Burned by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #1)(62)

“Oh well. At least we managed to get one of these.” I held my wrist up to the light and grinned as my Enforcer bracelet gleamed. I was happy to have that little bronze shield back on my arm again, even if half the Guild did hate me right now. It meant my life was one step closer to normal.

Fenris grinned. “True. Guess it pays to be the Chief Mage’s apprentice.” The grin faded as he noticed we were approaching my steambike. “No. Not happening. I’m calling a cab.”

“Not yet you aren’t. We’ve got one more place to visit.”

Fenris groaned.

By the time I parked the bike outside Comenius’s shop, Fenris’s tan was tinged with green. “Don’t worry,” I said, gingerly patting him on the shoulder – I didn’t want him to hurl all over Com’s storefront. “Comenius’ll fix you right up.”

The shop was crowded, Comenius working double-time by himself to service the customers, so Fenris and I hung off to the side while we waited for the rush to subside. Nearly half an hour passed before everyone finally filed out of the store. By that time Fenris’s nausea had passed, and he was across the room rifling through a basket of handmade bath salts.

“Hmm.” He sniffed it. “Very interesting. You’ve infused these crystals with basil, chamomile, and cloud wort. I imagine the user would feel relaxed, their mind free of clutter, after bathing with these.”

Comenius smiled at Fenris as he came around the counter. “That’s why that particular blend is called ‘Calming Focus’.” He embraced me, and I inhaled his woodsy, herbal scent as his strong arms wrapped around me. “Naya.” He beamed down at me. “I’m still getting used to the fact that you’re a free woman again.”

I grinned. “Business seems to be good,” I remarked, looking around the shop. The shelves normally filled with amulets and charms were practically empty. “There a new trend going around?”

“People have been buying protection amulets and warding charms,” he said, looking suddenly uncomfortable. “In response to all the panic being spread by the Herald regarding shifters.”

“Comenius!” Noria burst into the shop, her red curls flying wild around her wide-eyed, freckled face. Her left cheek was smudged with grease, and she wore a pair of coveralls and black gloves on her hands, indicating that she’d been working on something mechanical. “You’ll never believe what happened in Shiftertown this morning! Some humans –” She stopped short at the sight of me, hesitation crossing her face. “Oh, hey, Naya and, umm, Wolf-guy –”

“Fenris,” Fenris corrected her mildly. She continued to stare at him, uncertainty warring with the excitement and fear in her eyes.

“Go on,” I encouraged, my voice casual despite the cold pit of dread hollowing out my stomach. “What happened in Shiftertown?”

Guilt flashed across Noria’s face. “Some humans decided to go and riot in the Shiftertown Square,” she said. “They came with bats and swords and stuff, and started bashing in windows and looting stores.”

“Fuck.” I collapsed into one of the chairs in the sitting area, overwhelmed. Humans buying magic protection and looting shifter stores… “We’re looking at civil war if something isn’t done.”

Comenius sighed. “That doesn’t necessarily surprise me.”

I glanced up at him. “Why?”

Noria flopped down into the chair across from me. “Com did some divination magic last night, and as usual it gave us a lot more questions than answers.” She rolled her eyes. “But according to him, the tea leaves point to a shit-stirrer in the works.”

“I believe the term I used was ‘provocateur’,” Comenius corrected mildly. “But nonetheless, I’m afraid it’s true. Someone behind the scenes is stirring up this trouble, and it seems their objective is to create strife between humans and shifters.”

I frowned. “Who would want to do that?”

We all turned to look at Fenris at the same time, our brows arched. He took a step back, palms up. “What?”

“I don’t mean to state the obvious here, but –” Noria started.

“The Mage’s Guild would definitely have motive,” I finished for her. “Or at least someone in it. If humans and shifters are united against them, they’d have a harder time controlling us, and we might even be able to overthrow them.”

“That’s outrageous.” Fenris drew himself up, and in that moment he looked a lot like the Chief Mage. “The Mage’s Guild would have much less harmful ways of ensuring obedience. We need the residents of the city to co-exist peacefully in order for everything to continue running smoothly.”

“We?” Noria’s eyes narrowed, and she slowly stood up. “You know, I’ve never heard a shifter refer to himself as ‘we’ in conjunction with mages. Most shifters hate mages.”

Fenris’s yellow gaze hardened. “I am not most shifters.”

Normally I would have told Noria to back off, since Fenris was a friend, but something about her words struck a chord with me. “Still,” I interjected, “you have to admit it’s a little strange that your loyalties seem to lie more with the mages, than with your own people. Don’t you have a clan, or at the very least a family, who deserves your loyalty more?”