by T. S. Snow
I knew she was going to hang up if I didn’t act fast.
“No. Listen, Blair, I need a favor...”
31
Charisma
I butt dialed Bastille.
I don’t know how I did it, when, or even if he heard anything, I was too scared to look at the call’s log. But there had definitely been a call made by me. To him.
He knew I was alive.
Granted, he’d sort of figured out I was alive days ago, based on the text I’d received, but I had been doing a good job of being good. I had obeyed Christian! I hadn’t initiated any contact with anyone… on purpose.
Butt dialing someone didn’t count as initiating contact, though, did it?
Goddess, I hoped not.
I didn’t want to get stuck on IT duty for the rest of my life. I was too much of an introvert to talk to people and try to help them.
Besides, I knew for a fact I wasn’t allowed to tell dumb people to try turning their brains off and on again to see if that would work.
It happened one time. I’d rather not talk about it.
In my defense, I had been left unsupervised and they were annoying me while I was in the middle of something.
A taco. I’d been eating a taco.
Like I said, not my greatest moment.
The point was, I hadn’t done it on purpose so it didn’t count, right? I could just pretend it never happened! Yes, that would absolutely work.
No harm, no foul.
But since he already knew, couldn’t I… text him?
I could text him, right? Talk to him? Catch up? Tell him how much I missed kicking his noob ass?
Nooo, bad Charisma. Remember Christian’s threat.
Right. Must avoid IT duty at all costs.
I’d make it up to Bast later. Once I was free and “alive” again.
Maybe I could let him win a round or two of something.
Solid plan.
Blair’s phone started ringing, startling me so much, my own phone slipped from my hand.
Motherfucker!
I dove after it, praying I hadn’t cracked the screen already. But hey, it had been three whole days since I’d had it, this was a new record for me. I once dropped the phone while walking out of the store.
It hadn’t been a good day.
Neither was this one, honestly. The whole month had been crap. I wished I could cancel it or something. Skip forward, like I did the intros to some of the games I played.
What? The story was good, but sometimes a girl just wanted to shoot some monsters.
Thankfully, the screen wasn’t even cracked, a sign the case Blaze had gotten to go with it was a good one. Either that, or the gods of technology were smiling upon me.
And no, there were no actual technology gods, I didn’t think. Even though magekind believed in more than one—each representing the origin of each of the powers from all seven families—we believed the Goddess to be the higher authority, hence why most mages worshipped her. Sucked to be the minor gods, if you asked me. They got almost no credit and all of the work. But hey, girl power. The Goddess was the original god, the one who had given birth to all seven, and then given them the responsibility of watching over our kind. She’d forged them from parts of her—or so the story went.
Humans had their own religions, their own reason to justify what we knew had been nothing more than magic, and we had ours.
It worked.
Blair made a weird screeching sound in the hallway where she’d gone to after the confrontation we’d all had in the living room, while Andres and I had come to the kitchen. I turned to look at her from my perch at the kitchen counter, curiosity piqued. She said something about it costing whoever was on the other side of the line, but her words totally went against the big ass smirk on her face. Her dark eyes were super amused, like they got whenever she caught me doing something weird or making a fool of myself.
I wondered who was on the other side of the line. She’d called him “bro”, but did she reserve that honorific to family or did she use it for, like, close friends? Guy friends.
Ohh, maybe she had a best friend crush like I did on Bast. Although, Blair did not strike me as someone who would not act on a crush. Or accept being friendzoned. I was pretty sure no guy would ever even consider friendzoning her either. I mean, come on. She was so hot, even I had a minor platonic crush on her.
Instead of creeping out on Blair and risking getting caught, I turned to Andres, who was in the kitchen, cooking something.
Yes. He was hot. He had dimples. And he knew how to cook.
He probably had a super tiny dick, because if not, the universe just wasn’t playing fair. Or maybe he had a box in his room full of underwear from all the women he slept with. Or something even creepier. Maybe a used sex toy collection.
Ewww. Gross.
Sometimes even I was scared by the depths of my imagination’s depravity.
Andres saw me coming and turned my way, raising an eyebrow in question while flashing me a side of dimples.
“So, does Blair have another brother? Other than you, I mean,” I whispered the question, not wanting to risk her overhearing it.
What? Blair looked like she’d be anti-gossip when she was the subject, and I was nosy.
Andres stopped stirring the pan— which was smelling more delicious than freshly baked bread—and looked at me.
“Yes, on her mother’s side. But that’s her story to tell, if she chooses to.”
My eyes widened at the implication of his words.
If she had another brother, one on her mom’s side, that meant she had one on the Necromancer’s side. Whoever he was, he was most likely a Necro.
“I’m going to stop you right there, beautiful. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not what this is. There’s a lot you don’t know, Charisma, a whole lot. Don’t judge him, or her, based on what you were told. Remember who’s in charge and who makes the rules,” Andres warned. His face was serious, but still kind.
Sadly, I’d managed to ruin the dimples.
“What…what does that mean? What truths?”
