Agent of Magic Box Set

by Melissa Hawke

  My injured arm felt like it had been thrust in a jungle’s worth of poison ivy. The skin stretched tight and puckered, trying to heal the damage I’d done to it in the tunnel. All it was succeeding in doing was driving me to distraction. My arm itched like it was a colony for fire ants.

  The phone rang several times before Declan answered. He sounded calmer than he had last time, which I took as a good sign.

  “Who’s this? How’d you get this number?”

  “It’s me, Valdez. I know it’s asking a lot, Declan, but could I get a transport out of here? Dom and I sort of blew up a Paris street and we need to vanish before Trust officials come to investigate.”

  Declan was silent for so long I thought the call had dropped. I was about to hang the phone in its cradle when he spoke.

  “You did what, now?”

  I lowered my voice still further and hoped that Declan would be able to hear me. I definitely didn’t want to be picked up by mortal or Trust authorities in connection to this debacle. In an era of rampant suspicion it was likely to be perceived as an act of terror. I’d already been branded as an assassin and a dangerous outlaw. I didn’t want to start living up to my infamy.

  “We had to make a detour to the catacombs. We fought vampires in one of the sealed off corridors and things…got a little out of hand. The street collapsed into the tunnel and we’re probably being tracked. Can we please, please have a transport now?”

  Declan burst out laughing.

  “What are you laughing at McCarty? This isn’t funny!”

  Declan’s guffaw was so loud I had to draw the phone away from my ear. Even at a distance, his laugh was still audible. The last time I’d heard him laugh this much, we’d been in a seedy magic bar and smack in the middle of the Dublin Incident.

  I waited for his mirth to peter out before pressing the phone back to my ear. “Are you done?”

  “That is the funniest damn thing I’ve heard in days, Valdez.”

  “So glad I could amuse you. Can I please have that transport? It’s a seven-hour journey if we try to arrive by motor vehicle and I have a few civilians with me. I don’t think they’re going to fare well if Dom and I end up in another firefight.”

  The acerbic note in my voice was impossible to miss, even if you didn’t speak any English at all. The clerk behind the counter paused in the monotonous task of restocking a shelf to stare at me. I tore my gaze away from his hastily, directing it at the floor.

  Declan sobered at my pronouncement. “More people? I’m not sure we have any room, Nat. The space beneath the mountain is about as big as your average garage and we’re already at capacity. The Barbegazi won the battle with the Trust after they forced the issue. Really shoddy mages, they must have been. They’ve taken up most of the space dragging in the choppers.

  “How many people are there already?”

  “Well there’s Dawson, and she takes up two chambers all by herself. I swear she’s worse than an alchemist, always scribbling away in her notebooks and fiddling with her chemistry set. She’s tried explaining the math to me and I went a bit cross-eyed.”

  A rueful chuckle escaped me. I knew the feeling.

  “Who else?”

  “Well there’s your neighbor, Miss Jones, your grumpy house spirit and an illegal dragon. Landon knew that your home would be the first target for the vampires if they didn’t manage to capture you. He didn’t want to leave them any hostages. Plus, the little guy was the one who told us about this place. Thought we could lay low for a while, but that was before the siege.”

  Shit. I hadn’t spared a thought for Phyllis, Horst, and Halcyon for days. The hardscrabble survival game we’d been forced to play had dominated my thoughts since arriving on Wolf Isle. I was glad someone had the foresight to get them out of the line of fire. Bad enough that the vampires still held Cat. If they’d managed to snatch my neighbor and my two demi-human companions, they’d have all the threads that tied me to sanity.

  Well, all but one.

  I glanced out the window where Dom lounged, pretending to read a newspaper on the bench outside. Fabian and Sophia were both slumped over a small plastic table, asleep. We’d wake them if I managed to secure a transport from Declan.

