* * *
Nate pulled into his apartment complex and waited for the gate to open before navigating to his covered parking space. It was late morning, and most of his neighbors were at work. At least Miguel wouldn’t have too many curious eyes following him up the stairs in his hospital gown.
As they all climbed out of the car, Miguel looked around warily, clearly feeling exposed in his flimsy attire. Nate ushered them up the stairs and unlocked the door to his apartment, leading them inside.
The apartment Nate shared with his roommate was sparsely furnished, with only a couch that his parents had given him and a bookcase crammed full of books. A closed laptop sat on the oak coffee table in front of the couch, Nate’s primary workspace. Off to the left, a small but clean kitchen held a bistro table and two chairs that served as the eating area. Nate’s roommate travelled most of the time for work, and Nate spent a large portion of his hours at the office as well, so the simple but serviceable apartment was all he wanted or needed.
Now that he had guests scrutinizing his living space however, Nate noticed that the couch had worn a hole in the corner, and the overhead light had a bulb out. Shrugging off his concerns, he shut the door behind Miguel and Meredith and suggested that Meredith wait in the living room while he and Miguel rooted through his roommate’s closet for some clothes.
After Nate helped Miguel find an outfit, he returned to the living room while the other man changed.
Meredith had seated herself on the sofa, and her eyes roved the room curiously, taking in the spare living space. She stood and walked over to the bookcase. “Don’t spend much time here, do you?” she asked conversationally, running a finger through the thick layer of dust on one of the shelves.
“Not really,” Nate admitted. “Both my roommate and I are pretty focused on our careers right now.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Nate could have kicked himself. He watched her expression turn wary as she kept her eyes focused on his book collection.
“Of course,” she murmured.
Nate watched her eyes dart back and forth as she read the titles on the shelf in front of her. Her clear blue eyes were alight with intelligence and curiosity. Nate took a step forward and faced the books with her, considering how to recover from his mistake. “Do you like to read?” he asked.
“Isn’t that kind of like asking whether I like to eat?” she asked, with a slight note of derision in her voice.
“You’d be surprised,” Nate countered. “I have some old friends from high school who haven’t picked up a book since graduation.”
“That’s sad.” Meredith drew her attention away from the books and looked at Nate levelly. “Thank you for giving us a ride from the hospital.”
“You’re welcome,” he said automatically, taken aback by her direct gratitude. Nate had expected her to take a more hostile attitude toward him. Nate held her gaze, waiting to see if she would say more.
After a moment, Meredith’s eyes flicked over Nate’s shoulder, where Miguel was emerging from the back bedroom. Nate turned around and looked. Miguel wore a plain black V-neck tee shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of flip-flops that were one size too big.
“Hey,” Miguel said with a crooked smile, self-conscious from the two sets of eyes that rested on him.
“Hey,” Meredith repeated softly. Her voice held a gentle note that had been absent when she was speaking to Nate.
Nate walked to the kitchen to give them a few moments together, grabbing three sodas from the fridge and a box of crackers from the pantry. He came back to the living room and dumped his offering onto the coffee table.
Meredith picked up a soda and cracked it open as she sat down onto the sofa. Miguel followed suit while Nate brought a chair over from the dining table for himself. He situated the chair facing the couch and sat down, remaining silent while Meredith and Miguel ate some crackers and sipped their sodas.
While he waited for them to slow their pace, Nate considered how to approach the discussion with them. Nate could tell from the way the Meredith carried herself that she didn’t trust him and didn’t plan to tell him any more than she had to. As much as he wanted to break a big story for his career, he also realized that Meredith was in some real trouble and needed help.
Nate cleared his throat. “I know you don’t want to tell me anything, so instead I’ll tell you some things. Then we can go from there. Sound okay to you?”
They both nodded while Miguel stuffed another cracker into his mouth. Meredith set her soda down on the coffee table and then folded her arms over her chest.
Nate inhaled deeply and said to Meredith, “During the storm the other night, Lenny and I followed you after you left the hospital.”
Meredith’s eyes widened in surprise, and her mouth opened as if she wanted to protest. Realizing it was pointless, her teeth clacked together as she pressed her lips into a thin line.
“While you and your friend were running in the storm, we saw a tree fall on you.” Nate paused, trying to decide how to describe what he saw next. He wasn’t sure how much Miguel knew about Meredith’s abilities, and he didn’t want to say too much. However, he wanted to make it clear that he knew that Meredith was different.
