Stone Cold

Chapter 22

SHAME

Cody clapped his hands. “Now that that’s not settled, let’s eat. Bea, Jack, is there any food in this place?”

“Aw,” Bea said, “just when things were getting interesting.” She ducked out from under Jack’s arm, then caught his hand and made him walk with her into the kitchen. “Don’t you boys kill each other while we’re gone, okay?”

Cody chuckled and followed them.

“So, why don’t we deal with the real problem?” Terric said as he strolled over to a recliner near the window. He sat with the kind of ease of someone who had Life magic in his bones, and was therefore fully healed. “Eli and Krogher. What do we know?”

Born leader, that man.

I glanced at Dash, who had pulled off his glasses and was rubbing at the corners of his eyes. He was exhausted, pale from pain, and painkillers, and too damn much death and shooting and killing in the last twenty-four hours.

When he pushed away from the back of the couch, he limped, that thigh wound still giving him hell.

“What we know,” he said as he sat on the couch, “is that Shame said Eli’s heartbeat was in Portland. Near St. Johns.”

“You can tell that?” Terric asked.

I nodded.

“We don’t think Eli knows we’re in town,” Dash said. “But he knows where Allie and Zay live.”

I paced over to a window to one side of Terric, pushed the blind aside with my finger. Morning now, all sunlight and happy skies.

“Every Hound in town has their ear to the ground,” Dash said. “Jack and Bea were very careful to leave trails away from this place. If Eli is hunting for you, Shame—he’s taking his time.”

“Who says he’s hunting for me? He’s looking for Allie and Zay. To kill them.”

“They haven’t seen any sign of him.”

“Has she had the baby yet?” I asked.

“Baby?” Terric asked. “Wait. Zayvion’s having a baby? With . . . Who’s Allie?”

I pressed the heel of my hand over the headache in my temple. Lord. This amnesia crap was only fun in the movies.

“She’s his Soul Complement,” Dash said. “I’ll check in with them again.” He pushed up onto his feet, exhaling on a soft groan, and pulled a phone from his pocket. Then he paced over to where Davy had stalked off to on the other side of room.

“So,” Terric said to me, “Chase and Zay obviously didn’t work out. Chase is . . . ?”

“She’s dead,” I said.

“Ah,” Terric closed his eyes as if I’d just punched him in the chest.

Dash put his hand on Davy’s shoulder and guided him to the collection of couches where he could sit and still keep me in his line of sight.

Sunny floated over to stand near Davy. She just looked sad.

“I’m sorry,” I said to Terric. “It was a long time ago.”

He pointed at his head. “Really sloppy work. Lots of holes.”

“Do you have any idea who Closed you?” I asked.

He stared off in the distance for a minute. Processing Chase’s death, maybe sorting through memories. He tipped his palms, then folded his fingers together loosely in his lap. “There’s a lot of people who could have done it, right?”

“No,” I said. “Not really. Magic’s changed since the old days. It’s not easy to power those kinds of big spells anymore. Soul Complements can do it—break magic into dark and light. So either Krogher has Soul Complements at his disposal, one of which also happens to be a Closer—”

“Faith magic,” Terric added.

“Right, and uses Faith magic to Close, or he’s using the drones for the power and he has a Closer on call. I just don’t know who Krogher could hire to do it.”

Anyone, Sunny said from near Davy. Lot of ex-Closers in the world.

Maybe. Not many I’d trust.

“You know how UnClosing works, right?” I said to Terric.

“Whoever cast the Close spell is the only one who can UnClose that person,” Terric said.

Thus, our problem.

“Eli, maybe?” he said. “I don’t know. I have bits, fragments. I don’t know if they’re memories. Is he a Closer?”

“No. He’s an asshole.”

“I’m getting that impression. Is it something Zayvion could handle? UnClosing me. Or someone else . . .”

Here’s where he should say Victor, but he locked gazes with me. We might not be as connected as we were, but we’d known each other for a long time.

I looked away, unable to hold the thought of Victor’s death between us.

“God,” he breathed. “When? How?”

“A few months ago. Bloody. At Eli’s hands.”

“I don’t even remember Eli being . . . anything. Is that what started this? Victor’s death?”

“No. We started this.”

“How?”

“What do you remember about me? About us?” I asked.

“Well, you tried to kill me once and never forgave yourself.”

“Yeah, sure. Which time?”

His eyebrows shot up. “Are you serious? How many times have you tried to kill me?”

“It’s still in the low single digits.” I gave him a smile.

He grinned. “So I see things are going well between us.”

“Oh yeah. We’re fantastic.”

“Great.” He watched me stare outside for a bit. “Dash gave me the quick rundown about . . . well, I guess most of the changes with magic, and the drone people Eli made for Krogher.”

“Is that all he told you about?”

“I know we’re . . . Soul Complements, or maybe something more. Life and Death? He was a little vague about the specifics.”

I tried not to wince at the way he hedged around admitting we were Soul Complements. I’d never thought he’d had a problem with that idea. He had always been the one telling me to get over it and deal with the link we had with each other.

“We’re Soul Complements,” I said evenly. “We can use magic together better than most. And we can break it.”

“All right,” he said. “And you carrying Death magic and me carrying Life magic in our bodies. This is a thing?”

“No. It’s just our thing.”

“Why?”

“Because we absolutely suck at watching each other die and have done ridiculous things, made sacrifices . . .” I shook my head. “We screwed up so many times with magic, I’m pretty sure this is our punishment.”

