by Sadie Moss
Finally, the white film over her eyes faded, and she blinked.
“Well, your pattern of magic is very similar. I would say you’re almost certainly blood relatives.”
“Ah. Praise the gods,” Beatrice breathed.
“Although,” the reader added, turning to me, “yours is quite a bit stronger, and a bit… strange.” Her gaze flicked to Jae, and I wondered if she could sense the connection between us like Asprix had. Could she also tell my magic was attached to three other people?
I’d been nervous about sitting down with the Representatives’ reader, afraid she’d somehow be able to see right down into my soul and find out all the truths I was trying to keep hidden. But of course, that was beyond her power. Readers could interpret the shape and feel of magic, but they couldn’t decipher thoughts.
“Well.” Rain cleared his throat. “That answers that. Welcome to Denver, Ms. Lockwood.” His voice twisted on the last word, as if it pained him to say it.
Beatrice turned in her seat, her gray eyes bright as she regarded me. “You said you’re new to Denver?”
I nodded, keeping my gaze steady.
Guess that’s the story we’re going with.
“Then you must come live with me! Goodness, I have a house that’s too big for an army, let alone one person. And there’s so much I need to know. Where did you…? How did you…?” She stopped and patted at her flushed cheeks, tears glistening in her eyes again. “Darling Lana. We’ve lost so much time. I don’t know what happened to you, but I want to find out everything. Sweet girl, I’ve missed you so much.”
A lump rose in my throat, and I had the strangest urge to reach over and hug her. Although I’d made my own family in the Wyoming encampment—Margie and Corin had been all I needed—here was a woman who was my actual flesh and blood.
But she was Gifted.
A Representative.
I swallowed, the lump in my throat turning to shards of glass. I didn’t know this woman at all. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
“Killer?” Fenris murmured softly in my ear, his tone tender. “We updated Christine on what’s happening. She wants you to accept your grandmother’s offer. We have a chance to infiltrate the highest levels of government, and we have to take it.”
His deep voice soothed my racing heart, even as his words sent my mind spinning.
Christine was right. All we’d intended to do on this mission was keep the Resistance’s location safe, but this strange new development was a gift to the entire rebellion. We could anticipate the Representatives’ moves against us, sew discord in their ranks, and lay the groundwork for an uprising.
If I could play my part.
Beatrice watched me with anxious eyes, hanging onto my answer like her life depended on it.
I took a deep breath, reaching up to clasp Jae’s hand on my shoulder.
“Thank you, Beatrice. I’d love that.”
Chapter 27
The peeling paint, stained wood floor, and grungy walls of my apartment had never looked better. The ancient, buzzing fridge had never seemed more precious. Even my ghost “roommate” who kept the TV on too loud at all hours of the day and night suddenly seemed like the best companion a girl could have.
I never would’ve thought I’d miss this place when I finally got a chance to leave, but now I found myself lingering, unable to say goodbye to the shitty apartment that had been my tiny haven in the Outskirts for the past eight years.
“You’re sure that’s all you want to bring?” Fen asked again, eyeing the small worn bag I’d packed with the essentials—clothes, my favorite book, and every weapon I owned.
“Yeah. Beatrice thinks I just moved here, so it wouldn’t make sense for me to have more stuff than this. Besides, what am I gonna do? Bring my furniture? My mugs? A spatula? I’m sure anything I own, she has a better, fancier version.”
I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice. I understood the reasoning behind Christine’s decision to send me into the Capital undercover, but that didn’t mean I was excited about it. It was one thing to find out I had magical abilities, but something else entirely to be forced to adopt the lifestyle of the Gifted. I could almost feel the corruption, entitlement, and bigotry coating me like a slimy film, and I hadn’t even gotten to Beatrice’s mansion yet.
Despite their sentimental value, I’d get by just fine without my crappy kitchen supplies and beat up furnishings. The only thing I truly regretted leaving behind was my prize bookshelf full of books. But….
I turned to Akio, who lounged against the wall by the bedroom door. Less-than-shockingly, the incubus had somehow forgotten to put a shirt on again this morning. The twisted, intricate designs of black ink covering his sculpted arms and chest pulled my gaze, but I managed to keep my eyes focused on his face.
“Hey, Akio… um, do you want my books? You had so many before your house got wrecked. I know my collection isn’t as big as yours was, but it’s a start. You can add to it.”
He blinked, pushing away from the wall in a fluid movement. The expression on his face was different than any I’d ever seen him wear. He almost looked… moved.
Akio stalked toward me like a cat, his eyes fixed on mine. My heart pounded faster with every step he took, the intensity of his gaze rooting me to the spot. For some reason, my fight-or-flight instinct kicked in. The demon put me so off balance, the warring attraction and antipathy between us making it hard to feel certain of anything in his presence.
When he reached me, his large hand swept around the back of my neck, cradling my head.
“I’d be honored, kitten. Thank you.”
Akio bent his head to press a kiss to my cheek. The contact of his skin against mine, the warmth of his breath tickling my ear, and the softness of his lips sent a spark of fire shooting through my body. He lingered there for a moment, and I locked my knees, trying not to reveal how much he affected me.
