Decimation, p.9
Decimation, page 9
Nico’s frustration pulsed.
I should probably talk to him. “Fifteen minutes,” I said to Dahlia.
She gave me a half-smile, and I felt the good luck in her heart, before she followed Frey out the door.
I turned to Nico. “I should have told you where I was going, but I don’t regret that I went, and you can’t stop me from going back.”
“I know. I don’t like it, but I won’t do that again.”
It wasn’t an apology, but I’d settle for an understanding. I’d rather that than him pretend things were okay when they weren’t, to make me happy. “Okay.”
“May I join the two of you? In the gym?”
I knew he could fight—I’d seen him do so against Vidar—but I got the impression he didn’t. “Why?”
“This isn’t the kind of battle that you go into unprepared, and once upon a time, I was capable of far more than I let on. I’m going to fight Vidar with you, and that means I need to be familiar with how you all fight.”
“You’re not going to tell me I can’t fight him, because of my condition, or because you won’t allow it?”
Nico wanted to. He wanted very much to roll me in bubble wrap and hide me from the world for the next several months. “We just had that conversation. That’s not an option, so I’m going to be smart about the reality.”
Good answer.
I texted Dahlia to see if one of her guys had sweats Nico could borrow, and she sent me back a string of laugh-crying emojis.
He assured me he was fine in what he had.
A short while later, I was changed, and Dahlia, Nico, and I were walking into a room with a small entryway, and a large parquet floor spanning out in front of us. We could put down mats, but Dahlia had already blinked across the room to the training dummies against the far wall.
She relocated one to the middle of the room as quickly as she had moved to it. “There’s your target,” she called as she walked toward us again.
“What am I supposed to do with it?” I could think of several options. Shooting it was easy, but she and I tended to steer clear of firearms these days. I could summon a spear as part of my Valkyrie armor. It was the least efficient weapon I had access to, since we weren’t part of a phalanx or fighting people on horseback.
“You’re a conduit, right? That’s the big new revelation?” Dahlia reached us. “When Vidar found us, you felt me?”
That was an understatement. “I feel all of you. All the time.”
“Not just our emotions?” Dahlia placed her hand under mine, our palms touching, and sparks tingled over my skin.
They didn’t bounce off, though. Instead, the energy slid into me, mingling with my own power. “Yes,” I said.
“You have two powerful beings next to you. Practice borrowing from us and directing that somewhere else. I don’t know if you can focus it like a projectile, or if it’s more ambient, but you hurt Vidar somehow.” Dahlia squeezed my hand.
She made it sound easy.
I doubted it would be, but here went nothing. I grabbed snatches of what Bragi taught me last night, about distinguishing me from what was around me. The edges were still fuzzy. Nico and Dahlia and the world bled into what I recognized as me, but out here it was easy to focus on just the three of us. Which made it easier to eliminate them.
Once I had a good sense of me, where I began and ended, I could slip along the connections to each of them. Two different kinds of flame. Dahlia’s was icy and relentless, and Nico’s was white hot and focused.
With Vidar, he hadn’t burned off Talia’s control tattoos yet. I’d had a filter to sense everything through. I’d also been pulling as hard as I could, because there was no holding back with Vidar.
Here, Dahlia and Nico were walls of power surging around me. There was no restraint or filter, but I needed to be cautious with what I borrowed.
Could I take a little wisp? Snatch a sliver?
I tugged, but stopped myself with only a snippet from each of them. Now, to focus it on the dummy. As I wrapped the threads of magic in a ball in my mind, the shape swelled. The power grew until it was throbbing in my skull.
It was too much. It escaped in a rush, and the entire building rattled around us. Instinct kicked in and I put up a Valkyrie shield to stop debris from hitting us.
Not that it did. Frey and Dahlia had done a solid job of reinforcing this place against the kind of destruction most of their magics could cause.
Giddiness surged inside me. “Did you see that? I did something. I almost had it.”
“Yay.” Dahlia squealed and gave me a quick hug. “Do it again.”
Definitely.
I repeated the same steps, but this time when I had the magic in my head, I focused on not letting it grow or get away from me. It needed to stay small. I didn’t need to add to it.
The surge happened again. I recognized it as the mental ball of energy swelled, and I couldn’t stop it as it burst out of me.
The building rattled again, and several of the lights above our head shattered, showering us with glass and plastic that bounced off the invisible shield I still had in place.
“You shouldn’t be able to do that.” Dahlia was stunned. “No one should if it’s not an all-out fight.”
I was aware. “I’ll be more careful. I almost have it.”
But I didn’t. For the next few hours, various things rattled and shook and exploded around us with each of my attempts. Sometimes I pushed out a little more energy and sometimes a hint less, but there was never a moment where I could control how much escaped.
As a tenth training dummy was destroyed, this one engulfed in flames that both froze and burned, my frustration was higher than it had been since school. “Why can’t I get it?”
“Why do you have to keep blowing up targets?” Dahlia was annoyed, and it was bleeding into what I felt, magnifying it, and reverberating in my skull.
“We’re done for the day.” Nico wasn’t quite as annoyed, but he was close.
