by K. F. Breene
I put my hand in his. “Friends.”
3
The next morning, I awoke from a bang!
“Farmer John’s Sausages!” I threw off the covers, waved my hand through the air, and sprang from my bed—all in one harried, dizzied moment. I hit the ground with a solid thunk, echoing the door hitting the wall and rattling off its hinges. A heavy boot landed on the hard wooden floor, and I popped up as streams of magic swirled through the air.
Before my spell was fully realized, the magic dissolved like cotton candy in the rain. Absolutely nothing remained in its absence—no intent, emotion, or residue.
Crap.
Reagan was back in town.
“White flag, white flag,” I yelled, waving my hands above my head.
“Your mom really has you trained not to swear, huh?” Reagan stood with her hands at her sides, decked out in head-to-toe leather and thick-soled black army boots. Dirty blond hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail and no eyebrows adorned her expressionless face.
I’d always thought she’d be a real beauty if she weren’t so jaw-clenchingly frightening. The no-eyebrows thing only made that worse.
“I mean, you weren’t even totally awake, someone barged in, and you yelled about some guy’s sausages…” Her bare brows pinched together, which was a very strange sight. “Ah. I get it. Sausages. Okay then, that makes it marginally better.”
I decided not to ruin my almost-cool factor by mentioning that I hadn’t been thinking of that kind of sausage.
“First things first—that was some shoddy spell work.” She shifted and I flinched. I couldn’t help it. She was one of the most unpredictable people I’d ever met in my life. “Were you even trying on that ward covering the door? It took no time at all to get through it.”
“I just learned that ward last week,” I said in a slightly higher pitch than I’d intended. “It is the most advanced ward I’ve ever seen. Callie and Dizzy can’t break it.”
“I’m not Callie and Dizzy.”
“Yeah but…you’re not anybody. There is no logical magical explanation for half the stuff you do.” Something I had learned firsthand when I was helping her with a situation in Seattle a few months before. I’d helped them take down a couple of mages who were protecting a summoning circle, and also helped dissipate that circle.
She held out a finger, and I readied myself for a blast of fire or something else surprising and horrible.
“That you know of,” she said. “You just started learning magic. How could you possibly have explanations for everything?”
“Okay, but…” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Following that logic, you shouldn’t be mad at me for putting together the best ward I could. I’ve just started learning magic.”
“Anyone can read a spell out of a book. With power like yours, that’s easy. And guess what else is easy? A counter-spell.” She leaned against the doorframe, a problem-solving stance, which meant she was less likely to attack me (at the moment). “What you need to do is get creative. You need to use your power in ways people don’t expect.” She crossed her arms. “I had a lengthy talk with Darius. He thinks you don’t go about magic like normal mages. That Rogue Natural mage you know—”
“Emery,” I said with a pained release of breath. It would be easier on me if his name would stop coming up.
“—said something to Darius about it. He seemed to think you were more like a witch than a mage, but with a crap-load of power.” Reagan tapped her chin.
“I just don’t understand how witches and mages are different,” I admitted. “Everyone acts like they’re so different, but when you drill down to the root, the only real difference is power quantity.” I paused, suddenly unsure of myself. Reagan was an encyclopedia of spells and magic. She could read, if not speak, multiple languages. I was confident this was something she’d know about. “Right?”
Reagan’s finger stilled. “Yeah. Well, and training. Mages get formal training, and witches work together in circles and kind of learn in a community.”
“Formal training like…school? Because my training isn’t formal.”
“Say that to Callie, I dare you.”
I pressed my lips together. No, I would not.
“Mages can visit the Realm, too,” she said, “whereas witches can’t.”
“That’s still just power quantity.”
“And with vampires, it’s just age.” She shrugged. “It’s a big enough distinction to create two separate groups. Anyway, you’re different. You shouldn’t just memorize a spell and then plaster it up on your door. That’s for Guild members. They’re drones. No, you should learn the spell, alter it in your weird way, and then string it up. That’s how you’ll be the best. Because here’s the thing…” She straightened up. “Before you came on scene, Darius thought the Rogue Natural was the most talented mage in the world—”
“Emery.”
