by Anise Rae
“I’d be happy to have my driver escort you around town.”
Aurora shrank in her seat even as Izzy, with her enhanced metal bones, straightened as proud as a Mayflower descendant. Her friend walked away as Lady Rallis stopped beside the booth.
“You’re not sick, are you?” The frown did nothing to mar the lady of the land’s sophisticated beauty.
“Just tired.”
“My Edmund keeping you up late?”
“I wasn’t with Edmund last night. I was working.” She could hardly remember half of it.
“Repairing toasters and vacuums at night? What dedication!”
Lady Rallis was styled to perfection. Her black hair was chin length, with pointy wisps that set the trend for women of all ages in the Republic—including Izzy. Her red-skirted suit and matching heels trumpeted her superiority.
The most Aurora could say for her own appearance was that she was clean. Her hair was smashed beneath her ever-present knitted cap because fixing fissures was damn cold work.
“Isn’t that what you do?” Lady Rallis asked.
“Yes, I repair spelled metalworks.” And founding family’s bonds.
With a queen’s grace, Lady Rallis slid onto the opposite seat of the booth. “Why?”
“It’s a job.” She shrugged beneath her coat. She hadn’t bothered to remove it, whereas Lady Rallis hadn’t bothered to wear one.
Izzy returned with an empty mug and a small, squat vase with a single occupant.
Trash vibes and moonbeams. What the blasted hells was she thinking?
Aurora closed her eyes and counted to two. That was all the time she dared. She opened them to find Izzy leaning over the table, placing the vase next to the window. The vibe violet’s heavy blossom pulled at its stem, leaving it at just the right angle to face them. Another party for their conversation.
Lady Rallis bestowed a condescending smile upon Izzy. “The perfect touch.”
“You’re welcome, ma’am.” Izzy lifted the white mug. “Coffee? Finest in the Pipe.”
“By all means.”
Izzy filled the mug and left. Lady Rallis’s sharp blue gaze followed her. “Pretty girl. Nice hairstyle. Good bones.”
Aurora choked as if her coffee had gone down the wrong pipe. But she hadn’t been drinking.
“Maybe you are getting sick. Edmund isn’t taking proper care of his enchantress. Tell me, how did you learn to fix metal?” Lady Rallis jumped from one topic to the other without a breath.
Aurora sat back, trying to find the right words, particularly ones that would halt further questions. “I’ve always been able to feel the structure and make-up of objects. From living creatures to the stars. It’s my theory that’s how an enchantress’s power works, though I wonder if the others realize that’s what they’re doing.”
A limo materialized outside the diner’s windows.
She hadn’t felt the structure of that. Mother Goddess, it took serious power to render an object invisible for even a second. But she nodded, cool and calm. Never let them see your vibes twitch. That was a rule she’d learned under the Nobles.
“For instance, you have a small dent on the front passenger door of your limo that was repaired with an inferior metal spell.”
Lady Rallis squinted at the window. “You can see through the car?”
“Not exactly. I can feel its vibes. As to how I learned to work with metal, my father taught me.”
Lady Rallis’s face tightened. “Of course. A lucky man to have such a talented daughter.” She narrowed her eyes. “Speaking of children, where is Edmund, enchantress?”
Surprised, Aurora gave a sideways glance at the land’s queen. “I don’t know.”
“He didn’t come home last night. Or the night before. Or the night before that.” She clapped her hand against the table in time with the last word.
“He’s a big boy. I’m sure he’ll find his way back.”
“Why don’t you come home with me and we can surprise him?”
“I have to work.”
“I know he’s in the Drainpipe. I just can’t quite pinpoint his location.” She looked left and right as if she were searching for him, but her focus landed back on Izzy. She pointed at her. “A little digging and I’d know her entire life. One chat and she’d see the wisdom—and the profit—in sharing the knowledge that must circulate in this little place.” She shifted her focus to Aurora. “We’ve been remiss in ignoring the Drainpipe. This neighborhood holds its secrets quite tightly. Especially concerning you. Wise of them, I suppose. When flaunted, treasures become targets and then they must be kept under lock and key.”
