Page 21 of The Grip of Death
“This is the gayest thing I’ve ever seen,” Niko cried out, one arm slung over his buddy Sedgewick’s shoulders. “It’s so beautiful. This is so corny. Gods, I love you guys.”
I almost laughed, seeing the conflicting emotions struggle their way around the inside of Niko’s body. And then I saw past his head, spotting the black-and-white hair of the man I loved. I couldn’t help but smile.
He jogged up to me with the broadest grin splitting his face, laughing as he picked petals and ribbons out of his hair. I took his face in both hands and kissed him deep. Gods, I must have been so swept up in the moment myself.
“You’re so pretty with your hair like that,” I told him, the petals somehow falling among his curls in the shape of a floral crown. Magic. “And you smell so good.”
Xander sputtered with laughter, wiping his lips on the back of his hand. “What’s gotten into you? Jackson, the machine works! It’s perfect. All your hard work and the arcane engine is finally in action.”
“That’s why I’m so happy!” I said, hardly caring that I was yelling. I pulled him in for a huge embrace, guiding him towardthe engine as paper cranes and streamers and petals fell all about us.
Gods, at this rate, I didn’t think we’d even need to get married anymore. This felt like a celebration enough. The universe could roll the credits on our happy-ever-after and I’d be fucking delighted.
“You should give it a try, too,” I told him, my voice trembling.
Everyone who’d tested the machine had only done so to create decorative spells and effects. If the arcane engine could amplify these lovely little gestures into beautiful displays of magic, what more could it do with a real dose of Grayhaven sorcery?
“Yes,” Beatrice said, backing away from the machine, giving space for Xander to take over the controls. “You should try it too, Xander. It feels incredible.”
The Halls of Making went silent as we waited for him to take position. Arguably one of the greatest young mages in the Black Market today — my future husband — and he was about to take the stage. What would the great Xander Wright perform for his first trick?
“Like this?” he asked uncertainly, stepping into position, a conductor at his podium, a wizard in his place of power.
I nodded and licked my lips, burning with anticipation. He smiled and nodded back, encouraged by my enthusiasm.
Xander placed his hands on the pages of the crystalline book.
10
A moment’s concentration,a flutter of his lashes, and Xander had taken command of the arcane engine. The machine whirred to life as it siphoned his stores of arcane essence, his energies coursing deeper and stronger than perhaps any of the others who’d tested the device before him.
No offense meant to Beatrice and the masters, of course. I was head over heels in love with this man, after all.
The curls of his hair rose and tumbled, whipped by the eldritch breeze radiated by the rapidly shuffling pages of the crystalline book. Xander took a long, slow breath, then exhaled all at once.
Electricity leapt from the arcane engine in sparks and tangling arcs, an amplified expression of his Volta spell. Terra came through in swirls of dust and pebbles, plumes of flame erupting to represent Ignis, a chilling breeze that carried the diamond dust of snowflakes and ice as a manifestation of Glacia.
And with each magnified version of his little magics it struck me that I knew the names of all those spells because of the time we spent with each other, the small slice of Grayhaven he’d brought back home to me. The same place that had kicked off our silly rivalry had now become the very thing to bring the twoof us so close together — never mind that it had a crazy magical goddess masquerading as its principal.
Sure, I’d never be able to cast spells on my own, exactly as Old Giuseppe had said. But between the two of us, Xander could do wondrous things. We’d already done wondrous things, saved the Black Market, maybe even the world. All of my insecurities and anger from before the time we started dating seemed so insignificant and stupid now. Together, Xander and I truly could make magic.
More than the magic, this incredible elemental fireworks display, what stood out the most was the sweet sound of Xander’s laughter. Our eyes met, his gaze filled with joy, but above all else, pride.
“It’s working, Jack! All that effort and it’s finally working. This is amazing.”
All those years his family had tried to force him into Incandescence when all it would really take to push him to his potential was a work of artifice. All those years of resentment and spite, and here was the answer all along, a machine to safely enable even greater feats of magic.
And then Xander began to scream.
“What’s happening?” I cried out. “Preston, Giuseppe? The engine. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Giuseppe shouted back, flipping frantically through loose pages from the schematics. “This isn’t supposed to happen.”
Beatrice shoved me in the shoulder. “Turn off the machine. Pull Xander away from it. Do something, Jack. Do anything.”
My heart lunged, falling into the pit of my stomach. Plumes of radiant energy leapt from Xander’s body in a dizzying, sickening array of colors, his elemental magic mingling dangerously, braiding with strands of raw arcane essence. Was it even safe to touch him? What if this worked like electricity?
Why didn’t I have any of the answers?
