All That Glitters Read online

  She lowered her hands to her lap and concentrated. The odd sensation was getting worse, but she didn’t want to panic. Kalina closed her eyes and rubbed her fingers together. When she made her candles, she could move her magic to whichever hand needed the help. She looked at Ryan and raised her eyebrow when she noticed him watching her. “What?”

  He shook his head. “I’m waiting to see if you need any assistance.”

  Kalina frowned. There was something about the mocking way he looked at her. She rubbed her fingers together and gasped when the candles on the table flared. Her eyes went to Ryan. He sat with a smirk on his face. She leaned forward. “Why are you watching me?”

  He mirrored her position. “Because you are fascinating,” he admitted.

  “It’s creepy. Stop it.” She sat back when the waiter came back with a refill of her soda. “Thank you,” she said softly.

  He smiled brightly. “You’re welcome. If you need anything else, please let me know. I can get it for you in no time.”

  Kalina glanced at the way Ryan glared at the server. “Thank you. We’re fine right now.”

  He nodded and walked away. As he approached a corner, he looked back at Kalina.

  She groaned. “What did I do to that boy?”

  Ryan chuckled. “What do you want to do about that boy?” he asked. He shrugged when she looked at him. “Is it safe to say that you don’t want him thinking about you constantly?”

  “No.” She frowned as she sipped at her soda. “I don’t even know what I did to him in the first place.”

  Ryan slowly chewed his food. He wasn’t going to be a help to her. He seemed to be the type of person to enjoy another’s discomfort.

  “Never mind. I’ll figure it out.”

  He placed his hand over hers, and Kalina felt a bolt of magic shoot through her arm. When she looked at him with wide eyes, he smiled. “He could be susceptible to magic. Since he has been fixated on you since you smiled at him.”

  “So, you’re saying this is my fault?”

  “Never.” Ryan started to rub his thumb over the back of her hand again. When she moved to pull away from him, he tightened his grip on her. “And I would appreciate if you stopped thinking the worst of me in every sentence between us.”

  She wanted to object but found that she couldn’t. Ryan had done nothing but try to help her at each turn. He didn’t have to find her at the gas station. He could have left her to her own devices. Twisting in the wind with a crazed witch hunter after her. He didn’t have to stand up for her with the man that had been in his apartment. He didn’t have to call the hunter off on her behalf.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  Ryan released her hand. “It’s forgiven,” he replied. He smiled at her. “I’m not some sort of monster, Kalina.”

  She blinked at him. “I never said that you were.”

  He finished his last bite of his steak. “True. But you’re thinking it. While I won’t say that your feelings are unwarranted, they also have no base. You have no clue who I am.”

  “And that is the problem,” she challenged. His eyebrow arched over his eye, and she pushed on. “If you want me to trust you, you have yet to answer any of my important questions. You just want me to follow you blindly and do what you say. I’m sorry, I’m not wired that way. You say I should trust you, simply because I don’t know you? I didn’t know the moron that tried to steal my purse last month. I didn’t know the jerk that keyed my car. And I definitely didn’t know that woman that tried to kill me. I apologize if I seem hesitant to trust you. Especially since the one person that I have trusted for the past 12 years is some sort of creature that I had no idea that existed.”

  “Carly is a death dealer,” Ryan cut in. He watched her eyes widen and went on. “They are more commonly known as Grim Reapers or Shinigami in Japanese culture. But for the most part, they harvest souls and escort them to the afterlife. They usually live in solitude and try to never interact with any other sort of being.”

  Kalina remembered what Carly said about staying away from witches. “All the more reason for me to be on guard, right?”

  “No.” Ryan leaned back in his chair. “I think your friend truly cares for you and wanted to protect you. That’s a rarity in our world.”

  “You mean your world.”

  “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s your world as well. The sooner you realize this, the better off you’ll be.”

