Defender of Magic

by Martha Carr

  "Hey, what are you two doing this Friday? Matt and I can take you to the Blue Duck Tavern. All locally sourced. You'll love it!"

  "Sure!" Leira blurted it out, surprising herself.

  "Yeah? Oh great, we can practically walk there. It's a few blocks but it looks like you're a runner and I saw that handsome partner of yours and he can probably handle a walk. Maybe we can meet over here first and go from there." She grabbed Leira in a tight hug before Leira knew what to do, squeezing even tighter. "A new friend!" said Angel, letting go to step back, a wide grin on her face.

  Leira felt an ache she didn't know was there easing just a little. A new friend. She gave a crooked smile, blinking and said, "We'll be there. Yeah, and I love bowling. I was on a team in Austin." Estelle would not recognize me right about now. But she'd like it. Leira smiled again.

  Leira put the beer inside the fridge and headed back outside. She ran for almost an hour, turning onto eighteenth street and running past the World Bank, blocks from the lights of the White House. She finally slowed down to a jog, sipping water and listening to the sound of a dog barking in the distance.

  She slowed to a walk in front of a red brick house shaped like an octagon with a brick center that curved outward and a balcony on the second floor. She took another sip, balancing her toes on a curb and stretching her ankles, admiring the old house.

  "Neeeevvvveeeerrrr!" A woman's scream from the house ripped through the quiet night from inside the house. Leira didn't hesitate, dropping her water bottle by the side of the stone steps and running to the door, jiggling the handle. Locked tight.

  "Neeeeevvveeerrrr!" The scream rang out again.

  "Fuck me, I'm coming in." She pulled in energy through her feet and set out an intention. "Open up the door and show me where she is." The stream of glittering magic went out ahead of her, rolling through the lock and moving the tumblers. The door clicked open and Leira pushed inside, chasing the energy.

  "Neeeeevvveeerrrr!" A chill went down her spine and she ran up the curved staircase, footprints left behind in the dust, bursting into a bedroom and stopping cold. The trail ended in an empty bedroom. No one was there.

  "Hello?" Leira ran to the closet, pulling open the door, her eyes glowing and her palm itching to make a fireball. "No one." She stepped back out into the room, standing still and listening.

  The air in front of her shimmered, a bubble hanging in the air, growing larger and pushing toward her. Leira leaned away from it, a cold air blowing against her face. The bubble grew and hands appeared on the other side, pushing toward her. A woman's face pressed against the bubble and she opened her mouth and screamed, "Neeeevvvveeeerrr!"

  "The world in between," gasped Leira. "This is a thin place between the worlds." Leira's muscles were tense as she moved closer, watching the woman desperately look for a way to push through to the other side.

  Leira pressed her hands against the bubble, the chill spreading up her wrists, unable to reach the woman. "I'm sorry," she quietly said, watching the woman writhe and suddenly be sucked backward, rapidly disappearing from view.

  The bubble shrank till it disappeared and Leira was left standing in the room, her chest moving up and down and her heart beating faster. She waited a moment and turned, running back down the stairs and out the door, pulling it closed behind her.

  She grabbed her water bottle and looked up at the address. Seventeen-ninety-nine New York Avenue. "I will be back," she whispered. She ran toward home and was almost there when she realized something was different. The dark mist had not reached out to her this time. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

  The feeling got stronger and she picked up her pace, taking a quick left at the next corner and ducking down a long alley. She slowed down toward the other end, scanning both sides for any sign of movement.

  A feral cat's meowing and hissing startled her, and she tripped and fell backward onto her ass.

  "Oomph." She rolled over and quickly pushed back to her feet, brushing the gravel off her hands. Someone is following me. I know it.

  Holding on to her water bottle, Leira spread her feet apart and breathed deeply. She pulled the energy from the ground and up through her center, the scar on her belly warming. Her eyes glowed as symbols slowly flipped and turned on her skin, gradually picking up the pace. She closed her eyes and set an intention.

