by Amelia Shaw
“Ms. Salix, you’re awake.” Said the person poking me in the arm. “Good. Don’t mind me. I was just giving you a steroid cocktail to speed your healing.”
Despite the beating I took, I didn’t feel half bad. “What time is it? How long have I been out?”
An older man with salt and paper hair and a slightly rounded belly, stood beside the bed. His hands were weathered and his suit impeccable. “I’m Dr. Martin, the master’s personal physician. He had me waiting when you both arrived. You’ve been asleep for about two days.”
The ceiling looked familiar. Oh, they’d put me back in the same room at Fin’s mansion that I’d been using before. Strange how things were different: a distinct before and after.
“Am I going to live, doc?”
He helped me sit up and then fussed at my pillows and blankets until they supported me at every angle. “You had a few fractures and a lot of bruising, but you’ll be all right in a couple of weeks. You must continue the steroids until they run out.”
“Thank you,” I said, and meant it. We’d just met, but he had a calming air about him.
He bustled around the room gathering his equipment, then silently slipped out the door. My stomach let out a long gurgle in the empty room.
I took stock of my pain: a dull throb up and down my right side and in both shoulders. The doc hadn’t told me to stay in bed, so I tossed back the covers and slowly twisted to the side of the bed.
Being short, I would have to hop down a foot to reach the floor. I doubted the doc, or my body, would appreciate the jump. My belly rumbled again.
Food.
“Need some help?” a voice said from the doorway.
Fin, looking incredibly hot in a suit, stood in the doorway.
“How are you feeling?” he asked and then entered the room to take the chair beside my bed.
I dragged the sheets down to cover my bare knees. The hospital gown rode high on my thighs, and I didn’t want him looking at my naked knees.
“I feel all right. I’m hungry, though. I was about to get up to get something to eat.”
He hit a few buttons on the phone I hadn’t noticed clutched in his hands. Bruises colored his skin purple and yellow across the ridges of his knuckles.
“Holly is going to send someone up with a tray. Get back under the covers and rest. It’s the only thing you need to focus on right now.”
I snorted but did as he directed. He had enough self-preservation not to comment on it.
“Says the man who doesn’t have to worry about paying bills and working for a living.”
“I pay my bills.”
I pulled the covers up over my breasts and lay back into the fluffy pillow pile with a sigh. “I bet you have someone named Stanley or Andrew who pays your bills.”
His lush lips turned up in a saucy grin.
“Actually, her name is Valerie, but I get your meaning.” He cleared his throat in the universal we-need-to-talk way. “There is something I need to tell you. While I want to bring down the Black Mage for his murder of my people, I have more selfish motivations. Five years ago, my sister disappeared. All the evidence pointed me to the Black Mage and his operation. Since then I’ve made it my mission to find him, but most of all, to find my sister.”
Apparently, we were having a hospital bed moment. Why did people feel the need to share deep, dark secrets when someone was ill? Either way, I needed delicacy here.
I swallowed hard. “You think she’s still alive?”
Not great, but not an outright, she’s probably dead, either.
He fidgeted with the edges of his suit jacket before he answered. “I am pretty sure I would know if my sister died.”
“Why?”
“We are twins. For Fae, twins are rare. Their magic works in sync and they are more powerful together than apart.”
If Fin and his sister generated more power together, maybe the party we attended was a trap to capture Fin so he and his sister could be drained of power together.
Shit.
I scrubbed my hands over my face and shook my head. “If he wanted to capture you so he could use you both, then yes, she’s probably still alive.”
“I fear once I save her, there will be nothing left of her,” Fin whispered.
Damn it, I was angry with him. I should be laying here reviewing the curse-word laden speech I would give him when I walked out on him and our contract. Hearing the tremor in his voice and the longing for his sister matched the exact way I used to speak about my parents and their deaths. It would be easier to walk away if Fin were simply a rich asshole looking for a mouthy distraction. But the more I learned about him, the more I could see the vulnerability behind the mask he showed the world.
Time to change the subject. “So, tell me about Olivia? What turned her into a crazy person?”
Fin drew himself up in the chair, slipping behind his armor again. “To be honest, I have no idea. If I knew she’d be vulnerable to the Black Mage’s seduction I never would have asked her to try. She was my friend and my lover for a time. But her affections were always mercurial, and she gets bored with people quickly.”
“Sounds like the perfect person to send on a long-term undercover mission.”
He sighed. “When I think about it now, I realize she was the wrong choice.”
Did he know I killed her? That she’d killed me too, if only for a few seconds? Now would be a great time to explain to him about my dream, about the Black Mage’s ability to hop into other skins. Fin wouldn’t have left that little nugget out of his initial safety briefing.
To do so required trust. In our relationship so far, I’d always given way more than him in that regard. He’d finally shared with me why he’d gone after the Black Mage, and it was one step in the right direction. It didn’t counter the multiple steps we’d staggered back in that house.
