Page 36

1

HANK

W e’re too late. Damn it. As we trudge into the house, we stare in shocked silence. We’d gone to the dowager's cottage, determined to find an object of power to help us unlock Callie's magic.

But it looks like we never will.

Because the whole place is empty. Completely. There isn’t a scrap of fabric left on the windows or a stitch of furniture, burned or not. We search through the rubble from the fire, looking for hidden places in the walls.

Nothing.

We returned to Callie’s home, feeling like complete and utter failures. Callie was counting on us, and it makes my stomach turn thinking about the fact that we didn’t come through for her. That as much as we like to pretend we’re big and bad in this world of magic that she’s learning about, we have limits.

Will plops down at the table, glaring off into space. "This fucking sucks."

James locks the door behind us, and we join Will.

"I don't want to tell Callie," I say.

She's going to be disappointed. I hate the idea of doing that to her when she already feels like she’s putting all of us in danger by not giving herself up to her uncle in exchange for our safety.

"What can we try now?" Will asks, running his fingers through his dark hair in frustration. "We don't have access to anything powerful enough to help. And anything we could make would require dark magic."

Which none of us are willing to mess with. It never ends well when that's involved.

I shake my head. "If we have to, we'll run. At least until we figure out the curse the Dowager put on Callie. I know she didn't do it to hurt her, but it certainly hasn't helped things."

None of us want to run, but if it will keep her safe, we’ll do anything. She's our priority. Well, she's mine. I'm sure the other two feel the same way.

James slams his hand against the table, his face twisted in anger. "But that leaves the king's son as the only available heir at the solstice. If he's the only one there, he'll become the official heir, and the inherent magic will settle on him instead of Callie. We'll never be able to remove tyranny from this coven."

He seems almost as passionate about this as he does about Callie and keeping her out of harm's way. I suppose it makes sense after what we've learned about him. He's seen King Robert's rule of terror far closer than Will or I have.

People will die if we let that happen. I'm not foolish enough to know that won't be the case.

Humans would live in constant fear. The world would change forever.

Suddenly, a prickling in the air presses against my skin. In a split second, I know something bad is going to happen, like the moment before a volcano erupts. Something is going on; that magic, like nothing I’d felt before, is going to be unleashed.

A blast of power rips through me, slamming me into the back of my chair.

For a second, it’s hard to breathe, it’s hard to think. The magic fills the air, thickening it and making it impossible to move.

And then it’s gone.

That can’t be good.

"What the hell?" I jump up and tear out of the kitchen, searching for the source of power.

Whatever caused it is dark. Everyone but the three of us is out on patrol, under cover of concealment charms, looking for anyone we can help. It can't be them. Though none of them would use dark magic anyway, I'm sure of that.

Unless some evil force has invaded our house, slipping past our wards without us knowing. A powerful magic that could destroy us all with the snap of its fingers. The oppressive power that was in the air gives me a sense of doom.

Thankfully, the downstairs is empty. No witches waiting to eviscerate us.

And yet, the sense of doom lingers. Of terrible power.

Where is it coming from?

"Garage," James whispers. I can tell from the rasp in his voice that he's as worried as I am about this.

The slight relief at not finding anything threatening disappears in a flash. He’s right. Something has to be here. I feel it in my bones.

I'm closest when we enter the kitchen, so I open the door leading to the garage. Callie’s car is there with the lights on, but thankfully, the engine is off. At least that eliminates one source of concern. I don't want her to have some kind of poisoning from the fumes as well as whatever is going on with the magic.

Once I have the door open, I hear her screams. Callie’s screams. And she sounds frightened, maybe even in pain. I can just see her in the dim garage light. She’s in her car, her mouth twisted, and her eyes clamped shut.

"Callie!" I launch myself into the garage and over her car, sliding across her hood to cut seconds off the time it takes me to get to her. When I yank on the handle, my fingers slip off with a painful jerk. It's locked. "Callie!"

