Postmortem (Medicine and Magic Book 2)

by SA Magnusson

  “She seems to like me.”

  “Yeah, she likes everyone at first. Then she tries to sit on your head while you’re sleeping or paw your face to get your attention.”

  I took a moment to open a can of food and dump it into her bowl before grabbing the sword bundle. I tossed the blanket off to the side. I didn’t need it, and there was no point in trying to conceal its presence.

  Aron watched as I held the sword. “You need a sheath.”

  “I need a life where I don’t need this.”

  “I’m not really certain that’s true,” he said.

  “I didn’t want to get drawn back into this,” I said.

  “None of us get to choose, not when it comes to that which lives within us.”

  “I can choose not to embrace it,” I said.

  “And even if you don’t embrace it, magic—real magic—comes out. If you had only minor power, you might be able to ignore it, but you don’t. There is nothing insignificant about you, Kate Michaels.”

  I flushed without meaning to. It was a compliment I hadn’t been expecting. I don’t know if Aron even intended it that way, but that’s how I chose to take it.

  “Yeah, well, when this is over, I intend to return to the ER and hopefully not deal with gorgons or the Dark Council, or even the mages again.”

  “And if one of them comes calling for you?”

  I let out a heavy sigh. Why couldn’t they just leave me alone? That’s all I wanted. That was all I ever wanted.

  But the more I’d learned, the more I began to wonder if that really was what I wanted. Maybe I had changed, though it seemed strange to admit it. If it wasn’t dark magic, could I try to learn to control it?

  I might need to, especially if I intended to prevent the mage council from burning my magic off, changing me, or worse—killing me. Gran and Gramps would fight it, but if the rest of the council learned I was part demon, what choice would they have? Regardless of what happened, I couldn’t let them do that to me.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I muttered.

  Aron watched me for a moment and then followed me out of my condo, replacing the magical seal along the door. As we headed along the hallway, another door opened and Marvin poked his face out. He smiled widely at me. “Kate.” He glanced over at Aron but it wasn’t until he noticed the sword that his eyes widened. “Are you going somewhere?”

  I flashed a smile. We really needed to get moving. A Marvin delay could last far too long. “Just to a costume party,” I said quickly.

  “This early in the day?”

  “I don’t schedule these things,” I said. “The hospital does it at times when the fewest shifts will be disrupted.”

  I wasn’t sure if that would convince Marvin. He wasn’t dumb, just lonely. Oftentimes, he wanted nothing more than to share with me all of his aches and pains, hoping that because I was a doctor I could somehow restore him, but he wasn’t dumb.

  He looked up at Aron, crossing his arms over his chest. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah. Thanks for asking, Marvin. I really need to get going. My friend and I are running late.”

  “This is your friend?”

  “This is Aron. He’s been helping me with a few things.”

  “What sort of things?”

  I smiled at Marvin. “Aron is useful at quite a few things. Mostly maintenance these days, though.”

  Marvin looked Aron up and down. “I imagine a man like that is.” He shifted his gaze to me. “I’m glad that you have a… friend… Kate.”

  I wanted to groan. “Thanks, Marvin. I’ll catch up with you later.”

  As we walked away, Marvin hollered after us down the hall, “Have fun at your party!”

  When we reach the stairwell, Marvin shouted something else. Even though we needed to get back to Gran and Gramps, something in what he said struck me, and I turned back. “What was that?”

  He came hurrying down the hallway, shuffling as quickly as his legs would let him. “I just asked if your other friend managed to catch up with you.”

  “What friend is that?”

  “There was a young man who stopped by earlier. Not the kind of man I would have typically associated you with, but…” He glanced at Aron again before looking at the sword I carried. “Maybe he was going to this party, too.”

  “What did he look like?”

  “A little older. Dark hair. Well dressed,” he said, glancing over at Aron.

  I didn’t recognize the description but had the sinking feeling it was a dark mage. “Thanks. I’ll make sure to let him know that you told me he stopped by.”

  Marvin smiled and turned away from us. I grabbed Aron’s arm and dragged him along the hallway. When we reached the stairwell, I turned to look back along the hall.

  “What was that about?” Aron asked. “Do you know who he’s talking about?”

  “Not at all, but it’s probably someone upset that I escaped from the Dark Council. Which means we need to get going.” When we reached the street, I froze. There was a sense of magic along it, but I couldn’t tell whether it was residual from the Dark Council attack or not. Aron placed his hand on the small of my back, guiding me forward. I looked up at him, smiling at him playfully, but a surge of cold washed through me.

  “Move!”

  We raced toward the BMW, but something slammed into it before we had the chance to reach it.

  It was magic, and it was dark magic. The Dark Council. With the battle between the councils still taking place, there were plenty of reasons for them to attack—especially as I left my home with an archer.

  I pulled in a deep breath, focusing on the power within me. Holding the demon sword granted me a much different connection than I had without it. Power coursed through me, and I wrapped Aron and I in a shield, not struggling nearly as much as I would have without the sword.

