by Annie Bellet
This ride was a lot more fun. She sprang forward, gliding just over the ground in large, smooth bounds. I kept my grip on her fur and on the medallion, holding the tracking spell as best I could, but she seemed to know where to go. We soared through the woods, covering miles in a rush. I finally gave up on the spell and used that hand to grip my braid, keeping my head down as branches whipped by and threatened to tear off all my hair. Long hair can be a bitch.
After an eternity that wasn’t long enough, Wolf slowed and dropped into a crouch. As my ears adjusted to the sudden lack of movement and wind, I heard chanting coming from up ahead. I blinked tears from my eyes and peered into the darkness. There seemed to be more light in front of us than a full moon on a clear night could account for.
Wolf crept forward until she reached the edge of a giant clearing where the trees stopped abruptly and the land sloped downward. In the moonlight I saw a field at the bottom of the hill. Tiki torches were set in a loose ring, providing enough light to make out what was going on.
There were no triumphant friends or even a raging battle. As far as I could tell, my side had already pretty much lost whatever fight had happened.
Within the ring of light were two circles drawn with what I guessed was loose chalk. The smaller circle held a huge white tiger. Alek, I guessed. He was caught within a holding spell, I assumed, since he should have been able to just step out of the thing but instead was turning and growling as though he were caught in an iron cage.
The second, larger circle contained Bernie Barnes in a ridiculous black hooded robe with silver runes sewn onto it. He knelt over a reddish-brown dog. No, not a dog. A coyote. Ezee. Barnes was chanting in Sanskrit, the words much less relevant than the twisting shadow lines of power swirling like ghosts above him.
For a moment I didn’t see Harper or Levi. Maybe Max had been wrong. I scanned the ground inside the ring of torches, and two dark shapes on the edge caught my eye. A fox and a wolverine, red and fawn fur bright against the dark grass. I couldn’t tell from here if they were alive, but they definitely weren’t conscious.
Rage swelled in me, white hot, and with it came more of my magic. I fed my frustration into it, and gathered power in my hands.
“All right, Wolf,” I whispered to my companion, “the plan is we charge down there and wreck that motherfucker’s night.”
I couldn’t kill him, since we needed him to undo his spells, but I could make him hurt. Make him regret ever even thinking about using magic. I could show him what a real goddamn mage could do.
Wolf charged. We burst down the hill and into the ring of torches, and I brought my hands up, aiming balls of force right at Bernie’s hooded head.
I totally would have saved the night if the evil minion I hadn’t spotted had waited just another few seconds.
But he didn’t.
Instead he shot me in the back.
The shot was loud. The bullet ripped through me and the pain wiped my grip on my magic. That whole thing with the bullet in the hip? A flesh wound compared to the tearing pain that spiked through my chest. I think I stopped breathing.
I tumbled off Wolf’s back and stopped my fall with my face. My arms and legs didn’t seem to want to respond. I didn’t think a bullet could kill a sorceress, but this one felt like it was giving an A-plus effort.
The pain turned from lightning strikes to a deep, terrifying chill. I heard the chanting continue, and beside me Wolf growled. She might look scary as fuck, but she can’t actually do anything to a human. Or stop a bullet.
My eyes didn’t seem to want to open, either. The grass was wet and cool on my cheek. Maybe I’d just stay here. It smelled good. Clean. Nothing like blood or dying animals. I don’t like blood. It’s so sticky.
“I got her!” a man’s voice called out near me.
Wolf licked my back, her tongue molten hot, and I screamed. The pain faded back enough that I could think again, and when I moved my hands to get them underneath me and pry my face off the dirt, they sluggishly obeyed.
I raised my head, spitting out blood and dirt. My mouth was gritty but at least my eyes were working now and I seemed to be able to breathe again. A young man in a black robe stood about ten feet from me, pointing a gun and grinning.
I reached for my magic, and this time I didn’t try to really control the flow of it. I tore open the dams on my power and let it fill me to the brim. The pain gave up, turning off like a switch had been flipped. I knew somewhere in my subconscious that I was going to really regret this tomorrow, but I wanted to live until tomorrow.
