Magic Born (9 page)

A
lex
and I ate in silence. The entire time, he watched me with pity and concern thick in his eyes. As if I already didn’t feel bad enough about injuring him, this look only increased my unease. By the time I finished eating, the movement in his shoulder had returned to normal, at least from what I could see.

“I think it’s time that I leave.” Alex’s words punched me in the gut. He couldn’t leave. I needed him too badly. He was the one who had started this entire thing.

“I told you, I’m sorry about what happened. I didn’t mean to, I promise. I’ll do anything to make it up to you, but you don’t need to leave.”

Alex reached across the table and took my hand in his. Where I was frantic energy, he was calm steadiness—more proof that I needed him to stay.

“This has nothing to do with my shoulder. I meant it when I told you not to worry about it. I don’t blame you. This has turned into something more than I ever could have imagined. It’s time for me to go back to my panther form, to get back to the wild.” He withdrew his hand and sat back in his chair. “I’ve delivered your mother’s necklace and seen you safely to a mage. That’s what I came here to do, and it’s done. We both knew I wasn’t going to stick around forever.”

Maybe I knew that on an intellectual level but certainly not on an emotional one. Tears threatened to fill my eyes, but I pushed them back with determination. I would not cry, and certainly not in front of him, a guy who I’d only known for a few days. I knew hardly anything about him, but he’d been the only safe harbor after I’d put on the necklace. Then again, he was also the person who caused the entire thing. If it weren’t for him showing up on my doorstep, I’d be back home right now playing
Wizards and Fae
, delaying making a decision about life after graduation, chatting with GreyMist, and sleeping in my own bed with a picture of my dead parents looking over me.

“So that’s it?” I let all the anger I felt pour into my voice. “You just show up at my doorstep, turn my life upside down, and then leave? You think that’s fair? You think that’s right? I was doing fine. I’d finally righted myself after the death of my parents, and then you come traipsing in, knocking everything over without a care. And now you’re going to bail on me.”

“Is not like that, Kat, and I think you know that. If being mad at me will make this easier on you, then I’m happy to be a target, but you have to know that’s not what this is. I’m a shifter, and you’re a mage. What exactly did you think was going to happen?”

I didn’t know, but all I could think about was how safe I felt with him, how much I’d grown to enjoy our time together. Friends didn’t come easily for me, and I didn’t want to let this one go.

“No, you’re right. Of course. I mean, we’re barely acquaintances.”

“Don’t be like that, Kat. We’re far more than acquaintances.”

“We’re certainly not friends. Friends don’t abandon each other.” I rose from the table and went to the bathroom, closing the door behind me. I needed a splash of cold water on my face and some time away from him. It didn’t escape me that the very reason I was so upset was because soon I’d have no time with him at all.

“Kat, come back out here. Let’s talk.” Alex knocked on the door.

The water on my face was a cold shock back to reality. I was being ridiculous, acting like a child. I dried my face and emerged from the bathroom.

“I’m sorry. You’re right, I’m being completely unreasonable. You were doing a favor for my mother, and I appreciate it. It doesn’t mean you signed up for all of this.” I stood mere inches from him. He hadn’t backed up when I exited the bathroom, and I looked up into his eyes and saw something that shocked me. I hadn’t been with anyone since my parents had died. Grief takes many shapes and forms, and everyone has their own way of dealing with it. Mine had been to retreat within myself, but I saw attraction staring back at me, familiar even after all this time. The energy between us had shifted, and I couldn’t figure out when or how. He leaned down and kissed my lips, slowly, delicately, a soft assurance. It only lasted a second, and then he pulled back.

“We’re more than acquaintances, Kat, but I can’t stay here any longer. It’s not who I am. I may not agree with Casper, but he is keeping you safe. He has a point about politics back in Elustria. That’s why I left. Things are in turmoil there.”

“But would you stay for me?” As soon as I said the words, I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me whole. “I know that’s incredibly selfish of me. It’s not like we’re dating or anything. I just…I feel safe around you, despite the fact that you are the one who started all this.” I cracked a half smile to let him know I was partly teasing.

“The thing is, Kat, I can’t trust this feeling between us. It’s not real. When I wore the medallion searching for you, it reached out to you, attracted me to you. I like you, but I can’t know how much of it is from the talisman and how much is from me. I don’t like magic interfering with my life. It’s why I stay in my panther form.”

