Darkbound (The Legacy of Moonset) (23 page)

“I’m not lying,” the man lied. Without the Prince’s influence over me, I couldn’t hear the lies in the way I had before. But he was just so obvious about it, now that he wasn’t hiding behind his mask of mundanity.

“But see, there’s the problem,” I replied with mock severity. “You want to be punished, so the only way to really punish you is to not do anything at all. To leave you here.” I turned towards the Prince and nodded at the door. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Wait!” The man scrambled to his feet, his desperation so great that his fingers clawed into the wood flooring underneath. “Please! You have to. Or—or I’ll tell everyone. I’ll tell the Congress exactly what I did!”

I smiled. “And they’ll never believe a word of it. Remember? You’re an invalid. That’s the way you wanted it. To be overlooked and forgotten.” It was seriously creepy, trying to talk to someone who was clearly so far gone on their Moonset propaganda that they’d do anything to fulfill their directions.

The Prince looked between us like we were the most fascinating game of tennis he had ever seen. His head constantly flicked from the left to the right as he followed the verbal volley.

Matthew stared up at me, and I could tell he was weighing his options. Was I right? Would the Congress completely ignore him? Or would they throw the book at him just to have a scapegoat.

“Just tell the truth,” I said quietly. “And then you’ll get everything that Bridger promised you.”

The stillness in the curio shop was interrupted by a heaving breath, a whimper of nerves. “I didn’t summon your sister,” he admitted. “I was barely friends with them. Once Cy found his Coven, he didn’t have time for anything or anyone else. They went off to their secret clubhouse and never told anyone what they were up to. Sherrod didn’t come to me until later, until the day before it all started. He said there would be a sign, and I would know what to do. And then the Congress was destroyed, and the witches went to war.”

Went off to their secret clubhouse …
“Do you know where they went? The place they always disappeared to during high school, right? Do you know where it is?”

He shook his head and just before he opened his mouth, the Prince’s voice cut through the air with a terse, “Lies.”

“I’m not lying!”

“Do you really think I should leave him be, my human?” The Prince turned to me for answers, and I remembered the momentary thrill when that had happened before, when I’d been
eager
to gain his praise. It made my skin crawl now.

I didn’t want to help the Prince, but it was the only way I knew to save the others. And maybe, if I found out what happened to Kore, I could use that as a way to leverage the Prince into leaving
all
the children behind. Or else I would have to kill him too. “Tell me where they went.”

The man began blubbering. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t
know.
”

“Tell me where they went!”

“It was some kind of park!” he finally howled. “I don’t
know
where. All I knew was that it was isolated. They
made
it isolated. Cy always had this gold thing he would flip—a dollar coin or something. Whenever I asked, he’d always pull it out and start playing with it.”

No. Not a gold coin at all. A gold
token
. Just like the one on Charlie’s bathroom counter, the only thing that hadn’t fallen to the floor.

“I think I know where they put her,” I said, surprised at the revelation as much as anyone. I turned to the Prince. “Send me back. Let the witches deal with him. You said it yourself. He’s not the one you’re looking for.”

The Prince made a small pout of a face. “I was going to have fun with him.” A wave of
hopefulness
and
need
washed over me, but I tried hard to hold onto my thoughts. To keep myself under control.

Even still, I hesitated. “But … are you sure?”

The Prince stared at me with lantern eyes. They swallowed up my vision, made me smaller and more insignificant.

No, I had to look away. Had to break the connection, whatever it was that the Prince was doing to my head, making my thoughts not as sharp, stealing my mind and replacing it with complacency.

It took an eternity to turn my eyes down, but once I did, warmth spread into my chest. My heart was a gentle roar in my ears, and I realized I was breathing heavily, like there would never be enough air. I’d sweated through my shirt and swallowed down dust in my mouth.

“Let the Witchers deal with him. Matthew
wants
you to kill him. Don’t give him what he wants. He’s been standing in the way all this time. He could have told you where Kore was buried weeks ago, but he didn’t. He still wouldn’t have, if we hadn’t pressed him.”

“No, you have to!” Matthew scrambled to his feet, his face darkening from red into a purple rage. “It was promised!”

