Allie Beckstrom 09 - Magic for a Price

by Devon Monk

  I helped Zay sit and went back to help Terric, Cody, and Shame with Nola. She was semiconscious, and shivering.

  “Call,” Shame said. “Allie, call an ambulance.” He and Terric pulled off their coats and covered Nola with them.

  I reached for my cell. Pulled it out of my pocket. The battery was drained. “Terric, your phone.”

  He fished it out of his pocket. “Nothing,” he said, trying to thumb it on.

  Shame glanced at his phone. “Dead.”

  Cody sat with Nola’s head in his lap, gently brushing his fingertips over her forehead. He was on the verge of tears.

  None of us looked strong enough to go call for an ambulance. All of us looked like we needed an ambulance. “I’m going to go get help. Stay here with her.”

  Mama, Dad said. She can help.

  Her place is too far away.

  “They want you,” Shame said. “Leander and Isabelle want your father in you. You can’t go off alone.”

  “She needs a doctor.” I was already walking.

  Shame grabbed my arm. “Allie, no. If Zay were conscious he’d kick my ass if I let you go.”

  It took me a second. Finally his words sank in. “Zay’s unconscious?”

  I stopped. Turned. Zay was lying on the ground, bleeding. The glyphs that always burned with black fire against his skin were ashy gray with no light, no magic.

  Everything seemed to go silent. I didn’t know what to do. Did I run for an ambulance to save Nola? Did I go to Zayvion and hope that being there, holding him, lending him my strength would ease his pain, hold him away from death?

  Allison, Dad said. I can help. Call Stone. I can make this all better.

  It was like he flipped on a light switch in my head.

  I remembered when I was little—maybe in kindergarten—I’d snuck out of the house to ride my bike. I’d fallen down a hill. My arms and legs were bloody, but I’d pushed my bike all the way home. And when I got there, I snuck into the bathroom and tried to fix all the bleeding myself, but I couldn’t get the bandages to stick right. Dad must have heard me. He came out of his office and found me there, standing in the bathtub so I didn’t get blood on the floor, with an empty box of Band-Aids in my hand and a pile of wrappers at my feet.

  “Allison,” he’d said. “I can help. I can make this all better. You should have come to me.” He gently washed my arms and legs, wrapped soft cotton bandages around the cuts, then put me in a warm, dry bathrobe and gathered me up. He held me on the couch until I fell asleep, and made me my favorite lunch—tomato soup and a tuna sandwich—when I woke up.

  I wanted that warm, safe feeling again. I wanted that father again.

  I’d spent most of my life not trusting him. Maybe it was time to admit I could have been wrong. That I should let go my distrust. That I could believe he really wanted to help me. That maybe he really still loved me.

  “Cody, can you get an ambulance?”

  Cody was rocking softly now, shaking his head. No help there.

  “Shame, get an ambulance.”

  I started walking back toward Zay and Nola.

  I’m trusting you, Dad, I said quietly. Please…please help make this all better.

  I knelt next to Nola. She was quieter, I thought unconscious. I could see the faint white-green light of the spell Terric had put on her. Something that eased the pain and gave her strength.

  “She’ll be okay,” I said to Cody. “Just don’t let go of her.”

  He nodded and nodded. “Doctor. We need a doctor. Are doctors coming?”

  “Shame’s getting the doctors.”

  Then I took the few steps over to Zay. Terric sat next to him, his hand on Zay’s chest.

  “He’s breathing,” Terric said, his voice rough. “That gate. Too much.”

  Too much for all of us. Terric looked like he was barely conscious himself. He was blinking hard, and swaying a bit even though he was sitting.

  “I need to call Stone,” I said. “So you might want to let go of Zay. This might hurt.”

  Terric peered up at me, and shook his head once. “Summon?”

  “Yes.”

  “I got him.”

  It was great that he was willing to help Zay while I used magic. But I wasn’t even sure I was going to make it to the end of the spell.

  Who was going to get me?

  I will, Dad said.

