The Carver's Magic

by B. L. Brooklyn

  I don’t know how long it took, but when Sidney was sure the potion was all out, she sewed her back together. I kept pushing my healing magic into her but she was healing slowly, probably because I felt like I had done a thousand push-ups and I was physically weak, myself.

  Sidney left a few minutes ago, rubbing the back of her neck where I saw the beginning of a scar. It looked like she had a huge cut that ran from the top of her spine heading down. It was at least a half-inch thick. Her short, dark, wavy, chocolate hair did nothing to cover it. If it weren’t for my own magic I would have scars like that all over my body. I had already given her my appreciation for saving Cory. She worked hard and didn’t once act like saving someone unlike her own kind was beneath her, and that is what earned her my respect. She’s been checking on Cory every so often, but didn’t say much other than, “She’s getting there.”

  I reach out and grab Cory’s hand. I press my lips to her skin. Needing to feel something from her. Her hand is limp in my hand, but I could feel the slight buzz around her. She is in there. I just don’t know how to get her to wake up. I let her hand down by her side, but I refuse to let go. I’m not used to this need, and it’s not something I can easily define, but I definitely can’t stop the intense desire to merge with her. Her soul. Just…her.

  Someone touched my shoulder. I peered up and saw a blue mug that said in white writing, “This Could Be Wine.” I want to smile, but I didn’t have the energy. I grab the mug and brought it to my nose. Dark, black, plain coffee, it was perfect.

  “Thank you Sid,” I whisper.

  “It’s decaf.”

  As odd as it sounds, I scowl at her, but I wasn’t angry or annoyed. She laughs at me and it actually took some pressure off my shoulders. I may have… just met my first friend. I scratch the side of my head, wondering if that made any sense. I don’t have friends, but hours with Sid, with her straightforward words and non-judgmental tones, made me like her from the start.

  Yep. First friend.

  “The faster you drink that cup the faster we can move Cory to a clean bed and you can sleep.” Sid is standing over Cory, looking over the angry red marks all over her chest. Her wounds are healing. When Sid had placed her in here at the beginning the cut was still held together with sutures, now the skin had scarred the two pieces together.

  I took another sip of the coffee that didn’t taste decaf at all. I continue to hold Cory’s hand, pushing in my magic.

  I took another sip and ask, “Where are we taking her?”

  Sid didn’t answer right away. She was looking at her watch while holding her slim fingers on Cory’s wrist, “Home.”

  Home? “What does that mean?” I set the mug down on the nightstand with white chipping paint.

  Sid’s smile didn’t reach her eyes, “You claimed her, didn’t you?” I nodded once. It was a little awkward acknowledging this. “Then your home is her home now.” I nodded once more. My home, is her home? Okay. I can do this, I reassured myself. And I really can. I think.

  * * *

  I laid Cory on my bed. This was not the image I had formulated when I thought of Cory in my bed, but she and I will get to that later. At the rate she’s healing, it will be much later, but I can wait.

  She's still asleep. Sid assured me that I don’t need to push any more magic into her. Her body is healing at a steady rate. But I have Sid’s number in case Cory doesn’t wake up in another 24 hours. Sid assured me that Cory would wake up, but I’m not taking any chances.

  Before I teleported Cory from Sid’s house-slash-pack-hospital she theorized that Cory’s magic must have been pretty strong if she was able to make a potion like that. I hated to agree with her, but I did. Cory was less than half a fairy and yet she cooked up two potions, that I don’t know if I would have been able to duplicate. A bonding or binding potion, whatever it was, it not an easy potion. Which is why it only is created when two fairies are going to get married – not just because you didn’t want someone to know what bloodline you’re from.

  I told Sid about Cory’s bloodline, and that she was a descendant of a potions master. I didn’t know what I expected Sid to say, probably because I never confided in anyone ever before, but her response was to smile with her eyes and choke on her concealed laugh. She said I was in for a constant adventure, living with a potions master.

