Trigger Magic

by Kim McDougall

  Lord and Lady, she looked good. Even sporting the drowned rat look, the sight of her made him want to open a door he resolutely shut some months ago.

  “You could have called instead.”

  “I did, which you would know if you checked your messages.”

  Quinn walked through the ward, no barrier to him since he was keyed to it, and checked his phone.

  “You’re right. Look at that. Three messages. All from you. I guess I’ve lost the habit of checking them. Seems sort of pointless when everyone who would be calling me lives inside the coven.” That sounded petty even to his ears.

  Bobbi didn’t take the bait. Her mouth set in a grim line. She looked exhausted and scared. The alpha protector in him wanted to gather her in his arms, hold back the night and whatever terrors she brought with her, but her fierce gaze said all he needed to know. She wouldn’t thank him.

  William Fain broke Bobbi, violated her in body and soul, and she hadn’t yet found all the pieces of herself. Quinn should have acted sooner to stop Fain. At least he could respect her boundaries now.

  “So are you going to let me in?” Bobbi squeezed water from her ponytail and glared at him.

  “Are you going to tell me why you’re here?”

  Her defiance crumpled. “I need your help.”

  Chapter Three

  Discussion

  PARAGON DEDICATED AN ENTIRE TEAM TO THE KORO PROBLEM.

  I should have been happy that such a powerful organization cared for my well-being. I wasn’t. I didn’t like being a burden or the cause of so much potential destruction. At the very least, they could’ve had a better code name, something snappy like Team Demon Slayer.

  While I changed into dry clothes, Abilene brought me up to date on the recent gathering of witches at the coven, all there to discuss the threat of my father.

  “Considering his blood runs in my veins, you’d think I would’ve been invited to the table,” I said, drying my hair with a fluffy towel.

  “You’re here now.” Abilene shrugged and looked away. Of course, they didn’t want me in the discussions. I was part of the problem, and my death might be part of the solution.

  She led me to the living room. I sat and accepted a mug of coffee from Gavin. At least he looked friendly. The rest of the crowd did not. It felt like I faced a parole board.

  Across the room, next to Jane’s austere altar, sat Colonel Bert Donner, head of the local Paragon chapter. A tall, broad-shouldered man, Donner wore power like a cloak and made me want to sit up straighter. He watched me with flat eyes as I told the assembled group about the two break-ins.

  Beside him sat two witches I vaguely remembered from my first stay at the coven. Myra Aoki and Grant Siskin, two of the thirteen witches who founded the Hidden Coven and built the core, the giant pulsing construct that fueled the ward. Myra, a small dark woman, listened to my story intently, but Grant’s ancient wrinkled head bobbed as he fought sleep.

  Henry Garza came next. He shot me a reassuring smile. At least I knew where Henry had disappeared to. Dark-haired and olive-skinned, Henry was always ready with a smile or a pat on the back. In the months we’d been training together, Henry pushed me to work harder and smarter, and I’d come a long way in that time.

  I still had a lot of catching up to do, as Colonel Donner so helpfully pointed out.

  “You’re a sensate. You must have detected the intruder’s aether signature. Why didn’t you put a tracking spell on him as soon as he ran?”

  I thought of those hectic moments after the attack with the wall smoldering behind me, lightning only intensifying the dark. What could I tell him? I was too scared? Too weak? Too stupid? He could have his pick.

  Henry cleared his throat. “Bobbi and I have been focussing mostly on defensive magic, given the circumstances. She can call up a decent ward, but we haven’t covered other basic offensive spells yet.”

  That was Henry’s superpower: pure calm reason.

  “And what if Koro finds another agent with soother magic?” Jane asked. “Will she fall prey to that again?”

  Thank you, Jane, for reminding me what a victim I was.

  “I admit I have been unsuccessful in teaching Bobbi about soothing magic, but the fault is mine.” He spread his hands wide. “I have no soother magic and so have no way to show it to her.” Henry’s eyes rested on Quinn. “Perhaps she would benefit from time here at the coven. Mistress Abilene can teach her to use her sensate magic for tracking and Quinn can…”

  “I’m not sure staying at the coven is a good idea.” I cut Henry off before he could finish. My vulnerability to soother magic was a raw wound. “I’m Koro’s prime target. The coven has solid wards, but we already saw how one angry teenager could easily dismantle those.”

