The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans (Consulting Magic Book 2)

by Amy Crook

  That zap was enough to push the last of the spell-fog away from his senses, and Julian gathered his strength and pushed off the car, running through the pattern the man was making, snatching up the doll and scattering the plants. Julian had a flash of guilt as he kicked his way through the pots, zigzagging to avoid the grasping hands of his kidnapper. Julian pushed his worry for the plants aside and concentrated on running flat out toward the corner of the parking lot that looked most like an exit.

  His slippers slapped against the cracked pavement, barely padding Julian's feet against the jarring run, but he didn't slow or look back, instead rabbiting back and forth to try to evade any pursuit. He heard cursing and more smashing behind him, and he wished he hadn't been so drained lately. As if in answer to that, he got another jolt of that cold, pure energy that put a little more speed in his step. He made it across the parking lot, which had seemed a lot smaller when he started running, and dashed into the alley between buildings, only to come up against an old-fashioned iron gate with a brand new chain and padlock on it.

  Julian kept his grip on the doll, turning to see if his kidnapper would pursue him down the alley. He didn't dare try to climb the gate if the man was right behind him, wishing not for the first time that he was more Alex's lanky height than his own smaller stature. A clatter made Julian turn back and look up.

  "Horace! You wonderful creature, you," said Julian, stuffing the little grass figure into his pocket. "I wish you could pick locks, but at least you can tell the others where I am."

  Horace gave Julian a look, and Julian got a clear burst of pride with a touch of slyness as he flew down to the chain and stuck his metal beak into the lock. There was a little twitter, a burst of magic, and a click, and the lock came open.

  "Oh, you are the most useful bird in the world," said Julian, undoing the lock and chain as fast as he could.

  "Oh, no you don't, poppet!" came the kidnapper's voice, but Julian and Horace slipped out of the gate before he could reach them. Julian ran, Horace flying ahead, finding himself on a quiet side street with busy foot traffic just a short way away on the main thoroughfare, going into and out of the Underground station. He heard the gate creaking behind him, the chain rattling to the ground, but he kept running flat out, hoping his pursuer wouldn't follow him into the crowd.

  Julian made a mental note to do more training with Lapointe, finding it much harder to sprint a second time. He could hear pursuing footsteps behind him, coming closer. The sidewalk here was slightly uneven, and he had to pay attention to where he was putting his feet, feeling the magic in his protection charm working overtime to keep him upright. It finally gave out when fingers closed over the back of his robe and he tripped, letting out a shout of pain as his knee and hand impacted with the unforgiving concrete.

  Julian struggled, kicking out, yelling for help and trying to keep the pocket with its precious doll away from the man's grabbing hands.

  "I'll make use of you yet, poppet, you've not spoiled it all," he said as he tried to force Julian upright, using his superior weight and reach to overcome the rather pathetic resistance Julian was able to muster, after his two exhausting sprints. "No one here will mind about you, no one ever minds in the city, they mind their own business and let everything else go to rot." The man's voice was vicious at the end of his tirade, full of old anger.

  "A few of us still pay attention," said an unfamiliar voice, and Julian took advantage of his captor's moment of surprise to slip away, stumbling pathetically to his feet. A uniformed police officer was standing in front of him with Horace on his shoulder, and Julian felt a huge flood of relief when he saw the man had a gun pointed squarely at the kidnapper.

  "Please, he kidnapped me, you have to help," said Julian. "Call Agent Lapointe or..."

  "It's okay," said the officer. "You're Julian St. Albans, your description just went out and," he paused to chuckle, "your bird's, too." He took one hand off his gun to talk into his radio. "This is Green, I have St. Albans and his bird, need assistance at Dwyer just off Shaftesbury."

  Julian shuffled until he was behind the officer, his knee aching something fierce, hand cradled against his body. "Horace, can you find Alex for me?" he asked, feeling quite piteous. "I need my Alex."

  Horace twittered and hopped over to rub against Julian's cheek, then launched himself into the sky, heading unerringly toward home.

