In Mage We Trust (Of Mystics and Mayhem Book 1)

by Heidi Vanlandingham

  “You need to right the wrong and fix the lies.”

  “Huh?” I jerked out of my tiny euphoric state and tried to focus on the fuzzy words now floating in my brain. “I don’t understand. What do you mean—right, wrong, and what lies?”

  “That’s my advice. Take it or leave it.”

  “Well, as far as advice goes, it sucks.”

  He shrugged.

  Your demons come, Al’s voice whispered in my head.

  I jumped to my feet, my stomach twisting into a giant knot. “We’re about to have company—not the good kind either. I’m afraid it’s confession time.”

  My grandfather glanced at me questioningly. “Confession? To me?”

  Several loose strands from my unruly ponytail tickled the sensitive skin on my neck and collarbone when I shook my head. “No, Niki and Malachi are . . .”

  “Are what?” Niki said behind me, sounding angry. Again.

  I winced. With a loud sigh, I turned around. “Here?”

  Ohhh, my gods but I was in trouble. Both demons were glaring at me with furious expressions. Their normal skin tone had turned almost burgundy. They stood side by side with military straight legs, their arms crossed over their chests. A tingle went down my spine as I scrambled back.

  Even though I knew I was in more trouble than I’d ever been before, I couldn’t help but admire the incredibly sexy visual image. Eye candy, dead ahead.

  I raised my hand in an extended wave and smiled sheepishly. “Hi.”

  “You purposely disregarded my orders.”

  Niki’s terse words dissipated whatever guilt I harbored. My neck hair stood on end as I glared back. “You bet I did, buster. I don’t follow stupid orders, even my father knows that about me. Mom, unfortunately, will have to learn. I’m not going to sit back and let someone else take care of things—not when I’m quite capable of doing it myself.” I surged forward and poked at his chest, ignoring the wall of muscles resisting my meager attempts at making an impact. I think I jammed my finger too.

  “That’s not how it was meant.” The harsh planes on his face didn’t soften.

  And that made me angrier.

  “Probably not, but you know what, Niki? A relationship, friendship, even a partnership takes two. It means decisions and plans are made between us, not you making them for me. Not my parents telling me what I can or cannot do. They lost the right when they left me to raise myself. I may be young, but I’ve dealt with a hell of a lot more than most people my age.”

  I moved closer to him. With my head tilted up, my nose almost touched his chin. “No one takes away my freedom. Not even you.”

  His shoulders loosened as the blazing anger in his eyes dimmed. “I’m not trying to take away your freedom, imp. No one could find you. It . . .” He sighed. “When I couldn’t find you, it scared the hell out of me.”

  My insides tingled happily, and I immediately relaxed, giving him a brilliant smile. I scared the big, bad demon enforcer. Although, doing it again wasn’t on my to-accomplish list. I wrapped my arms around his trim waist, my muscles untensing as his hand caressed my hair, smoothing the frizzy mess. It felt wonderful. I’d relaxed so much I almost missed his next words, sounding like a bunch of deep rumbles in his chest.

  “Sorry?” I whipped my head back and met his yellow gaze. “With my ear pressed against your chest, I didn’t hear what you said.”

  Niki hesitated as something cryptic crawled through his gaze, his yellow eyes darker. Ominous. “Your parents are missing.”

  I gaped at him, my mind totally blank. “Excuse me?”

  “When we couldn’t find you, we went back to tell them, but they weren’t there. From the state of the room, it looks like they may have been attacked. Gaia can’t sense either of them, and she’s getting worried.”

  “If Gaia’s worried, something is definitely wrong.” My grandfather’s face looked as pinched as his voice sounded. “She’s a hard one. Cast her girls out young.” He nodded once at my raised eyebrows. “Oh, I knew her and your aunts. Devilish hard people to like. Now I know why I had such a time with your mother. Never figured her for an Erinys.” He chuckled drily. “That’s one on me.”

