The Mage in Black (26 page)

“I’ve heard enough,” Maisie declared. “Lenny, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of a mage’s familiar.” She looked at Slade as Lenny’s head drooped. “I need a phone.”

Slade pulled his cell from an inner pocket of his suit coat. While Maisie called in backup, I went over to Giguhl.

“I’m not in trouble, am I?” Valva said.

I fought against the instinct to blame her for her part of this mess. It wasn’t her fault she’d been summoned by an asshole. “No, it’s not your fault.” I smiled tightly. “G, can I talk to you for a sec?”

Giguhl nodded and kissed Valva on the forehead. When he pulled away, his body was covered in gold glitter. I pulled him far enough away that Valva couldn’t listen in.

“This is some shit, huh?” he said. “Can you believe that douchebag?”

I swallowed, hating what I was about to say. “She can’t stay, G,” I blurted.

He paused. “Why the hell not?” he demanded finally.

“She’s his property.”

“Like hell!” he growled.

I sighed. “Listen, I know you like her, but he’s probably going to jail or whatever the mages do to attempted murderers. He’ll probably have to send her back when that happens.”

“This is bullshit,” he said. “It’s not her fault!”

I placed a hand on his arm. “I know that.”

He looked over at Valva. She had her golden arms wrapped around her middle as she watched Lenny beg Maisie not to turn him in. She looked vulnerable and lost standing there alone. “Can you talk to Maisie? See if there’s another way?”

“I don’t know—”

His eyes pleaded with me. “Please, Sabina. I love her.”

I frowned at him. “How can you love her? You met her thirty minutes ago.”

“I can’t explain it.” He sighed like a lovesick swain. “Valva completes me.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I’m serious.” And he was; I could see it in his eyes. My demon was in love.

I sighed. “Fine. I’ll talk to Maisie.”

Giguhl pumped a fist in the air. “Yes!”

I held up a hand. “But I’m not promising anything. Don’t get your hopes up. She could very well send Valva back herself tonight.”

He nodded eagerly as if he understood, but I could see he was already planning a demon wedding in his head.

With a martyred sigh, I walked back toward the ring. Maisie was talking softly to Valva. As I watched, she put her arm around the demoness. I paused, not wanting to interrupt. Maybe their bonding moment would soften Maisie up for my request. Of course, the wait also gave me time to think about the consequences of Valva staying. I didn’t want two demons under my care. Hell, I could barely manage to keep Giguhl out of trouble.

Finally, Maisie gave Valva a final squeeze and came my way. When she reached me, she pulled me aside. “We need to talk about Valva.”

“Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about too. Giguhl—”

Maisie interrupted. “I have to send her home, Sabina. I know Giguhl likes her, but Lenny’s going to trial. We can’t have a demon hanging around without someone taking responsibility for her.”

“What if I take custody of her?” Not that I wanted a second minion, but I didn’t want to let Giguhl down.

Maisie shook her head. “Sabina, don’t you think you have enough on your plate without adding a second minion?”

I sighed. “Probably, but I can work something out.”

Giguhl and Valva had been sidling closer as we talked, and now they were just a few feet away.

Maisie noticed them, too, and lowered her voice. “Are you sure?”

I looked at the demons. Giguhl pleaded with his eyes. Maybe having two demons at my disposal wouldn’t be so bad. “It’s the least I can do.”

Maisie sighed. “If that’s what you want. I’ll have to have Lenny transfer control to you.”

“He can do that?”

Maisie nodded. “Yeah, it’s a simple transference spell. I’ll tell him if he cooperates we’ll take that into account during the trial.”

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do this.”

Behind me I heard Giguhl whisper, “Yes!”

Maisie shot me a look like she thought I was crazy before she went to talk to Lenny. While they discussed the logistics, I went back to the demons.

“Well, Valva, looks like you get to stay.” Then something occurred to me. No one had asked her opinion of this plan. “That is, if you want to?”

