A Little Night Magic (30 page)

I got to the clearing faster than I had expected; it seemed like I was on my road, and then a moment later, at my destination. Cain had done his work; the white sand circle close to the moving water practically glowed in the light of the full moon. Everything and everyone else was well out of sight; close enough to be called upon when I needed them, far enough away that hopefully, Davina’s spidey sense wouldn’t go off.

I was alone there for a while, the summer air sticky and warm on my skin. I tried to feel for the power from the conduits, but there was nothing. Had it been daytime, I would have been overwhelmed with it, but now … nothing. No tingling in my hands; it was all gone. Nighttime had brought its shade of normalcy; no magic, no power, just my wits and hopes to keep me going until morning.

If I made it until morning.

I tried not to think about that, though.

“Well, hello, baby.”

I looked up and there was Davina, her heavy backpack slung over her shoulder, her bright yellow dress making her look beautiful in the moonlight. Niles fluttered in a circle around her head for a bit, then flew over to me, buzzed my shoulder, and flew off to find Gibson, I presumed. If I’d had the choice, I would have done the same thing. As it was, I turned my focus back to Davina and the task at hand.

I had expected my heart to clutch in terror at the sight of her, but instead, what I felt was so conflicted. I had liked her, a lot. She had been a friend, some part of her had wormed its way into my heart, and despite all reason, that was still there.

“Glad to see you came to your senses.” She poured the white sand into a circle around us, her voice casual, as if we were girlfriends out for a night’s friendly witchcraft. “I know it feels awful, but you really are doing the right thing. You’re a damn hero.”

“Right.” I stepped inside the circle, and she did the same. “Give me the potion. Let’s get it over with.”

“You’re a down-to-business kind of girl, I can respect that.” She reached into her backpack, pulled out a blue water bottle this time, and handed it to me.

“I need a minute,” I said. “This stuff smells awful, and I just have to get my courage up.”

“Fair enough,” Davina said, then grinned a very cold grin. “I got all night.”

“There’s no way you can make it easier to get down?” I asked. “I mean, what’s in this stuff?”

“Eye of newt. Little turpentine.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s a potion, baby, not a nightcap.”

“Let me drink some water first,” I said, and bent down to my bag, pulling out what would appear to be a normal bottle of Aquafina. Davina’s eyes narrowed as I slowly undid the cap.

“What are you—”

And then, while her mouth was open, I jerked the bottle, splashing Cain’s conduit potion in her face.

“What the…?” She sputtered a bit, and I could see that some—not much, but some—had gotten into her mouth. Cain had made the potion strong enough that it just seeping through her skin might work, but getting it into her mouth was the holy grail. For every drop she swallowed, I got a little more control, and I was going to need that control to get this ball rolling. I recapped the bottle quickly and dropped it to the ground at my feet; it bounced outside of the circle, out of my reach.
Damn.
I doubted I’d get an unguarded shot at her twice, but I’d wanted to have it handy, just in case.

Davina stared at me, her eyes wide with rage, and for a moment, I felt nothing. My terror began to grow—
it’s not going to work, oh hell, I’m going to die
—and then, I felt it. Her power, her night magic, flowing into me. Just a little, just a bit, but it was enough to get me started.

“You little bitch,” Davina said. I could feel her trying to fight me, her power pulsating within her, but I had enough control to hold her back … just barely, and only for a little while longer. I needed to move fast.

I closed my eyes and called to the solar walkway lights I’d spent much of the day preparing, sending them in bunches to their assigned spots throughout the wooded perimeter around us, where my conduits waited. The lights sounded like a plague of manufactured locusts, their plastic wings clattering as they were finally released to do the job I’d commanded of them in the day. Slowly, the flying lights came into view, hundreds of them, in their new form of fireflies, assembling in clusters over myself and every conduit, shooting stored sunlight out of their asses and down onto us.

Davina turned in a circle, slowly, watching as the conduits stood up in their little pools of light, as the solar-light fireflies danced frenetically above them. My control over Davina was fading, rapidly, and the captured sun in the solar lights was not paying off as well as I had hoped it would. I couldn’t feel my power, or the power of the conduits. What little charge I’d been able to get off Davina was fading, and my nerves began to rise. The idea of stored sunlight had been a long shot, and I’d known it, but …
shit.

