Duo (Stone Mage Saga Book 2)

by Raven Whitney

  “He'd kill his own great-granddaughter?” Disbelief peppered Lexie's voice. And I always thought that her family was cutthroat.

  “If it benefits him politically, in a heartbeat.” Grandma snorted. “Claiming that his own blood was the stone mage behind Unus' assassination could increase his clout. On the other hand, that she's three-quarters human could tarnish his precious bloodline.”

  “So avoid him at all costs?” Lexie scoffed.

  Grandma nodded. “Until I tell you otherwise, yes.”

  Until?

  Lexie threw her hands up as she sat down on the other side of the sofa from me. “Great. Another radioactive land mine to dodge.”

  Grandma rolled her eyes as she stood up from the couch across from us. “Meilyr ap Heilyn is more of a radioactive heat-seeking atom bomb.”

  “Oh.” Lexie's eyebrows popped up.

  “Yes, now if you ladies will excuse me, I've got to get back to Winnie and Harry's for the night.” She stood and gave each of us a hug and a kiss. “I can leave these bags here for tomorrow's training. And I'll bring you girls some clothes and toiletries in the morning.”

  “Are you sure it's a good idea to leave here?” I asked.

  “You're safely in the care of a venator and we killed the only enemy who knew who I was, so I'll be okay.” With a sad smile, she said, “I don't want Winnie to worry herself any more.” She unwrapped the scarf wrapped around the eyeball and put it back in its box to carry it out with her.

  I bolted the door behind her and returned to the coffee table to retrieve my shake.

  “You know, I could hear everything you and your Grandma were talking about this afternoon before we left,” Lexie blurted.

  Yikes. Not how I wanted to broach the subject.

  I turned around to see her now leaning against the kitchen cabinet. “Sorry, I was going to tell you tonight.” I couldn't bring myself to meet her gaze. After what I did to her, what I got her mixed up in, she had every right to hate me forever.

  “It's okay. Really.”

  Shocked, I looked up and saw that she was serious. Her usually bright, cheerful face was somber. Her eyes, now a misty blue, held a grave weight to them that was almost alien.

  She sighed deeply and ran her fingers through her hair. “I've been thinking about it all day and it isn't your fault that any of this happened. I'm glad you brought me back, even as a zombie. I'd rather be undead than dead-dead. And it's not like you and I were ever going to split up anyway.”

  I couldn't think of anything to say. Relief filled every muscle of my body and I let out a breath.

  “It's odd not to eat or sleep anymore. I keep expecting to suddenly be starving or exhausted, but I guess you're my food now.” Her face scrunched up in distaste. “That sounded way weirder than I meant, but you get what I was trying to say.”

  I smiled and tears welled in my eyes. I went to go toss my sweater in the bedroom so she wouldn't see me crying again. It was then that I remembered the necklace sitting in my pocket.

  Pulling it out, I closed my fist around it so she wouldn't see. I wiped my eyes and returned to the kitchenette nook.

  “I got you something when we were at the shop today.”

  She looked confused. “With what money?”

  “The emergency stash I kept in my old purse.” I held out my closed hand.

  “Wow! A hand! I'm so excited.” She laughed. “I should have mentioned this earlier, but I don't actually have cravings for human flesh, brains or otherwise.”

  I opened my fingers to reveal the gleaming silver rose inside.

  “Wow.” She breathed, genuine this time. A slow smile spread across her lips. “You got this for me?”

  I nodded and gestured for her to turn around. I fastened the soft leather band of the choker around her neck. Sure enough, it fit like a glove over the red line where her head had been cut off.

  “If I could cry, I would right now.” She turned and wrapped me in a bear hug. “It's perfect.”

  When she relaxed her arms, I pulled back a little to check how it fit in the front. It was an exact cover. So long as she wore this necklace, you couldn't tell that she was anything other than anemic.

  She ran her fingers over the braided leather strap. Astonishment lit up her face when she realized that it covered her scar. She rushed to our bathroom to check in the mirror. A cry of glee sounded and she bounced out to squeeze me again.

