by Sam Cheever
“Yeah. It is.”
“So you decided to do something about it,” I guessed.
“I did. Whenever I located someone whose magical energy was low or a target for an undesirable designation, I held them back until I could interrogate them to determine if they were candidates for rescue.”
I frowned. “Wasn’t that dangerous? Any one of those people might try to buy their own freedom by giving away yours.”
He nodded. “That is always a concern.”
“You did all this by yourself?”
“No. There is…was a small group.”
“Was?”
Pain flashed across his face. “Some of us were discovered. A couple of us were killed and the rest scattered with as many refugees as we could take with us. My cover hasn’t been blown completely yet. I was already out of Indy when everything hit.”
“You’re going to try to stay with the Body?” I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I’d called him a coward for leaving, but after what he’d told me, staying seemed nearly as bad.
Hawk’s gaze sharpened. “All I did was buy myself some time. It won’t last long. But the longer we have a contact inside the city the better.”
I thought about his story for a moment, trying to wrap my head around it. Guilt clutched my gut with dagger-like claws. All that evil happening a little over an hour away, within the walls of Magical Indy, and I’d been happy to hide in Render. Safe from all of it.
I’d never spared a single thought for what was happening there. On some level, I suspected I didn’t want to know. Because then I’d have to do something about it.
Shame heated my cheeks. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…”
He shrugged. “Don’t feel guilty for surviving the best way you know how. You have a life here. I’m not sure I would have risked losing it either if I’d been in the same situation.”
It was kind of him to say. But did nothing to ease my guilt.
Suddenly, Sissy’s parents’ denial of her magic and their seeming indifference that allowed her to stay in Render took on another flavor altogether. The realization hit me like a fist on the nose. They’d been protecting her.
Had she known? Somehow I doubted my best friend could stay silent about the kind of thing Hawk was describing. No doubt her parents had protected her from it, keeping her in the dark.
What about Art?
Stars burst in front of my eyes. If I hadn’t been sitting, I might have passed out. “Son of a bunion,” I murmured.
“What’s wrong?” Hawk asked.
My gaze lifted to his. “My brother. He works for the Body.”
Hawk frowned. “I know.”
“But…” I stared into space for a moment, swallowing hard. Then I leaned forward and clasped Hawk’s wrist in a frantic grip. “He’s been trying to open the portal.”
Hawk’s neutral mask slid away. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve seen him with my own eyes. Twice. The last time he nearly managed it.” I let go of Hawk, twining my fingers together nervously. “I didn’t even realize he had the power to do it. I believed that was why he left after Grams died.” Leaving me to pick up the pieces and protect the portal and Render.
Hawk’s gaze was intense. “Glynn, are you aware what that means? If Artur shouldn’t have a power that he currently displays…”
“He got it from someone else,” I finished, all the pieces sliding together at last. “It’s worse than you think, I told Hawk.”
“I’m not sure that’s possible,” he growled out.
My eyes found his. “Art’s not functioning under his own steam. In fact, he might not even know what he’s doing.”
“What do you mean?” Hawk asked.
I described the way Art had moved, the glassy gaze, the fact that he didn’t seem to remember what he’d done.
Hawk shook his head. “You can’t believe him, Glynn. He could be trying to make you think you were dealing with something harmless like sleep-walking.”
“I thought of that. But I know my brother, Hawk. He’s not consciously trying to open the portal. I’d stake my life on that.”
“You very well might be,” the daemon growled, pushing out of his seat to pace the room. “You might be staking everybody’s life on it.”
Boyle! I thought, my chest tightening enough to cut off my breath. “I’ll talk to Artur.”
Hawk shook his head. “You’re too close to this. I’ll talk to him.”
“No!” I stood up, glaring at him. “You’ll kill him.” I hadn’t even realized I’d been considering that possibility until the words leaped from my mouth to slice the space between us.
Hawk slammed his big hands onto the table, his expression hard. “Do you realize what will happen if the wrong person gets hold of that portal?”
