It took Aspen a moment to process that comment, and promptly ignore it. “I was…worried. About Lucien.” She thought about that. “Yeah, I guess worried is the right word.”
“Worried he’ll forget about you?”
“Worried he’s hurt. He came back to make sure I was okay and…”
“And what?”
“And I guess I’d feel bad if he ended up getting hurt because he was trying to help me, that’s all,” Aspen huffed.
Isak smirked. “Having a conscience is really annoying sometimes, isn’t it?”
Aspen resisted the urge to slug him. It’d probably be like punching an iron wall, anyway.
“I thought you said you didn’t trust anybody,” Isak went on. “And he dragged you into this assessment. Why would you care whether he gets hurt or not?”
“I just feel like…never mind.”
“No, what?”
“None of your business.”
“No, seriously, what?”
“That he’s a little different than the other crappy people in my life, barring one,” Aspen blurted. “There. Happy?”
Isak was silent. Aspen contemplated how it was that this guy had, in the span of less than an hour, managed to frustrate, confuse, and confess her feelings of all things, more than anyone else she’d ever met.
They passed small boat slips full of pleasure craft, and further down were the docks where the transport ships would come into port and be loaded up by the crane. The sidewalk turned away from the water and up a small, brush-lined hill.
“We’re here,” Isak said.
Aspen had never been to the Necropolis—the land of the undead surprisingly had no appeal to her—but she wasn’t surprised in the slightest that one of the entrances where they’d ended up was a cemetery. It was set back from the path, nestled in the shadows. The front gate crawled with vines, the hinges rusted from disuse and the occasional overwhelming spray from the river. On the other side, low-lying mist curled across a plot of ground choked with weeds.
“They’re at least ten graveyards and cemeteries like this for the Necropolis all over this part of Manhattan,” Isak said. “I haven’t checked the others but I’m worried they’re the same.”
“Same as what?”
Isak pointed to the gate. “Go look.”
Warily, Aspen approached the gate. She gingerly placed her hands on the metal.
“It’s not a trap,” Isak said behind her. “Stop being so paranoid.”
“Cautious!” Aspen snapped. But in defiance, she shoved the gate until the weeds gave way and she walked inside. She peered around. The gravestones were in horrible condition, leaned together like a discarded line of pockmarked dominos. Most of the names were illegible, the grass over each plot overrun with weeds that had swallowed so much of the stone in some places it was impossible to tell one gravesite from the next. At the back was a small mausoleum with one of its doors hanging off to the side, barely holding on. The actual entrance to the Necropolis, she assumed.
“What am I looking for?” Aspen said.
“Do you see it?”
“See what? There’s nothing here.”
“Exactly.”
“Exactly…” Aspen took another look. A harder look. Each entrance to each borough had magic, something that gave it a clear and distinct separation from the Norm world to the magical, something only supernatural beings could notice. And her, of course, someone who had lived her entire life among them. She looked for the telltale shimmer of magic.
There was none. She knelt and pressed her fingers to the dirt. Not even a slight buzz on her skin.
“Are you sure this is an entrance?”
“Positive. Xavier took me to the Necropolis once. This was the way in we used.”
“Maybe they moved it?”
“If they did they’d have to get Council approval and Xavier never mentioned it.”
Aspen pressed harder on the ground, as though that would somehow make the magic appear. “How is this possible? How can the magic be gone?”
Isak was standing beside her now. “Your guess is as good as mine. But I have a feeling whoever took out those Heads in Ember’s Landing was also responsible for this. It’d take something strong to drain those Heads, but something even stronger to suck the magic from a location. Borough entrances are covered in ancient charms and runes to keep the magic in place.”
A chill ran through Aspen that had nothing to do with the night air.
She pulled out Charlotte and scrolled to turn her on. Her tiny legs unfolded and Charlotte looked up at Aspen expectantly.
“Hello, beautiful mistress,” she sang.
“Wow,” Isak said.
