Sin & Lightning (Demigods of San Francisco Book 5) Read online

  I couldn’t do anything but stare as my mind tried to fit this information into the larger picture. Magnus had sent someone to kidnap me! He’d spied on me at home and devised a plan to take me away from Kieran, and said plan had gotten Jack killed. My kids had very nearly been casualties too. Not to mention he could’ve stepped in to help me today way before he had. He’d hung out in the area because of this meeting, probably hoping to poach me from Lydia if she succeeded. He was not a good guy—his history and reputation made that perfectly clear.

  So why had he helped me?

  Another thought shook my world.

  He’d known about me before the battle with Valens had introduced me to the world. He must’ve. He’d helped me before anyone beyond Kieran and our group had known about my magical type. I didn’t know how to disguise myself when in spirit—I wasn’t a shadow there. No one else had magic like mine, and I could’ve only come from a few people. If he knew I had his eyes, and he knew my mother…

  “Now what?” Kieran asked Magnus, holding me tightly against him. “The cameras are still rolling.”

  “Yes, they are. My team is trying to wrest control from Amber. They aren’t having much success. She started out excellent, and Valens made her exceptional. He had a knack for seeking out those with potential and building them up to greatness.” Magnus paused for a moment, and the pointed look he gave Kieran said it all. Valens had done the same thing with Kieran, and Magnus recognized it. He was giving Kieran a nod of respect. “Did you know I offered her a job?”

  “Yes. She used it as a bartering chip.”

  Magnus chuckled. “Of course she did. Clever woman.” His gaze slid to the side, landing on Dylan. “And you’ve resurrected the dead. You’re Amell Maccini, correct?”

  Dylan said nothing, just held Magnus’s gaze.

  “Gianna’s prized Thunderstroke alive, all this time, and no one was the wiser. Somehow, miraculously, Demigod Kieran found you. What a lucky fellow to find a Spirit Walker and a Thunderstroke, all before he has even proved himself.” Magnus’s gaze landed on the cats next. They were flanking me, the male licking his paw and the female lying on her stomach, looking at Magnus judgmentally. “Where did you get those cats?”

  “A stray had kittens,” I said. “These two wouldn’t let us re-home them.”

  “What magical beast has enhanced their genetics? As we can all agree, these are not from a normal stray.” Magnus narrowed his eyes at me, and I could see the wheels turning.

  “Honestly, I have no idea,” I said. “They are from a normal stray. Two normal strays, actually. I, unfortunately, saw them…in a private moment.” My face warmed under Magnus’s calculating stare.

  “Coming back to my question,” Kieran said, “now what? Where do we go from here? You won’t be leaving with Alexis, as I’m sure you know.”

  “Now what, yes. Good question.” Magnus tucked his hand into his trouser pocket. He looked around, and it was clear he was making note of the cameras. “I will say this: Alexis raised some good points while in spirit. Whatever your reasons for giving it to her, she has your mark, and she has created a soul link between you. The only way to successfully separate the two of you would be to kill one of you. And if someone were to kill you, Demigod Kieran, it would severely affect Alexis’s performance. I’ve felt what it’s like to lose a soul-link partner. It is a hard thing to come back from. Even if Alexis were to be…retrained”—his tone said he meant reprogrammed—broken down and built back up, as Lydia had said—“she would feel the loss. She’d feel it, but she wouldn’t understand it, and so she wouldn’t be able to properly grieve. It would drive her to madness, and that would create a very dangerous situation. Controlling someone with Chaos blood is not easy. Combine that with the power of a Spirit Walker? People would die. Many people. Then they would come back, controlled by her, and wreak absolute havoc. She would need to be killed, like the last Spirit Walker. She’d do more harm than good in the long run.”

  Magnus was basically using the cameras to get out a warning—killing Kieran to get to me wasn’t a good idea. He was saying the words that would essentially protect me. It would’ve been a relief, if Aaron were the type to admit defeat, and if there weren’t the past to consider.

  Kieran must’ve had the same thought, as he asked, “Does any of that matter to you? Given your past, I’d assumed you wouldn’t be interested in keeping her around.”

