End Stage

by S A Magnusson

  My heart was hammering, and I looked at him, watching to see what he might do or say, but I didn’t need to ask to know what he was doing.

  Brad.

  “You can’t do that,” I said.

  “It’s too late. He’s already here, and he’s a part of this. He came willingly when he knew you needed help.”

  “You grabbed him?”

  “Grabbed him? As I said, we didn’t have to do a lot in order to talk him into coming with us. He came willingly. He thought you were in trouble. Can you believe that? What a chivalrous man. And to think I had him pegged wrong, all along.”

  Everything in my being went numb. All this time, I had thought Brad did not want any contact with me, but that hadn’t been the case at all. Brad had been taken by Matt. And with Matt and his power, and his connection to magic, there wouldn’t have been anything Brad could do to withstand him.

  “Let him go,” I said.

  “Let him go? None of this will be possible without him.”

  “Let him go.”

  “Or what?”

  I started calling upon the power, drawing through the ley lines. But Charles was watching me, and there was a look of concern in his face. He shook his head slightly, and I frowned, wondering why he would warn me against this.

  I scowled at Matt. “If you do this, if you harm Brad, I swear to you –“

  “What do you swear to me? Do you swear you’ll get even with me? I can assure you that once this is successful, there will be no way you’ll be able to get even with me. You have been surprising, Jen, but even surprising has limits. And here you are with my mentor.” He turned his attention to John, glaring at him. “I still can’t believe you were willing to betray us. I can’t believe you would turn your back on everything we planned.”

  “None of this is what we planned,” John said.

  “It is what we planned. You showed us how to reach for power.”

  John Adam’s face paled. He stared at Matt, and I wondered what spell he was preparing. There was no doubt in my mind he was trying to prepare something, though he didn’t use it. Then again, he didn’t need to. I could feel the energy he was pulling, the power he was summoning from himself, but it wasn’t going to be enough. Not in this place and not against someone like Matt who had gained far too much knowledge. Matt was more formidable than we had ever believed.

  But even with the amount of power Matt was able to reach, and the nature of the magic he was able to accomplish even as a hedge mage, I couldn’t help but feel as if there had to be another way to stop him. And that was what Charles was trying to get at. It wasn’t a matter of trying to overpower him with magic.

  We had to stop this before it was too late. I could tell that. There was an energy in the air, and the wolves were howling, a cry that suggested to me there was an increased power here, though what was it from?

  We had to use that. The more I focused on it, the more certain I was we had to find a way to draw that power. And as we did, as we focused on that magic, I held onto the power from the ley lines, letting it flow through me, and I waited.

  If anything happened to Brad, what was I willing to do? Was I willing to cross over the Veil? Was I willing to go after Kate, to see if Death would be able to help him? Or would I be willing to do what Barden – and now John Adams – had done? Would I find it within me to accept what had happened?

  I didn’t know if I could. It appeared to me that everything going to happen was my fault.

  “Why don’t you stay here, Dr. Stone? This will be all over soon,” Matt said, gloating.

  Then, Charles nodded to me. And as Matt turned away, and I pushed outward. I wrapped him in power, using a barrier that swirled around him, trapping him. I fed all of the power of the ley lines into it, and Charles darted forward, and he quickly added runes around the circle, one after another. As he was working on a third one, something struck at him, but John Adams lunged forward, circling his hand and creating a barrier.

  The spell that lashed toward Charles slammed into the barrier, and John Adams was tossed back, landing on his backside. He looked up at me. “Finish this, Dr. Stone.”

  I held onto the power, and Charles finished the third pattern. When he did, something changed. The nature of the spell solidified, anchoring in place in a way I didn’t have to hold anymore. It was almost as if everything within that spell was holding Matt, so I had to do nothing. It was going to work. We could prevent the Shara and their attack on the Great Ones.

  The moment I had that realization, an explosion sounded near me. I stared at it, looking outward, focusing on the sense of power I could detect, and realized it was a mistake.

  Matt laughed. It was a dark and angry sound. Despite him being trapped within the barrier I was holding, he cackled. “I imagine you thought you were going to succeed,” he said.

  “We will stop this,” I said.

  “You won’t. You already are too late. I can feel it. Knowing how your connection to power works, I know you can feel it, too.” Matt laughed again.

  And I focused on the sense of magic, focusing on what I could detect, and realized he was right. There was something out there, the source of energy, and despite everything we had been through, and despite being able to hold him in place, using the power of the ley lines in order to trap him here, to prevent him from completing whatever attack he might do, I wasn’t going to be able to be fully successful.

  There was energy crackling around us. In the nature of that energy was significant, enough that I didn’t know if there was anything we could do to stop it. Somewhere nearby, one of the shifters howled.

  I looked over, and John gestured to me. “Go, Dr. Stone. See what you can do. I will stop him.”

  “He’s already been stopped,” I said.

  “I will stop as many of the others I can. Help the shifters.”

