Dark Harvest (Darkling Mage 2)

“I know, right?” He ran his hand through his hair. ?

??Still pretty.”

“Still a douchebag,” I said. Bastion laughed, unfazed. He tugged on his fingerless gloves, cracking his knuckles. I swallowed as my hand reached for the flap of my knapsack.

Bastion and I had a complicated friendship, if you could even call it that. He was always cocky to the point of exasperation, and I never really did come to understand why we never got along back when I worked with him at the Lorica. I did, however, fully acknowledge that he was cocky for a reason.

From my limited time with the organization I learned pretty quickly that Bastion was among its most powerful Hands. He had a natural talent for manipulating matter, lifting things into the air and using them as weapons, like a kind of occult telekinesis. I’d seen him use a telephone pole like a baseball bat, throw a car through the air, and turn a handful of pebbles into machine gun fire. And that was when I was playing on his side.

It didn’t help that he was partnered with Prudence, who could crush things with her bare hands and feet when she imbued her strikes with her signature blue fire. So the Lorica had sent two of its very best after us, and on the same day that I’d hung out with two of their employees for brunch, too. Not gonna lie, I felt totally betrayed. Somebody squealed about the Chalice.

I adjusted my composure, one hand still resting lightly over the dented bronze clasp of my knapsack, then spun confidently on my heel, an eager grin plastered on my face.

“Prudence,” I called out. Gil looked over his shoulder, his face set, but his eyes questioning my tactics. I kept my focus on Prudence, who only nodded back firmly. “Nice night, isn’t it? My friends and I were just heading home.”

She shook her head, adjusting the wrists on her gloves, the blue flames licking at her fingers. I tried my hardest not to gulp. She was ready for a fight. Let’s be honest, I had good reason to be concerned. Prudence was a friend, sure, but she was also a seasoned professional: getting the job done always came first.

“No can do, Dustin,” she said. “You know the rules. We can’t have civilians just lugging dangerous artifacts around in the streets.”

On reflex, my hand slid away from my backpack. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean. And civilian? I’m a mage.”

Bastion snorted. “Barely.”

“You don’t work for the Lorica,” Prudence said. “That makes you one of a few things. A civilian, or a threat.” She cracked her knuckles. “Which will it be, Dustin?”

“Aww, come on, Prudence.” I spread my arms out, grinning, tightening my muscles so no one could tell I was shitting my pants. “We’re all friends here.”

Prudence held her hand out, her open palm pulsing with blue fire.

“Just give us the sword, Dustin.”

I’d been reaching for my bag again, but I froze. They weren’t supposed to know about Vanitas.

“What – what sword?”

Bastion scoffed. “Don’t play dumb, Graves. We know you have it.”

“Look at me.” I gestured at myself. “Where would I keep it? How could that be possible in any sense?”

Prudence clucked her tongue. “Don’t make us do something we’ll regret, Dustin. Just hand it over and we’re good.”

“I left it in my other pants.”

Prudence made to stride over, but Gil lifted one huge arm, blocking her path. Her gaze could have ripped the flesh from my bones, but Gil only stared her down harder.

This was going to get ugly, and fast. I weighed my options: fight, or flee. Rather, it would be a matter of Vanitas doing the fighting, because as much as I knew that opening the door to the Dark Room would ward Prudence and Bastion off, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t kill them, or the others, or myself. I didn’t exactly want anyone dead. So I peered at the closest shadow, and –

“Not so fast,” Bastion said. Too late I noticed that he had been muttering under his breath the entire time I was talking to Prudence. Nicely done, I thought. The two worked really well together, operating on an instinctive level, even. He snapped his fingers, and a flicker of white shot from his hand to the sky above us.

Sterling stepped back abruptly – I was there when a shaft of sunlight ripped out of the midnight sky and incinerated half his face, remind me to tell you about it some time – but the light dissipated. A strange sheen gleamed in the air around us, momentarily revealing the shape of a dome, as if the five of us were underneath a large bell jar.

Well, shit.

“Cute trick I picked up from one of the Scions,” Bastion said. I remembered, too. It was Odessa, who threw a massive force field over Valero’s Central Square to protect the city’s civilians. “Keeps us in, and keeps the normals out.”

On instinct, my eyes went to his shadow on the pavement. There was still a way out. But Bastion smiled.

“Sorry. You can’t make it out, either. No shadowstepping here, Dusty.”