No Magic, No Problem

by Blair Daniels

  I forced a smile. Forced thanks. Then I slunk away from the tangled mess of hugs, and escaped to the elevator.

  "Where are you going?"

  I turned around to see Gavin walking down the hall, after me.

  "I'm going home."

  "Wait."

  I didn't wait. I rushed into the elevator, pressed the button for '1'. The doors began to slide closed... but they weren't fast enough. Gavin's hand shot into the gap, and then he stepped inside.

  I turned away, refusing to meet his eyes.

  "You have to understand. Ryan—he—"

  "I told you. You don't have to say anything. I know that it was all him. You don't have to apologize, or explain, or anything." I glanced up at him, then quickly looked away. "I'm just glad you're back."

  "No, Kira. Look at me."

  "I don't want to."

  "Please?"

  I tilted my head up and stared at him, his face blurred through my tears. "Fine. I'm looking."

  "Ryan was influencing me. He wasn't just full-out possessing me. I'm not a dead body he can just possess whenever he wants—"

  “But he did exactly that! Just a few hours ago!” I shot back.

  “Okay, you’re right. He did. But he can only do it in short bursts. And I promise you, that was the only time he did it. Everything before was just influencing me.”

  "Okay. So what does that matter? He was influencing you to trap me in your apartment. Influencing you to... to say certain things, do certain things."

  "No." He took a step closer.

  "I don't understand."

  "The worst he made me do was lure you into my apartment, so that he could try to kill you. And I am so, so sorry for that." His green eyes stared into mine. "But, I didn't even know why I was bringing you to my apartment. It just felt like a whim, out of nowhere. I had no idea, and I promise you... if I'd known I never would have done it. I only wanted to protect you."

  "So, what? You're saying everything else was real, and he had no hand in it at all?"

  "Yes."

  Ding.

  The elevator doors opened.

  "I need to go." I walked down the hallway, pushed the door open. The familiar cloying smell of laundry detergent filled my nose. The machines rumbled and shook. Biting back a sob, I stepped out into the laundromat.

  His warm hand locked with mine—and gently tugged me back.

  "Kira."

  "What?"

  "Everything I did—everything I said—I don't take it back. Not a single word."

  I stepped back into the hallway. The door quietly shut behind me. I stared into his green eyes, my hand locked in his, my heart fluttering in my chest. "Really?"

  "Really."

  The emotion swelled within me. It was real. The tears slipped out of my eyes and rolled down my cheeks—I hastily wiped them away, smiling. He pulled me closer. Closing the gap between us.

  "I'd really like to kiss you right now, if you're willing."

  "I guess."

  He frowned at me. "I guess? Just I guess? Not yes, I'd love to, or—"

  Laughing, I leaned forward and kissed him. His arms wrapped around my waist—my arms reached up to his shoulders—and the world around us seemed to dissolve away. The laundromat, NIMP, Ryan Banks, all of it; it was gone, and we were frozen in our own moment, our own world.

  Ding.

  We pulled away. The elevator doors slid open, revealing Jim and Abby. "Kira! We're waiting for you upstairs! You did such an amazing job and—"

  Jim reached out and pressed a button. The doors started to slide closed.

  "Jim! What are you doing?! They need to come back up with us—"

  "Let them be," he said, smiling knowingly at me.

  Then the doors slid shut, and Gavin and I were alone, again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  The four of us sat in a corner of the atrium, eating chocolate cake.

  One of the NIMP employees, apparently, had the power to summon baked goods from nothing. In my eyes, that made her one of the most powerful people here.

  "That was amazing, Kira," Abby said, through a mouthful of chocolate cake. "You saved the entire world!"

  "Uh, thanks," I said.

  "Now all that's left to do is clean up all the bodies," Jim said, a crease forming between his eyebrows. "I hope they do it fast, or the news is going to be a disaster tomorrow."

  "Oh. I didn't even think about that," I said.

  "And let's not think about that," Gavin said, shooting a look at Jim. "So, Kira. You killed a monster in two weeks. Well... more like one week, actually."

  "Does it really count, if I let the monster out in the first place?"

  "Of course it does," Gavin said.

  Jim and Abby gave us confused looks. Right. They didn't know about Thomas's original ultimatum. If she doesn't bag at least one monster in her first two weeks here, she's out.

  Gavin took my hand. “Do you want to do something tonight to celebrate?"

  "Sleep for about twenty-four hours," I said, poking my fork into my second slice of cake. "Although... it'd be fun to do something totally crazy. Something I've never done before."

