by Jasmine Walt
“That isn’t really any of your business,” he said mildly, “but I’ll only be gone for a day, so you needn’t worry that your stay will be extended too long.”
“Oh.” I let out a sigh of relief before thinking better of it, then flushed as he arched his brow at me again. “So, what’s it gonna be? Are you going to try and turn me into an ice sculpture again?”
“Hardly. Now give me your hands.”
I hesitated as he offered his own, palms up, just as he had last time. With my conflicting hormones and emotions growing stronger by the day, I wasn’t certain that touching him was a great idea. But I also wanted to get this over with, and if that meant he had to hold my hands like we were two toddlers playing a rhyming game, then so be it.
I placed my hands in his, and my pulse sped up as his long fingers curled around them. That same warm tingle spread through me, just as before, but this time it was accompanied by a familiar heat pooling in my lower belly that could only be described as attraction. I struggled against the feeling as he circled his thumbs across the insides of my wrists – didn’t the man know that was an erogenous zone? – and tried to clear my head.
“You need to relax,” he murmured.
My cheeks burned. Did he know? “I d-don’t think I can.” By Magorah, I sounded like a schoolgirl all over again, squirming under the attention of my first crush.
“Close your eyes,” he suggested. “Focus on the magic flowing through you, rather than me.”
I did as he suggested, doing my best to ignore the feel of his skin against mine and his scent, which seemed to grow more intoxicating the more time I spent inhaling it. It took me a moment, but eventually I zeroed in on the current of magic humming through my veins, and began to mentally trace its path through my system.
A sudden shock jolted me from my trance, and I gasped, my eyes flying open as power surged through me. It crackled through my nerves like lightning, and rippled down my arms. Cold fear shot through my veins as our joined hands began to glow, and I braced myself for the Chief Mage to explode into a cloud of ash as the rhino had done.
Iannis’s face tightened, his eyes glued to our hands with fierce intensity, and he sucked in a sharp breath through his nostrils. The glow from our hands dissipated, and the air began crackling around him instead, the way it had when I’d riled him up before.
I took a step back, shock and relief mingling in my veins. “Did… did you just absorb all that magic?”
“For now,” he said through gritted teeth. His voice was edged with pain, and suddenly I was filled with guilt. He shouldn’t be suffering like this, not as a result of helping me –
I paused mid-thought as he grabbed a potted plant sitting on a side table and released the surge of magic he’d taken from me into it. The tiny shrub instantly exploded into a full-blown tree, unfurling rapidly, the roots spreading across the parquet and the tree branches making scraping sounds as they spread across the ceiling. I gaped, open-mouthed as white flowers bloomed from the branches right before my eyes.
“Well.” The Chief Mage regarded the tree wearily. “The servants are going to have an interesting time removing this.”
I gaped at him. “Was that an actual attempt at humor?”
He frowned. “I’m a mage, not an automaton, Miss Baine.”
“Coulda fooled me. I wasn’t aware there was a difference.” I folded my arms, but I didn’t have it in me to glare at him the way I usually did. I couldn’t deny that I’d seen flashes of humanity peek out from beneath his cold exterior, though I’d go to my grave before I’d admit that to him.
“I sometimes wonder whether or not you truly have a death wish, or if you simply can’t help but insult anyone who you perceive as stronger than yourself, in an attempt to make yourself feel less inadequate.”
“Excuse me?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Are you accusing me of being a coward?”
“On the contrary. A coward would never dare to insult and defy me the way you do at every turn.” He advanced on me with a scowl, and I took another step back. My shoulder blades brushed against the wall, and I stiffened. “If not for the fact that you direct so much animosity towards me, I could almost admire it. But it does make me wonder how you’ve managed to survive this long with your attitude. You appear to give very little thought to consequences before you jump into action.”
“Can we move on to the part where you tell me what the point of this ‘experiment’ was?” I was not at all comfortable with his analysis of my personality. “Why exactly did you feel the need to siphon enough magic from me to create a tree in your sitting room?”
