Ancient Magic: a New Adult Urban Fantasy (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress Book 1) (26 page)

“Hey,” Aidan’s husky voice was soft near my ear. “Can we talk?”

I glanced at him. Better now than later, I figured. Like a band aid. “Yeah.”

“Thanks for the drink, Claire and Connor.” He set his empty glass on the table. A twenty was tucked beneath it. “It’s been good talking to you all, but I’ve got to run.”

“I’m going to walk him out,” I said, not making eye contact with anyone.
 

I followed him to the door. He held it open and I walked through.

“Can we talk at your place?” he asked as he followed me out.

I looked around at the darkened street. I didn’t really want to talk about the scroll out here. “Sure. Come on.”

“How are you doing?” he asked as we climbed the stairs to my apartment.

“Fine. You know, getting the shop back together.” I hated this awkwardness. But I was about to lie to him, so there was really no avoiding it. I let us into my apartment and asked, “You?”

“Great, now that I’ve recovered from being a lightning rod.”

I swallowed hard at the reminder. “You threw yourself in front of that for me.” That made it even harder to lie. And much harder to push him away.

“Yeah, seems that I did.”

“Why?”

“Felt like a better option than watching you get lit up.” His dark gaze met mine, intense enough to burn.
 

My heart pounded and my breathing stuttered. This was going to be so much more difficult than I’d thought.

“And I knew you wouldn’t use your magic to protect yourself,” he added.

He was right about that. “Um, thanks for saving me. I’m sorry I didn’t get the scroll.”

“You’re a bad liar.”

“No, I’m not.” I was a great liar, even when I didn’t want to be. “I really am sorry I couldn’t get it. It was destroyed by the lightning.”

“You don’t have to lie to me, Cass.”

I really did. I had to lie to everyone who wasn’t Nix or Del, no matter how much it exhausted me. “I’m not lying. I am sorry I didn’t get it.”

“You are lying. And I know why. I know what you are.”

My stomach lurched. “A treasure hunting Mirror Mage? Yeah, I told you that.”

“No. You’re a FireSoul.” His gaze was solemn.

The floor felt like it dropped out from under me. Somehow I stayed upright. I even managed an incredulous laugh. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”
 

My heart pounded as I searched his gaze. Serious and sincere, but I couldn’t risk it. “There’s nothing to tell. I’m a Mirror Mage. Nothing too exciting there.”

“You’re exciting, Cass. But not because you’re a Mirror Mage. Or even because you’re a FireSoul.”

“I’m not a FireSoul!”
 

“I can feel it, Cass. I’m the Origin and a multi-gift Magica. You can’t hide something like that from someone as strong as me. At least not for long.”

His tone was so certain, his gaze so steady.

“How?” I asked, dread curdling in my stomach.

“I didn’t figure it out right away. Your magic felt strong and strange, but I couldn’t place it. When you agreed so quickly to help me—without even discussing payment—I was suspicious. It made me wonder if you thought there was something in the scroll about you. I thought you might just be the ArchMage of Mirror Mages. But it didn’t feel right.”

The ArchMage was the strongest of that particular gift. “I might be. I don’t know.”

“I’d say it’s likely, especially if you practice. But I figured out you were a FireSoul when I saw you right before they put me in the ambulance. I could feel the lightning in you. You took his power.”

“I could have borrowed it as a Mirror Mage and not yet released it.”

“Maybe, but I knew that wasn’t it. You killed him and took his power.”

My throat tightened and my eyes blurred.
 
“I didn’t want to. I had to.”

His gaze softened. “I know. It’s why I haven’t told anyone what you are. If you intended to steal powers, you’d have done so by now. You’d be full of them. Why was this time different? Why did you have to take his power?”

“How can I trust you?”

“I don’t know.” His intense gaze locked with mine. “But I want you to.”

“Why?”

“Like I said before, I like you.”

“I think you’re okay, too.” Understatement. But at least my tears had dried up before they dropped.

I figured it was better to tell him the truth and try to gain his sympathy. Maybe even his help. “Aaron gave his power to me. To help me defeat the one who hunts us.”
 

“Hunts you?”

“FireSouls.” I told him everything I’d learned from Aaron. When I finally trailed off, his gaze was dark with worry.

“You know this means you have to practice your powers, right?” he said.

“I can’t! Someone will figure out what I am and alert the Order of the Magica or the Alpha Council. They’ll throw me in prison. I’d rot in there.” Though the two governmental organizations were separate, they both agreed that FireSouls were a risk. “It’s better for me to just keep hiding.”

“You know that won’t work forever. The monster who hunts you will find you. You’ve got to be able to fight him when he does.” Passion rang in his voice.

My heart pounded. Part of me knew he was right, just as the other part wanted to pretend the last week had never happened.

“You need to learn to use your magic so that you can control it. Maybe even learn to repress it so that other powerful Magica can’t sense your arsenal of gifts.”

His logic made sense, but it terrified me. To purposefully—frequently—access my magic? It sounded divine. And scary as hell.

“I’ll help you,” he said. “You can train on my land. There’s no one for miles.”

“Thanks, but no. This is working for me. The risk isn’t worth it.”

His face hardened. “I won’t accept that. You have to learn to protect yourself. If you don’t, I’ll report you to the Order.”

I stepped backward. “You wouldn’t.”

“I would. I’m serious about this, Cass. You’d be safer locked up in prison than you are out here, unable to defend yourself. You’re scared, so you’re fighting it. But you need to face this.”

Anger bubbled in my chest. How dare he? I had actually liked this guy? He was threatening me and demanding I make changes I wasn’t ready to make.

But he was right.

The monster was coming. And I was afraid. I was so scared that I was curling up in a ball and refusing to face the inevitable.

