Page 24 of Snag (Conduit #2)

Through a gap between Rought’s legs and Reck’s prone body, Bellamy looks up and meets my gaze. She smears her hand through the blood still pumping from Reck’s neck, spreading over the floor.

A red-tainted shadow coils up her arm.

A thread of essence.

She’s casting again. Using the life force contained in Reck’s blood to —

Rought makes a grab for Bellamy, snagging her by the hair and jerking her head sharply back.

“No!” I shout. Panicked, I lunge the last few steps between us. “Don’t touch her!”

At my command, Rought instantly releases Bellamy, reeling back with his hands up, slamming his back against the wall so I can get by him.

Bellamy’s power snaps out around her, then more of those red-shadowed threads try to grab Reck— and Rought. They slide right over me, barely registering to my senses.

I reach, getting hold of the strands tracing over the two shifters, entangling my two destined mates as if Bellamy is trying to compel them, or … transport them?

I cinch my hands around all of it. Then I yank. Hard.

Firmly attached to her own casting, Bellamy is dragged partly over Reck with a shriek. Instantly up again, kneeling on him, she pulls back against me.

For the briefest of moments, she tests her strength against mine.

I’m the stronger. By far.

But I still don’t expect her to drop everything I’m holding.

I don’t stumble, but under my hold, the malignant essence the dire awry has called forth and twisted from Reck’s blood dies, turning into more ash.

The remaining essence twines around Bellamy’s hands and arms. Thus anchored to her body, it ignites. She screams. The stench of her casting fills the tight hallway, creating a sensation like I’m suffocating.

She screams again, seemingly in utter agony.

Then Bellamy disappears.

“What the fuck?” Rought shouts.

Reck groans, then starts coughing. His throat has already started to heal despite his blood loss being substantial enough to fuel a teleportation spell. Though that might point to the power of the cu-sith shifter more than the strength of the spell or the dire awry who cast it.

I stare at the space that formerly held Bellamy.

I don’t understand how she wields essence at all.

And I certainly wasn’t expecting her to teleport.

Still, the way she tried to twist the energy she stole from Reck’s blood around Rought and Reck felt as though she might be trying to contain or even move them.

Chains had demanded as much from her when she possessed Kris’s body the night before.

For a mage, teleportation is a complicated spell, typically requiring multiple casters. Even for a telekinetically inclined awry, teleportation is a rare affinity.

Rought touches my cheek lightly, calling my attention back to the present.

The thought of Bellamy having seen my aunt tumbles around in my mind again, instantly intensifying my focus.

There’s no more time for training sessions.

Two problems have seemingly become one — the dire awry and my aunt’s disappearance — unless Bellamy is bluffing about my necklace.

“Presh?” I ask. “And DeVille?”

Rought’s got his phone in hand. “With Grinder and Pinky, well protected and heading back to the estate. Piston and Pepper are escorting them.”

I nod, mind whirling, sorting through all the fragments of revelation that don’t remotely add up. “Would you let Coda know we need a new trail?”

“Do you have any idea how far she could have gone?” Rought asks, already texting. “Can you … sense that?”

I shake my head. “I have no idea.”

He nods. “Rath’s called in more of the Outcast crew, widening our patrol area.”

“She’s oddly powerful,” I murmur thoughtfully.

“I got that.” Rought rubs his chest. Bellamy hit him hard with that malignant curse.

“I should look at that,” I say.

He smirks at me. “It will barely bruise. But I’ll happily strip down for you later.”

Still sprawled at our feet, Reck huffs dismissively.

Both of us turn our attention on him.

“You’re a piece of fucking work,” Rought snarls.

“I’m not the bad guy here,” Reck croaks.

Rought leans over, teeth bared in a clear challenge. “We’re going to have words about your fucking Authority agents, who I had to run off Zaya’s estate. And if I’m not happy with those words, I’m going to beat the fuck out of you.”

Reck appears completely confused by his brother’s vitriol, just for a moment. Then his gaze flicks to me, and his expression hardens, crystalizing into a pure loathing. “You just let her go.” His words come out mangled through his still-healing throat.

“Don’t interfere next time,” I say coolly.

He snorts, then coughs. “I can’t stand the chatter.”

