by Ella M. Lee
She shook her head, exasperated, and exhaled sharply. “Ryan left me here, and now he’s not answering his phone. I can’t get past Nicolas’s shields, so I’m stuck on the floor. Could you get ahold of either of them?”
“Are they in the lab?” I asked. “Nicolas doesn’t look at his phone when he’s focused.”
“They are cleaning up. They might be done by now.”
“Come in,” I said, beckoning her toward Nicolas’s apartment. “We can track them down.”
I stood awkwardly by the dining room table and pulled out my phone to check our group’s chat channels. I didn’t see any recent chatter from Ryan or Nicolas, so I sent out a ping to the group and asked if anyone had seen them lately.
Jasmine wandered over to the piano, which was uncovered, and leaned in to see what sheet music was resting on its rack. She ran her hands lightly over the keys.
“Do you play?” I asked.
She gave me a wide-eyed look. “No. My mother made me play the violin when I was growing up, but I haven’t touched an instrument in years.” She smiled. “I remember when Nicolas moved this piano here, though. He loves this thing.”
“Moved?” I echoed.
“It used to be in his townhouse in Paris.”
“Oh,” I said, at a loss for words.
I looked away. I didn’t know anything about this piano, or what it meant to Nicolas. I didn’t even know that he owned a townhouse in Paris. The woman standing in front of me knew infinitely more about Nicolas than I did. Even though it was irrational, even though I knew my six months with him wasn’t nearly enough to learn everything about him, I was hurt. I probably would never learn everything about him. Some things had to be experienced, and Nicolas had forty-five years of experiences that would never be with me.
Jasmine seemed to read my mind, because her next words were, “Don’t mind me. I’m reminiscing about nothing. He’s much better now than he ever was before. He needs someone to be there for him. His life keeps getting more difficult.”
I shook my head, embarrassed. To avoid an answer, I checked my phone. No responses yet. I sighed. Jasmine sank onto one of Nicolas’s wide couches and curled up. I groped for anything to break the awkward silence.
“Did you work with Nicolas in Smoke?” I asked. “Before… you know…?”
I didn’t know how to reference his torture and their risky escape from the clan. It seemed rude to bring it up directly.
She laughed. “No, definitely not. I wasn’t good enough to live in the rarified air that people like Nicolas got to breathe in Smoke. Very few of Smoke’s researchers were as talented as he was, and their kind didn’t really mix with the rest of us.”
“So you weren’t a researcher?” I asked.
“Technically, every magician in Smoke is a researcher,” Jasmine clarified, “but I didn’t research new magic like Nicolas did. I was more like a glorified lab assistant, doing grunt work.”
“Tagging things?”
“Yes, lots of that,” she said, rolling her eyes. “As if Nicolas ever tagged any of his own work. Nope! It got delivered to people like me in a box, and we would get to spend a boring day binding the magic.”
I laughed. That didn’t surprise me. Nicolas hardly did any “grunt work” himself. He didn’t cook, he didn’t shop for groceries, he didn’t do laundry, and he didn’t clean his apartment. Making sure his apartment had bottled water and managing his own calendar was about as mundane as Nicolas’s tasks got. It was surprising that he didn’t have a personal assistant of some kind. He just had Keisha, who took care of many of those logistics when she wasn’t creating portals or studying magic.
My phone buzzed in my hands. It was a couple of messages from Nicolas.
Ryan will be up in a few minutes to get Jazz.
You and I will talk later, lamb. I love you. I’m busy, but my mind is on you constantly.
“Ryan is coming up here,” I told her, trying to keep my heart from beating out of my chest at Nicolas’s sweet words.
Jasmine was still studying me. “I’m sorry if I’m making you uncomfortable.”
“Um, no, really, I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s nothing. I think Nicolas and Daniel would tell you that I’m overly anxious about everything.”
She sighed. “Yes, they are both gifted with immeasurable amounts of confidence. Don’t compare yourself to them. You’ll be okay here. Nicolas is infatuated with you. I’ve never seen him so relaxed as he’s been these past months. I’m glad he has you.”
