Maid of Ice

by Shona Husk

“I’ve never healed anyone but myself, plus when you go back to the doctor it can’t be too well healed. No one likes a miracle.” From the way the smile left his lips and the seriousness of his eyes, it wasn’t something he was going to budge on.

  She curled her lip in disgust and stalked off to the bathroom. She dropped the plug in and turned on the cold tap. When she’d first seen his bathroom, she’d wondered about the large corner bath. In such a small bathroom, why have it? Now it made sense. He actually used it and enjoyed it. She couldn’t remember the last bath she’d taken, but she’d always liked swimming.

  She put her hand near the running water to see if she could feel the magical force tearing away. Was there a slight tug? A friction? Or was she now imagining things? She moved her hand to the rising water in the bath. There was a definite difference between the two.

  She hadn’t turned on the hot tap, and she shouldn’t need to.

  The water in the bath begged to be touched. The molecules bounced around. She could feel them, or at least that was the way she thought of the water. Tiny pieces that moved faster when warm and slower when cold. She knew she could freeze and boil things.

  Warming up the bath should be easy as it was just a little nudge. A few degrees.

  The water started churning as it boiled hard. She yanked her hand back as scalding water splashed her. “Damn it!”

  She became aware she wasn’t alone and turned.

  Finley stood in the doorway. “I think you need to start using a circle. It might help you contain some the energy.”

  Given the way the water was still boiling she didn’t think containing the magic would help. Surely it would just make the problem worse. “Good thing we weren’t sitting in it.”

  Was he having doubts about getting into the bath with her now? What if she’d started boiling them both?

  He left the room again and came back with a canister of black pepper. “So you can see it on the white tiles.” Then he neatly made a circle around them in the bathroom. It was clear he’d done this before.

  “Why do you need a circle?”

  “I used to use it all the time when healing myself. Now I do it all in here.” He touched his head.

  “You use an imaginary circle.” That would be one more thing to worry about.

  “It’s not imaginary. This is just pepper, from the supermarket. Nothing special. You can use whatever takes your fancy. My stepmum used cinnamon. She liked the smell. She said that even when she made the circle in her mind she could smell it.”

  Alina liked that idea. His stepmom sounded lovely. “Why did you pick pepper?”

  He shrugged. “I wanted to be able to see it and I liked that it made people sneeze. I was a teenager.”

  “You could’ve changed.”

  “Yeah, but I know what the pepper looks like, I know what it smells like and I can feel it on the back of my throat. It’s all there when I imagine a circle. It helped it become real when I made the step from physical circle to mental.”

  “I’m going to have to raid your spice rack.”

  He grinned. “It doesn’t have to be a spice. Saba uses salt. Julian draws in chalk.”

  “And your other brother?”

  “Kirin?” he paused. “I don’t know. He was too young to have magic when I left home.”

  “Oh.” She felt bad for asking. Sometimes he seemed close to his family and happy to share then she’d ask something that would reveal the distance. “I guess since there are no rules I’ll have to find something that works for me.”

  “That’s how it works.” He frowned for a couple of seconds. “Actually I think Saba uses a circle whenever she does readings.”

  Alina tossed the washcloth at him. “You tell me this now? Why don’t I just talk to her?” The cloth floated through the air like a leaf on the breeze before settling in his hand. “Show-off.”

  “I’ll throw it back and you can snap freeze it.”

  “No.” She held up her hands in case he threw it anyway. Too much could go wrong with that. She checked the temperature of the bath. It was hot but no longer boiling. However, she was scared to get in.

  “Let’s bag up your arm.”

  She held it out while he taped a bag over the cast to keep it dry. “This is getting old.” And she still had weeks before she could get it off.

  “It’s fine. I don’t mind. And it is only temporary.”

  It just felt like she was going to be stuck with it forever. “Have you ever broken anything?”

  He laughed. “Three ribs, both legs. Two fingers and a couple of bones in my hand.”

  That was quite a list. “Have you ever worn a cast?”

  “No. My father healed the break or I did when I got older. Most of those happened when I was a kid. The hand was during a fight scene. I shook it off as a sprain. Even though the bones heal within hours they’re still tender and new for a few days. Not only that but healing a break in such a short space of time sucks down energy, both magical and physical.”

  “And your back?”

  “Wasn’t broken. I don’t think even an Albah could heal a severed spinal cord. We aren’t hiding a cure for cancer or anything like that. All we can do is speed up what the body is already doing.” He turned on the hot water tap in the sink and ran the washcloth under it. “I do a pre-bath wash. But if I’m really grubby I just shower. I haven’t been using magic much, so I was feeling the effects less. I should’ve known that wasn’t a good sign. I should’ve put in the effort and time to practice. If I had I might’ve been able to stop the crash.” He wiped his face and then down his arms. “Second drawer.”

  She opened the drawer. Neatly folded flannel squares lay perfect and flat. She’d hadn’t pegged him as the kind of guy who ironed everything. Was he hiding his inner neat freak around her? “Did you iron them?”

