by Linsey Hall
“We have more to talk about.” His voice was commanding.
“Not now, we don’t.” I stood, trying my damnedest not to sway. The last thing I needed was him carrying me down the street.
Aidan surged to his feet and put a steadying hand on my shoulder. “Fine, not now. Go rest. I’ll see you later.”
“Pick me up at seven.” Though I wanted to try to beat him to Mordaca, it was highly unlikely that I could afford her fee.
We parted ways outside P & P. I had to insist that he not carry me back to my apartment, but by the time I walked in front of Ancient Magic, I was about ready to fall over. The door weighed a hundred pounds as I pushed inside.
Nix looked up from behind the counter. “Whoa, you look rough.”
I leaned against the door. “I feel it. Will you help me up to my place?”
“Yeah. It’s almost five. I’ll just close up.”
It only took her a second to grab her phone and her book, then she was at my side, her arm wrapped around my ribs.
“No luck with the scroll?” she asked as she locked the door. I leaned against the wall as she ran her hands around the edge, triggering the enchantment that would protect the shop from thieves while we were away.
“Not yet. I’ll tell you about it up at my place.”
The walk up the three flights of stairs felt like climbing the monks’ island mountain again. By the time I got to the top, my lungs burned and my thighs ached.
“What the heck is wrong with you?” Nix asked as she dumped me on the sofa. “You’ve never been this weak. Did you get hit by something?”
“No spells. Unless you count my own.”
“What do you mean?” Her eyes widened.
“I used my magic.”
“What?” she gasped. “You’re joking. Did Aidan see you?”
“Yeah.” I buried my head in my hand. “I was an idiot.”
Nix paced my small living rom. “No. You weren’t. You haven’t used your magic in ten years. You’re careful. You must have had a good reason.”
Her support warmed me. “I thought Aidan was going to die.”
“That’s a pretty good reason. Was he?”
“Yeah, maybe a sixty, seventy percent chance. Though it felt like more at the time. I freaked out.” The memory of the rock hurtling toward him still gave me the shakes.
“You like him.”
There was no question in her voice. To protect my deirfiúr’s secret, I would let someone I didn’t care for die—I’d kill to protect their secret. It was my secret too, but like with most things that involve a threat to oneself, it didn’t feel quite as real. But the threat to them felt very real.
Apparently I cared enough for Aidan to try to save his life, even though it meant possibly revealing what we hid.
“I’m sorry,” I said. My throat tightened with tears. I never cried. Not much was worse than waking up in a field as a kid with no memories and no parents. After that, tears seemed a bit silly.
“Don’t be. We can take care of ourselves. And I have a good feeling about Aidan.”
“Really? Because I don’t.”
“Yeah, you do.” Nix looked at me like I was an idiot. “You saved him. You obviously have a good feeling about him.”
“I did. But he knows something’s up with me. He’s suspicious of why I don’t use my powers. And when I finally did use them, I overdid it. He knows I’m powerful. I’m afraid he’s going to keep digging until he figures things out.”
“He might, yeah. Just keep your guard up.”
Easy for her to say; she wasn’t faced with hanging out with him all the time. She didn’t have to watch him fight or resist his kisses. I did, and it was hard to remember why I shouldn’t like him.
Especially since I didn’t want to live a life of secrets and lies. For once, I’d like to be honest with someone besides my deirfiúr. I loved them, but it wasn’t the same.
“So you didn’t find the scroll?”
Nix’s words jerked me to attention. “No. And it’s worse than that. Demons took it. The same kind of demon who called me a FireSoul the other day.”
Nix abruptly stopped pacing. “What? Did they say anything else?”
“No. I tackled one and demanded that he tell me what he knew, but he just looked at me.”
“There might not be a link. Just because they’re the same species doesn’t mean they all know about us. That other demon might have known because he was ancient and could sense it.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said. “But we haven’t stayed alive this long by assuming things are coincidences.”