The Prince weighed his options for only a moment before he turned back to me. “I want answers, my Malcolm.” And then the creature screamed, and Matthew and I were ripped back out of the world and deposited back into an almost-empty hospital room.

Empty except for the handful of Witchers who weren’t expecting intruders. Nick and Kelly were both standing near the door, talking to guards from the hallway.

Something was different this time around. Maybe it was the Prince’s renewed fury, or maybe his irritation with me for wanting Matthew left unharmed. But the travel between spaces was rough on my body, a deep muscle ache flaring to life from my neck all the way down to my toes. My ears rung with the sound of his scream, and even my teeth ached.

“
Bad guy
,” I said urgently, right before I dropped to my knees. Nick was at my side in an instant, helping me back up to my feet. My head swam and my blood sped through my veins like whitewater rapids. The other three Witchers had surrounded Matthew Dugard, though they waited until a nod from Nick before they began hauling him up.

Nick held me steady when my legs kept dropping out from under me. “What the hell happened? The alarms go off, and we find Luca’s been sautéed, the room’s trashed, and there’s no sign of you.”

“Who else?” I said glumly. “The Prince showed up after Matthew put his hands on me. He …
wanted
the Prince to kill him. I think that’s the only reason why he’s still alive. The Prince barely does what I ask, but he definitely won’t want to do something if he’s been manipulated into it.”

“Sounds like you know the Abyssal pretty well.” There was a dangerous tone in Nick’s voice. One that made me stop and look at him, stoic faced and all.

“I’m not on his side or anything,” I pointed out, irritated that I even
had
to do that. “But he won’t take the curse off of Justin if I don’t get him the answers he’s after.”

“But it’s still helping one of them, Mal. Just because you’re doing it for the right reasons doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t mean you can trust it.”

“I don’t trust him. Do you think I’m some kind of idiot?”

Nick spent a long time staring at me. “I think you’re the only one who calls it ‘him.’ There’s a reason we call it the Abyssal. Because when you think of it like a prince, you forget that he’s a monster.”

I took a step back, eyes wide. “I don’t … I’m not … ”

“We have to get him out of here, Mal.” Nick gave me an apologetic look and took charge of the other Witchers. They surrounded Matthew and pulled him to his feet. Once he was up, they started to escort him from the room, one of them reciting a steady stream of spells that had the same kind of cadence as the Miranda rights.

Kelly stayed by the door when the rest of them left. I walked up to her, my head a messy jumble of thoughts. Maybe I was giving the Prince—no, the Abyssal—too much influence in my head. Maybe that was why he found it so easy to manipulate me.

“Is there any word on Luca? Did the fire get put out in time?”

Kelly had her fist over her mouth, touching her thumb to her upper lip in a steady rhythm. It took her a second to recognize that someone was talking to her, and another moment to turn my way. “Oh, hey, what?”

“Luca,” I repeated. “Any news?”

Her worried expression intensified. “Too early to tell. The fire definitely did some damage, but we won’t know more until later. You put it out, right?” I nodded. “You did good. There were some resistance spells cast into the bed. It must have been pretty hard to make it go out, huh?” I didn’t say anything and she continued. “They’re afraid to try any healing spells on Luca, in case there’s more on him. They could end up doing more damage than the fire. And by the time the spells would fade, any help the healing spells can do will be almost nonexistent.”

“So even if he wakes up, his legs are … ” But I couldn’t finish the thought.

Kelly exhaled, low and slow. “Pretty much.”

I nodded. “Can you find Illana? Tell her I’m gonna be … do—”

“Mal!” Kelly was at my side in a moment, catching my weight and helping me brace against the wall. I tried to right myself, to make my feet do what they were supposed to, but there was a delay somewhere in my body.

She helped me into a chair, and I collapsed gratefully into it. Whatever energy surge had hit me after tapping into the darkbond magic, there was a time limit on it, obviously.

“Just … stay here. I’ll get Illana.”