  Kalina didn’t know if she wanted to cry or lash out. The life of normalcy she tried to cultivate was gone. She was now caught up in a twisted world where no one could be trusted, and magic ruled nearly everything. And the man across from her sat as if nothing bothered him. “I don’t think I like you,” she told him.

  He returned her gaze. “That’s fine. You don’t have to like me. You just need to learn from me.”

  His nonchalance bothered her. He didn’t care that her world was destroyed, and everything was turned on its ear. All that seemed to matter was the fact that now he was going to teach her how to use her magic to its fullest.

  The waiter reappeared with dessert. He placed the slice of cheesecake in front of her and smiled. He reminded Kalina of a puppy waiting for a reward. Her stomach sank as she nodded her thanks.

  Ryan leaned forward and brought the waiter’s attention to him. “Things are fine. You don’t need to check on us again. Simply bring the check.” His eyes flashed green.

  The waiter nodded and left the table.

  Kalina’s eyes followed the waiter. “What did you do to him?”

  “I just broke an enchantment on him. It appears that our young friend was infatuated with you because of someone else’s doing. Combined with your natural draw.”

  “Natural draw?”

  “It’s an unconscious magical glamor you have around you. Most others use it to enhance their beauty and charm. To make them more likeable. You, on the other hand, try to tone down how you look as much as possible.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  His lips curled into a smirk. “I noticed it when I was watching you in the alley. When I was in your shop, when I first saw you, I thought you were pretty enough to look at. But when you were dumping your trash, and I was across the street, I could see just how beautiful you are. Now, you’re back to being pretty again.”

  Kalina rolled her eyes and speared a piece of cheesecake onto her fork. “I don’t know if I should be insulted or not.”

  “Don’t be. I know others that would do anything to have your pretty.” He raised his glass and frowned. “I know one that has killed to achieve true beauty.”

  Kalina swallowed. “Did she really?”

  Ryan shrugged. “One would say that. She really is a sight to behold. But in reality, she is one of the ugliest people I know.”

  *****

  The drive from the restaurant started out uneventfully. Kalina seemed resigned to the fact that she was in a new world, and that she would have to toughen up when it came to magic. “I want to take you somewhere,” Ryan said as he drove.

  She glanced at him before turning her attention back to the window. “Sure.”

  He shouldn’t have said anything about Elena. After he mentioned her, Kalina shut down. The conversation became stilted and strained. Ryan tried to pull some more information from her only to fail. This was his last resort. Her gifts needed to be brought to the forefront.

  He turned into a dimly lit parking lot. He glanced at Kalina and saw the way she frowned. “What?”

  “What are we doing here?” she asked.

  “Do you know this place?”

  She looked at him. Her eyes were flashing a pink fire that intrigued him. “There’s a coven here. They wanted me to join them right after my mother died.”

  “Why didn’t you? They would have seen to your training.”

  The air in the car started to become charged with magic. This was one of her sore spots, and Ryan needed to know why.

  “I didn’t want to be near an
y sort of magic. My father didn’t want it in the house, and they all acted like what happened to my mother was some sort of tragedy.”

  Everything led back to her mother. “It wasn’t?” he asked. The look in her eyes said that there was a tragedy, just not the one everyone thought. “The rumor mills said her magic went wild and killed her.”

  Kalina shook her head. “They weren’t there. And they didn’t want to believe one of the powerful Benton witches could have fallen so low.”

  Ryan reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. He blinked when she swatted his hand away. “Stop touching my hair,” she snapped.

  He rubbed his fingers together as he healed the minor burn from her strike. “Get out of the car.” He opened his door and climbed out. Ryan didn’t wait for her to ask any questions. If she didn’t want him to touch her hair, he wouldn’t. She could freak out when it all decided to change color on its own.

  “I don’t want to be here,” Kalina said as she closed the car door. She leaned against the car and looked around the area.

  “What happened with your mother?” Ryan asked.

  Her gaze zeroed in on him. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  He shrugged. “You’re going to have to. I need to know where your aversion to magic is coming from. The more you resist what is rightfully yours, the more it will turn on you.”

