“Be Your Best Self? Are you serious? Are things in the magical world so calm that you’re looking to clean up some culty pyramid scheme?” Trevor’s eyebrows rose as he tried to suppress a smile.

  “I know. It’s lame. Definitely a new one for us.”

  “Now, now. Don’t take that attitude. You might be able to learn something from these people. You could definitely do with an upgrade. I don’t think you’re living up to your full potential. Your best self could be waiting for you.” Trevor gazed into my eyes with mock sincerity.

  “You may be right. But even my subpar self wouldn’t let someone sneak up and gank me from behind.” I referenced his earlier video game defeat.

  “Ooh, that’s harsh.” He furrowed his brows and shook his head as he covered his heart with his hands.

  Trevor was the closest thing to a little brother I’d ever had. When I’d first met him, I’d expected him to be a work contact and nothing more. I’d chosen the Phoenix metro as my new residence because the desert valley was the opposite of the lush mountain lakeside of home. After losing Julien and my home, I didn’t want to live somewhere that would remind me of it. In Trevor I found someone who commiserated with me. He too was led by life’s circumstances to live in a place that was not his home.

  As a kid growing up on the Hopi Reservation, Trevor had become enamored with all things technology. To hear him describe it, he thought as a precocious child that he would single-handedly solve all of his tribe’s problems with the Internet. He loved computers and saw the Internet as a way to bring jobs and opportunities to people. When he left the reservation and attended community college, reality set in. He had learned as I had that one person does not make a difference for an entire people. So he did what he could. He lived cheap and made decent money, sending everything he could spare back home. Work and obligations had taken us both from our homes, and a friendship had flourished around that original tenuous bond.

  Part of that friendship had involved him teaching me how to play video games and the associated vernacular. His tutelage in culture had proved helpful in blending in. It was nice to have someone I could ask my embarrassing questions to, like when I first arrived Earthside and didn’t know the basics of how to use the Internet.

  “So what’s in the bag?” Trevor gestured to my satchel but didn’t move to touch it.

  “This is the real mystery. When we went to the laptop owner’s house, we found these in a secret room. There’s no trace of magic on them, and we haven’t the first clue as to what they are.”

  As I pulled the items from my bag, Trevor picked them up one by one and examined them. When I got to one of the larger and more intricate items, Trevor’s demeanor changed. The air in the room stilled around his serious study of the item. His breathing increased. I could see the pulse point in his neck pounding like a jackhammer.

  “What is it?” I worried he might hyperventilate. In the years I’d worked with him, Trevor had never had this reaction.

  “These are all bomb-making materials, and that is an assembled bomb.”

  Panic wouldn’t help me or Trevor. I needed to keep him calm. “But we’d have to detonate it for it to do any harm, right? It’s not going to explode all by itself.”

  “It’ll have a remote detonator. You see how it’s wired here?” He pointed to a mess of differently colored wires. “It’ll detonate if it’s tampered with.”

  “Fuck.” In an instant I summoned a shield around me and Trevor. The cuff at my wrist sent hot currents of energy cutting across my skin. I’d never used magic at Trevor’s place. Even though the cuff would disguise my imprint, it still left one behind, always different than the last time. The right person would know someone had used magic in Trevor’s home. I’d wanted to keep magic away from him, but expediency won out. If we had to, we could relocate Trevor. But if the bomb went off, I wouldn’t be able to react quickly enough, especially with the cuff, to protect him.

  “What is this?” Trevor poked at the shimmering shield. It resembled the bubbles little Earth children blow. The shield moved with his hand, not allowing him to “pop” it. It would provide a barrier between him and any item he touched or picked up.

  “It’s a shield. It’ll protect us if that thing goes off.” What possible use could a mage have for a bomb? Magic was easier.

  “Wow. So all it took to get you to do magic was a bomb threat. Wish I’d known all these years.”