I eye the ashes that have replaced the pool of Reck’s blood. Even looking for it deliberately, I see no trace of the essence Bellamy used to fuel her teleportation spell. And the way she screamed …

Reck props himself up on one hand, following my gaze with a frown. “She … immolated herself? Just to get away from us?”

“The Authority has no jurisdiction over anything having to do with the Conduit,” I say.

“What?”

“There is no ‘us.’ ”

Reck flinches as if I’ve slapped him. But he quickly recovers, baring his teeth in a nasty grin as he slowly stands. “Keep fucking around in my business and you’re going to have to deal with me.”

Rought shifts as if to step between us, then checks himself.

“No,” I say. “You’re going to have to deal with me. Run that past your superiors and see where it gets you, Reck.”

He opens his mouth to continue arguing, but I turn my back on him and walk away. Rought lingers behind for a moment, but I don’t bother trying to hear what else passes between the brothers. Instead, I pull my phone out of my bag to fill Coda in on the new info we’ve stumbled upon. Stumbled through?

My first month of being the Conduit — the most powerful awry in the fucking world, according to a sneering Reck — isn’t going particularly smoothly. And I don’t have anyone to blame but myself, and the weird delay I’m operating within.

I still have all the same people to protect.

Plus the mystery of my aunt’s death, even though technically I’m supposed to simply move forward from that without much ado.

And now I’ve got a dire awry to quell — a designation that is completely unknown to me and therefore capable of even more chaos than a normal awry .

Though ‘normal’ and ‘awry’ really shouldn’t be used in the same sentence.

I text Coda as I wander out of the hotel lobby without paying much attention to my surroundings.

It’s not like anyone can sneak up on me these days, even when I’m distracted.

Beyond all the other revelations of the last ten minutes, all of which I dutifully report to Coda, the way that Bellamy reaches for and twists essence is still bothering me.

It’s an entirely internal nagging, but it’s verging on a … knowing .

I pause, looking up from my phone and finding myself on the edge of a small parking lot at the side of the hotel.

My aunt would get obsessed about things too. Bits of history or some essence theory, and she’d lock herself away in her tower …

Dire mages are pure destruction incarnate.

At least for the short time they wield power without self-combusting or being taken down by a stronger essence-wielder.

Or, more likely, a collective of essence-wielders.

But I’ve never come face-to-face with one and not had them turn away, abruptly and definitively, just at the sight of my eyes.

A dire awry, though …

Bellamy has restricted her power by only drawing it from her own blood or the life force of others …

My phone buzzes in my hand.

I’ve gotten distracted again. In the middle of a fucking thought. Whirling the problem, the quandary that is Bellamy around in my mind .

Why didn’t I intercede earlier?

Was I thrown by seeing Bellamy wearing my face and attempting to fuck Reck?

Was it the reveal of her awry designation, or her true face and blood-tie claims?

No. When I need to move, when I need to intercede, I always do. Without hesitation and even without a prompting from the universe. But I didn’t move this time. I asked questions.

I never ask questions.

I’ve also never had a knowing sneak up on me as it did with Precious, even though I also know I wasn’t supposed to intercede in that moment at the cafe.

I’ve done lots of things seemingly on a whim, like traveling to Tokyo three months before being called to rescue Kiki and the other young shifters from a trafficking ring.

But I’m the Conduit now … and my aunt used to get obsessed about things as well. Maybe there’s a lead-up to a full knowing, or a sensitivity that builds —

The two Authority agents formerly stationed at the entrance to the estate, Clara Wilson and Brett Shaw, are parked next to the truck that I thought Rought parked outside the Nail Bar salon. Someone apparently moved it while we were in the hotel, or while we were walking in this direction.

Maybe Grinder and Pinky dropped it off when they picked up DeVille and Precious?

I look down at my phone to find a text message from Coda. The first is an acknowledgment of the update I sent.

Got most of that through your and the baby girl’s phones.

Then, a moment later,

The kids are back .

Their eyes fixed on me, the Authority agents slowly exit their hulking SUV. There’s an identical vehicle parked a few lanes over, farther away from the hotel. Otherwise the lot is mostly empty. Presumably the matching vehicle is Reck’s.

Is Reck staying at the hotel? And if so, why? Why not stay with his family at the main pack house? Where does he normally live?

Right.

None of that is my business.

The Authority agents flash their badges at me in perfect unison. As if they’ve practiced the move. It would be adorable if they weren’t suit-swathed serial killers.