by Linsey Hall
Del reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze.
“Ugh, screw amazing. Who cares?” I’d do it again in a heartbeat—the news coverage I’d been watching kept reminding me of that—but it didn’t matter that it was amazing or self-sacrificing or any of that bullshit. That stuff didn’t bring back a person’s powers. Why I’d done it didn’t matter, only that I had.
And now that I had, I had to live with the aftermath. I was willing to, but I wasn’t up for doing it gracefully yet.
“On the plus side, we’re all alive.” Del’s gaze turned grim. “Except the poor Nullifier.”
I lowered my beer, guilt resting heavily on my chest.
“He died a hero, at least,” Nix said. “I heard that the Order of the Magica will hold a ceremony for him.”
“That’s good, he deserves it,” I said. “And he seemed mostly at peace in the end.”
He’d reminded me of Aaron, the first Magica whose power I’d stolen. Aaron had been ready to die as well. Why was it that so many people I encountered recently were happy to die? What kind of shitty world was I getting myself into?
Even with my powers gone and my soul pulverized, I didn’t want to die. I wanted to mope and eat ice cream in the dark, but I didn’t want to die.
“And you have cool dragon friends,” Nix said. “What were those all about?”
“They’re dragonets,” I said. “They’d been the Nullifier’s friends.”
“Now they’re your friends,” Del said. “Dragon friends are definitely something to be grateful for.”
“Yeah, you have a point.” I glanced down at my beer. “I guess they’ve gone back to Switzerland.”
“But you’ll see them again,” Nix said.
“I hope so.”
“One thing to think about,” Del said. “After giving up all your power so willingly, you can’t exactly keep worrying you’re a power hungry FireSoul, can you?”
“No. You’re right about that.” I knew the covetousness would come whenever I had an opportunity to steal a power, but I now knew I could definitely control it. I might enjoy taking powers, which was something I didn’t actually like about myself, but I could deal with that too. As long as I was in control when I did it, and didn’t take from an innocent, I could live with myself.
“So that’s several things to be happy about,” Nix said. “We’re alive, we’ve saved Magic’s Bend, we now have dragons for friends, and the Monster is at the waypoint and not on Earth.”
“But he can get out,” I said.
“Sure. But he can’t find us still, not as long as you keep repressing your Nullification powers.”
I nodded. It’d become second nature to me now, keeping the nullification locked up so it didn’t screw with my concealment charm. That was one thing to be grateful for. I’d need more practice to be able to create a no-magic barrier, but at least I could be near my sisters.
“We just have to not run into him, and we’ll be fine,” Del said.
“Except we’ve been doing that a lot lately,” Nix said. “He’s everywhere we turn.”
“We’re going to have to find him,” I said. “We can’t keep running. He’s going to find us. Those Tracker demons might not have been hunting for us specifically, but they know there are FireSouls in Magic’s Bend. It’s only a matter of time.”
“Agreed,” Del said. “We may have killed that seer, but he’ll find another.”
Nix nodded.
“Do you think he wanted the chalice?” Nix said.
“Maybe,” Del said. “Or something else in the museum.”
“Damn. I wish we’d figured it out.”
“There hadn’t exactly been time,” Del said.
No, there hadn’t. It’d taken everything we had to complete the goal and get out of there alive.
“I had another nightmare,” I said. I’d meant to tell them sooner, but I’d been sleeping so much of the past twenty-four hours that I hadn’t had a chance. I also hadn’t wanted to talk about it. If I was going to open my mouth, it was going to be to shove a cheeseburger inside it.
Their gazes met mine.
Since my moping time had passed, I told them about the Monster stealing or destroying my root power and how I’d apparently repressed the trauma.
“You were too young to cope with it,” Nix said.
“And you don’t remember what your power was?” Del asked.
“No. Just like I don’t remember anything before we were fifteen. I’ve no idea what it was.” The memory of the locket cooling on my chest flashed in my mind. I raised my fingers to it. “But the locket felt strange as he was stealing my power.”
