Terric was still in the car. Even though I wasn’t looking at him, I could sense him, his heartbeat, his mood. Being around him so much lately only made me more aware of him. Right now he was angry, but more than that, I sensed sorrow.
Who knew what he was sad about? Could be any number of things: the loss of his job, Joshua’s death, Eleanor’s not-death, Jeremy . . . or me. Or maybe it was just that he didn’t like the idea I was going to take care of Eli the best way I knew how—by killing him.
I felt more than heard him get out of the car. Felt more than heard his footsteps in the rain, jogging to catch up with me. Then he was beside me, matching my stride.
“Just because you don’t think a conversation needs to happen doesn’t mean it isn’t going to.”
“I said drop it, mate.”
“Drop it. Drop the fact that you have a ghost—an undead soul tied to you, trapped, haunting you every second of the day? No wonder you’re so damn morose.”
“Drop it just like I dropped you not wanting to believe that Jeremy is a lying bastard.”
“This isn’t about me—it’s about you,” he said. “We can save her, Shame. The answer to every problem isn’t always killing or ignoring every damn thing.”
I stopped, turned to him. “What if I don’t want an answer, Terric? What if I like killing things? What if I look for every opportunity to kill?”
“Don’t say that.”
“What? Don’t tell you the truth?” I lowered my voice. “You are a piece of work, Conley. You say you want to talk, but you don’t want to listen, do you? I am not you. I am not a good guy. I destroy things. I like it. I like killing. I like that Eleanor is shackled to me. Because it reminds me of the power I have. Power you should not underestimate.”
I pulled my hand into a fist and arcs of red electricity licked across my rings.
Terric squared off from me, the Void stone necklace at his chest burning with white-green light.
And he smiled. The son of a bitch smiled.
“You don’t frighten me, Flynn. Your magic doesn’t frighten me. And neither do your lies.”
I lifted my fist.
He lifted his hand.
I never even had a chance to draw on magic.
Pain, hot and twisting, shuddered through my head and down my spine.
Had lightning just nailed me to the ground?
Terric hissed, and I knew he felt the same pain.
I hadn’t cast anything. Hadn’t hit him.
He hadn’t cast anything. Hadn’t hit me.
“What the hell?” I breathed.
Terric’s gaze met mine, his blue eyes wide in the falling rain.
And I knew it, knew the reason for the pain at the exact moment he did.
“They broke it,” Terric said. “Someone broke magic.”
“Zay,” I said, swallowing back the burnt scent of mint and rose. “Jesus. Zay’s hurt. Or Allie. One of them.”
We ran to the car. Terric outpaced me, but only by a step or two. In the car, doors slammed, engine. Terric tore through the city, heading northeast. Heading to St. Johns. Heading to Zayvion and Allie.
He tossed me his phone. I caught it without looking, dialed Clyde.
“This is Clyde Turner,” he answered.
“It’s Shame. Someone broke magic. We think it’s Zay and Allie. We think they’ve been hit.”
“Hit by magic?”
“We don’t know. We’re going out there now.” I hung up. Terric probably would have told him to call the cops, or the cavalry or whoever it was we had to answer to these days, but I did not give a single damn about procedure.
Terric and I were enough to deal with whatever was going down.
His phone rang. Dash. I thumbed it on speaker and answered, “Shame.”
“The police are on their way,” he said. “Do you need anything else? Anyone else?”
“We got it,” I said.
“Were there any reports?” Terric asked. “Has anyone else called this in?”
“No,” Dash said. “Just you two.”
“Let us know if you hear anything,” Terric said.
“I will. Be careful.” Dash hung up. I did too.
Terric pulled up to Zay and Allie’s place, double-parking on the gravel lane that ran between their three-story farmhouse and the empty lot in front of the river. They had a front door. We didn’t use it.
We jogged past their low stone fence, the leafless rosebushes, and the hedge of dormant daisies. Past the garden Allie was so proud of, which held three decent-sized pumpkins and some random gourds and flowers the Hounds had thought would be funny to plant when she wasn’t looking, up the weathered wooden steps of the porch, to the kitchen side door.
I tried the door handle. It was unlocked.
Got exactly one step into the room.
A fist came out of nowhere and hit me in the head like a bull at full charge.
Holy shit.
I stumbled into Terric, who didn’t bother catching me on my way down to the floor. He was halfway through a spell.
“Stop.” Allie’s voice. Allie. I blinked upward. At a very angry Zayvion Jones, who was glowering down over me, his eyes molten gold.
“Jesus, Zay,” I said. “We came here to help you.”
“Zay,” Allie said calmly. “It’s Shame and Terric. Let them in.”
I didn’t think Zay was listening in the language we were speaking.
“Zayvion,” Terric said. “It’s all right. We got this. The police are on their way. Tell us what happened.”
For no apparent reason, he listened to that.
Zay closed his eyes, opened them again. Still gold, but this time there was sanity mixed in with the anger. “We were attacked.”
“Fuck,” I said, picking myself up off the floor. I wiped the blood off my nose and almost howled. “Also, you broke my nose. Asshole.”
“Are you all right?” Allie said.
“I’m fine.” I looked at Zay and he finally moved that mountain of muscle over to one side so I could walk the rest of the way into the room.
They had the old-fashioned farm kitchen thing to go with the rest of the old-fashioned farmhouse. I walked to the oversized sink and found a washcloth hanging from the facet. Used that to mop up the blood running out of my face. Then turned to get a look at the situation.
Allie was sitting at their kitchen table. She had been crying. Zay was still in guard mode. Terric was trying to talk him down toward something resembling reason. Wasn’t getting anywhere.
“For crap’s sake.” I pinched my nose with the cloth, crossed over to Zayvion, grabbed his wrist, then led him over to Allie, who held her hand up for him. “She’s fine and she’s right here.”
Their fingers touched and I pulled my hand quickly away from the connection between them—an almost physical sense of heat.
“What happened?” Terric asked again. “Allie, we felt magic break. Did you break it?”
She nodded. Her eyes were wet. “I don’t know why I’m crying. This is so . . .” She wiped at her eyes with her free hand and sniffed, then took a deep breath. “I’m fine. I’m not hurt. I’m just angry.”
“Want to tell Mr. Jones to stand down and make with the talking?” I asked.
She looked up at Zay. Maybe for the first time realized how furious he still was. “Zayvion, I’m fine. The baby’s fine too.”
Right. Baby. No wonder why Zay had gone feral.
“Tell us what happened, Z,” I said as I leaned back against the counter, rag over my nose. “Tell us why you broke magic.”
Maybe it was the angle of light from where I was standing, but that’s when I noticed Zayvion’s black T-shirt was dark with blood. He was injured.
“Zay, mate,” I said. “You’re bleeding.”
Terric was looking out the door, but at that, turned and shut it. “Sit down, Zay.”