Redemption (2 page)

Marcus’s face filled with relief as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her up with surprising strength—but then, he was an elemental being.

Her stomach scraped against rocks as he tugged her over the ledge. She lay on her stomach, her feet still dangling over the cliff when he released his hold. Panting, she climbed to her feet as Will ran out of a clump of trees toward them. “Get away from her, Marcus.”

Marcus backed away, hands raised. “I pulled her up before she fell. I don’t want to hurt her.”

Will glanced at Emma for confirmation.

She nodded, keeping her gaze on Marcus. “It’s true. I slipped and the branch I held onto was breaking. Marcus promised to not hurt me. Tonight.”

Stepping toward Emma, Will turned his attention to his biological father. “So any other night she’s fair game?”

Marcus shook his head with a scowl. “No, but the time is coming when we won’t be able to trust anyone. The game is ending and it will be everyone for themselves.
Everyone
.”

Will grabbed Emma’s hand and pulled her away from the edge. “If you’re suggesting that Emma and I will fight each other, you have another thing coming.”

“You may not have a choice.” His grin returned and Emma almost gasped in surprise. She’d seen that grin hundreds of times. On Will’s face.

“Bullshit. Why did you threaten Emma after you helped me save her?” Will tried to push Emma behind him, but she shoved his hand away. She was done hiding behind Will.

“I didn’t threaten Emma, but I was the one who set this all in motion. I was the one who cursed you both.”

Emma lifted her chin. “What are you talking about?”

Marcus sighed. “Years ago, Aiden and I made an agreement. It changed the course of things.”

“An agreement?”

Marcus’s gaze shifted to Emma for a brief moment, then returned to Will.

Dread knotted Emma’s back. “What kind of agreement?”

Marcus grinned again, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Insisting that your father create a new daughter was the second-best idea I’ve had in a millennium.”

Will took a step forward. “What do you mean?”

“I’m the reason there’s a new Emmanuella.”

“What could persuade Aiden to do something you wanted? Aiden’s only interested in himself.”

“You.”

Sucking in her breath, Emma shot a glance to Will.

Will’s brow furrowed. “What about me?”

“While Aiden created a daughter and reincarnated her time and time again, I never sired a child. You were my first.”

If Will was surprised by this, he hid it, shifting his weight to the side and raising an eyebrow. “So why now?”

“To end this madness Aiden calls a game. To restore the world to balance.”

“What do I have to do with that?”

“Emmanuella’s been reincarnated so many times, her power has faded. As has Raphael’s and Alex’s. By creating you, I’ve tipped the game to my advantage.”

Will shook his head in disgust. “I didn’t think you were part of the game.”

“It doesn’t matter whether I agreed to the game or not. I’m an element. I’m part of it. I’m tired of waiting and I want this done.”

Emma crossed her arms. “So why a new Emmanuella?”

Marcus watched her for a moment, then smiled. “To have a fresh start. Emmanuella had a tie to Raphael, an unfair alliance. Raphael had exerted so much influence over her through the centuries, she would never pick anyone else. I merely wanted to even the playing field.”

“So why hide my true identity and the fact I have control over water?” Will asked. “Why not tell me from the beginning?”

“It was Aiden’s only insistence. I refused at first. How could you enter the game if you didn’t know who you were when Emmanuella gained her power? So that’s how you became The Chosen One. Aiden said he’d make you her protector, which I’m sure he saw as a safe bet. In over two millenniums, Emmanuella never had any feelings for her protector other than fondness. There was no reason to expect otherwise. On either of our parts.”

“So if I was Emma’s protector, when was I supposed to find out who I was?”

“When Emma came into her powers, she would no longer need you. She would release you.
Then
you would know who you were.”

“So Raphael was right.” Emma murmured. “Even if he didn’t realize the significance of his advice.”

“If Raphael told you that you needed to release Will, yes. You obviously did just that before your encounter with Raphael on the cliff.”

Emma didn’t answer.

“Your predecessor had an advantage that you don’t. She had memories of how to gain her power, who she was. Who Alex and Raphael are. Each time she was reborn, she knew all of this —or at least she began to remember before her untimely demises. Aiden stole those memories from you, but then again, perhaps they weren’t yours to remember. They belonged to the original Emmanuella. In any case, in this round you had no idea how to gain your power, nor that you needed to release Will.”

“Nor the joining words.” Which is why Raphael expected her to know them and why she couldn’t remember them.

“Exactly. If you didn’t know that you had to release Will, he’d never know who he was. And if you didn’t know the words, you couldn’t join with anyone. I suspect it was Aiden’s fallback plan.”

Will shook his head. “Okay, that still doesn’t explain how I fit into all of this. Why enter me into the game? How does that benefit you?”

“Because Emmanuella no longer has—”

Emma tensed.

“Emma,” Will said, taking a step forward. “She prefers Emma.”

Marcus nodded with a slight grin. “
Emma
no longer has a tie to Raphael, which meant she was free to choose anyone. If you were her protector, I had hoped her fondness for you would overshadow any advances from the other two and she would feel a loyalty to you. That she’d pick you. Then Aiden realized that she loved you, and I’m sure he suspected that would give me an unfair advantage when the whole power balance sorted out. So he changed the rules. Again. He stole your memories of Emma, thinking that would stop you two from joining. None of us expected the two of you to be so committed to one another, especially in the short time you were together. Past protectors had months with her, but Aiden insisted the timetable be expedited this time. Probably in hope of cutting any ties on Emma’s part to you.”

“If you made the new rules, how could Aiden change them?”

“Aiden’s a tricky bastard and he’s always looking for a way out. A loophole. I thought I had the bases covered. Obviously, I didn’t. Let this be a lesson to you: if you enter an agreement with Aiden, think it through very carefully.”

