Burned by Magic (20 page)

“Hey,” Iannis said casually to a pair of young male humans wearing band t-shirts and shredded pants sitting next to us. “You two studying at the Academy?”

“Yeah.” The human closest to us lifted his can of beer in greeting. He was lean as a whip, and sported a bright blue mohawk, a septum piercing, and a days-old shiner on his right eye. “Going for an engineering degree, and my buddy here’s doing music.” He nudged his friend, a muscular guy with shaggy black hair and sunglasses. “How about you?”

Iannis leaned casually against the counter. “I’m majoring in chemistry, and my girlfriend Nadia’s going to culinary school.” He snagged me by the waist, and I swallowed a yelp as he drew me onto his lap. My heart rate skyrocketed as he looped his long, lanky arms around my hips, resting his clasped hands on the tops of my thighs, and my cheeks burned as his lips brushed my cheek before he grinned at the two humans. “She makes a killer lasagna.”

“That’s pretty sweet,” Shaggy Black Hair said, looking me up and down, and I knew he wasn’t just talking about my imagined culinary skills. “My band makes the rounds at a lot of restaurants around here. I could put in a good word if you need one.”

“Thanks.” I smiled sweetly, burying the urge to slam my heel into Iannis’s shin. I had no idea Mr. Ice King would throw himself into his role with such enthusiasm, or I might’ve thought twice about going out with him tonight. “So, how are things going for you two at the Academy?”

“Ugh.” Blue Mohawk rolled his eyes. “Don’t get me started. You’d think that the Mage’s Guild would stick to their own schools and apprenticeships, but a few of ‘em have been dropping in on the humanities classes at the Academy. They thumb their noses at science or engineering, take the best seats and most of them refuse to work with any of us humans.” He curled his lip. “They think that magic is the only viable way to accomplish things.”

“Well that’s just stupid,” Iannis chimed in, surprising me. His muscular thighs shifted beneath me, sending the butterflies in my stomach into a frenzy. “We have an electrical plant in Solantha that powers most areas of the city, including this building.” He waved an arm to indicate the bulbs hanging down from the ceiling.

I twisted in his lap to look down at him, and he simply stared up at me quizzically as if he couldn’t comprehend the skepticism on my face. It threw me off balance that he could understand the argument for technology so well, yet not permit much of it in the castle. Since I couldn’t call him on it, I turned back to the two humans.

“… yeah, and it doesn’t help things that those feckless shifters are always causing trouble, too,” Shaggy Black Hair was saying.

“Excuse me?” I said, a little too sharply, and the humans blinked.

Shaggy scowled at me. “There’ve been a lot of shifter-human fights breaking out on campus recently,” he said. “Some kinda drug’s been going around makin’ em crazy. Now that they’ve finally got a way to get high, they just can’t keep a lid on themselves.”

Blue Mohawk nodded, pointing to the shiner on his face. “Yeah, I got this from a rabbit shifter because I bumped into him in the hallway last week.”

My jaw dropped. “That’s crazy!” Rabbit shifters weren’t known for being particularly aggressive. I couldn’t imagine one getting into a fistfight over a simple accident.

Shaggy gave me the stink eye. “Seems like you’re defending the shifters, pretty lady. Don’t know if that’ll make you very popular around here.”

Iannis tightened his arms around my waist and straightened in his stool. “You’ll have to forgive her – she grew up in Rowanville, and as you know things are different over there.”

The two humans nodded. “I guess so,” Shaggy said suspiciously. “But still, you’d have to be blind not to see what’s been happening these last few days. These violent outbreaks are getting worse.”

Worry began to brew in my gut, and I stiffened. We were going to have to track down the source of these drugs, and soon, or the reputation of shifters as a race would be ruined. I squirmed in Iannis’s lap, suddenly tired of sitting here and making small talk, but he gave my hip a warning squeeze.

“Yeah, and worse, the mages aren’t doing anything about it,” Blue Mohawk added. Despite his shiner, he seemed more blasé about the whole thing, and simply sighed before taking a long drink from his beer bottle. “By the time they get around to it, there’ll probably be a civil war or something between humans and shifters. Lazy bastards are too busy up in their ivory towers, practicing their sacred magic spells, to think about anything else.”

