Higher Ground

Chapter 2-1

2

For a few painful seconds, all Ava could do was stare back at Gabriel, wondering if she just hadn’t heard him correctly. How in the world was anyone in her clan supposed to help him recover the powers that had been taken from him? That they’d been stolen in the first place was just barely within the bounds of probability, since she knew the very same thing had happened to his half-brother, thanks to her prima’s parents seeking their own justice for Matías Escobar’s vicious crimes involving their clan members. But, as Ava had reflected on more than one occasion, it was a lot easier to destroy something than to rebuild it.

“Um, I don’t think that’s possible,” she said, hating how blunt the words sounded. Then again, it would have been crueler to give him false hope, wouldn’t it? Her tone gentle, she added, “No one in my clan has that kind of power.”

Gabriel picked up his glass of iced tea and sipped from it. The whole time, though, his dark eyes were fixed on her face, as if he was doing his best to read something from her expression. “But it is possible,” he replied, sounding unruffled. “Because my half-sister Renata summoned the power to restore Matías’ magic after the McAllister prima and Wilcox primus took it away. Renata was a very powerful witch…but I think probably not as powerful as your Castillo prima.”

Well, that might be true. Honestly, Ava couldn’t think of anyone as powerful as Miranda, at least not in the Castillo clan. And actually, while Miranda’s parents were amazingly talented, their true power came from the two of them working together. Individually, their daughter’s gifts far outstripped theirs.

“Okay, maybe it’s possible,” Ava allowed. “But a while back when she and Tony were visiting Santa Fe, Cassandra told me something about this half-sister of yours and some of what happened back then — Renata used terrible dark magic to restore Matías’ powers, right? I mean, people were killed.”

“Yes, this is true,” Gabriel said. Expression troubled, he added, “And I am not asking your prima to use such magic. I am only saying that these things are possible if the witch or warlock in question is strong enough.”

That comment made Ava feel a little better. Not a lot, but at least he wasn’t expecting the Castillos to abandon all their principles just to assist him. But still, she really didn’t see how Miranda could help Gabriel. Her powers were extremely strong, true, but she didn’t have much experience with using them, since they’d come to her so late in life, more than ten years after they should have appeared. How would she even go about hunting down the correct spell to use to help the Escobar warlock, if such a spell even existed? Most witches and warlocks used their powers by instinct; they didn’t rely on charms and potions and other popular notions of how people might work magic. However, spell books existed because they helped witches focus their natural abilities to do something far beyond what they were able to accomplish on their own. That was why the stolen grimoires had been so dangerous. In the hands of the Escobars, they could have been used for all sorts of terrible things…

…like the spells Gabriel’s half-sister had used, now more than twenty years ago. The Escobars must already have possessed their own spell books, or Renata wouldn’t have been able to restore her brother Matías’ powers. However, Ava was almost certain that the Castillos didn’t have that kind of magical library. Records here and there for simple charms, possibly. Nothing on this scale, though.

“Miranda’s magic really isn’t like that,” she said. “Or at least, it doesn’t seem as if it is. I’ve never seen her use a spell. She just sort of…makes things happen.”

“Well, then, she can try to make this thing happen,” Gabriel responded, his tone reasonable. He tilted his head to regard Ava for a moment, and she sensed that she was blushing again and couldn’t do a damn thing about it. There was something almost unsettling about being this close to someone so impossibly good-looking. Under his gaze, she suddenly felt plump and awkward again, although ruthlessly watching every single morsel that went into her mouth and forcing herself to walk almost everywhere had allowed her to lose those last fifteen stubborn pounds her senior year of college, after she’d dropped even more than that the year before.

“I-I suppose,” she stammered, knowing how silly she sounded. “I mean, I can call Miranda and see what she has to say.” Even as she made the offer, though, Ava could feel herself tense up. While it was true that only a couple of years separated the two women when it came to their actual ages, she couldn’t help thinking of Miranda as in another class altogether, lofty in her role as the clan’s prima — and much farther along in her life, with a husband and a baby and far more responsibilities than Ava had ever had to manage. She would have to steel herself to make that call…and not feel like some kind of impostor while doing so.

“I would very much appreciate it if you would,” Gabriel said. A long pause, and then he added, his tone quiet but intense, “Your brother told me that your gift is reading minds. You can look into mine now, if you wish. You will be able to see that what I have told you is nothing more than the truth.”

Oh, dear lord. That would be too awkward, even if he was giving her permission. Speaking far too quickly, she said, “Gabriel, I don’t really need to do that.”

He leaned forward, gaze fixed on her. “Actually, I think you do. Otherwise, how can you know that everything I have said is what really happened to me?”

Now it was Ava’s turn to hesitate. She swallowed, knowing that if she continued to protest, he would think something was wrong. And while she knew her talent would allow her to see Gabriel’s thoughts…and more…she wished she didn’t have to do this. Her gift had always been difficult, a burden. Even though she’d told the others in her clan over and over again that she had to focus to see into their minds, that she didn’t have the ability to sense every stray thought which might be bouncing around her, people still tended to look at her with suspicion, as if they wondered whether she was taking a surreptitious peek when they weren’t paying attention.

