I was glad Allie came along. When they asked me what had happened to us, I came up blank. What should I say? We’d been in the middle of a magical firefight and had had our asses handed to us?
Allie decided on an easier story: shooting in the park, didn’t see the guy. Didn’t see the car he drove off in. I didn’t know how she was going to explain our other burns and contusions since I was slowly realizing a good share of the blood and pain was also mine. But she had that covered too. Car accident on the way over here.
Apparently I’d called her in shock after I’d driven the car into a ditch trying to get Terric to the hospital and she’d shown up to help me get Terric and me treated.
They bought the story, probably because she put a little of her family’s natural Influence behind it to make it stick.
Terric was immediately taken away for surgery. I snarled about it. I think I told them I would be in the room with him while they cut him open whether they liked it or not. And if they harmed him I’d do unspeakable things.
Allie took care of that too.
In the form of flagging down a burly nurse who looked like he could break me with one hand.
Turned out, he was very good at giving fast and painless shots.
Turned out, those shots were even better at taking the world away.
I woke up to an annoying alarm clock beeping. Which was weird since I never used an alarm clock. Opened my eyes.
This was so not my room.
“You’re in the hospital,” Zayvion said from beside me.
I rolled my head, which hurt, and squinted at him. “Why am I in bed? Terric was the one who was hurt.”
“You were both hurt,” he said, switching off the screen he’d been working on and leaning all that muscle of his forward in the chair. “You have six fractures, soft tissue damage, and some organ bruising. He was shot.”
“Where is he?”
He twisted a bit, pointed. There was another bed in the room. Terric lay in it, hooked up to tubes and wires. He was breathing evenly and on his own, though he had an oxygen tube taped below his nose. I could tell he was sleeping, and currently not in pain.
“What did the doctors say?”
“It was a . . . difficult surgery. Void stones.” He shook his head. “Dr. Fisher was called in. He made it through fine. Better than the doctors expected. He’s recovering faster than they expected too. You’ve been here for twenty-four hours. And we’re calling that barren mess you left behind down the hill a bit a gas explosion. Triggered a landslide. Half the hospital’s been evacuated.”
But I wasn’t thinking about the damage I’d done to the land. “Zay, Brandy. Terric had an Illusion on her.”
“We know. We took care of everything.” He put his wide hand on my arm and squeezed it, his expression sympathetic. “Dash filled us in on a few things, but we don’t know what happened up there.”
So I told him. It took me some time to get it all out. I couldn’t seem to say Dessa’s name without being swallowed by pain.
The nurse came in before I’d finished—same guy who looked like he should have gone into pro wrestling instead of health care. Turned out, his name was Carlos. He gave us both a cheerful greeting and went about checking the machines, meds, and everything else, while singing softly. Had a hell of a voice.
When he was gone, I went over the last of the events.
Zay rubbed at the back of his neck. “Fuck,” he said.
“Yeah.”
That was pretty much how I’d sum up the situation. Some government jackwad named Krogher had control of both Eli and Davy and a crew of magic-wielding people modified by Eli so that they were magic-holding drones that had kicked our Breaker asses.
“We know what Eli wanted,” Zay said quietly, “and we know he lured you into a trap. But our information said they wanted to use Breakers, to capture them, not to kill them.” He paused a second, staring at the wall like there was a window there.
“They were testing you. First the electrical barrier, then guns, fire, magic. They wanted to see what Breakers could do. They wanted to see what the modified magic users could do against you.”
Zayvion is a man who can hold his own in a fight, and he’s got that don’t-fuck-with-me presence that makes people avoid him in dark alleys. In light alleys too, come to think of it. But he is also a very smart man.
“We played into their hands,” I said. “Fuck. Me.”
“I’ll talk to Clyde,” he said, “call a meeting to get everyone up to speed. We’ll turn this to our advantage. We learned a hell of a lot about their strengths and weaknesses too. Plus, we made other . . . gains.”
He meant Brandy. Eli’s Soul Complement.
Zay stood, stretched like a big cat that had been cooped up in a cage too long. “I’ll be back later. You should get some sleep, okay?”
“Zay?” I said.
“Mmm?”
“He could have died. He almost died.”
He knew I was talking about Terric. Zay walked up to the side of my bed, paused, looked over at Terric, then back at me.
“He could have died,” Zay said. “But you wouldn’t let him, Shame. You’re Death magic. You have a lot of say over the matters of his soul.”
“Dessa died.” It came out hard, flat, angry.
“Terric’s your soul, Shame. Soul.” Zay was quiet a minute. “You’ll never lose him like that.”
I stared up at him, wondering if that was true. And in his eyes was absolute confidence in me. “I think you might overestimate my abilities, Z.”
He gave me half a grin. “I never have. But you, despite your big mouth, have always underestimated yourself.”
“Morning,” Dash said quietly from the doorway. “How are they today?”
“Awake,” Zay said. “At least Shame is.”
“Is he talking?” Dash asked with a lot of worry in his tone.
“Yes,” Zay said, giving me a look. “Mostly bullshit.”
“So, normal, is what you’re saying,” Dash said.
“Fuck you both,” I said as Zay left and Dash settled in to take a stint of watching over us.
It was nice to be loved.
Chapter 31
I walked down the street with two coffees in my hand. Sunglasses, beanie, fingerless gloves, and heavy coat. November had arrived with ice in the wind. Not that I felt it.
I hadn’t slept much in over a week since we’d fought Eli and Krogher’s blank-eyed, magic-wielding drones. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Dessa. Every silence was filled with her voice.
She wasn’t haunting me. Not like Eleanor. But her absence was a shadow across my soul.
I’d fallen for her too hard to stand up again easily or quickly. She’d left me bruised on the inside. Touched me in places I didn’t even know I had. Places where only pain remained.
I walked up the stairs to Terric’s place. Rang the bell with my elbow. Waited.
Heard his footsteps. A little stronger than when I’d visited yesterday. And while the doctors were stunned with the rate of his recovery, I knew without magic to support him, he might not have made it through the surgery at all.
The door opened.
“Morning, Shame,” he said, stepping aside to let me in.
He was dressed, showered, his hair left to fall with the male-model perfection that he achieved with annoying ease. But the dark circles under his eyes against the sallow pale of his skin gave away his injuries.
I handed him his coffee as I walked in past him with this new morning ritual I’d fallen into. “Morning. Brought you coffee.”
I headed to the living room. Stopped on the threshold to it. There was a fist-sized hole in the wall by the fireplace.