  I would have thanked her for everything but she side tracked me when she also gave me heads up on what to expect when Cory woke up. Either she is going to be weak because her magic has been doing double time to heal, or her magic would be thick and powerful after exercising so much. And that is what started me to worry. Because when she woke up, all this was going to be real. I was going to have someone who was forever connected to me for the rest of my immortal life. If that isn’t something to knock a man down a few steps, then that man isn’t living in reality.

  Cory’s scars are fading, and I hope she wakes up soon. If she knew how often I check her chest, she would probably blush.

  I let the large grey shirt I magically put on her drop, covering her pale belly. She is laying on top of my bed, breathing shallowly. I’m sitting on a seat from my kitchen table I dragged in here. I am tired, but I’m not going to rest.

  I have to think of some way to wake her up, so, with no other ideas, I start talking. “My father came to see me the other day. He told me that he had you and he would hurt you if I didn’t come back with him.” I ignored the twang of guilt in my chest, “I told him I didn’t care what happened to you,” I paused. The words were harder to get out than I thought. I didn’t like to explain myself ever, but I wanted to explain it to her, even if she didn’t hear me. “My father’s a sadist. I thought that if I showed how much I didn’t care, he would let you go and try something else,” I swallowed, “I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”

  I let out a haggard breath, “I’m sorry I let him hurt you. I’m sorry you got wrapped up in this mess. When I first saw you, I thought that you were just a human, a silly girl who thought if you drank dirty martinis you would look more mature.” I scratch the back of my neck. It was harsh, but true. “Until I found out you were sisters with Beth. Then, I was kind of jealous that Beth had someone like you who didn’t judge what we are.” I smile at a quick memory, “I like how you stick up for us, too.”

  Cory hadn’t moved. It is easy to talk to her this way when she is like this, but I would prefer to talk to her when she was awake, even if that meant it would be harder to say the words out loud.

  “When I was a kid, I would walk past this guy who always drank from a brown bag,” I shake my head at how long it took me to figure out that he was drinking liquor every day. “I ignored him and he ignored me, until I saw him squirming on the ground. I remember being excited, thinking he was having a seizure. It was the first seizure I had seen. But he was not stiff like I saw on TV, he was whining and talking to people, telling them to get to safety.” I look up to the ceiling, wondering if I should even say this stuff out loud. It really isn’t useful. “I tried to wake him up. He ended up grabbing me and almost choking me until my fire burnt his hands.” I would never forget the look of fear that homeless guy had on his face when I burnt him. He scrambled back as if he knew what I was. “He started following me saying stuff like ‘I know what you are.’ My family already knew that I was different, so when this guy started following me it made my life so much worse,” I frown.

  “One day I confronted him. I asked him what I was. And you know what he said? He said, ‘You’re the one who killed them.’ I asked, ‘Killed who?’ And he started crying. He said I killed his family. He said I was a murderer. I was not a good kid, not by a long shot, but I never hurt anyone. I made sure of it because I wasn’t going to do to others what my adopted family had done to me. So I told him I wasn’t the same guy. He said I was and that he would remember my face anywhere.” I shake my head at my ignorance then, “I told him to show me. I told him I could see anything he pictured in his mind if I touch
ed the side of his face. It wasn’t easy to get him to let me touch him, but when he did, I saw everything.”

  I stand up from the chair and pace, “In his memory, the person who killed his family looked a lot like me. It was so horrific that I had cast a spell without realizing it. When the man had finished showing me his memories, his eyes blurred to white, then went normal again. When he looked at me I knew he was different. He acted like he didn’t know me. When I tried to stop him and remind him about his family he said he didn’t have one,” I laugh without humor. “I had erased his traumatic memories. And as soon as you wake up I plan to do the same for you, right after you show me everything my father did to you, because I plan to do the same to him.”

  Two hard knocks sound at my front door, reminding me where I was and who I was talking to. No one knows where I live, so the one behind the door is about to die. I teleport to the other side of the door and had my fire in hand, ready to end… “Theya?” I open the door all the way. I look her up and down, not sure what to say. I didn’t want to hurt her, but if she was here for Cory, then all my kindness would be lost.

