by SA Magnusson
“I’m sure she did. At least, I’m sure she wanted you to believe she did.” Gran shook her head. “We should have done a better job with you, Katie. We should have made sure you understood who you were and how you fit into the rest of the magical world, and I think not doing so did you a disservice.”
“You tried. It wasn’t until the attack—”
Gramps sighed. “We’ve always suspected there was something more than simply dark magic to you, Katie. It’s part of the reason we asked Derek to watch over you.”
“And now you don’t have Derek watching over me. Does that bother you?”
“Should it?” Gramps asked.
“He told me how you found him. Did you sneak him away so that he could continue to spy on someone else?”
“Be careful, Katie,” Gramps said.
“Why would I need to be careful? I’m asking you a question about the people you’ve surrounded me with. It’s almost as if you don’t want me to know what kind of magic I have.”
“Do you believe we would have kept that from you?” Gran asked.
“I believe that you would if you thought I might do something foolish with the knowledge of who I was.”
“Such as going to Solera. You’ve proven exactly what we feared.”
Voices from the kitchen caught my attention. It drew me back to the real reason we were here and what we needed to get done. I didn’t need to be arguing with Gran and Gramps about what they might or might not have known about my magic.
“You might not have wanted me to go to Solera, but she knows something. And she raised a good point. She warned me that I couldn’t count on people providing information to me and that I needed to go in pursuit of it myself.”
“To find out what you’re looking for, you would need to go—“
“Beyond the Veil,” I said.
They stared at me, and I had the sense that neither of them knew quite what to say. I had no intention of crossing over the Veil, not without having some assurances I would be able to return. There was no reason for me to go, not when I still had so much on this side of the Veil that needed to be done. I needed to finish my residency. I needed to take on a real job. I needed to get away from magic altogether.
But was that what I wanted?
The answer should have been easy, but it wasn’t, not like I thought it would be. Magic I had feared and run from all these years now appealed to me. Maybe it shouldn’t have, but understanding who I was and what I could do had value.
And even that had to wait until we figured out what had happened to Ariel. Torn was involved somehow. That was what Solera had suggested, though not in so many words.
“Ariel was taken. She was challenged and failed, and from what John tells me, the challenge was not an acceptable challenge to the shifters.”
“That shouldn’t matter,” Gran said. “Even if there was something we could do, we—and by that, I mean the council—can’t get involved in shifter affairs. That was part of the treatise we agreed to with them. They have their own autonomy, the same way the mage council has its own autonomy.”
“And yet Ariel came to help when one of the council was in danger.”
“Ariel came when one of the Carters was in danger,” Gran said. “Protecting the Veil sits above all other priorities, even that of your pack or the council.”
“And what would happen if Ariel fell?”
“Another would replace her,” Gramps said.
“Would they be named Carter, too?”
“We don’t determine the line of succession. That is up to the shifters, much the same way that the line of succession within the mage council is determined by our people,” Gramps said.
“She needs my help. She sent for me, and I intend to go and see what I might be able to do to help her.”
“You would go in and disrupt the treatise?” Gran asked.
“How would I disrupt anything? I’m not on the council, and I’m not even a mage. I wouldn’t be able to do anything that would disrupt the treatise. That’s why I needed you to come.”
“You want us to go with you?” Gramps asked.
I nodded.
“We can’t,” Gran said. “We’ve already explained the reason why, so don’t ask us to do so again.”
“Even if it means finding Torn?”
Her eyes narrowed. She recognized that name, the same way Solera had.
Whoever he was had the attention of my grandparents, much the same way he had Solera’s attention.
“Did your shifter friend tell you he was there?” Gran asked carefully.
“He did.”
She breathed out slowly and glanced over at Gramps. “Then it couldn’t be him.”
“Couldn’t be? I saw him,” I said.
“You saw Torn?” Gran asked.
“Your reaction is the same as Solera’s. Both of you seem shocked by the possibility that I would come across him. Which tells me there’s something extraordinary about him. She called him the Watcher, and I have the sense that he’s somehow different than even the Great Ones John fears.”
“The Great Ones are involved as well?” Gran asked.
“According to John they are.”
Gran stared at me, her mouth pressed into a tight line. “It seems as if you’ve convinced us to go with you,” she said.
“Why? What part did the convincing?”
“Does it matter?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Just know that we will come with you. We will offer whatever protection we can. But we can’t get involved in the transition of power among the shifters.”
“You’re only going to try to find Torn.”
When she didn’t answer, I knew that was what motivated her, even if I didn’t quite know why. And before we could go, though, I had something to resolve.
10
“Where are you taking me?” Jen asked.
It was late and darkness had long since fallen, wrapping the city in a shroud of shadows that consumed it. I wondered where magic users were in the city, and though I knew there would be places scattered around the city, I wasn’t privy to them, not the same way my grandparents were.