When he finally drew back, his pupils were dilated, making his eyes look even darker and more enigmatic than usual. He strolled over to my bookshelf, running a finger over the spines of the books. Somehow, that small gesture made me shiver, as if it was my skin he caressed instead of the paper bindings.
“This is an excellent collection. You have good taste,” he murmured, and my chest swelled. “Although there is room for improvement.”
I rolled my eyes, almost grateful for his snarky comment. Annoyance helped dispel the unsettling dreamy feelings his incubus charm gave me.
“We should get going soon,” Jae said, glancing around the room. He had offered to drive me to Beatrice’s home, since it would hardly do for me to arrive in my beat up green Honda. It wouldn’t be proper.
Suppressing a grimace, I nodded, hefting my bag over my shoulder. I only held it there for two seconds before Corin snatched it from my grip to carry it for me. I would’ve argued, but I knew he needed to do something to feel useful. The upcoming separation was wearing on all of us, Corin most of all.
After Jae and I had finally escaped the People’s Palace, we’d rendezvoused with Akio and Fen near a park a few blocks from the palace grounds. We’d waited nervously for several hours, and I’d been about ready to storm the palace by force when Corin finally appeared. Maeve, the Resistance member working in the kitchens, had been able to sneak him out.
That was two days ago, and we’d spent the intervening time at my apartment. We didn’t dare go back to the Resistance headquarters; we’d just secured the location by destroying the tracking spell and didn’t want to risk another exposure. But Christine had been in touch by phone, and we’d devoted many hours to discussing my undercover operation. The Resistance leader seemed to have decided to trust me for now. Or at least, to use me, which worked out pretty much the same in the end.
“I can’t believe you’re leaving,” Ivy said sadly, her translucent features crumpling in a girlish pout. Part of me wondered if she’d even remember I was gone once her favorite TV show came on, but I kept that to myself.
> “Yeah, me neither.” I cleared my throat. “I’ll miss you, Ivy.”
“You doing okay, killer?” Fenris ran his hand down my arm, lacing his fingers with mine and raising our joined hands to his lips.
I nodded, not trusting my voice. When I was sure I could speak without crying, I said, “You guys know this doesn’t count as leaving you, right? I’m only going because Christine wants me to, because the Resistance needs me to. I don’t want to go.”
“We know, Lana.” Jae squeezed my shoulder.
“And we’ll be with you, as much as we can be. You’ve got a phone and your communication charm. If you need anything, say the word and we’ll be there.” Corin’s eyes blazed with determination and worry.
“Thanks, guys. I’ll try to reserve my emergency calls for actual emergencies and not just ‘I hate this so much; get me the fuck out of here’ freak-outs.”
“Hey,” Corin interjected seriously. “Anything.”
My heart warmed, and I rubbed the back of my neck. “I just don’t know what to expect. I can’t figure Beatrice out. She’s Gifted, and one of the highest-ranking members of the government, apparently. But she seems so… sweet.” I shot Corin a glance. “She reminds me of Margie a little bit, actually.”
Saying that out loud almost felt like a betrayal of the gentle, intelligent woman who had served as a stand-in mother to me and Corin in our younger years, and I was relieved when Corin nodded.
“Yeah, same here.”
“But how can she be, if she lives and abides by this system? There’s nothing sweet about how the Gifted treat the Blighted—or even the Touched, for that matter.” I shifted my gaze to Fen, who raised his eyebrows in agreement and kissed my hand again, nipping the skin with his teeth this time. A flush crept up my cheeks, but I didn’t pull my hand away.
“I don’t know, Lana.” Corin tipped his head, his blue eyes warm. “But that’s why you’re going. To get answers.”
I squared my shoulders. “You’re right. I can do this. I have to.” I turned to Jae. “Ready whenever you are.”
Only one person was needed to drive me to the Capital, but each of my four had insisted on coming. After I locked the apartment door and solemnly handed the keys to Corin, we all trooped downstairs to Jae’s car. Without even asking, I clambered into the middle seat. It might have felt awkward that first day we met, but today, the feel of being pressed between Akio and Fenris was exactly the kind of grounding I needed.
We drove in silence, passing through the wide gate in the wall around the Capital. As the gate swung shut behind us, I twisted in my seat, a sudden burst of panic flaring at the feeling that I might never see the Outskirts again.
Fenris kissed my hair, burying his nose in my locks and inhaling my scent. The sensation tickled my scalp, and I squirmed slightly.
“You’ve got this, killer.”
His whispered words buoyed my spirits—until Jae pulled to a stop outside a lavish, gated stone mansion. The gate swung open as we approached, and he pulled through, stopping at the entrance to the circular drive. I tried not to gape at the huge fountain in the middle, where sunlight glittered on large drops of water enchanted to leap from the pool in the shape of fish.
“Holy gods,” Corin breathed, a combination of awe and disgust in his voice. Beatrice hadn’t been kidding. She could put up a small army in that house.
That mansion.
That castle.
Three stories tall and sprawling wide into separate wings, it was impeccably kept, the pale stone unnaturally spotless. Grand white columns rose high in front of the dark cherry wood door. The hedges were neatly trimmed, and glittering fairy lights sparkled in the trees.
