TWENTY-EIGHT
The days had started to blend when Angela found herself alone in the Keep. Zarek had been called away, so magick testing from whatever guru, and classes, had been cancelled for the afternoon. So this was her first chance to find a door to the outside world.
After five days, she relished the break.
No messages of bad news had arrived. No Black Cloaks had materialized from the shadows, let alone this scary leader she was supposed to be hiding from. Claudine’s last update had been fine. And it was getting harder and harder to feel threatened by something that hadn’t shown its face.
If they’d just let Claudine come here, none of this would even be a problem.
Her aunt would absolutely love this place, where they’d play tourist and find the local equivalent of a good wine bar.
It’d stop this feeling like she was missing something she couldn’t name.
Instead, all she wanted was to go home, kick off her shoes, pour a glass of wine, and drop onto her couch where the next big decision was what to have delivered for dinner and what to binge-watch on TV.
She was also failing miserably at the magick testing. And as much as she hated failing, it also proved what she already knew—she had no magick.
So now she was just waiting for them to admit it and let her go home.
Seriously, why keep her around?
She wandered down one corridor, then another. A few soldiers dropped their heads to ignore her, while others just stopped and stared. She tried to avoid them by going down one corridor, then another. To somehow lean against a large tapestry only to discover a hidden door.
It was unlocked.
Inside, the room was bright and full of books, desks, and leather couches, like a study room. There was some sort of model being built on the table.
She heard boot steps, and the door opened.
“I see you’ve found my avoidance room.” It was Condorr. The blond, massively muscled warrior filled the entrance, but his expression was friendly.
“The what room?”
“When I want to avoid people and orders, I hide in here with my secret stash.” He stepped inside, and from the shelf he removed an enormous book, and opened it to show a nice hoard of shiny chocolate bars. “Shh.”
“Are you kidding me?” He’d hollowed out a book for candy.
“I like this brand.” He grinned, offering the book filled with shiny candy bars. “It’d be like a taste of home for you.”
“Thank you.” She took the foil-wrapped chocolate.
“Take two. One for later.”
“I couldn’t.”
“Yeah, you can.”
“If you insist.” She could share it with…
He snapped the book shut and popped it onto the shelf, wearing a boyish grin.
“You’re Condorr?”
“Yep.” In a well-practiced move, he peeled back the foil layers of the candy bar. “I hear you’re a bookshop owner.” He took a bite, chewing carefully.
“I’m partners with my aunt.”
“Same. Well, not really. I mean, my mother owned a bookshop. She’s retired. My cousin runs it now and is happily filling Bellus’s monthly order for notebooks. Is it true that you repair books? Like, by hand and stuff. No magick.”
“I don’t have any magick.”
“Yeah, you do.”
No, she didn’t. “But I do repair books.”
“Cool.” He shoved the last of the chocolate into his mouth then dusted his hands off. “Maybe I’ll go see if my mom can put together a care package for you. That way you’ll have something familiar to do while you’re adjusting.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you, but unnecessary.”
“Hey, we take care of our own. You’re under the Captain’s protection, so that makes you family.”
Family. She glanced down at the second candy bar. Now she knew why she’d kept it, and for who. “Um, so can I ask what is your magick?”
“Strength.” He grinned and flexed one of his huge arms.
“I see. Do you do bodybuilding contests?”
“Nah. But my other magick is reading magic.”
“How so?”
“I can feel it.” He held out his palm. “I can tell when, where, and which wizard touched that book last.”
“And me?”
He curled his fingers into his palm and stepped away from her, ripping open another chocolate bar and taking a bite.
“Let me guess. Nothing?”
He shrugged.
“And what do the others do?”
“The Sworn Exarchs?”
She nodded.
“Well, you know the Captain’s.”
“Fire, and mind, which doesn’t work on me.”
“Kind of like how I can’t read your magick.”
“Get in line. I think we’ve had every wizard in the Keep test me.”
“Better than the Council testing you,” he mumbled under his breath. “Rocharde—”
“He’s the one with the gold earring?”
Condorr nodded. “He does this neat thing with gravity.”
