West crossed the room and crouched by Julian’s chair. The future held far more promise than any sharp edge. Julian couldn’t be held responsible for what Lyle did, and West didn’t want to hold the past above their heads like a sword. Professor Wylie’s warm guidance, Mage Colquhoun’s fast mouth, and Julian’s soft voice-the magic linked each facet to make the whole-the man at the other side of the bedroom-shine like a diamond. West knew what that was like.Īnd West knew, a little more, what Julian was like. He’d used his strengths for ill, and only good luck prevented those actions from haunting him.īad luck led to Julian being used by Lyle. He’d fought anything that stood still long enough, animal and human predators and his own reflection alike. Those first few months on his own, West had struggled to put one foot in front of the other. Grief poisoned by doubt sat in his heart like a canker. He’d lost everything he knew when Lyle turned on him, and the actions of the Hargreaves pack since made West wonder if the home he’d known had ever existed. Not for someone as close to him as Julian seemed to have been with his mother, but for a place and time he sometimes doubted were real. A reminder that pain had happened but he’d recover, and what he had undergone would be beautiful when the healing was done. The bond ached in West’s chest, but sweetly, like his tattoos had ached when they were fresh. I did what I did, and I’ve spent every sober moment since trying to fix it. If I’d been more myself, I might have-it doesn’t matter. I spent weeks in my lab, and Lyle-he was a distraction. “God, West.” Julian ran his fingers through his long hair. “I wanted it to be me, but I suppose I can steal her books when Philip gets access. The spell is locked in her library, which will remain locked until someone inherits.” Julian shrugged with one shoulder. Wipe it from the universe like it never was. I can’t undo the effects of Rabid, but I can destroy the base formula. “Mage Matilda’s greatest work, aside from yours truly, was the Spell of Undoing.

Learning the mage and Julian’s mother were the same helped West understand Julian better, in the way he carried the weight of grief and a legacy at once.

But then he remembered his first meeting with Julian, and how fiercely Julian had refused to believe West’s cabin had some famous mage’s protection spells. “Did I mention Mage Matilda was my mother?”Īt first, the name didn’t mean anything to West, since mages were outside of his interest. He rested his elbows on his knees like an imp. Pushing away from the desk, Julian spun in his chair and pulled his feet up to sit cross-legged.

Mage of Inconvenience by Parker Foye