Marked by Magic: a New Adult Fantasy Novel (The Baine Chronicles Book 4)

by Jasmine Walt

  You’re a mage, I told myself firmly, willing the thought to stick in my brain. I turned my focus inward, toward the pulsing ball of magic that always stood at my center. Warmth spread through me as I touched it, but not the aching, uncomfortable warmth of the heat – this sensation was soothing and energizing at the same time. As it filled me, my surging hormones receded.

  Opening my eyes, I let out a relieved breath. No, I’d never forget that I was a shifter, but Resinah had been right. I needed to constantly reaffirm my identity as a mage if I wanted to stay in control. That was why my teenage-boy illusion had been so helpful – I’d been using my magic. Overall, the heat hadn’t been nearly as bad as it normally was – when a shifter female went into heat, she was usually reduced to little more than a wild animal, consumed by the need to mate, and couldn’t function without a steady supply of sex for the entire week. Yet, somehow, even when I wasn’t using illusion magic, I’d managed to keep my head. It had to have something to do with the fact that Iannis had unlocked most of my magic.

  Feeling more grounded, I went into the closet, then paused in surprise at the sight of several pairs of pants and shirts hanging inside, as well as a bathrobe. They only filled up a fraction of the large space, but I was damn sure they hadn’t been there yesterday.

  Moving in closer, I recognized the tops and pants as the same ones the Palace had provided for me the first time I’d come here, as a prisoner. As far as clothing went, it was pretty generic – a few pairs of jeans and some monochromatic shirts – but it would do until I had the time and resources to buy a wardrobe.

  Obviously, Iannis had thought to have someone put clothing in here for me. The idea that he’d remembered my needs despite his insane schedule made me smile, and I reached for a green top, wondering if it would bring out the color in my eyes.

  “Are you going to leave me standing out here all day?” Fenris demanded, and I jumped at the sound of his muffled voice coming through the doorway.

  “Sorry!” I called, snagging the fluffy robe off its hanger. I shrugged it on, then made sure it was tightly belted and covering up as much as possible before I opened the door to admit Fenris.

  “About time.” He brushed past me, looking unusually agitated, and shut the door behind him. “What took you so long?”

  “I’m not a morning person.” I tried not to snap the words – clearly, something was troubling him. “What’s this all about?” I glanced down toward the paper tucked beneath his arm.

  “Our old friend, the Herald, is at it again,” Fenris growled, pulling the paper from beneath his arm and handing it to me.

  I unfolded it, then bared my teeth at the headline stamped across the front page. THE RESISTANCE PREVAILS! MAGES GUILD TAKES HUGE BLOW AT LOSS OF SOLANTHA AIRSHIP YARD, it read, and beneath was a photograph of the flaming airship yard, obviously taken last night, as it was hard to see much more than shadows and fire. Full story on page 13.

  “Don’t bother,” Fenris snarled as I flipped open to page thirteen. “It’s all bullshit propaganda, slanted to make it look like the Mages Guild is a bunch of bumbling idiots and that the Resistance’s well-executed, organized attacks are turning the tide.”

  “Yeah, but I need to see it for myself.” I read the article anyway – it wasn’t that long, no more than two pages – and by the time I was done, I was shredding the edges of the paper with my claws. “They don’t even mention the civilian casualties,” I growled, crumpling up the paper and tossing it in the trash like the piece of garbage it was.

  “I thought this sort of thing would have ended once Yantz was removed as chief editor, but whoever replaced him must also be working for the Resistance,” Fenris said, his yellow eyes burning with frustration. “Considering how much influence this paper has over the humans in Solantha, we cannot allow them to continue to spew such hostile propaganda.”

  I arched a brow. “Are you saying you want to take a field trip to the Herald?”

  “I am.” He looked me up and down, no doubt taking in my lack of clothing and the rat’s nest on top of my head. “When will you be ready to leave?”

