adept?”

“For sure. His signature was bold—beautiful even. It’ll be easy any time he uses it.”

There’s a hard pull in his chest—his bond with Nix reacting to the words—and Grayson has all of ten seconds to realize that Withers is talking about tracking him through his access to The Plain.

Grayson lets the magic he’s been unwittingly pulling for defense stutter as he takes a defensive step back in the flower bed, and falls.

Instead of hitting the cool earth, it’s as if he’s falling backward through his mind, yanked along invisible threads, following his bonds until—

He slams back into his body with a violent jerk.

When his eyes snap open, it’s to see his pack surrounding him in the nest, Nix’s face wet with tears.

“He’s back. Thank you, Nimue. Yes…I’ll have him call you later. Bye.” Finn sounds strained as he hangs up the phone, before promptly punching Grayson in the arm.

“What the fuck, Finn?”

The punch is immediately followed by Finn flopping backward into the nest like his strings have been cut.

With a small cry, Nix throws himself into Grayson’s arms.

“Gray. Fuck, pretty. Are you alright?” Gideon runs a cool hand through Grayson’s hair as if reassuring himself that Grayson is real and solid.

“Where were you, Gray?” Rowan asks, his face pale.

“I wasn’t here?”

His question is met with a flurry of shaking heads.

“You were…sort of. Let me start from the beginning, yeah?” Jay offers with a small smile, pulling a pale Leo into his arms.

“I’m okay, Leo. Honestly.”

“Yeah, well, don’t do that again.”

He huffs. “I didn’t do it now.” Not on purpose, anyway.

“Yeah, well. Nix woke up suddenly like he’d had a bad dream.

” Jay nods at their omega, who has his hands tucked under Grayson’s shirt.

He presses closer, their babies resting against Grayson’s belly, his snotty nose buried in Grayson’s scent gland.

The burnt vanilla scent making Grayson’s nose tingle.

“I think I have them when you have them, Gray.”

“I’m sorry. I think when I sleep, I can’t control the flow…They’re not all scary, though?”

Nix shudders. “Yeah, well, this was definitely scary. Carnell was in a tiny swimsuit.”

Yeah, that was terrifying. No lie.

Grayson doesn’t like the idea that Nix was there with him, and Grayson hadn’t even known. He needs to understand how this works, so he can make sure that if he ever runs into Withers again, Nix isn’t collateral damage.

There’s a chorus of ew ’s, but Jay continues. “Nix had a bad dream, and then he woke me up because you were here…and also not here.”

Grayson is dumbfounded. How can he be here and not here?

“What he means is that you were incorporeal,” Finn says, sitting back up, a bit more color in his face.

“Incorporeal? Like a ghost?”

“Like a freaking ghost, Gray. It was scary,” Luca whispers. “What did it feel like when you were all Casper-like?”

That’s a really good question. He hadn’t done anything on purpose or with planning.

Grayson yearns for the day when he can, because seeing the scared looks on his family’s faces is not on his list of fun things.

It hadn’t felt any different from when he was anywhere, all the time, until he’d put his hand through that hedge.

“We couldn’t get your attention when you phased out. We couldn’t feel you at all.”

Finn punches him in the arm again.

“Ow, why are you hitting me? You’re a fucking doctor, you’re supposed to heal me!”

“I have to be able to touch you first, asshole. I could see you, and I couldn’t do a damn thing to help. It scared me, Grayson—so bad.”

Doctors can only heal what they can see and touch. “Oh. I wasn’t doing it on purpose, you know…”

“Yeah, well, in the end only Nimue could help, although I’m not sure it wasn’t a coincidence. Did you feel Nix pulling on the bond?”

“I think so. I was…” He hesitates because it sounds fantastical, but what hasn’t been lately?

“Take your time,” Leo nudges his leg gently with his toe.

“I was asleep, then I was…I thought I was dreaming. But I was outside this big house…more of a weird castle really… pool is custom… gorgeous stone…”

“Are you selling us this place or what?” Rowan interrupts.

“Sorry.” Grayson smiles and closes his eyes to better remember. “Nix was right, Carnell was there, drinking tea and eating a fucking scone. Swimming laps.” Nix shudders in his arms at his shared memory of Carnell in his swimsuit.

He lets the memory of the hot sun and the feel of the cool earth under his feet bring more of the details back.

“Then he called out to this skinny guy. Aleksander Withers, he called him. He looked like a walking corpse and smelled about the same. I’d seen him before, though.

” Opening his eyes, his gaze locks with Gideon’s, whose jaw is clenched harder than ever.

“They couldn’t see you, though?” Nix asks.

“No, I was standing behind them in the bushes, but I think, like you said, I wasn’t there either. Then Withers said that their contact at the Guild had told him our pack had registered a new magic Apprentice with the Guild.”

Jay growls at the thought of a mole inside the institution that is supposed to govern vulnerable young magic users.

“They couldn’t get any information on me, though, because of the magical protections in place. But they think that means there are two of us. Carnell thinks a second magic user is working for our pack.”