Chapter 42
When Malek woke up, all he saw was gold.
Natasha’s mouth moved above him and formed the shape of his name, but nothing came out.
Katja’s blond hair appeared next, followed by Ultima’s pointed heel.
Pain ripped through Malek’s side and he sprang to a sitting position, only to be assaulted by nausea again.
“Get up, get up,” Ultima said, tugging on his sleeve. “We need to get to the bus right now.”
Malek’s vision blurred as Katja and Natasha appeared on either side of him.
On the count of three, they lifted all of his weight and ushered him past the piles of rocks that used to be gargoyles.
William opened the bus doors and helped him into a seat before sitting behind the wheel again.
After Ultima rolled on, she barked orders at William as he pulled out of the lot and tore down the Montréal street.
Malek blinked. He remembered the scene in pieces, like a series of photographs.
He hadn’t fully passed out after the rock hit his head, but had flickered in and out of consciousness.
Caspar yelled. Caspar fell down. Blood. The screech of a car door as they tore him away, and nothing but stones piling up as brass hit the gargoyles over and over again.
When Malek remembered the painting in Odafin’s office depicting the perfect union, he felt like half a person again.
“Where is he?” Malek asked, finally forming words. “Caspar?”
“We… we have no idea.” Katja glanced at her phone, frantically typing more messages. “Your crown is gone, too. It was with Caspar, wasn’t it?”
Malek tried to quell the rage inside of him.
All that hard work was for nothing. Worse than nothing, because now Caspar was gone with his crown, and there wasn’t any way of finding out where he’d gone or who had taken him.
The momentary power Malek had felt flow through his veins was replaced by fear and panic.
When he touched the back of his neck, he felt the dried blood give way as fresh blood flowed, as if he’d been struck again.
“We got the gargoyles,” Natasha said. “We all had brass from the hotel. But the car was too fast. They got him, but left you. So it has to be the Chaos Mages. Right? They want his eye?”
“It must be,” Malek said. “But I don’t know where they are.”
“I caught half the license plate,” Ultima said. “I’m feeding the info to Jocasta now.”
Malek was about to kiss her for being so observant when he heard a voice yelling at the top of its lungs. Malek, Malek, Malek.
Malek nearly cried out with joy. He touched his temple and closed his eyes, listening to Caspar’s chant.
“What’s wrong?” Katja asked.
“He’s here. He’s alive. He’s got the ring on.
” The bus grew quiet as Malek focused again on the sound and the direction it came from.
He envisioned the gold from the crown and the purple he and Caspar made in bed together, and imagined those colours spilling out and flowing toward Caspar’s location.
His attention was keen, focused, and sharper than it had ever been before.
Malek, Malek.
“Turn left.”
William did as Malek asked. Malek opened his eyes, only to glimpse the flickering streetlamps and the cars on the road.
No one seemed to be chasing them from the party.
Malek ran a hand through his hair and assessed their location.
They were moving out of Montréal and its jagged landscape and into the open countryside.
Malek. Malek.
“Keep left.”
“Are we leaving the city?” Katja asked. “How far could they get?”
“I’m still working on the license plate,” Ultima said. She began explaining Jocasta’s plan of action, but Malek tuned it out when he heard his name again and again, like a heartbeat echoing through his body.
“Why would the Mages take my crown?” Malek asked, hoping for any kind of answer. “It’s not fair.”
“None of this is fair,” Katja said. “Two djinns are always better than one. We’re walking into another trap.”
“I know,” Ultima said. “But we got through one. I like those odds.”
Malek went quiet, hoping to hear and coax out more from Caspar.
He didn’t care if this was a trap, he’d go and get Caspar.
He’d do anything for him—including giving up all of his own items to ensure his safe return—and without knowing all the facets of the enemy they faced, Malek’s feelings were dangerous.
“Fucking hell.” Ultima’s curses brought Malek back to the present. “Jocasta’s stuck in traffic.”
“Really?” William asked. “There’s nothing here.”
“The banquet. She’s jammed up there.” Ultima slapped her wheelchair in anger. “Everything is so ill-timed. Everything is just so—”
“No, this was planned. This was timed, almost down to the last minute. They timed it better than us, too.” Malek rubbed his temples, though pain flowed through him.
This was more than just some Chaos Mage with a vendetta against Caspar.
Someone had followed them, and that person knew about the jewels. How many people knew?
There had to be someone else behind this—someone controlling the El-Mohtars from the start.
