Excerpt:
“What now, Ed?”
Trinity asked from my left.
We crouched
behind a rotting car covered in vines and watched the Grims. Bald Jim looked to
be in charge. Shawn sat on the ground at Dan’s feet, head hung low. The bruise
around his eye and dried blood on his lip testified to the fact he had gone
down fighting. Dan probably wore the Hawaiian shirt and posed as a victim.
Trinity had
enough sense to tail them without trying a rescue. We caught up to her just
before the Grims stopped at a massive bronze doorway totally at odds with the
architecture of the ruined city. The thing was better suited for a medieval
castle, though I had to admit it was effective. Jim and Dan argued over how
best to get inside.
“Five of them
and four of us,” I said.
“They’re
bruisers,” Quinn whispered. “No offense, but we couldn’t take any of them,
except maybe scraggly Dan.”
“Where’s it
lead?” Trinity asked.
Good question.
The out of place obstruction melded into the stone archway across a low
entrance to what might be a basement level. The arguing continued as Jim tried
an incantation. The door rebuffed his attempt. Oily bits of the magic
passphrase dripped to the ground. Though a simple spell, the darkness of it
differed from the elements Quinn and I used.
“You’re doing it
wrong,” Dan complained to the men gathered at the door.
“He’s such a
little shit.” Trinity’s lip curled.
“For once that’s
working in our favor,” Quinn said.
Dan stalked over
to the others, grabbed something small and metallic out of Jim’s hands, and
examined the door. Magic formed around another incantation. Shawn sat unguarded
at the entrance to the alcove. We scurried out from behind the car, circled the
intersection, and crept along crumbling brickwork. The line of the alley kept
us out of sight until I peeked around the corner. The Grims argued on, ignoring
their dejected captive. Shawn stared at the pavement.
“Shawn.” No
response. “Shawn! Time to go.”
Bleary eyes
ringed with bruises met mine. He must have taken a good shot to the nose for
double shiners to be rising so quickly. Recognition slowly dawned, followed by
half a smile that dropped away. Shawn held up his hands. I’d missed the thin
cord that bound wrists to ankles. It was silvery gray, looking more like yarn
than rope.
“For crying
out…” Quinn whipped out a knife and crept forward.
The moment her
blade touched the cord, there was a flash. Quinn yelped and dropped her knife.
“Hey!” Dan
looked up from the brass key in his hand.
“Just grab him!”
I shouted.
Quinn hauled
Shawn up by his armpits and pushed him forward. The cord forced him into an
awkward half-crouch. I grabbed his arm to haul him down the street, but he
stopped short and fell to the ground. Quinn and I pulled but couldn’t budge
him. No one weighed that much. The cord flashed and flared, its strange power
anchoring Shawn to the spot. More than that, a tether of power slowly dragged
him back toward the doorway as the Grims advanced.
“Leave him. In fact,
leave the girl. Two for the price of one!” Dan grinned his stupid parody of a
Bright’s smile.
Each man carried
a small club, undoubtedly weighted for maximum punch. Quinn worked at the
bindings. Her strange watery power flowed along the cord looking for a way to
loosen the knots. The Grims strode forward, in no hurry and—I like to
think—wary. I could have taken Dan and the freak sporting a Mohawk. But I’d
spent all year practicing my spells for a reason.
I reached for
Earth to throw up a barrier and buy us time. Just as I was about to cast,
flames leapt up between us and the men, effectively sealing them in the alcove.
Trinity stood rigid, locked in concentration as she poured on more Fire and
drove them back amid squawks of protest.
“Let me try.” I
hunkered down to examine the cord.
Earth was ready
at my fingertips, but when I tried to manipulate Shawn’s binding—as I would
stone or metals—there was no purchase. The men tried end runs around Trinity’s
flames, holding the woman’s concentration and forcing her to expend too much
power. Another minute and we’d have to carry her out. Quinn saw it too.
“Help her!”
I dredged up a
bit of old-school metal, Metallica’s “Seek and Destroy,” forging Fire to
bolster Trinity’s spell. I split off a portion to attack the ropes. Fire was an
enigma, representing the most restorative and destructive of the elements. I
honed the lyrics down to a laser focus, emphasis on the destroy part of the
tune to cut and burn. The cord swelled, resisting the heat, but frayed edges
soon curled away from the core.
Shawn’s
invisible bond contracted, yanking him toward the wall of fire. Quinn grabbed
him around the waist but was dragged along. Even if Trinity and I cancelled our
spells, they would be pulled across searing concrete into the midst of the
waiting Grims.
