Shadow Walker (25 page)

That is between me and the lady crow. I’m helping her because she doesn’t like the word ‘no.’

Tell me about it. “Wait—you said you traveled in
time
? You can do that?”

Gods can. Time isn’t linear to us as it is to you. Remember when I said Mick and I had tangled, that he claims I violated his territory? It was on this search. It happened just now. Or back then, whatever is your perspective.

I’d have to think about that later, if I lived long enough. “That’s all you can tell me? That I already know Mick’s name, except I don’t know what it sounds like, how I know it, or how to use it?”

Yes.

“I’m developing a serious dislike for you.”

Aw, Janet, don’t be like that.

“If I get out of this alive, you and I are going to have words. And when we’re done, you’re going to wish I’d been my grandmother with a broom.”

I’m sorry you have to be alone for this, but it’s the only way. You have to face Mick, and you have to face him naked—without magic and without tricks. Just you.

“Literally naked?”

Well . . .

“Go away if you aren’t going to tell me anything useful.”

Alone. I’m sorry. You have to go out there and face him.

Or face him in here. The dust at one end of the cave stirred, the
karmii
lighting it like sun inside a cloud. Through that cloud stepped Mick.

Twenty-five

When you have sex with someone, it changes your relationship with them forever. You might think you’re keeping something casual, but after sex, you know things about that person that no one else does, and they know many things about you. If you break up, even if you say you want to keep things friendly, knowing that you shared a private part of yourself with the other person can lead to resentment or outand-out rage. The rage is especially strong if the other person betrayed you—you gave them all you had, trusted them with your secret self, and they turned that knowledge against you.

I faced Mick knowing that I’d shared things with him I’d shared with no one else in the world. He’d taken a naïve young woman, alone and vulnerable, and shaped her into a confident magic wielder and experienced lover. I’d surrendered myself into his capable hands; and Mick had taught me more about myself than I would have ever discovered on my own.

Now Mick stood before me, tall and naked and beautiful, and he’d use the knowledge he’d acquired to hurt me. The thought was already breaking my heart.

“Does Vonda want me dead?” I asked him. “I thought she wanted my magic.”

Mick said nothing as he came toward me. He held no fire in his hands, but I sensed it lurking below the surface, his dragon tattoos writhing with it. The tattooed eyes glittered, not in a friendly way.

The
karmii
backed off from Mick—to them, he was the good guy, an earth-magic being—and kept their circle around me. If the storm outside died, or if Mick beat me back so that I lost my grip on it, the
karmii
would leap upon me and smother me with their burning cold.

“You must know,” I continued. “Why go to all this trouble? Gabrielle thinks Vonda enslaved you to kill her, but you’ve never gone after Gabrielle. Only me.”

“You need to be eliminated.”

Gods, he sounded like the Terminator. But that movie villain had nothing on a tall dragon-man who could incinerate me in the space of a thought.

“Why?” I asked him. “What am I standing in the way of?”

“The universe.”

I’m sure that meant something. “The universe. Right. I have a lot of power, yes, and I can open vortexes, true, but if Vonda kills me, I won’t be opening any vortexes for her.”

“It has nothing to do with the vortexes.”

I hated that he answered in Mick’s familiar voice, the one that tickled inside of my ear when he whispered my name in the night. But the voice was without inflection now, as Mick stated simple facts.

“With what, then?”

Mick closed his mouth. The witch had probably put a silence spell on him as part of the enslavement, allowing Mick to answer only questions that didn’t come under the spell’s umbrella.

“The hotel deterioration was all a diversion then?”

Mick didn’t answer, but the answer told me something. If he wasn’t allowed to say, then it might not have been a diversion after all.

Did Vonda Wingate want my
hotel
? Not my dragon, my powers, my sister, or my magic mirror. The hotel itself.

“If I’m going to die here, I’d like to at least know why,” I said.

“I don’t want to kill you, Janet.”

“Well, that’s a relief. Although I’d believe it more if you didn’t say it in that robotlike voice.”

“But I have to kill you. You’re in the way.”

“Which means that if I’m alive, I can stop Vonda and her evil plans—whatever they are.”

“I’m a fighter, a warrior. I don’t give a damn about her plans. I just want the kill.”

He did. I saw it in his eyes, which were black but swimming with white sparks. He wasn’t my beloved Mick anymore. He was a dragon at the height of his powers, and I was a Stormwalker with a broken rib surrounded by entities that would kill me the minute I used my Beneath magic.

