Gemstones, Elves, and Other Insidious Magic (Dowser 9)

by Meghan Ciana Doidge

  Kett.

  I tried to talk but couldn’t.

  Then I realized I was touching something. The fingers of my left hand were threaded through … metal. Magic writhed, noting my attention on it. Needy, spiteful magic, full of declarations of vengeance.

  “Shh, shh …” I whispered, soothing the power. It settled under my touch.

  Kett pressed a kiss to my forehead. His cool magic smoothed away the dull ache that seemed to permanently reside in my head.

  “We didn’t get to save each other this time,” he murmured, teasing.

  He was gone before I could reply. Before I could thank him for reminding me who I was when I’d so desperately needed to know it.

  Or … maybe it was me who’d slipped away.

  Again.

  I opened my eyes.

  Blinking.

  I was in my bedroom. Lying faceup on the bed. The light was muted. Shadows across the ceiling.

  Someone was lying curled beside me.

  I turned my head. Pain streaked up my neck, resolving into black dots across my vision. I blinked some more.

  It was Mory next to me. And … and … there was something terribly wrong with her magic.

  I couldn’t taste it.

  The fingers of my left hand were twined through the wedding rings on the necklace she wore.

  That was odd … there was something odd about Mory wearing —

  “Jade? Jade!”

  I met Mory’s gaze. Her dark eyes were sunken, her skin sallow. But a grin spread across her face.

  “You look like hell,” she teased.

  “Right back at you,” I croaked.

  She shifted up, sitting propped up on one hand, but bent over me so I didn’t lose contact with the necklace. Both her legs were in hard casts.

  Her movement jostled me, and the resulting agony nearly pushed me back under the darkness waiting to consume me. To subsume me.

  “I held it for you, Jade,” Mory whispered. “The necklace.”

  The necromancer’s face came back into focus. She looked … sick. Really sick. Like something was eating her from the inside out … consuming her magic. That’s why I couldn’t taste it.

  “The necklace,” I murmured.

  “Yes.”

  “My necklace.”

  “Yes.”

  Magic shifted around us, around Mory’s neck. Then I was holding the necklace, my fingers still threaded through the wedding rings.

  Intense magic flooded up my left arm, streaking through my shoulder, neck, and head. Pain rampaged through every one of my nerve endings.

  If I hadn’t known any better, I would have thought the instruments were punishing me for abandoning them.

  Pain snuffed out my sight.

  Darkness swallowed me again.

  Voices.

  Raised.

  Arguing.

  My grandmother, my father, and … the treasure keeper?

  But muffled, as if coming through the door.

  I opened my eyes.

  Warner was pacing back and forth by my bedroom door. Dressed head to toe in leather armor and with his knife visible in its sheath, everything about him promised death and destruction to anyone who dared enter the room.

  My heart squeezed, then expanded until I thought it might burst. “I … I thought …” Tears flooded my eyes, choking my already reedy whisper.

  Warner spun to face me, instantly dropping to his knees by the bed. Pure joy was etched across his face.

  “I thought I would never get to see you again,” I said.

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  I lifted my hand, intending to press it against his face. Desperately wanting to feel his warmth, the scrape of his stubble. But the necklace and the instruments of assassination came with me, twined around my fingers.

  Warner laughed, quietly joyful. “Ah, my Jade. My Jade.” He gently cupped my hand, necklace and all, and pressed a kiss to my palm. “You’re moving. You’re healing.”

  “What’s going on in the hall?”

  “Pulou,” Warner spat. “Now that you’ve reclaimed the necklace, he thinks he can force Blossom to take it from you. You made some deal with the brownie before? The treasure keeper thinks it’s still in effect.” He paused, looking at me questioningly.

  I nodded. “When the healer needed to heal me in the nexus. From the gemstone … and the brawl with Pulou. He couldn’t do it with me wearing the instruments.”

  Warner nodded grimly. “He’s driven poor Blossom into hiding. Don’t worry, your mother is on the way. He won’t be able to justify his behavior when she gets here.”

