Fractured Slipper

by Adrienne Monson

  “Whoa,” I said, jumping back and then trying to regain my balance. “What’s going on?”

  “We met the jerk,” Sway said breathlessly, a coy smile playing at her lips.

  An uneasy feeling immediately rose in my chest as I asked, “What jerk?”

  “The jerk who took your shoe,” Lexi answered, wiggling her eyebrows.

  “You weren’t kidding about him being hot!” Sway reached out like she was touching something invisible and then quickly pulled her hand back like she’d been burned.

  I put a piece of cookie in my mouth and it tasted like heaven. “I didn’t say he was hot,” I mumbled between bites.

  Sway rolled her eyes. “You didn’t say he wasn’t, either.”

  Lexi started bouncing from foot to foot. “He’s been in the tunnels asking about you!”

  My eyes widened and the cookie suddenly felt like lead in my stomach. “What do you mean?”

  “He brought your shoe,” Perry said.

  I blinked. “He what?”

  “He thought a girl running around with only one shoe might be something people noticed—”

  “I totally noticed,” Sway interjected.

  “—and he wanted to find you. We nicknamed him OWWLS,” Perry said.

  “OWWLS?” I asked.

  “For the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe,” Perry said.

  I laughed out loud. “Good grief, I love you guys. I hope you told him that name. And I hope you didn’t tell him anything else.”

  They all looked at me like I was an idiot. “Of course we didn’t tell him anything about you,” Perry said.

  “That would be so wrong,” Lexi said. Her tone sounded like she’d just eaten something disgusting.

  I leaned a hip against the counter. “Did he seriously go through the entire tunnel system asking everyone if they knew a girl missing a shoe?”

  Lexi nodded. “I wanted to text you but Sway said not to bother you at work.”

  Anticipation zinged through me and I immediately quelled the traitor emotion. I had no business being excited about the dangerous idiot who was using my shoe as an identification device. I frowned. Now I’d probably have to change my appearance or something stupid like that. I’d done something similar once before, and didn’t look forward to doing it again. I liked my dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. “Well if someone is ever looking for me in the future, feel free to text—even if I’m at work.”

  Sway eyed me closely and bit the corner of her lip. “Do you know who he is?”

  “The shoe thief?” I asked, pushing my brows together. I walked past the three of them to get some milk out of the fridge. “Yeah, he’s some guy with an ego and a fondness for feet.”

  Sway pressed her lips together and shook her head slowly. “He’s a lot more than that. Do you have your phone?”

  I nodded.

  “Do a search for the Oklahoma City tornados two years ago,” she said.

  I did. She took the phone from me, scrolled through the videos and then clicked one. As the video pulled up, I saw a man standing on the screen and immediately recognized the dark hair and wide shoulders. He was alone in the middle of a city, the sky a strange greenish grey color. A tornado was whirling in front of him; it couldn’t have been more than a few blocks away. The entire area looked like it had been deserted as people tried to escape the path of the storm. The shoe thief was in the middle of the road, in the direct path of the tornado. The lines of his face were hard with determination as he raised his arms above him—the same way he’d done the night I’d tried to save him—and faced the storm down. Hair on the back of my neck prickled and I wanted to yell at him to run away. The tornado moved closer and closer and then it abruptly stopped in front of him, like it was a dog obediently listening to commands. Over the course of a few minutes, I watched as the storm started to collapse in on itself, getting smaller and smaller until it had completely dissipated. I stared, dumbfounded. He had stopped a tornado—rain, sleet, and wind—and controlled the weather with nothing more than his magic. And not only had he stopped it, but he’d made it submit to his will. Which meant he was an incredibly powerful mage. I’d never seen anything like it.

  “Why wasn’t this all over the news?” I asked.

  “People thought it was digitally altered,” Sway said. “The only people who really believe he did that are those of us who know magic exists—and those who want to use it.”

  Like the Magic Harnessers. They’d love to get their hands on someone with his power. Imagine what people could do if they could control the weather. It could be used to make tsunamis, hurricanes, tornados, and take out entire cities and states in a covert way because it would seem natural. It could also be used as a profitable venture for everyone from farmers to ski resort owners. And since you can’t mess with the weather in one area without it affecting other places as well, it could seriously screw over entire countries and economies. His power was impressive, and he was even more dangerous than I’d originally assumed.

  “He’s powerful. If he’s being this brazen with his magic, I’m surprised he hasn’t been taken by Magic Harnessers. Who is he?” I asked.

  “His name is Storm,” Sway answered.

  Storm. Because he could control the weather. I rolled my eyes. “That’s adorable. Did he pick that name himself?” It sounded like something someone with a lot of muscle but not much intellect would do.

  “I think it’s his given name, but most people don’t call him Storm,” Sway said. She paused, seeming to choose her words carefully. “His last name is Hurston.”

  I froze with my glass of milk halfway to my lips, my mouth gaping. “As in the Hurstons?”

  Sway nodded slowly. “The same. Everyone calls him Charming.”