  “It really is perfect! No more itchy scarf.” She lifted me up and spun me around the room.

  “Unless you want me to throw up my dinner, please set me back down.” I laughed.

  She put my feet back on the floor. “We don't want that. You're eating for two now.” Her face scrunched up. “That sounded kinda weird, too.”

  I shrugged. “I get what you mean. Forget what anyone else thinks.”

  Liam came out then and surveyed the room. “Where's your gran?”

  “She went home to my mom and dad's house,” I answered.

  He scowled. “It's not the best idea, but not the worst, either.” He saw the empty plates. “Where's the food?”

  I pointed to the microwave.

  “I just spoke to one of my superiors and it'll take three days to organize everything to get you out of here. In the meantime, your protection until you can be evacuated is my new assignment.”

  “Why so long?” Lexie asked. “Can't we just get on a plane?”

  He shrugged. “These things take some time and we aren't in immediate danger, so it doesn't meet the criteria for a teleport evac.”

  “Someone is trying to murder us. That doesn't warrant an emergency?” she asked. She had a good point.

  I'd seen firsthand how quickly the Pax could mobilize an entire army. Why was it taking so long to get two small women out of Newport?

  “Teleporters are in high demand and there are crises much bigger than ours going on all over the world that gets their priority,” he explained. “Unless our hair is on fire, we wait for orders.”

  “Now you two need to get some sleep for tomorrow,” he sat down at the dining table with his burger.

  “I don't sleep.” Lexie turned sharply and went into the empty bedroom.

  “Goodnight,” Liam said to me. “I'll keep watch.”

  “Thanks.” I went into the bedroom and stripped down to my underwear. Grandma was going to bring us clothes tomorrow, so I could use the hotel bathrobe until then.

  The shower started in the bathroom and I turned the TV on until Lexie came out. I was in dire need of a shower to get all the crusty blood and sea salt off.

  A few minutes later, Lexie and I swapped places and I took a quick shower before collapsing into bed.

  “I'll just sit here and watch TV, if that's good with you.” Lexie turned the volume down and the lights off.

  “Fine,” I mumbled, drifting off.

  The next thing I knew, the voice of a ghost poured ice into my soul.

  9

  Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Unus' sing-song voice echoed from a dark place.

  Oh, God. He was still alive. I had to run.

  Something warm, wet, and sticky was pooling around my foot. It was blood oozing from the lion-man's severed head.

  The fires of the torches blew out from a chill wind. With the absolute blackness of the hallway surrounding me, I couldn't see where he was. There were only two ways to go. I had a one in two chance of going the right direction. But that also meant I had an equal chance of running straight into the shark's jaws.

  No clue if I was heading for life or death, I picked a direction and ran as fast as my body would carry me. I kept going until my bare feet bled, but I couldn't gain any distance from that taunting voice.

  “Hey!” A pair of icy hands grabbed one of my feet and started pulling me into the stone floor like quicksand.

  I lashed out with my other foot, connecting with something solid.

  “Ouch!” Lexie yelped. My foot was free.

  I lurched upward
and saw her there, staring at me with owl eyes. Panting, I shouted, “Don't scare me like that!”

  “Only if you don't kick me.”

  “Agreed.” I took a deep breath to calm myself and ran my fingers through my hair. The nips of pain on my scalp told me that was a bad idea. “Why did you wake me up? Is something wrong?”

  “Other than our current nightmare, nothing else is wrong. And I came in because it's already eleven o'clock and if I have to watch another daytime talk show, I am going to eat your brain.” She threw her hands up in frustration. This stagnancy was driving her as mad as it was me.

  I dropped back into the pillows with a poof. “There are other channels.”

  “Have you ever actually watched daytime TV? There's nothing on but soaps and talk shows.” She huffed before jumping onto the bed beside me and bouncing like a cruel, cruel maniac. “Besides, your grandma's gonna be here in a minute. She said she wants to be out of here as soon as possible.”

