by Nazri Noor
The problem was that he’d also learned to create much larger shields. They were domes, in fact, that cloaked their occupants from the world outside, casting a magical glamour in a large area. Bastion had gotten quite proficient in camouflaging territory in this way, allowing arcane grudges to be settled in relative privacy by disguising the blasts of energy and brilliant fire that typically marked a mage’s duel.
He wanted to fight, is what I’m saying. Bastion casting a dome was the equivalent of a frat boy pressing his face up against yours and grunting “Let’s take this outside, bruh.”
“Let’s do this,” Bastion said. Ah, close enough.
“Listen,” I said. “I’m not going to fight you because I have nothing to fight about. I didn’t break into your ridiculous mansion.”
Bastion threw his hands out, then clenched his fingers. The sound of wood warping and cracking broke the silence. Asher yelped as Herald tugged him off the park bench, and just in time. The bench flew apart, beams, bolts, all its component pieces bursting into splinters under Bastion’s power.
Typical Bastion. Shoot first, ask questions later. No, let me be more specific. Bastion’s style is to shoot something full of holes, then shoot some more. If it’s still alive, maybe ask it some questions. Then whether or not it answers: shoot it dead.
“Move back,” I heard Herald mutter to Asher, somewhere behind me. “Brandt’s power has a functional limit to its range. We move out of the way, we’ll be fine.”
“Bastion, stop,” Prudence shouted, her hands already emanating their signature blue flames. It was likely only a threat to get her partner to stand down, but I never thought I’d see the day the two would possibly, maybe butt heads.
Bastion cried out in frustration, then lowered his hands. The sharp, horrible pieces of broken bench fell to the ground in a crash of splinters and sawdust.
I huffed, brushing at my clothes. “So are you gonna pay for that bench, or were you going to put it back together?”
Sometimes – not often – I wish I could remember that shutting the fuck up was the best option.
Bastion socked me in the chin. It’s hazy now, but I vaguely recall exclaiming “Ack” in a clipped voice, because a blinding, bone-deep pain immediately began radiating from my jaw. I clutched at my face, stumbling away, my feet tangling in bits of broken park bench. Instinctively, I was already seeking out the nearest shadow.
Prudence shoved Bastion, grabbing at his jacket, but he kept advancing.
“Bastion, will you stop?” He wouldn’t, shrugging Prudence off – no small feat, considering she was basically the equal of a werewolf in a fistfight. Bastion lifted his fist and stalked straight for me.
I kind of hated that my magic really only had two settings: run, or kill. Carver could put people to sleep, disintegrate their weapons to disarm them, or, in a really tight pinch, break half the bones in their body. I wanted that kind of defensive magic, the stuff I could use to neuter someone, but not necessarily kill them dead.
But before I could react, Herald snapped his fingers. The purple mist around his hand blew away in the sudden, freezing gust of wind that sheared through Heinsite Park. The chill left as quickly as it came, but I realized that Herald wasn’t just literally trying to cool things down. Bastion was grunting, struggling to pull his legs out of the huge chunks of ice encasing his feet and fusing him to the ground.
Yeah. That kind of magic. That was what I wanted.
“Get this shit off me,” Bastion shouted. “Prue. Break this and let me – ”
“No,” Prudence said. “Frankly speaking, you’re being a brat. We have no hard evidence that Dust was behind this. Give him the benefit of the doubt. It could have been a glamour. And if you’re just going to lash out by beating up on him you can – ”
“You’re only saying that because you’re dating his roommate.”
A sharp chill, colder even than Herald’s spell, blew through the park. Maybe the sky even darkened a little. For the first time that afternoon, I saw something cowed in Bastion’s expression, like he realized he’d royally fucked up.
Prudence’s voice cut like ice. “You quit this bullshit, Sebastion Brandt. Here and now. Or I report this to the Lorica.”
In a tiny, meek voice, Bastion answered. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“You destroyed public property. You attacked another arcane person unprovoked. Do you think that being a Hand means you’re above the law? Lower the field, or I swear, Bastion. I’ll do it.”
