Chapter 29 The Calm Before the Storm
twenty-nine
The Calm Before the Storm
The phone rings for the second time and I feel like maybe I should hang up. It wasn’t part of my plan to include Armhurts in the action, but Nai Nai said it would be essential, and since she’s rarely wrong about these things, the phone rings a third time.
Two weeks of decking the café out like Macaulay Culkin’s wet dream has me feeling really confident in the plan, and maybe that’s my downfall. If I fail, I need the police as backup. And since Nai Nai specifically asked me to call our detective…maybe I shouldn’t be as confident as I am.
But two weeks of training with Rhazan have made me confident in myself, too. I can bend fire to my will, and my muscles can feed on magic. I have stamina, speed, and strength that would be unmatched in any wuguan.
We don’t need the police. I’ve totally got this.
I’m about to hang up when the line clicks open.
“Detective Amherst,” comes her familiar voice from the other end.
“Hey, Armhurts, just calling you back,” I say.
“Is everyone all right?” she asks, and that gives me a little comfort.
“We’re hunky-dory here.”
“That’s good,” she says, then huffs. “But I have some bad news. The local force is canceling your twenty-four-hour watch after tonight and I can’t get up there for another two days.”
“Oh, that’s fine! No need,” I say, perhaps a little too quickly because there’s a brief pause and then…
“Why?”
I pace from my bedroom door to the window. “We have been putting some of our own protections in place around the café, and I just don’t think we need cops watching, or for you to come up. We’re good, honestly.”
“Protections? Jiahui, your grandma’s mysticism is not going to protect you from a man with a gun.”
“Well, I don’t know if he had a gun, just that he was reaching for something at the back of his pants, but that’s beside the point. My grandma’s mysticism has nothing to do with it. We’ve gotten some pepper spray and there’s a big, muscled local who’s been watching out for us.”
Armhurts gives a long, withering sigh. “That is not appropriate protection. But I’m not at liberty to force anything upon you. Please just know that the soonest I could get to you is two hours if you needed me.”
“I’ve got you in my favorites,” I say with a chipper smile.
“Has Lei Zhao contacted you again?”
No, and that’s the problem…
“He hasn’t. I’m guessing he scurried home to Boston,” I say with a chuckle.
“There’s no confirmation of that,” she’s quick to say.
Good, so he’s still here. But I need him feeling confident enough to come pay me another visit. Hopefully with the cruiser gone from across the street, he’ll be ready for another try. If not, I’ll just have to tempt him.
“It’s strange that he hasn’t sent you any follow-up messages, more threats,” she murmurs to herself. “Oh, I wanted to tell you we were able to get the location data off that picture you sent me. It was taken near the city…Schuang Dzuh, in the Hunan region. Do you know it?”
She botched the name, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t know anything about China…
“No. I’ve never been—I mean, I was born here. So was Zixin.”
“Would Mrs. Feng know anything about the location?”
“Maybe?” I say with a shrug. “It’s been a long time since she lived there.”
“I’ll give her a call, and we’ll hash it out.”
A little relief comes fluttering into me. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
A lump swells in my throat and I cough to clear it. “For trying to find my parents.”
“I said I would.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t really…”
“Think I meant it,” she asks, her voice carrying understanding more than question.
I didn’t. I didn’t think she cared. I didn’t think anyone actually cared about anyone anymore, but after meeting Lacey, and Jamie, and Deelia, and Rhaz, and even Armhurts…I know I was wrong. People still care. I’m not all on my own. I can trust them.
“I do now,” I say.
“I’m not just on your side, Jiahui. I’m seeking justice for everyone the Zhao family has wronged, your parents included. With your testimony and others, we’ll have enough to nail him and his entire organization, for good.”
“What about the power vacuum that would create? Wouldn’t someone else from his ranks just fill in?” I ask.
“Hey, I’m not questioning your café protections…” she says.
I scowl. “That’s different…we have a plan, and yes, okay, fine, Grandma’s mysticism is involved.”
She chuffs. “I knew it.”
“But it’s going to work,” I say. “We have these—”
“Ms. Feng, I will be there in two days,” she says, cutting me off. “Please, don’t do anything stupid before I get there.”
I tsk. It’s not a stupid plan, so I’m not lying when I say, “Fine, okay.”
“Thank you. And use the pepper spray if Lei Zhao comes to your shop.”
“I will pepper spray him if he needs pepper spraying,” I say.
“Good. Stay safe and I’ll see you soon,” she says, then hangs up.
I blow a raspberry and stuff my phone in my pocket.
She didn’t even hear me out. If she knew I’d only found those cubbies with cooked books because I used magic, it would put the whole trial in jeopardy, so there’s no point in trying to get her to believe me.
I’d rather see Shang rot in prison than have Armhurts believe I’m a mage.
While I trust that the detective is doing what she can for my parents, I know that I can do more, especially if I can get a little help.
Two days. That’s the window to get Lei in here and get Sylvia and Apollo to agree to my crazy plan. The crazy plan I haven’t told anyone about…
The brand on my wrist glimmers brightly and heat swells up my arm. Rhaz told me that words were powerful, and I could do a lot just by speaking my will. I don’t want to invade his space when there could be an IBMA agent meandering around, but I need to see him.
