Burned by Magic (3 page)

“By the Ur-God,” Noria whispered. Her dark eyes shimmered with tears. “I’m so sorry, Naya. That’s terrible.”

“Silver poisoning?” Comenius’s eyes were narrowed as he pondered the issue. “And you say he told you the silver was some kind of solution that was undetectable by scent or taste?”

I nodded. “Do you know any herbs that might be able to do that?” I asked, leaning forward in my chair. I’d hoped his vast knowledge of plant lore might point me in the right direction. And since I was currently an outcast at all my usual haunts, he was the only person I could turn to for help.

Comenius tapped his square chin as he thought. “I might,” he muttered, his gaze scanning a shelf filled with jars of dried leaves and roots. “But most of them wouldn’t meld with silver.” He paused, turning his narrowed gaze back to me. “Are you investigating this in an official capacity?”

“No.” My cheeks flushed, but I stubbornly held his gaze. “The Guild sent two goons from the Main Crew to handle it. You know they wouldn’t let me investigate my own mentor’s murder.”

“Shouldn’t you –”

“Com,” Noria interjected, her brows drawing together as she cut him off. “You don’t really expect Naya to sit back and let those half-assed jerks investigate Roanas’s death, do you?”

“Well, no.” Comenius hesitated, uncertainty flickering in his eyes. “But I can’t say I’m entirely comfortable putting my shop on the line by aiding Naya in an unauthorized investigation either.” He leaned forward to pin me with a gimlet stare. “Haven’t you considered that this might be the reason your mentor was killed? Because he was sticking his nose where someone thought it didn’t belong?”

“Yes,” I said evenly before Noria exploded. While the kid’s outrage on my behalf was admirable, I didn’t need her losing her job over it. “But that isn’t going to stop me from flushing out the bastard who killed him, and bringing them to justice. Brin and Nila care more about getting their bounty than getting actual justice for Roanas, which means that whoever murdered him is going to keep on knocking off other shifters unchecked. This is a lot bigger than a revenge kick, Com. It’s about the safety of the shifter community in general.”

Comenius sighed, running a hand through his pale hair. “I wish that you could go to the Shifter Council about this. That would be much more appropriate, and possibly more effective too.”

I scowled. “You know why I can’t do that.” As a half-shifter, my word was worth significantly less than that of a full-blooded shifter, and on top of that my aunt Mafiela, the head of the Jaguar Clan, was on the Council. Normally that would be an advantage, except that she regarded the shit stains on her underwear more highly than she did me, especially after my mother passed away. There was no way the Council would allow me to participate in an investigation if I initiated one with them, not if she had anything to say about it.

“I know. And that’s why I’ll look into it.” He rose, and the loose fabric of his dark green tunic rippled with the motion. “I’ll be right back.”

“Thank you.” I sighed a little as Comenius disappeared into the back of the shop. This reticence to take action, this stickler attitude about following the rules was the reason Comenius and I hadn’t worked out as a couple a few years back when we’d tried dating. Sure, he had a pretty hot bod beneath those conservative clothes of his, and those long fingers were good for more than enchanting amulets and grinding herbs. But I preferred to live on the edge, whereas Comenius tended toward camping behind the lines. Sometimes it amazed me that a man who made his living by working with the forces of nature could be so rigid… but then again, it took all kinds.

“You know,” Noria interrupted my inner monologue. She leaned back in her wicker chair, a thoughtful expression on her elfin face. “I might have some ideas myself about how the silver could have been masked.”

“Oh yeah?” I leaned forward, hope sparking in my chest. Part of me knew that it was wrong for me to involve Annia’s little sister – she was a smart kid, not yet eighteen years old, with a bright future ahead of her, and I didn’t need to mess it up by dragging her into my bullshit. But I was also desperate and without leads, and I needed all the help I could get. “You think you might be able to track down who did it?”

Noria shrugged. “Sure, if I can figure out how it was done. I’ll jump on investigating how the silver could have been diluted. A couple of my friends at the Academy have done experiments with metals and electricity. It’s very likely that whoever did this was human.”

I nodded. “That makes sense. I couldn’t imagine it being one of our own.” Shifters didn’t use silver to kill other shifters – we preferred to settle things with our fangs and claws.

Comenius came back from around the counter, a bracelet clutched in his fist. “I couldn’t find anything in the books I have here,” he said. “But I’ll check the Mage Guild’s library and see what else I can find. In the meantime, you should wear this.” He held up the hemp bracelet to reveal a small, circular amulet dangling from the center. “It will help quiet the spirits around you and sharpen your focus, so you can concentrate on the investigation.”

