High Stakes (Codex Blair Book 6)

by Izzy Shows

  “The cards are always stacked against me,” I said, grinning. It was a genuine smile, for once. “There’s no such thing as fair play in the real world, with the real monsters. I’ve had two years of training on the streets to learn that lesson.”

  “No, but...” He sighed. “There should be a difference between the High Council and the monsters you fight out in the streets.”

  “Maybe, but at the end of the day, there wasn’t.” A corner of my lips lifted, and I arched an eyebrow. “So, what are things going to look like with you in London?”

  “Not so different from what they looked like before.”

  Both of my eyebrows went up at that. “What do you mean?”

  He leaned forward again. “I mean, I’m not going to be taking on a big role here. I want you to maintain your visibility, possibly even grow it. My intention is for you to take over London when you attain your title of Wizard, and for me to go back to America. It’ll be a harder transition for you if I take over things now, and then you have to reinstate yourself. It’ll be much easier if you just continue as you have been, and I keep a low profile.”

  I held back the sigh of relief that immediately jumped to my lips, but only barely. “That’s good. I’ll admit, I was worried about that.”

  “I know. London is your baby, and it’ll stay that way. I’ll help when you need it, of course, but you’ll be taking lead on most things.”

  I nodded. “And my training?”

  He grinned. “Lots of books, to start with. We need to correct some of the habits Aidan beat into you and that you’ve picked up on your own. Let’s get started.”

  I was excited to learn what lived in the books I’d never been given access to--and simultaneously, I was disappointed that it was just going to be books for now. I lived for the fight. Combat magic was something I excelled at and wanted more of.

  But I had to follow his lead for the training.

  Let’s get started, indeed.

  Two

  We migrated to his library.

  Who the hell has their own private library?

  I was surprised by the size of his house—you’d think that someone staying in London part-time would be staying in a flat, or a hotel, but Diego had apparently set up residence in London.

  The library was impressive. It had walls of books, and I wanted to open every single one of them and learn their secrets.

  “We’ll start with this one,” he said, then walked to one wall and pulled out a tome. He crossed the room back to me and handed it over.

  I took one look at the title and groaned. Herbs and Their Uses. “Are you serious?”

  He arched an eyebrow. “Are you going to fight with me from the get-go?”

  It took all of my power not to growl at him. Instead, I stomped over to an overstuffed chair and took a seat, then opened the book. “This is going to be so boring,” I said, more to myself than to him.

  “I never said it was going to be exciting.”

  “We can’t start with something a little more--I don’t know, something with oomph?”

  “No.” He selected another book and took a seat across from me. “You need to learn discipline, and for you, that means forgoing combat for the moment and sticking your nose in a book.”

  I muttered some choice obscenities and stared down at the opening page.

  It didn’t take long for the words to start to blur together. They were just as boring as I’d thought they’d be, and I didn’t want to keep reading. All sorts of nonsense about what this herb could do and that that this plant was poisonous and not to consume it.

  Information about where they grew and what potions one could make from them.

  Bullshit about how to nurture the plants so you could start your own herbal garden.

  I knew, in my heart, that this was important information and that it would actually be useful to me. If I could start my own garden, then I wouldn’t need to keep going to see Lillai whenever I needed this herb or that herb, but I just didn’t care. I wanted to throw the book at the wall and curl up in the chair and take a nap.

  “Aidan didn’t think there was much value in reading books,” I said quietly, darting a look over at Diego.

  He lifted his eyebrows but didn’t look at me. “Aidan had a lot of thoughts about books, but you’re correct. He didn’t put stock in them. I do. You’re not learning from Aidan anymore.”

  “A book isn’t going to save my arse in a fight.” I parroted Aidan’s words at Diego. There had been a time when I had argued with Aidan that I should be reading books instead of learning how to make a shield. But my opinion on that had long since changed; that had been two years and a buttload of fighting ago.

  Now, I put stock in combat magic and knowing how to keep myself alive.

  “Certain herbs might, but you wouldn’t know about that if you hadn’t read that book.”

  “What herb is going to save my life in a fight?” I snapped the book shut, glaring at him.

  Now, he raised his eyes to meet mine, and I saw a dangerous glint in them.

  “Blair, did I tell you that you could shut your book?”

  “No,” I said. “That didn’t stop me from shutting it, though.”

  “There are herbs that can negate certain types of spells. That book that you’re so desperate to ignore would tell you that if you gave it half a chance.”

  My interest was piqued for the first time. I glanced down at the book. “What kind of spells?”

  “Read the book,” he said, and I could hear in his voice that he was getting fed up with me.

  “Couldn’t you just tell me the important stuff and send me home with homework?”

  “You wouldn’t do the homework.”

  He had a point there. I sighed. I knew I wouldn’t do the homework to save my life, but that wasn’t entirely fair. I had more important things to do than read ancient books about plants. I had patrolling to do; there were people I needed to keep safe. Even now, I should be finding out what was going on in the city while I’d been tied up with the trials. Gods only knew how many people had died while I’d been busy with that.

  I bounced my leg, nervous energy pumping through me.