  His presence filled me, and I felt stronger, as if he was standing beside me with his hand on my shoulder, encouraging, supporting.

  You can do this, Allison. I know you can.

  I cleared my mind, thinking through the lines and angles of the Summon spell before I even tried to cast it. Once I had it clearly in my head, I traced the glyph.

  Then I called on magic.

  There is no magic in St. Johns. Or maybe there was. I didn’t care where the magic was coming from just as long as it came.

  And it did, pulling across from the wells we’d worked so hard to close off, to purify.

  It felt sticky, hot. I didn’t want to touch it. Didn’t want it to touch me. I knew it was going to hurt. Ever since Dad did that thing in my head so I could use magic again, I knew using it meant magic harmed me. Permanently.

  But I held it, kept my concentration by focusing on my breathing, in, out. Ignore the pain. Ignore the world around me. There was nothing more important than the magic responding to my summons, the magic filling the glyph, and the glyph, finally, finally becoming a spell—a bloodred butterfly—that shot up into the air, winging off to search for Stone.

  I let go of magic, shaking it free of my unbroken right hand.

  The pains were stacking up. I felt sick, woozy. Just on the edge of passing out.

  But Stone would come. I knew he would. And then Dad would help us…somehow. Terric slid his arm around my waist, and lowered me down next to Zay.

  “Hold him,” he said. “It will help.”

  I was sitting, so I put my hand on Zay’s chest. He was breathing too hard, his eyes closed and far too much blood still slicking his face and chest. At my touch, his breathing settled some, and he opened his eyes.

  Gold and filled with pain.

  Where was Shame and that ambulance?

  “Allie?” Terric said.

  “What?” I guess I had closed my eyes for a second. For the first time, it occurred to me that I might have a concussion.

  He pointed.

  At the sky.

  It was still red, still storming, now with magic gushing like geysers out of the wells Zayvion had blown open. And straight above us was a soft glow of pink. I’d seen the color before, that magic before.

  It took me a minute; then I remembered. That was the color of the crystal Dad had found in St. Johns. The crystal Terric had somehow embedded into Shame’s chest to save him.

  It was the color of light I’d seen around Cody’s hands when he’d first seen Davy injured by the Veiled. A soft pink light, a soft magic.

  “What is it?” I asked, though I didn’t think Terric would have the answer.

  The well, Dad said. The magic of St. Johns. You were searching for it, reaching for it. It is now answering you, Allison. He said that with something like amazement, or respect. The magic answered your need for it.

  How is that going to help us?

  He didn’t answer.

  He didn’t have time to. That soft pink light suddenly blew apart like someone had just shot a cloud of darkness into its center.

  And out of that darkness emerged the Overseer.

  She arrowed down, straight toward St. Johns, toward the park, toward us, magic carrying her on wings of fire.

  I struggled up onto my feet. Somehow, so did Zayvion. He snarled in pain as he straightened and pulled his sword.

  “Stay here, Cody,” I said. “And help Shame get Nola to the hospital, okay?”

  Cody shook his head. “Don’t go,” he pleaded. “Please don’t do this, Daniel.”

  Daniel? What did he think my dad was going to do? “
I won’t let him do anything bad,” I said.

  “It’s too late.” He pointed.

  The darkness in the center of the sky was still there. Obsidian black, flecked with arcing lightning shots of rainbows. It looked like the Rift—that band of dark magic that flowed like a river between life and death.

  “Is that the Rift?” I asked.

  “Dark magic,” Zay said.

  “You can see it?”

  “Yes.”

  “They’re using dark magic?” I didn’t know how bad that would be, but I knew it wouldn’t be good.

  “Both,” Zay said. “They’re using dark and light magic.”

  Well, hell. Not only could very few people use dark and light magic—Zayvion being one of those people—anyone who did could use it only for a short period of time before it killed them.

  Ever since magic had been broken to try to keep the living Leander and Isabelle from pretty much doing what the dead Leander and Isabelle were doing right now—taking over the world, killing anyone who got in their way, and bending magic to do whatever they willed it to do—it had been deadly to use any but the smallest amount of dark magic.

