Hunted by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #3)(35)

There was a long, pregnant pause, and color rushed into my cheeks as I realized I’d said too much.

“Naya…do you have feelings for him?”

“We’re master and apprentice,” I insisted, stuffing the charms back down the front of my shirt. “It’s not like I could help growing closer to him after all the time we’ve spent together.”

Annia snorted again. “Yeah, but it doesn’t seem like the kind of relationship you had with Roanas.”

“No one can replace Roanas.” A pang hit my chest at the mention of my dead mentor, the lion shifter and Shiftertown Inspector who’d taken me in after my aunt Mafiela had kicked me out of the jaguar clan. “He was the closest thing I ever had to a father.”

“My point exactly.”

I let out another huff. “What do you want me to say, Annia? That I wish I was a full mage, or that Iannis was a shifter, so that I could actually do something about my attraction to him?” My fists curled at my sides, and I itched to use them.

“You don’t have to have either of those things to get what you want, if you want it bad enough.”

I narrowed my gaze at Annia. “There’s no way Iannis and I could ever be a couple. I’m the embodiment of why mages and shifters don’t breed, and besides, masters and apprentices aren’t supposed to have romantic relationships. Iannis would never break the rules just to be with me, especially as the Chief Mage.”

“I dunno, Naya. He’s already flaunted convention more than once on your behalf. When he made you his apprentice he was practically snubbing all the other mages to their faces, which they couldn’t have been happy about. If he wants you badly enough, he’ll figure out a way to make it happen.”

“Yeah, well I’m not gonna bank on that. I don’t really know how he feels about me.” But warmth stole through me at the idea that maybe, just maybe, Iannis and I could be more. There were sparks between us, no question about that. On one or two occasions, those sparks had been hot enough that I’d been sure something was going to happen between us. But it never had, and I wasn’t sure how much of that was because of my reservations or because of his. Just because Iannis found me attractive didn’t mean he was going to act on it. Truthfully, if we were both smart, neither of us ever would.

“Sunaya?” Fenris’s voice echoed in my head, drawing me away from my melancholy thoughts. “Are you awake?”

“Yeah.” I sat up, instantly on alert. “What’s up?”

“I’ve managed to figure out the shift schedule for the guards watching the prisoners. If we time this right, I think we can get you in to talk to the prisoners, so listen close and follow my directions…”



An hour later, I was creeping down the dirt road leading from the town to the mineshaft where the Resistance housed their prisoners. I wore the illusion of Private Remis, the soldier Fenris said was due to replace the one on duty, or at least I hoped I was. Fenris had described him in great detail, and I remembered handing him a trencher at both lunch and dinner, but there had been so many faces it was possible I could have made a mistake. To be safe, I was careful to stick to the shadows and remain as inconspicuous as possible.

The moon was over half full, providing plenty of illumination, and after about a ten-minute brisk walk the mine came into view. It was a large, vertical shaft carved into the base of the mountain, accessible only by a wire cage that could be hoisted up and down via a pulley system. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be able to use the thing as the mule used to pull the primitive elevator was stabled for the night, but thanks to Fenris I had other options.

As Fenris had assured me, only a single guard was posted outside the mineshaft. He was leaning up against the wall, his stance relaxed and his eyes wandering, but he straightened abruptly at the sight of me.

“Remis! Is it time for shift change already?”

“Not yet,” I admitted in a deep, gruff voice that matched my burly exterior. “I was having trouble sleeping, so I thought I’d come out early and keep you company.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” the soldier said as I approached, relaxing his stance. “Being stuck on night shift has been hell on my sleep schedule –”

I placed a hand on his shoulder, then murmured a Word that Fenris had taught me. Instantly, the man’s eyes fluttered closed and he sank onto his bottom, head thunking against the rock wall as he slipped into a deep sleep. According to Fenris, he would be out until someone woke him up, presumably the very soldier I was impersonating when he arrived for shift change.

Pretty effective, I thought as I stared down at the soldier, who was snoring lightly. And this was just one of the spells Fenris had taught me tonight. I’d tried to get him to tell me how he knew them, but he’d brushed off my questions, telling me he didn’t have time to explain. When we got out of this mess I was going to wring the truth out of him, but with less than half an hour left until shift change I didn’t have time to ponder it.

Assured that the soldier wasn’t going anywhere, I hurried to the edge of the shaft and peered down into the darkness. I could make out a very faint light from one of the tunnels that branched off from the main shaft, far below. I breathed a little sigh of relief – I had good night vision, but even I couldn’t see in pitch darkness. Taking a deep breath, I muttered the Words to the second spell Fenris had taught me, and after a few moments my feet began to lift off the ground. A mixture of excitement and fear bubbled up inside me at the fact that I was flying, but I tamped down on it and focused on controlling my trajectory as I guided my floating body down the shaft. There was enough space around the cage that I was able to squeeze past it, and I floated down through the darkness, heading for the glow. It steadily grew brighter the further I sank, until finally a tunnel opening came into view, lit on both sides by torches bracketed into the rough-hewn walls. I wrinkled my nose as the scents of urine, feces, and unwashed bodies rolled over me, and knew without a doubt that this was where the delegates were being kept.