Chapter 13

Thirteen

"Those ephemeral beings seeking to linger in an effort to escape their Afterlife are to be considered unnatural and must be banished to restore balance." — Sorcery in the Age of Reason.

Augustus had no intention of seeing Mara that day. After dinner the previous evening, he had decided not to seek out the saint for a few days.

After all, a man could have too much of a good thing, and sorcerers could be notoriously pushy when someone had their attention.

The saint, most certainly, had his attention.

Augustus liked to walk the streets when he was thinking. He didn’t feel the hooks dragging him to Mara’s teashop, but every corner he turned, there was the red door of her teashop, waiting for him. Augustus wanted to give Mara space; the door had different ideas.

Maybe it’s not you that it wants to help. Mara might need the company.

After an hour of fighting against it, Augustus had gone through the door that opened for him despite Mara’s wishes.

Now, Mara walked beside him, dressed in her cute red jacket, her silver curls loose around her shoulders. Augustus’s lips still tingled treacherously every time he looked at her.

He had planned to ignore the letter in his mailbox about the ghost, but he needed an excuse to get Mara out, and it seemed like as good an idea as any.

"How do you know about the haunting?" Mara asked. Augustus fished about in his pockets and passed her a receipt.

"Someone was almost convinced to jump in front of a train because of it," he said.

’Help me. It’s trying to make me kill myself every day,’Mara read the scrawl of blue ballpoint aloud. "How do they know you are the one to help?"

"No idea. Word gets around, I suppose. I certainly don’t advertise."

"Do you like being the Judge?"

Augustus almost crashed into a street sign. "How do you know they call me that? I thought it died out last decade."

"No such luck, sorcerer. A bartender told me. She was quite taken with you but is too afraid to ask you out," Mara said. She gave him an appraising look. "Though I don’t know why."

"Really? I might take her up on it. It’s been a while," Augustus replied. It had been more than a while, not that he was going to admit that.

"She was far too young for you," Mara said, some of the teasing gone from her voice. His lips tingled again, and he rubbed at them irritably.

"Everyone is too young for me, saint. It is part of the problem."

"Is the other part that you scowl so much that you scare them away?"

Augustus huffed an almost laugh. "You tell me. It hasn’t done much good keeping you away."

Mara’s crooked smile was all mischief as she tapped under her eye. "It’s because I see through your scowl. You don’t frighten me."

"You haven’t seen my war face yet," he answered, which was true, and he hoped that she never did. Truth be told, he was more terrified of Mara than she could ever be of him, and for a myriad of reasons, he never wanted her to know.

They hopped on a tram at La Trobe Street and rode it slowly down the hill to the train station. Augustus was wary of everyone who looked at them for too long, magic tingling under his fingers in his urge to throw up a glamour around them. He didn’t mind people, but he didn’t like the wash of humanity pressing up against him either.

At the Flagstaff Station stop, Augustus held out his hand to assist Mara down the steep steps of the tram and onto the street. It was a knee-jerk reaction, something he hadn’t done in ages, and now found himself falling into old manners and patterns. He blamed Mara.

She smiled her sphinx smile that could mean anything and took his hand, accepting the assistance and making the gesture seem less awkward.

As a sorcerer who was always far too observant, Augustus didn’t fail to notice how Mara’s small hand fit perfectly into his. He let it go quickly and stuffed his into his coat pocket before it got him into any more trouble.

Mara dropped some coins into a homeless lady’s hat on their way into the station, and they rode the flights of escalators under the street and into the warm fog of humanity, grease, and frying bacon from the station cafe.

"Any idea what platform we are looking for?" Mara asked, her dark eyes scanning her surroundings.

"Let’s have a look. Don’t let me crash into anything," Augustus answered.

They stepped off the escalator and out of the way of the commuters. It had been a long time since Augustus used magic to feel out the dead, but he remembered the form of it.

He focused his mind, and his magic spread out of him like smoke, hunting for the energy that didn’t belong to living things. He stumbled as the feedback overwhelmed him. Mara’s hand touched him lightly on the chest to steady him.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, just didn’t realize there would be so many ghosts. There is something not quite dead coming from this way," he said, and she quickly removed her hand.

