Awakening (Birth of Magic #1) Read online

  “Because I’m hungry for one thing,” Celia said, smiling at me. That smile quickly faded away. “But you’re right. There is something else I need to tell you. After what’s happened, I think it would be best if Ethan and I took a powder. For a little while.”

  “What? But if you leave town, the cops might think you had something to do with it.”

  “The case is closed as far as they care,” she said, echoing my thoughts earlier.

  “Where are you going to go?”

  “Boston. My parents have enough room for both of us.” She took her hand away from mine to reach into her purse. A moment later she pulled out a set of keys. She pressed these into my hand. “Can you look after the apartment?”

  “How long are you going to be gone?”

  “A couple weeks. Maybe longer.” She sighed and then turned to the window, back towards the apartment. “Ethan is so wrapped up in his work. Now it’s all gone. It’s going to take a while for him to recover from the shock. I just think that would be easier somewhere else.”

  “That’s true,” I said, trying not to cry again. Celia wasn’t telling me to get lost, but this was even worse. She might say she would be gone for weeks, but I had my doubts about that. They might stay there for months; they might never come back. In either case I was going to lose my new friends.

  “There’s something else. I’ve been having second thoughts about the wedding.”

  I stared blankly at her for a moment. “Did you tell Ethan that yet?”

  “No. How could I? He’s been so busy lately and then this happened.” Celia shook her head. “Sometimes we go days without seeing each other. I know he still loves me, but he loves machines even more. What kind of life would that be for us? For our children?”

  “Maybe now that his lab is gone he’ll settle down.”

  “Not Ethan. If it’s not this experiment then it’ll be something else.” She stopped as the waitress came with Celia’s food. She picked at the eggs for a moment, no longer hungry. “I can’t leave him now, though, can I? That would be horrible of me.”

  “Before you do anything, you should talk to him about it. He deserves to know.”

  “But he’s so distraught right now. It might kill him.”

  My mind flashed back to the first time I was sixteen years old. I had just passed the tests to become a novice in the coven. As part of this, I had to make a terrible choice: between my birthright as a witch and the boy I’d come to love. I took Henry to our special place but stopped him before he could kiss me. “There’s something I need to tell you,” I said.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t see you anymore. Not like this.”

  “Why not? Is there someone else?”

  “No!” I took Henry’s hands in mind. “I love you, Henry. That’s what makes this so hard. I wish I could be with you forever, but I can’t.”

  “Stephanie, please. You’re not making any sense.”

  “It’s hard to explain. Just know that I love you and I can’t see you anymore.”

  “This is your mother’s doing, isn’t it? She found out about us and she doesn’t want you marrying a peasant.”

  To my shame I took the easy way out. I let Mama take the fall for me. “Yes. I’m sorry, Henry. I wish there were something I could do.”

  “There is something you can do. We can run away together. We can start a new life somewhere, away from your mother and your sisters and my family. We can go to Prussia or Italy. Even the Orient if that’s what it takes.”

  “I’m sorry, Henry. I can’t disobey Mama. Not about this.”

  He shook my hands away and then got to his feet. “You don’t really love me. I was just like one of your sister’s flings. You had your fun and now you’re done with me.”

  “No!” I got on my knees, holding out my hands to him like a beggar. “Henry, please. I’ve never loved anyone but you.”

  “But that’s not enough, is it?” he snapped. I looked down at the ground, sobbing as I heard him stomp through the brush. The next time I saw him was on a battlefield on the border with Italy.

  “Sue, are you all right?” Celia asked, snapping me forward four centuries.

  “I’m sorry. I was just thinking.” I took her hands again, squeezing them hard enough to make her wince. “If you still love Ethan, you can’t let him go. Not ever. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I think I do.”

  ***

  Ethan was still sleeping when we got back to the apartment. I helped Celia get out two suitcases. We didn’t say much as we folded the clothes and then set them in the bags. After our talk in the coffee shop there wasn’t much else we could say. I just hoped I had gotten through to her, that she wouldn’t make the same mistake I had made in letting Henry go.