“That’s a clue,” Del said. “Obviously.”
“Obviously?”
“Yeah,” Del said. “Aidan told me how Aethelred said to come back to him for more information about the locket. Aidan’s had a guy camped out on Aethelred’s doorstep for the last day, waiting for the old guy to return so that he can bring him to you.”
Tears smarted my eyes. I hadn’t let Aidan into the room because I’d been too depressed to talk, but he’d been trying to find a way to make me feel better?
“I agree with Del,” Nix said. “That locket has to be a clue. You were wearing it when you woke in the field fifteen years ago, and you’ve guarded it ever since. If it played a role in your dream, it’s important.”
“So what do you suggest I do about it?” I asked.
“Hunt down some information. Learn what you can about your past. Go from there.”
My past. A flare of purpose ignited in my chest. I’d had a power that was stolen, or lost. Maybe I could get it back. Or at least learn about what had happened to me. It was better than moping around here all the time.
“And maybe you can find a way to get your powers back,” Nix said.
“It’s not possible,” I said.
“You don’t know that. Anything is possible.”
Getting my powers back. Hope flared in my chest, a bright light that drove out some of the dark.
“I agree with Nix,” Del said. “You should try to get your powers back.”
“But how?”
“I don’t know,” Del said. “Start with learning about your past and your stolen root power. Your locket may be a clue, considering how it reacted when the Monster tried to steal your power. Maybe that will lead you somewhere.”
It might. And I wanted to learn about my past. Aethelred was the first person I’d ever met who might know something. Now I had a lead, at least.
Maybe getting my powers back was a stretch. But it didn’t mean I couldn’t try.
“You need to do it,” Del said. “The Monster won’t stop coming. You heard what the seer said. He’s up to something big, even if we don’t know what it is yet. And you can’t exactly hang around without your powers.”
“You’re right.” I’d do anything to get them back. “Thanks for helping me get my head out of my butt.”
Del shrugged. “It’s cool. If I’d gone through what you have, I’d be acting the same.”
“Likewise,” Nix said.
“Thanks.” I reached out and squeezed both of their hands, then climbed off the bed. “Okay, time for me to get back to the world of the living. I need a shower. I don’t think my dip in the Pool of Enchantment counted.”
I only cried a little bit in the shower, but by the time I got out, I felt a lot better. My chest still felt empty, but that just left more room for the hope to grow.
I laughed at my bad poetry and went into the bedroom. A fresh change of clothes lay on the bed, along with my two daggers. I tugged on clothes, then reached for Lefty and Righty, grateful I hadn’t lost them during my griffin changes. I was going to need them now. I’d lasted a long time without my magic. I could do it again.
I hefted their familiar weight and tossed the blades into the air, watching the black glass glimmer in the light before catching them. After strapping the daggers to my thighs, I headed out in search of Aidan.
> I found him in the kitchen, unloading bags of ice cream into the freezer.
“What are those for?” I asked.
He spun, a grin on his face. His gray eyes roved over me, relief clear in their depths.
“They were for you, but since you’re up and about, maybe you don’t need them.”
“Hey now.” I approached and hopped up on the island counter across from him. “Can’t take them back.”
“All right.” He stepped close, and my heart raced.
The memory of his kisses the other night made my skin heat. I grabbed his shirt and tugged him closer.
“But you’ll have to earn them,” he said.
“How?”
“Go talk to Aethelred about your locket.”
I’d been hoping he’d say I had to earn them with kisses or something fun like that, but the fact that he wanted me to hunt down my past made my heart flutter.
“You’re a good guy, Aidan Merrick. Are you sure you don’t have an ulterior motive?”
“‘Course I do.” He grinned, so handsome I wanted to eat him up. “You being happy seems to make me happy.”
“But we haven’t even known each other that long.”
