I did as he asked without hesitating, then watched him enchant my blade. Magic shimmered across its metallic surface. I could feel it around me, the magic. It moved like the wind, whispering through my hair and moving through my body like I wasn’t even there. My dagger started to glow with the same blue light, and when Mercutio handed it over, the handle was way colder than it should’ve been considering he’d been handling it a moment ago.
“Remind me to give you a call in the future when I have to stab somebody else,” I said.
Mercutio moved into the alley, and I walked alongside him until we reached the wall. From there, we followed the wall all the way to the gate. I’d considered jumping over it, but leaving Mercutio to fend for himself didn’t sit well with me. We were going to try stealth, and if that didn’t work, at least there’d be two of us to fight off whoever decided to come running.
The gate itself was as tall as the walls, black, and made entirely of iron. Tall spikes rose well above the walls, the wrought iron bars as thick as my arms. Between them, I saw what looked like a small control room where a guard might sit. It was empty, and the lights were out. Off in the distance, the massive drydock building loomed, sinister, like a temple to a dark power.
I read the many signs plastered around the gate. NO CIVILIANS BEYOND THIS POINT. DANGER, NO ENTRY. RESTRICTED PERSONNEL ONLY. A picture of a dog, its wide-open mouth filled with sharp, nasty teeth, stared back at me, warning me not to come any closer. In my mind, that thing wasn’t a dog, though, but a werewolf.
“What happens if we piss off a werewolf?” I asked.
“You got any silver on you?” Mercutio asked.
“Not that I know of… will your magic bullets do anything?”
He shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out.”
“Great.” There was nothing like leaping into a fire head first to get the blood pumping.
Keeping the gates shut was a huge chain with an even bigger lock hanging off it. I started trying to figure out ways of picking it, but I’d need a pick the size of my fingers to jimmy the mechanism. Mercutio was already on it, though. He wrapped his hands around the lock and more of those symbols appeared around them.
They glowed and danced over his hands, under the chains, through the gaps between links. An instant later I heard a click. Mercutio worked the lock in his hands, and it didn’t just fall off—it fell apart. Pieces of it thudded to the ground like there was nothing holding it together. The chain followed, snaking through the iron bars to fall into a heap on top of the lock.
The sound made my insides freeze. Someone, somewhere, had heard that. There was no question. Turning around on the spot, I scanned the area for signs that we’d drawn attention to ourselves. The streets were quiet, and dark. Empty. A light went on in an apartment window near to where we were, but no on opened the shutters or the window itself.
The moment passed, and I let myself breathe again.
“Holy shit that was loud,” I said, keeping my voice low.
“Sorry, I should’ve caught that,” Mercutio said. “I don’t know if there are mages listening out for tampering, but I just straight up unbound that lock. Someone felt it.”
“So, you’re saying the element of surprise is gone?”
“I’m saying we should keep a low profile, but we’re on a timer. It won’t be long before someone finds us no matter where we are.”
Mercutio pulled the gate open and I slid through, heading straight for the control box—the only available cover. The mage followed me, not bothering to even shut the gate behind him. What good would it have done? The chain was broken. If anyone came out here, they were going to see it. The gate being shut wouldn’t make a lick of difference.
My heart hammered against my chest. The drydock was only a sprint away from where we were standing, and I couldn’t spot any guards, sentries, or patrols roaming the area. I guessed they relied on their magic protections to keep the place free of intruders. That, and the kind of people that came here probably wouldn’t want to miss fights on account of guard duty.
I nodded at Mercutio, and together we sped closer to the drydock. There was still no sign of Draven, and that gave me reason to worry. Had he been caught? Killed? As I drew closer to the Arena, I started to run through the possibilities in my head, and I found myself… feeling. For all the animosity I had against Draven, all the hurt he’d caused me, I couldn’t stomach the thought that he might be dead right now.
I didn’t want that for him.