“It’s funny you say that, because I was thinking that I’m glad he has you in his life.”
She smiled. “That’s kind of you to say. I really hope you won’t misconstrue anything about my relationship with Nicolas. We are nothing more than friends, and we were never meant for anything else.”
“I know,” I said. “Nicolas and I have discussed it. He’s given me a lot of trust. I trust him too.” I smiled. “Better to have two of us looking out for him.”
She smiled in return. “He needs that. He thinks he’s so strong, but I’m the one who broke him out of Smoke, and you’re the one who broke him out of his sanctum.”
I laughed, some of the tension leaving my body as I took in Jasmine’s sincere expression. She was right—Nicolas needed us. Magic made everything in life easier, but also more difficult. It raised the stakes, causing any error in judgment or lapse in concentration or slight miscalculation to result in tragedy.
“You abandoned me!” Jasmine chided Ryan when he arrived a few moments later.
Ryan shoved his hands in his jacket pockets, offering her a sheepish grimace. “I’m sorry. I thought you would sleep late.”
She grinned. “I’m always up early these days. I had plenty of time to rearrange all the gems in your gem case. Good luck with that.”
His eyes widened, and he drew a sharp breath. “You didn’t.”
She shrugged, her eyes sparkling. She turned her head to look at me, her right eye out of Ryan’s sight, and winked. I laughed.
“Ready to go, Jazz?” Ryan asked, beckoning to his sister.
“Of course. I have about a hundred people to visit while I’m in Hong Kong, gifts to pick up, errands to run. My assistant is arriving in a couple of days, and I don’t know what I’ll do without her until then! But it’s nice being back in the city,” she said. She smiled at me. “I’ll be bouncing around China and Hong Kong this next week or two, but I’ll see you soon, Fiona, right?”
“Yeah,” I said, startled. “I mean, if you want. I’ll be around.”
“I hope so,” she said. “Tell Nico to bring you along next time we get a meal together.”
“Sure, okay. Good luck with everything.”
“You too,” she said. “Truly. Be careful and safe.”
Ryan put a hand on Jasmine’s arm, and they left together. I gave them a wave, listening to their voices fade down the hall as they switched into jocular Cantonese.
Be careful and safe. If only it were that easy—to wish for something and have it come true.
Daniel caught up with me as I was heading down the hall toward our group meeting room at six p.m. He threw his arms around me from behind, his magic wrapping me tightly and comfortingly.
“How are you, Fi?”
“Busy,” I said, dragging him with me down the hall.
We were the first to arrive in the meeting room. Sylvio came in while we were rearranging the furniture into a circle around the central table. Tall, blond, and built like a personal trainer, there were very obvious reasons he was Nicolas’s new lieutenant. He emanated power; his magic was deep and calm. He had been in Water even longer than Nicolas, and he was highly regarded, with a deep well of goodwill from other Water magicians.
Sylvio had previously trained new members of Arturo’s group. Arturo was one of Water Clan’s pinnacle members—clan leaders—and he ran the clan’s security team. That Sylvio had trained his people showed just how competent Sylvio was.
And like all of Nicolas’s hand-picked gro
up, he had another trick up his sleeve. Before coming to Water, he had been a commander in Meteor. Although he left the clan, he had retained his Meteor magic. We didn’t know why, but occasionally, magic could “stick” to a host. As a result, Sylvio could use his Meteor magic almost as well as he could use his Water magic.
Sylvio was dangerous. People here knew it, and Nicolas used that to his advantage.
“You bought a lot of food,” Sylvio said, dumping his bags on the table.
I had ordered dinner for the twelve of us, selecting hand-pulled noodles and dumplings from a nearby restaurant. Sylvio had offered to pick it up. Daniel brought bottles of water and wine to the table.
Nicolas arrived next. He was dressed in a perfect black suit with a skinny black tie, his normal attire when attending meetings inside the clan house. He went directly to the table and poured himself a glass of red wine. Once he had taken a deep sip, he put an arm around me and pulled me closer to the windows, sliding his hand into mine.
