Chapter Text
“Just tell me one thing; tell me we aren’t doing this because you think you’re somehow less to us than your brothers and sister.”
I blinked. I must have looked like a cat who had just been popped on the nose. Is that what he and Mom thought? “No! I know you love me. I just... I just want to know where I come from.”
Dad held my gaze, one dark brow arched. Connor Rogan had a way of making you want to stand up straighter, shoulders back, and hope that the crease in your pants was razor sharp. Hard to do any of those in the seat of an SUV.
“I promise, Dad. This has nothing to do with feeling insecure. I know you and Mom love me. I just want to know who they were.”
He sat in silence a moment longer. I started to feel terrible. Was asking this hurting them? Did they think I didn’t love them, too?
Finally he nodded and took the keys out of the ignition. “All right, then. Let’s do this.”
“I don’t understand why we had to do this at the Baylor compound, though.” It made me nervous that Aunt Lina had to be part of the conversation. That meant it had to do with something that was particularly nasty. Auntie Lina was the Warden of the State of Texas, the ultimate authority of law and order when it came to matters involving the magical elite.
“Because if this had happened at any other time in their lives, you would have gone to Catalina and Alessandro instead of being placed with us.”
We got out fo the SUV and I opened the back door to let Tyrys out. “What do you mean?”
“It was the last official action of Linus Duncan before he retired and turned over being the Warden to Lina. Sorting out that mess was too big a job to focus on raising an infant with your specific needs. You were this close to being a Baylor instead of a Rogan.” He held up one hand, thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart.
‘Why those two houses? Why not someone else? Like an animal mage house or a pyro?”
“You’ll see.”
The Baylor compound was solid, well secured and unassuming. Looking at it, you’d never think that one of the scariest men aside from Dad lived there. Most people didn’t fear Catalina. They respected her, but they didn’t fear her.
Most people were dumb like that.
We’d passed through security on the drive up, so there was no need to go through another check. Even if we hadn’t been cleared by the dogs used to make sure an illusion mage wasn’t putting on a trusted face, Tyrus was more than proof enough that it was me, which mean Dad was Connor. The timber wolf wouldn’t let anyone else that close to me wearing that face if the scent didn’t match. We let ourselves in the front door. Neither the Rogans nor the Baylors were really the ‘butler’ kind of family.
“Lina! We’re here!”
“Kitchen! I’m making fajitas!”
Was she cooking because it was half past noon and lunch time or was she cooking because she was nervous? Auntie Lina cooked when she was nervous or jittery. I never minded. She was an amazing cook. And the aroma of meat cooking on the grill wafted to us the closer we got in that direction. We found her in the kitchen, as promised.
Catalina Baylor was still gorgeous. A lot of men envied Uncle Al, half for her beauty and the other half for her magic. She had dark hair that was starting to get a few strands of silver in it, lightly tanned skin and kept herself in excellent shape to the point that you’d never know she had three kids now all in their teens. The Terrible Trio would be in school at the moment, and Alessandro was no where to be seen.
Dad snagged a chip from a bowl and scooped up some guacamole. She made it herself and it was better than anything you would find in even the best Tex Mex places in Houston. “Where’s Alessandro?”
“He’s wrapping up a case.”
“Himself?”
She smirked as she grabbed up a platter and some tongs to fetch the steak from the grill. “The client was being particularly irritating. You know him. He just loves a chance to call someone on their bullshit and smack them across the face with their own idiocy.”
Dad gave a chuckle while I pondered if I should pretend everything was normal and help myself to the chips and guacamole or if I should make it clear that I was nervous. Tyrus had no such problem and followed her out, likely hoping she’d give him part of the skirt steak she pulled off the grill. She carried it back through the glass doors, covered it in a tent of foil to rest, and instead fetched a plate of raw meat she’d clearly set aside just for him.
I opted to set the small family sized table rather than fidget like a moron.
“Thank you, Jae. That’s sweet of you.” She came over to give me a brief but warm hug and I felt a kiss against my hair. “You did such a good job with the boys, Connor. What went wrong with Shevy?”
“There’s nothing wrong with Shevy.”
I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. “She’s his precious little princess, perfect in every way.”
Lina sniggered while Dad pretended to be offended on Siobhan’s behalf.
We sat down and enjoyed our fajitas. They were perfectly seasoned and the tortillas were warm and soft, just like I liked them. Mom didn’t cook much. Dad was the one who did the bulk of it when we were younger and he taught us all how. He had been taught by his mother who didn’t like having other people cook her food. He had told us that when she was a child in Basque Country, a rival house had poisoned the birthday pastries intended for the children. They found out when a cousin had stolen one of the puffs early and eaten it, resulting in a fight between the kids and a delay of the party. The cousin died. Since then, Amorosa was very particular about her food and had decided she wouldn’t eat anything she hadn’t prepared herself and for which she couldn’t account the source of all the ingredients. She also collapsed the rival house’s villa onto their heads, wiping them out during a family get together when she got older.
It was a good rule to live by . In our world, houses warred with one another and they weren’t above killing the children, too. Dad was paranoid, and he raised us in his footsteps.
There was no chance Auntie Lina would poison us. She liked us too much.
I helped clear up the table afterwards. I was fully aware that other young primes didn’t do such things. They were from established houses and had grown up in wealth and privilege, with servants to see to such tasks. None of us had known it wasn’t the norm for the majority of our lives. Dad wasn’t one to have a lot of servants because he didn’t like having too many people around and most of his employees were ex soldiers who had more important things to do other than to pick up after us. Mom had grown up ‘normal’, outside of prime society because her parents had been hiding her and her sisters for their formative years. They hadn’t grown up with money but rather working for the family firm, Baylor Investigations, which was now under Auntie Lina’s control. They did their own cleaning, their own cooking and they didn’t put on airs. Some looked down on them for it, but others appreciated it. They treated you the same whether you were a rich, fourth-generation prime or just a regular guy trying to find your kid who ran away from home and was living on the street somewhere. We were ‘just folks’, and we liked it that way.
“So, your dad says you’ve put your foot down about your birth parents.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She gave me a sad smile. “It was bound to happen sooner or later.” She put down the cloth she’d wiped the counters down with. “Come on. I set things up this morning.”
We went past her office to the media room of all places. She motioned for us to sit down on one of the comfy sofas, well broken in from family movie nights, and took a seat at the edge of a recliner catty cornered from me across the low coffee table.
“You know that the Office of the Warden is tasked with investigating incidents involving a magical threat to humanity.” I nodded. “Part of that is making sure the Osiris Serum stays locked up. Over two decades ago, before you were born, there was a breach in one of the vaults and several vials of the serum were stolen. It was a joint effort by multiple parties, and it took us a long time to track down all the samples and shut the whole mess down.”
I swallowed. The Osiris Serum was discovered by accident when the world tried desperately to find a cure for a particularly deadly form of influenza had been ravaging the globe. It hadn’t been their intent, and it set everything on its ear. If you took it, one of three equally likely scenarios would happen: You died, you were turned into some horrific monster and then you died, or your latent magical ability would be brought to the surface. Seemingly overnight regular people gained the ability to hurl fire balls from their hands, shoot lightning from their fingers, send people into a mass panic or, if they were like Dad, hurl heavy objects and break buildings with their minds. Then the First World War broke out and we saw what they could really do.
After that, it was mutually agreed upon that the serum would be locked up, but the genie was out of the bottle. The abilities proved hereditary and passed on to the subsequent generations, giving rise to the Houses. Now the world had a class of people who were, while not really above the law, in many ways outside of it. Strong magic meant wealth and privilege, and some still sought to increase their strength whenever possible. They may have locked up the serum, but that didn’t stop people from trying to augment themselves, sometimes by very illegal and inhuman means.
“Usually when experimentation is done, the people who are the subjects are the desperate. The homeless. The addicts. The ones on the edge of financial ruin willing to do anything to provide for their families. But all of these things can be traced. People report when loved ones go missing. No matter how careful you are, test subjects disoriented from pain or driven mad by what was done to them can escape. Bodies might turn up. It’s a risk some are willing to take, and one that the Wardens can’t allow.
“You know how mages rarely admit to everything that they can do?”
“Yes.” That was an understatement. You didn’t blab about everything you could do. Mom was a truth seeker, and most thought they only detected when you were lying, but that was her ‘passive’ talent, always on. Few knew that a truth seeker could lock you in place and make you tell her everything you knew. And if they didn’t want to be careful about it, they could magically lobotomize you. People knew Alessandro was an Antastasi Prime, able to nullify a magical attack and shield your mind from mental attacks, but almost no one knew that he could expand that ability to knock out all magic in a several block area, summon swords of light out of nothing that could slice through metal, nor did they know that he could duplicate any weapon nearby for his own personal use. It made him absolute hell to fight.
You didn’t tell people these things because you didn’t want your potential enemies to know what to prepare for.
“House Swift is a Summoning house, which usually is known for calling up things from the arcane realm to fight their battles for them. However, they have a secondary talent that, as far as we know, has not yet manifested in any other house. They have the ability to open portals or doors that they can pass through to other worlds.” What? Summoners didn’t go into the astral realm, they just pulled things out of it. “ Some aren’t that impressive or only contain flora or fauna. There are some, however, that have established races and cultures, and some of these must be parallel to our own because those cultures and races tend to be human. Or at least close enough to our own make up to be compatible.”
