“And if you’re not?”
“The force blows you apart and brings the ceiling down
on your head.”
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“Which
one?”
“The explosion collapsed two quadrants. Vasko’s going to
be livid.”
“Did many miners…” I couldn’t finish.
“A handful died.” Galen dismissed the loss of life as insig-
nificant. “He’ll be more upset about the time and cost to open
up new shafts.”
“That’s—”
“A risk they’re well aware of and are paid extra for. And
most of them still steal gems from the mines.”
Another tremor vibrated under my feet.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Galen brushed past me as he took the lead. When his
shoulder had touched my upper arm, I felt magic. By itself, it
wouldn’t cause me any alarm. Vasko was a shrewd business-
man, and I could understand why he would hire a magician
as his right-hand man. But the texture of the power reminded
me of someone. I just couldn’t put my finger on who.
My opinion of Galen increased as he navigated the maze of
shafts, chambers and intersections with confidence. The trip
seemed never ending.
“How much longer?” I asked. My throat burned from the
dust.
“A few more minutes. We have to bypass the weak quad-
rants.”
When the shaft’s incline increased, I hoped I would see blue
sky soon. I would never take it or fresh air for granted again.
But the passage leveled off and ended in a room. Galen set the
lantern on a desk, and I corrected my initial impression.
“I
thought—”
“You thought wrong.” Galen rummaged around the office
and found a canteen and two cups.
Pouring water into both, Galen handed me one of the
cups. Our fingers touched, and I finally recognized the ma-
gician. Finn.
I drew my switchblade and stabbed, aiming for
his heart. He blocked the attack, but didn’t move quite fast
enough to avoid the blade. It sliced his upper arm.
Finn/Galen growled in pain and I slammed into a null
shield. Acting on pure instinct, I f lipped my switchblade
around and f lung it at him. It sailed through the shield, but
he def lected it with his power.
Then the shield pressed on me, forcing me back until it
f lattened me against the wall, unable to move.
Finn plopped into his desk chair and drank from his cup.
“Too easy, Opal.”
I glanced at his ripped and bloodstained sleeve. “Next time,
Finn, I’ll slice higher.”
He pulled off his glasses and wig. “Points for following the
clues and linking me to Vasko, but I’m not his son Phinnegan.
I’m really Vasko’s faithful dog.” He didn’t bother to hide the
bitterness in his voice.
“Then who is Junior?” I asked, managing to surprise
him.
“I didn’t think you’d learn anything useful from Vasko’s
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office. Your Ixian teacher should be proud.” He watched
me. “The Commander isn’t the only one with a network of
spies in Sitia. The Council is more aware of what’s going on
than you give them credit for. And Vasko’s tapped into that
network.”
“Is Junior working for the Council or Vasko?”
“He’s me. I’m not related, but I have disguised myself as
Vasko from time to time. Occasionally he likes to be in two
places at once.”
“Why tell me all this?” I pushed against the null shield, but
it remained firm.
“You’re going to be a player in this game. You should un-
derstand the basics.”
“What does Vasko want now?” I asked. “He already has
my blood.”
“No he doesn’t.”
“But he sent you to Wirral?”
“To gather information on blood magic. The existence
of your blood was a nice surprise. One I failed to tell him
about.”
“Why does he…oh.” I connected the dots. “He wants to
use blood magic to return Pazia’s powers.” All my actions,
whether good or bad, inadvertent or on purpose have all spun
in circles and returned with force, slamming right back into
me. “Does he know about the side effects?”
“Yes, but not to worry about your friend. Vasko would
never endanger his daughter. Instead he has been experiment-
ing on test subjects, trying to find a way to increase a person’s magic without the addiction.”
“Should I be horrified by the mention of test subjects?”
“Oh yes. I am. And I’m not the squeamish type. Vasko
makes me look like the nice guy. Why do you think I’m so
loyal?”
“For your private office?”
He laughed with genuine amusement then sobered. “If I
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Maria V. Snyder
were to betray or double-cross Vasko, I’d disappear in these
mines. I’d either become a new test subject or locked in the
cells below and left to die of thirst.”
I reviewed his comments. “If you haven’t told him about
the blood, isn’t that a betrayal?”
He snapped his fingers. “Smart girl, I knew I liked you
for a reason. If Vasko found out what I’ve been doing…” He
shuddered. “That’s why I triggered the cave-ins. If everyone
thinks I’m dead and buried under tons of rubble, no one will
search for me. And I’m free to pursue other interests.”
“Except I know.” A rush of cold fear swept through me.
“I’m a casualty, too.”
