Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
The employee stared at her arm, eyes going wide, her mouth open but no sound coming out.
“Are you okay?” Parker asked intensely, his hands on her shoulders.
Nick pulled his belt loose, handing it to Parker, who wrapped it around the woman’s shoulder, cinching it tight enough that it cut off circulation.
Mid-bicep, the woman’s arm was simply… gone.
It looked like someone had chopped it off, removed bone and flesh and everything else.
The injury looked so clean it was as though someone had come with a knife and cut it.
On the ground, Nick’s spell held everything left of her arm.
The employee turned to look at him and began to scream. The noises in the rooms all around them stopped, and people began calling out.
“Is this part of the game?”
“Someone is hurt out there. How do we get out of here?”
Nick pulled out his cell phone, a 911 operator coming on at the first ring. He gave their location and the description. The 911 operator asked him to check her vitals, make sure the tourniquet was working. He kept his mind on the tasks at hand.
When he heard sirens, he went out front and waved them down.
He passed a desk displaying a dozen camera feeds on a large monitor.
The people in the escape rooms were all panicking, but he didn’t dare release them until the employee was gone.
They’d need to be checked for circles, and an increase in frightened people never helped a situation.
As he directed the fire department in, the ambulance screeching in behind them, he caught sight of a notepad filled with writing. The pen marks had been dug into the pages, cutting two, three pages deep. He snapped on a pair of gloves and brought it back.
The fire department was checking her, Parker standing back and observing with a frown. Nick said, “I need to ask her a question.”
Annoyed, the EMT wearing a fireman’s uniform looked over his shoulder. “Are you kidding? We need to get her to the hospital now.”
“It’s fast.” Nick knew he looked like an ass. Who was more worried about cop work when someone had just lost her arm? “It’s critical.”
The fireman shook his head. “No.”
Pinching his lips, Nick almost stepped back but then shook his head.
“What does this mean?” He held the pad out to the woman. “‘I was made to hurt’? Who made it?”
Dazed, the woman shook her head. “It didn’t want to. I knew it didn’t want to hurt me, but it was supposed to hurt everyone. It didn’t want to.”
She began to cry, and Nick stepped back as the ambulance techs pushed through, their gurney taking up most of the hallway. Another set of sirens arrived, and Nick looked at Parker, mouthing, Police.
As the EMT and ambulance techs rushed the woman out, the other firefighters frowned at Nick.
One asked, “What the hell happened?”
Nick sighed. “Did you hear anything about the station being locked down earlier?”
The firefighter’s eyes went wide. “Are we in danger?”
“Maybe,” Nick admitted.
“No,” Parker said immediately. “This one is different. It didn’t even try to spread.”
Nick frowned, looking down at the tight knot of spellwork that was all that was left of the woman’s arm. Inside the sphere sloshed blood and crushed bone, but Nick didn’t see any evidence of circles that might spread. He didn’t see any evidence of the customization necessary to spread the spell.
“How do you know it wasn’t trying to spread?” Nick asked, watching Parker’s face.
Parker’s intuition was rarely wrong; if he thought something, it was usually true, but in this case, Nick wasn’t sure.
This whole situation raked across his nerves.
Alchemy without an alchemist was more than impossible, but the idea of the alchemy itself as conscious, the idea that Parker could talk to it…
“It felt different. When I coaxed it into her arm, it went. If it was trying to kill someone, it would have killed us then.” Parker twisted his lips. “It seemed tired.”
“That lines up with this.” Nick pulled a pair of gloves out of his jacket and handed them over to Parker. After Parker put them on, he offered over the notepad.
The entire front of the yellow pad was covered in writing.
Stop. Stop. Stop. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I was made to hurt. I WAS MADE TO HURT. No. No. I am me. I am ME.
Normally, something like this would be evidence of severe mental instability, but Nick suspected the answer was actually sadder. Whatever consciousness the alchemy had, it hadn’t wanted to hurt people. Hopefully, that meant it hadn’t spread to anyone here.
Parker flipped the pages and frowned. “Did you see this?”
He turned the pad so Nick could see a jagged spiral. There wasn’t anything else on the page, but the shape had been carved deeper than the words on the front.
“What do you think it means?” Nick asked.
“Did any of the alchemy have spirals in it?” Parker asked.
Nick shook his head. “No. Maybe it has to do with how the circles are going to eventually grow large enough to make contact with each other?”
“Maybe.” Parker dragged out the word. “But it feels like we’re one thousand pieces into a puzzle and just realizing we’re missing five hundred pieces. Every time we answer something, we have more questions.”
“King!” Zahide’s voice cut down the hallway, and Nick turned to her. She was glaring at him, and he raised a shoulder in a shrug. “This isn’t a coffee shop.”
Nick winced. “Nope. Parker had a hunch—”
Her lips pressed together, as unimpressed as she could get. “What happened?”
Nick and Parker told their story, and Zahide came to the same conclusion that Nick had. “Everyone in the rooms is going to need to be checked.”