“How so?” She leaned back against the shelves, in the first casual conversation she’d had in ages, over nothing more than a candy bar. It was so normal, like standing in a coffee shop with that regular customer you see in the same line almost daily, where she never got past the small talk stage.
“Rocharde can compress gravity, push it down, and lock the veyll.”
“Compressing gravity? That sounds terrifying.”
“Very handy in battle. Oh, and sometimes he can read memories on touch, which is great for tracking things.” Condorr wolfed down the last of the candy bar, scrunched up the wrapper, and hid it in his pocket.
Then he reached for another book, filled with more bars, and started loading up his pockets. “Bellus is our historian.”
“The one with the glasses?”
“That’s him. You two would get along.”
“Why?”
“You’re both smart people. And Bellus gets along with everyone, if you can get his head out of a book. Got a photographic memory, and connects with the ancestors easily. They like him.”
“A photographic memory would’ve been handy in law school.”
Condorr closed the hollowed book and slid it back on the shelf. “Ancient tax laws, no one reads them.” He grinned to himself.
“So who does that leave out of your group?”
“The Commander, Lord Gellar. Not only is he a master battle strategist, but he’s good at politics and has done great things for the Vanguard.
He’s got a shield that can withstand anything, so that’s handy in battle.
But he doesn’t get out much, too busy manning the desk.
Which is why I reckon Zarek isn’t keen on the job.
I mean, Zarek is a brilliant field commander, boots-on-the-ground kind of guy.
But he also sees big picture stuff, which is rare.
And he hates politics, which is Gellar’s strength. So as a team, well…”
“You really care about them.”
“They’re my brothers.” He gave a soft smile at the model that was all in pieces on the table. He tested the joining of a freshly glued extension of what looked like half a small canoe paddle without the handle.
“That’s not for you?”
“No. I’m building a plane.”
Now he’d said it, she could see the body of the plane like a puzzle yet to be fitted together, including the wing joint he was testing.
It also had an engine, making it more than just a model.
“Is that a flying plane? I don’t see any batteries or a charger for it.
” Why would they need planes when they had that magical materializing thing?
It made her wonder if their witches flew around on brooms too.
“No. We don’t allow EMF signals or radio waves in the magical realm.”
“Is that why there are no phones in this place?” Because her phone and handbag had gone missing.
He nodded. “The electromagnetics can interfere with the purity of magick in this realm. You wouldn’t notice it in your world because you’ve grown up with the air full of shortwave, long range, microwave signals, and stacks of EMF.”
“You should hear my aunt talk about that kind of stuff.” Another pang of missing her aunt had her rubbing the heel of her palm of her heart. “Surely that plane, would have some sort of signal to it.”
“I’m trying to modify it to use one of the energy crystals…
It’s a gift for Rocharde, to replace the one I broke.
” He shrugged while boyishly tapping the toe of his shoe against the floor.
“When I flew it, I skimmed too close to the lake’s surface, and the sea-sirens snatched it.
Then they scattered it across the lake like toothpicks.
Rocharde hasn’t let me forget it because he’d warned me they would.
” Again, he shrugged those beefy shoulders.
“I couldn’t get the same model, but I hope this will do. ”
Aww, Condorr meant that too.
“And then you have Martar.”
“Right?” The guy was always grinning at her.
“He’s our Sergeant at Arms, and the ice to Zarek’s fire.”
“Excuse me?” She arched an eyebrow. “They’re a couple?”
“What?” Condorr thought for a second. “Er, no. No.” He shook his head. “They’ve been paired up since they were boys.”
“Ah huh.” She now arched two eyebrows at him.
“No, not like that. Martar controls ice and frost, he puts out Zarek’s fires. And he is—annoyingly—popular with the ladies. Whereas Zarek couldn’t touch anyone…” He paused to peek at her. “Zarek’s a good man. A really good man.”
“Sounds like you’re trying to put in a good word.”
Condorr grinned wide, scrubbing fingers through his blond hair. “Hey, maybe you can fix some of the old books falling apart in the Hidden Hall of Histories. The ancestors are so rough, they’re like children chucking a tantrum.”
