City of Secrets (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 5)

by Sonya Bateman

  Taeral got up smoldering. He grabbed the lodestone pendant, yanked it free and held it in his closed normal hand. “Foraas na cloahc,” he said.

  Bright purple light pulsed around his hand and wrist, forming a glowing gauntlet. And as Ian dove toward him with the sword pointed at a Taeral-kebab angle, he raised the light-glove and made a grabbing motion, then flung his arm to the side.

  Ian’s sword tore from his hands and followed Taeral’s motion across the room.

  Breaking off mid-dive, Ian straightened and landed hard on his feet. Before he could get his bearings, Taeral held his metal arm out. “Míilé brihs!”

  Not a thousand knives. A thousand cuts.

  A pained shout burst from Ian as bleeding gashes opened everywhere on his skin. I felt Donatti tense beside me, but he didn’t try to interfere, either. Ian shuddered and stumbled, and then made a complicated gesture in Taeral’s direction.

  Taeral froze with his mouth open. No sound came out.

  “Jesus,” I said softly. “I think they’re actually going to kill each other.”

  Donatti shook his head. “They can’t.” He sounded less certain than before as he watched Ian stagger toward his fallen sword. “I mean … ”

  Taeral’s gauntlet pulsed bright, and he threw off the spell with an incoherent roar. Whirling to face Ian, he made the grab-and-pull motion again.

  A loud, metallic groan filled the air as one of the big hulks of machinery detached from the wall and flew straight at Ian.

  It didn’t miss. Around five hundred pounds of metal pushed him across the space and pinned him to the opposite wall with a sickening crunch.

  “Fucking hell,” Donatti said. “If they’re not going to stop—”

  “Wait. Look.”

  He did, and saw what I’d noticed. A bright white glow from behind the machinery.

  “Oh, good,” Donatti said. “He’s transforming. At least that’ll heal him.”

  Seconds later, the metal mass exploded outward and Ian’s wolf leapt out.

  And my phone went off.

  “Shit.” I dug it out, half watching the giant, snarling wolf rush Taeral, who managed to jump over it. My screen said it was Abe calling. With a sigh, I pushed to my feet. “Have to take this. It’s Abe,” I said. “Hopefully not about another body. Keep an eye on them.”

  “Will do,” Donatti said.

  I walked through the still-open garage door and around the corner, away from the snarls and shouts and crashes coming from the fight. “Hey, Captain,” I said. “Please tell me you just want to talk about lunch.”

  “Mr. Black, it’s Agent Gilmore.”

  Fury rushed through me. “Goddamn it, where’s Abe?”

  “He’s at his office, I think. I routed this call through his number to make sure you’d pick up,” Gilmore said. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t think you’d answer otherwise.”

  “You’re damned right I wouldn’t. I have nothing to say right now—”

  “Mr. Black, I’m calling to warn you,” he said. “Agent Frost is … somewhat heated about what happened last night. That is to say she’s furious, and she wants to throw you and your friend who was with you into a deep, dark hole. Forever.”

  “This is news?” Something huge crackled and banged from inside the building. I winced, hoping Gilmore didn’t hear it. “Well, thanks for the warning, I guess.”

  “However,” Gilmore went on like I hadn’t spoken. “I’d prefer to take you into protective custody until she calms down. So I’m currently tracking your cell phone—”

  “You’re what?”

  “I’m nearly to your location. Please stay where you are.”

  Above the sound of the fight, I heard the faint purr of a car engine and tires humming on pavement.

  Then a dark sedan turned the corner two blocks away and headed toward us.

  I cut the call and ran back inside, shoving my phone in my pocket. “Donatti,” I said. “We have to stop them. Now.”

  He stood fast with an alarmed expression. But before he could say anything, Ian — who’d turned back into a human at some point — shot into the air, out of Taeral’s reach. “Unseelie, stop!” he called. The look on his face bordered on terror. “Do you feel that?”

  I definitely felt it. The same immense, undeniable power we felt in the subtunnel. And it was growing.

