Page 61 of Magic Claimed
A torrent of horrifying possibilities flooded my mind as I moved towards the ruins of the club’s front wall and scanned the gathering crowd outside.
I saw Tairen first, surrounded by gawkers both human and Idrian. Not my first choice as a candidate for human-Idrian relations in a moment of high tension, but at least she hadn’tsnapped yet. I could see her holding herself stiffly apart, looking at the humans around her as if they might potentially be harboring a contagious disease.
And right next to her… was Ethan. Exactly where I’d left him. Watching the fountain of water coming from the broken fire hydrant, despite being surrounded by shouting people and the flashing lights of emergency vehicles.
Sooner or later, someone was going to try to talk to him. Ask him questions. And if he got scared…
But he didn’t look scared. He looked… fascinated. As I watched, his head tilted and his eyes closed, and I realized with a fresh jolt of alarm that he was preparing to use magic.
I darted towards him, tripped over the rubble, and fell to my knees with a cry. “Ethan, no!”
Whether he heard me or not, I would never know, because what happened next ripped all other questions from my mind.
The flow of water cut off without so much as a trickle. The pavement that had cracked and buckled beneath the impact of Logan’s earth magic seemed to ripple like a liquid before settling back into place, each crack narrowing and smudging together until it disappeared entirely. And when the surface was smooth and unbroken, the hydrant righted itself—as if I were watching a recording of its breaking at Logan’s hand, but in reverse.
When it was over, I almost could have believed I’d dreamed the entire thing. No trace of the damage remained, except for the streams of water still flowing into storm drains on both sides of the street.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. Heard someone calling myname. But I was still staring at Ethan with my mouth hanging open, stunned by what I’d witnessed.
His eyes met mine suddenly, as if he’d felt me staring. He looked down at the hydrant, then back at me, brushing his hair away from his face with a trembling hand, so that for the first time in days I could fully gauge his expression.
He was as stunned as I was.
Yes,I told him silently. You did that.
I had no idea whether what he’d done was normal. Probably not. Nothing about either of us was normal, and I already knew my magic was squirrelly by Idrian standards.
But if he could fix something like this? What else could he do? What more was he capable of that no one could have dreamed or guessed? And how could we help him learn to use this power in ways that helped instead of hurt? Ways that gave him hope, instead of digging him deeper and deeper into despair.
“Raine.”
Faris had stepped up beside me and offered his hand to pull me to my feet. I could see him gauging the mood of those who’d gathered to gawk at the destruction. Wondering how many might prove hostile, and how many would assume he was as much a victim as the humans who’d been attacked.
“We need to get Tairen out of here before the police try to talk to her,” he said in a low, urgent tone. “Also, you and Logan and Ethan. I’m going to give them a statement as a concerned business owner. I can cover for most of it, but I don’t want them questioning you or Kira about her part in this, even if it’s just as a witness.”
Apparently, the mysterious “Voice” she’d used wasn’t part of the public’s knowledge about dragons.
“But before you go?” His green eyes met mine. “Thank you. Thank you for saving my people. My business. All of it.”
It was my first time on this end of such a conversation, and I found that I didn’t care for it at all. I still felt like I owed him far more than I could ever repay, and besides, this attack somehow felt like my fault.
“It was Kira,” I said uncomfortably. “She forced the dragon to leave. I just threw some water around.”
He wasn’t falling for my equivocations. “It was you who put out the fire and saved all of us from cooking to death down in that basement. So don’t you dare ever talk about how much you owe me again, you hear?”
I nodded hastily. Swiped at my face with my filthy sleeve.
I was a mess. Exhausted. Still shaking. And that storm of untethered emotions was still raging in my head, locked behind the wall I’d constructed, battering against the barrier like a frantic bird in a cage.
I needed to check on Callum.
“Can I…”
“Go. Take Logan,” Faris ordered. “I’ll make sure Ethan and Tairen get to safety.” He must have seen my dubious expression. “And stop fussing. I’ve been dealing with human suspicion for over fifty years now. I know what I’m doing.”
I had to believe that he was telling the truth. That this would all blow over, and that fifty years of peace would be enough to counterbalance whatever attempts Blake was making to set us at each other’s throats.
But realistically, I knew better. There was no greater motivator than fear, and Blake had always been masterful at manipulating fears. During our shared captivity, he’d used his skills to keep new prisoners compliant so they didn’t hurt themselves, but those same skills meant he would know exactly how to fan those embers into a flame.
