by Marisa Mills
“Stand back!” I shouted. “Or I will burn you!”
Once more, the men stumbled back. My heartbeat quickened. This was going better than I’d planned. I had no idea the device was capable of so many different effects.
“Go ahead, Wynter.”
Gabriel’s voice cut through the air like a knife. My heart plummeted as my uncle stepped forward, right through my flaming defenses. Emboldened, a few of his men followed. Just like that, all the power I’d held over them was gone.
***
Gabriel sighed. “What am I gonna do with you?” he asked.
My eyes were glued to the oak crossbow in his hands. I swallowed the lump in my throat and raised the dresses against my chest with one hand, as if those layers of fine, expensive fabric could halt a crossbow bolt. My other hand curled around the device.
“Go ahead,” I said, my voice wavering more than I liked, “Shoot me.”
“Oh, I’d love to,” Gabriel drawled, “But I don’t wanna lose my sale.”
I caught the implication behind his words immediately.
“That isn’t fair. This was my idea!”
“I know it was,” he replied.
He leveled his crossbow at my brother. I threw aside the dresses and lunged at my uncle. But I never reached him. One of his goons wrapped his arms around my waist, with nearly enough force to lift me off the ground.
“Don’t!” I screamed.
I thrashed and kicked, trying to break free, but there was a reason my uncle used these men to bully people. They were strong, much stronger than me. I fought, but it wasn’t enough. The twang of my uncle’s crossbow split the air, followed by my brother’s pained shout.
“No!” I screamed. My brother fell to the ground, his hands pressing hard against his knee. Blood spattered against the brown paper covering the fabric. There wasn’t much of it. He wasn’t going to die. It wasn’t a killing shot, and with a sick jolt, I realized Gabriel hadn’t missed. Even the worst shot in the world couldn’t have botched it so much at point-blank range. He knew if he killed Briar, he’d have nothing left to hold over me. But cripple him, and I’d never leave. Without warning, Gabriel’s muscled minion released me. I scrambled to my brother’s side. His breath came in sharp, shaky pants.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
Briar was breathing too hard to answer. His face was pale, and a sheen of sweat covered his skin. A crater of blood and torn flesh surrounded the wooden bolt. My stomach lurched. What should I do? I didn’t know how to treat a wound like this.
“I wouldn’t pull it out if I was you,” Gabriel said. “That’ll make the bleeding worse.”
I clenched my fists together. I sprang to my feet and spun around. “I hate you!” I shouted. I clawed at his face, but he dodged and slapped my cheek with a blow that left my ear ringing.
“I’m sure you do,” he replied. “What are you gonna do about it? You realize that your brother needs me, don’t you? And if you don’t cooperate, well, I’m sure you realize that there are so many things that could go wrong.”
He was right. Absolutely right. My breath caught in my throat. I shook my head, holding the device so tightly that my knuckles ached.
“And I must say, I had my doubts about Dorian’s whole scheme. But after your little display tonight I have much more confidence in this little plan of ours. You even had some of my men fooled. Who would have guessed you’d play such a convincing mage. Maybe after you return, I’ll rent you out to entertain for birthday parties. So what is it going to be?” Gabriel asked. “Are you in?” He stepped forward, pressing his boot into Briar’s knee until he squealed with pain, “or out?”
I shoved his leg away and pulled my brother’s limp body closer, cradling him against my chest. “I’m in,” I said, a tear sliding down my cheek. “I’ll go through with it. Just don’t hurt him.”
“Good girl,” Gabriel said, seizing my arm. I craned my neck to see Gabriel’s men lift my brother’s body and carry it between them. This was my fault. I shouldn’t have tried to run. I shouldn’t have brought him with me. My uncle pulled me along, forcing me over the broken pavement and back to his subway headquarters. There wouldn’t be another escape attempt. There couldn’t be. It would take at least a month for that wound to heal, and who knew whether Briar would even walk properly again.
