“Of course he did,” Simon proclaimed.
Sparks jumped in before the warlock could continue, trying to soothe the wounds that he had inflected only minutes earlier. “I didn’t have any choice. He came here, threatening to kill me if I didn’t help him. He knew I was the only one close to you that he could manipulate.”
“So you agreed to help him,” I said, clenching my fists at my sides. “You jeopardized my life, my work, my friends—”
“Have pity, Gage,” Simon interjected as my voice gained in volume. “He really did have no choice. I did threaten to kill him.”
Somehow I managed to be angrier at Sparks than at Simon. The warlock was just being true to his nature and hadn’t surprised me in the least. Sparks, however, had betrayed me, even if it was to save his own neck. I had believed that the old man would have my back, but then I had never really expected Simon to return to my life like this. Some part of me must have thought that I would be left in the hands of the guardians and the council, while Simon returned to his old life, pushing me out of his mind.
But Simon couldn’t be free of me. I was a blot on his otherwise clean record. A grim smile curled the corners of my lips as I stared at the warlock. I was as much a thorn in his side as he was in mine. And the only way either of us was going to be free was to kill the other. I wasn’t a coldhearted, bloodthirsty killer by any means, but I knew that if any of us were to have a shot at living, Simon had to die and there was no one else who could do it. Of course, as I thought about all the abuse I had suffered at the hands of this man as well as the dark future that lay ahead for the human race should he succeed, I found that I was more than willing to take on the task.
Taking a step back, I opened my hands at my sides and attempted to secretly draw some energy together for a spell, but Simon instantly sensed the shifting in the air and tensed. His left foot slid back a little to brace himself for whatever I was preparing, while his own hands shot in front of his body, fingers slightly curled as he wove together, like a spider’s web, strands of energy. I gritted my teeth and threw my hands out, but not at Simon. The energy exploded from my fingertips and slammed into Sparks. The old man was lifted from his feet and thrown against the side of his house, where he slid, unconscious, to the ground. He had been knocked out before he hit the peeling wood siding, so he didn’t feel the impact. I just hoped that I hadn’t broken anything with the spell.
I shook off the concern and concentrated on Simon. Broken bones would mend. Bruises would heal. I had needed to get Sparks out of the line of fire so Simon couldn’t use him as a shield or distraction when I attacked.
“How sweet,” Simon said. “The human betrays you and you gently move him out of the way so that he can’t get caught up in the fight. Very noble of you.” A sneer wiped the last remnant of amusement from his features.
“Maybe I’m just looking forward to dealing with him at my leisure once I’ve brushed you aside,” I mocked, earning me a fresh scowl. It had always been easy to get under Simon’s skin. But then, as far as I knew the man hated everyone, making it easy to piss him off.
The warlock’s temper snapped. With a wave of his arm and a quick flick of his right wrist, he threw a ball of energy at me that was meant to sizzle through flesh and break bone. Raising both arms with wrists crossed in front of me, I conjured up a defensive spell in time to block his attack, leaving the energy to dissipate harmlessly over the softly humming blue shield. The amulet lying against my chest warmed at the presence of magic, as if suddenly waking from a deep slumber. I wasn’t sure what it could and couldn’t do, so I was more than willing to rely on my own abilities for now. I just hoped that the amulet managed to kick in a little juice should Simon succeed in getting through the defensive spells I did know.
“One last thing,” I called as Simon sidestepped out into the street with me. “I would like that portion of my soul you stole before I kill you.”
Simon chuckled, creating an uneasy twisting in my stomach. “It would seem that I no longer have it in my possession. I sold it to someone I thought could find some use for it, since I truly doubt you were using it.”
The warlock’s grin dimmed slightly when I failed to react with anger. Instead, I nodded at him and gave a little bow. “I guess we do have something in common after all.”
“I doubt that.”
“I no longer have that bit of soul I stole from you either. I traded it to someone I thought could put it to good use. He seemed to be quite pleased with the exchange.”