  “Did you cast something?” Zay asked me.

  “Summon. For Stone. He…Dad told me if Stone were here Dad could help us, could make it better.”

  “I wouldn’t say no to some backup,” he said. “Did you call anyone else? Let them know we have the Overseer’s full attention?”

  “The phones are all dead,” I said. “Drained. We just got out of the burning car a couple minutes ago.”

  “Where’s Shame?” he asked.

  “He’s gone.”

  A wash of shock and sorrow nearly took me to my knees. I grabbed Zay’s hand.

  “No, no,” I said hurriedly. “Not that. Not dead. He’s alive. He’s getting an ambulance. Gone to get an ambulance. For Nola.”

  Zay closed his eyes for a second and swallowed hard. “I thought…”

  “I know. I didn’t mean it that way. I’m sorry.”

  “We need a plan,” Terric said as Leander and Isabelle rocketed toward the ground. They weren’t going to land very far away. Maybe a block. Maybe two. “Who protects Nola and Cody? Who takes on the Overseer?”

  “They’re coming,” Cody said quietly. “For Daniel. Just like he wanted. Just like he’s planned all along.”

  “Allie?” Zay asked.

  “I don’t know. That’s not what he told me. Dad seems afraid of Leander and Isabelle. I don’t think he’s on their side. Do you know something more, Cody?”

  “He made deals. In death. With my father, Mikhale. I think he made deals about Leander and Isabelle. Deals so he could live. So he could be here, right now, when this happened.”

  Is that true? I asked him.

  Of course I’ve made deals. No business comes to fruition by one hand alone. Yes, I wanted to be here if this came about. But I am not on Leander and Isabelle’s side. I do not want to rule magic the way they do.

  You want to rule magic?

  I want it in the right hands. I have told you that for many months.

  I knew he was telling me the truth. I could feel it in his thoughts. But I was also just as sure it wasn’t all of the truth.

  “I don’t think he’s on their side,” I said. “I don’t think this was his plan.”

  My plan would never be so haphazard, he said, a little offended.

  “Whether it’s his plan or not, we need to make some decisions,” Terric said. “They’re coming.”

  I glanced across the park to the street just beyond the grassy knoll. The street was a steep hill, rising over the railroad track, and lined by two-and three-story buildings, some that had been converted into warehouses, some that were just plain falling down.

  Margaret Stafford, the Overseer, the body for Leander and Isabelle, walked down the center of that street. There was an awful lot of blood soaked through her shirt. Nola was a hell of a shot. I didn’t think that body was going to be alive for much longer.

  Darkness—an impenetrable black that sizzled with dark magic—followed behind her. The darkness swallowed up the buildings, the street, and everything she passed.

  “That’s dark magic, right?” I said.

  “That’s our death,” Terric said.

  “Not yet, it isn’t,” I said. “Cody, help me get Nola somewhere safe.”

  He shook his head. “There is no safe place.”

  Okay, convincing him would take too long, and trying to get Nola…where? Into one of the buildings that was being swallowed whole wasn’t a good plan either.

  “We take the battle away from here, away from Nola,” I said.

  “Allie,” Zay said. “I can’t cast Gate again. Not if you want me, and probably yourself, conscious.”

  “Not Gate. Just not here. We get far enough away from Nola so that she’s not in the blast zone.”

  I strode across the grass. Toward Leander and Isabelle. Toward that storm of darkness devouring my city. Toward my death.

  If I had to die, I was sure as hell not doing it alone. Leander and Isabelle were going with me.

  You make any deals that might help us right now? I asked Dad.

  Not…not that I can think of. If Stone were here…perhaps.

  And just when I’d hoped he might be helpful.

  I pulled my sword, felt Zay walking beside me, his sword clenched in his hand at his side. Terric was on my other side. He had a gun in one hand, an ax in the other.

  I wished Shame were here.