“Wait, so you’re attracted to me, and that’s why you need to leave? That makes no sense. And if you knew all this, then what kind of dick move was it to kiss me just now?”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. If I stayed, I’d only be hurting you. I kissed you because I couldn’t not when you looked up at me like that. I’ve been attracted to you since we first met, since the first time you opened the door to your apartment and snatched the package from me. That’s not real, Kat. People don’t develop feelings like that in such a short amount of time. It’s not fair to you, and it’s certainly not fair to me, which is why I’ve tried to keep it a secret from you.

“Every instinct in my body tells me to protect you. It’s tiring. You’re safe here. Casper isn’t going to hurt you. My dislike for him probably springs from this magical attraction. I won’t have magic dictate my relationships for me. If I wanted that, I could’ve stayed in Elustria.”

“But how will I contact you?” I felt pathetic even asking. He clearly wanted to get away for me.

“I’m afraid there won’t be a way. And as for kissing you, I’m sorry. That was a dick move, but you did shoot me earlier. We’ll call it even.” He stole my half smile move and I couldn’t begrudge him the theft, not when it made him look so charming.

“No, it was good. It’s been a while for me. Thank you for everything you’ve done. Who knows, maybe someday we’ll meet again.”

“Yeah, maybe someday.”

There we stood, in the middle of my room, and nothing had ever felt more awkward. “I wish you the best.”

“You too. Once you and Casper figure out how to get that necklace off, don’t let my attitude dissuade you from magic. You could be great. And I’m sorry again for the kiss. It’s been a long time for me too. Take care of yourself.”

“You too.” We stood in silence until the awkwardness was so suffocating that I was desperate to break it. Then he turned and walked out of the room, leaving me alone.

I
shed more
than a few tears after Alex left. He’d been the one constant through this entire ordeal, and I no longer had his strength to lean on. When I’d cried myself out, I took a nap, determined to clear my mind and get a fresh start. An hour later, I woke with renewed determination and went downstairs.

I found Casper sitting in the living room with his back to me, speaking with a man whose face appeared in an orb that floated at eye level.

“It looks like you have a visitor.” The man nodded to me and then his face disappeared and the orb shrank to the size of a marble.

Casper grabbed the communication orb and put it in his pocket as he stood and faced me. “I was wondering if you’d come back down tonight now that Alex has left us.”

After so much time with Alex, I had feared it would be awkward to be alone with Casper, but he seemed to shine in the absence of competition. The charming, lovable founder of Magical Games, Inc. and the creator of
Wizards and Fae
stood before me. The only difference between the Casper I knew and the Casper I’d seen in the media was that this one continued to wear the clothing and robes of Elustria. He wore them with authority, as if they were his natural habitat and the custom suits he wore to work were merely a costume.

“I have a lot of work to do. I can’t afford to waste time.”

Casper smiled. “That’s the attitude. You’re so like your mother. Let’s go into the library. I’ve seen you eyeing it.”

Casper took a seat in the throne chair behind the desk, and I curled up with my legs under me on one of the brown leather chairs. The library had a cozy feel lacking in the rest of the building. Sliding wooden doors closed behind us, hiding the room from view with a gesture from Casper.

“I’ll be able to be more open with you now. Don’t mistake me, I liked Alex, but he’s a shifter and I can’t reveal all the secrets of the mages to him. It would go against the oath of my order.”

“Your order?”

“Yes, I belong to the order of the Dinathion, the same as your mother. It’s an ancient order of mages. I’m a descendant of that bloodline. It’s why I wear these robes: they’re to signify my order. I don’t choose to wear a color that clashes so harshly with my hair.”

The red of his robes did clash in an unattractive manner with his red hair. It only worked because of the confidence with which he wore it. “So there are things you weren’t telling me because Alex was here?”

“There are hundreds of things I didn’t tell you because Alex was here. That’s why you’ve been confined to this small part of the Armory. I’m sure Alex could have been trusted, especially since he seems like the type to stay Earthside, but the habit of keeping mage secrets is too ingrained. We guard our magic. It’s the most precious thing we have.”

Maybe Alex leaving had been for the best. I hated to be happy in his absence, but it was a fact I needed to deal with, so I might as well look on the bright side. “I’ve been wanting to have a look around. Would you show me now?”

“I finally bring you into the library you’ve wanted for so long and it’s made you want more.”

