by Devon Monk
“Does Victor take the responsibility for all that?”
Shame nodded. “He and Mum equally. Since they’re the only Voices left standing.”
“You don’t think Bartholomew would tell them to resign, do you?” I didn’t like the situation we were in, but if I were expected to follow someone else, some stranger instead of the teachers that I knew and trusted, teachers who knew and trusted me back, I wasn’t so sure I could be a part of this club.
“If I were him,” Zay said quietly, “I’d wait a little longer and see if Victor and Maeve can get things under control. We’ve had plenty of bad times, and we’ve always pulled it together. Sometimes spectacularly.”
Shame chuckled. “With you involved, Jones, it’s always damn spectacular. Don’t worry, Allie. We won’t let Mum get fired. We still have a trick or two up our sleeves.”
“Finding Sedra will do a lot of good for our credibility,” Zay added.
I glanced back at him. He looked like the king surveying his land. He might be only a few days recovered from the coma, but he was already exuding that calm and protective vibe. This wasn’t just the Authority’s city. This city belonged to Zayvion Jones.
I looked back out, watching where Victor was leading us.
I was not at all surprised when we headed up North Lombard toward St. Johns.
“Why does everything happen out here?” I muttered.
“What?” Shame said.
“St. Johns. Why does every weird magical thing happen out here?”
“It doesn’t.”
“This is where I found Cody almost dead, and he pulled magic through me. I got hit by the wild-magic storm out here. Greyson was opening gates out here, we contained the wild-magic storm in St. Johns, and when Mikhail said he would open a gate for me to get back in life that would be close enough to Zayvion’s body to get his soul there in time, it opened in St. Johns.”
“I don’t think it’s St. Johns,” Shame said. “I think it’s you.”
“It’s not me. Big magic things happen in St. Johns. Like Cody’s ghost being tied to—” A shot of pain flashed through my head. Like a migraine on speed skates.
I hissed air through my teeth and cupped my forehead with my hand.
Zay pressed his hand on my shoulder, and I felt the soft wash of mint roll through my body. The pain eased, gone as quickly as it had come, but leaving behind a ghosting ache.
“Wow,” I said. “Ow.”
“Headache?”
“I guess.”
“What were you going to say?” Zay asked.
“What? I don’t know.” I thought about it for a second. Didn’t come up with anything. “What were we talking about?”
“St. Johns and Cody’s ghost.”
Okay, I remembered what I was going to say. I was going to tell them that Cody’s spirit or ghost was tied to Mama Rositto. That she had owed my dad some kind of favor and when the wild-magic storm hit St. Johns, a part of Cody had stepped out of the gates and somehow Mama Rositto had caught him up and taken him away with her.
Why in the world would that cause me pain?
Dad?
Nothing.
“I wanted to say that Cody …” I paused. So far, so good. “His spirit was there. His ghost. During the wild-magic storm.”
“Ghost? Like when we were being tested as Soul Complements?” Zay asked.
“Yes. He stepped out of the gate and sort of fell into me. It was scary as hell. I can’t stand sharing brain space with one person, much less two. But then Dad helped me push him out of me, and he was like a ghost. He told me to make this right. I have no idea what he meant by that. Maybe he wanted me to go through the gate to save your soul, Zay.”
“Maybe,” Zay said. “Then what happened?”
“Mama Rositto showed up. You know her, right?”
“Very much so.”
Okay, that was a weird answer. “How do you know her?”
“She’s been on the Authority watch list for a long time. What did she do?”
“She told my dad she didn’t owe him any favors now. That this made it even between them.”
“What did your father do for Rositto?” Shame asked.
“I have no idea. She took Cody’s ghost.”
“What?” Zay and Shame said at the same time.
“I don’t know. A lot was going on, but Cody’s spirit needed someone to hold on to, to hook on to. She took him, and he followed her. He wasn’t upset about it. Said he liked her and was happy to go with her.”
“Wait,” Shame said. “You’re saying Mama Rositto not only spoke to your father in your head, but also saw Cody’s ghost and knew some kind of magic to bind him to her?”
