Dark Harvest (Darkling Mage 2)

I fixed Carver with my gaze, intent on showing him my dedication to see this quest through, to continue living. “I’ll find the Codex today, and deliver it tonight.”

“That you must do, Dustin. Or die trying.”

Chapter 14

“Huh. You know, I’m not sure what I was expecting.”

Gil scratched the side of his nose as we both watched the compound. “You know, me neither. I guess I thought things would be, I don’t know, more decrepit, somehow? Inhospitable, even.”

The compound looked a lot homier than we’d anticipated. The garden was properly tended, the house itself midsize, and maybe recently painted, too, not at all like the rundown mess I was expecting. It looked a little too nice for something so close to the Gridiron.

The entire thing was gated, sure, but again it didn’t completely make sense. The compound just looked so domestic, and thoroughly unsecured. No barbed wire, even. It looked, by all appearances, like someone’s house, and maybe that made me a little more nervous. We were properly going to break and enter this time, not just slip in through the shadows.

But what really made me nervous was the gaggle of young people sitting outside, maybe a half dozen men – boys, almost – just chilling at the tables under the veranda in the garden. They were smiling, drinking beer, smoking, not at all an average weekday afternoon in Valero. And they weren’t all wearing the same robes or sweatsuits, either, nothing at all like a cult. This was the Viridian Dawn?

I can’t lie. It made me a little queasy knowing that we were going to beat the living tar out of these kids if they got in the way. I mean, I could tell Vanitas to take it easy and just bash his way through the masses with his scabbard, but Gil had his claws, and Sterling hardly knew his own strength. And who knew what Carver would do?

“They’re just kids,” I said, keeping still so I wouldn’t rustle the bushes we were staking out from. “Maybe we should have scouted first.”

“No time, remember? And Carver specifically said he didn’t want you doing that. You might think shadowstepping can let you slip in and out like butter wherever you want, but you never know when the place could be warded. What if you get in, and you can’t get out?”

I stared at him incredulously, then pointed at the veranda. “This isn’t a cult. It’s a kegger. Those are children in there. Do you really think they know what they’re doing?”

“Shh. Shut up. Wait for the signal. It’s almost time.”

I watched the sun as it beat overhead, biting back the urge to complain about the stifling heat. We were both dressed in black, just to make sure the infiltration would go down well, and Gil had even painted a couple of black stripes under his eyes. He said it was to help keep him hidden, but I totally knew he did it to look cool. I was kind of jealous, honestly.

I watched the ring at my finger, impatience stirring in my belly. The ring was a loaner from Carver, and the amber gem set in it was supposed to be our go signal. When it glowed, it was time to activate Amaterasu’s mirror. Activate is a strong word since I wasn’t even sure how to work the thing, but as Carver so elegantly explained, it was so easy that even a trained monkey could do it. “And that monkey would probably know how to throw fireballs, too,” he added, side-eyeing me as he said it.

And okay, I know that I probably should have slightly more reservations about wearing enchanted jewelry that I didn’t make myself. I’d worn one of Thea’s opals for the better part of a month. I didn’t know that it was designed to warp my brain and make me more susceptible to her suggestions, giving the gem a minor but insidious form of mind control. But again, I could sense that Carver was actually trying to help me. Call it a hunch, but I knew on instinct that he wasn’t quite prepping to cut my heart out on a sacrificial altar.

The gem pulsed, glowing at my finger like a bauble filling with fire. That was the signal.

“Go,” Gil said, tugging the hood of his jacket over his head. “Now.”

I pulled Amaterasu’s mirror out of my pocket and raised it to the sky, reflective side up. I stared at it, then narrowed my eyes as I peered at the clouds, wondering what was supposed to happen.

The sun went out. That’s what happened, much faster than I was prepared for. The mirror acted as a magnet, drawing the day into it. At first the sun came to me in faint beams, but those quickly turned into laser-focused flares of solar brilliance. The mirror was heating up, and fast.

“I’m going to die,” I grunted, grimacing as the mirror went from the temperature of warm glass to the screeching fire of a blacksmith’s forge.

“Don’t let go,” Gil said, his eyes reflecting the sun’s rays as Amaterasu’s mirror fed on the light, his mouth half open in a mix of awe and terror. He wasn’t sure this was supposed to be happening, either, but I knew in my gut that letting go of the mirror would have been the wrong thing to do.

The last rays of sunlight coalesced into a blazing spire of flame as they entered the mirror, slamming into the relic with such force and finality that it threw me off my feet. The bushes rustled as I fell flat on the grass, like an asshole. I blinked at the sky. It was pitch-dark, like midnight.

From the compound I heard murmured “Oohs” and “Ahs” of wonder as phone cameras clicked. The kids who made up the Viridian Dawn were bickering over whether this was an eclipse or an equinox. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a flash of something like a burst of flame. The foliage rustled, and out stepped Carver, with Sterling in tow.

“Well done, Graves,” Carver said, tugging on his leather glove. He was still dressed in a suit, the only real difference being that he’d selected a black shirt for the occasion. I didn’t know how he expected to conduct an infiltration in an expensive British cut, but you had to admit, the man had style.

Sterling tutted. “Sleeping on the job? Come on, Dusty. There’s work to be done.”

I scowled, hoping that the ambient starlight was enough to show Sterling my expression.

“Die in a fire,” I muttered.

Gil offered me his hand, pulling me effortlessly to my feet. I winced at the pain in my chest. Carver had actually done a fantastic job of putting me back together again, but I was still sore. Magic is magic, but being ripped open at the chest takes a little bit of recovery, let’s be real. I tucked Amaterasu’s mirror – now gone cold and dim – into my jacket, flexing my fingers, peering at my skin. Huh. I wasn’t burned, after all. Small mercies.

I brushed blades of grass off my jeans – black ones, don’t worry, no stains here – and widened my strides to catch up with the others. But I noticed that Carver was walking ahead of us. Far ahead.