Djinn Justice (The Collegium Book 2) Page 7

  “Not my magic,” he said evenly. “I’ve had some spells installed with activation nodes keyed to me.”

  “Ah.” It would be incredibly frustrating and frightening to head up the Collegium, reliant on others’ magic, and at the mercy of it, too.

  No one had ever accused Lewis of lacking courage.

  “Sit down.”

  Echoes of his old authority as Captain of the Collegium guardians had her dropping into one of the comfortable armchairs set around a low coffee table.

  Lewis sat opposite her. He’d lost weight, strain showing at the corners of his eyes. He wore a business shirt and black trousers. A discarded jacket hung on a coat rack behind his desk chair. He was a physically imposing man; over six feet tall, broader than Steve and all of it muscle. His dark blond hair was cut short. His brown eyes met hers steadily, unrevealingly.

  “How are you?” Fay asked. She hadn’t expected to open the conversation that way.

  Nor had Lewis, evidently. His eyebrows rose a fraction.

  Fay shrugged, going with the unconventional opening. She wasn’t under his command any more. “You might as well tell me. I’m one of the few people who understands the Collegium, but isn’t under your orders.”

  “Orders.” Lewis snorted. “The mages in this place wouldn’t know an order if it bit them in the ass. They debate everything.”

  “Welcome to the world beyond the guardians.”

  “How are you finding it?” he asked.

  “Good.” She smiled, thinking of Steve. “Complicated,” she answered, remembering why she was here.

  “Does one of the complications involve the Collegium?”

  “Potentially. Peripherally.” Time to choose her words with prudence because were secrets weren’t hers to share. “I expect you’ve realized my partnership with Steve Jekyll is romantic as well as work-related.”

  “You’re lovers.”

  “Yes.” She would not blush, even if this was the man, emotionless and haunted, whom her dad had recommended to her as a life partner. At least Lewis didn’t know it.

  “Yet, you’re here alone.”

  Man-woman nuances weren’t her area of expertise, but she caught a strange tone. “What are you implying?”

  “If you were mine, you wouldn’t walk into the Collegium alone. Not now.”

  “I can look after myself.”

  “Why should you?”

  Her mouth opened, closed.

  Lewis leaned forward. “Richard wanted me for you. Your father got a lot of things wrong, but he understood what made people tick.”

  “And what makes you tick?” Hey, it wasn’t she who’d wrenched this conversation into the deeply personal. She had never thought to have a heart-to-heart with Captain Lewis Bennett.

  “Loyalty. When I gave my oath to the Collegium, I meant every word. I’ve lived that oath.” He’d given his magic to its service. “I saw how you looked at Steve Jekyll. I heard him claim you. If I had that bond to a woman, she’d know that she was never alone—and she wouldn’t have to hide me from the mages, here.”

  “I’m not hiding Steve, or protecting him.”

  “I don’t see him beside you. Fay—” He broke off. “The last few months, before he resigned, your father dropped heavy hints that he’d look favorably on a relationship between you and me.” A twist to Lewis’s mouth showed what he thought of that parental blessing—not much. “I never followed up because I was no good for you.”

  “You were interested?” Her voice squeaked.

  The grim line of his mouth relaxed. “Fay, you scare most men, but for a few of us, you’re a challenge.”

  Her brain literally couldn’t comprehend it.

  Lewis smiled, an actual smile. “Steve saw it. I’ve worked with him. He’s tough. Loyal. Determined. You chose well. He chose well.” His smile vanished. “But he needs to be with you. Being alone makes you a target.”

  “I’ve always been that.”

  “Within limits,” Lewis said. “You were one of the guardians. You had it tough. Richard insisted on it.”

  She hadn’t known of that order from her dad. It hurt, but she believed it. Her father had approved the attacks on her, the harsh extra edge to her training; no reason not to accept that he’d also instigated them.

  “But at the end of the day, people who mattered knew that the guardians would back you,” Lewis continued.

