Chapter 8
Grayson
Grayson had no clue who was knocking on his door, but with the echoes of his brother’s text warning, he knew a visit from his dad was a real possibility, and he couldn’t chance ignoring it. He braced, checked the peephole, and then opened the door to a familiar face. “Miles, hey. What’s up?”
His college-aged neighbor rocked from foot to foot as he dragged his hand through his longish hair. Considering it was standing up at all angles, this had not been the first time he’d done that. “Hey, Gray, man. I’m so glad you’re home. I kind of need your help.”
Grayson heard his sink go on and figured Cass was cleaning up their dinner. “Is it urgent? I’ve got company.”
The younger man looked embarrassed. “Kind of.”
Sighing, Grayson stepped back and held the door open. “Come on in.”
Miles mumbled his thanks and shuffled through.
Grayson closed the door then led the way into his condo. When he hit the kitchen, he found Cass at the sink, setting the last plate in the drainboard. “Cass, this my neighbor Miles. Miles, this is Cass.”
Miles’s anxious air dimmed long enough for him to say hello and once again offer an apology, which Grayson waved off. “Just tell me what’s going on,” Grayson said.
Miles drew in a big breath. “Okay, well, you know how Jenna and I are moving to Denver?”
Clearly, this was going to be a story, so Grayson braced a hand on the back of one of his bar stools and settled in. “At the end of month, right?”
“Yeah. Since that’s, like, right around the corner…”
Amused, Grayson silently corrected to More like two weeks.
“We decided to have one last get-together with our friends the night before last, but it got a little out of hand.”
Familiar with Miles’s tendency to understate, Grayson had to ask, “How out of hand?”
Miles winced. “They kind of trashed our place.” When Grayson didn’t say anything, Miles rushed on.
“One of Jenna’s girls, an air mage, she, like, got into a fight with her guy, a water mage, and the next thing we knew things were flying around, and he was using the kitchen sprayer to ward it off, and by the time we got them separated, the place was a freaking mess. ”
“Was anyone hurt?” Grayson asked, considering how bad things could turn when it came to hurt feelings and upset magic users.
Miles shook his head, his hand wrapping around the back of his neck. “No, everyone’s good. Now.”
“Okay, so what’s the problem?”
Red rode under Miles’s face, and he avoided Grayson’s gaze as he dropped his hand.
“Jenna and I kind of need the security deposit for the new place ’cause money’s tight, you know.
We did our best to get the condo back into shape, but when it wasn’t looking good, Jenna suggested we use this spell she got from one of her friends.
They told her it would put everything back the way it was, but I think it expired or something, because right now, my bed is on my ceiling, I’ve got chairs pinned to my walls, some of our baking pans are, like, melded to our cabinets, and I don’t know what to do. ”
Maybe don’t cheap out on a rune? Grayson looked at the floor and swore he heard Cass choke back a giggle. Not that he blamed her.
“Can you help?” Miles was begging at this point.
It would take a better man than Grayson to refuse such a request, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. He blew out a breath and looked at Cass, who stood at the sink, fighting a smile. He didn’t even have to say a word.
“Go,” she told him. “I’m good.”
“You sure?”
She glanced at Miles, sympathy and amusement on her face, then back at Grayson. “Yep, go see what you can do.”
He straightened. “Give me five, and I’ll meet you at your condo,” he told Miles.
Miles rushed forward and hugged him. “Thank you so much, Gray. I so owe you.” He let him go and turned to Cass. “I’m really sorry to interrupt things, but thank you too.”
“Good luck,” she said as Miles headed toward the door, his relief obvious.
When it clicked shut, Grayson muttered, “I shouldn’t have answered the door.”
Cass laughed and came out of the kitchen to stand in front of him. Her hands went to his chest as she looked up at him. “You’re a good man, Grayson Beck.”
He shook his head. “I’m a sucker, more like.” He pressed his lips to her forehead then went to put on some shoes and grab his work bag before heading over to redecorate Miles’s condo.
Over an hour later, Grayson let himself back into his condo, set his bag on one of the barstools, and walked into his living room.
Tucked into the corner of his couch, Cass looked up from her phone, those fascinating eyes of hers warming. “How did it go?”
He dropped down next to her in a sprawl. “I swear to all that’s holy, they need to create warning labels for second-rate spells.”
