Obsidian Magic (Legacy Series Book 2) Read online

  “Why is he there on a Sunday?”

  “Why do you think? Why do college students hang out there?”

  We knew it wasn’t for the food or the various candle stores, or places where they could get charms and amulets or have various spells performed. They frequented Coven Row for the herba terrae, the earth plant that made the witches most of their money.

  “Unless Conner or a Legacy is there, he can’t be controlled,” I said.

  That didn’t seem to bring him any comfort, because there was a pretty good chance that someone from Camp Conner was there.

  It wasn’t long before we hit the string of shops whose unique colors identified what type of goods and services they offered. Delicate pinks and lacy curtains and lovely flowers and plants snaked around the doors and windows of all the shops where love spells were performed. Darkened windows and maroon or midnight walls indicated where you could go if you wanted to get a look at your past life or journey to experience a future one.

  Sam was right; there was magic, a great deal of it, consuming the air. People crashed into windows. More bodies expelling shallow breaths lay in the middle of the street. There were broken windows and small flames that were starting to smother out. This wasn’t anyone’s doing but the triplets’. Please let it be them that Avery has cornered.

  A tall, lanky redhead stood in the street, waving his hand wildly to signal us. My sai in hand, I followed Gareth to the store. Avery had two of the mages, the woman and the broader man, cornered. He padded in front of them, his lips pulled back. His large mass was intimidating and had the benefit of being immune to their magic.

  I knew if they were there, the other was somewhere close. “You have things here?” I asked. Gareth nodded. There was too much magic to try to follow it. I stopped and scanned the area. The buildings were clustered together; there weren’t many hiding places, and he would be close trying to get to his siblings. I went through each store next to the building and came up empty. Within ten minutes I had cleared several more buildings. The next alleyway I entered from the opposite direction gave me access to the back of the buildings. If I were him, that was what I would have done—try and use a back way to get them out. He saw me before I saw him and started to rush down the alley. I hit him hard with a blast of magic and rammed him into the wall. He slid to the ground, and I hit him again. I wasn’t in the mood to be nice and lobbed one more into him.

  He was a lot more resilient than he looked, and he stood, shoving me back with his magic. He tried again, and the field I’d erected blocked it. His fingers spread, his lips moved as he attempted to cast a spell to remove it. Nothing. Again he tried, and once again he failed. He pulled his lips back in a snarl and charged at it. It sent him crashing back into the wall. He’s definitely not the brains of the trio. My field wavered and then it crashed. I felt a sharp thrust in the middle of my back and was thrown against the wall. I pushed back quickly, sai in hand, to find Evelyn standing just a few feet from me. Magic wrapped around her hand, nearly consuming it. I wasn’t sure if she was stronger than me or a Vertu, but she damn sure had a better command of her magic than I did. With confidence, she walked toward me, an illumination of light shielding her from anything I could launch her way.

  “You can leave,” she informed the terrible triplet.

  I pointed a sai at him and aimed it at his heart, roiling magic around it until it was concentrated at the end. His eyes widened in fear as he looked at the furled magic, strong and ready to do damage at my command.

  “I would be very careful who you chose to listen to, me or her,” she cautioned, dismissing me with a light roll of her eyes and a turn of her lip.

  Misguided nothing. This woman was a total and utter ass. I doubted Conner had needed to do more than show up, and she was Team Conner and ready to destroy the world.

  With a quick turn, I blasted the magic at her shield, shattering it. Sparks of differently colored destroyed magic scattered around her. I charged her and swiped her foot, dropping the sai. I snaked behind her and wrapped my legs around her. I locked her close to me and pressed my fingers against her carotid. It would be really hard for her to do anything more than fight to stay conscious. Can’t do magic if you’re unconscious, no matter how strong you are.

