Alchemystic (34 page)

“So even if we want to see what we’re looking for, we wouldn’t be able to see it because of magic?”

I shrugged. “That’s the best I have,” I said.

Rory smiled. “That’s not bad.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “It’s not?”

“Nope,” she said, looking around some more.

“Why not?”

“Look at this place,” she said. “It’s a mess. Those
things
flying around out there have clawed and bitten this place apart trying to get to the magic, but they couldn’t find it! Why? Your great-great-grandfather’s mad phat warding skills.”

“As I’ve read it, the magic pretty much repels notice, driving people away from it. Like we experimented on Marshall with when I was re-enchanting the necklace.”

“Then that’s what we try to look for,” she said. “Even with being repelled, those creatures sensed
something
, even if they couldn’t find it. If the magic drew those creatures to it, but Alexander’s warding
still
kept them from it, then whatever looks different, whatever’s
untouched
from what those creatures ruined up here, must be it.”

I considered it for a moment before breaking into a smile. “
That’s
not bad, Miss Aurora Torres.”

She gave a deep bow as if she were onstage after having danced at Lincoln Center.

I looked around the space until my eyes settled on the one block that remained untouched, sitting directly above the bell at the center of the arch. “The keystone,” I said.

Rory looked up. “Where?”

“There,” I said, pointing at the spot.

Rory looked where I was pointing, but her eyes didn’t fix on anything. “I’ll take your word for it,” she said.

“You don’t see it?” I asked. “Seriously?”

“I’m trying to, believe me, but no.”

“Maybe it’s my bloodline that lets me,” I said.

Rory turned away and looked out of one of the many stone archways around the tower. “Either way, we need to hurry. I can’t see Stanis or any of those little things out there, but it’s only a matter of time before they come back.”

“Right,” I said. “Help me up.”

Rory ran over, interlocked her fingers, and I stepped into her hand. I reached up as she lifted, and I grabbed onto the support yoke over the bell, hauling myself up. The bell rocked
with my legs dangling down against it, its clapper sounding out once again.

“Shit,” I said, trying to steady the bell with my legs.

“Hurry!”

“I
am
,” I yelled. I pressed my hands against the cool sides of the untouched keystone, feeling all along it. “This may take a few minutes. There’s nothing on the outside. The gem has to be embedded in it.”

“Do it!” she shouted over the clanging of the bell. She ran along the walkway, leaning out of each of the arches as she went. “Incoming!”

“Help me down, then.”

“No,” she said. “You keep doing what you need to. I’m going to let out a little aggression here.”

I pushed my will into the stone, searching, letting the rituals I had studied take over as I incanted the words that were becoming increasingly familiar each and every day.

Below, one of the creatures flew into the opening of the arch where Rory was standing, but she dropped and flattened herself to the walkway with her dancer’s grace. The winged stone eater slammed into the side of the bell, causing a whole new cacophony as it pushed back from it, dazed, its wings struggling to flap and keep itself afloat. Rory didn’t waste the opportunity. She grabbed the creature by its wings while it was still stunned and swung it in an arc over her head, slamming it against the wooden walkway. It struggled to push up on its tiny humanoid arms, but Rory wasn’t having it. With the wings still spread out in both hands, she dropped her foot onto the creature’s body, letting out an aggressive scream. She bore down hard, pressing her heel into it deep, then she stood up fast, the muscles in her arms taut as she pulled. The sounds of the creature’s screams as its wings tore free from its body rose over the sound of the bell. Rory dropped the wings into the open space below us and kicked the twitching, dying body of it down after.

The rage on Rory’s face disappeared as she looked down at her hands, where bits of wing webbing were still stuck to her fingers. Flicking them didn’t seem to help so she ran to
the wall and started wiping her hands on the rough stone. “Gross, gross, gross,” she said.

I was still locked in finding the gem or I would have said something, but before I could give it more thought another creature flew into the interior of the tower, shrieking and hissing at me while I continued my incantation. I turned my eyes from it, focusing myself more wholly on the keystone, trusting in Rory to deal with the monster. The sound of its rising shrieks filling my ears confirmed my trust in my friend, and, confident in her abilities, my mind was free to zero in on the gem within the stone. I whispered to the stone to give way, to open at my command, confident that it would. I was a Belarus, after all. It was in my blood.

The connection to the stone was strong and I felt the gem pulling out of it toward my now-cupped hands along the bottom of the keystone. Bits of rock crumbled away, slipping through my fingers, but the gem itself caught in my hand, its yellow hue sparkling in the dim lighting up here.

“I have it!” I shouted, turning to Rory down on the walkway. She had the legs of another of the stone eaters in one hand, hanging it upside down as it flapped its wings wildly trying to right itself.

Rory chanced a look up at me while avoiding its razor teeth, a look of triumph on her face. It lasted only seconds; then I saw her look past me.

“Lexi!” she shouted. “Look out!”

I turned. The hole that had crumbled away in the keystone was still growing. Panicking, I tried to force my will on it, but I couldn’t feel the connection anymore. Cracks rippled out into the keystone, the joints from the bell’s yoke giving way as the tower’s dome caved in on itself, and the bell beneath me slipped off-kilter and began tumbling down. The walkway tore loose from the walls as they collapsed, and Rory came down after me, the wings of the creature in her hand doing little to slow her. I reached out in all directions to control the stone all around me, but there was no connection.

We were in free fall.