  I rolled over and buried my face in the pillow. “I hate you.”

  Lexie laughed. “You know you love me!” She hopped off the bed and skipped to the kitchen. Ugh. This new morning person Lexie was making me nauseous. Maybe she was a pod person. At this point, who knew?

  I brushed my teeth with a hotel freebie and threw on the bathrobe. My hair was a mess, but there wasn't anything I could do about it, so I pulled it back into a bun with yesterday's ponytail holder.

  “Food's here,” Lexie called out.

  “Thanks.” I pulled it out and dug in, even though the minty aftertaste in my mouth messed with the glory of the bacon.

  As I was stuffing the last bite into my mouth, Liam walked in.

  “Are you ready to go?” he asked.

  Mouthful, I gestured to the bathrobe.

  “Right, then.”

  Grandma came in then, pulling a suitcase behind her. “Get dressed girls. We've got to get moving.”

  “Thanks,” Lexie took the bag and hurried into the bedroom. She was wearing the same clothes as yesterday and had to be itching to change.

  I followed after her and picked an old pair of jeans and baggy hoodie out of the suitcase for today. We finished getting ready and headed out.

  “Alright, alright.” Grandma pulled two vials of clear liquid the color of rose gold from her jacket. “Glamour time, girls.”

  I swallowed over the dread lump in my throat.

  She must have read the looks on our faces, because she assured us that this batch made with the eyeball of a giant lava newt would taste better. I didn't see how that statement made any sense.

  She shoved the vials in our faces.

  Lexie gave me a sideways glance. “Shoot it?”

  I nodded, uncorked the vial, and tossed the liquid back before I could think. I was astonished when the warm flavors of cloves and apricots rolled across my tongue.

  Lexie made a pleased mmm sound.

  “See?” Grandma asked sarcastically. “I told you this batch wouldn't taste so bad. Now get in the car. We've got a big day ahead.”

  As seat belt buckles clicked, I remembered something. “Can I borrow your phone while you're driving, Grandma?”

  A dubious pair of eyes stared at me through the rear-view mirror. “Why?”

  “I promised the manager at that store yesterday I'd leave her a nice review online.”

  “Do not contact anybody.” She passed me the phone from her purse. “And use my account.”

  “Thanks.” I took the phone and typed out a brief, but glowing review. After I stuffed her phone back into her purse, a very loud cock-a-doodle-doo! sounded from behind me, nearly sending me out of my skin.

  Lexie and I turned around from where we sat in the back bench seat to see a few duffel bags and small box with a blanket over it.

  “Grandma, is there a chicken in the back or is that a really big alarm clock?” I called out over my shoulder.

  Without missing a beat, she responded, “That would be a rooster, dear.”

  For a moment, something in my brain did not compute.

  “Why is there a rooster in the car?” Lexie asked the obvious follow-up question.

  “You'll see, girls,” Grandma answered cryptically and tuned the radio to a contemporary pop station.

  Lexie and I gave each other perplexed looks. Since the box was closer to her, she reached for it to pull the blanket off and surely enough, there was indeed a rooster strutting around proudly in a wire mesh crate. This was the first time that either of us had seen a chicken in person except for the one time that we went to a petting zoo when we were little and they only had girl chickens.

  I reached out to stroke its feathers through the mesh. The little bastard whipped around and pecked my finger. Yelping, I jerked my finger back.

  Lexie stifled a snort. Poorly. “What a mother clucker.”

  Liam didn't bother to suppress his bark of laughter.

  Instinct made me want to stick my finger in my mouth to try to suck the pain away, but who knew where the little monster's beak had been. Even though it had pecked me, the exotic— to me, at least— animal still held my attention.

  For the rest of the ride, we sat leaned against the backs of our seats, watching it curiously until Grandma parked the car in a different field farther away from town and ushered us out.

  She walked around to the back of the car and opened up the hatch.

  “Would you girls take the bags and the chicken over to one side of the field for me?” She asked, taking the backpack with the cubes to put them out again even though they did a fat lot of good for us yesterday.

