“Oh hey.” I waved nonchalantly, as if I didn’t have a human girl dangling from my waist and a bevy of guards ready to pounce on us. “I’m just greeting some visitors.”
“This vile hybrid threatened me!” the reception mage shouted, pointing toward me with a trembling finger.
Fenris’s brow darkened as he descended the staircase. “I don’t care for your choice of words, Canter,” he said sternly, the guards backing away as he approached.
“Who is he?” Comenius murmured in my ear, watching wide-eyed at the way Fenris managed to intimidate everyone else in the room. “Isn’t he a shifter?”
“Yeah, but he’s friends with the Chief Mage,” I muttered back. “And also his right-hand man. So everyone seems to listen to him.”
“That’s strange,” Noria mused, also watching with narrowed eyes. “The Chief Mage giving a shifter that kind of power, while oppressing the other shifters under his rule?”
I shrugged, but the words struck me nevertheless. It was strange that Fenris had so much influence over the guards and even some of the mages around here, even if he was a friend of the Chief Mage’s. Moreover, I still didn’t understand why the two of them were friends in the first place, especially since the Chief Mage certainly didn’t show me any kind of preferential treatment. What made Fenris so special?
Canter seemed to recover from his momentary panic attack, and drew his robes around himself imperiously. “I don’t see what business it is of yours what I call her,” he sniffed, “but in any case that’s not the point. These two hooligans,” he jabbed a finger towards Comenius and Noria, “came in demanding to see the prisoner, and I denied them on account of the fact that she isn’t cleared for visitors.”
Fenris simply arched a brow, folding his arms over his broad chest. “I wasn’t aware that anyone had to be ‘cleared’ in order to receive visitors around here. Would you care to show me where such a policy exists?”
Huh. Good point.
Canter’s sallow cheeks reddened. “T-the Chief Mage s-said so,” he stuttered, and Fenris took a threatening step toward him, baring his fangs in a rare show of temper.
“You should know better than to lie to me,” he said in a soft voice. “Even if I couldn’t tell by your scent, it’s a simple enough matter for me to ask the Chief Mage myself. And I’m certain he would tell me that no such policy exists.”
“Huh,” Noria said. “Can shifters really smell when someone is lying?”
I grinned down at her. “It’s one of our many superpowers, kid,” I said, bumping my shoulder playfully into hers. Fenris shot me an annoyed look, but I didn’t care – I was just happy to have my friends with me.
“Your insinuations are insulting,” Canter snapped, but the scent of fresh sweat rolling out from his pores was telling – the man was a liar, and a bad one at that. “I refuse to stand here and be mocked like this.”
Fenris shrugged, gesturing to the chair behind the desk that was stationed in the foyer. “Fine, then sit and be insulted instead,” he said. “But either way, I see no reason why Sunaya can’t have a short visit with her friends.”
In the end, we were taken up to one of the “conference rooms” right off the balcony landing, which was essentially a parlor furnished in gold and green, with low couches and chaises and elegantly carved wooden furniture.
“Don’t think you aren’t under observation,” Fenris warned me, and left us to our own devices.
Suddenly nervous, I grabbed a gold-tasseled pillow and fidgeted with it as I sat. Noria and Comenius sat on the love seat opposite me.
“What?” I finally snapped, noticing the way their eyes brimmed with curiosity and reproach. “Why are you guys staring at me like that?”
“Well –,” Noria began.
“No.” Comenius laid a hand on her knee. “You can’t say it like that.”
“Like what?” Noria protested. “You don’t even know what I’m about to say.”
But I did. It was written clear as day on her freckled face. “You don’t think I’m suffering enough,” I said flatly.
Noria’s shoulders sagged, and she looked at me with a combination of guilt and anger. “Well, yeah.”
“Not that that we’re upset about it,” Comenius rushed to assure me. “It’s just that –”
“Oh who are you kidding?” Noria snapped, shoving Comenius’s hand off her knee. “Of course we’re upset about it. Or at least I am! I’ve been lying awake all night, thinking you’re being magically tortured and interrogated and experimented on, only to find out that you’re clothed and fed and perfectly healthy, and walking around as if you own the damned place.” She leveled a glare at me that was so fierce I actually shrank back a little in my seat.
