by Hall, Linsey
A calm, relaxing magic emitted from it. The magic was hard to describe, but I’d bet this would do the trick.
“Help me lure him to the sarcophagus!” I called to Del.
“Hey, Boris!” she yelled, waving her arm. She stood behind the sacrocphogus, leaving me with the job of pushing him in.
Thanks, Pal.
The mummy whirled around, then stalked toward her. I raced after him. He veered around the sarcophagus, but I shoved him in, cringing when my hands met his cold wrappings.
His top half bent over the sarcophagus and he struggled.
“Ugh,” I bent down and grabbled his cold legs, then tried to heave him up into the sacrocaphagus. “Little help, here!”
Del joined me and we heaved him into the big stone box. He thrashed and turned over.
“Hold him down!” I uncorked the bottle.
Del pressed on the mummy’s shoulders, pinning him, and I held the vial over his beak, praying to magic that this would work.
There was a hole at the end of his beaked mask, so I poured the potion over the spot. The liquid was silvery and clear.
A second later, he calmed.
We stepped back, watching him warily.
“Feel better?” I asked.
He started to rise, and I stepped forward to push him back in. But his movements were so slow, and so indicative of someone who was tired, that I hesitated. He gestured to the room and all the treasure, then to me.
“What?” I asked.
He gestured again, pointing to a pile of gold and then to me.
“I can take some?” I asked, my FireSoul jumping in delight. Normally, I’d take stuff anyway, but I always returned it after we’d taken the magic charm from the artifact. But was he giving me permission?
That was a first.
The mummy nodded.
I smiled. “Thanks.”
He lay back down, and a moment later, his magic disappeared and his limbs stilled.
He was asleep. Or dead. Whatever the case, he was happy about it.
Del slumped to the ground. “For magic’s sake, that was weird.”
“Yeah.” Even my knees felt a little weak. I was used to spells and monsters and demons, but not mummies. They were parts of history. The idea of hurting one had freaked me the hell out.
That had been a close one.
I glanced around the room, finally able to take it all in. “Whoa.”
“Yeah. This dude was loaded.”
Furniture was everywhere, with gorgeous boxes filling in the rest of the space. In one corner was another pile of wood, no doubt the boat for the deceased. The dry air kept everything fairly well preserved, but magic was obviously playing a role, too. The food, set out thousands of years ago for him to take to the afterlife, was still fresh-looking.
“Can’t believe that guy didn’t mind that we take some of this stuff,” Del said.
“I know. Easiest job we’ve ever done.” Our shop, Ancient Magic, made its profit selling the magic encased in enchanted artifacts. With time, magic decayed and became unstable. If left to its own devices, it could cause some serious problems. Explosions, plagues, that kind of thing.
So we stuck to taking magic from the dangerously decayed artifacts, and we returned the original artifacts to their sites. We then put the magic in a replica and sold it. It kept us on the right side of the law and our consciences clear.
“Let’s start by finding the dampening charm. Got a lead?” I asked Del.
She closed her eyes, no doubt focusing on her dragon sense. An ugly little twinge of jealousy hit me, but mostly it was a sense of loss. I’d only been without my powers for a week, and I was already flailing.
“That way.” Del pointed toward the edge of the room near the mummy’s feet. “In that small box on the floor, I bet.”
I went to it and dropped to my knees.
“You do that,” Del said. “I’m going to see if I can find a latch to open a door to get out of here. I don’t think the boat will go back through the wall.”
“Okay.” I reached for the box. It was the kind that had a lot of little fasteners to open it. I worked at them, being as careful as I could.
There was a flash of golden light, then Del’s exclamation. “Got it!”
I glanced up. She was standing near an arched gap in the wall. A door. Good.
I turned back to the box and opened it. A wide, gold bracelet sat on a bed of white cloth. I reached for the cuff. Torchlight glimmered on its shining golden surface, but it wasn’t the gold that was so entrancing. It was the promise of its magic. If this worked, I’d have my powers back.
