Magic Fire: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Shifting Magic Book 1)

by Catherine Vale

  In many ways, they were a stronger race than us supernaturals.

  I could see why Ravena might want to knock an arrogant shifter down a peg or two by making him experience the more human side of things, especially concerning matters of the heart. Still, in no way, shape, or form did I want to appear as though I condoned her actions, or agreed with her behavior. Cursing a shifter – a dragon shifter, at that – with the inability to use his wings and fly was outright heartless. Not to mention, dangerous to that shifter’s existence when flying was one of the basic, and natural ways they knew to evade enemies. I didn’t care how bitter, or heartbroken she was, that was just wrong.

  So, I stayed silent, instead observing the architectural and design elements around Ravena’s dusty, though sparse home. If you got rid of the grime that seemed to exist in every corner of the room, and gave the scuffed floors a good scrubbing, this place could really shine.

  For now, it was a bit like Ravena: sad, desperate and abandoned. I bit my lower lip to keep from reaching out to her, or encouraging her to open up to me. I wasn’t here as a therapist, no matter how deeply my heart yearned to stop the suffering, and help her through the pain that she was obviously feeling. I was here for one reason, and one reason only: to find out who was after me, and now that I had, there were far more pressing matters to deal with. Namely, trying to figure out how to stop them before they killed me.

  Yes, this desperate Witch, and her broken heart would have to seek an outlet somewhere else. After all, an ArchMage was looking for me. He’d singled me out for some reason, and I had to figure out why, and how to put an end to it – before it was too late.

  I crossed my arms, and I knew what that body language would mean to her: I wasn’t interested, or engaging her. In truth, it was just to comfort myself, more than anything, pushing back the anxiety and the steadily rising fear by pressing tighter and tighter until it all went away—for now.

  Footsteps thundered up the stairs just as I heard Ravena draw another breath, and we both whirled around to find Darius returning. He had a small gray bag, like the bags you’d see dollar bills on in cartoons, that looked on the verge of bursting, but I didn’t comment. If Ravena had a bunch of magical crap that would protect us, then we were taking as much with us, as she was willing to part with. She raised a hand when Darius tried to breeze by, then rooted through the bag as he stood there, scowling. The Witch plucked two crystals from the bag, and shoved them into her pockets, leaving the rest to us.

  “There is a magical village in this world,” she told us as Darius returned to my side. I resisted the urge to clamp a hand down on his arm to wordlessly communicate that I was ready to get the hell out of here. Somehow the gesture seemed too obvious. Ravena’s face, however, seemed tinged with sadness at our impending departure. “It is a shifter clan with the odd Witch and Warlock. The glyphs on its town sign will spell Aerath when you use the appropriate rune stone. You won’t find trouble there, though the clan is secretive, they are relatively peaceful, once they determine friend from foe.”

  “As most shifters are,” Darius muttered, and I shrugged when our eyes met. He didn’t have to convince me. I wasn’t the one who thought all shifters were bloodthirsty mongrels that didn’t deserve to co-exist with the rest of us; that was Jasmine’s game.

  “Look for a mage there who goes by the name of Noris,” Ravena instructed us. “He trained Abramelin in his youth, and knows him better than anyone. He may have some insight as to how best to defeat him.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Thank you, Ravena. That’s… That’s very helpful.”

  She gave a demure nod, one I returned before saying goodbye, and making a beeline for the door. Behind me, Darius followed at a slower clip.

  “Ravena, I really appreciate all this,” I heard him say as I opened the door. “Now, I can’t go without asking… Any chance you could reverse the curse? Maybe give me my wings back now that I’m going up against the leader of a coven?”

  She issued a laugh that almost sounded genuine, and I glanced back, my hand on the doorknob, and caught her offering a watery smile.

  “You know I can’t do that, Darius.”

  “Come on—”

  “Because I made sure the spell could only be lifted by you fulfilling the requirements.” She cocked her head to the side, eyes only for Darius, and sighed. “I knew I might give in one day, if you asked nicely enough so I made sure that even I couldn’t break the spell. You know me, Darius. I can’t seem to ever say no to you.”

