Page 66 of Magick and Lead
“Hey,” I turned at the sound of a voice to find Suzie standing in the bedroom doorway, a silk robe thrown about her, holding a pistol.
We were caught.
There came another bang at the door. The knob rattled violently.
“Suzie…” Charlie started, putting a pacifying hand out toward her.
But she only smiled.
“Don’t worry, I’ll distract them. But you can’t jump out that window. It’s way too high. Unless…” she arched an eyebrow. “Unless you have magick you can use…princess.”
She gave me a wink. I looked to Charlie.
“Are you coming, or not?”
“I’ll always follow you, Essa,” he said. “Even if you’re crazy as hell.”
From behind us, I heard the final crack and bang as the door flew off its hinges. Charlie grabbed my hand, and together we stepped into the frame of the window. Our eyes met. Then I tugged his hand, pulling him off into the night.
“Call me!” Suzie shouted after us.
The stone on the necklace warmed against my chest as I summoned my dragon magick. The wind responded, rising up from beneath us in a gust that sent leaves and newspapers skittering into a whirlwind below. It spun us around several times, then set us down in a stumbling landing upon the sidewalk.
An old woman walking her dog stood watching us with her mouth agape as we landed.
“The elevator was out,” Charlie shrugged.
Then off we ran, hand in hand beneath the streetlights, looking over our shoulders all the while for Kitty and her black-clad friends.
We ran past a dozen streets—blocks, Charlie called them—before catching a late-night streetcar back to his apartment. We didn’t dare go inside in case the place was being watched. Instead, Charlie sat on a two-wheeled necromancer machine he called a motorcycle. He pushed down on some lever with his leg, and the thing turned on with a sound like a small explosion. Then it was running, grumbling like an irritated dragon.
He looked at me expectantly, but I backed up.
“Come on,” he said. “If I can jump out a window for you, you can ride a motorcycle for me.”
When I still hesitated, he threw up his hands in frustration.
“We have to get out of the city. The farm is the only place safe to hold up for the night. You want to walk thirty miles?”
I frowned at the contraption rumbling between his legs.
“You’re not still scared of necromancer technology, are you? That’s superstition, Essa.”
“You’re burning the dead,” I said. “Look, I can see the black spirits rising from the tailpipe.”
“Listen, Princess. We ride the dead or we become the dead.”
“I can summon Othura,” I suggested.
He looked up at the night sky as if praying for the gods to come and help him deal with me.
“Listen. There are air raid lookouts all over the peninsula. One of them spots a dragon in the sky, we’re going to have more than six guys in suits to worry about. We’ll have a whole squadron of fighters—probably with your new buddy Blaize at their head.”
His jaw flexed with tension at the mention of his rival pilot. I was glad I’d made him jealous.
“I don’t think Major Blaize would try to hurt me,” I crossed my arms. “He’s a gentleman. And he seemed to like me quite a bit.”
Charlie’s expression grew dark, and I marveled at how many different moods could exist within this one man. An hour ago, in Suzie’s apartment, he’d been every inch the poet. Now, he was an ace again. All speed and fire.
