Whisper of Shadows (The Diamond City Magic Novels)

by Diana Pharaoh Francis

  Jamie and Leo crouched down beside the gray wall. Both pressed bare, flattened hands against the cinder block. They had faraway looks.

  A gunshot ran out from on top of the roof. Dalton, Taylor, and I drew our weapons and pressed up against the wall, searching for the shooter.

  “Missed one,” Leo said. “Sorry. Wait . . . Got it.”

  He was referring to the gun, not the person. Hopefully he’d morphed the gun into handcuffs and shackled the guy.

  Lights flashed on. The brightness hurt.

  “Oh no you don’t,” Jamie said.

  A second later the darkness returned. White splotches danced across my vision. I squinched my eyes closed and blinked, but they didn’t go away.

  “Backup generator is down,” Jamie said. “All the circuits are fused. Melted down all the electronics.”

  “Got the guns I could find,” Leo said. “Not a hammer or trigger will move. Still checking . . . Did you get all the cell phones?”

  So the guards on the roof were still on the loose. They just didn’t have guns.

  “What about Mel?” I asked, though I wasn’t entirely sure they would answer. Both were deep inside the metal runs of the building. Their focus was spread out across innumerable channels and inlets, skipping across desks and under floors, zipping through the electric lines and swirling around in lightbulbs. They were sorting everything, trying to understand what was what, and then pushing out beyond.

  “No, no,” Jamie murmured in response to whatever scene inside that he could hear or feel in his mind. “You should stay there. That’s right. Those doors aren’t going to open anymore. Cell phones are useless. I think we’re good to go.”

  It took me a second to realize that the last was aimed at me. Or maybe Leo. Leo responded.

  “Back out, then. Let’s see what we can do to get inside.”

  I tried not to pace and fidget as I waited. A scrape of sound above us caught my attention.

  “What’s that?”

  Dalton didn’t answer. He looked up, and his eyes flashed to green. Once again, I wondered just what he could see. “Company,” he said, raising his gun again and trotting away, weapon held up at eye level.

  “Stay here and keep an eye on the boys,” Taylor said to me, following after him.

  I wanted to call her back, but I had to trust she knew what she was doing. After seeing her fighting with Dalton, I knew she could hold her own. Didn’t keep me from worrying.

  I held my gun ready as I stood with my back to the wall beside my brothers, who continued to work. I steadily scanned back and forth and upward. I wished to hell we had some bushes to offer us camouflage, which of course was the whole point in not having them. The feds wanted clear lines of fire in case of attack or, more likely, escape.

  Movement beyond Leo and Jamie caught my attention. I stepped around them and crouched, bringing my gun up to eye level. Magic throbbed behind me in a sudden burst.

  “Dammit,” Leo swore. “What the hell is that?”

  “Reinforcement between the cinder-block layers,” Jamie replied. “Probably carbon fibers.”

  “What were they expecting? A dinosaur assault?”

  “We’re going to need the explosives. Take the rebar out of the walls. Let’s see if we can build something to shape the blast. If we can blow everything out, we won’t have to deal with as much rubble on the inside.”

  “It’s not going to be much,” Leo warned dubiously. “We can set up the interior side with a plate, but the carbon fiber reinforcement will probably interfere with the blast. It’s probably pointless to even bother.”

  “But it might work. We ought to try.”

  I wanted to tell them both to shut up, but they probably wouldn’t hear me. They were too intent on each other. Besides, they had to talk to each other if they were going to do their job.

  I was so intent on eavesdropping that I almost didn’t see the shape rushing at me from maybe a dozen feet away. It came out of the sweep of snow and shadows. Despite the fact that I was caught off guard, I didn’t hesitate. Three shots center mass. The woman—I could make out curves now, and the soft edge of her jaw—jerked sideways and staggered as she bent over. She didn’t fall. She had to be wearing a bulletproof vest.