How could I have been so stupid. I’d given Gabriel exactly what he needed to control me. He would hold Briar as collateral until I finished my mission and got Dorian what he wanted from the Academy.
If I failed there…
My stomach lurched, and my breath shuddered. I was terrified of the Floats, but I had to do everything I could to keep my brother safe. He was the only thing I had.
There was nowhere left to go, but up.
Six
“SMILE, WYNTER. YOU LOOK PRETTIER that way,” Gabriel said.
Dorian was having a whispered conversation with the auburn-haired woman seated beside him. This was evidently Francisca, who’d found and sent the seamstress and corsetmaker. I fought the urge to fidget with my new, blue dress and picked at the bandages on my injured hand instead. I’d never worn anything with sleeves that fell off my shoulders or anything with crinolines underneath. I’d never even worn a dress before. And although the corset had—according to Francisca—not been laced very tightly, it still felt uncomfortable.
Francisca remained seated, but Dorian stood and considered me. “I think you’re almost there,” he said. “We just need a little refinement before judging.”
“I think I should go to the judging with you,” Gabriel said.
“No,” Dorian said. “Wynter, do you have the device with you?”
“I got it,” Gabriel said, retrieving the item from his jacket pocket. He was wearing a different suit today; charcoal black with purple trim and a gold clip that seemed to have no other function but to broadcast wealth. It would have been stupid to dress like this in the Scraps, but he blended in here in the Gardens. Everything seemed cleaner and brighter here. Gabriel, meanwhile, looked rumpled and dirty like he’d just crawled out from under a bridge.
Dorian took the device in his hand, coaxing the blue flames into appearing. The hisses sounded angry. I knew I was probably just imagining that the mage tech sounded different when he held it, but I liked to think that—maybe—the device liked me more. Dorian had used his thumb to activate it. I wondered if he knew he could just speak to the device. Probably. He was a mage, after all.
“You must keep this hidden during the exam,” Dorian said. “Magical objects aren’t explicitly forbidden, but something like this is.”
“What if I’m not good enough? What if someone sees it?” More importantly, if I was caught cheating, who would take the fall for it? I could throw myself at the judges’ mercy and tell them that Dorian had blackmailed me into it, had made me lie to them. But no, he’d deny it, and the mages would believe him. Getting caught wasn’t an option.
Gabriel glared at me in warning. He hadn’t told Dorian about my escape attempt. Instead we’d pretended I cut my hands scavenging the Dregs, and assured Dorian I’d take better care of myself from now on. Truthfully, the bandages on my hands were comforting; they were the only familiar thing on my body. A reminder of who I really was, and the pain I’d endured. They made me think of Briar, and I winced remembering his injured knee. Even though he didn’t blame me for what had happened, it was hard not to feel guilty. I’d been the one who planned our escape, and he was the one suffering for it.
“You’ll be fine,” Dorian said. “It’s not unheard of for a mage to be taken from the Lower Realms.”
“If you do anything like that display the other night,” Gabriel said crudely, “they’ll shit their fancy britches.” My cheeks burned at the way Gabriel smirked. He knew he’d really gotten to me, and he was just going to keep rubbing salt into the wound. I clenched my jaw. Someday, I was going to find a way to escape him. Really escape him. And whe
n I did, I would take Briar with me. Sterling, too, if I could. It would be my way of making this up to them.
“What display?” Dorian asked.
“I had her practice with it,” Gabriel said. “She’s very good.”
Dorian narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
“It isn’t that hard to use,” I said.
Dorian grabbed my hands as if noticing the bandages for the first time. He whipped a silver pen out of the inside pocket of his jacket, and scrawled a row of small symbols across my palm. The pain faded immediately, and when Dorian removed the bandages, the skin beneath was smooth and pink.
“There,” he said. “That’s better.”
I was too stunned to respond. I twisted my fingers, marveling at the unbroken skin where cuts and scrapes had been seconds before. It was the first I’d seen of real magic.
“You’ll also need a story chronicling how you discovered your powers,” Dorian said, moving on. “And it must be convincing. A good story and a little posturing will go a long way with this.”
