“What was that for?” he asked, very soft.
Alan answered him, his arms folded and his gaze on Gerald.
“It was a demonstration,” he observed. “The spell on Jamie is a protection spell. It means no magical attack can touch him.”
Nick turned and looked at Jamie, face unreadable.
“It’s strong,” he tossed over his shoulder at Gerald. “Where did you get power like that?”
Jamie was staring at Gerald, looking helpless and lost. Gerald gazed steadily back at him. His face was open and almost sweet. He looked like someone you could trust.
Nick’s motives for helping Jamie had been seriously called into question. Jamie thought Mae had betrayed him. And then on this day of all days, someone had come through for him, and it had to be a magician.
“You don’t need to know that,” Gerald answered. “All you need to know is that I have enough power to take care of my own. And I will. Always.” He nodded at Jamie. “Next time I’ll come alone. I hope you will too.”
Jamie nodded once. It was a nervous movement, and might even have been involuntary. He might not have meant it.
He might have, though.
“Ben, Laura,” said Gerald, and they turned with him as he moved to go. He passed Nick by without a glance, as if he couldn’t see him at all.
Then he stopped, his magicians flanking him, at the mouth of the alley.
“When you’re ready to talk to me, Alan,” he called out, “let me know. I can help you.”
5
Getting the Wrong Answers
That’s settled, then,” Alan said once the magicians were gone. “We turn them in to Celeste Drake tomorrow.”
“What will she do to them?” Jamie asked in a small voice.
Alan did not answer him directly, which was answer enough. “I gave him a chance to leave.”
“No, you threatened him!”
“What do you want, then?” Nick demanded abruptly. “You want to be a magician? You want them to stick around in Exeter, maybe end up killing someone you know? Hey, how about your sister?”
Jamie glared at Nick. “Of course not. I just wish that there was some way besides murder or threats, or—I wish there was some kind of box I could check marked ‘none of the above,’ that’s all! You saw what happened when Laura cast that spell. You know Gerald’s trying to protect me.”
“And now he has a hold over you,” Alan said. “You’re grateful to him. You don’t think he wasn’t counting on that?”
Jamie hesitated. “It was a lot of trouble to go to, just so I’d be grateful.”
“Yes,” Alan agreed simply. “A lot of trouble. He must have killed several people to get that kind of power. And he could break it any time.”
“I could break it now,” Nick offered. Jamie turned and stared at him, and the corner of Nick’s mouth turned up slightly. “But I won’t.”
Jamie smiled back, a little hesitantly.
Nick crossed the distance between him and Jamie before Mae could move, and pulled a knife on him.
“Why bother?” he asked Jamie lazily. He touched the skin of Jamie’s throat lightly with the blade. “The spell will only protect you from magic. Gerald’s not protecting you, he’s protecting his recruit. Any other Circle tries to recruit you by magic, they won’t be able to. Anyone needs to kill you …” He tossed the knife up into the air and caught it, playful and casual as a man flipping a coin. “It would be
Mae grabbed Nick’s arm and he whirled on her, then caught himself and stood looking down at her with his pulse thudding against her palm and the knife still in his hand.
She lifted her chin. “Oh, put that away.”
Nick put it away. “Just making a point.”
“Yes, I took your point,” Jamie muttered. “Right up against my throat.”
Mae looked away from Nick and walked quickly toward the wall, scrambling over it and trying so hard to make the climb look easy that she skinned her elbow as she did so. She pretended it didn’t sting.
Nick did not try to help Alan over the wall this time around. He stood with his hands clenched into fists in his pockets as they all waited for Alan to get over on his own.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt you,” he told Jamie suddenly.
Mae reached out and touched Nick’s shoulder. Her hand brushed muscle, braced and tense under her palm, for a moment. Then he shied away from her and glared.
She smiled as if this reaction was perfectly normal. “Sometimes when you pull knives on people, they get this impression that you’re going to hurt them, and then they’re completely terrified. Crazy, I know!”
“Okay,” said Nick. He turned to Jamie and popped his left wrist sheath again. “Look.”
Jamie backed up. “Which part of ‘completely terrified’ did you translate as ‘show us your knives, Nick’? Don’t show me your knives, Nick. I have no interest in your knives.”
