Steel for 5 (Mags & Nats Book 3)

by Stephanie Fazio

  “A.J. used his magic to pull the train car through the rubble and right into the air shaft so we could climb out without being crushed.”

  “You’re kidding.” I stared at A.J. in utter amazement.

  Even with as strong as A.J.’s magic was, I couldn’t imagine how much that had taken out of him.

  Looking more carefully at his face, I saw that he had burst blood vessels in both eyes. I leaned my head on his shoulder and gave him a squeeze.

  “I pulled a few hustle muscles, but we weren’t going back to Boston without you,” A.J. replied with a little shrug.

  “We got to the surface at the same time Diego came out with Lilly,” Michael said, taking up the story. “Diego brought us to the entrance of the supply shaft you were in, but it was already collapsing.”

  “I’m sorry, Bri,” Smith said, looking anywhere except at me.

  “Don’t,” I told him firmly. “It was my call to blow it up. You warned me exactly what would happen. You did everything perfectly.”

  Smith gave me a jerky nod.

  “Diego went back in after you, even though it was suicide,” Yutika said, her lip trembling.

  My stomach did something between a somersault and freefall.

  “It was the worst ten minutes of our lives,” Kaira said.

  Everyone was quiet for a few seconds until Michael spoke.

  “Yutika made a giant dirt digger machine,” he said.

  The two of them exchanged a complicated look and hesitant smiles.

  “And Smith and A.J. made it pull rubble out of the supply shaft at record speed,” Graysen said. “You should’ve seen the thing.”

  I shook my head in amazement. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to my friends’ general awesomeness.

  “The two of you were down there for almost twenty minutes,” A.J. said in a hushed voice.

  As I looked around at the group, I saw the toll those twenty minutes must have taken on them. I was about to start apologizing, when A.J. said, “You were holding up the literal weight of the entire mine on your shoulders, Girlfriend.”

  “And then Diego flew you out as soon as we had a path clear,” Kaira said. Her tone was full of respect, which I took to mean that she didn’t hate him anymore. “You were unconscious, and he was in seriously bad shape. Yutika made another plane, and Michael held off the Californians long enough for us to get out of there. We brought you back to Oliver as fast as we could.”

  “Wow,” I whispered, trying to make sense of it all.

  “But we did it, right?” I asked. “All the slaves are safe, and the Synthetics are dead?”

  “Yay to the first,” A.J. said. “Nay to the second.”

  At the questioning look I gave them, Graysen said, “One of those Synthetics was a Teleporter. Someone in California reported seeing five of them with a white-haired man wearing a black suit.

  I jerked upright. “Seriously?!” I demanded.

  “Small potatoes,” A.J. assured me. “Believe me when I tell you they were the least of our concerns.” He cuddled a squirming Sir Zachary for comfort.

  The rest of my friends nodded in agreement.

  I rubbed my eyes, trying to digest everything my friends had just told me. I dropped my hand and looked up as a new realization struck me.

  “Diego saved Lilly instead of getting the Agent S.”

  “He’s got it for you bad, honey girl,” A.J. said, making my face turn uncomfortably hot.

  “We misjudged him,” Graysen said solemnly, saving me from having to respond to A.J. “I’m sorry about that.”

  Kaira nodded. “After what he did for you, Ma practically tried to adopt him.”

  “Why did he leave?” I asked, my other emotions being eclipsed by frustration.

  I looked around the room, as though he might appear.

  “We tried to stop him,” Yutika said. “He said he didn’t know if you’d want to see him.”

  “What a dumbass,” I muttered.

  I swung my feet over the side of the bed and stood up. My friends erupted as I swayed on my feet.

  “Are you out of your ever-loving mind?” A.J. shrieked.

  “I have to go talk to him,” I said, catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror and wincing.

  Maybe I’d shower first and then go chase down my man.

  “He said he was leaving Boston,” Kaira said apologetically.