I’m sorry I wasn’t responsive earlier. I’ve barely seen my phone all day.
Is everything okay? I asked.
Yes, merely finishing up in the lab and then busy in meetings, he said. Standard Water Clan business. I need to balance that alongside what we’re doing right now.
Who were you talking to today? I asked.
He shook his head in annoyance. Angie, Michael, Claudius… an exhausting day.
I didn’t envy him.
Water Clan had four leaders: its three pinnacle members, plus its chairman. Nicolas had been offered the chairman position more than once, and he continued to reject it. I understood why—Nicolas was planning on leaving the clan, and soon, so he had thrown his weight behind Angie, and she had been elected chairman by Water’s council of commanders.
Claudius was another of Water’s pinnacle members. I had met him once, and he was intimidating, with leagues of beautiful magic and a sharp gaze. He and Nicolas had known one another for a very long time and were as close as I had known Nicolas to get to magicians outside of his group—which meant Nicolas still acted cold and indifferent around him, but at least he didn’t openly make taunts and threats in Claudius’s presence.
Michael probably meant Michael Clune, Arturo’s first lieutenant. He ran the part of the security team that worked out of Dublin, which likely meant that Nicolas had been there for at least part of the day.
I didn’t blame him at all for not contacting me. Nicolas was a member of Water’s top council of commanders, and Daniel had once told me Nicolas was in line to be a pinnacle member if any of the current ones stepped down. He had a huge amount of influence in the clan, and other commanders sought him out for all sorts of reasons. His mind-reading and future visions and general ability to play the political game made him an attractive ally to some and a frightening enemy to others.
I had no idea how he balanced that.
He was watching me, searching my face. I wished I could read his thoughts sometimes—he was often a complete mystery to me.
I am wondering if you are angry with me, he said, his voice a whisper in my mind.
What? No, I replied. Not at all.
I was concerned by this sudden streak of uncertainty in Nicolas. He was acting conciliatory and contrite and deferential, and it alarmed me. I wanted confident Nicolas back; I didn’t want him to pay penance to me for his past.
You and I are fine, I said firmly. I understand that things come up. I’m as busy as you are. Let’s get through this.
You are a gift, he said, and he took another sip of his wine.
The door opened behind us, and the others filtered in over the next few minutes. Keisha, my closest friend here besides Daniel, launched herself at the food with even more than her usual high level of enthusiasm.
“Hungry?” I asked, taking a seat next to her.
“I am dying,” she said dramatically. “Three portals in one day. Ugh. I don’t know how I’m awake. I hate emergencies.”
Keisha was what clans called an SM, a spatial manipulator. More commonly known as a portal-builder, she was someone who could use her magic to create portals between places. Keisha was new—only about eighteen months in Water—but she was great at what she did. Despite that, portal-building wiped her out.
She wasn’t a strong fighter or magician, but it didn’t matter. She was worth her weight in platinum to Nicolas, who could use her rare ability to quickly hop around the globe or make money by selling her services to other groups.
“You’re clearing all your portals with Ryan, right?” I asked.
“Yeah, duh,” she said, hitting my shoulder lightly. “You worry too much.”
I did worry. I worried about all of them, but especially Keisha, who was only nineteen years old and new to this life. Clans were difficult, and I wanted to protect her like Nicolas and Ryan did.
Keisha looked up and waved at Chandra and Athena, who had just entered the meeting room together. They were both dressed in workout gear, and I guessed they had probably been sparring before this. Like Sylvio, Nicolas kept the two of them for combat.
They were polar opposites. Chandra was tall and lithe, with rich chocolate-colored skin and dark hair with warm undertones. She held herself like a runway model, had supreme confidence, and was sassy and blunt. Her magic had strange properties that gave her the ability to transmute it into physical strength, making her a vicious and unstoppable fighter. She and I weren’t best friends, but I liked her straightforward personality and her outrageous sense of humor.