Hell, I didn’t even know where my grandparents stayed when they came to the city or, for that matter, how they managed to get here as quickly as they did. As far as I knew, they were still stationed in Chicago, and it should take much longer to reach Minneapolis than the short period of time it had taken them. Maybe mages had some way of teleporting themselves straight out of a sci-fi movie, but if they did, why hadn’t I seen Aron using that ability before?
“If we’re going north, I want to check something first.”
“Way out here?” She gripped her steering wheel and looked around. Jen drove a small Volkswagen, and it was a nice car, though not as nice as what Aron preferred. She usually accused me of using her for her car, and while that wasn’t completely untrue most of the time, this time I definitely was. I needed transportation and I wasn’t willing to ask Aron or my grandparents for it, choosing instead to sneak out while they were planning what they would do when we reached the shifters. They would not approve of what I intended.
“There’s someone out here I want to find.”
“Another someone? Is this your magical friend again?”
“This has nothing to do with Aron. He’d be angry if he knew I came out here without him.” Especially since the last time I’d come out here, I’d been captured and had required Derek’s assistance to escape.
“You’re going to put me up against your magical police?”
“They’re not magical police.”
“Whatever they are. I don’t want to get in trouble with them.”
“You won’t get in trouble. You don’t have any magic, so they wouldn’t do anything to you.”
She didn’t need to know the council might try something if they discovered she was here with me. I wasn’t sure quite what they might do, only that I doubted very much they approved of the
idea of someone outside of the magical world getting dragged into it the way I was dragging Jen. Not only did she know about shifters and mages, now I was going to introduce her to dark mages?
But she didn’t have any preconceived bias against them, not like Gran and Gramps.
We reached the warehouse, following the streets Derek and I had taken as we drove away. As we neared, the sense of magic emanating from it told me we were in the right place.
Jen put the car into park outside of a garage door and looked over at me. “Are you sure this is where you want me to be?”
“This is where I need to be. You can stay out here if you want.”
“You want to leave me in the middle of these warehouses at night? Are you trying to get me attacked?”
“It’s not going to be much better in there.”
“I thought this was a friend of yours.”
“More like a contact.”
“Now you’re a spy? First I thought you were in a sex cult; now this? I’m beginning to wonder if maybe all of this is a dream. Not a good one, either. Were it a dream, that shape shifter friend of yours would’ve been completely naked.”
“Gross,” I said.
“Hey, I can’t help it that he’s attractive.”
“He’s quite a bit older than you.”
“Like your magical friend?”
I hadn’t told her how old Aron was, though I didn’t know his age, either. Those weren’t the sort of questions you asked a mage, and most definitely not a mage like Aron. Even if he were willing to answer, I didn’t know what the point would be in attempting to question him on that. It wouldn’t change anything.
“Yeah, Aron is a little bit older than me. And if you want to see John naked, just wait until he shifts. There’s all sorts of nudity then.”
She grinned at the idea of John naked. “If what you said is true, magic slows the aging process. He looks barely into his twenties, which means he’s what forties? Fifties? Either way, what’s that compared to that delicious shape shifter?”
I shook my head. Maybe I really shouldn’t have brought Jen into contact with the magical world. She might do more harm to them than they could do to her. “Just be careful and stay by me.”
I grabbed the sword as I got out of the car, pulling it from its bundle of blankets. Sneaking it out of my condo had been difficult, but that was what Jen was for.
“I still can’t believe you have a sword.”
“You don’t want to know where I got it, either.”
We made our way to the door leading into the warehouse. There was a complicated-looking keypad, and I rested my hand on it, letting a surge of magic flow through me and into it. It was possible nothing would work, not against dark mages who likely had some way of protecting their electronics from people like me.
But then, there weren’t all that many people like me. The mages wouldn’t have any reason to think to defend themselves against someone with my bizarre mix of magic.
The keypad sizzled and the door clicked open.
At least I had that going for me.
We stepped into the warehouse. There was something surreal about coming in here, especially as last time I been here, I had been bound and held by the paralytic in the back of the van, forced to accompany the dark mages. Now I came of my own accord, dragging a friend of mine who had no ability to defend herself against any kind of magic, into a place where men and women of uncertain intentions awaited. It was really quite amazing that Jen was even willing to accompany me.
“Where are we going?” she whispered.
“The back of the warehouse.”
“What’s back there?”
“Danger,” I said.
“Great. I love danger. You know, some would say it’s my middle name. That’s why I got into medicine, because I thrive on danger. It’s the kind of thing I—”
“Jen?” I whispered her name, resting my hand on her arm. “You’re babbling.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m uncomfortable. Probably more uncomfortable than I realized.”
