Mage's Apprentice (Mages of New York Book 1)

by Sean Fletcher

  It took Aspen a half hour for her heart to calm down, and she couldn’t understand why.

  Going back to sleep was impossible.

  She tossed and turned in her bed, her thoughts shifting between the Council, the contest, Isak and his almost-not-quite kindness. Selfishness, she reminded herself, not kindness. He wasn’t the victim here, and he wasn’t doing it out of the goodness of his heart. If she dropped out it’d be a straight shot to Mage-dom for him. That’s all he cared about.

  No, Isak and his infuriating smirks could drink dragon spit. She had a contest to win.

  With zero extra sleep and the faintest tinge of dawn blushing over the walls, Aspen was up and moving. She checked and triple-checked her gear—all the powders she had remaining were there, along with her grapple. Lucien still hadn’t returned her guns so her knife would have to do. She brushed the curious dirt sprites from beneath her clothes, kicked the bathroom ghost out so she could clean up, and ten minutes later was strapping on the last of her things. That finished, she fastened her latest acquisition around her neck. It was a necklace of deep jade carved into a circle, secured on a hemp string.

  “It’ll absorb some of any magic you get hit with,” Lucien had told her when he’d removed it from his cabinet and handed it over. Aspen had turned it in her hands, marveling at the deep color, at the smooth, clean lines and shape.

  “I thought I could already absorb magic. If you’ll remember, that’s reason number fifty-four on the list of why everybody hates me,” Aspen had said.

  Lucien hadn’t acknowledged that last part. “You can absorb magic. But remember, too much will kill even you. Wear it.”

  She still blamed Lucien for…well, all of her present problems and plenty that were soon to come, but she wasn’t going to turn down help of any kind, even if it came from him.

  Now, she thought of telling him she was leaving as she stepped out of her room, descended the outer steps, and crossed the main courtyard, hands stuffed deeply in the pockets of her jacket to ward off the morning chill. He’d seemed adamant about helping her in whatever way he could, and he’d almost certainly want to come along, rules or not.

  Well, he’d ‘helped’ enough already. And a Mage would only attract more attention. Especially a Mage like him. That was the last thing she needed right now. Stealth would be her main ally.

  Her plan to start was simple: go to the nearest borough—Ember’s Landing, of course—and get the first token from the Heads who held council there. The Mages might have ruled over the boroughs as a whole, but most of the collective day-to-day enforcement of the law were carried out by the Heads of each. Heads, Aspen knew, much like everybody else she’d encountered, that didn’t like the Mages very much. Hated them, even, and anybody who was associated with them.

  Oh, this was going to be fun.

  She swung into the Norm world first. Even with the early hour, people still crowded the sidewalks. Aspen wasted time in line to grab coffee, then sipped it outside the shop, watching everyone pass by. It was the first time she’d been alone, first time she felt the return of her old freedom, in a while. The thoughts of running off she’d entertained when Lucien had first taken her were in the back of her mind, quiet now. She had a new purpose, one that didn’t involve scurrying away to hide.

  A shimmer of magic at the entrance to Central Park across the street caught her eye. Aspen squinted and was just able to make out blurry shapes before they vanished into the greenery. Fae, probably. The Day and Night Courts in Central Park were their turf.

  Aspen drained her coffee and kept moving. She’d have to go to the Courts eventually to get a token, but she wasn’t looking forward to it. Most Fae were arrogant, dangerous, and way, way, too obsessed with how they looked.

  Aspen trailed around the outer edge of Central Park until she saw the alleyway she was looking for and ducked in. This one had the same pattern of turns as all the others and a couple minutes later she came out at another part of Ember’s Landing. A nicer area. More residential. The buildings were spaced wider, the white brick clean and practically sparkling. Some had gothic turrets and curves, which apparently made the Vamps feel more at home (or special). Others were boxy and utilitarian, which most of the shifters seemed to like.

  Up on the hill was the squat dome of a building where the Heads met. Aspen made her way to the front doors where a single muscular shifter stood guard. Aspen took in the darkly inked tattoo on his broad shoulder that the shifters used to distinguish one another: a ferocious, roaring bear.

