Divinity Circuit (Senyaza Series Book 5) Page 4

  Branwyn, experienced with Rhianna trying to obfuscate something, zeroed right in. “New initiative?”

  “It’s not really relevant to the topic at hand,” Rhianna said airily. “What I’m hoping for is that you can use your connections to Senyaza to discover if they took the device.”

  “Rhianna, clearly I’m going to be angry when I find out about this new initiative. I’m already angry now. Let’s get it out of the way so I won’t have to change gears later,” Branwyn urged. “It will be more efficient for everybody.” When Rhianna still hesitated, she added, “Otherwise I’ll learn out from Senyaza. Wouldn’t it be better to hear about it from my own sister?”

  Rhianna stood and deliberately moved so the chair was directly between Branwyn and herself. “They—the government—we want to license magic users. I mean, we license drivers. So we need existing magic users to register. Including the faeries and the nephilim.” She squeezed her eyes shut as if afraid of a conflagration.

  “Including faeries and nephilim, who can’t not be magic?”

  Rhianna nodded.

  Branwyn put her hands behind her back. “Right.”

  Rhianna opened one eye and then the other. “You aren’t mad?”

  “I’m furious,” Branwyn assured her. “I’m going to tell Grandma that you’re working for cryptofascists. You’d better go visit the kids while you can because once I talk to her you’re going to be disowned and barred from the house.”

  “Branwyn!” Rhianna protested. “Don’t be a jerk. These people are dangerous. We have to find some way of managing the situation and this lets us track who’s willing to work with us. It lets us identify those who are willing to try to avoid being dangerous. It’s barely more than an extra field on a census form. And the faeries, at least, are undocumented. And once the licensing system is in place, we can provide training, we can provide verification, they can sell their services to ordinary people who have some recourse against scams—”

  “Were you surprised when Senyaza didn’t like this idea?” Branwyn demanded.

  Rhianna looked at her sidelong. “No.”

  Nodding, Branwyn said, “That’s your guilty conscience at work. You know it’s wrong to declare an entire group of people illegal just for existing.”

  “We’re not doing that,” said Rhianna sullenly. She went over to look at Branwyn’s hammer, avoiding Branwyn’s gaze.

  “I have no idea how you expect to compel the faeries or Senyaza to register—oh my God, no wonder you think Senyaza stole the device, no wonder you built it. It’s your enforcement stick. What did Senyaza actually say at the meeting?”

  Rhianna gave her a wide-eyed look that reminded Branwyn of a child about to confide an impressive discovery. “Um… they told my boss that they were more powerful than the federal government. In not very nice language.”

  Branwyn laughed despite herself and guessed, “Your boss said, ‘How do you expect to stop us?’ and somebody there said, ‘Fuck you, that’s how.’”

  “Pretty much,” Rhianna agreed. “So will you help us?”

  Branwyn groaned and pushed her hands against her head. “Rhianna. Why should I? You pretty much know that there’s no way I’m going to support some kind of Nonhuman Registration Act, even if you dip it into training/licensing/profit chocolate.”

  “Well,” said Rhianna earnestly, “We’re pretty sure Senyaza stole it, but we’d like to be absolutely sure. Because if Senyaza stole it, we’re not worried they’re going to use it. They’ll just stick it in that Repository of theirs. But if somebody else stole it…. We may have a bigger problem. So if you could confirm Senyaza has it, it would be so nice.”

  Once again, Branwyn thought of who she hoped wasn’t involved. There was one—and another—and another. So many. She didn’t want any celestial able to manifest completely. Once even one could, everything was going to hell fast. She dropped her face into her hands, contemplating the horrifying possibilities ahead.

  “I’ll see what I can learn.”

  Chapter Four

  Marley

  Marley didn’t argue when Penny demanded her keys. She was too busy trying to understand what had just happened. Corbin had said he wasn’t interested in her anymore. She didn’t believe that, but the thought still hurt so much she had trouble breathing.

