Midnight Starling: An Urban Fantasy Romance Series

by Rhiannon Lee

  “It’s Thain.”

  “You have got to be kidding me!” I spat, shooting to my feet.

  Victor stood up with me. “I promise he’s not usually so rough. You just caught him at a bad time.”

  “Absolutely not!” Poppy yelled from the kitchen.

  I propped a hand on my hip and raised my eyebrows. “Victor,” I said pointedly, “he basically told me I was greedy and incompetent. There is no way I’m letting that man teach me anything.”

  Victor raised his own brows in reply. “Do you want to turn into a bird every time you sneeze for the rest of your life?”

  “No, but I also don’t want to be anywhere near that creep. Why can’t you help me?” I begged.

  Poppy resumed her smoldering expression in the doorway. “I forbid it. He’s done enough.”

  My expression lifted in surprise at the intensity of her voice.

  Victor sighed and sat back down. “Fine. I will help you on one condition. If we haven’t made any progress in a week, you will let Thain help you.” His eyes drifted to Poppy. The hard line of her lips and reddening cheeks her only answer. She looked murderous.

  “You’re just like him. Bargaining things in a way until a person has no choice but to accept,” she snapped.

  I threw my hands in the air and sat back down. “Even if I agree to this, how do you know he would even help me?”

  “Bea, you can’t be seriously considering this,” she interrupted.

  “Because,” Victor said, ignoring her outburst, “he wouldn’t have me guarding someone he didn’t like.”

  I scoffed so loudly at his comment that I knew the neighbors heard it.

  “I think you should leave,” Poppy sternly directed at Victor.

  He nodded and stood. “Yes, I should be going. Thank you for the coffee, Bea.”

  “Yeah, no problem.” My eyes darted between the two of them. I was equally outraged at the suggestion that I allow Thain within one hundred yards of me again, but the look on Poppy’s face said she was mad enough for the both of us, and I was a little worried she would throttle him if he didn’t leave fast enough.

  As soon as the door closed behind Victor, I spun around. “Is it crazy I’m starting to like the guy?”

  Her face had resumed its typical neutral expression. She sipped from her cup as if nothing had happened. “What do you mean by like?” she asked nonchalantly.

  “I mean, he’s cute, right?”

  Poppy nearly choked on her coffee. “Are you sure you don’t have Stockholm syndrome?”

  “That’s exactly what I was afraid of!”

  She started laughing as I plunked back down.

  “I’m teasing you. I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea to start something with one of Thain’s men. There is the fact that he kidnapped you, but other than that he seems alright.” I had to look up to tell if she was being sarcastic. Her raised brow and puckered lips told me she was. She definitely didn’t approve, but in true Poppy style, she wasn’t going to directly tell me what to do.

  “There is just something about him. I’m not sure what it is. Every time I’m about to punch him for doing something annoying, he smiles or looks cute and I end up reassessing how I feel about him. It’s awful,” I said.

  “Bea–” Before she could fully answer me, a sneeze erupted from me.

  I was spiraling toward the ground and tightly closed my eyes, waiting for the crash, but a gentle hand caught me instead. I opened my eyes. Poppy had turned into a giant and was smiling at me. I let out a short chirp.

  She gently cupped her hand around me before lowering me to the level of the counter. “Is this alright?”

  I trilled an affirmative and hopped down beside the toaster.

  “I think we’re going to have to finish our conversation once you get your voice back,” she said, stepping back.

  I chirped a few times in her direction, turned my back to her and plopped down on my feathered behind.

  “Alright. I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

  If I had arms in that moment, I would have crossed them and pushed out my lip. Since I didn’t, I just squawked loudly and waited for her to walk off.

  Chapter 10

  Poppy

  I decided it was high time to have another chat with Thain. And a walk to clear my head would do me some good. I tried to tell Bea I was going out again, but she must have gone to her room, so I decided not to bother her. Halfway to my destination, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and stepped off the main section of sidewalk.

  “Hello?” Isaac asked after only two rings.

  “We have to do it tonight.”

  “We’re telling Bea?”

  I nodded before realizing he couldn’t see it. “Yes. We have to just get it over with. When I get home, I’ll prepare the spell to remove her guise, in case she wants us to do it immediately.”

  On top of her having feelings for Victor, the last thing she needed was to become even more confused by trying to learn Mimic magic from Thain. She wasn’t a child to be ordered around, so I needed to explain things to her now.

  “Do you think she’ll be okay? She’s going to be furious.”

  I sighed audibly. “I hope not. And I really don’t know if she will or not. She took the other stuff pretty well. The main thing is that we can’t keep lying to her or we could lose her. The last thing I want her to do is run into the arms of that wolf for comfort.”

  “What? Why would you think that?” he asked.

  “She just told me she’s starting to have a crush on him.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah, oh,” I said matter-of-factly.

  “Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she had someone else with magic to be around.”

  I huffed. “Isaac. Are you being serious right now?”

  “I mean, she could do worse, and he seems to really like her.”

  “Do you know something I don’t?”

  “Haven’t you noticed the way he looks at her?” he asked.

