Page 13 of Magic Betrayed (The Shifter of Sheridan Avenue #2)

THIRTEEN

Before I even walked out of that room, I was puzzling on the best way to explain the situation to everyone else without also explaining Kes’s magic. Her magic was the key to understanding what we faced—and possibly the only piece of information that would make sense of all the facts—and yet, I still didn’t want to reveal that truth until absolutely necessary.

But in all my plotting and planning, I’d forgotten to account for one very important variable—the innocent babbling of an extroverted six-year-old.

When I walked back out, Ari was sitting at a table with a plate of sliced baguette, a banana, and a can of whipped cream. Maybe that was all the appropriate kid food they could find in a bar, but she was giggling as Kira sprayed whipped cream first on the banana, and then on Ari’s nose.

“Were you scared?” Kira asked her sympathetically, and my tiny sprite shook her head.

“No.” Her high-pitched voice was entirely matter-of-fact. “My room wasn’t scary. And the house was really big. But the man was grumpy, so I didn’t let him find me—like hide and seek!”

House. They were being kept in a house.

“Were they mean to you?” Kira was careful to keep her tone light, but I could hear the tension in her query.

Ari’s nose crinkled as it always did when she was thinking. “They were mean to Kes. And Logan wouldn’t wake up.”

Rage threatened to choke me. They were keeping Logan sedated, and I had no guarantees they were being safe about it.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Kira reached out and smoothed Ari’s flyaway curls, her own anger clearly under tight control. “And don’t worry, we’re going to find Kes and Logan and make sure they’re safe.”

“Kes doesn’t want to leave,” Ari announced. “She wants to help. But she can’t help.”

I was too far away to stop what was coming. Too late to prevent the damning words from spilling out…

“She gave us our magic, but she can’t take it away. And it hurts if she tries.”

Every eye in the room was suddenly fixed on Ari.

“How did she give you your magic?” Kira’s voice was quiet. Thoughtful. Possibly even dangerously so.

“Just did,” Ari reported with a shrug. “So she has to hide.” She nodded with all the sage wisdom of her half-dozen years. “So no one can find her and make her use her magic again.”

Every head in the room turned in unison, every eye landing on me like a physical blow, pressing into me, making it harder and harder to breathe. Kira and Callum. Rath, who must have come in while I was in the card room. Seamus, Niko, Oliver, and Emberly. Talia. And from beside me, Shane.

Their expressions were difficult to read, but they were far from happy.

Kira was the first to break the silence. “Raine, what does she mean?”

My lips were numb. My heart was racing. This was not how I’d wanted anyone to find out the truth.

“I told you Kes has unusual magic,” I said, my voice audibly shaking. “And I warned you our secrets were dangerous. Neither of those things has changed.”

Ari looked up from her plate. She glanced at several faces and seemed to realize something was wrong, because she abruptly teleported right into my arms—nearly knocking me over. I somehow kept my feet and held onto her as she buried her face in my shoulder.

“It’s okay, Bug,” I whispered, stroking her hair as I eyed the room, wondering whether I could get us out if I needed to.

My odds weren’t great. Not with an assassin, a professional mercenary, two dragon shifters, a fae prince, and a handful of others watching my every move.

But I took a step back anyway, pivoting to make sure Shane was in my line of sight. “I won’t let any of you hurt Ari,” I said fiercely. “And if you try to stop me, I won’t hold back. I will make you pay .”

“You won’t be alone.” I hadn’t even seen him move, but Rath was suddenly at my side, a glimmer of fae power shimmering at his fingertips.

Shane, too, took a step towards me, his hands held open in a gesture of peace. He then turned to stand at my shoulder, eyeing the rest of the room with an intense, golden glare. “I can protect Ari,” he offered coolly, “if you need your hands free.”

Against all expectations, they were defending me. But the pressure still seemed to grow, and the adrenaline hummed in my veins, insisting that I run.

“Raine.”

My panic paused for a moment. I knew it wasn’t magic. Couldn’t be. Shapeshifters had no magic in their voices. But the sound of my name in that deep voice acted on my racing heart like a warm blanket on a cold day—wrapped me up and held me, safe and secure.