“Being stuck with each other?” he said with a small smile.

“Terminally.”

“I could think of worse,” he said.

“Yeah, well, you also have amnesia, so you don’t know how bad it is.”

“I know you’re still overly dramatic.”

“Or I’m just right,” I said.

“And you still have to get the last word.”

“True.”

“How about some sandwiches, boys?” Bea called out. She held a couple cups of coffee in each hand. Jack walked next to her with a platter of sandwiches.

Bea gave us the coffee, flashed her dimples, and carried the other two cups over to Davy and Dash. Dash thumbed off his phone.

Jack offered me the sandwich platter and a look that told me he’d prefer it if I were still tied up in the box.

“Thanks.” I took a sandwich, as did Terric and Dash, who walked our way.

“Allie and Zay?” I asked around a mouthful. Ham, cheese, and tomato on rye. Not bad.

Dash took a drink of coffee, closed his eyes for a moment before tipping the cup away and easing down on the couch.

“No sign of Eli. No baby yet,” he said.

Terric grunted. “Still can’t believe he’s going to be a father. Zayvion.” He shook his head.

“Can you find Eli, Shame?” Dash asked. “His heartbeat?”

“I think so.” Half my sandwich was gone and I’d barely tasted it. “You don’t want to be near me when I do.”

“If we’re going to be the ones to take Eli down,” Terric said, “to keep Zayvion and . . . Allie?”

I nodded.

“Allie safe,” he continued, “I need my memories back so I can use magic. So that we can use magic.”

“You don’t remember how to use magic?”

“No. Whoever Closed me got that part right. I have memories of casting spells, I know there are glyphs involved, but using magic . . . I don’t have it, Shame. And I can’t begin to tell you how much I want that back.”

The old fire flickered behind his eyes. Sure, he was broken. He’d paid prices that didn’t just fade away with the wave of a magic healing eraser.

In some ways, not remembering what had happened in the last week, hell, in the last three years or more, was a kindness.

Right. As if kindness was ever in the cards.

“Can you access magic at all?” Dash asked. “The Life magic in you?”

Terric took another drink of coffee, then shook his head. “I don’t even know what I’m trying to access. Giving it the name Life magic is just giving it a name like purple giraffe. I don’t know how to get at it, don’t know where to look for it, don’t know how to manipulate it.”

“We don’t know who Closed you,” Dash said.

“So we have Zay take care of it,” Terric said. “UnClose me. Next to Victor, he’s the best Closer I know.”

“Still, he wasn’t the one who Closed you. It won’t work.”

“If Zayvion is half as good as I remember,” Terric said, “he’ll make it work.”

“He’s in the middle of having a baby,” I said. “And I don’t think that’s going as smoothly as they hoped. He’s too preoccupied to be doing magical surgery on your brain. He’ll fuck it up for good.”

“Then you do it, Shame,” Terric said. “You know me better than anyone, right?”

Could you? Eleanor asked.

All this talking to living people had made me forget that there were two ghosts standing in the room over by Davy.

“What?” I said to both Eleanor and Terric. “No. Absolutely not.”

“You said we were tied,” Terric said. “That we use magic together better than most. So use magic. On me. Open up my brain, Shame.” He flashed me a smile. “Trust me, it’s not an offer you’re going to get more than once in a lifetime.”

Yes, Eleanor said. You should. You should do this, Shame.

“No. Not having memories is bad,” I said. “But having your mind broken because an untrained Death magic user—hello, me—tries to pop your lid is a one-way ticket to Lobotomyville, Terric.”

“All right.” He leaned back. Gave me that “how about we run this theory through its paces?” look. I hated that look. “Give me another option.”

“We call a Closer from the old days,” I said. “Someone who knows the drill.”

“Okay, good. Now tell me how this Closer is going to access enough magic to break what’s been done to me. You said only Soul Complements and Krogher’s drones can tap in to that much magic.”

I scowled at him. Hated when he made sense. Hated when he showed me how very wrong I was.

“You can access magic, Shame,” he said evenly, as if carefully picking a lock and waiting to feel the tumblers give. “It’s inside you. And you know how to use it. If Zay’s not an option, then you’re the only one who can get my memories back.”

“Another Soul Complement could do it,” I said. “Someone who was a Closer.”

“Got one of those in your pocket?”

“No.”

“So we go with my plan.”

“What is the plan, exactly?” Dash asked.

“Crazy over there wants me to restore his memories,” I said.

“I heard that part,” Dash said. “You’re not a Closer, Shame. If I remember correctly, you failed that part of the magic-user test.”

I pointed to my chest. “Choir here, Bible boy.”

“He has magic and ability to use it. He also has incentive to try to do it right,” Terric said. “Good enough for me.”

“Since when did you become the reckless one?” I asked.

Terric gave me a smile I hadn’t seen in years. “Being tied to you? Please. I’ve always been the reckless one. Stop being such an old woman about this. No big risk, no blue ribbons.”

Good Lord, he sounded like Cody.

“So what I’m hearing,” Dash said, “is we have no plan.”

This was a bad idea. A very bad idea. But I didn’t have a better one.

Terric raised one eyebrow. Daring me.

There was a chance, a very small one, that this could work.

Plus, I could never turn down his dares.

“I’m not doing this on my own,” I said. “Not without instructions and a Closer. Dash, call Hayden. Tell him we’ll meet him out at Mum’s inn.”