by B N Miles
“It’s fine,” Jared said. “We can deal with it later.”
He walked around the car and got inside. Jessalene got into the passenger side, and Lumi and Izzy piled into the back, sandwiching Wade between them.
“Our bags are inside,” Lumi said, sounding almost sad.
“We’ll get new stuff,” Jared said. He started the car and pulled out.
Several cops gave him odd looks, but none of them tried to stop him as he rolled down the driveway and turned out onto the main road. The red and blue lights reflected off the pavement as he drove away from the shattered and destroyed motel, leaving Taavi’s body behind.
27
They drove in silence for a while. Jared stared straight ahead as the rain finally began to let up and the moon shone brighter. He kept thinking about Cassie, about his uncle, about his sister, about how far his family would go to get their hands on those batteries.
He knew they’d do anything, cross any line, if it meant saving the Bechtel family from the curse of their own madness.
After a half hour, he pulled over into the parking lot of a quiet little diner two towns over. Wade, Lumi, and Jessalene got out while Izzy sat in the passenger side and leaned toward Jared.
“Let me see it,” she said.
He held out his arm. She bit her lip and ran her fingers along the burns. “Pretty ugly,” she said.
“You should see the other guy,” Jared said.
She didn’t smile. “How do you know that woman was your sister?” she asked.
He let out a breath. “Because the man that did this to my arm was my uncle,” Jared said. “I think they’ve been following us from the start.”
“Why?” she asked.
“They’re working for the Medlar,” Jared said.
“And why would they want Cassie?” She shook her head. “I don’t understand what’s going on here, and I’m starting to think you just sucked me into something that is way over my head.”
He sighed and leaned his head back against the headrest. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But I think you’re right.”
“Tell me everything,” she said. “Start at the beginning.” She touched his burned arm and her hands flared to life.
So he filled her in the best he could. He started back with Jessalene’s clan, with the Medlar buying up land, and ended with the revelation that the Medlar wanted Cassie for some unknown purpose.
He finished the story, and a moment later, Izzy finished healing his arm. The burns looked rough and the skin was scarred, but the wounds were healed and the pain was gone. He let out a breath as relief flooded him. Although the Need still nagged at his skull, at least it wasn’t working in tandem with the pain in his arm.
“So you’re telling me that the most powerful Magi family in the world wanted to kidnap Cassie for some experiment,” she said. “And they just pulled it off?”
“Something like that,” Jared said. “There’s a connection between the land they’ve been buying up, the batteries they’ve been collecting, and whatever they want Cassie for.”
“I still don’t see why your family would be involved,” Izzy said. “I thought the minor houses hated the nine?”
“They do,” Jared said. “But my uncle believes they’ll be rewarded with some of those batteries at the end of all this. He thinks the batteries are the key to making my family strong again.”
“I see.” Izzy sat back and ran her fingers through her damp hair. “I wish Nikki would have told me all this before throwing all that money at me.”
“I suspect she didn’t tell you on purpose,” Jared said. “And I should have filled you in sooner. I’m really sorry about that.”
She shook her head. She looked up at him, and her golden-brown eyes seemed to flash in the evening light.
“When I was a little kid, I was a part of a family,” she said. “Are you familiar with the Adler family?”
Jared frowned a little. “Sure,” he said. “But weren’t they—” He stopped himself before he finished the sentence.
“Punished by the nine,” Izzy said, her voice dripping with scorn. “I was twelve when it happened. I don’t even know the details, but from what I’ve pieced together over the years, apparently my father was dealing in some serious black-market magic. Body modifications on civilians, that sort of thing.”
Jared grunted a bit and ran a hand along his newly healed arm, feeling the scar tissue beneath his fingers.
“That’s pretty intense stuff,” he said. “Breaking the Accords, but also sidestepping some pretty serious taboos.”
She jerked her head to the side, tossing her hair, her face hard. “There’s no doubt in my mind he was guilty,” she said. “And there’s no doubt in my mind that he got what he deserved. I’ve seen what body modding can do to a person, and it’s even worse when that person has no magic of their own. Doing that sort of magic on a civilian, it’s unthinkable.”
Jared glanced out the window toward where Lumi stood with Jessalene, their bodies huddled close together. Wade sat on the curb nearby, his arms crossed, his body folded over like he was hugging himself.
“Even Lumi fucked it up,” Jared said. “And she’s one of the best I’ve ever seen.”
“There were mistakes,” Izzy said. “And when the nine found out about it, they came down on my house hard. They took my father and made an example of him, tortured him I think, forced him to suffer the Need and blocked him from using magic to satisfy himself.”
Jared took a breath and looked back at her. He knew Lumi’s family had done something similar to her, which was the thing that had driven her away. He couldn’t imagine what Izzy must be feeling.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “That’s… horrible.”
“Like I said, he deserved it,” she said. “But they also punished the rest of my family. They burned our compound, stole our artifacts, froze our bank accounts. They threw us out on the street and told us to just rebuild. They left us to fend for ourselves, a minor Magi family with nothing.
