Page 36 of Langiappe & Lost Legends

Dani gestured toward the barn where we’d been working earlier. "The preparations are proceeding as planned. Even with the current temporal chaos, we're managing to coordinate vendors and security and finish the decor."

I smiled and shifted my gaze to Phi. "I need you monitoring those weak points in reality," I told her. “The moment anything changes?—"

"My detection grid spans the Quarter," she assured me. "Every fluctuation, every distortion will register immediately."

I turned to Lia and eyed the small fortress of empty energy drink cans surrounding her workspace. "Perhaps consider a more... sustainable approach to maintaining consciousness? We need your probability manipulation at full strength."

She met my gaze with caffeine-brightened eyes but pushed away her latest can with visible reluctance. "Your concern is noted, if not necessarily appreciated."

That was good enough for me. Whether we were ready or not, the hour of reckoning approached. All we had to do was make sure there was still a reality left to save when it arrived.

CHAPTER 13

DAHLIA

Iknew we'd royally screwed up the moment Phi activated the final shield anchor. The ley lines beneath Jackson Square erupted with enough magical force to knock me flat on my ass. It sent waves of dizzying energy pulsing through my skull. My head felt like someone had taken a cheese grater to my brain. That was before our familiar's mental voice sliced through my consciousness.

"And this is why we don't mess with ancient power networks without proper preparation," Adèle projected. Her mental tone was amused. "But no, you just had to rush in like caffeinated squirrels with a death wish."

She might have a point. We kept getting calls about various crises and decided we needed to cast a net over the French Quarter to try and keep the temporal fuckery to a minimum where the tourists were heaviest. We should have listened and maybe even focused on what Madame Chronos had said. She’d instructed us to find a location that could anchor our attempt to stop the Lost Legends and lock them away for good.

Lucas's strong hands gripped my arms as he helped me to my feet. Even through my spinning head, I caught the worry in his eyes. That protective alpha energy of his was radiating off him inwaves. It made my skin tingle when he touched me.Not the time, hormones. So, not the time.

"Not helping," I growled through gritted teeth in response to our familiar. The inside of my skull felt like someone had decided to host an impromptu jazz festival. And it was heavy on the brass section and light on the bourbon needed to make it bearable. Gods, this was miserable.

"You think?" Dani's shout came from somewhere to my left. Her voice sounded tight with strain. Echoes of what had been, what could have been, and what might still be rippled between us.

I watched in fascination and horror as the ley lines pulsed with an eerie blue light that definitely hadn't been part of our calculations. Each surge sent another wave of images cascading through my mind and overwhelming my senses. I was fascinated by New Orleans as it had been. There was a moment where I questioned if I was seeing hundreds of possible versions layered over each other like some kind of temporal parfait gone wrong.

"This is no surprise, but the network is destabilizing," Adèle announced. "And before you ask, yes, that's as bad as it sounds. The anchors are tapping into memories that were sealed for a reason. Some knowledge was meant to stay buried." Translation. Not all of what I was seeing was made up.

"The anchors aren't holding. We did something that allowed the chaos to tap into something deeper than before. It’s old and had been behind powerful spells." Phi's voice was tight with the kind of strain that made my stomach drop.

"Really? You don't say," Adèle's mental eye roll was practically audible. "I thought the ancient magical signatures predating the city itself were just tourist attractions. Next time, listen to the magical being who's got access to centuries of knowledge before poking at temporal ley lines?"

I opened my mouth to tell our familiar exactly where she could stick her sarcasm, but the words died in my throat as shit went haywire. The world around me fractured into a thousand different possibilities. Each one was fighting for dominance. Jackson Square existed in multiple states simultaneously and they all overlapped like a metaphysical layer cake. The cathedral's spires reached toward the sky in more architectural styles than I could count. Yet, each one seemed as real as the next.

"Don't fight it," Adèle instructed in a tone that was suddenly serious enough to make my hair stand on end. "Let the visions come. Fighting it will cause problems worse than those nose bleeds."

I clutched Lucas’s arm as my head swam. The ground beneath my feet pulsed with stored memories. I saw native tribes gathering at sacred sites. Their ceremonies were etched into the very earth beneath my feet. French settlers built atop those same power points and unknowingly tapped into energies that would have scared them shitless. If they'd understood what they were dealing with.

"These aren't memories," Adèle continued. "They're echoes of power and residual magic from every ritual ever performed here. And you just connected them all like some demented magical circuit board." My mind tried to make sense of what she was saying. However, I couldn’t make any sense of it. I felt like I was going to throw up and pass out.

Concerned about what was happening, Lucas moved his hold from my waist to my shoulders. "Lia!" He called out like a lifeline right when I needed it. Time was getting extremely squirrelly and making it hard to tell up from down. Never mind, the past from the present.

"I'm okay," I lied. That was what you did when everything was melting down, and your mate was two seconds away fromgoing into full alpha protective mode. "But we need to shut this down before-"

The words died in my throat as another surge of power ripped through the ley lines. Suddenly, I wasn't just seeing things. I was living them. The memories stored in those ancient pathways slammed into my consciousness with all the subtlety of a spiritual freight train.

A circle of figures stood around a crystal that pulsed with familiar energy. Their faces were hidden, but their power... sweet baby Jesus. Their power felt like hurricanes contained in human form. They were channeling something through the ground. They were using the land's natural energy in ways that shouldn’t have been possible. Even Fae couldn’t channel it like that. The darkness of their efforts hit me a second later, making me want to peel the skin off my body.

"Those are the original binding circles," Adèle's voice intruded on my vision. "This was when the first settlers realized what lurked in these lands. Watch carefully. This is the kind of power you've accidentally connected."

The vision shifted. The fragments spun like a kaleidoscope of time. Each new image brought with it sensations that threatened to overwhelm me. The taste of salt air from when the Mississippi ran wild. The scent of cypress trees was out of place. Especially given I knew concrete and steel now stood in their place. The feel of raw power flowing through pathways was something else. I could see how someone might get addicted to it and want more. I didn't care for the way it made me feel. All I could think about was how others were likely being hurt or frightened by what was happening.

"Focus, Lia!" Dre's voice snapped me back to the present. She had one hand pressed to my forehead. Her healing energy flowed into me. "Your nose is bleeding."

I reached up, and sure enough, warm liquid trickled down my face. Fantastic. Nothing says 'totally in control of the situation' like spontaneous nosebleeds. "Just a little magical feedback," I muttered. "No big deal."

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