CoS23

## Chapter 23

**Chapter 23** of **City of Spells** follows **Tavia**.

## **Full Version**

THERE WERE SOME MOMENTS that lived up to the dream of what they could be and some that fell into the depths of what they never were. Some moments were too weighted and others too easily dismissed.

Tavia had always thought people took moments for granted, even before they happened, trying to guess what they were supposed to be and then discarding them when they became something else. Moments that were fleeting and moments that were stretched to the boundaries of time.

The moment Wesley came back to the forest was one of those and Tavia was too scared it would end in some kind of strange hallucination to bother being disappointed that she hadn’t brought him back herself. She hadn’t been the one to save him from Ashwood and she hadn’t been the one to find him in the maze of the world.

Instead, Wesley had to seek her out, to save himself the way he’d always done.

Tavia hated that.

She wanted Wesley to be able to rely on her. She’d promised him, back when they visited the sins of their past, that they would conquer their demons together. And instead she’d left him to the wildest monsters the night held.

She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

When Wesley’s eyes closed, Tavia guided him as gently to the ground as she could. Though he was heavy and she was tired, she was impressed that she kept him steady enough so he didn’t crack his head on the ground.

“What did you do to him?” Saxony asked.

“Dream dust,” Tavia said. “I figured he needed a time-out. His magic looked like it was ready to get out of hand.”

Saxony nodded, and together with Bastian they heaved Wesley inside and laid him down on a bed. Tavia wondered what he was dreaming about, but more than that she wondered what they were going to do when he woke up.

“So Wesley’s your brother,” she said.

Saxony burst into a laugh and put her head in her hands. “Yeah.”

“Did Karam know?”

“*I* didn’t even know until an hour ago.”

Saxony glared over to Bastian and her amja, both of whom glared back, albeit sheepishly.

“You’re not related to anyone else, are you?” Tavia asked. “I’m not your wacky second cousin or anything?”

Saxony’s frown dissipated. “You wish.”

Though Tavia really didn’t, because now being related to Saxony meant being related to Wesley and that was just—

“Do you think he’ll hate me when he wakes up?” Saxony asked.

“No more than before,” Tavia said.

Saxony punched her not so lightly on the arm. “That’s not comforting.”

Tavia shrugged and sat down on the bed beside Wesley.

Saxony didn’t follow, but leaned against a nearby wall and looked down at him with guarded eyes. Tavia wasn’t sure if they were guarding against Wesley, or against anyone else who might try to come inside the room. Or even Saxony’s amja and Bastian, who stood by the door like they were wary of stepping not only closer to Wesley but closer to Saxony.

*I’m really not interested in your family drama*, Wesley had said to Saxony all those months ago, when he’d first recruited her to help take Ashwood down and she’d asked for him to save her sister in return. It was ironic to think about that now.

Wesley stirred and Tavia inched her body a little closer to his, so that when he opened his eyes, he saw her before he saw the puzzle of a lost family.

He shifted a little and then his eyes fluttered open.

“Good dream?” Tavia asked.

Wesley frowned and looked around the room.

“It’s weird to watch people sleep,” he said.

“It’s weird that you’re related to my best friend,” she countered.

Wesley shuffled upward. “Everyone needs to stop looking at me like I’m a time bomb.”

“It’s probably just a habit,” Tavia said. “You’re kind of a wildfire on the best of days.”

“What did you dream about?” Saxony asked.

“My mother.”

His mother.

Not Saxony’s.

He didn’t seem quite ready to put the two together and Tavia couldn’t blame him. Mothers were complicated, especially when they weren’t around anymore. She knew the pain of losing her parents, but the pain of never knowing them at all was different, and she couldn’t imagine the confusion Wesley must have felt knowing those missing parts of his life couldn’t be replaced.

“She said I was powerful enough to be in charge of my own future and that my magic was special.”

“And yet I knocked you out,” Tavia said. “Win for me.”

Wesley shot her a look that told her he’d very much like it if she never brought that up again.

“How are you feeling?” Tavia asked.

“Fine.”

“I sent you to sleep because you looked like you were about to lose control of your magic,” she said. “Are you in control now?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Promise?” Tavia held her palm out for a handshake.