“The tree was an unintended side effect,” the Chief Mage admitted. “I should have foreseen the magical surge and brought a more appropriate receptacle for the excess. As it is, I was not ‘siphoning off’ your magic, Miss Baine. I was releasing it from its bonds.”
My eyes widened. “You… you freed my magic?” I mentally groped for that glow of power in my chest, and nearly toppled over in surprise when I actually felt it this time. “By Magorah. You really did!”
“Only partially,” the Chief Mage warned. “So that you can learn to control it.”
I frowned. The glow was weaker than what I experienced during the rare previous outbursts, but I’d chalked that up to the fact that I wasn’t supercharging myself to deliver a death blow to anyone. “Why not give me access to the whole thing?” I protested. “It’s my magic.”
“Again, I want you to be able to control it. If I give you access to all of it at once, you may find yourself overwhelmed, especially since there is no one to teach you how to direct it. With the small amount I’ve given you, you should be able to grasp some rudimentary basics.” His features tightened momentarily. “I did not want to leave you entirely defenseless while I was gone, in view of the incident in the kitchen.”
I softened a little at that, before I remembered that I’d still seen those same guards around the palace, shooting me death glares that promised retribution. “Are you even going to discipline those guards for trying to kill me?”
“Director Chartis is taking care of the matter.”
I rolled my eyes. That meant the guards were going to get away with their outrageous behavior. “I want my weapons back.”
The Chief Mage blinked. “What?”
“My weapons.” I tapped my foot impatiently, though it didn’t have the intended effect as the toe of my boot sank noiselessly into the thick carpet. “They were taken from me when I was arrested, and I want them back so I can defend myself.”
The Chief Mage frowned. “I don’t know anything about your weapons. In any case, that is what I gave you the magic for, so you can defend yourself.”
I growled. “It’s hardly going to be very helpful, since I’ve never been given any instruction on how to use it.”
“And that is only because you haven’t stopped talking long enough to allow me to give you some basic instruction.”
I snapped my jaw shut. He was going to teach me to use my magic? Now?
“I still want them back.”
He regarded me for several seconds as though he were weighing the pros and cons of allowing me access to sharp, deadly implements. “I will consider it. Now, give me your hands again. Time grows short.”
10
Sweat poured down my face as I held my hand palm up in front of me, concentrating with all my might. It was after midnight and I should have been asleep, but instead I sat cross-legged on my bed and focused on the spell the Chief Mage had taught me earlier. Moonlight spilled in through my tiny window, illuminating my palm as I stared at it – I was determined to master this thing before I fell asleep tonight.
Find your center, Iannis had said, and I drew in a deep breath, focusing in on the tiny glow within my chest. I touched the glow, and exhilaration raced through my veins. Magorah, but it felt so good to finally be able to do that! To be able to reach for my magic whenever I wanted –
The magical connection
severed.
“Damn it!” I snatched up the pillow on my bed and flung it across the room. This happened almost every time. I got so freaking excited about using my magic that I lost my focus, and then it would disappear.
This wouldn’t happen if Iannis gave you access to all your magic.
I sighed. There was no use thinking about that. Fact was, it was probably better that he didn’t, because I seemed to have a knack for conjuring flame. Iannis said it was because of my fiery disposition – each mage had a natural bent towards certain types of magic based on their personality. Of course, when I’d asked him what his was, he’d told me that if I focused more on my magic and less on him then I might actually conjure a decent flame.
Cantankerous bastard.
Determined to prove that I could conjure a flame without the Chief Mage’s help or the threat of mortal danger, I focused my attention inward again, closing my eyes so I could search for that tiny glow inside my chest. It winked into existence in my mind’s eye, and as I connected with it, I channeled my thoughts into a single idea.
Fire.
Heat exploded above my palm. My eyes flew open, and I laughed at the sight of the dancing red flame. How fucking cool was that? I had a ball of fire bouncing around my hand. Talk about a killer weapon!
