"listen, i want to apologize for last night," he said sweetly, beating me to it.

"no, don't worry about it. i think we were all.... disappointed," i grumbled, playing off his sincerity because i felt like he owned the right to be mad.

"eden, it doesn't matter how i felt, i should never have raised my voice to you and i'm sorry. sometimes, i just, i just expect you to, you know, be able to do anything. but killing someone is a whole different thing, i get that. and i'm sorry i expected such evil out of you." he lifted my chin so that he could look directly into my eyes and i felt the weight of his words immediately. he was a good man. a really good man. he certainly deserved better than me.

"i forgive you," i whispered hoarsely, remembering the kindergarten manners i learned as a child. i smiled at him and he smiled back, his magic soaring, searching for mine but it would not budge. it remembered kiran. it sensed the strong hold kiran's magic held over mine and it would not move.

i stood up, awkwardly moving away from jericho, praying he wouldn't notice, but i knew that was impossible.

"jericho, i know that i'm supposed to be in charge and everything, but.... ok, let's be honest, i have no idea what i'm doing!" i confessed, picking a blanket up from off the ground and wrapping it tightly around myself. "please help me, please, please, please, please...." i begged, clasping my hands together and sitting heavily down next to him again.

"of course i will. i was always going to help you. last night, i was just acting like a jerk," he conceded honestly.

"oh, good, that's really good!" i threw my arms around his neck, the blanket falling off my shoulders. "so what's our next move then?"

"well, xander and xavier called last night after you went to bed. they found the morocco team and moved on to india, so if you're up for it, they would like us to meet them there. they said they've found something very interesting that we need to come see for ourselves," jericho finished by rolling his eyes and i had to laugh at the camaraderie between this team.

"sounds like a good next step." i nodded my head once, deciding that we needed to move on and india was just as good of a place as any. i decided last night that it was time to get avalon, that i couldn't wait any longer. he needed me. i certainly lacked the number of people i had hoped to bring with me, but i also didn't want to risk any more lives than was necessary.

after we met up with the teams in india, i would speak to jericho about heading back to romania as soon as possible. i knew he was as anxious to get avalon, as well as the others, free from their awful prison and the longer we waited the worse it would be for them.

"eden, what do you want to do with sebastian? are we going to continue to drag him around with us?" jericho asked carefully and i realized that was exactly what i was planning on doing.

"we'll take him to india with us, for sure. he is too helpful right now to completely just throw away. plus, jericho, we might still be able to use him as leverage."

"i guess that's true," jericho agreed, "it's just that, i really, really don't like him."

"ugh, me either!" i echoed his sentiment, enthusiastically, "but you know what? i think i've thought up another use for him!"

"what is it?" jericho asked dryly, not believing there was anything sebastian could do that wouldn't irritate him.

"i need to figure out how to give another person's magic back. i mean i've tried before, but nothing has worked. i'm going to practice with sebastian until i get my magic to cooperate," i explained, proud of the idea and realizing the necessity for it.

"i remember what happened to oscar though; you might end up killing him in the process...." jericho mumbled. he wasn't trying to be rude, but the memory of oscar flying across the steel barn back in omaha was a painful one and not an action i would like to repeat on avalon once we were face to face.

but sebastian was a different story.

"you're not worried about killing him?" jericho asked, almost amused.

"actually, that might solve a couple of my problems!" i laughed, glad that jericho and i worked things out. i was happy that we were on our way out of england and away from the prince, and satisfied that i found a solution to working on giving someone's magic back.

the night before had been the darkest moments of hopelessness. i had trembled, and cried and shrunken in fear. but now, in the clear light of day and with a new plan ahead of me, i could face this day, this mission, this fateful purpose of mine again with courage. i could be fearless again.

chapter twenty

"how are we getting to india?" i asked casually, emerging from my bedroom, showered, dressed and ready for another long flight.

the guys milled around the door, all ready to leave and waiting patiently on me. i didn't want to believe i was the fussy girl that took her time getting ready and made everyone wait. this whole trip had been a series of wet ponytails and only eye liner, but every time we were getting ready to leave i was the last one ready. i blamed my long hair and conditioner; i doubted any of these boys conditioned.

"well, we were thinking...." titus began, looking at jericho for encouragement to continue. "we were thinking we could take amory- i mean your jet. the cessna amory kept in storage here?"

"the what? what jet?" i asked, not understanding what titus was talking about.

"your grandfather kept a cessna here, can we use it?" titus said slowly, as if that would help me understand.

"titus, i don't understand the words you are saying, what is a ces.... what is that? and since when do i own a jet?" i finished, wishing there was an immortal's guide to posh living and civil warfare i could pick up at the nearest bookshop.

