Spelldriver, p.18
Spelldriver, page 18
part #6 of Magic & Mixology Mystery Series
Liam took the mirror and examined it, slithering on his belly into the crevice. He held the compact out at an angle. A smile curved over his face. “I knew I brought you along for a reason.”
I ignored his veiled compliment and completed the charm. “What’s next?”
We surveyed our makeshift fort in silence. Mentally, I ticked off the protective spells and enchantments we’d scattered around camp as tiny safety precautions. We hadn’t chanced using any powerful magic, just in case the people arriving did some sort of spell sweep to uncover hidden charms. The ones we’d laid wouldn’t trigger much of anything, but they might save our lives in the event of trouble.
“Now,” Liam said, “we wait.”
THE TENSION ROSE IN our hidey-hole as the hour of the supposed meeting approached. It seemed the very earth flexed in wait, holding its breath for what was to come. I felt my muscles ache on high alert from two long days of journeying, worrying, stressing, and now... waiting. Waiting for someone who may or may not show.
“Relax,” Liam murmured when a stick crackled deep within the woods. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I looked into his smile, one that had been so familiar weeks before. “I’ll take care of myself, thanks.”
Liam’s smile faltered ever so slightly, but he recovered, slid deeper into his hiding position and squinted through the magnifier spell I’d fashioned onto the compact mirror.
After all this time spent preparing and waiting and hoping, I wasn’t sure what I expected to happen. I wasn’t sure what Liam hoped to achieve by bringing me here. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to find.
All I knew was that I hadn’t expected lightning.
The storm came swift and fast. The clearing, along with its immediate surroundings, was impaled with sudden high winds and ground-striking lightning. Soul-rumbling thunder clouds plowed through at rapid speeds. The flashes of white-hot light came in fast, jagged punches, cracking into the ground, the trees, the rock-face without abandon.
“What’s happening?” I whispered.
From our perch in the rock, we were out of harm’s way—for now. I could see the confined storm raging in a bubble before us, a defense mechanism for whoever was due to arrive. It would ensure the clearing was left empty—anyone inside the storm zone would either be frightened off... or left for dead.
Liam’s face tightened. “I don’t know.”
“Is it coming for us?”
Liam just shook his head, his eyes calculating as he swept his gaze forward.
We discovered the answer to my question not twenty seconds later when the first of the lightning strikes hit the rock wall below where we lay, just inches from my outstretched arm. I rolled out of the way, watching as small fires flickered and smoked on the ground below, leaving a desolate wasteland behind. A few inches higher, and we’d be smoked out of our spot.
“Stone and shield,
Let danger yield—”
My initial Shield Spell was interrupted by a piercing shriek. One I realized was coming from my own mouth. The subtle build of thunder, the horrific flash of light, and suddenly, a jagged strand of intangible white power was shooting down at my half-formed shield as I raised a hand to cover myself.
I began to shift out of the way but found myself stuck in our small crevice, no room to move, forced to watch the strike that would finish me off as it shot toward me.
A rush of warmth as Liam rolled against me registered before his arm came up and over, wrapping around my body. He was muttering something in a language I didn’t understand. He pulled me against him, our bodies surrounded in a wispy, silvery glow—some sort of shield or repellent I’d never seen before—just moments before the lightning struck us.
I felt Liam tense behind me. He emitted a low, pained groan as if stifling a worse sort of cry. I could smell blood suddenly, the sweet, metallic scent of it, and I wondered where it was coming from as the full force of the storm raged over us.
The lightning struck, rattling our bodies from the inside out. Our teeth chattered, electricity raced through us, and I felt as if my very body might short circuit at any moment. My arms went numb and tingling as thunder rocked over us and shook the rock wall on which we lay. And then, graciously, it all subsided.
I turned to Liam. And found the source of blood.
He offered a weak smile as he looked up, bleeding from a nasty gash on his forehead, his lip swollen and puffy, split from where he must have bitten down in his quest to save us both from the attack.
