“Oh yeah.” She grimaced.

Dizzy scratched the wispy gray hair on the top of his head. His red shirt was burned and torn in places, and his pants looked like he’d stolen them from a homeless painter. “Callie likes order and intact doors, you know that.”

“I do. That was my bad.”

“It’s not a strange rule, if you think about it,” Dizzy continued, still studying the door. “Kicked-in doors are very dramatic. You should only do that when the situation calls for it. Like busting in on the bad guys, or breaking and entering.”

“Well…” Reagan gestured at my room at large. “Technically I was breaking and entering. She had a ward up and everything. I didn’t knock or seek permission to enter. I just busted in. So at least that part of things lines up.”

He nodded. “That’s true. Okay, then.” He trudged past.

Reagan grinned at me, delighted with herself.

“Callie won’t be pleased she has to repair my door again,” I said.

The smile drifted off Reagan’s face. Score one for me!

“You have a package downstairs,” she said. “Callie thought you’d want to know.”

A shock of adrenaline coursed through me. I tried to bat it down. “Is it from my mother?”

Her eyes started to sparkle and a little grin wrestled her lips. “Nope. Anonymous. Postmark is from Ethiopia. It was delivered by carrier a half-hour ago.”

My heart hammered against my ribs. I was running before I could attempt any sort of decorum.

Only one person sent packages like that.

4

Callie was at the stove on the other side of the enormous kitchen, tending something in a pan. The fan wafted the smell of bacon through the air, immediately making me salivate.

On the island sat a small box wrapped in plain brown paper and tied with scratchy brown string. Colorful stamps adorned the top and sides, marring the handwritten address.

I let my hands linger on the counter while analyzing the graceful, tightly knit magic coating the surface of the package. I would have recognized Emery’s deft touch anywhere.

I’d received a total of five power stones, nearly one a month since I’d said goodbye to him. He knew how much power stones meant to me, and that I collected them, after a fashion. He also knew where I was staying. He’d not only remembered and was okay with my idiosyncrasies with the power stones (most people laughed when I mentioned that the stones had personalities), but he’d clearly checked up on me to see where I was. The packages never came with a written note—his only signature was his magic, the feel of which only made me miss him more—but at least he hadn’t forgotten about me completely.

“I was wondering—” I started.

“Hey!” Callie half spun to look behind her, her brown eyes wide. She had on a bright orange velvet sweat suit with “Queen Bee” written across the backside. “What did I tell you about sneaking around?”

“She all but sprinted in here.” Reagan filled the archway of the kitchen. “If you weren’t deaf, you would’ve heard her.”

“My hearing is just fine, thank you very much. It’s these accursed fans.” Callie turned back to the stove.

“Humor…longing…” The words spilled out of my mouth as I studied the nature of the spell, but I didn’t want to say the next word out loud. Lonely. He wasn’t happy. I could feel that hidden in the depths of the weave. He wasn’t willing to stay in one place for me, but he missed me, too.

“This is from the Rogue Natural, then?” Reagan asked, sauntering over. “Mr. Impressive Mage the magical world is talking about. He was always on Darius’s radar, but now it seems like everyone is talking about him.” She ran her hand through the air over the package, her way of feeling out the spell.

“Yes.” I chewed my lip and closed my eyes, balancing the magic around me.

“Figures.” Callie huffed. “No one ever remembers the woman that helps the hero take down the enemy.”

“The woman hasn’t been on the run for years, suddenly came back on the grid, then disappeared again. Mysterious is more interesting. Penny has to work on her marketing.” Reagan studied the package, ignoring Callie when the older mage told her to quit talking nonsense. “This spell is…wild. Unruly,” Reagan said, and I opened my eyes to see the smile curling her lips. Her eyes flashed. “It is fantastically complex. He’s got…what, three layers in here? The simplest one is obviously meant to shock any would-be thieves. The others seem…playful. Hmm.” Her brow furrowed. “I don’t even know the root of these spells. He must’ve made them up, which is exactly what I told you to do, Penny.”

She paused, and her eyes took on a keen light as she cursed softly. “See? Darius was playing me. Do you see how sneaky elder vampires are? Well I’m not so stupid as to fall into his plans, willy-nilly.”

“You bonded him, didn’t you?” Callie muttered from the stove.

“That was different,” Reagan said, her hands still over the box. “My blackened heart was involved in that one.” She surveyed me with intense eyes. “The Rogue Natural—”

“Emery.”

“Does he subscribe to your improvisational approach to magic?”

“What’s that?” Callie asked, moving two strips of bacon to a paper-towel-covered plate.

I closed my eyes, feeling the different layers of the spell that Reagan had sussed out. “He was willing to go along with it.”

“But that wasn’t his chosen approach?” Reagan asked.

“What are you girls talking about?” Callie demanded. “Reagan, do you want breakfast?”

“I always want breakfast,” Reagan said, waiting for my answer.

“You’re wanting for some lessons in etiquette,” Callie grumbled.

“His magic was wilder,” I said. “But he usually did follow spells. I was the one that created things out of the blue.”

“Well that was only because you didn’t know any spells.” Callie transferred more bacon before tucking the plate into the oven to keep it warm. She grabbed more bacon from the fridge. It was widely known that Reagan had the appetite of an NFL linebacker. How she didn’t gain any weight was beyond me. “Now that you do, Penny, you’ll be much better equipped.”

Reagan dropped her hands, a troubled look on her eyebrow-less face. “I told you, I don’t think that’s the right way to go. Even if we had all the time in the world, it seems like such a waste to turn her into a drone like everyone else. She’s different. She should celebrate that.”

“Do you think I’m a drone?” Callie half turned.

“Tricky question, that…” Reagan comically grimaced.

Callie huffed. “What’s your point?”

“The marks who are predictable are easy. I can gag ’em and bag ’em in my sleep. It’s the brainy ones that keep me guessing, that are incredibly risky to take down.”

“Penny doesn’t need to keep people guessing. She has power in spades,” Callie said.

“Compared to you.” Reagan held up a finger. “But she is not the most powerful magical creature in the Brink, and certainly not in the Realm. Going up against someone like Darius will get her killed if she relies on cookie-cutter spells. He’d outthink her in a heartbeat and break her neck in the next.”

“I hate these talks,” I muttered, weaving magic together.

“Even in the Brink—”

“That’s where we are now,” Callie cut in.

“I remember,” I said, coating my counter-spell over Emery’s first spell. I held it there for a moment, feeling the soft intent of his magic. Remembering his teasing, and the yield of his lips. Letting myself feel the connection to him.

“Even in the Brink,” Reagan started again, “you have naturals. Not many, no, but the Guild has a couple, last I heard. Those naturals have just as much power as Penny. And they have more books from which to pull spells, and more experience hurtling them at an enemy. If all she does is learn the way everyone else has learned, she’ll be outgunned. No, her power is in her uniqueness.”