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“Mi think we made some good progress today.” He said, clearly trying to keep the mood light. Dossidian smiled at him, accepting the warm tea as he found his own place by the fire.
“Yes, I think so too, and we seem to have been able to stay on track so far, which is good.”
Jeremy sat down next to me, taking a sip from his tea as he did so. I noticed he shivered a little in the cooling desert air and I adjusted the hold I had on the temperature surrounding him. I had spent the day trying to keep him cool, and now that the sun was nearly set and the chilly desert night was upon us, I needed to switch gears. He gave me a knowing smile and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, dropping a kiss on my head.
“Thanks, Kiddo.” He murmured and I gave him a small grin.
“Of course.”
“How much further do you think we have to go?” Meredith asked as she sat down next to Dossidian. He seemed surprised at her decision to sit next to him. I watched as he softened, his arm reaching out for her, almost as if he were going to tug her closer to him. Suddenly, he stopped himself and slid farther away from her instead, causing her to scowl. I observed the exchange over my cup, confused by his behaviour as much as Meredith seemed to be.
Meredith’s scowl also seemed out of place and alien on her face. She was not normally one to get so angry, so quickly. Though, I had to admit, I almost felt bad for her. This entire trip, Dossidian had been giving her so many mixed signals that even I had noticed, and there wasn’t room in my mind these days for much more outside of worrying about Amon.
One moment, Dossidian would be holding her in the air, ensuring she felt steady as we flew, and the next, he would be distancing himself from her or turning away anytime she tried to get closer to him.
It was irritating the shit out of me, and it wasn’t even any of my business. I tried to remember what Dossidian had said, about how the longer we were out here, the more likely it was that the desert would try to get us to turn on each other. So, I kept my thoughts to myself. But with everything that was happening with Amon, I was having a hard time watching two people who were so clearly into each other waste time. I would give anything to have had more time with my mate. I wished I could go back in time and slap the past version of myself who had believed he was some sort of horrible monster.
I should have leapt into his arms the moment he had appeared in the library in Toronto. It was Conrad’s fault that I had resisted him for so long. If he hadn’t poisoned me against Amon, maybe things would be different. Maybe I would have been able to harness my powers faster with the extra time. Maybe I would have been able to save him…
I shook my head, shaking off the hostile thoughts. This wasn’t me. I would never blame Conrad for what happened. He had been trying to protect me based off of the information he had available to him at the time. If he had known what we knew now, it would have been different. I couldn’t fault him for doing what he thought was right.
It was the desert, making me think these thoughts. I knew it in my bones. I let my aura loose and it brushed against a subtle layer of magick that had settled over me like a fine dust. The more I focused, the more of it I found. Our team was sitting in the middle of a cloud of magickal spores that I knew for certain were a product of one of the defensive charms that Dossidian had warned us about.
I glanced around at the team. Everyone had fallen silent, and everyone seemed angry all of a sudden.
“Sorry to encroach on your space.” Meredith snapped; her tone uncharacteristically harsh. She threw down her mug of tea, the hot water spilling into the sand as she leapt to her feet. “I suppose I’ll just go to bed, since my presence seems to be such an imposition.”
Dossidian’s eyes widened in surprise at her outburst, but she didn’t give him the opportunity to respond as she stalked off into the pale green domed shelter she had claimed as her own on the first night.
“Yuh act a way wid her lately.” Conrad agreed darkly, glaring at Dossidian. “Mi don’t appreciate yuh treating mi sistah with such disrespect.”
To my shock, a deep growl grew in Dossidian’s chest at Conrad’s words, and the fire flared brighter in response to his agitation.
“Be careful, Obeah Man. I am not someone you want to cross.” He warned, his voice suddenly so low I felt the baritone in the marrow of my bones.
“Don’t you threaten him.” I snapped at Dossidian, immediately forgetting about the magickal spores I had discovered. To my shock, Dossidian snarled at me, and he dropped some of the barriers to his aura, allowing me to feel the immensity of his power for the first time since I had met him. I gasped against the overwhelming rush of fire that burned through the dark galaxies that made up my own aura, and the daemon in my chest rose to the challenge.
I was suddenly in the air, my palms filling with dark power. Both Dossidian and Conrad got to their feet. Snakes of water whipped out of Conrad’s suit, curling behind him like sea snakes, ready to strike.
I hovered until I was eye level with Dossidian and released the damper on my own aura, relishing in the feeling of it crashing against his. He grit his teeth against the sting of my power, fire licking the backs of his eyes, as if they were reflecting a raging inferno that blazed within his very body.
He was so powerful. The daemon in me purred at the challenge.
I wanted to make him explode.
“Enough!” Jeremy shouted, suddenly on his feet and standing between us. He had both hands up, his head whipping back and forth between the three of us. “What are you all even fighting about? This is crazy! Dossidian said this would happen, you all need to calm down and get a hold of yourselves or someone is going to get hurt!”
I frowned at my father. The daemon in me wanted to blast him away for daring to stand between me and my prey, but there was another part of me that recognized he was my family. I loved this man; I didn’t want to hurt him.
What was I thinking?
I shook my head and suddenly, with my mind’s eye, I could see the spores again. Dossidian, Conrad and I were completely coated in them, but Jeremy seemed to be repelling the magick, and was unaffected.
My eyes widened as I realized what was happening, and by the horrified looks on Conrad and Dossidian’s faces, they had realized as well.
“Tell me what to do.” I said to Dossidian, forcing myself to kill the energy in my palms, despite the overwhelming impulse to use my power against my friend.
“We need to carefully burn the spores away, and then shield like hell until the cloud passes.” He said urgently. I nodded and closed my eyes to focus.
