Awakening (Birth of Magic #1)

by P. T. Dilloway

  “It’s a Masquerade potion. It should be wearing off soon.”

  “Too bad. You look pretty. Exotic.”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “You want a cup of coffee while you wait?”

  “No, I’m fine.” I took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. “I came for information.”

  “What sort of information?”

  “I’m looking for someone. She’s known as the Chairwoman.”

  Andre tilted his head as he thought about this. Since getting a firsthand education in voodoo, he’d started a side business as a purveyor of magical items. Naturally this brought him into contact with us witches from the coven as well as others interested in magic. So I knew if anyone had a lead about this Chairwoman, it would be him.

  He finally shook his head. “Wish I could help, but I haven’t heard much on her. All’s I know is she’s a collector. She’s got people out buying artifacts. Why I don’t know.”

  “Any idea if she’s making friends with the Nazis?”

  “I don’t know, but them Nazis are a whole other kettle of fish. Had one of them come in here the other day. Asked about a diviner, like the one I made you.”

  I nodded, thinking of the alligator necklace back home. Maybe the Nazis had been wanting to use it for the same place. “What’d you say?”

  “I didn’t want nothing to do with him. Whatever those fellas are up to, it ain’t good.”

  “No kidding.” I felt tingling in my feet. “You mind if we go to the back? I might scare off your customers.”

  “Sure,” he said. I hurried into the back room with its supplies of coffee paraphernalia and from there into Andre’s office. It was like a shop within a shop with a glass counter containing a variety of magic artifacts ranging from stones to idols to daggers. I thought of the knife Celia had been carrying, but I didn’t see one like it in the case.

  I didn’t have time to ask Andre about it at the moment as the change began to accelerate. I lay down on the floor, closing my eyes as the first wave of pain came over me. I felt Andre’s cold hand envelop mine as my body expanded back to its natural shape. I bit down on my lip hard enough to draw blood so that I wouldn’t scream.

  I lay there panting for a couple of minutes after it was over. Andre mopped my face off with a silk handkerchief. “I was wrong,” he said. “You look prettier like this. Just like when we first met. You remember that?”

  “Yes,” I said. We met through Rachel. At the time I owned a shop making powdered wigs for French aristocrats. Rachel came into the store, looking so young and innocent, just the kind of naïve girl who would get mixed up in plotting a revolution. She was considering buying a wig for her fiancé to wear at his graduation. We got talking and she invited me to meet her fiancé and some other students at a nearby pub. That was how I gained two new friends and got mixed up in the Revolution.

  He helped me into a sitting position. The clothes Alexis had made for me were too short and a little tight, but I wasn’t showing anything indecent yet. “I should have waited before I came here.”

  “You know it’s not a problem,” Andre said. “I like when you stop by. I wish you’d do it more often.”

  “I’ve been busy,” I said, though it was a feeble defense. In reality I didn’t want to see Andre because I didn’t want to relive those memories. I didn’t want to think of that horrible day when those we’d helped put in power turned on us, calling for Andre’s arrest and execution. I got him and Rachel on a boat for New Orleans, where I thought they would be safe, though I should have known nowhere was really safe.

  I looked back at the glass case and thought of Celia. “I don’t suppose you’ve heard of a girl named Celia?” I asked. “She might have bought a little knife made out of black crystal.”

  “Can’t say I have, though I could check my records. What’s her last name?”

  I just about kicked myself for realizing I had no idea what Celia’s last name was. In our two days of friendship, she’d never said it and I’d never asked. “I’m not sure. She was a young girl, college student, brown hair and blue eyes.”

  “Don’t remember seeing anyone like that recently. I can ask around if you want.”

  “That’s all right. No need to bother.”

  “It’s not a bother if it’s important to you.”

  “It’s not that important,” I said, getting to my feet. “She’s dead.”

  “I’m sorry. How’d it happen?”

  “I killed her.” I started towards the door, staggering like one of the drunks outside. Andre reached out to steady me with a cold hand.

