Malignant Magic (Medicine and Magic Book 3)

by SA Magnusson

  “We should go,” I said.

  As we climbed out of the car, there came another surge of power, this time closer than before. Parts of it flowed over me and I tried to figure out why it was familiar, but couldn’t.

  “You’re going to have to run,” I said.

  “What is it?” Aron asked.

  “Whatever that sense of magic is keeps getting closer.”

  And it wasn’t the Dark Council. They wouldn’t be able to move that quickly. It didn’t strike me as some sort of traditional magic spell. Whatever was coming at us was moving rapidly and carried with it significant strength.

  Aron ran across the street and Gran and Gramps got out of the car, starting to follow. I tapped the key to lock the car and had started across the street when an enormous figure suddenly appeared in front of me.

  The Great One.

  I’d never faced a shifter like this before. It was more than his size—which was immense. Power radiated from him. It was different than what I detected from Aron or my grandparents. This was immense.

  “You would take my prize from me?” he growled.

  “I’m not sure Ariel would appreciate being called a prize. Not too many women like to refer to themselves that way.”

  The shifter stalked toward me. He still hadn’t changed shape, remaining in wolf form. That was bound to attract attention, even out here where there weren’t as many businesses.

  The shifter tipped his head back and sniffed at the air.

  “I recognize your power.”

  I tensed. “Oh yeah? What about it do you recognize?” I wanted to sound casual, but at the same time, I wanted nothing more than for him to reveal what he knew. If he could, maybe I wouldn’t need to rely on someone like Solera to reveal the secrets of my magic.

  “And here I thought I was the first,” the shifter said.

  “The first what?”

  He growled. “The first to cross.”

  Traditional magic surged from Gran and Gramps, who prepared a spell on the other side of the street, but they wouldn’t be able to react fast enough to help me. “What do you want with her anyway?”

  If I could delay him, draw his attention to me—and it seemed as if he was willing at least to banter with me—I might be able to buy us some time. They needed to get Ariel into the basilica, and once they did, I had to hope the neutral ground would be enough, even with the Great One.

  What would I do if it wasn’t?

  All I knew about the neutral ground was the fae respected it, as did the mages, both the mage council and the Dark Council. Would shifters? For that matter, would a shifter that wasn’t even from this side of the Veil?

  Had we made a mistake in coming here?

  All of those thoughts went through my head, but I pushed them away.

  Movement across the street caught my eye, but I didn’t dare turn toward it. If I took even a moment, I would draw my attention away from this shifter, and something deep within my being warned me not to do that.

  “What do you want with her?”

  “What makes you think she’s the one I’m after?”

  My heart hammered. Had I made a mistake revealing my magic to him?

  “What are you after?”

  The shifter prowled toward me. He began to change shape, his mouth and nose shifting first, and gradually the rest of him, until he stood in front of me completely naked. He was enormous and incredibly attractive, but in a dangerous way. Even if I didn’t know he was a Great One, there was something about him that warned me not to get too close to him.

  He watched me, a smile on his face. “How is it you don’t know? Are you not what you seem to be?”

  “And what is it that I seem to be?”

  The shifter grinned again. “Perhaps you are not. Either that or you aren’t aware of it. I must admit I find that incredibly fascinating, and your power will help far more than you know.”

  “You aren’t making any sense.”

  He continued toward me. As he did, I instinctively reached for magic, forming a barrier. I wasn’t sure if it would even work against him.

  The shifter hesitated on the other side of my barrier. “You reach for their power, but you don’t know it.”

  “Whose power?” Could he really be close to telling me something I had wanted to know since discovering I wasn’t a dark magic user?

  He seemed unconcerned about the fact that I was holding onto my magic, but then, what reason would he have for being concerned? He had already overpowered us and had managed to track us throughout Minneapolis.

  “Soon it will not matter.”

  Soon. That meant he would complete whatever task he had planned. I needed to buy time until help arrived—and there had to be help coming for me.

  “Why are you here?”

  “We have been imprisoned long enough. It’s time for that to end. These lands and this realm have no way of holding us, especially once you’re claimed.”

  He lunged toward me and I reacted instinctively, pushing back with my shielding. He slammed into it. Claws began to elongate, and he slashed at my barrier. Where he did, it began to separate, peeling away with sparks of power. He watched me while he did it, almost as if he were trying to see how I’d react, but the only reaction I had was one of fear.

  I continued blocking as he attacked, but every time I replaced the injured portion of my barrier, he slashed at it again, carving through it.

  It would fail. It was only a matter of time.

  I dared look across the street.

  Aron was gone, as were Gran and Gramps.

  If nothing else, I would have bought them time. Wasn’t that the most important thing? They needed a chance, little more than that, and if they were granted an opportunity to get onto neutral ground, then they could wake Ariel and figure out what to do next.

  “Why are you really here?” Before he got to me, I would know that much.

  “Because a fool allowed my entry.”

  “What fool?”

  “Someone who thought to contain me.”

  “And who is that?”

  The shifter growled. With another swipe, he shattered my barrier.

