Logan, page 14
“I understand. But Polina?”
“Yes.”
“There’s something else.”
“You’re kidding.”
“The amulet was never found. Alex picked your realm because no magical being can detect him there due to your enchantment. There’s too much magical interference. He feels safe there. His guard will be down. But it’s also likely that the thing that drew him to your realm in the first place was the amulet. He may be looking for it, and if he gets it, with the number of wolves you say he has in his pack, it would take a dragon to stop him.”
“That doesn’t make sense. If Alex hid it, wouldn’t he know exactly where to find it? Wouldn’t he have found it by now?”
“Not necessarily. The same enchantment keeping him safe could be interfering with him tracking the talisman. Even if he were working alone when he hid it—and we don’t know that for sure—magic can be very disorienting.”
Polina shook her head. “It’s impossible. I would know if a magical object crossed the border of my realm.”
Silas let out a deep breath. “He would have hidden it a little over two years ago.”
Polina froze. “But that’s when—”
“When you were buried under Tabetha’s persigranate trees, and she was controlling your realm.”
27
The Misunderstanding
Polina left Silas’s office feeling overwhelmed. She needed to get back to her realm and fast. It would take a stronger spell than she’d ever performed to keep the Bloodright pack where she wanted them. She had serious doubts there was enough time to execute it successfully, if at all. With a pinch of gold dust between her fingers, she prepared to sweep home and reference her grimoire about the task. There was too much at stake. She could not fail.
In a fog of spinning thoughts, she almost rammed into Grateful, who had turned a blind corner from the foyer.
“Oh!” she said. “Polina, what are you doing here?”
“Meeting with Silas,” she said.
Grateful frowned. “Me too.”
“I’ll leave you to it.” Normally, Polina might chat about the problem with Grateful, but the time pressure she was under meant she’d have to leave the explaining to Silas. She raised the gold dust above her head.
“Wait.” Grateful caught her wrist. “I want to talk to you about Logan.”
“Logan? Is he all right?” Polina forgot her rush and searched Grateful’s face.
“Certainly not. He’s in love with you! I warned you, Polina. You touched his soul. He couldn’t help but be attracted to you. How dare you take advantage of him?”
Polina shook her head. “You think I used him? What, for sex?”
Grateful scoffed. “I don’t know what you used him for, but you knew the attraction wasn’t real and you acted on it. He’s only human. You’ll break his heart.”
“I didn’t.”
“Of course you did! I saw him at Valentine’s last night. Logan told me what happened between you.”
Polina shook her head. “No. I mean, it wasn’t what you think. I used the positivity potion and it led me right to his door.”
Grateful stiffened. “No…”
With a nod of her head, Polina explained in quick, breathy spurts. “I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I was obsessed. I used your spell, like you suggested. All I wanted was the endless yearning to cease. But when I drank the positivity potion, it led me straight back to him, Grateful. I love him. I never thought I could say that again, but goddess help me, I do. I’m so glad it was him.” She grabbed her chest. “I wasn’t using him. I just couldn’t deny my feelings for him a moment more.”
“Oh no.” Grateful pressed her fingers into her lips.
“What did you do?”
“I told him.”
“What?”
“I told him about the residual soul magic.”
“How could you?” Polina yelled. “He’ll never forgive me. He’ll think I used him like Tabetha!”
“I didn’t know! I thought you had.”
“Was he very angry?”
Grateful’s face screwed up. “I can fix this. I’ll explain everything. Logan will listen to me.”
Unbidden tears spilled over Polina’s lower lids. “You don’t understand. Logan will never love me if he thinks I used magic. Any magic. It’s over. He’ll never trust me again.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
Polina raised the gold dust over her head. “I have to go. People’s lives are at stake. But I’m not sure I can forgive you for this, Grateful.” She sobbed, then caught her breath. “Strike that. Maybe I should thank you. We all know how it would end eventually. Maybe you’ve just accelerated the inevitable.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Why not? It’s true. Humans die. Humans leave. Maybe it’s better it ends before it ever begins.” She released the dust, Grateful’s devastated expression dissolving as Polina blended into the pipes of the water fountain in the hall. It was more than her molecules that came apart. Her soul shattered with her body. Somehow, she had to find the strength and will to pull herself together. She didn’t have time to grieve the loss. There was work to be done.
28
Over
The weight in Logan’s heart seemed to grow heavier by the minute, as did the fire in his blood. Twenty times today he’d picked up the mirror Polina had given him, intending to break up with her. She’d violated his trust, manipulated him like some sort of toy. The only thing that stopped him was he wanted to do it in person. He wanted to see her face when he told her he’d figured her out. He knew what she’d done. Would she deny it? Regret it?
A flash of blue almost knocked him out of his chair. “What’s happening?” He positioned the silver squarely in front of him.
The mirror melted into a reflective pool of metal. Like a stone dropped in a puddle, concentric circles rippled from the center to the edges of his reflection. The movement blurred his image and then morphed into one with delicate features and full lips. When the reflection smoothed out again, he was looking at Polina.
