Devon Monk - Hell Bent

She was silent. I could see her reflection in the rearview mirror. She had that reality-upside-down look on her face like when I’d told her her brother had gone around stealing people’s memories with magic.

She caught my gaze. I waited. Would she see the man in me or the monster? I gave her a soft smile.

“All right,” she said. “Do you know why? Not why Breakers tainted magic. Do you know what results Eli is looking for in the tests?”

“Maybe men who can blow up buildings with a single syllable,” I said.

“Jesus,” she whispered. Then she nodded. “Okay, what’s the plan?”

Neither Terric nor I said anything.

“At least give me an idea of what weapons he has at his disposal.”

“If that man is any indication, magic,” Terric said. “As strong as Shame and me. Maybe technology that enhances magic, which would make it stronger. We don’t know anything else.”

“Do you know anything else?” I asked her.

“No.”

“Dessa,” I said, catching her gaze in the rearview mirror again. “Do you know anything that will help us?”

Come on, baby. Don’t leave us in the cold.

“I know what my brother told me. But that’s all secondhand information. I can’t prove anything.”

“Don’t care,” Terric said. “Tell us.”

“Thomas said that there was a man under observation. He was . . . creating new technology for defense abroad and for Homeland Security. But it was biotech. Thomas said that man was the most powerful man he’d seen use magic. And the most ruthless. Next to you, Shame.”

“Did he tell you about us? About Breakers?” Terric asked.

“Yes.”

So that might have been our leak into the government. Thomas, or maybe her.

“And you told your superiors?” Terric went on, pressing the point.

“It was my job to pass on information.” She tipped her chin up.

Jesus, she knew she was the reason her brother had been killed. No wonder she wanted Eli dead.

“Did they send you to bring in Shame and me?” Terric asked. “Was that a part of your job too?”

“No,” she said. “I left. As soon as I found out about Thomas. I gathered as much information as I could without triggering any traces, covered my trail, and I left. I made it look like I was going to South Dakota to visit family, and then into Canada to see friends. I don’t think they followed me. I don’t think I led them to you.” That last wavered with doubt. She was worried. Worried she’d get us killed.

“They already knew where we were,” I said calmly. “They’ve known since before we broke magic yesterday for Zay and Allie. And that building, Gillian’s injuries—nothing but a trap.”

“To kill you?” she asked.

“If Eli’s involved,” I said, “it wasn’t meant to kill us. It was meant to test us.”

“Which means the address will be another trap,” Terric said.

“He wanted us to find Brandy,” I said. “Maybe he’s leading us to her.”

“Maybe she’s the trap,” Terric said.

“Who is Brandy?” Dessa asked.

“She’s the other half of Eli, the person that makes him a Breaker,” I said.

“Like Terric and you.”

“Yeah, like Terric and me.”

“And you’re going to save her?” she asked. “If she’s half of what Eli is, how do you know she isn’t behind all this?”

“She’s insane,” Terric said quietly.

“Lots of powerful people are,” she said.

True.

We were silent as Terric took the turn to the hills.

“We kill Eli,” Terric said. “That’s what we do.”

The monster in me pushed. One death would be good, Eli’s death. But two deaths would be better.

“We kill Eli,” I said, “after we make him hurt.”

“After we make him hurt,” Terric agreed.

Dessa just turned and looked out the window. But I saw her nod. This was, I realized, going as she wanted it to. For a bare moment I wondered if she was playing us. If she was part of the government testing us to see what we could do together. If she had been sent out to bring us in at any price.

Maybe the cautious man would hold on to that idea and test it. But I knew her. She was here for revenge, a very personal revenge. She was not under orders.

“What are we looking for?” she asked. “A car? A sign?”

“Eli.” Terric pulled over on the shoulder. “Track?” he asked me.

“Yes.”

We’d already broken magic. If there were guns waiting for a signal, they were probably pointed at our heads. Didn’t care. They could bring all the world’s weapons at us.

I intended to see Eli breathe his last breath.

We traced Track, the ragged edges of the spell flicking like questing limbs that snapped out as if the entire glyph were floating on water. Pulled on magic. Filled the spell until it hummed a hot orange. Set it free with a push.

It lifted and passed through the windshield of the car, leaving a thin thread of the spell connected to the dash as it pulled ahead of the hood like a dog tugging a leash.

Terric followed it, the spell bobbing or leaning left or right, but never out of our sight. One of the advantages to Track was it would find a route that feet or wheels could follow, not just drift off over treetops or rivers like some of the other less specific Direction spells.

The spell led us up the hill and then shot left, hard.

Terric slowed.

“Is there a road over there?” I asked.

“Looks like a maintenance road.”

Track continued to pull that way. So we went that way. Up a steep hill and then twisting down it, trees and underbrush close enough they slapped the concrete dust off the car.

The road ended at a wide warehouse built into the hill, only the first couple feet of it visible before it was swallowed by darkness, stone, and foliage.

A set of three windows two stories up were dark, and in the car’s headlights, I could make out a triple-wide door.

“Storage?” Dessa asked.

“Maybe equipment repair,” Terric said.

The Track spell had drifted down and was now perched at the front of the car like a many-legged glowing hood ornament. It wasn’t doing anything because it didn’t need to track Eli anymore. It had found him.

“He’s in there,” I said.

“What are we going—” Dessa’s words were cut short. The warehouse door was opening, yawning up in one big slab to reveal the dimly lit interior.

I squinted to see through the darkness. The headlights weren’t doing much more than throwing shadows into shadows.

Then a man walked forward to the edge of the open doorway, strode into the headlights, and stared straight at us, shaking his head in disappointment.

Eli Collins.

“Get out of the car, Terric, Shame, and it’s Dessa, isn’t it?” Eli said distractedly. “There are guns aimed at you that could blow you apart before you blink.”

Terric and I opened our doors and stepped out. I brought the baseball bat with me. Yes, I still had the gun too. Dessa got out a moment after us, probably loading the weapons on her body.

Eleanor drifted at a distance from me, which was just short of the warehouse. She was bound to me and couldn’t move into the warehouse to look around unless I moved toward Eli.

“I gave you time,” Eli said. “A full day! And I gave you clues. So many clues. But have you found her? No! You have failed me. You have failed us all. She’ll die because of you, Shame.”

Dessa stepped to one side of me, pulled her gun, and fired several rounds at Eli.

He didn’t even flinch. The bullets hit the air about three feet in front of him, slowed, stopped, and fell to the ground.

“Just put it away, Ms. Leeds,” he said. “This isn’t a place for childish toys.”