Wicked Misery (Miss Misery) (30 page)

As much as I liked to pretend I was strong and emotionally stable, the truth fell quite far of that. I was pathetic. Or perhaps preds and humans simply weren’t meant to be anything but adversaries. Strangely, the idea didn’t cheer me up.

I fixed my braid and strained to hear what was going on in the kitchen. Lucen wasn’t saying much into the phone, but I could hear the agitation in Devon’s voice. My gut tightened.

“All right, all right. I was busy and didn’t hear the phone. I’m coming.”

I was already on my feet as he darted in. “What?”

“Get your knives and all your charms. I’m not leaving you alone here, so we’ve got to go. Something about five more dead addicts. Boston’s burning.”

Chapter Twenty

Not five minutes later, I’d stuck my dying strength and speed charms around my neck, and my knives into sheaths.

Lucen had tucked a gun under his jacket, blades of varying lengths anywhere he could fit them, and had a couple charms of his own. I didn’t ask what they were for, just as I didn’t ask what everything he threw in his backpack was for.

“Out the back door,” he said. “We’ll need to take my car. The T’s down in places, and there’ll be wounded.”

From the parking lot behind his building, I could see a haze of crescent moon appearing in the twilight. Black and purple smoke billowed toward it. I sucked in a breath. Salamander fires. The creatures were born of lava, and obsidian was the only thing that could naturally contain them. Had that been the case, they’d have given off no smoke. So those plumes meant one thing—all hell was loose. Free-roaming salamanders would devour everything in their paths.

“Olef said in his vision the skies turned purple. The salamanders destroyed the city. I thought there would be time.”

Lucen started the engine. “Get in.”

I wasn’t sure which I feared more—the fires or the icy way he said that. I hopped in the car and shut the door. “Where are we going?”

“Keep your head low. There are scarves in the bag if you need to filter out some of the smoke.”

“We’re driving into the fires?”

“We’re on a rescue mission. This time, do try to stay by my side.”

The lanes heading toward the fires were clear. I didn’t want to think what getting out would mean. Cars pressed bumper to bumper. Other humans fled on foot, bike and motorized scooters. As we approached, empty lanes gave way to barricades and flashing lights. Cops blocked any incoming traffic, trying to free up space for the evacuees, and EMTs had set up temporary way stations.

Swearing, Lucen parked illegally away from the nearest cops, and we trudged against the tide on foot. We were a couple blocks from the fires and fortunate that the wind blew in the opposite direction. I had a scarf wrapped around my neck for when that changed.

This close to the damage, I could hear the fires’ roar. Occasionally, between the trees and buildings, a flaming wisp of orange leapt into the air. Salamander teeth or tail or claws would find a target, and something new would burst ablaze. The size of them terrified me. A newly hatched salamander was less than an inch long. The more its fire consumed, the larger it grew. Even from a distance I could tell these salamander measured in feet, not inches.

One of the cops yelled at Lucen and me to turn back, then caught sight of Lucen’s horns and promptly began ignoring us. Farther and farther in we pressed. The tide of evacuees diminished to nothing, and the smoke grew thick. Hot, dry air weighed on my lungs. I tied the scarf around my mouth and kept my head low.

“Look out!”

I turned and dodged just in time as a ragged, smoke-blackened sylph charged us from a side street. Lucen swung and backhanded her with the brunt of his arm. The sylph collapsed in the street, hacking. Dried blood coated her face, and much of her silver hair was singed.

“You all right?” He pulled out his gun.

Nodding, I did the same with my knives. “What happened?” The buildings were riddled with blast holes. Glass on the lower level windows had blown out in some places. Burns in the shape of five- and six-pointed stars blotted the street—curse scars.

“What is happening, you mean. Devon didn’t say exactly what started it. Just that they were ambushed. Here.” He opened the bag and handed me several small silver spheres. “Don’t waste them, but use them if you need to.”

I tucked the curse grenades in my pocket. Guess I’d been drafted to fight for the satyrs.

