Grave War

by Price, Kalayna

  The last thing he’d told me was to go to shadow. Was that to find out what had happened to him? Or because he was trying to send me where he thought I’d be safe? Damn, he had too many secrets.

  I considered the room again. The only thing out of place was the crumpled clothing. If I hid that, nothing about the scene would look amiss.

  I grabbed the clothing and mopped up the more obvious drops of blood, but most blended in with the dark wood and I didn’t want to create large smears, so after soaking up a few spots I hastily folded the clothes into a pile that, while not neat, at least hid the bloody sections. I carried the pile into the small attached bathroom in the back of the office. I’d once hid out in that bathroom, so I knew there was a standing shower and even a small closet where toiletries, towels, and a few spare clothes were stored. I dumped the badly folded clothing onto a shelf behind a stack of towels. Then I stripped off my gloves and washed my hands, careful not to touch anything that might pick up prints. Replacing my gloves with my spares, I went back out to the main office and retrieved the phone and shoes, adding them to the closet as well.

  Leaving the light in the bathroom on, I locked and shut the door and then gave the main office a cursory once-over. It didn’t look like anything unusual had happened. A close examination would no doubt find the blood and clothes, but at a quick glance, hopefully anyone checking in would assume my father had stepped out. It wouldn’t buy me much time, but if I just walked out and said the governor had vanished and here are his bloody clothes, I’d be arrested.

  Damn it, was I really covering up the fact that my father had maybe been murdered right in front of me? Could I really walk out of here? Was there anything else I could do? Getting questioned for his disappearance was not going to help anyone. Panic buzzed in the back of my brain and my vision fogged, not from my magic-damaged sight but from hot tears that threatened to break through. But I didn’t have time for that.

  I took a steadying breath, which sounded ragged so I did it again and then a third time until it came out smooth. Then I rolled back my shoulders and headed for the exit.

  I opened the door only enough that my body blocked most of the room, but it didn’t look like I was slinking out. I twisted slightly so that I was half looking into the room as I moved.

  “Thank you for your time, sir,” I called out in what I hoped came off as a chipper but professional tone, as if it was part of the end of an ongoing conversation. “I’ll let you get to that, then.”

  I turned, pulling the door closed behind me. If I’d had the glamour, I’d have created a voice that followed me out, or fashioned a facsimile of my father to stand in the doorway. But I lacked the ability to do either, so I just hoped misdirection worked.

  Tem and Nori were frowning at me as I turned toward the hall. Roy was staring, eyes wide, his lip clamped between his teeth, and I wondered how much he’d seen. He hadn’t been able to get past the ward, but I knew he’d seen my father in his office earlier, so he might have watched that whole thing.

  The two security guards were blissfully ignorant, though. Neither even turned toward the door as I stepped free. The aide was still in the hall, looking anxious and angry. He was going to be a problem. He was the most likely to enter the office.

  “The governor just took a call,” I said as I passed him, hoping the comment came off nonchalant. Hell, I didn’t even care if he thought I was making a dig at him for telling me the governor was too busy earlier. As long as he didn’t go in that room.

  I kept walking, my pace casual but brisk, trusting that Nori and Tem would catch up with me. They didn’t disappoint.

  “Did you just thank the governor?” Nori asked under her breath as she met my stride, clearly distressed that I might have casually granted a human a debt to cash in.

  “Not exactly,” I said, and then fixed my eyes on Roy. Smiling and talking through my teeth I whispered, “If anyone goes in that room, pull the fire alarm.”

  “What?” Tem asked, grinding to a halt.

  “Not either of you,” I hissed without slowing down.

  Roy, his eyes still too wide, nodded. “You got it, Al. Oh, man. This is so messed up.”

  Was it ever. And Nori and Tem were both staring at me, not moving.

  “Come on,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “We have to get out of the building. Now.”

  * * *

  * * *

  We made it to the front steps of the statehouse before the fire alarm sounded.

