The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans

by Crook, Amy

  Julian huffed. “Enjoy your food, Agent.”

  “It’s very good food,” said Alex teasingly. “We’ll talk about the case afterward. I have to do some research later anyway, there’s a lot of details that might point to a suspect or at least a more specific motive.”

  Murielle chuckled. “Fine, then, how’s your work going, Julian? Oh, wait, that’s about the case, too,” she said.

  “Brat,” Julian replied, sticking out his tongue. “It’s going really well, Mary Margaret says I’m good at it beyond my natural talent, and Alex has been helping me get attuned to my magical senses.”

  “How does that work, I mean, how can you sense magic and not know it?” she asked curiously.

  “Well, for me it’s not really magic, I mean, not like Alex or Geoff, it’s just plants. And it’s like I feel what they’re feeling, and a little bit about them, so I know if it’s a tree or an herb or a flower, and if it needs water or sunlight. So, before I was around Alex, I felt the trees at home and the flowers and things, and sometimes I’d tell someone if a flowerbed needed water or a tree was looking diseased, but I never really knew that I was feeling stuff from the plants. I thought it was just intuition and noticing little details.” Julian let the wistful, nostalgic smile stay, not bothering to hide his feelings from his friends. “I still miss that, sometimes, just being ordinary.”

  “You were always exceptional,” protested Alex, kissing Julian sweetly. “We’ll visit more often, I’m sorry, I always get caught up, don’t I? You should put it in our calendar more.”

  Julian chuckled. “I let you, though, so it’s not your fault, really,” he said. “I’ll make sure Emmy drags us out more often like she’s been threatening.”

  Murielle made a face. “You two really are still syrupy sweet, when will the honeymoon phase end? Doesn’t he leave his dirty socks on the floor or something?”

  Alex looked smug. “Of course I do, Alys gets mad if I don’t.”

  “It’s not right, doing a brownie’s work,” said Alys with a nod.

  Murielle laughed. “You are a spoiled man, Alex Benedict.”

  “And I spoil my beloved Julian in turn,” said Alex, unrepentant.

  “He really does,” said Julian. They all kept up the easy banter while they ate, and Julian felt the tension of the day draining away in the warmth of their home and their friends, odd though both might be to the sheltered rich boy he’d once been.

  Alys shooed them all out of the kitchen once they were done, promising a sweet for afters. Julian curled up in the big chair to read while Alex and Murielle went into Alex’s work room. It didn’t feel like a day for one of the murder mysteries they both liked, so Julian found one of his guilty pleasures and pulled down a rather battered paperback romance novel. It was one of the first books that he’d ever read with men falling in love with other men, and he’d always been drawn to the courtly manners and the way the older man had wooed the younger one.

  Julian lost himself in his book enough that he was surprised when Alex kissed him and nudged him to make room so they could share dessert. “I think Alys has been trading recipes with Jacques,” said Alex teasingly. They each had a dish of homemade vanilla ice cream topped with spiced plums and garnished with sweet ginger biscuits, and of course a fresh pot of tea. Alex made up Julian’s tea first and then his own, and Julian snuggled up happily.

  “So, did you figure it all out?” asked Julian, after giving his attention first to a few bites of their treat.

  “I wish,” said Murielle. “I get the feeling this is going to be a complicated one, which means expensive.”

  “I’d say I’m not that expensive, but we both know that’s not true,” said Alex, amused. “At least I don’t charge you for Con’s favours, too.”

  “That’s because not all my favours are for work,” said Con, who’d spent the time that Alex had been occupied talking to the brownies while they worked.

  Alex chuckled. “That, too,” he said, unrepentant. “We figured out enough for her to be going on with, anyway, so I’m now free to appropriately pamper my lover, who’s had a very trying day.”

  Julian giggled and kissed him. “You pamper me anyway,” he said fondly.

  “I know,” Alex smirked. He rubbed their noses together, which always made Julian feel a bit silly and a lot loved.

  Alex was always willing to allow a bit of silly into their lives if it made Julian happy.

