‘Aw, you’re so sweet. For a chaos witch who sucks out other meat-bags’ souls. How you feelin’, by the way? No regrets? No second thoughts? ’Cause I mean it, if you lose your spine and try to suck your magic out of yourself again, we’re gonna have a—’
Jessica opened the sack and peered down at all three artifacts needed to finally end this. For everyone.
‘No...’
Oh, yeah.
She reached into the bag and pulled out the hide-wrapped Umur’udal first before setting it on the ground beside her.
We did exactly what we said we’d do.
‘No, no, no, no.’
What? This was the plan.
‘Absolutely not. This was not the plan. Put that thing back in the other thing and chuck it. Better yet, throw it out the door. Yes, that door right in front of you. You’re insane bringing that into my...me.’
Jessica froze, for the first time feeling completely alone because she didn’t trust Leandras and the bank was talking crazy.
What is this?
‘Oh, just a piece of the fucking bad guy’s flesh!’
Jessica whirled around on her knees to eye Leandras, who watched her calmly without any hint of his usual impatience. And apparently, he didn’t seem to think anything was wrong.
No, he hadn’t exactly told her what each of the artifacts was specifically for, but she’d known they’d be put to one of two purposes. Either to fuel the Dalu’Rázj’s rise to power even more than he’d already gained, or to—
‘Screw your indecision. He’s getting what’s coming to him!’
“What?”
The hallway crackled with blue light, which surged toward Leandras before either of them realized what was happening. The bank’s energy hit the fae square in the chest and knocked him off his feet with a heavy thud. He flew backward over the top of the stairs, and even without the telltale snap of breaking bones, the thump of his body hitting the wall of the first landing and toppling to the ground was just as sickening.
Chapter 19
Blue light zipped down the hall and the staircase banister, sizzling like it meant to cook the Laen’aroth or light a magical fire under his ass and chase him out.
If Leandras was capable of standing at all now, let alone running.
“What are you doing?” Jessica shouted.
‘It’s cool. I got this. You can watch if you wa—’
“Stop!” Black smoke burst from both her hands and crashed against the hallway walls, chasing after the electric-blue energy and gobbling it up before the bank went ahead and killed Leandras anyway.
‘Hey. That’s not how teams work!’
“Yeah, well neither was that. Don’t do it again.” Furious and nauseated by the thought of everything she’d done to save this damn fae only to have the bank ruin everything because it couldn’t take its own advice, Jessica hurried down the stairs.
‘My advice was to get rid of that disgusting thing. And the pound of flesh wrapped up in...well, flesh.’
I’m talking about thinking before doing stupid shit.
‘Oh. Still.’
“Hey. Leandras.” She practically slipped down the last stair and crashed to her knees in front of him. He’d fallen conveniently propped up in the corner of the landing, but his head bent at an awkward angle toward his shoulder, his opposite arm pinned behind his back. And yeah, his eyes were closed.
‘Lights out, huh? Jeeze, don’t get so bent out of shape. He’s fae. They’re made of rubber. Literally built for crashing around.’
“That’s what people say about kids,” she spat through her teeth as she gingerly tried to rearrange Leandras’ crooked limbs.
‘Kids. Huh. What’s that?’
“Don’t say anything else. I mean it.”
‘Seriously? I spent three days not saying anything to you, and now you want me to—’
“Bank!”
An exasperated sigh filled her mind, followed by the small pinch in her head that signaled the bank’s presence popping off to go throw a fit somewhere else.
Not her problem.
“Leandras. Come on.” Jessica pulled him away from the wall and gave him a little shake.
His eyelids fluttered, and he groaned.
Christ, she’d had enough with everyone being tossed in every goddamn direction and passing out at all the worst times. They were home, for fuck’s sake. This should have stopped.
“Wake up. Hey.” She patted his cheek with slightly less force than an actual slap.
Leandras’ head bobbed to the side, then he grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away from his face. “That’s quite enough, thank you.”