“That’s how I remember it.”
“Not easy to bind a soul,” Zay said.
“Takes a hell of a lot more specialized skills than running your average diner,” Shame said.
“It’s magic, right?” I asked. “Has she ever been a part of the Authority?”
“No,” Zay said, “but we think she has an idea that we exist. Nothing’s been proved, and if it had, she would be Closed. Interesting that she’s had past dealings with your father.”
“She is James Hoskil’s mother,” I said. “He was Dad’s ex-business partner, Perry Hoskil’s son, back when he was developing the storm rods. I’m sure she and Dad ran into each other before Dad threw Perry under the train and forced him out of business.”
Zay nodded. “Don’t know what that has to do with her owing your father a favor.”
“True. But I figured my dad has dirt on almost everyone in town. How else would he have been able to stay at the top of the magical-technology integration field? We could always ask her about it,” I said.
Zay shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe you could. She won’t talk to me. Thinks I have a hidden agenda.” He turned his gaze to me, and gold flecked his eyes. He smiled. “Can’t imagine why.”
Yeah, with that look on his face, his agenda was far from hidden. He looked like a man who not only had power but also liked to use it.
“If I get the chance,” I said, “but she’s not really happy with me either since James got locked up for trying to kill me.”
Shame slowed, and we drove near the edge of St. Johns. Huh. So maybe we weren’t going to find Sedra in St. Johns.
Instead, Victor turned east and paralleled the river on Northeast Marine Drive. Eventually, we could see the houseboats dotting the banks. In the afternoon light, the water glittered mossy greens and gray-blue.
He followed the river, then pulled down a side street and parked the car.
“Looks like it’s game time,” Shame said. “Beautiful day for some ass kicking, don’t you think?”
He got out of the car, Zay and I right behind him. Carl and La drove up, and so did Sunny and Terric. Victor and Hayden walked around to the back of Victor’s car, and we all gathered there.
Hayden threw a very nice Illusion to keep prying eyes from catching hold of what we were doing, and Victor opened the trunk.
Zay always carried a variety of weapons in the back of his car. Usually a couple machetes, a whip, various knives and axes, and a few magical tracking tools, like the cuffs that allow a person to keep track of another person by an awareness of heartbeat and emotional state.
But Zay’s equipment looked like a collection of odds and ends compared to Victor’s stash.
Four low-profile cases filled the trunk. When Victor released the latches and pulled open the lids, the custom-carved velvet-lined cases revealed swords, knives, axes, and other sharp, deadly devices all elegantly glyphed from tip to tip, including one case that carried a tray of handguns, and, when Victor moved that aside, had two very nice rifles with scopes below.
Guns? Against magical bad guys?
Well, no. Not all the people opposed to the Authority fought with magic. Some of them just stormed into your apartment and waved a gun at your head.
Apparently, that tactic wasn’t below Victor either.
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��The locator indicates the cage is on one of the houseboats within a block,” Victor said. “We’re going to spread out.” He lifted a box with several thin silver and glass chains in it, letting each of us choose a chain. “And we are going to stay in contact. No going in alone. Not for any of us.” He took an extra long time to stare at Zayvion, Shame, and me, to make sure we understood.
“When,” he continued, “any one of us finds Jingo or Sedra, we will call for backup. I don’t want any mistakes. I don’t want haste to take away our chance of ending this now. We do this carefully, cautiously, methodically.”
It was my turn to choose a chain. There were maybe ten or so left in the case. They all looked exactly the same. I pulled one out. It was about the right length for a bracelet; I put it on my left wrist just like everyone else. I connected the clasp and felt a sweet little spell snap to life.
This was a little different from the wrist cuffs; I couldn’t feel anyone’s emotions. But I knew where each of us was, and that we were alive. Helpful without being distracting. And it looked like newer tech than the wrist cuffs.
“If you haven’t brought your own weapons, arm yourself.” He stepped aside.
“I would prefer capturing Jingo Jingo alive,” he continued. “We have some questions he could answer for us. That goes for anyone else working with him. Don’t use deadly force unless necessary.”
