Excerpt

From Earthtaker Chapter 1

The ground shook fiercely at my command, and a fissure opened up in the middle of my cell. I dove into it, disappearing into the ground like a swimmer leaping into the churning sea.

This, I could have done without lifting a finger.

Instead of an earthquake, I reached deep into the walls of the cell, using my control of all things rock and stone to blow apart the cinder blocks. Dusting myself off, I stepped through the hole in the wall and walked off into the night as if I'd never been a prisoner at all.

This, too, I could have done with minimal effort.

Taking another tack, I channeled ley line energy from the ground, bringing up great crackling bolts of it to fill the air and electrify the bars of my cell. When guards touched the bars, they were shocked unconscious. The charge was so strong, it sprang the lock on the door of my cell, opening it before me.

Again, this could have been easily done.

Let's just say there's one force that can hold even my great power in check on occasion. One force that can sometimes stop the world from spinning, can even send it turning in the opposite direction.

And that force is love.

#

"How are you doing, Gaia?" Sheriff Dale Briar walked up to the bars and gazed in at me with his bright hazel eyes. "Can I get you anything?"

I sat on a bench along the wall of the cell, staring back at him, and shook my head slowly. It was still hard to believe that we were on opposite sides of the bars. Looking out from inside a jail cell at the man who was my boyfriend was something I'd never expected.

I hadn't gotten any more used to it in the hour since he'd brought me in, either. I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that Sheriff Briar, who'd never seemed to doubt me for a second in all the time we'd been together, had marched me out of my offices at Cruel World Travel/Charmer Investigations and locked me in a holding cell at the local police station.

"When can I get out of here?" I leaned forward on the bench, nervously twisting the blonde braid that lay over my right shoulder. "When can I go home?"

"Duke and Luna just asked me the same question." Briar hiked a thumb at the door behind him that led to the squad room. "I didn't have any better answers than I do right now."

"So are you going to charge me, or what?" I asked.

"It's complicated." Briar pulled out his phone. "I'm not sure what to do at this point, to be honest."

"You know I didn't kill Imogene Parker." I got up from the bench and walked over to him. "No matter what the evidence says."

I knew it hadn't looked good for me from the start. The 85-year-old had suffocated after being pumped full of dirt, and a note left at the murder scene had pointed a finger in my direction.

Mother Earth is coming for the wicked, it had said.

Not to mention, Imogene was the second elderly woman in town to die under the same circumstances in a matter of days—stuffed with dirt, accompanied by a cryptic note that mentioned Mother Earth.

And then there was the other old woman, the one buried under crushed cinderblocks in the basement of Imogene's house. The one who'd personally identified me as Imogene's murderer once I'd set her free.

It hadn't looked good for me from the start…so how on Earth could it possibly look any worse?

"I need to show you something." Briar held up the phone so I could see the video playing on its screen. From a high camera angle looking down on Imogene's living room, I clearly saw the old lady sitting in a recliner, watching TV.

Then, by the flickering light of the TV, I saw someone enter the room and attack. The scene was grainy and dark, but I could still see the attacker as she went to work on Imogene…especially when she glowed with radiant energy and summoned streams of dirt through the window to fill up the old lady's throat.

It was then, plain as day, that I could see the attacker looked just like me. She was slender and petite, in her mid-20s, with long blonde hair pleated into a ponytail draped over one shoulder. She even wore a black leather coat like mine with a black top and black jeans underneath.

"That's impossible," I said in a hushed voice. "I was at the Council of Landkind meeting, and then I was at the office…"

"According to Dr. Cox, the murder happened the night before." Briar switched off the video and slipped the phone back in the pocket of his uniform pants. "So where were you two nights ago, Gaia?"

The question stung. "You don't think I did this, do you?"

"Of course not," said Briar. "I'm sure you didn't…but I have to ask. If you have an alibi, I need to know what it is."

I scowled at him. "Either you believe me or you don't, Briar. I don't need to explain my whereabouts."

"Gaia, listen." He leaned toward me, locking his grim gaze with mine. "I'm being straight with you here. You don't need to convince me, but…" He drew a long breath and let it out slowly. "Between the video I just showed you, and the one from the doorbell cam, and Beatrice Brown's ID-ing you as the killer….it looks bad. There's so much here, I can't just make it go away, as much as I want to."

A sick feeling crawled through me as I heard those words. The way he'd said them, there hadn't been much hope in his voice.

"Gaia." Briar reached between the bars, taking my hands in his, and lowered his voice. "There must be another explanation for this."

He was right, but I couldn't think what it might be. I just stared down at his hands, wondering how we'd gotten to this terrible place.

"You've been through some crazy stuff, just since I've known you," said Briar. "Could this be part of all that? Some enemy masquerading as you? Someone with the same powers, able to make themselves look just like you?"

I shrugged. My memories of my current and past incarnations had never been perfect—and, lately, I'd realized they were even more unreliable than I'd thought. If a likely culprit could be found somewhere in my many long lives, I couldn't remember them…and maybe I never would.

For now, I was just as much in the dark as Briar was and facing a challenge for what might have been the first time in my existence.

I, the planet Earth in human form, was being framed for murder.

"Keep thinking," said Briar. "Because the truth is, this situation might be out of my hands."

I nodded, understanding what he was telling me. Completely comprehending the words he'd left unsaid.

"I'm slow-walking the process," he said. "I haven't charged you yet, and I've filed no paperwork. But I'll have to, sooner or later. I'll have to take a statement from Beatrice Brown in the hospital, and I'll have to interrogate you formally. I'll have to do everything by the book, understand?"

He squeezed my hands tightly, and I nodded again.

"But I'm not stupid enough to think I can figure out this mess and deliver any kind of justice to anyone." Briar narrowed his eyes as he kept his gaze locked with mine. "There's only one person in the world who can do all that, I think."

I knew exactly who he was talking about, and it scared me. Because that person had a terrible task ahead, one that might very well lead them to some very dark places.

And that person was me.

"Gaia…honey…" Briar squeezed my hands even tighter. "I can see how this is going to go. I can see it a mile away. I don't know why it's happening, and I don't know who's responsible…but I can see the writing on the wall." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "And I want you to know, Gaia, whatever you end up doing, I won't hold it against you."

A chill shot me through me as I realized what had just happened. As Briar released my hands and backed away, watching me with eyes glistening as if he might never see me again.

He'd given me permission. That was what he'd done.

He'd given me permission to do what I needed to do to save myself.

I kept thinking there must be another way. After all, I was completely innocent; together, we had to be able to get to the truth and clear my name.

But in my heart, I knew better. In my heart, I already knew damn well what I was going to have to do.

"Thank you." So that was what I told him. "Thank you for everything."

Briar nodded. "All in a day's work, ma'am." And then he smiled that wide-open smile of his, the one that had made me fall in love with him in the first place. The one that had made my love feel bigger than the world, more important than anything in it…at least for a while.

Then he opened the door to the squad room and stepped through it, looking back over his shoulder as he went. "Duke and Luna are still out here, wanting to see you. Okay if I send them back?"

"Sure," I said. "But I guess we'd better keep it short, huh?"

"Up to you." He shrugged. "Though I must admit, it's getting kind of late."

With that, he was gone, leaving me standing alone in my cell, feeling more trapped than I could ever remember feeling, even though I had the powers of a planet and my boyfriend's permission to escape before the whole world came crashing down around me.