An Uncommon Truth of Dying (Broken Veil Book 2)

by Marie Andreas

  Chapter Forty

  Harlie was happily bouncing in the back seat, and the rest were most likely dwelling on Jili’s last words. They all knew they were in a huge fight, but at least for Aisling, having it put so symbolically as armor was disturbing.

  Aisling turned to Harlie as they drove out of the area. “I hate to bring it up, but you kept yelling about me being dead and it being your fault. There have been some odd issues about my “being alive” status in the past few hours. I doubt your attack, or whatever it was, isn’t related.”

  Harlie had been happily smiling to himself, but the smile crumbled. “I don’t know what happened, as I said. But a short while ago I awoke, but not in this world. Or maybe it was this place but through another’s eye. I’ll need to make notes. At any rate, this other world was dark and deadly—and you were dead. My job was to protect you, I failed. I felt like I killed you, but the details weren’t clear.”

  “Might as well just say it.” Aisling shared a look with Reece and took a deep breath. “Our mother killed me, probably a few weeks or days before she brought me to you to block my magic.” She had second thoughts as soon as the words left her mouth. If Harlie lost it...maybe a moving vehicle hadn’t been the best place to tell him. But considering what he just went through, he needed to know.

  His face stilled. “I...you were alive when she brought you to me.” He was never the type to be lost when it came to ideas or concepts, but this one hit him hard. “I know you were alive.” His voice dropped. “Are you sure I didn’t kill you?”

  Reece leaned forward, appearing ready to grab Harlie if he needed to be subdued.

  “No. I found the memories.” She reached back and took his hand. “Don’t worry, I don’t recall being dead. And the dying part was painless. She stopped my heart as easily as you would put out a flame. But she did it because someone ordered her to. There was a deal of some sort made. That part wasn’t in my memories though.” Harlie stayed silent as she filled him in on everything from their mother’s odd phone call to tracking down which families had lost children the year she turned five.

  He sat there unblinking for so long, Reece nudged him.

  “I’m okay.” Harlie nodded to Reece then turned back to Aisling. “Are you okay? How did I not feel what had happened to you when she brought you to me?”

  Maeve had been focusing on the road but looked back at him in the mirror. “I’d say you weren’t sticking around in Aisling’s head. You wouldn’t have been happy to do what that bitch made you do. In those cases, it’s always ‘do what needs to be done, get out, and don’t look around’.” Maeve might not be a fey or a magic user, but she’d had enough unsavory situations in her life to understand Harlie well.

  He nodded. “But I still should have known. We all should have known. Did father bring you back?”

  “That’s what I’m guessing, but not sure why she let him. Whatever that voice was, it must have tracked me through my magic. My theory is that I still was of value to her and that’s why she had you block my magic.”

  “Or it was tracking you through whatever made you scream every night.” Harlie appeared to be wallowing in his perceived failure. “Children of any species don’t just scream for no reason. Something triggered it. You had only been doing it for a few weeks according to her when she brought you to me. Depending on the timing, it could be that the screaming marked a change which was what triggered her to kill you. Or the screaming was the result of her killing you.” He leaned forward toward Aisling’s seat. “Have you found a need to scream since I removed the block?”

  He was definitely back to his normal inquisitive self. Aisling knew he still held guilt, warranted or not, about her death, that was just how he was. But he was moving forward to fix the problem.

  “Not in any case that wasn’t deserved. There have been a few of those along the way.”

  “Why is all of this coming up now?” Maeve swore as the street she tried to take was blocked by unmoving traffic. “These things happened almost two hundred years ago and the murder of Aisling and the other children was related to something that your mother and those other families made an agreement on hundreds if not thousands of years ago, right?”

  “Probably.” Harlie was still processing things in his head but nodded. “The High Council was even more power-mad when our people first came here. They settled down after we saved humans from the Black Plague, but I think they just kept their actions secretive.”

  “Again, why now?” Another car-blocked road brought more swearing from Maeve.

  “The veil.” Reece had settled back into his seat. “My agency is in denial even as they’re looking into cases about it, but there is something wrong with the veil. That has to be the connection. It’s weakening, and things are getting through.”

  “Then whatever killing me and the other children had been for, it was for someone or something on the other side of the veil.” Aisling knew that had to be the case, but knowing it and saying it out loud were two different things.

  “A deal made with something over there for the fey to cross here?” Reece shrugged. “That seems wrong since they were trying to escape whatever was over there.”

  “Not to mention that Aisling’s birth and her fifth birthday were a few thousand years after our people came here. The timing isn’t very good. Do we have any paper and a pen?” Harlie looked up. Aisling dug through her bag, then handed him a pen and notepad. “Thank you, just notes for later. Keeping most up in my head, but sometimes a few escape.”

  “We can do a data search to see what, if any, significant events happened the year Aisling and the others were born when we get back to the flat.” Maeve turned down a third street. Also blocked by cars. She drummed her fingers on her steering wheel before moving to the side of the road and parking.

  “London traffic is never great, but since they started reducing the number of cars with licenses to drive in the city, it’s gotten better. Until today. I don’t see any signs of accidents, but something is blocking every road to the center of town.”

