by Anne Zoelle
The cloth burst into flame in his hand. The fire burned atop his open palm, but his expression was inscrutable as he watched the skiers. “I don't know what you mean. Give you what?”
“Yes, thanks for that part too,” I said. I didn't know what else to say about that expression of trust, about the obviously excessively guarded secret he had just revealed to me.
I wanted to ask how he had stayed unfrozen during my magical tantrum, unlike the others around us. Because of the strip maybe?
But I stayed quiet, and he remained silent as well. There was a last wisp of smoke, then his fist closed over the ashes in his palm. When his fingers opened, his palm was bare.
“Why didn't the Justice Magic on campus charge you?” I asked softly. Dare had exerted control over me and made my magic do what he wanted it to do. Delia never got away with anything half as big as that, and Constantine, Will, and I had talked about how someone would have to take the judicial hit when it came time to test our leech.
“The intention of a caster and acceptance by the person being spelled matters. The Justice Magic takes both into account.”
“But you couldn't have known I'd... Okay.”
My own level of trust had obviously already been made quite clear.
On the leech front...my mind was spinning. That hook that had detached inside of me? The one that had been in a long line of them? All those hooks were Raphael's leash. And one small piece had been detached by Dare's maneuver.
Dare's eyes narrowed as he looked at the edges of my body, gaze following the outline all the way around. “Where did you get your shield set? I've been meaning to ask you.”
“Marsgrove.”
“Dean Marsgrove gave you a shield set?”
I grimaced. “He was kind of forced to.”
“It's one of the strongest I've encountered in a non-combat mage,” he said, his tone giving away nothing of what he was thinking.
“Yeah. It kind of sucks at the same time that it rocks.” I shakily met his gaze. “Do you recognize the magic within the shields, at the base?”
Please, no, please, no...
He shook his head slowly. “No. And that is...abnormal...for a set so strong. I can see Marsgrove's fingers in there, now that you say it, but they are like oil in water. Who made the underlying part of the set?”
“Marsgrove knows.” That was both true and sounded like I didn't know. Marsgrove was contractually obligated not to say anything about me for another month.
I trusted Dare. With my life. But people got all weird about Raphael. And it would force things I'd rather not discuss out into the open.
“I saw you with Marsgrove, the first day back,” Dare said.
“He was escorting his cousin,” I said. “She's my roommate.”
All true. Just slightly misleading. Marsgrove had been mostly using Olivia as the reason for his escort while he dragged me across campus, but that was better left unsaid as well.
“Hmmm. Come on, the Troop is going to do their 'rounds.' The monster of the hour should come stomping through at any moment. We can hide with popcorn and watch them 'handle' it.”
The Troop coordinated their own movements a few hours a day while “on call.” Usually, we observed them joking with each other or working casual magic at the edges of their checkpoints—doing little that would be called work. I understood why a little more now.
Aside from Emrys...who always had his head together with students like the Junior Department stooges or the female half of Excelsine's administrative staff. He was always madly flirting around Top Circle—extracting nefarious information about criminals like me, no doubt.
“No.” I shook my head. “Pass today.”
Dare nudged me toward the nearest Ninth Circle arch. “To Kratos to get rid of your jitters then.”
I nodded and rubbed my back pocket absently as we walked to the Battle Building. The emptiness in my back pocket almost felt heavy, now that the cloth was gone. I gave a full body shiver, trying to shake off the feeling that I had lost something I needed.
It had to be the edginess I always experienced after being leeched. That was all.
I rubbed my empty pocket again.
Chapter Twenty-eight: Speaking of Disaster
Mike and Delia were doing something with the ski club, so Olivia, Will, Neph, and I met in our dorm room late that night for a power dinner and planning session. Magi Mart wrappers and containers were soon spread out around us.
It was far better than braving the cafeteria with Mike and Delia's empty seats at our table. We'd always been an open and welcoming table, but ever since the cafeteria “incident,” strangers had been sitting with us to ask questions about Dare.
Why does he ignore everyone who tries to meet him?
What is he like?
What does he like?
Who does he like?
Does he like me, maybe?
Those were easy. The harder, more insidious ones were about what he was plotting, controlling, destroying, subjugating, conquering, etc.
“Bliss,” Olivia said into the companionable silence in our room.
I smiled. Whether she was aware of it or not, she was automatically including Neph and Will more and more in her increasing serenity.
“I know, sorry about the whole cafeteria craziness. That will end soon, though, right?” I asked.
The three of them exchanged looks, then Will and Neph busied themselves with their food.
“What, no? It has to,” I stressed. “It was just a novelty, so people are asking questions.”
“It was a very concerning novelty to some people, Ren,” Olivia said delicately. She had been really putting some effort into thinking about the tone of her words, and I appreciated that at the moment. “Anything to do with the Dares is.”
“Ugh. People can be stupid. Dare told me about his mom. Stupid prejudices. Why can't—?” I took in the suddenly blank faces staring back at me. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Olivia put her container down and folded her fingers together. “Axer Dare told you about his mother?”