  I was ready for it, and I sent a surge of magic blasting into him, crashing into his chest. I had seen that he was susceptible to my magic before. He might be able to withstand Gran and Gramps, but he wasn’t able to withstand my magic, at least not unharmed.

  He went flying, crashing to the other side of the street.

  I sprinted toward the basilica.

  All I needed was to reach the doorway, and I had to believe that the neutral ground would protect me. When I reached it, he was right behind me.

  I spun, sweeping my leg around to kick, magic surging through me. The change of tactic startled him and my kick connected with his leg, dropping him to his knees. I followed the kick with the rapid series of punches, connecting one on his shoulder, another on his chin, and the third missed. Each of my strikes had been enhanced with magic, though not intentionally. As much as I wanted to have control over infusing power into my strikes, I didn’t.

  I yanked open the door and staggered inside. The shifter followed me, already changed back into wolf form. He was much more intimidating that way, and I was unable to take my eyes off him.

  “This is neutral ground,” I said.

  “Neutral for whom?” he growled.

  His voice had a deep and guttural sound in this form, and it was difficult for me to completely understand him. I suspected that was his intention. The longer he stayed in this form, the more powerful he was, but at the same time, the fact that he had shifted again suggested I had harmed him.

  If shifters could heal themselves during the transformation, his shifting would have restored himself—but also suggested my attack had done something to him.

  “Be careful, or I’ll attack again.”

  “I’ve already seen the extent of your attack. You have potential, but you don’t fully understand it. I suspect you’ve bee
n on this side far too long.”

  “Maybe,” I said, “but I doubt that you will risk violating the fae neutral ground. You don’t want to risk the wrath of the queen.”

  “As I’ve said, your neutral ground means little to me.”

  He snarled and snapped again, and the faint barrier I managed to hold collapsed, shattering with a snap of his jaws. I staggered back, making my way along the hallway. The shifter prowled toward me, his ears pointed back, the fur along his spine standing on end. Nails clattered on the tile. The closer he came, the more his musky stink filled my nose.

  Where were the basilica priests?

  Hopefully they knew enough to stay back.

  Sweat dripped from my forehead. How much of that was exertion and how much of it was simply fear? Could this be a mistake?

  The shifter seemed almost eager. After telling him about the fae queen, he had attacked with a renewed interest.

  Could this be what the shifter wanted?

  Maybe we had misread the situation.

  They had intended to bring Ariel across the Veil, and I had thought it was so that they could use her, to feed on her the same way they had attempted to feed on John, but what if that hadn’t been the intention? What if there was something else they wanted, and we were handing it to them by bringing him here?

  I froze but the shifter continued toward me. Holding onto my barrier, I anchored it to the floor and the ceiling, trying to find a way to minimize his likelihood of getting past me. I needed to think this through. What did I know about what he was after?

  Practically nothing, which was part of the problem.

  But then… That wasn’t entirely true. I had seen the spell forced by the other shifters, the way they had opened up the separation in the Veil. That had to be significant for some reason, but what was it?

  The shifter snapped at the barrier, but anchored to the walls as it was, it seemed to require less effort from me, and I managed to hold it more easily.

  What else did we know? Ariel had sent for me, and I had assumed initially that was because of my medical abilities, but that couldn’t have been what it was. She had discovered something about my magic. Which meant she had wanted me to go after her.

  And there was what the shifter had said. Someone had brought him here, someone who seemed to think they could control him.

  And here we were at a supposedly neutral ground, with a shifter who was willing to violate that neutrality.

  Not only violate it, but he seemed eager to go across, as if he wanted to see what could be done. An attack on the fae queen.

  Could that be it?

  We had been so focused on what was happening on this side of the Veil, could I have overlooked the possibility that there was something more—something worse—taking place on the other side?

  I didn’t know enough about the fae queen to know how she ruled, only that the mage council had interactions with her. That suggested she was considered an ally, at least of a sort.

  It was different than this shifter.

  I pushed, sending my spell back at him. I kept the spell anchored to the walls and the floor. Somehow holding it in that way gave me an advantage. If I had the sword, I would have been able to do more, and without it, I would soon reach the limit of my powers.

  He snarled, continuing to snap at my spell.

  “You wanted to attack the other side. That was what this was about. You were going to use the shifters to allow you back in.”

  The shifter snarled, snapping again.

  “You aren’t from the other side of the Veil at all, are you?”

  The shifter stopped attacking. “You know so little.”

  “Where are you from, then?”

  He snarled, snapping at the barrier. With his increasingly frenzied attack, I couldn’t do anything more than I already had. I could hold it, but even that would become too much soon. I needed to maintain that connection as long as I could.

  Would Aron or Gran and Gramps realize my need? They had to know the shifter was here, but would they come looking for me?

  It might be that they weren’t strong enough, and if that were the case, maybe it would be safest for them to remain hidden, locked in the lower level where the neutral ground and the circle could provide some protection.

  I would have to do this myself, but I didn’t have the kind of magic needed in order to overpower the shifter. His power came from the other side of the Veil, and he had defeated Aron and Ariel, and he had ignored my grandparents’ magic.

