My Luck (Twisted Luck Book 1)

by Mel Todd

  I got my paper done, nothing blew up, and even work was good. Maybe, just maybe, life is looking up.

  I had sent my paper in the night before and even got to class a bit early. Monique just sneered at me and stomped by. I didn't even bother to let her know I'd noticed.

  Though not seeing Shay at the Grind Down also meant I didn't see his weird friend. I had wanted to see Elsba again and try to decide if I had really seen her fight a hawk and eat a snake.

  I wonder if that counts as cannibalism?

  Waiting for class to start, I pulled up the syllabus and looked at the topic for today. I had reviewed them all at the beginning, but really didn't remember the order they were being presented. This one sounded either very interesting, or boring as all get out. Laws, social strictures, and warnings about unregistered mages.

  Huh, didn't think you really could be. But then Sam mentioned the Rogue Team. I thought that was for mages who didn't want to serve.

  The obvious hole in my logic made me glad no one could hear my thoughts. If you were never registered and were higher than a 4, well then you were rogue. But what did they expect us to do about that?

  Bruce walked around handing out papers from last week. He didn't' say anything when he dropped the paper on my desk, but I grinned at the A+ written on it. The conversation with Sam had helped add some details to it. The bubbly feeling in my chest intensified.

  "Decent job on the papers. Some of you are doing exactly what we hoped and are talking to the people mentoring you about these topics. Remember, they have been doing this a lot longer and don't have much of an optimistic attitude for the most part. This is a good thing. You want the cynical view. It will prepare you for what you see in the field. You can be positive however being falsely optimistic will get people hurt."

  He turned and clicked on the projector. "Today we get to talk about what you are required to do if you come across an unregistered mage. Now we all know hedgemages are not required to register, though most of them are, just as a side effect of knowing what their rank is."

  There was a murmur of huh's in the classroom, but this answer I had at least figured out.

  Bruce shook his head. "If you get tested you get registered. The act of signing in registers you. The standard statistic is thirty-five percent of humanity are mages or at least have the ability to tap into magic. There are a great number of researchers that believe it is closer to seventy-five percent."

  Another murmur went through the classroom and I frowned. That many people? But why didn't anyone talk about it or teach more magic stuff?

  "The thought is most mages are hedgemages. They will probably never know they have magic. If they go to get tested, they are instantly registered, but if you never think you have magic…" Bruce shrugged. "So our current statistic stands. But the question is, 'What are you required to do?' When you get your EMT certification, part of that certification is agreeing to uphold the laws governing magic users. It is a carte blanche agreement, but it locks into upholding OMO regulations which say any mage over hedge must be registered."

  "Okay. So how do I know the person next to me is a mage or not if they aren't registered?" I glanced to see who had said it, male I knew, but no one jumped out at me. I turned my attention back to Bruce. I wanted the answer to that question too.

  Bruce gave a wicked smile. "And there is the question and the escape clause in most of this. It boils down to basic common sense. You see someone with no markings doing major magic and the offering isn't obvious or immediate, such as they go bald or sluice off multiple layers of skin, they probably need to be reported. And honestly, err on the side of caution. If you report someone who is a hedge and never got tested, or has registered, one of two things will happen. The OMO will run their name, verify their identity and say they are registered, thanks for checking. Or they will arrange to pick up the person—note this is their problem not yours—and have them tested. If they test out at the low rank, then they get registered, and gently pointed towards the hedgemage magic classes and it is done. How many of you know there are three aspects to registration?"

  This time only two people raised their hand and I scrambled to try to remember. There was the obvious, the tattoos. Oh, that's right the OMO guy had mentioned a new id. But the third I couldn't think of.

  "Marcy?" Bruce pointed to a woman who raised her hand. I'd talked to her a few times. In her late twenties, one kid, and… that's right her husband was a mage.

  "Tattoo, driver's license is updated to show you are a mage, and mandatory draft enrollment."