  I cursed, picking up speed as people began pouring out of the building. I’d really been hoping we would have made it farther away before anyone entered the governor’s office. How long would it take before they went from trying to locate him to searching for me?

  “We need to get to our cars.” Because I had to get out of there.

  I was walking fast enough to be considered jogging—which worked with the crowd around us. Half of the people were running from the building and the rest were doing more of a confused backward retreat trying to figure out if an actual emergency had occurred or if it was a false alarm.

  Nori caught my arm, stopping me. “What the hell is going on, Craft?”

  “It’s a really complicated story. Suffice it to say I’m going to be in a lot of trouble if security finds me, and we don’t have time for that, so let’s move.”

  To her credit, Nori released me and started moving at a good clip. That didn’t mean she stopped asking questions, though. “What happened in there? And who is Governor Caine to you?”

  Yeah, I figured that second question was bound to come up. I considered Nori out of the corner of my eye without slowing. My relationship to the governor was buried—he’d made sure of that—but it wasn’t impossible to find. Falin had unearthed it within days of my meeting him.

  “He’s my father,” I said under my breath. Nori stumbled, but I didn’t slow. She caught back up a moment later.

  “And why are we running away?” she asked.

  I was moving with enough speed that I was starting to feel winded, my voice breathy as I answered. “Because he is missing and I don’t know when or if he is coming back and I don’t want to be here when security discovers that fact.” Which would be any second now.

  Tem stopped me with a huge hand on my shoulder. “Shit. And you were alone with him. Where did he go? And how?”

  Good questions. Unfortunately, I didn’t have answers to either. Not that he waited for an answer.

  “They are going to come for your head,” he said, with a guttural sound that was very close to a growl. His gaze assessed me, and I could feel him weighing whether it was time to toss me in my car and get me out of Nekros. That wouldn’t work for me.

  “Which is why we need to keep moving,” I said, breaking away from him and picking up my pace toward the car.

  Most of the crowd that had evacuated for the fire alarm had stopped just before the street. Now that we’d passed them, heading farther down the sidewalk, our near run made us more noticeable. I bit my lip as I wondered if we should slow down to a more casual pace, but every second that passed felt like a countdown to the moment security would burst out of the building behind us. At least we’d parked on the street and not in the garage—less places to get trapped.

  We’d almost reached my car when I stopped dead in my tracks. Tem didn’t stop quite as fast. I stumbled forward as the troll bumped into me and remained on my feet only because he grabbed my shoulders.

  “You okay? What’s wrong?” he asked.

  I didn’t answer. I just stared at a bouquet of flowers lying on the hood of my car. Bloodred roses. A card stuck out of the bouquet. All the other flowers had included cards that were blank on the outside. Not this one. Even from a distance, the gold-embossed lettering clearly read:

  Condolences on your loss.

  I stared at those beautifully scripted, ugly little word
s. Pressure built in my chest, a still, silent scream. I bit my lips to keep that scream from bursting free.

  How? How could the flowers be here? Who knew what had happened already?

  Whoever maybe just killed my father. The thought came unbidden and the scream nearly won.

  I clenched my fists until my nails bit into my palms. I’d thought the destruction of the door had trapped my stalker in Faerie. Apparently I was wrong.

  I marched forward, toward the flowers. I wanted them to burn. To go up in a ball of fire that consumed them and their awful little note.

  But I couldn’t create fire like Holly. I didn’t have that kind of magic.

  I had a different kind.

  I dropped my shields and the world around me changed. The Aetheric popped into focus as the land of the dead washed everything in a patina of decay. Unearthly wind ripped across from the land of the dead, whipping my hair around my face and sending sidewalk debris swirling down the street. Inside the bouquet, a glimmer of magic sparked, red and silver snaking through the flowers. The spell seemed to reach up, as if sensing my attention, but when I focused on it, it vanished from my vision. I could feel it, though. The magic felt aggressive, dangerous, and ready to spring if I touched those damn flowers. The magic also felt familiar, the signature the same as the spell from the Bloom.