  “My past, yes.” Fire burned in Magnus’s eyes, so hot and ruthless that I tried to take a step back. I saw something else in his eyes, too, though. A wound. Raw, weeping loss. “As I said, it is not easy to control someone with Chaos blood. It is not legal to kill someone because of a grudge, either, even for a Demigod. I well understand the importance of law and order in these modern times.” His tone was lofty, and it was clear he was not speaking to us, but talking to whoever might be seeing the footage. It was also quite clear he hadn’t answered the question. “I find I am in a bind. So this is what I propose, Demigod Kieran. If the two of you do not continue to harm the interests of my territory, I will see no reason to dig up past family grievances of which she played no part. She has existed this long without being troublesome, and if you keep her…coloring within the magical lines, we’ll say”—his eyes crinkled with his small smile—“then we can coexist as any two Demigods and their staff—”

  “Significant other,” Kieran interrupted. “She is my significant other, whom I hope will one day wish to co-lead with me. She is not on my staff. She has no blood oath. She is of independent mind and soul. I can no more control her than any man can control his partner.”

  “Be that as it may, the events that have come to pass have put you in charge of her magical upbringing. You are tasked with teaching her our laws and making sure she follows them. Her failure will fall on you both, and if it impacts my territory, I will be forced to act. I am sure you can understand that.”

  Kieran nodded once, almost a bow. “I can. That compromise is fair.”

  “In addition…” Magnus paused again, then raised his voice. “If anyone shall threaten her, or strive to take her from you unlawfully, I will feel it is my duty to intercede.” This pause lasted longer, and I held my breath. “After all, if I can’t act on a grudge, or even welcome my flesh and blood onto my staff, I certainly won’t let someone else force the issue. The rules of dibs are well known.”

  Kieran’s laugh was forced, as was Magnus’s. I held my breath, trying to sort through all of the emotions running through me.

  His gaze on me was kind, and it was hard to understand how such a ruthless man could have such a comforting presence. I found myself wanting to know more about him. It was a foolish thought, given who he was, but my mother was gone, and so help me God, I wanted to know what it was like to have a father.

  But I had to remember that he was a Demigod of Hades. Lydia had been able to trick us, and Magnus was so much better at his job than her. We’d thwarted him this time, but I couldn’t be so naive as to think he’d given up the battle. Magnus’s strength was in the long game—I’d heard that from Kieran and his people often enough. Building up a relationship with me was a good foundation for snatching me up if something were to ever happen to Kieran. Something he might make happen to Kieran. Then Magnus could swoop in, helping me grieve and securing his claim on the Soul Stealer these people had apparently always wanted.

  I swallowed down the aching in my heart and held on to Kieran. Why wish for a thing that might be your ruin, when you already had the thing that was your salvation?

  “Until we meet again,” Magnus said to me, his focus acute. “And remember, when you go into spirit, make sure your body is safe and guarded. Trust very few with the whereabouts of your body when you are outside of it. You will learn ways to break out of someone’s hold in spirit. You are strong enough to escape even a Demigod, but if someone gets your body, it is game over.”

  Kieran laughed. “You don’t know Alexis and her wards very well. When it comes to them, nothin
g is game over. We’ll speak more, Magnus. For now, we need to pack up and head home.”

  “Of course. Yes.” Magnus took a step back. “I’m glad I was able to help.”

  “It is Lydia you saved, not Alexis. Hopefully Lydia will see her way out of the trouble the dark fae are sure to bring to her doorstep.”

  Kieran led us away, and Magnus—my father—watched us the whole time.

  No, not us. Me. His gaze was rooted to me, and I could see the turbulence in the dark depths of his eyes.

  Kieran walked us through the hole Thane had created, cutting off my view of my father. That was when reality dawned on me. I jerked forward, trying to get a look at him. I was too tired and low on energy to feel more than my immediate surroundings.

  “Thane!” I said.

  “What?”

  I started, completely off my game. Then again, with the fatigue dragging me down, I didn’t have a game just now.

