Casually Cursed (12 page)

“Hello, loves. Fancy meeting you here,” she said cheerfully.

“C’mon over here, darlin’,” Zach said. “Lemme bend your ear.”

Her smile widened, causing a deep dimple in each cheek. “I like it right here near the door, so no one can slip out. But you can bring that big buff body to me.”

Zach nodded for Bryn to take over watching the window, and Zach walked to her. He bent forward and his blond curls nearly matched hers for color. When she cocked her head, though, I thought I spotted darker roots. Not her natural color then, which, of course, didn’t matter. Her magic was the only thing I should’ve cared about. I couldn’t help but notice the way she pressed her big boobs against Zach as he leaned in, talking to her. He was at least a foot taller, so they hit him around his six-pack. I scowled. When he put a hand on her back, I’d had enough. She was the enemy, after all.

“Um, what are you guys talking about?” I asked, giving her a little shove to widen the space between them.

“Nothing much,” Zach said. “I was just telling her I like her style.” Zach pulled Poppy against him and turned her like they were going to twirl right around the store doing a two-step.

My jaw dropped as they moved across the aisle. Then her smile disappeared, and she jerked her arm. When she couldn’t raise it, I darted over to have a better look. I hadn’t heard the click, but apparently he’d handcuffed her to a rack.

“You can’t be serious,” she snapped. “I may be blood-and-bones magic, but I can certainly cast a rudimentary spell to get myself out of a pair of human handcuffs.”

He grinned. “I really do you like your style, darlin’. Stay out of trouble. Tammy Jo, Lyons, let’s go.”

Poppy murmured a spell, and then her face scrunched. “What is this? What?”

“Move it,” Zach said, shoving me out the door.

She raised her free arm and started to cast. Bryn thrust me out the doorway, and the three of us ducked around the side of the building.

“Those weren’t regular handcuffs, huh?” I asked.

“Nah. Special issue,” he said, shrugging his brows.

Bryn led the way between buildings, casting a spell to cloak us, but it bent away from Zach, who’d taken out his amulet. After he’d learned that there was an underground of supernatural creatures and magic was real, he’d gone to train as a human champion. I didn’t know what the training had been like; he kept the details secret, whether by his choice or because the people who’d trained him told him to. One thing that I had become acquainted with was a gold amulet with a purple stone that defended him against magic.

Unfortunately, the amulet’s power was strong and aggressive. It gave me a headache to be near it, and when it was activated it could even burn my skin.

“You don’t have to bring that out yet,” I said, shielding my eyes from its bright reflection.

“Walk ahead of me if it’s too close,” Zach said.

I frowned, but did as he suggested. It seemed the distance between Zach and me was getting bigger in every way. I caught Bryn watching me out of the corner of his eye and decided that, maybe for the moment, some distance was for the best.

WHEN WE SLIPPED
into the Duke pub on Duke Street, where the literary pub crawl would begin, Zach put the amulet away. Bryn had Guinness, Zach had a beer I’d never heard of, and I had a half a pint of hard cider.

Zach ignored us, his eyes trained on the window. Bryn cast glances out, but split his attention between me, the window, and the surroundings. When the back of his hand brushed mine, I laced our fingers together under the table.

“Thank you,” he whispered without looking at me.

I smiled and squeezed his hand. “Welcome,” I whispered back, stealing a glance at Zach, who seemed not to even know we were there anymore. It was an act, of course. I wished Edie were there to distract him. And to distract us and anyone else who might be in hearing distance.

“I wonder how Edie and Andre are doing,” I said.

“I’m sure they’re all right,” Bryn said absently. “Those are the pub crawl actors.” Bryn nodded to a pair of men in black bowler hats. “Let’s go upstairs.”

“I’ll wait here,” Zach said.

“Don’t forget that the window’s glass works both ways,” Bryn said to Zach. “You can see out. They can see in.”

“Thanks for the tip,” Zach said in a pancake-flat tone.

