by Alex Steele
“I agree. Most women prefer flowers over zombies,” I said, hands curling into fists. It was a pain in the ass to fight necromancers. They liked to hang back and send their undead minions after you until they wore you out. Maybe with Beckett helping, I could get to him faster.
She stepped slightly in front of me, then nodded her head toward the exit we’d been headed toward. “Just go, I can handle this guy.”
My brows shot up. “You can handle six zombies and a necromancer on your own?”
Her expression became even angrier, her lips pressing into a thin line. “Do you want the person that planned this to get away?”
“Of course not.”
“Then go stop her. I’ve dealt with a necromancer before.”
I hesitated for only a moment longer, then nodded before turning and sprinting away from the necromancer and his zombies. Maybe working with a partner had its benefits.
Ten
The Temple of Dendur was a large exhibit on the north side of the museum. There was a picture in the map that showed some kind of reflecting pool and two small buildings that were actual monuments built in Egypt back in 15 B.C.
There were two entrances to the exhibit, but only one that I could get to quickly. I peeked into the hall. The far wall was windows but they had it blocked somehow. The glass was hazy.
I could hear a soft but steady clanging noise coming from somewhere in the room. It sounded as though it was coming from underground. The woman and her remaining cronies weren’t visible, which made me nervous. An enemy I couldn’t see was an added risk but there was no way around it. Leaving Beckett behind made me nervous as well.
Moving as quietly as possible, I stepped into the room. The temple was directly to my left, raised off the floor on a low platform. There was a man laying face down in a pool of blood near the platform. He must have been one of the mages they had guarding the place. The other two were nowhere to be seen.
I edged around the temple, keeping my back to the wall. A wave of magic pulsed from the temple and I stopped in my tracks, expecting an attack. But none came. Three breaths later, another wave of magic passed through me. What the hell were they doing in there?
There was a noise from my left, the direction I’d just come from. I paused and looked back. A man stood in the entryway. His shoulders were as broad as two men combined and the hair on his arms and face was too thick to be natural.
“Aw, hell,” I muttered under my breath.
The man grinned and stepped inside. “I heard you wandering and scheming. Did you think no one would be listening?”
I really hated werebears. For one, they were way bigger than should be allowed, and they tended to be mean. They were also disturbingly fast.
“I was kinda hoping no one would be listening, but I guess I was wrong,” I said, taking a step back. The knife was tucked in my waistband. I needed my hands free for this.
“Where did you stash the prosaic woman?” The werebear took another slow step toward me. Mirroring his movement, I took a step back.
“Oh, she left. Didn’t want to stick around for all this nonsense,” I said with my most pleasant smile. People who didn’t know me generally thought I was charming. Once they got to know me they started using words like ‘arrogant’ and ‘selfish’, though I’ve never really understood why.
“She left?” the werebear raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t I believe you?”
I shrugged. “Maybe because you can hear a lie? But definitely not because she’s right behind you.”
He whipped around with a snarl and I dropped to one knee, slamming my hands against the ground, activating the trap I’d set. Ropes that flared bright red shot out of the stone floor and wrapped around his legs, toppling him.
He hit the ground with an enraged roar, his voice echoing off the stone as he thrashed against the ropes. They sprang up all around him, wrapping around his head and arms as well.
Wasting no time, I ran toward the temple. A man ran out and lifted his hands. Before I could move out of the way, energy rushed from his palms and struck me in the chest. The shockwave threw me back but I didn’t hit the floor; I hit water. A wave rose from the reflection pool and stretched out over the stone. I plunged into the frigid water and it tightened around me, the pressure increasing more than was naturally possible. Not that there was anything natural about this.
I pushed my magic through the water, forcing air into it. The bubbles broke the surface tension, and I fell. I almost managed to land on my feet but the slimy water made the stone floor slick.
My shoulder hit the stone and I shoved myself backward, rolling out of the way of a giant shard of ice that slammed into the stone, shattering like glass. With a shout, I hurled a fireball at the mage. There was no time for anything fancier.
He jumped out of the way of my attack, hiding behind the archway in front of the temple. I cast two fireballs at him, hoping they’d scare him into moving, but they both fizzled. Without my katana, my magic became unreliable. That mage was lucky it had fizzled and not blown up half the room.
A loud yelp cut through the air and the mage hit the ground, shaking. Beckett stepped out from behind the arch, then hit him with her baton again.
I relaxed for a half second before carefully climbing back up to my feet. “Took you long enough.”
“I just kicked a necromancer’s ass and saved yours. I think you owe me a thank you,” Beckett shot back.
I groaned and rubbed at my sore shoulder “I’ll thank you after we catch the––”
A loud clang like someone had struck a bell echoed up from underground. The sound grew louder and louder until the windows were vibrating with it.
Beckett covered her ears with her hands and started to hurry toward me, but everything exploded. The floor heaved upward, violently releasing the pressure that had been trapped inside. The temple crumbled, an archway falling toward her.
I lunged forward, one hand outstretched as I frantically cast a shield. The archway slammed down, trapping her beneath it and obscuring my view behind a cloud of dust.