  Right. Time to go. I held back the urge to roll my eyes, and hurried for the car.

  Chapter Seven

  Before we left Ravena’s home, both Darius and I realized we had basically nothing to work with as far as finding this magical shifter village where Abramelin’s former mentor lived. So, while I’d waited in the car, Darius ducked back inside to get a bit more information.

  “Just ask for the fucking directions,” I’d told him, eager to get going and assuming he’d go in and give the Witch attitude. “Get in, and get out.”

  And, despite his growling at me, my dragon companion did as he was told. Less than ten minutes later he’d been back in the car by my side, with a sticky-note gift for me—and all the detailed directions available for us to follow. We ended up driving all the way to Vermont and into the state’s wild interior. By the time we reached the town sign, it was dark, and both of us were exhausted.

  “I don’t know about you,” Darius said after rubbing at his eyes, head resting on the seat and expression world-weary, “but I don’t have it in me to go compare dick sizes with a bunch of bear shifters tonight.”

  “Generally I try to avoid dick comparisons.” I lowered the radio, and then started fishing through Ravena’s bag of magic stones and charm pouches. “But I see your point.” I glanced up for a moment, frowning. “Bear shifters?”

  “Yeah,” Darius chuckled, a genuine sound I hadn’t heard since before we reached his ex’s house. “they can be pretty testy when provoked.”

  “Right. Don’t poke the bear,” I mused, nodding. “What sage advice I’ve never before heard in my whole life—”

  “Hah,” he muttered dryly. “Let’s find a place to hunker down for the night.”

  My lips twitched; I’d never wanted to jump on the term hunker down so badly before, but I was just too tired for teasing.

  “Wait. I want to confirm the sign.”

  I searched through the rune stones to find the one with the carvings I knew indicated a second sight of sorts. Just as Ravena had said, the town’s sign was scrawled in glyphs—carved into the wood. I almost thought we were on a native reservation, but the glyphs looked more European—Russian, actually—than local. So, clenching my fist around the rune stone, a magenta stone about half the size of my palm, I connected its innate magical properties with a surge of my white magic. Sure enough, the letters rearranged themselves into English—until I loosened my fist.

  “Aerath,” I told him. “Ravena led us in the right direction.”

  “I knew she would.” He shrugged when I shot him a slightly narrowed look. “Well… I’d hoped.”

  We pulled away from the sign, both agreeing it’d be best to try to enter this secret magical village in daylight. Both of us were tired from driving all day, anyway. Neither of us wanted to fight security, be it the magical kind or just the brute strength kind, when we felt like this. While darkness offered better sleuthing opportunities, we were in Aerath to ask for help. No one would want to help two outsiders who snuck in during the dead of night. It wouldn’t exactly strike the right chord with anyone.

  After discovering all the nearby motels were full, we turned the car around and headed for the nearest conservation area. Sure enough, we were able to snag a camping spot from the poor guy on overnight duty at the park’s front desk. Although we considered just pulling off on the side of the road and starting a fire, it seemed safer to be somewhere with other people around. Yeah, the gargoyle attacked me in a building
full of people, but if it meant I could sleep easier, Darius seemed more inclined to go with it.

  After settling our fees, we drove into the park to our designated spot. Amongst the trees was a rounded spot, clearly intended for tent pitching and fire starting. While we had no tent to pitch, the seats of my hatchback folded down nicely enough, and while Darius got a fire going, I set up our sleeping arrangements for the night.

  Well, I set up mine. Darius pointedly reminded me that he was on duty when I’d asked him if he preferred the left, or right, side of the bed.

  Whatever.

  Once I’d spread out some car blankets and folded a few articles of clothing to make a pillow, I went around the parameter of our campsite planting Ravena’s protection crystals. I gave each one an infusion of white magic, lifting my hands up and over so that the magic would connect over our campsite, like a bubble. It didn’t provide the invisibility that a ward would, but since I couldn’t make one without the help of my fae sisters, this was the best we could do. If someone tried to breach my white magic barrier, I’d feel it in my bones—even if I was dead asleep.