I realized my jaw was hanging open and clicked it shut. I considered it for a moment. “House Swift... as in... Mrs. Pierce?” Bethany Pierce, wife of Peter Pierce, Head of House Pierce, was born Bethany Swift, though her family had excised her several years before she married her boss. It had been quite the scandal. She was his second wife, as his first had been killed in House Warfare. Not only was she an excise, she wasn’t a pyromancer like House Pierce and she had an illegitimate daughter, Melody. Peter Pierce didn’t care. He and his first wife had twin sons who were both prime pyros as were his sisters two kids, so the house was secure. He’d done his duty to his house and he was going to marry for love. He and Bethany had two more boys after their marriage and he’d adopted Melody as his own. If Siobhan was Dad’s pampered princess, she looked positively neglected next to Mel.
“That’s the one. The National Assembly has since had a nice chat with House Swift about their questionable handling of their members and their apparent willingness to cut off gifted magic users for perceived slights. They kicked Bethany out because she refused to terminate her pregnancy, but she wasn’t the only one. They’ve excised a few, but Bethany and another cousin were the two most dangerous ones. Beth has her head on straight and doesn’t do anything stupid. She’s a mother and she wanted to provide for her daughter. The cousin, however, didn’t have her morals.”
“How so?”
“They aren’t officially registered as of yet, and when they do they’ll be like I was. I was considered an emergence of a new talent because there was no official record of what I can do and the one house over in Greece that had rumors of it claims the power died out in their line.” A touchy subject. The rumor was they practiced gender selective terminations to ensure they only had sons, and what Catalina could do seemed to be the strongest in women. Dad’s theory was that they were just unwilling to let a woman be in charge fo their family, so they didn’t allow themselves to have any. “They do, however, have their own way of ranking the gift. Some can only open a portal to a one or two places, no bigger than what they could reach an arm through. That’s what they consider to be ‘nominal’. Three to five places they rank as ‘average’. Notable can either open small portals up to seven or eight or maybe a portal large enough to walk through to one or two. A significant rank would be able to open portals large enough to drive vehicles through to one to four places and a prime could open them to five or more.”
“What do they use it for?”
“Precious metals and gems, rare items. They might take samples of exotic flora and work deals with plant mage houses that they would ‘create’ such things with House Swift getting a cut of the profits. They can’t do the same with animals since most animal mages wouldn’t mistreat them that way. It’s made them quite wealthy. They managed it under the noeses of the Assembly for decades.”
“You have to admire the cleverness of it all.” Dad’s voice was a mix of dryness and admiration. “Since they’re the only house that can do it, as far as we know, they have a monopoly on anything they bring back.”
“Exactly. And, as I said, some of those worlds have people in them.”
My stomach felt a bit queasy. “People no one here would report missing.”
Lina’s smile was sad. “You always were too clever for your own good.” She nodded. “Yes, and as I said, the Swift cousin didn’t have very good morals. One of the groups behind the theft of the serum hired him to help them secure test subjects from somewhere no one would think to look.”
“My parents.”
“Your mother, and the men who were tasked with guarding her. From what we learned in our investigation, your father died before they were taken. That world was at war and he was killed in battle.”
She reached over and picked up a remote from the table. “We have video of the interview with one of the men taken with her. The serum...warped him, but he maintained an amazing amount of mental clarity in spite of it. He didn’t last long, which was a mercy given how much pain he was in. We had a prime telepath with us, and they were able to... link with him to learn his language. There is an audio translation put over the video so you can understand what’s being said.”
She handed me the remote. I looked at it, then at the blank screen of the HD television that took up most of a wall before me. I must havre sat there a while because Dad’s large, broad hand rested on my shoulder, giving me a jolt.
“Take your time, Jae. If you want, we can wait and come back tomorrow or whenever you’re ready.”
I shook my head. “No, I want to do this.”
Lifting the remote, I woke up the screen and hit ‘play’.
The recording was taken in some type of hospital room. A man lay on the the bed. It was impossible to know if he’d always been that big or if the serum had made him that big when it had magic warped him. I couldn’t know if he’d been handsome at one time or not. The reaction his body had to the serum had left him looking something like a cross between a baboon and how I imagined a Neanderthal would look, but with yellow, scaly skin. One eye was green and had a slit pupil like a cat, but the other was human and a beautiful shade of violet.
A voice spoke in a language I didn’t know, but the English voice over was immediate. “What is your name?”
The man spoke, his voice raspy and guttural, as though trying to speak through a cold. “Ser Arthur Dayne, of House Dayne. Sword of the Morning. Kingsguard to Rhaegar Targaryen and his son, the Rightful King of the Seven Kingdoms.”
“What can you tell me of the people who brought you here?”
“Sorcerers. Monsters.” He swallowed. “They attacked us at the tower, where we guarded the princess.” He became agitated, struggling against the bonds that kept him to the bed. The beeping of the heart monitor beside the bed began to quickly. “Release me! I must go to them! I must protect Princess Lyanna! I must guard my king!”
The voice of the doctor could be heard. “He is becoming agitated. The man doesn’t have much time left to him! Let him have some peace!”
Another voice, deep and with authority answered. “All the more reason to do this now. We need to know what happened and he’s the only one able to tell us.”
The man asking the questions, I assumed he was the telepath, put a hand on Ser Arthur’s arm. “The baby is safe. The men who did this to you are dead. They cannot harm him.”
Dayne looked at him with his mis matched eyes, his breathing shallow and quick. “The princess?”
There was a pause. “I’m sorry. She didn’t make it.”
He closed his eyes in pain. “My Prince, I failed you.” He opened them again. “Did they... do this to her?”
“She didn’t have the same reaction as you. The serum did not kill her. Lack of care on the part of your captors did. They did nothing to help her after the delivery. By the time our people breached the compound and found her, she was too far gone.”
“The babe? A boy?”
“It was a boy. He’s healthy.”
The man on the bed smiled. “Long live Jaehaerys Targaryen, third of his name.”
“Jaehaerys? His mother kept repeating that before she passed. We didn’t know what it meant. It is a name?”
He nodded. “Visenya if a daughter. Jaehaerys for a son, after Jaehaerys the Wise.” There was an almost reverent quality to his voice.
The voice from off to the side broke in again. “We need to know more about the team that took them.”
The telepath nodded. “The people who attacked the tower, did you know them?”
“No... they were not of Westeros. Not Essosi. They wore strange clothes, like yours.” He swallowed. “They carried unnatural weapons that fired invisible lightning. It made our bodies seize up. I heard the princess and her maids screaming but could not help them!” He started to become agitated again. “I could not move to help them! Rhaegar! Rhaegar I failed you! I could not protect your wife!”
He began to cough in deep, ragged booms. The doctor moved forward to administer something to the IV line. “He can’t keep this up for much longer.”
“Did you see anything when they came? Anything odd? Such as a ball of spinning light or strangely colored lightning?”
Dayne’s breathing was ragged. “There was.... there was a dark swirl.... like night but it was clear day. The air... burnt, like after a summer storm.”
The commander’s voice grumbled. “Sounds like a summoning portal.”
They rode in a great wheelhouse of glass and steel, but there were no horses to draw it.”
“He’s never seen a troop transport before?”
“I don’t think he’s from around here, Sir.”
“Jaehaerys! He is the king! He was king form his first breath! I must.... I mus...”
The man seized up on the bed, his body convulsing and jerking as he struggled to breathe. The medical team rushed forward, trying to save him, but his body crashed.
I continued to watch as they worked in vain to resuscitate him, the steady, unbroken beep of the monitor in my ears. Eventually the footage ran out and the image stopped on a still of the broken man in the bed and the medical staff hovering around him.
“It was a good eight years before we made the connection to House Swift. They covered their tracks well, and even when we had enough pieces to make the connection, they dodged our investigation attempts like pros. However, Bethany was very motivated to help us. The portal ability for a mage seems to be connected to a set world or worlds, not just any one they stumble upon. She recognized some of the names and the description, especially the family name Targaryen and the country of Westeros. I learned some new curse words when she realized what someone in her family had been doing with their powers.”
“What did she have to say?” I was hurt that she never talked to me about it, but information surrounding the misuse of the Osiris Serum and experimentation was taboo for a reason. The world didn’t want a repeat of the Time of Terrors.
“The Targaryens were the ruling family of a country called ‘Westeros’ which was made up of seven different provinces that used to be their own kingdoms until the Targaryens came over the sea riding giant, fuck off dragons. Think... a culture with 21st century weaponry invading a country still stuck in the Iron Age. The locals didn’t stand a chance. They held control by being the only ones with dragons for a long time, but over the ages the dragons diminished, becoming smaller and less fertile until they died out. The theory was that they didn’t do well with captivity.”
“Dragons?” I almost choked on the word.
“Remember, different world. Perhaps even a different dimension entirely.”
“Right. Got it.”
“Anyway, they also had a lamentable tendency towards inbreeding in order to keep their ‘blood pure’, but you came out all right. She suspects the ‘Lyanna’ in question was probably a girl named Lyanna Stark of House Stark. The war was just starting to kick off when she was forced to leave and it started over Rhaegar taking off with your mother. It was claimed he kidnapped her, but Beth doesn’t think that’s the case.”
“Why is that?”
