Fire Within

by Ella M. Lee

  “Daniel, Fiona,” he said in greeting, his tone crisp.

  “Hi,” I said weakly, pressed into the couch, trying to shed my drowsiness. Daniel watched me carefully, concerned.

  “Dan, want to come with us to Two for drinks?” Nicolas asked. I didn’t understand the question, but Daniel did.

  “Busy, sorry, but enjoy,” he said, shrugging. “Hey, Nico…”

  He switched smoothly into Cantonese, his tone expressive. Nicolas listened patiently, his eyes occasionally going to me. It was pretty clear what Daniel was talking about. Nicolas asked questions, and they went back and forth for several minutes.

  When their conversation abruptly ended, Nicolas beckoned to me. I took a deep breath. As I hauled myself off the couch, Dan caught my arm. He offered me an encouraging smile and leaned close to speak in my ear.

  “Try to get some rest, Fi, okay? Everything will be all right.”

  Chapter 18

  Nicolas brought us down to the sixth floor. Unlike most other floors, he had to use his keycard before pressing the button. The elevator doors opened to a large room. Several arches stood around the edge, each containing a shimmery blue portal. There were two security guards in this room, and they both saluted Nicolas.

  “Each of these is an omnis perpetualis,” he said. “A permanent portal to another location within Water Clan’s houses and grounds. Don’t ask me why we give things Latin names here. I don’t make those particular decisions.”

  He put a light hand on my back and walked me to the rightmost arch, bringing me through with a hand on my wrist. There was a momentary disorienting sense of vertigo before we ended up on the other side, in a room similar to the one we had left, although this room’s only arch with an active portal was the one we had come through. There were no guards here.

  Nicolas took us up to the thirty-eighth floor. The doors opened to an upscale restaurant with lots of glass and mirrors. There were two long bars lined with dark leather chairs and an array of tables and booths between them. This building had the same huge windows and domed ceiling as Nicolas’s building, offering the same views. This was part of the same complex, one of the three buildings Nicolas had indicated when we were outside.

  The restaurant was quiet right now, with only a handful of tables and bar chairs occupied. Nicolas brought us to one end of the left-hand bar, well out of range of anyone else.

  What do you drink? he asked silently, his hand wrapped around mine tightly.

  Nothing too strong, I thought. The sweeter, the better.

  He signaled the bartender, a young man with a serious expression.

  “White sangria for my guest,” he said. “For me, the Nikka 17, neat.”

  Perfect, I thought.

  I was glad I had volunteered an opinion. Nicolas’s choice of whiskey was far too intense for me and told me we were probably not well matched on alcohol tastes. Nicolas glanced at me and smiled slightly. I looked away.

  Dan had a lot to say about you, Nicolas said, his voice gentle in my mind. Much of it was good. What did you think of him now that you’ve spent some time together?

  Does it matter? I asked.

  I’m curious, Nicolas replied.

  He’s smart. And focused. And fearless, I thought, recalling that Derek’s aggravating comments had barely affected him.

  Ah, yes, Derek, Nicolas said. Seems like I’ll have to do something there. I’m not worried about Daniel. Derek doesn’t know this, but Daniel could grind him into dust with minimal effort. But I don’t want Derek bothering you. And I’m getting tired of him hanging around making trouble for me.

  I’ll be okay, I said. The words sounded braver than I actually felt, but that was fine.

  Daniel said you handled yourself well, Nicolas remarked.

  Oh? I said. What else did he say?

  The bartender returned with our drinks. Nicolas took a long sip of whiskey before continuing.

  He said you were interesting. He appreciated your attempts to get to know him, as well as your good heart. Nicolas hesitated. There isn’t a perfect translation in English, but he thinks you have a sensitive heart.

  So does he, I offered, staring into my glass of sangria, picking out and eating the cherries and pineapple pieces.

  I’m glad you see that, Nicolas said. Dan also was surprised that you recognized his transmuted magic. That impressed him, and he’s hard to impress.

  I shrugged.

