by Jen Kirchner
Did you kill anyone? Did you tell that necromancer anything?
The girl’s lips curled into a snarl. “It’s told me nothing. In fact, that was the first thing I’ve heard it say, except for ‘Aw, crap’ when I grabbed it from the box. It won’t talk to me! I thought I could convince it to like me more than you, but…” She raised Rambo in the air and shook it, as if the information would sprinkle out like grit from a dirty keyboard. Her irritated whine filled the air. “Why won’t you just tell me?”
Henri’s gaze flickered between the two of us. I wasn’t sure if he was scared or excited.
“How’d you find me?” I asked.
In my head, I’d practiced how I wanted this conversation to go. I’d expected a lot of things, but not for her to be so young. What had led her to do such horrible things? She had her whole life ahead of her.
“I came back to your house and saw police. An immortal woman came out of your house. She was talking to someone on her phone, angry about you and some boxes. She said she was going to follow, and I assumed she was talking about you, so I hid in her trunk. Next thing I know, we’re here.”
Lucky guess.
I spoke slowly, trying to choose my words carefully. I hoped I sounded friendly. “Okay, listen. I don’t want to hurt you, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to hurt me. Why don’t you just put Rambo down, and I’ll take you home?”
She took a step toward me. My gaze shifted to Rambo, and I took one giant step back.
She smiled. It didn’t feel friendly. “Don’t pretend like you’re harmless, Eliana Rendon, or Kari Hunter, or whatever you like to call yourself. I saw that street you blew up.” Her laughter was caustic and matched her contemptuous expression. She took another step toward me. “Nice job, by the way. That’s what inspired me to go for it.”
“Go for what?”
Her upper lip curled. “For necromancy, stupid. I mean, I always knew what I was, but seeing that kind of destruction on the news gave me a new perspective. So, thank you. I made my first sacrifice the week after I saw you on the news.”
I’d always thought of myself as a good role model. Kari Hunter the musician didn’t do drugs or sleep around. I earned a college degree and encouraged kids to stay in school. I recycled. I didn’t hurt people. Instead, I hung out in my basement with my weird knives, stabbing fingers and passing out lollipops and minding my own business. And yet, the night I had taken Henri hostage had wrecked that ideal forever.
One night of poor decision-making cost me more pain and heartache than I could have imagined. What I had wanted was to bring my uncle’s attacker to justice and find a mass murderer. Instead, I had broadcast my existence to the world and created a global panic. And, even worse, I had encouraged a young girl toward a life of violence. I wasn’t sure if I could feel any worse.
I felt Henri’s eyes boring into me. He started to laugh.
“I joined your fan club,” the girl continued. “Pretty clever, right? I really am a big fan, just not of your music.” Her eyes glittered. “If I trade magic with you, I’ll be the most powerful person in the world. The queen of everything.” She waved her long, slender knife in the air. “Miss Sparkles told me.”
We all looked up at her knife. A furious buzzing exploded in the front of my skull as a cloud of black matter burst around Stubby.
YOU NAMED YOUR KNIFE MISS SPARKLES? WE’RE TOTALLY GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS FOR THAT!
My hands flew up, arms outstretched, as if to stay her. “Nonononono—no one’s kicking anything. Also, I’m not the boss of anyone. Trust me, the only way my magic works is if I remain a total wimp. If we switch our magic, you definitely won’t be the queen of anything.”
“That’s not what Miss Sparkles says.”
But Miss Sparkles had disappeared into the oversized coat, and the girl’s free hand was twitching. Energy burned my nostrils. The girl clamped Rambo between her knees, and her arms came up in sweeping strokes.
I watched ebon runes stretch over her head. I was morbidly fascinated; I had no idea what the spell was. I decided I didn’t want to find out.
I swept one hand toward the runes and felt the energy catch on my fingertips. I ripped the spell out of the air and killed it. Black runes slapped against the nearby trees.
She moved again, arms and hands working. Energy pulsed around me, soft and soothing. Once again, I reached out, hooked my fingers around the forming runes, and killed the spell. I left the black, unfinished, snakelike swirls hanging in the air between us.
