Praelia Nox

by T J Kelly

  "So, you had people harassing you for not going dark," I said, wanting to continue the conversation. We had talked about his family a little on and off, especially during those times we had been stuck in the infirmary after our many confrontations with the enemy. But I wanted to know everything.

  "It was hard for them to access me. Peony and Ged brought in tutors and home schooled me. They were persistent, though. Tried to fight Ged's guardianship. But Mort's a great attorney. He kept me safe."

  The genealogies I had to memorize in school played across my mind as I sorted through what I knew about the Makenna family. "You were the heir," I said. "I can't believe he won." My respect for Mort shot up. I didn't think it was possible to admire him even more. But I did.

  "Yeah. But the business peaked centuries ago and there wasn't anything left for me to inherit besides the traditional secrets. Nobody needed the inferior quality Makenna crystals when Rector's were better. Even if ours sometimes held dark spells better."

  I almost choked. Peter handed me my water goblet, and I took a few sips. "Are you saying we put you out of business? How did I not know this?"

  "We're an offshoot bloodline. The original products were patented to the Minaces clan. My ancestor married a Makenna and while our magic complemented theirs, the low grade crystals they mined really weren't good enough. If I was last in line for a company the size of Rector Enterprises, I doubt even Mort could have saved me. He found a connection to one of Peony's ancestors way back and Mort leveraged that as hard as he could. It was enough for me to be adopted even if I don't have the right stuff to make a real Laurus."

  "Well, I'm glad you weren't adopted into the bloodline. I mean, we aren't related, even on paper." The ties and alliances in magic society were complicated and often the concept of "related" didn't mean what it did for mundanes. But it still held some of the same taboos. I was relieved Peter wasn't my cousin, even by adoption.

  "Yeah. First cousin is too close," he agreed. "I think being second cousins is a little weird, too," he added. He was referring to Chas's Promise to marry Clarissa. They shared one great-grandparent Taine and while there were no laws of man or nature prohibiting it, that thought still made me uncomfortable. Probably because I had spent so much time studying history that having a shared ancestor as close as only three generations back felt really recent.

  "Right? But whatever. The Taines are super traditional. I bet it never even crossed Chas's mind that it might be creepy." More and more of the kids in recent times were throwing off the ancient ways. Centuries ago, they didn't know how the strongest magic was a dominant trait. Didn't know about DNA. There was no need to keep the bloodline mixed to keep the magic going strong. But back then, even mundanes did something similar to keep their fortunes intact.

  "Or like he ever had a choice."

  "Not about that," I said, but the bitterness was no longer in my voice. Chas made his decision to leave me and go back to his family to help me. It had crushed me at the time, but now I saw it for what it really was. A caring, sacrificial gesture from a young man who feared for my safety. For my life. It was actually quite sweet.

  "Oh, gag me," Peter laughed. "Chas is back to being a sweetheart, eh?" Nothing in his voice indicated he was remotely concerned about my unguarded, stray thought. My concern about how Peter and Chas felt about each other disappeared. They had obviously worked something out.

  "Yeah, yeah," I said, then got back on track. "Your family uses Fire." But not Peter. He ascended with a ton of Light, instead. An adjacent element, the same way gold and lead were adjacent magic metals that the alchemists used.

  "Not the typical useful element for working crystal. Earth is better. But they had a little trick they used to make it work. Now that we know how to use opposite magic to pull in the other elements, I'll play with that. Who knows? It may come in handy someday. Make being a Makenna worth something."

  "You're worth more than anything," I blurted.

  "Ah. Well. Thank you," Peter said. Pink tinged his cheekbones.

  His embarrassment helped me ignore mine. "Hey, the cool thing is, not only do you have the right magic to help me with our partnership, but you have a bloodline connection to crystal. That's a new area we can explore." Peter had been helping me with my side projects and was part owner of the company I set up to patent all the new inventions and spells I had come up with.

  "Yeah. It's like we were made for each other."

