Mags & Nats 3-Book Box Set

by Stephanie Fazio

  CHAPTER 52

  Iparked right outside Diego’s apartment building. I didn’t even bother finding an actual parking space. If the motorcycle got towed, Yutika could always make Diego a new one.

  I slipped in the door behind a woman who gave me a strange look, probably because I was somewhere between frazzled and frantic.

  What if Diego wasn’t here? He didn’t have a phone or any other easy way to track him down.

  My heart was thundering as I hauled ass up the three flights of stairs to Diego’s apartment. I was breathless by the time I made it to his door. I knocked a tad aggressively, bending the metal frame of the door in my enthusiasm.

  I was about to break in when Diego wrestled the door open. His eyes widened at the sight of me.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  All of the little speeches I’d rehearsed on the way over evaporated from my mind, leaving me gaping like a fish.

  Diego was so handsome. His black T-shirt was molded to his sculped chest, and his tattoos shone starkly against his bronze skin. I noticed a long, white scar across his forearm that hadn’t been there before. I swallowed, remembering the piece of metal that had cut him as he flew back into the collapsing mine to be with me.

  Diego raised his eyebrows at me.

  I cleared my throat. “You’re packing,” I said, noticing the duffel bags that were stuffed full of clothes instead of Agent S.

  “Very observant.” He gave me a little smirk that was a shadow of his characteristic arrogance.

  “Where are you going?” I asked, deciding to let his sarcasm slide.

  Diego lifted a shoulder. “Mexico City, at least until I figure out what I’m going to do next. It’s where my parents are from, and I’ve never been.”

  “Oh.” I glanced from the packed clothes to Diego.

  “Why’d you do it?” I blurted out. “Why pick Lilly instead of the Agent S?”

  Diego folded his arms and leaned against the warped door frame. “I’m pretty sure you already know the answer to that.”

  I was pretty sure I did, too.

  “I want you to tell me,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

  Diego searched my face. He leaned close enough for me to catch his intoxicating scent and gave me a cocky grin.

  “I figured it was my best chance of getting you back in my bed.”

  I laughed. Diego’s lips curved up, and this time, it was a real smile rather than his sardonic approximation.

  “I actually had a reason for coming here,” I said in the awkward silence that followed. “Well, four, actually.”

  “That’s a lot of reasons.” Diego moved farther into the apartment, inclining his head in invitation.

  I closed my hand around the glass vial in my pocket before meeting Diego’s curious gaze.

  “My first reason is that I wanted to thank you. Not just for what you did for Lilly and me.” I bit my lip as the memory of Lilly falling down that endless black hole came back to me. “But also for convincing the Super Mags to help us. If it wasn’t for you, we all wouldn’t have made it out of there.” I paused to take a breath. “I know that if you’d gone straight to the mine like you were planning, you might have been able to get the Agent S. So, thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Diego replied, his face a complete mask.

  “That brings me to a second, related point,” I pushed on. “Kaira and Graysen want to offer you a job.”

  I rushed on as skepticism overtook Diego’s features.

  “The Super Mags listened to you when they wouldn’t listen to anyone else.”

  “I’m also the one who was hunting them down to take away their magic,” Diego pointed out.

  I nodded. “But you’re one of them, and that matters more than anything else. The kids also think you’re cool because you let them beat up the Synthetics. So, Kaira and Graysen want you to be in charge of the new Alliance Super Mag coalition.”

  Diego scrutinized me. It was really starting to irk me that I had no idea what he was thinking.

  “You would be their voice in the Alliance,” I continued, babbling in the wake of his silence. “You would be involved in any legislation relating to Super Mags. You’d oversee the Boston Mag police in any Super Mag-related crimes. Also, you would be in charge of all rules and procedures relating to Super Mags…you know, so they don’t get themselves into trouble.” I paused to suck in a gulp of air. “And you’d go to a lot of boring meetings.”

  “I’ll take it into consideration,” Diego said.