  Daniel’s interesting magic is not widely publicized within the clan, Nicolas said. I would appreciate you not mentioning it to anyone.

  I’m not allowed to speak to anyone. Who would I tell? I asked.

  I was interested in this information, but it didn’t surprise me that Daniel kept quiet about such a unique aspect of himself. Nicolas was giving me a rather intense glare that I understood to be a command.

  Okay, yes, I understand, I said. I won’t say a thing.

  Thank you, Nicolas said. Thank you as well for not giving Dan a hard time today, and for being so good in general.

  I’m not a dog, I replied. You don’t have to praise me and give me treats.

  He glanced at me, frowning. I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to belittle you. I want you to know that I understand how hard this is on you. I appreciate your resiliency.

  I shook my head, still eyeing my glass with a singular focus. Just trying to uphold my end of the deal, I thought wearily.

  Daniel says he’d like to spend some of tomorrow with you, Nicolas said. Is that all right?

  As though I have a choice, I thought, trying to keep from rolling my eyes.

  You do, he said. Although I think it would be a good idea for you to work with Dan. I’m curious to see what that might yield.

  More of your mysterious plans, I thought.

  Nicolas smiled, his gaze focused out the windows into the distance. He signaled to the bartender, who brought a menu as though he’d been expecting the summons. I got the sense that this was a well-worn ritual between the two of them.

  Hungry? Nicolas asked.

  No, I replied.

  His eyes flicked to mine, concerned. I drank deeply from my glass as he ordered an array of food.

  I thought I was doing a decent job, but Daniel says I need to be even kinder to you, he said softly after another minute. Is that true?

  I shrugged. I had no expectations of kindness. I still don’t. Every second I continue breathing, where you don’t snap my neck or torture me for fun, is enough to satisfy our deal. Although I do like seeing the gentler side of you.

  I know it doesn’t seem like it, he said, but that is the side of myself I prefer to show. I merely don’t get as many opportunities as I’d like.

  I promise I won’t tell anyone you’re actually a good person, I said, smiling into my glass.

  His whispered laughter was in my mind as he said, You know me so well already. You know exactly what to say.

  I turned my head, meeting his brilliant amber eyes. I’m glad it seems like that, but I really have no idea what I’m doing.

  I made the slightest move to pull my hand away. He let go instantly and without commentary. His expression was serious and troubled.

  When our food arrived, we ate in silence. I could barely keep food down, and I had nothing else to add to our strained conversation. He already knew how stressed and tense I was. Nicolas knew everything about me. What more could I say?

  I barely remembered getting back to his apartment, barely remembered his light touch, barely remembered slipping under the duvet, feeling cold and clammy with my heart still racing.

  Despite sleeping reasonably well, morning came too soon. I awoke to knocking on the door. I watched Daniel carefully balance a stack of takeout containers in one hand as he shut the apartment door. Checking the clock, I saw that it was almost lunchtime.

  Daniel caught me peeking out at him from the safety of the duvet and called, “Hey, Fi! You okay?”

  I dragged myself out of bed, pulling my hair off my face and into a pon
ytail. I joined Daniel on the couch, drawing my legs up under me, willing away the last of my drowsiness.

  “I think so,” I said. “I woke up six seconds ago, so I can’t really tell yet.”

  Nicolas, who had been sprawled across most of the larger of his two couches, pulled himself lazily toward the food. I did the same, feeling hungry for the first time in days. Nicolas and Daniel talked back and forth over the meal, mostly in Cantonese, and it was nice to hear their endearing banter even if I couldn’t understand it.

  “Nico,” Dan said after a while. “Give Fi some magic.”

  “Oh, great,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Another test.”

  Daniel leaned in to me, his expression playful. “Remember what we said about tests?”

  I smiled. He was reminding me that any test he was present for was a test for both of us. I won’t let you fail if you don’t let me fail, was the sense I got from his conspiratorial smile. If Nicolas was curious about our cryptic exchange, he didn’t ask.

