For Love or Magic (10 page)

“You're nonmagical?” We'd tested my powers after sunset, and they were fully gone, but the idea of being around any nonmagicals, especially a pregnant one, made me tense.

Peach picked at her brownie with one hand, and with the other, gave me a dismissive wave. “Ah, don't worry about it. I've been a conduit before, and it was cool. Besides, Desmond says he's pretty sure you're safe to be around. At night, anyway.”

Stacy snorted. “Yeah, and apparently we're taking Desmond's word on things now.”

Liv shot Stacy a sharp side-eye and then smiled at me. “Whatever's going on here, we'll figure it out. Don't worry. We've got loads of practice.”

“Yeah,” Stacy muttered, “because of
her
boyfriend.”

“Barely know the guy,” I said, but they all ignored me.

“Huh,” Betty said. “I thought it was you who gave those potions to everyone last year, Stacy.”

“Yeah, in flasks that Desmond laced.” Stacy huffed and leaned forward. “And now we're hosting his little lady friend in your living room.”

“Ignore her, Eliot,” Peach said. “Stacy's just slow to warm up to people.”

“I'm plenty fucking warm,” Stacy said. “But you guys don't see a pattern here? Two years ago, magic came to town, and people got killed. Last summer, Desmond tore my life apart. Now
this one
”—she made a face at me like I was a lab rat—“turns up and we just invite her in and give her lemonade and brownies? What the hell is wrong with you people?”

I shot a look at her, almost grateful for the confrontation that gave me something to put my back up against, and someone to vent my own anger at. “Yeah, well, all I know is, I came to this town after not having to deal with any magic for sixteen years. Then, I eat a little lasagna that you guys gave me and … thanks to a
conjurer,
by the way … I'm making rooks out of spoons. No one wants to know what's going on here more than me, trust me.”

“That's just it,” Stacy said, unruffled by my shooting back at her. “I
don't
trust you, I don't trust Desmond, and I don't want you anywhere near my friends or my town.”

“Stacy, stop it.” Liv's voice was quiet, but firm enough to silence everyone in the room. She picked up the brownie tray from the coffee table and held it out to Stacy.

“Two years ago, someone unbound my magic, and I was scared and freaked out, but at least I wasn't alone, and we're not leaving Eliot alone. She needs help and we're going to help her, so either get the hell out or take a brownie and shut up.”

Stacy stared at Liv. For a moment, I thought she was going to leave, but then she took a brownie and sat back. Liv set the tray down on the coffee table and looked at me. “So. Desmond told us what happened with your father. I'm really sorry. That's got to be tough.”

“I can't believe Emerson Streat is evil,” Addie said, shaking her head. “You think you know someone…”

“He's not evil,” I said, and then backed up. “Well, not exactly. He's single-minded, and he believes that the ends justify the means, so he does bad things. But…” I trailed off, feeling conflicted about defending the man who'd killed my best friend and my mother, and used me to do it. I didn't believe he knew they'd die for sure, but I did think he knew it was a possibility, and that was enough. And if he was going to try to do it again here …

“No,” I said, finally. “Forget all that. He's evil.”

“It's okay to have complicated feelings about it,” Betty said. “I once dated a Fascist. Love is weird. The bottom line is, how can we help you?”

“I don't know.” I picked up a brownie. I wasn't hungry, but picking at it gave me something to do, at least. “Maybe … tell me about your powers. What kind of magic do you guys have?”

“Nothing with teeth,” Addie said casually. “The only one who could kill a person was Tobias, and he's gone.”

A heavy blanket of silence fell over the room, and Addie's eyes went wide and she put her hand over her mouth.

“I'm sorry, honey,” she said to Liv, the words muffled by her fingers.

“It's okay,” Liv said, but I could see the pain on her face. It almost made me want to not push, but I couldn't help it. I had to ask.

“So, Tobias … he was magical, too?”

Betty shot a wary look at Liv. “Yes. He's magical.”

“Excuse me,” Liv said, and hurried out of the room.

