Praelia Nox

by T J Kelly

  All of them good.

  ◆◆◆

  We took the long way, crossing back and forth through the various flower and clover fields, swinging by the beehives, walking along the low stone walls separating them.

  "You two look so sweet," a voice floated from behind one of the hives. I leaned to the side until I caught sight of Tian, Reg's wife.

  "Hey," I said, hustling over to give her a hug. "How are you doing?"

  "Good," she replied. Then she patted her stomach, and I realized it was more rounded than the last time I had seen her. "Reg and I are expecting again. He's glad we're staying at the castle. Especially now that David Novato is on our side and won't be negating the magic protections."

  Tian had gotten hurt when David had attacked the castle. His plan was successful because he could disrupt the connection between magic and our world. My uncle updated his defenses and even if David turned on us, we would never be that vulnerable again.

  "What about the rest of your kids?" We walked to the next hive. I used the skin-tight shield to keep away any potential bee stings, and watched as Peter did the same after he leaned in for a hug, too.

  "Off with Dad," she replied. Her black hair shifted in the breeze. "Kamini has been working with all of us, linking our families to the safe house network just in case."

  Once again, I had to give Kamini credit. She may not be as strong as an Irregular, but she still did some great spells. Her entire clan did.

  "Good thing they're on it," I said. My stomach clenched as I thought about the messenger's arrival. "Our guys need a place to go until we can figure out a way to withstand the new spell the dark magicians are using. Did you hear about the last group disappearance?"

  Tian's face saddened as she nodded. "Reg told me about it. It happened when you were out helping the Reeves."

  "That's not how they saw it," Peter added. "The Reeves think it was a setup by Harris and Seth."

  "Which is stupid." There was so much more I wanted to say about the people who should have been our allies but instead viewed us with suspicion and anger. But before we could continue our conversation, Clarissa appeared from behind another beehive.

  "Good afternoon," she said, her voice tight and controlled as always. Her silvery blond hair had been swept up into a loose bun on her head, no sign of battle braids anywhere to make it practical. But then why would there be? She lived a privileged life and never needed to go into combat.

  "Hello," Peter responded when I didn't say anything. I was too busy wondering how long she had been there and if she was listening in to report back to Oberon Taine about our defenses. Or lack of them.

  "Clarissa has a talent for many things that help your aunt," Tian said. She had to notice the frosty reception Clarissa was getting and was trying to smooth things over. "She even noticed an ailing herb in Peony's garden and had just the right solution to perk it right up."

  So she was taking over the things I did for my aunt now, too? I was the one who nursed the sick plants back to health. It didn't matter how busy I was, I still did the work.

  "How nice for my aunt," I said, a snide tone in my voice. Peter leaned closer, the skin of his arm brushing against mine, adding Light into the mix. I bit my tongue before I went on the attack. Clarissa was still a guest at the castle. As the ward of the owners, it was my job to make her feel welcome. Ugh. "Speaking of lovely, I see you're wearing a particularly fine Rector crystal."

  Of course I noticed it. I could sense every crystal for a mile, maybe more. But Clarissa had on a long, fine chain that dangled a princess-cut crystal over her light teal shirt. No way would I miss it, even if I didn't have eyes.

  "Thank you," she replied, tucking the crystal beneath the white camisole peeping just above the neckline of her top. "My mom asked me to take care of it for her. It's a family heirloom."

  Usually I didn't care who used a Rector crystal. That's what they were there for and my family wasn't trying to control the actions of everyone in the world. Not that we didn't build in certain prohibitions. But I didn't like my ex-boyfriend's Promised fiancee and hearing her clan had used a product of mine bugged me.

  Then I noticed a smudge mark along Clarissa's wrist. And a few more peeking from beneath her teal sleeves, rolled up to stay out of her way as she helped Tian collect honey. No. Not smudge marks.

  Bruises.

  I was a monster. All this time I had been so angry and jealous of her and hated her perfect hair, and blue-green eyes, and being older than me just enough to claim the name Ethereal. My mother had some strange obsession with the name. Maybe it was a trend. I wasn't really sure. But she wanted me to claim it when I ascended. And Clarissa got it first.

  Just like she had dated Chas first.

  How stupid and petty was that? Her life had to suck. I had never touched her, never shook her hand, but I could still sense her magic. There was something about her, about her aura, that she couldn't hide from me the way magicians hid their strength from others. She wasn't quite strong enough to be an agent, but she was close. So close. And her light balance was seventy percent on the side of good.

  Pretty strange for the daughter of dark magicians.

  All the nasty, ugly, resentful feelings I had been carrying around with me melted away. If anyone on the planet understood that not everything was as it seemed, it was me. "If you ever want to access the spell inside your necklace, let me know. I can show you the trigger."

  Clarissa stared at me like a deer caught in a car's headlights, waiting for her doom. My eyes slid to Tian's, who was standing beside her, but I could tell she didn't understand Clarissa's reaction either, even with my strange switch in attitude.

  Peter cleared his throat. He was going to say something to help cover the awkward moment, but then she spoke.

  "If you don't mind." Hesitation and fear caused her voice to shake.