  I stomped over and stood in front of him, my anger dimming momentarily when I noticed the gray pallor underneath his skin. Fear for my parents overrode any concern for his health. “Do you know what happened?” I leaned forward, glaring. “I was just starting to like you, but if I find out you had something to do with their disappearance, it would so put a dent in our relationship.”

  His eyes widened, and I knew my accusation surprised him. “Dear girl, I have enough on my plate at the moment. Besides, in here I can’t do anything anyway. Most of my magic is bound and what little I have left, believe me, is being used at an alarming rate to keep the Shadows from sucking my soul.”

  The ghost of a smile appeared on his face. “I don’t want to turn into the proverbial pumpkin at midnight when the magic is gone—or a dried out husk as the case may be. Not when you’ve given me such hope.”

  “Why would you turn into a dried husk?” Malachi asked. “The torture is eternal in this realm.”

  No one answered him.

  I had to blink several times to dry the moisture blurring my vision. My lips pinched tightly, and I couldn’t talk. My heart wouldn’t let me anyway. The pain in my chest hurt so bad, I couldn’t have said a word if I’d wanted to. The emotion surging through my veins bombarded the normally unshakable organ.

  I was at war. On one side, my parents and their extreme dislike for Max. On the other, Max himself. And he cared. I knew he did. Even through the barrier, I felt his concern for me. It didn’t make sense he’d do something to my parents.

  I swiped the tears from my cheeks. “I’m sorry. I know you didn’t do this. I tend to open my mouth before thinking. It’s like I said before, something is very wrong about this whole situation. Nothing makes any sense.”

  With a sigh, I faced Niki and Malachi, who’d been so quiet I’d almost forgotten they were there. Malachi hadn’t pressed for an answer to his previous question and, on closer inspection, I understood why. If a red-skinned demon could look green, he did.

  “Malachi? Are you okay?” I rested my palm on top of his crisscrossed chains, my mind automatically focusing on their music. The beautiful symphony I’d heard the night before was gone, and in its place were clashing, off-beat chords. It sounded like a death metal band with no sense of rhythm. It only took me a minute longer to realize he and his metal reacted to his location.

  In the few seconds I stood with my hand on the metal, the sounds worsened. My mouth felt like a desert. “Niki, we need to leave. Now. Take us back to Mom’s.” I threw an apologetic glance over my shoulder to my grandfather. “I’ll be back.”

  Max smiled. “I know.”

  Chapter 11

  Sabine’s House

  Johnna

  Malachi’s strong hands gripped me like a vise. The symphony had returned, stronger than before, and my necklace hummed from overflowing energy, its vibration tingling against my skin. With heavy eyes, I tried to look up; however, the effort proved to be more difficult than I anticipated.

  Colors swirled around me and my stomach lurched. I closed my eyes and quickly reopened them, noticing if I moved them too fast, a comet’s tail appeared.

  Something hot encircled me. The heat stopped as it enveloped my hands, gently removing them from the chains. In slow motion, my world stopped spinning, and I found myself propped against Niki's chest. Malachi sat in a chair facing us, his eyes clear of pain. He no longer looked green and, weirdly, his arms and chest twitched.

  I leaned into the warmth of Niki's breath as he kissed my ear and moved lower to my neck. The heat of his mouth blew across my skin, turned it into a sheet of goosebumps. A shiver stole down my
spine.

  My oh my, but my demon could kiss.

  “Niki?”

  “Don’t touch him again, imp. I may be older and wiser, but jealousy is timeless.”

  “Is that what just happened?” The dizziness returned when he spun me around, and I had to work to refocus my eyes on his handsome face.

  “I had nothing to do with what just happened, Johnna. I would never hurt you. Part of being older means I can control my emotions . . . unless you’re involved, it seems.”

  I didn’t know whether to laugh or not at Niki’s disgusted expression, but underneath lurked the hurt. It was faint, yet there nonetheless. Without thinking, I kissed his cheek, my lips caressing his scar.

  “I’m sorry.” I breathed in his smoky scent, like an outdoor fire. My body relaxed against him.

