Magic Triumphs

by Ilona Andrews

  My father slapped his hand over his face. “Why, gods? Why me? What have I done to deserve this punishment?”

  “Conquered, pillaged, manipulated, imposed your will on others . . .”

  “Murdered your children,” my aunt’s icy voice said behind us.

  I almost cheered.

  My father went completely still. I twisted my neck and saw Erra. She’d strolled through the blood ward like it wasn’t there.

  “So, it is true,” he said, the ancient words lyrical and filled with pain. “You betrayed me.”

  “You made an order of assassins to murder me.” There was so much in my aunt’s voice: pain, anger, surprise, grief. It almost broke me.

  She could do it. If I had to swallow my pride and deal with a man who wanted to murder my child, she could deal with him, too.

  “I never meant for it to be used.”

  Erra raised her hand. My father fell silent.

  “We’ve destroyed our family, Im,” she said. “We ruined it.”

  “We were fighting a war.”

  She shook her head. “Death gives you a certain perspective. We broke Shinar. It wasn’t the invaders. It was us. We grieved, and we let rage blind us. We destroyed everything our family had built. Look at us now. Look at our legacy. Mother mourns us.”

  My father sneered. It was almost as impressive as when my aunt did it. Apparently, it ran in the family. “Our mother has committed plenty of her own sins.”

  “This child”—Erra pointed at me—“is our best hope for the future. How could you?”

  Roland raised his chin.

  “Yes. I know,” she said. “You bound her. Are you really that terrified of death?”

  “I did it out of love,” he ground out.

  “You did a thing to a babe in the womb that cannot be undone. Do you wage war on the unborn now, Nimrod? Is this how far you have fallen?”

  I got up to my feet and touched the ward. The magic clutched at my wrist. For a moment the ward became visible, a translucent dome of red glass. It held for half a breath, fractured, and shattered, melting into empty air, and Curran’s enraged face greeted me.

  Here goes nothing. “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’ve seen Neig’s army. He has thousands of warriors. Enough to overrun the city and murder every single person who lives here. In his lair, a horde of yeddimur is waiting. He takes an offering of newborns and then he poisons them with his venom until they turn into those creatures. He told me that they are primitive and filthy beasts who know only rage and hunger and who eat their own. He says this is the true nature of humanity. He is worse than you are, Father. You seek to rule. He wants to exterminate us.”

  You could hear a pin drop.

  “I have no allies. I’m alone. It’s just me and the city. No help is coming. But I’m the In-Shinar and I won’t bow to a dragon. I will fight for humanity, even if nobody stands with me. I am Sharratum here. I’m responsible for this city. I won’t dishonor my blood and my family.”

  Curran frowned at me. Don’t you dare ruin my speech. I pushed every button my dad had.

  “Neimheadh is coming for us in three days. Atlanta will fall. We will die. Then you’ll follow, Father. Make your peace.”

  I walked away and didn’t look back.

  * * *

  • • •

  I SAT ON the porch steps and held a glass of iced tea. The ice had melted long ago, so what I had was mostly tea-flavored water. My father and my aunt still argued on our lawn. They put the blood ward back up for privacy, I suppose, which didn’t do them a lot of good, because I could still see their faces. All the arm waving and finger pointing was quite entertaining.

  Curran sat on my left. Hugh leaned against the porch post on my right. Conlan was inside in the basement, surrounded by werebears and guarded by Adora and Christopher. My father would have to go through me and Curran to get to him, and if it came to that, Christopher would fly him out of there while the werebears held Roland back.

  Dali and Doolittle had left once I vanished. It was just us again, family and friends. Well, us and Hugh and Elara.

  My father clenched his fists. Light exploded in the dome, hiding him from view. It faded, revealing my aunt, her arms crossed on her chest. She rolled her eyes and said something.

  My father spun away, throwing up his arms.

  “I stand corrected,” my husband said. “There is another person who can drive your father as crazy as you.”

