T
he car turned off the main highway onto a side road that was thick with dirty slush from the recent snow. Mila slid to a slow stop when she reached the first wide spot, next to a pair of dilapidated letter boxes on an iron post. She looked out the windshield with worry etched on her face, drumming her fingers on the padded leather steering wheel cover. “We should probably walk from here. I’ve got all-wheel drive, but if it gets any colder while we’re down there, this stuff is going to freeze and we’ll be stuck. I’m not a great winter driver yet, so I tend to stick to the main roads.”
It made good sense to Tal. While he didn’t relish walking in the snow in the dark, Mila seemed confident of where they were going. Too, there were other vehicle tracks disappearing into the darkness, and with the letter boxes, the road obviously went
somewhere
. He unfastened the seat belt and lifted one foot onto the cushion to tuck his pant leg into his boot. She watched him with undisguised interest, so he explained. “The more clothing you can keep dry, the warmer you’ll stay. I’d suggest you do the same.”
She shook her head with a small smile. “It’s not that. I was planning to do the same thing. But it’s so weird to watch you.” It seemed a strange thing to say, and his confusion must have showed in his body language, because she continued. “It’s just that … I mean, you seem totally comfortable with cars, knew how to fasten the shoulder belt and the hospital didn’t seem odd at all. But you have this sense of …
otherworldness
to you. Talking about spells and focuses and swearing by trees. They don’t really …
mesh
, y’know?”
Ah. Now he understood. While raising his other foot to the seat, he explained. “The O.P.A. has been monitoring the overworld for centuries, sending agents up from Agathia, which is miles below where we’re standing now. We’re all assigned periods when we must live up here, keeping watch for problems. Denver was my last station, about five years ago. It’s built up a lot since I left, and some technology has changed, but that’s normal and it’s easy to incorporate while we live here undercover. But after you’ve been back home for a while, you forget some of the social things—drop back into old slang, have the wrong body language. That sort of thing. It’ll pass. I’ll sound and act more
modern
each day that passes. Alexy just came back from being stationed in London, so he’s already comfortable. He even adopted a British accent just through osmosis. He didn’t used to have one. Mine’s natural, even though it’s mostly gone unless I’m chatting with someone from there. I was born in Brittania, before it was the UK.”
She tried not to think about the fact that he might be a
lot
older than he looked. She considered Baba to be really old because she’d experienced World War II. But hadn’t Baba said she didn’t remember Tal from when the Parask split from the other Guilders? That would make them both centuries and centuries old, which was too much for her to wrap her head around at the moment. “Oh. That makes sense, I guess. But what sort of
problems
would make you guys need to be here?” She was trying to raise up her leg to tuck in her jeans, but the steering wheel was in the way. Finally, she just opened the door and lifted her heel to the armrest. “I mean, you said there shouldn’t be any gates up here, so obviously not that many of you come here to get into trouble.”
He realized he was staring at her again, for the umpteenth time since they’d gotten into the car. There was just something about her thick, shining dark hair and delicate features that he couldn’t seem to get enough of. More than once he’d had to fight the urge to run his fingers through the strands or stroke that perfect skin. But now, with the door open and the dome light on, his attention was obvious enough that she noticed. He could feel the heat rise off her body from her embarrassment, warm enough for him to verify that she really did have some mage blood. “People like
you
are why we’re here.” That raised her brows and curiosity toned down the blush. “Frankly, I’m surprised nobody has approached you before now. The O.P.A. watches for the birth of guildercents like you. If they begin to show talent that could make officials here ask questions, we’ll coax them down to train in a guild—help them find an acceptable outlet for their magic. After a few years, they can return home and live their lives. But some decide to stay in Agathia and live there. If so, they’ll be deemed missing persons, or runaways. And if they later commit a crime with their magic, they’ll either serve a sentence in a guild, or be wiped of knowledge of their magic by one of the kings. We can’t really risk people discovering our world, so it’s just better to have them forget what they saw and what they can do.”
“So … what are you planning to do to
me?
When you said I’d just return to my life and forget this ever happened, what exactly did you mean by that?” He found himself nodding. Her mind was very analytical. She seemed to be able to take an idea to the next step, which said she had the promise of true talent.
“I’m thinking your mind would be too disciplined to forget your abilities. Criminal minds are easily swayed, but yours … I can see you have focus and determination. It would be a waste of my time, and magic, to even try. But I don’t have the power to make an offer to bring you down to train. All I could do would be to petition the mage guild and see if the guildmaster would offer you an apprenticeship. But with your conjurer abilities—” He left the thought unfinished, not sure how to approach the subject of the general opinion of the Parask within the guilds.
“Oh. No, I wouldn’t want to anyway. I like my life up here. I just wanted to hear you say that you don’t plan to try to erase my memory or anything like that. I don’t know tons of magic, but Baba did train me to defend myself. At the time, I didn’t realize that’s what she was doing, but I managed to fend off that Vegre when he tried to zap me. It was when I blocked his magic that it blasted the wall and made you guys come upstairs.”
That made him pause. He hadn’t really considered what had attracted their attention while talking with Candy in the living room, but it had indeed been the sound, and sensation, of magic. “So, you can defend yourself. Excellent. While I
could
defend you if Vegre showed up, I’d rather not have to. Can you attack or disarm, as well?”
