by Voss Foster
"Good. One of us should be functional." My mind flashed back to that diner. All of maybe a minute, if I was being generous, and not only had they all gotten away, but I'd nearly died from a pinprick of a knife wound.
Hopefully, we weren't looking at a repeat performance.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, a response before I registered the sound of the footstep. But it did register, and I was already there to whip around. The ice elemental and the elf with all the piercings stood even with me, and their own personal troll stared at Gutt. All three of them were not only armed with those same daggers, but the already deadly paralytic weapons sparked and arced with blue electricity. Well, it looked like electricity. God knew what it would actually do to me.
I wasn't big on finding out.
The ice elemental spun one of her daggers lazily and pointed the other straight at my throat. She grinned at me. "You want to try these negotiations again, sugar?"
"Negotiations? You're not just here to make out?"
And hey, I got a chuckle out of her, so that was something. Not enough of something for her to falter and give me an opening—let alone her elvish partner, who wasn't pointing at me, but was definitely within striking range and apparently not charmed by the thought of Frenching me in the closet—but it meant there were openings to be had. I just had to find them.
Preferably before she cut me again.
The elemental sighed. "You know, if you weren't standing in my way? Maybe. Call me after this is all said and done and we can get it on. But for now, I'm much more interested in her." Her eyes flashed to Lenva, no longer safely ensconced by magic. "So if you'd just stand aside, I won't have to be the penetrative partner." She jiggled the dagger again. "Sound good?"
"Why do you assume I'm opposed to being penetrated?" I focused in on her, watching for any movement that might give one second to disarm her. That was all I needed. That and to keep her talking.
"Too bad you're charming. That'll make it harder if I have to gut you. Which, you know, seems pretty likely. You seem a little…belligerent."
"What are your plans with me?" A quiet voice came from my right, and it took me a moment to realize it was Lenva. In spite of all my better training, I shot her a look. She'd let herself out of the cell and now stood with her back to the bars. Her dark eyes were wide, but she stood up straight with her shoulders back. "Why do you want me?"
"That's our business." Their troll grunted that out, still never breaking eye contact with Gutt. He curled his fingers into fists. "You don't need to know."
Lenva shook her head. "It's my business, because I'm the one whose going to decide whether I go peacefully or not. Which I will…if you kill me."
Damn it. "Lenva…that's not why you're here."
I caught the faintest flicker of her eye in my direction, but that was all the acknowledgment I got. "If you agree to take me out of the picture, I'm cooperative."
"Sweetie, that would defeat the purpose, don't you think?" The elemental woman turned her full attention to Lenva. Her full attention. I just needed to give her a few seconds to immerse, and hopefully find a way to distract her elvish compatriot. Even just for a moment.
"We're not going to kill you. We have our marching orders and—"
Lenva shook her head. "That doesn't work for me, and you don't have any way of forcing me to come with you."
"That's presumptuous." The elf lowered his daggers and slanted himself toward Lenva. "You think we wouldn't come here prepared?"
He didn't get a chance to extrapolate on that statement. I swung the butt of my Glock up into the elemental's wrist. Hard. Hard enough to loosen her grip on the dagger. And once it fell, the magic dissipated. I kicked it behind me with my heel and leveled my gun at her chest. "Drop your weapons. Now."
"Oh sugar, I thought we had something." But in spite of our budding romance, now destined to be no more, she dropped the second dagger. "Have to admit, that was a nice one. Leveraging the Class-A against us like that."
"Well, we try to impress anyone who breaks into FBI headquarters." I pulled out a set of anti-magical restraints. 'Turn around."
"Oh see, I'm not into bondage. Guess this won't work out." She blinked, and I was immediately reminded that she was an ice elemental. And apparently a damn skilled one. My face stung from the assault of ice crystals, and they formed a haze in front of my eyes. Then my gun grew ice-cold…and then shattered in my grip. Someone hit me and thrust me back against the wall.
