Atone: A Fairytale (Fairytale Trilogy) (21 page)

On the other hand, she’d learned how to use magic here.

“Leave us alone,” she shouted. “Go back through the portal and leave us alone.”

The darker-haired fera cursed and sent another stream of power toward her wall. It sparked against her power and then quickly dissipated. “I will not take orders from a petite-fae!” he yelled. Another volley hit into the wall. “You are more human than true fae, and yet you defy me?!”

“I may only be petite-fae, but I’m from this world. I’ve learned my magic in this world. I’m stronger than you here!” she shouted back. “Leave now and I won’t hurt you.”

The fera laughed. They may have been frustrated by her protection spell, but they didn’t for a minute believe she could best them. Becca looked back up at the apartment balcony across the alley. The curved metal fence obscured her view a little bit, but she could hear them calling to her—rows of little green pots filled with flowers. At least four of those pots had violets in them.

“Go now! This is your last warning.”

The fera laughed harder. Becca could see that they’d joined their power, creating a spell in front of them. It was a pillar of magic twisting itself into the shape of animals, but she could see it was transparent, flickering, only partially solid. She didn’t give them time to try sending their spell against her wall. She dropped the protection wall and lifted her hands toward her violets. As she called to them, they burst out of their pots, roots flashing white in the darkness as they roiled out of control. The plants twisted down over the small gate and rushed toward the fera at an alarming rate…

But it wasn’t just the violets that answered her call. The metal gate twisted down, seeming almost to melt as it ran down the side of the apartment building, twisting itself into new shapes as it went—first looking like flowers, then like claws, then like vines with sprouting buds. The metal and the violets hit the fera simultaneously. The metal twined around their legs and arms. The violet plants wrapped tightly around them like they had when she’d pulled the same trick on Nicholas, burying them in dark green heart shaped leaves and soft, purple flowers. As soon as they were completely covered, Becca unleashed the golden power still itching against the inside of her hands. It went off like a rocket, shooting toward the fera, bathing the whole alley in bright light as if it was the middle of the afternoon. The light was so bright even Becca had to close her eyes.

When she opened them again, the fera lay before her, each completely bound in metal and flowers. She walked over to them and gingerly nudged each with the toe of her Converse. They were unconscious. She could see the barest movement of their breathing beneath the vines.

Nicholas padded up next to her. “Well, that was more than impressive.”

She laughed. It bordered on hysterical. The adrenaline from the fight rushed through her as her power receded. It pushed back into the ball inside her chest, but it was still seething and sparking. She noticed with some satisfaction that though the her lavender tinted power wasn’t dominant anymore, it was at least making its presence known alongside this new golden power that was so strong it almost scared her.

“Thanks,” she managed. “I wasn’t entirely sure.”

“You sounded sure,” he said with a serious tone. “I guess you saved my life.”

“I guess.” She shrugged. “You’ll have to owe me one.” Her power was still coiling into a tighter and tighter ball inside her, as if she’d reined it in too much. “I need to sit down. I feel sick to my stomach.” She pulled her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans as she made her way over to the side of the nearest building. She sat down on the ground and leaned back against the brick wall, willing her stomach to stop churning.

Nicholas glanced at her in concern. “What can I do?”

Becca glanced up from the screen on her phone. “Can you move them out of the middle of the alley? Just like roll them over here more in the shadows or something?” She looked back down as her phone buzzed, muttering a curse under her breath as she struggled back to her feet.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he picked up the first fera and not so gently deposited him next to the building across from her.

“Apparently we’re doing things the hard way,” she replied, snapping pictures with her phone down the alley in both directions. “She’s got the address; I hope this is enough. God forbid she just drive. I guess that would take another hour or so, though. And I really don’t want to sit here for an hour waiting for someone to find us.”

Nicholas’s face displayed his confusion. “Who are you talking about?”

Becca slumped back against the wall after sending the pictures. The nausea wasn’t getting any better. “If you don’t want Alex or Lilia to see you, I’d suggest leaving now.”

She could read the indecision in every line of his body. “I mean it, Nicholas,” she sighed. “Like now, in the next two minutes.”

He stared at her. She knew he could tell she still wasn’t feeling well. She silently berated herself for not eating earlier. She would definitely have stopped for food if she’d known a magical showdown in a back alley was on the evening’s agenda.

“I’ll stay,” he said quietly as he moved to the side of the alley—half in shadow—just as Alex and Lilia flickered into existence in front of Becca.

“Becca!” Alex ran over to her and gave her a fierce hug. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She forced a smile.

Alex ran her hands over her friend’s face as Lilia joined them.

“You’re not fine,” Lilia observed. “Are you ill?”

“Just a little sick to my stomach. I think I should’ve eaten earlier before expending that kind of…uh, energy.”

“Where are the fera?” Lilia asked.

Becca nodded toward the other side of the alley. All three girls walked over to examine the fera, still hidden under piles of plants.

“Wow, Becca, this is…wow. Remind me to never piss you off,” Alex breathed.

Becca laughed. “Yeah, you better watch it, sister.”

“I think any debate about whether you’re a metal shaper is moot.” Lilia bent down and ran her hand along the metal vines twining the fera’s arms and legs. “I’m both proud and a bit scared of you.”

Becca shifted uncomfortably. She’d scared herself too.

Lilia looked up with a twinkle in her eye. “I’m teasing you. You know I could kick your ass.”

“You really have to stop teaching her modern phrases, Alex. It just doesn’t sound right coming out of her,” Becca teased back.

“I beg your pardon, ‘kick your ass’ must have come from you, not me.”

Becca giggled as the pent up stress starting to leave her body. “Guilty.”

