by LJ Rivers
Sometimes when I was a kid, I would lay awake at night, fantasizing about what powers I wanted Dad to have. At the time, flying was always my number one choice, most likely because I dreamed of flying myself after hearing bedtime stories of Faes flying in Avalon. Invisibility also sounded great, but Mum told me it wasn’t a power any Mags had.
Was it that simple? Did he feel less of a man because he didn’t have any powers, living with two Fae? It wasn’t right, though. He never said anything other than how much he loved us, and he always treated me like a normal girl. That’s how they wanted to raise me. They always let me know I was special, and that my powers should be used to help others. But they also wanted to protect me.
The past months had underlined what a dangerous world this was for us Magicals, but also erased any remnants of my feeling normal.
The words of Professor Kaine—I had to get used to calling him Gabriel—echoed in my head. If he was right, I didn’t ‘get’ new powers. I’d had them all my life. Then why hadn’t I known or felt them before now? The healing and force fields had been with me since I could remember. Mum told me I had thrown a field as early as two years old.
But reading—or seeing—memories? Fireballs? And the visions, if those were a power at all. I wasn’t totally convinced. They had felt so real, though. But so far, I’d had no indication whether I had seen actual events in them. That could be another side of the memory reading thing, as it happened inside my head, I thought.
Gabriel was going to teach me to control my powers, and I looked forward to that. Both because it would come in handy if something happened, like on Friday’s stakeout, but also because I wanted to know more about my abilities. Were there more, for instance? Would I suddenly sprout wings or turn into a green giant?
I conjured two small force fields in my hands, shaping them and floating them at will. I’d never really checked how many I could control at the same time. Maybe this could be a training exercise? I made a mental note of asking Gabriel.
With the two balls hovering before me, I made three more, focusing on getting them the same size and shape. They looked like soap bubbles. Total control. I could send them slowly towards the window, stop them, and have them float back. I made them spin in a circle. Maybe I should try something a bit more challenging?
I didn’t want to risk too much, though, so I made three of the bulbs disappear, holding the last two in my left hand. They were about the size of tennis balls, reflecting the light on the thin glass-like surface.
In my chest, I let the heat rise, feeling the surge of my fiery magic flow through my veins and nerves. Maintaining the force fields at the same time meant I had to divide my focus. A tiny, red hot ball formed in my right hand, no bigger than the marbles I used to play with when I was a kid. I tried to make the fireball bigger, but it didn’t respond.
With a “pop” one of the force fields vanished. I bit my teeth together and made the remaining globe float towards the fireball. Gently, slowly, like a doctor about to perform open-heart surgery, I let the fireball rise through the air towards the force field. When they met right in front of me, the force field seemed to suck the fireball inside, enclosing its protective layer around it.
“Holy Lady Nimue,” I blurted. “I did it!”
With a final push of my mind, I forced the translucent ball to shrink. As it grew smaller, the red of the fireball turned pink at first, then lighter and lighter until it was completely white. I wasn’t sure if that meant it was hotter or colder, but never had the chance to find out. The force field had shrunk so much that it swallowed the remains of the fireball.
And vanished.
Nine
Arms linked together as if nothing had ever been wrong between us, Charlie and I stepped inside Brady’s on Friday morning, two days after we made up. The smell of coffee and bacon was thick in the air, and my mouth watered. But we weren’t here for the food, although it would be rude not to order anything, so we walked up to the counter.
“Hey, Brady,” I called.
The middle-aged man who had given the café its name skipped from one foot to the other, defying gravity as he turned a pancake in the air. Brady was as wide as he was tall and made a mean pancake. He sat the pan down and turned to us. A well-trimmed beard framed his broad smile, the light catching the sprays of silver between the otherwise ginger colours on his curly head of hair.
“G’day, Ruby. What shall it be this fine morrow? `Ang on!” He winked at me. “You fancy a cup of green tea with a squeeze of lemon, eh?”