A massive sigh escaped her, and she rolled her eyes. “I was literally thinking the same thing.”
He blinked heavily several times before opening his eyes all the way and fixing her with those dark eyes that only looked like that in this world. “Am I to assume that private moment in your room was you and the bank conspiring to end me?”
“What? No. I was...”
When he shot her a crooked smile, she let out a weak laugh and sat back on her heels.
“If we were conspiring, trust me, we would’ve picked something a lot more effective. And permanent.”
“I have no doubt.” Leandras started to laugh, then grimaced and shifted his leg. “I wasn’t aware it was possible to feel broken without any broken bones at all.”
He was talking about the pain, obviously. He had to be.
But Jessica’s own thoughts about having broken him on the inside made the statement a lot more poignant.
Damnit, she was way more tangled up in this than should have been possible.
She swallowed. “It’s possible. I’ve been there too.”
“Oh?” He looked up at her and met her gaze, and his attempt at that usually carefree smile fell flatter than ever. “Yes. Yes, I suppose you have.”
What was he doing with all the insinuating crap? Was he trying to make her feel like a complete asshole?
No matter what decision she made with him, that would always happen, wouldn’t it?
So instead of meeting the highly tense topic of what she’d decide to do with him head-on, she completely changed the subject.
“No broken bones?”
“No.” He tenderly prodded the back of his head and hissed. “Just a headache.”
“Yeah, no kidding. Do you want some water or something?”
“No.”
She stood anyway. “At least let me get you some ice.”
“Jessica.” He looked so achingly pitiful sitting there, propped up in the corner and staring up at her with no resistance or mask of secret mischief playing on his face. Like they’d been completely honest with each other from the beginning and he had nothing else to hide.
Only half of that was true. Maybe.
“What?” It came out sharper than she intended, but his fae tricks weren’t going to work on her. Not this time.
“May I ask why, exactly, your establishment tried to paint me across these walls?”
With a bitter smile, Jessica glanced at the ceiling, waiting for the bank to jump back into her head so she could translate some ridiculously off-the-cuff insult. But the bank was silent.
“Well...” She ran a hand through her hair and stepped backward down the first step toward the first-floor hallway. “It knew what the Umur’udal was before I did, apparently.”
“Ah. Yes, we were rather short on opportunities for me to fully explain.”
No, they hadn’t been short on opportunities. They’d had more than enough time to go over all the important details while they were trekking across an endless wasteland. But Jessica had filled that time with a cold resentment and probably wouldn’t have listened to him then anyway. Which he’d apparently realized and had smartly kept his smart mouth shut.
“And now you know what it is.”
“Yep.” She glared at him. “Please tell me the spell we would’ve cast actually needs a piece of him
to be successful.”
Leandras frowned and straightened where he sat despite the obvious pain it caused him. “Would have cast?”
“I guess that depends on your answer, but I’m playing it safe.”
He nodded, once more looking entirely too willing to tell her everything she needed to know. Even if it meant she’d toss his ass to the curb and let him fend for himself after this.
Or let the bank finish what it started.
“All three of those artifacts are required for two very different spells. For two very different outcomes, as you well know.”
“Why do we need the Dalu’Rázj’s...body parts to take him down?” Her hand tightened painfully around the banister. “Because honestly, that sounds like a reagent for reanimation. Or at the very least some kind of golem, and I’m pretty sure even that would be more than we can handle.”
“Yes, in a sense, the Umur’udal would in fact serve to reanimate. As was my original intention.” With a short hiss, Leandras pushed himself to his feet and steadied himself against the wall. “But it is also the closest tie to his essence still remaining in either world. If used to defeat the Dalu’Rázj, it would serve as an ironclad vessel in which to bind him. Forever.”
A small, niggling pressure rose at the back of Jessica’s mind before the bank’s voice overwhelmed everything else.
‘Hey, hey, hey. Holy shit! I figured it out! Jessica, you won’t believe this. We can use that world-killing bastard’s skin to trap him. Forever!’
