Stone Cold

  And blew all the air out of me.

  I inhaled again—it still hurt—but this time he had my full attention.

  “The hell,” I wheezed.

  “You don’t get to die, remember?”

  “Don’t tell me what to do.”

  That got a smile out of him.

  “We need to get out of here,” he said. “You need a hospital. And Cody.”

  “Me?” I was going to scoff, but the room spun, and then I was on my feet, Terric holding my arm over his shoulder.

  “. . . healed,” he was saying. “Life magic hit me like a damn avalanche, and I’m fine. You, on the other hand, look like pounded hell. You have to let go of all that magic before it burns you up.”

  “Wait,” I said. We were still in the room Eli had brought us to, which was burned and slashed from the explosion of magic we’d harnessed. Stone growled next to my leg. I looked down at him and he tipped his big face up at me.

  “Stoney! Good to see you, buddy.”

  Mum’s and Sunny’s ghosts were still with me, but I was missing someone.

  “Eleanor,” I said, finally remembering.

  Terric paused. “I think she’s dead, Shame.”

  “I have to know. I need to.”

  So we limped into the room where Eli had kept Brandy’s body.

  No signs of fire and magic here. Just blood. Blood covered the floor, blood soaked the white blanket and sheet covering her, blood sprayed the wall.

  All the machines were silent. Unplugged.

  “Closer,” I told Terric. He helped me walk the distance.

  Her eyes were open. A single tear ran down her cheek.

  “She’s alive,” I said, hope leaping into a sort of panic. “Heal her, Ter. You can heal her.”

  “Shame,” he said quietly. “There wasn’t much I could do for her body before. And now . . . with that many bullets and her barely being alive for months? Eleanor would be trapped, Shame. A vegetable at best.”

  “God,” Sunny said. “Shame, don’t do that to her. Better death.”

  I pulled away from Terric, kept my feet, which I think surprised both of us. I eased down and sat on the edge of the cot where Eleanor could see me. Where I could see her, there behind Brandy’s eyes.

  “Hey, El. You are amazing,” I said. “We saved them all. Allie, Zay, Cody. And we think we can save Mum and Sunny too. Because of you. What you did in here? How brave you were? I’ll never forget that. I hope you’ll save a drink in heaven for me, love.”

  I put my hand on her chest, or what was left of it. Eli had reduced her to a gory mess.

  I still had Death magic somewhere in the tangle of magic in me. If I pulled the right thread, I could ease her pain. Ease her passing. I owed her that. I owed her more.

  I wasn’t expecting this to be simple. But I wasn’t going to leave her here to suffer. I called Death magic to me.

  What did you know? It was simple. Death magic slipped over my hand like a velvet glove, dark and soft and blessedly painless. I wrapped her in it as gently as I could and let it drain her life away.

  Eleanor closed her eyes, tears caught in her eyelashes, and then exhaled her last breath.

  Her ghost stood beside me and smiled. This, she said, was a very good choice, Shame.

  She gently cupped the side of my face and kissed my lips, cool and sweet as rain. You two look good together, she whispered. Using magic. Soul Complements. Keep it that way.

  I reached for her, to tell her thank you, to tell her I was sorry, but she faded away and was gone from this world. Gone from me for good this time. I knew I should be happy she was finally free, but I was going to miss her dearly.

  “. . . chance for your mom and Sunny. Now, Shame,” Terric was saying.

  Magic rolled in me, cutting and chewing on all my tender places.

  I got myself on my feet again, started toward the door. “We fix Mum first, okay?”

  Terric walked on one side; Stone padded ahead of us. “Just keep breathing,” he said. “And we’ll get to your mom and Sunny.”

  He tested the door to see if it was locked. It wasn’t. That’s how certain Eli was that we wouldn’t be walking out of this place. Asshole.

  My one and only goal was reaching the outside door to the sidewalk beyond. And when I achieved that, my one and only goal was not passing out while Terric asked someone walking by if he could borrow their phone.

