Hidden Magic (The Magic Carnival Book 5)

by Trudi Jaye

  Fee sighed. “Truth.”

  “Where did you grow up?”

  “Arkansas.” That was nice and vague.

  “You know what I mean. Not the state, what kind of place was it? Why did you leave?”

  Fee took a breath, trying to sort out her tumbling emotions over Henry’s declaration from her dislike of talking about her past. She was too confused to hold back. “It was a commune, although looking back it was more like a cult,” she said. “It was all natural, mother earth type stuff. No technology of any kind.”

  “That must have been hard on you, given your fascination with robots.”

  Fee nodded. “Yeah, it wasn’t easy. But I found a friend when I was about twelve years old. A woman who lived on the edge of our farm, in an old house. I found out later that she actually owned the land belonging to the commune, and they just rented off her.”

  “What did she do?”

  “She took me under her wing, taught me about the outside world. She had a computer, so I learned how to use one, looked things up on it. Learned about the outside world. It was amazing. She helped me pass my high school equivalency test, and she helped me get into MIT on a scholarship. I’d be back there looking after the cows or harvesting the crops, still feeling like there was something missing, if it wasn’t for her.”

  Or maybe I’d just be dead.

  “Wow, that’s amazing. Is she still there? Do you still see her?”

  Fee shook her head softly. “No, she died when I was in my fourth year of college.” She paused. “She left me everything. I still own the property that my parents and the cult live on. She wanted me to carry on the tradition she’d started.”

  “You let them keep farming there?” Henry’s voice was surprised.

  Fee shrugged, trying to decide how much to tell him. “There was no point disrupting them.” Keep your enemies close, as the saying went. “They believe technology is the devil, and avoid it at all costs.” That was enough information. He didn’t need to know the whole grisly truth. She glanced at him, just a shadowy figure in the darkness of the room. “Your turn. Truth or dare?”

  “I’ll take a truth, I think.”

  Fee considered a moment. “Tell me about the Carnival where you grew up.”

  “That’s not a very difficult truth,” said Henry.

  “I wasn’t trying to trick you. I just want to know about it.”

  “My father is the Thrillmaster, the man in charge of the thrill rides. I have five brothers. We’re all mechanically minded, but no one else invents things like I do.”

  “Tell me about the magic.”

  Henry smiled. “Ah, yes, the magic. It’s how everything runs at the Carnival. It’s like an amplifier, it takes our natural talents and makes them stronger, better. When everything is in balance, we live and breathe through the magic. It runs our lives, and it protects us from harm. Mostly, anyway.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “We’ve had a few problems recently. The magic isn’t as strong as it once was, and someone was trying to harm us. But it’s getting better again, we’re healing.”

  “Why would someone want to harm the Carnival?” Fee asked, but she knew all about people who hated magic. It seemed plausible they’d target the Carnival, just as they did people like herself.

  “Magic can work either way. It can take you from the ground and raise you up, make you something far greater than you ever were before. Or it can dig you down deep into the earth, where darkness reigns.”

  Fee shivered. “So there are bad guys with magic who are after you?”

  “Something like that,” said Henry, laughter in his voice. “My turn. What’s your real name?”

  Fee thought back to her apartment. She knew Max had used her full name at least twice. “You already know it.”

  “Then explain it to me. What does Wild Feather mean?”

  She exhaled sharply. “It’s just the stupid name my mother burdened me with when I was born. It’s the kind of name we all had at the farm. Her name is Summer Dawn. She had a dream, saw an eagle flying, and decided to name me Wild Feather. I guess it could have been worse.”

  “How so?”

  “She could have named me Bald Eagle.”

  “Baldy for short?”

  Fee giggled. “Or Eggy?”

  Henry paused a moment. “My full name isn’t Henry,” he said.

  Fee waited. When he didn’t say anything more she asked, “What’s your full name then?”

  “Henrification.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  Henry shook his head. “Nothing. It’s a carnival tradition to name the kids strange long names. We all pretty much shorten them. And some of us even get names that actually make sense. But not me. My mother just liked the name Henry, and named me this longer version of it for the sake of it.”

  “Sometimes traditions can be crazy.”

  “Yep.”

  “That didn’t count as your turn though. I didn’t ask you to tell me that.”

  “What do you want to know, then?” said Henry with a smile in his voice.

  “Have you ever seen this blue electricity before? Do you know what’s happening between us?” Fee held her breath, waiting for his answer.

  Henry was silent for a moment. “I wish I had an answer to that, but I don’t.”

  “Then I get another question. That was a terrible answer.”

  Henry let out a bark of laughter. “I don’t think that’s in the rules. But okay, ask away.”

  “Have you ever been in love?” she asked softly, her heart beating rapidly inside her chest.

  Henry stiffened beside her, and Fee regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth. It gave away too much of her own thoughts.

  “No,” he said softly.

  She let out her breath slowly, mostly relieved he didn’t try to make unreasonable claims. Mostly.

  “What about you? Have you ever been in love?” he asked.

  Fee blinked. “I’ve had lovers, but no, none of them were more than a fun way to spend time while I wasn’t studying.”

