Smoke and Mirrors (10 page)

“Do you know what happened to Aidan? Yesterday, I mean?”

Her charcoal smudged as her hand jerked, and she cursed quietly under her breath before answering him. “Professor Reed took him to see the dean after he hurt Sam.”

“Sam?”

“The naga.”

“I didn’t know it had a name.”

At her incredulous look, he reddened and turned his attention back to filling in the thicker portion of the spiral he was working on with his charcoal. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes.

“It—Sam—he gave you luck, didn’t he?”

Kimberly kept her eyes glued to the newsprint, though her hand went still on the paper. Considering how things had gone for her the night before, she wasn’t so sure about that. She shook her head, then resumed sketching out an oval with a line through the center.

“Maybe. I don’t know. The way things have been going for me the past few days, I’ll be lucky to make it through the rest of the school year intact.”

He gave her a smile that soon had her smiling back.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” he said. “You’ve got skills the rest of us don’t. I always wanted to ask you about those illusions you did in our first conjuration class. Professor Harrington, right?”

Their laughter got them a visit from Professor Cohen, who stood over them tapping his foot while they put their noses back to the shared table and diligently applied charcoal to paper. When he moved on a few minutes later, they continued a whispered conversation and agreed to meet over the weekend to do homework together. For the first time in a long time, Kimberly thought she might have made a friend.

So she was in good spirits when Cormac arrived at the café a little after 9:30 that night, a half hour before her shift was supposed to end. After serving a late night dessert of ladyfingers and an espresso to the man ahead of him in line, who was giving him a strange look, she leaned over the counter to give Cormac a sunny grin and take his order.

He had been taking in the rest of the store—every visible inch, not just the selection of sweets, muffins, and specialty loaves of bread—and in return was being ogled by the few customers hoping to get a late night discount. Their blatant stares might have had something to do with the severe wool peacoat and neatly pinned cravat he was wearing. Or maybe it was the chiseled cheekbones and intense eyes, combined with just enough scruff to make him look like a rake in duke’s clothing. No doubt, the getup was odd and anachronistic, even for New York City and its legions of hipsters.

“What can I get you while you wait?”

He shook his head and turned those icy blue eyes on Kimberly, his look so intense it momentarily stole her breath away. She could have sworn something in that look said you.

“What would you recommend?” he asked.

A little flustered, she turned away, bustling over behind the display case with the cookies. “Um, our biscotti is out of this world. You like hazelnut coffee, so you’d probably like the chocolate-dipped cinnamon hazelnut. Or maybe the anise? Oh, or the banana-rum—”

“The first one sounds fine,” he said, the quirk of his lips slipping from sultry to amused. “Choose something for yourself, too. My treat.”

She got him his coffee and biscotti—then a second biscotti for herself when he insisted—and rang him up. After she slid his change across the counter, he tugged a bill out of his wallet that made her eyes bug and stuffed it in the tip jar, along with the change. Ignoring the look she gave him, he picked up his treats and headed to one of the three circular tables over by the windows.

For the next half hour, Kimberly did what she could to ignore how he watched her every move over the rim of his cup. Staying industrious helped, but her hands were shaking with nervous energy and she fumbled a few times, spilling coffees and dropping pastry crumbles on the floor and counters.

It wasn’t very busy, but Don eventually came out to help her clean up behind the counter. He gave his best shouldn’t you be moving along look to Cormac, but it didn’t do a thing to stir him.

“This guy bothering you?” Don asked, not bothering to lower his voice.

Kimberly set down the rag she was using to wipe down the counter and put her hands on her hips as she gave Cormac a pointed look while answering Don. “He’s being a bit of a weirdo tonight, but no. He’s waiting for me.”

Don looked back and forth between the two, frowning. He radiated disapproval for the remaining five minutes Kimberly had on the clock, and didn’t say a thing when Cormac offered her his arm. She tilted her head, staring up at him with a puzzled expression as he led her outside. She waited until they were half a block away from the café before she opened her mouth.

“What is up with you tonight? You’re acting so strange.”

He glanced down at her, a hint of that rakish smile returning. “I’m finding I’m enjoying this excuse to get away from my responsibilities for a night.”

That, and he thought he might be able to upstage that naga that had left its mark on her with what he had planned. His actions tonight would set in motion the first steps of his strategy to scare up a decent familiar for Kimberly. The stir his involvement would cause in the local fae community would be delicious and was guaranteed to pique the interest of any number of powerful elemental creatures. Never mind that the thought of someone else bonding with her made him grit his teeth. He relished the challenge of it.

So they walked, arm in arm, urged along by the brisk April wind.

Kimberly kept sneaking looks up at Cormac, hardly noticing where they were going. He was such a puzzle to her. Handsome and severe, and maybe kind in a quirky way, but she wouldn’t have pegged him as adventurous. Plus she was starting to wonder if he might be attracted to her. Nothing else made sense of him doing his best impression of Colin Firth, with his Darcy-esque staring in the café, or why he was going out of his way to be so nice to someone who was basically a stranger to him.

Being an adult about it, she decided to ignore that for now.

“Where are we going?”

“Not far. I’m taking you to meet an old friend of mine who runs a café of her own.”

“If you wanted to do dinner, we could have stayed. Don makes a mean chef’s salad.”

“Delightful as that sounds, I’m afraid I have an ulterior motive for asking you to dinner. This place is something of a congregation spot for Others looking for a safe place to meet and relax. I’m taking you along to… well, let’s just say we’re showing you off.”

She nudged his ribs with her elbow, prompting him to glance down at her. “What’s that supposed to mean? Showing me off… to whom? Or what?”

Cormac lightly bumped her shoulder in return, giving her a smile brimming with anticipation as they passed under a street lamp. “The local network of elementals. All the creatures that want to hide from your kind. Remember to play nice.”

