WAIT FOR LOVE (Lovemark #4)

11. Unity

11

Unity

I had finished reading Indigo’s journal and was stewing in a hot bath by the time Dori woke the next morning. But some of the things I’d read had very much disturbed me.

Near the end of the book, Olivander had taken over for his friend and written some entries into the journal after Indigo had left the Outer Realms, and not only was it upsetting to read about what had happened to Indy’s mate under the order of Olivander’s father when she was tortured, but I didn’t much care to learn that the same Nalini who’d saved me from being kidn*pped—and was also, apparently, one of the original nineteen, plus the first Graykey to live in the Outer Realms—had appeared before Ollie just a few short days ago and taken the transference stones from Indigo so he’d be forced to return to the Outer Realms in a few moon cycles.

I mean, it was nice to know I might get to see Indigo again, but honestly, it was so much more dangerous for him and Quilla to come back.

And the quest Nalini had given Olivander didn’t sit right with me at all. She’d called my mate obtuse and told him she was growing impatient for him to notice what was occasionally right in front of him, and then she’d told him she’d do something for him if he helped her break the Graykey curse.

So apparently her saving me the night before had been the favor she’d done for Olivander.

But now he was going to have to break a three-hundred-year-old curse in return.

Women with the kind of power that I’d seen her wield didn’t take it kindly when you didn’t pay them back for the favors they gave you. She could end his entire existence with a snap of the fingers if he didn’t keep up his end of the bargain. So we really needed to break that curse, or he’d be in serious danger.

The only problem was that no one knew how to break the curse. Not even Indigo, and he’d made it his life’s research to discover everything Graykey. The only help his writings had provided on that front was the name Locasta Blayton. She’d created the curse and would’ve had to come up with a way to break it before she could even make it. But Locasta—whoever she was—had to be long-dead by now, so prying that kind of secret from her would be a handy trick.

What was worse, Nalini—who was the only person alive now who’d been around when the curse began—couldn’t seem to talk about it to give us a clue as to where to even look for help; she started bleeding from the eyes when she did. So she was no help.

It all made me wonder if this quest was the reason why Olivander was so intent to find those R-generation Graykeys. Made sense to me now, anyway. In order to break a curse, you’d need some test subjects who were suffering under the curse to try your theories out on. But now that we had Dori, I wondered if he’d still want to bother with the children going up for auction.

I almost hoped he did still want them. Putting anyone on an auction block was just inhumane, no matter which house’s blood ran through their veins. Who knew what the highest bidder would have planned for them. At least with Olivander, they wouldn’t be harmed. He’d never do anything to hurt a child. But—

“Hey! Where’d you get the bathwater?”

I jumped, yelping out my surprise, and slapped a hand over my chest.

On the bed, Dori was sitting upright and yawning as a tangled mess of dark curls tumbled over her shoulders. She was so stunningly beautiful; it made me profoundly glad that Olivander hadn’t woken up to the sight. Not that I thought he’d stray, but there was no reason to tempt him, right?

“Good morning!” I waved perkily before motioning to the water around me. “I just used the water that was already in here from last night.”

Dori’s brow knit. “Really. Brr…” Shuddering, she hugged herself and rubbed her arms. “That must be freezing all these hours later.”

I shrugged. “Nah. I just used a warming powder I found in Olivander’s things and heated it back up.”

But that explanation really had her looking perplexed.

“A warming powder?”

“Yep.” I nodded. “It’s like glamour powder, but instead of changing one’s appearances, it heats whatever you sprinkle it on.”

“Oh. Wow, you people and your magic really have it made here. Warming powder?” Shaking her head, she blew out a breath. “That’s a new one.”

I shrugged. “It’s another rare magic. Only the truly important people, like royalty, can get their hands on it. At the academy I went to, they still heated everything the old-fashioned way with fire.”

“And here, Vander tried to convince me he wasn’t all that important.”

I smiled affectionately. “That was his humble streak shining through. Though, you know,” I murmured, tipping my head to the side thoughtfully as I considered her. “Speaking of magic abilities, I wonder which gifts you bear now that you’re a Graykey. I hear the powers of a Graykey are tremendously strong.”

“Yeah…” Dori said slowly as if she were agreeing with me, but then she gave a nervous laugh. “Except I’m not a Graykey. I’m a Baquet. Dori Baquet. And I’m not from here. Therefore, I can’t be—”

“Yes, about that.” Reaching for a towel, I wrapped it around myself as I stood. “I’ve been thinking.” I stepped out onto a rug where I could drip dry, and I tucked my towel in around me so I could wear it like a short strapless dress. Then I reached for another to scrub my red hair dry.

