Emerald Blaze
Connor Rogan regarded us with his blue eyes.
Nobody spoke.
Silence stretched.
Connor looked at Nevada and pointed to the toolbox, still suspended in midair.
Nevada straightened. “Hi, honey. You know how we were worried about our son not having magic? Good news, we don’t have to worry anymore.”
The whole family piled into the kitchen, except for Leon and Alessandro, who joined Patricia and the security team to sweep the grounds. She’d asked for Leon, and Alessandro volunteered. Regina came in to examine the spider, and the metal and electronic wreckage now lay on the table, under the bright light. Bern sat opposite her, engrossed in his laptop and the plethora of security cameras and sensor readings. Connor had levitated three padded chairs out of the great room. Nevada took one, Grandma Frida the other, and the third stayed empty, because Mom couldn’t sit still and kept making circles around the island. I couldn’t sit still either.
Arabella brought two pairs of Nike shorts for Runa and me.
“Clearly, I’m the only one around here who cares about modesty.”
That was too much. “You wear shorts with half of your butt hanging out.”
Arabella wrinkled her nose. “The operative word here is shorts. You two don’t have any. Don’t blame me for being emotionally compromised. Hussies.”
“Oh grow up.” Grandma Frida raised her head from her puke bucket. Runa had purged the poison by breaking it down and the byproducts induced nausea.
“Why don’t you lie down?” Mom said.
Grandma Frida retched and gave Mom the evil eye. “I don’t want to lie down. I want to be where the action is.”
Mom’s left eye twitched. She slapped her hand over it.
I leaned to look over Bern’s shoulder at the table. Across from us Regina peered at the mechanical spider leg, the only recognizable remnant of the spider.
“Anything?” I asked.
Regina plucked the leg from the table and held it up between her thumb and forefinger. “It could be a construct made by an animator. It could be made by a metallofactor. A Hephaestus mage. Or a technomancer.”
“Do you think this might be the thing you felt earlier?”
“I don’t know. The smashing makes things difficult.”
“I am sorry,” Nevada called out. “I was emotionally compromised.”
Connor kneaded her back and shoulders. “Your smashing was fantastic.”
“How does that work anyway?” Arabella asked. “Are you borrowing the baby’s powers? Like, is this normal?”
“Yes. I think. It happens if I am really upset.” Nevada spread her arms. “I don’t know if it’s normal. It’s my first time being pregnant with a telekinetic.”
“It’s called prenatal transference,” Connor said. “It means the child is a very powerful Prime.”
Nevada turned to him. “Are you sure?”
Connor looked smug. “I’m sure. Ask my mother.”
“Will it go away after she gives birth?” Mom asked.
“Yes,” Connor said.
Grandma Frida winked at them. “I hate to see what his first temper tantrum will be like.” She cackled and broke into coughs.
Nevada gave Connor a slightly freaked-out look.
“It will be fine.” He rubbed her back. “My power stopped spiking after I was born, and I didn’t really manifest that strong again until I was about five.”
I looked back to Regina. “So there is nothing at all you can tell us?”
“It’s dead.” Regina knocked the metal leg on the table. “I don’t understand how it got past Cinder.”
Runa raised her hand. “Question. How many of you knew that Bern and I are dating?”
“Dating?” Arabella raised her eyebrows.
“If you could raise your hands,” Runa said.
Everyone raised their hands.
Runa looked around, her face stunned. “How? I was so careful . . .”
Connor smiled at her. “They’re private investigators.”
“Oh.” She looked around again. “How long have you known?”
“Since the beginning,” Arabella told her.
Runa heaved a sigh.
I had to fix this before she came to the wrong conclusion. “Bern didn’t tell us.”
Arabella nodded. “We’re just nosy.”
Nevada shrugged. “I asked him.”
“What did he say?” Runa asked.
Nevada grinned. “He lied.”
Mom laughed. Bern shrugged his massive shoulders.