“Let me just ask you this: I’m a battle mage, so are most graduates from Arcane Academy. But how many mages do you know who have gone to the front lines to fight the Necromancers? And how many do you know who came back? Name a single one.”
I racked my brain, trying to think, trying to come up with a single person. But he was right. Even if I wasn’t the most sociable cookie in the jar, I’d still known most of the mages who studied in my year, mostly because at one point or another I worked for them. Blame the mage games for that, and the fact I’d been appointed tech developer during them.
Holy conspiracies. What was I missing? And how could I have been so blind?
I grabbed onto Andres’ arm “What are you saying? Are they killing the mages on the borders? Are they being sent to death? Are the Necromancers not a threat? Are the families lying? But why? Oh wait I know why. Power. They want to keep the power, to keep the control, so they’re continuing a war that is only in our imagination. So they’ll feel needed. But then, what did happen to the Necromancers? Where are they? They can’t all be dead if Blair’s mom had an affair with your dad, and she has a necro brother,” I rambled, my thoughts going a million miles a second. I loved conspiracy theories. Even more than that, I loved solving puzzles, putting their pieces together. Figuring out people’s motivations behind their actions. It was so satisfying. “Oh! Are... are the necromancers inside the city? Are they hiding here? In plain sight? Does AMIA know??”
Mind. Blown.
Andres chuckled. He chuckled.
“Woah there, beautiful. Calm down. Those are some pretty heavy statements and I’m not confirming anything. Like I said, it’s not my story to tell, and not my secret. But you could look into this if you wanted to find out the truth. And maybe it’s closer than you think.”
“Dammit. Why do you have to go and be all mysterious and shit? Urgh, fine,” I said, steppin
g back from him and moving to the counter where my laptop still sat. I’ll do some digging.”
Andres’ arm stopped me. “I didn’t mean right now, Charisma. Shouldn’t you be on the lookout for the mole? Trying to pin down where he is so we can come up with a plan?”
“Oh yeah. Shit. Right. I also haven’t heard from Christian, which means I’ll probably have to call him. He better not be waiting for my call just to yell at me. Urgh.” I stomped my feet, dragging myself to my laptop with newfound dread. The minute I sat down, I looked at Andres and caught him staring at me, which reminded me....
“I’m sorry about before, by the way. Blaze was a dick. I’ll talk to him; tell him to calm down the possessive alpha male vibes. And, uh. If you still want my help, I’ll be happy to develop a kickass MET for you. I actually have an idea I was playing with before the explosion that would fit. I’ll try to create the schematics and show you while you’re around, and then once my magic is back, if you can wait that long, then I can do you.”
Cue awkward pause.
I blushed. “I meant do your thing. Key it in to you. You know, do my thing. Erh. Develop your MET and make sure it works for you. There. That’s what I meant.”
Andres just laughed. “Yeah, I’d love that. And don’t worry about Fucktard,” he smirked. “I can’t blame him for being protective of you when I would do the same thing, and he’s probably just reacting because he knows I’m interested.”
And with that tiny nugget of information, he turned his back on me and went back to cooking.
I just stared at his back, stunned.
He’d just... Andres had just... He said he was interested.
What the fresh hell was this?
When did I become the popular kid?
My phone started vibrating in my hand, and I gulped when I saw Christian was calling.
Speaking of the devil.
I picked up, but I didn’t even get a chance to say hello.
“Carter, good. Listen, I’ll need you, Illudere and Futhark to keep an eye on the program you have running and set up a way to keep eyes on the mole. Next time your system goes off, send Illudere or Futhark to the location and see if they can identify the mole.”
“Wait. You want Andres to do what?” I screeched, confused.
“What? No. You and Blair. Why would I demand a task from someone who is not an agent? But if Andres Illudere is there with you, that might be good. He’s being conscripted, anyway, and he already knows too much. With Blair in charge and putting the fear of hell in him, he should be an asset. I want twenty-four-hour surveillance on the double agent. I want to know everything they do, from what they had for breakfast to how many times they peed. Run a schedule with both Illudere and Futhark, if you can. But you’ll be running this op from there. I don’t care what you need to buy or get to set up your room, but I need it done now. And no one else can know about this. If the Nightshades are really involved, then we are all fucked. The less people who know about this, the better. And if it’s not them, I don’t want us getting crap from the Families for accusing anyone. Do you copy?”
I made an air salute. “Sir, yes, sir.”
“This is not a joke. Do you have any idea how much shit will come my way if it's one of the Nightshades? Or if it’s not and we accuse them? They’ll have my head on a pike. Get to it, and report to me every. Single. Day.”
He hung up the phone before I could say anything else, and I just stared at it.
Well. It seemed we had our orders. But damn, this was going to be long, boring work.
I should’ve let him throw me in IT support. It’d have been more entertaining.
I could’ve at least made a drinking game out of telling people to turn it off and then on again.
Don’t judge, it worked most of the time.
“I take it the boss called?” Andres asked, putting a steaming mug of coffee in front of me.
I beamed at him.
“Yes, and we have our orders.”
Andres looked slightly sad when he said. “Well, alright then. I’ll be on my way and leave you guys to it.”