  Taeral froze, but not from a spell this time. “What in the name of the gods … ”

  Donatti and I glanced at each other and ran to the windows. Across the street, Gilmore had parked the sedan and climbed out with his phone in his hand, looking at our building. Where we’d turned the lights on.

  On the building behind him, one of the gleaming chrome windows rippled and shimmered like molten silver.

  And Zee stepped through it.

  CHAPTER 34

  Everything in me liquefied with dread. There was no way I’d get to Gilmore in time, and even if I did, no way to stop Zee. I couldn’t even touch him at full power. And I had almost nothing left.

  But I was going to try anyway.

  I whirled and sprinted for the door, ignoring the startled shouts of the others. “Gilmore!” I shouted, waving madly as I rounded the corner of the building. “Back in the car! Drive, fast, now!”

  He looked up and blinked. But he didn’t make a move.

  I caught a faint glimmer shape ahead of me just before I smacked hard into something that wasn’t there. The something grabbed my throat and blinked into existence.

  An acolyte. Jesus, they could go invisible.

  Another one grabbed my arms and wrenched them behind my back, forcing me to my knees. The one in front of me moved silently aside, and Zee appeared on the road between me and Gilmore. Still dressed in leather and chains, still holding his gruesome staff.

  Still completely insane.

  I heard running behind me. Zee made a sweeping gesture, and the running stopped abruptly. I couldn’t see what he’d done to them. But he sighed and shook his head. “I suppose I’ll deal with you after I’m done with this human,” he said.

  “Gilmore, run!” I yelled.

  He didn’t answer.

  Zee stepped to one side and revealed Gilmore standing slack-jawed beside his car, shivering and drooling. His phone slid from his hand and bounced on the ground.

  “Oh, don’t worry, halfling,” Zee said cheerfully. “You and your very interesting friends can leave soon. Once I’m done destroying him.”

  I shivered and tried to wrench away from the acolyte. He held fast. “Please don’t kill him,” I said. “He wasn’t involved with what they did to you. I don’t think he even knows about it.”

  “Are you begging for this human’s life? How adorable.” He smiled that too-wide, canine-flashing grin. “If your song was not so jarring, I might have made you an acolyte.”

  “No, thanks,” I ground out. “Look, just leave him — ”

  Zee flicked a hand at me with a quick side motion. My voice stopped working. “Silence now, halfling,” he said. “I’m very busy at the moment. And I do hate having my ritual interrupted.”

  I shivered and closed my eyes, but made myself open them a second later. If Gilmore was going to die, the least I could do was witness it.

  Zee rolled up imaginary sleeves and half-turned toward Gilmore. Then he held his arms out to his sides and lifted them slowly, humming under his breath.

  Gilmore ramped up from shaking to vibrating. The tendons on his neck bulged, and his mouth opened in a silent scream.

  He exploded in a cloud of red mist.

  My throat lurched hard, and I was sure I’d vomit. Zee was still raising his arms. The red mist thickened and lifted, revealing Gilmore’s sickly white, desiccated body — still on his feet. Still trying to breathe.

  Within seconds, a huge bead of blood hung in the air above him. And as Gilmore collapsed lifeless to the ground, Zee opened his mouth wide.

  The blood streamed into him like he was sucking it with an invisible straw.


  Finally, Zee lowered his arms and produced a small, empty glass vial. He pulled the cork and spat blood into it, pushed the stopper back in. “Quite sweet, the fear in him,” he said. “All right, my faithful. Prepare the body.”

  More acolytes appeared out of nowhere, heading for Gilmore with upraised daggers.

  Zee turned around. “I will free you all, but you must be patient until I’ve finished the ritual,” he said. “There is but one final step.” He waved grandly.

  My throat loosened. The acolyte at my back let go, and I stood just as the others rushed up to join me with pale, furious expressions. At least they didn’t look any more injured than they’d already been before.

  No one tried to make a move toward Zee.

  The acolytes ripped Gilmore’s ribcage open, cut his heart out, and carried it to Zee, who accepted with a smile. “I do enjoy performing this step myself, most times,” he said. “But you all forced me to expend effort holding you back. That wasn’t very nice of you.”