“Because of Arthur Dayne and Rhaegar’s reputation. She doesn’t think that Rhaegar was the kind of man to lose his head over a pretty girl and steal her, and if he did, she doesn’t think Arthur Dayne would have just stood by and let it happen. Kingsguard or not, he would have tried to talk some sense into the man. He was already married and had two children, one of them not even a year old yet. And there was the interview with Dayne. He called Lyanna a princess and referred to her as Rhaegar’s wife. He called you ‘Jaehaerys Targaryen’, which by Westerosi custom would mean you were legitimate as a bastard was given the surname based on where they were born; Snow for the north, Rivers if in the Riverlands, Sand if born in Dorne where your mother was hidden before the attack. Indication is that Lyanna was with Rhaegar of her own will.”
“She also said that your grandfather, Aerys Targaryen, was bat shit insane. Also obsessed with burning things.”
That wasn’t good. “Were they pyromancers?”
“According to Bethany the legends said there was magic, but that it died when the dragons died. At the time she was there, it was just a myth. She also says the legends claimed true Targaryens didn’t burn, so it’s possible that there was a latent predisposition to pyrokenesis, which could explain why the exposure you had to the serum en utero resulted in you manifesting pyrokenesis as well as theriomancy. She didn’t know much about the Starks, other than they were well respected by many but considered by some to be ‘savages’ or ‘barbrians’ because they were from the North and still followed the Old Gods rather than the accepted religion of the Seven followed in the South. Their house sigil is a Dire Wolf and their house words are ‘Winter is Coming’. Seasons can last years in that world, including winters. Their stories tell about a winter that lasted at least forty years with little or no sunlight during which many people died from the cold and starvation.”
Tyrus rested his head on my knee and I scratched his ears. The bond between us was calming. I was his friend and his family, his pack. “Sounds like a lovely place.”
“And no indoor plumbing. Or vaccines. Or modern medicine. She says living there for nearly two years while her family claimed she was ‘studying abroad’ meant that she had no problems living in near poverty when her family excised her. Even the poorest in our society live quite well compared to the small folk of Westeros.” She used air quotes for the ‘studying abroad’.
Good point. Modern man had it quite well.
“You okay?” Dad’s voice pulled me out of my reverie. I must have been sitting there for a while. His blue eyes seemed to bore right though me. We could never get by with keeping secrets from Dad. He always knew when you were up to something, and he was the easy one. Mom was a fucking truth seeker. You couldn’t get by with anything with her around. Like all kids, we tried. Smacked down, each and every time.
“So... I don’t even belong here?”
His brow creased. “Don’t be an idiot. You were born here, in this world. Doesn’t matter where you were conceived, those assholes brought your pregnant mother over here to run their tests and experiments on her. Experiments that likely made you what you are. You’ve lived under my roof since before you were two months old and you legally carry my name. You are my son, no matter whose blood flows through your veins or where your biological parents came from. You are part of this family.”
And that was Dad in a nutshell. I had seen and heard him put more than one jackass in their place when they made some comment about me not being his ‘real son’. He was far scarier than Tyrus or any of my animals on their worst day. And he was the soft, cuddly one. People pissed themselves when Mom had them in her cross hairs. Given that she was a dual with a secondary talent of Magus Sagittarius, meaning she did not miss what she was aiming at, that was sometimes very literal.
He looked over to Auntie Lina. “The war started over his parents wanting to be together?”
She grimaced. “In a simplified boil down of it.” She picked up a tablet lying on the side table next to her chair and thumbed it on. “When we made the connection to House Swift, Bethany helped us shake down her estranged family for what details they can provide. They send their kids into habitable places for two to four years to scope things out, establish trade contacts and survey for goods and items that may be of value here. They are encouraged to keep detailed records and notes. From what they reported, Lyanna’s brother, Brandon, rode to the capitol and demanded the king make his son give her back. The king had him arrested for treason and sent for his father, Rickard, to answer for his son’s behavior. The nobility allow trial by combat and Rickard said he’d stand as his son’s champion, but Aerys declared fire as his. They had Rickard suspended over a fire while in full plate mail to be roasted alive. Brandon was tied with a fastened rope around his neck and a sword to cut his father free just out of reach. He strangled himself to death trying to get to it.”
“Fuck.” Dad rubbed a hand over his eyes. “You didn’t tell me that part before.”
“We didn’t know it at the time.”
I swallowed. So at least one of my grandfather’s was insane and he’d killed the other one. I willed my fajitas to stay down in my stomach. “Is there any of my mother’s family left after that?”
“Rickard had two other sons. Brandon was the first born, and after his death Eddard Stark became the Lord of Winterfell. After that, the North couldn’t stay out of the war. Lyanna had been betrothed to a Lord Robert Baratheon who called for an uprising to get her back. He and Eddard had been fostered together with a Lord Jon Arryn so they were close. After Aerys killed his father and brother, his bannermen would have demanded action, so the North supported the rebellion. Last reports they had to give us, Baratheon won, he killed your father in single combat. Aerys was killed by one of his own Kingsguard, a Ser Jamie Lannister. His father, Lord Tywin Lannister, led the sacking of the capital and oversaw the murder of Elia Martell and your half siblings, Princess Rhaenys and Prince Aegon. Robert was declared king by virtue of having Targaryen blood himself through his grandmother. They were unable to find your mother, of course, and eventually he was convinced to marry Cersei Lannister. Bethany didn’t care for that. Seems like Cersei was the reason she had to leave Westeros so quickly. She didn’t say why, but she called the woman a ‘stuck up, entitled cunt’.”
What a mess. It felt like some badly written made for TV movie. “What a fucking nightmare. How did you find my mother at all?”
“Gestational Transference. The notes they made on your mother indicated that the serum brought out theriomancy in her. Strong, too, but they had her in a secure bunker. However, when you’re carrying a child who is also going to be a powerful prime, the baby’s magic can meld with the mother. In this case, it amplified your mother’s powers to the point that she stirred up the wildlife within five miles and drew them towards the compound. Certainly got our attention. It’s unlikely she understood what she was doing. She may not even have fully been aware of it, given her high state of distress at the abduction and being in a strange place. But the behavior was so far out of the norm is couldn’t go unnoticed, and it wasn’t hard for other theriomancers to determine that magic was at work. The compound was located on the Texas and Oklahoma border, so a joint strike team was put together by the wardens of both states. House Rogan supplied the bulk of the man power since we already had a working relationship with them, and House Harrison ran point for the animal mages who joined us. The compound was breached and the threat neutralized. We weren’t in time to save Lyanna Stark but we were able to stop one of the researchers from running off with you.”
Lina took my hands in hers. “We suspect that they decided a fully grown woman who was a new mage would be too difficult to handle, but that they could mold and shape a newborn into whatever or whoever they wanted. The gestational transference already confirmed you were a prime. You and your mother were both successes in their experiments, but you would be easier for them to control.”
It made sense. It hurt and I wanted to scream and rage. How terrified must she have been? Pregnant and already a widow, now she was with people who hurt her and who took her child from her. That poor woman. I knew she was my mother, and part of me did hurt for her, but I had never known her. It was an odd pain, and a child’s anger. I suppose I should have been relieved that I wasn’t a child tossed aside because I wasn’t wanted. I hadn’t been abandoned. I had been their lab rat. To test something as toxic and dangerous as the Osiris Serum on an expectant woman... how depraved could the human race actually sink?
“How did I come to be with House Rogan?”
“Well, that was an argument that spanned over a week and a half and involved several people too enamored with smelling their own farts.” Lina didn’t have the highest option of politicians. Or of most primes, even though she was one. So many of them were self-centered , narcissistic assholes. “We never let the theft of the serum get out in the general public’s knowledge. It’s not something you advertise. We kept the reclamation of it as quiet as possible. On the other hand, no one was going to make a baby disappear. At least not when so many who would be against such an action were watching. Some argued to put you with a theriomancy house, but...well, you know how crucial it is that a child with your abilities be properly socialized.”
I knew. Magic and power came with a price, and that price depended on the talent. People like me started bonding with animals before we even learned to talk. Dogs. Cats. Rats if they were around. Birds outside the nursery window. Some even have a natural bent towards insects. We spoke to animals before we learned to speak with people, and there were many like me who were never properly socialized and never learned to speak at all. Theriomancers were in danger of never developing a sense of empathy or making substantial connections with other people. They might bond with their parents, but if the parents were also animal mages the bond might not be fully returned.
“You needed a loving, stable family home. You certainly couldn’t be raised in a sterile environment, which was something suggested by a few. Even the animal mages argued against you being raised as a lab rat though none of them were particularly interested in taking you. And wherever you went, the family needed to be someone who could provide the physical security as well as keep their mouths shut about your origins.”
“Nevada and I were a perfect fit.” Dad’s hand rubbed my shoulder reassuringly. “We already had Sean and Liam, and Siobhan was barely eight months old. And with the variety of magic in the Baylor family as well as amongst my own people, there was a wide array of talents you could be exposed to.”
“And,” Lina added, “we have a strong friendship and alliance with House Harrison, including Cornelius working directly for House Baylor so that there would be a skilled animal mage available to teach you the ins and outs of your magic. When your pyromancy manifested I was able to reach out to Tatiana Pierce and ask her to assist as well. House Pierce was still trying to shed off the stink Adam Pierce left them with when he decided to go terrorist on the city and she had come to know me during an earlier case as well as having been trying to patch up the more cordial relationship she’d once had with Diana Harrison at school. By bringing you into our family we could make sure that you had a happy and stable life. We could also shield and protect you should any of the people involved in the whole affair tried to reclaim you to continue their work.”
