by Linsey Hall
His eyes narrowed suspiciously, and I smiled, hoping it looked not-weird. I didn’t want to admit that I needed the second potion to fix my wonky magic. It was hard enough to make friends when they knew I could lose control of my power and blast them.
And I liked him.
He wouldn’t want to be around me if he thought I could blast him by mistake. And there was no way a guy like him knew what it was like to have magic you couldn’t use. Sure, I’d asked if his magic was a bit broken, but there was no way that was true. He was just too…powerful and perfect. He’d never be able to relate.
He leaned forward, propping his muscular arms on the table. As he caught my eye, the whiskey and evergreen scent of him swept over me. “Say I take the favor deal. I want something else, too.”
I swallowed hard. “What?”
“A date.”
“A date?” I nearly squeaked the words.
“Yeah. Presuming this thing between us”—he gestured at the air between us as if he were pointing to an actual wire that tied us together—“is still there when we’re done getting this potion made. I want a date.”
Hell, yeah.
Nope—I had to play it cool.
I crossed my arms over my chest and nodded. “We’ll see.”
3
Connor
“Good enough for me.” I leaned back, pleased that I’d snagged a possible date with the hot not-hedgehog.
Who might also be my mate.
If I believed in such Fae things. Which I should, given that I was technically Fae. But I was still wrestling with how much I actually wanted to be Fae.
“What do we do next?” Sora asked.
“There’s at least one ingredient in that potion that I’ve never even seen before. Never had access to.”
“You know the ingredients by heart?”
“Why do you think they call me a Potions Master?”
“Whatever, Alchemist.”
“That doesn’t make me sound any less knowledgeable or cool, you know.”
“Yeah, you have a point.” She pulled out her cell phone. “I might know some people who can help us get the ingredient you need. What’s it called?”
“Powdered Ascencia root.”
“That a tree?”
“Flower. Very delicate, and blooms once every ten years.”
She whistled low under her breath and started typing into her phone.
“Who are you contacting?”
“A friend at the Witches’ Guild. She’ll know if they have the ingredient.”
“That’s what these witches deal in? Magical ingredients?”
“Not really. You’re more likely to get ingredients from the Sorcerers’ Guild. They have a far bigger stash for their spells. But they’d never sell to me.”
“Why not?”
“Tried to break in too many times.” She grinned devilishly, and I wanted to ask why she’d been breaking in so often. But she spoke before I could. “That’s not an option, though. And I'm not telling you the story. So that leaves the Witches’ Guild. They sell spells and potions, but they need ingredients for those. With any luck, they’ll sell us some.”
“Works for me.” I was actually pretty psyched to see the famed Guild City. Getting inside a guild would be an even bigger coup, as far as magical tourism was concerned.
“What else do we need?” Sora asked.
“Should have everything else in the back.” I stood, intending to go check. Sora rose as well, and I gestured for her to follow. “Come on.”
I led her through the kitchens to my lab. It was rare I took someone back there, but I liked her.
As we entered the cluttered room, she whistled low under her breath. “This is quite the setup.”
“Not bad, if I do say so myself.” I grinned and searched the shelves for the other ingredients, setting them aside. As I was finishing up, her phone buzzed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her pull the cell phone from her pocket and check it. I turned in time to see her shoot me a brilliant smile, and it felt like my heart was about to beat its way out of my chest.
Yeah. There was something about this woman that was special.
Absently, I rubbed the spot right over my heart, as if I could get the feeling to stop.
“Does your friend have the ingredient?” I asked, trying to ignore the Fae sense that this woman was the one.
I sure as hell hadn’t expected to find my fated mate, but fate seemed to have other ideas.
“Yep. We can head over there now and meet with them.” She gave me a look up and down. “How good are you at flirting?”
I shrugged. “All right, I guess?”
“Well, do your best. We’ll need to butter them up, because they might not want to part with this ingredient.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” I grabbed a bag and filled it full of potion bombs, then threw in a few healing draughts and some particularly valuable potions in case we needed to make a trade. They were all stored in a glass containers of different shapes and colors, making it easy for me to tell which was which before I threw it.
“What are those for?” she asked.
“In case it gets dicey.”
“Those are weapons?”
“Yes.” I stashed the potion bag in the ether. It was an expensive magical spell that allowed me to store objects in the ephemeral stuff that filled in the spaces between everything in the world, but it came in damned handy.
I checked the thick leather cuffs around my wrists to make sure that the tiny vials of potion were all full. They were hidden on the inside of my cuffs, close to my skin, and were easy to access in a pinch.
Finished, I looked up at Sora. “How are we getting there?”
She dug into her pocket and pulled out a small stone. “I’ve got one transport charm left. So if we get in a pinch at the Witches’ Guild, we’ll have to run for it the old-fashioned way.”
“We could get in that kind of a pinch?”
“It’s dangerous in there, even if they don’t hate me like the Sorcerers’ Guild does.”
