Malignant Magic (Medicine and Magic Book 3)

by SA Magnusson

“It’s fine,” I said, looking away. We rocketed along a narrow road with tall pines growing on either side and blocking out the sunlight, giving an overcast quality to the day. I wanted to put the window down and inhale the forest air, but with as fast as we were going, I’d probably only have my hair smacking my face.

  “Kate, I will get her to help.”

  “And if she doesn’t?” I looked back at Aron. “I’m putting so much hope on the possibility she’ll know some way of helping, but what if she can’t—or she won’t? I have to be equally prepared for that, as much as I don’t want to be.”

  “Then we will continue to look for answers.”

  “Where? You already tried the places you thought you’d be able to get answers, and so far, the shifters and my grandparents haven’t been able to provide any. If Solera falls through, then what?”

  He hesitated before answering. “Then there are more dangerous options.”

  Aron didn’t elaborate, and I wondered what sort of dangerous options he might consider. There were plenty of other magic users in the world, and some of them weren’t tied to the typical factions. It was possible that most weren’t tied to the usual factions. From the experience we had with Rory and the Dark Council, I had learned the types of magic they had access to were dangerous. And if that was the kind of person Aron wanted us to go to for answers, would I do it?

  I would have to decide how important it was to know the truth.

  Had I been asked a year ago, the answer would have been easy. I didn’t care. All I had wanted was to get through my residency and not have to worry about anyone discovering the connection I had to magic. It was harder than it should have been, but that was partly because I continued to feel drawn to death, the sense that came with it giving me a warning so that I could help even more people. That was the extent of my desire to interact with my magic.

  Over the last year, with all the ways I’d used it, I had begun to understand it better than I ever had before. There were times I found myself using my magic when it didn’t even matter—such as earlier today when I was testing John Doe to see if there were any injuries I could treat. My training alone should have been enough for that, but I used the touch of magic I now could access. And I couldn’t even deny that it made me a better physician.

  That was the part that was hardest for me. As much as I might want to deny the magical side of myself, it came out in strange and sometimes wonderful ways. There were the terrifying parts of magic—I had more than my share of experiences with them—but then there were the beautiful sides too.

  It was possible I struggled so much because I no longer had someone to share those experiences with. Before Derek had left, I had someone who understood the magical side of things. If nothing else, he gave me someone to open up to. Aron wasn’t quite the same. He wasn’t around all the time—not that I wanted him to be. He wasn’t the type I could open up to. Yet, or maybe ever.

  We pulled off the main road and onto gravel. Aron slowed only a little.

  “Aren’t you worried about getting your car all dirty?”

  “Not really.”

  “How many spells have you placed around the car?”

  “There are enough to ensure your safety.”

  “That’s not really what I was concerned about.”

  “You worry about the car? They’re replaceable.”

  I looked around the interior. It was the kind of luxury that few could afford. How much money did Aron have? Did his wealth come from the council?

  “Really?”

  “You forget the mage council is old, coming from a time long before society is what it is today, and many of the mages who served on the council would have access to enormous wealth. They come from generations of wealth who have known how to invest and accrue even more.”

  “What about yours?”

  Aron shrugged. “My family has not insubstantial means.”

  That shouldn’t surprise me. Aron would have been from a mage family, so he would be no different than the councilors. From what I’d seen of his ability to perform magic, he was as powerful as many of the councilors.

  “How many cars do you own?”

  “Myself, or my family?”

  “You.”

  “Enough to get around.”

  We pulled to a stop between a pair of particularly tall trees, the road taking us no further. It was early evening, and with the fading light, shadows slipped between the trees. Thick underbrush would hide anything within it, though I didn’t detect any magic around me. The occasional sounds of birds chirping reassured me. I wasn’t sure if it should.

  Aron jumped out and I followed, glancing at the sword behind the seat. “You won’t need that.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “If it comes to it, we leave.”

  I’d been through enough within the magical world to know there were times you couldn’t just leave. I looked around the forest, expecting naked shifters to jump out at any time. At least this time I’d be prepared for it, if there was any way to be prepared for such a thing.

  Aron held a hand on the car and magic built from him. What sort of spell did he use on it? And why here?

  “Why don’t you like talking about them? You obviously love them,” I said, looking at the car. I couldn’t deny the appeal. There was something about the throaty rumble and the speed, but maybe it was the driver that appealed to me more.

  He glanced back at the car. “They are items. Expensive items, but still items. I have the means and the magic to protect them, so I do. And they are fun to drive.”

  I barked out a laugh louder than I intended and clamped my hand over my mouth. “There are times where you surprise me, Aron.”

  “Is that a problem?”

  “Not for me.”

  A man appeared in between a pair of trees, thankfully fully dressed. He had a large build and rivaled Aron for muscularity. There was little doubt in my mind that he was a shifter.

  “Archer,” he said as he approached.

  “Nevin. It’s been a while.”

  “I thought she’d warned you to stay away.”

  “That wasn’t the warning.”

