We dragged the man to the wing where I went every Tuesday. I went through the first set of triple reinforced glass doors, then metal doors, then wood ones, and then nice padded ones. It felt like home. Not my home, but someone’s. The room was large with television, sink, musical instruments, art easel and supplies for the captives to use. Music from the television got the pet’s attention as we dragged him to one of the two cells on the room’s far side.
After we got him into the cell, I immediately released the invisibility spell then turned to Pete. “Follow her. Don’t make it obvious, but keep her safe.”
He grinned at me. He pretty much grinned perpetually. “Sure, man. Hey, what are you going to give me for this whole thing?”
I sighed. “I’ll let you start in the next tourney.”
“Nice! Good to see you, Ian.” Pete took off, through the three sets of doors.
“He’s easily satisfied.”
I smiled at Ian. “Not as easy as you. What do you want?”
“I want to see what this is all about.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You’re welcome to join me. It’s not interesting.”
“Carl, is that you?” Larry, a guy on the couch stood up, peering over at the pet who stood, gripping the bars, mage mud dribbling down his chin. He was clearly experienced with it.
Carl, the pet blinked a few times before he nodded. “Carl. I was Carl.”
Larry walked over, gripped Carl’s hands around the white bars and beamed at him. “You aren’t dead! You see? I told you everything would work out.”
Carl grabbed the other guy’s throat. “Yes. I see. Death would have been better. Do you see what I am, what I’ve become?”
“None of that.” I struck Carl’s wrist sending his hand back into the cage while I yanked Larry out of range. “Larry, you know better.”
He blinked his deceptively innocent looking eyes at me. How old was he, mid-twenties? He coughed and rubbed his throat. “Yeah. We went into the woods together all those years ago. I thought he was dead.” He frowned at his old friend. “You’re not in fairy-tale land anymore. Get it together. I’m heading to work.”
He took off, leaving me with the other humans and the large woman who sat in a chair knitting. “He smells bad,” was all she had to say.
I glanced at Ian. “I thought that was you.”
Ian shook his head as he lifted his arm, setting up a ward to keep out curious ears. “What’s this all about?”
I hesitated. “What do you mean? I’m always taking in homeless pets.”
He stared at me. “We went into Darkside after a human who could resurrect the dead. You owe me a favor.”
“You kicked me five times.”
He grinned. “Just helping keep you focused. You’ve got it bad.”
I hesitated. “Ian, if you want to come along with me, that’s fine, but I warn you that you’ll be bored. I agreed to retrieve the human for Madame Occulus.”
He stared at me. “Why?”
I sighed. “It’s embarrassing.”
His lips twitched. “I don’t recall you being easily ashamed. Now I’m interested.”
“You see, I broke into the…”
He held up a hand. “You were caught breaking into the Homeland Sheafs? That is embarrassing. Why didn’t you send someone, an actually competent thief? You can afford it. Or better question, why didn’t you just request whatever document you wanted?”
I sighed. “You sound so rational. Also boring. Where’s the imbecile who followed me into the Burning Lands?”
He shook his head, eyes sparking gold. “We all died there and came back as something different. Have you seen Teddy recently?”
“No. Give me a few minutes here to get the newcomer comfortable, and then I’ll let you accompany me to retrieve the document.”
“In the usual place?”
I nodded and Ian stepped towards me, but instead of stepping onto my shoes, he walked sthroughide into Darkside. No one blinked because everyone had seen much stranger things than a mage stepping out of one dimension and into another.
