I remembered inventing technology, formulating glyphs, standardizing spells with a mix of metal and glass that broke barriers between life and death, and made magic follow all disciplines at once.
I remembered my eighth birthday party and the purple sweater my dad bought me. I loved that sweater.
Too many memories, too much. Too crowded. I whined and stumbled backward, trying to get away from the people inside me, trying to escape my own skin, flee my crowded, crowded brain.
People can’t possess people. People can’t possess people. Zayvion had said it was rare. Said my dad was in my head only because we were the same blood. Cody and I were not related. And yet his spirit-or at least this part of it who could make magic do beautiful, beautiful things-was curled around my brain stem.
There wasn’t any room for me to breathe, to think.
Out, out, out!
My back brushed the spongy wall of the Illusion, and I finally heard my father’s voice.
Allison. Let him go!
I exhaled, blinked. Magic swirled around me, a curtain of ribbons and fire, a maelstrom all my own.
Good. You are doing fine. Calm your mind.
I shouldn’t. Shouldn’t listen to him. Shouldn’t trust him. But I had loved that purple sweater. He had canceled a business trip to Europe and stayed home for my birthday. He had brought me a birthday cake. And the purple sweater I had secretly loved and mentioned to him only once when we walked by the store.
I did as he said.
Dad used me to cast a spell. It felt like a gentle stroke over my hair, except it was inside my head. And then the awareness of Cody, his life, his memories, his soul, was gone. Instead, Cody’s spirit, pale as watercolor, stood beside me.
“Tired,” he said in a voice little more than a child’s. He was transparent, rain falling through him. He looked like the watercolor people who usually showed up when I cast magic. Or usually showed up if my dad didn’t block them when I cast magic.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I thought I could fix this.” He frowned, his voice drifting away on the wind. Destroyed by thunder.
“You’re okay now.” I was surprised at how calm I was. Apparently some part of my brain still functioned. Now that Cody was out of my head, I could think again, breathe again, and not panic again.
Mama stepped forward, just enough that she was through the Illusion. She squinted. It must be brighter in here. It was certainly a bloody mess.
“Come with me now, boy,” she said to Cody’s spirit.
Which meant she could see Cody’s spirit. Which meant she was using some kind of magic to see him. Which meant she could use magic. A fleeting memory of her hand on my chest, glowing, snapped bright in my mind, then was gone. But the sense that she had more to do with magic than I knew lingered.
“Wait,” I said. “Mama, what are you going to do with him?”
“He’s safe with me, Allie girl. I’ll keep him hidden. Have my own ways, and you won’t ask me nothing about it. Tell your father I don’t owe him no more.” She held out her hand for Cody.
Cody looked at me. “I like her.” He smiled.
I had no idea what to say to him. Had no idea what was the right thing to do. Maybe I should try to keep him somehow and return him to his living self.
Cody took Mama’s hand, and for a second, I thought I saw her hand glow white, just as lightning struck. I blinked away the flash and Cody was stuck to her by a stream of white light, like the ghost children had been stuck to Jingo Jingo, only Cody didn’t look sad about it. He looked relieved, walking to the end of the length of light, then back close to her again. I couldn’t help but think of a balloon being caught safely before it floated away.
Mama stepped toward the wall of Illusion, out to the outside world.
Just before he followed her, Cody turned back toward me. “Zayvion,” he said. Thunder drowned out his words.
“What?” I asked.
Allison, my father warned.
“Zayvion. .,” Cody started, the stream of light between him and Mama tugging on him.
Allison, Dad said again.
Shut up, I thought at him.
“. . says he loves you too,” Cody said.
“When did he say that?”
“In there.” Cody pointed at the gate. “Today.”
I looked over at the gate.
And saw a wave of monsters, Hungers, and horrors I had no name for pouring through the gate and onto the field.
Chapter Twenty
There was no time to see how anyone else was reacting to this. There was no time to think anything through. Hungers would tear the magic users apart in seconds. There was so much wild magic in the air, in the sky, in the city, that it would take the shadowy Hungers only a few minutes to become fully solid. And then they would hunt. They would eat magic users and civilians. They would kill.
I pulled Zayvion’s sword, and wondered why that hadn’t been in my hands all along. A calm washed through me, as if this sword that Zayvion had spent so much time with had been infused with his calm, his strength, his clear, concise ability to deal with a horrifying situation and make competent, lifesaving decisions.
The Hungers, a dozen, two dozen, went from transparent beasts into solid muscled creatures with wide heads, red eyes, and fanged jaws. Magic pulsed down their hides, like black veins, wild magic feeding them, making them strong.
Other things with too many eyes and too many limbs clattered out of the gates behind the Hungers.
Magic users turned weapons and magic on the beasts that howled and charged across the field. But just as quickly as the magic users struck the beasts down, magic, wild magic, poured through the beasts. The black veins along their bodies pulsed with it, and then the beasts stood again, attacked again.
They were not going down and staying down.
A beast leaped for me. I swung the sword, caught the thing midleap, straight through the neck. It fell to the ground, quivered, and lay still.
The blade in my hand went black, then grew bright and silver tip to hilt. Holy shit. Zay’s sword had some kind of spell worked into it so that it could drink the magic out of its foe. Maybe it was honed to drink down dark magic.
It is, Dad said. But you are not trained to use it. You will grow weaker with each strike.
So tell me how to use it right, I thought.
I can’t. He didn’t sound happy about that. I am not the guardian of the gate.
Here’s the thing. I was getting pretty tired of having to pay the price of magic. But I’d do it with grim satisfaction if it meant I could save my friends.
Another Hunger leaped at me. I swung again. Left it headless. It did not rise. The ground beneath my feet swayed and I stumbled as my knees gave out. Okay, he wasn’t kidding. It took a hell of a lot of stamina to wield dark magic.
I pushed back up to my feet, into a fighting stance, sword at the ready.
The four beasts nearest me backed away. Like scenting the wind, they all lifted their wide heads. And ran. Past fallen or injured magic users-easy kills-which made no sense. Ran toward Sedra.
A dozen beasts ran for Sedra. Two dozen. More.
Dane could not hold them off and keep the cage whole. He threw a wall of magic at the beasts, but only half of them fell. The rest rushed him, fast. Too fast. Dane disappeared beneath slathering jaws and wicked claws.
The cage around Sedra constricted, crushing her. Sedra screamed-a strangely inhuman yell.