“All right then.” I grabbed a couple transport charms from the shelf and put one in my pocket. The other, I kept in my hand. “Hang on to yours. We’ll use one of mine.”
“Thanks.”
I just nodded. I didn’t want her to get into a bad situation in the future and not have a quick way out.
I held out my hand so that I could bring her through the ether with me to the right location. “Ready?”
“Ready as a werewolf for the full moon.” She gripped my hand, and a flash of heat streaked through me. This was the first time our skin had touched, and it was electric.
A small gasp escaped her, and her gaze flicked up to mine.
Yeah, this woman was something to me.
And she had no idea.
I didn’t really appreciate fate meddling in my life like this, but that was just the way the world worked.
“We’re going to Covent Garden first,” she said. “From there, we’ll go through the gate into Guild City.”
“Sounds good.” I handed her the transport charm. “Actually, why don’t you envision our location? You’ll get us closer to the right place.”
She nodded and took it, then closed her eyes as she chucked the transport charm to the ground. A cloud of glittering silver smoke poofed up around us, and she stepped forward, letting it envelop her. I followed, and the ether sucked us in, spinning us through space. It spat us out in the middle of an empty alley.
It was daylight in London, sometime in the midmorning. The air smelled of wet cobblestones, and the clouds hung heavy in the sky.
Sora glanced upward and grimaced. “Another lovely day.”
I grinned. Oregon got its fair share of rain, too, but there was something drearier about English cities.
“Come on.” She let go of my hand and started down the alley. “There are two main gates that lead into Guild City.”
I caught up to her, squeezi
ng alongside her in the narrow alley. “Guild City is in its own realm, right?”
“Basically. When it was formed—about five hundred years ago, now—magic was used to fit it into London without disrupting the human settlement. The humans don’t know it’s here, but we do.”
“And it’s only accessible through the gates?”
“Yep. Two of them, both located in Guild City. But there are multiple magical entrance points on the human plane. We’re headed to one that’s in The Haunted Hound.”
“Sounds like a pub. They’re open at this hour?”
“They’re always open, if you know how to get in.” She exited the alley and turned onto a street that was pretty much empty. Most of the shops were shuttered, and I remembered that it was Sunday. They wouldn’t open for a few more hours.
Sora strode about ten yards down the street and stopped in front of the most boring store I could imagine: toilet paper. Just….tons of toilet paper, hundreds of white rolls of it. Next to the door, a narrow alley was cluttered with rubbish bins. Sora looked down the street in either direction.
There was no one around except a young woman on the far side of the street, leaning against the wall with a paper cup of takeout coffee. She appeared to be scrolling through her cell phone, her hoodie concealing most of her face. But her gaze occasionally flicked up to us, one brilliant eye visible behind the sweep of hair. Something in her stance suggested the coiled power of someone used to danger. Used to taking care of themselves.
“Coast is clear,” Sora said.
“What about that woman back there?”
“I can feel her magic. She’s cool. Just worried about humans.”
I nodded, but shot the woman another look. There was something strange about her…
Sora entered the alley, drawing my attention. She walked right through the trash cans.
I followed, glancing back at the strange woman one more time.
Her magic…
The signature was powerful. Very powerful.
Yet, the lack of control she had over it suggested she didn’t even know she had it. Or didn’t care.
“You coming?” Sora asked.
Her voice tugged my attention toward her, reminding me that I already had one woman to take care of, and she was the one I really wanted. “Yes.”
I followed her deeper into the alley, stepping through the illusion of trash cans and garbage. Despite the fact that it wasn’t real, it still reeked, and I held my breath to avoid inhaling the stench.
“Good magic,” I said.
She tossed a grin at me over her shoulder. “Yep. They worked extra hard on that stench. Very believable.”
“You’re telling me. My stomach is turning, and I’m not even inhaling.”
Once we were past the trash cans, I spotted a door. The top contained several tiny panes of glass that were so grimy it was impossible to see through them, and the door itself had probably once been red. It was now thoroughly coated in grime.
The sign over it read The Haunted Hound.
It was the least inviting place I’d ever seen.
“Horrible, right?” Sora grinned.
“Very.”
“Mac works hard to keep it like this.” She pressed her hand to the door, and I could see the faint glitter of magic around her palm. She shot me a look over her shoulder. “Just a charm to make sure only those with magic can enter.”
I nodded. It was a common device. “So, anyone with magic can get into Guild City?”
“Anyone with magic can get into the bar. Getting into Guild City requires getting through the gates, and only those with permission are allowed into the city.”
“Good thing I’m with you, then.”
“Just remember that when things get dicey.” She shot me a grin and pushed her way into the bar.
I followed her as she cut through the crowd of people that sat at various high-top tables.
It was a nice place on the inside, despite the exterior. Dark wood, gleaming golden lamps, a long wooden bar, and framed old beer advertisements on the wall. The low ceiling was studded with dark beams, giving it an ancient vibe that I liked.