  “I wish you didn’t know it now. I’ve got to get this stuff out of here. Can it be tracked?” If someone associated with this bomb could tell that I’d brought it here, I’d have to get Trevor to a safe house.

  “No. There’s no GPS locators on any of it.”

  Still, once they were missed, they could be remotely detonated. That could be any moment. “I’m going to take the assembled bombs—”

  “Wait, bombs as in plural?” Trevor asked.

  “Yeah, there are a few more in the satchel. They’re identical to the one you looked at. Don’t worry. I’m going to dispose of them.”

  “How?”

  “I have my ways. They won’t hurt anyone. If I leave all the materials with you, do you think you can track down where they came from? I want to know who’s supplying this stuff.”

  “Maybe, but this is some serious shit, Nadiya. You see this?” He held up a brick of what looked like putty. “It’s C-4, a highly explosive material that’s illegal for me to have. The military uses this type of stuff. If you were anyone else, I’d be on the phone to the FBI right now. That’s how serious it is. You’ve got to be careful.”

  I packed the bomb back in the satchel with the others. “I’ll make sure there’s a bonus for you.”

  Trevor grabbed my hand as I left, forcing me to turn around and look at him. “Hey, you know that’s not why I said anything.”

  “I know.” I nodded until I could see that he believed me. “Still, you deserve something for your loyalty.”

  Once in the car, I released my spell maintaining the shield. I considered placing a shield around the bombs to try to contain any explosion, but that amount of force would be difficult to contain, and I didn’t have much energy left. I needed to recharge so I could dispose of them once I got to my destination.

  Outside of Trevor’s neighborhood I floored it, needing to get these explosives away from a populated area as quickly as possible.

  The opening of the satchel faced me on the passenger seat, and inside, a red light blinked.

  18

  My knowledge of these things extended no further than the movies I’d seen. Red lights blinking did not seem good. I called Trevor.

  “What happened?” Fear crept around the edges of his voice.

  “There’s a blinking red light on each of the bombs.”

  “They must all be hooked to the same detonator.”

  Interesting, but I didn’t have time to ponder the ramifications of that revelation. “Is there any way to tell if they’re going to detonate?”

  “No.” Trevor’s voice lowered. “You can protect yourself if they do go off, right?”

  “Yeah, of course. Don’t worry about me.” I was worried enough for the both of us. I ran through different options. My main concern was keeping any explosions away from a populated area. I was on the freeway headed out to the desert. Surface streets would put me near homes and buildings that could be brought down. There didn’t seem to be any way to avoid human fatalities until I was in the desert.

  All the red blinking lights went dark at the same time. My breath caught in my throat, but nothing happened.

  “What is it?” Trevor must have heard me gasp.

  “The lights stopped flashing.”

  “Are they still on?”

  “No. Why? Does that make a difference?”

  “No idea. But it seems like whoever has the detonator turned it off. I think you’re in the clear.”

  Tension left my body along with a sigh. At least now I knew that the red lights would precede an explosion. It wasn’t much, but it was something to work with. Any bit of knowledge I gained gave me a better chance of surviving.

  The lights turned back on.

  I bit back the curse that sprang to my lips. Trevor was still on the line, and there was no sense in worrying him. “I’m going to go. I need to take advantage of the fact that they’re off to dispose of them.”

  “Okay, but call me once you’re done, all right? I mean it. You know I’m going to be up all night. And I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway without knowing you’re safe.”

  “Aww, so you do care about me. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine and ready to kick your ass at the first-person shooter of your choice next time I see you.” I hated lying to him, but I didn’t know how this would turn out, and at least my skills in deception could be used for good. Evasion was my usual tactic with Trevor when I couldn’t divulge the truth. I was good enough at my job to know he wouldn’t be able to sense that I didn’t one hundred percent believe what I said. “I’ll call you as soon as I’m done.”

  “Good luck.” The line went dead.

  The lights on the explosives died a few seconds later. A minute later, they came back on. I broke every speed limit on my way out to the desert. It seemed like someone had the detonator and was turning it on and off. Whether it was indecision or ignorance that fueled the action, neither option was good.

