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  Daniel seemed to think Nicolas liked me in a more-than-friendly way, but I had barely let myself consider that possibility. My life was too tenuous for that. I hadn’t had the time or energy to explore a relationship with someone as complicated as Nicolas while my own future was still hanging in the balance.

  Although… now it might be something to wonder about, with my fate finally decided.

  Nicolas was tactful. If he heard my constant musings about him and our relationship, he gave no indication. Right now, he merely studied me for a few moments, like I was some sort of interesting puzzle, before crossing his large living room and pulling the cover off his grand piano. He sat himself down on the bench and lifted the fallboard.

  “Come here,” he said quietly.

  I joined him, sitting as far from him as I could manage. I was still nervous near him sometimes, and I was feeling especially so after the serious conversation we had just had.

  Once Daniel had left the restaurant, Nicolas had ordered more tea and patiently explained how his group got paid. He had walked me through my benefits as a Water Clan member and my salary as part of his group, including offering me my choice of apartments on his private floors within the clan house.

  I was dumbfounded by the insane signing bonus he offered, as well as the generous salary. As part of Flame, I had made only a fraction of the money Nicolas had decided on for me, and I shared a small apartment with roommates. Nicolas was giving me life-changing amounts of money without even so much as a second thought. I knew he considered my transmutation skills valuable, but I had no idea he was quite so invested in me.

  Upon arriving back at his place, he had also offered me a shiny new phone. It was already encrypted, tagged with a tracker, and loaded with our group’s contact information and access to our data and chat channels. Next, he had handed me a slim wallet containing my Hong Kong identification cards, my building keycard, and several shiny credit cards linked to his group’s central accounts. Finally, he had handed me a passport.

  I was now Fiona Ember of Hong Kong, a person I did not at all know.

  It was easy to freak out, easy to worry about how there was no going back. My life was completely flipped upside down—had been for weeks, really—and the only thing I could do was move forward.

  Nicolas’s elegant fingers settled themselves on the keys of the piano, and he launched into a passionate piece by Tchaikovsky, one of his favorite composers.

  “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” I asked.

  His eyes slid to mine for only a moment. “So that you could be a wreck for days instead of hours? No, thank you.”

  Nicolas was sensitive to emotions because he could read minds. My tendency to break down over practically everything no doubt drove him crazy.

  “I hate you,” I said, but the words were a light tease.

  “I know, lamb,” he murmured, his eyes closed, focused. “Thank you for the compliment.”

  We were silent as the piano piece transitioned into something softer and gentler. I enjoyed watching Nicolas play; he was warm and expressive, and it was clear he genuinely enjoyed music.

  “I do need you to calm down,” he said. “Not because your thoughts are bothering me, but because you need a clear mind and a strong will for receiving Water magic. I am confident in my decision about you, and I would like you to feel the same way.”

  He glanced at me, his expression sympathetic. “I understand how difficult this situation is for you, but I also know how flexible and resilient you are. Switching clans is not easy, but you will manage. Remember, I told you that you will be fine here, and I am never wrong about the future when I choose to speak on it.”

  Nicolas could confidently reassure me about switching clans because he’d done it himself fifteen years ago, and under far worse conditions. Nicolas, who had been one of Smoke Clan’s best magical researchers until they had learned of his new mental abilities and locked him in a cage for a year. He’d been tortured and experimented on for months before he’d been rescued and brought to Water.

  I understood that too, albeit in a much smaller way. It did feel a lot like I’d been rescued from near death and given a chance to start over.

  I wiped my eyes, which had been leaking tears intermittently for the past two hours, and swallowed the lump in my throat.

  “You always know what to say to me,” I offered, resting my head on his shoulder.

  “Another one of your welcome compliments,” he murmured, his fingers gliding smoothly into the next movement of the song.

  It wasn’t much longer before Ryan arrived at the door.