  “Yeah, okay, let’s go,” I said.

  Nicolas gestured for me to approach him, holding his hands out. The second I touched them, my body was alight with his magic, rushing and wild. I pushed it back, wobbling before regaining my balance. It was easier to handle it today, now that I knew what to expect.

  Daniel put a hand on my shoulder and guided me to the wide-open part of the floor where I had done magic previously. We sat cross-legged, facing one another. Daniel placed a bottle of water between us.

  Nicolas stood leaning against the couch, not seeking to get any closer.

  Daniel smiled. “Impress me. Show me what you can do with Nico’s power.”

  I poured some water in my palm. I quickly pulled myself out of the rapture of water, trying not to let the magic completely take over, to not let its beautiful and haunting voice call to me. I tugged the water up into the form of a tall flamingo. I placed it on the ground gently, where it wobbled around in a circle.

  Daniel nodded, pleased. But one animal was already proven. He had asked me to impress him, so I let my little flamingo stand still while I called up as many little animals as I thought I could handle. I managed five: a flamingo, a panther, a horse, an elephant, and a giraffe. I marched them around in a circle several times before letting them splash to nothing.

  Daniel clapped, and I puffed out a breath. The magic in me was spent, and all I really wanted to do was sleep. My head was throbbing, and my body was trembling. One night of sleeping well was not enough to cancel out the gifted magic and the stress of my situation.

  Once again, I lamented being mortal. This sort of work would have been trivial if I were clanned. Daniel himself could have called up life-sized animals from the depths of the ocean without breaking a sweat.

  Daniel took both of my hands. “You okay?”

  “You ask that a lot,” I said.

  “I remember how hard it was being mortal here,” he said. “You’re better with Water magic than I was at the beginning.”

  “No,” I said, disbelieving. Daniel’s magic was impeccable, shifting around him comfortably.

  “Indeed, brava,” Nicolas said from his place by the couch. “Don’t be jealous, Dan. She has a lot of experience with a much more difficult magic than Water.”

  That was a surprising compliment coming from Nicolas, who seemed to keep praise to a minimum.

  Daniel stood and pulled me up with him. I tried not to wobble like my tiny flamingo as I made my way back to the couch.

  “That was great, Fi,” Daniel said, cleaning up the water we had gotten all over the floor with a flick of his hand. “I can see why Flame took to you so well.” Daniel gave Nicolas a sour look. “Sorry I came to you so raw and new, without half a decade of magical experience.”

  Nicolas brought me a bottle of lemon tea, as well as four tablets of ibuprofen. He placed them in my hands with a look that was very clearly a silent command. He watched me open the bottle and take the pills before turning to Daniel.

  He smiled. “You, my dear child, are worth your weight in platinum, and you know it. Best impulse purchase I’ve ever made—money very well spent. Practically a deal. I would have paid double, triple, even quadruple for you.”

  Daniel rolled his eyes at me, but his annoyed expression melted into a pleased smile. “I did cost him a lot of money. I hold the record for the highest sale price of a slave within Water Clan.”

  My eyes widened at his strange, unabashed pride at having been in a literal slave auction. “How much?” I asked, cringing.

  “Seven million nine hundred and fifty thousand,” he said, spreading his hands in an “aren’t I the coolest?” gesture.

  I slapped a hand over my mouth, my eyes finding Nicolas, aghast.

  Nicolas seemed to understand my surprise. “Hong Kong dollars,” he clarified quickly. “A little over one million United States dollars.”

  That was still an insane amount of money, and Nicolas had called Daniel an “impulse purchase.” Nicolas, who had enough money to drop a million dollars without notice. I’d already had the impression he was rich. His designer clothes, the grand piano, and the undoubtedly priceless art on the walls all spoke to expensive and impeccable taste. And earlier, he had mentioned he grew up with a maid and a chef.

  But how rich was he? That I didn’t know. We were talking about a man who had been able to read minds and see the future for more than a decade. How many stocks and funds had he tracked in that time? How much interesting information had he bought and sold? A smart man would be able to make millions—or billions—and Nicolas was almost certainly brilliant.

