Page 48

I smile. That sounded marginally more like it. “Awful teacher how?”

“Not the way you’re smugly imagining. Let’s try a little experiment. That night Gabe unleashed the Greenfire on you, he seemed sure you could have fought back, and he’s rarely wrong about that sort of thing. You only didn’t break his hold on you because you wanted to prove a point. But say you had wanted to turn it back on him. How would you have done it?”

I wave my arms about indiscriminately, trying to put something that’s utterly instinctive into words. “You know. Sort of squash the fire down. Throw it away from you. Direct it towards your opponent.”

Nikki smiles. “If you asked a Learnt Practitioner, they’d say something like ‘You have to form your hands into the shape of protection. Chant words of reversal in your head. Wear an ice crystal.’ And then they’d spend hours teaching you the shapes and the words or showing you their charms.

“If you asked your average Born Practitioner, they’d tell it differently. They’d say you had to imagine a bubble around yourself. You’d have to breathe steadily and convince yourself that neither the fire nor the pain was real and then will the fire away. Perhaps using the words or signs or charms at the margins to help your focus.

“The night it happened, I asked Gabe the opposite question: how can I create Greenfire? He looked bemused by the question. ‘Just summon it and throw it at your opponent.’ And that’s basically the same answer you’ve just given, in reverse. I saw it at the casino, too. You started with hand signs and things. By the end, you were dragging magic out of the air.

“Magic’s barely a conscious thing for people like you and him. It flows through you, and you direct it where you want. And that’s why he was hopeless at teaching me himself. It wasn’t something he’d had to learn or something he could really explain.”

I shake my head. “Magic’s overrated. Most of the time, I try not to use it.”

“Then you’re a fool who doesn’t know what she has and how lucky she is. And that’s true of a lot of things with you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Never mind. The point is, I don’t care what you or anyone else thinks. The only person whose opinion I give a damn about is my best friend’s. And he’s happy enough to regard me as a practitioner, without any caveats.”

She sweeps back her hair where it falls just past her ears in order to show me the mark below her right lobe. It’s the star and heart symbol that Gabriel brands on all his most trusted lieutenants, but the extra little stars all around it presumably mean she holds some rarefied position in his organisation. Whatever else she is, she must be seriously reliable and entirely capable of looking after herself while spells are flying.

All that aside, I’m not sure whether it’s the mark itself or her smug reaction to it, but it’s all hitting a little too close to home.

So I do something I never voluntarily do. I hold out my right hand and slip off my oversized ring. “Don’t act like it’s a badge of honour. Anyone can get themselves branded.”

Nikki lets her fire fade away, then takes my hand for a closer look and runs her middle finger over the swirls that encircle my ring finger.

I close my eyes. “If you’re such a good friend of his, I presume you know about the lien he imposed on me. So don’t try to tell me with a straight face that he’s some perfect gentleman.”

By the time I open my eyes again, Nikki looks a little like she’s about to cry, which I can’t imagine happens very often.

“He told me all about it at the time. Though, seeing the actual mark is a bit different from hearing about it all in the abstract. Not exactly his finest moment, I’ll admit.”

I’m saved from responding to that under-statement of the year by the arrival of Liam, who’s changed for the fight into shorts and a silky dressing gown. He throws an arm over my shoulder, clearly delighted at no longer having to pretend I’m just a professional contact.

“Nikki.”

“Liam.”

I slam my ring back on before my brother can see the mark and work himself up into a righteous fury.

“My money’s on you, Nik.”

“Likewise.”

“Not brought your boss along for moral support tonight then?”

“I’ve banned him from watching my fights, as you well know. He gets far too emotionally involved. And he’s not exactly the most calming presence. What about you? Not brought your delightful big brother along for back-up? Oh wait, I guess that’s not an option anymore.”

Despite the verbal sparring, there’s an odd friendliness to the exchange, two people who obviously respect and like each other.

“Who needs Brendan when I’ve got my sister? Sadie would give him a run for his money any day, if she’d only let herself off the leash.”

Nikki looks me up and down. “I don’t doubt it for a second. You people barely notice magic, it’s so commonplace for you. But I can sense it. And it pours off her. Just like him.”

I’m not sure which ‘him’ she means. Gabriel or Brendan.