Destined Magic (4 page)

“Didn’t you tell me this door was locked last night?” Garrett asked
, lifting his brow.

“Yes, I checked it myself before we left. I didn’t know where the key was so I couldn’t open it
. You had put Ella to sleep so we couldn’t ask her, and we didn’t search her apartment.”

“I thought it was better that she slept rather than
being hysterical.” Saying a quick spell for protection, Garrett stepped through the door.

“You know
, if someone is hiding down here, they know we’re coming.” Damek pulled a rowan wand out of his sleeve and followed behind his cousin.

They moved quickly down the well-worn stairs and onto the dirt floor of the basement. The smell of rotting flesh washed
over them. Garrett stumbled, and his stomach roiled. The earth beneath his feet seemed to moan in his head. A great weight rested on his chest, and he could hardly draw a breath.

“This is the place, the blood magic miasma is thick down
here,” Garrett said, his voice coming out in a croak.

“Shield yourself before you make yourself sick.”
Damek placed his hand on Garrett’s shoulder.

The touch seemed to help clear
Garrett’s mind. He quickly envisioned a wall of white light surrounding him, which pushed back the effects of the dark magic. Damek recited a quick spell, and the tip of his wand began to glow. Garrett noticed a light on the ceiling and went over to pull the cord. In a moment, the space was illuminated.

They stood in a small area
with a hall leading away from the street. Several doors indicated more chambers farther down.

“We’ll have to search each room.”
Garrett pulled an oak wand from his sleeve and started down the hall.

“I was afraid you were going to say that
,” Damek groaned.

Gabriella ran down the street, panic threatening to immobilize her. All the houses sat back from the road. Alarm signs dotted lawns and front windows. Panting, she kept running, keeping an eye out for anyone following her. Where was she? Nothing looked familiar. Coming to a park, she ran through the gates and headed away from the road. Mothers pushing strollers lined the path. Teenagers gathered under the shade of trees. How ironic that life went on as if nothing had happened, while her whole world had turned inside out.

Finally
, she came to the exit gate of the park. A metro sign stood on the far corner, and she sighed in relief. London. They must have ported from her pub in Newport.

Dashing
across the street and down the stairs to the station, she prayed that she had some money on her. Putting her hand in her pocket, she felt paper. She pulled out several bills. The one on top was a five-pound note. At least, Garrett had left her with something.

After quickly buying a ticke
t, she hurried down to the platform. The train came rushing in and she raced inside. She stood in the doorway, looking back toward the stairs as the train headed down the tracks.

As
the train entered a tunnel, Gabriella saw Calder running down the stairs. She sank down into the nearest seat, her knees suddenly wobbly. He was too late. She had done it. She had escaped the Guardians. Now, she needed to see a man about removing a bracelet.

§

Garrett and Damek walked slowly down the murky hallway. The light diminished with each step they took. When they got to the first door, Garrett opened it while Damek stood ready. The door swung open into darkness. Garrett recited a spell to illuminate the tip of his wand. The room was empty. Damek sighed. “This is kind of creepy. I keep expecting something to jump out at us.”

“You have an overactive imagination, Damek.” Garrett moved to the next door with the same results. They both looked into
an empty room.

“Well, rather safe than sorry, if you don’t mind m
y saying so.” Damek stood ready at the next door.

Garrett opened it and shone
his wand into an empty room. Nothing. “This doesn’t make sense. They had to do their rituals somewhere down here.”

“I gu
ess that means door number four,” Damek said.

They both looked at each other
, then walked to the final door. Garrett turned the handle, and the door swung open. The stench of rotting flesh flowed out of the room. Garrett covered his nose with his hand. Damek coughed and choked.

“This must be the place,” Damek said
, clearing his throat.

Garrett nodded, not wanting to breath
e in the wretched smell. Garrett shone his wand inside the dark room. They heard the scrambling of little feet coming from the back, indicating the place was infested with rats. A spray-painted red circle lay on the dirt floor. Several wooden cabinets stood along the back wall. The door on one of them stood open, showing black candles and books lining the shelves.