By the time we reached the drydock’s outer wall, it sounded like we’d breached the spell containing the sound floating out of this place. Already I could hear the roar of a crowd, the thuds of fists flying and bones snapping, and the ripping chords of classic rock guitars. There wasn’t just sound pushing out of the drydock, but also heat. It was already so hot, and we hadn’t even gone inside yet.
“Can you sense if Romeo is in there?” I asked.
Mercutio put his hand against the wall and shut his eyes. There were no glowing sigils this time, no floating lights, only a man trying to concentrate on seeing something with his sixth sense. His eyes shot open after a moment and he sucked in a deep breath of air like he’d just woken up from a nightmare.
“He’s inside,” Mercutio said, breathing deeply, “But he’s hurt real bad. I need to get in there.”
I grabbed him by the shoulder. If I hadn’t, he’d have burst right through the metal door into the Arena and who knows what would’ve happened to him? “I know you want to save your friend, I do too, but we need to be careful. We don’t know what’s in there.”
“I do. Bunch of assholes and punks preying on the people weaker than them. They probably already know we’re here, so fuck it, let’s blow this place open.”
“But we don’t actually know if we’ve been spotted yet. Have you seen any guards? Anyone heading to the gate to check things out? No. That means they either didn’t spot us, or they’re all busy doing something else. Just follow my lead, okay?”
Mercutio agreed to follow me, but I could tell he wasn’t happy about it. I inched along the wall, getting closer to the door that looked like the only way into or out of the drydock—at least, without going all the way around it. I made another quick scan of the sky hoping to spot Draven and his black wings, but he wasn’t up there.
Dammit, Draven. Where the fuck are you?
Carefully, with my heart pounding against my throat, I reached for the door handle and turned it. Before I could push it open, someone yanked it hard from the other side. I let go of the handle before it pulled me along too and pressed my back against the wall, hoping whoever had just opened it hadn’t seen me.
Someone came charging out. No, not charging; stumbling out. A big guy, easily six foot, bare chested, and covered in scratch marks and blood started to topple like a tree about to fall, until finally gravity won the fight and he stumbled to the floor. From the other side of the door, a whole gaggle of laughter burst out.
An instant later, a second guy came rushing through the door. He was also huge, he was covered in blood and scratch marks, and also… bite marks? I watched this guy, this massive, ginger-haired beast wail on the guy on the floor as he tried to get up. Knuckles were flying, knees were smashing, and blood was going everywhere.
I didn’t know where to look or where to move to, but then instinct took over, and I acted.
“Voyda,” I whispered. My stone powered up, magic worked through me like a rush of adrenaline, and my mantle of invisibility descended upon me. It wasn’t until the two brutes stopped fighting and looked directly at me, their mouths and fists covered in blood, that I realized.
It wasn’t me they were staring at. I was invisible to their senses—I could see it in the way their eyes weren’t directly fixed on me.
Though I was invisible, I’d left Mercutio out in the open.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Who the fuck are you?” the burly, ginger guy blurted out.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! Mercutio
was on his own, and now more people were filing out of the main door to the Arena, no doubt wondering why the fight had stopped. With every fresh body that joined us out here, things got a little further out of control. I had to find a way to de-escalate things before it all got wor—Mercutio raised his gun and aimed it at the guy speaking to him.
Great.
“Stay back,” he warned.
“Or you’ll shoot me with that pea shooter?” ginger guy barked. He sniffed the air. “Not even silver!”
“It might not be silver, but it sure as shit is magic, and it’ll fucking hurt.”
He pointed at Mercutio and started advancing. “It’ll hurt me, but I’ll kill you.”
Mercutio fired a round at the ground, and that made the ginger guy—werewolf?—stop, at least for an instant. “I’m looking for Romeo. Bring him out here, and we’ll just leave.”
It occurred to me suddenly, while these two guys were having a pissing contest, that I’d lost sight of the original guy who’d come stumbling out of the Arena. He had been on the ground getting beaten to a pulp a moment ago, but he wasn’t there anymore. Shit. Where had he gone? How had he gotten up so fast?