  When I first visited the coven, Aiden, a boy with a chip on his shoulder, let wraiths inside the ward. The monsters killed over a dozen witches. Only my desperate and foolish act kept the core secure and the ward active.

  “Even so, this is the safest place for you to be right now,” Donner said. “With Mistress Jane’s permission, we’ll leave knights here to guard the core while you train. I don’t need to impress upon you all how vulnerable Bobbi and the coven are right now.” All eyes turned to Jane who pursed her lips and nodded once.

  I felt like such a welcomed guest.

  “I didn’t come here to stay. I only wanted advice and maybe some help warding my house and business, until I find out who’s stalking me.”

  “We all knew you’d end up back here sooner or later,” Jane said. “I hoped we had more time before Koro could successfully trap a new agent into working for him.”

  None of us spoke of the worry behind those words. Koro was ramping up his efforts. That meant no one was safe.

  The discussion rambled on. The long walk, the swim in the icy water and a near sleepless night left me exhausted. I could barely sit up straight by the time the party broke up. Then I had to face the sleeping arrangements. Colonel Donner occupied the spare room in Jane’s house. The other Paragon knights filled the only guest cottage.

  “I guess you’re staying with me tonight,” Quinn said as everyone left. His sneaky eyebrow arched, even as he tried to hide a smile.

  Just great. We hadn’t spoken for five months. Now, we were having a slumber party.

  I followed him home, feeling like a lost puppy. He made up the spare bed, a pull-out couch in the middle of his one-room cottage, his bed only a few feet away.

  The room was dim and warm. The rest of the world seemed far away. I was alone with Quinn. He’d changed into sweats and a cotton t-shirt that hugged his shoulders. I wondered if it was soft. It looked soft. I could run my fingers along…

  “Do you want an extra pillow?”

  I looked up. His eyes, always dark, were hidden in shadow. A sudden memory overtook me: Quinn leaning over me in Jane’s garden, our first kiss. I shook my head. There would be no kissing tonight.

  He watched me, and I couldn’t seem to break free from his gaze. I had so much to say, but the words stuck like a hard lump in my chest. I wanted him to know how as each day passed without me picking up the phone, it became harder and harder to break that silence. How many words would it now take to fill the gulf between us?

  “Do you snore?”

  His answering smile was slow and came from somewhere deep.

  “I don’t know. It’s been a long time since anyone could tell me. But if I do, feel free to throw a pillow.” He turned for his bed.

  Tomorrow. I would make everything better tomorrow.

  Chapter Four

  Dimension

  I WALKED TO CENTER FIELD AND STRETCHED.

  The practice yard cut into the woods about a mile from the village square. A sacred circle, reinforced many times over the years, bordered it. The hum of old aether strummed across my senses. Within this protection, the Hidden Coven taught its youngest witches magic.

  The coming battle practice would be tough and already, my energy lagged.
I’d spent a long night staring at Quinn’s ceiling and listening to him sleep. He did snore a bit, but the sound anchored my whirling thoughts.

  Standing at the ward’s edge yesterday, I’d been excited and terrified to see him again. That feeling hadn’t left me.

  We ate a polite breakfast together. Please pass the butter, and Thank you, did you want any jam? It was like having tea with the queen. I remembered our first date. We talked so much we closed down the restaurant, but the five-month silence turned us into strangers again.

  Quinn watched me from the sideline. Once, I could read every thought flitting across his mind. Now, his hooded gaze hid him well. He could be angry, anxious or excited. I couldn’t tell.

  Laughter rang through the trees. Abilene and Henry stepped into the clearing. Her hand touched his arm as she laughed at something he said. Abilene turned eighteen over the winter, and she shone with youth and vigor. She also seemed to have a crush on my mentor.

  “You’ll have to tell me more of your Paragon adventures later.” Her cheeks were tinged pink.

