He looked at me. "I know that she is practical y your family. But this is a crime the GP wil not let go unpunished."
I nodded my understanding, and hoped I wouldn't have to be the instrument of her destruction.
I waited in the darkened cafeteria for a phone cal . I hadn't been able to reach Jonah or Catcher, and I'd left frantic messages for both of them.
And now . . . I was waiting.
Of course I had to stop her. I had to keep her from finishing whatever magic she was attempting to work. I had to keep the city safe, and I had no doubt that life as a mindless familiar under Mal ory's control wasn't a life Ethan would want. He was too independent to be under the thumb of anyone, let alone a woman so focused on achieving a magical end she was wil ing to destroy Chicago to do it.
How had Catcher missed this? Why hadn't he seen what she was doing, what she was becoming? Why hadn't he stopped her before it got this far . . . before I had to be the one to clean it up?
I put my elbows on the table and my forehead in my hands, and I rued my luck. It was a catch-22, and I was the one who had to pul the trigger.
My phone rang, and I glanced over at the screen.
But it wasn't Jonah or Catcher.
It was Mal ory.
With shaking fingers, I opened the phone. "Hel o?"
"I'm behind the House. Meet me outside. Alone."
I shut the phone again, but one"
She stood in front of Catcher's car, a hipster sedan. The blue of her hair seemed to have faded even more since I'd seen her earlier; it was now nearly completely blond. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her hands were chapped and shaking. She looked like an addict in the middle of a wicked craving.
Maybe she was.
My temper rising, I had to remind myself that she was the same person, blue hair or blond, black magic or good.
Mal ory pushed off the car and walked forward, carrying an oily breeze of magic with her. I stood my ground. I'd expected at this moment to feel fear or regret, but neither was at the top of the list. Most of al , I was pissed that she'd invaded my home, stolen precious things, and determined to use them for her own narcissistic purposes.
"What have you done?"
"Are you accusing me of something, vampire?"
"I trusted you. I asked you to stay with me when he died because I needed you there. You violated that trust twice over."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Bul shit. You stole things from us, Mal ory. From me.
Where's the Maleficium, and where are his ashes?"
"Gone."
My knees shook, and I had to lock them to keep myself upright. "So you could make him a familiar?"
She looked away, but I saw the guilt in her eyes. And that's when I knew this was the real deal, and she'd done it knowing ful wel what she'd gotten into.
"Black magic isn't what we thought it was," she said.
"There's not an excuse in the world you can make to me right now."
"It's unfair!" she screamed into the night. "Do you think it's right that there's this entire body of magic that I'm not supposed to use? That I'm not supposed to access? Do you know how that feels? Wrong, Merit! It feels wrong to funnel magic that's only half right. That's only half made.
Good and evil should be together. And if this is a way to do it, then by God it's what I'l do. I cannot live like this."
"You very wel can f**king live like this, just like every other sorcerer in history. You do not come into my House and steal a book of evil, and then steal the ashes of my Master and try to turn him into your servant!"
"But it would bring him back to you."
I stopped cold, biting my lip to stop tears from fal ing. "I don't want him back. Not like that. It wil not be him. And not if I have to lose you to it, Mal ory. You are my sister in every way that counts."
She made a snort. "You traded me in for him, and you know it."
"Not any more than you traded me in for Catcher." I softened my voice. "Neither one of us traded the other in.
We grew up, and we grew to love others. But I don't want him, not like that. And he wouldn't want it, either." I watched her for a moment, truly wondering if that was the reason why she'd done the things she had.hinot As much as I loved her, I wasn't sure.
"You didn't do this for me," I said.
"Bul shit," she threw out, but the word lacked force. Ethan was a pawn in the game, an excuse for her to dabble in black magic. Maybe Simon was stupid enough, na?ve enough, that he honestly didn't know what she'd been doing. Maybe he hadn't known he'd poisoned his star pupil on black magic, and like a junkie needing a hit, she'd do anything to get a little more, the consequences be damned.
"You did this for you." I recal ed what she'd said about black magic, about people misunderstanding it. "You tasted black magic and you liked it. Not at first, maybe, but eventual y you decided that you liked it. Ethan might have been a handy side benefit, but he's an excuse. Your excuse for tearing the city apart."
"What would you know about it? About the forces inside me? I know the origin stories. Magic separated - good from evil - like twins forced apart." She yanked at her Tshirt. "I can feel them, Merit, and they need to be back together."
She closed her eyes and raised her hands, and magic began to flow in a great circle around us. I could feel it spinning at my back like a centrifuge, the motion pul ing me back against it.
"Mal ory, stop whatever you're doing. You are kil ing Chicago."
"The harm is temporary," she said.
Watching her there, perform magic that felt greasy, uncomfortable, evil, I knew the repercussions would be anything but temporary.
"This wil fix things," she said.
"This wil destroy things," I corrected.
But as the magic surrounded us in a tighter and tighter spiral - the centrifugal force pushing the air from my lungs
- she shook her head.
"I am tired of worrying about what everyone else wants.
You. Catcher. Simon. I was not responsible for the separation of good and evil. But I wil be responsible for closing the loop. Stop being so goddamned shortsighted."
I tried my final strategy. "Mal ory, I've been dreaming about Ethan. You've been hurting him. And if you finish this spel , if you set the city on fire, it wil be me and the rest of the Houses that pay for it."
She smiled a little sadly. "Honey, by then, I'l be long gone."
She lifted her arms, and the magic squeezed into a knot.
My vision dimmed at the edges, and then went dark completely.
For the second time in a year, my best friend in the world knocked me out cold.