  Find nearby magic trails. Streams of sparkling light appeared, floating in different directions, crossing each other. Evidence of different magicals walking past at various times during the day. It was appearing like a movie playing in her head.

  Leira focused on any recent trails, digging underneath the layers.

  Crash!

  A glass bottle shattered in the nearby alley and a man groaned. A millennial in a suit and tie was backing up, his eyes wide. "You... how did you... your eyes were glowing... what the fuck..." The words sputtered out of him.

  "Never was, never will be."

  He froze in place giving Leira enough time to grab her water bottle and jog out of the alley, turning the corner and running the rest of the way home. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling someone was watching her most of the way.

  Chapter Twelve

  "I'll do the Kung Po Chicken with fried rice, fried wontons, eggrolls, and give me a small order of shrimp fried rice for a friend." Louie leaned on the counter at the Two Lions.

  "Louie!" Mr. Hou waved his hands in the air excitedly. "What is up?"

  "I see you got my check. Look..." Louie held out his hands. "I'm picking up the food at the front."

  Mr. Hou held up his fist, waiting for Louie. "Yeah, sure. Local customs." He completed the fist bump and smiled.

  "Louie gets the family discount," he said, wiping his hand on his stained apron. "Family. He is family. Egg rolls half price!"

  "We're doing a one eighty with this bromance. Nothing like a discounted egg roll. Thank you, Mr. Hou."

  "Are you going out to search for more junk?" Mr. Hou waved to a waiter, pointing to a table waiting for water.

  "Artifacts. Valuable artifacts. Like junk but worth something. Not today Mr. Hou." Ava Hou, the owner's daughter came out of the kitchen and wove her way to the front, dropping the bag next to Louie. She kissed her father on his cheek and winked at Louie, picking up empty plates as she headed back to the kitchen.

  Louie reached in the bag and pulled out a wonton, popping it in his mouth and handing the girl a twenty dollar bill. "I've got to get going, Mr. Hou," said Louie, distracted and watching Ava walk away as he chewed

  "When you come back tonight, I will give you some of the leftover dumplings. No charge."

  "You," Louie fist bumped him again, "are a great landlord."

  Louie grabbed his bag and headed out the door, turning left onto Sixth street toward the Gallery Place stop.

  He went down the steep escalator, following the steadily moving crowd and inserting his Metro card, grabbing it back as he pushed through the turnstile.

  The subway car was already there, and Louie ran the last few steps, jumping through the doors as the familiar bell dinged overhead. "Doors closing."

  He found an empty seat in the back, facing the row of people and sat down, putting his bag on his lap. His stomach gurgled and he slid a wonton out, pushing the whole thing in his mouth.

  "Ahem."

  Louie froze as a woman sitting on a bench facing the center cleared her throat. He looked up and recognized the magical energy surrounding her. Fuck! A witch. Please don't be a Silver Griffin. "Shouldn't you be looking for a Starbucks?"

  The woman harrumphed, straightening her suit jacket and sitting up straighter. She brushed back a stand against her stiff blonde helmet of hair. She tapped a sign hanging just behind her that read, "NO EATING," and raised her eyebrows. Louie sighed and closed the bag, not wanting to make her look at him any more closely. He was still wanted by some Silver Griffins for a little unresolved matter.

  She narrowed her eyes at him, and he noted the hand
le of her wand sticking out of her large purse that had cats embroidered on the outside.

  "All right," Louie said, putting his hands in the air. "I can wait, but when I have to eat cold Chinese, I'm blaming you."

  She snorted and looked back down at her phone.

  Louie leaned back in his seat, opening the bag and taking a long whiff. The witch looked up with a scowl.

  "There's nothing up there about smells, lady."

  Leira wiped her hands on the towel and looked up at the sound of pebbles hitting the back door. She opened the door and found Louie with a bag cradled in the nook of his arm, chewing and tossing pebbles at the same time.

  "Louie, you made it."

  "Nice set of wards you have on the place. I tried a few things and found myself back down the alley on one of them. Turner Underwood teach you those?"

  "Some of them. Jackson taught me some too."

