Dead To Rights -

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I was bleeding before we reached the bar. It should have meant nothing, after this endless day of facing down so much more than a few scrapes… but somehow, after all that, it felt wrong that a couple of cuts were seeping blood inside my sleeve again. Bits of the cloth stuck to my arm.

I kept it hidden from Uncle Theo as the two of us closed in on the door.

The Alford Lighthouse waved a spangle of reddish neon over its darker walls and shaded glass. This deep in the cool night, the mismatch looked like the bar was trying to cover up one part of its own history. The claim seemed to be working, judging from the handful of figures that trailed inside—their footsteps and voices played off the louder sounds inside to break up the night’s quiet.

Why would they name a place in midtown “the Lighthouse”? It’s not even near the river—

Move faster, Oliver.

It was different at the building’s back. Theo stayed watching the front door, while I scrambled around to where the sounds were screened out again, at the back street and its own clutter of half-cleared trash. Here, dimmer lights left the shadows spilling around as thick as the muddled voices inside.

Those weren’t the shadows I’d come to see. My talisman’s magic went to work.

I reached my will into the ether, its mistlike space just beyond the solid world, marked with the soft traces of what had passed by out here, and a tug of magic began bringing those rough feelings into visibility as greenish images, a parade of the long stillnesses and furtive figures here that could be the history of any back street in the city. I searched their outlines, felt the hints of emotion that had carved them into the ether. I only needed each glimmer to appear for an instant, no more what could have been mistaken for a flicker of the streetlights, if anyone had been back here to see them. What this place could tell me…

Late last night, two men had come here lugging boxes. I took a couple of extra glances to study the tall figure and the broader one, and the face of the man who opened the back door for them, and to feel the nervous edge in their imprints. And I saw them meet here before then too, two nights earlier.

Not who I was hoping to see, but time’s ticking away. Besides, the back door was locked tight, and if she had come this way I might have found it swinging wide.

The search took less time than my quick walk back to my uncle.

“Found what looks like some leverage.”

“Good. You go on in, Oliver—I want another minute to search out here.”

He’d need more than a minute, with all the people who could have passed by with her among them, and anyone on the street he’d have to hide his work from. But I only nodded and turned for the door. Theo must feel even more guilty than me, desperate to catch Ramona’s trail in time.

Faster.

The blood pulled inside my sleeve again as I walked in.

The clusters of lights made me pause, blinking, while the scratchy music and the smell of hot wings poured over me. The seats here were more empty than not, but I felt an extra sullenness in how people huddled in their chairs, or made their awkward first steps toward voyaging to a distant table.

The smaller shapes of women clustered at many of those seats, more than I’d expected. Now I had to use a minute walking along the back tables, glancing at the faces on the faint chance that Ramona might be among them.

Tension coiled around the room, one of the most restless I’d ever been in. That was the newest phase of the dread sinking into the city, now that they had lived a whole day with “waves” of unexplained pain flashing over whole blocks at once and winking out again.

Now I had to walk on past knowing not to reassure them that we’d just stopped the cause of those waves. And not saying that it all came from my father and me pushing too deep into our magic.

And now we were chasing the woman who’d kidnapped him.

And Ramona meant to sell Dad to someone more dangerous yet. Theo was sure of that, based on the time he’d thought he could train her in our magic, and how…

That moment she’d blamed us for keeping our secrets close, and sealed Dad in a box of her wards… my last glimpse of her soaring away in the sky with it… I’d flown after her and lost her just hours ago.

And if we couldn’t catch her soon…

A woman twisted away from me. Her face was just a swirl of dark hair, but that sudden motion—

I lunged toward her, past the man standing near her. She stumbled back—

Not Ramona. This face was more flushed, pinched in by jewelry and a startled look at me. I pulled up and backed away, muttering “Sorry, my mistake.”

“Hey! You can’t go scaring the girls,” the man beside us spat.

“Yeah, I know, sorry.”

I turned away. Knowing that Ramona had my father was making me crazy, but we had to search faster.

“I said,” the man’s voice swelled behind me, “you can’t do that!”

His tone sloshed out of him, too unsteady to care who noticed. No, it hadn’t been me the woman had been ducking away from.

I should talk him down, but that takes time. And this drunk is no Lonnie Marsh.

I kept my back to him for a moment longer, and let him see my shoulders rise and fall in a breath, unhurried. Screened behind that, I slipped a finger to the blood on my arm and smeared it down my cheek. Then I turned to face him.