  Aspen stopped in front of him. The man looked her up and down.

  “What do you want?”

  “Are the Heads in?”

  Aspen leaned cautiously back as the man crossed his arms, settling himself in the center of the doors. “Maybe.”

  “It’s a rhetorical question. If you’re here then of course they are.”

  “What do you want with them?”

  Here it came. She’d have to tell someone eventually.

  “I’m one of the apprentice Mages.”

  The man didn’t move.

  “The ones collecting the tokens from each of the boroughs?”

  One of the man’s eyebrows rose. “You’re it? You’re the girl, Aspen or whatever? The Norm. The Null?”

  Aspen closed one of her hands to a fist. Must…not…punch…him…Diplomacy, as much as she hated it, would get her through these boroughs a lot faster and in fewer pieces than violence. She didn’t often interact with shifters, but she knew how quickly they could switch from semi-intimidating to full-on vicious.

  “Yeah, that’s me. The Null.”

  “Funny, the Mages didn’t confer with any of us about who we’d want as the new Mage. If they had, maybe we would have sent somebody we’d actually picked.”

  Aspen was temporarily taken aback. “What?”

  “Oh yeah, news travels fast, Aspen Rivest. We heard about you and the little assessment. What do you think the Heads are in there talking about?” The guy thumbed over his shoulder. “I don’t see a shifter up there on that Council. Just a bunch of arrogance with no idea what we want. And now…now they pick you, the complete opposite of everything we stand for.”

  Aspen could practically feel her blood boiling. Like this was any of her fault. Like she hadn’t grown up here right along with them.

  “Are you going to let me in or not?” she said.

  The man laughed. He stepped aside and pushed one door open. “Might as well. I’m sure they’ll have some special things to say to you.” He laughed again.

  Aspen ignored him and made her way inside and down the narrow hallway. No other shifters tried to stop or inspect her, which was odd but not unusual. They knew she was a Norm. And she knew she was about to face a room full of Vamps, Weres, and other shifters. Even fully armed, she’d be an idiot to think she was getting out of there alive if she tried anything.

  But even with no guards, she should have heard somebody.

  Aspen paused to listen. The interior was a tribute to every drab, uninspired governmental office space ever, broken up into a tight collection of adjacent, bare hallways and glass-paned, empty offices. By some small miracle she didn’t see any ‘Hang in There!’ kitten posters. Everywhere was empty. There should have been a secretary, or lower-ranked pack leader come to sniff her out. This didn’t feel right.

  “Okay…”

  She made her way to the main conference room. This, too, had nobody standing outside. Aspen was immediately on full alert. The Heads couldn’t have been meeting today. Not even shifters would leave themselves without some sort of look out. The guy outside must have been messing with her.

  Even still…Aspen gave a tentative knock. She let a few seconds pass. She tried again. If they really were in there, entering without permission would be breaking all kinds of borough rules, but since there was nobody out here to stop her…

  Aspen turned the handle. It was unlocked. Her heart sped up. She pushed the rest of the way inside.

 
; The first thing that hit her was the smell. She knew it, had experienced it on plenty of jobs before: discharged magic. But this stench was mixed with something new, an almost waxy scent of shriveled flesh. Of death.

  Aspen covered her mouth to block out the worst of the smell as her brain tripped over itself trying to make sense of the scene in front of her.

  The bodies of the Heads were everywhere, nothing but hazy dark forms in the room dimly lit by sunlight coming through a pair of windows at the back. They were slumped across the tables or strewn over the floor as though they’d been killed trying to defend themselves—or escape.

  Aspen’s foot caught the arm of a Vamp. Her usually pale skin was shockingly white. Aspen knelt and gently rolled her over. She gasped. The Vamp’s face was a shriveled mass of dried up flesh, as though someone had taken a juicer and squeezed her out. Her pruney skin showed jagged bone, her lips drawn back to reveal the distinct edges of her skull, fanged mouth open in a silent scream.