“It’s not that. I’m sure I could spend ages in here and not even notice the time passing. After my nap, I just want to stretch my legs.” I needed the movement to help me not think of Alex. Sitting in here, my thoughts could easily wander to how it had felt to ride on his velvety back across the border and kiss him upstairs. It was nonsense. Kissing was always fun, especially after such a dry spell. That’s all it was. As he had said, any attraction between us had been purely magical—uh, wrong connotation. Coerced might be a better adjective than magical.

“I’ll take you to the heart of the operation.” Casper opened the doors and led the way to the teleportation ring we had arrived in.

I stepped into the circle with him and held his hand, remembering back to the instructions he’d given me the first time. My eyes closed and my body was squeezed tight just as before, tighter and tighter, the pressure building until it released all at once, and I opened my eyes to an enormous room that could very well be in an entirely different building.

“Welcome to the tracking room.”

My eyes couldn’t make sense of what I saw—a strange mixture of the technological and the archaic. My mind wandered to a discussion I’d seen online about the blurred line between advanced science and magic. In front of me hung a giant map of the world covering every inch of the wall. Little dots glowed and extinguished on it like fireflies, but it wasn’t an electronic screen as I would expect at the headquarters of Magical Games. Instead, the map was a giant woven tapestry that appeared ancient. My mind couldn’t reconcile the fabric with the lights that moved about it.

In front of the tapestry were four long desks, two on each side of the room, equipped with the latest computers as well as items that appeared more magical in nature. Two women whispered around a computer with the man who had spoken to Casper through the communication orb earlier.

“What is this?” I asked.

“This is the heart of the Armory, and it’s thanks to your mother. She’s the only person I’ve ever known whose ambition rivaled my own, but I’m not embarrassed to admit that on my best day I couldn’t compete with her. She helped set up all this. The map tracks latent mages.”

“So are latent mages like me common?”

“Oh yes, although you’re a unique case, given your provenance.”

“How do you find them?”

“I would’ve thought you’d figured that out by now: the game.”

The first time I’d formed ice was while performing the quest line in-game, but that didn’t have anything to do with the game. I just happened to be playing after I put on the necklace. Given how much time I spent in-game, there had to be like a ninety percent chance the first time my magic would show itself would be while playing.

“I don’t understand.”

“The whole point of the game is for us to identify humans who have the spark of magic. Anyone who has a spark is a mage as long as the spark is strong enough to activate. I’m the one who came up with the idea, but your mother’s the one who discovered the enchantment to place on the game. That’s what the daily quests are. The language in them is designed to trigger the magic, usually through low-level spells. The Aquanight quest line appears to those whose spark has activated through the daily quests in order to give us a better reading on how strong their spark is. Of course, more people than just potential mages get the quest line, but its true purpose is to reveal our kind who are unknowingly among humans.”

“But that makes no sense. I’ve been playing the game for ages. If I was a mage with the spark, shouldn’t the game have caught it sooner?”

“Like I said, you’re a rare case. I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that your mother stripped your spark and put it into the talisman. That’s why we never found you until after you put the talisman on. Your mother wanted you hidden away. She knew the dangers of the path she was taking, and she didn’t want you to be tracked. If she had left you with your spark, someone other than me could’ve found you.”

The knowledge that my mother worked so closely with Casper reaffirmed my decision to stay. She wanted me here.

“But why? Why do all this?”

“The balance of power in Elustria is fragile on the best of days. I’m here recruiting mages to join us. We find someone, they win the trip to Magical Games headquarters, and then I bring them here, much like I did with you, though I usually move much slower. Once here, we train them how to use magic and then take them to Elustria. It’s our goal to outnumber the sorcerers in Elustria. We are in a constant struggle with them, striving for our rights.”

“So the sorcerers oppress mages?”

“They feel more entitled to use magic. Sorcerers don’t like the thought of mages becoming powerful or of our numbers growing. It’s why they guard the portals between the worlds so closely. We have to monitor the fabric between our worlds very carefully, passing through only when we are confident it’s safe.”

“So you have other people here like me, learning to use magic?”

“Yes, and now that Alex is gone, you can join them.”

The idea of learning in front of other people after my disastrous results so far was enough to throw my stomach into a tizzy. “I wouldn’t want to disrupt their learning.”

Casper saw right through me. “Don’t worry. Your path has taken a different turn. Your powers are much stronger than those of the trainees we have here. It wouldn’t be fair to make a comparison. Besides, our focus has been removing the talisman, not magic. We haven’t had the luxury of moving slowly the way I would have liked had you come to me under normal circumstances.”