She left me in the room, and all I could smell was the faint smell of burnt cotton and flesh. Cole’s words came back to me there at the end. “
This is the best alternative. There has to be a fire.
”

I chewed on my thumbnail while I waited for Illana, worrying.

t
w
e
n
t
y
-n
i
n
e

It’s a thing that Covens do. Go off by themselves. So no one ever wondered where Moonset disappeared to every day, not until after.
There are those who still wonder.

Simon Meers
Case Report on
The Moonset Legacy

“And he said you’re all to be tested?”

Illana found an empty doctor’s office for us to use, and we sat on either end of a rather large leather couch. Despite the fact that we were two floors away, I still kept catching traces of smoke and char in the air. It was hard to tell if it was actually there, or just the memory of the scent burned into my head.

She was in the elevator when Kelly and I approached, silent and severe. Today she wore a dark-green business suit. I got in, Kelly stayed behind, and Illana took me upstairs in order to debrief me.

I lowered my hands very carefully into my lap and studied the fingers. “I never believed in destiny, you know. I mean, I knew I was going to be tied to the others for the rest of my life, but I never believed it
meant
anything.”

“Fate is just a guide, a choice, like any other.” Illana smiled at me, a little soft and a little tired. “I think out of all of them, you might understand the best. Headstrong, like me. But you know when to run and when to stand tall.”

I nodded. The cuff of my jeans was faded and torn at the bottom. I dragged my fingers along it, tugged at the loose threads. “I know you think Moonset had a grand design for us. And I know there’s magic in my head that would agree with you. But these tests. These games, or whatever they’re supposed to be. I don’t think that was Moonset at all.”

“What makes you say that?”

It was hard to put it into words. The spells in my head were ephemeral things—only real for a moment, and then vaporized as if they’d never existed. “The curse protects us. It forces us to stay together. It forces us to
rely
on each other. But this magic they left us. The magic they left
me
, it doesn’t fit. If they wanted us weaponized, we would all have access to it. It would be hard-wired into all of us. But it doesn’t work like that. The spells burn out as soon as I use them.”

“You think it’s more self-defense,” Illana asked, her voice musing as she let the words roll over her lips and through her mind.

“Maybe. Or maybe they knew the kind of world we’d grow up in. That we’d know there were going to be times where we’d need something more to protect us. So rather than give us something easily abused, they gave us … this.”

She mused over that as she reached for the coffee table and that damned teacup she dragged everywhere with her. There’d been no offer of drinks for me.

“It doesn’t work, just so you know.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“The teacup,” I explained. “You bring it out when you want people to think you’re not as intimidating as you really are. You want to remind them you’re just a little old lady who drinks tea. It doesn’t work.”

She touched one hand to her heart, smiled, and set the cup back on its saucer. “You think I’m intimidating? You’re a sweet boy.”

I exhaled at the same time that my stomach rebelled and growled so loudly it overtook Illana’s laugh.

“When’s the last time you ate, Malcolm?”

I shrugged.

“I want you to go home, eat, and let us handle the rest. Tell me what you figured out about the Abyssal, and we’ll take it from there.”

I’d
seen
the Witchers try to take out the Abyssal once before. I saw them fail. Spectacularly, but it was still a failure. “I don’t really know anything.” I forced myself to stop playing with the fringe on my jeans and to just look at her. She didn’t have any more power over me than anyone else, no matter what she might want me to think. “He admitted that he gave Luca the book, but he said his ties to Moonset didn’t really come until later. All he said was that Bridger, or whoever, wanted us here. That our … trials started here.”

“And what else?”

Was this how Justin felt when he held things back? Did he know that the next words out of his mouth could get someone killed? Maybe a lot of someones?
I stopped the Prince once, but the Witchers were outgunned in almost every way. If they came after him again, I wouldn’t be able to make him disappear the way I had last time.

“I’m not sure,” I said slowly. It was easier to pretend ignorance than I thought. “Did Quinn tell you about what Cole said?”

I’d thought the change of subject was somewhat slick, but Illana’s eyebrows said otherwise. “He mentioned there was an incident.”

“Cole kept talking about how it was important that there be a fire. That his fire would be the best alternative.” I let my words hang in the air, trailing off into worries I couldn’t let cross my lips.

