“Bloody hell,” I said under my breath. “She’s that powerful?”
“Get your shield ready.”
“But you just cast this—?” I didn’t know what to call his green cylinder of energy “This isn’t enough?”
“Get your shield ready,” he said, his voice grim. “Herk, to me.”
He outstretched his arms and the raven descended and transformed. Dex was covered entirely in black feathers with a metallic sheen. Only his glowing green eyes were visible.
I grabbed Peaches and shoved him behind me as I crouched down. I kept my hand near my mala bead and waited for Dex to say the word.
“When I tell you, you activate your shield and stay inside my shaft of power.”
“Your what?” I blurted out. “What did you call this thing?”
“My shaft of power,” he said, serious. “That’s what it is.”
“This is going to need an immediate renaming if we survive tonight,” I said, shaking my head. “No way am I calling it your shaft of power.”
“Aye, we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it,” he replied with a nod. “For now let’s get through the next twenty seconds.”
“That’s not how the saying goes—nevermind,” I said when he gave me a look. “We’ll burn the bridge later.”
Dex gestured again, and it dawned on me that Nana was waiting for us to get safe. She gestured and a violet cocoon surrounded Monty.
“Any second now, boy.” Dex spread his hand and runes formed another wall in front of us. “Fasten your suspenders.”
Nana’s voice traveled through the park despite our distance. It wasn’t the sweet voice I’d heard earlier when she was speaking to Monty. This voice was all daggers and jagged edges, slicing through the night.
“You come into my home and attack those who are mine?” she asked. A cold wave of fear crept up my spine, grabbed hold and froze me in place.
“By defending Tristan Montague, you have chosen to aid and abet a known criminal and are subject to the same sentence of death,” Lead Ghost said menacingly. “I advise you to reconsider your current course of action and surrender the rogue mage to us.”
“Come get him,” Nana said, closing her eyes and placing her hands together, palms touching in front of her chest.
For a moment, it looked like she was praying. Probably for the three Ghosts who were about to become memories.
The Ghosts released the orbs they held and rushed past the line of self-preserving courage and headlong into life-shortening stupidity. I almost felt sorry for them.
Six orbs of death raced at Nana.
The orbs approached and she rotated in a full circle, causing them to miss. Her rotation swept up the orbs in her orbit as they whipped around her body. She continued turning and pushed out her hands at certain intervals, returning the orbs to their owners.
Except they weren’t red and black orbs of death anymore. They had become violet and raced back to the Ghosts too fast for them to recover. I was so transfixed by her agility and poise that I didn’t feel Dex trying to get my attention. A slap upside the head fixed that.
“Now!”
I pressed the main bead on the mala and the shield materialized in front of us. Dex grabbed the edge of the shield and whispered something under his breath. A green wave flowed into it, making it larger and curved, covering more area.
The violet orbs slammed into the Ghosts, knocking them off their feet. Nana gestured and leaped into the air. She floated for what seemed to be an eternity, slowly doing a pirouette.
“Oh, shite. She’s using a fist,” I heard Dex say as she reached her zenith and turned her body like an Olympic diver. She extended her arm, closed her hand, and crashed into the earth fist-first.
I had seen the film of the Trinity explosion of the first atomic bomb held in the desert of New Mexico. What happened next was a smaller scale version of that nuclear test. A flash of violet light nearly blinded me, followed by a runic shockwave that sped across the ground, colliding into our defenses. The wave blasted through the wall and cylinder with ease. Dex stood behind me and grabbed the mala shield with both hands as it started to disintegrate.
“Hold on,” Dex yelled. “Keep that shield up!”
“To what?” I asked, turning my head from the violet flash. “What is that?”
“Death and destruction,” he said as the wave passed us and calmed down. “Mostly death.”
TWENTY-NINE
THE THREE GHOSTS were gone.
In the center of a large crater sat a tired-looking Nana tending to Monty. Golden light escaped her hands and cascaded slowly onto his body.
“How bad is it?” I asked, looking at Monty. “Will he be okay?”
“He’ll recover,” Nana said. “Did he really release two vortices in the city?”
I nodded. “It was really because of the dragon,” I started as she raised an eyebrow. “Monty was saving our lives.”
“Extenuating circumstances,” Monty said with a groan from the ground as he sat up. “The Elders are overreacting.”
“Was the city irreparably damaged?” Nana asked and stopped her treatment.
“No, it was contained and closed.” Monty answered, standing slowly. “Thank you, Nana.”
Nana nodded. “Don’t thank me just yet,” she said grimly. “The Golden Circle is going to retaliate for the delivery of those Ghosts.”
“You didn’t kill them?” I asked looking at the crater. “I thought you blasted them to little Ghost atoms.”
“Kill them?” she asked, looking at Dex. “What did Dexter tell you?”
“You nearly killed us,” Dex said, throwing his arms in the air. He shrugged his shoulders with a green flash and Herk took to the air with a croak. “A phoenix fist? Really? You couldn’t just shunt them away? It’s not like it would’ve been difficult for you.”
“True,” she said with a smile. “But I haven’t used the fist in such a long time. I removed the lethality.”