I had struggled with placing Brady’s accent at first, until he told me some of his life story one morning I was down here alone with my laptop and a half-written Whisper article. The gentle giant from Ireland had followed his heart, at that time attached to ‘a sheila’ from a little town way up north in New Zealand. His heart was eventually broken, but he kept the Kiwi slang, even though he had only lived there three years.
I smiled at him. “As every day.”
“And for Señorita Charlie, one coffee, black.”
Charlie grinned. “You know me too well, Brady. We won’t be eating today, but I promise we’ll swing by for some of your delish pancakes soon. I hope you stocked up on blueberry jam!”
“Aye, so I did. You and that lovely gal Jen ate all I had left. Where’d ya hide her t’day?”
“She’s out shopping in central.” I laughed. It was the truth. She had run out of the flat while shouting something about not having the right outfit for tonight. What I would be wearing was the least of my concerns, but to Jen, any occasion was an opportunity for a fashion statement. Even a stakeout.
Cups in hand, we turned to find Brendan and Teagan sitting in the far corner. I grabbed a seat next to Brendan, and Charlie sat down between Teagan and me.
“Hey, stranger,” I said, taking Brendan’s hand under the table. He gave it a light squeeze and offered me a gentle smile.
“Milady,” he murmured.
Charlie cleared her throat. “Hey, I’m here, too.”
“Hi, Charlie,” Brendan muttered, though his eyes were firmly locked on mine.
Teagan took Brendan’s other arm, yanking him closer to her, and his hand slipped from my fingers. “Does this mean she knows, too?” She pointed a finger at Charlie. “B, I thought you said we could trust your—whatever she is.”
Charlie took a sip of her coffee, then placed the cup decisively back on the table. “As I said, I’m here. Brendan gave Ruby permission to tell me, and honestly, I’m your best bet. You won’t find a better bloodhound this side of Cheshire. So to speak.”
“Are you a Mag?” Teagan asked, catching me off guard. It looked like Brendan had a similar reaction. His entire posture changed, and his attention had moved entirely onto Charlie at this point.
“Does it matter?” Charlie retorted. “If you must know, I’m a hundred per cent human.”
“Then what good are you?” Teagan sighed heavily, rolling her eyes.
It dawned on me that she might look like her brother, but her personality was nothing like his. If it wasn’t for Brendan, I wasn’t sure I would want to help her. Then again, there was a Mag out there who might be in serious trouble. No matter what he had done, I knew better than to want him condemned into the hands of Harvesters.
“Charlie is the smartest, most capable person I know,” I said.
Charlie smirked. “She’s not wrong, though I don’t have any real magic. What I do have is super skills with computers, as well as a near-photographic memory. If anyone can find your man, it’s me.”
We were both tooting her horn a bit much. After everything, though, she deserved her time in the spotlight. “So, show me what you’ve got. Ruby told me she got a bunch of notes, but no picture. I could really use some visuals of Oliver.”
Teagan sighed again. “All right.”
She held her phone up, showing us the screen. A young man in his early twenties, with Hollywood-stubbled cheeks and a flashing grin, covered the lock screen as the
background image.
“Cute,” Charlie muttered. “Unlock it so I can send it to myself.”
Teagan pressed her thumb down and gave the phone to Charlie to sort out the rest.
I leaned towards her and stared at the pictures as Charlie scrolled through the seemingly endless list of images of Teagan’s boyfriend. His green eyes pulled me in, and my head started throbbing. My vision blurred as Brady’s Breakfast flickered and began to disappear. A burst of light flashed before my eyes before everything went pitch black.
Turning my gaze to find a narrow slit of light, I squinted through the opening. I yelped inaudibly as someone pushed in front of me as if I was nothing but air. My body shook, and my head crashed into the low ceiling. I knew it happened, but I felt no pain. Whoever was in here with me had done the same, and he or she had hit their head hard. Not really sure how I could, I moved in front of whoever it was, then peered back out through the slit.
