Ashes (Fire Within Series Book 3)

by Ella M. Lee

  “‘Most of the property I own?’” I quoted. “How many properties do you own, exactly?”

  “Eighteen distinct deeds, mostly commercial in nature, although I do own a couple of nice houses in France,” he said absently, without even looking up from his laptop.

  Nicolas was rich—very rich—but it had never occurred to me that his wealth extended beyond some theoretical bank account somewhere with far more zeros than I had ever seen in my life. And although I knew he had money, I had no idea how he made money. I had never been interested in being rich myself, and I had no idea how one went about turning money into more money.

  In fact, Nicolas and I had never had a conversation about money or what it meant that I was dating someone extremely well-off. He spared no expense when buying me gifts, taking me on dates, and traveling around the world with me, and I was grateful. Beyond that, I didn’t care about his finances.

  I had no idea what it meant to own property on the scale Nicolas did, or even how he had it managed for him. At this point, I didn’t really care. There was always too much going on in my life for me to care about something so strangely ordinary like owning property or talking about financial goals with my partner.

  “Warehouse?” I repeated. “It’s not metal, is it?”

  “Because the buildings are unfinished, the walls are still mostly temporary aluminum siding,” Nicolas said.

  I let out a breath. Meteor magic couldn’t manipulate aluminum because it wasn’t ferromagnetic. Nicolas had obviously planned for that.

  “Of course, lamb,” he said. “Only the concrete foundation, some of the corner steel beams, and the steel doors are permanent. That’s still more ferromagnetic metal present than is ideal, but we can handle it. I can’t see the events of that day directly, but the rest of the future thread beyond it exists. That’s always a good sign for things going well.”

  “So you want to meet Mark in Singapore to heal him?” I said. “Do you think it’s possible? Saving you took death and resurrection.”

  “I’ve spoken to Irina and Ryan about it briefly,” Nicolas said, looking up, casting his tawny eyes on me for the first time in a while. “Meteor magic changes your blood more than any other magic, even Water. I have an idea about how to fix him. I’m planning on collecting a blood sample, analyzing it, then going from there.”

  “If anyone can fix him, it’s you,” I said, coming around the table to run my hands through his hair. “Smoke’s top researcher, Mark said. Is that true?”

  He hesitated. “It used to be, yes.”

  “Where is this book everyone appears to have read about your life?” I asked.

  My words were a tease, but Nicolas got up from his seat and went to a cabinet in the corner of the room. He dug his way to the back, pulling out a short stack of books. He looked through them and brought two over to me, setting them on the table.

  Their titles were Circles: Modern Pedagogy and Attunement in Static Workings. Both books were thick and scary looking, and their author was Nicolas Demarais. I flipped through Attunement in Static Workings. Lots of text and incomprehensible diagrams. Smoke magic of the highest order and difficulty. I rolled my eyes.

  “It’s harder now to find information about me, but I used to be well-known in magical academia,” he said. “People knew my research even outside of Smoke. I didn’t care that much of my fame was negative because of the nature of what I did. I was rather singularly focused and didn’t have much of a mind for morals.”

  Nicolas was referring to his primary work within Smoke. I had never asked the details, but he had been working on giving inanimate objects true life and autonomy with magic. Some of his experiments had involved killing magicians—mostly captives from other clans—in an attempt to bind their magic.

  Although morality tended to be a gray area within clans given the amount of violence and killing, it was easy for most people to agree that what Nicolas had done was monstrous and horrific. And there was no such thing as punishment for those sorts of actions, especially not against a Smoke magician. Clans gave Smoke a lot of leeway because of the advancements and research they provided for the magical community.

  Regardless, Nicolas’s work had crossed lines and given many people a reason to fear and despise him.

  “Did your commander in Smoke approve of your projects?” I asked, hoping he didn’t mind my prying.

  He seemed surprised by the question. “Yes, of course. My directives came from him.”