  “We’ll sleep on the floor if we have to,” I said, peering uneasily into the growing dawn. People were starting to walk by, and a light across the street flickered on as another store opened. Someone would be coming for us soon. There had surely been cameras somewhere on the street we’d destroyed. How long was it going to take for the authorities to pin this on us? It wasn’t exactly like we blended in. I was still wearing the skirt and blouse the vampires had given me, though I’d managed to grab a black jacket that barely concealed my new firearms. Dom’s hair was comically spiked and erratic, like he’d just stuck a fork in a socket. Not to mention we were half covered in vampire blood and a heavy layer of dust. I shook some sediment off my shoulders and smiled sweetly at the baker.

  “Alright. Give me your coordinates and I’ll do my best. We’re in a lull between attacks at the moment, but we might have incoming. Those bastards are persistent. The Barbegazi are on their way here to negotiate a deal. We may be able to get their help with the feckers outside.”

  My stomach did an uneasy roll. I didn’t fancy facing off against Volkar again. The last time we’d met I’d pretty much scampered for the hills, doing my best to catch the plane back home. The Barbegazi leader hadn’t given me time to explain the feud going on between myself and Findlay, nor had I been forward-thinking enough to see what I could do to repair the slight with his tribe. Something told me a simple apology was no longer going to cut it.

  I relayed a set of coordinates to Declan and then bought a long baguette and a tiny styrofoam cup of espresso to pacify the clerk before stepping out.

  “Did you get a hold of him?” Dom asked, not setting the paper down. The gas station had at least two cameras trained on the parking lot. I hid my face behind the high collar of my overcoat.

  “I did. We should expect a transport in the next five minutes. They’re under Monte Rosa at the moment, so the enchanted vault could interfere. It’s going to be a shaky transition and he can only get us near the entrance. If there’s someone waiting there for us, that’s our problem.”

  Dominic nodded. “Fair enough. In that case, I’ll go through first. My weapons are a little less obvious than yours. And I’m pretty sure that the clerk will call the authorities if he sees you wielding a gun.”

  “Right.”

  I busied myself rousing Sophia and Fabian while he rummaged in his pack to produce his electrode and gun combination. If there was anything waiting for us on the other end of the parking lot, it was in for a nasty shock the moment it tried to jump us.

  Sophia insisted on being hoisted into my arms and cradled there. She couldn’t seem to get enough of touching me. I wasn’t sure if it was a reaction to the two-year isolation, or if I’d managed to make a positive impression on the girl somewhere in the midst of this mess. We shuffled our way to the far side of the gas station and waited in the shadows for Declan to hold up his end of the bargain, ducking when a police car flew past us with flashing lights.

  As he’d warned, it took nearly five minutes for the golden circle to form in the air. Sophia watched it form in wide-eyed wonder and grinned when she was allowed to stick her hand through briefly. She examined the handful of snowflakes she’d been able to snatch. My heart constricted painfully. This was her first time seeing snow. And both of her parents were missing it.

  Sophia frowned when her flakes dissolved into tiny water droplets on her palm. “They’re gone.”

  “There’s more where that came from. Come on, I’ll show you.”

  Dom shouldered his way to the front of the group and crossed over to the Swiss Alps. I stuck a foot into the golden archway before it could snap shut behind him. Dominic didn’t appear to be sparking up like Thor at the moment, so I thought it was probably sa
fe to step through after him, dragging my entourage with me.

  Stepping from Paris in the spring to the snowy entrance of Monte Rosa was like being plunged suddenly into an ice bath. The temperature plus windchill had to be well below freezing. The flimsy pirate overcoat wasn’t cutting it and I cursed Dom’s moral streak. He’d soundly rejected the idea of breaking into someone’s home to stock up on provisions. A winter coat would have been welcome right about now. Hell, I’d have settled for a scarf and some gloves. I was wearing a goddamned skirt for fuck’s sake.

  Sophia’s entire body shuddered and she locked her arms around my neck in a vice. The catacombs had been cold, but she’d had a heater and blankets in her cell. Here she only had me for warmth. Beside me, Fabian muttered a French curse that was too rapid for me to catch.

