Allie Beckstrom 09 - Magic for a Price (27 page)

“The possession thing was an accident,” I said.

“Nothing that man does is an accident.” She sliced her hands through the air. “There is no magic here. Never has been. You tell your dead father to go to hell. And stay there.”

She stormed past me and glared at Zayvion.

“This is my house. Get out of my way.”

Zay moved aside, and Mama strode out the door.

“That went well,” Zay said.

“Shit,” I said. “I wasn’t lying. There’s magic here. Some kind. I just don’t know where, or what.”

“Maybe it doesn’t matter,” he said. “If we haven’t
been able to find it for the last thirty years, then maybe it’s hidden enough that Leander and Isabelle won’t find it either.”

“Do you want to take that chance?”

“Not really.”

We headed out of the office, out through the dining area where two Boys were now positioned, making no effort to hide the guns on their hips. We took the hint and walked out the front doors.

Shame, Terric, Cody, and Nola were standing by the van, waiting.

“Any luck?” Shame asked.

“Just the bad kind,” I said. “I think there’s magic here. Dad is positive there’s magic here. Mama won’t admit to it. Suggestions?”

“Can you sort of feel for it, Jones?” Shame asked. “That thing you do?”

“I don’t feel any magic here,” Zay said. “Never have.”

“Cody?” I asked. “Do you remember any draw of magic in the area? When you were…um…”

“Dead?” he asked. He frowned, thinking. “I don’t think so. That…it’s hard to really remember anything clearly. A lot of that time is sort of fuzzy and dreamlike. I get images, maybe memories, but it’s hard to tell. Sorry.”

“How about Stone?” Shame lit a cigarette, exhaled. “Think he could sniff it out?”

No,
Dad said.

“No,” Cody said at the same time.

Interesting.

“So what?” I asked. “We just hope Leander and Isabelle don’t find it?”

Terric shook his head. “I hate that idea.”

“How about a Truth spell?” Nola said.

We all turned to her. I, for one, was shocked.

“Just because I don’t use magic doesn’t mean I don’t know how it’s used,” she said. “And I know Truth is usually only effective between blood relatives…”

“Not at all,” Shame said. “That’s just what we tell people.”

“So…?” she asked.

“We’ll need to use magic,” I said. “In the disks. You have them, right?”

Zay nodded. “Three left.”

“Who’s the best at Blood magic?” I asked.

“Shame or I,” Zay said.

“I’ll do it,” Shame said. “But someone’s going to have to make sure I’m not shot to hell by her gun-toting Boys.”

“Easier done with magic,” Terric said.

“Then we use magic on them too,” I said. “We use one disk to cast a Hold, or knock them out, and one to work a Truth spell on Mama.”

“Which leaves us only one disk left to deal with, Close, or hide the source of magic here in St. Johns,” Zay said.

“And no magic up our sleeve if we get into a wrestling match with the Overseer.” Shame was staring down the street, thinking.

“Is there another option we’re overlooking?” I asked.

Zay shook his head.

“Say, I have a question,” Shame said.

“What?” I asked.

“Anyone else see that?” He pointed.

I followed the angle of his finger.

Roman Grimshaw, the ex-guardian of the gate, was striding our way. Or rather, the ghost of him was sort of floating our way. His spirit that should be locking the gates and keeping them closed was no longer in those gates.

Holy shit.

“Roman?” I said.

Our phones started ringing. All of them.

“Zay?” I said. “The gates?”

“They are coming,” Roman whispered.

And then an explosion rocked the world.

N
ot one explosion. Ten, in quick succession. I ducked and covered my ears as the roaring blasts filled my skull. The blue morning sky burned yellow then bled down to a deep umber red.

“What the hell?” I yelled.

“Gates,” Zay said, hauling me up onto my feet. “Roman’s soul must have been released so now the gates can be used.”

“How?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe a Guardian of the gates from some other city. Get in the van!”

We hauled into the van. Shame and Terric were on their phones, and when my hearing came back I realized someone was talking on my phone too. I pulled it up to my ear.

“This is Allie,” I said.

