She shook her head. “I don’t know. He didn’t sound alarmed, but it’s not like him to just drop out in the middle of a conversa—”
Marci cut off with a gasp. From deep inside the slimy column of trash she’d been poking, two arms had shot out. They were long and slender, like a thin woman’s, but they grabbed Marci like a steel trap, wrapping around her neck and waist before snatching her backward into the trash.
“Marci!”
Julius threw himself after her, crashing into the wall of random objects, but he wasn’t fast enough to snatch her back. The last thing he saw was her eyes wide with surprise as the trash ate her, opening like a mouth before snapping shut again in his face.
“No!” he roared, clawing at the wall. No, no,no.
He’d lost her. He’d had her and he’d lost her again. He’d lost—
Julius roared, shaking the Pit to the Skyways as he slammed his full weight into the slimy wall of random debris. The tower shook like a tree, sending bits of trash splashing into the water around him. He was about to hit it again when a croaking voice called out.
“I wouldn’t do that.”
Julius’s head snapped up. Even with his excellent night vision, though, it took several seconds to spot the enormous black bird perched in a shadowy nook beneath the broken Skyway ramps, much as the magic eaters had the last time Julius had been here. That wasn’t a pleasant connection, and Julius growled low in his throat as the giant bird spread his wings and hopped off, coasting down through the dark to land on the broken antenna of the car the dragon was standing on.
“Hello again, Julius Heartstriker,” Raven said. “You remember me, I’m sure.”
“How could I forget?” Julius replied, baring his teeth. “Your human killed Marci.”
“Now, now, let’s not bring poor Emily into this,” the spirit said. “You already took your chunk out of her, and you should be delighted to see me.”
“Why?” he growled, because he couldn’t think of a single reason.
Raven turned his head to peer at him with one bright black eye. “Because I’m the one who brought your beloved Marci back from the dead.”
Julius’s growling grew louder. “Why should I believe a famous trickster?”
“Because I’m also famous for bringing souls back from the dead,” Raven croaked cheerfully. “Look it up sometime, but not right now. We have to go after our Merlin.”
Julius lifted his head. “Merlin?” he said, smiling despite himself. “Marci’s a Merlin?”
“The greatest one we have,” Raven assured him. “Also theonlyone we have, which is why we’re in a hurry. I carried Marci’s soul back to her body as part of a rather brilliant plan, the details of which I don’t have time to go into and, quite frankly, you lack the expertise to understand. Marci’s actually still on track to hold up her end, but I’m worried because things have gone a little strange.”
“Strange how?” Julius demanded. “And what is Marci supposed to be doing in there?”
Raven looked pained. “The answer to both is the DFZ. Again, I don’t have time for a proper explanation, but the quick-and-dirty version is the city’s gone mad with power. Marci’s supposed to be talking her down, but only after she starts to run out of power. That should have happened several minutes ago, but as I’m sure you’ve noticed, her fight against Algonquin hasn’t exactly washed out.” He chuckled. “That’s a pun.”
Julius growled, and the spirit quickly moved on.
“Anyway, since the DFZ’s still going strong, I can only conclude she’s found another way to keep her magic flowing, and I don’t like that. She and Algonquin are holding toe to toe right now, but if the battle starts to turn and Algonquin gets desperate, things will get very bad very quickly.”
“Wait, Algonquin?” Julius sputtered. “You’re worried about Algonquin?”
“I’m worried about a lot of things,” Raven said. “Including a certain human girl who’s almost guaranteed to be in over her head right now. I can help you go in there after her, but you have to do exactly as I say.”
To get Marci back? “Anything.”
The spirit chuckled. “That’s what I thought.” He hopped off the antenna to land on the bend of Julius’s wing, glaring at the wall of trash. “The creature in that pile has taken something precious from both of us. Neither of us is enough on our own, and I’m not sure if we’ll be enough together, either. But if my hunch is correct, we won’t be too much longer.”
Julius had no idea what any of that meant, and he didn’t care. He just wanted to get to Marci. “Just tell me what to do.”
The spirit’s black eyes glittered. “Burn it down.”
Julius blinked. “What?”
“You breathe fire, don’t you?” Raven said, bobbing his head at the slimy trash. “Use it. Burn it down.”