I shifted in the bedding, seeking the comfort I needed to force the truth out. “Fin, I need to...”
Holly bustled into the room, looking like a bright spot of sunshine. She carried a tray of food and placed it gently over my hips. “You’re awake. I’m so happy.”
I nodded my thanks. Her eyes jumped to Fin and then back to me. “Oh, I’m interrupting. I’ll come back to chat later.”
Delicious scents wafted from the tray. I lifted the plate lid to find a buffalo chicken sandwich and waffle fries. My mouth watered, and I shifted forward. Probably not a great idea to eat buffalo sauce over expensive white sheets, but right now I didn’t give a fuck.
Fin laughed at how I popped a fry in my mouth and wiggled in delight. “This is so good.”
“You’ll need to eat more the next few weeks as your body heals your injuries.”
I snorted through my mouthful of food. Once I swallowed, I said, “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
He pounded his hands on the arms of the chair and pushed himself out of it. “I’ll let you eat and rest. We can discuss things more when you’re feeling better.”
I stopped eating, putting the chicken sandwich down with a sad whine. “No, please. I need to get this out so you can think about it.”
“What is it?”
How do you tell a man you killed his ex?
“Did you see me fight with Olivia?”
By fight I meant, had he seen her pummel me with her magic into unconsciousness?
He ducked his chin and a sharp pang of guilt shot through me. Not for killing her, but for hurting him.
“I saw the aftermath,” he said. “You don’t need to explain. I realize it was your life or hers. I don’t blame you for making the choice to save your own. In fact, given her transition, I preferred it.”
“Well, thanks for that. A ringing endorsement.”
I shoved a waffle fry in my mouth to give me a moment to think. To consider how to explain the next part. Fin knew something had awoken in me, but he didn’t know about the Black Mage wearing Olivia like last-season’s skin suit.
“When I passed out in you
r arms... I had a dream. Or not really a dream. I was back in the interrogation room and Olivia was there, except, it wasn’t really her. We thought Esteban was the Black Mage tonight, but in the dream, Esteban was like...” How did I explain this? I forced out a long sigh. “It was like he possessed her. Esteban was in Olivia’s body after the party disappeared. I’m pretty sure of it.”
Fin watched me, his brows drawn tight.
This is the part where he throws me out and tells me never to come back.
But instead, he sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at his hands, his face still painted with confusion.
“You had what we call a sending. It’s a sort of dream but brought on by someone with magical ability to another person with magical ability. It’s not possible unless there is magic in both parties.”
“Okay, so why do you look like I just kicked your puppy in the balls?”
“Sendings are mage magic,” he explained. “Both parties must have mage magic in their veins to give or receive a sending.”
“Fin, you’re the one who gave me the whole ‘we need to figure out your magic’ song and dance. I didn’t ask to come back here. I asked to go home.”
I didn’t want to even think about the face that I had magic. That added far too many questions to my lineage that I couldn’t answer.
With a long sigh, he shifted his knee up to face me on top of the coverlet. “You’re right. I’m sorry. You know why I feel so much anger when it comes to mages. The thought you could be one, well, I couldn’t...”
He met my eyes, pleading for me to understand, and I reached out to him. He scooped my hand in both of his. With his fingers tucked tight around my palm, I drew the first full breath since we started this conversation.
“Is there anything else you need to tell me?” he asked.
I shook my head, grasping at the slips of memory from the fights and the party. “Ex is dead. The Black Mage can wear other people’s bodies. Magic can be transferred to objects. Oh, you have a twin sister and the Black Mage wants to roast you both and steal your magic for himself. Did we cover everything?”
He squeezed my hand. “I think that about does it. Anyone ever tell you that you have a knack for summarizing traumatic experiences?”
I gave him a wink and slipped my hand from his grasp. With the truth out, I could eat and not feel guilty about shoving an entire chicken sandwich in my face.
Before I did though I looked back into Fin’s eyes. “I’m not sure if you want to stay for this. This sandwich and I are about to get Fifty Shades of Gray. Then I’m going to take on the fries and call for seconds.”
He laughed, his face splitting into a gorgeous smile. “Of course, I’ll leave you to your conquests.”
He stood, buttoned his suit jacket, and walked out.
Once I demolished the rest of the food, and the second round Holly brought, I settled back into the pillows. The doc had left some pain meds, and they sang me to sleep accompanied by my full belly.
I closed my eyes and then opened them to find myself back in the Black Mage’s cave type ballroom. The one beneath the ground.
This time though, a woman stood in the middle of the dance floor. She wore a deep purple gown that billowed out in a cloud of tulle.
When I approached, her back was to me, but she turned right before I reached out to touch her shoulder.
When I saw her face, I jerked away. She had the same mesmerizing eyes as Fin, the same soft fall of hair.
Shit. I know who this is.
“Hello Zoey, it’s so nice to finally meet you,” Fin’s sister said. “I’m Sol.”
The End of Part 1.