  That was all she said. I gave Peter the side-eye, and he shrugged. It was weird - he saw it, too. But whatever. If I was going to work with all kinds of people, I needed to take every half-hearted opening they offered me.

  "Not at all. I've got a mission, but next time we're both here, I'll show you." I didn't tell her that by rights, I shouldn't have a clue there was a spell inside, much less have any idea how to activate it. But my affinity for Rector crystals was encoded into my DNA, flowed through my blood. It was my birthright, one I never mentioned to our customers. I could do anything with any crystal, no matter what spells or curses were in them.

  Clarissa's didn't hold a curse, but there was a strong spell surrounded by major protections. Actually, several spells. There were layers and the time factors indicating they needed to be opened in a series, not all at once, or they would disintegrate. Bummer. That meant I would have to work with her more than once.

  Okay. I could make myself help her a bunch of times if I had to. That didn't mean we would become best friends. And I took comfort in that.

  I mean, I was trying to be nice, but I wasn't a saint.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The Things I Tell Myself

  "Any more disappearances?" Peter asked. He leaned back in his seat and traced the edge of the armrest with his thumb.

  "Not in the last week," Mort responded. He sat across from us, once again meeting early in the morning. Most of our training exercises were typical of a full agent in the Irregulars. The apprentice stuff, especially my bookwork, had been suffering for a lack of time. Instead, we went on regular missions.

  For me and Peter, that mostly meant drawing attention to ourselves. Not a difficult task. Power attracted strife the way flame drew a moth. I didn't even mind as much anymore. Better than hurting other people less prepared than we were.

  Besides, our enemies knew we were associated with my uncle. And the dark magicians on the Council had enough connections to have identified most - if not all - of the major agents. We were under surveillance everywhere we went by the enemy as well as the press, random magicians, and even mundane humans. But there were w
ays of confusing our foes with misinformation simply by going about our business.

  Junior agents weren't as secure as we were. There were a lot of them out in the field, doing the daily work of the Irregulars, interfacing with the various vendors and contractors and facing dark magicians in various illegal and subversive activities. Clypeus, the agent we had helped to trace the month before, was only one of many who had been taken. We found some of them.

  Others were still missing.

  Harris and Seth were good at tracking them. They had even recovered a half-dozen on their own. But there were others out there and none of us would stop until we brought them all in.

  "And you want us to..." My voice trailed off.

  "Go on a date. Yes." Mort chuckled at the look on my face. "Listen, we're sure this is a part of their Two-path plan. It's a distraction and keeps us busy. We must search for them. Must rescue them. Turning our backs is not an option."

  It made sense. I had put together intelligence Chas had collected in the Taine household, a warning from beyond the grave delivered by my father, and my own massive struggles guided the way to my understanding that "two paths" didn't mean a choice we had to make. It was a simultaneous implementation of two tracks. One we had to address, were forced to respond, and the other that would lead to them taking over the world.

  "And the best way to counteract that is to hang out with my boyfriend." I finally remembered to blink. I was used to some weird missions and Mort was always trying to throw us for a loop, but this one sounded silly. Especially since I was assigned to help Recall the memory gaps in our recovered agents.

  "You know better than that," Mort said, his teasing over. Not that I didn't appreciate him keeping things lighthearted. The crowded halls of the castle were wearing me down. So many people around, even if they were fascinating, and I was learning a lot from them. It exhausted me. "I recommended to Ged that you two need to take a breather. And I received a notice that the analysts are ready for another session in the archives."

  Well, at least that made sense. "Okay. I get it." I shook off my stupor. I enjoyed the work I did for my uncle. Even if it felt weird that I could do it at the same time I was having fun with my boyfriend.

  Peter and I had collected a ton of encrypted information at the mayor's office and we occasionally helped try to decipher it. The memory crystals we used were the best my company offered, but our brains still had a better copy of what we saw than anything magic could provide. Sometimes we helped break through a difficult passage using our intuition. The dark magic used to set the codes left a kind of residue behind in our memories that no crystal could copy.

  At some point, I would isolate the darkness from that reading and burn it out of my system. Peter's, too. But for the time being, it helped us decipher the information. In the meantime, Peter sketched a shield blocking the two of us from the worse of the effects. His drawing kept the darkness isolated so the incredible and insane curse wouldn't do weird things to us.

  Definitely stronger magic than anything the mayor could have done by himself.

  "I've set up a hand-off," Mort continued. "You'll take this scroll and slip it to your contact. Be discreet. Use a mild spell to muffle your actions. Anyone tailing you will see through it."

  Which we wanted. Whatever was on that scroll would lead our enemies on a wild goose chase. It was their turn to take two paths for a while.

  "You plan our date for us too, then?" Peter asked, a sparkle in his eyes. I loved how they crinkled at the corners when he smiled. "How sweet."

  Mort snorted. "My pleasure. Talk to the chauffeur. He knows where to go. Dress for a semi-formal environment."

  We stood and shuffled out the door. Mort would have told us where we were going if we had asked, but neither of us did. It would be nice to have a pleasant surprise for once.