Aspen ignored him. “Go see if there’s any magic in this cemetery. Tags, residual spells, lingering signatures, anything.”
“Of course, lady Aspen,” Charlotte trilled and scuttled off into the weeds.
“You’re a regular Batgirl with those gadgets,” Isak said.
Aspen stood. “Batgirl wishes she was me. We’ll know soon enough if all the magic really is gone here. Lucien thinks—”
Isak grunted.
“You have a problem, spit it out,” Aspen said, annoyed.
Isak leaned against the fence, arms crossed. “For someone who thinks everybody in her life is out to get her, you seem to remember a lot of things that a guy you barely know said. That a Mage you barely know said.”
“I barely know you and we’re working together. I don’t see much of a difference other than you’ve tried to kill me more times than he has.”
“The difference is I didn’t force you into this assessment. Not like I know he did.”
“And I bet you heard that from Saint Xavier.”
Isak’s eyes flashed. “Maybe I did. Xavier, who is ten times—”
“—the Mage Lucien is. Blah blah blah, you’re a broken record, you know that? It also shows how much you know,” Aspen muttered.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
But Aspen squatted down again as the soft whirring of mechanical legs approached. A moment later, Charlotte emerged and Aspen scooped her up. “Well?”
“No sign of magic, mistress,” Charlotte sang.
Aspen’s shoulders slumped. “Okay, thanks.”
She turned her off and slipped the iPod back in her pocket. Isak was still giving her a dirty look.
“Did I hurt your feelings?” Aspen said.
Isak shook his head, the corners of his mouth tilting up. He pushed off the gate. “I’m just getting used to how blunt you are. We won’t find anything else here. I know someone we can talk to, but not tonight. I’m not headed back to my borough, but I know a place we can crash.” He gave her the side-eye. “If you can trust me a little longer.”
Aspen thought of all of her hidey holes she could try to find. None were nearby, and none she could swear were safe. “Just the two of us?”
“It’s with some friends of mine.”
“Friends of yours that will try to kill me?”
Isak let out a long sigh. “No more than anybody else in the boroughs.”
He pushed through the gate, holding it open for her. “You coming? I think our mortal presence here has awoken the residents.”
Phantoms and radioactive-colored glowing specters were rising from beneath the grave plots. From the darkness of the mausoleum, Aspen heard the raspy wet noise of a ghoul making its way toward the surface, hungry to feed. The ground near her feet began to move with the push of a zombie’s hand. Magic or not, this place was still a haven for supernatural beings. Hungry supernatural beings.
“I guess one more day with you won’t kill me,” Aspen said.
She stepped through the gate and then reluctantly followed him into the night.
An Unwelcome Reunion
Aspen didn’t question where Isak was taking her.
Against her better judgement, she didn’t question when they went back towards Ember’s Landing, didn’t question when they entered
the magical borough through a little-known side street and emerged at a lesser used slew of apartment complexes. She didn’t even question why Isak looked so uncertain as they made their way up to the second floor and he rapped on the door.
“Is there a problem?” Aspen said. Isak glanced at her.
“A problem?”
“You clearly don’t want to see whoever this is.”
Isak knocked again. “It’s not that. It’s…she and I have history.”
“Oh, great. She’s your ex.”
“Pretty much, yeah. And she may or may not hate your guts.”
“Wait, wh—”
The door opened and a girl stood there. Curled waves of brown hair cascaded down either side of her face. Her lips were thick and pouty, tanned skin flawless beneath an overlarge T-shirt. Because of course Isak’s ex was perfectly gorgeous looking, even after being awakened in the middle of the night.
“Hey, Eve,” Isak said.
“Isak…” Eve practically purred. She leaned against the doorframe. “How nice.”
“You’re looking good.”
Eve bit her bottom lip. “Oh, do tell me more. I don’t think my new boyfriend’s said it enough today.”