Callum moved closer, each step slow and deliberate, his amber gaze holding mine. “No one here is going to hurt you, or Ari,” he said. “I promised I would keep you all safe, and I’m not going to take that back or change my mind, no matter who stands in my way.”

“You might,” I threw back at him. “You might if you knew the truth.”

“Won’t.”

He was right in front of me. And the look in his eyes, the expression on his face… The compassion I read there was so raw, so deep, that it physically hurt. Made me want to run for entirely different reasons.

“Why not?” I was desperate for him to explain, because I still didn’t understand. “You make no sense, Callum-ro-Deverin. None of this makes any sense.”

“It doesn’t have to make sense,” Kira said, in a noticeably different tone than her previous question. “It’s family. And I’m sorry that I sounded angry. So sorry if you thought I was accusing you of anything. I’m not angry at you, Raine. Never at you. Or at Kes.”

I tried to breathe. Tried to let go of the tension that curled through my chest and constricted my muscles. No one here was going to hurt me, or Ari. And if anyone tried, I was no longer powerless.

Ari whimpered softly and pressed closer, and I shifted her in my arms, not sure how long I could keep holding her. Uncertain of my ability to keep carrying the weight of her safety and her future.

“I’ve got you,” I soothed her quietly, but did I really? How could I make that promise when I’d already failed so many times? And why did she seem to keep believing in me, no matter how often I messed up?

She still trusted me to keep her safe. Logan and Kes trusted me. Not to be perfect, but they trusted me to try, and to keep trying until the last breath left me. At some point, we’d made that choice to trust one another—without evidence and without proof, because it was our only hope of escape.

The people around me now had already shown that they cared. They’d accepted me in spite of my humanity. Given us a home regardless of our ability to repay their kindness. But how many more of my burdens would they be willing to bear? How many more secrets before they turned their backs?

There was no way to know. No way out but forward. And yet… moving forward required a leap in the dark—one I was so very scared to take.

Scared, and exhausted. In over my head. There was no way I could do this next part alone.

I was just going to have to take that leap and pray that it was the right one.

“Okay.” I looked around the room, at the faces that had become so familiar over the past few months. These were Faris’s most trusted staff and the family that had grown up around them. Not related by blood, but family just the same.

“I guess you would have figured it out sooner or later. But… yes. What Ari said is true.” My heart was hammering wildly, but I couldn’t go back now. I needed their help, and that meant telling them the truth.

“Kes’s magic is the reason she was kidnapped. She can… steal magic, I guess. It’s a defensive power, or probably should have been. And it hurts her every time she uses it. But back when she was young, she accidentally found out that it hurt less if she transferred the magic into an object instead of holding it in her body. Like… an electrical ground.”

I heard an audible gasp from Talia’s direction and flinched. She must have already put the pieces together.

“Kes was raised at the Fae Court. Bullied mercilessly for being only half fae. At some point, she used her magic to defend herself, and Elayara realized what had happened. That’s when she started her experiments. Once she discovered the possibilities, she dedicated herself to learning how to mimic Kes’s power.

“So, yes. What you’re probably thinking is true. In a sense, nothing Elayara did would have been possible… without Kes.”

The room went dead silent in the wake of that revelation. Probably struggling with a lot of different emotions. When I first met Kes, I hadn’t known how to feel either, so I couldn’t exactly blame them.

I was still waiting for my audience to absorb this information when an unexpected defender took up the story.

“I have known Kestryl since we were both very young,” Rath said into that silence. “If you bear any trust for me at all, I hope you will believe my testimony that she is the kindest, gentlest person I have ever known. What has been done with her power is an abomination, and not even a shred of the blame rests on her.”

“It sounds,” Talia cut in icily, “as if you are saying she had no choice. But there is always a choice. Always. ”

“Yes,” Rath ground out. “For you and for me, there is a choice. But she was only a child when this began. A child . And my mother used me—used her family and friends—to threaten her and force her cooperation. Kes was young, but old enough and compassionate enough to understand that those she loved would be tortured if she did not cooperate. So if anyone wishes to seek revenge…” His attention sliced across the room like a blade. “You will have to go through me.”

I could sense a shift in the atmosphere as everyone sorted through this information. Forming new narratives, maybe adjusting their perspectives. And then there was Callum.