  “This is the most human I’ve ever seen him,” I said.

  “You’re not alone,” Hugh said, his voice flat. “That was some speech. I thought you’d lost your mind for a second.”

  “We need his army. I primed him for my aunt. If anyone can convince him, she will.”

  We watched the drama play out in the bubble. My aunt switched to lecturing. My father pinched the bridge of his nose with his hand, looking down.

  “Come on, you selfish asshole,” Hugh growled under his breath.

  At the far edge of the lawn, Julie had parked herself, a determined look on her face. Derek waited with her, his face impassive.

  “How many troops does Neig have?” Curran asked.

  “I stopped counting at thirteen thousand.”

  Curran didn’t say anything. A thousand wouldn’t be a problem. Five thousand would be hard. They were armored, so we’d have to wrench them out of their armor to kill them, while they spat fire at us. Ten thousand was impossible.

  Ten thousand troops, that’s more soldiers than the National Guard had pre-Shift. And Neig had even more than that.

  The bubble of the ward fell. My father turned to us. My aunt walked over to the porch steps.

  “Your father has agreed to ally with you to face the dragon.”

  “Aha.” Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  “He wants to see Conlan,” Erra said.

  “No,” Curran said.

  “I will hold my grandson,” Roland said, “and he will know I am his grandfather. That’s my price.”

  Everything in me rebelled at putting Conlan anywhere within his reach.

  We couldn’t survive without my father. It wasn’t just his army; it was him. We needed my father’s power and magic. He’d fought a dragon before and won.

  I felt like I was walking down a winding staircase. Every stair was a piece of my life I would fight to the end to keep. My friends. My relationships. Each had a name or some concession I wasn’t willing to make. My pride. My dignity. My privacy. Julie. Derek. Ascanio. Ghastek. Rowena. Jim. Dali. Curran . . .

  I fought for every one. I clawed onto them, holding on with the edges of my nails, but in the end, I would surrender and step down in the name of the greater good. This was queenship, and if only I could find someone to take it from me, I’d unload it in a fraction of a second.

  The name of this step was “Never let my father touch my child.”

  I let my magic out. It flowed out of me like a mantle. I decided not to bother with hiding it anymore.

  The power streamed out of me, branching, stretching, reaching. I became the center of Atlanta, the heart of the land I claimed. I sat on the porch steps, but I might as well have sat on a throne.

  My father felt it. His eyes narrowed. He blinked and his whole being seemed to have picked up a faint golden sheen. This was no longer a conversation between Roland and me. This was a conversation between New Shinar and Atlanta. Two rival kingdoms negotiating a brief peace.

  “What do you offer, Im-Shinar?” I asked.

  My father’s eyes narrowed further. “The full power of my army and myself.”

  “You will fight Neig until he is dead. You will honor our alliance for the duration of this war.”

  “Yes.”

  “Kate,” Curran said.

  “Don’t do it,” Julie yelled from across the lawn.
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  This was it. This was the last thing I had to give. I was about to place my son into my father’s hands.

  “The word of Sharrum is binding,” I said. “Swear to me, father, that you will put my son back in my arms after you hold him.”

  “I swear,” he said.

  There were lines even my father wouldn’t cross. I had to believe that.

  “Atlanta accepts your alliance. Bring my son to me,” I said. My voice carried, slipping through the walls like they were air. I knew Adora heard me.

  Julie swore.

  There was a scuffle in the house. A moment later Adora opened the door, put Conlan on my lap, and took one step back, her hand on her sword. Blood slid down her left temple, but she ignored it.

  Conlan blinked at the light. My baby. My tiny sweet baby. Curran’s gray eyes and my brown hair.

  I pointed to my father. “This is your other grandfather.”

  “Gampa?”

  “Grandpa. Grandfather. Great king.”

  My father crouched by me. In these few seconds he somehow became everything a grandfather should be: wise, kind, warm, and filled with love. If I’d met him as a child, I would’ve trusted him instantly.