“They’d be stupid to try it now. You’re far more than they could have hoped for, but you’re not a baby any longer. You know how to take care of yourself.” I could hear the proud smile in Dad’s voice. “You’d wipe the floor up with them.”
“Alesssandro and I would have taken you, but Linus decided then would be a good time to retire from being the warden, which meant i was promoted into his position. That kind of power shift comes with a crap ton of baggage. I wouldn’t have been able to provide you the level of attention of care you deserved and needed if I was busy batting away attempts from random places trying to test out the strength of the new warden.”
“The day I brought you home from the final meeting sorting it all out, it was love at first sight. I’d called Nevada and told her what was going on, of course. Couldn’t just show up at the door and say ‘Hi Honey, i know we already have one baby under a year, but I thought we could easily handle a second one’. She loved you before she even saw you, and when I put you in her arms it was final. For both of us. The boys were thrilled. They didn’t really want a sister at the time. They took to you far quicker than they did to Shevy.”
I looked at the still image again. “What about her? Lyanna? Do you have any footage of her?”
Catalina’s expression looked pained. “Jae, you don’t want to watch that.”
Probably not. “I want to know what she looks like. Hear her voice.” I swallowed. “I want to know what they did to her.”
She met Dad’s eyes over my head.
“He can handle it.”
She nodded, then, and pulled up the file on her tablet. She handed it over and I told it to start.
She was young. Far too young to be married and pregnant. Long dark hair, the same shade as mine. A few clips were close enough that I could tell her eyes were the same shade of grey. She was long in the face and not conventionally pretty, but there was a... spark to her. A strength that made her beautiful. I suppose that I could be viewing her through a child’s eyes, but I like to believe anyone would have found her so.
There wasn’t a voice over with these clips ,but someone had added subtitles. There were clips of her banging her hands and fists against the clear wall of her cell, shouting that she was Lyanna Targaryen and that they were to release her immediately. She was the She Wolf of Winterfell and would not tolerate this treatment! Demanding to know where her guards were. Screaming that her kin would come for her. Scenes of the techs and doctors coming to her and her fighting back the best she could as they held her down to take blood samples. Fighting as she was strapped down to a narrow hospital bed when they grew tired of her aggression.
The worst was when she went into labor. I was aware I was shaking, my hands in a double fist and my teeth biting into my knuckles as she screamed my name again and again as they took me away from her. She jerked and pulled against her restraints, trying to get free so she could take me back. The background of the recording included the muffled booms and voices as the strike team breached the compound, and my mother was left there still screaming out my name.
The screen went blank after the last frame and I was left looking at my reflection in the screen. I was crying. I’d never seen Dad cry and I couldn’t remember the last time me or my brothers had. We all tried so hard to be strong and stoic like “Mad” Rogan, but the tears wouldn’t stay back. I just looked at myself while my mind replayed her face until a cut crystal glass came up to float by my head. Looking over, I saw the whiskey held up by telekenesis. I was only nineteen, too young to drink legally by sometimes they let us have a glass of wine with a special dinner or spiked egg nog. They didn’t let us have straight hard liquor.
He must have thought I needed it.
I would like to claim that I downed it like a champ, but I’d ever had whiskey before and hadn’t expected it to burn so much. It burned worse when I inhaled from shock and there was quite a bit of coughing. I’m fairly sure it made my eyes water worse, but I accepted the second drink. With two of them in me, the warmth began to take affect.
“Did the Assembly ever determine how many we got?”
“No. We know we didn’t get all of them, and we didn’t get the portal mage. He didn’t go crawling back to House Swift but he hasn’t turned up anywhere else, either. It’s possible he’s just that good at hiding, but Beth says it’s more likely he’s hiding somewhere in one of the worlds he has access to. Obviously he could manage living in Westeros, or Planetoss as the natives call it, there’s more than the one nation, but she doesn’t know anything about the other worlds he could reach. They could be habitable or they might not.”
Dad growled. I think I may have as well, because Tyrus did. “You’ll let me know if any more turn up?”
“If I can. Don’t give me that look. I’m still the Warden here. Chances are I’ll be more than happy to bring you in if we need the muscle, but I’m out going to straight up promise you. The main thing I need is for you and Nevada to keep Jae safe. He’s at less risk now that he’s fully trained and a dual prime, but if they get greedy enough they might still try to reclaim him for further testing.”
“I’d like to see them try.”
“I would rather they didn’t. Don’t put me in a position to have to take you down before you level the city in a rage, Connor. I’d prefer to avoid any situation that results in your taking Houston apart looking for your son.”
He would, too. There was a reason they called him the ‘Butcher of Merida’ and the ‘Scourge of Mexico’. Dad had done a lot of damage while in the Army. It had been a violent and bloody war, and Connor Rogan had been the United States’ super weapon on the battlefield.
The door opened at the front of the house. A feminine voice yelled “I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!”, followed by footsteps running up a flight of stairs, then somewhere overhead, then a door slamming shut.
We were all looking up at the ceiling now.
“Well,” came Lina’s dry voice, “sounds like the first day of school was interesting.”
“She reminds me of you.”
“I was never that dramatic.”
“Sure you weren’t.”
A sigh that could only be from someone younger than me drew our attention to the door of the media room. Michael stood there, his Crownover Academy blazer rumpled, tie loosened and backpack slung over one shoulder. “The dean wants to meet with you and Dad tomorrow.”
“What happened?”
“She got into a fight with Casey Nelson and her bitch squad. They were saying she was home schooled this long because she was too stupid to go to regular school. Mandy punched Casey then rammed her face into the wall. Pretty sure she broke her nose. Then Frida jumped the other two. They only knew how to pull hair and scratch, so it wasn’t a fair fight.”
“I see. And where is Frida?”
“Made a beeline for the kitchen. Why do I have sisters again?”
“Because I have trouble telling your father ‘no’.”
Michael made a horrified face and held up his hands in submission as he backed away from the door. “Too much! That’s too much! I’ll be in my room!”
Lina drew in a breath, then let it out. “I love my children. They keep my life interesting.”
“You probably have half an hour before Nelson calls screaming bloody murder.”
“Probably. I better go get Amanda’s side of things before that happens.” She looked at me. “You gonna be okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be fine. I just... need to process.”
“I told Beth I’d be filling you in today. She said she’d be available if you want to know any more. She was over there for a bit over two years, so she can tell you what she knew then. The laws that govern the magical houses protect the Swifts from having to disclose particulars about what they can do, and they can easily keep their House status under the summoning. As long as that’s the case, they don’t have to officially register the portal twist to it which means I can only do so much when it comes to pumping them for information. If that cousin shows back up, they’ll probably turn him in just to get the Assembly off their backs, but they don’t have to give us any of the current info they have on Westeros or your family.”
Dad scratched his chin in speculation. “You think they’d be willing to sell it to us?”
“Possibly. Couldn’t hurt to ask. Between you and Neva you have enough political and social clout they may do it just to try and get on your good side.”
“I’ll look into it.” He looked out me. “Let’s go. She’s got parenting to do.”
We walked out of the house and got back into the SUV. “You think Andy really broke that girl’s nose?”
“Probably. Alessandro drills all three of those kids. They’re under more of a threat than most given Lina’s position. She’d never have enrolled them in Crownover otherwise. That place is a shark pool, but the security is some of the best without having to send your kids with body guards. And since they all pitch in with the firm, they can find themselves in dicey situations, they have been taught how to fight. I almost pity the dean having to put up with Frida, though.”
Frida was her father’s daughter all over. A prime antistasi with a secondary magus Sagittarius gift that was at least a notable if not at significant rank. Amanda, however, was just like her mother. A prime level siren, which was the real reason she’d been home schooled for so long. Where the rest of us have to make an effort to use the magic, she had to work not to. Until she got to the point that she wouldn’t accidentally set off a riot or turn her classmates into love sick zombies, she had to be kept closely guarded to avoid kidnapping attempts and assaults. Mom said it had been worse for Auntie Lina because back then they hadn’t known what they were dealing with. A thirty year veteran nurse had stolen her right out of the crib from the hospital the day she was born. There had also been attempts by a dentist when she was six and a teacher when they had tried to start her in kindergarten and finally realized that Catalina could not be sent to public schools.
Michael was a prime antistasi as well with the siren talent as a second, though no one was sure if he’d be considered a significant or a male prime siren since the talent appeared to be stronger in the women. He hadn’t had the same level of difficulty, but he could make nearly anyone like him. Dad joked that he should go into politics, but Alessandro always responded that his son was too honest for such a career path.
“Call Home.”
The SUVs system obeyed the command and we listened to the phone ring a few times before my sister answered. “Rogan Asylum! Head psycho speaking!”
“We’re on our way home.”
“Okay. Mel and Mrs. Pierce are here, so I’m making pizza. I’ve got a pepperoni and a garlic and spinach. Any requests?”
Oh, pizza. “We got any shrimp?”
“You are so weird, but I love you. Shrimp it is.”
Dad smiled, though I’m not sure if it was at me, at her or both. “Try not to burn the house down.”
“I know where the extinguishers are.” The phone disconnected. And we had plenty of fire extinguishers. They’d put at least one or two in every room when my pyro talent had manifested.
“How’s your head?”
“Spinning. She.... she was so young. I... how does someone that young already get married?”
