Guardians Book One - Magic Rising

Chapter Forty Five

James smiled when Kath came into the office in the morning, but there was a tremulous edge about it she didn't like. Watching him going about his day, his eyes flicking about sharply from time to time – just as her own had done as a child, hearing things that couldn't possibly be real – made her even more unsettled. Oh god. He knows. He only bloody knows, doesn't he? She hadn't told Lady – Alexander's memorial was Wednesday, in Richmond Park, and the large bags under her eyes, stark enough on her pale, pale skin, were taking on the appearance of bruises. Kath sighed and rubbed her temples, the spreadsheet on the screen blurring a little. She forced herself to sit further upright and pay more attention. These people depend on you, too. Funny, that. She'd never really given much thought to the human background of her job. She'd been bright enough to surf through and do well, but never done more than the drifting average. It was hard not to, now. So short a time, and her prior self seemed almost alien. That's because you thought that was reality, and it wasn't. No wonder you were unhappy. Not that that meant she wanted James to have his eyes opened quite yet. It'd be bad enough when everyone knew. Have they seriously thought this plan through? Kath couldn't help but think the only reason Lady went along with the Lord's grand reveal was because it was better than the alternative of total annihilation. Magic may have been the world's original intention, might have been what was meant to be, but things change. Humanity changes - gradually. And it's been without this for thousands of years. I don't reckon people are going to like having magic dumped in their faces right like that.

Kath had in fact carefully asked Vicky, who'd smiled the ancient smile of Alexander – of the Lord – and said "the process will be more gradual than you think. Not everyone will be predisposed, and we will try and collect people, teach them, bit by bit." But Kath couldn't shake the feeling that the world firstly had a lot more people in it than it did when the Lord had first formulated this plan, and there were very few of them – even if they had Kath's Seer skills to sense where magic was popping up. I can sense it, that doesn't mean I can contain it. Imagine if some mad mass murder suddenly finds himself attuned to magic and starts killing everyone before we can get there.

She sighed again.

"Tell me about it," James had appeared at the side of her desk while she'd been spacing out. She forced her lips to curve up into a smile.

"Ah, just..." she trailed off. It wasn't worth the lie.

"Lunchtime," said James, quietly. "Want to head out?"

No, thought Kath, a snigger welling in her throat. But then she'd be no better than her own parents. "Yes," she said, decisively. "Yes. Let's go sit on the green or something?"

James waved a paper lunch bag, his old, wry little grin crossing his lips for a moment. "Brown bagging it like the style icons we are."

"You know it," confirmed Kath, brandishing her own lunch bag, and locking her computer.

They settled down on a patch of daisies, watching local schoolchildren playing cricket on the pitch in the centre of the green, the silence broken only by Kath noisily munching her crisps. Eventually, James nudged aside his bag and looked over to her.

"You know what I'm going to say, right?" he said, one corner of his lips quirking up. He run a hand through his thick, styled hair, flushing just a little. "Before I go in and sound insane."

Kath laughed. "I used to think the same," she said. "Should have brought Lady...or Pes. It'd have been about fifteen times easier with a demo."

"Pes is that bloke, right? The scarred one." James paused and added, delicately, "The one who isn't really there."

"Oh, he is," Kath said. "It's that people can't see him, not the other way around. What do you remember?"

"That dream..." said James, slowly, thoughtfully. "Every day when I wake up. First night, Steve thought I was sick or something, when I woke up...shouting. Who has nightmares at 27?" He grinned nervously. "I died. Didn't I? That's what this is. One of those...life after death things."