by A C Spahn
Sam called a few hours after I woke up. “Kendall texted me. Are you okay? Are you dying?”
“I’m fine,” I said, suppressing a smile. On second thought, I let it out. It wasn’t like Sam could see. I briefed her on what had happened. When I finished, I could practically hear her mouth hanging open.
“Glad you got that guy,” she said. “What a–”
I cut her off before she could start repeating curse words she’d heard from Kendall. “How are you feeling, Sam?”
“Better. I haven’t had any nausea for two days, and I’ve been doing fine in school. Can I come back to magic lessons?”
I bit my lip. “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now.”
“What? Why?”
“I’m not a safe person to be around, Sam.”
“So?”
“So, I’m not willing to put you in danger just for educational purposes. You know enough to keep yourself alive. If all of this settles down, maybe then we can work something out.”
Sam went very quiet. I thought she might have hung up on me. When she finally spoke, I was startled to hear tears threatening in her voice. “Please don’t do this.”
I softened my tone. “It’s for your own good, Sam.”
“Yeah. That’s what my mom said when she left.”
The words stabbed me in the chest. For an instant I saw myself in Sam’s place, felt the deep, dark similarities between her past and my own. How many times had I been shoved aside with that same excuse?
We’re joining this group of fleshwriters, Adrienne. It’s for your own good.
We can’t tell Abuela and Abuelo about your magic, Adrienne. It’s for your own good.
We’re keeping you locked in this room until the sacrifice, Adrienne. It’s for your own good.
Shuddering, I tried to loosen the death grip I’d wrapped around my phone. “All right,” I said. “You can come back.”
“Yes!”
“But you have to promise you’ll obey me absolutely. If I say run, you run. If I say go home, you go home. If I say you can’t do something ...”
“I do it anyway?”
“Sam!”
“Okay, okay, sorry. I’m just a little eager to get out of the house, that’s all.”
“There’s one more thing. No fleshwriting. At all. Ever.”
“Ever?” Sam’s tone became combative. “But you just saved your life by doing that.”
“And nearly burned my brain in the process. That’s with a lifetime of magical experience and training by the biggest fleshwriter cult in North America. If you tried what I did, you’d be lucky if all you did was kill yourself. Promise me, Sam. You won’t channel any magic through your body again, unless you will literally die otherwise.”
“I promise,” she said sullenly.
“Good.”
“When do I come back to work?”
“I’m out of commission for a few days. You can hang out at the store with Kendall and Desmond until I’m better.”
“I’ll bring you some chicken soup, if you want.”
“I don’t think that will help.” Also I didn’t like the idea of Sam wandering around Union headquarters without me to keep her from antagonizing the Voids.
“Probably smart,” said Sam. “It’d be that crappy canned stuff, anyway.”
“I’m sure it’s no worse than what they’re feeding me here.”
We chatted a bit more before Sam had to go do her homework. I lay back in the bed and stared at the flat white ceiling, praying I hadn’t just condemned the poor girl to death at my side.
Chapter 14
SINCE I WAS IN Union Headquarters anyway, and there seemed little point in antagonizing Bane Harrow, the next day I pulled myself out of bed, with a pause for the slight dizziness to pass. Axel met me at the door from the hospital wing, and together we ascended a few floors to the prison block.
I shivered as we passed cell after cell, all empty. Much less pleasant than the mental ward downstairs, and much more heavily guarded, the Union’s prison was a place from which those who went didn’t always return. Homicidal vampires, murderous sirens, uncontrollable elementals, violent shifters, they all wound up here, along with any other paranormal elements too volatile for the human police to control.
I’d been here myself, a few months ago. Chilly fingers brushed my back as we passed the cell where I’d been held.
They had Vince at the very middle of the cell block, with a security camera trained on the solid metal door. A red line around the camera’s base made me think this, like the one near Maribel’s cell, was enchanted to absorb any stray magic that happened to find its way in. Bane Harrow stood outside, along with two other Voids I hadn’t met yet. Both were fortresses of muscle, one with a hard twist to his mouth, the other with the detached expression of one who’d left his emotions in his safe deposit box years ago and forgotten where he put the key. My steps faltered at the sight of them, and I found myself trying to put more distance between myself and Axel as well.
“Thank you for joining us,” said Harrow to me.
Eyeing his bodyguards, I replied, “You didn’t give me a choice.”
His eyes closed in silent frustration. “Let us call a truce for today, shall we?”
I ground my jaw. He was protecting me while I was vulnerable, and he had told me information he wouldn’t share with just anyone, but he’d also kept secrets, and I had no illusions that they were all now revealed. I knew from experience not to trust people in power. Especially those who commanded blind loyalty.
Relax, I told myself, forcing my fingers to unclench one by one. He isn’t Geralt. He’s not the enemy. This show of force isn’t for you. With a veneer of calm, I closed the distance to Harrow and the two pillars of muscle. “Truce,” I agreed, “for today. What do you want me to do?”