“You bastard!” Simon roared at me as he charged. He reached into the left sleeve of his jacket and pulled out a gnarled wooden wand made from an ash tree. Giving it a quick twirl over his head, he pointed the wand at me with a snarl on his face. A bolt of electric green energy shot from its tip and hammered into the blue shield that I was still holding in place. The shield cracked under the intensity of the blast and the energy shot through, aiming for my heart.
A second golden shield burst into life before Simon’s green bolt could strike me, knocking the energy back toward its creator. Simon shouted as he dodged the energy blast, flattening himself against the pitted asphalt street. The magic deflection amulet worked, to my great relief. I didn’t wait for the bastard to rise to his feet. Skidding over to the gutter, I snatched up a jagged piece of glass glittering in the dirty lamplight before launching myself at Simon. The old man started to roll away from me as I landed beside him. The glass dug deep into his upper arm, wringing a scream of pain out of him.
The deep cut didn’t deter him as he reached up and grabbed the collar of my T-shirt. Confusion ensued. I had summoned up some energy at the same time as Simon. Between the two conflicting spells and the power from the magic deflection amulet, there was an explosion centered between us, throwing both Simon and me in opposite directions. As we were pushed apart by the force of the blast, I heard my T-shirt rip, followed by a pull against the back of my neck. A glint of silver caught my eye as it hurtled through the air away from me. Simon had grabbed the chain the amulet hung from and had pulled it from around my neck. Yet the force of the blast sent it spiraling out of his grasp and flying through the air away from both of us.
I slammed into the ground with a painful crunch as at least two ribs fractured under the impact. Rolling several feet until I hit the front bumper of a stationary car, I winced as pain spiderwebbed throughout my body. I had lost the magic deflection amulet, but at least Simon didn’t have it either.
With a grunt of pain, I rolled over to my hands and knees, trying to pick myself up again. My head was pounding and my ears were ringing from the blast. Lifting my head, I found Simon still on the ground, but moving slowly. A gentle hand slipped under my chin and tilted my head up so that I looked into a pair of deep black eyes. Dark hair framed her face, while pale grayish-white skin shone like a dirty pearl in the nearby light. I blinked a couple of times, my mind struggling to take in the figure kneeling before me.
“Wake up, Gage,” purred a soft voice. “You still have to kill him.”
Lilith.
My body jerked painfully away from her touch as I finally recognized the woman. Falling backward onto my butt, I looked up at her and found that she wasn’t really there. At least, not fully there. She was transparent enough that I could see the beat-up red car and dilapidated house on the other side of the street through her. It was possible that she hadn’t fully escaped the underworld, but I wasn’t reassured by the fact that I could see her here at all. There were no positive stories associated with the myth that was Lilith. A destroyer. A seducer. A mother of demons.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded. Using my heels, I pushed away from her, trying to put a little distance between us so she couldn’t easily touch me again. I hadn’t exactly felt skin when she placed her fingers under my chin. There had been a cold sensation, as if I had been touched by death.
“I came to claim my freedom from you. I can help you destroy this creature before he can harm you again,” Lili
th offered, taking another step closer to me.
“Go back to the underworld and wait for the end of days. I’m not helping you,” I growled as I shoved back to my feet. I turned my back on her as I walked toward Simon, who was now on his knees, rubbing his temple with the heel of his left hand. Blood trickled from a cut on his scalp, running across his forehead.
Lilith flowed in front of me again as if she were little more than a leaf dancing on a breeze. There was no anger in her face, but I could feel the pull of her black eyes, attempting to drag my gaze back to hers so that she could find some way to control me for her own purposes. A cold chill swept through me, but I kept my eyes focused on Simon as he rose to his feet and stared down the street at me. To my surprise, confusion skittered across his features as he looked not at me, but at Lilith. I had thought I was the only one who could see her. This was not good. While I didn’t want to help Lilith, I also didn’t want her turning her attention to Simon. I wasn’t too sure that he wouldn’t accept her help, no matter how dangerous it was.
