by Rob Cornell
And then I walked out of there, no extraction team necessary.
That should have been the end of it, right? But when I exited the RenCen's central lobby, Orosco stood there waiting for me.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Blood was running down Orosco's face from a slice in his scalp. His right arm was bent funny and dangled loosely at his side. One of his eyes was swollen shut, and half of his bottom lip was missing. He looked like hell.
But that motherfucker was still alive.
He curled his lip as he shambled toward me.
The sound of city traffic rushed in the air. I glanced around at the shadows, but couldn't see any sign of Jackey or his people. It was just me and Orosco.
His sudden appearance took me by surprise, so he got in the first move.
He raised his good arm above his head, fingers in a claw as if he were holding something in his hand. “Circulus ignis,” he shouted.
Next thing I knew, flame swirled around me, forming a circular wall that started closing in. I felt my skin blister from the heat, and the moisture in my eyes and mouth evaporated. Before I knew it, I was engulfed in fire.
My first instinct was to thrash about, and now I knew what it must have felt like to be a victim of my own flame. I panicked and dropped to the ground, started rolling. My clothes were burning away, patches of my skin peeling and turning to black flakes that floated away on the breeze. The pain was unspeakable.
But there was a part of me, that centered part of me that I had found when I was up in the office, still there, still aware enough to remind me that, Hey, I can control fire. I tapped my magic, this time not needing to conjure fire because I had it available.
Besides, I wasn't trying to make fire, I was trying to kill it.
My magic quickly extinguished the flames, but the damage had been done. Whole sections of my clothes had been burned away, and underneath, my skin was blistered and blackened. Shock kept me from feeling most of the pain, but it didn't dull it all. Waves of agony pulsed through me. Every breath seemed to stretch my skin and make it worse.
I lay on my side, curled up in a fetal position, facing Orosco so that I could see him approach.
He walked with a limp and clutched his side as he came over. I hoped his fall had caused some internal bleeding. I don't know what kind of magic he’d used to survive the plummet from so high—that must've taken some serious wizardry. Wizards gathered their power mostly from arcane languages out of dusty old books. He must've had a lot to say on his way down.
His feet scratched against the cement as he hobbled within a foot of my face.
I twisted my neck to look up at him, which caused all sorts of new pain.
He wiped some blood out of his eye. With a piece of his lip ripped off, and all that blood on his face, his scowl looked absolutely demonic.
“You are brash, young, and stupid,” he said, his voice a wet gurgle. “You're an insult to your family name.”
My tongue pressed against the gap where my front tooth used to be. My whole mouth tasted like blood. “Say what you want about me,” I said. “But leave my family out of this.”
“I'll be honest, I only know the Lights by reputation. And from your parents' treachery against the Ministry.”
He held out his hand toward me, as if he meant to help me up. But then he spoke a couple of ancient words and closed his fist.
For the second time in one night, my heart stopped beating. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, the edges of my vision turned gray and fuzzy. Wouldn't be long before the gray turned black and closed in completely.
This time there was no pushing him out of a window, there was no chance for a physical attack at all. In my burned-up condition, I couldn't fight back.
Of course, I still had magic, but all the pain and my cooling blood made it hard to concentrate. The icy pressure in my chest was too much to bear.
Then I saw a shadow move behind Orosco. First, I thought it was just more darkness closing in on me, thought that any moment the whole world would go black forever. But the shadow pulled away from the others and became Odi. Once he was clear of the shadows, he became a blur.
In the next instant, he plowed into Orosco hard enough to somersault him over me, breaking the spell on me.
Odi hissed, his eyes glowing red, and his fangs out. In the lights coming from the building, his pale gray face looked all the more washed out. It did not, however, make his expression any less wicked.
He leaped over me after Orosco.
Orosco whispered something, there was a zap, and an instant later Odi flew back the way he'd come, hit the ground, and rolled.
Orosco stepped over me as if I wasn't even there, his focus entirely on Odi. I decided that would be the last time he turned his back on me—not with any anger, or thoughts of vengeance, but with a calm certainty. It was just what had to happen next.
I reached down for my magical energy without any specific spell in mind. Not fire or wind. Not water or earth.
Just pure magic pouring forth from that calm center inside of me.
Orosco waved his hand.
But he didn't get a chance to say his magic words.
I reached out my own hand, and bright green light shot from my palm in a concentrated beam. The beam struck Orosco square in the back, between the shoulder blades, and ripped straight through him, leaving a hole I could see the night sky through.
His body went stiff, he teetered on his feet, then dropped to the ground and jerked once before going still.
I stared at his unmoving body with my mouth hanging open, my breath coming out in an amazed shudder.
The green light.
Just like Mom's magic.
Odi stood, looking as shocked as I felt.
“Dude.”
In the distance, I heard voices and approaching hurried footsteps. I thought I could pick out Jackey's voice among them. There was my extraction team.