I wrapped one hand around my talisman and struggled to my knees. I thrust my magic down into my left arm and used it to extend my fist, slapping the gun out of the evil minion’s hand. He yelled in surprise, but I didn’t stop there. I swung my arm back, using the same force to punch him in the face.
He went down and stayed down. Guess no one had ever told him not to bring a gun to a mage fight.
I laughed, though the sound came out as more of a hiccupping cough. The chanting grew quicker, more frantic. I twisted and looked at Bernie. The moonlight shone on the huge silver dagger in his hands as he raised it over Ezee’s body. He was twenty feet away from me at least. I tried to rise and my vision swam with red and black dots.
Tiger-Alek roared, drawing my gaze to him. He was closer. I remembered how quickly he could move. He just needed out of that circle.
That, I could do.
I let go of my talisman and slammed both fists into the ground, channeling the raging tide of my magic into the surface of the earth. I visualized it charging just under the roots of the grass like a tunneling Arrakis sandworm. The grass rippled and the earth buckled in a straight line from my hands to the circle trapping Alek.
When the ripple hit the circle, I yanked my fists up and threw them wide in a breaking motion.
The circle flew apart, dark shards of power shooting into the air and chalk exploding in a white cloud. Tiger-Alek sprang free and took two great leaping bounds before he crashed through the circle surrounding Bernie.
“Don’t kill him!” I yelled. My magical tide was receding. I was definitely hitting a limit. I pushed myself to my feet.
Tiger-Alek slammed into Bernie, knocking him to the side. Then he was just Alek again. He grabbed the chubby warlock by his robe and twisted his wrist in a crazy Bruce Lee kind of move until Bernie screamed and dropped the knife. Even stumbling forward and still fifteen feet away, I heard Bernie’s arm break.
“Is the spell broken?” Alek called to me.
I looked around. No more shadows flew around the broken circle, and though I could still sense Bernie’s weird, nauseating magic, it wasn’t strong anymore.
“I think so,” I said. “Harper? Levi?”
“Alive. I can hear them breathing.”
Super senses must be nice. I sagged with relief.
“Good. So, Bernie Barnes, we meet again.” I looked down at the whimpering man. He looked so pathetic that I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
“You don’t understand,” he whined. “You don’t know what you’ve done. I was so close.”
“I. Don’t. Fucking. Care,” I said. “Save the Bond villain explanation for whatever god greets you in hell. Unless, of course, you want to live.”
There was zero way he was going to live. Shifter justice isn’t very nice. But he didn’t need to know that yet.
“Yes,” he said, his bug-like blue eyes filled with desperation.
“All you have to do is undo your spells, the ones that suck power from my friends. Very simple.” I smiled at him.
From his reaction, it wasn’t a very pleasant smile.
“I, uh,” he stuttered, and then looked up at Alek and then back at me. “I can’t.”
“You worked the spell. How?”
“I found an old book. Bought it on eBay. Most of it was gibberish, but then some of the spells worked. But I couldn’t get enough power, not from people. They kept dying, you see. Then I discovered on
e of them.” He looked back up at Alek. “Werepeople. The book described using magical creatures as vessels.”
“Where is this book?” And what fucking idiot warlock had written down such dangerous spells? Rage trickled back through me, giving me a second wind, and I glared down at the shaking man.
“I burnt it. I didn’t want my disciples to steal it. Jimmy and Collin were always lifting things, trying to find ways to gain power like I did. Then they sold that damn fox for weed money. This is their fault!”
“Oh yeah, your problem was that you hired bad help. Sure.” I looked at Alek. His eyes were flame and ice in the flickering torchlight.
“He’s telling the truth,” Alek said softly.
“So you can’t undo your spells? You really don’t know how?”
“No, I’m telling you. The book didn’t tell me that. Why would I want to? Before now, I mean. Those two,” he said, motioning toward Harper and Levi, “they aren’t tapped. They are just unconscious. They’ll wake up. See? It’s only that one.”
