Malignant Magic (Medicine and Magic Book 3)

by SA Magnusson

  “Are you okay?”

  I blinked but couldn’t tear my gaze away from the fallen Torn. I couldn’t shake the sense that he had helped me and his death had allowed me to survive. Had he known?

  I doubt it. More likely, Torn had attempted to challenge the other shifter and had failed.

  “I think so.”

  “How? Did your connection to Solera make it possible?”

  Remembering the way the power surged through me as Torn died, I looked up at Aron. Didn’t he deserve to know the truth?

  Yet, did I want to tell him the truth? If I did, it would open me to more questions. He hadn’t believed that I was a dark mage, and the more that I learned, the more I wished that was the answer. It might be better than the alternative.

  Instead, I was something else.

  When I thought I was half demon, I had thought that bad enough, but this? Whatever was happening to me, and whatever I was, was much worse.

  I could draw power off the dying.

  It wasn’t the only source of my magic, but the real power had come when I’d allowed myself to be filled by it. That power was wrong.

  And I couldn’t even meet his eyes. How could I explain to him what I was? There wasn’t an explanation, not one that made sense. And it wasn’t one I even wanted to be a part of, leaving me with more questions.

  What did that mean for me?

  “I think so,” I said.

  Gran and Gramps approached, and Darvish and Barden followed behind them. They moved slowly, cautiously, until they saw that neither shifter was getting up.

  “What happened here?” Gran asked.

  “I borrowed power from Solera.”

  “You did what?” Barden asked.

  “When we went to ask her how to stop the Great One, I borrowed power from her.”

  “Any bargain with Solera comes with a cost,” Gran said.

  “I’m aware of that.”

  “No, Kate, I’m not sure that you are. She will require payment in a way that—”

  “I didn’t borrow it. I trapped her power. She didn’t agree to it.”

  Gran stared at me and her stern expression faded. “Oh, Katie. What have you done?”

  “What needed to be done. Did you know?”

  “Know what?”

  “That she maintains a connection to the Veil. That’s how she keeps her power.”

  Gran glanced over at Barden, who watched me with an interested expression. Magic trickled out from him, and were I not so tired, I might have tried to determine what sort of spell he attempted. “We suspected,” Gran said.

  “How can I use it? Why can I use it?”

  Gran shook her head. “I suspect there are many things you will question over time, and now you will have someone dangerous watching over you.”

  I glanced from Gran to Aron. I needed to tell someone about what I done and the way I’d used power, but neither of them could know, not yet.

  How would I begin to understand what it meant for me?

  I had no idea, but it was becoming increasingly clear that I was something far different than I had ever imagined. Considering the fact that I had been able to use the power from the other side of the Veil, and that I was somehow powered by the connection to death, I needed to understand that power before it was too late.

  “Can we get out of here?” I asked.

  “We have to remove their bodies,” Barden said.

  “Where will we take him?”

  “Let me handle that,” Aron said. He crouched down next to Torn and released a surge of power, and the Great One burst into flame, his body consumed in only a few moments’ time. He turned to the other shifter and did the same.

  Now there was no remnant, no proof of what I’d done.

  “I think he helped me,” I said, motioning to the charred remains of Torn.

  “A Great One wouldn’t have helped you, Kate.”

  “I don’t know what happened, then. When we were up north, he kept the other shifters from destroying me, and then when I was battling with the other Great One, he intervened, coming to my rescue as much as anything.” I glanced from Aron to Gran. “I know you don’t want to believe he helped, but I don’t have any other explanation for what happened.”

  “We need to understand how these creatures got free,” Gran said.

  “That’s my responsibility.”

  I spun around. Ariel approached, wearing only a long coat. There was a flash of skin beneath and I realized she was completely naked beneath the coat.

  “You’re awake,” I said.

  She nodded. “I am.”

  “What happened?”

  Her gaze stopped on Barden and Darvish, a quizzical look in her eyes before she looked over at me. “You found John?”

  “I found him. He came to the ER with some sort of bite.”

  “Yes. I’ll have to apologize to him for that.”

  “You did that to him?”

  “That was Morris. To create the summons requires something of a sacrifice. When I realized what they had done…” She snarled. “I sent him to you, away from the pack, but I don’t think he knew exactly what he was getting himself into.”

  I groaned. “You wanted me to go and discover what was taking place.”

  “I had no way of saving him otherwise. And with your unique brand of magic and medicine, I thought that perhaps if anyone could, it would be you.”

  “What would have happened had I failed?”

  “John would have died. He was aware of that, and he was ready for the possibility that he might not survive.”

  I shook my head. I didn’t understand, but then, maybe I wasn’t supposed to understand. I wasn’t a shifter, and I certainly wasn’t an alpha shifter. More than anything else, I wasn’t a part of the pack.

  “What of Morris? What happens to those who free a Great One?”

  “They end up as the sacrifice.”

  “It was more than that. Someone had to have shown him how.”

  Ariel frowned. “Perhaps.”

  “Torn helped me, didn’t he?”

  “That was my sacrifice,” she said.

  “Yours?” Aron asked.

  Ariel turned to him. “I couldn’t very well demand that she risk herself without risking myself.”

  “You knew that he would help.”

  “There are many stories of the Great Ones among the shifters, and we all know of their power, but when the first was released and I saw that he intended to attack, I began to question the stories.”

  “What kind of stories were there?” I asked.

  “We have always been told of the Great Ones as our predecessors. We learned that they were wrongfully separated from this world, and that they hunted, roaming through the other side of the Veil, and that if we were lucky enough, and powerful enough, we could one day hunt with them. Torn was regarded as an outsider, a shifter who had angered the rest of the Great Ones. When I realized the Great One was the reason my people were under attack, I sought a bargain with him.”

