Chapter 3

Three

Gavin pressed his face into Atlas's shoulder, trying to get his breathing under control. The car beneath him continued to speed away from the coffee shop, engine revving and pressing him harder to Atlas as they took turns at too high a speed.

What the hell was happening?

"Gavin?"

He lifted up, focusing on Atlas's concerned green eyes. Had his eyes always been that green? He couldn't figure out what to ask first, so he just stared.

"You're going to be okay," Atlas said, pulling him closer. "It's the adrenaline wearing off. That's why you're shaking. I promise I'll explain everything. Right now, just breathe."

Looking down at himself, he realized he was shaking. He made himself sit up and take controlled, deep breaths. Atlas didn't try to hold him in place, but stayed close. First things first. "Where are we going?"

"To the seers guild. We call it the Hub."

"Why?"

Atlas tilted his head. "Why are we going there, or why do we call it the Hub?"

Gavin scowled, the question breaking loose the fear that had latched on to him. "Both! And who were those men? Why did they attack the coffee shop?" Darkness descended over the car, making Gavin's heart rate kick up again.

"Easy," Atlas said, reaching out a hand to him. "We just entered the tunnel."

Looking out the window, Gavin saw concrete walls racing by both sides of the car. The only reason he could see them was because the driver had turned the headlights on. Shit, the driver. He snapped his head around to look at the man in the front seat. Who was he? "Who?"

The man met his eyes in the rearview mirror. "Pike. Water mage. Nice to meet you."

"Gavin," he said faintly. He'd never met a mage in his life. No one he'd ever met had, and now he was in the car with two of them, apparently. He'd known they existed, of course, but mages weren't something that came up in everyday conversation unless someone was bad-mouthing paranormals. Charlotte frowned on that. Afterall, paranormals were also people…or people-ish. Some had been completely human at some point in their lives. Like vampires. Vamps were made not born.

He didn't know how mages came to be. As far as he knew, no one did. Maybe that's why people didn't like them.

The darkness of the tunnel retreated as they entered an underground parking structure. Overhead fluorescent lights lit the space in intervals, reflecting off a small fleet of shiny black vehicles. Pike pulled the car smoothly into an empty space, shot them a wink through the rearview, and hopped out of the vehicle.

"Why did you bring me here?"

Atlas met his gaze, brows drawn together. "To protect you. Those men weren't there just to attack the coffee shop. They were after you, Gavin."

"But—"

Atlas cut him off. "Let's go meet the seer. She'll explain everything. I promise." Gently, Atlas took his hand and gave it a squeeze. "You're in no danger here, Gavin."

He knew that. Somehow. It didn't make the questions building up in his mind like a house of cards feel any less precarious.

Atlas opened the door and stepped out. When Gavin didn't immediately follow, he leaned down, looking into the car and holding out his hand.

Gavin looked from that outstretched hand up into Atlas's green eyes. Taking a breath, he slid his hand into Atlas's and let himself be pulled from the car. Once his feet were on the ground, he expected Atlas to let him go. He didn't.

"The elevator is over here." Moving toward the front of the garage, Atlas kept his pace slow enough that Gavin didn't have to struggle to keep up with him. The top of his head only came up to Atlas's shoulders. The difference in their sizes was extra apparent without the coffee counter between them.

When they reached the wall, Atlas poked the up button.

"Did Pike take the elevator?"

Atlas looked down at him. "No, he usually takes the stairs."

That must be what the large door farther down the wall was. The garage didn't seem as big as a standard parking garage. The dark concrete walls were actually comprised of individual stones making the building seem a lot older than the cars and sleek silver elevator suggested.

The doors slid open. Atlas led him inside and pressed the top button on the panel. There were five of them, but they weren't labeled.

Gavin frowned. Atlas's hand was warm and encompassing. As the elevator started to rise, he stepped a little closer to his protector. How many times had Atlas sat in the coffee shop, sipping his drink and sending little smiles Gavin's way? It'd never felt creepy. Never felt threatening. He supposed if Atlas had wanted to hurt him, he could have done it a hundred times over by now.

