Another glare, but he settled his shoulders back. “Classy, Zoey. But fine. Fin and I met years and years ago, before you were even born. He was hunting for the Black Mage even then, and I was one of his guards.”
“Esteban’s?”
“That’s not his name, but yes, I was guarding one of his summer homes. Not the one he went to often, but enough that I’d be able to give up his location if someone got me. And Fin did. He tortured me for information. Of course, I’m a stubborn bastard and didn’t break. But while he questioned me, I saw a lot more than he thought. It forged a mental connection between us, accidentally. After that, I tried to help him bring down my former boss and here we are.”
I flopped my mouth open. “You worked for that maniac? How could you?”
“Don’t get all righteous indignation on me, kid. The Black Mage has always been evil, but I didn’t know the depths of it until Fin showed me. All I knew was the job paid well, and I didn’t have to do much. I was young and wanted to travel. It gave me that, and money for whatever I needed.”
My mental picture of the captain had fundamentally shifted. Not that I thought he would betray Fin, but that he knew a lot more about this world than even me. Until a few days ago, I’d only considered him an overpriced guard dog meant to scare people away.
“Why did you agree to work for Fin?” he asked me.
“Money,” I said. “To be fair, as you well know, he didn’t give me much of a choice to begin with. Do you know why that is?”
He squeezed his mouth shut and stared straight out at the darkness beyond the helicopter window.
“You keep his secrets, and he keeps yours, I assume,” I said. “What about your mage power? What can it do?”
He sputtered at first, then took in a deep breath I could hear through his mic. “Mage power isn’t the same as fae power. Mage power grows what you feed it. I feed mine nothing, so it does nothing.”
“What do you mean feed it?”
More information both he and Fin kept from me.
“Mages are all over the world. Born ones and made ones. They become experts in their fields, devoted to them. Whatever you choose to channel yourself into is what your magic will manifest as. You’ve been an excellent bounty hunter since the day you earned your license, correct? You either have a perfect record, or nearly perfect.”
The man knew I’d never had sex before; I would bet every considerable penny in my bank account, he knew exactly what my trapping rate was.
“That is your magic. It feeds, it grows, it assists in those things you excel at. Those things you really focus on cultivating.”
“And fae power?”
He huffed like I disturbed him with my barrage of questions. “Fae power is inherited. They are given gifts at birth, and that’s it. They can’t grow or change the same way mages can.”
What did that mean about a mix of fae and mage born? Did I have inherited powers lurking inside me that I’d yet to tap into? What if I hurt someone because I didn’t know how to wield them correctly? A comforting thought as we flew ten thousand feet in the air to bring home our friend.
This entire ordeal had taught me I’d only begun with magic. No more running, no more pretending it didn’t exist. After this, if we saved Fin, I would make him teach me everything he knew. If he refused, I would find someone who would.
We flew in silence and I dozed, the link between Fin and I growing weightier the closer we came to the forest.
“Wake up,” the captain shouted over the headset.
I jerked upright and then remembered where I was. My stomach did a neat somersault, and I focused on not throwing up.
“We’re here, but something is wrong. There’s a force field over the landing area. I can’t bring the helicopter down,” he said, his tone clipped and angry.
Of course they did. Besides, Fin’s helicopter was parked in our usual spot and we weren’t exactly going to be able to perch right on top of him.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“You jump down, and I’ll go set this old girl down and race back to you.” He said it like the idea of jumping out of a helicopter was the obvious course of action.
“Are you fucking kidding me? I’m not jumping out of this thing.” I gripped the harness tight against me as if it would protect me from him tossing me out into the dark.
He turned to look at me and shook his head. “Well, if you learned how to fly in the last day and want to take over, then I’ll gladly jump out.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuckity-fuck.