“That night I beat the quest line, how did you know I was Meglana’s daughter?”

“I’d recognize that magic anywhere. It’s unique, even in a world of magic. The longer you spend around other mages, the more you’ll realize it. Your mother took all her accumulated power and knowledge and put it into the talisman. You see these little flickers of light on the map?” A faint light appeared over Sweden, and another over India, and a brighter light appeared in Mexico. “Your light made it impossible to see anything else. It was nearly blinding. I knew then that it was you. Maybe that was just hope, wishful thinking. Once I tracked you from one of our terminals, there was no mistaking the magic.”

The three people huddling around one of the terminals took turns eyeing me. The attention was unnerving, especially since I didn’t understand the source of their fascination. Casper noticed and walked me over to the trio. As soon as they saw us approaching, they focused squarely on us. The brunette had large blue eyes and an easy smile framed by her soft curls. The other woman was slighter but all harsh lines and sharp angles: from her bleach-blonde pixie cut to her high cheekbones and the firm line of her lips. Between the women towered a man who seemed the perfect mix of the two. His dark hair was cropped short, and while he shared the build of the blonde, his face had the welcoming expression of the brunette. All three of them wore the same type of clothing that Casper did underneath his robes. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what made them different. I suppose there was no reason the clothing they wore couldn’t be from Earth, except I knew it wasn’t. It gave me the same feeling as steampunk: a familiarity with reality, but not quite genuine.

“Kat, allow me to introduce you to Sadie, Analise, and Mikael, sometimes collectively known as the triplets, even though they’re just siblings. They were here the night you were discovered.” He spoke about me as if I were a country claimed in the name of mages everywhere.

Sadie stepped forward, her hand outstretched. “It’s an honor to meet you, Kat. Casper wasn’t exaggerating. The night we found you, you lit up the entire wall. I’ve never seen anything like it. We’re all excited to get to know you more. Your mother was a legend, a real freedom fighter. We can’t wait to see what you’re capable of.”

Her handshake and smile immediately put me at ease despite the weight she added to the expectations I already felt from Casper. Her sister, on the other hand, gave a barely noticeable nod then pointedly turned and walked away.

“Welcome. Don’t mind Analise.” Mikael shook my hand, furthering the appearance that he was a balance between both women: welcoming, but not as vivacious as Sadie while not being as curt as Analise.

“We’ll see you at dinner when I’m done giving the tour.” Casper nodded to the trio, and they went back to work. He seemed to know that I didn’t need any more pressure than I already felt. On our way back to the teleportation ring, he leaned in so the others wouldn’t hear. “Don’t let their excitement make you nervous. Their parents were both killed fighting for our cause.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I’m confused though, what exactly is our cause?”

“Our cause is the cause of all mages. We’re at constant conflict with the sorcerers in Elustria. They don’t believe people on Earth who are born with the spark should be allowed to join the rank of mages. We believe it is their birthright and that no one should deny it to them. The sorcerers are doing everything they can to diminish our power. For millennia they’ve controlled much of Elustria, and they don’t want our numbers to grow. People like your mother and I strongly believe that magic should be available to all those who are willing to study and work for it.”

“So in Elustria, people are killed over political disagreements?”

“The triplets’ mother and father were killed by a sorcerer assassin while here on Earth looking for ancient artifacts. At different times throughout history, mages and other magical creatures have traveled to Earth. There are magical relics all over the world, such as the talisman you now wear. My talisman is another such relic.” He held his hand up so the ring was in clear view. “The sorcerers will stop at nothing to make sure that mages are oppressed and unable to access our full potential. The thought that we might be as powerful as they are scares them. They’ve gone so far as to send assassins to Earth, train them in physical combat, and kill mages without the use of magic so that we can’t track them.”

The insidiousness of the tactics used by the sorcerers made me sick. My mother had died at the hand of one of these assassins, maybe even the same one who killed the triplets’ parents. “Do they know who killed them?”

“No, but they’ve dedicated their lives to making sure their parents didn’t die in vain.”

And here I was, playing tourist in their home and wanting my mother’s necklace removed so I’d have the option to walk away. As we stepped into the teleportation ring, I looked at Analise working at one of the terminals on the far side of the room. If I were her, I’d hate me too.