Love Potion: A Valentine's Day Charity Anthology

by Graceley Knox

  I started scouting. Within a few minutes, I’d memorized the park’s layout, identified the best points of entry and escape, and noted several pitfalls I didn’t want to stumble into—poor terrain, exposed ground, places an opponent could corner me. The big problem was hiding spots.

  I surveyed the park one more time, then returned to Izzah. “The best time to strike will be after he begins working with the nexus.”

  She nodded somberly.

  “No hiding spot is large enough for both of us, so we’ll separate. I’ll wait there”—I pointed to a large spruce with drooping branches that brushed the ground, twenty feet from the nexus—“and you can hide in the gazebo on the other side of the bridge.”

  “Isn’t that a bit far?”

  “The only spot closer is under the footbridge.” I canted my head. “I assume you don’t want to go back into the water.”

  She grumbled under her breath. “Fine, I’ll hide in the gazebo. Then what?”

  “We stay hidden until the nexus lights up. When it does, create a splash in the water. He’ll turn to look, and I’ll attack him from behind. If he reflects my lightning, it won’t slow me down this time.”

  I walked her over to the gazebo and pointed out the most concealed point behind its short walls. We went over a few contingencies, which she accepted without question.

  “Are you armed?” I asked, scanning her from head to toe.

  She slipped her hands under the back of her jacket and withdrew two six-inch steel rods.

  I frowned disapprovingly. “Wands? Aren’t you a combat mage?”

  “I—I’m still learning to use weapons instead, so I brought these. I’m very good with them, even if they aren’t blades.”

  Unconvinced, I checked my watch. 12:07 a.m. “I need to get into position.”

  I hurried across the bridge and into my hiding spot in the spruce branches. Behind a curtain of green needles, I crouched on my haunches and set in to wait.

  I’d expected him to be here already. Were we wrong? Had Icarus chosen a different nexus? Izzah was certain this was the most powerful earth nexus in the city, but maybe he’d decided it was too far from Douglas Island and didn’t want to miss his window to charge the spell.

  My thoughts wandered to the thief’s mysterious winged sandals. Sorcery was nearly limitless in its applications, but I’d never heard of an artifact like that. And the reflection spell he’d used against my lightning was top-notch quality. Considering Icarus’s reputation and the brevity of our encounter, I doubted I’d seen all the tricks in his bag.

  Across the pond, the gazebo was still and silent, but worry churned in my gut. All mages used tools to command and hone their elemental magic, but combat mages trained with weapons. Izzah’s wands told me all I needed to know about her lack of martial training, and I questioned my decision to include her in the ambush. I should’ve placed her in the farthest corner, out of the line of fire.

  Too late to change the plan now. My watch read 12:14 a.m. Less than a minute to go. I surveyed the park from one end to the other—and started hard.

  A cloaked man stood in front of the nexus.

  I sucked in a silent breath. How had I missed his approach? Had I looked the wrong way for too long? Had I blinked at the wrong moment?

  Face hidden in his deep hood, Icarus flipped his cloak open to free one hand, revealing the long sword sheathed at his hip. He placed his palm on the stone pagoda and his low murmur reached my ears. He’d begun an incantation.

  Soft amber light rippled out of the tiers of the pagoda. Icarus extended the small object in his other hand into the light, and the amber glow eddied toward the artifact like smoke drawn into a vacuum.

  Water splashed in the pond.

  As Icarus jolted toward the sound, I launched out of my spot. Knives bristled in my hands, and I hurled three in quick succession from less than twenty feet away.

  With unbelievable reflexes—or a lot of luck—Icarus ducked behind the pagoda. My knives glanced off the stone. Pointing a fourth blade, I unleashed lightning.

  The bolt leaped from my blade toward the hiding thief, but light flared off the nexus. My electricity burst apart, thrown off course by the nexus’s elemental power. Growling, I aimed at the ground where my three knives had fallen.

  I cast another bolt. It hit one knife, leaped to the second, then jumped for the third—and caught Icarus in the ankles.

  With a muffled cry, he crumpled. I charged toward him.