  “I wasn’t aware she had that kind of power over guardians.” I laughed quietly. It hurt, but it hurt worse not to laugh.

  “Scarlett has them all wrapped around her little finger.” He pressed a gentle kiss to my hand again. “It runs in the family.”

  I smiled at him, but I could feel the weariness threatening to take me under. “Open the door.”

  “You’re going to let Pulou take the necklace?”

  “No. Just open the door. I’ll speak to him.”

  Intense emotion flitted across Warner’s face, and I watched as he visibly struggled to not argue with me. Then he shook his head, stood up, and stiffly crossed to the door. He pulled it open so hard that the knob embedded into my standing bureau. He glanced back at me.

  I gave him a look.

  He grinned, deadly around the edges. But not deadly for me.

  I chuckled quietly.

  Everyone who had crammed into the narrow hall of my apartment had gone silent. Warner stepped to the side.

  I angled my head so I could see partly into the hall. “Pulou.”

  The treasure keeper pushed past my grandmother and father, pausing just outside the door. He was massive in his floor-length fur coat, though his magic was dampened. Or maybe it was actually me who was drained. “Wielder,” he murmured.

  I lifted my left hand — the only limb I could actually move — to display the necklace. “The instruments will put up with no other mistress.”

  “Jade,” Pulou said kindly. “They are dangerous even when you are … whole.” He waved his hand. “And now, they nearly killed the necromancer.”

  “Mory. Her name is Mory.”

  “I am aware. I’m simply asking you to let me put them away, safely, until you are capable of retrieving them.”

  “And I’m simply telling you that when I die, you can rip them from my cold corpse. Until then, you must remain in a perpetual state of displeasure.”

  “Your death would not please me, Jade.”

  “There you go, then,” I murmured, epically weary from holding my hand aloft. “The instruments stay with me. When I die, I shall give Blossom permission to hide them away in the treasure keeper’s chamber.”

  “Fine?” Warner asked pissily. “Can Jade get back to healing now?”

  “Of course, sentinel,” Pulou said stiffly. “I meant no disrespect.”

  My eyes were shut before Warner got the door closed.

  “There’s something wrong with my legs.”

  “You’re still healing.” Kandy was curled up on the bed beside me. I could feel her magic, more than see her in the dark room. Not even a hint of moonlight filtered through the closed curtains.

  “I’ve been healing forever.”

  “It’s just … complicated. Qiuniu brought you back, right? But you … you weren’t breathing when Warner pulled you out from under the fucking stadium.”

  “Not breathing …” I murmured. I was still so, so tired.

  “They … the witches, Scarlett and Pearl … they pumped so much magic into you that they actually collapsed. All their reserves, just to hold you in stasis. Force your heart to beat. Mory says the damn leech helped saved you, so now we all have to be nice to the creep.” Kandy sighed. She shifted again, scrubbing a hand over her face. “And the healer and Burgundy have been working overtime between all the rest of us.”

 
“So … I’m … paralyzed? By the gateway?”

  “Jesus, Jade. We thought you were dead.” Her voice cracked, haggard. She pressed her face against my neck. I felt tears streaming down her cheeks. “I thought … I thought you’d left me. And that’s not the deal. That’s not the deal. I get to go first. Promise. Promise me, Jade.”

  I closed my eyes, terribly weary. “How about together?”

  Kandy laughed huskily. “Okay. Together. In a blaze of glory. You, me, Kett. And Warner, if he wants. I thought old toothy was going to end his immortal existence when he set eyes on you, lying here … Pearl thought that she and the sorcerers were going to have to figure out how to contain him. With everyone so drained, they didn’t know if they could hold him. And Warner wasn’t being at all helpful.”

  She curled into me more tightly, gently threading her fingers through mine. “We thought you were dead. We thought you were dead.”

  I pressed my other hand to her head, finding I could move both upper limbs now. Slowly, I twisted around so I could actually see my BFF.

  Her hair was pink. Like, neon pink.

  “What the hell is wrong with your hair?”

