Chasing Magic (39 page)

“Them coming to kill us.”

“They’re victims. We can’t burn them to death. Besides …”

Terrible took his gaze away from Devil—he’d been watching him as if he were a cockroach he couldn’t wait to stomp on—long enough to glance at her. “That many bodies, the Church hears on it, aye?”

“I don’t see how they wouldn’t. I mean, not everyone on the ship is even necessarily from Downside, you know? They could be anybody who came down here to score. It could bring a lot of attention.”

“Aye, dig it now.” Lex nodded. “So you break them spell, an they all free?”

“Yeah. If I break the spell they’ll be themselves again. Hopefully they’ll go home, chalk it up to a bad experience. Some of them might contact the Church, but I doubt it—they’re not going to want to get busted for drugs, and they’d have to admit what they were doing if they told. They’d probably get tested, anyway, with a story like that.”

“How you break the spell, then?”

That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it?

All three of the men were watching her—or, rather, all three of them were waiting for her to speak. Only Lex actually looked at her. The other two stared at each other, their aggression sparking in the air like tiny bombs. Devil, she noticed, hadn’t spoken a single word. She couldn’t decide if that made him more threatening or made him look like a moron.

Of course, if he thought he could beat Terrible—without his sneaky fucking tricks, at least—he
was
a moron, but oh well. His problem, not hers. She edged closer to Terrible so her arm brushed against his. She needed the contact, especially for the answer she was about to give. “I don’t know. I’ll figure something out.”

Damn, she hoped she sounded more confident than she felt.

* * *

Terrible glanced in the Chevelle’s rearview again. “Thinkin it work?”

“I don’t know.” Three Cepts ought to do it, right? Lift the clouds but still leave her able to think fast, move fast, if the need arose—when the need arose, because she was pretty sure it would. “I guess we’ll find out.”

Part of her wanted the sun to set, wanted to get to the rooftop where they’d agreed to meet and get it over with. The other part didn’t want to do anything but run home and hide. She wasn’t ready. If she had one more day, just one more …

He turned, heading back toward her place. “So the sorcerer, he doin shit you ain’t seen before? Where you figure he learn on it? Always wondered, dig, where them pick this shit up.”

“He could learn it anywhere, really. Even the books we study have this stuff in them, we just don’t work with it. And the really dark magic books are restricted, but that doesn’t mean they’re not out there. All you need is to be strong enough to work the spells.”

“Lots of power, then?”

“He’s pretty strong.” That was an understatement. She shoved the pills into her mouth, washed them down with water from her bottle, and hoped he wouldn’t ask the question she knew he was about to ask, have the thought she knew he was about to have.

Sure enough, he did. “You stronger, though, aye?”

“Church magic is always more powerful. I mean, I’m not worried.”

Another lie. If she wasn’t terrified she wouldn’t need more pills, wouldn’t be wondering if she could sneak a couple of lines of speed in. If she wasn’t terrified she wouldn’t be feeling worse with every passing second.

Separating the victims from what controlled them would take some serious fucking power, power she
didn’t know if she could summon. Power she was afraid of summoning, because it was the kind of power that could overload her—especially with the amount of shit she put into her system, no point in being dishonest about it—and it dawned on her that this could be the last day she ever saw, and she didn’t like that one bit.

He lit a couple of cigarettes and handed her one. Such a familiar motion, something he did all the time, something that always made her feel taken care of. Like he was always thinking of her, always watching out for her.

But then he spoke, and although his voice was casual—so carefully casual—the words sent a chill into her heart she wasn’t sure even her pills would chase away. “What I seen in the City … ain’t the whole thing, aye? Bigger’n that. An ain’t always like it were then, all the shit goin down and ghosts racing around an all. Aye?”

Oh fuck. What could she say, what was she supposed to say? She didn’t even want to hear that question; she sure as fuck didn’t want to answer it.

But she did. And she gave him the third lie, the biggest lie, because it was all she had at that moment; because she knew he was picturing Lex’s assassin and an army of soulless magic-controlled killers just as much as she was, and she knew he’d be absolutely horrified if she let on that she knew what he really wanted. And why, which was worse. “It’s much bigger. And, you know, there’s so much there, so many of them … You find people you knew and everything. It’s really, really peaceful and happy and everything.”