“Kay!” I shouted, scrambling toward the rubble. There was a muffled response and I could still feel the tug of the shield on my magic.
Two steps away, a giant spider dropped down out of nowhere. I slid to a halt, staring at my reflection in the beady, black eyes.
When I’d summoned those illusions earlier, they couldn’t actually hurt anyone. This was completely different. Summoners found a way to make illusions that could. Some people even believed they were demons from another dimension.
“I didn’t crush the prosaic, did I?” the woman leading this whole operation asked, her voice seeming to come from the spider itself. She sounded amused as if we were playing a game.
“No, but you certainly gave it your best shot.” I kept all my attention on the spider. “Mind telling me what you’re stealing, by the way? You don’t seem interested in any of the art, especially since you just blew it up.”
She laughed. The sound sent chills racing down my spine. And not the fun kind. “It’s unfortunate this temple had to be destroyed but there is always some collateral damage on the path to greatness.”
“Is that what this is about? You’re trying to become all-powerful or something?”
She scoffed, and the spider shook its massive head. “No, this is about revenge.”
There was a quiet scritch behind me and I whipped around only to get a faceful of spider web. She had two of them. The silky threads wrapped around me blindingly fast as a spiky leg shoved me forward. I tripped and hit the ground, rolling twice before coming to an abrupt stop. I couldn’t see but I could feel the cocoon all around me. I had been completely mummified.
“Thanks for the entertainment,” the woman said, her footsteps tapping quietly against the floor as she simply walked away.
I wiggled in my cocoon, furiously trying to cuss her out, but my mouth was stuck shut. I could hear Beckett shouting, her voice completely muffled between the rubbl
e covering her and the spider webbing in my ears. This was officially the worst date I’d ever been on.
With half numb fingers, I inched the knife out of my waistband and began sawing at the spider thread. The blade must be enchanted somehow because it sliced through them like butter. Once my hands were free, I began ripping the webbing away.
I sat up and sliced it off my legs, shoving the sticky threads away from me angrily. It had been stupid to get caught in that in the first place, but I had underestimated the power of this mage. Summoning two illusions that real wasn’t exactly something your average mage could do. She was keeping her magical signature tightly under wraps while still casting powerful magic.
Beckett pounded against the shield again and I almost went to help her but found myself hesitating. She was safe in the shield, and the threat had moved on. If I stuck around to dig her out, the asshole that orchestrated all this would get away. I couldn’t let that happen.
“I’ll come back for you!”
The muffled shouting grew louder and sounded kind of angry. I took off at a run in the direction I’d heard the spider bitch go. Beckett would just have to forgive me. Or tell me to not bother calling her back after tonight. Which, if I’m being honest, wasn’t likely to happen anyway.
Eleven
I skidded around the corner and sprinted through the exhibit hall. I didn’t care about stealth at this point, I just needed to stop her.
She was headed to the back of the museum. I didn’t know what her escape plan was, but I didn’t want to wait around and find out. The rune-powered map bounced ahead of me, showing her dot not that far ahead now. I was catching up.
The smell of burning flesh grew stronger as we approached the Medieval Hall where we’d had the unfortunate incident with the zombie guards. I could hear her footsteps again, and the patter of something else.
I ran into the hall and saw her halfway across it, heading toward the far exit. The two spiders that had bound me flanked her.
I threw a fireball at the spider to her left. It hit the creature and immediately engulfed it in flames. She glanced back over her shoulder and pointed at me. The other spider stopped and turned, then jumped.
Spiders are bad enough when they’re only the size of a coin, they become a hundred times worse when they’re the size of a horse and flying through the air at you. I didn’t have time for this. Angry, frustrated, and tired, I did something stupid.
My magic wasn’t exactly...normal. It was a little on the hard-to-control-and-might-kill-me side of things. I almost never used it without my focus, which was my katana, which was at home sitting by my door. I had run out of options though.
Gritting my teeth, I launched another, bigger fireball at the next spider. Fireballs were one of the easiest offensive spells to cast, but my luck had run out tonight. The flames bloomed twice the size I intended and turned white hot.
The attack reduced the spider to ash and exploded against the ceiling, raining dust down on the floor. My magic strained against my control as I raced after the woman. She had a small box tucked under her arm which I had to assume was the thing she stole.
She looked back over her shoulder, clearly angry, and finally turned to face me. Her lips curled up into a snarl. “You could have lived if you would have just stayed out of it.”
“You could have not murdered all these people,” I shouted, lifting my hands toward her. The magic needed an outlet. It had to have something to break, or it would break me. I sent a shockwave racing toward her but she batted it away, then began casting her own spell.
Her fingers moved carefully, as though she was pulling on invisible strings. I didn’t like the look of that. I cast another fireball but this one fizzled against her shield, barely more than a flash of hot air.
Something slithered up my leg and I flinched. Red lines of magic that looked like a spider’s web clung to my leg. I tried to shake it off but my leg wouldn’t budge.
