Magic Dark Magic Divine Read online

  “Yes,” he said, sounding genuinely unbothered. “Because I accomplished what I’d hoped to.”

  “Getting enough dates for the rest of the month lined up?”

  “No, getting a healthy number of people to sign up for classes.”

  “Huh?” I angled myself to let a couple people squeeze past and almost knocked a tacky print of a cat as Mona Lisa off the wall. Tacky was this bar’s entire aesthetic. There were creepy doll heads dangling amid the fairy lights, and paper-mache sculptures of animals with flowers for heads. The frog with a fly-encrusted peony head was particularly grotesque. I loved it.

  “A couple weeks ago I overheard Sensei talking to the officer manager about the dojo’s money problems, and that he hoped showcase day would bring in a lot of new students,” Callan was saying. “After the showcase I heard them say they got more sign-ups today than the last three showcases combined.”

  “All thanks to your chest and abs? Are you really that full of…”

  “I know, I know.” He held his hands up. “It looks bad no matter what angle you come at it. It was a cocky, overconfident move, but maybe it paid off a little?” He shrugged. “At least we got those numbers. Everyone was pretty badass on the mat.”

  I was quiet for a moment as I mulled over what he’d said. He’d put his chest out there to help the dojo, not preen his awesomeness to the crowd. I’d never seen Callan in that light. I guess you missed a lot about a person when all you did was trade insults.

  “So, Penn, tell me about yourself. Likes? Dislikes?”

  “Wanna know my favorite color too?” I said, making a cringey face.

  “Right after you tell me your astrological sign and we see how well it matches with mine,” he said, grinning.

  “Wow, would you look at the time.” I made a show of looking at my wrist.

  “Glad to see I haven’t lost my touch with scaring off my dates.” He chuckled.

  “Date?” I raised an eyebrow as I took another sip of my drink. He shrugged, a smile still playing on his lips.

  “Excursion then?” he suggested. “Sounds fancier.”

  “Excursion it is,” I said with a little laugh.

  We bantered a bit more over another round of drinks, then left the bar, which had become more crowded and noisier.

  It felt good to get back into fresher air where we didn’t have to yell-talk.

  It was mid-June, so the night was warm but not uncomfortably so, and a lot of people were enjoying the Village’s night life. Off-key but enthusiastic singing blasted from the open doors of a karaoke spot. Next to it, the sounds of old school arcade games resounded from a popular bar and arcade spot. There was a nervous edge to the atmosphere, though, and I caught a few snatches of conversation about the Suniksu and the potential for more magical danger. No wonder the bars were so active tonight; if there was any reason to drink, this was it.

  We passed by a tiny arepas spot, got a couple each, and ate them as we strolled. I bit into my beef arepa and made happy noises as I chewed, adding a shoulder shimmy, which made Callan chuckle.

  “Have you traveled much?” Callan asked.

  I seized up momentarily before I relaxed, swallowing my bite. It was a normal question for anyone to ask, but I always had to be careful how I answered. “Quite a bit for a few years,” I said. “Started out by spending two years traveling throughout Africa.”

  He made a low whistle. “Impressive.”

  “I did Europe and Asia for about a year, then six months island hopping in the Caribbean. After that, I spent a year and a half traveling through North and South America and Canada. I settled in Brooklyn about three years ago.”

  “That’s an extensive amount of traveling,” he said. “Either you come from money, or you really know how to budget.”

  “A little of both, maybe?” I said with a breezy laugh. I definitely couldn’t tell him the truth about how I’d financed my travels.

  After I’d gone against a Diviner’s prophetic card reading, my punishment had been two hundred and ninety-two years of slumber. I’d woken up eight years ago in a cave protected by a time pocket with my Familiar, Ashe, who’d suffered the same fate due to our blood bond. Later on, I’d been able to pinpoint that we were in Namibia.

  I was certain that Mixuné, the Diviner I’d gone to, had been responsible for keeping Ashe and I safe while we’d slept. And she’d left us a significant amount of gold and precious gemstones that I’d been able to exchange for modern currency. I’d traveled for so long because I’d wanted to get an in depth understanding of what the world was like now.

  “What about you?” I asked, pulling myself out of my thoughts.

  “I did some traveling after my mother died a few years ago, but not as much as you.”

  “Sorry to hear about your mother,” I said. “I’ve lost both my parents. And my younger sister.”

  “Sorry to hear as well. The pain never really heals, does it?”

  “It doesn’t.” Not even after three hundred years.

  “It was just the two of us,” he continued. “A lot of people might laugh at hearing a grown man say this, but she was my best friend. After she died, I packed up our apartment and used some of the money she left me to travel.”

  “I understand. You needed space from the places that reminded you of her.” The narrow block we were walking down was crowded with overspill from three adjacent bars, so we jogged across the street where a bakery, comic book shop, and CVS drugstore were having a quieter evening.

  I took a moment to glance up at the building CVS occupied. One of the reasons I liked living here was because as much as New York City was a city of skyscrapers, there was a lot of old architecture, some of which sported details made by Shapers. This building had probably been a library during my first life, judging from the carvings of magic-era creatures spiraling out of a huge book that graced the building’s ridge.