Too late, I thought, certain my burns were too severe to recover from.
And with that, I closed my eyes and accepted the painless dark.
Chapter Thirty-Six
When I woke up, I wasn't all that surprised to find myself in the little girl's bedroom at Jonah Jackey's house, but I was surprised that I had woken up at all.
My skin itched, as if I had a thousand bugs crawling all over me. I went to scratch but I found my hands bound by ropes that were tied to the bed frame.
What the fuck?
I looked around. The door was closed. Sunlight came through the window, the shade up. The window itself was cracked open a few inches, and a cool, fresh breeze leaked in. The smell of fresh cut grass came with it.
I didn't feel any of the pains that I had before I'd lost consciousness. Another surprise. I tugged at my bindings, but they held fast. I thought it rather ironic that I'd now been tied to a bed twice without any of the fun that should have entailed.
I called out, “I'm awake.”
A minute later I heard footsteps. The door opened, and there stood Jackey. He wore a pair of shorts with a Led Zeppelin t-shirt. His feet were bare.
For a second I worried that I had slept clear through to summer, but the cool breeze blowing through the open window set my mind at ease. Still, at this point I had no idea how long I had been out.
Jackey came over to my bedside. There was a chair beside the bed that looked like it had come out of his dining room. When he sat, the chair creaked a little. He clasped his hands and rested them in his lap, then he studied me through his glasses.
“So?”
I swallowed, knowing my voice was going to come out as a croak. I could feel the gunk in my chest and the dryness in my mouth. I didn't have much saliva to work with.
“Did we win?”
He smiled. “We won.”
I cleared my throat and closed my eyes for a moment. “Thank the gods.”
“No, thank you.”
I laughed. “I said something similar to Orosco's assistant. Were y
ou listening in somehow?”
“One of my people cast an auditory spell on you so we'd know when we needed to move in.”
“You didn't think to tell me?”
“We thought it better you didn't know so you wouldn't accidentally give it away.”
“Thanks for your confidence.”
“Sorry. You turned out to be a lot more capable than I even figured.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Did you think I was going to fail?”
“I was hoping for the best, and planning for the worst.”
I couldn't really fault him for that, so I let it go. I was just happy to be alive.
“So what now?” I asked.
“Between Orosco's death, and the efforts of those of us in the resistance, the new regime is crumbling. In the last week, we've nearly rooted out all of the major players. The smaller players we can't find will fall in line or scurry away. It's over.”
“The last week?”
“Yep. You've been out a long time, my friend.”
I remembered the feel of the burns, my nerves overwhelmed by the pain, and my certainty that I was on my way to the other side, wherever that led. I lifted my head so I could look down at my body. A single sheet covered me so I couldn't see the current condition of my skin. I could still feel that damn itching though. And when I tried to scratch, my wrists came up against those bindings again.
I looked at Jackey. “What's up with the ropes?”
“We had three healers working on you,” he said. “They did everything they could. The rest of the healing is up to you and your own body. But while you were unconscious, you tried to scratch at your wounds and you kept opening them back up. So we had to tie down your hands so you wouldn't undo all the work our healers had done.”
“Can you remove them now?”
“Are you going to scratch?”
Hell yeah, I was going to scratch. At least, that's how I felt. And I wasn't sure I'd have the willpower to hold back.
“Yeah, probably,” I said. “How long am I gonna itch like this?”
He shook his head. “I can talk to the healers, they might be able to give me an idea.”
I leaned my head back into the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. My mind raced through all the events of the last several days, and it just about fried my brain. I tried to take the memories one bit at a time and pick out my questions with care. “Any sign of the Maidens?”
“Not a thing. Whatever you did, they've gone off the map.”
Imagine that, a black witch coven sticking to their word. I must have really freaked them out. Go me.
All at once, I felt sleepy, my eyelids heavy. Cheating death was tough work.
Jackey must have seen it. He rested a hand on my shoulder. “We can talk more later. We have some important decisions to make.”
I wanted to ask him what kind of decisions, but I wanted to sleep even more.
I was out before he even got up.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I didn't wake again until after dark. The only light in the room came through the open door. Odi sat in the chair beside the bed. He had a pinched, worried expression, and he jumped as if startled when I opened my eyes and looked at him.
“Dude, you're awake.”
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“I'm fine. I'm more worried about you.”
I took stock of myself and noticed that the itching wasn't as bad. Maybe they could finally untie me.
“You really messed that guy up,” Odi said. “Blasted a hole clean through his chest.”
“Looks like I learned a new trick.”
“It kind of reminded me of…” He trailed off. Bowed his head.
“Yeah, like Mom.”
He smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. “Dude, she would've totally been so proud of you.”
