“Gregory was coming here to meet with someone, and the rune should have the information about the meeting.”

  I glared at Alistair. If our desire for the rune was only for the meeting details, Sasha and I would have simply trailed him to the meeting.

  He looked at his hands, deciding how much to tell me. When he looked back up, his relaxed face told me I’d get everything. “We think it may also have information the Directorate was passing on to whoever he was meeting with. We’ve heard whispers about something escalating Earthside soon, and we think this meeting is the start of it.”

  Something didn’t add up, but I trusted Alistair had told me what he knew. “I wouldn’t put too much stock in the rumors. This guy wasn’t highly trained. The Directorate wouldn’t send valuable information with such an idiot.”

  “The Circle will view it differently. They think what the Directorate has planned is big enough that they’re willing to take more risks than normal. I’m going through a portal tonight, so I should have answers for you soon.” Alistair stood and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Try to relax. I’ll be back once the rune’s been analyzed.”

  I walked him to the door. “Are you going to talk to Sasha’s parents?”

  “No, but I can pass along a message for the Circle to deliver.”

  A stranger who didn’t know Sasha would deliver the news of her death. My mind wandered to the time a stranger had done the same for me. I’d been a young student at Moonlark Academy, a school for sorcerers in Elustria, when a man appeared and told me my parents were dead and I was to come with him. I’d never known my parents, but I still felt a chill around my heart when I stared into the gray eyes of the messenger. I didn’t know then that Alistair’s gray eyes would become a safe haven for me. He took me from there to become his first agent.

  “Don’t let them know she messed up. Blame it on her partner. Tell them she was an excellent agent, an honor to work with.”

  Alistair nodded in understanding. We were both lifers. Alistair came from a family in the business and I had known nothing else. Sasha’s family wouldn’t be prepared for this news, not that anyone could really prepare for it. They wouldn’t have understood the risks involved. Nobody did. “Will do. Keep yourself safe.”

  The door shut behind him. I could just make out the pleasantries he exchanged with Mr. Harmon as he descended the stairs. In the kitchen I grabbed the whiskey, ready for another drink, when a deep, crackly voice spoke behind me.

  “Is that wise?”

  3

  I turned to see Pint, a turquoise dragon with red triangular markings down his back and two little yellow horns, perched on the sofa. The little guy was the size of a puppy, hence his name, but he was an old soul. Years ago a mage had killed one of the dragons in his clan. The curse that took her down ricocheted and hit Pint, shrinking him down in size. The mage was on a Directorate mission, so the Circle had enchanted Pint so he could speak and tell them what he saw. When Alistair told me this story and mentioned that the Circle didn’t know what to do with the little dragon, I insisted on taking him in. We’d been together ever since.

  Even though Pint knew what I did, he kept out of the way during my meetings with Alistair. That didn’t keep him from eavesdropping, though.

  “I don’t think it’s ever wise to have a drink, Pint. Wisdom doesn’t really play into the decision.”

  “Some times are wiser than others.” He flew to the kitchen counter, settling next to my empty glass. “I’m sorry to hear about Sasha. I liked her.” I ignored his condolences and poured my drink. “You liked her too.”

  “She was a decent partner, but I knew she panicked under pressure. I shouldn’t have let her try to get the rune.” Sasha’s lifeless eyes stared at me in my mind, cold and unnatural. She’d been vivacious in life, loving the adventures our work sent us on. I finished my drink and put the glass in the sink. Pint was right, drinking wouldn’t help. I put away the bottle and headed to the bathroom.

  Pint followed me, flying over my right shoulder. “She was trained. You’re not responsible for her mistakes.”

  When I reached the bathroom doorway, I turned to face him. “But I’ve outlasted four partners now. I should know better.” I shut the door and turned the lock, needing to shower in peace.

  I let the hot water wash away the stress of the day. I never let myself carry baggage from missions. Showering afterward was something of a sacred ritual for me. I breathed deeply, releasing all of my stress and anger and disappointment. Afterward, I didn’t let myself think of Sasha. Once the rune was analyzed, I’d have another assignment to focus on. Distractions would only get someone else killed.

