by SA Magnusson
“What is your intention?” Cynthia asked.
“Matt Gillespie, the operative Dr. Stone knows, has occupied this place. He has gone silent. There is an energy around it, and that concerns me.”
“That’s it?”
“It is all there needs to be,” Barden said.
Cynthia glanced at Veran. “Maybe one of us should stay behind.”
“You should,” he said. “Since you sit on the Council—" He shot me a quick glance.
“I gathered that already,” I said.
“I suppose you did. Anyway, since Cynthia sits on the Council, she should be the one to remain behind. Besides, my talents tend to be a little bit more along the violent means than what Cynthia possesses.
“If this is about doing something to help Kate, I’m not staying behind,” she said.
“I have no idea what we might encounter,” Barden said. “If it’s John Adams, he is a natural mage, not a hedge mage, and he is incredibly skilled.”
“I am incredibly skilled,” Cynthia said.
“Not like this, you aren’t.” They held each other’s gaze for a moment, and once again I had a sense they might argue with each other. But they fell into silence, neither breaking the long stare, until I finally cleared my throat.
“John Adams managed to hold off and nearly defeat an elder vampire. Even Matt—a hedge mage—managed to hold off an elder. Now, I suspect both of you are incredibly talented mages, especially if you sit on the Mage Council, Cynthia, but I don’t want you to underestimate him.”
Cynthia turned to me. “You know an elder vampire?”
“I’m sort of his familiar,” I said, feeling heat working up through me.
Cynthia furrowed her brow as she frowned at me. “It seems we have plenty to talk about when this is all over. Perhaps the Council needs to take a greater role in working with Dr. Stone.”
“I think you’re mistaken,” Barden said, his voice cold.
“You would be responsible for her education?”
“I have been so far.”
“Only because you concealed from us aspects that would be important for us to know.”
Barden smiled. “Perhaps I have, but that is not why I think you’re mistaken.”
“Why, then?” Cynthia asked.
“I think the Council needs to take a greater interest in all hedge mages. It’s not just Dr. Stone. You miss out on the opportunity to work with all mages who have any potential. You have wondered why the Dark Council has been able to remain hidden for as long as we have?” He shrugged. “We have never ignored anyone who had potential. We have always been willing to work with them, even if that potential would never amount to anything more than hedge mage power.”
“We will talk more about this later. Is that good enough for you, Barden?”
Barden flashed a smile. “I suppose it has to be.”
They continued to glare at each other. Despite the fact that Barden looked at Cynthia with a smile, it was one of those smiles which was not just forced but blatantly fake, the kind of smile that said he wanted her to know it was fake. I was tempted to interrupt, to say something to them, but what was there I could do or say?
The two obviously didn’t care for each other, and while I had a sense it stemmed from their positions on the Council, it likely was even deeper than that, especially given how unpleasant they were to each other.
I looked around, wondering if, even though we were masked in some way by whatever spell one of the three used—and I had no idea which of the three had placed it—there was something that someone around us should be able to determine. I didn’t like standing out here in the open, and I didn’t like having this conversation where we might be seen by one of the operatives. I had no idea how effective a mage council masking spell would even be against the operatives of the organization, but I had a feeling it wasn’t nearly as effective as they believed. They viewed themselves as infallible, and while I recognized they were powerful, I also knew they weren’t nearly as powerful as they believed themselves to be. Of the three, Barden had the best understanding of his own capabilities. He had seen just how limited he was when confronted by the organization, and he had embraced the fact that he had a lot to learn.
Cold crept slowly across my bracelet.
I looked back to the three, wondering who was using magic. I wouldn’t be able to tell easily, but none seemed to be. They were arguing, and Cynthia had her voice pitched low, nearly a whisper, almost as if to shield it from me. Barden continued to have the false smile plastered on his face. Only Veran seemed calm, though I suspected that was a deceptive sort of calm.
The sense of magic continued to creep along the bracelet, and as it did, I started to have the sense it wasn’t from any of the three. And if it wasn’t from one of them, it was from somewhere else.
“Barden?”
He continued arguing with Cynthia, and I stepped closer to him.
“Barden.” I said his name louder this time, forcing him to look in my direction.
When he did, he frowned at me. “What is it, Dr. Stone?”
“Have you had any conversations with Matt Gillespie about how much people within the organization are able to see through your masking spells?”
“There hasn’t been the need. Even the shifters can’t see through a masking spell.”
“What if they can?”
“Why do you ask?” Cynthia asked.
“Someone is using magic near us.”
“Are you sure?” Barden said.
Cynthia glanced over to him. “You would take her word on this? This is a hedge mage, Barden.”
“A hedge mage who wears a bracelet given to her by your granddaughter. I believe Dr. Michaels has some ability with detecting magic, does she not?” Barden held his gaze on her for a moment. “Besides, I’m not sure how much of that is the bracelet and how much of it is actually Dr. Stone’s ability. It’s possible she has her own ability to detect magic.”
