Chapter 14

CALIX

Auburn, New York

1880

Ahead of him, Calix’s mother ran through golden fields. She trusted he would follow, and follow he did, watching as she trailed her fingers over the long stalks of grass. When he would lay down on his back in those same fields, he thought the grass to be giant trees, endlessly reaching toward the sky while he looked on in wonder. But when his mother touched the grass, the plants seemed to sway in unison with her. As if she could talk to each one and teach it her quiet rhythms.

Calix had always known his mother was magical. He’d inherited her dreams, she would say, and then sometimes darkly add, “And none of my terror.” When Calix turned seventeen, he began to understand the full weight his mother carried. He’d seen that terror, too. Little things, at first. A dead fox on the edge of the woods, the bite marks on its body bigger than any predator nearby. Hazy shadows clinging a little too hard to the dying of night for the sunrise; they seemed to follow him when he paced the Rosehill grounds in fits of insomnia.

Then, the worst: the form of a pristine lake marred only by white cloth and auburn hair floating just on the surface, her soft fingers that had once touched the high grasses so reverently now wrinkled, pruned by murky water and death’s touch.

His mother’s visions had driven her to madness. Calix often feared a similar fate for himself, but being around people, especially Lawton, quieted that mess. Maybe Lawton’s drama had kept his own at bay for all this time.

But right now, as his mind’s eye cast him into the past, to a happier time when being an Oracle’s son didn’t hamper some part of his life, either through physical or emotional pain. It wasn’t all doom and gloom then; they were better moments where his mother ran carefree and Calix knew nothing of magic except what his mother carried in her soul.

“Mama! Wait!” Calix ran faster, pumping his legs harder in effort to reach her. But she had, somehow, drifted away from him. She now stood at the tree line, the heavy afternoon shadows demarcating the land as if drawn by a godly hand.

“I’m here, darling!” She held out her arms, her blue dress swirling about those golden stalks, and Calix ran to her. His grin evaporated when she did; an errant plume of smoke on wind that now smelled of dry earth and ozone.

“You wait for the third lightning strike, Calix. You wait, and then you’ll see.”

“Mama?” Calix spun around, panic gripping his heart with a heavy hand. “Mama!”

“The third strike. Wait. You must wait.”

“Mama!” Tears streamed down little Calix’s face as he cried out for his mother.

“You must wait!”

“Why didn’t you make him wait until we were both here?”

“He’s a grown man, Ethaniel, not a child. I can’t stop him from doing anything –”

“You could have talked some sense into him!”

Calix heard the anguish in Ethaniel’s voice, but couldn’t get his eyes to open so he might see the handsome tailor, so he might rake his eyes over the crooked nose and hazel eyes and long, wavy brown hair he wished to sink his fingers into.

I owe you a kiss,Calix thought as Ethaniel’s face finally, finally swam into view. He reached for Ethaniel and was met with a warm, firm grip. “Thank god,” Ethaniel said as he tightly squeezed Calix’s hands. “Calix.”

Aubrey’s stare, while disapproving to say the least, was no less warm. Calix stared in wonder at how those glass-green eyes could hold so much emotion without Aubrey saying a word.

“We keep losing you to unconsciousness,” Aubrey murmured, passing his hand over Calix’s brow. “I’d prefer this be the last time.”

Calix chuckled but his throat was dry, so the sound came out rusty. “In my defense, before that blasted book came into my life, I’d been unconscious exactly one other time.”

Aubrey’s lips twitched; a near-smile that drove Calix mad. He saw Ethaniel staring, too, and had to hide a smile of his own. “And that was caused by…”

“Cracking my head on the ground after falling out of a tree. When I was seven.”

Ethaniel huffed out a laugh. “So a normal childhood activity. Well, that’s somewhat more pleasant than, as you call it, that blasted book. And speaking of, Aubrey was filling me while you were on your…journey, I suppose. Though I do wish you’d waited until I’d arrived.”

Ethaniel gestured to the salt ring around Calix, and then to the small altar he’d set up according to his mother’s notes. Everything looked fairly harmless in the day, but at night, the casting stones, black glass orb on a silver pedestal, and pink chalk (albeit, chalk infused with pig’s blood) all took on an ominous aura.

“I didn’t get anything,” Calix said, upset at himself for breaking the connection so early. “It wasn’t…it wasn’t what I was aiming for. I was looking for Lawton and found…something else.”

