This time, I pressed my hands on top of the coins, and pushed power out from me. I could feel them being triggered, and I could feel the way they worked, and as I did, power flowed out from me, into the coins, and into Kate. It struck the spell. Much like within myself and Barden, it was there at the back of her mind. This one was more powerful, and pulsating, almost as if the spell itself was something alive.
I continued to push, trying to trigger it. If I could do that then I could free Kate. I drew upon more power, but it wasn’t enough. I leaned down, falling to the ground, helpless. If I couldn’t save Kate, what was the point of all of this? If I couldn’t save Kate, there might not be any way for us to return to our side of the Veil.
I leaned over her. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. I rested my hand on her leg and felt a strange solid object. I moved it, pulling it out. It was a long slender rod, about the length of my forearm, and symbols were all along its surface. There was a dull quality to the black metal, and I stared at it.
A wand. Who was it tied to? Ones like this had to be tied to someone in order to make them effective, and it was possible this was tied to Kate. If I drew upon that magic, it might kill her. But then again, it might give me enough strength to pull through the trigger and finish this so she could be freed from the attack.
There wasn’t any choice, was there? I held onto the wand, placing my hand back on her chest, and drew power through the wand, triggering the runes along the surface. It grew warm, and then began glowing softly. I pushed the power through Kate and triggered the spell deep in her mind.
Shrieking erupted all around me, though I ignored it, continuing to push. As I did, my power struck, hitting whatever was wrapped around her mind, and I triggered it, continuing to push power, and then, with more drawing from the wand, the spell exploded.
I sat back, waiting, but there was nothing more I could do. It was done. If I hadn’t succeeded, I wasn’t even sure there was anything else I could do. Even with the wand like this, I didn’t know enough how to use it. But Kate was powerful, and if she was a mage like the others, she would be able to restore herself like they could. That was why John and Barden had come around so quickly.
I turned my attention next to Darvish, and I focused on him, drawing power through the wand, and I pushed it through him, triggering the strange spell at the back of his mind. As I did, it exploded quickly, and he gasped, blinking his eyes open, looking up at me. I moved away before he had a chance to say anything, and did the same to Veran and Cynthia, triggering the spells from their minds, clearing them from the attack.
And then it was done. All we had to do was wait.
All around me, there was the ongoing sense of an attack, and I couldn’t help but think that even though I might have succeeded, it still didn’t feel as if I’d been completely successful. We might have saved these five, whether or not Kate came around, but how were we going to escape the Ethear?
20
“Dr. Stone, I think you need to get moving.”
I looked up to see Barden standing over me. He looked weary, his eyes tight, and he was still holding onto a spell. Power flowed through him, though it was different from usual.
“I thought…”
“You saved us, Dr. Stone. Don’t worry about her.”
“I thought this would be the end of it. I thought by rescuing you, that…” I didn’t know what I was thinking. I’d come here without a plan in the first place, and then when I had started to face badness, I still hadn’t planned. Even now, I didn’t know what to do or how to help the one person I had come here thinking I could save. And yet, what choice did I have but to have come?
John was throwing coins, and spells were bursting from him every second, and I knew eventually he would run out of coins, to the point where even when he was done. He would be able to throw spells of his own, but would they be enough?
And then they stopped. Power built from John, but it was a different power, telling me the spell coins were spent. I reached into my pocket, but there were only a few left, not enough to do anything.
Getting me to my feet, Barden took my hand, and he pressed his back up against mine, and Darvish did the same, and even Veran and Cynthia were there, all of us making a circle around Kate who still lay on the ground unmoving. John Adams backed toward us, and the sense of creatures pushed toward us, closing in, and when he reached us, John shook his head. “I guess that’s it.”
“Why were you so willing to help?” Barden asked.
“I needed her,” he said, nodding to Kate.
“You wanted her power,” Barden said.
“Indirectly.”
My breath caught. “To reach your daughter,” I said, suddenly understanding.