“Sure. And I looked some things up on her too. She's a great role model. Strong, but warm; powerful, but kind—”
“Ren.”
“Yes?”
“When you say that he told you about his mother, what do you mean?”
“He told me what type of mage she is and some of the things she goes through.”
Olivia took a deep breath, then decided to take another. “How did you get on the subject of such a topic?”
“Oh, it was during a session last weekend. When he found out. About me. That I'm a...” I curled my fingers in the air and gave a growl.
“That you're a werewolf?” Will looked amused, even as his amusement overlaid deep alarm.
“Hey, yeah, how come we never see werewolves in the Midlands?” I was going to have to ask Dare that.
“Intelligent magical creatures and beasts can overcome the chaotic pull to the Midlands, if they want,” Will said, his desire to discuss knowledge overwhelming his concern, as usual. “And unless you are a student or registered as a guest, foreign entities can't leave the Midlands once they are there. And nothing intelligent would want to suffer that consequence. Horrible for—”
“If we could get back on topic, William.” Olivia sounded irate.
“Yup,” Will said, chastised.
“Now, Ren,” Olivia said, overly calm. “Axer Dare. His mother. What he found out about you. Why you were discussing these things at all?” Her words ended in a rushed hiss.
“Oh, he gave me these awesome papers.” I shuffled through my things and held them up. “And then he died, then I brought him back, then I tried to blow up campus, then he told me these belonged to Kinsky and were mine now, and talked a little about rare magehood, and yeah...” I shrugged. “Without him spelling out the word 'origin,' I'd bet all on black.”
A strangled expletive issued from Will at the same time that Neph threw bo
th hands down and channeled an incredible stream of calming energy into everyone.
“Ren, you can have nothing to do with him anymore,” Olivia shrieked. All of the room's magic and my connection to her were filled with her sudden, extreme anxiety, completely overcoming any attempt by Neph to calm her.
I stared at her, shocked. “Wait, you were just fine two minutes ago. And you said I should learn as much as possible from him when we started working together. Become 'not a stranger.'” I held up my fingers in air quotes.
“That was before he started sharing things and knowing things and pretending to befriend you.”
“Hey, why does it have to be pretend? I'm not so bad once I stop being awkward!”
“She doesn't want you to be used,” Neph said soothingly. “She is saying these things out of concern.”
“Concern?” Olivia said. “This is far worse than concern, Nephthys.”
“Because of his mom? But there is nothing different today versus yesterday on that subject. And just because someone's a rock, doesn't mean she's a weapon.” I looked at Olivia pointedly, using her words.
“She's not you.”
“That doesn't mean she's bad!”
“You are not sidetracking me on this. She doesn't matter. No, that is entirely untrue.” Her hand cut through the air. “Sera McEllian Dare matters, but she is not the main problem here. That Axer Dare knows what you are is.”
“Why?” I asked bluntly. “He's been nothing but kind. Well, kind is perhaps the wrong word when he's all grim and serious, and perfectly muscled, but still lean, and hotter than the sun...” I flailed my hands a bit. “But he's funny and a little wicked and I like him, and he's like Superman, always saving me and everyone else. Or Bautermann, or whatever Mike said.”
“Why? Because the Dares have an agenda. And you just admitted he's a little wicked. Weren't you listening at lunch during that Bautermann discussion?”
I cringed. “Only sort of listening. Sometimes I tune out of the political discussions.”
“Ren. The Dares are setting up their scion as the protector of the world on purpose. Who can argue against the guy who wins everything and saves everyone?”
I nodded. “Yup. That's why I'm not arguing.”
Olivia turned to Neph. “Handle this. I can't do this.”
“Liv—” I started to argue.
“Listen,” she said, steamrolling right over me and ignoring her own directive for Neph to handle the conversation. “Do you know how many tests the Department has put Alexander Dare through to see if he possesses the remotest ability to bridge?”
“Judging by your tone, I'd say a lot.”
“He has failed—or passed, depending on your viewpoint—all of them, but they make him retake the tests every year.”
“Seems extreme.”
“Because they think he has the ability, Ren.”
The kind of ability that would allow him to give me something that he could then use to control and manipulate my magic when I was about to explode?
It wasn't exactly controlling someone from across a street, like he'd implied that his mother could do, but it had taken him all of two seconds to put magic that could control me into a piece of cloth. Seemed like someone had valid concerns out there. And no way was I going to say any of that out loud.
I would share all of my own secrets, but exposing even the possibility of someone else's—no. And especially not someone who had done nothing but good things for me.
“It doesn't matter what you say about this, Liv,” I said gently. “I don't care if he has mad goblins in his family tree.”
“Do you know what the Department would do if they thought a Bridge had access to an Origin Mage?” she hissed. “They'd figure out a way to wipe the Dares' stupid island fortress off the map, no matter how impossible the Dares have made it to do just that. A war was fought over Maximilian Dare marrying Sera McEllian. A war their family won. Add in an Origin Mage, and it would certainly send the message that the Dares plan to rule the world.”
Olivia said it like that was the message she had already received with this new information.
