by Harry Nix
“It was just a favor. It's not really anything to get horribly upset about,” Juno said, mistaking the expression on his face.
“It's not that. We’ll talk about it later, but yeah I can see it now. I owe Juno and April a favor,” Alex said.
He was abruptly tired of this discussion and didn't want to be in the kitchen anymore. The feeling that he was a traveler in a strange land was overwhelming again, that he’d encountered cultures so utterly alien to his—and that included the witches who apparently saw no problem in extracting favors from people who didn't know what they were promising—and who, even now were negotiating for help from a family member.
“Is there some limit on these favors? You can't just demand my entire net wealth can you? Not that there's not much of it,” Alex said.
“A favor granted is that which can be reasonably achieved. Favors are cheaper, simpler, lower. They’re like money to witches, so I can't ask you to give me your entire net wealth, but I could ask you, for example, to come with me while I break into someone's house. The construct of the favor itself tells us what is agreeable,” Ruby said.
“Can we go back to negotiating now?” Juno asked.
“No, I accept your offer. I give you a favor, and you give me everything you just discussed with Juno, yes?” he said to Ruby.
“Yes,” Ruby said, shortly followed by Juno
“No!”
But it was done. Alex actually felt a ripple in the magic around them. It felt like a tickle.
“Was that it?” he said.
“Witnessed and recorded,” Juno said. She got up from the table and left the room, leaving Alex sitting there with Ruby.
“I guess you didn't feel it before because you weren't sensitive enough to the magic. To set your mind at ease, I'm going to ask you for exactly what I just said: your help to break in somewhere. But before then, we need to get started. Show me that healing spell you’ve apparently written,” Ruby said, holding a hand out across the table.
Alex's mind was in turmoil. There was some feeling of… was it betrayal? He didn't know whether he should be angry about the favor, and there was something about that that made him angry. Being plunged into this world. Had Nia known? Were these things serious or was it so little that she hadn't even considered it? It felt like he'd signed a contract he'd been unable to read. The fact that Ruby wanted her favor to be him helping her break into somewhere at least showed it wasn't too extreme… probably.
Alex put out his hand and touched Ruby's. For a moment he got a sensation like there was a building in front of him three or four stories high, something powerfully strong, well-built, and enormous with many rooms. Ruby’s spell screen appeared above her head. In contrast to her disposition, which was somewhat ‘cranky old lady’, her spell screen was streaked with a rainbow of colors running through it. He caught a scent: baked cookies and soap. It reminded him of the magic that was on Boris and he realized that of course Ruby had cast that spell; the one that enabled Boris to regenerate from smashed windows, flat tires, and bullet holes. Although Alex was angry and felt like he just wanted to stand outside alone to think things through, he brought up his hastily written healing spell, the new version that zapped through him, and shared it with Ruby.
“Oh, that is interesting what you've done there,” Ruby said after a moment. Alex could feel her copying it. It didn't take long, though, only a second or two and she had the whole thing.
“Yes, very interesting indeed,” she said.
9
Alex and Ruby were in the basement, discussing the house wards and what little Ruby knew of enchanting when Alex leaped to his feet. “Stephen’s still in Boris’s trunk! I completely forgot!”
Ruby said something but Alex didn't hear it. He was already running out of the room. By the time he got upstairs, he realized he still had no way to contact Nia, Juno, or April. They’d all gone out together, taking Boris—and presumably Stephen—with them.
Alex still had his phone, and he knew Juno had one, but they'd simply never bothered to send each other a phone number. Even in his frantic state, Alex recognized this was yet another symptom of getting together so quickly. He was standing in the lounge, freaking out, when Ruby came sauntering in.
“So, what's the matter?” she asked.
“I forgot that Stephen is in Boris’s trunk. The whole thing with the kid is that I'm trying to build rapport. I want him to teach me spells, or at least show them to me and tell me addresses and locations. It’s hard to do that when he's just been locked in a trunk for the whole day. Plus what if he escapes while they’re out or starts yelling and kicking?”
“Don't worry, we witches have magical ways to contact,” Ruby said. She held up a hand as though she was about to cast a spell and then reached into a pocket and pulled out a phone. Within a moment she had sent the text and got one in return.
“They’re on their way back now. Don't worry, it was just a few hours in Boris’s trunk. Who hasn't done that before?”
“Do you think it's safe to use phones when everyone is after us?” Alex asked. Although they were within the wards of the house, Juno wasn't.
“Juno took a burner phone with her. I usually have a few around when I'm back in town.”
Alex took a few deep breaths and sat down on the sofa, Ruby sitting on the other one. They’d spent the morning and then into the afternoon discussing all things magic. Ruby had shown him a few spells. Yet again there was the memory size issue holding him back. He couldn't copy any of them in full. Simply reading more code was useful, he felt, on some level, but he was still hamstrung by the fact that it took years to be able to learn more complicated spells. Still, it had been an incredibly valuable time.
Ruby had talked of her own magic. She saw her spells as a play on a stage, with characters and props. She could direct new people, create them out of nothing and shuffle them onto the stage, which was her method of writing spells.