  “Stephanie—”

  “It’s fine. I have to go home. If you find anything, pass it along to Alexis at the house. I’m going to be out of touch for a little while.”

  “I’ll do that. You sure you’re going to be all right?”

  I smiled slightly at this. “I’ve survived worse.” I vanished from the room to home.

  ***

  Alexis was the first to wake up. I knew this because I was sitting at the kitchen table, looking over a map of Europe, when I heard the scream from upstairs. I didn’t waste time climbing the stairs, vanishing up to Alexis’s bedroom instead.

  The moment I appeared, she leapt from the bed, knocking me to the floor. She clawed at me like a wild animal, her face red and foam dripping from her mouth. I’d seen people like this before in demon possessions, but I’d never heard of a demon possessing a witch. Not wanting to hurt her, I put up my hands to keep her from scratching my eyes out.

  When I found an opening in her wild flailing, I cuffed her on the side of the head. I was careful to hit her just hard enough to knock her off of me. I managed to roll on top of her, pinning her to the floor. While she continued to flail around, I shouted, “Alexis! Snap out of it! It’s me. It’s Stephanie. Your sister.”

  This finally seemed to get through to her; she calmed down, going limp beneath me. I waited until I heard her softly crying before I rolled off of her. I helped her into a sitting position, where she buried her face in her hands as she cried.

  “It’s all right, Alexis. I’m not hurt. I’m fine,” I told her. At least I was fine physically; inside I felt a cold lump in my stomach. Alexis had never acted out like this before. She’d always been the kind of girl who couldn’t bring herself to kill a chicken for supper or even a spider in the parlor.

  “I’m sorry,” she said through her hands.

  I put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to me, as if she were a child I was trying to comfort. “What was it? A demon?”

  “No. A dream,” she said. “A terrible dream. You were trying to kill me.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “I don’t know.” Alexis shook her head. “It was all very strange—and very real. I was here at home, down in the parlor. Then you were there, but you were dressed differently, all in black. You took out a knife and you cut me with me it. It hurt. A lot.”

  As someone with precognitive abilities, Alexis’s dreams could be far more realistic than the average person’s. That was great if you were dreaming about making love to someone. It was hell if you were dreaming about being chased by a bogeyman or getting cut by your sister.

  “Is that why you were trying to claw my eyes out?”

  “Not exactly. In the dream you grabbed me and then we were in Italy. I think it was Florence. I remember because Marco and I went there on our honeymoon. He was there, in the old amphitheater. But there was another woman with him.” She began sobbing again. I did my best to comfort her, patting her back and mumbling encouraging things. When the crying subsided, she looked up at me, her face almost as full of hatred as when she jumped me earlier. “It was you! You were with him!”

  “I thought you said I was holding you captive.”

  “There were two of you. The other one—the one with him—was dressed differently. She was wearing a blue dress. It was very loose on her, not one of the ones I made for you.”

  “Then
what happened?”

  “I screamed at the you in the blue dress, to make you get away from him. When you didn’t I got so angry. I wanted to kill you.”

  “Then the real me came into the bedroom.”

  “Yes.” Alexis looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “It’s all right. I’m fine. It was just a dream.”

  “I know.” She looked up at me with a smile. “I know you wouldn’t have tried to steal Marco away from me. You’re my sister.”

  “That’s right,” I said. “I’m your sister.”

  I helped her back into bed. Now that she’d calmed down, she looked much healthier than when I’d brought Ethan in. Still, some rest after that dream would do her good. “Would you like me to bring up some tea for you?” I asked.

  “That would be lovely. Thank you.” Before I could leave the room, though, Alexis asked for me to stop. “That boy you brought here, was he all right?”

  “He should be fine. I’ve got him down in the basement.”

  “Oh. You should be careful around him. I feel something very wrong around him.”