My fingers trembled as they grazed the smooth surface. I gripped it and picked it up, sliding it onto my wrist, where it sat, cool and heavy.
“Shit!” Del cried.
I whirled around.
Five demons had appeared, their burnished red skin gleaming in the torchlight. Small horns protruded from their heads, and their fangs peeked out from their upper lips. They were armed with flaming swords, and their magic smelled like a garbage fire.
Oh, we were screwed.
CHAPTER TWO
Where the hell had they come from? This place was blocked from transporting.
Unless they protected the treasure, and once I’d touched it, they’d been called? But we’d disturbed the pyramid’s booby traps in other ways. I’d have thought they’d have come at that point.
Del’s magic swelled, the fresh cotton scent drowning out the dusty aroma of the pyramid. Her skin glimmered blue, and she lit up the dim room, especially when she drew her sword, which glowed like cobalt flame.
She lunged for the nearest demon, going corporeal long enough to lop off his head before turning back into a phantom.
I called upon my magic, reaching deep within and praying that the dampening charm worked and I could access my innate gifts.
But I got nothing. Just the same familiar emptiness of my nullification magic. Disappointment welled as I yanked off the cuff.
I was about to shove it into my pocket when a demon appeared beside me. He sliced his blade toward me and I leapt back, but the tip of the sword caught on the cuff and knocked it out of my hand.
It flipped end over end, flying across the room to land in a far corner amongst some boxes.
I ignored it, lunging out of the demon’s reach and grabbing the twin obsidian daggers strapped to my thighs. Looked like I’d be doing this the old-fashioned way.
The demon charged as I flung Righty at him. The black glass blade sunk into his eye. A horrific sound gurgled from his throat as he dropped where he stood, his fire-sword clattering to the ground and the flame dying. I hurried to him and crouched to pull the dagger out of his skull, gagging slightly at the squelchy noise. I wiped it on his shirt, then raced across the room to join Del.
She was whirling through the group of demons, a phantom dancer with deadly intent. Her blade moved fast as a whip, turning to steel long enough to sever limbs and pierce hearts.
Ever since she’d learned she was part phantom earlier this year, her deadliness with a sword had gone off the charts. She couldn’t be killed while in phantom form, so she’d gotten even bolder with her moves. Demons dropped like flies, which was good, because they kept appearing out of thin air.
“Little help here!” Del called.
“On it!”
I flung Righty at a demon creeping up behind her. The blade pierced his chest. Before he even had a chance to fall, I nicked my finger with Lefty, using my blood to ignite the magic that connected the two daggers. Righty pulled itself out of the demon and flew back to me.
As much as I’d loved these blades back when I hadn’t been able to use my magic, they now felt cumbersome and weak compared to my now-lost ability to shoot lightning from my fingertips.
Del and I set up a pattern, her taking the demons on one side of the room while I took the other. Our blades flashed in the torchlight, and we dodged the artifacts and treasures, not wanting to trample an
ything. The bastard demons didn’t seem to care, though. They swung their fire swords with abandon.
And there were too many of them. They just kept appearing.
“We gotta run for it!” I glanced toward the corner where the dampening charm had fallen. It hadn’t worked, and we were being overrun here. Leaving it was the best option.
“Agreed!” She lopped off one more head, then spun to charge the exit.
We raced through the room and down the corridor, occasionally turning when the sound of footsteps grew too close. I’d fling a dagger or Del would plunge her sword, but there’d always be one demon shortly behind the other.
My lungs burned with the strain as I pushed myself harder, trying not to lose my footing. The only way to escape these guys was speed, though I had no idea what we’d do when we reached the cursed hieroglyphs room. Try to outrun them, I guessed.
We were almost to the hieroglyphs room when a demon caught me by the collar, dragging me back.
I screamed as he raised his flaming sword over my head.
Get it together!
