Sorcerer's Spin

by Anise Rae

  Daegan shrugged. “It was inevitable.”

  That summed up her life at the moment. Inevitable and uncontrollable.

  “Mara Rand.” Lord Edmund Rallis cocked his head at her. “It was my understanding that you could no longer make any more of your repose fabric because you had run out of spider silk. At the time, I was disappointed to hear that because my family has a use for such cloth, but when the land that is so close to my home catches fire to provide you with webs, I find myself feeling unkindly toward both you and your products.”

  “I did not start this fire,” she replied, speaking with the same tone she used on the High Councilor—firm and tough. Their kind of people never wanted to listen to her kind.

  She eyed the webs, wishing she could just grab them and run. They glistened in the soft light of the forest, waving gently. That last part gave her pause, but she chose to believe it was the non-existent wind moving the webs and not a thousand spiders beneath it. That was too creepy even for her.

  Small shoots of green poked up through the silk. The loss of the majestic trees that had been here before struck her.

  “Lord Rallis, we know who set the fire,” Gregor said. “We have no evidence. But if the culprit were here, she’d probably tell you herself that she started it.”

  Lord Rallis eyed him. “Then set us straight, and tell us who did it, Captain.”

  “I’ve never met a mage who can be straight about anything,” Daegan said.

  The sentries stirred. Their vibes sprang out.

  “Don’t think to pull your weapons on me. This is glister land, and no one invited you.” Daegan’s sneer matched his disdainful tone.

  “Glister land? You mean the gray?” Lord Rallis asked. “We’re in the middle of the Republic. The gray do not rule here.”

  “Wrong, young Lord Rallis.” Daegan’s eyes shimmered with heat but not with power.

  “I don’t understand. Glister?” Lady Rallis asked.

  “An ancient name for the gray, Lady Aurora,” Gregor explained.

  Mara couldn’t stop her frown. This was Gregor’s former life raising its head, and for a moment she was jealous…that she hadn’t known him then, that they knew him as she didn’t. It was silly. She had a past without him too.

  As if he sensed her feeling of displacement, he took her hand and stepped closer.

  Daegan glared at Lord Rallis. “The people of the great Goddess choose to have short memories about us, to forget the past that joins us together. It is a shame. Has your grandfather passed down the knowledge? Or has he forgotten too?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Mara, lady boss of Blue Light Mills, and her guard”—he nodded regally—“please, do us the honor of sitting at our table.”

  He held out his hand. A rumble sounded from beneath the ground. Twigs and branches burst from the soil around the two empty stools. Twisting and braiding, they formed into backs and armrests for the stools.

  Mara swallowed hard. She was the lowest rank here and this was the grandest seat, but Daegan waited, and so she sat, Gregor beside her. She looked back at Linc. He had no place.

  “I’m used to standing.” He didn’t smile.

  The glister eyed them all. “Once when the great white sails danced across the ocean, glister and mage were twined, two strands united and each of great power. One was bold, resolute, and unbending. The other was free and brave. Together they conquered a land to make a new home, but the freedom seekers dashed on through the new forests while the bold stayed to gather the power of their slice of land and tie it to them.

  “The two peoples agreed to keep peace between them despite the unraveling of their unity. The glister promised portals that led to their kings so their mage allies could call on them in times of need. In return, the mages promised forestland to the glister so they might roam wherever their hearts called them.

  “Years passed, and the mages cleaned their lands of all except for themselves and their servants. The glister lands in the territories came to be called forbidden and the heart of the treaty was lost from the common minds of magekind.”

  Daegan frowned. “The forbidden forests are our paths, meant to be traveled by any glister who so chooses. The old crone remembers, but even she has been careless with the treaty, allowing others to occupy the lands.”

  “No one occupies them here. Not now,” Lady Aurora said.

  Daegan nodded slowly. “The little girl no longer hides here. No more Lily.” He almost sounded bereft.

  “She doesn’t need to hide anymore. But we….”

  “We enjoy the forest as our own,” Lord Edmund finished.

