Laced With Magic Part 28

"It's the third time," Karen said, her voice rising in agitation. "The third third time!" time!"

"I heard you the first time."

"We'd better run for the exit."

"We don't know which way the exit is."

"It doesn't matter. We'd be better off in the Inn than under it."

She had a point. We were in big trouble and there was only one way out.

"Hang on!" I yelled. "We're going for a ride."

I grabbed Karen's hand and tried hard to ignore the way the ground beneath us was swaying. "Clear your mind," I told her. "Focus on getting out of here in one piece."

"Not a problem," she said.

"Don't be scared," I warned her. "It might get a little b.u.mpy."

"Okay," she said. "Anytime you're ready."

I didn't want to tell her that I'd been ready for at least two minutes and had invoked the spell that should have transported us to safety.

The ex was smart, though. She caught on.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing, Chloe?"

"Of course I do." I paused. "Theoretically I do." Oh c.r.a.p. She might as well know the truth. "Actually I've never done this before."

"You mean you've never transported yourself out of an earthquake-rattled tunnel before, not that you've never transported anyone at all, right?"

The poor woman sounded so hopeful I hated to burst her bubble, but it wasn't like I hadn't done it before.

"I've transported other people-usually Luke and not deliberately-but this is the first time I've ever transported myself and not just myself but a second person along with me. It seems to take more power than I figured it would."

"Maybe you should talk to Bettina. She takes her crystals to some waterfall to charge them up."

I grabbed her arm and I swear I could suddenly see through the darkness. "What did you say?"

"Ouch. You're hurting me."

I didn't let go. "Tell me what you said again. Slowly. Word for word."

She did.

The waterfalls! Suddenly it all made sense. The legends. The air of mystery about the place. The sense of unease, dread almost, that I felt every time I went there. The mist that seemed to hover over everything.

Janice's talk about portals came rus.h.i.+ng back at me. The answer had been staring me in the face practically since the day I was born and I hadn't even suspected until now.

The irony that it had taken a full-blood human to point it out wasn't lost on me.

"When this is over," I said, grabbing Karen's hand one more time, "you can have your weight in cashmere and quiviut."

I centered myself, dove deep inside my consciousness, and suddenly we were moving through the earth like it was chocolate pudding, faster and faster with Karen next to me screaming. Or maybe I was screaming. I can't say for sure. I was too busy praying my newly impressive powers held on long enough to get us to the Falls in one piece.

The way I figured it, if we survived the landing, we had a good chance to survive whatever Isadora had in store for us.

If we were lucky.

LUKE.

Without a flashlight, reading the signs carved into the trees was d.a.m.n near impossible. The faint moonlight that filtered through the thicket of evergreens and budding maples was barely enough for me to see my hand in front of my face.

And those temblors weren't helping either. What next? Plague and pestilence?

I ended up following the sound and smell of rus.h.i.+ng water, which ultimately led me to the Falls. The sheer magnitude of the cliffs surrounding the waterfall hit me like a kick to the gut. No wonder the Abenaki tribe had revered this as a sacred place. If someone had told me the ground I was standing on was the center of the earth, at that moment I would have believed it.

The roar of falling water filled my head. And there was something else, a low-pitched hum that moved along my nerve endings like an electrical current.

The portal to the world of the Fae was here. This was where Isadora recharged her powers.

This was where she was holding Steffie captive.

But where was Chloe? I was a good cop. Sometimes even a great cop. But I wasn't a fool. Without Chloe I was a dead man.

Come on, Chloe . . . Use your magic . . . The waterfall . . . I'm at the waterfall . . .

I heard a sound like breaking gla.s.s, a high-pitched yelp, and then something slammed into my back and sent me flying.

". . . ohmiG.o.dohmiG.o.dohmiG.o.d . . ." Karen was sprawled on top of me. Her entire body was shaking. "Am I dead?"

"No," I said as she climbed off me. "It just feels that way. Transport's a b.i.t.c.h on humans."

She stood up and tugged her sweater into place. "Where's Chloe?"

"I'm the one who should be asking you that."

"We were in the tunnel-"

"What tunnel?"

"The tunnel beneath the Inn and-"

"There's a tunnel beneath the Inn?"

"Luke, do you want to hear the story or don't you? We were in the tunnel when the earthquake started up again. Chloe grabbed my hand, told me to hang on, and the next thing I knew we were somersaulting our way through what seemed like one of those bouncy rooms they use at kids' birthday parties, and my hand slipped and-" She met my eyes. "I don't know what happened to Chloe."

"She's okay. She's probably on the other side of the waterfall and working her way over here now."

I believed it. I had had to believe it. There was no way I wanted to live in this world or any other without Chloe Hobbs. to believe it. There was no way I wanted to live in this world or any other without Chloe Hobbs.

"Now what?" Karen asked as I stood up and brushed myself off.

"We wait," I said.

"How long?"

I looked at my watch. "Not long." It was almost nine o'clock. Witching hour when Saturn would pa.s.s closest to earth was ten forty-two. By ten forty-three it would be all over.

"I'd kill for a cigarette."

"I hear you."

She kept her eyes focused on the waterfall. "It wasn't just you."

I looked over at her but said nothing.

"Steffie had a mind of her own. She slipped out on me too, Luke."

I still said nothing.

"Once she got that bike, there was no stopping her. It could have happened on my watch."

"But it didn't."

"But it could have."

"Why are you telling me his now?"

She shrugged. "Because I can. I wanted you to hurt as much as I was hurting and that was the best weapon I had."

Our eyes met. "I was a lousy husband."

"You were," she agreed. "Good cop, lousy husband."

"I never screwed around on you."

"I know that." She patted my arm. "That might have been easier to understand."

"I'm sorry, Karen." I refused to drop my gaze. "Really sorry."

She nodded. "So am I."

We stood there in silence for what seemed like an hour. I looked at my watch again but only ten minutes had pa.s.sed.

"She'll be here," Karen said.

"I know."

She lowered her voice. "I feel like we're being watched."

"We probably are."

"And you're okay with it?"

"I was," I said. "Not so much anymore."

"I don't think she'll ever leave here."

"This is her home."

"Is it yours?"

I was torn between telling her it wasn't any of her G.o.dd.a.m.n business and telling her I'd finally found the love of my life and was scared s.h.i.+tless I wouldn't be able to give her the happy ending she deserved.

But the sight of Chloe walking out of the woods toward us saved me.

In more ways than one.

29.

CHLOE.

It was like something from one of those sappy romantic movies I loved. I saw Luke. He saw me. I saw Karen too and was glad she had made it through her first transport in one piece but I'll be honest. At that moment only Luke mattered.

We started moving toward each other in slow motion until we were in each other's arms pledging eternal devotion.

At least that was the way it worked out in the movies. We weren't quite so lucky.

The second we reached each other, the mist rising off the water turned oily and took on the scent of dying roses and lavender.

"Together again at last." Isadora's voice seemed to flow from the cliffs towering over us. "It's been too long."

I gestured for Luke and Karen to step back and let me be Isadora's focal point. I guess we were hoping my magick would act like a bulletproof vest and keep me safe.

"We're here for Steffie's spirit." No point beating around the bush.

"You're more direct than your mother," Isadora observed. "It must be your human blood speaking."

"Steffie's spirit," I repeated. "No negotiation. No compromise. Release her now."