Two-on-two laser tag. Aaron and I goofed off from the start, but Kai and Ezra got hardcore into character—bleak and barking commands at each other, quipping military lines from movies, feigning injuries, and acting like they were in the middle of a war zone.
Aaron and I might have won the match if we hadn’t been debilitated by laughter. Kai and Ezra kept escalating their soldier game until even Kai couldn’t keep a straight face, but Ezra didn’t crack once, the sparkle in his mismatched eyes the only sign that he was fighting not to laugh. He finished the match with an Oscar-worthy death scene and Kai gallantly swore to avenge him. I almost peed myself laughing.
I swiped through a few more photos from that day and stopped on the final one. I stood between Aaron and Ezra, my arms over their shoulders, a pout on my face. Aaron’s head was thrown back in laughter—he’d gotten off a perfect zinger at my expense—and a huge grin lit Ezra’s face, his curly hair tousled in the breeze. Kai was taking the picture with my phone, his presence as palpable as the two visible mages.
Were these photos all I’d have once this was over?
A damn shame she isn’t a mythic. Ramsey’s words were burned into my memory. I wanted to be a mythic, to be one of them. I wanted it so badly it hurt my soul. I wanted to be part of their world, so entrenched that not even the MPD could banish me.
“Tori?”
Twiggy’s high-pitched whisper came from the foot of my bed. I sat up, hastily wiping at my eyes.
He faded into sight, huge green eyes gleaming in the darkness. “The witch is awake. She is making hot leaf water.”
I canted my head, listening. A quiet clank drifted into my bedroom, followed by the sound of running water in the kitchen sink.
Twiggy inched along the bed, then sat a few feet from my legs. “She is angry.”
Yes, yes she was. While Zak and I had been speaking with Llyrlethiad, Twiggy had stolen Kaveri’s purse and led her on a merry chase up and down the street. All things considered, his efforts to distract her had been harmlessly funny. She didn’t see the humor in it, though.
“You did an excellent job,” I told the faery. “The druid is impressed.”
Twiggy perked up. “The Crystal Druid is impressed?”
“Very much so. You did great.” I held my hand up. When he stared, I added, “High five!”
More blank staring.
“Human thing,” I told him, wiggling my fingers. “Hit your hand against my hand. It means, ‘Good job.’”
His whole face brightened and he enthusiastically slapped my palm with his branchy fingers. “High five!”
“Yeah!” I readjusted the fae orb in my lap. It seemed warmer than usual. “Kaveri will like you again in no time.”
He folded his spindly arms and sniffed. “I don’t care if the witch likes me.”
“Of course,” I agreed, hiding my amusement. “You’re just like the sea lord. You don’t need no humans.”
Twiggy shrank, giving the glowing marks on my arm an askance look. “The sea lord is a powerful fae.”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
“So is Lallakai, lady of shadow. The vargs of Gardall’kin are strong too. You know many powerful fae.”
Correction: I knew one powerful druid, and he came with a bunch of scary fae minions.
“You’re the best fae I know,” I told Twiggy. “You’re my movie buddy. That makes you better than any of them.”
He blinked slowly, then a beaming smile overtook his face. “The other smallfae say humans are stupid and selfish, but you are good.”
“Thanks, Twiggy.”
“Tori …” He inched closer. “Are we … friends?”
I chuckled at his desperately hopeful expression. “Yes, Twiggy, we’re friends. Just don’t slap me anymore.”
He nodded fanatically. “No slapping. Only high fives.”
Really, Twiggy wasn’t that bad. He was cute when he wanted to be, helpful when it suited him, a low-maintenance roommate, and an exceptional visitor deterrent. Last time my landlord tried to inspect my unit when I wasn’t home, Twiggy had treated him to an impressive rendition of the Frankenstein monster. The faery had told me all about it.
I hugged the fae orb to my chest. I didn’t want to lose all this. I couldn’t go back to living like a mundane human in the mundane world. Somehow, I had to find a way to keep hold of this world.
But first, I needed to survive the bond with the fae lord. Priorities.