“True.”
“There was also a man there. A Magica. But he didn’t give a crap about me. Grabbed the scroll and left.”
“Well that’s good.”
“Yeah. But we have our concealment charms, so maybe that’s why.”
“At least they’re still working.”
“They’d better be,” I said. “They cost a freaking fortune. But we need to call Del. Warn her to keep her guard up. Just in case.”
“I’ll do it. You need to rest.”
“Yeah. I think I might go talk to Dr. Garriso. He could know more about that kind of demon.” There were hundreds of kinds. I didn’t know them all—or even most of them. Half the time I made up names for them based on what they looked like. I called these ones shadow demons because they were gray. Not very clever.
“I can do it. You really do look like you’re about to pass out.”
“No, I want to. I can describe them best. I’ll do it after I take a nap.”
“Fine. And tomorrow you’ll find the scroll and destroy it. We’ll deal with your nightmare man when the time comes. We’ve always known we were on the run. Eventually, we’ll get caught.”
“Then we fight.”
“If we have to, yes.”
“But how do we do that without magic?”
“I don’t know.” Distress was thick in Nix’s voice. “We’ve repressed most of what we have to stay safe. But if there’s a bigger threat out there than the Prison for Magical Miscreants, we’re screwed.”
“Then you think we should practice our magic?” Practicing would mean I wouldn’t feel like hell after using it, but that wouldn’t do me any good if I got caught.
“I don’t know. Is this scroll—and whoever is looking for us—a bigger threat than being thrown in prison?”
“We’re digging into our past with this scroll. Maybe this whole thing will lead us to our parents.” Hope flared in my chest, though I knew it was stupid. They were probably dead. Or they were the ones we were running from.
I hated not knowing.
“I don’t want to hope for that,” Nix said. “We’ve made a good life for ourselves here. I want to look to the future.”
I nodded. Though I’d love to find my parents, I agreed. Our first five years on the run had been horrible. We’d laid low out of fear, sticking to back alleys and abandoned farms, stealing only what wouldn’t be noticed. If we’d been any less afraid, we might have used our magic more and been caught.
As it was, we’d gotten ourselves tangled up in some ugly messes. But we’d made it out. We’d survived and learned about the world. Found our way to Magic’s Bend and built our shop.
I had to find this scroll and destroy it. We couldn’t lose the life we’d worked so hard for.
Nix rubbed my shoulder and got to her feet. “Get some rest. I’m going to call Del.”
“Thanks,” I said as she left.
When the door shut behind her, I flopped back onto the couch and stared at the ceiling. Sweat and dust covered my skin. It itched.
I should get up and shower.
Instead, I slowly careened over onto the couch.
Sometime later—hours or minutes, I had no idea—the sound of rain on the windows woke me. I scrubbed my eyes with the heel of my hand and squinted into the dark night. The clock by the door indicated that it was past nine.
My mouth tasted like a
rodent had died in it, and I was still as gross as ever.
Excellent.
But when I stood, I felt better. Like I’d just recovered from a bad case of the flu, but at least I could walk to the shower.
Careful not to rub any of the dried blood off my daggers, I took them into the bedroom. Normally I stored them on my bedside table, but the blood on Righty was the only link to the Magica who’d stolen the scroll.
That made it the most valuable thing I owned. And valuable things belonged in the trove, hidden away from all but me.
I laid my hand on the hidden door in my bedroom. The enchantment unlocked at my touch, and I pushed the door open.
I flicked on the light, a sense of calm flowing over me as the golden light reflected off the leather and metal stacked neatly on shelves and hung from racks. It was like a library, shelves and aisles of the things I valued most. Though part of me coveted gold whenever I saw it, I thought that was more of a knee-jerk reaction, because whenever I had money to spend, the first things I looked for were leather goods and weaponry.
I walked toward the back, making my way slowly so that I could absorb as much calm as possible from my favorite place.