  Someone finally said yes.

  He called for Dash, not surprisingly. Dash made it to where we were in record time.

  He double-parked and got out of the car.

  “My God, Terric. Shame,” he said as he jogged over. “I didn’t think I’d see you two alive.”

  “We need to get him to the hospital, where Maeve is,” Terric said.

  “Sure, yes,” Dash said. “Can he walk?”

  I pushed away from the wall, Stone’s head under my hand. He walked with me toward Dash’s car.

  “Holy shit,” Dash breathed. “What happened to him?” Then he was opening the door and Terric was helping me into the car.

  Stone jumped in and settled on the seat next to me. I slouched down, one arm over Stone’s shoulders. He burbled and locked warm, smooth marble wings around me, holding me secure as Dash raced to the hospital.

  If Terric responded, I was long past hearing him.

  Chapter 30

  SHAME

  It took me three tries to convince the gargoyle I needed to get out of the car without him attached to me. He made disapproving grumbles but finally unlocked his wings.

  Dash was waiting with a wheelchair, which I thought was completely unnecessary, until I tried to drag my ass out of the car.

  Stiff, swollen, and aching from feet to teeth, I felt like someone had fed me through the meat grinder. Twice. And set me on fire just for good measure.

  So I got in the chair and let him push me. Stone, finally, caught the hint that gargoyles should not be seen or heard and took off into the shadows.

  “Mum’s right?”

  Terric looked down at me. “Have you heard anything we’ve said?”

  “No.”

  “We’re almost there.”

  I looked around for her ghost. Mum and Sunny were still tied to me, drifting along in front of Dash.

  “This is it,” Dash said.

  Terric opened the door and Dash pushed me into the room.

  Hayden sat at Mum’s side, holding her hand. If the machines that had been in Brandy’s room were overly loud, these were very quiet, almost hushed about the readings they were taking from her.

  Hayden glanced up, smiled when he saw Terric. “Good to see you,” he said. Then his gaze drifted to me. “Good God, boy. What did you do?”

  “Found a way to save Mum,” I said. “A spell.”

  “Did you?” Hayden looked from me to Terric. “Did he?”

  “We,” Terric said. “It’s a refined Resurrection spell. We think it will allow her to reenter her body and stay there.”

  “And?” he asked.

  “We’ve only tested it once,” Terric said.

  “You aren’t going to test it on her,” Hayden said. “I won’t risk her life on a maybe.”

  Mum crossed her arms over her chest. Tell him I want you to do it.

  “He won’t listen to me,” I said.

  Tell him I love him but he is being a bloody idiot.

  “Uh, Mum says she loves you but you’re being a bloody idiot,” I said.

  He looked a little startled at that. “She wants you to do this?”

  Yes, she said.

  “Yes,” I said.

  Hayden rubbed his hand over his beard, then took her hand again. “All right.”

  “Do you want me to cast?” Terric asked.

  I groaned my way out
of the chair and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror in the bathroom to my left.

  No wonder everyone was looking at me as if I were a monster. My skin was burned, blistered in patches, and peeling in others. That feeling of being stiff and swollen I hadn’t been able to shake since Terric re-Lifed me was not just a feeling. I looked like I was having the worst allergic reaction ever.

  And I was. Magic wasn’t sitting well with me at all.

  But it was my eyes that really did the freaky. Magic pooled there, shifting like aurora borealis fire across the iris and whites of my eyes.

  My body was burning up, burning out. I didn’t know how much longer it would be before my flesh and blood were gone.

  Wiped out by magic.

  The faster we got Mum and Sunny back to their bodies, the better. Otherwise, they would be riding the friendly skies heavenward with me.

  “Yes,” I said to Terric, “cast.”

  He closed his eyes, then cast the spell, brilliantly, beautifully, perfectly. The glyph hovered in the air, then gently drifted down to spread across her torso.

  “Shame?” Terric asked.

