Tide of Tricks: Shadows of London #2 by Nash Ariana

Author:Nash, Ariana
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crazy Ace Publishing
Published: 2021-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

13

The trick burned, lighting me up, wrapping me in snapping, fizzling power. The nearby dock water boiled and steamed. Cobbles beneath my feet glowed like bubbles of lava. The cards in my pocket sang their sweet, psychic song, and for the first time in forever, I was right where I was supposed to be. The ancient Victorian docklands hummed with the trauma of countless psychic burns, as though the streets, the docks, the old cranes, and even the river were artifacts—all connected by the trick. London breathed beneath my feet.

We were told not to use it, to control, to hide it, to shackle it and deny it. To pretend it wasn’t a part of who we were. And maybe that was why I’d always felt lost. But here, now, I didn’t feel lost anymore. I was a part of London, and London was a part of me.

Fire burst through my shoulder a second before hearing the gunshot. The trick snapped, recoiling and retracting, slapped by shock.

“Dom…” Hollywood said.

He walked closer, so dark against the light I cast. A hand out, he seemed to be asking for my surrender, but he had a gun aimed at me. He shot latents, didn’t he. I’d seen him execute one right on front of me. Was this my time?

“Dom, you know me, right? You’re not thinking clearly. This isn’t you.”

He said a lot of words, but none of them were important.

Closer, he came. A black hole that I couldn’t see around. Dark hair, dark eyes, dark clothes. I could light him up and watch him burn.

“Dom, that voice in your head, telling you to let go, that voice isn’t yours. You know what this is, right? Artifacts, memories, psychic trauma. You’ve been carrying it around and your control has slipped. It’s all right… You can get control back.”

“Why the fuck would I do that when this feels so much better.” I heard myself, heard the insanity, but couldn’t stop it. Didn’t want to stop it.

My arm throbbed hot and wet. I clutched it, trying to wrestle the distraction away, but its beat was persistent and it fucking hurt. Only now I realized that Hollywood had shot me.

“Dom, listen…” He wet his lips. “Kempthorne is on the way.”

“I don’t need him.” Fiery agony blazed behind my eyes. Ah, fuck. Pain dropped me to my knees. The trick spluttered, its focus splitting, scattering. I was losing it. Losing parts of me. Coming undone. But I wasn’t all gone yet. The pain helped. It was real. Solid. The trick didn’t like it.

Hollywood was close now. He knelt on the cobbles, steam rising around him. “Dom. Listen to me. They’re going to want to take you away for this.”

Icy panic joined the heated beat of the bullet wound in my arm. Unstable. Oh Christ, I’d lost it. I had some control back now, but I’d lost it. “They should.”

“Maybe… I might be able to buy you some time, and when Kempthorne gets here, he can help you.”

I just

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