“From reading Indigo’s journal, it appears that more people than he and his mate have gone to Earth throughout the years. Since only Graykeys have the ability to travel back and forth between the two, it doesn’t seem like too much a stretch of the imagination to assume maybe one of your ancestors on Earth was actually a Graykey from the Outer Realms.”

“Wow,” Dori whispered, shaking her head incredulously. “That would be quite a coincidence if it were true.”

“Or maybe not,” I countered. “It would answer the question as to why you were chosen to trade places with Quilla’s aunt. Maybe your blood belongs here.”

“Okay, now you’re starting to freak me out.” Grabbing a handful of rumpled sheets around her, Dori wrapped the covers over her shoulders and shivered as if cold. “My dad’s family has always believed in that spiritual, HooDoo, mystical stuff. This is exactly the kind of thing they’d buy into. But I can trace the Baquet family tree four generations back. At least. So I don’t think—”

“What about the genealogy on your mother’s side?” I asked curiously.

Dori cringed. “That side’s a complete dead end. My mother was an orphan who was found in an alley, crying next to a dead baby boy. A DNA test proved the boy was probably her brother, but that’s the only family she ever knew about.”

I squinted at her a moment in thought before my eyes widened. “Infant siblings,” I gasped before snapping my fingers and pointing. “That’s it.”

“Huh?” Dori asked, blinking at me as if I’d lost my mind.

But I was too busy turning in a circle as I scoured the room. “What’d I do with Indy’s journal? Ooh! There it is.” I clutched the towel that was still hugging my body to my chest with both hands and scampered across the room barefoot to retrieve the book I’d left sitting by the divan where I’d read on it all night.

Once I had it in hand, I padded back to the bed and crawled up to sit beside Dori on the mattress so I could slap the journal down between us and flip to the front page.

“What’s this?” Dori leaned closer to see.

“It’s Indigo’s journal. I found it last night and read it.” Or finished reading it, if one wanted to get technical.

“You read this whole thing? Last night? Wow. Did you get any sleep at all?”

“No,” I murmured distractedly, squinting at the parchment in front of me before sucking in a breath. “Here.” I pointed to a pair of names on the Graykey family tree Indigo had created. “Quenton and Quinn Graykey, male and female siblings born in two-seventy-six and two-seventy-eight.”

“Two-seventy-eight? What? Is that the year?”

I nodded. “Yes. And the two siblings were sent through the portal to Earth just days after Quinn was born. It’s year three-twenty-eight here now, so that would make her—what—fifty years old right now.” Biting my lip, I looked hopefully. “Is your mother, by chance, fifty?”

Her face blanched. “My mother and father died ten years ago in a car accident,” she answered in a suddenly hoarse voice, “but…” Looking down at the family tree where I was pointing out the names Quinn and Quenton, she puffed out a breath, her lips parting with awe. “She was forty when she died.”

That was the connection, then. It had to be.

Gaping at the name Quinn on the family tree, Dori touched it slowly. “Are you saying this could be my mother, right here? Quinn Graykey?”

She looked so stunned, I sent her an apologetic cringe. “It’s beginning to look that way.”

Since her mother had been a Q-generation Graykey, that would make Dori an R-generation. Except her name started with a D, not an R. Then again, if she’d been born on Earth, the effects of the curse wouldn’t have followed her there, so no one would’ve been compelled to give her a name that started with R.

I wondered if, hopefully, that would make her exempt from the bloodlust.

It’d taken a few days after her arrival for her cursed mark to appear, however, so maybe it was taking a bit for everything else to do with the curse to fully reach her as well.

If by chance she started referring to herself by a new name that started with an R, we should probably start to worry.

“But...but…” She shook her head as she grasped the journal to slide it onto her lap so she could continue to examine the Graykey family tree. “Why would they send two lone children off to a different world without any kind of parental supervision like that? What the hell kind of Superman/Clark Kent bullshit is that?”

“Clark who?” I asked.

She shook her head and waved a hand. “I just… This is crazy. My mom was an alien? Oh my God; I’m half alien? That’s insane.”

“Half what?”

“And she was born with the freaking name Quinn?” Dori went on, not even hearing me. “I can’t imagine her being anything but Susan. This is—it’s—it’s just unbelievable. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, I’m completely believing it.”