  When I reached the desert, I drove off the road until I couldn’t see the highway at all. Stillness settled in the air in every direction, preparing for what was to come, resting before the exertion that would soon fill the sky. I knew it well. A monsoon was coming.

  My plan had been to simply bury the explosives. With magic, I thought I could get them deep enough in the ground that if they detonated they wouldn’t harm anyone on the surface. I didn’t want to risk that now. All it would take was some innocent person excavating or urban sprawl reaching out this far to potentially unearth the bombs and cause damage later. I wasn’t going to put off trouble when I could take care of it now.

  With the cuff on, I wouldn’t be able to do what I needed. The pain and exhaustion would be too great. I needed magic at my full disposal. No one knew I was here. The Directorate had no reason to send someone out here searching. I ripped the cuff from my wrist, and my magic surged with such force that I was momentarily lightheaded.

  My magic entered the ground with amazing force, pushing aside rock and sand, effortlessly creating a hill with the displaced earth. I reached my arms out, directing the magic deeper into the ground. My muscles cried out with the joy of a good stretch after long confinement. As magic left my body, power and life entered, refreshing me. Within minutes I had a hole that was big enough for my purposes. I moved to retrieve the satchel but remembered the companionship of my freed magic and instead called it to me. One by one the bombs floated out of the bag and nestled into the ground, my magic tucking them into the bed it had prepared.

  That delicate work finished, I replaced the bag in the car. With one great thrust of power I flattened the hill of displaced dirt over the hole, recreating the ground. I smoothed it out until no sign of my activity remained. I knelt over the spot where, fifty feet below, the bombs rested. I needed to detonate them so they could never harm anyone in the future. To guarantee my safety, I’d placed a shield around the bombs to limit their damage. My knowledge of explosives was scant, but from my understanding, all it took was a burst of energy to ignite the chain reaction that was the explosion. With my palm flat on the ground, I summoned a bolt of lightning, casting it down through the earth with such force that I worried there might be unintended consequences. Focusing all my senses on my magic, I felt the explosion burst against the shield. It had worked.

  A teardrop fell on the dirt in front of me, turning the beige ground dark brown. But I wasn’t crying. Another hit the top of my head, and I looked up. The monsoon, a little late in the day, but it made its appearance as the air around me had predicted when I arrived. I closed my eyes and smiled, inhaling the lovely scent of rain in the desert. As the storm picked up, sand swirled around me, the wind outplaying the rain. In a few minutes, the rain would answer, covering every dry grain of sand, turning the desert into a fleeting mud pit. It wouldn’t last. The rain would end shortly and the arid desert would reclaim the sand until the next night when the process repeated.

  The warm rain soothed me, and I let my magic stretch, swirling the sand and dirt with the water. I didn’t care anymore. These bastards were not just threatening my home world, they were endangering humans too. Everything I’d seen in Christoff’s home led me to believe that he truly loved his wife and son. But how could he be making bombs in his basement? Keeping this stuff in a house with a kid? And now whoever had the detonator was turning on the explosives without regard to where they might be and who they might hurt.

  I knew love, and that wasn’t it. For all my faults with how I’d handled Julien, I never let my work endanger him. My mind drifted to home, the lakefront house we had shared. The nights I’d come home unable to tell him where I’d been. The moon shining on the still water. The green grass that was so vivid it hurt the eyes when the sun shone down on the droplets of dew. The colorful trees, unlike anything found on Earth. Purple and pink leaves, bark with luminescent magic running through it. I wanted to be back there more than anything.

  The ground beneath my hand was no longer the rough dirt of the desert, but neither was it the clingy mud of the monsoon. Something soft and wet cushioned my palm. I opened my eyes, and all around me, radiating out from my hand, was grass. Flowers bloomed nearby. When my magic let loose, it really went all out.