“Maybe we should all stay down here. If the Conclave members come up the stairs, we’ll be stuck,” I said.

“I’m thinking of Kismet,” Bryn said. “We haven’t seen her. She might be upstairs already. She likes that vantage point. Up above,” he said, glancing at the ceiling.

“She does like being up high, but that’s in trees,” I mused. “Can’t hurt to check if she’s there, though.”

Upstairs, the cozy room was already nearly full, and the two men in hats were greeting people and telling jokes. I smiled. “This would be lots of fun if we weren’t having to hide out from the Conclave and such,” I said.

Bryn nodded with a slight smile. “This is not exactly the Irish vacation I planned to show you.”

“Yeah, seems like something unexpected is always happening. I suppose we should expect it.”

He laughed softly. “I guess.”

Kismet wasn’t upstairs, but Bryn bought our tickets.

“I want one of those,” I whispered, pointing to a souvenir program. He raised his brows. “Yes,” I said emphatically. “On account of the fact that I’m a visitor in Ireland, and this might be the only tour I get to go on. Maybe we’ll get hung up in the Nev—you know where—and these guys in hats will have retired by the time we come back.”

Bryn frowned. “Let’s try not to think that way,” he said, but he bought me a booklet anyway. I couldn’t resist flipping through it as they ushered us downstairs to have a drink and be on our way.

I’d never been on a pub crawl before, let alone one about writers. I wasn’t sure why they called it a crawl. Maybe it was because some people had to crawl home after drinking in every pub along the way. I wasn’t fixing to get drunk. We needed to keep our wits about us.

At each stop, the actors did a skit and gave a little talk, sharing stories about famous Irish writers. Then we went inside for a pint of beer or cider. In my case, I stuck with half pints. Zach followed the group, but stayed back from us, his gaze constantly scanning. Bryn had a different style. I knew he was also vigilant, but he was subtle about it. Every few moments I’d feel a thread of his magic drift outward, searching for signs of other magic that might be closing around us.

The actors were sure funny. Pretty soon I was only half paying attention to the street, because I was laughing and watching their performance. Bryn, it turned out, already knew all about the writers they were mentioning, and he joined in with quick, funny comments when the actors asked the audience questions.

When we reached Trinity College, Bryn led me away from the group. They stood out front while we slipped into a quiet, dark square. There were grand old buildings, and I bet in daylight it was even more impressive to see.

“If I’d lived in Ireland in my teens and twenties, this is where I would’ve gone to school,” he said. “We visited here often when I spent summers in Dublin. And members of the W.U., including me, have left things in the square.”

My mouth dropped open. The W.U. was the Wizard’s Underground, a secret organization dedicated to stopping WAM from doing unethical things to its members.

Bryn led me to a bike rack. He glanced at the sky and then around before twisting one of the rungs on the rack. I felt dozens of tendrils of magic emerge. My eyes widened.

“Hello, there, Tammy, darlin’,” Kismet’s voice called. I turned as she emerged from the shadows with a book tucked under her arm.

“Hi! There you are,” I said. “I was starting to worry.”

“No need for that. I can take care of myself.”

“What have you got there?” I asked, nodding at her book. It wasn’t a little souvenir program like what I had, that was for sure. It was a hardcover that looked older than both of us put together.

“Oh, this is a little gift for Her selfish Highness.”

“Did you steal it?” I asked, frowning. It was pretty late, and I doubted my sister, the fae assassin, had a library card for a human school.

“No. Mind you, I could have.” She shrugged her brows. “No security’s good enough to keep me out, do I want to get in.”

I cocked my head and realized that when she said, “do I want to get in,” she meant “if I want to get in.” She had a funny way of talking sometimes.

“But,” she continued breezily, “I don’t steal from students. And I won’t take their valuables for her if there’s just one copy of something. I make sure I only get the double of something, and the lesser one. Don’t tell her, though. She thinks I only bring her the best.”

