Natural Mage (Magical Mayhem #2)(6)

Tears came to my eyes, and I couldn’t be sure if I was crying from fear or from the ludicrousness of the situation. Veronica was by my side in a moment, her hand on my arm.

“Here, look.” I shook out of Veronica’s grasp and pulled elements—as Emery had always called them—from around the room. Magic rose from the dirt in the potted plant, the cotton in Aileen’s pants, the wool in the rug, and dozens of other sources. Colors and patterns streamed toward me before I organized them in a mass just above my head.

I picked and chose what I needed and wove the strands together in a hasty, somewhat messy sort of weave. It was my version of a spell the Bankses had recently taught me, intended to dazzle or surprise.

“What am I looking at?” John said, his charming facade back in place and his smile light and easy. The humor hadn’t returned to his eyes.

“That’s just it, isn’t it?” I pulled the weave taut. “You can’t see what I’m doing. You can’t see the collection of elements hovering three feet in front of your face.”

The last string pulled into place and I let the spell go. It spun and blossomed before ballooning out. An umbrella of flashing colors suddenly covered the room. Everyone oohed and ahhed, looking up with wide or blinking eyes. After going through colors of the rainbow three times, the umbrella winked out.

Pop!

The sound was jarring. Women screamed. Men jerked. John bent and threw his hands up over his head, dousing himself in his drink.

“Magic should be marveled at and respected,” I said loudly, intending the whole room to hear. No doubt I was making things super awkward again. But I couldn’t help it. These mages, who’d been lucky enough to grow up with magic, were so ensnared in one-upmanship that they’d lost sight of what made magic great. “It’s natural, it’s beautiful, and it exists all around us. It should be revered.” I let the elements I’d collected dissipate back into the environment. “It shouldn’t be used for some sort of ego boost. If you aren’t good enough without magic, then you will never be good enough with it.”

Mary Bell rapped her cane on the ground. “Hear, hear!” she shouted.

“I don’t have as much exuberance as that woman, but I agree,” Veronica said, nodding. Eyebrows rose, and people looked back and forth between Callie and Veronica. John watched her closely as he straightened up.

“Oh…” She pointed at herself. “I’m a nobody. My magic is in my pen. I’m just here for moral support and to make sure my friend doesn’t do anything hasty.”

I turned toward John, but spoke loudly enough for the others to hear me. “I’m not sure what sort of proof you were looking for. Admittedly, Emery doesn’t care about pecking orders. Or sticking around—not that it’s given me a complex or anything. I could very well be less powerful than he said. But I don’t care about being the best. What I do care about is learning as much as possible. If I don’t, the Guild is going to capture me, probably punish me for ruining their compound, and then chain me to their organization. I’m just here to learn. Everything else is a sideshow act.”

I paused for effect, but Veronica gave me a small shake before I could continue to spew word salad.

“You should probably stop while you’re ahead,” she whispered, pulling me away.

She had a fair point, though “ahead” was up for debate.

“I don’t think I belong here,” I murmured as she led me to the kitchen. “I’m clearly not like these people. They all think I’m nuts.”

“Callie and Dizzy don’t think you’re nuts—”

“They think I’m naive, which is bad enough. Even if it’s still mostly true.”

“—and that girl Reagan that broke you out of the broom closet in that old church doesn’t think you’re nuts—”

“That’s because she’s insane.”

“—so I really think you’re overreacting. Look.” She sat me down at the kitchen island and moved to the cabinet before taking out a bottle of tequila. It was a whiskey house, but I hadn’t developed a taste for it. I was just fine with hanging out in Margaritaville. “Had you been trained in all of this from an early age, you’d probably think exactly like they do. It is a learned social structure, and it feels good to be at the top of it. But because you’ve never fit into any social structure…at least not near the top, or in the middle…or kind of even at the bottom—”

“What if I don’t want to fit in?”

“Then I can stop lying, because as much as I hope you’ll fit in, I’m not sure I actually believe it.”

I blew out a breath as she pulled out a bottle of fresh-squeezed lime juice and a shaker. Callie didn’t believe in pre-made margarita mixers.

“Emery and I fit together.” I put my elbow on the counter and leaned my cheek against my fist. “He thought my quirks made me a better mage. Callie and Dizzy are trying to iron them out.”

Veronica grimaced. “Yeah, I don’t know what to say about that. I mean, your mom tried to iron out your quirks throughout your life. She’s the biggest steamroller in the world, and it didn’t work.”

“She wasn’t trying to teach me magic, though.”

“No, she was trying to teach you to fit in.”