Wild Card (Etudes in C# Book 1)

by Jamie Wyman

  Marius scoffed, but I caught a glimpse of his fear before he recovered. “She would do no such thing. As a personal assistant I’m invaluable.”

  “And I’m sure you’re an amusing little puppet,” Flynn added.

  “Excuse me, did I shag your mother and forget to invite you or something?”

  “She bet with my soul,” I said, “why not yours?”

  “Well, for one thing, she doesn’t have my soul. I owe her a debt. There is a subtle, but important difference. For another, I still have this.” The satyr lifted his sleeve and presented his brand. “If she’d traded me off, surely I’d have been claimed by now.”

  Flynn and I both looked to my wrist. My own brand remained, clear as ever. This gave the mage pause. Pensive, he returned to his seat. Marius braced himself against the back of the sofa.

  “So, since you still wear your brands,” Flynn said, eyes tracking to the ceiling, “we can assume you are both still Eris’s property.” When I snarled a protest, Flynn held up a hand. “Cat, you know I don’t think of you as cattle, but they do. And, like it or not, she has a rightful claim to your soul.”

  Mollified, I flopped into a chair and studied my hands in my lap.

  “What exactly did Dahlia say to you?” Flynn asked.

  Without looking up I told him. “She said Puck had plans for me. Made it sound like he’s angling to get me on his roster.” I shuddered. I’d had enough bad news come from being around Fae. I didn’t need to work for them.

  With a wave of his hand, Flynn produced a rectangle of light. Translucent images began to flow over it as if someone were channel surfing on a TV. While most of it flashed by too quickly for me to read, a technomage like Flynn would have no trouble absorbing the information.

  “Dahlia has never exactly been trustworthy,” he remarked, his tone dark yet casual.

  “That’s true,” I admitted. “But it’s what I’ve got to go on at the moment.”

  He kept his attention on the makeshift monitor, surfing through terabytes of code. Then large words blazed that Flynn had been granted access. On his ethereal screen, green numbers flashed. Squinting, I realized he’d pulled up someone’s bank records.

  I whistled. “A lot of zeroes,” I said.

  “And it’s in the red,” Flynn said. Turning to Marius, he said, “Your boss is damn near destitute.”

  Marius said nothing.

  I, on the other hand, couldn’t hold my tongue. I’d been chased by sharks, bet in a poker game, pissed off by Fae, and creeped on by a god. My tolerance for the random and absurd had been blown away.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Wait. You’re telling me gods use regular bank accounts? Like normal people?”

  Flynn nodded as if I’d asked if the sky was blue. “Yeah. This world is based on money. Gods want power. If you can adapt to the corporate climate, you have a better chance of survival. You can’t buy governments with religion anymore.”

  Well, you learn something new every day. “You know, you’d think that after working for a deity for years, I’d be used to feeling insignificant and tiny. Does the sting ever go away?” I asked Marius.

  He lifted his chin, haughty. “I wouldn’t know.”

  I turned back to Flynn. “So she’s going broke. What does that mean?”

  “It means she’s desperate. And that makes her all the more dangerous.”

  Chapter Ten

  “Show Me Your Soul”

  Sitting on Flynn’s sofa, I tried to puzzle out the goddess’s plan. Her bank accounts showed a significant debt, and she’d been in a high-stakes card game with other gods. She’d bartered with my soul, but why? To sweeten the pot? To try to bluff her way into a big score? Then, for her own twisted reasons she ordered me to attend a swanky party with Marius. And now this quest for a handful of poker chips. What the hell was she playing at?

  I felt so small. Powerless. And it made me angry.

  “I thought this would be it, you know?” My laugh had no humor to it. Tears scalded my cheeks and stung in my eyes. My voice shook with the swell of emotions. “When she said that after this job I’d be done, I actually believed her. How stupid is that?”

  The technomage sat beside me and wrapped me in his long arms. “Cat, you’re a brilliant woman. Having hope doesn’t make you stupid.”

  Clearing his throat, Marius weighed in. “Besides, if Eris disappears and can’t finish the game, no one can claim you. So, you’d effectively be free.”

