Emerald's Cove

Time to listen. Time to learn the truth. Time to run before Harmonia Shae lost her soul.

Harmonia kept close to the wooded cliffs along the mountainside of Esharia. Her means of escape was the shimmering elliptical portal hidden within the cave on the west side of the tallest oak tree. Another thousand feet and she’d be in Sedona.

An eerie sensation prickled the hairs on her neck. She stopped and hid among the large red blossoms of the cliffrose flower and the purple sage covering the desert terrain.

A nauseating stench filled her nostrils. Only one terrestrial breed in their realm carried the odor of rotten egg and damp dirt. Searching the clumps of trees, a troll emerged from the underground tunnel to her right. As she sprinted to a nearby juniper tree, his beady laser-ray eyes narrowed in on her location.

The troll’s heavy body followed her along the cliff, watching her like a predator stalking his prey. Her heart blasted in her chest—a quick, hard pulse in her throat at the chance of being caught. Clutching her fingers, she scanned his energy field and reached for the juniper’s heavy limb. She pulled herself to her feet and gave the area a once-over, making eye contact with the beast.

The troll pointed toward the mountain’s edge. She turned to her left. Two djinn shifters from her stepmother’s harem guarded the cave’s entrance.

“Do not teleport. Enter through the portal,” her cousin, Tilion warning words rang in her ears.

Time was against her. How could she distract the djinn and get through the portal? She spotted a patch of prickly cacti close to the cave’s opening. With a calming breath, she evoked her water magick. Clearing her mind, she concentrated on the molecules and cells within the plant. She forced the water inside the cacti to push to the surface. If she did the incantation right, the thorny spikes would turn into powerful daggers.

As she watched hundreds of thorny spikes shower down upon the two djinn, a sweet bewilderment of tremulous apprehension coursed through her. The hysterical note in the djinn’s screams thrilled her. She watched them dash toward the cliffs where the troll stood with his raised hatchet. A thunderous roar echoed from the troll giving her the distraction she needed.

Fifty-feet to freedom. Harmonia sprinted to the cave’s entrance, not slowing down until she was through the oval portal and on the other side of the realm.

Shadows of light streamed through cracks in the rotting wood. Old rusted tools were nailed to the wall. A large water tank filled the room. The portal’s vibrating energy faded, replaced by a wall of wood. On the roof, a series of staccato taps sounded … rain, or bird.

She opened the door a crack and peeked out to make sure her arrival hadn’t drawn anyone’s attention. As she inhaled the sweet aroma of rain, an eager hopefulness filled her.

A slight sprinkle of rain lingered. She left the shed and tilted her face to the sky. She loved how the rain filled her soul, melding with her own water magick. Shaking out her damp hair, she pulled her unruly curls into a ponytail.

She walked toward the row of buildings. People leisurely walked under the overhang roofs paying no attention to the sprinkles of rain, or her. Good.

From her backpack, she retrieved the sketch of the town. Her cousin, Tilion, had marked the saloon along with the location of his apartment. Looking down the street, she saw the visitor center and took a final look at the watershed, which housed the portal. A large raven sat atop the electrical wires. “Bittersweet irony.”

She strolled along the sidewalk, keeping pace with the troupe of shoppers, remembering to blend in and not bring attention to her presence. The sign for the Cowboy Saloon was two buildings away. Now, to meet Tilion.

She pushed the swinging half-doors. Men wore wide-brim hats, patterned shirts, and tight jeans. Women paraded in low-cut tank tops and form-fitting jeans.

Harmonia scanned the room; a magical energy vibrated through the place. She couldn’t identify each species, but smelled the lemon‐ grass of fae. djinn also frequented the establishment. She smelled their scent of elderberry. A quiver of uncertainty edged inside her mind, but she squelched the doubt. Tilion was her chance at freedom.

Intrigued with the violins and rousing hillbilly beat, she followed the music past tables and booths where the aroma of cooked meat permeated the air. She never understood the desire for red meat—not one of her favorites. Past the dining area, six men leaned against a large mahogany counter. She took a seat at the end of the bar to wait for Tilion.

“You want a beer?” A woman behind the bar with magenta spiked hair asked.

“Sure.”

The bartender slid her an icy mug; the tangy taste met with her palette.

“You here for the rodeo?” A cowboy with a black stetson and plaid gray shirt asked, moving closer to her end of the bar.

Narrowing her eyes, she scanned his aura. Human. Harmless. She relaxed. “Meeting a friend. Do you know him? Tilion Shae,” she asked with a fruity tone, hoping to replicate the sound of the other women.

“Nope.”

The bartender’s brow arched. She took out a GPS signaler like the one Tilion carried and went toward the back as another girl came out. Harmonia pushed down the anxiety that churned inside her body. Did the woman with magenta hair know Tilion? She disappeared at the mention of his name.

