Magic Awakening: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Spirit War Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  With that, he raised his hand. I briefly noticed that he had a scar on his left ring finger. He waved mockingly at me, and then disappeared.

  I shook my head, frustrated. I lifted my sleeve once more, and regrettably, the mark was still there, albeit with slightly dulled colors. Perhaps the presence of Tyrus had made it glow brighter than before?

  I didn’t know.

  But perhaps someone with experience in spiritual matters would.

  I quickly got dressed, putting jeans on. DJ was still facing outside, and Brady and Nadia were still making small talk. Tyrus had probably frozen time as we spoke, which would explain why everyone remained as they did. I left without a word and made my way to the lobby.

  Sure enough, behind the reception area, Carsis sat working. He didn’t look any the worse. When I approached, he gave me a typical, customer-facing smile.

  “I need to know more about last night,” I said.

  Carsis quickly looked around. He stood up without a word, went to another room, and came back moments later with a blonde woman. The woman sat down at the receptionist desk, and Carsis took me down the stairs from the night before, all the way down to the room where he’d created the portal. But this time, instead of a dark, empty room, it was full of luggage, with various yellow and white airline tags on the handles.

  “We can’t work long here because people will be in and out,” he said. “If anyone asks, we had a billing dispute and you got pissed off and had to deal with it here.”

  “I did?”

  “Just, that’s the deal, OK?”

  I didn’t like it, but compared to fighting dragons, it was easy.

  “OK, so here’s the deal. You—you have the mark?”

  How—

  I noticed then I was rubbing my shoulder, which with the mark was sore and sensitive, as if I had gotten a permanent tattoo. It wasn’t very far from the truth.

  “Son of… who gave it to you?”

  “Tyrus.”

  Carsis bit his lip, shook his head, and seemed gravely disappointed.

  “That fucker. This is bad, real bad. Really, really bad. Really, terribly, awfully—”

  “Enough adverbs, why is it bad?”

  Carsis paced the room, ignoring the bags that he brushed against and knocked over. I waited as patiently as I could, folding my arms before he finally spoke up.

  “Tyrus is just one of Mundus’ second-in-commands,” he said, a phrase that sounded contradictory at first but made more sense when I thought about it. Mundus probably told multiple demons they were his second-in-command, and then pitted them against each other. “He primarily sends messages. Usually, those messages are more of the physical type—stabbing a traitorous demon in the neck, assassinating an angel who has figured things out too much, and so on. But with you… it seems like he’s setting you up for something bad.”

  “He keeps talking about how Mundus likes the chase, how—”

  “And he does, he most certainly does. But Mundus isn’t an idiot. He can chase you while never being at a disadvantage. It’s like if, instead of cat and mouse, it was tiger and mouse. A mouse would never defeat a tiger. But a tiger could deliberately give the mouse advantages to make it more fun. It won’t help the mouse win. But it’ll help the mouse last longer.”

  “You’re calling me a fucking mouse?”

  Carsis chuckled, a response that I actually found lightened the mood. The more he had talked before that, the more hopeless I had felt.

  “No, you’re better than that. You’re more like, to take the analogy further, a cat against a tiger. You got weapons, but whatever weapons you got, he’s got better ones. We have to help you evolve—no, I have to help you evolve. I have to.”

  “You?”

  Carsis nodded.

  “I—”

  The door opened.

  “Listen, lady, I told you once, you broke the electrical outlet, it’s gonna cost you an extra fifty euros.”

  I went silent for half a beat before I pretended to lose my mind as an Asian man quickly grabbed his bag.

  “I didn’t fucking break the outlet, you Dutch dimwit! It was already broken! Maybe if your staff handled—”

  The man left in a hurry, and I dropped it and smiled.

  “Dutch dimwit, huh? That’s cold.”

  “You haven’t seen anything if you think that’s bad, Carsis.”