  “Go on now, Mum,” I said to her ghost. “Terric’s going to pour Life magic into the spell. You’ll feel the pull, and then you’ll be free.”

  “Almost,” Terric said. “I’m going to pour Life magic in you, Shame, and you’re going to send that magic into the spell. It’s how we did it before.”

  “I didn’t have all this magic in me before,” I said.

  “You had Death magic. You still have Death magic.”

  “You boys do know what you’re doing, right?” Hayden asked.

  Hell, I hoped so. I put my hand on Terric’s shoulder, Terric pushed Life magic through me, and I channeled it into the glyph.

  This time my eyes were open, so I saw Mum pause, then slip down into her body, like a feather caught in a draft.

  The tie between us broke, and sure, it hurt, but it was worth it.

  She opened her eyes, saw Hayden, smiled.

  It worked. Oh thank God, it worked.

  And then the machines were making noises, and Hayden was on his feet, and the nursing staff was rushing into the room, and somehow Terric and I were out of the room, out in the hall, even Dash left behind, caught up in the chaos of Mum’s return to life.

  “Sunny,” I said.

  You won’t make it, Sunny said.

  “You won’t make it,” Terric said. “We’ll take care of her after we take care of you.”

  “That’s not how it’s happening, mate,” I said. “If it is the last fucking thing I do, I’m going to fix what I can. I broke Sunny—”

  More like killed, she said.

  “—and I’m going to fix that. Where is she?”

  “Dash said they put her up at Kevin’s place.”

  I concentrated on Kevin’s house, imagined his overly large living room, held it clear and focused in my mind. Then I drew the glyph for gate and poured some of the too much magic in me into it.

  Got it right enough on the first go. That was Kevin’s place on the other side of that hole I’d sizzled into space. I grabbed Terric’s sleeve and pulled him with me through the spell before my concentration slipped.

  Stumbled to one knee but made it.

  “Where?” I asked again, although breathing was getting to be a real problem.

  My body was not built to carry all magic. Not like Cody, who had acted as the Focal the last time two Soul Complements—Allie and Zay—had tried to fix magic.

  Unlike Cody, this was eating me alive. Ending me.

  This way, Sunny said, running for the hall.

  I followed her, my feet growing heavier with each step. I pressed my shoulder against the wall to steady myself. Terric slipped his arm around me and together we walked down to the room Sunny’s ghost had disappeared into.

  Terric was talking again, and I wasn’t listening again. Something about Cody and magic and blah, blah, blah.

  Sunny lay on the bed, still as death, though they’d hooked her up to machines too. Davy was on top of the covers next to her, on his side, his arm across her waist, his head tucked against her shoulder.

  “Davy,” Terric said. “Move back. We know how to get Sunny back in her body. We have a spell for it.”

  Davy drew his head away from her and shifted on the bed.

  “What happened to you, Shame?” he asked, his voice raw as if he’d spent a year yelling, or sobbing. “Eli?”

  “Self-inflicted wounds, mate,” I said. And, “He’s dead. Now move over so I can give you your girl back.”

  Davy moved. Terric drew the spell again, just as perfect, just as precise. Sunny’s ghost stood by the bed, biting at her thumbnail.

  I know I won’t be in perfect shape, she said. I mean, I was dead for over a day. There’s going to be complications. But do you think I’ll be a vegetable, Shame?

  “No,” I said. “There’s still life that wants to thrive inside you. It won’t be easy, but you’ll land on your feet.”

  Shame, she said. I want you to know I appreciate you doing this.

  “My fault to begin with,” I said, or tried to. The room was sliding down a long, long tunnel in front of me. “Wish I could do more.”

  And then Terric sent Life magic through me. Even though I was drowning in magic, I guided it, willed it to reach into Sunny and help her live, live, live.

  C’mon, Red. We’re betting it all on you.

  The tie between us snapped, a hard ping of pain that rolled through me. And like the camel’s back, I broke.