Despite the fact that it was still midmorning, the pub was full. People were cluttered around plates of breakfast and hot coffee, with a few mimosas scattered amongst the crowd.
“Every day is brunch day here,” Sora said. “Local supernaturals want a place with no humans to hang out.”
“These people don’t live in Guild City?”
“Unlikely. If they did, they’d be eating there. They live in this neighborhood, which is like an in-between zone. More supernaturals than humans, though they keep their existence on the down-low.”
“Gotcha.”
Sora cut through the crowd, giving a quick salute to the bartender. The woman manning the taps was tall and slender, with white-blonde hair that suggested she was of Nordic descent. She nodded at Sora, barely spared a glance for me, then went back to drying glasses with a pink cloth.
Sora strode around to the right side of the bar. It was a quieter corner, no doubt because the bathrooms were back there, but she veered toward a plain brown door that looked like the service entrance for the kitchens. Without hesitating, she pressed a hand to the wooden door. Magic sparked around her palm briefly before the door gave way under the pressure and swung open.
She entered a dark corridor, and I followed, magic prickling powerfully off my skin.
One dim lamp hung over the long corridor. Shelves cluttered the walls, but the liquor bottles on them were so dusty that they looked like they hadn’t been moved in decades. Closer inspection revealed that they were empty.
“A cover,” Sora said. “Meant to look like storage.”
“Except they’re empty.”
“What can I say? Mac is cheap. No one looks too close, anyway.”
I nodded, turning back to her. She was standing at the far side of the hall, pressing her hand to the wall. More magic sparked, and she reached back to take my hand. “Come on.”
Energy fizzed up my arm as I gripped her palm, the feeling of her skin sending a jolt of awareness through me.
Maybe it was my imagination, but I thought her hand tightened on mine.
Was she feeling it, too?
Because I’d never felt this with another woman. This kind of knowledge. An insanely intense attraction that was impossible to deny.
Before I could analyze it any further, she pulled me through the wall. The ether sucked us in, spinning us through space and spitting us into the watery sunlight of the outdoors.
It took my senses a moment to adjust, but one thing was clear: this place reeked of danger.
4
Sora
As soon as I arrived at the gate into Guild City, I felt it.
Danger.
It prickled on the air like sharp little bubbles. Which was the point of the magic, actually. I was supposed to feel it and be worried.
The Devil of Darkvale. He wanted me to feel threatened. I stepped nearer to Connor and inspected our surroundings. The gates into Guild City weren’t normal little gates. They were large buildings that had been constructed in the medieval period. Both of them were two stories tall, like this one, though the main gate had a huge clock tower over it.
But this tower was big enough, an intimidating building with two conical turrets on top that just screamed Middle Ages. Parts of the city were more modern, but a lot of it was the same as it had been when it was first built.
Normally, I passed through the gates by pressing my hand to the door so that it could sense my magic and allow me in. Guards did live in the huge gatehouse building, but they didn’t monitor every person who entered. The gate itself did a good enough job of that, only allowing in magical beings with prior permission to be there. The guards were there for special circumstances, like human guests (super rare), unwelcome Magica, and in the rare cases that the city was under attack.
That hadn’t happened in decades, though.
/> Connor and I stood just outside of the gatehouse, the massive wooden door shut in our face. There were two doors, however. The larger one was so big that a lorry could drive through it. Not that a lorry would drive through it. It’d be impossible to get it through the entryways on the human plane. And Guild City was a pedestrian town, anyway, though there were some motorcycles.
The large gate was rarely used, however. To the right was the smaller door that saw a lot more foot traffic. It swung open, and one of the Devil’s goons stepped out.
“Damn it,” I muttered, sizing him up. He was one of the bigger guys. Not quite as tall as Connor, but broader. And not in a nice way. He looked like a dump truck. Big and slow.
But I bet he hit real hard.
“What’s wrong?” Connor murmured, his stance suddenly alert.
“This isn’t one of the normal guards.”
“Sora the Broken.” The goon’s voice rumbled with way too much bass, and I winced at the name. Not many people called me by it, but anyone who did was guaranteed to be an asshole.
“What’d you say?” Connor demanded. His tone was suddenly colder than I’d ever heard it, an implicit threat made a shudder run down my spine.
I shot him an appreciative glance. When I’d first met him, he’d looked like a guy who could handle himself in a fight. But he’d just transformed into someone who would win the fight without breaking a sweat. He’d probably do it with just his little finger.
Everything about him was coiled tension and the promise of deadly force. He might spend most of his time making delicate concoctions with his big hands, but I’d just figured out how he’d gotten all those scars on them.
Connor was used to fighting. Very used to it.
The guard scowled and ambled up to him. Connor stepped closer, his form radiating threat. It was a subtle thing—not the peacocking that the other guy was doing, sticking his chest out and trying to get a tiny bit of extra height.
No. Connor looked almost disappointed in his opponent. Disappointed but ready. It was the feeling in the air around him that made him scary. It prickled with latent violence. I desperately wanted to ask him to teach me how to do that.