We faced a dilemma. If we went to the woods, we’d be giving up what little protection being in the city provided. We’d be more vulnerable, but we also had to get to Millhook. If we didn’t get to him in time to go through the portal before he lost the strength to keep it open, we wouldn’t get another opportunity before Casper killed us.
“What do you want to do?” Alex asked as we ran through the streets, drawing attention. At least with attention on us, Casper would hesitate to do anything overt.
“Get to Millhook.”
Alex nodded and pulled ahead of me, leading the way. We were only a few streets from where the city blocks gave way to trees. I could hear Casper and Analise behind us growing louder as they neared. The woods were only one street away now. We dove in front of traffic, forcing cars to swerve and brake, blocking Casper’s path. Angry German voices shouted behind us.
Once Alex passed a few trees, he shifted, and I climbed onto his back. Finding Millhook would be much easier with Alex’s heightened panther senses. The speed would be difficult for Casper to match, but under the cover of the trees, he’d be able to freely use his magic.
A dark purple bolt whizzed past my head and then a red one. Casper and Analise would only miss so many times.
Chapter 31
Alex ran in a zigzag pattern, preventing the spells from hitting. I tightened my thighs around Alex’s side and twisted my upper body around to look at our pursuers. With a wave of my hand, I sent a dozen little ice arrows toward them. It slowed them down, but not much.
Ahead, I made out Millhook in the distance. The portal was nothing more than a spark of light between his hands. At this rate, we would need to fight off Casper and Analise for at least a few minutes. My options were limited in this space. Fire was too much of a risk in such a wooded area, especially given how dry it was. If I tried to hide myself, they would go after my friends.
I had one piece of leverage. Playing it now would be risky, but I didn’t see any other option. “Stop here. We shouldn’t bring them any closer.”
Alex stopped, and I jumped off his back. When I turned to face Casper and Analise, Alex already crouched defensively in front of me. Casper and Analise kept advancing, but when I held my satchel aloft, Casper’s arm shot out to halt Analise.
Green tendrils grew from my right hand and lashed the strap of the satchel to my arm. He wouldn’t be able to get it from me without snatching the entire limb away. He wasn’t above doing that, which made me a little nauseous, but at least this way I’d have time to incinerate it before he could remove it. Any action or spell that moved too fast to give me time to burn the bag would have to use a level of force that would destroy the bag anyway.
“That’s right, Casper. You know what’s in here. Everything my mother left me is in this satchel. You come any closer, and I’ll destroy it before you even get off a spell.”
“Why? Don’t you want to continue what your mother started?” The charming façade he wore when dealing with the public was firmly in place.
“I’ve seen enough of her work. I can continue it on my own. The knowledge is all here in my head. The contents of this bag are worthless to me.”
“You’re bluffing. If that were true, you would’ve destroyed it already.”
“Try me.” He was partly right. In one sense, this entire thing was a bluff. I had no idea what I was doing from one moment to the next. All I knew was that I wouldn’t hesitate to destroy the satchel if it meant getting out of here alive, so he was wrong on that count.
It was a balancing act. If I destroyed it, there’d be little reason for him not to kill me. As long as I kept the satchel, I had leverage, but I wasn’t entirely confident in my ability to keep it from him. Casper had a lifetime of study on me. If my attention wavered for even a second, I was sure he could use his magic to retrieve the satchel and kill me before I even knew what happened.
Casper raised both his hands in the air. “I’m sure we can come to some arrangement. I’m open to negotiate with you for the satchel.”
“Tell me, why would I want you to have it? You threw me out. I came to you looking for help, and you turned your back on me. For all I know, you betrayed my mother as well.” I didn’t need to reveal what I knew to him. I just needed to keep talking, to buy us more time for Millhook to finish the portal.
“Your mother gave her life for you. You’d really destroy her work without a thought?”
Emotional blackmail wouldn’t work. Even if I didn’t know what I did about Meglana, at this moment I existed in pure survival mode. “I’ve put a lot of thought into this. I don’t need this satchel, but you do.”
