Trickster magic, p.1
Trickster Magic, page 1
Trickster Magic
Whitney Hill
This is a work of fiction. Any references to real events, people, or places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events is purely coincidental.
TRICKSTER MAGIC
Copyright © 2023 by Whitney Hill
All rights reserved. This book is for your personal use only. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Thank you for supporting the author by purchasing this book.
Benu Media
6409 Fayetteville Rd
Ste 120 #155
Durham, NC 27713
(984) 244-0250
benumedia.com
ISBN (ebook): 979-8-9873785-6-4
ISBN (pbook): 979-8-9873785-7-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023916234
Cover Designer: Pintado (99Designs)
Editor: Jeni Chappelle (Jeni Chappelle Editorial)
Contents
Content Warnings
Dedication
1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
19. Chapter 19
20. Chapter 20
21. Chapter 21
22. Chapter 22
23. Chapter 23
24. Chapter 24
25. Chapter 25
26. Chapter 26
27. Chapter 27
28. Chapter 28
29. Chapter 29
30. Chapter 30
31. Chapter 31
32. Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Also by Whitney Hill
About the Author
Content Warnings
This book contains strong physical violence and gore, on-page death, swearing, slurs (not toward any real racial or ethnic group/identity), alcohol use, knife violence, threat of sexual violence, mention of past abuse by a guardian, threats by law enforcement, blood-drinking, and consensual on-page sex scenes.
For those who are done playing other people ’s games and are ready to make their own rules.
Chapter 1
In a world without magic, Otherside was on the verge of collapse.
I sat at the dining table, numb as I stared at my inbox. More reports flooded in, the little number showing unread emails pinging upward every few seconds. The sun hadn’t even set yet, but Othersiders up and down the East Coast were reporting in to their people, who traded information with mine, who passed what they heard along to me. And that was when people from outside my jurisdiction didn’t contact me directly. Which was a thing they did now apparently.
It’d only been two days since Sutekh, the Ancient Egyptian god of chaos, confusion, and violence had preempted the other tricksters, gone rogue, and withdrawn the gift of magic from Otherside. A bare twenty-four hours since the celestial messenger Harqil had told me and Troy where to find it, right after I’d assured everyone in my local parliament that I had a plan.
I had no fucking plan.
I knew I needed to get to the Duat. I knew I needed a squad to succeed. I knew I needed to get magic back.
That was all.
And for all that Troy was an excellent king, general, and fiancé in the moral and strategic support arena, I found it hard to have the same faith in myself that he had in me.
There was no time for that imposter syndrome shit though. I had to take a leap of faith, and I had to take it now if I wanted to have any chance of staving off the growing disaster indicated by my inbox. It wasn’t even just my inbox; I had the feds breathing down my neck as well. A subpoena I was expected to answer in the next five days, assuming Iago Luna couldn’t stall them with legal tactics or get the subpoena withdrawn.
I shut the laptop with a snap. Freaking myself out with the damn notification badge wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Just last night I’d been determined to rise to the challenge. I wanted to know what it felt like to finally be safe. To put down the obsessive need to take care of everything and push everyone forward for just a little while, so I could figure out what “family” meant besides dead parents, abusive guardians, and a collection of faction heads I cared about but who still made me take my role as Arbiter of the Carolinas and Dominion demesnes far too seriously.
People died when I had to get serious. I didn’t like it.
Tough fucking shit.
I pushed away from the table and rose. Harqil would be here any minute for my answer on what I was going to do. I wanted Troy at my side when I gave it.
A peek in the bond said he’d finished whatever strategic planning he’d meant to do for the moment and was moving through combat forms in the backyard. That’d do as well as anything for my current mood, stretching too tight for comfort, like the air between clouds and earth in the moment before a lightning strike joined them together.
I changed my clothes quickly before joining him.
The gytrash, watching with something of a forlorn air, lifted their heads, but Troy pretended not to notice me.
Bullshit. He knew I was approaching. He could read the intent I allowed to slither through the bond: to attack him.
What I got back was the energetic sense of I dare you.
Ha. He wouldn’t be holding back today. A bout, not a training session. Good. I had a lot of frustration I needed to work out.
I launched myself at his back, leaning fully into the increased speed I now had.
Troy, as an elf more powerful than any others, matched me. His spin kick would have caught me in the gut if I hadn’t dropped to let it pass within a breath of my face.
While I was down, I reached for his ankle.
He danced back. “You’ll have to be faster than that, my love.”
The chill in his tone made me shiver. Challenge accepted.
Fists blurred. Feet scuffed. Grunts and snarls broke the suddenly silent clearing. Birds and squirrels tended to make themselves scarce when the primordial elemental fought her goldeneye elven lover. Even the trees seemed to hold their breath.