She blinked.
Yeah, that’s literally what he just said.
The bank cackled. ‘Oh, man. It’s so simple! How did I miss such a—Wait, what? He told you?’
Jessica smiled and cocked her head. “Well, at least I know you’re not lying about that part.”
“Oh?” Leandras scanned the stairway and what was visible of the first-floor hall.
“The bank agrees. So that’s what we’ll go with.”
“The bank...agrees.” He cleared his throat. “So forcefully that it threw me down the stairs?”
‘Oh, he’s fishing for an apology now, huh? Sorry not sorry. Ain’t happenin’, dick.’
Cut it out.
‘Don’t apologize.’
Jessica took a deep breath. “Apparently, there’s a little bit of a lag in catching up with all my memories while we were separated. Me and the bank, I mean.”
The fae man raised an eyebrow. “All of your memories?”
‘Okay, now I know you two got up to something. Look at him. He doesn’t even want me to... Oh. Oh...’
Not now.
‘No wonder you have it locked up so tight. You let your freak out, didn’t you?’
Do I need to banish you again?
‘You let your freak out with a traitor.’ And just like that, the bank’s voice went from gleefully teasing to utterly disgusted. ‘What is wrong with you?’
“So much,” Jessica muttered.
“I’m sorry?” Leandras added.
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “No. Not every memory. Just the relevant ones.”
Leandras’ frown deepened before he looked away and nodded. “I see. Then I’m sure the two of you can devise a plan on your own. Without irrelevant distractions.”
Goddamnit.
This was the Dalu’Rázj’s fucking Laen’aroth spy trying to play the guilt-trip pity card, and she was falling for it.
“Leandras, that’s not—”
“Is that disaster of a guestroom still in working order?”
Jessica clamped her mouth shut. “Um...yeah. I think so.”
“And does the bank have any objections to me using said guestroom for a time?”
‘Hey, that room’s a shithole. Be my guest.’
“No.” Jessica shook her head. “No objections.”
The fae pushed himself off the wall and crossed the landing, stopping in front of her with his head dipped to meet her gaze. “Do you?”
Words failed her completely.
He was still asking for her permission. She could deny him this and send him packing, which would most likely make it a lot easier to breathe. But it wouldn’t fix anything.
Instead, she stepped aside and gestured down the hall toward the lobby and the office turned guestroom on the opposite side.
“Then I’ll not take up any more of your time. Just a moment’s rest before I move on, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure.”
Leandras stepped past her down the last two stairs off the landing and shuffled down the hall. She watched him—his hand trailing along the wall and very intentionally not touching the door to the witching vault; his head bowed as he staggered; the muscles of his back tensing as he obviously struggled not to collapse right there.
Then he disappeared around the corner, and it felt like forever before the door to that tiny room creaked open and closed again with a soft click.
‘Hey, fae don’t get concussions, right?’
Jessica bit her lip. “I have no idea.”
Until just recently, she didn’t think a fae’s spirit could be completely broken, either.
‘Nah, he’ll come back. It’s literally who he is.’
“He wants to swear himself to me,” she whispered.
The bank snorted. ‘Yeah, and make you his new Dark Lord. Fun all around, right?’
“That’s not funny.”
‘You’re right. Totally right. It’s hilarious.’
She waited a moment longer, listening to the silence of the bank she hadn’t realized she’d missed so much until now. Then she turned and hauled herself back up the stairs.
The Umur’udal still rested on the floor in front of the Gateway, joined by the other artifacts in the canvas sack. Jessica gathered everything back up again and took it with her into her bedroom. Knowing what was wrapped up in that strip of tanned hide—weird to wrap flesh up in flesh, but okay—made it even harder to keep the artifacts so close at hand.
‘You know, when you flip it on its head, though, that’s really the most important one,’ the bank muttered.
“Oh, really?” Jessica set the artifacts on the coffee table, then headed straight for her bed and flopped down on the mattress. “How do you figure?”
