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

by Catherine Vale

  “And you’re all going to fight?”

  “We are.” He nodded, the fire still burning brightly behind his eyes. “Abramelin has become a public menace to the supernatural community. And it isn’t just in the United States that people are pledging to fight. Supernaturals from all over the human world have joined our ranks. He must be stopped.”

  “I don’t understand why Abramelin is attacking supernaturals, though,” I said, arms crossed over myself, suddenly feeling too small in a big world. “I haven’t… I didn’t do anything to him.”

  “It’s revenge,” my brother remarked without missing a beat. “He returned home one day to find his family slaughtered… Literally ripped to shreds.”

  The knot in my stomach grew tighter, more painful. “But who would do that? Supernaturals don’t…”

  We don’t rip people apart. Most supernatural beings have magic at their disposal if they want to destroy someone or something.

  “It wasn’t magic that did it,” he told me, slowly, almost carefully, his gaze flicking over my shoulder in Darius’s direction. “It was a clan of shifters.”

  “Shifters?” I shook my head. “But then why… Why go after supernaturals? Why go after me? I didn’t do anything.”

  The look he gave me was pained for a fleeting moment, but not so fleeting that I missed it. But with a few rapid blinks of his emerald green eyes, it was gone, replaced by a steely hardness that unsettled me.

  “He’s going after anyone who sympathizes with shifters first,” Zayne said, scowling. “Anyone who isn’t a total bigot is on the chopping block. Anyone who would defend them, who would fight by their side are a target because together, supernaturals and shifters are a force to reckon with. Undefeatable. We’re all dying because a clan of shifters—”

  “Hey,” Darius barked, making both my brother and me jump. “Shifters don’t just slaughter a family for no good reason. We’re not mindless beasts.”

  While I’d noticed Zayne glance back a few times during our conversation, it was as though this was the first time he had actually seen Darius—and his scowl didn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

  “Who is this?” he demanded, stepping to the side to appraise Darius without me being in the way. “Why is he here? He isn’t fae—”

  “Not on your life, pal,” Darius growled before I could stop him.

  Zayne gave the dragon one last quick up and down look before beckoning one of his entourage over.

  “See that this shifter finds his way back to a portal—”

  “No,” I cried, hastily positioning myself between Darius and anyone who wanted to hurt him. “No. Darius is my friend. We made a deal that we would work together until I was no longer in danger. We’re sworn.”

  Zayne’s expression flashed from surprise, to incredulous, in a heartbeat. “You made a deal with this man? Kaye, you know how precious deals are to us. How could you?”

  “Because I trust him,” I said forcefully, my words wobbling with a bit of unexpected emotion. “He vowed to keep me safe. Where he goes, I go.” My gaze darted to the entourage, two of whom had stopped awkwardly between the others and Darius, clearly unsure about what they were supposed to do. I raised my chin at them. “Darius stays.”

  When I looked at Zayne, I caught the brief flicker of his jaw—like he was clenching. Our dad used to do that. Finally, he sighed and motioned for his men to step back.

  “As long as he stays in line,” my brother insisted, “and he does his duty to keep you out of danger, then your friend has a place in this fight.” His eyes honed in on Darius, possessing a strength I’d never known my brother to have. “Do not make me regret this.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” I heard Darius mutter stiffly in return. A quick glance over my shoulder showed me he was clenching his fists. “I’ll be a good dog, Z.”

  “A good dragon,” I countered, squaring my shoulders. “Darius can fight. I’ve never seen a fire as blue as his. He is an asset and an ally. You should treat him as such.”

  While my brother seemed to be studying Darius with a newfound, perhaps temporary, sense of respect, Darius appeared to be doing the same—only with me, and not Zayne. I shifted my weight back and forth between each leg, uncomfortable with the dragon’s unflinching gaze. Thankfully, Zayne was the one to break the silence.

