Page 3 of Magpies & Mayhem
But today… the dark hair she pulled back into dainty elvish knots had tendrils creeping free of the thin chains she used to keep it contained, strands curling haphazardly about her face. Circles under her eyes had been ever-present since she’d woken up in the hospital. While she always wore her amulets—they were useful and functional, containing all kinds of magical enhancements—the last few days she’d resembled a Faberge egg. That told me she was low on energy and magic and relying too heavily on her jewels to get her through her normal tasks.
On the surface, we were very different. Our mutual friends sometimes joked that we were an ‘odd couple’. I was taller, fair-haired, and light-skinned. Brash. Outspoken. Elara was tiny, delicate, darker, and quiet. But she was also magically powerful, and kind, and hilarious, and honestly a little too precious for this world. The first time I’d ever laid eyes on her—apart from noticing how shiny she was in all her jewelry—I’d been gleefully watching her wreak absolute mayhem at our college campus. I’d glued myself to her and had remained that way ever since.
“Hon, I know you’re stressed,” I started. “I get it. But I’ve made a plan to get all your orders finished and all of your customers have been updated with the new timelines.” I settled back into my chair and pulled my hair free from my braid to redo it. “Everything is fine,” I reassured her. “You don’t need to work beyond what I’ve scheduled.” I would never tell her this, but I’d been turning away new orders left and right. The last thing she needed was a larger workload.
Elara closed her eyes to rub them, and I took the opportunity to snatch the project off her desk. “Argh!” she growled. “I knew you were going to do that!”
I shrugged and batted my eyelashes at her before filing away the jewels and paperwork. “You hired me to help you and look out for the business’s bottom line. That’s what I’m doing.” This was totally part of my job description, as far as I was concerned.
Elara let her head thump onto her workstation and hid beneath her arms. “Yeah, but you don’t have to be quite sobossyabout it,” she grumped.
“Yes, Ido,” I groused back, “becausenobodyever listens to me, and if you kill yourself by working too hard, no one else is going to pay my paycheck.”
“Har, har,” I thought she said. It was hard to tell with her face pressed against the wood.
“Go home. I mean it. Where is Levi?” I pulled out my fancy-shmancy Voider telephone and sent him a text, wishing for the thousandth time that spectral messengers worked here in the Void—the magicless world. It was time for me to call in the big guns and sic her new husband on her. One look at how tired she was and that over-protective siren would probably bridal-carry her out of here like the adorable sap that he was. A definite benefit to having him around was that it was nice to have another pair of eyes on Elara. I don’t want to claim that she causes chaos everywhere she goes or anything, but mayhem really does seem to follow her around. It was what made me like her in the first place.
“He’s spending some quality time with the guys,” she mumbled as I finally finished tying off my braid and stood to head into the back room.
“Oh yeah? What are they doing?” I asked over my shoulder, careful to keep my tone mildly disinterested. ‘Guys,’plural, meant Jordan was back. He’d been gone by the time I exited his room the last time I’d seen him. Elara said he’d just stood up and walked out, and according to Levi, Jordan hadn’t come back for a solid week. That was weird, right? Did I offend him that badly just by using his room to put on clothes? Whatever. I hadn’t asked questions, not wanting to tip my hand and show my curiosity about him. Seeing his imperious, haughty scowl had plunged me right back into my teenage fascination with him, and I’d been dodging Elara’s questions about how I knew him ever since. Nobody needed to know about my childhood infatuation.
I poured some water in a mug from the electric kettle and dropped a teabag in, carrying it back to her desk as she answered.
“Levi said something about subversive cross stitch, but I don’t know what that means.”
I froze mid-step, trying to picture the siren and his dude-bro roommates cross-stitching dirty words onto sewing samplers. “No, he didn’t.” There was no way.
“He did! I swear! Why? What does it mean?”
I ignored her question. Sometimes I could swear Levi’s entire goal in life was to see what kind of outlandish stuff he could tell people and get away with. “Here.” I set the tea on her desk, next to the sandwich she was daintily nibbling on. “Drink this tea and I won’t bring up the elephant in the room.”
She squinted at me. “What elephant?” she asked after swallowing.
“The ‘you need professional guards, and we need to change the nature of our business’ elephant.”
