Page 66 of Resurrection
“Okay, what do we do?”
“You drive. I’m going to cast, and fly a bit. Try not to open our bonds too much.”
“Fly?” Gabe asked.
“We call it Odin’s Eye.”
“Like the stories of Muninn and Huginn?”
“Exactly, borrowing the sight of a bird. Tracing magic signatures. It’s a bit complicated to explain, though easy enough in practice. It will be erratic to describe where we are going, so try not to kill us?” Seiran ducked into the passenger seat, strapping on the belt, and setting his bag at his feet.
He got affirmatives back from Jamie, Kelly, and in tandem each of the kids. Luca and Con’s reply popped up too. The houses began checking in. They would have to do head counts before locking the doors and setting the wards to maximum.
Was it sad that they’d planned for this? For something big? Seiran set his phone in his bag and prayed for a minute for the strength to protect everyone.
It was an impossible dream, but one he’d been fighting for his whole life.
“Birds aren’t air?” Gabe asked.
“Birds are life on earth, which all falls to my domain.” Technically everything on the planet was his domain as long as the Goddess allowed him the strength. Earth, fire, wind, water, spirit, death, and life. As long as the world continued to turn, She could grant all to him. He might have an affinity for the earth, but She considered him her scion.
“A lot of people underestimate you,” Gabe said as he started the van and headed toward the exit.
“They do,” Seiran agreed. “But not for much longer. I’m sorry you had to be awake for this. I think everything is about to become a shitstorm.”
“Rather be a part of it than in the ground not able to help.”
“Thanks,” Seiran whispered, happy to not be alone after years of aching loneliness. He began whispering, his hands glowing with power. A bit of a poetic chant more as a focus for himself than actual words for a spell. He hadn’t needed words in over a decade. But the thought behind the words clarified, sending his mind and vision skyward, to borrow wings and search the horizon.
He’d made a habit, over the years, of memorizing the energy or magic of the people closest to him. The first time the twins changed, shifting to their foxes, they’d been young. Even younger than he’d been for his first change. And Sakura had slipped away from them, vanishing into the woods surrounding the house. It had taken him three days to find her as he kept losing himself to his lynx, and after that he’d begun memorizing the way the earth saw each of them. All as unique as snowflakes in a delicate dance of power woven with life.
They made the rule that no one changed outside of the arboretum anymore, and Seiran could track his family, his closest friends, and even his assistant by recognizing the magic or life of the being. He didn’t need to change to his lynx form to do it. He’d taught Jamie the spell, and the twins had mastered it without much effort. Kaine didn’t need the spell at all to find anyone. His fae power superseding mortal constraints. Yet another reason for Seiran to rise, and break free of the Dominion chains. He needed to make sure no one could look at Kaine and plan to kill him just for existing. But first he would begin with Page.
The raven flew higher, arcing around in a circle until Seiran spotted the wave of familiar lines and colors. This glowing gaze of magic wasn’t as defined as real sight. He’d not be able to make out street names and addresses, only direction and distance, but at least it was somewhere to start.
Chapter 22
Gabe had to admit it was a lot more distracting than he thought it would be, sitting in the car next to a spell that pulsed like snapped live electrical wire burning into his vision. It made it hard for him to navigate the car out of the dark lot because the light was so bright. But once out into the light of the day, the brightness balanced enough for him to see the road and the buildings. He had to squint, his sensitive vampire sight making the intensity of it all a little painful. But Seiran needed him.
“Which way?”
“Left,” Seiran said, his voice deep and echoing, and Gabe caught a glimpse through the bond of flying, like a bird drifting high up over the area, it caught a glow of energy like a beacon, and was headed that way. He had to lock down his edge of the bond to keep himself from following the flight. That was some crazy power. Even with their bond not renewed, he had to work to stay in the here and now rather than a magic-filled sky.
Gabe pulled the car out onto the street and headed left, navigating free of the city, because the vision he’d caught was of trees and a less populated area. He had no idea what the spell was, but it felt godlike. Large enough to find anyone anywhere, but still contained in a small enough space that no one else could detect it. Brilliant.
Could Seiran’s power flit to any animal or living being? Definitely godlike. How much did he suppress every day to try to fit in and comply?
Gabe followed the directions as Seiran muttered them, and had to work hard from letting himself fall into the gaze that Seiran was seeing. It was almost an overlay on reality. Two places at once. Gabe drove fast, but carefully, thankful he remembered the basics of driving as more of a muscle memory than reinstatement of vague rules.
Outside of the city, northwest instead of the southeast in which Seiran’s house was, where Gabe wasn’t as familiar with the streets, but worked hard to weave around traffic and finally turn onto a quieter road.
“Close,” Seiran said, voice rough, and the glow he held fading a bit.
“Can you find anyone this way?” Gabe wondered.
“No. Only those I’ve memorized their life force. My kids and family mostly. A few of my investigators, and Page.”
“Me?”