“You could’ve killed them,” Dex answered. “If not from fright, then from the trip. They will arrive in agony and stripped of their ability to cast.”
“But, I didn’t kill them,” Nana answered, ignoring Dex. “I erased their abilities and sent them to their last known location, wherever that was.”
“You erased their abilities—permanently?”
“A small mercy,” she replied. “It saves me from having to eliminate them later.”
“Nana, you can’t get involved more than this,” Monty said. “The Consortium and the Circle will retaliate if you do.”
Nana shrugged in response. “The Circle should have known better, and the Consortium wouldn’t dare.” She led us out of the crater and gestured once we were clear of the depression in front of the Round Pool. The ground repaired itself and the clearing reverted to its pre-exploded state.
“The Circle will send more,” Dex said. “Those weren’t Arbiters. They’re mite touchy about their Ghosts.”
“We shall show mercy, but we will not ask for it,” she said. “I could have eliminated them. Especially after behaving so rudely—and perhaps a few centuries ago I would have. But I’ve mellowed with age.”
“That was the ‘mellow’ you?” I asked, remembering her imitation of an atom bomb. “Remind me to avoid the angry you.”
“Tristan, they will send more until you deal with this.” She dusted the dirt off his jacket. “Someone in the Elders wants you out of the way. Where is Connor?”
“Father has been…detained.”
“Sorry? Dex, did you know of this?” She turned to face Dex with her hands on her waist. “For how long?”
“We’ll take care of it right after we deal with London’s demon problem,” Dex said hurriedly, putting his hands up. “And no, you can’t come. Prefer to leave the Sanctuary in one piece on top of the mountain, thank you very much. Between you and Tristan, I’m surprised anything is left standing around you two.”
“See that you resolve this,” she sai
d with a huff. “Detaining Connor Montague—an Elder? Have they lost their minds?”
“We need to get to the White Tower.” Monty began gesturing. “I’ll open the rift. Uncle Dex, can you create the bridge?”
“Aye, but I don’t know how long I can hold it and your Nana is looking a bit peaked.”
Nana waved his words away. “I’m fine, I just need to catch my breath,” she said. “Haven’t used that much energy all at once in a quite some time.”
I stepped close to Monty. “These riftrunes,” I said under my breath, “won’t Thomas pick up that you’re using them?”
“If I were doing it alone, he would know it was me.” Monty began gesturing and blue energy formed around his hands. “By having Uncle Dex create the bridge and Nana stabilize it, my runic signature gets lost.”
“This is the mask you were talking about.”
“Yes, he’ll know someone is coming, he just won’t know who,” Monty said as the runes he cast went from blue to white. I recognized some of the symbols as the riftrunes Thomas had used. “It’s a small advantage, but I’ll take any we can get right now.”
Monty stopped casting and the white runes floated in the air in front of Dex. “My turn, then.” Dex approached the gently floating symbols. His hands gave off a green glow as he shifted the symbols in the air.
“What about them?” I motioned to Dex and Nana. “Are they coming?”
“I’ll send Herk on ahead and join you right after.” Dex looked at Nana. “She’s about done for the evening. We didn’t come here to wrap her into this.”
“I’m not some frail old woman, Dexter.” She slapped him across the shoulder. “Don’t make me out to be helpless.”
“I never said frail.” He rubbed his shoulder with feigned pain. “You’ve already done more than you should have.”
She walked over to where Monty stood and gave him a tight hug that he returned in a surprising show of affection. “Be careful,” she said, pinching his cheek again, causing him to scowl. “I would hate to have to rescue the lot of you.”
“We will be,” Monty said and gave her the briefest of smiles. For a moment I thought his face spasmed from the unfamiliar facial expression. He reverted to his normal scowl half a second later. “Thank you again. For everything.”
“Enough with the sentimentality,” she said and gently pushed away. “Make sure the cast doesn’t go pear-shaped.” Monty returned to Dex’s side to work on the riftrunes. She motioned for me to follow her as she stepped away.
For a split second, I was transported back to middle school. That moment when you know you haven’t behaved your best and the teacher catches you, resulting in a trip to the principal’s office.
I stepped slowly behind her and did the walk of dread. It’s that walk where, in the span of five seconds, you evaluate everything you could have done to cause the impending disaster looming before you.
Peaches nudged my leg as I walked behind her.
I feel the same way, boy.
I’ll ask but maybe we should wait.
Nana looked down at Peaches and gave him a smile. She gestured and his bowl of bountiful beef appeared a few feet away. He sat on his haunches until she nodded and then he padded off to his feast of never-ending sausage.
You never behave like that with me.
I just stared at him as he chomped away at the sausage and avoided devouring the bowl.
Nana gestured and a small bench appeared under her as she sat down with a deep sigh. She looked over to where Monty and Dex arranged the riftrunes and patted the bench next to her, indicating I should sit.
“It wasn’t too long ago where I would have stormed the White Tower and razed everything and everyone to the ground,” she said quietly and shook her head. “Dexter is right. Age is catching up with me. For all this power”— she gestured and violet energy flowed from her fingers, drifting into the night—“none of us escapes time. Except you.”
