End Stage

by S A Magnusson

  I drew upon magic through the wand, and wrapped it around those flowers, around the pollen, blocking it from getting to us and harming us.

  I looked over to John Adams. “Do you see anything familiar here?”

  “They shouldn’t be here,” he said.

  “That was my thought, too.”

  We continued forward, looking all around us, and I focused on the sense of magic, the sense of power that was there. There was more now than there had been on the other side of the sentries. It was a strange sensation, and with each step we took, we traveled a great distance. It was farther than we had traveled when we had been within Ariel’s den. It meant the connection to the other side of the Veil in this space was different to Ariel’s den. Likely far more powerful.

  The moon was different here. As I glanced up at the sky, there were streaks of red through it, mixing with orange, and as it shone down on the ground, it looked as if it were lighting everything in a silvery fire. The realization of that left me with an unsettled sensation. The idea there would be such power alarmed me. I had known there was something tied to the moon, and I had known there was power here, but seeing it firsthand, and the way it shone down was alarming.

  “Look,” I said, pointing.

  The others turned, falling silent for a moment. “I don’t detect anything,” John Adams said.

  “I might be able to try,” I said, pulling out the wand, but Charles took my arm, shaking his head.

  “I wouldn’t do that here yet,” he said.

  “Why not?”

  “If this does straddle the Veil, any power you draw will be different. It runs the risk of alerting them of our presence.”

  “We have to find them. I don’t care if they are alerted to our presence.”

  “I understand, but even if we find them, we still have to find a way of stopping them,” he said.

  I frowned, looking around us, and wondered if there was even any way we would be able to do that. The more I focused on everything around us, the more I wondered if there were other aspects across the Veil we had to be worried about. There had been the flowers and their strange power, and I had to believe there would be other things similar to that. If that were the case, then what more would we have to worry about? And if there was more we had to be worried about, I had to be prepared.

  Having the wand was helpful. But a different wand would have been even more helpful – I wished we’d gone back to the condo and grabbed the other wand, but we didn’t take the time. Then again, if we were on the other side of the Veil now, or at least straddling it, then time was traveling differently here. We ran the risk we would not have enough time to do what we needed to. And if we didn’t have the necessary time, anything I might do by leaving would give the Shara a chance to succeed.

  “Let me try,” John Adams said.

  “You must mask it,” Charles said.

  “I know how to use my power,” John said. Magic built from him, and it rolled outward, starting slowly, and then building. As it did, it washed into the ground, flowing away from him, and then surged, sweeping outward. It rolled across the landscape, moving slowly, but picking up speed. I wasn’t sure if it was picking up speed because of something he was doing or because of the nature of this place. Either way, there was a distinct sense to it. I wondered if I was able to connect to the ley lines. It was possible I could reach that power, and if I could, I might be able to use it. The rune remained, and my connection to it would have to remain, if only because my blood had been used to create it.

  I waited for John Adams to complete his spell, and as it rolled away from him, I focused, listening to the nature of that spell, listening to the energy, wondering if there was anything I could detect.

  “There’s nothing,” John Adams said.

  “There will have to be something,” Charles said. “The challenge will be in finding what that is.” He started forward, and as he stepped, I realized he was walking in a pattern. He traced it with each step, pausing and turning, spiraling around as he walked. There was energy in the nature of his steps, and a sense of power within him. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was doing more than I realized. I thought about pushing power into his pattern, but waited. And yet, there was something about it which would help. I was certain of it.

  I held out the wand, and pointed it at the ground. Pulling power through me, through the wand, I sent it surging outward. It struck the pattern Charles was making. I pushed a hint of energy into it, nothing more, and could feel what he was doing. I could feel the way his magic flowed, washing outward, and I could tell what he was trying to accomplish.

  Not just trying, but succeeding. He was trying to unmask any magic. It flowed outward, and there came a reverberation against me, against the pattern he was holding. I pushed more power into it, drawing through the wand. That reverberation intensified, and there came a growth of power, more and more than I had detected before.

  I pushed again through the pattern. This time, I did so with more energy than I had the last time, and let the nature of the magic flow out from me, striking the pattern Charles had formed.

  Then it exploded. It might have a mistake to push such power outward, but as the energy exploded, it seemed as if a masking failed. It reminded me of what happened inside the organization, the way that when I had destabilized the strange spells, everything had become clear.

  I looked around, noticing there was not just a sense of power around me, but I could feel it. The landscape had not changed, so whatever magic was being used was not done to try to hide anything.

  The magic exploded against me. It was near. I pointed into the distance, aware of where the others were. They were close… and there a lot of them.

  We approached slowly. I held the wand out, and yet, I drew upon more power than just through the wand. I focused on the energy I could feel coming through the rune Charles had placed near the ley lines, the pattern I could summon energy through which might grant me more power. And I let it fill me.

  The magic struck. I held onto it, confident I needed to draw more and more power. I had no idea what I might encounter, only that there was a sense of significant power somewhere near us, but not knowing specifically where it was.