All charm left his face and voice. “And if you destroy it, I’ll kill you.”
“It won’t come to that. I’ve seen what’s in this bag. I know everything my mother did. Everything. My life is nothing compared to the knowledge I hold in my hand. You’re not going to risk losing it. You’d sooner let me escape with it than forever lose the opportunity to get it.”
I kept my eyes trained solely on Casper. The slightest twitch could indicate he was casting a spell. With his level of skill, it was entirely possible for him to cast a spell without giving any outward sign. The fact that he hadn’t attacked yet revealed how nervous he was that I might destroy what he wanted.
I was so focused on Casper that I couldn’t even see Analise. Alex growled in front of me on the right. No sooner had I processed the sound than I found myself on my back with the wind knocked out of me. Pain sprouted from my abdomen. A warm stickiness soaked the front of my shirt.
“No!” Casper shouted.
Why did he care about me? I forced my stunned mind to think. He didn’t care about me, only about the bag. I had to destroy it now before I lost the strength to and Casper got what he wanted.
I summoned all my willpower to focus my mind on burning the satchel. Casper was getting closer. Too close. If I didn’t produce enough heat to instantly incinerate the pages, he’d get them before they fully burned. With everything I had, I pushed fire from my palm.
A bloodcurdling scream rent the air. The flesh of my hand burnt so intensely I thought it melted from my bones. I wondered if the scream had come for me. I couldn’t tell. Pain overloaded my senses.
“You bitch!” Fury and agony filled Casper’s voice.
This was it. There was no reason for him not to kill me. At least he wouldn’t get what he wanted. I had succeeded on that front.
Bleeding from my abdomen, with my hand badly burned, my only instinct was to run. I sat up and saw why I was still alive: where Casper’s right hand should’ve been, only a raw red stump remained. Frantically, he searched the ground with his left hand for his ring.
Without a magical object to interact with, Casper was as human as Nicole. The ability to summon my talisman when I’d been separated from it must have had something to do with my father’s magic.
With renewed strength, I shot a burst of energy at Casper, knocking him on his back. I scrambled to my feet, holding the gaping wound in my stomach with my left hand and using my right to shoot a spear of ice that pierced Casper’s shoulder, pinning him to the ground. The spell had come from instinct, as much to cool my melting hand as to pin him. Blood flowed out of my body through the fingers of my left hand, my strength and energy going with it. I didn’t know how many more spells I had in me, and I could hear Alex and Analise fighting to the side.
“You may think you’re a killer, but you don’t have the stomach for it,” Casper taunted me, his voice punctuated by shallow breaths. “I saw the look in your eyes, heard you scream ‘no.’ You don’t want that pet of yours to kill Analise when she wouldn’t hesitate to kill you. If I let her have her way, you’d be dead.”
“Maybe you should’ve listened to her.”
“Fine. Kill me. You’ll never be safe, Kat Thomas. Your mother made sure of that the moment she birthed you and took your father’s power.”
“I know I’ll be safer with you dead.”
; “Really? How do you think I knew where to find you? I’m just a pawn. We’re all pawns. This goes higher than you can imagine. But this is how it starts, Kat. You decide to kill. You’ve already done it once, and now you need to decide if you’ll do it again. If you kill me, you’ll be trapped in their game forever.”
“And if I don’t, you’ll kill me. You said so yourself. There’s little incentive for you to keep me alive.”
“Oh, I can think of one. You can still join the Directorate. With us, you can continue your mother’s work. When you came to me, I offered you a place among us. What did the Council do? Threaten you with banishment to the Vortex? The Council will never win this fight, especially with a mole in their midst.”
A part of me was insulted that he thought me so stupid. If I joined the Directorate, it would only be as a science experiment as they stopped at nothing to get the knowledge in my head.
Casper might be desperate, but he was right about one thing: I was deciding to kill an unarmed man. I could restrain him and bring him back to Elustria to face justice.
Alex roared in pain behind me. I couldn’t turn my back on Casper to help him.
The decision made, I formed a blade of ice. I didn’t have time to wait for him to bleed out. Using every bit of magic I could muster, I thrust the blade from my hand.