“We have confirmation that gates have opened around the outer edges of Portland,” Victor said.

“How many?” I asked.

“Twenty-four at last report.”

“Shit. What’s coming through?”

“Magic users. Groups of ten. They’re staying near the gates, keeping them open.”

“What are they keeping them open for?”

“Magic. They’re pulling on magic from the other sides of the gates.”

“Can they do that?”

“Not for long. We’re going to close the gates.”

“We’re in St. Johns. Didn’t find the source of magic. Where do you need us?”

“Is Zayvion still with you?”

“Yes.”

“Let me talk to him.”

I handed him the phone. “Victor,” I said.

“Zay.”

I can usually hear both sides of a conversation over a phone. It’s one of the good things about being a Hound. But whatever Victor was saying was covered by the muffled ringing in my ears from the blast and other voices in the van as Terric and Shame and Nola talked on their phones.

The sky was still bloodred. Somewhere not too far off sirens started up. A lot of sirens.

Mama stepped out of her diner, a shotgun resting casually in her hands. Four Boys stood behind her.

Don’t leave St. Johns
, Dad said.
This will be the only hope to stand against them.

Mama hadn’t raised her weapon yet. She glanced up at the sky, then turned and disappeared into the diner. A hand in the window turned the sign from
OPEN
to
CLOSED
.

But Dad’s plea got me thinking.

Why did Leander and Isabelle name you as the person behind this all?

What?

Leander and Isabelle. Why would ancient, dead Soul Complements want you dead? What did you do?

I suspected early that Sedra was possessed by Isabelle and tried to remove her as the head of the Authority. I
suspected that she killed Mikhale. It made them notice me, and tipped my hand as a person to be reckoned with. But what matters now, Allison, is your decision. Victor will tell Zayvion he wants to Close the gates. It will take an immense amount of magic to do that. Will you unlock the wells so that magic is available for everyone, including the armies at the gates, or trust me that there is magic here that can be accessed and can be used against them all?

You seem to have a lot riding on whether or not we access the magic in St. Johns. Why?

Allison…

Why?
I repeated.

It is a crystal well,
he said.
The magic in St. Johns is old, untapped, crystallized. Kept untouched and pure, a relic of light and dark magic still joined. Mama and generations before her for hundreds of years have kept it secret and safe. It is a magic even Leander and Isabelle don’t know about. It can do things other magic cannot.

Because it’s light and dark magic joined? Would have been terrific to have known that a long time ago. What else aren’t you telling me?

So many things.

“We’re heading back to the Death well.” Zay started the van and was halfway out of St. Johns in seconds.

“Why? What did Victor tell you?”

“I need to Close the gates. I need a well opened to do it. Death well is the closest.”

“They know where our wells are, mate,” Shame said. “They’re just waiting for you to pick one so they can take you out.”

“If I Close the gates, they won’t have magic. Then you can take them out.”

“No,” I said.

“I don’t see another option.”

“You will not die to save this city. Not like that.”

“Allie,” Terric started.

“Stop the van.” When Zay didn’t do anything, I touched his arm, hoping our connection would carry more than my words could.

“I mean it, Zay. Stop the van.” St. Johns was already miles behind us. “We can’t do what they expect. Listen to me.”

“Leander and Isabelle are going to step through one of those gates,” he said. “But not if I Close them first.”

In the back of the van Stone snarled.

“Stone?” Cody said.

And then Stone literally tore the back door off the van and jumped out into the street.

“Zay!” I yelled.

Not because of Stone.

The road in front of us exploded in a blast, chunks of concrete and dirt hurled our way.

Zay yanked on the wheel and slammed on the brakes. I don’t know how he did it but somehow, the van did not roll over. We skidded sideways for several yards, then finally stopped.

“Fuck,” Shame said. “Anyone hurt?”

“Fine,” Nola said. “We’re fine.”

I glanced at Zay. He was stock still, hands clenched on the steering wheel. Staring out the window.

I looked out the window too.

At the woman standing in the middle of the broken street.