  Their butterfly fairy came over and settled on Julian’s arm, then gave them each a kiss on the cheek. Alex laughed and offered up a spoonful of melty ice cream and spiced plum sauce, which she sipped at gracefully.

  “You spoil everyone around you,” said Murielle with a laugh. “Well, I shouldn’t complain, it means I get to enjoy it, too.”

  Soon enough the sweets and guests alike were gone, and Alex disappeared into his work room after making sure Julian didn’t require more pampering. Julian took his herbal to the bath and read up on wormwood, lucky clover, and everything that was in the purification greenhouse. There were a few species not covered, most notably the fire orchid, but that wasn’t an herb anyway. Alex had some books on magical plants in his work room, so Julian made a mental note to do some more reading in there while Alex worked tomorrow.

  CHAPTER 3

  “All right,” said Alex, once they’d finished lunch, “I promised Mary Margaret we’d continue lessons, and since I’m out of my work room for now this seems as good a time as any.”

  “I’m tired of reading about plant species, anyway,” said Julian with a grin. “What are we going to do?”

  “I thought we’d talk about where magic comes from,” said Alex, leading him to their reading chair and snuggling right up. “It’s more theory than practice, but you can try to use your new senses on something other than plants.”

  “Like you?” asked Julian, nuzzling him and then stealing a kiss. “I like feeling you.”

  Alex laughed, and kissed him again, which Julian didn’t mind at all. Alex’s lessons might be harder for Julian to wrap his head around, but the perks were better than learning from Mary Margaret. “Be that as it may,” said Alex, “we get to start with theory first.”

  “Yes, teacher,” said Julian. “Where does magic come from?”

  Alex kissed the tip of Julian’s nose, eyes sparkling, but he did segue into the lesson. “Living things produce magic as part of being alive,” said Alex. “That’s where most of the magic in the world comes from, just from countless lives, large and small. Dying releases a lot of energy, and giving birth or bursting from a seed uses a lot of energy. Seeds have a lot of magical potential in them.”

  “That’s why you use a lot of seeds, and only some fresh plants. But flowers are full of potential, too, they’re the thing that becomes the seed,” said Julian, following the logic.

  “Right,” said Alex. “And leaves gather the sunlight and turn it into the energy the plant uses to live, including magical energy, and stems and branches support the structure, so each part of a plant has a different sort of energy, aside from the inherent properties of the plant as a whole.”

  “Neat,” said Julian. “I should be taking notes?”

  Alex kissed his forehead. “Did you want to? This is just background today, but if it helps you to write it down…”

  Julian’s big notebook floated over, pencil still inside from where he’d been trying to draw different kinds of leaves during his last session with his herbal. “It helps fix it in my mind,” said Julian, politely ignoring the brownie’s magic, since they chose not to speak up. He started a new page and drew a plant with branches, leaves, flowers, fruit and seeds, then made notes about each one. “Do plants get magic from the soil, too?”

  “They do,” said Alex, pleased. “And the energy in sunlight is part magical energy, and the planet has its own deep energies, plus soil is full of small deaths and lives both.”

  Julian made more notes on the page, then looked up at Alex’s expectant face and had to kiss him
. “And people make magic, too. So what are magical sources, then?”

  Alex chuckled at Julian’s little stick figure of a person making magic, so Julian stuck his tongue out at him. “Yes, all right, you’re a master artist,” said Alex, kissing his hair. “Anyway, magical sources are places where there’s a sort of thin spot between our world and the other realms, and their magic leaks through. Sometimes a doorway gets put in, like the fairy forts or the Queen’s paths, and sometimes we have to close it, but usually magical sources are used to do more potent magic.”

  “All right, so what’s the lesson?” asked Julian, setting his notebook aside. He didn’t want to think about the source on St. Albans land right now, even though it would soon be used for good things, once the cottage was finished and he and Alex could go stay there and make magic together.

  Alex rubbed their noses together and rested his forehead on Julian’s, then took both of Julian’s hands in his. “See if you can feel inside yourself, if you can feel where your magic comes from, or where mine does.”