  She erupted. “You mean like when it left me to become my mother’s greatest high?” she challenged. “Or when I was too damned weak to pick myself up off the floor after I was sick? What about when I was so amped up with magic that I knew exactly what my mother felt every time she used me to get high? Why would I want any of that? Huh?”

  Ryan watched her. Kalina’s temper was flared and while the magic around her was reaching a dangerous level, the woman herself was radiant. “I kept touching your hair because your magic was turning it pink.”

  Her tirade stopped. “What?” She lifted a lock of her hair and gasped when she saw the bright strands. She turned back to the car and looked at her reflection in the window. “What the hell did you do to me?” She screamed and started to reach for her eyes.

  He was there to stop her. “I think you are a little more than just human Kalina,” he said calmly. Which would make Faust’s desire to have her in his collection completely understandable. When she looked at him, he gently touched her face. “Breathe with me.” When she started to shake her head and move away, he moved with her. “Kalina, listen to me. The more your magic is charged, you will change appearance when you lose your temper. It is one method of your power lashing out. If you want to go back to normal, you need to relax.”

  “Relax?” she echoed. Her eyes filled with tears as she pushed his hand away. “How the hell do you expect me to relax? I’m turning into my mother.”

  Ryan crossed his arms over his body and leaned against the side of his car. “No, you aren’t.” He glanced at her and shrugged. “You are fighting against the most natural part of you. I don’t see you becoming a slave to it.” And if she was what he was beginning to think she was, there was no chance of it. Magical addiction was not something that could affect magical creatures.

  A woman’s silhouette appeared in the darkness. “What you doing here?” she asked.

  Kalina stopped her hysterics and frowned at the woman. Ryan smirked. “I want to speak to your grandmother,” he said.

  “And what makes you think we would let you?”

  Ryan hated dealing with witchlings that didn’t know their place in the world. The woman in front of him was no stranger to the circles he moved in. Joanna Reyes was not someone most took lightly. Ryan wasn’t most. He straightened his stance and smiled. “It really doesn’t matter if you let me or not. I will speak to Esme. Tonight.”

  Joanna looked from him to Kalina. Her eyes narrowed as she turned to him. “She stays.”

  “She goes where I do. And she is also the reason why I need to speak to Esme.”

  “We don’t open our doors for broken little dolls that spit on the hands trying to help them.”

  Kalina’s eyes flashed angrily. “You wanted as much of my magic as my mother did.”

  Ryan reached out and touched her arm. Kalina rolled her eyes as she snatched her arm away from him. He focused on Joanna again. “I won’t repeat myself. Esme speaks to us now, or I will bring this entire coven down around your ears.”

  Joanna snarled as she turned away from him. Ryan took a steadying breath as Kalina pressed her body against his arm. “You can do that?” she whispered.

  He smiled at her as he held up his hand. He waited for her to nod before caressing her face. “I’ve been trying to tell you. I’m a pretty big deal.”

  She looked as if she were fighting a smile. “You have a big reach. That doesn’t mean you’re a big deal.”

  “True. But when you reach a certain level, you need to start letting your reputation speak for you.”

  Any reply Kalina had was cut off. Another woman appeared beside Joanna. Ryan took in her rich olive toned skin. “A little dye and no one would guess your age,” he said.

  Esme smirked. The silver in her hair was no sort of indicator to her true age. The woman was one of the oldest witches in the country, but to look at her, one would swear she and Joanna were sisters. “Why have you darkened my doorstep?” she asked walking to him. Once she was in arm’s distance, he leaned forward and kissed her cheek.

  “I want to know who brought Cao Xian here.”

  Esme’s eyes darted to Kalina before going back to him. “We were going to let the Benton girl kill herself. There was no reason for Xian to be called in.”

  Kalina made a noise. “How can you be so… disconnected? I’m a human being.”

