Bombshell (Monstrous Ink #2)

Chapter 17

S omehow I think I’ve been kidnapped, I realized dazedly as I came to with my wrists bound in what could only be magic dampening shackles. Only those could fill my body with the sensation of buzzing static, making it hard to find the core of my magic.

I was lying in cold sand as the sounds of voices and dripping water filled my ears.

The last thing I remembered was stepping through the massive front doors of the Mayor’s mansion and seeing James Reid’s stupid face and then nothing.

It was obvious now that the person texting me with Odette’s phone hadn’t been her at all—I thought it was weird that she wasn’t using any emojis but I just figured she was having a rough time.

Now I knew better and felt like such an idiot.

“You can’t just attach her to a magical orb and leave her in this cave, Arsenio, that wasn’t the deal!” Alexander’s voice made my ears ache as he shouted .

“No, the deal was you create a Guardian for the source—one that can live longer than a measly few centuries and I keep you and your coven up in their current lifestyles with my wealth.”

“That was before I knew that the Guardian can’t leave the Source ever. That’s my daughter. In what world would you think I’d ever be okay with that?”

“I don’t know, Alexander, you were doing a pretty good job of not caring about her for the last fifty years—what’s another millennium or so? She’ll outlive you anyway.”

Ouch . I wasn’t sure if that insult was supposed to hurt Alexander’s feelings or mine but I was definitely catching strays as I continued to lie on the floor of what I was now pretty sure was a cave.

It’s an awful cave, my mysterious voice friend whispered in my mind, faintly. But it wasn’t so bad when he was alive in it too .

He? I asked. Who is he?

My Guardian.

A wizened, but handsome face flashed in my mind.

I’d had a sneaking suspicion that the voice in my head—the one that gave me the ability to create a barrier around Daphne’s baby—was the very Source that everyone kept talking about.

I frowned, rolling onto my back with a soft groan. I thought you were a magical artifact.

I am , was her simple reply.

Artifacts can’t talk.

There was a small, sad giggle. But I can .

“Alexander, If we don’t do this then the entire town is about to be destroyed by a tsunami, and I don’t know about you but my swimming skills are limited to a temperature controlled lap pool,” Arsenio said, oblivious to the silent conversation I was having with his Source.

Even as he spoke I could hear a roar in the distance. My thoughts went to Dallan and everyone else at Monstrous Ink.

Why are you trying to destroy the town? I asked, suddenly panicked. What did we ever do to you?

Not you, the Source said, him .

Arsenio’s face flashed in my mind along with a scene that made my heart hurt.

The scene unfolded before me, the Source seeming to provide answers to my questions as I watched.

He was getting old. Druids live for a long time, but not forever , she whispered sadly. I started giving him some of my power to help him live longer. I thought no one would notice. That man never cared what I did as long as I maintained his barrier .

The druid Guardian in my vision started to de-age, and even started to sing and dance around the cave again, his laughter almost infectious.

It was like he was young again, like he used to be when he was first put in this cave, the Source continued. And then that man came and said he wasn’t needed any more. That he’d found a new Guardian. He made me stop helping him and…

The druid began to re-age at a rapid pace until he faded away into a cloud of dust .

He took him from me. A rage so palpable filled my head that it made me wince.

And so you started to mess with the climate, I finished for her, finally putting together the last of the puzzle pieces of the mysterious spring we’d all had.

I’m old. I’ve been alive longer than humans have walked this Earth and the only thing that breaks up the monotony of this dreadful life is my Guardians—especially since I can’t leave whatever hole Arsenio Sidhe throws me into.

Why can’t you just leave? I asked, confused. I can feel your power and I doubt even Arsenio can beat it .

Because he has my name.

I stiffened. To the fae, names meant everything and if the Source was a fae artifact, then it stood to reason they would be held to the same standard.

“I don’t give a shit if Port Haven drops off of the face of the earth,” Alexander continued. While I was talking with the Source, it was as if time had slowed down so that we could talk, but now it seemed to be moving as it should again and their conversation continued. “You are not trapping my child in a cave!”

