by Ashley Meira
“Those kind of things always draw crowds to Damien’s gallery,” Adam said. “But it doesn’t give us much. I’ll see if Damien can translate the text on this — or if he knows someone who can.”
Fiona peered at the parchment. “It looks ancient. And torn. Was this from a book?”
“Could it be from something in your family’s library?” Ollie asked.
“Maybe.” Jeffery said. “Thomas took all that stuff when Dad died. It’s hard to believe he’d rip something out of an old book, though. He practically has a heart attack if people breath near his paintings.” He took a sip of his tea. “Holy tamales, Oliver.”
I stopped drinking. Every word in that sentence felt wrong, including Ollie’s full name. “Did you poison him?”
Ollie rolled his eyes. “If I did, he’d already be dead.”
“That goes in the file,” I murmured.
“This is amazing,” Jeffery said between sips. “Darjeeling?”
“Sort of,” Ollie said. “I create my own special blends.”
I didn’t miss the respect blossoming in Jeffery’s eyes. Now he understood why Sandra adored Ollie’s coffee over Crystarium’s. He used to think her tastes weren’t as refined as his, but the errors of his way were clear now. I gulped down more coffee dirt to resist chanting, “One of us, one of us.”
“Did you find anything else?” Fiona asked, looking between the guys sitting next to her. She was weirded out. Thank goodness I had Adam. “Besides this page.”
“I took the rest of the files in his safe to look over,” Adam said. “And Sophia found burnt pieces of what appeared to be a letter in his fireplace. The only thing salvageable was a date and Thomas’ signature.”
“What was the date?” Jeffery asked.
Everyone turned to me.
“Sometime last week,” I said. “That’s all I remember.”
“It could’ve been related then.” Fiona sighed. “I’ll portal us to Damien’s—”
I jolted in my seat, hand gripping my sword. Another jolt ran through me as I looked for signs of danger.
Adam cleared his throat. “Your phone is vibrating.”
I was sober enough to blush, it seemed. “Hello?”
“Ah, darling,” Symeon greeted. “Thank goodness I caught you. I’m afraid I must cancel our date. Business, you see.”
I gasped, covering the speaker with my hand. “Symeon might know what that stuff says! Didn’t he recognize the necklace?”
“Potentially recognized,” Adam said. “We can take it to him first. What is he saying?”
“He’s cancelling our date, the jerk.” I frowned, the fuzz seeping away from my brain. “Wait, what date?”
“Now, now, Charlotte. Don’t be upset,” Symeon continued. “Business comes first.”
“Huh?”
“Yes, she’s here, but there’s no need to be jealous. Sophia is just a colleague.”
Whether it was the death coffee or just my brain turning back on, I began piecing his words together. “Sophia?”
“Yes. We’re working on something at the moment. Can’t get away.”
“Sophia is there,” I said slowly, drawing confused looks from my table-mates. “And you can’t get away.”
“Exactly,” he said, relieved. “I’m so glad you understand.”
“We need to go to Symeon’s,” I told them. “Something’s wrong. Can you portal us?”
“I should be recharged,” Fiona said. While she was able to open more portals than the average fairy could per day, even Fiona had her limits. Short distances allowed her magic to recharge faster, but the farther she went, the more she was drained. That’s why she preferred using her portals for intercity traveling or sneaking around enemies during combat.
“Charlotte, please, there’s no need to be so cross,” Symeon said. “Sophia is simply the best tracker I have. That’s why I hire her.”
My brow furrowed. “A tracker mage is there?”
“That’s correct.”
Booyah. I would kick ass at verbal charades. Wait, that was the opposite point of charades. Aw. “We’ll portal farther away so they don’t notice an influx of magic. Hang tight.”
“Yes, dear, tomorrow will be fine. Eight? Lovely. I’ll leave the door unlocked.”
I hung up and looked around the table. “Either Symeon’s in trouble, or he’s gone completely loopy. Maybe both.”
“Let’s go,” Fiona said excitedly. “Jeffery can stay with Ollie while we— No. No.” Her gaze was murderous as she looked at our expressions. “You are not leaving me behind again. I’ll kill you both.”
