Magic on the Hunt (15 page)

You tell me.
I walked into my bedroom. A gray hand patted the window, and then Stone stuck his head down and peered into my room. He tugged on the sill, pulled the window wide, and scuttled in.

“Window,” I said. “Close it.”

He stood up on his back legs and stuck his snout into the open space, sniffing as he pulled the window down lower and lower until he had to tip his head sideways so his nose could still fit in the crack. With one last sniff of fresh air, he closed the window.

The disks
, Dad said.
But he would need more than just disks to take down Jingo Jingo.

How about a gun?
I said.
Dane seems pretty happy to use those.

Jingo wasn’t shot.

I frowned as I carefully pulled a sweatshirt over my head. I decided to go without the sling for a while and see how my arm did.

Jingo had been such a mess, I didn’t know how my dad could tell if he had been shot or not. But I hadn’t smelled gunpowder in the room. Only magic and blood.

Dane’s no slouch
, I thought.
Neither is Sedra. And if he had those other men with him, Jingo was outnumbered.

Dane isn’t strong enough to fight Jingo Jingo alone
, Dad said.
Nor to break Sedra’s cage.

How do you break the cage?
I asked.

A spell. A dark magic spell.

So Dane, or one of the men with him, used dark magic?
I said.

Perhaps.

There was a knock on my door. I picked up the brush on my dresser and ran it through my hair as I walked through the apartment.

I looked through the peephole.

Zay looked back at me.

I unlocked the chains, didn’t bother with the wards, since he was the one who had set them, and opened the door.

He had a pizza box in his hand and a case of beer in the other. Shame and Terric were behind him.

“Dinner?” he said.

“Starving. Hey, Shame, Terric, come on in.”

Shame had another pizza box and a small paper bag; Terric, bless him, had a liter of Coke. Beer just wasn’t my thing. Not even with pizza.

“So I hear you had an interesting day.” Terric handed me the Coke.

“I suppose. You mean the Hounding?”

“Yes.”

“Did you tell Victor about it?” I asked.

“Didn’t see that it was any of my business to. Any luck?”

I shook my head. Zay was already in the living room, sitting on the couch and pulling a slice of pepperoni out of the box he had opened on the coffee table.

“We covered ground,” I said. “If he’s in the city, he either hasn’t used magic in the last day or he has some kind of trick up his sleeve I can’t figure out.” Of course, he could know Shield spells like the one around the boat that made it seem like there wasn’t any magic going on behind it.

Something niggled at the back of my brain. I’d just Hounded the entire city—and I’m assuming the other Hounds had done a thorough sweep in their areas too. Dane had recently used magic. Hadn’t he? He broke Sedra out of the cage. Fought Jingo Jingo. There should be some lingering scent of his signature somewhere.

“What’d you tell the Hounds?” Shame asked around a bite of pizza. He was sitting at the round table in front of my window, the paper bag in front of him.

“That doesn’t matter.”

Shame scoffed. “Oh, but it does matter. Have you ever heard of Zayvion Jones? He’s this big bad Closer. And if he catches wind that you’re letting the Authority secrets get loose in a few dozen Hound heads, he’s gonna have to clean up after your mess. There might be a fight; someone could die. Then there’ll be a trial, and you’ll wake up one day on a boat to Guam, wondering why your life in the convent isn’t as fulfilling as you thought it would be.”

“Convent?”

“Well, I doubt he’d send you off to become a stripper.”

Terric chuckled. “I think there are some shades of gray between nun and stripper.”

“Not with Zay,” Shame said. “When he gives someone a new identity, he’s ham-handed as they come.”

I took a piece of pizza with olives and mushrooms and settled down on the couch next to Zay.

“Nun?”

He shrugged. “Shame has a limber imagination.”

“You going to Close me?”

“Have you told the Hounds anything you shouldn’t have?”

“No.”

“Then no.”

He took a swig of his beer and dropped the subject flat. Don’t get me wrong—I was glad that he didn’t immediately morph into Mr. Righteous and Good and go dig around in the minds of the Hounds. But I was very surprised he didn’t even look like he was interested in doing such a thing.

“How often do you Close people?” I asked.

He groaned a little as he bent and reached for another slice of pizza. “It’s a last-ditch resort.”