“Watch. Listen. You’ll be able to verify some of what the fleshwriter tells us, possibly catch him in a lie. I also hope your presence will unnerve him, prompt him to say things he otherwise wouldn’t. We need to know the identity of the spy the fleshwriters have among Voids.” Seeing my sharp glance at the bodyguards, he added, “These two know about that, and Axel has been heading our investigation searching for the informant.”
“You tell him everything, huh?”
Harrow smiled. “Almost.”
“Just so we’re clear, I can’t do magic right now. And even if I could, I wouldn’t use it to help interrogate Vince. I’m not going to become like him.”
Harrow paused. “I would never ask.” He flashed me a smile that I decided to take at face value, then signaled one of the guards to open the cell.
Vince sat inside on a metal seat, his hands cuffed behind him and his ankles shackled to the chair legs. My feet stopped moving at the sight of him. Despite his captivity, despite the fact that we were in the one place he was the least able to hurt me, fear still leaped in my chest. I forced myself to move the rest of the way into the room, wishing I had the drumming of magic to distract me.
Vince ignored me entirely. He flashed a thin smile at the Voids. “Gentlemen.”
“Murderer,” Harrow answered lightly, plopping himself onto another chair facing Vince. His posture had changed so abruptly that my eyeballs nearly fell out. The Void legionnaire leaned in the seat, draping an arm over the back and letting his legs sprawl out as if this were nothing more than a mild diversion. Mirth sparkled in his eyes, and his lips held a sardonic grin. A man totally in control, with nothing in particular to lose and no real concerns about the impending conversation.
This man, I thought, is a damn good liar.
Vince’s posture shifted, his legs adjusting so he, too, looked open and carefree. Or as carefree as he could look bound to a chair. I remembered Desmond once told me that interrogation subjects often subconsciously mimicked the behaviors of their interrogators, and maintaining an open posture could prompt others to be more open, too. Either Harrow was already working on Vince, or Vince wanted Harrow to think h
e was. I felt like I was watching two tomcats bristle and hiss at one another before a fight.
Vince shrugged one shoulder. “I haven’t killed anyone here.”
“I’m sure you have a body count somewhere, though,” said Harrow. “And you threatened to kill my assistant, which in Void territory, still counts.”
“Your assistant. Is that why you’ve got Vultures surrounding her like she’s the Secretary of State? Vultures is what we call you folks down in Florida, by the way.”
“You’re not from Florida,” I said. My voice came out flat and dispassionate, despite the gnats of fear still swarming through me. I was a pretty good liar, myself.
Vince finally looked my way, as if I were a houseplant he’d just noticed in the corner. And he wanted to set me on fire. “You’ve been gone a while. Things change.”
“Things like working with a partner?” Harrow asked.
Vince smirked. “I work alone.”
“Witnesses saw you in the city with another person in the car.”
“My driver. I called for a ride.”
“Do you have a record of that call?”
“Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced the phone I borrowed.”
“Of course you did.” Harrow smiled thinly. “So Geralt Sauvage transferred you to a cult in Florida.”
“You could say that.”
“How long have those two cults been allies? More than a decade?”
Vince snickered and leaned forward, intent. “I know how questioning works, small man. You lead me into correcting your mistakes, volunteering information so you don’t go running off with even worse conclusions. But you have nothing. You know nothing of what’s coming. And it’s going to stay that way.”
Harrow leaned forward as well, pale grey eyes gleaming. “What’s coming?”
“Your end.” Vince sat back, satisfied.
“You know the magic’s bleeding off your other victim?” I said suddenly. “Whatever you were planning to do with him, you can’t anymore.” Harrow shot me a glare clearly warning me to shut my mouth.
Vince smirked. “So his enchantment is fading already, huh? Too bad. But we don’t really need him anymore, now that we’ve found you.”
I swallowed. “You don’t have me yet.”
“It’s only a matter of time. Others will come. They’ll follow the same leads I did. You’ll never be safe.”
“My ... my car is gone. They can’t track me that way. I ... it’s a big city, I can hide ...”
“You think that lead on your car was the only way we tracked you down?”
“You sat there inside it for hours, hoping I’d come back,” I retorted, fire creeping into my tone.
Vince shook his head. “You were working with the Voids. I figured they’d push you into trying to bait me. If that hadn’t worked, I had other leads to follow. There’s nowhere you can run.”
My hands started to tremble. “We know about your spy.”
“Adrienne!” Harrow sounded furious.
Vince laughed. “Do you, now? You’re just a fount of information today, aren’t you?”
Words spilled from my mouth. “Your spy can’t help you with me. Harrow’s people already arrested her, right before they captured you.”
Vince went still, just for a moment, before smirking. “Nice try, little enchantress. But I’m not giving away her identity that easily.”
I smiled in return. “But she is a woman. And she does work in this Union.”
Vince’s smirk vanished.
Harrow’s eyebrows climbed to his hairline. “Well done.”
I shrugged. “Looking small and nervous makes people talk. Especially people who want to scare you.” I kept my hands folded. Otherwise they’d still be shaking. Strategic or not, my fear was very real.
Vince’s eyes smoldered with rage. “I’ll gut you. I don’t care what Geralt says, you’re dead as soon as I get my hands on you.”