“Here, little flamey-flame,” I cooed. The flame seemed to grow even bigger in response – though that was probably just a reaction to my thoughts as I doubted the thing was sentient. Grinning, I bounced it back and forth between my hands, marveling at the fact that though there was heat emanating from the flame, it wasn’t burning me.
Headline: BURNED BY MAGIC: SUNAYA BAINE FOUND DEAD IN SOLANTHA PALACE AS THE RESULT OF UNSUPERVISED EXPERIMENTS WITH MAGICAL FIRE.
I snorted. Both the Herald and the Shifter Courier would have a field day with that one. But Iannis probably knew my own fire wouldn’t burn me, or he wouldn’t have given me this particular spell to practice on.
“Naya!”
Shock burst through me at the sound of my cousin’s voice in my head. The flame in my hand winked out instantly.
“Rylan? What’s going on?” Fuck, fuck, fuck. Was he already here?
“Look outside your window.”
I turned to the window and peered out into the darkness, trying to spot him through the bars. At first I saw nothing but the gardens below and the bay stretching beyond the property, but then I spotted two huge condors heading our way… and there was a small, human form atop one of them.
“Please don’t tell me you’re riding one of those birds.”
“Okay, I won’t tell you. But I am here to rescue you.”
I didn’t think – I simply flew from my bed and straight down the stairs, heading for the nearest exit. Fear for my cousin’s safety trumped the logic that told me there was no way to get past the wards which confined me to the palace. There was no way in hell some mage wasn’t going to see them coming and shoot them down. Iannis wasn’t an idiot – he would ensure that his home was well-defended from intruders.
I flung open the door at the bottom of the tower that led out into the back gardens and sprinted through. The wards gave me some pushback, singing my eyebrows and the hairs on my arms, but a burst of magical energy flared out from inside me, burning a hole through the barrier. The cool, salty evening air rushed across my face as I raced for the edge of the property, but I couldn’t stop to enjoy it – Rylan was approaching far too fast.
“Go back!” I shrieked. I repeated the warning mentally in my head, slashing with my arms to indicate that they should not, under any circumstances, land. But it was too late – the two shifter-birds were already here.
“Don’t worry,” Rylan assured me. “We know about the barrier. We brought amulets that should help get us through.”
I held my breath as they soared over the hedge separating the palace grounds from the street. The amulets that dangled around the birds’ necks flared to life, and for a triumphant moment I thought they were actually going to work. But then they went black, and an energy field buzzed to life, encasing the palace in a glowing blue wall that surrounded the entire perimeter.
My heart plummeted into the soles of my bare feet as my would-be rescue crew squawked and shouted. They writhed frantically, trying to break free, but the energy field only crackled in response, holding them fast.
“Stop!” I shouted at them mentally. “Stop struggling! I… I’ll get you out!”
“How?” Rylan’s voice was tinged with fury and desperation. His yellow eyes blazed down at me as he writhed in the confines of the shield, his long black hair flying around his square face. “They’re coming!”
I didn’t need to turn around to know that – I could hear shouts from the palace, and doors bursting open behind me, no doubt mages coming to confront the intruders. There was no question in my mind that Rylan and his friends would be given a death sentence – they were already wanted for too many crimes against the State.
Not knowing what else to do, I sucked in a deep breath and plunged my hands into the energy field. Pain sizzled up my arms and through my entire body, and I shrieked at the magical backlash, but I couldn’t stop now. Desperation fueled the magical surge that crackled through my arms and into the magical field, and it parted just enough to release Rylan and his friends from its hold. They dropped like stones, the birds snapping out their wings at the last second, but Rylan wasn’t so lucky – he crashed straight into the hard, unforgiving ground just inside the magical field, and my sensitive ears picked up the sound of crunching bones.
“Stop! Intruders!”