It severed his head.
I turned to find Alex, but the world spun around me. I crashed to my knees. The bleeding had slowed from my abdomen.
Everything slowed.
Everything blurred.
Everything went dark.
Chapter 32
Something pressed against my abdomen. Again and again it irritated my wound, sending shocks of pain through me. After each occurrence, the pain lessened a little and my mind came into sharper focus.
“Wake up! Come on, girl.”
Millhook’s voice drew me further into consciousness. I wished he’d just shut up and let me be. The pressure against my abdomen came again, sharp pain followed by a little relief.
“Come on, now. The portal’s ready. I can’t have you dying on me. Pretty sure that would break my oath. Don’t want to lose my magic, especially before we all get back home.”
Home. I didn’t even know where that was anymore.
My mind was nothing but hazy images as I struggled to stay awake.
A loud roar right in front of my face brought the world into focus. Alex. The pressure I'd felt, it had been his tongue licking my wound. I opened my eyes to see him and Millhook gazing down at me. Millhook sighed in relief. “Finally.”
An all-consuming pain engulfed my hand. I wanted to scream, but I lacked the energy, so I settled on a whimper. The skin on my hand had melted, and while the angry red limb looked better than Casper’s had, I couldn’t understand why it was injured at all. Fire was one of the few types of magic I was good at.
“Furball here can’t shift back. He’s too badly injured to use his magic for anything other than healing. He stopped the blood gushing from your gut, and now it’s time to go.”
“Where’s Nicole?” Next to me laid Casper’s corpse, and in the distance I saw Analise’s dead body, but no sign of Nicole. I hadn’t seen her since we split up at the hotel. Sibelius had to have her. He was the only other person unaccounted for.
“Nicole’s safe. I figured she’d be in the way and probably get herself or one of us killed, so I persuaded her to head on home.” Relief washed over me. I didn’t have to worry about her life being on my conscience. Nicole wouldn’t have gone of her own free will, but I didn’t care that Millhook used magic. She was safe.
“Humph. Don’t tell me I spent all this time and energy making this portal for you to just loaf around here on Earth. We have to go.” Millhook offered me his hand, and Alex nudged me with his giant head.
Once I got to my feet, I saw the extent of Alex’s injuries. A pink scar tore down the side of his body. Minutes ago that would’ve been an open gash. Even if he had used all his healing on himself, it wouldn’t have been enough.
We limped toward the portal, Alex favoring his front left paw and me doubling over in pain with each step. He’d stopped the external bleeding, but I felt sure my internal injuries would be fatal if they didn’t get treated soon. The portal was only about twenty yards away, but it might as well have been a football field.
Ten yards from the portal, I thwacked into a translucent force field. “Oh for fuck’s sake.”
“Kat, please, listen to me.” Sibelius ran toward us. I was tired of this bastard.
Millhook dispelled the wall blocking our path. “Go, go. I’ll hold him off.”
Alex pushed me forward when I hesitated, wanting to stay and help Millhook. The imp had grown on me. I didn’t want to lose him.
Sibelius encircled my feet with magical cord. Had I been walking at a normal speed, I would’ve tripped and landed on my face. Millhook severed the cord, and I shot a bolt of lightning toward Sibelius. It pierced his arm, but he still pressed forward.
Between us sat a fallen tree. I tried to lift it with my magic, but I didn’t have the energy. Instead, I used the little energy I had left to levitate a thick branch. I got one good swing in and connected with Sibelius’s head before I lost all strength.
Rattled from the blow to his head, Sibelius was momentarily too stunned to do magic. Instead, he pursued us the old-fashioned way: as a human.
“Go, go!” Millhook yelled.
It was a race to the portal. If Sibelius grabbed hold of me, I wouldn’t be able to fight him off.
Each yard was a battle. The portal was so close, but all I wanted was to sleep, rest. Perhaps even death wouldn’t be so bad.