Saying it made her feel sick. She took a long drag off the smoke while she tried to pretend nothing was wrong, that he hadn’t admitted anything at all, and that she hadn’t told probably the biggest lie she’d ever told him—bigger, even, than any about Lex. “We were in the anteroom, if you know what I mean. It’s bigger than the area you saw. There’s a lot more to it.”

He nodded as he spun the wheel to urge the Chevelle around another corner. “Always had the wonder, dig.”

“Yeah.” Her voice sounded too thin; she cleared her throat. “Everyone does.”

He didn’t say anything further. Instead, he parked the car across the street from her building and set the brake. “Aye, then. Guessing we finish getting weselves ready.”

Less than an hour later, she stood with Terrible on the rooftop of a building three blocks away from the
Agneta Katina
, with the sunset diminished to streaks of bronze and orange behind them as night took over the sky. Waiting.

Waiting first for Bump, who arrived only a minute or two later in full regalia: slashed pants, fur boots, dirty diamonds, and all. The heat of the day had congregated on the rooftop, too, and Chess’s whole body felt sticky, but it didn’t seem to affect Bump. He looked as cool and calm as ever.

So did Terrible, of course, but Chess knew him well enough to know what lurked behind that. His anger about what she was going to do, his anxiety about it, hovered beneath the surface of his energy.

She grabbed three Cepts from her bag and washed them down. A futile effort to calm her nerves, yeah, but at least it was something. Something she could control, something she knew the effects of, because she had about twenty minutes before she jumped down the rabbit hole, and who the hell knew what would happen then.

Well, no, she knew what would probably happen. She was probably going to die.

Funny, she’d thought that so many times. So many times growing up, so many times since then. This was the first time she’d actually seen it coming, seen it from a great distance and not because she’d been grabbed or caught or whatever else. Her own death waited for her
like a bed she’d crawl into at the end of the night, and she could only hope she managed to finish what she needed to finish before the sheet settled over her head.

The three of them stood without talking for about ten more minutes, until Lex showed up. Alone. Great. Chess scanned the rooftops around them, the city of flat empty spaces laid out like a multileveled checkerboard all the way to the bay and the silent ships resting there. Lex’s killer was out there somewhere. Hiding. Watching, most likely—most definitely—to see where Terrible went.

“So here’s the fuckin plan we got on,” Bump said to Lex by way of greeting. “Them buildings be filled up, dig, all fuckin filled by Bump’s men getting them waits on. An them watchin up, too, got theyselves fuckin signals them send.”

Lex nodded.

“We figure on them dead walkers leavin them boat after sundown an fuckin headin out, yay. Maybe them look out for we, maybe not. But them ain’t killable, dig, so we only fuckin hold em here ’til the Ladybird gets she fuckin magic done.”

Lex turned to her. “What magic’s that?”

She shifted on her feet, leaning closer to Terrible. “I’m going to try to push the spell back at him. I have one of the spell bags. I think I can find the others if I— I’m going to take some of that speed and—”

“Shit.” Lex shook his head. “Ain’t thinkin that’s such a good plan, I ain’t. Sounding to me—”

“Nobody asked you,” she said. Coldly.

Bump broke the short silence that followed. “Ain’t got no shit to fuckin worry on, dig, Ladybird good enough to handle any all comes she fuckin way.”

Before Chess could react to that surprising—and totally misguided—little vote of confidence, he snorted. “Bump ain’t fuck around with no cheap pickup witches,
see, some fuckin dude pulled off the street all crazed up on whatany mental pills some dame gives he.”

Of course. Not confidence in her. Smugness at a chance to get a dig in at Lex. Or, rather, at Slobag, Lex’s late father, and the fact that he’d died because he’d tried to get himself a witch of his own and it had gone horribly wrong.

Lex’s mouth tightened. Not a lot, but enough that she noticed. “Seems to me—”

She cut him off. Something told her that whatever would come out of his mouth next, it wasn’t going to be good. “It doesn’t matter how it seems to you. It’s the only way I can break the spell tonight, so it’s what’s going to happen. And if I can break the spell fast, all of the slaves—or whatever you want to call them—will be free, and they’ll probably just want to go home. Maybe nobody has to die tonight.”

