Cursed Moon (Prospero's War) (29 page)

While I worked, I was vaguely aware that Morales had stepped back to watch me. I didn’t have the luxury of feeling self-conscious about it, but it felt as intimate as him knowing my darkest secrets.

Lifting the box high, I willed the moon to speed the process. I closed my eyes and imagined a stream of neon magic zapping from the moon to the little box. A tingle of energy sizzled up from my chest, through my arms, and into my burning fingertips. Electricity shocked my fingers and pain burst behind my eyes.

A shock attacked my hands and the box leaped from my grasp. My eyes flew open in time to see it splash into the water. The potion sizzled, and a bright blue pool of light flashed before going dark.

“Shit.” Rubbing my stinging hands together, I glanced at Morales with a heart sinking as fast as our last chance.

His face fell and he glanced at the moon like it was his biggest enemy. I suppose at the moment it ranked pretty high on the list.

I dropped to my knees on the platform. In the distance a few
lights were still illuminated in Babylon’s office towers despite the late hour. All across the city, hundreds of thousands of people slept peacefully in their beds. Children dreamed of jack-o’-lanterns and bags full of candy. Night-shift workers yawned and hurried to complete their work so they could clock out and head home. Junkies huddled in doorways, their eyes rolling back in their heads from the high of a potion-fix mixed with the Blue Moon’s rising power.

Kneeling on that platform with Morales and a passed-out madman, I’d never felt so alone.

“I told you it wouldn’t work,” I said in a low, savage tone. I couldn’t look at him.

“Kate, I—”

The entire platform swayed, as if lifted by a large wave. The unexpected movement threw off my equilibrium. I fell toward the bomb, grabbing the bracket out of instinct.

“What the fuck?” Morales yelled. His arms were outspread, and he crouched to keep from tumbling over.

“Morales—it’s her!” Hope bloomed in my chest. Rogue waves didn’t just appear in the middle of a lake—unless something under the water caused them.

At that moment a large, black hump crested out of the water, followed by a loud splash not fifty feet from our suddenly very small platform.

Cold fear and hot hope swept under my skin. Lake Erie wasn’t home to whales or dolphins. I’d heard some large catfish lived in the deep waters, but the spiked tail I’d seen didn’t belong to a fish. It belonged to a monster.

Another wave—smaller this time—rocked the platform. The monster was circling, trying to decide on the best approach.

A loud gasp sounded behind me. I turned to see Dionysus’s
head jerk up and his unfocused eyes go wide. “Wh—what’s happening?”

Now that I’d managed to summon the monster I’d invited to the party, I realized with a start that I had no idea how to control the beast.

“Cut the raft off the buoy!” I yelled at my partner. He jumped to do what I asked without question.

The monster roared and leaped into the air a good way from the raft. The hulking shape made my mouth fall open.

“Four minutes,” Morales yelled, coming to stand beside me.

Underneath the instinctive fear, the kernels of a plan began to form. The kind of plan born of desperation, gut-wrenching terror, and lack of options.

The beast emerged from the depths again. This time a large head broke the surface. I had a quick impression of large yellow eyes and a gaping mouth filled with a few rows of sharp teeth. From the triple nostrils large plumes of water shot up into the night air. And above this terrifying image, the Blue Moon watched in judgment from the sky. It seemed to say: “Be careful what you wish for.”

Another crest of water exploded beside the buoy. The wake threw my body through the air. “Kate!” Morales screamed.

I landed in the cold drink with a splash. My head went under; water shot up my nose, choking me. I couldn’t tell which way was up or down. But if I didn’t act fast I’d drown. Kicking my legs with every bit of strength I had left, I burst above the surface for a brief, victorious moment. I gasped in a lungful of air.

“Moral—”

My scream was swallowed by the water. Something tugged on my leg, pulling me farther underwater. I looked up, yearning for the surface.

Despite my body’s instinctive struggle for air, in my brain a small voice urged me to just surrender. Maybe Dionysus had it right all along. Life shouldn’t be a constant struggle, but lately it seemed to be nothing but one conflict after another. Ever since I’d joined the MEA—my dream job, I’d thought—I’d been forced to choose between my principles and the Arcane demands of the job.

I could just let go. Sink down. Let the abyss swallow me.

I closed my eyes.

Pain in my lungs, desperate for air. For life.

An air bubble escaped my mouth. Another tug. Stronger this time.

My eyes snapped open. The bright orb of the Blue Moon shimmered through the water, lighting my path toward the surface. Morales’s words came back to me:
If you don’t try what will happen?