  We’d stopped for fast food on the way, so while we unpacked our burgers and fries, sharing a log that Darius had dragged out of the woods in front of the fire, I studied him out of the corner of my eye. After a while, he sighed, a bit too dramatically.

  “What, Kaye?”

  I shrugged as I stuffed some fries in my mouth. I seldom ate out unless I was in Alfheim, and usually needed to bolster myself with my white magic so I could manage any iron in the food. Since my white magic was running low, I could already feel the sickly churn of my stomach with every bite. But I was starving. And fries were delicious.

  “Just curious,” I said, after I swallowed that mouthful.

  “About?”

  “The woman you left Ravena for.” There was no point in beating around the bush. If we were going to work together to get Abramelin off my tail, we needed to be honest with each other. Honest and straightforward.

  “What d’you want to know?” he said, words muffled by a mouthful of burger. I bit down on my inner lip for a few seconds; I knew I had to be straightforward, but sometimes it was easier said than done. He sighed again, this time with his lips curved into a grin. “Kaye. Speak now, or forever hold your fucking peace.”

  “I was listening to your conversation with Ravena… out in the bushes—”

  “Kaye—”

  I snorted. “Like I was seriously just going to sit in the car. Anyway.” I ignored the glare he shot me. “I heard her asking about the fairy you left her for. Is it true? Did you leave her for a fairy?”

  While there was no sigh again, he didn’t answer right away. Instead, I watched him play with his food before eating it, the playful smirk from thirty seconds ago, long gone.

  “Yeah,” Darius muttered when I cleared my throat pointedly. “Yeah, she was a fairy.”

  “So, do you have, like, a type or something?”

  “It just happened,” he told me, my teasing smile doing nothing to chase the bitterness out of his voice. “I’d never even met a fairy before Jas, not personally anyway. I thought she was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. Took me a little while to realize she had a pretty outer shell, and a rotten core.”

  “Sweet on the outside, sour on the inside.” I rolled my eyes. “Sounds like a few fairies I know.”

  Darius offered a weak chuckle in return while I set my dinner aside, unable to fend off the iron in the food any longer—not until my white magic regenerated, anyway. Feeling slightly nauseous, I placed a hand to my sweaty forehead, and watched the fire until a thought occurred to me.

  “Wait. What did you say her name was?”

  “Jas—”

  “Jas?” I let the name roll around in my head for a bit, frowning. “Is that her full name? Is she local?”

  I assumed she’d be a NYC gal like me if that was where Darius had lived while he dated her, and I didn’t know any fae that went by the name of Jas.

  “Well, Jasmine,” he clarified, after another too big bite. My nausea took off, full force, and I swallowed down the bile creeping up my throat. “She lives in state, but not in the city. She—”

  “I know her,” I said stiffly, and out of the corner of my eye I saw his head swivel toward me.

  “Ah. I can tell just by your tone that we share an opinion of her.”

  My lips tried to twist into a smile at the sound of him chuckling, but that failed miserably. I didn’t have a right to be bitter or jealous or whatever—but Jasmine was the literal worst fairy I could think of. Darius seemed like a nice guy, for the most part. Yeah, a little intense, but it was probably a dragon thing. He absolutely didn’t deserve to go from having his wings removed by his witch ex, to probably having his balls hacked off by Jasmine. I couldn’t even fathom what kind of relationship they’d had, even if he’d already shared some details.

  “Yeah, she’s… She’s not my favorite person,” I remarked coolly, gaze fixed on the fire, my mouth set in a thin line. Darius took the hint for once and let it be, eating the rest of his meal in silence, as the fire crackled before us.

  Jasmine. Seriously?!

  I closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing, willing the swirling sick feeling in my gut to fade. I knew it was the iron—for the most part—but learning about Jasmine hadn’t helped. As I sat there, my ass growing more and more numb on the unrelentingly hard wood beneath it, Jasmine’s words at our fairy sister retreat earlier in the month flashed back to me. She’d been so cruel talking about shifters, so cold and callous. She had even mentioned that she’d dated one in the past—and made it out like he’d been a dog. Darius didn’t deserve to be treated like that.

