His hands rested on my shoulders, then moved down over my breasts and lingered.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I said. “I’m breastfeeding.”
The Fae were hot-blooded, but not earthy, and that reminder of my human side repelled him as I’d hoped it would.
James dropped his hands and stepped away and his eyes once again went flat.
I didn’t know much about interdimensional communication, but I did know that it took huge storehouses of energy to maintain the link, which explained this now-you-see-him-now-you-don’ t rhythm.
Laria started to cry and I felt her distress in every cell. Considering the odds were against me I was surprisingly calm. What were my choices? I could walk away and leave my baby in Dane’s hands or I could stand and fight.
But whether I won or lost, I would be with my baby. That certainty helped me to hold it together.
“She likes you,” I said, referencing that oddly sweet moment in the Jeep.
James nodded. Was I crazy or did I see a flicker of something behind those dead eyes?
“You’re good with babies,” I said again. “She sensed that.”
Definitely a flicker.
“She’s hungry,” he said. “He hasn’t fed her.”
My nursing bra felt damp with milk. I was grateful for the layers of sweater and coat.
“I can take care of that if you could help me get to her.”
He shook his head.
“Please,” I said, throwing caution to the wind. “I know this isn’t your fault. I know he has you under some kind of spell. I know he needs a physical presence in this dimension. Please help me get to my baby. I’m her mother. She needs me.”
He’s weakening . . . come on, James . . . you can do it . . . let me get my baby and we’ll fight him together . . .
He lifted me off my feet and slammed me to the ground, knocking the breath from my body. The wild, white-hot fire was back in his eyes and my heart sank.
“The baby comes with me,” he said, his booted foot resting squarely on my still-tender belly. I gasped as he leaned his weight into it. “The rest is negotiable.”
The pain radiated through my midsection, sharp, stomach-turning pain that made me dizzy.
“. . . And she’s the key to everything . . . ,” he was saying. “With her powers and pedigree on our side there will be no stopping us.”
“Sh-she’s an infant,” I managed as I rocketed toward the outer limits of my pain threshold. “You know how it is for descendants of Aerynn. She has no powers. It will be years before she’s of any use to you.”
“And that will give us years to make her one of us.” He eased up slightly and the nausea receded. “Years to teach her all there is to learn about our world.” He swept me up into his arms and cradled me against his rock-hard chest. “Years for you to mother her the way she deserves.”
He put all the power of the Fae behind his words. I could feel his heat burning through the layers of clothing that lay between us. The look in his icy blue eyes was fiery, compelling, desperately seductive on levels I hadn’t known existed until that moment.
It would be so easy to let go, to stand down and let Sugar Maple finds its own way, build its own future without a Hobbs in the lead. If I chose the avenue Dane opened to me Luke would be free to step back into the world he had left behind. A world filled with family who loved him, who wanted him to be happy, who would be there for him through good and bad. All the things that loving me denied him.
Elspeth had already lost her earth existence over this. Wasn’t that enough?
No matter how hard we tried we would never have a normal life. No matter how much I wanted to be part of the MacKenzie clan, I would always be the outsider, hiding my true self behind walls knitted of secrets and half-truths and lies.
Dane knew me too well. We had grown up in the same small village. He knew my weaknesses. He knew my dreams. He knew I had spent my life longing for my mother’s touch and that nothing short of death would tear me away from my baby. His words began to work their magick.
I’d be with my baby. Luke would be free to have the type of life he deserved, with a human wife and lots of kids who could play with their cousins without worrying they might set off some magick bombs.
I couldn’t fight it any longer. It seemed I had been fighting my entire life to fit in and always falling short. I had fulfilled the first part of my destiny. Laria was proof of that. Now I needed to guide her toward fulfilling her own destiny. I heard
Luke calling my name, but I refused to acknowledge him. I was giving him back his life. He was a mortal man like my father. He deserved a life as open and loving as his heart, a life filled with family and children and a mortal woman who wasn’t afraid to take those vows.
I was no match for a Fae at the height of his powers. Dane wasn’t even in this dimension and he could still bend Fae and human alike to his will. My powers, at their current level, wouldn’t be able to touch him and might only endanger Luke and the baby.
So there it was. The decision had been made. I opened my mouth to speak and realized Dane was gone and the real James remained. My resolve went out the window and hope filled my soul.
I had one more chance at my happy ending.
“He’s been lying to you, James. You don’t have to do this.”
The flicker of life I’d noticed before grew stronger.
“Help me rescue my daughter and I’ll help you make a home in Sugar Maple. He can’t touch you there.”
“I know about Sugar Maple. That’s where his accident happened. The town is deadly for Fae.”
I hoped he didn’t know I was the one who had banished Isadora from this realm into eternity. That wouldn’t exactly help my case.
“Did he tell you he tried to kill me? Did he tell you he tried to kill my baby’s father? Did he tell you that he killed my parents when I was a little girl? The problem wasn’t with the Fae, it was with Dane and his mother, Isadora.”
James didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. I saw it in his eyes.
“The Salem Fae moved to Sugar Maple this past spring. Do you think they would have done that if Fae were being hunted down there?”
The flicker of life dimmed, then reignited. Any second Dane would take over and I’d be out of chances.
“Humans lie.”
“I’m only part human.”
“You’d lie to save your baby.”
“You’re right. I would. But I’m not lying now. You don’t have to believe me, but would you believe the Salem Fae if they told you themselves?”
