by Lucy March
“He’s just mine,” I said, and Cain’s eyebrow went up a bit. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black metal box, which, for all its tiny size, looked like serious business. It even had a metal latch.
“Oh, cute.” I grinned at him. “You brought me a hamster’s Samsonite. How thoughtful.”
He stared at me, looking uneasy. “What’d he do to you?”
“Who?” I motioned to Leo. “Him?”
“No. The bad guy.” Cain watched me, on alert, eyes darting suspiciously around CCB’s. “You’re beaten up, and acting weird.”
I fiddled with the catch on the box. “What do you mean, weird?”
“I don’t know.” He paused for a moment, thinking. “Happy, I guess.”
“Well, the bruise is because of the bad guy. The happy is because of Leo.” I flipped the top on the box and encased in black foam was the smallest little brown vial I’d ever seen. I held it up to the light; inside was maybe five drops of solution.
“Wow,” I said, tucking it back in the case. “What is it?”
“The best shot you’ve got,” he said. “You need to get that into his system fast, and undiluted. Every drop. That means no mixing it with a drink.”
I stared at him. “Huh? How am I supposed to get it in his system?”
“You can try skin contact but you’ve got to get all of it on his skin, and he’s got to leave it there long enough for it to seep through, without washing it off. I’d say hypodermic is your best way to go. Inject him wherever you can, but the neck’s the best place. Right into the jugular.”
“Ew,” I said, and Leo put his arm around my shoulder.
“Man up, Easter,” Cain went on, his eyes sharp on mine. “This is how it works. You got one dose, one shot, and it’s good for another forty-eight hours to get it into his system, max. It was hard enough getting my hands on that one, so you gotta get it right the first try.”
“You didn’t make it yourself?” Leo asked.
Cain looked at him. “No, I had to go out of house on that one. The guy wouldn’t give me the formula, and he got on a plane back to Kenya last night, if he was even telling me the truth about where he was going.”
I put my hands over the small case. “So, it’s just one dose? And this will make him feel again?”
“Maybe,” Cain said, his voice grim.
“Maybe?”
“Got a lot of cloudy variables here, Easter,” he said. “I don’t know how your guy mixed his Anwei Xing. I don’t know how long ago he took it. Permanent magic like that is a big deal.”
“Magic, or science?” I said, mostly to myself, but Cain said, “Huh?” and I looked at him.
“This guy,” I said. “Desmond. He’s a neurologist. Or he was, anyway. He says it’s not magic, it’s science. Chemicals. He says there are no magical consequences for violating free will, that it’s all just superstitious rubbish.”
Cain shrugged, and I felt a twinge of uneasiness.
“Hey,” I said. “You were the one who told me about the consequences. There are consequences, right? I mean, magic is going to come back and find you if you break the rules, right?”
“There are consequences,” Cain said. “I don’t know if I’d call ’em magic. You reap what you sow. You violate free will, it’s my belief that someday, you’re gonna pay for that. You just have to decide whether it’s worth it or not.”
I carefully tucked the small case in my pocket. “It’ll be worth it. I’m pretty sure.”
“Yeah, well, don’t forget. You’re looking at maybe a fifty–fifty chance this will even work. I hope you’ve got a backup plan.”
“I always have a backup plan.”
“Yeah?” Cain huffed. “What is it?”
I smiled. “I’ll tell you when I think of it.”
Next to me, I could feel Leo tense. I had just turned around to look at him when he bolted out of the seat and pushed his way to the door. Through the open venetian blinds at the front of CCB’s, I saw the faintest glimpse of brown tweed moving away at a pace.
“Oh, shit,” I said, and ran out after him. I shouted, “Put the coffee on my tab!” at Brenda and nearly knocked Filly Jones off her counter stool as I ran out.
I looked first left, then right, and there was no sign of either Leo or Desmond, but I heard a shout from the alley to the right, and ran that way. When I got there, Leo had Desmond up against the brick wall, his forearm pressing against Desmond’s throat.