He gestured at his feet, helpless, struggling, throwing Herald the occasional threatening glance. Herald only smirked back.
“You wait for it to melt,” Prudence said. “Sun’s out. I don’t care. Give you some time to think about what you did.”
I clutched my jaw, letting it unhinge, not even sure how angry I was. Maybe I was shocked. I just felt numb. I knew that Bastion and I had always butted heads, but it had never come to blows like this. Two break-ins by someone who looked like me. First that Salimah woman, and now some mansion? What the hell was going on?
The air shimmered, proof that Bastion had lowered his field. A stray dog yowled at us, surprised that five people had just blinked into existence. It turned tail, then ran off.
Herald tugged on my jacket, hauling me away from the park. Asher followed quietly.
“Yeah,” Bastion said. “You better run. This isn’t over.”
“Sure isn’t,” I said. “See you, Bastion. Watch your back.”
The problem with Bastion was how much he liked to hit.
My problem was that I was learning to like hitting back.
Chapter 5
I sighed as verdant green energy rushed from Asher’s fingers, seeping into my skin. I could feel tendrils curling into my cells, sinking through my muscle and down into my bones. My nerves began to numb, or perhaps the pain began to vanish as his magic cleared away whatever damage Bastion had done to my jaw.
I didn’t know why the Lorica looked down on necromancy and considered it so dangerous. If this was necromancy, then it was awesome as far as I was concerned.
Asher leaned back, his eyes narrowing. “Question. And stop me if it’s a stupid one, but – why didn’t you tell those Lorica people that it was Thea behind it?”
I rubbed at my jaw, still surprised at how quickly Asher’s treatment had taken effect. “Honestly? As much as I know that it’s a possibility, we don’t really know that it’s her modus operandi to go around impersonating me now. I mean, to what end? I don’t know that we should be causing a panic without knowing a hundred percent.”
Asher rubbed his nose. “I mean, I do.”
“You think so?”
“If there’s any chance that it was Thea? Sure. Knowing what she’s capable of, I would have spoken up.”
I bit my lip and stared at the ground. “I guess it’s hard to think straight when someone’s clocked you in the jaw, you know? Can’t lie, that probably jarred my brains around a little.”
“You should give them a call, the Lorica people. Text them. Keep them updated. Can’t hurt to have everyone on alert, you know?”
I honestly couldn’t think why I hadn’t considered to do exactly what Asher was recommending. He patted me on the shoulder, as if sensing my thoughts.
“Maybe your brains were jerked around more than you thought. It’s not a problem. Just call as soon as you can.”
“Right,” I said, still somewhat mystified. “Right.”
I reached for my phone as Asher strode out. I managed to mutter a belated “Thanks” just as he was shutting my bedroom door. My fingers moved on autopilot, typing out a message to Herald that roughly conveyed what Asher had suggested. “Should we tell them about Thea?” Send.
Don’t know about you, but that’s always the part I hate the most: waiting for a damn reply. I stared at my phone’s screen for a minute too long, willing Herald to respond, waiting for that little checkmark under my message to turn green so I knew that he’d read it. But nothing. Ugh.
I tossed my phone onto my bed, my head craning in the direction of my shelves as I did. Man. It always happened this way. I’d be alone in my room, and I’d do everything I could to pretend that he wasn’t there, but without fail my mind and my eyes would always wander to that one shelf in the corner by the standing lamp.
Once, when he was alive, that shelf was Vanitas’s place of honor. His own bed, to put it in different terms. It bothered me knowing that his body still sat broken on the stone shelf, a mess of shards and twisted, tarnished bronze, just shattered garnets mingled with bent bits of green-gold metal. It haunted me knowing I couldn’t do anything, that Herald and I hadn’t found some way we could bring him back.
But we still talked. It’s still considered a conversation when only one person does all the talking, right? Sad, I know, just a boy and his broken sword, going slowly crazy over the extended silence. Sometimes I wondered if it was easiest to pretend that Vanitas was never enchanted, that the talking had all been in my head.