  “Oh, I think I have,” he said. “But in any case, Sonya, I can teach you how to fight Tyrus and Mundus and the enemies ahead. I can teach you magic and how to defend yourself. But you have to trust me completely. You’re entering a fight that has monsters and demons gunning for their own claim to fame, and it’s going to get bloody. You can trust me, I’m a servant of Yevon. But you’d better be careful with who you trust otherwise.”

  I snorted and approached Carsis. He stood his ground, his arms folded, that thick goatee and bald head staring me down.

  “First of all, I don’t trust anyone except my brother, and that’s not going to change, so don’t think that just by asking for it I’ll trust you,” I said, which Carsis had no reaction to. “Second, I don’t need to be told who to be careful with. Especially after it comes from someone who demands full trust without—”

  “Proving it?” Carsis said, his voice remarkably calmer than before. “I saved your life twice in one day. Do you need further proof?”

  I wanted to argue the point. I wanted to say that I’d only known him for about 24 hours, and as nothing more than the owner of Durty Nelly’s. I didn’t say it, but part of me thought of how many trust issues I had.

  But saving my life twice was admittedly a pretty damn good way to earn some trust. Although really, the gold-and-black dragon was the real winner last night. But point remains.

  “Fine,” I said. “But I’ve seen enough betrayal and departures in my life to not give it to you completely. You may still hear me ask why.”

  “As you should, a good student should never just blindly accept explanations.”

  Carsis offered his hand out. I still didn’t have complete faith in anyone. Hell, half the time I doubted my brother, although that was more because he played pranks than anything else. But if there was anyone who had proved so far to be an ally in Amsterdam, it was Carsis.

  I reached out my hand and squeezed. He had a firm grip, but being in the CIA had helped me encounter plenty of people who had a stronger grip. We shook once and withdrew.

  “Good. Now, the first thing we’re going to do is help you go in and out of the spiritual realm. Something you need to be aware of is that a strong enough demon can bring you into the spiritual realm, even if you choose not to go, thanks to your mark. Of course, strong enough is relative—a demon strong enough today may be an easy target tomorrow. But for now, we should try and avoid demons whenever necessary. Is that understood?”

  I nodded, fully agreeing with that. I had to acknowledge I won yesterday with some help. And if that help hadn’t come…

  “Because of this, I only want you to practice leaving the spiritual realm, where you will be more easily able to harness your magic than you will in the real world.”

  “Can you, in the real world?”

  Carsis grimaced. Clearly, the answer was yes. But there were also caveats.

  “It’s extraordinarily rare for a human to do it,” he said. “Typically, it comes only in moments of extreme necessity or emotion. That’s how miracles happen. I suppose if you garnered enough skill, you could, but frankly, if demons start coming out in full force in the human realm, you’ve got far bigger problems than learning to harness your magic.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. Just trying to imagine a city like Amsterdam laid to waste, for all of the networks to broadcast, for a war to break out between humans and demons… it would unequivocally be the apocalypse, and we would all die. We had to hold them off—no, that wasn’t enough. If what Carsis said was true, Yevon wouldn’t help until a human died. We had to find a way to defeat hell ourselves.

/>   “In any case, we’re going to have to cross over to the spiritual realm so you can practice escaping if the need arises. Before we do that, though, I need to emphasize a few things. One, just as you can open a portal, a portal can be closed. So if you’re fighting a bunch of demons and you try and open a portal, they can close it and fight you here. Best to find shelter and hide before opening the portal. Two, related to this point, try to do it in a non-public place. So far, demonic interference in the real world has been limited to a few bites, and we’d like to keep society out of the loop as long as possible.”

  “Why?” I said, but I knew the answer before Carsis had even registered my question.

  “Because people often panic more over the possible than the actual.”

  Too true. I’d seen rumors cause more deaths than bullets. Whoever said “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me” had to have been deaf and illiterate.

  “Those are pretty much the only rules. And they’re not even rules per se, more like guidelines. You could open a portal surrounded by demons. You could open a portal in a public place. But you’ll have a messy fallout to deal with if that happens.”