  He spoke at least four languages fluently, and in English he had the refined diction of someone with a lot of education. I reminded myself that he’d been in Smoke. He likely had an advanced degree, probably in medicine or a hard science. He had surprisingly few books in his apartment to take clues from—especially compared to Daniel’s cluttered home—but was it possible he didn’t have time to read?

  I noticed Nicolas was watching me with an amused expression, and I smiled.

  You like being a puzzle to figure out, don’t you?

  He tilted his head and spread his hands the tiniest bit. Acquiescence? I looked away, shaking my head.

  “That’s still an insane amount of money,” I told Daniel.

  “Do you think I’m worth less than that?” he asked, pushing me lightly with his hand.

  “Well, no…” I said, realizing I was about to lose in some sort of twisted logic game. “I just don’t think people should be bought and sold. Flame doesn’t do it.”

  “No?” Daniel asked, confused. “What does your clan do with captured enemies?”

  “We don’t get many,” I said, “but if they seem useful in some way, they’ll be given a choice similar to the choice I have here: behave and shift loyalties or be executed. There is a long process for that, with tests and close scrutiny. Like everything else in Flame, really. If the clan finds they are compatible with the magic, they’ll be offered membership. The problem is that most people are not compatible with Flame magic.”

  “So… if they aren’t?” Dan said.

  “The same thing that happens to clan candidates who don’t end up being compatible. They’ll be offered a job working for the clan as a mortal,” I said.

  Daniel’s eyes went wide. “Your clan has mortals working for it?” he asked, interested.

  I glanced warily at Nicolas. “Not my clan anymore,” I corrected, “but yes. Lots of mortals. Flame’s buildings and security are managed by mortals, some of the research staff, liaisons… There are lots of different positions, really. Water doesn’t employ mortals?”

  “No,” Daniel said. “Except liaisons.”

  I shrugged. “It’s funny how different all the clans are. I guess it makes sense, given how different the magic is.”

  “Do you think you’ll fit in here?” Daniel asked.

  I didn’t like this line of questioning. It felt too much like assessing my future, and
I wasn’t sure I was ready to do that yet. Nicolas watched me carefully, but I avoided his gaze.

  “I hope so,” I said, barely getting the words out. I shivered, zipping my hoodie up to my chin.

  “Are you cold all the time because you don’t have your Flame magic?” Daniel asked.

  I laughed. “No, I’ve always been this way.”

  “But you had Flame. Couldn’t you just, you know, heat yourself up with magic?” he asked.

  “Yeah, sure, if I wanted to set myself on fire,” I said.

  I shot a look at Nicolas, and he laughed more expressively than usual. I smiled, happy that as a very experienced magician, he understood what a stupid suggestion Daniel had just made.

  “I don’t think you get how dangerous Flame magic is,” I said to Daniel. “It’s basically a living thing, looking to kill you constantly. It doesn’t have finesse like some of the other types of magic do. It can’t even heal. It really is fire—wild and crazy.”

  Daniel didn’t look embarrassed by his line of questioning. In fact, he had the hungry look of someone who loves learning new things, and I appreciated that he was interested in my life.

  “Well, Fi, let’s go warm you up,” he said, reaching a hand toward me.

  I grimaced. My head still ached and my limbs were heavy, but I didn’t want to disappoint either of them. I barely had time to cast Nicolas an exasperated look before Daniel pulled me out the door.

  Chapter 19

  Daniel kept his hand wrapped around mine all the way from Nicolas’s apartment until he finally ushered me through a nondescript door on the seventeenth floor.

  “This space belongs to my group,” Daniel said, shutting the door and activating a bunch of wards along the frame.

  The room was lovely, divided down the middle by a static shield, light and airy because of the large windows.

  On our side of the shield was a long table with a dozen fancy office chairs around it, as well as bookshelves, couches, and a small refrigerator. It looked like a comfortable place to hold a meeting or do some research.