  “I wish I could stay longer, Kaye, but there are a million things to do down here,” Zayne told me, sounding like a strange mix of Brother and Leader, but not settling hard on either in the moment. He took my hands in his and gave them a squeeze. “I’ve organized lodgings for you. Eilie will show you to them, and I’ll have some of the others find space for your friend.”

  “But how did you know we were coming?” Darius asked, his brows furrowed.

  Zayne chuckled, and looked from Darius to me with an expression that indicated he was clearly amused by the question. After all, he was a powerful fae. More powerful than I would ever hope to be. He was also the one that led us here.

  “Magic, of course. And well, word carries quickly around Alfheim. You were looking for me, and I was looking for my sister.”

  Over his shoulder, a fairy woman—Eilie, I assumed—gave me a nod and a smile, though her cheeriness faltered somewhat when Darius stepped up to my side.

  “I’ll need to be close,” Darius said. “I’m on duty twenty-four-seven when it comes to your sister.”

  “It will be done. Stand by her side. I’m sure you know how much she’ll need you.”

  And then he was releasing my hands and stepping away from me—and it was like he was abandoning me all over again. I staggered forward and clutched at him. “Zayne…”

  “Kaye, I know this is tough—”

  “But why me?” I whispered, like a little girl lost to the world. “Why would he try to kill me? I don’t do anything with shifters, politically speaking, anyway. I just… exist.”

  There it was again, that pained expression. Gone just as fast as before, too.

  “We’ll talk about everything,” he said softly, then pressed a hard kiss to my forehead. I closed my eyes, just for a few seconds, and let myself feel like that lost little girl—until he pulled away. “I promise, Kaye. You and I will talk until there are no more words left to say. Just…later.”

  I nodded slowly, resigned to my fate. “Okay.”

  He shot Darius one last look, of neither contempt nor acceptance—more curiosity than anything—before stalking back to his entourage. I watched them chat for a moment before Zayne strode from the huge hall, his footfalls like thunder in my ears.

  His entourage split behind him, half following my brother out, while the others went in the opposite direction, toward an arched open doorway with old fae runes carved along the outside. Seeing as Eilie was among the group headed for the door, I assumed Darius and I were supposed to follow.

  The strange thing was—I just couldn’t make my feet move.

  “Hey…” Darius’s hand clamped down on my shoulder, harder than either of us expected, and I lifted my gaze to him.

  “Hey.”

  “How you doing?” he asked as he crouched a little in front of me, our eyes meeting. “That was a lot at once.” Then, under his breath, he added, “And not the way I would have done it.”

  “I don’t know how I feel,” I admitted. There were too many feelings to process about all the shit that had just gone down, and, honestly, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to even try and dissect them. But standing there with Darius, alone in a huge hall, safe from all our problems for just a few minutes, I felt an odd sense of peace washing over me. After all that, shockingly, I was just glad to have Darius with me.

  “It’s okay not to know how to feel about all this,” he told me, and my cheeks warmed when he tucked my hair behind each ear.

  “I know.” With a soft clearing of my throat, I tried to smile, just to diffuse the situation, to break the focus away from me. “I’m the psychologist, remember? I just don’t know what he meant about you kno
wing I’ll need you, though. I’m pretty sure I don’t need anyone. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m the toughest motherfucking fa—”

  My words were lost in the crush of his kiss, and while he silenced my mouth, my heart screamed wildly in my chest. I let out a shocked puff of air, his lips warm and firm against mine. Heat bloomed throughout my body, curling in my core, a wispy, feathered surge of unexpected pleasure.

  We had kissed before, of course. We’d touched frequently since then. But something about the way he held me, the way his lips parted and his tongue slid between mine—it was electric. I could practically feel my hair rising, the crackle of static making me blush. Unsure of just about everything, my hand crept up to rest on his chest, as my eyes fluttered shut, losing myself in the moment. As his arm curled around my waist, my hand wandered up just a little more, cupping his cheek and caressing the stubble there with a sweep of my thumb. Our tongues brushed against one another, tentatively at first, but growing more insistent, more demanding, until finally, it wasn’t just the curious caress of tongues, but also the occasional crashing of teeth, the kiss turning more desperate the longer he held me in his arms.

