by A C Spahn
Chapter 25
RAIN PATTERED SOFTLY on my skin. I opened my eyes to see clouds greying the sky, releasing the remnants of a downpour. No thunder or lightning intruded, just the gentle tap, tap, tap of cool droplets on my burning flesh.
All was quiet.
I realized I was lying against Desmond, my head in his lap. Sam sat beside me, fingers still intertwined with mine. Both of them watched me. Desmond’s hand stroked my soaked hair.
Sam swallowed when she saw me looking at her. “Is ... is it over?”
My senses tested the air.
kadum … kadum … kadum … distant and light.
I nodded. The movement sent an explosion of pain through my head. I groaned, releasing Sam’s hand to clutch my skull.
“Shh,” Desmond said. “You lost consciousness for a while. You need to rest.”
“Uh-huh,” I grunted, waiting for the world to stop spinning.
“You got rid of it,” Sam said. “The magic in me. The pieces that all wanted different things. You took it out of me. I feel almost normal.”
“That won’t last,” I said. I pushed against Desmond, trying to sit up. He had to hold me steady. “It’ll come back. You need to learn to channel it safely, a little at a time, so it doesn’t get that bad again.”
“Will ...” Sam’s eyes dropped to her lap. Her voice was barely a whisper. “Will you teach me?”
I started to nod, but thought better of it. “Yes,” I said instead. “It’ll take practice. A lot. But until you can handle it yourself, I’ll be there to help.”
With both of them to hold me upright, I made it to my feet. We shuffled together through the woods, past the smoking remnants of Sam’s fires, through puddles and mud, to the clearing where we’d left Kendall and Maribel. I found my sensory ring in the dirt, and tucked it in my pocket, safely away from my bare skin. I didn’t think bombarding my senses with input would help anybody right now.
Kendall stirred as I sat down beside her. The bracelet’s magic must have bled out, releasing her from its hold. “Hey,” she mumbled when she saw me. “I think I got enchanted.”
Relief flooded me. “You did. But you’re going to be okay.”
She pushed herself up on her elbows. Wet leaves clung to her spiky red hair as she looked around. “Where are we? Where’s—” Her eyes fell on Sam. “Gah! Adrienne, it’s her! She’s the one who—”
“I know, Kendall. It’s okay. She’s with us now.”
“Oh. Okay. Cool.” She studied Desmond standing protectively over me, then groaned and flopped back into the dirt and shut her eyes. “My head is killing me. How’d you guys find me?”
“Magic.”
“Haha. No, really.”
“Magic. Plus some breaking and entering, fleeing the cops, and visiting one of those online paranormal forums. You might know it. Ye Olde Circle.”
Eyes still closed, Kendall asked, “Potato or pasta salad?”
“Potato.”
“We can’t be friends anymore.”
Yep. Kendall would be fine.
My bigger problem lay further down the clearing. Maribel slowly pushed herself upright, blinking through rapidly clearing confusion. I tugged on Desmond’s arm, and he easily lifted me back to my feet. Rain plastered Maribel’s blonde hair against her skull. When she saw me, I thought she would start spouting accusations, but instead she pointed at Sam. “Enchantress! That’s the one who did this to me! She’s behind all of it. You have to kill her.”
Sam tensed, but I laid a hand on her arm. “Nobody’s killing anybody, Maribel. Sam isn’t a threat. She’s just a scared girl.”
Maribel stumbled to her feet, grunting with the effort. Her boots slipped in the mud, and she snarled. A hint of fur appeared around her eyes. “The law is the law. Enchantresses who use magic against people must die. Desoto, take care of it.”
Desmond didn’t move.
“I gave you an order, Reserve Desoto,” Maribel barked.
“I’m not obeying it, Maribel.” Desmond lifted his chin. His black shirt clung to his sculpted torso, and little rivulets of water ran down from his raven hair. “The threat is gone. I don’t kill unless there’s a damn good reason.”
“The Union will have your hide for this.”
“Let me talk to Bane Harrow,” I said. “He’ll make an exception for Sam.”
Maribel scoffed. “Not likely.”
“He will if I make it a condition of my working for him.”
Her eyes widened. Her fingernails thickened and lengthened into claws. “He won’t.”
“If you were sure of that, you wouldn’t look so uncomfortable.”
“Enchanters are dangerous, even when they mean well.” Maribel spouted the sentence as if it were part of a creed. Maybe for her, it was. “I won’t let this threat stand.” She hunched, and her arms sprouted fur, wet and bedraggled in the rain.
Sam cried out and ducked behind me.
“Maribel, stop!” I shouted. “Listen to me, for once.”
She snarled, just before her face shifted into a feline snout and fangs.
She leaped. 200 pounds of mountain lion knocked me aside, sending me sprawling in the mud. Fresh pain burst throughout my body, leaving me ringing like a bell. I scrambled for some hint of magic, some way to defend myself, but my arms and legs wouldn’t obey me. Shouts echoed, then an animal hiss and a cry of pain.
I managed to roll over and get my conjured dagger working. The drumming of the active enchantment jabbed my raw nerves like a sharp poker. I had to release the enchantment, or risk passing out again.