I dropped my weight hard to the floor. The demon stumbled, but his grip didn’t loosen. I rolled, swiping out with my blade.
It cut deep into his forearm and blood spurted, spraying my face with warm wetness.
I gagged as his grip loosened, then yanked myself away and stumbled back. When I had enough room to move my arm, I flung Righty. The blade sunk into his chest, and he fell to his knees.
Behind him, two more demons raced toward us.
“On your left!” Del shouted.
I dodged, allowing her to race past me. She killed one demon with a powerful swipe across his jugular, but while she was corporeal, the other got her in the side with his blade.
She screamed and stumbled away. I flung Lefty, aiming for the demon’s neck. It plunged in, and blood sprayed across the corridor.
As he fell, I raced to Del, who was leaning on the wall, her face drawn.
“You okay?” I pulled at her shirt, trying to see her wound.
“Yeah, yeah.” She raised her shirt to reveal a shallow slice. “Just a little one. But damn, those fire blades hurt. Like, incapacitate you hurt.”
“Yeah, probably to stun you while they go in for the kill.”
“Bastards.” She glared at the bodies on the ground.
They were already starting to disappear, returning back to their hell. That was the nice thing about demons—you didn’t get the guilt of having actually killed them, and they cleaned themselves up once they were dead.
I glanced back down the corridor, but saw no more coming.
“Why aren’t there anymore?” I asked. We hadn’t passed any kind of threshold that would have stopped them, like sometimes happened with tomb guardians.
“Killed ‘em all?”
“Maybe. But their numbers seemed pretty endless.”
“Yeah, it is a bit weird that they stopped coming,” she said. “But you got the dampening charm, right?”
“I grabbed it, but it didn’t work. A demon knocked it out of my hand, and I didn’t have time to get it back before we ran for it.”
“Let’s go get it.”
“But it didn’t work.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe we need to do something with it. Ignite the magic or a spell. And we can get a few items for our shop, courtesy of our mummy friend.”
“Good point. And maybe we can fix up some of the damage those damned demons did.” I hated to leave an archaeological site worse than when I found it. It was irreparably altered, but maybe I could help a bit.
“Just keep an eye out for more demons,” Del said. “They might reappear when we get back to the treasure room.”
I nodded.
It didn’t take us long to make our way back. With the door now open to the main treasure room, we didn’t have to build any boats.
When we reached the entrance to the treasure room, we hesitated. Without a dozen demons with fire swords, it didn’t look quite so bad. There were a few broken boxes and artifacts tumbled around, but for the most part, it looked almost whole.
“Keep watch,” I said. “I’ll find the dampening charm and some artifacts.”
“‘Kay.” Del tugged the bag off her back and handed it to me. In her phantom form, she stepped into the room, her sword raised.
I went to the corner where the dampening charm had fallen. Ornate wooden boxes were stacked about waist high. I searched between them, finally spotting the glint of gold. I grabbed the cuff. When I pulled it out, I scowled at it and shoved it into my pocket.
“Sense anything particularly old?” I asked Del as I went to the center of the room.
She pointed to a box that had tumbled to the floor and broken open. “That guy feels almost expired.”
I knelt at the box and immediately felt the magic. It pulsed strongly and smelled of turpentine. I turned the box upright, opened it, and peered inside.
Delicate white fabric was wrapped around an object about eight inches long. I pulled my phone from my pocket and snapped a pic, recording the wrapping style so that when I returned the artifact to the box after we’d taken the magic, I could wrap it up the same way. I should have done that with the dampening charm, but I’d lost my head a bit.
After setting the phone on my thigh, I peeled the fabric away. If this had been a human archaeological site, the fabric would be as fragile as a layer of dust. Unwrapping the artifact would have destroyed the fabric and possibly the artifact itself, depending on what it was made of.
But because the supernaturals who had built this pyramid had enchanted it against decay, I had a lot more freedom in my work.
