The Nat Makes 7 (Mags & Nats Book 1)

by Stephanie Fazio

  She reached up a hand to cup my cheek. She used her thumb to wipe away the single tear falling down my cheek.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  I gave her an incredulous look. “What are you sorry for?” I traced the edges of her face with my finger, marveling at how alive she was.

  “I know how awful this week has been for you, but I’m grateful for it.”

  “You’re grateful for something that almost got you killed?” I asked, my voice breaking on that word.

  I still couldn’t come to grips with how close I’d come to losing her.

  She nodded. “This is the first time I’ve felt whole in three years.”

  “Kai.” I didn’t trust myself to say more. I pressed my lips to her hand, knowing she would understand all the things I couldn’t bring myself to say out loud.

  She ran her fingers through my hair. “I know things will go back to the way they were as soon as we clear your name, but it was just…nice to have you back, even if it wasn’t real.”

  “This is real,” I told her, my voice sand-papery. “I never stopped loving you. Not even when I was so angry with you for what you did.”

  Pain flashed across her beautiful face, and I wanted nothing more than to take it away again.

  I leaned down and kissed her.

  The door opened, and we wrenched ourselves apart. I looked away as the rest of our friends piled into the room, staring out the window into darkness while I struggled for control over my emotions. A few seconds later, I thought I’d managed it well enough, but while Yutika and Bri hovered around Kaira, A.J. poked me in the chest. He whispered, “Unless you’re ready for everyone else to know you’re in love with her, wipe that expression off your face.”

  I gave him a puzzled look. A.J. rolled his eyes skyward. “Honestly, it is beyond me how the two of you went this long without being arrested. If you were half as obvious before as you are now….”

  “I get it,” I said, interrupting A.J.’s tirade. “See?” I motioned to my face. “Nothing going on here.”

  A.J. huffed and then sat down on the bed next to Kaira. He straightened her blankets and cooed to her like she was a little kid with the sniffles. The bed was a decent size, but I was less than thrilled about everyone crowding her after she’d just been shot. They were careful not to get near her stomach, and Kaira was smiling, so I let it be.

  “Michael,” Kaira said, reaching out a hand for him. He went over to the bed and stood where she could see him. At least he had the good graces not to climb on the mattress like A.J. and the girls. Michael’s eyes were still a little red, but nothing like the way they’d been before.

  “I’m so sorry,” Kaira told him.

  “Don’t be,” he told her, his normally stoic face twisted in regret. “It was my fault. If I’d been quicker—”

  “Don’t,” Kaira said, shaking her head back and forth. “It was my illusion that gave us away.”

  I went and sat on the floor next to Smith, who was looking lost without his three computers in front of him.

  “How’s your dad?” I asked the Techie.

  Smith gave me a sharp look. “Who said anything about him being my dad?”

  “You’re right,” I said. “How is that man who helped Kaira? He looked pretty exhausted when he left here.”

  Smith huffed and stared out the dark window. After a while, he said, “Mending takes a lot out of him, especially when the wound is life-threatening.”

  “I don’t know how it works,” I said, hating my ignorance and promising myself I’d do some necessary reading after all this was over, “but if there’s any way I can help…if he can take some of my energy or something—”

  “Nah, he’ll be fine. He just needs to sleep it off.”

  As if on cue, Older Smith came into the room. He was holding a tray crowded with seven bowls of ramen and a clean quilt draped over his arm. The smell of delicious broth and noodles filled the room. As if on cue, my stomach rumbled.

  Older Smith set the tray down on the floor and put the quilt on the edge of Kaira’s bed. He yelled at Bri, Yutika, and A.J. to stop climbing the hell over his patient and then left the room with a scowl.

  Scrambling off the bed, Bri said to Smith, “Your dad’s even scarier than you.”

  I thought Smith would make another comment about us assuming the older man was his father. Instead, he said, “You think I’m scary?” He sounded more than a little hopeful.