  Anything I might’ve said would be a very bad idea. But it was still a struggle to keep my mouth shut.

  Zee produced the dagger he’d used in the subtunnel. “Come, my priest,” he said.

  The jaguar-tattooed acolyte popped into view near Gilmore’s car and walked over to stand in front of Zee, who handed the heart to him. He held it out in both hands, and Zee sliced his forearm open, splashing his blood on the heart. “Eat.”

  Without any hesitation, the priest bit into Gilmore’s heart.

  Zee gave him an indulgent smile, and then turned to address us. “I thought you wanted a bit more time to live, halfling,” he said. “Why would you provoke me and test my patience? Though I remain impressed by your bravery, you’re still going to die.”

  “Touch him, and I’ll part your head from your shoulders,” Taeral said with a snarl.

  I held my breath and waited for Zee to kill him. If he tried, I’d have to die failing to save my brother.

  The gold spots above his eyes lifted. “Ah, you are of the Good People,” he said. “Certainly you’ll want to enjoy this world once I’ve cleansed it. You may live.”

  Taeral opened his mouth again. I elbowed him hard enough to hurt myself, and he closed it.

  “Scion,” Zee nodded a greeting at Donatti. “I have not yet decided your fate. But you, now.” He looked at Ian, cocked his head. And flashed his biggest horrifying smile yet. “Brother! It has been so long since I’ve beheld another of my kind. A worthy one, and not those treacherous snakes. Many a feast has my clan shared with the Dehbei, long ago.”

  Before Ian could react, Zee threw his arms around him.

  Ian went absolutely still. And Donatti paled, turned away, and retched violently.

  Zee stepped back with a garish expression of sympathy. “Why, you’re just like me. The last of your kind,” he said. “How sad. Did you destroy your brethren and consume their souls, as I did?”

  I felt as sick as Donatti. Ian’s mouth moved slightly, but no words came out.

  “No? Well, do not despair, brother. For we will join in celebrations once I have brought paradise to this world.”

  Ian shivered himself out of shock. “I am not your brother,” he said tightly.

  “How dare you reject my benevolence, when I am destroying the humans for you! For all of us! Well, except the halfling, and possibly your scion.” Zee’s outburst calmed as fast as it came over him. “Of course you are my brother,” he said. “You’ll see, when I free us all from the shackles of humanity’s existence.”

  Once more he looked at me, and it was all I could do not to cringe. “And finally, halfling,” he said. “Because your begging amused me, I have decided to spare this one’s … partner, is it? Yes, partner. I will spare her the suffering of death by my hand.”

  “So you’re not going to kill her?” I managed to whisper.

  “No, I am not!” he said happily. “Instead I will send my acolytes, and she will die quite mercifully. Isn’t that kind of me?” He turned and clapped his hands. “Go, my faithful, and kill the female now.”

  The acolytes I could still see vanished. All but the jaguar priest.

  “Now. For those of you who will not make it, I’ll do you the honor of ensuring your deaths before the cleansing begins. That way you’ll never know the paradise you’ll be missing.” He started back across the street, and the priest followed him without prompting. A single gesture from Zee rippled the window they’d come through — and they vanished through it, one after the other.

  Terrific. Now I had to try and save Agent Frost.

  CHAPTER 35

  Ian was the first to break the terrible silence. “Never have I felt such power,” he rasped, his eyes wide and haunted. “We cannot stop him.”

  If Donatti looked sick before, he looked almost dead now.

  “Then we will die fighting!” Taeral said.

  Ian stared at him. “Yes, we will. There is no question of that.”

  “Hey.” Despite the chill racing through my blood, I couldn’t give up. Yeah, we had no chance. But I’d just watched Agent Gilmore, a decent enough guy, get violently murdered without being able to lift a finger to stop it. If I could keep the same thing from happening to Frost, I would. Even though I still hated her. “Here’s what we’re doing,” I said. “Ian, you make that mirror bridge thing back to the Castle. You must know protection spells, and Taeral can do wards. So the three of you — ”

  “The two of them.” Donatti shook off some of the lifelessness and looked hard at me. “Whatever you’re doing, you’re not doing it alone.”

