All That Glitters Read online

  She looked around the living room and gestured to the courtyard doors. “I found the courtyard.” Her voice was weaker than he ever heard it. Ryan lifted her in his arms and carried her to the sofa. “I don’t know how he did it. I didn’t see a portal, but I was taken to Hell.”

  Ryan sat with Kalina in his lap. He waved his hand and created a sound barrier. “You went to Hell?”

  She nodded as she tucked her hair behind her ears. “Lucifer wanted to talk to me, I guess. He said he wanted to see me.” She looked into his eyes and swallowed. “He said he wanted to see if I was worthy of what me and my little goblin were planning.”

  Ryan felt ill. “Lucifer said that? He called me a ‘goblin?’”

  “He’s not the first. And I don’t think he’ll be the last.” Kalina moved away from him and folded her hands together. “To be honest, I doubt that very much.”

  Over the centuries, Ryan had become used to people referring to him as The Goblin behind his back. His time with Faust deadened him to the insult. “I’m from a time where trolls and goblins were common. As were other creatures.”

  Kalina turned her face to her hands and wouldn’t look at him. “That was the real you I saw then.”

  “What?”

  She ran her hands through her hair. “Before I left last night, I looked at you. But you weren’t you.”

  He remembered her hesitation when he called her. He chalked it up to her magic reacting to Satella. But it was something so much worse. “I haven’t taken that form in centuries.”

  She looked at him. “You can change what you look like?”

  Something he was thankful for. Ryan shook his head. “I only have this one. Being a goblin has no benefit to anyone. My vision is slightly better, but that’s it. I was grotesque.” She reached out and touched his face. He covered her hands with his and kissed her palm. “Like this, I can wheel and deal and be approachable. People like me as I appear now.”

  Kalina leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his lips. When she pulled away from him, she looked at the jewel on the coffee table. “What did Merrick want?”

  Ryan reached around her and picked up the blood ruby. “He wanted me to enchant it.”

  “So, it’s not done?”

  Ryan smiled as he showed it to her. “This isn’t it. Merrick has different dealings with dozens of other witches and various magic users. Since I can help with and ingredient to another spell, he came to us.”

  “You enchanted it already?”

  He wrapped her hand around it. “You were missing for hours. Carly said she didn’t know where you were but knew you weren’t in any danger.”

  She scoffed. “Those dogs looked dangerous. And I’m not even going to touch on Cerberus.”

  Ryan put his arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry. I feel like I should have been there.”

  Kalina laughed in a way that made him uncomfortable. “I think it’s something or someone playing with us.”

  He snapped his fingers and two glasses of fairy wine appeared in front of them. It wouldn’t surprise him if someone was playing with their fates. He sighed as he gave her one of the glasses. “The three sisters haven’t been seen or heard from in years,” he said.

  “I don’t know if I want to ask. Three sisters?”

  Ryan leaned back on the sofa and smiled inwardly as she leaned back with him. “The Three Fates. You know, the women that weave the fates of everyone.”

  Kalina sighed before drinking her wine. “Is there anything that isn’t true?”

  Ryan wanted to see her smile again. The stress of the past few hours showed on the lines around her face. He lifted his glass to his lips, his normal grin in place. “The Easter Bunny.”

  She looked at him. “The Easter Bunny?”

  He nodded. “There are rabbit shape-shifters, yes. But there is no one that goes to random houses to hide eggs on Easter Morning.”

  Kalina examined her glass. The glint in her eyes told him she would play with him. “What about Santa?”

  “Nice man. We were supposed to hang out this Carnival in Rio.”

  She sat up and turned to face him fully. “You’re going to hang out with Santa?”

  He held up his glass. “Big deal, remember?”

  Kalina laughed and pointed herself. “Bigger deal. I got the better wine.”

  Ryan pulled her close and kissed her. He moaned when she tangled a hand in his hair and bit at his lower lip. With a wave of his hand, their glasses disappeared. “You’re always the bigger deal,” he said softly.

