Magic Tides (Kate Daniels: Wilmington Years #1)(40)

He gave me a slow golf clap, wincing. His head still hurt. “Congratulations. You put 2 and 2 together.”

“The Order trained you and promised to house and support you for the duration of that 20-year contract, which started when you graduated. The minimum age to enroll in the Order Academy is 18, you finished at 22, and you look to be in your thirties, so you didn’t do your deuce.”

A hint of life sparked in his sallow eyes, then died down. “That’s right.”

“They really don’t like to kick knight-enchanters out. What was it? Incompetence? Couldn’t be, not with the quality of that ward out there. It had to be greed.”

“Some people call it greed. I call it proper compensation.”

“You would’ve been paid as a Class V. That’s over a hundred grand per year.”

He stared at me as if he pitied me. “Is it funny or sad that you think 100K is a decent amount of money? I would figure it out, except I really don’t care.” He made a wrap it up motion with his hand.

“How much did you want?”

“I wanted my due. I gave them all of my twenties. Oh, what a great honor it is to be a knight of the Order of Merciful Aid. So much honor. Such a noble goal. Trudging through shit and blood every day to be wrung dry for the sake of people who won’t even thank you, only to finally end up back home, exhausted, and then have to check if you can afford a bottle of Glenfiddich to drown your sorrows.”

I held my left thumb and index finger apart a little and made a sawing motion with my right hand.

“Are you playing a tiny violin?” he asked.

“Yep. The name of the song is ‘My Heart Bleeds for You.’”

He grimaced. “You’re an annoying little fly, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but you’re still talking to me. How often do you get to talk to someone who understands the Order, Aaron? Tell me, what finally did it?”

“I turned thirty. The night before we’d gone into a sewage treatment plant. There was a small hydra in it, and it threw us around like we were fucking toys. I woke up that morning. My legs hurt. My whole body was black and blue. It hurt to sit up. It hurt to piss. I’d soaked in a tub for an hour the night before, and I could still smell rotting human shit on me. It was in my hair. On my skin. I reeked of it. I looked at myself in the mirror and I decided I was fucking done surviving. It was time to thrive.”

“This doesn’t look like thriving to me.” I indicated the room.

“This came later,” he said.

“Ah. Let me guess. You started to moonlight. The Order doesn’t like that.”

“I was done caring what the Order likes.”

“But still, they really don’t like to kick knight-enchanters out. You guys are a significant investment for them. They would’ve ignored your little side jobs.”

He snorted. “Little?”

“You must’ve really fucked up. You warded someone you shouldn’t have warded. The Order came across your ward while pursuing a petition and it must’ve blown up in their faces. What happened? Did someone die?”

His eyes turned dark. Magic tore out of Aaron and splayed around behind him, like a wave ready to crash down and drown. If it could’ve made a sound, it would’ve roared at me like a hurricane.

Wow. Not good. Not good at all.

“Someone did die,” I said. “Wow. Sucks to be you.”

We stared at each other. The real Aaron was awake now and fully focused on me. Whatever bargain he had made, he’d ended up with a shit-ton of power. He was the magical equivalent of a small nuke.

“Impressive,” I said. “But not something you were born with.”

He stared at me, his expression harsh.

“Pagan gods come in different flavors,” I said. “Some are interested in humans, some are amused by them. And then there is the Tuatha Dé Danann. Everyone knows that of all the gods available, they’re the absolute last resort, because they fought us and lost. They didn’t assume godhood because of their deeds, they had to assume it to survive. They hate us and everything we stand for.”

“Personal experience talking?” Aaron asked. His voice sounded unnaturally deep.

“I’ve met Morrigan, and I was there when her Hound died, and a new Hound was chosen.”

“Mhm. That happened two flares ago. How old were you then? Ten?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “Let’s talk about that feather over there.”

I pointed to the feather above his head.

“That is a swan feather. You’ve got cold water sponges in your little lab, monsters in your ship, and all sorts of bizarre marine critters having a rave outside. Those cliffs over there, that’s probably the coast of Ireland. And then there is the hole itself. There is a nexus of power just through that hole, about twenty or so yards from the ship. That’s what’s generating all of the magic currents and keeping this gap open. I bet it doesn’t close even during tech.”

The magic behind Aaron crested.

“Humor me,” I said. “I came all this way. Here is what I think happened. You got yourself kicked out of the Order and they blacklisted you by letting everyone know that they would consider anyone who hired you their enemy. Standard procedure. The Knights are not forgiving. So here you were, adrift and abandoned”—thanks, Rimush—“and the Night of the Shining Seas happened. Was it pretty?”