Dead Stare (Ghosts & Magic Book 3)

by M. R. Forbes

  “It ain’t working,” Amos said.

  Pain lanced through my body. “Set us free,” Samedi demanded.

  My legs were weak, and I started to fall. I was surprised when Kirin caught me, grabbing my arm and holding me up.

  “Conor?”

  “Don’t touch me,” I said, wrenching my arm away. “It wants me to give you to it.”

  “What does?”

  She had tears in her eyes, confused by my rejection. She noticed Black then. “What is this?” she asked. “Why won’t you look at me?”

  “Shit,” I heard Amos say. “You had your chance, Black. Yo, Baldie.”

  I forced my head Amos’ way.

  “Throw the dice,” he said.

  “What?”

  He raised the shotgun, shooting Frank in the leg. Blood splattered as his kneecap crumbled, and he collapsed under his own weight.

  “Throw the fucking dice, or I’m going to kill your ugly friend.”

  “Are you out of your mind?” I asked.

  “Amos, what are you doing?” Black said.

  “Can it, pops. You blew this one. Conor, you gotta throw the dice.”

  “Set us free!” Samedi’s voice boomed in my head. “A bargain made. The power of a soul for the power of a soul.”

  “This ain’t Middle Earth, Skeletor. There ain’t no Mount Doom. Do what it wants, or your friend dies.”

  “You’re helping it?” I said.

  “I got my reasons.”

  “Set us free, necromancer. Both of us. Take command over death. Fear it no longer.”

  “Amos, I’ll kill you,” Black said.

  “Go ahead and try.”

  For whatever reason, Black didn’t.

  “Set us free, Conor,” Samedi said. “One soul. A small price.”

  “For you to end the world?”

  “It will be as it will be. Death holds no power over you and I. Set us free.”

  I looked at Kirin. She was crying and shaking, released into a situation she didn’t understand in a world she had never experienced. She didn’t know what she was, or the terrible power that she held. She didn’t know why nobody would look at her, or how in looking at her she would be killing them.

  “The power of a soul, for the power of a soul.”

  “Baldie, you got five seconds.”

  “He’ll die anyway if Samedi is free.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. Every decision we make is a risk. You let that thing in, now it’s your problem.”

  I found Frank. He was on the floor, clutching his shattered knee. He couldn’t heal that much damage very quickly.

  “Conor?” Kirin said.

  “Set us free,” Samedi said.

  My hand clutched the dice so tightly they were digging into my flesh, burning it wherever they touched. Why was I hesitating? I had left my wife and child. I had let my best friend die and then rose her from the dead against her wishes. I had stolen and killed and used dead children as accomplices to both. I had put myself above others every step of the way, and at the same time called others selfish. I was a monster like Kirin, if not much, much worse.

  After everything, was I really trying to do the right thing?

  Amos was right. Maybe the world would burn. Maybe it wouldn’t. I had promised Kirin I would set her free, and I had, though I had a feeling she would come to regret her desire to escape the safety of her cage. I had promised Samedi something else.

  The power of a soul, for the power of a soul.

  I drew my hand from my pocket. I could sense the lich’s eagerness as I raised them.

  “Do what you will,” I said.

  Then I dropped them.

  57

  Why not?

  The dice seemed to fall in slow motion. I heard Black shout as they dropped, and I felt a wave of his magic attempt to halt the momentum. Darkness flared from the bone, dispelling the magic as the dice hit the floor.

  “What have you done?” Black said.

  The laughter exploded out of my head, echoing across the room. I felt Kirin press against me, trying to hide from it.

  “The bargain is met,” Samedi said.

  The black energy exploded from the dice, swirling around the room. I felt a burning against my thigh and watched as the mask fell through a new hole in my pocket, the lich’s power streaming out from it as well.

  It began to coalesce on Mr. Black, joining with the power of the coat he had worn to attract me. His magic flared as he sought to fight back against the sudden assault, but the lich’s raw power was too strong. His magic died against the dark entity, failing completely.

