The Demon's Covenant

I’d do something and I’d just freeze. I was so terrified. I thought there was nobody but me in all the world who could do magic, and I knew it could hurt someone if I wanted it to. I never, never wanted to hurt anyone. Then when I was fourteen Seb came to our school, and I knew. We can sense magic off each other, because magic to us is like air, it’s like meeting someone who breathes air when everyone else around you breathes water. I was so happy. And he was just awful to me, from day one. I hated him. He was such a jerk. Then there were all these other magicians, and it seemed like they all wanted to kill me, so that was actually a step down from Seb. After that there was Gerald, and he showed me that I could do amazing things. He said that I was really good and it’s the only thing I’ve ever been good at, and even Seb joined them and started hassling me about—about doing magic, being a magician, dropping the helpless act. Gerald said that if normal people found out, they’d hate us.”

“I don’t hate you,” Mae said. “I love you.”

“I know you do,” Jamie told her, eyes pleading. “But you didn’t love Seb. And I remembered how scared I used to be that you’d find out. I couldn’t tell you. I had no right.”

Mae let out a short, sharp breath and went to the sofa where Jamie sat. She’d thought she was being so clever, watching Seb in case he suspected something. He’d known everything from the start.

So much for having a normal boyfriend.

“Did you know Seb was a magician?” Mae asked Nick Monday at lunchtime.

Nick looked up. “No,” he said in a level voice. “And he can’t be much good, or I would have.”

“He’s not,” Jamie muttered. “I’m a lot better.”

He didn’t sound proud. He sounded as if it worried him.

Seb wasn’t at school. It was kind of worrying Mae.

He’d lied to her and maybe even laughed at her behind her back, but she’d heard him on the phone with his “foster parents,” obviously the Obsidian Circle, begging not to be sent away. She kept remembering Jamie’s pinched white face, talking about being a magician.

Jamie had her. Seb didn’t have anybody.

The way he’d sounded on the phone, maybe he felt like he had no other choice. Except that was stupid. There was always another choice.

If he’d told the Obsidian Circle that he had let slip what he was, he could be in trouble.

Seb wasn’t in school the next day, either.

She’d noticed him hiding his arms weeks ago. He’d been part of the Obsidian Circle for weeks and come to school every day. Mae was pretty sure he wanted to keep looking normal, to hang out with his friends.

He’d stayed with her out by the bike sheds.

Nick would probably be quite pleased if something terrible was happening to Seb. Jamie hated him. There was nobody who knew what was happening to Seb, and who might possibly care, but her.

Seb had mentioned his new foster family lived on Lennox Street. Mae could just pass by the house.

The magicians had been living only a few streets away from her and Jamie all this time.

Mae found Seb’s car parked in the driveway of a house next to a nursing home; the lawn looked smooth as icing, red tulips waving their heavy, waxy heads from a bright, trim bed. The house was white, three stories with an oriel window on the top floor at the center, flowers in the window, like a set piece in marzipan. A toy house, built to look cheerful and perfect, an idea of home dreamed up by someone who’d never had a home.

There was no sign of movement in any of the windows.

So that was that, Mae told herself. She’d come by. She couldn’t see Seb. She wasn’t going to risk investigating any farther.

That was when a black limousine sailed down the road, and Mae ducked behind the hedge just in time to see it stop in front of the house. Two women emerged from it.

Jessica the messenger, knives swinging in her ears. And Celeste Drake.

They disappeared inside the front door, and Mae headed for the garden gate. There was a rose trellis that scratched her as she went in, a white petal falling onto her shoulder. She brushed it off and was grateful there seemed to be no spells impeding her way; no guard dogs or, since these were magicians, guard zombies.

The back door was actually open, as if to let warm summer air filter into the kitchen, which had wooden countertops and a rosy red-tiled floor. Mae entered it cautiously, ready to bolt at any moment.

She heard Gerald’s voice raised in anger.

“We are doing perfectly well without your help.”

“Are you indeed?” said Celeste. “You live here under the demon’s eye, and I see you haven’t even managed to recruit the really interesting young magician.”

“I hear you had a bit of a run-in with the demon and the interesting young magician yourself,” Gerald remarked, returning to his usual mild tones. “Jamie doesn’t much fancy the Aventurine Circle. And neither do I.”

“I think you may both change your mind,” Celeste said. “And Jamie will be welcomed with open arms. But you and yours, Gerald? When you come crawling to us for help, the terms I offer then will not be nearly as attractive as they are now.”

“I’ll take that chance.”

“I’ll take everything you’ve got,” Celeste murmured.