“That’s why you’ve been protecting her ever since you escaped,” he said, eyes still glued on me. “Why she stays at home with Logan and Ari. You’re keeping her out of sight. Making sure she’ll never have to use her magic.”

I didn’t think I could form words, so I nodded. Swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to hold back the tears.

“But now she’s been found… by people who know about her past.”

I could see him working through the facts the same way I had. Coming to the same damning conclusions.

“They blame her,” he realized aloud. “They think she can fix it.”

I nodded again.

“And Blake wants her so he can keep stealing power.”

“But none of that will ever happen,” I told them shakily. “It can’t.”

Rath looked at me sharply. “None of it?”

I hated to reveal anything so deeply personal, but they needed to understand the dangers. “There are only a few people left that Kes cares about. Unless Blake also has one of us, she will never do what he wants. She still suffers unimaginable guilt over everything Elayara did, and she will choose death before she helps him perpetuate those evils.”

“But whoever has her now also has Logan.” Shane sounded as if he were on the verge of ripping something—or someone—apart with his bare hands.

“This is different though,” I argued, not even sure why I was defending the kidnappers. They had terrorized my family and were likely keeping Logan sedated. But I couldn’t be entirely angry with them for their goals. “I don’t think they want her to steal power for them. I think they want their own magic back, and they believe she can reverse the process.”

Callum took a step closer. I could tell he was barely holding himself back, but I had no idea from what.

“She can’t, can she?”

I shook my head. “Like Ari said. It’s not possible. It was tried, and the process is…” Agony. It was agony for both Kes and the person she was trying to take magic from. “Once the stolen magic takes hold in another living thing, it cannot be taken a second time. She can siphon it—draw it away temporarily, possibly even use it to create artifacts—but it will gradually come back.”

She’d done it to me when I was unable to shift back from my fox form—taken my shifting magic into herself until I was human again. Endured the pain to save me from my own inexperience.

“But her text said she wants to stay. Wants to try to help,” Kira pointed out.

“There are actually three possible reasons for that,” I admitted. “They may be threatening Logan, and if that’s the case, she will do anything to protect him. Or she may believe that if they find out the truth, there will be no reason to keep Logan alive. Or—and I think this is the most likely—she’s decided to keep trying because she feels so much guilt over the past. If she believes there’s a chance she can help, or some reason she should help…”

She wouldn’t quit. She might be quiet and shy, but Kes could be unyieldingly stubborn when she believed she was right.

“So we have to find them before they figure out this is a dead end,” Kira said briskly, rising to her feet in a decisive motion.

I nodded slowly, releasing my grip on Ari by a fraction. I was a little afraid to believe that the crisis was over—that everyone had accepted the truth so easily.

“I understand if any of you don’t want to help now that you know.” My words were probably aimed more at Talia than anyone else, because how could she not be angry?

But when I looked over at the elemental queen, she didn’t look angry. She didn’t look anxious. She looked… broken. And when she caught me staring, she neither glared nor snapped nor threatened.

“I will help you,” she said, her tone and body language equally subdued. “But I will not allow you to hurt my child, no matter what she has done.”

“I have no desire to hurt Chesney,” I replied honestly. “I promised I would help you find her, and that hasn’t changed. I want her to make it home safely.”

“Home.” Talia’s voice broke, and my hunch magic prodded me insistently.

Why hadn’t she gone home? Why was she avoiding everyone who loved her and cared about her?

“Whatever her reasons for all of this might be,” I said firmly, “we’ll do everything we can to make sure you get to ask her.”

The elemental queen stared, as if unsure whether to be shocked or offended. “Call me when you know more,” she said finally, in a stiff, uneasy voice. “I will begin my own search.”

And then she left. The tension in the room seemed to slowly dissolve, and one by one, everyone went back to what they’d been doing.

Ari began to squirm in my arms, so I set her down, and she ran back to her food, fear forgotten. Shane and Rath exchanged quiet words behind me, and after a few more moments, the only one left still watching me was Callum.

Maybe it should have felt awkward, but it was actually more of a relief.

“Are you mad?” I knew he wasn’t. But I didn’t know how I knew, so I felt like I needed to say the words out loud.

He shook his head. “I haven’t been mad at you since…” He considered the question for a moment. “Not since the night we met.”

My eyes narrowed. “That can’t be true.”