Did he have any idea how much he sounded like Bragi right now? “You were going to stop telling me what to do.”
“Magnus.” His voice was hard, but affection lay underneath.
Fuck him. I didn’t want to feel that right now. “What?”
He cupped my face in his hands, and forced himself to be calm. The emotion carried into me, and clashed with my wanting to stay annoyed.
Nico crushed his mouth to mine with an intensity that stole my breath. The intensity of his passion and desire threatened to overwhelm me. It was intoxicating and distracting and overwhelming. He pulled away before I could break the kiss, and he dropped his hands.
I wanted his touch back. I wanted to lose myself in it. Just another thing I couldn’t control.
“This mood in the air? That’s you.” Nico’s voice was firm but kind. “Bragi used to do the same thing.”
“I’m not doing anything.” Except suppressing the desire to cry and scream and laugh maniacally…
Nico was forcing himself to be soothing. “Not on purpose, and no one is blaming you, but I’m telling you so that you’re aware. What you’re feeling right now is so strong that you’re pushing it out.”
I wanted to argue, but what he was saying made too much sense. I nodded. “We should go.”
Dahlia invited us down to the club before it opened, to get some lunch and if we wanted, stick around while she practiced her show. Her mood was still sour, and I didn’t blame her. Today’s training was a big ol’ pile of shit-filled disappointment.
There was a diner next door to the club, and the three of us ordered food and ate our lunch in sulky, dejected silence.
Nico tried to remain a calming force, but he was getting tired.
The three of us trooped back into NEON, Dahlia had Frey cue up some music, and she hopped on stage to work through her dance for tonight. She was the club’s headlining burlesque dancer.
I’d say benefit of fucking the owners, but Dahlia was really good. That wasn’t just me being biased, either.
As a heavy beat filled the room, Dahlia moved on stage, matching the rhythm. She kick-turn-stepped toward the left edge, and a loud screech echoed from the speakers. She scowled, and kept going.
Another few twirls, nothing fancy. She was getting a feel for the beat and putting herself in the right frame of mind. When she stepped toward the right side of the raised platform, there was another screech—audio feedback.
“You have to tone down the power display near the sound system.” Frey’s voice came over the speakers, chiding.
Dahlia’s scowl deepened, and she pushed more energy into the dance. As she neared a hidden speaker again, the squeal reached ear-splitting, and a shower of sparks accompanied a small explosion near a few meters from her head.
“I thought the sound system was shielded,” Dahlia shouted.
Frey’s sigh caused an odd sort of doppler sound all around us. “They are, but there are limits to everything, even the strongest shield.”
Like we’d seen in the gym.
If I was causing this, I needed to be anywhere but here. I pushed back from the table. “I’m going to go.” I walked quickly from the room before anyone could stop me.
As soon as I was done with Maeve, as soon as Bragi would see me again, I was going back to him for more training.
ELEVEN
MAGNUS
I couldn’t block people out, they couldn’t block me out…
Was this what Vidar wanted me for? My chaotic lack of control?
To the casual observer, Vidar’s actions might look random and reactionary. Taking an entire data storage center? Why would someone do that?
He calculated it all, though. Not intricate, complex plans, but there was a reason for all of it. For instance, he hadn’t sought us out in New Orleans just to taunt us. I was certain it was nice bonus for him, because fuck the man loved to hear himself talk. But he’d been waiting for me to go. Waiting for an excuse to get to Tatiana.
Could he have snatched her charm without the whole show? Without a doubt. He wanted us to know, though.
He wanted us to know he was the one who destroyed Bragi’s house--but what was in it? There had to be something there. What was in the data center he’d taken? Why the fuck did he seem to want me? Or was that a lie? Was he really trying to get to Dahlia, since he hadn’t been able to destroy her?
I told myself I wouldn’t do this. Second-guessing Vidar got us in trouble.
Until I could go see Maeve, I was best served practicing what Bragi had taught me so far.
Nico was sympathetic. He’d seen this before, and recognized what I needed.
When it was dark in Montana, I left to see Maeve.
I appeared near the same spot where I’d encountered Bragi fighting Johnny. Where I’d first met her. According to what Bragi told me and what I’d seen last time I was here, I could follow a path and her house would be only a few clicks away.
Blinking directly there wouldn’t work, because her wards prevented anyone but her from doing that. This got me a lot closer than the couple of hour drive Bragi had to take, though.
“I afforded you a certain amount of leeway, because of the history I have with your family.” Maeve’s voice came from behind me. “This is simply rude, though. Your mothers would be disappointed with your lack of respect.”
She was an emotional void. No feelings radiated from her.
So. Nice.
I didn’t appreciate the guilt, though. “You’ll need to try another tactic if you want to make me feel bad. You told me to come back to you or someone else.”
“I have to enforce the rules for everyone.” She touched my arm and we vanished from the nothingness and reappeared in her cabin. “If I make exceptions…”
Yeah, yeah. “I notice you reacted to me being there all but instantly. That means you could’ve done the same the other day with Bragi and Johnny fighting on your borders.”
“I could have. I chose not to.”