I had the Blood dagger on me, but that was all. I ran my fingers over the edge of the gun case. Even though I liked the idea of a longer-range weapon, I could not bring myself to pick up the gun. I’d just been on the other side of a barrel, and the thought of holding a firearm in my hand made me nauseated.
Luckily, Victor had a very nice sword weighted a lot like my katana. I reached for it at the exact same time Zay did. Our fingers touched; Zay pulled his hand away.
“Nice choice,” he murmured.
He reached for a heavier sword, something between a machete and that broadsword Hayden was leaning on.
Everyone else must have brought their own weapons. Victor closed the lids and latched all the cases, then shut the trunk. “Hayden?” he said.
Hayden made a motion like cutting the Illusion in half and caught two bits of the canceled glyph in each hand, pushing one out toward our cars, to hide them, and pushing the other half out to us. I didn’t know what we looked like under Hayden’s Illusion. Maybe he made it so only one of us was visible, or maybe we looked like a gang of teens, or maybe we looked like us, only the memory of us slipped away the second we were out of sight.
“Groups of three,” Victor said. “Hayden, Sunny, with me. Terric, Carl, and La; Allie, Zayvion, and Shame. We’ll start on the west edge and work our way east. Questions?”
No one asked anything. “Let’s use our heads,” he said, giving Shame a hard look.
Shame just grinned. “That’s my favorite thing to use.”
We strolled across the street toward the stairs leading down to the docks below. Beautiful day, soft breezes, the scent of fresh, moving water mixed with the heavier odors of algae, rotten wood, and fish. In the distance, traffic hummed.
Nothing sneaky going on here, nothing much to see. Just a group of secret magic users about to go door-to-door asking if anyone had seen a kidnapped magic user stuck in a cage.
Zay, Shame, and I headed east, Terric and his crew took the gangplank to the boats directly in front of us, and Victor and Hayden and Sunny headed toward the western dozen.
Shame took the lead. No surprise. He had a fire burning in him to find Jingo Jingo. And Victor telling him to use his head and not use deadly force didn’t mean Shame wouldn’t make the man wish he were dead. Jingo should have never targeted Maeve. I didn’t think there was a single forgiving bone in Shame’s body.
“Keep it tight, Shamus,” Zay said quietly from behind me.
Shame nodded once.
It really was an odd way to hunt. Shame cast a Sight spell; Zay cast something else that let him, and me, if I were touching him, sense how many living things were inside the boat. Everything from plants, cats, fish, and people. As far as I could tell, it stopped there, since I couldn’t sense bugs or microscopic life.
As for me? I went for the tried-and-true Hounding spells. I set a Disbursement for a headache and cast a form of Sight, Smell, and Taste. If Jingo Jingo had been casting magic, and I don’t know why he wouldn’t, then I should be able to unravel his signature from the other old, fading, and lingering spells scattered about the dock and boats.
There was a higher concentration of spells than I’d expected. Maybe living on the water made a person want to put in a few extra protection spells, or alarm spells, or even things like Illusions that made the boat upkeep look flawless. I know if I lived on water, I’d have a dozen backup spells on my bilge pump and generator.
Shame strolled down the dock, looking like he wasn’t peering inside each of those ships. I sorted through spells, searching for Jingo’s signature, breathing deep in hope of catching his licorice-and-formaldehyde scent.
We went through the first three boats, then walked down the dock and along the water to the next slip. Another two boats. This time, Terric’s team was ahead of us, so we skipped forward to the next boat. There were only a few more at this dock. And Victor had said the device indicated the cage was within a block of where we parked. We were pushing the edge of that boundary now.
As soon as we came even with one of the boats, I could smell it—the licorice-and-formaldehyde stink of Jingo Jingo. I immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
“He’s down here,” I said quietly.
Shame, still ahead of us, paused. “You sure?” he asked so quietly, I almost couldn’t hear it over the lapping of water, and clatter of rope against metal.
