The Quelling Tide (The Gifted Realm Book 7) Read online

  The Quelling Tide

  By Jillian Neal

  The Quelling Tide

  Written by Jillian Neal

  Edited by Chasity Jenkins-Patrick and Gary Patrick

  Copyright © 2015 Jillian Neal

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincident

  Published by Realm Press

  36 South Court Square

  Suite 300

  Newnan GA 30263

  http://realmpress.net/

  ISBN 978-1-940174-17-4

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2015937391

  First Edition

  First Printing – May 2015

  To all of my readers –

  Thank you for giving me a chance. Thank you for picking up my very first book and diving into my Realm. Thank you for loving my characters and their stories. Please know that you are always welcome either on Haydenshire Farm, at the Gifted Senate, or all the way to the shores of Kauai. The Gifted Realm will forever live because you are the ones that brought it to life.

  Table Of Contents

  Answered Prayers

  Aida

  Cookies and Milk

  The Man You Have Become

  The End of an Era

  Footballs, Lip Gloss, and Bows

  Here Comes the Bride

  Offers and Introductions

  One

  Intrusions

  Preparations

  Receivers

  Family

  The Demon Inside

  Storms

  Sam and Aida

  What a Tangled Web

  Take Cover

  The Highest High, The Lowest Low

  Stand Up

  Regret

  Life

  Mothers

  Restoration

  Of Intimate Importance

  Life is For the Living

  Hide and Seek

  Little Ears

  Proffered Offer

  For Me and You

  Glass Houses

  Something to Lose

  Dan and Fitz

  Marked

  Out of the Mouths of Babes

  Musée de l'érotisme

  Baited Bills

  Incoming

  The Best Laid Plans and Coffee

  Dreams or Nightmares

  Alex and Aida

  Kaleidoscope Turns

  A Better Man

  Wildflower

  Home

  Sanctuary

  Fire and Water

  Epilogue

  Answered Prayers

  ~Rainer Lawson~

  The mattress was bouncing. Rainer let one eye open hesitantly. Immediately understanding that he was not going to be sleeping anymore, he opened the other eye.

  “Hey there, baby.” He rubbed his eyes and yawned as Emily continued to bounce beside him on the bed.

  “Get up! Tomorrow we’re getting married!”

  “Em.” Rainer clasped his hands around her waist in effort to hold her down. “It’s six in the morning. Everyone won’t be here for several hours to set up, okay?”

  “How can you sleep? Aren’t you excited?”

  “Em, you know I’m thrilled. I’m over the moon. I might just be a little more thrilled, if say, the moon wasn’t still out.”

  “Rainer!” she huffed.

  With a defeated sigh, he sat up. “Okay, okay, I’m up.” Excitement and nerves fought for dominance of his Gifted energy strains. Emily was a Receiver. She could read emotional energy from everyone around her, most certainly from him.

  She leaned and brushed a kiss along his jawline. “Don’t be nervous. We’ve done this a million times.”

  Rainer joined her laughter as he recalled the sheer number of times Emily had made him play wedding with her while they were going up. Somehow he was certain that the ceremony tomorrow would be nothing like their ‘weddings’ out in the backfields of her family’s farm being conducted under duress by one of her older brothers.

  But he wasn’t terribly nervous about the ceremony or marrying Emily that was all he’d wanted since he’d planted a kiss on the apple of her cheek when he was eight. His nerves were due to the surprise he’d been planning for the past several months that was supposed to be arriving in just a few hours. He fervently hoped that it went off without a hitch.

  “Let’s go help Mom with breakfast, then we can start working on everything.” She tried to playfully scoot him out of the bed.

  “Em, baby, we can go help your mom, but it has to be daylight before your brothers, or Dan and Fionna, or anyone is going to be out here to help us.”

  “I don’t care. I’m too nervous; I have to do something.”