  Aspen fell back from it in shock. She was no stranger to death. She’d seen it and, when she had to, delivered it. But this…this was like nothing she’d ever encountered. This might make her sick.

  When she forced herself to stop having a minor panic attack, the rational part of her mind pushed its way forward. Easy. Take it easy. Analyze, assess, adapt.

  There didn’t appear to be anyone alive in the room, and the few other bodies she checked were the same: dried out. If she had to guess, she’d say they looked…absorbed, like someone had sucked out all their insides and left the shells. But how? The shifters she could understand, but the Vamps didn’t have blood; at least not the kind that could be drained. She was missing something.

  Aspen took another sweep of the room. Then it hit her. The faint shimmer she usually saw when looking at a magical being was gone. Whatever had done this hadn’t taken blood, they’d taken their magic.

  But why? And who could possibly be strong enough to kill this many powerful supernatural beings?

  Aspen had just knelt beside the nearest shifter when there was the sound of footsteps outside the door. Multiple footsteps.

  There was just enough time for her mind to berate her for sticking around a scene like this for so long before one of the doors burst open and the bear shifter stood there. Aspen could see more shifters behind him.

  He paused. He saw the bodies. His mouth dropped open. His eyes met Aspen’s.

  Then, “Get her!”

  Thief, Accused

  Aspen didn’t even try to explain herself.

  They’d never believe her, a Norm. They’d never want to believe her.

  Although, finding her crouching beside their dead friends probably didn’t help either.

  Aspen grabbed the nearest Vamp’s body and hurled it at the door before the bear shifter could make it all the way inside. The body was light, nothing more than a sack of paper-thin skin, sinew, and bone as brittle as a birds’.

  She hurled a couple more, backpedaling toward the back of the room.

  “Get inside, you idiots!” one of the shifters roared. “Get inside and grab her!”

  He wedged his head through the clamber of arms and shifting limbs all grasping for Aspen. His face elongated to a furry snout, his eyes tinted yellow and narrowed to pencil-thin slits. In seconds, a wolf twice Aspen’s size was bounding across the room toward her.

  Aspen didn’t stick around to watch the others shift. She lowered her shoulder and barreled into the nearest window. It gave on the first try and she hit the asphalt outside, covering her face as tinkling glass rained around her. She rolled aside just as the wolf followed her, lashing out and kicking him in the ribs. The wolf flopped to the concrete beside her with a pained whimper. Aspen was already on her feet and running.

  Dozens more people were on the streets now, their attention turned toward the commotion. Aspen slowed as much as she dared to blend in with them, forcing herself to look as inconspicuous as possible. She brushed glass from her sleeves, but there was no covering the bloody cut on her face. The pack of shifters would be tracking her scent in minutes. She could only be grateful it was daytime and they couldn’t unleash the Vamps on her. She needed to leave Ember’s Landing. Get back into the Norm world. She’d be at least a bit safer there. Mad as the shifters were at her, keeping the universal law of not revealing themselves to humans would force the shifters to stay in human form. It’d buy her a little extra time, at least.

  Aspen fast-walked down another street and across a churchyard. Every other second she glanced over her shoulder, sure she would see fangs or claws hurtling at her. The exit to the Norm world she wanted wasn’t too much further. Hopefully she’d bought herself just enough time—

  A panther pounced on her. Massive paws pinned her shoulders to the ground. Aspen managed to bring her knife up and jam it between its teeth as they came down at her throat.

  “Their blood is on your hands, Norm!” The panther snarled around the metal. “Give up and I’ll make your death swift—”

  Aspen kicked up, right between his legs. There was a pained whimper and she was free. Shifted or not, anatomy remained.

  “You might not care,” Aspen said, backing away as the panther struggled to his feet. “But I didn’t kill them.”

  “You…expect me…to believe that?” The panther wheezed.

  Aspen ran before he could fully recover. In seconds, she was in the shaded safety of the alleyway and careening around corners, her mind automatically taking the turns she needed.