He was big enough, and hunched forward like a round blob of a man, pale hair over black clothes and a squinting look, fists tightening. But I’d seen that pose on too many ether-shapes to think a man like this was on the verge of advancing on me.

I took a step toward him, focusing my glare at his face. My iron and horn talismans’ power sat ready in my pocket.

“I’m not here for you,” I said softly. “Don’t make me haul you in for a crime that’s a fraction of what I’m chasing.”

Then I drew back a step, leaving him with the warning.

He stared, blinked. “You’re a cop?” His gaze searched me, caught at the blood and whatever other hints showed of how much I’d been through today.

His fists stayed clenched, but he backed his own step away.

I mouthed another “Sorry, miss,” to the woman and walked away, and none of them shouted after me.

I’m no cop—I just have no time. I had to force my steps to settle into a slower walk, that gave the attention we’d gathered a chance to break apart again.

We didn’t even know Ramona would come here. All we had were Dad’s notes, four words: “Alford Lighthouse, off limits.”

And the time Theo said he’d mentioned that to Ramona, how his brother seemed to have suspicions about the fire here long ago.

“I never saw her stare that hard at anything,” Theo had said. “Maybe Elliot does think someone like the Scourges were here once. But I’ll bet anything she believes they were.”

And we were betting Dad’s life on it, that she’d come here to contact them now. If we were wrong, she and Dad could be getting farther away every minute—but even with all the power of the ether to revisit what happened in a place, we were trusting my uncle that this was the surest place to pick up a trail.

The bar looked quiet just now, with nobody near but the man behind it. He was short and wide and young, with a dark shirt that read “There’s always a Kevin.”

And this “Kevin” looked to be the same as the man who’d let those late-night visitors in at the back. That had to be worth something.

I stepped up and set some money on the bar. “Let’s start with a beer.”

Kevin gave an easy nod and turned to draw me one.

And I reached my will behind me, stretching back toward where the corner table had been. My horn talisman’s magic caught at the traces that tonight’s patrons left on the ether, and I pulled, brought a cloud of tangled shapes into view for all of half a second.

Someone yelped. I heard what could have been a drink sprayed from someone’s mouth, and Kevin looked up, but the images were gone and their surprise was already sinking back into lingering uncertainty.

A hint of “a hallucination” was the last thing anyone needed after worrying about the pains in their heads today. Still, it did draw attention away from the bar and me.

I leaned in, a fraction over the bar. And I flicked my magic forward, this time in blink-fast glimpses easy to miss, to show me a figure behind this bar an hour ago, then two hours back. All of those samples could be of the same Kevin.

“You’ve been here all evening.” I could have made that a question, but I had to start impressing him.

“The long shift, sure,” he said.

My whole approach here was a clumsy rush. But stealing glimpses might never find whether Ramona had even come here, and I had to know now.

I set more money on the bar. Dropping my voice, I added “Has anyone been asking about the Lighthouse’s famous riot, and the fire?” I stared at him as if I could will the answers out of him.

Kevin’s stubbled face frowned, like my tone hadn’t quite gotten through to him. “There’s always someone asking. After all these years.”

Faster.

I tugged the images far behind me into view again, just for an instant this time. The nervous tightening of voices around them was something I tried not to hear. No interruptions for me, not now.

“I mean tonight.” I leaned closer. “Someone asking what you heard about who was there.”

This time Kevin edged back. His features twitched, in distaste or something like it.

I leaned over more—and for an instant I looked down at the shelves and spaces behind him, and pulled out the impressions of which spots saw the most attention. No area stood out as one they conspicuously avoided, nothing I could hint about to spook him.

“The, the fire was thirty years ago.” Kevin had found his voice. “You think anyone knows who was there anymore?”

“Sure you do. And I’m asking who came looking for that now. I already know you were here all night.”

A flicker of his eyes told me my hints were starting to make him worry.

“And, I know about the quiet ‘delivery’ in the middle of last night, from your two friends. And another one two nights before that. Want me to go on?” I added, to mask the point I didn’t have more to push him with—just the mystery of how much I might know.

Kevin stood locked in place, pale, his head twisted to look away from my gaze. Whatever those visits were, he had something to hide.

“But I’m not here about that,” I went on. “All I want is who’s been asking about the fire, and what there is to tell. None of it has to be your problem. Unless I find you were holding out on me.”

Cold, hard anger coiled in me thinking of how Ramona had used me, just when we’d stopped the waves too. But I couldn’t keep startling his clientele.

