She pulled her mouth from Tom's, touched his bottom lip with her fingers. Her face was so close she could see the little freckles on his lips. Pale brown on pale pink. She kissed each one. She could feel him breathing. "Pretty," she said.
"Jay-Tee," he said. "What's— "
She kissed him again, properly, with more passion, more oomph. He responded. He liked it, she could tell.
She pulled his hand from where it lay on top of her T-shirt and slid it underneath so she could feel his skin on her skin, just above her hip bone. His fingers were still cool but warming fast. His hands circled her waist. She shivered.
The phone rang. Sharp and loud, cracking open the heavy hot air.
Briiiiiing. Briiiiiiing
.
"Phone," Tom said. She felt the word against her lips. Their mouths were still close.
It could be Reason or Esmeralda
, Jay-Tee thought.
It could be important. I should get it.
She untangled herself from Tom, stood up unsteadily, pushed back her hair, wiped her mouth. Put her hand on the door handle. It opened easily. Because it wasn't…She wasn't—
Briiiiiing. Briiiiiiing
.
She stepped through. From Sydney back porch to Sydney kitchen.
Whoosh!
Magic. Not. She giggled. Wobbled to the phone and picked it up.
"Hello," she said, imitating Tom. "Esmeralda Cansino's residence."
"Hello, Jay-Tee," said a voice that chilled her. "I was hoping it would be you."
Jay-Tee's brain stalled. It was
him
. He scared her and she hated him. She didn't want to talk to him. She didn't even like to
think
about him. But it was his voice on the phone. He'd hurt her. He'd hurt Reason. Stolen from them. He would do it again if he could. He was a bad, bad man.
"I have a message for you to deliver to Esmeralda…."
She wasn't listening. Thoughts were multiplying in her head. He'd hurt her by taking her magic. But she didn't— she forced herself to follow it through— she didn't have any magic. Not anymore.
Reason had taken it, or switched it off, or done something that had left her alive but as magic-free as big a dead spot, as her brother, Danny. She had no magic anymore, which meant that—
"Who is it?" Tom whispered. He must have clambered in through the window.
She shook her head.
"Jay-Tee? What's going on?"
What did it mean? It meant that
he
couldn't do anything to her. Nothing. She didn't have to be scared of him. She didn't have to think about him. He wasn't part of her world anymore. She was free.
"Did you get all of that, Jay-Tee?" he asked.
Jay-Tee giggled. "Nope. Not a word. I wasn't listening to you, Alexander, or Jason Blake, or Stephen Collins, or David Johnson, or whatever boring-ass white-bread name you're calling yourself this week. You can go shit in a bottle and eat it for all I care." Jay-Tee almost started laughing. She'd called him by name. All of his names!
"You can't do anything to me, not anymore. I'm not afraid of you. You can't touch me. You can't take my magic, 'cause I haven't got any! Go sit on that and rotate! Asshole!"
With a flourish she hung up the phone and fell into Tom's arms, which should have been all romantic and sexy and stuff, but she was wobbly and so was he, and they fell.
It hit her again: she had no magic, but she was alive. Everything had changed. Her whole life.
She
had
a life. She kissed Tom's confused and anxious face. His cheeks and then his mouth, which was when another thought hit her:
Jason Blake's— See? She could think his name, she could say it aloud if she wanted to— Jason Blake's message
had
been important. It had been for Esmeralda and Reason. It was about Reason's mother, Sarafina, who he was holding hostage, because he did still have power: he could hurt Jay-Tee's friends.
"Oops," she said.
She wasn't magic anymore. She burst into tears.
13
Hot and Bothered
"Oops?" Tom asked. He sat
up, wishing his head was clearer. "What's going on, Jay-Tee? What did Jason Blake want? How can you not have any magic? You're alive!" Unless she'd gone mad already. Which was why she thought her magic was gone and spat the dummy at Jason Blake. And had kissed Tom? Well, no, he didn't want to think that was madness-induced.
She was still lying on the floor, still crying.
"Jay-Tee."
She groaned. "N'magic, Tom," she mumbled.
No magic? Was that really what she'd said? Tom's head was still fuzzy from the wine he'd drunk with Cath in New York City. They'd stayed up talking for hours. They hadn't talked like that,
really
talked, in such a long, long time. Not since before he met Esmeralda, found out what he was. He felt good. Fuzzy, but good.
Well, not all good. Not if Jay-Tee really was crazy. Lying on the floor and crying wasn't exactly a sane activity, was it?
But she'd kissed him. She'd kissed him, and
that
had felt very good indeed. He'd thought he was going to burst into flames, and not just because he had too many clothes on for a Sydney summer. He was still vibrating. He took his jumper off.
"Are you okay, Jay-Tee?"
She moaned again. Was that a crazy moan?
"Jay-Tee," he said, stroking her hair. "Jay-Tee? You should sit up. Let me get you some water." And himself some water. He was suddenly parched. Water was a really good idea.
She moved her head in what might have been a nod. He stood up, grabbed her hands. "Come on, Jay-Tee. Help me, here." He pulled and she practically flew up into his arms. She was little. Littler than Reason. He hadn't noticed that before, because she was so big in other ways. Big personality, big mouth. Nice mouth, he thought, now that he'd explored it some. He blushed.
"You're cute, Tom," she said, tears wet on her cheeks. "I like your eyebrows."
She really was mad. He walked her across to a stool and slid her onto it. She leaned her forearms on the table as if that was the only way she could stay upright. "My head is all…What do you say? What's that Tom word? Buggery! My head is all buggery." She hiccupped.