The front door clanged open. Cinder ran into the room, jumped on the table, and spat out the mangled corpse of a metal spider. Regina raised her hand and magic poured out of her fingers. The battered metal construct floated off the table and turned slowly.
“Nice,” Regina murmured. “To answer your question, yes, this is what I felt before. They rode in on Rhino.”
Alessandro walked into the kitchen, followed by Leon and Patricia. He made a beeline for me.
“None of the perimeter sensors were tripped,” Patricia reported.
“It’s well-made,” Regina said. “A sophisticated design, refined. The level of teaching is quite high.”
“Cheryl?” I asked.
“Mhm. I had a look at some of her designs after our chat. This is a modified miniature version of Climber VII.”
“A fail-safe,” Alessandro said.
I turned to him.
“Arkan’s people failed to frame Leon for murder, then the telekinetic couldn’t kill you in the swamp. You keep surviving and asking uncomfortable questions. Cheryl is losing confidence in Arkan’s ability to neutralize you, so she added a fail-safe in case the illusion mage didn’t succeed.”
Arabella frowned. “If these creepy nasties got into our car while we were at Stephen’s, why didn’t they sting us on the way home?”
“You weren’t the target,” Nevada said, her face grim. “They wanted Catalina, but she didn’t make it back to the car, so they rode here, sensed Regina, and took off.”
“Why did Grandma get stung then?” Arabella asked.
“Probably self-defense,” Connor said. “They are likely programmed to hide among machinery and Grandma Frida banged on it with a wrench.”
“It’s a stupid plan,” Leon said. “First, it points straight to Cheryl.”
“She isn’t thinking clearly,” I told him.
“Second, if Catalina died in the middle of this, there would be hell to pay. We would declare a feud on House Castellano.”
“So would House Rogan,” Connor said.
“Yes.” Leon nodded. “House Montgomery would go to war with her. Linus Duncan would go to war with her.”
“And the National Assembly would lose its shit if Catalina died,” Runa finished. “Considering Catalina is a Depu . . .” She slapped her hand over her mouth.
Oh no.
Nevada leaned forward, zeroing in on me. “Catalina, why would the National Assembly lose its shit?”
Connor’s face shut down. “I’m going to kill him.”
“That would be rather difficult.” Alessandro’s voice was cold. His expression turned calculating. A dangerous darkness filled his eyes, and deep within his irises, magic smoldered, waiting to burst into an inferno. The Artisan was back.
An imperceptible shift occurred within the room. My family realized there was a predator in their midst and they rapidly recalibrated to meet the new threat.
“And why is that?” Connor’s voice held no emotion.
“Because he’s Linus Duncan. Furthermore, if you attack the Warden, his Deputy will defend him to her death, and I’m sworn to protect her.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Leon demanded. “Can we all just take it down a notch or two, because I really don’t want to shoot anybody right now.”
Patricia stared at me. “You are the Deputy Warden of Texas.” It wasn’t a question.
I landed into the padded seat and looked at Runa.
“I’m sorry!” She waved her arms. “I’m emotionally compromised!”
“I swear, I will shoot the next person who says that,” Leon growled.
“You can’t shoot her,” Arabella told him. “She’s your brother’s girlfriend.”
“Everyone, shut up,” Mom barked in her sergeant voice.
The kitchen went silent as a tomb.
She turned to me. “Explain.”
“Linus is the Warden of Texas, I’m his Deputy, we investigate magical threats to humanity on behalf of the National Assembly, and we can’t talk about it, or the National Assembly will nuke us from orbit.”
“What was he thinking?” Connor bit off the words with controlled fury. “Warden mortality is seventy-five percent within the first ten years. I turned him down. Why did you accept?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“How long have you been doing it?” Connor asked.
“Six months. There’s no need to be so dramatic. I’m alive, I’m good at my job, and one day I will be the Warden of Texas.”
“Can you quit?” Grandma Frida asked.
“No. Also, I don’t want to quit.”