by Ciara Graves
Once I was dressed and armed, I waited for him at the door, not saying a word.
“How long are you going to be mad at me for this?”
“I’m not mad.” I fiddled with one of my daggers as we stepped out of his place and he locked up.
“Sure you’re not.”
“Look, you have your job, and I have mine. I’ll see what I can find out with Gigi, and you’ll go check out your leads. It’s what we both need to do.”
He touched my arm stopping me when I made for the stairwell. “Why don’t I believe that?”
“Dunno. Not my problem. Come on, don’t want to keep Gigi waiting.”
Rafael walked me inside Gigi’s shop.
I mumbled a bye and waited for him to turn around and leave.
He grunted a bye, said he’d check in with me later and stomped out. The door swung shut behind him, the cheery tinkling of the bell not matching my sour mood at all.
“Damn. It suddenly got chilly in here,” Gigi teased as she stirred whatever potion was currently in her cauldron. “You two get in a fight?”
“Nope.”
“Uh, huh. You’re full of shit.”
“Don’t want to talk about it. You have something with the claw yet or not?”
She stopped stirring and gave me a pointed look. “Sit down.”
“Gigi, I’m fine.”
“You don’t sound fine, and you look like shit. What’s going on, huh? The sleeping two days I can brush off, but what’s with the attitude?”
I propped my boots up on the table and picked at my nails with my dagger. “No attitude.”
“Damian on your ass again?”
“I said I’m fine. Drop it, alright?”
With her hands on her hips, she walked toward me slowly, a dangerous glint in her eyes. “Do not make me use a truth potion on you. Out with it. There’s nothing you can keep from me. Not now that I know all the other shit going on in your life.”
I was about to agree, then I grimaced. “Not all of it, actually.”
“What’s that?”
“The day after we left the Wailing Siren, Damian followed me and Bowen. He found out the rest, so I guess I should tell you, too.” After I told her, the only person left who didn’t know the truth was Rafael. I couldn’t bring myself to spill everything to him. It’d be worse if I didn’t, but how was I supposed to tell him I released a goblin criminal from prison and was currently working with him and a few others to track down hybrids created by an evil dragon? Oh, and by the way, I’m part dragon, so whatever shit Shuval stirred up, I’ll be dragged into, whether I wanted to be or not? These weren’t things I could just blurt out to Rafael. And he was a Fed, after all. First and foremost, he was a Fed.
I told Gigi the rest of what she needed to know, including the fight with Envy and the ley lines.
The second I mentioned a Blood Moon, her face paled, and she sank into a nearby chair.
“Gigi?”
“Sorry. I thought the other night was a lot to take in. By the goddess, Mercy, you really are trying to find the worst way to get yourself killed.”
“Why does everyone think that?”
“Your track record of late speaks against whatever you say.”
“I’m not losing control. I’m stable, for the most part.”
Her brow rose.
“What? I am.”
“You just told me you shot Todd—killed him—and now his ghost is haunting you. How do you expect to be stable? How have you not gone completely insane yet?”
“Not sure, but let’s not jinx it. One of the Gathered seems to think this has something to do with a coming apocalypse type thing.”
She leaned back in her chair, bobbing her head. “Gargoyles. A Blood Moon. The ley lines?”
“What about them?”
“The Blood Moon is powerful for many different races. If Shuval takes that event and taints it, if she powers the ley lines with the blood of innocents, any race affected by that night is at risk.”
“Of what? Being turned evil?”
“Or being killed. Fae, witches, warlocks, mages, all of us with power in our veins.” She was suddenly on her feet pacing madly around the room. “The blowback from whatever final ritual she performs—the damage that can do—we have to warn people.”
“We can’t.”
“Why not?”
“You know why. I’m dragonborn. So are most of those fighting against her and her forces. They might’ve been forced underground all those years ago, but they’re still fighting. If we draw attention to them, to our cause, what do you think she’ll do?” I stabbed my dagger into her table. “We have to keep doing what we can to stop her from the shadows.”
“Mercy—” she started, but the cauldron bubbled over and she rushed to it. “Damn.”
“What are you doing over there anyway?”
She stirred the dark blue potion, and I heard something clanking in the bottom of it.
“Making you a tracking potion with that claw. Just about finished.”
“I can find out where those things are going?”
“That’s how it’s meant to work, but if they were brought back by an extremely powerful being, my magic might not be enough. Yours, however, could be. You up for trying this time?”
“If it gives us a lead, yes.”
I retrieved my dagger from the table and pulled out my cell, about to text Rafael and tell him to get his butt back here. My fingers froze over the screen, and I finally shoved it back in my pocket. If this spell worked, I’d follow it and see where it led, then tell him afterward. If I found anything of note. Before Rafael, I did everything on my own. I’d have to get used to doing it that way again.
“Ready when you are,” I told Gigi.