  “Is he still in Smoke?”

  “Oh, yes,” Nicolas said. “Hanging around somewhere, being the pompous prick that he is.”

  My eyes widened. Nicolas rarely spoke so crudely.

  “He knows you are here?” I asked.

  Nicolas had once told me that Smoke knew of his whereabouts but largely ignored him.

  “He keeps an eye on me, just as I keep an eye on him.”

  “You have eyes everywhere,” I said.

  “I do try,” Nicolas said. “I’m going to finalize these plans and get Teng to contact Mark with a meeting place and time. I’ll let you know when I have the details.”

  “Dan left me about a million tasks in the queue now that we’re closing on that property near Osaka,” I said. “I have to talk to Keisha.”

  “All right,” he said, looking at me with longing.

  I reluctantly pulled away from him. I wished things would stop popping up to steal our time from one another. I wanted another million hours in his arms.

  Dan had beaten me to discussing Osaka with Keisha. When I got to our group’s training room, they were leaning over the large meeting table with blueprints of the property laid out before them.

  They were speaking rapidly in Cantonese, and I could tell they were batting numbers back and forth. Most of the group aside from me, Chandra, and Athena spoke at least some amount of Cantonese, and at least half of them spoke it fluently. No one had yet indicated I should learn, and despite occasionally feeling left out, my language skills were so bad I wasn’t eager to try. That said, I had picked up some words and phrases considering that I heard it almost as much as I heard English these days.

  “Hey,” Keisha said as I took a seat. “Dan thinks all the wood trim should be bamboo, but I think maple will add some contrast and texture. What do you think?”

  I looked between them. Keisha was giving me a desperate, pleading look. Dan raked a hand through his brilliant copper hair and smiled at me endearingly.

  I hesitated. “I… Why don’t you let Nicolas settle this? I have no sense of style.”

  Keisha gave me a dramatic sigh. “Okay, we’ll settle paint and trims later. Let’s talk about the bids for the top three contractors, and the restoration priority order for the buildings…”

  Two hours later, Keisha had notes on all of our decisions and the estimates necessary for Nicolas’s approval. Nicolas was ultimately the one paying for all the work on the new place. While I knew he rarely cared about the cost of anything, he did keep track of the money his group spent.

  I was inordinately excited about our plans. I loved Hong Kong, and I had grown to love Water, but I had become too wrapped up in Shatterfall not to care deeply for its success.

  Whenever I was stressed, I reminded myself of our long-term goals and immediately felt better. I liked being bound to my family by our crazy secret, and I liked being part of a group so talented that we could pull something like this off.

  “Where are you off to?” I asked Dan as Keisha waved herself out of the room with the rolled-up plans.

  “I’m not. I’m meeting Irina here to go over her task list.”

  I pursed my lips. “I can do that.”

  He froze, startled. I had never offered to have a meeting with Irina. Daniel handled her almost exclusively, even back when they’d all been part of Nicolas’s group.

  But I wanted the chance to understand her more. I wanted to know why she stayed with Nicolas even though she didn’t seem to like him, and I wanted to know why she had butt
ed into my relationship the week before, forcing me and Nicolas to examine his ugly past together.

  “Are you sure?” Dan asked after a beat, studying me with dark, wary eyes.

  “I’m sure. Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill her or anything.”

  “I… I wasn’t worried,” he said.

  I smiled. He was. I could tell.

  “Seriously, Dan,” I said. “What am I even your lieutenant for if I can’t handle our group members?”

  He hesitated, his lips twitching into a frown, but eventually he nodded. “Okay. Don’t do anything stupid. I already have enough to do without you adding messes to my life.”

  I put my hands on his shoulders, spun him toward the door, and gave him a small push. “I’m fine. Get out of here, Commander.”

  But when he was gone, I grimaced. My words made me sound bolder than I felt, and I was dreading Irina’s reaction to me intruding on her life.