“All right,” she said at last. God, I hope this isn’t a huge mistake….

His dark eyes suddenly seemed too piercing. “You take no joy in your gift, do you?”

For a guy with no magic, he sure seemed to see a lot. Ava managed a not very convincing laugh and replied, “Let’s just say that it makes people uncomfortable.”

“I suppose that’s understandable.” Now his mouth lifted slightly at the corners, not quite enough to be a smile, but sufficient to show he was a little amused. “But I’ve asked you to do this, so it is not the same.”

He had a point. “Okay,” she said. “You don’t need to do anything. Just sit there, and I’ll take a quick look.”

His expression was calm. “I understand.”

Did he? Although he’d once possessed what sounded like an astonishing array of magical talents, reading minds apparently hadn’t been one of them. Not that it mattered. As she’d told him, this was going to be fast — just a quick peek to reassure herself that he was telling the truth. She guessed he had to be, since he knew far too many details about the Escobar clan that a civilian honestly couldn’t, but it was still better to be safe.

Also, she realized then that she’d never felt the faint ping from him that she always got whenever she met a witch or warlock for the first time, that indefinable sensation which told her she was in the presence of someone like her. Gabriel felt like a civilian…but he sure didn’t sound like one.

And, as he’d pointed out just a few minutes earlier, she had an easy way of discovering the truth.

There was always a brief moment of darkness, almost as if her talent had to find its way through the bone that protected the brain inside someone’s head. Once that moment had passed, though, the images and words came fast. After more than ten years of doing this, Ava knew how to organize those images and syllables into easily recognizable thoughts, although she knew if she didn’t stay focused, they could quickly morph into an onslaught of information and emotions that threatened to overwhelm her.

In Gabriel’s mind, she saw herself — as someone far more beautiful than the girl who looked back at her from the mirror each morning — and the dark antiques that surrounded them in the room where they sat. She felt worry and anticipation and hope, saw crowded streets and bright, glaring sunlight and heard people speaking Spanish…saw Tony deliver a very respectable punch to the jaw of a tall, darkly handsome man she somehow knew was Gabriel’s half-brother Vicénte. Saw the Escobar elders — a squat toad of a man and a tall, thin woman — glaring at Gabriel, saw the null standing off to one side, a good-looking man in his late twenties who appeared somehow guilty and miserable, as if he knew it was his fault that Gabriel had been caught.

Felt the pain that lanced through Gabriel’s body as the elders murmured words in a language she’d never heard before, watched as he crumpled to the ground. Saw the world go black, and then his eyes open to a strange hotel room, plain but clean, with a television attached to one wall and dark patterned drapes at the window. A bus, more images of a place she knew must be Mexico City, with its tall buildings in a mixture of old and new and a dense haze that seemed to hang above the busy streets, and then a crowded airport, a big jet plane, the terminal at Albuquerque’s Sunport.

She opened her eyes and saw Gabriel watching her, gaze expectant.

“You didn’t tell me it hurt when they took your magic from you,” she said, pity moving through her for what he had suffered.

His shoulders lifted. “If I had mentioned it, then you might have thought I was trying to play on your sympathies. Besides, for a long time, I didn’t remember the incident at all. By the time those memories returned, the pain was distant enough that I could ignore it.”

Ava wasn’t sure she could be so casual about an incident that had clearly been excruciating, but if Gabriel didn’t want to discuss it, then she’d let the matter go.

“But you saw,” he went on. “So you know that I am telling you the truth.”

She nodded. “Yes, that was obvious. And I am sorry. I know that Tony and Cassandra were worried about what had happened to you.”

“It is not their fault. You know that I took the books in the first place.”

Yes, Tony had told her about that part of the story, doing his best to paint Gabriel in a good light, since the theft of the grimoires had involved their mother getting knocked unconscious. True, Gabriel had been acting under duress at the time, fearing that Vicénte would hurt his own mother in some way if he didn’t do as his older brother demanded, but still, there were probably some who would say that Gabriel had understood the risks when he agreed to help Tony and Cassandra get the de la Paz clan’s grimoires back.

“I know,” Ava said, “but there were extenuating circumstances involved.”

Gabriel’s English was obviously very good, but that phrase seemed to puzzle him. His brows drew together. “I am not sure I understand.”

“You were forced into taking the books, right? Because Vicénte was threatening your mother? I’d say that makes the situation not really your fault.”

Now Gabriel relaxed against the back of his chair, clearly relieved she saw things that way. “I suppose so. But now, I am not going to worry about ‘extenuating circumstances’ or anything else. I only want to have my powers restored.”

Curious, she asked, “What will you do if you somehow do get them back?”

This time, the smile he gave her was a genuine one. “Why, I will take revenge on my brother, of course.”