She scooped out the claw from the cauldron. It gave off a blue glow, pulsing with her magic. “All you have to do is hold your hand over it, close your eyes, and imbue it with your magic. Give it a purpose.”
“Sounds easy enough.”
“And it is. Unless there’s a magical block on it.” She laid it on the table. “Have at it.”
I shook out my hand then shut my eyes and held it over the claw.
At first, my magic didn’t seem to be there at all, and I frowned, clenching my hand in a fist then opening it again.
This time, heat rose from within me and filled my hand.
I imagined it becoming one with the claw and using it to find the gargoyles.
Gigi’s shop fell away, and power rushed through me.
I gasped as images flashed through my mind’s eye, taking me to where I needed to go.
“Mercy,” Gigi said, worry coloring her tone, though her voice sounded far away.
“Almost there.”
The flames grew hotter around my hand. I winced.
My power had never stung before, but I was so close, winding through blocks in Sector 21, down alleys toward the older part of town.
So close… so damned close…
The images slammed to a halt.
I sucked in a breath, the air knocked from my lungs.
Gigi’s hand closed on my shoulder, but I was trapped, unable to break free of the tracking spell I’d brought to life.
A harsh cackling filled the air.
There was darkness, and then a taloned hand reached toward my face. The hand turned into the massive clawed leg of a dragon, its body forming out of the shadows.
It surrounded me, shooting fire into the air. Large golden eyes focused on me, and in them, I saw the end.
Then the fire was shot at me, and I was thrown backward.
Gigi hit the floor with me.
“Mercy, my goddess, your hand.” She held my right arm by the elbow as she helped me sit up, then told me not to move my arm.
“I’m fine,” I said, shaking my head to clear away the vision. Dread weighed on me, and I was sick to my stomach. The dread was quickly replaced by a stinging pain that grew worse, until I was sucking in breaths and holding my el
bow. My entire right hand, up to my forearm, was burned. “What?”
“Don’t move. I need to bandage the wound.”
“The claw, where is it?” I rose, ignoring her yelling at me to stop moving, and hurried to the table.
I sighed in relief. The claw was there. I could try again. As I reached for it, the damned thing burst into flames, just as the gargoyle body had. All that was left was the burnt outline of it on the table.
“One break, I just want one break one time. Is that too much to ask?”
“You can keep shouting at the universe, but don’t think it’s going to answer. Sit down, now and let me see your arm.”
I held it out to her without protest, too ticked off to do much else. That, plus the pain was starting to hurt. Bad.
She dabbed a white salve on it, then wrapped it securely.
I glared at the table the entire time. I’d been so close to seeing the location, and something stopped me. No, not something. A dragon.
“Shuval.”
“What did you say?” Gigi’s hands froze on my arm. “Mercy?”
“I think I saw her.” My voice was quiet, scared to say her name again out loud.
Had she been here, and we were too blind to see it all this time?
“No, that’s not… you can’t have. Right?”
“I don’t know. Never seen her before, but when I closed in on the location, I was stopped by a dragon that was breathing fire. Those eyes.” I shuddered remembering the promise of so much death and destruction in them. “It had to be her.”
“You really think she’s behind the gargoyles?”
“That mage with the Gathered told Rafael the only races powerful enough to bring them back are the reapers or the dragons.”
“The reapers? Why would they bring them back?”
I shrugged as she finished bandaging my arm and went to put her supplies away. “I don’t know, but I don’t exactly feel like dealing with anyone in Sector 13 right now.”
“Maybe I should go then.”
“What? No. You can’t go there alone.”
“I don’t have to,” she said quietly, turning to face me with a determined gleam in her eyes. “Damian isn’t the only one with contacts across the state.”
“Gigi—”
A loud knock came at the door to her shop.
The closed sign was flipped today so we wouldn’t be bothered.
She held a finger to her lips, and we waited for the unwanted guest to go away.
Except, the person knocked again. Louder this time.
Gigi grunted, frustrated, and marched to the door to send the person away. “I’m sorry, but I’m closed today,” she said brusquely.
“I can read, thank you,” a male voice answered, not unkindly, “but I’m afraid I’m here on business.”
“From who?”
“The Gathered. Mercy Temple. Is she here?”
Gigi frowned and closed the door as if to block me from being seen. “I’m sorry, I don’t know anyone by that name.”
“Yes, you do, and she’s inside your shop.”
“Gigi, it’s fine. Let him in.”
She gripped the door harder seeming unsure if she should listen to me or not then gave in.
The man who walked in was not one I recognized from the only time I’d ever met mages from the Gathered. His head was bald, and his robes were a deep shade of blue. He nodded at me politely as I rose, his eyes slipping to my injured arm.
“I have a message for you,” he said in that almost too-polite voice.
“From?’
“Quin Nolan. The leader of the Gathered. He has sent me here to fetch you.”
“I’m sorry. What?” I exclaimed
Gigi immediately stepped in front of me.
“Fetch me for what?”
