Magic on the Hunt (9 page)

Zay closed the safe, then pressed the wall back into place. As soon as the wall caught, the spell reactivated and gave off just the slightest scent of apples.

“Let’s go,” Zay said.

They both headed toward the stairs. I took one last look around the loft.

“Allie?” Zay asked.

“I’m coming.” I tucked the box under my arm and followed Zayvion and Shame out of the room, the house, and the life that had once been mine.

Chapter Six

T
his time when the elevator door opened, I took a deep breath and walked in. Well, Zay had his arm around my shoulder, and he walked in, sort of pushing me, and I followed.

Shame hit the buttons, and I had no idea if he and Zay were talking. All I was doing was breathing and trying not to scream.

We made it to the garage, and I practically ran out of the elevator. If there had been a gunman waiting to kill me, I wouldn’t have stopped my undignified flight.

About halfway across the parking area, I stopped. I was fine. I could breathe. There was air, space, openness around me. I wasn’t being crushed, smothered, squeezed.

I turned around. Shame was smoking. He threw me a grin.

Zay was on the phone. He tipped his hand toward one of the dim ceiling lights, and it slicked a flash of white across the device we’d just taken.

I still had the box under my right arm. It was a little awkward, but I tucked my hair back behind my ear and walked over to them.

“Get that out of your system?” Shame held out his cigarette. “Good for what ails ya.”

I shook my head. “Who’s Zay talking to?”

“Victor. Coordinating the hunt.” He exhaled a thin stream of smoke and then shivered and ran his hand down his arm. He looked off toward the exit.

“Problem?”

“Not with me. Maybe Terric.” He threw his cigarette to the ground and rubbed his boot over it. “Don’t know.”

Zay hung up and stuck the phone in his pocket. “Victor said he’ll meet us at Stumptown Coffee on Belmont.”

“Anyone else going to be there?” Shame asked.

“We’ll find out.” Zay held open the car door for me. His manners were showing.

“Hold on,” I said. “Shame, can I put this in the trunk?”

“Sure. Just watch out for the dead body.” He popped the trunk.

I walked around to the back of the car. No dead bodies, but his trunk was far from empty. A couple baseball bats, a few long-handled cases that looked like they could hold shotguns, and probably did, and a basket of laundry filled the space. I tucked my box between the laundry and the jumper cables and shut the trunk.

Zay was already in the backseat, so I took the front. Shame started the engine and got us out onto the street.

Sunlight and blue sky were both shockingly bright and welcome as we exited that dark, closed place. I felt like we were driving up out of a tomb.

“Do you know how it works?” Shame asked.

I twisted so I could better see Zayvion. He was frowning. “I have the general gist of it, yes,” he said.

“Just like that?” I asked. “You get a secret, experimental piece of technology in your hands and you’re a master of it?”

“It’s not that experimental. Or at least not anymore.” He pressed a button. Nothing. “Probably uses a dormant spell as a power source.”

“Might want to wait until we gather the troops,” Shame said. “In case we only get one chance at it.”

“Suppose.” He handed the device to me. “Just don’t push anything.”

It was heavier than it looked. Smooth, and the length from the tip of my fingers to the heel of my palm. I’d expected it to be set up like a phone, but instead of plastic, its face was silver and carved with glyphs. I tried to think where I had seen something like this before. Plates of metal with spells worked into it.

Finally came to me. It reminded me of the plates Dr. Frank Gordon had used to try to resurrect my father. Creepy.

“What?” Zay asked.

“It just reminds me of those things Frank Gordon used.”

“What things?”

“The plates he put on Dad’s chest when he tried to raise him from the grave.”

Zay held his hand back out, and I gave him the device. He studied it, dragged a finger along the arcs and turns of one of the spells. “No dark magic. That’s good. It’s not the same spells Frank used. It’s not the same metal. Some of the conduction is similar—the links between the spells. But that could be said of most spells we use sequentially.” He glanced up. “I think this is different enough that you don’t have to worry.”

“I wasn’t worrying; I was just observing.”

“Think it will trigger easy?” Shame asked.

“Should. If not, we’ll ask Allie’s dad.”

I rolled my good shoulder. I was starting to really hate being the go-between for the powerful dead guy. But at least he was contained in one section of my head instead of running amok with my body.

Shame found parking about a block away from the coffee shop.