  “What makes you think she’s disappeared?” Flynn asked. “Maybe she put you into the pot and cut you off, like Cat said.”

  Marius waved the comment away with a bored flick of his wrist.

  “But, what about the other gods?” I asked. “Won’t they be pissed? I’ve already got someone sending fucking sharks after me.”

  Flynn leaned back, one arm still wrapped around my shoulder. “I think it’s safe to say Maui sent your guests. The specific animals fit with his mythology.”

  Holding my head in my hands, I groaned. “What does he want though?”

  Marius clapped his hands. “See! This is the question! I mean, it’s obvious what Coyote wants from you—even if you are a bookish prude—but I can’t understand what’s so special about your soul that all of these gods are willing to take it, let alone fight for it tooth and claw.”

  I glared at him. “Thanks ever so much.”

  “It’s not an insult but a fair question. What makes your soul such a handsome prize?”

  “Belief is currency,” Flynn said. He added a piercing glare of condescension for Marius. “Surely you know that.”

  I waved. “I don’t.”

  Flynn sighed, gesturing with his hands as he sought the right words to explain. “A person’s soul represents their purest beliefs. Therefore, in a market based on such things, souls are as good as blue-chip stocks. Plus, it doesn’t suck to have a talented technomancer beholden to you.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Flynn, don’t start with that again. Please.”

  “Cat,” he said down his nose. “For years I’ve respected your desire to keep it private, but look at who you’re talking to. You don’t have to hide from me. Besides, it’s not like you’re keeping some big secret. I’ve known since we met.”

  “I’m not keeping anything from you.” I got to my feet, annoyed. “Flynn, I’ve watched you play with tech for how long? Believe me, if I was one of the cool kids with magic powers I would’ve told you.”

  “And yet you haven’t.”

  “Dude, if I was a technomancer do you think I’d be working in my shit job?”

  “Or be such a lousy date?” Marius added.

  “Shut up,” Flynn and I barked in unison.

  “I’m just me,” I said sadly. “Since coming to Vegas and learning about the other world, I’ve been scared out of my mind. Magic, mythical creatures, gods? I don’t understand those things. They’re bigger than me and have brought me nothing but bullshit. Watching you, though? That’s the only time I see magic as being good. I’ve been idolizing you like some geeky freshman.”

  “Cat,” he began, but I cut him off.

  “I wasn’t born under the right sign or with the correct birthmark, okay? No blind oracle visited my crib or some arcane shit like that. I’m just a kid from suburbia with normal folks and an aptitude for all things tech. That’s it.”

  Flynn unfolded from the couch and took slow steps toward me, all the while fixing me with a stern stare.

  “You’re either lying to me or you are completely oblivious.”

  “I’m not lying!”

  His eyes lost focus. Flynn seemed to be looking past me. “It’s there. Power, light, connection. It courses through you at a trillion cycles per second.”

  “I. Am not. A mage!” I hissed.

  He took my hand, his grip inhumanly strong. Once again the tattoos on his arms flashed to life, but this time, another glow appeared. The veins in my own hand flickered at first, like a short circuit. Then a white
light mapped out the capillaries and blood vessels up to my shirtsleeves.

  Magic boiling the air, the world shimmered and pulsed. Colors, pathways, filaments tying every atom to one another. As if for the first time, I saw Flynn.

  Orange beams raced through him, pumping where blood ought to be. Glinting over his flesh, I finally understood what I’d long mistaken for piercings were cybernetic implants. Machines. I could see them working to power his muscles, his nerves. I could read all of the lines of him, all of the glyphs and spells he’d woven together to create a functional body.

  I’d never known, never even guessed. Flynn was more than just a technomage—a being in constant communion with machines and electronics. His true nature pulsed before me in a beautiful dance of humanity and machine. A digital angel, a hybrid of flesh and information, of meme and genome.

  Slack-jawed, I stared at him.

  “Oh,” I whispered. “Oh, Flynn.”