  She tilted her head to me, unafraid. “You’re not going to kill me. And now that you’re curious, I would appreciate it if you let me in. It’s taken me days to find you.”

  I mentally amend the ward on my apartment so she can come in. She stepped through and walked straight to the kitchen. I shake my head and am about to push the door shut when she says, “Wait, the wolf wants to talk to you about Beth.”

  The what? I whip around and see, sure enough, the poser is walking down the hall toward my door, “What are you doing here?”

  The poser stops at my door. I would have expected him to try and shove past. Pity, it would have gotten interesting fast. Ignoring my question, he says, “The Magical Council wants to speak with you. They are waiting in a warehouse a few blocks from here.”

  I hear Theya flit behind me towards my bedroom. I want to tell her to stay out of there, but I don’t want this poser to know who is in my apartment, “You can tell them to go to hell.” There is no reality where I leave Cory in my apartment to talk to those scumbags. If I see Antrom again I doubt we would be able to settle our differences amicably. I wanted him dead for what happened with Cory and I am sure he feels the same, but more on the principle that I am the wrong supernatural race.

  The poser’s expression didn’t change, “I won’t ask nicely again.”

  “You won’t have to,” Theya said beside me. It unnerves me to know she had been there without me sensing her. She had her arms folded across her chest but she looks totally at ease. As if she planned this. Which she may have. I may not know her specific magic gift, but she always seemed to know what was going to happen. “We will go on one condition.”

  I looked down at her in a “The hell we will” expression. She didn’t look back at me; her eyes were solidly fixated on the poser. I hear my bedroom door shut. I dropped my hand from the door, turning all the way around as my stomach dropped to the floor, worried I missed something or someone in my house and they were going to hurt Cory.

  My jaw and the rest of my energy drop when I see Cory walking towards us with a mug in her hand. She didn’t spare a glace at me, she was only looking at the poser.

  Theya continued, “You try our new vegetarian smoothie and we will go willingly.”

  What? I am at a loss for what is going on inside my apartment. I know I am awake. I had to be…right?

  The poser’s lip curled, “What’s in it?”

  Cory handed the cup out to him, “Wheat grass.”

  The poser’s jaw relaxed for a second, “You eat grass?” He didn’t make a move to grab the cup. He is perfectly still and his eyes almost glass over a bit.

  Theya rolled her eyes, “We drink it. Now you have to or we don’t go.” She lightly brushed Cory’s shoulder, as if to make this whole crazy conversation into a joke of some kind.

  The poser’s head tilts as he looks at the cup. I’ll be damned, Theya’s done it again. He seems to consider it. But then I swear I see something pass by his eyes and he fixes his head straight once more, “I don’t need to make a deal. Shane’s coming even if I have to drag him.”

  I open my mouth and Theya chirps up, “Or you could drink it and we can get this done faster.” Not waiting for him to agree, Theya takes the mug out of Cory’s hand and hands it to Dar.

  The poser’s eyes flash amber as he takes the mug and downed it like a shot. The glass falls with him when he lands on his knees moments later. He grabs his throat as if there is an invisible leash choking him. He begins thrashing on the ground. Unsure what’s wrong, I grab Cory and back up.

  Theya steps up, almost getting slashed from his half phased claws, and grabbed at something on his neck that I couldn’t see. When she finished whatever it was, Dar fell forward gasping for air in between coughing up something that sounded like a fist sized loogie.

  After he rights himself on the ground, I feel a current in the air. It is emitting from him and begins to get stronger as he stands up. Theya turned her back on the wolf and looked at Cory as if she didn’t just feel the dangerous vibes flowing in the air. Ones that could be decoded as you’re all dead.

  “I’m going to need a place to stay. May I stay in your spare bedroom? I will take care of the house and bills until you decide what to do with the extra house.”

