Magic at the Gate by Devon Monk

Author:Devon Monk
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: ROC
Published: 2010-11-02T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“Pike’s dead,” I said. Mouth in gear, brain stuck in neutral.

“I know. I know.” Davy pressed his hands over his face, fingers pulling at his forehead. “I know he’s dead. I . . . I saw him die. But, I swear, it’s so real. He—” His laugh had a manic edge to it. “He talks to me. Not things he used to say, but full conversations. He keeps telling me I need to find you. He keeps telling me he needs to talk to you. He keeps telling me I have to tell you.” He dragged his hands down his face and stared at the curtained window behind me. “God, this is crazy. It’s crazy. I’m crazy.”

It wasn’t crazy to think Pike might be trying to contact him. Shame had just sucked the life out of a Veiled. I was possessed by my dad. There was a flying statue loose in the city. Weird stuff happened around here. But Davy didn’t know about any of those things.

And if I told him, I risked him getting Closed, just like Stotts.

Davy needed to know something, or he’d check himself into the psych ward. Or do something worse.

“It’s not crazy. Do you remember at the first Hound meeting I asked if anyone had ever seen ghosts? And then I made up some story about Hounding for someone who had seen ghosts? It wasn’t a client. It was me. I saw ghosts. Still do.”

He stared at me like I’d just turned into a hallucination.

“Pike talked to me about it. Said he’d seen a lot of weird things in this city. Plus, you know, there are paranormal investigators downstairs. They treat this kind of thing as scientifically as possible. We could talk to them about it. Is there a place or time that he, uh, that Pike shows up?”

“No. Well, the first couple times it was when I was looking for you—using magic searching for you.”

“What did he say to you?”

“Same thing. He wants you. Wants to talk to you.”

“I see.” I glanced over at Shame, who was pretending not to hear us.

“Don’t try to tell me this is normal.”

“It’s not. Not normal. But weird shit happens, you know? When was the last time you ate or got any sleep?”

He shrugged a shoulder and chewed on his thumbnail. “I don’t know. Yesterday maybe.”

I looked at Shame again. He tapped his wrist, like there was a watch there.

“Here’s what I think you should do. One, get some sleep. Eat something. Then make an appointment with the investigators downstairs. And call me if you see Pike again. Maybe tell him to come find me. I’ll be in town.”

“I’ve told him to find you. He said it’s damn hard to navigate in the living world. Maybe I should use magic right now and see if he shows up.”

“No,” I said, clenching my left hand around the mark there. “I don’t think using magic is a good idea.”

“Listen, if it would get him out of my space, back at rest or whatever, then I’ll do anything.

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