Hectic (Arcane Mage Series Book 2)

by T. S. Snow

  The yellow one only had one location, the lime green had about five or six, the bright blue one had about the same amount, but the orange pin was all over the map.

  Instead of commenting, we all waited for Charisma to speak again.

  “Right, so, the yellow one is inside the Academy, which would be fine, except, the students are all on vacation. And yet, all day today, someone was doing magic in there. But the most interesting thing is the green one, really. That's the one that was inside the Nightshade manor. They were inside AMIA today, too. And in an apartment downtown. None of the other locations are all that shocking, I don't think, but then, again, it's probably because I don't know them. Not like I leave the house much, anyway.”

  “So, now what?” I asked, not sure what she wanted us to do with this information.

  “Well, I'm hoping that one address here is his or her residence. If that's the case, next time it pops up there, I can send one of you out to investigate and stake it out. In the meanwhile, I'll keep an eye out on the others. The orange has too random a pattern to predict, but it might be worth checking out the Academy to see if anything is going on there. Not that I expect much, because at least part of the staff lives there and during vacation time they always hire people to do renovations. But who knows? Maybe one of the professors is a rebel,” she joked. However, we all stopped to look at her. “Shit. You don't think that's it, do you?”

  We stared at each other. “I'll ask the Director to send us files to all the staff at Arcane Academy; hopefully he'll have access to them,” I suggested, pulling my phone from my back pocket and typing out a text, thankful I now actually had his number rather than having to contact the Agency and beg them to put me through. It seemed that knowing Char came with all sorts of perks.

  “If that's true, then it explains how the rebellion's numbers have been increasing, but... Why Arcane Academy? Why not one of the others? Most students at AA come from the higher ranking families or have higher power levels,” Andres commented, stopping when he caught Charisma frowning at him. “Well, you know it’s true. Even our Magical Engineers need to have a minimum amount of magic necessary to be let through, or be from one of the Families. They sell the idea of it being an elite Academy, hence why the waitlist is so fucking long.” He shrugged.

  “Andres is right. They could get way more people converted if they went to some of the other Academies. Although, wouldn't the rebellion want somewhat stronger mages so they could make a bigger impact when they attack? If they were just a bunch of almost magicless mages, then they might not be so big of a threat. Either that, or they would resort to more human methods during their terrorist attacks. But they don't use bombs, do they? They used runes in Blaze's family home.”

  I clenched my jaw at the reminder of what those assholes had done. Of what could have happened, how much worse it could’ve been. Even though we didn’t usually go to that house, it had full-time staff on the grounds which kept it ready for any last-minute plans. Luckily, everyone had managed to get out before the structure collapsed, even if some of them had been injured.

  And all for what? To get our attention? So many innocents could’ve died, all for a stupid, selfish reason. It made me so fucking angry.

  Blair whistled. “Woah, rude. They used runes against you guys? That's ballsy.”

  It had been a huge insult to use our own branch of magic against us, which was probably why they did it. The mage equivalent of spitting at someone’s feet.

  Now we had a score to settle, and my family wanted its pound in flesh.

  I'd make sure they got it.

  33

  Logan

  “What have you got?” I asked, the minute I picked up the phone. I didn't have time for pointless pleasantries.

  “Sir, I still haven’t been able to find out who was responsible for her apartment exploding, but,” he hesitated over the phone, and I locked my jaw tight.

  “What do you mean you haven’t found out how it happened?” I boomed, snapping the pen I had been holding, imagining it was his neck I was squeezing, and spilling ink all over my hand like old, black blood.

  If there was one thing I hated, it was incompetent people working for me.

  “I’m sorry, sir. I’m working as fast as I can. But I did find out something you might find interesting.”

  I doubted that.

  “What is it?” I demanded, already having lost my patience with this PI. I’d hired him to do a simple enough job, and yet, two weeks later, he still didn’t have the information I was paying him to get, and what was worse; he was pussy footing around shit and wasting my time.

  Good help was so hard to find these days. I should just fire him and hire someone else. But then we’d have to start all over again and the trail would run colder than a Silverstorm’s personality.

  Instead of answering, I heard the sound of shuffling and his throat clearing.

  “It's Charisma Carter, sir—”

  “What about her?” I fucking expected the news to be about her, considering I hired this incompetent PI to dig into her mysterious death and find out any clues of who did it and why. Especially since my contacts at AMIA had been suspiciously tight-lipped about the whole thing.

  I knew it was no mere gas leak. I could feel it.

  Something more was at play here.

  The PI cleared his throat, the annoying sound grating on my temper.

  “Sir, as I was saying, Charisma Carter is alive.”

  “What?” I must have misheard him. For a second there it seemed like he'd said...

  “Charisma Carter, daughter of Elizabeth and Ian Silverstorm. She's alive.”

  I froze in shock. This couldn’t be. I’d seen the news, all of them had reported the same thing, even the human news stations. Charisma had died in a gas explosion. And while I knew the cause of her death had been a cover up, I never thought...

  “How?”