“Stop it!”
I turned to face her. “No. I don’t believe in fighting. I’ve made some mistakes, but I refuse to continue them. Violence is never the answer. You can stand there all night lobbing spells at me, and I’m just going to keep killing them. There’s nothing you can do, so you may as well call it off. We can still be friends.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, an alien consciousness washed over me.
Rambo.
The knife pushed into my mind, delivering a message I hadn’t asked for: Necromancy is from an older time. Our fight was meant to be one of blood and magic and sentient knives.
I shut my eyes, trying to push Rambo out of my head, but an unwanted vision forced its way inside me: Two necromancers. Rambo. A simple symbol carved in flesh. A lot of blood.
My eyes flew open at the same time the girl’s did. We stared at each other, astonished, disgusted, and overwhelmed.
As it turned out, the process of switching our magic would be simpler than I thought. From the look on the girl’s face, the truth had dawned on her, too.
“Let’s not do anything rash,” I said.
Dammit, Rambo. Did you tell them how to make the switch?
It’s not my fault. It happens when the pieces come together.
The girl’s narrowed eyes glittered at me from behind long, unkempt bangs. She ripped off her jacket, with Miss Sparkles inside, and tossed it away.
Wait! You’re gonna need me!
She grabbed Rambo from between her legs, bellowed a deranged, wordless cry, and charged straight at me. “AAAAAAAAH!”
I pivoted on one heel and sprinted away, echoing her statement. “AAAAAAAH!”
I was exhausted from chasing Henri out of the caves. My body was tired and sore and my lungs burned. I made it to the trees, but the girl wasn’t so hampered.
Look out.
Rambo’s shout almost had me tripping as I glanced back over my shoulder. The girl was right behind me.
She slashed out. Rambo’s teeth cut right through my jacket and nicked my arm. The blade was so sharp that it didn’t hurt yet, but I screamed. The panic gave me a burst of adrenaline, and I went full speed around bushes and bramble and low-hanging branches, ignoring their scrapes and slaps, not caring where I was going, only that I was getting away from Rambo and the girl.
I ran and ran and ran some more, blindly weaving my way into the darkness. I’d be surprised if she couldn’t follow the sound of my heavy wheezing.
Slow down. I think we’re okay.
I collapsed against a tree, gasping for breath. Stubby was right; the girl hadn’t followed.
According to Death Radar, Henri was behind me, not too far away, and was moving around. I realized I’d let him go when I made my dash into the trees. Since he wasn’t too far, I must have run in a circle. That meant the girl couldn’t be too far, either.
Ronel also appeared on Death Radar, heading toward Henri. Norayr was just at the edge of my senses. I still couldn’t get a read on Mikelis or my parents.
I made my way back in Henri and Ronel’s direction, slowly, so as not to make too much noise. I’d gone a half-dozen steps when a pulse of energy wafted against me. Not Mikelis-size, but medium. The spell caused an eerie prickling sensation on my skin. The spell built for a couple of seconds and bloomed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an ebon blob shoot toward me, weaving between the trees. I had less than two seconds to react. I dove behind the trunk of an enormous pine t
ree. The black blob curved around the trunk, following me, and then slammed into my protection spell and dissipated.
I jumped to my feet and patted myself down. Nothing hurt. I didn’t think I’d even have a bruise.
Good, she’s using spells again. Just stand there and let it hit your protection spell.
“Seriously?” I whispered. Elation zinged through me. “This is awesome, Stubby. I can just stand here and take her magic punches until help arrives?”
More energy bloomed as the girl started another spell.
Not quite. The spell can only take three hits.
A nervous sensation tingled in my stomach. “What does that mean?”
Another ebon blob shot through the trees toward me. Slivers of moonlight gave the blob a violet glow. I braced myself just as the blob slammed into my protection spell… then dissolved into nothing.
