Page 43 of Double Mager

“Goodbye, Director!” I blurted, hurriedly closing Morrow’s hand into a fist and dismissing the hologram before she could say anything else.

Morrow glanced at my hand covering his. I slipped my hand into my pocket. If something had been about to happen between us at the Black Market boulevard, there was no way to misinterpret what was about to happen before Sakamoto called. But about that.

“We should get ready for tonight,” Morrow said. “We’ll wait on the director’s intel, then reconvene. Get plenty of rest.”

“Sounds like a plan. We can ride together. Pick me up?”

The way he smiled sent that gooey sensation throughout my body again. “It’s a date.”

Morrow left not long after, leaving me to my thoughts. Surely Sakamoto had something up her sleeve. She did say that she liked us enough not to throw us as fodder at the Happy Links problem. Briefly I wondered if the other corpos had their equivalent of oblivious leaders. I couldn’t imagine anyone being stranger than the director of Occultech herself.

Still, with or without Sakamoto’s help, Morrow and I would need all the firepower we could get. I swallowed uncomfortably as my attention drifted to the shoebox still sitting on the dining table. Morrow had politely ignored it, only pushing it aside to make space for all the food.

I licked my lips as I lifted the lid, sullenly staring at the orange gemstone still trapped in the mason jar. It seemed to stare back at me like a single judgmental eye. Was this like removing the lens cap from a camera? Was Freyja watching me?

Surely it couldn’t hurt to ask her, at the very least. Fight fire with fire, as the saying goes. Kill or be killed. Whatever Freyja wanted to teach me might just give us a fighting chance.

My hands shook as I untwisted the jar lid. I poured the gemstone into my palm, as warm as if it had been left out in the sun. I placed it gently on the floor, taking a deep, steadying breath as I lifted my knee. I shut my eyes and stomped.

The gemstone shattered with all the glassy splintering of a hollow crystal egg. I held my breath. Maybe I would plunge into an astral hole, like Alice tumbling into Wonderland. Or maybe I would find myself in another portal passage like the one connecting to the Black Market.

I kept my eyes shut, still anxious about my interdimensional trip. But the warmth of sunlight on my skin and the bracing smell of fresh air was too tempting. And what was that sound that synced with the balmy breeze blowing through my hair? The tinkling of chains?

I opened my eyes and gasped. I stood in a meadow of grass as green as emerald, stretching out far into the horizon. The fluffiest white clouds drifted through the perfect blue of an open sky. And there, glinting in the sunlight, dangling impossibly from nothing, were great golden chains heaving with massive gemstones.

“Holy shit,” I muttered.

“Well, I might have chosen some prettier words,” Freyja said, “but yes. Holy shit, indeed. Welcome to my domicile.”

There she stood, about twenty feet away from me, dressed in the same sheer gown and ornate jewelry as before.

“Sorry the place is such a mess. I don’t really get much company these days.”

“No, no. Not at all. Your dimension — er, domicile is gorgeous. Wait. What do you mean by ‘guests?’”

She shrugged. “Oh, you know. Humans like you, sometimes other mortals. Nobody really pays attention to us entities anymore. But speaking of which — yes, other entities, too. Mostly gods of magic from other pantheons. Well, we’re not exactly friends. More of a book club. Yes. Sharing knowledge, gossip, that sort of thing.”

“Whoa. You all hang out? So there’s clubs for gods and entities out there? Nifty.”

“Organizations. Yes. Nifty. We need to stick together, what’s left of the entities of earth. Not all of us are lucky enough to have our own public relations department.”

It was exactly as Loki had described, how the gods had lost so much in the modern age. It was nice to know that the entities had their own support system — someone in your court, someone to remember you. Everything fades faster when the world forgets its name.

“So you all band together, then? Like, a bunch of magic gods all in one club? That’s so cool. Is Thoth there? What about Hecate? What’s she like?”

“We’re all united by a common interest in the more mortal kind of magic user, especially those blessed and burdened with unusual gifts.” Freyja wrinkled her nose. “You’re asking far too many questions. Buying time. You’re only delaying the inevitable, you know.”

She caught me redhanded. Red-faced. Both, really.

“Fine. I’ve never had a formal magical lesson, you know? And it’s so much more intimidating when my first lesson is going to come from the Norse goddess of magic herself.”

“Flattery will get you — well, several places, actually. I’m not above accepting an apple from a student.”

I reminded myself what this was all for: a fighting chance against an actual god. I cracked my knuckles and shook out my arms.

“Okay. No apples today. Just a lesson. If you think I’m ready, then I guess I think I’m ready, too.”

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. Maybe a lecture, something about magic theory, some quick drills.