The Cursed Fae (Accessory to Magic Book 2)

by Kathrin Hutson

  “Maury Ofana’s office. This is Caroline.”

  “Hi, this—” Jessica cleared her throat and had to start over. “Sorry. This is Jessica Northwood. I need to speak to Maury.”

  “I’m sorry. He’s actually not in this morning. Can I take a message for you?”

  What? She’d had this meeting programmed into her phone since she’d gotten the damn thing. Third Wednesday of every month. She met with her parole officer, confessed the last month’s long string of failed attempts at gainful employment, reiterated that no, she wasn’t slipping back into the bad habits of her old life, and then they’d move on and wait for the next meeting.

  Sure, 7:15 a.m. was earlier than most regular offices were open, but this was magical corrections. And why wasn’t the guy in his office?

  “Um…” Jessica couldn’t think fast enough to not sound like a complete idiot. Or a badly hungover witch. “Sorry, I just… I have a meeting with him scheduled at seven fifteen. He’ll be back by then, right?”

  “Not today, I’m afraid.” Caroline typed away at her computer. The clack of plastic keys in her ear made Jessica’s eyes twitch. “He’s down in Colorado Springs for a court hearing. Are you sure you have the right day?”

  “Well…maybe not, then.” Jessica swallowed thickly. “I thought I did. Would you mind checking when it is actually scheduled for?”

  “Sure. I’m sorry. What was your name again?”

  “Jessica Northwood.” The typing filled her head again, and she turned around to reach for the faucet and refill her water. If she had the wrong date and the meeting was still in the future, great. But if she’d missed it altogether…

  “Hmm.” The receptionist sounded completely baffled.

  Jessica’s hand froze an inch from the faucet. “What’s wrong?”

  “Well, I’m just not seeing anything in the system at all. Northwood spelled just like the two words together, right?”

  “Yeah…”

  “No hyphen or anything?”

  “No. Look, Maury knows who I am. I’ve had five meetings with him already, and—”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am. We don’t have any record of you in the system.”

  “What?” Jessica’s pulse raced in her ears, and she almost dropped the phone.

  “Are you sure you have the right office?”

  She couldn’t think of anything to say.

  “Ma’am? Are you still there?”

  “Yeah. Um… Sorry. I’m not sure what’s going on.”

  “Well, if you’d like to leave a phone number, I’ll be sure to pass the message along to Maury. He can give you a call back tomorrow morning, if not by the end of the day.”

  Jessica’s stomach clenched. First, she’d been completely wiped out of the system at her old apartment complex, and now her criminal record was history. Literally and figuratively, apparently.

  “Ms. Northwood?”

  “No, that’s okay.” Jessica swallowed again and slapped her hand down on the counter at the edge of the sink just to get a good grip on something like reality. “I’ll…call back later this week. Sorry to bother you.”

  She hung up as quickly as she could and tossed her phone onto the counter. Her hands tightly clutched the edge of the sink, and she leaned forward just in case she puked.

  Jessica Northwood was no longer in any system.

  ‘Oh, come on. You’re thinking that like it’s a bad thing.’

  “I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

  ‘Yeah, that already happened. And the shoe led you to that closet upstairs and the pendant. Ta-da!’

  Slowly lifting her head, Jessica stared at the wall above the kitchen sink and took a deep breath. “Was this you too?”

  ‘Maybe…’

  “I’m serious, bank. Because if it wasn’t, someone’s trying to fuck with my parole, and I really don’t have a lot of time or patience for your stupid mind games just to figure it out.”

  ‘Yes, Jessica. It was me.’

  Her mind went completely blank. How? Why?

  ‘Magical bank, remember?’ The bank chuckled. ‘And we don’t have time for you to go running around the city meeting with this jerkface Hairball Maury, or whatever his name is. You’re reformed, right?’

  A wild laugh burst from Jessica’s lips, and the stab of pain it brought through her beer-sloshed head hardly mattered now.

  ‘Besides, your night of fun for fun’s sake was last night. I need you here, because we kinda have a few more important things to deal with than you playing happy ex-con reassimilated into society.’

