“We’ve got business, asshole,” King said. I wasn’t sure if he was talking to Richmond or Bowman. The feeling in my gut said the former.
He swung again and the puppet master danced Richmond’s body away, hips no longer moving quite right. King circled him and drove him back, almost into the circle. At the last second,Richmond lurched forward, his head turning grotesquely to stare at me, even as his hands wrested for control of the poker with King.
Smoke rose from Richmond’s palms.
“Too. Slow,” he said to me.
We weren’t going to get him in the circle without doing damage to Richmond’s body that would be hard to explain. I winced a sigh and realized that we had to get Bowman out. Given that she’d just gotten her first taste of possession, that was going to be hard.
The circle was almost complete, it just needed a final chalk stroke, and some magic infused into it. I narrowed my eyes.
The three ghosts circled Richmond, pulling at him, even as he yanked the poker free, sending King flailing backward. Richmond swung the poker at the ghosts, slicing through the woman. She shrieked.
New plan.
I finished the circle with the trap door and pumped as much power as I could into it. The other ghosts disappeared, crumbling like dust. Eyes sharp, Bowman turned to me.
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s right. You take me over and this piddly summoning B.S. is the least of what you can do.”
Bowman tilted Richmond’s head at an angle that shouldn’t have left him with a neck to speak of. I really hoped that this was all her, and his body ended up intact. King tackled Richmond, the impact sending them both sprawling into the circle.
Too slow.
I felt Bowman slide into me, like she was pulling on a tight jacket. My body shuddered and my eyes rolled backwards. For a moment, all I knew was a filthy, dark feeling where my soul should be. I shuddered and gagged, bringing up bile and the half a sandwich I’d eaten for lunch.
It burned, and then I was just hacking out stomach acid, the taste sour and hot. I went to my knees and felt her sliding into every part of my skin, from my fingers to my toes. She pulled my face back into a rictus of pleasure.
“Ferro,” King said, standing. He looked at me with narrowed eyes. “Bowman.”
She started to speak, but then it hit her. I drew the magic up and through me, pulling it straight from that well inside me. It was pure light.
What—
I yanked more, every ounce I’d wasted on party tricks and witchcraft. Drawing deep, I felt it awaken me like it was a jolt of lightning. Around me, the wood in the room rose as well, a forest trying to sprout. The water in the air condensed into rain, drumming a familiar beat that the wooden floor answered enthusiastically.
Whatareyou?she shrieked in my mind.
It was too late, I felt her crisp, blackening under the assault of pure, elemental magic. No human was meant to contain this. No humancouldcontain it.
She tried to leave, to save herself, but I had control of my feet again and I shoved backward a step toward the circle. Holding onto her tight, I had to get into the circle. I wasn’t going to make it, I realized. Too slow.
Strong arms wrapped around me, yanking me and Bowman both into the circle. Relaxing against King’s muscular chest, I slumped backward, my spine arching.
Bowman snuffed out after a moment, a candle under a glass jar. Without the ambient magic, trapped without her link to the corporeal realm, she disappeared. Hopefully for good, but that would depend on how the cops handled her remains.
“Parker,” King said. “You good?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“That was a stupid move,” he said.
“So says the guy who tackled a possessed cop into a trap,” I said. “What if I’d put an incineration lock on it?”
“Didyou?” King asked. “Because to me, it looks like a haphazard containment spell.”
“Like you could do better in five minutes,” I said. “With your little pen, all your perfect circles. You would have taken an hour to do it.”
He laughed, the sound vibrating his chest. Which I was still pressed against. I forced myself to stand and step out of the circle. He followed, and we both looked down at Richmond, who was laid out on top of a pile of bones.