  Faster than I expected, he scrambled onto his feet and dropped a small object on top of the nexus. As I closed in, he reached for his sword, but I was faster. I flung my fist at his face.

  His arm shot up, blocking my strike. I jabbed with my other fist and he blocked me again. Twisting away, I left a deliberate opening in my guard and he took it, his punch flashing toward my ribs. I slid aside and grabbed for his wrist—but his arm was already retreating and my fingers closed on air.

  I started martial arts when I was five. For the twelve years that followed, my primary goal in life had been to hone my body and magic into a weapon. These days, I trained like a sane, balanced human who enjoyed the occasional recreational activity, but I was still an expert surpassed only by the rare few who could claim longer hours in the dojo.

  It took three more blocked strikes and a kick that missed entirely for me to realize I was outmatched. He wasn’t better than me, but he was faster. Too fast. Inhumanly fast.

  I gave ground as he pressed his advantage, his punches flying like strikes from a snake. I weaved and dodged, then darted in and slapped my hand against his chest. Under the fabric of his cloak, his torso felt as hard as steel.

  Electricity burst from my hand. Crackling white light blazed over him and his knees buckled. As he fell, he took a swing at me and I threw my arm up to block.

  His punch connected with my arm—and hurled me off my feet.

  I crashed down on my back, pain blazing through my forearm. The force of that hit—too much for a man that size. Gasping, I rolled away before he could kick me.

  Water splashed again. A wave rose out of the pond and slammed into Icarus’s back. He stumbled forward.

  Izzah stood on the footbridge, wands twirling in her hands. Baseball-sized spheres of liquid coalesced on the pond’s surface and whipped at Icarus. He ducked and two spheres struck the ground, gouging holes in the turf.

  I swung to my feet. Icarus whirled away from me impossibly fast, his deep voice rumbling a swift incantation. He sprang into the air, and his flapping cloak revealed the golden sandals on his feet, blurred wings at each ankle lifting him upward. I thrust my hand out and electricity surged down my arm.

  Izzah pointed her wands at Icarus. Water shot toward him in spiraling tentacles.

  With sharp panic, I halted my unleashing. The power ricocheted painfully back down my arm, but I couldn’t release it—if I hit Icarus at the same time she did, the current would travel through the water and electrify the pond, the wet ground, the bridge, and Izzah.

  Icarus dove beneath the water tentacles and they slammed together in a burst of liquid. He swooped down and stopped in midair, six feet above the footbridge. Izzah cast her wands skyward and the pond surged up on either side of him like a gaping maw about to close.

  “Egeirai, blepson eis ton lithon.”

  Icarus’s deep voice cut through the roar of water—and the liquid splashed harmlessly back into the pond. Izzah stood with her wands extended, her expression locked in a surprised gasp.

  It took me two horrible seconds to realize she wasn’t hesitating from shock. Pale dust formed over her body, graying out her colors. Her skin, her hair, her clothes—it had all taken on the appearance of stone.

  “Izzah!” Her name jumped out of my throat in a hoarse, shouted denial.

  Icarus spun toward me as lightning blasted down my arm. It exploded out of my hand and snapped across the space between me and the mythic in a blinding instant.

  In that same instant, the round shield he
held flashed toward me—and in the polished metal, I saw my face, teeth bared, dark eyes blazing, black hair windswept.

  At the sight of my reflection, unnatural cold swept through me from head to toe. My limbs locked, muscles paralyzed and rigid. As my wild blast of lightning struck the hovering thief, my mind plunged into the same lifeless cold as my body.

  Chapter 9

  I could hear my name. The voice called for me over and over.

  I could feel a touch on my face. Warm hands urgently brushed my hair, my cheeks, my jaw.

  My mind snapped back to awareness, and I had a second to panic about my paralyzed body and fogged vision before the magic broke. I pitched forward, crashed into a body, and took us both down.

  Izzah wheezed as I landed on her, but she managed a strangled, “Kai!” and threw her arms around my neck. My hands found the cold grass and I pushed up, lifting her too. I sat back and she released me, scanning my face with tears standing in her eyes.