The thing I’d managed to successfully ignore this entire time suddenly loomed larger than the monster. Danny and Pen were in that city. Baba, Rufus, and everyone else I cared about. If I gave up now, they’d all suffer. My surrender would doom them all.

I kicked hard with both feet. Yearned for the surface with my grasping hands. My foot made contact with something solid, again. Again. And then, miraculously, I was loose, swimming like a wild mermaid toward the surface.

I burst out of the water, and panic fueled my arms to scramble for the edge of the platform. My eyes were blurry with dirty water. I struggled to reach the edge of the platform. Exhaustion threatened to pull me under again.

A warm hand grabbed mine and hauled me from the water like the catch of the day. The wood dug into my solar plexus, knocking what little air I had from my lungs. But I didn’t care as long as I wasn’t in the water with the monster anymore.

Morales grabbed me in a fast, hard hug.

“Jesus that was close,” he gasped. His face was pale from blood loss, and his eyes searched the water for the beast.

I grabbed his wrist. According to his watch, we only had a minute and fifteen seconds left.

I leapt across the platform toward Dionysus. I slapped his face. His chin jerked to the side. “Wake up, Scott!” Cold water from my hair splashed over his eyes as they winked open.

“What—” he said in a groggy tone.

“You have a visitor.” I jerked his chin toward the water.

The beast’s huge head rose from the surface a hundred feet from the platform.

Scott’s eyes widened. “What the fuck!”

I leaned forward and whispered, “You wanted chaos?” I pointed toward the beast. “Well, she’s coming for you.”

The monster’s two large yellow eyes zeroed in on us. A loud roar filled the night. She was coming in hot.

“Untie me!” His voice cracked with fear. “Please!”

“Kate?” Morales said in an urgent tone. “It’s go time!”

“No, you can’t leave me!” The Raven struggled against the belt, but with his ruined hand he didn’t have a hope of untying himself. “I’m begging you!”

Morales looked at me, unsure. Part of me wanted to leave the asshole tied to his own bomb—a little poetic justice. But in the end, I couldn’t justify leaving him tied up. I certainly didn’t intend to save him, but I also couldn’t damn him to being unable to try and save himself.

“Untie him. Quickly!”

Morales dove across the raft and quickly unbuckled the belt. Dionysus froze, as if shocked by the tiny mercy we’d shown him. “W-why?”

Morales came back to join me at the edge of the raft before
he answered. “Because every man deserves to be able to go down fighting.”

A roar echoed over the water. All three of us turned toward the spine-chilling noise.

The monster’s mouth emerged from the water and opened wide enough to swallow a Volkswagen. A guttural sound escaped the maw. Morales and I edged to the opposite side of the platform from the bomb. Scott, clearly dizzy and weak from lack of blood, slipped and groped against the metal frame to regain his feet.

“Take me with you!” Scott yelled.

“Kate?” Morales was pushing against me.

“Patience,” I said. A sudden calm descended over me as time slowed. I glanced at the clock. Thirty seconds.

“It won’t work,” Dionysus yelled. “You’ll die, too, you stupid fucking whore.”

I taunted the monster. “Come on, you big, beautiful bitch!”

“Oh shit,” Morales said. “This is crazy!”

The beast’s mouth grew closer until it filled our vision like a portal to another dimension. Bending my knees, I wrapped my arms around Morales. His came around me, too.

I cast one final glance at Dionysus. He was crawling toward the other edge of the raft, his knees slipping in his blood. “So long, asshole.”

The monster loomed closer, closer. The man who claimed to love chaos screamed with a terror that would haunt my dreams.

“Now!” I shouted.

The first few boards of the platform crunched under the monster’s enormous, sharp teeth. Lunging with all our strength, Morales and I flew off the port side of the platform. Slamming into the water felt like belly flopping onto concrete. The air whooshed from my lungs and cold, dirty water surged into my sinuses.

Morales kicked his good leg and I scissored both of mine until we were clear. Once my head emerged from under the water, the shrieking registered first. Then a loud crunch. The sound of sharp teeth on bone and wood. The monster’s victorious roar filled the night. And then, silence.

We swam like mad things toward the raft he’d set adrift. I helped him in first, and then he pulled me up to join him.

An instant later a magical concussion spread through the water like an aftershock. Ripples spread in choppy concentric circles through the water, making our raft bob wildly in its wake.

I held my breath, watching the surface for signs of the beast’s fate. When I’d formed the plan, I hadn’t thought about what would happen when the bomb detonated inside the monster’s body. If she exploded, would the lake be contaminated?