  “I did need the space,” Callan said. “And it ended up being a great experience. I learned a lot. Especially about how magic still influences different parts of the world. Metropolitan places seem to have more of an affinity with Shapers. And there is a lot of reverence for the medicinal side of Tamer magic once you leave heavily populated areas. I spent a week in a remote mountain village in China and saw how masterful they were at using the plant life around them, not just in food. Architecture and medicine too. Even without the magic their ancestors had, they were highly skilled.”

  “We might have stayed at the same village,” I said. “I had a similar experience.”

  “Imagine if our paths had crossed during our travels. You might not have hated me on sight when we first met.”

  “Hate is a strong word. It was more hate-adjacent.”

  He laughed. “I’ll take that. Speaking of magic, what do you make of that fire magic construct that appeared yesterday?”

  I flinched, then made myself relax. I was still processing the emergence of magic and the possibility that someone had seen me fighting the creatures, but acting squirrely about it wouldn’t help. “I was at that street fair with my friends and saw it in person, and I still can’t believe it.”

  “You were there?” His eyes widened. “You’re lucky it didn’t char you. The news reported that a lot of people were badly injured. Three people were killed.”

  Including the Fire Conjurer. His identity hadn’t been revealed, but he’d died at the scene. Which meant I hadn’t gotten the Jigori off him in time. I wished I could kick that magic eating mass of moldy shadows off a cliff a hundred more times.

  “Do you think there are other Talented out there?” Callan asked as he bumped into me so he could sidestep a skateboarder. He grabbed my elbow to steady me before I tripped. Nice reflexes. And nice grip. Wonder what it would feel like for him to grip…

  Whoa, why were my thoughts slipping there? How strong were those drinks?
>
  We were heading uptown, so the noisy bars were replaced by restaurants where patrons were enjoying alfresco dining and people emerging from office buildings looking eager to plunge into the night life.

  “I don’t know what to think,” I said. For eight years, I’d lived under the assumption that I was the only person with magic left. Then a Fire Conjurer appeared. Since the dark magic the Jigori was made of was different than Talent magic, whoever had created it was an entirely different enigma.

  As we’d been walking and chatting, I realized that we were nearing the Flatiron Building at Twenty-Third Street.

  Which meant we were also close to the graveyard.

  It was nestled on a strip of land between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue, and looked out of place among the modern office buildings, restaurants, and stores.

  Whenever I came here, I felt like I was stepping into a pocket of time that had frozen centuries ago. The crooked trees were as ancient as the moss-covered graves, whose engravings were barely legible anymore.

  “Penn? Did you hear what I said? Don’t tell me I wasn’t interesting enough to last the entire excursion.” Callan laughed, and I shook my head slightly and turned to him. The street light cut across his jawline and made me notice that not only did he have enviable lashes, his cheekbones were right there with them.

  “Sorry, I was looking at…” I paused, then decided what did it really matter if I explained? “The graveyard up ahead.”

  Callan looked. “Oh, the magic-era graveyard. Do you have ancestors buried there?”

  “I do,” I said, choosing my words carefully. The last thing I wanted to do was slip up and say my mother and sister were among the ancient graves.

  That was the reason I’d settled here after my years of traveling.

  My father had died a couple years before them, and I had yet to locate his resting place. I hoped it would be one I could visit. A lot of graveyards had been paved over to make room for roads, buildings, and parks, but some decades ago, a lot of local governments had finally made magic-era graveyards protected sites.

  This one had survived disappearing because it was attached to a small church that had remained active throughout the centuries.

  “Do you want to go in?” he suggested.

  I did, but hadn’t expected him to be obliging. “Are graveyard visits usually part of these kinds of excursions?” I flashed a smile.

  “I think it’s exactly the thing to do on an excursion.” He indicated a florist shop across the street, which was where I always got flowers before I visited.

  We headed over, and I had to admit there was a warm feeling within me over Callan paying for flowers for my family.

  Afterward, we entered through the slanted, wrought iron gate and headed across the lawn toward the back. A couple dozen graves were clustered here. I took a deep breath, feeling sadness settle on me as I neared.

  Callan handed me the flowers and respectfully hung back as I walked the old paths between the graves. It suddenly occurred to me that it was just about the anniversary of the day they’d been brutally killed. Shortly after I’d buried them, I’d taken my revenge on their murderer, going against Mixuné’s card reading and damning myself to a long, long sleep.

  All because of the Auraxa Reiv.

  The Auraxa Reiv was a celestial alignment that occurred every three hundred years. It was the only time all five nexus points, celestial powered portals grounded here on earth that corresponded to each kind of Talent magic, were open. During the alignment, which lasted about three nights, all magic was intensified, which was why going against Mix’s magically binding reading punished Ashe and I with an almost three-hundred-year-long slumber.

  And now the Auraxa Reiv was set to align again in about a week. Right when magic was reappearing. I couldn’t quite convince myself that the timing was a coincidence. I’d love to see magic exist again, but an out of control Conjurer and a creature of dark magic emerging right before a powerful magical constellation was about to occur gave me a lot of unease. Even though the nexus points were closed, who could say what would happen once the Auraxa Reiv aligned?