“—but Darius doesn’t think so anymore. He thinks you’ll surpass the guy.”
“I doubt it. Emery is unbelievably adaptable. Everything I came up with, he could alter and enhance on the fly. He is worlds ahead of me and excellent at survival. I don’t even have the tools to be better than him.”
Reagan’s focus homed in on me, and the room stilled for a moment…before she made a sudden movement.
I jerked as though slapped. Magic ballooned in front of me, my reaction speed significantly faster after the last few months of study, but nowhere near as fast as hers. If she wanted to attack me, I’d have to jump from the window to escape. And she was so unhinged, she’d surely jump after me with a manic cackle. She had absolutely no fear.
Reagan finished scratching her chin—oops—and then waved her hand through the air. My magic fizzled away with little sparks and spits.
“How do you do that?” I muttered, not able to see the magic she used to counter my weave, and not able to get a whiff of intent when she did it. I was flying blind when it came to her. When I didn’t get an answer, though, I left it alone. The dual-mages could be prickly about my continuing to ask questions they weren’t ready to answer. Reagan was the last person I wanted to piss off.
But I wondered if Emery would know more about her abilities, since he’d traveled far and wide.
I wondered if he would ever come back.
I wondered if I’d stop thinking of him if I started punching myself in the face every time his name popped up.
Reagan crossed her arms and tapped her finger against her chin again. “I think Darius is trying to wind me up.”
“Wind you up?” I asked, reaching for my robe while keeping a wary eye on her movements.
“Irritate me. Get me agitated—sorry, I was in London and Ireland for a while. They talk funny.” Which she’d probably told them to their faces…and started a bar fight because of it. “He knows that if there’s a chance you could be pushed into becoming the best, I’ll make sure you reach your full potential. I mean, what else have I got to do with my time, right? I’m supposed to lie low. A hobby would be good for me, and you’d be a worthwhile hobby. But if Darius is just saying you’re the unrealized best because he wants me to push you, which will also push the Rogue Natural to be his best—”
“Emery.”
“—then Darius would be manipulating me to get what he wants. Which I do not take kindly to. If I find out he’s manipulating me, I’ll walk from this game. No questions asked. But then, maybe he thinks I’ll have a vested interest in you by the time I figure out he’s manipulating me, which would make it harder for me to walk.” She bit her lip. “Hmm.”
I rubbed my temples. “Sorry…what?”
Reagan fanned the air like she was trying to rid it of a bad smell, shook her head, and took a step back. “Vampires twist my brain up. It was so much easier when the most confusing part of my day was which pair of leather pants were cleanest. Bottom line, I hate getting involved in vampire politics. Helping you is cool. Helping him is not.”
“But…” I just could not
get a grip on this conversation. “You and he are an item. You’re bonded, and Callie says that’s forever. Or until she kills him.”
“Yeah. I’m an idiot, aren’t I?” She rolled her eyes.
“Reagan, hello,” Dizzy said from just outside the door. “Oops, it seems you’ve misplaced your eyebrows again. I thought you’d moved on from those days?”
“My neighbor surprised me with a blowtorch,” she answered. “I got my hair covered in time, but my eyebrows didn’t make it.”
He tsked, and I didn’t know if that was because of Reagan’s slow reaction speed, or her neighbor thinking it acceptable to blast someone in the face with a blowtorch.
I knew she had a strange relationship with fire from when I helped her that time in Seattle, but I’d never gotten to delve further into it. Clearly, this wouldn’t be that time, either, because Dizzy had edged into my line of sight, his gaze taking in the damaged door. “Reagan, I thought you weren’t supposed to kick in doors in this house.”
“Oh yeah.” She grimaced.
