Stolen Magic (The New York Shade Book 2)

  Stolen Magic

  The New York Shade - Book 2

  D.N. Hoxa

  Contents

  Also by D.N. Hoxa

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Also by D.N. Hoxa

  Copyright © 2020 by D.N. Hoxa

  This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of

  America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or

  artwork herein is prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Names,

  characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s

  imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons,

  living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely

  coincidental.

  Also by D.N. Hoxa

  The Marked Series (Completed)

  Blood and Fire

  Deadly Secrets

  Death Marked

  Winter Wayne Series (Completed)

  Bone Witch

  Bone Coven

  Bone Magic

  Bone Spell

  Bone Prison

  Bone Fairy

  Scarlet Jones Series (Completed)

  Storm Witch

  Storm Power

  Storm Legacy

  Storm Secrets

  Storm Vengeance

  Storm Dragon

  Victoria Brigham Series (Completed)

  Wolf Witch

  Wolf Uncovered

  Wolf Unleashed

  Wolf’s Rise

  The Curse of the Allfather (Ongoing)

  Wicked Gods

  Wicked Magic

  Starlight Series (Completed)

  Assassin

  Villain

  Sinner

  Savior

  Morta Fox Series (Completed)

  Heartbeat

  Reclaimed

  Unchanged

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  Chapter One

  The mocker came at me fast. The light that made its hands perfectly precise reached for my face. It looked so real, I thought I was about to feel the pain just before I ducked and kicked it in the head. Its perfectly round white head with only two blue lights for eyes moved to the side, and it let out a robotic cry, as if it could feel any pain. Sweat dripped off me, making my leggings stick to my skin uncomfortably. I spun again and hit it in the chest twice, and the mocker fell back, wobbling like it was about to lose balance. Another spin and a kick, and it did. It hit the floor on its back, crying out like a wounded man.

  “Program, end,” I said to the machine and leaned down with my hands on my knees to catch my breath.

  “Sin!” Aaron White called, showing me all of his big white teeth. He walked like he was in a hurry, just like he did everything else. He was a wizard and the owner of the gym I was in, as well as the mastermind behind some of the best combat training technology mixed with magic in the world. His dark hair bounced as he picked up the pace, as if he were that happy to see me.

  “Hey, Aaron,” I said with a wave. He stopped right where the mocker had been standing a minute ago—now disappeared. The machinery I was in was a circle with three pillars on the sides that held a thick metal construction built like a rail. On it, two projectors sizzling with magic that created the mockers spun around all the time, to give life to the realest fake sparring partner yet.

  “How was it? Did you notice any difference?” Aaron asked, his big brown eyes gleaming with hope.

  “I did, yeah.” When I first got here about an hour ago, he told me that he’d made some updates to his programming and that I was to tell him my thoughts after I was done—hence the reason why he’d been so eager to speak to me. “This version is faster and the movements were more precise, but something’s up with the light. It was wrong.” I waved at the projectors—two perfectly round white devices with only a lens in the front and the rail going through them. Aaron’s smile fell. “Some pieces of the mocker were missing when it was spinning around. It missed its left shoulder for a solid ten seconds.”

  “Really,” Aaron said, eyeing the projectors warily.

  “Yep. But it’s getting much better. Keep at it, big guy.” I patted him on the shoulder and jumped down from the circle. Aaron’s gym—Dead Weight—was the best in the New York Shade, and I had trained in it for the past two years. The mockers had drawn me to it the first time, even though they hadn’t been as good then. The rest of the equipment and the wide air-conditioned space had kept me coming back.

  “Come back soon, Sin,” Aaron called without even looking at me. He was already getting to work with the projectors.

  “Hey, any luck with the binder?”

  “Not yet, but I’m getting close.”

  I waved my hand and walked to the dressing rooms. The binders were these huge metal plates that the Sacri Guild used in training. It was the only thing that let you openly practice your magic without damaging anything or anyone, as the metal plate and the spells in it bound with your magic and consumed it, compressed it, and released it as nothing more than a whoosh of air. I’d trained with them before I became a mercenary, and it was hands down the best device the Guild owned. Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy to make binders, it seemed; otherwise, Aaron would have had one in his gym long before now.

  When I got dressed and left the gym, night had already fallen. The Shade had been quiet when I came in, but now, it had come alive. Kit was waiting for me on the sidewalk right outside the gym, staring at people and squeaking at whomever he didn’t like. When he saw me coming out, he climbed up my jeans and shirt, and settled on my left shoulder.

  “Hey, buddy. Anything interesting?” I asked as if expecting an answer. He did give me one—a squeak that could mean about twenty different things. I didn’t think too much about it. “Well, it’s Malin’s night off tonight, so we’re going to Cavalieros—and don’t even start with me. We have to, I have no choice.”

