"He's been staying awake using his imbuement?" asked Portia.
Priyanka nodded. "If you keep a low level of faez running through it, the extra inputs will keep you awake."
"What happens if you do it for too long?" asked Portia.
Priyanka gave him a good, hard look. "You die. So stop messing with things you don't understand." She sighed, shaking her head. "It appears you're already stretched thin, so I will allow a fifth member, and I have a guess who you're hoping to have."
"Keelan would fit perfectly into the group," said Zayn.
"He's a team lead. How will that look to the others?" asked Priyanka.
"With Jacob dropping out of the Academy, there are enough four person teams to fill everyone back up to five. And someone has to get Keelan. It might as well be us," said Zayn, giving her a smug grin.
"Fine," said Priyanka, shaking her head. "But only because you're going to keep annoying me about it until I do it."
Vin coughed exaggeratedly into his fist. "I wouldn't have said that."
She raised an eyebrow in Vin's direction.
"You wouldn't have?" she asked.
"You just encouraged him to not listen to you in the future. Trust us, he won't give up as it is," said Vin.
Before she left, Priyanka let a slow smile build on her lips. "Good. I wouldn't have it any other way."
Chapter Eleven
Sixth Ward, November 2014
Family...
"I don't know why you screwed up my team for your quest," said Keelan as cars drove past them on the sidewalk, spraying muddy water in an arc.
Zayn ignored the slushy solution of ice, mud, and water splashing across his jeans. Since they were in the city as Academy students, they could protect themselves from the elements with simple enchantments. This allowed him to notice the way his cousin's forehead knotted. The veins on the side of his head were like snakes rippling through the skin.
"It's your problem too," said Zayn as he shoved his hands deeper into his coat pockets.
"Your team doesn't like me," said Keelan.
"How can you tell? You've only been on it for two whole days!" said Zayn, looking up at the sky as if an answer might be written there.
"It's just..."
Keelan couldn't met his gaze. Across the street, a group of pre-teens stumbled out of an arcade, laughing and drinking enchanted slushies that turned their voices squeaky like mice. It was a nicer section of town, where parents let their kids wander the streets without supervision. They'd passed numerous high-rise apartments with uniformed doormen.
"I thought you'd want to be on my team," said Zayn. "That was the plan last year. What changed?"
Keelan walked with his hand on the back of his neck. "Last year, I wanted that badly, for us to be together. But I spent last year and part of this year working on my team, making them and myself better, and now that's all gone."
Zayn found it hard to take a full breath. "I'm sorry. I didn't think about that. But I do need you, and so does Priyanka."
"So now you're on first-name basis with our patron?" asked Keelan.
Zayn didn't answer right away. He didn't know how. He heard that jealousy in his cousin's voice, the same one that came up whenever something unintentionally made the differences in their families obvious.
"It's probably going to get me killed," said Zayn. "Halfdan warned me that working directly for her wasn't always the best choice for long-term survivability."
"I'm supposed to thank you for putting me in your team?" asked Keelan.
"We're going to need allies when it comes to Varna, to help us figure out what to do about the Lady and whatever happened to your dad," said Zayn.
Keelan conjured a ball of flame in his hand, then crushed it against his palm. "What if I don't want to know what happened with my dad? What if the past is best left buried? Working for the Lady might not be my first choice, but it's better than the alternative."
"Keelan..."
"What?" His cousin turned on him.
"You wanted to know what happened to him at one time," said Zayn.
"I do and I don't," said Keelan, scrunching up his face in anger. A woman walking past went wide around them as if they were contagious. "Some days I think he's alive somewhere, like he figured out that mythical shortcut to fame and fortune he was always looking for, but the bastard couldn't take us. Other days, I know he's dead, bones rotting at the bottom of whatever pit the Lady keeps below her plantation. But most days I just don't care, and want to move on."
"I'm sorry, Keelan. I really am."
