“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.”