“Of course I do!”
“Yet, you’ll allow it to fall into potentially evil hands?”
“My brother’s not evil!” I yelled.
“You just told me you don’t think he’s doing this himself. You can’t have it both ways, Glynn!”
I opened my mouth to argue.
“Glynnie?”
The tiny, unsure voice made me clamp my lips closed on the vitriol I wanted to spew in Hawk’s direction. I turned to find Boyle standing just inside the door, one hand resting on Nicht’s broad back as if for comfort.
I forced a smile. “Hey, sweet boy.”
“Why is you and Hawk tho mad, Glynnie?” The soft lisp told me he was scared and it broke my heart. My gaze caught Hawk’s, filled with warning. “We’re not mad, honey. We’re just talking about something important.” I lowered my voice, filling it with steel. “I will talk to my brother. The portal is my responsibility. I will do what needs to be done, and you will stay out of it. Are we clear?”
A vein jumped in his jaw as he compressed it so hard it was a wonder he didn’t break a tooth. His eyes were hard. “See that you handle it, Glynn. Because, if you don’t, I can promise you that I will.”
I held his gaze long enough to let him know I wasn’t backing down. And then whipped around and strode toward the door, scooping Boyle into my arms as I slammed a hand against the door and shoved it open.
I didn’t slow my footsteps until I was back on Victoria’s lawn.
And then I pulled Boyle against me and wrapped him in a comforting hug. He vibrated against me. I felt like the worst kind of parent for having scared him. “It will be okay, sweet boy.”
“You thure, Glynnie? Hawk wath really mad.”
I kissed his tiny nose. “I’m sure, honey. I’m going to make this right. I promise.” But even as I opened Victoria’s front door and stepped into safety, I couldn’t push the worry away that I had lied to Boyle. That I couldn’t make it right.
Not without doing something terrible to my only living relative.
Hawk watched her disappear into Victoria. Anger raged with fear in his mind, prickling against his skin like a physical presence. She was in terrible danger. He knew it with the certainty of long experience. The Body was coming. He had little doubt of that. He’d recognized the foul stench of the Magistrate’s magic in the lizard creature that had attacked them. He’d smelled it all the way from inside the station. He’d run out the door just in time to see it step from a weak, wobbly gateway, pulsing on the edge of Glynn’s property.
So close to her home.
Too close.
If the Magistrate was involved, everyone in Render was in danger. Hawk watched Glynn’s front door close and started to pace. He had to do something. If her brother was working for the Magistrate, a near certainty in Hawk’s mind, he would bring the Body to Glynn’s doorstep and hand them the portal.
Stubborn woman! Why wouldn’t she listen to reason?
In an act of pure desperation, Hawk yanked the phone from his pocket and began punching buttons. A moment later, a smooth voice answered. “Yeah?”
Hawk’s gaze slipped one last time to Glynn’s house, and then he turned and headed int
o the station. “We have a problem.”
My stomach twisted with dread and I was finding it impossible to sit still. I’d asked Sissy to take Boyle to her house while I spoke to Art. She’d been full of questions, especially after seeing the expression on my face. But I’d put her off, promising her I’d tell her what was going on as soon as I could.
Artur hadn’t been home when Boyle and I returned from Hawk’s. He hadn’t left a note and wasn’t answering his phone.
I couldn’t imagine where he’d gone, but a tiny part of me hoped he’d gone back to Indy. If he’d left, I wouldn’t have to do what I was about to do.
Of course, I couldn’t be that lucky.
Twenty minutes later, Art opened the door and came inside. He jerked to a surprised stop when he saw me waiting for him. “Glynn? Is something wrong?”
My face must have given me away. “You tell me, Art.” Okay, that hadn’t been how I’d planned to start. My voice was confrontational, and I watched my brother bristle at the sound of it.
“What are you talking about?”
“Where were you just now?”
He frowned. “Just out for a run. Why?” He glanced around. “Where’s Boyle? Is he okay?”