  Disappointment coursed through me, even though I’d known it was a total long shot. I’d actually expected a flat-out no, so this was better than nothing.

  I stalled a little, not wanting to get to my next point.

  A.J. had given me the vial now burning a hole in my pocket. He told me he’d saved it in case we needed it, and that it was my choice whether or not I wanted to give it to Diego.

  I pulled the vial from my pocket and held it out. The green liquid shimmered in the dim light of the apartment.

  “This is the only one that survived our ransacking of your apartment,” I said, unable to meet his gaze.

  The vial I was offering was as close to an apology as he was going to get from me. It was also enough for a single dose of the Magical Reduction Potion.

  “If you still want to take away your magic,” I told him, “you can.”

  Diego reached out and took the vial. My heart sank as he rolled it around on his palm. All of his attention was fixed on the Agent S, like he was mesmerized by the sparkly green liquid. His gaze flicked toward his bathroom, where he kept his chemistry set.

  I tried to swallow down the knot in my throat.

  I started when Diego took my hand and uncurled my fingers. He placed the vial in my open palm.

  “I’m not going to be needing this, after all,” he said in response to my puzzled look.

  “I…don’t understand,” I stammered.

  “Well.” He reached up to brush his knuckles across my cheek. “If I’m going to be in charge of the Super Mags, then it’ll be useful if I’m still an actual Super Mag.”

  My heart felt light as a feather.

  “Are you saying,” I began, but Diego didn’t give me a chance to finish.

  “And it’s not just that.” He gave me the classic Diego smirk. “If I lose my magic, then how am I going to fly my girl up to see the stars and creep on her when she’s showering?”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” I said, pressing my hand to my chest and acting aghast.

  Diego gave me an unrepentant shrug. “It’s not my fault she’s a goddess.”

  “Wait,” I said, giving him a suspicious look. “Just to clarify, we’re talking about me, right?”

  Diego laughed.

  “Si, mi pequeña diabla. We’re taking about you.”

  I was grinning like a fool, but I didn’t try to stop. I glanced down at the vial in my hand and then slipped it back into my pocket.

  “Why the change of heart?” I asked.

  I couldn’t imagine Diego giving up on the dream he’d been chasing for most of his life. That kind of obsession didn’t just go away.

  I wasn’t fooled by his careless shrug. I waited while he gathered his thoughts.

  “Part of it was what my Amá told that Medium…Kaira’s grandmother,” he said.

  I remembered the grief-stricken look on Diego’s face after Grandma Tashi has passed on his mother’s message.

  “And the other part?”

  “You know how they say when you’re about to die your whole life flashes before your eyes?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, when Felix told me he’d murdered my parents, and then he dropped that crate, I saw everything I’d worked for disappearing. But in that moment, none of it mattered. All I could think about was how you wouldn’t leave the mine without Lilly. And I wasn’t leaving without you.”

  I stared very hard at the floorboards. When I’d finally pulled m
yself together, I said, “We’re going to make Felix answer for what he did to your parents. He’s not going to get away with any of his crimes.”

  Diego nodded slowly.

  “What’s the fourth?” he asked.

  “What?” I replied, confused.

  “You said you had four reasons for coming here.”

  “Oh, right.” I gave him my best little devil smile before launching myself at him. I moved so fast he barely had time to bring up his arms to catch me before we both went over. Our faces were only inches apart.

  “I wanted to do this,” I said.

  And then, I kissed him.

  CHAPTER 53

  The next week that followed was a complete blur. Between catching up on all of our Alliance work that we’d neglected, dealing with the fact that we’d created a two-mile deep trench in the middle of California, and moving Diego into the mansion, we’d barely come up for air.

  According to Kaira and Graysen’s contacts in the Inter-State Magical Cooperation Initiative, Felix had inserted himself into the vacancy left by Blade. He was now calling himself the Southern California Territory ruler.