  Once she said that it was obvious. And I groaned at myself, annoyed at not thinking through all the complexities.

  "Correct. Now when you test you are also registering, but really all it does is note that you tested and the outcome. Here's a fun question. How many of you know how testing is done?"

  There were lots of exchanging glances and I frowned. Jo had told me easily enough, and it just seemed mostly silly more than anything else. Part of me doubted that was how they tested. It made more sense to have a merlin there with super magic sense. The rest would just be for show.

  No one raised their hand and Bruce nodded. "Even mages who have been tested aren't sure. They know they are asked what pulls at them, and it is a weird selection of objects. But they never cast spells or even do anything. And if you ask two mages on the same day, the items they list are completely different. I'm sure the OMO knows how it is done, but they aren't saying. However, the testing is consistent in every country. And they never get different types of magic skills even if you are tested by different people in different countries. That being said, worst case is that a non, or low rank magic user is tested and let go. But if it is an unregistered mage, here is where it gets serious." His voice had flattened out and took on a serious note, his body stiffening. "If you have proof someone did magic and by your inactions allow an unregistered mage to injure someone and you do not report it, you will be considered an accessory to the crime as well as aiding and abetting. The worst thing that happens for reporting a mage is they waste a few hours. The worst thing for not reporting a mage is you will be enrolled in the draft, even if you don't have magic."

  His words fell like lumps of sticky tar in the classroom. Splattering us and making us shift unconsciously as the reality of this settled in.

  Fear gripped me and I worked it through logically. I had never emerged and after Jo's display, any emergence above a hedgemage would be obvious. I was just weird, as usual.

  Bruce sighed. "Yes. It is taken seriously, though few magic users ever report anyone. Most feel they have done their duty by serving in the draft. And worst case, if they don't report someone, they serve a few more years. This is why the government leans so hard on non-magic users to report anyone suspected of being a high-ranking mage. If you don't think you can report someone, don't sign your certificates."

  "It isn't fair we have to be stooges and turn people in if they don't want to serve," came a nasally protest from the classroom. This time I knew the voice. Monique Kinnison. She whined. All the time. And everything was unfair and stacked against her. I had to resist the desire to strangle her on a regular basis.

  "That is a discussion for a philosophy classroom, not here. But I will ask you this, you really want a merlin running around without training? A merlin that can cause an earthquake at a ten or higher on the Richter scale without meaning to? Part of the mandatory registration is mandatory training." Bruce looked like he was about to say something else, but just shook his head. "So, just do yourself and everyone else a favor and report it. We tried to make it mandatory that all people taking this class went and got tested but that idea was shot down."

  He clicked the next slide and we spent ten minutes going over the various laws that governed mages. One of the sub-bullet points caught my attention.

  "What is that sub-clause about leniency granted for people under twenty-seven?" I asked, trying to figure out why there would be leniency after how harshly he h
ad talked about unregistered mages.

  "Ah, that applies more to self-reporting. Twenty-five is the latest age a mage has ever been recorded as emerging, so they added two years to it. And it has been made clear that not all people realize they did emerge if it happens while sick, intoxicated, or unconscious. So, there is a window where you can get tested years later when you figure out that you are a mage. Any high-rank mage self-reporting at thirty will suffer the consequences, which is doubling the draft for them. Personally, I disagree with that, but I don't make the laws."

  "Consequences?" That was me again.

  "The penalties for doing a crime are higher on a mage pretty much always. Simply because they are required to train to make sure they KNOW how to use their magic. That is what half of their classes are."

  He got blank looks from me and I guess a bunch of others. "When you go in for the draft, AA is the least amount of education required. Bachelors is the most common, and masters and doctorates are encouraged at wizard and higher. You will always have a minor in mage studies. This teaches you how to do offerings that don't kill you, how to use the spells in each class, and how to live and deal with the draft. It is a lot of course work and more than one mage has gotten seriously hurt completing it. But for the most part, most mages you meet that are out of control will be during their emergence. That is where you contact the OMO as soon as you realize it is an emergence and have the ID of the person. If they are not seriously injured, which is rare, you transport them to the nearest OMO office or wherever they direct you."

