The Undead Pool

My heart pounded, and I looked over the heads of the fleeing people to see their departure had been noted. Suddenly the pass-through was full as Trent grabbed the first and pulled her in. The woman’s fear was heady, and I all but shoved her and her son through the passage. The businessman was fast behind her, but the fortysomething geek who wouldn’t leave his laptop behind and was busy wrapping cords wasn’t going to make it.

“Kalamack!” Landon shouted, pointing at us with a half glass of something clear and potent as he stood. “We finish this now!”

“Go! Go! Go!” I shouted, horrified when they dropped their glasses and reached under their seats.

“Too fast,” Trent muttered, then ran into the car, shoving past the geeky guy to stand between him and the elves. My knees buckled as he pulled on a ley line and the mystics flashed to full alertness.

“Get. Out!” I said, breathless as I shoved the businessman to safety, then jerked when I felt a circle go up. “Trent!” I shouted, diving into the car and into the aisle as a spate of bullets popped and zinged. Mystics poured into me, and I clenched into a ball, telling them I didn’t need to know what it looked like from the ceiling.

Breathless, I looked up in the sudden quiet. Damn, he had been practicing, because that was not a small circle Trent was in. The computer guy was safe with him, and I scooted out of the way when Trent dropped his circle and shoved him down the aisle.

Malcontent lay under the seats in little black boxes. I could feel the trapped mystics, angry and frustrated as they circled endlessly, never growing or becoming. Wild magic glowed from them, making me dizzy. Jenks had left the attendant, standing with Trent to dart back and forth to slash fingers and blind eyes. Trent shielded him best he could, his thrown spells raking through my soul with the ripping feel of wild magic.

Way at the front, the attendant huddled. She’d never make it through without becoming a hostage. I looked behind me as the computer guy vanished into the pass-through. They were still vulnerable. I had to break the linkage. Ivy was up at the engine with Etude, but we’d lose Scott.

“Sorry, Scott,” I whispered as I crawled to the door. The cars swayed, and I stood in the pass-through, flinging an access panel up. It looked just like the movies, but there was no way I could move it without using magic.

Taking a deep breath, I grabbed a handhold and tapped the line. Ley line energy poured in, the scintillating core of wild magic now clear and obvious to me. I’d been blind before, but with the mystics reflecting and exalting in it, strength spiraled through me, lifting the mystics like a heated updraft. They swirled, adding their own force until I could hardly breathe.

“Hold it, hold it . . .” I panted, trying to focus. I couldn’t think, and panic trickled through me until I found the spell I wanted. “Apredee!” I shouted, then yelped when it burst from me in a pained pulse.

Every free mystic in a hundred-foot radius arrowed to me. I staggered, my grip on the handhold going slack as they hummed in the spaces inside me, looking for danger, for something to attack. I cowered, berated by the most complex mystics that it wouldn’t have hurt if I hadn’t tried to harness my wishes with a clunky spell, but just willed it to happen. Dizzy, I watched the fabric and steel cover begin to tear as the cars separated. The wind roared in, and I fell back to the tiny platform. A cluster of faces watched me from the retreating car. The first-class door had shut behind me. I didn’t think I could open it quite yet.

There is nothing to attack! I demanded, but their combined voices wouldn’t listen, and I couldn’t breathe. There was danger, or I wouldn’t have called. Go away!

The wind roared, becoming the sound of blood in my ears. The track was a mind-numbing blur, mesmerizing, and I felt my grip falter. It would be so easy to just . . . let go.

“Rachel!”

A sharp pain pinched my arm. A quick yank and my shoulder slammed into the rocking wall of the car. Ivy! I realized, her eyes black with fear as she stood over me between me and the numbing track. And still the mystics sang, demanding I do something wicked, something permanent.

“How’s the engineer?” I slurred, and she pulled me farther from the edge.

“Hurt. Landon has control of the train. He knows we’re here. Hell, everyone knows we’re here. They’ve got a news helicopter and everything. But you did good. Everyone is safe.”

An explosion shook the first-class car, red and yellow flames bursting out the windows and pulled away by the wind. Well, almost everyone was safe.

The acidic scent of sulfur shocked through me, clearing my head. Shut up! I screamed into my thoughts, and the mystics scattered. Damn, I should have done that ages ago.

But then a soul-ripping silence descended, broken by the wind and the rocking of the car. Scared, I looked at Ivy.