“Dance with me.” Taking her hand, the cowboy edged her toward the dance floor. A perfect cover to inspect the crowd and learn the customs of these humans. She joined in the line dance and followed the woman in front of her. Caught up in the joviality of the dancers, Harmonia kept her eye on the crowd, and searched for Tilion and potential problems. The music slowed, and she returned to her seat.

She’d spent the last two days obsessing about her escape. She was clueless at what to do without Tilion. Out of the corner of her eyes, two gnomes sat watching her. Panic settled deep within her stomach. They smirked broadly, licking their brown lips. Their lustful eyes reduced to slits. Disgusting. Not willing to wait for Tilion any longer, she moved toward the half-doors and stepped out of the saloon.

Her cousin warned her to only trust Lara, the wife of the ambas‐ sador of the human realm. She kept the address in her pocket. She’d find her in the morning.

A couple of blocks down from the Cowboy Saloon, she took a seat on the bench in front of a general store. She watched to see if the gnomes were going to follow her. Positive they weren’t, she walked along the sidewalk, gazing into the windows of the pottery and crystal shops. A red neon sign—Amy’s Sushi—caught her attention. Crossing the street, she opened the weathered door and glanced behind her, making sure no one followed. A succulent ginger aroma wafted through the air. Her mouth watered. She gasped at the sight of raw fish under a glass counter, all the while scanning the room for terres‐ trial energy. Thankfully, none.

At the counter, a man in a solid white cook’s shirt with a black scarf tied around his head invited her to sit. She ordered a platter of sashimi, yellowtail, and spicy tuna. Each bite tasted like a piece of heaven. Satisfied with her meal, she waited until the last customer left before pulling the address from inside her flowered tunic. “Could you tell me where this house is?”

“The Averys live on the outskirts of town. Take 89A toward Oak Canyon about ten miles. The road is full of switchbacks and on the right, you’ll see Oak Canyon Road. Turn right. Follow the road until you reach the river not far from the Canyon’s campground. You’ll find their cabin.” He lifted the lid from a platter and sliced her a piece of soft, white cake. “Any friend of Lara is a friend of mine.”

“Thank you.” She popped the cake into her mouth and sighed at the creamy buttery taste of the dessert. “The cake is delightful.”

His whole face beamed with a smile. She retrieved a twenty from her backpack. Tilion made sure she understood the currency of the human realm. Excitement filled her as she paid her bill.

Leaving the restaurant, she walked through town cautiously. Against the wood building, leading into a tiny parking lot outside the saloon, stood the female with the magenta spiked hair from the bar. When Harmonia walked past, the woman fell in step and touched her arm.

“Tilion’s been arrested. ” she said, with an acute note of distress in her voice.

Harmonia stopped in mid-stride. “No.” A flush of adrenaline raced through her body. “What happened?”

A stifling sensation of fear threatened to overtake her thoughts. The bartender used sidhe glamour. Her unreadable aura made Harmonia cautious of the fae standing in front of her.

“I can’t say. Go to his apartment and lock the door. Do not wander around town. Hurry and hide.” The woman pointed to the end of the street. “He lives behind Havens Nest. Go!” She went back into the saloon leaving Harmonia frozen in place.

Seeing the fork in the road, she looked for a two story building with the name Amsted Apartments. The woman’s words haunted her, and worry ate at her nerves.

She unlocked the apartment and entered a sparsely furnished room: A couch. A table. A television. “Ugh!”

Opening the bedroom door, she stood in the doorway. A king size bed. A dresser. No pictures on the wall—sterile, like the rest of the house, except for the few clothes hanging in the closet. She tossed her backpack on the burgundy comforter. Too early for sleep, she turned on the television. The loud noise ruffled her already frayed nerves.

Shoulders tight, her body ached. Taking a deep, pained breath she closed her eyes. She couldn’t help thinking of how her father would punish Tilion for breaking Marid law and helping her journey to Sedona. The Marid king demanded law-abiding compliance from the women of his harem. She’d challenged his decree. Tilion and her chaperone would be punished for their disobedience.

Last week when her chaperone thought she slept, Harmonia time- traveled through the magnetic field to Oaf to speak with her grandfa‐ ther, an Anunnaki ancient god. “Beware of spies within the ranks of the harem. Listen to Tilion and return to the human realm. Traitors exist.” His words still reverberated in her soul. Traitors.

Inside the living room the magical shield protected her, yet the apartment walls closed in like a suffocating blanket. She opened the sliders and watched the sun recede behind the red mountain.

The twilight of the desert landscape with its winds played on her nervous system. Suddenly, a formidable echo traveled through the patio and gave her a chilly feeling. An unshakeable sixth sense of being watched filled her essence. Grinding her teeth, she evoked her water assimilation shield and listened to the magnetic sounds vibrating in the air. The energy sizzled with subatomic particles, the same power she used when stepping through the quantum energy of time. Whoever watched was from the inner dimension of the terres‐ trial realms.

