by Sarah Noffke
She grabbed the phone and stuck it in the pocket of her hoodie. “It’s my friend. Looks like I have the night off.”
“Oh, well, then do you want to help me with the truck?” he asked, a glint of enthusiasm in his eyes.
The 1940s Willys hadn’t run in years. John worked on it on the weekends, but there were too many repairs and never enough money or time to get it up to standards. Still, Liv had enjoyed the chances he’d given her to work on its electric motor conversion with him. Usually it was “his” project, so his invitation was a welcome gesture.
“Sure thing!” Liv exclaimed, but then remembered her shift at the House of Seven. She added, “I can’t stay too long, though. I have a thing I have to do.”
“I thought you said you didn’t have to work tonight?” John asked.
“I don’t, but I have to give Plato his worm medicine.”
John and the feline looked at her and then at each other in unison.
“Oh, poor fella,” John said kindly. “He has worms?”
“Yep,” Liv lied. “Vet says it’s from eating out of garbage cans and licking his butt.”
John nodded like this made perfect sense. “Good thing he has you to take care of him.”
“That was the best lie you could come up with? I have worms?” Plato asked when they stepped through the portal into Santa Monica a few hours later.
“You’re a cat,” Liv said. “No one cares.”
He held his head high. “I care.”
“I didn’t know what else to say.” Liv halted in front of the House of Seven. She was actually quite early for once since she hadn’t met with Rory and John had dismissed her when it had gotten too dark to see. Still, they’d changed out the battery and Liv had repaired the radio, which John had thought was toast. Without magic, it probably would have been. She still didn’t know exactly how her magic worked, but with her focus honed, she’d been able to repair quite a few things in the shop that day.
Once they were through the long hallway, Liv went through the large door. She’d promised Sophia that she’d visit, and she wasn’t about to start letting the little girl down. However, once she was on the other side of the large door, Liv didn’t know where to go next. She hadn’t learned which door led to the Beaufonts’ quarters. She could have tried a locator spell, except she didn’t know how to use them. Fixing stuff with magic was easy, Plato had reasoned, because she already knew how to fix things. But doing things with magic that one didn’t know how to do was different, he’d explained.
At the landing to the long staircase , Liv froze. Looking at the stairs that climbed up seven flights filled her with emotions she hadn’t allowed herself to feel in a long time.
“Are you lost?” a voice called at her back.
Liv jolted and turned to find Stefan Ludwig standing only a few feet away. She hadn’t heard him approach. Stepping back a foot, she found the wall.
“I was looking for the Beaufonts’ quarters.”
His black eyebrows knitted in confusion. “I’m sorry for being obtuse, but shouldn’t you know where they are already?”
Liv let out a hot breath through her nostrils. “I don’t live here.”
“Oh, well that explains why I’ve never seen you around.” He held out his hand. “I’m Stefan, one of the Warriors you pretty much convicted of following the law blindly yesterday.”
She didn’t take his hand. “I regret nothing.”
He laughed easily. “I never would have expected Liv Beaufont to apologize, so don’t worry.” He eyed her. “You have quite the reputation already, you know?”
She nodded, looking at his cloak, which was clean. “Have you killed any magicians today?”
Again he laughed, this time louder. “I haven’t, but the day is still early.”
Liv narrowed her eyes at him, shaking her head.
“What have you murdered?” he said, pointing at her.
She looked down and sighed. Her jeans and t-shirt were covered in grease from the truck. Liv zipped up her hoodie, but that didn’t cover all the stains. “It’s from a truck, which by the way, I didn’t murder. I’m working on saving it since it didn’t do anything wrong, but you wouldn’t know anything about that.”
Stefan’s expression shifted to mild contempt. “You know, we’re not all bad.”
“You know, when you’re not all bad, you don’t have to tell people that. They simply realize it.”
Stefan took a step forward, invading her personal space. “Sheep’s blood.”
Liv narrowed her eyes. “What?”