  I looked at the charred ground where Torn had been. “He did help me.”

  “Torn served as a keeper of the prison holding the Great Ones. When one was freed, he drew on my offered connection to be here. When he died, I came around.”

  “I didn’t think you had anything magically wrong with you,” I said, glancing from Gran to Aron.

  Gran shook her head. “As far as I could tell, she didn’t.”

  “There is nothing wrong with me. I had given myself over willingly. There should have been nothing you would have detected.”

  “Then who gave themselves willingly to the other Great One?”

  “He was lost in the summons,” Ariel said.

  “You know who it was?”

  She growled. “I know, and I will take care of the others. We will secure the prison and ensure no others attempt the crossing.”

  “Shifter business?” I asked.

  She flashed a dangerous smile as she fixed her gaze on
me. Golden eyes stared with a blazing intensity. Power pulsed from her. “Shifter business. You have our thanks, Kate Michaels. You have done well. You are welcome in my den.”

  With that, she shifted and loped off, disappearing within the trees.

  “Well. That has been incredibly interesting, but I think that it’s time for us to return to our plans,” Barden said.

  “We will be watching,” Gran said.

  Barden flashed a bright smile before glancing at me. “Oh. Trust me. So will I.”

  He turned away and headed across the park. As he went, Darvish glanced back and I had the unsettling sensation that the two of them suspected something about me. Would they have answers? Would they know what I was—and what I could do?

  They might be the only ones I could go to with it. The Dark Council had spent their existence battling mages because of the nature of their power. They wouldn’t fear anything that might be considered unnatural.

  If anything, I might need to work with them.

  “You have to maintain the truce with the Dark Council,” I said to Gran.

  “We have no intention of changing the terms of the treatise,” she said.

  “They came willingly. They helped.”

  “For now.”

  “Gran—”

  She raised her hand, cutting me off. “Katie, this is council business. It’s much more complicated than you realize.”

  “All I know is that the Dark Council intervened.”

  “Yes. This time. And what do you think they discovered? They learned that you have a connection to magic that is very different than what they expected.” She watched me. “You shouldn’t have been able to borrow from the power on the other side of the Veil. I’m not entirely certain what that means, but it’s significant.”

  “Solera won’t tell me what it is.”

  “Probably because she doesn’t know.” Gran’s hard expression softened until she smiled at me. “I understand why you went to her and what you hoped to gain, but she has been on this side of the Veil for a very long time. Her memories will have faded. There’s something about the Veil, that separation we hold, that changes things, erasing memories, and makes it so that what was known on the other side is no longer known on this side. She may have a connection—and perhaps much more of a connection than we realized—but she still is different than what she would have been on the other side.”

  “And what was she?”

  “You didn’t tell her?” Gran asked Aron.

  “It wasn’t necessary that I tell her.”

  “Not necessary? You brought her to Solera and didn’t tell her who she was and why she was here?”

  “As I said, it wasn’t necessary.”

  Gran sighed and turned her attention to me. “Perhaps it’s time that we stop keeping things from you, Katie. You might not be a mage, not the same way as your grandfather and I are, but you have a connection that warrants understanding.”

  “I thought I had a demon connection.” Or not even demon, as Solera had suggested. Daemon. An older power. And maybe that was the answer to my magic.

  “For a while, I thought the same,” Gran said.

  “You don’t think that any longer?”

  “You have some traits that would suggest you have demon abilities, but not everything. It makes me curious. Without crossing the Veil, I’m not sure we will know, and even someone like Solera, someone who once ruled on the other side of the Veil, can’t help with that.”

  My breath caught. “She ruled?”

  “She was exiled here. She was overthrown and given only the faintest connection to the other side of the Veil. She remained here because of the proximity to the ley lines, but the island is her prison.”

  “What if she’s the reason these creatures continue to cross over?”

  Gran shook her head. “Solera wouldn’t do that. She would have too much to lose if she did.”

  “Someone has been doing it.”

  “Someone’s responsible. Too much as happened with too much similarity to make me think otherwise,” Gran said. “And unfortunately, Katie, I think that you will continue to be dragged into this.”

  “All I want is to finish my training.”

  “I’m not sure that training is the kind you need at this point.”

  “Gran—”

  “You can return to your hospital and your education, but when it comes to it, I suspect you will be pulled into this—whatever this is.”

  I didn’t argue. I’m not sure there was anything to argue with. As much as I had not wanted to be a part of the magical world, I had reached the point where I wanted—and needed—to know what I was. I wouldn’t be able to learn that while working in the ER.

  Aron watched me, worry in his eyes. I forced a smile, but as the memory of the power I felt from the dying Great Ones came back, that smile faded.

  Worry replaced it.

  What if I was part of the problem?

  Get book 4 in Medicine and Magic: Hemorrhage.

  And if you haven’t gotten your free short story set in this world, keep reading to find out how!

  Only my combination of magic and medicine can save me.

  No longer afraid of my magic, I’ve begun experimenting with how to use it when working in the ER. While on a surgery rotation, my use of magic reveals a dangerous new threat and a type of magic I had not known about before, making me a target.

  Exhausted from my current rotation, sleep deprived from call, I have to hold it together while chasing down information about my patient and the magical attack. When a friend gets injured, I’m the only one able to search for answers, but the search leads me into even greater danger—and this time, I might not escape.

  Forced to use destructive magic linked to death, I have to decide if I want to be a doctor or a mage. Worse, with both sides pulling at me and a war brewing in the city, I don’t know if I’ll have much of a choice.

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  Author’s Note

  Thank you so much for reading Malignant Magic. This book was fun to dive deeper into the magical world.

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  SA Magnusson

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  Also by SA Magnusson

  Medicine and Magic

  Flatline

  Postmortem

  Malignant Magic

  Hemorrhage