“The understanding is that it’s a culture along the lines of feudal or medieval Europe. If they follow the same general path, they could have been old school about such things.”
“Such as?”
“Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed. Though without the same abundance of food, good nutrition and the added growth hormones, the girls here probably didn’t mature sexually until fifteen or sixteen. And even then a lot of families wouldn’t have married their daughters off right away. It still would have been far earlier than twenty-first century women, but not as young as movies and fiction would say. Not if they cared about them.”
“I can’t imagine you if Shevy tried to get married that young.”
“The groom would never make it to the wedding.”
“Exactly.” Tyrus’ head popped between us and I petted him. “I’m a science experiment. That’s... disturbing.”
“The entire magical community is the result of a science experiment. One that people who want more power keep trying to copy.”
“And a lot of people died for their attempts. That Arthur Dayne guy... he must have been afraid. They all must have been. A strange world. Strangers hurting them. My mother died afraid and far away from anyone who loved or knew her.” My eyes began to sting again, but I did my best to will them to stop. “Do you know what they did with her? With the body, I mean.”
“She was cremated. They didn’t want anyone taking tissue samples. I don’t know what happened to the ashes. I’ll ask Lina to look into it for you.”
Good. That was good. “Why’d you agree to it? To taking me in?”
“Really? Because you were a baby and alone in the world. Those jackasses gave Osiris Serum to a girl who probably wasn’t even eighteen and heavily pregnant. Then other assholes actually considered bringing you up in a sterile, laboratory environment. Fuck’em. You were this tiny little person who needed someone to look out for you and love you. Your mother would have taken my head off if I’d left you behind. We had the room, had the money and we had the connections to make sure you would have the best people to teach you how to control your magic. No one was getting through my people to hurt you and you’d be able to grow up like a kid should.”
He reached over with one hand and messed up my hair. The others picked on me about it, and maybe I was vain, but I always thought it was my best feature. “You’re our kid. Never doubt it. I don’t give a fuck whose blood is in your veins or where they came from, you’re a Rogan.”
It felt like the truth. I wans’t anything like the rest of them. Dad was a telekinetic. Mom was a truth seeker. Primes usually made all decisions about marriage based on genetics and powers, and by every usual assessment the two of them should not have married. The common wisdom was that their children would have weak magic if they had any magic at all, because those two powers didn’t mix. Instead Sean was a prime telekentic with a healthy dose of the magus Sagittarius from Mom’s family. Liam was a prime truth seeker with the same level of siren talent Michael possessed on the side. Siobhan broke all the rules by coming out a dual prime, telekenesis and truth seeking. Two things that shouldn’t be in the same mage.
I came out a dual prime, too, though now I suppose I had a better understanding as to why. The theriomancy must have come from Lyanna Stark, given that she developed the same ability. And if the rumors about the Targaryens and fire were true, that’s where I got my fire magic from. Both were rare, not as rare as truth seeking, the siren talent or Alessandro’s antistasi power, but rare enough that you didn’t meet a lot of them. I knew that Dad had been fielding offers for betrothal for both me and Siobhan for years. He said that he and Mom had married who they wanted to and he wanted the same for all of us. He was not going to be one of those people who disowned his kids because they refused to marry the person he chose for them based on them having the right type of magic and genetics.
Our home was on a large piece of land and didn’t look like the typical prime residence. Antebellum style homes were usually sought after, but Dad said he’d demolished the mansion that used to be here when he took over as Head of House and had instead built a stucco and adobe building that looked like it came out of a Zorro movie. It wasn’t nearly as stuffy or oppressive as other homes I’d visited when accompanying Mom or Cornelius on errands.
We found Siobhan in the kitchen, pulling the last pizza out of the oven. Melody and Mrs. Pierce were at the table, with Mel giving her mother a look that communicated she wasn’t quite sure of what to think.
“Bethany, good to see you again. I hope Peter’s doing well.”
Mrs. Pierce smiled up at Dad. “Stodgy as always, but I still love him.” She looked past him to me. “How are you holding up?”
“Excuse me.” Mel held up a finger in her mother’s direction. “I’m still thinking things over here. Not only did my father have heterochromia,” she pointed to her own mismatched eyes, “and dwarfism,” which at five foot eleven she certainly did not have, “he was also an alien.”
“Tyrion was not an alien.”
“Well he wasn’t from this world.” Mel looked to me. “That’s what an alien is, right?”
This coming from someone who could summon monsters from another plane of existence entirely. Still, she had a point. I pitched my voice to mimic the antagonists from Mars Attacks. “We come in peace!”
She didn’t miss a beat and copied me. “Take us to your leader!”
That reminded me. “That’s me. Apparently I’m royalty of some kind.”
“Huh?”
Mrs Pierce slid a slice of pizza onto her plate. “That’s true. He’s the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, who if we go by the footage of the interviews and records, were married. That makes him royalty. To the point he’d have a solid claim on the throne over there.”
Mel looked at her mother, then at me. “I’m older than you. I’m not about to start kissing your ass.”
“Wait!” Siobhan was smiling brightly, eyes wide. “We’ve got an actual Disney Prince?!” She clapped her hands together like a toddler on a sugar high. “YAY!”
“Dad, gimme the keys. I’m gonna sleep at Leon’s tonight.”
“Denied.” Plates floated from the cabinets to be joined by slices of pizza mid air and mad their way to the table as he sat down. Mine had fat prawns nestled atop a thick layer of cheese and shredded spinach. Just like I liked it..
“You can even talk to animals. Now we just have to write you a sugary cute song to sing while you go traipsing through the forest.” She sat down next to me, her smile positively evil.
“You do know I can summon every rat in the area to sneak into your room and chew up all your shoes, right?”
“Children, behave.” Dad’s phone rang. He tried to impose a no phones at the table rule, but between him and Mom there was always something important coming up. “Yes? Well, that didn’t take long. Got it.” He disconnected. “Bella’s here.”
Catalina must have called her other sister to let her know what was going on. A few minutes later the front door opened and closed. A bit later Arabella arrived with an apparently boneless toddler on her hip. “I smell food.” Another plate floated out of the cabinet, accepted some pizza and took up a spot at the table. Siobhan held her arms out for the sleeping child. Good. That would distract her. “So, where are we on the coping part of the day?”
I shrugged. “We’ve determined that we’re aliens.”
“I’m only half alien. The whole alien is the one who eats shrimp on his pizza.”
Bella folded up her own slice of seafood heaven. “I like shrimp pizza.”
“Yeah but you’re a kaiju. That doesn’t count.”
“We also learned that Jae’s a Disney Prince.”
“I can see that. He always was pretty charming.”
Shevy giggled. Mel and I both groaned.
“I’m the dad. Don’t step on my turf.”
“But your’e not funny.”
“I’m very funny. Ask anyone.”
“Sure, sure. When’s my sister coming home?”
“Friday. She confirmed it this morning.”
Mom and Liam were in South America with the DoD by request of the Brazilian government. They had been having trouble with terrorists and had captured some people they suspected of being involved in rash of bombings. In the spirit of cooperation, they had requested they bring one of their most trusted truth seekers to oversee the interrogation. She’d taken Liam for the practical experience and political clout. Our brother was considering taking a six year hitch in the military, and the military was salivating over getting him. He wouldn’t go until Sean was done with his own run, which was another ten months, because you didn’t risk more than one prime at a time. Liam’s run wouldn’t be anything like Sean’s of course. Sean was a combat prime, attached to a unit that was deployed in hostile zones. Liam would be with Intelligence and guarded more fiercely than the Hope diamond. Truth Seekers were too rare to risk in a combat zone.
I’d been considering that myself. But I would have to be guaranteed to be put in a position for a theriomancer. I would not go without my animals, it wasn’t fair to them and would be too hard on me mentally and emotionally. I would not be taking a commission for a pyromancer.
“So, Jae,” Aunt Bella’s grin looked too evil for my taste, “are you going to explain everything to Dallas?”
I didn’t cough because of the question. A shrimp went down the wrong way. You’ll have to trust me on this.
Dad said nothing, but I’m pretty sure he was smirking.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Oh, you don’t, huh?”
“She came over with her uncle last Saturday. They spent a lot of time together in the movie room.”
Sisters are a curse.
“What did they do?”
“I don’t know. Dad kept sending me on errands.”
Mrs. Pierce seemed to ponder it. “It would be a good match. You’re, what, less than two years apart? By the time both of you finish your education you’ll be the perfect age. House Harrison would definitely benefit from such a union. The main problem the houses have, especially the rarer talents, is genetic diversity. You’re completely new DNA. Fresh blood. Any animal or pryo house would kill to have you.”
“No shit. I’ve been flooded with requests and offers since he registered with the Keeper of Records. Everyone wants access to his profile to make sure that he’s wasn’t an orphan because he’s some secret love child from their own family.”
“House Harrison included?”
“Not them. I don’t think Diana feels it’s necessary. She knows more about Jae than anyone else outside of the family and she’s known him all his life. She can tell he and Dallas get along just fine without any interference or pushing.”
Sometimes being a prime sucked. Herald, the social media platform dedicated to primes, had entire threads dedicated to me and Dallas since we showed up together in pictures from a gallery opening two years ago. You’d think people would realize how creepy it was to ‘ship’ a fifteen and seventeen year old together, but it didn’t stop them. There was even fan fiction written about us. I only knew this because Siobhan and Liam had actually read some and poked fun at how graphic it could be.