“Leo!” I shouted, but he was focused entirely on Des.
“I swear to God, I should kill you now,” he said.
Desmond moved his neck against the pressure of Leo’s arm, and when he spoke, his voice was strained. “If you do, she dies. That’s worse than a split lip, isn’t it?”
Leo’s eyes narrowed and he cursed, then gave Desmond one last slam against the wall before releasing him.
“This the guy?” I heard Cain say behind me, but I put my arm out to stop him from getting into the fray, and he stayed where he was.
“You touch her again,” Leo said, “and I will kill you.”
Desmond smirked. “I doubt much you’ll care.”
He tipped his imaginary hat at me then turned to walk down the alley and disappeared into the shadows. I watched after him, my panicked heart thrumming in my ears to the point where I didn’t hear Leo talking to me until he touched my arm.
“Hey, Stacy,” he said, his eyes shrouded with concern. “You okay?”
He couldn’t have, I thought. How would he…?
I blinked twice and looked at him. Leo, my Leo …
“Oh, God,” I said, and reached out to touch a spot on his neck, a tiny red dot that I might never have noticed if I wasn’t looking for signs of a hypodermic injection. “Did you fight? Did he touch you?”
Leo stared at me, confused. “A little. I got the better of him, though.”
He let you get the better of him, I thought, and I pulled Cain’s arm and tilted Leo’s head to the side for Cain to see the tiny dot.
“Um … Stace?” Leo said.
I didn’t respond, just looked at Cain, whose expression was grim.
“Wait here,” he said, and disappeared out to the street.
“Stacy?” Leo blinked and looked at me, his eyes growing hazy. “What’s going on?”
And then he pitched forward. I caught him just in time before he cracked his head on the brick wall, and I eased him to the ground.
“It’s gonna be okay,” I said. “I promise.”
He looked at me, our eyes locked … and there was nothing there. Just a dead expression.
Like Desmond’s.
“Move back.”
I jumped at the sound of Cain’s voice; I hadn’t even heard his footsteps behind me.
“Leo.” Cain knelt next to Leo and handed him a small vial of clear liquid. “Drink this. It’s gonna taste bad, so do it fast. Got it?”
“Yeah.” Leo took the vial from Cain and stared at it as if trying to focus. “What is it?”
“Just drink.”
Leo took the cap off and shot the liquid down, then made a face and gagged. “Ugh, Christ!”
Cain took the vial back, then looked at me. “It’ll just be a minute.”
We all went still. I could hear the sounds of traffic moving down the street behind us, normal life continuing on as though it had any right. Then Leo leaned away from us and vomited onto the asphalt.
“That’s a positive,” Cain said.
“A positive what?”
“That reaction means he’s got something magic in him,” Cain said.
“Okay,” I said, the panic throttling my voice into shrillness. “Okay. He’s throwing it all up. It’s okay.”
“It’s not in his stomach,” Cain said darkly. “It’s in his blood. All this does is confirm that Desmond shot him up with something powerful. It doesn’t…”
Cain trailed off, and I closed my eyes, but all I could see was Leo staring at me with that dead l
ook, and all I could hear was Desmond’s voice.
I doubt much you’ll care.
“Desmond gave me something,” I said. “He used the Anwei Xing to cut out my feelings for Leo.”
“You sure that’s what’s going on here?”
I nodded. “Yes. He lured Leo out here. He’s using Leo to get to me.”
Leo retched again, but there was nothing left to come out. He leaned back against the brick wall, breathing heavy, his head hung low.
“It only lasted twelve hours when he gave it to me,” I said, rubbing the gooseflesh that was prickling all over my arms. When I looked up, Cain was staring down at me under dark brows, an unusually concerned look in his eye.
“What?” I said.
“He administered this hypodermically,” he said. “You only do that if you mean business.”
On instinct, I stood up and reached for the small case in my pocket.
