Page 49 of Wicked Deeds

“That would depend entirely on who your mom is and how strong your magic is. It will be more difficult out here,” Pinky said. “It depends on what you’re trying to do, but the realm, well, itismagic. So it will take more effort to do anything out here, unless you’re quite strong. If you never had any weird stuff happen growing up, maybe you’re not.” She paused, as though inviting Gwen to tell us more. Gwen shrugged.

Was Pinky right? Did Gwen not using her magic before she’d gone into the realm, mean she wasn’t strong? Or, like me, had she never considered the possibility of having magic and therefore never tried anything? Yes, my magic had been bound, but it had still taken me being in fear for my life for it to surface once the bond had been broken. If Gwen had never been in the kind of mess where she might instinctively use magic to save herself, it might never have been an issue. I’m sure girls in boarding schools generated drama, but not life-or-death situations.

“I don’t have a lot of power,” Pinky continued. “I can do some basic magic and in the realm I can do more, but it was never something I was particularly worried about. My mom taught me enough to let me do things like light a candle or warm myself up if I ever wanted to, but we didn’t use magic at home. And I was never that curious. So I left it alone.”

She sat back in her chair. “That’s what it boils down to: being willing to leave the magical world alone and live normally. There’s no reason to go into the realm if that’s what you want.”She tipped her head at me. “Most tanai even steer clear of witches. Not all of them know about the Fae, and we have to obey the part of the contract about not revealing ourselves to normal humans. So it’s easier to not hang out with witches. Some of them can spot the magic and they get curious and then it can be a whole thing to avoid explaining.”

I hadn’t thought about that, but it made sense. Fae magic appeared somewhat different to my sight than human did, but if a witch didn’t know someone was tanai, I could see how they might think a tanai’s aura, or their energy field, however they saw it, was slightly strange. I could also see how it might lead to some awkward questions.

“My advice,” Pinky said, “is to go back to school, get your degree, find a job, build a life. I mean, you don’t have to stay in San Francisco after you graduate.”

“It’s kind of one of the best cities if I want to be in game design, though,” Gwen said.

“There is that,” Pinky said. She was looking at me, not Gwen. “Maggie will tell you there’s not many witches who work at Riley Arts. If they do, they’re not there because of their magic, at least other than the security people like Maia.” She smiled suddenly. “You don’t have a desire to be a bodyguard, do you?”

Gwen, who was a good half a foot shorter than me, laughed. “No. I don’t think that’s my calling. They probably have a height requirement.”

“Yeah,” Pinky said. “All of Damon’s security people I’ve met are tall.”

“Like Maia?” Gwen nodded. “She’s an amazon. And she’s cool, but that’s got to be a weird job, right?”

“I agree,” I said. “But I think Pinky’s right. Focus on what you want to do with your life, go back to school and take it from there. Unless you have a burning desire to keep using magic, you should be able to stay free of trouble easily enough.”

“Is that what you do?” Gwen asked.

Pinky coughed and I glared at her. Staying out of trouble was not precisely my strong point.

“I’m not tanai,” I said finally. “So, me and magic, that’s a different proposition. Witches have to learn to use their magic, or it’s dangerous.”

“But you do stuff for the Cestis?”

“The Cestis have been teaching me. I came to my magic late,” I said. “So, they want to make sure I know what I’m doing.”

“But you fought a demon,” Gwen said. “That’s what Lord…” She paused, wincing. “What,hesaid back in the realm.”

Damn, she remembered. “I did. And that’s a long story. But, again, most people, including most witches, go their entire lives without getting so much as a sniff of demonkind or Fae. So, things will work out. You can play tourist for a few days. Take the tour with Yoshi. I’m sure Damon can organize someone from his recruitment team to speak to you. I know they have programs on a lot of campuses to help people who are interested in the industry.”

Gwen’s expression eased. “That would be helpful, I’d appreciate it.” She glanced at Pinky’s wrist. “You have an interface chip. Like Maggie.”

Pinky’s tattoos flowed around the chip, making it obvious. She held out her arm, so Gwen could get a better look. “Yeah. I sometimes compose for games. These days, that makes a chip necessary.”

“It doesn’t interfere with your magic? The tanai I knew in London…they thought chips wouldn’t be an option.”

“They can be, for some people,” Pinky said. “But it varies. I don’t know many tanai with one, but there are a few. But Maggie knows a great healer and one of the best chip surgeons in the country. I know they’ve been working on ways to make the chipswork for witches—some of them have issues, too—I think there are some tests now?” She aimed the question at me

“There are. I’m sure Meredith—that’s my healer friend—would know how you can get tested. Might be better to find out sooner rather than later if it’s going to be an issue for you. Not having a chip would affect some of your choices.” The cost of chips was dropping. Once they reached a certain price point, they were going to take over from headsets as the dominant way to access games and all the other forms of VR. I’d seen the Riley Arts data modeling about it.

There would always be people who didn’t want a chip, but the best VR companies like Riley weren’t going to be hiring game designers who couldn’t work with full VR. “I can ask her. It might be expensive. Health care isn’t cheap over here.”

Gwen lifted her chin. “I have money. That’s the one thing my father—whoever the hell he is—did do for me.”

It would be rude to ask her how much, but I had to admit I was curious. Maybe it showed on my face because she said, “I’m not Damon rich but I’d probably be fine never working in my life. But that sounds dull to me.”

“Yes, way too boring,” I agreed. “So we’ll add getting you tested for compatibility with a chip to the list, when you’re ready.”

Chapter Thirteen

I trieda few gentle questions on the ride home to see whether Gwen wanted to talk about anything that had come up at lunch, but she shut me down, yawning and staring out the window, so I wasn’t sure whether she was jet-lagged or avoiding the conversation.

---