Real Magic

by Lissa Michaels

  “I know.” He looked down his narrow, pointed nose at her, and she wanted to blast that pitying look from his face. “You should have listened to me and stayed away from him. I told you he was no good. But, it’s over now. You can forget all about him.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “He rejected your offer and he doesn’t need your protection. You’re free of him. Nothing stands between us now.” His gaze dropped to where Drake’s pendant lay warm between her breasts and his mouth tightened. “I’ll get you another pendant. We’ll have the feast right away. Everyone will quickly forget the way you embarrassed yourself with that—”

  “I did not embarrass myself.”

  “Jelena, he’s a half-breed.”

  “If you were half the man he is, I’d like you a lot better.”

  Cordan cheeks sucked in, his face flushing. “I am trying very hard to be patient with you.”

  “So am I.”

  “When we’re married—”

  Jelena threw up her hands and glanced heavenward. Gods give her patience, because she was going to strangle him. “You refuse to understand, don’t you? We have no future together.”

  He flinched, but didn’t give up. “We are fated to be together.” His tone held a touch of hurt, but she saw he didn’t believe her. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make you mine.”

  “When you received your vision future, what did you see?”

  “That I would become a Guardian.” His chest puffed out with pride. Guardian’s were very high on the mountain, and his place there meant everything to him. It always had.

  “I saw Drake.” She pointed toward the temple.

  He jerked back. “No, you’re wrong.”

  “I’m not. I didn’t want to tell you this way, but you’re not giving me much choice. I will not wed you, Cordan.”

  Cordan stared at her, clenching and unclenching his fists. “I guess you’re not going to wed anyone. Your precious assassin destroyed the cuff.” He turned abruptly and strode away.

  No. He wouldn’t have destroyed it because she’d refused to take it back.

  She hadn’t just refused to take it; she’d thrown it at him. Would that make him angry enough?

  She shook her head. Cordan was mistaken. Drake still had it, and somehow she’d get him back.

  But he was so stubborn!

  She didn’t know which way to turn, what she could do that wouldn’t push Drake farther away. She needed to talk to someone who knew him better than she did, someone who might be able to help her talk some sense into him. She needed to talk to Morgan.

  Ali’ra, please let him agree.

  Jelena ported to the balcony where she’d found him the first time. Dawn was only just beginning to lighten the horizon, and very few lights burned in the sprawling city below her. “Oh, no.”

  A light turned on above her then the door behind her creaked quietly. “Who’s there?”

  She turned toward the wary feminine voice. She must have awoken Morgan’s wife. “Jelena.”

  The door opened and Ariana walked through the doorway. Her dark hair draped over her shoulders and cascaded down her back in curls. A luminous white gown draped softly over her round abdomen. Even this late in her pregnancy, she looked beautiful but tired. The poor woman needed rest, not visitors.

  “Morgan told me about you.” Her hand supported her abdomen as she assessed Jelena, her expression wary.

  “I didn’t realize it would be so early. I’m sorry I woke you.”

  “You didn’t. I don’t sleep much these days.”

  “I’m sure you’ll be relieved when your daughter finally arrives.”

  “Daughter?”

  “Drake said you were having a girl this time.”

  “Did he?” A soft smile graced her lips as she eased herself into a padded chair. “And how does he know that? Did Nikita tell him?”

  “Nikita?”

  “She’s a mutual friend and my doctor.”

  Jelena shook her head. “He didn’t mention a physician but his grandmother has the sight. Maybe he inherited a touch of it.”

  Ariana’s smile faded. “How is he?”

  “That’s why I came. I need to speak with Morgan.”

  “He isn’t here.”

  Jelena sank in the chair across from Ariana and swallowed past the tightness squeezing her throat. Now what? She almost felt him drawing farther away, out of her reach. Stubborn man!

  “What did he do?”

  She jerked her tear-filled eyes to Ariana’s and saw the empathy there. “How did you know?”

  “Only a Fontinara man can cause that much anger and frustration.” She smiled. “Tell me what happened.”

  “I’m sure Morgan told you we got off to a rocky start.”

  She nodded.

  “I wasn’t thrilled about being assigned to him, and he didn’t want me around, but we finally moved past all that and things were going so well. We were to wed.”

  That seemed to surprise her. “What changed?”

  “My brother accused him of killing his avari, his intended. I only believed it for a few moments, but it was enough for Drake to give up on us.”

  Ariana groaned.

  “I didn’t want to, but he purposely made it sound like he had. Like the others, I believed him until I realized that there was something he wasn’t saying.”

  “What if he had done it?”

  “He’d never kill someone unless there was no other way.”

  “So it wouldn’t bother you?”

  “Of course it would. He knows those deaths bother me.”

  “Even though he had no choice?”

  “I can’t help how I feel.”

  “Nor can he. Maybe you should leave him alone. He feels enough guilt.” Ariana ignored Jelena’s indignant gasp. “He’s done so many things he’s sorry for, things he wishes he could change. Maybe the thought of living with your condemnation is too much for him.”

  She didn’t condemn him, but even if she did, that had to be better than life alone. Their bond put limitations on him, severe ones. “Then why would he bond with me?”