“Logan, I just spoke to Grateful. I can explain—”
“You knew that the soul magic was the reason for our attraction, and you didn’t tell me,” Logan snapped. “You used me.”
“No. You don’t understa—”
“I understand that you took advantage of a side effect of magic to get what you wanted from me. I understand that you are just like every other witch. You take what you want, when you want it, and don’t worry about how you hurt anyone else in the process.”
“No, Logan, I love you. I wouldn’t hurt you.”
“Stop lying to me!” A hot swell of anger balled Logan’s hands into fists. He would not allow this to happen again. “My heart is not a toy for your entertainment. It’s over, Polina.”
“No! No, Logan. Listen to me!”
“I’m done. I warned you not to use magic on me. You used me and you lied.”
“I didn’t mean to—”
Logan slammed his fist on the table, sending a ripple through her reflection. “It’s over!” He ground his teeth together. “You’re no better than Tabetha.”
Polina’s reflection morphed from desperation to outright horror. He was almost convinced he’d hurt her, but then he remembered that a mere human could never hurt a witch.
In anger, he picked up the mirror and hurled it at the floor. It shattered, the pieces melting and seeping through the floorboards.
“Fuck. Good.” He stood and paced his penthouse condo. “I am done with the lies. I am done with the supernatural mess. Fuck it all.” He grabbed his keys off the counter and headed for the elevator, desperate for a fresh start.
29
Shattered
Polina’s heart stopped as Logan’s face disappeared from the lucubratus. The way the reflection had frozen, then cracked, she was sure he’d shattered the mirror and with it, her heart. He’d ended it. The worst part was he hadn’t given her a chance to explain or apologize. He hadn’t believed her feelings were real.
She staggered backward. The crushing realization that once again she’d been left, abandoned by a human, plowed through her. Her mind raced. The room of reflections, the seat of her power, returned everything she was sending out. A million visions of Logan came back to her in the diamond-like facets of the room: the way he looked at her the first time they’d met, their first kiss, the night they spent together.
A large fragment of mirror directly in front of her replayed the night she’d come to him on his balcony. He’d wanted so badly to prove to her that he was not a fragile human. As her tears turned to silver, carving trails down her cheeks and staining her shirt, no part of her thought of him as fragile. If anything, he was dangerous. He’d ruined her. She collapsed to her knees.
“My lady?” Hildegard soared into the room and landed on the floor in front of her. “Is there anything I can do?”
“No,” Polina rasped. “Again. It happened again! They leave. They always leave.” She spread her hands. “Five hundred years, Hildie. Am I not worthy of love? Will I never know what it is to be truly loved?”
The wise old owl hopped closer. “Of course you are worthy. And you are already loved. I love you. It’s not the romantic type you were hoping for, but it is real and it is forever.”
Polina let out a deep sob and cupped her familiar’s feathery face. “I love you too, sweet bird.”
Hildegard sighed. “You took a risk. You gave him your heart and it didn’t work out.”
Liquid metal spilled from Polina’s stained cheeks. “Yes.”
“But life goes on.”
“Yes, it does,” she whispered. “Mine goes on forever. And suddenly, forever seems longer than it did before.”
“I am sorry, my lady. And I do hate to push, but the hour grows late. You must start the potion to protect the humans right away. There’s no time.”
Polina wiped her face, absorbing the liquid metal through her skin, and forced herself to stand. Her stomach churned, but she closed her eyes and centered herself. With a slow swipe of her wand, Logan’s image disappeared from the mirrors around her. She cleared her throat.
“Let us begin. We have work to do.”
30
Desperation
Logan strode into the Carlton City humane society with a singular purpose. He needed a pet, another living creature to focus on and occupy his time. With Jonah helping out at Valentine’s, the restaurant would survive without him for a day or two while he licked his wounds. He was too depressed to cook. Silas had suggested a dog could be family. He needed that right now. He needed something, anything, to help fill the gaping hole in his chest.
“What type of pet are you considering?” The woman behind the counter’s nametag read Carol. She wore a black polo and khaki pants but did not smile. Instead, she seemed size him up for pet ownership, more than willing to censure him and his plans if necessary.
“I’ve always considered myself a dog person.”
“What kind of dog?”
“Labrador, golden retriever. You know, a bigger breed that likes to play.”
“You got a fenced yard?”
“Uh, no. I live in a penthouse condominium.”
She burst into laughter. “You will not be bringing home a large dog.”
Logan rubbed the back of his neck. “What kind of dog do you recommend then?”
“For you? I don’t recommend a dog. How about a guinea pig or a rabbit?” She opened the door to a room of cages containing small animals.
“Not what I had in mind,” Logan said, staring at a pair of hamsters. “I just need something that’s going to engage with me, you know? I don’t want an animal that’s in a cage all day.”
“Rabbits can be litter trained.”
Logan shook his head.
“Well, how about a cat? Certain cats have personalities similar to dogs. Some can even learn to play fetch.”
Considering it, Logan gave her a small smile. “Yeah. I think a cat might be good.”