  “Can you hear it?” asked Julian curiously, trying to stretch that strange sense of his, poking around inside himself. He could feel what was him better, now that he was thinking about it, and feel the border between him and the world. He tried to feel the places he was touching Alex, and he got a warm wash of affection when he thought about it.

  Alex nodded, moving Julian’s head with his just a little, which made them both smile. “There’s always a place where your magic is loudest, though I can only hear it when I’m touching someone, and even then some people are too hidden.”

  Julian pushed away from those points of contact and tried to follow deeper, and he thought he could feel something behind his breastbone, something that was more him than anywhere else, but he couldn’t be sure. He made a frustrated little noise. “It’s like trying to find a cloud in a fog bank,” he said with a huff.

  Alex chuckled and kissed him. “You’re a very cute fluffy cloud, anyway,” he teased, giving Julian a tickle. “It’s something to look for in your plants next time you’re doing your rounds.”

  “Does this mean the lesson’s done?” asked Julian, mind turning to other things he and Alex could do with a free afternoon.

  “For now,” said Alex, rubbing noses again. “We’ll come back to it, once you’ve practiced on your plants.”

  “Yes, teacher,” said Julian teasingly.

  Alex chuckled and they shared slow, leisurely kisses, taking the time to just enjoy the moment while they had the chance. Alex would have to go back to work soon enough, and Julian had more studying to do, but for now they had each other.

  CHAPTER 4

  Alex’s phone rang a few days later while he was busy in his lab, and Julian answered when he saw it was Murielle. “He’s doing magic,” said Julian by way of hello.

  Murielle sighed. “We have a problem,” she said. “Ms. Eberly might think Alex is charming, but she’s not willing to overlook his purchase of the lucky clover, and she’s taking it to my boss. Apparently I will be sharing this case with Agent Fischer from now on, because he hates Alex sufficiently to make up for my bias in your favour. Alex’s favour.”

  “But you know what the clover was for, I mean, dozens of agents and officers got the charms,” said Julian, bewildered. “And Alex was with me all night before the murder.”

  “Which you will be telling Agent Fischer when he re-takes your statement, I’m afraid,” said Murielle. Julian huffed, which made Murielle laugh. “You sound like Alex.”

  “It’s stupid for me to have to redo the paperwork. You didn’t even take my statement the first time, Tiny did,” said Julian. “I bet he wants me over without my Alex, too, just so he can bully me better.”

  “You’re pretty, but you’re smart,” said Murielle. “Do you need a ride?”

  “I can take a cab all by myself, Mom,” said Julian. “Though I suppose I should call you Agent Lapointe for a while.”

  “Just at the Agency,” she reassured him. “Leave Alex a note and come over as soon as you can, please. I’m getting a lot of flak for trusting our trusted consultant.”

  Julian sympathised with the exasperation in her tone. “As soon as I can, I’ve got to get dressed properly.”

  “Alex’s bad habits are rubbing off,” she said teasingly, then hung up.

  Julian sighed, taking a moment to write Alex an explanation and leaving Alex’s phone on top of it. Then he took a quick shower and dressed, trying to look more formal and adult this time. No waistcoat or cravat, but nice slacks and a good shirt and jacket rather than his work clothes. He knocked on Alex’s work room door just in case, but there was no answer. Julian asked the brownies to make sure Alex got his note, then headed downstairs to catch a cab to the Agency. At least it was a familiar trip.

  Julian entered the upper offices of the agency with his head held high, trying to convince himself he was welcome there as a friend, still. And even if he wasn’t, he was still a St. Albans; he might have given most of the titles and land over to Emmeline and her new husband, Phineas O’Connor St. Albans, but he still had the social clout to keep from being detained or harassed like some common thief.

  Or so he told himself.

  “Agent Lapointe,” said Julian gratefully, spotting her lurking by her office door. “How are you? Have you been resting?” He put on his best company manners, giving her hands a squeeze and smiling with as much warmth as he could muster, given the situation.

  Lapointe looked highly amused. “As much as ever when I’m on a case,” she said. “Can I get you some coffee before we go find Agent Fisher?”

  “Is there tea?” he asked, stomach feeling not quite up to the Agency’s terrible coffee.