  Not giving her time to recover, I bulldozed her shoulder to knock her down, then put one foot on her neck, reaching down to pull her hands up behind her. She fought me, twisting, but her breathing was labored from the impact of the bullets. She probably had cracked ribs. Once I had her arms pushed up behind her back, she went still, except for the harsh drag of her breathing.

  I didn’t have anything handy to tie her up with. Note to self: bring zip ties next time I break into a federal building. I could have used my bootlaces, but I didn’t want to let her go to fight them loose.

  The crunch of footsteps warned me that someone was coming. I crouched beside my captive, one hand on her wrists. Dammit, I’d dropped my gun. I didn’t dare search for it.

  “It’s me,” Taylor called in a low voice as she approached. “Are you okay?”

  I let go of the breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding. “I’m fine. I need something to tie her with.”

  Taylor went to lean over Jamie and rifled in his coat pockets until she found what she was looking for. She returned with a spool of wire. Of course. Neither of my brothers ever left home without some supply of metal, and wire was handy for a lot of reasons.

  She helped me wrap the woman’s wrists.

  “What do you want to do with her?” she asked, frowning down at the bound agent.

  That’s when I realized I’d almost killed a federal agent. This woman was technically a good guy. Many were corrupt, but how was I to know which weren’t? And who was I to judge anymore? I was breaking a man out of federal custody—a man I knew was wrapped up with the Tyet. I wasn’t particularly clean. If I’d killed her, who would she have left behind? A husband? Kids? Parents? Brothers and sisters?

  I clenched my jaw. I’d known what I was doing going into this mission. I’d known I might be killing people, and I’d chosen to come. I hardened myself against the guilt and reminded myself that I was here to save Price and I’d do a lot worse than kill to help him.

  “Let’s move her next to the building out of the wind and the snow,” I said. “She’ll be okay until they find her.” I hoped. She could just as easily freeze to death. At least she had on a coat and heavy pants. I picked up the knit cap she’d lost when I knocked her down and pulled it back down over her head. My gun lay on the ground beside it. I retrieved it and rubbed off the snow, checking it over to make sure it was in working order.

  She looked up at us, her round face flushed and angry. “You won’t get away with this. I’ve seen your faces.”

  “Perhaps we should kill you, then.”

  I jumped. I hadn’t heard Dalton approach. He flicked an approving glance at me. Bile flooded my mouth, and I spat to the side. I had to be seriously fucked up to earn that bastard’s seal of approval.

  “Kill me if you want to,” the captive agent said to us, though her voice shook. “You will be hunted down. There’s no place you can hide.”

  I didn’t know if she was being arrogant or naïve or just plain stupid. Of course we could hide. Or we could buy our way out of the situation if we had enough money and leverage. That was the way this game was played. All you needed was the stomach for it.

  “Any others out there?” I asked Taylor, surprised at the calm steadiness of my voice.

  “We caught a couple coming down off the roof. Knocked ’em cold before they saw us coming,” Taylor said. Then grudgingly, “Thanks to Dalton. He can see a gnat from a mile away, seems like.”

  “Nice to have Terminator eyes,” I said.

  “Isn’t it?” he said.

 
“How many more can we expect?” I asked, scanning the snow-blurred shadows for movement.

  “That’s it,” Leo said, sounding worn to the bone. “It’s the best we can make it.” He sat back, putting his hand on Jamie’s shoulder. “Let Dalton use the plastics.”

  For a long moment, Jamie didn’t respond. Then finally his body jerked, and his shoulders slumped. He twisted so that his back was to the wall.

  “We’ve got two layers of cinder-block wall reinforced with rebar and cement. Leo and I removed the rebar from a small six-by-six-foot section. In between the cinder layers is some kind of reinforcement—probably carbon fiber, if I had to guess. There’s also about a foot of cement sandwiched in there with it.” His tired gaze fixed on Dalton. “We managed to put a steel plate on the backside of the blast zone to help focus the energy. We didn’t have any luck getting shielding inside the walls. Can you blow it?”