  “You look better.” Pint glanced at me from his bed in a net suspended from the ceiling in a corner of my bedroom.

  I should’ve gone right to bed, but instead I allowed myself an indulgence that I never would in front of Alistair. Comfy in my pajamas, I lay on my bed and held my hand out in front of me. Pain ripped through my arm as I used my magic, but in this instance, it was worth it. A little viewing portal sprang to life above my hand. In it, I could see Julien sitting on the beach of the lake outside our dream house in Elustria. He sat alone, and for the thousandth time I didn’t know how that made me feel.

  Pint flew down to sit next to me. “You shouldn’t do this.”

  I kept my eyes on the viewing portal. “You don’t have to watch.”

  “Let me go burn his eyebrows off.” Pint lunged at the viewing portal, as if he could fly through it. He’d been close to Julien when we still lived together, but when I left, there had been no question as to where Pint would go.

  “No, Pint. He didn’t do anything wrong.” I loved him for the offer, though.

  In response, he nestled his head on my shoulder, offering support amongst his disapproval.

  It’d been three years since Julien and I had entered an agreement to be bonded. Three years since the Circle had sent me on an assignment that turned ugly. I’d hit the target, a low-level official from the Magesterial Council who also worked for the Directorate, a covert operation of corrupt mages. The Council insisted they had no ties to the Directorate, but we didn’t buy it. The Directorate may not be officially sanctioned by the Council, but there had been too much crossover from the Council and the Directorate over the years.

  The mission had been picture-perfect except for the part where I’d been seen. Months of intelligence gathering and the Circle hadn’t figured out that Bernhardt, the target, had a secret mistress. She’d seen the whole thing, and worse, taken an imprint of my magic. In an instant I became the most wanted sorceress in Elustria. The Magesterial Council disseminated my imprint amongst the mages, and I was a hunted sorceress. If I performed magic around a mage, they’d instantly recognize me.

  “He should have trusted you,” Pint said. A bit of sadness over my pain laced his voice.

  “He had reason not to after what happened.”

  Pint lifted his head from my shoulder, but I didn’t return his gaze. “You mean after you almost got yourself killed saving the world?”

  “I think it was the seducing another man and lying about it that bothered him.”

  Julien learned the truth about me in the worst possible way. I had planned to apply for a waiver so I could tell him what I did once we were bonded, but there was no way for me to tell him before then. Secrecy and lies were my trade. I don’t know if he would have ever accepted that I was an assassin. I probably wouldn’t have gone that far. Officially, the Circle didn’t assassinate anyone, but I might have told him I was a spy.

  If the revelation of my secret life hadn’t been enough of a deception for him to cast me off, the details that emerged about the mission were. I’d gotten close to the target by seducing his brother, Nicholas Yusov. Nicholas was the black sheep of his family. While his brother joined the Directorate out of a strong sense of mage superiority and desire to keep mage magic pure and conquer sorcerers, Nicholas didn’t believe in the tenets of mage purity. For Nicholas, love best served the world, and nothing should interfere with love no matter where it sprung. This made him the perfect in for me. Our relationship had served as proof to Nicholas that mages and sorcerers could not only get along but serve the world better by lifting each other up. The relationship with Nicholas had gotten me access to Bernhardt. That was its only purpose and the only benefit I saw in it.

  Julien did not share my view. To him, my relationship with Nicholas had been a betrayal. It had never occurred to me that Julien wouldn’t have faith in my love for him. Nicholas was a job. My interactions with him were simply what needed to be done. How Julien could think Nicholas was a threat to us bewildered me. No more of me—my feelings—went into Nicholas than went into retrieving the rune last night.

  After Julien found out what I did, he dissolved our arrangement and forbade me from seeing him again. I wish the resulting fight had been heated—that I could have handled—but the ice that radiated from Julien had pierced deeper than fiery passion ever could. I’d never forget the look in his eyes the last time I saw him, as if I were some disgusting thing that had slithered into his life.

