Mad Magic

by Nicole Conway

  A strange, wild hunger rose up in me so suddenly it made my body stiffen. If magic was real, then surely it had something to do with all the strange things that had been happening to me. I needed to know more—I needed to understand.

  “Where does it come from?”

  “The moon.” He paused, holding a liquor bottle in each hand as he turned to look me in the eye. “Or at least, that’s what the old songs say. No one knows for sure. But magic is raw energy that we can use as we choose. Even a small amount can accomplish miraculous or even terrible things.”

  I swallowed hard, already poised with my next question.

  But Zeph interrupted with his own. “So, when did you start seeing things?”

  I thought back for a moment. “A few months after my dad died. The doctor told me I had post-traumatic stress disorder. At first, it was just dreams. I had nightmares every night, and when I would wake up, my clothes would be soaked with sweat. Actually, last night when you rescued me from that wolf, it was the first time I had seen something so clearly. Before then, it was just shadows.”

  I stared down into my lap as I listened to the glassware clinking while Zeph put things away. “The wolf I saw—it wanted to kill me, didn’t it? Was that a demon?”

  “What, Eldrick?” Zeph sounded surprised. “Well, like I said before, it’s not that simple. He’s not a demon. He’s a puca.”

  “A puca?”

  He nodded. “An ancient spirit of darkness.”

  “And he’s evil?”

  He snorted, suppressing a chuckle. “Oh, he’d love for you to think that. But no, I said dark, not evil. The two things don’t always go hand in hand. Misguided, stupid, arrogant—Eldrick is a lot of things. But he’s not evil.”

  I had to let that sink in for a moment before I could speak again. “Then why was he trying to hurt me?”

  Zeph smirked as he came back to the bar and began making lists of all the supplies he had restocked onto the notepad. “That was kinda your fault. Well, it was probably more your dad’s. He should have warned you about him.”

  “W-what! My fault? I didn’t do anything to him! And my dad never mentioned anything about a puca!”

  “Exactly.” Zeph pointed his pen at me accusingly again. “Look, spirits like Eldrick are a type of faerie, too. And all faeries, at one point or another, ran wild in nature—some of them for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years. Some still do to this day. And after all that time, they’ve absorbed massive amounts of magic from the earth. It’s rare, but if Eldrick is living in your apartment, then it’s because he’s somehow bound to it—or to you. Believe me, if he could leave, he would. Faeries don’t like being trapped like that. Eldrick is old, way older than me, and very powerful. To be living in a human dwelling like that, your dad must have caught him in a contract somehow. It’s the only explanation that makes sense.”

  My head was spinning. “What are you talking about? What contract?”

  Zeph shrugged again and went back to writing. “It’s in a lot of the old stories. I’m sure you’ve heard that old wives’ tale that if you catch a faerie, he has to grant you a wish, right? That’s a contract. If you capture a fae, even an old powerful one like Eldrick, he is obligated to do something for you in exchange for his freedom.”

  “That wolf—er, Eldrick—had a contract with my dad?” Somehow, hearing that he had been basically held prisoner in my apartment, made me feel a little sorry for him. Not too much, though, since he’d been torturing me for the past several years.

  “Most likely,” he agreed. “You’d have to ask him about it, though. It must have had something to do with you; otherwise your father’s death would have released him from the contract.”

  “That’s why he has to do what I say?”

  Zeph gave me a playful wink. “Now you’re gettin’ it.”

  “I can’t believe it’s that simple,” I murmured. “It’s just … if I’d known sooner. If he’d just talked to me about it once, maybe we could have avoided all this.”

  “Well, you gotta understand something about Eldrick. He hates humans, probably more than any other fae.”

  “Why?”

  Zeph cleared his throat. His hand stopped scribbling on the paper and he flashed me a quick glance. “It’s, uh, not really my story to tell. Let’s just say that his past run-ins with the human race weren’t exactly positive. Being caught in a contract is basically the most insulting thing that could’ve happened to him.”

  “Has anyone ever had a contract with you?”

  He waggled a finger in my face. “Nice try, kid. You already slipped an extra one in there. It’s my turn.”

  I frowned. Not again. Which painful or embarrassing topic would it be this time? Details of how my dad had died?

  “Was that really your first kiss?”

  My face instantly began to burn. My mouth hung open in total humiliation.

  “Whoa, that’s a yes.” He laughed and poked my forehead tauntingly with the end of his pen. “What a shame. I should have made it more meaningful.”

  “H-how did you know that?”

  “Aw, come on. Your face was even redder than it is now. You looked like someone had put a wig on a red party balloon.” He kept on chuckling even as he finished his supply list.

  I shut my mouth quickly. My heart pounded so loudly; I was afraid he might hear it.

  “Okay, then. Why didn’t you ever talk to me before? We’ve been neighbors for months, and you never said a word to me.” I sat back in my chair proudly. If Zeph wasn’t going to play fair by asking me embarrassing things like that, then why should I?