  "I don't know if I should be jealous that I've known him longer and he's never shown me anything like that." He put the bag down on the table, pulling out the cartons and opening them up. “You have a fork? I don’t need a plate. Conservation in everything.”

  Leira got out a fork and handed it to him. “You’re a deep well, Louie.”

  Yumfuck came sliding down the banister standing up, wearing his backpack. He came bouncing into the kitchen, inhaling deeply.

  "Mmmm, shrimp fried rice!" Yumfuck tilted back a carton, pouring food in his mouth.

  "Thought you might want to have lunch with me." Louie smiled and ruffled the green fur on his head.

  "On my way out," Yumfuck told him, his cheeks full.

  "In a while crocodile."

  "See you later, instigator," said the troll, heading out the back door.

  Leira snorted. "That does seem about right."

  "No problem," he called over his shoulder as Yumfuck shut the front door behind him.

  "Let's sit in the living room." Leira waved over her shoulder.

  "Can I bring the food?" Louie shook his head. "I've been shrimp blocked all morning."

  "Yeah, there's nothing in here you can hurt."

  Leira sat down in the red velvet chair and crossed her legs. Louie followed her and sat on the couch, pulling the coffee table toward him and lining up the cartons.

  "I like what you've done with the place," he told her. "A bit bigger than mine, but just as early rundown and extremely not modern."

  "Thanks, it's home." Leira wrinkled her nose, watching him shovel food into his mouth.

  "Couldn't eat on the train and I was starving. It's amazing how many rules this world has. Don't steal there, don't eat here." Pieces of rice were falling onto his shirt when he glanced up and saw Leira, one eyebrow arched. "Growing wizard. Hey, where's Correk?"

  "Out playing Fixer. Finish chewing. I have an adventure for you."

  "You make it sound like you're doing me a favor. You say adventure, but you mean scary, deadly, maybe involving monsters kind of mission."

  "I need you to locate Sirius," Leira said, looking him in the eye. "He set a pretty good trap for me recently and it got a little too dicey. But the worst of it, he was actually the bit player. Someone else was manipulating him."

  "Sirius is someone else's bitch. Whoa. That is deep."

  "Use those expertly tuned tracking skills and find Sirius for me. If we can pull him out of the mix, we may be able to destabilize an even greater foe."

  "I'm on it... as soon as I finish this," he said, taking another bite of food.

  "Priorities, I get it. I can even pack you snacks for the road. I know where there are KitKats."

  "Now you're talking."

  Correk opened a portal onto the expansive lawn that overlooked the lake in Austin. Turner Underwood was down by the water, his hands behind his back. His cane was up on the patio, leaning against one of the Adirondack chairs.

  "I got your summons." Correk came and stood next to him, watching a large mouth bass break the surface and flop back into the water.

  "I have this theory based on hundreds of years of observation." Turner squinted his eyes against the sunlight bouncing off the lake.

  "Okay, we're coming at a problem sideways. I'm listening."

  "Family is the best thing that can happen to any living being. It doesn't matter what kind of species." A sudden breeze ruffled his hair. "And it's the worst because when things don't go well, we can't just pack up and go."

  "We're talking about Harkin now, aren't we?"

  Turner patted Correk on the shoulder and started to trudge up the sloping lawn to the patio and his chair. "Harkin has not been cooperating lately. He is his own worst enemy."

  "I'm very familiar with that part of his personality." Correk followed him up the hill, the heels of his boots sinking into the soft ground. "He barrels forward trying to do the right thing and when it doesn't turn out, he barrels forward again trying to fix it."

  "Funny that you chose a mate with the same trait but better judgment." Turner settled into one of the Adirondack chairs with a grunt.

  "He's not going to stay put for long. Mostly because we all want him to do it. He'll try to help eventually."

  "Sit, Correk. There's a solution to all of this. Do you want any coffee? Two Fixers should be able to come up with something interesting." Turner made a steeple on his belly with his hands. "It will take a confession from Wolfstan Humphrey to clear your father of Fraekin's murder. Queen Saria won't accept anything less."