Garrett walked around the
painted circle to look inside the cabinets. Damek stood by the door, while occasionally coughing and moving his head into the hallway to try to breathe. The books on the shelves appeared to be tomes on magic, but none stood out as unusual. Garrett moved closer to read the titles.

A sliver of sound came to his ears, a rustling of fabric. Garrett started to turn when something heavy hit his head. He swung around, his head ringing
, and saw Damek struggling with two men. The rats were earth witches who had taken the shape of rodents.

Another
man lifted a stool over Garrett’s head, and Garrett raised his arm to protect himself. The stool came crashing down, landing hard. Bones broke. The pain was excruciating. Garrett’s eyesight dimmed.

“Come on,” a voice hissed
.

Garrett heard footsteps
running down the hall. He tried to remain standing, but the room slowly spun around in a circle before everything went black.

§

Gabriella walked into the blacksmith shop, her chest heaving and her feet burning. The tube station closest to the shop was Morden, and she had had to walk the rest of the way to Epsom, where the shop was located.

Whispers
in the witches’ community had suggested the Blacksmith would help those who were threatened by the Witches Council. The Blacksmith’s mother had her powers removed when he was a teenager. Unable to stand the loss, she had taken her own life.

Not eve
ryone agreed with how the Witches Council handled the governance of its people. A small grassroots group had sprung up in protest. The Blacksmith was known to be one of its leaders. Gabriella figured she would see if the whispers were true.

“Hello?” Gabriella called out.

“Back here,” a voice drifted out from the rear of the shop.

She
walked around the counter and through a double door. Heat blasted her as she came into the room. The man standing shirtless pounded on a piece of red-hot iron. His muscles bulged in his arms and chest with each strike of the hammer. Gabriella gulped and stood staring.

He plunged the metal into a bucket of water and stea
m hissed into the air. Turning, he put down the hammer and wiped his hands on the apron tied around his waist. His eyes glowed with red flames before changing to a warm chocolate brown. Gabriella realized she was in the presence of a Fire Master.

“What ca
n I do for you?” he asked, looking her up and down.

Gabriella cleared her throat. “Um, I have a little problem
, and I heard you might be able to help me.”

“Well, that wou
ld depend on the problem.” The Blacksmith ran his hand over his shorn head.

“I need you to take this off.” Gabriella
extended her wrist toward the man.

He stepped forward
, peering at the metal bracelet on her wrist. “May I?” he asked, reaching for her wrist. She gulped and nodded. He held her hand and turned the bracelet so the magic symbols could easily be seen in the light. Then, he looked from her to the bracelet and back.

“Why did they put this on you? Your aura is clear.”

“You can see my aura?”

“The aura is energy
, and fire witches can control energy. Now, answer the question.”

“My sister is practicing blood magic. They want me to turn her in. When I refused
, they put this on me.” That wasn’t exactly the way it happened. Garrett put the bracelet on her first and then asked her to turn in her sister.

“Damn hypocrites, cuffing an innocent and trying to force her to rat out her family.
They tell us they are here to protect the innocent.” He shook his head. “Come over here. I’ll have to cut it off. Don’t worry. I mean the bracelet, not the hand.”

“Will it hurt?” Gabriella followed him over to a worktable.

“Not if we’re careful. You know that you have to run, right? You can’t stay here if the council is after you.”

Gabriella nodded. She
wasn’t sure how she would manage it. But she knew she needed to put as much distance as possible between her and the Guardians.

“Al
l right, hold still now.” The Blacksmith picked up a pair of large metal shears. “Too bad. This is going to ruin the bracelet. It looks like a fine piece. But after I put the metal in the fire, any remaining magic will go up in smoke.”

He muttered a spell under his breath as t
he metal shears cut through the bracelet. Sparks flew from the place where the metal was cut. But then the bracelet fell open and landed on the table. Gabriella shuddered as she felt her magic flow through her, igniting her blood and warming her.

“There, I bet you feel a lo
t better now.” The Blacksmith picked up a pair of metal tongs and grasped the pieces of the bracelet before walking over and putting them in a crucible. Next, he lifted the crucible and put it in the coals of the fire. Sparks flew from the bracelet as the metal began to melt and became liquid. “Now, no one will know that this liquid metal was formerly a nullifying bracelet. But you need to get out of here, in case someone followed you. Here, use the back door.”