He rubbed his jaw. “Yeah, that’s the weird thing.” He shrugged. “It just doesn’t seem to matter. You’re the strongest, bravest person I’ve ever met, and apparently I have a thing for that.”
I grinned, my empty chest not hurting quite so much. “Fine. I’ll go to Aethelred. I want to learn about my past. And try to get my powers back.”
A shadow crossed Aidan’s face, as if he doubted my odds at getting my powers back. Then he grinned. “Good. If there’s a way to do it, you’ll find it.”
“Thanks.”
“There is one thing, though,” Aidan said. “The Order of the Magica wants to meet the people who helped me with the portal. To thank you. They would make it part of the ceremony for the Nullifier.”
I jerked back. “Hell no.”
“You could get credit for saving Magic’s Bend.”
That was appealing. Getting on the Order’s good side could only help me in the future, on the off-chance they figured out what I was. “I suppose I could do it before I get my power back. Now that I’m just a void of nullification, they won’t be able to sense my FireSoul.”
“I like how you think.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. You’ll get your power back, but until then, you’ll take advantage of what you’ve got going for you.”
“I’d better get my power back.” I clenched my fists in his shirt. “It’s part of me. I feel like hell now that it’s gone.”
And I couldn’t be an immortal. It was like the worst life-sentence ever. Eternal loneliness once my deirfiúr and Aidan died. Just the thought made me sweat.
“Good. You’re going to need it.” Aidan’s face turned grave. “Dr. Garriso called. He said that Victor Orriordor succeeded in taking the Chalice of Youth.”
My breath escaped me. “No. Nothing can be stolen from the museum.”
“I know. That’s how it’s supposed to work. But something must have happened while part of the museum disappeared at the waypoint. The chalice was stolen.”
Shit. “So we failed.”
“You saved the museum. Hundreds of lives. That’s not failure.”
I nodded, but the idea of the Monster getting what he was after made my head spin. Why did he need the immortality gifted by the chalice if he was already immortal? What horrible thing did he have planned?
“We’ll handle this, Cass. Whatever the Monster’s end goal, we’ll stop it. No matter what we have to do.”
I hoped he was right. I had to handle it. And get my powers back. Because living like this wasn’t an option.
Eternal Magic
Dragon’s Gift: The Huntress Book 3
1
“Oh no.” I almost groaned when I caught sight of the golden sphinx crouched in front of the pyramid a hundred yards away. “It’s a sphinx.”
“Twenty bucks he has a riddle for us,” Del said.
“Yep. And I’m terrible at riddles.”
An enormous Egyptian pyramid stuck out of the desert like a sore thumb, the only thing for hundreds of miles. An ocean of sand rolled around us, hills and valleys stretching far into the distance. I’d lost track of how long we’d spent bouncing along on our camels.
Del tugged the brim of the hat over her forehead and muttered, “You’re lucky I love you, Cass. Because of all the places for the dampening charm to be, it ended up in the middle of a freaking oven that blocks my magic.”
I made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a moan. Sweat dripped down my back, and my own hat was doing a miserable job of keeping my nose from burning.
“I actually quite like Aladdin.” I patted my camel’s neck. He snorted, no doubt unimpressed by the name I’d bestowed upon him.
Normally, Del would use her powers as a transporter to teleport us straight to our desired destination. This pyramid, however, had been built by supernaturals in a weird part of the Sahara that blocked teleporting. It also blocked humans from getting near the pyramid, which was a small mercy considering that human archaeologists would definitely set off the magical booby traps inside.
No one wanted that. Not the archaeologists, who’d have their perception of reality rocked by the magic, and not the supernaturals, who tried to stay hidden from them.
Best to leave it to professionals like us.
“This is going to be some seriously old-school tomb raiding,” I said to Del.
“No kidding. Riding a camel across the Egyptian desert in order to break into a pyramid is pretty much the height of cliché for a treasure hunter.”