“Jeffery isn’t a mercenary,” I said meekly. “Or anywhere as terrifying.”
“True that,” Jeffery said, unable to tear his eyes off Fiona. “Though I’m a little afraid she’ll kill everyone here as an excuse to leave.”
Fiona didn’t nod, but she didn’t shake her head either.
“I’ll order that dessert pizza from Blood Hut.” Ollie looked like ordering out for dessert was giving him kidney stones but managed to force a smile. “And Sophia will do your laundry for a week.”
“What?” I gaped at him. “Forget it. She can take my place.”
Adam sighed. “You guys realize Symeon is still in danger, right?”
“Girls,” Fiona and I corrected before facing each other.
“Rock, paper, scissors?” I suggested.
She stared me down before nodding. “Best two out of three.”
“I’m eating the entire dessert pizza so you can’t have any,” Fiona hissed, snapping the portal shut as I stepped out.
“Think she’s mad at you?” Adam joked.
“If I’d been a second slower, I’d be assless,” I said dryly as we approached Symeon’s building. There were no broken windows on his floor. That was always a good sign.
His eyes drifted to my backside. While I may have been essentially breast-less, I made up for it in the butt department. In my opinion, at least. Adam seemed to agree if his fixed stare was any indication. “I’m very glad you’re fast.”
“If I was fast, we’d have jumped into bed the first week we met.” I stopped dead in my tracks. Should’ve had more coffee. And thrown up again. “You didn’t hear that.”
“But I did,” he said smugly. “I really, really did.”
“No, you didn’t.” I slapped my cheeks to knock some sense back into myself. I wasn’t sure if it worked, but my cheeks stung. That had to count for something. “How are we doing this? Symeon said he’d leave the door unlocked, but a tracker mage could sense us.”
“Only if they’re powerful,” Adam said.
“Symeon doesn’t give me the runaround for pushovers. They must be tough if he’s resorting to code talk.”
“Maybe he’s just bored.”
“If he is, I’ll kill him,” I growled. “But first, we need to get in there. Preferably without getting caught.”
Adam stroked his chin. “How do assassins normally get to him?”
“They break everything and storm in,” I said. Why couldn’t I just do it like bad guys did? Oh right: I had morals. They were slightly skewed, but they were there. “Fiona and I are going to have a hard enough time paying to fix our house. I don’t wanna get sued, especially by people who can afford to live here. Their lawyers will probably win them my great-grandchildren.”
“How about this?” Adam steered me toward the lobby. “You go upstairs and wait at the end of the hall. I’ll shift and fly up as a distraction. Then, you break in.”
“Won’t you have to break Symeon’s windows?”
He raised a brow. “I’ll pay for it. Besides, from what I hear, those things are shattered half the time anyway.”
“Good point.” I nodded. “Let’s do it.”
“Wait.” Adam pulled me against his body and kissed me, long and hard. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but when he pulled away, I’d long forgotten how to breathe. “Wow, that coffee tastes terrible.”
Better
than puke. “You don’t.”
He smiled, grazing his lips against mine. “Showtime.”
Frowning, I pulled away and stepped into the ritzy lobby. Kyle, the concierge, looked confused to see me, but managed a polite nod between appraising looks. It was like he’d seen a ghost. Shrugging it off, I hit the “up” key, happy to learn Symeon’s elevators were working perfectly. I reached the penthouse level a minute later and perked my ears for a phoenix’s shriek.
As if he’d heard me, a piercing screech sounded from down the hall. I sprinted toward Symeon’s door and wrenched it open. I was vaguely aware of glass littering the floor and a giant, flaming bird blocking the shattered windows, but the rest of the world faded away as I saw who Symeon’s attacker was.
Snow.
Except she wasn’t wearing her white leather armor or menacing mask. If it hadn’t been for the sword — an obsidian blade with a magnificent platinum phoenix around the hilt, its wings encircling the grip — I wouldn’t have recognized her at all. Even now, it was hard to do so. Her face was exposed, clear as day, and it was one I knew very well. Intimately, even. But I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. Now I knew why Kyle had looked so confused, and why Symeon said “Sophia” was here.