Alex glanced over at the shadows on the other side of the alley. “Are we just pretending that Nicholas isn’t here?” she asked in a whisper.

“He has ridiculously good hearing,” Becca answered in a normal voice.

“Oh, well I guess that answers that.”

Nicholas took a step out of the shadows, not a big one, but enough for the weak light from the street lamp at the end of the block to illuminate most of his large, shaggy figure. Becca was sure she could only feel the other girls’s suppressed reactions because she was so in tune of them. Neither of them betrayed any outward surprise.

“Nicholas,” Alex nodded at him, her voice friendly but somehow still neutral.

“Alexandra,” he replied gravely. “Princess Lilia.”

“Lilia is fine,” she answered. “Thank you for warning Becca about the fae.”

He looked down at the pavement. “Don’t thank me,” his voice was harsh. “They wouldn’t have come after her if not for me.”

Alex was contemplating Nicholas with a small smile on her face. “Thank you, just the same. And now, I suppose we need to get these gentleman back to your house and into that room with the mirror.”

“You can do that?” NIcholas said with some disbelief.

“Oh yes. Especially with Lilia’s help, I think we will have enough magic for four people. And I can do it,” she drawled with a pointed look at Lilia, “without dropping us from mid-air.”

Lilia tossed her golden curls over a shoulder. “Yes, yes. You were right. You’re much more precise now.”

“And?” Alex prompted.

“And I’m sorry for having ever doubted you.” Lilia rolled her eyes dramatically,

Becca laughed again at her friends’ antics, secretly relieved that they were acting so normal around Nicholas who was looking between them in confusion. “So am I helping you flicker the fera back to the house then?”

Alex shook her head. “I think we’ve got it. I’ve been to the mirror room before, so that’s the easy part. Your car is here and Nicholas…well,” she glance over at him.

“I can get back on my own without being seen.”

“So, if you want we will just meet you there. That way you don’t have to come back for your car at least.”

Becca nodded. The thought of driving made her stomach feel worse, but she knew putting out enough magic to flicker with Alex might be beyond her right now. Somehow she could tell from Alex’s face that her friend knew it too. “Okay, I’ll meet you guys there in like twenty.”

Alex reached up and pushed a strand out of hair out of Becca’s face. “Be safe. Call if you need me, okay?”

“Okay.”

Alex and Lilia interlocked their fingers. Becca could see the power humming between them—the comforting white glow of Alex’s magic twining with the brilliant light green of Lilia’s. They both reached down taking a firm hold of the metal bonds on the fera, a glow seemed to envelope them, and then they flickered into nothing.

“Wow,” Nicholas said from across the alley. “That’s just insane.”

“Yeah,” Becca agreed. The nausea had returned full force, she wondered if somehow being in the other girls’s presence had lessened it. Once they were gone it felt like her stomach had immediately resumed being twisted into complicated knots.

“Does Alexandra often get around that way?” he asked wryly. Becca couldn’t answer him. She stumbled the few feet that separated her from the wall and propped her hand against it as her stomach tried to empty itself. But there was nothing in her stomach. She heaved over and over. Tears sprang to her eyes and ran down her cheeks. She collapsed to her knees, unable to support her own weight.

She felt Nicholas move up behind her. “Becca?” His voice was filled with concern and something else. Something that might have been fear. She wanted to tell him she’d be fine, but she honestly wasn’t sure if she believed it. After what seemed like forever she was able to get her stomach’s rebellion under control. She rocked back into a sitting position, pressing her back against Nicholas’s side. She tucked up her knees and laid her head on them. She could feel the warmth from his body seeping into her.

He didn’t say anything, but after a moment she felt his paw lightly touch the top of her head and then run down over her hair. They sat there for several minutes until she finally admitted to herself that she wasn’t feeling any better. She felt almost too weak to lift her own head.

“I can’t drive,” she whispered. Suddenly she felt herself being lifted off the ground. He was so strong that he was able to lift her and slide her onto his back with only one arm. She wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her face against the thick soft fur of his mane.

“Can you hold on?” She could feel his voice rumbling through his body.

She nodded against his neck and tightened her knees on his back, feeling the muscles coil and tense. He sprang forward and she clutched at his fur in response.

As he ran she found that she didn’t need to worry about falling off. His back was broad enough, and his gait so smooth that she felt almost like she was laying on a stable surface. The only clues that they were moving were the sensation of his muscles working under her and the wind blowing against her face. When her eyes were open she could see pieces of the city flashing by—Nicholas kept to alleyways and darker streets, occasionally jumping over a fence or darting under a bridge. Watching their progress made her feel dizzy and more sick so she eventually closed her eyes.

She didn’t know why she felt so ill, she could tell something wasn’t right. Maybe she had put too much of herself into the battle with the fae, maybe the stone…Becca gasped, and opened her eyes. The gem that would close the portal, they’d left it in the alley. She could still feel its pull, but it was fading as they got farther from it.

“The stone,” she managed. Nicholas’s ears flicked back toward the sound of her voice.

“I’ll get it later.”

Becca wondered how his voice could be so steady when he was running so fast. And then she couldn’t find the energy to think any more. Every last bit of strength she had was focused on not being sick again, and then on not passing out. She felt the change in Nicholas’s stride as they started moving up into the hills. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the flickering ball of magic in her chest. If only she could focus on that she would be okay.

And then they were in the house. The cool air washed over her, it felt like it was welcoming her home. Nicholas bounded up the stairs. They were almost there…if she could just hold on.

She heard Alex’s voice from a distance. It sounded as if she was underwater. “Nicholas? Becca! What’s wrong?”

“She was sick—“