“I don’t know what it is. It is a mass of magic and a lot of anxiety.”

“Well, okay. Let’s walk it off, shall we?” Reagan jerked her head for me to walk with her.

I fell in step. “Am I going to get in trouble?”

“Where are you taking her, wannabe?” John stepped forward with a pale face and a jerky sort of swagger. “Because she had no choice but to kill the vamp. That thing shouldn’t have been allowed in the Brink. None of ’em should be. I should phone Roger.”

Reagan laughed. “Like you know Roger, sure.”

I’d heard Roger’s name a few times. He was clearly someone powerful.

“John, leave it be. Reagan doesn’t mean Penny any harm,” Callie called out, starting forward.

“Everyone knows she’s the lap dog of these vamps.” John tilted his chin up. “What’s to say she isn’t just separating Penny from the group so they can get their revenge?”

“That’s not what Reagan is doing.” Callie pulled off the helmet and stopped in our makeshift circle. “The newbie vampire succumbed to bloodlust, and Darius was rushing in to stop it. Too late, I might add. He put Penny in grave danger. Not to mention all of you.”

“I could’ve handled it,” John said with obviously false bravado. His trembling voice gave him away.

“The newbie, sure.” Callie fluffed her hair. “The elder? Not even remotely. Just do yourself a favor and thank Penny and Reagan for your lives.”

“Not me,” Reagan said. “The job was done by the time I showed up. Figuratively speaking, obviously. Bottom line, it’s all over, the practice is done, and only a few very perplexing questions remain.”

“You didn’t create the…” Callie stared hard at Reagan.

“That perfectly executed invisible wall that shouldn’t be possible for an ordinary mage’s magic, regardless of whether they’re a natural?” Reagan grabbed my sleeve. “No, I did not.” She went to start forward, but John didn’t move, staring down at her with an obstinate expression.

She smiled, showing even, white teeth, a terrible sign. The small hairs stood up along my arms.

“I didn’t finish that question for a reason,” Callie said into the stare-off, completely oblivious to the danger that was brewing. There it was again—the unspoken thing between Reagan and the Bankses.

“Like these hacks will get the relevance,” Reagan replied in a bored voice, another terrible sign. “John, do you plan to move?”

“No. You need to—”

Faster than thought, she reached out and shoved him to the side. The angle was awkward, and while John was thin, almost skinny, he was tall and had to be somewhat heavy.

None of that mattered.

His body flew. Not expecting the shove, or the incredible strength clearly behind it, he didn’t react fast enough. He hit the floor on his arm and thigh and slid five feet.

Reagan gave all the other mages a fierce gaze, and the rest of the small hairs on my body joined the ones on my arms. “Anyone else want to try and throw their weight around? Attempt to prove that power and stupidity somehow trumps my ability to kick your ass?”

Laughter bubbled up my middle and a smile spread across my face, all completely unintentional, because I was scared on their behalf. She wasn’t kidding—she could definitely kick their asses without her magic, and their power didn’t trump hers on her worst day. I didn’t understand her magic, but I knew she was packing an awful lot of it.

Intelligently, the rest of the mages shook their heads and backed up in frightened, jerky movements.

“John, we should’ve warned you about her temper,” Dizzy said, still in his helmet, as Reagan motioned me forward. “She’s not one for talking things out.”

“How could you talk things out with that numbskull?” Reagan said. “Honestly, why would they want to set you up with him?”

“What questions do you have?” I finally asked as we left the warehouse. The night was windy yet quiet, peaceful compared to the last half-hour.

“Well, for one…” She held the door for a moment, glancing back. Darius stood next to the dead vampire’s body, his gaze holding hers for a moment. After she closed the door, she asked, “First question: how did you make the air condense into a wall?”

I thought back, trying to remember my head space before it happened. All I could properly recall, though, was blind panic. “I’m not sure.”

“Two, how did you make that wall suddenly come alive and squeeze the vamp’s body to death?”

I grimaced. That had been seriously gross. I definitely blamed Darius for making me do it. Which fit, because I kind of blamed Darius for everything horrible I’d done since meeting him. It was easy, particularly since he usually owned the questionable achievements with pride.

“I’m not really sure,” I said.

“And three, what did you do to keep the vampire from healing? The head is still attached and the heart appears to be intact, but he’s definitely dead.”

“Oh. Huh. Is that how you kill a vampire? An old-fashioned staking or beheading?”

“I can see you have no idea how you did the third one. That’ll make Darius relieved, wary, and extremely nervous.” She nodded with a smile. “Want to be my best friend?”

“No,” I said without meaning to.

She nudged me with her shoulder. “You’ll change your mind. I’m really fun.”

“No,” I repeated, my politeness filter missing in action.

She laughed, and I was glad her feelings were almost impossible to hurt.

“We have a lot to unpack from this one failed practice session,” she said, leading me to Darius’s car and leaning back against it.

I swallowed. Yes, we did. And when in doubt, shove it onto the ignore list and carry on with your day. “Can’t I go back to working with Callie and Dizzy?”

“Not on your life. You’re a special sort of mage, and we need to figure out a special sort of training. Well…Darius does. It sounds like the Rogue Natural would’ve been your best bet, but he’s gone off-grid again.” She shook her head. “That Rogue Natural is wily. Anyone that can hide from Darius should get a medal. I want to meet him.”

“Great,” I said dryly. Would no one let it go?

“Anyway, I’m way out of my league with you. And a little weirded out, to be honest. It felt like we were connected for a moment. Like Darius and me, but without certain…intimate aspects.”

“Ew.” My filter was still on hiatus.

“No, I think tomorrow your training will go in an entirely new direction.”

“Which direction is that?”

“From what I know of Darius? The one you’re least expecting.”

8

The next evening, I stared down at the little cream card pinched between my dirt-stained fingers. A loud bang issued from Dizzy’s rebuilt shed a few feet away. The new shed had been extremely expensive because he’d insisted on using reclaimed wood so it would look old and decrepit. To get him out of her clean house, Callie hadn’t even batted an eye at the cost.

I brought up the envelope, which looked fancy enough to hold a wedding invitation. White chalk had transferred from my hand to the clean paper.

A little table stood in front of me, round and of a similar appearance to Dizzy’s shed. Just under the lip of the tabletop was a small drawer with a key sticking out of a keyhole.

I’d walked this way ten minutes ago. The table and the note had appeared out of nowhere.

Confused, I looked around the closed-off yard, the high wooden fence cutting off the views of the neighbors. Tree branches waved in the breeze and plants swayed. The two-person swing on the back porch drifted lazily from side to side. Nothing else moved.

“Reagan—I mean, Penny, did you get the flower for the spell?” Dizzy poked his head out of the shed. “Oh. What have you got there?”

I held up the card and envelope for his inspection, then looked down at the little table, directly on the route Dizzy always used to get to the house through the flowerbed. It had been placed in that location on purpose. The person (vampire?) who’d left it clearly knew Dizzy’s habits, and wanted him to find it quickly.