Malicious Magic: An Urban Fantasy Adventure

by G. K. Lund

  “Yes.” There was no point asking how she knew. I’d not been taught such things in the Kin. I only knew of poltergeists from movies I’d seen Earthside.

  “But your partner was possessed by this spirit?”

  “Yes.”

  She looked to Damyan then. “And you’re certain this woman, Melleta, is controlling the spirit? Your father?”

  He nodded, eyes downcast at the mention of his father’s fate.

  “Right…” Del stopped moving and crossed her arms while looking up at the ceiling. They both remained like that for a few minutes, lost in different thoughts. Earthside, they would both have looked like some kind of cosplayers; he in his black and gray leather and fabric, she in her leather pants, white shirt, and tight denim vest. Here, it was normal, and kind of on the boring side.

  “You said you chased him away with your dagger?”

  “If by chased away you mean disappeared in a screaming puff? Then yes.”

  “I sense nothing magical from those,” she indicated the weapons with a nod. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.” I sighed and pulled one from its scabbard and proffered it to her, hilt first. I’d never done that to anyone in Atlantis before. Not until I’d ended up stranded Earthside, and Kerwyn Bowden’s preaching had not been gospel anymore.

  Del took the dagger and inspected it, careful to not accidentally cut herself on the razor-sharp edge. “Nothing. I can’t sense anything.”

  “They do little without me,” I admitted. “But they are useful when breaking minor spells.”

  “Hmm… interesting. I have seen such things, but they are usually magic themselves. I can sense that.” She held the dagger up against the light from a lamp above. When this revealed nothing either, she lowered it and handed it back to me. “I don’t know the answer to that riddle, but if these weapons dispel and repel magic, then I believe you’re right about his father.” She indicated Damyan with a sideways cant to the head, eyes still on my dagger. “He’s not a ghost. Tell me, was this Melleta in the room when your partner was possessed?”

  “No, but she could have seen us. All the rooms are connected. The ghost—not-ghost was attacking us. It was saying something…” I closed my eyes in exasperation at myself. “It—I mean, your father was trying to tell me something about the Glory of Avalon. That was when she put the magic inhibitor on both of them.”

  “There’s some free will in him then. Good!” Del proclaimed, and then wandered over to a bookcase placed far away from the stove in the large kitchen. “I think I know what this is.” She removed a tome of a book from the shelf and then carried it over and put it on the enormous kitchen table. “Let me see, let me see,” she mumbled while she turned the pages of the old book at a speed that would have any archivist pull their hair out in dread.

  “Here!” she announced with triumph and smiled. “I think you’re dealing with a fetch!”

  Damyan and I stared at her.

  “A what now?” he blurted. At least I wasn’t the only clueless person in the room. This couldn’t be your typical supernatural being then. Most Lanteans knew a thing or two about the magical, even if they couldn’t use it themselves. It came with living in a city with so much magic around.

  “A fetch. It’s a spirit, sort of. But it is the twin spirit of a living person. They look the same, sound the same, but the fetch’s energy is drawn from the living person—”

  “Oh!” I interrupted, realization dawning. “Like a doppelgänger.”

  I was met with the same blank stares as before. “Really? Nothing? Doppelgänger? Like…” I was reaching for straws here. “Double, uh, walker?”

  “Ah,” Del said in understanding. “Yes, I suppose you could call it that. But it’s a fetch.”

  “Fine,” I muttered. My German vocabulary, which encompassed all of three words, was not useful here. It had been nice following along with the magical discussion the time it had lasted, though. “Tell us about the fetch, please.”

  “A fetch is a magical creature. It is created by magic but needs living energy to be sustained.”

  “So my father is alive?” Damyan sounded like he hadn’t quite believed it a hundred percent before now.

  “I can’t see any other answer.” Del smiled at the hopeful man and then focused on her book again, skimming through the contents, judging by how fast her finger moved down the pages. “It also explains the sign of free will in him and why Emery’s magic-dispelling daggers can send him away. Iron and salt are the best repellants for actual ghosts. At least if you don’t wield any potent magic. Luckily, vengeful spirits are not that common.”

