Markus butted in, leaning forward in his chair, his fingers gripping the arms. “You should have told me! At least now I understand why you were so protective of Julia. I thought you wanted a challenge teaching her to overcome her magic resistance.”
“Wait, you knew? You knew I was magic resistance?!” Julia all but yelled at Markus. Her fist clenched, itching to take her anger and the stress of hiding all those years out on him.
Now she understood why he didn’t look surprised when she declared her hated status. She hadn’t even thought about Markus’ reaction. He could’ve killed her with ease if he hadn't known.
And she would’ve been dead before anyone stopped him.
“But remember, always remember, this is what happens to magic resistant mages. There is no second chance.
“That’s why you told me to remember.” She whispered as the memory slithered into her mind. “You knew.”
Markus raised a questioning eyebrow and Jackson covered her clenched fist with his hand. She rested her head on his shoulder as she explained. “When I was in my teens, I had a friend, Irene. Magic resistant like me. I’m not sure how, but they found out. She wasn’t an Enforcer and avoided taking the tests. I didn’t realize she was resistant until they beheaded her.”
Swallowing the hard lump in her throat, taking comfort from Jackson, she continued, “You found me, Markus, took me away. And you told me to remember what happens. You were cautioning me cause you knew.”
She straightened, pulling away from Jackson as she stared at Markus. Not by a flicker did he betray guilt or remorse, no care over lying to her.
Hypocrite. Her shoulders slumped a little. She was a raging hypocrite. Her entire life, she’d done the same.
Her parents and siblings still had no idea and hopefully never would. She trusted them to protect her, but she didn’t want the weight of responsibility on them, smothering them as surely as it smothered her.
Another thought floated to the surface, the one she tried to grasp while lying between life and death. “That’s how you knew what to look for when we dropped the barrier. Something was off to me about the whole situation, but I couldn’t put a finger on it. I can’t believe you’ve known!”
“Since the day Keeper introduced us, just after they tested you. We both concealed the results. He said he wanted to teach you magic.” Markus glared at Keeper, his black eyes snapping in quiet rage, menace oozing from him. “He told me nothing about him being resistant or about being related to you.”
“Well, doesn’t it feel horrible to be lied to? I have no damn sympathy for you. Neither one of you had the right to lie to me about something so important.” She raged at both of them.
Rounding on Markus, she spit out, “Do you realize how many times I wanted to talk to you, Markus, about my lack of abilities? But I didn’t because I mistakenly thought you didn’t know anything about it.”
She turned on Keeper, furious anger dripping from her words. “And how could you keep your magic resistant and being my grandfather from me? Why? Why did you do that?”
“I knew what a burden it was for you to keep silent about yourself. I didn’t want to add to that. Imagine trying to hide from everyone that the Keeper was resistant. As a small child, it would have been tempting to use it as proof resistant didn’t mean powerless or evil. One slip and we both would have died. Or at least, many would have died trying to take me out."
He leaned back in his chair, running a tired hand across his face. Weariness and sorrow palpable from him. Dragging his hand through his hair, he glanced at each of them, resolve hardening his face.
“Do you three remember the mage, Gregori? The one who caused the war on resistant mages back in the late 1500s?” When they all nodded, he continued, his voice thick with anguish. “He was my son and I killed him.”
“Oh shit. You had to kill your son?” Julia covered her mouth, horrified. Bad enough having a war waged by flesh and blood, but to kill him to end the war?
“I didn’t know I had a son until he was well into his first century of life. His mother hid him from me, disappeared without a word to me about her pregnancy. Imagine my shock when he showed up one day with his heavily pregnant wife, Geneva. She was having twins. Which meant, depending on the superstitions you believed, she had laid with a demon or the Fae added one of their own children into her womb." He broke off, his fingers digging into the leather arm of his chair. His face stayed calm, no indication of the livid rage Julia sensed in him.
“She’d had a difficult time with the pregnancy and the mage doctors refused to help her, worried about what she carried. Her main issue was malnutrition. She wasn’t getting enough fresh vegetables in her diet, not all that uncommon for the sixteenth century. With my position as Keeper, I had access to a wide variety of food and the twins were born a few months later, fully healthy. I didn’t realize until centuries later how lucky we were for their births. Most twins don’t make it to full term or there are complications during the labour. The twins were fine and so was their mother.
“However, postpartum depression wasn’t something we understood back then. She didn’t touch the twins unless she had to, didn’t respond to their cries, didn’t acknowledge them. She withdrew into herself and nothing we did reached her. A year after their birth, she drowned herself. Just walked into the river and never came back out."
He closed his eyes and Julia's heart ached for him. What should've been a happy time for him turned into a nightmare. A moment of silence passed as he struggled with the memories. When he opened his eyes, they were bright with unshed tears.
“Gregori went crazy. Blamed the mages for ignoring her, for putting fears into her head about the babies. Soon after, he started killing them. When it was clear the mages couldn’t stop him, I had to step in. No one knew he was my son, no one knew the twins had survived. So I hunted him down. I tried to reason with him initially, but he didn’t want to listen. He said vengeance was the only thing he had left now. Looking at the twins tortured him, reminded of all he'd lost, of his darling wife Geneva. I had no choice. I walked up to my only child and I put a knife into his heart. His shielding had run out and he’d been vulnerable. I killed my only son.” Silent tears fell and Keeper took a few moments to pull himself together.