But then, breaking the silence, a loud splash sounded. The monster’s body leaped out of the water fifty feet from our raft. The formerly black surface of her slick skin sparkled iridescent purple in the Blue Moon’s glow. As soon as she appeared, the Lake Erie Lizard descended back into the depths, taking every trace of Dionysus and his ill-fated bomb with her.

I finally released the breath I’d been holding. “Holy shit.”

Morales’s eyelids were drooping. “Jesus, Prospero, if I’d known you were going to play chicken with that beast I never would have suggested you summon him.”

“Her,” I corrected. “That was definitely a lady monster.”

He popped an eyebrow. “How can you tell?”

“I just know.”

He laughed. “Well, guess what, Cupcake? Since you’re so smart, I’ll let you row.” He tossed the oars to me. Despite the sarcasm, I could tell the suggestion was really a necessity.

He’d lost a lot more blood than me. Besides, he had the
flare, which he shot into the air as I rowed us toward the lighthouse.

By the time the rescue boat reached us twenty minutes later, we’d both fallen into shocked silence. What other choice did we have? It’s not like we were going to talk about the secrets we were forced to know about each other. The ones we were both praying the other would never repeat.

I was shocked to see Gardner, Shadi, and Mez standing on the ship’s railing, loaded down with every Mundane and magical weapon in existence. They rushed off the boat and secured the area before coming to make sure we were okay.

Then we were being bundled in blankets, having our wounds triaged, and being urged onto soft benches to rest. Morales’s bullet wound was the most serious, so Mez focused his efforts there.

I went to sit while Shadi and Gardner peppered me with questions. I answered in a monotone, but my eyes were on Morales. His jaw was tight as Mez doctored his wounds with saline and iodine. His eyes met mine, and his face was a mask of solemn shock.

I’m not sure what Morales thought about during those moments, but I was thinking about the time I’d spent under the water. The moment when the moon that had caused a lot of my problems became a beacon of hope.

Eventually, Gardner explained that they’d been found by the sheriff’s tac-wiz team not long after Dionysus managed to get us out of the farmhouse. Best they could tell, he’d had a boat waiting in the Steel River, which ran along one side of the winery’s land. Of course they hadn’t known that then and wasted a lot of time trying to find us on the road. They’d spent the last twenty-four hours tearing the city apart. They’d been
loading onto the boat to sweep the coastline when Morales’s flare exploded into the sky.

“Jesus, Prospero,” Shadi said. “We’re lucky it was you on that platform. The only other person who could have stopped that bomb was probably Mez.”

Or Uncle Abe, I silently amended. Guess he hadn’t been lying all those years ago, after all.

I pushed that thought aside and forced a smile. Inside, I was relieved that the team had taken news of me using magic so well. But the other part of me was terrified of what they’d say if Morales told them about the last time I’d cooked.

After that, Gardner and Shadi melted away to go speak to Morales in quiet tones. I stood wrapped in a blanket on the bow, watching the moon hanging over Babylon. The city looked so peaceful and quiet from this distance. Because I’d used magic, those dreaming children would get their Halloween. Because Morales and I had exposed our skeletons to the moonlight, the entire city was spared the horror of having
their
deepest secrets revealed. And because I’d refused to surrender, I emerged from that water with a new appreciation for the Adept genes in my body that had felt like a burden for so many years.

I guess when it came down to it, the entire night had been a baptism of sorts. And it never would have happened if that damned Blue Moon hadn’t come around to fuck everything up.

November 1

Waning Gibbous

O
n my way home from the hospital, I made Baba take me by an apothecary.

“I just need to get a couple of things the nurses suggested for the wound care,” I said. “Just be a minute.”

She simply nodded and turned up the Tom Jones cassette tape. Before I exited, I made sure no one I knew was suddenly going to spring out of nowhere and see me exiting the hoopty car. Or at least that’s what I told myself. Actually, I was more worried about anyone seeing what I’d really come to buy.

The bell over the door dinged cheerfully. Unlike the apothecary under LM and Mary’s place, this was a more upscale suburban outfit. It catered mostly to Mundane clientele who had extra scratch to spend on expensive wrinkle potions and youth serums.

As I walked through the aisles, looking for my prize, I threw
some arnica cream in my basket to help with the bruises all over my body. According to Baba, I looked like I’d been beaten like a redheaded stepchild, which wasn’t too far from the truth.

Passing a display of ice packs, I threw in a couple of those, too. As well as some Epsom salts scented with lavender. On impulse, I also grabbed a myrrh-and-sweet-almond-oil mix to rub into my scrapes and cuts to promote healing and prevent scars.

Satisfied I had enough purchases to use for cover, I went to the back corner of the store, where a small toy section was set up to entice kids. It took me a couple of minutes to find what I wanted, but when I did, I stared at the box for a full minute, debating with myself.

