The description made Blue queasy. That was in him? Now? And had been for centuries?
“Some of the pieces of it got onto the floor there,” Jodi said, nodding toward the kitchen area. “Maybe it could send out pieces of itself. I’m not sure. I seem to recall that some parasite spells can do that, send out little branches of themselves to enact the point of the spell.”
“Oh, wow,” Young Gregor said.
Oh, wow is right, Blue thought, and not in a good way.
Then Young Gregor looked at Blue with an expression filled with pity. “You still have yours.”
Blue nodded.
“And it’s centuries old.”
Blue nodded again.
“Jeez,” Young Gregor said. “No wonder you wanted to work on mine first. Getting rid of mine knocked me cold, and I’ve only had it for a year or two. What’s going to happen to you?”
“I have no idea,” Blue said. Then he took a deep breath, gathering all the strength that he had. “But I’m willing to find out.”
Chapter 46
“Well, I’m not willing to find out,” Jodi said. Blue had never seen her look quite this stubborn—or quite this scared.
She sat on her knees next to Young Gregor. He still had his head braced against the couch. The coffee table had moved out a little, probably from his fall, and some newspapers had fallen off onto the floor.
Jodi’s green eyes were wide, her mouth in a thin line. She was breathing shallowly, and Blue could tell she was fighting back some emotion, but he couldn’t tell what it was. Anger? Fear? A combination of both?
He wasn’t certain.
“You’re my only hope, Jodi,” he said softly. “I suppose I could go back to drinking, but I don’t think that’ll stop this new round. I don’t think that’ll save you.”
“What’s that?” Young Gregor asked.
“Not important,” Jodi said.
“Very important,” Blue said. “She’s in the cycle. This thing has targeted her now because of me, and I think she could die.”
“No.” Young Gregor grabbed her hand. “You can’t die. What’ll happen then?”
Jodi looked over at Blue. Her auburn hair fell so that it shielded her face from Young Gregor, and she rolled her eyes.
But Blue wasn’t so dismissive. He understood exactly how Young Gregor felt—with a huge dose of added guilt and a lot of fear.
“It’s my call,” Blue said, “and I’m willing to take the risk. Otherwise, neither of us has a life.”
Jodi took a deep breath. “I’m not sure what we’re facing,” she said. “It could be just like Young Gregor’s spell here, in which case we’re dealing with something relatively small, or it could be the mother of all parasite spells, and we could all die.”
Blue waited. Young Gregor was actually biting his lip.
“Let’s take this to the Archetype Place, tell Selda what’s happening, and have a team around us,” Jodi said. “This is so big, she might not want to handle it either. She might send us to the Kingdoms—”
“I don’t want to go back to the Kingdoms,” Young Gregor said. “I got infected there.”
Blue looked at him in complete shock. Young Gregor seemed oblivious to the look. He seemed oblivious to all of it. Apparently, he thought he was part of the team now.
And who could blame him, really? He had been the first step in all of this, the first experiment, the beginning of the end.
“You didn’t get infected there,” Jodi said a bit too dismissively. She was so scared she clearly wasn’t tolerating any crap. “It’s not like some Greater World parasite that you pick up from drinking bad water. It’s a spell, an evil spell.”
“That someone cast on me—cast on us—in the Kingdoms,” Young Gregor said, waving his hand at himself and at Blue. “Whatever it is that caused this, it lives there, and it wants to hurt us, and I don’t want to go near it.”
“We’ll keep you on assignment here,” Blue said before Jodi could speak again. “It’ll all work out.”
Young Gregor let out a large sigh of relief. Then he gave Blue a puppy-doggish look. “You’re a lot more courageous than I am.”
“No,” Blue said gently. “I’m a lot more desperate.”
“I don’t like this, Blue,” Jodi said.
“I don’t either,” he said, “but what choice do I have?”
