Postmortem

by SA Magnusson

  “What do you want with me?”

  “You are the one with power.”

  A shiver worked through me. That was what this was about. They wanted my power, likely to go after demons. That was what I had seen from the Dark Council already, and I wasn’t going to be the reason that more demons crossed the Veil. I wasn’t going to be the reason that another demon king managed to cross. Too much had been lost during the last attempt and I would refuse, even if it meant a sacrifice.

  “I don’t have any power.”

  “That’s not what Darvish tells me.”

  “Darvish is mistaken.”

  “Possibly. It wouldn’t be the first time he made a mistake.”

  Did they mean Derek? If that’s what he implied, did it mean that Derek was gone? Could they have killed him because he wasn’t what they wanted?

  The man grabbed me and jerked me to my feet. I could see him now and realized he was the same man as had come to the ER. He studied me a moment before pulling me easily through the warehouse. He guided me to a different door where there was nothing but darkness on the other side. I trembled, trying to fight, trying to use my magic to resist and escape, but unable to do so. I could reach that magic, but it wouldn’t help me. It didn’t free me from the effects of the paralytic.

  “Resisting will not succeed,” he said.

  “Who are you?”

  “I am control. I am power.”

  I started to laugh, unable to help myself. The Dark Council obviously took themselves too seriously. “You might have power, but thinking that you are power? It doesn’t work like that.”

  “You put too much faith in your council.”

  “They aren’t my council.” He had dragged me into a darkened corridor and led me to another doorway. From there, I hung, suspended and unmoving, waiting for him to decide what he was going to do with me. “But if you think they will allow the Dark Council to succeed, you’re mistaken.”

  “We have already succeeded.”

  “Have you? It seems that your attempt to raise a demon king failed.”

  “Yes, that. That was never our endgame.”

  I frowned. “If raising the demon king wasn’t what you wanted, then what are you after?”

  “You believe that raising the demon king was what we wanted?” The man glanced over at me, an unpleasant smile on his face. “There were some among us who felt such a thing to be important, but those of us who understand know the truth.”

  “And what truth is that?”

  It wasn’t sure that I wanted the answer, especially as while he bragged about being control and power, the fact was that he and Darvish did have me completely controlled and there wasn’t anything that I could do to escape.

  “The truth that the mage council is not quite as powerful as what they would believe. They have been weakened, and the attempt to summon a demon king will not be the last attack.”

  He stopped at a plain-looking doorway and pressed his hand on the surface, sending a surge of magic through it. The door opened and gentle light bloomed out from within it.

  He dragged me into the room.

  It was nothing like the other rooms in the warehouse. A hospital-style bed filled most of the space. A younger man lay on the bed, his eyes closed and a peaceful expression on his face. A monitor beeped nearby, reminding me of the hospital. The paneled walls were the only thing that took away from the image of the hospital.

  “Who is he?” I asked.

  “Someone who doesn’t matter to you.”

  “Why did you bring me here?”

  Did they want me to help him? Was this going to be the same thing as what had originally happened with Aron?

  The idea that I might have gained a reputation within the magical community as someone to help with non-magical healing left me troubled, but how could I not help?

  The strange restraints holding me relaxed, allowing me to move. I dropped to the ground and staggered over to the bed, my medical training kicking in immediately. He was younger than I had initially thought—probably no more than eighteen. I watched him, noting that he was breathing regularly. I checked his pulse, which was strong and steady. If I had a stethoscope, I would have listened, but as I didn’t…

  There was one hanging on the monitor to the left of the bed.

  It was a cheap style, the kind we used in isolation rooms when patients came in with potentially communicable illnesses, but it was better than nothing. I grabbed it and began to evaluate the man, listening to his heart and then his breathing, moving onto his abdomen to listen for bowel sounds. As I finished and started to work my way through my exam, the other man grabbed my wrist, turning me to face him.

  “Isn’t this why you brought me here?” I snapped.

  “Do you think that we would need you here for this? We would’ve been able to find any number of medical specialists. You are far too much trouble to bring here for this.”

  “Thanks, I guess.” I might be trouble, but at the same time, I was plugged into the magical world, so it wouldn’t be revealing anything to someone who shouldn’t know. But then I didn’t think the Dark Council cared all that much about the rules the mage council had established about who could receive information about the magical world. “If that’s not why you brought me here, then what do you want with me?”

  “You will heal him.”

  I shot him my sternest look, but it did nothing. I should know better, especially considering that if I failed at whatever they asked of me, I fully expected the paralytic to settle over me again, preventing me from moving, leaving me trapped. “That’s what I was trying to do.”

  The man shook his head. “Heal him.”

  I blinked, understanding what he was after.

  They wanted me to use magic.

  It meant that whatever had happened to this young man was magical in nature and they thought I could help him.

  Tentatively, I reached into my stores of magic and pulled some from deep within myself, pushing it out over the man.

