Enchanter's Echo (27 page)

This was overkill.

“It’s all right.” Aurora bent down to pick up the crushed blossom. “I leak power, too, when I’m nervous.”

The annoying mouse’s face lit up as she gazed at Aurora like she was a goddess. “You do?” she gasped. “You’re so beautiful. Here.” She shoved the tickets at Aurora like they were a humble present.

“What are these for?” Aurora looked down at them. “The P.U.R.E. rally?” Her shock gave him a very wrong sense of satisfaction. Now she’d know not to open the door to strangers. “The tickets say the Palace Theater. Not the Kroegy.”

“That’s because Lady Rallis just changed the location. We haven’t had a chance to print new tickets, but it’s still good. We’d be honored to have you. She said Lord Rallis could make any adjustments to the agenda, but I’m sure you could too.”

Edmund crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s your name?”

“Molly Blackwell.”

“Molly, how long have you worked for P.U.R.E.? A few minutes?” Since his mother had picked up a landline and ordered them to find a dark mage to send to him?

“No, sir. A few days,” she squeaked. “I’m really an accountant. I’m only volunteering for P.U.R.E. I joined after the enchantress attended the ball and…it was in the newspapers, you know. Everyone who lives in the Pipe knows about the enchantress, and I thought if she went to the event, then they must be inclusive. And now the rally’s even been moved to the Pipe. To the Kroegy. Did you know the late metallist designed it? I studied him in architecture school...before I switched to accounting, that is.”

Well played, Mother.
He hadn’t known. But Aurora would have.

“Molly, I don’t do P.U.R.E. events anymore.” Aurora shook her head. “And I won’t until all mages are welcome. When your colors are black and white, you can come back. And if you have some gray in there, I’ll be really impressed.” She tacked the last part on like it was an afterthought. A few crickets chirped to his mage sense. A lie. But he admired her tactic. She’d as good as said she’d never join P.U.R.E.

“The gray! The fairies?” Molly squeaked. “Oh, dear me!”

He had to admit he was with Molly on this one. According to the stories, the gray were the illegitimate offspring of the goddess’s consort. While Edmund didn’t believe in blaming the children for the sins of their fathers, he didn’t want the gray moving into his land. An unofficial meeting to ensure discreet, peaceful relations…fine. But he wasn’t standing on a stage next to one in front of his entire territory.

Nevertheless, he had Aurora’s back on this, as he did on everything. “The pathetic meekness is a nice touch, Molly, but it’s coming on a little thick.” He looked down his nose, donning the founders’ scorn that every family excelled at.

The woman’s face pulled into a sad frown so exaggerated it was in danger of falling off her chin. Then her lower lip trembled.

Aurora spun to him. “Edmund. Rallis.” She ducked under the counter’s bridge in a practiced move. She put her hands on his chest and pushed. “Go. Away.”

He might have been alarmed except her hands stayed in contact with his body. If she was still touching him, everything was all right. He walked backwards with her force, humoring her, until he ended up in her workshop. She closed the door in his face.

He blinked, shocked. This was progress. Aurora had just shut him inside her personal space. His heart lightened, quite a feat considering his morning.

He surveyed her room. Small, enchanted tools lined the wall, sized to fit her hand. A stool sat at her workbench. In the windowsill, a row of potted plants flowered despite winter. Her heart was in this room. And so was he. He almost smiled.

Crooking his head toward the door, he used his vibes to pull the conversation in the next room to his ears.

“Please forgive him. He’s upset about the newspaper.”

“Oh, I understand,” the mouse squeaked. “Of course Lord Rallis is mad. You’re his. It’s so romantic really.”

This Molly wasn’t so bad after all.

“You live in the Pipe?” Aurora asked.

“All my life. Born and raised a Rallis mage.” She was a proud little Rallis mouse.

“Well, Rallis is…lucky to have you.” This time he did smile as his girl delivered the patriotic line. The people were going to love her. “You’ve delivered your message. Lady Rallis will be pleased.”

He tuned out Molly’s lengthy goodbye and strode around Aurora’s workshop. Wasten’s toaster sat on her bench. He picked it up. If he hadn’t had his mage sense so wide open to eavesdrop on Aurora’s conversation, he might have missed it. He squinted into the bread slot. Chaos vibrated…a tiny evil, sitting at her elbow all this time. So small he’d missed it all this time.