“Easter, wait,” Cain said, grabbing my arm to stop me. “Getting you one of those was a damned miracle in itself. I don’t know if I can get you another one.”
I looked down at Leo. His head was still low, as if he didn’t have the strength to hold it up on his own.
“I can’t lose him,” I said weakly. “Not now. I can’t. You don’t understand…”
“All right.” Cain’s voice came from behind me, but I didn’t look at him. “You got a workshop?”
A sharp stab of hope sliced through my heart. “Do you think you can make another dose of that stuff?”
Cain’s expression was grim. “No. But maybe we can put together that backup plan. Show me your workshop. Tell me everything you know. We’ll figure something out.”
I hesitated, staring at Leo.
“It’s better than doing nothing,” Cain said. “Sitting here in an alley isn’t helping anyone.”
“Okay,” I said. “My workshop is at home.”
“All right,” Cain said, and got to the business of helping Leo to his feet.
* * *
Work was comforting, at least. Three hours later, Cain and I were no closer to having a real plan in place, but we’d made a handful of potions and even though they’d be all but useless in this fight—I could use a Lie Detector potion, but Desmond was a sociopath, not a liar—it felt good to be doing something. And the longer I was away from Leo, the more I could imagine him waking up from his sleep back in the ’Bago, loving me again.
“I’m sorry,” Cain said as we were cleaning up, his voice uncharacteristically gentle. “It was a lot of work, tracking that magic down for you. I haven’t slept and I’m tired. Once I get some sleep, maybe I’ll think of something. You got a little time.”
“Right.” I took the last purple vial off my shelf and tucked it into the bag, then ran my fingers over my two bulbous Edison vials, watching the blue, swirly liquid moving under my fingers. I’d worked so hard on those, put all my magical energies into them, and they seemed so silly to me now.
I took one and threw it on the ground.
“What the…?” Cain jumped a bit, then turned around and looked down. Slowly, a magical sunflower burst up from the ground, glowing and dancing to the silence.
“Huh,” Cain said, his eyes on the sunflower. “You did that?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“On your own, with no real training?”
I must have looked pretty pathetic, because Cain kept his opinion on that to himself, although I could see him struggling not to yell at me for taking that kind of risk.
“Pretty impressive,” he said after a long pause.
“Yeah. It is.” I turned my back on the sunflower. “Lot of good it does me now.”
“Hey.” Cain put his hand on my arm, and I looked up at him. “Things looked pretty bad this time last year, too. We got through that. We’ll get through this.”
“We didn’t all get through it,” I said, and our eyes met as the coldness of Millie’s ghost passed through us both. Cain took his hand off my arm and nodded, then went back to clearing the last of the stuff on the workbench.
I knelt down and looked at my sunflower, wishing I could feel the pride and happiness I’d felt the first time I’d gotten it to work. All I could see now was dancing light that was slowly going to fade away into nothing, and the world would go on as if it had never existed in the first place.
“Science, my ass,” I said. I stood up, tucking the last sunflower potion into my bag. Whatever I had or didn’t have, whether Leo would ever love me or not, I was the girl who made the stupid magic sunflowers. It didn’t make me feel much better, but it was all I had, and right now I had to hold on to whatever I could get.
Chapter 17
Leo was awake when we got back to the ’Bago, but he was still looking at me with that dead, muddy expression. I called Liv and we headed over there, claiming we needed her space to put up Cain, but really, I just wanted the comfort of being near my best friend. And the guy who could kill Desmond with a look if he decided to screw with us again.
I left Leo with Tobias and Cain in the living room, and went out back with Liv to sit in the Adirondack chairs by her mother’s garden. Her mother’s urn and Millie’s sat side by side in the corner of the garden, surrounded by flowers and the occasional ceramic frog, which, prior to today, had always made me smile. The girl had a bunny made from a mug, but the ceramics that were actually made to like real critters were just decoration.
