Chapter 10

TEN

COLLINS

“Are you cold?” Bash’s voice was low and calm as he walked next to me.

“No, it’s warmer here than in New York.” The white catsuit provided some warmth, but in New Orleans this time of year, the weather was mild enough that I wasn’t sweating or freezing my ass off. “We’ve just been walking around in circles for half an hour. This map makes no sense.”

The sounds of jazz filled the air. It drifted on the wind like a song the entire city sang. People roamed the streets looking for a thrill in New Orleans. Magic was heavy on these streets, and it was understandable that they’d get a heady feeling from it without even knowing. I could feel it with every step I took. It was almost like it permeated from the earth itself. It was dark and sultry. If we weren’t walking into a deadly situation, this place might very well have recharged me.

“Are you in a lot of pain still?”

I tried not to think about it. “Well, I lost my wings and a good deal of my skin, so what do you think?”

“I think you’ve gotten a lot of healing potions and such since you woke, so I was wondering if any of them are actually helping.” He shook his head and spun away from me. “God forbid I ask how you are. I’ll check that off the list of acceptable conversation topics.”

I rolled my eyes and stopped walking. “You can see with your own eyes how well my body is healing. Stupid questions get sarcastic answers.”

“I wish there was something more I could do but I’m afraid emotional support is all I’m left with in this situation.” His face fell as though my pain were his, but there was nothing he could do, and I was the one feeling this loss. “Do you think I’m not gutted that you lost your wings? You’ve only had them for a matter of days, I’ve had mine for eight decades. I cannot fathom how you feel—oh wait, yes I can.”

“My wings are not the same as your voice?—”

“Yes they are.” His pale-blue wings popped out of his back, not that any of the humans nearby noticed or saw. “An integral piece of who you are was stolen from you. I’d say I’m the one person in the world who knows exactly what you’re dealing with?—”

“I’m dealing with it.” I gestured to him. “Did it help to talk about losing your voice right after you lost it? Or did you need a minute to process?—”

“I didn’t have anyone, Collins!” He scoffed and shook his head, then pressed his lips into a hard line. “I was utterly alone and heartbroken. I would have given anything to have someone who cared, someone who would’ve checked on how I was coping.”

His words made sense. He was right: he of all people would understand. But the agony was too fresh, the torture too vivid in my mind, the loss too great for me to be anything other than barely holding on to my shit. I didn’t know how to talk about it yet. Especially not with Bash, the one person I couldn’t seem to not stay not angry with. I was a mess. We were a mess.

He stepped up closer to me. “You want to be angry with me about any of the other stupid things we’ve been fighting over? Fine. You want to be an unstable, unhinged, emotional disaster over all this? FINE. But don’t you dare be mad at me for caring about your well-being.”

“Listen—”

“No, you listen, Collins. Are you?” He tapped one finger on my forehead. “You’re not alone in this war. You’re not alone in this trauma. I was also tortured, I had to listen to you be tortured. I know what it’s like to have something stolen from you and feel the loss in your soul, so snapping at me for empathizing is ridiculous.”

I needed time to process everything and figure it all out in my head. I needed Tallulah. Never in my life had I needed my best friend more. Now I didn’t have her to talk to about any of this and it was confusing as hell. I needed a moment to just talk to her about Bash, about being a Stone Keeper, about the fights with Tephine, or about the torture I’d endured. No one would understand me the way she did. Guilt ate at me over what happened to her.

And I knew she’d give me shit for shutting Bash out on this. She’d tell me I wasn’t acting like my normal logical self. I knew this. But I was about to break. My heart was thin ice that was already cracked. Opening up about it to Bash would shatter the ice and drag me under.

“You know what’s ridiculous?” I snapped back at him. “This map not working, and you haven’t looked at it once. You want to help me? Then help me with this.”

“Ignoring me now . . . how adorable. Sure, let me see the damn map.” He took a step closer, and his warm vanilla scent surrounded me. I wanted to step away. He was too intoxicating for me to be annoyed at right now. That jealousy act he pulled was also on my list of too much shit to deal with. He wrinkled his nose. “Is that blood on the map?”