When my vision cleared, Sam was huddled on the ground at Desmond’s feet, sobbing. “I’m sorry,” she cried. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to. I panicked. I’m so sorry.”
Desmond had his sword half out of its sheath, but he wasn’t looking at Sam. I followed his gaze to a tawny-haired mass of fur lying on its side in the muck.
Oh god, no ...
The lion’s chest rose and fell. Maribel was alive.
My relief was short-lived. A moment later the big cat rolled over, and I saw what Sam had done. Maribel’s paws twitched, her muscles spasming. Her eyes rolled in her head, tracking things that weren’t there. Her tail seemed to be trying to tie itself in a knot. The chaotic eyes glanced at me. Madness lived within.
A new black line traced a circular pattern on Maribel’s neck. A single, unbroken line, tattooed into her fur.
“I was just trying to make her stop,” Sam wailed. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
Kendall’s feet squelched in the mud beside me. She reached down to pull me up. Leaning on her, I trudged over to the others.
I reached out to lightly touch Desmond’s unsheathed sword. “You were going to kill her?”
He swallowed and shoved the blade back into its scabbard. He watched Maribel roll to her feet, crawl a few feet forward, then flop back to her side. “I was afraid she’d leave me no choice. It might have been easier if I did kill her. This will raise questions.”
“I’ll deal with it.” Wearily, I put a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Get up, Sam. It’s okay.”
“I didn’t want to hurt her.”
“I know. But take a good look at her. Remember the people you enchanted before. This is what happens when magic goes wrong. This is what we can do, even if we have the best intentions. Never forget that.”
Shaking, Sam nodded.
Something rumbled at the edge of the clearing. We turned to see half a dozen black-clad people on motorcycles ride out of the shadows. Their leader skidded to a halt and removed his rain-spattered helmet, exposing a bald head and a familiar, grim face.
“Reserve Desoto,” Axel said. “I see you’ve caught our runaway. That might make up for your other actions today.” He peered around us to where Maribel still lay on the ground. “What happened?”
Before Desmond could try to lie, I jumped in. “Maribel was the enchantress. She abducted Kendall using that magical bracelet from the cellar, to lure me
here. She wanted to frame me, kill me so you’d think you’d stopped the threat. We fought. I won.” My eyes narrowed. “And I’m guessing since you haven’t interrupted me yet, you concluded this, too.”
Axel’s expression didn’t change. “Maribel’s prejudice against you did seem excessive. And it was suspicious that she went missing when the squirrel shifter did.” His eyes landed on Kendall. “I see she’s back to normal.”
“Never been normal in my life,” Kendall said. “How’d you find us? Your timing sucks.”
“We tracked her car,” he said, nodding to me.
My eyes closed. “The cops at Maribel’s apartment. They did find my car.”
Axel nodded. “They slipped a bug on it, then let you drive off. We thought it would be the fastest way to locate the enchantress.”
“You could have just asked for my help.”
“At the time we still thought you might be the one we hunted.” He glanced again at Maribel. “Is she—”
“Doubly enchanted,” I said, pointing to the new tattoo on her neck. “She tried to channel magic through herself. It backfired.”
“Your story leaves out any mention of you enchanting other people. Convenient.”
“It’s the truth.” I stared back at him, level. “You can count my injuries if you don’t believe she was trying to kill me. And I have three witnesses who will back me up.”
Axel frowned at Sam. “Who’s she?”
Sam flinched. I didn’t. “This is my apprentice. I’m teaching her how to channel safely. And how to obey all of your rules. She’s no danger to anybody.”
Axel grunted. “Harrow will want to register her.”
“Fine. We’ll both come by his office next week.”
“You too?”
“Yes. I’ve decided to accept his job offer. If you’re going to use me to solve your magical problems, I might as well get paid for it. I have to pay this big fine somebody slapped me with for no reason.” And now that I had someone to protect, I needed all the powerful allies I could get. I wouldn’t break my morals for Bane Harrow, but if it kept Sam safe, I could bend them, just a little.
Axel’s stony face remained stony, but the barest hint of a smile flickered at the corner of his mouth. “You’re very fierce for someone so tiny.”
Kendall snorted. “You’re very still here for someone with an enchantress to lock up.”
Axel rolled his eyes. Two of his companions helped him drape Maribel across the back of his motorcycle. They nodded to Desmond as they passed, and the looks they gave me were respectful, if not friendly. Guess I was no longer a criminal. Check one thing off the to-do list.
As the Void squad roared away into the trees, something spat from beneath their wheels and hit me in the shin. I bent, carefully, and picked it up.
A shred of tire rubber. Similar to the half tire still sitting on my worktable at home.
I turned and handed the rubber fragment to Sam. “Here. This fits with a bigger tire fragment I’ve been keeping. I thought it would speak to me, but I think it’s a project for you.”
Her nose wrinkled. “A tire fragment? What am I supposed to do with it?”
“Make something.”
“It’s garbage.”
“Make something anyway.” I made her hand close around the scrap. “You’re my apprentice, Sam, and that means you’re an artist now. This is your first assignment. You’re going to turn that road trash into something beautiful. Maybe not tomorrow, or the next day, but at some point you’ll figure it out.”