  She panted under my pressure, her fingers clawing at me, trying to get me to release. She managed a few words. “The cats are going to kill each other.” And her lips moved, slowly, I assumed casting a spell. Seconds later I heard the “cats’” distinctive roars before a booming sound erupted and then the sound of breaking glass filled the air. People screamed. Roars reverberated off of the walls, nearly dominating the thunderous sound of bodies crashing into things. Panic—I didn’t have to be a shapeshifter to know it and feel it.

  I released her, shoving her off me and waving one hand. Using magic I pushed her into the wall. I picked one of the sai up with the other. “Make them stop.”

  She shook her head; I smacked her into the wall. I was ready to do it until she was disoriented enough for the spell to stop, but that wasn’t really how it worked. A spell could be stopped if the person who did it, stopped it. Or they died. And as much as my hand was itching to do it, I couldn’t kill Evelyn. I needed to get over that though, because in the end that was what it might come to—me killing my kind. Bile crept up and I pushed it down. They’d made the choice. Even knowing what would happen and that there was an alternative—they’d made their choice. Gripping the sai harder, I drove it toward her chest and it hit the brick wall. She was gone.

  The roars of the lions continued. I ran toward the sound and the only way I could tell who was who was by the very negligible difference in size, but it didn’t matter—one was about to strike the other with a paw. The SG was there, several with tranq guns trying to get a shot, and I wasn’t sure they were going to get it. Gareth’s eyes were ignited with a primal fury that only seemed to care about survival and destruction. His claws landed on his nephew, cutting into his side. Avery moved back and exposed his neck as he looked at the fresh cut. Gareth reared back, about to lunge, and I pushed enough magic into him that he careened back and smashed into a car, denting it. Avery charged at the shaken lion, and I gave him a magical shove. I ran to get in front of them, using more magic than I knew I had available, ignoring the gawkers and their realization that I was using magic on shapeshifters. It was getting harder and harder to keep them from each other.

  “Do you plan on taking the shot or just chilling like these two aren’t ready to tear each other apart? Let me help you out with the answer. Please take the shot!”

  And they did, but one wasn’t enough to take them down. Three shots later, Gareth and nephew were out on the ground in the middle of a city that looked like it had just been the site of a battle. The only comfort I had was that two chaos mages had been apprehended and each one placed in separate cars. I had been so focused on them that it was too late to react to the approaching SG officers, who had me surrounded. Six. Two with guns and the rest with magic that they were ready to hurl, and by the looks of the brightly colored masses, I didn’t know which was going to be worse.

  The magic tapped at me, then it flitted around me, testing. It pushed harder, and the intrusion into my thoughts was subtle at first—submission. A gentle entreaty for me to stand down. When I didn’t, the magic coaxed me harder to comply. It seemed almost innocuous in its intent for a second. I paused, relaxing into it before I put up an apotrepein. Damn faes. In the sea of faces of the members of SG, magic inundated the air. I couldn’t distinguish any one unless they were using defensive magic or I saw them do a spell. If they changed their appearance or affected my mood or mind, I knew it was coming from faes.

  I didn’t have another battle in me, especially against a department of supernaturals.

  “You are going to come with us,” one of the mages said. I recognized him from the Guild. Brown hair cut so short waves clung to his scalp, tightly hewn features belied by his ever-present light smile. Now there was
n’t a smile, and his molten hazel eyes fixed on me. Standing a little over six eight, he was already an imposing man. I didn’t move but carefully watched the sparks of magic that played at his fingers, merging together into thick, brightly lit bands and then contorting and bending into a ball. It was an unnecessary display of magic used to exhibit his power and control of it.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.” I started to go for my sai. They had a lot of perks, but deflecting bullets wasn’t one of them, and I wasn’t sure magic would do it, either. It would take care of the shifter I caught in my peripheral vision. His broad, sturdy build, sinewy muscles wrapped around his arms, and predator’s glint as he stalked into position reminded me of a wolf. A wolf that didn’t need a pack. I gripped the sai tighter. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, and exposing myself like this wasn’t the best way. I scanned the area again, noting the people who were positioning themselves around me. I took a defensive stance and held the sai ready to strike.