  • • •

  “Here,” Cody said. “Just lay him down.” Cody was leaning over me, his face close enough to mine I couldn’t help hearing every word he said.

  “Give it up, Shame. You can’t hold that magic. I can. Let go and let me have it.”

  “Take,” I said through swollen lips, “it.”

  Terric’s hand was in mine, a fact I noticed as soon as he raised it into my line of sight.

  Cody leaned back just far enough that Terric could trace a Transference spell in front of him.

  I did my best to concentrate on those lines he drew with our clasped hands.

  And as we used magic together, we were once again close enough to hear each other’s thoughts.

  Wow, Terric was terrified I was going to die.

  Like that’d be a new thing.

  Don’t go delirious on me, Flynn, he thought.

  Not delirious, I thought. World would be better without magic.

  The world will be better, magic will be better, as soon as Cody heals it. Let go of it, Shame. You’ve done all you can. It’s over. Let it be over.

  Maybe for the first time in a long time, I didn’t even argue with him.

  Magic followed the spell Terric had traced. We cut into the magic inside me, light and dark, and let it pour out into the spell that strobed black and white between us. Then we sent that spell into Cody’s chest.

  Streams of aurora borealis flame twisted and poured around us.

  Cody closed his eyes and let the magic fill him, his hands moving through complex spells. He tied and blended and wove darkness and light together with the instinct and soul of an artist, making magic into an amazing tapestry.

  He healed magic, made it whole, and at the same time made it into a radiant expression of what magic could be: hope, peace, love, miracles. Things I certainly couldn’t see in it. Things it would never be in my hands. Things I was glad he could make it be.

  It was better this way. Magic was better when it was gentled, healed by Cody.

  But for this to work, we had to hit him with everything, give him all the magic to mend and weave back together.

  Okay, all the magic except the Death magic I kept cupped in my palm.

  All the magic exc
ept the Life magic Terric held behind his back.

  You do know we’re cheating, I thought to Terric.

  Terric’s smile flashed through my mind, and left behind the taste of cloves. This isn’t cheating. It’s keeping our possibilities open.

  Then all the magic, well, almost all the magic in the world, was in Cody’s brilliant hands, body, and brain.

  I was just me again, tired, empty, raw, Terric a steady warmth beside me and in my mind.

  Cody inhaled, exhaled, and sent magic back out into the world, healed and whole.

  And our new world began.

  Chapter 31

  SHAME

  “. . . are you listening to me?” Allie said. She snapped her fingers twice. “Hello? Planet Earth to Shamus Flynn.”

  “Coming in loud and clear, m’dear.” I was currently lounging on their couch, a half-drunk beer on the table next to me, my feet propped up on Stone’s back. He was snoring softly, a stuffed puppy in his hand. Kind of adorable.

  Zayvion was off getting Allie some iced tea from the kitchen. Probably just an excuse for him and Terric to talk about how magic had gone quiet and invisible since Terric and I gave it back to Cody and Cody gave it back to the world.

  Which left me in the living room with Allie, who looked pretty damn good for a woman who’d just had a baby a week ago, my mum, who was on the couch with a thick wool blanket and Hayden’s arm wrapped around her, even though it was plenty warm enough in the room, and Davy, who sat on the floor in front of Sunny’s wheelchair.

  Mum was moving pretty slowly, and resting a lot. Even with Hayden doting on her hand and foot, I knew what I’d done to her had left permanent damage. She’d aged in the short week since she’d returned to her body, her hair now a cascade of pure silver.

  Sunny had recovered too, although she wasn’t up to walking yet. The doctors had told her she probably never would. She had told them to shove it. She planned to be walking down the aisle with Davy in a year.

  Davy was healthy enough to take care of Sunny, and had already said his apologies for being used against us. Unnecessary apologies. We’d let him down far more than he’d let us down. All the spells Eli had carved into him were dead now, leaving behind a wicked sort of full-body tattoo. Very tribal. I was sure it was going to look boss with the wedding ring he’d soon be wearing.