Curses & Blood

by Kim Richardson

  The fact that I was even running was a miracle. I should be dead. I felt the last seal lift and break, as did Logan and Faris. We all saw the light and felt the sonic boom that followed, just like the last two times. I knew without a doubt that the spell was complete. It was done.

  But I was still breathing.

  I didn’t know much about Magicae Lucis, no one did, or the spell that would rid the world of magic. It was a complicated spell. Perhaps it would take a while for it to remove all the magic and the magical beings—like me. I’m talking hundreds of thousands of supernatural creatures. Even millions.

  The strange thing was, even after the clear break in the last seal, and even though I was still very much alive, something had changed.

  I felt it. A loss of sorts. A loss of connection. It was as though something was missing inside me, like a part of me had up and disappeared.

  I felt it leave me, like the mist from my breath, and vanish into nothing. Like the rope that was tied to that well of magic was slipping away from me, out of reach. I felt I could still see the rope, but no matter how hard I tried to grab it, it moved further along. Until I knew eventually the rope would be cut off and then disappear altogether.

  But I had to hold on. I needed to. Just a while longer.

  Faris had felt it for sure. His being quiet was all the indication I needed. If Logan had sensed a change in me, he didn’t elaborate.

  I was a witch. Without magic, what did that make me? Human? Less than human? I guess that wouldn’t matter if the spell finally had run its course, and all of us magicals came to our untimely end.

  I didn’t want to think about death, or how I would die or when. Would it hurt or would all us magicals and paranormals just vanish from existence like a puff of smoke?

  It was a troubling thought. I had so much more to live for, so much more to give. I loved life. I wasn’t ready to let it go. Hell no.

  And yet I felt it. Magic was dying. There was no denying it. I knew for certain that if we hadn’t rushed to complete the tracking spell, I might not have had the magic left to work it, let alone use it as a tracking device to find the book.

  The magic that sustained the tracking spell weakened, the glow subsiding every passing minute. When the magic stopped working, we were all doomed.

  I wasn’t ready to give up. Maybe there was still time. I had to believe that.

  The trip from Manhattan to Sleepy Hollow that had taken us an hour and a half the first time took us only fifty minutes with Logan’s scary and hold-on-to-your-butts speeding. I was certain Logan was going to smash the car and kill us all.

  He didn’t. Not only was he a hot angel-born warrior with demon hunting abilities. Apparently, he was skilled in car racing too.

  And I never wanted to live through that ever again.

  Astrid’s skull had led us back toward the city—to an industrial park in Brooklyn, to be exact. When Astrid’s skull’s soft orange light intensified and swelled into a harsh glow that consumed the entire car, I knew we were close.

  After we’d ditched the car, we ran on Metropolitan Avenue past industrial parks littered with trucks, chain link fences, and more trucks. They all looked the same, more or less, with boxy two or three-story buildings and no windows or landscaping. They were just bordered by concrete and gravel parking lots.

  The avenue was lit only sporadically, and the glow from Astrid’s skull was pointing east, away from the light and into, of course, a totally unlit area.

  Suddenly, the skull’s orange illumination flickered and went out.

  Oh no.

  “Damnit!” I halted and didn’t have to say anything as both Logan and Faris stopped the moment I did.

  “What’s up?” Faris’s leaned over me.

  I shook the skull. “I don’t know. It just went out. Oh… wait a minute. It’s back on.” Orange glow spilled from the eye sockets, though it continued to flicker now. That made me nervous.

  “Looks like your spell is running out of juice,” said Faris.

  “Tell me something I don’t know.” It was more likely my magic.

  A scream rose from somewhere in the distance behind us, far away and barely audible with the loud sound of traffic coming from the busy avenue. Maybe I was hearing things.

  I kept going. With each step, my lungs burned like the air I was breathing was toxic and scorching my throat.

  Had I mentioned that I hated running?