  "Hands on your head," said Officer Green, shifting back to the two-handed grip on his gun. "That's it, now kneel, slowly."

  Julian watched as the older man knelt, looking angry but somehow more sane than he had before, as if he was pulling all the strangeness inside him and putting on a cloak of normalcy. "Who are you?" asked Julian, frustrated.

  The kidnapper laughed. "You'll see, it'll be harder than you think to make anything stick to me."

  A small crowd was gathering behind them, people having finally noticed the drama, and Julian turned warily to watch their backs while Green kept the kidnapper in his sights. Julian lit up and cried out, "Alex!" when he saw the two Guardians and his beanpole of a boyfriend trying to push through. "James, Jacques, help him."

  "We will," said James, slipping through and coming up to stand beside the officer. "I'm James, this is Jacques, we're here for our Charge."

  "Good," said Green, lowering his gun and shaking out his hand while James and Jacques drew their own in eerie synch. "I'll cuff him."

  "Be careful, he's very good at magical subversion," said Jacques.

  Julian largely ignored the end of their drama, letting Alex sweep him up and kiss him softly. "I thought I'd lost you," said Alex softly. "Are you okay?"

  "I hurt my knee and my hand when I tripped," said Julian, "but the spell's broken, I have the doll so he can't control me with it again."

  Officer Green put handcuffs on the man, helping him stand, and Alex's attention snapped to him. "Fenway?" said Alex in a tone of disbelief.

  "So you do remember the little people," said Fenway with a sneer. "Too bad you never looked under your nose before I damaged your little poppet."

  "You know him?" asked Julian, snuggling up to Alex's side, careful not to take anything but comfort from him, in case his own magic was still tainted somehow.

  "He's one of the crime scene techs, you might have seen him around the Agency," said Alex distractedly.

  "Oh! I did, I met him in Lapointe's office, that day I went in to deal with Fischer without you." He could only vaguely remember it, muttered words and a limp handshake, but that explained why the man's face had seemed doubly familiar. "He was at the greenhouse the one day I worked, too, that's when he got my hair."

  "I remember seeing his name in the receipts," said Alex thoughtfully. "He actually got a quicker pass than me, since he bought after the murders instead of before."

  Fenway snorted. "Who do you think kept putting people on your trail?" he said.

  James came over to see Julian, while Jacques helped Officer Green escort Fenway to a police car. "How'd you get away?" he asked. "Are you hurt?"

  "I'll need to see someone about my knee and hand," said Julian, holding up his scraped palm, "but I don't think anything's broken. Horace helped me escape, I didn't know you'd taught him to pick locks!"

  Alex looked sheepish. "Only mundane ones, and don't say that too loudly, it's not really very legal," he said, looking around. More police had arrived, and a pair of paramedics were pushing through the crowd toward their little tableau. "Let's get you looked at." Alex smirked, then swept Julian up in his arms and carried him over to the parked ambulance, where he used a spell to hold the doors open at the right angle to give them a little more privacy from the onlookers.

  James set himself up to guard them, and soon enough Jacques joined him, the two of them looking serious and dangerous. Only someone who knew them would see the slight chagrin in their faces at having let their Charge get kidnapped in the first place. Alex hovered just out of the way of the paramedics, holding Julian's uninjured right hand and humming his f
avourite diagnostic tune. Julian felt the warm little trickle that said Alex was looking him over quite thoroughly indeed, and it relaxed him while the apologetic emergency med tech pulled gravel out of his hand with tweezers.

  Julian's knee garnered rather more concern, as the thin silk of his pyjamas hadn't protected it at all, and it had taken the brunt of his weight when he fell.

  "I think we're going to have to take you in for an x-ray," said the tech apologetically. "I'll get the gravel out before we go, but it's already swelling more than I'd expect if it's just a scrape."

  Julian sighed. "Who all can fit in the ambulance?" he asked, gesturing with his now-bandaged hand to Alex, James and Jacques.

  "Oh," she laughed. "Um, I think everyone, since it's non-emergency, if the big one rides in front."