“Are you saying you think he knew somehow? Do you think Cole is still under the influence of the Abyss.”

My response was immediate and vehement. “No! No, that’s not what I meant at all. But I think he
knew
something. He wasn’t weird like Justin was.” And then the worry clawed its way into my head and gave words to my fear. My voice dropped low. “I think he faked it.”

“And why would he do something like that?”

Because he knew something we didn’t. Because somehow, for some reason, Cole knew there was going to be a fire.
“Bailey freaked out, right? She committed herself because of Cole. And then the fire with Luca. I think Cole knew what was going to happen today. And I think he was trying to stop it in his own way.”

“You think he knew there was going to be a fire? That Luca would be assaulted?”

I shook my head. It didn’t add up.
Bailey
was the one who sensed things sometimes, who was too in tune with her senses that she sometimes knew things that she had no way of knowing. But Cole had never been like that. Had he? Would any of us have noticed if he was?

Justin would know what to do. He might not have trusted Illana with everything that I had, but he’d know what to do about Cole. He’d know how to keep Bailey’s spirits up.

“Excuse me, Illana,” Kelly ducked her head into the room. “I apologize for interrupting.”

“Don’t be. Come in.” Illana climbed to her feet, looking between us. “I doubt the two of you have cleared the air about what transpired between you.” She huffed out a breath, letting her sleeves swallow up her hands. “We’ve all been victims of a magical prank once or twice in our lives. And the boy is not exactly hard on the eyes.”

“Hey, I’m sitting right here!”

“It’s fine, Illana,” Kelly said kindly.

I shook my head, and offered a grin. “Like she said, it was a stupid prank. I’m just sorry if it got you in any trouble. Jenna doesn’t think before she acts sometimes.”

Illana looked between the pair of us with shrewd eyes. “Excellent. I want the pair of you to start working together. You have some things in common,” she mentioned. “Kelly is as close to a savant in ancient magic as anyone I’ve ever met.”

“Ancient magic?”

“Symbols, Malcolm. The written element of magic. All covens have a symbol: you’ve seen Moonset’s for yourself. There are many magics that lack a verbal correspondence. Things we can’t put into words. Sound familiar?”

The spells that were hidden into the darkbond. When I used them,
something
came out of my mouth, but it wasn’t in words. It was something else entirely. And when I flipped through all the spells, I’d seen dozens of symbols, more complicated and intense than anything I’d ever seen before.

I got up without another word and hurried behind the doctor’s desk. There was a stack of papers in one corner. I flipped them over and started to sketch out the whirlpool symbol I’d seen when the Prince summoned me.

“This is what he—” I stopped and cleared my throat. “This is what the Abyssal uses to summon me. It makes the world shift around me until I’m somewhere completely crazy. I think it uses the symbol to manipulate me.” I held the paper out to her, even though it was a crude drawing it was still as close as I could get. “It moves. Clockwise, like a whirlpool, it’s not static.”

Kelly took the paper and bit at her lower lip. “It’s definitely old. So it doesn’t take you anywhere, it just makes everything look different?”

I nodded. “I think he creates a world that he wants to live in, and forces me to see it too. But if there’s someone else there, the world changes. I think everyone sees something different.”

She brushed her fingers around the wake of the whirlpool, but never let them actually touch the ink itself. “You want to know how to stop seeing what it wants you to see?”

“Or how to break the spell once I’m inside it.”

Kelly hmmed. “It’s a filter. Instead of bending space and time to move you to somewhere else, the Abyssal bends reality, creating a world it can more comfortably inhabit. The more of a hold it has on our reality, the more powerful it becomes.” She tapped her finger against the edge of the paper and looked to Illana. “A clear heart spell might work, don’t you think?”

Illana’s response was surprising, to say the least. “Absolutely not! I will not put that kind of magic out into the hands of a child.” She glowered at Kelly as though she had very purposefully disobeyed her.

“How about someone explain what a clear heart spell is?” I offered, raising my hand a little bit. “If it’ll keep the Abyssal Prince from getting in my head, I’m all for it.”