  Well, if I didn’t hate Jasmine before, I certainly did now.

  And not because she and Darius had dated.

  Just because she was an awful person.

  Okay, maybe a little because she had dated Darius, but that was because she had been so horrible when she told us about him. I’d never be able to look at her the same again.

  What a bitch!

  “Hey, you okay?” I flinched when Darius’s hand gently pressed down on my shoulder. “You’re shaking.”

  “It’s the iron in the food,” I said, perhaps a little too quickly, and motioned to my bag of uneaten fast food. “Normally I can use my white magic to fend it off, but I used a lot today already.”

  “Oh. Shit. Fuck. I didn’t even think about that.” He crumpled his empty wrappers and tossed them into the fire, then shuffled closer to me. Before I could stop him, an arm wrapped around my shoulders. “What hurts? What can I do to help?”

  “Mostly my stomach,” I told him, though I had no intentions of sharing the fact that the rest of my digestive system would go through hell too if my white magic didn’t bolster soon. After all, the iron was working its way out. Not a pleasant experience—not the kind you’d want to go through in front of a hot guy, anyway. “And there’s nothing you can do, unless you’ve got a reserve of white magic in you somewhere that I could borrow.”

  “I’d give you all of it, if I could.” He shot me a rather sexy smirk-wink combo, then jogged off to the car and returned moments later. “Anything in Ravena’s bag that’ll help?”

  “No,” I said quickly, pushing the bag away. “No, it just has to work itself through. My magic will take longer to regenerate while I’m feeling like crap, so I think I’m in for a rough night.”

  “Fuck. Kaye, I’m sorry. I should have thought—”

  “It’s not your fault,” I assured him with a forced smile. “Seriously. I’m a big girl. I should have known this would happen.”

  I watched him tie off the bag of clattering crystals and runes before setting it aside. He then settled down next to me and started rubbing my back. I was about to tell him not to worry, but it felt so good, so soothing, that I just closed my eyes and let him do his thing. His large hand drew random shapes, alternating occasionally between the pads
of his fingers and his fingernails. The nails sent shivers down my spine, and soon his touch was all I could concentrate on, leaning in and resting my head on his shoulder.

  After a while, the cold sweats stopped. My stomach still ached, but not in the way it had before. But Darius didn’t stop. And I didn’t ask him to.

  Instead, I fell asleep curled up against him, the heat of the fire on my face, and the gentle caress of his touch on my back.

  I’d never felt safer in all my life.

  Chapter Eight

  The stiffness in my back, legs, and hips the following morning felt worth it, if it meant waking up next to Darius. We’d spent the whole night in front of the fire, me sleeping, and him standing watch—with me in his arms, of course. My whole backseat bed getup was for naught. After strolling down to the conservation park’s toilets for a quick refresh in the privacy of a stall—hello hygiene enchantment, I seldom ever needed you—I was back at our campsite and Darius was packing up. Dark bags surrounded his eyes, but he assured me he’d perk up after his first cup of coffee of the day.

  I stood back, letting him do his thing, arms crossed and lips twisted in a concerned frown. Was I pushing him too hard here? Was it too much to ask that he stand watch night and day? We had my white magic shielding us last night, so, really, he could have fallen asleep for a little while. Power napped. Something. The whole point of choosing the park over a random spot in the hillside was because we’d assumed this would be safer.

  Stubborn bastard just wouldn’t let up.

  So, to accommodate for the fact that he was operating on barely any sleep, I took over the driving duties and paid for our breakfast at a twenty-four-hour diner a half hour from the Aerath village sign. When we finished, my dragon did look a little better, but not by much. A shower would probably do him some good, but he waved off my offer to use a hygiene enchantment on him, too.

  “I don’t smell that bad.”

  “If by ‘that bad’ you mean like a rotten carcass of a skunk after a week in the sun, then sure, you’re fine,” I told him flatly. I then watched as he rolled layer after layer of deodorant on his armpits under his black t-shirt, maintaining eye contact with me as he did it. When he was through, he capped the deodorant stick, and tossed it in his bag, then slammed the trunk of my car.