Page 3 of Magic Betrayed (The Shifter of Sheridan Avenue #2)

THREE

In the blink of an eye, I was back in the tunnels.

A prisoner in the darkness, being hunted relentlessly.

Forced to use my magic to survive.

Competing instincts froze me in place as I fought with the ingrained desire to hide my magic from my captors. To refuse to be the weapon they wanted.

But this was not a cave. It was my home. And with every breath, I was growing more certain that Shane’s warning may have come too late. This power outage may, in fact, have been deliberate, and my family might no longer be safe.

If so—if the worst of my fears proved true—I was the only one who could help them, and to do that, I needed control of my magic.

First, silence. I couldn’t use my fae magic for glamour, but I could quiet my footsteps and pass unheard, even by fae ears. Shapeshifters were another matter, but for now, I dampened my footsteps and crossed the threshold, reaching out with every one of my senses into the enshrouding darkness.

My hearing was the only sense that remained heightened even in human form, but even so, I could catch no hint of sound. No one moved, no one even breathed.

No one breathed…

I had to cross through the kitchen and into the living room to reach the bedrooms, and I felt a stab of warning as I passed the utility room door on the right. Still no sound, but… something wasn’t right.

And then I tripped over an obstacle in the dark and landed flat on my face.

Adrenaline surged, and I rolled away, then crouched against the kitchen island, trying to quiet my breathing and rein in my panic. What could have been left in the middle of the floor?

Something small… Reaching out cautiously, I felt my way forward until my fingers met canvas and rubber…

Shoes. I’d tripped over Logan’s new shoes that somehow always ended up in the middle of a walkway or under the table instead of the utility room where they belonged.

I rolled my eyes in the dark and pushed to my feet. Took hold of my fear and reached deep for the magic that blazed hot and fierce at my core. There was no need to be afraid. The power was mine now and I could not change that, so I grasped it, shaped it into a bright, crackling ball of blue, and hurled it into the heart of the darkness.

It revealed only the familiar sights of our new home.

A gray couch—only slightly used—that we’d found at a thrift store. A dark wood coffee table that Faris had been getting rid of. Couch pillows in varying shades of gray and green, also thrifted, and three brave little houseplants Kira had given us as a housewarming gift.

I had no talent for decorating, but Kes had spent hours making our little house look like a home. There was a stack of picture books on the coffee table, a worn throw over the back of the couch, and a canvas on the wall with splashes of color. A few dishes were in the drying rack on the kitchen island, next to a pile of homework, Ari’s latest brick sculpture, and a bowl filled with apples and bananas.

Everything seemed in order. But where were Kes and the kids? It was past midnight, and there was no way they should have gone out at this hour. Even without Shane’s warning, Kes was cautious. She always locked the door, and she protected the kids’ bedtimes religiously.

Maybe Kes had fallen asleep. Maybe one of the kids had unlocked the door by accident, and maybe she hadn’t heard me knocking.

My heart was pounding, and I could feel my pulse all the way to my fingertips as I moved to check the bedrooms. The bathrooms. The closets. They were all empty. All silent. I was alone in the apartment, and as I grappled with the icy spread of fear, a sound escaped my lips. It was a wordless cry of panic, and I did not care who heard me.

Where could they have gone? There was no sign of a struggle. No indication of violence. Everything was in its place, so they must have either left swiftly of their own will, or been taken so quickly there was no chance for a struggle.

Maybe they’d heard someone coming. Maybe they were hiding somewhere now, waiting for me to find them. Or maybe I was too late, and someone had already found them…

I caught a glimpse of motion out of the corner of my eye. Reflexes threw me backward, just before a cudgel of some kind cut through the air where my head had been.

The swift reaction left me crouched between my assailant and the bedroom door, my position now highlighted against the blue glow of my fae magic, so I snuffed it out, plunging the apartment into darkness once more. I heard a quick scuff, then silence, as I backed towards the living room, unsure of who or what I was facing.

If it was Blake’s people, or even Idrian mercenaries looking for Kes, they should have been using magic, not a perfectly mundane club. Idrians did use weapons, but usually only in conjunction with whatever form of magic they wielded. But if it was neither of those two groups… What could anyone else want with us?

Not that it mattered in the moment. Whether they used magic or ordinary weapons, I needed more room to maneuver. More time to figure out the best means of countering their attacks. I didn’t want to use light again, as that would reveal my location. Water magic was out—I didn’t want to flood the apartment—and my shifted form of a tiny white fox was hardly my best bet in a fight. So how else could I use my fae magic to my advantage, and somehow defend myself without killing my assailant?

Regret stabbed me fiercely as I recalled all the times Faris and Kira had urged me to practice. I should have listened. But a part of me was still wrestling with the right way to approach these stolen powers, so I’d put it off.

One cautious step at a time, I backed into the living room, straining to hear every faint scuff, every whisper of movement. But in my heightened caution, I still managed to forget the pair of shoes abandoned on the living room floor.