  “You two need to get a room,” Malachi said, rolling his eyes.

  I ignored him. “So, what happened? I only tried to help. He was out of sync—his sounds were off.”

  “Excuse me?” Niki and Malachi both stared at me like I’d spoken in tongues.

  “I know you probably won’t understand. Malachi, you looked like you were about to be sick. Your skin was green.” Weakly, I waved my hand at him. “With all your glorious metal, I wanted to give you an adjustment.”

  Malachi closed his eyes with a small groan. “Do I even want to understand what you’re saying?”

  “Johnna’s a metal mage. The metal responds to her touch, evidently mental as well as physical.”

  I felt the corners of my mouth lift in a faint smile. From the heat spreading over my face, I knew my cheeks were bright pink. “I was only trying to help. You really looked bad, Malachi.”

  “I felt bad.”

  I glanced at Niki questioningly. “You weren’t affected by the Pits, so why was he? Was it because you found him there?”

  “He reacted negatively because Malachi is a converted demon, not demon born.”

  “Oh, like me?”

  Niki grinned. “Yes, like you.”

  I frowned as another thought pushed through my mind. “Then why wasn’t I affected like he was . . . Wait, I thought he was a fallen angel?”

  Niki nodded with a quick glance at Malachi. “He was. I found him fighting for his soul. He fought against death, and I saw his strength. I also knew what he was, so in Lucien’s name, I offered him a deal. Instead of endless torment at the whim of the Shadows, I converted him. For saving his life, he is bound, serving under me as the king’s second enforcer.”

  I frowned. “Okay, I understand that, but how does a fallen angel end up in the demon realm in the first place?”

  Niki shook his head. “It’s his story to tell, if he chooses.”

  I glanced at Malachi. From his forbidding, closed expression, I knew he wasn’t in a sharing mood. I gave him a single nod and leaned my head back against Niki’s shoulder, closing my eyes.

  “I used to be an archangel.”

  My eyelids popped back open as I stared at Malachi in surprise. Every cuss word, lie, and utterance of God’s name in vain rushed back to me. Shocked and dismayed, I pulled in a painful breath since my lungs weren’t working very well, and coughed. “I think I had a near-death experience. I’m going to Hell.”

  Behind me, Niki laughed softly. “You are in Hell . . . sort of. It’s a realm of its own, which we won’t go into right now. Several realms in Dark World—the Pits of Despair, the Nightmare Realm, the Hole—are all connected in a way.”

  Sitting so close to him became more uncomfortable by the minute. Here I was, enjoying myself instead of looking for my parents. Thankfully, Niki didn’t try to stop me as I moved off his lap and sat, lotus position, on the floor between Malachi’s chair and the bed.

  “Even with your tendency to ignore the rules, your heart is pure, Johnna. You will have no problems entering Heaven.” Malachi’s eyes mirrored his sad smile.

  “Really? I died once already, and Heaven didn’t take me then.”

  Malachi sent me a sideways glance, and I could tell from the pinching of his lips, he was trying to keep a straight face. “I think there were extenuating circumstances at the time, don’t you?”

  I touched his arm. “My point exactly.” I didn’t wait to see his response as I rose from my spot on the floor and left the room. All I could hope for was finding a clue to where my parents had gone. Or who had them.

  Stepping into their room, the residual anger beat at me. Floating underneath this powerful emotion, my parents’ lingering fear crawled under my skin. I edged closer to the bed, the back of my hand accidently brushing against my mother’s dressing table. A cold shiver shook me and seeped into my bones. I studied the wooden table, noting tiny perfume bottles and two silver jewelry trays scattered across the top. Pieces of jewelry littered the surface and several necklaces had fallen to the floor.

  I knelt and picked up a necklace, one I remembered seeing my mom wear before she died. For a few seconds, I brushed the pad of my finger across the surface, feeling the rough outline of the volcano. I’d never liked the pendant and asked her why she wore it. She’d explained she’d seen it in a little boutique in Italy and it had called out to her, so she bought it.