“From what Indigo wrote,” I told her. “The children’s grandmother, Shayleen—who was a trapped Graykey mate—helped their mother send them away from this world so they could escape the effects of the curse. I’m not sure why the mother, Janicka—another Graykey mate—didn’t go with them. Or maybe she did for a short time but was pulled back to the Outer Realms because she didn’t have an amulet of her own to anchor her there, but Indigo had a theory that she eventually escaped the Graykeys and found sanctuary in the Kingdom of Donnelly, where she became the nanny of Vienne under a new name. Now, Vienne happens to be Olivander’s sister-in-law, so I bet we could write to her and ask about her old nanny. If this woman was willing, a magical blood test would be able to ascertain whether you two were blood kin or not.”

“Whoa.” Dori shook her head slowly. “So I could, like, really have relatives here? In the Outer Realms?”

I shrugged. “Well, you do have the mark of the curse on you. It makes sense.”

Dori flipped her arm over and looked down at her tattoo. “Wait. If I’m really a Graykey, then this…” She jabbed her finger at the mark. “Then this might really be real. Oh shit.” She looked up, her eyes wide. “What exactly happens to you when you’re cursed again?”

I cringed, not sure what to say but certain I shouldn’t tell her the actual truth. She didn’t want to know that answer.

When a knock came on the door, I heaved out a relieved breath and closed my eyes. But thank God. I would welcome any distraction right about—

“Ah, hell! That’s Olivander.” I could feel him on the other side of the portal. I’d been so focused on Dori’s dilemma, I hadn’t noticed him getting closer. “I need to dress.” Gripping the towel to my chest again, I flew off the bed, calling, “Just a minute,” toward the door as I went.

Forgetting all modesty once I reached the nightgown I’d worn all night, I dropped all my coverage and reached for my clothes.

“Oh!” I heard Dori’s surprised voice behind me. “I’ll just, uh, yeah. I’ll turn around now.”

I fumbled with the gown, yanking it on, and then hurried toward the door on my bare feet.

“Are you decent enough for me to answer the door?” I asked Dori, without even glancing her way. I was too excited to see him again.

“Yeah, but—Unity!” she hissed.

“Amara,” I ground out, sending her a stern look. “I’m Amara around him, remember?”

“Right. Well, maybe Amara should do something about all her red hair,” she countered, rolling her eyes and twirling a finger around her own head.

“Oh, damn!” I’d forgotten about needing to glamour myself. “Thank you.” I rushed back to my cape and pulled out my packet of powder from the pocket where I’d left it all night. After pinching out a finger full, I sprinkled it over my hair and turned back toward Dori. “Better?”

“Uh…” Her brow furrowed. “Weren’t you a blonde last night?”

“Yes. Am I not a blonde now?”

She shook her head slowly. “Not even a little.”

“But I’m not a redhead?”

“Er, no.”

“This’ll have to do, then.” Unable to wait for a second longer to see Olivander, I flung the door open and was instantly hit with a blast of surreal vitality.

God, but it felt nice to be back in his sphere. I swear, the very air in my lungs felt fresher when I was in his presence. He seemed so much more handsome and virile now than he’d been when we were younger, too. The urge to touch him was strong.

“Hi.” I reached out, unable to help myself. “Did you sleep well?”

He scowled and shifted his face to the side, avoiding my touch, even as he squinted at me in confusion and finally asked, “Amara?”

“Very good,” I congratulated him, managing to grip his wrist before he could stop me. Then I yanked him into the room. “Did anyone see you coming out of Unity’s bedchamber?” Then, because he wasn’t paying close enough attention to stop me, I reached up to touch his hair again.

I got a decent enough stroke in this time to actually feel the silken tresses against my eager fingers before he batted my hand away. “Do you mind?” he demanded.

“Not at all,” I told him brightly. “I could touch you all day long.”

With a sigh, he gathered up his hair at his nape and tied it into a quick queue so it’d be harder for me to get my hands on it, and he said, “Well, don’t. Now, why is your hair black today?” His eyes squinted as he leaned closer. “And does your face look different?”

“Probably,” I admitted, sucking in a deep breath when I caught a whiff of his natural scent. “I’m wearing a glamour, so that makes sense. Meanwhile, here’s my idea of what we should do this morning.”

He shook his head, not ready to change topics. “Why are you wearing a glamour?”

I blinked at him. “Because I want to,” I shot back simply. “So if you’re ready to listen to my idea now—”

He lifted a staying hand.

“No, I’m not ready. Because you don’t come up with the ideas in this arrangement. You’re the assistant. I’m the employer. Ergo, I have the ideas. And I have to go to the library to search for some information. So you two will just have to come with me, which means—”

“Wearing what?” I countered, cutting him off as I set a hand on my c****d hip and lifted an eyebrow.

He paused to blink perplexedly at me. “Pardon?”

