Trace of Magic: 1 (The Diamond City Magic Novels)

by Diana Pharaoh Francis

  I ate like I hadn’t eaten in weeks. It felt like it. Before I knew it, my plate was empty and I was stealing fries from Patti.

  “What is your plan to get Josh back?” she asked.

  Price leaned back and sipped his coffee, his eyes sleepy looking. I wasn’t fooled. He was on edge and angry with me, though I wasn’t all that certain why.

  “I take it Riley’s filled you in?”

  She nodded. “Mostly.”

  “I’m hoping Shana Darlington knows who is involved. We’ll question her and see if she knows who’s holding Josh.”

  “What if she doesn’t know?”

  “Then we’ll start knocking on doors,” I said. I traced an invisible shape on the table. “Why do you think Josh left me those baggies?” I asked Price. “Those people are probably paranoid. They’ll have nulls around their houses and workplaces, in their cars—the trace would be nothing more than intermittent bits of confetti. I wouldn’t be able to trace any one of them if I wanted to. There must have been another reason.”

  “Maybe he had another way for you to use them,” Price said softly. “It’s time to put your cards on the table. What can you do?”

  “Maybe it’s none of your business,” Patti said, slapping her hand on the table. She didn’t know what I could do, really. She never asked and I never said.

  He didn’t look away from me. “I can’t help her if I don’t know all the facts.”

  “The fact is that you’re a Tyet man and that’s all that matters,” she declared.

  My tongue clung to the roof of my mouth. An idea had occurred to me. I’d toyed with it before, but I’d never actually tried to create that kind of null. But now—

  Old ideas spun through my brain. Ideas I’d considered and dismissed as too dangerous to try. But I’d always wondered . . . Could it be done? Could I target a null at someone in particular? Tie a fragment of their trace to it so it would only go after that person and no one else? I could use the stuff in the baggies to locate the trace. The fact that it was confetti wouldn’t matter for that. Everybody thought tracer magic was mostly passive, but what if it didn’t have to be?

  “Riley?” Price prompted, interrupting my train of thought.

  I blinked, coming back to the moment. “What?”

  “You haven’t answered me. What can you do with those baggies?”

  His eyes were dark blue velvet, and they promised he wouldn’t betray me. I wanted it, that feeling of having someone watching my back, someone to lean on when I was tired and cold and shot. Patti would do it for me, but it wasn’t the same. This wasn’t her kind of life. But Price—he was scary, and when scary is on your side, it’s awfully comforting. Not to mention he was sexy as hell.

  I averted my face. Maybe if mine was the only life on the line I could risk it. Still, he needed an answer. It was the truth, even if it wasn’t the whole truth, or even the best truth.

  “I can maybe kill them,” I whispered.

  Chapter 15

  “YOU CAN WHAT?”

  It was nice to know I could surprise him. Patti didn’t seem particularly shocked, though I’m pretty sure she wondered if I would kill anyone. Big difference between can and will.

  “I might be able to kill them,” I repeated.

  “How?”

  Most of my brain was still spinning with piecing together the how, but I was becoming more and more certain I could do it. If my theory proved correct. A big if.

  “With a null,” I told him.

  He swore under his breath, something about strangling and infuriating women. He took control of himself and breathed out slowly. “Nulls don’t kill.”

  “The blood null I made came awfully close. If I could target it to an enemy—”

  “Holy hell.” He wiped his hands over his face. He dropped them to the table and leveled that piercing cop look at me. “What makes you so special?”

  Hurt drilled unexpectedly through my chest. I knew he was referring to my tracer abilities, not to me as the woman he slept with last night, but knowing it didn’t make any difference. The truth was I wasn’t particularly special: I wasn’t beautiful; I wasn’t a genius; I wasn’t super sexy; I wasn’t particularly brave or talented or anything else. I was damned average, except for being a strong tracer, which wasn’t a recipe for making a guy fall in love with me.

  I rocked back in my seat. What the hell? Why would I want him to fall in love with me? But I did. The realization was like a punch in the gut. Oh hell. I wanted to bang my head on the table. I was falling for him. I’d already fallen for him. How could I let myself be that stupid?

  “Nothing makes me special,” I said, putting my arms around myself and hunching in my seat. I felt like I was sixteen years old again and my boyfriend was explaining how he needed to start seeing other girls. It was ridiculous. I barely knew Price. How could I have fallen for him? “You’ve been around me long enough to know that by now.”

  “Wow, do you go around kicking kittens, too?” Patti said, scooting over to put her arms around me.

  I felt the tears starting to come and pressed my head into her shoulder so that Price wouldn’t see. Totally humiliating.

  “What are you talking—I didn’t mean I didn’t think she’s not—” He sounded vaguely panicked.

  Crying women had that sort of effect on men. I smiled into Patti’s shoulder, fighting to get myself under control. Maybe I was getting my period. That had to be it. Hormones were at work here. Get me some chocolate and some Midol. I’ll be fine.

  “Riley—” Price began just as the door jingled at the arrival of new customers.

  I felt Price go taut as the temperature in the room dropped.