  No. She was just an ex-con assimilating into the weirdest job at the weirdest bank with the weirdest magical asshats coming after her to finish the job. And now she wasn’t even an ex-con anymore.

  Jessica stared at the wall behind the sink with a grin creeping slowly across her face.

  ‘Uh-oh. Are you broken too now?’

  “About as broken as you are.” Another laugh escaped her. “You did this.”

  ‘That’s what I said. And I really don’t wanna have to keep repeating myself, so why don’t you just say thank you? Then we can move on.’

  “Wiped the slate completely clean.”

  ‘Well, not completely…’

  Even the frown flickering across Jessica’s eyebrows didn’t dampen her grin. “What do you mean?”

  ‘I just meant mostly clean. There’s no record. I mean, Hairball can’t exactly try to bring you back into the system when it’s like you never existed there in the first place. But anyone who remembers you still remembers you.’

  “So you can’t make anyone forget about what I did?”

  ‘You mean like you tried to do with that Peddler?’ The bank chuckled. ‘I’m a bank, Jessica. Not a god.’

  Sure. Just a bank with godlike powers. If she didn’t have all these other pieces of the puzzle to deal with right now, this would without a doubt have been the luckiest break of her life.

  ‘Well don’t go worshipping me or anything. That’s just creepy.’

  “Yeah, no kidding.”

  ‘And we still have plenty of problems that need fixing without godlike powers. More like just with yours.’

  “I don’t know how to fix the witching vault.”

  ‘You mean all that booze sloshing around inside you didn’t come with mind-blowing epiphanies? Then what was the point?’

  “The point was to unwind.” Jessica filled her glass of water again and drained it dry. Then she pulled a protein bar down from the upper cabinet and tore open the cellophane wrapper. “And I’m feeling pretty unwound right now.”

  ‘Might wanna wind back up a little bit, though. We’ve got a job to do.’

  Of course. There was always the job of running this bank like nothing was wrong. Just like the bank’s voice had come crashing back into her head like it hadn’t been gone for forty-eight hours without an explanation.

  ‘We can start by opening up shop. You know, at least pretend that things are working the way they’re supposed to.’

  With her mouth full of insanely chewy protein bar, Jessica grabbed her phone off the counter—6:59 a.m. At least she wasn’t technically late.

  ‘Wrong again. It’s Wednesday.’

  “Shit.” She hurried down the hall and darted behind the desk. The dizziness caught back up to her when she skidded to a stop, but she shook it off and pointed at the front door. The lock slid into the wall with a flash of yellow light, then the Open signed flipped back into place, and Jessica took another bite of her last-minute breakfast to go.

  ‘Good thing you didn’t have any clients busting down the door for the last half hour.’ The bank snickered. ‘Someone would’ve tried to kick your ass if they’d found you passed out against the shelf.’

  “Hey, whose side are you on?” Despite the annoyance in her voice, Jessica smirked and pulled the office chair closer to her desk to sit.

  ‘You know which side, witch. My side. And yours too. Really, though. Next time you
go on break, you should check out that burn on your chest—’

  “Not a burn. Just a mark.”

  ‘Whatever you wanna call it. I’m just reminding you about the importance of self-care, you know? Hygiene. Sleep. Sanity. Staying on top of magical wounds. The last thing we need is for you to start spewing green flames out of your chest, right?’

  As cool as it sounded, the bank was right. Jessica had been hit with magical attacks plenty of times in her life. They hadn’t really been an issue back in the day, before she’d removed her magic to keep herself safe.

  ‘That wasn’t a move to protect yourself, Jessica. That was you laying down arms and calling off the fight.’

  “Yeah. Because I’m done with the death and destruction, okay?”

  ‘Tell that to the orc you left unconscious in the alley last night.’

  She ripped off another bite of protein bar between her teeth and grimaced. “He’s fine.”

  ‘Are you, though?’

  “Hey, can’t you just let me enjoy the moment? I’m a freer witch now than I’ve been since… I don’t know. For as long as I can remember.”