She looked up at Giguhl and smiled. “I do.”

I barely managed not to roll my eyes. Who knew demons could be so sappy?

Over her head, Giguhl mouthed, “Thank you.”

I nodded, suddenly feeling better about the decision.

“Okay,” Maisie called. “We’re ready.”

The three of us went over to Maisie and Lenny.

“I’ll remind you that any aggression on your part when I take off this collar will be added to your list of crimes,” Maisie was saying.

Lenny nodded, looking broken. “Yeah, I know.”

Maisie nodded to Slade, who unlocked the collar. Lenny took a moment to rub his neck. “I’m gonna need the salt from my backpack.”

Slade went to the rumpled knapsack Lenny had dropped outside the ring. He found the box of salt and brought it to Lenny.

“Okay, everyone stand back,” he said.

I cast a threatening glance his way to discourage any shenanigans. But he just went about pouring the circle in a businesslike manner. When he was done, he rubbed his palms together. “I’m ready.”

Maisie nodded her permission, and we all stood silently while Lenny closed his eyes. Soon, a shimmering wall of magic rose around Valva.

“Enu Iddimu
.
Nadanu a
Sabina Kane.
Ana Harrani sa Alaktasa la Tara.”

A laserlike beam of magic shot out from the circle and landed on Maisie, making her hair stand on end. After a moment, the light disappeared and the sheet of magic around Valva descended. I jerked, worried Lenny had figured out a way to harm Maisie. Since the spell was done in the Hekatian language, I had no idea what he’d just said. But other than a scowl and mussed hair, she looked fine.

Maisie’s breath escaped her in a rush. “What the hell! I told you to transfer the demon to Sabina!”

“Oh, shit,” I whispered, cluing in on the situation.

Lenny frowned. “I don’t know what happened. You heard me say Sabina’s name. It should have worked.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Giguhl said, looking worried.

Maisie turned to him. “Lenny screwed up and transferred Valva to me instead of Sabina.”

“I didn’t screw up,” Lenny muttered.

“Can’t he just undo the spell?” I asked Maisie.

My sister sighed, looking annoyed. “No. Our only option is for me to transfer her to you myself.” She shook out her hands and smoothed her hair. “Go stand by the circle and we’ll try it again.”

I went to stand next to the circle of salt. Valva stood inside, waiting patiently. “Okay,” I said. “We’re ready.”

Maisie cleared her throat and raised her hands. She drew Valva’s sigil in the air and repeated the spell Lenny had used verbatim—or so I thought. It certainly sounded the same to me.

I held my breath, waiting for the transfer spell to hit me. But nothing happened. After a few seconds of waiting, I grew restless. “Maisie?”

Maisie’s mouth fell open. “It’s not working.”

Lenny snorted, looking superior. “Now who screwed up?”

Maisie rounded on the male. “I did the spell right. There’s no reason the transfer shouldn’t have worked.”

Giguhl stepped forward. “Actually, there is one reason.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Maybe Valva’s supposed to be with Maisie.”

I looked at Maisie, gauging her reaction to Giguhl’s theory. She looked shocked by the idea.

Giguhl continued. “Think about it. When I met Sabina, she wasn’t looking for a familiar either. It just kind of happened without her really asking for it. Sort of like it was meant to be.”

Maisie didn’t look convinced. “I don’t know, guys. Mages usually chose their familiars. With you it’s different because you’re a Chthonic. It makes sense you’d have a demon familiar.”

“Yeah, but maybe the mixed-blood thing has something to with it,” I said, playing devil’s advocate. “Besides, you said before you’ve always wanted a familiar.”

Maisie opened her mouth to respond, but three Pythian Guards flashed into the fight ring to take custody of Lenny. Maisie spent the next few minutes filling them in on what happened and handing out instructions. Once they left with Lenny, she turned back to us.