It absorbs the first two spells. With the third hit, it dissipates and sends the attacker’s spell right back at them. Awesome, right? So, in a second, that girl’s going to get pounded by her own spell, and I’m going to need you to make a new protection spell.
“What?!”
A new spell formed and I took off running, tearing through the forest.
Stop running. You’re ruining my master plan.
“Screw your plan. I’m gonna dodge her spells.”
Branches slapped my face and body and grabbed at my hair. I gasped for breath, and I was pretty sure I swallowed a bug. I didn’t know where I was going. Just then, I really didn’t care. The girl was near Henri and Ronel, so I ran in the opposite direction.
You can’t dodge her spell. It’s trained on you.
“It’s a heat seeker?”
I sensed it getting near. I knew the general direction the spell was coming from, so this time I waited until it was close enough that I could catch the tangled spell string on my fingertips, then ripped it out of the air and killed the spell before it hit me.
More like a dog that’s got your scent. But don’t worry, it’s not like the spell’s going to kill her. She’s casting at half of her power. Obviously, she wants to take you alive. She’ll probably only suffer serious injury… unless she falls and hits her head real hard. Now that I think about it, there are a lot of big rocks on the ground…
The next spell came. I couldn’t catch it in time with my fingers, and while trying to dodge I tripped and fell over a fallen log. The blob smashed into a tree trunk. The sound was deafening. Wood and bark sprayed everywhere. A sizable hole was left behind.
Another spell started. This time, it took a lot longer to form. The amount of energy she was putting into it didn’t feel bigger, but it was definitely taking longer. The ebon blob shot toward me. I ripped the runes out of the air, killing the spell—
There was another blob right behind it. The girl must have guessed what I was doing and cast two of them, one right after the other. The blob slammed into my protection spell and rebounded, weaving back through the woods toward the girl. All I felt was a wash of cool air from the protection spell scattering.
“No!” I screamed.
I sprinted after the dark bolt. Stubby shouted at me to stop and create a new protection spell. The girl’s shriek of terror was like a dagger in my heart.
When I neared the grassy clearing, I saw her lying on the ground at the edge, faceup, with her arms and legs splayed. Black smoke surrounded her, and a large scorch mark marred her thigh and hip.
Her jacket was draped over a rock a couple of feet away. Rambo lay on the ground near her. Her eyes were closed, and in the dark I couldn’t tell if she was breathing.
See? That protection spell is the best.
As I ran to her, I tossed Stubby into a cluster of wildflowers.
How dare you! I know you did that on purpose—no necromancer drops a knife on accident, and never in a bunch of flowers.
I fell to my knees at the girl’s side, checking for breathing. Her chest moved. I slid a hand under her head and tapped her shoulder.
“Hey,” I murmured. “Are you okay? Say something.”
I tapped her shoulder a few more times. My attention wandered to the marks that the ricocheted spell had made. I smelled burnt hair and flesh, and I saw a little blood, but the injuries didn’t seem grievous.
She stirred and mumbled something unintelligible.
“We’re going to take you to a hospital, okay, sweetie? I’m so, so sorry.”
She mumbled something again. Her eyes fluttered.
“What’s that?” I bent closer.
Her eyes flew wide open. Her body jerked upright—
Pain.
Rambo pierced through every layer of my clothing and sank into my waist. She drew on my flesh with Rambo’s tip so fast that I didn’t have time to react. A triangle. A dot. A squiggle.
I screamed and grabbed her wrist, pulling the knife out of me. The girl dropped Rambo and threw herself onto me, wrapping her arms and legs around me. Her low, triumphant laugh rang in my ears, and I knew it was too late. She’d already drawn the same mark on herself and had been waiting for me. Her free hand was covered in dark, sticky blood, and she plunged it under my shirt. I couldn’t stand. I couldn’t get away. I couldn’t wriggle free. It was like fighting an octopus.
Her fingertips plunged into the cut that Rambo had made, swirling her blood with mine.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The fourth channel rumbled so hard that my teeth chattered together. The girl rolled off of me. She grabbed her head and curled into a ball with her forehead touching her knees. The channel lurched, as if trying to uproot my tiny consciousness and eject it. The girl let out a bloodcurdling scream and started to spasm while rolling around on the ground.
