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“The Magus Scepter increases the caster’s magic a hundredfold. For someone with zero magic, it is useless. Someone with minimal magic would become a notable witch or wizard. For someone like me…” He grinned, and his eyes sparkled with greed. “It would make me invincible. I’ll be the strongest wizard on Earth. Not even that dragon would dare to come after me.”
“But a scepter is a staff, no? This is a locket. And you already have both halves. So why do you need me?”
“Perceptive.” He looked at my untouched food. “Sometime in the eighteenth century, the Magus Scepter, the last known catalytic amulet, disappeared. Most historians of magic believe it has been lost forever. But there is a theory that two witches used magic to transform the silver orb at the head of the scepter into a locket. The spell took a lot of energy, and they had to borrow magic from future generations to complete it, rendering their offspring magicless.”
“You can do that?”
“Yes. It is only rarely done, but definitely possible.”
“Okay, but why? Why use so much magic to turn a scepter into a locket? Why borrow on their descendants’ magic? That seems a little…excessive.”
“Because they didn’t want it in the wrong hands. They were unable to destroy it, so they hid it.”
“You think that I’m descended from one of these witches.”
“I don’t think it. I know it. I can see it perfectly, now that you are here. Your aura is right, and so different from your brother’s. You are the one I’ve been waiting for.”
Was I supposed to have magic?
“Yes, exactly. You were meant to be a witch.”
Oops, I hadn’t realized I’d said that out loud.
“But you have been doomed to lead the life of a magicless human. I can change all that. I can fill your life with magic, with wonder.” He reached out to take my hand.
“I still don’t understand why you need me.”
“The Magus Scepter always needed a medium, a living person, to channel its power. Turning it into a locket didn’t change its nature. So the witches put in an additional clause, a fail-safe in case the pieces were ever reunited. They added the stipulation that the locket must be worn by one of their descendants.”
Oho! So he couldn’t actually use it on his own. He needed me. Or Tony.
“Why not keep Tony around, then, and have him do it?”
“You are a much better option. You can be hidden in plain sight. No one would question why you were always by my side if you were my wife.”
I was beginning to get it now. “And I guess the other wizards wouldn’t accept you having a husband.” Those stodgy old men who ran the Wizard’s Elder Council certainly had some outdated views.
“Surely not!” Augustine’s look of naked disgust made me believe he wouldn’t approve of Seth and Liam’s relationship.
“So I’m a better choice for…the optics.”
“You are a better choice all around, my dear.” He stroked my hand, reminding me that he still held it. Eww. “We can offer each other much. I need an heir. I am a much better choice than that manticore you’ve been staying with.” He had that look of disgust on his face again. It was a bad look, even with his plastic perfection.
I held my hand up. “I’m only staying there because I don’t have a home, considering your fire genies and my brother burnt down my house.”
“Of course, of course. You need a place to stay. I’ll remedy that: you’ll stay with me. That manticore may guard the dragon’s treasures, but he’s no more than a watchman. I’m a bit of a collector myself and have my own treasures. I’ll show you my collection after dinner.”
He clapped his hands, and the door opened. The two servers came in to clear our appetizers and serve the next course.
“Here is my offer, Evangeline. Marry me. Be my medium. Give me an heir. In return, I will offer you a life of luxury.”
“I’m going to be brutally honest here: you haven’t given me much reason to trust you. So this is a bit of a shock.”
He only grinned. “That brutal honesty is one of the reasons why I believe we will make a good team. I know when I’m being lied to, and I despise it. I agree, I haven’t given you much reason to trust me, so I will take the first step now to begin earning that trust.”
He snapped his fingers and called for Milly, who stepped into the room moments later.
“Stand, My Sweet.”