  “You would?”

  He nodded. “But not anymore.”

  Her stomach hollowed out.

  “There’s debate around you, Fay. You broke your oath ties to the Collegium. It’s not meant to be possible.”

  “I was able to defeat the demon threatening the Collegium because I’d broken those ties. None of you could have done it.”

  “Exactly.”

  She was lost. “I don’t understand.”

  “You’ve always packed more magic than any other mage. More than some people think any one person ought to control. But people were reassured because your oath ties bound you to the Collegium.”

  “And now, I have no such constraints.” And people hated—and attacked—what they feared.

  “Steve should have come here with you, to show that you’re not alone.”

  Except, what would the presence of one leopard-were prove?

  She stared at Lewis, finding solid ground amid her confusion. “You know he’s heir to the Suzerainty.”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t have the backing of the weres.”

  “Are you sure?”

  The question stopped her short. It had been used in her guardian training as a rebuke and order to reassess a situation. She thought of Mrs. Jekyll’s hostility, Steve’s uncertainty and Uncle’s unpredictability. In all of that, no one had kicked her out or attacked her. She’d walked into the heart of the Suzerain’s fort. What did that mean to the weres?

  Through the window, the golden light of sunset faded into shadows. The artificial lighting in the room seemed starker.

  “I’m here because of the weres.” She observed Lewis narrowly. People in command tended to underestimate just how closely they were studied. She recognized in his stillness his interest, but there was no tic of suspicions confirmed, no minor compression of the corners of his mouth that she’d learned to watch for through the years. “A rogue mage is draining their dream essences.”

  “Dream essences?”

  “The term was new to me, too.” She decided against revealing a djinn’s involvement. “The mage is stealing weres’ ability to process the day’s events during sleep. It’s reducing their capacity to function. I’m here as a courtesy, one Steve agreed. I’m going after the rogue mage, but I don’t want to screw up a guardian mission if you’re already on it.”

  “I’ve not heard of an attack against the weres.” Lewis frowned. “How is it even possible? Weres can’t be affected by magic.”

  Fay shrugged. “Evidently dream energy is different to magic.” A non-answer, and all she was prepared to give. She didn’t know if the Ancient Egyptian spell had a unique ability to direct magic against the weres, but even if it didn’t, she’d already decided not to share its existence with the Collegium mages. It was a spell she intended to destroy. There was no rumor or hint within the Collegium of effective enslavement spells for humans and she intended to keep it that way.

  “How many weres are affected?”

  “A limited number.”

  “And your answers will be just as limited? Fair enough. The weres aren’t the Collegium’s responsibility.” He paused. “They’re not our enemy, either.”

  “It’s only guardians who accept them as equals, though. It’s because we’ve fought beside them. The other Collegium mages treat weres as lesser.”

  “There’s not much respect for non-magic users,” Lewis said evenly.

  Fay flinched. “Sorry. I didn’t think.”

  He ignored her apology for forgetting his eroded magic status. “It’s prejudice and stupidity, as if magic alon
e solves problems or defines a person. It’s an attitude I intend to change.”

  “I expect you’re already doing so,” Fay said, ironically respectful.

  He stared at her for a long moment. “I’d like you to stay connected to the Collegium.”

  “Gilda suggested I hire on as a consultant.”

  “That would work.”

  Fay smiled without humor. “She wants to use my demon-wrangling skills. What’s your reason?”

  “Two parts. The Collegium needs your skill set and power. Also, you’re going to be building a life outside the Collegium’s net. As you do, you can link us into that wider community that ducks and dives out of our view.”

  “Are you sure they won’t duck and dive out of my view, too?”

  “Which portal did you travel here by?”

  She was silenced. Cynthia had given her access to the non-Collegium-registered network.

  “My second reason is personal.” Lewis stood. He was a large figure against the backdrop of the darkening window. “You don’t think less of me for not having magic.”

