by Linsey Hall
We were almost to the hieroglyphs room when a demon caught me by the collar, dragging me back.
I screamed as he raised his flaming sword over my head.
Get it together!
I dropped my weight hard to the floor. The demon stumbled, but his grip didn’t loosen. I rolled, swiping out with my blade.
It cut deep into his forearm and blood spurted, spraying my face with warm wetness.
I gagged as his grip loosened, then yanked myself away and stumbled back. When I had enough room to move my arm, I flung Righty. The blade sunk into his chest, and he fell to his knees.
Behind him, two more demons raced toward us.
“On your left!” Del shouted.
I dodged, allowing her to race past me. She killed one demon with a powerful swipe across his jugular, but while she was corporeal, the other got her in the side with his blade.
She screamed and stumbled away. I flung Lefty, aiming for the demon’s neck. It plunged in, and blood sprayed across the corridor.
As he fell, I raced to Del, who was leaning on the wall, her face drawn.
“You okay?” I pulled at her shirt, trying to see her wound.
“Yeah, yeah.” She raised her shirt to reveal a shallow slice. “Just a little one. But damn, those fire blades hurt. Like, incapacitate you hurt.”
“Yeah, probably to stun you while they go in for the kill.”
“Bastards.” She glared at the bodies on the ground.
They were already starting to disappear, returning back to their hell. That was the nice thing about demons—you didn’t get the guilt of having actually killed them, and they cleaned themselves up once they were dead.
I glanced back down the corridor, but saw no more coming.
“Why aren’t there anymore?” I asked. We hadn’t passed any kind of threshold that would have stopped them, like sometimes happened with tomb guardians.
“Killed ‘em all?”
“Maybe. But their numbers seemed pretty endless.”
“Yeah, it is a bit weird that they stopped coming,” she said. “But you got the dampening charm, right?”
“I grabbed it, but it didn’t work. A demon knocked it out of my hand, and I didn’t have time to get it back before we ran for it.”
“Let’s go get it.”
“But it didn’t work.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe we need to do something with it. Ignite the magic or a spell. And we can get a few items for our shop, courtesy of our mummy friend.”
“Good point. And maybe we can fix up some of the damage those damned demons did.” I hated to leave an archaeological site worse than when I found it. It was irreparably altered, but maybe I could help a bit.
“Just keep an eye out for more demons,” Del said. “They might reappear when we get back to the treasure room.”
I nodded.
It didn’t take us long to make our way back. With the door now open to the main treasure room, we didn’t have to build any boats.
When we reached the entrance to the treasure room, we hesitated. Without a dozen demons with fire swords, it didn’t look quite so bad. There were a few broken boxes and artifacts tumbled around, but for the most part, it looked almost whole.
“Keep watch,” I said. “I’ll find the dampening charm and some artifacts.”
“‘Kay.” Del tugged the bag off her back and handed it to me. In her phantom form, she stepped into the room, her sword raised.
I went to the corner where the dampening charm had fallen. Ornate wooden boxes were stacked about waist high. I searched between them, finally spotting the glint of gold. I grabbed the cuff. When I pulled it out, I scowled at it and shoved it into my pocket.
“Sense anything particularly old?” I asked Del as I went to the center of the room.
She pointed to a box that had tumbled to the floor and broken open. “That guy feels almost expired.”
I knelt at the box and immediately felt the magic. It pulsed strongly and smelled of turpentine. I turned the box upright, opened it, and peered inside.
Delicate white fabric was wrapped around an object about eight inches long. I pulled my phone from my pocket and snapped a pic, recording the wrapping style so that when I returned the artifact to the box after we’d taken the magic, I could wrap it up the same way. I should have done that with the dampening charm, but I’d lost my head a bit.
After setting the phone on my thigh, I peeled the fabric away. If this had been a human archaeological site, the fabric would be as fragile as a layer of dust. Unwrapping the artifact would have destroyed the fabric and possibly the artifact itself, depending on what it was made of.