Wesley didn’t take it, but he nodded. “I promise.”

Tavia eyed him with suspicion. “If I turn my back, you’re not going to shoot my best friend?”

“Why, did you forget to take my gun away?”

She hadn’t forgotten and Tavia knew that Wesley could surely already feel the cold absence of the bone gun against his hip.

“Can you forgive us?” Saxony’s amja asked. “Can you still fight by our side in this war?”

Wesley looked like he wasn’t too sure about the forgiveness part, but Tavia knew he’d never turn down a good fight.

“You’re fighting by my side,” Wesley said. “There’s a difference. This was always my battle against Ashwood and for my city.”

Typical Wesley. Tavia didn’t doubt that if he had his cuff links, he would have been polishing them haughtily right now.

“You will come back to us because of her influence,” Saxony’s amja said.

She looked at Tavia.

“You are *sulfjgi*. Just as I suspected.”

Tavia’s eyes widened and she jumped up from the bed, as far from Wesley as she could.

“Hang on a second,” she said.”Nobody is anybody’s *soul mate*.”

“You have the string of destiny between you. Magic and death, sorrow and joy, all of it perfectly aligned to bring you together. Creije was supposed to grow Malik’s heart and because of you, it did.”

Tavia looked over to Wesley with a snort. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I mean, for starters, his bow ties are woeful. He collects them and—”

“The girl who only owns black is questioning my fashion sense?” Wesley asked. “Now I know that I’ve hit rock bottom.”

“I’ll hit you with an actual rock if you don’t shut up.”

Tavia glared at him, but her focus shifted down to his lips and *damn it* if she didn’t stop thinking about that almost-kiss, she might hit herself with a rock too.

“You should be proud, not scared,” Saxony’s amja said. “Everything, from Vea’s death to your own mother’s death, was part of a design to bring you together.”

Now that pissed Tavia off.

She believed in a lot of things, but to suggest that her mother had died for Wesley’s future, or for anything other than Ashwood’s sick plan to perfect his mind magic, was an insult to her memory. And to make out like all the pain Tavia had gone through was for some guy to get his happy ending was an insult to all the hard graft she’d done to get to where she was and survive through everything she had.

She wasn’t just a string in someone else’s destiny.

If Saxony’s amja thought for one second—

“Don’t bring her mother into this,” Wesley said. “The Many Gods didn’t conspire to ruin Tavia’s life just so I’d fall in love with her. Nothing is that simple.”

Tavia’s breath caught on the word *love.*

Wesley had never said that to her before.

Did he mean it, or was it just an example to poke fun at what Saxony’s amja was saying? If he meant it, then why hadn’t he kissed her back in the tree house when he promised to always protect her?

“Love is a choice,” Saxony’s amja said. “You’re destined to simply impact. Two forces striking to create a wave of change.”

“Well, this wave isn’t going to have anyone else try to control her life,” Tavia said. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“I think your Kin should have learned better about believing in destiny by now,” Wesley said. “We need to stop basing everything on fate and start using our heads.”

“I second that,” Saxony said, with a bitter glare. “The last time you put stock in destiny you took my brother and my mother from me.”

Her amja looked rightly chastened again.

“So what now?” Tavia asked.

“Now we get our fingers out of our asses and think of a real plan to take down Ashwood,” Wesley said. “If we’re together, then he doesn’t stand a chance.”

Those words were more of a comfort to Tavia than she had expected. So much had gone wrong, hearing Wesley’s faith made her own come back.

Tavia smiled and let out a satisfied exhale. It felt like she had been holding her breath for so long, biding time and worrying about what to do and how to do it. She had a cause but not a direction, a mission but not a way to achieve it, but with Wesley here, every missing thing came back into focus.

Though Tavia wasn’t sure if anyone would dare to call them heroes, when Wesley was by her side, she felt young and unending. She felt magic, not just in her pocket or in the air, but in her heart.

Family was strange that way. It had an uncanny knack for leveling out the world and bringing order to the chaos. Wesley was Saxony’s family, but he was hers, too, and now they were going to take on the world.

She felt sorry for anyone who stood in their way.