  I carefully placed the necklace on a hook beside the mirror, the side of my hand touching the reflective glass. Then I pulled away, trying to rub off the disturbing sensation. In the mirror’s depths I sensed a dark presence.

  Something evil.

  Without a doubt, I knew whoever took Mom and Dad had somehow used the mirror. The stain remaining inside the mirror felt decayed.

  My scalp crawled as my hair stood on end. I caught sight of my reflection and winced. I looked like a possessed, red-headed Drew Barrymore, not a pretty sight. I stared at the bedroom behind me and peered closer, the rumpled comforter hanging partway off the bed . . . and realized what I was seeing.

  I stood between the bed and the mirror.

  And I could see through my body.

  I touched the glass again, and the silver coating on the mirror shrieked in agony. I pulled my hand away, but I wasn’t fast enough. A frozen sensation stabbed at my fingertips.

  Hurtsss, Al whined.

  I rubbed the pretty choker around my neck with my other hand. “I’m sorry, Al. I didn’t know it would hurt so bad.”

  Demonnn magic.

  I regarded the nondescript mirror doubtfully. “Are you sure?”

  I feelll it. Demonn magic—like acid. Burrnsss.

  “Oh.” I couldn’t refute that. It had burned.

  Pain gone now.

  I poked the tips of my fingers with my thumbnail. “Mine’s gone too.” Deciding Niki might need to know about this, I turned to leave the room and squealed. Niki and Malachi stood behind me, their frames filling the doorway. I whirled back to the mirror and stared at where they should be standing. The mirror remained blank, only showing my hazy figure and the room behind me. They weren’t there. A bad feeling churned in the pit of my stomach.

  “Shit blue bricks,” I muttered under my breath.

  “You were taking too long.” Niki moved closer to the wall and leaned against it, the pale coral plaster darkening his skin tone. The two shades went together surprisingly well.

  I have got to stop my brain from rambling.

  Straightening, I pointed to my single reflection. “I think I found something. What is this thing? I look like a ghost, and neither of you have any reflection at all. I thought it was only a vampyre thing.”

  Malachi chuckled. “You’ve seen too many stupid movies.”

  “Hey, don’t diss the movies. They’re classics. I think whoever took my parents somehow used the mirror. Al said it was demon magic.” I rocked back and forth on my heels, impatiently waiting for their response.

  Niki’s h
and rested above the mirror’s surface, never touching it. “Al’s right. Imps sense magic, and they’re very sensitive to other demons.”

  “Well, duh. Demon babies.”

  Niki's eyes widened slightly. “No, not demon babies. They’re uh . . . cousins.”

  Well, I sure wasn’t about to admit my stupidity out loud. “Okay, so something used the mirror. What do you think it was? Can we use it to trace my parents or where they might be?” I frowned as another very important detail popped into my head. “I need to find the diary too.”

  Malachi stepped further into the room. “You mean you don’t have it?”

  “No. I gave it back to Mom. She said she wanted to reread the entries she’d written in it before she died with the hope of finding a clue as to what’s going on.” I studied the mirror again. “Now, explain about the carnival mirror.”

  “You mean find out what Max might want.”

  I sighed. “That too. The mirror?”

  Malachi's lips hinted at a smirk, just enough to irritate me.

  “Did I mention he gave me a clue? He said I needed to right the wrongs and fix the lies. No clue what it means.”

  “Johnna, how did you get the diary away from Max?”

  I wondered at the thoughtful look on Niki's face. He was up to something. I didn’t know what to tell him because I had no clue how I’d gotten it. “When you finished speaking and in the split second before Max disappeared, I heard the purest, most beautiful note. I wanted to know what it was and let it fill my mind. The next thing I knew, my mother’s diary lay in the palm of my hand. I guess subconsciously, I knew to keep the diary hidden.”

  I offered a grin, but if the stony look on Niki’s face was anything to go by, it would take a lot more than a smile to break his concentration. He remained motionless, not even blinking. A few minutes later, his gaze pinned mine. “I want to try something.”