“Not just him,” I said. “What about the fox? What about those wolves under your office?”
“I can’t do anything about it now. Don’t let that thing kill me. I won’t do it again. I’m sorry,” Bernie said, his voice rising into a high screech.
I sank to my knees and reached out for Ezee’s body beside me, sliding my hand into his soft brown fur. Shadow bonds wrapped around him in the same twisting pattern they did on Rose. I found his heartbeat, faint but there.
“This is the crossroads,” I whispered, looking up at Alek. “This is what you saw.”
He just stared down at me, not moving, his face giving nothing away. I knew somehow that he would let me decide. That if I said the word, he’d become the Justice once more and execute the sentence of death on Bernie Barnes.
That was one path, one road leading away from the junction I now metaphorically stood at. Down that path, Bernie died. Rose and Ezee also died. Slowly and horribly, or else they would have to be put down by friends. By me, or maybe Alek. I wasn’t going to ask Harper or Levi to do it.
On that path, they died.
There was another path.
“No, Bernie,” I said, the words falling like stones from my mouth. “You won’t do it again.” I summoned my magic, fighting the pounding exhaustion that threatened to stem the flow.
Then I plunged my hand, cloaked in raw power, into Bernie’s chest and ripped out his heart.
I didn’t let myself think about what I was doing. I just acted, shoving the bleeding hunk of muscle into my mouth and biting down hard. I didn’t know if I had to eat the whole thing or not. I hoped not. It was hot and tough, like trying to chew a raw steak. I ripped off the biggest piece I could and swallowed it without chewing more than once, half choking, and I fought to not immediately vomit it back up.
Shadowy power exploded in my chest as I swallowed and a flood of images and impressions overloaded my mind. Ugly, jock-type boys gathered around me, taunting me for my glasses, my weird name. Learning Sanskrit. Stabbing a shadowy knife into a screaming man’s chest. Cinnamon rolls. Shadow power welling inside me as young men sat at my feet, eager to learn. I think I passed out as Bernie’s life and mine collided.
Then the sensory overload stopped, and just like that I was awake. My head was clear and this strange new knowledge was there, as though I’d downloaded a new file to the desktop of my brain.
I reached for Ezee, the shadow bonds inside him clear as lines on a map to me now. I knew what they were for, how they leeched his life force and transmuted it into an energy I now knew how to use.
I was relieved that the very idea of this still nauseated the fuck out of me.
I unraveled the bonds. I didn’t need a book to understand how this magic worked. Now that I could touch it, control it, my sorceress abilities took over and bent it to my will. I snapped the bonds, unwinding the knot around his heart.
He came alive with a yelp and sprang up. Then he shifted, turning instantly from coyote back to a man.
“Jade,” he said, and then looked past me and ran for his twin’s inert form.
I didn’t take it personally. He could thank me later. All I wanted to do now was pass out and sleep for maybe a couple million years. The rush of new power was fading, leaving me hollow. The pain in my chest came back with an insistent throb and spots danced in my vision again. Not enough spots, though, to keep me from turning and seeing Bernie’s dead body lying in a black heap on the bloody grass. I felt nothing but a faint sadness for the man he could have been if he’d chosen another path.
I decided I could process later. It was definitely past time to be unconscious. On cue, Alek lifted me into his impossibly strong arms.
“Max,” I said. “He’s out there, at the highway. Someone should call him.”
“Shh,” he murmured. “I’ll handle it from here.”
He was warm, so warm. My skin felt rimed with ice in comparison. I nuzzled my head into his shoulder, pressing my bruised nose to his chest.
“You smell good,” I said.
And then, because the Universe can sometimes be a merciful bitch, I passed the fuck out.
It took me three days before I could do more than stumble to the bathroom and sip orange juice. I managed to pull up enough power at some point after I woke up the first day to free Rose from Bernie’s spell. Doing so knocked me out again right afterwards.
