Seconds later, Yoh squatted down in front of her and took her hands in his.
“Look at me,” he said.
She looked up and gazed into Yoh’s dark eyes.
“What you have done, by coming here to Manhattan, is incredibly brave. And it seems like ‘the King of New York’ has given you some space. Something I have never seen before. We’re all here beside you on this, Amanda-san. We will help protect you if you let us. We’re not out of options yet.”
“You promise?” Amanda asked, feeling a bit pathetic.
Yoh shifted onto his knees, which raised his head up level with hers.
“Of course.”
She looked back at him and smiled, and for a moment, they just stayed like that, looking into each other’s eyes. As she looked at him, and he stayed right there, not moving but looking into her soul, holding her hands in her lap, the moment just seemed right.
It happened without her really thinking about it, she moved her head towards his, just a touch, parting her lips as she did so. He responded and leaned in, so she finished it and kissed him.
He felt soft and gentle to Amanda, hesitant almost as if Yoh, like Amanda, wanted to be sure this would be the right thing to do.
The kiss grew into more kisses and slowly he pulled her in, closer to him.
She liked it. It seemed right. Amanda reached over and put her drink on the coffee table, before reaching around his waist and pulling him closer, spreading her legs to pull him tight against her chest.
The movements grew more passionate as they both gave in to their desire.
“I’ve wanted you since I first saw you,” she said as he kissed her neck, his hands moving over her back and along her thighs, pulling her dress up over her hips.
“I know,” he replied. Looking meaningfully at her as he said it.
Amanda giggled at the Star Wars reference. Did he do that on purpose? She didn’t care.
He pulled on her dress, pulling it up over her head. It had been far too long since she’d done this and having this powerful man hungrily kissing and touching her, made her feel so good.
“Let’s take our time. We have all night, after all,” she moaned. She wanted to enjoy this.
- The Purge of New York by Louisa Hunt, Magi Scholar of the Ordo Obscura Coven
Everything changed in New York after the fire at The Crystal Palace. The official story of events that night differs from what actually took place.
Details are sketchy, but the fire certainly seemed to be Magical in nature. Regardless, it’s not the fire itself that we’re concerned about here, but the events after it that led to the Nomad coven known as the Harbingers of Darkness taking control of New York.
At that time, there were several Arcadian Magi living in New York, but following that fire, all the Magi in the city were killed. We don’t know who did it, but they were quick and left no trace of who they were.
The city had been left wide open, and Nymira saw an opportunity. The Harbingers arrived in New York, and with the help of Nymira, defended it from attack.
Lucian, the current leader of the coven, had been a young member of the Harbingers at the time. He soon rose through the ranks as he grew in power, until he came to lead the coven.
But let’s go back and look at the events on the night of the fire before we examine the purge of New York…
The Morning After
Battery Park, New York
The waves in the Upper Bay, where the Hudson and East River met before heading out to sea, undulated gently. The waters were calm and today seemed to be turning into a fairly warm day for mid-May.
Amanda stood in front of the railings, leaning on them, her forearms holding her weight as she looked out over the bay towards Liberty Island. In the distance, the Verrazano Bridge, the gateway to the Atlantic Ocean, stretched across the narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island.
A light wind whipped her hair around her shoulders in waves of red that stood out against the faded blue of her denim jacket. She sipped a coffee that she’d bought from a street vendor moments ago and listened to the water lapping against the side of the dock below her.
The morning sun felt warm against the left side of her face, while the sound of children playing in the park behind her lent a sense of normality to everything.
Everyday life continued all over the city, blissfully unaware of the things in the shadows.
Liz stood next to her leaning against the railing, but facing the city rather than the sea. She also sipped on a coffee, her demeanour introspective and thoughtful.
Amanda stood up straight and leaned her hip against the railing.
“How you holding up?” she asked her apprentice.
Liz blinked and looked up at Amanda. There wasn’t too much difference in height between them, Liz stood just a couple of inches shorter than Amanda.
“I’m good, thanks.”
“Even with everything that’s been going on?”
“I’ll cope,” Liz answered.
Amanda smiled to herself. “I don’t mind telling ye that I’d be lying if I said I was fine. I’m optimistic about the future, to be sure. I think we’ll be okay in time, but right now, I’m scared. Lucian turning up on our doorstep? That scared the shite outta me, so it did.”
Liz sighed. “Yeah, me, too. I mean, how the hell did he find us? That’s what gets me. We were careful, Porting everywhere. We never left through the front door either.”
“Never underestimate a Magi, let alone a Nomad,” Amanda mused.
“Don’t you worry about that. I won’t.”
The pair fell quiet again as Amanda eyed her surroundings, feeling just a little uneasy.
She put her bum to the railing, mimicking Liz, taking in the view of the tall buildings stretching up to the sky. Her apprentice had been through a lot the past couple of years. But she had come back from the brink, built herself back up, and Amanda thought she seemed to be stronger now than she had ever been. Losing your family and friends in the space of a couple of days must be tough. Amanda felt she could relate to it a bit, having lost Stuart to violence and Georgina to illness.
