Spellcaster

“Only now gettin’ good,” Gage promised. “Now, we have certain beverages of the controlled variety. These are available to those who aren’t driving or trying to fry their brains into oblivion, mostly because I am sincerely hoping not to have to clean up any puke later on. Do these categories apply to you?”

“Yeah. I walked over.” And Mateo didn’t feel the need for oblivion any longer. As crappy as he felt about Verlaine—which was about as bad as it got—he wasn’t running from his problems any longer. He was going to face them.

And tonight, maybe he could do better than that. Because tonight, he and Nadia—

—what, exactly? He wasn’t sure. But if they were facing the ultimate danger tomorrow, that meant Mateo wanted to spend his last night as close to Nadia as he could possibly be.

Can in hand, Mateo wandered onto the porch that faced the sea. A few people were roughhousing down on the sand, but here he was more or less alone. Wind chimes made of blue-green glass sang softly in the breeze.

Somehow this seemed familiar—but he couldn’t quite place the memory. Surely he hadn’t been to Gage’s aunt’s house before; he would have remembered that. But whenever he had visited this place, or another house that reminded him of this, he’d had a good time. Mateo felt warm and relaxed for the first time in way too long.

Even as he settled back into the cushions of the swing, though, he heard a soft voice: “Mateo.”

Nadia looked so beautiful. She wore a soft white dress that outlined every inch of her, and her black hair gleamed in the moonlight. But nothing was as incredible as her eyes as she drank him in. Mateo felt like he could hardly speak. Yet he managed to whisper, “Nadia.”

“Were you waiting for me?”

More than he’d even known. “Yeah. I was.”

Mateo held out one hand, and she took it. As Nadia settled into the swing beside him—her thigh against his, her face so close—he swallowed hard.

Tonight, he thought as she cuddled closer to him. At least we have tonight.

Behind her mask—the illusion of Nadia only Mateo would see, the one that would make him weak—Elizabeth relaxed into his embrace, and she smiled.

21

DOWN ON THE BEACH, A FIRE PIT FLICKERED, AND A FEW people hung around it—singing along with the music, singing all stupid, voices too high and too low and slightly off-key. He could hear the party going on in the house, everywhere around them, and it didn’t matter. Mateo couldn’t take his eyes off Nadia.

She curled next to him on the swing, shivering from the cold. Her white dress was too thin for the October night air, sharpened as it was by the ocean so close. Mateo shrugged off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders; as he did, Nadia smiled up at him shyly.

Déjà vu. That was the name for this feeling—the one that told you how you’d done all this before.

But they had important things to talk about, things he needed to discuss now before he got drunk just from the sight of her. “You got the file I sent with all the magic I saw in town. I don’t know what most of it means—almost any of it—but at least now you have the info. Do you see a—pattern, anything we can use?”

Nadia thought about that for a moment, then smiled. “Can we maybe not worry about that right now?”

This seemed weird to Mateo, but their brief separation had made him want to see her so badly—and maybe he ought to make that clear before they got to anything else—

“You look amazing,” he said. Then he closed his eyes, feeling like he was getting it all wrong. “I mean—I feel weird even thinking about this when Verlaine’s still—”

“Shhhh.” Nadia put one finger over his lips, which was a way hotter move than he would have thought. “It’s okay. Tonight is just for us.”

Mateo stroked one hand through her hair, which was as heavy and soft as he’d dreamed. She closed her eyes like—like it felt good, like even that sent shivers through her, and Mateo’s heart began to pound.

He trailed two fingers along her belly—her skin was warm through the thin cotton of her dress—and slid his hand around her back, bringing Nadia into his embrace. This was so freaking scary, but why? Nadia was the only girl he’d ever really cared about … the only one he’d ever loved. But maybe that didn’t make it easier. Maybe it made it even harder to believe that he could be with her.

But he could believe it. To hell with the curse. To hell with Elizabeth and whatever her plans were. He and Nadia had something Elizabeth couldn’t take away.

Mateo closed his eyes as he leaned closer.

Against his lips, Nadia whispered, “My Steadfast.”

“Your Steadfast. Yours completely,” he answered. “Always.” And then he drew her into the kiss.

Elizabeth kept her eyes open as Mateo kissed her.

A male Steadfast! It violated every magical law, every principle of the Craft. Even the One Beneath himself should have been unable to accomplish such a feat. And yet Nadia Caldani had done this.

There is a strangeness to her power, Elizabeth thought. Nadia was not stronger than Elizabeth, but her talents could be turned to uncanny purpose. Perhaps it was this that had made her so significant in Mateo’s visions of the future. This also was the reason that further steps should be taken to make sure Nadia could not interfere with tomorrow night.

Those steps would be so much easier now that Elizabeth could avail herself of Nadia’s Steadfast.