Autumn's Legacy

Chapter 3

Three

I focused on Yvette’s face, reached across the table and took her hands in mine. The more points of contact, the better chance I had of connecting. Her hands trembled against mine and I squeezed them in reassurance. Alex still sat beside his mother, watching me work with eyes wide.

“All you need to do is breathe and focus on the last thing you do remember from today before everything went weird,” I instructed.

“I’ll try,” she whispered. After a beat she added, “I remember being at home. We were going out somewhere.”

“Good. Just hold onto that memory.”

“What are you going to do?” The tinge of nerves made her voice jump an octave.

“I’m just going to come along for the ride. Now, remember to breathe.”

She gave several audible inhales and exhales. I took in air through my nose and expelled it through my mouth, letting the world start to fall away. The scent of fresh fruit bloomed around me, wrapping around our joined hands, securing the bond between us. I could feel my own magic calling to hers, seeking a boost, but nothing happened. Maybe she was right, and something had suppressed her magic. I pushed that question aside and turned my focus to following her memory.

I eased into Yvette’s memory. Alex sat at a small kitchen island kicking his feet against the chair on which he sat. Yvette stood by the stove, a look of panic on her face as she tried to salvage burned French toast.

“Mommy, I’m hungry,” Alex whined.

“I know, sweetie.”

“I want Daddy to make breakfast.”

“Daddy isn’t home right now.” Yvette set the spatula and burnt remnants aside. “But, how about as a special treat you and Mommy go out to breakfast, just the two of us.”

“Can we?” He hopped off the chair, a broad smile on his face.

“Go put on your shoes.”

Alex raced from the room. Yvette turned off the stove and grabbed her car keys. The next moment they were sitting in a restaurant that bustled with patrons. A thick stack of pre-cut French toast sat on a plate in front of Alex.

“Thanks Mommy,” he said before digging in.

I put a little distance between myself and the memory, trying to take in the surroundings, reaching out with my magical senses for anything that didn’t belong. It was a skill I’d been developing since the summer, especially with memory manipulation being a go to trick for the Order. The diner wasn’t one I recognized, even so that didn’t mean much. There were a million little diners all around the state. I took in the other patrons, the people that Yvette hadn’t taken notice of. Some of them had blurred faces, a condition I tried to mitigate with a little exertion of my own power. I only succeeded in giving the people generic eyes, noses and mouths. Useful characteristics remained unintelligible.

“Come on, show me something,” I muttered to the memory space around me.

The memory around me sharpened, as if my words had weight. Yvette and Alex dimmed, and I spotted a thin shimmer from Yvette’s head, racing back along the booths to another patron. I leaned forward, touching the shimmer to find it was as real as I was. It twanged like a guitar string under my touch.

“What is this?” My question didn’t yield any answers, so I followed the trail around the corner booth to a man sitting there with a cup of coffee in his hand. The feeling around me changed. Whatever I was seeing was not a part of Yvette’s memory. The man’s gaze remained locked on Yvette and Alex. I studied the table in front of him, taking note of the unused utensils and the twenty already sitting beneath the sugar container. Whoever he was, he didn’t intend to be bothered. I moved to the empty booth seat directly behind him and peered over his shoulder. It was then that I noticed the placemat beneath his left hand was at an angle.

“What are you hiding?” I tugged the placemat away to find a slender envelope with Yvette’s name and the number 1 scrawled on it in thick marker.

Setting the placemat back on the table, I stepped back, intending to assess the shimmer connecting the man to Yvette when the man’s head turned, and his dark olive gaze met my own. “You aren’t supposed to be here,” he hissed.

“I get that a lot.”

The shimmer intensified despite the fact the man wasn’t engaging with Yvette anymore. A familiar scent accosted my nose, sending me staggering back a step. Vinegar. It tickled a different memory. One I’d pieced together from Gabby’s mind three months ago. I’d pegged it as garlic then, but it could have been Taggart’s magic within me playing tricks. In my gut, I had no doubt this was magic from the bastard who had tortured Carly and Gabby. Trying to see if they had the gift of premonition. My hands balled into fists, and I prepared to take a swing when the world around me suddenly vanished.

“What the …” I trailed off before a few choice words could escape and give Alex a new vocabulary.

“Did you find out what happened?” Yvette looked worn out, with dark circles forming beneath her eyes. Alex curled farther into his mother’s torso.

“Sort of. Everything was going along and then it just disappeared.”

“I told you it’s gone,” Yvette moaned.

“I’m going to find a way to fix this.” I had more information than I did ten minutes ago. I still wanted to dissect that shimmer. Nevertheless, experience told me with Yvette in this condition, she wasn’t in a headspace to let me go digging deeper through her memory. “For now, why don’t you go home and rest. I’ll bring the rest of the Council up to speed.”

“How can it just be gone?” Yvette whispered, clutching her son close.

That was the question I intended to answer. Just because my closest allies hadn’t heard of it, didn’t mean it hadn’t happened in the past. Clearly someone had figured out a way to achieve this result. I wasn’t convinced it meant her magic was wholly gone either. Besides, the way magic had always been taught to me was that it existed in the world like a natural force similar to gravity or inertia. It existed inside us, too and could never be truly destroyed. It’s why I carried Taggart’s stone spell inside of me. I was strong enough to keep it from turning me into a statue, but it had to go somewhere months ago. It couldn’t just disappear. Meaning if I could find the asshole from the diner, I could find Yvette and Alex’s magic.

Walking back into the meeting room set my nerves on edge. The semi-circle of chairs had been assembled and eleven of the thirteen seats were filled. The door closed behind me and all eyes landed on me.

“So, uh, I’m not sure how many people know yet, but it seems that someone has taken Yvette Covington’s magic and her son’s abilities along with it,” I stated it as matter-of-factly as possible before taking my spot beside Desmond.