But because the supernaturals who had built this pyramid had enchanted it against decay, I had a lot more freedom in my work.
The fabric fell away to reveal an alabaster statue of Bastet, the Egyptian cat god. The magic pulsed even stronger when I held the alabaster against my skin, but I couldn’t quite identify it.
I snapped another picture of the statue in front of the box so that I returned it to the right one, then moved on to several other boxes. It was hardly proper archaeology, but it was the best I could do.
After I’d filled my bag with four artifacts that contained nearly-decayed magic and taken the needed pictures, I stood.
“All done,” I said.
“Good. Let’s scram.”
“Agreed.” This was one of the most amazing pyramids I’d ever been inside, but I didn’t particularly like it. Between the dampening charm not working and the demons with fire swords, I hadn’t had a postcard-worthy experience here.
Though it was weird that more demons hadn’t shown up this time around once I’d started fussing with the treasure. I didn’t like that at all. Not one little bit.
Were they supposed to be guarding the treasure, or had my nullification powers made my concealment charm fail? Because if it was the latter…
The monster could find me. And the last person I wanted to run into was Victor Orriodor.
“Yeah, it’s a dud.” Nix turned the dampening cuff over in her hands, then looked at me, sorrow in her green eyes. “For you, at least. It’s not strong enough.”
“Damn.” I leaned back on the couch and stared at the ceiling of my apartment, my chest feeling empty.
Del and I had made the slow journey back across the desert, returned the camels to their owners, and transported to our shop, Ancient Magic, where we’d dropped off the artifacts.
By the time we’d gotten back, it’d been after five. Nix, who normally watched the front counter, had been cooped up in the shop all day, so she’d insisted we get the hell out of there. She’d wanted to go to Potions & Pastille’s, our friends’ coffee shop/whiskey bar, but I’d insisted on a shower first.
I had sand everywhere. And demon blood. And sweat. Basically, I was a nightmare. If it were Halloween, I wouldn’t need a costume.
And we had an evening memorial service to attend at seven, so showing up covered in blood was not a great idea.
While I’d showered, Nix had fished a Pabst Blue Ribbon—my hillbilly hipster beer of choice—out of the fridge and handed it to me through the curtain.
“You’re a lifesaver,” I’d said.
And she was, quite literally. Nix, Del, and I were sisters by choice. Deirfiúr, in our native Irish. We’d awoken in a field at fifteen with no memories except that we were FireSouls on the run from someone who wanted to hurt us. We’d called him the Monster, though we’d recently learned he was named Victor Orriodor. In the ten years we’d hidden from him, we’d saved each other countless times.
“So you’re telling me it could work,” I said. “Just that the nullification power I’m saddled with is too strong for the dampening charm to have much effect.”
“Yep. There are a few dampening charms out there of different strengths. There’s one at the Museum for Magical History that’s super strong.” She made an explosion motion with her hands.
“Yeah?” Ho
pe flared in my chest.
“Too strong. As in, obliterate-all-your-magic strong. It’s actually a pretty terrifying piece of magic. What you need is a Goldilocks dampener—just strong enough.”
“Yeah.” But I took the golden cuff back from her and slipped it on my wrist. She gave me a look, but I ignored it.
“It was a long shot anyway,” Nix said. “Dampening the nullification enough to allow your normal powers to shine through wasn’t all that likely to begin with.”
“I know, but I’m desperate. Aethelred the Shade hasn’t been seen in a week.” Last week, the old seer had recognized a necklace I’d had since childhood and promised to tell me more, though there hadn’t been time at that moment. “He was my only link to information about my past, and maybe getting my power back, but he’s hiding out like a mole.”
Nix reached over and gripped my hand. Her green gaze was intense as she said, “We’ll find him. We have plenty of people looking, and Aidan is following up on a lead right now.”
Aidan was my friend. Possibly my boyfriend also, if you could call a giant of a man who was the most powerful Shifter in the world something as juvenile as boyfriend. We’d spent almost two months together, trying to keep our heads above water as Victor Orriodor had thrown challenge after challenge at me.