  “Maybe taciturn is a better word,” Yutika said with a giggle.

  Smith glowered.

  Kaira drank the bowl of ramen broth Older Smith had made for her, waving away all of our offers to help her. She also ate most of my noodles, since healing was apparently hungry work. I was so relieved to see her alert and acting like her normal self that it earned me another poke from A.J.

  “This big brother cover story is going to get more disturbing than the truth if you keep this up,” A.J. hissed at me.

  I scowled.

  “Oh my God,” Kaira said, sitting up in bed.

  I was on my feet in a second, thinking she was in pain. But all her face revealed was surprise.

  She looked at me. “I almost forgot about what happened before I got shot. Director Remwald. He—I—” She waved a hand, searching for the words.

  From the moment the gunshots started and Kai hit the ground, I hadn’t given a single thought to it, either. Now, I remembered how the old man on the porch had transformed into the Director.

  “Oh my God,” I echoed her. “Remwald.”

  “I just figured there was some kind of funky illusion work happening,” A.J. said, arching a brow. “You aren’t trying to tell us that was actually the Alliance Director colluding with Valencia, are you?”

  The moment I saw the Director standing on the stoop, I realized why I had recognized something about the old man when he was talking to Valencia. I had been trying to identify the man’s face, but it was his voice I knew.

  “I don’t get it,” Yutika said, holding up a hand. “Was one of those guards an Illusionist?”

  Kai shook her head. “Remwald is the Illusionist. The Alliance Director is a Mag.”

  CHAPTER 35

  So, you’re telling us that Director Remwald, the most famous Nat in the world, isn’t a Nat at all?” Yutika asked.

  A slow, wondering grin spread across Kaira’s face. “Director Remwald’s an unMarked Mag.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Bri said. “If he was a Mag, any Mag who crossed his path would have known.”

  “Unless he’s gotten a hold of some secret Alliance compound that cloaks his magic….” Smith rubbed his hands together, thrilled by the unlikely prospect.

  “Give it a rest, Smith,” Michael muttered.

  “How else do you explain it?” Smith challenged.

  “I have no idea, but I’m sure there’s a more reasonable explanation that we just haven’t figured out.”

  “No, I’m serious,” Smith persisted. “What if—”

  “Remember what Bobby Axelrod told Grandma Tashi?” I interrupted before the argument got out of hand.

  We could worry about that particular mystery later.

  “He’s illusioned. It’s illusioned,” Kaira repeated.

  I nodded. “The he must have been about Remwald.”

  “And didn’t Axelrod say the next murder would be an illusion, too?” Kaira asked.

  “You think Remwald’s planning to illusion himself to look dead, and then have the police whisk him away before anyone realizes he’s alive?” A.J. asked, wrinkling his nose.

  “More likely they’re going to use another body—one that’s actually dead,” Smith said. “That would explain why Remwald told Valencia the body needed to be processed quickly without an autopsy.”

  “Do you think he’s powerful enough to hold that kind of an illusion?” I asked Kaira.

  She nodded. “He isn’t quite as powerful as me, but he’s strong enough that our illusions cancelled each othe
r out as soon as we were standing within sight of each other.”

  “Are you sure that’s what happened?” Michael asked.

  Kaira nodded again. “It’s never happened to me before, because I’ve always been so much stronger than any other Animate Illusionists. My illusions felt weak as soon as we stepped out of the car, but I didn’t give it much thought because animal illusions are harder for me. But as soon as Remwald came out of the house, our magic crossed. That’s why we both lost our illusions.”

  Michael pulled out three crumpled photos from his jeans pocket. They all showed the same image, just from different angles.

  Director Remwald, his face on full display, was lying on a rug. I recognized the room from the numerous videos Remwald shared on social media. It was the Director’s office. Remwald lay in the center of the rug embroidered with the Alliance’s seal. The body was covered in blood. His entire chest cavity had been exposed, showing ribs and a pink blob that must have been his heart. Even knowing the pictures weren’t real, they were difficult to look at.