  It was just in time. A spell slammed into the shielding and bounced off.

  “Do you think we can get to the car?” I asked Aron.

  “We can get to the car, but I’m not sure that we can protect ourselves as we drive away.”

  “That means we have to deal with the Dark Council.”

  “I can deal with the Dark Council. You go. Finish this.”

  I looked over at him. “I’m not leaving you again.”

  “I don’t know that we have much choice in this. You’re the one who’s necessary to get back to the church—”

  “It’s the basilica.”

  “I don’t know that the difference matters.”

  “Tell that to the Church. I think basilica is a more important church, but probably not as important as a cathedral—”

  “Is now the right time for this discussion?” Aron asked.

  I continued to hold on to the shield. Every so often, another spell blasted into us, but so far, the shielding held. It took much less energy to hold onto it than it would have without the sword, but the longer we delayed, and the more energy I was forced to use, the less likely I would be able to do anything when it came time to confront the gorgon.

  “Is there anything that you can do here?”

  “Not until I know where the attack is coming from.”

  I could feel the direction of the blasts striking the shield, but they came from multiple directions, not one in particular. Some of them were down the street, but one came from overhead, much like it had when we had been attacked before.

  Whoever assaulted from above was powerful.

  It wasn’t Darvish. He was stuck with the gorgon, and there wasn’t any way for him to escape until we managed to reach him, but who else among the Dark Council would have come out here?

  I pointed upward. “There’s someone up there. Can you see?”

  Aron stared for a moment. “I can’t see who it is from here.”

  Whoever it was had planned for the possibility that we would be here. Did they somehow think I was a greater part of the council defense than I was?

  Another spell struck the barrier
.

  This one I recognized.

  It was strange that I should recognize a spell, but after everything I had been through when attacked by Darvish, it was something that I did recognize. It wasn’t one of Darvish’s spells, but it was one he had used, though this came with even more force than what Darvish had managed to hit me with.

  Barden. It had to be him.

  I stepped forward, pushing the effect of my shield with me, and angled it toward the rooftop where I detected him. I sent a surge of power out from my shield, directing it toward the rooftop. Holding onto the sword made it easier, and I could direct the magic much more easily than I had managed without it.

  “I doubt you will be able to reach them from here.”

  “I don’t want to reach them. I want to get his attention and get him down to street level.”

  Aron stood watching, whatever spell he was holding causing a tingling along my spine. “What are you doing, Kate?”

  “It’s Barden. And we need to end this. They only attacked the mage council because they believed the council had attacked their people.”

  “You can’t end this. Not like that, Kate.”

  Probably not, but someone had to try, and seeing as how those who served the council were far more interested in attacking the Dark Council rather than figuring out why we had this fight in the first place, it might as well be me.

  “How many have already been lost?”

  “I’m not privy to those things,” Aron said.

  “You might not be, but you could guess.”

  Aron held his hands together, a spell building between them. “I can guess, and I suspect that there have been quite a few on both sides who have been lost.”

  “Mostly knights on the mage council side?”

  “The knights are generally the ones responsible for confronting the dark mages.”

  And the council had already been weakened during the attempt to bring the demon king across the Veil. Having that weakness combined with this attack did nothing more than continue to erode the possible defense of this region. I didn’t know enough about the mage council or all of what they served to understand the implications of that, but it seemed to me that it would be dangerous, and the combined attacks were far too connected to be chance.

  First we had to end this. The fighting between the Dark Council and the mage council had to be over.

  “Barden. I don’t want to fight you.” I didn’t know whether me hollering at him made any difference or whether he would even care. I didn’t have the sense that he was someone who could be reasoned with, but then I had helped his son. There was a respite in the attack, and I looked over at Aron. “They’ve stopped attacking.”

  “For now,” he said.

  “For now, but let’s give this a minute.”

  “And then what? When they reveal themselves, we won’t have any opportunity to escape. It will be too late.”

  “I can be a part of this,” I said. “I am the one holding the barrier.”

  “For now. But how long can you maintain it?”

  “I’ll hold onto it as long as I have to. With the sword—”

  “We can’t rely upon the sword granting you enough strength to continue to withstand an attack.”

  “Then you need to be ready in case this goes the wrong way. Prepare whatever spell you might need that will give us the best chance.”

  Aron turned away from me in frustration, but another spell built within him. He was ready.

  As I looked around the street, searching for sign of the Dark Council, I saw no one moving. How was it that the Dark Council managed to scare away everyone who typically walked along the street? They somehow managed to deter car traffic, too, something that seemed impossible to fathom.

  It was for the best. No one needed to run the risk of getting attacked by the dark mages, risking getting blasted as they walked home.

  As I turned my gaze back around, Barden suddenly stood in front of me.

  He had been masking himself. I needed to learn how to do that. I also needed to learn how to create the paralytic spell, if only to be able to avoid its affects.