  Immediately, his brows snapped together and his mouth set into a hard line. That question must have stung him—maybe even more than I’d intended. He leveled a no-nonsense gaze on me that made my skin prickle. “Because close to me is the worst place imaginable for someone like you. The things that scare you, beings like Eldrick, are attracted to me. Sure, my aura might frighten off the little ones, like the ones who have been picking on you at school, but there are other monsters out there. Creatures so horrible that there aren’t even words for them in your human language. My presence will drive them into the open.”

  Every hair on my body stood on end. “I might not be so scared of them if I understood them.”

  “No. It’s not good for me to be around you. The closer we are, the more danger you’ll be in. You being able to see us in our natural forms isn’t going to make it any easier, either. In fact, it just makes it more fun for them to watch you be terrified.” He looked away, his voice tight with frustration. “Most fae will ignore humans altogether. Some might try to protect them, if the occasion called for it, but there are others who don’t like humans, and go out of their way to harm them.”

  I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was trying to scare me off. He wanted me to be frightened enough to invite him out of my life forever, but that wasn’t going to happen. For the first time in years, I didn’t feel alone. Even if he teased me and acted like a jerk sometimes—I liked him. I wanted to get to know him, even if it was dangerous.

  “You’ve protected me more than once, even though I never asked you to.” I said quietly. It wasn’t that I was looking for trouble, and I certainly wasn’t trying to use him like a shield against Eldrick. I just didn’t want to lose him. “Why? Why are you going to all this trouble for me?”

  Zeph’s expression hardened further. He stopped writing. “That’s complicated, too.”

  “Well, even if this Ben guy is a felon or a CIA operative, you need to tell him what’s been going on at school and at your apartment.” Zeph had finished the restocking work and had shoved his list of supplies folded up underneath the cash register. “He’s supposed to be taking care of you, right? How can he do that if you don’t tell him anything that happens? He might even know why your dad was mixed up with Eldrick in the first place.”

  He was right, but I wasn’t about to give him the satisf
action of letting him know that. “I’m already a financial burden to him, Zeph. I can’t ask for more. Besides, what’s there to fix at this point? You said Eldrick has to do what I tell him, right? So, I can stop him from torturing me. And if you keep coming to school as Joe, the faeries there won’t bother me either, right?”

  “What makes you think I’m going to keep going to school with you every day? I do have a job and a life, you know.”

  I grabbed his arm. “But, Zeph! I—”

  He jerked away from me suddenly, like I’d shocked him or hurt him somehow. He looked almost … afraid. Was it something I’d said?

  Zeph’s shot his gaze toward the front windows. His broad shoulders tensed, and he moved away from me before ducking back behind the bar.

  What was going on? Was he hiding from someone?

  The brass bell over the door jangled, and a burly, mountain of a man stepped inside. Instantly, the atmosphere became much heavier. He was scratching at his scraggly, white goatee, staring right at me with ominous silence. The closer he came, the more detail I could see under the dim lights. He was impressively tall and dressed out from head to toe in black leather motorcycle cuts. The jacket he wore seemed old, and many of the patches sewn onto it were beginning to fray around the edges. He was nearly bald on top, but what remained of his hair was long and pulled into a ponytail at the back of his neck.

  I slid off the barstool and shrank back against the wall. If anyone looked like they had the potential to turn into some big, scary faerie-monster, it was this guy. Zeph seemed too busy pretending to be busy rearranging glassware to notice my panic.

  The massive man stopped right in front of me. He stared down at me with his dark eyes glittering. His crinkled, aged face was set deeply with wrinkles that made it impossible to tell if he really was scowling at me, or if that was just how he looked.

  I yelped as he stuck a hand out toward me. “And who’s this?” His voice was throaty, gruff, but surprisingly kind. When I dared to look at his face again, he was smiling down at me curiously.

  “My neighbor,” Zeph piped up from across the room. “I’m babysitting today. Don’t scare her, Hank. She’ll start crying again.”

  All the fear drained out of my body, chased away by a sudden burst of rage as I glared at Zeph’s back. Babysitting? Crying? Was he serious?

  Hank must have noticed my response because he let out a dry chuckle before turning around to make his way back behind the bar. “A little young for you, isn’t she?”

  Zeph’s face went white. “Shit, Hank! Don’t say that kinda stuff. I gave her some soda, that’s it! I’m not into puny redheaded girls. Do I look like an idiot?”

  Puny? Okay, so maybe I was small for my age. I was short and petite, so I got mistaken for being a freshman all the time. But I was almost eighteen—not a kid. It took everything I had to keep my mouth shut as I stood there, fuming.

  “Yep,” Hank answered with a snort. “And I can see you fooling around back there like one, too. If you’re done, then get outta here. I’m not paying you to stand around and flap your gums.”

  “You barely pay me at all.” Zeph snatched his coat from the chair and swung it back over his shoulders on his way toward the door. He grabbed the hood of my coat on his way out the door and dragged me along with him. “Come on.”

  “Hey,” Hank shouted. His voice seemed to make the room shudder and my stomach flip.

  Zeph came to an abrupt halt with his hand on the doorknob. He didn’t turn around or even look back. I looked back to see Hank frowning ominously.