A threat. Aurora eyed the door, but running was a temporary solution.
“Unless…”
Ahh, the bargain. But Aurora had played this round before and knew exactly how it went. “Unless I had an invincible protector.” Lady Rallis smiled. “We can protect you…and your secrets.”
Aurora swallowed, shrinking beneath the woman’s calculating gaze.
“Yes, I know you have secrets. No one with a power like yours would live closeted away without a reason. Vow loyalty to Rallis and we’ll protect you and your secrets. What would it take? An estate? Mayflower privileges? Money? Everyone has a price. I’ll pay it, if you’ll tell me why my son is destroying the bond.”
Aurora gasped.
“Every time Edmund rips the bond, my husband doubles over in pain. Yesterday, the senator blacked out. It has to hurt Edmund, too.”
“He’s not—” Aurora’s words stuck in her throat. She choked, struggling for air until she finally quit trying to defend him. Tears spilled down both cheeks as she recovered, gasping.
Lady Rallis studied her like a vibe bug on its back. “Interesting. Vincent, my other son, thinks Edmund is vowed to silence. It seems you are vowed as well. At first we thought you were helping him destroy us.” She huffed a humorless laugh. “But an enchantress couldn’t hurt a fly. Unlike Edmund. Our guess is this: Edmund rips the bond; then somehow, you fix it. What we don’t know is why you’re covering for him.”
Aurora couldn’t answer that question. Taking a deep breath, she spoke through a sore throat. “What do you want?”
“I want Edmund. He needs to be stopped. Who’s he working with? We presume it’s the person who’s vowed him—and you—to silence. He’s the only mage in the world who could do this. He’s betrayed his family, his people, his country.” The fierce words whispered like the brush of a match against a flint.
Aurora’s anger burned at the strike. The woman had it all wrong. How could she say that about him? “Edmund loves this territory. He’s a good man.” She threw a five-dollar bill on the table, more than usual due to the spells in the coffee, but not enough to cover Lady Rallis’s. She slid out of the booth.
Lady Rallis grabbed her wrist, just tight enough to get her attention. She stuffed the five back in Aurora’s palm. “Coffee’s on me.” She patted her hand. “One more thing. I cast a message to Edmund. I may not be able to find him, but he’s still listening to me. I told him if he’s not home in one hour, I’ll have you arrested.”
* * * *
Edmund knew this about his family’s butler: when Jasper waited behind the front door, there was bad news afoot. When he waited outside at the top of the grand home’s stairs, the world was about to detonate. As Edmund pulled up to Rallis Hall, he found Jasper pacing along the edge of the driveway. That was a first.
He parked his car and sat there for a moment, still sore from all the fights and worn out from the constant work. Between shifts guarding the junkyard, he’d tracked down fissures—each one in or around the Drainpipe.
He was as far as ever from capturing the other destruere…whoever he was, Wasten or otherwise. Inconveniently for him, the overseer and his dying wife had disappeared. Edmund wanted to assign a fleet of sentries to hunt them down, but one was all he dared. Even that was pushing the limits of the vow of silence.
<
br /> As he sat there, he reached his vibes to his calling charm. “Aurora.” He stated the word with intent. The charm was going to wear out at this rate. It was fifteenth time he’d done this in....how many days had it been?
The connection clicked into place, but she stayed silent. He tipped his head, wishing he could feel her vibes, but the charms weren’t made for that.
“Ror? Two more fissures. Middle of the ball field closest to Greenlawn. Another on City Park Avenue between Lansing and Whittier. There’s an alley that bisects the block.”
She didn’t reply. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“Princess? Talk to me.” He revved the car, ready to race back. He’d left Thorn with specific instructions to call at the first hint of trouble, but he’d heard nothing.