  “It won’t work, John,” Matt said, laughing again. “The shifters are but a conduit, and now the conduit has been opened, there’s nothing to be done to stop it.”

  I wondered if that were true. There had to be a way for me to undo what they were doing, a way for me to unsettle the conduit and stop what was taking place. And yet, as I focused on the energy around me, I couldn’t help but wonder if it would even be possible.

  John nodded to me. “I will do my part.”

  And this time, I believed him. He raced off, tossing coins, flicking power through them.

  “I will help,” Charles said.

  “Do we need to stay with him?”

  “No. The nature of the rune I placed will hold him until you release it.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s little more than a trap. Yet, if he fights against it, he will find it constricts upon him.”

  Matt glared at him, and sneered deeply. “You won’t be able to hold me here. I have faced greater traps than this.”

  Charles stood in front of Matt, watching him, and a hint of a smile trailed on his face. “I doubt you have stood in any like this.”

  As I hurried past Matt, I cast a glance over. “He studied with Odian,” I said.

  Something on Matt’s face changed, and it gave me a sweeping satisfaction.

  I raced toward the shifters, and saw a downed figure lying on the ground. Barden. He was bound, magic circling around him, with his eyes open.

  I sent a surge of power through him, drawing through Charles’s new rune which connected me to the other one on the ley lines, and I was able to send it through Barden, to probe him, finding the source of the power wrapped around him.

  I found what was taking place, and I was soon able to unleash it. I pressed a hint of power through it, freeing Barden.

  The binding exploded. Barden ripped his arms apart, and burst it open. Power surged from him. “Dr. Stone. How did you find us?”

  “We uncovered what they were doing.”

  “How? It wasn’t until we reached the midpoint of our search that we discovered what was happening, and by that time we were ca
ught.”

  “I had help,” I said, nodding to Charles.

  “Of course you did,” Barden said.

  “And one of the Shara,” I said. Without Rebecca, we wouldn’t have known about the thirteenth den, and we wouldn’t have known to come here. And yet, I still didn’t know if we were going to be fast enough. “They have Brad,” I said.

  “I’m sorry, Dr. Stone.

  Barden turned toward the center of the clearing, and there I saw a figure lying across a stone. Blood streamed from wounds on his wrists and from some place on his neck. Despite everything Brad had been through, now he was a sacrifice to free the Great Ones? I wasn’t going to sit back and do nothing. I was determined to do whatever I could to stop them. And if I couldn’t, I was going to have to fight.

  I raced toward Brad, but Barden was there, grabbing me. “You can’t do anything for him until this is over.”

  “Until what is over?”

  “This. The summons. We have to stop it first, before it’s completed, or they will succeed.”

  I could feel the energy building, and I turned to the shifters. There were so many of them.

  “Dr. Stone?”

  I pushed outward, drawing from the ley lines. As I did, I recognized what was taking place. They were drawing from the ley lines. That was what was holding the shifters in place, and preventing them from changing forms. And I understood the nature of it. It was a rune, and it was similar to the same one Charles had placed, and yet, I also understood how to disrupt it. I had seen it myself, I felt it, and had used that power. It was a sense of magic which filled me, rolling through me, coming from my blood as it connected me to power on the other side of the lake.

  I held onto that sense of power, and sent a surge of my awareness through it, using the power of the ley lines. I was not just using the power of the ley lines, but I could draw that power away, and redirect it. I needed to stop what was happening. I had to unsettle it, destroy the connection. Not just trigger it this time. And I thought I knew how.

  As I pulled on that power, I sent it flowing out from me, and I blasted it through the sense of magic I felt.

  It exploded.

  Magic burst against me. Shifters howled. And all of a sudden, something changed. The energy in the air shifted, and the shifters turned to wolf form, and tilted their heads toward the sky, howling. Magic burst from them, and it drew from the ley lines, though it was different. They used it, inverting it somehow, and they pushed the power away from them, sending it streaking outward. They were reforming the seal holding the Great Ones away.

  I looked over to Barden, and he nodded. With that, I raced toward Brad.

  19

  When I reached Brad, the blood streaming from his wrists to his ankles, and from his neck, was still fresh and wet. I held my hand on his chest. It was moving, though it was slight.

  The last time I had seen him like this had been after his accident, and he was bleeding internally, and my own connection to magic hadn’t been enough at that time to do anything to help him. Even now, I didn’t know if I had enough knowledge of my magic in order to save him. Yet, I couldn’t do nothing. I had to find a way, I had to find an understanding within me, and the more I focused on the power flowing through this place, the sense of the ley lines, the more certain I was that there had to be something.

  Charles was there, approaching alongside me. “Try this,” he whispered. He took his finger, and he dipped it into Brad’s blood.

  “I don’t think he can tolerate that,” I said.

  “You have to mingle yours with his.”

  “Why?”

  “It will connect you to something else.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Charles looked up at me, meeting my eyes. “You are a vampire’s familiar. You have a different energy. And you can lend it to him.”

