We might actually win this thing, I thought.
My hair lifted on my head and arms, and I smelled ozone. Lightning flashed from the catwalk above me, striking Jo in the back. Her arms flung out to her side and she jerked like a rag doll being shaken, then fell to the ground, her head flopping over. Her eyes stared at me. Dead.
“Nooo!” Reggie shouted.
One of the enemy enforcers kicked Reggie in the gut.
I scrambled away from the stairwell, turned, and raised my pistol to aim at the source of the lightning.
Another lightning arc, and the Króls were flung in opposite directions. As my sight recovered from the flash, I saw a young man of no more than twenty above me with his hand outstretched. He had blond hair and a trim beard—the man who attacked the Fey during my transfer! His scowl reminded me exactly of Heather’s father.
Great.
“Orion!” I shouted. “Stop! We can talk!”
Orion’s scowl focused on me.
Dumb move, Finn. I should have at least tried to shoot him in the leg or something. But if I missed I’d lose any chance of talking this out, or worse, I’d have to tell Heather how I accidentally killed her son by shooting him in the crotch. Not a guilt, or an image, I wanted to live with for the rest of my life.
Which at the moment I estimated to be about thirty seconds.
“Finn,” Orion said. “Leave now, or the girls die.”
I noticed he didn’t mention that anyone but me should leave, and nobody stopped fighting. Well, except the gnomes. The last of them dropped down into their gnome hole. I noticed the waerwolf carcasses were gone as well. Amazing. Two things I never try to figure out—how time travel works, and the spatial laws of gnome product transportation.
“I have a better idea,” I said. “How about we all leave, and discuss this over sundaes down at Elevated? I mean, come on, Orion, this is crazy! Me and your mom, we used to be best friends.”
Orion laughed, the glowing tattoo on his throat dancing. “Oh, man, you don’t have a clue, do you? All I ever heard from Father was how smart you were, how talented. He was so worried you’d figure it out before we could kill that relic of an enforcer and—”
His brows furrowed as his eyes shifted to the battle between Zeke, Petey, and Gus. He whispered something. Lightning danced on his hand.
“Pete, Zeke, look out!”
Zeke’s gaze flicked upward.
Giant Gus moved in to strike him.
Pete bellowed and charged low into Gus, lifting him off his feet and sending him flying into Zeke.
I fired at Orion. The bullet struck the catwalk and Orion flinched.
Lightning lanced down and struck Gus in the back as he crashed on top of Zeke. Both men hit the floor hard.
“Gus!” Orion shouted. “No! Shit! You bastards!”
Was he sounding a bit breathless? He couldn’t have enough magic for many more strikes like that. Zeke moaned and heaved Gus’s limp body to the side. Pete offered a hand up.
Orion slapped the railing. “Why won’t you just freaking die!”
Movement behind me. I turned, raising the pistol. Reggie limped up to me. His eyes were red and radiated fury as he looked up at Orion. I glanced past him. The other two enforcers were on the ground, one of them bent at an extremely unhealthy angle.
I took careful aim at Orion. I only had one bullet left before I had to reload.
“We’re coming up there, and taking the girls home,” I said. “Your mother could use your help, so I suggest you do the same. There’s no need—”
“The first person to come up those stairs gets barbecued,” Orion said. Without taking his eyes off us, he leaned back and shouted over his shoulder, “Send out the beast-blood.” He glared at me. “If you shoot me, your sister and niece die. If you don’t leave right now, they die. If you don’t take responsibility for these deaths,” he waved at Zeke, Pete, and Reggie, who were still very much alive, “the girls die.”
“Zeke!” Vee’s voice rang out in the chamber, and someone shoved her at the rail next to Orion, her hands bound behind her.
“Vee!” Petey called.
“And as proof that we’re not bluffing—” Orion began.
Zeke’s face went red, his eyes bulged. He tilted back his head and roared.
He didn’t have the energy reserves to go berserk. It would kill him even if Orion didn’t!
“Zeke! You can’t—”
Zeke charged up the stairs, a berserker yell ringing off the walls. Orion raised his hand, lightning dancing along his fingers.
