A Green Magic

by Alix Hadden

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  A GREEN MAGIC

  Alix Hadden

  River Wall Press

  London

  Copyright © 2017 Alix Hadden

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction, and all names, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.

  Cover Art: Reese Dante reesedante.com

  Developmental Editor: Carrie O'Grady

  Copyeditor: Marna Nightingale

  Proofreader: Marna Nightingale

  Join my mailing list to receive a free short story about the night Kir and Ali first met, and Kir discovered he was a mage.

  See the back of the book for details.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Kir Davies hung precariously from his fingertips, pushed himself upwards with his right foot, and grabbed at the next hold with his spare hand. For a moment he thought he'd made it, then as he tried to pull upwards, his hand slipped, and he fell.

  "Ah, shit."

  He hit the mat three metres below with a solid thud, and let himself roll backwards as he landed. The climber eyeing up the next problem along gave him a commiserating nod, before chalking her own hands and stepping up to the climbing wall. Kir sat up, legs out in front of him, and stared up at the holds he'd just fallen from, feeling hugely irritated.

  Falling was par for the course when bouldering; it was always a bit aggravating, but it didn't justify this level of annoyance. He didn't have any reason to be this annoyed. Work was fine -- his current set of clients all paid his rates without demur and gave him sufficiently interesting projects to get his teeth into. He didn't have any particular magery project on the go right at the moment, but that wasn't a big deal. He liked where he lived, he had good friends, and he was entirely happy with his decision to steer clear of any romantic relationships for the moment.

  So why were his thoughts still churning around like this? And why wasn't climbing doing its normal trick of clearing his head, forcing him to concentrate just on what he was doing here? Because he wasn't concentrating, and that was pretty clearly why he was struggling with this problem.

  He sighed, and leant back on his hands, absently watching the other climbers around him. The obvious solution was to call it a day. If it wasn't going well, it wasn't going well; these things happened, right? But Kir hated giving up, even temporarily. Ali, his best friend, criticised him for it often enough, claiming that it was perfectly reasonable just to stop for a while sometimes, give oneself a break. Ali was big on self-care. (At least in theory. She wasn't always so good at applying that theory to herself.) Kir, on the other hand, felt that if something wasn't working, he'd rather keep hurling himself at it until the solution turned up. So, sometimes that might mean staying up for 40 straight hours, or shredding his hands at the bouldering wall, or that time he turned most of his flat purple and couldn't turn it back again for a week. Overall, he reckoned it made him a better coder, a better climber, and a better mage.

  Also it made Ali roll her eyes at him a lot.

  So. He was going to climb this damn problem, at the very least, before he went back to his flat and got some coding done. Maybe if he shifted his weight the other way halfway up? Or if that didn't work, he could see what happened if he started on the other foot.

  He pushed himself up onto his feet, chalked his hands up, and tried again.

  The weight shift did the trick; he made it to the final hold, tapped it with his other hand, and climbed down a few holds before jumping back off onto the mats. At the far end of this section of wall, a noisy group had come around the corner, and he glanced over at them, then up at the clock on the wall. Dammit, it was getting late in the afternoon. It would start getting crowded soon. Kir strongly preferred climbing -- like he preferred everything else -- with fewer people around. People were noisy, and annoying, and they got in the way. Time to go, maybe? But now he'd managed that problem, he was feeling a bit better; he kind of fancied trying another one.

  "...So, like I said, try those spotty ones, right? They're easiest."

  The speaker was the only one of the group wearing his own climbing shoes; the other two had hired ones. Someone bringing friends along for a go, then. Kir moved a little along the wall, checking out the next problem he wanted to climb, and keeping half an eye on the newbies. Sometimes people signed their mates in then were a bit lax about keeping an eye on them. Bouldering had less scope for doing yourself serious mischief than roped climbing, just because of the lower heights involved, but still, people did dumb things sometimes.

  "Yeah, you're clear there," the experienced one was encouraging one of his friends.

  Kir glanced over again just as the newbie started up one of the easiest marked problems, and his eyebrows twitched upwards before he could get them under control. The newbie clearly had no clue at all about climbing, and he was hardly what you'd call graceful, but his battered-looking jeans were clinging to his arse and thighs, and there was nothing at all wrong with them.

  Blushing slightly, Kir looked away. Inevitably you saw a certain amount of people's arses going up and down the wall, but staring was rude. Even admiring staring.

  Anyway. He'd sworn off entanglements, whether physical or romantic. It was only a couple of months since Becky had dumped him on the grounds that she hardly ever saw him, between work, climbing, and hanging out with Ali. She'd missed out the magery, of course, which was also related to the time he spent with Ali and why he mostly didn't invite Becky along, but Becky hadn't known he was a mage. He'd just been getting to the point of wondering whether they were serious enough for him to tell her about it when she dumped him. He sighed. If he did get involved with anyone again (ever), he was fed up of hiding the magery; but restricting himself to fellow mages would limit the dating pool pretty severely. It was a damn sight easier just to avoid getting involved with anyone at all.

