Burned by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #1)(71)

I turned the key in the lock on my apartment door, then flopped down on the purple corduroy couch just inside the living room and stretched out. I’d only moved in four days ago, so the walls were still bare of decorations and boxes still needed to be unpacked, but the place was mine and I was happy with it.

I’d briefly considered moving into Roanas’s house, as I’d found out that he’d left it to me in his will. In fact, I’d spent my first two days of real freedom roaming the place, packing up things in boxes, smiling and crying as I looked through photo albums. But in the end I hadn’t been able to do it – the ghost of his presence would have haunted me forever if I’d stayed there, and I’d never be able to move on. I needed my own space, my own life.

“Delivery service!” an unfamiliar voice called, jolting me out of my morose thoughts. I sat up, apprehension and curiosity warring within me. I wasn’t expecting a package from anyone, but the freckled face of a young boy wearing a green and white uniform peered up at me as I peeked through the peephole, confirming that he was from Solantha’s main courier service.

“Hello,” I said as I opened the door. As I moved to take the package, the courier’s scent hit me, and I stiffened.

It was Rylan.

“Hey, cousin.” He tapped a gold pin on the collar of his polo shirt, murmuring a Word, and the illusion faded away, revealing a man with long, black hair, yellow eyes and a square jaw. He was still dressed in the courier uniform, which looked pretty silly with his swarthy complexion, but it was definitely Rylan. “How’s it going?”

“By Magorah,” I hissed, grabbing his arm and pulling him inside the apartment before someone saw him. “What the f*ck are you doing here, Rylan?” I didn’t ask him where he’d gotten the illusion charm – they were rare, and unless you found a mage to custom make one for you, only sold on the black market.

He arched a black brow as I slid the deadbolt home, and set the package he was holding on the counter. “I’m just checking up on my baby cousin. Is that a crime now?”

“No,” I muttered, leaning against the door. “But you’ve committed plenty of others you could be arrested for.” Having a wanted fugitive in my home after I’d just been cleared myself was just what I needed – not.

“Yeah, including breaking into Solantha Palace to try and rescue you.” Rylan’s tone was mild, but his yellow eyes blazed, and I resisted the urge to squirm guiltily. “I don’t remember receiving a thank you card.”

“Yeah, well I don’t remember ever getting an address from you to send one to,” I snapped. He was not going to make me feel guilty, especially since his half-baked plan had nearly f*cked us all. “Or giving mine out, for that matter.”

Rylan gave me a lopsided grin. “I guess I’ve only got myself to blame for that,” he admitted. “And you know I have my ways of getting information.”

I sighed. I loved my cousin, really, I did, but his recklessness made me feel old and matronly in comparison, even though I was the younger one. I’d always assumed my half-mage heritage was the reason I was more sensible than him.

“Since you’ve decided to risk getting your ass arrested, you must be here for a reason. Mind telling me what it is?”

“Other than delivering this package?” His lopsided smile didn’t change, but his yellow eyes narrowed. “My superiors sent me to offer you a position in the Resistance. They’ve seen what you’re capable of, and having a shifter who can use magic against the enemy would be very valuable.”

My heart sank. It was one thing to tell my friends that I wasn’t interested in joining the Resistance, but another thing entirely to tell my cousin, who’d devoted his life to it.

“Tell your superiors that I appreciate the offer, but I’m not ready to make that leap yet.” I pushed off the door I was leaning on, and walked around the counter to grab some glasses from the kitchen cupboards. “You want anything to drink?”

“Cranberry juice would be great.” Rylan frowned, confusion and hurt on his face. “Why wouldn’t you want to join the Resistance and take down the mages once and for all, after everything the system has put you through, Naya? Don’t you see that things have to change?”

I grabbed the bottle of cranberry juice from the cherry red icebox and poured glasses for both of us. “I see that more than ever,” I told him. “But I’ve realized that I might be of more help effecting change by sticking close to the Chief Mage’s side.” That is, if he ever decides to talk to me again. “I’ve already managed to open his eyes a bit to what’s really going on in this town.”

Rylan took his cranberry juice from me with a scoff. “Please, Naya. Do you really think that the Chief Mage has been blind to everything that’s been happening around here, and he just now woke up because you shoved his nose into it?” He downed his cranberry juice in one go. “He’s just as complicit as the rest of these power-hungry mages, and he’s using his centuries of experience to get you on his side. He knows that with hybrids like you on our side, the Resistance would be too powerful for the mages to control.”

Rylan’s words slapped me in the face. All the mistrust and doubt I’d ever had about mages, which had been pushed to the back of my mind during my time at the palace, came rising up all over again. Dread curdled in my gut, and I felt suddenly ill. Had the Chief Mage been playing me the whole time? Was I really such a fool?