  Could he hear my racing heart? Pounding hard and fast within my chest, I realized in that moment it beat solely for Darius as it never had before. Unable to stop myself, I moaned softly. Seconds later his fingertips bit down on my flesh, and I mourned the fact that we were still wearing clothes, and that those bruising fingers wouldn’t leave pleasant little reminders across my hips for tomorrow morning…

  Just as I was on the verge of yanking his T-shirt off and pouncing on the buckle of his black leather belt, Darius eased away—as per fucking usual, nothing out of the ordinary with my dragon. I tried to follow, to recapture what we had, but he kept me in place.

  “I just had to stop that bullshit before you started to believe it,” he whispered, breath hot on my face, his chuckle warming my heart. “You’re not the toughest motherfucking fairy. You’re a strong woman who shouldn’t have to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders. Don’t forget that. Ever. I’m here to share some of that burden of yours, whether you want me to, or not.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

  “No.” Darius grinned as we slowly untangled our limbs. “You don’t. We made a deal, remember?”

  That we did. I was essentially stuck with Darius until Abramelin was dead and buried.

  I did my best not to shy away from him, but the kiss had truly caught me off guard, and a thousand sensations still buzzed through my body, leaving my skin on fire, and my pulse racing. I suddenly wasn’t sure how to act around him, or what my next move should be – only that I desperately wanted there to be a next move. However, when Darius didn’t immediately follow me toward the door that Eilie had gone through, I turned back to face him, planting a hand on my hip.

  “What’s up? You waiting for a personal invitation, or something?”

  His lips curved into a smile, and he chuckled, his eyes never moving from my face. “I’m going to go talk to your brother,” he told me, and when I started to argue, he took a step back, still wearing that easy smile that made my knees weak. “I need to make sure that I won’t run into any trouble because of my, well, heritage.”

  I frowned. No one was going to hassle Darius just because he was a shifter. Not here, at least. Not in an army that wanted to combat intolerant assholes. “Fairies keep their word, Darius.”

  “Yeah, well, not all do,” he fired back, and Jasmine’s smug, stupid face flashed across my mind. “I’ll catch up. Go on. Make sure we get a room with a view.”

  I couldn’t help but sigh as I watched him walk away, wishing he could have seen that I needed him to hold me up—just for a little while until the crumbling pieces of my reality melded back into place. But I was apparently going to have to do that on my own.

  Which was fine. I’d been surviving heartache all by my lonesome for years now.

  I could do it just a little while longer.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I awoke from a dead sleep feeling like I hadn’t had a second of rest. Blinking heavy, I stared up into the blackness, temporarily forgetting that I wasn’t waking up in my bedroom—or a motel, or a tent, or the back of my car. I was in Alfheim, deep underground, in a hidden sanctuary crafted by magic from all sorts of supernatural beings. It had been a little overwhelming at first. Once we left that huge hall with Eilie and the other fairies, it had been an ongoing assault of various kinds of spells, charms, hexes, and power. Just as my brother had said, there were beings from all races, all species, banded together in secret to fight the growing threat that was Abramelin.

  Zayne’s sanctuary was like a beehive—both literally and figuratively. In the literal sense, it seemed to cut down into the earth like a cone, with various levels for different deeds. You could lean over the railing and see straight down to the bottom level, from which grew a castle, its tallest tower nearly reaching the top floor. That was where I’d been offered a room. Dormitories for the others were on the sixth floor—of eight—and Zayne, along with his council of elders, holed up inside the castle.

  In the figurative sense, the underground world within an underground world was much like a beehive in its insane amount of activity. People were always on the move, doing something, talking, laughing, shouting to one another. It was like the morning market on steroids, and it gave me both a sense of peace—it was fabulous to see so many different people rallying to fight a common enemy—and an insane headache. Because, it was all very chaotic. Organized chaos, sure, but it would probably take me a day or two to get used to things.

