Page 6 of Magic Claimed
The woman let out a squawk of alarm and jerked back. “He’s one ofthem,” she hissed, dropping her phone in her haste to get farther away.
“Yes,” Faris agreed. “I am.” I heard the beginning rumbles of his elemental magic in the word—like boulders grinding together, or the earth stirring underfoot. “My name is Faris Lansgrave. I am Idrian,andI am the owner of this building. As stated in our contract, all property damage from this evening’s events will be repaired and covered by insurance. However, as also stated in our contract, this community permits no discrimination. I rent to humans and Idrians alike. And if this distresses you to the point that you resort to threats or intimidation against any of your fellow residents, you are welcome to make your home elsewhere.”
The woman gasped in outrage. “You can’t kick me out,” she declared. “I have rights!”
“And I have a signed contract with your name on it,” Faris growled. “As legally recognized refugees, Idrian citizens are protected from discrimination and hate crimes based on their world of origin. But there is an added clause in your contract that states any act of hostility against another resident will result in immediate eviction. But I’m guessing you didn’t actually read it, did you?”
My neighbor was suddenly gaping like a fish and floundering for words. And now that the worst was over, I began to feel an unmistakable surge of guilt.
She wasn’t wrong about one thing—tonight’s eventsweremy fault. I’d genuinely believed we would be safe with Ethan in our apartment, and that belief had proven to be wildly overconfident.We’d been lucky this time, but it could have been so much worse. There was too much we didn’t know about his magic. Too much we couldn’t predict.
And yet, I could never treat him the way Elayara had. Could never force him to live in isolation, forever unable to know love or family or acceptance.
But what options did we have? How could we enable Ethan to live with dignity while also protecting everyone around us from his magic?
I was still chewing on that when my phone buzzed from the pocket of my pajamas… well, more like joggers. I didn’t like sleeping in anything I couldn’t easily run away in.
Tuning out the argument for a moment, I pulled out my phone and saw I had a text.
From Callum.
The immediate effect this had on me would have been almost embarrassing if I’d thought anyone was watching. I felt a happy little jolt in my chest, had to bite my lip to keep from smiling, and honest-to-goodness tears tried to well up in the corners of my eyes.
I was absolutely ridiculous, and I did not care.
Hey, you okay?
I was not, but how had he known?
had a bit of an event
we’re all safe
fire department MIGHT have been called…
I couldn’t lie to him entirely, because he was likely to get the full story later from either Faris or Kira. But neither was I about to confess to him how bad it could have been, nor explain my current dilemma with Ethan. And I wasdefinitelynot going to admit how anxious I’d been over how little I’d heard from him since he left.
Neither of us was excited about being apart, especially not so soon after we’d finally admitted our feelings for each other. But we knew this was the right thing to do. The shapeshifters needed his leadership right now, and we wanted them to accept our relationship for the right reasons—not because he roared at them and told them they had no choice.
As fun as that would have been to watch.
So now he was at the Shapeshifter Court in New Mexico, laying the groundwork for me to safely confront his own council’s accusations against me. Ridiculous as they were.
The first was that I was in violation of the new laws against the possession of stolen magic. In a technical legal sense, this one was probably true, even though the law itself was heinously unjust. But the second charge was the one that worried me the most, given that I had no idea who had accused me or why. The shapeshifters seemed to believe that I’d actually colluded with the man who’d destroyed the Symposium and nearly kidnapped around fifty of the most powerful Idrians in the country back in October.
Blake Masterson. A human that I once might have called a friend. Like me, he’d been a prisoner of the fae for many years, but unlike me, he’d retained no magic of his own. Instead, he’dlearned to use magic-imbued objects, and decided to use that power in unspeakable ways.
Last we knew, he’d begun recruiting an army of other humans and training them to use stolen magic, with the goal of… Well, we weren’t entirely sure, but it was nothing good. All signs pointed to him wanting war between humans and Idrians, and I couldn’t help but wonder whether the increased hostility from my neighbors was due to his efforts.
If you don’t tell me, I’ll just ask Faris.
I grimaced and sent back a winking emoji.
you have enough to worry about
seriously we’re fine
ari and logan weren’t even here
