Misery Happens by Tracey Martin

wouldn’t have put the latter past him.
    Lucen and others were due at Gryphon headquarters later the next day to discuss plans, but I had to be there a few hours earlier to continue my magical training. I left Lucen in bed, went home to shower, change and eat, then prepared to head out. When I opened my door to leave, I discovered two satyrs standing there.
    Gi had his hand raised, poised to knock. Melissa was behind him. They were both decked out in their full bodyguard gear, looking like a couple of leather-clad badasses.
    Human ones. They were both wearing disguise charms to hide their horns as well.
    “Um, hi?”
    Gi stepped out of the way as I exited the apartment. He didn’t appear badly injured from last night, or if he was, his clothing hid the extent of it. “Forgot we were coming by?”
    “That would suggest I’d ever known to expect you.”
    Melissa had a smirk on her face as she headed down the stairs, as if my reaction had been anticipated. “Dezzi and Lucen thought there might be retaliation after what went down last night. They want you protected.”
    “Of course they do, and naturally they didn’t tell me.” I locked the apartment, not bothering to resist. We’d been through this drill before, and it was easiest on everyone just to roll with it.
    Gi took up the rear. “It’s for the best. You’ve heard about what’s going on at the Gryphon building?”
    I paused, my gut tightening with worry, then I opened the door onto the street. “Um, no. What’s going on at the Gryphon building?”
    Gi’s voice was grim. “You’ll see.”
    * * * * *
    You’ll see. If that was only the extent of it. Reality was more like you’ll see, hear and be swallowed up by it.
    Half an hour later, sweat beaded on my neck, courtesy of my anxiety and the extreme heat that continued to strangle the city. Several dozen protestors had gathered in front of Gryphon headquarters, waving signs and chanting words I couldn’t make out. The Boston PD had set up barricades to provide a safe aisle for people like us to walk down on our way toward the building, but not everyone was respecting boundaries. Without even knowing who we were, a couple people shouted anti-magic slurs at us.
    I rolled my eyes and pressed on, and apparently that infuriated one of the demonstrators even more. She ducked under a barricade, but to do what, I never found out. Melissa jumped in front of me, and the woman’s hand snagged the disguise charm my bodyguard wore around her neck, exposing her horns.
    The woman’s face turned white, and she shrieked. “Satyrs!”
    Shit. I couldn’t imagine how anyone heard her over the noise, but the people nearby did and they repeated her cry. The word and the ensuing panic spread throughout the crowd faster than we could beat it the hell out of there.
    Gi wrapped an arm around me, and I swore as the barricades on either side of us came crashing down. On my left, a man about my age grabbed at my shirt collar. I was pretty sure he’d mistaken my pendant for a disguise charm and intended to rip it off, but this was hardly the time to explain that it was actually a tracking charm. The finer nuances of magic—and well, everything else logical—were lost on these people.
    Angry mobs weren’t known for their interest in reasoned discussions.
    What they did do, however, was provide me with one hell of a hit of magical energy. I smacked the guy’s arm away and shoved him into the swarming crowd with more force than I’d intended. His peppery anger surged as he fell, and a potent lemon fear rose to the surface. Then the particular taste of this one man’s emotions dissolved into the wretched blend of the couple hundred others I had to contend with.
    Some people fought to get to us, apparently in an attempt to rip us limb from limb, while others ran away. Gi tried to block my body with his as we continued pushing our way through, but he was in as much trouble as I was. Normally, most humans wouldn’t mess with as