“With the arrival of this new threat to our city, he feels you would be better off joining us. As your father did. We can teach you all you need to know and keep you safe in these dark, troubled times.” His brow wrinkled as he said it, though his concern felt anything but real.
“Not happening. You can leave. Now.”
He looked down at his extended hand. A hand I’d not reached for to shake.
He frowned. “I don’t think you understand. You are a very powerful mage. Just running around the city. We cannot let that be.”
“I’ve done just fine on my own, all these years.”
“Fine? You have nearly died several times because your power is unstable. It is well past due for us to figure out why. And then, to help you control it.”
For them to do that, they’d have to learn that I was dragonborn. The moment they did, they would either cast me out or attempt to kill me.
The mages were one of the races which were the greatest advocates for the mass extinction of the dragons.
I crossed my arms and backed away from him. “I said no. You should leave before this gets messy.”
His eyes flared gold. His magic pressed in around me.
Gigi clutched a hand to her throat, struggling to breathe under the weight of it.
He smirked as if his magic would be enough to drag me out the door with him.
I kept up the act that I was fighting it, when really it was simply a nuisance. I snaked my left hand under my coat and gripped the hilt of my sword, ever-present at the small of my back.
As I hunched over, the mage, taking advantage of my vulnerable state moved in closer.
I lunged at him, drawing my blade. It extended to its full length against his throat. With a yell, I drove him back into the wall and held him there.
“You rely far too heavily on your magic.”
His eyes narrowed in anger. He attempted again, but the blade dug into his throat, drawing blood. “If you kill me, you’ll have far worse to deal with than gargoyles.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Far worse. They are only the beginning.”
I held the sword firmly as I fought the urge to kill him and be done with it. His words bothered me.
“Beginning of what?”
“Of foes you’ll be facing that you cannot hope to defeat. Not without joining us.”
“Is that so?”
Why did I suddenly get the feeling Rafael was right? That the gargoyles were targeting me, but not because of some evil plot of the reapers or even Shuval. The Gathered wanted me to join them. Bad enough to send gargoyles after me? They were damned hard to kill, almost like they couldn’t feel pain. Were they even real?
“Fair warning. That’s all. Quin would not be happy to hear of this incident.”
“Too bad for him.” I removed the blade.
The mage adjusted his robes.
I hauled back my fist and punched toward him, striking his face with the hilt of the sword.
He gasped as blood spurted from his nose.
“Go tell your Quin to back off or this will only be the beginning for him and the rest of you. Got it?” I opened the door and threw him out it, slamming it shut behind him.
“That was certainly interesting,” Gigi remarked as I wiped the blood from my blade with my sleeve then collapsed the blade and tucked it out of sight.
“That’s one word for it. I think they’re behind the gargoyles.”
“What?”
Briefly, I told her my theory. Her scrunched face said she wasn’t buying it.
“It’s possible though, right?” I countered.
“It is, but I want to do some more poking around. Call a few people.”
“Be careful, alright?”
She rolled her eyes. “Like you’re one to talk. You should call Rafael, tell him what happened.”
“Why? He’s not my guardian.”
“No, but I’m pretty sure he’s something to you. Unless that’s why you’re in a rotten mood.”
She was right, but I wasn’t about to admit it. “Life with Rafael is about to get extremely complicated. I’m not sure I can deal with a relationship right now. On top of all this othe
r crap falling on my head. That’s it.”
“And why not have him help you with all this crap? Thought he already was, actually.”
“He is. But doesn’t mean we have to get involved.”
“Don’t do this,” she said with a heavy sigh. “You finally find a guy who can take all your shit, and you’re going to what? Run from it?”
“He’s going to remember,” I burst out. “He’s going to remember that I let Rufus out of jail, that I’m dragonborn, all of it. Plus, he’s a Fed. What do you think he’s going to do with that information?” I stormed toward the door, shaking my head. “Better this way.”
“Better to make him dislike you instead of simply telling him the truth? Do you really have that little faith in him?”
The question stopped me cold. I trusted Rafael with my life. He trusted me, too, but this war with Shuval was only getting started again. I’d have to get my hands bloody again. Have to break more laws, and he was a Fed. He might understand it, but how could he stand by and let me do what had to be done? I wasn’t the only dragonborn either. What if others started coming here to help? I would not be the reason we all ended up locked away in some secret Fed prison. He was bound by duty. Me? I was only after revenge.
“I’ll see you later. Call me if you find out anything,” I told Gigi, avoiding her question.
“Wait. Rafael and Damian don’t want you out there alone.”
“I can take care of myself.”
She muttered something about calling one of them herself.
I walked outside sucking in a deep breath. I needed proof the Gathered were behind the gargoyles. Not Shuval or the reapers. Gigi might believe they had something to do with it, but why else would Quin send a mage to collect me after I’d been attacked twice? And the tracking spell had taken me awfully close to the Gathered’s Citadel. I’d head back to my place and see if there was anything there that I could go off of.