The howl of the fires grew louder, the smoke thicker. My eyes and throat burned. From time to time, a salamander streaked by, setting whatever it encountered in its path on fire—discarded paper cups, oil pools, a sneaker. Lucen snared a small one in a bespelled net, but most were too fast for such measures. The flaming lizard clawed at the trap, furious that it couldn’t burn it. The last I saw before we turned the corner were its sharp teeth attempting to chew through the twine.

In the distance came the sounds of exploding glass and screaming. They were the only signs of life. Sweat poured down my back. Lucen’s face flushed from the heat. Every noise had me jumping, positioning my knives for another attack. Lucen wasn’t quite as jumpy, but I couldn’t help but notice that the closer we got to the action, the closer he stood to me. My hand itched to take his for reassurance, and I cursed myself. I needed my hands free for defense, just like he needed his. Besides, how pathetic was I to want his touch after everything that had happened earlier?

Screeching from above finally got my brain to shut up about the incident in his living room. Three large red birds aimed our way. I did a double take. “That’s not…?”

“Magi,” Lucen shouted, confirming that I wasn’t imagining it. “Get to cover!”

My speed charm powered my legs beyond the limits of my pain. My muscles wailed from the abuse, but the birds’ war cry kept them moving. In falcon form, the magi flew at neck-breaking speed, easily as fast as any hawk or eagle.

“Over there!” I sprinted for the relative cover of a still-intact awning.

“Not going to make it. Hit the ground!”

I ignored him, willing my feet faster. My lungs shrieked. Too much smoke, too little oxygen.

“I said now!”

Lucen’s hand hit my back. I stumbled, knees smacking the street and my knives clattering. A strong wind blew over me, and I screamed. Hair ripped from my scalp as I spun around. Lucen’s sword sliced the magus’s head clean off, and the chunk of my hair in its talons fell loose.

A distant part of my brain gaped in horror—Lucen had killed someone. That wasn’t a bird. That was a person. But I had no time for wallowing in shock. The magus’s two companions circled around, rage in their every piercing cry. I scrambled for my knives as they both swooped down on Lucen at once.

The flat of his sword smacked the first and it went sailing, but the second sunk its talons into the back of Lucen’s head. He fell to his knees and dropped his sword as he tried to beat it off.

My fingers wrapped around the knife hilts, and I charged. The first magus had shaken its disorientation, and it dove at me. Instinctively, I covered my eyes with my arm, and its sharp nails tore through my skin. My arm exploded in fire-like pain. Grunting, I flailed my arm about, hoping to whack the bird against the pavement, but it released me in time to fly off.

“Let it go,” I yelled at Lucen, who was fighting with the bird on his neck. It was having a hard time getting to him because of his leather coat. “Stop a second!” I couldn’t stab at the bird with his hands there.

But by the time he acknowledged my yelling, the other magus had readied for me again. I didn’t wait for it to get closer. With my left arm bleeding uselessly at my side, I dug out a curse from my pocket. Holding it between my teeth and my hand, I twisted the two parts of the sphere until they clicked, allowing the ingredients inside to mingle and activate the magic. Then I prayed my aim was true and threw it.

The curse hit the magus in the wing. Foul-smelling smoke filled the air, and with a strangled cry, the magus dropped to the ground, transformed into his humanoid form. Black dust settled on him. He twitched once and fell still.

The magus on Lucen shrieked. In its distraction, it must have loosened its grip because Lucen managed to pry it off. The falcon clawed at him until he let go, and Lucen grabbed for his sword. I readied my knives—well, knife since my left arm was useless—but the magus took off.

Lucen lowered the blade and coughed. Blood flew from his lips.

“Are you okay?” I jogged toward him.

He wiped his mouth on his jacket and nodded. “Bag.” His voice was hoarse. I got the bag, and he produced a jar with some kind of ointment in it. “Arm.”

I wiped the blood on my shirt as best I could and held it out. “You came prepared.”

“I brought this stuff to treat any of our people who needed it.”

The ointment was freezing, but it felt good. The rest of me was so warm, and my arm throbbed.