“Yep,” Nick said. “And anyone that was here yesterday, but if the employee got infected yesterday by Durkavic, then we at least know the time frame.”
“And we have some video evidence.” Parker pointed at the security camera in the ceiling.
“I’ll get on the video,” Avila called out. “And we’ll keep everyone in their rooms.”
“Yeah, I gotta— I’m going to go use the bathroom.” Parker had a look on his face that meant he was going to do something he couldn’t tell anyone about, and he didn’t want to drag anyone else into trouble with him.
“I’m going with you,” Nick said grimly. Wherever Parker was going, it wasn’t the bathroom.
“No, no, I can pee by myself.” Parker narrowed his eyes, tilting his head significantly. “Like, I’m very able to urinate on my own.”
“Parker—” Nick raised his eyebrows. “I’m going with you.”
“Nick, I can wipe my own bottom. Did the sticker chart, earned the action figure—”
“I know it is something to do with the fae,” Zahide interrupted, her face red. “Stop talking of pee and poop—you are not a little boy. Go. I will cover for you for half an hour.”
Parker blinked, opening his mouth, and Zahide waved her hand. “Go now.”
With a look at Nick, Parker shrugged and grabbed his hand, dragging him back through the shop into the small storage space between the yoga studio and the escape room.
“Close the door,” Parker said, gesturing.
Nick shut the door, turning back to Parker. “Is it the fae?”
“Yep,” Parker said. “We need to talk to the Spring Court. Acacia is convinced this place is Spring Court, and the whole building reeks of fae magic. But we need to be sure. If Durkavic caught the alchemy circles here, then that explains a lot of things. Maybe he pissed off the fae, and that was their way of punishing him?”
“Are you allowed to ask them that?” Nick looked at both doors, deciding that if they were going to contact the fae, they needed to make sure they were going to be uninterrupted. He pulled out his notebook and pen, twisting the cap as he considered his options.
“I think so? I mean, it’s not against the rules to ask what’s going on, and I have a pretty good relationship with Queen Celandine.
Not like we’d do each other’s nails and gossip about boyfriends, but like, we wouldn’t avoid each other at the coffee machine in the office break room. ” Parker made a face.
“Your relationship with Queen Celandine, the Spring Queen, is the same as the one I have with the guy in records who keeps mispronouncing my name?” Nick asked, raising an eyebrow.
He’d have to use Ralston bridges—that would be the only way to keep the doors shut while making sure it was temporary in case something happened to them and he wasn’t around to defuse the magic.
“No, no, way warmer than that. Okay, we’re like coworkers that go to happy hour together. Maybe we don’t get invited to each other’s weddings, but we like each other.” Parker’s eyes followed Nick as he began sketching the circles and powering them up.
“Only you did invite her to our wedding,” Nick pointed out, attaching one of the circles to the yoga studio door.
“So coworkers who go to happy hour and each other’s weddings, but we definitely don’t vacation together or do weekend brunch.” Parker rolled his wrist. “Friendly, but not friendly enough that we wouldn’t throw each other under the bus for a promotion.”
“I think your idea of what happens in offices is tied to that sexy medieval show you’ve been watching. I don’t think there’s that much backstabbing in a normal office.” Nick finished attaching the circle to the other door. “Done.”
“Maybe,” Parker acknowledged. “Stand back.”
Nick took a few steps back, positioning himself behind Parker.
When Parker opened a doorway into the Far Realm, Nick could always tell it took more magic than Parker let on.
There was a straining in Parker’s arms, a sharp exhale, and then reality just shifted in a way Nick’s mind couldn’t quite make sense of.
Suddenly, there were three doors in the room. The two that Nick had already sealed, and a brand-new one, opening into the most gloriously green room he’d ever seen. The scent of fresh flowers rolled over him, making him nearly sigh in pleasure.
He was reminded of long spring days in a meadow out of The Sound of Music.
All flowers and greenery and songs like bells in the distance.
A fae looked through the door. Her skin was a pale green, and she was wearing what Nick assumed was a bodysuit of flowers.
It clung to her skin, outlining a slender waist and narrow hips, her clavicles in sharp relief.
“Windrose! In what way can the Spring Court serve?” She nodded her head, not nearly a bow, but with the same hint of respect.
“I need to talk to your queen,” Parker said. “Tell her I wait on her pleasure.”
“Of course.” The fae nodded again, disappearing.
Parker sighed and closed his eyes. Reality shimmered, and he was holding his oak staff when he opened his eyes. Nick didn’t ask how he did it, but sometimes watching his husband made him appreciate the witchcraft tenet: The universe is vast, and my comprehension is incomplete.
“Windrose!” Queen Celandine stepped up to the door. “My courtier said you requested my presence. Come. Join me.”
She stepped back from the door, the invitation clear. Parker hesitated a split second, long enough that Nick knew he was running through every possible political calculation. Then he looked over his shoulder at Nick and raised an eyebrow.
Nick nodded.
They stepped through the door into the Spring Court.