by Sierra Cross
Asher stared at me.
“Oh my god.” That was the answer. Marley had said, the Dominion Gene would be my weakness until I learned how to use it. “Maybe I can use the connection to find him?”
“There’s my Alix.” Asher wrapped a long, tattooed arm around my head and nooggied me. “Brilliant.” He released me and headed toward the cozy corner side of the office. “I’m going to call Hayden and line up that teacher for you.”
“Great.” Because while he was doing that, I had something I needed to fix.
The whole house smelled like bacon. I found Matt in Asher’s kitchen washing the cast iron pan. Two tall Strong Brew to-go cups sat on the table. I picked one up—it was warm—and guzzled down the latte like it was a lifesaving drug.
“Hey, you hungry?” He offered me a plate stacked with bacon and the two measly halves that remained of Asher’s toast.
I crashed into his big solid body and squeezed so hard I felt the breath escape him. He set the plate down and hugged me back. I buried my face in his chest, and he fitted his body around me like we were carved from the same granite, sculpted to be two halves of one crazy, beautiful work of art.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” I said, pulling back from our embrace. “But staying out of it, leaving it for someone else to clean up feels…wrong.”
“I feel that too.”
“I’ve been trying to fight through my feelings by myself.” I sniffed. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry. “And that feels wrong too.”
Matt started to speak, and I put my finger on his lips.
“I just have to get this out.” He nodded and I continued. “I have to learn to use the Dominion Gene. Take back control from Tenebris. And until I do, I can’t be with you…as in I can’t have sex with you. I can’t let myself relax into what I feel for you.”
“Alexandra, you know I’m okay with that, right?” There was nothing but gentleness and warmth in his eyes.
“Well, that makes one of us who’s okay with it,” I said.
He chuckled and leaned toward me. I felt the heat of his body mingling with my own. The woodsy scent of his magical energy filled my head, making my thoughts scatter. “So now what, coven leader?”
Taking a deep breath, I put the flat of my hand on his muscular chest and pushed him back. The only way to get to the other side of this was through it. “Now? I do whatever it takes to get stronger. To make sure our coven is in the best possible position to get Liv back, take Tenebris down, and free Callie.”
“Right there with you.”
“Good. And one more thing.” I looked at him and said the one thing I was sure of. “I’m crazy about you, Matt Montgomery.”
He wrapped his meaty hand behind my neck and pulled me in close. His lips pressed up against my cheek. “How could you not be?”
Chapter Nine
I stopped dead in my tracks outside the Enchantrix Emporium. “Uh, Asher, what are we doing at Marley’s old shop?”
“Having short-term memory problems?” he said like I was the one who was crazy. “I told you I’d find you a Dominion Gene teacher.”
After I reluctantly pulled away from kissing Matt, I marched straight into Asher’s office and announced that we needed to move on my Dominion Gene training, pronto. I was surprised when he replied he’d already found one…and that the teacher was local.
I looked through the window into the little magic shop Marley used to own. Pressed against the glass were cheesy dreamcatchers adorned with neon-colored feathers. Crystals hung from fishing line from the ceiling. “But seriously, why the heck did you bring me to this tourist trinket shop?” I asked as Asher opened the door and gently pushed me over the threshold.
“I’ll have you know,” an indignant voice said from behind the counter. “This shop sells quality enmagicked items.” It was Charice, the lithe redhead Asher had been…entangled with from time to time. Marley’s former employee. “And insulting me isn’t a very good way to start this off.”
“Asher, what the fuck?” I didn’t have time for practical jokes. I shoved him out of my way and headed for the door.
“See. That’s why I didn’t tell you upfront. I knew you’d behave this way,” Asher said, miffed.
“You told me she’d be grateful for my help.” Charice seemed equally miffed. “I’m a busy witch. I have a trinket shop to run.” She spun her long limbs and angrily sashayed into the back room.
“Seriously, Charice?” I asked Asher. “Is this some trick to get her back into your bed?”