  Penny said cheerfully, “I’ll take you home. It would have been a very nice lunch but we can try again later when some bastard doesn’t show up and ruin your day, all right?”

  The mention of lunch roused Marley from her self-absorption. “Did we pay for our food? I wasn’t thinking—“

  “I paid for our food. And grabbed your purse. Don’t thank me, it’s what I’m here for. Did you park in the garage? Let’s go there.”

  Marley let Penny guide her to her car, and then drive the car home. Penny chattered for part of the drive before falling silent, but Marley only distantly noticed any of it.

  At last Marley said, “I thought he was fine. I would look at his charms and think, even if he hadn’t talked to me lately, he was fine. Someday we’d talk again. But he’s not fine. There’s something seriously wrong with him. And I had no idea.”

  “Yes, I saw that too,” said Penny, subdued. “Like he’s literally tangled up in something.”

  A spike of pain passed through Marley’s head and then vanished. It had been a headache-inducing day. “I was such an idiot. I’m not going to let him just walk away again.”

  Absently Penny said, “Of course not.” She shot Marley a glance. “Though he did make it pretty clear—”

  Marley pulled at her hair. “Then why did he come back, Penny? We were out of each others’ lives. He didn’t have to track me down and take back what he gave me. If he hates me that much now—” She shook her head and looked out the window.

  Penny said, “Don’t ask me. I find men just as inexplicable as magic.”

  When they got to Marley and Branwyn’s apartment, Neath was waiting outside the front door, her tail lashing. As soon as she saw Marley, she wound her way around her legs and then went to claw at the front door.

  “You got out, cat, you can get in again,” said Penny, but opened the door anyhow and pulled Marley in. “Sit down, sort things out. Call work.”

  Marley sat on her couch and was promptly knocked back by Neath. She blinked at Penny, startled, and then realized that Zachariah was expecting her back again that afternoon. She couldn’t bear the thought of it, and as long as she was a paid employee, she was entitled to some time off. But she had to tell him something.

  “Hi,” she said into the phone after he answered. “Something personal has come up. I can’t come over this afternoon. Can you manage without me?”

  “Personal?” he inquired, surprised.

  “I really can’t talk about it now,” she said hurriedly. Or maybe ever. Things with Corbin had been complicated partially because of Zachariah. They’d been friends once. They weren’t anymore.

  “All right,” Zachariah said mildly. “But are you all right? The girls will want to know.”

  She should have just texted him. “I’m fine. Mostly. Look, I’ll call you tomorrow if I’m not going to see you.”

  “Marley. Be careful, please.”

  The apartment door slammed open and Branwyn stood there, glowering, her green hair flying about her face like a cloud. Marley said, “I will,” and hung up. “Branwyn, I—“

  “I need to go visit Senyaza,” announced Branwyn. “Can you come, Marley? They like you more than me. Hi, Penny, sorry I skipped lunch. My sister decided to bring me her problems again.”

  “Yes,” said Marley, standing. “Yes, I’d like to visit Senyaza too. I have some questions for them I’d rather not wait for callbacks on.”

  Penny looked between them. “Can you drop me off so I can get my car?”

  Neath meowed and then head-butted Marley’s shin, as if shooing her out the door. Marley noticed because it was odd. Like Corbin saying he wasn’t interested in her anymore. Another spi
ke of pain passed through her head at the memory and she thought she might cry.

  Instead, she said, “Let’s go.”

  When Marley told Branwyn about Corbin, Branwyn said, “I’m just going to add him to my list of people to track down and shake the stupid out of.”

  “Oh no, there’s a list now? What did your sister actually do this time?” Rhianna had gone on more than one ‘adventure’ in high school that Marley had to help cover for.

  “I should blame myself. I should have known. Wait, what am I saying? How could I have known? Tarn said nobody had learned this magic of mine in centuries.” Her gaze went distant. “Tarn… I wonder…”

  “Branwyn, that’s a stoplight! Pay attention or let me drive!”

  Branwyn refocused on the road. “Sorry. I’ll talk to Tarn later.”

  “Is he on the shake list too?” Marley guessed.

