Chapter Twelve
I gasped at his tone. “Was that a sex joke, Fitzwilliam? Because... gross.”
The answering curl of his lip at the purposefully wrong name made the quip so worth it.
“It’s obvious you two are going to jump into bed together, you might as well get it over with,” he said, “so the fallout can be over and done with so we can focus on work again.”
I advanced on him and kicked one booted ankle off the other. “Spoken like a man who isn’t getting laid. Let’s do this, unless you’re playing helpless victim today and we have to maneuver around you as we spar?”
He shoved to standing and circled me. “You really should get some rest. He means well, and so do I, even if you don’t want to think so.”
“Pot, Kettle, Kettle, Pot, that’s a lovely color you’re wearing. Weren’t you laid out on a hospital bed a few days ago too?”
He stretched his arm across his body, hooking the other over the outside right in front of his elbow. “I heal differently than you. Plus, I have significantly more years of healing and recovering than you do. I know when to push and when to pull back.”
“If you’re done with the lecture, maybe we can practice?”
Fin stepped onto the mat. “At the very least, stretch first.”
Despite my huff, they were both right. I threw myself onto the mat and worked through some stretches while I glared at them both.
Fin broke the awkward silence first, stretching his arms over his head. I watched, not even bothering to hide the assessing rove of my gaze from him.
“I already told her no weapons, and she agreed,” he said. “Only stretching and gentle sparring.”
I forced a smile to my face. “How about we try something different, if you guys don’t want me throwing any punches.”
They both stared at me wide eyed.
“What, I’m not completely unreasonable. Besides, I have ulterior motives.”
“Yes?” Fin asked, taking the bait.
“Let’s test my magic, see what happens.”
When they both protested at once, I held my hand up.
“I need to learn what I’m doing before I hurt myself, or someone else. I also need to know what strengths or weaknesses I possess on that front. The chief used to tell me a hunter always knows her weaknesses so she can compensate for them.”
The Captain laughed. “I’m surprised you admit you have any.”
I narrowed my eyes and pulled my knees to my chest, hugging them in to stretch my lower back. “Oh, I do. My right ankle is weak when I run. And my left hip seizes up when it’s going to rain.”
Fin snorted. “Anything else we should know about?”
I ran my gaze from his lips to his crotch. “Nothing else I’m going to share with the entire group.”
A slow roll of heat shot through the room.
“You two keep it in your pants or take it somewhere else,” the Captain said.
A light pink washed into Fin’s cheeks and it made me smile to know I could make him blush like that. In front of his friend, who had likely been knee deep in Fin’s secrets since before I was born.
“Fine, we’ll test your magic, but gently,” Fin said, avoiding my gaze. “Only if you agree not to push too hard and to warn us if you are feeling weak.”
I tucked my legs, sitting cross-legged on the mat. “Can I stay here, or do I need to stand?”
“Stay,” the Captain said, and plopped in front of me, a few feet between our mirrored postures.
Fin sat to my right in a similar position. “We’ll start with your fae side. Keep in mind we don’t know what or how your magic works together. Technically, fae and mage magic is not complementary and shouldn’t work together very well. So, what we discover may change with age, it may be a singular occurrence, or hell, I don’t even know.”
He didn’t seem upset about me having magic, but more so about the fact that he couldn’t figure it out.
“I’m going to look inside you now,” he said. “It won’t hurt.”
It wasn’t supposed to sound sexy, but I couldn’t help the answering pulse through my body. He ignored it, thankfully, before I embarrassed myself in front of the Captain again.
Fin closed his eyes. “Shh...”
Something brushed my senses, and I closed my eyes too. The scent of freshly cut grass and the warm heat of summer washed over my skin.
Fin’s voice broke through the soft light in my head. “Fae magic is the magic of nature. It’s the use of the natural world to augment the magic that lives in all of us. Even humans have this tiny kernel of magic since they were born of this Earth. The keys to fae magic are balance and control. You must always ensure you don’t take too much from any one source of power, while at the same time, never losing control once you’ve tapped into a source.”
I tried not to fidget. This was why I sucked at meditating. “What do you mean, source?”
“The world around us, the fire within us, are all sources of magic. You can borrow that power and use it for yourself. Try to see if you can tap into it. Feel it in the Earth, the trees, the air, the sunlight, anything.”
The only natural thing to me in the room was Fin himself. I could feel him so easily through the bond. I brushed against our connection and heard his rushed inhale. He’d said balance, so I tried to carefully, gently pull something from him, but the tighter I tried to hold on, the less I felt able to grasp them.
I opened my eyes and stared between the two men. Both sat perfectly still, eyes shut tight.
I envied their stillness. “I tried, but it didn’t work.”
The Captain spoke up. “Magic is like a muscle, a skill, the same as any other. Practice, use it, and the more you do the easier it will be to wield.”
“Thanks, Yoda,” I grumbled, shutting my eyes again, forcing my brain back to focus. “What do I do when I’ve got the power?”
“Then it’s about your will,” Fin said. “You can’t take magic from another living source and simply let it sit. The natural world is always moving, always changing. Once you have the power, focus your will and use it. However you feel comfortable. Some fae use spell words to focus their magic. Some use amulets, stones, weapons. It’s about something personal to you.”
I let out a long sigh. “Alright, McGonagall. How about mage magic? What’s that all about?”
As expected, the Captain took up the instruction. “Mage magic, the counter to fae magic, is the magic of destruction. It’s not inherently evil, nor good. It will depend on the aforementioned will, and the power you put behind it. The source of mage magic is always from other sources than himself, before he uses his own power. Mage magic is far more temperamental than fae magic. And, most mage magic can be stored and saved, but that is usually done by channeling and stealing someone else’s powers to augment your own. Be careful, that power can also change you. The more you gain this way, the more you’ll want and it’s a slippery slope. Mages often use artifacts to store power they channel into it, to use later.”