  “Of course,” she said with a laugh. “Come on.” They went to the break room, which he’d been in dozens of times with friends, but it seemed stark and unwelcoming today. Someone had been through and put everything away and cleaned the counters, so the usual homey clutter of clean mugs in the drainer and sugar packets lost behind the creamer was missing.

  “I’ll put the kettle on for both of us, I could probably use less coffee,” she said, getting down one of the generic department-logo mugs for Julian and her own ‘I like coffee more than I like you’ cup. Julian let her rifle around for the tea and spoons and put the kettle on, acting the part of the guest in case someone came in.

  Someone did, and nearly startled Julian out of his wits until he recognised poor Agent Thomas MacLean and his perpetual unrequited crush on Lapointe. “Julian, I don’t hear Alex bellowing, are you here alone?”

  “Agent Fischer wishes to re-take my statement on the murder at the nursery,” said Julian, trying not to sound as exasperated as he felt.

  “Ohh,” said Thomas, clearly up on the gossip. “Yeah, I guess he would.”

  Julian rolled his eyes. “It’s all a bit silly, if you ask me.”

  “No corner-cutting in our department,” said Lapointe, pouring boiling water over their tea bags. “Except when it comes to the brand of tea, anyway.”

  Julian snickered. “It’s fine, Alex likes a lot of hole-in-the-wall restaurants that only serve such plebeian swill.”

  “Oh, but the food at those places is always divine,” said Lapointe. “I don’t know how he does it, he’s like a bloodhound for cheap, delicious food.”

  “It’s not as if he needs to budget,” said Thomas with a chuckle. “Even before you, he was pretty well off.”

  “He still is, we keep separate finances,” said Julian. “He lets me pay half rent, though.”

  “Does he, now?” said a rather unpleasant voice in the doorway, and they all turned to see Agent Fischer looming. “Agent Lapointe, are you detaining my…”

  “ Agent Lapointe was offering me a cup of tea before I have to go through this tedious and unnecessary process, given that my original statement taken by a perfectly neutral officer of the law,” said Julian, pulling his dignity together. He might be young and inexperienced, but he wouldn
’t let Fischer push him around. “No one is detaining me,” he added coldly.

  Fisher looked surprised, and Julian mentally gave himself a point in his favour. “Of course, Mr. St. Albans.”

  Julian turned and poked at his tea. “I think that’s about as good as it’s going to get,” he said, giving Lapointe all the warmth he’d denied to Fischer. They did a little dance, disposing of the tea bags and getting sugar and milk into Julian’s cup, though Lapointe took it black. “Will you be coming with us?” Julian asked Lapointe, as they left the little break room.

  “No, I’ve got some paperwork to do, but I’m sure Agent MacLean could go with you if you don’t want to be alone with Agent Fisher,” she said, mild but a slight dangerous edge.

  “Yeah, I’ve got some time, I don’t mind,” said Thomas, sipping his own coffee. His mug had a black, pixelated heart on it that turned red when the coffee heated up the ceramic.

  Fischer looked annoyed, but didn’t protest. He had his own coffee, in a mug with the police academy logo. “We’ll use this room,” he said, leading them into one of the interrogation rooms.

  At least it was the comfortable one.

  The table in here was an oval with chairs all around it, so the officer wasn’t forced to take an adversarial stance with friendly witnesses or even suspects of some standing. Julian took a seat near one end of the oval, to one side, giving Fischer no way to loom over him. He smiled warmly when Thomas took the seat to his left, so the two of them were presenting a united front. “How are you doing with the new Castles game, anyway?” asked Julian, as though Fischer wasn’t quietly fuming as he set up his folder and recorder.

  “Oh, it’s great! I’ve got two built, and I’m working on a third one, but I keep running into monsters down in my mines. I think you’d like it, it’s really pretty, even more than that Cloudfall one you saw when you guys were over.” The best part about it was that Thomas’ enthusiasm was guileless and unfeigned, and Julian was actually interested. He’d never really played video games before, but Thomas had started getting him interested in the little ones you could play on your phone, and then he and Alex had gone over to Thomas’ for pizza and he’d shown off his fancy gaming setup.