  He whined for a bit, but I didn’t pay him any attention. Kit wasn’t really my familiar, so he wasn’t obligated to stick close to me at all times like true familiars do. And he liked to roam around free every night, searching for food—or trouble—but not when I was in the Shade. In here, he had to stick to me at all times; otherwise people would notice. They’d notice that I wasn’t a Sacri sorceress, and that equaled a death sentence for me.

  I had to walk for more than five minutes to reach the edge of the Shade because, lately, I hadn’t been getting any shortcuts. The Shade hadn’t given me one since that night in Virgin Square almost four months ago, and it sucked. I had no idea why, but it felt like it no longer wanted me here. It wasn’t just the shortcuts—it was the feeling I always got when walking the streets. The bad smells that assaulted my nose every once in a while. Nobody else seemed to smell them, even though they were walking right behind me. The pieces of garbage that randomly got thrown my way from the street for no reason.
One time I’d heard a noise behind me, and I’d turned just in time to catch an empty rice bag with my face. It wouldn’t have been a problem, except something sticky had been on it, sticky and yellow, and it had smelled all kinds of disgusting. I couldn’t wash the smell off my cheek for three days.

  Yeah, the Shade no longer liked me, and I had no idea what I’d done to piss it off or what to do to fix it. I was going to have to talk to Malin—one of my best friends and a witch. She had the strongest connection to the Shade of any person I knew. Maybe she had a clue about what was going on because this was getting old, fast.

  When I arrived at my apartment, the overwhelming feeling of loneliness gripped me, just like every other damn time lately. It had started since Sonny left three weeks ago for Nova Terra Academy. I still couldn’t believe it.

  That night, after I returned the amulet to Damian Reed and his team, Sonny and I came back here, packed our things, and headed for the subway station early in the morning. We didn’t have a destination in mind. We just wanted to get away from New York first, before we decided on something more permanent. But before we’d gotten into the subway, this man had come out of nowhere.

  “Sonny Montero?” he’d called, looking at my brother like he knew him. I’d pulled Sonny back and almost reached for one of my daggers when he’d pulled something out of the pocket of his jacket.

  It was just an envelope—and he handed it to Sonny. My brother took it because it had the emblem of Nova Terra Academy printed in golden foil all over it.

  “Congratulations,” the stranger had said with a smile, and he’d turned around and left us alone. No attack, no pointed looks, no nothing.

  The letter in the envelope had informed Sonny that he’d been accepted to Nova Terra Academy with a full scholarship, and he would start classes come September.

  I’d thought it was a trap. Sonny was wanted by the Guild because his magic signature had been found at a brutal crime scene here in Manhattan just a week ago. So why would Nova Terra want to give him a scholarship now?

  The only thing that made sense was Damian Reed. I had no idea what he’d done or how he’d pulled this off, but it had to have been him. Who else?

  If it had been up to me, I’d have torn up that piece of paper and gotten on that subway, but not Sonny. He was so excited, so proud that he cried. He’d always wanted to go to Nova Terra, and now his dream had been handed to him, wrapped up in a pretty envelope.

  It was hard to back down, but I couldn’t do that to him. I couldn’t take away what he’d dreamed of all his life. So I swallowed my complaints, and we returned to our apartment, and I had to tell the landlord that I’d sent him that email by mistake. He hadn’t been too happy.

  Three months later, Sonny had started the Academy, and now I was all alone. Except for Kit, if he bothered to stay in the apartment for longer than a few minutes at a time, the fucker.

  I got showered and dressed in record time. It was Malin’s night off from her job as a nurse in a human hospital, and she wanted to go out. When Malin wanted something, Malin got. Otherwise she’d make my life miserable for weeks.

  By the time I got to Cavalieros, I was already sweating. It had taken me fifteen minutes. Fifteen fucking minutes from the entrance of the Shade to the club.

  “What the fuck did I ever do to you?” I said to the streets, because Dugan Street was barely five minutes from the south entrance, and the Shade had made me walk almost all around it on purpose. Fucking ass.

  Cavalieros was as loud as always on a Tuesday night. It wasn’t open on Mondays, and you could tell people missed it by the way they’d swarmed the bar, demanding drinks.

  Another of my best friends, Jamie, worked the left side of the bar, and her friend Ellis worked the right. Malin sat at the corner of the left side, waving at me with a drink in hand. I elbowed my way through the crowd while Kit climbed down my body and disappeared to go search the place for whatever he could find. Even though we were right next to the DJ booth, Jamie always made sure that the music didn’t reach that particular part with its full intensity when we were there. It was like we were sitting across the large room.

  “Hey!” Malin said, her brown eyes sparkling with excitement.