  “None of the guardians do. We understand that…”

  He shook his head. “Kora replaced me as commander of the guardians. She insisted that three of her people rotate duty as my personal assistant and bodyguard.”

  Hence, Haskell’s presence at the desk.

  Fay sighed. “Stupid.”

  Advertising weakness only prompted people to test it. Lewis would have his own private defenses, like the silencing spell he’d activated. But he had to trust others to provide them. A hard ask for such a strong and self-sufficient personality. It was more than the burden of the presidency that added those lines to his face. “If you want a ward or some other spell keyed to you, just call me.” She magicked her new non-Collegium phone number onto a card and materialized it on the table in front of Lewis. If he picked up the card and thought hard about it, she’d know, and she would call him.

  He picked it up with a curious smile. “You came here for help, and instead, you’re giving it.”

  “I came here as a courtesy,” Fay corrected. “I’ll tackle the rogue mage, myself.”

  Between them was the knowledge that it wouldn’t be the first time. Most guardians worked in pairs or teams. She’d always worked alone, or sometimes with allies, such as Steve had been, before he became so much more.

  “Thanks for agreeing to see me.” She stood. The interview was over.

  “I’ll see you down to the foyer.” Lewis placed her card in a pocket. “You’re welcome here, any time.”

  And his presence beside her in the foyer would make that clear.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” she said. Those who disapproved of her and her disgraced father, as well as the current restructuring of the Collegium, would have a new stick to beat Lewis with.

  He shrugged broad shoulders. “I always know what I’m doing.”

  The comeback silenced her and made her think.

  The outer office was empty, its lights dimmed. Haskell had obeyed Lewis’s order and gone.

  With a shock, Fay realized she’d forgotten to view the space as Nancy’s old territory. In the same way, Lewis had already erased her father’s possession of the president’s office. So much had changed in a fortnight. While she and Steve had been recovering from their fight with the demon, and then, visiting her mom to reassure Yolanthe as to her continuing survival, the Collegium had undergone fundamental change.

  In life, you had to keep moving or get run over. If you had wounds to lick, you did so in private. In public…the Collegium’s mages were just as focused on reputation as Steve said the weres were. In the restructure, there’d be jockeying for power and position.

  Lewis walked beside Fay, not with Steve’s dangerous prowling stride, but with a fighter’s readiness nonetheless.

  Oh yeah, anyone who thought that missing his magic made Lewis weak, deserved everything their stupidity earned them.

  Standing in the elevator, aware of his bulk beside her, she kept her gaze fastened ahead.

  Being with Steve, making love with him, had connected her with her own sensual nature. Previously, she’d flinched away from examining the sudden wariness she’d felt around Lewis. She’d always trusted him, respected him, and obeyed him, but inexplicably at times she’d avoided him. Now, she suspected the reason for that. Part of her had responded sexually to his strength. He’d said some men found her a challenge. Well, he challenged her. She’d been too naïve and uncertain to acknowledge her attraction to him. Now, she could see his appeal, even as it left her unmoved.

  She didn’t want massive strength and rigid discipline when she could have Steve. But she had to ask, “Did I pass the test?”

  Lewis shifted minutely.

  “You had to ask if I had ties or if I was a free agent. Now, you know. I’m not with Steve out of loneliness or desperation.” If she had been, Lewis had offered her the temptation of himself, her ex-commander, a man she’d been trained to trust. “I love Steve. He has my loyalty.”

  “Good. Those feelings will anchor you. You’ll have a reason to survive and come home.”

  It was a moment of shattering insight, one in which she forgave Lewis his testing of her. Every day, he struggled to stay in his life. The demands of the presidential role were a burden and a cage, but they kept him functioning. His temptation was to walk off into a final battle. In the end, though, the Collegium wouldn’t be enough to hold him.

  The elevator doors opened. Fay didn’t even look to see who was waiting or watching. She touched Lewis’s hand briefly. “I hope you find someone to love.”

  “Just not my woman,” Steve said.