“I don't think they are trying to add me to their arsenal,” I said. “I've only met one of them, his cousin Nicholas. He's sixteen. He was with us right before the Bone Beast showed last term, and sometimes they are training together when I arri—”
“Oh my God, that is not what—” Olivia took deep, heaving breaths. “You're going to be taken. Or killed. And there is nothing we will be able to do to stop it.”
“Hey, it's okay.” I sent pulses of soothing magic to her through all the streams in our room.
“It's not okay, Ren,” she said through gritted teeth.
Will was anxiously looking back and forth between us. “So, let's talk good news instead.” He clapped his hands. “Ren, Leandred, and I got a leech working an hour ago!”
“Will!” I hissed. “Timing!”
And that was how Olivia's magic blew my indestructible desk into thirty pieces.
~*~
Olivia grimaced as we walked the short distance to Okai at twilight, but gave a brisk nod of greeting to the rocks as they opened the door.
“So?” she asked, after I shut the door behind us. She was still pretty upset with me, but it had manifested into a more resigned world-weariness. And she'd spent an hour using our room's magic to make me a new desk that was even more awesome than my old one. That my desk had teeth that now aggressively stole my schoolwork if I worked for too long had to mean I was almost forgiven.
“You are vibrating with energy,” she said. “I have all sorts of scenarios running through my mind about how you brought me here to cover up the tunnel you dug to First Layer China.”
“That's a great idea!”
“Ren...”
I laughed and bounced on the balls of my feet, excited. “Not a tunnel.” I whipped out the wood chip I had been carrying for the past few hours, waiting to use. Waiting had been agonizing. But Will had spilled the beans about us finishing a leech, and there was no time like the present to put plans to action.
“You've been collecting First Layer playground bits?” Olivia said dubiously. “Well done.”
“Anyone who says you lack humor, obviously just doesn't know you yet. No. Look again.” I thrust the chip toward her, so excited now that I was literally vibrating with it.
Olivia gingerly took the chip. She knew by now to wait for an explanation rather than to run automatic diagnostic spells on anything Will and I handed to her. Not that we'd meant to electrocute her on Monday. The less said about that, the better. Who checked for poison on a loofah anyway? Olivia was pretty paranoid. We'd just wanted to make and give her a relaxing, magical shower aid, since I had done all that research on shower charms after that day in the Midlands.
But it meant that since she did accept things from me without checking first, that she trusted me a great deal.
“Like Will said...we succeeded. Ta da!”
I held out my hands in a showman's pose. Guard Friend copied the motion, one hand straight up, while the other offered toward the item.
Olivia stilled, her eyes now focused on the chip. A careful tendril of magic flowed down her fingers and wrapped around the chip, gently prodding. The chip pulsed beneath the questioning magic.
“How much?”
“It will allow the user to channel my magic for a five-second period of time. It will only work on me. I refused Constantine's suggestion to start manufacturing nonspecific leeches wholesale.” I rolled my eyes. “Hopefully, this will be just enough to start cracking through Raphael's spell.”
“I...” She swallowed. “Ren, if you had asked me to do this the week after you moved in, I would have done it and sucked every possible drip of your magic dry in that five seconds. But now...” She shook her head.
I smiled. “Which is why I'm offering! And hey, Constantine wanted me to tell you that he is totally willing to test it instead.”
I had expected
Constantine to wheedle a first try with the leech anyway, but other than a small, covetous look at it, he had waved his hand to indicate his acceptance of my plan to have Olivia do it. Oddly, even though he ceded the first try to Olivia, his expression had been one of complete satisfaction and anticipation.
Olivia grimaced.
“It's completely safe,” I said reassuringly. “It's a small drain with a built-in safeguard. Not enough to control me completely, and easy enough to shake off, if I want.”
Like Dare's cloth. He'd taken control of my magic, yes, but it had been an exertion that had consisted of only positive intentions toward the user. If I had panicked, he would have let go. Or at least, that was how it had felt.
I knew this wasn't the leech Constantine sought.
Constantine had been so animated and determined lately. And not only was the leech project going well, but so too was the dodecaplex design and the paint making. We were getting better, a lot better. It made it hard not to smile smugly at Stevens the three days a week that I saw her.
Maybe Will was right—and Constantine simply had been terminally bored. The projects kept him focused and directed. He'd barely crested twelve judicial infractions this week, and I hadn't seen a honey bunny in weeks.
Olivia took a deep breath. “Okay. Let's do it.”
We clasped the chip between our hands, then I willed my desire for the magic to work.
White light flared and an internal link of gold was pried away. Another hook detached.
The smile bloomed across my face in reflection of the feeling within. “I can feel part of Raphael's magic breaking free.”
Olivia lifted her five seconds of magic use from me, and I only had a second to wonder at what she'd use it for before her outward burst of magic surrounded me in an exact reflection of the lightning blast I had set off at the Festival. Pure joy filled me.
“Olivia, that was wonderful.”
She looked relieved that I had liked what she'd chosen to do with the magic. She handed the chip back to me.
I kept my hand out, smile still wide, and motioned to her bag.