“Wait, where are you going? The orders involve you, too.”
His smile could’ve outshone the stars.
I turned away from him before I did something stupid, like poking his dimples again. I scanned the room, finding Blair discussing something with Blaze.
“Guys,” I called out, and they both looked at me. “We have our orders, and we need a plan.”
32
Blaze
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Andres asked, and though I hated to say it, I had to agree with him. Charisma’s plan had a whole lot of “winging it” and “improvising” thrown in, not to mention it depended a hell of a lot on luck.
“Not really, no. But do any of you have a better idea?”
The three of us exchanged a glance, but nobody said anything. That was all the answer Charisma needed.
“That’s what I thought. So, we’ll do it. Sorry, guys, but we don’t have an awful lot of time to come up with a better plan. And Christian kind of put me in charge. Not that I think that was the brightest idea he’s ever had, but it’s what we have, so...” She shrugged.
Charisma’s plan was basically for her to be constantly checking the program she had running until it went off, and always having one of us in standby to drive to the location and see who was there, if it was someone we knew. Then all we had to do was follow them while reporting back to her.
Blair was the most obvious choice, since she had her bike and could get there faster, but Andres and I knew more people, and the odds of us recognizing the mole were higher than Blair’s.
The problem came if there was more than just one mage in there, and then we didn’t know who we should follow.
So, we needed luck.
Lots of it.
But it was all we had. And time was running out.
How long would it take before they acted again? Before they did something even worse? We couldn’t risk it.
If we followed the mole, we could see where he went, who he met up with, and if he could lead us to more rebels. Hopefully, it’d also help us piece together what else they were planning.
“We need more help. If we could stakeout in pairs, we could split up if we saw more than one person,” Blair suggested.
Charisma opened her mouth to speak, but Blair cut her off before she could say anything.
“No. You’re not going. You’re still dead, remember? You have to stay here; we can’t risk compromising even more of the operation by showing them our cards.”
“That’s not what I was going to say! I know I can’t go. But we can’t ask for more help. Christian was very specific that we had to keep it quiet. The more people that know, the more complicated things will become. Plus, how do we know who we can trust? We just can’t risk it.” Charisma said.
Blair considered her for a second. “Well, I could ask my brother...”
“I knew it!” Charisma yelled in triumph. “I totally knew you had another brother!”
Andres just rolled his eyes at her while I frowned.
“I told you she had another brother, Charisma. It doesn’t count when I tell you,” Andres corrected, stopping Char’s happy dance.
Blair stared them both down. “And why were you telling her things about me, little brother?”
Andres fidgeted uncomfortably under her gaze and I smiled.
This was going to be fun.
“Erh, you were talking to him on the phone, and uh, Charisma asked me if you had a brother. I didn’t think you’d be against her knowing you did. I thought you two were friends,” he supplied.
“Woah, I hope you got the license plate of that bus you just threw me under, traitor,” Charisma protested.
“Oh, c’mon, she asked. What did you want me to do? Lie?”
“Traitor.” Charisma turned to Blair, who was still staring down at them, but I could see the corners of her mouth as she tried not t
o smile. She was totally amused by their antics.
Couldn’t blame her, so was I.
At least with Illudere acting like a child, I had nothing to worry about when it came to Charisma falling for his charm.
No girl wanted a man-child.
At least, I hoped not.
“Oh look! My computer is pinging. Gotta run,” Charisma remarked, running away from the living room and towards the kitchen, even though her computer hadn’t emitted so much as a peep.
Blair’s half-smile vanished, and she turned to her brother.
“How much did you tell her, Andres?”
“Not much. Relax, she honestly just wanted to know a little more about you. I told her you had a brother, but that anything else was your story to tell.”
“Good. Keep it that way. I’ll tell her when and if I’m ready.”
I frowned at them, wondering what I’d missed.
Whatever it was, I had a feeling it was nothing good.
Just who was Blair’s brother? Was there another Illudere out there? And why had Blair never mentioned him?
“Uh, guys, I think I have something,” Charisma said from the kitchen.
We hurried to her side. “What have you got, beautiful?” Andres asked.
My fists clenched at my sides as anger started to build inside of me, and I sent Illudere a dirty look.
Fucking playboy making passes at my girl left and right. He and I needed to have words, and soon. But somewhere away from Charisma, preferably, because I doubted she'd be amused by it.
And if he refused to listen to my words, well then. There was more than one way I could make a point.
The thought almost made me smile.
It would be one thing if she wasn't interested in me but had been interested in him. But for him to poach someone who was taken? Hell no.
He needed a reality check, and I would gladly provide it.
“Okay, so. Remember how I put the ping on those four METs? Well, one of them has been activated all over, which makes me think whoever it is, they're either running magical errands through New York—and I mean, who would even do something like that?—or they're up to something specific. But I can't pinpoint what it is, because it honestly makes no sense to me just yet.” She paused and pressed some more keys, showing a map of New York with pins all over it, though while most were red or white, there were four bright colored ones that caught the eye straight away.