  “I don't know how yet, but I just saw her outside her apartment. There was a really strong illusion that made her and another female look like teenage boys, but I heard them talking. The other female clearly called her Charisma. She also used some weird crafty magic like Carter is known to use. We followed them as they entered the Illudere heir's car, but we lost them in traffic. Some AMIA agents were after them, too, and we had to stay further than we would've liked so as not to draw attention. There was a magical fight in the middle of her street, right in front of her apartment building. I'm trying to find out where they went and why AMIA was after them.”

  I sat back on my chair, letting this new piece of information swirl around my brain, thinking about the possibilities and consequences.

  So, she was alive.

  But she was hiding, and clearly in danger.

  I could still use this. I could offer her my protection, keep her here where she would be safe, where I could keep an eye on her. Where she could finish the job I’d hired her to do, and hopefully many, many others under my care.

  I could protect her.

  The beginning of a smile broke out on my face.

  “Find out where she is, and find me a way to get in contact with her. Miss Carter and I have a lot of catching up to do.”

  I hung up the phone and started to plan.

  This changed everything.

  34

  Charisma

  “What if I just went up to Logan and asked him?” I suggested.

  I'd been sitting in this damn uncomfortable stool at the kitchen counter for hours. My eyes were blurry, my fingers were cramping, and my back was killing me. I'd have moved to the couch, but Andres was literally sleeping there.

  I looked at the clock. It was five in the morning. I'd been up all night working on this damn thing, staring at this damn screen. I tried to fine-tune my program to help us with the whole operation, but my brain was dead. I needed coffee. Or sleep. Or both.

  I'd also been trying to come up with a solution to the whole Marcella problem, and all I could think of was that if she was tru
ly trying to sabotage her brother, he would know. Or he'd want to know, and then he'd act on it and put a stop to it, freeing us of the trouble.

  All I had to do was go there and ask him. Or find a way to get him somewhere no one would see me and ask him. I was pretty sure he'd be honest with me, since he had hired me to work for him and I still hadn't delivered his final product.

  You know, on account of me being in a coma for two weeks.

  “Sure, let's just go up to the Nightshade heir and ask him if he or his sister are involved with the rebellion. That will go over well,” Blair snarked, crossing her arms in front of her.

  I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hands, trying to get the blurry to come back into focus.

  “No, seriously. I know Logan. He'll tell me the truth.”

  “Girl, you're crazier than I am. Did you forget you're “dead”?” Blair did the air quotes. “Look, go get some sleep. You've been at it all night, and I'm tired just looking at you. It's my surveillance shift, anyway, I'll keep an eye on your laptop and if a new pin shows up at that place, I'll let you know. Go snuggle with your Loverboy. I'm sure he's feeling lonely.” She gave me a saucy wink which could only have one meaning and I yawned.

  I was too tired to be embarrassed.

  “Kay. But wake me up the minute something changes. And don't touch anything, I don't want to have to start over.”

  “You know, I can use a computer, right? I might not be as brilliant as you are, but I'm not incompetent.”

  I stood up and headed toward the bedroom, mumbling over my breath about leather goddesses and the unfairness of life.

  The minute I stepped into the room, I closed the door behind me, lost the pants and collapsed face first on the tiny space I had left of the bed.

  This sharing a bed thing was so not what I’d signed up for, but the house only had two bedrooms, and Blair had claimed the other one for herself. Even her own brother had been banned and confined to the living room. According to her, since he hadn’t technically been invited to stay around, he didn’t deserve an actual room.

  Which meant Blaze and I had to share a bedroom, and Blaze was not only a blanket hogger, but he hogged the whole damn bed.

  He had to learn how to fucking share asap.

  “Shh, it’s alright, stay in bed,” Blaze whispered, and my pillow rumbled, then moved, taking with him the warmth I’d been snuggled on.

  Noooo, bad human pillow. Get back in here.

  Blaze chuckled.

  “Human pillow, huh? Well, I suppose there are worse things for me to be.”

  “Shh, I’m sleeping,” I said, trying to cuddle in closer. I was too sleepy to worry about the fact I’d spoken my thoughts out loud.

  Instead of finding my own personal heater, Blaze moved and I ended up rolling onto the cold side of the bed.

  The fucking cold side of the bed!

  I grumbled in discontentment.

  If I had my magic, I could heat up the mattress so I could be happy wherever.

  “No setting fire to the bed, Little Spitfire,” Blaze chastised. “I’ll be back soon; get some rest.”

  The door opened and closed again and I hugged the pillow Blaze had been using, which still had his scent all over. Sniffing the pillow, I fell back asleep, Blaze’s scent invading my dreams.

  “Charisma, wake up! Charisma! Char, your computer is going off like crazy. Something is going on.”

  I turned away from the voice and put the pillow over my head. “Just five more minutes, please.”

  “If you don’t get up now, I’ll be forced to use brute force,” a male voice said.

  I rolled my eyes. Yeah, right, as if.

  If anyone drags me out of this bed, I’ll literally kick their ass after I junk punch them.

  I made sure the pillow was still covering my face and tried to go back to sleep.

