“Yeah. I am. Let’s go catch some evil.”
33
We walked to the spot, the place we’d always felt Dread the most. It wasn’t there, but Lou had told us how to lure it out.
I held my palm out to Hawk, silently asking for his knife.
“You’re sure?” he asked.
“As sure as anyone can be, given the circumstances.”
He reached for the blade at his side and handed it to me then grabbed my hand. “You just need a little. Don’t deplete yourself so much that you don’t have enough to finish.”
I nodded and steadied myself. He was right. I couldn’t mess this part up. I was about to offer up a sacrifice to whatever the forces that ruled Xest were. I would say the words and then pierce my skin right above my heart. If I did it right, it would flow magic. If I did it wrong, it would flow blood. If it went really wrong, it would drain all the magic I had, and this wasn’t the worst part of the plan.
Blade in hand, I said the verse I’d only learned yesterday.
“With this blade, I offer homage. I offer life; I offer payment. Do my will. Grant my wish; fulfill my destiny.”
My chest grew warm, tingling.
I tugged my shirt down to right below my collarbone and dragged the point of the blade over my flesh. I cut just deep enough, but hopefully not too deep. Apparently slicing yourself open was a delicate thing.
I didn’t stop until the line, which was red at the moment, was the approximate length of my fist, or heart. The red that seeped out, which I was sure meant I’d blundered, slowly lost its color, first turning clear, almost like I oozed aloe, until it began to shift. That was when things got really interesting. As I stared down at my chest, the clear jelly substance began to take on a tint of pink, then blue, silver, turquoise, until it resembled the rainbow of my magic. As it shifted, it lost its gel-like appearance, thinning into vapor and lifting away from me in a steady stream.
Hawk gave me a nod as I stood, waiting. Just as Lou had said, it didn’t take long to get results. A trickle of unease settled over me. I could feel Dread nearing.
Hawk lifted his head, sensing it as well. Our gazes met. I tilted my head before I turned and started in the direction of the hill, the last place I thought I’d go back to.
Watching the stream of my magic floating on the air, I kept my pace slow and steady, leaving a lure for Dread to follow.
Every few moments, I’d glance back, checking the trail I was leaving behind.
I looked back to Hawk, who was also watching. He nodded again. He thought it looked good too, and we both better be right. This needed to work. It had to work. When Lou laid out the steps, the logic had appeared sound, but not without risk. I was bleeding magic in a world where that was the lifeblood that kept you alive in Xest. The risk was inherent and obvious from the start, and this was only the beginning.
We’d been walking for a good while when Hawk’s attention shifted from the stream of magic bleeding out of my chest to my face.
He didn’t need to say the words.
“I’m good,” I said, even as I felt the drain. How much magic could I afford to lose before I wouldn’t be capable of finishing the plan? I had enough for now, and it would have to hold.
Zab had once told me that I must be one of the lucky ones with infinite magic. I didn’t have to live in fear like so many others, who needed to budget every day, knowing that each use might take minutes, hours, days, or even years off their life. I could use mine with abandon. But even Infinites needed time to recharge. What if I was completely drained before I could? But that was part of the point of this little endeavor. It would sense my weakness and finally make its move on me directly. That was when I’d get my chance, if I lived long enough.
I picked up my pace. I couldn’t dwell on the negative, not now, when it might weigh me down. There could be no fear, no doubt. Only success. Weakness didn’t win wars. And if I didn’t win? I’d go out in one hell of a blaze of glory.
The hill came into sight before us; the presence of Dread had seemed to keep pace behind. As we got closer, Hawk distanced himself. In the end, this would be my battle alone.
The hill that had been nothing to climb before now made me slow my steps and breathe deeper. The doubts were trying to crowd my mind, but I forced my attention solely on my purpose.
I made my way to the spot that called to me and embraced its welcome, knowing somehow that whatever was beneath me, it was on my side. I knelt, knowing the next step was to close the cut on my chest, finish the offering. I placed one hand on the ground, and as I did, I felt a surge of power within me, the ground I knelt upon warming, and a connection that wiped away any weakness.
Hawk called out to me, “It’s enough.”
I shook my head. He didn’t feel what I did. I could do this, and if the trail of my magic was what Dread wanted, it was going to get it.
“Tippi,” Hawk said.
“You have to trust me.” I placed my other hand on the ground, feeling more positive than ever that I was making the right choice.
Hawk was barely maintaining his distance, inching closer, not that it would stop Dread. As opposed to the rest of the witches and warlocks in Xest, which Hawk scared away without effort, when it came to Dread, I was the only thing it feared.
Both hands on the ground, I stopped fighting the feeling and connection.
Hawk wasn’t moving, not a hair, fighting for control. I stopped looking at him, afraid a momentary slip on my part might trigger his undoing and ruin our progress, and there was some. I could feel Dread nearing, its evil swelling around me.
But as it came closer this time, it was if I were watching a winter storm ravage the land through a window. I felt shielded from the usual feelings of despair that would normally threaten to take me under. This time I felt comforted, secure, as if I sat wrapped in a blanket in front of a roaring fire. Whatever magic was in this hill, it cocooned me.
Dread moved closer, its approach steady, and I wondered if the rest of the plan would go as Lou had predicted. Just as the doubts started to build, I felt a sensation where my hands were, as if I were on the other end of a force that was trying to pull at me. But the connection I felt to whatever was beneath the mound was stronger.
A howl erupted in the air and a vague form of a creature came in and out of existence, its outline never completely clear, bits of its form appearing on and off, as if it weren’t quite from this plane. A large sinew of muscle would appear, before disappearing again, only to have jaws or claws come next.
I looked down, ignoring the sight of what was coming way too close, and focused on the tug of war that had begun.
My concentration was so fixed on holding my position that Lou’s appearance didn’t register until Hawk moved closer, planting himself in between us. He had one eye on me and one on Lou.
What was Lou doing here? When he’d laid out the steps, he’d made it clear this was all going to be on me. The intensity of his gaze sent a strange, creeping feeling down my spine, which settled into my gut, right around the spot where I got that stonelike feeling.
Dread tugged at my control, and I forced Lou out of my mind. Hawk would have to deal with him for now, because if I didn’t put every ounce of what I had left into this battle, Lou wouldn’t be an issue.
I kept my hands planted on the hill I’d never thought to touch again, feeling the immense power beneath it, letting it flow up and around and through me, feeling the tug it had on me and also Dread. It was as if we were in a three-way tug of war, and I wasn’t a hundred percent sure where the lines were drawn. Would Dread end up in the hill somehow? Would I? Were we both connected by this source?