Millhook’s magic waned. With each spell he cast at Sibelius, the portal flickered. I worried it would collapse before we could get through it. Sibelius must’ve been putting up a good fight, because I could still hear him behind me.
Only one yard left. Sibelius’s hand grazed my arm. Alex turned around and reared up on his hind legs then swiped forward with all of his weight. Sibelius screamed and someone pushed me through the portal.
I crashed to the stone floor of the Citadel, resting my head in a warm pool of blood before I lost consciousness for the second time.
Chapter 33
I needed to be up, but I couldn’t remember why. I was so tired that I felt sure I could sleep for an entire day. But nagging stress kept me from falling back to sleep as if there were an appointment I was late for.
There was only one item in my datebook: a trial for my life.
Yep, that would do it. No more sleep for me until I found out my fate.
Alex. Millhook. What happened to them? If the imp were alive, I should have heard him annoying Alex. Concern for my friends urged my eyes to open. The bed I lay on was comfortable but foreign. One person sat on a chair in the sparse room with me.
“You’re awake! How are you feeling?” Lilibet rose from her chair and came to my bedside.
“I’m fine.” I moved to sit up and realized I’d spoken too soon. My entire body ached with the movement, but at least my hand had healed. I gingerly touched my abdomen and found no sign of my wound. If it weren’t for the intense ache, it would be easy to believe I’d imagined the entire thing. “Where are Alex and Millhook?”
“Here, drink this.” Lilibet handed me a glass of cloudy gray liquid. I wanted to politely refuse, but my mouth was so parched that my voice came out hoarse. A tentative sip of the liquid revealed that it tasted like fruit punch. I guzzled the rest of it.
“Alex and Millhook are fine. I’ll go get them. They’ve been anxious, waiting for you to wake up.”
“How long was I out of it?”
“A few hours.”
“My trial, it was supposed to be today.”
“Yes, this is the date of justice, so something has to be done. The Council’s discussing it.”
“Can you do me a favor and not let them know I’m awake just yet? I need some time. The last few days have been—”
“Calista told me to let her know as soon as you are awake,” Lilibet cut me off. “However, she could be anywhere. I’ve been sitting here since you arrived. I think I should stretch my legs. Without using rings, it could take quite a while to find her. The Citadel’s a large place.”
“Thanks, Lilibet.”
She smiled and left the room, closing the door behind her.
I appreciated Lilibet buying me some time, but there was only so much she could do. Whether I liked it or not, today I would face the Council. I needed to figure out what I was going to tell them. After discovering the truth about my mother, I no longer had any interest in protecting her name or her memory. That made things simpler, but there were other complications.
Casper had mentioned a mole. While he would say anything to screw with me, a mole made too much sense. After I came to Elustria and saw the Council, Casper and the Directorate shouldn’t have been able to track me. Since I had only interacted with the Council itself, that meant the traitor was at the highest levels just as Casper had said.
Anything I said at my trial, I might as well have typed up on stationary and mailed to Directorate headquarters. I could only safely reveal the things Casper knew, and even that had risks. Casper might not have told the Directorate everything. I imagined he liked to keep his cards close to his chest. He knew Meglana had killed a sorcerer. He knew I was a pidge. He knew that it was a sorcerer’s magic that inhabited my talisman along with my spark.
All of that was enough to satisfy the Council and convict my mother. But what if they convicted me as well? I was a pidge, a pariah in their society. More than that, I had benefited from Marty’s death and continued to do so by using my talisman. Would they make me give it up? Would my talisman be forfeit, the price I had to pay for all this?
If the Council knew Meglana could strip pidges of their sparks and bottle them in talismans, would they be willing to do that? My gut instinct was to say no, they wouldn’t stomach it, but I had no way of knowing. As of now, I didn’t think they knew I was a pidge. Could I keep that a secret? Blend in as a mage in this new world if given the chance? I might not have a choice. I didn’t see how I could tell the story of my mother’s crimes without making it clear what I was. I could keep silent and risk being banished to the Vortex, or I could tell the truth and be an outcast.
Magic Unknown (The Elustria Chronicles: Magic Born Book 2) Page 17