She wore a pair of dark slacks, sensible shoes, and a long, expensive wool jacket. Older than me…maybe even Maeve’s age. Short gray hair cut straight at the forehead and into spiky edges everywhere else. A thin, firm mouth and a hard jawline.

Her eyes were wide—maybe they had been blue, maybe brown. Right now they were black. No color, no whites, just pure black. She was possessed by the oldest Soul Complements, two people who had been so powerful when they were alive, only breaking magic into light and dark had stopped their killing spree. They had been strong enough to escape death, to tear souls apart, to possess powerful magic users. And now, joined together in one body, they became the strongest form of magic user.

I’d never seen her before.

She, apparently, knew me.

“Daniel Beckstrom,” she said. Her voice was that of a woman, but I heard her in double, a second voice echoing in my head. And that other voice was straight out of my nightmares. It was a blending of male and female. Leander and Isabelle.

“Now you will die.”

She pointed both hands at the ground. Like a hard wind rising, a storm of magic pounded through the air. I didn’t know how she was accessing magic, although the only thing that made sense was she had her own source, like the disks.

No, she was using the people at the gates to feed magic from surrounding cities to her.

That had to come with a hell of a price. I was sure they wouldn’t be able to bear it for long.

Horizontal lightning strikes hissed across the sky like no wild magic storm I had ever seen before. Fire balls seared down and burned up from the ground.

“Fuck it all.” Shame and Terric got out of the van at the same time Zay did. They all strode out onto the street.

No. They did not just do that.

Hell. So much for planning, for taking some kind of guerilla tactic against her.

Hound instincts told me this was suicide. Never meet the enemy on the grounds they choose. Never fight an enemy straight on, on the terms they set.

Unless you wanted to die quickly.

And I refused to die. Not here in the middle of the street. Not at Leander and Isabelle’s beck and call.

They weren’t the only pissed-off Soul Complements in this town.

As a matter of fact, when it came to angry Soul Complements around here, they were outnumbered.

“Stay here,” I said to Nola and Cody. I didn’t wait for their answer as I took off after Zay, Terric, and Shame.

Zay stood several paces in front of the van, facing the Overseer, Shame and Terric on either side of him.

I didn’t see Stone anywhere.

“Stay back, Allie,” Zay said.

Oh, like hell I would.

“Beckstrom.” Their voices dug painfully into my head. “This game of yours is done. We have the final hand now. All magic is ours, light and dark, as it has always been meant to be. You have lost.”

The Overseer hooked a finger, and the magic in the sky bent to her command.

I didn’t know if I could use it. Didn’t know if even drawing a Block spell out of that mess of magic would kill me.

The fear of death, so close, so recent, made me hesitate.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Everything seemed to slow.

Allison!
Dad yelled.

I felt his fear, tasted the sour copper of it against the back of my throat.

He had good reasons to be worried. The sky was breaking. The ground was breaking. A building fell, the dust rolling out in strangely liquid slow motion.

Magic licked like fire. From the sky. From the ground.

Headed toward me.

Toward me and Dad.

To kill us.

I drew on that same magic. Just like Shame had drawn on the Hold spell around the Veiled.

Too late, much, much too late. Magic answered me, but scraped ice through the black mark in my left palm, pulled fire through the opalescent metal marks on my right.

Shield.

It wouldn’t save me.

But I refused to die this easily. From one strike.

Because I was angry. More than angry. Furious. They had no right. No right to tear my world apart. To kill so many. They had no right to try to kill my already dead father.

The Shield carved a wall around me, flames of magic weaving a tight netting that could not be breeched.

My skin was on fire. My bones were freezing. I couldn’t do this, couldn’t survive drawing on their magic to use magic against them.

Their attack pounded down.

It was like standing on a rock while the entire ocean rose up…

…and crashed on top of me.

Only it wasn’t water. It was magic. Too damn much magic.

Drowning, crushing.

Enough to kill me.

And then Zay was there, his hand on my right wrist,
his hand on my left. Warm, solid, real. He pulled me against him. Taking my pain, paying my price without even casting a Proxy spell.