Magic to the Bone (17 page)

Samir didn’t die so much as explode in a puff of glittering golden dust. Without him to hold me up, I fell forward into the snow. My bad hand caught my fall and I cried out, my own voice rough in my ears.

My hair had come out of its braid and fell around me in a curtain. Something red and glowing caught my eye on the ground in the shade of my hair. It was a tiny gem, no bigger than maybe
half a carat, ruby or garnet in color.

Samir’s last drop of heart’s blood. It glinted in my palm as I lifted it with my blackened fingers. A trace of his power lingered on in it, the red depth shining gold for a second as I studied it. I touched the blade of the Alpha and Omega to it and the glow died.

All I had to do to end him for good was to swallow this little thing. Such a small drop of
blood. It would be good-bye, Samir.

And hello all Samir’s power. His memories. Also… hello magic apocalypse.

I licked my lips and shook my head. Nope. I wanted him dead, but the consequences were too great. At least like this he couldn’t hurt anyone. If I could keep the heart stone safe. I wasn’t leaving it here.

Wolf bonked my good shoulder with her bony head and I looked up into her starry-night
eyes. A thought formed in my mind as though it were mine, but I knew it was hers.

I dropped the dagger and lifted my talisman, turning the twenty-sided die until the one showed. Or where the one should be. Now it was just a pock-mark. A divot about the right size to slot in a tiny gem. I rested the die on my bad hand and picked up the heart stone.

“Here goes nothing,” I said to Wolf. I dropped
the gem into the divot.

Silver light flashed, bright enough that I closed my eyes and still saw stars. When my lids were dark again, I opened my eyes. The gem was sealed into the metal as though it had been forged that way. I picked at it with a broken nail and found it glued tight. Samir’s heart wasn’t going anywhere. I resolved to make sure I touched it with the dagger at least once a day,
but this was a solution I could live with for the moment.

Wolf bonked me again and then faded away, resuming her place inside my mind.

“Jade,” Alek called to me.

He was making his way across the field. He had not a scratch on him, from what I could see. I didn’t want to think about how tough it must have been for him to stand and watch me almost lose. I didn’t want to think about what he would
have done if I had fallen.

From up the hill I heard more gunfire and hoped that was a good thing.

“My leg is broken,” I said to Alek as he got near. “Help?”

“He is destroyed?” Alek said, kneeling down beside me and feeling me over gently for other injuries.

“He’s gone, but I didn’t eat him,” I said. “No apocalypse.”

The wounds on my chest were already closing. My blistered arm looked worse
than it felt now. It was mostly the leg. As Alek lifted me, I could almost hear the sections of bone grinding against each other. I pushed what magic I had left at it, trying to dull the pain. It took it down to a six on a scale of one to “kill me now.”

“Vollan?” I asked.

“Heading up to take care of the mercenaries.”

“Well. We won,” I said, leaning my cheek on his chest. “Let’s go find the
others.”

“I should take you away from here,” Alek said.

“No. They might need a mage up top.” I glared up at him.

“I said ‘should,’ not would,” Alek murmured.

My glare turned in to a grin. “Giddyup,” I said.

It was a sign of how relieved he was for me to be alive that he didn’t even growl.

Vollan’s crew made swift work of the remaining human mercenaries. Levi and Cal had apparently already decimated them, forming a two-man army of doom. Harper and Ezee had disarmed the bomb, but were trapped below the Commons.

Samir’s magic still clung to the doors, so I ended up being needed after all. Wolf and I managed to cut through the silver wires. I was going to need to sleep for a week
after this.

Freyda emerged first, her face thin and tired. Vivian followed and started immediately coordinating the full rescue after giving me a quick once-over and assuring Alek I’d live. The shifters were in bad shape—some of them had been locked up for days without food or water; some were still injured from their capture—but nobody had died. I sat propped in a chair Levi had dragged out
of a building and watched them file out to freedom. There were more shifters in Wylde than even I’d realized. Children, too.

Many of them thanked Alek and I; some were crying. I sat awkwardly and tried to smile.

I had saved them. It was enough.

It took hours to dig
Harper and Ezee out, but they were in decent shape and made it to Levi’s house with the rest of us while Alek took off into the woods to tell Yosemite, Rose, and Junebug that we’d won.

Mikhail offered Alek and I the use of an RV on his property until my place was rebuilt. I told him we’d think about it. Rachel was up at the state offices, giving the higher-ups some serious hell. She was confident
she’d be reinstated. Vollan and his people had taken care of disappearing the bodies at the RV park and up at Juniper. I figured the less questions asked, the better. The Dean at Juniper was an owl shifter and had been one of the people locked up. She was handling the explanations to the returning faculty and students.

Brie and Ciaran were free from the Fey. They called from the Dublin airport.
I realized I hadn’t told them that they had no home to come back to, but I figured another day wouldn’t hurt until I faced that reality.