Two guards grabbed me as I tried to rush to my cousin’s aid. I fought them furiously, but I’d used up too much magical energy to be effective, and I watched helplessly as two mages darted forward to capture Rylan. Thankfully, one of the shifter birds swooped down to distract, and the other one grabbed Rylan with his claws and hefted him into the air, past the rapidly closing magical field. The mages tried to blast them with energy bolts, but they were too slow, and the bolts were simply absorbed by the field.
I sagged with relief as I watched Rylan and his friends fly off into the distance, and prayed to Magorah that my cousin would be okay. My vision blurred with exhaustion as my adrenaline faded, so I wasn’t quite able to make out the fuzzy figure that stepped in front of me.
“Miss Baine.” Director Chartis’s frigid voice briefly pierced through the fog of exhaustion. He sounded coldly triumphant, probably because he’d caught me in the act of what he saw as an escape attempt… not that he was completely wrong. “You will explain yourself this instant.”
“Fuck you,” I mumbled as the ground slid up toward me, and the guards’ grip tightened on me just before I went under.
When I awoke, the midday sun was streaming through my window, and hunger clawed so fiercely at my stomach that the ratty pillow beneath my head actually looked appetizing. I struggled up into a sitting position, feeling shaky, and tried to brace myself against the mattress, only to find that my hands were bound.
No, not bound. Shackled. Cold dread filled my stomach as I looked down at the runed shackles clamped around my wrists. Just when I’d finally gotten access to my magic, I’d lost it again.
Rage propelled me from my bed and across the room. I reached for the door handle, intending to break the door open, but the handle scalded me as I curled my fingers around it. I shook my burning hand and scowled at the knob, seeing the glowing blue runes I’d activated with my touch – they’d warded me in here. Locked me up like a common criminal... which in their eyes I was, but that didn’t make me feel any better about it.
“Let me out!” I pounded against the heavy wooden door, shouting until my voice was raw and my hands throbbed. Eventually my rage gave way to exhaustion, and hopeless, bitter tears began to stream down my cheeks. I collapsed back onto my bed, staring up at the ceiling through a haze of defeat. I was locked in this stupid tower, and all because I’d tried to save my well-meaning but idiotic cousin from his
botched rescue attempt.
Really, what had Rylan been thinking, charging in here like that? He’d done enough research to know there were wards around the palace, but clearly not enough to know how strong they were or he would have used more potent amulets. Either that, or whoever he’d bought those amulets from – probably someone on the black market – had bilked him. Either way it was sheer carelessness, and when I next saw him I was going to give him a good talking to.
Desperate for help, I mentally called for Fenris, and got no answer. I wondered if he was ignoring me, or if he was too far for me to reach by mind-message. He might have accompanied the Chief Mage on his trip, or was simply out on business of his own. Disappointment filled me, followed by a healthy dose of guilt and shame for even thinking to rely on Fenris in the first place. I’d never been so weak and helpless, not since my aunt Mafiela turned me out on the streets. Fear ballooned in my chest, forcing out all the air in my lungs and I couldn’t draw in a breath.
My mind took me back to that time when I was twelve years old and Aunt Mafiela had locked me in the closet for daring to steal food from her kitchen. She’d ‘taken me in’ shortly after my mother had died, which really meant she’d utilized me for slave labor, clothed me in her daughter Melantha’s stained and too-small castoffs, and fed me meager table scraps. Of course that hadn’t been enough for a growing girl like me, so she’d found me in the larder late at night, stuffing slices of ham into my face. Rather than relenting and giving me more food, she’d had me beaten instead, and then locked me in the small, dank closet beneath the stairs, left to spend the night with the rats.
And that was a light punishment.
I’d been trying hard this whole time not to let myself get lost in those dark memories, but the truth was that even though the conditions were better, being imprisoned in Solantha Palace felt a whole lot like the abuse I’d experienced at Mafiela’s hands as a child. And the same fear I’d felt then dug its icy claws into my chest, dragging me down into the depths of despair.