“I’m fine,” he gasped. “Rock came loose above, hit my head on the way down.”
“Liam,” I whispered, my hands shaking as I fumbled at my travel belt for the Aloe Ale I always kept tucked there. “You’re bleeding. We need to get you home, get you to some medics for proper treatment. I’m not a Healer, and I don’t have much to work with.”
He smiled, blood pouring down his face. “Do what you can.”
With trembling fingers, I emptied the Ale onto my fingertips and smoothed it over the cut on his forehead. It didn’t appear terribly deep; he would need stitches no doubt, but head wounds bled a lot. They looked worse than they actually were—at least, that’s what I kept telling myself.
“You saved me,” I said, thumbing a bit more Aloe Ale onto my finger and spreading it over his split lip. “Why would you do that after all I’ve put you through?”
“You’ve put me through nothing,” Liam said. “Nothing I didn’t deserve.”
“But I haven’t believed you, don’t trust you...”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to gain your trust back,” Liam said. “I’ve never stopped loving your mother, Lily. There are times I found myself wishing...”
“What?”
“That things had been different,” he said, his voice weak. “If they had, maybe you’d have been my daughter.”
My heart nearly stopped its rapid pounding at his words. I hadn’t wanted to admit it, but over the course of the day, I’d wondered the same thing more than once. What if things had been different? What if Liam had been my father? A man who would have raised me as part of the magical world and told me the stories I longed to hear about the mother I’d never known. A man who would spend his energy trying to protect me, not control me.
I cleared my throat. “Well, things aren’t different.”
“I know,” Liam murmured. “I’ve come to terms with it. I’m sorry about your real father, Lily. If I had the chance to go back...”
“I understand.” I looked into Liam’s eyes, held his gaze until he blinked to clear the blood away. I pressed my sleeve to his head, muttering an incantation to help the Aloe Ale burn stronger, to help solder the wound until he could be seen by a true Healer.
And somehow, I did understand. I understood Liam’s loss and heartbreak, his pining for my mother and longing for a different outcome. And while the outcome could never be any different, it wasn’t too late for us. For a friendship, for trust.
“I always knew,” I said softly. “I might not have trusted you, but I always knew you cared. I didn’t understand some of your choices, but maybe that’s the way things had to be.”
Liam closed his eyes, his face pale. “I’d do anything it took to keep you safe.”
“I know,” I whispered. “Stay still. Let me figure a way out of here.”
“No. We’ve come this far, and now we wait it out.”
“But—”
“Whoever cleared the area wants their space. I’d like to know why.”
“You’ve got a nasty gash on your head.”
“I’ll live. Now, quiet—I hear footsteps.”
We wriggled into place, keeping our line of sight to the clearing open through the mirror. Sure enough, a figure moved into place not seconds after we’d slithered deeper out of sight.
I glanced to my side, saw a smear of blood on the rocks where Liam’s head had lain. The moonlight glinted off it, and I hoped it wouldn’t draw the attention of the mystery guest.
“It’s me,” a man’s voice called. “Show yourself.”
He sounded familiar, though I couldn’t quite place the voice. I frowned at Liam, unable to recognize the cloaked figure due to the hood pulled low over his head.
“It must be Landon’s contact,” Liam whispered. “Either an informant, or someone reporting in to The Faction.”
“The Faction?” I asked. “How can you be sure?”
“Can you think of anyone else Landon might have been meeting once a week in the depths of The Forest?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Not exactly.”
The crack of a twig sounded from the tops of the trees, followed quickly by the whizzing sound of an arrow cutting through air. A breath later, there was a whoosh as the weapon struck the mystery man in the shoulder. Cloak, hood, and body went down in a silent thud. He lay unmoving on the forest floor.
“Was that...” I hesitated, barely daring to breathe. “Is he dead?”
Liam’s eyes were lit by the moon. “Don’t move.”
“We need to help him!”
“We need to wait for the attacker to clear out. He or she won’t hesitate to kill us too—especially if they realize we saw everything.”