His question caught me off guard and made my heart hurt. His first thought was for the baby. I was such a jerk for thinking the worst of him. I sighed. “He’s fine. Can you come sit down?”
When he hesitated, I added, “Please?”
He complied, his worried gaze finding mine. “You’re scaring me, sis. What’s wrong?”
I sat too and stared down at my hand for a minute, trying to find the words to ask what I needed to ask.
“Glynn?”
I took a deep breath and plunged in. “I know you’ve been trying to open the portal, Art. I need to know why?” I’d tried to soften the accusation with a softer tone. But I didn’t get the hostile reaction I’d expected.
Art frowned, looking confused. “I’m not trying to open the portal. Why would I do that? You and I both know I don’t have that kind of power.”
“Yes, I thought I knew that. But I saw you myself. Last night you managed to get the portal nearly all the way open.”
He paled. “That’s not possible!”
I watched him carefully. Art seemed truly shocked.
“I can assure you it happened. You seemed…” I dug deep for the right word and finally said, “I spoke to you and you didn’t hear me.”
“You mean like I was sleep-walking?”
“Maybe.” I narrowed my gaze. “Are you telling me you really didn’t know?”
He hesitated a fraction of a second and my stomach twisted with dread. “Art?”
“I didn’t know. I promise, Glynn. But…”
“But?” I nudged when he didn’t go on.
He looked down at his hands. I noticed that the skin was still angry-looking where he’d been burned by the portal. I’d given him first aid but hadn’t asked Sissy to heal it. Guilt tightened my chest. “I’ll admit that I wondered where I’d gotten these burns.” He lifted a haunted gaze to me. “Glynn, what if I’d opened it? What if you hadn’t caught me?”
“That would have been bad, Art. Very bad,” I told him. I didn’t bother to hide my concern. He needed to be fully aware of the reason for my next words.
I was afraid that he’d never forgive me for them otherwise.
“That’s why…” I hesitated, the words tasting like excrement on my tongue. I shook my head. “Art, I’m afraid you need to leave Victoria.”
21
Art and I stared at each other for a long moment. I tried to read a reaction in his expression, decipher it from his steady gaze. But he’d all but grown up in the political Magical Body. He’d learned to mask his emotions well.
My pulse pounded with fear. I didn’t want to fight with my brother. I didn’t want to have to come out and tell him to his face that I didn’t trust him. But, I began to realize he was going to force me to do it.
The floor beneath my feet rolled a warning. The door trembled.
My gaze shot toward the door. “Somebody’s here.”
Art’s face didn’t change.
I realized he hadn’t read Victoria’s warnings. He might be a political creature, but he’d never paid attention to his heritage. I’d learned the language of the house as a small child, sitting on Grams’ knee.
“It’s someone Victoria doesn’t trust.” I glanced toward the ceiling before remembering Boyle was with Sissy. Good. He was safe.
As I started toward the door, Art grabbed my wrist. His eyes were bright with a silent plea.
I shook my head. “We need to deal with this. Then we’ll talk.”
He relaxed noticeably. In that moment I realized he’d been stiff with unhappiness.
The floor rolled again, slightly harder the second time. The boards rippled from the threshold of the front door toward the back of the house, as if trying to pull me away from whatever waited on the porch. My pulse spiked and my heart beat hard against my ribs. Whoever it was, Victoria really didn’t want me to answer the door.
I took a moment to check the nullification warding on Victoria, finding it fully engaged, and then opened the front door.
A man stood on the porch. He was tall, with graying black hair and piercing blue eyes. The visitor was dressed unrelievedly in black, wearing a black shirt under a black coat with fashionably long tails and wide lapels. His slacks were also black. They were a narrow cut, fitting him tightly enough that they looked like they would restrict movement. But I knew better. I might be a country mouse by choice, but I was aware of what the magical elites in Indy wore. If only from Sissy’s laughing descriptions. His clothing looked fussy and restrictive, but the black cloth had been spelled to shift as needed. To support any movement or shape the magic-user chose.