  Thane sat in the ruined corridor with his back against the wall, his knees pulled up and his head in his hands. Boman stood next to him with a fading bruise on the side of his face, as though he’d fallen face first.

  Thane turned his head, his bleary eyes finding me. “You made it,” he said.

  “I made it? You made it! Are you okay? I felt your soul, but you were lying facedown.” I stopped beside him and bent, putting a hand on his hard shoulder.

  “That ol’ Demigod rang my bell.” He groaned as he moved, slowly inching up the wall until standing. “Can we go home now, sir? I’m done in.”

  “Yes. Daisy?” Kieran turned to the quiet teen coming up behind us, her eyes puffy, looking unsure.

  My heart broke. Daisy had thought she would lose me like she’d almost lost Mordecai. She had thought I would be taken from her. The fear hadn’t yet faded, and it was written across her face. She was as tough as they came, but she was still a kid, and I was her lifeline. In the turbulent world in which she lived, I was her rock, like any parent would be.

  Tears came to my eyes, and emotion filled the soul link. Kieran had pieced together what I was thinking.

  “Thane blew this place to hell,” he told Daisy softly. “Go ahead and take whatever you want. On the sly, mind. Just make sure you can fit it in a bag and get it out of here.”

  Daisy’s eyes lit up. She’d make the most of it.

  “I call dibs on some of those weird stuffed animals,” Bria said quickly, and limped back the way we’d come. “I’m not going to be sly about it, either. I earned it. Fuckers.”

  Kieran started forward again, quiet for a moment. “I felt how you reacted to Magnus,” he said, glancing at me. “I’m not going to entirely warn you away from him. There is definite strategy at play in what he’s doing, but he just put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on your head. He protected you in a major way. He didn’t have to—there were other ways to get me to back off—so his choice should be acknowledged.”

  “But?” I whispered, the tears flowing. All the emotion of the last few hours was catching up to me.

  “But…Magnus will always have an end game in mind. He will always look for the thing that benefits him most. He has lived a long, prestigious life doing exactly that. With him, it is always wise to exercise caution.”

  “Says the man that had a big blind spot to Demigod Lydia,” Mordecai grumbled.

  Thane and Donovan laughed.

  “He’s got you there,” Donovan said, rubbing welts on his wrists that hadn’t healed yet. Apparently they’d all been tied up, not just Kieran.

  “This is a lesson I won’t soon forget,” Kieran mumbled, turning toward the guest suites. “I think I’ll wait until after the summit before I visit anyone else. I need alliances. Solid, concrete alliances. Despite what Magnus said, the magical laws are only as good as those who enforce them, and those who enforce them have to know something is going on first. Demigods are good about operating behind closed doors. I need people who will cry foul if someone does me wrong. Otherwise we’ll never be truly protected.”

  “Remember that shadow that helped with Will Green and Valens?” I still couldn’t get my mind around it. “It also kicked me out of spirit the day we fought Valens, preventing me from coming to, gasping and then drowning before you were there to save me. If it hadn’t, that would’ve been the end of me.” I blew out a breath, preparing myself to even say it out loud. “That was Magnus.”

  Kieran looked down at me with a furrowed brow. “You’re sure?”

  “Yes. It was the same guy I saw here today, He was helping me before we battled Valens. Before anyone knew I existed.”

  Back in the suite, Kieran ignored everyone working around us, packing up and getting ready. He stared down into my eyes. “He must’ve known what you were.”

  “Yes.”

  “Can’t you find anyone in spirit, no matter where they’re physically located?”

  “You have to know the person, or have something of theirs. He wouldn’t have been on hand to help me if he hadn’t been keeping tabs on my activities.” I took a deep breath. “He wouldn’t bother keeping tabs on a stranger.”

  “But…” He shook his head. “He could’ve grabbed you anytime back then. I was keeping watch on you, but not to the degree I would’ve needed to protect you from a Demigod. Our greatest defense was my father not knowing about you. If Magnus knew about you back then, why is he only showing an interest now?”