  Henry leaned in and spoke in a theatrical whisper, “I could, but then I’d have to kill you.”

  Abilene giggled. Yep, she had it bad.

  I couldn’t blame the kid. Henry was older but not too old, and he had that whole dark, smoldering thing going on. He walked with a dancer’s loose-hipped gait and seemed to radiate readiness for sex or battle, whichever came first.

  More than once, when he had me in a choke hold, I’d wondered what his hands would feel like in a more intimate touch. The first time that happened, it led to a panic attack and some very unsexy hyperventilating on my part. Henry helped me through those episodes by teaching me to fight back. It felt good not to be helpless anymore.

  “Are we ready to do this?” Henry asked. “Bobbi, call up your ward. You two attack with everything you’ve got and we’ll see how long super-girl can hold up.”

  Abilene smiled. Quinn showed me his teeth.

  I sheathed myself in aether and found my fighting stance. “Bring it on.”

  An hour later, I guzzled my third bottle of gods’ water. A ley-line ran under the coven and boosted aether in the local spring water. This magic fuel kept me going as the morning wore on to noon. I fought to hold my ward steady while Quinn and Abilene pelted me with aether bombs.

  “Don’t forget about your feet!” Henry called. “An arrow to the foot can take you out as easily as one to the heart!” I gritted my teeth and poured more aether into the lower section of my ward. “That’s right. You’ve got this!”

  Too bad he forgot his pompoms.

  A personal ward was a tricky thing. It had to extend far enough to cover my movements, but not so far that it wasted aether. I’d never held one for so long.

  Quinn channeled his firebug magic and lobbed another orb of flames. I let it glance off my shoulder, feeling only a mild burn. He alternated the magic assault by throwing rocks, so I could feel the difference between an aether attack and a physical weapon strike. I wasn’t the only one tiring. An hour ago, his missiles had been the size of bowling balls, now they’d shrunk by half. They still hurt when they crashed into my ward.

  “You’re doing great,” Abilene said. Her cheerfulness seemed to know no bounds. If I didn’t have to concentrate so hard, I would have thrown something at her. Abilene’s attacks were more insidious than her brother’s. Instead of an outright assault, I could feel her aether poised like a corkscrew behind me, down at my ankle. With gentle pressure, she ground away at my protection. The strategic assault was annoying and kept my attention averted, even as I blocked another of Quinn’s fireballs.

  “Let’s break for lunch.” Every one of my muscles ached and a cramp nagged at my foot.

  Quinn grinned. “Getting tired?” He tossed three more fireballs in quick succession. I blocked them, but they cost me. I lost focus and Abilene’s aether drill dug into my ward.

  I had to do something. With little energy left, my choices were limited.

  “You’re stuck in your head,” Henry said, seeing my desperate attempt to hold up the ward. “There is aether all around you. Use it.”

  Once, I pulled aether from the ley-line and connected it to the core. It hadn’t been easy. As a complete neophyte, I had only my strange attraction to the core to guide me. Could I do it again, tap into the ley-line to fuel my flagging ward? It would be like using a nuclear bomb to power a transistor radio. I’d have to finesse it, but Henry was right. In a real battle, I would need to grab aether where I could find it.

  Ducking under another of Quinn’s assaults, I used the movement to press my hands to the ground. Pulling back the aether fueling my ward—except for the protection from Abilene’s grinding attack—I plunged it into the earth in one wild, desperate plea to the Lord and Lady.

  My sensate practice paid off. Immediately, my aether connected with a stronger power that flooded all my faculties. It was a train rushing through my head, a hot drenching rain, a spicy tang on the back of my tongue, and the stench of burned hair all rolled into one massive flare of aether.

  I reeled. This wasn’t the aether signature of a ley-line. I tried to withdraw, but my magic latched on to the strange, dark power.

  “No!” Henry’s yell chimed faintly as the alien aether filled me with giddy strength.

  Abilene screamed. I felt rather than saw her fall to the ground.