With a frown, I whipped my right hand out and shot another bolt of energy toward Simon. He easily blocked the energy with a shield, as I had been expecting. The energy was enough, though, to knock him back over so that he was seated on the ground again, breaking his stare at Lilith and distracting him.
“Get out of here, Lilith,” I growled at her while keeping my gaze locked on Simon.
“Lilith?” Simon demanded as his gaze snapped to the glowing vision of a naked woman. I inwardly groaned, smacking myself on the forehead. I really could be an idiot sometimes. If Simon hadn’t known who she was before, he did now and he was certainly interested. I didn’t need my two enemies joining forces to get at me.
Growling in frustration, I grabbed my wand from my pocket and pointed it at Simon. With a burst of energy exploding from the tip, I started to throw him across the street, aiming to toss him against the side of a nearby brick house. His feet slid across the street less than a yard before he stopped moving, and the spell completely dissipated with a wave of Lilith’s hand. Panic clenched in my stomach. She brushed off the power as if it had been nothing more than an annoying mosquito buzzing around her head. Obviously, I wasn’t going to be able to use magic to get rid of Simon.
“Quiet, Gage. We’re talking,” she murmured, keeping her gaze locked on Simon, who was staring at her, completely enraptured. She took a step closer to the warlock and smiled. “It seems Gage has been giving you some problems. Would you like my assistance in dealing with him?”
“Yes,” Simon whispered. His hands were trembling in his excitement as he edged a little closer to her. “I very much need him dead. And then you can have him, right?”
“I will have him when he’s dead, but to help you I need something valuable in return.”
Simon fumbled inside his jacket, searching for something in the interior pocket. After a couple of seconds, he pulled out a small pouch made of what looked to be velvet. He struggled to open it in his enthusiasm, but finally pulled out a small vial.
“Hey!” I shouted, taking a step closer before I could catch myself. It was the fragment of my soul that Simon had stolen. “You said you didn’t have it any longer.”
The warlock looked at me, an evil grin spreading across his features. “I lied. Who could have more use for it than me? Except maybe this lovely woman.”
“She’s not a woman, Simon! She’s a monster. You can’t do this.” Even as I spoke, I started summoning a spell. I threw one aimed to shatter the glass vial, but nothing happened. Desperate, heart hammering in my chest, I threw a second aimed to simply knock the vial out of Simon’s hand, but even that failed. No spell touched them thanks to Lilith.
My breath lodged around the knot in my throat as I watched the vial slip from Simon’s fingers into Lilith’s glowing hand. The glass slipped through the nothingness, but as it fell to the ground, I saw that it was already empty. Focusing on her hand, I saw the small fragment of my soul wriggling around her fingers.
As she clenched her fist around my soul, I felt a tightening in my chest. She was strengthening her hold on me. I stumbled a couple of steps backward. I didn’t know what powers she had topside, but I was willing to guess they were going to have an amplified effect now that she was in possession of my soul fragment. How did I defend myself against anything she threw at me?
Smiling, Lilith walked toward me. She gave her hand a little shake and my soul fragment disappeared. I could only guess that she had sent it somewhere for safekeeping so that I couldn’t try to reclaim it.
“He can kill you,” Lilith needlessly reminded me as she approached. As my gaze returned to Simon, who was watching with sickening glee, Lilith placed her arm across my shoulders. “You have to kill him first. Kill him with magic.” Her soft, breathy voice wound its way through my brain, wrapping around my thoughts so that the world was in a type of fog. Everything slowed down but my heartbeat, which pounded in my ears like a tribal drum, urging me forward.
Simon’s joy disintegrated before my eyes, replaced by anger. “What are you doing?” he snarled. “You said that you’d help me.”
Lilith smiled at the warlock. “I lied. I need Gage alive to be useful to me. You, on the other hand, would be more useful to me dead.” She then turned her attention back to me, looking serious for the first time since she had appeared before me. “I can’t interfere anymore. You’ll have to handle this on your own, and he can still kill you.”