Twelve hours later, I was ready to die, if for no other reason than the solitude. My apartment was like the start of a bad joke. A human, a faery, a witch, and an alchemist walk into a basement—actually, that sounded more like the start of a horror flick.
I liked Kaveri well enough and I adored Sin, but after twenty-four hours cooped up in my apartment with them, I was done. Thankfully, Kaveri had left ten minutes ago, but a new witch was on the way to replace her—Delta, a thirty-year-old woman with beads in her hair and an aversion to bras. I wasn’t looking forward to it.
“I need to get out of this house,” I moaned to Sin, flopped on my sofa with my legs hanging over one arm.
Absently tugging on a lock of her blue hair, she looked up from her phone. “I don’t know …”
“Let’s walk over to that sushi place near Chinatown,” I suggested. “It’s twenty-five minutes away. We’ll be back by the time Delta gets here.”
Her frown deepened.
“Why should I be under house arrest?” I demanded. “MagiPol doesn’t know where I live. They aren’t watching me, and the fae lord is sulking in Never Never Land.”
Zak had told me not to exert myself, but walking hardly counted as exertion. At the thought of the druid, I checked my phone in the vain hope he’d texted me. Aaron had called around noon with an update—“nothing yet”—along with news of more MPD snooping. He, Kai, and Ezra were researching fae relics and black magic while dodging Agent Harris and his female sidekick.
“All right.” Sin’s hesitation morphed into a grin. “I’m sick of this too. And I love sushi.”
“Gimme a minute to change.”
I skipped into my bedroom, stripped down, and redressed in jeans, a turtleneck, and my bomber jacket, now dry. The clothes covered all the markings, except the rune on my palm, but that’s what pockets were for.
Swinging by my nightstand, I pulled it open to grab my Queen of Spades and fall-spell crystal. Huh. The nest for the fae orb was empty.
Oh right, I’d left it on the bed. I flipped my blankets back, searching, but it wasn’t there. Had it fallen onto the floor? Before I could crouch to look under the bed, Sin called for me to hurry up.
Deciding to sort it out later, I shoved the sorcery artifacts in my pocket and joined Sin at the stairs.
“Hold the fort, Twiggy!” I called as I grabbed my bright purple umbrella—a gift from Aaron to replace the hot pink umbrella he’d given me before this one. I was going through umbrellas at an alarming rate.
Twiggy squeaked an affirmative, and I locked the door behind us.
The streets shone with recent rain, and I inhaled the crisp, damp breeze. Aw, man. Fresh air. I walked with a bounce in my step, rejuvenated by the sight of something besides my apartment walls.
Sin and I chatted about nothing important as we walked. A few times she directed the conversation toward Aaron and our relationship, but I steered it right off that track. Swinging my umbrella from one hand, my purse tucked under the opposite elbow, I smiled at the brick-faced buildings that lined Main Street. My neighborhood was nothing special, but it bordered some of the oldest parts of the city, which was pretty cool.
As we neared the transition from generic businesses to colorful storefronts, I paused my story about shopping for tempura ingredients with Kai and Ezra. Three police cruisers were parked along the curb. No lights or officers inside, but still weird.
“Anyway,” I continued, banishing my frown once we’d passed the cars, “there we are, standing in this hole-in-the-wall shop full of Chinese he
rbs and pickled animal parts, and Kai is repeating the name of the sauce while the old man behind the counter is babbling in Mandarin. Then Ezra bumps into a display and …” I trailed off. “What’s with that look?”
Sin blinked, the disbelieving twist to her lips fading. “Sorry. It’s just so strange.”
“What’s strange?”
“Hearing your stories about them. Aaron, Kai, and Ezra, I mean.” She shook her head as we turned down a street lined with restaurants. “Everyone at the guild has stories about them, but yours are different.”
My steps slowed, my mouth turning down. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not sure how to explain it.” Sin thought for a moment. “Well, for starters, I don’t know of them inviting anyone to their house on a regular basis like they do with you.”
That couldn’t be right. Aaron, Kai, and Ezra were among the most popular guys at the guild—everyone liked them. But thinking back, I’d never seen another guest at Aaron’s place.
