Devon Monk - Hell Bent

So Dessa did work for the government. “Which department was he infiltrating?” I asked.

“He worked his way into a government-sponsored research and development facility. On the surface, it is a testing lab for biotechnology. Everything from increasing crop yields to deterring invasive species. But beneath that facade, Thomas found evidence of other tests. Human tests.”

“Medical tests on humans are far from rare, Victor,” I said. “What made these different?”

“The tests weren’t for medical advancement. They were searching for ways to weaponize people.”

“What?” Terric said.

Took the word right out of my mouth.

“Now that magic is a known resource, the government is very interested in what people can do with it. How it can be used as a protection. As a weapon.”

It made sense. Any government would want to know how magic could be used, and by whom.

“Okay,” I said. “How do Eli and Brandy fit into this?”

“Brandy disappeared a year and a half ago,” Victor said. “The official report is that she died from a stroke caused by side effects of the medication she was on. But we know she was taken. Stolen out of the institution. By the government. By this research lab.”

Terric opened the file again. Thumbed through it. “Thomas was looking for her, wasn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“And Eli?” he asked.

“We’d lost trace of him at the same time. I don’t know if he was taken, if he went looking for her, or if he was behind her kidnapping. Our . . . resources aren’t what they used to be. But our goal, that has remained the same. To keep the innocent safe from magic and the things people would do with it. Brandy is an innocent in this. But we believe she was taken by men who would use her as a weapon.”

“Tell me you know where the research facility is.”

“From the information Thomas was able to gather, it has branches across the country. We suspect one of them is here in the Northwest. And if they are trying to tap magic, it will need to be near a well.”

“There are a lot of wells. One under almost every city,” Terric said.

“And five under Portland,” Victor said.

“Eli opened a gate,” I said.

That got his attention.

“He— What?”

“He was in my bedroom, and after about two minutes, a gate opened behind him and he was pulled back through it.”

“He used magic?” Victor asked. “Broke magic to open the gate?”

I thought about it. “No. I can usually feel when magic breaks.” From the corner of my eye I saw Terric nod.

“There was magic involved. But there was also technology.”

“Eli spent too long working under Beckstrom Senior,” Terric said.

“I think you mean worshipping,” I said. “Spent too much time worshipping Allie’s father and all that experimental tech the Beckstrom fortune funded.”

“If they have gate technology,” Victor said, “then none of us are safe.”

“Which means we need to find Eli,” I said. “You didn’t happen to shoot him with a tracking chip over the years, did you?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Victor said. “I wish we’d thought of it.”

“Have you followed up on everyone connected to Brandy and Eli?” Terric asked. “Her doctors, caregivers? Eli’s contacts, where he’s lived, worked?”

“Yes,” Victor said. “We hit a dead end about eight months ago. That was also when we fell out of contact with Thomas.” He paused, then, “We think Thomas was killed.”

“He was,” I said. “Dessa said he was killed by Eli. Said he had marks in him like Joshua.”

“Was she sure?” Victor asked softly.

“She saw Joshua,” I said. “Saw the glyphs carved into him. She thinks it was made by the same magic user.”

Victor took off his glasses and closed his eyes. For a moment, I saw the weight of years change him. He had been in the Authority for longer than I had been alive. He’d seen all manners of horrors committed by both the right and the wrong people having too much power.

And now this.

“You have to stop him.” Victor replaced his glasses and opened his eyes. There was the iron strength of resolve in his words. “Eli Collins should have been killed years ago. We thought then that it was a mercy to just take his memories away. To give him a chance to build a normal life. But he turned to darkness. To killing. To murder. Joshua should not have had to pay the price for our mistakes. I want you to stop him. At any cost.”

“We should let the Overseer know,” Terric said.

“No. Not this,” Victor said. “It has never been the way of the Authority to kill unnecessarily. It is not the way we want to go forward in this new world of magic. But this is an old wound. An old ill that must be ended. Before more innocent people die. I do not want to be hampered by the Overseer’s decisions.

“Eli must be stopped. He will kill each Closer involved with his closing, and then he will kill more. Anyone who ever spoke against him or stood for the laws of the Authority. Anyone who ever stood aside, knowing what had been taken from him. If he finds his Soul Complement . . .” Victor paused, swallowed. “Her broken mind will drive him deeper into darkness. And if they break magic together, and use it to shape the world to their desire . . .”

He didn’t have to tell us what would happen. Having that much power drove people insane. Even people with good intentions were lured by the madness in magic, the temptation of simply making and unmaking the world. And people with bad intentions did things like start the apocalypse.

“Do not show him mercy, Terric,” Victor said, “for he will refuse it. Stop him before he removes every Soul Complement and every magic user in the Authority.”

Terric opened his mouth, but I spoke up over him. “The only way to stop him will be to kill him,” I said. “You understand that, don’t you, Victor?”

“Yes, I do.”

“At any cost?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“I’ll do it.”

Terric sighed heavily. Here’s the thing: Death and me pretty much saw eye-to-eye. I knew one of these days someone would have to take me down when I lost control of magic. And Eli wasn’t just a poor magic user caught by an evil government. Yes, he’d been used by the Authority and others. But even if he had once been a good man, that was over.

He liked killing. Craved it. If the world bowed at his feet, he would want violence, destruction.

I understood those kinds of dark desires. I had no problem ending it for him.

Victor looked between Terric and me. Finally settled on me. “Thank you, Shamus. I know your burden isn’t easy. Death magic—”

“Don’t,” I said.

“Shame,” he said firmly. “Let me finish. I know the changes magic has made in you and in Terric have been painful. I know you struggle for control.”

“Hey, now,” I started, but he just leveled a gaze at me. What could I say? It was the truth. And he knew it.

Victor was not a stupid man. He had known me my entire life. It didn’t take eyes to see how close I walked the edge of disaster every day.

“Your father was a good man, Shame,” he said. “A dear friend of mine.”

I hunched my shoulders unconsciously. I didn’t like it when people brought up my father. He and I had gotten on as most fathers and rebellious slacker sons do. Really, he was a lot more patient than I would have been. I missed him, but I’d had enough time to know he was gone from my life for good.

That wasn’t what bothered me. No, what haunted me was the thing Jingo Jingo had said before I killed that sick bastard. That my father had fallen on his knees and begged Jingo Jingo to end me. To end the monster he knew I would become.

A Death magic user.