  Chapter 5

  Steve reached into the elevator and grasped Fay’s hand. He pulled her out and positioned himself between her and the block of granite that masqueraded as the Collegium’s new president.

  Lewis Bennett represented everything Fay was familiar with and trained to respect. Lewis didn’t have grandparents dripping disapproval, trickster djinni messing about, and competitive, political weres waiting to pounce.

  On the other hand, he had a whole Collegium of mages scrutinizing and criticizing his every move.

  Steve whipped his head around, viewing the crowd that had collected in the foyer as he waited for Fay to emerge from the President’s office. He snarled. He put volume behind it, too. He was frustrated, annoyed and hyper-aware of the threats to his and Fay’s relationship.

  About fifty percent of those watching flinched. Almost the entirety of the other half had to be guardians because they started forward at his challenge.

  Lewis held up his hand. Stop.

  The guardians halted.

  “What’s happened?” Fay whispered under her breath.

  “Nothing.”

  She cast him a disbelieving look.

  “I wanted to be here for you,” he growled.

  Her gaze slid sideways for the tiniest moment to Lewis.

  Steve dropped her hand and put his arm around her shoulders, pressing her to his side. Claiming her.

  “Steve.” Her whisper held embarrassment.

  “I told her a good man would be here with her,” Lewis said calmly.

  “And here I am.” Now, the snarl was in his voice, a challenge.

  “And I told him I fought my own battles,” Fay snapped. However, she allowed his possessive hold. She surveyed their audience, chin up, face flushed.

  “The Collegium will be honored to fight beside you,” Lewis said.

  The sharp gasps of seventy two shocked mages underscored the importance of what he’d just said. A commitment. Fay mightn’t be bound to the Collegium, but its president had just declared that her links to it would be respected.

  Steve wound in his temper. He met the other man’s gaze, aware that Lewis had made Fay safer. In the world of magic, Fay wasn’t a vulnerable, lone mage. She had the Collegium’s backing. An attack on her would be answered with force.

  Lewis nodd
ed to Steve, smiled faintly at Fay, and stepped back into the elevator. He pushed a button and the doors closed.

  Unexpectedly, Fay wrapped an arm around Steve’s waist.

  He glanced down at her, unsure of her mood or intent.

  “I don’t need the Collegium to have my back. I’ll take it and I’ll work with them when it’s needed, but I have you.” Her words were for him and their audience. “My future isn’t here.”

  He kissed her, putting all his passion, need and yes, gratitude, into it.

  She kissed him back with sweet, startled fervor, as if she was only just grasping that she wasn’t simply important to him, she was central to his life and happiness.

  When he raised his head, he saw the stillness of shock in their audience. For them, it didn’t compute. This wasn’t how Fay Olwen, kick-ass mage, behaved. By reputation she was as coldly disciplined as Lewis Bennett.

  Not with me, she’s not, he thought smugly. He had the real woman, so much more marvelous than her magic.

  Her pace was firm and determined as they headed for the exit.

  He grinned, aware that his stride had the obnoxious, in-your-face saunter of his leopard self. He ducked his head to hers. “I’m so glad I did meet you, here.”

  The automatic doors swished opened. The traffic noise and night time smog greeted them.

  She smiled. “Me, too.”

  They picked up Thai takeaway on their way to Steve’s apartment. Fay was familiar with the penthouse and, at Steve’s suggestion, had even left some clothes there. They ate by the big window, looking out across the city, and well-warded behind spells she’d strengthened.

  She described her discussion with Lewis, relaying everything, including his testing of her commitment to Steve. “That seemed to matter more to him than the activity of the rogue mage.”

  Steve shrugged. “There’s an endless supply of over-ambitious idiots, so there’ll always be rogue mages. But there’s only one you.”

  “I’m not that important.”

  “Who did Uncle call ‘warrior-princess’?” He pointed his chopsticks at her.

  “So I fight. It’s what guardians do. I’m trained for it.”

  “And the princess part?”