Angela actually laughed for the first time in days. Considering how heavy the mood was from magick testing, and the lack of sleep from the nightmares that were irritating her to no end, it was nice to lighten up.
That’s when the temperature spiked.
Zarek materialized in the doorway so fast that Angela stumbled back. His staves were glowing red beneath his leathers, his eyes locked on Condorr with an intensity that made the air shimmer.
“What’s happening here?” Zarek’s voice was icy.
“Just talking,” Condorr said easily, though he’d shifted slightly, as if wary of an attack.
The silence stretched. Condorr didn’t move. Zarek didn’t blink.
Angela clutched her candy bar with her heart hammering. “Zarek—”
He turned to Condorr, his cold expression making Angela’s breath catch. “Patrol. Now.”
“Yes, Captain.” Condorr’s tone was carefully neutral. He nodded to Angela. “Miss Duboise.”
When Condorr was gone, Angela rounded on Zarek. “What was that? You’re glowing. Actually glowing.” She gestured at his staves. “Your staves are lit up like—”
“I’m aware. Where is your assistant?”
“Tamarr’s having a break from babysitting me.
And Condorr was just being friendly. You know, he’s the only other guy without a gray beard down to his knees who’s bothered to talk to me that didn’t involve magick testing.
” And she was despising the testing, feeling like some lab rat species no one had heard of before.
The growl came with a huff. Along with his stony expression, on a face with defined cheekbones, a strong jaw, and those sea-glass eyes that were boring into her with such intensity that she inadvertently licked her lips under that kind of attention.
Angela defensively crossed her arms. Was he jealous? “You’re acting like someone who’s never shared chocolate and a chat before. Like you’ve never given a gift to anyone.”
He sighed, closing his eyes, only to reopen them as his face softened in a way that took her breath away. His masculine beauty was both harsh and overwhelming in this small space.
Then his gaze settled on her again, and it was heavy, as if he had used his hands.
“No,” he mumbled. “I haven’t. I don’t do gifts.”
The raw vulnerability in his voice stopped her anger cold as the admission hung in the air between them.
Being who he was, with a touch that burned or drove people mad with his sight, of course people gave him a wide berth.
But she also understood that isolation. The countless double-looks she’d get from her mismatched eyes, the whispers about being the witch’s niece, always standing out for some unknown reason when all she wanted to do was blend in.
“That’s…” She elongated her neck, unsure how to finish that sentence. She felt that emptiness that hid between the heart and soul, and it was both hollow and heavy. She knew that feeling well.
It was loneliness.
He looked at her then, and his expression hardened. “Do not pity me,” he snapped.
“I wasn’t.” Was she? “It’s called empathy.” Because she knew what it felt like to be kept at arm’s length and to be the anomaly people whispered about. It made her heart ache for him in the most unexpected ways.
“Go back to your room, Angela. And if you prefer that brand of chocolate, or want anything from the mortal realm, write me a list and I’ll have some collected for you.”
“I don’t want any chocolate. Unless you want me the size of a house, which I don’t want. I prefer my own chocolate, thank you, like a guilt-free chocolate pudding.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s girl-math, you’re not meant to.”
He stopped and looked at her, as if stuck between anger and curiosity, unsure how to react.
“Hmph,” was all he said. And then he was gone, with the air shimmering and shifting.
“I really hate that disappearing act, Zarek.” And how he’d left her alone with a headache from trying to understand why a man who could literally burn things was threatened by a bar of chocolate. And who or what was he jealous over?
He couldn’t be attracted to her.
And she certainly wasn’t, couldn’t, and shouldn’t be attracted to him either—even if one minute he could be adorable, then terrifyingly intimidating the next.
Zarek told her he was following orders. That’s why she was here. That’s all.
But now that the magick testing showed nothing, it wouldn’t be long and they’d be showing her the door, and whoever had proclaimed her as the new power would probably get demoted.
But right now, none of that mattered. She unwrapped Condorr’s candy bar and took a bite, forgetting all her dramas as the sweet flavors made her sigh.
It was really good chocolate.