I shot. The bullet bounced off Orion’s chest with a bright flash, knocking him back a step. His robes were enchanted like enforcer armor.
Damn it! That was cheating.
Petey started after Zeke. I grabbed him. “Wait! If Vee falls—”
He looked up and sheathed his sword. “I’ll catch her,” he said.
Orion raised one hand again, the other rubbing his chest. I frantically opened the gun chamber, dumped out the empty shells, and scrambled in my pocket for bullets.
Vee head-butted Orion from the side. But whether because of the angle, or because her hands were tied behind her back, it appeared to have little effect other than throwing both of them off balance.
Orion recovered and unleashed lightning point blank as Zeke bound over the top of the stairs. Zeke’s arms flailed, his steps became the erratic dance of a drunkard, his lips pulled back from his clenched teeth, and his mustache began to smoke.
“Zeke!” Vee screamed. “Zekiel!”
Zeke flung something smoking at Vee. She flinched, then a glow surrounded her, and she disappeared. No, not disappeared. I saw a squirrel’s bushy tail over the edge of the catwalk. Then Zeke plowed into Orion, and they both fell to the metal walkway hard enough to make it jump.
Squirrel-Vee tumbled from the walkway and into Pete’s cupped hands.
I snapped the gun closed, just two bullets in the chamber, and ran up the stairs. Pete and the others followed close behind.
Zeke lurched up into a sitting position, straddling Orion, and began to beat at him with blistered, blackened hands.
“Zeke, stop!” I said. “Vee’s safe! You did it.”
The punches slowed to a halt, and Zeke fell over onto his back with a groan, next to the pile of Vee’s clothes.
There were wisps of smoke rising from his eyes.
“Vee?” he said through cracked lips.
Pete set Vee down, and she scampered over to Zeke’s head. There was a shimmer, and Vee sat on her knees beside him, naked, with one arm over her privates and the other across her chest.
“I’m here,” she said, her voice breaking. “Hang on, big brother. You’re going to be okay.”
Pete grabbed her clothes from the catwalk and draped them over her, blushing bright red. Bits of peanut brittle tumbled onto the walkway.
“I think I might’ve overdone it a bit,” Zeke said, his voice hoarse and low.
“Yeah,” Vee said. “You look a bit overdone. But not much worse than the time Father took us to the beach and you got that sunburn.”
Zeke laughed, but it turned into a cough.
Reggie wiped at his eyes. “You always were a fool, Zekiel. The bravest fool of us all. Don’t you go and leave again.”
Vee looked at me. “Please, do something.”
“I—” I bowed my head. There was nothing I could do. Not now. My power wasn’t much use on the living.
Zeke’s hand grasped at the air until Vee grabbed it. “You got plenty of folks here who’ll look out for you,” he said. Another fit of coughing wracked him. When it passed, he whispered, “Pete?”
“Yeah?” Pete pushed his way past me and Reggie.
“You ain’t a total fool, I guess. Get Vee outta here alive. Swear it.”
Pete put one hand over his heart. “I swear it, Zeke.”
A smile split Zeke’s lips. “Good. I love it when a plan comes together.”
A faint breath rattled out o
f him. And then he was still.
“No!” Vee said and buried her face on his chest. “No.” Her body shook as she cried.
Orion groaned and stirred.
“Oh good,” Reggie said and pushed away from the support of the walkway rails. “I want to kill this little bastard myself.” He stalked toward Orion.
A scream echoed out into the cavernous chamber from the nearby doorway. Sammy! I jerked to my feet and rushed to the door, pistol raised. The door led to another hallway. At the far end of the hall, Sammy writhed on the floor as if she lay on a bed of hot coals. Grayson’s voice called from out of sight, “I’m tearing her spirit from her body, slowly. If you don’t wish me to continue, then I’d like Finn to please join me.”
30
Karma Chameleon
Sammy’s screams came from the center of her being. They tore at my heart like serrated claws.
“Reggie!” I said as the bloodied enforcer limped over to Orion. “Don’t!”