I stared at Carl for a long time where he stood in his ragged clothing looking starved and completely mad. “So, you’re probably wondering what this place is. It’s like a halfway house for humans who aren’t quite ready to live on their own. Larry’s a bartender in town. He doesn’t have to stay around because he’s pretty much one hundred percent climatized, but he likes hanging out with people who don’t think he’s crazy for thinking that trees sometimes talk. If it isn’t clear, this is Dayside. If you need to strangle someone, it had better be me. Larry’s kind of delicate these days. When I first met him three years ago he was in worse shape than you. Had been living with a tree growing through him or as a tree? The witch who had him kept a whole grove of humans. Liked to collect their sap for her special syrup.” I wrinkled my nose. “Witches. So, I have a few rules. Don’t try to bring the dead bodies in the morgue to life. This is Dayside. It will freak people out and the Symposium of mages and witches will throw you into a dungeon somewhere. No one ever rehabilitates from that. As for your other extensively interesting skills, forget about them. They’ll probably fade away along with the trauma. There’s a shrink here who’s really great along with Marge. She’ll give you a really fine meal once you agree to bathe. Whatever you want. Chinese, fried chicken, you know, whatever.” I should be eating at the Chinese restaurant in a separate booth from Penny. I never should have put my Tuesday in jeopardy. Never again.
“You, mage, what do you eat?”
I stared at him. “Good question. You’re used to Darkside mages, and your mistress was a sorceress, right? I’m only part Darksider mage. About half. The rest is human. So I do have a taste for some Darksider dishes, but no humans.”
“If you aren’t going to eat us what are you doing with us?”
I sighed. “I have this curiosity that can’t be satisfied until I see what happens with my own eyes. Trouble is, after I’d rehabilitated one human, I got stuck doing it. He’s doing good. Works as a Forest Ranger. Still sends me Christmas cards.”
He scowled at me. He had a fearsome scowl that showed how much time he’d spent with a sorceress. He looked like a mage. “You’re a child.”
I grinned at him. “Am I? I am pretty young, and ridiculously handsome, but I’ve packed a lot of experience in my short life. I’ve been to the Burning Lands and back.”
“I don’t believe it,” a female voice interjected from behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder at Missy, a nervous looking woman who kept her knees up by her chin as she watched TV. She didn’t show any interest in transitioning into the real world. She’d probably get along well with Penny. Penny could corrupt her with Telenovelas. “You wound me. I’m trying to convince the scary newcomer that I’m all dangerous and stuff.”
She turned her head to look at Carl for the first time. “Listen to the mage. He’s young and stupid but he does take his work seriously.”
“Thanks, Missy.” My hands were twitching to grab my keys and go to the Chinese restaurant. Maybe I could slide into the bench beside her, and steal some of her sesame chicken before she noticed. I could say she owed me a dinner for ten percent of her repayment. She was falling in love with me. Every time she fainted she fell a little bit more.
“Missy? Is that your human name?” Carl was trying to get his bearings already. Good.
Missy shrugged. “You should bathe, eat, sleep, then you’ll feel more human.”
He studied her for a long time, his gaze seemed fixed on her face, specifically her missing eye. “Were you kept as a morsel?”
She nodded and held up her hand. She was missing three fingers from her left hand. “Haven’t got any toes left.”
Carl winced. He stared at her for a long time. “Do I stink?”
She nodded, expressionless.
“I will bathe and then eat a king’s feast.”
I pulled off my shirt and stepped through the bars. His hands we
re shaking, but he held very still while I wove a bubble around him that would pour out suds and hot water. It would also dissolve his revolting clothing. Such a boring thing to do. So menial, so much lower than my position. Why was I doing this? Ah, because the last time I’d hired a mage to do it, he’d ended up ‘accidentally’ scalding the human. Details. The one before that hadn’t bothered to bathe them at all. Claimed they were more comfortable in their filth.
Soon enough, Carl was clean and dry. I dressed him quickly in t-shirt and jeans. No belt. No shoes. He needed to clip his toenails. At least he had toes.
“You smell much better. I’ll see you in a week.”
He scowled at me and grabbed my throat. I let him. “You’re going to leave me behind bars for a week?”
I nodded, my words coming out a wheeze. “You see how you just grabbed my throat? When that isn’t your first reaction, we’ll talk about bringing you into the fold.”
Missy turned away from us, facing the TV and blocking us out. Carl noticed and his fingers loosened. Finally, he dropped his hand and crossed his arms, fingering the fabric of the t-shirt like it was alien.
I rubbed my throat, but it was already healed. “I can’t have you harming my clients.”