He deliberately didn’t use the word “we,” because he wanted to let Jodi off the hook. Selda probably knew other chatelaines who could do this work, and maybe there was other magic that was equally suited to taking on parasitical magic.
Jodi nodded, clearly distracted, and then she stood, wiping the dirt off the legs of her jeans. She extended a hand to Young Gregor.
“Let’s see if you can stand,” she said.
“I’m okay,” he said and levered himself up slowly, like an old man, using the couch and the coffee table to steady himself. He paled as he got up.
“Dizzy?” Blue asked.
“No,” Young Gregor said. “I’m just sore everywhere.”
Blue half envied him. Blue wanted to feel the aftermath of ditching that parasitical spell. He wanted to be free.
Jodi had walked over to the kitchen chair where she had left her purse. She reached inside it. “I’ll call Selda and let her know that we’re on our way, and what I’m planning to do.”
Then she looked at the phone. She pushed on it a few times and swore.
“Not working?” Blue asked.
“It looks like the magic in the room blew it out,” Jodi said.
Blue glanced at the microwave. The digital clock/timer didn’t seem to be working. And there was no little light at the bottom of the flat-screen television set either.
“Looks like all the electronics are gone,” Blue said.
“Oh,” Young Gregor said, “the manager is going to hate that.”
“Just pay the hotel for it,” Blue said. “Offer double what everything’s worth. They always listen to that.”
“You sound like you know,” Young Gregor said.
“You have no idea,” Blue said, not wanting to think about everything he had ruined in the past.
Something thudded in the bedroom. Jodi whirled.
“Did you hear that?” she asked.
Blue nodded. He was the only one who hadn’t stood yet, and he did so now, slowly, moving out of the way of the coffee table. Jodi headed toward the bedroom door.
“Don’t,” Blue said to her. Something felt off.
She stopped and looked over her shoulder. Young Gregor stood silently between them, like a scared bunny. His nose almost seemed to be twitching.
Then the bedroom door slammed open.
“How the hell does anyone stand that stench?” A thin man with a hooked nose stood on the pile of dirty clothing. He kicked some of it aside so that he could walk out of the room into the living area.
Blue had never seen him before.
Or had he?
The eyes looked familiar. They were black with a bit of amber in them.
“Who are you?” Young Gregor asked, his voice trembling.
“Get back,” Jodi said to him, as if Young Gregor had moved forward. He hadn’t, of course. He wasn’t that courageous.
“So you recognize me, do you, honey?” the thin man asked.
“Actually, no,” Jodi said, somehow making herself look taller. “I’ve never met you, but I’ve been looking at your nasty little spells all day.”
“They’re not little, sweetheart. If they were little, you wouldn’t be afraid of them.” He smiled sideways.
Blue’s heart was pounding. This was the man who had hurt him. This was the man who had destroyed his life.
And Blue didn’t recognize him either.
“I’m not afraid of them,” Jodi said.
“Who are you?” Young Gregor said again. Obviously, Young Gregor wasn’t the brightest candle in the chandelier.
“Now I’m hurt,” the man said. “Of all the people in this room, Young Gregor of Ken
t, you’re the one who should recognize me. After all, you saw me the most recently.”
“I don’t—oh my God,” Young Gregor said. “You’re the bad guy.”
The man shrugged. “If that’s how you want to play it, then yes, I’m the ‘bad’ guy.”
And Young Gregor started to scream.
Chapter 47
He wasn’t obviously hurt, and yet he was screaming. Jodi turned just enough so that she could see Young Gregor. He looked terrified. But Jodi didn’t see anything wrong in his diminished aura, nor could she see any magic trailing from this horrible thin man in front of her to Young Gregor.
Young Gregor was a screamer, that was all. He had the courage of a gnat.
“You’d think that a princeling would have better manners,” said the horrible thin man. “But he’s always been a bit overly dramatic.”
Jodi’s gaze narrowed. The horrible thin man had high cheekbones, a hooked nose like a cartoon villain and very thin lips, which she assumed weren’t natural. He had probably worn his lips down by pressing them together disapprovingly for so long.