Ethaniel’s face dropped and took a bit of Calix’s heart with it. He struggled to prop himself up on his elbows, but once there, leaned forward into Ethaniel’s space. He watched the man’s pupils widen slightly as Ethaniel took in the sight of Calix — hair mussed by the wind the spell had kicked up, the white paint down his hands still glowing gold. Some part of Calix wanted to preen under the attention.

“I did warn you,” Aubrey muttered.

“Warn him about what?” Ethaniel shot back. “What did I miss?”

Aubrey actually snorted at that. “Just this one launching himself into my lap after I—”

“After you teased me and told me you two wanted an arrangement!” Calix protested, near to laughing already.

As Ethaniel squawked in indignation, Aubrey simply held up a finger. “I said interest. There’s a difference.”

Ethaniel managed to recover enough to say, “I apparently can’t leave the two of you alone, can I?”

“No,” he and Aubrey spoke at the same time, leaving Ethaniel to stare disbelievingly at them.

Calix began to laugh. The joy rolled over him in waves, and he felt giddy and weightless from it. These last few days had been so awful, so confusing and frightening, and the moments between the terrors needed to be cherished. He didn’t think things were over and done with by a long shot, and so Calix laughed. Soon, Ethaniel and Aubrey joined him. They sat on the bare wood floor of Aubrey’s front sitting room, in his truly beautiful townhome, and laughed until tears formed and their sides ached with the enjoyment of it, and of each other.

Calix eventually lay back down on the floor and laced his fingers behind his head. “To think, if I hadn’t gone with Lawton yesterday morning, things would be very different.”

“If you hadn’t, the Golden Order would have the book now,” Aubrey said.

Ethaniel stayed quiet, but lay down on the floor beside Calix.

“Are you all right?” Calix asked, putting a hand on Ethaniel’s arm.

“No and yes, and…perhaps. I’ve no good answer for that, I’m afraid.” Ethaniel turned his head until their gazes could meet. “But I’ve a request before I lend my own part of this story to what Aubrey told me while you were in your trance.”

“A request?” Aubrey’s voice was liquid silk touching Calix’s mind and he shivered. Aubrey noticed and replied by putting a hand on Calix’s knee.

“Hmmm, yes.” Ethaniel propped himself up on an elbow, now looming over Calix. Calix sucked in a breath at the beauty above him, and even more beauty to his right, and wondered if it all came crashing down tonight, or tomorrow, if he could ever have another moment that glittered quite like this one.

“I told you,” Aubrey said softly, now also looking down at Calix. “I told you he’d want to be kissed the way you kissed me, Calix.”

Ethaniel glared at them both. “I knew you two had been…”

“Canoodling?” Calix offered.

“Yes, fine. That. There was an energy around you two when I walked into the room a few minutes ago, even through the…” Ethaniel waved his hand toward the paint on Calix’s knuckles and fingers. “What you were doing. Alone. Which I’m sure Aubrey told you was ill-advised.”

“To say the very least,” Aubrey muttered.

“I wasn’t alone, and I think you’re jealous,” Calix shot back. The hand on his knee tightened and Calix had to force himself to hold still.

Ethaniel loomed over him even more, blotting out the candlelight and firelight and the way Aubrey’s skin glistened. His vision now full of Ethaniel, and Calix rose up to meet him halfway, exquisitely aching for it.

Every single thing about the way Ethaniel kissed was elegant and skillful, but it was the quiet passion in his touch that left Calix panting. Aubrey was fire incarnate, but Ethaniel…Ethaniel was the wind fueling the fire. A fire could burn down a forest, but wind could literally break the earth. They were each other’s catalyst, sometimes merely walking circles around each other, and then at times, combusting on impact.

Calix craned up into the kiss, pushing himself up on his palms to get closer. But as much as he drowned in Ethaniel’s kiss, he could still tell when a new hand slid up his right thigh.

“This is insane,” Aubrey whispered, half in Calix’s ear and half to himself. “I’d call it magic, but I know it’s not.”

Ethaniel broke away to say, “Aubrey. Stop thinking. Kiss him. We’ll sort this other shit out in a moment. Just kiss him already.”