“Baby, what kind of woman do you think I am?” Davina said, her voice cold and dangerous. What little control I’d had over her was gone.

“I don’t know, Davina,” I said, trying to concentrate on the fireflies, slowly pulling them closer, away from the conduits. Plan B would have to do. “What kind of woman are you?”

Davina walked closer to me, her eyes almost sad, like she felt a little sorry for me. Once, I would have believed that expression, but now … I saw something else behind the false emotion in her eyes.

It was the certainty of an easy victory.

“I’m the kind of woman who always has insurance,” she said.

I couldn’t guess what she meant by that, so I had to just stick to the plan. I closed my eyes, breathed in deep, and pulled the stored magic in from the fireflies. With a thunderous crash, they fell in the forest, leaving the conduits in the dark. I felt the power from the fireflies gather within me; looking down, I could see little wisps of yellow light dancing around my fingers. It wasn’t much, but if I thought fast, I might be able to do something …

“Liv?”

A quiet, trembling voice came from behind me, and I turned around. In the moonlight, I could see a stocky form coming toward me, walking in jumpy steps, as if being forced to do every move. When she got close enough, I could see Millie, her hair wild, her face streaked with tears, still wearing the hospital gown she’d probably been in when Davina had taken her. She looked haggard and tired and terrified.

“Millie.”

“You were right, Liv,” she said. “She’s not my friend.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “Millie, just … fight her.”

“I can’t.” She sniffled. “Tell Peach and Nick that I’m so sorry.”

And with that, she lifted one hand, and I saw the moonlight glinting off of it before I could fully process what it was: a chef’s knife, industrial grade and sharp.

I turned around to face Davina. “What the hell are you doing? Let her go!”

Davina rolled her eyes. “I’m doing what I have to do, baby. That’s what I always do.” She motioned to Millie, and when I turned, Millie had the chef’s knife in both hands, not pointed at me, but at herself. At her heart.

“Liv, please…” Millie said, tears rolling down her face.
“Help.”

“Do what I tell you to do,” Davina said, “or Millie here commits hari-kari right in front of you.”

I twirled around to face Davina. “Stop it!”

“Call off your conduits. Send everyone home, and give me my fucking power,” Davina said, “or this gets real ugly, real fast.”

I turned back to Millie, whose eyes were big, focused on the knife poised at her heart. I closed my eyes, concentrated what power I’d borrowed from Davina, and shot it out toward the knife, as well as I could. It morphed into something sort of lizardish, wriggling in Millie’s hand until she couldn’t keep hold of it anymore. It fell to the ground and skittered away toward the water, which was good, but I’d just spent everything I had.

Which was very, very bad.

“Oh, gee, that’s a damn shame,” Davina said. “Whatever will I do now?”

She reached out her hand, curling her fingers into an eerie grip, and behind me, I heard Millie gasp and choke. I turned to see her, feet dangling and kicking beneath her, clawing at her neck.

“Stop!” I screamed, and started toward Davina, but she held up her free hand, ticking her index finger in warning.

“Ah, ah, ah,” she said, and Millie gurgled behind me. “Call off your dogs. Send them home, or your friend here dies a wretched death.”

“Okay!” I held out my hands, and while I could hear Millie struggling behind me, Davina’s eyes were on me; she wasn’t releasing Millie, but neither was she tightening her grip.

“All right, guys. You heard her. Go.”

There was silence in the darkness, but around me Peach, Nick, Stacy, Grace, and Addie moved in closer, preparing to fight; I could feel them like little points of psychic light. I could feel my power flowing through them, and theirs flowing back to me, like daylight. We could take Davina. Maybe. But we definitely couldn’t do it before she killed Millie, and I couldn’t take that chance.

“Go!” I hollered, my voice bouncing off the trees. I felt their resistance, but they were mine, and I controlled them; one by one, they backed off, disappearing into the forest, taking my power with them. One by one, bit by bit, I lost the only advantage I had.

“They’re gone,” I said finally. “I held up my end of the bargain.” I glanced back at Millie. She was alive, still clutching fruitlessly at her neck, but she was weakening. She wouldn’t make it much longer.

