by Katya Moore
“Mario. Sergeant Eidelweiss. What are you…?” Alex began, rising from the floor.
“I can imitate the guard. What should I say?” His eyes locked with Alex’s. Not Roc’s. Alex’s.
“Umm…” She looked around in a panic. “The suspect got loose and rammed into the florists. Security is attempting to salvage the arrangements.”
“Would they actually do that?” Roc asked with a dubious look.
She nodded. “If this concert doesn’t go off because security let a podcaster break the rider, every single one of them is fired. Or worse, if her fans find out who they are. This concert is the culmination of Glory’s dreams. This is the first stop on her world tour. Her World Domination tour. It can’t fail because of a bunch of flowers.” She grimaced. “My name got out there on the premise that I might have been involved with the theft of a dress. If this concert tanks, you know someone’s gonna doxx the hell out of these guys.”
“The cameras are on a loop. They’ll know something’s not right.”
Alex looked at the mess. “Cory, grab a broom and sweep the flowers into the room they pulled the podcaster out of. Leave a bunch of petals. Everyone else, help me drag the guards into the broom closet. Kit, you listening?”
“Yeah.” The hacker’s voice came over my comm unit.
“Grab a new loop in one minute, with the petals. We’ll clear the hall.”
The next minute was a flurry of activity. Alex and Roc hauled one guard. I flung the other over my shoulder and piled him into the closet on top of the first. Cory beckoned us all into the vacated room. We dove in.
“Recording… done. Got the loop. I’ll feed it as soon as you make the call.”
Cory pressed the button on the radio. “Feldman to Sergeant Eidelweiss. Bad news, boss, Dex Ward got loose and he’s running around the north corridor somewhere. Worse than that, he rammed into those florists you sent back to the green room. The ones with the special flowers.” I saw Alex’s eyes widen at Cory’s flawless imitation of the guard who’d spoken to us in the hall. Corvids have a knack for voices.
“Fu…What’s the damage?” Eidelweiss sounded pissed.
“We’ve got the situation in hand. We’re helping the florists put them back together, but we’ll be a minute. Can you get someone else on Ward?”
“Sending units. You get those flowers prepped. She’ll be in the green room in less than five minutes for her pre-show prep. Godda…” The voice cut off.
“That was freaky,” Alex said in awed tones.
“That was freaky,” Cory said in her voice.
Her eyes widened, then narrowed.
I reached out a hand and smacked Cory on the back of the head. “Stop mocking her, dickhead.”
“Children, behave,” Roc said with great annoyance. “You heard the man. We need to get to the green room.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Alex
The green room was at the end of the hall. Feral drew in a long sniff. “Smell that?”
Roc and Cory nodded solemnly. I sniffed hard, but smelled nothing.
“Magic,” Roc told me. “They’re preparing a ritual in there.”
We clustered outside as Cory leaned his ear against the door.
“Uh, boss,” he whispered. “It’s occupied. Four, maybe more.”
Roc leaned his ear against the door, then jerked his head back. “Feral, on me. Alex, to the rear. They’re prepping Luxe right now. Going in hot.”
Feral reared back and planted a kick right beside the doorknob. The wood cracked, and the door swung in hard enough to rebound against the wall.
The green room was draped in white cloth and strung with white fairy lights. That’s where the Glory daintiness ended. There was a circle drawn in the center of the worn carpet in an ice-white powder. I could see symbols drawn at four points on the circle. Enochian? Egyptian? Hebrew?
No.
I knew those symbols. I felt them, resonating in my chest like my own heartbeat. They were the language of the scroll. The language of magic. I didn’t look too closely at them, though. I was more concerned about what was inside and around the circle.
Luxe lay, nude, arms and legs spread wide. Something red was daubed on his forehead, over his heart, on his stomach, on the head of his cock. He wasn’t moving. My stomach lurched. A hooded figure knelt at each point in the circle, clutching a dagger with both hands, swaying and chanting something familiar. It sent a chill down my spine. I expected something arcane. Something ancient.