She shrugged and wrinkled her nose in a manner that struck him as cute. He nearly smiled, but the conversation was too serious. “Magically? I haven’t got a clue. I’ve taken plenty of self-defense courses, and I know I can kick butt on a mugger if one jumped me … even an armed one. And I suppose I
might
know some attack stuff. It’s all such ancient history in my head, y’know? I mean, when Vegre said
‘Moratay,’
the
‘Avatay’
just slipped out, totally unconsciously. It was an old game Baba taught all us kids that apparently was so ingrained that it defeated whatever spell was put on me. Of course, that’s the best time to teach stuff like that, I suppose. When it’ll stick and be instinctive.”
When he didn’t respond for a long moment, she put the car keys in her inside jacket pocket and got out of the car. Honestly, he couldn’t decide
how
to respond. Vegre, easily the most powerful mage in the world, had attempted a killing curse on her, and she
blocked
it? He’d had to fight back his initial reaction. The surge of undiluted pride nearly made him drop his jaw, let out a whoop of triumph, and give her a huge hug. Any Agathian she unknowingly told the story to would do the same. To avoid an intentional killing curse was reason to crow for weeks. But he didn’t want to give her too much false confidence by doing that, because it could easily have been a fluke.
So, he held his tongue until he’d exited the car, locked his door, and was standing beside her in the snow. He tried to sound casual as she stared into the distance with hands on hips, trying to get her bearings. “Did he … happen to give any
reason
why he attacked you? Did he have some sort of grudge against you?”
She nodded just as she apparently decided on their path. “Not me personally, I don’t think. I don’t think he knew who I was. But yeah, there was a reason. I wasn’t supposed to have known his name. He said I had to die for it.”
He tilted his head and then turned toward her. “You knew his name
before
we came upstairs? How? Did Sela say it?” Even then, how would Sela know? She was never assigned to prison duty.
“No, it wasn’t Sela. I just
knew.
It’s a long story, but the short version is I collapsed in a restaurant, had a weird dream, and when Candy brought me home and I woke up, I knew his face and kept thinking that his name was really important to say out loud. Sela was in the dream, and so was Alexy. I can only remember bits and pieces though. There was a waterfall, and some guy was oozing black goo from his skin and I was running and falling and couldn’t breathe—”
“My Tree spirit.” The whisper came out unbidden. Tal didn’t even realize he was thinking it, but there was no other explanation. If only Alexy and Sela were in the dream, and she could see Vegre, then he must have been the vehicle. She must have been the spirit of the Tree who had come to his call. A buzzing filled his mind as he tried to grasp the possibilities. His whole life had been built around having a link to the Tree spirit—to the essence of magic. What would it mean to his belief system to learn that it was all a lie? Mila was barely magical, nearly full human. How could he ask
her
for guidance on things she didn’t even understand? In fact, how could he know that the advice he’d taken to date was valid?
Her eyes opened wider and her lips parted to release a startled breath as the realization struck home with her, too. There was something about that pose, the tilt of her head in the bright moonlight, her body just inches from his. She seemed … regal, and far too familiar. It was as though he’d known her forever.
Have I always had an image of what I imagined the spirit to look like? Is that why I’m so drawn to her? Because Tree help me … I can’t seem to resist this woman.
Before he even registered the movement, he was kissing her, eyes closed and heart pounding.
Spirit of my heart, are you there?
He said the words in his mind, not really expecting a response. But when he felt the doorway open and light and sound flood his brain, aching desire flowed through his body—as though a physical connection to the spirit was all that had been lacking from his life.
I … I mean, you? It’s been you all this time? All these years?
Her voice was deeper, more resonant in his head than what reached air. No wonder he hadn’t recognized it when they met. She leaned into him, relaxed into the curve of his arm, and ground her mouth against his as she clutched at his back. Finally his fingers could skim along the silkiness of her hair, warm against her heated skin as his mouth ate against hers hard enough to pull a moan from her throat.
She was no stranger to kissing, this one. Her tongue flicked lightly, then wound around his, filling his mouth with the taste of mint and honey. When her nails grazed his neck, and her knee moved against his swollen groin, he felt he would go mad. He moved his mouth to her cheek and then to her neck, savoring the scent of lavender flowers that made him nip her skin just a bit. Magic rose from her then, heady with fire and some other power he couldn’t recognize. But his body recognized the mage magic and pulled, causing Mila to have a full body shudder. It apparently weakened her knees enough that she sagged. He had to tighten his grip to keep her standing. Her legs spread enough in the process that their hips met and the weight of her abruptly willing body made his erection leap against the fabric and zipper that kept it bound. The delicious pressure made him growl and find her mouth again. He ran his tongue slowly around her lips until they parted. He plunged it between her teeth, thrilling in the sensation of bone scraping against his flesh. Tal kissed her with something approaching desperation, and she did the same.
But there were too many layers of clothing, and his frantic hands couldn’t find a way through to her bare skin. Short of throwing her to the snow-covered ground, or crawling into the backseat of the frigid car, there would be no easy relief he could think of. No, it was better to let this go before they went much further. They had many things to accomplish this night and it would be too easy to spend it exploring every inch of her body … listening to her screams as he pleasured her.
She pushed back first. “We have to stop.” Her full lips, heaving breasts, and wild eyes said she didn’t want to any more than he. “This is too … I mean, I … I need to think.”
Tal nodded and took a deep breath. Only one thing would help at this point, so he grabbed a handful of snow from the hood of the car and held it to the back of his neck. His eyes squeezed shut automatically from the intensity of the cold against his superheated skin and it wasn’t but moments later that warm water trickled down his neck to join the sweat she’d induced.
“Not a bad idea.” She likewise grabbed some snow and rubbed it against her neck. She yelped and blew out several harsh breaths while blinking furiously. After a few moments, she made small helpless movements with her soaked gloves. “Um, that was … well, wow. You do that really good. So, Tree spirit, huh?”