  Much as I wanted to rush out the door and chase down this new lead, I was way overdue for a shower, and I didn’t want to show up at the Herald looking like a crazy homeless person. So I grabbed a quick bath, got my hands on a hairbrush, and shimmied myself into a pair of jeans and a top that fit a little too loosely. The strenuous trek through Coazi territory had caused me to lose a few inches, not to mention all the recent healing I’d undergone. I was definitely going to need to find the time to eat more.

  Just as I was about to leave, I remembered the gulaya I’d borrowed from the library, which was still in the pocket of the pants I’d worn yesterday. I quickly retrieved it, then strung it on my necklace so that it rested next to the serapha charm. Since the serapha couldn’t be removed by force, this would ensure that the gulaya would remain safe as well.

  My stomach grumbled as I headed out with Fenris, and I wished I’d thought to stock up on snacks from the kitchens. Unfortunately, Fenris would likely have a fit if I suggested running by the kitchen for some food now, so I swallowed my tongue and followed him out to the side entrance instead. I blinked in surprise at the sight of two sleek, black steamcars with the Canalo Mages Guild emblem painted in gold on their side, puffing out clouds of smoke as they waited for us.

  “Seriously,” I complained under my breath as Fenris and I approached the second car. “How is it that you rate multiple steamcars, but I can’t even get one?” I might have been a mere apprentice, but as far as the rest of the world knew, Fenris was only a shifter. Yes, he was a close friend of Iannis, and sometimes even acted as a direct messenger for him. But I still didn’t understand why Cirin had gotten him a steamcar instead of me.

  “I cleared it with Iannis this morning,” Fenris said dryly. “After going over the morning paper over breakfast, he decreed that the Herald needs to be shut down, and told me to take you, the Legal Secretary –” he pointed to the car behind ours – “and a few other mages from his department as backup. And before you ask,” he added as the driver came around to open the front door, “no, you can’t sit up front. You need to stay in the back, out of sight, where it’s safe.”

  “Tyrant,” I grumbled as Fenris got into the front seat, but I acquiesced, climbing into the backseat when the driver opened the door for me. As I settled in, strapping the seatbelt on, I noticed the windows had some kind of coating that darkened them. I was grateful because it meant I couldn’t be easily spotted from the street. Fenris was right – I did need to stay out of sight as much as possible, and this would give me a chance to travel through the city as myself while remaining relatively safe. That was a damn good thing, because I couldn’t very well show up at the Herald looking like a pimply teenage boy. I was acting as Sunaya Baine, enforcer extraordinaire.

  Besides, my teenage-boy cover was blown after last night. I made a mental note to pick a different disguise the next time I went out, because I was certain the Resistance would have spread the word to keep a look out for that persona by now. Hopefully, they didn’t kill any innocent teenage boys by mistake. I winced a little at that thought. Maybe I should have picked something a little less vulnerable for my disguise.

  You can’t second-guess every damn decision you make, I told myself. The Resistance is going to kill people no matter what you do, until you bring them down.

  Despite the fact that it was lunch hour, traffic was almost non-existent, especially once we crossed into Maintown. That wasn’t surprising – with most of the restaurants closed down, there was nowhere to go for lunch even if people did want to brave the dangerous streets. One would have thought that Maintown would be one of the safer parts of the city – after all, the Resistance was supposedly fighting for human and shifter rights. But aside from the more affluent section on the coast, which I noticed was mostly intact and heavily guarded by private mercenaries, the bulk of Maintown had been hit just as hard as the rest of the ci
ty.

  It only took us ten minutes before we pulled into the lot surrounding the Herald’s white, circular building. I wasn’t terribly surprised to see two men dressed in mercenary leathers guarding the revolving door, and even less surprised that I recognized them from the Enforcers Guild. These deserters had to do something for work after they left the Guild, and their being there was additional evidence that the Herald was firmly pro-Resistance.

  The guards stiffened as we disembarked from the vehicles, hands going to the hilts of their swords. I bared my teeth at that – were they seriously going to fight us for entry? – but before I could take a step forward, Fenris grabbed my arm.

  “Let the Mages Guild do their job,” he said. “We are here under their authority.”