  “Kirin, look at me,” Black said, falling to his knees. “Hurry.”

  I grabbed her head, trying not to recoil at the slimy feel of her hair. I held her behind me. “Don’t. It will go after you instead.”

  “Damn you, Conor,” Black said. “Why?” The darkness was reaching into the wizard now, turning his skin ever darker as it sought for control.

  I didn’t have a good answer for him. I did it because I didn’t know what else to do. I did it because I was done trying to figure it out. I did it because, in the end, it was better him than me, and better him than Kirin. She had never done anything to anyone other than being born.

  “Why not?” I replied.

  “You have no idea what you’ve done,” he whispered, right before his voice changed into something raw and animalistic, releasing a scream that chilled me to the bone. The lich’s dark energy continued to swirl around him, feeding on his soul.

  I watched in silence. I didn’t understand what I had done. Not yet. Would I come to regret it? Most likely, but the last six years of my life had been nothing but regrets. What was one more?

  “You son of a bitch,” I heard Frank say. I watched as he lunged at Amos on his good leg. Amos stepped aside more nimbly than someone of his girth should have been able, slamming Frank across the side of the head with the shotgun, using it like a baseball bat. Frank dropped to the side, immediately trying to get back up again.

  “Stay down, puss-face. This ain’t about you,” Amos said.

  It was about something, and I had no idea what. The dark energy was diminishing, absorbed into Mr. Black, whose skin had turned almost as black as Samedi’s soul. He stopped screaming then, sitting on his knees with his head down.

  A simple quiet followed. The calm before the storm.

  “Keep your eyes covered,” I said to Kirin. “Or you’re going to turn everyone here who isn’t me into stone.”

  “What are you talking about?” she replied.

  “Trust me for now. Keep your eyes down or cover them with your hands.”

  I took a few tentative steps toward Black. I had a feeling he wasn’t Black anymore. When Amos put the shotgun against his back and pulled the trigger, I knew he wasn’t.

  The echo of the attack reverberated around the room, and a spray of blood went everywhere, the warmth of it splattering the side of my face. The body collapsed forward.

  “Heh. That was easier than I thought,” Amos said.

  “What the fuck is going on, Amos?” I asked.

  “Two options, Baldie. Turn you to stone and trap the asshole, or let him take Black and make himself alive again, and then kill him. There ain’t no other way.”

  “Black didn’t tell you that,” I said.

  “Nope. He would never have agreed to it.”

  “Then who?”

  I asked the question, but I already knew the answer.

  Death.

  “One mistake,” Black said, the body suddenly moving again, pushing himself to his knees. “I won’t die again so easily.”

  “Aww, crap,” Amos said, pointing the shotgun at him once more.

  A wave of magic tore it from his fingers, throwing it into the wall. A second wave slammed into Amos. I expected him to be splattered against the stone as well. Instead, he was pushed back slowly until he was pinned. I could tell by Black’s reaction he hadn’t been expecting that result.
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  Then Black looked at me. I knew right away that he wasn’t Black anymore.

  “Conor,” Samedi said, smiling. “My friend. Thank you.”

  He got to his feet. He looked at Kirin, whose eyes were cast down on the floor.

  “Don’t,” I said.

  “Protecting her? Why? You don’t know her. And I want it.”

  I could feel the coldness in the words. The evil. I could only imagine what he wanted her for.

  “You got what you wanted,” I said. “The power of a soul, for the power of a soul. A bargain made and met. This one is mine.”

  His face twisted for an instant, and then he nodded. “I will let you keep her for now because you kept your promise.” He took a long breath, the first in over forty thousand years. “I’d forgotten what it was like to breathe. To hunger. To desire.” He breathed in again.

  I stood there. What else was I going to do? He had some amount of Mr. Black’s power though I didn’t know how much. Did he still have command of death magic? I didn’t want to find out.