  It all worked out for the best in the end. Telling him after he had bonded to me would have been cruel. He could have never handled my being loyal to my work as well as to him. The Circle had acted quickly, stationing me permanently Earthside. In one day, I lost the love of my life, my position, my future, and my home. Julien hated me. That didn’t keep me from wanting the best for him, but it was three years later, and he still sat on the beach alone. My lies had hurt him, perhaps irrevocably. Sometimes I wished he would finally remember to update the security charms around our property to block me from spying, but it probably never crossed his mind that he had to. In his eyes, I didn’t care about him.

  Pint growled, the vibrations running down my chest. “I trusted you. He’s a twat. I don’t know why you keep checking up on him. The asshole deserves to be miserable. How he could think you’d ever betray him confounds my reptilian brain. Did he even know you? You’d sooner die than hurt someone you love.”

  “No, I hurt him, and I knew it would hurt him. I made that choice.” At the time, I had thought he’d understand when the truth came out, but deep down, I’d known it’d be difficult for him, maybe impossible.

  Pint blew enough smoke to obscure the portal. “Put it away and go to sleep. You don’t need him. You’ve got me.”

  “That’s right.” I put away the portal and pet his head, something Pint didn’t often tolerate. A mini dragon who understood loyalty was better than a fiancé who didn’t. But just because Julien didn’t care for me anymore didn’t mean I didn’t care for him. Feelings didn’t work like that, no matter how much I wished they did.

  A banging sounded on the front door. The light in the room had shifted, and a little bit of drool wet my pillow. I must have fallen asleep.

  “It’s just Harry come to get you for TV night,” Pint said and then rolled over and resumed snoring little puffs of smoke from his nostrils.

  The banging repeated, but as I walked across the apartment, something else caught my attention.

  Magic.

  4

  I grabbed my dagger. The unfamiliar magic grew stronger as I crossed the living room then diminished until it disappeared. I couldn’t feel a trace of it.

  The banging came again. “Nadiya, it’s Harry.”

  I waited a few seconds, making sure the magic I’d felt had gone, then I placed my dagger in a kitchen drawer and opened the door.

  “Ah, there you are.” Harry smiled as soon as he saw me. “You still up for TV night? All week they’ve been teasing that Karen and Joey are finally going to sleep together.” Mr. Harmon referenced the sitcom we normally watched on Thursday nights.

  When I’d moved in, Mr. Harmon tried to befriend me from day one. I eventually conceded to a movie night and that morphed into TV night. Harry liked old classic movies, but sitcoms provided a way for me to learn about Earth culture. I’d taken to watching them each week with Mr. Harmon the same way I would an assignment.

  “I didn’t realize how late it was,” I said. Harry visibly deflated.

  “I understand. You had a late night.” Mr. Harmon started to leave.

  The disappointment in his face pulled at my heart. I did have work I had to do. I should at least check my messages. As part of my cover, I had my own security consulting business, Zippy Security. Mr. Harmon had told me to start the name of my business with an A so that it would be listed first in the phone book. I didn’t want to get any calls, so I went in the opposite direction. Then I learned about the Internet and realized how dated Harry’s advice had been. Despite my best efforts, I still occasionally got some clients.

  Then there was the other message that might be waiting for me: Alistair. Whatever he had to say, I didn’t want to hear it. If it was urgent, he’d come in person.

  Screw it, I needed some gossip and laughs with Harry. “Wait, I deserve a night off.” I grabbed my keys. “Let’s go.”

  Inside Mr. Harmon’s apartment, the most delicious smell filled the air: melted cheese and jalapeños. “Are those enchiladas cooking?”

  Harry licked his lips and smiled. “Yes, Ms. Guerrero left them for us last night.”

  “So she’s really gone?” Ms. Guerrero had been my other neighbor the entire time I’d lived here.