“Speaking of potential matches, I had an interesting phone call yesterday from House Kamealoha.” Dad floated another slice of pizza to his plate as though he’d said nothing out of the ordinary. My pest of a sister, however, had frozen ramrod straight in her chair.
Arabella smelled blood in the water. “Did you now? And what did they want?”
“Their nephew is going to be traveling to the Houston area and they hoped that House Rogan might be so inclined to host him while he was here.”
“That’s an excellent idea! It’s not like he gets a lot of exposure with other Truth Seekers after all.”
Shevy’s complexion went bone white. A remarkable feat considering she had a near perpetual golden hue to her thanks to the odd combination of genetics from Mom’s side of the family.
“That’s what they said.”
Everyone in prime society knew about Kealoha Kamealoha. His given name meant ‘the loved one’. I knew this because he had a following online of thousands of giggly girls and had done since I was old enough to notice the female gender and that following included Siobhan. Printouts of his instagram pics plastered the insides of lockers in high school, ready to stare you in the face when those locker doors were open to remind us boring American teenage boys just how inadequate we were. Bronzed skin. Blue black curls that fell to his shoulders. A body that was honed by a lifetime of surfing the Hawaiian waters, traditional dance and no doubt hand-to-hand combat training.
At one time the United States thought to take over the Hawaiian Islands as a strategic naval location. They made their move and ran head first into Hawaii’s collection of a aquakenetics, theriomancers with a close bond to the area’s ocean wildlife and their own peculiar brand of mages that seemed to be a combination of geo and pryokenetics now called Vulcanomancers. That last one wasn’t something you wanted to tangle with on a chain of volcanic islands. Long story short, Hawaii kept its independence and they were still ruled by their own kings and queens. It wasn’t the same setup as European style nobility and there were a lot of people between Kealoha and the throne, but he was still a treasured member of the royal line.
Sometime in the past, the royal family had welcomed a truth seeker into their fold, but the talent hadn’t bred true. It was believed to be lost, until Kealoha had come into the world. The past few years he was traveling around the world under the guise of diplomatic and business interests, though it didn’t take long for the fact that he spent a lot of his time with Truth Seeker houses to be noticed. What was going on was clear. They were hoping to find him a truth seeker bride to give a better chance of the power staying around this time. I couldn’t blame them. I’d want a truth seeker in my corner if I were in politics.
Now he was coming to the states. House Schaefer had no unmarried daughters. House Lin up in New York had Charlotte, who was about a year older than he. And we had Siobhan, who was twenty years old and not promised to anyone.
Bella looked over to Bethany. “How old is he exactly?”
“Twenty five. Not a bad age difference.”
Payback was so sweet. “Should I tell him how you used to have a picture of him in a frame on your night stand?”
She shot me a death glare that Dad noticed. “If you can’t take it, you shouldn’t be dishing it out.” Ha! “He’ll be here next month.”
Her head whipped around. “You said ‘yes’?!” The squeak in her voice disturbed the baby who wriggled fitfully then smacked her face with one little hand before settling back down.
“They were very polite in the request. And they often have security jobs that I’d like the chance to bid on. No one is saying you have to marry him, but I’d hope your mother and I raised you well enough to be polite. If you can’t stand him once you meet him, we’ll find plenty of excuses to keep you busy and out of sight.”
Bethany peered at him curiously. “I would have thought you’d be far more cautious. You have a reputation of being a bit paranoid.”
Aunt Bella gave a snort of laughter. “He is. The moment it was obvious the man was shopping for a bride, he asked Bern to help Bug run a background check on him. He was bound to show up here eventually. There aren’t a whole lot of truth seekers out there that are in the right age range. He came through with flying colors. No illicit deals. No questionable activities. No string of girls used and tossed away. There was one girl who looked pretty serious, but she turned out to be a total gold digger. Actually tried to juggle him and two other men on different islands, thinking none of them would find out. He dropped her in a hot minute about a month before he started his international tour.”
Melody cocked her head to one side. “You ran a background check on him?”
“I have checks run on anyone who shows interest in my family and may be worthy of consideration. That’s why I agreed to extend an invitation Kealoha and turned House Crawford down flat.”
Siobhan made a face the same time I bit back a growl. “I’d rather gargle broken glass than talk to Patrick Crawford.”
“It wouldn’t get that far. I’d feed him to Tyrus and the twins.” The twins were the jaguars that House Harrison had given me for my high school graduation. Diana Harrison liked cats, though even she admitted that canines were better for security. A canine will put themselves in danger and even die for you. Cats had to be convinced it was their problem to begin with.
And the threat was real. Patrick Crawford was scum. The very worst example of a prime. Sixth generation and convinced of his own superiority.
Bethany scrunched up her nose. “I met the Crawfords at the gala the Opera Society held last month. Peter says the Crawfords made the same mistakes with Patrick that his mother did with Adam, and we all know how he turned out. Thankfully Patrick isn’t a pyrokenetic. Hopefully he’s not as strong as you.”
“He isn’t. He’s not as strong as Siobhan, either.”
“Adam is the main reason Peter is so careful with our kids. And just so you know, he runs background checks on anyone showing interest in you, too, young lady.”
Mel blinked. “I’m almost twenty-one!”
“And you’re our only daughter. We’ll always look out for you. We look out for the boys, too, but you’re the one we’re probably going to have to let leave to join another house when you marry. It’s only natural for us to want to be sure you go to someone who will treat you well and can take care of you. I’m sure Rogan feels the same way about Siobhan and Jae. Not everyone can be as lucky to grow up with someone practically perfect for them.”
I felt the back of my neck heat up again and Arabella sniggered. “I need to make sure everyone’s settled in. If I may be excused?”
Dad nodded and I put my plate in the wash before heading to my side of the house.
That wasn’t as grand as it sounded. Animal mages tend to gather quite a few friends. After they brought me home when I was just a small, wrinkled little thing, Cornelius, a significant of House Harrison and an employee of Baylor Investigations, brought a Doberman puppy just big enough to leave his mother to the house and put him in the crib with me. His name was Puppers, and he was my constant companion and guard for years until time and age eventually took him from me. But he wasn’t my only friend. I bonded with cats, birds, lizards and practically anything I could meet. Once I was old enough to get get in and out of bed by myself and clean my own room it was decided that it’d be easier for me and my growing menagerie if I had my own wing of the house where we could all be together. Once I was big enough to clean up after all of them, it was my responsibility to keep it neat and tidy.
No small feat, given how many friends I had gathered.
The jaguars were the most exotic, unless you thought a timber wolf was exotic. Though there was also the snowy owl who got on well with the barn owl, the red tailed hawk and the golden eagle. Then the raccoons, the ferrets, the badger, both African and European hedgehogs, two mongoose, several rabbits, three different dogs (German Shepard, a standard poodle and a schnauzer) and four cats (Persian, Bengal and two Maine Coons).
They had the run of the house, but most didn’t bother. The cats would often sleep in Siobhan’s room and Spaz, the schnauzer, thought Dad was the best person ever next to me. The jaguars spent most of their days lounging anywhere high up they could find and the birds of prey entertained themselves with hunting things that weren’t part of the family. The little animals just did whatever they desired and I spent time with every animal and practiced my magic faithfully.
You don’t want to know what I could get the ferrets to do.
I made sure everyone got attention and their food. The dogs and I ran through drilled where I trained them to skirt soundlessly along the base of the house and through the foliage to attempt to steal the radios off of Dad’s security staff. His guys were good, so they usually caught them, but Rusty, my red coated poodle, did mange to grab one and get back to the house before the poor guy figured out it was missing.
Once those drills were done, I still had my other nightly ritual. One of the rooms was a spell room, the floor and walls done in black chalkboard paint with muted lighting. When you had magic, you started practicing your circle work as soon as you could hold a stick of chalk in your hands. In a house with five primes, six when Sean was home on leave, we went through a lot of chalk. For this drill, however, I needed candles as well as chalk. First came drawing the complex combination of glyphs, sigils and runes, then the pillar candles set around me, each with four inches between them. Finally, I sat down in the middle of the circle and cleared my mind.
The exercise started by using my pyrokenesis to light the candle directly in front of me. Then, the candle flame splits. The wick is extinguished and the two flames float to the candles on either side to light them instead. From there, I moved the flames from each wick to the next until they met behind me to combine into one candle flame. From there it goes faster, moving to each wick in succession so that the fire moved around me in a circle a few times before the wicks are all blank. Then every other one is lit at the same time, extinguished, then the others are lit the same.
From there I made the fire dance and flicker, like an old world interpretation of patterned holiday LED strings before I send streams of flames arching up and over as though the fire is jumping from one candle to another across the circle, much like those clever fountains at theme parks. The sequence is a practice in control and fine manipulation, which is a good deal more difficult and draining than melting a cubic foot of stainless steel in under a minute, which was what I had to do at my registration testing (which was also why I had ‘stainless steel classification). Tatiana Pierce, Bethany’s sister-in-law and they pyro prime who was my tutor in all things fire related, said that even an average pyrokenetic could turn himself into a flame thrower, but it took someone with skill to manage fine work like this. Dad said it was the same with his own magic; cutting a building in half was impressive, but when he and Mom first met and he was feeling snarky, he demonstrated his own control by slicing off layers from a chopstick he’d suspended in the air and used the slices to make a floral pattern on the table they were seated at while he unfolded his napkin and placed it in his lap.