  “It is not yours.” Daegan’s voice snapped. “It is ours to burn, to cull, to abandon, whatever the king sees fit.”

  “The king has been missing for thirty years,” Lord Rallis said. “Are you saying he has returned and ordered the forest burned?”

  “With our king gone, our hearts grow bitter and weaken under the strain of temptation…though perhaps this was meant to be.” He looked at Mara. “The silk is yours. If the mages will not allow you to spin and create with it, you may do so here. This land is yours to roam freely wherever your heart may call you.”

  “Why?”

  Daegan stared at her for a long moment, his eyes began to go silver at the edges, but they did not flood with his power. “Because you are brave.”

  She didn’t feel brave. She felt in over her head and scared. “If I am brave, it is only because others cannot be and they need someone to stand up for them.” She trailed a finger over the webs and came away with a sticky strand.

  “Maybe that’s the best reason to be brave.”

  She didn’t get a chance to respond. A loud crack sounded through the air. Her whole world turned to fire. Pain vibrated through every cell of her body.

  “Mara!” Gregor’s shout was so far away.

  Lightning flashed behind her eyes.

  And then darkness.

  32

  She was gone in a blaze of light as if the hand of destiny had grabbed her. Formless. Undetectable. Gregor had sensed nothing coming though his power had been, and still was, open and ready.

  He wanted to run after her, to scream her name, but there was nothing to chase, no one to shout at. She was simply gone. She’d been sitting right next to him. What the hell had happened? Who had the power to do this?

  Across the webs the Rallis sentries grabbed their targets, yanking them from the chairs. “Out! Move!” one of them ordered.

  If he’d had a chance to grab Mara he’d be doing the same. But there’d been no warning. Where the hell was she? Mages didn’t disappear in thin air. A few could use their power to turn invisible but they were still present. He reached out though he knew she wasn’t there. Her vibes were completely absent.

  He was hollow as if she’d taken some piece of him with her.

  Linc acted, unlike Gregor’s silence, casting orders through comm spells that connected to his men at Mara’s mill. “Tanner, bring three men to the forbidden forest, west quadrant. The sorceress is missing. We need a search party now.”

  “She’s not here,” he whispered. There was no point to searching here. He could feel it in his heart, his soul, and his energy. He managed to harness the edge of his focus, but only because of years of training and the sliver of his mind that refused to believe what he’d seen…mages didn’t disappear.

  His surroundings crystallized. The scent of smoke blended with a sharp, acrid burn. Black scorch marks marred the earth where she had stood. The webs vibrated with a staticky crackle.

  He remembered Mara’s story about the man who disappeared from the forest and left behind a bloody, ripped scarf. He shoved a finger in Daegan’s direction. “Did the forest take her?”

  The fairy sat in total stillness with his eyes closed. “No.” The word sounded hard and hopeless. “The forest would never do that to her…could never do that to her.”

  Linc crouched in front of her makeshift chair and ran his fingers through the sco
rch marks on the ground. He took a sniff of the residue and coughed hard. “Nothing but trash vibes. Not a glister spell, then.” Only mages left residual vibes. He wiped his finger on the dirt around him trying to get it off. “What the hell kind of spell does that?”

  “You know who set the fire, fairy.” Gregor’s accusation shot out.

  “My sister,” Daegan said.

  “Your sister? Fancy is your fucking sister?” Gregor dropped his head back.

  “Fancy is focused on Mara living up to the prophecies. I disagree but ordering the king’s sister to do something is no easy task.”

  “The king’s sister,” Linc repeated. “That makes you….”

  “The king’s brother,” Gregor answered. Goddess, what next? He reined in the anger. He needed to keep thinking, needed to climb past the towering wall of rage and despair that had formed in the same blink in which she’d disappeared. “You didn’t want Mara to go west. You wanted her to stay in the east.”

  “Because I wanted to keep her away from the Black Skulls…and Fancy. But that did not work.” His words were flat, emotionless. “Mara is with the wheel now. And you did not find it, monk mage.”