It was the lyrics to Glory’s first major hit. The one from the SparxWorx ads.
Love me for my sins and scars
Love me close, love me far
Everything I say or do
Just love me, love love love me
I’ve risen like the phoenix
From the darkness and the pain
No love, no light, just turning tricks
A child lost in the rain
Until you came to free me
Your love brought me to light
So love me, love love love me, boy
Love me, love me right
The world turned upside down. A panther, a wolf, and a raven swarmed into the room, leaving me standing gaping in the doorway. They descended upon the hooded men like a wave of fury. Feral and Roc tackled two to the floor. Cory flew into the face of another, talons extended, beak plunging into the man’s eyes.
My hands flew to my mouth, horror mingling with the need to cheer them on, to help somehow. But how? I looked around the room for a weapon. A fallen dagger lay not far from me. I stepped into the room to retrieve it.
“It’s autobiographical, you know.” I whirled to face Mother Glory. She stood behind me, hands folded in front of her, serene and at total peace with the madness past the door. She took in my wild eyes with unnatural calm. “The song. I was an unwanted child. My parents made that very plain. Beatings, neglect, name-calling, until they drove me out. I was a child, selling myself in back alleys, wanting nothing more than to be loved. Somehow, some way, to be loved.” Her tranquil voice raised the hair on my neck.
“Then I found my voice. My song. I sang it in the back alleys until someone heard. Fate took it from there. I sang in garages. I sang in bars. I sang and sang until he heard me. Until he took a chance on me. He gave me the Tears. He gave me power. I had fans. I had an audience. I sold my song to Peytor Spark, and he lifted me up into the public eye. More fans. More power.”
I took a step back toward the door. “And now you’re going to use the Tears to what, brainwash all of these people?”
“No.” Her voice hardened. “I’m going to share my love with them. And they will love me back. They love me. They love me!” Her fists balled. Her whole body shook. “And you. You were supposed to teach me how to bring my love to the stars above. To the heavens. To the voices beyond.” Her voice was rising with each word, until it was a screech of fury. “I don’t know what you did, but I know that power is in you now. And I intend to take it.”
I felt cold sweat trickling down the small of my back. “Take it how?”
Her hand went to her throat. “The way I always do. With love.”
She opened her mouth and let out a single, clear, pure note. Her hand glowed. The Soul’s Tears lit up like a blood-red beacon.
“No!” I backpedaled and hit the doorframe. Tendrils of blood-red smoke began to pour from the Tears, flowing toward me on an unseen current.
I reached out a hand to shield myself.
Then I felt it. The power within myself, churning, surging, bursting forth from me in an agonizing wave. My head snapped back. My eyes glowed with unholy light. Smoke whirled around me, filling the hallway, sending Glory staggering back in horror as she gazed upon me. I felt the world fall away from me. I felt the Elder Sign chilling my flesh.
I could stop it. I could stop the power surging through me.
I glanced over my shoulder at Luxe, still sprawled in the circle. The fourth hooded man stood above him, dagger ra
ised. The circle glowed faintly.
“Say the word, Mother! Say the word and his life is yours!” he cried, a mad gleam in his eye.
I saw the blood-red smoke of Glory’s power mingling with my own.
I reached my hand to the Elder Sign and tore it from my throat, hurling it toward Luxe in the circle.
My entire body glowed, blinding me, blinding everyone. I could hear Glory’s voice raise in agony. Crimson swirls filled my vision as I felt the warmth of her power join the ice of my own. I reached out with my mind and seized that power, tearing it from her, joining it to my own. I felt a rending, wet, horrible sensation as the red overtook the white. My body burned, filled with sensations of purest love and mind-rending hatred, life and death, the beginning and…
The world went black. I was falling.
I landed in the lush purple grasses of the alien field. They cushioned me, as though I’d fallen back into my own bed. I lay there, my breathing slowly coming under control. The soft breezes washed over me, carrying away the pain and the fear.