  Normally I kept a thin translucent shield between my mind and the layers of reality so that I didn’t accidentally pull or push anything across. Now I popped that protective bubble.

  I reached out with my magic and shoved the realities around the bouquet. The flowers withered, the gold lettering on the card flaked off, and the paper decayed. As they dissolved, a thin wooden rod that had been hiding inside the bouquet became visible. I had a moment to see the magical glyphs carved into the surface, to see the strands of blond hair wrapped around the wood, personalizing the spell, making sure it would spring only on the target. Me. Then the hair shriveled. The wood rotted. The spell dissipated as the item it had been focused on disintegrated. In a heartbeat, nothing was left but dust that shifted in the wind whirling around me.

  “Shit. Craft. What are you doing?” Nori was yelling. How long had she been yelling? She grabbed my arm and then jerked back as the chill of the grave jumped to her. “Stop. Now.”

  I blinked. The flowers were gone. Hell, all trace that they’d ever existed was gone. And I was still on the street, doing weird magic that was no doubt drawing attention. Crap.

  I closed my shields. The world immediately darkened despite the bright midday sun. Not incapacitatingly dark, but noticeable.

  Roy, who I hadn’t even seen arrive, moved to my side. “Uh, Alex. I’m not sure what you’re doing, but they just broke down the door to the governor’s bathroom and discovered no one was inside. You should get out of here.”

  He didn’t have to tell me twice.

  The top to my car was still down after the drive over, and I all but vaulted inside. I hit the button to start the car and threw it in gear in the same movement. I reversed without looking back, my tires squealing as I pulled into the street. A horn blared. An approaching car swerved. I blinked, trying to clear the darkness from my eyes, but I didn’t have time to wait. I switched gears again.

  Nori and Tem, who hadn’t been privy to Roy’s warning, both yelled, rushing forward.

  Well, crap. I probably shouldn’t leave my team behind.

  Tem dashed toward the car, as if he planned to pull me back out of it. Then he passed through the space where the hood of my car—and the flowers—had been. The sleeve of his jacket disintegrated, the fine material rotting away as it passed through the exact spot where I’d dusted the flowers. He jerked back, his eyes widening.

  Crap. I’d not only destroyed the flowers, I’d created a hole in reality. I hadn’t done that in months. That . . . that was bad.

  For a long moment, we all stared at the seemingly inconspicuous spot. Then another car horn blared behind me.

  I had to get out of here. I didn’t have time to try to fix reality. I didn’t even want to think about the hole I’d just punched in it, the flowers, or the targeted spell they’d contained. I certainly didn’t want to talk about it. And I couldn’t risk Tem dragging me off for my own good. I had to contact shadow. I had to figure out what the hell had just happened to my father, and how my stalker even knew I was at the statehouse. I had to go. Somewhere. Now.

  Nori had her own car. Tem would fit better in it anyway. Nori’s gaze caught mine for half an instant, her lips pressed in a tight line. Then I pulled away, speeding down the road.

  Chapter 19

  Where are we going?” Roy asked from the passenger seat of the car.

  “I don’t know.” My hands gripped tighter on the wheel, my fingers stiff with cold because I hadn’t stopped to put up the top.

  “Are you going to answer that?” He motioned to my purse where my phone was singing. Again. It pretty much hadn’t stopped ringing since I’d sped away from the statehouse ten minutes ago.

  “No.”

  I kept driving, turning down streets at random. The phone kept ringing. Roy watched me, fidgeting in his seat.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked after I turned down another random street.

  “No.”

  He shifted again. Tugging on his flannel shirt. I needed to get off the street. But where should I go? There would be an APB on me soon, no doubt.

  “Your father . . . I couldn’t hear, but I saw when he—”

  “I said I didn’t want to talk about it.” I’d been there when he collapsed, suddenly covered in blood; I didn’t need to rehash it right now. Heat seemed to gather around my eyes despite the frigid air, and my already iffy vision turned worse as moisture gathered in my eyes. I tried to blink it back.