  The fact that she couldn’t remember much of anything from before the brief, flashing images of her visit to the Peddler’s rundown shack didn’t matter. Jessica could do whatever she wanted with her life now, and there was no one on the other side of a desk breathing down her neck and telling her when and where and how to make her choices. Score one point for the bank and Jessica, because they’d just circumvented magical judiciary law.

  ‘More like a hundred points. Gotta keep it relative, right?’

  “Sure. I’ll give you a thousand points.” She sat back in the creaking office chair and crossed one leg over the other as she chewed on the rest of her breakfast. This would take some getting used to, but if anyone deserved it, Jessica did.

  ‘Okay… Well while you sit back congratulating yourself on how effective your bank is, maybe you should take a look at that sore on your chest—’

  “I’m fine.”

  The metal crow hanging above the door stretched its wings wide and let out a piercing caw to alert her to the first client of the day. The pain it brought thudding into Jessica’s head barely registered as she slowly stood and grinned at whoever it was about to walk through that front door. Forget the magical burn. Forget the hangover. Forget all the answers she didn’t have, because for the first time in her life, she was starting over with a second chance. A real one.

  ‘Because I need you here. Don’t forget that.’

  Jessica pressed both hands down on the desk and kept grinning as an elf woman in a long, faux-fur coat stepped into the lobby. Pretty sure we need each other.

  ‘Damn straight. Don’t screw it up, either.’

  “Morning!”

  The elf woman froze as the front door clicked shut behind her, blinking wide, luminous blue eyes. She raised an eyebrow at the sight of the witch grinning at her from behind the desk, and her top lip curled up in an apparent attempt to smile. It didn’t quite get across the intended effect.

  Jessica didn’t care. She couldn’t think of anything that would dampen her spirits right now. Including snobby clientele who thought they were better than her. Maybe in a lot of ways, they were. But the more Jessica got used to being an ex-con who hadn’t technically been arrested, convicted, and locked up for a year—as far as the rest of the world was concerned—the easier it’d be for her to blend in with the rest of magical society.

  ‘Blending in’s never been your strong suit, though, has it?’

  Can it, bank. We have a customer.

  The elf woman cleared her throat and began her slow march across the lobby toward the desk. “You look particularly chipper.”

  “Just having a good day.” Jessica’s grin widened, and she preemptively slid the inkwell and the pad of paper across the desk toward the elf. “Middle of the week, you know? Wednesdays just…get me.”

  The bank scoffed.

  Eyeing the new bank owner warily, the elf woman gently removed the lid of the inkwell and dipped her index finger inside. “Indeed. I’d heard a thing or two about the state of this place. What with the first phase having already begun. Honestly, I’d expected things to be more…in disarray.”

  More of this constantly vague crap about the reckoning, the Gateway, the phases beginning, blah, blah, blah. Nothing could kill Jessica’s mood right now. The whole world was at her fingertips. Maybe even two worlds, if the Gateway was actually a portal and the where behind it didn’t exist on Earth.

  ‘Now you’re finally starting to get it. Maybe you should drink more often.’

  Nice try.

  “No disarray here,” Jessica said through her grin. “Just me.”

  The elf woman slowly pressed her fingertip down onto the top paper of the pad and removed it just as slowly before looking back up at Jessica again. Her eyebrow was raised in permanent curiosity now. Or maybe it was just condescension.

  ‘Not much of a difference with this one, is there?’

  Jessica forced herself not to laugh as she drew the pad of paper toward her and tore off the top sheet. “You know, I’ve even had a few magicals tell me they like what I’ve done with the place. Everybody could use a little change now and then, don’t you think?”

  The elf’s nostrils flared. “I didn’t come here for small talk with a…whatever you are.”

  “Of course not.” With the woman’s fingerprint paper held lightly between her fingers, Jessica extended her other hand toward the client and winked. “Ready when you are.”

  “The current…climate has become too volatile, for obvious reasons.” The elf woman glanced briefly down at Jessica’s extended hand, then gazed around the lobby with her lips pressed together in a disapproving grimace. “I’d like to empty my deposit box.”