Meredith spared him the effort. “You mean the tree fell next to us.”
“No,” Nate corrected gently, drawing out the word. “We saw the tree fall on you, and then we saw you push the tree up and out of the way.”
“I think I would remember picking up a tree,” Meredith said defensively.
Nate pressed further. “We also saw something unusual with you when it happened.” As he paused on the word unusual, her eyes met his, curiosity and defiance reflected in their cool depths. Suppressing a smile, Nate went on, “I’ll tell you what I saw if you tell me what it means.”
Meredith looked away angrily and scoffed, “You are unrelenting!”
Nate frowned. “Obviously there is something big going on with you, and I’ll admit that I am insanely curious about it. But more than that, I want to help you. It seems like you are really in over your head here. I promise I won’t publish anything unless you tell me it’s okay. Just let me help.”
Miguel cleared his throat, and Nate looked at him with surprise. He had been so caught up in his conversation with Meredith that he had forgotten that Miguel was even there.
“Mere,” Miguel said tentatively. “I’d really like to know what’s going on, too. I put a lot of trust in you, skipping out on that surgery, but now I need you to tell me why.”
“In front of him?” Meredith asked incredulously, flipping a hand in Nate’s direction.
“He promised that he wouldn’t publish anything without our okay, and I trust him. Reporters who want long careers don’t piss off their informants.” Miguel gave Nate a meaningful stare. “Why don’t you start by telling us the ‘unusual’ thing you saw?”
“Fair enough,” Nate agreed. “After you pushed the tree off of you, you were glowing.”
“Glowing,” Meredith repeated. “Are we talking pregnant glow or radioactive glow?”
Nate smiled. “Definitely radioactive. It was only for a second, but both Lenny and I saw it.”
Meredith nodded slowly, taking in the information. She seemed a little dazed, but not all that surprised, almost like she had received bad medical news that was long in coming. She was desperate to have a more detailed account of what Nate had seen, but she knew she couldn’t ask questions without divulging some of what she knew herself.
As if he had read her mind, Miguel asked, “So what does you glowing have to do with me not getting a surgery?”
“I think a lot, actually,” Meredith admitted. She still had reservations about revealing anything to Nate, but at the same time, her own curiosity about what he had seen burned bright inside of her. She also knew that she was eventually going to have to take a chance and tell someone what was happening… and Nate had already helped them quite a bit. She would just have to go for it and hope he wouldn’t betray t
hem.
“I guess I should explain,” Meredith said cautiously. She watched Nate’s face carefully, which was open and curious. She saw nothing malicious in the depths of his honey colored eyes. Satisfied, she spent the next twenty minutes explaining about how magic had been re-released into the world, causing previously dormant magicians to grow a second heart. It was the growth of that new organ that caused the severe stomach pains that Miguel had experienced. The second heart was what allowed magicians to use magic, and without it, they died.
Nate had suspected that there was something very weird going on, but hearing it spoken about in such a matter-of-fact manner was hard for him to believe. He listened with an open mind, however, because of what he had seen for himself during the storm.
Meredith had turned her body and was facing Miguel on the couch. “Dr. Wells had told me that there was another patient with my same condition that she intended to operate on. When I learned the truth about everything, I knew I had to go find that person and save them from having the surgery. I had no idea it was you,” she concluded. She laid a hand on Miguel’s knee and waited for him to respond.
“That’s one hell of a coincidence,” he said quietly.
“I know,” Meredith said. “I’ve been thinking about that, too. I wonder if maybe we were initially drawn to each other because of our potential to emerge as magicians. Like, on a subconscious level.”
“And all this time I thought it was because of my charming personality,” Miguel said dryly.
“You know what I mean.”
Miguel sat for a moment with his eyebrows drawn together and lips pursed, thinking over everything that Meredith had said. He filled his cheeks with air and let it out slowly on a long sigh. “I know you said that this nurse that helped you showed you proof, but I really need to see it for myself. I just can’t believe this is really happening.”
“I don’t know how, Miguel, or I would. But I swear--”
“Got any spare trees?” Miguel asked Nate jokingly.
Nate smiled tightly, thinking about something else. “What about all the other emerging magicians?”
“What?” Meredith asked.
“Well, I’m assuming that this is happening all over the place. Not just in Phoenix, right?”
“I suppose so,” Meredith said slowly, understanding where Nate was going with his line of thought.