A row of trees rushed by on either side of a road. I had to be inside a car. No, in the boot. There were sounds of tyres on gravel, accompanied by the engine of whatever car this was as we took a turn up a narrow side road. There was a sign by the edge of the road. What did that say? I only had time to catch the last three letters before the person in the boot with me moved straight through me again. I crawled back on my elbows and watched him intently, attempting to adjust my eyes to the darkness.
The car came to a halt. The doors opened and shut, and footsteps followed. Light flooded the boot as the lid was opened, and the person beside me kicked both his feet into the air. They were shackled, and so were his arms. His head thrust back as someone slammed their fist in his face. I looked down as the man in the boot curled up; his face was bloodied and pale, almost unrecognisable. But I knew who he was. I caught a glimpse of a farmhouse and a peculiar weathervane before everything began to flicker again. Oliver’s face faded, and my head spun. Everything shifted and disappeared, making me shut my eyes hard.
I forced my eyes open again. Brady’s gentle face looked down on me, and something cold was lifted from my forehead. “There ya are,” he said. “I’ll just go get ya ’nother pack of ice.”
Brady walked off, and Brendan took his place. “Are you ok?”
I blinked several times before I pushed myself to a sitting position, not without effort.
“I think so.” I glanced at Charlie. Her eyes were wide, her mouth silently spelling out a question: “Magic?”
I gave her a quick nod, and she relaxed her shoulders, though I could have sworn she was suppressing a smile.
“You scared me,” Brendan said, pulling me into his arms.
I inhaled the spicy scent of his Hugo Boss deodorant and sighed against him.
“I thought you were having some kind of seizure,” he said.
“Sexy, huh?” I muttered, burying my head in his neck. “What happened?”
“You started shaking like crazy, then you sort of crashed onto the floor where you looked like you were having a fit, to be perfectly honest. Your eyes rolled back—”
“Definitely sexy then.”
He breathed into my hair and chortled, hugging me tightly. “Definitely.”
I reluctantly pulled away from him, suddenly conscious of where we were, and that a flock of random students were looking at us. Brendan helped me to my feet, and we found the table again.
Moments later, Brady returned with an ice pack and a glass of water. “Take care, now.” He placed his warm hand briefly on my shoulder, then walked back to his kitchen.
“Well.” Teagan pursed her lips. “If Miss Drama over there is quite all right, could we get back to finding Oliver?”
“T,” Brendan said. “Be nice.”
I waved my hands at them and found my chair again. “It’s fine. I’m better now. Must have forgotten to drink enough water after my run this morning.”
We had to find Oliver. He was definitely in trouble, but with the present company, I couldn’t say anything about having a vision. I had no idea if what I had seen was past, present or future, but it had definitely been Oliver in that boot with me.
“So, where were we?” I said.
“I’m going to need his phone number, full name and any data on him,” Charlie said.
“I sent all of that to Ruby,” Teagan replied. “She can give it to you.”
Charlie frowned. “Does she look like she’s in a state to do anything right now? Just write it down here.” She handed Teagan her phone.
It took Teagan a few seconds to comply, then another minute or so to type in the details. “There. You have all you need now?”
“I’ve already copied a few of the pictures of him, so yeah, that should be enough.” Charlie accepted the phone back.
“I’d like to leave now.” Teagan pulled at Brendan’s sleeve. Her eyes were suddenly doe-like and innocent-looking.
“But Ru—”
“I said I’m fine, didn’t I?” I put on my best imitation of a smile. “It’s all right. You go with Teagan, and we can hang some other time.”
“You sure?” Brendan shook his arm away from his sister and scooted his chair closer to mine. His lips touched my earlobe as he whispered, “I happen to think you’re the sexiest girl around. If there weren’t so many people looking, I would have liked to kiss you now.”
My toes curled, and I almost turned my head to meet his lips with mine. Instead, I leaned into him and whispered back. “Another time then, milord.”
Teagan was already on her feet, her hands on her hips. Brendan excused himself, and the two of them walked away.