  “No one since you’ve been in Tampa?”

  “No. I…like to keep to myself. It’s better that way.”

  “What does that mean? Why is it better?”

  Fee hesitated, torn. She wanted to tell him about the Witch Hunters, who they were and why they were after her. But he’d just shown her that very evening he couldn’t be trusted to keep her secrets. “I’m grumpy and I hate it when people want me to be chirpy in the morning,” she said instead. “At least I can be as mean as I like to Max and his feelings won’t be hurt.”

  “I can’t imagine you being mean to Max.”

  “Happens all the time. But he loves it. Says it’s good for his robot shell to get tears on it.” She grinned, enjoying the banter.

  “Okay, your turn. Do you have another question for me?” said Henry.

  “What’s your biggest failing?”

  “Aside from telling your secrets?” he said softly.

  She scowled at him. “I’d almost forgotten about that, and now you’ve reminded me again.” Maybe he’d done it on purpose.

  Henry let out a breath. “I’m the youngest of six brothers, and they’re all bigger and stronger than I am. I was the weird little brother none of them really understood. They bullied me, made fun of me, dared me to do crazy things, and generally made my life difficult while I was growing up. But it means I’m a determined bastard. I refused to let them win, and it’s taught me that I can achieve whatever I want through sheer unadulterated stubbornness. People say it’s a failing.”

  “It’s either your greatest fault, or your biggest asset. I can’t decide which.” Fee hesitated. “Do you get along with your brothers now?”

  “We get on fantastically well. They’re a good bunch of guys.” Henry shifted his position against the wall. “What about you? Do you have any siblings?”

  “No. Just me.” She would have liked to have br
others or sisters, even if they did tease her mercilessly. “It must have been nice to have a big family.”

  “I was just thinking that it must have been nice to have a small family,” said Henry. “I guess we always want what we can’t have, huh?”

  “I guess.”

  “Next question?”

  Fee shook her head. “No more questions.” She leaned on Henry’s shoulder. The electric current tingled, strangely comforting. “I don’t forgive you. But I’m tired.”

  Henry moved his shoulder, so Fee’s head was on a slightly more padded area. “Go to sleep. I’ll try to stay awake in case the lights come back on.”

  She was so tired; she couldn’t bring herself to answer. It was late. She felt like she’d been on an emotional roller coaster. She needed some rest. She closed her eyes, and drifted off, thinking of a young boy called Henry running around amongst the Carnival tents.

  ***

  Henry sat very still, watching the morning light creep into the room through the bottom of the door. He was stiff and tired, but he’d not been able to sleep. Fee was snuggled in against his body, and he had one arm around her, keeping her against him. It was hard to tell if the power had come back on. The lights in this room had never returned, but perhaps that had more to do with a timer than the power cut.

  He’d had time to think, during the small hours of the morning, but he hadn’t come to any conclusions, other than he wasn’t going to hurt Fee again like he had the day before. It had been a stupid self-defence mechanism, and he was annoyed that it had been his knee jerk reaction.

  She’d not replied to his almost-declaration, and that made his palms sweat uncomfortably. Although the fact that she was now snuggling up to him gave him one answer.

  Noises outside made him aware that others were now coming into the lab, and he gently patted Fee’s side to wake her up. No need to get discovered in even more of a compromising position than they were already in. She woke slowly, disorientated at first.

  “I’m going to try and get their attention,” said Henry, when she’d pulled back and was sitting up under her own steam. She nodded.

  He stood and went to the door, rattling the handle. Still locked. “Hello? We’re in here! Let us out!” He banged on the door a couple of times for good measure.

  He heard voices and then the sound of the lock being deactivated on the other side. The door opened and Nolan stood frowning at him.

  “What on earth are you doing in here?” he said.

  “The power went off last night, locked us in.” Henry wondered how it looked to Nolan. Did he think they’d been doing something dodgy? Stealing secrets? Making love? He gave Nolan a tired smile. “It’s been a rough night.”

  Nolan glanced over Henry’s shoulder at Fee. “This has never happened before,” he said. His tone suggested that something was going on. But he didn’t know what.

  Henry turned to Fee. She was standing up, gathering herself. She walked over and brushed past him to walk out the door, blinking in the full light of the lab.

  Nolan looked back and forth between Henry and Fee as if they were crazy. Eugene walked over, his face a question.

  “The power went out while we were in there checking out Violet. I don’t even know when it came back on.”

  “How could the power have gone off? It has a generator back up. You’d have to cut two lots of power,” said Eugene.

  Something pinged at the back of Henry’s mind. “It’s not simple to cut the power? It’s never happened before?”

  Eugene shook his head. “It makes no sense that it would have been entirely out.”

  “Then we need to let Lucas know something happened last night. Because it definitely went out on us.”

  “I’ll call him,” said Nolan. “He’ll want to come down and have a look.”

  Henry sat down at the meeting table. He had gone from being embarrassed at being found in there, to being worried about what the hell was going on.

  ***

  Lucas almost jumped out of the elevator, concern on his face. “The power went out completely?” he said to Fee, the first person he saw.