  Of course they did. And I’d heard of Charming Hurston and his antics. He was well-known for being an egotistical, self-centered player. I wrinkled my nose, annoyed that I’d tried to help him when he certainly didn’t need it, and even more so now that I knew who he really was—a pretty boy with an attitude. “Well, I can attest to the fact that he’s anything but charming.”

  “He looks pretty charming,” Lexi offered, resting her chin on my shoulder as she looked at my phone and the video paused on his sculpted face. “He’s like a real-life prince in the magic world.”

  She was right about that; the Hurston family was legendary. I bit the corner of my lip and shook my head slightly. Good grief. Of course I’d had to save the notorious Storm Hurston—a man with a super stupid name who could have easily saved himself. Why couldn’t I save a normal dude? The Hurstons were one of the most powerful magic families and their lineage went back for centuries—an anomaly since no one really knew how magic was passed genetically and some families skipped having magic users for decades. Shoe-stealing Charming didn’t have to worry about being targeted, abducted, or having his magic stolen. He had protections with his family—a lot of them—and people to cater to his every whim. He was basically magic royalty. Which begged the question: what was he doing in the tunnels, fighting a wraith? And why was he looking for me now?

  “What did he say when he told you he was looking for me?”

  The three of them glanced back and forth at each other like they were trying to decide how to answer.

  “Just tell me,” I said. “There’s no need to sugarcoat it.”

  “He said it was very important that he find you,” Lexi answered carefully.

  “Okay, that’s not so bad.”

  “I told him there was a good chance he wouldn’t get what he wanted,” Perry said.

  Nothing wrong with that either. It was true.

  Perry gave me an uncertain look. “He said he always gets what he wants. And he wants you.”

  So that was bad.

  Perry kept going, “He said he’d clear the tunnels with a windstorm to get you out if he had to.”

  And now he was threatening my home, and innocent people, including my friends—the people I viewed as family. Anger
punched my chest. So the very un-charming Charming was hot, dumb, and had an ego the size of the Arctic. We both had element-based magic. I wondered who would win if we squared off. “I told you he’s a massive jerk,” I said, tipping my glass toward them.

  “But still super hot,” Sway said dreamily.

  A knock sounded on the front door and Perry jumped up. “I’ll get it.”

  “You said he’s been looking for me for a couple of days?” I asked Lexi and Sway.

  Lexi nodded. “We’ve all seen him wandering around, holding your shoe like a little lost puppy.”

  “It wasn’t lost,” I said, my tone infused with anger, “it was stolen.”

  “It was stolen after you tried to kick me with it. Repeatedly,” a deep, slightly familiar, and irritatingly attractive voice said from behind me. My whole body came to attention and I was intensely annoyed at the betrayal.

  I turned and saw him standing in the middle of our kitchen. All muscle, irises I could drown in, and some serious boundary issues. I narrowed my eyes, pushed my shoulders back, and folded my arms across my chest. “I kicked you because you were attacking me and trying to drag me off to whatever cave you crawled out of. I wasn’t going with you, shoe or no shoe. What the hell are you doing here?” I asked, then turned to glare at Perry. “Why did you let him in?”

  Perry put his hands up in defense. “He said he saw you walk in here and if I didn’t let him talk to you, he was going to conjure up some wind and rip our house apart. I decided not to risk it.”

  If I could have shot daggers at the shoe thief with my eyes, I would have. “I didn’t want to talk to you during our last meeting and I told you so. In response, you threatened my friends and our home. Twice. Do you really think that makes me want to talk to you now?”

  He gave me a blank look. “I don’t care whether you want to talk or not, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”

  Grrrr. He was pompous and entitled, two of the things I hated most. “No.” I pointed toward the door. “Get out.”

  He ignored my command like I hadn’t even spoken and it aggravated me even more than I was already aggravated. I hadn’t thought that possible.

  “I’ve been looking for you.” The frustration was evident in his tone.

  Yes. How dare I not come immediately when he’d started wandering around with my shoe in tow. He probably wasn’t used to not getting exactly what he wanted, whenever he wanted it. “I’ve heard.”

  “And you didn’t respond.” His voice was tight.

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “I know. While my curiosity can get me in trouble sometimes, when I heard some weirdo was wandering around aimlessly, trying to identify me via shoe, I decided that was a path I really didn’t need to explore. You could be a serial killer obsessed with feet for all I know.”

  Dialing up the notorious Charming wasn’t a good idea for someone like me. Hearing that he was looking for me hadn’t been an invitation, it had been a warning to run. One that I hadn’t considered heeding because I’d been running my whole life and I was sick of it. And aside from that, I knew Charming’s kind—privileged and arrogant humans who thought the world bowed to them. I wanted nothing to do with him. “I know you’re probably not used to this, but not everyone falls all over themselves when you walk into a room.”

  He cocked a brow and looked thoroughly amused. I wanted to punch him. “Do you know who I am?”

  Do I know who he is? Like everyone should fall down at his feet and worship him. I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. You’re the ungrateful princess who instead of saying, “Thanks for not letting Grog suck my life away,” got pissed, attacked me, and took my property.”

  “Princess?” he said the word slowly, enunciating each syllable like no one had ever insulted him before. I found that extremely hard to believe.