  “You can stay in my room if you want,” Celia said. “It’s not so bare.”

  “I’m not sure—”

  “Sue, please. It will make us both feel better if we know you’re here.” She touched my hair and then smiled. “Then you won’t have to go home with strange men anymore.”

  “Aren’t you worried I might bring them back here while you’re gone?”

  “I trust you, kid. You’re a good egg.”

  “Thanks.”

  Ethan began to stir while we were tidying up the living room. He staggered into the room, stifling a yawn with his hand. “How long was I out?” he asked.

  “Eight hours,” Celia said. “It’s almost time for supper.”

  “Oh. Has anyone stopped by?”

  “No, dear. The police haven’t been here. I think we’re in the clear.”

  “That’s good, I suppose.” He sat down on a chair, hunching forward to look down at the floor. He was probably still thinking about all the work he’d done, work that had been destroyed in a few seconds. I couldn’t help feeling somewhat responsible for this. It didn’t help to tell myself that if the Nazis hadn’t been there I would have probably stolen his work to turn it over to the coven. Either way he was going to lose.

  Celia perched herself on the arm of the chair, putting an arm around his shoulders. “Sue and I were talking while you were out. I think it would be a good idea to go visit my parents for a couple of weeks, just to let you clear your mind a bit.”

  “But I can’t! I’ve lost so much time already. I have to try and rebuild.”

  “Ethan, please. It’s not safe here. We don’t know if whoever tried to get their mitts on it last night survived or not. He could try again and next time you might be in the lab.”

  “That’s not very likely.”

  “I don’t want to lose you, Ethan. If something happened to you, I couldn’t live with myself.” He tried to say something, but she put a finger to his lips. “Let’s go up to Boston, take a little vacation. We can think this through. Mom and Pop have been dying to meet you.”

  I sat on the floor, a bundle of newspapers in my hands as I anxiously watched Ethan for his reaction. I could see the internal struggle going on: the scientist who wanted to get back to work versus the fiancé who loved Celia madly. The fiancé won out. “Sure, baby. I guess two weeks isn’t going to matter at this point anyway.”

  They kissed deeply, probably too deeply for in front of company, but it didn’t matter. I smiled as they stood up, Celia leading Ethan back to the bedroom to fetch their bags.

  A half hour later, they were both dressed and ready to go. Ethan shook my hand. “Thank you for agreeing to watch the place while we’re gone,” he said. “We’ll be back in a couple of weeks.”

  Celia gave me not only a hug, but also a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for what you said at the coffee shop. It really helped.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “And you remember what I said. No matter what else, you’re a good kid. Stay out of trouble while we’re gone.”

  “I will,” I said. I watched them leave, going to the window so I could see them get into a cab. Despite what Celia had said, I was going to
get into plenty more trouble soon enough.

  Chapter 7

  I found Alexis waiting for me in the parlor. This time she was working on the jacket of a woman’s suit. The skirt was draped over the back of a chair, both of them a salmon color. “Going for something a little more modern?” I asked.

  “I thought you could use it,” she said.

  “I wish you’d stop anticipating what I’m going to do. Am I that predictable?”

  “Of course not, dear. Only to someone who’s known you as long as I have.”

  “So what is it you think I’m going to do?”

  Without missing a beat, Alexis said, “I think you’re going to ask me for a Masquerade potion so that you can spy on your new friends. Then you’re going to want an outfit to go with your new body.”

  I ground my teeth together at this; that was exactly what I had planned to do. “Goddamnit,” I muttered.

  “You shouldn’t swear. It’s not becoming for a young lady.”

  “Neither of us is exactly young anymore.”

  “Appearances matter. That’s what Mama used to say.”

