“This way,” Algonquin said, waving the reflection of Marci’s bracelet-covered arm toward the limo that was parked just down the street.
Marci’s feet stayed firmly planted. “Not until I’m sure my companions leave unharmed.”
The spirit sighed and turned her head, yelling over her shoulder to the human soldiers. “Escort General Jackson and the Master of Labyrinths to the border.”
The order was barely given before the soldiers jumped into action, hustling a surly Sir Myron and a still-murderous-looking Emily back to their car. When they were safely locked inside and on their way down the road, surrounded by a cage of Algonquin’s Security Force, the Lady of the Lakes turned back to Marci. “Satisfied?”
As much as she could be. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Don’t be that way,” Algonquin chided. “I’m on your side now. I wasn’t before, thanks to the company you keep, but all that’s over now. You’re safe here, free from anyone who would manipulate you. All I want is for you to relax and enjoy the benefits of my hospitality.”
Marci didn’t believe that for a second, but there was no point in calling the spirit on her lies now while she and Ghost were so outnumbered. Instead, she walked to the waiting limo, plopping her cold, rain-soaked body into the heated leather seat without a single twinge of guilt. But when she looked to see if Algonquin was going to join her, the spirit was already gone. The Leviathan was, too, leaving only the tanks and remaining soldiers standing under the floodlights in the dreary night rain.
That was the last thing Marci saw before the armored door slammed shut, locking her inside as the car started down the street.
Chapter 15
As soon as she and Ghost were locked inside, Algonquin’s armored—and, as Marci quickly discovered, heavily warded—limo took them straight into Reclamation Land.
In hindsight, it was the obvious destination. Vann Jeger had also taken her here when he’d grabbed her, though if she had to rank her kidnappings, Marci far preferred this one. Frustrating as it was to be locked down and helpless, a limo ride was much more civil than being black-bagged in a parking deck.
They didn’t seem to be headed for a room with a drain this time, either. The moment the limo drove through the gate in the chain-link fence that separated Algonquin’s private land from the rest of the city, the rotting houses and crumbling roads of the DFZ’s abandoned outer edge had given way to the most amazing, mist-shrouded wood Marci had ever seen. It was like driving straight into a nature photographer’s idealized image of the perfect old-growth forest. Given that this land had been clear-cut suburbs only sixty years ago, she knew the giant trees couldn’tactuallybe as old as they looked, but with the sheer amount of magic in the air here, anything seemed possible.
“Wow, that’s thick,” Marci muttered, grabbing a handful just to feel the heavy magic ooze through her mental fingers. “Forget pulling off reagents. I could cast forever in a place like this.”
Of course it’s rich,Ghost said, standing on the door with his paws up and his nose pressed against the window’s warded glass.This is spirit land.
“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Marci said ruefully, stroking his freezing fur, which was glowing like fresh snow in moonlight thanks to the power saturating the air. “I don’t think we’re going to be getting the limo treatment for much longer.”
That statement turned out to be prophetic. Seconds after the words were out of her mouth, the armored limousine pulled to a stop. The locks clicked as soon the car was still, and Marci threw the door open, lunging outside in the hopes of making a break for it. A hope that died when she saw what was waiting for them.
The road they’d been following through the woods ended abruptly at what could only be described as a misplaced Himalayan mountain. There was no lead-up, no transition. The jagged stone peak just rose abruptly from the soft forest floor like someone had dropped it there. Still, the dizzyingly tall mountain—complete with white snow capping its lofty peak—was neither the strangest, nor even the biggest, thing waiting for them. That honor belonged to the Leviathan.
How it had beaten them here, Marci had no idea, but when she burst out of the car, Algonquin’s monster was already waiting, his black flesh glistening in the last evening light shining down from the now crystal-clear sky. Marci couldn’t tell if it was just because she was standing closer, or if the tar-thick magic of this place empowered the Leviathan the same way it did Ghost, but the overgrown slug looked even bigger than before. Even standing beside the out-of-place mountain, it dominated the horizon, its smooth, curving, eyeless black surface rising up before them in an arc that seemed to touch the sky. She was still gawking when the monster extended one of the thousands of tentacles it used to propel its bulk silently across the ground. Compared to the rest of the monster, the tentacles had looked tiny as millipede feet, but as it approached Marci, she realized with a start that the wet-looking black length was actually the size of a bus before it tapered at the end, the giant mass shrinking to a bowling-ball-sized blunt point that it hovered right in front of her at chest level, almost as if it was offering to shake her hand.
“Uh…” she said, taking a wary step back. “I don’t—”
Come.
The command vibrated through the ground like an earthquake. A second quake followed a heartbeat later as the Leviathan set its tentacle down on the road behind the car, cracking the asphalt and knocking Marci off her feet in the process.
Come,it commanded again, the giant tentacle twitching impatiently.Now.
Marci got back to her feet with a grimace. Someday, she’d like to go twelve hours at a stretch without some giant creature bossing or threatening or otherwise ordering her around. But today was not that day, so she gathered her glowing spirit into her bag and climbed on, wincing when her fingers touched the Leviathan’s cold black flesh that reeked of old lake water. Ghost winced too, his presence flinching in her mind, though not for the same reason.
He is not like us,he said, sticking his head out of her bag to glare up at the Leviathan’s featureless face with his ears pressed flat.I don’t like it.
“Me neither,” Marci said. “But I think we get a—”
She cut off with a curse as the tentacle lifted off the ground. It rose with frightening speed, lifting Marci and her spirit up, up, up through the misty air until they were less than a hundred feet from the mountain’s snowy peak. There, the tentacle stopped, tilting slightly to roll its passengers off onto a flattened ledge that had been carved into the sheer cliff face. Marci hit on the stone with a grunt, scrambling back to her feet to see where she had landed.
They were right below the snow line, high enough to be bone-chillingly cold, but not so high that the little streams flowing down from the snow cap had frozen. But while the sheer cliff and icy rivulets made it look as if the monster had just shunted them into howling wilderness, the center of the stone ledge had been chiseled back to form a smooth, wide platform nestled under a protective lip. In this room-like nook was a nice carpet, a small end table, and a pair of chic, neutral toned chairs of the sort you’d find in the lobby of a nice hotel. There was even a breakfast tray loaded with pastries, juice, coffee, and fresh-cut fruit that, again, was just like you’d find waiting on the table in a nice hotel conference room. Assuming said conference room was on the side of a mountain with a sheer, multiple-thousand-foot drop on either side.
“Now things are just getting surreal,” Marci muttered, turning back to the Leviathan, who’d retrieved its tentacle and was now just standing there in the mist. “So what happens next?”
Instead of answering, the monster turned away, rolling over the forest without a sound, its huge body passing through the trees like smoke. It vanished with astonishing speed, its black body fading into the night mist right before her eyes. Seconds later, it was gone, leaving Marci staring over the empty sky and the dark, fog-covered trees.
“I guess we’ll just wait here, then,” she muttered.
