Exaltation (Insight #11)(38)
Emery’s stare questioned him; she knew that but wasn’t connecting the dots.
“An Escort is hunting Raven, at her school…if she was intimate with one, it would have broken the spell.”
“What do you mean intimate?” Emery asked as her eyes went wide. She was not na?ve, knew her girls were near eighteen, breathtaking. She knew how she was at their age, but she was not ready to know they had crossed those lines.
“It wouldn’t even have to be physical,” Jamison admitted as he tried to keep a calm tone. He knew more than likely it was. The crash of spells happened too quickly.
“You said King was Reveca’s in another life,” Emery said with a quake in her voice, sensing how the girls could be facing danger from more than one source.
Jamison had told Emery about Reveca moments before. He’d had no choice. He had called Reveca in front of her while they were looking for the girls. He asked if she had done anything to rock the energy around the Quarter. Reveca was sly with her answer, but Jamison knew how to read her and was sure she still had no idea Rydell King was within a breath of her for the first time in ages.
When Emery questioned why he reached out to her, Jamison told her the story from a new perspective. How he was there before Rydell King was taken by Revelin. Emery already knew what Reveca went through after that, knew who she was today. She knew because she studied the coven inside and out, all the texts, all the prophecies, looking for a way to save her girls from having to deal with this Rapture.
She also knew Reveca was lethal and known for her jealously. She was born of the original bloodline of the coven, not someone you dare to cross on your bravest day. Even without a rep, the woman had a host of mortal and immortal bikers at her back that would do anything for her.
“He was..is,” Jamison said before he sucked in a deep breath.
“Then call her back. Tell her he’s here, to come and get him and end this.”
Jamison nearly twitched a grin. “She’d kill him.”
“Would that not solve our problem?”
Jamison stared at her for a second, shocked she would say such a thing. But then again he wasn’t. She’d do anything to protect her family, just like all the coven women.
“Sorry,” she whispered, regretting her words as soon as they left her lips.
Jamison squeezed her leg. “Reveca remembers her past differently than how it’s recorded. For ages she has been angry at Rydell. She feels she fought and he quit. She doesn’t even believe in Escorts or the Rapture. If she saw him she would surely kill him.”
“How could she kill someone she loves?”
“Because the man she loved is lost inside of the Escort he is now—in her mind she’d be saving him. Revelin would have stripped him, and what he couldn’t take away he would have stained. Reveca can’t know him the way he is now. She’ll destroy him, which will destroy her…”
“Then you,” Emery said as she swallowed nervously.
“I don’t know how far it would go. Reveca is a core element in this coven even though she’s sequestered herself.”
“What do we do? How do we fix this?”
Jamison hesitated then spoke. “We’re going to put the spells back in place. Then we’re going to open up their memories, teach to them fight with their vim.”
“You plan to let them fight this Escort, this Rydell King?” Emery said with wide eyes.
“We’re not going to let them do anything, but we can’t hold them back either. If Rydell was coldhearted he would have already struck before we found them. Somewhere in him is the mortal I knew. For all we know the girls have already stifled the threat he presents.”
“How can you say that?”
Jamison looked down. “If the spells were knocked down because of an intimate moment it would have jarred him. One way or another that’s going to help us.”
“How?”
Jamison glanced to the girls. “He’s not going to understand what he felt—he’ll think it’s a fever, which will make it all the harder for him to engage harm…or perhaps the rush jarred him enough to reach back to memories Revelin suppressed of his mortal life.”
“Jamison…if it’s the first…and Reveca figures that out…”
“Shh,” Jamison said. “One way or another I’ll take care of it.”
“How are you going to teach them this?”
“The Realm.”
“You want to take them to the place where Escorts feed? Have you lost your mind?”
“It’s a dream plane and the coven can protect us there. It’s the only place where we can manifest foes for them to practice against.”
A shiver ran down Emery’s spine.
“They’re going to be fine.”
“Here’s a better option. Ask them what they did and then tell them not to do it again.”
Jamison grinned. “My twins are stubborn. They get that from their beautiful mother. You tell them not to do something and it will be the first thing they do. Raven is going to do what makes her happy no matter if it’s right or wrong.”
A defeated breath escaped Emery. “Fix this, Jamison.”
Jamison got out of the car then, Emery did, too, but she stayed a few feet back. Jamison had his coven leader expression strapped across his face, a calm sternness. He knew that was the only way they would see how serious he was.