My visitor’s cold gaze scraped over me, brimming with disdain. The man’s smile was little more than a curling of his upper lip. “Miss Glynn, I presume?”
I blinked as something cold and invasive tested me, looking for signs of the magic I had locked down and hidden from his probing energy.
I gritted my teeth against reacting to the invasion. Any reaction on my part would be the end of my autonomy and my time in Render. “Can I help you?”
“He’s looking for me,” my brother said, his tone dull.
I turned to find Artur standing just behind me. His gaze was on the coldly severe face of the man on my porch. “Magistrate.”
I blinked, stepping to the side but not away. I didn’t want the man to think I was inviting him inside.
“Artur, how are you, son?”
My gaze slid to Art, finding him stiff and unhappy. That was curious. Unless I missed my guess, the man on my porch was Magistrate Cole Martin, Artur’s boss at the Body.
“What are you doing here, sir?” Art responded.
Martin made a face that seemed to express disappointment, hurt and surprise all at once. No small feat. “I was worried about you. I came to see how you’re doing.” He skimmed the yard and the street a glance, the curl in his thin lips deepening. “You’re out here in the wild and all alone.” He laughed, the sound like the chuff of a feral hound. “I hadn’t heard from you.”
“I’m hardly alone in the wild, sir,” Art said, frowning. “As you can see, I’m with my sister and…” He stopped abruptly, and I realized he’d been about to mention Boyle. I wasn’t sure how the Body was handling magical species who weren’t humanoid, but I could guess. And my guess was that Boyle would be treated no better than a rabid dog. “And her neighbors,” Art finished smoothly. If I hadn’t been paying attention, I might have missed the slight hesitation.
But I had been.
And so had Martin. His icy gaze tightened. “I see. Well, now that I’m here…” He lifted hands that were without callouses, with nails that were perfectly manicured. His message was clear.
My stomach twisted as I realized I had to let him inside. If I didn’t, he’d know that I fe
lt his magical hostility. I couldn’t afford that.
Besides, like Art, I was curious as to why the man had come.
I stepped back. Forcing a smile, I said, “Goddess, where are my manners. Please, come inside. Can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Tea?”
“Just a glass of water, please,” he said as he slid a disapproving look around my tatty but comfortable living room.
I forced myself to ignore his judgmental glances, swinging an arm toward the couch. My gaze fell on the knitted throw still laying across the furniture and I reached for it, using the pretense of folding it to take it into the kitchen with me. Like everything in Victoria, the blanket held a residual stain of Grams’ prodigious magic. It had provided me hours of comfort in the years since Grams had died. But I couldn’t risk the Magistrate sensing the magic.
“You look well,” Martin said to Art.
“I’m feeling much better, sir. Thank you for checking up on me.” Artur’s tone was colorless and without inflection. I was sure that even someone as self-involved and superior as the magistrate would hear the coolness behind the words.
“Not at all. I had business in this area anyway. I just thought I’d stop in and check up on you.”
“Oh?” Art said, sounding genuinely interested. “What business?”
I thought of Mitch, and my stomach twisted. Had the magistrate found him? Was that why he’d disappeared? Had they come back to search for others like the Seer?
The thought turned my spine to ice.
I filled a glass with water and carried it back into the living room just in time to see Martin wave a dismissive hand. “None of your concern. Just busywork.” Martin glanced up, his smile cold. “Thank you, dear.”
“You’re welcome.” I skimmed a glance toward Art, finding his expression closed off, his gaze carefully neutral. “I’ll just leave you to visit.”
Martin swallowed a sip of water and shook his head. “Not at all, dear. Please, sit and visit with me for a bit. I’ll admit to curiosity about Artur’s sister. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Oh?” I said, worry tightening my chest. “What have you heard?” I forced my legs to carry me to a chair near the fire and sat. It was as far from our visitor as I could get without leaving the room.