“Okay, I’m not convinced Valva’s supposed to be my familiar, but until I can consult with Rhea and figure out what happened, there’s not much I can do.” She shot an apologetic look at Valva. “I’m sorry about all this.”

Valva shrugged. “I don’t mind. No offense, but anyone’s better than Lenny.”

Maisie smiled at the Vanity. “Thanks. We’ll get this sorted out soon.”

As she went to speak with Slade, and Giguhl and Valva began whispering to each other, I blew out a breath. What started as a girls’ night out had ended in an attempted murder on Giguhl and my sister being stuck with a demon familiar she didn’t want. I wasn’t sure how the Maisie thing was going to shake out, but I did know one thing: No one messed with my demon. It was time to stop waiting for the council to find the mage behind all these attempts on my life. That bitch was going down.

T
he next evening, I was getting ready to head to the council meeting when my bedroom door burst wide open. Orpheus stood on the threshold looking like an enraged god.

“You!” he said, his voice low and menacing.

I frowned at him. “You were expecting someone else? This is my room, after all.”

He pointed an accusing finger at me. “How could you take Maisie into that pit of iniquity?”

Ah, so that’s what this was about. “Look, dude, she wanted to go. I tried to talk her out of it, but it was her decision.”

Orpheus moved through the door and slammed it shut behind him. “I don’t give a damn whose idea it was. You should have known better than to take the oracle to a seedy dive bar. I knew you were trouble the moment you arrived.”

I crossed my arms. “You need to chill out. Nothing happened. Maisie’s fine.”

He sputtered for a moment, tripping over his tongue in his rush to argue. “You call getting involved in an attempted murder nothing?”

I shrugged. “She handled herself well. In fact, she made sure everything worked out.”

“If you call coming home with the stray demon of an attempted murderer working everything out.”

I raised my chin. “I do, actually.”

“I won’t have this. You hear me? Maisie needs to focus on regaining her visions. She doesn’t need to be wasting time consorting with the dregs of dark-race society.” His tone implied he included me in that group.

“Look, buddy, I know you’re used to calling the shots around here. But Maisie’s a grown female. She makes her own choices. Maybe instead of treating her like some fragile doll, you should treat her like the intelligent, strong female she is. And just maybe, if you stop pressuring her to be a one-woman vision factory, she’ll be able to relax long enough to start seeing the future again.”

His eyes narrowed and his posture went all stiff and offended. “You think you know so much? You’ve been here a few days. I’ve known Maisie her whole life. Helped Ameritat raise her as if she was my own daughter, out of respect for your father’s memory. So don’t tell me how to deal with Maisie when you yourself have shown complete disregard for both her station and her safety. Your father would be ashamed of you.”

I leaned forward, my jaw clenched and my stare icy. “I don’t give a fuck what Tristan Graecus would think of me.”

“And why doesn’t that surprise me? You father was a hero. A mage of honor. How his genes managed to produce such a selfish and irresponsible brat like yourself is a mystery.”

My mouth dropped open at the venom in both his eyes and his words. Before I could respond to his attack, however, he turned on his heel and slammed out of the room.

I went to the quivering doorframe and watched his angry progress down the hall. The door next to me opened and a horned head stuck out. Giguhl watched Orpheus’s retreat for a second. Then his head turned toward me. “What was that all about?”

I blew out a breath. “Someone’s not happy about Maisie’s night out.”

Worry spread over Giguhl’s face. “You don’t think he’s going to make her send Valva back to Irkalla, do you?”

I shrugged. “I honestly don’t know, G. He’s not happy about it, but I don’t know if he has the power to make Maisie get rid of her. I’ll speak to her this evening and find out what she’s learned about the mix-up with the transference.”

Giguhl opened his mouth to say something, but just then a golden arm snaked out from the door behind him. The fingers tugged Giguhl’s arm. “Come back to bed, my little mischief maker.” Valva’s high-pitched voice was muffled but unmistakable.