“Clients?”
I stepped out of the enclosure and adjusted my cuffs. The hems of my cuffs were singed. I didn’t look entirely immaculate after our scuffle, battle, war, whatever. “You aren’t my pet, Carl. I like rehabilitating humans, watching them regain their humanity and lose the Darkside. It’s the same sort of interest that has some mages growing humans like trees.” I shrugged. “I’ll see you next Tuesday, five-forty-five more or less, and then we’ll review your behavior. Missy will give me a full report, right Missy?”
She shrugged, still watching the TV.
“Let me know if you have any problems, Marge.”
She nodded but didn’t look up from her knitting. This group was getting positively boring. Hopefully Carl would liven things up a bit, but he showed an extraordinary ability to adapt. I really shouldn’t look forward to zombies in Fairfield, but it would be so interesting. What if Penny got scared and clung to me?
I stepped into Darkside in a narrow alley outside the usual tavern. The smell of Darkside was rich and heavy, like rotting humus and decomposing flesh along with a tang of electricity that charged the air with every breath. I skirted around a pile of questionable goods before I reached the mouth of the alley. A mage glanced at me from beneath the broad brim of his hat before he glanced away with a dark scowl.
He was up to no good. If only I could say the same. I sighed and entered the tavern then stood staring at the scene of Ian fighting the entire room, golden eyes sparking with his fury. He howled as someone broke his leg.
Maybe I should step in before things got unpleasant. Naw. I went to our usual booth and saw that he’d already ordered our drink, the swampy green sludge I’d once found so refreshingly quaint. I waved my hand over it and switched it to something much nicer, then sat back and watched the fight.
In about ten minutes, Ian began to flicker with fire, and smoke tickled my nose. Fire. I stood up, walked over, and dumped a pitcher of murky water over him. I turned and tossed gold coins to the counter that clinked loudly. I grabbed Ian, threw him over my shoulder and sidestepped into Dayside. I dropped Ian, soaked and still smoking, to the stone courtyard outside Madame Occulus’s suite above the Sheaf.
“What is this?”
“Time. Follow me if you’re still interested. Otherwise, go burn somewhere else.”
He scowled at me, eyes sparking bright as he swiped the water out of his eyes. He stood, smoothed down his shirt, steaming it until it was dry. “Now who’s acting like a responsible mage?”
I rolled my eyes and went to knock sharply on the door. The old mage from earlier opened it almost immediately. He was still in the blanket robe.
“Huntsman, isn’t it? And you brought a friend.” The way he looked at Ian made me nervous.
“That’s right. He’s my transportation mage. I’m here for the promised document.”
He smiled, his bright eyes sparkling above the white beard. “It isn’t here. It was called away by one Jasper Hopeworth two days ago. It won’t be returned until next Monday.”
I stared at him while Ian made no sound. That was his silent laughter. I was going to kill him, or someone. Jasper. How did he know? He wouldn’t be Huntsman’s man if he weren’t entirely competent, but this was too much.
“Thank you. The human is settled in Dayside.”
He nodded. “We watched the coup. Very impressive.”
Not as impressive as it could have been. I glanced at Ian then turned and stepped through to Darkside, then back into the foyer of Huntsman manor. I snapped my fingers and Ian broke through. He’d been held back by the wards which kept out any mage who wasn’t already allowed into Huntsman proper.
“Jasper! Where are you? You’re fired, you pernicious, meddlesome, over-competent trickster!”
Jasper appeared before me, an expression of mild surprise on his face as he glanced from me to Ian who was still a bit damp. “I beg your pardon? One oughtn’t raise one’s voice in one’s home.”
“And one oughtn’t steal a document out from under me before I got the chance to.”
He lowered his brows. “You’re the idiot who broke into the Sheaf?”
Ian snorted. I kicked him because I owed him a few.
“Jasper, where is it?”
“The study, Master Huntsman, laid out with the appropriate preservation spells.” There was a warning in his voice. Being allowed texts from the Sheaf was a privilege that I shouldn’t take lightly.