  “How could I have missed that? I’ve been so preoccupied with things other than Bea, like I should be doing. But to be fair, he’s a bit intense. I just assumed that’s the way he was.”

  “You were too busy being flustered by Thain to notice, you mean,” he added with a chuckle.

  “He ignores everyone but her when she’s around. I really don’t think he’s a bad guy. He might even be good for her,” he said.

  I huffed again, this time in partial defeat. “I guess you might be right. Maybe I am letting my frustration with Thain bleed into my opinion of him,” I admitted hesitantly.

  He coughed and paused. “Bingo.”

  “Ugh. You know as much as I love you, it never gets easier when you point out when I’m being dense.”

  “Hey, I didn’t point it out, you did. I just agreed with you,” he said.

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Don’t roll your eyes at me.” He knew me too well.

  “Alright, thanks for the clarity. I have to go. See you tonight.”

  “Where are you?” he asked.

  “I’ll tell you later. I really need to go,” I answered and hung up before he could keep going.

  I shoved the phone back in my pocket and resumed my route. This was going to take all my power.

  I made it to the edge of Thain’s parking lot and steadied myself before continuing. My breath was coming out in shallow pants. I shouldn’t have been this nervous to see him again. It didn’t make any rational sense. I focused on my breathing, willing myself to calm down. It wasn’t working, so I steeled my resolve as best as I could and marched forward.

  Victor greeted me when I got to the door. He stepped outside, as if he had been waiting on my arrival, and held it open for me so I could walk inside. No grin, nothing but business written on his face.

  “Here to see the boss?” he asked. He was probably still annoyed over our last interaction. I shrugged it off and pretended like nothing was wrong. Isaac was right, Bea could do w
orse, but it would be a frigid day in hell before I told Bea that.

  “Yes. Is he here?” I knew he was. I could sense him.

  “Yeah. I’ll take you in.”

  “I know the way,” I retorted with a little more snap to my words than I meant to project.

  My heart had never fully recovered from Thain vanishing after leaving a note telling me he had no plans to return to me. Granted, it had happened after an argument where I was uncharacteristically vicious with my words. Even so, to just disappear like that deeply wounded me.

  I frowned as Victor announced me formally. When I stepped inside Thain’s office, he was seated, hands pressed to his forehead.

  He looked up; his expression slightly marred with lingering irritation. “I hope you’re not here to yell at me, I’ve had a terrible day already,” he grumbled.

  I tried to soften my expression. “May I sit?”

  He waved a hand to the chair. “Sure, why not.”

  I sat down gingerly while trying to muster up a smile. “I’m not here to scold you. I need your help.”

  “As much as I’d like to rehash old times and help you out with whatever you need, I’m a little busy right now.”

  “Believe me, reliving the time you abandoned me is not on my list of things to cover. Not now, or ever.”

  His eyes widened for a moment. “My comment was unwarranted. My apologies. I’m just dealing with…” he trailed off.

  “It’s fine. But seriously, this is important. Will you please hear me out?” I asked.

  He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Sure. Tell me what you need help with.”

  His continued agitation stung, but I pressed on, explaining, “There is something wrong with–well, I first noticed it in the plants I’m raising, but I think it’s bigger than that, and if we don’t do something, it could get bad fast.”

  “You’re going to have to be more specific. What’s wrong with your plants?” His tone told me that he clearly thought I was still wasting his time.

  “It’s not just any plant, it’s the magic seedlings at the preserve. They are dying. All of them,” I stressed, hoping he was paying enough attention to grasp the magnitude of what I was saying.

  He leaned forward. “What? Even…?”

  At least I had his attention now.

  “Yes, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. Even the children are dying. Something is redirecting the flow of magic. Or suppressing it, or something, and I’m not sure what to do. I need your help.”

  “We noticed magic waning about a month ago all over town. I’ve had people investigating it, but honestly, we thought it was because of the new strip of manufacturing plants they put in across town.”

  “That’s what I thought at first, too, but it’s something bigger than that. It has to be,” I insisted.

  “Except for the occasional inconvenience it caused. I did not know what was affecting anything so severely. This isn’t the first-time magic has gone haywire because of things like new manufacturing plants playing with the magnetism in the earth in various cities.”

  I shook my head, replying under my breath, “Of course, you dismissed it that easily.”

  “How could I have known it was affecting–”

  I cut off his excuse, yelling, “You could have checked!” My fingers were digging into the arms of my chair.

  His forehead creased with genuine concern. “I’m sorry. We thought it was harmless.”

  “There you go again with your empty apologies. This problem isn’t something you can solve with an I’m sorry,” I snapped.

  He sat up straight. “What is wrong with you?” he demanded.

  “What is wrong with me? I’ll tell you what’s wrong! You show up after all these years and you want to act like you didn’t just abandon me without a word. You kidnap my charge, and force my hand to let her help you, then you fire her and make her feel like crap. And now, you can’t even do your job right! The future of our people is depending on you and you’re sitting here being grumpy about things that probably don’t even matter, instead of figuring out what’s wrong!” I was on my feet, with my finger in his face by the time I was finished.