I close my eyes and press down on the mark. “Call Rhazan.”
There’s a faint chime in my head, one I know I’ve made up, as I sense my astral spirit seeking him out. It’s not like projecting in the way where I become disembodied and see outside myself, but more like I’m watching through a camera as someone else moves through the realms into his bar.
He’s seated at his desk in his office, scribbling with an ink quill on a very official-looking document. I scan the room, seeing Soot curled up next to the fireplace, but no one else.
“Firecracker?” Rhaz murmurs and his voice shimmers through my mind like a mirage.
“Hi,” I whisper.
He scowls, looking around. “Where are you?”
“I’m in my bedroom.”
His expression lightens and he smirks. “What are you wearing?”
“Nothing,” I say, grinning to myself.
He shoots up from his seat and embers envelop him. There’s a burst of heat behind me and arms wrap across my shoulders. I lean back into him, grabbing his forearms and holding him tight. His warmth is the balm I needed for my weary soul.
“Liar,” he purrs in my ear, sending a chill down my spine.
“It was the fastest way to get you here,” I say.
“You need something?” he asks, concerned.
“I wanted to talk to you,” I say, turning in his grasp. “I have an idea, and it’s a bit…unconventional.”
“Do you mean delusional?” he asks as he tucks my hair behind my ear.
“Not every idea I have is delusional, and even more of them work out, so delulu or not, my track record is decent.”
He laughs in the back of his throat, smoke pouring from his nostrils. “What is it, then?”
“The detective was able to get a general location for my parents,” I say, trying not to let any hope enter my voice. “I realize this is asking a lot, but would it be possible for a portal to be opened from here to over there, so that maybe I could find them?”
He nods thoughtfully. “Yes, but someone of power would need to be at the other end. Trying to open a portal without a precise destination is extremely risky.”
Well, that makes sense. Apollo didn’t just bloop himself and Sylvia over here…he used Rhazan’s magic as an anchor point.
“If my father was magical like Nai Nai, would that be enough?” I ask.
“I don’t know, Firecracker. The only portals I’ve created over my years were to places I’d been to, that I was familiar with and had left some of my magic behind in. That’s how Apollo and Sylvia can move so freely to my bar now. They marked it with their magic.”
“But the first time they hadn’t, right? How did they get there?”
My voice is starting to sound desperate. I stop and take a breath, closing my eyes.
Rhaz cradles my cheek. “He revealed himself to the people in his town last year. There was an uproar in the magical community, but since he’d never been a documented creature of interest and didn’t know the rules, they didn’t fault him for the breach.
“I found out through my parole officer. She mentioned he looked like me—troublemaker brothers, she called us.”
I chuckle and he smirks.
“I asked her to contact him for me. She set up our first meeting, using her power to ferry him to me. Then he made an etching in my library and poured some of his magic into it, binding a little bit of himself there so he can always find his way.”
“I guess I just thought, ‘It’s magic. It can do anything.’” I sigh. “I’m silly.”
“You’re not silly for hoping,” he says, stroking my cheek with his thumb. “I wish it could, too. I’d fix a lot of things.”
The look in his eyes is dark and full of self-loathing. I know it well, because I’ve seen it in the mirror for years.
I slide my hands up his chest and cup his face. “The past is gone, but we can work on the now, and the future, and we don’t need magic to make a good life.”
His face opens, vulnerable and raw. “You want to make a life with me?”
Is this impulsive? Maybe a little. But everything in my body, mind, and spirit is telling me yes.
“I do,” I say, smiling up at him.
He descends on me so fast I barely suck in a gasp before his lips collide with mine. He holds me against him so tight I can feel our shared heartache mending in the thrum of his pulse. Our mouths are mashed together in a painful stillness that I want to break. Need to break.
I wrap my arms around his neck and coax his lips to part with my tongue. He crumbles, drawing me down to the ground with him as he pulls me onto his lap. My legs slide on either side of his hips and I mold into his desperate grasp.
“Need you,” he murmurs between kisses. “Needed you for so long.”
His admission burns in the pit of my stomach and my own desire flares with ferocious agreement. My spirit had been half as bright before him, and will never be as bright without him. This is not temporary. This is not a tryst.
This is forever.
He kisses across my cheek and down my neck, his hunger for me turned feral.
I want this so, so much, but not here. Not where the floor creaks and my little brother sits on his computer thirty feet away.
I need space to moan, and scream. I need his hands on me in rough ways that would have Nai Nai calling the police.
“Wait,” I urge.
He pulls back, panting and unsure.
I kiss him hard and quick, then scramble out of his grasp. I stumble toward my closet and dig into my underwear drawer. I pull out the box of condoms and rip it open with trembling fingers. I jump back into his lap with a fistful of latex and a bright grin.
Magic burns through my body, and I speak the words. “Take me to bed.”
Embers swirl around us. I’m buffeted with hot and cold air that thrums with our pounding hearts. And then, we disappear between the realms.