  I froze. Fortunately, our dessert arrived, giving me an excuse not to speak. My chest was tight, as if it were so full it was about to burst. I clamped down on my thoughts, taking a bite of the crème brûlée I had ordered before I made another comment. "A lot of things make me feel that way."

  There. I did it. I told him a bit about how I felt without freaking myself out.

  My boyfriend opened his mouth to respond, but I was doomed to never know what he was about to say because at that moment, the man I hated most in the world walked into the room.

  Oberon Taine.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Oberon's Warning

  Peter tossed down cash to pay for the meal so we wouldn't have to remain seated while our enemy was in the room. Not that anything would happen in the middle of a fancy restaurant. Proprietors always used protective magic prohibiting the more obvious attack spells. And there were too many magicians in the building to really know who had the advantage of numbers once the different alliances took effect. It wasn't worth the risk.

  Oberon did everything he could to seem like he had an edge over me and I didn't want him looming over my seated position. We hightailed it to the door so the unavoidable confrontation happened in the entry area near the bar.

  "Ms. Rector," Alastair Taine, Oberon's next youngest brother, said in greeting. He then nodded to Peter. "Makenna."

  "Alastair. Oberon." As ever, I refused to greet my enemy in a way that could ever be mistaken for respectful.

  It always worked, too. His lips tightened with annoyance. He truly couldn't stand that I never greeted him by his magician name. Not that I cared - he disgusted me.

  Oberon Taine reveled in the dark. His clan had twisted their bloodline magic, which was based in Light the way mine was in Dark, to warp its very nature. It was disgusting and wrong. Made his aura feel like tainted goo. I hated when circumstances forced me to shake his hand. Pissing him off helped me avoid that necessity.

  "Young love is always so adorable," Oberon said. Him knowing I was dating Peter threw me off for a second, but we were on a date. Oberon was many things, but stupid wasn't one of them. "Although I'm surprised your uncle has chosen for you a young man so beneath your bloodline."

  "Armageddon supports all of my decisions," I retorted, emphasizing my uncle's name as a reminder I was the ward of the most powerful magician in the world. "Besides, he remembers his genealogy. The Makennas are from a more ancient line than the Taines. So you could say I traded up."

  Not that I thought Chas wasn't a great guy. And he had kick butt magic. But the longer a bloodline existed, the stronger it got with each new generation. I wasn't above reminding Oberon that his ploys to force Chas to leave me had also lost him access to my ancient bloodline - and company - through his son.

  "The diminished heir of a failed clan is hardly a prize," Oberon snapped.

  Peter shifted, his arm brushing mine, sending me his Light. And a message. He felt no pain or humiliation at Oberon's words. I didn't need to protect him or defend him. Or take the bait.

  "Nobody is worthy of her," Peter interjected. "So I content myself with being grateful she can see the value of those around her so clearly." Peter eyed Oberon and his brother, his lip curled into a microscopic sneer. Not enough to mar his handsome features, but still visible to the ones who so disgusted him.

  Well. That was sweet. I kept the smile off my face, though. Oberon hated the blank look I gave him almost as much as my disrespect. "She may, but can she predict what will happen next?"

  Magic surged through me. Darkn
ess rose along with my fury at the veiled threat, but so did my Light. All the elements swelled with power, answering my silent call. The surrounding air crackled in response.

  I wasn't sure what to say. There were a million thoughts running through my mind, but I didn't want to give anything away. He didn't actually know I had latent seer talents. He was just taunting us for not knowing his plans.

  And I wasn't going to clue him in. At the moment, I had the upper hand. "I don't need to know what you're up to when I have the loyalty of those around me," I said, vaguely referring to how his own servants had chosen me over a lifetime in the Taine household. That's how I ended up with Sera as my apprentice. And in possession of the Taine clan coach and their best horses. Her father Aurum had owned them outright, and she inherited them when he died.