  “Three.”

  I grumbled, but I wasn’t bothered enough to take action.

  “Two.” The voice got louder and I held my breath.

  They better not fucking do anything.

  “One.”

  A heavy weight fell on top of me, pinning me to the bed and stealing my breath just as the pillow got pulled from my eyes, letting the daylight burn through my closed eyelids.

  Noooo.

  “Wakey wakey, Charisma. Time to get your butt off the bed and come be a badass engineer,” Andres singsonged, as he jumped up and down on top of me. I knew it was him because no way would Blaze ever do that but also because of the happy trill to his voice. He was enjoying this too damn much.

  I’d take great pleasure in killing him slowly, one paper cut at a time. After I poisoned his water and gave him diarrhea.

  Nobody woke me up this way and lived to tell the tale.

  Mind set on revenge, I opened my eyes and turned to glare at him. “If you don’t get off me in the next millisecond I’ll make sure you never have children and then I’ll put a virus on your MET where the only thing you’ll ever be able to do for the rest of your life will be make Baby Shark play on an eternal loop, with a hologram of that kid dancing it and everything,” I threatened.

  Andres laughed before he bent his head and kissed me on the cheek.

  I froze in shock as he left the bed just as fast as he’d jumped in.

  Was this real? Had he just kissed me? Andres. Illudere. Kissed. Me.

  What was it with guys kissing me while I was asleep or half-asleep lately, anyway? First Theo at the hospital on his creeper move, now Andres after being a dick.

  I’d just pretend nothing happened like I did with Theo and carry on with my life.

  Yup. Solid plan.

  “Beautiful, if you don’t get off the bed right now I’ll be forced to take more drastic measures, which will involve ice-cold water. Lots and lots of water. You won’t enjoy it,” Andres warned and I jumped off the bed like my ass was on fire.

  Except, my feet got tangled on the sheets on my way out, and I tumbled.

  Fuck my life.

  Strong arms caught me just when I thought this would be it for me. The floor was so close, I could count the number of hairs on it.

  It was actually kind of gross.

  The floor moved further away as Andres pulled me up, and then helped me untangle my legs.

  “I’ve never had a girl literally fall for me before,” Andres joked, and I closed my eyes, mortified.

  “Thanks for uh… catching me. Again,” I said, embarrassed that he had to save me from yet another fall. What the hell, gravity? Can’t you be on my side for once?

  “You’re welcome to fall for me any time, beautiful. But maybe put on some clothes next time, yeah? Not that I mind seeing you like this, but if Blaze walks in here, there’s gonna be hell to pay and I really like my dick where it is.”

  “What?” I screeched, looking down and seeing that during my fall and rescue, the blanket had dropped a lot, leaving my chest very, very bare for Andres to ogle.

  I whipped my eyes up to his face, down to my body, up to his face, and then back down to my body as if not comprehending what was going on before I shrieked and pulled the blanket up to cover me completely.

  To his credit, though, during the whole time Andres kept his gaze above my head, not staring directly at the goods even though I was pretty damn sure he wanted to. Hell, he probably had. How else would he have known I was naked?

  Goddess have mercy on my poor, dumbass soul.

  “Uh. Sorry. Erh. I’ll just. Yeah. Thanks for. Uh. Helping me. And stuff. If you could please, uh. I’ll just. Get ready. Clothes. I need clothes. Then I’ll be right out.”

  Andres just stood there smirking at me.

  “Didn’t you say we had something? Does that mean we found the mole? Well, shoo. Go keep an eye on the computer while I get dressed.” I made shooing motions with one hand while I grabbed the blanket wrapped around me for dear life.

  “Oh, right. I’m on it. I’ll call Fucktard and let him know where to go, since he’s already out.”

>   Blaze had left without telling me? Huh. I did not know how I felt about this, but I’d worry about analyzing it later. When I wasn’t naked, preferably.

  “Cool. Bye.” I said, and Andres finally took the hint and left.

  I looked around the room, trying to find my clothes so I could get dressed.

  I had a feeling this was going to be a four cups of coffee kind of day.

  35

  Charisma

  I came out of the bedroom five minutes later to find chaos.

  Utter, complete chaos.

  My computer was blaring an annoying alarm I’d set up as a warning when we got the possible mole’s MET to activate more than once on the same address. Blair sat in front of it on the phone with someone, yelling at them and at the computer at the same time, and Andres was pacing near his sister while pulling on his hair, messing it up.

  I wanted to turn tail and run back into my room where it was warm, safe and silent.

  Instead, I took a deep breath and stepped into the mess, heading directly to the coffee pot. If I was going to deal with crazy, I needed my coffee first, dammit. It was bad enough Andres had woken me up at the ass crack of dawn.

  Well, I didn’t actually know what time it was, but the house was mostly dark, so I figured it couldn’t be that late in the morning.

  Granted, the reason the house looked like a catacomb might be because of the curtains that were drawn in every single window, but sunshine was bad for the eyes, anyway. So who cared?

  I poured my first cup of coffee, added sugar to it, and then turned to face the crazy.