Athena was short and petite like me, tending toward curves. She had raven-black hair, so dark it almost shone blue, and greenish-brown eyes. She was quiet and nerdy and full of sarcasm. She and I both had degrees in English, and we got along well because of our mutual love for books and poetry.
Nicolas always took a special interest in Athena. She had a power like his: She could see the future, but only in a limited way. She received dreams, which gave her a general idea of the themes and obstacles that would come up in the future. She and Nicolas had both likened it to reading tarot cards or astrology charts—always interesting, but usually quite confusing and only rarely helpful.
I knew she saw him as a mentor of sorts, and he seemed more open with her than with some of the others in his group. They usually had lunch together once a week when they weren’t otherwise busy, and they shared at least several inside jokes when it came to viewing the future.
“Hey,” Chandra said to me. “Let’s have an Americans meeting after this.”
The “Americans” were Chandra, Athena, and me—the three people in Nicolas’s group who were from the United States.
Nicolas had collected a varied group of magicians from all over the world, but it seemed like the three of us felt the most isolated and left out in Hong Kong.
I loved Hong Kong, but it was hard to get used to. The weather, the people, the language, the food—it was all alien and new. I enjoyed the city, but I was a shy and reserved person at my core, and the culture shock was real. Daniel and Nicolas did their best to introduce me to things in a gentle way, but I was often still confused and inadequate without their help.
Athena, who was from California, always stuck close to the clan house and seemed visibly uncomfortable when she didn’t understand what was going on, such as when our other group members switched into Cantonese to have conversations.
Chandra didn’t have the same compunctions, but she liked reminiscing about life in the United States and often complained about things she couldn’t get here, like good Mexican food, normal white bread, and cheap Snickers bars.
“Your place or mine?” I asked.
“Mine,” she said, giving me and Athena quick fist bumps before taking a seat on the other side of the table.
I watched my family interact and smiled. Teng, looking surly and annoyed, came into the meeting room, filled a glass with red wine, and cradled it in his gloved hand as he played silently on his tablet.
Irina and Ryan entere
d together, his hand on her elbow, talking quietly like the old friends they were. Ryan poured her wine and seated her, and she smiled at Chandra and leaned in to say something that I couldn’t hear.
Ryan went to Nicolas, who was still standing by the window. This was common; Nicolas liked to let the others chat and bond without his interference. Ryan asked a quiet question, and Nicolas smiled, waving him off. Ryan offered a hand to Nicolas, and he took it gingerly. I had seen this happen between then several times. Nicolas disliked being touched and, barring emergencies, Ryan never touched him without permission. Ryan shook his head several times, and I knew they were having some sort of private conversation.
My gaze went back to the door as Farhad came in. I hadn’t seen him in over a month; Daniel used him for work in other clan houses and sometimes had him go undercover in other clans. He seemed harried, fresh from a shower, his dark eyes a little wild and intense. He offered Daniel a thumbs-up before digging into the food.
Cameron was the last to arrive, looking serious and paler than usual, the scars around his neck very pronounced against his skin.
Once Cam was seated, Nicolas snapped his fingers, putting a silencing spell into place. Everyone took their seats and quieted. Nicolas had chosen a chair alone, so Daniel took a seat next to me.
Nicolas steepled his hands elegantly. “Well, this has been an exciting week.”
Everyone laughed.
“I owe you all a great deal of thanks for your help and support,” he said. “In times like these, I really do appreciate having a family.”
Keisha held up her glass as if in toast. “Yeah, yeah, we like you, too, boss. What now?”
Nicolas rolled his eyes and smiled at her. “I was getting there, albeit not quickly enough for Keisha. At this point, we have many theories and very little concrete data. We need information. I want to know several things. Was Derek involved in my assassination attempt two days ago? What purpose did that attempt serve? Are there any other forces at play? Was Mark Ember’s reappearance a coincidence or part of a larger plan? Is all of this focused on me, or are our groups at large in danger? And finally, are our future plans with Shatterfall at risk because of these interruptions?