  I nodded. “If the shoe fits. Did it?” I asked, raising a brow. “Have you been wandering around in my shoe and composing odes to my shoelaces?”

  His tongue went over the inside of his cheek as he studied me. “Do you have some sort of deep devotion to your footwear?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do. It takes a long time to wear shoes in and those were some of my favorites. Now I only have one of them and blisters from the other shoes I’ve been wearing since you stole mine. You can give my missing property back any time.”

  He watched me, assessing for several seconds. “You kicked me with it. I feel like that makes it mine.”

  “If I’d known you had a foot fetish, I would have kicked you with something bigger.”

  His eyes flashed with mirth. “And if I’d known you were going to run, I would have captured you faster.”

  He had no idea what I could do. Someone like him would be so full of themselves that if I unleashed all of my magic, they’d be sick for days—provided they didn’t flat out suffer a psychic break. “Try it,” I said through my teeth. “I dare you.”

  His eyes darkened this time. “Next time I capture you, it will be because you want me to.”

  I managed to look indignant, though his proximity to me and the lines of his shoulders were making that outrage hard to muster. “You’re confident.”

  “Yes. I’m excellent at what I do.”

  “Ego?”

  “No. Magic.”

  Perry, who was older than Sway and Lexi, coughed. I’d forgotten they were even there. I turned to see the three of them, watching with rapt fascination, like they were seeing a soap opera play out in real time. That was all I needed. Witnesses to this fight. They’d already been here too long. “I need to deal with un-Charming. Will you three give us some privacy, please?”

  Sway’s face fell and Lexi looked like someone had just stolen her puppy. I sent my eyes to the ceiling and shooed them off, hoping they’d respect my wishes and not just eavesdrop down the hall. They sulked out of the room. I had no idea why Charming had been looking for me, but I didn’t want my friends to be concerned with it. If it was something they needed to know, I’d tell them.

  I turned my attention back to our visitor. His lips slid into an amused expression.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked, warily.

  “Because you called me Charming. So you do know who I am.”

  Of all the conceited… “First, I called you un-Charming. Second, don’t flatter yourself. I had no clue who you were until my friends told me you’d been here threatening them while I was at work during the past couple of days and they recognized you. Until thirty minutes ago, the only thing I knew about you was that you were the most aggravating and bristly human being I’d ever met. My initial assessment of you was spot-on. Why are you here, and what do you want?”

  He leaned against the kitchen countertop and studied me for several seconds. “We have a mutual enemy, Hadley.”

  Great. So someone had told him my name—or the name I used at least. I’d taken on a new identity after I’d run away and no one knew my real name.

  I raised my brows. A mutual enemy was news to me. “You don’t even know me. How do you know who my enemies are, or that we share one?”

  He licked his lips and my eyes couldn’t help but follow the movement. They lingered there a little too long before snapping back up to meet his gaze. He grinned, totally aware of the affect he was having on me. “Your reputation precedes you,” he said.

  I thinned my eyes. That sounded ominous. “What reputation is that?”

  He studied me, his eyes full of interest—for what, I wasn’t sure. “I know about the fire on Clayborne Avenue, and the inferno on Green Street. There were others too, but those are off the top of my head. It took me a few hours to put things together, but I did. You’re Cinder, the arsonist, and you’re practically a legend.”

  I pursed my lips and my heart sped up. I’d been careful to keep my identity a secret my whole life, and then I threw it all away by fighting Grog in front of Charming. I hadn’t taken my usual precautions and now I was paying for it. Anger at my own stupidity coursed thro
ugh me. The fires on Clayborne and Green had both happened when I was younger and still trying to learn to control my magic. I’d had years of practice and now when I burned something down, I was more underhanded about it—and made sure I wasn’t ever caught. Cinder was a name the press had given me, but no one had ever identified me in person. I was careful to take out any video feeds, and to keep myself covered with a hooded cape so I couldn’t be easily recognized. I wasn’t about to tell him any of that though. I simply stayed silent, not wanting to give anything away.

  “On Clayborne, you destroyed a sweatshop. On Green Street, you stopped a human trafficking ring.”

  I’d been given a gift and had decided long ago to use it for good, as well as for my own purposes. No one was injured in the fires on Clayborne and Green, or in any of my other incidents, but I wouldn’t have felt too bad if the people exploiting others had been hurt. They were bad people doing bad things and I was happy to have the chance to stop them. But again, not information I needed to share with Charming so I kept my features neutral and said nothing.

  He leaned against the counter, the seams of his shirt straining around his biceps. “It was noble,” he said, admiration in his voice. “I was impressed.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I imagine someone like you is always impressed with destruction.”

  “No,” he said, watching me closely. “Power. Few people in the world use it for good. You appear to be one of them. And I’d like you to help me take down someone completely vile.”

  I arched one of my eyebrows. “Who would that be?”

  His eyes narrowed and he stared at the wall, his mind going to a totally different place than the photo of the beach he seemed to be focused on. “I don’t know. That’s why I need you.”

  He didn’t know? What the… “You don’t know? It sounds like you need a private investigator.”