  “Call Harrah,” I ordered. I wasn’t sure if that would help, but with Gareth out, she was the next best thing.

  The shifter lunged; a bolt of magic shot through the sai directly into his chest, sending him back several feet. A look of shock and emblazoned anger reflected back at me. The shifter ring glowed around his pupils, and his lips pulled back into a snarl. I quickly erected a barrier. When the mage released his coiled magic, it wavered at the impact; a rainbow of colors ignited and were slowly absorbed and disappeared into the barrier.

  “Call Harrah!” I demanded again. The standoff was escalating fast as more of the team moved in, closing the distance between us. I had a feeling this was going to get violent, and I wasn’t sure I was going to come out on the other side uninjured or on amicable terms with the Supernatural Guild. The last thing I needed was to be on questionable terms with them.

  “No need,” said a firm voice from a distance. Harrah. Good. Chaos and violence had broken out and she was there to spin the hell out of it until everyone thought it was as benign as a bunch of rambunctious teenagers who’d gotten too rowdy, or a party that had gotten out of hand.

  “She’s free to leave. Please get Gareth and Avery to the Isles. Things will be explained to you by Gareth and myself later.” Then she turned to me. “You are free to leave. Thank you for your assistance, Ms. Michaels.” And she gave me an obligatory smile, the same one she gave to a reporter or other people who challenged anything she said. It was better than a shut-the-hell-up scowl, and she probably had a stop-being-a-troublemaker stare in her arsenal of looks that she had to shelve to protect the alliance.

  CHAPTER 8

  Savannah’s smile was unusually broad. Even after an eight-hour day at work, she was always smiles and sunshine. Usually it was contagious, but there wasn’t anything she could do to brighten up this day. Confessing to Kalen and the Magic Council that I was a Legacy; nearly being arrested for Clive’s and Daniel’s murders; fighting with Evelyn, one of the triplets, and the SG; and breaking up a fight between two cave lions had placed this one on my list of the top three bad days. It topped the afternoon I’d had to wade through sewage, and was only surpassed by the times Trackers had tried to kill me.

  Her gaze slowly roved over me, then she frowned. “I guess the big reveal didn’t go as planned.”

  “It went fine, it was all the crap that happened afterward. After I have a shower, food, and a nap I will tell you every moment of it in excruciating detail.” The way she liked it. Savannah liked details—very explicit details. What color was the car that he crashed into? Did she slice the right or the left arm? The person who was going to shoot you, was it a man or woman? What type of gun?

  “It looks like someone got their ass kicked.”

  I shrugged. “Honestly, I feel like it was me.”

  “Well, this should make your day.” She stepped aside to reveal two very large bouquets of flowers.

  One was a bundle of flowers so exotic that I had no idea what they were, and her name was on the card. My name was on the lilies.

  She inhaled each one and then handed me my card. “Jake and Terry brought them by just a few minutes ago.”

  “Who are Jake and Terry?”

  She rolled her eyes and sighed. “You call them the Suits and I have no idea why.”

  “Isn’t the better question, why don’t you? Why are we learning the names of the mean guys who guard the door at Devour and look like they are more comfortable with violence than the average person?”

  “Says the woman who has a section of her closet named ‘somebody’s getting their ass kicked.’”

  “You named it that, remember, when you decided my room was a danger zone and organized it,” I pointed out, looking at the card. It was in Lucas’s beautiful handwriting. Handwritten notes seemed to be something he was adamant about retaining from the old world. To me they were a reminder that he’d lived during a time that both Savannah and I knew about because of our history classes and the History Channel.

  “How lovely are they?”

  I really tried to be as excited about them as Savannah was. This was her thing, not mine. I smelled them, played with the delicate petals, and then smelled hers. Her arrangement was more extravagant than mine.

  “I wonder what they’re for. My card simply reads, ‘I hope this brightens your day.’” She inhaled them again. It was similar to my note. I glanced over at Savannah. That’s what swooning looks like. It was so fitting on Savannah.