“Come this way.”
He followed Carol through a door labeled Cat Room. Every imaginable type of cat filled the four walls. A humungous orange tabby with a pushed-in face clawed at him from a carpeted stand.
“Don’t mind Oscar. He’s grumpy.” She lifted a calico kitten from the floor. “This one here is just a couple of weeks old. Easily trainable. Good disposition.”
Logan pulled the kitten into his arms and scratched it behind the ears. It leaned into his fingers and closed its eyes. It was an agreeable animal. Perfect in some ways. He was sure Carol was right; this cat could adapt to almost any environment. But as Logan looked at the tiny feline, he felt no connection with it. For some reason he didn’t fully understand, it just didn’t feel right. He bent over and put the kitten down.
Carol frowned. “Well then, let me see…” She pressed her pointer finger into her chin and looked around the room. Logan did too. As his eyes fell on cat after cat, he discounted each one. Too old. Too hairy. Too mean. Too sleepy. And then his gaze fell on something interesting.
Crouched low and ready to spring, a white shorthair prepared to jump to the next carpeted tower. A patch of brown fur over one eye made him look like a pirate. Logan noticed a thin hairless scar behind his left ear. When the cat leapt, it hit its head on the opposite post and fell to the floor, crying.
“Oh, Bonny girl, when will you learn?” Carol picked the cat off the floor and placed it on the platform it was targeting. It was a her, not a him. Hmm. Logan took a closer look. Where the cat’s tail should have been was nothing but a stump, and to his surprise, she only had three legs. He hadn’t noticed before because the good leg was facing him, hiding what was missing.
“What happened to that one?”
“Hit by a car. Barely survived, the poor girl. We named her Bonny after the pirate Anne Bonny because of her patch. Maybe we can get her a peg leg, huh?” Carol laughed.
“I’ll take that one,” Logan said.
Carol shook her head. “You don’t want this cat. She’s special needs. She loses her balance all the time. Cries incessantly because she can’t do the things she wants to do. And she gets depressed. Sometimes she hardly eats. To be honest, I’m not sure how long she’ll make it.”
Logan stepped over to Bonny and scooped her up into his arms. She laid her head on his bicep as if she didn’t have the energy for anything more and blinked up at Logan. He rubbed circles over the scar behind her ear. The purr she rewarded him with seemed too loud to come from such a small body. All he could think was that this cat was like him, a survivor. He could relate to this cat. “She’s perfect. I’ll take her.”
Carol shrugged, eyeing Bonny in his arms. “Okay. Why the hell not? Come on up to the counter and I’ll ring your adoption fee. She’s on a few medications. I’ll get you a list and instructions. Oh, and she needs a special litter box because she has trouble getting into the ones with the higher edge.”
He grinned and kissed Bonny’s head. “It’s fine. Whatever she needs.”
31
Preparations
“Hildegard, bring me the wolfsbane.”
Polina huddled over the cauldron, stirring with two hands. She had to. The potion within was thick with molten silver and twenty-five other rare ingredients from her stores. The heavy mixture had taken her hours to create. Long hours she spent weeping over her work.
Logan was gone. The only good thing about her broken heart was it drove her to try harder, and it had paid off. This was the most potent wolf repellent she’d ever made. She’d surround the human campsite with it, then warn the campers of a wolf attack in the area. She’d tell them they shouldn’t venture out at night. With any luck, the humans would stay on their side of the line, and the wolves would avoid the campsite altogether.
Hand to the back of her nose, Polina breathed through her mouth as the repellent neared completion. It smelled of a cross between raw sewage and a chemical treatment plant. Hildegard coasted over the pot and dropped a talonful of wolfsbane into the mix. Bubbles formed like a rich head on a freshly poured draught beer. Polina stopped stirring.
Copper-orange fumes rose from the potion. “It’s ready.” Polina pulled a glass decanter from a rack in her kitchen and ladled in the syrupy brew. She filled another and another.
“Not a moment too soon. The sun is setting,” Hildegard said. “I am worried about you, crying all day over the human. Will you be strong enough to do this?”
“I’ll have to be. What good is being immortal if you can’t push the boundaries of existence every now and then?”
“Hmm.” Hildegard flapped her wings disapprovingly.
“Let’s get on with it. Help carry these out front.” Polina grabbed her wand and charged out into the front yard. She cast her eyes up to the three gargoyles who guarded her home, perched on the Tudor’s gables. The sun hadn’t fully set yet. It would require magic to wake her three guardians early.
“Excitae,” she commanded, raising her wand. The green-stained copper above her twitched and then the metal-on-metal sound of colliding swords rang out with the stretch of gargoyle wings. “Nicodemus, come.”
With his great curled horns and demon-like face, Nicodemus was a frightening sight to behold but a loyal and faithful guardian. He soared down from the eastern gable and bowed to her. “What is your command, mistress?”
“Take your brethren and distribute this potion evenly around the human camp. There are twelve of these.” She handed him the decanter. “Be discreet. It won’t do to frighten the humans.”
