Chapter 30

The minivan blasts out of Forks on Highway 101 North. Ion lead foots the accelerator. I have no idea what she and Dr. Radcliffe did to the clerk or the security footage at the minimart. The clerk was alive when we pulled away, even waving at us from the store window. Strange that he should seem so jolly after Ion showed up spitting mad and tased him. I thought for sure she was going to kill him. I was scared, and so was my squad. Even Dr. Radcliffe and Tanis appeared perturbed.

It’s getting lighter now. The low marine layer is as slate gray as a blackboard. Between the backseats of the minivan, Dr. Radcliffe kneels on the floor and leans over our captive. He slaps the man’s gaunt cheeks. The man moans, shaking his head back and forth, but remains unconscious or is doing a good job pretending.

Dr. Radcliffe slaps the man again, a solid smack. “Wake up.”

“He’s faking.” Dalia scoffs and levels a kick against the magician’s swollen and bruised wrist.

The man’s eyes bulge open, and he writhes and cradles his injured wrist against his abdomen. “Okay. Okay. Stop. No torture. Please.”

He rasps like a five-pack-a-day smoker. In the confines of the van, his stench, which is an amalgamation of Manscape Bodywhiskey, cigarette smoke, alcohol, sweat, and week-old morning breath, hangs in the air like a feral musk. His nervous eyes rotate in their sockets, his gaze never resting anywhere for long.

I yearn to sink my talons into his chest and dig out his heart. I pine to bury my fangs in his throat and tear it out. As he lies dying, I’ll lap his blood.

“Can I sit up?” he asks, his voice quavering.

I gasp and violently shake my head to exorcise the repulsive imagery flitting before my mind’s eye like devil birds. I’m not a killer. I’m not. I don’t want to become one, no matter if the sleeper is in me or is part of me or whatever. I won’t kill. Haji reaches for me. I glare at him, and he backs off, expression worried and hurt.

Dr. Radcliffe nods. “No magic. I have a dampening net in place. If you try to break it…”

“No, sir,” cadaver man says, shaking his head.

“Why did you try to kill me?” I demand.

He cowers. “I was paid.”

I clench my jaw, combating the urge to break cadaver man’s other wrist. He shrinks under my glower.

“Nothing personal,” cadaver man says.

“Who paid you?” Dr. Radcliffe asks.

“You know who. Not getting paid enough for my trouble.” He raises his injured wrist.

“Who paid you?” Dr. Radcliffe asks again.

“If you don’t know, I ain’t telling. My employer don’t abide failures or traitors.”

“What’s your name?” I ask.

He licks his lips. “Gore.”

“Well, Gore, who do you work for?” I ask.

Gore smiles coyly. “Like I said. You don’t know, it’s best I don’t tell.”

Dalia aims a second kick at Gore’s wrist. He turns away from her, but too late. She lands a glancing blow, and he howls.

Ion laughs. “Good interrogation technique. Keep it up. He’ll talk.”

“You talk, or I’ll keep kicking,” Dalia says. “You tried to kill my best friend. Now, talk.”

“Okay. Okay,” Gore whimpers, tears leaking from his eyes. “I’ll talk. Just no more kicking, okay? It’s not like health insurance comes with my job.” He looks at me. “I tried to kill you, twice. Failed, didn’t I? First time, just dumb luck that man came to your rescue before I could finish the job. Hell, dumb luck you survived that blow to the head. Should’ve killed you. I should know.” His eyes become cold. “I’ve offed people with a lead pipe before. I know how it’s done. But you ain’t no girl. You’re something else. Mark Cassidy, yeah, that’s who I work for, never told me you’re a supernatural something-or-other.” Gore shakes his head. “Good old Mark. All he says is he has a problem he wants me to fix. Good money and premium heroin for the job. The kinda heroin that makes you feel magic, get all tingly like electrical current running through your body. He even gave me a hit. Premium.” His eyes become distant, and he smiles as if reminiscing. “Good stuff. Real good, top-shelf. All I needed to do is off this little girl and make it look like a mugging. Easy, he says. Easy my ass.”

“Heroin?” Haji asks.

“The drug increases human magicians’ sensitivity to magic,” Dr. Radcliffe says.

Haji grits his teeth, looking askance at Gore. “Maybe I don’t want to be a magician.”

“Don’t sell it short until you get a taste,” Gore says.

I wave a hand for silence. “Did Mark Cassidy tell you why he wants me dead?”

“Nah,” Gore says, shaking his head emphatically. When I frown, he adds, “Do you tell the hired help everything?”

“Dalia, kick him again,” Ion says.

Dalia lines up another punt.

“Wait. Wait. I do recollect something,” Gore says, cowering, his gaze locked on my BFF.

Dalia leans back in her seat. I’m not sure if I like this fearsome side of her. Judging by the sideways glances Haji keeps throwing her way, I think he finds this new Dalia troubling too.

“Answer the question,” Dalia says through clenched teeth.

“He mentioned that he needed Allison Lee dead to smooth things over for Druk before the expeditionary force arrives,” Gore says.