“I dunno what to do, V.” I folded my arms behind my head and flopped down onto my pillow. “I mean, surely Thea isn’t that stupid. She wouldn’t be that bold about wearing my face and going around attracting attention to herself, right? That’s just ridiculous.”
In the silences, my mind filled in the blanks. What would Vanitas say? Probably something about how I was a dumb idiot, and he wouldn’t be wrong.
I chuckled, staring at a spot on the ceiling. “I talk about this whole doppelganger deal but I think we both know I’ve got something else on my mind.” I reached inside my jacket pocket, feeling around for the little scroll of paper I’d cracked out of Arachne’s gift.
Was it the right time? It’d been so long, and now that I had a lead – no, not just any lead, but my father’s actual, new home address – something was in the way. All those concerns from months back, from when I’d just been murdered came rushing in again. How would he react? What would he say? Would he even want to talk to his son’s walking corpse?
My phone vibrated, and my hand flew quickly to pick it up, but it wasn’t a text from Herald. It was a phone call from – Prudence? I frowned at my phone. Knowing her, she could have put the pieces of the puzzle together on her own without any prompting from Herald whatsoever. I swiped and picked up.
Not one word had left my mouth before her voice was already crackling out of my earpiece. “You’d better not be involved in this, Graves.”
“I – I’m sorry?”
“I don’t know what’s going on here, but this is just too creepy. I’m at my grandma’s antique shop, out in Little China, and her surveillance footage shows that you were just here.”
“That’s impossible. I’m – ” I stopped. What the hell was I supposed to say? No one outside of my roommates was supposed to know about the Boneyard. “I’m far, far away from Little China right now.”
“Then get your ass here right now. We need to figure this out, and fast. Something funky is going on.”
“It’s Thea,” I said. “It has to be. Remember how she masqueraded as someone else last time we saw her?”
The line was silent. Thea had disguised herself as the assistant to Enrietta Boules, an agriculture magnate and a dryad businesswoman hiding in plain sight in the normal world. After weeks, maybe months of impersonating the dryad’s PA, Thea revealed herself and murdered her in cold blood, right in front of us.
“If that’s true,” Prudence said, slowly, “then this is bigger than we thought. In any case, come over. We need to talk. And you – you should really see the footage.” Another pause. “I’ll text you the address. Come quickly.”
I shoved my phone back in my pocket and practically vaulted off my bed, reaching for the stone shelf before stopping myself. That’s right. Vanitas was gone. I sighed, then rushed out of my room, down the corridor to the portal leading back into Valero.
Mama Rosa’s Fine Filipino Food was completely dark, the way it was supposed to be after closing time. Mama Rosa herself had gone home. The others had to deal with the triple-padlock system she had in place to protect the establishment, but I could simply shadowstep out.
And that was exactly what I did, shifting through the ethers and emerging almost instantly on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. I bit my tongue to stop the yelp from escaping my throat when a slender white hand landed square in the middle of my chest.
“And exactly where do you think you’re going?” Sterling asked.
“Somewhere. Out.” I tried to push my way past, but he stood firmly in my path. I frowned. Sterling was as solid as a brick wall, and just as dense and as stubborn.
“Don’t think so.”
“Dude. Out of my way. You know I can just shadowstep past you, right?”
Sterling sucked at his teeth, his eyes rolling. “Like I couldn’t catch you if you tried. I’m faster than you.” He loomed closer, eyes glinting with feral curiosity. “Where are you going, anyway? Tell me. I’m bored.”
“You’re not coming.”
“Am too.”
I sighed. Dense, stubborn, etcetera. “Prudence called me. Whatever that Salimah lady complained about with running into someone who looked like me? Prue says the same thing. Someone tried to break into her grandma’s shop tonight, over in Little China.”
Sterling guffawed. “And you’re just going to show up, alone? Just like that? What if it’s a trap? Or what if it really was that Thea psycho in disguise?”