The door was pulled back a little wider and a shirtless, muscled man stood there. An incubus, Aspen knew immediately. If the supernaturally flawless good looks weren’t a dead giveaway, the intense feelings of lust and desire practically emanating off him would have been.
“Can I help you?” the guy said, his voice casual but his eyes telling them to beat it.
“Play nice, babe,” Eve said. “Isak’s an old friend.” She glanced sharply at Isak. “That’s all I ever was to you, right?”
“As much as I’d love to talk about the past, I need your help,” Isak said. “Can we stay here for tonight?”
“Absolutely not,” the man said.
“Babe, I’ll handle this.” Eve ran her fingers down the man’s chest before giving him a long, lingering kiss. “Go back to bed. I’ll be there soon.”
The man reluctantly retreated back into the apartment.
“I hope he’s making you happy,” Isak said, a subtle note of bitterness in his voice.
“Oh yes, he’s been great. So much more attentive than someone else I could mention…”
“Can we not do this now?” Isak snapped. “If we’re bothering you just say it and we’ll go.”
“We?” Eve looked around Isak. She seemed to recognize Aspen the same moment Aspen recognized her.
“You!” Eve said. “The Norm girl!”
“And you’re the witch who thought it’d be fun to beat me up in an alleyway.”
A flame of magic flickered to life in Eve’s hand. “I could do it here, if you want?”
“Stop it!” Isak said as Aspen cocked a fist back, aimed at Eve’s perfect face. “Eve…stop, just stop. This was a mistake. We’ll go.”
Eve glanced between the two of them, debating something with herself.
“Oh, lighten up, Isak!” she said finally, flashing a smile as she squelched the flame. “We were only having fun. Weren’t we, Norm girl?”
“Aspen.”
“Weren’t we, Aspen?”
“Of course. Just a little sizing up. You know how it is.”
Isak looked grimly like he’d rather be anywhere else but here. Aspen was resisting the urge to drive her knife through Eve’s smug face, and behind Eve’s false smile, the other girl looked as though she wanted to use Aspen as target practice.
Eve opened her door the rest of the way and stepped aside. “Hurry up. You must be really desperate if you’d come crawling back to me.”
“I’m not actually crawling,” Isak said as they came inside.
“Whatever you want to call it.”
The apartment was surprisingly spacious. The narrow hallway widened to an open concept with a kitchenette and bathroom off to the side. There were two bedrooms at the other end. Aspen glimpsed a pair of eyes glaring at them from a crack in one of the bedroom’s doors before it snapped shut.
“I guess you want something to eat,” Eve said as Aspen and Isak sat at the kitchen table. She checked the cupboard. “As long as that something is cereal.”
Isak looked at Aspen. Though she hadn’t eaten for what felt like weeks, there was no way she was taking food from this witch. She’d been hungry before. She could deal with it now.
“We’re good,” Isak said. “Just a place to sleep is enough.”
“And now why…” Eve said, settling into a chair across from them, keeping some healthy space between herself and Aspen, “would you need that? Your own place not good enough for you two?”
“You’ve heard about what happened this morning?” Isak said, and Aspen felt brief admiration that Eve’s jibes didn’t seem to affect the stoic wall he’d put up.
Eve sat up a little straighter. “The Heads? Did you two have something to do with that?”
“No,” Aspen said shortly. “But it’s part of a bigger problem.”
Isak glanced at her. “Should we…tell her?
“Yes.”
“What if it puts her in danger?”
“Then we absolutely tell her.”
Eve rolled her eyes and leaned closer, as if Aspen’s open hostility was creating an almost comfortable camaraderie between them “Cute. Isak, it’s not like I won’t find out about whatever it is soon enough. Word travels fast in the boroughs.”
She placed her chin atop her hands, not moving except to blink as Isak briefly recounted what they’d discovered since the Council meeting.
“Huh,” Eve said when Isak had finished. “Sounds like you two are in the middle of a mess.”
“You too,” Aspen said. “If they can take out the Heads, you can bet you and everyone else in the boroughs is in danger too.”