“Excellent.” I ran across the hall, pounded up the enormous steps, then took the curve to the right that would let out only twenty feet from the study.
In the study, I crossed the floor, so thick with rugs that even my impatient footsteps were softened. The table was well lit with warm golden light that mimicked a thousand candles. I leaned my hands on the round, enormous table and read the signatures. There was Penelope Rose and a list of respectable Daysider witches and mages, and beside her name above Darksider symbols they used in place of names, a streak of blood. Well that was helpful.
I spun away from the table, paced out five spaces and began striding a star shape, the table in the center. It sparked green when I finished the last footstep, returning to the beginning in front of the table. I pressed my palm in the center of the document and concentrated. This wasn’t a spell, exactly, not the sort of spellcraft Jasper did so well. It was more winging it.
Ian stayed on the edge of the star, but he watched with interest as ghostly green figures swirled around, the signing of the treaty. The woman, Penelope Rose was startlingly young and sweet, beautiful, her golden blond hair curling around her shoulders like a cape. She looked so much like Penny. Which of the Darksiders was the mysterious smear, I couldn’t tell. I watched the scene unfold, and it seemed like one watched her with a certain smile. I held up my hand and the scene paused. I walked around the star to Ian.
“Do you think they’re lovers?”
He studied the scene carefully. “The woman who looks like Penny, and the Darksider?” He nodded, slowly. “I’d say more than that. I’d say there was something else in that glance. Not only secrecy but promise. I’d say they were secretly married.”
I nodded and focused in on the Darksider’s face. “Who is he?”
“He’s known as the Devil.” Jasper’s voice floated in behind the large tray he carried full of dinner which I hadn’t had. He didn’t know that I was more irritable from missing dinner with Penny than missing dinner.
“The devil is Penny’s grandfather?” Ian whistled, softly.
I snapped my fingers and the images dissolved right before Jasper walked over it, stalking steadily to the table, where he put down the tray and turned towards me.
“If you alert him to her existence, you could put her in danger.” That was as close
as Jasper would come to try and stop me from meeting the devil face to face.
I tapped my pants with my fingers, going through a dozen plans and discarding them. “Truly. She’s agreed to let you meet the spellmaster. Perhaps I should leave it at that.”
I spun around and headed back through Darkside, then came back into the hall outside my own bedroom. I grabbed my phone and texted Pete.
She’d arrived at school forty-five minutes earlier. She’d eaten a sandwich at the bar in town and taken the shuttle home. Nothing interesting had happened other than her chatting with Barry.
I snarled at the phone and then stepped back through Darkside to Hunstman manor and the study where my dinner waited. I ate voraciously while Ian and Jasper stared at me, apparently cutting their conversation short at my sudden return.
I shoved food in my face and chewed, scowling at nothing in particular. The devil of Darkside. She really was his granddaughter. Probably. Naturally a witch like Penelope Rose wouldn’t stoop to marrying some mediocre Darksider mage, she had to find a sorcerer with the power to make such a treaty, to enforce such a treaty. What did that leave me with? Was it inadequacy I felt? Probably. But, Penny was falling in love with me. She was almost there, teetering on the brink of the endless chasm. I just had to keep nudging her. Patiently. Not one of my virtues. As if I had any of those.
The darkness inside of her wasn’t dark enough to be the Devil’s granddaughter.
Ian grabbed my arm. “I’m coming to Rosewood with you.” His golden eyes sparked and in them I saw his hope for freedom. If Penny Lane had such Darkside in her, she was easily a match for Witley. Ian’s hope, Zach’s craving, I shouldn’t even try. But she was mine. If I had to rip apart my two friends and the rest of the world, I would do so.
I smiled at him. “Be very careful. I will annihilate you.”
He gave me a lop-sided smile as he bowed to me. “You will lead me to victory, as always. She belongs to you.”
My chest ached, lines burning where she’d carved her name into my skin. Not yet, but soon.
Chapter 14
Witch
Dread Delight: Rosewood Academy for Witches and Mages (Darkly Sweet Book 2) Page 11