“Yes.” I rested my gaze on each boat in turn. “Toward the end.”
No spells covering the outside of the boat. I think that’s what tipped me off. Everyone else had something cast—if not an alarm, some kind of flotation or other maintenance spell. Not the boat at the end.
“I think we should call Victor,” I said.
“Done,” Shame repocketed his phone. I hadn’t heard him talking, didn’t see or smell a Mute spell, so guessed he had an auto text message set to ping him.
Zay cast an Illusion around us, one that was so subtle, I almost couldn’t smell the extra magic. Which was good. With any luck, Jingo Jingo wouldn’t sense it either.
It took only a couple minutes and everyone was assembled on the dock. Victor and Hayden took point, Zay and Terric in the middle, and me and Shame in the back, with Carl and Sunny behind us. I don’t know why they shoved me at the back of the pack—although I could guess. I was not a Closer and not nearly as practiced a fighter as any of the rest of them. But I knew exactly why Shame was as far out of the leading edge of the attack as possible. Jingo Jingo wouldn’t come back alive if Shame got to him first.
We made our way quietly and quickly to the boat. There was no other way onto it than the gangplank, which, I could tell from the tense body language, none of us liked. We filed on, one at a time, and once on the boat, spread out around the deck. I didn’t think Jingo Jingo was the type to jump ship, but I wouldn’t put it past him to shove Sedra, cage and all, overboard.
Victor and Hayden stood on either side of the door, like some kind of cop duo, except instead of guns, they had swords and fists full of spells ready to fire. Terric, Sunny, and Carl went around the back, looking to block Jingo’s escape.
I hunched down near the railing. My thought was to stay here to block Jingo’s escape if he blasted through everyone else.
No fireworks, no bullets. Not a kick to the door. Victor cast a spell around the entire boat, making it feel like it was wrapped in a thick blanket, and Hayden tried the latch and opened the door.
They both walked into the living area. The bracelet at my wrist told me they were still alive and still on the boat. Then I heard Victor’s voice as if he were standing next to me, which he most certainly was not.
“Come in, all of you.” Okay, so it wasn’t just me who was hearing his voice. I hesitated, wondering if this was a trap, wondering if Jingo Jingo could somehow have captured Victor and was luring us in.
Shame was through the door in a shot, a spell clenched in his hand and a hard light in his eyes. Zay glanced back at me, then disappeared into the cabin.
I made it in before Sunny, with Terric in front of me.
The cabin was actually a very nice and spacious living area. I let out the breath I was holding against my claustrophobia. It was more luxurious on the inside than the outside; it felt like I’d just stepped onto a yacht. Even so, the main living space was blocked by a wall of shoulders and backs. I’m tall, but Zay, Victor, and Hayden pretty much sucked up any chance I might have to see what it was they were all looking at.
Then the smell hit me full force. Licorice and formaldehyde, blood, sweat, pain, and something that stank like burned metal.
“Don’t kill him, Shame,” Victor said. “Not yet.”
“Where is she, Jingo?” Victor asked.
I finally slid to one side, enough that I could see around Zay’s shoulder.
The mass of flesh on the floor may have once resembled Jingo Jingo. Now it looked like he’d gone through a meat grinder. Bloody, burned, bruised, and swollen. I didn’t know what it would take to do that to a man his size.
Hayden, who had somehow made it around to the other side of Jingo, glanced up at me. I caught his gaze and realized that behind him was the twisted, broken, and burned remains of the spell cage Jingo had thrown around Sedra.
“Don’t,” Jingo wheezed, “know. Dane. Lanister broke her out.”
“That’s enough for me,” Shame growled. “I don’t see how he’s of any use to us now.” He pulled back his hand to cast.
“Shame,” Victor warned.
Shame swore.
“If you won’t do as you’re told, you will leave,” he commanded.
“You aren’t going to let him live, are you?” Shame asked. “He betrayed the Authority.”
“He will receive a trial.”
“A trial?” Shame said. “He bloody well tried to kill us. Tried to kill my mother and all the rest of us on the battlefield.”