  Carefully, I passed Conlan to him.

  His hands closed around my son.

  Everyone on the lawn waited, primed to explode. Curran paused in a half crouch, a hair away from violence. Hugh bared his teeth. Adora focused on my father like nothing else in the world existed. Only my aunt seemed relaxed, standing by Roland’s side.

  My father straightened and raised Conlan up. My son blinked.

  Roland’s eyes were full of awe. A smile stretched his lips, a warm, real smile that reached all the way to his eyes.

  “You are a wonder . . .” he said softly.

  My aunt smiled.

  “Do you see the Wild?” Roland asked her.

  “I do. You have no idea what he can do with it. Isn’t he the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?”

  “He is. Well done, my daughter,” my father said. “Well done. He is brilliant like a star in the heavens.”

  Shit.

  The same look slapped Hugh’s and Julie’s faces. They had seen that expression before.

  My father liked shiny things and gifted children. It was the potential; it drew him like a magnet. He told me once that Hugh had been a glowing meteor he caught and forged into a sword. If Hugh was a meteor, my son was a supernova. He was like nothing else I had ever seen.

  My father wanted my son. He wanted him more than anything in the world. And if he took him, he would raise him like a prince. He would give him everything and it would be terrible.

  “Conlan,” I called. “Come to Mommy.”

  My son twisted in his grandfather’s hands.

  Roland hesitated. Curran leaned forward a quarter of an inch.

  My father took three steps forward and deposited Conlan into my arms. I hugged him to me.

  “We have three days then,” my father said. “Possibly more, since the attack will come with the first magic wave after the three days pass. I shall come to discuss strategy before then.”

  He vanished in a burst of pale gold light.

  Everyone screamed at me at once.

  I hugged Conlan to me. “Grandpa is bad,” I whispered to him. “I won’t let him get you. I won’t.”

  That was one price I wasn’t willing to pay.

  The magic wave fell, the technology reasserting itself once more.

  Curran collapsed.

  CHAPTER

  17

  I CLEARED THE space between us in a fraction of a second. He groaned, blinking. I wrapped my arms around him, squeezing Conlan in, willing with everything I had to keep Curran alive. Don’t disappear. Please, please don’t disappear.

  “Curran, look at me. Look at me.”

  He didn’t feel solid. Oh my God. It had happened. The balance within him had shifted. He was more god than man now, and the god part couldn’t exist without the magic. I was losing him.

  “Curran!” I pulled magic out of myself and sent a burst of it into him.

  His gray eyes focused on me.

  I hugged him and kissed his lips, desperate. “Stay with me. Stay with me, honey.”

  The muscles under my fingers gained density.

  “I love you. Stay with me.”

  “I’ve got it,” he said. “I’ve got it. Just took me by surprise, that’s all.”

  “You shouldn’t have eaten the last one,” Erra said over me.

  “Thanks, that helps.” He kissed me back. “You can stop now, honey. I’ve got it.”

  I let the magic current die. The pain died with it. I hadn’t even realized I was hurting until it stopped.

  Curran gripped my hand. I pulled him to his feet. He draped his arm around me. By the time we reached the kitchen, he was moving on his own. He sat in a chair. I kept my hand on his shoulder. I didn’t want him to disappear.

  “Roland wants the kid,” Hugh said.

  “Of course he wants the kid,” Curran growled. “He’ll stab us in the back the first chance he gets.”

  They both looked at me. “I know,” I said. “We don’t have a choice. As bad as Roland is, Neig is worse. Neig is death and genocide. Roland wants to rule humans. Neig wants to eat us.”

  The kitchen was silent.

  “We know Roland will turn on us, so we plan for it,” Curran said. “We’re not going into it blind.”

  And even if we did get blindsided, there was always the nuclear option. My father couldn’t live without me.

  “We need to solve the problem of Neig,” Hugh said.

  “And his many troops,” I added.

  “Not counting the yeddimur,” Curran said. “If I were him, I’d run the yeddimur at us first, and then when we’re softened, finish us with troops.”