We fought each other to a standstill.
Bad luck in the form of a loose stone put Troy on his back under me.
I laid a thumb across his throat.
The fun thing about sparring with Troy was that he never took losses personally, except in the sense that my proving myself equal or stronger turned him on. Heat roared through the bond. Enough to distract me from the warp in reality that signaled a celestial incoming.
“It’s amazing you two have time or focus to do anything other than fuck,” Harqil’s voice said off to the side. “The gods alone know the reason for giving elves that much hormonal attraction. I surely do not, unless it’s a balance to check all the power. If I was hostile, you’d both be dead.”
I scrambled off Troy, falling into a guard position without thinking about it even as I flushed with a combination of embarrassment and anger.
Troy just climbed to his feet with the slow satisfaction of a man who’d succeeded at something. “Harqil.”
“Little king.” The celestial crossed their arms and returned their attention to me. “So?”
I glanced at Troy. Still on board?
With ruling Otherside at your side? Don’t threaten me with a good time and then not follow through, cariñamí.
“I don’t know why you two bother with that when you know I can hear you,” Harqil said.
“I like to think that you might learn manners one of these damn days,” I snapped. “Stay out of our fucking heads.”
“Stop projecting so loudly,” they said. “All that aside, it sounds like you want to rule.”
I couldn’t help standing taller. “I want magic back for everyone.” I hesitated then spoke the truth. The one that would let me feel safe. “And I want them to owe us.”
Harqil studied me, their glance flicking to Troy before coming back to me. “Why? Gods know you’ve both suffered enough at the hands of various people. You could take your vengeance and just leave.”
“We can’t,” Troy said firmly. “Or more accurately, I won’t. I took up this responsibility. I won’t leave my people.”
“I won’t either.” I didn’t bother pointing out that Harqil had already said vengeance was not an option for me. They were teasing or testing. Or both.
“You mean, you won’t leave your bondmate.” Harqil smirked when I lifted my chin and waved their comment away. “So. You want magic back, and you want to be owed. But I know that’s not all you want.”
“Anything else is our business,” I said.
“If you want my help, it will be mine as well. I’m taking a big risk, picking sides like this.”
I looked at Troy again. We were a team. I wouldn’t unilaterally decl
He shrugged and tipped his head in a might as well gesture.
Turning back to Harqil, I said, “I want to feel safe.”
“You’re the strongest being on this plane, if we discount celestials and the Court of Nightmares. What could you possibly mean by— Oh. Ah. Of course. It’s not just safety. You want to grow your House. With heirs.”
I flushed. “Yes. At the very least, I need control of the Eastern Seaboard realm.”
They stared at me, seeming to peer into my soul. “It won’t stop there.”
I knew the ring of prophecy when I heard it, having grown up around the djinn. “Of course it won’t. Nobody has believed me when I’ve said it really can be easy. So they’ll piss and moan and kick off, and I’ll have to extend my control from the East Coast to half the country. Or all of it.”
“You accept the responsibility that comes with that?”
“I accept that, if I don’t, Otherside dies. People I care about will get hurt, and it’ll happen because I instigated the Reveals.” I shook my head. “It’s my responsibility, and I won’t be responsible for magic going out of the world. Not when I could do something about it.”
Something about that idea broke my heart, even if Harqil was right about how I’d been treated generally. Everyone shouldn’t have to suffer because a few people had been assholes to me and Troy. That wasn’t fair, and it just wasn’t how I did things.
Harqil turned to Troy. “And you, little king?”
“I want what she wants,” he said.
“On the surface,” Harqil agreed. “Deeper down, there’s more.”
Troy sighed and rubbed a hand across his forehead, smearing dirt and sweat in almost equal measure. “I want to solidify a new dynasty and reform elvendom.” He glared. “Deep enough for you, celestial?”
“It’ll do.” They grinned. “In which case, I’m pleased to inform you about the first step in the process. You’ll need to acquire a heart scarab.”
I frowned. “A what?”
“Heart scarab. Mustn’t go into the Duat without protecting your heart or securing your allies.”
This was all gibberish to me, but I was already overwhelmed so all I said was, “Okay.”
“And your squad, of course,” they added. “Any thoughts there?”
“We’ve literally just—”
Harqil cut me off. “No. We need to be fast. Sutekh will be expecting some kind of movement, and I know for a fact he’s already marshaling legions.”
Fuck. Once again, I was already behind. Damn the gods.
Troy rested a hand on my arm. “We’ll deal with it. Heart scarab first.”
The celestial sighed so hard they seemed to ripple with it. “Fine. Fuck it. Luckily for you two, there’s one nearby.”