  Magic filled my senses until it sizzled from my pores. My hands glowed with energy that zinged between my fingertips, sparking an aether explosion in mid-air. The eruption stretched like a sphincter and opened into a gaping maw. Magic streamed into it, a screaming river of power, horrifying and beautiful. I raised a hand to touch the shimmering ring hanging in the air before me.

  Not a ring. A hole.

  Through its rippling surface I spied another world full of red shadows, bright sunlight and rolling dunes.

  Quinn’s desperate face blocked the view. His hands gripped my shoulders, and he spat words I couldn’t hear inside my bubble of aether. Then it popped.

  Sound, light and pain blasted me.

  Oh, Lady, it hurt.

  I used too much aether, and the hole drew more, pulling it from my veins like lifeblood.

  “You have to close it!” Quinn yelled.

  “I…I can’t.” My stomach folded on itself, and I crumpled, arms pressed into the lashing pain.

  Quinn shouted a spell. He grabbed the hole’s gaping edge. It wobbled like a soap bubble. His hands glowed as he pulled downward. I knew Quinn’s aether as well as my own, and I could feel his power burning away. Sweat streaked his face as he struggled to pull the lips of the gap together.

  I could do nothing but watch in fear and dread. He was using too much aether! I reached a hand to help, but had nothing left to give.

  Quinn strained. The power of one man fought against a tear in the universe. It was impossible. It was suicide. His jaw bulged, and the tips of his fingers turned black, but he didn’t let go.

  He dragged the edges together. One inch…two. A primal yell burst from his chest. His eyes rolled back and he fell. His arms and legs jerked in a seizure, and he lay motionless.

  The hole still gaped open, but Quinn’s intervention severed my connection to it.

  I fell to the ground, forced my shaking arms to bear my weight and leaned over Quinn. He was breathing. I rested my head on his chest and listened to the erratic beating of his heart.

  “What in the hell happened here?” said a sharp voice. I looked up. Gavin’s angry glare fell on me and Quinn, then on Abilene and Henry, both unconscious in the grass. A yawning tear in the fabric of space hung like a disembodied eye above us.

  “We had an accident.”

  Chapter Five

  Affliction

  THE TANG OF BURNED MAGIC CLUNG TO MY CLOTHES.

  Late on Tuesday, I fell asleep fully dressed and woke the next day near noon, groggy, sweaty and tense. I sniffed myself and wanted to head straight for the shower, but I needed to
check on Quinn first. That would mean going through Jane.

  The High Priestess of Hidden Coven wasn’t happy with me. My little magic battle practice caused a rip to open between dimensions. Yes, an actual rip. In dimensions.

  Jane had posted two Paragon knights to guard the opening. I didn’t like to think of what might come through. There were infinite worlds it could have opened to. It could be a realm where purple butterflies ruled. Or a realm with sentient trees made of spun sugar. Or a demon realm filled with bloodthirsty monsters.

  Lady, let it be butterflies.

  I threw on clothes and headed out.

  The explosion of magic had knocked Abilene, Henry and Quinn out, and when I finally gave in to my exhaustion, Quinn still hadn’t recovered. He slept in Abilene’s room, where his sister and mother could keep an eye on him.

  The walk from his cottage took me straight through the village square. Witches stopped their chores to watch me pass. No one spoke, not even Olga, who stood at the cart laden with her famous hot cross buns. She nodded but offered nothing more.

  Last summer, I lived with these people for a week. At Jane’s insistence, I shadowed many of them, learning their arts and enjoying their simple way of life. I saved them from Koro. But none of that mattered. I was a pariah now. Once again, my ignorance endangered everyone I cared about. I opened a hole in the universe. By the Lady’s grace, who did that?

  I ducked my head, ignoring whispers and stares as I hurried toward Jane’s house.

  Henry and Gavin drank coffee at the kitchen table. Henry’s swarthiness tinged toward green rather than golden this morning. Dark shadows ringed his eyes. He smiled and raised his cup in salute. Gavin looked grim.

  “They’re upstairs,” he said.

  I headed for Abilene’s room. The two women sat beside Quinn’s bed. One silver-haired and one raven-haired, both silent and straight-backed. Abilene held Quinn’s hand. Her haggard face showed the effects of a sleepless night.