  “What are you going to do now?” I asked.

  He laughed, the same laugh that would forever be etched into my memories. “Enjoy it,” he replied, still laughing.

  Then his laughter paused. “You have something of mine, Conor. I want it back.”

  Before I could react, his hand lunged forward and grabbed my wrist. I felt pain, intense pain, as he closed his grip on it. The death magic poured into me, stronger than anything I had ever felt.

  He answered my question by destroying my hand. My control over it was pathetic compared to his, and I cried out in pain as I watched it turn to dust within a matter of seconds. The ring, his ring, fell into his palm.

  “A warning,” he said to me.

  I reflexively clutched at the stump with my opposite hand, my eyes tearing, my body shaking with pain and fear. What the hell had I just done? Was I really this stupid?

  “Keep away from me, Conor.” He slid the ring onto his finger. “I can do the same to the rest of you just as easily.”

  I knew that he could. I nodded.

  He bowed to me then. Was it respect or was he mocking me?

  Then he disappeared.

  58

  Fear no evil

  Amos fell away from the wall as soon as Samedi was gone. He hurried over to me.

  “Conor? Oh, shit.”

  I held my arm. The wound was clean, cauterized as it was made. There was no blood, only a mess of flesh at the end of my wrist.

  I looked at it, turned away, and vomited.

  “What the hell did you do, pal?” Frank said, climbing gingerly onto his good leg. “I’m going to kill you.”

  “Hold up there, toad,” Amos said. “We ain’t on different sides.”

  “Frank, leave him,” I said, coughing out puke.

  “Conor?” Kirin said.

  “Keep your eyes down,” I said. “I’m sorry, Kirin. I didn’t know. I didn’t know that you didn’t know, either. Do you know what a gorgon is?”

  “I know the mythology,” she said, sounding frightened.

  “It ain’t a myth,” Amos said. “It’s you.”

  She gasped, and then fell to her knees and started to sob.

  “Good job, Amos,” I said.

  He shrugged. “What?”

  “Uh, Conor, I don’t want to spoil the mood after we just got our asses kicked or anything,” Frank said. “But if Black is dead, and his magic gone, isn’t this place going to collapse under the weight of the ocean?”

  “Yeah. I think it’s time to get out of here. Kirin, take my hand.” I tried to hold the missing one out at first. How was I going to deal with this? I held out the other, and she took it. “I’ll guide you.”

  She stood up. Something groaned somewhere in the building.

  “Think we’ll make it?” Frank asked.

  “We have to,” I replied.

  The wall to the right started to crack. A loud boom followed from somewhere else.

  “I don’t think we’re going to make it,” Frank said.

  “There you are,” a new voice said. I knew who it belonged to before I saw its owner.

  Death.

  For some reason, he wasn’t very frightening right now. Just a man in a suit, standing beside Amos. Maybe it was because I now knew that he wasn’t some immortal, ethereal, godlike thing. He was a wizard, like Black had been. Maybe more powerful. Maybe much more powerful.

  After all, like Tarakona, he had survived over forty thousand years. And he did have some command over the souls of the dead, despite the fact that he wasn’t a necromancer.

  It made me begin rethinking the godlike part. I was still too tired, too hurt, and too angry to be afraid. Not after what Samedi had made me feel. In fact, I felt a certain lightness to be rid of that burden.

  “It didn’t go so well,” Amos said.

  “Untrue,” Death replied. “I told you that he had to be mortal to finish him for good.”

  “You knew about this,” I said. “And you didn’t tell me?”

  Death smiled. “Conor.” He noticed my hand. “My apologies on your hand. I had hoped to bring you through this unscathed. I tried to tell you, necromancer. I tried to warn you.”

  “You tried to kill me.”

  “Now you know why. People, especially necromancers, cannot live past their time, or madness, death, and destruction will result. When I saw how far along you had come, I tried to speak to you, but you ran from me. That foolish dragon gave you Samedi’s ring.” He shook his head in disbelief. “It is of no matter now. Let us retire somewhere a little safer to continue our conversation. Kirin, dear, do not be afraid. All will be well.”