Keelan rubbed his face with his hands, shaking off his anger. "I thought this was about Varna anyway? Not my father. We went looking for a book."
"Yeah," said Zayn, stopping and facing his cousin. "That's what I thought too. Maybe. You see, I found that book, and I think I know who has it. It's called The Ecological Webs of Arachnids: How They Bind Their Communities. Someone wrote it back in the '40s."
"Sounds like a snoozer," said Keelan. "What does it have to do with my dad?"
"You know how he knew everything about anything to do with animals and he was always going on about ecology. He taught you everything you know about the purpura domina aranea," said Zayn.
The ubiquitous purple spiders were generally called the Lady's Spiders by everyone in Varna, but Zayn used the formal name to prove a point with his cousin.
"So?"
"Try and find anything about them on the internet or in a book anywhere. Outside of Varna, they don't exist. Trust me, I tried," said Zayn.
"So you're saying because my father knew their Latin name, that he's connected to this book?" asked Keelan, not hiding his skepticism.
"Yeah, I know it's thin. I'm not entirely sure this book even talks about them, but a couple of places make coded references, as if they're afraid to mention them by name," said Zayn.
"What are we doing here then?" asked Keelan, gesturing to the tall buildings around them.
"After talking to a few rare-book sellers, I found one who knew a guy that might have a copy, maybe even the copy that was in the library," said Zayn.
"I'm guessing he lives around here," said Keelan.
"Yep. And get this, his name is Alex Malice. A.M. Like the initials carved into the shelf," said Zayn.
"Seems pretty stupid to carve your initials into the place you stole a book," said Keelan.
"That's what I thought too, but maybe he had a good reason. He's an alumni of Animalians Hall. He graduated in 2007, the same year your dad died," said Zayn.
"Seems like an unlikely coincidence," said Keelan.
"You with me on this?" asked Zayn.
Keelan took a deep breath before answering. He met his gaze cleanly. "I am."
Zayn hid his sigh. He hadn't been sure if Keelan would come along.
They went into the high-rise at 435 Crystal Avenue, bypassing the doorman with a simple charm. The security was decent, but nothing like the D'Agastine office building, and they were able to make their way to the seventeenth floor.
After a few knocks on the door, Keelan said, "It looks like he's not home. Didn't you contact him first?"
"I don't know his relationship with the Lady. For all we know, he could be on her payroll," said Zayn.
"Then we'll have to come back later," said Keelan, starting to walk away.
"Or we can take a look around," said Zayn, pulling out a handful of knock beads.
"You were planning on breaking in the whole time," said Keelan, crossing his arms.
"Not entirely, but I thought it'd be best if I were prepared to," said Zayn.
He stuck the beads around the electronic door swipe. After an activation word, the little light went green.
Keelan moved to grab the handle, but Zayn stopped him. "Check the door first."
A reveal spell brought out faint runes.
"They look old. He hasn't renewed them in a while," said Keelan.
"Or he hasn't been home in a while," said Zayn.
Keelan deactivated the protective runes, and they went inside the flat.
It was clear right away that this Alex Malice was a collector. Various decorated African calabash pots lined a nearby shelf, along with Sami reindeer totems, woven Peruvian llamas, and other items from around the world. The room was filled with expensive furniture and the walls showed off massive paintings that must have cost thousands.
"This Alex is doing quite well," said Keelan as he wandered through the flat and into the kitchen, full of marble countertops.
"He used to work at some zoo on the west coast. Now he writes books about his adventures, typically about other countries by speaking with the animals in those regions to find out things that no one else could learn," said Zayn.
In the main room, which had a large picture window, they found a bookcase. The top two rows were filled with books by Alex. The bottom row contained books with old bindings. Squatting on his heels, Zayn spied The Ecological Webs of Arachnids: How They Bind Their Communities. It was in better shape than he expected.
"You gonna take it?" asked Keelan.