“Yeah. I know. I’m determined to fix this. It’s just that I’m not handling things well at all.” In the past week, I’d spent more time mired in self-doubt and pity than I ever had in my life. I didn’t like who I was becoming, and though I tried to fight it, I didn’t think I was doing a great job.
Del’s signature knock sounded at the door. Rap-rap-rappity-rap.
“Come in!” I yelled.
She entered, looking bright and clean. The blood and grime had been replaced with her usual black leather.
Black leather was her bounty hunting wear, but I think she also liked looking like a badass. With her black hair, blue eyes, and wicked sword, she was a top notch badass.
My usual attire of jeans, tall boots, t-shirt, and a fitted brown leather jacket wasn’t nearly as cool as her stuff, but it worked for me.
“Want a beer?” I asked.
She eyed my can of PBR doubtfully. “Not that swill.”
“Yeah, yeah, fancy pants. I put some of that jet fuel IPA you like in the fridge.”
“You’re too good to me. But it’s not jet fuel, you heathen. It’s high gravity.”
“Snob.”
“Then someone will have to drive to the memorial service,” Del said. “Because I’m tapped out.” Though Del could transport anywhere and bring two people with her, her power wasn’t unlimited. She’d used it all up bringing us back from Egypt.
“Then it’s your lucky day, because I’m driving.” Nix held up her bottle of water to indicate she wasn’t having a beer. “So you might as well have one.”
“You convinced me.”
I grinned as she walked toward my tiny kitchen. Though I lived on the top floor of the building we rented, most of it was reserved for my treasure trove, which was full of weapons and leather jackets and boots. Living quarters were teeny.
Del returned to the living room. “Any word on that dampening charm?”
“Won’t work,” I said, shifting my arm so she couldn’t see that I wore the cuff. I knew it didn’t work, but maybe…
“Don’t worry. We’ll find a way—”
“Thank you for your help, Del. We’ll find a way to get my powers back. I know.” Sympathy cued my water works, and I didn’t want to hear it.
Did I though? I’d only been trying to get them back for a week, and it already felt a bit hopeless. But there was no way in hell I was giving up, so, hopeless or not, I’d be slogging through.
“I just want you to know you did a good thing, taking the Nullifier’s power,” Del said. “Whenever you’re feeling down about losing your innate gifts, just keep in mind—you and he saved Magic’s Bend. Hundreds of lives. Our town would have been sucked into that portal if it weren’t for you and the Nullifier.”
“Yeah,” Nix said. “The Monster would’ve won.”
He’d created the portal. To break the portal before it could consume the town, we’d asked a Nullifier to come help destroy it. But the Monster had killed him. I’d used my FireSoul ability to take the Nullifier’s power and finish the job.
The memorial service tonight was for the Nullifier. He shouldn’t have had to die to save Magic’s Bend. But he had. And the local government and the Order of the Magica wanted to hold a ceremony to honor him.
I was all for that. Normally, I wouldn’t have gone near an event that put me in the way of Order members. But with my new nullification power, my own FireSoul ability was stifled to the point that they shouldn’t be able to sense that part of me. I should be nothing but a magical void.
After the ceremony, I was supposed to meet the Order of the Magica representatives to receive their thanks for my part in the whole thing. I didn’t want that part, though Aidan was right—the Order would be hella suspicious if I didn’t show. And I wanted to go to honor the Nullifier. Though I wasn’t looking forward to it.
I had to hope my spotty nullification ability didn’t fade out on me so that I could keep a low profile.
“Don’t call him the Monster,” I said. “We made up that name when we were young and afraid of him. He’d probably like it. So let’s use his boring, miserable name. Victor Orriodor. ”
“Because fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself,” Nix said, quoting Dumbledore.
“Exactly.” I nodded. If one couldn’t go to Dumbledore for advice, where could one go?
“Harry Potter nuts.” Del grinned.