Banging my hands on the glass, I try to get her attention, but she's clutching her stomach and screaming. The car does a good job of muffling the sounds, but this close to the window, I recognize the agony in her voice. Something is hurting her. Some kind of magic.

My heart clenches. I’d thought a dark being had unleashed a spell in our house. But a spell directed at Callie? It’s worse, so much worse.

For all we know, she’s being burned alive, beaten by invisible forces from the inside out, torn to shreds. The possibilities are endless, which is the most worrying thing about it all.

Whatever the hell is hurting her, we need to stop it now. But the lock doesn't want to budge, no matter how much I pull.

"Hank," James shouts. I stop beating on the window and look at him, desperate for what he might say to help. "Are you a witch or not?"

Fuck. Of course.

“Open the lock, or I’ll do it!” he demands, and we both know, without having to say it, that his magic could hurt Callie by accident. What it would take for him to open the lock might not be contained with just the door handle.

Opening locks. Fixing shit. That’s all me.

I'm a run-of-the-mill witch. Powerful, sure. But my magic is somewhat generic. I can do spells and potions, imbibe objects with power—my favorite hobby—and my power helps me fight fires. There are spells that can unlock doors, but they'd take too long.

Gathering power in my palm, I put my hand over the car's lock and blast it with my power. Yes, the lock will be destroyed, and possibly the handle, but it's worth it to get her out faster. My magic hits the parts of the door that keep it locked, and I can feel the pieces melting.

Silently, I give a prayer of thanks. I'm glad she drives an older car. Newer car locks are tied to electricity; a jolt of power may not have been enough to break the lock, and any more power could’ve bled over onto Callie inside the car.

Seconds later, the lock disengages, and I pull it open so I can get to Callie. She's the only thing I can focus on at the moment. The only thing that matters. Without her, the world is a duller place.

I’m not sure exactly how powerful James is, but based on what he's told us and what I’ve seen, he doesn’t have the right kind of magic. Neither does Will, as a fire mage. It's up to me to help Callie once we get her inside.

Dragging her from the car, I lift her into my arms. James and Will move out of the way and are already in the kitchen by the time I turn around carrying Callie. Will holds the door open for me to rush through, then shuts it behind us. We'll deal with the car once Callie is safe.

I rush her to the couch, laying her down and making sure she's comfortable. She's not screaming anymore. I think she stopped when I got her out of the car, but I've been so focused on what I'm doing that I didn’t notice straight away.

She's unmoving now she's inside, with her eyes closed, only adding to my concern. I call her name, but there's no response. I reach out and press my fingers to her throat. Her pulse is strong, and relief floods through me. She’s alive, just unconscious.

I hope it's because whatever was attacking her stopped, and she's exhausted from it. Not that the pain has grown so intense her body shut down rather than face it.

“Has she been blasted?” Will asks. “I don’t see any injuries.”

I move her arms and legs, peeking under her shirt and looking up her sleeves. “No burns, no obvious signs of a magical attack.” Direct attacks with magic can be devastating to the body and leave tell-tale signs. Large vein patterns, burn marks, angry red skin. Rashes. You name it, magic can leave it.

James grabs her coat and jerks the buttons apart so we can search for other injuries. There’s nothing obvious. No dark bruises or signs of internal bleeding.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean she’s safe. There's a chance the magic is attacking her mind rather than her body, and that's even more dangerous.

I place my hands on each side of her head and send tendrils of magic into Callie so I can check her body for less obvious injuries. My medical training is decent. As a fireman, we're all trained as human EMTs, but that will only help us a little here. It’s my background that will be more useful. I study magical healing as well, focusing on first aid and life-saving measures, which is how I know how to bend my magic now and focus it on her, searching for anything that feels wrong .

Her limbs are fine, as is her head. There's no magical attack causing this. I can't even begin to describe the relief I'm feeling.

"Well?" Will asks after a few seconds, and there’s panic in his voice.

He’s on his knees near her feet, his gaze roaming over her. I can tell by the look on his face that he wants to jump in and use his own EMT skills to try to help her, but also that he knows he’d just be in the way of what I’m trying to do well.