He shrugged. “I don’t make the rules.”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure you do,” I retorted. “And you like it.”

“Okay, sometimes.” His gaze softened. “Raine, I need to know if you’re all right.”

“And if I’m not?” I didn’t even know why I asked. The words just slipped out.

“Then I’ll probably try to fix it.”

He would, too. I knew it with absolute certainty. And I wished he could . But I didn’t think it was actually possible.

Someday, I hoped we would be at least partially healed. That the things we’d been through would be nothing but proof of our resilience. But only with time. Only with frequent reminders that we were safe and that those around us could be trusted.

But the fear? Would I ever be able to entirely relinquish this feeling that we were constantly in danger?

I couldn’t even begin to consider that until we found Kes and Logan.

“I don’t think you can fix it,” I told him. “But just knowing that you would try…”

I wanted to look him in the eye, wanted to make sure he felt my sincerity, but it was too much. I couldn’t do it and still hold myself steady enough to say what I needed to say.

“It’s enough,” I whispered.

It was so much more than enough. He was the first person besides Kes who hadn’t quit on me. The first person who’d chosen to trust me and never once taken it back. Even when he had every reason in the world to abandon me—like when Faris suspected me of murder—he’d stubbornly decided to believe in me instead.

And that wasn’t even the strangest part. My problems had come close to getting him killed on multiple occasions, and he didn’t seem to care. In fact, last night…

I was suddenly reminded of how last night had ended. With his head in my lap, his hair between my fingers, and the weight of his arm draped over me. An unconscious move on his part, to get closer rather than farther away. A statement of trust, and of…

Of what? What had his touch meant when he asked if I was okay? How was I supposed to interpret his statement that he would choose me over all others to fight beside him?

I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted it to mean. But that didn’t mean that what I wanted was wise. I might be in love with this crazy, stubborn, gorgeous dragon, but what future could we even hope for? Was it worth risking my heart to embrace these feelings, or should I run?

“Don’t run,” he murmured quietly. “Stay.”

I knew I hadn’t said that out loud. So had that been a guess based on my posture and general skittishness, or had he actually…

He sighed. “Yes. Not the right time to talk about it, but… yes.”

I blinked at him in horror. “Yes?”

His expression went decidedly hesitant, and his eyes met mine briefly, only to dart away again. “I can… sometimes catch the edges of what you’re thinking.”

He what ? How? How much of what I was thinking? Had he heard any of my embarrassing thoughts about…

No. Crap. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about hugs. About his deep voice that made me feel safe. Don’t think about being in love. And definitely don’t think about pajamas…

“Not any actual concrete thoughts,” he hastened to clarify. “Just impressions. General direction.”

Well, the general direction of my thoughts lately was not something I wanted him to know. Not before I was ready to tell him.

And how did a shapeshifter have that ability, anyway?

“I thought that was just me,” I blurted out. “That it was my…”

Wait. No. I couldn’t confess to having siren magic. Not with the way Callum reacted to any mention of Leith, the wildkin king. He didn’t hate him exactly, but he didn’t trust him either, and I didn’t want him looking at me that way.

But I also owed Callum at least one piece of the truth.

“I can sort of hear you, too,” I confessed. “But so far only when you’re a dragon.” There had been a few times when he wasn’t a dragon that I’d wondered, but…

His reaction was not what I expected. His entire body went rigid, and his eyes snapped to mine, suddenly glowing like twin amber coals—bright and piercing.

“You’re sure?” he asked fiercely.

I nodded. “Back at the refuge… I heard you telling me not to fall asleep. That you were going to shift back.”

He looked… I couldn’t think of any way to describe it other than triumphant. As if some wildly intense emotion was barely contained within the constraints of his current physical form. As if the dragon was straining to break free. I saw him begin to reach out, then abruptly pull himself back.

Whatever was happening, we needed to talk about it. But not here and not now. Somehow, we had to find Logan and Kes before their captors ran out of patience—and before any of the mercenary crews found them first.

Then… Maybe then we would have time. Maybe I would find the courage.

Or maybe Callum would learn just one more damning fact about me and decide that it wasn’t worth it. That I wasn’t worth the constant worry and death threats and arguing and almost being blown up.

But I couldn’t let myself think about that yet.

We had a house to find.