  Won’t be the first time.

  “Now then, are you ready?”

  I nodded. Carsis held out his hand. No magic shot out. I was wondering what he was doing.

  But then lightning burst forth once more, albeit with less power and brightness than in the spiritual realm.

  “Magic’s a bit weaker here. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”

  I stepped through the portal with Carsis right behind me. The new room had the same dimensions but was just as last night was—it was empty, devoid of luggage.

  “The spiritual realm largely mirrors the human realm in terms of layout and structure but is affected by things like battles and what not. So I wouldn’t go out this door if I were you.”

  As if the dents in the door and the memory of the dueling dragons needed anymore remembering, I noticed blood stains on the ground which I didn’t see before.

  Oh, damnit! The fuck are my guns?!?

  “What did you do with my guns?” I demanded of Carsis. “Is this your way of making me trust you?”

  “They’re hidden under your bed. If you don’t believe me, check as soon as we get out of here. If I left them visible, someone could have taken them.”

  I hated this. I felt trapped. I didn’t think Carsis would pull something on me, but I hated not being prepared. It wasn’t the things that happened a third or a tenth of the time that killed you. It was the rare, unexpected, unplanned for event that only happened once in a lifetime but could’ve been easily prepared for.

  “Now, I need you to hold out your right hand, spread your fingers out as if catching a tennis ball, and concentrate your entire mind on the human realm. Let nothing else cross your mind.”

  I did exactly as he said, holding my hand up, fingers wide, and focused on this room, just with the luggage. I felt a warmth in my body, the sensation of something tingling yet gentle rising through my right arm, and then the same lightning-type magic shooting from my right hand, opening a portal.

  “Interesting, most don’t… go ahead and go on through, I’ll be right behind you,” Carsis said.

  Not wanting to be in hell unprotected, I immediately ran through. When I reached the other side, I didn’t even wait for Carsis. I instead quickly dashed up to my hostel room, determined to grab Ebony and Ivory before someone stumbled upon them by accident. I tried opening the door, but realized I’d also forgotten my key. Son of a—

  The door opened, and there stood DJ, in a black tank top, his eyes red.

  “Holy shit, looks like you had quite the night after I left,” I said with a fake smile as I walked casually to my bed, not wanting to alert DJ to my reason for being here.

  “You have no idea,” he said, his voice scratchy.

  “So then what happened after I left?” I said, trying miserably to make casual conversation as I sat on my bed, trying to feel for my guns with my ass.

  “Your brother and that girl left about five minutes later. Brady was absolutely worried about you, he kept asking where you were.”

  “He’s not here?”

  “No, he went downstairs.”

  How did I not see them? Then again, I was moving up here for one purpose. Which hasn’t been fulfilled yet.

  “Interesting. Yeah, crazy night,” I said, hoping DJ would lose interest and walk away.

  “I was just about to shower, I’ll join you for breakfast downstairs in a bit if you’d like. Brady said he’d be down there for some time. Up the stairs past the bar.”

  “Cool, I may just,” I said, a polite smile forming as DJ headed into the shower.

  I’ll admit, there was a very strong temptation to follow him into that shower. I wasn’t going to do it, of course, but man would I have liked a sneak peek at his Down Under. But I refocused and quickly found Ebony and Ivory on the far side of the bed, in the corner where I’d be least likely to touch them. Carsis had also turned the safety on for both of them, ensuring I wouldn’t pull a “dishonorable discharge” during the night. I felt conflicted, honestly, as part of me hated someone else touching my guns. I valued them more than my car, my apartment, my phone, my laptop… but I probably would’ve done the same thing for Brady.

  I examined the two guns as closely as I could, making sure Carsis hadn’t fucked with them. They seemed clean, even after I took them apart and examined them from the inside, and I holstered them up and ran downstairs to meet Carsis, still standing at ease in the luggage room.