“We were like meat thrown in a lion’s den. All the other minor families descended on us, picked at our bones, took whatever was left. By the time things settled down and I really began to understand what had happened, we were left with nothing.
“My mother wasted away in this little one-bedroom apartment while my aunts and uncles spread out across the country, trying to eke out livings wherever they could. We were destroyed, and all because the nine thought they could do whatever they wanted, punish us however they wanted.”
Jared could taste the vitriol in her words. He shifted toward her, wanted to reach out and touch her shoulder, but he held back. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes then opened them again.
“When I got old enough,” she continued, “I changed my name. I became an Independent. I learned how to heal, because that felt like the opposite of what my father had done. I thought maybe if I could figure out how to fix his mistakes, maybe I could redeem us. But now I realize I was just a stupid little girl. The nine don’t care about anything but their own power.”
“You’re right about that,” Jared said, his voice soft. “But you did redeem yourself, didn’t you? I mean, look at what you can do now.”
She gave him an angry little smile. “It doesn’t matter. None of it does. The nine still rules and my family’s still in ruins.”
Jared watched her carefully. He’d heard that story growing up, or at least some version of it, and was vaguely aware that the Alder family had gotten a severe punishment for some sort of horrible crime, but he had no clue how far it had gone. He didn’t know they were more or less destroyed and cast out of society.
That was the problem with the Magi families. They lived in their own little worlds, and only intermingled when forced to, or when there was some benefit.
“I hate the Medlar,” Izzy said. “I hate all of the nine, and I’ll do anything I can to see them burn for what they did to my family.”
“I can’t ask more from you,”
Jared said. “You’ve done too much already.”
“I want to help,” she said. “They can’t just kidnap someone like that. They can’t just… get away with it, not again.”
Jared watched her for a few beats then reached out. He touched her leg and she turned to him, her eyes softening a bit, the line of her jaw relaxing.
“If you want to help, I’d be happy to have you,” Jared said. “But from here on out, things will be dangerous. I can’t expect you to put your life on the line.”
“I’ve been hiding from danger my whole life,” Izzy said. “Maybe it’s time to do something more.”
Jared pulled his hand back. He looked back out the window at Jessa and Lumi. They were quiet for another few seconds.
“Is she going to be okay?” Jared asked.
“Lumi will be fine,” Izzy said. “She should never do another body mod again, but she’ll be okay. I healed most of the damage, and I’ll fix the minor stuff tomorrow.”
He looked back at her. “Thank you,” he said. “For helping her.”
“Yeah, sure.” Izzy smiled at him, her eyes hard, her lips tight and vicious. “So what’s the plan now? We’re going after Cassie, right?”
“Damn right we are,” Jared said. “But first, we should eat. I think we have a long trip ahead of us.”
Izzy nodded her head and seemed to gather herself as she climbed out of the car. Jared followed her and walked over to Jessalene and Lumi.
The Medlar had taken Cassie from them. But he knew that Jessalene and Lumi would do anything to get her back. And he had a feeling Nikki might burn down the whole world to help.
And now they had Izzy as well. The healer crouched down near Wade and spoke softly to him, her hands on his shoulders. Jared wasn’t sure if she understood how bad things would get, but he could see the anger in her, taste the rage beneath the surface, and he knew she wouldn’t stop until the Medlar paid for what they’d done to her and to Cassie.
It was a long shot, but Jared couldn’t let himself stop.
28
Jared sat crammed into a booth with one shoulder against the wall and the other inches from Jessalene.
The place smelled like grease and old vinyl flooring. The walls were painted a strange soft teal color and were marred by black marks and dust from years of neglect. The counters were wiped clean, and the metal stools and table legs gleamed in the fluorescent overheads, but the acrylic table covers were peeling back, the fake leather seats were torn and patched, and the silverware looked like it was scratched down to the core.
He picked up his water in its cloudy plastic cup and sipped it. The ice tasted like garlic, but at least it was cold.
He clenched his jaw as the Need spiked, a fit of gibbering anger in the back of his skull, and his hand tensed until he lowered the glass back down.
In the center of the table, a large, white plate sat covered in strips of crispy bacon, piled high enough to feed an entire high school.
“Tell me again what happened,” Jared said, his voice low.
Izzy let out a breath. She reached out, took a strip of bacon, stared at it, and dropped it back down.
“We were getting dinner,” she said. “Your sister, I guess your sister, came out of nowhere. Told Cassie to go with her, and when Cassie refused, she started using magic. I tried to stop her, but your sister was a machine, she just… ripped my spells to pieces. Threw me to the ground, knocked Wade into the mud, and swept Cassie up in a cloud of hardened black smoke.”
Jared grunted and bobbed his head. That sounded exactly like his sister, especially the black smoke. It wasn’t necessary for her to color her hardened air, but she enjoyed doing it anyway for theatrical effect.
Back when they were kids, she’d fill his room up with the stuff, scaring him half to death and making him think he was going to choke. He would scream, thinking the house was on fire, until he realized it was just regular air made to look like smoke, just an illusion of light and magic.
She was a real joy sometimes.