She looked exactly like me.
Chapter Sixteen
I had another second to fail processing the situation before a burst of ice shot toward me. My foot snagged against the doorway as I dodged, causing her attack to hit my arm. Instead of the thrill of magic-fueled adrenaline, all I felt was a searing pain slicing across my skin. I hissed at the sensation and looked at my arm. It was bleeding.
She hit me. With magic. I could even smell the hazelnut-scented remnants of her spell. What the hell?
The three of us surrounded Symeon’s guest, but she didn’t seem concerned — possibly because I was on the floor with eyes wider than the moon. She cracked her neck to the left, then right. My neck. And my face. My body too, though she looked a bit thinner, which wasn’t fair.
That explained why she was my mirror image in that dream, but it didn’t explain why her magic hurt me. Fireborns couldn’t absorb each other’s magic. I’d learn that from my dream too, when we’d been ordered to burn those men alive.
But her magic hadn’t hurt me then. We were right next to each other. How could it have missed? Because it was directed forward? She’d thrown magic at me in New Zealand, which had also missed. Had I been that lucky? I looked at the woman again. Her eyes were cold, deadened by years under a monster’s thumb. That could’ve been me.
Yeah, I’d been very lucky.
Snow whipped around, dodging a blast of water. She returned Symeon’s attack with one of her own, the flood of water knocking him off his feet. It explained why he seemed so nervous on the phone: his siren charm hadn’t worked on her. It was a Fireborn thing.
Adam must have recognized her magic, because he shifted back to human form and swung a fist in her direction. She was faster than I remembered. Her leg swung out like a lightning bolt and jammed itself into his torso. He folded in half and hit the ground.
Pride filled me as I saw him immediately rise up, enough to bring strength back to my legs. They still felt like jelly when I stood, but they didn’t give out. My hand shook as I raised it, fire shooting from my palm.
She dropped instantly, the faint smell of burnt hair my only clue I’d hit her. Through the flames, I saw Adam’s shadow vanish. A loud thump told me Snow had taken him down again.
He kicked out, hitting her knee. She swiped forward, slicing part of his shirt. I charged forward, wind circling my fists. She must have been distracted, because my punch connected, the concentrated wind creating a mini sonic boom against her ribs.
She hunched over, gripping her broken bones. A white glow came from her hands. Healing magic. I ran for her, hoping to interrupt the process. The sound of cracking bones was sickening as she ducked, seemingly unaffected by the pain. Her elbow dug into my hip before her fist smashed into my nose.
A jet of water flew toward us, infused with the perfumed scent of Symeon’s magic. I kicked her legs out from under her, and we hit the ground. If I told Symeon not to use magic, he’d want to know why. And if he learned she was Fireborn, he’d connect the dots.
The taste of sugar cookies assaulted me as Snow cast another spell. When she stood upright, I realized she’d finished healing herself. She threw a ball of lightning at Adam before running toward Symeon. He didn’t have the chance to cast another spell before her knuckles slammed into his eyes. I winced. If they were as bony as mine, he was a blind man.
He toppled against the hardwood floor while she turned back to us. I moved first, Adam on my tail. My magic wasn’t controlled enough to hit someone as quick as her, so I drew my sword. Hers followed in a flash, blocking mine with a loud clang.
Adam hit next, thrusting his leg out and catching her shoulder. She grunted at the impact, the sound so soft I wouldn’t have heard it if I hadn’t been so close. I remembered my dream. Adam’s kick wasn’t much compared to what she’d suffered.
I shook my head. This was not the time to feel sorry for her. White flashed before my eyes. I hit the ground, grabbing the back of Adam’s shirt. He fell with me, narrowly escaping an ice blast to the face.
Kicking out, I hit her knee. She buckled but didn’t fall. Her fingers laced into my hair, and she tossed me aside before throwing another blast of ice at Adam. This one hit him in the shoulder, and I couldn’t help thinking she’d aimed there on purpose.
Her next blast of water hit his chest. He soaked the full hit before smashing his fist into her face. She stepped back, throwing a bolt of lightning in return. He spasmed on impact, electricity dancing across his drenched body, before dropping to the ground.