“Boy, am I glad to see them leave,” Charlie breathed. “Not so much him, but his sister is one giant ball of issues.”
I didn’t say anything to that, but I didn’t disagree either. “We need to talk, but not here.”
We cleared the table and carried everything into the kitchen, where I left the ice pack and thanked Brady. Afterwards, we rushed out of the café and back to Craydon, where we made ourselves comfortable in Charlie’s room.
“Shoot!” Charlie pushed back on her bed and folded her arms over a pillow.
No time like the present. “I had another vision. I’m positive that’s what it was.”
“Bananas! I can’t believe you have another power. What did you see?”
Taking a deep breath, I shifted closer to her and told her everything I had seen, including how the vision had felt, the letters on the sign and the strange-looking weathervane.
Charlie turned to her stomach, her elbows resting on the pillow. “The letters could be almost any word. I mean, how many places in England do you know that end in ‘lds’, right? But that weathervane, though, that might be our best clue.”
“It looked more like a pheasant than a rooster. Hard to explain. I can try to draw it.”
“Yes. Do that, and I’ll see if I can locate where Oliver’s phone was last online.”
Could she do that? I was such a digital airhead. “How?”
“Easy peasy. I’ll just do a trace on it. With all the information I’ve got, no problemo.”
While Charlie worked her digimagic, I retrieved a pencil and a sheet of paper from one of her drawers and tried to replicate the weathervane I had seen. I discarded the first attempt, and the second one. On the third try, however, I got it right. At least enough so that it was recognisable to anyone who might have seen it, too.
“Ladies!” Jen’s voice rang down the hall. She stuck her head inside and flashed us a grin. The sound of paper bags issued as she strolled into the room. “Aunt Jen brings presents!”
“What did you get?” Charlie eyed the bags eagerly.
“Only the perfect outfits for a stakeout. We’re going to match, Ruby Ru.” She stuffed her arm into one of the bags and pulled out a black pair of some sort of hunting trousers with multiple pockets on it, followed by a black t-shirt and a matching hoodie. Not remotely Jen-like. She cocked an eyebrow at me as if she had heard my thoughts. “It’s designer made. Might look
like nothing now, but you’ll see, once you put it on.”
“You’ll look totally badass,” Charlie said, her voice less bright than before. “Like Charlie’s Angels.” Her face lit up, and she gave herself a facepalm as the connection hit her. “That’s it! You’re my Angels, and I’m—well, I’ll be home, not exactly looking as dope as you guys.”
“No more sulking for you, young lady.” Jen chucked another bag Charlie’s way. “I got you something, too.”
“You did?” Charlie’s eyes lit up as she turned the bag on its head, the contents falling onto the pillow. I looked at it but had no way of knowing what it was.
“You’ll be our remote eyes and ears. Our technical magician. With this, you can geek out, and look great doing it.”
Charlie lifted the garment up and shook what appeared to be one single piece of black fabric with a red and yellow crest on it, a lion set proudly in the centre. She swung it around her shoulders, grinning from ear to ear.
“Where in seven ways to heaven did you get this?”
“I had it custom made. Figured you’d like it. I borrowed that old book you’ve been looking for, but you can have it back now.”
“Jeannine Lune, you’re my hero, you know that?”
Jen shrugged and sat on the windowsill.
“What is it?” I asked.
Charlie unfolded the garment and gave me a better view of the crest embroidered on it. “I think —” She squinted. “Jen, this is what I think it is?”
“As close as my guy could replicate it, anyway.” Jen winked.
Frowning, I threw my hands up. “I still don’t get it.”
Charlie laughed. “This, my sweet summer child, is a wizard’s cape.”
“Ok. But—”
“It’s from the book, silly. It doesn’t really do anything, but it looks wicked cool.”
Jen made a clicking sound with her tongue, then boxed her fist into the air. A shining piece of what looked like white gold was threaded over her fingers. A knuckle duster. Only Jen could make something like that look glamorous. “It’s for you, Ruby.”