The moment Ethaniel’s lips left his, Aubrey’s sharp-angled features took up the whole of his vision. Calix felt Ethaniel’s grip on his hip, sure and steady, but everything else was full up on Aubrey.

The man was magnetic, sucking in helpless but willing victims with those eyes and that countenance. “Are you sure?” Aubrey asked, low and soft.

Calix nearly scoffed, but managed to swallow it down. “Please tell me you’re joking,” he grumbled.

Ethaniel wasn’t nearly as swift in cutting off his own response, but Calix heard that laugh stop abruptly when Aubrey took hold of Calix’s chin — like he had in the carriage only an hour or so ago — and stared at him hard. “I rarely joke. Ethaniel can confirm that. But especially not when it comes to any kind of intimate affair. Not between myself and anyone in the past, and especially not when it concerns this.” Aubrey gestured with an elegant hand to Ethaniel, then to himself, and finally came to rest on Calix’s chest. The material of Aubrey’s vest glinted in the firelight and Calix realized it must have been patterned to reflect light in such a way. It was subtle, but beautiful; clearly Ethaniel’s work.

“Between us, you mean,” Calix hazarded.

“Yes. The three of us. And because we’re men,” Aubrey said, sitting back on his haunches. “You live in this city. You know how it is.”

Calix did. He wagered they’d all run afoul of some kind of trouble. Calix’s money was more than enough to pay off any police officer, though he’d never wracked up any tickets. Lawton, on the other hand, had a few times before he’d gotten sick of being threatened with court and fines and even jail.

But even sweet, proper Calix had gotten caught outside of a safe zone once or twice. He’d been able to bribe his way out of legal troubles. From the look on Ethaniel and Aubrey’s faces, it was clear his penance had been paltry to what they’d seen or experienced themselves.

They both waited on him to speak, their stares measured, but there was a stiff urgency to the set of Aubrey’s jaw that made Calix speak up. “I do. I won’t spit in the face of our safety, but I won’t deny what I see before me, either. Or what I want.”

Aubrey worked his jaw, nodding, while Ethaniel said, “Good. That’s good. Because we certainly don’t need to add trouble to this mess with that damn book.”

“Agreed.” And suddenly Calix’s chin was held by Aubrey once more. “Now, where were we?”

Something about Aubrey made Calix want to launch himself at the man, apparently. He restrained himself enough to keep from knocking Aubrey over, but it was a near thing. Now Ethaniel laughed, delighted, but that laugh lived for only a moment as Calix poured the passion he’d saved for Aubrey into their kiss.

“Jesus wept,” Ethaniel whispered, hoarse and harsh, sending waves of gooseflesh over Calix’s skin. A hand — whose, he didn’t know — snuck in under his rumpled shirt to find his spine and Calix tore out of the kiss with a moan.

“Focus.” A hand in Calix’s hair forced his head down, with a touch that was firm but gentle. He found himself staring at Aubrey once more as the hand on his lower back slid up, and the one in his hair tightened. “Be here.”

“I am,” Calix bit out as he tried to angle forward and find Aubrey’s mouth again.

“You’re not completely, though,” Ethaniel said in his ear.

Calix shut his eyes against the adrenaline and pleasure surging through him. These two were going to tear him asunder. “You’ve done this before,” he panted out, turning his head enough to catch sight of Ethaniel’s pleased little smile. “That’s completely unfair.”

“Even if it were true…” Aubrey rocked up against him and Calix fell forward with a groan. Too much more, and he’d be embarrassingly hard. It felt too early for that, and yet Calix wanted it badly. “Would you be upset by that?”

“Not at all,” Calix replied, eyes fluttering shut once more as Aubrey kissed him. Deeply, this time, and slowly; a fierce contrast to the hot kiss Ethaniel pressed inside his wrist. Clever fingers worked Calix’s left sleeve open and more kisses were placed on his skin.

Calix let himself be swept away by these two fascinating, passionate men who only a few days ago had been strangers to him.

In their world, couplings were usually hasty, fumbling things, fear of being caught driving the senses higher. But so often, those moments were ultimately unsatisfying. They had been for Calix. And Lawton had his own selfish reasons for seeking Calix out; he claimed he wanted to find pleasure in Calix’s body, his kiss, but Calix couldn’t think of a time with Lawton that hadn’t been at his beckoning, his urging.