  Gregor’s mind roared with thunder, its raging boom so loud he nearly missed the glister’s next words.

  Daegan looked at him with dead eyes. “When the time comes, remember that I tried to keep this from happening.”

  Gregor charged at him, fueled by loss and anger, but Linc was in front of him in a flash. The man snapped his fingers in Gregor’s face. “Focus on the problem. Getting her back. Glister, is there a way to track the relics?”

  Daegan shook his head. “Not even the king could sense it. But I am certain it is in the East. The other relics are already here. It must be close.”

  “All right then. The only people who have wheels in the East are Power United. The High Councilor has made certain of that,” Linc said. “We start there.”

  Gregor clenched his jaw. “I’ve searched everywhere at their offices in this city. It’s not here.”

  Linc gave him a hard look. “Maybe you missed something. You’re rather new at using wayward power.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “There must be someone we can shake down over there. The High Councilor’s guard has an entire team of torturers on staff. I’m still their commander. Who’s first?”

  “Nils.” Gregor closed his burning eyes, remembering. “He knows Fancy very well.”

  “We’ll start with him.”

  Her new world was cold and hard as if she’d been transported to the top of the earth and abandoned in a desert of ice. The air cut like knives against her, flaking away at her skin until only crumbling specks existed. She was a wasteland of a tundra, inside and out.

  She fought for control of what used to be muscles, squeezing and tensing and contracting. It took hours for her body to respond, or so it felt. After a long while, she managed to shift her head.

  Her fingers lay beside her, tangled in a lock of hair, numb, too far away to move.

  Breath stirred in her lungs like dust under a ray of white moonlight, floating idle and aimless. Pain burst with it.

  Darkness fell.

  33

  The Power United emblem was painted in gold on the grand doors of Nils’s office. Gregor marched toward them, Linc beside him. No one looked up from their work as they passed row after row of cubicles.

  Gregor’s rage and grief were walled up tight, but they battled for freedom. No matter what, he couldn’t let them loose.

  Nils’s office door was locked. He’d expected that. He sent his vibes rumbling into it, but the bolt didn’t budge, a quality lock. He readied to break down the door, but Linc held out a packet of melter potion—it paid to have friends with security clearance. Gregor pressed the packet against the latch and the metal dissolved. The knob fell to pieces.

  From within the office, a blast of mage power erupted. The lights surged, visible through the seam of the doors.

  On automatic, Gregor hummed a shield spell in front of him, and as Linc cast his own, he shoved the doors open.

  Nils stood toward the far corner of his spacious office. His eyes were red, his face pale, his suit rumpled. His tie was thrown over his shoulder as if he’d encountered a strong wind, but nothing in the office was disturbed. Everything was in its place. The stylish black glass desk was neat except for a few empty drink bottles. Papers, pens, and chairs were arranged just so. Thick cologne scented the air as well as a hint of smoke.

  “Did you knock? I guess I didn’t hear you over my sneeze,” Nils said, locking eyes with Gregor. “Having a little problem with my vibes. Embarrassing,” he muttered. “Goddess, I hope this isn’t a vibe virus.”

  Vibe viruses were contagious, unpleasant, and had permanent side effects if left untreated. But that blast was no vibing sneeze.

  Nils leaned his head against the wall as if he were exhausted. Static electricity popped faintly as he touched the wall. “What can I do for you, Captain?” He gestured at Linc. “And friend.”

  “Where’s Mara?” Gregor demanded. He clenched his fists to keep from grabbing him.

  He straightened. “I have no idea. Don’t tell me she’s missing. Shit.” He grabbed a bottle of his blue drink from the pile by the wall and took a swig of it.

  Linc stood at Gregor’s shoulder. “What are you drinking?”

  “A little juice,” Nils said, his voice hoarse. He held it up for the man to see.

  “Reballa Potion,” Linc read. He tipped his head. “Looks addictive.”