Mom said it terrified most of the rest of the people in the restaurant and got him one girl’s phone number.
I was doing my fire cage trick when I heard the soft purr of a motor come into the room behind me. I recognized that hum. “Did everyone think I was going to be a basket case after today?”
“Not a basket case, but we did think that it would take a toll on you.”
“Enough so that you came over at this time of night.” I dismissed the flames and turned around. My legs had gone to sleep from sitting in a cross position for so long and my shirt was damp from sweat after doing so much practice with both kinds of magic. I checked the clock on the wall. “It’s after nine.”
“Connor has the guest room ready for me. Now come give your grandmother a hug.”
“I’m all sweaty.” Still I went over and bent down to hug Nanna Rosa.
Amorosa Rogan was an elegant woman with a noble profile and a kind smile. She didn’t let the fact that she was confined to a wheel chair get to her. She’d been injured during an assassination attempt against her husband and lost the use of her legs because of it. Lost the ability to have children as well. A lot of primes would have divorced her because they only had the one child and most families usually tried to have at least two, but Will Rogan loved his wife and refused to give in to pressure from his family to find another.
I think I would have liked Grandpa Rogan.
“A little sweat never hurt anyone.” She smoothed my hair and looked into my eyes. “How are you doing, sweetheart.”
“I’m fine.” I turned and sat down on the floor next to her chair so she didn’t have to strain to look up at me, resting against her legs. “I think I may have hurt Mom and Dad’s feelings asking about it, though.”
“They’re not hurt. They’re just worried for you. It’s natural for an adopted child to be curious about their birth parents. I suppose most wonder why they ended up that way. Were they an orphan. Were their parents unfit in some way?”
“Was I thrown away?”
“You’ve always known that wasn’t the case. Connor and Nevada have always told you that your parents had died.”
“I know. Just pointing out that some might feel that way.” I took in a breath and took in the scent of burnt wick and hot wax mixed with chalk dust. “She was so scared. Lyanna, I mean. I imagine they all were. Dad said their world is like feudal era Europe. This world must have been terrifying to them. And to be used as test subjects... How can there be people who think that’s perfectly all right? That you should be able to just take people away from their homes and pump them full of drugs to see what will happen?”
“You give them too much credit. They aren’t under any delusion that it’s all right. They just don’t give a damn. They are more monstrous than any of the people magic warped from their experiments. Catalina fell into her job by accident, but she stayed with it because it needs doing. Your aunt doesn’t like being the Warden, but I doubt there are many who would be more trustworthy in the position. “
“I wish they could have gotten her back home. I know that would have sent me there as well, but I wouldn’t have known any differently if that was how I grew up.”
“That would have been a nightmare for her world.”
I tilted my head back to look up at her. “How so?”
“Did Lina tell you about the dragons and how your father’s family used them to conquer their world? Well, you and your mother would have had great magic. Sending you both back there would have been like unleashing new born baby gods onto that place. Especially after your fire magic came in. Whatever supporters your father had would likely have rallied around you both. They conquered and held power because of a power imbalance caused by them having dragons and no one else doing so. That power imbalance would have started again, and your magic would have been passed on to your descendants, starting the cycle all over again. It’s not good for one family to hold all the power. It gives rise to tyrannies.”
She was right. I still felt sad for my mother. For that young girl who had lost everything only to be trapped by people who only saw her the way they would see a lab rat.
“Now, why don’t you get cleaned up and get some rest. I’ll take over the kitchen in the morning and make stuffed waffles.”
“Deal.” Scrambling up, I walked her to the hall that defined my area of the house from the rest, bidding her good night.
~***~
Three weeks later
“Professor Hanson has a grudge against mages. I’m sure of it!”
“Or you could just be bad at math.”
“I am excellent at math, thank you very much.”
Well, actually that was true. Shevy was good at math, but very few people really liked Statistics. Uncle Bern did, but he was a pattern mage with a knack for numbers. The dictionary definition of Uber nerd. Some of the brightest students we knew struggled with Statistics.
There had been a two week difference between the start of regular school and the start of classes at university. Siobhan and I had both decided to stay local at Houston instead of going to Yale or Harvard. It was just easier than dealing with taking an entire security team away from their homes and families while we were at school. That’s what happened with Sean and Liam, and though none of Dad’s people complained, we’d decided to cut them some slack. Shevy had taken the popular ‘gap year’ after graduation to wait until I finished my senior year so we would start together, even though we had different majors. She was studying poli sci and foreign trade where I was going into veterinary medicine.
“Just ask Bern to help you. I bet he could break it down to something that makes sense.”
“Help with what?” Mom came into the room to set a vase with a combination of carnations and baby’s breath on the sofa table. “Shevy, is that what you’re wearing?”
An uncertain expression flickered across her face briefly before she folded her arms over her chest in her faded jeans and a Houston Texans t-shirt. “Yes. He might as meet see the real me.”
“Yeah, Mom. Or should she drug him, chain him in the basement and interrogate him?” That’s what Dad did when they first met. Mom had the most forgiving nature of anyone in the world if she got past that introduction to eventually marry him.
“Not everyone can pull off your father’s charm.” She didn’t say anything else about the way Siobhan was dressed, though. I wasn’t much better in my own jeans and tee.
Arabella let herself in, a baby who was bright and alert in her arms this time. “Hey, Sis.” She walked over to Mom and handed the baby to her without warning. “Lie to my kid.”
“And hello to you, too. What’s this about?”
“He doesn’t take after me, but I’ve noticed that if anyone near him starts spouting bull shit his face scrunches up.”
“Really?” Mom grinned at the baby who was looking at her with bright eyes and his own smile. “Hi there, pumpkin. Your mommy’s a purple elephant.” Little Derek’s face scrunched up as though he’d bitten into something sour and he shook his head like trying to shake something off. “Yep. He pinged me.” ‘Pinging’ was something that a truth seeker felt when another truth seeker truth checked what the said. Mom said it was like a flick of finger nails against your psyche.
“I thought so!” Bella leaned in and rubbed noses with her son. “There goes Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.”
“He’ll be fine without them. I was.” Mom kiss attacked his cheek, filling the room with giggles.
“For some definitions of ‘fine’.”
Aunt Arabella was a metamorphage. Metamorphs transformed into monsters and in those forms they were pretty tough to take down. Her form was a sixty foot tall beast with curving rams horns and dark shaggy fur. We had already guessed that Derek probably wasn’t like her, because he most likely would have transformed at birth. Prime births could be tricky. Mom said that Bella had almost killed Grandma Pen when she was born, because she wedged herself in the birth canal and refused to come out, then she’d tried to strangle the doctor.
That Derek was a truth seeker was a bit of a blessing.
She saw Shevy. “Is that what you’re wearing?”
My sister gave her a flat look.
Bella looked back to Mom. “This whole thing reminds me of Catalina and Alessandro. Remember when he was asked to be her control for her registration and he followed her instagram account? She woke up with over a thousand new followers, freaked out and deleted her entire account.”
Mom bounced Derek gently in her arms. “Or how after the test he showed up at the warehouse wanting to take her on a drive and she called the cops on him because she was afraid she’d fried him with her magic.”
“And look at them now! Happily married. Three kids. Hunting down and punishing evil doers in style. We could be witnessing it all over today!”
Siobhan was not amused. “I hate this family.”
Mom and Bella smiled identical smiles. “We hate you, too!” Their voices were a cheery sing-song.
The door opened from the front of the house again and Mom frowned. “They can’t be here, yet.”
Something brushed against my mind and I smiled. “It’s Dallas and Samson.” A moment later a tall, lean girl with auburn hair and bright green eyes came into the room with a beautiful specimen of the Great Dane breed at her side. She’d already worked the knot of her school tie loose and had ditched her blazer.
“Hello Mrs. Rogan. Hello Prime Baylor.”
Mom handed Derek back to his mother. “Hi, Dallas. Will you be staying for dinner.”
“Yes, thank you. Mother has a meeting tonight and I didn’t want to eat left overs.”
“We’ve always got room for you.”
Dallas looked at my sister and tilted her head curiously. “Speculation at school is that Kealoha Kamealoha is arriving today to visit House Rogan. Are they wrong?”
“Does everyone know he’s coming to town?”
“Yes. It’s all over Herald. I saw some rather impressive photo manipulations putting the two of you together.” I turned away before Shevy saw me smiling. Her fists hurt when she punched you. “There was a beautiful one of you in a wedding dress.”
Siobhan groaned and left the room. We all watched her go, Dallas looking somewhat confused.
“She isn’t happy about it? He’d be a good match. It would increase the likelihood of her children being prime truth seekers.”
Arabella grinned. “She’s probably just worried that they won’t be as good of a match as you and Jae.”
“Jaehaerys and I are a very good match. Our children most likely will be primes. And very attractive.”
I choked on air. Remember how I said that animal mages had to be properly socialized? If they aren’t, they don’t quite mesh with the rest of society. Even when we are, we can come off as a bit strange. I was raised by a combination of talents and not by another animal mage, so if it weren’t for the massive timber wolf at my side of the large birds often hanging about, I was seen as ‘normal’. Dallas, though not without empathy or on the far end of extreme where she never learned to talk, could still be.... direct. Disturbingly so for a high school senior.
And aunt Bella needed a new target now that Shevy had fled the room. “They would! So is it official yet?”
“Arabella....” Mom’s voice held only a bit of chiding.