  “Don’t I know it,” I said, forcing a smile I hoped would help put her at ease. “I’ll bring your tea and go over the rest with you.”

  “Sure. I’ll be right here.”

  The rest of our talk would have to wait, though. After I put the tea on to boil, I heard Ethan pounding on the basement door. He had finally snapped out of his trance. That meant I would finally have to tell him that his fiancée was dead.

  ***

  I grabbed the unopened wine bottle from off the table before I went to the basement door. We were both going to need a stiff drink to handle what I had to tell him. If nothing else, the bottle could make an adequate weapon to sap him without using any magic.

  I threw open the door and then quickly planted myself in the doorway. Ethan was going to push past me, until he saw my face. His face paled a little, his mouth twisting with surprise. “Sue?” he asked.

  “My name’s not Sue. It’s Stephanie. We need to talk.”

  He waited for me to stand aside so he could go upstairs. I finally motioned with the bottle and said, “Let’s talk down here. It’ll be easier that way.”

  He didn’t want to go back down there, but he didn’t feel strongly enough to try fighting about it either. That might change once he found out what had happened to his fiancée. I wasn’t looking forward to that moment.

  Without me saying anything, he sat down in the barber’s chair again. I pulled up a milk crate to use as my seat. We eyed each other for the moment, working up our courage. He broke the silence first. “Are you working for the War Department? Did you destroy my lab?”

  “I’m not working for any government. I’m a private detective. Someone hired me to keep you safe until we know what’s going on.”

  “Private detective? But you’re a—”

  “A girl. Yes, I know that.”

  “Who are you supposed to keep me safe from?”

  “The War Department for starters. And anyone else who might want to take a shot at you.”

  “Why would anyone want to do that?”

  I shrugged at this. “For whatever you got up there in your noggin. With your lab destroyed, they’ll be gunning for you next.”

  “Me?” His face turned another shade of white as the realization finally sunk in. “Where’s Celia? Did you get her off the train too?”

  He tried to get to his feet until I clamped a hand around his forearm. “Take it easy,” I said. With my teeth I pried the cork out of the bottle of wine. I kept a cup by the chair for keeping my scissors and such in; I emptied this out to pour Ethan some wine. “Drink this.”

  “I don’t drink,” he said.

  “Just drink it. You’ll feel better. We both will.” I took mine straight out of the bottle, the proverbial shot of courage. It didn’t help much, not with what I had to tell him.

  I only had to look at his face to know he wasn’t going to believe Celia was a Nazi spy. He loved her too much to ever think that. I decided to go easy on him. “I’m sorry, Ethan, but they got to her first. She’s gone.”

  “Gone? You mean she’s—?”

  “Dead. Yes. I’m sorry—”

  He jumped on me about as quickly as Alexis had upstairs. Just like Alexis, though, he wasn’t much of a fighter. He flailed blindly at me through his tears, calling me every curse word in the book and a few he invented on the spot. I fended off his wild punches, waiting for an opening before smashing the bottle on the side of his head. He groaned and then went still.

  I shoved him off onto the floor. He wasn’t unconscious, just dazed from the knock on the head and the shock of it all. I squatted beside him, letting him lie there to take it all in. “I know it’s hard, but right now the important thing is to get you out of here to someplace safe.”

  “I can’t go,” he said. “I have to tell her parents. Her friends. I have to take care of her things. We have to bury her—”

  “They threw her body off the train. We don’t have time to try finding it.”

  “I can’t just leave her out there in the woods, to be picked over by the animals!”

  “We don’t have a choice.” I decided to risk putting a hand on his shoulder to help him into a sitting position. “Ethan, you have to listen to me: you aren’t safe here. You aren’t safe anywhere in Rampart City. That’s the first place they’re going to look for you. They’ll have every two-bit hood, dick, and dirty cop beating the bushes for you. We have to get out of this place. Out of the country if we can.”

  “The country? But—”

  “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. You have to trust me.”