  Chapter 11

  When Irina arrived, I was seated at the meeting table with my hands folded in front of me. I was trying to channel something resembling Nicolas’s calm and confident demeanor. I needed to be strong for this meeting. Irina had been here for decades; she was powerful and secure in her position within the clan.

  I was new, but I shouldn’t feel any less secure. I was loved by Nicolas and Daniel. I had the respect of the same people Irina did. I had power that was special in my own way. I didn’t want to place myself above her, but I wouldn’t start this conversation from a position of weakness either.

  She paused when she entered the room. I had been expecting her to be dressed to the nines as I usually saw her, but she was wearing a casual-looking oversized maroon sweater today. Her platinum dye job was growing out, exposing a lot of her hair’s dark roots.

  Irina wasn’t intimidatingly pretty in the same way Chandra was, but she was regal. She had a strong jaw and beautifully tilted eyes that showed her half Japanese heritage, but her serious expression always made her look a little severe. Right now, she seemed puzzled.

  “Fiona,” she said stiffly. “I’m meeting Daniel here.”

  “Dan isn’t coming,” I said. I waved my hand. “Have a seat, please.”

  The tone of my voice, combined with the fact that I was her lieutenant—whether she liked it or not—forced her to obey.

  She settled into the chair across from me and raised her eyebrows expectantly.

  I would need to approach her carefully. Irina was technically my subordinate, but our relationship wasn’t at the point where I could exercise that power. She was a close friend of Ryan, and Sylvio, and Dan, and other powerful people I cared about. Dan was right—I couldn’t turn this situation into a mess.

  But I was sick of the tension between us, and I wanted to ease it if possible. As much as I wanted to chew her out for meddling with my life, I had decided to take a gentle approach.

  I had hurt her. I had killed someone she loved—Nicolas’s former lieutenant, Andres—and I had invaded her life as an enemy and a stranger. Contrition and understanding on my part would go further than condescension.

  You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as any good farm girl knew.

  “I want to thank you for what you did during Nicolas’s rescue,” I said. “You are obviously a talented healer, and I’m glad you were there.”

  Her eyebrows drew together in wary surprise, and she said, “It’s my job to keep everyone in our groups alive and well.”

  She had said something similar after I drowned on Farhad’s rescue operation, a defensive reaction to being uncomfortable.

  “About that,” I said. “I want to know your story.”

  “My story?” she repeated, tilting her head.

  “You work for Nicolas, but you don’t like him,” I said. “You are close friends with Sylvio, a former Meteor commander. You remain in Water, one of the more violent clans in existence. Why?” I paused. “Neither of us are going anywhere, so I want to understand you. I don’t want things between us to be difficult.”

  She looked away, out the windows. She could refuse me. She could get up and walk out, and I wouldn’t be able to do much more than complain to Dan later. I folded my hands and smiled at her, waiting.

  Eventually, she sighed. “There isn’t a straightforward answer to what you’re asking.”

  “I didn’t think there was,” I said. “I’d like to hear it, regardless.”

  “I suppose I’m in Water because this clan has the best healing magic,” she said. “You know I used to be a liaison?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Liaison” was the term used for a mortal who mediated between clans as a neutral third party. Not all clans fought. Not all clans disliked one another. There were reasons for clans to interact outside of official channels. When they needed to, they employed a liaison. Liaisons were prized diplomats, well-paid and untouched in clan disputes.

  “I mostly mediated for Water, Sky, and Wind,” she said. “Occasionally, my contacts in each clan would grant me magic. I never liked Wind magic, but I loved Sky and Water magic… because they could heal. I was gifted. I could heal almost immediately with those magics, and I loved the feeling.”

  There was genuine happiness in her eyes as she recalled this part of her past. I could understand that feeling of finding your place, of learning to love something.

  Healing wasn’t something all clans could do. Of the eight clans, only Water, Smoke, and Sky had comprehensive healing capabilities that extended to all aspects of the human body.