  “Yes,” said Fee, nodding. “No one else has reported it?”

  “No. And I don’t understand how it went off like that. It shouldn’t be able to happen. We have sensitive materials that could be ruined if they lost power.”

  Fee nodded. “What do you want us to do? Can we help?”

  Lucas shook his head. “I’m going to check into the systems.” He glanced over to where Henry was snoring gently with his head on the boardroom table. “In the meantime, I think you need to take Henry home and let him sleep,” he said.

  Fee followed his gaze, and nodded. “I’ll take him home, then get changed and come back in.”

  Lucas nodded absently, but Fee could see his mind was already working on the problem.

  Going back to her desk, she grabbed her purse. She could feel something rummaging around in there, and poked her finger in to confirm that it was her little kleptomaniac, rather than something less palatable. A glint of metal and a pair of crab-like claws settled her fears.

  She was about to leave, but stopped a moment to consider the little metal spider swimming around in his little pool of water. She wanted to have a closer look at all of them, to see if Henry was right. Maybe they’d be more useful than she’d thought. She scooped him up and put him in her purse as well. He started chittering angrily at her.

  “Keep quiet if you know what’s good for you,” she whispered.

  She went over to Henry, and shook him awake. He groggily let her lead him to the elevators and down to his car. He even let her sneak him into the passenger’s seat, and she had climbed into the driver’s seat, before protesting.

  “You’re half asleep,” she said firmly, and put the car in gear.

  He’d fallen asleep again by the time she was two blocks out, so she decided to take him back to her place again and had the car in the underground garage before she thought any better of it. She managed to get Henry to wake up enough to get him up the stairs and into her apartment before he crashed again on her bed. She stood looking at him sleeping for a moment, before sighing and going back out into the kitchen.

  “Well, Max, he’s back,” she said.

  “Yes he is, Wild Feather.”

  She stretched herself out, as she waited for the kettle to boil for a coffee. Her two little critters climbed out of her bag, slowly making their way along the countertop before disappearing over the edge. They’d come back later once they’d finished searching the area for their own particular obsessions.

  On her third yawn, she decided that they wouldn’t need her at the lab for a while, and she went back into the bedroom. Her eyes were painful from the contacts, and she realized that putting in some eye drops wasn’t going to cut it. She was going to have to take them out. She’d just make sure she woke up before Henry and put them back in before he saw anything unusual. It was such a relief to have them out she stood blinking into the mirror for a few minutes, letting the drops soothe her scratchy eye balls, then she changed into a T-shirt and pajama bottoms to wear to bed.

  That was when she realized that she had a problem.

  She stood next to the bed considering her options. In the end, she decided she’d been lying next to Henry all night; it wouldn’t matter if she slept next to him on the bed. She climbed slowly onto the mattress, lying down next to him on top of the sheets, and closed her eyes.

  She opened them a few minutes later when his arm snaked around her stomach and pulled her close against his warm chest. She stiffened, ready to push away from him as soon as he tried anything more, but Henry didn’t move. She slowly relaxed back against his warm body, allowing him to spoon her to him, the low hum of electricity making her senses swim. Her eyes drifted shut, and she was almost asleep when his hand moved up, cupping one breast, his fingers flicking softly over her nipple as it hardened under her T-shirt.

  Instead of moving away, like she kne
w she should, she arched her body into his hand. His mouth came down on her neck, nuzzling into her skin, sending little sparks of sensation along her body. She shifted restlessly under his lips, wanting—no, needing—more. Moving so she faced him, Fee reached up with one hand to grasp him behind the head, pulling his lips to hers. The moment they touched, the electricity that had been humming in the background flared up, igniting multiple blue-stained lightning bursts over their bodies. The air sizzled and desire burned through Fee, so strong she thought she might implode with the sensations exploding through her body.

  ***

  Heat crackled along Henry’s veins, not entirely due to the blazing arousal that had taken over his body. He didn’t entirely understand it, but they were experiencing some kind of reaction that was making this moment more powerful than anything he’d experienced before in his life. He didn’t understand it, but he’d stopped trying to fight it.

  “Arms up,” he demanded, knowing Fee was as caught up in the moment as he was.

  Mutely, she obeyed, and he pulled her T-shirt up over her head, leaving her skin bare. He took in a gasping breath. She was beautiful. Her skin was golden, and her nipples were small rosy nubs, waiting for him to touch them. He softly kissed her neck, and then kissed his way down her throat to her breasts, his roving mouth delighting in the taste of her luscious skin.

  She pushed her hands through his hair, holding him in place over her nipple. He took it in his mouth and sucked hungrily, savoring her unique taste. His other hand molded her remaining breast, and she moaned with desire.

  His cock hardened to a rock.

  He raised his head and kissed her again, his tongue finding hers in an erotic dance. Electricity danced between them, stinging his tongue, and making him pull back. She rubbed at her mouth, her eyes wide in the dark light.

  “Why is that happening? What is happening to us?” she asked.

  Henry shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe we can figure it out.” He paused, and lowered himself to her mouth again. “Later.”