I squinted my eyes. “Yeah, I think it is.”

“That’s . . . odd. And why isn’t it pointing anywhere? It’s just globbed up all over the place.”

“Thank you, captain obvious.” I sighed and the edges of the map wrinkled even more under how hard I gripped it. I wanted to be calm and think about this logically, but I was too annoyed, too impatient, and too exhausted.

“Do you find pleasure in snapping at me constantly? Because I have to say it’s one of the joys of my life lately. Who would’ve thought I found a soulmate who loathed me as much as my mother.” Sarcasm dripped from his every word, and each one was a sharp knife to my heart. He thought I hated him. It was the opposite, yet I couldn’t get the words out. He rolled his eyes and handed my cellphone to me, which he’d been holding in his pocket since I didn’t have any in this catsuit. “Why don’t you just call Ellie and ask how to make the damn thing work.”

“Fine.” I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed my mom. I knew she’d be right next to the rest of them.

My mom answered on the second ring. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, but this map isn’t working, so we can’t find MoVaun. Any ideas?”

“Hold on. Let me put you on speaker phone.” She hit the button, and I heard her relay the update to the others.

“It worked for us,” Ellie’s voice came over the line loud and clear. It was her map, the one her and Savina used to find MoVaun. “I’m not sure why it wouldn’t work for you the same way.”

Shylock cleared his throat. “Pardon me but what map are we talking about?”

“The map Savina and I used?—"

“Oh, that’s not going to work for them. Sorry, I must have missed that you’d given it to them.”

My heart sank. “Shylock, what don’t we know here?”

He sighed. “Well, magical people cannot find MoVaun’s lair unless they have the intention of finding her and then they must use their own brand of magic to do so. It’s a protection kind of thing, I believe, to prevent the na?ve from accidentally stumbling upon her and falling victim to her terror. Ellie and Savina used mage magic because they’re mages. Collins and Bash will need fae magic of some sort to locate her.”

My brow furrowed. “Okay, but how? Like, what do I do?”

Shylock coughed. “You’ll have to get creative. Use what you can do.”

“That’s really not bloody helpful, mate,” Weston whispered. “You haven’t got any idea in that great big head of yours?”

“I’m doing the best I can. Did anyone else know that just now?”

"Piss off,” Weston muttered.

He must’ve made faces at them because the line was quiet. Then I heard Shylock’s voice soft and deep, “I’m not sure how to tell you to use your magic, Collins, because I am not fae. I’m telling you the key is to use what you can do. I mean, bollocks, you summoned Riven through a crystal in another realm.”

“I’m so sorry, Collins. I really thought it’d work for you and make this easier.” Ellie spoke over Weston and Shylock arguing in the background. “But I think Shylock is right, tap into your magic and what you can do. Crystals. Earth shit. Auras and stuff. Bash’s sensory tricks.”

“Right. Our magic. Be in touch soon.” I hung up the phone, then handed it and the useless map to Bash.

“All right. Truce on the fighting. Let’s just work together so we can get this over with and get the hell out of here.” He took both and shoved them in the pocket of his coat. “So, our brand of magic. I don’t think blinding people or making them deaf will help us get where we need to be.”

“No, I didn’t think so either.” I sighed and shifted from one foot to the other. “Okay, so maybe her aura is brighter and stronger than everyone else’s? So all we have to do is look for that?”

Bash nodded. “Probably a good place to start.”

Seeing auras was natural for fae, but it was something we had to tap into because it would be really difficult to live life with those colors out all the time. So I closed my eyes for a second trying to focus on the auras around me, willing my magic to sense them. There were so many. New Orleans was a flood of people, places, and parties. When I opened my eyes, it was a riot of colors. It was so bright the rainbow was nearly blinding. Pain shot through my eyes and right into my head. An instant migraine exploded behind my eyes. I staggered to the side and felt Bash’s arm around my waist. I peeked my eyes open and snapped them back shut.

