wasn’t about the sex. Maybe it was just about magic. Using it, having it, letting it use you, immersed and joined by it in ways unimaginable. Power.
Whatever it was, Shame’s body language was that of a starving man using all his strength not to yield to the poisoned feast before him.
I thought about putting my hand on his arm to console him, and decided against it. Shame was keyed up and I didn’t want to get a cheese knife in the throat.
“Zay and him friends?” I asked instead, trying to draw Shame down.
“We all were once.” Saying that seemed to help. He closed his eyes a moment. Maybe he realized he was sitting on the edge of his seat. He relaxed in stages back into his normal slouch and rubbed his gloved hand over his eyes.
“Balls,” he said. “It’s gonna be a long night.”
“Were you and Terric lovers?”
“No.” He sighed behind his gloves. “I’m not gay. But that man. .” He pulled his hand away from his eyes. “Soul Complements. It’s. .” He just shook his head. “Him and me. . and magic? No. It doesn’t-can’t-work.”
“Did you refuse to be tested to see if you and he were Soul Complements because you were afraid you might want sex with him?” Yes, I am tactful that way. And also stupid.
He stared at me for a moment. “It’s good you and I are friends, Beckstrom,” he finally said. “Because I’m willing to ignore that ridiculous nonsense that just fell out of your mouth. It doesn’t have a damn thing to do with sex, okay? There were other reasons, other. . bad things.”
“Like?”
“Like I’m done talking about it. And like I wish Mum had ponied up a bottle or two of wine right about now.”
“I can see why she wouldn’t want to serve alcohol to a roomful of trigger-happy magic users,” I said.
“She doesn’t have to feed it to the magic users. She could just feed it to me.”
“I’ll buy you a beer if you give me a who’s who on the rest of the people here.”
“Done.” He sat and leaned his elbows on the table. “The three women laughing over there? Dark wavy hair, coffee skin, and beautiful matching sets of big, lovely-”
I slapped him on the arm.
“Hey. Eyes. I was going to say eyes. What were you thinking? They’re the Georgia sisters. Life magic. The blonde next to them, about Mum’s age in the biker jacket who looks like she can wrestle an alligator? Darla. Death magic.”
He shifted in his seat a little. “The Russian underwear model over there is Nik Pavloski, and the family man next to him is a sweet-hearted killer named Joshua Romero. Faith magic-that means they’re both Closers. At the table near the wall is the ass wipe, Barham. Life magic, and the woman sitting next to him who looks like she hates him-petite, pale, black hair with a red streak, and a knockout scowl-Paige Iwamoto. She’s Blood magic. Stab him, baby-you know he deserves it.” Shame licked his lips and stared at Paige, as if he could will her to wield the cheese knife.
“Shame,” I said.
He looked away from Paige and Mike, giving the room a subtle glance while he reached for a piece of bread. He would make a good spy.
“You know the rest of the people in the room, I think.”
I looked around, the remaining people standing and sitting at the other tables: Kevin Cooper, Violet’s bodyguard; Sunny, whose demeanor was the exact opposite of her name; Ethan Katz, who was my dad’s and now my accountant; the twins Carl and La, whom I’d seen briefly at my test; the ex-quarterback-looking dude whom I’d also seen briefly at my test; and a few other suits-two women and a man-board members from Beckstrom Enterprises I’d met over the last couple weeks. The rest of the people I’d seen off and on at Maeve’s, but hadn’t been officially introduced to.
“Pretty much,” I said.
“You’re welcome,” he said. “Now, about that beer.”
“If I could please have your attention.”
I glanced at the front of the room. Victor, trim and gray-haired, stood behind the long table, an open laptop in front of him. His suit jacket hung on the back of the chair, along with his tie, and his shirtsleeves were rolled up to the elbow. Even from this distance, I could see that his eyes were bloodshot. He looked like he’d just been through the longest meeting of his life, and been elected to stand up and give everyone the bad news.
Maeve, looking more composed and refreshed than Victor, sat to his left. Next to her was Liddy Salberg, a quiet, mousy woman, who took plain to the extreme. I’d first seen her at my dad’s burial. She’d also been at my test, and she’d since been my teacher in Death magic. I never seemed to get a good read off her body language. That mousy exterior hid something else-I was sure of it-though I’d never seen her be anything but polite and professional.
Still, I got the impression that she didn’t like me, or that I made her nervous.
At her left was Sedra, the head of the Authority in Portland. Always cool, always portrait-perfect, her unchanging expression and porcelain complexion made her look like she was carved out of marble. Only her blue eyes gave her a hint of life. Her bodyguard, Dane Lannister, stood behind her, looking how he always looked: relaxed and deadly. There was something about him that made me pause, like a bad taste in my mouth, but try as I might, I couldn’t think of what it was about him that bothered me.
Instead, I wondered who usually filled the empty seat next to Sedra, wondered if perhaps it had been my father.
Interestingly, Jingo Jingo, who usually made himself a part of any gathering, was nowhere to be seen.
Weird.
“Please be seated, so we may begin,” Victor said.
Everyone made their way to seats, filling the tables ahead of us, and behind us.
“Please, please, please,” Shame whispered so quietly, I wasn’t sure if he said it or I imagined he did.
Zay and Terric walked toward us, a study in opposites, and yet both powerful, calm, confident. Terric angled to take the seat next to Paige. Zay sat next to me, shifting his chair so he could better see the front of the room.
“Exhale before your head explodes,” Zay said quietly. “He’s not coming to the table.”
Shame exhaled.
Victor began speaking. “As many of you have heard, we have an unprecedented warning that a wild-magic storm will be hitting the Portland area soon. We think it will strike within the next forty-eight hours. That gives us some time to coordinate our efforts and work together against this threat.”
He paused, taking the time to make some eye contact. I’d seen my dad do that when he was facing a hostile audience. While Victor did that, I glanced at the body language within my range of sight.
Tight. Pensive. Maybe not explosive but damn close. Pretty much the same as when I’d walked in.
I’d already figured that these people were secretive and suspicious. But until this moment, I hadn’t realized that these people barely tolerated one another.
Neat.
That brewing war? I’d put my bet on the table that it was done brewing. All it needed now was a spark to set it off.
My stomach clenched as I realized the war might already be on, and lines might already be drawn as to who should use magic, and how it should be used. And I had no idea who wanted what, nor whose side I was on.
I reached back in my head to see if Dad had something to say about all this, but he had been quiet as a corpse-ha, not funny-ever since I walked through that door.
I had the feeling he didn’t much want to give Liddy or Jingo Jingo or anyone else an excuse to go digging around in my head looking for him.
Victor was done with the eye-contact pause.
“Our largest concern for the citizens of the area is that the wild magic will interrupt, or warp, the spells already in place in the city. We’ve compiled a detailed list of businesses and services that we will monitor and protect, and prioritized them from the most vital to the least, and divided that by the quadrants of the city. Since St. Johns has no conduits for magic, we’ll just need to cover four of the five quadrants.”