“I definitely won’t tell her. I don’t think she should be getting copies of rare books, even the lesser copies. Those belong to the school.”

“Aye, well, she wants what she wants. And usually gets what she wants. And remember, it’s you who insisted we go in there. I can’t come empty-handed.”

Bryn was walking along one of the buildings, running his hand over the brick wall.

“What are you doing, Bryn?” I asked.

“Looking for a mark we left,” he said softly. “Here.” He scraped off some loose cement between bricks, and I smelled his magic and tasted something sweet and strong.

“Sealed with whiskey cream,” he said with a smile when I licked my lips.

“Two things you can count on the Irish for . . . drunkenness and rebellion,” a voice said.

We spun as Kato stepped into the courtyard, a gun pointed at us. I jerked my head toward where Kismet had been, but she’d melted into the shadows. I bit my lip. Where was she?

“We heard the Wizard’s Underground had concealed magic on the grounds of Trinity College,” Kato continued.

“I stored magic here when I was a teenager training in magic,” Bryn said. “Nothing to do with an underground, if one exists.”

Gusts of wind blew around Kato, and I shivered. “Don’t point that gun at us,” I said. “It’s wet out. Your finger might slip.”

“It might,” he agreed. “On your knees, Lyons. I’m taking the girl.”

In a blink, Kismet came from behind him and put a dagger to his throat. “Hello, wizard,” she said in a soft voice that could barely be heard above the wind. “Drop your arms and your weapon, or I’ll drop your whole body.” Her eyes shone a tawny green in the darkness, with flecks of gold that glowed. She’d never looked more catlike than at that moment, all grace and deadly purpose.

“Who and what are you, girly?” Kato asked, lowering his arms as he tried to see her over his shoulder.

“Kis!” I said, spotting fuzzy curls bouncing up behind her.

“What have we here?” Poppy said with a giggle.

Bryn raised a hand at the same time Poppy did. He pushed me aside, and I felt a barrier of Bryn’s magic slide in front of us, but not before Bryn sucked in a sharp breath that told me he’d felt her blast of magic. Her assault spell had been meant for me. My head jerked to look at him, and he clutched his throat. I felt a slight burning in my own throat.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

Zach rushed into the courtyard, his shirt open, amulet blazing. “Trouble’s coming down the street,” he called, but stopped when he saw Poppy and Kato. She whirled toward him, raising an arm.

“Don’t—” Zach warned, but she flung magic.

It bounced off the amulet and boomeranged back toward her. She was seized by a fit of coughing that brought her to her knees.

“Come on,” Zach said, waving for us to move.

Bryn and I jogged to Zach.

“Good night,” Kismet said, making a thin slice on Kato’s neck. He sucked in a breath, but no blood gushed. There were just a few small beads that welled on his skin.

A moment later his eyes rolled back, and his body crumpled to a heap at Kismet’s feet. Without missing a beat, she slid her dagger into a sheath on her small leather backpack and walked away from the fallen Kato.

“Is he—?”

She shook her head. “Just unconscious. A sedative poison on the knife. I introduced it with a nick from the blade.”

“Are you okay?” I asked Bryn, who cleared his throat as we all left the Trinity grounds.

“Yes,” Bryn said, then swallowed. I swallowed, too, but my throat felt okay.

“Stay close to the wall,” Zach said, guiding us so the crowd with the pub crawl blocked the view of us from the street.

The drizzle worsened, prompting the group’s umbrellas to whoosh open.

Bryn looked over his shoulder as we hurried around a corner. A streak of lightning lit the sky for a moment, and Bryn’s eyes narrowed. “I can feel his power from here, so he can probably feel ours, too.”

“Another wizard? Wait here for me,” Kismet said, pulling her bow out from under the back of the long black oversize sweater she wore over her T-shirt and skirt.

“Hang on,” I said, clutching her arm. “Let’s just go.”

“Why would we run from a lone wizard?”