  Ryan would be intimidating if he wasn’t such a nice person. He was a handsome and sharply dressed Chinese man, well-built, of medium height. Today he wore a charcoal-gray suit with a subtle paisley vest, his hair swept back from his broad forehead and dark eyes.

  With thirty-eight years in the clan, he had an incredible amount of knowledge and depths of gorgeous, refined magic that hung around him in delicate webs. Magic slowed down aging. I had no idea how old Ryan was in real, mortal years, but he looked to be around his mid-thirties.

  I had yet to inquire too much about his life before joining Water, but I knew he was the man who, along with his sister, had rescued Nicolas from Smoke’s captivity and brought him here. He had taught Daniel, whose magic was also incredible, and he had protected me during Nicolas’s fight with Derek. His compassion was beyond question, and I was glad that he supported me joining the clan enough to act as a witness to it.

  I understood why Nicolas had asked him in particular, someone highly regarded within the clan and Nicolas’s group. It was a showing of confidence to me, and when noted in the records of my clanning, would look very good.

  As the three of us descended via elevator to the lower levels of the building, I thought back on when I had been clanned to Flame, barely five years ago. I’d felt a different kind of excitement about it. I had proven myself through hard work, practice, and study. I had partaken in all the rituals, learned all the history, met all the people, and understood everything I could about the magic. I had loved it with the care of someone who had spent almost a year devoting my time to it, adoring it, and winning its heart to mine.

  Clanning to Water was different in every possible way. I had been here only a few weeks. I knew very little about this clan, except as an enemy. I knew nothing about Nicolas’s group or plans. I had tasted the magic only a few times, once under the direst circumstances possible. Yet here I stood, walking quietly between Nicolas and Ryan, changing the entire course of my life.

  When Nicolas had first told me we could discuss futures where I remained alive, when he had teased the opportunity to join his clan, I had not believed him, not truly.

  But this felt more right than anything in my life ever had. More right, if I had to be honest, than the nights I had spent with Violet and my other friends in Flame. I didn’t think I could have gotten through any of this without the confidence that this was correct, that this was good for me. Underneath my fear and nervousness lurked intense desire, and I clung to it for strength.

  Nicolas stopped before a massive black door that waited right beyond the elevator and pressed his palm against it. I felt a strange series of magical pops—shields falling away under his touch, wards deactivating, magic calming. He entered first, and even my dulled mortal senses could see that this room bent to his will, welcomed him gladly, embraced him as a friend.

  The room was the length of the whole building, cavernous and broad and almost empty except for a series of huge pillars flanking a high pedestal in the center of the room. On the pedestal sat a glowing beach-ball-sized orb, swirling and smoky and liquid and solid all at once. The whole place was so charged with magic that it made me jumpy.

  “Water sanctum,” Ryan whispered, walking with me several paces behind Nicolas, whose straight back and easy grace here made my heart leap for him.

  This orb was the clan’s sanctum—the core of the clan’s magic, the well from which it sprang. This was only the physical manifestation, of course. The sanctum itself was more like a metaphorical place, contained within the orb, but even this representation was beautiful and terrifying all at once.

  Nicolas ascended the stairs to the pedestal with quick steps and pivoted to look at us. He beckoned with a small smile and tilt of his head.

  Ryan offered me his arm, and I took it, smiling at the absurdly formal gesture. I hesitated, but Ryan pulled me along, confident in me even if my confidence was suddenly gone.

  I knew what would happen next. Nicolas, who was a commander and was therefore practically made of magic, would call it up into the orb, and from there it could be gifted to me. It was similar in Flame, although the exact mechanics were a little different because of Flame’s nature. Its physical sanctum was not nearly as placid as this one, and the magic was granted in stages during the trials.

  Flame also had a far more ostentatious ceremony, with my entire group and one of the pinnacle clan members present. There had been two giftings alongside mine and Violet’s, and their groups had been present too.

  Being alone with Nicolas and Ryan was both a measure of how much the clan trusted Nicolas with the sanctum, and also a measure of how casual he liked to keep things within his group.

