Magic Thief

by C C Sommerly

  “I’m not dying.”

  She sniffled. “This is going to be bad. I’m just so glad you are back. We were all so worried.”

  Sterling cut away my shirt. I could see a sprinkling of bleeding cuts all over. They looked like a macabre confetti.

  I giggled.

  “Just hang in there,” said Callie.

  “I’m not going to die.”

  “Hold her down.”

  Roc pressed me down and I screamed as the glass was forced deeper into my back.

  “I’m sorry, we have to get the ones out of the front of you first. They are bleeding a lot,” said Sterling.

  “I hate you all,” I said through gritted teeth.

  The first couple of pieces of glass came out fairly easy. Why was I fighting this, it wasn’t so bad?

  Sterling tugged on a shard, but it didn’t come out. He dug around in the cut, making blood spill down my chest. That hurt, but it was still manageable.

  Each one they pulled started hurting more than the last. I was fighting Roc’s hold at this point. This was too much. I screamed and couldn’t stop as the pain was endless. I heard some of their talking through the delirium of pain.

  “Can you tell me more about what happened to her,” asked Sterling.

  “I wish I could. I found her on the Mid Line looking like this. I can get my supplies and draw runes that will speed healing and block the pain.”

  “She wouldn’t want that. You know how particular she is about anyone doing magic on her, even rune work. Marty barely tolerates the aid of a healer. I appreciate your desire to make this easier on her, but there’s nothing we can do.”

  I went in and out of consciousness. At some point, the healer came. By the end of the night, I wasn’t the only one trembling from exhaustion and stress.

  “I can bring her to her room to rest,” said Garen.

  “That won’t be necessary. We can take it from here,” said Sterling.

  “Then let me take my leave. May I look into her health?”.

  “We will send you notice of her condition, but you will not be welcome back.”

  “But I’ve done nothing.”

  “Until we clear you, we have no idea what your true involvement in her abduction might be.”

  “You think to accuse me? I’ve never given you cause to think I’m involved in anything untoward,” said Garen.

  “And I am well within my rights as her boss and friend and you know it, Rune Mage. Leave before I force your exit.”

  19

  What was it with waking up in pain? Although, seeing the inside of my room was an improvement to the dungeon. I needed to talk to Sterling about what happened. Every inch of my body hurting was not a surprise. Broken glass was no joke.

  I’d think twice before I tried jumping through glass. Hobbling up, I felt the stings from the cuts and felt a bandage pulling from my stomach. Not caring what I looked like, I carefully made my way to the sitting room on shaky legs. I’d like to think it was a walk, but it was more of the wobbly gait of a toddler, who is just learning to walk. I hoped the others were there and I wouldn’t have to make the trek downstairs.

  In the sitting room, worried glances and frowns met me.

  “Good morning to you all. I’m fine, thanks for asking.”

  Roc was named appropriately. He was shaped like a massive boulder. He had a barrel chest and wide shoulders and hands the size of my head. He rushed forward and hugged me. This uncharacteristic affection for me made me uncomfortable.

  They really were making quite a fuss about nothing. I wasn’t even gone more than a day, two at most. I met Sterling’s worried gaze.

  “Marty, where have you been all this time?” he asked.

  “Calm down. And since when do you call me ‘Marty’? I might not be unscathed every time, but I’ve been in far worst shape and scrapes than this.”

  “You were gone a week.”

  “Is this some kind of joke? You’re getting me back for the Slime demon incident, right? I mean, just because I let you take that hit of slime and you stunk for a week, doesn’t mean you should get back at me. You were a better person to take the hit for the team like that.”

  “Marty, Sterling isn’t joking,” piped in Callie. “We wish he was. All of us scoured the city and even ventured into the Dark Side to search for you. We couldn’t find any trace of you. No one saw or heard anything once you left Livinia’s.”

  “We went to a mage to do a tracker spell. They couldn’t find you,” said Sterling.

  That definitely explained everyone’s reaction. The only reason why someone couldn’t be tracked is if they were dead or being blocked. Having an artifact to create a block like that was rare and expensive.

  I finally got a good look at all of them. How could I have not noticed that they all wearing black. I looked towards the curtains and saw the black fabric covering them. Some of my frustration and annoyance at what I thought was an overreact dissipated. They had thought I was dead.

  “Why don’t you tell us what you do know?” asked Sterling.

  “I’ll do my best, but what I know isn’t much. I thought I was only gone for two days and you are telling me it was really a week. How can that be?”

  “I have my hunch, but I’d rather wait to hear your full story before I share my theories,” said Sterling.

  “One minute I’m walking out of Livinia’s and the next I’m waking up in a dungeon cell, looking at some deranged half-shifter wolf. I was there maybe a day and a night. When I next woke up, the wolf shifter let me out to meet his ‘master’ and I was able to escape. The house I was in was somewhere in Uptown, near the Mid Line. I jumped through a window to escape, which is how Garen found me.”

  “You’re officially on bed rest,” said Sterling. “Don’t argue with me about it. You need some time resting and we’ll see about a healer coming to check on you.”