“That’s exactly why I’m not in danger. First the Heads, then you said the magic at a Necropolis entrance is gone. Whatever or whoever’s doing this wants powerful beings, and a lot of magic. A little witch like me won’t be of any interest.”
“Still,” Isak reached across the table and placed a hand on Eve’s arm. “Please be extra careful until we can figure out who or what’s behind this.”
“Oh, now you’re concerned about me?”
“Don’t act like I never cared about you,” Isak said, glowering. “That’s not fair to you or me. I just knew it wouldn’t work out so I cut it off before it could be any worse.”
“You mean before anything could actually happen. Did Xavier tell you to—”
“Xavier didn’t tell me anything,” Isak said gruffly. Eve stared at him. Then she sighed, almost longingly.
“We had our chance, Isak. I’m sorry it didn’t work out between us, but that was on you.”
“Yeah, well…”
The two of them sat in silence until Aspen got sick of feeling like a voyeur and cleared her throat.
“Don’t mind me. I’ll just sit here, letting the awkwardness build to unbearable levels…”
“Whatever happened between us, I still want to make sure you stay safe,” Isak said, ignoring her. “That means not doing anything stupid until we get this figured out.”
“Stop freaking out, Mom. I’ve got nothing to worry about,” Eve said.
Aspen didn’t try to argue with her. Eve was either too vain or too ignorant to understand that this wasn’t just about the one person coming after her, but what it would mean if whomever it was succeeded in doing…whatever they were doing.
Or perhaps, she reconsidered, seeing a slight tremor in Eve’s eyes, it wasn’t ignorance at all, but denial.
“So what do we know?” Isak said, clearly wanting to change to a different topic. “About who’s doing this, I mean? Who could want—or even be able—to steal power from the Heads and magical places?”
Aspen ran through the list of the most obvious suspects, but came up with nothing. If Lucien was to be believed (which she grudgingly did believe him, screw what Isak thought), then
the wards around New York were protecting them from the big baddies. That left the smaller players who could potentially be strong enough to pull it off. That list was much, much smaller, if it was even a list at all.
Then it hit her. It was so obvious she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it before.
“Hugo,” Aspen said.
“Hugo?” Eve said. “Who’s that?”
“He’s a djinn who lives in Ember’s Landing. Right before the Heads were drained he put me on a job to try to steal something from a Mage’s house.”
Isak’s jaw dropped. “A Mage’s house? Is he insane?”
“Exactly. Why else would he do that unless it was to get something really powerful? We didn’t steal whatever he wanted, but I’ll bet you anything he was trying to get something that could help him drain magic.”
“But you said you didn’t get it,” Eve said. “So how can he do that?”
“He must have found another way,” Aspen said, thinking furiously. “Maybe whatever the Mage had was just his Plan A. So then he got his hands on something else, figured out some other way to do it…Hugo couldn’t steal anybody’s magic outright. His strength is elemental magic, but if he had a spell that could do it for him, I bet he’d be strong enough to steal magic.”
Isak and Eve looked at one another. Isak shrugged. “I…guess.”
It was more than a guess, Aspen thought, it seemed certain. Hugo was strong enough, and the djinn, as masters of powerful magic, would most likely have some powerful buddies. He must have found someone there who could help him do…whatever it was he wanted to do with it.
The more Aspen thought of it, the more she thought it made perfect, plausible sense. But the way Isak was frowning…
“You don’t agree with me?” Aspen said.
“It’s not that…” Isak drummed on the table.
“You’re not certain it’s him.”
“Not enough to go running in to do anything about it, no.”
“Why not?” Aspen shoved down the sudden jitters that had crawled into her stomach at the thought of meeting Hugo again. But it would be fine. She’d have Isak and Lucien behind her, right? “We break into his place, look around, find whatever it is he’s doing with the magic, then grab him—”
Mage's Apprentice (Mages of New York Book 1) Page 15