I tripped for a second time and started to fall backwards. My reflexes kicked in, twisting my body in midair just before I was struck by a vicious blow across my shoulders. The force slammed me to the ground, shooting a spike of pain through my spine and forcing me to catch my full weight on my wrists. Stunned and gasping, I failed to move fast enough, and caught a second blow on the side of my unprotected head, followed by what felt like a series of kicks to the ribs.

For a few moments, I couldn’t breathe. Stars blossomed in the darkness, along with pain so intense that I nearly blacked out. I could feel the warmth of blood trickling down the side of my face. There was a ringing in my ears. But I didn’t scream. I would never give them the satisfaction of screaming.

But in the effort to make no sound, my fae magic slipped its leash and flared to life in a surge of blue flame. As I rolled to the side, raising my arms to protect my head, I caught a brief glimpse of two shadowy forms clothed in close-fitting black, bending towards me with hands outstretched. They were hooded and gloved, so I could see no hints to their identity.

And then they were running away.

I couldn’t let them get away.

I pushed off the floor, slipped in my own blood, and crashed onto the tile again, vision hazy as pain stabbed through my temples again and again. Had to follow them. Had to…

My eyes fluttered shut as darkness loomed, and I lowered my forehead to the cold floor. Breathed through the agony. I had to stay conscious. For Ari. For Logan. For Kes. Wherever they were, they needed me. Needed me to find them. To make sure they were safe.

This time I inched forward before I tried to rise, clenching my teeth and pushing to my knees, then waiting for the dizziness to subside. A kitchen towel hung over the edge of the island, so I pulled it towards me with shaking fingers and pressed it against the side of my head. Needed to stop the bleeding. My ribs ached fiercely with every breath, but I didn’t think they were broken. And my legs were fine. They would have to be, because I was walking out of here.

Two more deep breaths, and I rose to my feet, clutching the island for support. My head spun, and the pain tried to drown me, but I fought through, eyes narrowed to slits…

And it was a good thing, because that’s when the power was restored. Lights flashed on, slamming into my skull like a fresh attack. I let my magic die as I shut my eyes, then opened them slowly, looking around for any sign of my attackers. Any hints of who they might have been. But the apartment was empty—empty and silent. No sign of Kes or the kids. No sign of… the phone .

Wherever they were, Kes must have taken the phone. It was a good sign. A hopeful sign. If she’d been taken by mercenaries, they wouldn’t have let her keep it, but there was always a chance they would have left it on. If I could only get to Faris or Kira, we might be able to track her location.

Except I didn’t know where Faris lived. I would have to call him, assuming he was even still awake. But even if he weren’t… Even if it turned out Kes was fine—that she and the kids had gotten away and were in hiding—I was willing to risk waking him up, if only to call Kes and warn her that home was still not safe.

But how to call him? We didn’t have a landline, and if I tried waking up my neighbors at this hour, they would only call the police on me.

Wait… The electricians should still be downstairs. And if not, there was a landline at The Portal. If I was lucky, maybe Emberly hadn’t left yet.

I moved towards the door, one step at a time. Glanced down at my hands and arms and realized I couldn’t go anywhere looking like this. My head wound had bled all over me, and I looked like I should be dead. Or possibly arrested for murder.

By the door… Next to Ari’s shoes, her mermaid backpack, and a haphazardly folded umbrella was a discarded lump of black fabric—Logan’s hoodie that he never bothered to hang up. For once, I was actually thankful for his terrible habits. I put it on over my sweater, pulled up the hood, and staggered out the door, leaving it propped open as a signal to Kes. If she came back, she would know not to stay.

By the time I made my way down the stairs and out the front door, the electrician’s van was gone. There were few cars this late at night, and no pedestrians in sight, so it was going to have to be The Portal.

I couldn’t ask the human police for help. As far as the humans were concerned, none of us existed. We could only rely on Idrian systems of justice, and thanks to our strange history? Yeah, Idrian justice was more likely to consider us criminals than victims. The only one who could—or would—help me now was Faris.

The mile I walked nearly every day to work had never seemed so long. I was shaking all over—from pain, from cold, from shock—and the pain in my head seemed to echo all the way to the soles of my feet. I passed a man in a ragged coat who took one look at my face and scrambled all the way across Sheridan Avenue to avoid me. And when I finally reached The Portal?

It was dark and empty. The doors were locked, Emberly was gone, and the glamour specialist had yet to arrive.

I could break in. My lock picking skills were solid, ordinarily, but now my hands were shaking and covered in blood. And I also wasn’t willing to bet on Faris not having some kind of nasty magical traps awaiting anyone stupid enough to break into his bar.

So now what? Hugh would probably help me, but I would never make it all the way to Twenty-third Street on foot.

I stood by the back door, trembling with cold, and happened to glance down the alleyway to the east. To the six-story brick cube across the street.