  “Not yet. Though no bets on how long that lasts.” Branwyn fell silent, either brooding or concentrating on driving. Marley decided it was best to not distract her more. Instead, when her mother called her again, she answered that.

  They chatted for a while about her younger brother’s adventures as a summer camp junior counselor, her mother’s annoyances at work, and her father’s project building a gaming table. Family gossip. It was casual, easy chat that left Marley plenty of room to do her own brooding.

  Madeline Claviger and her husband had adopted Marley when she’d been abandoned as an infant in a basket in their carport. Once upon a time that had probably been an acceptable way of getting rid of an unwanted baby. But times had changed and Marley had never been able to forgive her biological mother for not dropping her off at a fire station or a hospital, let alone filling out the forms that would have made her adoption go quickly and smoothly. Discovering her mother had been an angel hadn’t improved her opinion on the subject. Sure, legitimate paperwork might have been harder, but celestials had the power to smooth out all sorts of obstacles.

  Marley had worried about who her biological parents were when she was a teen. But it had never been because she was unhappy with the mother who had raised her. Madeline had endured so much when Marley had been young, and loved her so well. Which was why Marley wasn’t telling Madeline that her biological mother wasn’t human.

  Keeping secrets from her mother bothered Marley, but she was afraid talk about her involvement with the newly public supernatural world. Branwyn flaunted the magic she’d learned from the faeries, but there were still so many secrets. The fact that some people had angels or demons for parents was one of them, and it was one that would have a public backlash, at least in the United States of America.

  Her mother would worry. Her mother would probably even get upset. And it was just imaginable that discovering her daughter’s heritage would be the final straw that made her realize Marley was far too much trouble to love. It was a ridiculous, irrational thought, the thought of a panicked thirteen year old, but it still made the words dry up in Marley’s mouth each time she considered confessing the truth.

  “…And Aunt Leila was asking me when you were going to come out of the closet and I told her about that nice young man of yours we met when we came over for Easter but I don’t think she was buying it, kiddo.”

  Marley’s hand jerked and the phone almost flew out of her grasp. She fumbled and caught it and then jammed it back to her ear again. “Mom! Aunt Leila thinks I’m gay?”

  “She’s not being judgemental, sweetheart. She’s just old and wants to be supportive. She doesn’t want you to live a lie, and she sees you and Branwyn living together. Neither of you have boyfriends or even date and she thinks that’s a terrible closet but that you should at least be honest with your family.”

  Marley stared at the dashboard. Family was so comforting. “Do you think I’m living a lie?”

  Far too calmly, her mother said, “You’re certainly hiding something major about your life. I suspect it has something to do with that nice young man that you’re so definitely not dating.”

  Marley’s mother was a screenwriter. She rarely used clichés like ‘nice young man’ by accident. Marley squirmed in her seat as she wondered what her mother actually thought about Zachariah. “He’s not as young as he looks,” she mumbled.

  “That’s a shocker, let me tell you,” said Madeline placidly. “Well, I told Aunt Leila that you’d let us know what was going on in your own time. You know, as long as you stay true to yourself, whatever you are is fine.”

  Marley tried to find a way to brush the whole topic away, but she couldn’t find the words. “Thanks,” she muttered. She remembered the last Christmas card she’d received from her mother’s aunt, addressed to both herself and Branwyn and added, “But you can at least tell Aunt Leila that Branwyn and I aren’t a couple.”

  Marley’s mother sighed. “And she was so looking forward to the wedding, poor old soul. She wanted to know if Branwyn would wear a tux or a gown.”

  “You know, maybe I’d wear the tux,” said Marley, annoyed.

  “Nobody has to wear a tux, dear. But Aunt Leila sketched a cute knee-length dress for you—”

  “Mom!” wailed Marley. “She didn’t. You’re making all this up.”

  “Hand to God, I’m not,” said Madeline cheerfully, but Marley just knew that she’d encouraged the conversation along.