  I grumbled a bit at that, but allowed the Legal Secretary and his entourage to take the lead. Like Iannis and Cirin, the Secretary was a tall, lean man with long hair pulled into a low tail, and I wondered if ‘tall, lean, and long-haired’ were job requirements for high-ranking positions in the guild.

  Council members excluded, of course, I thought with a sneer as I recalled Omonas ar’Candar, the fat, pompous councilman who had successfully blocked me from being allowed to join Iannis’s rescue team.

  I racked my brain for the Legal Secretary’s name and came up empty – he was new to the position. The last one, a frail, ancient-looking fellow, had nearly been killed by the Resistance when Iannis’s delegation had been kidnapped on their way to the capital. Upon his return to Solantha, he had, understandably, retired from office, and now we had this new, much younger guy filling his shoes.

  Well, at least he doesn’t look feeble, I thought as the mage came to a stop in front of the door. He looked commanding enough in his dark red robes, and his blond hair was pulled back tight, leaving his stern face unframed.

  “Step aside,” he ordered the former enforcers, who had closed ranks and were blocking the door. “We are here on official business.”

  “What sort of business?” sneered the deserter on the right, a burly guy with dyed-blue hair. I rolled my eyes at his eyebrow and lip piercings. What kind of enforcer actually had those, much less wore them on the job? It was like asking for trouble in a fight. “You can’t just come in here without stating your intentions.”

  “My intentions are to shut down this miserable excuse for a newspaper,” the Legal Secretary snapped. He pulled a sheet of paper from the sleeve of his robe and held it up so the men could read it. “I have a decree, signed by Lord Iannis, stating as much.”

  The other deserter, a leaner guy with white hair, snatched the decree and scanned it. “This looks like a bunch of bullshit,” he growled.

  The Legal Secretary lifted his hand, and yellow energy crackled at his fingertips. “Would you like to test me?” he asked pleasantly as the air grew thick, charged with tension and magic.

  The two deserters exchanged a long look, then silently moved aside. The Legal Secretary and his mages passed through the revolving doors, and Fenris and I quickly followed behind. I didn’t miss the dirty looks the men sent me as I passed, or the way their fingers twitched against their sword hilts – no doubt they were thinking that if they delivered my head to the Resistance, they would get a handsome reward for it.

  The same curly-haired brunette I’d met last time sat behind the circular, white reception desk in the center of the gleaming lobby. Her oval face turned pale, but she stiffened her slim shoulders and lifted her chin as we approached.

  “Inform your CEO that the Legal Secretary of the Mages Guild is here to speak to him,” the Legal Secretary commanded.

  “I’m sorry,” she said coolly, “but the CEO is not in the building at this time.”

  “Very well, get me his second-in-command then.”

  “The deputy CEO is not here either,” she said, still in that same cool monotone.

  “Are there any senior staff in the building?” the Legal Secretary asked, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice. “Or is everyone out to lunch?”

  “I am under no obligation to answer that question,” she said in a voice like ice, and it was then that I realized she was expecting us.

  “The CEO knew we were coming,” I said aloud. The Legal Secretary turned to face me, a look of censure on his face – clearly, he wasn’t happy with me speaking out of turn. But I plowed on. “Someone at the Palace must have tipped him off. I bet you he and his senior staff gathered any important papers and evidence and are already long gone.”

  The Legal Secretary stared at me for a moment, then whirled back to the receptionist. “Where are your printing presses?”

  “I am under no obligation –”

  “Silence, foolish girl,” he said in a tone a thousand times icier than hers. Her eyes widened with fear, and she pressed her lips together. “I’m certain it would not take me long to find the presses myself, but I want you to tell me. If you don’t, I will have you arrested for obstruction, and will send you to Prison Isle. A pretty woman like you will have a grand time with the hardened criminals there.”

  “D-downstairs,” the receptionist said in a shaking voice, and I almost felt sorry for her. That was, until the memory of Gorden’s crumpled body seeping blood in the back alley of the Enforcers Guild flashed in my mind’s eye, as well as all the wounded civilians from the airship yard attack.