“Thanks.” I smiled, touched by his concern, and held out my arm so he could fasten the bracelet around my wrist. Electricity buzzed up the nerve endings in my arm as his long fingers brushed against my skin, and from the way Comenius’s pupils dilated, I could tell the same thing had happened to him. Which wasn’t exactly strange, since we’d tumbled together in the sack before, but it was pretty awkward with Noria sitting right there watching us, so I settled quickly back into my chair, breaking the contact as soon as he was done.

“So,” Noria said. “What now?”

“Now we look at this.” I unzipped my jacket and pulled out the file. Com and Noria’s eyes widened, and they both leaned forward.

“Is… is this a
case
file?” Comenius said.

“Yep. From Roanas’s house.” It had taken me quite a while to find it, so I hadn’t had a chance to do more than stuff it down the front of my jacket before Brin and Nila arrived. “He told me to get it before he died.”

Comenius looked like he wanted to say something about stealing evidence, but he wisely kept his mouth shut. I flipped open the file, scanning the notes and various newspaper clippings. My eyes smarted at the sight of Roanas’s handwriting – it was a painful reminder that he would never write another word again. But I blinked away the tears, knowing I couldn’t afford them now – there would be time enough to grieve after the killer was caught.

“Naya? Isn’t this about one of your own?”

I glanced down at the article Noria was pointing at. My eyes widened as I took in the photo of the beautiful woman depicted at the top of the article, dressed in leathers and armed with a short sword. It was Sillara, one of the more competent Enforcers, and one I’d been quite fond of.

“I had no idea she’d died of silver poisoning,” I murmured, tracing the outline of her face with the tip of my finger. She’d been part of a crew, whereas I was a solo mercenary, so our paths didn’t really cross. But she’d always struck me as frank and dedicated, one of the true diamonds amongst a sea full of rhinestones. And now she was gone.

Comenius said nothing, simply laying a hand on my shoulder as I read the article. It said that she’d been found in her apartment on a Friday night, dead on her living room floor. The Mage’s Guild was conducting an autopsy, but there was no conclusive evidence pointing to a cause of death, murder weapon or killer, for that matter.

“They wrote her off,” I muttered, my fingers curling so tightly around the edges of the paper that it started to shred. “I remember now. The Guild said she’d died from some kind of fucking heart failure.” Which was incredibly rare amongst shifters, especially one who was as healthy and in shape as Sillara had been. Magorah, why hadn’t I seen it? I should have questioned it, should have suspected something… but of course, I’d been too wrapped up in my own problems, and I hadn’t.

“I’m sorry,” Comenius said gently, rubbing his thumb along the edge of my shoulder. I wanted to lean into him, to sink into the comfort he offered, but I couldn’t – someone was killing off shifters, and I needed to find out who.

“Do you think the mages might be in on this?”

I glanced up at Noria, who’d spoken. “You think the Mage’s Guild is responsible for the murders?”

Noria shrugged, lines bracketing her mouth as she scanned another one of the articles. “I can’t say for sure, but it seems like someone’s definitely trying to keep all of these hush-hush. I mean, usually the papers are quick to connect cases like this, and yet we have six issues here, spread across three months, and not a single peep from the media. What gives?”

“But this is the
Shifter Courier
,” I argued. “These stories aren’t published by the Mage’s Guild.”

Noria shrugged. “Race doesn’t seem to matter when someone shoves a pouch full of gold in your face. They probably bribed the editor or something.”

Even though as a hybrid I wasn’t fully part of the shifter community, my gut still twisted at the idea one of us was a sell-out. Sure, I’d had to take down my fair share of shifter bounties, but it was still tough to admit we were just as susceptible to the same weaknesses as any other race.

A gloomy silence descended as we all pondered the possibilities. So far, the beginnings of our theory suggested human involvement with mage cover-up, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense because there was no reason I could think of that the mages would want to cover up for humans. I’d searched Roanas’s house for clues while I’d been waiting for the Enforcers to show up and hadn’t found anything helpful, but that didn’t mean nothing was going on. I had a feeling that even if we were on the right trail, we were only scratching the surface, and things were going to get a whole lot messier the deeper we went.

“What about your cousin Rylan?” Comenius asked. “He might have heard some rumors about this underground.”

“Huh.” I hadn’t thought of that. “I haven’t heard from him in a long while, but I should ask.” Rylan was a member of the Resistance, a ragtag band of humans and shifters who lived on the outskirts of civilization and worked tirelessly to overthrow the mages. He was the only one of my cousins I was close to, which was ironic considering that I worked for law enforcement. Unfortunately, his way of life meant I didn’t get to see him much.