“That was the blood on my cloak last night.”
She stepped around him, trying to get some distance. “That’s awful. You went and slaughtered sheep after murdering magicians? You’re sick.”
He laughed so abruptly that it made Liv freeze.
“I didn’t kill the sheep or the magicians.”
Liv was momentarily speechless. That didn’t make any sense, but the steady look in his eyes told her he wasn’t lying—or so she wanted to believe.
“Stef?” a voice called from behind her.
He looked over Liv’s shoulder and smiled.
Liv spun to find Raina Ludwig standing in the doorway.
The woman’s expression shifted to one of welcome at the sight of Liv. Raina was wearing a long gown of muted reds and blues. On her hip and shoulder, the material was gathered into elegant flowers. Her flowing black curls cascaded over her shoulders. “Oh, you’ve come for dinner. That’s marvelous. I’ll tell them to set an extra place for you.”
Liv shook her head quickly. “No, I haven’t actually. I already ate, but thank you. I’m here to see my sister.”
Raina smiled wider. “Oh, Sophia is my favorite. She’s the brightest child I’ve ever met.” She strode over and offered Liv her hand. “I’m Raina. We should meet formally, I think.”
Liv wrung her hand, offering a lame smile. “Nice to meet you.”
Raina leaned closer, which didn’t cause Liv the same trepidation that her brother had. “I liked the way you handled the troll. It made sense to me. I’m only sorry you had to go back and dispose of him.”
Liv’s face nearly gave her away. She tightened her hand in Raina’s, shaking it harder. “Yep, too bad I had to slay that beast, but my freezer is stocked with troll meat to last me for eons.”
Raina winked at her, pulling her hand free. “Your sister is taking her dinner in her quarters, as usual. It’s the door marked with your family crest. May I show you up?”
Liv suddenly felt dumb for not remembering about the family crest. Of course, that was how the quarters were marked. “No, I’m good. I don’t want to keep you from your dinner.”
Raina nodded good-naturedly. “Nice to meet you, Liv. I look forward to seeing you more.”
Liv didn’t know how to respond to this seemingly genuine comment, so she simply waved at Raina and her brother and headed up the stairs.
Sophia nearly launched herself at Liv when she opened the door. Then, seeing the thick grease marks on her clothing, she paused. “What are you covered in?” the little girl asked.
She was wearing a pink and silver sweater dress with a belt and leggings that made her look older than she was. Liv remembered pulling at the tight-collared dresses her mother made her wear and complaining about how the patent leather Mary Janes hurt her feet. She looked down at her Converse shoes and smiled with delight at how comfy she felt.
“It’s grease,” Liv answered.
“What sort of spell calls for grease?”
“Mechanics.”
Sophia gave Liv a curious look. “I haven’t heard of this branch of magic.”
“And you probably won’t,” Liv said, peering around Sophia. “Hey, is Clark here?”
Sophia shook her head. “No, he likes to hobnob with the old wrinklies.”
The confused expression on Liv’s face told Sophia that she’d misunderstood.
“Oh, I mean Adler and his brother and Bianca and Emil
io, who aren’t old but act like they are,” Sophia explained. “And Haro and Akio are there some of the time.”
“They eat in the dining room downstairs?” Liv asked.
“No, they meet in Adler’s private quarters.” Sophia rolled her beautiful blue eyes. “They are too good for the rest of us.”
“And you eat up here alone?” Liv asked.
Sophia looked both ways down the hall and sneakily waved Liv inside. “I’m not alone.”
When she passed through the door, Liv froze. There, sitting in a circle on the rug were a dozen stuffed animals. In front of them were plates and teacups. “You’re having dinner with your stuffies?”
Sophia clapped her hands. “It’s all right, guys. She’s cool.”
The animals all sprang to life, picking up their teacups and chatting with one another or toddling around the room.
“Ummm, you enchanted your stuffed animals to have parties with you?”
