by Devon Monk
Shame shrugged. “Don’t bring logic into this. The man’s pride has been hurt. Only revenge will soothe it up again.”
Zay stormed back out of the bedroom. He’d found his beanie and shrugged into his crappy blue jacket. Work clothes. Man planned on making trouble.
“Let’s go,” he said. Apparently, the time for arguing was over. Shame and Terric headed toward the door after him.
My house phone rang. I thought about letting the answering machine get it but decided it might be important, like a call from Violet, my dad’s last wife. She was due to deliver her baby any day now, and I’d promised I’d be there for her.
“Hold on.” I answered the phone. “Beckstrom.”
“Allie, it’s Nola,” my best friend said in her sunshiny voice.
I did a quick calculation to figure how many days it had been since I called her for our “daily” check-ins. Gave up.
“Hey, girl. Good to hear from you. What’s up?”
“You’ll never guess where I am.”
I so wasn’t up for a guessing game. “Where?”
“Here. Portland.”
My stomach hit my knees. I tried to keep my voice happy while I paced. “Wow, that’s great. Alone?”
“No, I brought Cody. I have some good news I need to tell you but don’t want to do it over the phone. Do you have time for dinner tonight?”
I didn’t want to do dinner. I wanted to hunt Dane. After that I’d have to go to the meeting at three, and I had no idea how long that would last. “How about I stop by for lunch, in maybe a couple hours?” I glanced over at Zay, and he tipped his head down, waiting. “Where are you staying?”
“I got a hotel suite for the week. And no, you’re not going to talk me out of it. Your place is too small for the three of us, and Cody seems really comfortable here.”
“Where’s here?” I tried again.
“St. Johns.”
I stopped pacing, stopped breathing. Just. Stopped.
My dad dug around in my head, stirred, and stretched, suddenly very much more aware, as if every word Nola said was infinitely interesting to him.
Yes, that worried me.
“I didn’t even know you were coming,” I finally said to fill the silence that was building beneath the stares of everyone in the room. “I mean, I could have helped you find a place.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “And don’t say nothing. I can hear it in your voice. You’re worried about something. Do you need help? Do you need me to call Paul for you?”
Oh, I most definitely did not need her to call her boyfriend the cop for me.
“No, it’s not like that. I’m dealing with a lot of things. But no big worries.”
Shame snorted, and I flipped him off as I turned toward the window to pace.
“Plus, you woke me up, so I’m not thinking straight.”
“Sorry,” she said. “I forget what a night creature you are. Should I call you back later?”
“No, that’s okay. Let’s just pick a place for lunch,” I said. “I’d love to see you.”
“How about that inn you keep talking about? The one your friend Maeve Flynn runs?”
“No.”
Too short. Too sharp. “They’re doing renovations right now,” I back-filled. What I didn’t say was that Maeve hadn’t opened it back to the public yet because we’d blown the hell out of it fighting the Veiled for control of the well of magic and for the disks locked away in the vault beneath the inn.
“There’s a good family-dining place just south of you. It’s called the Turntable. How about we meet around one?”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
I took a breath, stared straight into Shame’s eyes, and lied. “I promise I am fine. Really and truly.”
Shame rocked his hand back and forth, giving me a so-so rating.
“Fine. If you don’t want to talk about it now, you know I’ll drag it out of you later.” She laughed to take the sting out of her words, and for a moment I was carried back in time, to her farm, where it was always sunny, easy, safe. Fields that reached out forever beneath the cup of blue sky, and no magic for miles around. It was the home of my heart. The safest place in the world. I loved it there, and loved her for opening her home to me for all those years.
I smiled. “Won’t you be disappointed when there’s no secret to dig out of me?”
She laughed again. “We’ll see.”
“One thing,” I said. “Why St. Johns?”
Dad shifted in my head. He wanted to know the answer to that too. Now I was sorry I’d asked.
“It’s off grid. I thought it might be the best place for Cody, you know. So nothing magic hurts him.”
And that was my big-hearted friend. Keeping a young man she was fostering safe from magic. Only she had no idea coming to any part of Portland right now put him in the line of fire. And St. Johns, particularly, seemed to be getting more magical action than any other part of the city.
Well, except anyplace near me. Which was exactly where she’d be today.
Dad shifted, pressed against my skull. He wanted forward, wanted to say something, ask her something.
No way. I leaned back on him and imagined thick walls between me and him.
I heard a knock somewhere behind Nola. “I gotta go,” she said. If she had sounded happy before, she was practically giddy now. “Paul’s here. I’ll see you at one, right?”
“Yes,” I said. “Have fun.” I hung up the phone. Stared at it, trying to figure out what I should do to keep her safe. Of course, if Paul was with her, she was in good hands. Detective Stotts was an excellent cop, and very good with magic. If something weird happened, he’d be able to handle it. Most of it.
I hoped.
“Any chance we can find Dane before lunch?”
Terric chuckled.
“Yes,” Shame said with wide, innocent eyes. “Yes, we can. And after that we’ll chase us down some leprechauns and squeeze them until gold comes out their ass.”
“Shut up, Shame,” I said. “Listen, if we put the Hounds on the hunt, we wouldn’t be spread so thin.”