"it's a private jet that your grandfather owned and now we assume it belongs to you, and titus wants to use it to get to.... wherever we are going," sebastian interrupted, clearly growing impatient with the banter.

"oh, ok, well then sure, we can use it." the fact that i now owned a private jet was going to come in very handy, especially today.

"yes!" titus hollered, fist-bumping gabriel who didn't really understand what he was doing. "can i pilot?"

"do you know how?" i asked, skeptically.

"um, of course i do. don't you?" he rolled his eyes at me, and then bounced through the door like a kid ready to open presents christmas morning.

gabriel pushed sebastian through the door after titus, shaking his head in amused awe.

"he can drive, can't he?" i asked jericho while he locked up the flat.

"yes, he can fly, but avalon never let anyone fly the jets but him. i think he's excited for the opportunity to put his skills to use." jericho smiled dryly, mimicking gabriel's headshake.

"should i have said no?" i was suddenly nervous, i didn't know if i could take another plane ride like the one that got us over the atlantic from peru.

"and squash that spirit? are you kidding me?" jericho laughed again, which only made me more nervous. "relax, he's a great pilot, i promise."

jericho dropped his arm across my shoulder playfully and we walked down the staircase together.

"are you all right after last night?" he asked casually, not referring to any of the details of the failed mission specifically.

"no, not really," i answered honestly, "but i will be."

i looked up at jericho, his spirited hazel eyes, twinkling with life and i felt safe. i loved jericho; i had for a while. i didn't love him like i loved kiran, but soon i would put that detestable emotion to death and move on. once kiran was out of the picture it would be easy to forget how he moved me, how he entranced my every thought and how my magic was bound to his so effortlessly. i just needed to put that love to death first, and then i could move on.

the drive to the isolated airstrip outside the city was quiet. crammed together in the mini cooper, nobody wanted to breath, let alone make a sound; there just wasn't room for it.

i was disappointed to leave another foreign city without even visiting a single museum. london was worse than paris, i didn't even lay eyes on a single landmark, or hardly notice the culture at all. either we were holed up in our safe-house or working covert opts on an isolated ten acres of land housing a mansion that seemed more modern and unique than traditional and english.

the jet impressed with its luxurious esthetic that my grandfather provided. he always seemed elegant with expensive taste, but aside from the tweed suits he wore to school, i didn't know much about his style. until my inheritance, i rather lacked any of my own.

so, with amory gone and my new ownership of a fancy, private jet, i figured this would be a great place to start. i was a jet owner. a cessna owner, whatever that meant. this would be my style.

i half wondered if i should be more worried about titus, but he seemed to take off appropriately and once we were in the air, i didn't feel like the turbulence was out of the ordinary. i relaxed into my plush, leather chair and sighed. there was life outside of a miserably unsuccessful mission.

titus and gabriel closed the door to the cockpit and jericho and i sat across the aisle from each other and across a table from sebastian. jericho's eyes drooped and his head rested against the back of his chair. i didn't know if he was entirely asleep, but he would be soon.

"so, i ran in to your sister last night," i mentioned casually, gauging sebastian's response. i still couldn't figure out if he had purposefully sent me in there with knowledge of his sister on the grounds, especially after my promise to him before anything actually happened to avalon.

"did you tell her i said, 'hello?'" he mumbled darkly.

"sebastian," i commanded louder, demanding his attention. "did you know she would be there?"

"not for certain, but i knew there was a chance," he admitted, playing idly with the hem of his shirt, he had yet to change from his birthday party. i made a silent note to myself that in india i would find him clean clothes.

"and you still thought it best for me to go? do you remember the promise i made to you before lucan took avalon?" i asked, hardly believing that he would betray his little sister. maybe that was the depth of his depravity; i couldn't be surprised by the kendrick bloodline and their absolute disrespect for all things living, anymore.

"i remember," he agreed.

"then you knew there was a chance that i would not only strip amelia of her magic, but also kill her?" i crossed my arms in defiant disbelief.

"i knew there was a chance, but did you? did you take her magic and kill her?" he questioned casually.

"no, but i could have!" i insisted. "i mean, i was there to murder your cousin; amelia would have just been a detail at the end of the night, a loose end to tie up." i swallowed my guilt and revulsion, trying to hammer in my point.

"so, did you do that? did you murder kiran?" sebastian asked, still an air of humor in his weak and whispery voice. his accent, crisp and british as kiran's, but unlike kiran, he got straight to the point and never tried to gloss over anything with flowery promises and pretty words.