  Kandy laughed. “What? You said you thought I’d look adorable in the bakery.”

  Haoxin was standing by the side of the bed, peering down at me.

  I moved, slamming myself up against the headboard, pain ricocheting through my entire body in response. But I had only enough focus for the guardian, who had danced away in response to my movement. Standing just beyond my reach.

  Mory gasped. She’d been asleep in a high-backed antique chair of burnished gold standing in the center of the bedroom. I didn’t recognize it. Dripping with magic, it looked like something Warner might have dragged out of the treasure keeper’s chamber.

  I turned my attention back to Haoxin. Her blue-eyed gaze flicked down to my hand, then up to meet my eyes.

  My necklace was wrapped around my left wrist and forearm, though I didn’t remember moving it. My jade knife had appeared in my right hand, called forth by a sharp spike of self-preservation. My fingers felt thick, almost numb, but I could close them around the hilt.

  And I didn’t need fingers to unleash the centipedes.

  Haoxin snorted, watching me thoughtfully. “There you are. Your father said you were paralyzed.”

  “Apparently not.”

  “What are you doing here?” Mory demanded. She jutted her chin out belligerently even as she quaked in fear.

  “Really, necromancer. You should curb that tongue when addressing your guardian dragon.”

  Mory clamped her mouth shut, shooting me a look that urged me to take the petite blond down a peg or two.

  I was happy to oblige. “So. You look good for … you know … having been a beastly giant on a rampage only days ago. Fit, trim.”

  Haoxin smoothed her hands down her waist and hips, sneering cockily. She was wearing a sky-blue cashmere sweater over a charcoal-gray plaid wool pencil skirt. “Weeks, dowser. Not days.”

  My stomach bottomed out. Weeks. I’d been down for weeks? Keeping my gaze steadily locked to Haoxin, I gripped my knife tighter, ignoring the way my bent legs were starting to shake as I crouched against the headboard.

  I flicked my wrist, loosening the twist of my necklace. Magic expanded, then contracted. The necklace settled around my neck.

  Haoxin took another step back.

  And yeah, I smiled. Not nicely.

  Mory looked damn smug as well.

  “No need to be feisty, Jade.” Haoxin draped her arm across the back of the chair Mory was sitting in.

  I wasn’t certain if the guardian meant to be intimidating, but Mory shot out of the chair and hobbled around the other side of the bed, standing near the headboard. As close as she could get to me without climbing onto the bed itself, clutching Ed and her knitting to her chest.

  A look of regret flickered across Haoxin’s face.

  Yeah, it was difficult to stay friends with people you’d just tried to kill.

  “I come bearing a wedding gift,” Haoxin said. She smoothed her fingers along the back of the chair, then dropped her arm. “The chair has healing properties.”

  “Blossom brought it,” Mory said. Not contradicting the guardian, but just clarifying.

  “It took me some time to find it,” Haoxin said. “It was a gift from the former healer to my mother, when she was badly hurt.” She cleared her throat, covering something painful in the pause. Then she added crossly, “I was unaware that the treasure keeper had collected it.”

  “He likes to do that.”

  “Yes, he does.”

  “A shelving system would help.”

  “Yes!” Haoxin cried. “We must force a trip to Ikea on him.” She chuckled, then swept her gaze across Mory and me again as her smile faded. “I’m sorry I hurt you, necromancer. I understand you freed me from the portal, but I was … momentarily altered by its magic.”

  Mory nodded. “The oracle asked me and I accepted.”

  “Of course you did. I owe you a boon.”

  “A boon?”

  “If something is in my power to give you, you have only to ask.”

  Mory stared at Haoxin, thoughtfully caressing Ed’s shell. Then she nodded.

  The blond guardian’s lips curled in a hint of a smile. Then she pinned me with her intense blue gaze. “You and I are even.”

  “Neither of us were ourselves.”

  “Exactly.” And with that pronouncement, Haoxin crossed to open the door, pausing to look back at the chair. “The chair is yours for life, Jade Godfrey. Have it returned to the estate of Haoxin on your death.”