It had never been about desire or intimacy. It had never been about learning someone else so completely. The scent of them, their taste, what sounds they made, how they liked to be touched. Undoing, and being undone. Lawton had only been interested in himself, and had taught Calix that any coupling between those like themselves would be fraught with denial and insincerity.

Surely there wasn’t more to it than animalistic satisfaction.

But what if there was?

The low throb of pleasure in his belly was magnificent, but it was nothing next to how badly Calix wanted to know both of them.

They would get through this. They had to.

Calix broke away from Aubrey with a gasp, then yanked on Ethaniel until the other man fell into them both, half-laughing, grinning like mad.

“Kiss each other,” Calix demanded.

“Not an issue,” Ethaniel said swiftly before hauling Aubrey to him, practically pulling the taller man on top of him. Limbs now tangled with theirs, Calix let himself be dragged down, half laying on Ethaniel as the tailor kissed Aubrey hard.

Giddiness swept through him, light and airy and a source of unexpected pleasure. Gods how Calix wanted to drag them both to bed and let the rest sort itself out. It didn’t matter how — hands or mouths or even frottage would be more than enough. He wanted to delight in them both, watch them both fall apart, sweaty and sated and gorgeous.

Calix slid his hand down Ethaniel’s chest, entranced by the vision before him. They fit together so beautifully, so perfectly, and yet he knew he wasn’t forgotten by the way Aubrey reached for him, the way Ethaniel curled an arm around Calix’s back. Bringing him closer and closer, until they could fold him into their epicenter.

And then it all crashed down on them.

“No,” Aubrey gasped. Calix froze, worried he’d done something wrong, but Aubrey said it again, his gaze now sharp as he looked around. “Someone’s broken through the wards.”

“How is that possible?” Ethaniel looked both startled and worried and Calix felt the arm around him flex protectively.

“I don’t know but…” Aubrey got to his feet, hauling them both up with ease before running for a tall mahogany cabinet on the far wall. Calix hadn’t much of a chance to look around Aubrey’s abode, as focused as they’d been on other issues. A quick glance now told Calix that Aubrey liked dark wood and gilt, all of it tasteful, nearly sublime.

It hit him all at once. What about the book?

As if reading his mind, Aubrey said, “It’s locked in my personal vault. But the wards on that share a link to the wards on the apartment. Someone breaking through one—”

“Means the vault clamps down on security. But the book jumps to Calix, you said so, Aubrey.” Ethaniel sucked in a deep breath, seemingly more disturbed by the book wanting to be near Calix than the bloody sword Aubrey had just handed him.

“You can fight?” Calix asked as he closed the distance between him and Aubrey.

Ethaniel gave him a wan smile. “Amongst other things.”

“Shit.” Aubrey sighed before turning around with a revolver gripped tightly in his right hand. “Another ward down.”

“What do we do?” Calix held out his hands. “Aubrey?”

Aubrey scanned the room, and Calix saw his gaze lock on the mussed rugs and pillows they’d left behind mere moments ago. “You take this,” Aubrey said as he handed Calix a jeweled knife. “If you have to defend yourself, just throw it at your target. Grab your mother’s things, so we have those, too.”

Calix immediately went cold but did as he was told. Had they both used weapons before? Harmed someone? Killed someone? “I don’t know how to use this knife.”

Aubrey shook his head. “It won’t matter. The knife follows intention, not skill. Aim to maim, not murder. The arms, knees, shoulders. If you think about defending yourself, the knife will follow that.”

That helped some, but not nearly enough. Bile rose in his throat and Calix swallowed against it, resisting the urge to vomit. “All right,” he said softly, taking the dagger from Aubrey.

“It’s okay, Calix,” Ethaniel said as he pulled Calix close. “Trust me. Trust us.” Then he turned back to Aubrey, determination setting his jaw. “Aubrey?”

“There’s a way out, but it won’t be warded.” Aubrey led them over to the closed study door and pressed an ear against it. “Well, from the sounds of crashing and stomping about, whoever it is is likely destroying thousands of dollars of antiques. Lovely.” Aubrey shook his head. “We need to retrieve that book. The vault’s in the library up the hall, and the guest room next door has a hidden door. There’s a back staircase down, out to the alley. We’ll go on three.”