“Nice work,” Stacy said, but when I looked up, she wasn't talking to Addie. She was looking at me. I didn't have time for her grudge, though, so I ignored her and turned to Betty.

“What happened with Tobias?”

Betty glanced in the direction Liv had gone, and then leaned forward, speaking in low tones. “He left her a note. Just a note. ‘It's over. I'm sorry.' After two years of living together, practically married, he just—
poof
! Gone. All his stuff packed and moved out while she was at work. And you'd have never seen it coming. He adored her. You could tell by the way he looked at her, by the way he talked to her. He loved her. I think the agency he worked for called him away.”

My entire body tensed, and my stomach went south. “Agency?”

“Yeah,” Peach said. “He worked for Allied Strategical Forces. It's like a magical FBI or whatever, have you heard of them?”

I put on what I hoped was an impassive expression. “Yup.”

Addie made a face. “Well, then you know that ASF isn't exactly the
good
guys, but they're not as bad as the other one. RIAS, whatever that stands for.”

“Regional Initiative Action Services,” I said automatically, and Stacy raised an eyebrow at me.

I swallowed. “My father ran RIAS when I was a kid. Before he caused the disaster in Lott's Cove and had to resign. I'd bet he's still got a lot of connections, though.”

“Oh,” Stacy said coldly. “Great.”

“Regional Initiative Action Services,” Betty huffed. “What does that even
mean
?”

“Nothing,” I said absently, putting my picked-over brownie on the coffee table. “That's the point.”

Addie touched my arm and lowered her voice, glancing in the direction Liv went. “
Whatever
about the agencies. Tobias loved Liv. And I don't mean he liked her a lot. He
loved
her.”

“Loves,” Stacy corrected gently, and she and Addie shared a dark, worried look. That's when I realized that they thought he might be dead.

Addie turned back to me. “I'm sure ASF called him away on some mission and made him write that note. He would never leave her on his own. He just wouldn't.”

Maybe he wouldn't,
I thought.
Maybe my father came to town and saw an agency guy, especially one from the opposing team, as a threat.
Guilt washed over me, not because it was my fault that my father had likely disappeared Liv's boyfriend, but that I was too much of a coward to voice my suspicions out loud.

At that moment, Liv walked back into the room, and we all shut up. She had something red and ceramic curled up in her arms like a pet, and at first I wondered how much of a toll Tobias's leaving had taken on her. She set the thing on the coffee table between us and I studied it. It was … weird. It had obviously been a red mug at one time, because the tail wasn't a fluffy bump at the back, but rather, formed from the ceramic handle. I was about to say something kind and nonjudgmental, but then the ceramic bunny wagged its tail and I jumped back.

“What is that?”

“That is Gibson,” she said.

It waggled back and forth as the ceramic nose sniffed at the table, and the ceramic feet shuffled toward me.

“I made him when I first got my magic,” Liv said. “Kind of accidentally. He's blind and deaf and a little clumsy, but … I don't know. I just love him, I guess.”

“Oh my god,” I breathed as I bent over lower to study the thing. “You have source magic? That's rare. I've never even seen it before.”

“Source magic?” Peach said, looking up from the brownies balancing on her stomach. “What's source magic?”

Liv looked at her. “It's when you can give life to something independent of you.” It appeared Tobias the Agency Guy had been schooling his girlfriend, which was good. At least there was one of them I wouldn't have to explain everything to. The rest of them, however, were watching me with interest, so I explained a little.

“There are different kinds of magic,” I said, and started rattling off my knowledge the way fourth graders rattle off state capitals. “Source magic, like Liv's, is when you can give life to inanimate objects. Elemental magic, people who work with earth, air, fire—”

“Fire,” Addie said, perking up. “That's you, Stacy.”

“You're a fire elemental?” I asked, feeling tense at the thought. You wanted your fire elementals to be the calm, rational sort, and Stacy Easter didn't seem that type to me.

“I'm a conjurer,” she said, her voice even. “When I'm under the influence of someone else's magic, I start fires.”