Eyes wide and so firmly focused on him that she didn’t notice a crack in the sidewalk, she didn’t get a chance to respond as she tripped. Her jaw snapped shut as she stumbled, tightening her grip on him to stay on her feet. He stopped, moving inhumanly fast to catch her before she could fall.

He held her that way a long moment, one arm around her waist and the two almost nose-to-nose, both of them breathing a bit too hard. She slowly straightened, and he pulled back once she was steady again, fingertips lingering on her arms.

When she cleared her throat, he stepped back and offered her his arm again. They resumed walking, a bit slower this time.

“Thank you,” she said. At his nod, she chuckled and scuffed her shoe on the sidewalk. “Some big, bad, scary monster of the night I turn out to be. Can’t even watch where I’m walking.”

“There is nothing scary or monstrous about you. There are plenty of Others who might disagree, a few of which will be at the café tonight, but this will lay the groundwork for us to find what you need.”

She laughed again, not quite so strained this time.

“You say the sweetest things. So, back on track. You’re telling me there are a bunch of different kinds of Others a mage might want to make into their familiar in the city, and they’re all hiding in plain sight? I mean, Professor Reed did show me a list of some Others that supposedly live here in town, but I was having a tough time believing it.”

“Of course. Like many other cities, some breeds native to this part of New York are extinct, or nearly so, thanks to the encroachment of humanity and interference from spellcasters of all kinds. The bulk of those still alive keep their heads down and live on the outskirts of civilization, avoiding magi for the most part. Many of them hide behind a human guise most of the time. Those who do live in cities mostly live in a constant state of fear of being discovered, and only congregate in safe havens like the one I’m taking you to tonight. Which, for their safety and yours, I ask you not to visit without me.”

Kimberly shook her head, her smile slipping. “They really do hate us, don’t they?”

Cormac didn’t respond right away. When they paused at a crosswalk, he tilted his head up, squinting at the few stars visible in the sky. Even with his keen vision, the light pollution from the city made them hard to spot from his current vantage point.

“Centuries ago, it used to be an honor to serve with a mage. There were contracts, agreements, mutual benefits… but times have changed. It’s more like slavery now. There’s no guarantee they’ll be given their freedom back. Can you blame them for being afraid?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Don’t worry about convincing anyone about anything tonight. For now, we’re just stirring the pot to see what comes to the surface. My contact won’t fear you. She knows almost every Other in the Tri-State Area and hates magi with a burning passion.”

Kimberly jerked to a halt, her hand slipping from his arm. He paused, looking back to her in question.

“Hates magi? Why the hell are you taking me to meet someone who will hate me on sight?”

He grinned. “Because as soon as she hears what you’re looking for, she’ll get in touch with everyone she knows and tell them to go into hiding. The ones strong enough to be worth your while will be struck with insatiable curiosity and stir themselves to investigate. Some may even come to you with an offer.”

She frowned at him. He just held out one hand for her own, sweeping the other out to gesture in the direction he’d been leading her.

“Trust me, Kimberly. If there’s one thing I know, it’s how a dragon thinks.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Kimberly wasn’t too familiar with the area on this side of Central Park despite that her school was right across the street from it and Allegretto’s was only a few blocks away. What little time she’d spent at the park had been in the sprawling, open field known as Sheep’s Meadow and had always been during the day.

It wasn’t that she had avoided Central Park because of its lingering reputation for being a haven of depravity, where one was as likely to be mugged or shot as looked at. Quite to the contrary, this part of New York was in no way the crime-ridden cesspool it had once been. Developers had been buying up the property around the park, building condos and lofts that sold for tens of millions of dollars. Between the gentrification and the combined efforts to discourage crime in the area courtesy of the NYPD and the Moonwalkers, a local werewolf pack that claimed Central Park as its territory, it was a great deal safer than it had been in the 80s and 90s.

It was also a given that Others would be crossing through the park at any hour of the day. The Moonwalkers didn’t do a thing to police the foot traffic during the day, but they were a constant presence after the sun went down. There was an unspoken agreement that any Other who wasn’t a Moonwalker didn’t linger in their territory at night. Kimberly sensed the werewolves nearby, following her and Cormac under the cover of darkness on the other side of the street, pacing their movements. She wasn’t too worried, but she did keep glancing at the greenery in the midst of all the towering buildings around them for any visible signs of their shadows. She’d yet to meet a Were and wasn’t sure if these were the circumstances under which she would want to be introduced.

Nearing Central Park North, Cormac steered her into a dark, narrow alleyway between two towering apartment buildings. She hadn’t been paying much mind to the buildings they were passing since she was more interested at the prospect of spotting a werewolf across the street, but the abrupt change of scenery and encroaching shadows thick as molasses had her digging her heels in.

Cormac paused when she did, giving her a wry smile that seemed totally incongruous given the menacing dark of that alley.

“The fear is setting in, isn’t it?” he asked. “I feel your heartbeat accelerating.”

She swallowed hard and nodded, then pulled back as she thought she spotted movement in the dark at the far end of the alley. Something shifting behind a Dumpster. Was that a flicker of red eyes?

“That’s one of the wards kicking in, trying to drive you off. It’s nothing but smoke and mirrors—something like your own illusions. You’re safe.”

She shook her head. “There’s something back there.”

“Yes. Where we need to go. Close your eyes and take my arm again. Nothing will happen to you. I promise.”

Though a bit dubious, she did as he said, clinging to his arm and closing her eyes tight. She had to believe that he wouldn’t have taken her this far only to let some boogeyman snatch her and drag her into that soul-sucking darkness at the end of the alley. Even though she kept repeating that silently to herself, every hair on her body was standing at stiff attention, and her muscles kept trying to seize on her before she could take another step.