All Calix could do was grip the dagger harder and watch as Aubrey held up one…two…three fingers, then yanked open the door. Revolver pointed first, Aubrey spun into the hallway, graceful as a dancer. “They’re still downstairs, go! Second door on your left, Ethaniel!”

Ethaniel grabbed Calix by the hand and ran into the dark hall. He and Aubrey hadn’t bothered to light any of the sconces on the walls on their way through Aubrey’s apartment, and Calix now regretted that lack of foresight. While Ethaniel pulled him forward, Calix’s mind whirled with questions, none of which mattered in the moment.

Right now, all that mattered was getting out safely. As far as he was concerned, that damn book — Convergence — could burn.

I can’t

I won’t

But those who broke through wish for much darker things

Vile

Fire

Judgment

I am safer with you

“No, you’re not!” Calix screamed as he pushed his palm into his temple. “Get out of my head!”

Take me with you

Your mother’s roses have the answers you seek

Her wards could have stood against a god

If such a thing existed

Calix’s hands ached. His body sang with pain, as if he’d been tossed down several flights of stairs. This felt like every time his powers had acted up, but it was like all of it was combined into one ball of misery and confusion. He let Ethaniel pull him into a room that smelled like leather and wax, stumbling forward to make room for Aubrey.

Aubrey wasn’t behind them.

“Aubrey!” Ethaniel yelled as he stuck his head back into the hallway. “Come on!”

Aubrey appeared before them now, but it was Aubrey from the Collectio. Eyes glowing and cracking with power. But now Calix could see thin lines of magic coursing up Aubrey’s neck, across his cheeks and up over his head. That power pushed on Calix, crooking an inviting finger at his own magic…as if asking for it to come and out play. He pushed back against it, willing it to stay put. Now would not be a good time for him to lose control.

Ethaniel shook his head, mouth set in a grim line. “Aubrey, no.”

“I’m giving you an escape,” Aubrey said. “I’ll hold them off so you can get to the street. I can tap into the door’s memory of being whole and repair it faster than they can break it down.” Aubrey tipped his head back, sniffing at the air. “They’ve set fire to something downstairs.”

A series of crashes, then indecipherable yelling, filtered up to them. “Take Calix and the book and go.” Hand like a viper, Aubrey snagged Ethaniel by the chin, kissing him hard. Calix braced himself and a moment later, found himself in Aubrey’s grasp. “I’ll be right behind you,” Aubrey said softly. “I promise. I’m no martyr.”

Smoke wafted up to them, seeping through the floorboards and curling up the staircase at the other end of the hall. “Go,” Aubrey said, pushing Ethaniel back into the room, then entering himself, closing the door and locking it. “I’ll ward this and stay near until I sense you’re both outside. Pull on the second book, third shelf down on the left bookcase on the western wall.” Aubrey pointed to the far wall, to a bookcase banking a large marble fireplace. “The room’s through there, the vault’s behind the painting over the bed.” Aubrey’s eyes flashed and the shockwaves of his power rippled over Calix’s skin. “The wards on it are down. Go!”

“Goddamn it. All right.” Ethaniel moved back, taking Calix with him.

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Calix asked, but Aubrey only shook his head. “Aubrey! Just come with us!”

But Aubrey didn’t reply. In his stead, Ethaniel said, “Come. He’ll be all right. He’s got a gun, for fuck’s sake.”

“But—”

Ethaniel marched them over to the bookcase, pulled on the correct book, and the entire wall swung open to reveal a bedchamber beyond. “Aubrey, I swear to all the saints, if you die…” Ethaniel muttered.

“You can line up behind me for that,” Calix said before shoving his way through the opening. He chanced a glance back at Aubrey and saw the man standing before the large library door, one hand splayed out as power danced around his fingertips. The air in front of the door had a ghostly aura to it, and Calix could feel the ward’s strength.

The other hand held the revolver steady, aimed for the door and whatever or whoever might come through it.

The darkness did them no favors, but thankfully the bedchamber was small enough to stumble through easily. Ethaniel went right to the painting over the bed, some innocuous pastoral landscape that looked pretty enough but wouldn’t arouse suspicion. Ethaniel tossed the painting to the floor, his usual caution and care peeled away to make room for haste.

On the wall was a plain iron square.

Calix reached out to it, but Ethaniel stopped him. “Let me,” he said, putting his hands on the wall, just to either side of the square. “You’ve both handled this book too much already. Let me take some of it on.”