Julia openly wept for his pain, fat tears streaking down her cheeks and dripping onto her chest. Still angry at him for his deception, she understood now why he did it.
No one spoke for several minutes, each lost in their own thoughts. Julia held tight to Jackson’s hand, grateful for his strength and resilience.
Not wanting to open the old wounds any deeper, but needing to know, she asked “What happened to the twins? I’ve never heard anything about you having children.”
Taking a deep breath, he scrubbed away the tears. “I had to give the twins away. I never told the adopted parents who they were or what happened to their parents. Thankfully, they were fraternal twins, so it was easy to pass them off as siblings. The girl was magic resistant and your great-grandmother. She was able to pass as a dabbler. The boy was an average mage. You’re the only other resistant one in our line. For a rare genetic anomaly, it had a field day with our family.”
Keeper sighed, a little more peaceful. “They had a happy childhood. I stopped by regularly stating I was a friend of their parents. I made sure they wanted for nothing.”
She smiled, thinking of her great-grandmother and great-uncle. Both had married early in life, each having several children with their spouses. Julia’s family sprawled across Canada, numbering in the hundreds thanks to aunts, uncles, cousins and in-laws. Once a year, they had a reunion, spearheaded by her great-grandmother.
Mulling over the past events, a niggling question in the back of her mind distracted her, demanding her attention.
“Markus said you found a way to trace me, one I can’t shake. How’d you do it?”
“When you were younger, we preformed the ritual for a blood bond. I used it to track you when no on
e else could.” Keeper confessed.
“That’s illegal! Blood bonds are outlawed. Has been for centuries.” Jackson exclaimed.
“So is being magic resistant. Either way, I’m dead.” Keeper retorted. “If they found a way to kill me, that is. I needed to know my granddaughter was safe and I don’t care what rules I broke.”
Julia sighed and figured it didn’t hurt her. When they’d preformed the ritual so long ago, she’d been unaware of its purpose. Didn’t matter though, she trusted him. She doubted he’d ever use it against her. He’d put a lot of time and energy into keeping her safe. Plus, what was one more secret amongst so many others.
Which reminded her of another point to discuss.
“What about the other thing?” She asked him. “Jackson already guessed I can do it, but that’s all I’ve told him.”
“Only you and I know about it. Well, now Jackson too, I guess.” Keeper confirmed her fears.
More lies, more hiding, more skeletons dancing in the closet. When would it stop? She didn’t expect to tell the world. She wasn’t stupid or suicidal. These men though, she trusted with her life. No matter how angry she was with them, they loved her and deserved the truth.
The lies ended now. Time to come clean.
“I want your permission to tell. I want you to release me from the promise.”
Understanding spread across Jackson’s face and his brown eyes lit up in wonder and excitement. Quick on the upkeep, he figured out Keeper had taught her.
Keeper nodded reluctantly. While he’d rather this stayed under wraps, there was no reason to hide it from Markus. Staying silent about her resistance, covering it up and modifying the tests showed how far he’d go to protect her. When he consumed part of his life force to heal her, he’d proven his loyalty. Once given, it was forever.
“Jackson already knows some of this and now suspects the rest. Markus, what do you know about imbued items?” She asked.
“No one’s imbued any items for the past two centuries or more. I had some as a child, but they’ve since lost their magic. The art itself forgotten over the centuries.”
Julia removed her emerald stud earring and handed it to Markus. She hasn’t used any of its Glide spell and it hummed with energy. He gave her a puzzled look as he extended his hand which rapidly changed to amazement when he realized what he held.
“This is imbued! How did you get one with several charges? Who recently made it?” He closely examined the earring although she wasn’t sure what he expected to find.
No logo or manufacturer's stamp adorned it. No magic signature either. After the imbuing, any personal signature disappeared. There was no difference between her items and Keeper’s. They both felt the same to anyone examining them.
“I did it. In fact, it would have been about 3 months ago I put the spell into that earring. Took me over a decade to learn how to do it, but I was sworn to secrecy about the imbuing. I’m sure you can guess by whom.”
Markus tilted his head towards Keeper and gave him a silent glare.
How much damage did these revelations cause their friendship? Julia wondered.
“Can you teach me, now that you’re released from your promise?” Jackson questioned, his expression hopeful. She wondered how long it would take for him to ask. She bit her lip to keep from smiling. He was adorably predictable when it came to learning something new.
Julia hated dashing his dreams though and gave him an apologetic smile as she replied, “I’m not able to train anyone as to how it’s done. Honestly, I don’t think I’d be able to train anyone even if Keeper would let me. It’s a complicated process and I’m not surprised it’s a dying art.”