“Right,” I said. “So what’s my story?”
“The most common time for humans to discover their magical powers is during puberty,” Dorian said, “But not always. Sometimes, it takes a little coercion for them to be discovered. Magic can be incredibly fickle, unfortunately. We’ll say that you discovered it by accident.”
“How do you accidentally make fire?”
“Any number of ways. Maybe you were really angry or really scared, and it just happened. Maybe you woke up, and your room was ablaze. And word spread, so I decided to investigate rumors of this mage in Plumba.”
“Won’t the judges find it strange that no one else has heard of me?” I asked.
“No,” Dorian replied, “Because I’ve already sent them a letter informing them of my discovery. Now, they have heard of you.”
“Besides, the mages don’t care enough about us to pay attention,” Gabriel said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few legitimate mages in the Scraps that ain’t been found.”
“He’s right,” Dorian said. “When they read my letter, the selection committee was probably deeply amused.”
Somehow, that didn’t make me feel any better about the situation.
“You don’t need to be flawless,” Dorian said. “You just need an average score, and that’s what we’ll aim for. The better you do, the harder they’re going to inspect you. They’ll let a human pass with just a pinch of magic, but a really powerful one…”
“But how do I know where I should be falling?” I asked. “I can’t actually perform magic.”
“Try three times to make fire appear. Accomplish it on the third,” Dorian said. “I’m going as your sponsor, so I may be able to keep them from looking too deeply into things.”
I bit the inside of my cheek as Dorian pocketed the device. A surge of anger rose inside me at the way he folded his fingers over the device. That was mine. Or it felt like it ought to be mine. I thought about asking for fire, just to see the surprised look on his face when flames erupted. But I couldn’t. Not with Briar’s health on the line. Not when I knew he’d be at my uncle’s mercy if I really messed up.
“Now,” Dorian said, “Because we’re going to say that I discovered your talents and brought you to the test, it will be my reputation on the line for you, so I need you to deliver.”
“But what if something really unexpected happens?” I asked. “What if the device malfunctions or something?”
“He’ll lose a ton of money,” Gabriel said.
“I would worry about your own finances,” Dorian replied.
“But you…” I trailed off, my eyes lingering on his gold pin. “You look like you have money.”
“He enjoys the table a little too much,” Gabriel said smugly.
“Gambling?” I asked.
“The odds should have been in my favor,” Dorian said.
“Caught cheating with the wrong people,” Gabriel added.
Maybe we were more alike than I thought.
“Nevertheless, you’ve been paid,” Dorian said, “So if you would let me handle this, that would be excellent. I’m confident Wynter will get in without any difficulty. Then, comes the hard part.”
Right. Stealing from the floating mage school.
“But do I really need to do all this?” I asked, gesturing to the dress.
“Yes,” Dorian replied. “Considering what I am, it’s much better if I’m sponsoring a cultured young woman. You might come from Plumba, but we’d prefer that people think it’s Argent. Besides, the more genteel people believe you are, the more likely they are to trust you.”
“Plumba? Argent?” He’s mentioned the term earlier but I’d been too embarrassed to ask.
Dorian paused. “You call them the Scraps and the Gardens, but Plumba and Argent are their proper names,” he said. “You didn’t know that?”
I shook my head.
“Do you know where Reverie is?”
“Sorry,” I replied.
“Do you know anything about geography?” Dorian asked.
“She knows the Scraps,” Gabriel said, “Because that’s what she needs to know.”
“In that case, I think she should stay with me until the testing,” Dorian said slowly.
That meant I’d be away from Briar, and although that seemed inevitable, my heart ached at the thought of being away from him so soon.
“Absolutely not,” Gabriel said.
“Well, given her apparent ignorance of basic geography—”
“You’re welcome to find someone else if you’ve got a problem with the way I do things!” Gabriel snapped.