“So your plan is to just let them all have the life-ending surgery?” He frowned, disappointed that she wouldn’t want to save everyone that she could. Did she want to be the only one with these new abilities? To hell with everyone else?
The color drained from Meredith’s cheeks, causing the small dusting of freckles on her cheeks to stand out in stark contrast to the rest of her pale skin. “No, that’s not my plan,” she replied angrily. “It’s more complicated than that.”
“Then please, explain,” Nate said slowly, with exaggerated patience.
Miguel took Meredith hand and looked at her earnestly. “We’re in this together, Mere, and you need to tell me everything.”
Meredith looked at Nate pointedly.
“Forget about him, Mere. Just look at me. Tell me.” Miguel brushed a hair out of Meredith’s face, holding her gaze.
Meredith took a deep breath. “The nurse who helped me told me that there is someone who is hunting down magicians and killing them for their abilities. We have to hide if we want to survive, and we are already on their radar because we were admitted to the hospital with the growth of our Second Hearts.” Meredith briefly told Miguel about the history with Aleric, the ancient magician, and the likelihood of his having chosen a protégé who would follow his actions.
Nate leaned back in his chair and mulled her story over in his head. If Meredith really believed it, she must be scared out of her mind. Nate considered the fate that she was now facing: she would have to hide from family and friends, surrender her life as she knew it, and go into hiding, perhaps forever. “You must feel completely overwhelmed,” he blurted.
Meredith looked at Nate in surprise, as if she had suppressed the fact that he was even there. “Well, yes,” she stammered, coloring.
Miguel looked completely blindsided. “How can you possibly know for sure that all this is true, Meredith?” he asked gently, hoping to find a reason to disbelieve her.
“I saw her use magic. And how else could you explain the weird things that have been happening? The fires? The earthquakes? Everything!” Meredith pulled her hand from Miguel’s grasp and pulled her hair out of its ponytail. Her fingers raked through the red mass and then began to weave it into a braid over her left shoulder.
Nate wondered if Meredith was redoing her hairstyle to give herself something to do with her hands. She seemed filled with nervous and frustrated energy, without an idea of where to channel it. “I am going to say something, and I don’t want you to just dismiss it because you think I’m saying it out of self-interest, because I’m not. Just, listen with an open mind, okay?”
Meredith’s fingers paused mid-way down the braid. “Okay,” she said cautiously, before continuing to weave.
“If magicians go into hiding, then this Aleric guy could just pick you off one-by-one. Police wouldn’t be able to connect the deaths together in any meaningful way, and other magicians wouldn’t even know that they were a target until it was too late.”
Meredith finished the braid and tied it off with a rubber band. She looked at Nate expectantly, waiting for him to continue.
“Meanwhile, tons of resources and worry will be wasted on a worldwide level in an attempt to understand the weather events and stuff, when those same resources could be used to help emerging magicians.” Nate paused for a moment, knowing that what he said next could quash Meredith’s tenuous open-mindedness. “But if you were to go public--”
“Ahh, there it is,” Meredith interrupted with a sarcastic smile. She leaned back into the sofa and folded her arms over her chest.
“No,” Nate said, a little too sharply. “This isn’t just me trying to get my big story, okay? I actually think that going public is the right thing to do. I don’t even have to be the person to help you do it.”
Miguel laid a hand on Meredith’s shoulder. “He has some really good points. I don’t think we should rule it out.”
“You weren’t with me, Miguel. You didn’t hear how brutal this guy was, or how scared the nurse sounded. I am not going public.” Her voice was angry, and Miguel seemed taken aback.
“I’m just as affected by this as you are,” he said defensively. After a beat, Miguel’s expression softened, and he added, “Just don’t say no yet. Let’s think about it for a while and then we can decide together.”
“We wouldn’t stand a chance,” she said decisively. Nate could see that her anger was rooted in the deep fear that she was harboring. That nurse must have been some storyteller.
Nate’s phone started buzzing from inside his pocket. The call was from a number he didn’t recognize. He stood and walked into the kitchen to answer it. “Hello?”
The man’s voice was familiar. “Hello? Is this Nate Dowering?”
“Yes,” Nate said slowly, lilting upward on the second half of the word. He was trying to place the familiar voice at the other end of the line.
The man’s voice was low and strained, and he seemed to be fighting to keep his emotions in check as he spoke. Nate had to press the phone hard against his ear to be able to hear the quiet words, “Please, we need your help.”