  The storm blew on behind me, leaving stillness in its wake. In the sky, the moon hung orange surrounded by millions of blinking lights normally invisible to me in the city. I could almost fool myself into thinking I was back in Elustria except for the missing moons.

  All of the activity of the last day caught up to me. Had it really been less than a day since I’d met with Christoff? It didn’t seem possible, but that meant I still had five days to save myself from a prophesied destiny. I needed sleep, which meant it was time to clean up this mess and go home.

  With great reluctance I commanded my magic to roll back the changes to the landscape. Grass and flowers withered and died before shrinking into the sand. When I was done, there was no visible sign I’d been there. The only trace of me was the imprint of my magic that hung thick on the land. I didn’t mind. It had been worth it.

  I strapped the cuff back on my wrist and got in the car. My magic chafed under the familiar restraint. As much as I loved stretching it tonight, my pleasure came at a price: it made it more difficult to accept the confines of the cuff.

  I sent a text to Trevor to let him know I was all right then listened to my voicemail as I pulled onto the highway. Alistair had set our debrief for tomorrow.

  He knew the function of the devices Deacon had recovered.

  19

  An empty fridge stared back at me when I went looking for breakfast. I’d meant to go grocery shopping, but ancient prophecies, self-help seminars, Directorate operatives, and bombs had gotten in the way. I should really get a grocery delivery service, but my schedule was too erratic even for that. I’d come back from a mission to spoiled milk at my door.

  “How did whatever mission you were on go? Did you get a new partner?” Pint asked as he hovered over my shoulder. He’d been out hunting when I got home. Nighttime provided an abundance of scorpions, Pint’s preferred prey, and it also allowed him to go unseen. As long as he didn’t get caught flying, humans assumed he was a lizard.

  I couldn’t believe it had only been a couple of days since I’d seen Pint. So much had changed. I couldn’t begin to explain all that had happened. “Yes, I got a new partner. I’ll tell you all about it after I have some breakfast.”

  “Do we like the new partner?” He settled on the counter to watch me.

  I shut the fridge and looked off to the side as I considered Pint’s question. Deacon wasn’t so bad, and I’d increasingly come to believe he wasn’t nearly as incompetent as he’d first let on. It wasn’t his fault the Circle was obsessed with this whole prophecy thing. I faced Pint. “I guess we do. He’s all right.”

  “He’s a he.” Surprise made Pint’s gruff voice a little higher than normal.

  “Yes, he is.” I went back to my room and got dressed. I’d have to venture out of the apartment if I wanted food. My meeting with Alistair wasn’t until later. He said he’d call me when he was ready. Trevor had texted me before he went to bed around six this morning to let me know he didn’t have anything for me yet. The Phoenix Best Self seminar wasn’t until tomorrow. So right now my only mission was eating so I’d have the energy to do whatever Alistair and I decided the next step would be. This was my least favorite part of the whole spy/assassin job. I wasn’t too good at the waiting.

  Pint hovered in the doorway, watching me tie my shoes. “Well if you’re not going to give me any more info to go on, could you at least grab some steaks while you’re out?”

  I hopped up from the bed and placed a little kiss on his nose. “Of course. We’ll chat when my blood sugar isn’t dangerously low.”

  That seemed to appease Pint for the moment. When I exited my apartment, Harry was sitting in front of his door. “Hi, Mr. Harmon.”

  “Ah, been waiting for you! Where do you think you’re going?”

  I locked the door and put on my sunglasses. “Headed out for some breakfast.”

  “No, you’re not. I’ve got breakfast ready inside. Just waiting on you to come eat it with me.”

  I smiled with the happiness that can only come from close friendship. “I wish you wouldn’t wait on me like that, Mr. Harmon. What if I hadn’t come out?”

  “Nonsense. I see you comin’ and goin’ a lot, missy, but I haven’t seen you carrying grocery bags for at least two weeks now.” He stood from his chair and went inside, leaving the door open for me to follow.

 

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