He had an amber aura as well, but it wasn’t that sickly color that she had seen in Young Gregor’s aura. It was a deep amber, the color found in nature, rich and fine. It was also sparking with incredible energy.
This horrible thin guy was one of the most powerful mages she had ever seen—in the most traditional way. He could conjure up anything, whip up any spell he wanted, wave an arm and create something or destroy it.
She was terribly overmatched.
“So,” Blue said from behind her. “You’re the one.”
Only Blue’s tone wasn’t nasty or sarcastic or even bitter. It was admiring.
Blue’s voice shut down Young Gregor’s scream. Young Gregor put a hand over his mouth, as if his own lack of control frightened him.
Jodi pivoted even more, careful not to turn her back on the bad guy, as Young Gregor so disingenuously called him. Yet she wanted to see Blue’s expression.
It was warm and welcoming, and she wondered if that evil spell poisoning his aura had made him “like” this man in front of them.
“It depends on what you mean,” the horrible thin man said. “Am I The One in the sense of The Matrix? The One and Only, out of fairy tales? The Chosen One that so many stories in this Greater World refer to? Then probably not. No one has ever considered me to be the romantic hero or the next in line to the throne or the one that the entire world has been waiting for.”
“You’re the one with all the magic,” Blue said in that same admiring tone. He put an arm around Jodi’s back and moved her aside, ever so carefully, and she grabbed at him. She didn’t want him anywhere near that man.
“Oh,” the horrible thin man said, “not all the magic. Just my own fair share.”
“Still,” Blue said, “those are some mighty impressive spells you’ve designed.”
The horrible thin man smiled. The smile seemed genuine. He seemed flattered by all of the attention. “They are, aren’t they?”
Blue had planted himself in front of Jodi. He was taller and wider, and she couldn’t see around him without moving. She started to move, and that was when she figured out what Blue was doing.
He was charming the bugger so that she and Young Gregor could get away.
But she didn’t want to get away. She wanted to stay beside Blue, to help him.
“I certainly didn’t expect to meet you,” Blue said. “At least not this way.”
“Well, you found me out,” the horrible thin man said, “so it was the least I could do.”
But he should have come sooner. He should have stopped Jodi from getting anywhere near Blue. The horrible thin man should have defended himself after she destroyed his spell on Young Gregor.
Young Gregor had passed out when the spell shattered. Had the horrible thin man done the same? It was the only thing that made sense.
And now he was here to what? Stop her, probably. Blue had clearly figured that out already, and he was letting her escape.
Instead, she moved closer to him. She glanced at Young Gregor who appeared rooted in place, hand still over his mouth. She couldn’t worry about him.
She slipped her dead phone in her pocket and focused her vision on Blue’s aura.
The amber was sparking and reaching toward the horrible man, like a child wanting to be picked up. Some of Blue’s dark blue charm was still visible, and she reached into it with her right hand.
Blue started, then remained still.
“You’ve been charming me, haven’t you?” the horrible thin man said, with real menace in his voice. “You don’t remember me at all, do you, because if you did, you’d realize how much I hate charm.”
“I’m sorry,” Blue said, with even more warmth. “I should have realized. It’s a reflex, you know. It’s how I operate when I meet someone I want to impress. I just ramp up the charm a bit. I’ll ramp it down.”
Jodi didn’t want to touch the amber in Blue’s aura, because that would let the horrible thin man know what she was about. She was searching, though, searching for the parasitical representative of the spell. It had to be easy to see, because it had to be huge.
She peered around the blueness and saw it. What she thought was a sea of amber was actually its big, fat, dominating body. It was huge, and killing it just might kill Blue.
But he had already told her he had wanted out, and if this horrible thin man got hurt when his magic got hurt, then he was already diminished a bit from what she had done to Young Gregor. She wouldn’t get a better chance.
