The Nat Makes 7 (Mags & Nats Book 1)

by Stephanie Fazio

  As soon as we were alone, I told Kaira about Remwald knowing her name.

  Kaira’s brow furrowed, but she shrugged it off, just like I knew she would.

  “Kai, you can’t come with us tomorrow,” I said.

  She rolled her eyes. “Here we go.”

  “I mean it,” I insisted. “I have no idea how Remwald knows who you are, but I’m not taking any more chances with you. Smith’ll set you up so you can see and hear everything that’s going on.”

  Kaira looked at me and yawned. “Are you finished?”

  I felt my temper rising. How could she be so nonchalant after what had happened?

  “There’s no need for you to be there,” I said, trying to keep my tone reasonable. “Your illusion magic doesn’t work around Remwald.”

  She bristled. “As long as I’m there, his illusions won’t work, either. He won’t be able to fool you into thinking he or you all are someone else.”

  I opened my mouth, but she wasn’t finished.

  “But that’s not the point, is it? The point is that Remwald tried to destroy your life, almost managed to kill me, and is trying to disassemble our whole city. Any one of those would be more than reason enough for me to be there with you.”

  “Kai—”

  “Gray.”

  “You were shot,” I said, more desperate than angry now.

  “And now I’m better.” She lifted her shirt and patted her stomach. I didn’t miss her small wince.

  “Please, Kai,” I begged her.

  She shook her head and reached her hands out to me. “I don’t want to fight with you. Can you just hold me?”

  “Why do you always have to be so goddamn stubborn?” I grumbled as I kicked off my shoes and climbed onto the bed.

  “If memory serves, you used to think my stubbornness was sexy.”

  She laughed at the scowl that twisted my face.

  Kaira snuggled into my chest, making it impossible for me to remember why I was mad at her. When she glanced up at me, I saw that all the humor was gone from her face.

  “You know something?”

  I shook my head, shivering a little when her fingers stroked my jaw.

  “I thought it would be horrible if you found out the truth about why I did what I did, but now, I’m glad you know. It doesn’t hurt as much anymore.” She put her hand over her heart. “It’ll be easier to go back to the way things were before you were arrested.”

  I put my hand over hers. “I don’t want things to go back to the way they were.” I had barely been able to walk away last time, and that was back when I thought she’d betrayed me for selfish reasons.

  Kaira wound her arm around my waist. “After tomorrow, the Alliance is going to need you more than ever. And maybe, once the dust settles, we can be friends.” She gave me a small smile. “You know, like those movies where the vigilante befriends the brilliant detective…in your case, lawyer…and every so often, they join forces to solve an unsolvable case.”

  “Friends,” I repeated. The word sounded twisted and wrong. With Kai, I’d always wanted more.

  After everything, though, I realized it was the best I could hope for, and more than I deserved.

  Kaira had done something awful, but she’d done it with the best intentions and no knowledge of how terribly wrong it would go. And the reason she’d done it was for my sake.

  She had let me walk away without argument. At the time, I had thought that made her cold and unfeeling. Now, I realized, she had done it to give me a clean break so I could go to the BSMU without any ties to her. Because that was the future I had given every indication I wanted.

  Never once had it occurred to me to consider how Kaira’s actions that day were completely un-Kaira-like. I had been too angry, too hurt, to ask the right questions. I had assumed the worst about her, even though she had never before given me a reason to doubt her.

  For the brightest student ever to go through the BSMU, I had been unforgivably stupid.

  Get the hell out of my life. I never want to see you again. The burn of acid filled my throat at the memory of the words I’d shouted at her.

  And then there were the words I’d said to her the other night, when we’d both been almost-naked, and I’d told her about my dad’s suicide attempt. I’d lectured her about love. It’s a willingness to do anything for the other person’s sake, even if it makes you less happy, I’d told her.

  The irony of my little lecture wasn’t lost on me. She had been willing to give up her happiness and accept my blame so I could have a future that would be impossible if I stayed with her.