  “Hey.” Rainer slid out of the bed and pulled her to him. “I thought we weren’t being nervous. No different than when we played out in the backyard, and Logan made you vow to eat slugs, and I gave you a grape ring pop. Like you said, we’ve done this millions of times.”

  She did giggle but he hadn’t succeeded in easing her anxiety. “Yeah, except there will be like six hundred people here tomorrow. What if I trip? What if my hair does that frizzy floppy in the front thing? What if my dress falls off?”

  Trying very hard not to chuckle, Rainer cupped his hand and drew from the ambient energy in the room. He converted it and pushed soothing energy into her.

  “You will be stunningly beautiful; you always are. You will walk down the aisle on your Dad’s arm and back on mine, and you know neither of us would ever let you fall. If your dress falls off, then I say to hell with the ceremony we’re starting the honeymoon early.”

  She laughed and rolled her eyes, but she was still a bundle of nerves.

  Two hours later, when Emily’s father, the Crown Governor of the entire American Gifted Realm, had been unable to fend her off any longer, he had Rainer, Logan, and Connor begin putting up the ornate archways and the tents for the reception.

  Haydenshire men arrived at varying intervals and were given tasks to complete.

  At ten, Dan and Fionna Vindico’s new Ferrari pulled through the massive wrought iron gates. The last time Emily had seen one of her closest friends was three weeks before when Fionna had been released from the hospital after suffering a gunshot wound that brought on her miscarriage.

  Rainer’s shield shifted oddly and spun in an attempt to protect even though the danger had long passed. He still couldn’t stand to think about that horrific day and all that had happened when he’d helped Iodex, the Gifted police force he was a part of, take out the Interfeci criminal organization.

  Keeping his boss’s wife safe seemed like something he should have been able to do. Every Iodex officer felt the guilt, but there were too many guns, too many criminals, and too many unforeseen complications that they just hadn’t accounted for.

  “Rainer,” Emily moved to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “She’s okay. Look at her. She looks so much better.” She gestured her head towards the car. He had to agree. They did look happier than he could recall ever seeing them before.

  The events that had taken place while Dan and Fionna had been in Hawaii raced through Rainer’s mind. Two operatives that Iodex had buried deep in the Interfeci had been murdered brutally, and thou
sands of dollars was missing from the accounts Iodex had on lockdown. Remembering the decree that Dan was not to know about any of that, as he had been ordered to step down as Chief of Iodex and deserved to move on, Rainer guided Emily towards the barn where everyone parked their cars when they visited Haydenshire Farm. She was elated to see Fionna moving with such ease.

  They waved as Rainer mentally reminded himself that nothing had happened and no money had disappeared in the last week. It appeared that Wretchkinsides had created some kind of contingency program if he were ever to be killed. As Dan had very effectively ended his life, his plans had been carried out.

  Maybe, now, it was done for, and everyone could move on. Maybe? Rainer couldn’t quite buy that, but he was getting married, and he and Emily were spending the next two weeks deliciously alone in a hidden-away island villa deep in the Florida Keyes. No one knew where they were going. Not the relentless press that had hounded him since his father’s death and certainly not anyone with any affiliation with Dominic Wretchkinsides. Rainer was certain he and most of his organization were damned to hell, right where they deserved to be.

  “Ni-on-na,” Keaton, Emily’s three-year-old brother, shrieked and raced towards Fionna as soon as he spied the new arrivals.

  Dan caught him in his sprint and lifted him into the air to keep him from running head long into Fionna. Keaton beamed and clapped excitedly. He wiggled in Dan’s arms trying to get into Fionna’s. He’d had quite a crush for the last several months, and Dan was doing a decent job of wrangling him.

  Rainer was sure that though Fionna appeared to be the picture of health, that she was still a little sore from her injuries. She probably wasn’t quite ready to be assaulted by the ever-exuberant Haydenshire twins.

  “That’s just what Daniel does when she comes into the room.” Governor Haydenshire chided as the entire family came to welcome Dan and Fionna.

