Heart of the Thief

by Katerina Martinez

  “Maybe not, but he’s also not his father.”

  “Oh, come on… don’t tell me you’ve gone all soft on him?”

  “I haven’t gone soft on anyone.”

  “Maybe you think that, but the evidence is pretty damning.”

  I scowled at her. “Evidence? What evidence?”

  “I’m sorry,” Karim leaned forward, “But did you forget your mics were turned on the entire time? It was like listening to a pair of horny teenagers. I’m surprised you didn’t start doing the underpants Foxtrot right in the back of that van.”

  “Fox…” I said to him, confused, “What are you even talking about? And why am I on trial, here? You’re the one who decided to steal an urn from the Magister’s place. He’s going to notice that thing’s gone, you know. He’s paranoid, remember?”

  “I had to do something about it. I couldn’t just leave it sitting there. Just as soon as I know what the spirit inside wants me to do with it, I’ll do it.”

  “And, what, are you gonna carry it around until then?”

  Karim pulled the urn close to his chest and cradled it. “Maybe.”

  “Seriously, that’s enough,” RJ said, slamming his hands against the table. “Who gives a fuck about any of that? We’ve got more serious problems to think about.”

  “What’s more serious than exploding traffic lights and a stolen urn?” Danvers asked.

  RJ looked over at me. “I was gonna wait until Axel got back to tell you…”

  I frowned at him. “Tell me what?”

  “Reason why I took my earpiece out. One of my contacts came down to talk to me by the Atlantis, told me he thinks someone else is moving in on the vault.”

  I shook my head. “Wait, what?”

  “Look, I don’t know any more than he knew, and he didn’t know much. But someone else is planning on hitting that vault the same night we are.”

  “At the party…”

  “That’s right. I don’t know how they’re gonna hit it, I don’t even know if they know we’re involved. But if that place is even half as protected as you’ve said, then they’ve gotta have a tight plan, or a pair of big balls.”

  “How accurate is this intelligence?” Karim asked.

  “Accurate.” RJ looked at me. “I’m telling you, there’s someone else about to hit this place.”

  Dammit.

  The conference room opened, and Axel stepped inside, shutting the door behind him once he was through. He looked a little worked up, his cheeks were flushed red. I got the impression he’d been having an intense conversation with someone, or maybe handling a whole bunch of things at the same time.

  “Everything okay?” I asked, trying to encapsulate everything in that little question. The Magister, the penthouse, Asmodius, the heist.

  Axel ran his hand across his face, then nodded. “Everything’s under control,” he said.

  “So, we’re still on?”

  “The Magister hasn’t cancelled his event, which means he didn’t catch the magic at work on the street, and he didn’t notice the urn was missing.”

  “Or, he noticed and he’s laying a trap,” Karim put in.

  “It’s possible, but the crows have been monitoring him and his apartment, and they haven’t sensed any hesitation on his part. As far as I know, we’re on.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. If the Magister hadn’t noticed my blatant use of magic, then it was possible the people on the street hadn’t, either. That meant my violation of the Magus Codice had slipped under the radar.

  They say rules are meant to be broken—I would argue that they’re meant to be tested, and then changed if they don’t work. The Magus Codice is the only exception to that rule. These rules have already gone through thousands of years’ worth of testing, and if one of them says don’t do magic in front of humans, you follow that rule.

  Of course, the fact that sometimes mages played a little fast and loose with the law—myself included—was a matter of taste.

  “Okay,” I said, breathing a lot easier now than I had been a minute ago. “So, we’re on, our cameras are in place, Cassidy’s left a clutch bag with the stuff we’ll need under the bar, and we know who is going to be working tomorrow night. One of them is gonna get enchanted to respond to a trigger phrase; he’ll be the one to give me the bag.”

  “We also know my stuff works,” Cassidy said. “If those wards had gone off, we’d have known.”

  I nodded. “The only downside to that is we’ll only have a handful of spells to use. Besides that, we’re done. Tomorrow night we’re gonna be pulling off the biggest heist in recent memory. If we get caught, we die. We’ll be remembered, but we’ll also be dead. But if we succeed?”

  “Then the boss gets paid,” RJ said, “And we all get to go home, back to our lives.”

  “Yeah, but we get to go home rich.”

  “Do you really think that’s gonna be it?” Danvers asked. “Men like Asmodius don’t work like that. We’re not getting out of this as easy as that.”

  A pang of guilt stabbed me in the stomach. They didn’t know what I knew, what Asmodius had told me; the threat he’d issued. Only Axel knew. I wanted to tell them. I wanted to lay it all out on the table and let them decide whether they wanted to do this, or whether they wanted to take Asmodius down right now.

  After what I’d seen, I had a strong suspicion this group more than anyone else, could accomplish that goal. Not even the crows would be able to stop them from getting to their target and taking him down.

  But maybe it was, ironically, less of a risk to just succeed in our mission? It was a weird way of looking at the situation, but all the pieces were in place, the groundwork had been done. All we needed to do was take this game home and come back with a win.

  I also would’ve been lying if, after what felt like an eternity talking about it, I wasn’t even a little curious to know Eliphas was hiding. I mean, who wouldn’t want to know what the most powerful mage in the city kept in his vault?