Dorian placed a hand on the hilt of his silver sword. “I bought her services,” he said, “so she’ll go where I want her to. Right now, I want her in Argent. And her magic may be an illusion, but mine is very real. Don’t test me, Gabriel. I’ve slain worthier men than you.”
Francisca shifted in her seat. There was something dark and eager in her brown eyes.
“I think you’re all talk,” Gabriel sneered. “So far all you’ve done is fix a minor injury. I ain’t all that impressed.”
Dorian’s sword rang as he unsheathed it. He swung the blade once, quickly and sharply. The hisses emerged, the world crackled, and jagged ice skidded across the floor towards Gabriel. My uncle darted from his chair, tipping it over. Abruptly, the ice halted. “I froze a man’s blood in his veins once,” Dorian said. “You can’t even imagine how exquisitely painful it was, Gabriel, but I’d be delighted to demonstrate. Wynter, bid your uncle farewell.”
Those spires of ice looked sharp enough to draw blood. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Bye, Gabriel,” I said.
***
Days turned to weeks, and I still hadn’t figured out how I was going to escape all of this. I thought about Sterling and Briar constantly. Was Briar up and walking around yet, or was he still confined to bed? How was Sterling’s mom doing? Hopefully, my uncle wasn’t pushing Sterling and Briar harder to make up for me being gone.
Francisca returned to the Floats to manage the estate, leaving Dorian with molding me into a lady. He didn’t live like Gabriel, in some old, decrepit place underground and dressed up like a gentleman. Instead, Dorian and I stayed in a beautiful set of rooms that took up the whole second floor of our building, just across from the central square. I wore the finest of clothing. All my clothes were made of soft and colorful fabrics that I’d never heard of before. I never knew how comfortable clothing could be, and I even got used to the liberating dresses that left most of my skin bare. I bathed in warm water every evening and morning, and Dorian had so much food. There were fresh, exotic fruits—firm oranges, sweet apples, and plump strawberries. The only fruit I’d ever eaten was browning and bruised. And freshly baked breads and meat! I practically moaned through every meal, until Dorian kicked me under the table and said I couldn’t react to everything like I’d never tried it befo
re.
I hated that I was enjoying myself so much. Briar and Sterling were scavenging and eating scraps, while I was dining like a wealthy mage. It wasn’t fair. So many people were starving, just a few miles away. I agonized over a thousand different plans for how I might be able to bring this luxurious food to them.
My days were carefully scheduled, every minute filled with learning etiquette, but as I sat across from Dorian on the way up to the Floats for the exam, everything I’d learned flew from my head. We were aboard a cable car, being lifted up to Reverie—as Dorian insisted I call it. Outside the car’s windows, the lower realms stretched before me. All the lovely salons and business halls of the Gardens, which was called Argent. The decaying gray of the Dregs, the yellowish Scraps and the long colorful stretch of the market. Together they made up Plumba. I recited the names to myself nervously. Above everything, pink clouds stretched all the way to the mountains on the horizon. I had never realized the world was so vast. I folded my fingers in my lap, twisting them into the folds of my fabric.
“It won’t be that arduous,” Dorian said, gesturing with a glass of red wine. “They’ll ask you a few questions. You’ll answer them to the best of your ability, and then, they’ll ask to see what you can do. You’ll show them, and if something goes wrong, I’ll step in.”
“Step in how?”
“Depends on how badly you fail,” Dorian said. “Only tell them what they ask for. Don’t try to overcomplicate things.”
As if their whole plan wasn’t overly complicated already. It was dependent on so many different variables aligning exactly right, and if even one thing went wrong, everything could fall apart. My heartbeat quickened. What would happen if I went to the exam and just blurted everything out? Would the mages help me? Sure, they’d never helped anyone from the Scraps before, but the mages had also never encountered a deception like this. Maybe the mages would believe me and punish Dorian and Gabriel for their crimes. Maybe the mages would take them far away. I could return home and resume scavenging with Sterling and Briar. With Gabriel gone, we might even manage make things better. We could be powerful and build the sort of empire my uncle had! But—