  “I think that’s plenty for today,” he said. “I could have you practice more, but honestly, you showed you could do it, what’s the point? That, and the more magic we use, the more attention we draw. So unless you—”

  “No,” I quickly said, painfully needing just fifteen minutes of vacation talk and not save-the-world planning. “I’m good. I don’t forget things like that. And I’ve always gotten things right the first time through in training.”

  “As do I,” Carsis said, a wry smile forming. “Come back later tonight when you want to train.”

  I turned to run but was left with one question.

  “When I went through your portal last night, I fell into some empty white space and passed out. Here, I opened a portal and wound up in the human realm equivalent. What gives?”

  “When you’re like me, Sonya, you have powers that are hard to explain to others,” he said. “Consider it a chance to learn more as you progress.”

  I nodded in appreciation, leaving Carsis behind as I headed upstairs to join my brother and eventually DJ for some breakfast.

  Chapter 7

  When I sat next to Brady without a word, he jumped with surprise and squeezed me.

  “Don’t ever run off again like that, please?” he said.

  “I’m a big girl, Brady, don’t worry about me,” I said. “Besides, I think you were fine without me.”

  I wanted to point out the absurdity of Brady being upset with me flirting with DJ, only for him to immediately go and sleep with some German girl he met at the bar. But fighting real demons made petty quarrels ones seem irrelevant.

  “I know, it’s just… I’m just saying be careful, OK? Between all the people disappearing off of Devil’s Eye…”

  “I promise I’ll be OK, Brady. I didn’t come to Amsterdam to do something stupid on day two of what’s going to be a month-long trip.”

  This seemed to reassure him, and the mood became more lighthearted, even as DJ sat with us. Brady didn’t look at him much, but at least he didn’t actively try and sabotage our conversations.

  “Cheers, everyone,” DJ said, his voice still scratchy but his presentation a bit more refined. “What’s the plan for today?”

  Anything but Devil’s Eye. Something normal. Something a regular human visiting Amsterdam on vacation would do that’s not drug-related.

  “Was thinking about the Van Gogh
Museum,” Brady said. I looked to see if he felt defeat for doing what DJ had done yesterday. All I got was him looking down at his cereal as he spoke, but that was a win enough. “I remembered putting it on my list of to do’s.”

  “You would,” I said.

  “I would be prepared and have this planned out, you’re right.”

  “Overprepared and overly planned, I think you mean.”

  He gave a short chuckle, one of disagreement but not confrontation. Silly brother, thinking that I would back down because of one laugh.

  “But yeah, unless Miss Spontaneous has a different idea, I think the plan was to go over there as soon as we finish here and spend a couple hours there. After that, who knows?”

  “It’s definitely worth a visit,” DJ said effusively, the most animated I’d seen him in the 24 hours or so I’d known him. “Honestly, if you guys go, I would love to tag along for a second visit. And we can invite the Brits, too. No sense in being exclusive.”

  No, no sense in being exclusive. Couldn’t agree more. Thank you for saying it.

  “Sure, you can come,” Brady said, but the underlying words were obvious. He thinks he’s an insufferable artist.

  Oh, I have to play this up hard when we get there. Maybe ask him about all of the details in the art we wouldn’t notice. Brady’s gonna love it.

  And he can’t bitch. Not after getting laid and leaving me out to dry with hell last night.

  “Just to make sure, though,” Brady continued. “We’re not planning on doing any drugs, are—”

  “Hell no,” I quickly interjected, more rudely than I intended. “Sorry. I learned the hard way Devil’s Eye is not to be fucked with.”

  “Devil’s Eye? Oh, Sonya, darling, I could’ve told you that would’ve been a mistake,” DJ said, smiling at my exasperated reaction to him calling me darling. Although I had to give it to him—it took balls to say that in front of my brother. “Brady might be the only one smart enough here to not have done it.”

  Charmer.

  “I don’t need it, I’m already good,” Brady said. “If you had seen the way Sonya reacted, DJ, you’d want to run the hell away from here as fast as you could. Far, far away from Amsterdam.”