It felt a little funny having my apprentice watching over me instead of the other way around. I didn't care that he was a vampire, he was a damn good kid. And I had a feeling—no—I damn well knew that he would stay that way. A hundred years from now, he'd still be a damn good kid.
After a couple minutes, Jackey entered the room.
“Are you ready to discuss the future of the Ministry?”
That sounded a little too momentous for my tastes. What possible input did they expect from me? “You'll have to untie me first.”
“Of course.”
Once free, my first instinct was to rake my nails across my skin. I threw off the sheet. I was only in a pair of boxer shorts, and even with just the light coming through the door, I could see the scars all over my chest, my legs, my arms. I had a feeling that no matter how good Jackey's healers had been, I'd be stuck with some of the scars for the rest of my life.
The shock of the sight of them made me forget all about how itchy I was.
Jackey hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “There's clothes for you on the dresser. Go ahead and get dressed and meet us out in the living room.” Then he left.
I swung my legs off the bed and sat up on the edge of the mattress. My head spun. I'd gotten up too fast. I waited for the sensation to pass, the whole time feeling Odi's worried gaze on me.
“I'm okay, kid.”
“I know. I'm just wondering what comes next.”
I laughed. “Normal life?”
He chuffed, shaking his head. “Yeah, right.”
Once I felt like I could stand without tipping over, I got dressed, and Odi and I went out to the living room. The set-up was the same as my last visit to Jackey's house, only a couple of people were missing, including the smoking lady. I didn't need to ask where they were. I could sense the sorrow among the others, and knew they had fallen in battle.
There was room on the couch, and Jackey gestured for me and Odi to take a seat. There was a weird tension in the room. A feeling of anticipation I was getting from the others. I had no idea what that was about.
After we were seated, Jackey stayed on his feet and paced back and forth. He shook his hands at his sides as if working up the courage to do something dangerous, which worried me even more.
All at once, he stopped pacing and looked directly at me. “What are your plans?”
I lifted my shoulders. “I haven't really had time to think about it.”
“Well, now that the Maidens are gone, and the bad elements in the Ministry have been removed, what do you think you could do?”
This was really weird. Too weird. “I guess I can go back to demon hunting,” I said in a light tone. “As long as the Ministry starts issuing contracts again.”
Jackey stared intently at me. “Is that really what you want?”
“Look, I don't really know what I'm going to do. But I don't really think it's important right now. I just want to go home and sleep for another week.”
“There's a vacuum in the Ministry right now,” Jackey said. “If it stays like that much longer we could end up in the same situation we were before. We need to make sure that we have leaders in the Ministry who can guide it to a better future.”
“Okay,” I said. “What does this have to do with me?” I gestured toward the others around me. “You've got people. I assumed they would be the ones to take over.”
Jackey nodded. “True enough. But not everybody wants to be leader.”
“That's fine. Totally cool. You'll figure it out.”
“What about you?”
Oh, shit. Was he really going where I thought he was going? I held up my hands. “No, no. Politics aren't my thing.”
“We could really use you,” Jackey said. “Everybody looks up to you.”
“I appreciate that. I really do. But I don't know what I can do. You're crazy if you think I want to be an arbiter or something. And I am no scholar like my parents.”
“I actually had something else in mind,” he said.
Tension knotted between my shoulder blades and up the back of my neck. I didn't know where he was headed, but my body seemed to have some idea.
I hadn't thought of it that way. Despite all that had gone down in the last six months or so, the conspiracy had existed for longer than three years. I had to admit feeling a little pride about my role in finishing what my parents had started.
But it was finished. Which meant my involvement was finished. I threw up my hands. “I don't know what more I can do, Jonah. You guys seem to have this all under control.”
“We have to rebuild Detroit's Ministry,” he said. “We must have new leadership.”
“I feel like you're beating around a bush.”
“Then I'll be straight with you.” He unfolded his glasses and put them back on. “We want you to be the new prefect.”
My jaw dropped almost to my lap. Was this guy serious? Was he out of his fucking mind? Prefect? Me?
“No way. You've got me all wrong.”
The others all stared at me, making me feel penned in. Didn't they realize? I was no leader. I was just a demon hunter who got caught up in a bunch of bullshit. Nothing more.
Next to me, Odi turned in his seat. “He's right. You'd be good at it.”
I give him an incredulous look. “Did you stand out in the sun for too long?”
“Just sayin', dude.”
Was this for real? I felt like I was in some strange dream. Any second now, my clothes would disappear and everyone in the room would point and laugh at me. At least I'd wake up, though. So why wasn't I waking up?
“I'm sorry,” I said. “I just can't.”
Jackey closed his eyes for a couple seconds. His shoulders drooped, and his arms hung loose on his skinny frame. “I understand. But will you at least think about it?”
I opened my mouth to say no. Instead, I said, “All right. I'll think about it.”
I don't know why I bothered stringing him on, though. There was no flipping way I was going to be Detroit's prefect.