by K. F. Breene
“Uh-oh,” Penny said. Clearly she’d thrown up the netlike spell, trying to mimic my magic. It was not wise to experiment on the fly.
“Run!” Penny screamed, throwing up another layer of magic.
“Penny, you’ll only make it worse,” Callie yelled before hurrying over to Dizzy, her hands full of supplies.
“I can undo it,” Penny replied, moving her hands through the air.
The spells fizzed and shook in midair, frozen in place but not subdued.
“Reagan,” Callie yelled. Penny was damn near the most powerful mage I’d ever seen. Dealing with her magic gone rogue would be too much for even dual mages of Callie and Dizzy’s caliber.
I created a sphere of fire around the mess of magic, and not a moment too soon. The cocooned spell reversed Penny’s intended goal. Spikes of magic shot out in all directions, pounding at my sphere from within. A few spears broke out, incredibly powerful from the merged energy of both casters. It punched divots in the ground and shot through the wood of the warehouse.
“Bad idea, Penny,” I said, out of breath. I felt the drain of power. “Don’t try to mimic my magic. It doesn’t work like yours.”
She nodded with an ashen face. “Okay.” She swallowed hard. “Okay.”
“Go, Reagan.” Callie motioned me away. “I got it from here.”
The female mage had run down the few steps while I was dealing with the magic, splitting up from her stunned male counterpart. She’d probably hoped the man would snap out of it and guard the stairs. Or maybe she just figured her chances were better on her own.
Leaving her to Callie, I charged the door, feeling that now familiar cold throbbing in my middle. The demon was in there, and I was about to drop in and say hi.
Darius got there before me. He grabbed the still-stunned mage out of the doorway and ripped him away, leaving the door for me. I kicked it open and ran into the warehouse.
Hundreds of candles glowed around the floor, illuminating boxes stacked at the back and around the sides. In the middle of a cleared space stood three mages, all in black robes, making a triangle around a circle drawn on the floor. Beside them was a pile of gross, not human this time. An animal of some sort.
“You guys really don’t have the hang of sacrifices, you know that?” I said, inching forward slowly. I didn’t know what spells were brewing in that circle. One wrong move, and I could accidentally give the demon enough power to ride the magic home.
None of the mages glanced my way, all of them hunched in a troll-like way, completely focused on the circle and what was in it. A homeless man sat within the circle, bent and crippled in an inhuman way. The demon must have taken over that body, eating away anything that had once been human.
This demon needed to die, like all the people it had killed while on the surface.
I gritted my teeth, reining in the surge of fire that roared through me.
Don’t be hasty. You have to approach this delicately or you’ll be screwed.
Something exploded outside, shaking the warehouse. Still, the mages didn’t seem to notice.
The homeless man’s head swiveled until his gleaming eyes took me in.
“You are too late,” he rasped as Dizzy and Callie hurried through the door. They immediately slowed down, as I had done, taking in the scene. Penny came in after them, hanging back. “It is done.”
“You’re still here,” I said, feeling that aching coldness expand within me, threatening the fire. I made sure my sword was stocked full of fire magic before it was too late. “I can still break into that circle and peel you out of there.”
Darius stripped off his clothes. Penny’s eyes widened in shock, and she jerked her head away. A moment later, he molted into his monster form.
“Can we get rid of those mages, Callie?” I asked, walking around the edge of their stooped, muttering forms. They weren’t in control of themselves anymore. However the demon had done it in its weakened state, it had assumed full control.
“Not…yet. Give me a minute to look at that circle.” Callie went the other way, squinting at the chalk on the warehouse floor.
“It’s an intricate one, hon,” Dizzy said. “Magically fortified, structurally sound… It’ll take a minute to disentangle. They’ve gotten better at this. They’re masters, really. I’d love to get a picture.”
The demon’s laugh was like a swarm of locusts. “They are under my control. Any tampering with the circle will grant me a free ride home.”