  His voice took on an ugly tone, one I wouldn’t have expected from him. “How can I trust you? You lied to me already. You lied to both of us, Stephanie.”

  Making it worse was that I was still lying to him. I had to; Gretel had ordered me to keep him from finding out about the coven. “I know I did, but I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t let you know who I was until I knew more about what was going on.” I gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Ethan, I want to help you, but I need your help too. Do you understand?”

  “I think so.”

  “Good.” I helped him onto his feet and then back into the chair. “Before we can get out of here, I need to arrange a few more details. You know your measurements by any chance?”

  “Measurements?”

  “You’re going to need some new clothes. We can’t go back to the apartment.”

  “Oh, I see.” He gave me the measurements. When I started towards the stairs, he stood up to follow me.

  “Stay here,” I said. “I don’t want to risk anyone seeing you.”

  He sat back down obediently. He was still in shock, which for the moment would work in my favor. “I’ll be back in an hour or so. You want anything to eat?”

  “No, I’m fine,” he said, which I took to be a colossal understatement. He wasn’t going to be fine. Not for a long time, if ever. Something like that you just didn’t get over right away. I could have told him that, but instead I went upstairs to get Alexis started on some quick sewing.

  Chapter 9

  I didn’t think Mama would mind if I used a little magic to prepare Alexis’s tea. I conjured a little bit of fire to heat the water in less than a minute. It wouldn’t taste as good as letting it boil naturally, but at this point I doubted Alexis would mind.

  I half-expected her to have some material on the bed to start making a suit for Ethan. But she didn’t. Maybe I’d taken her by surprise for once. She smiled as she took the teacup from my hands. “Thank you, dear,” she said. “How is your young friend?”

  “He’s in shock right now.” I raised an eyebrow. “Can you feel him down there?”

  “I heard him pounding on the door,” she said, which was the closest she came to making a joke. Humor wasn’t for proper ladies like her.

  “You must be feeling better then.”
<
br />   “Yes.” Alexis took a dainty sip of her tea. I sat down on the bed, putting a hand on her knee. She knew me well enough to know this meant we had something serious to talk about. “What’s wrong?”

  “I have to get him out of the city.” I told her about the suit I needed made for Ethan to help me get him out of here. “You feeling up to some sewing?”

  “Of course, dear. Mrs. Hannah gave me some suits of her husband to take in. One of those should work for him with a bit of alteration.”

  “You need the sizes or you already figure that out?”

  “I have a fairly good idea, but I think you should tell me anyway.” I gave her the sizes and she nodded. “That shouldn’t take too long at all. But I’m afraid I don’t have anything else for him unless he wants to wear some of Marco’s old clothes.”

  Wearing fashions from the early 19th Century would get us pinched as easily as if he were wearing a sign with his name on it around his neck. “Never mind that. I’ve got to get a few other things before we leave.”

  “Yes, I suppose you would. Where exactly are you going?”

  “I thought we’d go to my old place in Edinburgh for starters. I know some people there; they can help keep an eye on him.”

  “That makes sense. I wish I could go with you, but I don’t suppose that would be a wise idea, would it?”

  Given the way being around Ethan made Alexis feel, it was about the worst idea. “Definitely not.” I gave her knee a squeeze. “I do want you to take a trip, though.”

  “A trip? Wherever would I go?”

  “Go visit Rose or Naoko. One of them should be able to take you in.”

  She stared at me blankly. Her feelings must be on the fritz if she hadn’t seen this coming. “I don’t understand,” she said.

  “I don’t want to leave you alone, not after that dream of yours.”

  “Oh, that. It was just a dream. I have plenty of dreams; they don’t all mean something.”

  “But this one might. Or what if you have another one of these dreams when I’m not here?” I let out a sigh. Despite that Alexis looked so soft and delicate, she could be extremely stubborn when she set her mind to it. “I just think it would be best to have someone around who knew how to deal with the situation. So you don’t wind up in hot water with Gretel or in a psych ward.”