  “Yep. She wanted to say goodbye in person, but her daughter was eager to get going.”

  That was probably for the best. I was shit at goodbyes. “Do you know when the new tenant is moving in?”

  “Today, supposedly. Kenny said she paid a lot to move in early and jump the waitlist.”

  My skin prickled. Could the Directorate have found me? No, they weren’t apt to play out a long con. If they knew I was here, they’d capture or kill me. Still, the entire situation was a little too weird. Ms. Guerrero had wanted to live with her daughter and grandkids for years, but there simply wasn’t room for her. Then two weeks ago, Ms. Guerrero put in notice at the complex. Her daughter had won a jackpot from a scratch-off card, enough to buy a new home with a mother-in-law suite.

  Even if I could wrap my head around all that being simple good fortune, someone had paid extra to move in immediately, on the same day I felt magic for the first time near my apartment. Too much coincidence.

  I didn’t believe in coincidence.

  Kenny, the handyman, wouldn’t be a good source of information for me. Whenever something broke in my apartment, I fixed it myself. No one came inside my home except Alistair, not even Harry. Until I could meet this new neighbor myself, Mr. Harmon would have to be my eyes and ears.

  “So you didn’t see her move in?” I asked as I pulled out the enchiladas. Ms. Guerrero spoiled us. Harry and I would likely starve now that she was gone.

  “Nope, just saw the painters and Kenny getting the place ready. They were all done by this afternoon. I thought I heard someone when I put the enchiladas in the oven, but by the time I got to the peephole, no one was there. I’ll probably go introduce myself tomorrow.”

  If I warned Harry away because of my paranoid suspicions, it would only raise questions. He didn’t know what I was. Plenty of magic folk lived peacefully on Earth in secret. This new neighbor could be one of them. Even if it was someone with bad intentions, they wouldn’t blow their cover with a human. In all likelihood, the new neighbor wasn’t the source of the magic I’d felt. If she were, I’d have felt it more than just one fleeting moment.

  “She’s probably busy moving in,” I said. “I’m sure you’ll meet her soon enough with how much time you spend outside.” I carried our plates into the living room and settled onto the sofa next to Harry.

  “You’re right. Don’t you worry. I won’t overwhelm her.” He took a bite of enchilada while I turned on the TV. “Hmmm. If she can’t cook, we’ll have to start collecting delivery menus. Now why don’t you tell me how things went with Mr. A? You kicked him out much too early, in my opinion.”

  I grabbed the remote and turned up the volume. “Shhh, we’re missing the show.”

  Mr. Harmon chuckled. “All right, have it your way.”

  The enchiladas were delicious, as usual, but I couldn’t keep my mind from drifting to our new neighbor. With any luck, she’d keep to herself. The last thing I needed was more people in my life. Things were already crowded as it was, and I knew if Alistair got his way, there’d soon be one more person for me to keep alive.

  5

  The steady thump, thump of my feet on the treadmill lulled me into a trancelike state where I didn’t need to think or feel; I just was. A wall of mirrors in front of me reflected back the empty Vegas hotel gym, a sparse display of treadmills and a few weight machines. Alistair had teleported us here this morning along with my car, saving me the drive, and suggested I get a run in before my mission. He had checked into the room last night.

  It didn’t matter where on the map I was, every place was the same. The same hotel gym with the same smell of stale sweat, the same fluorescent lighting, the same generic art and bland walls. I would’ve never thought I’d miss the art in Elustria. It had never been my thing. I couldn’t even name a single artist from Elustria, but I yearned for the beauty of my home; a world where the colors were brighter, more vivid; a world where cities were not merely functional but works of art.

  Thump, thump, thump.

  Not using magic was an unnatural state for a sorceress. The magic built up in my veins until my blood felt like it would boil out of my skin. The only way to gain true relief was to use the magic that flowed thickly through me, but that wasn’t an option here. The next best thing was to hit the gym. One would think my physical fitness had to do with my profession, but it was really my way of staying sane.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25