“How are you doing?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, taking a sip from the iced tea she’d given me. “I think bad. Mostly, I’m numb. Kind of hollow. I think maybe that’s because it’s not over. Once it’s over, I’ll fall apart.”
“Yep.” She took a sip of her own drink and we sat in silence for a while. More than anyone in the world, Liv understood what I was going through. “If there’s anything I can do—”
“You’re doing it,” I said. “Just giving us a place to stay for a few days, so I can figure this out. It really helps.”
She let out a little laugh. “Power doesn’t count for much, does it?”
I looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, here I am, right? I have evolving magic, magic I can control and strengthen. Magic so rare that someone tried to kill me to steal it from me. I have both day and night magic. I’m a freaking unicorn and…” She shrugged. “What can I do? I can make you a fish out of a keychain. I can’t help. I can’t make Desmond give you the cure. I can’t fix you, or your mom, or Ms. Troudt, or Clementine. It’s frustrating.”
“I know,” I said. “I can make a potion that will make you fart rainbows, but I can’t make Leo love me again. How stupid is that?”
“Oh, baby.” She reached out and put her hand over mine. “He’ll come back to you.”
“Yeah?” I swiped at my face. “How do you know that?”
She gave me a sad smile. “Because he’s Leo, and that’s what he does. Sometimes it takes a while, but he comes back.”
Just then, we heard steps behind us. I shifted in my seat and there was Leo, looking a little haggard, but standing on his own power, which was good.
Liv hopped up out of her seat. “Sit down, Leo. I’ll go get you something to drink. Water? Iced tea?”
“Water’d be great,” he said, his voice scratchy.
“Here,” she said, and handed him her iced tea. “Take this for now, if that doesn’t gross you out.”
He let out a short laugh. “I used to drink wine from a glass with a thousand people every Sunday.” He held up the iced tea and smiled at her. “Thanks.”
I watched him as he watched her go, his face full of warmth and affection. And then he looked at me, and the light in his eyes went out. I must have reacted to it, because he said, “Damnit,” and sat down heavily in Liv’s vacant chair.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I have something you can take. It’ll be okay. It’ll bring you back.”
He shook his head. “You have one dose. You can’t use it on me.”
/> “I’ve made the decision, Leo.”
He shook his head. “It’s not your decision to make. I won’t take it.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” I said, my throat tightening. “You don’t feel anything when you look at me. You’re numb. I’m the one who’s hurting.”
“You think I don’t feel this?” He stared at me. “I remember all of it. I remember every night I was away, how I forgot every detail of this town and everyone in it, but I saw your face, clear as a bell. I remember talking to a parishioner who had married his high school sweetheart and being so envious I wanted to hit him. I remember everything we did together, everything we are to each other, and when I look at you, it’s like this big, black chasm. The only happiness in my life was just taken away from me.”
I leaned forward, shifting closer to him. “So, take the potion, Leo. Just take it. I don’t know if it’s going to work on Desmond anyway, but I figured this much out. I’ll figure something else out. I’m smart, and I can—”
“It’s your best chance of getting through to him, of saving not just yourself, but your mother. Ms. Troudt. Clementine. Stacy, that kid’s seventeen.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I thought about Clementine, her sweetness and vulnerability, and then shook my head against it. I was Stacy Easter, and I did what I wanted, and to hell with everyone else. If that was who I was, then there had to be an upside, and saving Leo at the expense of everything else …
I took in a deep breath as my stomach roiled.
“Look,” I said desperately, “this might not even work on Desmond. Who’s to say he’s not naturally a sociopath to begin with? This is all guesswork, Leo, and I have no friggin’ idea what I’m doing here.”
“Which is why you’ve got to try everything you have,” he said. “Including that potion.”
I sighed. “I gave one of the purple vials to Cain to try to figure out what’s in it. That means I’ve got one left. Assuming that none of us uses our powers, that might buy us another day or two. I can figure something out. There’s time.”