“I’ll drink to that,” I said, raising my glass. I tossed Iannis the stink eye before downing my drink, happy that the hatred had been redirected back to mages again, who were clearly the root of the problem, and
not
shifters.

“Well, it was nice to meet you guys, but we’re catching a play later tonight with some friends and we’d better get going.” Blue Mohawk slid off his barstool, and Shaggy Black Hair followed suit. “See you around sometime, huh?”

“Yeah, see you.” Iannis lifted his beer to them in salute and took another long pull from it as they walked off.

A mixture of relief and triumph filled my chest as I leaned in to whisper in his ear. “See? I told you things are bad out here. I’m not the only one who hates mages.”

“Yes, and it seems that, at least in Maintown, mages aren’t the only ones who are hated.” He grinned at me.

Heat scalded the tips of my ears. “That’s not fair,” I said hotly.

He held up a long-fingered hand. “I know, I know,” he said. “All of this talk about drugs and shifters is alarming. It will be looked into.”

The gravity of his voice and expression settled me – this was the Iannis I knew. But before I could open my mouth, the bartender finally returned with our food.

“Thank Magorah,” I groaned, hopping back onto my own stool so I could grab my lamb burger. I bit into it, and closed my eyes as the rich flavors burst across my tongue. I’d forgotten how hungry I was.

We ate in silence, Iannis calmly eating his tilapia as I wolfed down my burger. I finished the thing in less than five minutes, and was about to start in on my donuts when a brunette in a slinky black dress inserted herself between us. She leaned her bare shoulders against the counter, smelling of perfume and stale sweat, and I wrinkled my nose.

“Hey sugar,” she said in a high, breathy voice, batting her long lashes at Iannis. “Care to have a drink with me?”

Iannis arched his blond brows, his pale eyes running up and down her body in a way that made my blood boil. “I –”

“We’ve got a play to catch,” I snapped, sliding off my barstool. The girl glared at me, and I gave her a smile that was both sweet and deadly as I snatched Iannis’s hand and pulled him off his own barstool. “Sorry, sweetheart, but go and pick on someone else’s guy.”

“‘Someone else’s guy’?” Iannis murmured as I dragged him out of the club, his voice tinged with amusement. “I thought we’d established that I wasn’t your male and you weren’t my female.”

“You are for the purposes of this outing,” I retorted, tossing his words right back into his face as I hailed a cab. My fingers tightened around his, and for reasons best not examined, I didn’t let go until we were safely headed back to the palace. Maybe I hated it there, but within those walls at least I understood the territory and rules between us.

T
he next morning,
a servant knocked on my door and told me that the Chief Mage required my presence in the audience chamber for an important meeting. Groaning, I dragged myself out of bed and made myself as presentable as I could – I’d spent most of the night tossing and turning, my mind replaying my outing with Iannis over and over.

As soon as we’d gotten into the cab, Iannis had dropped the illusion, and along with it the lax, easygoing manner he’d adopted in his human guise. I’d plied him with questions about how he’d blended in with the humans so easily and why, even though he seemed to acknowledge the importance and validity of technology, he didn’t really use it in his palace, but he blew me off and told me to be quiet. He’d spent most of the time staring pensively out the window, and I’d left him alone.

Hopefully, whatever had been going through his mind last night would result in positive action this morning.

When I arrived at the audience chamber, I was surprised to see Captain Galling of the Enforcer’s Guild there, along with three other people I didn’t know. Iannis was standing behind his desk, and I caught a glimpse of Fenris standing next to him in wolf form, his bushy brown tail sticking out from behind the stone desk.

“Miss Baine.” The Chief Mage nodded at me in greeting. “I’d like to introduce you to Lalia Chen, the future Director of the Mage’s Guild, and her apprentice, Benalin Liu.” He gestured to the two mages on his right.

“Pleased to meet you, Miss Baine.” Director Chen nodded at me, and I automatically returned the gesture. She was a beautiful woman, with ivory skin and a head full of fine, glossy dark hair that was pulled back from her oval face into a ponytail. Her willowy form was clothed in deep red robes embroidered in gold and tied with a sash at her trim waist. The apprentice, a slender man with close-cropped dark hair, bowed, though hesitantly. The look in his glittering eyes told me he wasn’t at all happy about having to show deference to someone like me.

