by J. C. Diem
“How long will it last if she doesn’t drink this potion?” I queried.
“Days, probably,” was his dismal reply. We both flinched when a fireball whooshed towards us. Our shields held, but the air crackled with heat that blistered the wallpaper when the spell washed over us. A painting of two kittens playing with a ball of yarn caught on fire. Lester put it out with a flick of his wand. “Fix this, Ms. Evora,” he pleaded. “We’re both trapped here until you can make Poppy drink the potion.”
“She’s upstairs?” I asked, peering over the top of the armchair. Smoke rose from it and it was unpleasantly hot to the touch. We were lucky it hadn’t burst into flames as well. I could feel Poppy somewhere above us, but verification of her whereabouts would be good.
“I believe so,” he replied.
“How can she attack us down here if she’s upstairs?” I could fill a book with what I didn’t know about magic.
“She’s using a bowl of water to scry our location,” the wizard explained. “Any magic user with any talent can direct their spells where they want them to go if they know where their targets are.”
“She’ll know I’m coming for her, then?”
He nodded and swiped his arm across his sweaty forehead. “Don’t worry,” Lester told me. “The shield that someone cast around you should hold for a few more spells. I’m sure you’ll be able to reach Poppy before it will fail.”
“That’s really reassuring,” I lied, then climbed to my feet. I left him cowering behind the chair while I headed in search of a staircase that would carry me up to the second floor.
Chapter Ten
MORE PAINTINGS OF ANIMALS hung on the wall as I climbed up the stairs. The bedrooms would be up here, as well as the witch’s conjuring den. I could feel Poppy in a room at the end of the hall to the left. A gale of magical wind swept towards me. I grabbed hold of the bannister before I could be sent tumbling down the hallway. It was so strong that my feet actually left the ground. When it died down, my shield was slightly weaker.
I forged ahead and a small tidal wave appeared next. It tried to sweep me off my feet, but I used Wrath to vault over it. Landing in front of the door to the den, I kicked it open. My link to Lord Dallinar gave me some protection from magic, but I was glad for the shield when another fireball whooshed towards me.
Through watering eyes, I glanced around to see a sturdy wooden worktable over to the left. Cabinets that held ingredients and components were over to the right. Shelves full of bowls, cauldrons and other odds and ends were attached to the walls.
Poppy stood beside a worktable on the far side of the room directly across from the door. She wore an unflattering brown dress and chunky black shoes. She was average height, a bit overweight and had mousy brown hair. She was in her early twenties and was a bit on the plain side. Her face was twisted in a maniacal grin as she lifted her wand to zap me again. A white ceramic bowl full of water sat on the worktable next to her.
My shield wasn’t going to survive another attack, so I went on the offensive. The witch’s grin changed to a grimace of alarm when I sprinted towards her. Before she could cast another spell, I yanked her wand out of her hand and tossed it over my shoulder. She opened her mouth to curse me and I kicked her legs out from under her. I grabbed hold of her hair, tipped her head back, flipped the lid off the vial and poured the dispelling potion down her throat. She thrashed and flailed her arms and legs as I held her mouth shut with grim determination.
When she finally swallowed the concoction, her body went stiff. She went limp a few seconds later, so I let go of her and cautiously stepped back. “Poppy?” I asked, hoping Lester had been telling the truth and that I hadn’t just killed her with poison. “Are you okay?” I said and nudged her with my foot.
Poppy opened her eyes and stared up at me in puzzlement. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I’m Xiara Evora,” I replied as she came out of her stupor. “I sensed trouble in your house and I came to investigate.”
“Trouble?” the witch asked in alarm as I helped her to her feet. “What sort of trouble?”
Lester appeared in the doorway and glared at her accusingly. “You tried to use a love potion on me!” he said angrily.
Poppy’s cheeks flared bright red and tears of guilt and shame sprang into her eyes. “It didn’t work?” she asked in dismay.
