Druid Bond Read online

  “Try to keep your feet,” I warned my teammates.

  I’d been channeling ley energy into my mental prism, and now I released it with a shouted, “Respingere!”

  The energy gathered briefly in my shield before pulsing away in a low and potent whump. The wave spanned the field and slammed into the rear merfolk, sending them tumbling. The pulse took down the next line too, but petered out before reaching those in the lead. I stumbled from the kickback and heard Malachi go down behind me. Probably just as well. Now that we were closing in, I wanted him well back.

  As Seay continued to fire bolts, I eyed the thin strip of beach.

  Need to build a seawall high enough and strong enough to hold them…

  I was gathering power for a massive invocation when the weedy beach grass began to twist and climb. Jordan had beat me to it, I realized. The grass snagged the first arriving creatures, twining around their tails and arms as it continued to grow. The creatures slashed back with taloned hands.

  A moment later, I spotted our druid teammate. Still in raven form, he was ten feet above the creatures. Magic warped the air as he shifted back to human. He landed on knee and quarterstaff, his reconstituted cloak billowing out to the sides. Badass, sure, but he was also right in the mers’ midst.

  “What’s he doing?” Gorgantha asked.

  Being reckless as fuck, I thought in annoyance.

  Jordan ducked beneath a swiping hand and brought up his quarterstaff. It struck the mercreature’s chin in a savage uppercut. Druidic energy discharged, sending the creature flying back. More of them closed in, though, the monsters at least a foot taller than Jordan, not to mention twice as massive. Even with his grass animation as backup, the fool wasn’t going to be able to take them all.

  “I’m going in,” I shouted.

  “We’ll be close behind,” Gorgantha replied, no doubt recognizing the developing shit show for what it was.

  I narrowed my wedge-shaped protection, aimed my sword behind me, and shouted “Forza dura!” The force that rocketed down the blade sent me airborne, arcing toward the mass of merfolk. As I landed, my shielded form plowed into them, flattening some and battering others. I came to a skidding stop beside Jordan.

  “How about some coordination next time?” I asked.

  “I kept them from reaching the water, didn’t I?”

  Jordan struck another creature, brought his staff up, and drove it into the stomach of a third with a back thrust. I had to admit, he was handy with the thing. But that didn’t change the fact he’d gone off half-cocked, literally dropping into the middle of danger and forcing the rest of us to do the same.

  “That remains to be seen,” I replied.

  “Behind you,” he said.

  A merfolk’s spear slashed my shielded body. Twisting, I countered with a sword plunge and banishment invocation. The mer slumped as it gave up its infernal essence in a burst of light and shadow. Planting a boot against the monster’s hip, I withdrew the blade and shoved its gargantuan body away.

  I hated dispatching them like this, but attempting to restore their souls would have required a trip to the Below—suicidal in itself—as well as magic far beyond my abilities. Even then, there were no guarantees.

  “Nice one,” Jordan said as I banished another mercreature.

  Despite his earlier outrage over the dead merfolk, the druid wasn’t holding back. Quarterstaff blows sent his attackers flying and stumbling into his animation. Upon cocooning them, the sharp grasses circled necks and squeezed until heads came off in gouts of glistening black blood.

  “Not doing too badly yourself,” I grunted.

  Fae light burst over the beach as Seay targeted the mercreatures attempting to skirt Jordan’s writhing wall. And now Gorgantha entered the fray, her punches landing like sledgehammer blows.

  “Anyone seen Finn?” she called.

  He was the only one of the possessed group of merfolk who hadn’t taken on monstrous form according to Gorgantha, but I hadn’t seen any normal mers besides her and her pod. I answered in the negative along with the others.

  I dispatched another mercreature, then turned in time to see one rake Jordan’s stomach, tearing away strips of cloak. Shouting in pain, Jordan took out the creature’s tail with a staff sweep, then brought the staff’s thick end down with both hands. The magic he’d gathered annihilated the creature’s head.

  But Jordan was hurt. He staggered back, a hand to his bleeding gut, and landed on the seat of his pants.