“Just what do you propose we wear outside and into public in order to reach the library?” I asked. “Because maybe you haven’t noticed, but I have a feeling others will that Dori’s attire doesn’t exactly mesh well in this dimension. And I can’t go out in my nightwear; it looks more suited for a boudoir than walking down a crowded street.”

His attention immediately lowered to my nightdress and snagged at my chest, which caused my breasts to ache with arousal and my n*****s to harden through the cloth.

Which sent desire rippling through his mark, and amped up my own even more.

“Great,” Dori tossed out dryly from across the room. “You just had to remind him what you were wearing, didn’t you? Now it’ll be another ten minutes before we get his attention back above your neckline and on the conversation.”

Olivander shot her a dark scowl and then turned back to me, making sure to keep eye contact as he muttered, “What exactly do you suggest we do, then, oh wise one?”

I grinned, glad he was finally coming around to the correct way of thinking. “I say you go ahead and head toward the library. But my first order of business, as your new assistant, should be to take Dori to a dressmaker’s shop and get us both properly fitted with suitable attire. Then I’d like to see about getting her a mark. She’d draw far less attention if she looked like us and had a tattoo as well.”

My mate blinked at me once, then pulled back as if retreating. He sounded a bit surprised when he cleared his throat and admitted, “That—uh—that’s actually not a bad idea.”

I knew it wasn’t; that’s why I’d said it. But I smiled, anyway, glad he was willing to admit it aloud.

“Wait,” Dori cut into the moment, though, and stepping between us to wave her hands. “Did you just say something about getting me a tattoo? Like the tattoo you two have on your faces?”

I nodded and smiled at her. “Yep.”

But she didn’t smile back. Shaking her head and continuing to wave her hands, negatively now, she said, “Ooh, I don’t know about that. Not that I have an issue against anyone else that has them. I think Post Malone looks totally dope. But they’re just not my thing, you know. I can’t be going back home with a face tat.”

“But it wouldn’t follow you back to your planet,” I explained. “Indigo said so in his writings. Magic and magic-made marks from here don’t follow a person through the portal. And you’ll be much safer and blend in better if you had one.”

“Well…” She made a face. “Geesh. Alright. If you’re absolutely certain it won’t follow me back home. How much will it hurt, though?”

“I can’t imagine it’d be too painful. Olivander and I got ours when we were but babes. Who would put an infant through that much pain?”

“Huh.” Dori still seemed uncertain but she huffed out a breath and shrugged. “Er, okay, then. Maybe. I guess. If you think it’ll keep me safer here.”

“It will,” I assured, beaming my approval at her. “So it’s decided.” I turned back to my true love. “We’ll meet you at the library when we’re done with all our errands.”

Olivander squinted at me. “But shouldn’t I escort you two to the—?”

“Oh, that’s not necessary,” I gushed, reaching out to touch his arm in gratitude that he’d even offer, even though he immediately shifted away from my hand. “I grew up in Elaina. I know my way around the village just fine, thanks.” Grinning into his eyes, I nudged him toward the door. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we ladies have much to do. We’ll meet up with you at the library as soon as possible.”

He let me back him toward the exit, where I opened the portal and coaxed him into the hall with a shooing motion. But by the time he realized what I’d done and he was scowling at me for it, I already had him right where I wanted him.

“But how do you even know where—”

“We have it all handled, I assure you. Bye-bye, now.” And I shut the door in his face.

From behind me, Dori laughed. “You are quite possibly the most managing woman I’ve ever met.”

I turned and blasted her with a smile. “The headmistress always said you’re either managing others or being managed. So choose who you are, and be that.”

“Hmm.” The earthling nodded in understanding. “I like that. Your headmistress sounds pretty badass.”

“She was. Now…” I waved her forward. “Come here. I need to glamour a different outfit on you so we can make it to the dressmaker’s cottage without bringing attention to ourselves.”

Dori dutifully shuffled forward even as she frowned in confusion. “If you can just glamour some clothes on me, then why do we need to go to a dressmaker’s shop at all?”

“Because glamoured clothing isn’t reliable. Glamours are terribly sensitive to the elements. With a little extra wind, water, earth, or fire, it washes the illusion away entirely. So it’s always somewhat of a risk to go about with a glamour on. Now tell me, do you really want to take the chance of getting caught in the rain and having all your clothes simply melt off you, leaving you naked and exposed?”

“Uh… Not particularly, no.”

“I thought not. Plus, I only have a finite amount of glamour powder, and since I need to share it with you to hide your cursed mark, we might as well get some new clothes while we have the opportunity and therefore use the least amount of powder possible, to conserve it.”

“Well, I’m convinced.” Spreading her arms, Dori sighed and added, “Glamour me, baby.”