“And Ezra—I can’t recall him ever doing something without Aaron or Kai. He’s always with them. Not that that’s a bad thing,” she added hastily. “It’s just … he’s sort of overly attached to the other two. Have you noticed?”
My frown deepened and I slowed to a stop, again trying to remember an occasion that would contradict her assessment. Nothing came to mind.
Flummoxed, I blindly turned to keep walking. A shop door swung open right in front of me, the metal edge just missing my face.
“Watch it, dipshit!” I barked at the man stepping onto the sidewalk. “Unless you’re blind, you should—oh.”
My brain registered the man’s appearance: dark blue uniform, badge on the chest, emblem on the shoulder, gun holstered on his belt. I’d just called a cop a dipshit. I jerked my gaze up to the officer’s astonished face—but it wasn’t my rudeness that had shocked him.
“Tori?”
“Justin?”
He moved aside as a second officer—older with a thick beard—walked out. His radio crackled with a woman’s voice.
“Sorry I called you a dipshit,” I said quickly.
Justin waved his partner on, then pulled me into a quick hug. “Hey, Tor. What are you doing out here?”
“We’re getting sushi.” Tucking my fae-marked hand into my pocket, I tugged Sin over with my other hand. “This is Sin. Sin, this is my brother, Justin.”
“Hi,” Sin said in a tiny voice, her cheeks flushing pink. Justin offered his hand and she took it gingerly.
“Nice to meet you, Sin.” He smiled amicably. “Is it rude of me to say your name is really interesting? I’ve never heard it before.”
“Not rude,” she mumbled, her face going redder. She seemed to have forgotten how to speak.
Burying a smirk, I jumped in to rescue her. “What’s got you out here, Justin?”
“There are a few of us out this evening.” He glanced around, then lowered his voice. “Bizarre complaints have been coming in since yesterday. Figures in black lurking in alleys, ‘gangsters’ casing businesses, men accosting women on the streets.”
“Whoa. Here in Chinatown, you mean?”
“Chinatown, Strathcona, and Mount Pleasant.” He gave me a significant look—Mount Pleasant was my neighborhood. “It’s the kind of thing we expect in the Eastside, not around here.”
“No kidding.” A wet drop hit my nose and I glanced suspiciously at the sky.
“It isn’t a good night to be out. Did you two walk?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “We’re almost to the sushi place, though, then we’ll head straight back.”
“I’ll walk you to the restaurant, then you should take the bus home.” He frowned. “Actually, I’ll drive you back. They can spare me for a few minutes.”
“You don’t need to do that.” I scrutinized his expression—full of familiar stubbornness. “But thanks.”
We got three steps down the sidewalk before the rain started in earnest. I popped my umbrella open, handed it to Justin, then stepped under its plastic dome. Sin took the spot at his opposite elbow, her cheeks still flushed. Justin, the ol’ smoothie, made small talk with her, and she stumblingly responded.
Shy Sin was so cute! I giggled to myself, then a flash of something pale caught my eye. When I turned, I saw nothing but shops with glowing open signs and colorful awnings above the doors. A few people trailed along the sidewalk a ways back, looking at a window display.
We made it to the sushi shop and Justin waited outside with the umbrella while Sin and I went in to order. The moment the door shut behind us, Sin swung toward me.
“You never told me your brother was hot!” she hissed accusingly.
“What did you expect?” I flipped my curls with mock arrogance. “We have good genes.”
She snorted, then glanced at Justin’s silhouette outside the glass door. Her expression crumpled. “I’m such a loser. This is why I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Because you go mute the moment a cute, single guy smiles at you? Yeah, that doesn’t help.”
She perked up. “He’s single?”
“Newly single. Very newly. And possibly rebounding.”
Chewing her lower lip in thought, she turned to the counter to order.
Laden with bags of delicious sushi, we exited the shop. Justin asked Sin what her favorite dish was, but I missed her answer as another pale flicker caught my eye. I glanced sharply along the street but saw only the same window-shopping trio. They’d passed the sushi place and were a dozen yards down the sidewalk.
Huddled under my umbrella, we started back. As Sin attempted to flirt with my brother—poorly—I glanced around, searching for the pale thing I kept seeing. Was I losing my mind? Sheesh.