  “What?!”

  “When we talked to him,” Michael said, “I got the sense that he feels lost. Everything he’s been working toward is gone.”

  Because he chose to save my niece instead of going after what he’d wanted more than anything.

  “I have to stop him,” I said, raking my fingers through my hair and pulling a sweater over my tank top.

  The boys in the room graciously averted their gazes while I tugged on a pair of jeans. Kaira and Yutika held my arms while I got dressed to keep me from keeling over.

  “He only left a little while ago,” Yutika said. “I’m sure he hasn’t gotten too far.”

  I didn’t wait to hear any more. I ran out of my room, only pausing once at the top of the stairs to catch my breath before racing down to the first floor.

  “Bri!” Yutika shouted.

  I looked up in time to see something shiny fall out of the air. I caught the object and felt a smile break out over my face.

  It was the key to Diego’s motorcycle.

  “Bri, wait up,” A.J. called as he came bounding down the stairs behind me. Kaira and Graysen were on his heels.

  The three of them had to jog to keep up with me. The cold air that greeted me when I opened the door recharged me faster than a whole night’s worth of sleep.

  “Gray and I have an idea,” Kaira said, a little out of breath.

  “And you’re going to have wait a hot second,” A.J. told me, using his magic to pluck the key out of my hand and dangle it out of my reach. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  CHAPTER 52

  Iparked right outside Diego’s apartment building. I didn’t even bother finding an actual parking space. If the motorcycle got towed, Yutika could always make Diego a new one.

  I slipped in the door behind a woman who gave me a strange look, probably because I was somewhere between frazzled and frantic.

  What if Diego wasn’t here? He didn’t have a phone or any other easy way to track him down.

  My heart was thundering as I hauled ass up the three flights of stairs to Diego’s apartment. I was breathless by the time I made it to his door. I knocked a tad aggressively, bending the metal frame of the door in my enthusiasm.

  I was about to break in when Diego wrestled the door open. His eyes widened at the sight of me.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  All of the little speeches I’d rehearsed on the way over evaporated from my mind, leaving me gaping like a fish.

  Diego was so handsome. His black T-shirt was molded to his sculped chest, and his tattoos shone starkly against his bronze skin. I noticed a long, white scar across his forearm that hadn’t been there before. I swallowed, remembering the piece of metal that had cut him as he flew back into the collapsing mine to be with me.

  Diego raised his eyebrows at me.

  I cleared my throat. “You’re packing,” I said, noticing the duffel bags that were stuffed full of clothes instead of Agent S.

  “Very observant.” He gave me a little smirk that was a shadow of his characteristic arrogance.

  “Where are you going?” I asked, deciding to let his sarcasm slide.

  Diego lifted a shoulder. “Mexico City, at least until I figure out what I’m going to do next. It’s where my parents are from, and I’ve never been.”

  “Oh.” I glanced from the packed clothes to Diego.

  “Why’d you do it?” I blurted out. “Why pick Lilly instead of the Agent S?”

  Diego folded his arms and leaned against the warped door frame. “I’m pretty sure you already know the answer to that.�
�

  I was pretty sure I did, too.

  “I want you to tell me,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

  Diego searched my face. He leaned close enough for me to catch his intoxicating scent and gave me a cocky grin.

  “I figured it was my best chance of getting you back in my bed.”

  I laughed. Diego’s lips curved up, and this time, it was a real smile rather than his sardonic approximation.

  “I actually had a reason for coming here,” I said in the awkward silence that followed. “Well, four, actually.”

  “That’s a lot of reasons.” Diego moved farther into the apartment, inclining his head in invitation.

  I closed my hand around the glass vial in my pocket before meeting Diego’s curious gaze.