  For the first time in my life, I felt truly ashamed of myself.

  “I’m such a shit,” I whispered.

  I tightened my arms around her. “Kai, I’m so sorry for the way I treated you. I should have known…I should have seen…that wasn’t you.”

  The words were wholly inadequate and three years too late.

  I held my breath while I waited for her to say something. When she still didn’t speak, I smoothed back her hair so I could see her face. I huffed out a quiet chuckle. She was asleep.

  I had never felt less deserving of the woman in my arms, but that thought only made me want to tighten my hold on her. I kissed the top of her head. The rise and fall of her chest against my own helped to calm the cyclone of thoughts swirling through my mind.

  While Kaira slept, I went over our plan again and again in my head, searching for loopholes and ways it could all fall apart. Remwald needed the photos for his plan to go smoothly, and the Director was smart enough to assume I wouldn’t hand over the originals until I’d gotten what I wanted. I also knew the Director wasn’t just going to stand by and let Michael and I interrogate him without putting up some kind of a fight.

  I considered the possibility of a Shield. If Remwald had one, Michael and the rest of our group’s magic wouldn’t work, but neither would Remwald’s. That would put us on an equal playing field, and Remwald wouldn’t be willing to do that.

  A Manipulator would be more problematic for my friends, but again, Remwald would have to know that we’d have plans in place in case he tried to screw us. Smith had copies of the photos on some kind of timer so they’d be sent to the Globe tomorrow afternoon if anything happened to us.

  If something was going to go wrong, I couldn’t think of what it might be.

  I occupied the next several hours by going over all the questions to which we still needed answers.

  Why would a powerful Magic masquerade as a Natural? How did he manage to fool all Magics into thinking he was a Natural?

  I planned to ask the Director exactly how he had gotten away with that bit of deceit. The thought of Remwald as a Magic, and a high-level Illusionist, at that, was almost too strange to consider. But Kaira had been sure.

  As I sat in bed and listened to Kaira’s soft breathing, I found my thoughts continually straying to the mystery of Remwald’s motives.

  Regardless of how he’d come to be in charge of the Alliance, Remwald was its leader now. If the organization fell apart, the blame would at least partially fall on him. The city he was in charge of would go to hell. Why would he want that?

  As the hours crept by, I still couldn’t find a single weakness in our plan. And yet, I felt edgy. Remwald hadn’t sounded desperate on the phone. It made me feel less certain about what we’d be walking into.

  The questions of why and how continued to churn in my brain. I watched the sky out the window change from black to gray-blue, and still, I didn’t have any answers.

  CHAPTER 37

  We all assembled in the lantern-lit kitchen at dawn. Kaira had insisted on getting out of bed and going down the stairs without help, even though she was walking in a way that told me she was still in pain. She had given me that look that told me any argument I might make would fall on deaf ears. So, I’d shut my mouth and clenched my fists.

  By the looks of the others, no one had slept much. Older Smith stood on the edge of our group, peering
at Kaira in a way that made it clear he didn’t like that she was out of bed. Neither did I.

  The others said their thanks to Smith’s dad and headed out to the van, still discussing last-minute details of our plan. I stayed behind. Older Smith gave me a challenging glower.

  “I just wanted to tell you that I’ll never forget what you did for Kaira.” The memory of her screams filled me with so much emotion it took me a few seconds to catch my breath. “I know it might not mean much coming from a fugitive accused of murder, but I wanted to say thank you.”

  I expected Older Smith to make some snide comment, but again, the man surprised me.

  Older Smith looked at me in a way that made me feel like he saw straight into all the hidden parts of myself that I’d never shared with anyone except Kai. Strangely, it didn’t feel as awful as it should have.

  “You’re welcome,” Older Smith said, before walking to the door and holding it open for me. “Watch the tripwire,” he warned as I headed down the steps. “And kid.”