  “You summoned me.”

  Aron glared at him, and the tension within the archer was palpable. I took a step toward Barden so that Aron didn’t do something stupid. “We’ve been looking for him for years,” Aron whispered.

  “And I found him. Don’t attack.”

  “I can’t make any promises.”

  I shot him a hard look. “If you attack him, I’ll attack you.”

  “You wouldn’t—”

  I shifted my stance just a little. “Don’t push me on this. The council doesn’t know what’s going on. Neither of them do. We can end this.”

  “I doubt it.”

  At least he didn’t continue to resist me. I didn’t relish the idea of trying to fight Aron and doubted that I would even try. It was a threat more than anything else, but I needed him to believe that I might.

  “How is Rory?”

  Barden’s glare shifted, and it seemed as if it softened, only a little. “He is better. He awoke briefly before falling asleep again.”

  “Good. With what happened to him—”

  “I know what happened to him. The council has decided to shift their focus to people without the power to resist them. It’s a mistake they won’t survive.”

  “Do you really think the council would spend so much energy attacking dark mages? From what I understand, it takes considerable power to burn off that magic. Why would the council take that time, especially if the people using their magic haven’t done anything to warrant it?”

  “They do it to attack us.”

  This wasn’t going well. He might be standing casually, but power built from him. How long would my shielding be able to withstand a direct attack from a powerful dark mage?

  I didn’t want to test it to find out.

  It was time to shift the conversation.

  “Have you ever heard of a gorgon?”

  Barden frowned. “What is this?”

  “Have you heard of it?”

  “No.”

  “Well, you’re not alone. I hadn’t heard of a gorgon before today, either. It turns out that gorgons are some sort of powerful creature from the other side of the Veil that sneak across and siphon magic off specific magic users. That’s what had attacked Rory.”

  “There was no creature that had attacked him. It was a spell that prevented him from using his magic.”

  “I thought the same thing,” I said, though my opinion probably didn’t matter all that much. I was relatively new to the magical world, even though I had grown up around it. From the look that Barden gave me, it seemed as if he knew that, too. “When I peeled it off of Rory, it felt as if it were something alive. I held onto the spell, and I didn’t really know what I was doing.” Honesty had to matter even to a dark mage, didn’t it? “When Darvish attacked us, my spell failed, and this gorgon attached itself to him.”

  Barden stared at me. “You would have me believe that some parasitic creature is attacking magical users? And not all magical users, but specifically users of dark magic?”

  “That’s the thing. I don’t understand it, but it seems to be what’s happening. If you want to see the gorgon, I can show it to you.”

  “Kate—” Aron started, but I ignored him.

  “You would show me this?”

  “If it will end the Dark Council and the mage council fighting, I will. That’s only if you agree to stop.”

  “If the council agrees to stop their attacks, I imagine that I could ensure a measure of peace.”

  It would have to be enough.

  The real question was whether I trusted Barden enough to release my shielding. If he attacked, I wouldn’t be strong enough to resist him, not without the shielding.

  Holding onto the shield in this way was challenging anyway. If I continued for too much longer, I might have no strength remaining when it mattered.

  “Do
I have your word you won’t attack?”

  Barden considered me before nodding.

  “You need to say anything to the people surrounding us?”

  “They have heard everything.”

  “How?”

  Barden flared his magic and cold surged through me. I braced for an attack, but it didn’t come. Instead, a dozen different dark mages stood surrounding us on the street. All of them had been masked.

  Even if I hadn’t come to terms with Barden, it was possible I might not have been able to withstand an attack much longer anyway.

  I slowly lowered the shielding.

  I continued holding up the sword, readying my magic for the possibility that I might use it, but none of the mages attacked.

  “Where is this thing that you claim has attacked my people?” Barden asked.

  “I’ll take you to it. I’m not sure how many of you I can take, but at least you,” I said to Barden.

  “And Darvish is there?”

  “He is. I don’t think he’s harmed, but I left before I had a chance to examine him.”

  “Examine him?”

  “I am a doctor.”

  “If this was a magical attack, then your medicine wouldn’t be able to determine the extent of his injuries. You would need to use a magical touch.”

  “Then when you get to him, you can see what magical touch you want to give him.”

  Barden frowned for a moment and then surprised me by laughing. “You are not what I expected.”

  “No? What did you expect?”

  “I knew you had a connection to Veran and Cyn Michaels.”

  Was that why they had come after me? I had thought it was because they knew about me and the demon king, but that wasn’t it at all. They had come at me because of my grandparents.

  It was the first time that my connection to my grandparents had placed me in danger.

  My belief that I had been targeted because of what had happened with the demon king was essentially the same as jumping to a diagnosis. Wasn’t that what I had done with the guy who’d come in with a headache? And now I done the same thing for myself, only this time, the reason was far more mundane.

  I started laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” Barden asked.

  I smiled at him. “Just something that I thought of from work.”

  “Now?” Barden asked.