Gift (Enchanted Ardor #2)

Chapter Eighteen

Gena Black sat on the floor of her small apartment, facing the gold lamp set on the coffee table before her. Her fingers curled with the effort to hold the scrying spell she cast against the polished side of the gold vessel that harnessed her magic.

Olivia.

Since the moment she felt Olivia’s absence from her auric field, she’d gone into a panic.

For two days she’d done all she could to find her closest friend. Her only family.

Olivia hadn’t answered her phone, despite the numerous calls and messages.

Gena had gone to Liv’s apartment, finding it abandoned as though she’d just gone out for the day.

So many worries bombarded her, ramping up her anxiety, till breathing was a struggle with the urge to vomit.

Despite her aversion to go out into public spaces, she’d done so after studying Olivia’s planner.

Sunday she was due to work at the soup kitchen. Often Olivia would normally call Gena to check in on her and share updates as she ran her bath for the evening.

Gena spoke to Molly at the soup kitchen, who relayed what had happened with this Anderson human, then suggested she speak to Constable Graham Greer with the local police.

Her anger over these actions, and fear for Olivia’s safety, overrode concerns over her own need to remain hidden from the world.

I have to find her, she repeated to herself.

And now, after two days of speaking to strangers and working spells to track Olivia’s whereabouts, which had led her to a hotel rooftop, Gena feared the worst.

But there’d been no body discovered beyond the ledge. She’d apported herself up there to investigate for herself. The trail just … ended. Mid-air.

Someone had taken her.

This Nicholas person that she’d left the community kitchen with.

Gena couldn’t make sense of the mix of magical signatures on the rooftop.

Fear elevated to rage, unable to trace the one person that was more important to her eternal life than anyone else.

With a deep, deep breath to control the surge of emotion—as Olivia had taught her—she went home to think.

Now, after hours of focusing her limited power to find her friend, sweat beaded on her forehead and her fingers ached as she finally found the tiniest of gaps that suddenly opened, reconnecting Olivia’s energy to hers.

She nearly cried as relief flooded her.

“Olivia!” She groaned, struggling to hold the magic.

Gena would not let that hook go and doubled down to push her power through the fissure to reach Olivia through the open frequency to a realm beyond the earthly one.

With a burst of glittering black smoke, she shoved her essence along the frequency, trying to reach Olivia.

If she could just touch her, it might be enough to pull her to safety from her captors.

“Olivia!” She screamed at the image reflected in the side of her golden lamp, allowing her rage and fear to ripple through the connection.

Her magic halted, frozen in place.

Who is strong enough to stop my power?

A tall blond man stood between Gena’s mist and Olivia, blocking them from each other. He fit the description the humans had given her.

A shorter, bearded man—a dwarf shoved an activated rune toward Gena’s mist trying to entrap her.

A resurgence of fear ripped through her.

No!

“Gena?” Olivia’s voice floated through the connection. “Gena, is that you?”

“Stop it from getting in, you must protect the grove!” A female voice intruded along the open fissure connecting the access points to Olivia’s location.

“Wait, Nick, stop! It’s Gena. She’s terrified. I can feel her fear.” Olivia’s voice broke through. “Gena, it’s okay—I’m okay.”

The second the hold on Gena’s magic broke, she shoved forward again.

The blond man’s hand jerked to stop her, but Olivia’s hand grasped his, stopping him. “Nick, no. It’s Gena.”

“Who is this Gena?” the other female voice demanded.

“She’s my friend. She’s a Djinn.” Olivia shouted. “Nick, please.”

At his nod, all attempts to stop Gena from filtering along the power frequency ceased, allowing her to flow through enough, gathering her particles into a vague mass.

Olivia reached for her.

Gena enveloped her with her black mist, reassuring herself that Olivia was indeed whole and safe. At least for the moment.

“Your power, Gena, don’t drain yourself.” Olivia pleaded.

Retracting her particles, she demanded “Where the fuck are you, Olivia?”

Dolph eased up the tower steps on silent feet, mindful of any creaks in the worn wood, fists clenching and unclenching as his heart thumped in his ears. The pressure within him expanded, the closer he moved to the portal.

If he was close to the fissure, the connection he sought strengthened when Cupid opened the frequency. When he locked it closed, the connection was little more than an underlying hum in his system.

He closed his eyes, seeking that sliver of awareness.

Where are you? There’s another portal, but it will take time to reach it.

Are you there?

The shouts tumbling down the stairwell froze him in place.

Have we been discovered? Has it started already? I told her to wait.

Too soon.

At the landing, he held his breath, listening, ever listening.

That was all he seemed to do any more.

