Triad Soul by Nathan Burgoine

Author:Nathan Burgoine [Burgoine, ’Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626398641
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2017-05-03T04:00:00+00:00

*

The air was so cold even Luc felt discomfort. While Curtis wrapped his scarf around the bottom of his face and pulled up his hood, Luc slipped on a pair of gloves and lifted his collar.

They’d parked on George, far enough from the parking garage but still within sight. To Luc’s sharpened vision, it looked like things were breaking up.

“They’re starting to go their separate ways, I think,” he said.

Curtis looked around. “Do you feel that?”

Luc frowned. “Feel what?”

“Oh wow, look.” Curtis pointed.

Someone had traced small designs in the snow. Luc shook his head, turning back to Curtis.

“They’re basically ‘go away’ wards. Weak, but if someone was walking along, they wouldn’t head that way.” He nodded to where the parking garage lay in the distance. “They’ll die out by morning, but…” He shook his head. “Pretty slick. Why bother with police tape when you can just make people want to go a different way?”

“But you could feel them?”

“It wouldn’t be as effective on a wizard. Or a vampire, I guess, if you didn’t feel the suggestion.”

“I did not.”

“Bystanders, then,” Curtis said. “Regular folk.”

Luc regarded the pattern in the snow. He supposed the Families had all manner of standard procedures to keep those without an awareness of magic ignorant.

“Okay, given they expect people to just go the other way, let’s not get caught,” Curtis said. He partly unfolded a map and handed it to Luc. “Can you hold this?”

“Certainly,” Luc said. He held the map out flat. He recognized it as a street map of the downtown core, including everything from the Byward Market, across through Parliament, and as far as the Supreme Court.

Curtis pulled out the small stoppered bottle and a pendant on what looked to Luc to be a copper chain. The stone was a vibrant blue.

“Lapis?”

“Azurite,” Curtis said. “Generally good for divinations, and it doesn’t fight me like most stones. Mackenzie gave it to me.”

“You didn’t use a crystal last time,” Luc said.

“Last time I had Eli,” Curtis said. “He was way better than a pendant. This spell isn’t quite the same thing, though it should give us the same result, more or less. The law of constancy.” He opened the bottle and dropped the small blue stone through the opening. It came back wet, and Luc caught the scent of the blood again, rich and full of promise.

The law of constancy. Curtis had explained that part of magic to Luc before. As far as many magics were concerned, something that had once been a part of another always was. Hair, for example, or fingernails, could be used to work magic on the person they’d once belonged to. Blood, Curtis had said, was especially powerful in that regard. That was no surprise to Luc. Blood was, after all, blood.

“Invenire sanguinem.” Curtis’s voice was even and controlled.

The pendant began to swing in a small circle over the map. After a few seconds, it pulled at an obvious angle, the point a breath away from the paper. It moved slowly

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.