  I almost refused, until I remembered how he fought to let us get involved in the first place. “Fine. The two of you go back and ward the shit out of the Castle,” I said. “Donatti and I are going to save Frost. We’ll bring her back with us. It’s the only way she’ll survive.”

  Donatti’s nostrils flared. “Okay, why the hell would you want to save the crazy bitch who tried to kill you?”

  “Because I killed her sister. And I just failed to save her partner.”

  I hadn’t mentioned the sister thing before. All three of them looked at me strangely, but no one said anything.

  “Anyway,” I said. “Let’s go. Okay?”

  Taeral almost smiled. “My brother is wise beyond his years,” he said. “Come, immortal. We’ve spells to work.”

  “It seems we do.” Ian gave a nod. “If you do not return safely, thief, I will never forgive you.”

  “And how is that different from now?” Donatti nodded back. “Go on. We’ve got this.”

  They started across the street, and Donatti and I went back to the building. As we approached the van, I did something I’d never done before in my life.

  I pulled my keys out and handed them to him. “You’re driving.”

  “Why am I driving, again?”

  We were already on the road. I’d programmed the nearest cross-street to the temporary headquarters into the GPS, and Donatti was handling the van well enough — if a bit white-knuckled and jittery.

  I just hoped we didn’t somehow run across any moose.

  “Because I have to make a call.” I got my phone out and called up Abe’s number. The real one, not the disposable decoy. “To make sure Frost is there waiting for us.”

  “You’re calling Frost?”

  “No. But she’s going to hear it anyway.”

  The phone rang four times before Abe picked up. Practically an eternity for him. “That you, kid?” he said with caution in his tone.

  “Yeah, it’s me.” I drew a bracing breath. “There’s another body.”

  “Er. Maybe you should call me back—”

  “Not this time. I want them to hear it. You listening, Frost?” Of course she wouldn’t answer, but I hoped I’d gotten her attention. “Sorry, Abe. I know this is confusing, and I can’t exactly explain it yet. But Agent Gilmore is dead.”

  There was a heavy pause. “The NSA guy?” Abe said.

  “Yeah, him. He’s o
ver in Hell’s Kitchen around that warehouse I told you about. The one that exploded. You know where I mean?”

  “I do,” he said slowly. “Same perp?”

  “Yes. Same killer, same M.O. Same awful mess.” I closed my eyes and tried not to watch Gilmore die again. “You might want to send a homicide unit out there to work the scene,” I said. “I’m sure the NSA will collect him from you eventually, but right now they’re going to be busy at their headquarters, because I’m turning myself in.”

  “Gideon. Don’t do anything stupid.” The worry in his voice was barely controlled. “You didn’t kill this guy.”

  “I know that. They know that. Right, Frost?” I tipped my head back and sighed. “You’re gonna have to trust me, Abe,” I said. “I’m sorry. But listen … I promise I’ll be back.”

  It took him a minute to respond. “Every time you say that, kid, the shit’s already hit the fan. I know you will — but damn it, I’m still worried.”

  “I am, too,” I admitted quietly. “But I made you a promise. And you know that means I have to keep it.”

  “Yeah, you do. You’d better.” Abe heaved a sharp breath. “Take care, kid.”

  “Right back atcha.”

  I hung up, and Donatti shot me a puzzled glance. “So Frost has your old man’s phone tapped?” he said. “Why’d you tell her you’re turning yourself in? You could’ve said hey, a bunch of magic assholes are coming to kill you, I’m trying to save your life.”

  “Because if I’d said that, first off she wouldn’t believe me. And second, she’d come for Gilmore first and worry about me later,” I said. “This way I’ve pissed her off enough to do what I said, just to spite me.”

  He grinned. “Good plan.”

  “Maybe.” I just hoped it actually worked. Because after this, I was out of ideas.

  CHAPTER 36

  Frost was waiting for us outside the door. With four armed agents.