I hadn’t seen Morales in the hospital. According to the call I’d received from Gardner that morning, he was to be released the next day. Mez was scheduled to pick him up and get him home. It would have been an easy thing to sweep by his room on my way out, but I didn’t. In the hours that passed after our rescue, and with the distance between us in the hospital, I worried about how things would play out moving forward. Would he use my secrets against me? I didn’t want to believe he would, but promises made under stress in the dark don’t always come to fruition in the harsh light of day.

Shaking off the sense of dread, I decided not to worry about what would come. I couldn’t control what Morales did with all the dirt he had on me. I looked at the box again. But I could make things right with Danny. I grabbed the box and marched toward the counter.

Since Baba’s arthritis had been acting up, she didn’t offer to walk me to the door. “Sorry, doll. Until I can afford more Maslin’s, I’m not feeling too spry.”

“I thought you already bought more?” I frowned.

She looked away. “I shared it with Pen.”

I sucked in a breath that didn’t do much to alleviate the sudden heaviness in my chest. Looking down at my hands, I asked, “How is she?”

Baba made a wishy-washy movement with her head. “She’s going back to work tomorrow. Her wounds are healing, but she’s… subdued.”

Instead of commenting, I made myself busy finding my wallet. “How much for the Maslin’s?”

She made an argumentative sound. “I can’t ask you for that.”

“You’re not asking. I’m offering. You do so much for us, let me help you for a change.”

The old woman sucked her teeth for a moment. “A small bottle is eighty.”

My eyes popped wide. “For a small bottle?”

She shrugged apologetically. “It’s clean magic.”

I pressed my lips together and pulled out my checkbook instead. I scribbled a quick check out to her for an even hundred. I figured the MEA owed me some hazard pay, so why not?

Baba took the check and quickly shoved it into her housecoat. “Thanks, Kate.” She wouldn’t quite meet my gaze.

“You’ll tell me if you need anything else, right?”

“Oh sure,” she said, nodding unconvincingly. “Wouldn’t need this, but my Social Security check isn’t due for another week.”

I patted her hand. “It’s no problem. Thanks for the ride.”

Before I shut the car door, she called out. I leaned back inside. Baba’s face was grave. “She won’t make the first move.”

I tipped my chin abruptly and slammed the car door shut before she could elaborate. I’d call Pen eventually and set things right, but for now I needed to put one foot in front of the other.

By the time I limped inside with my apothecary bags, I was exhausted. Danny was sitting at the kitchen table. A book was open in front of him, and he had a pencil jutting from his mouth like a cigarette. He looked up when I stepped in the door with a bag in my left hand, but his eyes immediately returned to his work.

“Hey, kid,” I said. Baba and I had agreed he shouldn’t come to the hospital, but she promised she’d filled him in on the bare basics so he wouldn’t worry.

He made a noncommittal noise. His eyes narrowed on my bandages and bruises. “You okay?”

Judging from his tone, he was worried but didn’t like it. We still hadn’t had a real conversation since our argument.

“Yep. Just little sore.” I placed the bags on the table. “I’ll be good as new in a couple of days.”

He nodded and looked down at his homework again. His movements were tense, as if he was bracing himself for another argument.

“What ya working on?”

“Math.” He didn’t look up.

I placed my hands on the back of the chair in front of me and leaned into it. “Let me ask you something.”

He sighed and looked up. “What?”

“Now that you’re in DUDE are you totally antimagic?”

He rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous, Kate,” he snapped. “DUDE is about spreading awareness of dirty magic. Clean magic is fine.”

“Relax, I’m not trying to start an argument here. I’m just curious.” I pulled the seat out and joined him at the table. I took my time getting settled, allowing my thoughts to solidify.

“You know, I never learned how to cook clean magic.” I fidgeted with a pencil. “Uncle Abe always said clean magic was
too expensive and time consuming to learn.” I looked up. “He didn’t explain that it’s also generally safer and more stable. That sometimes it can help people.”

Danny’s posture opened a little, and I knew I had him. “That’s sad, Katie.”

“I agree,” I said. “But when you asked me to teach you magic, I thought you wanted to learn the kind of magic I knew. The dirty kind.”

His voice rose. “I tried to tell you that’s not—”

I held up a hand. “I know, Danny. I get that now. But the thing is, I couldn’t have taught you clean magic.”

He nodded impatiently. “I know, I know. You hate magic in all its forms.” He mimicked my voice in a not-so-flattering tone.

“That’s not what I meant.” I tilted my head and looked him in the eye. “Because I don’t know how to cook clean.”