My eyes popped open. “Do you guys think that’s what’s in the watch. Some of Esteban’s power?”
They both sagged from their perfectly upright postures. When they finally met my eyes, I waved my hands excitedly.
“What if that’s why he wants it back, it has a chunk of his power in it? Can we get it out? Use it?”
Fin recoiled, and the Captain shook his head.
“It would be possible, but it’s not a good idea,” the Captain said. “Esteban’s magic has been so corrupted by years of destroying fae. Channeling that into you wouldn’t be comfortable, or forgiving on your soul.”
“Okay, so a hard pass to that then. Is there a way to empty it of the magic, like to get rid of it so no one can use it?”
The men stared at me.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
The Captain’s mouth opened and closed and then he clamped his lips shut. “I’ve never thought about just channeling out an artifact’s power to let it go back to the source.”
“Would it restore itself into the fae it was stolen from?”
Fin wore an equally struck expression. “In theory, if they were still alive.”
“And if not?”
“It would likely remain with the mage channeling it out of the artifact. Looking for a home, a well to fill.”
That put a damper on things. It would be fun to rip Esteban’s magic away from him bit by bit, but I didn’t want to have to take any of that evil into myself.
“So what do you think of my magic? Could you feel it?”
The men shared a look.
I bounced my gaze between them. “What?”
“You have magic,” Fae began. “Both fae and mage power, but it’s... different.”
“How so?” I couldn’t keep the high-pitched question inside.
Neither of them would understand how tiring it was being different. I trained as a bounty hunter from twelve years old. That put me ahead of my peers, setting me apart.
I was the adopted daughter of the chief, which pushed me further away. And then there was the fact that I was damn good at my job. All of those things compounded meant I never made friends inside the bounty hunter community.
Did I have that to look forward to in the magical community as well?
Fin didn’t seem to mind my mage blood, but the others would, surely. And mages all seemed to be dicks, well, except for the Captain, but he was a dick too. Just not an evil one.
Fin shuffled toward me on the mat and pulled me into his arms. White light arched between us.
I shoved away from his chest. “What the hell was that?”
He stared down at me, brow ruffled, his bottom lip tucked between his teeth. “I have a theory. Close your eyes and see if you can touch a natural source, fae power.”
I closed my eyes and this time, the magic came so easily. Like winding a thread around my fingers. I popped my eyes open and snuggled back into his arms.
“I did it.”
He stroked his hand over my hair. The tension between us pulled so taut it almost hurt to have his skin against mine.
The Captain cleared his throat, and I gently withdrew from Fin. “What’s the theory?”
“Harlan, touch her please.”
The Captain’s eyes snapped to Fin, and then he crawled across the mat and took my hand in his. Power surged up under my touch, but this was different. Dirty. I couldn’t just handle it; I had to take it.
I pulled away from him and scowled. “I don’t like that.”
“Agreed,” he said. “Why do you think I rarely do magic and focus more on my other skills?”
I snorted and rubbed my hands together. They felt kind of dirty after touching the Captain. It wasn’t intimate in the least, but it felt that way. Like it connected us in a new way neither of us were comfortable with.
The Captain and Fin stared at each other again and there was a ripple in the air. I’d forgotten they could somehow speak mentally. I already had a front-row seat to Fin’s emotions. Was that the next step? The idea didn’t sit well with me.
“I have an idea,” the Captain said, turning back to me.
An idea he’d clearly just discussed with Fin, in his head, without me hearing.
“And...?” I let my annoyance out with the word.
He ignored me, got to his feet, and loped off toward the stairs.
When he returned, he carried two small daggers: one black steel, sleek and smooth like a sports car of weapons, the other shiny silver with an ornate moonstone hilt.
“Take these.”
I didn’t reach out but eyed him as he towered over me holding the weapons. “Why?”
“Will you humor me? I wouldn’t hurt you. Well, not on purpose.”
Curiosity got the better of me, so I shoved myself to my feet, wincing as a muscle in my side tugged tight. He held the knives out so I could grab the hilts, one in either hand.
The moment my fingers closed around them both at the same time, a shiver raced down my spine and something—something tangible, balanced—settled over me. I stared down at the weapons. They looked pretty basic.
“What’s going on?”
Fin smiled and joined us in standing. “You need to channel your magic. Something you’re comfortable with. You can’t use fae and mage magic at the same time, but you can use one or the other, and having both a fae weapon and a mage weapon will help you achieve the balance you need to channel properly. Go on, try it.”
“What should I do?”
Fin shrugged “It’s up to you, but make sure you don’t draw too much power from whatever source you use. It will weaken over time. It has to recharge.”
I closed my eyes and tapped into the fae power, the one I felt more comfortable wielding, and imagined myself cloaked in light. The light hardened to an invisible armor against my skin, protecting my recently too fragile body.
“What did you do?” Fin asked, surveying me, wariness lurking in his eyes.
I smiled and turned toward the Captain. “Smack me in the face.”
He laughed and shook his head. “I can’t say I haven’t been tempted.”
“No, do it. Smack me in the face. Let’s see if this works.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“Then you get your wish to smack me and I won’t hit you back, this time.”
He eyed me, scanning my features. Then he drew back and gave me a light slap on my cheek. I felt nothing, but neither did he, so it didn’t prove if it worked.
“Try one more time, with a little feeling, please.”
His forehead wrinkled and we both purposefully ignored Fin’s incredulous glare between us both.
The Captain reared back and delivered a hearty blow to my cheek. I didn’t feel it one bit.
He sucked in a breath and gripped his hand against his chest. “What the hell?”
I shouldn’t have laughed at him, but I couldn’t help it. “Well, I guess it worked.”