  I wasn’t sure the Californians would take kindly to a suit-wearing, smooth-talking Alchemist as a replacement for their barbaric former-leader. But if the Californians didn’t take care of Felix first, we would. Kaira and Graysen had already submitted legal summons to extradite Felix from California to Boston to stand trial.

  Graysen, in his infinite brilliance, had found a legal loophole that would allow us to prosecute Felix in Boston. Since the mine was technically connected to MagLab through the underground train system, Graysen had been able to argue that Felix’s crimes were also committed in Boston, and thus, the Alliance had jurisdiction to arrest him.

  The panel of inter-state judges had agreed.

  Legal, but with a twist.

  I’d been spending my free time with the rest of the Hammonds at Brent, Sarah, and Lilly’s new house. Sarah had gone back to work, using her Bleeding Heart magic and connections to other top child psychologists in the world to help all of the slaves we’d rescued. There were almost two-hundred in all, and Brent and Sarah were leading the Alliance group that was in charge of them. Brent had quit his office job to take over the logistics of tracking down the children’s families and reuniting them. Sarah was helping all of the children and families get the counseling they needed.

  My family’s healing wasn’t finished after everything we’d been through. Lilly was emotionally and academically far behind where she should be. But no challenge seemed insurmountable now that we had her with us.

  Every day, my family was getting back pieces we’d lost over the last five years. Just yesterday, Sarah had suggested she and I start our weekly date nights back up. I’d responded by jumping up and down like a little kid. Later, as I’d been heading to my new motorcycle, which I’d been gifted/stolen from Diego, my mom had hurried out after me. She told me she was having a big welcome-home party for Lilly, and she wanted to invite Diego.

  I had helped Diego move the last of his stuff into the mansion this morning. In the afternoon, he’d been officially sworn in as the head of the newly-created Alliance Super Mag Special Relations Division. He had his own room in the mansion, since I hadn’t wanted him to think his position was contingent on being with me, but neither of us had been interested in him using it. The Seven had accepted him, and the fact that he and I were dating, without batting an eye. The only exception was A.J.’s friendly threat that he would cut Diego into tiny pieces if he ever hurt me.

  Diego’s position in our growing family had been cemented by Ma, who now kept a condiment basket on the table by his seat that contained bottles of hot sauce, siracha, and chili flakes. There was also an airtight container in the fridge full of small orange ghost peppers. Ma had drawn a skull and crossbones on the lid, along with the message Danger, for Diego only!

  The week had passed without us noticing, and tonight we were hosting Thanksgiving dinner. The actual holiday was still a few weeks away, but after everything we’d been through, we decided a celebration was in order.

  Ma had been cooking for two days straight in preparation of the feast, and she’d been ordering the rest of us around like a drill sergeant. I had done so many dishes in the last two days, I’d needed to turn my arms titanium before my skin actually fell off.

  “What’s your rush, cariño?” Diego asked me, chuckling as I pulled on the off-the-shoulders sweater dress Yutika had made me for tonight.

  “We’re half an hour late.” I scowled at him. “Everyone’s totally going to know what we were up to.”

  “They will with that hairdo,” he replied, grinning as he helped smooth out my bed hair.

  “This is all your fault,” I grumbled as we hurried downstairs hand-in-hand. “I’m implementing a rule that you can’t walk around shirtless within an hour of any important engagements.”

  “Are you saying you wouldn’t have mauled me if I’d been fully clothed?” he asked, clearly missing the gravity of the whole situation.

  “I did not maul you,” I hissed as we cut through the empty house and headed for the backyard.

  I kind of did.

  Diego wrapped an arm around my waist as we walked through the open French doors.

  “Ohmygod,” I breathed as I took in the sight before us.

  “Wow,” Diego said.

  Yutika and A.J. hadn’t let anyone into the backyard for the last day-and-a-half, and now I knew why. The place had been transformed.

  A rainbow-shaped tangle of branches hung over the longest table I’d ever seen. Pink roses and white lights were interwoven through the branches. Candles and small bouquets of roses lined the center of the table, which was covered with so much food there was barely room for the plates. Instead of chairs, there were long, wooden benches.