I scanned the trio, checked the nearest dark alley—then did a double take. The three people had reversed direction and were following us again.
Déjà vu sparked through me. I’d been followed once before by strangers in black, and it hadn’t ended well. I looped my arm through Justin’s and picked up the pace, hurrying him and Sin along. Was I paranoid? Or were they stalking us?
Footsteps scuffed behind us—the trio increasing their pace. My neck prickled. I twisted to look back—and light gleamed off the shiny black pistol the middlemost man had pulled from his coat.
Shouting in alarm, I tore the umbrella out of Justin’s hand and swung the plastic dome down.
The gun popped. Yellow paintballs burst against my umbrella shield, and I almost cheered in relief that the gun wasn’t the bullet-firing kind. But the yellow splatter dripping off the plastic—I’d bet my paycheck it wasn’t paint.
These weren’t your average hooligans. They were mythics.
Justin pulled his actual bullet-firing gun from its holster and leveled it at our attackers. “Drop your weapon!”
The black-clad mythics exchanged perplexed glances, like they hadn’t expected this. Really? Had they thought Justin was dressed in costume?
I stood frozen, umbrella positioned in front of me. Mythics were attacking us—bad. My very human brother who knew an unknown amount about mythics was defending us—also bad.
“Drop your weapon!” Justin ordered again. “I will open fire on you.”
The man with the paintball pistol glanced at his buddies, then slowly lowered the gun.
“I said drop—” Justin began.
Twitching his wrist, the leftmost goon produced a short, fat stick from his sleeve. Three things happened at once:
The sorcerer shouted, “Ori impello plurimos!” and runes flashed up his wand.
Paintball Guy swung his pistol up.
And Justin fired his gun.
The bang of the gun burst my eardrums as a band of force struck my chest like a battering ram. I flew backward and crashed down on the sidewalk, the umbrella tumbling from my hand. Justin and Sin hit the ground beside me, blasted off their feet by the spell.
Paintball Guy swore, blood shining on his arm from Justin’s shot. Teeth bared, the rogue pointed
his weapon at me and pulled the trigger.
Wind gusted wildly, blowing the yellow potion-ball off course. It missed me, and for an instant I thought Ezra was here, protecting me with his wind magic.
With a pale flash, a sinuous shape appeared above the three men. Glowing faintly in shades of bluish silver, aquamarine, and pink, the creature swooped down and plucked the gun from the man’s hand. The weapon somersaulted through the air and clattered in the middle of the road. The creature shimmered out of sight again.
The pause gave me time to launch up, Sin and Justin following a second behind—but the sorcerer was faster.
“Ori amethystino mergere ponto!”
Purple light ballooned out from his wand’s tip. Rippling violently, the distortion of air shot toward me, expanding as it came.
“Tori!”
Sin shoved me out of the way and the weird purple orb hit her. It whooshed outward, engulfing her entire body, and she flailed helplessly from within it—suspended inside a magical bubble.
My mouth hung open. What the hell was that?
I wasn’t the only one stunned speechless. Gun clutched in his hands like he’d forgotten about it, Justin stared at the rippling bubble that held Sin like a science-lab specimen suspended in goo.
Paintball Guy was gripping his arm, which was leaking an alarming amount of blood, but the sorcerer was aiming his wand at me again. This time I was ready.
I whipped my Queen of Spades card out and pointed it at the sorcerer. “Ori—”
“Ori percunctari!”
I’d gotten used to the Queen saving my butt, and until now, I’d managed to get its mouthful of an incantation out fast enough to repel attacks. But as the green flash of the sorcerer’s spell hit me in the face, it occurred to me that maybe, all those times before, I’d just gotten lucky. That, or I’d been fighting shitty sorcerers.
Cold magic washed over me in a bone-chilling wave, and I stepped back sharply.
Or I tried to.
My limbs felt like they were moving through thick sludge. In ultra-slow-motion, my left leg started to bend. My brain flew ahead of the movement, trying to jerk my body forward, to raise my arms, to finish my incantation as the sorcerer flipped a new wand into his hand.
Two Witches and a Whiskey (The Guild Codex: Spellbound Book 3) Page 12