And neither did I. I dug in my pocket with shaking fingers as I walked back down the porch stairs.
“No time for cigarettes,” Terric said.
I left them in my pocket. My hands weren’t steady enough to light them anyway. It was almost frightening how much I wanted to do magic with Terric, to break it and make it into the glorious, dangerous force it used to be.
And on the other hand it was the absolute last thing I wanted to do.
“How long?” I asked.
“Until the police get here?” he asked. “I think about a minute. If we’re going to do this, we need to do it fast.”
Terric was calm, relaxed. Looked like he was talking about cataloging receipts, not breaking magic open like a ripe melon and letting all the fruity goodness spill out into the world.
“Somewhere where they won’t interrupt us,” I said. “The car?”
“Not enough space,” he said. “How about down by the river?”
“River works for me.” We walked through the undeveloped lot, stepping over a low chain fence there and ignoring the sign that insisted we were trespassing. The rain had let off a bit, but it was a gray enough day that I couldn’t see the river, even though I could hear it—the lapping of water, the distant metal and engine sounds of boats and cranes. I knew we’d run into the refinery before we hit the sand or the river, but was happy when Terric stopped, after having walked only a few feet across the lot.
“You don’t have to do this, Shame. We don’t have to do this,” he said.
“Yes,” I said, “we do.”
“Then let’s do it.” Terric turned toward me. “Three spells. Hold, Block, and Pain.”
I was surprised he’d picked Pain, not Sleep. “Seems more like what I’d want to cast. Are you sure, Mr. Goody-goody?”
“I don’t like Eli either,” Terric said. “And I am pissed he hurt Allie and Zay.”
“Good,” I said. “Nice to see you here on the dark side. We do have more fun, you know.”
Terric shook his head once. “Work, not bullshit. Tap the well, let’s get this done.”
Well, well. Look at who had gone all bossy.
Still, he was right. I reached out with that part of my head that was always aware of magic, of how it whispered in the back of my thoughts, how it tempted and begged.
Then I tapped in to the well not too far from here and felt magic cover me like an electric heat over my entire body. Pure magic, not just the Death magic that lurked inside me.
It was glorious.
Terric tapped the well too. I didn’t know what he was feeling, didn’t care. I was having a hard time not being swallowed by the sensation of drawing on magic. God, I loved it. Missed it. Craved it.
I pulled magic to me in huge greedy handfuls, holding it tight. I’d have to carve a spell, have to make the glyph for magic to fill and bring us whatever outcome we wanted, but right now all I wanted was to stand there with magic burning across my skin.
I might have moaned. Normally, that would be embarrassing. But right now I didn’t think Terric was paying any attention to what I was doing or what I was feeling either. He was dealing with his own experience of drawing on raw magic—drawing on it knowing that we were going to break it, make it stronger. Make it into what it used to be.
Make it into the thing we loved.
“Hold,” Terric breathed.
Took me a second to realize he was talking about the spell. Right. We were supposed to be casting spells.
I did what I could to focus my attention on the spell, on casting it with him. Best I managed was mirroring his movements. Terric drew the spell, I drew it facing him, opposite to him, but frankly magic had me so distracted that, if he hadn’t been leading the charge, I would have given up and fallen into other, much more pleasurable spells.
“Shame,” he said, out loud I thought. Not in my mind. I hoped. “Focus, for fuck’s sake.”
That got a smile out of me. Fine. Focus. I could do that. Enough that I did not do a shabby job completing the glyph for Hold.
“Ready?” Terric asked. He was breathing in rhythm with me, his heart in rhythm with mine.
It felt right. It steadied the hunger inside me. Pushed it away, and filled me with ease. Made me feel whole again. Real again.
“Always.”
Our eyes locked.
We broke magic.
It was like running a knife along the soft, ripe skin of a fruit and feeling it split beneath my fingers. But instead of digging down into the fruity middle, we tore the seal on magic open and released the power. A hell of a lot of power. An explosion of power that had been waiting for us to set it free.
Magic poured into the glyphs traced in the air in front of us. Hung there and burned like fire.
“Hold,” Terric said. “To stop those who would break this sanctuary.”
One thing I had to admit, Terric knew how to set a spell so it stuck.
I waited until the glyphs were burning a hot cherry red before I passed my hand across it, sending it out to wrap the house. It would be visible for a moment or two. We’d done our best to cast a Fade into the spell so it wouldn’t be seen with the naked eye.
Ever since magic had been healed, it had also become much more visible. So the smart magic users now made sure they included something to hide the spells they cast.
The spell wrapped the house from roof to foundation, glowing red for a moment, then fading away beneath the gray of the day.
The sirens were getting closer.
“Block is next,” Terric said, his voice a little husky.
Glad I wasn’t the only one enjoying this.
I got my fingers busy and drew the negative image of the spell as he drew the positive. We both pulled on more magic, poured it into the glyphs, which glowed a deep blue this time.
“Block,” Terric said. “To protect those within this sanctuary.”
He didn’t really have to say anything out loud for the spells to work, but he had studied for a long time beneath Victor and Faith magic. Some of the history of those kinds of spells involves prayer, intonation, mantras. I guess old habits are hard to break.
I waved my hand across the spell and sent it spinning to the house, where it immediately sank into the walls.
“Last is Pain,” Terric said, beginning the spell.
“Let me.”
He nodded and wiped his fingers through the beginnings of the glyph, clearing the air.
I carved the glyph for pain in the air between us, making sure it would wrap and hold and bite and paralyze. I carved it so that if Eli tripped it, he’d be lucky to be breathing by the time the spell ran its course. Terric mirrored my movements, no comment on the viciousness of the spell I was shaping.
The police arrived. We were behind a screen of brush. With the fog closing in, I didn’t think they’d immediately notice the black spell smoldering between us.
And because Terric had done it, as soon as the spell was formed and filled with magic, I spoke too.
“Pain,” I said. “To bring our enemy to his fucking knees.”
“Amen,” Terric said. He wiped his hand across it and pushed it toward the house, where it fell like a hard hail of dark rain, soaking it through.
That, the cops saw. But I didn’t think they knew where it had come from. Until I glanced out at the road, and noticed Detective Stotts looking our way.
Chapter 20
“Act natural,” Terric said.
“Seriously? Natural? Like we’re just two guys who happened to have dressed out of the same closet, standing in the rain and fog on an abandoned lot casting magic the likes of which hasn’t been seen for three years? That kind of natural?”
“It’s just Paul,” he said. “He knows we’re on the side of the good guys.”
“Speak for yourself.”
“Terric, Shame,” Detective Stotts called out. “Can I have a word with you?”