At the very back corner, I dropped to my knees. My least valuable boots and jackets were stored back here, but it was a facade. I pushed aside a pair of older boots and pressed my hand to the tiny, invisible door.
My touch ignited the spell and it popped open. The battered golden locket that I’d been wearing when I’d woken in that field ten years ago glinted. Once, I’d hoped it’d lead me to my parents, but I’d been wrong.
I touched it briefly, then placed the daggers inside the safe. The door shut with a soft click. I rose to my feet and headed to the shower to cram myself into the little space. Though the pipes screamed and hissed, the water was usually hot and floods were infrequent.
It didn’t take long to scrub off the grime. By the time I got out, I was feeling almost human again.
Except for the fact that my stomach was trying to eat itself.
I tugged on jeans and a tank top, dreading the walk down the street to get food from P & P. I could order in from a delivery place, but that could take an hour. There was a chance I could scavenge from my kitchen, but the odds of finding something decent weren’t high.
My stomach grumbled loudly, objecting.
“All right, all right,” I muttered. I needed to get out anyway. Dr. Garriso worked late most nights. I could grab a bite to eat and head by his office for some info.
I was throwing on my jacket when a knock sounded at the door. My muscles tensed, and I crept silently over to it, peering out through the peep hole. Nix had a goofy knock, and Del was out of town.
Aidan.
Of course.
9
The rich scent of curry wafted through the door, so I yanked it open. What could I say? I was weak.
He held up a large white sack, a grin tugging at his handsome face. “Delivery.”
Oh man, I wanted that food. But I really didn’t want to let him into my house. He probably wouldn’t figure out that I had a trove behind the walls, but I hated to risk it.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“I thought you’d be hungry.”
“You want to interrogate me.”
“Nah. I just thought you’d be hungry.” Sincerity shone in his eyes.
Butterflies set up a cacophonous racket in my stomach, which wasn’t hard considering how empty it was. I glared at Aidan, knowing that I looked unwelcoming but having a hard time wrapping my head around him. Confusion pissed me off.
“What’s your deal?” I asked. “I bet you live over in Enchanter’s Bluff.” There was no way a guy as wealthy as him didn’t live in the rich section of town. “It’s got to be a thirty-minute drive over here. Just to bring me food?”
“It was worth the drive.”
“Why?”
“To see you.”
Okay, this was so outside of my pay grade. Killing demons and stealing treasure—that was about all I was qualified for. Hot dudes trying to woo me? Not so much.
At least, I assumed this was wooing. Bringing a girl food sure sounded like wooing to me.
“This isn’t a date,” I said.
“No,” he agreed. “Definitely not a date. You’ll know when it’s a date. This is just me bringing you food because I knew you’d be beat when you woke up.”
I tried not to let the sentiment get to me, but it poked me in the heart all the same. Not only did I want to devour whatever was in the white takeout bag, I wanted to hang out with Aidan. Even though I knew it was a bad idea.
I weighed suggesting eating in the shop below versus letting him in. A sigh heaved out of me.
“Come on in.” Letting him in was less suspicious, and he didn’t need any more reasons to think I was hiding something.
“Thanks.” He stepped inside, and I shifted so that he wouldn’t go toward my bedroom. It meant I had to stand nearer to him, which just made my heart start to pound faster.
“Kitchen’s that way.” I tilted my head toward the doorway on the other side of the room and stifled a small sigh of relief when he walked toward it.
“You got any beer?” he asked as he entered the kitchen.
I followed him in, helplessly sniffing the scented air he left in his wake. “In the fridge. Help yourself.”
My kitchen was tiny and almost completely nonfunctional. All the appliances were ancient. Not retro in a cool way. Just ancient. With P & P down the street, there was no reason to cook. And all my money was tied up in the trove. I was probably a hoarder, but at least it was all packed away neatly in a secret closet.
I grabbed some paper plates and plastic utensils from the cupboard.
