Hidden Mage

by Sophie Stern

  “Where is it?” Tabitha insisted. “Where?”

  “What?” He was groggy and disoriented. He didn’t seem to know what was happening.

  “Where’s the map?”

  It had to be here.

  It had to.

  She had flirted with this guy. She’d wasted an entire evening with him. She’d had to pretend to be nice and she’d made googly eyes with him. Was he seriously going to act like he didn’t know where the map was?

  Where the fuck was it?

  “The map,” she said again, but he passed back out, and she released him.

  What the fuck was she going to do?

  Tabitha paused and took a deep breath. She felt herself start to panic, so she went through her breathing exercises. Anytime she felt anxious, she tried to take a minute to just breathe.

  That was what her mother had taught her long ago.

  “Breathing will get you through anything,” Mom had said.

  “In and out,” Tabitha whispered now.

  She breathed in. She breathed out. She closed her eyes. Then she opened them again.

  There was a light outside, and she darted to the window to peek out.

  “Shit.”

  The guards were back. Apparently, they didn’t have the entire night off. Not like she had suspected. Either that, or this guy’s absence had been noted. He hadn’t been on the phone during the time they’d been together until they’d gotten in the car to come back.

  Had he missed a check-in?

  A rich guy like Flannigan probably had endless security measures in place to keep him safe. If she’d been wrong about the safe, and she’d been wrong about him getting drunk, she could have been wrong about other things, too.

  Maybe there had been a guard watching them while they were at the bar.

  Fuck.

  Three different cars were pulling into the driveway. Before the people inside started getting out, Tabitha realized it was time to bail. Her hard work might have been for nothing, but she wasn’t going to die here tonight. She had to avenge her family, and she couldn’t do that if she was dead. She took one last look at the safe, and then she started running.

  She didn’t bother to put things back the way she’d found them. There was no reason to, and she didn’t have any time to waste. She knew there was no way anyone would know what she’d been looking for.

  Then again, she didn’t think she’d have trouble finding the map, either.

  She took off down the hallway, racing to the very end. She stopped at the window and looked down. She was on the second floor, but this window didn’t open. Tabitha grabbed it, trying to push the window up, but when she peered out, she saw that two of the guards had shifted into tigers.

  Fuck.

  Of course, this asshole had tiger-shifter guards.

  She didn’t want to use her magic to push open the window and then leap down into the path of tigers. She was strong, yeah, but tigers were vicious fuckers. If they caught her before she managed to get a spell out, she’d be toast.

  It was better to avoid them altogether if she could.

  To the right of the window, there was a closed door. She knew from the floorplans she’d looked at that this led up to the attic. She heard the front door of the mansion burst open.

  “Sir?” Someone called up into the mansion. Brent was knocked out cold, still, so it would be a minute or two before the guards managed to find him.

  Tabitha knew she didn’t have a moment to spare. She tugged open the door, closed it behind her, and took a deep breath. She listened for just a second, making sure the attic was empty, and then she scurried up the narrow, dusty stairs.

  There was no way she’d be getting out of the front door of the house. There was no chance she’d be leaving without being noticed. Unless she could fly, which she couldn’t, she was going to be stuck hiding in the house for awhile until everyone left or until she managed to fight her way out: whichever came first.

  When she reached the top of the stairs, she produced a small orb that glowed just enough to guide her through the messy attic. She found a corner to sit in and she made herself uncomfortably comfortable.

  The attic was messy, filled with boxes, and loaded with forgotten items nobody cared about. She leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes. She could practically feel herself about to sneeze, but she held her breath for a moment until the sensation passed. When she opened her eyes again, she tried to calm herself down.

  Well, that had gone just horribly, hadn’t it?

  Not only had she not gotten the map, but she’d totally blown everything she’d planned to do. Her plan had been simple: get in, get out.

  Now she was stuck in an attic and she had to find a time when she’d be able to escape. If the guards simply walked through the house, couldn’t find her, and left, she’d be okay. She could wait up here endlessly until they finally left the premises, but Tabitha had a feeling that Flannigan was the type of guy who was like a dog with a bone.

  He’d wake up, and he’d remember that she stupidly asked about the map, and he’d tear the house apart until he found her or evidence of her true identity. Nope. She was going to have to make a daring escape. She was pretty much completely fucked.

  “What else could go wrong?” Tabitha muttered to herself. She was just about to blow out the glowing orb in her hands when something caught her attention. There was a painting leaning against the wall. It was similar to the one above the bed. In fact, it was almost completely identical.

  “What the hell?” Tabitha whispered, looking at it.

  Why would there be almost an exact copy of the painting up here?

  She grabbed it, tugging it toward her. Downstairs, she could hear people running around and guards roaming throughout the house. She ignored all of the noise and spun the painting around.

  There, on the back of the painting, was the map.

  “Son of a bitch,” she whispered.

  She’d found it.

  Chapter 2

  Tabitha couldn’t believe it.