“Fortunately, I sensed the spell and switched our glasses,” the wizard said smugly as he sauntered into the room. “Once the Magic Guild hears about this, you’ll be punished harshly.”
Poppy’s shame at being caught out turned to disbelief. “You deliberately switched our glasses so I’d drink the potion?” she said. Her cheeks turned red again, but it was from anger this time. “I can’t believe I had a crush on someone who would be so underhanded!” she exclaimed.
Now it was Lester’s turn to flush. “I was merely teaching you a well-deserved lesson,” he said defensively.
“Did you know the potion would backfire on her?” I asked.
“I suspected it would,” he hedged.
“You knew it would and you did it anyway,” Poppy said scornfully, giving him a disdainful glare.
“It seems to me you both did the wrong thing,” I said. “If you bring this up with the Magic Guild, you could both end up being punished.” I had no idea what this Guild was, but it had to have something to do with the magical community from the sounds of it.
“I’m willing to let this go as long as it never happens again,” Lester said in a stern tone.
“It won’t,” Poppy vowed with her upper lip curled. “I’m over my crush now that I know what a snake you are.”
“I’ll be taking my leave, then,” Lester said. He drew his dignity around him, then beat a hasty retreat. The spell that had been keeping the doors shut had vanished, so he was now free to leave.
“I should have listened to that gypsy fortune teller,” Poppy said with a watery sigh. “She told me this would happen, but I went ahead with it anyway.”
“Fortune tellers are usually right,” I advised her.
“Yeah, but she was just a Night Cursed one,” the witch said dismissively. “I’d never go to a real seer. If word got back to the members of the Guild that I’d resorted to seeking for advice about my love life, they’d never let me live it down.”
“Night Cursed fortune tellers are just as accurate as uncursed ones,” I said, striving to keep my tone even. I hated it when the uncursed looked down on us, especially when they were discussing one of my friends.
“The little gypsy girl sure turned out to be right,” Poppy said ruefully. “Maybe I’ll go back and see her again one day. She won’t remember my first visit to her, so it’ll be interesting to see what advice she has about my love life the next time I see her.”
I kept my mouth shut that Quilla would know exactly who she was and that her stupid plan to bamboozle Lester had backfired on her. My bestie would get a kick out of it when I told her about this. The uncursed thought they were superior to our kind, but they were just as prone to make idiots of themselves as we were. “My job is done, so I guess I’ll be going now,” I said.
“Thanks for coming to my rescue, Xiara,” Poppy said. “It’s a pity you won’t remember this. It would be nice to have a friend outside of the Magic Guild.”
“What is this Guild?” I asked as she escorted me downstairs.
“It’s fairly new,” she explained. “Beings with magical powers formed a Guild a couple of years ago. It’s run by a Guild Master who is a warlock and a panel of powerful magic users.”
This was the first I’d heard of it, so it hadn’t had much of an impact in Nox yet. “Are the Immortal Triumvirate aware of the Guild?” I queried.
“They know everything about everything,” Poppy said dourly. “They gave their permission for the Guilds to be formed, as long as any decisions that could affect the city are run past them first.”
“What’s the purpose of the Magic Guild?” I
asked when we reached her front door. From the sounds of it, there was more than one guild.
“It was created to share knowledge and to increase our understanding of the potential that magic has to better the world,” she answered by rote. “Not that any of us will ever be able to travel anywhere now that we’re trapped here in Nox,” she added in a sour tone.
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
“My mother brought me here five years ago, just after I turned eighteen,” she replied. “She figured we’d be better off here where we could openly use magic. It beats hiding what we are from the mundane people who fear magic and the supernatural world.”
To me, Nox was the entire world. It was easy to forget that there was a planet full of people out there. “What’s it like on the outside?” I asked. I had no memory of my life before Nox.