  “I can’t believe you managed to grab those after everything that happened,” Bri told Michael, sounding impressed.

  “Meanwhile, if he’d gotten himself shot for the sake of a few pieces of evidence, I would have killed him again myself,” Yutika grumbled.

  I saw Michael slip his hand into hers and squeeze.

  “Do you think these photos, along with the conversation we recorded between Remwald and Valencia, will be enough for us to go public?” Bri asked.

  Everyone looked at me.

  I shook my head. “There’s no way for us to prove what’s illusion and what’s real.”

  I was thinking about all of the legal precedents that applied in this case, and I knew that if we presented the evidence we’d gathered to a judge, there would be about fifty ways for it to be disregarded by any half-decent lawyer.

  Publicizing the pictures might interrupt Remwald’s plan, at least temporarily. But with all of the evidence pointing to me as Penelope’s murderer, getting people to believe anything I said would be like trying to stop a tornado with a paper fan.

  Who would people believe…the Alliance Director, or an escaped convict hated by both Naturals and Magics…?

  “Besides,” I continued. “If we went public with these photos now, Remwald would just show his face at some public event and feign ignorance. It’d just make us look stupid.”

  We all stared at the photos spread out on the floor.

  “And you’re 100% sure the guy on the porch was the Director Remwald? In the flesh?” A.J. asked, grimacing at the images.

  “Yes,” Kaira and I said.

  Kaira leaned over the side of the bed to study the images. “It’s just illusion,” she said, shaking her head in amazement. “I could do the same thing to myself right now.”

  “Please don’t,” I said, feeling sick at the thought.

  Fake or not, I couldn’t handle seeing Kai like that.

  “So, that dead person could be anyone,” Yutika said, her brow furrowed in thought, “and the medical examiners will never know because Valencia is going to arrange for the body to be cremated before anyone gets a good look at it?”

  Kaira and I looked at each other and nodded.

  “Okay, so let’s just assume for a minute the two of you aren’t completely off your rockers, and this is actually the Director illusioning himself so everyone will think he’s dead.” A.J. tapped his foot on the floor. “Why would Remwald want Boston to tear apart at the seams? What would he possibly gain by destroying the organization he’s in charge of?”

  “It’s the right question,” I agreed. “And I’m going to get the answer tomorrow.”

  The others looked at me.

  “You mean we’re going to get the answer tomorrow, right?” Bri planted her hands on her hips.

  I shook my head, my eyes going straight to Kai.

  “This is my problem, and you all have already put yourselves in too much danger with all of this.”

  “Bull shit,” Yutika said amiably.

  At the same time, Kaira said, “That’s not how things work around here, Gray.”

  I set my features. I knew they’d try to fight me, but I wasn’t giving in. Not after what had happened to Kai. “I won’t let any of you get hurt…get any more hurt…for my sake.”

  “Why do straight guys always think everything’s about them?” A.J. asked with a roll of his eyes. “Look, if it makes you feel better, tell yourself that we’re only helping for the sake of the good citizens of Boston.”

  “Remwald might have made you the scapegoat for these murders,” Michael said, “but if he finishes this, it’ll be the whole country that suffers. We have a responsibility to do what we can to stop him.”

  “Besides,” Yutika said, “we take care of our own. And you, Graysen Galder, are ours.” She reached over and patted my leg.

  “That was so beautifully poetic.” A.J. pulled—of all things—a checkered handkerchief out of his pocket and dabbed his eyes.

  I couldn’t put into words how much their support meant to me. But I still wasn’t willing to put them in danger if there was any way for me to solve this mess on my own. If I had thought more about consequences before diving headlong into something we didn’t fully understand, Kai wouldn’t have been shot.

  “Boyfriend, have you forgotten that if we hadn’t broken you out of prison, you’d be dust in the wind right now?” A.J. asked.

  I hadn’t forgotten.

  “You don’t get to tell us what to do any more than we can tell you what to do,” Kaira said.