  She stared at the map in front of her. There were voices coming from downstairs, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t be bothered to care.

  It was here.

  The map was here, and she was going to get to the island.

  There would be no stopping her now.

  Only, judging by the people running around downstairs, hollering and yelling, she was going to have a hell of a time getting out of the house.

  Lucky for her, she’d never been scared of a challenge.

  Tabitha grabbed the map. It wasn’t on thing canvas that could be rolled. It had been stretched around a frame already. She pulled out a knife from her boots, and even though it pained her to do it, she sliced the canvas.

  The knife tore through the painting like flesh. She cringed at the sound of it ripping, horrified at what she was doing. Although Tabitha was not known for her ability to make good choices, she felt like cutting a beautiful painting was a new low, even for her.

  “What the fuck is wrong with me?”

  She whispered the words, unwilling to say them at a normal volume. Even a whisper felt too loud. She shoved the knife back in her boot, careful not to slice her foot, and she rolled up the canvas tightly, map side in. She had what she came for, and even though she knew her journey was just beginning, a sense of satisfaction washed over her.

  She’d found the map. Now it was time to get out of the house.

  Despite the fact that she’d managed to find the object of her desire, the guards were here. They were probably already swarming the house. No, she hadn’t exactly counted on this. She hadn’t needed to count on this. Tabitha was a thief, and she was a mage, but she wasn’t the type of person who liked being caught or trapped.

  When she was cornered, she always ended up feeling like a wild animal of sorts, and she definitely didn’t like that feeling today. No, today she was supposed to be feeling freer than she ever had before. She had finally accomplished h
er goal.

  Well, almost.

  She still had to escape.

  If she didn’t hurry, the guards were going to find her. There was no doubt in her mind that they would tear the entire house apart just looking for her. The man she was about to steal from might not remember what she was after, but he knew with certainty that she was no innocent.

  His guards were not the type of people who would forgive her for her betrayal.

  Before Tabitha had come out tonight, she’d carefully researched the layout of Flannigan’s home, and she happened to know that despite the fact that there was only one staircase leading up into this attic, there was, in fact, a dumbwaiter.

  It had been used long ago as a way to keep the attic clean and tidy. It had been used as a way to make sure that objects could easily be moved up or down without any sort of problem. Now, she was going to use it as a way to claim her freedom.

  “Where is she?” Tabitha heard one of the men yelling from downstairs.

  A chill shot down her spine. They were getting closer. She needed to move.

  Fast.

  “Check all of the rooms. Look under the beds. Look in the dressers. I don’t fucking care. Just find her!”

  She had to hurry.

  She didn’t have a lot of time.

  Moving swiftly, but quietly, Tabitha hurried to wear she knew the dumbwaiter would be. She stopped at the little door. There was no handle. The door was still there, perfectly preserved in the wall, but the handle was gone.

  Once more, she pulled her knife from her boot and wedged it quickly between the door and the siding. She was very relieved that she had brought it along with her. Apparently, the handy little object was going to save her twice in one day.

  “Try upstairs,” a voice said, and she knew she was out of time.

  The door popped open and Tabitha eyed the little dumbwaiter. The bottom portion of the makeshift elevator was designed to move boxes, trays of food, or small items. It wasn’t necessarily designed to hold a human, especially not after so much time had passed since its last use.

  Was it going to be safe for her to climb on it?

  She looked at it warily. She didn’t exactly have a lot of choices. If she did climb inside and the entire thing broke, she could create an energy ball to place under herself that would prevent her from being injured when she fell, but she couldn’t exactly stop it from falling.

  “Upstairs?”

  “The door is just there.”

  She heard footsteps and she knew they were heading up the narrow staircase to the attic. The lights were still turned off, but if these were shifters, they’d be able to see her clearly even in the darkness.

  Tabitha looked at the dumbwaiter one last time. Judging by the amount of dust that had been kicked up, she was guessing that it had been many years since this thing had been used. Luckily, despite the fact that it was an older system, it was still powered by electricity.

  “Smell ya later,” she muttered, climbing inside the narrow opening with the painting. Tabitha folded up her body, sitting on the platform. Then, inside of closing the door to the dumbwaiter, she reached outside of it and pressed the button to lower it. She wasn’t sure whether it would go all the way to the first-floor kitchen or whether it would stop along the way, but it didn’t matter.

  As long as she kept moving, she’d be fine.

  Only, as soon as the dumbwaiter began to move downwards, she heard a strange, distinctive squeak.

  Squeak.

  Squeak.

  The dumbwaiter was so old and dusty that the cables were making noises as she moved downward.

  Well, shit.

  So much for her brilliant plan.

  There would definitely be guards waiting for her on the first floor or wherever the dumbwaiter ended up stopping. She was going to have to fight her way out after all, and that was the one thing she didn’t want.

  A mage’s power wasn’t something that would last forever, and she had to keep herself powered up. Simply resting wasn’t going to be enough. If she used up all of her magical energy, she’d need to take the appropriate steps to replenish that power.