Tom didn't bother to tell her that the word she meant was
buggered
, not
buggery
; instead, he handed her a glass of water. "Drink this." She did.
"See that?" she said, pointing to an almost empty bottle of wine on the table. "I drank all that."
Tom had had four glasses of wine. Well, three and a bit. He hadn't come close to finishing the last one. He'd've preferred Coke. So Jay-Tee must be drunk, not crazy. That was a relief, though it still meant she'd probably only kissed him because of being drunk. But she'd kissed him this morning too! Right here in the kitchen. She hadn't been drunk then.
But it had been a little kiss. A very little kiss.
"You drank all of it?"
Jay-Tee nodded. "I think it might have been too much. I can't believe it's gone."
"Well, if you drink it, that's what happens."
"Not the wine, Tom! My magic."
"Don't be sill— "
"
I'm
gone. How can I be me without magic?"
"Jay-Tee— "
"Aaargh!"
Tom jumped; Jay-Tee was crying even louder now. Her head sank down onto her forearms. Tom stood beside her and patted her head, feeling useless. "Do you want some more water?" he asked.
Jay-Tee made a noise that he decided was a yes. He filled her glass from the tap and put it next to her forearm. She sat up— her eyes were red, her nose too. There were tears and snot on her face and on the table. Fortunately there were tissues left in the box he'd used to mop up her earlier bout of tears. He hadn't pegged Jay-Tee for a sob machine.
"I might have no magic, but I can still drink water."
"You're just drunk, Jay-Tee. You're still magic. Otherwise you'd be dead. Remember?"
"Oh, no," she said. "It's different now."
"How?"
"I
did
drink too much. But that's just because I was scared. It's really, really gone, Tom. I'm not kidding. I'm a hundred-per-cent honest."
"How's that possible?" Tom said, humouring her. He reached out and touched her cheek. "You're warm. You're definitely alive."
"I drank too much." She drank the rest of the water. He got her more.
"You drank too much and it made your magic disappear?" Tom asked. He sat down next to her, wondering if there was anything to eat. He was starving. Bloody vegetarians and their budgie food. Jay-Tee hiccupped again.
"No, I drank too much
because
my magic disappeared." Jay-Tee shook her head, as if she was trying to shake something clear, or maybe she was just trying to stop the hiccups. "But that's not the only important thing. Jason Blake has Sarafina. That's what he called about. I was supposed to give Esmeralda a message. But I— "
"I heard. Pretty excellent. 'You should shit in a bottle…. '" Though it was also definitely a sign of insanity. She never would have done that before. She'd been too scared of Jason Blake to even say his name out loud. "Hey! You said his name!"
Jay-Tee grinned, then hiccupped. She shook her grin away. "No, it was a
terrible
thing to do— not the saying-his-name bit— that's no big deal. But I didn't take the message. From him, I mean, from Jason Blake. I don't know what the message was."
"What message?"
"He wanted me to tell Reason and Mere something, but I didn't listen." Her next hiccup was even louder.
"Drink a glass of water backwards."
"Do what?"
"You take a glass of water, like this, then you lean over. Look, let me show you."
She spilled some of it, but when she stood back up, swayed, grabbed the back of the chair, and told him that it was stupid, the hiccups were gone.
Jay-Tee was muddled. Tom wondered if he was muddled too. "You kiss really good," he said, though he'd been planning to ask her where Reason and Esmeralda were.
She smiled. It wasn't a crazy smile. "You do too. 'Cept for using a bit too much tongue— "
He smacked her lightly on the shoulder. "Do not!"
"Do too!"
"Do not!"
"Do!"
"Not," he said, leaning forward, careful to hold onto the table and avoid touching the nasty bruise on her cheek, kissing her lips gently. She kissed him back. They exchanged more kisses, gentle as butterflies, one after another, lips on lips, mouths opening only slowly, tiny hints of tongue. Tom felt his ears get hot. He'd never kissed anyone like this before. "You're not hiccupping anymore."
"No."
They kissed again until she pulled away. Tom wondered if it was ethical for him to be kissing a drunk person. Or a crazy person, for that matter.
"Esmeralda," she said firmly. "Reason."
"Right," Tom said. "Jason Blake has Reason's mum? That's what you said?"
She nodded.
"Where are they?"
"New York," Jay-Tee said. "They're in New York." Her lips were bigger and redder than usual, almost like she was wearing lipstick. Looking at them made Tom feel even hotter. He hoped he wasn't blushing.
If she was mad, was any of this true?
"Tom! Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Looking at you like what?"
"Like you think I'm making everything up. My dad used to look at me exactly like that. I'm not making this up! Why would I? Why would Jason Blake be calling here? Where do you think Reason and Esmeralda are?"
"But…" he said. "Well, you think your magic is gone. And you're clearly alive, and you've been saying mad— "
"You think I've gone nuts?"
"No," Tom said. "Well, um, sort of, maybe…"
"How do you think I went through the door and ended up in the backyard? If I was magic, I'd go to New York, wouldn't I? Look at me, Tom, look really closely. Do you see any magic?"
Tom looked at her and then closed his eyes, focusing his own magic. There were no shapes, no emeralds, no triangles.
No magic.
He opened them again.
"See?"
He nodded slowly, trying to make sense of what he'd seen. Of what he
hadn't
seen. "No magic?"
"No."
"What happened?"
"I almost died. Again. And Reason fixed me, but she didn't give me magic, she took it away. I don't know how she did it.