  "I have just the thing," Jim said. “We just received these new weapons from Canada. Swords longer than you are tall. It’s hard to learn how to use them, but once you get the hang of it—”

  “Who uses weapons in Canada?!” Abby asked, incredulously. “What, like, give me that maple syrup or I’m going to stab you?”

  Jim gave her a warning stare. “They happen to have some of the best blacksmiths up there.” He turned to me. “Do you want to, or—”

  "Uh, no, thanks. I was thinking something wilder. Like... getting a tattoo." My eyes lit up. "Yeah! That's what I'll do. You can come with me, Jim, and help me choose."

  "Uh, what?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "Obviously, you're quite the expert."

  "The expert... on tattoos?"

  "Yeah! What do you have—like twenty? The wolves, the owl... the moon on your pec...."

  "Kira." The jarring, concerned tone of his voice made me stop dead.

  "What?"

  "I don't have any tattoos."

  I stared at him, eyes narrowed. "What? Here are the wolves, right up your arm—"

  Gavin and Abby were staring at me, now, too. "Kira... what are you talking about?" she asked.

  I slowly ran a finger along his forearm. "Here's a white wolf, and a gray one—"

  Jim gently plucked my hand off. "I don't have tattoos, Kira."

  My heart pounded in my chest. My eyes flicked to the pack of wolves howling up his arm, to the owl's tail poking out through his shirt, to the cluster of stars behind his ear.

  "I don't understand."

  "Kira, are you feeling okay?" Gavin asked, squeezing my arm.

  But Jim turned to him. Shushed him. Then he leaned in towards my face, until his eyes were inches from mine.

  "What are you doing?"

  Suddenly, understanding washed over his features. "A-ha!" he said, breaking into a smile.

  "Jim...?"

  "Come with me."

  I glanced at Gavin and Abby. They shrugged.

  "Uh, okay."

  He stood up and walked me over into the hallway. A large mirror hung from the wall, and I saw various Hunters flitting through the atrium in the reflection.

  "Look at your eyes." Jim stood behind me in the reflection, the top of his head cut off by the mirror's boundary. "What do you see?"

  "Jim, what—"

  "Tell me what you see."

  "Okay. I see... my eyes." Dark brown, nearly black, irises. Eyelashes that stuck straight out and never held a curl. And deep, purple circles underneath, from only sleeping a few hours in the last forty-eight. "What am I supposed to be seeing?"

  "Look harder."

  "What are you, Rafiki? Look haaaaarrrrder."

  "Just trust me."

  "Okay. Can you at least tell me what I'm supposed to be looking for?"

  "L
ook at your left iris."

  I pulled at my lower lid with my finger. A sigh emanated from behind me.

  "What?"

  "That's your right eye."

  "Oh. Whoops."

  I leaned into the mirror, moving my hands to the left. The eye looked as it always did: dark brown iris, slightly bloodshot sclera. I leaned in further, until my face was an inch from the mirror.

  "I don't see anything different."

  An exasperated sigh.

  "Look at the bottom."

  I did.

  I jumped back.

  There, in my iris—almost invisible against the dark brown—was a tiny, black crescent shape.

  "You have a power, after all," Jim said, a small smile forming on his lips. "That's why you could see Ryan Banks, despite his invisibility spell." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "And that's why you can see tattoos I had magically removed seven years ago."

  And the vision of the undead, after fighting the Tentaclon... I stood in front of the mirror, paralyzed.

  Then I began to laugh.

  His brow furrowed. "What? What's so funny?"

  "All this time, that's what I wanted, more than anything. And you know what? Now, I don't even care. Because I took down a necromancer doing what I'm good at. Not what my family is good at. Not what the world thinks I should be good at." I turned away from the mirror. "And I even had a little bit of fun doing it."

  I walked back towards the others, wearing a huge grin.

  Kira’s adventures continue in

  BLACK MARKET MAGIC

  Kira Steele Book 2

  Coming December 12, 2019

  - Preorder on Amazon now! -

  Want more? Get a short story about Kira and Gavin fighting a demon in Way-mart by signing up for my newsletter!

  As an employee of the National Institute for Monster Prevention (NIMP), I see my fair share of monsters. Usually they’re the creepy-crawly kind, though—not the human kind.

  Until now.

  A criminal organization is selling magical artifacts on the black market. Its base of operations? The Underground: an entire magical city beneath our own, accessible only through dumpster portals.

  I hope we find the culprit. But, more than that… I hope we make it out of here alive. Because those portals I talked about?

  They’re only one-way.

  Front cover and content © Midnight Dragon Press

  Fire effect created by Shadow_Walker as part of the “Glow Texture Fractals pack”

  under the Creative Commons license.