Shaman Rises (The Walker Papers) by C.E. Murphy

Author:C.E. Murphy [Murphy, C.E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Saturday, April 1, 6:44 p.m.

It took almost two hours to get the two miles to the Seattle Center, but the traffic—both vehicle and human—had cleared out by the time we arrived. The only people around were cops. Morrison handed Annie to Gary—they’d been trading off with her and my drum, after a brief argument about Coyote being perfectly able-bodied. “Able-bodied,” Gary had growled as he took his wife, “an’ one of two of us who can see somethin’ magic coming down the line. You and Jo gotta keep your hands free.”

I didn’t like that, after the flutter of consciousness, Annie had gone back under again. I kept stealing glimpses at her with the Sight, wondering if it would tell me that she was awake and faking it until the moment was right to strike. Her aura was mostly flat and black, with only the occasional spark of Cernunnos-green in it. After a while I began to suspect it was Annie keeping herself unconscious while the leanansidhe struggled to waken their shared body. I became convinced she wasn’t faking it, anyway, because it was really hard for a conscious person to maintain the boneless floppy-bodyness of unconsciousness.

I also didn’t like that Suzy hadn’t reappeared. Every step of the way I expected her to explode out of the pavement. By the time we got to the Seattle Center and Morrison was ordering wet, grumpy cops to set up a perimeter, I was paranoid enough to shatter if somebody touched me.

That was probably a good mental space for me to be in, as far as the Master was concerned. With that thought in mind, I tried hard to shake the paranoia while we assessed the damage and tried to figure out where best to set up for our anticipated fight.

The buildings had taken a fair amount of damage from the still-rolling earthquakes. The Needle hadn’t yet begun to cant, but the Science Center had huge cracks in its walls, one large enough to step through. The International Fountain, off to the east, had broken in half, leaving water to rush wildly upward before falling to flood the grounds. Lawn and concrete were broken into chunks, surrounded by ankle-deep mud. My leather coat dragged through the muck without getting dirty. My feet didn’t fare so well.

Wind came from every which way, bringing the scent of burning buildings from the city. The downpour, which I’d largely kept off us with my shields, seemed like it should be enough to put fires out. I had the uncomfortable feeling it was instead encouraging them. I did not, at the moment, feel the laws of physics could be trusted. Seattle was under magical attack, and I had on occasion defied those laws myself with magic.

Part of me wanted to climb the Needle and have a look at the city. The rest of me thought if I did that I’d either go into a conniption or lose the will to fight, neither of which would be helpful right now.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.