Oblivion Heart (Darkling Mage 4)

I got on my haunches, so much more curious, and still so wary. My hand went to feel for my leather backpack on instinct. Just in case.

“And what special tricks might those be?” I asked, one eyebrow raised.

Sam stared down the aisle and sucked on the inside of his cheeks, playing coy. Then he looked at me again, beamed, and shrugged. “That’s for me to know, and you to find out.”

I rested my chin on my hand, my elbow balanced on my knee. “So I was right all along. You know what the Tome of Annihilation is, don’t you?”

He froze, much in the same way he did the day I saw him at Valero Public. But the sudden tension melted easily this time, his smile going looser.

“I might know one or two things about grimoires,” he said, his voice deceptively relaxed, though I could tell by the stiffness of his shoulders that he still held some hesitation.

“Which makes you, what, exactly? A mage? Or at the very least, someone who knows about the Veil?”

Again, the last thing I wanted was to spook him. Truly, what I really wanted to ask was plain and simple. But it still sounded totally stupid and completely insane, even inside my head. Are you actually a book?

“I’m someone who knows things,” he said, shutting his book. “Let’s put it that way.”

I let my eyes linger over his tattoos, watching him closely for signs of another expedient escape – as if I could stop him.

“I mean, clearly there’s more to you than meets the eye.”

“Hey,” Sam said. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

“Very funny,” I said. The corner of my eye twitched, but I said nothing more.

“Besides,” he continued. “I could say the same for you.”

He reached out his hand, stopping just short of my shirt, and I nearly stumbled back from surprise. He held his hand there, fingers splayed inches away from my scar, my heart. Oddly I could sense that he didn’t mean me harm. Not just yet.

“See?” Sam said. “There’s something different about you. You’re not like other people.” His hand rotated just a couple of degrees, his head following suit, and he squinted. “You’re not like other mages, either. There’s a hint of the unfamiliar. Ah – there it is. Your heart. It’s tainted.”

I sat down flat on my butt, my knees aching, and frankly buckling because of what Sam said. “How could you know that?” I muttered. Never mind that my origins seemed to be common knowledge to every mage in the city, but – no. Sam wasn’t a mage, was he? And something told me he wasn’t from Valero, either. “How could you tell?”

Sam drew his hand back and

shrugged. “Dunno. I’ve been around people enough to sense the variations in them, you know?” He sniffed at the air between us. “The smell of you is different.”

I lifted my arm, sniffed, and made a confused face. “I showered today, if that’s what you mean.”

He chuckled. “It’s not that. There’s something unusual about you, Dustin Graves. Not that this is news to you, of course, but that something is off. Evil. Yet it feels as if you haven’t succumbed to it. Not just yet.”

My skin shivered. Not just yet. “I fight off the impulse whenever I can. That’s why. I try to do the right thing. I have to remind myself that despite everything that’s changed in me, I’m still human.”

“That’s for the best.” Sam extended his arms again, his joints popping, the runes written across his torso seeming to writhe as he stretched himself out like a cat. “As for me, there’s a question you’ve been dying to ask. I say you should go for it.”

I swallowed cautiously, almost certain that we were nearing the end of our very puzzling conversation. “Okay then. Are you human?”

With a chillingly neutral expression, Sam answered. “No.”

“Oh – okay then.” I scratched the tip of my nose, my eyes flitting to a row of books. “Are you – oh God, this is gonna sound super dumb – are you the Tome of Annihilation?”

Sam laughed, so loud that he clapped his hand over his mouth. “No,” he said, his eyes moist. “God, no. A novel idea. But I can assure you that we’re looking for the same thing.”

I didn’t expect my mood to take such a quick turn. For once I had to slam the proverbial brakes on my arcane energies. My hand was already curled around an invisible sphere, the skin at my palm burning as it prepared to manifest a ball of flames.

I watched him warily. “What do you want with the Tome?”

“The same thing you do, Dustin. To keep it out of harm’s reach.” Sam smiled wryly, his eyes lacking their characteristic twinkle. “You – you are trying to keep it away from dangerous parties, aren’t you?”