“I simply activated the side of them that was dormant. But I’m not supposed to do such things, and no one but Clark, and now you, know I have magic strong enough to do this kind of thing. I shouldn’t be able to until I’m twelve, when my magic is registered.”
“So the Councilors have no record of your magic, do they?”
Sophia nodded.
Liv looked down at her stained clothes. “Well, can you help me, so I don’t look like a mechanic? Clark will shoot me judgmental looks all night.”
“Sure,” Sophia said. “You don’t know how to do that yet?”
Liv shook her head. “No, I haven’t really been taught much. When I was your age, I didn’t dabble with my magic.”
“Why?” Sophia asked.
Liv watched as a toy giraffe stuck its face into a teacup, nearly getting it stuck on his nose. “I didn’t trust it. I had seen magic do a lot of bad things. I’d heard the stuff Mom and Dad talked about…” Liv stiffened, afraid she’d said something wrong.
“You don’t have to worry about it,” Sophia said, suddenly looking way too mature. “Thinking about them doesn’t make me sad. Not as sad as it would make you.”
Liv didn’t know what to say, so she watched as a teddy bear spilled tea down its front and then dabbed it with a napkin. Something on the far wall caught her eyes. A set of words she hadn’t seen in a long time. Etched onto the wall, were the words her parents had said often: Familia Est Sempiternum
Family is Forever.
Liv coughed to loosen the tension in her throat.
“I bet your education was different than mine,” Sophia went on, sensing the sudden emotion building in her older sister. “Clark says that Mom and Dad didn’t push things on you. He said that you would pick them up on your own, and it would be better that way.”
Liv nodded. “Yes, that’s true.”
“I’ve had to go to the House’s school most of my life, and it’s sort of strict,” Sophia explained.
“But you’re good with your magic,” Liv pointed out, looking around the living room full of animated stuffed creatures. Then something occurred to her. “But why don’t you join the others for dinner?”
“I sometimes do,” Sophia explained. “But I’m with people all day, so it’s sort of nice to just be with my friends.”
Liv wanted to hug the little girl. Instead, she pointed at Plato, who had materialized at some point. “That’s sort of how I feel about him, but don’t tell him I said that or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Sophia cupped her hand to her mouth and whispered, “I think he can hear you.”
Liv copied her. “He can always hear me. It’s why I say half the stuff I do.”
Plato sauntered over to the stuffed animals, his eyes dancing from one to the other as they paraded around.
“So, do you think you can clean up my outfit?” Liv asked her sister, looking down at her grease-streaked clothes.
“I can do one better.” Sophia pointed at her sister, and a moment later Liv felt constriction all over her body. She looked down, certain she was being strangled around the waist.
“What have you done to me?” Liv asked, gawking at the flowing gown she was wearing. The bodice was tight and lined with ribbons, and there were buttons down the back. The corset made it hard to breathe, and she didn’t have to move to know that the weighty train behind her would make walking difficult.
“It looks beautiful on you,” Sophia gushed.
“I’m a Warrior, and I need to look like one.”
Sophia thought for a moment and then nodded. A moment later Liv found herself wearing a black suit, like something a ninja would wear.
“Ummm…no?”
“Fine,” Sophia said, thinking again. “How about this?”
Liv felt something wrap around her, but not as tight as before. When the transformation had finished, she was wearing black leather pants and top, and a jacket with various zippers and compartments and a hood.
“I don’t hate this,” Liv said, admiring how stealthy the suit made her appear.
“It makes you look tough,” Sophia replied.
Liv winked at her. “I am tough. But really, I was only asking you to clean up my old clothes.”
Sophia nodded and returned the wink. A second later Liv’s clothes materialized in Sophia’s hand, folded and clean. She passed them to Liv. “There, now you have them for later when you go back to doing that mechanic thing.”
Liv laughed. She was definitely going to make time to spend with this little girl. There were few things that renewed her spirit, but Sophia Beaufont was one of them.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Liv expected to receive curious looks when she walked into the Chamber of the Tree. What she hadn’t expected was to find a small dragon flying through the room. It was red, with iridescent scales that caught the overhead lights indicating the registered magicians.