  “I’m going to take care of this,” Price said, sliding out of his seat. “Riley go out the back. Use a null. Now.” He laid the key to the snowmobile on the table. “If I don’t meet you out front, then get out of here.”

  He didn’t look at us. His attention was fixed on whoever had come in. I pushed away from Patti and twisted to look over the back of the seat. Two men stood there. The black one had a scar across his nose and one of his front teeth gleamed gold. The white one was shorter and looked like he was as wide as he was tall. Neither looked friendly.

  Price walked down the aisle to meet them. He’d pulled his gun and carried it behind his thigh. Patti grabbed my wrist and scrambled out of the booth, pulling me after her. I snatched up the key as she dragged me toward the back.

  “I can’t leave him,” I said, trying to turn back and digging for my own gun in my coat pocket.

  She tightened her grip and pulled harder. “Do you remember how I’m supposed to tell you when you’re about to do something stupid? This is one of those times. He’s a cop and a Tyet enforcer. He’s going to eat those two for lunch. You’ll only get in his way.”

  “But what if they are too much for him to handle?” I’d reluctantly begun to follow after her.

  “Well, you could always bleed all over them. Let them beat the crap out of you until they get tired.”

  “You aren’t making me feel any better about letting Price take them on alone.”

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d start thinking you like that guy more than you let on,” she said, grabbing a jacket off the hook by the back door. “But then, that would be terminally crazy. Since I know you don’t have a death wish and you aren’t insane, I must be wrong.”

  I didn’t answer, concentrating on zipping my coat up.

  “Riley?” Patti said. “You aren’t saying—? Oh, hell, you do like him,” she said. “I don’t suppose I can slap you out of it?”

  I shrugged and gave a cracked smile. “Please try. It can’t go anywhere, even if he were interested. Which he’s not.”

  “Which only goes to show he’s a moron,” she said, taking off her
heels and stomping into a pair of knee-high snowboots.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Coming with you. Now shut up and do the nulls.” She pulled her hood up and yanked open the door. “Do the nulls now.”

  I wasn’t going to win the argument, so I didn’t try. I grabbed two of the marbles and activated them, handing one to her. These would last a day at least. I’d give one to Price, too. I didn’t want us to be tracked from here on out.

  Ben had cleared a walkway to the dumpster and plowed out the small parking lot, pushing a mountain of snow into the alley. He made a little extra money plowing in the winter and kept a snowblade on the front of his one-ton pickup. Since the alley was blocked, we had to go the other way around to the end of the block and back to the main street. It wasn’t far, but we had to walk out into the road. The snow was at least five feet deep against the building. Someone—Ben or the city—had plowed a strip down the middle of the road to allow for traffic.

  Patti and I trotted out into the roadway. A shot rang out. I sprinted around the building with Patti hard on my heels. Price was standing outside the diner, wiping blood off his chin with the back of his hand. Someone had hit him and left behind a cut.

  I skidded to a stop in front of him. “What happened? Who were they? I heard a gun go off.” The words tumbled from me as I looked him over for a bullet wound. I won’t say I was frantic, but my blood pressure was so high that I thought I might stroke out.

  He grimaced at the blood on his hand and wiped it on his pants. “They wanted me to know they didn’t like that bomb I set the other night for their buddies,” he said. “I let them know I didn’t care to be followed and shot at. They won’t be back.” He looked up the street toward the precinct house. “We should go. Someone probably called it in. I don’t want to be stuck here explaining myself. Got the key?” He held out his hand.

  I dropped the snowmobile key into it without a word. I felt like I’d been hit by a Taser. Fear and relief bounced around inside me, leaving traces of hurt in their wake. That endless moment between hearing the shot and not knowing whether he’d been killed or not had shown me just how much in love with him I was. Completely and hopelessly. The fact that we were little more than strangers and he worked for the Tyet didn’t seem to make much difference to my heart.

  “Wait,” Patti said, pulling me into a hug. “Be careful. Call me if you need me. You don’t have to do this alone. I mean it. Whatever you need, I’m here.”

  “I know. Thanks.”

  Price was already revving up the snowmobile. I climbed on behind him and he took off almost before I had my butt on the seat. I waved at Patti, then activated a null for him and dropped it into his pocket.

  It took almost a half hour to get back to Uptown. Price took us back to the tree in the park. There was more traffic out now as people hustled to do whatever they had to do before the next storm moved in. Already the sky was dark pewter. It wouldn’t be long before snow flew again.

  I swung off and waited for Price. He seemed lost in thought, staring down at the snowmobile.

  “I’d like to check Josh’s trace before we go in. I need to get into the compartment under the seat.”

  On the drive up from Downtown, I’d made a decision to keep our relationship impersonal. No more sex and kissing; no more flirting at all. Just business. I couldn’t risk him finding out that I was in love with him. Bad enough that it was true. Having him find out would kill me. He’d be all sympathetic and pitying, or worse, desperate to escape before I made a scene. No, thanks. I’d like to keep my humiliation to myself.

  He twisted his head to look at me. It was a measuring look. “You aren’t doing this alone,” he said.