Except her. And possibly Terrible. She saw that in Lex’s eyes, the way he avoided looking at Terrible, and her heart sank further. Terrible was right, then—well, she’d known he was, she’d known the same thing he did. Even as they stood there Lex’s man could be watching, lurking somewhere with Terrible’s head in his crosshairs.

And there was nothing she could do about it. Not a single fucking thing.

Lex shrugged. “Gots mine all set up on them streets beyond, ready for signaling iffen them see any, too. An iffen them find more of them magic bags you gimme the tell on.”

“Right. And hopefully either I’ll be able to text you to let you know when I find the sorcerer in the spell or I’ll be able to tell someone.”

Bump’s phone rang, an interruption she welcomed. Not only did she not want to discuss the plan with Lex, but his concern looked a bit odd and suspicious in front
of Bump, didn’t it? Lex wasn’t supposed to know her well or care about her at all.

She was a bit surprised, actually, that he’d been as obvious as he had been, but she figured he didn’t give a shit about what Bump thought anymore.

Unless there was some other reason, which there probably was. But she didn’t have the time or the energy to think about it.

“Cable Joe still ain’t here.” Terrible peered around the roof with narrow eyes. The sun had completely disappeared, leaving only the blank emptiness of the starless city sky. With it came the breeze, stronger now, lifting her hair from her shoulders and chilling the back of her neck. Or maybe that wasn’t only the wind. “Said he’d be here on the sundown.”

Lex raised his eyebrows. “Others comin up here?”

“Keep an eye on Chess,” Terrible said. “An pass on any knowledge she gets.”

Because he’d insisted. And she’d agreed, because, really, it didn’t matter. Yeah, it was a bit of a comfort to know she wouldn’t go accidentally tumbling off the roof, but given the sort of end she suspected waited for her, tumbling off the roof might be a lot kinder.

Lex, too, looked around them, swiveling his upper body in an exaggerated fashion like a drunk fighting a strong wind. “Ain’t seeing him up here, I ain’t. Figured on you getting somebody worth trust, look after Tulip this night. Maybe you ain’t able to—”

“Lex!” She threw herself between Terrible and Lex just in time to stop Terrible’s swing.

Lex already had his hands up, his hands and the corners of his mouth curving into that irritating grin she wished she could slap off his face. “Havin me a joke, there, aye?”

“Keep jokin,” Terrible said, his voice a low growl. His fists clenched and unclenched at his side. “You keep
fuckin jokin, Lex, you an me have ourselves some laughs after all this, aye? See how many fuckin jokes—”

“Stop it. Okay? Just—cut it out.”

Part of her didn’t want to interrupt them. Lex thought it was so much fun to bait Terrible? Fine. Let him see what happened when she didn’t jump in between them, when she didn’t hold Terrible back. What the fuck did she owe him, anyway?

Her life, unfortunately. Which was why she hadn’t let Terrible beat the shit out of him before—well, no, it was why she hadn’t let Terrible
kill
him before, because she knew that if and when it ever came down to violence between them—or rather, if and when it happened
again—
that’s where it would end.

But at the moment … “What the fuck, Lex? Do you want your jaw broken again, or are you going for something bigger this time?”

“Only tryin bring some fun into the troubles, is all.” Lex was still smiling. Still smiling, but he didn’t fool her. She’d seen the flash of panic on his face when Terrible threatened him. Seen, too, the way his gaze quickly cut over the rooftops to the left of where they stood. So she’d been right. His assassin was watching them.

She turned around and caught Terrible’s gaze, then turned hers deliberately in that direction. He nodded and shrugged in return. Right. Not new information.

“Now we all finished on that one,” Lex said, “who’s keeping them eye on Tulip? She all set on doin this, guessing, an seeming to me like you man ain’t showin up here. So—”

Bump’s voice broke through his. “C’mon have youselfs a look. Them fuckin coming now, dig? Here they come.”

Terrible and Lex ran for the low roof wall where Bump stood. Chess didn’t. Shit. She was supposed to have taken the speed already; she should have done it
sooner, she shouldn’t have been standing around trying to put it off another minute, just one more minute. Yes, she needed for the magic to be active in order to chase it—needed an actual line to follow—but she could have done it sooner. Those last few minutes could have meant the difference between life and death. Not for herself but for dozens of people. Hundreds of people.