Dizzy scratched the wispy gray hair on the top of his head. His red shirt was burned and torn in places, and his pants looked like he’d stolen them from a homeless painter. “Callie likes order and intact doors, you know that.”
“I do. That was my bad.”
“It’s not a strange rule, if you think about it,” Dizzy continued, still studying the door. “Kicked-in doors are very dramatic. You should only do that when the situation calls for it. Like busting in on the bad guys, or breaking and entering.”
“Well…” Reagan gestured at my room at large. “Technically I was breaking and entering. She had a ward up and everything. I didn’t knock or seek permission to enter. I just busted in. So at least that part of things lines up.”
He nodded. “That’s true. Okay, then.” He trudged past.
Reagan grinned at me, delighted with herself.
“Callie won’t be pleased she has to repair my door again,” I said.
The smile drifted off Reagan’s face. Score one for me!
“You have a package downstairs,” she said. “Callie thought you’d want to know.”
A shock of adrenaline coursed through me. I tried to bat it down. “Is it from my mother?”
Her eyes started to sparkle and a little grin wrestled her lips. “Nope. Anonymous. Postmark is from Ethiopia. It was delivered by carrier a half-hour ago.”
My heart hammered against my ribs. I was running before I could attempt any sort of decorum.
Only one person sent packages like that.
4
Callie was at the stove on the other side of the enormous kitchen, tending something in a pan. The fan wafted the smell of bacon through the air, immediately making me salivate.
On the island sat a small box wrapped in plain brown paper and tied with scratchy brown string. Colorful stamps adorned the top and sides, marring the handwritten address.
I let my hands linger on the counter while analyzing the graceful, tightly knit magic coating the surface of the package. I would have recognized Emery’s deft touch anywhere.
I’d received a total of five power stones, nearly one a month since I’d said goodbye to him. He knew how much power stones meant to me, and that I collected them, after a fashion. He also knew where I was staying. He’d not only remembered and was okay with my idiosyncrasies with the power stones (most people laughed when I mentioned that the stones had personalities), but he’d clearly checked up on me to see where I was. The packages never came with a written note—his only signature was his magic, the feel of which only made me miss him more—but at least he hadn’t forgotten about me completely.
“I was wondering—” I started.
“Hey!” Callie half spun to look behind her, her brown eyes wide. She had on a bright orange velvet sweat suit with “Queen Bee” written across the backside. “What did I tell you about sneaking around?”
“She all but sprinted in here.” Reagan filled the archway of the kitchen. “If you weren’t deaf, you would’ve heard her.”
“My hearing is just fine, thank you very much. It’s these accursed fans.” Callie turned back to the stove.
“Humor…longing…” The words spilled out of my mouth as I studied the nature of the spell, but I didn’t want to say the next word out loud. Lonely. He wasn’t happy. I could feel that hidden in the depths of the weave. He wasn’t willing to stay in one place for me, but he missed me, too.
“This is from the Rogue Natural, then?” Reagan asked, sauntering over. “Mr. Impressive Mage the magical world is talking about. He was always on Darius’s radar, but now it seems like everyone is talking about him.” She ran her hand through the air over the package, her way of feeling out the spell.
“Yes.” I chewed my lip and closed my eyes, balancing the magic around me.
“Figures.” Callie huffed. “No one ever remembers the woman that helps the hero take down the enemy.”
“The woman hasn’t been on the run for years, suddenly came back on the grid, then disappeared again. Mysterious is more interesting. Penny has to work on her marketing.” Reagan studied the package, ignoring Callie when the older mage told her to quit talking nonsense. “This spell is…wild. Unruly,” Reagan said, and I opened my eyes to see the smile curling her lips. Her eyes flashed. “It is fantastically complex. He’s got…what, three layers in here? The simplest one is obviously meant to shock any would-be thieves. The others seem…playful. Hmm.” Her brow furrowed. “I don’t even know the root of these spells. He must’ve made them up, which is exactly what I told you to do, Penny.”