Illana’s eyes flashed fire when Kelly opened her mouth, and the younger girl closed it just as quickly. Illana turned to me. “It’s a very dangerous kind of magic for those who haven’t prepared fully. It clears the heart of any stray emotions, making it an empty platform.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“If the spell lasts too long or is cast improperly,” Illana continued, “it remains empty. No one can manipulate them, but they stop feeling. Anything. As long as the spell remains, they won’t feel anything at all. The damage to the mind can be … incalculable.”

Kelly ducked her head down at the silent rebuke. “Illana’s right,” she said, her voice now less animated than it had been before. “Think about how behaviors have changed with the Abyssal’s influence. If you never felt anything at all, it would be just as bad. You’d lose your empathy, your morals, your judgment. It would put a lot of people in danger.”

“There
is
no discussion. Malcolm will have an appropriate guard at all times. We will not allow the Abyssal to come after you at his leisure. Not any longer.” Illana’s eyes honed in on me, cutting me down in an instant. “This is not your battle. Whatever the Moonset fanatic seemed to believe, we will not put you in harm’s way. Your trials, whatever they may be, are at an end.” She sank down into the doctor’s chair behind the desk and let her hands brush against her forehead. I couldn’t tell if she was exhausted or sick, but the sudden bit of frailty didn’t sit right across her shoulders. “Take him home, Kelly. Make sure the boy eats.”

My stomach, traitor that it was, rumbled its approval.

There were two women sitting in a parked car out front, and a convenient number of black-clad, athame-armed dog walkers on the sidewalks of my neighborhood. I took a minute to get my bearings while Kelly went inside. Despite the fact that it only
felt
like I’d gotten up a few hours ago, an entire day had passed, and somehow my body knew it. The fatigue had continued to grow the further we got from the hospital until I was yawning almost constantly.

Jenna was on the couch by herself, leaning against an arm tucked under her hair, and fast asleep. Nick, Quinn, and Kelly were huddled around the table, talking in low tones.

“I know it’s a conundrum,” I said, slipping off my jacket. “Three guards for two kids. That kind of math always gives me a headache. Tell you what. Double up on Jenna. She’s the troublemaker.”

“Bite me, Zoolander,” Jenna said without opening her eyes.

“Aren’t you the one with a demon boyfriend?” Quinn looked skeptically towards me. Jenna smirked and settled back in on the couch.

I scowled and walked up the stairs to my room. It hadn’t surprised me that everyone was waiting for me. Ever since Justin had been hospitalized, their house had stopped being base camp. And now that Jenna and I were the only two left, of course they would all migrate here. They knew how much I hated having to share my space with too many people.

But if Jenna thought she was crashing in my room, she had another thing coming.

I managed to get a shower and scrub the smell of smoke and hospital off of me without interruption. I was tense, though, expecting someone to start banging on the door at any second. But I got out and into a fresh pair of sweats and a tee shirt before Jenna appeared, walking right in like she knew I was decent.

“They know you’re holding back,” was all she said as she curled up on a corner of my bed.

“No,” I said firmly. I wasn’t giving up, or worse,
sharing
my bed with her. It didn’t matter that she was my sister in all the ways that mattered. I was not dealing with a night full of elbows and cover hogging.

“Relax, I’m not here to ruin your beauty sleep.” She craned her head back towards the door and whispered, “
Audos fet.
”

On a list of a thousand things I wanted to deal with, Jenna using magic in my room was pretty close to the bottom. “What was that?” I asked tiredly.

“They’re down there eavesdropping. You know they are.” Jenna patted the other side of the bed, like all I was waiting on was an invitation. However long she’d been pretending to sleep downstairs, there wasn’t a trace of it on her now. “So are you going to tell me what’s happening or not?”

It wasn’t just Jenna asking me to catch her up; it was deeper than that. It was a question about whether or not I trusted her. For years we’d had our ups and downs, but she would still be there five years from now, and ten after that, assuming we lived that long. Without Jenna, my life might have been easier. Simpler. But it was also Jenna that helped me stop the Abyssal Prince before he killed the Witchers. Without her, there wouldn’t be any sort of resistance at all.