by Leia Shaw
“What? Why?”
“Because you are a liability. Your lack of control could reveal our kind to the human world. You’re a loose cannon, Sage. They will see you as a threat and exterminate you.”
She scrunched her nose. “You make me sound like some kind of psychopathic mutant rodent.” When he didn’t jump to her defense, her heart sank. So that was how he viewed her. She shrugged. “I’m just a girl.”
Their gazes locked. His bottomless pools of blue held her captive, refusing to let her pull away. He looked like he wanted to kiss her again. How ridiculous. After he’d just called her a liability? Something tightened in her chest. It was hard not to feel ashamed of who she was – the way she acted. But it wouldn’t get her anywhere to be different.
Maybe someday, someone would love her just the way she was. They wouldn’t demand she wear more or less clothing, or chastise her dirty mouth.
“James.” Maddox’s voice interrupted their stare-down. “Quit scaring the girl. Don’t worry, Sage. James won’t let the Counsel do that to you.”
James moved back several paces and said, “Again.”
Maddox hesitated.
“She has to learn it,” James told him. “You know that.”
“I know.” He cast her an apologetic glance.
They assumed their previous positions. Maddox lit up a palm and she braced herself.
“Focus, Sage!” James’ voice had a desperate edge to it.
The Bolt jolted her off her feet. When she landed, searing pain erupted across the length of her arm.
“Fuck!” She hissed in a breath and looked down at her arm and the pointy rock she’s scraped it against.
A long gash started at the inside of her elbow and crossed to the outside of her forearm. A trickle of blood dripped down to her hand.
That was the last straw. She let her anger take control.
With a dark glare, she rose to her feet. Her fists were already lit up like fire balls. The energy was hot in her palms.
James and Maddox shared a wary glance then James spoke to her. But all she could hear was the thundering of her heartbeat.
He cast a Bolt and she thrust out her palm. Like the ball in the batting cage, it halted in front of her. The green orb bobbed in the air, waiting for her to control it.
She looked down at her hands. The blue fire balls extended beyond her palms, engulfing her entire hand and up her arms, reaching her elbows. She didn’t feel pain, just heat. And enormous amounts of power.
James’ Bolt hung in mid-air util she squeezed her fist around it and crushed it in her palm. When she flipped her fist over and opened her hand, a ball of light – larger than any she’d made so far – sat in her open palm. She grinned.
“Don’t get cocky, Sage.” James’ voice came from beside her.
She was too drunk with power to care what he said. She wiggled her fingers, playing with the energy in them.
Where was the fun in being powerful if she had to be humble about it?
She lifted her hands then cast the Bolt straight toward Maddox. Right before it left her outstretched fingers, something knocked her to the ground. The power rushed out of her like a sieve, along with her breath.
A loud pop then a few thuds indicated her Bolt had hit something. She struggled under the heavy body pinning her to the ground then looked up into James’ darkened eyes.
“Get off me!”
He lingered for a moment before pulling her up with him. A massive tree, probably hundreds of years old, lay scattered in pieces around the yard, blackened and smoking.
She’d blown up a fucking tree. A smile crept onto her lips.
Maddox spoke first. “Now I know why you called me. Cause I’m the only idiot who would agree to this!”
James’ gaze never left Sage’s face. “Again.”
Sage blinked. He was out of his damn mind!
“She’s going to kill me,” Maddox yelled.
“No, she’s not. I’ll temper her.”
“She almost just did!” Maddox’s face turned bright red, a vein bulged in his forehead.
“But I stopped her.”
The two argued while Sage examined the scattered pieces of sycamore around the yard.
“Christ,” she said, running her fingers along the charred wood.
Maybe James was right. Maybe she was a walking bomb – a hazard to the human population.
“She’s a head case!” she heard James say.
She spun toward them. He was pointing at her but didn’t bother to check if she’d heard him.
Maddox did. He frowned. “Have a little compassion, man.”
James looked at her then back to Maddox and began speaking in a different language. Welsh, she guessed. And for some reason, that just pissed her the fuck off.
He’d the nerve to bribe her to train with him, promising things he probably had no intention of delivering. Then he’d called her a head case and whispered god knows what in Welsh behind her back? She wanted retribution. She wanted to do to him what she did to the tree. But even more than that, she wanted to prove him wrong. She couldn’t either. And she wouldn’t let him see her weak. So she spun on her heel and stomped away.
It was several moments before they even noticed she was leaving. “Sage!” James yelled. “Where are you going?”
She ignored him.
“Get back here. We’re not done.”
“Fuck you. I didn’t come here to get bruised and bloody.” Walking backward, facing him, she gave a mock bow. “Thank you for your generous hospitality, but now I will be leaving.”
“No you will not.”
“You can’t make –” She was about to say he couldn’t make her but a vision of the magic rope stopped her. “I swear, James, if you try to tie me up with that freaky rope, I’ll….I’ll…” Fuck! What could she do?
“Well, you certainly tempt me. But I don’t have to tie you up with a rope, magic or otherwise, to make you stay. You’re not a quitter.”