“Look,” I said, scowling at Noria. “Just because I’m not chained to the wall in a dirty cell somewhere doesn’t mean I’m okay. I can’t set foot outside these walls until the Chief Mage decides to release me, and at the rate he’s going that might not be until next year.”
Noria glanced around at the fancy furnishings of the room. “I’m not entirely sure that’s a bad thing,” she said dubiously, her eyes lingering on the expensive-looking paintings that hung on the walls. “The Chief’s got excellent taste, for a mage.” She wrinkled her nose.
“Yes, well, that didn’t do me much good when I was nearly beaten to death by the guards last night.”
“What!” Comenius shouted as Noria’s face went pale. “What do you mean, nearly beaten to death?”
“And by those guards?” The shock in Noria’s voice was evident. “There must have been an army of them if they were able to take you down.”
“I don’t know about an army,” I said dryly. “But there were a few.” I gave them a quick rundown of the incident, explaining that I’d basically been starved all day and had little energy left when the guards had jumped me in the kitchen. “If it weren’t for Fenris, I’d probably be dead.”
“Verflixt,” Comenius muttered and I blinked – it was rare for him to swear. His pale blue eyes burned with emotion. “I’m sorry, Naya. I should have known, should have done something –”
I shook my head. “There’s nothing you could have done,” I said gently, hating the guilt that was written all over his face. “And remember, had you not thought of appealing to the Chief Mage, I’d likely be dead. It’s okay, anyway. I’m all better now.”
“I can see that.” Noria studied me, her dark eyes glittering with suspicion. “From what you’ve said it sounds like you were injured really badly. Whoever healed you must have been really good.”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “It was the Chief Mage, actually.”
Comenius’s jaw dropped. “Iannis ar’Sannin himself healed you?”
I groaned. “It’s not a big deal, guys. Fenris brought my bleeding, broken body up to his room and demanded he do it.”
“Still,” Comenius mused. “He could have simply ordered any one of his mages to do it. This is very interesting.”
“What it is, is concerning,” Noria said, leaning forward. “Naya, you aren’t like, becoming friends with these people, are you? Just because the Chief Mage wiggled his fingers and did some magic mumbo jumbo on you doesn’t mean that he’s your best bud now. If anything, it’s his fault this happened to you in the first place.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I scoffed, leaning back against the cushions and crossing my legs as if my pulse hadn’t suddenly kicked up a notch at Noria’s accusation. “No one knows better than me I’m like a mouse under his paw. He’s a cold, calculating bastard who doesn’t give a flying fuck about me, and I plan on putting as much distance between myself and this place as I can, as soon as possible. We are not friends.”
“Good.” Apparently satisfied with my declaration, Noria sat back. “Now we can get on with the rest of our visit.”
I arched a brow. “And that is?”
“The silver murders.” Comenius pulled a new issue of the Shifter Courier from the inside o
f his tunic.
I took it from his outstretched hand, my eyes narrowing as I read the front-page article, which was about another shifter death.
“Surely this should spark some kind of investigation, no?” I asked after I’d read the article. The victim was the daughter of a wealthy shifter merchant – surely that had to merit some attention.
Comenius pressed his lips together. “I’m not so sure. I disguised myself as a reporter and attempted to interview the family, but I was ambushed by several thugs not far from the house. I suspect they had been following me.”
“By Magorah.” I reached for Comenius’s hand, but stopped myself. “Are you alright, Com?”
“I have a few tricks up my sleeves.” A small smirk played across his lips, but his expression quickly grew serious again. “I managed to palm this from them.” He drew a tiny cloth pouch from the inside of his sleeve and handed it to me. “Strange, that human drug dealers would be hanging around Shiftertown.”