“And you as well,” I told the Director, too surprised to remember to be snarky. I didn’t recognize either of these mages from the party, which meant they had to be from somewhere outside of Solantha. Their accents placed them as Northian, though they clearly were both of Garian ancestry. Had Iannis actually intended on picking a replacement from any of the mages who’d been to the banquet? Or was there some other reason he’d called them all together that night that I wasn’t aware of? “I hadn’t realized a replacement had been found so quickly.”

Director Chen smiled slightly. “My appointment is not yet official,” she said in a quiet voice that was like river water flowing over smooth pebbles – deceptively calm with a hidden strength behind it. “Lord Iannis wishes to test me first, before officially instating me.”

“Well, that makes sense.” I turned to the third man, who wore the same blue uniform as all the other Privacy Guard employees, except that he had gold epaulets on his shoulders and the sword swinging from his hip was more fancy than others I’d seen.

“I’m guessing you’re Privacy Guard’s Regional Director for Solantha?” Privacy Guard was a worldwide company, and each branch had a Director that oversaw the operations for that particular location.

“I am.” The Regional Director inclined his shining head of black hair, a little stiffly. His dark blue eyes were as hard as his face, his thin lips showing no emotion. He turned to Iannis. “Are we ready to proceed with this meeting now that the girl is here, my Lord?”

The Chief Mage’s violet eyes flashed. “The ‘girl’, as you so daringly put it, is my apprentice, Mr. Channing,” he said, and the Regional Director’s cheeks flushed. “I expect you to treat her with the respect befitting her station.”

I opened my mouth to protest, not at all sure I liked where this was going – sure, I wanted to be respected just as much as anyone else, but on my own terms and not because of my association with the Chief Mage. But the Regional Director apologized before I could say anything, and Iannis took that as a sign the meeting could get underway.

“It has come to my attention these past few days that the people I depend upon have not all been doing their jobs,” the Chief Mage said. He pinned each person in the room with a penetrating stare, and though not one moved a muscle, the air thickened with tension. “Amongst other things, the last Director was not passing on crucial reports to me, instead choosing to handle things as he saw fit, which is why he is being replaced.” He gestured to Chen, who inclined her head fractionally.

“However,” the Chief Mage continued. “I have been going through the reports myself, and there are still important issues that are not being passed through the correct channels. For example,” he turned his hawk-like gaze on Captain Galling, “I should have found out about this drug issue from you, not the Herald.” He picked up a copy of the paper I’d slapped on his desk yesterday, and something inside me warmed. Finally, someone was taking this seriously!

Captain Galling’s cheeks reddened as his eyes flickered over the headline. “The papers are just speculating,” he argued. “My main crew has been investigating the rumors, and I planned on sending a full report as soon as I had more concrete information –”

“Which would be never,” I interrupted, folding my arms. Captain Galling slashed a glare my way, and I pushed away the tremor of fear in my belly – he might be my boss as an Enforcer, but Iannis outranked him. “The Main Crew only put their attention on jobs that result in bounties, and usually go after the easiest ones. Since investigating rumors pays exactly zilch, I think it’s safe to say I’ll be cold in my grave by the time they get around to it.”

“How dare you –”

“Captain Galling,” the Chief Mage interrupted. “Is this true?”

The Captain snapped his mouth shut and turned his frigid gaze back to Iannis. “It is true that the Main Crew isn’t getting paid for the task,” he said finally. “That isn’t how our reward structure works – we pay per head.”

“Well, it sounds like you need to come up with some better incentives, and perhaps a better Crew,” the Chief Mage said firmly. “I’ll give you one week to sort it out, and I’ll be coming by to inspect things at the Enforcer’s Guild myself. If I don’t like what I see, I’m afraid I’ll have to replace you.”

“Yes, sir.” Captain Galling clenched his jaw. My insides squirmed as he shot me a hateful glare out of the corner of his eye, but I stiffened my shoulders and lifted my chin. I knew well enough that sometimes you had to make enemies in order to get anything done around here – it seemed that was all I was doing these days. Though Captain Galling wasn’t the worst of the lot, things had still fallen down under his watch, and he needed to be held accountable for it.