“She’s right, Gage,” Simon called. “I will kill you.”
“So you can rule over your own genocide of the human race,” I snapped, pushing through the lingering tendril of the mental fog as Lilith stepped away from me.
“Don’t worry. I won’t limit myself to just the human race. I think I’ll start with your friends before moving on to your family. I’ll wipe away all memory of your existence.”
“Kill him!” Lilith goaded, her tantalizing voice growing hoarse and more urgent. “Kill him in my name before he destroys your beloved Trixie!”
Fear clenched in the pit of my stomach and ripped through my mind, wiping away the last of Lilith’s attempts at control. I bellowed at the warlock with all my rage, throwing out both my hands toward him, wand pointed at his chest as my fingers clenched and trembled. Magic pulled from deep in my soul surged and rushed out my extended arms toward him. Wild and barely controlled, the lightning white energy hammered against the glowing blue shield he had erected around himself. He rocked backward under the force of the blow, but his shield held.
Curling my left hand around to reach up from below, I created several sets of hands that rose from the asphalt below him, grasping his legs. The hands, made of black rock and gravel, grabbed his limbs and pulled on his clothes, tearing them as he fought to be free. The street beneath him grew soft and the warlock began to sink down into the earth, the hands pulling him lower and lower.
A strangled cry escaped Simon as he sank down to his chest in the street. His protective shield wavered as his panic at being buried alive overcame his ability to concentrate on the spell. I took advantage of the momentary distraction and sent another white bolt of energy at him. The spell shot straight through the shield like an arrow piercing an apple. Simon’s head spun around with a sickening crack as his neck shattered, killing him instantly. The sound sliced through me, causing my heart to stumble for a couple of beats before resuming its pounding rhythm.
I took a step backward as I watched the asphalt hands continue to rise and pull his limp body into the ground. There were no thoughts in my brain. There was no room for them beyond the horror of what I had done. I hadn’t thought about it, I’d simply reacted to his threat against the loved ones in my life. The power was just there burning inside my chest, needing to strike out at him. And I killed him. With magic.
Simon’s body disappeared beneath the asphalt. The hands blended back in with the street and the surface became as smooth as the black waters of the Styx. He was gone. His soul was now in the
hands of Charon for all of eternity.
I crumpled to my knees, my breathing fast and uneven, as I stared at the spot where I had last seen him. It was only when I felt a hand pat me on the shoulder that I looked up to find Lilith still standing over me. There was a thoughtful expression on her beautiful but frightening face as she stared down the empty street.
“Well, that’s not exactly what I wanted,” she murmured as if talking to herself. The mother of demon spawn then looked down at me and smiled, sending a chill down my spine. “But you did kill him with magic. That will put you into my hands for one year. Hmmm . . . maybe longer considering what I have in my possession now.”
“No!” I gasped, terror rocking me to my core.
“Yes, I’m afraid so. I get to watch over those who die but are destined to return after a year. I’m sure we’ll have great fun together.” I watched as she took a step backward and disappeared like a puff of smoke dispersed on the air.
I lowered my head into my hands as I knelt on the ground. Not only had I killed a man, but I had also handed my soul over to the queen of the underworld. This was not how I had hoped the evening would go.
Chapter 33
I turned the folded sheaf of paper around, holding it with two fingers at the corner as the fire licked across the surface. The blackened ash curled and flaked off, dancing in the faint breeze that stirred the dense summer air. Sitting in the dark behind the tattoo parlor on the wooden steps leading up to the second-floor apartment, I watched the long letter I had written to my friends burn away to thin wisps of ash. Somehow, against the odds, I had survived. I had survived the planning and scheming of Simon as well as Gideon’s group. I had even escaped the grasp of the grim reaper while prolonging Trixie’s freedom from her own kind. Bronx was still stuck, but he was safe for now.
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