“How often do you resort to the last ditch?”

“Maybe a half dozen times a year. Sometimes less.”

Not nearly as often as I’d thought. The Authority made it a point to remind me, it seemed like daily, that they could Close me at any time. It was good to know they didn’t do it very often. Or at least Zay didn’t.

“I told them Dane’s name,” I said.

“Good,” he said. “Maybe they’ll find the fucker.” Zay drank the last of his beer, and Shame tossed him another.

Shame caught my eye, grinned. “Wee bit of larceny,” he said.

I considered Zayvion. “You take a pain pill lately?”

Zay shook his head. “Beer’s good.”

Stone, who must have been making a mess out of my bedroom all this time, trotted into the living room.

“Hey, Stone,” Shame said. “C’mere, boy. I brought you something.”

Shame picked up the paper bag and shook it.

Stone’s ears lifted into points. He cooed and tromped over to Shame.

“Look at this.” Shame pulled a box out of the bag.

I groaned. “Are you serious?”

“Sure, I am.”

“Jenga?” I said. “He won’t understand how to play it. He’s a rock.”

“Oh, now, you don’t have to hurt his feelings, do you? Stone is a smart boy.”

Shame opened the box and carefully upended it onto the table. The stack of blocks teetered for a second, then stood like a nice little tower.

Stone cooed and rumbled, his wings rubbing against his back.

Stone and blocks, like butter and bread.

“See now, here’s the trick.” Shame pushed one of the long, thin blocks out of the tower with just his pointer finger, then placed the block to the side. Stone stood entranced, like he had just seen magic for the first time.

“Push the block.” Shame said. He chose another block, pushed it out of the stack.

Stone cooed.

“You try. Push the block,” he said.

Stone scooted up closer to the table and sat on his haunches.

“He won’t do it,” Terric said.

“Bet on it?”

“What you want to lose?”

“Twenty bucks.”

“Deal, though I hate stealing from your mother.”

“I have my own money, you arse.”

“And yet, we’ve never seen it.”

“Just use one finger,” Shame said, holding up his middle finger and looking at Terric.

Stone held up one finger, mimicking him. I snorted.

“Pick a block, and push.” Shame touched his fingertip to a block, and nudged it a little.

“Did I tell you Stone showed up to help Nola and Cody?” I asked.

“Yes,” Zay said. “You didn’t say what, exactly, happened, though.” He tipped up his beer, finished that one too. Not that it showed on him yet. All I got off of him were waves of discomfort and a low-level frustration that was not quite anger.

I wondered if mixing beer with those emotions was a good idea. And decided it didn’t matter; we weren’t going out again tonight. Man deserved a couple beers before bed.

So did I. But I hated beer. Too bad there was no wine in the cupboard.

“One finger,” Shame said, this time showing his index finger.

Stone growled, stuck out one finger, touched a block, and looked at Shame.

“That’s it. Push.”

Stone pushed. The block shifted a millimeter or two.

“Little bit harder.”

“She said they were stopped by a man,” I said. “Cody called him the shadow man.”

Shame looked over at me. “What?”

Stone pushed harder on the block and kept pushing so that his entire finger filled the hole where the block had been and unbalanced the whole thing. The blocks tumbled with a loud clatter over the table.

“Hot damn,” Terric said. “Twenty bucks. Pay up.”

“Hey now. I wasn’t watching.”

“Deal was if he could do it. Not if you could see him do it.”

“I never said he’d do it on the first try.” Shame restacked the blocks into the plastic sleeve.

“You owe me money,” Terric said. “Do I have to ask your mother to settle your bets? Again?”

“Just hold on a damn minute,” Shame grumbled.

Stone gurgled and took the plastic sleeve away from him, then swiftly stacked all the blocks perfectly again into a tower.

Stone held up one finger, looked at Shame. Touched a block near the bottom.

“I don’t think I’d go for that one, mate,” Shame warned.

Stone pushed it. Careful to keep his finger out of the hole this time, he moved the block halfway through the tower, then shifted so he could reach the other side and pull the block the rest of the way out.

He clacked, and his wings opened and closed while he talked to the tower of blocks. He was one happy rock.