“PBR?” Aidan asked.
I turned to see him standing in front of the fridge, holding two cans. “Yeah? Got a problem with that?”
“Never pegged you for a hipster-beer kinda girl.”
“That’s hillbilly beer, thank you very much,” I said as I grabbed one. “And hipsters drink microbrew too, you know. I bet you drink microbrew.”
He raised his hands. “So I like a decent beer every now and again.”
“This is decent beer!” I held it out in front of his face. “Look, right there on the label! It says Blue Ribbon. That means it’s good. Blue Ribbons are for winners.”
He grinned.
He was screwing with me.
“Just bring the food,” I said as I headed to the living room.
Though there was a little round table pushed in front of the window on the other side of the room, I preferred to eat on the couch whenever possible. Since I still wasn’t feeling one hundred percent, I veered toward the couch.
I plopped down and put the plates on the table, then opened my icy beer and took a swig.
“So what if this doesn’t have much taste,” I said. “It’s refreshing and delightful. PBR delivers.”
Aidan gave me a skeptical look as he sat next to me and popped his can. “I’ll try to re-approach it with an open mind.”
I watched him drink, trying to keep my eyes off the motion of his strong throat as he swallowed.
Okay, I was clearly going nuts if I was looking at a guy’s throat and getting the hots for him. But I couldn’t help it. All of him was hot—from his model face to his sculpted muscles. Why couldn’t he look like a normal dude? That wouldn’t make my mind get all fuzzy.
When Aidan lowered his can, he caught me staring at him. I almost slumped with relief when he said, “Not too bad,” instead of calling me out for staring.
“Yeah, it’s pretty good, right? And cheap. There’s loads to love about it.”
“Don’t know if I’d say love.”
“Just get the food out, Mr. Critic.”
He pulled several cartons out of the bag, along with a paper-wrapped parcel of Naan bread. I made grabby hands, and he passed me a carton that smelled like curry.
“Okay,” I said as I swall
owed a bite that I’d scooped up with the bread, “I’m officially thanking you for bringing this over. It’s amazing.”
“No problem.”
We ate in companionable silence for a few minutes. Once the beast was sated, I asked, “So, you’ve got some healing ability and you’re a full Elemental Mage. What else can you do?”
“Turn into any creature, real or mythical,” he said. “You know, nothing interesting. Just griffons and dragons—that sort of thing.”
“Cocky.” I punched him in the shoulder. “Anything else?”
“You’ll just have to get to know me better.”
That wasn’t going to happen. “Have you ever heard of another shifter/Magica hybrid?”
He shook his head. “I was an only child. My father was the Origin before me, and my mother was Magica. I don’t know why it passed down to me, but I’ve never met another.”
I scowled into my now-empty carton. I liked Aidan. For his sake, it was great he was powerful. Like, ridiculously powerful. But no one was throwing him in prison. Just my kind.
Self-disgust washed over me. I needed to quit moping. Just because this threat was looming over our heads didn’t mean I wouldn’t get us out of it. And people had an actual good reason to fear FireSouls. If we were power-hungry monsters, we’d have a good reason to go on a killing, power-collecting rampage.
“You okay?” Aidan asked.
“Yeah, just tired.” A food coma was coming on. My eyelids felt like they weighed ten pounds each.
“You need to practice your magic,” Aidan said. “If you did, you wouldn’t be so exhausted after using it.”
“Sounds like a me-problem, not a you-problem.”
“It’s a me-problem if you’re working for me.”
I scowled at him. “I’m not working for you for long, so don’t worry about it.”
“Then it’s a problem because I like you,” he added.
His words hit me right between the eyes. This was why relationships were dangerous. People worried about you and poked into your personal stuff. And my personal stuff was enough to get me locked up in hell. I needed to forget how freaking hot he was and move on.
“Uh, it’s time for me to hit the hay. Thanks for bringing dinner.”