I ran for him, but Snow backhanded me mid-step. Geez. What was she, the Terminator? A ray of lightning flew by me, crashing into Symeon, who’d been pulling himself up.
“You seem surprised,” she said.
Who wouldn’t be? She took out two guys, one of whom was ranked the most powerful mage in the world, with nary a sweat. “Being Fireborn is cheating.”
The resemblance made it hard to keep eye contact. We looked exactly the same. Twins? Wouldn’t I remember a sister? I didn’t remember anything else. Why should this be any different? It would explain why my heart felt like it was breaking whenever I sensed her magic.
She tilted her head just like she had on that mountain. “I wasn’t aware I had a choice in the matter.”
Even without the mask to change her voice, she sounded cold and robotic. I wanted to make an evil clone joke, but couldn’t force out the words. “Why are you here?”
“Why are you here? More importantly, why are you holding back?” Anger coated her words. “Your punch should have shattered my ribs, but it barely cracked two.” Her brown eyes scrutinized me, and I wondered if I looked that scary eyeing someone up. “Your magic is fluctuating around you, uncontrolled. You never had that problem before, so what’s causing it now?”
I stuttered as she twirled her sword around. “Um…. Well, believe it or not, I don’t usually sneak up on assassins—”
“You didn’t sneak up on me.”
“—who are wearing my face.”
She raised a single, unimpressed brow. Her ice queen demeanor hadn’t cracked, but I swore her lips twitched into a frown for the shortest of seconds. “Your face? Did you file a patent? California living has changed you, sister.”
Sister. It shouldn’t have been a shock, but…. “Sister?”
The frown lingered this time, and her eyes darkened. “Take your man and leave. I did not come for you.”
“Whoa, wait. You don’t drop a bomb like that on me and just—” I sidestepped an ice spear. “What do you want with Symeon anyway?”
“Leave or die.”
I met her eyes, ignoring the pain in my chest. Did she feel the same way around me? “If you wanted to kill me, you wouldn’t have healed me in New Zealand.”
We must’ve been sisters, because my words were immediately viewed as a challenge. I dodged another ice spear, but was stopped mid-sprint by a blast of frost. It froze my leg, trapping it in ice. I shivered, once again thankful I couldn’t normally feel cold. No wonder people bundled up so much in the winter.
My magic wouldn’t hurt me, so I shot a burst of fire from my hand and watched the ice go from water to steam. I threw another burst at Snow, but she washed it away with a wave of water.
The wave dissipated in time for me to see the fist flying at my face. I felt its wind pass my nose as I stepped back. Twisting my hips, I kicked her in the chest before flipping around and giving her another hit. She caught my ankle and pulled, knocking me off my feet.
My nose and temple cracked against the hardwood floors. Snow gripped my knee with her free hand and lifted me up before slamming me back down. She gave me one more slam, then flipped me over to lay a barrage of kicks against my skull. Either my words had really stung, or I’d been a bully as a kid, because she didn’t let up until I felt like I’d died twice.
Black crept along the edges of my vision as I watched her turn and walk to Symeon, twirling her sword once more. I threw a fireball at her, but my condition caused me to miss. It veered off course, knocking the sword from her hand.
Snow sighed and summoned a lightning sword. Why didn’t she summon her weapon back? I looked at her bare hands. Where was her ring? Electricity crackled around her fingers as she stopped in front of Symeon. The way she stood over him reminded me of New Zealand. Her sword had pressed against my neck, and I was sure she was going to kill me. Instead, she’d saved my life. I didn’t think she’d be as kind to Symeon.
I threw another fireball, but it flew farther than my last and scorched the potted plant a few feet away. There was no chance of hitting her in my current state. Everything was getting darker, leaving nothing but thin waves flowing before my eyes.
Her magic, I realized.
My head felt like it’d been stomped on by a thousand raging bulls — or one pissed off Fireborn — making concentration feel impossible. Suddenly, I was that little girl again, failing to do as her master wanted. Except this time, I didn’t have the threat of pain and death looming over my head.