  “Is there something we can do, though?” I asked her. “Dekel is trying to kill Damyan. Uh… would he normally do that?” I added to the thief.

  “No! Why would he?” By the look of Damyan, I might as well have had a nail sticking out of my skull, considering how ridiculous a question that was.

  “Well… you are a thief.”

  “So? That makes me the black sheep of the family.” He scoffed in derision. “Hardly a reason to murder your own son. And you’re one to talk.”

  “What? I’m not a thief.”

  “Really? You just happen to show up in my father’s order looking for the sapphire—”

  “To bring it back to its rightful owner. Not steal it.”

  “So you work for the constabulary?”

  “God, no!” I blurted a little too fast. “I mean, the authorities. The Pyramid. Why d’you mention the constabulary? Are they onto you?” I did not want to see the look on my uncle’s face if they showed up again and I was in the company of a thief. There was no way to explain that to him, considering his negative view of me.

  “No. I don’t think so. They came to the order a few days ago.”

  “They did?”

  “Yes. I watched from outside, in the street. They left again shortly after. I don’t know why they came.”

  “Huh…” I mulled this over but couldn’t see a solution. Fortunately, Del could see one to one of our most pressing problems.

  “Here. Yesss! I think I might help.”

  “How?”

  “There is mention of a potion here—” she stopped at the sound of the bell out in her shop. “Give me a minute.” She went to greet her customer.

  The moment she left, a pang of unease hit me. I glanced at Damyan. I hoped she wouldn’t be long. I was so bad at small-talk. Thankfully, he had more to say on the subject of the order, the weather not on his mind.

  “How long before my father returns, do you think?” Damyan looked around the busy kitchen.

  “I should think you’re safe here. Del likely has all kinds of wards up to guard her home and business.”

  Damyan only looked halfway convinced, but what choice did he have but to wait?

  “So,” I began and took a seat by the table, watching him closely. “The sapphire? You have it, don’t you?”

  “Could be…”

  “Right… Why did you steal it?”

  He eyed me for a long while, the murmur of voices from the front room the only sound. Then he sighed and sat on the nearest chair, before wincing in pain and scooting further out on the seat.

  “I tried to get my father to see reason. She was making his order members disappear. I couldn’t find my brother…”

  “Helios?”

  “Yes. We get along despite my, ah, career choices.”

  “But Helios was there yesterday. I met with him.”

  “I know. Something happened a few days back. Suddenly, my father was gone and Helios had returned. Yet he insisted everything is fine. I know him too well for that. It was all too suspicious.” Damyan shrugged. “So I broke in. And I found the sapphire. The size of a large egg. Must be worth a fortune. And I thought, how does my father have something like this in his house? It made little sense. The order has always gotten by, but barely. And now he was suddenly richer than Plutus?” Damyan shook his head and sighed. It seemed absurd to him, and I was inclined to
agree. This gem would be worth a fortune or two. It wasn’t only the stone itself, but its history and status as a crown jewel.

  “Anyway,” Damyan went on. “My spying had revealed that Melleta, which is what you call her, as the one behind it all. An acolyte by the looks of her, but don’t be fooled.”

  I nodded my agreement, swearing silently to myself not to be fooled again.

  “She’s the one running the order now. What’s left, at least.”

  “Yes,” I agreed. “That gem was her payment to your father. My guess is she made a deal with him to stay hidden within the order until she could leave the city.”

  “Leave the city? Why? There isn’t much but desert out there.”

  “I mean through the Veil.”

  “Why would she wait to do that? She could just apply and…” His words trailed off when he saw me shake my head at this. “She can’t? Oh… she’s one of the reddies.”