“Nope, there’s too many people here. I can’t see anything. It’s like standing in a spotlight, except it keeps flashing, and spinning, and screaming.” I pressed my hand to the side of my head. “Sooooo bright.”

I felt my feet move as Bash pulled in me in a different direction. He placed me with a brick wall at my back. I felt his power wrap around my head and suddenly everything went dark. I sucked in a deep breath.

His voice was a close rumble in my ear. “Better?”

“Much.”

“When you’re ready, I’ll drop it.”

I breathed in and out, slowly, and pulled my power back in. I gave him a nod and suddenly the colors were back in my vision, but as I focused they dropped to a manageable degree. I blinked my eyes and they adjusted to the dark night and lights of the surrounding buildings. “Thanks for that.”

He straightened his stance and stepped away from me. “I appear to be helpful in some regard. I didn’t have any luck with the auras either.”

I cursed.

He glanced around, looking to see if we’d made a spectacle of ourselves, but no one turned to look in our direction. “People in this town are immune to all things.”

“It reminds me a little bit of Vegas that way.” I took another deep breath and the pain in my head subsided. “I’m almost afraid to try something else.”

“I’m happy to take away your senses anytime you like.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “It shouldn’t bring you such joy.”

“It doesn’t.” The muscle in his jaw ticked with annoyance as he ground his teeth together.

“Liar.” But then I remembered his words truce on the fighting, so I groaned. “Sorry. Truce. Okay, let me try the crystals.”

He shrugged but said nothing else. We needed to get this done one way or another. I opened my hands and pushed my magic out, silently calling out to any crystals nearby. Again, the response was overwhelming. Rather than a single voice whispering to me, it was like a million voices yelling in a stadium. The sound was deafening. I slammed my hands over my ears, but it didn’t help. It was like being a tunnel with multiple screaming voices echoing off the walls.

“No, nope, too loud!” I yelled to Bash.

The people who passed by glanced in my direction as they kept on walking. Bash pressed his hands over mine, and I felt his power seep into the sides of my head. The shouting became a low hum—low enough that I could at least hear myself think long enough to pull my power back. My turquoise magic looked like flashing party lights as I drew it back into me. It glittered around my hands and dissipated into nothing. My headache came back with a fury, and I pressed my hands to my temples.

“Why must they yell?” I groaned and threw my braids over my shoulder.

Bash said nothing. He just kept watching me with those intense, vivid eyes of his. I glanced away from him, trying to ignore the way he looked at me with that probing gaze like he could see right down to my soul.

“You’re going to get strong reactions to your magic. No matter what you do.”

“Great. So, instant migraines are going to be the norm. Noted.” I rubbed little circles into my temples. “What do we do now?”

“I have no id—” His words trailed off.

“What—”

I was about to snap at him when he pointed across the street at a woman with bright-red hair. I narrowed my eyes, trying to watch her closely. “Is that?—”

“—Eloa,” he finished for me.

I’d only seen Eloa when she showed up with Zuriel and company. We’d never spoken to her before, but Ellie told me about her and how she walked the line of good angel and bad. In her eyes a bit of death solved a lot of problems. I couldn’t find fault in her thinking. If Tephine was dead, then a lot of our problems would be solved. She tied that bright-red hair into two pigtail buns. A curtain of bangs fell across her forehead.

Her lips were full and nearly as red as her hair. Power rolled off of her in waves, yet she was so slight, tiny even. Black jeans covered in multiple zippers hung low on her hips, exposing her lower stomach, and she wore a tight black tank top that read, I went to Georgia with the devil . On one arm, leather bracelets covered from wrist to elbow. On the other were solid silver bands. A string of plastic beads hung from her neck and she held a huge beignet in one hand, letting powdered sugar fall all over her shirt and down to the ground.

She winked and started walking down the street. Without hesitation, we followed.

I walked up beside her. “Eloa? What are you doing here?”

She took a bite of her beignet, then turned toward me. She didn’t answer my question. Instead she bent down and brushed her finger over a dandelion that’d come up through the crack on the street. “Look at this pretty flower that just popped up between the cracks. Wouldn’t it be pretty to have more?”