  He may as well have been naked before me, and I saw it play out over the synapses that made his thoughts. In baring himself this way, he’d given me the greatest secret—the greatest gift—he possessed.

  Flynn regarded me with glowing amber eyes. “Even now, when I’ve shown you all I am, you deny it? You hide yourself from me?”

  My own white light arced across my shoulders and flowed down my other arm. As if downloading a feed from Flynn’s eyes, I could see myself, haloed and shining. Flesh glimmered with signals to and from my brain, to my other organs. My heart beat like a piston, and every other cell in my body responded. Everything in perfect order.

  “You won’t let me in,” he said, face wrinkling with disappointment.

  Again, through his vision, I saw myself, luminous save for a thick black band around my neck. Like a dam, this dark collar blocked the flow of power. I needed that dancing energy. I could taste it on my tongue. I craved more of it. I ached for it as if devouring it would make me whole.

  I reached for my throat, fingers finding nothing but my rapid pulse beneath the moist flesh. “What is it?” I asked, breathless.

  In a bird-like movement, Flynn’s head cocked to the side. “Not yours?”

  Words failed me. Constant messages flooded my senses. I reeled beneath the pressure, unable to form whole sentences. “Not welcome,” I sputtered.

  “It’s a binding,” Flynn said. His voice came out oddly modulated like a techno-pop tune. “Magical obstruction restraining your abilities. Dampening your energy.”

  It was as if the black band became sentient and understood I wanted it gone. As soon as I processed the thought of removing it, the thing seemed to tighten around my throat. I gasped for air, fingers scrambling at my skin seeking the physical choker.

  “Want it off.”

  Sweat beaded my brow as I pooled as much of the delicious current as I could, shaping it into a ball of white-hot emotion.

  “Want…” I said. “Want…to be…”

  Swelling with my will, the ball of power surged, and as it did the pressure behind the binding grew. Tiny hairline fractures began to appear in the dark collar. Flynn’s energy swarmed me, forcing its way through the cracks to widen the gaps I’d created.

  “Say it,” he urged. “Say it and make it so.”

  “I want to be free!”

  My hands clasped over something solid and cold around my throat. With a guttural yell, I ripped off the collar. Blinding light and a rush of power filled my entire body with warmth, ecstasy, and contentment. I felt whole. Sated. I closed my eyes and let the bliss wash over me.

  As boiling energies calmed, the lights pumping through each of us dimmed. Drowsy, I looked at Flynn. I sensed the current there, beneath his flesh, as a steady hum of life, magic, and thought in perfect sync. He still held both of my hands in his.

  “I didn’t know, Cat,” he said softly. “All this time I thought you’d built up a firewall to shield yourself. And the binding…I thought you knew.” His eyes glistened with pity and contrition. “I’m sorry.”

  “What just happened?” Marius asked.

  “I wish I knew,” I murmured.

  Gently stroking my face, Flynn answered for me. “Someone bound her powers, stunted her growth. We broke the binding.”

  Still reeling and overwhelmed from the truths I’d seen, I whispered, “Thank you.”

  I never believed myself to be anything more than a vanilla mortal who’d gotten her heart caught in a particularly vicious meat grinder.

  Apparently, I was wrong.

  This geeky kid had graduated, and a new world opened before me.

  “I’ve had powers this whole time?”

  “Looks like,” Flynn said with a wry smile.

  “How’d that happen?”

  “Some are born to greatness,” he sighed, gesturing to himself. “Others…”

  His voice trailed off as he eyed Marius.

  “Well, then there are just others. But you, Cat! This is amazing!” Flynn’s face spread into a wide grin. “I have so much to show you.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, would you two get a room?” Marius chided. “We have work to do.”

  I whipped around to smack him with some snarky retort, but I tripped over my own feet. My head spun, and my stomach rolled. Limbs flabby, I melted into the couch again. Across the room, the bastard satyr snickered. Flynn, though, put the chai in my hand and guided it up to my lips.

  “It happens,” he said quietly. “Lesson number one, grasshopper: you can’t get something for nothing. Technomancy can knock your body down a few notches. Get some rest or something to eat and you should be okay soon.”