He gave me a Honey, please look.
“I heard that,” she yelled from the back room.
Asher was teaching her simple rune magic not all that long ago. He’d said she was a promising student. Not exactly the hallmark of the masterful teacher I’d need. She was sweet and sociable—great traits for a shopkeeper. I actually liked her, but she never came off as a great brain trust. As evidenced by the fact that she kept getting pissed every time she slept with Asher, and he blew her off afterward, like it was some surprise. “No offense,” I yelled back.
“You don’t get to say that.” Charice daintily stomped out of the backroom. “I take offense. You see me…like three times…and judge me? Asher teaches me a parlor trick, and you think that’s all I know? You think because I’m a person with emotions that I’m some kind of moron?” She was sniffing, and tears started pouring from her eyes.
“Geez, I’m sorry.” Or at least, I really wanted her to stop crying. I had the battle of my life to prepare for. I didn’t want to waste my time coddling some pampered shop witch.
“No, you’re not sorry.” She gracefully moved within inches of my face, standing a whole head taller than me. Her voice was stern, but not loud. She managed to make even her anger elegant. “I have a degree in master spellcrafting from Reugene University in London. I was too busy studying serious magic to learn anything…fun.” She waved her hand in the air as she searched for that last word. “I was offered a tenured professorship upon graduation. Do you have any idea how unusual that is? I chose to come back to the Spelldrift, to support myself with this shop while I write an updated manuscript on Tele-transcendental Inhabitations and the Effects on the Non-Magicked. It’s a threat the magical community doesn’t give enough weight to. And it’ll offer protection for Wonts from a danger they don’t even know exists. But I guess since I’m pretty,” she mimed twirling her hair, “and I like cute warlocks, tee hee, I guess my magical IQ is negative three?”
I was speechless. Wow. She was right, I was that person.
“Oh, and I also possess the Dominion Gene. But unlike you, I know how to use it.” Even though her words were all silk, there was a dangerous edge to them. She put her hand on her hip and tilted her head on that long graceful neck of hers.
“Anything you’d like to say, Alix?” Asher looked so smug I knew I’d been set up. That warlock and I would definitely have words.
“I apologize, Charice.” I swallowed the softball that was stuck in my throat and looked her in the eye. “You’re right. I jumped to conclusions. I…would be most grateful if you’d teach me how to use my Dominion Gene.”
Charice seemed to think it over. “Two dozen lessons to start. And I renegotiate at the end of the term.” She named a price that was more than I’d made in the last year at Sanctum.
Two dozen lessons? Was Charice trying to fleece Asher out of his savings?
Asher crossed his arms over his chest and nodded, a half smile on his face. “Whatever you want, gorgeous.”
“Oh no,” Charice said, wagging a finger at him. “You don’t get off that easy. Hayden told me you laughed when he gave you my name.”
Busted, I thought happily.
The last week had been a blur of training with Charice, work at Sanctum, eat, sleep, repeat. Emma’s guests had left, and Matt and I had moved back into her model apartment. It was fabulous torture. Fabulous to have space to call my own-ish, torture to be so close to Matt and still be unable to to
uch him. He and I had been taking turns sleeping on the couch when our desire for each other threatened to get the upper hand.
As it was doing right now. I smacked the pillow down into the corner of the couch, trying to punch my way to comfort. It was 2:13 AM, and Matt wouldn’t leave my brain. He was just on the other side of the door. I pictured his hard chest, his full lower lip, the look in his eyes that told me of his own need. Even the promise of paradise wasn’t worth the risk of letting Tenebris back in my head.
No way sleep would find me now. I sighed and opened the TMBC app on my phone. What fanciful tales would the “news” have for us today?
A dark-skinned man with a British accent anchored the night desk. A large red “breaking news” banner flashed up at the bottom of the screen. “Fidei agents in Austria are reporting the discovery of a body at the Sankt Villach Center in Innsbruk.” His crisp suit and serious demeanor gave him an air of credibility as he spoke. “Though we are waiting for official confirmation, reporters on the scene have identified the body to be that of Eustace Weller.”