Why was I afraid?
What happened?
Why am I here?
“Why are we here, don’t you mean?”
I sat bolt upright, my heart in my throat. Glory sat across from me. She was clad in a shimmering white gown, her long platinum hair falling freely around her shoulders. Her face held that same unnatural calm she’d greeted me with moments ago.
Moments? Years?
Time felt funny. I looked up at the sky, at the twin suns overhead. They were little help.
“I’d always hoped to come here someday. But not like this.” A tinge of sorrow broke the serenity of her voice. “Never like this.”
Like what? I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
She smiled a sad smile. “We’re adrift, you and I. Our spirits are here, in the Dreamlands, in the wild places beyond our world.”
And our bodies?
Her laugh held tears. “Gone, gone, gone.”
My hand went to my throat. I looked down. I wore the same shimmering white as Glory. There was a dark spot on my chest. I moved my hand, and my heart lurched. The outline of the Soul’s Tears was scorched into the flesh. Only the Tears themselves, the twin crystals, remained glistening against my skin, embedded deep. There was no pain, just a strange throbbing warmth.
Her words rang in my ears.
Gone, gone, gone…
I gave a silent scream. The world went white before my eyes.
“Alex!” Feral shook me gently. “Alex, baby, talk to me.”
“Is she…” I heard Luxe’s voice. Luxe’s voice! “If she died because of me, I’ll…”
“Mmph.” I blinked hard, trying to get the room to stop spinning.
“Feral, get Luxe. I’ll take Alex. We’ve got to get the hell out of here.” Roc scooped me out of Feral’s arms and lifted me up.
From my new vantage point, I could see what remained of the room. The circle had burned through the carpet, scorch marks radiating outward. I could see the shape of the Elder Sign burned into the floor, through the carpet. There was no sign of the pendant anywhere. The hooded man who’d stood over Luxe lay a few feet away, blackened and charred. The others… I couldn’t look too closely at the others. Suffice it to say, they were no longer a threat.
Roc headed for the door and froze. I lolled my head to see what the hold-up was.
Trixie stood in the hall, a large frozen cappuccino in one hand, a digital camera in the other. She was staring at a pile of red dust where Mother Glory had once stood. Slowly, she raised her eyes to take us in.
“Boss?” Feral asked.
“She comes with us,” I croaked. All eyes turned toward me, including Trixie’s. “I…owe her as much. And they won’t let her live. Not after she saw this.”
“Won’t let me what?” Trixie looked past me into the room and blanched. “Oh, god. Is that a body? Alex…”
I reached out a shaky hand. “Trust…me.”
Trixie took a step backward, almost stepped in the pile of dust, then stopped. Her face warred between the urge to flee and tears.
“Kit’s saying we’ve got to go,” Cory urged.
“Miss, security is going to be here in a few moments, and they’re going to want a reckoning. So are a whole lot of crazed fans.” Roc nodded toward the emergency exit. “We’ll see that you get your answers. Just someplace else, okay?”
“Trix…” I begged.
She reached out her hand and gripped mine tightly.
Cory pulled the pin on a cylinder and chucked it into the room. It sizzled ominously.
“Come on,” I urged.
Trixie nodded vaguely and stumbled along with us as we ran like hell.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“So you expect me to believe that?” Trixie stared out over the water, arms around her knees.
I sank my fingers into the sand and sighed. “No.”
The beach was mostly empty, save for a couple of homeless people burning trash a hundred yards down from us. Trixie and I used to come here in college, to drink, to talk about boys, to ponder the great mysteries of being young and newly adult. More recently, we came to talk about work and ponder the great mysteries of approaching our thirties. Now…
“So those guys over there,” she nodded her head toward the van, parked up on the road far away from our conversation. “Toby. The fashionistas. Sexy Daddy with the gray eyes. They’re some kind of magic vigilantes?”
