Magic Resistant (35 page)

Her parents and siblings still had no idea
and hopefully never would. She trusted them to protect her, but she
didn’t want the weight of responsibility on them, smothering them
as surely as it smothered her.

Another thought floated to the surface, the
one she tried to grasp while lying between life and death. “That’s
how you knew what to look for when we dropped the barrier.
Something was off to me about the whole situation, but I couldn’t
put a finger on it. I can’t believe you’ve known!”

“Since the day Keeper introduced us, just
after they tested you. We both concealed the results. He said he
wanted to teach you magic.” Markus glared at Keeper, his black eyes
snapping in quiet rage, menace oozing from him. “He told me nothing
about him being resistant or about being related to you.”

“Well, doesn’t it feel horrible to be lied
to? I have no damn sympathy for you. Neither one of you had the
right to lie to me about something so important.” She raged at both
of them.

Rounding on Markus, she spit out, “Do you
realize how many times I wanted to talk to you, Markus, about my
lack of abilities? But I didn’t because I mistakenly thought you
didn’t know anything about it.”

She turned on Keeper, furious anger dripping
from her words. “And how could you keep your magic resistant and
being my grandfather from me? Why? Why did you do that?”

“I knew what a burden it was for you to keep
silent about yourself. I didn’t want to add to that. Imagine trying
to hide from everyone that the Keeper was resistant. As a small
child, it would have been tempting to use it as proof resistant
didn’t mean powerless or evil. One slip and we both would have
died. Or at least, many would have died trying to take me out."

He leaned back in his chair, running a tired
hand across his face. Weariness and sorrow palpable from him.
Dragging his hand through his hair, he glanced at each of them,
resolve hardening his face.

“Do you three remember the mage, Gregori? The
one who caused the war on resistant mages back in the late 1500s?”
When they all nodded, he continued, his voice thick with anguish.
“He was my son and I killed him.”

“Oh shit. You had to kill your son?” Julia
covered her mouth, horrified. Bad enough having a war waged by
flesh and blood, but to kill him to end the war?

“I didn’t know I had a son until he was well
into his first century of life. His mother hid him from me,
disappeared without a word to me about her pregnancy. Imagine my
shock when he showed up one day with his heavily pregnant wife,
Geneva. She was having twins. Which meant, depending on the
superstitions you believed, she had laid with a demon or the Fae
added one of their own children into her womb." He broke off, his
fingers digging into the leather arm of his chair. His face stayed
calm, no indication of the livid rage Julia sensed in him.

“She’d had a difficult time with the
pregnancy and the mage doctors refused to help her, worried about
what she carried. Her main issue was malnutrition. She wasn’t
getting enough fresh vegetables in her diet, not all that uncommon
for the sixteenth century. With my position as Keeper, I had access
to a wide variety of food and the twins were born a few months
later, fully healthy. I didn’t realize until centuries later how
lucky we were for their births. Most twins don’t make it to full
term or there are complications during the labour. The twins were
fine and so was their mother.

“However, postpartum depression wasn’t
something we understood back then. She didn’t touch the twins
unless she had to, didn’t respond to their cries, didn’t
acknowledge them. She withdrew into herself and nothing we did
reached her. A year after their birth, she drowned herself. Just
walked into the river and never came back out."

He closed his eyes and Julia's heart ached
for him. What should've been a happy time for him turned into a
nightmare. A moment of silence passed as he struggled with the
memories. When he opened his eyes, they were bright with unshed
tears.

“Gregori went crazy. Blamed the mages for
ignoring her, for putting fears into her head about the babies.
Soon after, he started killing them. When it was clear the mages
couldn’t stop him, I had to step in. No one knew he was my son, no
one knew the twins had survived. So I hunted him down. I tried to
reason with him initially, but he didn’t want to listen. He said
vengeance was the only thing he had left now. Looking at the twins
tortured him, reminded of all he'd lost, of his darling wife
Geneva. I had no choice. I walked up to my only child and I put a
knife into his heart. His shielding had run out and he’d been
vulnerable. I killed my only son.” Silent tears fell and Keeper
took a few moments to pull himself together.