We waited more than an hour with no sign of movement. My joints were stiffening when Liam shifted himself to a seated position. He looked downright terrifying with blood caked on his head and his lip blackening where it’d been split. His eyes showed no signs of kindness, only of cunning intelligence as he scanned the horizon.
A few muttered words from his lips, and I felt a slight gust of wind as Liam’s spell spread into the darkness. We waited some more, until a second breeze brushed the hair away from my face and put a small smile on Liam’s.
“It’s clear,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Liam and I scrambled toward the ground, keeping to the shadows where possible and leaving our feet firmly planted on sturdy stone. The last thing we needed to do was send an inadvertent rockslide down the ledge that would alert the entire forest of our presence.
Liam landed first in a crouch, closing his eyes for a moment as he pressed his fingers to the ground and listened. Another nod from him signaled we were still clear. The two of us crept across the clearing until we reached the fallen victim. There were no obvious signs of life until we got close enough to see the shallow rise and fall of the man’s chest.
Liam gestured for me to stay back. He inched forward, his hand reaching toward the man’s hood. Then, with impressive speed, he lunged forward and pulled the hood back while simultaneously rolling the man to his side.
Liam leapt back, keeping himself between me and our mystery man until we were both sure that he was unconscious. The man didn’t so much as flinch, and if it weren’t for his light breaths, I’d have thought he was dead.
I moved around, out from Liam’s protective arm, and caught my first glimpse of the man’s face. He wasn’t, as I’d thought, a mystery informant. Or a member of The Faction. He wasn’t a stranger at all.
My breath felt throttled in my throat as I struggled to inhale. “This makes no sense,” I said to Liam as I stumbled back. “Why would he be here? He knew Landon was dead!”
“I’ve no clue,” Liam said darkly. “But I think we can agree that this man had something to hide.”
Chapter 18
“Is there any news?” I asked, looking up as Ranger X strode from the hospital hallway into the waiting room. I sat next to Liam, my hands clenched on the edge of the hard, uncomfortable seat. “Will he be okay?”
Ranger X had a hard look on his face. He gave a slight shake of his head, but I didn’t take that to mean no. If anything, it meant that he had news—he just didn’t want to share.
Liam and I had been waiting for several hours after returning from The Forest. We’d enchanted my gift from The Quilter to hover above the ground and had used the blanket to help us carry Ranger H’s lifeless form with us as we made our way out of the wilderness. I’d Commed Ranger X directly, figuring it best if I kept news this big off the main dispatch line.
He’d met us halfway, helped us get Ranger H to the hospital and into a private room with two Rangers stationed outside the door. Liam and I had done what we’d been doing best all day: watching and waiting.
“He’s coming out of a deep coma,” Ranger X said. “He was hit by a mix of Pollycock Powder and a sleeper spell. Ranger H is allergic to Pollycock Powder, hence the near-fatal reaction.”
“Well, it doesn’t sound like an accident that someone used an arrow tipped with Pollycock Powder then,” I said. “Normally, it’s not harmful except to everyone else’s nostrils.”
Ranger X nodded. “Agreed. Someone who knew him, knew his weaknesses, fired that arrow. But who?”
“We didn’t see anyone,” I said for the third or fourth time. “I told you every detail. We didn’t see anything until Ranger H hit the ground and we crept out of our hiding space.”
Ranger X’s jaw tightened. He’d heard our story in the waiting room two or three times, pressing both me and Liam to recount every detail we could muster from the journey. It wasn’t much.
I could tell that Ranger X wasn’t particularly happy with me on several levels, but he’d managed to swallow most of his frustration to replace it with stoic professionalism. It almost hurt worse, but I understood. There was too much at stake to get emotionally involved, especially in a public space like the hospital waiting room.
“We will be releasing Melissa,” Ranger X said suddenly. “We had Detective DeMarco of the Sixth Precinct back today for an analysis. She confirmed a new suspect in the murder of Ranger L.”