I don’t know what Alek said to the evil minion who’d shot me. I decided I wouldn’t ask. He’d shot me, after all. I also had no idea what happened to Bernie’s body, but I was willing to bet it would never be found. The boy in the coma woke up after I killed Bernie and fled town. Without the book and without Bernie to teach them, I figured he was probably harmless now.
Unfortunately, the spell that had bound Rose and Ezee didn’t put them to sleep. They’d both been awake and aware the entire time. Rose told us how she’d been approached by two young men who had said they were lost while hiking and how they’d lured her into one of Bernie’s magical traps. The boy in the coma had stolen her from Bernie and sold her to Ciaran after he and Bernie argued about how they weren’t learning useful magic yet.
While I was sleeping off my magical hangover and healing from a shot in the chest, Ezee had told Levi, Max, Rose, and Harper a pretty sensational account of my daring rescue. Harper and Levi were convinced I had a dire wolf familiar who could turn invisible at will now. I didn’t correct them.
He left out the part where I nommed down on a man’s heart. I was grateful for that. I still didn’t know how I felt about it.
When I mercy-killed the wolf in Bernie’s lair, I had felt so much pain and regret and revulsion for what I had to do. My heart had felt like it was going to crawl out of my chest, and I wanted to scrub my hands clean of blood like Lady Macbeth every time I thought about him. It had been merciful. The right thing to do. I still felt awful and sick about it. Bernie’s memories hadn’t even provided names for his victims. He hadn’t cared enough to learn them.
But when I thought about Bernie, about thrusting my power into his chest and the hot, chewy taste of his heart between my teeth, I felt nothing. Empty. And I knew I would make the same choice again if I had to. I could run the scene through my mind a hundred times and I knew I would always choose his death and my friend’s lives. Always.
After three days, I made Max drive me home in my car. Levi followed us and took him back to the B&B. I wanted to be alone. To process. The twins and Harper told me they understood, but I could see a million questions in their eyes. Questions I’d have to find answers for eventually if I was going to stick around.
My duffle bag was still sitting on the floor of my shop. Waiting for me to run. I picked it up and took it into my apartment. I dropped it on the coffee table and slumped onto my couch.
Stay? Or go?
Things weren’t different. Samir was still going to come for me. I wasn’t ready. I was more powerful than I had been a week ago, thanks to Bernie�
��s donation, but I was magically flabby. I couldn’t even put a fight half as good as the one I’d given him twenty years before. Not yet.
Someone tapped lightly on my door. I hadn’t heard footsteps, so I knew instantly who it was. One giant blond pain in the ass coming right up.
“It’s open,” I called out. I actually wanted to talk to Alek. He’d been in and out of the B&B over the weekend, but we’d never had a chance to be alone.
He closed the door behind him and smiled at me before detouring into my kitchen and setting down a bag on the counter. Garlic and soy sauce wafted over to me. It smelled like heaven.
“Is that Chinese I smell?” I asked, even though the bag that read Lee’s Magic Kitchen on the front was kind of a dead giveaway. “You are a god among men.”
“That’s a much nicer greeting than you gave me the first time we met,” he said. He came over and sat down on the couch beside me, close enough that his thigh touched mine. I didn’t move away.
“Yeah, well, you weren’t exactly nice either. I believe you called me a murderer.” I frowned as I said it. I hadn’t been one that day. I was definitely one now.
He studied me for a moment and then looked at my duffle bag. “Are you still leaving?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m tired of running. And as much as it really, really kills me to admit you were right… well… you were right.”
“What’s that? I’m sorry, I think I dozed off for a moment.” He was smirking again.
“My ex is still going to come for me,” I said, ignoring his teasing. “I’m not ready.”
He shrugged. “So get ready.”
“It’s not that simple. I’ll have to start using my magic. A lot. Training. I don’t even know where to begin. I should probably learn to use a gun, or how to fight, or maybe kung fu. I’m not cut out for this, and I probably don’t have enough time before he shows up. He could be here tomorrow. Or in a year. I don’t know. It’s not simple,” I repeated.