“You knew?”
She nodded. “I sensed you once you left Dahvina, after your return.”
“Dying su—I mean, it was unpleasant,” I corrected.
“The curse you bear is powerful,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me. “I’m certain it has gotten you some unwanted attention. And yet you chose to refuse the power offered to you.”
“How did you…?”
“The Fomor left its mark all over your signature, but it’s not within you.” She pointed at me. “I’m sure you’ve faced some formidable beings. Why not take the Fomor’s power?”
“Let’s see: Kali, Hades, Shiva, Death, Chaos, and Karma,” I said, rubbing my jaw subconsciously. “Not to mention the dragons who probably want to barbecue me, a mob of werewolves who have painted a target on my forehead, and Blood Hunters who want my blade. The Dark Council probably just wants me dead or at least out of the city.”
“You’ve been busy.” She patted my knee and chuckled. “It’s been said that you can measure a person by the strength of his enemies.”
“Great, my life has become a pantheon of pain,” I said and rubbed Peaches’ head. “I’ve seen what power does to beings—humans and not. I would lose those closest to me.”
“We’re also measured by those we call friends.”
“What does that even mean?” I asked, modulating my tone, remembering she was a human atom bomb. “I don’t want to be ‘measured’ by anyone. Give me a strong cup of coffee, a boring missing-person’s case and I’m good. Ever since Ramirez gave me that first case with Monty…”
“Do you think he’s to blame?” She looked over at him.
I remained silent for a few seconds and followed her gaze to Monty and Dex arranging floating magical symbols in the air. I knew magic existed. Working the NYTF, we were briefed and trained to deal with the extra-normal and supernatural. I just never expected to become one of them.
“No.” I shook myself out of my reverie. “I would’ve taken the case regardless and would probably be dead if it weren’t for Monty. We’ve saved each other’s asses more times than I can count. He may be a cranky pain in the ass, but he’s family. My family.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” She reached around her neck, pulling out a pendant. “Tristan has had a very difficult life as a mage, but more importantly as a Montague. Do you know what this symbol means?”
She handed me the pendant. The best way to describe it was as an enso of violet energy. I was familiar with the image from my trainings of torture with Master Yat. He tried explaining the symbol to me once:
This unfinished circle symbolizes the brushstroke of the moment when the mind is free to let the body create. It is the ultimate expression of mu—the void.
So it’s nothing? This is a circle of nothing. It’s not even finished.
His stick flew through the air, thwacking me. Stop being a smartass.
That opening in the circle symbolizes wabi-sabi. The beauty of imperfection.
Like me? Imperfect, but beautiful.
Another series of thwacks with his stick answered me.
You are just imperfect, without the beauty. Run the drill again.
“Yes, it’s an enso.” I admired the softly glowing pendant. “It’s the expression of void, nothing, and everything.”
“It’s also the key to my home and library. This key has been in my family for generations.” She grabbed my hand and placed it in my palm. “When I’m gone I want you to give this to Tristan.”
“Gone? Where are you going?”
“I won’t live forever,” she said. “It’s almost time for me to go.”
“Why not give it to him yourself?” I looked down at the small enso pulsing in my hand. It was about the size of a quarter but felt a lot heavier. “I’m sure he would take it from you.”
She closed my hand around the pendant. “He’s not read
y for it yet.” She looked at Monty again. “But he will be soon. He still has to face the source of his anger. That can only happen when he goes home.”
I put on the pendant and felt the weight on my chest.
“It’s heavy.”
“More than you know,” she said. “You’ll know when to give it to him. Until then, it will keep you safe.”
“I’ll hold it for him.”
I felt a shift in energy and saw a thin line of power materialize in front of Monty, next to the floating runes. Nana stood and started walking over to him. Peaches silently joined us.
Did you eat enough? Don’t get used to it. Once we get home you’re going on a diet.
“You’ve been a good friend and a good influence on Tristan,” Nana said, grabbing my attention. “Going home is going to be especially difficult. Don’t let him lose himself.”
“I won’t,” I said and she gave me a tight hug, which I returned. “Do you really have to go?”
“We all do, eventually,” she said with a smile. “Some of us just take longer than others. Remember that.”
“Ready for you, Nana,” Dex said. I saw a look of concern flash across his face as she approached. “Do you need a moment?”
“Dexter, if you imply I’m too infirm for this simple task one more time”—she jabbed a finger in his chest—“I will launch you into the Thames.”
Dex raised his hands in surrender and stepped back. Nana closed her eyes and approached the symbols. Violet light flowed from her hands as she manipulated them.
“Can you stabilize it enough to get them to the White Tower?” Dex asked. “My bridge is solid, but these riftrunes work on a different principle I’m not familiar with.”
“I can put them at the breach.” She gestured again and the rift opened. “This will be right outside Traitors’ Gate. Sorry I can’t get you closer to the Tower.”
“Traitors’ Gate. Appropriate,” Monty said with a nod. “I’ll make sure to visit before we leave.”
Silver Clouds Dirty Sky A Montague and Strong Detective Novel (Montague & Strong Case Files Book 4) Page 15