  The newbie with the nice arse had obviously reached the top and was on his way down again, jumping down from slightly too far up in Kir's opinion. He turned to his friend, saying something enthusiastic, and Kir swallowed. He had short red hair with a slight curl to it, pale skin with lots of freckles, and a wide smile that pushed him over from 'not bad' into 'definitely cute'.

  He looked over, caught Kir's eye, and smiled. Kir, slightly panicked, gave the tiniest smile back and immediately turned back to his problem. Briefly, he considered going for the one a grade down, so he'd definitely get all the way to the top; then dismissed the idea. He wasn't trying to impress the red-haired guy. He was here to climb, not to eye anyone up.

  Pleasingly, he made the problem first time anyway, and dropped to the mat feeling smug, as he always did when he on-sighted something. He dusted off his hands and turned to see the red-haired guy looking over, and smil
ing at him again. Kir could feel his cheeks heating up, and told himself off again. That wasn't flirtation. It was just someone watching someone else who was a bit better than them. Everyone did that. And if it was flirtation, he still wasn't interested, because he didn't want to get involved with anyone right now, and if he did, it would be with another mage, not some random at the climbing wall.

  He looked at the start of the next problem, and realised that the red-haired guy had moved closer to him, and was looking at the same stretch of wall.

  "Uh." Red-haired guy was looking over at him. "Can I -- I mean, are you...?" He gestured at the wall.

  Kir shook his head. "No, you go ahead. I'm still working this one out before I try it."

  Red-haired guy grinned cheerfully at him, and started up the lowest-level route. Kir was absolutely not looking at his arse again, no. He was studying the next problem. It just so happened that the next problem was in the approximate vicinity of red-haired guy's arse.

  His trousers were starting to feel uncomfortably tight.

  Red-haired guy was scrambling up the wall fast enough, although still not with anything approximating technique. And -- Kir tutted quietly -- he didn't touch out properly as he reached the top. He climbed down a bit before jumping down, and looked over at Kir again. Kir had to say something.

  "First time on the wall?" Kir asked.

  Red-haired guy nodded.

  "Cool. It's good fun. Watch out, you'll get hooked."

  "Yeah, that's what my mate Dan said." He nodded over at the friends he'd come with.

  "Just to let you know -- you should always put both hands on the last hold, right? Otherwise it doesn't count." Kir shrugged. "I mean, if you're not competing I guess it doesn't really matter, but it's a bad habit to get into."

  "Right," he said, nodding. "Huh. Guess I should do that one again, then, right? To have done it properly? I mean, unless you...?"

  "No, no, you go ahead," Kir said.

  He went up faster this time, and a bit more accurately; and carefully tapped out with both hands at the top.

  "Thanks," he said, a bit breathless now, when he landed.

  "No worries," Kir said.

  "I'm Zach, by the way," he said, dusting his hands on his jeans -- Kir tried not to think about putting his own hands where those chalk marks were -- and holding a hand out.

  "Kir," Kir said, shaking hands. Zach was maybe an inch or two shorter than him, and his eyes were a light blue-green. His smile was even more attractive aimed at Kir than it had been from a distance. And...was he holding onto Kir's hand slightly longer than one might normally? Was Kir letting him? He was certainly setting off Kir's queer-dar now.

  No. No entanglements.

  Unbidden, Kir found himself wondering whether there was some possibility that didn't exactly count as an entanglement...would a fling be out of the question?

  "I guess you're a regular here, then?" Zach asked. "Like, given how I saw you going up that wall. That was super impressive, man. Like Spider-Man or something, right?"

  "Been coming here a while," Kir agreed. "If I was Spider-Man I'd fall a damn sight less, though."

  Zach grinned. "Your turn, then?" He gestured to the wall.

  Kir was definitely going to fall this time. He hadn't read the problem at all while Zach was climbing. Too busy being distracted. Still. He chalked his hands, stepped up to the wall, and started up it.

  Halfway up, he couldn't quite make the next hold, and hit the mat, hard.

  "Cool," Zach said.

  "Cool would be on-sighting it," Kir said, a bit ruefully.

  "No, trust me, it was still pretty cool," Zach said. "That bit where you kind of swung sideways...mate, I wouldn't have been able to get even that far up."

  "Well, obviously you need to come back and keep practising," Kir said.

  "Yeah, you know, I think I might," Zach said. "Like Dan said. It's kind of addictive. I wanna have a go at the next level up from those spotty ones."

  Kir pointed at one of the route labels. "That black one there, that's easy for the grade. You could try that."

  This time Zach only got halfway up before missing a hold. He picked himself up, laughing. "Hey, I guess if I'm falling off, I'm challenging myself, right?"

  Kir couldn't help but grin at him. "Yeah, that's it. You've got the idea."

  There was a pause. "So," Zach asked, looking away and fiddling with something in his pocket. "Are you usually here on a Thursday afternoon, then?"