“Good.” The Chief Mage turned to Director Chen. “I want you and your apprentice to spend the next week gathering intelligence in the city, incognito. I went out myself last night and there is a significant amount of discontent. I want you to adopt different guises to suit whichever communities you are in, and report everything you hear back to me.”

Director Chen blinked, but otherwise managed to cover her surprise. “As you wish,” she said, bowing, and her apprentice followed suit. I was impressed at how graciously she accepted the assignment, which would normally be delegated far below her on the chain of command – but then, she did have to prove herself. “We will leave right away.”

The others filed out of the room, leaving Iannis, Fenris, and myself behind. As the double doors closed, Fenris changed from wolf to human form. He leaned his hip against the desk casually, as if we were in the study or in the Chief Mage’s private chambers rather than the more formal audience room.

Iannis arched a brow. “I assume you have something to say?”

Fenris nodded. “I would like to conduct a parallel investigation myself, with Sunaya’s help.”

The Chief Mage’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not certain that is an appropriate use of my apprentice’s time,” he said. “We already spent a significant amount of time investigating last night.” His eyes flickered as he slanted his gaze toward me. Heat curled in my belly as I remembered how casual he’d been, and the way his body had felt against mine. I broke contact before the warmth spread to my cheeks, not wanting him to know I was still affected by the memory.

“Perhaps, but we both know this situation has been weighing on her mind since before she got here, and her knowledge and connections could be useful,” Fenris insisted. “I will be with her the whole time, so it is not as if she’ll be without protection.”

The Chief Mage pondered this for a long moment before he finally spoke, looking at me. “Give me your hands.”

My pulse spiked. “Why?”

He didn’t answer, just held his hands out, palms up, in a gesture that was becoming familiar. Sighing, I placed my hands in his, wondering what kind of magical diagnostic he was going to run on me this time.

A bolt of energy lanced through me, and I gasped as a current of magic passed through us, like an electrical circuit being completed. Iannis’s eyes glowed as he looked down at me, and I imagined that I was glowing too – the amount of magical energy emanating from my center was so great I could probably power an entire grid block.

Eventually the magical surge died off, but the circle within my chest seemed to burn a little brighter. “Did… did you just increase my power level?” I asked, my voice more breathless than I would have liked.

“I did.” He held my gaze for a long moment, then seemed to remember himself and dropped my hands. “You’re ready, and I want you to be able to defend yourself with your magic if need be.” He hesitated. “Come back safely.”

For once, I actually smiled at him. “Don’t worry,” I said as I followed Fenris out the door. “I’ll make sure to come back in one piece. Someone needs to be around to keep you on your toes.”

As I closed the door behind me, I could swear I caught a glimpse of a smile on his lips.

“I am
not
getting on that thing.”

I stared in amazement as Fenris folded his arms across his broad chest and tucked his chin in. There was no other word for it – the man was pouting.

“Yes, you are,” I said calmly, offering him my spare helmet for the third time. “It’ll be faster if we take the steambike.”

His boxy jaw tightened as he glared at my steambike, his yellow eyes scouring every surface of the gleaming black and steel frame as if hoping to find some grave flaw. “Those things are dangerous,” he snapped. “I don’t have any problem taking a few extra minutes between destinations if it means my life.”

I rolled my eyes. “Quit being such a baby.” I shoved my spare helmet into his chest, and he grabbed it instinctively before it fell to the ground. “I’m an excellent rider, so you’ll be fine. If it makes you feel better I’ll make like I’m a little old lady, okay?”

“You’re not a little old lady,” he muttered, but he put on the helmet, which did a lot to cover his scowl. Shaking my head, I put my own helmet on and straddled the bike. I waited until he was in position behind me before I started it up and peeled off into the street.

“Fenris
,” I snapped mentally as Fenris’s arms tightened with bruising force around my waist. “
You’re crushing my ribs here!”

“You said you were going to drive like an old granny!”
Fenris whined as I careened around a corner where a stately villa perched. A female mage in long, pink robes snatched her toddler up from the dirt at the sight of me, her beautiful face pinched in a disapproving scowl. I grinned at her through my visor even though I doubted she could see, and waved at the little girl.