  “My first reason is that I wanted to thank you. Not just for what you did for Lilly and me.” I bit my lip as the memory of Lilly falling down that endless black hole came back to me. “But also for convincing the Super Mags to help us. If it wasn’t for you, we all wouldn’t have made it out of there.” I paused to take a breath. “I know that if you’d gone straight to the mine like you were planning, you might have been able to get the Agent S. So, thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Diego replied, his face a complete mask.

  “That brings me to a second, related point,” I pushed on. “Kaira and Graysen want to offer you a job.”

  I rushed on as skepticism overtook Diego’s features.

  “The Super Mags listened to you when they wouldn’t listen to anyone else.”

  “I’m also the one who was hunting them down to take away their magic,” Diego pointed out.

  I nodded. “But you’re one of them, and that matters more than anything else. The kids also think you’re cool because you let them beat up the Synthetics. So, Kaira and Graysen want you to be in charge of the new Alliance Super Mag coalition.”

  Diego scrutinized me. It was really starting to irk me that I had no idea what he was thinking.

  “You would be their voice in the Alliance,” I continued, babbling in the wake of his silence. “You would be involved in any legislation relating to Super Mags. You’d oversee the Boston Mag police in any Super Mag-related crimes. Also, you would be in charge of all rules and procedures relating to Super Mags…you know, so they don’t get themselves into trouble.” I paused to suck in a gulp of air. “And you’d go to a lot of boring meetings.”

  “I’ll take it into consideration,” Diego said.

  Disappointment coursed through me, even though I’d known it was a total long shot. I’d actually expected a flat-out no, so this was better than nothing.

  I stalled a little, not wanting to get to my next point.

  A.J. had given me the vial now burning a hole in my pocket. He told me he’d saved it in case we needed it, and that it was my choice whether or not I wanted to give it to Diego.

  I pulled the vial from my pocket and held it out. The green liquid shimmered in the dim light of the apartment.

  “This is the only one that survived our ransacking of your apartment,” I said, unable to meet his gaze.

  The vial I was offering was as close to an apology as he was going to get from me. It was also enough for a single dose of the Magical Reduction Potion.

  “If you still want to take away your magic,” I told him, “you can.”

  Diego reached out and took the vial. My heart sank as he rolled it around on his palm. All of his attention was fixed on the Agent S, like he was mesmerized by the sparkly green liquid. His gaze flicked toward his bathroom, where he kept his chemistry set.

  I tried to swallow down the knot in my throat.

  I started when Diego took my hand and uncurled my fingers. He placed the vial in my open palm.

  “I’m not going to be needing this, after all,” he said in response to my puzzled look.

  “I…don’t understand,” I stammered.

  “Well.” He reached up to brush his knuckles across my cheek. “If I’m going to be in charge of the Super Mags, then it’ll be useful if I’m still an actual Super Mag.”

  My heart felt light as a feather.

  “Are you saying,” I began, but Diego didn’t give me a chance to finish.

  “And it’s not just that.” He gave me the classic Diego smirk. “If I lose my magic, then how am I going to fly my girl up to see the stars and creep on her when she’s showering?”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” I said, pressing my hand to my chest and acting aghast.

  Diego gave me an unrepentant shrug. “It’s not my fault she’s a goddess.”

  “Wait,” I said, giving him a suspicious look. “Just to clarify, we’re talking about me, right?”

  Diego laughed.

  “Si, mi pequeña diabla. We’re taking about you.”

  I was grinning like a fool, but I didn’t try to stop. I glanced down at the vial in my hand and then slipped it back into my pocket.

  “Why the change of heart?” I asked.

  I couldn’t imagine Diego giving up on the dream he’d been chasing for most of his life. That kind of obsession didn’t just go away.

  I wasn’t fooled by his careless shrug. I waited while he gathered his thoughts.

  “Part of it was what my Amá told that Medium…Kaira’s grandmother,” he said.

  I remembered the grief-stricken look on Diego’s face after Grandma Tashi has passed on his mother’s message.

  “And the other part?”