We were out the door, and I locked it. Zay waited until I was done, then drew a ward on my door. Not just a flick-of-his-fingers kind of spell. This thing was drawn from the top of the doorjamb all the way to the floor and tapped into the networks with multiple links. Redundant systems that would not allow the ward to blow like it had this morning.
“Think you used a strong enough ward?” Terric asked.
“Christ, Z.” Shame laughed. “What do you think is going to try to get through that door? A bulldozer?”
Zay glared at Shame and started walking.
“You going to give me the secret password so I can get back into my own place?” I asked.
“You won’t need a password.” He zipped up his coat. “Anyone tries to break in, they won’t try twice.”
“Because they’ll be unconscious,” Terric said.
“Or dead,” Shame noted.
Zay didn’t say anything, so we all got busy with walking.
To my surprise, walking felt good. The three days in bed had done a lot to ease my pains. Even though I was sore from what had happened this morning, other than the arm in the sling and the ache in my hip, I didn’t feel all that much worse for wear. I definitely wasn’t paying the price for all that magic I’d thrown around, and I could only assume Dad had taken the price for it.
Or Offloaded it onto Dane.
Wouldn’t that be nice? I didn’t know if Dad could really do that, but I hoped Dane was curled up somewhere puking. It’d make it easier to find him.
“Anyone know how Dane got ahold of the disks?” I asked.
Shame started counting on his fingers as we headed down the next flight of stairs. “Five missing originally, right? We figure at least one of those is in Greyson’s neck. That leaves four. You said that the Hound working for James Hoskil back when your dad was killed, what was her name?”
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�Bonnie?” I said.
“That’s the one. She had at least one she used to take Cody off Nola’s farm when you and Z were out there. So that’s two. Hell if I know where or what the other three were used for. Then the break-in at the labs let hundreds of them loose. All the ones we had locked up in the inn burned to scrap a couple days ago.”
“No one kept any of them from the wild-magic storm fight?”
We hit the landing. One flight left. “Dunno. Jingo took a hell of a lot of them when he kidnapped Sedra. We can ask Victor and Mum if they pocketed any. I was told all the disks we had were locked in the vault and your dad slagged those shucking me through space.”
“By the way,” I said, “what was that like?”
We were headed out the back now. The day was bright. Blue sky spread behind cotton white clouds. Spring was here, and the whole city could feel it.
“Hot and strange. Not really painful, just . . .” He shook his head.
“Disorienting,” Terric said. “And exhausting. Like running a marathon while standing in one place.”
Shame looked over at him, scowled. “Pretty much.”
Zay had been quiet this whole time. He stalked along just slightly ahead of me, so I saw him in profile. If he was in pain, he wasn’t showing it. The man just looked like he wanted to kill someone. Grudge much?
“So how are we doing this?” I asked.
“We haven’t asked Victor if we can hunt Dane,” Terric said. “We don’t do anything until we have his okay.”
“Give it a rest, teacher’s pet,” Shame said.
“Shame, this isn’t a joke.”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” Shame said. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
“Yes, it will,” Terric insisted. “Keeping secrets from him is the worst idea you’ve had all day. And that’s saying something.”
“I’m calling.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Victor’s number.
“Victor.”
“This is Allie. Have you found Dane?”
“No.”
“Do you have any problem with us taking a look around?”
He inhaled, exhaled. Weighing options. “Are Shamus and Terric with you?”
“Yes.”
“Put Terric on the phone, please.”
What the hell? I held the phone out for Terric. “He wants to talk to you.”
Terric frowned. “This is Terric.”
I could hear Victor’s voice but not what he said. Something about gates and dangerous and injured. Also something about Zay. Terric glanced up at Zay, who was standing, arms crossed over his chest, scowling toward the street. He looked like he was begging for someone to pick a fight with him. I mean, he was even giving the nice old granny pushing a baby stroller the evil eye.
“Got it. Bye.” Terric thumbed off my phone, handed it back to me.
“What’d he say?” Shame asked.
“He doesn’t want us to engage. If we find Dane, we call in for backup before confronting him. We want to get Dane alive and the disks whole.”
“Doesn’t hardly seem worth it. I was hoping for some blood.” Shame cracked his knuckles and then pulled his keys out of his pocket. “I’m driving.” He started off toward his car.
Terric stared at Zay’s back. “He told me to tell you not to take him down, Zay. Not to kill him.”
Zay took a long moment to consider that. When he turned toward us, his face was blank, unreadable, but his eyes burned gold. “Don’t need to kill him. Yet. I’ll just make him wish he were dead.”
Zay took a step, and Terric stood in front of him, blocking his way to Shame’s car.
“He told me to stop you if you got out of line.”
Zay seemed to finally notice that Terric was speaking. He tugged at his beanie and gave Terric a sideways look. “Do you really want to put yourself between me and my goals, my friend?”
“Doesn’t matter what I want. What matters is what the Authority needs. And it needs cool heads. From all of us.”
A slight smile curved Zay’s lips. “There’s a war going on, Terric. I promise you, I won’t do anything without considering the consequence.”
