Looking up at Amothel, Haley said, “We want to talk to her. Everything that happened today from the Rocket and Bloodmaiden fighting downtown to Shifter showing up here connect to the Cabal and she used to run the Cabal.”
Graffiti Knight, his voice muffled by his helmet, said, “Really? Amazing. I imagine I’ll forget that soon, but Ruthie’s so old. She knows everything.” Continue reading Fonts of Magic: Part 6
I absorbed that, “Wow. Have I heard of any of these people?”
[None of them currently have public personas. Should I give you the data directly?]
“No. I’ll take it with everyone else. I think we need to have a meeting about it and find out what to do. Give it to me as an email or a pdf or something that I can share with everyone,” I said, trying to let myself focus on the real world.
[You may wish to know that one of them is associated with the North American Wizards’ Council and thus with your current visitors.]
“I did want to know that. Thanks. Who’s the one that works with them?” Continue reading Fonts of Magic: Part 5
It was hard to read Shifter’s face. Cats didn’t have the same facility with facial expressions that humans did—at least not that I could see. For my family’s cat, Grunion, you only had body position, ears, and tail to work with if you wanted to understand the animal.
Shifter’s ears weren’t flat, but her tail twitched a little, almost as if she were an intelligent person capable of stifling most of it.
“This is none of your business,” Shifter barely moved, her arms loose, eyes not looking anywhere in particular—the kind of pose you might go with if you were expecting to be attacked at any moment and were trying to be aware of your peripheral vision. Continue reading Fonts of Magic: Part 4
“Shit,” Haley muttered. “We have to go out there.”
She’d noticed too, probably before I had.
I asked, “Are you okay with fighting her?”
Haley looked up at me, “She’s not here to fight. We can take her and I think she knows it.” Continue reading Fonts of Magic: Part 3
Haley frowned, “I hope they’d trust you. You nearly died killing The Thing and their team didn’t get anywhere close to doing it. They were more of a problem and a distraction than they were a help.”
Amy shook her head, “I know. It’s stupid, but blood magic is different here or at least the kind that they’ve seen is. I wouldn’t trust blood magic either if only vampires used it.” Continue reading Fonts of Magic: Part 2
Vengeance stood straighter. “We can banish you from this universe. Don’t think we can’t—”
He didn’t get to finish the sentence. In that moment, Alden’s head changed to that of The Thing That Eats. He wasn’t the only one. With a scream, the head of the woman that the elf had called Necromancer changed too.
Her hands continued to smoke, but she didn’t use them. The Thing’s mouth opened and swallowed the Graffiti Knight, weird, inscribed armor and all. Continue reading Harvest: Part 5
From behind me, I heard the sound of a seatbelt clasp clicking open. After a few footsteps, Rod pushed his way to the front between Amy and me.
“Hey,” Cassie said, but Rod ignored her.
“The Graffiti Knight. Rumor in the magical community is that the Council got some guy to wear that armor. I heard that it’s cursed or connected to an old god or something. There’s a price for using it, so they only get it out for emergencies.”
“So, it’s got powers?” I glanced over at Rod, and he nodded. Continue reading Harvest: Part 4
Even though I wasn’t sure that he was on our side, I decided to act as if I thought so. “How soon?”
He made a gurgling noise. “I can’t say—-”
Whatever he said after that turned into indecipherable noise, and then he hung up.
I stood there, smelling my own sweat and a faint burned smell that seemed familiar. Then I knew why. It reminded me of the smell my arm had given off when I’d been hit by dragon fire. Continue reading Revelations: Part 10
The alert also appeared on everyone’s phones, and most likely all of the city’s radio and television stations. After the beeping ended, the message said what they always said—stay in your house until we say it’s safe. Also, the following individuals were released from containment… It listed everyone in the gang we’d fought earlier that day—except for the woman who operated the Eagle suit.
That made sense. She was a normal human, and the city only had ten cells rated for superhuman containment. Why waste one?
I flipped through the pictures, noticing Haley doing the same. The last two pictures showed Alden and Philo, noting that they were the ones who’d broken the others out. Jillian didn’t make the list.
Maybe Alden hadn’t bitten her? Maybe she was resisting The Thing’s takeover process? Continue reading Splits: Part 10
I thought about my parents, all of our parents, and all of the other people in Grand Lake who had no idea what they were facing. Then I thought about Amy’s story and not the most recent one about how she came to be here. I thought about the Bloodmaiden’s discovery of The Thing That Eats and how it had eaten everyone in the kingdom of Rheged.
“You’re going to need to make an exception in your quarantine. The Thing that Eats is an enemy of Bloodmaiden. She knows how to fight it and how to catch it. She made the wards that caught it the first time.”
Taking a step toward the door, Vengeance said, “For someone who practices blood magic?” His lip curled and there was no mistaking the disgust in his voice. “Never. I’ve met blood mages and some of them seemed like decent people at first. But I’ve never met one that wasn’t eventually corrupted by the magic that they thought served them.” Continue reading Share The Love: Part 6