John looked toward me, and there was pain in his eyes, the pain I’d seen from people before who had suffered. I knew John had suffered, though I didn’t know exactly what he had suffered from. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it? All of this has been your way of trying to reach her?”
“I needed her to work with me,” he said.
“You want her to bring back your daughter,” I said. He didn’t deny it, and I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s how it works. I don’t know how her power works, but it doesn’t seem to me it’s the kind of power that allows her to bring back the dead.”
“Everything I’ve heard about her tells me she is Death.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” came a voice.
I jerked my head around. Kate was standing there, her eyes blazing with an anger I’d not seen from her when we were working together. She held her hands together, and light glowed between them, a sword suddenly forming.
John Adams gasped. “I just—”
“I know what you just thought, but it doesn’t work like that. Death comes to us all, and if too much time has passed, there is no return. Mourn and move on.”
Then she held the magical sword over her head, and power exploded through it. As it did, everything around us shattered. There was a painful surge of magic. It washed over me. I saw a flash of light, but it was brief and momentary, and then there was a powerful burst of magic again.
When it cleared, we were back in the storeroom at the Basilica.
“You brought us back to neutral ground?” I asked.
“I did. The other side of the Veil is not meant for you.” I thought she was looking at me, but she was looking at Barden, and then to Cynthia and Veran.
“We only went because of you,” Cynthia said.
“And I thank you.” Kate turned to me. “And you. Had you not come, and had you not borrowed the Wand of Eliantra, none of this would’ve been possible.”
“I borrowed what?”
Kate smiled, and in that moment, she was the woman I remembered. “It’s called the Wand of Eliantra. It’s an incredibly powerful artifact, and to be honest, I’m surprised you were able to use it.”
“I can trigger spells,” I said.
“I guess so.”
“Kate, I—”
Kate shook her head, and she wrapped me in a hug. “I can’t come back, not yet. There’s still something I need to do.”
“Do you ever intend to return?”
“I think so.”
“But not to medicine.”
She frowned, and her eyes flickered with an emotion, though it was unreadable. “I don’t know. I hope I can, but I don’t know.”
“When you have a chance, I’d love to catch up.”
“As would I.” She turned to Barden, wrapping him in a hug. “Thank you for taking care of her. Continue to work with her.” She turned to Veran and Cynthia, hugging them both. She whispered something to both of them, and tears streamed from Cynthia’s eyes, and she nodded, wiping her cheeks.
Finally, she turned to Darvish. “Are you ready?”
He took a deep breath. “I don’t know about this, Kate.”
“We have to find him.”
“That’s who you’re going after,” I said.
&nb
sp; Kate nodded. “I’ve got to find Aron. I don’t know what happened over there, but… Thank you for freeing me from the Ethear. The next time, I’ll know what to expect.”
“You just have to trigger the spell placed on your mind.”
“I see that now. I don’t know if I have your talent with it, but I’ll do my best.”
“What about him?” I asked, nodding to John Adams.
“He has knowledge. All of you need it. Something is coming, and I think we need everybody working together.”
With that, another surge of power built, and then she and Darvish disappeared, crossing the Veil.
I stood there for a moment, not certain what to do or say. Barden and John Adams stared at each other.
“Barden, John helped us,” I said.
“He tried to kill us,” Barden said.
“He did. It was for his daughter, and so I think it was for a good cause, but it doesn’t change the fact that he tried to kill us.”
“She couldn’t help,” John said.
“No,” I said. “And you didn’t need to go to her to learn there’s nothing that could have been done. I’ve dealt with death and dying often enough to know sometimes there’s nothing that can be done. Sometimes things are just a lost cause and you have to recognize it and move on, both for the sake of your loved one and for your own sake.”
John took a deep breath. “I have to think on this.” Power built from him, and before we could react, he transported, disappearing. I didn’t think he had just gone back across the Veil, though I wasn’t completely sure.
Barden growled softly.
“Leave him,” I said. “He needs time to figure out what he needs to do.”
“What if he decides he needs to attack us again?”
“Then I keep training. Besides, Kate didn’t take back her wand,” I said, holding it up.