“Umm. Yes?” Her words confused me. “Are you here to help us or is this just a strange coincidence?”

She plucked the flower and held it to her nose smelling it. “If only we had more, then you could just stop and smell the flowers on your way.”

I opened my mouth to ask her more questions when Bash placed his hand on my arm to silence me. He smirked at Eloa. “Thank you.”

She winked and a moment later she was gone, only leaving a light cloud of powdered sugar in her wake.

I turned toward Bash. “Did you get a hint that I missed?”

“You haven’t tried your other power, the one you share with my mother. Eloa just gave us the hint that that one will lead us to MoVaun. All you have to do is ask the earth to lead you there.”

“All I have to do,” I grumbled, but I knew he was right. That was what Eloa was trying to tell me in as few words as she could. I sighed. “Fine.”

I called on my powers once more and let them flow into the ground. I reached for the plants, asking them for their help. There were no loud or bright noises to go along with it. It was gentle. A small flower popped up through the cracks, then another and another. I nodded at him without a word and turned down the street following the little flowers in the sidewalk.

He arched his eyebrows at me with all the cockiness in the world, yet he said nothing.

I didn’t like being so angry at him, but I just couldn’t help it. Something in me wanted to fight with him, yet I didn’t want to walk away from him. The desire to be near him but also to be furious with him collided inside me. I wove between people and felt Bash at my back smoothly following my steps. They started giving me a wide berth, and I got the feeling he was glaring at people over my head.

The flowers grew brighter and wove over the ground and up the walls like creeping vines. The flowers bloomed before my eyes. They were blues, reds, and bright-purples that almost glowed. Just seeing them eased my sour feelings, if only for the moment. We passed small tourist shops and restaurants. The sound of clanging bottles and chatter blasted through the door as we walked by. But the noise, chatter, and smells disappeared as quickly as they began. They stopped at a small shop and seemed to grow around the door, begging us to walk through. But Bash kept on walking.

“Hey,” I called after him. “I think we’re here.”

But he kept on going as though he didn’t hear me. I hesitated, wondering if I should just let him go in and enter by myself, but the two of us splitting up never worked out well for either of us.

I turned and followed him. “Bash, what are you doing?”

“You don’t see the blue flames?” He walked down the narrow alleyway between the two stores.

It was dark and dirty. None of the lights reached the alley, nor did the sounds from the street. It was quiet . . . too quiet.

“Bash, I don’t think we should be back here.”

But he kept on going. He found his way back behind the building. There stood an open doorway that was so dark I could barely see inside. But beyond the threshold were glass jars with tiny dancing blue flames within them lining rickety shelves.

I pressed my hand to his forearm and whispered, “ What are you doing ?”

He never took his eyes off the flames. “My mother uses blue flames to heat her palace. This is not a coincidence.”

“So?”

“I’m going in.”

He took a step toward the door and a woman appeared in front of him. Her eyes glowed a deep-red and smoke seemed to rise from her body. She was beautiful, with dark skin and wild hair that stood out from her head in tight curls. She wore a tank top vest that plunged low in the front and stopped just below her belly button. Her jeans hung low on her hips, revealing the slightest bit of skin.

Those glowing eyes went from me to Bash and back again. “And what the hell do you two think you’re doing back here?”

“The hell you are.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stayed in the middle of the door, blocking our path.

I cleared my throat. “We just need a moment with MoVaun . . . please.”

“No,” she snapped with a tone of finality.

“Yes.” Black smoke shot from Bash’s hand and smacked the woman right in the face. She tumbled out the door and fell at our feet. She blinked her eyes repeatedly as though trying to regain her vision and felt around the ground like he’d shoved her into a sensory deprivation chamber. I knew what it was like not to be able to hear or see a thing.

“BASH! What the actual fuck?”

“We have things to do.” He shrugged and stepped around her through the door and into the darkness. I had no other choice but to follow him and pray we weren’t about to die.