  “We’re gonna do this,” I said, “And when it’s done, we’re going back to our lives.”

  “You sure about that?” RJ asked, “Or about any of this? I feel like I know you well enough to know you don’t call yourself no thief, but you planned this thing pretty good. Think you’ll be able to get past the pull? Justifying crime gets easier the more you do it.”

  I shook my head. “I’m in this mess because I decided to take a job that landed me here. That job was an honorable one.”

  “How do you know that?” Axel asked, finally speaking.

  “Because I know. Your father had stolen something from my employer, and I broke into this mansion to retrieve it. It’s not theft.”

  “Maybe not technically, but you did steal. And you have stolen before. Then there’s this heist, which is theft even if the Magister is a bit of a crook himself, as you put it.”

  “You’re in this too, you know.”

  He shrugged. “I’m just the overseer, making sure my father’s job goes as he wants it to go.”

  I shook my head. “Oh, man… there’s a lot of bullshit in what you just said, but I’m not taking the bait; I’m not getting into it.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want to.”

  “All I’m saying is, you should embrace who you are on the inside.”

  I jabbed a finger at him. “That’s pretty rich coming from you.”

  “I don’t understand why.”

  “You’re the son of a mob boss. You’re literally the prince of this entire empire. But you’re making it sound like you’re above all of this, like you’re better than us mere criminals.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t have to,” I snarled, “You might live in a huge mansion, you might wear four figure suits, that might make you think you’re better than the people you surround yourself with. But if I’m a criminal, then so are you. Get used to it.”

  I turned on my heel and stormed out of the room before a
nyone else could say another word. Petty, maybe, but it was that, or explode a little… and probably on the wrong person. I didn’t want things to escalate the night before a job. Everyone needed to be on their toes, at their best, including me.

  I decided I was going to have something to eat and turn in early. Tomorrow, it was judgment day.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Nothing about tomorrow was going to be easy, but as I sat in my bed navigating the rocky landscape of my thoughts, the idea of killing Asmodius started to make a little more sense. I could do it, too. If anyone could, it was me.

  I knew where he would be sleeping, after all.

  Maybe it meant he trusted me more, but that wasn’t likely. Asmodius didn’t trust anyone; that was the key to his success. Don’t trust anyone, don’t care about anyone. The worst part about it was, I saw myself in him.

  Who did I really have in my life that I could say I cared about? Cassidy was a… work friend. That in itself implied a certain bond neither of us would ever break, I knew she’d never sell me out. But did we ask about each other’s lives? Not really. I didn’t know if she was dating, who her friends were, where her family was.

  Karim, well, we were less than work friends. More like work enemies. He’s the guy that finishes the last coffee capsule and doesn’t replace them. The guy who’s always moving in on your clients. The guy who’s always got something shitty to say about the way you handle your own business. Did I know much about him besides what he did, how good he was, and where he was from? No. I’d never asked.

  RJ, maybe, was the one I knew the most, and there was good reason for that. He used to work at the club I used to dance in—the Glittered Goddess. He was a bouncer. The boss liked hiring mages to his staff, made him feel more important to have mages on his payroll. I’d had to thank RJ more than once for roughing some guy up for me, even if I hadn’t asked him to do it.

  A knock on the door shook me out of my thoughts. It was a good thing, too, because they were about to take another turn for the murderous… just as soon as I’d cleared up whatever crisis I was having.

  I stood up and walked over to the door, opening it but only after a second of hesitation. Axel stood on the other side, his shirt unbuttoned at the collar, his sleeves rolled up, his suspenders hanging by the sides of his pants. He’d clearly clocked out, so why was he here?

  “Yes?” I asked, arching my eyebrows at him.

  “Can we talk?” he asked.

  I scowled. “It’s late, Axel, and we have a job to do tomorrow.”

  “I know we do. I just… I came to apologize.”

  Record scratch. “I’m sorry, could you say that again?”

  Axel frowned. “Don’t push it.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who came here to apologize. If you want me to accept it, you’re gonna have to try a lot harder than that.”

  “Alright… I came to apologize about earlier. I’d also like to come inside and talk.”

  I thought about saying no. I had good reason to. But part of me was pretty surprised to have heard Axel apologize like that, so I moved aside and let him through. I sat down at the foot of the bed; he grabbed a chair from the corner of the room and brought it over, then set it down in front of me.

  “Oh, so this is gonna be, like, a whole thing,” I said, nodding, “Okay.”

  Axel took a breath, sitting down. “Things got a little heated earlier. I didn’t mean for them to get that way.”

  I shook my head. “Me either… I guess you hit a nerve.”

  “I’m gonna make a mental note to make sure I don’t do that again. But could I just ask… why that happened?”

  “Why what happened?”

  He didn’t have any trouble meeting my eyes and keeping my gaze. That was one of the things about him I liked. Many guys I’d come across in my life couldn’t hold my eyes, as if staring into them burned somehow. Not Axel.

  “You don’t like thinking of yourself as a criminal,” he said.

  “Because I’m not.”

