“We found evidence of the parasite on her. If we hadn’t wrapped a protective spell around her arm, she likely wouldhave blown up, spreading the virus to everyone in the building.” Nick swallowed. “Sirs.”
“Tell us how you found her.” Tate leaned back in his chair, hushing Falk with a stern look.
Nick ran through what they had learned about Durkavic and the virus. He kept out any mention of the Far Realm, and when he finished, there was silence in the room.
“Lucky for you, the woman is somehow still conscious,” Rios said. “And her statement almost exactly matches yours. Now the question is, where do we go from here?”
“What about the other teams? Did they find anything?” Nick asked.
“Not yet. But it’s difficult to check for the virus.” Rios raised an eyebrow, the slightest smile playing in the narrowing of his eyes. “Not everyone is as efficient an alchemist as you and Detective Zahide.”
“Based on what we know, we would like to see if we can communicate again with the alchemy spell inside Gile,” Parker said. “The other spell didn’t seem to want to hurt anyone. If we can talk to it, maybe we can convince it to give us more time.”
Rios was already nodding. “Go. See if it does give you anything more on the locations. If the woman you saved was one, that still leaves eight more.”
Parker kept his lips closed, his teeth biting the inside of his mouth, the flesh going white as he resisted saying anything else. Nick took his elbow, guiding them out of the room and back to the elevator.
On Gile’s floor, they got out, members of the CDC still wearing thick protective suits as they buzzed around the rooms. Nick waved at Lawless, and she nodded at them.
Then he moved to Gile’s door, unzipping the clean room before closing it behind them. He and Parker stared at eachother, both of them knowing they were about to do something terrible.
“There is no other choice, is there?” Parker swallowed, his eyes searching Nick’s face.
Nick shook his head. “Let’s go.”
When they opened the door, Gile barely turned his head. He stared into the one-way mirror, and a smirk spread on his face.
There was a knock on the other side of the glass, meaning Captain Tate or Captain Rios was on the other side. They wouldn’t have much time. Quickly, he flipped open his notebook, touching the spells he had used back at the escape room to keep the doors closed.
There was still a flash of green left in them, and he powered them up with one motion, throwing them on the door quickly. The circles spread, bracing it shut.
Gile turned, his bright green eyes flashing with interest.
“God killer. Have you come to kill me, too?” His voice was still strange, a dead thing dragged over dry earth. “I felt you kill my sister. I could hear her scream. I could hear when it was cut off, when she died because of what you did.”
“Sister, huh?” Parker tried to step between Gile and Nick, but Gile ignored him.
“She died. How does it feel to have the death of two great things on your hands?” Gile’s smile was grotesque, peeling up his lips, revealing his back molars.
“She didn’t want to kill anything. She was begging to be stopped.” Nick leaned forward earnestly. “The same way I think you are begging to be stopped. You don’t want to kill anyone. You don’t even want to kill me. You want this to end.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Nothing is going to end. Nothing ever ends. We are endless. We exist because there is magic in us. We will always exist, even when we die. My sister is me, and I amher, and all of us are the same and different and the same.” Gile’s smile dropped off his face. “Do you understand now?”
“Let me tell you what I understand,” Parker said. His voice had taken on a coaxing tone, and in a different person, Nick could see it convincing someone to jump off a cliff.
That was the thing about Parker. His power wasn’t simply in his magic. His power was his voice, his words. In the wrong person, Parker’s powers could be terrible. If Parker had let himself become bitter, become someone terrible because of his experiences, because of how he had been treated in his childhood, then the world would be a much darker place.
Instead, Parker was himself. Parker was good, or trying to be, just like the rest of them. He left dirty bowls on the kitchen counter. He forgot his towel on the floor more often than not.
But he wasParker. And Nick loved him.
“I understand that you can’t live on these bones. You keep sliding off them. They are oil, and you can’t keep hold.” Parker’s eyes glowed, and Gile looked down at him, as though he was forced to. He had to look at Parker; no one could avoid Parker’s voice, not when it went sweet like that, pulling at his attention.
Someone pounded on the glass, but Nick ignored it, drawing a quick circle in his notebook and flinging it at Gile.
The parasite didn’t seem to notice, and his body lit up. Nick could see the circles dripping off his skin, flowing down his bones.
The interrogation room door jerked, but his magic held firm. His alchemy was flawless, and no one except maybe Zahide would be able to break it.