Calix didn’t like the idea one jot, but he understood it. That innate sense to protect those close to him wasn’t just a part of his personality; it was who Ethaniel was, in every manner. The protective arm he’d curled around Calix and how he kept pace with Aubrey. His care for his uncle. Ethaniel would give until the day his own heart gave out. It had been a slow slide of realization, but now it struck Calix with the power of a storm.

It made him want to protect them both. Aubrey staying behind was the height of stupidity.

“Take it and go,” Calix said as Ethaniel slid the square’s cover up. Inside was only the book and a simple velvet pouch. “Take them both and get a carriage. If we’re not outside in two minutes, give the driver this and tell him to get you outside the city. There’s an enchanted carriage company in Marble Hill, or buy a horse, and take the north trade route to Auburn. Ask for Nelly at the Greenrise Boarding House when you get into town. She’ll get you to Rosehill.”

Calix shoved his billfold at Ethaniel, knowing he had more than enough money to cover it all. “Don’t argue,” he said just as Ethaniel opened his mouth. Something fierce, like a fight breaking out, lit up Ethaniel’s eyes, but Calix shook his head. “I can smell the smoke, Ethaniel. I’m fetching Aubrey, and worse comes to worse, we’ll have to meet you at Rosehill. I already sent my valet on with word to expect us. Hell, that stubborn fool might be on his way there already.”

Calix took a deep breath, leaned in, and kissed Ethaniel. Ethaniel immediately kissed him back, hot and hard and perfect, and if they’d had all the time in the world, Calix would have pulled Aubrey into that little moment.

A sudden, sharp pain flared in his temples, in his hands, and he knew they were out of time. Someone or several people were working strong magic. Aubrey wouldn’t be able to hold out against them for long.

“Be careful,” Ethaniel said as he shoved both items from the vault into Calix’s satchel.

“I will,” Calix reassured him.

He didn’t have time to watch Ethaniel leave. Calix bolted from the room, bursting into the library as the hall door shook in its hinges.

“Calix,” Aubrey muttered, even with his eyes closed and power swirling about him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Making sure we both live through this,” Calix said as his hand went into his pocket, fingers closing around the small diary within. A moment of reassurance before beginning to channel.

In theory, he’d done this a hundred times. He used to recite the deceptively simple steps to himself to get to sleep. His mother had practically ground into him most of what she knew, but the one thing permanently etched into his mind was how to channel magic.

Calix understood, as he watched a bead of sweat slide down Aubrey’s temple, how much magic could eat away at a person. Edna, his caretaker after his mother’s death, had fully believed that Lily Addington had suffered a “bout of madness” and drowned herself in the lake south of Rosehill. Calix knew better; he’d known better then, and he knew it now, as solid as truth and as harsh and cold as reality. His mother hadn’t gone mad, as if it were some infection. She’d let the magic get too deep inside her mind, her body, and it had broken her down from within. Her visions, her night walks, and as the years passed, her slow, aching inability to touch anything even remotely magical, had all been evidence.

The vault below Rosehill existed because she couldn’t handle the raw essence of magic, even the remains of it that lingered on dead artifacts. She had wanted to learn all she could from their makeup, in some attempt, Calix suspected, to reverse engineer her own condition. Magic had overpowered her, then pulled her under. Her death had been the final say on Calix’s understanding of her powers. Oracles, exceedingly rare and usually not long lived, eventually succumbed to the magic that was part of their reality. It wore them down, bit by bit, until the erosion was unstoppable.

Aubrey was battling his own magic, his own skills, and the ones on the other side, with their raised voices and whatever patterns they were using to slowly tear away at the door. But he wouldn’t last much longer against it all.

That understanding, that knowledge, forced Calix to do the very thing he swore he’d never do.

With a firm hand, Calix clamped down on Aubrey’s shoulder. “Give it to me.”

“Whatever you’re suggesting, absolutely not.” Aubrey was sweating and disheveled, but he was still Aubrey. The man had a stubborn streak a mile wide.

“Give me the magic. I’ll lock them out, and we will escape.”

“I can’t,” Aubrey said, his words strained as another blow shook the door. On the other side, they heard a voice yell something about controlling the flames and Calix’s blood went cold. “Any disruption might give them an edge.”