  “I will.”

  Magic shifted through the room, flowing between Haoxin, me, and the chair. Reminding me that using mere words to make binding deals with demigods who controlled magic was far too easy.

  “And Jade? That night, with the elves … thank you for using the centipede to take me down.” Haoxin touched her neck. “Rather than the silk ribbons.” Her gaze was remote, and I was pretty sure she was remembering the vision Chi Wen had shown her. Of her own death by strangulation.

  She was gone before I could answer.

  I lost hold of my knife. My legs collapsed under me, and I slumped sideways.

  Mory grabbed for me, but one of her arms was in a cast. I hadn’t noticed it underneath her bulky sweater. I touched the hard wrapping even as she struggled to get me under the covers.

  “What … your arm is broken too?”

  “Yep. Along with both legs. Though the ankle has healed.”

  “But … but … the healer?”

  “The witches pretty much expended everything they had, first on Gabby. Her magic was so drained it wouldn’t accept the healing. Then they worked on you and had nothing left. Then the healer couldn’t heal me.”

  “Because of the necklace.”

  “Yep. So Mom took me to the hospital and claimed we’d been in a car accident. Later, the witches were able to help some. But … keeping you going was a little exhausting for them all. And the healer has gotten called away a bunch of times, leaving for days. A whole week one time.”

  She shoved a pillow under my head, awkwardly. It hurt. I closed my eyes. “Sit in the chair, Mory.”

  “I have been.”

  “Now.”

  She laughed, but I could hear her hobbling over to the chair and settling into it. A moment later, the steady click of her needles started up.

  I smiled. “You were so brave, Mory.”

  “I was scared out of my mind.”

  “So was I. But never more than when I thought … when I thought you might not make it.”

  “Yeah. You died, Jade. Died saving me. Don’t do it again.”

  I laughed, sleep tugging me down, down, down in a spiral of peacefulness. “I would have gotten both of us free if I could have. But … I’d do it again.”

  “I know,” Mory whispered.

  I slept.

  “How did I get free?�
�� I asked. I didn’t realize that I’d spoken out loud — didn’t realize I was even awake — until my mother curled her hand into mine.

  “Warner,” she whispered. “And your father. And Kandy with those magnificent cuffs, though she was badly hurt and magically drained. But Mory tells me it was the shadow leech she calls Freddie who really made the difference.”

  “Freddie … wrapped around my head and shoulders …”

  “Yes, protecting your head. Warner was a terror. Your magic was … he couldn’t find you without the instruments. And Mory was wearing those.”

  I sighed. “But Mory could feel Freddie.”

  “Yes. And Tony had that tracking device on you, steadily telling everyone they were looking in the right place.”

  “Did it … did Freddie survive?”

  “She shows up every evening, even through the wards, and perches on your bedpost.”

  “She? Mory says Freddie is a she?”

  My mother laughed quietly. “The necromancer insisted. Your father is most disgruntled that a demon saved you when he was otherwise occupied. The leech makes herself scarce when he visits.”

  “Freddie isn’t just a demon,” I said, smiling.

  “No, my darling, she isn’t.” My mother smoothed her hand across my forehead. “You have that effect on otherworldly creatures.”

  I laughed quietly, then remembered the answer I’d been seeking, the concern haunting the back of my mind. “But what I meant was … how did I get free of the gateway?”

  “You must have freed yourself, darling.”

  That didn’t sound right. But there was obviously a lot I didn’t know, that I couldn’t recall. Maybe I had managed to pull myself free.

  Except … I was fairly certain that wasn’t the case.

  Magic tasting intensely of lilac prickled across my shoulders as Gran tucked the duvet up under my chin. I opened my eyes just in time to see her close the curtains over the darkened windows, then pause to check the sill for dust. It was spotless, of course, thanks to Blossom.

  “Hey, Gran.” I cleared my throat, freeing my arms from the confines of the bedding to reach for the glass of water on the bedside table.

  “Jade.” Gran smiled, stepping back to turn on the bedside lamp.