  Verdant had limited healing, mostly involving the creation of new cells, which was tricky to manage. Meteor had strange healing that mostly worked on high concentrations of iron and other minerals in the bloodstream, but it was primitive and difficult to control. Flame, Wind, and Wild had no ability to heal at all.

  Then I realized what she was saying.

  “You were taking gifted magic as a liaison?” I asked.

  That was a huge faux pas in our world. Liaisons were supposed to be completely neutral. In order to do that, they needed to maintain business-only contact with clan members and not take any money, gifts, or favors beyond the standard liaison payment rates that were agreed upon by all clans.

  They definitely weren’t supposed to use magic. Magic was, in a word, addicting. It made you fall in love with it. It wanted you to like it and desire it and need it. It was like a drug, and it made people lose their neutrality pretty quickly.

  In most clans, the only mortals allowed to receive gifted magic were clan candidates. I had received it many times when I was studying to join Flame, but I was already committed to them by then. Nicolas had granted Water magic to me as a mortal, but only because my choices at that point were Water or death, effectively making me a clan candidate.

  She nodded. “I was, and Sky found out. They have rules, and… punishments.”

  I winced. Sky was not a kind clan. They were the oldest of the clans, huge and rigidly structured. There was no central government for clans, but the closest thing to that was Sky. If Smoke was the research wing of the magical world, Sky was the legislative branch, and they generally ensured our overall secrecy and safety by enforcing certain standards and rules.

  “What did they do to you?” I asked.

  She exhaled sharply. “Lorraine—she was my Sky contact, the woman who had been gifting me magic—warned me that Sky had found out. Then they executed her for breaking the rules. I tried to run, tried to get in touch with my contact in Water, but Sky found me first.

  “Sky doesn’t kill mortals. Instead, they whipped me one hundred times, then left me for dead. A lovely little loophole to their ‘preserve mortal life’ rule. They also marked me, ensuring no one from Sky would ever interact with me again.”

  She pushed up the sleeve of her left arm. Just above her elbow was a strange mark, a small circle with a squiggly line down the center like a yin-yang sign, red and angry against her pale skin.

  “You survived,” I said quietly, hopi
ng she’d go on.

  “Water saved me,” she said. “My contact found me, healed me, and brought me into the clan. His name was Cillian.”

  Was. I waited for her to continue.

  “He didn’t tell anyone what had happened to me,” she said. “For several years, everything was fine. I was good with Water magic, and great at healing. Cillian and I were in the same group and involved with one another. He was one of Samuel’s lieutenants.”

  Samuel was Water’s third pinnacle member alongside Claudius, who lived here and managed the Hong Kong clan house, and Arturo.

  “Cillian… wasn’t a nice guy,” she said, flicking her eyes upward in consternation. “Not really physically abusive, but… he often messed with my head. He didn’t like my success in the clan. He did his best to belittle me, to keep me in whatever place he wanted. Beneath him, of course. It feels stupid to say now, but I didn’t think much of it.

  “I had become friends with Ryan, and he was the one who introduced me to Nicolas.”

  She paused, sighing, picking at her fingernails nervously.

  “I had heard of Nicolas, of course. Everyone had. The researcher in charge of much of Smoke’s groundbreaking work, the man who stopped at nothing to get what he wanted. Nevertheless, when Ryan brought me to his hotel suite and introduced me to Nicolas, I was shocked. He was a legend, a monster, yet he stood in front of me and spoke softly and politely. I knew something was off with him—he was nervous and speaking nonsense and looked half starved. When I refused to heal him, he wasn’t resentful. He merely told me he understood my concerns and left the room.

  “Ryan begged me to give Nicolas a chance. He told me what Nicolas had been through in Smoke, and I felt sorry for him. I healed him despite my reservations. When I was done, he thanked me, and he told me he would pay me back for my kindness when he was well again.”