In the front room, the door opened and then closed a moment later. The mouse was gone.

Aurora burst into her workshop. “That was rude and uncalled for, and what are you doing with that toaster?” Her voice faded as she read his expression.

He wanted to smash the thing, destroy it from existence. He set it away from him, then pulled her in toward him.

“What now?” Her voice was already small. She laid her head against his chest and he wasn’t sure if he should be pleased. Was she hiding from him again or seeking comfort and protection?

“The toaster has a fissure in it.” He delivered the blow swiftly, like chopping off a body part. Only this whole disaster was chopping at her sweetness, her kindness. He tightened his grip around her.

She went still, lying against him. “Are you sure?” Her voice was muffled. She broke his grip and marched over to the offending appliance and squinted at it.

“Pull the bond through.” It was as simple as that. “If you can fix it, we’ll have our answer.”

“And if it is a fissure…”

“I’ll hunt Wasten to the ends of the earth.”

“I thought your brother was supposed to do that.”

“I’ll help.”

She squinted her eyes shut. “Who the heck puts a fissure inside a toaster? How is this even possible? And how could I not have noticed it before? I’ve examined this thing front and back, inside and out. I’m good at working with enchanted metal. I’ve fixed this thing twice only to have it break again like I never did anything to it. This makes no sense, Edmund.”

“It’s just another addition to the equation. One fissure was right outside your shop, where we found him waiting. One was by your house. He admitted he’d walked there.”

She tossed up her hands. “Why admit such a thing if he’d done the dirty deed?”

He shrugged. “Taunting us. Tell me, does he know about your connection to the elephant fountain?”

She swallowed hard. That was answer enough. She drooped, from her vibes to her shoulders. “Are you going to kill him?”

He wrapped his arms around her in a sideways hug. “That’s my job to worry about. Not yours.”

For a moment, she fell silent, then she lifted her gaze to his. “Does it bother you…killing?”

He tightened his arms around her. It didn’t bother him at all…not when someone had threatened her, pulling her into his evil. But she wouldn’t want this to be about her. “Not when someone has targeted my territory. For the sake of the mages who live in Rallis, the bond must stand. Whoever’s doing this is threatening not only my family and you, he’s jeopardizing everyone who lives here and the peace of the Republic.”

“But—”

“If the Rallis bond is destroyed, no one will be able to reclaim the land. There are just too many mages living here, too much power emanating from the land for anyone to grab control of it again. Gwyn, your little Lily, her grandmother, the junkyard gang…everyone you know and love…will get sense sick.”

Aurora reached her hand over the toaster, her power ready, but still she hesitated. “Just make sure he’s guilty before you....”

“Of course.”

She searched for the mark’s power and pulled. Two slices of perfect toast popped from the appliance, poking their edges from the slots. “This doesn’t make sense.” She shook her head. “There’s no way the fissure was here all along. I would have noticed. You would have noticed.”

He bent down and kissed her forehead. “Let me take you home. I’ll wrap you up on the couch and make you a cup of tea. You can rest and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

She shook her head. “I’ll go out of my mind waiting. I’ll stay here and work.”

He’d expected that. He went into the front room and picked up her coffee cup. Still warm, thanks to Izzy’s spell. He brought it to her, bent down, and kissed the top of her head. “There’s a guard outside the door. Do you have your calling charm?”

She patted her pocket.

Still, he didn’t like leaving her alone. “Do you want Gwyn to come wait with you?”

She shook her head again.

He didn’t know who else to offer. He knew so little of her life. One step at a time, he reminded himself as a familiar grain of frustration shook in his heart.

“I will be back,” he leaned down and whispered in her ear. She turned to him, put a hand around his neck, and brushed his lips with her kiss.

“I know.”

He wrapped her certainty around him, a tie that would hold her heart to his, and went out to hunt.

With a foolish glance left and right—the guard kept everyone away—Aurora crouched beside Gwyn’s wrapped up present. She’d spent the last three hours worrying until her own glitter had driven her out of her workshop. She’d accomplished nothing despite her overflowing shelves of waiting appliances. Desperate for a distraction, she slipped her hand beneath the cloth to touch the present, seeking a friendly vibe. But Gwyn’s frustration and bitterness was all she could sense.