“What do you mean taken?” Richard Henley, a balding man in his fifties, demanded.

“From what I could tell by going through her memory, someone siphoned it off. She can’t feel her power anymore and she doesn’t remember the attack,” I answered.

“Magic is part of a person’s make-up, just like blood or DNA. It can’t be gone,” Belladonna insisted.

“I understand that. I don’t have a better explanation right now. But what I can tell you is I’m going to figure out what’s going on and why, and stop it from happening again.’

J.T. leaned close and whispered in my ear, “Please tell me the Order isn’t rearing its ugly head again.’

“Looks like it. Sorry.”

“Damn.”

I waited for more questions, but none came. Either everyone had the same questions as Richard and Belladonna, or they were too scared to probe more. I opened my mouth to share what I’d seen under the placemat, but decided against it. It was more likely to incite panic. Although I didn’t know enough to pass this information along and keep it contained.

“We should continue with today’s meeting and I’ll check in with Yvette later,” I said, hoping to move our focus to the reason we’d called this meeting.

A small group had been putting together a proposal for increased education and cross-training specifically for kids who were coming into their abilities. After what had happened to the girls back in June, we needed to be proactive. They might not be able to tap into their abilities by age seven or eight, but they needed to know how their skills worked, and what it looked like when magic happened to and around them.

“We’re all agreed that general classes need to begin with the elementary-school aged children,” Richard said. “But, putting a lot of it on the families is onerous.”

“People in other communities have managed to pass down their gifts generation to generation just through families without a problem,” I countered, watching Belladonna flinch at my words.

I hadn’t expected her to back my proposal that families should take a more active role in teaching their children about magic, but she’d been the first to sign on to the suggestion. Maybe it was guilt that her decisions had deprived her son of learning about all of his heritage. Or possibly she truly believed that it was the responsibility of a parent to guide and protect their child. Either way, I was glad to have her on my side.

“But, we’re not a part of those communities,” Richard retorted.

“Careful Rich, your privilege is showing,” Desmond said just loud enough to make the other man flush.

“I don’t think it would be that hard,” Laurie McGinn said from the other end of the semi-circle. “We could develop a standard curriculum that all families would use as a starting point. Sure, some instruction would vary depending on the family and their magic abilities, but we can put that together.” When Richard gave her a raised brow, she fixed him with a knowing smile. “I’m a public-school teacher, remember? I volunteer to spearhead setting this up. You wouldn’t have to do a thing, Rich.”

“Fine. Bring it to the next meeting and if it gets a majority vote, we’ll move it along.” He looked around the room. “Any other business we need to discuss?”

I raised a hand and all eyes fell on me again. “Not business exactly, but I think we should all take a minute to congratulate our very own Desmond for leaving the bachelor life behind.”

Desmond shot me an annoyed look. Despite that he grinned as people stood, clapped him on the back, and offered him handshakes. I leaned back in my chair and let my cousin bask in the happiness. He’d hid the actual ceremony from me. He could live with me embarrassing him for a little while.

“How worried should we be about what happened to Yvette?” J.T. asked, lacing his fingers through mine.

“It’s a problem. When Des is done riding the congratulations wave, I’ll fill you both in.”

“Is it something the rest of the group should know?” He prodded.

“I don’t know what it means yet. No need to make them panic if I don’t have all the facts. Just trust me, okay?”

Desmond extricated himself from the group to join J.T. and I. “So, can we talk for a minute?”

He marched off toward the tech space before either J.T. or I could respond. So, we followed after him in silence. He eased the door shut. I expected Avery to be waiting for us, but she was gone.

“I know when you’re not saying things, Ez. It’s kind of my job, remember? So, spill it.”

I hated that he knew me so well, even though we’d only been back in each other’s lives a short time. “I saw something in Yvette’s memory. The guy who took her magic, he had an envelope with her name and the number one written on it. I didn’t see what was inside, but I’m guessing it had pictures or something, so he knew who to target.”

“Number one typically means there’s more to follow,” Desmond said, the joy melting from his features.

“I know. But I haven’t figured out where that information came from or how he even managed to take her magic.”

J.T. reached down and squeezed my hand. “Why do I get the feeling this means another trip into Yvette’s memory, but in your own head?”

I flashed him a small smile. “Because you know me so well.”

“You’re not doing it alone. You throw yourself into danger too easily, Ez. Besides, it’s reckless,” Desmond added.

“Des, I’m the Savior. It means I go first into this fight.”

“We both love you, but you aren’t indestructible. Or did you forget you’ve almost turned to stone twice now?” Des scowled at me, clearly unnerved by the memory.

“I haven’t forgotten.” I reflexively touched the left side of my rib cage. “I carry that possibility with me every day. Even so if I’m afraid of it, that gives the bad guys power. I refuse to cede anything to those murderous assholes.” I reached out with my left hand and took Desmond’s so that I held both their hands. “Look, I’m not going to be alone in this. I’ve got both of you backing me up.”

J.T. turned to Desmond. “I’m not going to let anything happen to her. You have my word.”

“The minute you find out anything, you need to call me,” Desmond replied. “They’re worried out there as it is. The more information we can give them, the better.”

“I’m on it.” I gave his hand one last squeeze before he left the room.

“You can bring people into memories with you, right?” J.T. asked as we followed in Desmond’s wake.

“I’ll need you on the outside, monitoring me,” I said, not answering his question directly.

“You’ve been physically attacked doing this more times than I’d like. I’m going in as back-up.”

I huffed in annoyance. “Fine ... But we better get to it. Desmond’s not wrong about everyone being on edge. The sooner I can solve this, the better.” Now I just had to hope my own memory of what I’d seen was enough to provide the answers.