  Reece got out of the car and walked over to the closest car sitting in traffic. The window was rolled up and the woman driver stared ahead. Reece knocked on her window. Nothing. He knocked again. Still nothing. He went up five cars; judging by the fact that no windows rolled down, they were in the same state as the first.

  He came jogging back and leaned into Maeve’s window. “Can either of you two magic users pick up on any spells? As far as I can see each car has a driver, but no one is moving or responding to anything. Some cars have passengers as well, but none of them react either.”

  Aisling got out and sent out her healing magic to the first car. And got slammed back into Reece’s arms hard enough that both ended up pushed into Maeve’s car.

  Aisling rubbed her forehead. “Something is blocking them. My spell got smacked back into me.” The pounding in her head was horrible.

  Harlie got out of the car, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let a spell flow. Aisling felt it, gentle and stirring at the same time. He didn’t get slammed back as she had, but the spell simply drifted away. He glared at the cars then sent the spell again. This time there was a bit more kick behind it.

  Still nothing.

  The pendant on Aisling’s necklace started getting warm. She lifted it to eye level and noticed that a new line was etching its way in. Red this time.

  “What’s that?” Maeve yelled and pointed toward where the cars were facing. A massive, taller than the buildings, green ball, crackling with energy as it slowly expanded toward them.

  “Something we don’t want to reach us.” Harlie’s eyes were wide at whatever he sensed about the ball. “Get in! Get away from here!”

  Reece and Harlie both jumped into the backseat.

  The pendant grew almost too hot to touch. Aisling dropped it on top of her shirt and got back in the car.

  Maeve backed up and tore down the street away from the line of cars and the growing ball. “Guys
, it’s still growing. What is it? What’s it doing?” She swerved around slower-moving cars.

  “I have no idea what that is. Actually, I might have one, but I don’t know how it could be here.” Harlie waved his hand. “It would be a long explanation and knowing will not make a difference—we can’t fight it; we need to leave.”

  “Out of London?” Maeve managed to get on a wider road and picked up some speed.

  “Yes, I believe that might save us.”

  Aisling and Reece both spun toward him at the same time.

  “What?”

  “We can’t let the entire city of London be destroyed! We have to tell someone, get people out.” Maeve was still zipping around cars.

  “It’s too late, it’s growing. But I don’t think it is going to explode. That is a spell of containment. Someone or something is locking up London. You can call your people in the city, but I don’t think that even the strongest spellcasters can hold out. I might have been able to protect the four of us for a short while, but that would have been it. And I am a very strong magic user.” He wasn’t bragging, he was one of the best. And if he couldn’t hold back that green orb, probably no one could.

  Maeve swore steadily as she picked up speed, got onto the motorway, and blasted out of town.

  The ball was growing and cars heading into London were turning and trying to retreat as they saw it, but they were trapped by more cars heading their direction.

  “For once I’m glad you drive like a race car driver.” Aisling hung onto the dash and Maeve focused on getting out of town.

  “Do we know how far this thing will go?” Maeve yelled to Harlie. “Not sure if we’ll have enough petrol if it’s too far.”

  Harlie looked back but shook his head. “That is a theoretical magical entity. No one has ever seen one larger than a baseball. I...wait. I can sense it. It’s weakening. Keep going. It should have to fall back soon.”

  He might have said it was weakening, but it looked like it was still growing at the same speed from what Aisling could see.

  “Either we’re slowing or it’s getting faster. It is catching up.” Reece stared out the back.

  “I’m going as fast as I can!” Maeve was racing the other cars all trying to stay ahead of the blob.

  “I can feel it weakening. I don’t understand.” Harlie watched it come closer.

  Aisling felt like the car was standing still, the translucent green dome was moving faster than they were. She grabbed her still hot pendant and focused a blast of healing at the green wall coming their way. The blob stopped.

  “Thank gods it stopped. Getting off at the next exit; we can fuel up then go find the others.” Maeve’s voice was steady but her hands were shaking.

  “I think Aisling and her friend helped.” Reece turned around to Aisling.

  She winced as she let go of the pendant. Yup, it had a brand-new red line in the celtic knot. And so did the palm of her hand.

  Chapter Forty-One

  “Ouch. Damn it. I wish I wasn’t the only one with healer magic,” Aisling said. “This damn pendant burnt me.” She could try to heal herself, but whatever blast she’d sent at the blob had wiped her out. She felt like a newborn kitten could beat her in a fight right now. With one paw tied behind its back.

  Maeve looked over briefly. “If you do faint, please fall toward the door and not me. My nerves are a bit shot and it would be tragic to have escaped the London blob only to go off the road in a car accident.”

  “I won’t faint, I’m just exhausted. And my hand hurts. Okay, Harlie, what the hell was that?” The green dome was fading behind them. It was still there, and who knew how many people were trapped inside, hopefully just in stasis. But at least it wasn’t expanding anymore.

  “It was a lincolica spell. Very old, extremely dangerous, both for the persons inside and the person casting it. To be able to create one that large, and have it hold is...unheard of.” He looked terrified and fascinated.

