by Jasmine Walt
“You’re welcome.” The man glanced between us. “Thank you so much for everything you have done. I can only hope Marlin will be able to get Cerlina safely out of the country before anyone finds out.”
“If they do, they won’t hear it from us,” Annia promised.
“Thank you,” he said with feeling. A puzzled expression crossed his face, and he added, “I do wonder where she got her talent from. She’s the first to be born with magic in the family, that I know of.”
“That is pretty strange,” I said, knowing all too well how unwelcome and inconvenient magic could be. “Good luck to your family.”
We bid Melan goodbye, then left him and his family to their uncertain, but hopefully bright, future.
“By Magorah, this is so bittersweet,” I said over my beer. Annia and I had gone back to the Guild to fill out our report, then back out to grab a celebratory beer at a nearby bar. It was only four o’clock, but there were few hours left in the day and we’d just closed the case, so I didn’t feel guilty about leaving early.
“Yeah,” Annia agreed. “We solved that case in record time, and got ourselves a nice bounty, but I feel so bad about that little girl. I would have been crushed if I’d had to leave the country at her age.”
I nodded. “Yeah, but she’ll adjust. Once she learns the local language in Naraka, I’m sure she’ll have friends in no time.”
“That’s true.” Annia pulled out the check the Guild had issued to her and set it on the table. “So how do you want to split this? Should I just keep this, and you take the gold?”
“Yeah, I think that’s the easiest.” There was no way for me to cash a check anyway—I didn’t own a bank account yet. Giving in to temptation, I reached beneath the table and drew out one of the coins from the pouch still tied to my belt. “I wonder how Melan was able to afford this,” I mused as I held the piece of metal up to the light. The coin had a faint, not entirely pleasant smell…like some kind of weird floral extract.
Geranium oil, I realized with a jolt.
“Yeah, I’m not sure either.” Annia shrugged, then narrowed her eyes as she noticed me stiffen. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I slipped the coin back into the pouch before Annia could inspect it further. “I was just thinking about what would have happened if there really had been a test at the school. The Testers would have immediately been suspicious if Cerlina had been missing.”
“You’re probably right.” Annia pursed her lips. “In a way, I guess it was good that she chose to run now, instead of during an actual test. And that we were the ones that found her.”
We finished our beers, and Annia ordered another round. As I waited for the bartender to bring us our drinks, I stared into my empty mug and struggled with my conscience. Melan was obviously involved with those bank robbers—his pretense of job hunting would be the perfect cover for scouting out additional targets. If I turned him in, then used him to track down the rest of his gang, I could snag a sizable share of that humongous bounty.
You’d be able to get a new apartment and a steambike, easy, a very tempting voice whispered in my head. And you could buy yourself new leathers, like Annia’s.
That was true. But if I did that, I’d draw attention to Cerlina’s family, and very possibly prevent them from leaving the country. No, I wouldn’t have that on my conscience. Someone would catch these guys eventually, hopefully after they’d left Solantha and moved on to more lucrative prospects. Better to let sleeping dogs lie, and give that little girl a chance at freedom.
A chance you’ll never really have, a bitter voice pointed out.
Maybe. But I’d solved my first case, and I had some money now. I’d have to wash the gold thoroughly. Even then, I wouldn’t be able to use it safely for another couple of months. But between now and then, I’d earn more bounties and establish my reputation. I wasn’t about to give up my integrity just so I could take the easy path to riches. I’d earn that steambike, and that new apartment, by protecting the innocent. That was the reason I’d signed up for this job in the first place.
A movement from the corner of my eye distracted me, and I turned to see a couple making out by the pool table. The sight of them locking lips stirred up my ever-growing hormones, sending a flush through my body. Maybe I’d head back to Witches’ End and spend a bit more time with Comenius. He was cute, and there’d been a spark between us that I was very much looking forward to exploring.
“What’s that grin on your face?” Annia asked as our beers came. “Your moods change like the wind, Naya.”
“Nothing. Just realizing that life is pretty good, that’s all. I solved my first case, and I’ve made a new friend.” I lifted my glass to her. “That is, if you’ll have me.”
Annia laughed, then clinked glasses with me. “You’re a wild one, Sunaya Baine, but I’ll be happy to have you at my back. I have a feeling you and I are going to get into a whole lot of trouble together, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Now that’s something I can drink to.” I said with a grin. And so, we did.
The End
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If you’re new to the Baine Chronicles Series, keep on reading for an exclusive excerpt from Burned by Magic, where Sunaya’s adventure truly begins!
Burned by Magic
The Baine Chronicles: Book One
In the city of Solantha, mages rule absolute, with shifters considered second-class citizens and humans something in between. No one outside the mage families are allowed to have magic, and anyone born with it must agree to have it stripped from them to avoid execution.
Sunaya Baine, a shifter-mage hybrid, has managed to keep her unruly magic under wraps for the last twenty-four years. But while chasing down a shifter-hunting serial killer, she loses control of her magic in front of witnesses, drawing the attention of the dangerous and enigmatic Chief Mage.
