Stone Cold

Chapter 32

SHAME

The door of the diner behind Terric opened, letting in the warm June wind, a little sunlight, and a man I’d invited to lunch.

The man was Dashiell Spade. He caught sight of us and headed our way.

“What?” Terric asked me from over the slice of pie he was eating.

I tugged down my sunglasses just enough to gaze over the top of them. “I thought a movie might be fun tonight. You like movies, right, Terric?”

“Some movies. Sure.”

“Good. I got tickets.” I slid them across the table to him, pushed my sunglasses back into place.

“You and me?” He didn’t touch the tickets but took another bite of pie and gave me a wary look. “What do you want, Shame? And don’t make me come in there”—he waved his fork toward my head—“to find out.”

It had been a couple of months since we’d broken magic and changed the world.

We’d figured out a few tricks of being Soul Complements, the first of which was how to block what we were thinking from each other. Some other tricks too, like how to use Life magic and Death magic so no one noticed we were doing so.

Worked best if we did it together, but wasn’t so bad if we did it alone.

Life and Death didn’t eat away at us like before. Terric had found a very old joining spell. It looked a lot like an infinity sign. We’d both had it tattooed, his on his left arm, mine on my right. Whenever we were around each other, magic sort of . . . balanced between us.

Eleanor had been right all along. Using magic together did make it better for both of us.

And we’d gotten good enough at blocking our thoughts that we didn’t even have to concentrate on it much anymore.

Which meant I could plan something, like a movie, and he wouldn’t know.

“Hey,” Dash said, stopping by the table. “How’s it going?”

“Dash,” Terric said, throwing a look my way. “Nice to see you.”

I took a bite of my pie and ignored Terric. “Pull up a seat,” I said. “Terric was just telling me there’s a movie he’s excited to see. He has two tickets, but I have to bail on him. You two should go.”

“Uh, okay.” Dash snagged a chair from the other table to set next to us. “If you want me to?”

“Of course he does,” I said. “Go on, Ter. You deserve a little downtime. I know how much you’ve been looking forward to this.”

Just let go, mate, I thought. And maybe let a good thing happen for once. The man likes you. It wouldn’t kill you to let him know you like him back.

Terric leaned back and studied me as if he were seeing new words in a book he’d been reading all his life.

Because suddenly you’ve decided I should date him?

Because you want to, I thought. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. No worries. I just . . . I want you to be happy.

I am happy.

And behind those words was so much more. He was happy to be alive, happy I was alive, happy we weren’t being hunted, hurt, killed. Happy we had finally accepted that, like it or not, we would always be together. Soul Complements, brothers, friends. Not such a bad thing.

“Terric? Everything okay?” Dash asked.

“Yes, yes. Sorry. Yes. If you’re game, I have two tickets,” Terric said. He picked up the tickets, read them. “And it looks like it starts in half an hour. How convenient.” He tapped the table with a fingertip. “Let me settle our bill. I’ll be right back.”

He got up and walked over to the register. I ate pie.

“You put him up to this, didn’t you?” Dash asked.

“Naw, not really. He’s wanted to do this for years.”

“But the movie and the second ticket for me was your idea.”

I put my fork down and picked up my coffee. “Maybe.”

“Shame,” he started.

“Okay, yes. Hey. I have good ideas. This was one of them. Live life to the fullest, I always say.”

“You never say that.”

“Are you deaf? I just said it.”

“You’ve made a lot of enemies, you know,” he said. “People will find out it was you and Terric that broke magic and put it back together. They’ll think you somehow made it so none of the spells work anymore. They’ll think you two are what’s standing in the way of them getting magic back.”

“Nobody’s getting magic back, and the world’s a better place because of it,” I said.

“They won’t believe you. You’ll have a target on your head.”

“Aren’t you gloom and doom today? Also, like I care?” I took a drink of coffee.

“You should,” he said, holding my gaze. “For your friends, your mother, hell, for me, if no one else. I already saw you and Terric bloody and dead once. I don’t ever want to see that again.”

“Everyone dies, Dash,” I said. “Can’t promise that when we die, we’ll go gentle.”

“Just promise it won’t be anytime soon.”

“Cross my heart,” I said.

Terric strolled over to the table. “Ready?”

Dash stood, smiled. “Looking forward to it.”

Terric pointed a finger at me. “Your mom wants you over for dinner tonight.”

“I’ll be there.”

“And Sunny said she and Davy are up for poker night at our house, six o’clock on Thursday.”

“I’ll be there too.”

“Don’t forget to pick up groceries today. We’re out of coffee.”

I shook my head. This was what my life had become. I was roommates with a walking to-do list.

“Go away, Terric. Dash, make him go away.”

“Actually, I’m in no hurry,” Dash said. “We could catch a later show. How’s the laundry situation, Terric?”

“Now that you mention it, those socks aren’t sorting themselves.”

I picked up my fork and gripped it like a dagger. “Just because I like you doesn’t mean I won’t stab you both in the neck. Go.”

“Groceries,” Terric said again.

I made a shooing motion with my free hand.

“Bye, Shame,” Dash said. “See you tonight.”

“Well,” Terric said, “see you sometime.”

Dash raised his eyebrows and Terric smiled.

They headed toward the door.

I took a deep breath, glad for the peace and quiet in the diner.

No more ghosts, no more magic. Just a collection of worn-out people sitting at worn-out tables talking over worn-out problems. I picked up my coffee, drank the last cold dregs of it, then got up and walked out into the June sunlight.

Got about three strides down the block before a bullet cracked into the brick of the building right over my shoulder, and a second buried itself into my arm.

“Son of a bitch.” That hurt. But it wouldn’t kill me.

Spotted the gunman taking off down the alley toward his car there. I’d seen him before. He looked like the killer I’d been after a few weeks ago, Stuart. One of the killers from Victor’s hit list.

Well, well. Things really were looking up. I grinned and strode down the street toward him, drawing Death magic into my hand. Magic, my magic, and yes, Terric’s magic, was invisible now. It was also much more of a laying-on-of-hands type of thing.

I caught up to the guy and shoved him against the brick wall with a single touch of Freeze.

“Mr. Stuart?” I said, leaning my weight into my hand on his shoulder and magic holding him. “I think you and I need to have a little talk.”

I lifted my other hand filled with Death magic and patted his chest. “Your killing days are over, mate. Time’s up.”

Death magic hit. I stepped back, took my hands off him. He crumpled to the ground, his heart beating too hard, then not at all.

The coroner would say heart attack. Not uncommon for someone his age with such poor eating and exercise habits.

Right. I pulled a handkerchief out of my pocket and pressed it against the bullet wound in my shoulder. I’d ask Terric to heal it later.

I stepped over the body and started off to my car.

Okay, so maybe I hadn’t found peace, exactly. And yes, I still had Death riding my bones, and Terric still had Life to grapple with. We were okay with that. For the first time in our lives, we were even pretty okay with each other.

Maybe that was as good as it was going to get for me, for us.

As far as I was concerned? It was plenty good enough.

I got in my car and pulled Victor’s hit list of killers out of the glove compartment. Crossed poor heart attack Mr. Stuart off the list and glanced at the next name.

Last-known address: Tacoma.

I tucked the list back in the glove box and dug a cigarette out of my pocket. Lit up, rolled down the window, and exhaled smoke into the sunny day.

Tacoma was just a few hours north of here. Sorry, Terric. Groceries would have to wait. I started the engine and grinned. I had plenty of daylight, a full tank of gas, and a man to kill.

Life just didn’t get any better than that.