“Because we don’t want to kill him. Or for him to kill us. We just want to get away.”

She scowled. “When people chase me through a city, I stop them.” She glanced around. “There aren’t enough trees to make it a fun game.”

“The hotel’s this way,” Zach said.

I nodded. “Come on, Kismet. Let’s stay together.” I hooked my arm through hers and pulled her against my side. “Sisters stick with each other.”

A smile stretched her mouth toward her ears. “Yes, all right.” She gave a little nod. “Sisters,” she whispered, still smiling.

I smiled, too, feeling happier than was logical. We were being chased by Conclave operatives, and if we managed to escape them, we were going out of the frying pan into the fire in the form of the Never. The last thing I should be doing was smiling, but when you’ve got friends and family close at your side, things don’t feel as bad.

*   *   *

WE RETURNED TO
the van. When I slid the door open, I had to shake my head at Mercutio, who wanted to hop out.

“Sorry, Merc. We loaded our stuff earlier so that we could get right out of town when we found Kismet.”

Mercutio made a dissatisfied noise, but eased back inside.

“Where are we heading?” Bryn asked, climbing into the driver’s seat.

“Do you know the way to Killarney?”

“Of course,” Bryn said. “I’m Irish.”

She grinned. “All right there, candy man. Stay sweet.”

“Candy man?” I asked.

“Well, no one’s got candy legs, have they? Where is she, by the way? I thought our aunt meant to come along,” Kismet said as she and I climbed into the back and Zach got in the front passenger seat.

“Edie told you that?” I demanded. “She didn’t tell me.”

Kismet shrugged. “Maybe she thought you’d tell her to stay home.”

“I might have. And if she’d been smart, she would have. Now she’s been captured by the World Association of Magic, and she’s a prisoner.”

“What’s that you say?” Kis said, grabbing the handle of the door that she’d just closed.

“She’s in London. Eventually we have to go back there to get her, but we’re going to the Never first.”

Kismet tilted her head thoughtfully. “Easier to get her out of a human stronghold than the Never. She’s safe there, do you think? Till we can come back for her?”

“I think so,” I said. “They want us to get this artifact for them. We’re supposed to trade it.”

Kismet nodded. “So she’ll be all right till you come then. Good enough.”

“But we haven’t got the relic they want.”

Kismet waved this detail away. “I like her. I’ll get her.”

I blinked. “Getting into WAM headquarters won’t be like sneaking into a college library. They have a lot of safeguards against all kinds of magical creatures. Right, Bryn?”

“Definitely,” he said, sounding a little hoarse.

I felt a tickle in my own throat. “Does your throat hurt?” I asked.

“A little,” he admitted. “I may stop by an A and E in Killarney.”

“What’s an A and E?”

“Accident and emergency.”

“Oh.” I nodded. “Will medicine work on a magical illness?”

“It will work on something like an infected throat. This may even just be laryngitis, which would get better without intervention. Poppy didn’t panic when the spell she cast at Zach came back and hit her. She went to her knees coughing, but she didn’t look scared, so the spell must not have been too dangerous.”

“Why would she be scared? Even if it was a deadly spell, she could just heal herself with her blood-and-bones magic.”

Bryn shook his head. “That’s usually easier said than done. Most blood-and-bones witches can’t cast on themselves. It’s thought that it’s a protective thing. That way they don’t accidently hurt themselves while developing their powers. The ones who could cast on themselves likely died out years ago.”

“Huh,” I said. “So far, as Conclave members go, Poppy’s not so bad. She hasn’t betrayed us or tried to kill us. According to Van Noten, she’s really powerful, but she didn’t hit us with any really nasty spells. She’s a little too flirty with guys, in my opinion, but of all the Conclave operatives I’ve met, she’s my favorite. If I see her again, I may tell her so.”

Bryn laughed and then rubbed his throat. “You are one of a kind.”

“Actually no. Two of a kind,” I said, pointing at Kismet.