She stopped. “You know nothing about me.”
“I know you’re smart and resourceful. You’re stubborn as a mule but you’re ambitious. And you know your powers are getting out of control. You need me, Sage.”
She snorted. “Yeah, I need you like I need a lobotomy.” When he only raised a brow, she sighed and perched a hand on her hip. “I’m going to end up putting a smoking hole through his chest.” She gestured at Maddox. “I don’t want that on my conscience.”
“That’s exactly why you’re going to stay.”
Part of her knew that if she didn’t settle this now, she would live in fear her whole life. There was nothing worse than being afraid of yourself.
“I don’t like being whispered about in a language I don’t speak,” she told him as she walked closer and pointed a finger at him. “And I don’t like being referred to as a head case or a liability or a giant cockroach hell-bent on destruction.”
He nodded. “So you’ll stay?”
She’d take the head nod as a promise to stop acting like a jerk. “I’ll stay.”
“Good.”
“Good?” She cast him a dirty look. “That’s all you have to say?”
James looked at Maddox’s disapproving frown, then back to Sage. He threw his arms out to the side. “So? You made a good choice for once in your life. Good on ya’. What do you want? A cookie?”
Maddox grunted. “She wants an apology, dumbass.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Now I want two apologies.” Folding her arms across her chest, she added, “And a cookie.”
***
“I think that’s it for the day,” James yelled to Maddox, after two more hours of training.
Sage rose unsteadily from the ground where she’d been thrown by another powerful Bolt. He looked over her broken body. Dried blood coated her arm and shirt. Her hair was matted with dirt, a few twigs stuck out the back. Luckily she’d worn black pants so the streaks of mud covering the back of them wouldn’t stain.
�
��Bet a shower would feel good right about now,” he said.
A muscle ticked in her jaw and she shot him an evil glare. He had the sudden urge to whisk her into the shower and wash her himself. “Can you manage it yourself or will you need some help?” He tried to bite back a smile.
With an obscene gesture, she turned around and limped into the house.
James opened his mouth to thank Maddox.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to do here, James, but I’m not sure your motivation is honorable,” he said. “Please tell me you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking.”
Keeping his expression blank, he walked toward the house. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Maddox stepped in front of him and wagged a finger. “Sage is not a weapon for you to use against the Dark King.”
James slapped his hand away and kept walking. “Not with that temper she’s not. But with some refinement…”
“I don’t like this.” He shook his head. “I definitely do not approve of this.”
James spun around to look him in the eye. “I’m not asking you to approve of it, Maddox. I’m just asking you not to tell anyone.”
He sighed. “I won’t tell anyone. But it’s not because I don’t want to.”
“Because you’re scared of me?” James mused with a mocking smile.
Maddox blinked. “Very funny. But no. I won’t tell anyone because you’re my best mate. And I trust you.” His brows furrowed. “I think.”
James laughed then walked toward the house, leaving Maddox at his car. “I’ll give you fifty dollars to come back tomorrow,” he yelled over his shoulder.
“No. I refuse to support this.” Maddox raised his voice as James walked up the front steps. “I am putting my foot down. I am finally standing up to you James!”
“A hundred?”
“God, I hate you,” he murmured before opening his car door.
James turned around and flashed a smile. “See you tomorrow then, mate.”
Chapter 8
Sage stepped out of the longest, hottest shower she’d ever taken. After her second day of training with Maddox, every muscle she had – and some she didn’t know she had – screamed in protest with each small movement. Sitting wasn’t any better. It felt good for a few minutes but when she’d try to rise, her body locked up, shooting pain through her limbs.
Today’s training hadn’t gone much better than the day before. Apparently she was a freak even among other sorcerers. Her powers were not only unpredictable and out of control, but also subject to every passing whim. She could kill someone simply by being annoyed with them. It was disconcerting, but she couldn’t deny it was empowering.
Anger seemed to be the most prominent trigger for her power. It was a delicious feeling – gathering electricity from the air, letting it wind its way through her body until it pulsed through her veins, growing stronger with each pump of her heart. The power was a high and she rode it gladly. It was all she dreamed about anymore.
She’d suffered from nightmares since she was a child – a result of trauma, therapists had told various foster parents. Now she dreamt only of her light, stronger and brighter than any other sorcerer, taking over her body and carrying her into a sweet omnipotence.
She didn’t dare mention this to James though. Each time she proved more powerful than the last, his face grew strained with concern. Afraid he would report her to the Counsel, she figured it was best to tread carefully. Though Maddox had assured her he wouldn’t, she didn’t survive the last twenty-five years by trusting just anyone.
James had proven his word on one account. He’d produced a cookie after yesterday’s training session. And not just any cookie. James had sent Maddox to the best bakery in town and he’d returned with the largest, softest, most delicious cookie she’d ever tasted.
For dramatic effect, she’d made a big showing of eating it too. And to her surprise, James had bit his lip to keep from laughing.
He’d said to Maddox, “Frenhines theatr, is she not?”