  At some point, it was either late evening or early morning, the healer showed up. I made out his craggy, bespeckled face. If he was old, then he was experienced, which meant expensive. We couldn’t afford a top-rate healer.

  “It’s good that you got the glass out. So many people forget important things like that. I can’t heal a body that has something stuck in it,” said the healer.

  “Ian can you heal her?”

  “Of course, but this will be painful, young lady.”

  “I don’t see how it can hurt worse than having the glass removed.”

  “See if you still feel the same once this is over.”

  He started and the pain flared up to an unbearable level. I can do this, I thought through gritted teeth. Passing out would have been a mercy, but the gods weren’t feeling merciful. I screamed my way through the healing. Once it was done, exhausted, I promptly fell asleep.

  20

  “Marty, you got something,” said Callie.

  “If it’s not a stiff drink or my cases being magically solved, then I don’t want it.”

  Callie came into my room carrying an obscenely large flower bouquet. It looked like someone had emptied out an entire garden and stuffed the flowers into a single vase. It was a riot of colors and made up of lilies and exotic flowers that smelled amazing together.

  “Do you want me to read the note that came with it?” asked Callie.

  “Sure.”

  She set the flowers down and wiped her sweaty brow.

  “Those were so heavy. I should have waited to have Sterling carry them.”

  “You probably should have. I changed my mind, hand me the note,” I said.

  I started reading it to myself.

  I heard the news, such nasty business. It’s so good that you are back. What’s also good is that when you failed to make the deadline, I was able to cover for you. Now, you have three days to find my necklace, or I’m suing your Agency for breach of contract and taking that crummy house you live in and every asset. Get better fast. Yours truly, Julia.

  The woman was unreal. But, regardless of how I felt ab
out her, I had no doubt that she’d carry out her threat. I needed to get up to date as soon as possible on all my cases. While, I hope they were worked on in my absence, I doubted that was truly what happened.

  “Callie, can you give me a couple of minutes?”

  “Sure. We are waiting in the sitting room. I’ll have food ready.”

  They must be quite worried to make me food. Although, I’d enjoy the meals for however long they lasted. I was tired from the healing I had done. The healer tried his best, but closing up countless small wounds took hours. I thought it would be easy, but each cut had to be healed individually. By the end, I think the healer was as exhausted as I was.

  Still no sign or word from Lochlan. Initially, I’d thought the flowers were from him. Did he keep working our case? Did he worry about me and look for me? Where they able to get someone to track the mage with the piece of fabric?

  I took a quick shower, feeling a deep fatigue, but I didn’t have the option of lying in bed. Sterling could shove his bed rest. Julia wasn’t the only one I had to deal with. I desperately wanted to know if Jennica was found.

  I walked out to the sitting room and the whole gang was there.

  “Look what we made,” said Callie.

  They had a huge makeshift breakfast buffet set up. Someone had brought a table in that looked suspiciously like Sterling’s desk. They even put a table cloth on it. There were pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, fruits, juices, and about everything else you could think of.

  “How did you guy manage to do this? I thought no one could cook?” I asked.

  “Oh, we didn’t do this. Lochlan did,” said Callie.

  “He did? Is he here?”

  “No, he said he couldn’t be here and had private matters to tend to,” said Sterling.

  “Get your food before these two eat it all,” said Callie.

  Both Zander and Sterling were eyeing the food. I didn’t need to be told twice. I loaded up my plate and sat down.

  Once we finished eating, I looked at the group. They seemed to be waiting for me to talk.

  “Has Jennica been found?” I asked.

  “No, but three other women are missing as well,” said Sterling.

  I swore.

  “Are they all magic users?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are we to assume they were taken by the same people that took the other women?”

  “That is the initial guess, but nothing is ever exactly what it seems,” said Sterling.

  “Did Lochlan say whether the enforcers suspect Jennica was taken by the same people? Have there been any leads about her?” I asked.

  “That’s what we were hoping you’d tell us based on your visit to Livinia,” said Sterling.

  “Unfortunately, all I got was a bizarre and confusing message.”

  I told them what she said.

  “It beats me what it means,” said Callie.

  “I don’t know either,” said Sterling.

  Why can’t the mage be related to the spider?” asked Zander.

  “It could be, but I don’t get why this one case is related to her prophecy. What makes this one different. Also, I asked about Jennica, not the mage.” I said. “Also, I stopped by and spoke with a rune mage there, Garen. He’s going to look into the tattoos the mage has.”

  “We met Garen last night. You should really take a day off,” said Sterling

  “I’ve had enough days off – seven of them,” I said.

  “That’s our Marty,” said Callie.

  “What about Lochlan? Was he able to track the mage?” I asked.

  No one answered. The silence grew strained.

  “What aren’t you guys saying?

  “The last we saw Lochlan was before you disappeared. No one has seen him since,” said Sterling with frost in his voice.

  “That can’t be true. He’d have worked our case in my absence.”

  “Lochlan, Garen, Livinia and Slav are the last people who saw you before you were kidnapped. Who else besides us knew you were going to be at the Dark Side?” he asked.