  I rushed toward him, but he jabbed his staff toward the water. “Stop them!”

  Injured, Jordan couldn’t maintain his animation. The remaining mercreatures were already beyond the collapsing wall and diving into the harbor. Shaping energy as fast as I could speak, I attempted to box the creatures in the shallows. But the salt water kept the energy from bonding into anything solid. I swore as mercreatures broke through the fragile manifestation.

  “Stay cool,” Gorgantha said as she thudded past me. “We got ’em.”

  “Wait!” I shouted, but she was already submerging into the harbor beneath a foamy splash.

  I cast a ball of light over the waters to see what was going on. Like many of the smaller harbors around the city, this one had been abandoned in the wake of the Crash. Skeletal docks jutted out a few feet before turning to naked pilings. Abandoned boats, smashed by successions of storms, fed great bobbing banks of detritus.

  Just under the water’s surface, I caught the torpedo-like motion of the mercreatures, their thick bodies pushing up humps of water as they sped away. Gorgantha was behind them, legs and tail kicking in unison, but I couldn’t tell if she was gaining. Ahead, another swell was arriving to meet the creatures: Gorgantha’s pod.

  The opposing forces collided, and the waters churned with battle.

  The itch on my toe started up again as I realized there was nothing I could do but watch.

  Seay came up beside me, golden light licking around her hands. “I’d take a shot, but I don’t know who’s who.”

  “Gorgantha’s pod has numbers,” I said, trying to reassure both of us.

  I turned to check on Jordan. He was still down, but he’d managed to open his pouch of healing herbs. Malachi was beside him, moving the rags of shirt away from the wound. Fortunately, druids were powerful healers. I’d offer my own help, of course, but I first had to know Gorgantha was all right.

  In the harbor, the frothing water was darkening with what must have been blood. Merfolk? Mercreature? I began pacing the shore, the itch on my toe growing more and more maddening. Then, as quickly as it had begun, the churning settled.

  “Gorgantha?” I called into our communication system.

  No answer.

  I hadn’t known her or any of the Upholders long, but we were bonded. Not just by our sigils but by a common need to purge the demonic invasion from our communities, our lives. For them, it was the Strangers. For me, Arnaud. We couldn’t fail on our first outing.

  I watched for her to surface. I needed her to surface.

  “Croft,” a sputtering voice called.

  I stepped from Seay and ran down to the water. Gorgantha’s head had broken the surface, but closer to shore than I’d been expecting. She was swimming so slowly I figured she’d been injured. But then I realized she was dragging something behind her. Several merfolk swam up and helped her with the load.

  “Is everyone all right?” I called.

  “Those jokers put up a helluva fight,” she said. “But yeah.”

  When she and the others emerged from the water, I could see their battle wounds. Raked and gouged flesh seeped thick, clear blood. I also saw that they were carrying another merfolk. He was smaller than them, leanly muscled. The orbs of his eyes stared skyward, while black blood oozed from an earhole.

  Hurt teammate?

  Gorgantha dropped the merfolk at my feet. “Meet Finn,” she said.

  I looked from the Stranger to the four merfolk arrayed behind Gorgantha. I was no expert in
merfolk behavior, but their hulking body language told me they wanted to stomp Finn to jelly in the worst way.

  “Would you guys back off?” Gorgantha snapped at them.

  As they withdrew, I uttered, “legare,” channeling the energy into binding the Stranger’s wrists and ankles. Seay walked up, fae enchantments radiating from her hands, ready to let loose. I took a moment to study the Stranger: the maverick cut of his face, the thick shoulder-length hair—a feature that probably looked even more impressive underwater. Demon X had fashioned Finn well.

  But why merfolk?

  “Where did you find him?” I asked.

  “He was cowering behind a sunk boat like a li’l bitch,” Gorgantha said. “Sent his goons up to grab us, so he could work his mojo in the water. Good thing I got to him when I did. My sisters were thrashing him good.”

  One of the merfolk who had been staring down at Finn stepped forward.