  “Could it be a group of magic users?” Reece still was glancing back but the green blob was little more than a quickly fading line at the speed Maeve was driving.

  “It would take too much power to be able to connect even two spell casters to create this spell, let alone the number of them that would have been needed for something that large. There are variances that each magic user would exhibit that would conflict with each other and disrupt the spell.” Harlie kept looking behind them. “Bart needs to be told.”

  Maeve started swearing anew, or she might not have actually stopped but just lowered the volume. “MI-6, Area 42, Closen, and untold other agencies are all based in London. Are we cut off from all of them?”

  “There’s a good chance.” Harlie nodded and pulled out his phone. “I’m calling my friend in Noth, she’s a precog and might have felt more than we did since she wasn’t directly impacted.” He called but hung up when he got voicemail.

  “You don’t want to leave her a message?” Aisling asked.

  “Not right now. I’m not sure who or what can be trusted. I believe Bart is calling though.” He looked at Reece who shrugged, he had his phone in his hand but hadn’t dialed yet. Then his phone buzzed.

  “Creepy, so you can sense phone calls?” Maeve looked back at Harlie.

  “No, but it was a logical assumption. We had been in London and right now all of the agents who were not, are trying to reach those who were.”

  Reece mostly was answering questions, short, brief ones. That meant Harlie and Aisling might not be the only ones who didn’t trust phones. “We’re on the road to Noth now, we’ll come find you. Larkin out.” Reece ran his hand through his hair. He looked as tired as Aisling felt. “Bart says every office or agent inside London just goes to voice mail. The news choppers from surrounding areas are flying overhead and scanning, but it appears almost all of London proper is under that dome. The good news is that when Aisling and the pendant managed to freeze it, it did so everywhere. There are no cracks or holes that they’ve seen so far and no one has taken credit for the creating the blob—yet.”

  “In other words, no one knows anything. Do they think the people under that thing are alive?” Maeve kept her voice level. Her family had moved out of London a few years ago—but she still thought of it as home. Aisling knew how hard she was fighting to not whip the car around and try to find a way inside.

  Reece must have heard it in her voice. “There’s no reason to believe they’re not alive. Right Harlie? This spell is unique.”

  Harlie started to say something, looked to Maeve, and instead forced a smile. “I would say the chances are extremely good that they are alive. The people in those cars were alive, just frozen, the spell must have started slowly, then once it was strong enough to build the dome, it expanded. Once we break the spell, everyone in London should be fine.”

  Maeve was silent for a bit, then looked in the rearview mirror. “You have no idea, do you? We could be driving away from millions of corpses.”

  “I don’t know for certain, right now, no one except the caster of the spell would know. But based on my very long life, filled with observation and contemplation, I believe they are alive. And until proven otherwise, I will suggest we all do the same.” Harlie sat back in his seat and folded his arms.

  Aisling flashed him a smile. Harlie could be socially clueless sometimes, and other times brilliant. Maeve relaxed her death grip on the steering wheel at his words.

  “I’m willing to agree with the wise man, how about you two?” Reece waited until Aisling and Maeve both nodded before dialing another number. “Narissa? Hi this is Reece Larkin from this afternoon.” He quickly touched base with her. Not a bad idea since the majority of agents would have been in London when the dome encased it. After a few minutes of catching up on the disaster, he cut to why he called. “We’re meeting up in the village of Noth. Agent Churchill of the New York office and a few other agents will be meeting there. I didn’t know if you and your agents had a contingency plan.”

 
Maeve gave Aisling a look of confusion, and Aisling pantomimed wings. Maeve nodded and went back to seeing how many cars she could pass.

  Reece and Narissa went back and forth a bit, he gave her Bart’s contact information and ended the call. “She has five agents with her, she’s pretty sure almost all of the rest were inside the city. She’s going to contact Bart and get the word out for any free agents to go to Noth.”

  Maeve nodded. “My list is limited, but I will be calling any Closen and regular MI-6 agents I can when we get there. Closen should still have people there already. Do you think that is the reason for this? Cut down on the number of people working on these problems?”

  Aisling shook her head. “There would be more strategic ways to do that, I’d think. But someone was trying to keep London shut.” She left off that someone would probably be claiming responsibility eventually. This might not have ever been done before, but it was an act of terrorism.

  “I’m going to keep calling any U.K. agents I have contact information for.” Reece went back to his phone. “Oh, and Bart is glad that you’re recovered, Harlie. He’d like it if you and Aisling can focus on anything magic connected that you noticed as we were driving further into London. I’d say as soon as Maeve started hitting blocked streets although it could have been before that.”

  “I already have been, but I will continue.” Harlie scowled. “It was so subtle that I didn’t even notice when I was walking around those cars. I originally thought someone had spelled them to get to us. That they managed to keep that large of a spell that well masked says much—none of it good.”

  “I’ll try and search what I saw and felt, but I didn’t notice anything either.” The pain in Aisling’s hand flared and she looked down. “Hopefully someone in Noth can heal this before it becomes permanent.” She held up her hand. “I’m still too magically weak to heal it myself.”