  There were a lot of ways you could do that.

  One of the biggest legends was that making love to a dragon shifter would give you a huge energy boost so that your magical abilities would last for days...maybe even weeks. That was something she could get on board with.

  Not that she’d ever met a dragon.

  Not even close.

  Tabitha had a sneaking suspicion that was how Ursula had stayed so powerful for all of these years. Legend was that she was guarded by a dragon: a big, powerful one. Tabitha knew that before she could kill the witch, she’d have to do more than that.

  She’d have to kill the witch’s dragon guard.

  She had to get there first, though, and the map was going to guide her.

  That is, if she could ever get out of the damn mansion. Flannigan was nothing if not resourceful, and despite the fact that Tabitha had easily broken into his home, it was proving harder to break back out.

  Awesome.

  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the dumbwaiter came to a screeching halt. It jolted, and she hit her head against the side of the metal interior. Tabitha managed to choke back a screech, but just barely. She had to keep her cool. Would there be guards waiting for her when she opened the doors?

  Definitely.

  There definitely would.

  She just had to make sure that she was more ready for them.

  There was no interior handle on the dumbwaiter. Why would there be? It had been designed to move things from floor to floor, but it wasn’t designed to move people. Anyone who used the dumbwaiter would be on the outside of the contraption, so there was really no use for anyone to have a handle inside.

  She took a deep breath, placed her hands against the door, and pushed it to the side. It slid easily, and that’s when Tabitha realized she wasn’t, in fact, alone. Sure enough, there were four guards standing there, waiting for her. One was directly in front of the dumbwaiter with three more behind him.

  “Well,” the first man sneered. “I thought we had a bit of a stowaway.”

  The others quickly joined in.

  “Thought you could come cause a ruckus and get away with it?”

  “You’re lucky you didn’t kill Flannigan.”

  “Fuck you.”

  Well, at least they weren’t at a loss for words.

  Yet.

  Tabitha didn’t wait. She didn’t have time to argue with them. The more time she wasted, the more time they’d have to figure out what it was that she was after. She took a deep breath and pushed her hand out fast toward the men.

  A large wave of energy burst from her skin and filled the room, rushing over it like a tidal wave.

  Instantly, three of the men fell to the floor, unable to move.

  The fourth man didn’t fall. Instead, he shifted into his animal form, which was a small panther. He was sleek and in any other situation, she might even call the creature beautiful.

  “No,” she said, but he snarled – snarled! – at her. She knew that shapeshifters couldn’t talk when they were in their animal forms, which was probably good. She suspected that anything he had to say to her would probably be pretty mean.

  Hell, he might even make her cry.

  She was feeling emotional and overwhelmed, but she had to stay cool.

  Deep breaths.

  She breathed in, and out, and in again. Then, as she breathed out for the second time, the panther leapt at her. She shoved her hand forward once more, mustering all of the magical energy that she could, and she shot a blue glowing ball out of her hand. It hit him in the chest and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

  She knew he wasn’t dead, which was a slight relief to her. She may have been a bitch, but Tabitha knew perfectly well that this guy was doing his job. He was trying to protect the person eh worked for. She understood that.

  Still, he cou
ldn’t be allowed to hurt her.

  Satisfied that there were no other guards coming right now, she jumped down and hurried across the kitchen, careful not to step on anyone. She did her best not to touch any of their bodies. Tabitha felt proud of herself. She didn’t even kick any of them even though she really, really wanted to.

  The kitchen had a back door that led into the darkness surrounding the mansion, and she scurried toward it, running as fast as she possibly could. She had to make it. She had to.

  She heard yelling from inside the house as her feet hit the ground, but she didn’t look back. She knew the guards had found the people she’d knocked unconscious. She knew they were going to come searching for her.

  She turned around and tried to summon her magic to create a barrier so they couldn’t follow her, but, just as she’d suspected, she’d used too much creating the energy force, and she hadn’t recharged her magical stores enough lately.

  Her magic was gone.

  She was out.

  She’d have to depend on herself now.

  And she had to keep running.

  Chapter 3

  “I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” Storm’s words were gentle, but firm. Tabitha knew she wasn’t being argumentative. She truly didn’t understand going on such an incredible quest as this.

  “Of course, you don’t.” Tabitha fought to keep the irritation out of her voice. She didn’t want to explain herself. She didn’t want to justify the fact that she’d been working hard at this for months, and she’d finally gotten her chance.

  She’d gotten the map, and now she knew without a doubt where Kyanite really was.

  She was going.

  “Well, you don’t have to be so snippy about it.” Storm crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at Tabitha.

  “I’m not being snippy,” Tabitha sighed, tired.

  “You’re being a bit rude.”

  “A bit, yeah,” Tabitha said, plopping down on the bed.

  Storm was the one person in her life she could tell anything to. Anything. Storm wasn’t a witch the way Tabitha was. She couldn’t do magic or enchant things. She didn’t have the ability to levitate or to float items in the air.