“I’ll take it. The cliché stuff is sometimes the coolest. It’s cliché for a reason, right? Everyone wants to do it.” And even if it wasn’t cool, I really wanted that dampening charm. I’d have ridden a yak a thousand miles through the tundra to get my hands on it, so a camel through the desert was no problem. I had plenty of incentive.
Victor Orriodor, the monster from our past hunted us. One day soon, we’d clash for good. I’d accepted it. Del, Nix, and I had concealment charms that hid us from him, but mine was faulty because of my new nullification power.
Which meant the time for running was almost over. We were at the point of kill or be killed. I planned to do the killing. But I had to get my powers back first or I’d never survive the confrontation.
I hoped the dampening charm would be the way to do that.
We were only a hundred yards from the pyramid now, close enough that I could make out the features of the golden sphinx who guarded the exit. His face was human, his body that of a lion’s. He glittered in the sunlight almost like gold.
“He looks 3rd millennia BC,” Del said. “They’re usually the toughest to—”
She gasped as the sphinx lunged into the air and bounded across the sand toward us, his enormous stone body moving as if it were made of flesh and blood. Sand kicked up behind him as his powerful legs dug into the ground.
“Oh, hell.” I tightened my grip on Aladdin’s reins. Normally we’d approach, wake the sphinx up by tripping a lever or something, then answer the riddle to get through.
But this guy was gung ho. That was never good. It was the lazy temple guardians you wanted, if you had a choice.
He landed in front of us with a thud, his massive leonine body looming overhead. I tilted my head back, nearly blinded by his brightness.
“Holy magic,” I breathed. He really was made of gold. I’d thought it a trick of the bright sun, but no. He was one hundred-percent, Grade-A golden goodness.
Covetousness welled in my heart, a greed so fierce that my fingers itched to pet the sphinx and coo nice kitty. Then tie him up and stick him in my trove.
Del and I were FireSouls, supernaturals believed to share the soul of a dragon. Like dragons, we had a thing for treasure. My idea of treasure was normally weapons and leather goods, but I could mak
e an exception for a giant hunk of gold.
I shook my head, trying to focus on our reason for being here.
“What is your purpose?” he boomed.
I dragged my gaze away from the shining sphinx and looked at Del, whose eyes were wide as saucers.
“To take you home,” she said breathlessly.
“Del!” I hissed. “Get ahold of yourself!”
Though I wasn’t much better off. I may have lost my FireSoul powers last week, but I still seemed to possess the covetousness.
“Yeah, yeah,” Del muttered, her gaze vacant. “I’m fine. It’s just…shiiiny kitty.”
“Kitty?” the sphinx boomed.
Oh, hell. We were screwed.
I’d have hoped an Egyptian sphinx wouldn’t know the word for kitty, but he’d been enchanted to speak English, so he knew exactly what Del had called him.
The sphinx sat on his haunches and reached out with two massive paws, swooping us up, one in each paw. My head spun as we dangled in our smooth, hard cages. Shit. There was no way to budge a monster made of metal.
“Sorry!” I shouted. “You’re not a kitty! You’re a sphinx!”
“Yeah, a real badass sphinx!” Del yelled, struggling to break the sphinx’s grip. “Toughest one I ever met!”
If I hadn’t lost my powers last week, I could be out of here in a flash. I wouldn’t use my lightning, because it’d go straight through the metal and fry me, too, but I could use my illusion power to scare the crap out of him so he’d drop us.
Unfortunately, none of that was an option now.
In a fight last week, I’d acquired the power to nullify other supernaturals’ abilities. Because I was a FireSoul, I could steal other people’s powers. I hadn’t wanted to take that cursed power, but it’d been the only way to prevent catastrophe. As a result, my new nullification power canceled out my innate powers. I’d been a mess ever since it had happened, and I hated it, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t try to use it.
The sphinx shook us. My brain felt like it rattled in my head. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore it, focusing on my new gift, which was a weird kind of non-magic. that canceled out other supernaturals’ magical gifts.
