Magic - Chapter 21

This is the second book in The Godsverse Chronicles, a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.

Ollie wasn't looking for trouble, but after she saved the Antichrist from being slaughtered, it came for her.

Ollie lived by one rule. Never get involved with anyone for any reason; humans, demons, fae folk, it didn't matter. They were all trouble. Keeping her distance was how she survived in the criminal underworld for so long.

Keep your head down and don't piss anyone off. That was her motto, especially since her clients all had access to powerful dark magic.

She thought she had a flawless system for keeping her nose clean, so how did she wind up in a stolen car, with a demon spawn in her back seat, driving away from her ex-lover and a gang of demons ready to skin her alive?

That's a good question.

And why did she agree to help save the demon's life so she didn't get sacrificed to open the gates of Hell?

An even better question.

She had one rule. One stupid rule. And tonight...it goes right down the toilet.

Now, the only way for Ollie to get her life back is to save the girl, prevent the Apocalypse, and track down the people who betrayed her.

They will pay. Oh yes, they will all pay.

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I was comfortable hearing no. I had to be in my line of work. Often, there was only one magical scepter or enchanted amulet of a certain type in the whole world, and tracking it down took tenacity. The reason something remained hidden was usually a matter of not looking hard enough. Once, a rich twatwaffle paid me to find a piece he had forgotten was already in his collection.

As much as I liked brute force, you generally got more bees with honey and more money with smiles than you did with being a thorn in somebody’s side. I was great at my job because criminals were surly and suspicious of each other, and I made a lovely go-between. I was unceasingly patient when money was on the line. It was only when things went tits up that I relied on my other skills—which were equally impossible if I said so myself.

So, when Candy gave me a list of possible criminal masterminds who could have fenced Lily, I knew it would be a slog, but I was up for the challenge. Not a particularly long list, it was filled with people I didn’t know. It had to be. Nobody we knew would pay me that enormous of an insult. They’d know I would be after them with fire and brimstone.

I spent the day going through Candy’s list one at a time. Unfortunately, I kept striking out, and everybody I met was more and more punchable than the last one. Before I reached the end of the last nerve, Phil buzzed my beeper with good news, and I portaled to his house. He opened the garage, and Lily shimmered at me. The bullet holes and all of the dents Moloch and Balaam made in her were gone.

“She looks perfect!” I yelled.

Phil threw me the keys. “Runs perfect, too. Better than perfect, after I was done with her.”

I slid into the driver’s side and massaged the newly polished steering wheel. Breathing in the smell of new leather and lemon, I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. Lily purred for me like a lap cat when I turned on the engine.

“I’m afraid it doesn’t help you find the monsters who did this to her,” Phil said, leaning against the car. “But as a little thank you from me, I juiced it up a bit.”

“Juiced it up how?”

“Flip open the top of the gear shift.”

I did and saw a big red button on it.

“That injects nitrous oxide into the fuel line for an extra boost of speed. I also lined the engine and interior with shock-absorbing technology, so if you have to use your magic powers…well, now you won’t damage the tensile integrity of the car.”

“Thank you,” I said. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“Actually, I know exactly how much it means. I calculated it, and it exactly correlated to the guilt I felt for you risking my life to save me, so this is a win-win in my book.” He sighed. “I just wish I could do something to change the fact that demons drove your baby without you.”

My eyes lit up. “That’s it. Phil, you’re a genius!”

“I know that…but how, specifically, in this instance?”

I hopped out of the car. “They had to drive the car somewhere. If I use a mimic spell from the exact place that I lost the car—”

“It would lead you to where it was sold,” Phil finished the thought. “That is bloody brilliant, I must say. Kudos to me for thinking of it.”

I hopped back into the car. “Sorry to dash and ditch, but I have to—”

“I know. He kidnapped me, too. I want you to find him as much as you do. Every time I close my eye, I see his face in my dreams, and…find him. For both of us.”

“I will.”

Read the next chapter

This is the second book in The Godsverse Chronicles, a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.

Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written.

If you are not a paid member, you can read everything with a 7-day free trial, or give us a one-time tip.