  “Oh.” Jessica closed her open hand and glanced at the sheet of paper in the other. “Sure.”

  “But don’t close it completely.” The elf turned her nose up as she shot Jessica a once-over. “I can’t say I hold much confidence in someone so…inexperienced—”

  “Excuse me?”

  “—but you did complete the first phase. However you managed it.” Blinking slowly, the woman looked away from Jessica and gestured toward the hallway with a flutter of her long, slender fingers. “If you also manage not to completely botch the rest of it, I imagine I’ll be back.”

  Jessica’s ridiculous grin faded a little. “I wouldn’t call it inexperience—”

  “Naturally, you wouldn’t.” They stared each other down for a few seconds until the elf raised both her eyebrows this time. “Are you going to get my things or not?”

  ‘Someone needs to teach her some manners,’ the bank grumbled.

  Plastering the smile back on her face—sickly sweet now instead of genuinely unfazed after her newest discovery—Jessica turned toward the hallway and waved the slip of paper at her stuck-up client. “I’ll just be a minute.”

  “I should hope so.”

  Yeah, and Jessica hoped this lady would hightail it right back out that door the minute she got her things.

  If the witching vault would even cooperate.

  She stepped down the hallway and paused in front of the glowing green light snaking out from beneath the witching vault’s door. Are we gonna have an issue with this?

  ‘Dunno.’ The bank cleared its nonexistent throat. ‘Guess we’ll just have to find out.’

  How do you not know? Grimacing, Jessica reached for the doorknob.

  ‘Look, if I had all the answers, I’d give you…at least half of them.’

  She rolled her eyes. If this door opens, can I count on you to keep yourself from throwing me across the room?

  ‘Are you asking for my permission not to screw up again, or…’

  I didn’t screw up.

  ‘And I didn’t throw you. Do your worst, little witch.’

  Sure. And the bank better hang back from doing its worst. Jessica felt fine right now,
all things considered, but another toss across the witching vault wouldn’t do anything to improve the fading hangover or how sore she was from being tossed around by everyone else in the last few days.

  ‘Quit analyzing and just open the damn door,’ the bank growled.

  Jessica reached for the doorknob, which pulsed with a burst of the vault’s eerie green light before her hand closed around the brass.

  Chapter Nineteen

  ‘Wait, wait, wait!’ the bank shouted. ‘Not yet.’

  Jessica clenched her teeth as her fingers tightened around the doorknob to the witching vault. You better have a good reason for stopping me now.

  ‘Yeah, I’m just thinking… If there’s no record of you being a badass criminal, what’s stopping the guy in your nightmare from coming after you?’

  “What?” she hissed.

  “Is there an issue?” the elf called snootily from the lobby.

  “No, we’re fine,” Jessica snapped. “I’m fine.”

  She gave the doorknob a quick jerk and shoved open the door. Easy enough.

  ‘Hold on a minute…’

  The bank seemed to be going through its own list of crazy ideas as Jessica stepped into the witching vault. The door shut swiftly behind her all on its own, and she stalked across the glittering black marble floors toward the center of the right-hand wall.

  “Whatever you’re trying to bring up out of my head, now is not the time.”

  ‘I think it’s the perfect time, actually. You know, part of solving the question. Answering the puzzle. Your memories and my magic…’

  Jessica raised the elf woman’s fingerprint toward the wall, and the witching vault roared to life as the rows and columns of gold-lined boxes shifted and spun around her. So far so good. As long as the bank didn’t decide to do the opposite of what it was supposed to do.

  ‘I told you that wasn’t me. Not completely me, anyway.’

  “Oh, yeah? You have a bunch of other bodiless entities living inside you now?”

  ‘You think you’re so funny. There are rules here, Jessica.’

  “Yeah, I know all about the rules. And that you won’t tell me what the hell they are.”

  The groaning of the shifting vault died down into an echoing growl before the last of the boxes slid into place. The one right in front of Jessica lit up with green light and dimmed again.