Barden stared at it. “Dr. Stone…”
I shrugged. “I figure she’ll realize and come back for it anyway. In the meantime, I’m going to hang onto it, in case something comes up and I need it.” I looked at the others. “I don’t know about you, but I want to get home and take a nap.”
Barden nodded. “I will get you there.”
“I have my car outside,” I said.
He smiled, fatigue washing across his face. “Then maybe you can get me home.”
After dropping Barden off at the warehouse, I found my way back to the condo, pulling up in front of it. I had no idea how much time had passed, and though it was daylight, my phone was dead, so there was no way for me to know whether or not I had been gone for hours or days. I prayed it wasn’t longer, and that it wasn’t weeks.
Making my way up the stairs, I felt a sense of dread rising within me. I would have to figure out a way of explaining to Brad where I’d been. When I reached the door, I hesitated. There was something on the other side, though I wasn’t sure what it was I detected.
Triggering the door, I reached for the wand, gripping it in my hand, and pushed open the door, ready to blast it.
Inside, Brad lay on the sofa, and he sat up quickly when I entered. “Where have you been?” he asked.
“Why? How long I’ve been gone?”
“That’s the first thing you say?”
“I was going to ask how you got in here.”
“I found a key in your locker. Do you know how long I’ve covered for you?”
“No. I really don’t.”
“It’s been three days. I know your grandfather was sick, but you should have called. At least called me.”
Three days. And he’d covered for me. I really didn’t deserve him. “I’m sorry.” I closed the door, sealing it shut.
“What happened? Where were you?” He started toward me, wrapping his arms around me. I hugged him back, wanting nothing more than to fall into his arms. When the hug was done, I stepped back, and realized too late I held something in my hand. “And what is that?” he asked.
Closing my eyes, I debated what I needed to do. I had wanted to keep both of my worlds separate, but maybe that wasn’t going to be possible. It was a lesson Kate had learned, and it seemed it was my turn to learn the same lesson. It was time for me to find a way of mixing them, and in order to do so, and in order to maintain the relationship growing between Brad and me, it would be necessary for me to share.
“Brad. There’s something I need to tell you.”
“You not breaking up with me like this.”
I stepped forward, kissing him passionately on the lips. “I am definitely not breaking up with you. But you do need to know something about me, and after I tell you, you might be the one who wants to leave.”
As he took a seat, I took a deep breath, gathering myself, and tried to think of how I would explain things. It was time, and he was important enough to me that he deserved to know.
And if he didn’t accept it, I’d have Barden find a way to wipe his mind.
Click now for book 5 of Hedge Mage and Medicine: End Stage.
I’ve lost everything. Now it’s time to find myself.
Ever since finding Kate, everything has been different for me. I’ve found a balance between medicine and magic. I found someone I care for. And I feel a sense of purpose I never had before.
Now everything has changed.
With a dangerous power about to be unleashed, somehow I have the ability to intervene. To do so, I have to find my own balance… and master my magical specialty. There’s no time for me to do either.
The one responsible for the coming attack is someone I know all too well. What he plans will bring him power, but if Matt succeeds, it will give him something else he wants—revenge.
Have you read the other series in this world?
Flatline: Book 1 of Medicine and Magic. You’ll find Kate’s story here.
Taker of Spells: Book 1 of The Tattered Veil. A story of the fae, with some vampires and shifters mixed in.
Author’s Note
Thank you so much for reading Lost Cause. I’ve really enjoyed writing Jen and her magical adventures and hope you’ve enjoyed reading about her.
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Cheers,
SA Magnusson
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Also by SA Magnusson
Medicine and Magic
Flatline
Postmortem
Malignant Magic
Hemorrhage
Anaphylaxis
Paralyzed
Hedge Mage and Medicine
Frost Bite
Open Fracture
Heat Stroke
Lost Cause
End Stage
The Tattered Veil
Taker of Spells
The Silver Chalice
Wand of Despair
Neutral Ground
Shadow Heir
Lost Cause Page 20