  “I got wind of another case.” The hushed somberness in Hank’s voice made me anxious. “Just a few blocks from here. I have it on good authority that a few priests are already over there, trying to run them out. You could go lend a hand.”

  I couldn’t see Zeph’s face because of how he was holding onto my hood, but I could feel his grip on me tighten. “I can’t get involved in that right now,” he said through his teeth.

  “I know you don’t have much time left,” Hank murmured. “I can go with you. Your presence alone might be enough to scare them out.”

  The two men exchanged a long, unblinking stare. A minute passed, and neither of them said a word. Gradually, Zeph’s chest and shoulders grew tense. His jaw clenched.

  “There’s a kid involved,” Hank added quietly. “I wouldn’t be asking otherwise.”

  Zeph flashed him a dangerous look, his mouth twitching like he wanted to snarl. I held my breath, waiting for an explanation.

  Zeph was eerily silent as he turned back to us, apparently thinking it over. “Fine.” He sighed at last and let go of my hood. “Bring the car around.”

  Hank nodded and quickly left out the back entrance.

  For a few seconds, Zeph didn’t move. Then he stormed across the room and switched off the neon sign with a curse. He started haphazardly jerking the blinds down on the bar’s windows, banging drawers and cabinets shut, and growling under his breath. He slammed the door hard, making the whole frame rattle, and locked it.

  My hands trembled as I studied him, unsure what to say. We were both standing out on the curb, braced against the cold evening wind. My head was swirling with questions. What was a case? What did that mean—that a kid was involved? What had set him off like this?

  Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Where are we going?”

  Zeph was lighting up a fresh cigarette, puffing on it like a furious freight train. “We aren’t going anywhere. You’re going home.”

  I squared my shoulders, burying my hands deep in my coat pockets as I met his eyes with rebellion. I didn’t want him to see them shaking. “What? I am not! I want to go with you. Quit treating me like a child. I can take care of myself.”

  “Not a chance. This isn’t anything you need to get involved in.”

  I narrowed my gaze. “Maybe I should tell Hank about spending the night at your place, then? Seems like a responsible adult might want to know we live right across the hall and that you have a nasty habit of coming into my apartment whenever you want—day or night.”

  Zeph sputtered furiously, making sounds that could have been the beginnings of words, but I couldn’t understand any of them. At last, he turned his back to me and fumed. “Fine. Just keep your head down and don’t talk to anyone.”

  I grinned in triumph. Right on cue, an old, black Cadillac pulled up to the curb. Hank waved us inside.

  Zeph put a hand against my back as he ushered me to the car and opened the rear passenger door. I expected him to ride shotgun, but instead he climbed in after me and practically shoved his way into the middle seat so that I was squished between him and the door. I would’ve been excited to be in the backseat with a handsome guy … but there was nothing romantic about the way Zeph had me smashed against him. His elbow was practically in my chest, and not in a fun way.

  Hank put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb at a startling speed. We weaved through traffic, and I found myself gripping the seat until my knuckles were white. We swerved just a little too close to every car we passed and zipped through intersections while the lights were yellow. Was he trying to kill us before we even got there?

  “Is Freddy there?” Zeph asked casually as he cracked the back window so he could flick his ashes outside.

  “I’m not sure.” Hank made a grunting noise. “No one from the Seelie Court was on scene when I passed by earlier. Typical. This is a small matter. They won’t bother with it.”

  Zeph held his cigarette between his teeth as he opened the center console of the car and began pulling out a series of strange objects—a long, golden feather, something that resembled a dream catcher with little bones tied to it, and bundles of a strange-smelling herb. “So, what are we dealing with? Bogles again?”

  Hank nodded. “I think so. Two, maybe three. It was hard to get a good feel for it from such a distance. I’ll have more to tell you when we get there.”

  I swallowed h
ard as Zeph handed me those strange objects one by one. He took his time inspecting each one. He smelled the herbs and tested the point of the golden feather before handing each to me.

  “What is this?” I asked as I smelled the herbs, too.

  “Sage.” Hank smiled at me in the rearview mirror. “Fae find the scent very pungent. You can use it to drive them out of places you don’t want them to go.”

  “I thought that was for keeping out demons?” I asked.

  Hank’s smile widened. “Sometimes there’s not much difference between the two.”

  The sage didn’t smell bad to me, but just a few sniffs of it seemed to make Zeph uncomfortable. His eyes watered and he sneezed. “Smells like butt to me,” he murmured. “Keep that in your pocket, will you? At least until we get inside.”

  I nodded and stuck the little bundles of dried sage into my coat pocket. “We’re going to fight dark spirits with sage? Can I use this to drive the puca out of my apartment?”

  Hank let out another dry, hoarse laugh. “Sharp kid, isn’t she? Nah, sweetie. Sage only works on weaker fae. Pucas are about as strong as they come besides sidhe. Besides, we don’t want to have to fight anyone, if we can help it.”

  “We’re just serving an eviction notice.” Zeph had a menacing, scheming smirk on his face as we pulled onto a suburban street.

  “So, if it bothers you … does that mean you’re a weak fae?” I stole a quick glance at Zeph.