“Yep. Otherwise your friends and family would tear Sitia
apart looking for you. And they are way too powerful for my
liking.”
“They’ll do it anyway. Unless there’s proof of my death.”
“The searchers will find your backpack and if they dig
deep enough, they’ll find a crushed female corpse wearing
your clothes. She’s approximately your age, size and weight
and has the same hairstyle. Although I must admit, the short
cut looked better on her.”
I closed my eyes, letting grief for the anonymous woman
overcome me for a moment. Then I shoved it deep. I would
need to focus. “Why bother with this elaborate ruse?”
“I’m tired of playing in Vasko’s sandbox. I’ve a new partner.
He’s a simple man and only wants one thing in exchange for
giving me control over the black diamonds and the super mes-
sengers.” Galen gazed at me as if appraising a vein for hidden
gemstones. “Aren’t you going to ask?”
“Who is it?”
“Aren’t you curious what he wants?”
“No.”
“Ah, denial. Doesn’t matter, you’ll find out soon enough.”
Galen pulled a dart from his coverall and approached me.
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“You don’t need that,” I said, thinking fast. “I’m lost down
here. I can’t run away.”
“Nice try, but I’ve a few tasks t
o finish before we go.” He
jabbed the dart into my arm. As my head spun, he dropped
the null shield. I sagged forward and he caught me.
“Believe it or not, you’re better off with me,” he whispered
in my ear.
A pounding headache woke me. I kept my eyes closed,
wishing I was immune to Finn’s…er…Galen’s sleeping drug,
since the magic immunity didn’t do squat against him. Im-
mobilized and lying on my back, I smelled the familiar aroma
of damp minerals. Opening my eyes didn’t change a thing.
Pure blackness surrounded me.
The rough f loor scratched my back as I squirmed, but I
couldn’t move my arms or legs, so he must have secured them.
The crook of my right arm throbbed.
As the drug wore off a strange feeling of being satiated
welled. Alarmed, I confirmed my coverall remained on. What
had Galen done to me while I was unconscious? I yanked and
pulled and tried to free my limbs, but the bands holding them
down didn’t budge.
I waited. The damp air seeped into my skin, numbed my
hands and caused bouts of uncontrolled shivers. Keeping my
thoughts on the positive, I ignored the panic building in my
dry throat.
My muscles stiffened and ached. Galen had a nasty sense
of humor if he thought this was better than… What? Vasko
using me as a test subject? Sounded bad, but what tore my
heart was my family and friends believing I was dead. What
if I never saw them again?
My biggest regret was not apologizing to my mother, not
explaining everything to her and not taking her into my con-
fidence. The reasons seemed petty now. I had wanted to save
her from worry and grief, but the real truth was I wanted to
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Maria V. Snyder
save myself from the hassle of having to explain my actions
to her and dealing with her reaction.
And I had pushed Kade away, too. Running off after my
blood, I only thought of myself and no one else. At least now,
he’d be free to find someone to settle down with. What about
Devlen? Would he continue his rehabilitation? I hoped so.
My thoughts lingered on all the people who would be af-
fected by my so-called demise. Not only my family, but Nic,
Eve, Yelena, Ari, Janco and Valek. The list lengthened when
I added, Tama, Faith, Reema, Teegan, Fisk and Zitora.
With all these people in my life, how could I whine about
feeling empty? What a brat!
After an eternity of blackness, a glow pushed it back and
then burned my eyes. Squinting, I peered at my surroundings.
A small cave with one opening that led to a tunnel which
housed the source of the growing brilliance. Boots crunched
on loose stones, coming closer.
As the footsteps neared, I shut my eyes, pretending to be
unconscious. The light shone on my face, stabbing straight
through my closed eyelids. After a shuff ling scrape, a clink
sounded.
“Opal?” Galen asked. “I know you’re awake.”
“The light’s…too bright,” I said. Speaking took effort and
my voice rasped as if I had gargled rocks. I thought longingly
of the cup of water he had offered me before.
Metal rattled and the glow dimmed. I opened my eyes. The
lantern had been placed as far away as possible in the meager
space. Galen crouched down and lifted my head with one
hand and tipped a canteen full of water to my mouth with
the other. I gulped it down greedily, making a mess and not
caring if it was poisoned or not. The water poured over my
cracked lips and soothed my throat.
He pulled the bottle away and shrugged off his backpack.
With a hand dipping inside the pack, he met my gaze. “I forgot
to ask. How do you feel?”
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“Do you want me to list my complaints? Or should I just
roll it all into one big tale of woe?”
“Sarcasm aside. Do you feel like your old self ?”