“Goddamnit, Davina. Let her go!”

Behind me, Millie cried out, and I could see Davina’s fingers clutching deeper into the air as her magical grip on Millie’s throat tightened.

“Stop! We had a deal!”

“You’re right. We did. But you know what, baby?” Davina’s eyes glinted with malice and insanity, and I felt the coldness in her expression sink into me. “You shouldn’t have pissed me off.”

Behind me, I heard a cracking sound, like thick branches snapping, but by the time I turned around, it was already over. Millie’s head was lolling on her shoulders at an unnatural angle, her dead eyes blank in the moonlight as her body fell to the ground, lifeless.

“Millie!” I screamed, but it was already too late. I fell to the ground trying to reach for her, but the white sand on the outside of the circle started to rise up and move around the barrier, like a cyclone. I pulled my knees in and skittered as far to the edge of the circle, only stopping when my hand touched the wall of flying sand. I shrieked at the pain and pulled it back in to me, the knuckles sanded raw and bleeding. I swiped at the tears on my face, trying not to give her the satisfaction of my terror, but since my entire body was shaking with it, it was a pretty moot point.

“Baby,” she said, a little breathless, but still in control, “you tried to beat me, and I applaud you for it. Shows a lot of guts, more than I would have given you credit for. But you’ve lost. It’s done. Give me my magic now, and no one else gets hurt.”

“No,” I said.

She had the nerve to look surprised. “Did you just say
no
?”

I got onto my hands and knees, my muscles weak from the influx and subsequent withdrawal of power, but I managed to push myself up to standing and take a step toward her.

“Yeah, I said
no
. You don’t get my magic unless I willingly give it to you. You can go ahead and do what you want with me, but you’re not getting the magic. It’s over.”

“We’ll see about that.” She moved toward me, her skirt and hair shifting around her in the wind from the cyclone that surrounded us. I was too scared and tired to move away from her, afraid I would fall if I tried, so when she put her hand on the back of my neck and leaned in to whisper in my ear, I could do nothing but stand there and let her.

“You seem to be under the impression,” she said as the cyclone around us died down, the sand falling neatly back into its original circle, “that I’ve played all my cards.”

With that, she spun me around. I felt dizzy from the movement, and it took me a moment to be able to focus my eyes, even with the full moonlight, but once I did, my heart jolted painfully in my chest.

Tobias.
He stood not ten feet away, just outside the edge of the circle, his head hanging as though he was only standing due to some force other than his own will. His face was bloodied, his clothes ripped. I let out a cry, and Davina dug her fingers into my shoulder.

“Now,” she said, “you’re going to need to be quicker on your feet this time. He’s so close to dead anyway that it won’t take much more than a push of my finger to knock him over and finish the job. So you tell me, right now, baby … is it yes or no? Give me your magic now, without any more of this foolishness, and he lives. Hesitate even for a second, and you will watch him die, just like you watched Millie. What’s your answer?”

I opened my mouth to squeak out a helpless, “Yes,” but the dizziness overtook me, and I stumbled to my knees. Something was weird, and it took me a moment to realize what it was that I was feeling; it was both familiar and unfamiliar, stronger than I had felt it earlier, and coming from only one source rather than five. I almost thought it was my imagination until I saw the Aquafina bottle lying at Tobias’s feet, uncapped and empty. I raised my eyes to his face and saw that his eyes were closed, but there was the tiniest trace of a smile on his lips.

He’d finished off my concentrated conduit potion.

He was
mine.

I rose to my feet, pooling the borrowed power from Tobias, and I curled up my fist and hit Davina square in the face, sending her sprawling. The pure shock of the non-Magical attack did what I had hoped it would: her concentration faltered, and what grip she’d had on Tobias ebbed away. He was open now, a true conduit of power, only instead his life force flowing back into Davina, he now served as a connection between her and me.

“What the…?” Davina got to her knees and touched her face, smearing the blood on her lip where I’d struck her. She looked at me, her eyes wide and shocked, and I could tell she still didn’t know what was happening. She probably thought the drain on her power was from holding Tobias up; she hadn’t yet noticed that he was standing just fine on his own, his head raised as he watched us, holding his place, keeping the connection open.