  “We talked about the bonding urge once, about how men feel the need to find the other half of their souls. I asked him if he still searched for his. Do you know what he said to me?”

  Jelena shook her head.

  “He told me he had none. He honestly believed that the things he’d done had cost him his soul. He probably still does.” Ariana reached across the table and gripped Jelena’s hand. “Don’t you see? He needs redemption. He’s already condemned himself to hell.”

  Tears filled her eyes. The pain she must have caused him. Ali’ra preserve, she didn’t deserve him. “I love him.”

  “Show him, Jelena. Prove to him that nothing in this universe matters more to you than he does.”

  “I will.” She had to. The thought of life without him was too hard to bear. She put her doubts to rest once and for all. Drake was a good man, deep in his heart where it mattered most, and that’s all she needed. Their bond had to mean something to him. Knowing what it could do to him, he couldn’t have taken it lightly. Surely he’d be willing to try. But right now, his pain was still too fresh.

  She’d give him the night to himself. In the morning she’d ask him to give them another chance. She’d prove to him that her love came without reservation.

  DRAKE LEANED back in Kedar’s chair and called his flipping coin into his hand. It was an ancient gold Bellarissian duccit, over four-hundred years old. He had a newer one, one Morgan had given him shortly after they’d made their blood-brother pact.

  Before Morgan’s capture, he’d never gone anywhere without it. But when he’d left Morgan behind in the Jotnar slave camp, he’d left the coin behind as well. Morgan had tried to give it back after he’d been freed, but Drake had refused to take it.

  The horrors Morgan had suffered still haunted him. Until the source of each and every one of them was brought to justice, Drake didn’t deserve
that coin. He’d failed Morgan as a friend, a brother. He’d make it right if it was the last thing he did.

  So why was he sitting on his ass wondering if Jelena was still crying? More than likely, she was thanking the gods that he’d broken it off before she made the biggest mistake of her life.

  He clenched his fist tight around the coin then shoved it in his pocket. Stupid bastard, get your priorities straight. If it weren’t for Morgan, you never would have made it to adulthood. Take care of what you owe him. Take care of what you owe the woman who died for you! Take care of Threaden.

  Drake felt the tingle of magic a moment before Kedar appeared on the other side of the desk. The man raised his eyebrow. Instead of removing himself from Kedar’s seat, Drake slouched in the chair and propped his boots on the desk. A pillow appeared under his feet.

  “Comfortable?”

  “Very.” The man obviously intended to humor him. Drake was tempted to see how far he could push him. “You tricked me. Why?”

  “It was necessary to obtain your promise.”

  Drake shoved the chair back and dropped his feet to the floor. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”

  “You would have refused.”

  Kedar was right; he would have refused. Drake stood and moved to the window overlooking the training ground. Rainor and his pack were huddled together down there howling over gods knew what.

  Rainor looked up and saw him, and his body went rigid.

  They were howling about him. The hair on Drake’s body rose as one by one they disappeared from the training ground and appeared behind him. Not just Rainor’s quartet. All of them. In a few minutes, the room was full.

  “Is it true?” Rainor demanded.

  Drake waited to hear what Kedar would tell them.

  “Well, is it?”

  Why wasn’t he saying anything? Drake turned and saw Kedar leaning back in his chair with his feet propped on that blasted pillow, his body suffused with a shimmering white glow. Drek! They didn’t know he was even in the room. On my own for this one, huh?

  Kedar nodded, his eyes laughing.

  Sighing, Drake faced them. “Is what true?”

  “You’re the next Master?”

  “Maybe.” He hadn’t had time to think about it.

  The men grumbled. Rainor hushed them and turned back to him. “What do you mean maybe? Either you are or you aren’t.”

  Drake shook his head. “I gave Kedar my word that I’d complete the full training course, and I will. Beyond that, I don’t know. I guess that depends on you.”

  “Why us?”

  “You know who I am, what I was. It took me a lot of years to develop a system I can live with. I swear by it and I expect everyone who works for me to swear buy it.”

  “You’d expect us to follow your Guild code?”

  “No, I’d expect more from you.”

  That got them going. He refused to shout above them, so he leaned his back against the window, folded his arms, and waited. If Kedar needed a majority vote to install his replacement, he’d just been ruled out.

  Red stepped away from the others and shouted for quiet then turned and said, “Tell us the code.”

  Drake raised his eyebrow.

  Red wasn’t the only one interested in hearing. The room had gone silent, grudging maybe, but silent.

  “Bravery, honor, and loyalty, to the Guild and its tenets or, in your case, to the Executioners.” He drew a line in the air to represent each word, forming a triangle. The circle suspended in the center represented the Guild. He linked each line to it, making it strong. Breaking one link would destroy its strength, its integrity.

  “That’s it? That’s the code?” Riordan asked.

  “We do the gods’ work. We don’t need tenets,” another said.

  What would Jelena say about him measuring the Executioners against the Guild and finding them wanting? “Amazing.”

  “What?”

  “That my former criminals have more integrity than the gods’ mighty Executioners.” Ignoring their furious outbursts, Drake shook his head and sighed. “This isn’t going to work.”