  “You know how they say when you’re about to die your whole life flashes before your eyes?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, when Felix told me he’d murdered my parents, and then he dropped that crate, I saw everything I’d worked for disappearing. But in that moment, none of it mattered. All I could think about was how you wouldn’t leave the mine without Lilly. And I wasn’t leaving without you.”

  I stared very hard at the floorboards. When I’d finally pulled myself together, I said, “We’re going to make Felix answer for what he did to your parents. He’s not going to get away with any of his crimes.”

  Diego nodded slowly.

  “What’s the fourth?” he asked.

  “What?” I replied, confused.

  “You said you had four reasons for coming here.”

  “Oh, right.” I gave him my best little devil smile before launching myself at him. I moved so fast he barely had time to bring up his arms to catch me before we both went over. Our faces were only inches apart.

  “I wanted to do this,” I said.

  And then, I kissed him.

  CHAPTER 53

  The next week that followed was a complete blur. Between catching up on all of our Alliance work that we’d neglected, dealing with the fact that we’d created a two-mile deep trench in the middle of California, and moving Diego into the mansion, we’d barely come up for air.

  According to Kaira and Graysen’s contacts in the Inter-State Magical Cooperation Initiative, Felix had inserted himself into the vacancy left by Blade. He was now calling himself the Southern California Territory ruler.

  I wasn’t sure the Californians would take kindly to a suit-wearing, smooth-talking Alchemist as a replacement for their barbaric former-leader. But if the Californians didn’t take care of Felix first, we would. Kaira and Graysen had already submitted legal summons to extradite Felix from California to Boston to stand trial.

  Graysen, in his infinite brilliance, had found a legal loophole that would allow us to prosecute Felix in Boston. Since the mine was technically connected to MagLab through the underground train system, Graysen had been able to argue that Felix’s crimes were also committed in Boston, and thus, the Alliance had jurisdiction to arrest him.

  The panel of inter-state judges had agreed.

  Legal, but with a twist.

  I’d been spending my free time with the rest of the Hammonds at Brent, Sarah, and Lilly’s new house. Sarah had gone back to work, using her Bleeding Heart magic and connections to other top
child psychologists in the world to help all of the slaves we’d rescued. There were almost two-hundred in all, and Brent and Sarah were leading the Alliance group that was in charge of them. Brent had quit his office job to take over the logistics of tracking down the children’s families and reuniting them. Sarah was helping all of the children and families get the counseling they needed.

  My family’s healing wasn’t finished after everything we’d been through. Lilly was emotionally and academically far behind where she should be. But no challenge seemed insurmountable now that we had her with us.

  Every day, my family was getting back pieces we’d lost over the last five years. Just yesterday, Sarah had suggested she and I start our weekly date nights back up. I’d responded by jumping up and down like a little kid. Later, as I’d been heading to my new motorcycle, which I’d been gifted/stolen from Diego, my mom had hurried out after me. She told me she was having a big welcome-home party for Lilly, and she wanted to invite Diego.

  I had helped Diego move the last of his stuff into the mansion this morning. In the afternoon, he’d been officially sworn in as the head of the newly-created Alliance Super Mag Special Relations Division. He had his own room in the mansion, since I hadn’t wanted him to think his position was contingent on being with me, but neither of us had been interested in him using it. The Seven had accepted him, and the fact that he and I were dating, without batting an eye. The only exception was A.J.’s friendly threat that he would cut Diego into tiny pieces if he ever hurt me.

  Diego’s position in our growing family had been cemented by Ma, who now kept a condiment basket on the table by his seat that contained bottles of hot sauce, siracha, and chili flakes. There was also an airtight container in the fridge full of small orange ghost peppers. Ma had drawn a skull and crossbones on the lid, along with the message Danger, for Diego only!

  The week had passed without us noticing, and tonight we were hosting Thanksgiving dinner. The actual holiday was still a few weeks away, but after everything we’d been through, we decided a celebration was in order.