Alex had discovered through this, that some magic users had an affinity and could help each other. Alex had told her of Stephen and his comic pages and how he'd seen Alex's homebrew healing spell as a woman with the map being ignored by the doctor. How Stephen had managed to cut her out to change the pieces so then Alex could access it and improve his spell.
Alex had noticed at the time that he and Stephen had worked together incredibly well. Ruby had backed up as much. Some mages were stronger together. She told him that some of the most powerful enchantments and spells were made by duos. She also explained her personal hypothesis that this was why the mage enclaves were absolutely stupid. A pain mage plus a death mage might be the ultimate combo but they kept to their own kind, and thus were weaker.
They'd spent the past two hours discussing the Great Barrier and Alex's discovery that he could see the spell, which was something Ruby found incredible. As a powerful witch she'd even cast Know Thyself 100x but still was unable to see the Great Barrier spell working on her. Alex was able to share some fragments of what he'd copied with her; the long strings of numbers but that hadn't translated into anything for Ruby. She could see there were figures, but they were grayed and blurred out, anonymous and faceless. The image that Alex had grabbed from the spell—the sun shining down on the werewolves—was unable to be copied all.
Ruby had explained, though, that not everything in a spell was the spell, and Alex, with his programming knowledge instantly understood. After all, in programs, you could add comments, which was usually done to explain what exactly you were doing to make it easier to change in the future. But sometimes, people just added comments to say things, to put in poems or stories or other bits of information. It was possible that someone had thrown that image into the Great Barrier spell as decoration or maybe for no reason at all.
“That kid is going to be so angry,” Alex said, running his hands through his hair.
“Pish-posh, he'll be fine,” Ruby said.
“I need him to like us though. I mean, I didn't entirely intend for it all to ha
ppen so quickly, so I thought I had more time, but I wanted to get him to trust me, so he would share.”
“We could drug him.”
Alex glanced at her to see if she was joking but, apparently, she wasn't.
“Drug him? That might work short-term but I want him actually to like and trust me.”
“You worry far too much. There are certain… let's say, concoctions a witch can make that will make the victim joyful. They’ll want to spread their secrets. They’ll sing at the top of their lungs. They will trust you, and even the next day they’ll still think you’re their friend because they bonded with you. Now, tell me why we shouldn't do that, considering all you’re facing?”
Alex tried to wrap his mind around the idea. He hadn't had any problem with April drugging that mercenary mage they'd captured, nor any problem when she’d killed them. But this kid? This eighteen-year-old, so thin and gangly?
“I don’t know if that’s the right thing,” he said.
“I was thinking gin, tonic, and a slice of lime. Give him a few of those, and he'll start talking. A nice dinner. Maybe some lemon cheesecake for dessert,” Ruby said, a sly grin appearing on her face.
For a moment Alex saw the years fall away from her and virtually saw Juno's face peering out from her grandmother and saw the sneaky sly witch sitting in front of him.
“He’s not of legal drinking age yet, but maybe a few gin and tonics could help,” Alex said.
“Good! It's a party,” Ruby said.
Alex heard Boris pull up the drive into the garage. He went to the kitchen with Ruby as Nia, April, and Juno crowded back into the house. They were carrying groceries, including a heavy bag full of alcohol. Juno strained as she lifted it up onto the bench and Alex saw two large bottles of gin, as well as the rest. It was when they put down a large box with lemon cheesecake printed on it that he realized the plan was already in motion.
“Gin and tonic, dinner and cheesecake?” he said to Ruby.
“Gotta watch witches, boy, always three steps ahead of you,” she said and gave him a wink.
Alex turned to his three mates and lowered his voice.
“So… I forgot that Stephen was still in the trunk. Is he still there?” he said, afraid the mage would hear him, even though he was out in the garage.
“He’s still there. We checked on him. and he’s okay,” April said, unpacking groceries.
“We need to bring him inside because we can't leave him locked in there.”
“Sure, just let's get these things packed away first,” April said.
As the girls unpacked the groceries and put them away, Ruby inspected the bottle of gin, reading the label.
“Very high proof; this should work. I can't wait to give that kid my ‘magic potion’…” she said, looking sideways at Alex. Juno stifled a laugh. Alex poked her in the side with his finger.
“Yes, witches are very funny. Thank you,” he said, rolling his eyes at the pair of them.
Then, Nia turned to Ruby. “You won’t guess who we saw. Tony Mazzazoli!”
“Really? How did he look?”
Nia bit her knuckle and made what Alex could only describe as a sex face. Both Juno and April pretended to fan themselves.
“What was that, Nia? Who's Tony Mazzazoli?” Alex said after poking Nia and getting his hand slapped away.
“They went to school with him. That kid went through the schoolgirls there like a bad curry through a… I don’t know, a drunk.” Ruby said.
“Eww, that’s gross,” Juno protested.
“Girls were just throwing their virginities at him left, right and center,” Ruby added, making a motion like someone throwing a frisbee and then catching it out of the air.