  “I think they are consolatory flowers. Mine are ‘My apologies that you’re a Legacy; must suck for you.’ And yours are probably ‘My sweet, dear, lovely vampire kittle, your roommate is a Legacy—you probably can do better. I’ll start looking for a roommate for my lovely little petal.’”

  She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “You’re so pessimistic. He probably assumed you had a bad day and mine are just obligatory.”

  “Well, we see who he likes the best,” I teased.

  “Of course he likes me better. Every time you go near him you try to wear a turtleneck and give him a strange look each time he touches you. He probably isn’t used to such poor manners.”

  I forgot I lived with the manners police.

  “We have to call and thank him.” She grabbed her phone.

  “No, we don’t. Who said that? That is not a rule, and you can’t make me believe it is one.”

  She shook her head. “I know you weren’t raised by wolves, but sometimes I have to remind myself of it,” she said, smiling. “It’s the polite thing to do. Maybe we should visit him, invite him to dinner.”

  “You mean show up with our necks exposed, maybe rub a little bacon on them, and offer ourselves to him because that’s dinner for him. Have you forgotten?”

  “How can I? You remind me of it every chance you get. Come on, Levy, it’s the polite thing to do, and before you even suggest it, I will not send him a text. You don’t send the Master of the city a text. It’s tacky.”

  “Are you sure? You won’t know until you try it. If you want, put a smiley face emoji, I don’t care, add a couple of hearts, too.”

  “I will not.”

  I shrugged; she was going to do what she wanted, and because it was Lucas, it would be a call and we were going to have dinner. I was sure my presence was optional. “Do what you want. I’m sending him a text later, and I’m wearing a turtleneck to dinner.”

  “No and no. I will not hear of it.”

  “Whatever you say, Mom.”

  She inhaled the flowers again before she stepped away from them. Her lips twisted into a moue and then a deep frown etched itself on her face and remained.

  “The Witch, Fae, and Mage Councils contacted me today,” she informed me grimly. What Blu had discovered must have gotten out. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Blu disclosing it. Was it something that they needed to know? I thought she was just going to consult with other people, not discuss it with councils. It wasn’t like Savannah was dangerous—she had no magical ability. She was a booster. I could see how
that could be dangerous with the wrong person, but most likely there weren’t people scouring the area to find an amplifier for their magic.

  “What should I do?” she asked.

  Don’t go. That was the advice I wanted to give because it seemed like the soundest thing to do. But would there be consequences for her not doing it? “I don’t know.”

  “Maybe we should ask Gareth?”

  I shook my head. He was probably still dealing with a tranquilizer hangover. He was also part of the magical community and I wasn’t sure how biased his advice would be. I couldn’t call the person I trusted the most and part of me wondered if he would even answer when I finally could and he saw the number. I frowned at the thought.

  “Let’s just wait and see.” It wasn’t the best advice, but it was all I could think of at the time. I had limited knowledge of the individual Councils other than they served to regulate the different sects and often worked with the human government to determine magic rules and what was considered acceptable and unacceptable practice. But like any governing body, they could be your best ally and your most ruthless adversary. I didn’t want them to ever be Savannah’s adversary, but did she really need an alliance?

  I excused myself to my bedroom and called Blu. She’d started this mess. Her voice was just as lively and gentle as usual and remained that way even though mine was harsh and cold. “Why did you tell them about Savannah?”

  There was a long pause. Maybe she was trying to determine the situation and I wasn’t helping things by being so brusque with my tone. I softened it. I liked Blu and didn’t suspect she was doing something intentional to hurt Savannah.

  “I thought it would be better for her to choose which group she will be governed by,” she offered.

  “Why does she need to be governed by anyone?” I said, easing it to a softer tone. My anger had been misdirected. I wasn’t angry with Blu, just the situation. I’d been dealing with situations all day. I didn’t want another one. “She’s not dangerous. She doesn’t even have any magic!”