  I sipped the hot tea and took deep breaths. “I’ve never seen you fall all over yourself like you’ve just run a marathon.”

  “You’re new to it,” he said, smoothing my hair back from my face. “Like anything else, practice builds up stamina. These are senses and abilities that have always been in you. Like your body was built to walk upright, it just took your muscles a bit to learn the steps. You’ll catch up.”

  “If I’m going to need a nap after rebooting a computer, I think I’ll pass on the super powers.”

  Flynn smirked. “Little stuff like that shouldn’t be too taxing. Turning on a light, unlocking a door, starting a car—all easy tricks. We’ll play, though. You’ll be opening an interface with your mind in no time.”

  “Right now turning on a light with my hand seems like a Herculean task. I can’t even imagine how I would do it with my mind.”

  He rolled his eyes at me. “Come on. Let’s try something simple.”

  “Now?”

  “No time like the present.”

  Marius barked out a laugh. “She can’t even stand, let alone work magic.”

  I glared at him, and Flynn gave me a knowing look. “Fine. Where do I start?” I asked.

  Giddy, Flynn flew out of his seat and bounced across the room to Marius. “Excuse me. Need to borrow this.” In a blur of tattoos, Flynn swiped Marius’s cell phone out of the satyr’s pocket.

  “Now wait just a minute,” Marius protested.

  Flynn plopped next to me again and took my hand in his, laying the phone across my palm. “Turn it on.”

  “How?”

  Flynn beamed. “You’ll know.”

  “That’s not very helpful.”

  “Shut up and try it, Cat!”

  I looked at the dark screen and black plastic in front of me. At first it was nothing more than a commonplace object. Dead as a stone. After a moment, though, a picture began to form in my mind. A tiny spark of life bloomed into being, and with a snap of static I could see the nervous system of this inert object. The battery glowed like liquid moonlight and the circuitry reminded me of dim stars.

  I gasped.

  Flynn’s voice, low and comforting, came from a distance. “Good. Now what are you going to do?”

  “Make constellations,” I whispered. I didn’t even understand what I meant until the glittering points of light spread out feathery tendrils to one anot
her. Shapes formed: a microprocessor, a memory card, speakers, a microphone. A blueprint of sorts lay in my palm, empty of color.

  Paint inside the lines, I thought. Using awareness as a brush, I dipped into the pool of lithium power and traced through the schematic. In my hand, the flat screen pulsed, and the phone powered up with a merry chime.

  I drew in a deep, refreshing breath.

  “I told you,” Flynn whispered.

  “Holy shit,” I said.

  I tossed the phone to Marius who then inspected it.

  “You didn’t change the language or erase my numbers, did you?”

  “No,” I growled. “I didn’t mess with your precious black book.”

  Flynn smiled. “I did.”

  “You cheeky bastard!”

  While Marius clicked through his phone looking for errors, Flynn asked, “How do you feel? Worse? Better?”

  I took a moment to check in with my body and mind. Though I should have been gummy-eyed and falling down with exhaustion, I felt clear and clean. I wouldn’t be leaping tall buildings in a single bound or anything, but I was alert and awake enough that I could go for a few more hours.

  “A little better,” I said. “Oddly enough.”

  “Like I said, little stuff like this shouldn’t be any more exhausting than clicking a mouse. Harder things, though, like interfaces and tapping into power supplies, that stuff can knock the wind out of you for a while.”

  “This is wild.”

  Flynn nodded and smiled. “Do you need to crash here tonight?”

  I wanted to stay with Flynn and discover this unearthed facet of myself. My excitement for all I could learn and be, though, took a backseat to my anger that someone had kept it all from me. It wasn’t hard to guess who’d worked that bit of magical fuckery.

  There would be time for learning later. My soul was up for grabs to the god with the best hand, and no one was going to hold me back again.

  “Later,” I said. “Right now, I have a goddess to find.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “One Hot Minute”

  Back in the car with Marius behind the wheel, I should have been exhausted. Instead, my mind raced, trying to put together everything I’d learned tonight.