“Using the same trick twice? That’s not very imaginative,” I said with a sneer.
She smirked at me. “I’m not the idiot who got caught in the same trap twice.”
“Who’s caught?” I asked, sending a surge of magic into the floor. The stone turned to dust and her threads of magic snapped. Without the katana, every spell I cast tended to be a bit of...overkill.
I charged her, splitting into five copies of myself, and letting go of my hold on my magic a little. A fireball raced ahead of me, mirrored by my illusions. I let the full brunt of my magic pound against her shield. Cracks began to form as the flames grew hotter and hotter.
A loud boom echoed through the museum, shaking the walls and the very foundation of the building. That sound could only mean one thing, they had ward breakers here. Which meant the Mage’s Guild was involved.
The woman’s expression turned furious and she let her shield collapse, racing in the opposite direction she’d been headed, right for the front door. I tried to send my magic after her but the flames blew sideways instead, taking out chunks of the walls and destroying who knew how much art.
I raced after her, dragging the unruly magic behind me like a wrecking ball. I would not let her escape.
She grabbed the box from under her arm and began chanting something. I picked up my pace, using my height to my advantage to catch up. When she was only three paces ahead of me I managed to sling a massive fireball in her path. It hit the stone floor like bomb. Debris flew through the air like bullets as the spell left a crater in the floor. With no time to dodge it, she tried to jump over it but I slammed into her back, driving her into the dust.
The box flew from her hands, rolling across the stone floor ahead of us. She scrambled to get back up to her feet but I held her down, slamming her head into the hard ground. After everything she’d done, being gentle wasn’t high on my priority list.
“Get off of me!” she shrieked, throwing elbows and clawing at my face. “I have to kill them!”
A second boom shook the museum and for a moment, my magic threatened to get away from me. She managed to slip partway out from under me and started dragging herself out of the crater. All her attention was focused on the box.
I held on, just weighing her down as I slowly forced my magic back inside myself. I’d come close to using too much to recover from, but I hadn’t crossed the line yet.
She continued struggling against my grip, trying to claw her way to the box. Shouts echoed through the museum that didn’t sound like any of the guards. Sure footsteps followed the noise. I really, really hoped that was the police.
The sounds grew louder, spreading out around us and I caught a glimpse of some people walking into the hall. They hurried toward our location.
Black shoes appeared in front of us and a man reached down to grab the box. The woman went still. I looked up to see a magister staring down at us.
He glanced back over his shoulder and nodded. “Arrest her.”
Another magister came out of nowhere and hauled me off the woman. “I would thank you for your assistance,” he paused, looking around, “but honestly it might have been better if you hadn’t bothered.”
They already had the woman in magic-dampening cuffs, though all the fight seemed to have drained out of her once the Mage’s Guild had shown up. She was trembling with fear now.
“What the hell did she try to steal?” I asked, wiping dust off my face.
“That’s none of your concern, Agent Blackwell. Your superior officer, Chief Bradley, is waiting for you outside.” The magisters turned and walked away, leading the woman out toward the entrance.
“My date is trapped in the––”
“Already rescued, Agent Blackwell. She is outside as well.”
With a sigh, I trailed after them, feeling a tad bit under-appreciated.
Twelve
Chief Bradley dragged a hand down his face, messing up the hairs of his thick mustache. “Do you have any idea how much damage you caused?”
I shrugged. “I’ll pay for it.�
�
“That is not the point,” he said tiredly.
“No, the point is, that woman killed dozens of guards and tried to steal something, but the Mage’s Guild whisked it away and have completely clammed up on what it was or why it was even being held in a vault in a damn museum.” I was angry now. I did my job, and I did it well. Sure, I blew up a few things here and there in the process, but I took on the hard cases and the powerful bad guys. Collateral damage was unavoidable. Everyone was so worried about how it looked, that they forgot the point. It was ridiculous something like that was being stored in the museum at all. It put innocent people at risk.
The Mage’s Guild liked to show up at the last minute and try to take credit for the accomplishments of the IMIB, or whisk away something they wanted to stay hidden, like whatever that woman had stolen. They were the governing power for most supernaturals, and like most governing powers, had their fair share of corruption.
“What did they try to steal?” I asked, glaring at the magisters milling around trying to look important.
“I don’t know, I overheard someone say it was some old magical artifact from the war that probably should have been destroyed.” Bradley shook his head, frustrated. “We’ll finish this conversation tomorrow. Go check on your date. She’s pissed.”
Sighing, I nodded, and headed toward the ambulance Beckett was sitting in the back of. As I approached, I took in the bumps and bruises, and the hard, angry look on her face. Pissed was an understatement.
I stopped in front of her and attempted a conciliatory smile. She threw my jacket in my face. I managed to catch it before it hit the ground.
“You left me,” she bit out, her lips pressed into a thin line.
“She was getting away, and you were safe where you were,” I calmly replied, folding my tattered jacket over my arm.
“I was your partner in there––”
“Beckett, I like to work alone for a reason. It’s bad enough with another mage, but I could not risk getting you out of there just to have you get hurt again.”