“Great. We both know how to exercise our ability to make choices.” I studied her. “I do want to be polite. You deserve that. I’m on a tight timeframe though.”
Maeve shook her head and turned away, to walk into her kitchen. “Nothing is that time critical, I promise you.”
“Keeping my mothers away from Hel and Vidar was.”
Her footsteps faltered, and her shoulders rose and fell. She resumed walking again, putting the kettle on to boil.
“Maybe in the grand scheme of things, the individual doesn’t matter,” I said. “But in the moment, to the people living it, we very much matter. Is immortality worth anything if we can’t appreciate the people that make every single moment unique?”
“Did you come here to lecture me? You and your three whole decades of life experience?” Maeve faced me and crossed her arms.
I shook my head. “No. I did come for a favor, and I did bring offerings.” I set the bag of snacks that Frey had provided on the table.
“I don’t want the food,” Maeve said. “It’s symbolic. You know that.”
Dealing with ancient beings could be touchy—they expected deference simply for having existed for a few centuries—but I also respected her. She had experience, she helped me before, and I was asking for a lot and offering nothing in return.
“Then a true exchange. Please. Whatever you ask of me is yours.” I meant it.
Maeve turned away again, to pull a teapot and cups from one cupboard, and a wooden container with tea from another. “You know what I want from you.”
To keep my children safe. To keep myself safe. “I can’t do that without some help. Yours, or someone’s.” I could pause and wait for her retort, but the words were pushing to be heard. “Vidar wants something from either me or my sister. I don’t know what. Or maybe he wants my children. It may not matter to you—those are insignificant details in the grand scheme of things—but if he takes me, or her, or them… someone ends up destroyed. And we can’t keep that from happening if we can’t figure out how to stop him.”
“I still don’t know.” She poured the hot water into the teapot, and steam escaped, vanishing in the air. “My answer hasn’t changed.”
“But you can tell me what you’ve told him in the past. What kind of things you taught him. Gave him.”
She placed everything on a tray, and it floated to the table as she walked behind it. The silver platter settled as neatly as if she’d placed it with care. “Sit.” She gestured to a chair, and took the one across from it. “Tell me what happened to the crystal I gave you.”
“It shattered. I think I overloaded it.” I took a butter cookie from the plate she nudged in my direction, and I nibbled at the crumbly sugar. “I got tattoos like you suggested—Vidar burned them off.” Tilting my head sideways, I exposed the scars.
“You overloaded…” Her voice was quiet, and the frown already etched on her face grew more stern. “I never gave Vidar more than theory. The type of power he wanted… It didn’t seem possible at the time. I can tell you which books I recommended. Which texts. I can’t offer more than that, because I don’t have more.”
It could take hours or years to sift through a bunch of books. I’d still take the list, but even if it was short, we’d have to know what Vidar was looking at and how he interpreted or mutilated the information contained within. “Thank you.”
Maeve poured each of us a cup of tea, and I added four sugar cubes to mine. As I stirred them in, I watched them slowly dissolve. Eaten away by scalding liquid.
There was probably a metaphor for my life in there, but I wasn’t going to dig for it.
The two of us sipped our tea in silence for a moment.
“What of your friend?” Maeve said. “The one with the missing memories? Do you have the salve ingredients for the stream?”
How did I forget we were doing that? “He got his memory back. It just returned.”
“I see. I’m glad for him.”
Inspiration struck. I was about to push my luck, and asking for this was a bad idea, but it was the lesser of two evils.
If Bragi was actually evil at all.
“Are you still willing to make one of the salves?” I asked. “For Bragi?”
When Maeve set her cup in its saucer, it was with a loud clatter, and tea splashed up the edges, nearly spilling. “You’re pushing your luck, child.”
“My offer of a favor still stands.” Why was I doing this?
Because he would help in the fight against Vidar.
No other reason. None at all. Nope. Not one that I would admit.
“Bragi is dangerous.” Maeve’s voice turned stern. “Why would you help him?”
“He can help me.”
Maeve reached across the table and gripped my wrist. The longer she squeezed, the more the tendons ached. “The real reason. Tell me why.”
I didn’t know. I couldn’t say. I— “I’m starting to understand.” The words were too real as they spilled past my lips. “What changed him. What made him what he became.” With the constant assault of other’s feelings, all day and night, it was easy to imagine that becoming something bitter and twisted.
Especially if those feelings came from an entire campus of emotionally tortured students.
Maeve let go of me, and the blood flowed into my hand again, tingling under my skin.
“You have the list still? Of ingredients?”
I nodded.
“I’ll do it, and in return you listen to what I have to say. Truly listen.”
“I will,” I said. “I’m listening.”
Maeve pushed her teacup aside, and drew in a deep breath. “Bragi thinks the spring doesn’t work. He thinks the story is false. A little more than thirty years ago, he wanted his old self back.”
I knew all of this, but I kept my mouth shut. I’d promised to listen.
“It works, but not ever in the way one expects. Bragi came to me, and I gave him what he wanted. Two months later, your mothers came to me, to tell me they were finally pregnant.”
Nope. There was no way she was implying— No. “I was not born to save Bragi.”