  Diego sighed. “What’s the matter now?”

  “I’m thinking about all the things that might have gone wrong while the Order was keeping me away from London. What if there was a vampire attack? What if someone in the community turned Warlock? What if the Others turned someone else, and they’ve been hurting people? What if the demons have launched an attack, and I wasn’t there to stop it, and now they’re hurting more and more people?”

  “I think you would have heard something about it between then and now. You went up and spoke to Fred, didn’t you?”

  I chewed on my lip and picked at a stray thread on my jeans. The energy was building inside of me. I wanted to get up and pace, wanted to move around, wanted to do anything other than sit here and read a Gods-damned book. “Yes.” I practically hissed the word out between my clenched teeth.

  “And did Fred tell you that destruction had been rained down on London while you were busy?”

  “No.”

  “There you go, then. Everything’s OK, and you can certainly read a simple book instead of thinking about all the things that could be going wrong.”

  “Or we could be doing something more useful.”

  He let out a frustrated breath, a growl rumbling in his chest. “Do you ever shut up?”

  I blinked, surprised. “Um...” I really hadn’t been expecting that. The truth was, I had changed over the past two years. I used to be a lot more quiet, a lot more reserved, and I didn’t like to get involved with things. Now, I asked all the questions that popped into my head, never knowing which one would turn out to be more important, never knowing when I’d be risking people’s lives by staying silent.

  I hadn’t ever considered that learning to speak up more would aggravate certain people, but I couldn’t say I was wholly surprised by that. I had a
habit of getting on the bad side of people, of rubbing them the wrong way, and I’d learned to deal with that. Maybe I filtered out the annoyed expressions now. Maybe I was too used to getting that type of reaction from people.

  I twisted the thread on my jeans around and around until the blood flow in my fingers ebbed, and when I looked down at them, I saw that they had turned white.

  “I suppose I don’t,” I said, though it was more of a mumble. I looked down at the book in my lap, let go of the string on my jeans, and opened the book up to a random page. I thumbed through a few more, but the words weren’t making it into my brain.

  I was reading, but I wasn’t reading. The words were blurred, and I couldn’t make sense of them. It didn’t matter. I took a deep breath and forced myself to concentrate.

  He doesn’t want to hear your rambling. You never did know when to shut up.

  I berated myself, clenching my jaw tight. There was no use in moping over it, but I couldn’t get my brain to shut up long enough for me to get anywhere with the book.

  “Breathe, Blair.”

  Weylyn’s voice in my head interrupted the string of abuse I was dumping on myself. I turned to look at him, sitting beside me. His icy blue eyes were focused on me, and I saw love mirrored in them.

  “I’m fine,” I thought to him.

  “If you were fine, you wouldn’t be in such distress. Your emotions are rolling off of you in waves.”

  I flushed, looking down at my book again.

  “It’s no big deal. Nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”

  “He doesn’t hate you. You must know that.”

  “Everyone hates me.”

  “But I don’t,” he thought. “I love you.”

  “Well, that’s just absurd. You’ve known me for all of a few days.”

  “And yet I know you better than you could begin to imagine.”

  I jerked my eyes away from the book to meet his again. What could that possibly mean? He couldn’t know me better than I knew myself. I knew that was ridiculous. And yet, that seemed to be what he was implying--that he knew my secrets, that he knew everything about me.

  He put his head on the arm of the chair, looking up at me. I put a hand on his head and petted him, instantly feeling a sense of comfort and relief wash through me. I didn’t know how he did that. How he made me feel like everything would be OK.

  “Thanks.”

  “Anything for you.”

  I looked down at the book again and tried to make myself read. I forced the words to clear in front of me, determined not to be a horrible student again. Diego wanted me to read the book and learn from it. I had to do as he asked.

  After thirty minutes of being on the same page, I sighed, looking up at Diego. He was buried in his book, frowning with his eyebrows drawn tightly together. I leaned forward, peering at the title of his book.

  A History of American Vampires.

  My eyes lit up. “Can I read your book?” That sounded so much more interesting than reading about plants.

  “Absolutely not,” he said without looking up at me. “You will read the book I’ve given you, and I will hear no more on this topic.”

  I growled. “But yours is so much more interesting. Why are you reading about the history of vampires?” I stood up and put my book down on a side table. “There’s got to be something in here that’s more interesting but would still fall under your ridiculous rules.” I walked to the wall of books and studied the titles until one jumped out at me.

  Vampires: Families and Courts.

  I pulled it off the shelf, flipped it open and let my eyes run over the pages, gobbling up the information. Now, this I could get involved in.

  The book was torn out of my hand and snapped shut before I could get too far into it. I looked up, my jaw dropping open. “Hey, I was reading that!”

  “I told you, you will read the book I gave you.”

  “And I can’t get the words to stay clear for more than five seconds before my eyes glaze over. Give me that book. I want to read it.”

  “You’re a wilful child.”

  “I am not a child!” I struggled to keep my voice at a reasonable level. “I’m twenty-five. Old enough to have killed a few vampires, so I’m certainly old enough to read about them.”