I had him. I could see him wavering. Whatever hold Dane had over him wasn’t absolute. There were openings in the darkness where light could still get in.
“Please give me the baby, James. Give her to me. If you want me to, I’ll summon the Salem Fae right now and they can tell you themselves.”
There was goodness inside him still. I knew there was. Dane hadn’t completed the process of turning him toward evil.
“Laria likes you, James. I saw how kind you were to her, but she needs her mother. Please, I’m begging you to bring her to me before it’s too late.”
I was surprised Dane hadn’t reclaimed James by now. Had I made a terrible mistake and somehow played into his hands? Dane was both smart and cunning and it wouldn’t have taken him long to figure out what I was up to. Was I really talking to James or was Dane playing the part? All I could do was pray I was right.
“Hurry, James. We’re running out of time.”
Just give me the baby. That’s all you have to do.
He took a step toward Laria. I swear I stopped breathing. He glanced around, then took another step and another, then grabbed the handle of the car seat with Laria in it. Her eyes were wide and she seemed to be staring straight up at him as he turned toward me.
“Take her,” he said.
I stepped forward but was again driven back by the invisible force field.
“You have to bring her to me. I can’t get past the barrier.” The same barrier he had breached twice already with no ill effects.
I had never before seen a Fae sweat, but beads of perspiration were streaming down James’s face. We had that much in common. I had passed into another level of fear entirely.
Don’t do it.
The voice emanating from James’s body was pure Dane.
Deliver the baby to me, James.
“Don’t listen to him,” I said as fear threatened to choke off my oxygen. “I’m her mother. You know what you should do, James.”
She’s human. She lies. We are the same blood. Give me the child.
“James!” I didn’t even try to hide the panic in my voice. “Don’t take her from me. Please, I’m begging you, don’t give my baby to Dane!”
Laria started to cry, her tiny face growing red with the effort. James looked down at her with concern and in that instant I knew I had won.
Don’t do it, James. Stop now while you still can.
But he didn’t stop. He took another step toward me and then another until we were just a couple of feet apart. Sweat was pouring down his face, beading his eyelashes, actually soaking through his sweater. I could almost smell his terror. But that terror didn’t stop him.
“Take her,” James said. “I don’t want her to—”
Those were his last words.
32
CHLOE
A hole in the sky the size of a baseball opened above the blazing treetops and a lightning bolt shot out and struck James dead center.
I screamed as he exploded into a shower of sparks and opalescent glitter like fireworks on the Fourth of July. The car seat with Laria in it shot straight upward, then fell back to earth.
Without Laria.
“Laria!” My cry ripped from my throat. “Where’s my baby?”
The cell phone in my pocket vibrated against my leg. A second later I heard Dane’s voice.
“She’s with me. I told you I would win. Why did you doubt it?”
Luke answered before I could. “If you hurt my daughter, I’ll kill you. I don’t give a shit where you are, I’ll find you, and when I do, I’ll kill you.”
I spun around to see Luke dragging himself slowly, painfully, toward where I stood. “Don’t do this, Luke. Stay back.”
I have a plan, Luke. Look at my eyes. Just go with it.
I could feel the energies swirling around me. I knew there was more to come and I wanted to save Luke.
“Here’s a proposition for you, Chloe,” Dane’s voice intoned. “I kill the human and you join your daughter.”
“Go to hell,” Luke snapped.
“I have one for you, Dane,” I said. “Spare the human and I’ll join my daughter.”
“Final answer?” Dane sounded amused, like a man who knew he had won the war.
“Final answer,” I said.
“Make him show you Laria is safe,” Luke whispered. “Don’t trust him. Make him prove she’s okay.”
I ignored him.
Let this play out my way, Luke. You’ve got to trust me on this.
Dane’s powers were obviously limited. Every time he had projected his force into this dimension to take action, he had needed a short time to recuperate. I had noticed it first in his struggle to control James and again after the lightning bolt.
Why did he stop with one lightning bolt when he could have killed Luke with a second strike? The truth was he couldn’t. We had to be ready to grab one of those windows of opportunity and act quickly. Then we might have a chance.
“So how do I join you?” I asked after casting a protective spell over Luke.
The wait for a response seemed interminable. “Repeat the joining words and you’ll be transported.”
“What are they?”
“Not yet, sweet Chloe.”
“Will I see Laria?”
“You don’t trust me?” he countered.
“When it comes to my daughter I don’t trust anyone. Show her to me and then I’ll say the words.” I counted to sixty and then I counted to sixty again. “I’m waiting, Dane. Is something wrong? Show me Laria and I’m yours.”
I heard Luke’s sharp intake of breath and I had to force myself not to send him a reassuring look. Dane was everywhere, like a Fae surveillance camera with a three-hundred-sixty-degree view. I had to stay focused.
I was becoming more convinced by the second that Laria wasn’t with Dane. Inflicting pain was his lifeblood. If he had her, he wouldn’t be able to keep from bragging about his victory. The sight of his baby daughter with Dane would have driven Luke over the edge. Cruelty was as natural to Dane as breathing. There was no way he would have missed an opportunity to twist the knife.
But if Laria wasn’t with Dane, where was she?
I didn’t believe Dane had the power to move her into his dimension. He had needed James to do that, same as he needed a spoken-words charm to transport me. Something had happened during the explosion that enabled Laria to be taken from Dane’s grasp, but what? If only Elspeth were still with us. She had woven all manner of protective spells over the baby. Was it possible one of them had kicked in and saved her?