  “You’re wrong. Lochlan is completely aboveboard. He wouldn’t.”

  “You don’t know that. All we know is that he was supposedly contacted by Julia Huntington’s fiancé and insisted on being your partner. That put him in the perfect position to get insider information.”

  “And he has Jasper, the only person alive, who has seen this mage,” I said. “It can’t be him.”

  “We have no way to prove his innocence or his guilt,” said Sterling. “And, we have other news.”

  “What else happened?”

  “The person that attacked you, here at the Agency, took the fabric. When you disappeared, we looked for it, in case he was connected in any way to your cases. It was gone,” said Sterling.

  “Things just get better and better.”

  “Well, I still have cases to solve.” I pulled out the note card from Julia. “We got a message from Julia Huntington.”

  “What did she say?” asked Callie.

  “Here,” I tossed her the card.

  “While Callie reads us the card, you need to see this morning’s paper,” said Sterling, who pointed at the newspaper near me.

  On the front page was a story about how one of the missing women was found half drowned near The Rivers. What was it with drowning these women? That was an angle we hadn’t explored. Her name was being withheld for her safety. She had been one of eight women – all servants in Uptown that went missing. They had been taken within the last month and the enforcers were investigating. I’m sure they were. This kind of thing made them look bad.

  “This says that only one woman was found. There numbers are off, two were found,” I said. “Do we know who’s household she came from and if we can talk to her?

  “I have better than that,” said Callie. “I know someone who knows her family. That person gave me all sorts of details. She was found a couple of days ago, but it didn’t get out right away.”

  “Well, what are you waiting for? Share what you heard,” I said.

  “Why are we just now hearing this?” asked Sterling.

  “There was just a little distraction when Marty was brought back bleeding and half dead,” said Callie. “Do you want to hear or not?”

  “Please tell us,” I asked.

  “So, Nora was one of the first ones taken. She was a bird shifter. When she came back, she was hysterical. No one could calm her down. When they finally got her talking, they learned that her ability to shift was gone. And, that her animal was ripped out of her.”

  “That’s not possible. Shifters are born with their spirit animal. The two cannot be separated and survive,” I said.

  “Olaf says it must be possible since it happened with Nora.”

  “So, now we’ve had a mage with her magic taken and a shifter’s spirit animal. If this is possible, then none of us are safe. The person behind this needs to be stopped.”

  “I agree. What family did this girl work for?”

  “The Richardsons.”

  “Perfect. I’ll head out. Maybe they will finally let me in to ask about Jennica.”

  “You should be resting,” said Sterling.

  “Try to stop me.”

  “It might be easier than you think,” said Sterling.

  “I need to do this.”

  “Fine, but I’m calling in Roc. You need someone with you at all times.”

  “He better get here fast because I’m in no mood to wait.”

  “I’ll send for him,” said Sterling.

  21

  Roc arrived and looked at me in surprise, but that quickly changed into a smile.

  “Nice to see you under better conditions,” I said.

  “And you’ve looked better. I can continue working your cases,” he said.

  “That won’t be necessary.”

  He looked doubtful, but didn’t argue anymore.

  “We are we off to?” Roc asked.

  “She’s insist
ing on working her cases, so I need you to partner with her,” said Sterling.

  “I’m happy to do work for you guys. It’s been an interesting few days.”

  “Sure has.”

  “Let me grab my weapons and we can be off,” I said.

  Betty opened her door for Roc. That was a first. He was obviously a favorite of my car. Roc looked surprised, but didn’t comment on the weird behavior from my car. While most people I worked with knew about the car being possessed, not everyone knew what to expect when they rode in her.

  “Where’s my welcome, Betty? I heard I was practically on death’s doorstep and my door doesn’t get opened.”

  I sit down and the seat shifts forward suddenly until I’m pressed against the steering wheel.

  “Fine, I take it back.”

  The seat went back to normal.

  “This car is even meaner than you, Marty,” said Roc.

  The car didn’t react. Of course not.

  “She doesn’t respond to that, but was mad at my comment. Well, she’s a force to be reckoned with, that’s for sure.”

  We pulled up to the Richardsons and there were enforcers all over the place.

  “This doesn’t look good, Marty.”

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  None of the enforcers stopped us as we approached the door and knocked. The same butler as before answered.

  “What do you want? Can’t you see we are in a state of crisis?” he said.

  “I’m here about Jennica.”

  “You knew she was back.”

  “What?!”

  I forced the door open, heedless of the consequences.

  “Help, she’s storming the residence,” said the dramatic butler.

  Roc, bless his heart, didn’t hesitate and followed my lead.

  “Jennica! Jennica, where are you?”

  I had anywhere from seconds to minutes until the enforcers hauled Roc and me away for trespassing. I’d see Jennica before that happened.

  I threw open every door we passed, shouting for Jennica.

  From somewhere upstairs, I hear something.

  “Up?” asked Roc.

  We stumped up the stairs with me still calling for Jennica. At this point, we had servants milling around looking shocked. Thankfully, none of them stopped us. I wouldn’t be able to fight back. Despite my reputation, I didn’t hurt innocents.