The crow watched from the floor as the dragon soared back and forth, shrieking. Liv grimaced at the awful sound but tried to ignore it as she took her spot next to Stefan. Decar was still gone, as well as Emilio and Akio. Liv guessed that some cases took longer than others, which kept the Warriors away.
Stefan shot her a look of surprise when she sidled up next to him. He had probably expected her to still be covered in grease.
When Liv caught Clark’s eyes, he too appeared flabbergasted, but pleasantly so. He gave her the smallest of thumbs-ups. If he had known that Sophia was responsible for her wardrobe, he might not have looked so pleased. That made Liv wonder where Sophia got the clothes. They had to have come from somewhere.
The small dragon dove, heading straight for Adler’s head. Liv hoped it would collide with his face, but it leveled out and landed beside the magician. Adler lifted his hand, and the dragon rubbed his head against it like a cat wanting attention. The dragon then curled up next to him, its narrowed eyes on the Warriors.
Didn’t realize it was Bring Your Pet to Work Day or I would have… Never mind, Liv thought.
“Trudy and Stefan,” Lorenzo began, reading from his tablet. “You’ve had moderate success at rounding up unregistered magicians, adding a total of twelve in the last day. But there have been quite a few causalties.”
Stefan cleared his throat. “It was unavoidable, sir.”
Lorenzo waved him off. “The unregistered do tend to be the most unsophisticated amongst us.”
“Sir,” Trudy began. Liv hadn’t heard her speak before, and her voice was higher-pitched than she would have expected since she had broad shoulders and masculine features. She had the same short spiky hair as her sister Hester, although hers was still blonde, whereas Hester had gone completely gray. Still, Hester had a femininity to her that made her appear soft, and Trudy seemed rough.
“Yes?” Lorenzo asked, looking down his long nose at the woman.
“Are we to continue to round up these unregistered magicians?”
Lorenzo appeared distracted for a moment, tapping on his device.
“The Councilors think that’s the bes
t use of your and Stefan’s skills for the time being,” Adler interjected. “You two have the best track record, and appear to work well together.”
“I understand that, sir,” Trudy began. “I was only wondering if we could be assigned to something different for a little while.”
Adler blew out a breath, making the dragon stir. “We haven’t cleaned up unregistereds in a while. This is necessary.”
Trudy nodded. “Very well, sir. Thank you. I’m happy to continue.”
“And if these rebels give you too much trouble, feel free to stop offering them the chance to register and just dispose of them,” Adler added.
“Wait, we’re not even giving magicians the chance to surrender?” Liv asked out of turn, as usual. “We’re shooting first and asking questions later?”
Adler didn’t try to hide his eye roll. “We are magicians, Ms. Beaufont. We don’t shoot people or anything of the sort. And all magicians are warned of repercussion if they don’t register their magic upon coming of age. Ignorance isn’t an excuse for delinquency.”
“A warning still seems like the first course of action,” Liv argued. She was about to say more, but she knew it was useless. Clark’s face had blossomed into an embarrassing shade of pink.
“Do you want to tell us how you dealt with the troll?” Adler asked.
“I killed it,” Liv said flatly, making Clark close his eyes for a half-beat from mortification.
Adler sighed. “How did you do that?”
“Well,” Liv said, drawing out the word, “first I used a binding spell to tie up its arms and feet. Once the sucker was on his back, I used a suffocation enchantment, but he was pissed by that point, rolling around and knocking rocks down from the cave ceiling.”
Liv knew that the Councilors would have a record of her using these spells since Rory and she had practiced them the night before. They just didn’t know she hadn’t performed them on a troll.
“You were in a cave?” Hester asked intently.
“Oh, yeah,” Liv answered. “The brute had made quite the home for himself. And he was relentless, breaking free of his restraints—”