With his hand hovering over the book, Zayn replied, "I really hope this is worth it."
When his fingers touched the binding, he found it surprisingly warm. Zayn pulled the book out, and it started shaking in his hand. He threw it away from him, and something large and hairy exploded from the inside.
A spider as big as a horse landed halfway on the couch, smashing the glass table with a claw. It had the purple striations of a Lady's Spider.
Zayn dove out of the way as it leapt towards him. It smashed into the wall, shattering clay pots and wooden carvings.
Keelan threw an earth bomb at it, but the exploding rock barely slowed the giant arachnid. Zayn rolled onto his feet, a knife appearing in his hand, to which he gave a glance, realizing that it wouldn't touch the supernatural creature. The Academy taught them countless ways of fighting other humans, but they hadn't showed them how to fight giant spiders.
"I didn't know they got this big," said Keelan.
"I think it's been enchanted," said Zayn.
"What do we do?" asked Keelan as he leapt over the marble counters, dodging a spray of web.
Zayn blasted the spider with a flame spray, but it only pissed it off and filled the room with the horrible scent of burnt hair.
The giant spider chased them around the apartment, smashing furniture and works of art in its careless advance. Only their imbuements kept them alive, though Zayn didn't know how long he could keep up with it.
"Damn thing is guarding the door," said Keelan.
The errant webs were becoming a hazard. Zayn leapt out of the way of the spider, but landed on a strand behind the shattered couch. He was stuck to the floor.
The giant spider came right for him. Zayn roasted his foot with flame, torching the web and freeing himself to sprint to the other side of the apartment. The enchantments on his clothing had saved him from the worst of the flame, but he had no hair left on his leg.
"We can't keep this up forever," said Zayn, breathing heavily.
"I think that's the point," said Keelan, who was leaning over on his thighs.
The giant spider had paused by the door, staring at them with its many eyes, lifting its legs one by one in a slow dance as if it were taunting them.
"At this point, I'm thinking about just leaping out the window and taking my chances in the fall," said Keelan.
"That's a great idea," said Zayn, snapping his fingers.
"It is?"
"We can't hurt it, but I bet a two-hundred-foot fall would do some damage," said Zayn.
"But it'll be loose on the streets," said Keelan.
"If it survives, and it's not like we have any other choices," said Zayn.
Before Zayn could take action, the spider scurried forward. He had to bounce off the wall to avoid the dripping fangs, but as he landed by the window, a sheet of webbing caught him around the legs, fixing him to the floor. A simple flame spell wouldn't burn through the mass that had him.
Using a sonic burst, Zayn blew out the giant windows, hoping the noise would warn people from standing below when the glass rained down. The giant spider, having turned and faced him, prepared to leap.
There was no way to get out of the way—it had him dead to rights. Zayn held his knife in his fist, hoping to get in a killing blow before the spider punctured him with poison.
As the spider leapt, Keelan rammed it from behind, pushing it over Zayn and through the window. Zayn would have followed right behind had it not been for the webbing gluing him to the floor. The spider scrambled to catch itself, but Zayn and his cousin slammed it with earth bombs, sending it spinning through the air.
Zayn was afraid it was going to hit a vehicle, but the giant spider narrowly missed a delivery truck, and as soon as it landed, the spider shrunk to a more normal size, disappearing from view.
Using his knife, Zayn cut away the webbing. They grabbed the book and left the apartment. Surprisingly, no one was waiting for them outside.
"Must be enchanted for quiet," said Zayn.
When they reached the lower floor, they found that no one was hurt. Only a few people had minor cuts from the glass, and in the chaos of approaching sirens and a gathered crowd, they left the area.
Once they were a few blocks away, Zayn stopped and prepared to open the book again.
"Are you sure you want to do that?" asked Keelan.
"I think we used up the protection spell," said Zayn. "And I really want to know if all that was worth it."