By the time I was able to see, she had both of her daggers back in hand, and both of them very close to my throat. No lightning sparking from them anymore, but they were both blue-cold. If we didn't wrap this up soon, I'd be dealing with a nasty case of frostbite.
Well, right up until she slit my throat.
"Even if I were into Dom/sub stuff, you wouldn't be the one giving me orders." She winked and flashed me a slick smile, glancing the edge of one blade against my neck. Not painfully, so she didn't penetrate, but enough for a reminder that she'd gotten herself the upper hand.
"Dash." The same quiet voice, only this time I could see Lenva. Her eyes were nearly black they were so dark and deep, and her voice echoed that depth and hollowness. Slowly, she turned her head toward me. "You need to go."
"Occupied at the moment. You can control it. You have this."
The ice elemental rolled her eyes. "Vois? Take care of her."
The elf pulled something out of a pack on his vest. Not anything I recognized. Incredibly innocuous, actually. It looked like a little black tile, matte and completely smooth. Still, he handled it with care, only touching it with his thumb and middle finger along the very edge.
"Where did you get that?" Gutt's voice was low and threatening, and he drew energy up around him…right up until their troll buddy smacked him across the jaw with the pommel of a dagger.
"We came prepared, I told you that." The elemental shook her head. "Let's just get going."
Vois reached toward Lenva with the mysterious tile that had Gutt so upset…and it ripped apart in his hand. It shredded in flakes of stone as soon as it got close to her, light flaring from it as it came apart. Though that was hard to see, a glowstick in front of the sun compared to Lenva Her entire body gleamed with blue light, now, and she vibrated in place.
Vois turned to the elemental, his eyes wide. "Ixel? What do we do?"
He never got an answer. Lenva lunged forward. Once she got within a few inches of him, Vois stiffened, eyes widening. Like the little tile, his flesh shredded away from his body like confetti. The vest with all the embroidered magic ripped apart just the same way, bursting with light as the sigils sheared apart. Then his muscle, his bone. I kept waiting for him to make a sound, but he stayed silent right up until there was nothing left of him to make sound with. His blood turned to mist, suspended in the air. Once he was shredded, he shredded again, and again, and again. Down to nothing but a fine powder that was once an elf.
When Lenva turned to look at me, her eyes had gone fully black, even the whites overtaken while the rest of her glowed electric. "Go. It started…I can't promise I can stop it."
Ixel was just as flabbergasted as I was…so I cuffed her, then dragged her out into the hallway. She wouldn't be able to transport out, and depending on how those knives worked, maybe it would prevent the paralyzing enchantment if she happened to nick one of us. That wasn't my area of expertise by a long, long, long shot.
Once she was secure, I went back in to finish clean-up. The other troll thrust Gutt into the wall, knocking the clock down to the floor. Gutt swung a magic-infused fist at him, but the other troll shifted to take it on the chest. One of his embroidered runes frayed apart, but there was no other damage I could see.
"Go!" Lenva's voice shrieked from what was now nothing but a human-sized beacon in the middle of the room. "It's coming!"
Fuck. I had no choice but to intervene. I grabbed one of the discarded daggers from the floor and rushed in. I swung blade first at the enemy
troll's face, the only exposed part I could get to easily. I didn't care if it connected. I just needed him to let go of Gutt. Casey could fix him up later.
The blade sliced through his lip and his cheek, drawing deep, crimson blood in a stripe down his face. His grip faltered just long enough for Gutt to scrabble to his feet. I grabbed for his restraints to capture the other troll, but I couldn't get them loose, and he was already transporting out. One would have to be good enough. "Damn it Gutt, go, go!"
We ran out. Ixel was up and running her happy ass down the hallway. I shut the door and Gutt threw one of his golden rings at our would-be escapee.
We hauled ass away, Gutt snatching her up under his arm on the way. I didn't know how far we needed to go to avoid whatever was happening to Lenva. I didn't know if this would be the last time we'd see her. She could get out of that room easily. She could make that room no longer a room easily.