Leonard’s face lit up the screen, the same photo the news had played the day of the botched school battle. I gaped at the screen in disbelief. Tenebris, dead? Could it be true?
Ha. My brain hardly let me finish the question. The demon had simply “changed clothes”...found himself another skinsuit.
And now we had absolutely no fucking idea what the Caedis we were hunting looked like.
Grainy live footage showed a sheet-covered body on a gurney rolling out of some building’s glass front doors, onto the sidewalk. Ambulance and police vehicle lights flashed all around it. A strange feeling enveloped my chest—was it sadness? Leonard the mage had been dead for months, but now his body was at rest as well. As much of a creep and a piss ant as he’d been, even he didn’t deserve to have his face forever worn by a monster. I hoped in whatever afterlife there was, he would find peace.
“We owe the men and women of the Fidei a debt of gratitude for taking this dangerous warlock off the streets.” The anchor closed his eyes for a moment, as if in reverence. “Thank you, for once again making the magicborn world a safer place.” Wow, did he really believe the words coming out of his mouth? Were the people reporting the news in the dark as much as those they were reporting it to? They were getting their intel from the Fidei. Maybe that said it all. “We are still awaiting news of his missing charges. The twelve novice witches from Wellspring Academy are, as of yet, unaccounted for. We all pray they are safe and will be returned to their families soon.”
I clicked out of the app, feeling a heaviness in my bones. Those girls were anything but safe. They were on the verge of being lost forever.
I chugged the last of my Strong Brew latte and tossed it in the compost bin under the register. With a nod to the giggling teenage Wonts buying the Enchantrix Emporium special mix love potion, I walked into the backroom of the magic shop. Lately, I’d spent so much time here it was starting to feel more like home than anyplace else did.
This was the scene of the crime, so to speak. Though I remembered this room from long ago, the sheer curtains had been replaced with purple velvet drapes blacking out the wall of windows. The once-yellow walls were now grey and had an iridescence that shimmered in the candlelight, making me think they were enchanted.
Though everything looked different the memories were still sharp. This was the place my magic was taken from me…well, hidden from me anyway. Where Marley performed the binding spell on me when I was a kid.
Maybe it was fitting this would be where I claimed another level of my gift.
Charice and I sat in comfy overstuffed chairs facing each other. Day after day after day. Never standing. Never moving around.
“Alix, do you think you let that last loop drop?” Charice asked sweetly.
I gritted my teeth to keep the words I wanted to say from coming out. I wished she’d stop couching all her critiques behind inane questions. “Uh, I dunno, Charice, did I?” I was sure she was right, but I couldn’t feel it. The thread of thought I was trying to feed her felt the same to me this time as it did the last.
She’d let me open a connection to her using the Dominion Gene. Which was a surprisingly intimate act. Once you accessed the target’s mind, she’d explained to me, either of you could use the power of concentration to build a “construct”—a shared mental landscape that was even more vivid than a dream. For example, those icky white-hot beaches where I always seemed to find myself lounging next to Tenebris? Constructs. Built by him.
Unlike me, Charise had built parameters—cordoned off sections of her mind where I was not allowed to roam. A neat trick to know for the future, but too late to save me from Tenebris. He’d already stomped all over my psyche. Picked through my memories. Steamrolled across my most private moments.
She patted my hand and gave me a comforting smile. “You’re doing really well.”
“If I were doing really well, I wouldn’t have let that last loop drop.”
“Be patient with yourself.”
“I don’t have time to be patient, damn it. This isn’t a hobby for me.” I shoved the book in front of me so hard it skidded off the edge of the coffee table. Charice jumped.
I used to jump at sudden noises too, back when I was a civilian. Before I had to be on demon alert 24/7.