Cynthia studied me for a moment. “Is it true?”
I nodded quickly. This wasn’t the debate we needed to be having. If there was someone out here with the ability to draw magic, we needed to move. “Ever since Kate left me this bracelet, I’ve been able to use it, not only to get into the condo, but also to detect the use of magic around me. At first, I wasn’t sure what I was detecting, but the longer I have been connected to magic, the clearer it has become. And now, there’s something building. It’s subtle, but I can feel it.” I glanced from Barden to Cynthia before finally looking over to Veran. “None of you can detect this?”
“As we told Kate,” Veran started, “the ability to detect magic is unusual. Especially for a hedge mage.” Veran looked to Barden.
“And yet, here she is. A hedge mage restored by your granddaughter.”
Cynthia’s eyes widened. It was almost as if she was realizing—or remembering—that Kate had healed me when I had nearly died. It was that healing which had tied me to her in a way I wouldn’t have been otherwise, and without that healing, I not only wouldn’t be here, but I even questioned whether or not it had somehow connected me to her type of magic. Maybe that was why I was able to do the things I could. It was possible it wasn’t tied to me being a hedge mage at all, but was simply Kate’s kind of magic.
But then, I didn’t think that was right. When I reached for magic, it came up from within me. It did so even without the bracelet. Power swept away from all three. As it did, I became aware of something else.
The energy I had been detecting, that energy which came from near this warehouse, continued to build, but not only that, it was changing. It seemed to be reaching a crescendo. Whatever was happening was about to be done. Whatever we did needed to happen quickly.
“I don’t detect anything,” Cynthia said.
“Neither do I,” Veran said.
“I believe Dr. Stone,” Barden said. Turning to me, he asked, “Do you think you can trigger any of the spells around us?”
“I can
try.”
With that, I sent a surge of power outward from me. It happened with a blast, and it met resistance. Not only a single resistance, and not only a double resistance, but there were five separate places where I felt resistance to my triggering. I grabbed for the coin I had formed. Now was the time to see how it would work. Sending a surge of power through it, I exploded through the spells the operatives all around us carried.
As I did, we were attacked.
17
I hurriedly placed a circle around me, and sent a surge of power through it, using that to try to prevent anything from hitting me. Barden swept his hands outward, forming a strange circular pattern, and as he brought them down, the ground glowed, a pattern layered around him. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Regardless of what he might say about the nature of his spells, there was definitely a technique to them. It was something I didn’t have, and while I might be able to learn it, I didn’t yet know how to do so.
“There are five of them,” I said.
“Just five?” Barden said.
“At least on the street level,” I said.
“I will do what I can with them.”
“I can help.”
“I think you need to do something else,” he said.
“What?”
“Head inside.”
“Are you sure that’s safe?”
“If there is going to be an attack on the three of us,” he said, sweeping his gaze around Veran and Cynthia, “I would rather have you inside.”
“You do realize inside is where the source of the energy is coming from.”
“I’m well aware of that, and I’m also aware you might be needed to ensure anything that happens is thwarted.”
“I don’t like this, Barden.”
“I don’t like it either, but I’m afraid you must embrace this.”
Power started building, and as it did, it slammed into my barrier. It fizzled out, but the force of the explosion sent me backward, outside of it. I tripped, falling to the ground, rolling to the side, and as I got to my feet, I nearly got tangled up. Barden swirled his hands around, and thrust them toward me, almost as if throwing something at my feet. Power surged around me, and a new barrier formed. It happened in little more than a blink of an eye, but just in time. Had he not, a spell would’ve struck me. Instead, it struck his barrier, and I could tell from the way he clenched his jaw that the power involved was considerable. Then again, perhaps it wasn’t. I had already drained a lot of power from Barden earlier in the evening, and maybe he was weakened because of that.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” I asked.
“Go.”
I tried moving, and as I did, I shifted the barrier, dragging it along with me. I paused, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a fistful of the spell coins. I handed them over to Barden. He looked down at them.
“What is this?”
“You don’t need a lot of strength to trigger them. I don’t know what all of them do, but if it’s about creating an offensive spell, these will suffice.”
Barden took them. “You won’t need them?”
“I have more.”
“You continue to impress me, Dr. Stone.”
“Now was not the time, Barden.”
He smiled at me. “Get inside. I will seal the door behind you. And then—"
He didn’t get the chance to finish. Another spell struck, this time crashing into my barrier. I was thrown off to the side, away from the door. Barden lunged forward, swirling another protective circle in place, and as he did, he held one of the coins outward. He focused on it, and power burst from him, going into the coin, and it started glowing. He pushed that power, a different way of using the coin spell from me, and it went streaking toward the nearby attacker. Barden mixed something else within it, for when it struck, it exploded, throwing the man back and he twitched, shaking violently.