I swallowed hard. “Who?”
“Ranger H. He will be placed under arrest for the murder of his partner,” X said blandly. “We found evidence of the murder weapon at his house.”
“But what about Melissa’s locker?”
“Detective DeMarco confirmed that there were indeed Mind Melter Residuals in Melissa’s locker at Harpin’s shop, but she also confirmed that they could have been moved there, placed there on purpose. We found the actual cannon at Ranger H’s house.”
“The one that fired the Mind Melter?”
“They’re testing it for Spell Ballistics now, but Detective DeMarco said it was crawling with Residuals, even after all this time. She has no doubt it was fired recently. Once we have the match back from the lab, we’ll know for certain. Ranger H’s fingerprints were on it.”
I blinked. “But, I don’t understand. Why? What’s the motive?”
Ranger X sighed, scratched under his chin. “We believe that Ranger H was—is—working for The Faction.” Ranger X’s eyes flicked ever so briefly over to Liam. “I had Landon looking into sensitive topics. If H caught wind of that, his contacts at The Faction would have wanted to stay apprised of Landon’s movements.”
“If he was feeding The Faction information,” I mused, “then why would Ranger H kill his partner? What’s the reward?”
“I don’t know. There’s a chance Ranger H was trying to convert Landon to work with him, to bring him over to The Faction,” Ranger X said. “When he refused, Ranger H was forced to kill him. Alternatively, Landon found out that he was being reported on by H, confronted his partner, and was murdered for it.”
“Which means Melissa is innocent?” I asked. “But that doesn’t explain why she staged her own kidnapping.”
Ranger X exhaled slowly. “When we spoke to her this afternoon, she opened up some. She claimed that she felt she was in danger—that she couldn’t trust any of the Rangers after what had happened to Landon. She thought that by faking her own kidnapping and disappearing, she’d be removing herself from harm’s way until the killer was found.”
“She did place Ranger H at the crime scene,” I said. “She said she greeted him as they were walking down Main Street.”
“Yes,” Ranger X said. “Zin listed that in her report from when she first spoke with Melissa. We obviously didn’t dig deep enough into the lead.” Ranger X clasped his hands behind his back, his face unreadable.
“Melissa looked like a good suspect. You had evidence that someone had carefully planted in her locker.”
“But we were wrong.”
“Then, who shot Ranger H? Why not kill him when they had the opportunity?”
“I think they did try to kill him,” Ranger X said. “If you weren’t there, he would have died.”
“No wonder he was such a mess after Landon died,” I said. “Drinking at The Black Cat like that. I thought it was grief.”
“It looked like grief,” X said. “We all thought so.”
“What comes next?” I asked, feeling suddenly tired. “Where do we go after this?”
“Home,” Ranger X said. “I need to make the arrest official first, and then I’d like to personally apologize to Melissa and deliver the news of her release. Finally, I’d like to speak with you. In private.”
“Of course,” I said. “I’ll be at the bungalow. You know where to find me.”
Ranger X nodded, then turned to Liam. “I think it’s time for you to go.”
Liam looked like he wanted to say something, but after one glance at X, he shook his head instead. Wordlessly, he left the waiting room without a backward glance. Once he was gone, I felt my stomach clutch. I hadn’t even thanked him.
“He saved my life,” I mumbled to X. “He didn’t have to do that.”
“He also wouldn’t have had to save your life if he hadn’t dragged you into The Forest in the first place,” Ranger X said. “Do you trust him?”
I hesitated, looked out the window at Liam’s salt and pepper hair as he turned up his collar against the wind and set down the path, a gauze bandage across the wound he’d gotten from pushing me out of harm’s way.
“I’m not sure yet,” I murmured. “But I’m getting there.”
“IT’S A GOOD THING WE made enough Energy Elixir to refill the Atlantic Ocean if it ever runs dry,” Gus said as I came through the door to the bungalow. “If I’d waited for you to fill the orders, you’d have customers winding thrice around The Isle.”