Well, this is just great. Way to go, Rambo.
I pressed one hand to my side, trying to stop the bleeding, and crawled toward Rambo. Maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe I could stop this. Death Radar was alive with movement again, but I was too concerned with trying to stop whatever Rambo had done. Did I need to make different symbols on our skin?
I reached for Rambo. The fourth channel lurched again; I felt a sharp pain, and I realized why the girl was screaming. The powers she had amassed were filtering back through her… and pouring into me.
I heard more agonized screams, and I was pretty sure they were mine. The pain was indescribable.
I’d only ever absorbed one necromancer power. It wasn’t a large power, but I wasn’t experienced enough to filter it, and I nearly died while transferring it from The Floor into the fourth channel.
I had no idea how far this girl had gone in the craft or how big her powers were. All I knew was that I felt like I was dying, alone except for Stubby and Rambo, who were busy yelling at each other.
In the back of my mind, a little voice told me that I always knew I’d die this way.
Something foreign swelled in my gut until it was almost bursting. I knew I’d transferred two of her powers through me and into the channel, but a third one was stuck in my chest, refusing to go anywhere. I could feel more powers right behind it, their energy forcing its way inside me.
But there wasn’t enough room inside me. I was going to explode and die right here. Why weren’t these powers going into the channel? My chest felt like it was going to crack open. My skin felt like it was on fire.
Stubby’s voice cut through the panic.
Push!
I immediately obeyed, pushing like I was in labor. The power drained into the channel, leaving a cavernous hole inside me. The next power came, filling that space and then some. Survival instincts overrode my exhaustion and I continued to push, though each power was larger than the last. The fifth power was a little bigger than the one I had fallen onto on The Floor. My insides ached. As the power transferred into the channel, I felt like I was burning. The amount of power was so massive, I actually did feel one of my ribs crack. My fingers clawed the ground and I pushed with all my remaining strength, desperate to eject the energy.
The last power went into the channel. Had I not tripped on that massive power on The Floor, this exchange would have killed me. Empty and weak, I opened my eyes. The girl lay nearby, facedown, her eyes closed, and panting. The symbols she had carved into her side were exposed. Rambo lay on the ground near my hand.
Death Radar blipped with activity, and I rolled over. Henri and Norayr were at the edge of the clearing. Apparently, they’d watched the whole exchange. Henri’s eyes were wide. Norayr started running toward us. My ears were ringing so hard that I couldn’t hear, but I read his lips easily enough.
“Holy shit.”
I felt the same way. I had to get out of there, but there was no way in hell I was going to let Norayr anywhere near the girl who had just stolen my magic.
I was barely able to push up from the ground to my knees. My hands were slick with blood, and my limbs trembled from exhaustion.
The cobalt runes around my wrist flared to life.
“Eliana? Eliana, where are you?”
I choked out a sob. “Dad?”
“Is that Norayr Hakobyan?”
I sensed panic, and it wasn’t mine. I felt an immense swelling of energy. The air crackled, as if electrified. A towering black cloud billowed around me as an enormous, inky spell string formed over my head, blocking out the stars and moon.
Norayr came to a sudden halt just two feet away. His eyes were locked on the black tangle forming above me. Henri backed up, fast.
The spell string winked out.
The ground exploded around me. Norayr and the girl went flying backward. Trees uprooted. Rocks and boulders went flying. A thick wall of packed earth rose in a cone with me at the center, rising higher and higher, forming a silo and cutting me off from the girl who had my magic.
Out of instinct, I swiped one hand at the swirling runes in an attempt to kill Dad’s spell.
But that didn’t happen. My old abilities were gone and all of my hand commands had been replaced with dangerous, angry magic.
The ground at my feet exploded, throwing me backward through the air and slamming me into the opposite wall. My breath was knocked from my lungs. Death Radar said Norayr was dangerously close to where I’d seen the girl land.