  No, this girl didn’t merit any sympathy. She was aiding cold-blooded killers and deserved whatever was coming to her.

  The receptionist gave us directions on how to access the basement – through either the elevator or a stairwell around the corner. The Legal Secretary opted for the stairs, taking Fenris and one of his mages down there so they could disable the presses and send the remaining staff home. I went upstairs with the other two mages to scour the offices and check if the CEO or his staff had been careless enough to leave anything incriminating behind.

  Nearly an hour later, I met the others back in the reception hall. “We found nothing,” I told the Legal Secretary, doing my best to keep the frustration out of my voice. “I don’t know how much lead time they had, but it was enough that they managed to take every single shred of useful paperwork they had. They could be burning it or dumping it in the bay right now, for all we know,” I added in disgust.

  “That is unfortunate,” the Legal Secretary acknowledged, “but our primary purpose in coming here was to shut down the Herald, and we’ve done that. We’ve broken various components in their printing presses to ensure they cannot simply start back up when we’ve left, and have told all the staff to leave and not come back.” He turned his head to give the receptionist a beady-eyed stare. “That includes you, Miss.”

  The brunette sniffed, then rose from her chair, her things already gathered, and left the building with her head held high. I eyed her as she joined the continuous stream of humans filing out through the main lobby, and was half-tempted to arrest her just for being a bitch. Not to mention the whole ‘aiding and abetting terrorists’ thing. But we didn’t have the space to hold every single person who was allied with the Resistance, and unless we found out she was actually engaging in criminal activity I couldn’t justify apprehending her.

  “As soon as the rest of the humans have cleared out of here, we should return to the Palace,” the Legal Secretary announced as more humans passed us. Quite a few of them gave us dirty looks, but many more had stricken, hopeless expressions on their faces, and my heart twisted with sympathy. “Our work here is done.”

  “No, it’s not,” I said.

  The Legal Secretary’s eyes turned frosty. “Excuse me?”

  “Those humans.” I pointed to the thinning crowd. “You need to see about putting them back to work somehow. Surely the Mages Guild can afford to set aside some gold for rebuilding projects.”

  “It hardly makes sense to rebuild when the city is still undergoing attacks, Miss Baine,” the Legal Secretary said coldly. “Besides, it is no concern of mine what these humans do now. They should not have worked for
a company with such questionable morals and loyalties.”

  “Are you fucking serious?” I shouted, stepping forward into the Legal Secretary’s personal space. I wanted to slap the shit out of him, but physical altercations with mages, especially ones who were well trained, weren’t a smart idea. “These people don’t have a clue! Whatever their bosses were up to, the rest are just trying to keep their heads down and put food on their families’ tables.” I took a deep breath, meeting his uncomprehending and outraged eyes. “As a mage, you wouldn’t know of their troubles, but food is scarce, and they’re not even certain they’ll have homes to return to at the end of the day. This is not their fault, and by sending them home today, jobless, all you’re doing is reinforcing the idea that the Mages Guild is evil.” Fenris looked almost as outraged as the mages, but I ploughed on, determined to have my say. Was there no way I could make them see what was so obvious to me? “The Herald fed their families, and the Mages Guild just put them out of work. Who do you think they’re going to blame for their hungry children? Because I can tell you right now, it’s not the Resistance. You’re creating more enemies every day by refusing to acknowledge the needs of the people.”

  “Miss Baine may have a point,” one of the other mages said quietly, and the Legal Secretary looked at him in surprise. “Idle hands may easily be turned to destructive pursuits. If we don’t find a way to keep the population occupied, they will likely join the revolt.”

  The Legal Secretary sighed, then turned back to look at me. “This is hardly my department,” he said stiffly, “but I will speak to the Chief Mage, and perhaps he can figure out what to do next.”

  “Great.” I’d be checking in with Iannis myself on this, but for now, I had something more important to do. “Do you have any idea where I might be able to get a ride?” I asked, turning to Fenris.