This was the second time I’d ever seen the man. The Overseer position of the Authority used to mean making the hard calls for all members of the Authority in the world, dealing with reports from the regional Watch and Ward, who in turn took reports and complaints from those of us on the street, as it were.
The Overseer position changed hands and countries every four years. He had taken it on right after we’d snipped magic’s nads. It had been a chaotic time, an uncomfortable coming-out between the secret organization of magic users and the rest of the world.
A few people had been thrown in jail, still more were up on trial, but the world hadn’t gone to war or followed through with those witch-hunt rallies that were all the rage for the first couple years.
Well, not officially.
And the Overseer had handled the entire mess pretty well. We’d held up our side of the bargain too, or at least Terric had. And since Portland was one of the only cities in the world that had five wells of magic beneath it, that meant we had more than our share of crazies, cover-ups, and other dangerous meltdowns to handle.
“Thank you all for coming here, especially those of you from other areas of the United States,” he began.
What? Reassess the room, Flynn.
Local faces, local faces. Ah, there. Three sets of couples I hadn’t noticed before because they were sitting at a table and the standing crowd obscured them. I didn’t recognize the twentysomething guy with the cougar fortysomething woman, nor the milk-skinned yuppie man and woman who were both squarely in their thirties. I did, however, recognize the elderly man and woman.
Doug and Nancy Williams. They were legends when I was a kid, and old then. They had to be pushing their nineties. Seeing two old magic users wasn’t all that unusual. The unusual thing was that they were Soul Complements, the oldest known to be living, even though they hadn’t found each other until they were in their sixties.
My mum and all my other teachers in the ways of magic made a point of telling us, constantly, that Soul Complements didn’t last. Soul Complements burned out, were killed, went crazy, or simply croaked from magical ailments.
No happy endings for those of us who can use magic together stronger than anyone else.
Not even a happy middle.
But every breath old Doug and Nancy took was one more whack with the cane to that shack of lies. Happy endings for Soul Complements, which included growing old and gray together without killing each other like me and Terric, or losing yourself in the other person’s mind and personality like Allie and Zay, might just be possible.
Or, you know, Doug and Nancy could be a complete fluke.
I wasn’t the only one staring at the couples at the table. Everyone else in the room realized there were an awful lot of Soul Complements gathered in one place. To be specific, there were five sets. The three couples at the table, lovebirds Allie and Zay, and though it made me barf in my mouth a little, Terric and me.
Which meant I got a few stares too. Mostly followed by disgust.
Ain’t that just special?
“Shame,” Zay said quietly.
I looked over at him. He nodded toward the stage.
“...of quite a serious nature,” the Overseer was saying. “We all know that three years ago, magic was healed: dark and light magic rejoined. We didn’t realize just how mild magic would become due to that rejoining. I believe we, and most of the world, have done an admirable job coping with that loss of magic, and the changes it has brought about.
“Soul Complements are in a unique position. When they work magic together, they are able to briefly break magic into its dark and light states, and cast it once again with the full force and effect it once offered.”
Not news. Not even worth rehashing. There’d been a hustle back in the early-postapocalypse days to try to find more Soul Complements. To seek the poor suckers out and shove this happy screwed-if-you-do, screwed-if- you-don’t life down their craws.
Hadn’t worked. One, the system for judging if when two people use magic together they are so in sync they can break it used to involve several dozen experienced magic users and a fine manipulation of magic for both the testees and the testers. With the dulling of magic, that system was simply not viable anymore.
Two, there are a lot of people in this old world. And since everyone can use magic if they want to, tracking down perfect matches was damn near impossible and turned out to be a waste of time, what with all the magic haters out there.
We’d given up, and done our best to keep the whole Soul Complement situation on the down-low.
“We have recent proof that high-ranking government officials in major countries are now aware of Soul Complements and what they can do with magic. They know there aren’t many Soul Complements in the world, but we believe they have their names and information. They know that Soul Complements can break magic.”
Huh. Maybe the redheaded assassin was government issue. Still didn’t explain why she hadn’t shot us.
“We believe governments are screening magic users and setting up protocol to search for Soul Complements.”
“For real?” I asked. “Why do they give a damn?”
Shut-up glares zinged my way from all corners.
I didn’t care. Life was a lot more fun now that magic couldn’t do the bigger “shut up, Shame” spells I’d been dealt in the past.
The Overseer didn’t seem overly bothered by the question. “We believe, Mr. Flynn, that they intend to use Soul Complements to break magic and use magic either as a resource, or a weapon. They are certainly more interested in finding Soul Complements than makes me comfortable.”
“Right, sure,” I said. “Who wouldn’t want to get their hands on the only people who can use magic to kill, destroy, and yada-yada ultimate destruction. What do you think we can do about it? Go on strike? Sign a petition?”
I wasn’t going to lie. I had a bad feeling of exactly what he wanted us to do about it. Probably something heroic like band together and take down the government forces that wanted to use magic for less than savory reasons.
And while some people, like Zay and Allie and Terric, would probably line up like good little soldiers and do just what was expected of them, I wasn’t good at doing what I was told.
Ever.
“That is why I am here,” he intoned. Yes, intoned.
“We believe you are each in grave danger and may, even now, be targeted. Our intelligence suggests government forces want you alive. But we cannot be one hundred percent sure of that.
“This meeting is both a warning and an offer of assistance. If you want to go into hiding, we in the Authority can make that happen. If you want security guards, we can provide that too. But it is of the highest importance you understand you are in terrible danger before you make the decision of how you want to go forward.”
I wondered how the other Soul Comps were taking the news of their sudden popularity.
They looked startled. Even old Doug and Nancy had gone a whiter shade of white. I’d say they were going to run. All of them. They were going to hide.
Good on them.
Then I glanced at Allie and Zay. They were staring straight ahead at Moretti with that odd blank look Zay had once told me meant they were speaking to each other silently.
Creeped me the hell out that they could do it, but I had to admit it would be useful.
They were also holding hands, fingers slipped one between the next, pale, dark, pale. I didn’t expect them to run. Hide? Maybe.
No way the old Zavyion would have run, but now that Allie was in his life, he was all about safer decisions. Being responsible.
And boring.
Allie, though . . . there was something about her. She had that tough-as-nails but fragile-as-glass thing going on. I’d seen her handle some really crappy situations, most of them while her life was on the line.
So death threats weren’t anything she hadn’t heard before. She knew how to deal with death. Dying did not