  Kir shrugged. "It varies. I do the early morning slot sometimes. I quite like early afternoon, though. I'm freelance, so I can make my own schedule."

  "Dan's a work friend," Zach said. "We all goofed off together for the afternoon. Might see if I can persuade him to do it again sometime."

  "Hey, Zach!" The friend -- Dan -- was calling from the other end of the wall. "We're going round to the overhang. You coming?"

  "Sure!"

  Zach turned back to look at Kir. "I'd better -- " he jerked his head towards his friends. "Have fun, yeah?"

  He gave Kir a slow smile, turned and walked away, then glanced back over his shoulder and smiled again. That was definitely a come-on, right? A come-on which Kir didn't have the first clue what he should do with. Ask for a phone number? Fire up Grindr? (He hated Grindr.)

  The most sensible option, clearly, was to ignore it altogether. But common sense notwithstanding, he...kind of wanted to do something about it. Which was a stupid idea. Obviously.

  He looked up at the wall, and the last couple of problems that he'd been considering trying. Maybe he should go round the corner to the overhang, as well. There was plenty of room there, and he needed to work on his strength a bit.

  Or maybe he should just stay right here until Zach left.

  He realised his phone was vibrating in his pocket, and hauled it out to see Ali's name on the screen. Huh. Ali didn't phone, as a rule. She was more of a texter. He moved away from the wall a little in case anyone was coming round to climb, and hit Answer.

  "Kir?" Her voice was higher than usual, a bit out of breath. "I need you. Right now."

  "Right now -- What the hell?"

  "Emergency. That sort of emergency." Mage stuff, then. What the hell was Ali doing dealing with mage stuff in the middle of the day? What on earth had happened? Magical emergencies weren't really a thing, not usually. Once in a while, sure, but...

  "I'm keeping things in hand, but...I can't get rid of it, and I don't know why not." Ali was usually pretty laid-back. And powerful. She could do stuff Kir couldn't. If Ali was struggling with whatever-it-was, then...

  "Okay. Fine. I'm on my way. Where are you?" He bent down and started pulling his climbing shoes off one-handed, hopping a bit.

  "Peckham. Behind the post office, there's this scrotty little alleyway..." She was panting now. "Oh for fuck's...get out of it!" That clearly wasn't aimed at him. Kir tucked his climbing shoes under his arm and ran for the lockers to grab his stuff.

  "I'm leaving now. I'll get a cab. Hang on in there."

  He shoved his phone into his pocket, wrangled his bag out of the stupid rattly locker, and shoved his feet into his trainers without doing them up.

  As he passed the overhang area he glanced over and saw Zach halfway up, hanging off his arms, his friend below him saying something encouraging. Zach was laughing and trying to hook a foot onto a hold. Kir estimated he was going to fall any moment. He didn't look over; didn't see Kir going.

  Definitely for the best. He swapped his locker key for his house keys on his way past reception, and took off towards the main road at a run, looking for a cab to hail.

  A black cab showed up just as Kir reached the main road and started wondering whether he'd be better to use Uber instead. Uber would be cheaper, but slower; and one thing about his job, he wasn't that strapped for cash. The black cab was here, right now. He used the time driving to pull up a map on his phone, and try to work out where Ali must be. Behind the post office -- right, yeah, there wasn't anything on the ma
p, but the satellite image showed a tiny dead-end alleyway. What was she even doing in there? Had she seen something odd? Or had there been something out in the open than she lured in there...but that really would be unusual. Magic just wasn't that common, around the place. You didn't see it emerging all by itself. But nor could Kir imagine Ali choosing an alleyway out the back of Peckham Post Office for some magical experiment of her own. He'd rescued her a couple of times at home. And vice versa, come to that. But there wasn't enough magic around for it just to appear out of nowhere in alleyways. What the hell was going on? And was she going to be able to cope with whatever it was in the time it was taking him to get there? Not that he could have done it any faster, but the weight of worry was sitting in the middle of his chest nevertheless. Ali could look after herself. She'd been a mage longer than he had. But now that he knew she was in trouble, every minute he wasn't there yet was a minute he wasn't helping...

  Thinking round in circles like this wasn't actually helping any. But the only other avenue of thought that his mind seemed to want to wander down was thinking about Zach, and he didn't really want to do that either.

  He had been cute. But Kir had sworn off romantic entanglements, especially with non-mages, for perfectly reasonable reasons, and it would be stupid to allow his mind to be changed by a nice arse and a pretty pair of eyes.

  They were pretty eyes, though. And a nice arse.

  The taxi pulled in in front of the post office, and Kir pulled his thoughts back on track, handed over an alarmingly large wedge of cash for a ten minute journey, and jumped out of the cab.

  Heading around the corner, he was listening for sounds of trouble -- well, for any sort of sounds that would suggest he was in the right place. There was the alleyway -- and there, right at the back, he saw Ali's bright green hair and heard her swearing.