Sam looked doubtful, but she tucked the tire fragment into her back pocket.
Leaning on my friends, I walked out of the clearing as the first rays of dawn broke through the dwindling rain.
Epilogue
THE ONE WHO WENT BY CROW scrolled through the mines of data. There had to be something here. The investigation had tapped dozens of members, sent them off to God knew how many places. Somebody had to have taken notes.
She accessed the next file and her breath caught. Better than notes, this. With a smile she copied the discovery to her phone, then logged onto her account.
He was there. Of course he was; he was always there. She opened a message to him and started tapping at the keypad.
Crow: Got something for you. A little present. Thought you might find it interesting.
LifeinShadow: Were you seen?
Crow: It’s after hours. Nobody’s here. Stop being paranoid.
LifeinShadow: You’re a well-placed asset. There’s no such thing as paranoid.
Crow: I wasn’t seen.
LifeinShadow: Good. What do you have?
Crow sent the files and watched the window, expectant.
LifeinShadow: Interesting.
Crow: Is this what you were looking for?
LifeinShadow: I can’t tell you anything. You know that. But ... if you can find more like this, G would appreciate it.
Crow: Will do.
The one who went by Crow glanced at the tall windows. Dawn was just breaking, sliding its way down the lines of empty cubicles. At the far end of the floor, a large, windowless office stood locked and closed. She’d never broken in there. That was a risk not yet worth taking. But maybe soon. If what she’d just sent was as important as she thought.
She smiled at her phone, at the photo of the young Hispanic woman with the paint-spattered jeans. At the tiny hint of a black line barely visible on her chest through the tear in her shirt.
Crow smiled and deleted the photo and all traces of the conversation. It was time to go to work. Time to play her role, and wait, and hope for the day when she, and the others like her, would see their patience finally pay off.
Enchantress Under Pressure
Book Two of the Arcane Artisans Series
Coming June 2019
Magic is breaking.
Newly recruited by the Void Union, enchantress Adrienne Morales plans to stay on good terms with her magic-immune handlers. That’s hard to do when everyone knows about the enchantment tattoo storing catastrophic magic on her body. Then she discovers a murder victim with an identical tattoo. That corpse means only one thing: the cult that enchanted Adrienne has a lethal operative in town, and her conflict with the Voids just became her smallest problem.
With mysterious fires destroying Voids across the nation, the Union Legionnaire has his hands full. Catching the murderer is up to Adrienne. But as her search intensifies, magic begins breaking down around her: Ghosts rise, enchantments go haywire, and the specter of war looms over San Francisco. Plagued by fears from her past, mistrust from the Voids, and the sudden unreliability of her powers, Adrienne isn’t sure where to turn.
Worse, Adrienne’s life isn’t the only one hanging in the balance. If she goes down, her friends will fall beside her, and the entire city might be next. To defend the paranormal world, she must stop the murderer, uncover the cult’s secret plot, and decide whom to trust–when she’s not even sure she can trust herself.
Grab your copy today!
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Enchantress Undercover! I hope you enjoyed it. This book went through a ton of revisions before it came into your hands, and many people had a hand in its development. They all deserve handmade enchanted talismans of safety and fortune, but since magic is sadly outside my grasp, I’ll settle for giving enthusiastic shout-outs.
First, thank you to my writing buddies, Anela Deen and Intisar Khanani. You two inspire me to write better and strive harder as an artist.
Huge thanks to Ximena Silva, my sensitivity reader, and Dámaris Martinez-Adkins, my Colombian culture consultant. Your help has been invaluable.
Thanks to my beta team: Tahlia, John Arthur, Mitch, Shauna, and Jocelyn. Your feedback shapes my words into something intelligible.
A somber thank you to Katrina (Spiletta42) for the early influence on my writing. You will be missed.
Thanks to my mom for proofrea
ding and constant encouragement.
Major gigantiform bouncing up-and-down thanks to my husband. I couldn’t do any of this without your feedback, support, and love.
Thanks to God for the blessing of being able to work in my passion.
Finally, thanks to you, Reader. Your loyalty means everything to me, and I appreciate every moment you spend hanging out in my imaginary worlds.
About the Author
A. C. Spahn is the author of the Endurance series and the Arcane Artisans series. Her shorter works have been published by Daily Science Fiction, Star*Line, Outposts of Beyond, Disturbed Digest, and others.
She wanted to be an interstellar starship captain when she grew up. Since nobody was hiring, she became a writer instead. She enjoys martial arts, vegetarian cooking, and debating the physics of fictional technologies. When not commanding imaginary starships, she lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, son, and feline overlord.
To get in touch, please visit www.acspahn.com.
Other Books by A. C. Spahn
Science Fiction
Endurance: The Complete Series
The Endurance Series (novellas)
Enduring Endurance
Mightier than the Sword
Under Cover
Preferred Dead
Wet Ducks
Urban Fantasy
Arcane Artisans Series
Enchantress Undercover
Enchantress Under Pressure
Enchantress Underground (coming soon)
Enchantress Under Fire (coming soon)
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