Sometimes I hated being right.
“So, what, you’re just going to sit in there until hell freezes over?” I asked, stepping beside one of the mages and feeling the hum of magic in his spell. Intricate, indeed. Not like anything I’d experienced before, and certainly not like anything I’d ever seen in a book.
The cold within me pulsed, pushing at the fire. The candles around us flickered.
The demon-man’s smile widened. “Oh, but you are powerful. You are creating a flux in the fire element. Can you feel it?”
No. But I wasn’t about to admit that.
“Come with me,” the demon-man said. “Let us train you. You need a guiding hand, or your magic will destroy you. We can help.”
“I’ve been good so far.” I walked over to the next mage, feeling a different hum. Good Lord, this demon had some very interesting ways of working this circle. If I hadn’t been so scared and angry and all around put out, I’d be fascinated.
“Yes. Somehow, yes,” it rasped. “But luck always runs out.” A chunk of skin peeled away from the man’s face.
“Yuck. And here I thought the vampire monster form was gross. It’s got nothing on you, homeboy.” When I reached the last mage, I felt the slightly different hum, getting a feeling for the three corners of what the demon was orchestrating. It was awe-inspiring. And more, I knew it was within my power to set such a circle—and to unravel it. It was like listening to someone speak a language you hadn’t conversed in since childhood: you couldn’t quite grasp what was being said, but you felt the rightness of it in your bones. All I needed was time to sit and study what was happening, and I knew I could come up with a way to circumvent it.
Unfortunately, time was something I did not have.
“Penny, can you read anything off the mages?” I asked, circling the mages once more. I could feel the circle gaining power, which meant the demon was becoming more powerful, too.
“Yes. But their magic is…”
“Odd, yeah. Analyze it. See if you can’t find a way to cut them off without infusing the circle with more power.”
“Okay,” she said in a tiny voice.
The man’s skin was turning translucent, showing black feathers underneath. The demon was about ready to emerge from his cocoon.
“Whatever move we make, we have to do it soon,” I said softly, closing my eyes as the hum of the circle vibrated my skin. I stood right next to it now, clearing my mind and letting the magic whisper to me.
The cold throb grew, as I had known it would. It tried to push my fire down.
Blend your heritage, ma bichette. Blend your heritage. Blend your heritage, ma chere. Blend your—
“I got it, Darius. You can stop repeating that now.”
Fuse—
I tilted my head, staring at the creature in the circle. That thought had reverberated from it. The demon had cut it off, and now it was either shielding its thoughts or not thinking at all, but it had been there.
Fuse.
Fuse my magic.
“How?” I asked it, not meaning to. Then, hoping for another slip-up and a free lesson, I asked again, “How do I fuse my magic?”
Its smile stretched across its face, and not in the theoretical way, like in books. This was inhuman and horrible, showing black fangs and a thin tongue behind them. “Come with me, and we will show you.”
“How can you show me if you don’t have the same type of magic?” I asked, raising my hands to the invisible wall of the circle. The cold bit into my skin. The feeli
ng was unpleasant, but if I had to be honest, no more painful than the fire. I realized now that my hatred of the cold was related to the fear of what it would do to my fire.
I needed to push beyond this; I just didn’t know how.
“How are we coming, Penny?” I asked, giving in to the cold. Letting it rise up through me like I’d done earlier that night.
“I think… I think I can create a kind of bridge, but only for a moment.” She exhaled noisily. “You’d have to kill the demon within a very short amount of time. If you don’t succeed, he’ll be banished. We’re not trying to banish him, right? We’re trying to kill him? Because banishing would be very easy.”
“Kill, yes.” I grimaced at the demon’s laughter. “Sooner the better.”
“You have the capacity for greatness, but you are not there yet, heir-child.” It laughed again.
“I hate you.” I closed my eyes as the cold overcame me. Suffocated me.
The candles around us dimmed and then went out.
A shower of bright white light shone down on us. Darius had turned on the warehouse lights.