  "Want to practice with Richard and James?" I asked. "They've issued a standing invitation to battle us any time we want. As long as they're around." I knew they would be. My cousins hadn't left the castle grounds often in the months they had been back. We had tons to do, and they were helping with the planning of the major campaigns and missions. I had sat in on a lot of those sessions, too. Armageddon was still training me to take over for him someday. James and Richard were more than capable, but that didn't mean they had the desire. They were more focused on the family business and support missions.

  "Why not? Nothing like a fight to the death to get me in the mood for a fancy dinner." Peter leaned over and kissed me before we headed upstairs to change into our practice uniforms. "I'll get the guys and meet you there."

  I nodded my agreement. It didn't really take me any longer to dress than it took Peter, but my hair was down and it would take me extra time to pull myself into fighting form. "Thanks."

  It was funny, but as I dressed for combat, a thrill of excitement went up my spine. Not because I was going into the practice dome to learn more fighting techniques. I mean, that was cool, too. But despite the need to dress up, which was kind of a pain, I was looking forward to a night on the town with the love of my life.

  I froze, my foot hovering over the threshold to my bedroom. My heart pounded in my ears and heat crawled up my neck and settled into my cheeks. I had been avoiding it since the day the memory block crumbled and I realized how I felt. It had been too much. I had been too scared. But it had been there for a long time. Maybe since the moment we met, before I had been distracted by a stupid crush on a guy who was never meant for me.

  Even though it was in the quiet of my own thoughts, I had just used the L-word.

  ◆◆◆

  I picked at the salad in front of me. It was tasty, like anything would be on a fancy restaurant's menu, but it wasn't special. "You recognize anyone?" I asked.

  Peter took a sip of his water, his eyes flickering around the room. "Nobody I'm close to. Just a handful of the usual clans, both light and dark."

  "Yeah, same here." I stopped scoping out the room and turned my focus back to our date. My boyfriend was gorgeous. It was so strange how I had missed so many things about him, despite him being my best friend. Sure, there had been a lot going on when we met. Still was. But recent events had shown me that those were excuses I told myself to keep from having to admit how self-centered I had been. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone resented me.

  "You're too hard on yourself," Peter said. He buttered a slice of the warm brown bread that had arrived with our salads.

  "What do you mean?"

  "They weren't just excuses. You really were having a hard time. Anyone would have been overwhelmed. It's not your fault. I'm not angry. Nobody is. And you need to be kinder to yourself. You're not being fair."

  "Now, wait a second. I know for a fact I didn't say any of that out loud." I set my fork on the edge of the plate, pushing it away a tad to indicate to the waiter that I was done.

  "I know. I didn't notice it at first, but we've been communicating on a different level for a while now. You looked so unhappy, and I knew it had nothing to do with there not being anyone here to spy on. I wondered to myself what could place such a sad look in your eyes and then it was all there."

  "Looks like I'll have to guard my thoughts around more than just Mort," I laughed. Inside I cringed. Good thing I hadn't been thinking about my earlier revelation. I wanted to tell Peter how I felt, but I didn't want a stray thought to rat me out before I was ready.

  "The question is, is this new ability one way?"

  "I hope not. That wouldn't be nearly as useful." I tended to focus on what was going on inside of myself. Peter was right. I should be fair. I had a ton of stuff to occupy my attention, including a massive internal upheaval of magic and emotion. Now that they were under control, I could prove to myself - and everyone else - that I cared as much about other people as any other Rector. We were legendary for our altruism. My family owed a debt to the rest of the world for unleashing the black death, but I had done enough damage of my own to understand how careful and caring I n
eeded to be to avoid doing something like that again.

  The waiter showed up and removed our salad plates, checking in to see if we wanted a refill for our water goblets. We told him we were fine and waited patiently for him to leave before we resumed our conversation.

  "Okay, let's see if you can do it, too," Peter suggested.

  "All right." I studied my boyfriend. His brown hair showed none of the red highlights in the dim light of the restaurant, but it was still long enough for the ends to tweak out a little. He often tugged on it while he was thinking, which he was doing while I watched.

  He smiled at me and gave a small cough. "Did I ever tell you how much of a disappointment I am to my entire clan? It was tough going though what you did, but at least you didn't have a bunch of relatives telling you what a failure you are."

  "What?" A laugh escaped my mouth, leaving me momentarily breathless. So absurd. "They're dark magicians. Who cares if they are mad you didn't grow up to be like them? They suck. And quit distracting me. I'm trying to get a read on your thoughts."

  Peter cracked up. "I didn't say anything."

  "Oh. Wait. What?" I studied him, but there were no goosebumps, no prickling of my scalp. Nothing to indicate he was lying. Or kidding. Most jokes came across as lies to my latent seer abilities.

  "Yeah. I was thinking that, though." He grinned and leaned back, giving the waiter room to set down our dinner plates. We had both ordered pasta dishes, and they smelled wonderful, mine with herb garlic butter and shrimp, his with marinara and peppers. "So that's great. We'll practice sending deliberate thoughts, but this is what Mort has been waiting for. We'll be better partners after this."

  "I think we're great already," I teased as I popped a shrimp into my mouth. So good.

  "True," he said with his usual alacrity. He always gave me his support.