But the girl who’d run from the monster ten years ago hadn’t curled up and died in that cell. She’d broken free. I didn’t know how I’d done it, but I had. I’d changed my destiny.

And I had to do it again.

“Fine,” I said. I was still pissed at him, but he was right. “I’ll learn to use my magic. On your land. But don’t get any ideas. I’m not exactly fond of you anymore.”

He grinned. “That’s fine. I’m fond enough for the both of us. And when you’re strong enough to defeat the monster that hunts you, I’ll fight by your side.”

Strong enough to fight the monster that hunts me.
 

I really hoped I would be.

THANK YOU FOR READING!

I hoped you liked
Ancient Magic.
Reviews are
so
helpful to authors. I really appreciate all reviews, both positive and negative. If you want to leave one, you can
click here
.

The sequel to
Ancient Magic
will be available in early May, 2016. Join my
newsletter
to find out more. I love hearing from readers. You can contact me at
[email protected]
.
 

If you’d like to know more about the inspiration for the Dragon’s Gift series, please read on for the Author’s Note.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Hey, there! I hope you enjoyed reading
Ancient Magic
as much as I enjoyed writing it. In addition to being a writer, I’m also an archaeologist. As a kid, I loved history (because of the fantasy and historic romance novels I read), Indiana Jones, and Laura Croft. When I started writing novels, it was only a matter of time before I applied my love of archaeology and history to my stories.

Hence, Dragon’s Gift was born. However, I knew I had a careful line to tread when writing these books. As I’m sure you know, archaeology isn’t quite like Indiana Jones (for which I’m both grateful and bitterly disappointed). Sure, it’s exciting and full of travel. However, booby-traps are not as common as I expected. Total number of booby-traps I have encountered in my career: zero. Still hoping, though.

When I talk about treading a line with these books, I mean the line between archaeology and treasure hunting. There is a big difference between these two activities. As much as I value artifacts, they are not treasure. Not even the gold artifacts. They are pieces of our history that contain valuable information, and as such, they belong to all of us. Every artifact that is excavated should be properly conserved and stored in a museum so that everyone can have access to our history. No one single person can own history, and I believe very strongly that individuals should not own artifacts. Treasure hunting is the pursuit of artifacts for personal gain.

So why did I make Cass Cleraux a treasure hunter? I’d have loved to call her an archaeologist, but nothing about Cass’s work is like archaeology. Archaeology is a very laborious, painstaking process—and it certainly doesn’t involve selling artifacts. That wouldn’t work for the fast paced, adventurous series that I had planned for Dragon’s Gift. Not to mention the fact that dragons are famous for coveting treasure. Considering where Cass got her skills from, it just made sense to call her a treasure hunter. Even though I write urban fantasy, I strive for accuracy. Cass doesn’t engage in archaeological practices—therefore, I cannot call her an archaeologist. I also have a duty as an archaeologist to properly represent my field and our goals—namely, to protect and share history. Treasure hunting doesn’t do this. One of the biggest battles that archaeology faces today is protecting cultural heritage from thieves.
 

I debated long and hard about not only what to call Cass, but also about how she would do her job. I wanted it to involve all the cool things we think about when we think about archaeology—namely, the Indiana Jones stuff, whether it’s real or not. But I didn’t know quite how to do that while still staying within the bounds of my own ethics. I can cut myself and other writers some slack because this is fiction, but I couldn’t go too far into smash and grab treasure hunting.

I consulted some of my archaeology colleagues to get their take, which was immensely helpful. Wayne Lusardi, the State Maritime Archaeologist for Michigan, and Douglas Inglis and Veronica Morris, both archaeologists for Interactive Heritage, were immensely helpful with ideas. My biggest problem was figuring out how to have Cass steal artifacts from tombs and then sell them and still sleep at night. Everything I’ve just said is pretty counter to this, right?

That’s where the magic comes in. Cass isn’t after the artifacts themselves (she puts them back where she found them, if you recall)—she’s after the magic that the artifacts contain. She’s more of a magic hunter than a treasure hunter. That solved a big part of my problem. At least she was putting the artifacts back. Though that’s not proper archaeology (especially the damage she caused to the first tomb), I could let it pass. At least it’s clear that she believes she shouldn’t keep the artifact or harm the site. But the SuperNerd in me said, “Well, that magic is part of the artifact’s context. It’s important to the artifact and shouldn’t be removed and sold.”

Now
that
was a problem. I couldn’t escape my SuperNerd self, so I was in a real conundrum. Fortunately, that’s where the immensely intelligent Wayne Lusardi came in. He suggested that the magic could have an expiration date. If the magic wasn’t used before it decayed, it could cause huge problems. Think explosions and tornado spells run amok. It could ruin the entire site, not to mention possibly cause injury and death. That would be very bad.

So now you see why Cass Clereaux didn’t just steal artifacts to sell them. Not only is selling the magic cooler, it’s also better from an ethical standpoint, especially if the magic was going to cause problems in the long run. These aren’t perfect solutions—the perfect solution would be sending in a team of archaeologists to carefully record the site and remove the dangerous magic—but that wouldn’t be a very fun book. Hopefully this was a good compromise that you enjoyed (and that my old professors don’t hang their heads over).

As with my other books, I like to include real historical sites in my novels. In
Ancient Magic
, there were a few places of note. The first was the monks’ island in Ireland. That is a real place called the Skellig Michael, part of the Skellig islands off the coast of southwestern Ireland. It’s an amazing place and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The beehive shaped buildings that I described were inhabited by real monks from the end of the first millennium onward.

The other historic site that I included is on the cover of the book. It is Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, Scotland. The final battle site on the hidden island is modeled after the abbey. Edinburgh is just too heavily populated to have an epic final battle without humans noticing, so I moved it to a hidden location :-)