  I exhaled slowly and quelled my anxiety for the time being. I could worry about that later.

  When I got to my sister’s and mother’s graves, I paused, frowning as I took in the small headstones. They were more crooked than the last time I’d seen them, and there was disturbed dirt and grass on top of their graves.

  A timid voice cleared behind me and I turned around to see a clergyman coming over, looking at me hesitantly and wringing his hands. “Hello, miss…ah…”

  “Linbry,” I said. “Pennrae Linbry. I’ve been here many times. What happened to the graves?”

  Callan came closer, his face concerned.

  “I’m so sorry, we were going to inform you, but we haven’t been able to track down everyone’s contact information, and so…”

  “What happened?” I said, cutting off his rambling.

  “Well, we…we began working with the magical DNA website, Magic and Me, and they needed samples from those buried here, so we conducted scans to ensure it would be safe to exhume the graves. But ah…the scans indicated that one or two of the graves were…unoccupied. After which we did exhume to be certain…”

  “Unoccupied,” I repeated. “Are you telling me the cemetery was grave robbed?” I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. “My family’s bodies were stolen?”

  “No, no, only one, ah…” He peered around me. “Only the grave on the right was defiled.”

  My head snapped to the graves, then back to the clergyman. The grave on the right was my sister Kinari’s. I felt sick. “How the hell did this happen?”

  Only when the clergyman took a step back, terror coming over his face, did I realize I had stepped forward and probably looked more like magic-era warrior Penn than twenty-first-century karate instructor Penn.

  “We…we are not sure, as the church’s security is usually not remiss in picking up on any disturbances, since so many people are fascinated by a site like ours that dates back to the magic-era…but…”

  “But what?” I yelled, flinging the bouquets down. “Somehow people were able to roll in here, dig up a few graves, then stroll out with bags of bones flung over their shoulders? And no one contacted me?”

  “Like I said, we were trying to…”

  “Did you call the police? Was any evidence found? Are there any leads?” It had to be the Necromajin who’d created the Jigori. I would be naive to come to any other kind of conclusion. Necromajin were notorious corpse thieves.

  I was convinced modern day zombies that peppered popular culture were derived from the rotting creatures Necromajin created from the bodies of the dead, known as Shamblers. Jigori, on the other hand, were made from the souls of magic users.

  I wanted to throw up at the thought of Kinari’s bones being animated into some twisted, feral creature. I also couldn’t help but feel as though history was repeating itself.

  I was losing my family right when the Auraxa Reiv was aligning.

  “We have followed all the protocols,” he said, nodding rapidly. “There’s no conclusive evidence as to the culprits yet, but we assure you all is being done to recover your loved one as soon as possible.”

  “I have no faith in whatever protocols you followed.” I took a deep breath and exhaled, feeling angrier than I’d felt in a long time. But also scared.

  A lot of unexplainable shit was suddenly happening, and it was overwhelming. Yesterday’s Jigori and Suniksu fight had given me enough things to worry about, but now I also had to deal with my sister’s remains being MIA, and very likely in the hands of a Necromajin.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said. “Please come inside so we can further discuss…”

  “Go away.”

  He didn’t wait for me to say it again, he turned and scurr
ied back to the church.

  I picked up the bouquets, which were worse for the wear, and placed them on the graves. It was only a small consolation that my mother’s body was still here, knowing that the Necromajin might come back for it, and the church’s security stood no chance against them.

  When I felt someone’s hand on my shoulder, I jolted. I’d all but forgotten about Callan as I’d raged at the clergyman.

  “There’s nothing I can say. It’s horrible. I’m really sorry, which is piss poor comfort, I know.” He squeezed my shoulder and I calmed down a smidge.

  Overactive emotions wouldn’t help me get to the bottom of what had happened to Kinari. I took a deep breath and turned around, looking down at her grave as though it’d provide a clue.

  “I wish I could help.” He let go of my shoulder and leaned forward, laying his hand on top of Kinari’s headstone. Then he swayed and fell to his knees.

  “Whoa!” I let go of his hand so I could hold his shoulders and keep him from collapsing forward. He was holding his head and groaning in pain, his body shaking.

  I had no idea what to do. If I left him to get help, I wasn’t sure what would happen to him, because I had no clue what was wrong.

  After a few moments he seemed to be getting himself under control, though. His chest heaved as he dragged in air, but he let go of his head and instead braced his hands against the ground.

  I saw his throat working as he swallowed, so I fished out a water bottle from my bag and gave it to him. He drained it and seemed better after. Eventually, his breathing became more measured and he slowly sat back, dusting off his hands.

  “Well,” he said, his voice slightly hoarse. “That was mildly embarrassing. I’m really sorry about that.”

  I was relieved he seemed to be okay and helped him stand up. “Do you need to go to a hospital? I can…”

  “No. I know it looked bad, but it’s just a…condition I have. And now I feel pretty ridiculous because you were in the middle of dealing with something serious and I go and have an episode.”