I was supposed to live here?
“We can’t stay. Until we know more about your grandmother, it’s better she doesn’t know too much about us,” Jae said, pulling my attention back to the interior of the car.
“I know. Stay safe, okay?”
“You too. Stay in contact. Please.” His voice was rough.
Fenris reluctantly got out and turned to help me exit the car. Corin handed me my bag before Fen slipped back inside.
For a moment, I stood staring through the windows into the sleek silver car, which seemed to hold all the pieces of my heart. Jae seemed similarly frozen, sitting stock-still with his hand on the wheel as he, Corin, Akio, and Fen gazed at me.
Then he blinked, breaking the spell, and the car rolled slowly around the drive and through the gate. It swung shut behind them, and I hefted my bag higher on my shoulder, taking a deep breath as the soft plop, plop of water droplets plunking into the fountain filled the sudden silence.
The mansion loomed before me, perfectly framed by the white-capped mountains rising behind it.
Beautiful.
And terrifying.
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Game of Lies
Magic Awakened #2
Chapter 1
Gray eyes.
Eyes so similar to my own they made my heart clench. Eyes like those of the woman who called herself my grandmother.
But these eyes belonged to a man. He was tall, so much taller than me that he had to kneel to look me in the face. Or maybe it was just because I was so short. I felt very, very small. The world loomed high around me, a threatening place only grownups knew how to navigate. I was too little for that. I needed my parents to protect me.
The man—my father—cradled my face, his large hands engulfing my cheeks. He kissed away my tears, but there were tears on his cheeks too, and no one was kissing those away. Who would take care of him? I didn’t know how. I didn’t even know what was wrong.
But something was very wrong.
Danger and fear lay heavy in the air, and though my father’s voice was steady as ever, I could feel the tremor in his fingertips against the side of my head.
“I love you, Lana.”
He’d said those words to me a thousand times before, but today they didn’t sound right. They didn’t sound like “I love you.” They sounded like “goodbye.”
“Daddy, no!”
I grabbed his large wrists with my tiny hands, trying to… do what? What could these little hands do? The world was too big for me, and although I wanted to fight off whatever was scaring my father, I didn’t know how. I wanted to promise him it would all be okay, like he always told me. But this time he hadn’t uttered those words, and I knew if I said them to him, it would make me a liar.
At a base, instinctual level, like a rabbit frozen and alert on the plains, I understood something terrible was coming.
My father tugged his wrists from my grip, so gently yet so easily my stomach burned with frustration. He took one of my small hands and pressed something into it.
A ring. Copper and tungsten, with numbers engraved on the inside.
The ring he’d always worn on his pinky finger, the one he told me he had made to celebrate my birth. Why was he giving it to me now?
“No, Daddy! I don’t want it!”
“Keep it with you, Lana. Always.”
His gray irises churned like storm clouds heavy with rain as his hands slipped away from my clenched fist. I peeled my fingers open slowly, revealing the ring pressed against my sweaty palm. I didn’t want this. It was too big for any of my little fingers.
I looked up to give it back to my father, to make him take it back.
But he was gone.
The world blurred around me, fading into hazy smoke. I spun in a circle, but there was no sign of my father anywhere.
“Daaaddy!”
The surrounding fog caught my words and ate them, gobbling them up so not even an echo remained. He’d never hear me. He’d never see me.
I would never see him again.
My chest heaving with uneven, gasping breaths, I lo
oked back down at the ring in my palm—the thing my father had given me as if this little piece of metal could replace his love, strength, and protection.
Where the copper and tungsten met, the ring began to glow. Like the sunrise breaking over the horizon, sharp beams of light emanated from it, shining brighter and brighter. I raised my other hand to cover my eyes—
And the world exploded into white light.
I lurched up in bed with a gasp, eyes wide.
Then I almost choked on my tongue.
My body tensed, my hands reaching out to grip the sheets like they were a lifeline. The bed—hell, all the furniture in the room—was floating. Everything hovered about ten feet above the floor, and it was a good thing Beatrice’s fancy-ass house had high ceilings, or I’d have smashed my head against the ceiling when I sat up so fast.
As I shook off the fog of sleep and fully absorbed my situation, the furniture began to wobble precipitously, my roiling emotions affecting the magic inside me.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
I tried to take a deep breath, but it was like sucking oxygen through a tiny straw. My lungs heaved with the effort as a weight seemed to press against my chest.
The enormous bed tilted sideways, and I scrabbled for a better hold, clinging to the headboard with sweaty hands. A ten-foot drop wouldn’t kill me, but falling from that height and then being crushed by a king-sized bed might.
Closing my eyes, I tried to ignore the feel of the bed pitching and rolling beneath me like a ship on an angry sea. I directed my energy inward, reaching for the flame of magic that burned at my core. It flickered wildly, agitated. The power spread out in tendrils from my body, wrapping around the objects in the room. My control on it felt tenuous, as if at any moment the magic would either drop all the furniture or fling it around the room like a child throwing a tantrum.
Godsdamn it. Please don’t do that.