But patience isn’t exactly his strength.

"Give me a sec," I say, trying to keep the tense note out of my voice. I place my hands over her forehead and probe into her consciousness.

She's just asleep, thankfully .

"So far, so good," I murmur before they start pestering me again.

James releases a deep breath and strokes her golden hair, a softness to his eyes that I’ve never seen before. He's fallen hard for her. We all have.

Jerking my gaze away from him, I refocus on Callie. Just because she’s good so far doesn’t mean she’s out of the woods yet. I scan her chest and stop dead when I get to her abdomen.

Fuck.

"There's something in her stomach." I focus on the object. It's got power in it, but not much. "I don’t know what it is."

James puts his hand on my shoulder. "Take my power if you need it."

I can channel from him, increasing my powers, to try to dig deeper and find out what’s inside of Callie, but it's difficult and can be exhausting. "Not yet," I whisper as I gently probe to try to find the nature of the object.

Things begin happening inside of Callie in a hurry. She gasps and sits up, forcing us to jerk back. At the same time, power floods her body at a rapid pace.

My jaw drops. The power... It's actually coming from Callie. It feels like a hug, with her scent, her taste, her emotions. Whatever she did in her car, it unlocked her powers.

And they're immense. I don't think I've ever experienced magic from someone like that before. Not that I often go around feeling people's magical power sources. That would be rude.

But this is impossible. She shouldn't have been able to unlock her powers that easily, especially not when we've all been struggling with it for so long.

As fast as her wave of power crashed over us, it's gone.

I would’ve staggered from the loss of it if I’d been standing. Instead, I just sit, trying to calm my racing heart. Trying to process what I had just experienced.

Callie heaves, eyes wide and staring. Her stomach rocks back and forth, and an unnatural sound emits from her throat. With a strange burp, her mouth opens, and a clear stone flies out.

Will catches it in mid-air and stares at it in shock. "What the hell?"

Callie shakes her head, her brows drawn together in confusion. "What happened?"

We swing our attention from the gem to Callie. I'm too shocked to utter a word. She plucks the clear stone from Will's fingers and inspects it. "Funny. It was dark before. I couldn't tell if it was dark blue or maybe red. It could've been black, I guess."

I hold out my hand, and Callie places the stone in it. It's perfectly clear, more like glass than a precious stone, though it's cut more like a gem.

"Care to explain what happened?" James asks.

Uh-oh. James has his serious-don’t-fuck-with-him voice out. I've never heard anyone else use it quite like his; maybe it's a British thing.

Callie blanches. "It's a long story," she whispers.

She recounts her trip to the beach, what the king told her, and what she did. As she speaks, James's face gets paler and paler.

Will looks more and more angry, erupting in a flurry of curse words when she says she swallowed the stone.

I'm not mad. I know why she did what she did. She thought she could stop it all by giving him what he wanted, appealing to his sense of reason. That would be a rational thing to do for most people, give and take. Not the king. He revels in convincing people his way is the only way and that there are no other options, might as well throw in the towel with him.

It's one of his worst qualities, or best, depending on whose side is telling the story. James backs away from the couch and then leaves the room while Will rants. I don't notice anything he's saying, but it's something about bad decisions and stupidity.

I tuck the jewel into my pocket. The stone might have had power before, but I can't sense any in it now. Still, it can’t hurt to hold onto the thing.

Joining Callie on the couch, I hold out my hand, and Callie clutches it. When she does, her power floods me, and I realize she's trembling. "Callie, what are you experiencing?"

Her teeth clatter when she opens her mouth. "I'm freezing."

Dread seeps through me. How are we going to get through this when we don’t know what happened? For all I know, we could end up doing something that makes it worse instead of better. I don’t want that. More than that, I can’t deal with that. Callie means more to me than anything has before. I know it’s soon to say that, but I mean it. She’s special. The others can see it too, and just like me, they’ll do anything to help her.