  “Wait.” Kedar pointed to Red.

  “Quiet!” They did, and Red turned to Drake. “I want to know what tenets they follow.”

  “Loyalty first and foremost. A Guild would rather die than betray one of his own. He gives his best and expects the same in return. He trusts the man at his back to protect him with his life, because he’s doing the same.”

  “That goes without saying,” Riordan insisted.

  “Does it? Would you give up your life to protect me?”

  Riordan looked away.

  “I would for you.”

  He jerked his gaze back. “Why? You don’t even like me.”

  “I live by the code. My personal feelings don’t matter.”

  “That’s a big chance to take.”

  Drake shook his head. “Most of us came into the Guild with nothing more than our word and we put more value on it than that of the gods. If a Guild gives his word, he’ll honor it or die trying.”

  “What else?”

  “Follow orders. If one of my Guild deviates from his orders, he damn well better be able to justify his actions. In your case, you’d not only have to answer to me, you’d have to answer to the gods.”

  They nodded.

  “Protect the innocent at all cost. No assignment is accepted until it has been thoroughly investigated, and no move is made unless it’s absolutely certain that innocents won’t be harmed.”

  “We do what we must to see justice done,” one said.

  “What kind of an assassin were you?” Riordan shouted.

  “One that believed that the condemned had the right to face their executioner and know why they were going to die,” Drake said in his normal low tone, refusing to raise his voice.

  “You can’t be serious! That’s suicide.”

  “I was very good at what I did, and I didn’t have magic to back me up then. You do.” Drake shook his head and sighed. “I’m obviously asking too much of you. Kedar can find someone else.”

  “You can’t do that,” one said.

  “If Master Kedar chose you then you’re it,” another said.

  “You hear the crystal,” Red said. “Only priests and masters can do that, and you don’t strike me as a priest.”

  Staring at Riordan, who said nothing, Drake shook his head. “I won’t work for any organization that blindly kills. I’m through with that life.”

  “We don’t blindly kill. We follow the gods’ dictates.”

  “The gods can’t be everywhere, see everything. Sometimes mistakes are made. It’s your job to see justice carried out. Isn’t part of that job to make sure justice is served on the right party?”

  They had no answer to that one.

  “This is pointless.” Drake rubbed his hand over his face and sighed. “If you want me gone, get the hell out of here. I’ve got an assignment to complete before I can begin that blasted training, and I’m not going to get it accomplished by arguing with you.”

  They stared at him, grumbled, but ultimately did what he asked. One by one the Executioners filed out the door or ported out of the room. “What did you think of all that?” one man asked another.

  “I’m thinking I want to join the Guild.”

  More than one man agreed.

  The quartet reached the door last. Red whispered something, and the others nodded. What the hell were they planning now?

  A tingle crawled up his spine. He glanced at Kedar. His chair was empty. It figured. Hell, the man probably regretted extracting that promise from him, especially since Drake had every intention of doing things his way—if he did them at all.

  Red took two steps toward him then Riordan grabbed his arm. He obviously wanted to play spokesman again. “We’d like to help.”

  “Why? Anxious to get rid of me?”

  “You might need someone to watch your back.”

  After the last
few minutes, that was definitely a surprise. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked from one to the next. They appeared sincere. “I can use the help, but I won’t ask anyone to risk his neck for me.”

  Riordan reddened. “Would you have to ask one of your Guild?”

  Drake drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “More often than not, I have to order them to stay out of it.”

  “Why?”

  “Some things I have to do alone.”

  “This assignment, is it the same one they tried to give you before?” Riordan asked.

  “The dead woman we saw in the temple?” Red asked.

  Drake nodded.

  Riordan stared at him. “This is personal, isn’t it?”

  “Very personal. He tortured my best—my brother, and countless others. Most of them didn’t live.”

  “So, you’ve been on this assignment a while. You’ve had time to thoroughly investigate the charges made against this mark?”

  “He’s not just a mark. He’s one of the Jotnar’s worst interrogators, and I’ve got a hard disk full of files documenting the things he’s done. Some of it I’ve seen with my own eyes.” He’d almost experienced it first hand.

  The Jotnar had picked him up once, on Benzor, and assumed that because he’d been banished from Bellariss he’d be willing to give up everything he knew about them. Attempting to force the information out of him, under Threaden’s orders, had been a deadly mistake. After his men had rescued him, they demolished the outpost leaving no one alive. It was a warning the Jotnar were careful to heed after that—the Guild protects its own.

  “I’ve been tracking him for months. Every time I turn up a lead it’s either pure frak, or a trap. The last one nearly killed me.”

  “That’s why your Guardian brought you here,” Red said.

  Drake nodded and a fist squeezed his heart. Damn it, if it was going hurt this bad any time someone mentioned her, he was in serious trouble.

  It’s your own fault, you stupid bastard. Deal with it.

  “What about the woman from the temple?” Red asked.

  Drake’s gut clenched. He turned away from them and looked out the window. It was blacker than black out there now.

  “Drake?”

  “She was my mother,” he whispered.

  “He killed her?”