  Kalina sighed as she turned her attention to the jewel on the table. “Can I enchant stuff like that?” She sat up and took the ruby again. “I know I can do it to candles. But I can push magic into anything?”

  Ryan looked at her. Her hair was deep magenta and her eyes hadn’t returned to their natural color from the night before. And if Lucifer expressed an interest in her, he needed to arm her with more power. “The concept is the same as your candles. But you don’t have to channel your happy thoughts.”

  He brought his hands together and blew into them. As he pulled his hands apart, a clear crystal appeared. “Enchanted jewels can be powerful. There are some that specialize in stone magic and use them as weapons. So, you don’t want to put relaxing thoughts and happiness in them.”

  “What do you put in it?” Kalina asked.

  “Power. Anger. That song that never ends.” Ryan shrugged when she laughed. “Try it.” The expression on her face made him reach forward and touch a lock of her hair. “Think of it as training. Do like you would normally do with your candles but put other emotions into it.”

  Kalina held the crystal he created and blew out a breath. She closed her eyes and focused her energy.

  Ryan sat back and watched her. As he expected, her hands and the crystal took on a faint glow. He sipped his wine as she pushed her magic into the small crystal. It didn’t take long for her to work. The process was so similar to working with her candles, he knew she wouldn’t have a problem.

  Kalina opened her eyes and showed him the crystal. She frowned as she examined the citrine color of the crystal. “Does the color mean anything?”

  Ryan took the gem from her hand and placed it on the table. “There are nuances to each color. But this is fear.” He took her hand in his and kissed it. “What are you afraid of?”

  A sad smile crossed her face. “Everything.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Days passed since Kalina had been taken to meet with Lucifer. Ryan drove along the oceanside. He wanted to keep Kalina safe. But with the Devil himself getting involved, there was no way they could hide her away.

  And he knew what Lucifer told her, without uttering a word. If they managed to seal away Faust, then she, as his most powerful next of kin, would inherit all of his contracts.

  That was something Kalina wouldn’t want. She was too kind to keep so many under her thumb. Ryan needed to find a way around that.

  He reached his destination. The small hut was nothing to gush over, but Ryan knew this was the only place she would be comfortable on the island.

  Xian opened the door to her home and frowned as she looked at him. “Your witchling isn’t a threat to others anymore. She hasn’t been for some time. You don’t have to worry about your remaining month.”

  Ryan smirked. He had forgotten about the wager he and Xian made. He waved his hand. “I have another problem I may need your assistance with.”

  Hard eyes looked at him. Over the years, he only counted Esme and Xian as ones that would be honest with him. “You haven’t told her, have you?”

  “She knows enough.”

  Xian went back into her hut, but left the door open. Ryan followed her. If she wanted to be rid of him, she would have attacked him by now. As he entered her home, Ryan smiled. The outside was a small, quaint hut. The inside was nearly the size of his villa. “Why keep a hut?” he asked.

  She looked at him. Her eyes turned white and her voice took on a symbiotic qualit
y. “We like our privacy,” she said. “The water is nice and calming. Different from the caves.”

  Ryan nodded. He knew she also lived in the many caves in the mountains of her homeland. But he needed to stay on task. “Is there a way to break the bond between Faust and Kalina?” Her head tilted to the side, and he continued. “If we found a way to strip his powers and seal him away, is there a way to sever the bond so his debtors wouldn’t be transferred to her?”

  “Are you asking for her? Or for yourself?”

  Even though he expected to hear the question, his anger still rose. “I need for her to be safe. Taking on Faust’s problems will not make her safe.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t need to be safe.” Xian opened a bottle of beer and offered him one. When he shook his head, she shrugged and made it disappear. “As much as you don’t want to hear it, Kalina isn’t someone that needs to be protected all of the time. She’s doing fairly well in learning the limits of her magic with and without you.”