I just hoped she wouldn't do anything stupid. There was still at least one bounty hunter out there after her. She needed protection. Hopefully we wouldn't need protection from her.
Chapter Ten
It took an hour for everyone to get in position after Gutt and I placed the calls. Casey looked over Gutt and Ixel, but neither had been seriously injured. Ixel now sat with the restraints on, scowling and flexing her fingers, but not saying a word to any of us.
Swift, King, and Bancroft had gotten in as quickly as they could, and we recounted the whole thing to them. Nobody had questions until Gutt brought up Vois. "The elf thought he had something to keep her under control. He'd somehow gotten a recursive restraint module."
Bancroft pressed a hand to his mouth, and everyone went silent. But finally, it was Bancroft who spoke up. "Where did he get one? Do you think he works for the prisons?"
"Containment officers aren't the only ones who use them. They're just the only ones who have permission to use them. They're commonplace among palace guards and assassins and other agents of subterfuge. The worst-kept secret of the aristocracy." Gutt locked eyes with Bancroft. "She destroyed it."
"Destroyed it?" Bancroft shook his head. "How could…is that even possible?"
"The evidence would suggest yes, it's very possible." Gutt scrubbed a hand down his face. "Have we been able to get anyone in to see the damage?"
Swift sighed. "Well, the building's still standing. But if I'm being honest, I'm none too comfy asking anyone to step in there right now."
I didn’t exactly blame him. We still had no info on Lenva's abilities other than the small experience of, you know, seeing her shred an elf apart into fine powder. But we also needed to check on her, and we couldn't do that hanging around, scratching our asses.
"I'll go in and check for her." I popped my neck side to side, more to stall for a couple more seconds than to fix any kind of crick I might have had. Although I was still stiff and sore as hell. "If I don't make it out, tell Kimmy I love her. Or Casey. Whoever feels like they need it more."
"Like hell you're going in there alone, greenhorn." King nodded and pulled her sidearm. "I'm older and better than you."
"You know, I'm not exactly a greenhorn anymore. Been here a whole year."
"Almost a year. Greenhorn." She flashed the coyest smile, then we carried on back into the OPA offices. "So, what is it about you?"
"My stunning charm and good looks?"
"No. We've had two Class-A encounters in under a year, and you've been here for both of them. You know when our last Class-A was before Jörmungandr? Fucking never."
"Well, it must just be my magnetic personality." I eyed her gun. Part of me worried that I didn't have one anymore. The other part of me worried that we were about to kill the charge we'd been set to watch over and protect.
As we continued forward, no sign of destruction in the hallway leading to the cell. Also no sign that our unfriendly neighborhood troll had made a reappearance. Given how deep I cut into him with that knife, assuming it was enchanted the same way, I wasn't even sure if he'd have been able to move to get back here in the first place.
We came to the room with the cell…and the door was completely intact. King glanced at it, then at me. "You sure you didn't exaggerate what went on down here?"
"Just open it."
She popped the handle and pushed the door open. I didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't what I saw.
The clock still lay ruined on the floor. The chairs were completely absent, and the table was down to two legs and less than half the length of the tabletop. The edge where everything had gone missing was ragged, and bits of metal lifted away in inch-long segments of silver. There was also a significant amount of silvery, slightly reflective powder all over the walls and floor. I didn't miss the still totally present pile of powdered elf on the floor either. It hadn't been disturbed much, if at all, by whatever had happened with the table. Somehow, there was no moisture to be had even though…well, bodies weren't exactly dry things. But now, Vois was very much dry.
Lenva stood dead center in her closed cell, weaving her slender hands through the air around her. Tiny sparks of light flew from her fingertips and embedded themselves around the room. She circled around and made eye contact with me—bright blue irises again—and her lips turned into a frown. "I'm sorry…I…this is why I wanted you to solve the problem for good." She stretched her arms in front of her, fingers wide like she was reaching for something. Any sort of…answer.