I also used to think it was okay to take your time and learn things right. And cry when you were sad. And sleep in late when you were tired. And take a day off when you felt like your head was going to explode. I didn’t claim any of those niceties for myself anymore.
Charice was spending a lot of time with me, and I was grateful for that. But it was going so slow. Still, I knew a thousand times more about the Dominion Gene than I had when I started.
I knew the Dominion Gene was found in less than one percent of spellcasters. It was a skill that had been feared in the Middle Ages. Back then, unscrupulous magicborn had used it to usurp other’s magic. The community had tried to quietly selectively breed it out of our kind. If you were skilled enough, you could tap into another’s power and use their magic as your own. You could forge a permanent connection and use the target’s magic like an auxiliary power source—leaving them incapacitated.
But it was all theory to me. I’d yet to master any of it. And Charice kept on wanting to explain more to me. She didn’t seem to understand the urgency I was feeling. Last time I faced Tenebris, he’d used our Dominion Gene connection to distract me in battle. It totally took my head out of the game. To get Liv back, I couldn’t let that happen again.
“I see that mind of yours working.” Charice moved her finger in a circle in front of my face. “All anxious to get to the finish line.”
Okay, maybe I was more of an open book than I thought. “Yeah, kinda on a deadline here.”
“Would you expect to earn a black belt in Karate in one week? Or be able to practice brain surgery after two dozen lessons?” It wasn’t the first time we’d had this conversation. When we first started training, I asked her about learning how to shut down the connection between Tenebris and me. She’d been very excited about the process of helping me reach that level—no matter how many years it took me. But I couldn’t accept that time frame, no matter how many times she repeated it.
“I have to get better faster.”
“Alix?” She sat with her hands on her knees, leaning toward me. “I get the feeling that up to now you’ve just stumbled onto your magic. Poked around until something just worked.”
“Pretty much.”
“You can’t do that with this gift,” she said sternly. “You could forge connections that could seriously injure others or put the target in control instead of you.”
“Been there, done that.” But I was getting desperate. “Can’t I just get really mad and shout him out again?”
“That hasn’t always worked, has it? The danger of him getting the upper hand, even with your sophisticated shout-exit technique, is too great.” She shook her head
. “Let’s work on controlling his access to you—you’ve already got a good start on that. The rest will come.” She stood and wrapped her arm around me in what I’m sure she intended as a comforting hug.
I stood and politely tried to slip out from her arms. I needed to throw a knife at something. “Let’s call it quits for today. We can pick it back up tomorrow.” At this mind-blisteringly slow pace.
“Chin up, okay?” She stood there arms poised to scoop me into another hug.
“You bet.” I hoped my sarcasm was at least somewhat muted. I grabbed for the doorknob and felt that all too familiar quake as the room around me went black.
Crap.
The blindingly white room was out of focus, fuzzy around the edges. I was lying flat, my face helplessly pressed against a smooth white plastic surface. My thoughts felt thick and slippery, panic their only coherent theme. I was trapped here. Doomed. The smell of rubbing alcohol and disinfectant burned my eyes. A chill settled into my bones, like my blood wasn’t moving fast enough to keep me warm.
Not me, of course.
Liv.
As she blinked, my vision cleared too. White walls, white ceiling, white lights. I was having trouble getting a handle on which way was up. The only color that broke up the white was stainless steel.
Liv rolled to her side on a hard, foam bed. Her eyelids felt heavy. She’d been drugged, or the magical equivalent of it, and her brain was struggling to come around. She blinked again, willing herself to be more alert. Thin metal bars surrounded her. She was in some kind of a cell—not a cell, a cage. Beyond the bars were stainless steel tables and more metal cages and rows of white cabinets. Above the counter, blinking monitors, microscopes, beakers, and pipettes topped the cabinets. Was she in a laboratory? Even in her dulled state, she moved her eyes, scanning for exits. Her wobbly fingers reached out to test the latch on her crate. But her vision kept sliding in and out of focus. Her heart pounded as she struggled to move her limbs. Voices were getting closer.