Rose left the day after the fight with Samir. She was going to go see family, she said. She’d been up late talking to Harper, but I hadn’t heard the conversation. Her eyes were still full of grief as she hugged me.

“I’ll be back in the spring,” she said. “Rebuild
the Henhouse. I just need some time.”

“Take all the time you need,” I said, hugging her back as best I could. I was still not great at standing, so she was bent over me. Seated hugs are always awkward.

Alek and I shared Levi’s guest bed, Alek’s feet hanging over the end. My leg ached and I couldn’t sleep. The clock said five. It was still dark out.

I pushed Alek’s heavy arm off me and slid
of out bed, wincing as I put my left foot down. I limped from the room, closing the door behind me as quietly as I could. Making my way to the kitchen I saw a duffel bag sitting by the back door.

The door opened, light shining in from the rear porch, and Harper stood there, her green eyes wide like a deer in headlights.

“You leaving?” I whispered, aware of Ezee sleeping on the couch in the living
room behind us.

“Come on,” Harper said. She picked up her bag and I followed her out into the freezing predawn morning.

She had an old Honda pulled up there, trunk open. Harper tossed the bag in and came back up to the porch.

“I’m taking off for a while,” she said.

I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering.

“How long?”

“I don’t know.” Harper didn’t look at me, staring off into the middle
distance, seeing things I could only guess at. “I’ve been meaning to do some more tournaments, go to more cons. I can’t stay here, Jade. I just can’t.”

“Everywhere you look, you see Max,” I guessed. I knew that feeling. That grief.

“Everywhere,” she whispered. She stepped up beside me on my good side and slid a warm arm around my waist. “Does it go away?”

I wrapped my arm over her shoulder
and pulled in her closer. “Kind of. It gets easier to bear. With time.”

“I see him. I keep expecting him to come through the door or phone me asking for a ride some-place. I hear his voice in my head. Everywhere I look, I remember Max. There’s no part of Wylde that isn’t also part of him.”

“Oh, furball,” I murmured, turning to pull her into a full hug. My arm twinged and my leg complained, but
I ignored them. Fuck pain. This was more important.

“Thank you,” she said, pulling back a little so she could look into my face. “For killing that bastard. I’m just sorry I missed it.”

Guilt clogged my throat. I resisted the urge to rub my talisman, to feel the heart gem still embedded there. I hadn’t told her the truth, only that Samir was destroyed. I had let her assume he was dead.

A dark
voice inside my head whispered that maybe Samir was right. Maybe in the end we did always betray the ones we loved.

“You’ll always have a place at the table,” I told her instead.

“Say good-bye to the twins for me? I don’t meant to sneak away, but I can’t stand the thought of long good-byes. I’ll e-mail and Skype and stuff.” She sniffled, her eyes bright with tears.

“Of course,” I said, squeezing
her into another hug. “Good luck, have fun.”

I stood in the freezing morning air and watched my best friend drive away. I watched until long after her brake lights had disappeared. Then I went back into the house and tucked my freezing feet against Alek’s legs. He pulled me in closer and didn’t even complain.

My leg healed within a couple of days. My heart took a little longer. I was bone tired after the fight and all the aftermath of seeing everyone home safe and sound and a million rounds of explanations. It was hard to accept that after all these years of running, it was over. No more Samir. No more hiding. The weather turned wet and then warm. I finally got the city to approve my permits and
began the fight with the insurance company over my building.

The day was sunny and warm enough that I only had a hoodie on as I sat on a folding chair across the street from where my store had stood. I wasn’t great with power tools, so I was leaving the demo and cleanup to Levi and Junebug. They were directing the construction crew I’d hired like pros. Ezee was trying to drive a tractor and scoop
up debris.

Trying
being the operative word there. Levi hung off the side of the Caterpillar yelling instructions as Ezee jerked the tractor around in fits and starts. I had been laughing all morning so hard my face hurt. Alek went to get us some lunch with a shake of his head.

“There’s my favorite sorceress,” a lilting Irish voice said.

I was out of my chair and wrapped up in a hug before I
could even register Ciaran’s presence. The leprechaun was wearing his usual red jacket with gold buttons. After he let me go, Brie stepped in and gave me a quick hug as well. She had her red hair in two braids pinned around her head, but looked odd without her apron. No bakery though, so no apron. Which was all my fault.

“You came. Thank you,” I said. They’d taken the news of Brie’s bakery and
Ciaran’s curios shop with a shrug and the Irish equivalent of “shit happens.” Still, I hadn’t been sure they would come today and talk to me about the new plans.

“As I said, I totally understand if you guys want to scoop up another location. This is going to take months. But I’m hoping you’ll want to stay. I’m going to make the building way better.” I smiled at them, sweeping my arm in a grand
gesture at the pile of burned wood and rubble across the street. It was going to take every penny I had saved over the years, plus whatever insurance would get me, but it would be worth it.

“Rent somewhere else? No,” Brie said. “Don’t be silly.”