She set her phone down on the arm of the couch then changed position so she could face him. “I’m not sure that would help, considering why people go for them in the first place.”
Grayson laced his hands behind his head and crossed his feet at the ankles, feeling the stretch through his spine.
“Maybe, but cheaping out on spell work generally leads to spending way more in cleanup.” He listened to her soft chuckle.
“I don’t know what the hell the original caster was thinking, but I’m pretty sure they were high as a kite when they created it. ”
“That bad?”
He gave her a pained grimace. “Undoing it was like walking backward and blindfolded through an acid-trip minefield. I’m surprised it held together as much as it did without opening a portal to another dimension.
” He was only half joking. There had been a couple of bowel-loosening moments during the unraveling process.
“But you got it done.”
“Yeah, I got it done.” He dropped his hands to his stomach and shifted a little deeper into the couch. “Just not quite how Miles hoped, though.”
“How so?” Cass scooted closer until she was pressed against his side and rested her head on his shoulder.
He tucked away a thought about how he liked her doing that. “How much do you know about how Keys work?”
“Just the basic premise. You guys are magical code breakers, right?”
“That’s one way to think about it.”
She tilted her head back, revealing a small frown. “Is there another way to think about it?”
“Yeah, considering a Key is defined by their specialty.” Or specialties, in his case.
When she continued to study him, he realized she was waiting for more.
“Right, so you know how Keys can run the gamut from unraveling a simple cyber-code hex all the way up to undoing a complex hex threat, like a plague dealer?”
She nodded.
“Okay, so that’s where the specialties come in. Basically, Keys reverse engineer spell work, so depending on their area of expertise and what kind of magic they’re dealing with, they’re further divided into either Static or Agile Keys.”
Her frown deepened. “What’s the difference?”
Too many to count. But for this conversation, he didn’t want to get into a dissertation, so he did his best to keep it simple. “Do you know how hexes work?”
Her frown disappeared under exasperation. “That’s like a Magic 101 question, Grayson.” When he raised his brow in a silent taunt, she heaved a sigh then said, as if reciting a text, “Hexes, also known as curses, are created from active and dormant casts.”
Following her subtle teasing cue, he feigned a professorial tone. “And casts are…?”
She gave him a bratty look but continued to play along. “Elemental energies powered by the caster’s intent.”
Enjoying himself, he grinned and pressed a quick kiss against her pouty lips. “A-plus work, Ms. Alcmene.” He pulled back, ignoring her rolling eyes and flushed cheeks. “When a mage casts a spell, that hex, or curse, will take on markers unique to the individual mage.”
“Like a fingerprint?”
“Not quite to that detail level. More along the lines of a power signature,” he said as she resettled her head back on his shoulder.
“Say a water mage decides to cast a curse but doesn’t want it tracked back to them.
The base thread of the rune powering the hex is influenced by their intent, which will in some way touch on the particular elemental magic of the water mage and hold a pattern unique to the way the magic is crafted.
Then they’ll continue to shape that cast, or rune, by weaving in other magic—like Elemental or Mystic-tied powers—to bury the fact that the initial thread is linked to water.
Keys not only have to identify if a hex exists—they also have to determine if it’s active or latent, and even further, they have to figure out how to unravel it without setting it off or destroying it, which means singling out the pattern and base element.
And Keys don’t just defuse curses—they also do cleanup once a curse has been set off. ”
“So Keys are the magical equivalent of the bomb squad.”
He’d never thought of it quite like that. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Which brings us back to the question: What’s the difference between Agile and Static Keys?”
He shifted to wrap an arm around her shoulders and bring her in close until the loose top knot of her hair brushed against his jaw.
The scent of her shampoo, chased by a subtle hint of jasmine, filled his nostrils.
“Agile Keys work with curses built from an active cast base. If we keep with the bomb squad metaphor, that means Agile Keys work with complex, ready-to-blow bombs set for specific targets.”
“Like cursing an ex with a case of horrific acne.”
“Exactly like that. Static Keys work with latent curses, which are a secondary level of spell work that not only uses dormant casts as their base structure but also require specific conditions to work successfully.”
She rested her hand on his abdomen, the heat of her touch no match for his T-shirt. “So instead of acne, that kind of hex would be like every time your ex opens his mouth to lie, the truth comes out, but only when hitting on other women?”
“Yep.”