She promised.

Fear rippled through Dolph’s chest.

It could be a lie.

Worth the risk.

How much longer?

Gena? Who is Gena?

Not her. But who, then?

Dolph leaned around the thick beam supporting the roof, licking his dry lips.

He blinked, trying to make sense of the scene.

Three polished mirrors reflected individuals looking on as Cupid, Nick and his human spoke to a glittering black cloud writhing in the center of the room.

Another?

But he’d never seen it like this.

His pulse galloped.

Another!

This one made Dolph’s black mist seem lesser than. Incomplete.

He strained to hear their exchange.

“Your power, Gena, don’t drain yourself.” Olivia pleaded.

Retracting her particles, she demanded “Where the fuck are you, Olivia?”

“Don’t tell it anything. It’s a trickster,” Cupid growled, still struggling to figure out how to close the fissure and break the being’s access.

“No, she isn’t. Gena is my friend.”

“Djinn don’t have friends.”

Olivia spun toward Cupid. “That’s a mean thing to say, and yes, they do. It’s Gena’s magic that has granted me such a long life.”

“Olivia, come home.” The black mist extended a limb.

Olivia’s hand rose to meet it, fingers extended.

“She can’t, there’s something trying to hurt her. That’s why she’s here.”

“Anderson?”

“And something like you—some black entity tried to touch her.”

“It felt wrong and smelled of sulfur.”

“Olivia, I can’t hold this portal open much longer.” Its voice grew thin as the mist began to recoil into the polished mirrors. “My wards will protect you—,” the misty limb lunged, wrapping itself around Olivia’s wrist.

“No,” Nick intervened, his magic colliding with the entity’s as he grabbed Olivia’s other arm.

Something popped and the mist exploded into the room.

Olivia screamed, reaching for it.

The pressure within Dolph surged, stealing his breath away for a few seconds.

The being spilled into the room, tumbling to the floor, forming into the ghostly shadow of a woman on her hands and knees. “What have you done? I can’t exist here.” She snarled up at Nick.

Dolph watched with excited interest.

Could this one get me out of here?

‘You would betray our agreement?’ the familiar voice finally loomed in his mind.

‘No, I thought you abandoned me, not answering my call.’

‘You answer my summons, Alfar.’

‘Look.’

Dolph leaned so that the entity could see what he saw. The group in communication, and the new arrival.

‘Leave! Before she senses us.’ The voice boomed through his consciousness, causing his very bones to vibrate as the command sent him rushing down the stairs, losing some of its power the further from the portal he moved.

‘I can’t hear what’s going on.’ Dolph protested.

‘If she discovers us, it could ruin all our efforts while she is attached to that human.’

‘No, there’s another portal opening, but it’s much further away.’

‘You said yourself there wasn’t much time left, get rid of her. Breaking their connection will eliminate both of them as threats to our mission.’

Dolph’s chest rose and fell. ‘Kill her?’

‘If you want out of that place, uphold your end of the plan. We need access to those seeds and the timing is imperative. The seeds for your freedom.’

‘You’re sure your magic will work?’ Dolph pressed as he darted a glance around to ensure he wasn’t observed leaving the tower.

‘You can stay there for eternity.’

Or oblivion. Worth the risk.

‘I’ll find a way to get you through.’ He rushed along the path lining Cupid and Vixen’s cottage as he made his way back to the hall.

The connection faded, though it remained a steady hum, digging at his consciousness.

He clenched his fists against the overwhelming need for a drink to settle the growing chaos within him. It quieted the ever-present noise.

“If those little fucking Nisse haven’t drained every last drop.”

Nick stared at the shadowy woman gripping Olivia’s hand, unable to believe this was a Djinn.

After a lengthy discussion with the Fate sisters and the Council head—once he’d convinced Cupid to calm himself—they’d exchanged as much information as cautiously possible under the new circumstances. Cupid had shut everything down, warded the portal and they had regrouped at his place.

For the entirety of his long, long life, he’d always believed that the Djinn were on par with the Gods.

This creature held no resemblance to that belief.

He also reminded himself what the world believed himself to be. And he was not that either.

He passed Olivia a mug of warm cider from Vixen’s tray, who’d kept her distance despite her deep need to be hospitable to guests. He ignored her thin lipped, disapproving glare.

“Hey, this is all your doing,” he reminded her. “You and Cupid conspired and this is the results of your interference.”

“We didn’t expect your mate to come attached.” Vixen snapped, jerking the empty serving tray away.

“We’re not ‘attached’. We’re friends.” Olivia’s voice remained level, even though she’d said as much many times since Gena’s unorthodox arrival.