  Esme looked at her. “You turned your back on us when your mother passed.”

  Kalina shook her head. “My mother didn’t pass away. She didn’t have cancer. She wasn’t sick. She was addicted to magic, and it backfired on her!”

  “Jessica Benton wasn’t powerful enough to become addicted to magic. Kimberly and Angelica were the powerhouses of magic,” Joanna argued.

  “You weren’t there, were you?” Kalina spat.

  Ryan took her hand in his. “Relax,” he whispered to her. He looked into her eyes and saw a hint of wildness in them. “You’re okay.” Ryan regulated his breathing and nodded when she started to match him. “You control your magic. Not the other way around.”

  “I see the error we made when Jessica died,” Esme said. She stepped closer to Kalina. “You barely had any magical signature when I saw you. She was syphoning it, wasn’t she?”

  Kalina nodded and tucked herself closer to Ryan. “I didn’t know what it was called. She would take it from me. At first, it was fine, but then she started taking more and more and I didn’t know what to do.”

  Esme looked at Ryan. “I don’t know who sent Cao Xian. But I can find out for you. If you need a place to hide her while she learns what she can do.”

  Ryan shook his head. He wanted to trust Esme with Kalina. But Joanna was a concern. He wouldn’t put it past her to harm Kalina in some way. That was something he would not stand for. “I’m going to keep her with me. It’s safer for everyone that way.” He smirked when Esme frowned but didn’t argue. “And I have two months before Xian starts her hunt again. If you can find a way cancel her assignment entirely, I would be in your debt.”

  An ebony eyebrow rose. “Ryan Gold indebted to me?” Esme laughed and waved her hand. The parking lot around them disappeared and Kalina held on to Ryan tighter. They now stood in a brightly lit room filled with books and a desk. “Wonders will never cease.”

  Kalina shook her head and looked at Ryan. “Don’t do anything special for me,” she said. “If what you said was true, there’s no telling what they’ll want you to do for a favor.”

  He smiled. “I will worry about that if, and when the time comes. For some, just the knowledge of having me in their debt is enough.”

  “Is she one of those
people?”

  Ryan looked at Esme. The beautiful Traveler that survived being burned at the stake because she wouldn’t become a whore to a cardinal. The debt between them always seemed to ebb and flow like water. “I can tell you with no hesitation, I would trust Esme with my life.”

  Kalina blinked rapidly. “Oh.” She turned her face away from him and loosened her grip on his hand. “Okay.”

  He tightened his grip on her. When she looked at him, he leaned in close to her ear. “I said I would trust her with my life. I never said I trusted her with yours.”

  This time when Kalina blinked at him in amazement, her cheeks were flushed. “Oh. Okay.”

  Esme snapped her fingers and a thick book slammed onto the desk behind her. “I insist that you take this.” She picked it up and offered it to Kalina. “You will need it to study and train. And you will find the tools you will need to protect yourself from the likes of those that would use you for their own personal gain.”

  “I can’t take that,” Kalina said.

  Ryan watched her. Esme wouldn’t push the issue, but he would if he needed to. Kalina was going to need every dirty trick he could find when she went up against Faust.

  Esme continued to hold the book. “There are no strings attached, and this is the very least I could do for not paying closer attention to your mother. I should have seen the signs and stopped her myself.”

  Kalina lowered her head and bit her lip. When she looked up at Esme again, she had tears in her eyes. “Yes, you should have,” she said as she carefully took the book.

  Ryan wrapped his arm around Kalina’s shoulder and pulled her close. He wasn’t going to examine why she fit so perfectly against him. “Get back to me if you find anything. I’m taking Kalina home.”

  Esme nodded. “Please be careful, Ryan. There is more at stake here than you want to let on. I don’t want anything to happen to you either.”

  He smiled at her. Esme was always too perceptive. “You know me, Esme. I always land on my feet.”

  “You aren’t a cat, and I would hate for your words to come back and bite you in the ass.”