Armed with the knowledge that, at least for now, no one could see me, I stalked around Mercutio and moved a little closer to the ginger guy. I had my blade in my hand, my stone was pulsing with power at a rhythm to match my own heart, and my footing was light and quick. And yet… ginger guy looked over in my direction and sniffed the air.
I froze in my tracks, watching him as he watched me. He sniffed the air again, this time with a little more intensity. Blood trickled down the side of his face and dropped to the floor at his feet. “There’s someone else here,” he growled. For the first time, I saw his teeth—they were huge, and pointed. His canines were way bigger than they should’ve been, and sharp enough to rend flesh. His lower canines, too.
A wolf’s teeth, I thought, a little grimly. Had he really smelled me? Was his nose so sharp it could punch a hole through my magic? I moved again, testing the theory by skirting around him so I was behind him, now. Slowly, the ginger guy turned around, always sniffing the air.
“Give me Romeo!” Mercutio roared, and that seemed to snap the guy’s attention away from me.
I slid closer to the small crowd that had gathered near the door, searching frantically for signs of Romeo, Draven, or the other brawler that had disappeared. His lack of being there was making me nervous. Where’d he gone, and was his sense of smell as good as his opponent’s?
“I’m gonna count to two,” the ginger guy said, “Which is one more second than I’d give anyone else. If you don’t put the gun down, this is gonna end badly for you.”
Mercutio pulled his other hand up and stretched it, palm out. Burning sigils etched themselves into the skin of his hand and started to glow like embers. I had no idea what he was doing, but I could feel his power vibrating through me, and I knew I didn’t want to be anywhere near him when whatever he was cooking inside of himself finally spilled out.
“All I have to do is say three words, and you’ll be dead,” Mercutio warned. “I’m gonna give you one final chance to give me my friend back before I say them.”
“One…” the ginger guy counted.
That was when I saw him. Not Romeo, but Darkshard. He was wearing a black suit with a hint of blood red. A feather stuck out of the fedora sitting on his head. His fingers and wrists were covered in silver rings and bangles, and in one of his hands he held a cane with a serpent’s head. In other words, he looked like a total douchebag, and every bit the bad guy he really was.
He’d appeared in the crowd like he’d always been present, but I knew he hadn’t been. I’d checked the crowd thoroughly only moments ago. He’d come out to see the commotion… and to break Mercutio’s spell. His lips were moving, like he was muttering something under his own breath.
Worse, I caught sight of something moving towards Mercutio—something small, but incredibly quick… and hairy. Mercutio was going to die in a manner of seconds, either because the ginger guy was going to get him, or because that other thing was going to get him, or because Darkshard was going to make his magic explode in his face.
Crap.
I let the stone’s magic fill me, taking a deep breath to channel it into my body. It was Darkshard who looked across at me first, his eyes curious more than threatened. I stretched my palms, aimed at the ginger guy and at the swiftly moving wolf—yes, it was a wolf—and yelled, “Veshrim!”
Twin beams of magic erupted from my hands and shot towards their targets, both finding their marks. The ginger guy tumbled and fell. The wolf yipped and stumbled, but it didn’t fall to its knees. Mercutio heard its approach now, though, and he turned around and shot it with his pistol until it stopped coming for him.
They could all see me, now; the crowd of people gathered to watch what was going on. I stood before them, my golden wings glowing as bright as the sun, my hands charged with magic. One woman stared at me and hissed before scurrying back into the building, shielding her face from the light. The man next to her rolled his shoulders, pulled his t-shirt off, and all of a sudden grew a six pack on top of his six pack—only this new one came with a ton of extra hair.
Darkshard stared at me from where he stood. He was the coolest of them all. Not a flinch, not an ounce of concern in him. He was confidence embodied, but his eyes were like daggers, and they were both on me. Though the guy next to him was, right in front of my eyes, transforming into a huge, bulky, hairy monster, Darkshard looked the most dangerous of them all… and that was why I hated what I had to do next.