  Not only did I suck at it and looked like a seventy-year-old lady with stiff joints, it didn’t help that I had two stupidly fit males running next to me. Logan looked like a seasoned jogger who could run at this pace for another twenty-four hours without slowing down, and Faris, well, I think the bastard demon was actually floating. Worse, I knew they’d adjusted their speed to mine since I couldn’t catch up. That made me feel loads better.

  Screams erupted all around us. I heard the crash of metal in a loud echoing boom followed by the explosion of glass. I winced and turned around, searching down the avenue. Four cars were stopped in the middle of the street, resting haphazardly with their fronts smashed up and smoke sizzling up from the hoods. One small white sedan was turned over to the side.

  Passersby ran to the scene of the collision, and one man pulled the woman driver from the white car. She was screaming hysterically, waving her arms and pointing to something off to the side of the road.

  “What’s going on?” asked Logan, the strain from running not even noticeable in the even tone of his voice.

  “Maybe she doesn’t have insurance.” Faris stood next to me.

  The screaming rose. And this time it wasn’t only the woman. All the humans involved in the accident were yelling and screaming and running away from the incident.

  For a second, I thought it was because the cars were on fire and were going to blow—I blame too many Hollywood movies for that visual—but then I saw a dark shape haul itself over the roof of one of the cars. It was the size of a medium dog, its red scales glimmering in the streetlight. And then another joined it on the next car over. And then another. And another.

  Fear licked my spine. Yeehnu demons.

  But it was much worse than that.

  A rippling wave of black waters shimmered in the air, five feet from the collision. The air cracked, and a horde of ghouls, yeehnu demons, imps and shadow demons spilled out. They rushed out, animal-swift, in a blur of twisted, bulging faces and limbs. Their maws were full of sharp teeth and each had staring black or red eyes.

  I counted thirty before I lost count. Some rushed toward the screaming humans while the others disappeared down the dark street.

  I stood horrified as another Rift shimmered and cracked into existence a hundred feet from us. It barely formed before another twisting mass of lesser demons spilled out in search of their human feast. And then another one opened.

  My heart slammed against my chest, and I nearly dropped Astrid’s skull as the largest Rift I’d ever seen shimmered into life. It stood at least one hundred feet long, the size of about ten regular Rifts combined.

  Ghouls and imps let out howls of fury as they surged from the giant Rift, the light of the streetlights glinting on their teeth, talons, and horrible, hungry, sunken eyes.

  It was starting. The Veil was collapsing.

  Worse, the humans could see the supernatural. They saw their nightmares turning real before they tore out their throats. It was all going to hell.

  Fear cascaded over me. “The Veil is dying. It’s falling all around us,” I said. “Look. Rifts. The demons. They’re going to kill all these people.” I felt myself move forward, and then a strong grip pulled me back.

  “There’s nothing we can do for them,” said Logan, his hold iron-hard and his expression pained.

  “He’s right,” agreed Faris. “If we don’t get to the book soon and destroy it, it’s only going to get worse. This right here”—he gestured with his hands—“will look like a church picnic.”

  “Let’s keep moving. Come on!” L
ogan pulled me into a run with him.

  I continued, fueled by fear and adrenaline. I’d never run this hard before in my life. Every second wasted was a second away from the end of our world.

  The skull led us into a large parking lot. Across from us sat a gargantuan building lined with individual red doors. Storage units. I pushed my legs faster, my thigh muscles burning in protest as I rushed down the street with my companions next to me.

  We made it across the parking lot. I was exhausted, and my feet throbbed with pain. I could feel giant blisters forming on the backs of my heels and under my toes. My boots were comfortable, but they weren’t meant for a night’s jog across the city.

  Another kind of pain lingered as well, an ache that went all the way to my core—a sickness. A sheen of sweat broke all over my skin, and I felt it trickle down my back. The worst fever I’d ever had pulsed into existence. I was dizzy, and I felt like I had a really bad case of the flu. Not good.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Faris, his voice even like he was sitting in a chair and not sprinting across a street. Hate him.

  “Nothing,” I lied, knowing something was wrong. I was… sick. I was dying.