  I wouldn’t be able to survive against it.

  But maybe it wasn’t magic I needed to focus on.

  When I had fought with him, when I had used my martial arts training, I had knocked him back. Some of that might be from the fact I had surprised him, but some of it might have been the fact that when I had attacked, magic went into each blow. Those had harmed him. It had forced him to shift to recuperate, and if I could do something similar, maybe I could get him back outside the basilica. From there, I had to hope others would come to my aid.

  Rather than pushing with the barrier, I kicked through it.

  Holding onto my magic this way allowed the kick to carry much more strength than it would otherwise. The sudden change of focus startled the shifter, and my kick caught him on one shoulder, followed by a satisfying crack.

  The wolf howled.

  “You didn’t like that?”

  I took another step forward, pushing my barrier in front of me. I fell into the patterns I was taught while training with martial arts and connected with him again, this time a series of attacks, two kicks followed by a punch. All of them came through the barrier, slamming into the shifter.

  He avoided two of them, but my punch connected with the side of his muzzle and he yelped again. Holding onto magic gave me a lot more power than I had expected.

  The shifter backed up, watching me more warily. I smiled to myself. If I could keep him on the defensive, maybe I could make this work.

  I feigned an attack and he skittered back, away from my blow, allowing me the opportunity to slip the shielding forward again. Only a little farther, and we would reach that side door and I could get him back outside.

  The wolf snarled and lunged forward.

  It was all I could do to hold on to the shielding. The suddenness of it—and the violence of it—was much more than what he had attempted before, and he rammed into my shield. It shimmered, sparks working along it, before it faded. The shield held, but I don’t know how much longer I could sustain it.

  He lunged again, jaws snapping and legs ripping at the shielding.

  The shield sparked and started to collapse.

  As it did, I struck.

  I brought my knee up, catching him on the jaw, and followed with a double fist pump on the top of his head, driving both of my fists down onto his skull. He lowered his head, trying to twist off to the side, but I swung my foot around, catching him with a roundhouse kick.

  He yelped again and before he had a chance to recuperate, I followed with a magical blast, a spell of whatever it was that I had used before. He went flying down the hallway and whimpered. I started to build another spell, but I didn’t have enough strength.

  I raced toward him and as I got close, he tried to snap at me, but I rolled to the ground, kicking. My heel connected with the side of his head and he went flying away. At least I had enough strength left for that.

  We were near the door.

  He got to his feet, the muscles beneath his fur rippling. Shifting.

  It was his magical transformation. He was using it to restore himself.

  How could I overpower someone like that? If he could continue to shift, to heal himself each time he were injured, it might not be possible for me to get the upper hand. There were limits to my magic, and from what I’d seen from him, it didn’t appear he had the same limitations.

  I darted forward and he snapped at me. It was all that I could do to place a protective barrier up before he managed to con
nect.

  “That was impressive, but now it’s my turn,” the Great One said.

  He snapped again and I staggered back, barely missing his jaws connecting.

  I tried to kick, but he twisted out of the way, avoiding my blow. One of his claws raked my thigh. Pain ripped through me and I screamed. Blood seeped out along my thigh.

  I guess I would find out whether I had the same healing ability that mages possessed.

  Thankfully I hadn’t the opportunity to test it before and wished I would’ve done so in a time before my life might depend upon it, but it was also possible that in my weakened state, I wouldn’t be able to heal the same way anyway. I staggered back, keeping my injured leg behind me, trying to balance so I didn’t put too much weight on it. I needed to be careful, but if he snapped at my good leg, I wouldn’t have any way to stand.

  Attempting a barrier failed.

  He sniffed. “I can smell your fear.”

  “And I can smell you. You smell sort of like a toddler coming in to the ER with a poopy diaper.” He probably had no idea what that was, but taunting him made me feel better.

  The pain in my thigh burned and muscles trembled. I doubted that I would be able to stand for long.

  My magic was nearly depleted. Rest was the only thing that would allow me to recover, and there was no way for me to be able to rest until this was all the way over. Given the way it was going, I didn’t like my odds.

  He lunged and I took a step back, stumbling.

  There was a mistake. He was upon me before I had a chance to react.

  Hot breath stunk in my face. A drop of drool fell onto my cheek and I turned to the side, wanting to get away. Power built within me and I pushed out, sending it slamming into his underbelly.

  Thankfully I had enough strength remaining for that. It pushed him off me and I scrambled backward and away from him. How much longer would I be able to withstand him?

  He made his way toward me. I couldn’t get to my feet, the pain in my leg too much to bear. Instead, I stayed on my backside, scooting away from him, doing everything in my power to hold the shielding around me, but I didn’t have the strength to anchor it the same way I had before.

  Another lunge, and I brought my hands up, pushing out. Nothing came from my hands, but I did manage to connect with his nose, and there was enough force in the blow that he twisted off to the side. I swung my good leg around, not having nearly enough strength in it, and completely missed as I tried to connect with him.