“Like I said, you could wait in the car.”
“At night. And you claim that men and women who can use magic are all around us.”
I nodded.
“Then I’m staying. I’d rather be with you than sitting there alone.”
We continued into the warehouse. There wasn’t much light—certainly not enough to easily see, but I knew the warehouse was essentially empty other than a few pillars that would block our way. From here, if we headed to the back left, we would find the door leading to the offices. That was where we needed to go.
I held my hand on Jen, keeping her with me, and I realized as I did that she stumbled around quite a bit more than I did. There were shades of gray within the warehouse, but the longer we were here, the more those shades of gray resolved into something I could make out.
“How do you even know where you’re going?” she whispered.
“I’ve been here before.”
“By yourself?”
“No. I was captured and dragged here. Derek was here, so he—”
“Derek?”
She said his name too loudly, and it practically echoed off the walls.
I should’ve known better. Jen didn’t know that Derek was a mage, and now I’d gone and revealed that.
Why was I so good with regulations when it came to medicine but so bad when it came to the expectations of privacy within the magical world?
“We can talk about that later.”
“Is that why he left?”
“I don’t know why he left. You’ll have to ask him.”
“Bitter, much?”
Was I bitter? I didn’t think so, and I understood why Derek had left, and even understood why he felt the need to leave, though it didn’t change that I missed having him around. “Let’s talk about this later,” I whispered.
There hadn’t been any other sounds, so Jen’s sudden scream must not have been heard. Either that or they had us surrounded. If that were the case, there wasn’t much I could do. Just to be safe, I pulled on my magic and formed a barrier around Jen and me. I should’ve done that the moment we reached the warehouse.
Why hadn’t I? Maybe it was because I didn’t really fear the dark mages, not after what we’d been through.
They were afraid of the mage council. That was why they acted the way they did. There was nothing particularly evil about dark mages, no more than there was anything evil about the mage council. The name sounded terrible, but if they rebranded…
I shook those thoughts out of my head. I needed to stay focused.
We reached the door at the back of the room. I pressed my hand on it. Magic burned within it, sending cold streaking along my spine. There was a spell in the door, and I suspected that the moment I threw the door open, mages from the Dark Council would be” aware of our presence.
Would they attack?
Wouldn’t I if someone suddenly appeared in my home?
This wasn’t the right way to approach.
There had to be an alternative.
I took a few steps back and focused on my magic, wondering if I could do anything to it to make it light up. It didn’t have to be anything dramatic, only enough so that my spell was visible to any of the dark mages who might pop out and find me.
The barrier began to glow softly with a faint purplish color. It shimmered and gradually began to shift into blue, and then brightened, becoming white.
I wasn’t entirely certain what I was doing, only that the magic seemed to respond to what I wanted from it. At least it was easier than trying to memorize a bunch of spells that Gran and Gramps had attempted to teach me when I was younger.
“What are you doing?” Jen asked.
“If we sneak in here, we’re going to basically invite an attack.”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“I don’t want an attack. I want help.”
“I thought you said these were t
he bad guys.”
“They have been, but I think they’ve been mostly misunderstood.”
Jen looked over at me and shook her head. “You really aren’t anything like the person I thought you were.”
“I’m the same person.”
“We’ll see. Then again, I never knew my best friend was in a sex cult without inviting me.”
“It’s not a sex cult—”
Magic began to build. Whatever I’d done had attracted the attention of the Dark Council.
This was a terrible idea, but I wasn’t sure what other options I had. As the sense of magic approached, I instinctively built my own, drawing it through me, before hesitating. I didn’t want the Dark Council to recognize I was holding onto magic and worry I had come to attack them.
Reluctantly I lowered my defenses.
“Kate?” Jen whispered.
The door opened with another surge of magic before I could say anything. I stood armed only with my sword, everything within me tensed.
Darvish held his hands out in front of him, magic flowing through him. He was thin and muscular and had the lithe sort of movement of someone who had trained in the martial arts his entire life. He held onto power and his spell sizzled away from him, creating a barricade between he and I.
His gaze took in Jen and me quickly, but his control over magic never changed. He was ready for the possibility he might need to attack.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
“I came to ask for your help.”
He eyed me suspiciously. He glanced past me, looking into the darkness of the warehouse before his attention returned to me. “Where is the archer?”
“He didn’t come.” I hesitated a moment. “He doesn’t know I came.”
That might be foolish of me to admit, but if I didn’t share that with Darvish, it was unlikely he’d be willing to help. Darvish was a skilled dark mage, and I had felt the effects of his paralytic firsthand. That wasn’t the reason I came, but I wouldn’t be opposed to understanding more about the spell and learning whether I could use something similar.
“I’m not foolish enough to believe you would come alone.”
I nodded to Jen. “I’m not alone.”