T. Laine called out, “He’s using the tattoo magic to track Rick.” From Rick’s cage, a scream echoed. Cat scream of rage. The cage rocked and thumped and rattled as Rick threw himself at the walls. Shifting fast. Forced into his cat.
“He called Rick at every cat circle. At the stockyard. Why didn’t he wait for Rick to arrive?” I asked. No one answered. Maybe Jason had been practicing. Maybe he was just trying to locate Rick. Maybe he had been gathering power for this moment. Or maybe he had multiple ends in mind.
Ahead of me JoJo said, “The null room is secured. Loriann can’t get out or be freed from outside without the security code.”
On the screens overhead, Jason Ethier entered the stairwell.
Margot said, “I’m with Rick. Last ditch if he gets by you all. I got a little something the FBI has been wanting to try.” That sounded ominous, but there was no time to ask questions.
“We’ll let Ethier open the door at the top of the stairs. Let him get here”—FireWind pointed—“and Kent will hit him with everything she has.”
“If that doesn’t stop him?” Occam asked.
FireWind flashed us the first real smile I’d seen, one full of joy. “Then I will.” His expression held something like the exultation of battle. Delight, fierce and brutal. FireWindwantedto fight the black-witch. He was an idiot. Jason had a lot of power.A lot. Unless we were very lucky, he would soon have even more, thanks to the thing below the ground.
A boom sounded. The building shook. The hallway door rammed open. Jason, reed thin, dressed in black, his black hair flying, stepped into the hallway. He was outlined by the door for a half second. FireWind shouted, “Kent! Now!”
T. Laine threw... something. A black, sparkling net of magic shot out. Visible even to human eyes. Filling the hallway. Obscuring the witch at the end. We heard a thump andmy heart stuck in the top of my throat.Is it going to be that easy?
Jason laughed.
T. Laine cursed.
Jason strode out of the fog. He shouted,“Fulmen!”and threw something at our witch.
T. Laine collapsed, her body jolting as if she was having a seizure. FireWind dropped beside Lainie, his body twitching like hers. A sensation of sleet slammed into me. My fingers clenched on my weapon, but I couldn’t fire. My fingers were frozen. The team simply dropped to the floor, the others shaking and twitching, though not as bad as T. Laine and FireWind, who were struggling even to breathe. Slowly, I fell.
I realized that those of us at the back of the hallway had absorbed less of the magic. I could think, I could breathe, but I was lying, immobilized. My body had fallen in an odd position, twisted. I could see Jason’s passage. He smelled like fire as he passed by me, the fire of a burning house, of burning garbage, burning filth. He was wearing three bracelets on his bare lower left arm, wide silver cuffs or bracers set with blackened stones. They glowed.
He reached Rick’s office and raised his cuffed wrist. Margot threw something at him. It hit Jason. He staggered back. Screamed a wordless challenge. He drew a gun from a pocket and fired, multiple shots, fast, frenzied, ripping all sound from the air.
Margot did not return fire. Jason took a step into the office. Moving fast, he bent and opened Rick’s cage. Leaned in and shoved his arm at the wereleopard. Rick was farther away from the source of the spell, not so deeply affected. He tried to pull away. Jason cut his arm on the leopard’s teeth. On purpose. He then raked the wound against Rick’s bloodied side. Infecting himself with the were-taint.
I struggled to grip my weapon. It felt like frozen steel in my bloodless hands. But I got my fingers around the butt. Lifted the muzzle from the floor. The weapon was shaking like a leaf in a winter wind.
Loriann threw herself down the short hallway. Leaped at her brother. Trying to stop him. In midair she shouted,“Quiesco!”
Jason whirled at the sound, weapon up. Firing.
Loriann fell.
Jason screamed. Reached for her.
“Run,” Loriann said, her lips moving in the single word, the sound buried beneath the weapon-fire deafness.
Jason stepped back, eyes wide.
Two grindylows flew down the hallway. They attacked Jason. Which made no sense. Except Jason had infected himself, given himself the were-taint, which was a killing offense for grindys.
Jason flinched. Raised his cuffs at the grindys. He shouted awyrd.“Admordeo!”
The grindys hit... something. It sliced into them, spilling their blood. Jason reached out a finger and wiped up the grindy blood, then smeared it across the black stones on his cuffs.
My body weighed a ton. But... I tightened my hands on the grip. Steadied my weapon. Squeezed the trigger. The ten-millimeter bucked slightly and my hands dropped to the floor.
Power exploded into the hallway. Jason disappeared.
Like magic.