A loud crackle of noise startled Harmonia. An icy hand penetrated the field of liquid surrounding her body and pulled her through the ley lines of magick before she had time to react and reinforce her shield. Her adrenaline spiked as images of Reric, her betrothed, flashed through her mind, fearing his powerful skills had tracked her within the human realm.

Dizziness threatened to overwhelm her equilibrium. Green sparkles of illumination flashed, sending electrical lightening through the dark passage and back to the terrestrial realm. Fighting with all her strength, she pushed against the force gripping her arms. The powerful wind pulled her deeper and deeper into the realm. With a heavy thump she landed on a hardened dirt floor, and found herself in an underground cavern. A putrid stench assaulted her nostrils and her eyes stung as a dry wind whirled around her breaking through her protective shield.

Harmonia struggled to regain her composure and not reveal her fear and appear weak. She recognized the troll dressed in red armor, holding a wicked machete, patrolling the cave’s entrance as the one who had helped her escape the djinn guards. Her tongue pushed to the roof of her mouth. Keeping her eyes on the troll, she regained her footing. She was in Azeroth, land of the trolls.

A sidhe wearing a silver lace gown walked toward her. Harmonia caught a whiff of the silver moss. The female’s lips and nails were frosted gray. Her pale blue eyes—cold. Ice. A ripple of fear filled Harmonia’s limbs. She’d seen this woman in the village of Sehren at the community well near the food trollies.

The sidhe lifted Harmonia’s chin with one finger. “An ancient nephilim djinn running away from home.” She chuckled.

In a swift whirl of wind, the woman clamped a copper Solomon’s wand around her forearm. When the fangs of the armband punctured her skin, copper seeped into her blood stream. A wave of searing pain hit like a thunderous storm.

“What do you want with me?” Harmonia asked, her heartbeat racing, nearly exploding with the effects of the drug.

“Revenge.”

Another jolt of excruciating pain surged through her brain. Her arms remained immobile, unable to move against the repressing force of the woman’s energy.

A fire djinn, of the Ifrit tribe, came through the tunnel to her left.

Harmonia recognized the sister of her father’s enemy, Vera.

“You remember me.” She circled around Harmonia with a satisfied grin.

In the recess of the cave, Harmonia sensed a Sumerian sahir. A sour taste of panic formed in her mouth. Her eyes darted around the room searching for the magician. As a child she had learned to avoid the sahir, known for their deceit and evil deeds.

Vera materialized a dark magick Stone of Solomon, giving the flaming talisman to the sidhe woman. The stone crackled with elec‐ trical energy before turning an ashy black. “Initiate the plan,” Vera demanded.

Harmonia trembled, realizing they meant to bind her to the talis‐ man. Fingering the pendant around her neck, she concentrated on Oaf and her grandfather. Releasing the water assimilation shield protecting her body, she attempted to slip through the quantum parti‐cles of the time ribbon and into safety. For a split second, her body shimmered and she fought against the sahir magick. She almost escaped when the wind encircled the vibrating molecules of her body, forcing her to materialize and retreat against the wall. The sidhe’s wind magick left Harmonia gasping for breath. Without her shield, she was vulnerable to the wind’s power.

The sidhe stroked Harmonia’s dark hair. “Silky and beautiful. So perfect.” She pulled a few strands from her scalp.

Harmonia heaved a heavy breath and cleared her mind of the shock. She pushed against the wind, determined to gain an upper hand before it was too late. The elements of wind thwarted and over‐ powered her water magick. Her body weakened. Unable to fight against the poison racing through her veins, she collapsed.

“If I’m to be your servant, who is my master?” Harmonia asked, speaking through her teeth with forced restraint.

The female’s silver lips curved into a wicked grin. “Soon, you and all in the kingdom will remember the days of the Unseelie sidhe reign.”

“Your clan.” With a resurgence of strength, Harmonia pulled the water particles from the wind and deflated its strength, giving her enough time to open the time ribbon.

“Stop her,” Vera hissed to the sahir. He shot an arrow into the ripple of energy causing her body to crumble to the ground, preventing her escape.

The sahir pulled his arrow from her shoulder. “Try it again and the next arrow will puncture your heart.”

A sensation of intense sickness and desolation swept over her. She placed her hand over the wound and liquified the water of her body soaking up the blood sending a healing light to close the puncture. She couldn’t allow herself to be sick, determined to keep her dignity, she stood and took control of the sahir game. “How can I be of service to one so experienced in the world of sidhe magick as you? Your legendary skills far superior to my own.”

“Aw, you desire a game of wits. The binding requires you have the opportunity.”