  He sat slack jawed for a long while. I finally got frustrated by his silence and marched out of his office.

  “Poppy! Wait!” he yelled.

  I stopped and turned around. He was standing, his hand outstretched in my direction.

  “I don’t know how to make up for what I did you back then. I wish I did, but I don’t. I have felt bad about it every day since, but the damage was already done. A million times I wanted to visit you and beg for your forgiveness, but I knew that would be wrong too. So, I left you alone so you could move on with your life.”

  It was getting hard to see through the tears welling up in my eyes. “But I didn’t move on, Thain. Isn’t that obvious? My heart still hurts, even after all this time. And then I found out you’ve been here for months, and you never once tried to contact me.”

  “I didn’t know what to say, or if you even wanted me to contact you. Obviously, that was the wrong way to handle it. I am truly sorry, Poppy. Please believe me,” he pleaded.

  I pulled in a deep breath to calm myself. “More apologies,” I muttered.

  “Damn it! What else can I say? I am sorry. Sorry for the way I left, and I’m sorry for not finding you sooner. All I have been is sorry. For all of it. And my presence hurt you again, and I’m sorry for that too. I never stopped loving you, don’t you see that?”

  “How could I? You’ve been distant and rude to me every time I’ve seen you!”

  He sighed and sank back down. “You’re right. I’ve been trying so hard to stay detached from my feelings for you that I turned into an unfeeling monster.” He leaned forward and placed his forehead into his hands, his elbows on his desk.

  My emotions were waging a war inside my chest. “Why would you tell me you still loved me? Why now?”

  “Because it’s true, and I’m tired of pretending it’s not,” he said.

  I collapsed back into the chair I vacated earlier. “We can’t go back. As much as I don’t want it to be true, what we had is broken forever, Thain.”

  “That might be true, but you deserved to know I didn’t just leave you without ever looking back. If I can’t give you peace, at least I can give you that,” he said.

  I took another deep breath. “But I don’t know what to do with it.”

  “You don’t have to do anything with it, I just wanted you to know.”

  “Okay. I may thank you for it later, but right now I just can’t,” I admitted.

  He leaned forward; sorrow written on the lines of his face. “I understand.”

  “As much as I want to end this conversation and give myself time to think about all of it, I can’t. We have to deal with something much more important than our feelings for each other,” I said.

  He tried to regain his professional posture, but it was no use. Our discussion was clearly still weighing on his mind. “The magic.”

  “Yes, the magic. Or lack thereof, rather. Unfortunately, I have other bad news, too. There are rumors circulating that the Ouphes are responsible. I’m worried they are going to be victimized if this rumor gets to the wrong people. Matt seems to think they are up to something catastrophic. The last thing they need is a bunch of superstitious Mimics trying to hunt them down for something they have no clue about.”

  “Who’s Matt?”

  “Mathias,” I replied simply.

  His eyes widened in surprise. “You know the old one? The last I heard he had gone completely insane.”

  “He’s okay as long as he has a purpose. He works with the Godkin, which seems to be enough to keep his mind level these days. But anyway, Matt’s sanity isn’t the point. I tried to go into the market and speak to the Ouphes’ elders, but it didn’t go well. I had to leave. Which is more bad news, because that could mean people are already popping in and harassing them about it. Do you have any connections in t
heir community? I think we should warn them if they don’t already know.”

  His jaw ticked, and he looked down at his hands. “I may know someone, I’ll look into it,” he ground out as he pulled his gaze back to mine on the last word. “But, Poppy, I wouldn’t completely dismiss the rumors. Especially if Matt was the one who told you.”

  “About the Ouphes? What do you mean?” I pressed.

  “They aren’t as innocent as you seem to think,” he replied.

  “Maybe, but they don’t go around causing trouble either. They just want left alone.”

  “Mostly, but not always.”

  “Do you know something that I don’t? I’ve been around them my entire life and they’ve been nothing but kind to me until this last time.”

  “I’ve learned a lot since I took office. Not around here, but in other areas there are cases where Ouphes have not behaved like you’re used to. I’ve seen murders and thefts, among other things.”

  “Of course, there is going to be the occasional bad guy. It’s like that anywhere. I just mean their culture is one of isolation and mostly peace.”

  His face contorted into a grimace before he could correct it. Clearly, he didn’t believe the same things about the Ouphes I did. It unsettled my gut.

  “Regardless, it seems much more likely that something else is causing this,” I repeated. “I just wanted you to check in with them to rule them out, not accuse them of anything. Can you please keep your inquiries subtle?”

  “For you? Yes. I will do as you ask,” he agreed, the corner of his mouth lifting into a boyish half grin.

  I let out the sigh of relief. “Thank you.” I said. I cast my eyes down to the floor, trying to ignore how handsome the smile made him. Damn him for telling me he still loves me.

  “Where’s your ward?” he asked.

  “She’s busy,” I dismissed, feeling a lot less turned on after being reminded that he had kidnapped Bea. “Will you let me know what you find out once you speak to someone?”

  “You haven’t told her, have you?” he asked, ignoring my question.