  “Are we close?”

  I slowed down. Astrid’s skull consumed my view as I pulled it up and tried not to trip while I looked at it and jogged at the same time. “Think so,” I panted and wiped the sweat from my eyes. “The light. Is stronger here.”

  Distant screams rippled in the air along with the sharp cries of pain. I felt ill. The sound of sirens ghosted through the streets. I wasn’t sure what good that would do.

  “Which one?” asked Logan.

  I looked back at the skull and my lips parted. “Crap.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “The light’s gone out.” I shook the skull like you would a flashlight whose battery was running out. I shook it again and felt a wash of relief as the orange glow appeared in the eye sockets. Just barely. In a few seconds, the magic would be spent. Then I’d be neck-deep in the crapper.

  Following the intensity of the skull, I moved it to the right. “That door,” I said, pointing. “The last one on the right. Hang on.”

  With Astrid’s skull under my left arm, I grabbed my phone and texted Raynor our location before slipping it back into my pocket. I didn’t know where the witch was, but if he was here, he would have texted me by now. Even if his magic was diminishing like mine, we needed all the help we could get.

  We were moving again, though my feet protested. They felt numb, wet, and slippery with blood. My vision blurred.

  The large, red metal storage door loomed into view. Almost there…

  “Get down!” screamed Logan, pulling me down with him and crushing his body over mine.

  The breath escaped me as I hit the hard pavement with Astrid’s skull miraculously still in my grasp. Faris landed on the ground next to me.

  Guns roared all around us, hitting the ground near me like a metal hailstorm. If we stayed here, we were dead.

  Logan pulled out his gun, and my ears whistled as he blasted away. The sounds of gunshots stopped for a moment.

  “Well, at least we know we’re in the right place,” said Faris. His eyes narrowed. “You don’t look so good, darling.”

  I wanted to answer, but my lips didn’t seem to want to work. I was so tired. Part of me just wanted to lie down and take a nap.

  “Up you go, Sammy!” cried Faris, and I felt his strong hands pull me up.

  I blinked through my blurred vision and saw four of the EAM group on the ground, lying in pools of their blood.

  One of the red metal doors at the front of the facility began to roll upward, just like a garage door. And through the opening poured six more EAM members. Large, hostile-looking guns hung in their hands as they ran toward us.

  Not good.

  “Get her inside!” howled Logan as he reloaded. His face was set in determination, but his eyes were wide with fear. Then he took off in the line of fire. He blurred forward with supernatural speed, the swiftness gifted from the angels, and hit the ground. He slid over the cover of a parked car effortlessly, like maneuvers I’d seen performed by stuntmen in action movies. But this wasn’t a movie. This was real life. He was mad. He was going to get killed.

  “Come on, dearest,” urged Faris and we ran toward the red door.

  An EAM member leaped from the shadows, his gun pointed at me.

  I lurched to the side, out of the line of fire as the gun shot twice and bullets went by me with a whistle.

  I was weak, but I wasn’t dead yet.

  I pulled on my sigil rings and howled, “Vento!”

  Pure kinetic force lashed invisibly through the air and caught the EAM member in the chest. It hurled him across the parking lot with a violent force. He hit the wall of the storage building with a horrifying crash and slumped to the floor.

  My head pounded, and my muscles convulsed, bowing my body with the strain it took to conjure the spell. I took a step to steady myself and vomited. There was blood in my vomit. I stared at the red stain on the ground, seeing it, but not wanting to see it. My knees buckled and if Faris hadn’t caught me, I would have fallen on my face.

  “It’s not time to rest yet,” said the mid-demon, hauling me with him. “You’ll be fine. You’re fine.” I wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince me or himself.

  We reached the opening. I leaned on the frame to catch my breath, feeling as though I was going to throw up again. I rested a whole two seconds until Faris grabbed my arm and pulled me inside with him.

  I hobbled forward, thinking of Logan, with my ears still whistling from the gunshots. We didn’t meet any more EAM cronies. Maybe they were all outside shooting at Logan. I pushed the thought away as I staggered deeper into the facility.