  I turned back to look at him.

  “Use the elliptical instead of the treadmill. Your joints will thank you for it.”

  ✽✽✽

  In the car, Smith fitted the tiny video camera we’d used before into one of the buttonholes on my new shirt. Personally, I would have just accepted the T-shirt Older Smith offered to lend me, but A.J. had insisted on designing something dressier for my meeting with the Director. A few quick strokes from Yutika’s pen had brought the striped green-and-gray button-down A.J. envisioned into reality.

  Smith opened his laptop so we could all see the clear video and audio coming through the tiny camera.

  “That is some damn fine work, if I do say so myself,” Yutika said, squinting at the barely-visible lens tucked into my shirt. She held out her hand to Smith. After a moment’s hesitation, he slapped her palm.

  “The two of you really could rule the world,” I told them.

  Yutika grinned. Smith just grunted.

  “And you’re sure you’ll be able to save the video and make copies while I’m still in the house?” I asked, clenching and unclenching my fists as I tried to rid myself of some of my nervous energy.

  “You just do your job, and I’ll do mine,” Smith grumbled.

  My job would be to ask all the right questions that would expose Remwald’s plan. We needed evidence that would be concrete enough to be authenticated by the police. There couldn’t be any question of illusion work or ambiguous admissions.

  Yutika drew a second car, which popped into existence behind the van. We reviewed the plan once more, and then Kaira, Michael, and I got into the smaller car while everyone else piled into the van. No one said good-bye or good luck. The Six were treating this like another one of their jobs, and I was too nervous to say anything at all.

  I drove, hoping it would give me something to focus on besides what the next few hours would bring. Kaira stretched out on the backseat and immediately fell asleep. The little walking she’d done to get downstairs and to the car had thoroughly exhausted her, and there were lines of pain creasing her forehead even in sleep. Worry and guilt over everything she was putting herself through for my sake gnawed at my insides.

  It was a Saturday and there weren’t many cars on the road, so my mind was free to wander to all sorts of unpleasant thoughts as we drove.

  Kaira’s injury and our plan somehow failing weren’t the only worries occupying my mind.

  If Remwald really was behind all of these murders, and his plan truly was to start a war between Nats and Mags, then what would happen when the corruption was exposed? How many other essential members of the Alliance were involved?

  If my friends and I kept digging, what else would we find?

  And if the Alliance wasn’t made up of people who wanted true equality and unity between Nats and Mags like I’d always thought, then it meant that everything I had been working for was a lie. It would mean I gave up everything for an institution that was defunct.

  The thought was too disturbing to consider for more than a passing moment. I forced my mind back to the present. I’d have answers soon enough; there was no point in worrying about what-ifs prematurely.

  It was half-past eight when we reached Remwald’s neighborhood.

  “Are you guys in position?” Kaira asked into her mic.

  “Yep,” Bri replied. “If you need any backup, we’ll be ready.”

  “Is my camera still working?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Smith said. “I’ll start saving your recording as soon as you get out of the car.”

  “Alright, this is where we leave you guys,” Kaira said. “We’ll see you in a little while.”

  “Hey Graysen,” A.J. said, as Kaira and Michael unhooked their mics and earpieces, and tossed them onto the backseat. “In a little while you’ll be a free Nat. You better remember your lowly criminal friends when you’re in your corner office in the Alliance. That’s all I’m saying.”

  “Don’t worry,” I told him. “I’ll still need you for fashion advice.”

  A.J. was still cackling as I pulled out my earpiece and threw it onto the pile with the others. Everyone in the van would be able to see and hear what was going on in the house because of my camera, but we wouldn’t be able to communicate with the rest of our group. If Remwald saw the earpieces and suspected we were recording the conversation, it would defeat the purpose of this whole endeavor. Still, there was something unsettling about not having our friends’ constant chatter in my ear as Remwald’s gated driveway came into view.