Except that Caspar’s parents hadn’t always been El-Mohtars. They had been the Nassirs when they lived in Scarborough.
“Natasha,” Malek called to her. “Have you ever run into any deals with Nassirs? Any spelling is relevant.”
“Um. Probably? That’s a common name.”
“But did any combination of names appear more than once?” Malek pressed. When Natasha brought out her phone and started to search, he went on. “We know Cosner’s company bought Caspar’s parents’ grocery store, but what about their house?”
“My dad bought it, then we sold it. But it’s all different names.”
“But now it’s been sold again, right? So who bought it?”
“Oh.” Natasha stared at her phone for a long time. “Shit.”
“What?”
“The recent house closing hadn’t happened until early yesterday. And it was bought by a developing company that’s owned by Lawrence Swanson.”
“What’s the connection there?” Ultima asked.
“He’s dead,” Katja said. “He was Anthony’s father. Anthony was Caspar’s best friend.”
“And the firm that Anthony interned at closed the first deal with the grocery store. Then the house.” Natasha’s face grew pale as she continued to read.
“Every single time Anthony has switched firms, his company has closed a house that then had an estate sale. Oh, God. Anthony even has an auctioneering license. Fuck.” Natasha slammed her fingers into the keys, desperately typing and trying to trace everything. “I’m sorry. I had no idea. I had—”
“None of us did,” Katja said. “Chaz checked Anthony out early on in the investigation. Tailed him for a week and a half. All he did was work. We wrote him off. Whatever he’s been doing, he’s existed under the radar for years, and only kicked his plan into action now.”
“The eye,” Malek said. “It all started with his fucking eye. Anthony set it up.”
“And now this Anthony guy has Caspar?” William asked. “Is that where we’re going?”
Malek nodded, but he couldn’t say much else.
The voice had gone quiet. His heart’s hammering replaced the chant in his mind.
Anthony couldn’t kill Caspar, right? No, no.
He needed him alive for the wishes, and he needed Malek to be there in order for the whole plan to work.
Malek rested easy, at least momentarily, that they weren’t going to walk into a bloodbath.
They were going to be the ones who started it.
“Where am I going?” William asked after a moment of tense silence.
No one answered.
When they passed a green sign that announced land recently purchased by Swanson Company, Natasha met Malek’s eyes and nodded.
Malek didn’t hear the voice anymore, but he knew that was where they should go.
William understood, and flicked on the bus’s blinker as he merged into the next lane.
They hit a gravel road soon enough. Their headlights washed across the glass building in the distance, tucked in the middle of a construction site.
“Turn off your headlights,” Ultima said. “They’ll see us coming.”
“They know we’re coming,” Natasha said. “They’re counting on it.”
“Still. Let’s at least pretend we’re trying to be incognito.”
William did as Ultima asked and flicked off his headlights. The darkness around them made Malek shudder as he remembered the Summerland. It wasn’t a bad place, really. He was sure, if he and Caspar were both tossed there, they could find one another through the white noise.
The bus slowed down as they got closer and closer.
Everyone on the bus appeared restless, while Malek felt calm.
He thought of his grandmother’s words, Katja’s, Jocasta’s, and even Twigs’s advice.
All the women he loved and cared for stacked up in his mind, and he felt as if he’d grown another six feet.
He could do this; he just had to play all of his cards right.
As William parked the bus a couple feet away from the front entrance, Malek turned to his friends.
“Does everyone have a weapon?”
“Does a sacrificial dagger work?” Katja said. “Used mostly for rituals, but—”
“It’ll do. Natasha?”
She held up her brass knuckles. “An oldie but a goodie. That’s it.”
William rolled up his suit leg and took out a switch blade from his shoe. He tossed it to Natasha and then grabbed another one from the other shoe. Ultima made a pleased sound, but soon grew serious as Malek’s gaze fell on her.
“Don’t tell anyone,” she said as she knocked down a compartment from her wheelchair control panel and took out a handgun. “But I’m always packing.”
Malek nodded his approval. “You really do need to meet Jocasta.”
Everyone on the bus barely laughed. Malek glanced down at his fists, which were his only weapons—other than maybe his words or the love he had for Caspar flowing through him.
“Okay, everyone, this is good,” Malek said. “Do you all trust me?”
They all nodded. Not even Ultima said anything to counter him.
“Good. I have a plan. Listen close, because I think we’re only going to get one shot.”