  Halogen lights flickered above as I picked my way around what looked like giant snow removal trucks, gleaming and stinking of fresh paint. The facility was huge, but we’d gone maybe a few hundred feet in before I felt it.

  The air grew colder, the scent of sulfur choking as I felt a chill cover my skin. Dark, malevolent energy pulsed around us, slow and thick like the beating heart from a giant beast.

  It was coming from somewhere straight ahead.

  “This way,” I told Faris as I staggered forward.

  I didn’t even need Astrid’s skull anymore. I just followed the cold pulsing of energy coming from the Magicae Lucis.

  We started together across the building and made it to the end where a single metal exit door greeted us.

  “Out there,” I told him. “It’s out there.”

  Faris flung himself at the exit door. It swung open and I stepped through.

  We emerged into a vast courtyard and onto a concrete patio, elevated a few inches off the ground. The whole area was surrounded by high hedges and trees. Wind rustled around me. The silver moonlight, brighter than I would have thought possible, gave everything an eerie, surreal beauty. Too bad it was the end of the world and all that. Otherwise I might have wanted to stay and enjoy the view.

  A breeze brought forth an odor of blood, and a cloud of foul energies struck me in the face. A body lay on the patio, in the center of a blood circle. Blood was sprinkled everywhere. Sigils and runes were inscribed around the circle and the body, and black candles burned at five central points.

  Her throat gaped wide open. She was naked and covered in a black-brown crust of dried blood over various stab wounds on her chest and thighs.

  Nausea hit and I closed my eyes for a second, swallowing my urge to throw up. I knew her. It was Irva.

  A black, leather-bound book rested next to the circle. The Magicae Lucis.

  My eyes moved to the single black-cloaked figure standing next to the body. I clenched my teeth, gripped whatever magic I had left, and marched to confront the EAM member.

  The figure spun around and faced me as I neared.

  I froze.

  Narrow blue eyes fixed me under the shadow of his hood.


  But it wasn’t an EAM member at all.

  It was my father.

  CHAPTER 25

  This time I did drop Astrid’s skull.

  “You!” I shouted. The emotions soaring through me gave me the strength I needed to fight my nausea. “You’ve been behind this? You’ve been helping these anti-magic idiots?”

  My father smiled at me, his eyes wide with a madman’s gleam. Blood trickled from his nose and when he spoke next, a layer of blood covered his teeth. “Ah. My daughter. How nice of you to come.”

  He came at me with his arms wide and welcoming, as though he wanted to hug me. His long black cloak swirled dramatically at his heels.

  “Stay back,” I warned. Faris stepped next to me to show solidarity. “The last time you touched me, you threw me into the fire.”

  My father halted, but his smile stretched to his ears, making him look like the character Joker, from the DC Comics.

  Faris tutted. “That’s not very fatherly. More deadbeat dad. More sick bastard who’s about to get a capital ass-kicking.”

  Although the last time I’d seen the witch was only four weeks ago, he looked different, older. His eyes were sunken into his skull, his cheekbones stark, his face gaunt with wrinkles like that of a much older witch. His once-wide shoulders were thin, and I could see the bone poking from under his cloak. He was barely recognizable. The spell had taken a toll on him—probably the only good thing to come out of this damn spell.

  The images of that night, seventeen years ago, all came back in a violent rush followed by the smell of my burnt skin and the pain. I could never forget pain like that, no matter how hard I tried.

  I stared at my hands, at the scars, the only reminders of him. A hatred, so deep it was primordial, rushed to the surface.

  “I’ve been wondering where you were hiding,” I said, curling my fingers into fists. I tasted blood in my mouth. “I knew you’d weasel your way in some loser group. I just never imagined it would be with humans who want to rid the world of magic.” I cast my gaze around the ritual at Irva’s dead body. “You did it. You completed the spell.” My blood pressure rose. “Why her? Why did you kill Irva? She wasn’t a witch.”