She paused, and her eyes took on a keen light as she cursed softly. “See? Darius was playing me. Do you see how sneaky elder vampires are? Well I’m not so stupid as to fall into his plans, willy-nilly.”
“You bonded him, didn’t you?” Callie muttered from the stove.
“That was different,” Reagan said, her hands still over the box. “My blackened heart was involved in that one.” She surveyed me with intense eyes. “The Rogue Natural—”
“Emery.”
“Does he subscribe to your improvisational approach to magic?”
“What’s that?” Callie asked, moving two strips of bacon to a paper-towel-covered plate.
I closed my eyes, feeling the different layers of the spell that Reagan had sussed out. “He was willing to go along with it.”
“But that wasn’t his chosen approach?” Reagan asked.
“What are you girls talking about?” Callie demanded. “Reagan, do you want breakfast?”
“I always want breakfast,” Reagan said, waiting for my answer.
“You’re wanting for some lessons in etiquette,” Callie grumbled.
“His magic was wilder,” I said. “But he usually did follow spells. I was the one that created things out of the blue.”
“Well that was only because you didn’t know any spells.” Callie transferred more bacon before tucking the plate into the oven to keep it warm. She grabbed more bacon from the fridge. It was widely known that Reagan had the appetite of an NFL linebacker. How she didn’t gain any weight was beyond me. “Now that you do, Penny, you’ll be much better equipped.”
Reagan dropped her hands, a troubled look on her eyebrow-less face. “I told you, I don’t think that’s the right way to go. Even if we had all the time in the world, it seems like such a waste to turn her into a drone like everyone else. She’s different. She should celebrate that.”
“Do you think I’m a drone?” Callie half turned.
“Tricky question, that…” Reagan comically grimaced.
Callie huffed. “What’s your point?”
“The marks who are predictable are easy. I can gag ’em and bag ’em in my sleep. It’s the brainy ones that keep me guessing, that are incredibly risky to take down.”
“Penny doesn’t need to keep people guessing. She has power in spades,” Callie said.
“Compared to you.” Reagan held up a finger. “But
she is not the most powerful magical creature in the Brink, and certainly not in the Realm. Going up against someone like Darius will get her killed if she relies on cookie-cutter spells. He’d outthink her in a heartbeat and break her neck in the next.”
“I hate these talks,” I muttered, weaving magic together.
“Even in the Brink—”
“That’s where we are now,” Callie cut in.
“I remember,” I said, coating my counter-spell over Emery’s first spell. I held it there for a moment, feeling the soft intent of his magic. Remembering his teasing, and the yield of his lips. Letting myself feel the connection to him.
“Even in the Brink,” Reagan started again, “you have naturals. Not many, no, but the Guild has a couple, last I heard. Those naturals have just as much power as Penny. And they have more books from which to pull spells, and more experience hurtling them at an enemy. If all she does is learn the way everyone else has learned, she’ll be outgunned. No, her power is in her uniqueness.”
“That’s basically what Emery always said.” I broke the spell apart, leaving the other two, which were woven tightly together.
“Who’s Emery?” Reagan asked.
“Do you have a block for a head?” Callie scowled at Reagan. “Emery is the Rogue Natural.”
“Oh right. Right, right.” Reagan nodded like that had rung a bell. Given her newly enhanced memory from bonding a vampire, she’d clearly been tuning me out earlier. “With the Guild bouncing back so incredibly quickly, it’s clear Penny doesn’t have much time. It would’ve been better had she come here directly after the Seattle skirmish.”
“She couldn’t,” Callie said in a strangely thick tone. “Not with…what was going on.”
“My trip down to… Yeah, right.”
“Where?” I asked, perking up. This was as close as they’d come to talking about their activities a few months ago. I’d been all set to come to New Orleans when an unforeseen problem had postponed my move. But no one had filled me in on the details. I’d only been told that Reagan and Darius were out of town traveling.