“Geralt will kill you. He needs the magic in me.”
“You might be the strongest, but ...” Vince bit off his sentence, fury redoubling in his eyes.
Every muscle in my body tensed. “The strongest of what?”
Vince shook his head. “Of our cult, what do you think?”
“That’s not what you were talking about. You weren’t supposed to say that. What am I the strongest of, Vince?”
“I think you should answer her,” Harrow said, staring at Vince with equal intent.
I seized my shirt collar and yanked it down to expose the top of my enchantment tattoo. “It’s the strongest of these, isn’t it? Mine has the most magic in it, but you’ve made others. Others who couldn’t hold as much magic. How many? How many of us are there? How many like me are you planning to sacrifice?” My voice had risen to a shout as I spoke, but I didn’t care.
Vince yanked on his restraints. “You think you’re so smart, getting a little information from me? When you’re screaming and dying, you’ll wish you never opened your mouth. Even if I can’t do it myself, Geralt has plans for you. He’ll have you soon. You’ll wish you’d overloaded yourself like that other one before they’re done!”
The dead boy’s corpse flashed before my eyes. His tattoo, identical to mine. His body, burned from the inside out. Pain. So much pain.
Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. If Vince thought I was just trying to manipulate him again, so much the better. “I never asked for this.”
“None of us did,” snarled Vince. “But we do what we have to do.”
Harrow rose, glowering down at Vince. “We’re done for now.” A heavy hand descended onto my shoulder, and I jumped, but it was just Axel shepherding me toward the door. The other two bodyguards remained in the room with Vince, who shouted obscenities after me until the metal door slammed and locked.
To Axel, Harrow said, “Send a message to Orlando. Let them know our fleshwriter prisoner mentioned Florida. He was probably just trying to mislead us, but if there is a connection between Geralt Sauvage and the Florida cults, the Union there should be prepared for an attack. I also want to assign another guard to Miss Morales, as it seems the cult may be pursuing other means of locating her.”
Axel grunted.
“Then start looking into our female employees.” Harrow gave me another approving glance. “It seems one of them is our traitor.”
With another grunt, and a brief nod at me, Axel stalked away.
“That was effective,” Harrow said, turning to me. “I didn’t expect it of you. You portrayed fear very convincingly. I nearly believed you were genuine.”
I pressed my palms to my eyes, wiping away the threatening tears. “Yes. I’m a good actor.” Inside, my heart continued racing like a rabbit before wolves, and Vince’s words played again and again in my mind.
Geralt has plans for you.
He’ll have you soon.
Chapter 15
AFTER TWO MORE DAYS, my magical senses had healed. At least, they no longer throbbed every time I so much as touched an enchantment. Desmond offered to come pick me up, since I no longer had a functioning vehicle, and Harrow approved. He didn’t come right out and say I had permission to leave, but the implication bled into every word. I wasn’t proving much help with Vince anymore. Axel had taken a few more cracks at interrogating him, and while Vince had let slip a little more about Geralt’s alliance with another cult in Florida, he had clammed up tight about the spy among the Voids. I had only gone back once, and the leer Vince gave me convinced me to leave again right away. He refused to say anything when I was in the room.
Once I’d gathered the few possessions I had with me, including the bag full of my car decorations, I thanked the medical staff on duty and escorted myself to the elevator. Down in the lobby, Axel was waiting, leaning against the counter to talk to Cassie, the pretty receptionist. Again he managed to flex every arm muscle despite not doing anything strenuous. Cassie giggled at something he said, then her smile faded when she saw me.
Axel turned. “Leavi
ng?”
“About to,” I said.
“Harrow knows?”
“Do you think I’d have made it out of the hospital wing if he didn’t?”
Axel’s lip curled. “Fair.”
The receptionist opened her mouth.
“Don’t you dare say the Union is billing me for my medical care,” I said. “I remember what happened last time I had to stay here overnight.”
Her full lips settled into a vague smile. “All services were complimentary, Miss Morales. We hope you enjoyed your stay.”
“Oh,” I said. “Good. Thanks.”
She and I stared at each other, her I-work-in-hospitality smile still pasted on.
“Do you want me to fill out a comment card or something?”
Axel snorted. “Cassie, drop the act.”
The receptionist grinned up at him. “What act? This is a purely legitimate office solutions business, renting floors to other companies with no affiliation between them whatsoever.”
I glanced out the glass doors, to where traffic crawled along a crowded street. “Do any normals ever actually come in here?”
“A few,” said Cassie. “Last week someone wanted to ask about renting space in our building. And of course the families of the poor souls in the psych ward come by, but they already know about our world.” She flashed her front-desk smile again and made her voice even perkier. “If any others come in, though, I can direct them to exactly where they need to go.”
“Back outside?” Axel said wryly.
She winked at him.
I raised an eyebrow. “Are you two ...?”
“No,” said Axel, just as Cassie said, “Yes.”
I was rather proud of how well I hid my smile.
A familiar horn honked out in the road. Desmond’s aging BMW was double-parked outside, hazard lights on as he waited for me. Hefting my bag, I headed for the doors.