  “Will anything be permanent?”

  Charles held my gaze. “I don’t know.”

  I had no idea whether it would work, but I didn’t know if I had enough magical energy in order to save him. I was powered by the ley lines, and connected as I was, I still didn’t know if it would even be effective. The more I focused on that sense, the more certain I became that there was power I wasn’t going to be able to draw upon. And it was more than just the power. I was going to have to use that in a way to save him, but I didn’t have the knowledge to do so.

  I watched as Charles made the rune, using Brad’s blood, and he traced it, but not as I expected. He traced it on Brad’s chest. Then he held his hand out, waiting for me. I stretched out mine, and he tapped his finger to the tip of my index finger, pricking it, and fresh blood welled to the surface.

  He took my hand, and he traced it through the rune, forming the same pattern as he had before. “Now,” he said.

  I leaned back, looking at Brad, seeing the lack of color in his cheeks, the way the blood was draining from him, and I wondered what I could possibly do. And yet, Charles had not led me astray yet.

  I called upon that power, using the connection to the ley lines, letting it fill me, flow outward from me. When it did, it struck the rune. There were two of them, and yet they were overlapping. It was different to the runes I had seen placed before, the way these were overlapping, and I could feel that power rolling away from me, rolling into the runes, and into Brad.

  I called upon more power, almost more than I thought possible, but as I was drawing on it, I could feel the way the energy was surging outward, and I continued to borrow that magic, letting more and more of it flow. It streaked out from me, drawn from the ley lines, flowing into Brad through the runes. I could practically see the way the magic worked, I could feel the energy, the way it was feeding him, and I thought I understood what was taking place.

  The pattern was a healing pattern. The more I focused on it, the more I understood just what it was meant to do. It was designed to hold steady, to restore, and it could be used for more than just a healing pattern, more than just to restore Brad. I had used this magic before, and I had felt its effects, but this was something different. This was an awareness of the way the magic was working, an awareness of how it was flowing outward from me, and it was an awareness of how the energy was changing things.

  I started to withdraw, but Charles held my hands in place, shaking his head. “Not yet.”

  “How do you know?”

  He smiled at me. “Just trust that I do.”

  I let power continue to flow from me, and as it did, the energy was there, and it was healing Brad. It radiated outward, and it was swallowed up by him.

  And then he took a gasping breath.

  Slowly, the color returned to his cheeks, and he opened his eyes, looking at me. “Did it work?”

  “Did what work?” The question was strange, and I couldn’t help but frown as I answered him.

  “They said you needed my help. Did it work?”

  I looked around the clearing, and I saw Matt Gillespie still trapped in the barrier. All of this because he had wanted revenge on me. All of this and he had used Brad against me. It was almost enough for me to want to squeeze the life out of him. But I was a healer. Regardless of anything else, I was still a physician. I was above that.

  “What happened to you?” I asked Brad.

  “Gillespie came to me, and he said you needed my help. He said something happened, and that I was the only one who could save you. I didn’t really understand, but he said it came from our connection. Did I help?”

  “You came willingly?”

  “I’m sorry about what happened.” He sat up, looking at me, rubbing his wrist. “I wanted to figure things out, but I didn’t want to lose you. And then Gillespie came to me, and he said you needed me. By that time, I knew.”

  “What did you know?”

  “I knew I couldn’t lose you. I don’t understand any of this, and maybe I never will, but I want to.”

  I tried to swallow back the lump in my throat, trying to ignore the emotions welling up within me.
“I don’t want to lose you, either. I thought you weren’t able to move past this side of me.”

  He looked around the clearing, and he frowned as he took in the sight of the shifters. I followed the direction of his gaze, and from there, we watched as John Adams was attacking the Shara, using various spell coins, and strangely, Charles was there, placing runes on the ground, holding the Shara in place. The nature of the spells was powerful, and they weren’t able to fight past it.

  They worked in combination, as John had recognized what Charles was doing, and he hurried, working his way through the clearing, making his way from person to person, placing spells to hold the Shara.

  “What’s happening here?”

  I turned my attention back to him, wiping the tears streaming from my eyes. “I thought I lost you.”

  “Why? Why would you lose me? I thought I was going to lose you.”

  “No. All of this…” I squeezed my eyes shut, and I couldn’t even bring myself to say the words. “All of this was my fault. Matt used you to get to me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’ve stopped him a few times already.”

  “How did you stop him?”

  “Well, Matt isn’t exactly what he led us to believe. And he’s not as good as he led me to believe.” I breathed out a heavy sighed, staring at him. “He works for a dangerous organization. And then he violated that organization, working against them.”

  “And he used me to get revenge on you,” Brad said, rubbing his wrist. He glanced down, and his hand went to his chest, to the scar running along his sternum. “Haven’t I paid enough for everything?”

  I nodded. “If you don’t want to be a part of this, I understand. You don’t have any magic, and this is beyond what anyone should be asked to face.”

  “Is this what you want?”