  “You aren’t helping.”

  She smiled and the tattoo pulled at her arm. “You want her safe, but that isn’t possible. Not by your definition.” The dragon came off her arm and wrapped itself around her body. “If you want her safe, she needs to learn how to protect herself.”

  Ryan shook his head. “She’ll protect herself and then feel guilty over it.”

  “That is something she has to come to terms with. We’ve lived in this world for eons. She hasn’t even made it past her first century. Things like that take time.” Xian stroked her dragon under his chin and sighed when he ran deeper into the home. She looked after him. “Change comes, and we must change with it. Let Kalina change.”

  Ryan put his hands in his pockets. If anyone knew about change and the ebb and flow of creatures, it was the assassin in front of him. “Does he remember who he was?” he asked lowly.

  She shrugged. “He can’t communicate with me anymore. Not like in the beginning.” She turned to Ryan. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I love him. And I will always love him.”

  He ached to hear Kalina say the same. “I will probably be changed back into a goblin.” He lowered his head when she frowned at him. “One of Faust’s contracts has my signature.”

  “You need to tell her all of it, Ryan.”

  He shook his head. “Promise me something, as a favor.” He pulled the fear filled crystal Kalina created and placed it on the mantle over the fireplace. “When everything comes to a head, and she doesn’t want me near her again. Protect her for me.”

  “Ryan.”

  He didn’t want to hear what she had to say. She spent centuries sharing the lifeforce of the man she loved, and now he didn’t even know he was a man. “I’m going to ask the same of Esme. I will be in the shadows watching. But she’ll need more than a family of death dealers at her side. Promise me Xian.”

  Her shoulders fell as she watched him. He could see the disappointment on her face. It couldn’t be helped. He was going to do everything in his power to make sure she survived.

  Even if he had to call in every favor owed to him.

  *****

  Kalina laid back on her chair on the beach. The umbrella shielded her from the sun’s rays as she flipped through the book Esme gave her. She was alone, and a little lonely. Merrick was working on the amulet. Ryan was off somewhere. Carly had gone home after she sobered up from the festival.

  There were people on the island, but she didn’t know who she could talk to.

  A portal opened down by the water. Kalina closed the book and placed it on the small table next to her chair. She had studied a few of the defensive spells in the book, and Xian hadn’t been around for her to practice them.

  Elena stepped out of the portal wearing little more than what looked like lingerie. She waved her fingers and a large sunhat appeared over her head. Kalina tried her best not to roll her eyes. The woman had been a queen and would always act as such.

  Elena approached her as a chair appeared on the other side of her little table. The simple yellow umbrella was changed into a large red canopy tent. “Mind if I join you?” she asked.

  Kalina knew she wouldn’t take no for an answer. She pasted a smile on her face and gestured to the other chair. “By all means. What can I do for you? Ryan’s out right now.”

  Elena looked her over, and Kalina suddenly felt self-conscious in her modest blue and green tankini. “I’m here at the request of your father. He’s throwing a party for you, so you need to know what’s expected of you.”

  She couldn’t have heard her right. “I’m sorry, who wants to do what?”

  Elena waved her hand and a frozen drink appeared in it. She took a sip and smiled. “Want one?” she offered.

  Kalina shook her head. “Did you say Faust is throwing a party for me?”

  “Yes. And he is inviting all of the who’s who of the magical world. He wanted me to let you know, and to make sure you had something to wear.”

  She didn’t know what to say. She knew Elena wasn’t here out of the kindness of her heart. “You don’t have to go through so much trouble. I can dress myself.”

  Elena laughed. “Running around with Ryan, you can get away with your normal looks. With Faust, you need something else entirely.”

  Kalina picked up her book again. “I don’t know what you’re playing at. But if all you’re going to do is insult me, please go.”

  Elena settled back in her chair and propped her feet up. “You’re in for a rude awakening Kalina.” She removed her hat and it disappeared before it dropped to the floor. “Anyone that deals with your father is playing at something, as you say. You are nothing more than a babe in our world. You either need to learn how to play the game, or you’ll never survive.”