  "Merely the culling of the weak," he bit back. Peter's hand clamped down on my arm, keeping me from raising it and punching Oberon right in his fat mouth. How dare he? Sera's father lost his life to protect me. To give his daughter a better life. That kind of sacrificial strength deserved to be honored, not mocked. "Heed my warning, young lady."

  I hated that smug tone. "Oh, I'm all ears," I said, waiting for whatever awful thing he wanted to say next.

  "You may not have heard, but there has been a rash of illnesses among the lower classes," he said. The prickling of my scalp told me he was lying about something, but really, he had so much doublespeak that nothing he ever said rang as true. "I know you bleeding-heart types love to take in the riffraff, but be warned. The disease will spread. The best thing is to keep anyone beholden to you under firm control. No movement until the Council has identified the cause. There's a petition to place a temporary hold on all employment contracts for the health and safety of our people."

  Oh, man. He was implementing the emergency conditions to force his employees to stay. Showing us his power in the Council, his ability to stop any other servant from betraying him or spying for us.

  Something clicked. That was it. The lie in his words. Nobody was sick. They were suffering from the illegal curse Oberon had placed on anyone who worked for him. It had nearly killed Sera, and would have if I didn't have the help of Poltens Sanator and my uncle.

  Oberon was warning us, all right. But not about a mysterious illness. He was telling us if we asked for help, developed contacts in dark households, our informants would die.

  I knew he was ruthless. He wanted to take over the world and had enough allies to succeed. They were willing to do anything. People had been kidnapped. Hurt. Killed. Adrian's mind was permanently damaged. Sera had lost her father. The Taines were behind the car wreck that had taken my parents.

  But the sheer volume of nasty things he did still took me off guard. We knew about the curse, but I hadn't realized so many of his people were desperate enough to leave that it was killing them in such numbers the Council noticed. There had always been rumors about the dangers of leaving the service of the Taine clan. Now they were being confirmed on a large scale. By the illnesses - and eventual deaths - of those who tried to leave.

  "I take care of my people," I said, voice soft and tired. "Already have." I was terrified to say more. What if he realized Chas was spying on him? There was a blood oath controlling some of Chas's actions, but was there also a curse of death on him? On Oberon's own son?

  And what about Clarissa? Not just her - everyone who was helping us. I needed to check on them all.

  And just like that, I had a ton more stuff to do. Oberon was too good at his distractions.

  "Not all of them." The look on his face, the triumph in his eyes. He was talking about my parents.

  Peter pulled me away. Alastair was standing too close and without a thought or need to mark his notepad, Peter threw out a shield spell and pushed him aside. My boyfriend didn't say a thing until we were outside in the cool, damp night air.

  "It wasn't your fault your parents died," he growled. "Don't you dare let him make you think it was."

  I carried a lot of guilt with me, but he was right. The choices other people made that affected me weren't my responsibility. Only how I responded to them. "I won't. I'm okay. Really."

  We hurried around the corner of the building. With a burst of energy, Peter transported us across the bay to a small dock in San Leandro. It was quiet, only the gentle clanking of metal tack on the boats carrying in the night air. "Good."

  I ran my fingers along Peter's arm, his muscles rock hard with tension. I guess he wasn't as unaffected as I had thought. I slid my hand up his shoulder and around the back of his neck, fingers tangling with his soft hair. "You know what would make me feel better?" I asked.

  He gazed down at me, evening softening the intensity in his eyes. "What?"

  "This." I stood on my tiptoes and gave him a kiss. Oberon wasn't the only one who was good at distractions. But ours was infinitely more enjoyable.

  ◆◆◆

  "At least we know he hasn't caught on yet," Peter said as he finished our debriefing with Mort. We had stopped by his study after changing out of the fancy clothes we wore on our date. "Oberon thinks it's somebody lower down in the ranks."

