“What did you do?”
“What I had to,” the DFZ snarled. “Algonquin tried to smother me, to hold me back, but she’s no longer the biggest spirit around.Iam. I have all the power now, and I will destroy her for what she has done to me.”
“You’re destroying yourself,” Marci said angrily. “Look outside! Your city is in ruins.”
“Because of Algonquin.”
“Because ofyou!” she cried. “You’re the one throwing buildings! Algonquin gets more water every time it rains, but you can’t grow new superscrapers.”
“Of course I can,” the DFZ said. “Detroit always rebuilds.”
You can’t rebuild lost lives.
Marci jumped, snapping her head down to the cat in her arms. He still looked terrifyingly faint, but his ghostly blue eyes were open and glaring at the spirit in front of them with righteous fury.
Can you not hear them?he growled.Algonquin evacuated your city to weaken you, to rob you of your heart, but she did a sloppy job. The poor, the forgotten, those who couldn’t leave, they’re all still here. Your people, the blood of your streets, they’re here, and you’re killing them.
The DFZ sneered. “They’re just mortals.”
WE are mortal!Ghost roared, his mouth opening in a silent hiss.We are the souls of humanity’s care, of its hopes and fears! We are them, they are us, and you are sacrificing both to Algonquin!
“I’m standing up to Algonquin!” the DFZ roared back, her orange eyes painfully bright. “I’m the only one of us with the guts to fight her and her monster! I don’t care if it takes every building I have. Iwilldestroy her lakes. I will kill her as she tried to kill me!”
The spirit’s anger vibrated through the magic, and Marci shuddered. She had no idea where the DFZ was getting all this power, but for once, the amount of magic was less important than the source.
As a Thaumaturge, Marci had been taught that magic was magic. No matter where it came from, once it went through spellwork, it was all the same. The more time she spent with spirits, though, the more Marci realized this wasn’t the case with them.
Spirits weren’t spells. They were magic itself. Their vessels gave them shape, but thetypeof magic that filled that space determined the spirit’s mindset, or lack thereof.
She’d seen it happen at least twice with Ghost: once when they were fighting Vann Jeger and once in Reclamation Land. Both times, he’d been consumed by the rage of the Forgotten Dead, and both times, she’d had to pull him back. Now, Marci suspected the same thing was happening to the DFZ.
This wasn’t just righteous anger at Algonquin for hurting her. This was blind rage, self-destructive madness. The DFZ was willing to destroy her own city, her very self, to strike back at the Lady of the Lakes. Most telling, though, was that this kind of nihilism didn’t match the city Marci knew at all.
The DFZ was a city of hope and ambition, a place where fortunes were made. People came here to make a new start, not break themselves for revenge. The anger in the air, the rage that shook the girl in front of her—it wasn’t the magic of the DFZ she knew, but itwasthe magic of spirits angry enough to give their lives for Algonquin.
It’s more than that,Ghost said, his nose twitching.She’s drenched in old death. Old rage and revenge are all over her like oil.
That sounded familiar. “It’s the Pit,” Marci said, snapping her fingers. “She’s pulling in magic from the Pit.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” the DFZ cried, her voice taking on a terrifying, desperate edge. “That’s where I was born. Algonquin has always drowned me. From the very beginning, she’s held me under, made me suffer. But now it’sherturn.” The spirit lifted her face to the illusion city’s false sky. “I will bury her lakes and destroy her water! I will make herpay!”
The word came out in a scream, and the thrumming magic tightened like a fist. The resulting pressure crumpled the buildings and flattened the faceless crowds of her domain. It cracked the ground and shook the air and set Marci’s head ringing. Even Ghost looked pained, his ears pressed flat against his skull.
The only one who didn’t seem to feel it was the DFZ. She laughed at the cracking pressure, clenching her hands into fists to match. “I will kill her!” she cried joyfully. “I will make her suffer! I—”
There was more, but Marci had already shut the mad voice out, focusing instead on the magic around them, and how to stop it.
We have to cut her off,Ghost said in her head, his freezing claws digging into her flesh.She’s not just full. She’s overflowing. I don’t know where it’s all coming from, but no Mortal Spirit can control this much magic without a Merlin.
“She’s got a Merlin.”
Not one she wants.
“But he’s the one we’ve got,” Marci said, mind racing. “And actually, I think that’s why this is happening.”
She turned back to the DFZ, who was still ranting at the sky. It was a horrifying sight, but Marci forced herself to push past the fear and reallylookat her, noting all the details of the spirit’s black hoodie and plain clothes, the sort that came from the cheap clothing vending machines that were so popular all over the DFZ. Her streetlight-orange eyes and short, spiky, rat-brown hair. With the LED around her wrists, neck, and ankles shining like neon against the dark of her outfit, she really did look just like the stereotype of the DFZ street rat, and yet—
“There!” Marci threw out her hand, pointing at the flash of silver that trailed from the spirit’s left pinky. It was so thin, so fine, it was barely visible against all the other chaos, but it was there, falling from her hand to the sidewalk below, where it vanished into the cement like a fishing line into water.