  I ended up spending the whole day without either Darius or Zayne for company which didn’t sit well with me. While the castle attendants were good about making sure I was eating enough, and giving me a tour of the facilities, I just wanted one of those two guys back by my side. I hadn’t come to Alfheim to feel lonelier than I did sometimes in Manhattan—after a day of listening to difficult, traumatizing stories from clients, shouldering their burdens, and trying to help as best I could, sitting alone in my apartment in front of the television just didn’t cut it. As I’d crawled into bed earlier that night, exhausted, I felt much the same way: drained, and very much alone.

  So much for pretending to be a tough, independent woman, right?

  Yet here I was, hours later, still tired as hell. I rolled over, burying my face in the soft, squishy pillow with a groan. Unfortunately, all my tossing and turning did nothing to help me feel better. Sleep remained elusive, and soon enough, I just threw the covers off and rolled out of bed.

  The room Zayne had arranged for me was spacious and covered the entire top floor of the castle’s tower. My new bed had to be just shy of king-sized, yet I noticed I’d only done my tossing about on one side. There were two couches, and a few bookshelves, plus some sinfully dated shag carpets. Someone had laced the room with protective draughts, and earlier, during my investigation of everything, I had found little charm pouches full of protective herbs and gemstones, all infused with white magic. I should have felt safe, like there was nowhere better to be in all the worlds.

  But for some reason, despite all that, I couldn’t sleep.

  Sighing, I dug through my bag for a housecoat. The silken material could basically fold into nothing, so I’d stuffed it in there last minute before Darius and I left the city. Now I was pleased, as I was too tired to change into something more presentable. So, clad in my silky black housecoat and a tank-shorts combo, I headed for the balcony. A quick scan through the floor to ceiling glass doors told me Darius wasn’t crouched on the railing, watching over me, and our surroundings. In fact, I couldn’t feel him anywhere nearby, and the thought made my stomach twist.

  Maybe he was on the roof? It seemed absurd, but I could totally picture Darius perched amidst the huge slate gray shingles, analyzing this new world in silence. So, I unlatched the series of locks that kept the windows closed, then slipped out on
to the balcony. A gust of warm wind blew my robe wide open, and I hastily scrambled to get it shut, and tie it around my waist.

  Not that I needed to hide from anyone. Darius wasn’t on the tower’s roof. My heart sunk just a little bit more than I would have liked, as I scanned the area. Nothing. Not a dragon for miles. Exhaling deeply, I turned and leaned against the balcony’s stone railing. Thick and sturdy, it seemed like it could support a fairy who was dealing with some heavy personal bullshit.

  Biting the inside of my cheek, my gaze traveled outward to take in the underground world around me. At least if I was studying architecture, I might not think about a certain dragon.

  Who’d kissed me out of nowhere.

  His lips leaving mine buzzed and warm, my stomach in knots, my lady parts all…

  Ha.

  Fat chance the landscape could distract me from my dragon.

  Still, it was beautiful down here, even at night. The whole beehive thing had gone out the window, and while the shape hadn’t changed, the energy certainly had. I could feel the pulse of magic, thick and present, just as it was above ground. Yet here my heart raced. Each breath was invigorating in a new sort of way like I was suddenly filled with hope.

  Was it just the place? Was it the fact that all around me, supernaturals were gathering to defeat the jerk who had tried to put me six feet under? Or had someone charmed the monstrous cavern, growing wider in diameter the further my eyes traveled upward so that the fighting spirit lingered in the air?

  Whatever it was, I was digging it. Things had certainly quieted down, giving me a real chance to get a feel for everything without being quite so overwhelmed. It was only now, as I took it all in, that I realized someone had charmed the ceiling. We were underground, yes, but the top of the beehive showed me stars—thousands of them. Bright, beautiful stars, the kind you’re only fortunate enough to see once you escaped the bright lights of the city. Even then, these were breathtaking. I was finally able to forget about Darius when I looked at those stars, twinkling bright white and yellow—and pink and amber, the longer I watched. Stunning.