Julia openly wept for his pain, fat tears
streaking down her cheeks and dripping onto her chest. Still angry
at him for his deception, she understood now why he did it.

No one spoke for several minutes, each lost
in their own thoughts. Julia held tight to Jackson’s hand, grateful
for his strength and resilience.

Not wanting to open the old wounds any
deeper, but needing to know, she asked “What happened to the twins?
I’ve never heard anything about you having children.”

Taking a deep breath, he scrubbed away the
tears. “I had to give the twins away. I never told the adopted
parents who they were or what happened to their parents.
Thankfully, they were fraternal twins, so it was easy to pass them
off as siblings. The girl was magic resistant and your
great-grandmother. She was able to pass as a dabbler. The boy was
an average mage. You’re the only other resistant one in our line.
For a rare genetic anomaly, it had a field day with our
family.”

Keeper sighed, a little more peaceful. “They
had a happy childhood. I stopped by regularly stating I was a
friend of their parents. I made sure they wanted for nothing.”

She smiled, thinking of her great-grandmother
and great-uncle. Both had married early in life, each having
several children with their spouses. Julia’s family sprawled across
Canada, numbering in the hundreds thanks to aunts, uncles, cousins
and in-laws. Once a year, they had a reunion, spearheaded by her
great-grandmother.

Mulling over the past events, a niggling
question in the back of her mind distracted her, demanding her
attention.

“Markus said you found a way to trace me, one
I can’t shake. How’d you do it?”

“When you were younger, we preformed the
ritual for a blood bond. I used it to track you when no one else
could.” Keeper confessed.

“That’s illegal! Blood bonds are outlawed.
Has been for centuries.” Jackson exclaimed.

“So is being magic resistant. Either way, I’m
dead.” Keeper retorted. “If they found a way to kill me, that is. I
needed to know my granddaughter was safe and I don’t care what
rules I broke.”

Julia sighed and figured it didn’t hurt her.
When they’d preformed the ritual so long ago, she’d been unaware of
its purpose. Didn’t matter though, she trusted him. She doubted
he’d ever use it against her. He’d put a lot of time and energy
into keeping her safe. Plus, what was one more secret amongst so
many others.

Which reminded her of another point to
discuss.

“What about the other thing?” She asked him.
“Jackson already guessed I can do it, but that’s all I’ve told
him.”

“Only you and I know about it. Well, now
Jackson too, I guess.” Keeper confirmed her fears.

More lies, more hiding, more skeletons
dancing in the closet. When would it stop? She didn’t expect to
tell the world. She wasn’t stupid or suicidal. These men though,
she trusted with her life. No matter how angry she was with them,
they loved her and deserved the truth.

The lies ended now. Time to come clean.

“I want your permission to tell. I want you
to release me from the promise.”

Understanding spread across Jackson’s face
and his brown eyes lit up in wonder and excitement. Quick on the
upkeep, he figured out Keeper had taught her.

Keeper nodded reluctantly. While he’d rather
this stayed under wraps, there was no reason to hide it from
Markus. Staying silent about her resistance, covering it up and
modifying the tests showed how far he’d go to protect her. When he
consumed part of his life force to heal her, he’d proven his
loyalty. Once given, it was forever.

“Jackson already knows some of this and now
suspects the rest. Markus, what do you know about imbued items?”
She asked.

“No one’s imbued any items for the past two
centuries or more. I had some as a child, but they’ve since lost
their magic. The art itself forgotten over the centuries.”

Julia removed her emerald stud earring and
handed it to Markus. She hasn’t used any of its Glide spell and it
hummed with energy. He gave her a puzzled look as he extended his
hand which rapidly changed to amazement when he realized what he
held.

“This is imbued! How did you get one with
several charges? Who recently made it?” He closely examined the
earring although she wasn’t sure what he expected to find.

No logo or manufacturer's stamp adorned it.
No magic signature either. After the imbuing, any personal
signature disappeared. There was no difference between her items
and Keeper’s. They both felt the same to anyone examining them.