‘Well, you wouldn’t be calling in the big bad guy to trap him and stuff him in a deep dark hole if you didn’t have his number.’
She snorted. “It’s his skin. Not a phone.”
‘No, that brooding little fae downstairs was his phone. But you’re about to cut the cord. Right?’
Groaning, Jessica rubbed her face and stared at the ceiling beams. Those too had apparently been fixed during her three days in Xahar’áhsh while Ben played Mr. Fix-It with her stuff.
‘Excuse me? I am not “your stuff.”’ The bank scoffed. ‘And that terrified half-human didn’t fix my ceiling, thank you very much. I’m not completely useless.’
“I know you’re not,” she muttered.
But how useful would the bank really be if she let Leandras break his allegiance to the Dalu’Rázj just to swear it to her instead?
How much could the bank help if she refused the fae’s plea to let him prove himself?
‘Lemme tell ya, witch. I’ve spent my entire existence floundering around in these kinds of existential questions.’
“And you haven’t come up with any answers, huh?”
‘Jessica, you can literally bring life back into dead meat-bags. Don’t ask me how that happened, but it did. And yeah, you actually believe that’s a thing you can do, so don’t try that denial bullshit with me. You’ve been fooling yourself long enough, and I see right through you.’
Fair enough.
She could hide from herself, but she couldn’t hide from the bank. After everything she’d been through, it was actually kind of nice to have someone else tell her what was real and not. Or something else, anyway.
‘Yeah, I’m pretty amazing. So you’re gonna do it, right? Let the half-naked guy downstairs get down on bo
th knees and swear his undying loyalty, yeah? Whew. Man. Just thinking about it gets me excited.’
“Okay, slow down.” Jessica closed her eyes. “I have no idea what I’m gonna do.”
‘Why not? It’s a pretty simple decision.’
“I don’t even know what that means. Swear himself to me? Like... What does that make me, then?”
‘Awesome.’ The bank sniggered. ‘And it makes him your bitch.’
“That’s not helping.”
‘Okay, okay. Fine. Here’s what I know.’ Once the bank’s chuckle has subsided, it actually sounded pretty serious again. ‘If you don’t let Leandras do this, you’re not ending the assault on my premises or on the Gateway. You’re helping it.’
“I don’t need Leandras for this last spell.” Jessica pushed herself up to sit there on the bed and stare at the opposite wall of her bedroom. “He knew that. That’s why he gave me the artifacts and said he’d stay behind if I wanted him to.”
‘Uh-huh. Which honestly would’ve been the easy way out for both of you. I mean, sure, the monster tearing apart the birthworld of magic would find your little fae friend and tear him to pieces too. Maybe Leandras was counting on it. You know what? I bet he was. He’s been torn apart before. But his master wouldn’t strip away his soul just to prove a point. The Dalu’Rázj needs that soul. So yeah, I’d say a punishment of eternal shredding seems like a pretty decent gig. Speaking from the fae’s perspective, of course.’
A punishment of eternal shredding?
No. That definitely did not sound like the easy way out.
“What are you talking about?”
The bank clicked its nonexistent tongue. ‘Look, I get it. You’re completely clueless.’
“Hey, thanks.”
‘Anytime. My point is, he thought it would’ve been better for both of you if he stayed behind and you came back to handle the rest of this on your own. Because yeah, on the one hand, eternal torture. On the other... You wouldn’t have to make this decision at all. You could finish this thing, and you’d be safe, because he couldn’t betray you.’
“Yeah, that already happened.”
The bank let out a startlingly loud honk like a gameshow buzzer. ‘Wrong. He probably thought all his little demons flew up into that sky when you whipped his life back down into his body. That trance you saw? That was lover-boy’s master checking in. Making sure he was still connected. He didn’t call, he didn’t write... Kinda cause for concern, don’t you think?’
The Spellcast Gate (Accessory to Magic Book 5) Page 20