  "It's protocol for one of us to, anyway," said Jacques, voice rich with amusement. "Not that there's a big risk of attack from the front with Fenway off to jail, but that's how it's usually done."

  Soon enough the gravel was out and a saline-soaked pad laid over the top, and everyone climbed in the ambulance while Alex sent a number of texts and calls, and Julian awkwardly sent a few more of his own. The damage had mostly been to the meat of his palm, which made it hard to hold the phone, but he managed to alert Geoff and Thomas to the goings-on by sending a photo of his hand first as an excuse for typos.

  Julian had been concentrating so hard on his own messages that he was surprised to find Dr. Chesterfield waiting for them at the ambulance entrance, looking concerned. "It seems I get to treat your body as well as your magic today, Julian. Alex, there's already an order for you with the apothecary, if you'll just go down and donate."

  Alex laughed. "I should've known you'd make me pay for calling you in," he said, but he sounded cheerful about it. "Will you be all right without me for a little while, love?"

  "Go on, I've got my Guardians to hold my hand while they x-ray me," said Julian, though he claimed a kiss before letting them wheel him away from Alex.

  James did come hold his hand, giving him a wink as his gurney was rolled through the halls. "Full service Guarding," he teased.

  "Don't let it get out, or everyone will expect hand-holding," said Julian, feeling the warmth of James' magic trickling into him much as Alex's had. "Does it make your, you know, vision sharper or whatever?"

  "It lets me see more, yes," said James, sounding amused. "I knew you'd figure it out."

  Jacques was paying more attention to the corridor than them, which Julian felt was only right. "I hope it was just him, I mean, I like you guys, but I hope we're done now."

  "We're done enough to send your Jones home, I think," said James, "but Jacques and I will stay until we understand what happened and know you're really out of danger."

  Julian felt something inside him unclench and he laughed a little raggedly. "I'm really glad you said that, even if it does mean four people to one bathroom still."

  "We'd never leave you vulnerable," said Jacques, as they made it into x-ray. He cleared the rooms and then he and James took up posts by the two doors, looking dangerous and immovable.

  "Well," said Dr. Chesterfield, "do you think you can move yourself over here, or shall I ask your Guardian to move you?"

  Julian giggled. "If you help, I think I can walk," he said, though the wobbly way his knee felt when he moved it made him wonder if that was true.

  "I'll brace you," said the doctor, coming in on Julian's injured side and helping him get into the machine.

  A number of uncomfortable-to-painful positions later, and Julian was settled into a wheelchair that Alex pushed, so the Guardians could bracket them on their way to a proper room.

  Dr. Chesterfield waved them off, helping the tech get the bulky films ready for developing instead. "I'll be down soon to start your healing, but they should have something for the pain and swelling once you get down there."

  "Oh, thank goodness," said Julian with a weak laugh. "I mean, I understand you didn't want to screw up the imaging, but my knee feels awful."

  "We'll take care of you, love," said Alex, kissing the top of Julian's head.

  Horace hopped down from where he'd been keeping watch on Jacques' shoulder and snuggled up in Julian's lap, chirping until Julian petted him. Julian put all his attention on the bird, and the comforting presence of Alex at his back, and not on the strange feeling of being pushed in the chair, or the increasingly nauseating waves of pain coming off his injured knee.

  "I'm sorry we let you get hurt," said James quietly, once Julian was settled into a private room with some pain pills and a cup of awful hospital tea.

  "It's not your fault," said Julian, still petting Horace. "I think he focuses on my magic, and not me or my person, somehow, I can't really explain it, but the doll slipped through everything because it was made of me, a little."

  "You put a little of yourself in the bindweed and wormwood seeds," said Alex thoughtfully. "And having your hair would have helped with that sort of magic, even after my spell." He kissed Julian's hair and cradled him close, having quite shamelessly joined him on the bed, though on the side with the uninjured knee.

  "Do you still have the doll?" asked Jacques. "We should see if we can safely disassemble it."

  "Doesn't Murielle have to photograph it first or something?" asked Julian, hand going to the pocket where the doll was still nestled. "I would like it destroyed safely and soon, though."