  “It’s not your age that keeps me from giving you the book, and while you may be twenty-five, you certainly don’t act like a twenty-five-year-old.”

  I resisted the urge to snatch the book out of his hands. “Why can’t I read it?”

  His eyes darkened. “Because I said so.”

  “Shouldn’t all information be free?”

  “No,” he said, and from the tone of his voice, he clearly considered that the end of the matter.

  Well, I didn’t.

  “And why the hell not?” I lifted my chin. “I’m of the opinion that everyone should have full access to all information.”

  “I suppose you think all mages should have access to all spells, too,” he said, and snorted derisively.

  I frowned. “And why shouldn’t they?”

  “Because some spells are tempting, and dark, and wrong.” His eyes glittered dangerously.

  I clenched my jaw. “You don’t trust mages. You only trust Wizards, hm? I suppose there are spells you don’t want me to have access to? I suppose you think there’s a risk I’ll turn Warlock?”

  “I didn’t say any of that. You did,” he said, then put the book back on the shelf and walked away.

  My hands balled into fists. “Well, do you? The High Council certainly seemed concerned with that.”

  “The High Council has to be concerned about that with all new mages who go through the trials. It’s nothing personal, and you shouldn’t take it as a personal offense.”

  “But I do. And it is an offense, thank you, that someone thinks you’ll go dark side if you’re given the opportunity. If someone was going to turn dark side because of some random spell, then they were always going to go dark side. So, I ask again: do you think there’s a risk I’ll go Warlock?”

  “No, I don’t.” He ran a hand through his thick black hair, and he sounded tired. “I don’t see why that matters so much to you.”

  “It matters because I don’t want to learn from someone who doesn’t trust me.”

  “I don’t know you well enough to trust you, but from your trials, I’ve surmised that there isn’t a risk of you turning Warlock if you’re given the opportunity.”

  “So, if you’re able to surmise that, why would there be spells that you don’t want me to have access to?”

  That appeared to confound him, and his jaw tightened. “There are temptations I don’t think anyone should be subjected to.”

  I sighed. Apparently, there wasn’t going to be any getting through to him on this subject. I was of the opinion that evil was rooted in a person’s soul, that it was something they were born with, not something that grew inside of them.

  But weren’t you worried about what Mal’s mark was doing to you? Weren’t you worried that it would turn you, taint you, twist you?

  My thoughts betrayed me, and I fought the urge to cringe at them. I didn’t want Diego asking me what I was thinking about, because I couldn’t risk telling him about the mark. If he knew about it, his opinion of whether or not I would turn Warlock would certainly turn. You don’t trust someone who’s made deals with demons.

  I shouldn’t even trust myself. There was no knowing what permanent damage had been done by the mark. There was always the possibility that it couldn’t be fixed, that I’d always carry a scar inside of me.

  I didn’t want to think about that, so I walked back over to my chair and picked up the book about herbs again.

  This, I could bury myself in and not worry about starting an argument with Diego or stirring up more disturbing thoughts inside my mind. This was safe.

  I was not.

  Three

  Leaving Diego’s house was harder than I’d thought it would be. I’d been anxiou
s when I entered, but after our fight in the library, I’d settled down with the herbal book, and a companionable silence had formed. The two of us had read our books for hours; he’d given me another one on alchemy and then one on cryptids. I’d devoured them, realizing that there was no more fighting to be done with him. He wasn’t going to budge on the subject of what I was or wasn’t allowed to study, so it was best to just read what he gave me and hope that we’d scale up the subject matter over time.

  Truth be told, the cryptid book was actually interesting. It had detailed things like the sphinx, gryphons, mermaids, all of that cool stuff. Stuff I wasn’t sure existed but had certainly been documented. If they existed in the book, then someone must have seen them at some point in time.

  I hadn’t thought familiars were real--hadn’t even dreamed of them--but here was Weylyn, walking beside me. Maybe my world view was limited. I looked down at the large husky beside me, Weylyn’s domestic form, and smiled. It was nice to have him with me, to know he wouldn’t abandon me.

  “What are you thinking, Blair?”

  “That I’m lucky to have you around.” I reached down and scratched behind one of his ears.

  He pressed his body against my leg before walking ahead of me a little bit. I was holding his leash in one hand, but I liked to leave as much slack as was possible. It was unnecessary; he wouldn’t leave me, since he wasn’t your average, ordinary dog. But if someone saw him strolling the streets beside me--I didn’t want to risk someone trying to take him away. I didn’t know how he’d react to that, and he’d been amenable enough to having the collar and leash put on.

  “You certainly are, but I am just as lucky to have you as my Wizard.”

  “You know I’m not a Wizard yet. I don’t think you’re supposed to refer to me like that yet.”

  He looked back at me, a sparkle in his blue eyes. “It’s just us, is it not? No one is privy to our private communications. You are Wizard enough to me.”

  A happy glow formed in my chest, and I had to hide the beaming smile that crossed my lips. Weylyn believed in me so much that it was almost incredible. The only other person who had as much faith in me as he did was Emily. She believed in me without a doubt in her mind. She thought I could do anything if I just put my mind to it. I looked forward to the two of them spending time together.