Everyone, including the demon, squinted and raised their arm against the unexpected glare.
“There goes the romantic atmosphere,” I said as the sludge rose up within me. Freezing my limbs, like at the mage’s house. This time, though, I was prepared.
With everything I had, I pulled at the fire deep in my gut as the circle throbbed even colder against my hands, inside me.
“This has to happen now, or he’s gone,” Penny said. “He’s nearly got the power he needs. He’s draining it out of the mages.”
“Told you so,” I muttered to the mages, wrestling with my fire. “Never trust a demon.”
Thoughts of my mother floated through my mind. Of Callie and Dizzy’s blind faith. Of No Good Mikey and the gang, welcoming me into the neighborhood even though they gave side-eyes to most everyone else. My thoughts even lingered on Darius and his soft caresses. Darius, who had tried his damnedest to protect me, and look after me, when he ignored most everyone else.
I welcomed the flutter in my heart this time, reminding me that I was human. That this cold power would not steal the parts of me that could feel, any more than the fire had.
The heat crept up, encircling the cold. Blending. But not fusing.
For now, it would have to do.
“Go, Penny,” I barked. “Darius, take down the mages. Callie and Dizzy, work with Penny in any way you can, and protect Darius from the mages’ attacks.”
“You can do this, Reagan,” Callie said.
“Go!” I shouted.
Chapter Thirty-Four
I felt the strength from Penny’s magic, threading light and buoyancy through the demon’s dark, dank magic. Cracks formed, shattering the cohesiveness of the pyramid of the spell. The circle flickered, one moment a self-imposed cage with a one-way trip to the underworld, and the next, nothing more than some lines and characters drawn on the concrete floor.
My power burst forth, grabbing the demon in a concussion of air and raising it up. Darius ran around the circle, easily dodging a battery of spells. He broke a spell casing he’d been carrying and threw it at one of the mage’s feet. Sickly green smoke enveloped the mage, making him convulse. Callie and Dizzy threw something at another one of the mages. The final mage met Darius face to face as he came out of his trance. He shot off a stream of red, but Darius easily dodged it. A moment later the mage succumbed to the elder’s strength and power.
I crawled fire down the borrowed body of the demon, shedding the shell he’d made of the homeless man, and exposing the oily black feathers beneath. I pushed my hands forward and felt the rush of fire fill me, rolling over my arms and out through my fingers. The spicy heat raked across me in a way I’d grown to love, even as the hollow coldness pumped in my stomach. A stream of hellfire tore through the air and splashed across the demon’s front, melting half of him away.
Orbs of light popped up around us. Boxes floated up from the floor. I didn’t worry about controlling either hallmark of my power.
I gritted my teeth from exertion as sweat dripped down my face.
The demon howled and writhed, trying to break free. A blast of air slapped my body, jolting me backward. Boxes flew, aiming for me.
None of them made it far.
Magic pulsed from all around us, my mages putting up spells to block me from being struck.
“Die, you bastard,” I yelled, squeezing the demon in place with air while pushing forth another blast of hellfire. My limbs shook with the effort. Weakness clutched at me.
The fire tore at the creature right before something cold and solid hit my face and sent me reeling backward. A pile of char sank to the floor in the middle of the circle as the power radiated through the room.
“It’s sending it down,” Callie shouted, throwing a spell at the circle. The energy melted in, fueling the banishment spell.
“It’s done,” I said, panting. I held up a hand. “It’s done.”
The pile of burned black feathers disappeared from the warehouse floor, sent down to the underworld.
“It got two full-power blasts of hellfire.” My legs gave out and I fell to the ground. Darius was there a moment later, hefting me up into his arms, in human form again, thank bejeebus. “It was nothing but a puddle of a former demon. Nothing could come back from that.”
“Are you sure?” Dizzy asked, analyzing the circle.
My head felt unbelievably heavy. I let it fall to Darius’s shoulder. “I saw it right before it went down.”