“Not yet, though it is something that should be considered. I can ask my mother to contact you and Prime Rogan, Mrs. Rogan. There are some matters that should be discussed. I am my mother’s heir and will be Head of House when she steps down, so it would be better if Jae married into House Harrison rather than me marry into House Rogan.”
Bella’s smile was positively evil. Mom looked quite professional, so I knew she was screwing with me. “That is true. And it’s not anything that hasn’t been done before. Alessandro married into House Baylor, for example. I hope you don’t mean right away, though.”
“No, I still need to finish high school and then I will be going to college. I would prefer to complete my education before having children, though I do think I would like to marry during college so that we could have a few years to ourselves.”
“Very sensible. Don’t you think so, Jae?”
Well, no time like the present. “I do.” Mom’s jaw dropped open, but she recovered quickly. Hands in my pockets, I gave a shrug. “It’s not like I haven’t thought about it. And we aren’t saying go ahead and plan the ceremony. We mean in a few years.”
“Well, way to take away all my fun.” Bella stuck her tongue out at me. “Guess I’ll just have to torment Shevy.”
“Do you want us to talk with Diana?”
“I think Mother would appreciate it. She gets contacted by other houses about me, and I know you and Prime Rogan get the same about Jae. If there was an official announcement most of that would stop. Most houses will not want to be seen as infringing on House Rogan.”
“Okay then. I’ll talk with Connor, but we will probably not do anything as long as we have our house guest.”
“So he is coming to stay with you?”
“He is. Connor and a security team went to the air port to greet him.”
Dallas frowned. “Siobhan didn’t want to go with them?”
“They just got back from campus a bit before you arrived. You must have come over directly from school as well. Jae, why don’t you two go raid the kitchen. Nothing too heavy. Your grandmothers are making dinner.”
We made our escape, Tyrus and Samson padding beside us. True enough, both Grandma Pen and Nana Rosa were in the kitchen. “We have been sent in search of sustenance. And canine friendly treats.” Both women looked up. Apparently we were pulling the entire family in for this first dinner. “Are we trying to see if the man can withstand the entire combined clan right out of the gate? Will Bern, Leon and Sean be here, too?”
Grandma Pen put down the chef knife in her hand and wiped them dry with a towel. “Bern and Runa will be here within the hour, Leon and Toni are in Austin on a job and Sean is wherever the Army sent him. Come here.”
She folded me into a hug, then treated Dallas to one while I moved on to hug and greet Nana Rosa. “It smells amazing.”
Amarosa hugged me back. “It should. We’re both doing some of our specialties, which leaves dinner being a mix of Spanish and Tex Mex fare, but overall I think everyone will be pleased. Hello, Dallas. It’s good to see you. Will you be staying?”
“I will.” She looked down at herself. “Though I don’t think I am properly dressed. I have a change of clothes in my car. I will go get them and change.”
“Wait until you eat something. That way you don’t risk dropping anything on yourself.”
Even as she spoke, things floated around the kitchen. Grandma Pen just took it all in stride and resumed slicing up the peppers and onions. We visited over how senior year was going and how my start of the second year in college was doing. Tyrus and Samson got offerings of sliced meat as Dallas and I were given some of the seven layer dip Siobhan had put together last night for casual snacking to take the edge off our hunger until dinner. Once there was no longer a danger of wearing salsa and beans, we settled the boys in and Dallas went to get a garment bag from her car. You never knew when your family would call you in on a meeting at the last minute, especially when you were an heir prime, so she always kept a nice dress and shoes in her car just for last minute engagements. Not wanting to be upstaged by my unofficial fiancé I spruced up into newer jeans and a nice button down with the obligatory Western boots. It was Texas after all.
Vanity finally won out over my sister, too. When she re-emerged from her room she was wearing a simple sheath dress and had her hair in a classy braid. Mom didn’t say anything, but it was clear she was pleased. She wasn’t going to badger Shevy into doing anything she didn’t want to, believing to let us make our own mistakes.
As predicted, Bern and Runa showed up sans kids. They’d left them at home with her sister. Liam arrived from the office and gratefully shed his suit coat. Dallas, Shevy and I set the table like obedient children while Bella lay Derek down to sleep in one of guest rooms that Mom had set back up as a guest nursery when she’d been expecting.
Mom’s cell beeped with an alert that they were coming in. Siobhan blanched and looked like a doe caught in headlights. Reaching out, I put a hand on her back. “He’s just a guy. You’ve got this.” I knew why she was freaking out. Shevy was usually so focused on being the perfect scion of House Rogan while still being as down to earth as a Baylor that she didn’t allow herself the time to bother with seemingly inconsequential things like dating and relationships. The guys at school had called her an ice queen and joked that she was really a cycrokinetic rather than a telekinetic. Kealoha had gotten through that seemingly impenetrable wall by the power of his smile on his Instagram posts alone. Now she was faced with the ‘what if’ scenario. What if he wasn’t as handsome in real life? What if he had the personality of a troll? What if he somehow found her lacking?
That last was just stupid. My sister was awesome.
Dad had taken five SUVs. He and Kealoha would be in the center vehicle while the others followed before and after. Once they got onto some of Houston’s lovely six lane abreast traffic, two would move to be on either side. Overkill? For regular people, maybe, but not for heads of state, foreign diplomats or treasured members of royal families who were going to be your guest for close to a month.
“Do we bow?” Aunt Bella leaned up against the wall, watching the flurry of activity in the house. “I mean, he’s kinda sorta nobility.”
“I’m pretty sure we can just be polite, Bella. Try not to terrorize the poor boy on the first night.”
“He’s twenty-five, Neva. And a prime. He’s seen much worse than me, I’m sure.”
“There’s nothing worse than you.”
“Damn right!”
Next to me Siobhan gave a whimper. “She’s going to embarrass him.”
I rubbed her back. “No she isn’t. You should really be worried about me and Liam.”
That got her. “Why? What are you planning. Jae, don’t you dare do anything!”
That made me pause. “Whoa.... what’s gotten into you? I’ve never seen you this worked up.”
Shevy worried her bottom lip a bit. “What if he doesn’t like me? What if he thinks I’m silly or something?”
Dallas cocked her head to the side. So did Samson. “Do you think he’s defective?”
“What?”
“You are attractive. Physically you are well proportioned and good nutrition and physical activity mean you are in peak physical condition. You are intelligent, you placed high in your class in high school and are performing well amongst your peers at college. Magically you are a dual prime, a rarity. If he cannot see that you are an excellent prospect for marriage, then the fault lies with him and you should look for someone smarter.”
That. That right there was why I didn’t give a damn if others thought Dal was off putting. She saw things in black and white, and I wasn’t sure she even registered shades of grey. When you grew up in a house riddled with truth seekers, you learned to appreciate honesty. Let others think she was strange and uncomfortable. I thought she was amazing.
Shevy hugged Dallas in gratitude before smoothing her dress over her front.
The door opened and Dad came in with our house guest.
Okay.. you know that movie Moana? Think Maui, only in real life and I couldn’t tell about any tattoos because he was dressed in a suit that covered his arms. Dad and Sean were both big men. A bit over six feet tall and built like they could level buildings with their bare hands rather than use their magic. Liam was about a tall and all wiry muscle. I was stuck in between. A little broader than Liam but not anything along the lines of Dad. Kealoha had about three inches on Dad and I wasn’t entirely sure how he fit through the door. He wasn’t fat. Not even hard fat. I could tell that with his clothes on. The man was about six feet five inches of solid muscle.
What did he use when he surfed? A garage door?
The Instagram shots had clearly been softened so as not to send regular guys like me into depression over our own wimpiness.
“Kealoha, this is my wife, Nevada.”
The giant smiled and took Mom’s hand in his own, bowing over it slightly. “Thank you for inviting me into your home, Prime Rogan-Baylor.”
“Nevada, please. And we’re happy to have you.”
Some of Dad’s men carried his things in with the efficient movements of soldiers, taking them to his rooms while Papa Hart, also known as Sergeant Hart, moved to stand next to Grandma Pen.
“This is my cousin, Bern and his wife Runa. This is my mother Penelope and I believe you’ve already met her husband. My other mother, Amorosa,” that’s what she called Nana Rosa instead of mother-in-law, “This lovely young lady is Dallas Harrison of House Harrison. This is my our son Liam and our son Jaehaerys.” The man’s hand was like shaking a damn mountain it was so huge. “And this is our daughter, Siobhan.”
My sister offered her most charming smile, which to be fair was pretty nice. She was a bit over average for a US female at five foot eight, but next to Kealoha she looked like a child.”
“I am glad to finally meet you, Prime Rogan.”
“Siobhan, please. Or Shevy. Either will do. I hope you flight in wasn’t too taxing. Our grandmothers conspired to make dinner tonight and they are both amazing cooks.”
Kealoha gave an answering smile that seemed surprised. “I had heard of the hospitality of the American South. I look forward to experiencing it. And it’s nice to be back in a climate that is a decent temperature. I found Sweden... a bit cool.”
I bet he did. And I hadn’t heard very favorable things about the daughters of Houe Nilsson. Rumor was that they were as cold as their native waters.
Dallas was looking between Shevy and Kealoha with a slight frown on her face. Aunt Bella noticed it, and she definitely knew better than to ask about it. But did that stop her?
“What’s wrong, Dal?”
“I know we’re supposed to stretch somewhat... but I don’t see how he’d fit.”
I love my girlfriend.