Wicked Deal (Shadow Guild: The Rebel 2)

“Why not?”

“Chill, okay?” Her gaze snapped to me. “I’m doing my best.”

“I apologize.” I’d said those words many times over the centuries. I’d never really meant them until now. Guilt streaked through me at pressing her. I needed to try to be more careful.

She was a…person to me.

Until now, everyone in my life had been a pawn. No more alive than a chess piece.

But not her.

And I’d had no practice at dealing with people.

I’d need to be a fast learner.

She frowned. “My magic gets tapped out. It’s like fatigue. Like, you can only run so much until you pass out.”

“That’s normal. All magic needs to be recouped. Strong supernaturals have the ability to store more magic to use, but even they run out.”

“Can practice make me stronger?”

“It can make you more skilled with the magic you have, but it can’t make you more powerful in the sense that you can’t expand the reservoir of magic inside you.”

“Oh.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You’re already incredibly powerful. I can feel it.”

“You can feel it because I can’t keep it on lockdown.”

“Precisely.”

She nodded, her expression firming. “I’m going to do better.” She turned to the corpse and began riffling through the pockets, pausing only brief to ask, “He isn’t going to be turned in to the police, right? There’s no need to guard my fingerprints?”

“You’re fine. The Council of Guilds won’t be concerned with him.”

“Good. But we need to tell them about the explosion so that they can start to evacuate the city.”

“I’ll send Miranda to alert them to the threat, but so far, we only have your vision as proof.”

She frowned. “They won’t believe me?”

“Some will. Some won’t. And even if they do, there are many people in Guild City who can’t leave. They have magical ties to this place. Others won’t blend in the human world. We could get many of them out, but not all.”

“So it’s up to us to stop this.”

“With some help, maybe. But yes. Largely so.”

Shadows flickered in her eyes as she nodded and turned back to searching the body. As she worked, I called Miranda on my comms charm and told her to go to the Council. They’d do what they could to mitigate this, if they believed us.

Carrow pulled a plain white napkin out of the man’s pocket, a frown on her face. “This was the only thing on him.”

“Try it.”

She closed her eyes, and I felt her magic swell on the air. It smelled of lavender, and the scent was stronger than ever. I wanted to roll around in it.

I was no longer surprised by it, frankly.

“I see the interior of a bar. A posh one. There’s writing behind the bar. La Papillon.”