“I’ve heard it’s still chaotic,” Poppy replied. “Ever since the hex changed millions of people into the Night Cursed, the US hasn’t been the same. Tens of millions of people were killed that night and it plunged the country into a panic. Everyone is terrified that it’s going to happen again, so Halloween and all other holidays were cancelled. Costumes have been banished, not that anyone would ever wear one again now.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but I nodded as if I understood. “How many people like you have migrated to Nox?” I asked.
“A few thousand witches and wizards and a lot more various types of magic users as far as I can tell,” she told me. “Most of the population are vampires, shifters and the fae. They came from all over the world to live here. There’s something about Nox that magnifies our powers.”
I knew exactly what that something was, but I wasn’t about to divulge that information to her. The Night Cursed that her kind looked down on were responsible for the boost in their power. The Immortal Triumvirate didn’t want the inhabitants of the City of Night to know the truth. “You should probably avoid giving love potions to anyone else to drink,” I suggested.
“I’ve learned my lesson,” Poppy vowed with a sheepish smile, then closed the door behind me.
The crowd had dispersed now that the show was over and Lester had slunk away in shame. No one had been hurt and I’d averted a disaster. I’d also learned about the Magic Guild that the humans had formed. Knowing how snobby and superior the fae were, Lord Dallinar probably wouldn’t see the Guild as a threat to him or to his allies. It was doubtful the Magic Guild would ever become a real source of power in Nox.
Chapter Eleven
CURIOUS ABOUT THE MAGIC Guild, I went in search of their base the following night. Unsurprisingly, I found it in the City Square. A new building had appeared near the fountain in the center of the square. It was a huge stone edifice and it stood across from the Immortal Triumvirate’s headquarters. Stone statues wearing hooded robes had been erected to the left and right of the wide double doors. They glared sternly at the people who were coming and going like disapproving parents.
I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t noticed the building before now. The magic of Nox was subtle and mysterious. Houses and other dwellings appeared overnight to accommodate the needs of the inhabitants. I was so used to the city changing around me that I’d stopped paying attention to it.
Now that I was aware of the Guild, I took note of the other changes that had appeared in the square. The vampires and shifters had their own Guildhalls as well. They were about the same size as the Magic Guildhall. Their statues were of their own kind, but all three buildings were similar in design. Uncursed citizens were the only ones who entered the stone buildings while I watched. Night Cursed weren’t included in their ranks. They were probably like me and didn’t even realize the Guilds existed.
A hollow feeling entered my chest at the gulf that existed between my kind and the uncursed. The rift had always been there, but it had been brought into stark relief for me lately. We were second class citizens and we were a joke to the uncursed civilians. A lot of the time, they could do whatever they wanted to us without repercussions. They could get away with their crimes because most of us wouldn’t even remember it.
Directly after I had that thought, Chesi came to get me. I felt her tugging on my sleeve and hurried into an alley at her urging. “What’s up, girl?” I asked. She was far more intelligent than a dog or a cat, but I couldn’t seem to stop treating her like a pet.
Unable to answer me verbally, the dragon made sure no one was watching, then lifted me into the air and carried me over the rooftops. We descended to a park in the Shifter District where I could hear someone screaming in fear. The moment my feet touched the ground, I went on the move with rage boiling inside me. I expected to see the five surly teens who I’d had a run-in with a while back abusing some poor Night Cursed victim. They hated my kind and it wouldn’t surprise me if I wasn’t their only target.
Instead of the five teens, it was an adult shifter who had a woman pinned up against the wall of a gazebo. He pressed his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams and was trying to tear her short white dress off. The werewolf had kidnapped a sexy nurse and he was attempting to rape her.
I didn’t give the shifter any warning before I attacked him. The flat of Wrath’s blade smashed into the back of his head. Snarling horribly, the werewolf spun around. In an instant, he changed into his wolfman form. He was much larger in this form and his clothes split at the seams. He tore them off and discarded the rags. The sexy nurse collapsed to the ground. She put her hands over her face and sobbed in fear as the beast man came at me with his claws extended.