  “He showed an interest when he first started to help me. He’s only doing something about that interest now…after I went public with my magic. After people started wondering whose daughter I was.”

  Another thought curled through my head, and I knew Kieran was thinking the same thing. Had my father known about me before Kieran did?

  Kieran wrapped his arms around me. “He wouldn’t have known your specialty before we tested you,” he said, answering my unspoken question. “No one could’ve known that, not even your mother. Powerful in magic, sure. Some sort of Necromancer or Medium, definitely. But not a Spirit Walker. The abilities you knew how to use weren’t enough for someone to classify your magic without the test. Given my father didn’t even know about the test, there’s no way Magnus knew. The question is, when Magnus did figure out what you were…why didn’t he act? Why help, but leave you as you were?”

  Tingles ran through my body. Only Magnus could answer that question. And one day, when we did have that protection Kieran spoke of, I desperately wanted to ask.

  33

  Alexis

  I held Kieran’s hand as we walked along the sandy path leading to the cliff overlooking the ocean. It was the overlook where I’d first agreed to work for him. It was now one of the few places we could escape a life in the limelight and steal a few quiet moments alone.

  I sorely needed it.

  It had been one month since the incident with Lydia, and even though Amber had only sent choice bits of the footage to a select group of powerful people, someone had leaked. Maybe even Lydia’s own staff had leaked it. Regardless, various parts of the battle had gone viral. Among the favorites were a few clips that showed the more terrifying aspects of my magic. In one, I looked at a group of Lydia’s people and they dropped bonelessly to the ground. In another, a few of the enemy forces fell, only to rise again and charge back against their own people. I’d embodied the tales and legends of old and wrapped them in modern times. Any fear of my magic that had died down had found a resurgence. Some called for my death, some thought I should be locked up, and some thought I was actually Satan. The last two were primarily cries from Chesters.

  Surprisingly, magical San Francisco had come together to cheer me on. They combated the naysayers with their pride in me. The magic wasn’t as scary when you were protected by it, I wagered.

  It was Dylan who’d really blown the world away, although not solely because of his magic. For the first time, the magical world at large learned that Amell Maccini was still alive. That he’d chosen to join Kieran’s team over anyone else’s. His videos were watched over a
nd over, but it was the video where he jerked me back and fried the enemy that had gotten the most engagement. He was dubbed a white knight, incredibly handsome and gallant. He was the savior of the mistress of magical San Francisco. He was the most eligible bachelor of the year.

  He was not happy with all the publicity, and now all of the guys made fun of him ruthlessly.

  My magic had won “scariest” and “deadliest” in internet polls, but his had won for “best all-around magic.” Lightning was pretty; corpses weren’t. It wasn’t a fair competition.

  Thane was the third favorite, hitting biggest with younger men. I had watched his videos multiple times. That guy was crazy fun to watch! Best viewed from a distance, of course. He’d made mincemeat of that place. He’d thrown people out of windows and smashed through walls, furniture, and glass. At one stage, he’d jumped up and grabbed a chandelier, torn it down, then used it as a bowling ball across a hall filled with glass cases. People had run from him in every room, not even trying to tear him down.

  Strangely, the cats didn’t appear in any of the video feeds. Although there was plenty of evidence of their presence—people were tackled and mauled on camera—they didn’t show up. Harding hadn’t come around for a while, so I couldn’t ask him about it, and because of my promise not to control him, I didn’t want to summon him. We still hadn’t named the cats, but it was clear they’d be staying with us. Also, they were both well past my knees now. I only hoped they’d stop growing soon.

  “Have you heard from him?” I asked Kieran as a gentle breeze mussed my hair. My long, light blue colored dress flared out behind me.

  “Magnus?” He glanced at me for an affirmation. “Not a word. As promised, I lightened up my meddling with financial and trade matters concerning his territory. I wasn’t doing anything against the rules, but I was intentionally badgering him. I pulled back on that to just…being present in those respects. He’s pulled back on some aggravating things, as well. We’re just circling each other right now. There’s been no direct contact. Anything with you?”