Page 5 of Magic Forsaken
But I looked up anyway, as if something had compelled my attention. When I did, his eyes collided with mine and narrowed instantly. His angular jaw clenched and his lips thinned. The fire of his assessment swept over me, and for just a moment, Isurrendered to the bizarre urge to stare back at him. To prove that I could not be intimidated.
Our gazes clashed, like fighters sizing each other up, and his sparked with some unnamed emotion. Curiosity? Anger? Whatever it was, a fiery glow began to rise in the depths of those amber irises, and with it a power that I could feel pressing against my skin. His steps paused as he watched me, halting the progress of his entire entourage. Drawing attention. Exactly what I didn’t need…
Somehow, I yanked my gaze away and stared at the sidewalk. Turned and took a step. Then another. Moving away from him. Just a ragged, white-haired woman in shapeless clothes. No one to be noted or remembered.
I felt it when he turned away. I didn’t dare turn to watch, but I heard the footsteps as his people followed him, and part of me didn’t need to see to know where he was going.
The Portal.
Hopefully, it was just a brief visit. Hopefully our paths would not cross again, because I wasn’t sure what to make of that strange compulsion to challenge him. But no matter who he was, I wasn’t going to let some chance encounter ruin my day. I’d survived far worse than beautiful, dangerous shapeshifters with fire in their eyes, even if this one did look like he could snap me in half with his bare hands.
Nothing was going to spoil today for me.
I had a job. I was free. And I was letting nothing and no one cage me ever again.
TWO
It wasabout a mile and a half back to the hostel, and I made it in just under thirty minutes at a brisk walk. I knew better than to run through urban areas… It only drew the kind of attention none of us could afford.
When I arrived, the downstairs common area and dining room were mostly empty, except for a couple of shapeshifter teens playing cards and what looked like an entire gang of gargoyles sitting around the table, eating ramen and muttering while shooting suspicious looks at the shapeshifters.
To be fair, gargoyles always looked a bit suspicious, so maybe they were actually super chill and relaxed. They might be besties, or they might be about to start an inter-species incident right in the middle of the dining room. Hard for an ex-human to tell.
I took the stairs two at a time and knocked on the door of our tiny little private room. “It’s me.”
The door swung open with an ominous creak to reveal… no one. Then I heard a giggle from behind me and had to swallow the horrified curse that sprang to my lips.
Ari was only six years old, and no matter how hard I tried, she simply didn’t understand why she shouldn’t use her magic where anyone could see. The only way to keep her in check wasto make it a game, and someday I was going to run out of ideas. Today though…
“First one in gets to sleep on the top bunk,” I declared, and darted through the door.
It slammed behind me, and I winced, just as a tiny girl with dark eyes and dark hair in pigtails appeared atop the bunk bed on my left.
“I win, Rainy! I win!”
I breathed out a sigh of relief as I smiled and reached up to tweak her pigtail. “You did, Ari-bug. I guess I get the bottom bunkagain.”
My smile turned to an exaggerated pout, which made her squeal with delight and begin bouncing enthusiastically, narrowly avoiding a collision with the ceiling. While she celebrated, I turned to the bunk bed on the opposite side of the tiny room.
Logan was curled up in the back corner of the lower bunk, his eyes closed and his arms wrapped around his knees.
“You doing okay there, bud?”
He nodded, his shaggy brown hair falling to cover his face so I couldn’t really read his expression. We thought he was about thirteen, but it was hard to tell after the life he’d lived. He’d hit a growth spurt about the time we fled Colorado, which meant he was now all arms and legs and could never get enough food to keep that hungry look at bay. Not that food was really all he needed. The power they’d forced into that fragile body seemed constantly on the verge of tearing him apart. Thankfully, he hadn’t lost control in weeks, but it was a constant struggle that some days I wasn’t sure he was going to win.
They needed stability. Hope. A place to call home. We all did. And this job was just the first step on that road.
“Guess what?”
Kes unfolded from her perch on the windowsill, tucking her dark hair behind her slightly pointed ear as she came to her feet. “Did you get it? Did you really get the job?”
I nodded, finally allowing my lips to curve into a real, heartfelt smile. “I did. And I start tomorrow.”
Her gray eyes closed for a moment, and her shoulders sagged as the tension left her face. “That’s good. Very good.”
Kes wasactuallyhalf fae, marked by those ears and her silvery gray skin. She was twenty-two, but had never been outside fae lands before and had an entire laundry list of reasons why she did not dare attempt to work a normal job.
Which meant this was all on me, but I didn’t mind. I’d had to be the strong one ever since I was tiny, when Dad got sick and Mom was strung out on who knew what. Even when Dad died and the state took me away, I’d been the one to look out for the smaller kids in our crowded foster home.