For almost seventy years I’d wanted nothing more than for Alexander Finch to speak about me like this. To show that he cared. To stick up for me against Arsenio.

It was too bad that it took me being basically magically Gorilla glued to an ancient artifact being for him to finally figure his shit out .

With a groan I sat up and opened my eyes.

“I’ll do it,” I said, my voice rough like I’d been screaming despite having no memory of doing so.

“No,” Alexander said from where he was kneeling in front of Arsenio, looking worse for wear than I’d ever seen him. He had two black eyes, cuts on his cheek and neck, and the suit he was wearing had seen better days as it hung haphazardly off of his hunched frame.

He was also sporting a pair of lovely magic dampening handcuffs that had rubbed his wrists completely raw. “You don’t know what you are signing up for, Euphemia.”

“But I do,” I told him, putting my legs underneath me so that I could wobble to my feet. “I do this, the tsunami stops, right?”

Arsenio’s smile was sharp and slow as he turned to face me fully. “Right you are, Euphemia. It seems there’s at least one Finch who understands what must be done.”

“Get these cuffs off of me,” I told him, ignoring his smug tone.

James materialized to my left, an equally annoying look on his face as he used the magical key to unlock the dampening bracelets.

No, you can’t do this, the Source whispered in my mind. Just let me destroy this place once and for all.

And then what happens to all of the people you hurt in the process? My friends, my family? They didn’t hurt you, Arsenio did.

The Source was silent for a beat before giving an exasperated sigh. If you do this, you will be beholden to Arsenio for centuries and maybe even for eternity. You are a brand new being, even I don’t know how long you will live. That means you and I will be connected. Forever. Whatever Arsenio says, we do and I know how much you hate him.

I ignored her and approached Arsenio who gestured to a basin of water in the center of the cave.

“What do I have to do?” I asked him.

“ Euphemia ,” Alexander tried to scoot in between Arsenio and me, but I didn’t look at him, afraid his face and sudden fatherly instincts would shake my resolve. “Think about this. You won’t be able to leave this cave. Ever. What about Dallan and the rest of the people at that shop of yours?”

I glanced down at him and found a pleading look on his face, his dark brows drawing together with misery.

“They won’t exist if a tsunami washes everything away,” I told him softly before turning back to the basin and looking inside. There, underneath some of the clearest water I’d ever seen, sat a glowing brooch.

“That’s the Source, Euphemia, all you have to do is touch it and let it mold to your magic,” Arsenio instructed, but I ignored him.

Seriously? I asked, you have all of this power and you’re a tacky-looking brooch ?

The Source snorted. I didn’t pick it, but that’s another, much longer story. My true form is much more beautiful than this ugly thing.

I see… I reached for the brooch.

Wait! The Source stopped me. Are you sure you want to do this?

To protect my family? Definitely.

I’d spent my entire life trying to prove to everyone that my existence was more than an experiment gone wrong. That I was more than the halfling who didn’t fit in with either of the worlds I seemed to be straddling.

If all of it culminated in my being able to keep Dallan and the rest of my people safe… then so be it.

I reached forward, plunging my hand into the surprisingly warm water and wrapped my fingers around the brooch.

“Effie, no!” Dallan’s Scottish brogue filled my ears just as white enveloped my vision.

“What happened?” I asked out loud, my voice echoing in the vast blankness.

“This is what being the Guardian is,” the Source said as a pale woman appeared in front of me. She was taller than me but so thin that it looked like a stray breeze would blow her right away.

Not that there was any breeze in here.

“But the other Guardian—the druid—he lived in the cave,” I said, confused as I looked around at the white backdrop.

The Source’s smile was sad as she lifted a hand and our blank surroundings melted into a replica of the cave. “We’re bonded together, Effie, which means that we live in your head and there’s no leaving it now.”

“That’s—” I glanced around at the fake-cave and the realization at what I’d just done began to sink in. “So, I won’t go back? Ever?”

The Source shook her head. “The amount of magic it would take for us to detach from one another…”

She didn’t have to finish her sentence. I already knew. It would take an impossible amount of magic. I was stuck here.

And the worst part of it all?

I could still hear Dallan’s voice calling my name.