The elevator came to a smooth stop. There were no floor numbers displayed. No electronic voice to tell them what destination they'd reached. Gavin held his breath as the doors slid open.

White marble floor with gray swirls greeted them. The walls were lighter, too, an off-white that made the narrow hallway they entered seem less cramped. There was only one door. Atlas pushed it open.

Inside, the room was large and circular, and there must have been more than ten doors fighting for space along the curving wall. In the center, a round fire pit made up of light-colored stones filled the space with crackling warmth. Gavin wondered where the smoke went until his eyes landed on the woman standing on the far side of the fire. She wore simple clothes—white leggings, an oversized sweatshirt, and cloth, warm-looking house shoes. Her hair was violet, a shade he'd only ever seen in the sky during truly spectacular sunsets, and long enough the ends dragged the ground as she moved toward them.

"Gavin," she said, voice like velvet. "I'm so glad you're safe."

As she got close, Gavin realized she was older than he'd originally thought. Deep lines surrounded her eyes when she smiled. They didn't take away from her ethereal beauty, though. He knew deep within himself that this was a creature of magic the likes of which he'd never come into contact with before.

With a soft smile, she held out her hands to him. "Will you come sit with me, Gavin? I can see that you have many questions."

"Can Atlas stay?"

Her eyes, the same color as her hair, glanced over at Atlas before coming back to Gavin. "Of course."

He took the hand she offered. Her skin was like ice. Atlas gave his other hand a squeeze and let him go, but followed right behind them. Gavin wondered where they'd sit as he hadn't seen any furniture in the room when they'd entered, but as they approached the fire pit, he saw two couches sitting around it now. He blinked. Those couches hadn't been there even a second ago. And they hadn't just appeared. He'd been looking at that space, and surely he would have seen couches materialize out of thin air! But he hadn't. They hadn't been there, and now they were.

He swallowed hard, his heart rate picking up speed again.

The woman sat in the corner of one of the couches, tucking one leg up underneath herself, and motioned at the seat beside her.

Sitting, he half expected to fall right through the mystery cushions and end up on the floor, but the couch was plush, comfortable, and warm like it had been sitting there long enough to absorb the fire's warmth.

"I'm sorry this is all so overwhelming. Typically, we try not to throw everything at a carrier at once, but I'm afraid the Humans Against Paranormals group—the men who attacked you—have made easing you into this impossible." She smiled again, apologetic.

"Carrier?" Why in the world would she think it was the Humans Against Paranormals who had attacked him? He wasn't paranormal. Oh no. What if they knew about Charlotte?

"Gavin." Her voice, changed from the soft tone of before, pierced through him like an icepick, stopping his runaway thoughts. "Please. Allow me to start at the beginning, but trust me, as sorry as I am to say it, those men were there for you and you alone."

He looked at Atlas, watching him settle on the other couch while those words sank into his bones. Was that why Atlas always watched him? Because the seer knew those men would be coming for him? That thought, more than anything else so far, turned his stomach sour. Dropping his eyes, he cleared his throat before focusing on the seer.

If she could read his mind right now, she didn't give it away. "A carrier is someone, a human, who carries mage magic in their blood. You're a carrier, Gavin. That's why those men were after you."

"But…I don't have magic! I'm a barista!"

"You don't have magic at the moment, but if you chose to, you could. The magic is in you. Passed down through the generations of your family."

His mind whirled. "That doesn't make any sense. If I am a carrier, or whatever, how would they even know? Is there a blood test for that?"

She shook her head. "I wish I had an answer for you about that, but I don't. We don't know how they're discovering carriers. Only that they've begun targeting them. The power I have to see carriers has always brought them to my attention only when the universe sees fit. Now that HAP is targeting carriers, however, it seems to be bringing me visions when carriers are in danger."

"You said, if I chose to. What does that mean?"

"Exactly that. I believe one of the reasons HAP has taken such an interest in carriers is because you're human. Fully human, but you can choose not to be."