In those early days, after the incident on the train, Amanda had stayed with Liz day and night. When she felt ready to talk, Amanda had been there and they’d talked for hours. Liz had shed many tears as they relived the emotions of the events. Liz swung from the deepest lows of despair to being relatively normal for a while as she tried to deal with the powerful emotions. Liz and her friends being the unwitting victims of horrific violence, her world had been shattered by the machinations of the Magi.
It took months, but slowly, Liz had crawled out of the darkness and eventually started to smile again.
Amanda knew she would never be the same. That grief would always be with her.
She felt immensely proud of Liz for everything she’d done. Liz could quite happily have taken the easy route and ended it all, but instead, with a little support from Amanda and Gentle Water, she had taken the difficult path.
Amanda took her on as her apprentice and had enjoyed the challenge of teaching her Magic. Amanda hadn’t been sure she would be considered old enough to be a mentor, but Gentle Water had encouraged her to do it. Liz had latched onto her, and they were almost attached at the hip for a while. No one else could have gotten near her to even attempt to teach her, so Amanda seemed like the natural choice.
Gentle Water had coached her, taught her how to pass on her knowledge. Liz progressed a lot slower than Amanda had, something for which Amanda felt very grateful. It gave her time to learn the ropes and to see what worked.
Amanda had also been starting to teach Liz the same fighting style that Gentle Water had been teaching her, the Art of the Phoenix. Again, Liz wasn’t quite the natural at it that Amanda appeared to be, but she worked hard and over time, improved greatly.
These days, Liz didn’t talk about her family and friends much. They came up in conversation from time to time, but it didn’t seem to bother her
like it used to, providing the conversation didn’t dwell on them too long.
Amanda wanted to change the subject. In fact, she had something she really wanted to talk to Liz about.
“Sooo, I slept with Yoh last night,” Amanda said, having plucked up enough courage to say it out loud.
Liz froze partway through lifting her drink to her lips and stayed there for a moment. “Oh,” Liz finally said.
Amanda waited, but Liz kept quiet, sipping her hot drink. Amanda couldn’t just leave it at that though.
“Is that it? Just, ‘oh’?”
“What do you want me to say, Mandy? You’re a big girl, I’m sure you can make your own choices in life.”
“Well, yes, I can. But what do ye think?”
“I’m not sure it was the best thing for you to do, sleep with our guide here. But I suppose I can see why you did it. He is a bit gorgeous, isn’t he?” She smiled at Amanda.
“Yeah, he’s grand.”
“Go on, then, you can’t leave me in the dark now. How did it happen? And anyway, I thought you liked Raven?”
“I did. I mean, I do. But, well, I went his room last night. I don’t know. I suppose I needed some comfort, so I did. But he had someone in there with him. A girl. I didn’t see her, but they were having a good giggle about something.”
“Ah, okay, but I thought he was single?”
“Apparently not,” Amanda said flatly. Her emotions on the subject showing through.
“He didn’t bring her down with him this morning. She must have left early.”
“Good thing, too,” she answered with a little too much bite.
“Easy now. I’m sure she’s lovely.”
“I know. I’m just…”
“Jealous?” Liz asked, finishing Amanda sentence.
“Nice,” Amanda commented, only for Liz to give her a look. “Okay, well, yes, I suppose a little bit.”
“Thought so. Well, I think I can guess how you ended up bumping uglies with Yoh, then. Can you say rebound?” Liz commented, goading Amanda.
“Ye little gobshite. What’s got into ye today, little miss feisty?” Amanda teased.
Liz laughed. “Come on, how did you end up in Yoh’s bed?”
“I went into town, visited an old haunt of mine. But there wasn’t much there for me, so I stopped in at The Jade Palace on the way back, and the rest is fairly obvious.”
“The broad strokes, yes, but I want details. So, come on. How was it? Was he any good?”
Amanda looked up, smiled, and gave a mock sigh.
“Actually,” she said, “it was awesome, just what I needed. He wasn’t half bad either, there’s a tiger in there, for sure.”
The pair laughed and giggled as they chatted some more. Amanda enjoying this moment of just being normal girls talking about their lives. She seemed to do this so rarely now, there always seemed to be some crisis or other that needed their attention. But just for a short time, away from the house and the boys. Amanda loved this moment of just being girls talking about boys.
A short time later, the pair of them dropped their empty takeaway cups into the bin before they strolled back to Amanda’s bike.
She’d parked it nearby, and with a small casting, no one noticed it parked illegally. She’d brought the bike over from Paris, where she had customised it after buying it last year. She’d never thought that she’d be able to afford one of these, but the ability to just conjure money from thin air whenever she needed it made life a hell of a lot easier.
She loved her bike. It was a corny thing to say, but it really was her pride and joy. The bike looked like a Honda Fireblade, for the most part, but she’d made a few Magical adjustments and given it a custom paint job of black with colourful red flames.
She straddled the bike and let Liz climb on behind her before she fired up the engine. The motorcycle roared into life as she revved the engine a couple of times, checking that her route looked clear. A moment later, she gunned the engine, and the bike wheelspun away, shooting over to the nearby road where she joined traffic.