  There had to be another masking. I glanced over Charles, and saw him forming another pattern. I turned my attention to this one, pushing power into it, and it exploded outward.

  And suddenly there were people all around us.

  Swearing under my breath, I turned toward it, and created a barrier around us. John Adams reacted quickly, sending power around him, swirling it in a way I suspected was meant to mask us. Even as he did, I wondered if his spell had been fast enough. It might not have been strong enough, either.

  I stared through the barrier, through the masking, waiting for any sign of anyone turning toward us, but there was nothing. Standing there, I looked outward, straining to better understand what I was seeing.

  There had to be a dozen different people, and they were forming a circle. But it wasn’t a dozen people I was watching. It was the people around them who troubled me.

  Shara.

  But there was only one of them who caught my eye. I saw Matt Gillespie. He was oblivious to us, but suddenly, that changed. He turned toward us, and a dark smile crossed his face.

  18

  Matt Gillespie started toward me, power building from him. I held onto the barrier around me, trying to maintain it as he approached, but I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to hold out. There was a sense of energy all around and it came from everywhere, most predominantly coming from the space in front of us.

  “Can you do anything?” I asked John.

  “I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to help,” he said.

  Power continued to build, and I struggled against it.

  “Look,” Charles said.

  I turned in the direction he was pointing, and stared at the ring of people.

  They weren’t people. Shifters. All of them wer
e shifters, forced into a partial shifting, though not completely shifted. They were standing there, heads tilted back, mouths open in a look of anguish, almost as if they were snarling, but unable to do so.

  Matt Gillespie continued toward us, and I drew upon the power I could call from the wand. At this point, it no longer mattered if I was detected. I focused that power, pointing it at Matt in his direction. I formed a barrier around him. I held onto that barrier, wanting to maintain it for as long as I could.

  Matt did something with his hands. It was a movement, nothing more, and power exploded, shattering the barrier around him. He sneered again.

  I drew again upon power from the wand, angling it toward him. As I did, I sent more and more energy into it, forcing it into a barrier. Once again, he did something with his hand, twisting it. The power I was holding onto exploded again. He was more powerful than I thought.

  Maybe it was this place. Maybe there was something about the energy that was here, or maybe it was simply Matt gaining experience and knowledge, but regardless of what it was, drawing on the power of the wand wasn’t going to be enough to hold him. I was going to have to hold him. I could feel the energy building around us. I had no idea of its purpose, other than I suspected it was tied to whatever they intended to free the Great Ones.

  Could I somehow disrupt what they were doing? I didn’t have to be powerful in order to do so. I had seen how my magic would work in that way, sending out spells which could unsettle the magic the Shara and the rest of the organization could hold.

  I reached for coins in my pouch and found several destructive spells. I tossed them away from me. They went flying, and I sent a surge of power into them, intending to trigger them. There came a sense of resistance, but it wasn’t so much that I couldn’t overpower it.

  I continued to push more and more energy into the coins, triggering them. A series of explosions sounded, and it tossed the Shara surrounding the shifters away.

  I had only wanted to disrupt it, not intending to throw them off, but that was another benefit. I tossed another series of coins. As before, I triggered them, and they exploded.

  But this time, it seemed as if the Shara were prepared, and they pushed away from the coins, defusing the energy I held.

  I’d hoped for more time, but they were powerful, and were able to disrupt what I was using. More and more power flowed from me, and I tried one last thing. If I could unsettle the magic they were holding onto, if there was anything within those Shara I could disrupt, I needed to do it. I focused on it, sending power from me into them. As power poured out of me, I let it flow into them. More and more magic surged, sweeping away, and it struck the nearest of the Shara. And then I pushed.

  The only benefit I had, the only magic I could use that they could not, was tied to my ability to trigger spells. And they had powerful spells upon them. I could feel it, and the energy they were holding, and I had to believe there was a way for me to use what I was detecting, to unsettle it.

  The more I pushed, the more certain I was that there was something I could do. And if I could, I could change the nature of the magic, I could shift the battle in our favor.

  But while I was pushing, there was resistance. And I didn’t feel as if I could overwhelm all of them. But there wasn’t more energy in me. I had to draw it from somewhere else.

  What about the wand?

  I called upon the power within the wand, pointing it at the nearest Shara, I didn’t know if it was even going to be enough. Power flowed from me, pouring out of the wand, and it struck. There was resistance, but drawing from the wand I was able to push. It was an incredible amount of power. And the Shara cried out.

  Then, Matt Gillespie turned toward me. Matt was a powerful hedge mage, and I suspected everything he had done, all of the ways he had used his power, had been a way of him trying to manipulate me into believing he was less powerful than he was. Now I understood just how powerful he was. Now I understood just how much magic he had access to. And now I knew that, I understood there wasn’t anything I was going to be able to do to slow him. Still, I had to find a way, but not with the wand and not with the coins.