“Expeditionary force? What does that mean?” Haji says.

My pulse quickens. Smooth things over for Druk. The sleeper surfaces. My hand goes to my lips. My God. This is confirmation. Druk must be my mother.

Dr. Radcliffe leans close to Gore. “Any ideas?”

“How should I know? For certain, I mean. I can guess as well as you can. Expeditionary force means more skaags.”

“Did he say when they are coming?” Dr. Radcliffe demands.

Gore vehemently shakes his head. “Just that they’re coming soon. That’s all I know.”

“Ion, what do you think?” Dr. Radcliffe asks.

Ion sighs. “My gut says we aren’t going to get more out of him. Time to kill him or cut him loose.”

“Come on, I answered your questions,” Gore whines. “I’m just a down-on-my-luck magician.”

“Tanis, it is too dangerous to keep all the children here. We cannot protect them all. Fly Dalia and Haji to Port Angeles. You can find a car there,” Dr. Radcliffe says.

My friends and I exchange puzzled glances. Something fishy is going on here, but I, at least, am not sure what.

“Got it,” Tanis says from the passenger seat.

“Start looking for a good spot,” Dr. Radcliffe says.

“Roger that,” Ion says.

“Good spot for what?” Gore moans.

Gore pleads for his life, whimpering and crying. He is so pitiful I start feeling sorry for him.

“Are you going to kill him?” I ask Dr. Radcliffe.

Dr. Radcliffe doesn’t respond, but Ion does. “You bet I am.”

“No, come on,” Gore says. “You let me go, you’ll never see me again. Or maybe I can help you. I’m a good magician, you know. All I need is some first-class big H. You going up against Mark Cassidy and Druk, you need all the help you can get.”

Gore keeps babbling, but I stop listening to him.

“We should let him go,” Haji says. “Killing is wrong. It makes us no better than him.”

Gore points at Haji. “Yeah, listen to the Arab boy.”

“What did you just call him?” Dalia asks.

“No more kickin’, please.” Gore shields himself with his uninjured arm.

“This looks like a decent spot,” Ion says.

The van whips over onto the side of the road. A diesel truck chugs by, its lights flaring in the morning twilight beneath the trees. Gore fearfully looks around the van.

“Decent spot for what?” Gore asks.

“Everyone out,” Ion says.

We all pile out except Gore, who pleads for his life. I half expect Ion and Dr. Radcliffe to drag him bodily from the van, but they ignore him. We huddle together on the side of the road near the trees. In the distance is the dull roar of the ocean. The air is cold and misty, but at least it’s not raining.

“You know what to do?” Dr. Radcliffe asks Tanis.

“I do,” Tanis says. “Haji, take my hand. Dalia, take his hand. Good. I’m going to lead us down to the beach.”

“What about Allison?” Haji asks.

“We just can’t leave her behind,” Dalia says.

A semi speeds by, sending up road spray that splatters against the minivan. I look at Dr. Radcliffe and hold his gaze.

“I have to stay. To make sure the skaags come. I’m the bait,” I say. My squad is about to retort, but I cut them off. “I need to do this. Mark Cassidy wants me dead because…because Druk is my mother.”

“Allison, what are you talking about?” Dalia says.

“Show them the picture,” I tell Dr. Radcliffe.

He pulls out his smartphone, opens the photo app, and hands the phone to Dalia. My BFF’s eyes go wide.

“What is that?” she gasps and shows the picture to Haji.

Haji gulps. “That’s you?”

“That is inside me, or it is me.” I shake my head. “I don’t know exactly, but I know…” I remember the night of the visitation at the hospital, the presence I couldn’t see. The immediate memory is chilling but also possesses a warm afterglow like the dying rays of sunset bleeding out on a distant horizon. “I think my mother visited me at the hospital. I know the dragons want to kill the skaags, and maybe that’s how it will turn out, but…if I can meet my mother, talk to her…maybe she can help me understand who I am, what I am.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Dalia says.

The passenger side door to the van swings open with a loud creak.

Gore scampers across the highway.

“He’s getting away!” Dalia hollers and lunges after him.

Haji keeps a tight grip on my BFF, stopping her pursuit. There is a loud crack of a gunshot. Gore staggers, blood blossoming from his shoulder, but he keeps running.

“Get them out of here. I’m going to chase him, make it seem like it’s hard,” Ion says and races across the road, smoking gun in hand.

“Do not worry,” Dr. Radcliffe says, looking between Haji and me. “She will not kill him. We want him to escape. To pass bad intelligence to our enemies. We must leave. Someone might report the gunshot.”

“But he knows where they’re going,” I say.

“No, child, I’ll fly out over the ocean and head south,” Tanis says. “Ion will remain here.”

“I’m not leaving,” Dalia says.

“Go,” I say. “Please, for me. What I have to do will be easier knowing that you’re safe. That both of you are safe.”

Dalia throws herself into my arms, sobbing. Haji joins us for a group hug. My fam. We hold each other for a few seconds or maybe a minute. All I know is that it hasn’t been long enough when Dr. Radcliffe pulls us apart, insisting it’s time to leave.