  I must have looked as confused as I felt.

  “Patti said you didn’t have to do this alone. But you’re not.”

  Oh. That. I sighed. “As far as she’s concerned, you’re the enemy. She’s never going to believe you won’t stab me in the back at some point.”

  “What do you believe?”

  I shrugged. “What does it matter? It’s not like I have a choice either way.”

  “It matters to me.”

  He swung his leg over the seat so he was facing me. He fixed his gaze on me. Its intensity sent tingles all the way down to my toes. No. No more of him and me. I stepped back, crossing my arms so that I wouldn’t accidentally grab him and try to kiss him.

  “Now who’s wasting time?” I asked.

  He gritted his teeth. “Just answer the question.”

  “Fine. Sure. I trust you,” I lied. “Can we go now?”

  He stared at me another long moment. His eyes went flat and his mouth twisted down as he stood up. “By all means.”

  I flipped the compartment open and touched the burlap sack, opening to the trace at the same time. I closed my eyes and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. “He’s alive.” But for how much longer?

  I dropped the seat back down and clicked it into place. I was starting to get nervous and wishing I hadn’t eaten. The hamburger would taste a lot worse coming up than going down. I shoved my hands into my pockets, clenching them into fists where Price couldn’t see. “Where to now?”

  “This way.” He took off along the same track we’d followed before, but when we got to the corner of the park, instead of crossing the street as we had the first time, he turned in the opposite direction. I trailed a little behind to keep from having to talk to him. My head was a mess. Part of me was tangled up in my feelings for Price, and the other was considering how to target nulls to individuals to kill them. Just thinking about killing made me want to crawl into a hole and pull the dirt in on top of me.

  Most people thought trace magic was defensive. Mostly it was for finding people and nulling out harmful magic. My father had always told me I couldn’t afford to rely on my defenses. Sooner or later, someone would figure out what I was and come looking for me. If I wasn’t ready to fight back, I’d be a goner. I knew he was talking about my mom. His eyes would get this faraway look, and he’d look bitter and sad.

  Some of my earliest memories are of me sitting in his lap as he explained that I had to master my magic and learn to use it to protect myself and the people I loved. After he vanished, I tried all kinds of things. I was like a kid playing with a stack of matches. I got burned more than once. One time I ended up in the hospital with a concussion after my stepmom had to club me over the head when I got magic-locked and I couldn’t get myself free.

  I’d learned to attempt things I shouldn’t be able to do—like make blood nulls. Since tracers are considered the weakest of the five big abilities, if I could figure out how to make weapons, I’d have the advantage of surprise.

  Lost in thought, I wasn’t paying much attention to where we were going. All of a sudden Price twisted around and scooped me up, lifting me over a berm of snow. I squawked and grabbed him. He set me on my feet and started off again, grabbing my hand as he did. He laced his fingers through mine, pulling me close.

  I couldn’t help but revel in his touch.

  He went around a corner and up a covered walkway to an imposing brick house. With the snow frosting the roof and the cedar trees, the place looked like something off a calendar. Price tapped lightly on the door, and it instantly swung open.

  “Hurry up. We don’t need to be seen.” A reedy woman waved us inside.

  We obeyed, and I managed to untangle my hand from Price’s for about a half a second before he enveloped it again, holding firmly.

  “Cass, meet Riley. Riley, Cass,” he said.

  Cass looked borderline anorexic. Her bones jutted under her skin. Her blond hair was fastened in a ponytail on top of her head, and her skin was pale and washed out. She wore a blue long-sleeved shirt with a W. C. Fields quote that said, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. Ain’
t no use being a damned fool about it.”

  She looked me over, her gaze fastening on my hand in Price’s. She lifted her gaze to him, but didn’t ask questions. She motioned us to follow her.

  “In here.”

  She led us to a plush living room with white suede furniture, polished wood tables, marble lampstands, and art that probably should have been in a museum. It reeked of money.

  She sank down into the middle of one of the couches, folding her legs to sit cross-legged. “Let’s get on with his. I want to get home before the storm,” she said, cracking her knuckles and rolling her head around on her neck to loosen it.

  “You don’t live here?” I asked.

  She snorted and looked at Price. “Where did you find her? Under a rock?” Then to me, “I wouldn’t go dreamwalking with you from my own place. I don’t want to be tracked. We’ll have to null out of here when we go. You brought nulls, didn’t you?” she asked Price.

  He nodded and pulled two out of his pocket. These were smaller than the paperweights.

  “I get hazard pay, like we agreed, right?”

  “Already transferred into your account.”

  “Then let’s get started. Riley, is it? Sit down.” She patted the coffee table in front of her.

  I hesitated.

  “What are you waiting for? Look, we don’t have a lot of time. Do you want to do this or not?”

  I realized she had almost no eyebrows and her eyelashes were so pale I couldn’t see them. With the sharp angles of her face, she looked almost like a Sparkle Dust wraith.

  “Riley?”

  I wasn’t going to look at Price. I forced myself to let go of his hand and went to sit down. My muscles were clenched so tight I could barely move. I slid my hands under my thighs to keep them from shaking.