Nix and I clinked our drinks together.
Del glanced at the clock. “We should get going. Don’t want to be late. Are we meeting Aidan there?”
While Del and I had gone to the pyramid to find the dampening charm, Aidan had been working on his own lead, locating Aethelred’s known associates and trying to find tracking charms. We’d borrowed three from Aethelred, and when we finally found him, we wanted to give him the replacements…otherwise he might not talk to us.
“Let’s do it, then.” I set down my half-drunk beer. “Let me grab my jacket.”
“Can we take your car?” Nix asked. “Mine is leaking something weird.”
“Think you can handle Cecelia?”
“For sure.”
“Hmmm, questionable.” Cecelia was the old junker I’d bought about five years ago when we’d finally earned enough money to escape our old boss—Old Man Bastard, OMB for short. Cecelia had been running fine ever since. A bit persnickety maybe, but fine.
I went to my room and grabbed a black leather jacket, different from my usual brown. But this was a memorial service. They wouldn’t be getting me into a dress, but the least I could do was wear black.
I shrugged it on and took my daggers off the dresser, carefully strapping them into my thigh sheaths. It was a good thing Magic’s Bend was an all-magic city, hidden from human eyes, or people would have looked at me strange. As it was, I blended well. Even at a memorial service, the weapons wouldn’t stand out too much.
I joined Nix and Del, and we went single file down the narrow stairs, past Del’s apartment on the third floor and Nix’s on the second. Ancient Magic was on the bottom.
The sun was setting as we made our way out the green door and across the street to Cecelia. The old car sat in front of the park that was opposite Factory Row, where we lived and worked. Rent was low and the company was weird, which made it perfect as far as I was concerned.
And on late summer evenings like this, it was hard to believe there was a better place to live. Though the flattering light couldn’t conceal Cecelia’s chipped paint and dented bumpers, I loved the old girl and wouldn’t get another car ’til she sputtered her last.
Not to mention, living on Factory Row and driving an old junker allowed me to put all my spare money toward padding my trove.
&
nbsp; “Shotgun!” I called.
Del groaned and climbed into the backseat. Nix and I got in, and she cranked the ignition. She drove through town like a maniac, zipping by the tall buildings of the business district and the ornate, 18th century buildings in the historic part of town. We passed Darklane, where everyone knew the black magic practitioners lived, and I peered at Aethelred’s window as we passed.
It was dark and empty.
Damn.
By the time we pulled into the parking lot at the Museum of Magical history, I was slightly queasy from Nix’s Mario Kart driving.
“I really wish they hadn’t chosen this place,” I said as we climbed out of the car.
It’d been more than a week since the portal had sucked in half the museum and the big brick building looked entirely normal again, but I’d had enough of it for a while.
“I guess they wanted to prove that everything is okay now,” Del said.
“And the Nullifier’s sacrifice did save this place.” Nix shoved the keys into her pocket.
I rubbed my chest absently as we set off across the parking lot toward the huge brick museum.
“You doing okay?” Nix asked.
“Yeah. Just a tic.” I’d developed it after losing my powers. Like a person with a stomachache rubs their stomach, I rubbed my chest. I could feel the emptiness.
We climbed the massive stairs to the front of the museum. An imposing figure in a conservative black dress stood in front of the door. Her dark hair was scraped back from her forehead, and keen green eyes peered out from behind dark spectacles. The magic that radiated from her was strong and smelled like some kind of incense.
Her gaze snapped to me, and I realized where I’d seen her before.
An Order investigator. Her job was to fix problems and sniff out FireSouls. A cold sweat broke out on my skin, and I tried not to look shifty.
This was exactly the kind of person I didn’t want to run into here. It was her job to find my kind and throw them in the Prison for Magical Miscreants. That fate had always been my greatest fear. Nix and Del had good control of their power, but I never had. They could be around Order members without igniting suspicion, but that idea was foreign to me. Even with the nullification masking my own magic, I was still trembling. The fear was too ingrained.