“She believes that I love you enough to not kill you,” I said. Tears formed in my eyes as my emotions slipped. “But she’s wrong. I do love you, but if I have to kill you to survive, to keep the witch from what she wants, I will.”

Mick didn’t wait. No last-minute taunts, no “Let’s do this.” He simply let fly with the fire.

I grabbed the wind whipping around on the surface, sucked it down the tunnel behind him, and buried the fire in whirling white snow. The flame easily burst free and flew around the room, encircling the
karmii
that encircled me.

“Oh, this is so not fair,” I said.

I yanked the piece of magic mirror out of my pocket, called a handful of the Beneath magic and Stormwalker magic mixed together, and directed it at the mirror. The mirror screamed, and I didn’t blame it, because I had no idea what this would do to it.

The mirror absorbed my magic, screeching and moaning, and then it fed it back tenfold. The flames receded a little, the circle of them drawing back, and the
karmii
did too. Mick watched me, his head tilted to one side, studying me with that dragon curiosity.

Curiosity. While we were fighting to the death.

I slammed more magic into the mirror. The piece started to shudder and then it broke apart in my hands.

I followed the pieces down, grabbing the shards even as they cut my hands. Breaking a magic mirror doesn’t diminish its power—it simply means that you have more pieces to work with.

I swept the shards into my hands, all but one. That piece had landed in the middle of the
karmii
, and I couldn’t reach it. The
karmii
pulled back from it, because the mirror had been created by solid earth magic, silicon and silver. The mirror was a good guy in the
karmii
’s opinion.

A snake of flame reached the shard, and the mirror slid to Mick. Mick calmly picked up the piece and directed a thin spire of flame into it.

The mirror kept screaming as Mick turned the mirror to me and released the magic. The flame, doubled in strength, came straight for me.

I yelled and hit the dirt, frantically pulling wind and ice over me to deflect the fire. They did, barely. The heat of the flames singed my hair, made my clothes so hot the fabric melted to my skin.

I got to my feet, eyes stinging with heat and smoke. Mick had figured out the perfect way to kill me. He’d driven me down here where the
karmii
would keep my Beneath magic penned, and he’d absorb any storm magic I threw at him. He could use the magic mirror we’d both awakened against me, and I’d die.

The dragons for years had been afraid of me, but Mick, who knew me and loved me, was the only dragon who’d figured out how to destroy me. He’d stripped me of everything, and I had nothing left.

You have to face him naked
, Coyote had said.
Without magic and without tricks. Just you.

Mick had effectively rendered my magic useless, except for a thin layer of defense. And Coyote wanted me to drop that too?

I drew a long breath. Coyote drove me crazy, but he was a god. He’d been right before, and there was a good chance that he was right now.

There’s always a first time for him to be wrong
, the practical voice inside me said.
He’d admit that.

I pushed my hair out of my face, dismayed when part of it came away in a burned mess. I flung away the hank and, in a fluid move, stripped off my jacket and half-disintegrated shirt. The clips that held my black lace bra closed were burning my back, and I ripped off that too.

Naked and alone. Without magic.

I knew that Coyote had meant
naked
metaphorically, but I couldn’t help think he’d appreciate me stripping off half my clothes to face Mick. I could picture Coyote’s grin, the shine to his dark eyes.

I drew another breath. I deliberately dropped the pieces of the magic mirror, tossing them to land smack among the
karmii
. The skeletal hands drew away from them like bugs skittering back from a growing pool of water.

“What are you doing, girlfriend?” the mirror called. “Don’t leave me here!”

Without lifting my hand I called off the storm magic. The wind swirled around me once, the ice stinging my bare flesh, and then it died. I loosened the entwined magic inside me and let it flow to its disparate parts.

I had to close my eyes for the last part, which I didn’t like, because I imagined Mick’s fire cutting me in half like a laser the second I took my gaze from him. But maybe he was curious enough to wonder what insane thing I was doing now.

I let my mind drift, thinking of calm things—the moon rising over the mountains I’d walked with my father, a stream tricking between rocky banks, the endless sky over my home. I’d found my greatest peace alone there with my father, in the silence between us that was serene and happy.

I remembered that peace and the love I’d always felt from him, which kept me going in times of loneliness, uncertainty, and downright fear.

I pictured my father, Pete Begay, with his wise eyes, the kindness that radiated from him like warmth from a hearth fire. Wrapping my senses around that peace, I let my Stormwalker magic and my Beneath magic recede until they were the tiniest of sparks buried inside my psyche.