  A spell held him, binding him, the same as had been over Tony and Ms. Jones. This was heavier, the pressure settling upon him much more solidly than even what had been used upon Ms. Jones. Considering I hadn’t been able to help her at all, I doubted there would be anything that I would be able to do for this man.

  “I don’t know that I can do anything.”

  “You were the one to heal the other. We have learned it was you.”

  That meant that they did have Derek. “I did, but I’m not exactly sure what it was that I did to help him. There was another who came in, and she died before I could help her.”

  The man’s gaze turned to the boy, and for a moment, a hint of warmth flickered across his eyes. He cared for him. Was he his father? “There was another?”

  “The first guy’s mother.”

  The dark mage never looked up. “You will help him.”

  “Or what?”

  He lifted his gaze and fixed me with a powerful stare. “There is no or.”

  He straightened and started to the door. Once he left, I would be alone in the room with this boy, nothing but my magic to help heal him, but not having any real idea about what was required.

  “Where is Derek?”

  He paused with his hand on the door. “That would be your friend?”

  “He’s the one you took first.”

  “Only because he led us to believe that he was responsible.”

  At least it confirmed what I had feared. “I need his help. He was with me when I helped Tony.” When the man frowned, I went on, “He’s the first person I healed.”

  “You need this man to help you?”

  “I need him to help me make sure that this man survives. He’s a nurse and I’m a doctor. We’re kind of a pair.”

  I hoped they wouldn’t know enough about medicine in a traditional sense to know whether or not Derek was really necessary for what I might do. Most of the time, those who grew up in the magical world were somewhat clueles
s when it came to the intricacies of day-to-day life outside it. That involved understanding the role of doctor and nurse, especially as people within the magical world could heal themselves and didn’t really need traditional medicine.

  “I will see what I can do.”

  He stepped out of the door and closed it behind him. A burst of magic surged against me and I instinctively pushed against it, but as I suspected, I was sealed in here. I doubted I would be able to open the door with my magic, even if I knew how to try.

  It left me alone here with the young man. I continued my exam of him, looking for any signs of injury as I rolled him from side to side before performing a neurologic evaluation. Even without any specialized imaging or lab evaluation, I could tell there was probably nothing physically wrong with him. He was young enough that there shouldn’t be. And there was what I felt with the magic.

  Someone was responsible for this, and if it wasn’t the mage council and it wasn’t the Dark Council, who was placing this spell on people? Whoever they were had considerable power.

  Aron had believed that it was the Dark Council and that they had placed the spell as some sort of punishment, but the fact that they had brought me here, wanting me to help restore this man, said otherwise.

  I focused on my magic. Without any other way of helping him, I would have to rely upon that, even if I wasn’t sure whether it was enough. The spell surrounding his mind was different than that I had detected over Ms. Jones. Hers had been thick, almost as if the spell had been squeezed into her mind, spreading across it in a way that made it difficult to tease apart. That had been different enough from what had been done to Tony that I was able to help.

  This was as different as what had been done to Tony and Ms. Jones. It was almost as if the spell evolved with each iteration. Could whoever placed the spell be gaining strength?

  It was possible it was not so much a gaining of strength as it was skill.

  At least with Tony, I had been able to feel the edge of the spell, and I was able to peel it away. With Ms. Jones, I hadn’t even been able to do that, struggling to reach for the edge. Dr. Allen had come in before I had a chance to continue to try, but there would be no one here this time to prevent me from using magic. There would be no attending coming in to try and save me.

  It might’ve been better if there were.

  Continuing to push on the spell, I reached for an edge of it, straining to see if I could find one, but if there was one there, I wasn’t able to detect it.

  It took a step back, letting out a breath. How long would they give me, forcing me to stay here? And what would happen if I failed?

  The door opened and I jerked my head around. Derek was shoved into the room, stumbling forward. I raced over to him, grabbing him to keep him from falling. The door shut with a loud crash and the magical seal was replaced.

  “Derek?”

  “Oh, Kate. They got you, too.”

  “What happened?”

  “When we were working on the patient, someone came to me and said they had family in the waiting room, and I went out to let them know what we were doing. They grabbed me and dragged me out of the waiting room. Out of the hospital.”

  “How did no one see it?” I asked.

  Derek shook his head. “I don’t know. Someone should’ve seen.”

  “Unless it was masked.”

  Aron could have done a spell like that, which meant that any mage of considerable power—which the Dark Council contained many of—would have been able to do the same thing.

  “They brought me here, the same way as you. When I wasn’t able to help…”

  I looked at Derek. Really looked at him. Traces of bruising worked along his cheeks. Considering the fact that he had some talent as a mage and would therefore be able to heal himself, I suspected the assault had been severe.

  “What did they do to you?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  I traced my fingers along his cheek, feeling for any signs of fracture. Derek didn’t move, standing there and letting me evaluate him. He watched me as I did, and I wondered what he was thinking.

  “Did you have any fractures?” I asked.