  Once we were at the top of the stairs, Nicolas took his place on one side of the orb while I stood on the other. Ryan was apparently only there for moral support, but I appreciated his presence.

  Nicolas placed his hands on the orb. It drew him in and fought him all at once, a great struggle of powers clashing, then melding and loving one another. Nicolas laughed quietly, communing with something in a way I didn’t understand. His face contained bliss, and this was the most natural I had ever seen him, his skin glowing, his grin boyish and handsome.

  “Fiona,” he said, his voice ringing in the huge room. “Hands here.”

  He nodded to the space on the orb between his. I hesitated an inch from touching the shining surface.

  “It’s all right,” he said, his tone encouraging. “I’ve got you.”

  I needed to hear those words. This was, in a way, his third time saving me, and grateful tears threatened to fill my eyes. Despite Nicolas’s kindness and constant reassurances, I had not forgotten that the other option right up until this very moment had been execution, and I was relieved my fate had landed me here and not on a pyre.

  I took a deep breath and pressed my palms to the orb. The surface was cold and tingly. Nicolas covered my hands firmly with his. My heart beat quicker at his touch.

  “Fiona Ember,” he said gravely, meeting my eyes with his, “are you ready to join Water Clan? Do you swear to keep our secrets? To obey our laws?”

  “I am,” I said. “I do.”

  “Ryan?” Nicolas asked.

  “We’re good, Nico,” he said, hands in his jacket pockets, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

  Nicolas smiled. “Take a deep breath, Fiona. Center yourself, please.”

  He had said those words to me before, and I smiled weakly, forcing myself into a grounded, stable state, ready to receive magic.

  Nicolas’s eyes closed. All at once, magic flooded my veins. It simultaneously filled them and emptied them, tugging at me, tearing me apart and putting me back together. The sounds of rushing rivers, crashing waves, rolling storms, and torrential rains filled my head. Dewdrops sparkled in my eyes and on my skin. I gasped over and over again, the feeling of intense pressure filling my body, my heart, my lungs, my head. I tried to pull away, but Nicolas held my hands tightly against the orb.

  You’re all right, he said in my head, using his ability to speak mind-to-mind. Keep breathing. I’m with you. Focus, Fiona.

  After a length of time that felt like an hour but was probably only a mere minute, he released my hands, and I stumbled back. Ryan caught me and steadied me, letting go quickly as our magics connecting at their touch and sparking violently against one another.

  “Calm, Fiona, easy,” Ryan said, a shield flickering to life around him. “This isn’t your first time. You know what to do.”

  I took deep breaths as Nicolas, his power so bright I could barely look at him, calmed the magic carefully within the orb. Ryan’s hands hovered a few inches from me, waiting to catch me again if needed as he watched me push my magic back. It was different from Flame, somehow both easier and harder to control. I felt it move as it adjusted to me, trying to figure out what to do with me.

  “Hi,” I whispered as it settled into me in rustling layers.

  It was mine, mine, mine. Nicolas had gifted it to me from the clan, but a millimeter of shifting and it had become my own, and I loved it more than I had ever loved anything else. It ignited my soul in a way that I hadn’t felt with Flame magic, and I was immensely glad it seemed to love me so much in return.

  I wound it into long braided ropes within myself, like those you might find on a huge ancient ship, strengthening them as much as I could. My Flame magic had been fierce, bouncing spirals, but that wasn’t right for Water. I let it swim in me, let it twine itself around my heart.

  Eventually, I pulled myself up straighter, feeling more stable. The room was dimming and becoming bearable to look at as I settled the magic even more.

  Nicolas came to stand before me. He offered me his hand. I took it, clasping it firmly in mine. He pulled me into an affectionate embrace. The sound of my own heartbeat pounded in my ears as his arms supported me. I dug my fingernails into his back, clinging to him, completely overwhelmed.

  “Welcome to the family, Fiona,” he said. “I am very glad to have you.”