  We obliged, having to make two trips to get everything.

  Grandma joined us a minute later, after having set up the glamour cubes.

  “Liam, you start sparring with Lexie over there. I would like to try something with Constance,” Grandma said.

  Liam gestured for Lexie to follow him to the other side of the field.

  “I think I've figured out the key to your magic,” Grandma began. “I came at you yesterday as I would any other mage, using a process-based approach to learning how to cast. Last night, I thought more about what we did yesterday and what you told me you did and felt each time you casted magic, I suspect the key to casting for you is your emotions not a particular action like every other mage.”

  I drew my brows together in confusion. “How would emotions work? I thought it was an act of faith that casted magic.”

  She nodded. “Every time you casted your genera magics, you were feeling something very strong and focused. If I'm correct, then not only have we unlocked your ability to cast all of the powerful magics conferred to you by the bracelet, but we may have also figured out how to teach you to spell raw magic. A mage's methods for casting and spelling are usually somewhat similar in nature. For instance, I am a philterer in both spelling and casting. However, there are some mages who are a combination of methods: some verbal spellers are kinesthetic casters and ferramentors— those who cast using a focusing tool like a wand— are typically verbal or kinesthetic spellers. You, I believe, will be able to spell and cast through the same method of directed emotion.”

  While they did contradict what I'd learned so far about magic, her arguments did make sense. Every time I ever casted magic, I never did anything in specific to do it, but I was always feeling something very strongly, whether it was fear or anger or need.

  “So how do I learn to cast, then, if there aren't any books that I can study from or techniques that I can try?”

  “We make you feel until you eventually make the connection between your feelings and your intended actions.” Grandma glanced to the rooster in the crate.

  I had a bad feeling about this.

  She picked a curved sword with a gleaming hand guard from one of the black bags and held it in front of me. “This type of sword is similar to the modern human saber. It's extremely sharp and is made to cleave a man in two. It's a bit shorter in length, making it comfortable for a woman of your proportion
s to use. This particular sword is more than a millennium in age, but don't let her years fool you. She's a high-quality, troll-forged sword that will last for another thousand years to come.”

  Involuntarily, I exhaled a breath in awe as I wrapped my fingers around the hilt and pulled the blade free of its scabbard. There were a few shallow knicks on the body of its length, but her steel shone brilliantly in the sun. I'd have guessed that it was old, but not that old. A thousand years was ancient, almost unfathomable for an object that was in such good condition. It belonged in a museum.

  A proud, joyous smile crossed her face as she laid it in my hands. “This was my elder sister's sword for almost eleven hundred years. She fought and died with this sword at her side. Now, it will be yours.”

  A wave of emotion rushed through me when she set that cold steel into my hands. This was my great aunt's and she said it was more than a thousand years old. I gazed anew at all of the tiny knicks in the blade and simple hand guard and wondered how they'd gotten there. Before, they'd just been scuff marks, now they were storied battle scars.

  “You'll be practicing basic swordsmanship with it later,” she promised with a tiny crack in her voice. “For now, you're going to use it to kill this chicken. Then, you're going to bring it back.”

  I snapped my head up, my reverie broken. Was she serious? The only things I could bring myself to kill— provided they weren't trying to kill me— were houseflies.

  Seeing the dismay on my face, she put her hand firmly on my shoulder. “If you truly do cast through your feelings, then the only way you're going to learn is by emoting. You have to learn to use the weapons you've been given if you want to survive.”

  I looked to the poor little rooster, confused and afraid and mostly harmless. I couldn't make myself do it.

  “Constance,” Grandma repeated, her tone scolding. She turned me around to see Liam correcting Lexie's posture as he taught her how to throw a punch and continued, “Look over there. See Lexie learning how to protect herself? That will all be for nothing if you cannot defend the both of you. She may be a good zombie, but on her own, she's as effective as a flea against Octavius. It's up to you to keep her safe. You know what he would do to her to get at you.”