The Assemblage. Where the Symposium had taken place only three months ago. And where Callum had an apartment on the top floor…

Maybe he’d had a landline put in. It wasn’t a good bet, but it was better than nothing. And it was safer than staying on the street. If I ended up passing out, I’d rather be in a dark, empty building than lying unprotected in an alley.

The service entrance on Oklahoma Avenue proved depressingly easy to break into, and while it was slightly warmer than outside, I still shivered as I made my way through the darkened event space to the stairs at the front of the building.

Though now I was shivering from more than just cold. There was also an inescapable flood of memories…

Of the day I’d defended Callum using my elemental magic, then watched him defeat a lion shifter with his bare hands.

Of my confrontation with Talia, when I’d promised to help her find her daughter.

Of Callum catching me after I drank the elemental wine.

And of the battle that ended the Symposium—splintered crystal, silver knives, and glittering ice, all stained by those final moments of violence. By Blake’s callous willingness to destroy lives in pursuit of power.

The space was empty now, lit only by the tiny ball of blue fae magic that hovered just ahead of me. But it would never be empty in my head. I would always see Callum’s face after he learned the truth about my past. Always wonder what he’d been thinking, and whether he blamed me for the catastrophic ending of the Symposium.

But whether he blamed me or not didn’t really matter now. All that mattered was finding Logan, Ari, and Kes—whether they were in hiding or kidnapped. And I wasn’t going to find them without help, which meant climbing five accursed flights of stairs to look for a phone.

Each step seemed so much bigger than it ever had before, but I climbed anyway. Ribs screaming, head throbbing, blood forming a warm, sticky coating on my neck and matting my hair, I dragged myself upward. And by the time I reached the top floor, my vision had narrowed to no more than the few feet in front of me.

I only stopped when I saw the doormat…

Beware of dragon.

He’d kept it. Even though he hated it. Probably because Kira had gifted it to him as a joke, and given their history, he would do anything for her.

Thankfully, dragons didn’t worry too much about personal security, so the door featured a very simple manual deadbolt that I failed to pick the first time only because my hands were shaking.

My second try was more successful, and the door swung open as I fumbled with my tools, trying to slide them back behind my belt.

I had to keep it together. Had to keep going until I’d called for help.

Leaning against the doorjamb steadied me enough to return my lock picks to their usual hiding place, and when I straightened, it was to an achingly familiar view that nonetheless seemed eerie and empty in the glow of my blue fae light.

The apartment was simple and cozy, with restored wood floors, dark, earth-toned walls, and comfortable, rustic furniture with colorful pillows. Even though no one had been here in months, I detected the lingering scents of wood smoke, coffee, and… Callum. Memories surged, my head throbbed, and my eyes stung with the threat of tears. But I didn’t have time to cry. I needed to call Faris.

If there were a landline in here, where would it be?

I shuffled through the door, stumbled a little, and then froze as a whisper of air brushed against me, not from the doorway but from inside. A breeze coming from an empty apartment, as if a window had been left open… or something was moving in the dark.

The door slammed shut behind me. I heard a single footstep, and then…

Bands of iron curled around my throat. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t even breathe past that unbreakable grip.

My fae light died, but the pressure only grew, and my vision narrowed as my whole body went limp. Something lifted me up and pulled me forward. My hood was yanked away. And in the darkness just in front of me, a pair of glowing amber coals flared to life.

I somehow tilted my head back enough to stare into those fiery eyes and saw when they widened with horror and recognition.

“ Raine? ”

I knew that voice. Had dreamed of it so many times in the past few weeks. Might even be dreaming it now.

The iron vise on my throat disappeared, and then I was being held up by a trembling grip on my shoulders. The lights flicked on, and I flinched away from the searing brightness, my eyes slamming shut against the pain.

“All hells, Raine, what happened to you?”

Suddenly, I wasn’t sure anymore. Was any of this real? Because that sounded like Callum, and he wasn’t in the city. I’d broken into his apartment only because I knew he wasn’t there. Maybe all of this was a dream that I could shake off. Wake up from. Maybe Ari and Kes and Logan were still asleep in their beds and everything would be fine…

My knees buckled, and Dream Callum caught me. I caught a hazy glimpse of his face as my consciousness faded and comforted myself with the reminder that he didn’t hate me in my dreams.

“I didn’t know where else to go,” I murmured, but the words were slurred and I didn’t know if he could understand them. “Need help. Kids. Kes. Gone. Call Faris.”

“I’ll take care of it,” he promised, and his voice was everything I remembered. Deep and warm, with a hint of impatience and… a whole lot of worry. He definitely sounded worried. “I’ll take care of everything, just… Raine, can you tell me who hurt you?”

I couldn’t. My mouth didn’t seem to want to form words anymore. But it was okay now because I was safe. Safe in a dream, or safe with Callum. He said he would take care of everything, and he always kept his promises.

Always…

With that last comforting thought, I let go and drifted away from the pain, into soft and welcoming darkness.