  We made our way up the slope with excruciating slowness, Dom and I struggling to keep Fabian upright on the slippery ground. When we finally reached the entrance, we were panting and out of breath. The door would have been hard to spot if you didn’t know exactly where to look for it. Entirely formed of glittering ice, it blended in with the powdery drifts of snow gathering at the base of the mountain. Dom tried the knob and cursed when it didn’t budge from our end. He raised a hand and pounded on the door.

  “Let us in you Irish prick,” he growled. “Right near the entrance my ass, it was at least a mile away!”

  “Don’t antagonize him, Dom,” I hissed. “Do you want to end up in the desert instead?”

  “It would be warmer, at least.”

  The door creaked open a minute later and Declan McCarty stuck his head out. I could have kissed every inch of his handsome face. His strong jawline was shaded with more than its usual amount of dark stubble. If he didn’t shave it soon, it would bloom into a full-blown beard. His Caribbean blue eyes would normally have filled me with a longing to be someplace warm and topless, downing Mai Tais.

  “Well, what are you dawdling out here for? Come inside.”

  He swung the door open wider and all but pushed us into the chamber beneath Monte Rosa.

  The interior was warmer, for which I was grateful. I’d been considering asking Valerius for some extra warmth, but I didn’t trust him not to flamebroil my allies. As we’d been warned, the place was cramped. The walls of the cavern were made of the same icy substance as the door, though it was not slick or cold, thankfully. I sat Fabian down in the first available space and asked him to take Sophia for just a while.

  “Where is everybody?” I asked. I wasn’t sure where Phyllis had been put up, but the urge to find her was strong. It felt like a lifetime since I’d spilled my guts to my kindly neighbor. I had so much to tell her.

  “You can catch up with your friends later,” Declan said. “Everyone’s waiting for you.”

  “Fine, but get me up to speed,” I said. “What exactly am I up against?”

  “Since you and Dom apparently went rogue and took out Sienna, the Trust are operating under the assumption that Elle reverted to her former ways and is brewing a plague that will annihilate all supernaturals.”

  “But that’s not true, she’s making a cure!”

  “She’s made a cure,” Declan corrected, grinning bitterly. “But it’s too much to transport. The Barbegazi commandeered a helicopter during an earlier squirmish, but we can’t get out of here without breaking the siege. House Lamonia offered a contingent of his troops to join the Trust forces outside. They’ll bury us under this mountain rather than risk the cure getting out. We need the Barbegazi’s help, but most of them would rather turn us over to the Trust.”

  “I doubt I’ll be much help,” I muttered.

  “They’re no friends of the Trust,” Declan said. “That’s one of the reasons they let us in. once we told them we were fugitives and the Trust wanted us dead, they were very willing to thumb their noses at the forces outside. That is, until you arrived. Now they want all of us gone.”

  “Figures,” I said, cracking my fingers. They’d probably use this opportunity to squeeze an apology out of me. Guess it was time to eat some crow.

  The path branched several times along the journey, but Declan kept walking straight, leading us toward the light issuing forth from the last room in the tunnels. Heated voices came from inside.

  I projected more confidence than I felt and was grateful. My mentor Roland had taught me that diplomacy was a lot like poker. Even if your hand was shit, you had to act like you were in charge. So long as I came out of the room with my head still attached, I’d consider it a win. Squaring my shoulders, I marched ahead of Dom and into the makeshift conference room.

  Twelve people had crowded into a room with roughly the dimensions of a sardine can. Most of them I recognized. There were five people from Landon’s crew, and of course, the man himself, pressed shoulder to shoulder on one side. On the other sat six Barbegazi. All of them had long beards and small eyes, and the perpetually blue-tinged skin. It was the largest of them that drew my attention and made my act falter.

  Volkar’s snowy beard reached its knees, even braided and festooned with glittering beads of ice. Shaggy eyebrows obscured most of his brow and shadowed his eyes. Even so, I got the impression he was glaring at me.

  He barked something at me and I didn’t need Dom’s hasty translation to know I was being ordered to sit.

  Obligingly, I sat down in the only free chair at the table and swiveled to face the Barbegazi leader.