Elara visibly wilted. She was an extreme introvert and hated the thought of being stuck with a stranger watching her all day, and she had made her own weapons and could defend herself. She’d proven that when she’d set her wasp golems after the last guys to bother her and dropped them like rocks with the venom stored inside. But Phantoms—anarchist gangsters from the Boundlands—had sought her out three times now for her weapons-making magic, and it made me as nervous as a mama bird watching a snake climb her tree. I’d been unable to track down the group’s whereabouts since their main hangout burned down, even though I’d been searching nearly every day. I just desperately wanted to protect her.
Before I had time to respond, she perked up and turned to the window expectantly. Elara was able to feel people’s magic from a distance, and only one magical person would put that lovesick puppy look in her eyes. A few seconds later, Levi pushed through the door, running his hands through his blonde hair and smiling at my friend. He wore short sleeves and no coat, even though the weather was chilly, so the ocean scene tattoo snaking up his left arm was on full display.
“Oh, good, you’re here. I need to go do some stuff and things. You need to take your wife home and put her in bed. She’s looking pretty rough.” Elara gasped and pretended to be offended, but when you’d been friends with somebody as long as we had, that was just how the cookie crumbled.
Levi cast a concerned look at Elara but held his hand out to me as I stood anyway. We had a secret handshake for the changing of the guards, which was a regular handshake, just done secretly. Elara always rolled her eyes—even though she actually loved it—but her pretty, blonde husband always cracked a grin, so I counted that as a win on both counts.
I patted him on the shoulder as I passed, making him flinch, and headed for the door. “Go make some babies or something. You two had your courthouse date two whole months ago. I expected you to make me an auntie by now. Lord knows my brothers won’t.”
It sounded like Levi might have choked on his tongue, but I missed it because the door swung shut. I bit back a grin as I headed down the sidewalk, cataloging every person and animal I passed.
There was something about the Seattle ambiance that had always appealed to me, although it would always pale in comparison to the grit of Dry Gulch. It didn’t have the opulence of Golden Laurel, or the sleepy beach-town feel of Oars Rest, but it was so much moreinteresting. The people watching was certainly better, for one, and both cities had an industrious atmosphere that felt more honest to me than the moneyed neighborhoods of Golden Laurel.
Distress cries from a nearby robin pair caught my attention as I made my way to my Gate, and I scanned through the nearby park until I found a chestnut tree with a baby robin on the ground. It seemed late for robins to be breeding, but what did I know about Voider animals? Everyone else in the park was going about their business, never noticing the commotion. I was typically more aware of the activity of birds around me than a human, but their general lack of awareness abouteverythingalways managed to stun me. Even now they were walking by on the sidewalks without even glancing around, and these birds wereloud.
I frowned down at the baby bird in the grass, all naked bumpy skin and little tufts of fluff on the head that it wasn’t strong enough to hold up yet. It was clearly far too young to be out of the nest. A visual search of the lower branches didn’t reveal a nest, but it had to have come from this tree. I hated this. I generally didn’t interfere much with Voiders, and Voider animals by extension—circle of life and all that—but I couldn’t justleaveit there.
I bent and lifted the little nestling into my fingers, checking to make sure it was still alive. A breath and trembling movement confirmed it was, but with the chilly afternoon air, it wouldn’t be for long. It already felt cool against my skin. These birds were really pushing it on the late side of mating season.
“Poor, ugly baby,” I crooned, ignoring the scolding cries of its parents. I needed to find some place to shift. Not that I caredthatmuch about being naked in public, but the locals tended to clutch their pearls about it. I stalked toward a nearby business with a few feet of wooden fence meant to hide some trash cans, keeping the bird curled in my fingers for warmth. The parents were already stressed, so I wanted to make this quick.
I stripped out of my torn-up jeans and the hoodie I’d stolen from my little brother, stacking them neatly on top of my shoes before setting the baby on top of the pile and quickly shifting into my bird form. One quick hop to snag the rugrat into my claws and I was airborne. It was much easier to spot the nest from above, and I circled a few times to find the best point of entry. I wanted to get this finished before the neighborhood birds started to mob me. Robins were docile, but if crows took up the alarm, I’d be annoyed.