Keeper interrupted, “It’s a dying art because the ones who can do it are almost all dead. Only magic resistant mages can imbue. There’s something about the way magic interacts with us that allows the item to accept the spell. Normal mages have too much power and overload the gem. They’ll consistently break. I don’t completely understand the reasons why we can do it and the other mages can’t, but that’s the way it is. I’ve tried to train many mages over the years and only the magic resistant ones can do it. Of course, after the wholesale slaughter of our kind, there haven’t been many to train. It’s been over a hundred years since I’ve had the chance to teach it. Julia's been an apt pupil. She learned faster than others."
When she snorted in disbelief, he continued, "It's true. Most took over twenty years to learn. You took just over ten. Sadly you may be the last one I'll teach. There’re so few of us left and most are living as humans, hiding their heritage. Many don’t bother practicing magic as they don’t want to draw attention to themselves. As long as they stay away from Enforcers, they’re etheric won’t betray them. Civilian mages aren’t well versed in sensing other races. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a few of them although they had no idea who I was. I didn’t want to scare them into deeper hider or let the Coterie know where they were. At least some of us survived the hatred and bigotry of our race.”
The pain in his eyes tugged at her. He’d live through so much, witnessed countless deaths and survived wars. Reaching out, she squeezed his hand. A hug would’ve been uncomfortable.
They didn’t have that kind of relationship, no matter that he was her grandfather. She doubted it would change any time soon as their kinship needed to stay hidden. An emotional and physical distance needed to be maintained.
Chapter Thirty
“SO, DOES ANYONE else have anything to share? You know, since we’re having so much fun with circle time.” Jackson asked, trying to break some of the heavy sadness that hung in the air.
Grimly, Markus half-raised his hand, indicating he did. Casually leaning back, legs sprawled, he fiddled with the emerald earring. An air of somber detachment made him more sinister than usual.
“What? I was kidding. Seriously, don’t tell me.” When Markus continued to stare at him, he had a bad feeling this didn’t have anything to do with Julia.
“I don’t want to hear this, do I?” He sighed, wishing this day was over already. He scrubbed at his face before leaning back on the couch. What bad news would Markus impart? Did he really want to hear it? In bed with Julia, reassured she was truly safe and whole, that’s all he wanted. Was that too much to ask?
Markus jumped right into it, not by a flicker of an eyelash did he betray the impact of his words. “I’m the one who framed you for the demon summoning.”
At first, Jackson didn’t comprehend what he said, it was so outlandish. His mouth hung open, completely shocked.
Then the rage took over.
Blinded by it, the urge to rip Markus apart overwhelmed him. “What?! You son of a bitch! Do you have any idea the hell I’ve gone through? I’m gonna fucking kill you!”
Jackson lunged for him and found himself unable to move. Damn it! He’d forgotten how powerful Markus was. Less than a second and he’d casted a hold spell. The fire faded from Markus’ eyes as he stared, solemn and unimpressed, at the now frozen Jackson.
“Is this true?” Julia demanded, whirling to face Markus.
“Of course it’s true. I wouldn’t have said it otherwise.” Markus was quite calm, as if they were discussing the weather and not a huge betrayal.
“Why? Why would you do that to him? I thought you were friends. He’s spent the past year hiding, looking over his shoulder, trusting few people. I did it for two weeks and my nerves are shot. I can’t imagine doing it for so long. You’re a heartless bastard. I don’t think I can ever forgive you for this.”
A living statue, eyes locked onto Markus, Jackson noticed the twinge of anguish before it disappeared. Markus must have known how she’d react and yet he still told her. Cold logic tried to force the rage from Jackson, yet he wasn’t willing to let it go. What possible reason could he have for betraying him, throwing him to the wolves like that? It hurt, it deeply hurt that Markus considered him expendable.
“I knew he’d survive. He was digging too deep, get
ting too close and if he continued, they would’ve eliminated him. No, not by me.” He clarified when Julia snorted in anger at that statement. “I’ve been working this investigation for several years now. It’s top-secret and deep undercover. It’s never been what you thought. The demons are here of their own volition. They’ve giving out the names for summoning in order to get a deeper foothold into Earth’s politics. Some are also here as punishment. They betrayed their masters and their name is then given to a mage for them to become a slave. A humiliating punishment. At the beck and call of a lowly race. However, some of them have also been stealing vampire blood and selling it to anyone who would buy it.
“With my work in illusions, it’s easy for me fool others into believing I’m someone else. I’ve managed to split myself into two places at once. Finally I’m at the point where I’m in contact with some of the higher level people. And I say ‘people’ loosely. Jackson was jeopardizing the whole mission because he’s too damn smart and stubborn. He kept digging and it caused panic. In order to keep him alive, I modified the video to show him as the summoner. Forced him into hiding, to go underground. If our people couldn’t get to him then neither could anyone else.”
“You haven’t mentioned any of this investigation before to me. Do the lies ever stop? I don’t even know who you are!” The anger in Julia almost rivaled the fury in Jackson. “Tell me about this investigation. You destroyed his career, put his life in danger and he lost a year to this. We want answers, now.”
Julia impressed him with the strength in her voice. Hard to believe she had less power than Markus and yet was fully willing to go up against him.
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