That seemed too fortunate.
“Where?” I asked suspiciously.
“A museum?” They shrugged and gestured vaguely southward. “That’s the sort of place where mundanes tend to gather objects of power.”
Troy caught on first. “You’re telling us that before we get magic back, we need to put together a plan to steal an artifact from the North Carolina Museum of Art.”
“That’s the one,” Harqil said, brightening. “And if we can do it tonight, so much the better.”
I looked at Troy. “Please tell me the Darkwatch has schematics.”
He smirked, answering the question.
“Do we have anyone who could help?”
“If you want to minimize human casualties, Dari would be ideal.” Troy considered another moment. “Or maybe Thana. A good shadowmancer is usually trained in…material extractions.”
Thieving. He meant Thana was a thief in addition to a bodyguard. And while Darius was apparently an excellent sniper, I’d personally benefited from his ability to steal fucking memories, the catch being that he wouldn’t have Aether.
Unless we could figure out how to channel it through me.
“What did you just think about, Arden?” Troy’s tone was carefully neutral, but I could hear the worry.
“You have magic because I do.”
He went to the extreme end of that thought. “No. I won’t share an Aetheric bond with someone else. I won’t share you with anyone else. In any way.”
I blinked a few times, both at the intensity of the statement—it was rare for him to declare something that strongly to me—and at the idea that I might even consider it.
“That’s not where I was going,” I reassured him as Harqil watched with sharp eyes. “I was thinking blood might work.”
Even that got a snarl from Troy. My extremely powerful blood had been his and his alone since I’d claimed him as consort, with the exception of a few donations to Maria to shore up her power and secure the territory early in my rule as Arbiter.
I’d asked a lot of him. Especially lately. I needed to back off from this.
“Last resort,” I offered.
His short nod told me that it was a good thing we’d been sparring or he would have been wound too tight to even give me that.
“We’re not going to be able to manage all this here. Too many people and too much setup needed,” he said, refocusing himself with a mental wrench. “Boathouse?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Good plan.”
The large building I’d inherited when Troy and I killed first the Redcaps then a good chunk of the local elven conclave had always had bunks, bathrooms, a small kitchenette, and plenty of space, having originally been some kind of boat repair shop that’d gone under. The retrofit Troy had ordered for it had included camping amenities—a couple of covered outdoor showers, concrete slabs to pitch tents, latrines, firepits, and the like. We hadn’t used it to host that many people yet, but it’d be perfect. A little basic, but I liked being outside and the elves would probably benefit from the fresh air as well.
I turned to the gytrash. “You two in? We could use security at the boathouse.”
Both of the fae black dogs who’d become my personal house guards—and were now trapped in their black dog form, unable to shift to the humanoid form with the loss of magic—rose and shook themselves. Bás offered a yip, and Marú barked.
“Appreciated,” I said. “So, there’s us, Thana, Darius…who else?”
Troy toed the stone that’d taken him down, nudging it free of the dirt before picking it up and chucking it over the fence. Not with the furious strength that said he was still upset, fortunately. Just clearing the yard. “Etain and the Ebon Guard are still mostly on the Sons of Seth, but I want Haroun.”
The grim note in his voice worried me, as did whatever we were doing with the Sons without magic to keep shifting their mindsets. “No disagreement, but why him in particular?”
“Because if one of us gets hurt, he or Dari are likely the only ones who’ll be able to manage the other without being attacked.”
I grimaced. Troy had a point. After the Wild Hunt, I’d nearly attacked Allegra when she’d gotten too close to an auratically drained Troy. Haroun had been the only one I allowed close, and Darius could apparently play a similar role as Troy’s blood and my effective brother-in-law.
But that meant Troy was planning for one of us to get hurt. Bad. Like near-death bad.
I shivered.
Harqil was studying us with a harder expression than I’d ever seen on the usually amused-looking celestial. “I’m glad you lot are taking this seriously. Sutekh isn’t one to be fucked with. You’ll do best to avoid confronting him head-on.”
“Even with the heart scarab?” I asked.
“Even so. He isn’t the magician Iset is, or even Hor, but he’s storm and desert personified. Blood and ash on the wind.”
Well shit. I’d survived going head-to-head with the hunters. Barely. I was stronger now, but it sounded like I should expect Sutekh to be stronger still.
Harqil tilted their head. “Even if you don’t leave, you could just rule, the two of you, with a magicless Otherside.”
“No,” Troy said before I could. “Unacceptable. The elves would die out.”
“You mean faster than you already are?” Harqil sniped.
“Yes.”
The flat admission deflated Harqil. “You’re no fun.”
“So I’ve heard.” Troy turned to me. “Well, my love?”