"You didn't run away." The room still smelled primarily of ozone, and thankfully not blood or flesh or burning bone or any other biological destruction I could unfortunately identify. I stepped inside. "What are you doing in here?"
"I'm putting up better protections." She nodded solemnly and gestured around the walls at…well, I couldn't see anything, but I suppose she must have been able to. "Gutt's were powerful, but I'm very familiar with containment magic." Just at the end, her voice clotted. "I've made something where they won't be able to reach me the same way. No one will, until the time comes."
I pressed my fingers through the spaces between the bars, but they would only penetrate half an inch or so before I hit some hot, invisible barrier. "Lenva, you know we can't do what you want. That time won't come."
"I know. And I don't agree. But it's better if I'm locked away here than subject to the whims of the sort of people who would want me around." She smiled sadly. "This will keep everyone safe until the Kingdoms can make the appropriate decision for my fate."
Of course, she'd heard Vellius's message as clearly as me and Gutt had. The Kingdoms weren't in any shape to do much of anything. Something had gone wrong with their official communication channels, and those things were very well-guarded and monitored. But I didn't bring that up. The less volatile she was the better. Both for her mental state, and for the state of everything—and everyone—around her, judging by her reaction to a threat.
Still, it had been a reaction to a real threat. And one that worked. "You know you were just protecting yourself, right?"
Her smile faded and her eyes glazed over, dark as the deepest seas once again. "I chose to use the power I was given, and I only just managed to draw it under control before this building fell victim to it. I may not be able to rein myself in next time."
King stepped up, shaking her head. "You saved two agents and gave us a chance to apprehend one of the people trying to hurt you. Sounds like a win-win if you ask me."
"This time." Lenva lowered herself gently onto the cot and cast out a wave of white light from her hand. The antiseptic stink of it burned my nose, and when it hit the bars, it stopped and melted down slowly, like wax. What it left was a translucent barrier. "I don't know how long this will hold. If I had that sort of power, we wouldn't be where we are right now. But it should last a while. Long enough."
For the first time since I'd run across her, Lenva seemed…at peace. It ripped at my chest to think about. She'd locked herself in some sort of impenetrable barrier, and that's what finally got her to relax? I'd seen what she could do firs
thand, now. Hell, if Gutt and I hadn't gotten out of there fast enough, it might have been the two of us suffering for it instead of the furniture. That raised goosebumps and set my spine straight. Like…how did that feel, being powdered? Vois hadn't screamed. Maybe it didn't hurt? Somehow, that felt a lot worse than pure agony.
But I couldn't shake the feeling that the Kingdoms done something to her by locking her away. This felt like Stockholm or brainwashing or something else. She wanted death, and would settle for a lifetime of imprisonment?
In her case, a very long lifetime.
King clapped a hand on my shoulder and dug her fingers in a little. It gave me sudden flashbacks to my brother. That used to be his move when he knew something was bugging me. No talking, just his grip tightening around my shoulder. "Swift's going to want to know what's going on. She's about as safe as she's going to get."
Begrudgingly, I nodded. We'd gone in to see if Lenva had died or escaped. She hadn't. And at the moment, I welcomed the distraction provided by duty.
King and I walked back out silently. She delivered the news. "She's locked herself back in the cell. We're going to need a new table and chairs in there, and a new clock, but other than that nothing looks like it's in bad shape. And she's set herself up a new barrier. Smells like a strong one."
Swift nodded, and we all stood. I didn't know what to say, and apparently I wasn't the only one. But at the very least, I had a question I could ask. Something that wasn't directly about Lenva, so maybe it wouldn't play against my emotions as hard as everything else seemed to be at the moment. "You were talking about a recursive restraint module. What exactly is it?"
Bancroft nodded and shook himself, sending his already frizzy white hair into a new shock of movement and insanity. "Recursive restraints are a very complex magical artifact…object…technology. Yes, I'd daresay they're complex enough that they could be considered somewhat technological."