  I wondered what warning Aron had been given. There had been something between him and Ariel, and though I didn’t know whether it came from the magical influence of her mating or whether it was simply attraction between them, the relationship had cooled. She hadn’t been entirely pleased to have him return when I’d been with him the last time. That could have been the fact that I was with him, but I had sensed more than that.

  “I need to see her.”

  “That’s not going to be possible.”

  Magic built from Aron. The suddenness of it surprised me. Why would he suddenly feel the need to prepare a spell?

  “You don’t have any reason not to let me see her.”

  “I’m sorry, Archer. Now isn’t the best time for you to be here.”

  I touched Aron’s arm. “We can go. You don’t need to do this.” I wasn’t entirely sure what he might do, but if the power in the spell he prepared was any indication, it would be enough to blast Nevin back.

  Aron didn’t look at me, but he released his spell.

  I could feel it as he did, though wasn’t sure why that should be. It washed away from him, spreading out and toward the forest, sweeping over the trees. From there, my sense of it dissipated so that I couldn’t tell anything further.

  “What was that?” Nevin asked.

  The shifter recognized what Aron had done.

  I knew so little about their magic. I’d seen it firsthand, and because of their help, we’d managed to suppress the demon king, but I didn’t really know what their magic allowed them to do other than change forms. That was a certain kind of power, but there had to be more to it than only that.

  “What have you done with her?” Aron had a low and dangerous quality to his voice.

  Nevin tensed. The muscles beneath his clothing rippled and his face began to change. As he
did, another spell built from Aron, slamming into Nevin.

  It stopped the transformation.

  He’d been shifting, and then suddenly he was not.

  The spell Aron used forced him back into his human shape and must have held him, preventing him from changing. The dark look on his face spoke of a promise of violence.

  “One of your kind was brought to her,” Aron said, motioning to me. “I came to find out why. And now I learn that you’re holding your alpha—”

  “Not holding,” Nevin said through gritted teeth. “And she’s not the alpha, not anymore.”

  Aron froze. “There was a challenge?”

  “You don’t belong here, Archer. Leave before it’s too late for you.”

  I couldn’t imagine them attacking Aron, but then, Nevin had almost done just that. Had he managed to shift, I think he would have attacked. Seeing Aron hold him in this way surprised me, but I doubted he’d be able to hold more than a single shifter.

  “What happened?” Aron demanded.

  “The challenge was offered and accepted. She lost. There is nothing more than that.”

  Aron released his spell and Nevin staggered back. He rubbed his neck, eyeing Aron. His jaw elongated a moment before returning to normal.

  “Ariel wouldn’t lose. She’s faced challengers before. Remember, I’ve been here.”

  “She’s faced them before, but not like this.”

  “Like what?”

  Nevin stared at Aron before flickering his gaze over to me and sniffing, almost as if he finally recognized that I was here. “You were with him,” he growled.

  “I came up with Aron,” I said. Without fully meaning to, I pushed out a barrier of magic separating him from Aron and me. It might not be enough, but I hoped it would slow an attack, if nothing else.

  “Not the Archer. John. You were with him.”

  Was that the name of the shifter I had helped?

  I glanced over at Aron. A deep frown was etched on his face.

  It might be a common name, but he knew the shifter who had been attacked.

  “We should go,” Aron said, taking a step back.

  I followed, pulling my connection to my spell with me. If nothing else, I intended to keep us protected until we reached the car. And then I hoped Aron’s protections on the car would be enough to keep us safe.

  “I think not.”

  A deep voice rumbled behind us and I jumped, cursing to myself even as I did. My martial arts training should have prepared me better than that, but the man who approached—fully naked, of course—wasn’t the kind of man I would ever have been able to fully prepare for.

  He was gorgeous. There was no other way to describe him. Muscle rippled with each step and he stopped a few paces away from Aron, unconcerned by his presence. The sense of power radiated from him, thick enough that I thought I could almost smell it.

  And he was young—or at least looked it. A full beard covered his jawline, and dark black hair was slicked back on his head. He eyed me appraisingly for a moment but turned the brunt of his attention onto Aron. To this shifter, Aron was the threat.

  At least with Ariel, she had recognized something inside of me, even if I didn’t. She recognized that I posed a threat to her safety. This shifter dismissed me.

  Or made it seem as if he did.

  Maybe he hadn’t fully dismissed me.

  Power erupted from him, throwing me back until I slammed into a tree, making my head spin and knocking the wind out of me. By the time I could see again, three shifters surrounded me—and Aron was nowhere to be seen.

  3

  I could barely move. The three shifters approached cautiously, and the scent of their magic crawled along my spine, working from a deep place within my back as it crept higher and higher. There was power to the magic they summoned, the kind of power I had experienced only a few times before.

  My head throbbed where it had struck the tree. My vision was a little blurry and some deep part of my mind assessed myself for a concussion before I pushed that thought away. I needed to focus on these three men in front of me.

  Naked men.

  “Whoa, just back off a little bit,” I said.