  “Yes. Before the fall, she stole the Glory of Avalon from the Pyramid, as insurance I guess. But there was no way out of the city, and so she used it to pay for a hiding place. I don’t think your father realized it belongs to the city. It’s too hot to sell, but you already know that don’t you?”

  “Well. That depends on the buyer, doesn’t it?”

  “I need it, Damyan.”

  “Oh, I know.” There wasn’t a hint of a taunt on his face. He picked up a thin pencil from the table and began twirling it between his fingers, back and forth. “So, what’s your plan?”

  “I don’t know yet, but regardless, it starts with whatever Del can fix for us.”

  “Us?”

  “I am going back. Aren’t you?”

  “Why would you? What if I give you the sapphire now?”

  I laughed at that. “That won’t happen.”

  He conceded that with a lopsided smile. “That’s true. Why are you going there? This isn’t your problem.”

  “My partner of two days is still back there, so I should look for him. Also, I am trying to do the right thing here.”

  “Noble motives. How quaint.”

  “To a thief, maybe. But not to a—” I stopped myself, and that made it even more obvious. The Red Kin had prided themselves in their honesty. Their apparent honesty as I’d come to learn.

  “A what?” he canted his head sideways and stared at me. “Oh, that’s how you know Melleta. I saw you talking, your body language showed ease and familiarity. You’re a Kinswoman.”

  Usually, people got a look of disgust on their faces when they found out, but Damyan’s was surprisingly blank.

  “Ex-Kinswoman. I am trying to make up for it,” I said, my eyes not fully meeting his.

  “Why? You’re as much a criminal as I am. More actually, considering thieves rarely dabble in state coups.”

  “Why? Because I want to make amends. To right a wrong.”

  “Too late. Remember the Beloved Ten—”

  I held up a hand to silence him and was thankful he stopped that line of thought. The Beloved Ten had been the catalyst for the fall of the Kin. Ten children caught in the crossfire of the Kin’s bumbled attempt at killing some rogue vampires. It had been a hard truth for me to take in when I’d learned the Kin were guilty of their deaths. We’d all been told otherwise of course.

  Damyan considered this and then nodded. “Fine. I believe your motivations. How about a deal? The sapphire for freeing my father from this nightmare?”

  “And I should take the word of a thief? That he’ll give up such a price?”

  “My family is worth more to me. And besides, you said so yourself, the gem is hard to sell.”

  Hard, yet not impossible. But yes, I believed him. I’d seen his face of not only horror but grief at the sight of his father when he’d come to kill him. This had to be a nightmare for Damyan too.

  “Proof?” I asked.

  He did some motion with his pencil-free hand, plucking a large octagon-shaped sparkling blue sapphire from his clothes, holding it up long enough for me to stare wide-eyed before he hid it somewhere on his body again. I hadn’t seen where he’d taken it from, nor where he’d put it, and I knew it would change places again without me noticing.

  “Sorry about that,” Del’s voice broke in when she reentered the kitchen. I could hear the bell tinkling out in the front room as her customer left.

  “That’s a mighty protective talisman you’ve got there.” She nodded toward Damyan.

  “A what now?” he asked.

  “An artifact of power. A sheltering stone. They’re rare. I can sense the air of truth about it.”

  “You can?”

  Del smiled and returned to the book. “Yes. Until now, you struck me as an unusually dependable and protective thief. The stone’s attributes rubbed off on you there.”

  I snorted at that, and Damyan shot me an insulted look.

  “So, where were we?” Del stopped and glanced between us, an unspoken question on her face. Apparently, she’d already forgotten about the giant sapphire in the room. Maybe bog witches merely deemed such things trinkets? Or maybe she just respected that it wasn’t hers.

  “Deal,” I told Damyan and then turned toward her. “Something about a potion?”

  “Yes. It won’t drive the fetch away or kill it, but it might buy you some time if nothing else. There’s only one problem.”

  Of course there was. “And that is?”

  “I need something that belongs to the fetch.”

  “I have nothing on me,” Damyan said, looking forlorn, the pencil immobile between two of his fingers.