Harmonia uncoiled the Solomon wand’s golden tail from around her bicep. “Your use of copper gives you an unfair advantage.”

“Do not pay her heed,” Vera said as the wand recoiled itself around her bicep, sending more of the deadly poison into her veins.

Harmonia’s voice strained. “You’re weak; not able to defeat me without poison,” she said, hoping to unsettle the sidhe’s confidence.

Pointing an index finger into Harmonia’s chest, the sidhe whis‐ pered, inches from her face, “You have one opportunity to prevent the completion of the talisman. If you lose…” The sidhe let the words dangle in the air.

Determined to find a way to prevent the binding of her freewill, Harmonia backed against the cave wall. Vera’s dark eyes shot a ray of fire that penetrated Harmonia’s emotional auric field. Pushing Vera’s fire energy from her essence, Harmonia formed her hands in a sphere and sent a bubble of water toward the djinn watching it burst over her head. A satisfied smile stretched across Harmonia’s face. She might not overpower the wind, but water doused fire.

She used the moisture from the sidhe’s own wind magick against Vera. As the water burned Vera skin, she screeched in horror.

Harmonia risked one last look at Vera as steam rose from her pores. The hatred in her eyes radiated like hot coals. Vera took her rage out on the magician sending him against the wall. “I’m ready to answer the riddle. Tell me the fable.” With a defiance of pride she’d faced the sahir without fear.

The sidhe towered over her in a threatening stance. The magician handed the sidhe a sand clock. Her voice filled with confidence. “When the last grain of sand falls, you must either answer the riddle or begin your servitude.”

“A very large oak was uprooted by the wind and thrown across a stream. It fell among some reeds. The oak asked, ‘I wonder how you, being so light and weak, are not entirely crushed by these strong winds.’”

The reeds replied, “You fight and contend with the wind, and conse‐ quently you are destroyed; while we on the contrary bend before the last breath of air, and therefore remain unbroken, and escape.”

Harmonia watched the sand seep through the hourglass. She was

unsure of the riddle’s meaning. The wind symbolizes the sidhe power. The water represents her magick. She hurled a bubble of water toward the woman to establish her equality in the fight. The sidhe expected the action, and captured the water’s particles in a cyclone of wind.

Harmonia stumbled and counteracted by creating ice spikes, which pierced the sidhe’s bicep. When the sidhe lowered her arm, the wind died down, and the captured water escaped into the earth’s dirt.

Tied. One for one, the two combatted each other with various tactics. Tired of the game, Harmonia with a calculating movement relaxed and let her bones and muscles liquefy into water. She flowed with the wind’s vibrations, moving with its swirling movements. No longer fighting, she joined her water magick with the wind’s breath, moving to its rhythm.

“No-o-o-o!” Vera screamed.

Harmonia had guessed the answer to the riddle correctly: stay with the wind, bend like the reed. The two slashed and roared inside the cave, neither gaining control of the other. With the copper coursing through her body, she weakened. How long could she swim in the wind’s torrent strength? Without warning, the sahir fired an arrow right for her heart. To shield from the onslaught of fire, she retreated from the wind and solidified her body.

Tears of defeat blinded her eyes. Whether she won or lost it didn’t matter.

Vera hissed a breath of hot air and caught the hairs on Harmonia’s arms. Her strength weakened. A foul taste of scorched hair entered her throat.

Harmonia dampened her hair and put the flame out. Anger seethed through her body as steam radiated from her pores. She had no way to prevent the binding and she was helpless against the magician.

“She’s weak! Her magick is waning. Her veins have filled with copper poison.” Vera beamed with satisfaction.

“What do you want of me?” Harmonia asked.

“One life for another.” Vera shot a fifty-foot flame of fire. The tip caught her shoulder.

Harmonia winced at the burning of her flesh. An image of Vera’s fire dragon totem tattooed her shoulder. She clenched her jaw biting back the lump of pain in her throat.

With an algific glare at Harmonia, the sidhe halted the wind. “Bind her. I’ve grown weary of this game.”

“Quite demanding for someone who lost the competition.” A hedonistic grin swallowed Vera’s face. “By all rights, she is free to go. You have lost.”

Harmonia sensed freedom, and concentrated her energy on the power of the aqua quartz embedded in the merkaba pendant worn around her neck. She focused on Sedona and teleported back to the Cowboy Saloon, hoping Tilion was there to help her escape the sahir.

Stumbling on her feet, she found herself in the arms of the sexiest man she’d ever seen. His muscular physique firm against her touch, his smell of sandalwood…another sidhe. Her gaze darted around the room searching for Tilion. Relieved she’d broken free, she stumbled back. Her vision blurry from the rush of energy she’d used to escape the cave. Before she could speak, an excruciating pain pierced her frontal lobe, and time slowed to a nauseating crawl before darkness overtook her.