  “Yeah, I guess she did.” I sat down on the couch next to Alexis, thinking of my conversation with Celia in the coffee shop. “You spent more time with Mama than I did. Do you think she would have been disappointed if I’d chosen to go with Henry?”

  Alexis continued to work while she considered this question. She finally said, “Mama loved you. She would have accepted whatever path you chose.” Alexis turned to me, her beautiful face turning cloudy with concern. “Why do you ask?”

  “I was just thinking about the past.”

  “That’s my favorite subject,” she said. “It’s about my only subject these days.”

  “Maybe you should get out more.”

  “I couldn’t do that.”

  “Gretel’s not going to care. She didn’t punish you for Marco.”

  “Marco is the reason I can’t do that. I still love him, Stephanie. I always will.”

  I barely held back saying I felt the same way. I still loved both Marco and Henry. I still missed my friends like Andre and Rachel. All those memories pulled at me like quicksand, trying to draw me into a pit of self-pity. I didn’t have time for that at the moment. “I know,” I said. “I guess I ought to take that potion now.”

  Just like I could use a spell to make myself younger, I could also use a spell to make myself look different. The problem in this case wasn’t cognitive dissonance. The problem was that if you use a spell to look different you had to keep using magic to maintain the illusion for as long as it took. If you slipped for even a moment the illusion would dissipate. That created a real problem if you fell asleep.

  The Masquerade potion, like the Inner Child potion, was far more efficient. The downside was that you didn’t know what you might wind up looking like. Alexis had tried to calibrate the potion to be more predictable, but it reacted to everyone differently. Its effect also varied depending on the ingredients Alexis used. Potion making wasn’t an exact science by any means, the ingredients themselves being naturally unstable. A little too much dwarvenroot and you might end up with a hunchback or with blue skin.

  The other downside of the potion was that it could hurt like hell. There was no magic that could make your body growing or shrinking feel pleasant. In preparation for this, Alexis had a wooden spoon I could bite down on during the change. I was also lying on the floor of my bedroom, stark naked.

  “Here goes nothing,” I said and then downed the potion.

  There was always a long moment before the potion started to kick in. Unlike some other times I’d used it, this change was relatively mild. There was just a few seconds of agony while my bones compacted a few inches. Once I was sure the potion was done, I spit out the spoon.

  Alexis took my hand, helping me to my feet. I couldn’t help noticing we were about the same height now; I was probably an inch shorter than her. As I had after the Inner Child potion, I went over to the mirror to see myself. Most of the change was superficial. My skin had turned darker, to a deep tan tinged with olive. My hair had straightened and turned black. My eyes for the moment were dark brown. The biggest change was my nose, which had become longer and hooked.

  The contrast between Alexis and I was remarkable when she stood next to me. “You look very pretty,” she said, brushing hair away from my face.

  “I look Greek. Maybe Italian,” I said, feeling a twinge of sadness as I thought about Marco. Maybe all that thinking about the past had influenced the potion’s effect on me.

  “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “I suppose that suit you made is going to fit like a dream.”

  “If not I can alter it.”

  “There’s no time. I have to catch a train.”

  ***

  Vanishing to the train station was risky, but I didn’t want to waste the time on a cab at the moment. I had been around the station often enough that I knew a supply closet I could vanish into with the suitcase Alexis had hastily prepared for me. I wasn’t really planning to go on a trip, but the suitcase would be part of my cover story.

  My new name was Maria Costopolous. I was traveling alone to Boston, where my aunt and uncle owned a small Greek restaurant. My aunt had fallen ill, so I was going to take her place around the restaurant until she recovered. That was as much as I figured I would need; the rest I could make up as I went.

  Before I left, Alexis gave me a hug. “Be careful, dear. Remember you aren’t really you at the moment.”

  “I’ll try to remember that,” I told her.

  I wished I could have brought my jacket with the crossbow and Colt, but Maria Costopolous wouldn’t be carrying around that kind of firepower. I would just have to hope whatever happened I could deal with it without a weapon.