She wished she could tell Young Gregor to call for Selda or Tank or some kind of backup. But she couldn’t. She was on her own.
They were on their own.
“You think you can charm me, don’t you?” the horrible thin man said. “You think you can just talk your way out of this. Have you learned nothing these past several centuries?”
The horrible thin man was getting angry. The sparking in Blue’s aura had grown worse.
“Oh, no,” Blue said. “I’ve learned a lot, thanks to you. I realized that charm magic simply can’t hold a candle to most other kinds of magic. We Charmings are dependent on everyone else for everything.”
He was telling her to go ahead. She was shaking. She didn’t want to do this.
But she had no choice.
She formed a pistol with her thumb and forefinger, imagined the biggest bullet she had ever seen, and fired.
Chapter 48
Blue felt something burrowing through his magic. He didn’t know if it came from this malevolent being in front of him or from Jodi. He didn’t want to focus on it or think about it any further. He needed all of his charm right now, and he hoped to whatever god he should believe in that Jodi had figured out what to do.
Because he couldn’t hold off this guy for long.
“I know you!” Young Gregor shouted from behind Blue. “I remember you now!”
Blue let out a small sigh, trying to camouflage it as best he could. Young Gregor was a problem.
So was whatever Jodi was doing. It hurt. Rivulets of pain ran through him, taking all of his control to keep his body from shuddering.
“You!” Young Gregor said, stepping forward. He was pointing at the man in front of Blue.
“You don’t need to shout,” the man said calmly to Young Gregor.
Young Gregor gave Blue a panicked look, and Blue finally understood what Young Gregor was doing. He had gotten the message Blue had meant for Jodi. Young Gregor was doing his best to help Blue.
“Gregor,” Blue said, “Why don’t you do what we were talking about earlier?”
“I know who he is, though,” Young Gregor said to Blue. “He’s that etiquette instructor my father hired. You’re an odious little man!”
“Gregor!” Blue said. “Please. Leave. Now.”
Young Gregor gave him a confused look.
“You’re insulting our guest,” Blue said, wishing he could be blunter, wishi
ng he could tell Young Gregor that he had this under control.
“Well, the boy never had manners. He was one of those charming rebellious types, the kind that women fawned all over because they thought he would improve somehow.” The man spoke with disdain. “He’s completely ineffectual. If you’ve assigned him some task, he won’t do it.”
“I didn’t assign him anything,” Blue said, turning his attention away from Young Gregor. If Young Gregor had gotten the message about helping Blue, then he should have understood this one.
At least Blue hoped so. Because he couldn’t do much more. Sweat was beginning to form along his torso. Something was happening all through him. He felt queasy and the pain was growing worse.
“I’m not staying here with him!” Young Gregor said, and Blue wanted to close his eyes. The kid would never be an actor, no matter how handsome he was, no matter how much he wanted it.
He certainly wasn’t convincing Blue right now.
“I have to leave!” Young Gregor announced. And then he slammed out of the room.
To Blue’s surprise, the man let him go.
“You know,” Blue said to the man, trying to keep him distracted, “you’ve been such an influential part of my life, and I don’t even know what to call you.”
The amber in the man’s eyes grew flinty. “The boy gave you a clue. You don’t remember me at all?”
Blue caught his breath, as much from pain as from any kind of realization. “You’re Mr. Danvers,” he said, more breathlessly than he wanted to.
He was getting light-headed. He needed to continue to focus.
“Ah.” Danvers smiled. “You do remember.”
Blue remembered, all right. Danvers had been hired to teach Blue royal etiquette, how to behave in every circumstance from a ball to a private dinner. How to dress. How to hire a gentleman’s gentleman. How to be a prince, as if Danvers—a lowly commoner—had known that.
He had been hired when Blue was very young and impulsive, and Blue had asked him at one point where his expertise came from.
Were you a prince? Blue had asked naively.
Of course not, Danvers had snapped. But I have molded generations of them.
Charming Blue Page 27