  “That means we have to return to the order. Dekel lives there, after all. But…” I looked at Damyan, then stared at him. He glanced nervously at Del before I thought of something. “What about his DNA?”

  “His what?” Damyan seemed confused. Del looked like she was trying to remember something.

  “His DNA,” I repeated. “The little building blocks we’re all made up of. Trust me, it’s a big deal Earthside.”

  “Yes. I’ve heard of this,” Del nodded her agreement. “Some of it would be in his son, yes?”

  “I should think so. We get genes and whatnot from both parents.” I wished I’d watched more CSI Earthside. Although medicine had come a long way in Atlantis, forensics was not all that developed.

  “In me?” Damyan glanced down at his stomach, probably thinking we were talking about cutting him open.

  “A few drops of blood should do the trick. Or some hair.”

  “Yeah. I think this could work. It probably wasn’t what the gnome who wrote this book had in mind, but it would be something of the fetch’s living double.”

  “Great. Let’s try it. I’ll pay.”

  “No, Emery. I’ll be glad to help.”

  “Yeah, I figured. But as I’ve been reminded this night, you’re the only magically enhanced person I know in this city, and I don’t want to take advantage of you. So, I’ll pay. For his injuries too,” I added.

  “That’s a given.” Damyan huffed and shifted slightly on the chair, probably to demonstrate the pain I’d caused him. I was beginning to wish I’d hit him in the ass just to make it truly embarrassing.

  “Oh, Emery. You’re working so hard to restore your name. I’d like to help—”

  “Which is why I should pay—”

  “But I—”

  “We must agree on this now because I do not want to have this discussion ever again.” There was no way I would not pay her for her work, friend or not.

  She was about to argue further, that was clear, but she stopped herself, and visibly sank a bit. She’d risen to her toes a moment there. “All right. Find me something suitable, not money, mind you, as a onetime payment, and we’ll call that a deal.”

  “For a while.”

  She smiled, obviously thinking a while could be a long time, while I was thinking the opposite. But I already had an idea, so I let it be for now. I knew we’d be having this discussion again.

  “Did you make that you
rself?” I asked her and pointed at her tight-fitting denim west. It looked like a cross between that and a bustier, holding her flowing white shirt in place underneath.

  “Yes. From an old pair of jeans. They were so worn, I was one step away from tearing them and showing my panties to the world.”

  “The pencil snapped in Damyan’s hand, and he cleared his throat, refusing to look at Del. Apparently, he wasn’t shy about anyone seeing his underwear, but the thought of Del’s was too much. She had that effect on the opposite gender.

  “Well then,” I said and leaned back with a smile on my face. “I think I have an acceptable form of payment for you.” Bringing a backpack full of jeans with me to Atlantis was beginning to seem like the best decision I’d made in a long time.

  Chapter Eleven

  “This should do the trick,” Del announced. She placed several vials with a clear, yet sharply red liquid in them on the counter in her shop. She had assured us it was not Damyan’s blood that was the cause, but the magic imbued in the potion.

  “Well, half a trick at least,” Del added while nodding to herself.

  “That’s not very comforting,” Damyan pointed out.

  “I think it would have been better with his DMA—”

  “DNA.”

  “A DNA directly from your father, but beggars can’t be choosers and all that.”

  I decided not to correct her again since she’d just spent over an hour concocting this potion for us. Instead, I began stuffing my pockets with the capped vials and hoped they wouldn’t break before I had to use them.

  “Thanks, Del. I do owe you one.”

  “Don’t start with that again now that you finally finished,” Damyan said while filling his own pockets with vials.

  We both snorted at his comment.

  “And remember to make sure you hit him straight on, or very close. The liquid should work best, but the vapors will have an effect too, I think…”

  “There you go again,” Damyan pointed out.

  “Well, this is my first fetch,” Del said, not offended at all. Then again, she was young. She couldn’t possibly have met every kind of supernatural being in her witching career so far.