  “Girl, back off,” Gorgantha said. “We’ll deal with him when we deal with him, but we need some info first.”

  Jordan limped up on his quarterstaff, Malachi beside him.

  “Are you all right?” I asked the druid.

  “So, this is the Stranger,” he remarked, ignoring my question.

  While he looked him over, I went back to considering why Demon X was targeting merfolk, half-fae, and druids. Why not humans, whose souls were more coveted in the Below? What was the payoff?

  “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” Jordan asked.

  I looked up, half surprised to see him directing the question at me.

  “About blocking the connection to his master?” he added.

  I didn’t care for the challenge in his tone. The others were watching me too, Gorgantha and her pod, Seay. Malachi wore a troubled expression that seemed to pull his face from below. He, more than the others, knew how dangerous this would be. For several seconds I would be baring my soul to a powerful demon master. And that was several seconds too long.

  When I spoke, I hoped no one else could hear the dryness in my mouth.

  “Let’s do this,” I said.

  8

  Gorgantha had spotted a defunct yacht club from the harbor, and she led the way overland, the Stranger slung over her shoulder. The rest of us followed save Jordan, who was scouting the area ahead as a raven. Several species of baddie still inhabited the defunct parks, especially at night, and we didn’t need anything jumping out at us.

  “Are you sure about this?” Malachi asked between breaths.

  We were having to hustle to keep up with Gorgantha. I ran with a stilted gait, one hand bunching up my coat in front in a futile effort to keep the potions in my pockets from knocking together.

  “I have an obligation to the Upholders.” I panted. “Have to at least try.”

  Malachi glanced over a shoulder. After wrapping Finn’s mind in an enchantment, Seay had taken the anchor position, her eyes gleaming with fae light as she scanned the trees to either side. “Yeah, I know,” he whispered. “It’s just that if something were to happen, I’m not sure I could recover you from a demon master.”

  “Then I’ll make sure you won’t need to.”

  “Jordan has his reasons to push, but…” He looked up now to make sure the raven wasn’t returning. “I’m afraid he pushes too hard sometimes, and in ways that could endanger the rest of us. Like now.”

  “I won’t argue about the pushing too hard part, but he also has a point.”

  “What’s that?”

  “If we don’t get a useful lead from Finn, we’re screwed.”

  “There are my divinations,” he offered.

  “Granted, but you have no control over when they come, right? And we’re pressed for time, not just for the sake of Jordan’s wife and the rest of his druid circle…” I paused to catch my breath. “Or the half-fae. I mean, you saw what was left of the merfolk back there—almost nothing. All of that’s important, but Demon X has a plan that involves these groups. One that’s in motion, but we don’t know jack about.”

  “To do with the demon apocalypse, maybe,” Malachi said softly enough that he could have been talking to himself.

  Beyond his dark eyes, I could all but see the visions he’d been having: wars, famine, pestilence, death. Though I remained skeptical that he possessed the ability to fully interpret the visions, I nodded to push my point.

  “All the more reason to give this a go.”

  For several paces, Malachi didn’t say anything. Once more, he struck me as young, and I felt a strange responsibility for him, as if he were my kid brother. When the first slivers of a cold rain began to fall, I invoked a shield to keep us dry.

  “Is there someone I can contact if you need help?” he asked at last.

  “Already covered,” I replied, which was sort of true but mostly not.

  Before making the trip to Staten Island, I’d called Claudius, my liaison to the Order. If he didn’t hear from me again by six tomorrow morning, he was to alert the senior members of the Order. The only problem with the plan was that no one had heard from them in more than a week. They remained in the Harkless Rift, defending it from further demon incursions while repairing the rip.

  For all intents and purposes, I was on my own up here. I hadn’t even been able to contact my teacher, Gretchen—a fae-touched eccentric who wanted as little to do with this world, and me, it seemed, as possible.

  “All right,” Malachi said, “but going back to what I said earlier, don’t be afraid to push back. We can’t let him—” He flinched from a sudden batting of wings.

