The remaining skimmers glanced at each other, and then scattered, Bel among them. Three officers went after the large man, and he turned. Magic pooled in his palms. A lot of magic.
“Look out,” I yel ed a moment before Bel flung the raw magic at the closest officer. Not that anyone besides Falin heard me.
The officer might have been warded against a lot of different spel s, but nothing can ward you against an assault of raw Aetheric energy. It slammed into his chest, knocking him off his feet, and the smel of burned flesh spread over the lot. Bel ran for the river and threw himself into the current. The officers chasing him stopped at the edge of the rushing water, the beams of their flashlights skittering over the choppy surface.
“He’s gone,” Falin said, shaking his head.
I scanned the water, waiting for Bel to surface for air. He didn’t. “Think he survived?”
“The current isn’t too dangerous here.”
True, and Bel had gone into the water absolutely bristling with magic. With that much raw Aetheric energy at his disposal, who knew what he was capable of? Unless the overload had completely addled his brain, which was possible. One way or another, he was gone and the skimmers’ claim on the crime scene was broken.
Four people left the vacant lot in body bags, nine more in Four people left the vacant lot in body bags, nine more in ambulances, and five in handcuffs. The rest of the skimmers escaped.
“It’s a little higher,” I said from where I stood outside one of the ambulances. “Like a cloud around his head and torso.”
The man in question groaned as another pus-fil ed blister burst open in an angry welt on his forehead. The healer leaning over him lifted his hands a couple of inches and glanced at me. I nodded to let him know he was now in the center of the cloud.
“Can you sense what color strands of Aetheric were used?” he asked.
I didn’t have to sense it. I hadn’t closed my shields, so I could actual y see the mottled miasmic cloud of magic, though that wasn’t a fact I was sharing. “Red, but it’s dark, so more than one color. Primarily red, though.”
The healer nodded and turned toward his patient again.
His fingers trembled, and he clenched his hands. His Adam’s apple wobbled as he swal owed, but then he forced his fingers straight again and nodded as if he’d come to some conclusion. His eyelids drooped as his gaze focused inward, and a thin string of energy appeared between his hands.
The string grew slowly, snaking almost unobtrusively through the cloud of magic. I watched, monitoring the curse.
The healer’s gently glowing spel wove through the mist, building a spiderweb of green channels. The curse final y noticed and a tendril of magic shot out the side.
“The cloud is dividing. The new section is pooling over his thighs.”
The healer spread his arms, making the thread of magic stretch. Muscles twitched in his face with the strain, but he kept the flow of magic even until his slowly building tapestry of magic disrupted the structure of the curse. The destructive mist shattered.
“You got it,” I said as the spent Aetheric energy
“You got it,” I said as the spent Aetheric energy dissipated.
The healer’s hands dropped, and he sagged where he sat. “Thank goodness,” he said, even his voice raw from the effort of dispel ing the il -formed curse. “You ever think of going into curse-breaking? You’re definitely sensitive enough to do the diagnostic work.”
“Not real y my thing,” I said as I stepped back, out of the open ambulance door. The healer remained behind. I didn’t blame him; he was spent. Besides, I could see Tamara helping another healer with the last officer hurt during the skimmer bust, so there were no more patients to tend.
I gave a wave to the paramedic when he jumped out to shut the ambulance doors. Then I turned away and headed back for the fence and the crime scene beyond. The police had secured the area and once again access beyond the fence was limited. Which meant I stil hadn’t gotten to study the ritual space I’d come to see.
“Miss Craft, I’d like to say I’m surprised to see you here,”
a familiar voice said, and I cringed. Agent Nori. I turned toward the voice, but when I saw her through my grave-sight, I realized I wouldn’t have recognized her if she hadn’t spoken first.
Nori’s typical glamour resembled her fae mien only in that they shared the same basic shape. Under that glamour her skin was tinged deep blue and her features had a razor edge, her chin and nose ending in sharp points. As she strol ed toward me, her wisp-thin body moved as though her hips were shaped differently from those of a human or as if walking wasn’t her most comfortable way to travel. She watched me with large, multifaceted eyes, like a fly’s, and I looked away before she realized I was staring.
“What can I do for you?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and rocking back on my heels.