Stanis

W
hen Alexandra sent me to task against the creatures she called stone eaters, I did as she wished. I shot up through the opening just below the large church bell, spinning myself to avoid it. One of the creatures startled in front of me, and I spun again to narrowly miss it. I grabbed one of its wings as I passed, but my own clipped the side of the bell, pulling it until it rose to its fullest height, unhooked from me, and began tolling. This seemed to drive the creatures mad, but my presence had the effect I desired and they fell in behind me as I pulled my wings in to slip out of one of the many arched windows leading out into the night sky.

I looked back as I flew. All of them, nine in total, had followed me. I turned, focusing on my flight, the creature in my hand trailing behind the grip I had on its one wing.
Be careful,
Alexandra had said. I needed to thin their numbers. I steered myself to an older building made of brick. I swung my arm as I spread my wings to slow myself, catapulting the creature forward at a deadly speed. It flew from my hand, desperate to right itself and flapping like wild, but it was no use. The velocity was too much and it hit the wall with such force it
died on impact. I did not wait to confirm it, and drove myself higher into the night sky.

Just below the clouds, I stopped. I did not want to fight them where I could not see them and, looking down, I saw their approach. As they got closer, they broke away from one another, spreading out to surround me. Pack hunters.

I circled around in the center of them. There was no holding back on their part. No pause to assess me, just animal instinct to attack kicking in. I could use this to my advantage. I kept my eyes on them as I spun, waiting until the last second as they closed, then shot myself straight up. Unable to stop themselves, they crashed into one another, a twist of limbs, wings, and teeth. I folded my wings in and immediately dropped on them, driving
through
them. My claws caught one in the face and it fell out of the sky. Two more plummeted, still tangled together, biting at each other in a futile attempt to free themselves but falling nonetheless.

Three of them got their wings sorted out and came for me. I brushed one away with a mighty blow of my wings, and shoved my sharpened claws into the chests of the other two. My hands came out through their backs. Before I had a chance to shake them free, the two remaining ones were coming at me. Their mouthfuls of teeth snapped and gnashed, and I shoved their dead pack members in the way to keep them from taking a chunk out of my body. I swung my arms wildly, both driving them back and using the force to get the broken bodies off my arms. They came free, plummeting to the earth below, and before the last two could close again, I flew farther from the church, leading them away. They screeched and fell in behind me, trying to keep up. This time they were close and closing every second, curse my fatigued body.

A sudden twinge rose up in my chest. This time I recognized it as the bond to the girl, but it was still enough to catch me off my guard. I grabbed two of these stone eaters by the throat, clenching my fists until the stone of my fingers came together underneath their flesh. Their wings ceased flapping, their bodies falling, and I used their added weight to flip me around, heading me back toward the tower.

Already I could see the problem—the top of the tower simply was not there, having caved in on itself. I pushed my wings as hard as I could. The first rule—
protect the family
—burned at the center of me and I would not fail. I arched my body back, propelling myself higher, before I dove down into the center of the collapsing tower, wings tucked in tight. Falling chunks of the old church blocked my way, but I pushed through them as easily as I tore through clouds, the stone no match for that of my skin.

“Stanis!” I heard Alexandra’s voice cry out before I could even see her. I drove my hands down into the stones beneath me and threw them aside, revealing her figure several stories below me. The blue-haired one was close to her, one of those creatures clutched in her hand, flapping wildly. The club below was rapidly getting closer.

I pumped my wings to close the distance and grabbed for Alexandra’s wrist, but stopped myself, remembering how fragile these humans could be. I worked my wings again, shooting past her, coming up from beneath, catching Alexandra under her arms. She jerked with the sudden stop, letting out a hiss of pain, but she seemed to be intact.

“Rory!” she called out to me in a state of panic. My arm flashed out and caught the other girl in the same manner. The creature in her hands slammed into my head and shoulder, momentarily dazed.

“Let go of that thing!” Alexandra screamed to her, but it was too late. I could not bat it away without dropping one of the women, and before Aurora could act, the creature bit at the stone of my upper right arm. Fire erupted in it as the blue-haired girl pulled the creature away from me. Crunched-up stone flew from its mouth.
My
stone.

It slammed into the wall of the still-standing tower and Aurora finally let go of it. I spread my wings to slow our fall as debris rained down on us, and, remembering their frail nature, I raised my wings in protection over the women before working them to make my way back up through the falling tower. The going was slow, and by the time I reached the top of what was left of the structure, the collapse had stopped altogether.

“I think I just inherited Marshall’s fear of heights,” Aurora said, clutching around my neck as hard as her arms could hold her.

“We need to land,” Alexandra said, “before I can’t hold on any longer.”

“Fear not,” I said. “I would catch you.”

A warmth radiated from her. “I know you would,” she said with a smile. “Nonetheless, I would prefer to have all three of us safely on the ground.” She looked around down below. “Can you land us behind the club?”

I slipped into the shadows there, coming down slowly. Only after I landed and the women stepped away did I relax my wings, and that was when my body finally reminded me of the burning sensation on my right upper arm. As I looked it over, Alexandra and Aurora moved closer to it.

“Sorry,” Aurora said.

“Does it hurt?” Alexandra asked.

“Yes,” I said. “It is a sensation I am not overly familiar with except as of late. It is…interesting.”

“I think I can do something about that back at our building,” she said, “but not here.”

“I will be fine,” I said. “Long have I desired to feel something. If it is pain, so be it.”

I followed them out of the alley onto Twentieth Street. A dusty cloud met us along with dozens of dazed and costumed humans from the club. The three of us walked with caution back onto Sixth Avenue to the entrance of Cathedral. Sixth Avenue was less filled with smoke but there were more people here, a press of them shoving their way out of the old church still. The one called Marshall spotted me and came running over to the women, hugging them both.