  Fortunately, everyone was in the process of sitting down and didn’t notice Diego’s and my late entrance.

  It was a cold, clear night, and so Yutika had set up heat lamps around the table. She’d also created tiny fires in glass jars that lined the table as added centerpieces. Paper lanterns hung from the large trees in the yard, and more white lights were artfully draped over the bushes. It was like I’d stepped into some kind of fairy world.

  Diego and I grabbed seats with the rest of the Seven in the middle of the table.

  “Where have you two been?” Yutika asked, waggling her eyebrows at me.

  “Shh,” I ordered her, and then glared at Diego, who was looking inordinately pleased with himself.

  The two of them were silently conspiring to say something that was bound to make me blush, when Michael tapped Yutika on the shoulder. He pressed a sealed envelope into her hands, letting his fingertips linger as they trailed over hers.

  Yutika slipped away from the table, holding the envelope to her chest. The next time I glanced around for Michael, I noticed he had disappeared, too.

  Somewhere down the table, I heard my dad’s deep-belly laugh that was coming out more and more now that our family was back together. Brent had Lilly on his knee and his arm around Sarah’s shoulders. He lifted his wine glass to me in a toast, grinning from ear to ear.

  The crew team was making enough noise for at least three times their number. Whatever they were saying had Kaira’s cousins doubled over in laughter and Grandma Tashi scowling.

  A.J. and Sir Zachary were holding court across from me. They were wearing matching tuxedos with red bowties.

  Smith sat on my other side, grumbling about all the security threats that came with inviting so many people for dinner.

  “I don’t think anyone here is a threat,” I told him, reaching over to yank a plate of turkey out of Sir Zachary’s reach before he dove in.

  “Minus the fifty hellions,” Smith muttered, nodding his head in the direction of the Super Mags.

  As if on cue, one of the Super Mags made all the nearby kids’ hair stick straight up in the air with his electricity magic. The little
girl sitting next to him began to cry when she couldn’t flatten her hair back down.

  Diego leaned back on the bench and made eye contact with the perpetrator.

  “Hey Simon,” Diego called out to the Super Mag, who immediately released his magical hold over his friends’ hair. “What did I tell you?”

  “Don’t be a pendejo,” the Super Mag replied, sinking glumly back into his seat.

  “Are you serious?” I gave Diego an incredulous look.

  “What?” he replied.

  The rest of the Seven just snickered.

  The Super Mags had taken to Diego more easily than I would have guessed. It turned out that none of them had liked the four kids whose magic Diego had stolen. In fact, rumor had it the four kids were bullies with serious anger management issues. The rest of the Super Mags had been secretly relieved when their magic was gone. And Emory had been more than happy to cede his position as the Super Mag leader to Diego. With an actual adult to look up to who was one of them, the Super Mag kids had fallen into line mostly without protest.

  Michael and Yutika rejoined our group. They kept glancing at each other, and I even caught a few hesitant smiles being exchanged.

  “Is everyone here?” Graysen asked, looking around.

  “Yuppers,” A.J. replied. “Time to get this party started!”

  “Not so fast,” Graysen said, exchanging a look with Kaira. “Kaira and I have an announcement to make.”

  “Why do there always have to be boring speeches,” Desiree complained, staring morosely into her glass of sparkling grape juice.

  Cora elbowed her in the ribs. “Don’t be a pendejo,” she whispered.

  Graysen chuckled. “Well then, I guess we’d better keep it short.” His turquoise eyes gleamed in the candlelight as he turned to Kaira. “Tell ’em, babe.”

  Kaira’s entire face lit up. She laced her fingers through Graysen’s before announcing, “We’re pregnant!”

  For several seconds, we stared dumbly at her as those words sank in. And then the table erupted.

  Kaira and Graysen were mobbed. There were tears, laughter, and shouts of joy. Ma was crying as she hugged the two of them at the same time.