“Good to know.” I squelched an instinct to apologize for being rude, but thought twice about it. I wasn't about to make myself submissive to Stacy Easter. If I'd offended her, she could just deal with it.

“Okay,” I went on, “so, let me see … there's also kinetic magic, where you can affect speed and motion. Perception magic, where you can create visual impressions, but there isn't anything physically there. And there's creative magic, where you can make things appear from thin air—”

Peach snapped her fingers. “Like Betty! She can make baked goods just by snapping her fingers. Her baklava is amazing.”

“Oh, it's nothing,” Betty said humbly.

Gibson got to the end of the table, and I picked him up before he could fall off the edge. He already had a chip on his nose. I … well, for lack of a better word …
cuddled
him to my chest and looked at Liv. “Are you day or night magic?”

Liv's face tensed a bit. “Both. It's a long story, but … yeah. I can do it whenever.”

It was clear that Liv understood exactly what she was, exactly how rare she was, and what that meant about her power, but her friends obviously didn't, because they didn't look worried at all, so I tried not to react too much. It was her place to tell them, not mine.

I handed Gibson back to Liv, and noticed that while Addie was petting Seamus and Peach was pushing the baby's foot out of her rib cage, Stacy was watching me carefully, and not missing a thing.

Liv leaned forward. “So, you think your father spiked your lasagna and unbound your magic? Why would he do that?”

“Because he needs me, I guess,” I said. “It's really difficult to bind magic, practically impossible to bind a grown magical, but it's crazy easy to unbind it.”

“Yeah,” Peach said. “Liv got hit in the face with some herbs in a gym sock and that's all it took to unbind her magic. It was
crazy
.”

I smiled. In a weird way it was kind of nice, being able to talk about this stuff again. “My father used to compare it to entropy. You know, chaos. Magic is a force that wants to be free, that kind of thing. So maybe my father dosed the Welcome Wagon lasagna—”

“Oh! Bastard!” Peach said, offended at the thought.

“But it's also possible my magic could have … I don't know … just come loose from being around”—I deliberately didn't look at Liv—“this much magical energy. Maybe. I don't know.”

Stacy huffed, and Addie said, “What?”

“Seriously? You guys aren't seeing this?” Stacy looked at Liv. “
Desmond
walked her home from Happy Larry's last night.” She said his name in the same tone people use for
politician
or
herpes
. “Desmond was with her today when her magic erupted. Maybe she's in on it, maybe she's just his victim, but I can't believe you guys don't see the common factor here.”

Liv looked at me, torn. “I don't know. What do you think, Eliot?”

And all eyes were suddenly on me. I looked from one of them to the next and then said, “Hell if I know. You all know him better than I do.”

“Well, let's start with the obvious. Did you drink anything in his presence?” Stacy asked. Her tone was less confrontational now than it had been before, but I guessed that was less about her coming to like me and more about the fact that she wanted information.

“He doesn't have to give her anything to drink,” Betty said. “Remember what he did to Leo last year? With that hypodermic needle?”

A flash of pain crossed Stacy's face; apparently whatever Desmond had done to this Leo, it had been pretty bad.

“Who's Leo?” I asked. “What happened?”

“Leo's my boyfriend,” Stacy said. “Desmond gave him a potion that wiped out his feelings for me.”

“Oh, wow.” For a moment, I felt some sympathy for Stacy Easter. Not enough to like her any better, but whatever.

“Desmond can't be trusted,” Stacy said. “Don't think it's a coincidence that your magic unbinds the day after you meet him. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts, it's not.”

“C'mon, guys,” Peach said, making it obvious who the peacekeeper was in this group. “Desmond doesn't do that stuff anymore. He was under the influence of the potions at the time, too. Stacy cured him, and he's been … you know, okay. He's doing landscaping work for Nick this summer, and we haven't had any trouble with him all year. It might be time to give the guy a second chance.”

Liv seemed to take this under consideration, and Addie gave a grudging shrug, but Stacy was having none of it.

“Do whatever you want,” she said. “Just don't come crying to me when magic bites you in the ass. Again.”