  This was as real as I could have ever hoped for. I pressed myself closer to him and cried, feeling like I was finally safe and home.

  Daniel bounded out of his apartment the moment Nicolas and I stepped back onto our group’s floor. His exuberant, bone-crushing hug was exactly the reassurance I needed, and my chest was tight with emotion.

  He held me at arm’s length and examined me, his expression intense and elated.

  “Wow,” he said. “Look at you!”

  I shied away from him. Daniel’s overenthusiasm always made me a bit uncomfortable. I was quiet and introverted, and although I knew Daniel could be still and calm, he usually radiated energy and wasn’t afraid to say whatever was on his mind.

  I honestly had no idea how Nicolas—who was usually high above us all in an enlightened state of serenity—dealt with him, but they seemed to have worked themselves out long ago.

  Nicolas himself stood nearby, watching us fondly, and I was about to retreat toward him when Keisha came out of a door to our right.

  “Fiona!” she cried when she spotted me.

  Aside from Daniel and Ryan, Keisha was the only one of Nicolas’s group with whom I had managed to make a genuine connection. She didn’t hold my assassination attempt or the death of Nicolas’s other lieutenant against me, and she had been kind and curious in our brief interactions.

  The newest and youngest member of Nicolas’s group, she was petite, with long, shiny hair and a pretty, oval face. I knew that she was originally from Malaysia, but how she had ended up here was still a mystery to me. Her bubbly personality didn’t seem like it would mesh well with Nicolas’s seriousness, but he doted upon her like a favorite niece.

  “Hi, hey…” I said, holding my hands in front of me defensively.

  It didn’t matter. She caught me in a hug regardless. I had to fight to calm my magic and not allow it to clash with hers.

  “I can get to know her now, right?” she asked Nicolas over my shoulder.

  “Évidemment,” he drawled. Obviously.

  My heart fluttered. I loved when he spoke French in his perfect, attractive accent.

  Keisha pulled away to look at me. “Nicolas asked me to design your new apartment. Let’s go shopping!”

  “I… I…” I said, hesitating.

  I turned and cast a pleading look at Nicolas, but his eyes had lit up. I had forgotten that he liked to shop. Spending money was practically his favorite pastime, up there alongside drinking expensive wine and ordering around his subordinates.

  He smiled broadly. “I’ll drive.”

  I locked eyes with Daniel, but he was backing away stealthily toward his apartment. Keisha laughed as Daniel grimaced and gave me a tiny wave before slipping through the door and shutting it firmly.

  This was my life now. I smiled, flexing my magic and letting it run through me, watching the amusing way my new family interacted with one another.

  My anxiety eased, and I smiled. Maybe life wouldn’t be so bad here after all.

  Chapter 2

  Nicolas and his group owned the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth floors of Building One of Water’s Hong Kong clan house. There were three buildings in the complex, each thirty-eight stories, making up what amounted to a small city: apartments, gyms, libraries, restaurants, training rooms, meeting spaces, and anything else Water groups needed to conduct their business.

  This clan house fascinated me. It was so different from my previous experiences. Flame’s clan houses tended to be small, and the Toronto one—where I had been based—was no exception. It was little more than a narrow Victorian house with a massive basement library hidden under it. All Toronto-based Flame magicians lived off-site except for the two women who secured and maintained the property.

  In contrast, hundreds of Water magicians lived in this clan house, with entire security and maintenance teams dedicated to its existence. The inside of the building practically glowed in my sight; there was magic everywhere.

  Nicolas’s floor was well guarded. The stairwell and elevators were both blocked by static force shields that only Nicolas or his group members could pass through, glinting with his pale-blue magic.

  The walls and doors were inscribed with wards—spellwork laid into objects or surfaces that could be used to protect them or alert based on various changes of state. The shape and design of wards was largely shared between clans, and I recognized many of the ones used here for alarms, magic dampening, blast protection, magical interference, and a dozen other purposes.