  There were several trains going to Boston from Rampart City. I bought a ticket for the earliest train, the one I figured Celia and Ethan would be taking. It was already boarding. “You’ll have to hurry, miss,” the ticket clerk said.

  Running felt strange with Maria’s shorter legs, but I managed to not trip over my own two feet. I made it just in time to board the train, a fact the conductor told me as he took my ticket. I nodded to him and then began looking for a seat.

  There were several cars for general seating on the train. I had to make my way through three of them before I found Celia and Ethan. Celia had her head on Ethan’s shoulder while he stroked her hair. I walked right past them in the suit Alexis had made for me, trying not to look too closely at them.

  I took a seat three rows down, accepting a man’s offer to put my suitcase in the overhead storage for me. He felt entitled then to sit next to me. “My name’s Willard,” he said.

  “Maria.”

  “That’s a pretty name. You going up to Boston?”

  I fed him my cover story about my sick aunt and the restaurant. He ate this up, hanging on my every word. While I lied to him, I watched Ethan and Celia cuddle. They weren’t looking at me, nor did they have any reason to. I looked and sounded completely different from Sue Johnson, whom they thought was watching their apartment.

  The train got underway, gathering speed as it left the station. My new companion Willard began to explain that he was a salesman for something called the GripMaster. Apparently it was a contraption that could be used to reach things up on high shelves and the like. He flapped his left sleeve, which I realized then was empty. “A guy like me needs an extra hand, don’t you think?”

  “I guess so,” I mumbled.

  When I looked back over at Celia and Ethan, I noticed Ethan had a vacant look on his face. His eyes were staring straight ahead, but they didn’t blink. Celia took his arm, pulling him onto his feet. I watched as he lurched past me as if he were sleepwalking. From the way Celia kept an arm on his back, I knew he wasn’t moving under his own power or guidance right now.

  I waited until they went into the next car before I stood up. “Excuse me,” I said to Willard.
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  “What about your bag, miss?” he asked.

  “I’ll be back for it later.”

  With that I hurried down the aisle to see what Celia was up to.

  ***

  I watched through the entrance to the car as Celia took Ethan into a sleeping roomette. I waited until she shut the door before I slipped into the car. Since it was only a couple hundred miles to Boston from Rampart City and not yet six o’clock the other sleeping roomette weren’t being used at the moment. I used a spell to unlock the door of the suite next to theirs.

  With a Hearing Aid spell I could hear what was going on next door. The problem was, there wasn’t much to hear. I heard a rustling of paper and the scratching of a pen. Did Celia know I was wise to her? There was only one way to find out.

  I knocked on the door to Celia’s suite. Maria’s voice was rougher than mine, so it didn’t take much effort for it to sound manly. “This is the conductor. May I see your tickets?”

  Celia opened the door. She glared at me for a moment. While her face was the same, there was a hardness to its set I hadn’t seen before that made her look very different from the girl who had hugged me just this afternoon. “You’re not the conductor,” she said.

  “No I’m not.” I began babbling, repeating the sales pitch for the GripMaster Willard had given me in the other car. While I talked, I stood on my toes to look over Celia’s shoulder. Ethan sat on the floor, a sheet of bluish paper spread out on the bed. He was scribbling on this quickly with a pencil, his eyes still vacant, still in whatever trance Celia had put him in.

  Celia’s voice sounded different, harsher than back in Rampart City as she said, “I don’t have time for this nonsense. Push off, you beggar.”

  I stayed where I was but went silent. Our eyes met for a moment, Celia’s narrowing. She took a step towards me. “Are you deaf? I said to push off.”

  “Celia, it’s me. It’s Sue,” I finally said.

  “You can’t be Sue. She doesn’t look a thing like you. Even the voice is different.”

  Though I hated to do it, I used a Static Charge to send her flying backwards. Ethan didn’t notice as his fiancée sailed over his head to hit the back wall. I stepped into the suite and then shut the door behind me.