I opened up the pouch and took a sniff. “This is cerebust. It only works on humans.” Scowling, I sniffed again to see if it was cut with anything, and a few grains of the drug flew up my nostrils. A strange, giddy feeling flew through me, and I dropped the bag, stunned.
Thankfully Comenius snatched it out of the air before it spilled all over the carpet. “Naya? Are you alright?” He peered into my eyes. “Your pupils are dilating.”
“I… I think I’m a little high.” Panic overtook the strange euphoria, and sweat broke out across the line of my brow. “That’s not possible. Shifters don’t get high.” Cerebust was a recreational drug used by humans, but like most drugs it didn’t work on shifters. Our metabolisms run too high – we might get a slight buzz from an actual hit, but a few flecks of cerebust in my nostrils should not have had any effect on me.
“As I thought.” Comenius’s eyes blazed triumphantly as he returned the little pouch to its hiding place up his sleeve. “Someone has treated this drug with a chemical or process that makes shifters susceptible to it.” He folded his arms as he sat back.
My mind reeled at the implications. “But that doesn’t make any sense,” I protested. “Surely I would have heard if there were drug dealers running around Shiftertown? That kind of thing can’t be kept a secret for long.” But my heart sank as I realized that for the last couple of months I’d spent most of my time between tending bar in Rowanville and taking on what few Enforcer jobs I could. It had been many moons since I’d spent any length of time in Shiftertown.
Comenius shrugged. “It could be a relatively new thing,” he said. “Something that’s still being tested on the market. But it is interesting that this is being peddled by humans.”
“Sure,” I said, waving my hand impatiently. “But I don’t see what this has to do with the silver murders.”
“Think about it, Naya.” Noria leaned forward, excitement gleaming in her dark eyes. “You said that when you examined Roanas’s glass, you didn’t detect any silver in it. And yet he died of silver poisoning.”
My jaw dropped as the implications of that dawned on me. “Are… are you saying that you think the cerebust is being laced with silver?”
“That would certainly explain why you were affected by it,” Comenius pointed out. “If it was a small enough dose, the silver would weaken you just enough to allow the drug to affect your system. And since you’d be high, you wouldn’t even notice.”
“So whoever’s manufacturing the drug, could also be behind these poisonings.” My mind was racing now. “That rhino shifter –”
“Could have been overdosing on a silver-laced drug,” Noria finished for me. “Unfortunately we’ll never know since you incinerated him, but Comenius and I have been looking through the papers and have found evidence that Rhino-boy wasn’t the only shifter who’s had a psychotic break like that in the last few months.”
Antsy now, I jumped up and started pacing in front of the fireplace. “I have to get out of here,” I said, shoving my hands into the pockets of my jeans. “There’s no way I’m going to be able to solve these murders if I’m stuck behind these walls.”
“Don’t be in such a rush, Naya,” Comenius said hastily. He rose to his feet as well, squaring his shoulders as if prepared to restrain me. “We haven’t conclusively determined whether or not there actually is silver in the cerebust. Noria has an alchemist friend who is going to run some tests –”
“He’s a chemistry student,” Noria corrected, shooting him a testy glare. “Alchemy is magic.”
Comenius snorted. “Well excuse me.”
I couldn’t help it – I laughed. “My incarceration seems to have had a positive influence on you,” I told him. “I’ve never seen you so sassy before.”
He sobered a little. “You haven’t been incarcerated yet, Naya. And if I have my way, you won’t be.”
Tears pricked at the corner of my eyes, and I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “Thanks,” I whispered. “You guys are the best friends I could have.” I threw my arms around Comenius, then reached out and snagged Noria as well for a group hug.
“We know,” Noria said, the grin clear in her voice. “And that’s why I sent a message to Rylan asking him to break you out.”
“Noria!” Scandalized, I broke free of the hug, my eyes darting around wildly. I expected the guards to come rushing in any minute, to cart her away so that she could be questioned about the Resistance’s whereabouts. “You can’t say that shit in here, not when we’re being monitored!”