  Hells, I wished an army was here. Because if Leander and Isabelle were determined to kill us, I didn’t see how we could stop them. Maybe the rest of the world could fight them, kill the body. But Leander and Isabelle would just find a new body, probably the next person in position of power. And since it was easy magic to Close someone, to take their memories away, no one would even know that they should be stopped.

  But the three of us? We were not enough. I could hardly cast magic. Zay was burned out and bleeding, my pain his pain. Terric was exhausted. Without Shame, I wasn’t even sure he could control magic or if he would, on accident, kill us all with the first spell he cast.

  Not exactly the heroes to count on at the end of the world.

  Cody didn’t follow us. I had hoped he wouldn’t. I wanted him to stay with Nola.

  No one should die alone.

  I swallowed down my fear for Nola and my fear that Shame may have been killed by that city-eating blackness, the Rift that followed the Overseer. Swallowed my fear that there was no ambulance coming for Nola, no help coming for any of us because there were no ambulances, or city for that matter, beyond the grass at my feet, and the park where my friend was dying behind me.

  I reached out for Zay as we walked. Just as he reached out for me. Since I had the sword in my hand, and my left wrist was broken, he hooked my fingers with his own. We reached the edge of the park and stepped out across the railroad track, then onto the street beyond.

  No one should die alone.

  And no one should face the end of the world alone.

  Margaret Stafford was there on the street. It made my angry little heart happy to see she was not unscathed. Our fight had left her burned and bleeding. Not enough to stop her. Not enough to even slow her down. Yet.

  But by God, it was good to see her hurt.

  No matter that Leander and Isabelle were the first Soul Complements, undead and more powerful than any person walking this earth, that body they were using was still mortal. Fallible. Killable.

  Time to make her fall. Time to make Leander and Isabelle pay. Make this end.

  A motion to my left made me glance that way.

  Shamus Flynn strode down the street, smoking the ash off a cigarette, and throwing the butt to the side as he exhaled.

  I could practically feel Terric’s smile.

  “Decided to join us?” Terric asked, handing Shame a spare ax from his belt.

  Shame met his gaze with a wry grin. “Wouldn’t mi
ss this for the fucking world, mate.” He took the ax, then fell into step next to Terric as we headed up the street. “Called for medical, Allie. Not sure when they’ll get here. The whole damn city’s under fire from the armies at the gates.”

  “Are we winning?” I asked.

  “Hayden’s still alive. And Mum. Don’t know about your Hounds. The armies aren’t going to be standing much longer. Gates are closed. Well done that, Zay.”

  “Victor? Violet? Kevin? Stotts?”

  “Violet and Kevin are fine. Mum hasn’t heard from Stotts. Figures he has his hands full coordinating the firepower. Guns against magic. It’s a mess out there.”

  “Victor?” I asked again.

  “Took a bullet to the chest,” he said a little quieter. “They don’t think he’s going to make it.”

  Zay inhaled hard, and I could feel his anger and sorrow.

  I swallowed against the need to cry. “Is…is someone with him?”

  “Doctor Fischer and Mum. He won’t go alone.”

  “Hell,” Terric breathed.

  “I could Close them,” Zay said. “Kill them.”

  “The armies?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You’ll be standing after that?”

  “No. But the city might.”

  I didn’t want him to.

  But this wasn’t about me. This was about magic. And the people of Portland surviving this attack.

  “If you think—” I started.

  “No,” Shame said to Zay. “Allie can’t take much more. I know. I caught her last time. No fucking chance I can do it again.”

  “I could—” Zay started.

  “Zayvion,” Shame said gently, bending a bit so he could look around Terric and make eye contact with Zay. “Doing it won’t change what happened to Victor. That’s done now. Out of our hands. Out of yours.”

  Zay inhaled, exhaled as if trying to push down sorrow, or rage. Victor was more than a teacher to him. He had been a father.

  “You know what he’d want you to do, Z,” Shame said. “Go on now, mate.”

  “Cut off the head of the serpent that killed him,” Zay said, squaring his shoulders.

  “Fuck the price we pay,” Terric said.