Locked up in the Chief Mage’s castle and reduced to little more than a lab rat, Sunaya resists his attempts to analyze and control her at every turn. But she soon realizes that to regain her freedom and catch the killer, she must overcome her hatred of mages and win the most powerful mage in the city to her side.
Chapter One
“Hey, shifter girl!” a human with sandy hair shouted as he leaned over the bar counter. He waved his hand as though I were a cab he was trying to flag down. “Can I get another whiskey over here?”
“Coming right up.” Fighting the urge to roll my eyes, I grabbed a glass from beneath the counter and the requisite bottle of liquor. Strobe lights bounced off the dark walls of the club as I splashed a generous amount into the shot glass and slid it across the glossy countertop. The place was in full swing tonight, shifters, humans and mages all clamoring for their shot of liquid courage so they could go rub their bodies all over each other on the dance floor and hopefully take someone home with them tonight.
“Thanks.” The human threw back his shot in one go. His pale cheeks turned bright red, and his wheezing cough told me taking shots was a new pastime.
“Another,” he gasped, slamming his glass down on the counter.
I arched a brow. “Don’t you think you should take it easy?”
The human grimaced. “I need it if I’m going to ask that girl over there for a kiss.”
He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, where a brunette in a skin-tight red dress leaned against the wall, her dark orange gaze scanning the crowd. The lack of whites in her eyes combined with the dark orange color of her irises told me she was a tiger shifter, likely here searching for a male to help her get through heat.
“Why her?” I glanced back a
t the human, taking in his white polo shirt and short, neatly trimmed hair, which was so different from the loud clothing and hairstyles the residents of Rowanville boasted. This boy was from Maintown, the section of Solantha reserved specifically for humans, and I doubted he’d ever set foot into the melting pot of Rowanville in his life.
The boy bit his lip. “I lost a bet, and now I have to get a shifter girl to kiss me. Unless you’d rather do the honors?”
“Ugh. No thanks.” The kid looked all of nineteen years old; at twenty-four I had some pride.
“Aww, c’mon.” The kid leaned forward, desperation in his eyes. “The guys are watching me from across the room right now. If I did it right now I could get out of here.”
“Save it, kid.” I curled my lip, exposing the fangs sliding out behind my gum line. The kid blanched. “I’m not getting involved. My advice, you hightail it outta here and go tell your mother. That girl over in the corner is looking for a lot more than just a kiss. She’ll tear you apart if you lead her on and then try to ditch her later.”
“Fine.” The boy slumped back down into his barstool and gave me a sullen glare. “Just give me the shot.”
Why did I even bother?
“Suit yourself.” I poured him another and watched him down it. He wasn’t the first to come in here on a bet. Most of the human customers were regulars who knew the deal – so long as you were within these walls you treated everyone with the same amount of respect regardless if they were shifter, human or mage. That’s how it was supposed to be in Rowanville – the only neighborhood in Solantha where shifters, humans and mages lived together. But every once in a while someone from one of the segregated neighborhoods wandered in to cause trouble. Usually they got more than they bargained for.
“Thanks.” The kid slapped a coin down on the bar. “Wish me luck.”
Yeah, right. I shook my head as he disappeared into the crowd, then turned back to my work. Tempted as I was to watch the tigress wipe the floor with him, I had a bar to tend, and it was nearly as packed as the dance floor.
I reached for the coin the kid had left for me on the counter, intending to pocket it. But as soon as I touched it, searing pain shot straight through my fingers.
“Oww!” I dropped the coin like it was a hot coal, and shook my smoking hand. Fucking Maintowner. Didn’t he know shifters were allergic to silver? The little bastard had probably left it there on purpose. I had half a mind to drag him back out of the crowd so I could beat on him myself.
“I’ll trade that for you.” Cray, the other bartender, offered. He pocketed the coin, then handed me a pandanum coin of the same value. He was a black-skinned human, and didn’t have any issue handling the silver.
“Thanks.” I smiled at him and tucked the coin into one of my pouches. Most of the humans around here were pretty decent.
“Hey. Can I get a glass of teca with a twist of lime?” a woman with ice-blue shifter eyes asked. My nose told me she was a wolf.
“Coming right up.” I ducked beneath the bar to grab the bottle of liquor. I could use a little teca myself – it was one of the few substances that could actually get shifters drunk. On another night, I could have been that wolf shifter, standing at the bar asking for a drink after a long day chasing bounties. Instead I was here serving them up.
As I reached for the liquor bottle, the inside of my forearm brushed against the crescent knives strapped to my leather-clad thigh. A familiar longing seared the inside of my chest, and I sighed.
All it would take is one blowjob, and you’d be out of here and back to your real job.
I fought the urge to shove my hands into my mass of curly hair and yank on it until I’d come to my senses again. There was no way I was wrapping my lips around that dick’s… well, dick. I’d much rather stay here at The Twilight, even if that did mean dealing with snotty little shits like that Maintowner.