  Nearby, John Adams was lashing out, using power he had stored. He was triggering coins. I had wondered when he was going to finally use it. He had held off, refraining until he absolutely had needed it, and it was clear to me he did now. A part of me had wondered whether John would help when it came down to it, but here he was, battling, using his connection to power, spells he had stored, trapping the magic within the coins, surging toward the Shara. They were different spells from what I was using. Mine had been untargeted. I was aware of that now. I could see how the nature of my spells would do little more than create a burst of energy – it was still destructive power, but not so destructive it had a purpose. But what John was doing was different. He was holding onto power, and targeting specific spells at specific Shara.

  And the nature of his spells was destructive and violent.

  I had known he wasn’t thrilled with what the rest of the Shara were doing, but a part of me had questioned whether or not he would be willing to fight, if it came down to it.

  The power over the shifters changed. Some of the shifters who were trapped, held in between forms, howled. I could feel the energy from them, building off of them, the way they were trying to change shapes. They were trying to fight against what was taking place.

  Matt Gillespie stopped directly in front of me, and he grinned at me. A barrier separated us, though there wasn’t a lot of power in the barrier and I knew he would not be held off for too long. Matt sneered. “I can’t believe you think you can prevent this.”

  “Someone has to stop you,” I said. I was focusing on power, and searching between the sources of energy available to me. The spell coins weren’t going to be enough, and even the wand wasn’t enough. The only thing I had was Charles’s pattern that connected me to the ley lines, but that was distant and faded. And yet, what was Charles doing? I could see him making a movement on the inside of the barrier, but couldn’t tell what he was doing with that pattern.

  “You don’t know nearly enough to stop me.”

  He glanced over to John Adams and glared at him. “And you have betrayed us.”

  “I’ve betrayed nothing.”

  “You have. You spoke of learning to withstand the power on the other side of the Veil, of keeping them at bay, of ensuring they were put into their place, and here you are working with her? Working against us?”

  I tensed, worried John Adams would suddenly change sides.

  Then, noticing the pattern Charles was making, I sent a hint of power into it. It was the same pattern he’d used on the other side of the lake, but something in this one was different. Rather than needing my blood, this was simply a conduit. It appeared to connect this place to the rune he’d formed on the other side.

  Something changed. There was a connection formed, greater than I had felt otherwise. I held onto that power, holding onto that magic, letting that sense fill me. As it did, I could feel it radiating from me. I breathed it in, drawing in the energy of the ley lines, the connection to a distant powerful source I knew would be able to give me much more magic. The longer I held onto it, the more certain I was I would be able to draw enough.

  And yet I held off. I didn’t reveal to Matt what I was capable of doing. Not yet. Not until I understood what he was trying to do and whether there was any way I was going to be able to stop him.

  “You can’t stop this. It’s too far along.”

  “Anything can be stopped,” I said.

  “Unfortunately, not this.”

  “Unfortunately?”

  “You are too late.”

  “Why?”

  Matt smiled at me. “We were offered a trade.”

  I glanced over to John Adams, frowning. Had he known about this? There was nothing from his expression to suggest he did. If Matt was involved, and if they were offered something from the Great One, then wouldn’t he know
? “What sort of trade?”

  “The kind of trade that means no longer having to create coins in order to access power.”

  That was what this is about? They wanted to access power without having to scramble for it like they had always done? That seemed extreme, and yet it fitted with what I knew of Matt and his quest for power. Whereas John had done things for a very personal, emotional reason, Matt had always been after power. Matt had wanted the magic he could take from the vampire elders, and I suspect he wanted the power from Kate as well. And now it appeared Matt wanted the power of the Great Ones.

  I held onto the power flowing from the other side from the rune, angling through me, through the ley lines, and I held onto that. If nothing else, I was going to use it to overpower what they were doing.

  “If you do this, you risk destroying the separation through the Veil,” I said.

  “You’re wrong. If this works, the power on the other the side of the Veil will be controlled in a very different way. The Great Ones are strong enough to hold against those who would threaten us on this side. Why else do you think I’m willing to risk this?”

  “I don’t know, because you’re an idiot?” When he said nothing, I shook my head. “I can’t believe I ever trusted you.”

  “You made more mistakes than you could ever have known.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I thought I would pay you a favor.”

  “What sort of favor?”

  “You see, in order for there to be the crossing, there needs to be a sacrifice.”

  I tensed up, and I looked toward the center of the clearing to see whether there was any sign of the sacrifice. I couldn’t help but realize there were twelve people trapped in partial wolf form. Twelve people meant twelve packs. It meant Ariel had been captured. Everything we had done to try to protect her had failed.

  “Barden,” I whispered.

  Matt shook his head, smiling at me. “Unfortunately, although I would like to use Barden for this, there is a need for someone without any magical ability. It seals things across the Veil, sealing off the prison the Great Ones have been trapped within. I could have chosen anyone, but I thought it would be best for me to pick someone who had some meaning to me. And to you.”