She guided the bike around Battery Park before joining West Street and heading north along the west side of Manhattan Island.
The first part of this highway up through the city had buildings along both sides of the road, and they were soon approaching the World Trade Center and the 9/11 memorial.
The colossal building of One World Trade Center towered above them, along with the rest of the monoliths on the southern tip of the island with the highway creating a valley, a fissure between them with a river of cars running along it.
Amanda stayed with the flow of traffic, not speeding or dodging through lanes. Sure, it could be fun to do that, and with her Magic, it also meant it could be done safely and without anyone even noticing, but she didn’t want to do that today.
This morning had been an enjoyable departure from the pressures of life as an Arcadian in a Nomad city, and a leisurely drive through the glass and chrome of the town she loved, felt great.
They soon passed the World Trade Center and a short time later rode beneath a footbridge. After that, the buildings on their left came to an end, and the view across the Hudson to New Jersey opened up.
The trees on the median were a bright green where the sun caught their leaves, while the rippling waves in the river glistened in the sunshine.
An engine rev to her right caught her attention. She looked inland, straight into the eyes of two other bikers on Harleys who were staring right back at her.
A movement behind her caught her eye. She twisted for a better view.
More bikes, making a group of seven in total, all with one or two people on them, and they all seemed to be focused on her.
Then she saw him.
Lucian sat on a huge Harley directly behind her, his eyes focused intently on her. She also saw the tattooed guy who had been with Lucian on her doorstep that morning riding alongside him. For a moment, all she could do was to stare at them.
The sight of Lucian and his gang made her heart race. What was he going to do? There was no Magical Aegis between them now, and she was outnumbered by over three to one.
Did he want to fight? Would she be able to stand against him? Would her Magic be enough to fight him off and protect her friends? She had no idea. She needed distance, she needed to try to get away.
Liz spotted them too and gripped Amanda tighter around the waist.
Amanda patted her hand. ~Don’t worry, Liz, we’ll be fine, let’s get out of here,~ she sent through their Mental Link. As she reassured Liz, she funnelled power to her Aegis, strengthening it and also pushing it out to extend over Liz, as well. She felt Liz taking the opportunity to boost her own Aegis as well but to a lesser power level.
With that, she twisted the handle and accelerated away quickly, the magical enhancements on the bike coming into play.
The bike went off like a rocket, dodging between cars as it quickly picked up speed. Amanda concentrated on the road ahead, not wanting to crash her bike so early on after moving it to her new home. Amanda could Port out of there quickly, but she would be leaving Liz and the bike behind, which was out of the question.
But if she couldn’t get away, maybe someone could come to them. With another working of Magic, she reached out, only for her attempted Link to be abruptly cut off the moment it left her Aegis. She felt Magic fade behind her and knew what it meant. Lucian was countering her Magic.
They were alone.
She held her breath for a moment as fear blossomed within her. For a few seconds, she couldn’t breathe as the reality of the situation dawned on her. She had to deal with this herself, without any help.
But, did she really need help? She felt she like a competent Magi, and she’d been in a few fights now while on missions with Orion and Xain in Paris. Maybe she could stand against a Nomad like Lucian.
Maybe she could handle this.
She concentrated hard and used her Magic again, creating a common effect known as Multi-taski
ng, splitting her mind into two separate but linked parts that could work independently and also cooperatively.
Then, she placed her second set of senses behind her, allowing her to look both forwards and backwards. Her two minds enabled her to keep the two viewpoints separate meaning she didn’t get confused as she dodged between cars.
Shifting all of her senses into the Magical spectrum, she focused on the gang of bikers, who had also sped up. Most of them were Riven, and the only Magical signatures on them were their bikes, and in a few cases, some weapons.
They were also gaining on her. These Magical bikes were apparently a match for her own. She wouldn’t be able to simply outrun them.
She had guessed that it wouldn’t be that simple but was worth a punt. You never knew your luck.
It appeared that only Lucian and his friend were Magi, judging from the way only those two were glowing.
That made things easier. Lucian would be powerful, though. You don’t get to lead a Nomad coven if you can’t defend yourself. His friend was another matter. She had no idea how powerful he might be.
Both the Nomads had Aegises in place. They were prepared for this.
But what were they going to do? Kill them? Make an example of them?
She didn’t want to find out.
As she sped down the highway, the gang gained on her, dodging around cars who sounded their horns in anger at the crazy biker gang. Amanda tried to keep ahead of them, but the gang were more reckless.
She considered her options again. She couldn’t be too obvious with her Magic in such a public place, and she had no desire to cause innocent civilians to die in a pile-up. So, she bided her time and waited to see what they would do, preparing herself for a fight.
She didn’t have long to wait.
Moments later, one of the bikes to her right swerved in and slammed into the side of her bike. It wobbled but stayed upright as her Aegis took the brunt of the attack and fizzed.
The gang’s bikes were filled with Essentia, and partially discharged when they hit her Aegis, but it had weakened her Aegis.
Then another biker hit from the other side. Liz yelped at each collision, holding Amanda tightly and jumping every time. They were unhurt, her Aegis holding for the time being, but this couldn’t continue.
Magi Legend Page 27