Terric held his gaze, then shook his head and stepped aside. “I’d hate for it to come down to us fighting it out. Again.”
Whoa. I didn’t know they’d ever fought it out before. Was that back when they used to run together? When Terric was training to be a guardian of the gate? Before Shamus nearly killed him?
They had complex history, and I hadn’t had the time to connect all the dots yet.
“You and I are on the same side,” Zay said, walking past Terric and catching my fingers with his own, urging me to walk with him. “There’s no need for us to fight.”
At the touch of his hand to mine, I could feel his anger rage through me like a hot storm. No wonder Terric was telling him to take it down a notch. Zayvion was quite possibly out of his head with fury. Yet on the outside, he just looked a bit miffed.
I didn’t bother covering my surprise and worry. When we touched, it was pretty clear to the other what we were thinking and feeling. So I set my mind on calm thoughts. If we found Dane, we’d deal with how to keep Zay from killing him. For now, we just needed to find the bastard.
My willful tranquility seemed to help a little. By the time we all piled into Shame’s car, Zay and I in the back, Terric and Shame in the front, Zayvion was maybe half a point lower on the Richter scale.
Shame pulled out into traffic. “Victor has teams out?”
“Yes,” Terric said. “St. Johns, south to Mount Tabor and north to Lake Shore.”
“Where do you think, Zay?” Shame said.
Zay narrowed his eyes, staring out the window like he could see a far distance. Shame and Terric were silent, waiting for his answer.
But what was Zay doing? Magic? It didn’t seem like it. I leaned close enough that my arm brushed his. With that brief contact, I felt like I was stretched out beneath the city, the hot points of cisterns and storage tanks of magic burning landmarks against my skin, the cool depths of the wells soothing and strong, with all the pipes and conduits and junctions mapping my nerves.
Zay had a very tactile awareness of the city. As if he carried all the streets and streams of magic on his skin like a tattoo. I’d never felt him do that before. Not even when we were trying to find Chase.
But maybe that was how he knew when gates opened in the city. Maybe this sense of the city was part of what being a guardian of the gate was really about.
Or I could be imagining things, what with the painkillers and all.
“Start on the southwest side,” Zay said. “Work our way up.”
Shame changed lanes and took the next exit to the freeway. “How far south?”
“Just the city’s edge. He’s here. Somewhere.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
He shrugged.
So not helpful.
“Can you always feel all the lines and conduits of magic in the city? ’Cause that’s news to me.” Still the silence. I touched his leg. “Zay?”
He jerked just enough that I knew he hadn’t heard a word I’d said.
“What?”
Shame threw a concerned look at me in the rearview mirror.
“Can you always feel the magic in the city? That’s what you were doing, right? Trying to get a feel for if Dane was drawing on magic anywhere?”
“No. I was just thinking.”
“Z,” Shame said, “you’re angry and unfocused. Might want to do something about one of those things.”
Zay glared at him.
“You know I’m right.”
“Fuck.” Zay took a deep breath and rubbed the back of his neck, then scrubbed at his face. He rested his hand on my thigh, the heat of his palm soaking into the Blood magic scar I had there.
“I’m going to close my eyes and meditate,” he said. “If I’m agitated enough Shame is telling me to pull myself together, I’m way off base.�
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“Suck it, Jones,” Shame said.
Zay smiled slightly, a predator’s grin, then leaned his head back and closed his eyes. His hand was still on my thigh, and I put my hand over his. I didn’t want to interrupt his meditation, but I was worried. I’d never seen him lose control or be anything other than a calm, deadly, calculated man.
I did what I could to relax too. I mean, things could be worse. Yes, a magic-wielding, disk-using, gun-toting killer was out there, but at least we were looking for him instead of hanging around waiting for him to look for us. I liked being proactive when there were killers after me. Plus, the solid Veiled were locked up, and so were Chase and Greyson. The only known enemy out there was the shadow man from death—Leander—and Jingo Jingo. Okay, and any of the other members of the Authority who didn’t like the way Sedra had been running things.
But really, compared to some days, things were going pretty smoothly.
Terric reached across the dash and turned on the radio. He tuned in to a country music station.
“Get your mitts off my music.” Shame stabbed the radio, and metal poured through the car.
“And you think he can meditate to that crap?” Terric turned it back to country.
“He’ll just want to kill himself if you leave it on that dreck.” Shame switched it back to metal but turned the volume down a notch.
Screaming guitars and screaming vocals pounded through the car. The window next to me buzzed from the bass.
Terric reached for the radio again. Shame slapped his hand. “No means no.”
Terric slouched back. “Fine. Turn it down. It’s giving me a headache.”
Shame turned it down—not much, but some.
“Country?” I said.
“What?” Terric asked.
“You like country music?”
“Hate it. But not as much as Flynn does.”
Shame swore and drew a glyph in the air with his middle finger.
Terric laughed. “Like you could make me.”
I glanced over at Zay. Waves of peace radiated off of him, and I mean deep, blissful calm. Man knew how to meditate. I stifled a yawn and let my shoulders rest. My arm was starting to ache a little. I’d probably need to take a pill before we did anything drastic.
“Are we going on foot?” I asked.