An apartment door hung splintered outward in its frame, an explosion from within, and I felt the drain of magic before we’d gotten ten feet from the apartment. I stopped hard, pullingAngel back. “Stop,” I called, loud, hoping to pull the response team back, fearing they’d get caught in the drain.
“Everyone pull back!” Angel yelled, projecting through the haze and making everyone turn his way.
No one could see what I did, could they? But I clung to Angel, trying to ground myself in his touch even if my magic wanted to latch onto the pandemonium growing around us, as if it knew what to do, even if I didn’t.
The response team moved as one, all of them leaving the space of the broken doorway, and I realized none of them could enter. Some sort of web of dark lines spanned the opening as if creating a barrier. Perhaps a shield of some sort?
The firefighter who had led us in stood in front of Angel asking questions, and I could sense Angel focusing on me.
“There’s a barrier over the door,” I said. “And a magic drain leaking from within.” The vivid memory of the family sucked dry of all life in their apartment, which had been dragged across the Veil, flashed through my mind. I didn’t even need to see inside the space to know what would lie beyond. “Like that spell we saw across the Veil,” I whispered to Angel.
He couldn’t see it, I knew that, but he had to smell it.
“Water isn’t working,” one of the firefighters said.
“Not a chemical fire either,” another added.
“Can’t get in the apartment. It’s like invisible glass in front of the door.”
“The smoke is getting worse.”
I let all the voices filter through me as I stared at the door, wondering if there was a way to fix this. Across the Veil, when the spell had been broken, the bodies disintegrated. Were there people in there?
Yes.
My gut answered without needing further clarification. The strands of what remained of them, what little it was, flickeredon the edge of my senses. As if whatever Nat had taught me had opened me up to seeing the lines in everything. At least practicing would be easy in the future. As long as we didn’t get sucked across the Veil with this building and dropped in some otherworld river of death.
“Maybe there’s something in this book to help?” I whispered to Angel, uncertain how much he wanted me to say.
“There’s a couple of SED teams on the way,” he told me and the firefighters waiting in the hall.
“There are people in there,” one of the responders said. “I can see them from the doorway.”
“They look hurt,” another added.
“Dead,” I whispered, feeling bad about that. And how I knew from out here had to be due to my variance.
“Those inside this apartment are already dead. Can we ensure the rest of the building is clear?” Angel asked the response team. “Above and below this apartment?”
The guy who had led us in nodded. “I’ll leave two with you and guide the SED up when they get here. We’ll work on making sure the building is clear.”
“Create a clear zone, too,” Angel added. “In case the building is pulled across.”
A beat of silence passed through the hallway as if none of them thought that was possible until that moment. Then they all moved as if their asses were lit on fire. And I suppose, as I’d never been on the scene when a tear was this fresh, opening wider as we stood there, I didn’t know how fast it could happen. The group split into pairs, making their way to knock on doors and clear the building faster than I could recall ever seeing any emergency team move.
The weight of the magic grew, leaving me half breathless. Angel backed me up, keeping between me and the doorway to the stairs. A cool breeze slid by, clearing my senses, and I blinkedup into Angel’s face, surprised to see a dark figure gliding behind us, and gasped.
“What?” Angel asked, his gaze darting behind him.
The figure moved through the smoke like ink through water, untouched by the disarray around it. The hallway lights flickered as it passed beneath them, and for a heartbeat, I saw its true shape, not unlike what had appeared across the Veil when we’d been surrounded by a horde of zombie sheep.
The silhouette bled with dark smoke around the edges. Where the face should have been beneath the hat, a grim white skull glistened, and bony fingers curled like talons as he pointed a gnarled digit at me.
My breath hitched. Piecing together what little I’d learned about the many supernatural beings across the Veil, it had to be a Reaper. Death of some kind.
It turned its head, the shadows parting for a half-breath, and I gasped as I caught the glimpse of an overlaid face on the skull.
Nat.