"Will," I call. "James!"

They can help with the cold. Fire mages and whatever gives James his fire magic are great that way. I can help with the power. "We'll help you."

Will stops ranting and turns to us. "What's wrong?" he asks.

James runs into the room in time to hear his question.

"She's freezing." I scoot over and gather her in my arms, pulling her from the corner of the couch. James sits where she’d been and settles her in his lap. I stand so Will can get close.

A second later, I can feel their heat rush over me like a wave of warm water. It’s soothing, even to me.

Callie sighs in relief. "Oh, that helps."

James wraps his arms around her as Will pulls her legs and feet into his lap, rubbing them with his heated hands.

Grabbing the armchair, I tug it close and sit down, then lean forward to take her hands. "You're flooded with power that you should've been learning to use your entire life. I can help by channeling away some of it, but it'll make both of us tired. It'll take a few days to build that power back up, and we can work on your control while it does. If you can't handle it when it builds back, I'll funnel more off again until you're caught up, okay?"

Callie nods, squeezing my hands. "Thank you."

I let my power reach out and caress hers. "You have to be open to this." Her power regards mine suspiciously. After being locked away for so long, it doesn't want to leave Callie.

"How?" she whispers. Her magic rockets around inside her, anxious to get out and play.

"Tell it to come play with me."

She opens her eyes and looks at me like I'm a lunatic.

"I'm serious." I laugh at her disbelief. "Magic is childlike. It will mature in time, but it loves to be used. Yours has been compressed for nearly twenty years. Encourage it to go with my magic."

Callie arches an eyebrow at me, but she closes her eyes and breathes deep. After about a minute, her magic reaches out to mine and pokes at it like tentacles from a playful octopus. I let mine dance around, just out of reach, and it works. Her eager magic follows back to my body, where it swirls around inside me. I perform a simple spell and shoot colorful sparks into the air. They're not flammable. They're just for show, but it lets her overzealous magic have an outlet.

I funnel as much as I can through me and out into the room while Callie watches in amazement. "I can see what you're doing," she whispers. After several minutes, she lifts a finger and points it into the air.

Bright pink sparkles shoot from her finger.

Will grins. "You're a natural."

I'm amazed she's picked it up so fast. "Try this." I channel her magic again, pulling more and spinning my hand very slowly as I release the same sparkles. They create a tornado, which floats in midair. I blow it, with magic, toward Callie, and it spins around her head, lifting her hair and twisting it around and around above her head.

She squeals in delight. "Do it again. Let me watch it again."

I repeat the motions, but this time, I put the sparkles around Will's head. His hair ruffles as if the wind is playing with it, but the pink glittering tells a different story. This is nothing natural. It’s magic.

Callie leans forward and presses a kiss to his cheek as he rolls his eyes at my choice of who to make sparkle.

I have to cut it off then because if I take much more, she'll start to feel the pull. It can be painful. A strong enough witch can completely pull the magic from another and, with the right spell, make it permanent. I doubt I'm strong enough to really hurt her, but better safe than sorry.

When I let go of her magic, she blinks. "Whoa. I am tired."

I nod as fatigue washes over me. "Channeling magic is tiring. You can funnel it to me, which for some reason isn't as bad, but if I take it, we'll both be wiped out."

"Could someone take it if I'm not encouraging the magic to go? It didn't want to go with you at first." She looks scared. Now that she's got it back, she doesn't want to lose it.

"Yes, but it's extremely hard to do. And you're safe behind the wards." James squeezes her.

I hold out my hand. "Come on. Let's go sleep for the rest of the night, and we can practice more tomorrow now that you're not so full of power."

She nods and climbs out of James's lap. "Thank you both." Callie presses a kiss to each of their lips.

I'm shocked because her actions don't shock me. Her affection for my brothers, friends, seems right somehow. I take her hand, and we tuck into her bed without another word, both Callie and I falling asleep in seconds. And that also feels right, being curled around Callie as I drift off. But I'm too tired to analyze it.