“Well, technically, we are.” Gena looked down at their hands. “A thread of my magic runs through you, maintaining our… friendship.”

“You mean my life. Yes, well, that’s different. You’re not some entity whispering in my ear, telling me what to do.”

The Djinn smiled. “No. You’ve always done as you pleased—what you think is right, regardless of my warnings.”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “You make it sound as though I’m always getting into trouble, Gena.”

Gena’s answer was a shrug and a very pointed look around at their surroundings.

“This doesn’t count—oh, you know what I mean,” Olivia huffed.

“Nick, I don’t like this. We can’t regulate her.”

Gena turned to Cupid. “While your system is a sound one, you never know if any of those other four in your frequency could have infiltrated something else.”

“Four? No, we had three people in that call that you crashed.”

“There were four energy signatures in that feed.” Gena insisted. “Three female and one male.”

“That’s not possible.” Cupid growled.

“And yet, I got through due to my connection with Olivia, once you opened the frequency. I couldn’t find her before that.” Gena’s misty face turned to Olivia. “I can’t stay here, Olivia. Neither of us belong here. You need to come back. I need to get back before I’m lost. And you too.”

“But you’re Djinn.” Olivia objected. “Your power is immense. Well, except for the whole lamp binding your powers thing. Is it because of that?”

“In part, yes, but as powerful as Djinn are, we are also limited to our world, where my power originates. As I said, I can only be here at all because of our connection. By all rights, you should not be here either, Olivia. We both need to go back.”

“I will return her once we ensure her safety. We need to deal with this shadow threat.”

“We need to deliver the harvest first,” Cupid reminded everyone, as though they’d forgotten. “This is just a distraction.”

“It is,” Gena agreed. “Let me take Olivia home. My apartment is warded—,”

“Wait, go back to the bit where you said there were four in that call aside from yourself,” Vixen pressed. “Not three.”

Gena nodded. “Faint but definite. And brief. It came in right before I was ejected into this realm and disappeared shortly after. I was so focused on Olivia that I barely paid attention to it, let alone the others there.”

Nick pinched his lip in thought, pulse ticking. “Dolph suggested maybe Quinn had a leak, that’s how they found Olivia.”

Cupid shook his head. “They had runes to enable direct access to the frequency.”

“With the portal frame, there needs to be some direct connection to ride the frequency.” Vixen said. “Like the runes.”

“Or Gena’s connection to me.” Olivia turned worried eyes to Nick.

“So someone else had a rune or a connection of their own.”

“But how? Sleipnir and I are the only ones that come and go.” Nick’s gut churned, as his thoughts turned to his brother.

No.

“And the Nisse.”

Nick grunted. “Well yes, but they wouldn’t allow infiltration. Their magic is very specific to them.”

“But what if there is no portal container? Like that new one that opened? Can anyone come through it?”

Vixen nodded. “If the frequency and coordinates are discovered.”

“Is there someone here that would do that?” Olivia’s gaze flicked from Nick to Cupid and Vixen who pinned their attention on Nick.

Nick rolled his shoulders, shaking his head.

“Nick.” Vixen’s voice was unyielding.

“No.”

“Nick.” Cupid straightened his spine, “There is only one who has ever been miserable of this place. The one that caused us to be here in the first place.”

“Not after all this time.” Nick didn’t meet their eyes. He couldn’t, no matter that the thoughts had occurred to him.

I can’t lay the blame of everything that goes wrong at his feet.

“Dolph hasn’t changed, Nick.” Vixen insisted.

“Not in all this time.” Cupid added. “And he still can’t touch the seeds. That says enough, doesn’t it?”

“He can’t?” Olivia’s voice pulled Nick’s gaze to her lovely face. “But he helps with the work here?”

He shook his head. “The only one here that can’t.”

“They shrivel and blacken.” Vixen said. “He works on other things. Tending dead wood, building and repairing the cottages. Everything else.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s the one—,”

“Who else, Nick? I told you he’s been lurking about the tower.”

Nick glared at the snap of Cupid’s voice.

Vixen rubbed a hand on Nick’s arm, voice soft. “He’s ever been your weakness.”

“Test it.” Gena said. “Open the frequency, and I’ll try to track the connection.”

“I don’t know that we should be trusting ye, either.” Cupid scowled.

“You went to a lot of trouble to get me here and insisted I stay here with Nick.” Olivia said.

Cupid nodded. “Aye, and?”

“Trust me?”

Cupid chewed over his thoughts but finally nodded again. “It were the fates that brought ye to us.”

“Good, then you’ll let us help figure this out. There isn’t much time before Christmas Eve.”