  "Emergences are not dangerous? The ones we saw on video were scary and people got hurt," Monique protested again.

  Really, can't she learn to talk without whining?

  Bruce waved his hand in a so-so motion. "Those were old, camera filming wasn't the greatest, and they were usually prisoners. Believe it or not, catching emergences is relatively rare. There are one or two good online videos of them, but how much was real versus excellent film editing is anyone's guess. In the twenty years I worked in the NYFD I only saw two mages die during emergence."

  "See, they are dangerous," Monique said, her voice triumphant.

  Bruce turned and just looked at her, and his look was so cutting I flinched back, though I had no sympathy for her. Monique paled and sank down further into her chair. I saw a hidden smirk on more than one face. She had not made herself well liked.

  "As I was saying, I only saw two deaths. One was a young man who was working a summer job doing windows and emerged thirty stories up. Her fell while he emerged and didn't survive the impact with the ground. The second was more tragic. A young mom, only twenty-two, with a one-year-old, emerged while driving across the Brooklyn bridge. Killed her, her daughter, and two other people in the car." He shrugged. "Most of the time it is weird and scary, but not really dangerous. Usually magic seems to sense that the people are not a threat."

  A sudden evil smile flashed across his face. "Though there is one incident where the emergence did kill someone. Look up the Rachel Simons case. She emerged while an asshole was raping her. She drained all the water out of his body. So, I guess there are some examples of emergence being dangerous."

  His grin was rather scary. I needed to learn to smile like that. It was intimidating.

  Chapter 30

  All colleges have a magic minor in the AA and BS degrees. Double majors are common at the archmage rank. Experienced teachers are sought after because you need to be an archmage or higher to teach some of the more nuanced aspects of magic. You are taught how to control, isolate the cells to offer, how to use the spells. Entire classes can be on a single spell. While it is possible to learn on your own, years of trial and error have found a solid understanding of physics, biology, and math is required to be effective. ~ Magic Explained

  This job goes from boring and nothing ever happens, to "Oh Merlin, I'm going to die in the next thirty seconds." If I make it through this without gray hair I'm going to be impressed.

  Sam handed me the radio as he drove. "Radio in those call signs I taped there." He peered out the window again in the direction we were going, and you could see a fireball shooting into the sky. "We're going to need them."

  A simple disturbance call, trouble at the fairgrounds. And when you started seeing lightning and fire when you were still twenty miles out, you know there was going to be a problem. For the first time in a very long time, I wished I was a mage. I also hoped I'd make it through the week. Dying like this would be a bit silly after everything else.

  Holding onto to the handle near the roof I called it in. Stating all the right words. "Unit Edward Alpha headed to Rockway Fairgrounds. Disturbance reported at BAM site. Visual confirmation of large amounts of magic. Requesting back up. Specifically, Mike Three and Charlie Four. ETA to fairgrounds three minutes." My voice stayed calm and smooth and it dawned on me I wasn't scared. Exasperated, nervous, but not really scared. I played with that thought as we careened around corners. Maybe it meant I'd be a good cop after all. Or I had gone insane. Either one seemed likely.

  The nearer we got, the weirder the air felt. I couldn't explain it, but it seemed similar to what it felt like when lightning was striking like crazy. Sam didn't seem to notice anything, so I just kept my mouth shut. I was all too aware that in many ways I was a liability for the department, and I didn't want to ruin the good relationship we had. Maybe that we had always had.

  Siren screaming and lights flashing, Sam tore around the last corner before the straightway into the camping area of the fairgrounds. A huge, oddly straight, bolt of lightning hit the ground in what seemed like the middle of the camping area.