  "Wolfstan is far too cagey to confess to any of us about anything."

  "True, but he has an ego that has to be fed by somebody. Probably not someone he can trust. I doubt that person exists on either world. But instead someone he thinks is under his control that he could destroy at a moment's notice."

  "Who would want that mission?"

  "That is the piece of the solution that we still need to find. I had hoped that Lily Sharpton would help, but Lois has a point. Lily is untrained and might not last long up against Wolfstan." Turner pushed himself out of the chair, grabbing his cane and tapping it on the slate as he headed toward the house. "I'm suddenly hungry for a burrito. Come keep me company before you run off to save another misguided magical."

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lily Sharpton sat on the edge of the metal folding chair in the town hall meeting at Fleeker headquarters. Ed Shifford, the CFO had come out in his lime green polyester jacket signaling another record earnings quarter for the company. Annual bonuses were assured and there was talk of new jobs opening up. Everyone in the large auditorium that served more often as a cafeteria, was smiling and laughing at all of Ed's jokes. "Money isn't everything, but it definitely keeps you in touch with your children." A hearty laugh rose from the crowd along with a smattering of applause.

  Screens were set up near the front that showed gatherings at other company locations and their reactions. Everyone was enjoying themselves.

  Lily chuckled, glancing at her coworker, Phyllis as she took a sip of her coffee. "I love working here," she muttered.

  Wolfstan Humphrey came striding onto the small platform, clapping and smiling as Ed took a bow and headed off the other side. "Thank you, Ed, for looking after all the dollars and cents for us." He waved to the crowd which began clapping louder, waving again with his lips pressed together to signal to the rank and file to settle down.

  "We've got a lot to get to on today's agenda. First we have a few employees we would like to recognize."

  "Oh damn!" Lily's supervisor, Ray Jenkins was nervously flipping through the papers in his leather briefcase. He looked up, sweat already forming on his forehead, searching every face close to him. "Lily! Oh, thank God. I forgot the certificates. We're the last group. Can you run back and get them? I left them in my office. They should be right on my desk. Here, use my key card. It'll be okay."

  Phyllis' eyes grew wide and she looked away at the mention of the key card. It was against the rules to even touch someone else's card and they were to be used only when the sub-derma chip failed. Li
ly hesitated, but Ray shoved the card at her. "Here, here! Go, go! If I don't have them by the time Mr. Humphrey calls those names heads will roll. Go!" He waved frantically at her, too low for anyone up front to see, patting his face dry with a napkin.

  Lily carefully slid out of the row, stepping over feet and muttering an apology after stepping on someone's Florsheims. She walked as quickly as she dared toward the exit, not looking back and pushed the swinging door gently, opening it just enough to slide through to the broad hallway. Then she started running for the elevator.

  Lily jabbed the button a few times, considering and then quickly discarding the idea of using a little magic to get the elevator to arrive faster. "Yes!" There was a soft ding and the doors immediately opened as Lily leapt forward, scanning the executive key card and hitting the button for the top floor. It was all adding more excitement to her day. She had never been up on the top floor, much less unsupervised.

  The elevator rose with a whoosh, speeding past the lower floors and coming to a sudden stop at the twelfth floor, the doors finally opening after a few moments. It all felt like it was taking forever.

  Lily stepped off the elevator and felt the blood rush to her head. "Crap. Which office is his?" Her heart was beating faster, and her face was warming as she tried to figure out which office looked like a mid-level vice president. She ran into the first office she saw and scanned the papers on top of the desk. There were folders stacked on the corner of the desk about upcoming projects. "Nope, this isn't you, Ray."

  She ducked out, hoping no one would see her running in and out of each office, and tried a few more. "Where the fuck did they put you Ray?" She could feel the time slipping away. "No one will ever know. Maybe." Lily pulled out her wand and whispered fervently, "Finders keepers." She swore, waving her wand to try and start over. "That's not the right one. Nothing was taken. Where there are..." She stopped the spell mid-sentence. A twinkle of light was already drifting away from the wand, wandering down a private hall and into the largest office.