“Don’t worry,” Noria said, pulling something from her pocket. “As far as they’re concerned, we haven’t been saying anything at all for the last ten minutes of our conversation.”
She tossed the object in her palm to me, and I caught it, then held it up to the light. It was a small, handheld electronic device with a glowing blue light, and it smelled of magic. “What the hell is this thing?”
“It’s a jammer,” Noria said proudly, folding her arms across her chest. “Interferes with magical wavelengths when it’s activated, which I did before we started talking about the murders. Anyone listening to us via a magical spell wouldn’t have been able to hear a damned thing. I’ve already tested it out a few times, so I know it works.”
I gaped at the tiny gadget, amazed. “How the hell did you manage to come up with something like this?”
Comenius scowled at Noria. “She’s been experimenting with combinations of magic and technology with a college friend of hers who happens to be a mage,” he said. But though the disapproval in his voice was clear, I detected a glimmer of admiration in his eyes. “It’s going to get her killed one day, if the Mage’s Guild finds out.”
I arched a brow, impressed. “You actually found a mage who was willing to collaborate with you?”
Noria shrugged. “He’s in my college, so he’s pretty progressive.”
“I’ll say.” Though the Academy was technically open to anyone, it was mostly a human-centric institution, with a few shifters attending as well. Mage students were practically unheard of, as most of them simply moved on from their apprenticeships to positions in the Guild, or as freelancers. Very few cared about taking courses or learning skills outside of magic. “What’s your mage friend taking?”
Noria’s expression turned guilty. “Chemistry.”
“Noria!” Comenius’s head looked like it was going to explode. “You can’t be serious. You’re taking the cerebust to a mage?”
Noria glared at him defensively. “He’s not like the others,” she told him. “He actually believes in equality among the races, which is why he’s willing to work with me. He believes magic should be accessible to everyone.”
“You know that if it’s found out that he’s helping you he could be punished, right?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Noria, I can’t believe you would put someone in danger like that, just to experiment with a few gadgets!”
Noria’s face crumpled under the weight of my disapproval. “I thought you of all peopl
e would understand, Naya. We need change, and it’s never going to happen if we don’t pursue things like this. Isn’t that what we’re all after?”
Guilt clawed at me as I took her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. I was being the biggest hypocrite in the world, and I knew it. “Of course it is, but I can’t stand the idea of you getting hurt. Your sister would murder me.”
Noria frowned. “Why would she do that? This has nothing to do with you – I’m doing this of my own volition.” She shrugged my hands off her shoulders as anger sparked in her dark eyes. “What, you get to take credit for my rebellions now? I have my own thoughts and ideas, Naya, and no one else is responsible for them. You’re not the only one willing to fight, you know.”
“She doesn’t mean it that way, Noria.” Comenius gently placed his hands on the girl’s shoulders, trying to calm her. “She’s just worried about you.”
“Yeah, well she shouldn’t be.” Noria tossed her hair and gave me an imperious look. “I can take care of myself. And for once, I’m going to take care of you, too. It shouldn’t take Rylan long to get my message, and when he breaks you out of here, remember that I’m the one who saved the day.”
“Noria –” I reached for her as she turned away, but she was too quick, and she slipped out of the room in the blink of an eye. I sagged, the weight of guilt and defeat crushing my spine. “By Magorah, Com. What have I done?”
Comenius took me in his arms, and I rested my head on his shoulder, soaking up the comfort he offered. “She just wants to be like you and Annia,” he said softly.
“I know,” I said miserably. “But I want a better life for her than what we have, and instead she keeps pushing herself closer to the edge. And now because I keep trying to push her back, she hates me.”
“She doesn’t hate you.” Comenius pulled back, and reached down to grab something off the coffee table – the jammer. “If she did, she wouldn’t have left this for you.” Smiling, he placed it in my palm. A warm tingle spread through my body as he closed my fingers around it. “Keep it with you, for now. I don’t know how it works, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
Burned by Magic: a New Adult Fantasy Novel (The Baine Chronicles Book 1) Page 10