  "Shit, shit, shit. Check with backup. Where are they?"

  "This is Edward Alpha, where is our backup? The situation seems electric." I smirked to myself at my pun and Sam groaned, but didn't say anything.

  "Edward Alpha, ETA on dispatched officers is four minutes," the sterile voice of the operator said. The 911 gals never sounded so robotic. I didn't know how they handled their dispatcher sounding like that. What was odd was that she had a super bubbly personality in person with a voice that expressed her current mood.

  "Rodger." I released the mic button as Sam came to a stop where the road ended and tents and campers took over. The same man was standing there waiting for us. No huge not-dog by his side. I felt let down. I really wanted to see more familiars though I wasn't sure why. They'd never talk to a normal person.

  Sam got out of the car, hand on his weapon as he scanned. "Randolph. We've got mage backup on the way."

  I got out of the car, peering at the man. Scott Randolph looked so mad I was almost surprised he didn't have steam coming out of his ears. "Those gods be damned idiots. This is why mages don't drink, 'cause you get stupid. Leon thought his wife Julia was hitting on Ivan. And Ivan, that stupid braindead Cossack, thought Leon was dissing his girlfriend Carol. Now I've got a Fire mage throwing down against an Air mage. At the rate they're both going they'll be bald or dead. If they were just going to kill each other I wouldn't care, but you see that!"

  As he said it, another bolt of lightning came searing through the air to impact with a boom that rattled my brain. The hair on my arms stood up with the energy in the air.

  "Thought you were an Entropy archmage."

  Scott started walking and we followed, getting closer to the commotion. I could hear whooping and hollering and men shouting.

  "I'll sear all the hair off your damn head if you even look twice at my wife!" one man hollered. Old, older than Chief Amosen, he had long matted dreadlocks that looked like someone had chopped them off unevenly. With dark hair but pale skin, he almost glowed as he raised his hand and fire danced along his fingers.

  "Like I'd want anything to do with that slut. Every man who's had her said she's a shitty ride," another man spat back. He stood in an easy pose, a big guy at least a few inches over six feet. His white blond hair and build screamed Slavic ancestry.

  A woman sitting on the side sucked in a shar
p breath and jumped to her feet. "Ivan, are you saying I suck in bed?" Her voice high and indignant and Scott groaned again.

  "Shit. And she's been doing coke. Why do I hang with these idiots?"

  I watched all this in disbelief as the one woman, Julia I guess, launched herself at Ivan. Another woman, Hispanic with half her head shaved interfered with her attack and they started rolling on the ground.

  "See what you did? If my Julia gets hurt, I'll see how you taste roasted."

  "Randolph, can't you stop them?" Sam hissed.

  "I don't have the damn education to pull off that trick. Power sure, but I'd need to know exactly what I was doing for which molecules. My strengths are in Time and Water besides. I did all my education in theoretical physics and quarks. I don't have a damn idea what the alcohol molecule looks like, much less how to break it into harmless components." He glared at the people on lawn chairs watching all of this and drinking beer. I thought I even saw some people placing bets, but I must have been wrong about that. "You want them dead, that I'm very good at. I have lots of experience at that."

  "Well, killing them might be an option," Sam muttered as another wave of fire burst out and I swore one of Fire mage's dreadlocks was shorter.

  "Oh, Leon is still posturing. He'll have to get close to bald. My worry is if he gets pissed and starts boiling water his control sucks. He'll kill everyone in the area without realizing it. And I don't give a damn how good Ivan is, controlling lightning is chancy at best. If it goes sideways, he'll hit one of the RVs and we'll have a real explosion. Damn near about ready to shoot both of them, but then I'd have all of them after me." He waved at the crowd cheering them on. "I swear I'm raising all their dues next year and I'm pointing back to this incident when they whine." He flinched as a huge gust of wind toppled one of the tents. "And doubling their bail deposits."