Cynthia glanced over at Barden. “Do you really need to use such magic? You are only reinforcing the stories about dark mages.”
“That is not my spell. I’m only using what the organization has created.”
I got to my feet, and one of the operatives stood across from me. I was frozen. He was about my age. Twice my size. All muscle. And he held two coins in each hand. Power began to build from him, and I reacted. Without thinking, I pushed power into the coins for him, sending it surging through them. As soon as I did, they exploded.
He screamed. His hand began blackening where he held one of the coins, and his fingers shriveled, shrinking inward.
What spell was that? I hurriedly dragged my foot around the circle, throwing up a barrier around myself. Barden might want me to get inside, but I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to do so. Right now, it was hard enough just to stay alive out here.
Power crackled all around me. There was incredible energy, and it appeared to come from everywhere. From Veran and Cynthia. From Barden. From the operatives acting around me. Everywhere, I felt it.
The operative whose hand had blackened still stood. He tried to reach with his good hand into his pocket, and once again, I pushed out, triggering whatever spell he clutched. As before, he screamed. When he collapsed, he writhed, his body twisting and violently thrashing.
I turned away. As soon as I did, I saw someone on the rooftop. It was a dark-haired man, dressed in clothes which blended into the rooftop. I pushed on him, sending a triggering spell toward him, using everything I had to feed into it. There came a resistance but I overpowered it, and as soon as I did, he turned his attention to me. Unlike the other guy, he kept his hand inside his pouch as he pulled on his spell.
I wasn’t going to be able to trigger those spells. Was there something else I could do? I tried to push power through one of my spells—the Paralytic—and he overpowered it, ignoring it the same way the operative at the hospital had managed to overpower it. With that spell spent, I dropped the coin, and could feel his energy building. Whatever he was going to use would come soon. He might be able to overpower my spell, but something else occurred to me, which could work: When I had triggered the spell on the guy with the blackened hand, his contact to the spell had appeared to be important. So what if I threw one of the coins?
I fished into my pouch, seized the Stinger, and threw it at him. I’d played basketball and softball in high school, and considered myself somewhat athletic, at least enough that I had a decent aim. The coin flew true, and as it neared him, I pushed power into it, triggering it. I forced it forward, thrusting that trigger into the operative. He fell forward, screaming.
When he crashed to the ground, he did so near Barden. I raced over to him, dragging a circle around me, and pushing power through it. While the man groaned, I fished into his pocket, searching for coins I could use. I scooped all of them I could find out of his pouch and stuffed them into my pocket.
I should do the same with the blackened hand man, but I didn’t want to get too close to him. His torment was my fault, and I didn’t like the idea I would have to do something similar again.
Power continued to crackle around me. As it did, I looked for someone else to work on.
“You need to get inside, Dr. Stone,” Barden said.
“Not yet,” I said.
“This shouldn’t be your fight.”
“It shouldn’t be but considering I have the ability to help against their type of magic, I think it needs to be.”
I half-expected him to argue, but then again, had I known Barden well enough, I should have also known better. I looked around the rooftops, knowing that if there had been one, there would be another. The man with the gray cloak which blended into the rooftop gave away the key to finding them. There was something about the cloak, and it was almost as if it hid them as well as any masking spell.
Which it probably did. I pushed outward. I didn’t need to trigger their spells to reveal them. All I needed was to feel where the resistance was to my ability to trigger it. As soon as I found that, I could use that resistance
, and in doing so, could focus on finding a way of overwhelming them.
As I pushed, I reached coins, grabbing several. I didn’t even know which ones they were. It probably didn’t matter, not the way I was going to use them. If these people fell from the roof, then whether I pushed a Sleeper, or a Paralytic, or the Stinger didn’t matter. They would still end up significantly injured. And what Matt had told me in the parking garage was true—if I didn’t help stop them, they would harm us. When this was all over, I would do what I could to help them, and not betray my Hippocratic oath in that way. Until that time, I would use the magical side of me.
Feeling the resistance of one, I threw a coin in that direction. As soon as it neared where I detected the resistance, I pushed power into it, triggering it. It exploded. That was nothing like I was expecting. It wasn’t any of the spells I was familiar with. Part of the rooftop blasted off.
I froze. I could feel Cynthia’s gaze on me, and ignored it. I pushed outward again, focusing on where I detected any of the others, and when I came across one, I threw another coin and triggered it as it neared. This time, the spell triggered close enough that I could see it erupt. It created a Sleeper. The man dropped. He crashed to the ground, not far from me. I was tempted to hurry forward, to search him to see what spells he might be carrying, but could feel the other three pushing inward on me.
“Barden?”
“What is it?”
“I need you to help.”
“Of course.”
He strode toward me, swirling power around me, and joined the inside of my circle. “What is it?”
“I’m trying to take care of the people on the rooftops.”
“How many are there?”