  “Yep,” Dalton said. “Give me a hand.”

  I wasn’t sure who he was asking to help him, but I stepped forward. My brothers were exhausted, and I wanted to give them a chance to recover. Taylor could watch for any more attackers.

  Dalton squatted down beside one of the big duffels and began pulling things out. He started with a roll of tape and what looked like a bunch of white plastic sausage links all hooked together to make a good twenty-five-foot length. Orange and black lettering spelled out Detagel, High Strength. I’d seen the stuff before. They used it in the mines. It was stable and readily available. I hoped it would work. Dalton seemed to know what he was doing. I decided to trust him. On this, anyhow. It’s not like I had a choice.

  “Hold this,” Dalton told me as Leo pointed out where they’d removed the rebar and placed the interior steel plate.

  I grabbed the end of the Detagel tube-rope and held it in place as Dalton taped it down, following the outline Leo had given. He used the explosives to make an oblong circle about three feet wide and five feet tall. He pulled out another length of explosives and zigzagged down the center, filling it in.

  “That seems like a lot,” I said.

  “If it is carbon fiber inside, we’ll need it,” Dalton replied, pulling out some other equipment, including a set of sound-deadening earmuffs. He slipped those around his neck, then plugged several things together and fastened them to the explosives. He started walking away.

  “Come on,” he said to everyone.

  Leo and I grabbed our gear and followed. Jamie and Taylor helped the agent to her feet and hustled her along.

  Dalton paced down the length of the building. When we reached the corner, he peered around it, then went around. He stopped and motioned us past. “Get up against the wall.”

  We obeyed. Jamie and Taylor pushed the agent down to sit against the wall.

  Dalton fished his cell phone out of his pocked and pulled the earmuffs over his ears. He dialed and looked at us. “Cover your ears.”

  He did a silent countdown on his fingers. Three . . . two . . . one. The explosion ripped through the night. The building shuddered, and pressure from the blast swept down the side of the building like a hard wind.

  Abruptly, it was over. My ears rang, despite covering them.

  “Let’s move,” Dalton ordered, yanking off his earmuffs and shoving them into his duffel.

  “What about her?” Taylor asked, pointing at the trussed FBI agent.

  “Bind her legs and leave her. They’ll find her before she gets too cold,” I said. Hopefully we’d be long gone by then.

  I hurried after Leo and Jamie, who’d jogged back the way we’d come. A fog of cement and rock dust filled the air.

  “Nice,” Jamie said, sticking his head inside. He started to crawl through. Then, “Ow! Okay, watch yourself. The edges of the carbon fiber are sharp.”

  Before Leo could follow, Dalton made a sound and hoisted himself into the wall. I could hear the sounds of kicking and the loud clang of steel hitting the ground, along with the rumble of falling rocks.

  “Are you okay?” Leo called in a low voice.

  “Come on,” Dalton said.

  Leo clambered through. I motioned to Taylor. “Go ahead.”

  She climbed through, and I followed, one hand carrying my backpack, the other my gun.

  The wall was close to three feet thick. The outer cinder blocks had blown out, leaving a hole a good twelve feet wide or more. The interior cement had held up much better, thanks to the carbon fiber grid layer down the middle of it. The hole in that was smaller, and sharp bits of the grid clawed out from the remaining cement. Rubble filled the hole, and I had to crouch to get through.

  On the other side, the cinder blocks had vanished and most of the rubble had blown into small chunks and powder, thanks to the blast shield Leo and Jamie and made. The massive plate of steel lay on the floor, looking as if a meteor shower had pounded it. In the center, a seam had torn open, about three feet long and a few inches wide.

  Dust filled the air and clogged my eyes as I stepped down. Leo grasped my wrist to help steady me. I glanced around.

  We stood in a nondescript hallway. The floors appeared to be polished concrete beneath the layer of dust and crumbled cement. The only lights were those Leo, Jamie, and Dalton had slid onto their heads. Jamie handed one each to Taylor and me.