We all got out and started up the street without saying anything. Zay had the device tucked away in the pocket of his coat, which was fine with me. Something about that thing gave me the creeps. Enough that I didn’t want to touch it.

Victor stood next to his car, a new-model silver Jaguar sedan, which was parked a half block behind Stumptown, just past the grocery. He wore a suit and dark trench, had a coffee carrier in his hand, and was chatting with the people near him.

Hayden, in his usual jeans and boots, but a nice leather jacket, was with him. So was Terric, in jeans and peacoat, looking like he’d just walked off a ship, his pale hair falling like moonlight to catch at the stubble of his jaw.

Also with them was Sunny. Her bruises had either healed quickly, or she had a really good cover makeup. She’d braided her dark hair behind both her ears and tied the ends with bright ribbons—no, shoelaces. She had on neon green galoshes, tights, and a skirt and coat.

I didn’t see the Georgia sisters, Maeve, or the twins, Carl and La. They might be in one of the cars parked along the street, or maybe it wouldn’t take more than seven highly trained magic users to follow the magical cage locator.

“Good to see you,” Victor said as we approached. “Coffee? Shame, this one has extra milk and sugar.”

“Where do you keep your wings?” Shame asked. “You’re a godsend.” He plucked up the cup.

“Allie, black, isn’t it?” He handed me a cup.

“Thank you.”

The last cup he gave to Zay.

I wondered for just a second what we looked like to outsiders and decided maybe a group of people meeting up for business. Good enough.

“You have it?” Victor asked me.

“Zay.”

Zay handed him the device.

Victor held it like a phone, his eyes still a little bloodshot, like he was short on sleep, which he was. “Very nice.” He took a drink of his coffee. “I’ll trigger it, and I’d like you all to follow. It should get us at least within a block of the cage. I’m surprised Daniel didn’t make something more fine-tuned.”

Dad, in my head, chafed at that, and I got the very distinct impression of it being one of his earlier technologies, made even before the disks.

“Shame,” Victor asked, “where are you parked?”

“Just down the street.”

“Swing around and follow us.”

We all started off. Someone’s phone rang. I heard Victor answer. “What seems to be the problem?” he asked.

I paused, looked over at him. His body language had changed. Whoever was on the other end of the line either had bad news or was bad news. “That’s being handled currently. We should have an update today. Yes. Yes, of course. I’ll call you then.” He hung up, frowned at his phone before pocketing it.

He must have felt me watching him. He looked up.

“Problem?” I asked. I had taken only a dozen or so steps away from him, so I didn’t even have to raise my voice.

“No. No problem,” he lied. “Let’s take care of this.”

He turned and got into his car. Hayden, who was lingering on the passenger’s side, nodded to me. “Pick up the pace, Beckstrom.”

I turned. Shame and Zay were already a block away. I jogged to meet them at the car.

“What was that all about?” Shame asked.

“Victor. He got a phone call and sounded worried.”

“Huh.” Zay glanced up the street, but Victor was already in the driver’s seat.

We got into Shame’s car.

“Does Victor have a boss?” I asked.

“Why?” Shame asked.

“He sounded like he was in defensive mode. Like whoever was on the other line was giving him a job review.”

“Think it was Mum?” Shame asked.

I shook my head. “No, I’ve watched him talk to your mom. They get along fairly well. He wasn’t comfortable talking to the caller.”

“Might have been Bartholomew,” Zay said.

“The region’s Watch, right?” I said.

“Yes.”

“Why would he call?”

Shame laughed. “Oh, you’re serious? C’mon, girl, why wouldn’t he call? For starters, we’ve had betrayal, battle, and kidnapping within our group. We’ve had to lock down two wells and have had an unprecedented string of gate openings in the area. Plus, we have one of the only known living Necromorphs locked up, several solid Veiled behind bars, and have had two members die, one via murder, the other during a magical battle among our own people. Rogue magic users out here with unsanctioned magic-holding disk technology are looking to take over, and there’s been dark magic used to try to resurrect your dad.

“To put a cherry on the pie, the guardian of the gate, Zay, almost died. Most of that’s happened in the last month or so, and we’ve quite literally lost the Head of our organization in our own town, or hope she’s still in town, and can’t find her. Not exactly the way to run a railroad.”

“Does Victor take the responsibility for all that?”

Shame nodded. “He and Mum equally. Since they’re the only Voices left standing.”