“I think that’s a good idea.” Comenius paused. “Are you going to be alright?” he asked, his voice gentling. “I mean, if you lose your job at The Twilight –”

“I’ll be fine,” I cut him off, not wanting him to worry. For all of his self-preservation instincts and tendencies towards conservatism, Comenius could become a freaking mother hen when it came to keeping his friends safe. “I’ll figure out a way to make ends meet.”

“You haven’t come to me for amulets in a long time,” he said quietly. “Which means that you haven’t been going after any new bounties. That Talcon fellow has been giving most of them to the Main Crew, hasn’t he?” His brow darkened.

“Com, stop.” I rose to my feet, agitated now. Most of the Enforcers Guild was made up of small crews – eight to ten people, usually – but there was always a Main Crew of at least forty people who got the best bounties. Unfortunately, since the Main Crew didn’t have to work so hard to get their bounties, they were also pretty half-assed when it came to their job – and Brin and Nila were part of them. “There’s no need to worry about this, because I’m going to change it.”

Comenius sat back, skepticism written all over his face as he crossed his arms and looked up at me. “And just how are you going to do that?”

“By solving these poison murders,” I declared, jabbing my fist in the air like a torch. “If I can show up the current Main Crew by catching this murderer, Galling will add me to the Main Crew roster and I’ll get access to better bounties. Then Talcon will
have
to show me some respect.” The thought of pressing a proverbial boot to Talcon’s neck brought a fierce grin to my face. He wouldn’t dare mess with me if I was on the Main Crew.

“Hmm.” Comenius appeared to give the matter serious thought. “The idea definitely has merit.”

I was about to roll my eyes when a loud buzzing sound filled the room as my Enforcer bracelet, a tiny bronze shield charm threaded through a brown cord, vibrated against my wrist.
“All nearby Enforcers to 228 Garden Street,”
a tinny voice blared, projected by the bracelet.
“Rogue shifter out of control.”

“Well, shit.” I patted my legs down to make sure my weapons were still strapped on me – chakram pouch on the right leg and crescent knives on the left. “Sounds like there’s trouble in Rowanville. Gotta go!”

I sprinted out the door and down the pier toward my bike, the thrill of the hunt racing through my veins. Emergency calls paid high, and were first come, first served, so if I took down this guy there was no way Talcon could skimp on paying me the bounty. Jumping on my bike, I started up the steam engine and raced out of the pier. My wheels screeched as I skidded onto the main street and blew past two mages coming out of a shop. I laughed as their robes flew up around their ankles and flipped them the bird as they shouted after me.

I didn’t care about them, didn’t care about any of my other troubles right now. All I knew was that I had a bounty to catch, and I was going to cash in on it even if it killed me.

I
heard the screams
long before I skidded to a stop in front of 228 Garden Street, a nice little one-story family house in one of the suburban Rowanville neighborhoods. The high-pitched wails of children curdled my gut, but I sucked in a breath and steeled myself for whatever nightmare I was about to face. I got off my bike and approached the woman sobbing hysterically in the front yard. Her dark hair was a wreck, the once-nice dress she wore shredded in places, and her leg was bent at an odd angle. Inside the house, I could hear loud thumping and crashing; the rogue shifter must be wreaking havoc in there.

Anger bubbled up inside me as I touched the woman’s shoulder to get her attention. Why the fuck was nobody helping her? It had taken me nearly ten minutes to get here from the Port. There had to be an Enforcer in the area who could have gotten here faster.

“Ma’am,” I said as Noria’s bike pulled up behind me – she’d grabbed a protesting Comenius and insisted on following me here. “My name is Sunaya Baine, registered member of the Enforcer’s Guild. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“Please!” the woman shrieked, grabbing my arm with bruising force. Her powder blue shifter eyes were crazed with fear, and my nose told me she was a rabbit shifter. “My babies are still in there! You have to get them out!” Tears poured down her raw cheeks as her body trembled.

“Can you tell me what’s in there with them?” I asked, my heart pounding. “What kind of beast?”

“It’s a rhino shifter,” she sobbed as the house shook behind her. “He charged in, all wild and crazy, and went for me and the children. I couldn’t get to them, so I came out here for help… but…”

“Naya.” Comenius dropped to his knees beside me, his voice urgent. Compassion flickered in his eyes as he took in the sight of the woman. “What’s going on?”

“There’s a rampaging rhino shifter inside the house, and there are children in danger.” I rose to my feet slowly, dread weighing down my movements. I wasn’t equipped to handle a rhino shifter by myself, especially not one who was crazed with anger. But there was no one else around to back me up. “I have to go and get them.”

“Are you crazy?” Noria snapped. “He’ll kill you!”

“There are children in there,” I said firmly, my gaze fixed on the house. “Com, you heal the mother. I’m going in to rescue her cubs.”

