Page 9 of Seared Fates

“ —but I still gotta get paid.” She grabs two mugs, and I smile when she gets my favourite black one that I can only drink from one side, or all the chips will cut my lips. Golden bought it for me when I became a tattoo apprentice.

I drop the teabags in.

“There's this brand of makeup I’ve been dying to try. Talking about makeup—are you wearing some today? Your skin looks nice.”

I flinch but play it off with a shrug, pouring hot water into the mugs, stream swirling up toward the single exposed bulb hanging from a black wire.

“I had a terrible night's sleep, no one needs to see how bad my dark circles are,” I joke instead of admitting my insecurities are too close to the surface and if I did that, then I’d think about Vidar. And I refuse to think about him or how he took one look at me and stormed away, like I disgusted him.

I realise with a start I’m tugging at my hair again, so I slip my jacket off to keep my hands busy.

She laughs softly, grabbing milk from the fridge but not pouring yet. The tea needs more time to steep.

“Summer…?” I say, hanging my jacket on the door.

“Kai…?” she replies playfully.

“Can you tell me about magic?” I ask, taking the cold milk from her and splashing some into our mugs.

Once she’s added her three sugars and has it cradled in her hands, Summer leans against the counter.

“Of course, babe. Well, kind of. I can tell you about mages. What do you wanna know?”

I sip my tea, blowing on it to buy myself time.

“Whatever you can.” I finally land on. Not yet ready to share my own secret that’s too tangled up in shame and the idea of Summer seeing me differently makes me want to hide.

“Well, there are five different mages. Shadow,” she winks. “Light, mountain, storm and blood. Blood is the newest, and by newest I mean a few thousand years old, and we still don’t know where it bloody came from—pun very much intended.”

I chuckle. “And what can they, or I guess, you do?”

“Well, shadow mages manipulate shadows—we don’t create them, but twist whatever's already there and give it weight. We also have a talent for seeing the past, but it takes years tolearn. Never tell my tutors this, but it's soooo boring, too. Lotta meditating, and who has time for that?

“Light mages do the same with light. But unlike us, they can see into the future. But while those snooty nerds think it’s better, it can also blind them. So fuck ‘em.”

“You really don’t like light mages, huh?” I tease.

“Oh, don’t worry. Mountain and storm mages are just as annoying. Mountain mages play around with mud and rock. They can also heal, but they’re right pricks about it and it costs a fortune, too. Then the storm mages control air and lightning, and astral project. But who cares? Sure, you can teleport a projection of yourself to the shops, but you can’t pick up anything. So what’s the point, ya know.

“Lastly, and grossly—blood mages. They control anything and everything about blood. Some of the powerful ones can control flesh puppets.” We both shiver in disgust.

“I hope I never see that.”

“Urgh, same. Well, they can control most blood, pretty certain demon blood messes with them, and vampire blood makes them incredibly powerful.”

I nod slowly. “That’s a lot. But…is there more?”

She tilts her head. “Are you thinking of anything specific?”

I think back to when I was held hostage by the blood mages Emma and Jace made into an army, how we needed fire to escape and Apollo admitted that he knew my secret. My deepest shame that I’ve been carrying close to my chest ever since the accident twenty years ago, the one that took my parents away from me. Or…the one where I took my parents away.

“Can anyone…” I hide my nervous swallow with a sip of tea. “Create fire?”

“Oh, well, yeah, plenty of magic involves manipulating fire. Storm mages and even some light mages can.”

“But what about…creating it?”

She frowns, looking at me like she’s trying to work out a puzzle.