  “I can fold laundry while watching TV.” The washcloths leaped out of the drawer before she could catch them. They danced over her in an arc before folding themselves and filing back into the drawer like a well-trained army. “Air is more powerful than many people realize.”

  She was just beginning to see that. She shut her mouth and tried to look less stunned. “Do you ever feel guilty for being frivolous with it?”

  “No. The energy comes from me. I’m just manipulating the element I have affinity with.”

  “So if I have affinity with water, why is having a shower a problem?” She grabbed a washcloth and started giving herself a wipe down. This was ridiculous. It was so much quicker to jump in the shower. But this is what he did, and she’d wanted to know how he avoided disrupting the magical field around him. Was that first tingle of attraction in the hospital their magic connecting?

  “I don’t know. Water isn’t my thing. There are no teachers anymore. When we stopped making Albanex a couple of hundred years ago, we lost knowledge. Now we muddle through.” He tugged her closer with the T-shirt and then pulled it over her head. He took the cloth from her and wiped along her collarbone. “I’ve never done this with someone else.”

  She could never quite tell if he was being serious of telling the truth. “Did no one ever know what you could do?”

  “You’re my first Albah girlfriend.”

  “Girlfriend? That sounds a little serious.”

  His eyes widened for a heartbeat.

  “I like it.” She leaned in and kissed him.

  She didn’t need to look at the bath to know it was getting full. Flooding his house after trying to kill him with exploding glass was not what she wanted to do. She was making an impression for all the wrong reasons but he didn’t seem to care. “I need to turn off the tap, unless you can do that, Mr. Air?”

  “You can turn it off.”

  She turned and he snagged the back of her panties and drew them down. The washcloth ran up the inside of her thigh and his lips pressed ag
ainst her spine.

  “How’s the temperature?”

  Hot. Very, very hot. “Um…fine I think.” She didn’t want to be magically adjusting it while he was doing things to her.

  He reached around her and dipped his hand into the bath. “It’s a little cool.”

  “I might explode your bath.” That would be it. If she did that she’d walk out and never come back.

  His hands were on her, his lips were on her skin and he was being very distracting. She blew out a breath. Just make the water a little warmer. Easy. But his fingers were making her hotter. The washcloth had been forgotten.

  She put her hand in the bath to get a better feel for the water.

  “Think about the circle.”

  Right the circle. His fingers dipped into her. She was wet, who cared about the bath. He could drop his pants here and now. If her other hand hadn’t been wrapped in a plastic bag, she’d have reached around and yanked his track pants down.

  Instead she gave the water molecules a nudge, let them dance a little faster instead of drifting around. She didn’t get them to have a rave. That’s how boiling felt, an out-of-control dance party where she was the DJ.

  She closed her eyes and rocked her hips.

  A drawer opened, but both his hands were on her. She opened her eyes to see a condom whisk through the air before he caught it. In seconds, he was pressing against her. She gripped the edge of the bath, pushing back, meeting each thrust. He gripped her hips tighter.

  She needed… She grabbed his hand, not caring about the plastic wrapped around her hand and that she looked ridiculous. He knew. His fingers found her clit.

  She shuddered, coming hard. He gave a few more thrusts before joining her in bliss.

  Hopefully the water wasn’t too cold as all she wanted to do was slide in and lie in his arms for a few blissful minutes.

  Hopefully without boiling or freezing them both. Having a boyfriend had never been this dangerous. But then no boyfriend had ever been like Finley.

  Chapter 14

  Finley sat in the waiting room of Dr. Silverman’s clinic. His father had been less than impressed that Finley was even going. No one knew anything about the Silverman family. Whoever they were they had broken away and vanished generations ago. Most Albah wouldn’t take such an obvious name. It was almost as though Walter wanted people to know what he was.

  Finley’s father was getting someone to trace Walter’s family tree. There would be human records, births and deaths, and if they traced back, they might be able to work out which branch he’d split from.

  They might even learn why. Albah had dropped away for various reasons over the centuries. For some it was the distance, or the belief that they were better off not being part of the group. Some just lost contact. Kids were orphaned and they never reconnected. Finley shivered and tried not to think about going through life feeling weird and doing strange things but not having anyone there to say that it was okay, and there was a reason these things were happening.

  Alina must have felt so alone.

  While she’d given him the full story, Finley still blamed her mother. She should’ve taught her daughter about magic instead of letting her wander alone and in the dark.

  “Finley Ryder,” the nurse said. She smiled at him. One of those I-know-who-you-are smiles that included the lowering of lashes.

  He had no choice but to smile back and be gracious. If she said nothing, he wasn’t going to say anything. He walked by her, and her eyes never left him. He could feel them boring into his back as he went into the nice office.

  The doctor stood and shook his hand, firmly and briefly. “Walter Silverman.”

  “Finley Ryder.”

  They both sat. The doctor flicked through the notes and nodded before looking at him. “You have a fairly rare but easily fixed ear deformity.”

  “I know. My agent has been on me for a while to do something about it.” He had to play this like he didn’t know what the doctor was. And the doctor, if he was trying not to be Albah when he was despite his humanized ears, would have to act like Finley was human too.