She’d looked to Maddox for translation. “A Welsh term. Literally, ‘queen theatre.’ But the American equivalent, I think, is ‘drama queen.’”
“Better than Flying Fists,” she’d said with a chuckle. “That’s what my last foster home called me.”
She’d spent the next hour relaying tales of how often her temper had gotten her in trouble as a child, and how her foster sister, Erin, had talked her out of it.
Her mouth twisted into a smile, remembering the carefree laughs of the previous night. For that short time, there had been no Sorcerers Counsel, no out-of-control magic, no Dark King or Underworld creatures. No homelessness. No hunger. Just light-hearted conversation, good-natured joking, and peace. And for the first time, in the last few years at least, Sage had felt like she belonged.
After dressing in a pair of faded jeans, a black tank top and a hoodie, she combed through her wet hair. A minute later, she opened the bathroom door and walked straight into James’ muscled chest.
He looked down at her, his eyes blazing. “You’ve been lying to me.”
She blinked. “Undoubtedly. But can you tell me more specifically what you’re referring to?”
“Everything.”
“That’s not very specific.” She tried to step around him but his body took up the most of the hallway and he wasn’t budging.
“Let’s start with your name,” he said.
She tried to side-step him again but he put an arm out to block her.
She sighed. “Sage is –”
“Your middle name,” he answered for her.
“If you already know it then why are you cornering me like this?”
He flinched back with a look of surprise. “I’m not cornering you.”
“Look,” she said jabbing a finger at his chest. “I’m perfectly willing to talk about this with you, but can you please be a little bit civilized? No stomping around or tying me up.”
He stepped aside and gestured to the kitchen.
She sat down on a stool at the counter. Trepidation filled her. How much did he know? How much did she want him to know?
James stood across from her with his arms folded in an intimidating stance. At least he wasn’t stomping around.
“What do you want to know?” she asked. Maybe it was time to come clean.
“Everything.”
“Again, not very specific.”
“Let’s start with what I just learned via extensive background check then you can fill in anything I’ve missed.”
She nodded. This way she could continue to keep what he didn’t know hidden.
“I already know you falsified documents to change your name and get a job at the school.”
“I had to. I have a –”
“Criminal record. I know that, too.”
His disappointed tone hit a nerve. “One little grand theft auto conviction when I was fifteen and everyone gets all pissy.”
Not to mention a few petty thefts after she’d turned seventeen. Those pesky ones had stayed on her record, making it a bitch to get a job. Hence why she’d changed her middle name to her first and made up a last name.
He stared at her, brows raised as if waiting for an explanation. She didn’t have one. She wasn’t going to apologize for doing what she had to do to survive.
Maybe the joy ride in her ex-boyfriend’s father’s Porsche wasn’t exactly life or death. That was just stupidity. But she’d learned a valuable lesson – never steal anything you can’t conceal on your body.
“Why do you look so surprised?” she finally asked. “I steal, I cheat, I lie. Really James, I thought you would’ve caught on by now. I’m never going to be the sorceress you want me to be.”
His shoulders sagged and, for a moment, she stupidly regretted she couldn’t be what he wanted. He closed his eyes and inhaled. When he opened them, she could see hope still held a firm grip on him.
It would’ve been so much easier if he
’d given up like everyone else.
“Why did you lie to me?” he asked, his tone more hurt than angry.
“Because I didn’t trust you.”
“And now?”
She sighed. “Well, if trust were on a scale of one to ten, with ten being my trusting you with my life…then I’d say you’d be about a two.”
He frowned.
“But since everyone else I’ve ever known, aside from Erin, is a zero, you should be pleased.” She gave him her best consolation smile.
He scowled then shifted his stance and relaxed against the counter. “No more lies.”
“I can’t guarantee that.”
He grunted his displeasure.
“What? Do you want me to lie about lying?”
His stern look of disapproval brought up memories most unwelcome. She’d been on the receiving end of many scornful looks. Social workers disappointed in her behavior. Foster parents exhausted by her tenacity. And now James stood, brows furrowed, mimicking their disappointment. She could almost hear the social worker’s lectures as the foster moms wept to the side.
“Don’t look at me like that!” she growled.
“Like what?”
“Smug judgment oozing from your pores.”
He crossed the length of the kitchen. “I’m not judging you.”
“Bullshit.”
“I just don’t understand. You’re so smart. You could do so much better…”
Ugh! She’d heard those words before too. Ugly memories bubbled to the surface. She couldn’t handle this. Not when she’d just begun settling in, finally feeling something more than constant failure. She didn’t want to relive that part of her life. Maybe she should start over again, somewhere new. Somewhere no one could do a background check. Africa. Africa seemed nice. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about having a coat.
But James would never let her. Fear flooded her, making her hands tremble. Adrenaline kicked into gear.
She burst from her seat and yelled, “Don’t you dare lecture me right now, James! I don’t want to hear a damn thing about your perfect fucking life in Wales! I had nothing when I left Albany. Do you understand what that’s like? Nothing!”
James remained a vision of calm, even as she panted and glared at him. Screw him all the more!