  “You’re alive!” she said weakly. “I thought you—I’d woken up so I figured you would too, but I wasn’t sure and—and—”

  She broke off, gulping. I skimmed her from head to toe, relieved to see no sign of dusty stone texture on her rich russet skin or raven hair. Stretching my hands out, I checked that I’d also lost all resemblance to a statue.

  My watch glowed with blue numbers. 2:08 a.m.

  “No!” I said hoarsely. “We were frozen for almost two hours?”

  Izzah sucked in a horrified breath. “We missed it. The fire nexus—we already missed it!”

  Scrambling to my feet, I scoured the park. The earth nexus was dull and mundane, the artifact gone from its top, and there was no sign of Icarus. I was sure I’d hit him with my lightning, but it either hadn’t knocked him out or he’d recovered and fled.

  My hand flew to my earpiece and I switched it on. “Aaron?”

  A quiet beep, then Aaron’s voice erupted. “Where the hell have you been?”

  “I was trapped in a spell,” I answered tersely. “Where are—”

  “Wait,” Aaron interrupted. “Were you turned to stone?”

  Shock cut through my urgency. “Yes—how did you know?”

  Izzah watched anxiously as I listened to Aaron’s reply.

  “Because I’m standing beside six mage statues,” he growled. “When you stopped answering, we didn’t know if you were occupied, injured, or dead—but since you didn’t bother to tell us where you were going, Ezra and I went ahead to the fire nexus.”

  “You did?” By the mention of statues, I was guessing they’d had no more luck than me in defeating Icarus. “Where’s the nexus?”

  “Turns out the only good one is at the Pandora Knights guild. I know half the guys here, so I alerted them and we staked out the nexus.”

  “And Icarus came.”

  “Damn right he did. Turned half the mages to stone in twenty seconds, so I called the retreat. I didn’t know if he was killing them or what.” He sighed in relief. “But if you’ve recovered, then we know it’ll wear off.”

  “In about two hours.” I looked at Izzah. “The air nexus is the final one, isn’t it?”

  “And our last chance to stop him,” she confirmed anxiously. “If we don’t, and the Andromedis shower happens as predicted, he’ll unlock the Andromeda Spell and gain some form of invincibility.”

  “Where is the best air nexus?”

  She hesitated. “Some sorcerers say the Atkinson Lighthouse in West Vancouver. Others say the Shangri-La tower in downtown Vancouver.”

  I’d hoped to reunite with Aaron and Ezra for our final confrontation with Icarus, but if there were two equally viable nexuses, we had to cover both.

  I rubbed a hand over my hair, my mind spinning through all the possibilities. “Which one do you think he’ll go to?”

  “I’m not sure.” She bit her lower lip. “I don’t know.”

  “You haven’t been wrong yet,” I said softly. “What’s your best guess?”

  She twisted her hands in her lap. “The lighthouse is farther, but he has lots of time to get there. And it’s secluded. The tower is in the middle of downtown, and the nexus is on a private terrace. It would be difficult to reach.”

  “So,” I said, “you think he’ll go to the tower.”

  Surprise brushed across her features. “But I was just explaining why the lighthouse is the more logical choice.”

  “Which you wouldn’t have bothered to do if you thought he was going there. You’d have just said the lighthouse.”

  She blinked in bemusement.

  “Aaron,” I said, “you and Ezra go to the lighthouse. We’ll head for the tower.”

  “Are you sure, Kai?” Aaron asked warily. “This guy is too powerful to take on alone.”

  My gaze met Izzah’s, her eyes flashing with a mixture of apprehension, excitement, and burning determination.

  “I’m not going alone.”

  In the heart of downtown Vancouver, the Shangri-La tower was the tallest building in sight. The glass monstrosity reared above the other skyscrapers, a nose-bleed-inducing sixty-one stories. Its first fifteen floors were a hotel, and the remaining forty-six were luxury condominiums.

  I parked half a block away in a back alley. Seeing as I was starting the motorcycle with an electric spark instead of a key, I couldn’t drop it off with the valet. As Izzah and I walked toward the sleek tower, I pulled off my vest, bundled it up inside out, and handed it to her. Understanding that it would be less conspicuous with her, she tucked it under her arm like a spare jacket or purse. I peeled off my gloves and stuffed them in my pockets.

