Stone Cold

Chapter 29

SHAME

“Wish I’d brought my camera.” Terric sat next to me, his jeans rolled up, bare feet over the edge of the concrete bricks, a river flowing by below his feet.

My feet too. I was sitting next to him. We were in a city. European, I thought.

“Paris,” he said. “You really should travel more, Shame.”

“So . . . is this your dream?” I asked. “Or . . . oh Lord. Is it your heaven?”

“No, it’s Paris. Really. These aren’t our bodies, but . . . you know.” He gave me a crooked smile. “Soul Complements break magic, break rules. I thought you and I needed a second or two to talk. And it’s been a while since I’ve been here.”

“Talk about what? Wasn’t I in the middle of fixing magic? Joining it again?”

“That. You can’t heal magic, Shame. Only Cody can.”

“You know this because?”

“Those records I’ve been looking into? They talked a lot about Soul Complements, and a little about the rare—very rare—children of Soul Complements. Cody’s mother and father . . .”

“Mikhale and Sedra,” I said.

“Soul Complements. And only the children of Soul Complements can actually heal magic, though Allie’s dad did some crazy experiments trying to prove that wrong.”

“Well, there’s information that would have been nice to know before I made myself magic’s chew toy. Thanks, Ter.”

The breeze picked up. Chilly with the first drops of rain.

“There’s a way out of this. I think,” he said.

“Paris?”

“You dying, idiot.”

“Go on.”

“I can heal you. You managed to hold magic long enough for me to get Life magic back, mostly, so thanks for that. I should be able to heal you enough for you to give the magic over to Cody to fix. Permanently.”

“That will work?”

“Sixty-forty.”

“And magic?”

“I’m guessing Cody will make it what it was before: gentle, blended. Except for when Soul Complements break it.”

“Great,” I said. “There’s just going to be someone else, another Eli, another Krogher, who will find a way to tap magic, to make it into a weapon again. To hurt people with it. Kind of tired of putting out the world’s fires, mate.”

“Right,” he said, “I’ve been thinking about that too. What if no one can use magic, no one? Then we won’t have anything to worry about. Magic will still be there, flowing like water beneath the earth, and maybe someone will find a way to tap in to it, on occasion, on accident, but otherwise . . .” He shrugged.

“So, what? We make it so spells don’t work?” I asked. “We make it so that even if you draw a perfect glyph, magic won’t come to your calling?”

“That’s the idea, yes.”

“And when you say no one can use it, you mean there are no exceptions? Not even for you and me?”

He looked away, at the bridge and city downriver. When those blue eyes turned back to me, there was more than a bit of a gleam in them. “Well . . . maybe we could make a small exception.”

“And now I like this idea.”

He grinned. “Good.” It was raining harder now, most of it falling right through us. He stood up and held his hand down for me. “Then don’t die.”

I took his hand.

It was cool, warm.

Filled with magic.

Life magic.

I opened my eyes and inhaled just enough to know that I shouldn’t go overboard on that breathing thing yet. A lot of magic burned and snapped inside me. Well, all magic, really. I still carried it all, despite Terric’s little let’s-ghost-off-to-Paris trick.

He knelt above me. His mouth was moving, so I assumed he was talking, but I wasn’t getting any of it.

He pressed his hand against my chest and one hard strike of magic rocked me.

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.