Still, being stuck behind the counter like this sucked. Yeah, I could mix a decent drink, but I wasn’t meant to be a bartender. As a black panther shifter I was a natural hunter, much better suited to chasing down criminals and turning them in like every other licensed Enforcer in the city. That’s what we do – we clean the riffraff off the streets so the mages don’t have to get off their entitled asses and do it themselves. And since we get paid per head, most of us are pretty motivated about the whole affair.
Unfortunately for me, Garius Talcon, the Deputy Captain of the Enforcer’s Guild, was in charge of distributing all the mission dockets. And ever since he found out that I was only half-shifter, he’d been treating me like a lesser being. Recently he’d decided that if I wanted to continue getting jobs I needed to get down on my knees and suck him off.
I’d told him that if I ever got down on my knees in front of him he’d better run like hell because it meant I was going to rip his balls off and feed them to him. And ever since then we’d been at an impasse.
I’d tried going to Captain Galling, but my word was useless against Talcon’s, and there was no one to corroborate my story. Truthfully, it was better not to draw attention, because as far as Talcon and Galling knew I was a shifter-human hybrid. If I gave them a reason to dig deeper, they would find out about my real heritage, and money would be the least of my problems.
Until I figured out a way around Talcon, the only Enforcer jobs I was getting paid for were the ones I brought in by answering the emergency response calls broadcasted by my Enforcer bracelet. As much as I hated to admit it, right now bartending paid the bills.
Turning my attention back to work, I served up the teca with a big, fat smile on my face, and was rewarded with a big, fat coin for my trouble. I nodded my thanks at the she-wolf before she disappeared into the crowd – the shifters here were always my best tippers.
“Sunaya!”
I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of my mentor’s voice in my head, calling my name. Heart pounding, I scanned the crowded bar for him, though part of me wanted to simply shrink behind the counter and pretend I didn’t exist. Even though Roanas Tillmore knew about my bartending job, I didn’t like it when he saw me here – after all the time and effort he put into training me it was shameful that I was tending bar for a living. But I caught no sight of him, and weeding through the hundreds of clashing smells, I didn’t catch his scent either.
Shaking my head, I picked up another glass to get started on the next order. Must’ve imagined it. Mindspeech didn’t work well from more than a couple hundred yards away, so if I couldn’t smell him then he wasn’t here.
“Sunaya! Co… quick… need…”
The glass slipped from my fingers as Roanas’s garbled voice echoed inside my ears. It hit the ground and shattered, tiny pieces shooting across the floor, but I hardly noticed as acid-sharp panic filled my lungs – panic I realized wasn’t from me at all, but from Roanas.
As the Shiftertown Inspector, Roanas rarely ran into a situation he couldn’t handle. If he was able to reach me with a mental call from afar, he was in big trouble.
“Hey!” Cray snapped as he tapped me on the shoulder. “What the hell are you doing, standing around with all this broken glass everywhere!”
I whirled on him, baring my fangs. “I have to go,” I growled. He took a step backward, his eyes wide – Cray was a big guy, but as an unarmed human he was no match for me.
Turning away, I slapped my palm on the counter and launched myself over the bar. Patrons yelped as I sailed over their heads, and Cray cursed me, but I hardly heard them over the blood pounding in my ears. I landed in a crouch halfway from the bar to the door, then sprinted outside to where my steambike was parked on the curb. I was going to lose my job over this, but I didn’t care – nothing mattered more to me than Roanas.
With that thought taking up all available real estate in my mind, I hopped onto my bike and shot into the street, leaving a white-hot cloud of steam in my wake.
Twenty minutes later, I skidded to a halt in front of Roanas’s house in Shiftertown. The lights spilling
out from the windows and into the darkness of the street told me he was home. I charged up the steps of the two-story brick townhouse, my veins full of fire as I prepared to face an army of enemies. I fully expected to open the door and find the place wrecked, the furniture splintered and the floor splattered with blood, because nothing short of a fucking army would be able to take down Roanas.
Instead, I found him lying on the red and gold carpet in the living room, his big body splayed next to the coffee table.
“Roanas!” I was at his side in an instant, an icy fist of fear squeezing my heart. He was lying on his back, his skin pale beneath his dark complexion as he shook. Foam spurted from his blue lips, and his tawny lion-shifter eyes rolled.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I chanted as I scrambled for the vial of antidote I kept in one of the pouches strapped around my torso. I knew the signs he was exhibiting all too well. This was silver poisoning.
I carefully positioned Roanas’s head in my lap, then pried open his mouth and poured in some of the antidote. The pale amber liquid trickled right out of his icy lips, but I tried again, doing my best to get it into his mouth despite the tremors. Still nothing. I bit my lip as his cheek came into contact with my hand – his skin was frigid – and then tried a third time. Finally, his throat bobbed and the liquid stayed down.
Instantly the tremors receded to slight vibrations, and his breath came a little easier. A huge wave of relief rushed through me, and I wanted to sag against the couch. Instead, I fed him the rest of the antidote, drop by drop until the entire vial was gone. Even so, the symptoms did not completely subside – his lips were still blue, his skin ice-cold.
“Sunaya,” Roanas croaked in a voice like crushed gravel. He shifted his head in my lap, his black mane of tiny braids sliding against my legs.