“Where are you?” Exhaustion laced her voice. “Your mother said—”
“I’m home.” He didn’t even want her to say it. No one would arrest her. Ever.
Aurora paused, still connected at the other end of his calling spell. “If you don’t come back, should I break you out?”
Despite everything, a grin slowly grew on his face at her serious offer. He was tempted to say yes and tell her to just rescue him now. He was stronger with her by his side. “I’m coming back.” For her. “Nothing could stop me.”
“Not even your mother?” She sounded doubtful. “I’ll take care of the fissures. Goddess blessings, Edmund,” she whispered and then yanked away.
Time to face the vibes. He exited his car.
Jasper’s eyes went wide with shock, his gaze locking on Edmund’s temple. “Um…” Such plebeian sounds were as foreign to the butler as if Bull suddenly took to calling him sir.
“Jasper, what day is it?”
“Today is Wednesday, sir.”
Huh.
“The senator would like to see you.” The man pulled himself straight, apparently finding his grip on a butler’s inbred strength to convey polite disinterest with a blank face.
“Of course.” Edmund took the stairs as if nothing hurt, not his exhausted body, not his branded temple, and not his heart at what awaited him inside his home.
He reached the entrance, two tall doors that would have let a giant walk inside. Appropriate. The Rallises were the giants of the Republic.
They opened before him as Jasper powered them from behind, ever mindful of his duties.
As he passed through, he activated the emergency Clothe charm he’d pulled from the car’s glove box. A suit and tie wrapped around him, tighter than ever. He’d practically learned to walk in such a costume, had attended school in it, and toured the Republic countless times as Rallis’s ambassador dressed just like this. Two branded lines and suddenly it didn’t fit.
Inside, the hall was empty.
Yes, indeed. The world had exploded. His gut turned hollow.
Wednesday mornings were the senator’s meet and greets at the estate. The place should have been packed with awe-struck mages waiting to receive accolades for their contributions to Rallis Territory or to air their concerns. He was here awaiting sentencing for a crime he hadn’t committed.
He paced across the foyer to his learn his fate. The white marble floor reflected the cloudy light from the tall windows. He was isolated among its bright sheen. After the odd camaraderie of three days with the gang, when he hadn’t been tracking fissures, this was lonely. There was no comfort to be found in the edgy vibes his family was streaming out, declaring their presence within the closed office. He recognized them all. His mother and father. The senator. Vincent. And Allison. Poor Allison. As out of place as Edmund was.
The doors opened. Far inside the large room, his grandfather sat behind his desk. The light from the windows behind him left him in shadows.
Edmund strode forward, slipping his hands into his pockets and entered the senator’s realm.
“Get those things off your face.” His mother’s voice sounded weary already. Wasn’t she in for a trying time?
“Can’t.” Nonchalance was a familiar defense, though perhaps he should have asked Aurora to get Bull to help her break him out of here after all.
“Are we really going to begin like this?” she sighed, a frown pinching her face.
“Have a seat.” Vincent jerked his head at the chair next to him, the one farthest from his parents. Vin was a good brother. Edmund liked to think he’d been one in return. If ever there was a mage who needed a little lightening up, it was his twin. Edmund had been happy to provide the pranks, the dares, and the schemes to do just that growing up.
He stepped over his brother’s long legs, still extended in front of him. Vin lifted one and Edmund almost fell. Yes, he thought, he’d been a good influence on Vin.
“Take them off!” Gone was the weary tone. His mother was in a rare mood.
Edmund lifted a hand to touch his temple but stopped. It hurt too much. “It’s a brand. And before you summon a healer, it’s infused.”
His mother jerked back in her chair as if an unseen hand had shoved her. Each of her emotions flickered across her face—shock, horror. Disappointment. A cold mask descended and halted the negative parade. Surely a dozen other emotions bumped into each other behind that sheet of ice.
His father watched her, too, probably tempted to draw that crash of emotions out of her. It was a lurist mage’s specialty, drawing out people’s truths. However, Edmund had never known his father to use his talent without another’s consent. Richard Rallis’s ethics ran deep, much to his wife’s consternation, though Edmund didn’t think she’d have him any other way.