  There hadn’t been anything obvious, no deformities or step offs, nothing that would let me know that he had been more injured than what he looked like now, but with his ability to heal himself, it was possible that he could have an injury that I wouldn’t have been able to pick up.

  “It doesn’t work quite like that, Kate.”

  “I don’t really know how it works. I want to know how badly they injured you.”

  “It was bad. If there’s anything that you can do to avoid the same thing happening to you, you need to do it.”

  I looked over at the man. “They want me to restore him.”

  “Like you did with Tony.”

  “And like I tried to do with Tony’s mom, but…” I realized that Derek wouldn’t have known that Tony’s mom had died. He would have been abducted by then, and he would have missed out on the resuscitation and everything else that had gone into that. “She didn’t make it. Whatever was done to her caused her to arrest when she was in radiology.”

  “A head CT?”

  I nodded. “Allen thought he needed to have imaging to ensure that we weren’t missing anything.”

  “He’s usually pretty good about that.”

  “I know. I have a little bit of experience with it.”

  “Why did she arrest?”

  “Herniation. Too much pressure on the brain. We weren’t able to save her.”

  Derek breathed out, muttering something I couldn’t hear under his breath. “If we don’t save him, I don’t want to imagine what they’re going to do to you.”

  “I can defend myself.”

  “I know that you can, it’s just…”

  I squeezed his arm, wanting it to be reassuring but not certain that it was. “We have two options here. Either we help him and remove whatever was done to him, or we look for a way to escape.”

  “There is no way to escape. I’ve been probing along the barriers they’ve placed and can’t find anything.”

  “That’s because they’re using dark magic.”

  “And you think you should be able to bypass dark magic? You don’t have any training, so even if you knew how to get us past this, and even if you had enough strength, what makes you think that you would be able to get around dark magic like this?”

  Derek deserved an answer. He was a friend, and I trusted him certainly more than I trusted many people. But did I trust him enough to share with him the possibility that I was part demon?

  He’d already asked the question once and had me refuse to answer. Would I do the same to him again?

  I couldn’t. He deserved better.

  “What reason did my grandparents give you for keeping an eye on me?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Quite a bit. They asked you to watch me. Did they tell you why?”

  “They said you had potential, but you didn’t want to use it. You didn’t have enough training and they wanted to make sure that you were okay. You were working in a non-magical world and it’s one they don’t know about.”

  That wasn’t the only reason. It couldn’t be. I knew Gran and Gramps well enough to know that they would have more reasons and I should have asked Derek about this before. “That’s not all there was to it.”

  Derek met my eyes. “They wanted to make sure that if you used magic that you didn’t expose yourself.”

  I nodded. “Did you learn why?”

  He shook his head. “It didn’t matter to me. I owed them a debt, and I was happy to repay it in this way. There are plenty of people with potential who refuse to use their magic. I didn’t expect you to be quite so powerful, but considering their abilities, that wasn’t really a surprise.”

  “What kind of debt did you owe them?”

  He looked down at the ground. “It doesn’t matter.”

>   There was something to what he hid from me. The only way I could get him to open up was by being honest with him.

  “For the longest time, I worried I was a dark mage,” I said, starting slowly. Derek looked up at me. “My mother was a mage, but I don’t remember all that much about her. She died when I was young, leaving me with my grandparents. And I know nothing about my father. When my powers began to manifest, it was clear that my abilities were different than our typical mage.”

  “How?”

  “It doesn’t matter how. All that matters is that when my grandparents tried to teach me basic spells, things didn’t work out quite the way they expected.” Even those basic spells had gone awry. Most of the time, it was nothing more than a failure on my part to complete the spell as they were trying to demonstrate. Sometimes, though, the spell had different effects than what Gran and Gramps wanted. Those were those times it became obvious that my magic was different. “Over time, they began to suspect my magic came from my father’s side, and they suspected that I was a dark mage.”

  “That’s why you hid your abilities.”

  I looked over at the comatose boy, staring at him. “This could have been me. If the council had learned of me, if they had learned about my magic, they would have burned it off. It would’ve changed me. I had heard enough stories as I was growing up about dark mages who have their magic burned off to know that it changes people, most of the time in ways that leave them a shell of who they were. I didn’t want that. Thankfully, my grandparents didn’t want that for me, either.”

  “The council wouldn’t have done that, not without good reason.”

  “Are you sure? What constitutes a good reason for the council?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “It doesn’t matter. After the last attack, I apparently drew enough attention.” I looked over at Derek. “That’s the reason that we’re here. It’s my fault.”

  “I was the one who claimed it was me using magic.”

  “You did that to protect me and I appreciate it, but it wasn’t necessary. It might’ve been better for you to have stayed out of this.”

  Derek didn’t bother to hide the hurt on his face. “Better for me? Or better for you?”

  “I don’t want to be a part of this, either. I don’t know how to end this, and I’ve tried to get help, but even that wasn’t enough.”