Words of Power (Alice Gray Book 3)

39

"We can't follow them all, there's too many. I don't even know this many people."

"There is a strand for every person that you've ever come into contact with," Ralph said. "When you accepted that death might be close, your subconscious pushed out your life-force, desperate to make connections with those still on earth."

"But I've never met Jennet's father. Surely I'd know if I'd stumbled across him."

"Only if he wanted you to know. You didn't know about me, did you?" Ralph asked.

I thought about that for a minute. I knew there was something off about Ralph when I'd met him as a big old smelly biker. But I'd had no idea what. And that was when my eyes were wide open to the magical creatures living side-by-side with humans.

Jennet's father, my ancestor, could have visited me in any guise during the first twenty-five years of my life. I'd been as innocent then as a new born lamb, with no idea of the magic in the real world. There was no doubt that I would have accepted him in whatever persona he presented himself.

"Why do you think he would have come to me anyway? I thought you said that my mother had hidden me well."

Brad and Ralph shared a look.

"He's been waiting for you for a long time. You're a culmination of centuries of DNA manipulation. A tweak here, a little encouragement there. And finally the exact combination of witch blood that can tease the Eye into opening," Ralph explained, his voice gentle. "He will have watched from afar, tracing the map of the Device bloodline for all that time. He will not have been able to help himself."

Nausea bubbled in the pit of my stomach. I understood exactly what they meant by a tweak. That's what they'd done to get my mother and Jonathan Device together in the first place. This had been going on since Jennet Device had pushed her boy out and sent him into the world. How many other people had suffered over the course of four hundred years?

Every cell in my body carried the guilt of other people's helplessness in the face of a higher power. If this is what providence meant, I didn't want anything to do with it.

But I didn't get to choose. No one did. That was the point. I did, however, need to save myself, and to do that, I was going to need the Eye.

And the Eye needed Jennet Device's angel father.

We needed to move. Not only was time running out before the trial, but I was bloody sick of being suspended in the sky like the pot of gold at the end of my very own life-force rainbow.

"How can we find him then, there's no way we can follow all these strands in the time we have left?"

"We don't need to. Look more closely, not every strand is the same," Ralph encouraged, taking my statement as an acceptance of what was done to all those who came before me.

Which it was not.

Holding my hand out in front of my eyes I studied the silver strands that emanated out in every direction. Within each one I recognised the sequence of my magic, but Ralph was right, they weren't all the same. Some strands were much thicker than others, some were much brighter.

"His will be amongst the most prominent, because even though you can't remember him, the incident of your meeting will have left its mark on your magic. You share his blood. The connection will have been forged the moment your life-force recognised it."

I saw how the strands of my magic spun out over the Earth far below us like little extensions of myself trying to connect with other souls. The familiar prickle of loneliness crawled over me when I saw the thickest, brightest threads all congregated on one area of Britain.

York.

I had so few acquaintances and most of them were down there, waiting to see me destroyed.

But my pack was there too, and Anne, and I'd never felt so grateful for that disparate group of individuals. And as I acknowledged Lucas, Evan, Emily and Anne as my true family, I knew what those bright, strong, ropes of sparkling silver magic meant.

He was there. Down there, with the rest of them, Jennet Device's father lurked to claim my blood for his own.

He'd have to fight me for it.

"How do I do this?" I asked, not looking at either of them, but instead studying the most prominent cords of magic.

"Why child, you simply follow it to the source."

Plucking the strongest connection, I tried pulling myself along it, one hand after the other, but resistance pushed me back. Each wrench forward was like a vertical rise even though we were going downwards, back to earth. Where the hell was gravity when you needed it?

"Feel the connection. Let your magic guide you," Ralph whispered in my ear.

I flinched, my head twisting to the side. He wasn't there. Neither of them was. I was on my own.

Steeling myself for the next pull forward, I studied the thick cord of magic that I held in my hand. The sequence was beautiful and so familiar. Particles of my silver life-force hovered around my hands. I urged them out, willing them to connect with the cord. As soon as they did, my hands starting sliding forwards, faster and faster as my helpless body flew behind. The cold air buffeted my face as I hurtled along the thick cord of magic.

The roof of a large house set in its own park came into view. I didn't slow down.

The cord of magic disappeared through the roof. There was no time to stop. I cringed away in anticipation of impact.

When I didn't go splat onto the hard tiles, I prised one eye open. I was in a plush bedroom, an ornate four-poster bed sat in the centre. Gauzy curtains hung down the sides, billowing out as the movement within caught them in its frenzy.

Grunts and moans drifted out from the bed, but the curtains obscured whoever was inside.

I hesitated, this was none of my business.

But what if it was him, Jennet Device's father? I had to know.

I walked over to the bed, the quickening noises making me pause with every step as I convinced myself all over again that I was justified in intruding like this.

Drawing the curtain to the side, the creamy flesh of a voluptuous woman moved rhythmically on top of her partner. Red silky hair cascaded down her back as she lifted her head and moaned with pleasure.

Looking past her to get a glimpse of the man, my heart froze in my chest.

The deep tanned skin of his muscular chest flexed as he moved. His large hands gripped the woman's tiny waist as he directed her movements over him. Head tilted back, his black hair contrasted starkly with the crumpled white bed linen.

Just as I turned to leave, his eyes opened and he looked directly at me.

He looked at me and continued to move under the beautiful woman, his pace speeding up in time with her moans. After seconds that felt like hours, he stilled, head tipping back and body arching as he found release.

The woman screamed out in ecstasy, her whole body shuddering her own climax before relaxing down by his side.

He drew his arm around the woman, who nuzzled into his side, closing her eyes to find sleep after the exertion of their lovemaking. His eyes found mine once more, over the beautiful head of his lover.

"Alice," he sighed, just as my heart shattered into a million tiny pieces.

Noooo! Don't think Alice was supposed to see that!