I opened my eyes and at first worried when I couldn’t see anything. Then I realized that the
karmii
had faded. One or two lingered around the edges of the cave, but with my Beneath magic at low ebb, they’d stopped sensing it and had retreated, their job done.

The only light came from the fire in Mick’s hands, which lit him with a red glow. It showed me his hard and handsome face, the nose that had been broken, his hair hanging loose, his eyes dark in the shadows. He was still a beautiful man.

“Mirror,” I said, my voice so steady it surprised me. “Some light please?”

I didn’t need to use magic to make the mirror obey, because the mirror had magic of its own. That is why magic mirrors are such sought-after talismans—they can work when the mage’s defenses are down. And they always protect their masters.

Clean, white light sprang from each of the shards and lit the cave like a bank of LEDs. The light wasn’t bright enough to flood the cave but enough that I could see what I was doing.

I spread my arms. “Here I am. No magic. Nothing. Just me. Just Janet.”

“Good,” Mick said. “You make my job easier.” He didn’t say,
Stupid human
, but his body language radiated the thought.

Mick squished the fire in his hands into a ball. I stood and watched him, forcing fear from me.
Peace
, I told myself.
Trust Coyote.

“Mick,” I said as he worked. “I love you.”

No answer.

I lifted my hand, letting the light dance on the band of silver, turquoise, and onyx. “I kept the ring you gave me. I didn’t give you an answer that day you scared me to death talking about marriage, but I’ve decided now.”

Mick looked at me, then at the ring. I swore I saw a brief blue spark in his eyes, but I couldn’t be sure.

He went back to making his fireball. “Throw the ring away. It’s no longer important.”

“It’s important to me. You gave it to me.”

“Trust me, Janet. Take that ring off and throw it from you as far as you can.”

His voice ended in a harsh note. I studied the band, silver for love, turquoise for healing, onyx for protection. Healing, love, protection. Around and around the ring they went. Entwined, unbroken.

“No,” I said.

“You should have gotten rid of it after I left you. I thought you would.”

“Well, I didn’t.” I turned the ring to catch the light. “Since I’m going to die here, tell me your name. Your true name. I want to hear it once, even if it’s the last thing.”

“Nice try.”

I shrugged. “I had to.” I lowered my hand and started walking toward him, pretending I didn’t fear him. My inner peace was no match for the terror of moving closer to the man who was coldly preparing to kill me. He didn’t give a damn about my inner peace, or about my love for him, or about the ring.

Except that me still having the ring bothered him. That intrigued me enough to keep walking to him though my fear begged me to run the other way.

Mick looked down at me with hard, cold eyes when I reached him. “I’m going to kill you, Janet.”

“I know.” I knew it, and I accepted it, and suddenly, I was no longer afraid.

Whether I lived or died, I was not going to kill Mick. I would get him free, if it was the last thing I did, and now it looked as though it
would
be the last thing I did. I loved him, as I loved my father and my grandmother, and my last act on this earth would not be to slaughter someone who had taught me how much selfless love could accomplish.

“Why don’t you fight me?” Mick asked.

He genuinely wanted to know. I’d seen his dragon curiosity at work, and now he brought it to bear on this question. Why would the puny Stormwalker shut off her power and wait to die? Foolish, foolish Stormwalker.

“I don’t want to,” I said.

“I’m being controlled by another, and her wish is for me to kill you. I have no choice but to obey.”

“I know. But it doesn’t matter. I love you, Mick, the real you that’s behind the puppet Vonda controls. Because what you and I had means something to me, and she can never take that from me. It might be over between us now, but it meant something, and I’ll never forget that. I’ll never forget
you
.”

“You’ll remember me only for the seconds it takes you to die.”

“Maybe.” I stepped closer to him, looked right up into his eyes. “I love you, Mick. Tell me your name.”

“I can’t. Even if I wanted to, the spell is too strong.”

The ring tingled on my hand, so cool in the heat of the cave. It didn’t contain his name, no. He’d have been compelled to destroy it if it had. But Mick had put a tiny bite of his essence in there, the spark of dragon fire I’d sensed. He’d made the confusing proposal to me and slipped the ring on my finger.

“Yes,” I whispered. I lifted my hand to Mick’s arm, pressing my fingers and the ring against the dragon on his biceps. “My answer is yes. I’ll marry you.”

A spark stung him, and he jerked. Mick looked swiftly down at me, and for an instant, the horrible gray in his eyes cleared, and the clear blue of Mick shone through.