“Your neck.”

“It’s not as bad as your arm.”

“Liar.”

He smiled and pulled his hair and collar out of the way so I could dab the stuff on him. As he stood, I looked toward the sky. The moon had disappeared. No stars showed. All was a smoky purple.

I dropped my gaze, and it fell on the downed magus. The black dust coated him so that he looked more like a crow shifter than a falcon shifter. “Is he dead?”
Please say no. Please, please say no.
Logically, I knew the magus had attacked me. I had a right to fight back. But the largest creatures I’d ever killed were imps and mice. Nothing sentient. On top of everything else, I didn’t need that moral dilemma right now.

As for the decapitated magus ten feet away, I couldn’t bring myself to look. Nor did I want to ponder how unconcerned Lucen was about killing him.

“He’s knocked out for a bit, and the curse is anti-magic in general, so he’ll be incapable of shifting or flying until he gets it all off him.” Lucen put the backpack on.

“What are magi doing here? Why would they attack us?”

“Got me. Let’s keep going. We need to find Dezzi.”

I stuck my left hand’s knife into its sheath since it was useless until my arm felt better. We headed deeper into the fire and the fighting. Flames whipped the sides of the buildings around us. This close to the salamanders, the smoke cleared, rising toward the sky, but the heat was almost unbearable. Gryphons raced about on foot and in trucks loaded with sprite-infested water for combating the salamanders. The two creatures were natural enemies. Regular water didn’t fare half as effectively.

Putting out the fires was the Gryphons’ first priority, and they only paid attention to the preds when they got in the way. They didn’t seem to notice me at all.

I kept to Lucen’s side, and together we kept to the shadows. Where sylphs sparred with magi, we stayed away, though the crossfire was dangerous. Curses detonated all around, and the odd bullet whizzed past.

This was Boston, I told myself again and again. This was my city. Yet these blocks, not far from the Common, looked nothing like it. It was as though I was trapped in some video game’s version of a post-apocalyptic city.

We found a satyr handcuffed by the Gryphons but abandoned on the side of the road. She’d been cursed unconscious and un-wakeable. After digging through his bag, Lucen discovered a serviceable counter-curse. “They arrested me for fighting,” the groggy satyr explained. “But then the salamanders got close, and they got called off.”

I worked at picking her cuff lock as we walked.

We also encountered a few fights that involved satyrs, and Lucen joined them. I steeled myself each time, fearing the worst. We picked up a couple more satyrs that way, including Devon, who chided Lucen for not answering the phone earlier. Despite his injuries, he grinned at me salaciously. Clearly he figured he knew why Lucen had ignored the phone.

Our growing group provided some safety, but in other ways made us a worthwhile target for curse grenades that would have been wasted on only two. One went off behind me, taking out a corner of a building. I choked on the smoke and opened my eyes as a burnt hulk of an SUV careened toward me.

I dropped to avoid burning debris and rolled out of the car’s way. Lucen’s voice rang in my ears, but he was trapped on the other side of the street. I landed at the feet of a sylph. Sneering, he flicked his switchblade. “Hey, lookie. It’s the girl who started this. Your head will finish it.”

I shot my left leg behind his and nailed him in the knee with my right. It cracked, and he toppled over backward.

“Asshole.” I was on my feet before him and stepped on his wrist.

“Jess! Behind you!”

I spun around, but the newest sylph streaked toward me. I didn’t see her arm or her leg or whatever it was she used to hit me. I only felt it.

Doubled over, I landed on the concrete. The sylph’s bony fingers dug into me as she pulled me away from the burning SUV. My vision wavered. Lucen was yelling, and the sylph was taunting me. I tasted blood.

With a ferocious tug, the sylph yanked me up. I fumbled for a knife but flailed too long trying to catch my balance. This time I saw the sylph’s foot shoot out. It collided with my back, and I hit the ground again, too dazed to brace my fall with my hands. More blood. More heat from the flames that felt like they were setting my battered body on fire. An explosion rocked the ground behind me, and Lucen’s yelling took on a whole new tone.