  He sounded like a grandfather, not a malevolent spirit.

  He waved his hand, and we were standing in my apartment in Jersey. I could imagine Black’s palace collapsing an instant after Death brought us to safety.

  “I thought I was immune to magic,” I said.

  “When you are strong,” Death said. “Losing Samedi’s power has weakened you. The fields are open to you, and that power will return, but it will take time. Just like losing your power has weakened him.”

  “He didn’t seem weak to me,” I said, holding up the stump of my wrist. I was still in shock over it, surprised at myself for my relative calm.

  “The fields were immensely strong down there. It is the only reason I was able to get you out.”

  “You’re immune, too,” I said, looking at Amos.

  He shook his head. “Nah. Not immune. Resistant.”

  “That would make you an alternate human,” I said. “A new-hoo.”

  He shrugged. “Nobody ever said I ain’t a lousy hypocrite.”

  I looked back at Death. “When your followers captured me, you were bringing me in to warn me?”

  “Yes.”

  “And when Amos told you about Black’s plan, you took Prithi to make sure I would go along with it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where is she now?”

  “On a bus, headed back to Las Vegas. She assisted me voluntarily, once she understood.”

  “And you knew Black was going to wind up dead?”

  “I wasn’t certain, but it was always very likely.”

  I shifted back to Amos. “And you went along with all of this. You said you had your reasons. I doubt they have to do with me, and I’m seriously questioning that you give enough of a shit about the world to be interested in getting rid of Samedi. So why?”

  “Heh. When you find out, you’re going to wet yourself.” He glanced at my pants. I already had when Samedi took my hand. “Oh. You already did.”

  “What is he talking about?” I asked Death.

  “A bargain made,” he replied. “But it isn’t completed yet. Samedi is mortal again, but he is still powerful, and he escaped.”

  I knew where this was going.

  “You want me to kill him.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why don’t you do it?”
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  “I tried and failed. The most powerful wizards in the ancient world tried and failed. We destroyed magic, Conor. We undid it, and still his power remained.”

  “So did you. How?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say. There are still things in this world you don’t understand. There are things that no one is intended to understand. To know them is to be imprisoned by them, and I should think you’d prefer not to be imprisoned once again. Death magic created Samedi. Only death magic can destroy him.”

  “What’s in it for me?” I asked.

  He smiled. “Peace, Conor.”

  “That’s it? Peace?”

  “Yes.”

  “That ain’t it,” Amos said. “Don’t be so cagey, Mr. D.”

  “Very well. You have three days to decide, Conor. I cannot force you to do it, but I will leave you with a little added incentive.” He turned to Kirin, who was still looking at the ground. “My dear, I would like you to come with me.”

  “Where? I don’t want to be alone anymore. I don’t want to be confined.”

  “You can’t take her,” I said.

  “Relax, Conor. I have no wish to confine you, Kirin. You aren’t the first gorgon I have seen, and I can help you survive out there. Again, I won’t force you to come. Please believe that I can help you.”

  She looked up tentatively. Even Death looked away from her. I didn’t. I could feel her magic as her eyes met mine, and in my weakened state I could tell that if I stared too long, I would turn.

  “Go with him,” I said, taking the leap of faith. It was turning out that maybe Death wasn’t such a bad guy after all. “It will be okay.”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  Death reached out without looking, putting his hand on her shoulder.

  They both vanished.

  I stood there, my mind reeling, trying to make sense of it all. Amos and Frank remained silent as well, the entire episode still trying to find purchase.

  “He forgot the incentive,” I said a minute later.

  My words were a different kind of incantation. Someone knocked on the door as soon as I spoke them.

  “I’ll get it,” Amos said, smiling. He knew who it was?

  “I’ll get it,” I said, glaring him to a stop.