  “Push what back?” Jordan asked, dropping beside us.

  Before Malachi could answer, I said, “Just discussing some personal stuff.”

  “Shouldn’t your head be in this?” He nodded at the Stranger slung over Gorgantha’s shoulder.

  “Jordan…” Malachi began.

  “It’s fine,” I said. Though I was only going to be able to tolerate so much of the druid’s brow-beating, this wasn’t the time or place to have it out. Malachi must have decided the same, because he fell quiet again.

  Jordan looked between us sternly. “I thought you’d want to know it’s clear ahead.”

  Before we could respond, he picked up his pace to catch Gorgantha. Beyond the trees, the yacht club leaned into view. Even in its sorry state, it would give us shelter from the elements and a quiet spot for me to cast.

  We entered the club through a missing door on the harbor side, where million-dollar boats had been blown helter-skelter or else rested in brown, half-drowned states. Passing through a trashed bar and dining room, we arrived in a large rotunda room at the club’s center. Though the carpet was spongy, the floor was clear and the circle of windows high overhead intact. Rain smacked against the thick glass.

  “This is good,” I said.

  Gorgantha stopped in the center of the room. “Want me to drop him here?”

  “Hold on a sec,” I said. “Just need to grab a couple things.”

  I made a sign in the air, and a platter-sized void opened from our dimension onto a parallel one. The cubbyhole was a place where I could store reference books and inert implements instead of having to port them across the city—one of a handful of useful devices Gretchen had taught me. If only she were present more than absent.

  My hand closed around a trio of folded polyethylene sheets. I removed them and a book on summoning in case I needed to consult it. I shook the largest of the sheets open in the center of the room to reveal a casting circle that I’d prepared that afternoon using copper filings and common glue. Jordan looked at the sheet askance. Druids carried an innate aversion for the unnatural, but the synthetic sheet’s thinness and ability to cut and shape with scissors coupled with its durability were hard to top.

  “In the middle,” I told Gorgantha, sweeping its surface clean with a force invocation. “His head goes on this end.”

  She set Finn down on the sheet, straightening him until he was fully contained inside the circle
. I shook open a second sheet, the circle that I would be sitting inside, and gave it a quick blast too. I’d learned the hard way that stray material could be hazardous. Stray people, too. The fewer inside the room during the casting, the better.

  “Once this starts, I’m going to be vulnerable,” I said. “The smallest interruption could land me God knows where, so I’m going to assign you each a sentry position to keep an eye on the building, make sure nothing gets in. Gorgantha, would you mind joining your pod in the harbor? Seay, I want you on indoor patrol. Make sure nothing’s already here.” Though they both nodded, I still wasn’t entirely comfortable playing leader and giving orders. Especially as I turned to Jordan. “Can you watch from the air?”

  “I’m staying here.”

  Irritation gripped my neck. “Why?”

  “I want to make sure you ask the right questions.”

  “I know what questions to ask,” I said, trying to keep a calm voice. “We went over this in planning.”

  He crossed his arms. “I said I’m staying.”

  “Jordan, this is important,” Malachi put in softly.

  “So why didn’t Croft stick you on patrol?” Jordan asked him.

  “Because he’s staying here,” I said. “I need his powers of exorcism.”

  I held Jordan’s stern gaze until, in a burst of dusty magic, he took flight as a raven and disappeared from the rotunda room. Gorgantha and Seay exchanged glances before heading for the exits themselves.

  “Good luck,” Seay said, flashing a smile back over her shoulder.

  “Just holla if you need us,” Gorgantha added, tapping the bonding sigil on her hand.

  “Thanks, guys.”

  When they left, Malachi blew out his breath. The tension in the team clearly predated my arrival, and it originated from Jordan. Probably for the delicate situation with Jordan’s wife, no one wanted to stand up to him. I shook out the third synthetic sheet and set it about three feet behind my own.

  “I’m going to have you back here,” I said.

  Malachi nodded and lowered himself until he was kneeling in the center of the protective circle, Latin Bible clamped in both hands.