“I said there’s nothing to tell.” He pulled back, back against the wall.

I stepped around to the little gate that closed the bartender’s space off. I swung it wide.

That got a reaction. With an angry huff, he advanced to cut me off from invading his space. Was Ramona ever here? She might have pushed behind the bar too, but then what she’d have done would leave Kevin grateful for every inch of distance he could keep from me. Either way, I was losing time Dad didn’t have.

I glanced at the storage behind and below Kevin. There could still be a secret in there to use—

“You’re no cop! Scarin’ us all, I’ve seen real cops…”

The big drunk from before was heaving his way towards me, with a rocking stride that balanced his weight all too well. His voice was even bigger, splashing out around the room and drawing angry gazes and murmurs growing with every step.

All the attention we were trying to avoid. Slowing us down.

The drunk swayed up toward me. And the bar’s corner and the wall were behind me—he’d already cut me off.

His hand clutched inside his coat. For a weapon.

“Bad idea,” came a voice across the room.

He swung around—a fist flailed at me as he turned, a wild swing I dodged back from.

Across the room was the face that went with that familiar voice, fierce and cold as if Theo did this every night… and just an afterimage of ether light flickered over him, glinting for the one startled instant the bully first looked at him.

To hold their gazes for a moment longer. Away from me.

I moved one step around the bully. My hand swung up to slap his back.

And I brought the ether surging out—not the horn drawing up shapes or power from the other world, but the iron talisman making that power into force. All my years-ago practice fell into place with the motion, all of it drawing enough magic out in that one sliver of time. I felt the brush of energy through me, more than I saw the briefest flash of green light or felt the impact on flesh.

The big man tipped away, reeling. He plumped squarely into the wall and stopped there—God, I rushed that, I could have slipped and blasted through the wall—

Shouts and clatters burst around the room. I’d tried to make my strike fast enough, hoping none of them saw that instant of light as anything real.

And I still had a moment to myself here. I whirled to the bar, to lunge in close to Kevin and his staring, twitching face, trapping it in my gaze.

“What did you tell her? About the riot?”

My words made him blink, focus.

A sneer cut at his mouth. “About finding who set it off? We can’t—it was thirty years ago!”

I sagged backward. Of course they had nothing, there never could be a trail here unless the Scourges had wanted there to be, and instead we’d come shaking up the place on one empty hope…

My uncle was striding toward me with his face closed tight in warning. The big drunk was stirring against the wall.

I stepped away and moved out to join Theo, and without slowing we made for the door out.

How had I let this happen? Had all that time with Lonnie and his temper, with Ramona, made me think I could just force this plan until it worked? And there was nothing here to find.

I pushed along behind Theo, drained and sick and fighting to keep my feet from shuffling against the floor. All the people I’d moved past once were staring at us now. Some were halfway on their feet—one man was already moving toward the dazed bully—and Theo glared straight at the others in our path. Figures edged backward, like the beginnings of a wave receding.

But the voices behind us, those sounded uglier, those might be gathering to pour in at our backs… I kept my gaze forward, no hesitating now. We’re leaving, see?

Somewhere on the way across the room, those sounds began to quiet too. We reached the door and Theo pulled it open.

I stole a glance back. A roomful of faces was still staring at us, but a stick-thin old man walked ahead of them, and his hands waved to motion them back.

Then I followed Theo out, onto the sidewalk again. The rush of cool, open air could almost soften my failure—there had never been a chance for us here anyway.

The old man stepped out behind us.

His voice had a hoarse sound, as if he didn’t use it often. “I haven’t seen you here before.” He glanced between us, and his eyes seemed to linger on me a moment.

“Then let me assure you,” Theo said, “you won’t see us again. We never meant to bring you that kind of trouble—of course we’ll leave you alone now.”

I added “And I am sorry, for all of it.” I managed to meet that wrinkled gaze, when looking away would have been so much easier.

The moment stretched, distant cars rumbling somewhere on the night streets. He didn’t answer, but I couldn’t just look away.

Then: “Oh, you think you’re so bad?” And a bitter smile creased his face.

At least he was willing to speak to us. I held my mouth shut and let Theo take this now.

My uncle said “None of that was us at our best. We only came to ask a few questions—”

“About the riot and the fire, right?” The old man’s gaze sharpened. “That has to be it. And you wanted any hints for finding who might have been involved? From years and years ago…”

He let out a slow sigh of a breath.

Then he said “I expect my grandson told you the truth. We have no idea how to reach them.”

