Chapter Four
Lucius
It seemed that his mystery woman and the ex-bounty hunter his sister had allowed onto the island were one and the same. Sage Lawrence’s movements were being tracked on one of the screens in front of him. Kaia had cued the facial recognition to track the woman’s every movement from camera to camera before Sage had even arrived. Knowing his sister had planned ahead eased his mind.
“You let in a risk factor, but you prepared.”
“Nice. You manage to chastise and compliment my abilities all in the same sentence. Thank you, big brother, but I am more than capable of taking care of this. You can move along now.”
Lucius forced his gaze from Sage’s movements to shoot his sister a look. He wouldn’t be leaving until he knew everything about the situation. That wasn’t his only reason, but it would have been enough to keep him there. He heard Kaia huff and stalk off, but he didn’t stop.
He wasn’t sure what about Sage Lawrence drew him in. It wasn’t her beauty or her delectable body as much as something he couldn’t put his finger on. The woman had a playful spark in her eyes when she looked at her sister, and she moved with the seductive grace of cat. How someone with her background managed to somehow stay carefree and light was a mystery. There was nothing about her that said she was even a little jaded.
The files stated that she’d grown up deep in the swamps of Louisiana and that her mother had married Calista’s when the children were very young.
He tapped his fingers on the desk in front of him while thinking of the growing Louisiana swamplands, the ecosystem that had thrived after the world almost ended. He’d gone there several times over the years. The area had been known to produce unique abilities in its inhabitants.
He glanced back to check Sage and Calista’s movements. It surprised him that Calista hadn’t taken her sister to catch up at one of the bars or clubs. Instead, they’d gone to the conservatory.
He knew what had drawn his mystery woman to the gardens—the details of her powers were in the dossier. As a Mageia with strengths centered on plants and the Earth, she had to have been excited for an opportunity to see flora from Realms she would likely never visit.
There were strict rules set for mortals wanting to travel to heaven, hell, or the Immortal Realm. The Guardians of the world set restrictions and controlled access. Most of his kind didn’t trust the Mageias’ growing power or what they might become capable of. Humanity had a long history of destroying things they feared or didn’t understand, and the Mageia were basically the evolved version of mankind.
He scanned more of the file and found that Sage also had skills pertaining to breaking wards, which would have come in handy for a bounty hunter—or a thief, though he hadn’t found any criminal records in the file.
An inexplicable wave of tension tightened his chest, and he glanced at the screen, watching her movements. She and her sister were in the gardens. At first glance, things seemed fine, but then he saw that they weren’t.
“Get a healer to the conservatory. Now!” He barked the order while tearing from the room.