  As soon as I pulled up to the driveway, the gate slid back. The three of us were silent as we drove up the long drive. I parked right in front of the house in the turnaround, making sure the wheels were angled so we could make a quick escape if necessary.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  Kaira and Michael nodded, and we all got out of the car.

  I only managed a single, worried look at Kaira as she walked up to the porch. Her steps were stiff and measured, like she was making a conscious effort not to double over. I could see she was breathing harder from the effort of just walking.

  “Focus,” she hissed at me with a scowl.

  The door opened just as I raised my hand to knock. A tall, thick man who looked like a Nazi SS guard with his blonde hair and blue eyes glared at us. I wondered if he was the one who had shot Kaira. White hot fury coursed through me at the mere thought.

  I felt a sharp jab in my side and glanced over at Kaira, who was giving me a furious look.

  Focus, she mouthed.

  “Just you three?” the man asked, and I was almost surprised that he didn’t have a German accent.

  “Just us,” I replied, meeting the guard’s challenging stare.

  “If you want to come inside, I’ll need to check you, first.”

  “Be our guest.” I stepped forward.

  The guard was thorough, patting down my clothes and checking my pockets. Still, he didn’t notice the small camera hidden in my button. He pulled up my shirt, searching for wires. When he didn’t find any, he grunted and moved on to Michael.

  I felt my anger creeping up again as the guard ran his hands over Kaira. I kept my jaw tightly clenched, but when the man got near her stomach, I couldn’t stop myself.

  “Watch your hands,” I snapped.

  Kaira lifted up her shirt to show she wasn’t wearing a wire. The guard glared at us for a few more seconds, and then he waved us inside the house.

  Director Remwald was waiting in the foyer.

  “They’re clean, Sir,” the guard said.

  I noticed a second guard fall into step behind us.

  “And what about your people?” I demanded.

  “Not a single weapon, as requested,” Remwald replied smoothly. “My men are Combat Mags, but they’re only here to make sure I’m not harmed.”

  I wasn’t fool enough to take the snake at his word. I inclined my head at Michael.

  The Whisper stepped closer to the Director.
“Are your Combat Mags planning to harm us?” he asked Remwald, holding the other man with his stare.

  “Not unless you attack me,” Remwald replied immediately.

  Michael nodded at me. Remwald shook his head, like he was trying to shake off whatever fog Michael’s influence had exerted over him.

  “Fine,” I said. “Should we get this conversation over with, then?”

  “Follow me,” Remwald replied, crossing the hallway to a room just off the foyer. It was a study with a large desk in the center of the room. Several chairs were lined up across from the desk. Gold wallpaper took up the space that wasn’t covered by framed diplomas and bookshelves. The air smelled faintly of leather and old books.

  The two Combat Mags followed us inside. One stood by the door while the other took up a position beside Remwald.

  I would have preferred to stay standing, but I sat so Kaira would have an excuse to get off her feet.

  “Where are your other friends?” Remwald asked as he settled himself in the leather seat across from us.

  “Back in Boston,” I lied. “Where’s Valencia?”

  “The same. She has another rally this afternoon.”

  My unease was growing by the second. Remwald wasn’t demanding to see the photos. He seemed relaxed.

  “Is this really him or an illusion?” I asked Kaira.

  “It’s him,” she confirmed. “I can sense his magic, and I can’t make any of my own illusions.

  “I have to say, it’s unsettling to be in the presence of an Illusionist as powerful as myself,” Remwald told Kaira in a conspiratorial kind of way.

  I gripped the sides of my chair to keep my emotions from getting the best of me.

  “I can imagine how unsettling it must be for you, after all these years of parading around like a Nat,” Kaira said. “Just out of curiosity, how have you managed to keep everyone from noticing you were a Mag all this time?”

  Remwald smiled without humor. “My brother was a gifted Alchemist. He developed a potion to temporarily suppress magical abilities. If enough of the potion is taken, the Magic effectively becomes a Nat.”