My rage changed to grim determination, which gave me a clearer head. I tossed Wrath aside and drew my silver sword, since I wasn’t allowed to kill my foe. He didn’t even hesitate at the sight of the sharp weapon. He leaped at me and I sidestepped so he missed me by a couple of feet. His hand lashed out towards my face and I ducked, glad for the extra strength and speed being linked to Lord Graham gave me.
“Stand still and fight me, Night Cursed dog!” the shifter growled. I sensed he was somewhere over ninety even though he’d looked a lot younger in his human form. He had a stocky build like a lot of werewolves tended to possess.
“You’re the dog here, dude,” I reminded him, then darted back when he lunged at me. I had a good idea of who he was even if I didn’t know his name. He had to be the father of the teen werewolf who hated my kind. The kid was his spitting image. “If you despise Night Cursed so much, why are you trying to mate with one?” I asked him.
“I would never mate with a foul cursed being!” he snarled in disgust. “To become linked to one of your kind would be an abomination!” It wasn’t easy to understand his bestial voice.
“I don’t mean mate with her for life, moron,” I said with a sneer. “I’m talking about mating in the sense of having sex with her.” Clearly, the word meant something far more to shifters than it did to me.
“She is attractive and I wished to fornicate with her,” he said as he circled me, searching for an opening.
“The Night Cursed aren’t here for your pleasure,” I informed him. “You can’t just go around raping anyone you please.”
“She won’t remember it,” he said as he slowly closed the distance between us.
“That doesn’t make it right,” I pointed out, knowing I was wasting my time and that he wouldn’t listen to me. I was just as worthless as the nurse was in his prejudiced eyes.
“Your kind shouldn’t even exist,” he said derisively.
“Yeah, well, we do exist and we’re not your toys. I’m not going to let you get away with mistreating the Night Cursed just because you’re prejudiced against us.”
“What are you going to do to stop me?” he asked with a sneer. “You won’t even remember this conversation.”
“Maybe not, but you’ll remember this,” I said, then it was my turn to lunge at him. He didn’t react fast enough and I sliced a shallow cut across his stomach. He roared in pain and fury as steam rose from the wound. Blood spille
d down to coat his furry stomach and he went into a frenzy.
My brooch morphed into a shield to protect me from the claws that raked at my face. I scored a few more cuts on the werewolf before he picked me up and threw me as hard as he could. I landed in a tree and became stuck in its branches. A skeleton gardener looked up at me and shook its head mournfully that its hard work was being ruined.
The sexy nurse shrieked when the werewolf picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. He bolted with his captive, leaving his torn clothes behind. Chesi grabbed hold of me and zoomed after the fleeing beast. She deposited me in front of him as he was about to enter a house. I reached out and my fingers closed around Wrath when he came to my mental call.
The werewolf skidded to a stop when he saw me waiting for him. “That isn’t possible!” he growled, then flipped the nurse from his shoulder. She hit the sidewalk headfirst and passed out. Blood immediately began flowing from a nasty cut on her temple. The wound was bad enough that she wouldn’t be waking up again tonight.
“I’m the Guardian of Nox,” I said to the advancing wolfman. “I’m not going to let you violate anyone on my watch.”
“She’s no good to me now,” he said, sparing a contemptuous glance at the unconscious woman. “You’ll have to take her place,” he added with a leer.
I was about to respond when a carriage careened around the corner. It lurched to a stop and several cops emerged. I recognized their leader from seeing him during my patrols. “What’s going on here?” he demanded. He was average height, stocky and had sandy blond hair and hazel eyes. His name badge said he was Sgt. Rick Malone. The fact that he had a name meant he probably had a backstory.
“This werewolf attacked a sexy nurse,” I explained, gesturing at the prone woman. “He advised me that he was going to rape her, but now that she’s unconscious, he was going to try to rape me instead.”
Sgt. Malone put his hand on the butt of his gun. “Is that so?” he asked as his men and women spread out to surround the beast. “What is your name, sir?” he enquired.