“He didn’t say nothing about this punk being alive,” Reggie said, putting his boot on Orion’s throat.
“Grayson!” I shouted. “We have Orion. Let’s talk a trade!”
Sammy’s cries eased into quiet sobs. Grayson shouted back, “Bring Orion to me or the girls die.”
“Screw that,” Reggie said. “He’ll kill her anyway. We don’t negotiate with assholes.”
“Please!” I said to him. “You’re an enforcer. Don’t forget what that means!”
Reggie pressed down on Orion’s throat. Orion began to thrash and gasp and push against Reggie’s foot. “Not so easy to summon lightning when you can’t speak, huh boy?” Reggie said, grinding his foot a bit. Then he pulled his foot back and kicked Orion across the jaw.
Reggie raised his foot again but hesitated as Sammy’s scream escalated into throat-tearing howls. His boot stomped down on the catwalk. “Go ahead. Take the punk. But he’s a dead man walking.”
“Grayson!” I shouted. “Stop! I’m coming back. With Orion.”
“I should go with you,” Pete said.
I shook my head. “You have to keep Vee safe, Petey. Get her out of here as soon as I’m through that door.”
Reggie put a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll be right behind you if you need us.” He slipped something cold into my hand. I glanced down. Zeke’s collapsed baton, with pieces of burned skin still clinging to it.
“Thank you.” I tucked the baton up beneath my sleeve, then helped Orion to his feet. He sucked air in sharp, painful-sounding gasps, like a small dog about to vomit. He cried out in pain as I lifted on his arm. I lifted harder. Sammy’s screams stopped and turned to gasping sobs as I helped Orion shuffle through the doorway.
The thick metal door clanged shut behind me, causing me to jump, and the wheel lock turned. Reggie struck the round window with his baton and was thrown back against the catwalk railing with a flash of yellow light.
“They’re not getting in,” Grayson said. He stood now at the end of the hall, near Sammy’s head.
“Help,” Orion choked out, pushing me to the side.
Anger flashed across Grayson’s face at the sight of Orion, and his eyes glittered as they returned to me. “You’ve caused me serious problems,” he said. “Not all of them your fault, nor entirely unexpected, but I must admit I’m glad to be done with it.”
“We’re not finished yet,” I said. “Not until everyone gets out of here alive.”
“A little late for that, don’t you think?” he asked.
“Screw you.” My fingers dug into Orion’s arm and he screamed in pain.
“Do you really want to push me?” Grayson said, and he extended his hand over Sammy’s head.
I shoved Orion away from me, toward Grayson, then raised my gun. “Take him and let us all go.”
“I think not.” Grayson touched the wall. “In fact, I’d say your friends have about, oh, fifteen minutes to live.”
I heard a muted roar behind me. I spun and looked through the window. Water cascaded into the room from above, and the far door swung closed.
Anger surged up in me, volcanic and powerful. I stuffed the gun in my pocket and grabbed the wheel on the door, straining to turn it until my arms, my back, my neck muscles all burned.
The wheel didn’t budge.
I turned back and drew the gun from my pocket.
“Kill me and they all die,” Grayson said.
“You bastard!” My voice trembled with the anger and frustration coursing through me. “Is this the war you wanted? Killing innocent arcana and enforcers? For Merlin’s sake, you practically grew up with Pete and Sammy! How could you kill them?”
“I don’t want war, Finn. A war is inevitable. I merely intend to win it for the good of all arcana, including your family. Now, come, we have much to discuss. We may as well do so in comfort, away from the distracting noise of your companions.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not going to have tea time with you while you drown my friends and family!”
“No, of course not. But come, and I’ll offer you a way to save them.” He lifted Sammy to her feet and guided her around the corner. “Come, Finn! We have some time, but that’s no reason to waste it. Especially when there is so little of it to waste. Bring Orion, won’t you?”
Damn it. I grabbed Orion’s arm and half-carried, half-dragged him after Grayson.