Augustus followed the greasy, clinging aura of violence down to platform three. A girl in a black hijab was leaning against a cream-tiled wall, smoking a cigarette and dressed in a dirty leather trench coat.

"That’s her," he said, dispelling the tracking magic. He was about to summon the banishing spell when Mara stepped in front of him.

"You don’t want to know why she’s trying to convince people to kill themselves?" she asked.

"I don’t need to. I only need to stop her."

Mara’s frown was so full of judgment, he stepped back from her. "What?"

"Let me talk to her. I can feel heartache coming from her," she said and left him staring after her. Restless spirits could be dangerous, and he wasn’t about to let Mara leap in front of a train because she had a tender spot for grieving creatures.

"Hello, I’m Mara," she said to the girl. She would barely have been eighteen years old when she died, and she gave Mara a sad-eyed glare.

"Do you want to know a secret, Mara?" she asked.

"Yes."

"You see that tunnel mouth? There is a portal to another world there if you have the courage to get to it," the ghost said.

"Really? How do you know?" Mara asked, studying the black open maw of the tunnel.

"Seen it for myself." The ghost stubbed out her cigarette on the wall beside her, flicked her butt down onto the tracks, and lit another one. "In the second before the train hits the platform, there is a flash of light. All you have to do is time your jump, and you can make it through."

"Is that what you did?" Mara asked softly.

"Yes, and it worked." The girl sucked on the cigarette and blew smoke at them.

"How did you know about the portal?" Augustus said, and the ghost girl glared at him.

"There was a man. He was wearing this jacket, smoking this cigarette. He saw me crying and told me about it," she said and shrugged.

"Why were you crying?" Mara asked as Augustus was about to demand to know where the man went.

The ghost’s face crumpled. "I loved her so much. I only wanted to tell her. I knew it was impossible. She freaked out, and when the man said I could go to another world, I thought anything would be better than feeling this way."

Mara reached out and somehow took the ghost girl’s hand. Augustus didn’t know how she was doing it unless she was feeding it enough energy to become corporeal? There was too much about Mara that was impossible for Augustus’s liking.

Mara gave the girl a kind smile. "I understand. Hearts can lie, but when they don’t, and they get crushed all the same, there is no worse feeling. Do you want to go to your other world now?"

The ghost girl nodded. "I do, but I can’t until I can convince someone else to jump and take my place. Will you do it?"

"Absolutely not," Augustus hissed.

"I don’t need to. Give me your hand, sweetheart, and let’s talk," Mara said to the girl. The ghost took it, and they walked to the very end of the platform.

Augustus had no idea what they were whispering about and thought it was probably for the best. The banishing spell was tangled around his fingertips, burning to be released.

Mara gave him a slight nod before she turned and kissed the ghost girl on the mouth. The banishment left his hand, hitting the ghost girl and sending her in front of the tunnel.

Augustus grabbed Mara’s coat, pulling her back into him as the oncoming train roared in.

She was shaking a little and held him close. He was stunned at the contact, even as he pulled her further into the shelter of his tall body.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She looked too pale, her eyes huge and black under the fluorescent light.

"Yes, I’m fine," she said, stepping out of his arms. She was still shaking, so he took her hand, and they stepped onto the train.

"Come on, I promised you coffee," he said gruffly. They found a place near the back, and Augustus used his body to form a barrier between Mara and the crush of commuters.

"Do you need me to tell you why kissing ghosts is a bad idea?"

"Is it because they pull out parts of your life force when they do?" Mara asked, and his frown deepened. "It helped her move on, Augustus. It’s worth it, so she’s no longer trapped here or trying to trap others."

"It was reckless. She could have dragged you in front of this train with her," he whispered, his arms going to the wall on either side of her and caging her in.

"But she didn’t. I’m fine, Augustus, only a little cold," Mara assured him, seeing straight through his pissed-off tone to the worry underneath it.

Augustus rested his palm on her cheek, the chill of the ghost still lingering on her skin. He whispered a spell under his breath that fed warmth into her.