  It didn’t work.

  I pulled the car off the road, into a small alley between two buildings, and then turned to face Roy.

  “Did you see something I didn’t? See what attacked him?”

  The ghost opened and closed his mouth like a fish gasping for air. Then he shook his head hard enough that his glasses slid down his face.

  “How about the roses? Did you see who left them on my car? Where they went?”

  “Roses?” Again, the gasping fish thing. His eyes were wide, and I realized I’d yelled the questions.

  I could barely see now. The tears were going to break free. I couldn’t stop them. I turned forward again and slammed my fists against the steering wheel. Who could attack someone without being in the room? Without leaving a physical or magical trace? How? And had they attacked him just because I was there? So that they could leave those flowers? Was it my fault?

  I slammed my hands on the steering wheel again, and then leaned my forehead on my hands. The tears I’d been holding back streamed out, hot and ugly.

  “I . . . Uh. I’m going to go check on Icelynne,” Roy said, drawing down into the land of the dead.

  I didn’t try to stop him. Honestly, I barely noted his absence. I sat there with my head buried against my arms. This was a stupid waste of time. I knew that. I should have been doing . . . something. I couldn’t even think what right now. Getting off the street for sure would be a good idea. Instead my brain kept running in circles.

  My father. The bomb. The flowers. The wild fae stuck and fading. Falin, injured. The door I had no idea how to fix. The police likely looking for me.

  “You’re cold,” a deep voice said, and I jolted, my head jerking up.

  Death sat beside me, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched me with his deep hazel eyes.

  “If you’re here, am I about to die?” I asked as I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. It didn’t help. More tears streamed down my face. My stalker had managed to follow me to the statehouse and attacked my father from inside a heavily warded room without leaving a trace. Maybe I was next. I
didn’t even know where I was. An alley that smelled like a restaurant dumpster.

  Death frowned, his full lips pulling down as he shook his head. “You know I can’t see your timeline.” He reached out, but his hand hesitated before actually touching me as if he had second thoughts. It hung there a moment, and then he must have reached some conclusion because his hand finally alighted on my cheek, his thumb wiping away a tear. “I’m here because you’re my friend and you’re alone in a dirty alley crying.”

  Which only made me cry harder.

  Death didn’t try to get me to talk about it. He didn’t ask questions. Didn’t offer advice. He just sat with me as I ugly-cried, my face buried in my arms, his warm hand firm and reassuring on my back. At some point he found the controls for the convertible roof and got it closed. By the time I’d cried myself out, Death had cranked up the car’s heat and I was no longer shivering.

  “Better?” he asked as I dug through my purse searching for a tissue.

  “Not really.” Crying hadn’t solved anything. I still didn’t know how to fix the door to Faerie. I was no closer to evacuating the independents. I didn’t know if my father was alive or dead, or where he’d vanished to. I didn’t know what spell had been inside the roses, but it had contained my hair so it was a trap set specifically for me. I was worried about Falin, injured and locked in his court in Faerie. I had no idea what to do about Ryese, if he was even behind all this. And I’d only lost time in evading the police as they were no doubt looking for me by now. But I did feel calmer after my cry. It was good to be with a friend, and right that it was Death.

  He still had one hand on my back, but now that I’d stopped crying, it felt like a strange amount of contact. Either too stiff and standoffish for our level of friendship, or too much if we were keeping our distance. Personally, I was sick of the distance. I leaned over the middle console between us and leaned the side of my head on his shoulder. For a moment he went still. Then his hand slid up, across my back to my opposite shoulder, and he squeezed lightly, drawing me just a little closer. There was an awkward moment, as if we both held our breath, trying to determine if this level of contact was okay. He was my oldest and closest friend, and right now, that friendship was what I needed. We hadn’t worked as lovers, but we’d always made good friends.