  “I hear congratulations are in order, Mr. and Mrs. Vindico,” Will, Emilys’ oldest brother, chanted.

  Fionna laughed as Dan beamed at her. “Thank you,” they both offered as congratulations were echoed from everyone in attendance.

  “You both look so happy and healthy.” Mrs. Haydenshire hugged Dan and then Fionna tightly. “And when Stephen told me what you were getting married on Kauai where you’d grown up, that was just so perfect and you didn’t have to deal with the press and, you’ve just been through so much and….” She was so elated for the newly minted Vindicos that she got lost in thought.

  Fionna beamed as Dan chuckled. “It was perfect.”

  “Yeah, but his mom still won’t speak to me.” It seemed Fionna wanted a little advice from Mrs. Haydenshire. Rainer couldn’t blame her. Mrs. Haydenshire was a vast well of practical wisdom and there were very few problems she couldn’t solve.

  “Look there’s Chloe pulling up. Let’s go get all of your gowns on and make sure that mom doesn’t need to adjust anything.” Mrs. Haydenshire grasped Fionna’s hand and gestured back towards the farmhouse.

  Rainer knew that she would give Fionna advice about her new mother-in-law, but whatever she had in store for Fionna it wasn’t going to be something Dan would be allowed to hear.

  He kissed Fionna’s cheek as he released her hand and then helped Will set up the altar area.

  “Where is Garrett?” Emily quizzed as Chloe made her way towards them.

  “Emily come on I want to see you in your gown once more before tomorrow.” Mrs. Haydenshire commanded effectively saving Rainer’s surprise.

  Just before lunchtime, the men seated themselves at the dozens upon dozens of circular tables set up for the reception as the women moved in. They began putting flowers on every available surface and hanging the beautiful white garland roses and baby’s breath over the seating area.

  It was going to be beautiful. Everyone could see that as Emily directed the work to her vision. Fionna had to take breaks often. Dan watched over her obsessively, but she didn’t seem to mind.

  Finally, Rainer spied Garrett’s Highlander making its way down the gravel path. A broad grin spread across his face.

  “Hey, Em, baby, could you come here a minute?”

  Everyone tried to hide their excitement as Emily rearranged a few strands of pearls on one of the tables. With a distracted sigh, she turned to Rainer. “What? I’m a little busy.” She gestured to the transformation of the farm at large.

  Garrett threw the Highlander into park.

  “Just for a second, please.” Rainer took her hand and guided her towards the barn.

  Suddenly her mouth hung open in shock and her eyes goggled as “Emily!” sang delightedly from the little girl that Garrett lifted from the Highlander.

  “Aida?” Emily gasped looking from Aida to Rainer who was beaming at her

  Aida threw her arms around Emily as she lifted her up. “Oh my gosh! How did you…?” Tears flowed down her cheeks as she squeezed Aida tightly.

  “I kind of thought we needed a flower girl, and your Mom and Dad would like for Aida to stay on the farm for the summer if she’d like to.”

  Emily began to sob. She and Fionna had fallen in love with Aida when the Arlington Angels, the Summation team that they challenged for, had spent three weeks at an orphanage deep in Brazil.

  “You are just too much. I don’t deserve you.” Emily sat Aida down and threw her arms around Rainer again.

  He kissed her cheek. “You’ve been worried about her since you got back. I wanted her to be in the wedding, and I’d like to see if we can’t give her some kind of a life even if we aren’t quite ready to be parents. Your dad arranged the summer visit.”

  “Rainer said I could be in the wedding.” Aida looked like she couldn’t quite believe that was true.

  “And I made you a fabulous dress.” Fionna stepped towards them and beamed at Aida.

  “Fionna!” Aida cried in absolute joy as she took off in a heated sprint towards Fionna.

  Garrett caught her in her drive. “Whoa there,” he lifted her off the ground and swung her in the air. “Take it easy with Fi, okay?”

