His gaze was wide, anxious. “What’s the matter?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. I couldn’t tell him about the strange magic coalescing with my own. I didn’t even know what it was.
Kael’s gaze dropped to the key still clenched in my fist. “Maybe I should hold onto the relic for a while.”
He reached down and placed his hand over mine. I didn’t release the relic. Then, he started to pry my fingers loose .
My pulse quickened. Every instinct screamed at me to keep the key close.
“No!” I reached out with my other hand and pushed on his chest to ease him back. Or, at least, that was what I had intended to do.
Instead, Kael yelled and went flying backward across the grass-carpeted ground. He landed hard with a grunt several yards away.
Magic seared through my veins and bristled beneath my skin like static shock. I couldn’t make sense of it, couldn’t decipher if it was mine, the mage’s, or something new entirely. All I knew was that I wanted it to stop—needed it to stop—before I burned myself to a cinder and got scattered on the wind.
I sucked in deep breaths. I shifted my feet, feeling the ground beneath the soles of my boots and using that reality as an anchor. I stretched my senses farther, to the feel of a slight breeze, the scent of damp earth. Slowly, the magic coiled back to the depths of myself. I opened my eyes and found Kael moaning on the ground.
My blood ran cold.
I had to force myself to move, will myself to wrestle through the horror of what I had done and move forward to see if Kael was all right. I ran over to him as he rolled to his back. He sat up with a wince, and guilt lanced through me.
My hand pressed to my mouth, if anything to shove back down the burning in my throat. I took a few unsteady breaths as I got a hold on the magic rampaging through me. Wild, unfettered…deadly.
“I’m…I’m sorry, Kael. I didn’t mean to.” I started to reach for him, then hesitated and drew my hand back. Perhaps it wasn’t safe. Perhaps I wasn’t safe.
I hung the key around my neck with trembling fingers. I felt a little better with it out of my hand.
Kael tilted his head back to fix me with a calculating stare. I waited for the disgust and the fear. I waited for the hatred toward this horrid being I seemed to be becoming.
Instead, a small smile touched his lips. “You’re not the first woman to knock me on my ass.”
He got to his feet and stepped toward me. I retreated with a shake of my head. The last thing I wanted to do was accidentally hurt him again. He stayed where he was, though he looked like he wanted to draw closer.
“We need to find someone who can help figure out what’s going on with you.” Kael paused for a moment, and when he spoke again, his words came out slow, careful. “I think I know who we can ask first.”
“Who?”
Kael’s face twisted with annoyance. “Renathe.”
I had completely forgotten about the fae man who had given us our first clue. Though now that I remembered, I also recalled that I still owed him a date. Looks like I could crack two stones with one chisel.
“Okay,” I said. “I guess I’ll be able to fulfill that ridiculous promise for a date.”
The shifter grew silent as I gathered up my bag. The handle for my knife was nearby, and I stooped to pick it up. I ran a finger over the handle. It was charred a bit on the end where the blade had disintegrated. I sighed, a sense of loss weighing on my shoulders at the ruined gift from my father.
It was as if the last anchor to my past had been eaten away.
I dropped it into my bag. All I had now were the two relics hanging on my chest, one key from the Amazon and one from the ruins in Scotland, a surly shifter companion, and a future that seemed to be dragging me deeper into someplace and someone I didn’t want to be.
I shuffled my bag across my shoulders. Together, Kael and I left the crumbling abbey, once again on a search for answers.
Chapter 29
I grimaced at myself in the mirror, or rather at the dark blue dress that hugged my figure. I hated dresses, was barely tolerable toward anything that was impractical for getting dirty, but I supposed appropriate attire for my date with Renathe was called for.
I felt…strange. It wasn’t the dress, though. After everything that had happened, a date felt so…mundane. It shouldn’t be. I rarely had time to go out. It should be something exciting, especially with an exotic male fae, but it wasn’t. Exhaustion weighed me down. I would have rather crawled into bed.
I blew out a sharp sigh and tucked the pair of keys around my neck into the front of my dress. With a final glance in the mirror, I headed out of my room.
Kael’s eyebrows shot up when I clicked off the landing in the heels I was certain would twist my ankles before the evening was through.
“Wow, Livvie, you look…”
“Awkward?” I suggested.
He smiled, his eyes darting between my face and the floor. “I was going to say beautiful. ”
My face went hot, all the way to my ears. “Oh. Well, thanks.”
I tugged on the end of my hair, which I had opted to leave down. The get-up was fancy enough without spending an hour or two on my hair, as well.
“You ready?” he asked.
I grabbed a small, black purse from the kitchen table. “Yep, let’s go.”
Kael opened the driver’s door to my father’s Bristol. “Everything will be all right.”
I gave him a nod and shuffled awkwardly into the seat. Stupid dress. He shut the door and climbed into my own car.
I wasn’t only fulfilling the date side of my bargain with Renathe. I was handing over my father’s prized 1951 Bristol, too. Kael would follow behind me in my car so I had a ride back home.
As I headed into town with my phone giving out directions to the restaurant Renathe had chosen, my chest tightened. My father’s car. After losing my knife, I couldn’t help but regret my decision to promise Ren the car. It was going to be harder to release than I had realized.
Did the fae man know how much I would want to keep it in my possession? I sighed. No use lingering on it now. I should be worrying about other things, like the magical mishap I had managed to get myself into.
I finally made it to the restaurant. I couldn’t recall the name of it, but it was scrawled across the front in golden, looping letters in what I assumed was French. I parked in front and brushed my fingers along the pale green paint of the car in a silent goodbye. Kael had found a spot farther down, and he jogged up to meet me.
“I’ll be nearby,” he said. “I don’t trust fae.”
“You don’t trust mages, either,” I teased.
He grinned. “Only one.”
I gave him a little wave as I headed toward the door. After I told the man inside the name of my date, he led me to the table. Though it was a small restaurant, it was fancy with white tablecloths, golden chandeliers, and burgundy cushioned seats. Suddenly, I felt underdressed.
Renathe’s gaze fell on me with a bright smile from a table tucked into a private corner. He looked resplendent in a crisp, black suit, though he still had a playboy air about him. Perhaps it was his blond hair, not quite styled or messy. I had forgotten how beautiful he actually was, especially in a sea of humans. How had no one noticed his tapered ears? Maybe they thought it was a cosmetic oddity, as I had first assumed.