  Branwyn took the phone from Marley’s hand. “Hi, Madeline. You know, I think I’d go for a sort of tuxedo-skirt hybrid. There’s probably a name for it but we left Penny at home. Yeah, Marley and I will have to fight over whether Penny’s the maid of honor or the best woman. And now I have to drag Marley off to do terrible things to her. No, you don’t want to know. Sure, I’d love to. Give my love to Aunt Leila!”

  She offered the phone back to Marley, smirking. “We’re here, by the way.”

  Marley hunched in her seat and looked at the entrance to Titan One, the Senyaza skyscraper that served as shopping center, office building and apartment complex. “I wish I could just tell her. It’s wonderful that your family knows all everything.”

  “Not everything,” said Branwyn, prodding her with the phone until Marley took it from her. “There’s quite a lot they don’t know, and the way Mom and Jaime ‘found out’ wasn’t exactly pleasant.”

  “Yeah, but you don’t have to hide what you do all day, or why you do it.”

  Branwyn gave her a pointed look. “Neither do you.”

  Marley shrugged and sighed. “I know. I keep telling myself that and then I just get… afraid.” She changed the subject. “You have to tell me what’s going on before you attack Alejandro or I’m going to have to defend him from you and today has been too awful to add that on.”

  Branwyn made a face. “Let me sum up: The government has an angel. My sister works for him. They made one of my creations into a Hush-canceling device.” Marley’s mouth opened and Branwyn said, “No, wait, it gets worse. The device got stolen. Rhianna thinks Senyaza is responsible, because they totally reasonably don’t want anyone getting around the Hush.”

  Marley processed that for a moment and then got out of the car. “Do you really think Alejandro will know if they did? Or that he’d tell you?”

  “He’ll know gossip,” said Branwyn confidently, falling into step beside her. “Alejandro has the best gossip. That’s why I like him more than George.”

  George was the Specialist Project Manager who was technically Branwyn’s point of contact with Senyaza. He signed her checks and formally offered the contacts for the various projects she’d engaged in for Senyaza.

  Marley said dryly, “And not because George is an old-fashioned charmer who doesn’t approve of your magic?”

  Branwyn ran her fingers through her hair. “He doesn’t approve of me having my magic. He’d be fine if somebody like him had it. An old-school wizard, properly trained by another old-school wizard, who developed their skills reading books.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with learning from books,” protested Marley, the ex-college
-librarian. They went over to the office level elevators next to the parking garage.

  “Yes, dear,” said Branwyn, patting her on the shoulder. “Anyhow, they assigned George to manage me. They assigned Alejandro to coordinate with you. I like coordination better.”

  Another spike of pain passed through Marley’s head and she stumbled against Branwyn. Branwyn slid her hand down to catch Marley’s elbow. “Hey, you okay?”

  Marley shook her head, wincing. “Just a headache. Probably from looking all of Old Pasadena with magic sight. I’m not going to be doing that again, let me tell you.”

  Branwyn made a face. “If they can’t tell you anything about Corbin, I’ll see what I can find out.”

  At the security desk, Marley negotiated the secure sign-in process that would let her bring Branwyn in as her guest. She knew that when Branwyn came to Senyaza alone, she had to wait for George or some other Senyaza full-timer to come pick her up at the checkpoint. Marley, on the other hand, had her own badge and was allowed in and out as she wished.

  And what had Marley done to deserve that privilege? She’d been born a nephil, and agreed to be on-call for Senyaza for one project or operation a year. They would have given her a studio apartment in Titan One or one of their other buildings if she’d wanted one, too. Senyaza believed in taking care of its own.

  The disparity made Marley uncomfortable, even though Branwyn basically approved. They were equally supportive of their human employees. It was just that humans had to go through Senyaza’s strenuous hiring process for full-timers first. They didn’t simply have to be born and say ‘yes’ to a standing offer made to all nephilim.

  “Are you coming or not?” asked Marley, once she’d received Branwyn’s temporary badge. Branwyn left off covertly marking up a posted flyer informing the employees of the upcoming gala event and joined her.

  “What were you doing?”