  I tried reaching for my magic, but the connection was faint. The other shifter had smashed into me with enough force that it had disrupted my connection to my own magic. I didn’t feel as if I was blocked from reaching it, not the same way as when Aron had prevented the shifter from changing, but there was enough similarity to that.

  None of the three men said anything.

  Where was Aron? For that matter, where had the strange alpha shifter gone?

  “I’ll be going,” I said. I didn’t dare move, though everything within me was tensed and ready.

  One of the men snarled. His jaw began to elongate and, with power building from him that set the hairs on my arm to tingling, he readied to shift completely. His brow lengthened and his ears began to change. The whole process was like watching clay be modeled.

  It was happening slowly—far more slowly than what I had witnessed from the shifters before.

  Aron was holding onto them.

  That meant he was still nearby, and if he was, and if he still somehow managed to hold onto his spell that prevented them from shifting entirely, I needed to hurry and reach him. If we could get to the car, we could get out of here.

  None of that would help us understand what had taken place. Aron had been welcomed by the shifters before. Then again, when he had been welcomed before, Ariel had been the alpha.

  One of the men lunged for me.

  I ducked, bringing my fist up to connect with his chin. I pushed magic through the punch, needing a little extra surge of power, though I was uncertain whether it would be enough against a shifter. They were strong even in their human form and I didn’t know whether I would be strong enough to overpower the shifter using magic with martial arts. If I had the demon sword, maybe…

  I couldn’t keep thinking like that. The demon sword was dangerous, and it tied me to a magic beyond the Veil that I might be connected to, but it was a part that I didn’t want to reach. Still, if I’d grabbed the sword before getting out of the car, I wouldn’t be trapped like this.

  Spinning around, I drove the back of my fist into the next shifter’s shoulder, not connecting quite where I wanted but sending him staggering anyway. It gave me some separation from the tree, and that meant I had enough room to maneuver. Two of them approached. Both men were heavily muscled and their all-too-naked bodies rippled as they attempted to change forms, Aron’s spell preventing them from doing so. I didn’t know how much longer he would be able to hold onto that spell. If he was facing off with the other shifter—and the fact that he wasn’t here suggested that he must be—he had his hands full.

  All I needed was an opening to run.

  I didn’t think I would be able to run much faster than wolf shifters, but if I could get to the car, I had to hope that from there I could at least close the doors and Aron’s protections placed on the car would be enough. I doubted he would have been kind enough to leave a key behind, and I wasn’t able to magically jumpstart a car the same way as I’d seen other mages do.

  The two shifters converged on me at the same time.

  It forced me back. I twisted away, trying to keep one step ahead of them, but hands wrapped around me from behind.

  The third shifter.

  I had to be more aware of my environment.

  Magic surged out of me.

  It happened almost on its own, flowing from a place deep within my stomach, loosening in a lance of power, and I sent it raging into the shifter who held onto me. He grunted and fell back.

  I took a step backward, forced to climb over the shifter. He lay motionless, and the physician part of me wanted to check on him, but the magical part of me that knew better wanted only to keep moving. I took another step backward, everything within me tensed and ready for another attack.

  Now that I had reached my magic, I pushed
it out from me, forming a barrier that prevented the shifters from getting too close. Holding onto that barrier was generally easier than violent magic. It required a minimal draw of power, and as long as I held it in something similar to a circle, I was able to maintain it.

  One of the shifters slammed into the barrier and watched me. His jaw remained lengthened, but still not entirely like a wolf. Claws had formed on the end of his hands and he raked at the barrier, leaving strange sparks glittering along the otherwise invisible wall. They disappeared slowly.

  His magic carved at my barrier.

  If he attempted something similar again, I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to hold onto my spell long enough to withstand him. I needed to continue to hold up the barrier, but if the shifters assaulted it simultaneously, I had no idea if my magic would be strong enough.

  Where was Aron?

  The two remaining shifters continued toward me, though they did so more slowly. With each step they took, I took one backward but was increasingly aware of how they were forcing me deeper into the forest.

  That wouldn’t do at all. If they pushed me closer to other shifters, I would be in much more danger. Other shifters wouldn’t be magically prevented from changing forms the way Aron held these three.

  Hazarding a glance over my shoulder, I saw nothing but more trees.

  The two shifters clawed at my barrier. Deep gouges formed where they had struck it, sparks of magic swirling from those marks.

  I wouldn’t be able to hold on to this for much longer.

  Worse, as they were forcing me deeper into the forest, I was getting farther and farther away from any chance I had of escaping. I needed to turn and head the opposite direction, some way that I could head toward the car—and safety.

  The barrier could be used in a different way, but it would require me somehow twisting my hold on the magic. The control needed for that might be more than what I was capable of doing.

  What choice did I have?

  Taking a deep breath and gathering that deep part of my magic, I released it, letting it explode from me.

  The barrier pushed outward, spreading from the small, protective circle I’d been holding into something much greater. The shifters clawed at it, but the sudden change was enough that they struggled to react in time. Maybe had they been in their wolf forms they might have been more prepared, but in human form, they weren’t able to assault the barrier quite as quickly.