“I did it. In fact, it would have been about
3 months ago I put the spell into that earring. Took me over a
decade to learn how to do it, but I was sworn to secrecy about the
imbuing. I’m sure you can guess by whom.”

Markus tilted his head towards Keeper and
gave him a silent glare.

How much damage did these revelations
cause their friendship?
Julia wondered.

“Can you teach me, now that you’re released
from your promise?” Jackson questioned, his expression hopeful. She
wondered how long it would take for him to ask. She bit her lip to
keep from smiling. He was adorably predictable when it came to
learning something new.

Julia hated dashing his dreams though and
gave him an apologetic smile as she replied, “I’m not able to train
anyone as to how it’s done. Honestly, I don’t think I’d be able to
train anyone even if Keeper would let me. It’s a complicated
process and I’m not surprised it’s a dying art.”

Keeper interrupted, “It’s a dying art because
the ones who can do it are almost all dead. Only magic resistant
mages can imbue. There’s something about the way magic interacts
with us that allows the item to accept the spell. Normal mages have
too much power and overload the gem. They’ll consistently break. I
don’t completely understand the reasons why we can do it and the
other mages can’t, but that’s the way it is. I’ve tried to train
many mages over the years and only the magic resistant ones can do
it. Of course, after the wholesale slaughter of our kind, there
haven’t been many to train. It’s been over a hundred years since
I’ve had the chance to teach it. Julia's been an apt pupil. She
learned faster than others."

When she snorted in disbelief, he continued,
"It's true. Most took over twenty years to learn. You took just
over ten. Sadly you may be the last one I'll teach. There’re so few
of us left and most are living as humans, hiding their heritage.
Many don’t bother practicing magic as they don’t want to draw
attention to themselves. As long as they stay away from Enforcers,
they’re etheric won’t betray them. Civilian mages aren’t well
versed in sensing other races. Over the years, I’ve had the
opportunity to meet a few of them although they had no idea who I
was. I didn’t want to scare them into deeper hider or let the
Coterie know where they were. At least some of us survived the
hatred and bigotry of our race.”

The pain in his eyes tugged at her. He’d live
through so much, witnessed countless deaths and survived wars.
Reaching out, she squeezed his hand. A hug would’ve been
uncomfortable.

They didn’t have that kind of relationship,
no matter that he was her grandfather. She doubted it would change
any time soon as their kinship needed to stay hidden. An emotional
and physical distance needed to be maintained.

Chapter Thirty

“SO, DOES ANYONE
else have anything to share? You know, since we’re having so much
fun with circle time.” Jackson asked, trying to break some of the
heavy sadness that hung in the air.

Grimly, Markus half-raised his hand,
indicating he did. Casually leaning back, legs sprawled, he fiddled
with the emerald earring. An air of somber detachment made him more
sinister than usual.

“What? I was kidding. Seriously, don’t tell
me.” When Markus continued to stare at him, he had a bad feeling
this didn’t have anything to do with Julia.

“I don’t want to hear this, do I?” He sighed,
wishing this day was over already. He scrubbed at his face before
leaning back on the couch. What bad news would Markus impart? Did
he really want to hear it? In bed with Julia, reassured she was
truly safe and whole, that’s all he wanted. Was that too much to
ask?

Markus jumped right into it, not by a flicker
of an eyelash did he betray the impact of his words. “I’m the one
who framed you for the demon summoning.”

At first, Jackson didn’t comprehend what he
said, it was so outlandish. His mouth hung open, completely
shocked.

Then the rage took over.

Blinded by it, the urge to rip Markus apart
overwhelmed him. “What?! You son of a bitch! Do you have any idea
the hell I’ve gone through? I’m gonna fucking kill you!”

Jackson lunged for him and found himself
unable to move. Damn it! He’d forgotten how powerful Markus was.
Less than a second and he’d casted a hold spell. The fire faded
from Markus’ eyes as he stared, solemn and unimpressed, at the now
frozen Jackson.

“Is this true?” Julia demanded, whirling to
face Markus.