“No idea. I’m not even sure it’s the blood,” Nick called back. He looked at the room, trying to see a way out, but the blood spatter was everywhere. “We need a way out. Something we can walk on.”
“Let me see if we can get something.” Tate turned to a nearby officer, directing him to look for anything that hadn’t been in the room that they could use to make a pathway.
“—I don’tcarewhat the procedures are. He is myhusband, and I willgo through youif I have to—” Parker’s voice carried loudly, and he pushed his way through the wall of officers milling around the entrance to the room.
Nick stood, his eyes searching Parker for any sign of damage. “Parker, are you okay? Do you feel anything? Too hot? Too cold?Anything?”
Parker’s face had gone white as he stared at the room. He swallowed when he heard Nick’s questions. “I’m fine. I feel fine. Areyouokay? This is the last scene inCarrieor some Blumhouse film that made a billion dollars. Hollywood would be out of colored corn syrup formonthsafter this.Nick…”
Nick could live on the way that Parker said his name. He wouldn’t need food or water; he wouldn’t need anything but the way Parker sounded like Nick’s safety was more important than the rest of the world.
“I’m fine. But whatever did this is contagious. Get back. Get a mask on.” Nick stared at Parker, who didn’t move. “Parker.”
“Yeah, okay.” Parker nodded decisively. He pushed through the cops again just as a sergeant brought a few long shelves thatthey managed to place together, forming a bridge between Nick, Murtola, and the relative safety of the doorway.
The blood on Nick’s shield spell had dripped down, leaving red streaks floating in midair, and Nick considered the best way to take the circle down. If he just closed the spell off, the remaining blood smears might drip down on him and Murtola.
As he squinted, Zahide shouted out, “Wait, I have some immolation spells here.”
Nick nodded in gratitude. Murtola stared at him. “Did you just save our lives?”
“We’ll see. We still have no idea what it is or how it spreads.” Nick watched as Zahide threw out three small circles that landed on his shield, sliding down it and burning everything in their path.
“But you think it’s the blood.” Murtola swore. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Nick said because being polite never hurt anyone, and he wasn’t about to burn a bridge he might need soon. Even with someone who thought he was a freak.
When Zahide called her circles back to her, he noted how she deactivated them. The pull of magic was clean, and it didn’t use more power than she’d already expended.
Then he lowered the shield. Without the blood spatter on the shield, the room looked even more like a product of Hollywood. Parker had maybeunderstatedhow bad it looked.
Murtola went first, balancing carefully and making it to safety before Nick started across. When his feet touched the blood-free hallway, Parker leapt through the crowd, running his hands over Nick’s face, down his clothes, searching for any hint of blood.
“I think I’m okay.” Nick grabbed Parker’s hands in his own. Parker’s fingers twitched, and Nick repeated, “I’m okay.”
“King, you think we should seal the room?” Zahide asked, eyeing the doorway critically.
“Yeah,” Nick agreed. “Something that also prevents any airflow. No telling how much of the blood was aerosolized.”
Parker’s eyes went wide. “The air-conditioning. You need to turn off the air-conditioning before it spreads through the whole building.”
Nick stared at him, then let his eyes go to the ceiling. He turned, but Tate was already on the radio demanding maintenance turn it off.
“Let’s do a layered shield. Sandwich style?” Zahide asked.
“Sure, no sense in being careless. First layer physical, second layer air, third layer everything else?” Nick took out his notebook and pen. It was heavy, the weight of it supposed to remind him of the cost of alchemy.
“I’ll do layers one and three,” Zahide said. “How did you do the shield spell inside? How much time did you have?”
“I managed it without drawing the circle,” Nick said, busying himself writing out the circle he’d need.
“You what?” Zahide asked, her tone rising just slightly at the end, the only sign that she was alarmed.
“You did a circle without drawing it?” Parker asked, eyes wide. He looked at Zahide, whose face was stormy.
“Let’s get the shield up,” she said shortly.
It took about ten minutes, and by the time they were done, they’d lost the captain to an official meeting with the highest-ranking officers in the building. The other officers were being directed by a particularly assertive desk sergeant, and everyone not being sent to keep the building secure was told to shelter in place.