“That's too much information,” Juno said, her voice rising in pitch.
“What do you mean? You know,” Ruby said.
“I have no idea what you're talking about. In fact, I'm still a virgin,” Juno said.
Nia, April, and Ruby all snorted simultaneously. Juno turned on Nia.
“Oh, I see. Like a certain werewolf didn't ‘stay back late for band practice’ that one time.”
Now it was time for the grin to disappear from Nia's face.
“I have no idea what you're talking about. Like you, I am also a virgin,” Nia said, trying to keep a straight face.
Alex was grinning now, seeing his two mates get embarrassed by Ruby.
“The two of you lost your virginity to the same kid?” he asked.
“It wasn't so much lost, as thrown at great speed,” Ruby said, opening the bottle of gin and sniffing at it.
“You know there are plenty of super dodgy old folk’s homes around the place. Lots of them are under investigation,” Juno threatened.
Ruby just ignored her and turned back to Nia. “So Nia, how did Tony Mazzazoli look anyway?”
“Yes, Nia, how did he look?” Alex added.
“Oh, it was… horrible. He’s obviously really let himself go, and I think he's had some kind of accident. Maybe something involving chemicals. Um, and he only had one eye as well and he’s obviously not doing well financially. He didn't even have a proper eyepatch, it was just like a wad of toilet paper, taped to his head. He's losing his hair too. He was definitely one hundred percent not slim and trim and fantastically fit with the body to die for with that beautiful, dark Italian hair and those blue eyes and just the right amount of stubble, which was a shame really,” Nia said.
Alex was having too much fun to stop. He turned to April next.
“So, you and Tony Mazzazoli too?” he asked.
April swatted him with a bunch of celery.
“No, actually. I'll have you know it was a delightful boy named Hugo Harris. He had beautiful brown curls, and blue eyes,” she said.
“He was a little nerd,” Nia said.
“Super-nerd but he was pretty adorable. He was like a little Cabbage Patch Doll brought to life,” Juno added.
“Isn’t he a lawyer or something now?” Ruby asked.
“Environmental lawyer, saving the wetlands and all that. Or so I've heard. It’s not like I've stalked him online or anything to see what he's doing. It’s not like he’s out there every day to try to save the environment, like a hero,” April said.
“Mine was a werewolf named Ben,” Ruby began before Juno threw up her hands.
“Nope, I don't wanna hear this story. I don’t wanna hear about Ben ever again,” she said.
Ruby continued, unperturbed. “He was a wild thing, and I'd gone marching out into the wilderness until he found me. He caught me naked, bathing in a stream.”
“La, la, la, la, la,” Juno said, her finger stuck in her ears.
“You should have seen the bite marks I ended up with, and he had some too,” Ruby said, pulling one of Juno's fingers out of her ears.
“La, la, I can't hear this. I don't know what you're saying, my grandmother is still a virgin, obviously,” Juno said out loud.
“Then of course one night he introduced me to his friend,” Ruby added.
“Nope, I'm going to get the kid now,” Juno said, rushing out of the kitchen. All four of them were laughing, which is how Stephen found them when Juno brought him in from the garage. He was still looking skinny and small, and also fairly scared. Maybe it was the four of them laughing, the domestic nature of the scene, or who knows, the bottles of gin sitting on the bench, but Alex thought he saw the kid relax.
“Death boy! What's your name?” Ruby called out as Juno pushed him further into the kitchen.
“Um… Stephen.”
“Juno, unlock Stephen,” Ruby instructed. Juno took the mage cuffs off him, and the kid stood there, rubbing his wrists. He was looking a bit scruffy, perhaps from spending such a long time stuffed in the trunk, but otherwise looked okay.
“Stephen, this house is warded, so you can move around it and even go into the yard. But if you attempt to leave it will crisp you to ash, understand?” Ruby said. Though she was still smiling, there was a cold steel
undercurrent in her voice. Alex wasn't entirely sure she was telling the truth. He hadn't heard that the wards worked that way but he guessed the kid didn't know that.
“Absolutely, yes, yes,” Stephen said.
“It's about three, so I think it's time for a drink,” Ruby said.
Alex glanced at Stephen and nodded his head too. Hopefully, this plan would work and if not, well, at least they'd had some gin and tonic and cheesecake.
10
Around nine, Alex found himself incredibly drunk out in the backyard with Stephen who, despite his size, was holding up fairly well, considering the ridiculous amount of drinking they'd been doing.
Over the course of the afternoon Ruby had taken over bartending duties, making increasingly stronger gin and tonics. Alex was surprised how well the kid was doing. He knew at his age if he had drunk as much he would have passed out, thrown up, or both. It turned out the girls had bought steaks, which Juno and Ruby had drunkenly cooked up about six and served with some premade salads and then followed with cheesecake. Stephen, despite his initial nervousness, had relaxed and was eating, drinking, and sometimes laughing with all of them.
Sometimes, in rare moments, sober thoughts would appear for Alex, like how strange it felt to be Stephen's captor and yet to be friendly with him. Was this what Stockholm syndrome was?