His eyes lit up like he finally got it. “Oh. I never thought—”

I patted his arm. “Don’t worry about.” I reached down to the bag on my lap and placed it on the table in front of him.

“What’s this?” He looked at it with a wary smile.

“Open it.” Suddenly nervous, I chewed on my bottom lip.

The brown paper crinkled open. He gazed down into the bag with a frown. He reached in slowly, almost as if he expected it to be a trick. But then he lifted the box and stared down at it for a long time.

The picture on the cover depicted a kid in a wizard outfit, complete with pointy hat and magic wand. The Little Wizard Cooking Kit was most Adepts’ introduction to basic magic.

“I’m sorry it’s for kids, but it’s all they—”

He looked up, blinking rapidly. “Are you serious?”

I licked my lips and nodded. “I know I promised I’d teach you, but I figured maybe we’d learn together instead.”

He simply stared at me like he’d never met me before.

“When I was a kid,” I said to fill the silence, “I watched the commercials for that kit with envy roiling in my gut like a green snake. Every year I asked Mom for it for Christmas, and every year I got a stupid doll in a pink dress.”

A sad smile spread across my brother’s not-quite-a-man face. “Why didn’t you buy it when you were older?”

I shook my head, my eyes glued to the image of the happy Adept children dancing across the box. “By the time I was old enough to buy one for myself, I was so jaded about magic. I thought dirty potions were superior because they required a craftier mind.” I laughed bitterly. “Anyway… what do you think?”

“I think it’s pretty cool.” He smiled at me with a smile I’d used on him more times than I could count. It wasn’t patronizing exactly, but maybe… sympathetic and encouraging. Either way, I’d take it.

“Obviously we’ll zoom through the stuff in here pretty quick. That’s why I was thinking about talking to Mez about giving us some lessons.”

“Seriously?” His mouth dropped open. “Mez?”

“Do you think you’d like that?”

“Are you kidding? He’s a total magical badass.”

I smiled. “Yeah, he is.”

He quieted for a moment and then looked me in the eyes. “You’re pretty badass, too, Kate.”

I smiled. “Ditto, kid.”

I toyed with the box on the table for a moment. I was screwing up my courage, but Danny didn’t seem to notice because he was too busy looking at his present. Clearing my throat, I said, “There’s something else.”

He looked up. The smile on his face froze. “Uh-oh.”

I sighed and leaned forward. “You know how I was at the old brewery the night Volos came up with the antipotion and Bane tried to kill both of us?”

A shadow passed behind his eyes. I didn’t want to reopen these old wounds, but sometimes you had to rebreak an injury for it to heal correctly. “The truth is, Danny, I helped John cook the antipotion.”

He fell back in his seat. “What?”

I chewed on my bottom lip. “John did most of the work. When I went to meet him it was almost there, but he was missing an important ingredient. I helped him by reading Gray Wolf to understand the hidden ingredients in the potion. What I saw revealed the missing ingredient.”

Danny’s mouth fell open, but I wasn’t done.

“The thing is, before John could finish it, Bane busted in and shot Volos full of Gray Wolf. He was… incapacitated,” I said in the understatement of the year. The real truth was that the potion had turned John into a slavering beast that tried to kill me. “So I had to complete the antipotion on my own to save him—and you.”

“Wait,” Danny said, his eyes wide, “you cooked?”

I nodded.

“But, I don’t understand. Why did you lie about it?” His voice rose. “Why did you let me believe it was John who saved me?”

“It’s complicated,” I began. He made a disgusted sound, as if he expected me to brush him off. “Let me finish.”

He relaxed a fraction, nodding.

“I’d spent weeks telling you I didn’t want you to cook. And I’ve spent years preaching the dangers of magic. I was worried that if I admitted I’d worked with magic, you’d think I was a hypocrite.”

“You’re an idiot.”

I pulled back. “What?”

“Jeez, Katie. You’re a freakin’ hero!”

I bit my lip, ready to deny it. But he wasn’t done.

“I was angry because I thought you’d done nothing to try to save me thanks to your high and mighty principles. I thought—I thought you cared more about proving you could resist your desire to do magic than you cared about saving me.”

“Now you’re the idiot,” I said. “You’re the most important person in my life, kid. Can’t you see that? I love you and stuff.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “Ah, man. Don’t get all mushy on me.”

I laughed. “Smart-ass.”

My little brother looked at me with bright eyes. “I love you, too, Katie.”

We both sat there for a long moment with goofy grins on our face. Finally, I said, “All right. What do ya say we bust out some ice cream and learn about clean magic?”

“Shit yeah!”

I was so happy I didn’t even make him pay back the curse jar.