  I felt my control over this conversation slipping through my fingers.

  “What if something happens to one of you?” I challenged.

  “We were caught unprepared today,” Kaira answered. “Nothing’s going to happen next time.”

  “At least, not to us.” Bri high-fived A.J.

  I knew I’d been defeated. I leaned back against the wall and sighed, deciding to wage a more private battle with Kai later when we were alone.

  “You know, I used to think we were awesome when we saved unMarked Mags from arrest,” Bri said. “But after we save the city and prevent a Nat-Mag war, we’ll be full-on heroes.”

  “Psh, like we weren’t already.” A.J. winked at her.

  “Before we all start patting each other on the back,” Yutika held up a finger, “we need to figure out how we’re going to stop this maniac.

  Smith raised an eyebrow. “I think I might have an idea.”

  CHAPTER 36

  An hour later, I sat in the van with Smith’s laptop in front of me. We’d driven a mile down the road to make the call, since Smith’s dad apparently didn’t allow anything that could be used to track him on his property.

  Like father like son.

  “Are you sure he won’t be able to figure out where we are?” I asked, my finger hovering over the mousepad.

  “It’s encrypted to within an inch of its life,” Smith replied. “And the Techie he’s got isn’t half as good as me. I’m sure.”

  I took a deep breath, and then I started the call.

  “Yes?”

  “Hello, Director Remwald.”

  There was a pause, and then a soft chuckle. “Galder. Thank you for saving my Techie the trouble of tracking you down.”

  “I have something of yours,” I said, tracing my finger along the edge of one of the photos. “I imagine it would be…awkward…if every news outlet in the country got a hold of these pictures. I wouldn’t want you to be in the uncomfortable position of having to explain why they make you look so dead.”

  I could feel the pretense at humor slip away as the Director’s voice hardened. “What do you want?”

  “A lot of things,” I replied, keeping my voice cool. “We can discuss all of them in the morning. Why don’t you clear your schedule, and we’ll meet at your place at nine.”

  “Still the big shot, even as a Nat running away from execution.”

/>   “I’m not running anywhere,” I told him.

  “Fine, then. Tomorrow at nine.”

  “If I see a single gun or any Mags that make me feel nervous, I’m turning around and going straight to the Globe,” I warned.

  “Understood.” Remwald paused, and I tensed. “How is Kaira doing, by the way?”

  I was grateful that the call was audio only so Remwald wouldn’t be able to see the mixture of shock and fury I knew was flashing across my face.

  Smith leaned over the computer and said, “Never better, asshole,” before I could recover.

  “Delighted to hear it,” Remwald said. And then he ended the call.

  When Smith and I got back to the house, we relayed the very short call to the others. Everyone was congratulating me, but I barely heard a word they said. A cold feeling had stolen through me. The others were busy reviewing the plan, but there was only one question that I could focus on.

  How did the Alliance Director know Kaira’s name?

  “Alright, kittens,” A.J. said, yawning and stretching. He looked at his watch. “We have exactly ten hours before this little soiree, and we’re all going to need some sleep if we’re going to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.” He peered at Smith. “Is there any place for us to get some beauty rest in this haunted mansion?”

  Smith nodded. “There are four bedrooms, not including my dad’s and this one.”

  “Shotty on my own room,” A.J. said, getting to his feet and trotting to the door.

  “Me too,” Bri announced, chasing him out. “I’ll fight you for it if I have to.”

  “Yutika and I can share a room,” Michael told Smith in a quiet voice. His face turned tomato-red. Yutika’s cheeks had darkened, too, but I could tell she was happy.

  “I guess that means you’re with me,” Smith told me.

  I shook my head. “I’m going to stay here for a bit. Just in case she needs anything.”

  “I think we have a sleeping bag somewhere,” Smith offered.

  “Thanks, but I’ll be fine. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep until all this is over, anyway.”

  Smith shrugged and followed Yutika and Michael out the door, shutting it behind him.