“It’s – if it was Thea, then I’d have backup. And Prudence is still a friend. She wouldn’t set a trap for me.” I looked down at my hands, then back up at Sterling. “Right?”
He folded his arms slowly, his brow creasing as he did. “You going out there just because she called is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
The blood rose to my cheeks. “Say what you want, but it’s not going to stop me. Get out of my way.”
To my surprise, Sterling stepped aside wordlessly. It made me stop in my tracks. I guess I was expecting a fight. He saw the look on my face, and shrugged.
“I’m not going to stop you.”
“You’re going to tell, aren’t you?” I stabbed a finger at his chest and regretted it almost immediately. Dead bodies were freezing cold, especially in the evening Valero chill, and vampires were no exception. It was like poking a slab of ice. “You’re gonna stay here and blab.”
Sterling chuckled and swatted my hand aside. “I’m not that petty, Graves. Not everyone gives that much of a shit about you.”
Something glimmered in my chest, bright and hopeful. “So – so you think I could be doing the right thing?”
He laughed. “It’s a terrible idea. Probably the worst you’ve ever had.” He brought his Zippo to his cigarette, and flicked. “I’ll come with.”
“You – I don’t – ”
He shoved me in the back. “Shut the fuck up and lead the way.”
I stopped, squinting at him. “Why are you being so nice to me? Why are you coming along?”
He shrugged. “I’m trying this new thing where I try to be a good teammate.” He grinned, fangs gleaming in the streetlight. “And if there’s a fight – well, I could always eat.”
Chapter 6
“There’s this great xiao long bao place just down that street.”
I eyed Sterling cautiously. I’d been there once for soup dumplings, with Thea, of all people. “You sure know a lot about food for a dead guy.”
“We’ve been through this. I don’t process calories.” He puffed on his cigarette, then stubbed it out on the sidewalk. “And you sure need a lot of bodyguarding for someone who’s supposed to be a mage.”
That stung more than it should have. “Hey. I didn’t ask you to come with me, so – ”
“Shh. Shut your stupid mouth, we’re here.”
Here was the outside of a Chinese apothecary, a nondescript little shop with wood-clad windows, one of which was shattered, the asphalt lined in fragments of glass. The store shone warmly from the inside
, incandescence spilling onto the dew-damp sidewalk. Little brass chimes tinkled as Prudence pushed her way through the door.
“Look at this mess,” she said, lips tight with annoyance, though she must have known that I didn’t have anything to do with it. If I was responsible, would I really have come back to the scene of the crime? “My grandmother’s terrified.”
“I’m – sorry? I really don’t know what to say, except that I didn’t do this.”
Prudence’s eyes were still hard, but she spoke kindly. “No, I know. I believe. But did you have to bring this one with you?”
“Hey,” Sterling said, one finger raised. “You’d think I’d get better treatment now that you’re dating my buddy, but no. It’s prejudiced. You’re prejudiced.”
Prudence groaned. The door chime tinkled again, and this time Gil emerged. I honestly shouldn’t have been surprised that he was already there.
“He’s cool,” Gil said, patting Prudence on the shoulder. “Hardly ever shuts up, but Sterling’s cool.” He nodded at me, then at the glass on the ground. “Whoever’s dressing up as you did a number on Madam Chien’s shop.”
I peered through the store, trying to get a glimpse of Madam Chien, but nothing. I lifted my head at the lone security camera staring me in the face, then gave it my best grin.
“She’s my grandmother on my father’s side,” Prudence said. “I love her to death and I know she’s just really upset by this.”
“Let’s go talk to her, then.” Sterling swept past our huddle, already slinking his way into the apothecary. Prudence followed hotly, like she was worried he might do something to Madam Chien. Gil only gave me a shrug.
“Come on in,” he said. “I think everyone’s a little shaken. Madam Chien rushed here when she found out something was wrong, then she called Prue to come over. I happened to be, um, with her at the time, so.”
I smiled. “No need to explain. Glad to know you guys are getting along. No more beating each other up.”