“I challenge you, Darkshard!” I yelled, before anyone could make a move on me.
My voice echoed through the dockyard like it was the only sound for miles. Everyone had shut up as soon as the words left my lips. I felt something move through me, then. Something like an invisible force, as if I’d invoked some kind of ancient magic, summoned it up from the depths of the earth and brought it up here, to the surface, to affect us all.
The monster next to Darkshard slowly returned to human form. All of the excess hair that had grown on him fell to the ground like he was shedding it. His muscles twisted and shifted rapidly, like they were breaking and snapping, then rearranging themselves right in front of me. In only a manner of seconds, he was human again, as if to emphasize the mood of the place.
All eyes were on Darkshard, now—even Mercutio’s. “Fine,” Darkshard said through gritted teeth, “I accept your challenge.”
The dockyard remained silent for maybe a whole minute, though it felt like an hour. Finally, it was the ginger guy who spoke.
“Fight!” he yelled, and then he excitedly rushed back into the drydock, taking the rest of the now eager crowd with him. They pushed past Darkshard who remained entirely still, watching me from where he stood.
I was about to take a step toward him when movement at the very edge of my vision caught my attention. Turning my eyes up slightly, I saw him. Draven. He was perched on the edge of the drydock, his wings curled around his body making him almost invisible against the night. I could see him, though, and I had a feeling that was because he wanted me to.
Though I couldn’t usually read his expression, the one he wore right now was plain as day. What the fuck are you doing?
Darkshard turned around and headed into the building, and I took the opportunity now that his back was turned to shrug at Draven. I mouthed the words “I didn’t know where you were!” at Draven, but I doubted if he’d have caught my meaning.
I didn’t know where he was. I’d thought he’d been captured, so I acted. Now I’d made this bed, it was time to sleep in it. I was going to fight Darkshard one on one, and after what I’d seen Bastet do to Corax, I would’ve been lying if I said I was confident about my chances. Sure, I had a God stone with me, but he was a mage. I’d never fought one of his kind before.
Mercutio met up with me at the door to the drydock. “I hope you know what you’re doing
,” he said.
“I don’t, but feel free to throw out suggestions.”
“Win. If you don’t, we’re all dead and so is Romeo.”
“Thanks for the pep-talk.”
“Thanks for disappearing on me.”
“I reacted, okay? I didn’t do it on purpose, and arguing with you about it isn’t gonna help either of us.”
“Agreed. That’s why I’m gonna find Romeo while you kill Darkshard. We’re all better off without him running around.”
“Trust me, I know that.”
I also remembered what Kandi had told me about him. While he was running the Goddess, the dancers felt safer. They felt like they weren’t being exploited. That was something I could give him credit for. The world wasn’t black and white, no card-board villains and heroes here. Only people doing what they feel is right.
Unfortunately for Darkshard, his morals looked like they were all over the place, so he had to go.
Stepping into the drydock was like stepping into an industrial music rave. The walls were covered in graffiti, there were flaming barrels scattered all over the place, sending deep, dark shadows into the vaulted ceiling above, and the music from the tiny boombox sitting on a platform seemed to reach every corner with ease. That was to say nothing about the motley crew of people hanging around.
Everywhere I looked I saw pale faces. Many of the people around me were clad in black and covered in piercings. Some had crazy, punkish hairdos that looked like something out of an 80’s music video, while others were totally bald and so inked up, even their tattoos had tattoos. The worst part? Everyone was staring at me.
I wasn’t stopped as I walked through the crowd. In fact, they stepped aside for me like I carried a mad virus they didn’t want to contract. Pushing deeper into the drydock, I noticed the ground dipped into a kind of valley that looked almost like a half-pipe for skaters
At the very end of the valley was the massive door that led directly into the East River. If that thing opened, it would flood the entire pit with water. Once inside, the water would be pumped back out into the East River, and the ships would be propped up with massive beams.
Wings of Fire (The Obsidian Order Book 4) Page 13
