No Dominion The Walker Papers - By CE Murphy Page 0,104
sees ghosts,” Robert clarified. “Mom’s a wise woman. My family’s all kind of cool with this stuff.”
“And Kiseko found this out how?”
“I was reading a book about magic before chess club started, a couple weeks ago. Rob said it wasn’t very good if I really wanted to learn about magic. At first I thought he was kidding but he looked so serious. So then I got curious. So you’re magic? Do something magic!”
“I don’t—it’s not like that. Most of my magic is seeing the future.”
Kiseko lunged forward, grabbing Suzy’s arms. “OMG! Can you tell me what college I’m going to? Can you tell me if I get married? How many kids do I have? No, wait, am I totally cool like Isadora Duncan and I go around having lots of kids but never getting married—”
“—and getting your neck snapped by a scarf catching on a motor car wheel,” Robert mumbled.
“—oh, not like that part, jeez,” Kiso said without catching her breath. “Can you tell me—”
“No!” Suzy held her hands up. “It doesn’t work like that. The future doesn’t work like that. There are millions of different ones, all based on whatever choices you make day by day. Sometimes something goes wrong and a whole lot of the futures turn bad. That’s why I came up here at Halloween, I had to warn Detective Walker that her futures had all gone bad. And she managed to squeeze into the one that hadn’t. So I can’t, like, read your palm, Kiso. And I wouldn’t want to if I could. I don’t want to know what’s going to happen, and I bet you don’t really either.”
Kiskeo stuck her chin out, then slumped back to sitting. “I guess not. Well, what good is magic you don’t want to use? And why did we get you when we were trying to call up a nature god? I mean, because of your biodad, I guess, but—”
“Or maybe,” Robert said worriedly, “maybe her magic responded so she could come along and protect us from that.”
Suzy turned to see a slender earthy figure unfurling from the floor.
It didn’t look evil. Not in the first few seconds, anyway. It looked quite beautiful, dark and barky, with soil spilling through the breaks in the bark. Leaves shimmered down its back like hair, and it stretched, sending the scent of new-turned earth and crushed greenery through the basement.
A deeper, older smell wafted along, too. A smell of decay, of old earth rotting and dead things falling to pieces in it. Suzy thought of zombies, and of Detective Walker’s panic, and feeling very stupid, she got up and put herself between the rising green and her friends. She didn’t know how to fight or protect or any of the things Detective Walker did. But she was magic, and that had to make her a better match for the than Robert or Kiseko were.
Robert leaned forward past her calf and slapped his hand onto the pentagram chalked onto the carpet. Suzy felt a hint of strength from him, a promise of power, but—”Kiseko!” Robert hissed. “You drew it, you have to activate it!”
“Actiwhat? Oh. Oh!” Kiseko flung herself forward too, making Suzy feel like an Egyptian god statue, flanked by two low-lying animals. Kiseko’s energy sparked out, not at all organized or well-presented, but it did the job. The pentagram came to life again, still a flickering feeble thing like it had been when Suzy arrived. Suzy took a jerky step forward, lifting her hands to add her own strength to the pentagram.
The thing inside the circle lashed out, smashing a branchy arm into Suzy’s chest. She staggered, but only a step. Only enough to be out of the pentagram’s reach, instead of knocked aside like she should have been. Kiseko squeaked with delight, but Suzy’s chest felt caved in, like she couldn’t quite breathe anymore. It wasn’t just the hit, either. It was the knowledge that flooded her with the ancient nature spirit’s touch. Once it had been neutral, neither intentionally caring nor harming. Not anymore. Sometime, so long ago it barely remembered the neutrality, it had tasted blood. Been fed blood, until the earth itself was poisoned. Until the very world was riddled with spots of hate, alive with it, waiting for magic to draw it out so it could attack.
It was hungry. It wanted youth, vitality, magic, blood. Its spindly branch arms shot out, growing at an impossible rate, but they bypassed Suzy and went straight for Kiseko and Robert.