“Something like that.” My head felt heavy. I didn’t know if I wanted to cry, sleep, or cry myself to sleep.
“And Mother Glory… Mother Glory the pop star… beloved by millions… was going to do something really evil?”
“Yeah.”
She huffed into her knees. “I’m sorry, Lex. I really am. I’m just having a hard time wrapping my brain around this whole magic-is-real shit.”
Instinctively, I placed my hand on my chest, where the charred impression of the Soul’s Tears had been in the Dreamlands. The skin was still smooth, only marked by the ink I’d intentionally put there. I thought about Glory, about her need for love, her crushing, all-encompassing desperation for it. I thought about my own need, not as all-consuming but still there, a hunger I needed to feed. I thought about Mom, and the Feline Brothers, and Trixie. About Roc and Kit and Cory too. That soft glow of belonging, of finding the people who cared for me.
I felt the pulse of the Soul’s Tears resonating through my chest, but this time it didn’t fill me with dread. Light formed around my fingers, a faint red that warmed the tips as I extended them. The energy felt like taffy, pulling in thick gooey strands as I spread my fingers.
Trixie stared at my hand, eyes wide, jaw slack. “W…what is that?”
I studied it, rolling it between my fingers. “Love, I think. Or something like it.”
“And it…came out of you?”
“Yeah.”
“Who’s it for?”
I closed my fist around it, smothering the light. “I’m not sure.” I met her gaze with a weak smile. “But some of it’s for you, at least. I know it’s a big ask. The hugest ask. But can you trust me that we’re doing something good, and that everything’s going to be all right?” I swallowed hard. “You’re my best friend, Trix. I need you. I’m walking into some dark, really fucked-up places right now, and I need to know I’ve got you behind me.”
She extended a single finger and warily poked me in the chest, then looked at her finger. “S’not contagious, at least,” she said with a mischievous half-smile.
“Dork.”
“Nerd.”
“Where’s the girl?” Cory asked as I opened the door of the van.
“She caught a LiftRunner. For some reason, she didn’t feel comfortable showing you all where she lives.” I settled in between Luxe and Feral on the back bench. It was a snug fit, but they didn’t seem to mind, the way they folded around me.
“I already know where she lives, 392…”
“K
it, stop being creepy. This is exactly why she didn’t want to ride with us.” I buried my face in my hands for a moment, groaned, and let my hands fall into my lap. “We’re okay. For now.”
“Good.” Roc pulled away from the curb and began to drive. “You know, your name is cleared. The police have the Picmont, Glory’s gone. You might be able to have your old life back now, or at least something close.”
I felt a pang. My old life. Safe, secure, respectable. Peaceful. Law-abiding. Blissfully ignorant.
I snuggled into Feral’s chest and took Luxe’s hands in mine.
Boring.
“You guys ruined me for civilian life,” I said with a mischievous smile. “I’m all yours now. You’re stuck with me.”
“Fuuuu…” Cory began, but I could see a twinkle in his eye I hadn’t seen before.
“Stuff it, bird boy.” Feral nuzzled the shaved part of my hair. “Welcome home, Alex. It’s good to have you.” His lips pressed to my temple. “So good.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Be gentle,” Luxe purred as I pushed him back into the pillows.
My lips turned up in a sly, seductive smile. “Only if I have to.”
It was only half a tease, though. His poor torso was a mass of bruises. Glory’s thugs did a number on him to subdue him as long as they did. My fingers traced over them gently, and my smile faded.
His hand closed over mine. “I’m okay. Better than okay, now that you’re here.” His winning smile chased my dark thoughts away, at least for a little while. “Now, I believe you were seducing me?”
I put on a ditzy voice. “Oh yeah! Almost forgot! Now, how about that cock?”
He laughed, a full-throated, genuine, infectious laugh. I lost any hope of being the smooth seductress and wrapped my arms around his neck, giggling into his shoulder.
“You’re pretty amazing, Alex,” he murmured into my ear. “A man could get used to this.”