A little zing of… What? Fear, hope and panic zipped.
Galen withdrew a package wrapped in leather. With theatri-
cally slow movements, he peeled the layers off. The vibrations
reached me first, humming deep within my chest. He uncov-
ered a glass tiger—one of mine! An inner fire glowed from its
depths and the magic trapped inside sang to me, welcoming
me. My heart squeezed with a moment of joy. Then despair
crushed it. Even though my magic had returned, it wouldn’t
do me a damn bit of good against Galen.
He had watched my face as he sprang his surprise. “You
can thank me later.” Setting the tiger on the ground near my
head, he reached into his pack and drew out a vial filled with
a bright red liquid.
My
blood?
He f lourished it. “This isn’t what you think it is. I already
injected all your blood back into you.” To emphasize his point, he touched the sore spot on the crook of my right arm. “This
blood is mine.” Galen set it next to the glass tiger, then re-
trieved a couple syringes from his pack, lining them up in a
neat row.
“I told you Vasko’s been experimenting with blood magic.
He hasn’t discovered the perfect combination, yet, but his tests have produced a number of strange results. A few of them
caused the complete opposite effect—test subjects who craved
even more power.”
Questions formed, but they stuck to the roof of my mouth
when Galen began rolling up my right sleeve past my elbow.
He picked up one of the syringes and filled it with his blood.
Then did the same for the second syringe.
“When you inject a magician’s blood directly into another
magician’s bloodstream, it doubles the receiver’s power. It also quadruples the consequences.”
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Maria V. Snyder
He tied a rope around my upper arm and rubbed a thumb
over the crook of my arm.
Panic burst from my chest with one word. “No!” I thrashed
and strained, channeling every bit of strength I had into breaking free. Nothing worked.
Galen didn’t have to wait long until exhaustion swept over
me and I stilled. No food equaled no energy. Unable to watch
him, I turned my head.
“You may be interested to note that injecting a magician’s
blood into a regular person does nothing but make them stink
of magic. They remain unable to access the power source.”
A prick of pain then pure fire raced through my arm. An-
other prick sent it rushing across my shoulders. I screamed
when it engulfed my heart and magical energy consumed me
as if I burned alive. Power f lowed through my body, sending
a healing wave. All my aches and pains disappeared. Strength
returned and instinctively I knew I could pick Galen up and
smash him into a wall.
The magic swirled around me, loose and messy and grow-
ing. I realized I had grabbed too much just like Teegan. Modi-
fying my advice to him, I imagined the power as molten glass.
I gathered it and returned it to the cauldron or rathe
r the
blanket of power. The effort left me shaking.
“Impressive,” Galen said. “You have excellent control. You
must have learned something useful at the Keep after all.”
Galen repacked his supplies. “With my blood, you have my
skills as well as your own glass magic. I can move objects, heal and read people’s emotions enough so I know if someone is
lying or not. And there might be a few hybrid powers with
the mix.”
When he unlocked the cuffs holding me down, I puzzled
over why he would give me such power, but after sorting
through his explanation fear bloomed in my chest.
“You mentioned consequences,” I said. “What are they?”
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He shouldered his pack and helped me to my feet. I wobbled
as a dizzy spell threatened.
When I steadied, he grabbed the lantern. “I’ll tell you on
the way.”
I followed him through the mines. We encountered no
one. After we navigated a series of turns, he slowed so I could walk next to him. “There are four side effects to your current
condition. One. You can’t harm me with your magic. Or,
more accurately, our magic.”
Icy fingers stroked the back of my neck as I remembered
Galen had injected his blood into me. A creepy sensation f lowed over me as if a million ants crawled on my skin.
He tapped a finger on his chest. “Every beat of your heart
mixes our blood together.”
I stopped. “I was hardly a threat to you before.”
“Remember when you insisted to Ulrick you wouldn’t be
ruled by an addiction? That you were smart enough to avoid
blood magic?”
“Yes.”
“Well.” He spread his hands wide. “You weren’t smart
enough to avoid it. As for the question of addiction, time
will tell. You feel fine now, but it won’t be long before you’re begging me to give you more power.”
“I—”
“That’s two consequences. Do you want to know the other
two now or later?”
I leaned against the wall. “Now.”
“Brave girl. The third side effect is we’re connected. You
can block your emotions from me by using magic, but each
time you use our magic, our connection grows stronger. Even-
tually, you’ll be unable to resist my orders.” He smiled. “I’m
looking forward to that one. Especially since right now you’re
stronger than most magicians.”
Panic squeezed my insides. I panted with the effort to draw
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