“Your grandson? Kevin?” My words slipped out on their own, when I’d been leaving this to Theo. But it was a chance, a chance that after all we’d been through… “So the Lighthouse is a family business? And you could have been there back then—there has to be some—”

“No.”

And he said it smoothly, not suddenly, with none of the defensiveness that would have hinted at any doubt.

“No, we really have no idea how to reach the, the… more than that, we’re grateful we don’t. I mean, you made some noise and shook up Kevin and his big friend, yes. But nothing, nothing, you do to us could be worth making that kind of person notice us again.”

He clenched his eyes shut, and I thought I saw him shiver.

He had to mean the Scourges—why else would Dad have heard a name that ominous being whispered at all…

I opened my mouth to test the word on him, but I halted.

Everything Dad had said or tucked away in his notes, all of it came to the same thing this man was saying. Whoever the Scourges were, the Lighthouse and its people were lucky they had passed them by. Dad’s main note had simply called the place “Off-limits,” even now.

I nodded. The breath I’d held ready trickled out again.

And he added “We told that young woman the same thing.”

My head jolted up, I stared at his lined face, the face that had just said… “You what?”

“Oh yes.” He gave a tight smile. “Almost an hour ago. Darkhaired girl, quiet, with a quiet kind of threat too—”

Theo snapped “An hour?” He spun away to look up the sidewalk.

I stared around, tracking what few people and cars were out to see us—empty fumes of strength in me found one more spark—

“She had a message for you.”

My feet slammed to a stop, leaving me tipping and twisting back toward him. “A message. She had a…” My nerves tore at me, aching to run somewhere but I had to wait for this.

“She said…”

His brow lowered, and he drew himself up straighter, to pass along words he knew he didn’t understand:

“‘I’m not doing this out of greed.’”

That’s a lie—Ramona told me she wanted more when she flew off.

“‘He’s proven it’s not safe to leave him on the loose. And they’re not safe to see at all, so you don’t want to follow me.’

“—And that’s it,” he added.

I gasped “Thank you!” and Theo and I moved.

He strode off to the left, up the sidewalk where he’d been looking, and I broke for the right. There had to be some trace we’d missed—

“I said it’s been near an hour!” came the old man’s voice behind me. “You won’t find her.”

I gave him a nod of thanks for the thought. I could stop and warn him about Kevin sneaking whatever those boxes were at night… no, he’s so sharp he probably knows already. I broke into a quick walk down the block.

The street was the same cold, heavy concrete and walls the streetlights always painted it… dim enough if I just got some distance from our watcher, if the cars and the lights in the windows stayed sparse now. Ten steps clear, fifteen…

I called up one glimpse of the nearest figures who’d passed this way—an instant of three green outlines together, enough to see none could be Ramona. And the next wake through the ether was of a full-sized man.

A car rolled by in the street and I let the searching pause until we’d moved past each other. One of these has to be her. I glanced around again for other eyes that might slow my search, or if Ramona could actually be watching from a corner or high on a roof, right now. We still had a chance, a chance…

There. This time the echo I touched strained with tight-locked purpose—the shape was a woman striding away, the same athletic walk I’d know anywhere.

I turned back, looked far up the block and waved. And the distant shape of my uncle whirled and jogged back toward me.

Fighting to keep my pace steady, I pushed on. A “finger” of my will stayed along the wake Ramona had left, only now and then calling up another glimpse to be sure I kept it straight from the other imprints in the ether.

I looked around again, as Theo’s footsteps swept up to reach me.

“We’re an hour behind her,” I said. “This won’t be easy.”

“So you aren’t losing it after all.” He chuckled to soften that, as if a joke could hide his own concern for his brother.

I added “The good news is, she didn’t find a way to the Scourges either. We may have time.”

The Ramona-image turned to the curb.

And ended. I probed, sifted through the ether, but every mark in those unseen mists was gone.

We’d seen the ether disrupted before. But here, this was focused, almost a line drawn along the curb where nothing beyond it carried a single trace.

I breathed “She… she used our ether magic to wash her trail away?” Just saying it had the strength draining out of me. We’d guessed we might need more tangible leads on her, but…

“So she can do that.” Theo’s head dipped, but he forced it up again. “If she went across the street, it could be we can pick it up there.” He eyed the road, the trickle of late-night traffic.

“Or she had a car here,” I sighed. “She’d need one to move Dad… we can’t see what it looks like now, we can’t go searching the whole street for block after block and….”

I choked down a groan.

Dead To Rights

Trial By Fire

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Sample

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