Allison sat beside them. This was the first family meeting in which she hadn’t sat off to the side.
“I know what that sign is! It’s the junkyard gang,” she said, sounding confident for once. “I’ve studied that. Two lines. He’s their Second.”
“Is that right?” Vin asked, as surprised as everyone else at Allison’s knowledge. “Just the Second?”
Edmund lifted an eyebrow. “I’m working my way up.” He stared at his parents and grandfather. “The Drainpipe has problems. We should have been in there all along. This system of relying on street thugs to protect the place has failed.” If they’d had a presence there, maybe their previous metallist wouldn’t have been executed. Maybe his lush, little enchantress wouldn’t still grieve for a father who’d shut her out. Maybe the enemy would have been rooted out before he pockmarked the territory’s claim like Swiss cheese.
“We are there. We built sewers for the trash vibes, a vast improvement over the previous system.” His mother apparently couldn’t stand to look at him. She sat tall, head turned to look out the windows.
“True. But we don’t understand the social structure, the politics. It’s like walking into another country and I’m a foreigner.”
“As well you should be! They’re the dark. Nothing but the dark!” His mother flung her hand out. His grandfather’s desk flickered in and out of existence as she lost control of her power. He narrowed his eyes. He’d never known that to happen.
“I am dark, Mother. But plenty of light mages live in the Pipe. In the last day and a half, I’ve met five families who moved there when they happened to defy the odds and gave birth to a dark mage. They didn’t want their child to grow up ostracized.”
“Do you want to live there?” his father asked, his expression calm, nonjudgmental.
“Who wants to live there?” His mother tossed the words with a harsh tone. “And you hardly grew up ostracized. You were given every benefit a mage could possibly have—light or dark. Now you’re sacrificing your family and your territory for your new friends.”
Vincent jerked forward, as if to make a barrier between him and their mother. “It’s not him. How can you even accuse him of this?”
Edmund took a deep breath at Vin’s defense and realized that it was the first one he’d taken since he’d walked into this scene.
“Did they talk you into th
is?” their mother continued.
“I’ve not sacrificed my family.”
“No one else can make these damn holes!” his grandfather shouted, speaking up for the first time. “Did you think we wouldn’t notice? They’re like blotches of the plague on the land—sick, dying.”
Edmund had known it was coming. He’d thought he’d braced for it, but the hurt was more than he’d imagined. He clenched his teeth.
“Tell them you didn’t do it, Eddie,” Allison pleaded.
Aurora was right. Vows sucked. He could say nothing though the words burned on his tongue, sizzling like acid.
“He didn’t do it, Al.” Vin answered for him. His commanding voice filled the room. “There’s another destruere mage out there. And if there was an ounce of sense in this room, we’d be talking about how to find him instead of accusing Edmund.” From his loud tone, Edmund wondered what had gone on in here before he’d arrived.
His mother jumped to her feet. “Another? There’s only been one in history other than Edmund. And you propose that there are two living right now? Impossible!” She turned to Edmund. “We even asked the High Councilor who else is a destruere. She knows of no one else. You’re the only one.” She turned to her husband. “Richard, just pull the facts out of him. End this.”
Edmund’s neck prickled with the threat. Because of the vow, pulling it out of him would kill him.
“We’ve already discussed this, Helen.” The hard bite in his father’s voice doused the room. The fierce anger it held was a rare occurrence. It partially explained his mother’s loss of control. She didn’t handle it well when her husband was mad at her.
“Are you that blinded by this threat, Mother? It’s not him.” Vin’s angry energy pushed through the room. Edmund’s hair blew from the force.
“We had a phone call.” His grandfather’s growl was barely intelligible. Even in his toughest debates on the floor of the Rushes, where the Senate met, the old man stayed eloquent, his speech crisp and cultured. “The caller accused you and the enchantress.”