Sure enough, a second spider did not leap from the binding. A table of contents revealed a section on purpura domina aranea. Keelan read along with him, peering over his shoulder.
"There's nothing more in there than what we already knew," said Keelan.
"Maybe that's proof that your dad talked to Alex Malice. How else would he have known that stuff about the Lady's Spiders?" asked Zayn.
"I think you're reading too much into that," said Keelan. "There might be other books out there, other sources. And it's not like we're going to talk to this Alex after trashing his apartment. I can't even imagine how much all that cost."
Zayn wished he had a way to put it all back together, but it was too late. He should have checked the book for enchantments before opening the binding, though at this point, he was just happy to be alive.
"Thanks, man," said Zayn. "You really saved my ass back there."
Keelan rubbed his arms as if he were suddenly cold. "Don't I always."
Chapter Twelve
Varna, July 2004
The perils of a little sister
Zayn stumbled through the undergrowth while rubbing his forehead where his sister, Neveah, had smacked him with a black walnut. The suffocating Alabama weather only stoked the rage in his chest.
"Nev! I am so going to kick your ass," he said, wiping the tears from his cheeks.
A laughing sing-song reply drifted through the vine-choked trees. "You can't catch me."
Zayn oriented himself to where he thought she was located, and ran after her, ignoring the stinging branches as they whipped him. The weather was so hot and sticky from the storm that had passed through a few days before that wisps of mist felt like the breath of a ghost on his face as he ran through them. The forest felt like it was being strangled by humidity.
He crashed over a rotted log, coming face to face with a dead possum, its guts spilled out into the dirt to be a feast for maggots. Zayn punched the soil, snapping a twig in the process, before raging to his feet.
"Neveah!" he screamed with his hands at his sides. "You little twit!"
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembered his mom telling him that he was supposed to be watching his seven-year-old sister, but when she'd hit him in the head during the three-way game of tag, making sure she was safe was the last thing on his mind.
"Come and get me," said Neveah, whose voice seemed to come from everywhere.
Zayn saw a glimpse of
the pink strap of her backpack, the one she wore everywhere, and went running in that direction.
"I'm gonna make you eat maggots when I catch you!" he screamed.
He lost sight of her, but kept running, knocking leaves and branches from his face. He caught the edge of a patch of nettles, and his right thigh blossomed with stinging pain, which infuriated him further.
In his haste, he barely noticed the ground falling away from him in time. The storm-swollen creek boiled with brown water. He grabbed a sapling, yanking himself to a stop before he fell.
He knew the lazy water was dangerous. The Barnes kid drowned two years ago when he was playing by the creek during a storm. Zayn remembered the picture in the paper of the bloated body, puffed up like a sausage.
A massive tree blocked the creek further upstream, catching all manner of smaller trees and junk, creating a blockage. Downstream, the water was fifteen feet below the edge of the wide creek, but before the dam, the water was nearly spilling over.
Zayn saw a glimpse of pink near the natural dam. His sister was standing at the edge, throwing rocks into the water.
"I've got you now," he said, sneaking through the trees towards her.
He tackled her face first into the soft soil. He'd planned on pinning her arms down and giving her a round of spit-torture, but she reacted like a caged cougar, flailing with fists and knees. Zayn barely jumped away in time, but he managed to snag her pink backpack in the process.
Neveah immediately leapt to her feet, fists at her side, her messy Afro littered with grass and dirt from being smashed into the ground.
"Hey, that's mine!" she said, trying to grab it.
But Zayn was taller, and had longer arms. He kept the backpack away from her.
"You hit me in the head," he countered.
"Give it back! Give it back!"
She started punching him in the stomach and kicking him in the shins. A sharp knee caught him between the legs, nearly doubling him over. In a fit of rage, Zayn launched the pink backpack in a high arc towards the dam. As Neveah screamed, it landed at the edge of the water, hanging on a limb, right above the swirling foam.
The Reluctant Assassin Boxset Page 33