“You don’t think Bartholomew would tell them to resign, do you?” I didn’t like the situation we were in, but if I were expected to follow someone else, some stranger instead of the teachers that I knew and trusted, teachers who knew and trusted me back, I wasn’t so sure I could be a part of this club.

“If I were him,” Zay said quietly, “I’d wait a little longer and see if Victor and Maeve can get things under control. We’ve had plenty of bad times, and we’ve always pulled it together. Sometimes spectacularly.”

Shame chuckled. “With you involved, Jones, it’s always damn spectacular. Don’t worry, Allie. We won’t let Mum get fired. We still have a trick or two up our sleeves.”

“Finding Sedra will do a lot of good for our credibility,” Zay added.

I glanced back at him. He looked like the king surveying his land. He might be only a few days recovered from the coma, but he was already exuding that calm and protective vibe. This wasn’t just the Authority’s city. This city belonged to Zayvion Jones.

I looked back out, watching where Victor was leading us.

I was not at all surprised when we headed up North Lombard toward St. Johns.

“Why does everything happen out here?” I muttered.

“What?” Shame said.

“St. Johns. Why does every weird magical thing happen out here?”

“It doesn’t.”

“This is where I found Cody almost dead, and he pulled magic through me. I got hit by the wild-magic storm out here. Greyson was opening gates out here, we contained the wild-magic storm in St. Johns, and when Mikhail said he would open a gate for me to get back in life that would be close enough to Zayvion’s body to get his soul there in time, it opened in St. Johns.”

“I don’t think it’s St. Johns,” Shame said. “I think it’s you.”

“It’s not me. Big magic things happen in St. Johns. Like Cody’s ghost being tied to—” A shot of pain flashed through my head. Like a migraine on speed skates.

I hissed air through my teeth and cupped my forehead with my hand.

Zay pressed his hand on my shoulder, and I felt the soft wash of mint roll through my body. The pain eased, gone as quickly as it had come, but leaving behind a ghosting ache.

“Wow,” I said. “Ow.”

“Headache?”

“I guess.”

“What were you going to say?” Zay asked.

“What? I don’t know.” I thought about it for a second. Didn’t come up with anything. “What were we talking about?”

“St. Johns and Cody’s ghost.”

Okay, I remembered what I was going to say. I was going to tell them that Cody’s spirit or ghost was tied to Mama Rositto. That she had owed my dad some kind of favor and when the wild-magic storm hit St. Johns, a part of Cody had stepped out of the gates and somehow Mama Rositto had caught him up and taken him away with her.

Why in the world would that cause me pain?

Dad?

Nothing.

“I wanted to say that Cody . . .” I paused. So far, so good. “His spirit was there. His ghost. During the wild-magic storm.”

“Ghost? Like when we were being tested as Soul Complements?” Zay asked.

“Yes. He stepped out of the gate and sort of fell into me. It was scary as hell. I can’t stand sharing brain space with one person, much less two. But then Dad helped me push him out of me, and he was like a ghost. He told me to make this right. I have no idea what he meant by that. Maybe he wanted me to go through the gate to save your soul, Zay.”

“Maybe,” Zay said. “Then what happened?”

“Mama Rositto showed up. You know her, right?”

“Very much so.”

Okay, that was a weird answer. “How do you know her?”

“She’s been on the Authority watch list for a long time. What did she do?”

“She told my dad she didn’t owe him any favors now. That this made it even between them.”

“What did your father do for Rositto?” Shame asked.

“I have no idea. She took Cody’s ghost.”

“What?” Zay and Shame said at the same time.

“I don’t know. A lot was going on, but Cody’s spirit needed someone to hold on to, to hook on to. She took him, and he followed her. He wasn’t upset about it. Said he liked her and was happy to go with her.”

“Wait,” Shame said. “You’re saying Mama Rositto not only spoke to your father in your head, but also saw Cody’s ghost and knew some kind of magic to bind him to her?”

“That’s how I remember it.”

“Not easy to bind a soul,” Zay said.

“Takes a hell of a lot more specialized skills than running your average diner,” Shame said.

“It’s magic, right?” I asked. “Has she ever been a part of the Authority?”

“No,” Zay said, “but we think she has an idea that we exist. Nothing’s been proved, and if it had, she would be Closed. Interesting that she’s had past dealings with your father.”