“That’s it! Good job.” Shame rubbed Stone’s head. Stone soaked up the praise, then pushed another block out. And another. And another. Within seconds, the tower had taken on an entirely new shape—more holes than solid lines, blocks stuck half out, completely removed, then replaced on ends, on edges.

It looked like an M.C. Escher painting, unbelievably, eye-trickingly complex.

Terric chuckled. “You’ve been out-Jenga’d by a rock.”

“A rock who just earned me twenty bucks. Hand it over, Ter.”

“It fell. You owe me.”

Shame patted his pocket. “I don’t think I have it on me. No, wait.” He pulled his middle finger out of his pocket. “Here it is.”

Terric just shook his head. “Ass.”

Stone pushed one more block. The entire thing came clattering down. He clattered back at it and stacked it up again. He used both hands to reshape it into holes and stair steps. It looked a little like the Eiffel Tower.

This time he left it standing, tipped his head a couple times, and trotted off toward his box of blocks I’d bought him a while ago.

Shame pushed back from the table and dropped down into the chair next to the couch.

“Shadow man?” he asked, reaching for the pizza.

I popped the last bite of pizza in my mouth. “That’s what he said.”

“Think it’s Leander?” Terric asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “The solid Veiled are locked up, right? Have we had any leads on where Leander is?”

“No. We’ve been looking.” He glanced at Shame, who frowned.

“We’ve tried a lot of things,” Shame said. “But he’s damned impossible to track. Did you catch a hint of him around Cody?”

I groaned. “I didn’t even think of Hounding the area. Maybe we could go back.”

“Probably too late now,” Shame said. “I’d guess any spells he used would be gone.”

He was right.

“But what I don’t get,” Shame mused, “is why he would bother Cody. Z? Ideas?”

“You know how Cody was with magic,” Zay said. “Never did anything short of amazing.” He paused and stared out the window for a minute or two. “If what Allie says is true, and part of his soul is attached to Mama Rositto, he’s a broken spirit. Maybe there’s something about that that Leander thinks he can use. I don’t think he wants Cody for his magic—he can’t use magic anymore. Sedra saw to that with the second Closing that broke him for good.”

We all fell quiet. I still didn’t know how she could have had her own child Closed. Twice. The image that Sid had shown me of her, laughing, and somehow so much more alive and loving, flashed behind my eyes again.

She used to be happy, used to have a life she loved living. Or at least that’s what I’d guess if I’d met the Sedra in that photo. But the Sedra I knew was as cold as death. Empty of laughter. Angry. Like she’d been hollowed out, and only the shadow of what she was remained.

Zay reached over and took one of the last beers.

“So why would Leander want him?” I said, echoing Shame.

Terric sighed. “Could be for a million things, if it was Leander. He is clearly out for revenge—the battle at the inn proved that. Cody’s pretty simple. There’s the possibility he saw a Veiled, a ghost, or just a shadow and called it a shadow man. You might have jumped to conclusions, thinking he saw Leander. Where did it happen?”

“St. Johns.”

He took a drink of his beer and leaned forward, rolling the bottle between his palms. “Weird shit’s been happening out there an awful lot lately, hasn’t it?”

I tossed one hand into the air. “That’s what I said.”

“Have any of the rest of you wondered if Victor’s keeping something from us?” Terric said quietly.

“What?” Zay asked.

Terric shrugged. “I don’t know. He seems worried. He keeps looking over his shoulder, and I don’t know if he’s expecting Leander to be there, or Bartholomew.”

“Maybe both.” Shame put his empty beer bottle on the coffee table. “I’ll try to wheedle it out of Mum. She should know if Victor’s been threatened by Bartholomew. As for Leander, fuck all if I know where the bastard is.” He pushed up onto his feet. “Your da happen to say anything about him?”

“No.”

“Have you asked him?” Shame asked.

I shook my head. Bad idea. That headache I’d decided I’d pay for all the Hounding tonight was kicking in.

“Want me to?” Shame offered, rubbing his hands together.

“No, times a hundred,” I said.“Any more magic tonight, and I will be barfing. It can wait until tomorrow. Unless any of you think someone’s in immediate danger?”

Shame shrugged. “Nola and Cody are with Stotts, right?”

“Yes.” Damn, that reminded me. I wanted to put a Hound on the house to let me know if anything happened around Nola.