  Kalina turned the page to in her book. “Is it a thing to continuously point out how young or inexperienced I am? Jasper did the same thing. Constantly.”

  Elena shrugged. “Jasper is a throwback to a dark time. He feels that a woman’s place is underneath him. I kind of feel sorry for everything that Tereza’s been through.”

  That name wasn’t familiar to her. Kalina looked at Elena. “Who?”

  “You’ll meet her. Tereza is another person that works for your father. Her circumstances are a little different than everyone else.” She took another sip of her drink and sighed. “This party is tomorrow night. He hates the color white, so we won’t choose a dress that color.”

  Kalina closed the book and looked at the woman. “He can’t just decide to throw a party for me and tell me at the last minute. That isn’t how any of this is supposed to work.”

  Elena snapped her fingers and Kalina’s book was in her hands. “No, it isn’t supposed to work that way. But it does. That’s just something you will have to get used to.” She looked at the book and frowned. “I haven’t seen one of these in some time.” She flipped to the front of the book and nodded. “I see. This is the Benton Grimoire. No wonder Esme gave it to you.”

  Kalina didn’t respond. She didn’t know the book was originally her family’s. It did make sense for Esme to give her a book on her family’s magic. She took a drink from the water at her side. “I was trying to see if there was anything I could do to release Shae. Or at least transfer her to a different mirror.”

  Elena shook her head. “The power needed to release a soul from a mirror is more than what any living creature currently has. Not even Faust has the ability.”

  Kalina pushed her sunglasses up and looked at the blond woman. “There’s something he can’t do?”

  Elena smirked. “Don’t let him hear you say that,” she warned. “Faust likes to believe he is all powerful.”

  Kalina looked at the woman across from her and knew she would never be able to truly trust her. “Noted,” she said. Before the conversation could go any further, a car could be heard coming between the beach and the villa. “That should be Ryan,” she said sitting up. When Elena frowned, she smiled. “We were going to grill dinner. I have more tha
n enough if you want to stay.”

  Elena looked toward the villa and narrowed her eyes. A smile then spread across her face. “That would be lovely. Ryan can help us pick out an outfit for you.”

  Kalina stood and picked up the book between them. “Good. I’ll be right back.” She didn’t wait for Elena to respond. She needed a few minutes to decide how she needed for this to play out. In moments, she reached the villa and saw Ryan getting out of his car. “Faust is throwing a party for me. Elena says everyone will be there. And it’s tomorrow.”

  Ryan looked out to the beach. “She really put up a tent?” he asked.

  Kalina chuckled. “I think she’s holding herself back. I was expecting muscle bound men with palm leaves to appear.”

  Ryan laughed as he tilted her face to his. “Give her time,” he said before pressing a kiss to her lips. “Faust’s party isn’t a surprise. People have been talking since the night you and Satella… spoke.”

  “The night your ex tried to choke me out.”

  He took her and into his and lead her to the house. “People are talking and Faust has to do damage control. This is his way of doing that.”

  Kalina rolled her eyes as they entered the house. She snapped her fingers and a sound barrier came up. “She’s fishing for information. I don’t know if she wants to know what we’re planning, but she wants to know something.” Kalina placed her book on the kitchen island. “Did you know this was my family’s book?”

  Ryan opened the refrigerator door and pulled out a tray of seasoned food. “I had my suspicions. Esme was pretty good friends with your aunt Angelica. It makes sense it would have been left with her.”

  She was getting tired of everyone knowing more about her family than she did. Kalina sat at the island and watched him move around the kitchen. He uncovered the seasoned chicken. With a snap of his fingers, fish appeared on the counter along the wall. She snapped her own fingers and a plate of burgers appeared in front of her. When he looked at her, she smiled. “Elena also thinks that she needs to dress me for this party.”