  The streets were far from abandoned—cars zoomed by, their headlights dazzling my vision, and purveyors of the downtown nightlife waltzed along the sidewalks. I checked my watch. We had one hour to reach the top floor and figure out how to defeat Icarus before he could use the nexus—and we had another complication to add to the mix.

  Aaron had delivered a final warning before setting off for the lighthouse. “Icarus can make himself invisible,” he’d said grimly. “It isn’t lumina magic—it’s sorcery of some kind. It’s how he got into a room with a dozen mages and took out half of us before we could defend ourselves.”

  Invisibility also explained how Icarus had slipped past security at the collector’s house and stolen the Andromeda Spell, and how he’d appeared out of nowhere in the Nitobe garden.

  I linked my arm with Izzah’s as we walked through the unassuming glass doors of the Shangri-La tower.

  The hotel lobby cast aside all pretenses of modesty. Exterior walls of steel and glass swept up three stories to the ceiling, from which hung shimmering crystal chandeliers. Polished white marble covered the floor and interior walls, but dark, blocky furniture—clusters of deep chairs and inviting sofas, low tables, and sideboards with soft-shaded lamps—offset the sharp corners and bright openness. Wooden screens, each painted with Asian-style landscapes, offered privacy to the sitting areas. Large potted plants with tropical flavors added splashes of color.

  Izzah and I walked up to the sleek front desk. The blond and curvaceous young woman behind it looked me over curiously. After all our fun tonight, I looked too shabby for her usual clientele, but she wasn’t suspicious—yet. Izzah and I had planned to act like a couple, but I made a swift change of plans.

  Slipping my arm from Izzah’s, I leaned against the desk and smiled warmly at the clerk. “Good evening. Or rather—good night?”

  The girl giggled and blushed at the intensity of my attention.

  Maintaining eye contact, I subtly deepened my voice. “I was hoping you could help me. We were at the lounge earlier this evening, and we’ve discovered that my friend”—I tilted my head toward Izzah—“lost her wallet.”

  The clerk nodded eagerly.

  I leaned closer and murmured, “She’s convinced a woman in the bathroom stole it, but … you know how it usually goes. She’ll find it under the bed tomorrow.” My smile invited the clerk in on the joke.
r />   Beside me, Izzah stiffened. The clerk had eyes only for me.

  I glanced down as though hesitating, then looked up at her through my eyelashes. I had no idea why that look caused women to melt, but I’d used it to great effect several times. “Could we trouble your security person to go over the surveillance footage with us?”

  My up-through-the-eyelashes look scored another point as the clerk blushed more deeply. “Let me make a quick call. I’ll have someone come down to help you.”

  She sashayed into the back room. As soon as she closed the door, the smile dropped off my face and I straightened.

  “I don’t know what surprises me more,” Izzah said coldly, her arms folded as she studied me. “That you can act that sweet and flirtatious, or that every moment of that popinjay display was insincere.”

  “Is flirting ever sincere?” I asked dryly.

  Her mouth thinned, my answer offending her further. I faced her, my jaw tight with displeasure. We’d finally found a comfortable camaraderie with each other and now she was picking a fight with me?

  The door behind the desk opened and the clerk stepped out, her smile coy and two buttons of her prim blouse undone to reveal more skin. “Our head of security will be here in a moment to help you. Also”—she slipped a piece of paper across the desk—“this is for you.”

  “Thank you,” I murmured, taking the paper and stuffing it into my pocket without looking at it. Touching Izzah’s elbow, I drew her several steps away so the clerk couldn’t easily engage me in conversation. “What’s the problem?”

  “Nothing,” she insisted despite her obvious ill-temper. “What’s on that paper?”

  “The woman’s phone number.”

  “What? How do you know? You didn’t look at it.”

  I shrugged. “It’s always a phone number.”

  Izzah made a disgusted noise as though I’d confirmed how horribly conceited I was. Before I could retort, a middle-aged man in a security uniform rounded the corner, heading toward us. I swiftly analyzed him, homing in on the keychain clipped to his belt beside a walkie-talkie.