“Like hell,” Comenius snapped, rising impatiently to his feet. “You’ll never make it out of there. I’m going in with you.”

“You should help the woman –”

“I have some spells that could calm the rhino down.” I shut my mouth at that. “If you can distract him long enough, I’ll cast a sleeping spell on him that should stop him in his tracks so you can get the children to safety.”

“Fine.” Much as I didn’t want to involve my friends with this, I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I needed magic, and I couldn’t use my own. But there wasn’t any time to dwell on the irony – I needed to rescue the children.

I charged through the door first, my crescent knives clutched in my fists in case the rhino was on the other side. No, they wouldn’t do much good, but I was a little more confident with the weapons in my hands. I brandished them like talismans as I followed the scent of the baby rabbits, creeping through the war-torn living room and down the hallway. The walls had been reduced to little more than rubble, so there wasn’t much cover, and I had a clear sight of the rhino hard at work demolishing what had once been a very nice dining room.

Creeping across the tile floor as silently as I could in my boots, I followed the scent across the room and beneath the remains of a dining room table, where two baby bunnies were huddled together in beast form. They were absolutely adorable, little black fuzz balls the size of sugar melons, their eyes wide with panic above their little chins and pink noses. “Shhh,” I whispered soothingly, reaching for them with outstretched arms. “I’m here to save you.”

I reached for the bunnies, and the rhino shifter chose that moment to swing his head around. I froze in utter terror as his crazed eyes made direct contact with mine – blood was flowing freely from his flared nostrils. What the fuck was going on with this guy?

“Time to go!” I shouted, more to distract the rhino than to tell the bunnies. Thinking fast, I flipped the table in the rhino’s direction, then grabbed both the bunnies by the scruffs of their necks and tossed them out the window and into the backyard.

The rhino bayed so loudly the sound shook the remaining walls of the house and made my eardrums throb. He charged me, his huge horn splintering the glossy dining table I’d thrown up as a makeshift battlement, and I dodged out of the way and raced down the hall, past Comenius who was frantically putting together a spell in the living room. I couldn’t run outside, not while the mother and babies were still on the lawn, but I could lead the bastard on a chase until Comenius finished concocting his sleep spell.

“Any minute now, Com!” I shouted over the deafening sound of the rhino’s crashing footfalls. The sound of crumbling drywall told me that he wasn’t far behind, his huge body knocking down the walls, and I ducked inside the nearest bedroom, hoping that his momentum would carry him straight past me.

I was wrong. Somehow, the hulking bastard managed to make the turn along with me, and his huge snout crashed into the middle of my back. I went flying across a little girl’s room, with lacy curtains at the windows and dolls covering the shelves, and slammed face-first into the pink wall.

Stars burst across my vision as I slid to the floor, flopping onto my back. The whole world felt like it was shaking apart around me, though really it was just the floor rumbling as the rhino charged me again. Fear choked me in its cold, vice-like grip as the beast reared up on his hind legs to trample me, having no other way to attack me in the small space. I threw out my hands instinctively, as if my comparatively twig-like arms had a chance of stopping the rhino’s tree trunk legs.

But just before the rhino’s legs came down on me, a surge of energy ballooned in my chest, rippled down my arms and blasted out of my hands in the form of a huge ball of blue-green fire. It crashed into the rhino, who bayed so loudly that my teeth rattled inside my throbbing head. There was a sizzling sound, like meat cooking, and then the rhino disappeared in a flash.

I lay there as flecks of ash rained down on my face, the edges of my vision darkening. Shouts and footfalls echoed in the hallway, and a horde of people came crashing in through the doorway, Comenius in the lead and Noria close behind.

“Naya!” He skidded to his knees beside me, his eyes wild. “Are you alright?”

“Fine,” I wheezed.

“Where’s the rhino?” My fuzzy vision managed to pick out Brin, the Enforcer who’d responded to my call at Roanas’s house, as the source of the question. He stood just inside the door, his burly arms crossed over his chest, a suspicious scowl on his face.

Curling my lips back in a sardonic grin, I slid my hand through some of the ash coating the ground, then lifted a fistful of it into the air. “Right here.”

“Oh Naya,” Comenius whispered miserably, taking my filthy hand in his. “This is so very, very bad.”

He was right, of course. I had just used my magic to kill a shifter. While responding to a distress call. In front of a
whole
lot of witnesses. I was royally fucked no matter which way you looked at it, and the silver murders didn’t have a chance in hell of being solved if I was executed. But as they all stood over me, arguing about whether I should be jailed, sent to the hospital, or crowned Queen for a Day – Noria’s idea – the last bit of energy that might have allowed me to care left my body, and without it to anchor me there I sank into a blissful sea of darkness.