  “Hey there handsome,” I said. “Long time no see.”

  chapter

  21

  “LET’S CUT TO THE CHASE, Volkar.” I said. “What must we do to gain the aid of the Barbegazi?”

  I smoothed my hands over my already ruined clothing. I hadn’t exactly come into this ready to negotiate. I looked like I’d crawled out of the gutter, not come out of a battle victorious.

  The stony-faced Barbegazi leader glared at me. “You cannot return our ancient manuscripts to us, I presume? It was because of you they were destroyed.”

  Dom’s translation of the man’s words lacked the venom the creature had managed to inject into them. Still, I couldn’t help but wince. Findlay had lit the match, but the burning of their ancient library had been a message meant for me. In accordance with most demi-human laws, it made me at least somewhat culpable.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t return what’s been loss. I assure you that I will do what is within my power to make amends to your people. If Dom and I manage to live through this, we will make this right.”

  “This is mage business,” one of the other Barbegazi grumbled. “It doesn’t concern us. You must leave.”

  “Sure,” Dom smiled. “We’re planning to. Just loan us a helicopter and help us clear the siege outside and we’ll be out of your hair.”

  Volkar grimaced, tugging at his white beard. I had a feeling Dom’s colloquialism had gotten lost in translation.

  “Listen the Trust isn’t perfect,” I said, leaning across the table, “but its mission is pure. Peace and safety, for all races. Right now, however, it’s under attack. The Trust is being infiltrated by vampire loyalists, warped to do their bidding. If we don’t stop it now, it’s going to get a lot worse, for everybody. The vampires won’t rest until they have complete dominion over every other race. But we’re fighting back. We’re the only chance you’ve got. Helping us today may be the only chance to save your people.”

  “I want your oath,” Volkar said, leaning so far across the table that the ice in his beard clicked against the wood.

  I balked. An oath? Holy shit. It was a generally held as gospel that you didn’t let the fae wrest an oath from you. It was second only to the first and most disastrous thing you could do. Give a fae your name. If something knew your true name, the precise inflection of it, they could use it against you. One could be trapped as a slave to a dark fae if they told their name to the wrong person. It was why I hadn’t bothered to make Volkar use mine when we’d met. I didn’t think he had the mag
ical juice to enslave me, especially now, but it wasn’t worth taking the risk.

  “An oath?” I repeated. “Why do you want an oath?”

  Volkar’s pale face scrunched up into an expression of dislike. “Because it is the only way that I can trust you will follow through on your word. Trust abuses have been going on for long enough. You will champion not only our cause, but the cause of every demi-human that has been wronged by your bloated bureaucracy.”

  “I’m not a politician,” I hedged. “You want my sister. She’s already campaigning for what you’re asking for. Or she was. If you just allow us to use one of your captured helicopters, we could rescue her. It might take some time, but things will get better, I promise.”

  Volkar stood, pressing his hands flat against the wooden table. A necklace of bones and teeth rattled when he moved. “I do not want your sister’s oath. I want yours. If you wish to take the spoils from the war that we won, you will at least pledge yourself to aid us. Or is your hesitation because you are too disgusted by us to deign to promise us just treatment?”

  “That’s not it!” I shouted, belatedly forgetting that this was supposed to be a negotiation. “I’m not disgusted by you, Volkar. I’m just impatient. The longer I wait, the more chances the vampires have to kill my sister. Forgive me for not looking at the wider picture at the moment. I just want to be sure she’s safe.”

  Volkar stared me down. “You have a debt to be paid. You will not leave until it’s settled. Give me your oath and you may seek out your sister with our blessing.”

  I bit my lip, staring down at the wood grain rather than at the Barbegazi. Every inch of my body rebelled against giving him my oath. I wasn’t sure if it was simple pride, or if Valerius was trying to tell me something. But I didn’t see many options. They had defeated the Trust, for now. But they’d be back. If we wanted to make it back to Wolf Isle in time to do the werewolves any good, we had to get going soon. Our detour to the catacomb had cost us a day we didn’t have. Lamonia had to know we were gone. And if he knew that, Cat could be in danger.