  “Where now?” Dalton asked.

  Everyone looked at me. I was more absorbed in what they couldn’t see. Price’s blue and burgundy trace wrapped around me in comforting ribbons. It was still vivid and bright. I wanted to touch it, to see for myself how he was.

  I dropped into trace sight and reached into the bone-chilling cold of the trace dimension to take hold of Price’s trace. Wild rage, pain, hate, and terror assaulted me. It clamped down on my mind, flattening me beneath it. I couldn’t breathe. I heard a deep-throated sound, like a snarl. It came from my throat.

  “Riley?” Taylor turned toward me.

  “Get away from me,” I snarled. I put my hands up. I’m not sure what I meant to do. I’m not sure I meant to do anything. The maelstrom of Price’s frantic emotions twisted around me, yanking me under into a vast ocean deepness. Somewhere within the building, his hands came up, and mine followed suit. Power flooded him and crashed into a wall of pure terror.

  He was afraid of himself.

  This was seriously bad.

  Chapter 13

  I SHOOK MYSELF, trying to divide myself away from Price’s emotions. I’d never tangled up in anyone like this before, but then, I’d never been in love with anybody before, either. I didn’t know if he could feel me, but I wasn’t going to let go of his trace in case he could. I didn’t want him to think I’d abandoned him. Right now, that would be worse than anything else I could do. Especially given the fact that he was about to go nuclear. Literally.

  “Riley?” Taylor asked.

  “I’m okay,” I said. I’m sure they believed that, the way I was standing there all frozen and my voice sounding like my vocal cords had been scraped with a rusty razor. “Price is starting to cascade. I’ve got to help him. I can’t wait for you.”

  “Do what you need to do,” Jamie said, and Taylor and Leo nodded, though both looked tense. “We’ll track Mel and Arnow and catch up with you. Be careful. He’ll have guards.”

  Dalton scowled at me. He didn’t know my trick for traveling through the trace dimension. He was about to see it. Vernon was going to want me more than ever after this.

  “Be safe,” I said, and reached into the trace dimension again, concentrating on Price’s location. Finding him, I let myself tumble into the searing cold.

  Inside was a wonderland of brilliant color streamers that went on forever in an ocean of velvet black. I took a second to find my equilibrium. The last time I’d been here, my mother had been waiting for me, wanting to tell me something. I’d been too much in a hurry then to stay and
was in the same boat now.

  The cold pushed into me. Living things weren’t meant to come here. If I stayed long, I wouldn’t be living. I focused on Price’s trace. I was counting on the fact that I’d nulled the magic out of the building to have gotten rid of whatever barrier had blocked me before.

  Relief throbbed through me as I shot through to Price. In just seconds, I pulled myself out of the spirit dimension and into his prison cell. I staggered as my feet found the floor. I caught my balance and turned, searching for Price.

  He stood braced in a corner, his face twisted, his teeth bared in a snarl. He was naked. Bruises covered him, and his hands were hamburger—like he’d been punching the walls. Blood trickled from scrapes on his shoulders and arms and smeared his face. I suspected he’d done most of the damage to himself, trying to batter down the walls. He panted, his chest bellowing with the effort.

  “Price?” I could barely hear my own voice. The power emanating from him smothered sound and air. Rainbow trails pulled at the corners of my vision. He was in a full-on cascade, and there was no good way to stop it that I knew of.

  I’d never witnessed a cascade, but I’d heard enough to know that the end result would be disastrous. Basically, Price’s magic was surging inside him, with no outlet. He’d opened the spigot on it, whether he meant to or not, but he’d also bottled it up. Now it was building, like too much air in a balloon. Or maybe more like Mentos in a bottle of Coke. Sooner or later, he’d pop. Sooner was more likely. That would be ugly enough if he was an ordinary talent, but he wasn’t. The fact that he’d knocked down a mountain as a child meant he had to be something else. Something unbelievably strong and dangerous. The breadth of his destruction could be biblical.