  I allowed the guilt that rose from knowing innocent people were being harmed because of our activities flow over me. Acknowledged it. Then pushed it aside. My uncle would assign our contracted healers into small groups to tackle the Taine curse. The hardest part would be identifying the cases so we could counteract the curse. One more task caused by the two-path strategy our enemies used. An ever-growing list of important things we had to do that kept us from achieving our main goal.

  To stop the dark magicians from taking over the world.

  "You two did a good job," Mort assured us. I think he saw how stressed out we were after our confrontation. "And you have confirmed your deep level of communication. Develop that, especially during combat practice."

  "We hear and obey," I teased, saluting him as we rose to leave.

  "Before you retire for the evening, swing by the blue sitting room on the second floor," Mort added, ignoring my silliness. "Adrian's here and would like a moment of your time." Most rooms in the castle were seeing more usage now that we had so many agents coming and going. Adrian was more of a project than anything else, but I considered him one of my particular responsibilities. And he worked for me. He was scrupulous about checking in whenever he was around or thought something important needed to come to my attention.

  Peter held the door open as we left Mort's office, waiting patiently for me to finish what he called a mini-brood. Sometimes I took a moment to think things over, turning inward. He said it looked like I was brooding intensely for a few minutes before I snapped back to normal. That I came out of it quicker if left alone to my own devices.

  A grin split my face right as we reached the sitting room. It was kind of cool that he noticed that about me. And facilitated those moments. Sometimes I came up with the best new spells while I was pondering things.

  "Hey, Adrian," I said as we entered the room. My faux relative was relaxing in a chair, reading through a stack of papers in one of Mort's manila folders. Probably some intelligence pertinent to whatever he was working on.

  "It's nice to see you guys again," he said, tucking the folder into a briefcase before he rose to greet us. I guess he was going to take it with him. Adrian gave me a quick side-hug and shook Peter's hand. I couldn't articulate how much more I liked him now that the damage left by Oberon's rage had permanently changed him. He had a better balance of light to dark, and the smarmy, creepy man we met in San Francisco had disappeared completely. Out of habit, I checked the spellwork we did but all that remained was the usual darkness any human had inside. "I have some tea on the tray if you're interested."

  "No, thanks," Peter said. He took a seat near the window and scooped up a newspaper. He didn't really need to come with me, but he had told me one time that he trusted Armageddon's magic, and my own, but nobody had ever reconstructed somebody's mind the way we had. He wanted to stick aroun
d just in case something unforeseen happened.

  Which was sweet, if annoying. As if I couldn't take care of myself. Then again, maybe he was worried about what I would do to Adrian if he turned on me.

  Which was totally fair.

  "I'm good, too," I replied, slipping onto a sofa near where he had been sitting. Adrian took a seat as soon as I was situated. "How are things going?"

  "Excellent. Your uncle stopped by earlier to check me over," he said with a half smile. I had to hand it to him - he put up with our constant monitoring with grace and patience. Better than me. I probably would have yelled or threw a fit by now. There was only so much poking and prodding I could stand. But I guess if my brain had been damaged like his had, I would do everything in my power to make sure I was completely healed.

  "Good," I said. I didn't mention that I was taking a deeper dive into his mind as we spoke. It seemed a little rude and pushy, even if needed. But it was fine. Adrian was fine. I could feel it. There was still that lingering darkness, but who didn't have at least some Dark to contend with? The work we did to reconstruct him was holding firm and almost impossible to tell where the damage had been. With time, that remaining indicator would go away. "Hey, I've heard some companies have troubles with their support employees coming down ill."

  May as well check to see if Oberon's reach went as far as Europe or if it was more of a local problem.

  "That is a part of my most recent report," he said. He reached over to the side table nearest his position and picked up a small blue folder. "I've been concerned that it might spread, but it has been contained to only a few people. None work for us."

  I flipped through the pages, looking over the diagrams he included with lists of minor calculations. Impressive. He must have had an excellent education. Very thorough. There was even a small packet of pages dedicated to time periods and spread rates. It was dead easy to see that it wasn't behaving like a normal illness.