The fabric fell away to reveal an alabaster statue of Bastet, the Egyptian cat god. The magic pulsed even stronger when I held the alabaster against my skin, but I couldn’t quite identify it.
I snapped another picture of the statue in front of the box so that I returned it to the right one, then moved on to several other boxes. It was hardly proper archaeology, but it was the best I could do.
After I’d filled my bag with four artifacts that contained nearly-decayed magic and taken the needed pictures, I stood.
“All done,” I said.
“Good. Let’s scram.”
“Agreed.” This was one of the most amazing pyramids I’d ever been inside, but I didn’t particularly like it. Between the dampening charm not working and the demons with fire swords, I hadn’t had a postcard-worthy experience here.
Though it was weird that more demons hadn’t shown up this time around once I’d started fussing with the treasure. I didn’t like that at all. Not one little bit.
Were they supposed to be guarding the treasure, or had my nullification powers made my concealment charm fail? Because if it was the latter…
The monster could find me. And the last person I wanted to run into was Victor Orriodor.
“Yeah, it’s a dud.” Nix turned the dampening cuff over in her hands, then looked at me, sorrow in her green eyes. “For you, at least. It’s not strong enough.”
“Damn.” I leaned back on the couch and stared at the ceiling of my apartment, my chest feeling empty.
Del and I had made the slow journey back across the desert, returned the camels to their owners, and transported to our shop, Ancient Magic, where we’d dropped off the artifacts.
By the time we’d gotten back, it’d been after five. Nix, who normally watched the front counter, had been cooped up in the shop all day, so she’d insisted we get the hell out of there. She’d wanted to go to Potions & Pastille’s, our friends’ coffee shop/whiskey bar, but I’d insisted on a shower first.
I had sand everywhere. And demon blood. And sweat. Basically, I was a nightmare. If it were Halloween, I wouldn’t need a costume.
And we had an evening memorial service to attend at seven, so showing up covered in blood was not a great idea.
While I’d showered, Nix had fished a Pabst Blue Ribbon—my hillbilly hipster beer of choice—
out of the fridge and handed it to me through the curtain.
“You’re a lifesaver,” I’d said.
And she was, quite literally. Nix, Del, and I were sisters by choice. Deirfiúr, in our native Irish. We’d awoken in a field at fifteen with no memories except that we were FireSouls on the run from someone who wanted to hurt us. We’d called him the Monster, though we’d recently learned he was named Victor Orriodor. In the ten years we’d hidden from him, we’d saved each other countless times.
“So you’re telling me it could work,” I said. “Just that the nullification power I’m saddled with is too strong for the dampening charm to have much effect.”
“Yep. There are a few dampening charms out there of different strengths. There’s one at the Museum for Magical History that’s super strong.” She made an explosion motion with her hands.
“Yeah?” Hope flared in my chest.
“Too strong. As in, obliterate-all-your-magic strong. It’s actually a pretty terrifying piece of magic. What you need is a Goldilocks dampener—just strong enough.”
“Yeah.” But I took the golden cuff back from her and slipped it on my wrist. She gave me a look, but I ignored it.
“It was a long shot anyway,” Nix said. “Dampening the nullification enough to allow your normal powers to shine through wasn’t all that likely to begin with.”
“I know, but I’m desperate. Aethelred the Shade hasn’t been seen in a week.” Last week, the old seer had recognized a necklace I’d had since childhood and promised to tell me more, though there hadn’t been time at that moment. “He was my only link to information about my past, and maybe getting my power back, but he’s hiding out like a mole.”
Nix reached over and gripped my hand. Her green gaze was intense as she said, “We’ll find him. We have plenty of people looking, and Aidan is following up on a lead right now.”
Aidan was my friend. Possibly my boyfriend also, if you could call a giant of a man who was the most powerful Shifter in the world something as juvenile as boyfriend. We’d spent almost two months together, trying to keep our heads above water as Victor Orriodor had thrown challenge after challenge at me.