“I need to talk to her!” a woman cried from outside.

Aurora jumped up.

“Edmund sent me! It’s a chain of chaos out there,” she screeched. “A ripple of it is flowing right down the city!”

“Lady Allison, slow down. Take a deep breath.” A man’s command broke the rush of the woman’s words.

Aurora rushed forward and opened the door to see Edmund’s cousin, the woman she’d met in the bathroom at the ball.

“Oh, you!” Allison was so overcome with relief that she fell into Aurora’s not-waiting arms for a hug. Beside her, the guard stood alert wearing a black coat bound by a variety of straps with small attachments, and black pants with an equal number of attachments. Considering the gun holstered at his side, she could imagine what was in those compartments…defensive spells and potions.

She’d seen him before. He’d driven the coach and horses back to the junkyard after her sailing trip with the High Councilor.

Boyishly cute despite his hulking size and intimidating costume, the soldier held up a hand and turned back around to face the road. “Lady Enchantress, I’m Captain Gregor Whitman, at your service. Don’t step outside. Three reporters hide down the street.”

“Forget the reporters!” Allison howled. “Aurora, you have to get in the car. Edmund’s chasing after”—she bobbed her hand in the air—”whoever he’s chasing. The energy is a mess. It’s all like….” She stuck her tongue out, spread her lips at a diagonal, and shook her hands in the air. “It’s horrible.” Then she dropped her head in her hands. “I need to breathe. Breathe. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts. I can’t find my happy thoughts! Just get in the car! I’ll find them on the way.”

“I have to go out there?” Aurora shook her head, horrified.

“It’s an emergency!”

The desperate urge to hide battled with the need to help Edmund. But there wasn’t a choice. She had to fix the fissures. She stepped out, a slow step, feeling her way. “No one will see me, will they?” Her stomach knotted. She wasn’t sure her knees would get her to the car.

“Get your coat,” the guard ordered.

“She doesn’t need a coat! She can just warm herself!” Allison cried.

“She could, but she doesn’t. They don’t do that in the Drainpipe, apparently.” He jerked his chin at Aurora. “Coat.” He turned to the crazy cousin. “Lady Allison, you get in the passenger side and navigate. I’ll drive.” He escorted her around the car. “Coat,” he ordered again over his shoulder.

Aurora stumbled back inside on lurching legs and grabbed her coat with its frayed edges and a hole in the sleeve. She smashed her gold cap over her curls and tottered back out.

“Gloves.” The guard stepped in front of her and she nearly crashed into him.

“I don’t need them.”

“Please, go get them.” He blocked her as she tried to get to the car door. “I once escorted Bronte from the Rallis estate when she wasn’t wearing shoes. Not to mention a coat. And I got beat up by the colonel, who’s now a general. I don’t want his brother to do the same.”

“I don’t have any gloves.” At least not here. She was hardly going to tell him they were at the water tower. “I won’t let him beat you up.” She couldn’t imagine Edmund winning a fight against him. Though they were of similar builds, the guard must have had years of training that Edmund didn’t.

He sighed hard and then gestured toward her shop door, a doomed frown on his face. “The lock spell on the door, please, enchantress.”

She didn’t argue, just cast as ordered and slid into the backseat of the fancy sedan. The guard took the wheel.

“Are there people where we’re going?” she asked, swallowing hard.

“Oh, yes! Adoring throngs.”

Aurora shrank in her seat, her gut curdling.

“We’re going back to the elephants,” Allison answered from the front seat. “Though I doubt your picture will be as pretty this time.”

* * * *

A slew of mages shuffled down Goodale Street blocking the road. Some looked back at the car but continued bumbling along as if they were too shocked to react to the vehicle behind them.

Allison threw a spell at her window. The glass disappeared and cold air flooded in. She stuck out her head. “Move aside! Make way for the Rallis enchantress. Make way!” Her high voice sparkled with energy through the gray atmosphere. She turned to Aurora with an earnest nod. “I’ll be your herald.”

“No, thank you.” Aurora spelled the glass back in place.

Outside, a small group spun around and stumbled over to the curb, but too many people still lingered in the road for the car to make much progress.