  “That seemed to be his strategy when we fought them in Kentucky. Yeddimur are tough to kill. We can fight for hours before we ever touch his army,” Hugh said.

  “Can we win this?” Elara asked.

  Curran’s eyes went cold. “We don’t have a choice.”

  “If we can get Roland to follow strategy,” Hugh said. “That’s a big ‘if.’”

  “He will follow it,” Erra assured him.

  “Do we even know where he is coming from?” Derek asked.

  “My father’s old castle,” I said. “I told him I wanted to behold his army. That’s the only area around Atlanta large enough for him to field all his troops. I wanted to avoid attack on several fronts.”

  “With any luck, he’ll do what Roland does,” Curran said.

  “Arrange his troops into rectangles and run them at us?” I asked.

  “Mm-hm. He’s likely used to relying on numerical advantage.”

  “And fire,” I said. “Don’t forget fire.”

  “He does breathe fire?” Julie asked.

  “Like a jet of ignited napalm.”

  “Can you hold him back if you’re in your territory?” Hugh asked.

  “Possibly.”

  Curran leaned back. “We need to call another Conclave.”

  “The problem is, we can’t kill him,” I said.

  “Who?” Curran asked.

  “Neig. If he decides he’s near death, he’ll just vanish into his lair.”

  A whisper of movement sounded from the hallway and Yu Fong stepped out into the kitchen, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and a light-brown hoodie. He looked no worse for wear. He moved with a slight stiffness, but his color was good.

  “I tried to tell you before,” he said. “There may be a way.”

  Everyone looked at me. “Saiman,” I told them. “He performed a ritual that let us talk briefly while Yu Fong was comatose. Each dragon lair has an anchor. It is the dragon’
s most precious possession, his greatest treasure, cherished above all others. They pour their magic into it and it’s the foundation of the realm where the dragon makes its lair. But it can’t be destroyed.”

  “As I tried to tell you,” Yu Fong said, “we don’t need to destroy it. If we can steal it for a time, the realm won’t respond to Neig’s commands. He will be trapped here and now.”

  Everyone paused, mulling it over.

  “Can you do it?” Hugh asked.

  “No. I’m another dragon. Neig will sense the moment I enter his realm. Even if I could, I would not. The anchor is a thing of great magic that can’t exist outside its realm for long. It will seek to return. It will take enormous power to restrain it. The temptation for me would be too great. If I touch that anchor, it will pull me into Neig’s realm, and I have no intention of leaving this world. My place is here.”

  “If not you, then who?” Curran asked.

  “You have a book,” Yu Fong said. “About short people who sneak into a dragon’s lair and steal his anchor. Someone small and insignificant.”

  “I’m small and insignificant,” Julie said.

  “No,” I said.

  “Yes,” she told me. “Kate, I’m small, sneaky, and quiet. I have a large reserve of magic and I know how to use it.”

  “The child has a point,” Erra said.

  “Everyone else is needed,” Julie continued. “You are the In-Shinar. Curran has to lead the mercs and inspire the shapeshifters. Hugh has to lead the Iron Dogs, Elara has to absorb witch magic, and Yu Fong can’t do it because he is a dragon. I can do it.”

  “I’ll go with her,” Derek said.

  “It would have to be done during the battle, when the madman is occupied,” Yu Fong said. “I know what will occupy him.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Me,” he said. “The moment he sees me, he will attack. I will buy you some time.”

  “One flaw in this plan,” I said. “How will Julie get to the dragon’s realm?”

  “Did you keep the shard of his fang?” Yu Fong asked.

  “Yes.”

  “It will act as a key. I will open the way. The timing will have to be perfect.” Yu Fong leaned forward, his gaze on me. “I repeat, a removed anchor seeks to reunite with its realm. Neither can exist apart. It will require great power to hold the anchor. And we don’t know how vast Neig’s realm is. We don’t know where he hides the anchor.”