The hall opened up into what looked like a living room from the 1970s, with a green shag carpet, orange sofa, a number of brown leather lounge chairs, and a bar along one wall. Grayson shoved Sammy through a door in the far wall, closed it, and flipped a deadbolt, then turned to me with a smile.
“Do you like the accommodations? The ARC occasionally uses this place to hold trade negotiations with some of the ocean feybloods. The rest of the time, I find it a safe, quiet place to think.”
“What do you want, Grayson?” I plopped Orion on the couch. He moaned and shifted into a less painful position, then promptly passed out.
“Oh, we have much to talk about, I think.” Grayson sat in one of the brown chairs.
I crossed my arms, the revolver resting in the crook of my elbow. “Why don’t we skip to whatever this offer of yours is?”
“I don’t think so. Once the offer’s made, I doubt very much you’ll desire to sit around talking with me. And I wish very much to talk with you now that the need for masks is gone. So we shall have our chat and deal with unpleasant offers after, yes?” He waved at the chair across from him.
I remained standing and cocked the pistol.
Grayson sighed. “As you wish. I have to say, that was quite the move, blowing up Felicity’s body. I expected you to hide it, or just run, but an explosion? You’ve got a touch of your father’s flare for the crazy.” He chuckled.
“Yeah. I’m the crazy one. So what’s your offer? What do you want in exchange for not murdering innocent people?”
“Come now, surely that’s not the question you really want to ask me? The one that’s burning inside of you?”
“Right now? Yeah, it pretty much is.”
“Well, it’s not time for that question.” He nodded at a clock on the wall. “We have at least ten minutes before the water reaches the catwalk and it’s sink or swim time for your companions. Until then, why don’t we play a game of twenty questions. You used to like that game, I believe.”
“How about we don’t and you just tell me what you want?”
“What I want is for you to understand the choice you must make.”
“So just tell me whatever it is you think I need to understand, and I’ll make the choice.”
Grayson slapped the chair arm and shouted, “Enough! You can do as I ask, or you can let your friends die. I will not debate this matter further.”
I looked at the clock. Another minute ticking away. “Fine. What am I supposed to be guessing with my twenty questions?”
“Why.”
“Because I need to start somewhere. I can’t just ask if it’s bigger than a breadbox.�
��
“No, I mean you must figure out why.”
“Why what?”
“Figure it out.”
“Aaughh!” I shouted at the ceiling. This was insane! “Look, I understand all about your little cult and its holy crusade, okay? Magus Verona told me. You’re seeking some super power to win the war and rule the world, cue evil laugh. Great. I get it. But if you’re going to try to convince me you’re doing the right thing, forget it. You can’t kill my friends and family and expect me to drink your Kool-Aid.”
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, Finn. I know you’re familiar with this concept. If we let the Fey or feybloods conquer us and take control of all magic, how many of your friends and family do you imagine would survive? Surely you don’t want that?”
“What do you care what I want? Why the recruitment effort? Are you really that desperate for approval?”
Grayson sighed through his nose. “You haven’t changed at all.”
“Sure I have. I’ve got these killer abs now thanks to the changeling. Wanna see?”
“I’d hoped you of all people would appreciate what I’ve done, and appreciate your own role in it. As much as Orion has served me well, you were the closest to a son I ever had.”
“Okay, now you’re just being a freak,” I said.
Grayson slapped the chair arm again. “You will show me respect!” he shouted.
Realization crept over me then like a frozen blanket of human skin.
“No. You—no. How? What have you done?”
A satisfied smile oozed across his face. “So you finally figured it out.”
“Immortality,” I said. “You always said it was their biggest advantage. Grandfather.”
Grayson—Grandfather—gave a single nod of acknowledgment. “They have that advantage still. This,” he waved at himself, “is far from a perfect solution. There are very few who could achieve it, and fewer still willing to do all it requires. But it is a start, and it allows me to continue seeking a true solution.”
I paced the room. The seconds ticked by, the waters rose in the other room.
“That’s why you erased my memory about Talking to warded spirits. You didn’t want me talking to Verona because you were afraid she knew, that she might tell me.”
Finn Fancy Necromancy Page 34