Emma didn’t need that spelled out for her. And there would be no agreements unless they all agreed Aiden needed to die.

“So he changed the rules.” Emma swiped stray hairs out of her face. “Now what? I take it that
you
have a backup plan.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “I always have a backup plan.”

They watched him for several seconds before Emma groaned. “Care to elaborate?”

“No. Not right now, you’ll just have to trust I have things under control.”

“The only person I trust is Will.”

Marcus laughed. “Then you’re smart. But the day is coming when you may not be able to trust Will either.”

She cast a quick glance in Will’s direction.

Will’s eyes burned. “Why did you tell Emma that you were her worst nightmare if you say you don’t plan to hurt her?”

“Because in the past, Emmanuella had to choose between Raphael and Alex, and with each new generation it became no longer a choice, but a given. But because of the changes I suggested and I confess, manipulated, she faces a much more painful choice this time.” He looked into Emma’s face. “The time is coming when you will have to choose, but your choices will be Will or Jake.”

The blood in her head pooled in her feet, leaving her lightheaded. “What do you mean, choose Will or Jake?”

Marcus studied her for a moment. “I think you know exactly what I mean. I’m sorry.”

Will tensed.

A chill shot down her spine. She’d have to choose one of them. But hadn’t her father insisted the same thing? Anger burned in her chest and she shook her head. “You’re not sorry. You’re an element and all an element thinks about is himself. So don’t give me your
I’m sorry
shit.”

With a sigh, Marcus lifted his hands at his sides. “Fair enough. And while I’d love to give you more answers, I have an errand I need to run. Go stay somewhere outside of Albuquerque. I’ll come find you and we’ll discuss our next move.”

Will didn’t answer as Marcus backed away and then hurried to his car. He opened the door, leaned down and grabbed something, tossing it toward the car parked in front of his. A moment later he drove down the mountain.

Emma turned to Will. “You’re not seriously planning on going back to Albuquerque and waiting for him, are you?”

“Hell, no. We’re going north. To Santa Fe.”

Chapter Two

As Will watched Marcus drive away, his emotions rolled into in a slow boil of anxiety. Will’s entire life was a fucking lie. Every single bit. Everything except for the woman standing next to him, and he had to get her out of here.

“Why is Raphael’s car still here?” Emma asked, motioning to the sedan pulled off onto the shoulder, the driver’s door standing open. “I thought he took off.”

“He tried, but Marcus took his keys out of the ignition. So he ran.”

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “How do you know that Marcus took his keys? When did you talk to Marcus?”

It all made sense now. The voice in his head after Will had lost his memory. Still, he found the events of the last half hour overwhelming. He took a breath and released it. “He told me in my head. He was the voice in my head when Kramer and his men took me after I lost my memory.” Will looked over his shoulder into the trees. Raphael might have abandoned his car, but that didn’t mean he was gone. “We need to go before Raphael comes back.”

“You plan to take Raphael’s car? How can we if Marcus took his keys?”

“That’s what Marcus tossed toward the car. I want to get out of here in case Raphael figures that out.”

While he searched for the keys, she stood several feet from the sedan, her feet spread apart in a defensive stance, her hands at her sides. Her still damp, long brunette hair blew about her face in the light breeze. The sun had set and the glow of the fires in the valley behind her created a golden aura that gave her a magical look. The moon overhead cast its light on her face revealing her lifted chin, her dark brown eyes alert. She looked wild and ruthless.

And she was his.

She caught his gaze and smiled. “You going to stare at me all night or are we going to get the hell off this mountain?”

“Get in the car.”

Amazingly, she didn’t argue with him. She climbed into the passenger seat and he gave her a worried glance as he sat behind the wheel. She looked paler than usual, even in the moonlight. “Are you okay?”

“Let’s see, in one day I’ve faced my megalomaniac father, had my son taken from me again, gotten attacked by two elements and destroyed a city, was forced to tell the man I love goodbye forever, had my car shoved off a cliff by one of the elements, nearly plunged to my death a couple of times, was magically married to the man I just told goodbye, and found out from another element that he was the cause of my impending Sophie’s Choice.” She gave him a sarcastic grin. “I’m fine.”

“It’s been one hell of day.” He turned the car around and headed back up the mountain. He didn’t want to risk of encountering Raphael until he and Emma had a chance to regroup.

“How did you get down to me so fast?” Emma asked. “I left you a couple of miles up the mountain.”

“Marcus.”

Her eyebrows rose, but she remained silent, leaning the back of her head into the seat.

She’d left Will higher up the mountain after she tried to tell him goodbye forever, at Aiden’s insistence. But Aiden would soon find that his plan had not only failed, but literally spawned a new dimension to the playing field. When Emma had told Will goodbye, it had crushed him. Will knew she’d done it to save him from her father, but Will had pleaded with her to think of another way. Her concern for his safety overruled his protests, however, and she’d used her magic to release him to his destiny. And Marcus was right at his heels. “Marcus showed up and offered me a ride. He told me that I had to save you.” He snorted. “As though I needed any prompting.”

“That makes sense after what he told us. It sounds like he’s been doing some master manipulating of his own.”

Will’s hand tightened on the steering wheel. “He’s an element. We know they aren’t to be trusted.”

“Even though he’s your father?”

“Especially since he’s my father. He’s no better than Aiden as far as I’m concerned. He created me for the sole purpose of winning this fucking game. Just like Aiden created you.”

“But why would he do that? What’s your purpose in all of this? I was created, or shall I say, my
predecessor
was created, as a game piece. They all used Emmanuella for their entertainment. Why would Marcus suddenly create you?”