forget anything they wanted you to forget-like a secret you shouldn’t have heard or maybe how to use magic. They could Close away your desire to stay in the city. Take away your life, and give you a new one if they decided the situation warranted it.
Kill you, if you got in their way.
I glanced at Zay. He was drinking his Coke and trying hard not to look over at Love’s partner, Payne, who sat in the booth across the room. She was staring at him.
She caught my gaze and gave me a considering look, her mouth pressed together in a thin line. I wondered how, exactly, she and Zayvion knew each other. I remember Mackanie Love being there when Frank Gordon had dug up my father’s body and tried to kill me. Zay had been there too. So it was possible that their only connection was Zay being a witness to that crime. But if I remembered right, Love and Payne had been looking for Zay prior to that.
Interesting.
I stretched my foot under the table and rested it against the side of Zay’s tennis shoe.
The contact let me concentrate on his emotional state: tense, which was not at all what I’d have guessed from his body language, with a side order of worry and dread.
He must have sensed my curiosity because he gave me a sideways look and sat up, pulling his foot away from mine.
Like that would stop me from finding out why he was all worked up over Payne.
Even though it had taken only a couple seconds, I’d sort of lost track of the conversation Love and Shame were having. I had a hard time listening in to Zayvion’s emotions and listening to the real world at the same time.
I tuned back in just in time to hear Love say, “. . lunch. Later, Tita.”
“Bye,” I said, wondering if I’d just made a lunch date with him.
Love rambled over to Payne. She stopped staring at Zayvion and stared at her menu instead.
“You don’t like the police, do you?” I asked Shame.
Shame flicked up a couple fingers in a dismissive motion. “They do good work. I just like them better when that work has nothing to do with me.”
“Juvie?” I asked.
“It happens.”
“Would have thought your mom had some pull to keep you out of there.”
“She did,” Zayvion said. “So did his dad.”
Shame looked up at me. He didn’t grin, but there was a sparkle in his eye. “They let me sweat it out for a week. Said it’d help me rethink my priorities.”
“Did it?”
“Yes. I decided my first priority was not getting caught.”
“You are a man of questionable morals, Shamus Flynn,” I said.
“You have no idea. Well, then.” He stood, stuck one hand in his jean pockets, and brushed hair out of his eyes with the other. “Thanks for lunch. I have to run. See you soon.”
I had a mouthful of fries. Zay was finishing his too. I held up my hand to tell Shame to stop, but he spun and was across the room, weaving between a noisy crowd of college kids pouring into the place. He was out the door before I could call his name.
The waitress saw my hand and came over with our ticket. Zay reached for it, but I got it before him. “You cover next time.”
“How about we just make Shame pay for a month?” he said.
“Does he ever pay for anything?”
Zay finished off his Coke. “Nope. That’s one of his special talents.”
I pulled out the cash, left it and the ticket propped next to the condiment basket. I stood. “Ready?”
For a second, just the briefest of moments, a wave of dizziness hit me. The entire building felt like it shuddered, like a liquid earthquake rumbled far beneath my feet, and echoed up my body and rolled through my head.
“Allie?”
I rubbed at my temple and the sudden headache. “Headache.” But it couldn’t be from magic use.
The last time I’d used magic was two weeks ago. A Hounding job that had nothing to do with the police or Detective Stotts. I had tracked back a spell for a lady in my building to make sure no one was putting Attraction on her car. Turned out no one was. The parking tickets and the speeding and seat belt violations were all nonmagical and all her.
Maybe this was just a regular headache? Regular people did get regular headaches. I was regular people too.
Zay put his hand on my arm and I walked with him out the door. The headache hung on despite the cool air. By the time we were halfway across the parking lot, the pain was less, and I felt stable on my feet. Normal.
Zay’s hand was still on my arm. I didn’t have to concentrate to feel his concern.
“I’m okay,” I said. “Just a little dizzy. It’s gone.”
He didn’t let go of me until we were next to his car, which he unlocked. “Maybe you should stop wearing the void stone.”
I hadn’t thought of that. “Can it make me dizzy? Give me headaches?”
He shrugged. “No one holds magic in their body like you do. It’s hard to know what the long-term effects are.” He paused, looked at me over the top of the car. Probably saw my panic as I scrambled to get the necklace off.
“It won’t bite,” he said.
“Right.” Visions of the stone sucking magic out of me like a leech filled my mind. “Nothing about you secret magic users or your secret magic toys is dangerous.”
I tugged the length of leather off over my head and held it out in front of me like I had a snake by the head. The void stone swung in the breeze, a dark heart wrapped in copper and silver wire like fire and moonlight, glass beads flashing like stars.
Zay grinned. “Want me to tie it in a knot or kill it and put it in the trunk?”
“Shut up.” I ducked into the car and plunked the thing down into the empty cup holder.
Magic stirred in me, a tingling warmth that grew hot, flushing across my skin, then sinking back down, warming my bones and filling me. It moved within me with promise, with desire. I closed my eyes, wanting to lose myself to it. Wanting to use magic in every way I could.
But that would be bad. I had enough magic inside me, I could burn down a city.
And I didn’t want to do that. I liked the city.
I took a deep breath and worked on letting the magic move through me without me touching it.
Several minutes had passed. Zay had already started the engine and was heading toward Maeve’s through traffic that was starting to thicken up for pre-rush hour. It was still light out, and a misty rain ticked against the windshield and roof. Other than the rub of the windshield wipers and the hum of the engine, it was quiet in the car.
I knew Zay could Ground me to help me keep the magic at controllable levels and could ease the pain I carried from using magic. But ever since we’d stepped into each other’s minds, we’d tried not to use magic together.
Grounding was extremely difficult and carried twice the pain for the user-in this case, Zay-as other spells did. It was one of the spells I’d never been good at.
No, let me be blunt: I sucked at Grounding. Always had, and it looked like I always would.
Zay could Ground like he was strolling through daisies.
It would be easy to ask him to Ground me, but I had to do this, learn to quiet the magic inside me on my own.
“Hint?” I finally asked.
“You learned it with Victor.”