  He might be an actor, but he didn’t know if he was good enough to go through this whole charade and pull it off. His father wanted a call as soon as he was done with the appointment. No doubt he was awake and pacing even though it was nighttime in Australia. His father had wanted him to hunt down the vampire, well, here Finley was with the doctor doing just that.

  Walter got up and walked around the desk. He picked up one of those ear torch things that doctors always had and set about examining in Finley’s ears. Until then he’d never realized how much he didn’t like people touching his ears. He wanted to bat Walter’s hands away. They were cold and there was something about him that Finley didn’t like.

  This was Alina’s grandfather. He’d known her as a child. And he was a doctor. Finley forced himself to be calm.

  “Can you fix them?” He almost choked on the word fix. The curl to his ears didn’t need fixing. He wasn’t human and had never tried that hard to be one.

  “Yes. Very easy procedure. Usually I do it on children not adults. Do you have a break in filming coming up?”

  Finley nodded. “In about two months.” They got an eight-week break before jumping back in. Over that time, he had a few minor movie roles. His agent was actively pushing him to expand, but he didn’t want to lose the job he had. Movies might pay well but they didn’t last, and they only paid well for the leads. That wasn’t him and he wasn’t vain enough to think it could be. He wasn’t that good, but he’d happily do the small parts.

  Walter checked his calendar. “That shouldn’t be a problem. You have insurance? Does it cover plastic surgery?”

  “Yes, it does.” Not that he’d ever used it before.

  “Were you thinking about getting some other work done while you were here? No one needs to be reminded of the ticking clock when they are in front of the camera every day.” He smiled, but Finley saw through the veiled insinuation that he was aging and needed to fix that too.

  “I hadn’t really thought about it.” Or cared. “What would you recommend?” Could you make me into a vampire? Do you know any Albah doctors who can? They were the questions that he wanted to be able to ask. He kept his mouth closed.

  “There are all kinds of procedures. Nothing dramatic. You’re too young for that. A little filler around the eyes, smooth out those frown lines.”

  “I would like to stay the hot leading man for a few more years.” He laughed. He wanted a mirror to check out his forehead and eyes. Did he really have wrinkles that needed filling?

  Walter joined in the fake laughter. “Start early and keep it subtle. I am over seventy, don’t look a day over fifty though.”

  A very well-kept fifty. Was Walter Albah or Albanex? His heart gave a kick as adrenaline coursed through him. He kept his face bland. “A doctor who uses what he recommends, that’s reassuring.”

  “Of course. There are all kinds of ways to stop the clock. We can discuss them further at your next appointment if you’d like.”

  “Another appointment?” He wasn’t sure he wanted to come back, but if Walter meant become vampire by stopping the clock he needed to come back.

  “The nurse will take some pictures and measurements and I’ll be able to show you what your ears will look like when they are nice and straight.”

  Nice and straight.

  He forced himself to smile at the thought of mutilating his body. He couldn’t do it even if it meant catching the vampire.

  “Thank you for your time.” Finley put out his hand, his other hand. The one with the silver ring.

  “Not a problem.” Walter gripped it, pain flickered across his features, and then he released Finley. “Have a good day.”

  Finley kept his smile in place as he walked out. He sat for the nurse to take photos. Walter
’s hand had been cold and he’d flinched at the contact with the silver. Had it burned him? He hadn’t gotten the chance to check.

  He was almost sure he’d been in a room with a vampire.

  * * * *

  Given the only time Alina had experienced a vision was at the ice rink, that was where she went. Now that she hadn’t been showering, only bathing, she was hoping her magic was stronger. Her skin still tingled occasionally, but now she welcomed it as it was her body making more magic or something. There didn’t seem to be any science behind it.

  A secret society should have secret labs and secret scientists.

  As before the ice was a companion. She knew the way it moved beneath her blades. Today she was careful to be ordinary so no one watched her. But she wasn’t here to train or even skate, she was here to see. And if she had to be on the ice to make that happen then so be it.

  The endless looping circles were dull and she could do them in her sleep, but that was exactly the effect she was going for. Finley had told her not to concentrate so hard that she cracked the bowl. She had, of course, promptly shattered the bowl.

  She would never forget the shards of glass slicing through the air. Time really did slow down in a disaster. She pushed away that horror, and the way she’d melted the ice last time she’d been here.

  Today was easy. Just glide, enjoy the working of her legs and feeling of movement. She breathed in the cold air, held it for a moment and then let it go. The rink wasn’t a circle but she figured it was near enough, so she built it up in her mind, trying to make it real the way Finley had. A small class of skaters was on one side of the rink and a couple of people were casually skating, doing laps the same as she was. If one of them crossed the circle, she hoped nothing bad would happen. All she was doing was concentrating her magic in an area which was supposed to make it easier to control.

  She wasn’t actually trying to do anything with that magic except see what was going to happen. She kept her gaze on the ice, something she wouldn’t usually do, and watched the play of light over the surface. The shifting patterns depending on if the ice was smooth or cut up.