  She emerged into the Norm world at a run. She broke through an upset cluster of commuters on the sidewalk, slid across the honking hood of a taxi, before finally slowing to a walk when she was safely out of sight of the alleyway. Her knife was tucked back in its sheath. She was pretty sure nobody had followed her out. Hopefully she’d bought a few minutes’ respite. The one thing she had going for her was that most in Ember’s Landing rarely ventured into the Norm world. She had the home field advantage here.

  Skirting past Central Park, she headed for the collection of shops on Fifth avenue. She could mix with the crowd there. Try to get her head around this.

  The Heads couldn’t have been dead for very long, if the bear shifter had thought they were still in their meeting. That meant she’d missed whoever had killed them by minutes.

  And that scared her.

  The Heads’ death didn’t bother her much. Perhaps a little, since they’d still had families and hopes and dreams and all that other crap. It was how they’d died that gave her a nervous chill. The Vamps especially. Shifters and Vamps had no external magic of their own—they couldn’t cast spells or summon magical deities like Mages, shamans, and the like. Their magic was internal, the kind that gave shifters their ability to change, and the Vamps superior speed, strength, and their extremely annoying and highly overrated seductive charm.

  She hadn’t seen any of that magic left. As if whoever had done it had taken their very essence. She’d never seen anything like it. Never heard of anything like it.

  And whoever or whatever had done it was still loose. And would remain that way until those chasing her figured out she wasn’t the big threat here and focused on actually catching the real culprit.

  Aspen loitered from shop to shop along Fifth, killing time while she tried to piece together a half-workable plan of what to do next. She had few allies in the boroughs, fewer outside. She could leave the city but had no idea what the Bond would do if she did. With her luck, it’d probably kill her. Plus, she’d be even more vulnerable there.

  She entered the Apple store and mindlessly flicked through the iPods after plugging Charlotte into one of the ports nearby to charge. A bunch of preteens chattered away next to her, each gently pushing to get their turn with the cell phone they were playing with.

  “Glad to see you made it out.”

  Aspen whirled. “Lucien!”

  He was grinning cheekily at her from the other side of the laptops. “Glad to see you’ve still got all your limbs. T
hought I’d be fetching your pieces when I heard what happened.”

  “How’d you—” Aspen glanced at the sidewalk. If Lucien had found her then she couldn’t have been as well hidden as she’d thought.

  “Relax,” Lucien said. “I found you using that.”

  He leaned across the table and tapped the jade necklace. “Pretty unique mineral. I’m lousy with any sort of seeking spell so I had a guy I know whip up a quick one.”

  Aspen glanced at the necklace, scandalized. “You put a tracker on me?”

  “Good thing I did, too, or else you’d still be stuck here with no one to—hey, keep it on.”

  Lucien knocked her hand away as she tried to take it off. “I wasn’t kidding about it helping you absorb magic,” he said. “And I’m not treating you like a dog with a chip. I trust you can take care of yourself. Clearly, or you’d be in someone’s stomach instead of here.”

  He gave another winning smile to a couple of employees who were staring at his robes. “Comicon!” he said loudly. Then to Aspen, “We need a quieter place to talk. Follow me.”

  A couple minutes later they’d entered one of the dozen Starbucks nearby and tucked themselves at a back booth. Aspen had the horrible feeling that, unless this mess cleared up fast, the coffee chain was going to be her ever-present sanctuary for the foreseeable future.

  “Now,” Lucien said the moment they’d settled in, crossing one leg over the other, “tell me why the Heads of my borough are dead.”

  “I didn’t do it, Lucien.”

  “I know you didn’t, or you’d be seeing a very different side of me right now.”

  Aspen let out a sigh. “At least you believe me.”

  “It’s more a matter of looking at the reality. You’re a Null. Unless you spontaneously learned how to use magic in the last twenty-four hours, how could you have killed some of the strongest supernatural creatures in New York?”

  Aspen bit down the sudden swell of resentment at how casually he called her a Null; how the term seemed to automatically label her as something weak, something different, like a disease she was afflicted with.