“Trust me, you can do this,” he said, tightening his grip on Aubrey’s shoulder. Aubrey stared at him hard, but rewarded Calix with a slow nod before he closed his softly glowing eyes once more.

It started with physical contact.

Establish touch

Then Calix closed his eyes and breathed Aubrey in.

Establish bond

Aubrey’s citrusy scent was buried under sweat and smoke, but it was there all the same. Calix leaned into Aubrey’s warmth and breathed.

In the darkness behind his eyes, a flame sprung to life. One flicker, as though someone were holding fire in their palm. Calix reached for it eagerly, knowing this was Aubrey trusting him deeply. Channeling was a highly intimate thing, too personal for any casual relationship.

Establish trust

“Breathe with me,” Calix muttered, willing his own heart to slow.

The darkness pulled at him, plucking at his senses, but eventually the frenetic energy twitched into an even pattern. A musician figuring out his part in the orchestra.

“Breathe,” he whispered.

A second flame appeared, greenish-blue like the glow of Aubrey’s mending magic.

Calix knew Aubrey felt his rush of gratitude when the other man shivered, and he had to smile. The room, the smoke, the pounding on the door had all faded to a distant hum, somewhere far out on the horizon. But they were here, now, and nothing was more important than the final step.

Find the balance

Everything about channeling was dangerous, but the final step left Calix completely vulnerable. It’s why one never channeled with someone they didn’t trust — Aubrey could easily reach in at this very moment and shred Calix’s power to fragments.

It would take nothing at all for him to do.

Calix felt that rush of gratitude grow, warming him all over, and he let go.

He opened himself up fully to Aubrey’s power, and it felt like nothing he’d ever experienced. This was why his mother never stopped her channeling, even when it slowly obliterated her.

This

This power

This incredible rush

Calix was flying, soaring, riding a wave of magical essence unlike anything else. Aubrey’s power was brilliant, bright and burning and yet somehow orderly; just like Aubrey himself. Calix tasted Scotch on his tongue, smelled lavender, could feel the comfort of plush rugs and well-polished floors under his feet. The satisfaction of a solid day’s work vibrated through his being. And then what followed was deeper down, but still Aubrey; his foundation, his very being. Order and knowledge, but never without a tiny bit of risk. A small willingness to push past his limits, to see what he was truly capable of. Duty and stalwartness, yes, but under that was a man and his magic and the sense that if he’d truly wanted to, Aubrey could have it all. He could take power, topple establishments, run companies, and court influence.

Aubrey didn’t want that. It wasn’t his legacy or his family’s legacy.

Aubrey was a healer. A mender. Someone who repaired, who restored, who made whole the things most others gave up on.

So Calix pushed all of that out, against the now splintered door, and out again, to where he could sense the mages throwing patterns against Aubrey’s wards. Out further still to where a man in a black as night suit stood on the opposite street corner, cigarette in his mouth as he watched flames punch out the windows on the first floor of the apartment. Calix stared in shock as the man, who looked far too much like Ethaniel, suddenly locked eyes with him and gave a slow nod, then stubbed out his cigarette and walked away.

That stranger’s hooded hazel eyes burned through him, as if they could find all of Calix’s secrets and spill them like marbles from a jar.

Calix let out a guttural yell and shoved that power forward, as if he could spit in that man’s eye and make him regret rising from bed that morning. He was healing and mending, and power, and pure spite, and it all slapped against that library door as if to say, “Your move”.

Calix let his head fall forward as the last bit of Aubrey’s magic ran its course through him. And in his ear, Aubrey said, “You bloody brilliant fool. Come on.”

Calix wasn’t entirely sure if he was walking or stumbling, but Aubrey must have managed to get them out, because the next thing he knew, he was slumped against Aubrey’s side as the smell of horse and city streets assaulted him.

“Marble Hill,” he muttered into Aubrey’s sleeve. “I sent Ethaniel there.”

“Good. We’re not far behind him, and he’ll likely stop for supplies while there.” Calix felt his hair pushed off his neck and then powerful fingers were kneading into the base of his skull. “Stay with me, Calix,” Aubrey said quietly.

“Bit stuck now, I think.”

Aubrey sputtered a laugh. “I think we both are.”

Calix closed his eyes and breathed, feeling a tendril of Aubrey’s power touch his mind with something like peace.