Izzy sat across from Jared, and Wade was crammed between her and Lumi. Jessalene was pressed against Jared, her thigh warm and smooth against his leg. They were all tired, all dripping wet from being out in the rain, and he could almost see their spirits sag.
Cassie was the glue. Jared knew it, had always known it. He might have been the center of their little group, but Cassie was the gravity that kept them all together. Her relentless cheer and optimism, her big smiles and constant jokes, she was the thing that made it all seem worth it.
And now she was gone.
“We need to talk about what we do next,” Jared said.
“You can call the Marshals,” Jessalene said. “Wyatt might be able to help.”
“I’ll do that. But honestly, Jessa, I’m not sure what they can do.”
“The Medlar more or less run the MetaDept,” Lumi said. “My family’s been building their influence there for a long time.”
“This world seems pretty fucked up,” Wade said, his voice low, his eyes locked on the table like a petulant teen.
“Yeah, it is,” Jared said. “And unfortunately, it’s the world you’re stuck in. So if you don’t have anything worthwhile to add, you might as well shut up and eat some of this bacon.”
Wade flinched and didn’t look up, but Izzy gave Jared an angry glare. Jared took a breath to calm himself and slowly let it out.
He knew Wade wasn’t at fault here. He shouldn’t blame the kid, nor should he take his anger out on him. He’d have to apologize later, but for right now, he was just trying to get through the next few steps.
“We could go to your family’s home back in the city,” Lumi said. “Your sister might have taken Cassie there.”
“I don’t think so,” Jared said. “She knows we might look there. And besides, the whole Bechtel family is in that house. I’m not sure how many of them are sane enough to fight these days, but they have more firepower than we could ever hope to muster.”
Lumi grunted and poked at her paper napkin. “I’d try anyway.”
“That’ll be a last resort,” Jared said. “But think about it, there’s no reason for my sister to want Cassie, except to give her to your family.”
“True,” Lumi conceded.
“Do you have any clue where they would take her?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Our main base of operations in the city is pretty transparent. We don’t run experiments through there. And as far as I was told, Cassie was just another criminal that needed to be apprehended and sent to jail.”
“What about secret installations?” Jared asked. “Anything about the land purchases?”
She shook her head again. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You know if I knew something, I’d tell you. But I was just a weapon to them. They didn’t share information with me, they just pointed to a spot and told me to go blow shit up.”
“Yeah,” Jared said, drumming his fingers on the table. “What about Arizona?”
Lumi pulled at a strand of her hair, running her fingers down its length. “Arizona? I hear it’s very dry there.”
“Before my uncle came and murdered him, I got to speak with Taavi,” Jared said. “He told me there was an installation in Arizona, near the Sonora desert, and that was where they’d sent all the batteries they collected.”
She shook her head. “Could be. Doesn’t sound far-fetched. Great deserts can hold a power all to themselves, and I know my family’s been building on places of power for a long time.”
“That’s our only lead?” Izzy asked. “Arizona and some vague installation?”
“It’s in Scottsdale,” Jared said. “That’s all he was willing to tell me.”
Izzy groaned. “We can’t just run across the country on some vague tip. There’s got to be more. I mean, the Marshals can do more, right? We can tell them your sister kidnapped Cassie, and they can go after her, can’t they?”
“Probably,” Jared said. “But if the Medlar are pulling the stri
ngs, that investigation can drag on for a long, long time, and eventually go nowhere. Whatever they’re doing with Cassie, they’re going to do it soon.”
Jessalene pressed her shoulder against Jared and nudged the plate of bacon with her finger. She picked a piece up, put it in her mouth, and crunched down.
“I’d go anywhere for Cassie,” Jessalene said. “I don’t know about all of you, but I’m just saying.”
“I would too,” Jared said.
“Of course I would,” Lumi said.
Izzy just shrugged. “I’m in for the long haul, I guess.”
Wade stared down at the table and didn’t say a word.
“Then we can try it, at least,” Jessalene said. “Go to Arizona, find that installation. Maybe it turns out to be nothing, but maybe we can find something. He did say they were doing something serious out there.”
“I might be able to help,” Lumi said. “I might have clearances. I’m not totally sure how much the family’s released about me leaving. They’re not exactly happy about losing their strongest member.”
“All right then.” Jared reached out, took a slice of bacon, and held it up. “We’re going to Arizona. But before we do, you should all know how dangerous this is going to be.” He looked at each of them before putting the bacon in his mouth. He crunched down, tasted the salty meat, chewed, and swallowed.
“I think we’re all willing to accept that risk,” Jessalene said.
Jared looked at Wade. “And what about you?”
The kid hesitated then looked up, a hint of surprise in his eyes. “Do I have a choice?” he asked.
“Of course you do,” Jared said. “I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“So I can just… walk away?” he asked. “I mean, you’ll let me go?”
“You’re not a prisoner,” Jared said. “Cassie wanted to help you get back home, or at least help you get settled here in this world. I intend to make good on that promise. So if you want to stick around and help, you can. But if you just want to go, I won’t stop you.”