  “Nothing like that. A simple hydration formula. I worked out and I need to rehydrate.” Nils brushed away Linc’s comment and stared at Gregor. “Where was she taken?”

  “Taken? That information is not available,” Linc replied.

  Nils straightened and finally focused on Linc. “You sound official, Mr….”

  “Lincoln Sinclair, commander of the High Councilor’s personal guard, on assignment to guard Mara Rand. And I don’t think you work out.”

  He shrugged. “I’ve been a little dry lately. This stuff helps soothe my throat.” It all rang true. His vibes were smooth as ice.

  Linc scrunched up his nose. “And you puff on cologne spells instead of taking a shower.”

  He shrugged again like he was too exhausted for a retort.

  Gregor almost missed the piece of fabric looped around Nils’s neck. It was stuck inside his collar, poking out at the side. “What’s this?” He pointed to his own neck with a lifted chin.

  Nils eyes went wide and his Adam’s apple bobbed with a hard swallow. “Uh…”

  Linc walked over to him and ripped it off.

  He blanched at the invasion. “Captain Whitman, you have rude friends.”

  Linc held it up. A blindfold. “Kinky. Exactly what kind of working out did you do?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “When was the last time you saw Mara Rand?”

  “I sense that I’m a suspect. That’s a shame.” Nils slapped his palm against the wall in time with his last words as if he was smacking out his anger at being under suspicion.

  Gregor narrowed his eyes at the odd move. Before he could register what was going on, the wall disappeared where Nils had slapped it. A black hole gaped in its place. Power sparked. A tall, slender man appeared from the darkness.

  It happened so fast.

  Gun. Draw your gun.

  But the glister’s eyes swirled silver, and Gregor thought nothing more. He’d had no time to cast a spell, no time to open his heart or sing a fucking love song. No moment to look away, to shout for help.

  He failed.

  Linc failed.

  His body slipped away from him, ripped from his control. Rage enveloped him as the glister smiled.

  “This is bigger than you, Captain Whitman, but I would have liked a man like you at my side.” Nils stepped into the hole. The glister followed. The portal closed up the moment both were inside as if it had never been.

  Their powers flooded b
ack to them and they stumbled. Gregor reached for the desk for balance. Bottles bumped over the surface, bouncing to the ground. Linc fell to his knees.

  Nils had Mara. Gregor was certain of it. Somehow, the bastard had taken her. A vast anger bellowed from the depths of his soul. Losing part of his hearing was horrific; losing Mara was indescribable. He shoved it all down with a ruthless punch.

  Linc glared at the wall. “We’ve got to fucking figure out how to stop those portals.” He stood. “Your boy Nils is working with fairies who are working with the Black Skulls who live on Prower land.”

  That summed it up.

  Linc stepped toward the door, but his gaze caught on the floor. “What’s this?”

  Scorch marks lined the carpet, a dozen short streaks, maybe more. The streaks were just below an electrical outlet. Linc swiped a finger through it. “Trash vibes.”

  “Like the forest,” Gregor said.

  Linc gave a curt nod. “This isn’t because Power United’s headquarters has poor electrical wiring. What the hell is going on?”

  They needed reinforcements. Gregor picked up Nils’s landline and dialed Vin. He filled him in on the Black Skull and his glister friends hopping the Republic’s border and trying to kidnap a citizen from inside the capital’s portal, as well as Nils’s disappearing act and their suspicions about Prower. His voice cracked when he told him of Mara’s disappearance.

  In ten minutes, Power United was crawling with analysts, trackers, and reader mages scrounging through the office scrolls, the residual vibes, and the words of the employees. It took hours to figure out that no one in this office knew anything of Nils’ activities. Judging by that, he might have been a one-man show, yet half of the board of executives couldn’t be located.

  Cecilia started talking without prompting the moment Gregor walked into her office. She’d already suffered through a couple of rounds with the interrogators. “I don’t know where Nils went. Look, I knew he was corrupt when it came to the sorceresses. I suspected a few others were too.”

  Gregor knew she’d given the interrogators some names.