  Cory nodded but didn’t take her eyes of the wolf, “Um. Yeah. I guess so.”

  Theya bowed her head and touched her fingers to her forehead, “Thank you.”

  She left just as the poser leveled his eyes on me. He holds them until he sways a bit. He grabs the door frame to hold himself steady. The poser looks around as if he has no idea where he is.

  Interesting.

  I watch as the recognition lights in his eyes when he sees Cory. I think I see him mouth her name before he shakes his head. Then his eyes glow as he grabs at his chest, “Beth.” His eyebrows furrowed deeply, “She’s trapped.” He looked at me, not for help but for…I don’t know. Clarification? “I don’t know who trapped her and I can’t get her out myself.”

  Cory takes a step towards him. I pulled her back and wrapped my arms around her middle letting my magic into her, making her skin just as deadly as mine. If he so much as touched either one of us, he would feel the effects for a long while. Now that I feel even calmer with her safety, I rest my chin on her head, “Cory’s not leaving.”

  His nose flares lightly, “I must not have made myself clear.” The vibes around him are unnerving, because again I shouldn’t be able to feel them. And neither should Cory but she stiffed at the same time I did, so I know that this guy was a lot more than some wolf. He must be an alpha. A master alpha or whatever they call guys like him that are seriously packed with juice. “The Magical Council took Beth, threatened to kill Cory, tortured Beth because she’s one of a pair that was fated to destroy the supernatural kind.” His words were clipped but he was putting all his juice into them.

  “Fated to end the tyranny of the Magical Council,” I amended for him.

  His eyes narrow, “And you know this how?”

  “I’m her fated match.” At my words Cory shifts as if something just pinched her. Worried, I look down in hopes that she’s okay.

  At his growl I lift my chin back up to see that he is close to shifting in front of me.

  “You’re fated to be with my sister?” Cory asks, as she struggles to get loose of me.

  I hold her tight and mentally kick myself for not being clear. She growled at me before eventually giving up. “Match, not mate,” I said slowly.

  Dar seemed to relax a little but not much. So I added, “I’ve made my choice with Cory.”

  Cory struggled again in my arms, successfully jabbing me in the ribs, and this time I was offended. I just announced she was my chosen and she’s trying to get away from me? What happened to the girls that swoon over you after you ask her to marry you?

&nb
sp; “I have to help my sister,” She grumbles, still trying to get loose.

  I let her go on the other side of me so she is furthest from the Alpha poser, “I don’t think there’s a potion to untrap someone from a magical ward.”

  Her eye brows raise as her fists pop on her waist like magnets. “There is a potion for everything,” she hisses. I take a step to her because I don’t like the look in her eyes, but she stops me with a finger in the air and her eyes threatening me, “If you want this to work between us, now that you actually decided you want to be with me, then you will help my sister.”

  Like that huh?

  “Fine,” I mutter after another few moments of silence. Just Fine!

  The poser’s eyes watched us, but says nothing. He is completely detached. I don’t know if he is worried about Beth, or if he is naturally like that. I hold open the front door, amending my ward yet again, “Come in.”

  * * *

  It turns out there is a possible solution to getting out of a ward.

  Cory made me teleport her back to her room so she could “look” through her bookshelf. What I thought was going to be a quick in and out turned out to look like a troll terrorizing a library. But to be fair, the room wasn’t organized when we arrived either.

  I left her to look through her books. I shouldn’t have been so shocked to find the kitchen lined with glass jars, I think they were beakers, I don’t know, but I knew this was where she cooked up the potion that almost killed her. I didn’t want to touch anything, but I also didn’t want to leave it here.

  If the ward was made for a specific person, Cory explained, then all we had to do was turn her into someone else. She used the poser’s blood and made a potion that would turn Beth into him for five minutes. That should be long enough to get her out.

  Sounded simple enough, but of course Cory wanted to go with the poser to make sure Beth got out. The poser and I both object until Cory threatens us with turning us into dung beetles.