“That was close.” Callie glanced around. Exhaustion deepened the lines around her eyes. “That was really close. Thank God you can find a needle in a haystack, Dizzy. We almost didn’t get here in time.”
“Oh, that was nothing.” Dizzy took out his phone and held it up to take a picture of the circle. “The pay stub was lying there, clear as day. I just had to pick it out from under a pile of his junk. He probably forgot it was even in there.”
“Darius, you need to get dressed,” Callie said, scowling at him with her hands braced on her hips. “No one needs to know what urges you are having right this second.”
“We need to erase this evidence.” Darius lowered me to the ground, ignoring Callie. “And to do that, you need to burn this warehouse to the ground. It is the easiest approach. Do you need some blood?”
“No, no.” Callie marched over. “No way. She’s in it thick enough where you’re concerned. Don’t think I haven’t noticed. No, Penny can take care of that.”
Penny stood off to the side, wringing her hands and looking anywhere but at the fallen enemy mages. “Yes, I can do magical fire. I mean, you know, not like Reagan. I can’t control it like that. But I can set a fire well enough. My mom still doesn’t know what happened to our shed.”
“Atta girl. And don’t you tell her, either. You’re better off.” Dizzy nodded matter-of-factly. I noticed that he very consciously didn’t glance at the glowering Callie. A few questions had probably just been answered for her regarding some destroyed items in her house.
“Let’s get going.” I struggled out of Darius’s grasp.
“You’re staggering like a drunk.” Callie grabbed my arm to brace me. “Vampire, cover that thing up and then go get the car. We’ll get this place burning in the meantime.”
In as little time as it had taken her to say it, Darius was dressed and looking impeccable. It boggled the mind.
I squealed like an idiot when he scooped me up and took off, leaving Callie shouting behind us. I let my head drop again and held on tightly.
“Today is Saturday, right?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“I forgot to text J.M. that I was working. He probably figures, but still. I should’ve texted. I’d much rather be out to dinner with him instead of battling a demon.”
“I know,” he said as we tore through the lots. Dawn was a few hours away. We had to get back to the hotel. “Can you still read my tho
ughts?”
I let my eyes flutter closed. “No. That’s only when the other power overcomes me. You know, I vaguely remember that happening with the fire when I first learned to use it. Well, not like that, but I remember feeling the fire rage through me, and having the uncontrollable desire to burn everything down. Just burn it all down. I just remembered that when I was wrestling with my magic earlier. My mom had a way of talking me through it. I can’t remember how, though. I was never in my right mind.”
“We will figure it out.” Darius zipped past the office building. The security guard, who hadn’t moved much since we’d walked past earlier, blinked in our direction. He didn’t even unhook his thumbs from his belt.
“How are you on blood?” I asked, then wanted to knife myself. “I didn’t mean to ask that.”
“I do not need blood, but I long to revel in your body. Stay with me today.”
No was on the tip of my tongue, but it wouldn’t exit my mouth. I’d spent so much time fighting to keep from losing myself to the demon, to that cold power, that I didn’t have any energy left to fight the allure of the vampire. I didn’t even want to.
He set me down next to the car and opened the door before handing me into the seat. He filled the driver’s seat a moment later, and then we were on our way.
“They’ll notice the car rolling through,” I said as I put on my seatbelt.
“By the time they check it out, we’ll be gone.”
It turned out we were both right. The guard started as we drove along the road, moving much faster than the posted speed limit, but no one had shown up by the time we’d loaded up the mages.
“Why’d you put up a more intensive invisibility spell?” I asked in confusion as Darius turned back to the road. We’d forgotten about Penny’s car. Oops.
“Penny’s magical fire wouldn’t have burned much of that place before someone noticed the fire.” Callie massaged her thighs.
“It seemed a lot stronger before I saw Reagan’s fire. I’d love to speak with your cousin, Reagan,” Penny said.