Gabriella pulled the remaining pound notes out of her pocket and offered them to the man. He pushed her hand away.

“Keep them. No one should cuff an innocent. Goddess keep you.” He turned and picked up the iron rod from the bucket and put it back in the fire.

Gabriella hurried out the back door and down the alley. She peeked around the corner but didn’t see anyone suspicious. Dashing across th
e street, she began to make her way back to the metro.

§

“Garrett, wake up. Come on, man. I can’t carry you out of here. Garrett.”

Garrett heard a voice
that seemed to be coming from far away. Someone jostled him, and he moaned when his arm shifted.

“My arm
. It hurts like hell. I think it’s broken,” Garrett mumbled, trying to force himself back to consciousness.

“You’ve got a pretty nasty bump on your head
, too. Rat bastards. They must have been members of the blood cult. Hard to believe that somewhere in time we have a common ancestor with those idiots.”

Garrett opened his eyes and looked up right into Damek’s
lit wand. Garrett groaned. “Could you get your wand out of my face?”

“Sorry, I wanted
to make sure you were all right. Let me help you up.”

Gar
rett sat up and immediately experienced nausea and light-headedness. He felt terrible.

“Give it a minute. I called for backup. We’ll get you to headquarters
, and Elise can heal you right away.”

Feeling around on the ground
for his wand, Garrett instead found a cell phone lying on the floor. “Here, one of the rats left this behind. We’ll have to check his contact list. Wait until Mabel hears about this. We let them get away. She’ll have a few harsh things to say, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, Mabel never pulls
any punches. All right, let’s see if we can get you on your feet.” Damek grabbed Garrett’s belt and helped steady him as he rose to his feet. Garrett swayed a moment, his arm hanging down, useless at his side.

“Grab my wand
, will you? I didn’t see where it fell,” Garrett asked, leaning against the cabinet.

“Sure, just don’t fall while I’m getting it.” Damek reached down and picked up the oak wand and slipped it into his belt. “Come on, one step at a time. Let’s go.”

Garrett winced as he took a step. His head hurt so badly, it was difficult to see, or maybe that was because the only light came from Damek’s wand. Each step seemed like a mile, and there were many more to take before they would get to the exit.

Step after step, they made their way down the hall. Finally
, they stood at the foot of the stairs. Panting, Garrett leaned against the newel post. His arm felt on fire, and his head pounded with each beat of his heart.

“Garrett? Damek?” Elise’s sweet voice floated down the stairs.

Garrett’s breath hitched as his eyes closed in relief. Thank the Goddess, the cavalry had arrived.

§

Garrett held out his arm and moved it up and down before bending it at the elbow. “It seems fine now, Elise.” He sat on one of the beds in the infirmary at Guardian headquarters.

“Mother will want to check it. She’ll be here in a few minutes.”

Garrett grimaced. Clara Delaire, Elise’s mother was a council member and head of the Luften healing guild. She had quite a reputation for being politically savvy and rising to the top of her house. Rumor also said she had a terrible bedside manner. How the woman could be Elise’s mother always confused him. Elise was soft and compassionate. She had all the good traits of the air witches.

The air witches were also M
aster energy healers. They ran a healing center along with the earth witches, who specialized in potions and tonics. Because of her expertise in making healing potions, Garrett’s half-sister Meadow had recently been made a member of the guild.

The last thing
Garrett needed was a council member checking up on him, even to make sure he healed completely. “Elise, I really need to get back to work on this case.”

“I’m sorry Garrett, but as head of the guild
, mother has every right to check on your healing. It won’t take long, and I can’t release you for duty until she does.” Elise smiled at him, her blue eyes soft. Her long dark hair was tied up on top her head, and a few soft tendrils had escaped and brushed against her neck.

At one time, he thought maybe there was something between
him and Elise. But after one date, they both admitted the chemistry wasn’t right. They became good friends, instead, and Garrett always knew he could depend on Elise for good advice.