Shadow in the Water

Chapter 5

I stumbled backward as he dumped me onto the floor before he turned and flicked the lock on the door. "Your crash course starts now, lass. You'd best pay attention."

I righted myself and fixed him with a glare, but he wasn't looking at me. He had turned on the hot water in the sink to full blast and was waving the steam up towards the mirror.

"Rule number one: doona do magic in front of people who doona ken it exists," he said in a voice so low that I could barely hear it above the water splashing in the sink.

As the mirror began to fog he started drawing symbols on it with his finger, quick and precise. They formed a ring nearly the size of the mirror itself. In the center of it he drew an even bigger one and muttered something unintelligible. The symbols began to glow with a golden light and rotate. Faster and faster they went, spreading the light toward the center until the whole mirror formed a fuzzy image.

"Sir, I've something interesting to show you," he spoke to the image as it became clearer, revealing a dimly lit room with a familiar figure at the center. My jaw hit the floor as I realized that the portly frame, the salt and pepper hair, and round glasses perched on the bridge of a rounded nose belonged to my boss. Christian reached over to grab my arm again and dragged me over next to him, holding on firmly.

"Christian, whit th' hell ur ye doing?" he had a stern look on his normally gentle face.

"She's found Danu's Tear. She refused to give it to me without an explanation, and won't take no for an answer. I warned her that she didny ken what she was getting into, but she didny seem to care. So here we are."

Still stunned and trying to process what was happening, I yanked my arm free of Christian's grip and returned my glare to his face. "Stop dragging me around," I demanded.

"She still hasn't told me where she found it, but she wanted proof o' what it was and wants to help. That's her price," he continued speaking into the mirror as if I hadn't said a word.

Annoyed, I turned my gaze to inspect the video chat that seemed to be conjured out of thin air; it was the proof he'd said he'd show me after all. I felt a gentle heat radiating from it and as I studied it I could see that it was made up of thousands of tiny colored symbols just like the ones he'd drawn on the mirror, like magical pixels. Disbelieving, I reached out and poked my finger through it, causing the still-swirling symbols to part like a rock in a river temporarily before flowing back together. 

Christian pulled me back, a bit more gently this time, so he could see Mr. MacLean once more. "You are the strangest woman I've ever laid eyes on," he told me. Then to Mr. MacLean he said, "She's activated it."

Mr. MacLean nodded. "Rae, lass, where did ye find it?"

It took me a little while to register the question. My mind was racing a million miles a minute. Holyshitmagicwasreal.HolyshitChristianandMr.MacLeanknowmagic.Holyshitmybluffworked.  Christian placed a finger under my chin, tilted my face up towards his and said, "Snap out o' it, lass. You asked for this. Now you have to deal with it."

That was the push my brain needed to jump back into gear, though I noted that he seemed to assume I was panicking when in reality I was excited. "I was at the beach for a party last night. I'd gotten tired of the noise and went on a walk over toward Fae Archway. I tripped and landed on it. It was poking out of the sand. Thought it was a rock and almost threw it into the ocean before I noticed that it wasn't a rock."

Mr. MacLean smiled gently at me. "Fate is a wonderful thing, lass. We've been searching fur 'at piece o' metal an' crystal fur a very long time, an' ye jus' so happened t' wander past it in nature, pick it up, an' bring it t' our attention. It disny surprise me 'at ye want t' learn more aboot it, ye're curious as a cat. Bring it into th' Lexicon tomorrow morning an' we'll discuss it, an' any questions ye have, in time. Christian, make sure she disny have any trouble tonight, ye hear?"