  “Hey, Mal.” I gave her a kiss on the cheek and sat on the barstool next to her. “Hey, Jamie!”

  “I’ll be right there,” Jamie called from the middle of the bar while she served drinks to her impatient customers.

  “Sin, is your hair still wet?” Malin asked, narrowing her brows.

  I ran my fingers over it. “Damp,” I corrected. I’d showered and I hadn’t been very patient with the drier.

  Malin rolled her eyes. “So, I’ve been thinking,” she said and got that look that meant what was coming was serious. I leaned a little closer. “You know the guys? The bad guys?”

  “Mhm.” She called the Uprising the bad guys.“What about them?”

  The Uprising was apparently a group of people—a big group of people—that wanted to overthrow the Sacri Guild and take over. Their excuse was that they wanted equality for the darkling—supernaturals, like me, who possessed Talents the Guild deemed too dangerous for society.

  “They’ve figured out a way to remove the Nulling,” Malin continued, looking down at the counter. “And I kind of feel like it’s necromantic magic.”

  “Malin,” I warned. I already knew where she was going with this. At the age of ten, the Guild tested every supernatural individually, and those who had the Talents on their black list got Nulled. Their Talent was taken away from them. That’s what had happened to Malin. Her Talent had been necromantic magic, a big no-no in the eyes of the Guild.

  “I’m just saying, if it’s necromantic magic, I can figure it out. I mean, my mom’s grimoires probably have over ten thousand spells combined, and I haven’t even gone through half of them. And if—”

  “No,” I cut her off. “Even if you found a spell, which I doubt you will, you don’t have the magic to do it.”

  “That’s what friends are for, right?” She grinned at me. A shiver washed down my back.

  She wanted me to use my Talent on her, which basically meant stealing her essence and becoming a necromantic witch myself.

  “You’re kidding.” She wasn’t, but I didn’t know what else to say.

  “You’ve already done it once, and it worked perfectly,” she said with a shrug.

  “That’s because I had no choice,” I reminded her.

  I’d taken her magic once before, when I’d needed to perform a necromantic ritual to return a lot of magic to its rightful place: a tear-shaped, blue amulet that had belonged to the Uprising. My life had depended on it. That magic had been too powerful, too much for my body, and it would have been only a matter of time before it took over my own essence and killed me.

  And Malin was wrong. It hadn’t worked perfectly. I hadn’t told her or Jamie this, but now, every time I used spells when hunting hellbeasts, my fingers still glowed purple, which had never happened before the amulet. And my magic still came to me faster, stronger, more eager than before.

  I didn’t tell anyone because it was going to go away on its own. In time. I just needed to be patient, that’s all.

  “What’s up, babes?” Jamie said, leaning across the counter to kiss my cheek.

  “Mal’s lost her mind,” I told her.

  “Why? What happened?”

  “She wants to find the spell to reverse the Nulling.”

  Jamie’s green eyes opened wide. “Like the Uprising?!”

  “Hush!” I whispered, looking around to see if someone was close enough to hear. We had said we weren’t going to mention that name in public for a reason. We didn’t need any more trouble. It was a miracle we’d pulled off that fight in Virgin Square without the Guild knowing about it.

  “It’s okay, I’ve soundproofed this side of the bar,” Malin said.

  “I say go for it,” Jamie said.

  I covered my face with my hand.

  “S
ee? It’s not such a big deal. Travis fucking Bennet wasn’t Nulled!” Malin cried. She meant my brother’s former best friend, the same guy who’d put Sonny in that mess with the Uprising in the first place. Sonny had told me that he had never been Nulled because his mom worked high up in the Guild, and she had connections we didn’t have.

  “It’s dangerous, Malin. What if they catch you? What do you think will happen then?” I tried to reason.

  “Nobody’s going to catch her. C’mon,” Jamie said, rolling her eyes, before she went to attend customers again, leaving us alone.

  “Malin, it’s not worth it. If one thing goes wrong—” She didn’t let me finish.

  “It’s easy for you to say. You were never Nulled. You get to use your Talent whenever you want,” she spit angrily.

  “They don’t Null people like me, Mal. They kill them.” She knew this. We’d talked about it many times.

  “Look, I just want to give it a try. The spell might not even be in Mom’s grimoires, but it would help if you were a bit more supportive, Sin.”

  She wanted me to be supportive for the worst idea she’d ever had?! “Mal, this is ridiculous! You’re doing fine. You have your job, you have—”

  “I don’t have my Talent. It’s a part of me, Sin. You don’t understand because you’ve always had it, but it’s like having a missing limb that you’re constantly trying to use, only to find it isn’t there.” Her warm eyes darkened. “I just need a chance to find out, that’s all.”