Nocturna (A Forgery of Magic #1)(63)

“You seemed to before.” She stood, suddenly full of energy, and closed the distance between them. Her shadow surged around her excitedly. His curled closer about his feet.

“You don’t understand. When I use my propio, it’s like . . . It’s hard to explain, but I can see magic. Think of it this way: everyone’s magic has a color. I can change my magic to any shade. Once I match my magic to someone else’s, I can feel around their magic for a seam and I either sew my own thread into it or I rip it, breaking it entirely. But—”

“So you forge it. You forge other people’s magic the way I—some people forge signatures.”

Alfie’s brow furrowed. He didn’t like that explanation of it. “In a way, I suppose.”

“If everyone’s magic is a different color, what color is yours?”

Alfie was surprised into silence. Whenever he told anyone that he could see magic, they always asked about their own, not his. It felt like a secret.

“That’s private,” he said.

She rolled her eyes. “What’s mine, then?”

“Dark, deep red. A bit like sangria.”

She grinned triumphantly at that, as if she’d just won a bet with herself, then said, “Okay, well then, do your magic color paint thing on me. You said you thread your magic through and rip seams, right? Then stop talking and rip my maldito seams.” Alfie felt his face color. Finn’s eyes rolled heavenward. “You’re such a delicate thing. I mean break Kol’s magic.”

“You didn’t let me finish.” He palmed his face as if he could mop up the flush with his hand. “Propio magic is different. There is no seam to rip, even if I match my color to it. It’s seamless, edgeless. It’d be like trying to find a corner in a circle. It’s not possible. I can manipulate anyone’s regular magic, but I cannot touch propio magic, entiendes?”

Finn slumped. “You could’ve gotten to that point faster.”

“You could’ve listened slower.” A beat of silence drummed between them before he broke it. “Since the mobster blocked your magic you’ve tried to change yourself, but have you tried to change someone else?”

Finn shook her head. “Why would I? She blocked my propio. I can’t access any of it.”

“Did Kol know you could change other people?” he asked. Propio magic always had a catch of some sort. A limit. Maybe the mobster had to be aware of the ability to block it. Maybe Finn could still help him.

Finn thought for a moment. “No.”

“Then try it,” Alfie said. She looked at him. “Try it on me.”

“Will you shut up and let me go if I try?”

He chewed the inside of his cheek. “Yes.”

She stepped closer, pursing her lips before placing a hand on his cheek. It was a gentler touch than he’d expected and he found himself flinching in surprise.

“Stand still.”

“I’m sorry,” he said through gritted teeth. “I didn’t expect you to touch my face.”

“What did you expect me to change? Your leg?”

Their shadows moved jaggedly around each other on the ground. Alfie bit his tongue and fell silent. The girl shut her eyes and moved her palm over his nose.

A tingle swept over his nose. Finn’s eyes lit up. “Wépa!” she said. “I can still do it!”

Alfie looked over his shoulder at her cracked mirror and recoiled. She’d given him more of a beak than a nose. “So you’ll help me, then?”

She turned back to her bag. “Never said that, but glad to know I’ve still got it.”

A sound of frustration parted his lips. “Do you really think you can escape this? Him?”

“When you were barely out of your silk diapers I was escaping, surviving. I can do it again.” She sounded as if she were trying to convince herself. “I’ll do it again.”

“Finn—”

“Prince,” she snapped. “No one makes me do what I don’t want to do, so stop trying.”

He shook his head. “I am not telling you. I’m asking you to help me. Help me end this together. I get rid of this dark magic and you get rid of that man. Please.”

That word seemed to sting her. She rounded on him, her eyes shining. “Please? You think please means a maldito thing to me?” With her this close he could see that she was shaking. “You want me to face him? Then you’ll have to do what he did. Put your hands on me, hold a dagger to my throat! Tell me I am nothing and if I don’t do as you say that’s what I’ll stay till the day I die! Make me do what you want!” She shoved him with both hands as if trying to provoke him, to prove that he was capable of what she claimed. “I’m well past please, Prince. I’m leaving before he finds me; if you’re smart you’ll do the same.”

Her words cracked against him like a slap, and Alfie thought of how the man in the Brim had commanded her, each word from his mouth a crippling blow. A new guilt formed like a stone in his stomach. If it weren’t for him releasing the magic, Ignacio wouldn’t be able to hurt her the way he could now. He’d brought this upon her and now he was asking her to help him fix it. Shame bubbled within him, and he didn’t know what to say to make it right.

Alfie swallowed hard. He didn’t know her well enough to delve into these matters, of that he was sure, but even if she refused to help him and they never crossed paths again, he wanted her to know something. “I think please means more to you than you think.”