  “Look, trust me, I get the distinction. You’re like Robin Hood. You steal, but you do it for the right reasons—you’re looking out for the little guy.”

  “They’re not always little. Sometimes they just attract the attention of much bigger guys.”

  “It’s noble that you have strong morals to hold onto.”

  “Don’t you? I mean, you know who your father is. You know what your family does. Are you like your father, or not?”

  “That’s a bit of a loaded question. My father is a powerful man who has done some bad things in his life, but he does it to protect his family.”

  “His family or his legacy?”

  “There’s a difference?”

  I scoffed. “Yeah, there is. One is selfish, the other isn’t.”

  “Do you have a family?”

  I shook my head. “Not for a while. My mother died when I was young, my father… he’s not been around for over a decade.”

  “I’m sorry…”

  “Don’t be. He was a piece of shit who put himself and his needs above mine. I’m glad he’s gone.”

  All those familiar, unwanted feelings about my father started bubbling to the surface. I didn’t often think about him—okay, that wasn’t true. I thought about him a lot, but not directly. It was more like, I thought about him whenever I saw or heard of a deadbeat dad who couldn’t care less about his own daughter, his only daughter.

  “I feel like I’ve overstepped,” Axel said.

  “Whatever. I guess I don’t really care if you know. It’s not like you’re gonna judge.”

  “Judge what? You or your father?”

  “Either of us. He was a criminal. Like, a real criminal. His trade was… let’s call him magic narcotics. He was the king in our neighborhood. Every single night there’d be guys coming in and out of the house, money, magic, and drugs swapping hands, stolen artifacts being dumped off to be bought and sold. The apartment was always filled with the smell of smoke and beer, which is probably why I don’t smoke and can’t stand beer. He’d lock me in my bedroom at night to keep me away from it all. I couldn’t tell you how badly I wanted to jump out of the fire escape and just leave, but he’d barred the window after the first time I’d tried it.”

  “You tried to run away once?”

  “A few months after my mom died. Without her, I just couldn’t… I know he was trying to look after me in his own way, but his business was always more important than I was, and I was lonely. At least when my mother was alive, we would both be locked away in that bedroom together, waiting for my father to finish dealing with all of his… clients.”

  “How old were you?”

  “Twelve… it went on for years. As soon as I turned eighteen, I left. I rented the shittiest place I could find, took whatever shitty jobs I could find. It was around that time I figured out I could do magic, but I didn’t know what it was at first. I was scared of it. I tried to bury it, to never open the door to the Tempest.”

  Axel took a deep breath, as if preparing himself for the question he was about to ask. “Is that why you don’t have a Guardian?”

  I turned my eyes away from his and brushed my hair behind my ears. “I dreamt about it,” I said, “I could hear it calling to me, mostly at night. I know it wanted me to go and find it, but I just couldn’t do it.”

  “Couldn’t?”

  I stared at him again. “I don’t expect you to understand what it’s like to feel worthless.

  Axel paused, his jaw clenching. “You’d be surprised.”

  “Would I?”

  “We do have a lot more in common than what either of us think. I also lost my mother when I was young. I was also raised by a father who prized his business over his first-born son. His only son. I suppose the only real difference between us are the nuances.”

  “Right, I lived in squalor, you lived in privilege.”

  “I wouldn’t call it privilege to be the son of the most notorious man in New York. We may bo
th know what it’s like to live in the shadow of a criminal, but I know what it’s like to live with a target on my back. Rival families, the magistrate, rouge hitmen out to make a dollar—I’ve had to live with eyes in the back of my head for longer than has been reasonable. I’m not saying this to incite competition, I just thought you’d like to know.”

  I nodded. “I would… I know literally nothing about you. I thought this job was gonna be over, and we’d part ways with me still not knowing who you really are.”

  “I do what I can to keep people out because… I don’t want this. Exposure. Over the years I’ve learned to keep a straight face, to bury the things that hurt me… like the loss of my mother.” He looked at his feet. “She was my light. She taught me magic, she encouraged me to find my Guardian because she knew I would need it… when she was gone.”

  “She knew she was going to die?”

  He settled back into his chair and looked at me, then nodded. “I don’t know how, maybe through magic, but she knew one day I’d be alone. I didn’t have any siblings, and any extended family we had were… not options for me. The burden fell on my father to raise me.” He shrugged. “He did the best he could, but that meant he raised me like I was an employee instead of a son. Strict discipline, reprimands if I fell out of line, and more responsibilities than I could handle. I guess it shaped me into what I’ve become.”

  I swallowed hard, daring a question I don’t think anyone had ever asked him before. “And what’s that?” I asked.

  Axel paused, staring at me. A soft smile curled along his lips. “You know… I don’t know how to answer that.”

  “Welcome to the club.” I scanned the room. “I kind of feel like we should be drinking right now, how about you?”

  Axel shut his eyes, took a deep breath, then exhaled. A trickle of magic pulsed from him and vibrated against my chest as it moved through the room. A few seconds later, someone was at the door with a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. Axel filled them both on my dresser, then handed one over. We clinked, and drank. The alcohol burned my throat, but it took all the edge out of the conversation.