  Concern dampened Aida’s earlier joy. She walked softly towards Fionna as soon Garrett set her down.

  “Am I allowed to hug you?”

  The plea brought tears to Fionna’s eyes as she nodded. “You better.”

  With tender care, Aida wrapped her arms around Fionna’s waist, but worry still played in her eyes. “Are you okay?”

  Before Fionna could formulate an explanation, Aida spied Chloe. She greeted her with similar tenacity and then moved back to Emily. She turned bashful as she clung to Emily’s hand.

  “Aida, this is Rainer.” Emily made introductions. Rainer grinned down at her. She was adorable. He agreed with Emily’s assessment as he knelt down and offered her his hand.

  “It’s so nice to meet you, Aida.”

  As her little teeth sank into her bottom lip in thoughtful consideration, she reminded Rainer very much of Emily.

  “Emily really likes you,” she whispered furtively. Emily covered her mouth to hide her giggle.

  Rainer couldn’t help but chuckle. “You think?”

  Aida nodded vehemently.

  “Well, don’t tell her this, but I really like her, too.” He winked at Aida and earned himself a sweet hug.

  “What’s wrong with Fionna, and who is that?” She pointed to Dan.

  To Rainer’s relief, Emily took over. “Fi is okay. She got hurt a few weeks ago, but she’ll be all right. And that is Fionna’s husband.” She pointed to Dan making Aida blush. “His name is Mr. Vindico.”

  “He’s very big.” Aida’s face fell in fear as she studied Dan’s massive strength and somewhat foreboding demeanor. “He didn’t hurt her did he?”

  “Oh no, Aida.” Emily shook her head. “He saved her,” she whispered.

  Aida hesitantly moved to Fionna and grasped her hand. “My name is Aida,” she offered Dan timidly.

  He grinned at her. “Hi, Aida. It’s so nice to meet you. Fi’s told me a
ll about you.”

  “She has?”

  Dan chuckled at her. His kind smile seemed to assure Aida that he was a good guy.

  After a few more introductions, Aida returned to Garrett. He spent a great deal of time at the orphanage where she lived, and they were very close. He coaxed her out of her shell by offering to let her help with the wedding preparations. She was thrilled with all of the flowers and decorations. She spun around the tables and played with Keaton and Henry.

  “She’s so good with them.” Mrs. Haydenshire smiled.

  Fionna nodded. “She helps take care of all of the toddlers in the orphanage. She loves them all.”

  When Dan and Will returned with eight buckets of fried chicken and all of the fixings for lunch, everyone was eager to take a break.

  “Aida, come and eat.” Emily called. Rainer noted the dark hollowness of Aida’s timid brown eyes and that she was painfully thin.

  Dan had fixed Fionna’s plate and then sat down with a copy of The Realm Times. He flipped through the article on the takedown at the Tantra. So far, Iodex had effectively covered up the missing money and the murdered operatives. Rainer reminded himself that they wouldn’t be in the papers Dan was reading.

  The Times claimed to have new information on the men that hadn’t survived the takedown. Wishing that Dan would just put the paper away, Rainer didn’t want to think about it anymore.

  “I know that man.” Suddenly, Aida pointed to a color picture of Vladamir Pravus, the man that had shot Fionna and killed she and Dan’s child. Everyone halted abruptly and the endless expanse of fresh air normally afforded them by the farm seemed to be vacuumed from their lungs.

  “You do?” Dan quizzed gently.

  Nodding, she moved closer to him to study at the paper. “Yes, he used to be my Daddy's boss at the mine. He wasn't there when it collapsed, though,” she stated softly. Her timid voice strangled in the fear of the life she’d been forced to live. Remembering that the story of the mine collapse had been told to Aida because they didn't want her to know that her family had been murdered, Rainer swallowed harshly. Absolute terror marred Emily’s beautiful face. Tears welled in her emerald eyes.