  "We do have to catalog it for evidence," said Lapointe, slipping past James and into the room. "But I already have permission to let your Guardians destroy it rather than taking it into evidence, since you were found by a neutral officer of the law fleeing pursuit from your kidnapper."

  "Good," said all the men in unison, which made her laugh.

  "What other news do you have? Is Officer Green okay?" asked Julian, trying to take his mind off his own pain until the pills could start working.

  "Green is fine, Fenway didn't manage to influence him, though Green reported that he talked at him the whole way to magical custody," said Lapointe, taking the visitor's chair with a soft, weary sigh. "Said he was a weird mix of boring and crazy."

  "I don't suppose he gave a villain monologue?" asked Alex. "I still have no idea what he was up to."

  Lapointe chuckled. "Apparently not, though they are asking when you can go look over the scene, apparently he was setting up some sort of ritual in a parking lot?"

  "Yeah, I messed up his pattern by smashing through the pots, I figured it might delay his plans long enough for you guys to find me," said Julian, not at all repentant. "There was definitely something around there, I kept getting little jolts of magic off it, really, I dunno, pure ones?"

  "Maybe you were connecting to the magic source that used to be around there somewhere," said Alex. "They closed it off when they put in the Underground station, it was too unstable, but nothing like that is ever completely closed." He looked terribly put out as he added, "I was a bit upset, I used to like the fairy gardens that were fed by it, but everyone else was happier to get more transit."

  "Not everyone can afford cabs all the time," said Lapointe, looking amused at Alex's pout. "Maybe Fenway agreed with you that the source should be open, would a sacrifice have done that?"

  Alex shrugged. "It's not really my area, but I don't honestly think that Fenway uses magic the same way we do, anyway."

  "What d'you mean?" asked Julian, slurring a little as the narcotic started its work. He leaned more into Alex and let his eyes close for a moment, just listening and feeling the people around him, familiar and safe.

  "Well, most people are taught magic according to the same system, or one of a few systems that are all," Alex made a gesture, "you know, from the same school of thought. I mean, Duckworth and I were literally taught by the same person, so it wasn't hard to know what he might be up to. But Fenway is the kind of crazy that sees the world from a different angle than the rest of us, I think, and that translates to using magic in ways that would just never oc
cur to a traditionally educated mage."

  "That's why he's so hard to Guard against," said James, sounding disgusted. "He's always doing things we can't anticipate, because we don't understand them."

  "It's really annoying," said Jacques with a harrumph.

  Julian giggled.

  "And your meds are working," said Alex, kissing the tip of his nose. "D'you want to nap awhile?"

  "Only if I can actually nap on you this time. Don't think I didn't notice you got out of being my pillow in Geoff's infirmary," said Julian.

  "I promise to stay," said Alex, helping Julian get snuggled down under the covers more, but still very pointedly draped over Alex. "We'll wake you for the doctor," he said, kissing Julian's hair.

  "If you don't," said Julian with a big yawn, feeling the world going all fuzzy around him, "I'm sure he will." Then he slept.

  CHAPTER 22

  Julian was allowed to check out and rest at home after his healing session, since his knee, though strained with some damaged tissue, wasn't actually broken. Alex tucked him into bed and then went to the crime scene, not returning until late in the night when he snuggled up to Julian, exhausted and chilled.

  The next morning Julian was feeling much restored by several meals and the hours and hours of blissful sleep he'd been allowed between those meals, not to mention the poultices, potions, and pain pills. He'd refused, along with Alex, to wear anything but pyjamas, and the two of them were cuddled up while Lapointe made a kind of murder board over the fireplace, after the painting that usually hung there was safely stowed away by the brownies.

  "So, that's the doll Fenway was using to control you," said Alex, while Murielle tacked up a picture of the hateful little thing. "He force-grew the witch grass and bindweed seeds, and then sprouted the wormwood and used that as the heart of the poppet. There's also a lock of Julian's hair in there, as well as some earth and a dead bee."