It was presumptuous, but Mara didn’t move the hand away. It was entirely inappropriate that his heart beat a little bit faster.

The train stopped at Southern Cross Station, and holding her hand, Augustus pushed their way out onto the platform and up the escalator. The ticket barrier opened for them automatically, and they stepped back onto the windy street.

"One of the best coffee shops in Melbourne is this way. We need to get something warm into you," Augustus said. He was still holding her hand, unable to let it go until his own fear for her abated.

They walked down a small alleyway, and Augustus opened the door for her into a tiny cafe. There was barely enough space for ten people, but the barista gave him a wide smile.

"Usual, Augustus?" he asked, his blue eyes flicking to Mara.

"Yes, please, and anything the lady wants," Augustus said. Finally letting go of her hand as the warmth of the café brought color back to her cheeks.

"I feel fine, Augustus. You can relax," Mara assured him, her hands cradling the takeout cup of her soy and honey latte. He sipped his, not feeling relaxed in the least.

"You should’ve let me banish her as soon as we spotted her. It would’ve been safer."

"Safer but less humane. She was confused and in pain. She needed comfort more than she needed to be banished," Mara argued.

"She’s dead. She doesn’t feel pain. At most, it was an echo," he grumbled back.

"Is that what they taught you in that fancy Academy of yours? To stop caring about people?" she asked, anger flashing in her eyes. "Who are you to say she didn’t feel pain?"

Augustus didn’t reply. In truth, that was precisely what the Academy taught them. To learn magic, be of service and study it, and not get involved in the messy politics and lives of the supernatural demimondes.

Mara was a saint of grief; easing people’s messy pain was her magic, and Augustus didn’t know how she lived with it.

"I’m sorry," he said eventually. He rubbed the back of his neck irritably. "I didn’t expect it to be that complicated, and you plunging in like that scared me. Be a saint, Mara, but don’t be a martyr, okay?"

"I won’t, Augustus." Mara smiled slowly, color rushing along her lips which triggered his own tingling again. "I didn’t mean to frighten you. It just sort of happened that way."

Augustus nodded and drained his coffee. "Well, that was all very depressing. Want to see something that’s not?"

"Lead the way," Mara said, her easy smile staying.

God, he was going to be an idiot for that smile; he just knew it.

Augustus took her to Bourke Street, where the London Plane trees were industriously dropping their leaves. He reached out and snatched one from the air and passed it to her before grabbing his own.

"They are leaves?" Mara twisted the purple and brown leaf in her hand.

"Not just any leaves," Augustus said, sitting down on one of the benches. "In 2003, I attempted a piece of magic that I thought would help mend the hole in the magic. As a result, I got a freak weather event, and when lightning struck Bourke Street three times, we got the wish leaves."

Mara sat down beside him, and he whispered a revealing spell. The wish leaves at their feet gathered along the footpath and started to glow with writing.

"Oh, wow." Mara bent down and picked one up to read the glowing writing. "I wish that I could get Pete to notice me." She snatched another. "I wish that I could win the lottery." She turned to Augustus. "Do people know that they are making wishes?"

"Not that I’m aware of. When people come in contact with them, their deepest wishes transfer onto the leaves," he said and nodded at the one in her hand. "See?"

Mara looked down at her leaf, read it, blushed, and quickly clutched it to her chest.

Augustus grinned. "That good? Show me."

"It’s none of your business, sorcerer," Mara replied, face now flaming.

Augustus looked at his own leaf, let out a sigh, and tossed it up into the air to get lost with the others. Mara did the same, ensuring that it went on a wind current and out of his reach.

If they hadn’t both been so reluctant to share, they might have been surprised to learn that Augustus’s leaf had said, I wish to kiss a saint, and Mara’s had said, I wish to kiss a sorcerer.

The dual nature of the wishes meant that the leaves had to agree that both wishes needed to be granted at the same time and that both the sorcerer and the saint had to believe that it was their wish that had come true.

After the leaves had reached that agreement, the strange magic pulled them to a nearby park where a crow read them and quickly ripped them to pieces in disgust.