Dying Is My Business

hiding place? Why didn’t he want anyone finding Stryge’s head?”

Isaac gently replaced the head inside the box, closed the lid, and locked it again. “Lenape legend has it that if Stryge’s head is reunited with his body during the equinox, he will awaken. Stryge has immense power, enough to destroy New York City and everyone in it. With his hatred of all humanity, I have no doubt that’s exactly what he would do.”

“Hold on, I thought you said Stryge was dead,” I said.

“Not dead, exactly,” Isaac replied. “Just dormant. Stryge is an Ancient. No one knows the full extent of their powers. Their magic is as alien to us as ours would be to the simplest single-celled organisms. The equinox, the precise moment when the Earth and the sun are perfectly aligned, is when the Ancients’ powers are at their height. If Stryge’s head and body are reunited at that moment, there’s no telling what could happen. That’s why we had to get this box to safety first.”

“So Stryge’s an Ancient like Gregor,” I said.

“Only a hundred times worse,” Bethany said. “Stryge was the most violent and hateful of the Ancients. If he were to wake up, he would be a destructive force the likes of which this city has never seen.”

“But Ancient or not, how can he still be alive without his head? That doesn’t make sense.”

Philip pointed his thumb at me. “I agree with Mr. Head-on-a-Pike here. I’ve seen firsthand what taking off someone’s head can do. You don’t come back from that.” I didn’t want to know what he meant about seeing it firsthand.

“The shadowborn at the safe house weren’t dead when we found them, were they? Not even after their heads were cut off,” Isaac said. “The barrier between life and death isn’t as easily definable as you think, and it only gets harder to define when magic is involved. Consider this. Gargoyles don’t honor their dead or have burial rituals. They don’t give their dead much thought at all, except to cannibalize them for food during the lean hunting seasons. If they’re this keen on reclaiming Stryge’s head, it can only be for one reason: The Lenape legend is true. But what’s really got me concerned is that gargoyles don’t do anything without orders from their king. That means the Black Knight himself must want it. The only question is why. The Black Knight has ruled over the gargoyles for four hundred years. Why would he want to bring Stryge back? The gargoyles won’t serve two kings.”

“What if you’ve got it all wrong?” I said. “What if the Black Knight wants the head to make sure no one brings Stryge back?”

Isaac nodded. “I thought about that. If that’s the case, it’s the first time the Black Knight and I have ever seen eye to eye. But I suspect there’s more to it. Frankly, I’ll be happy if the equinox comes and goes without us ever finding out.”

He carried the box over to one of the cluttered bookshelves. Sitting on a shelf in front of a few oversized tomes was a small, ancient-looking leather globe of the Earth on a polished stone stand. He pulled the globe forward, tipping it on a hidden lever in its base, and the bookshelf swung open on concealed hinges. Behind it was a metal door. There was no knob or handle, only a keypad. Isaac pressed a few of the keys in sequence, and the metal door swung open to reveal a doorway in the wall. Light poured out it, and a strange, deep hum.

Isaac’s vault. This was where he kept the dangerous artifacts he sent the others to secure. It was also what he was protecting, I realized. The reason he didn’t want any of his operations traced back to him. Unlike what was displayed around the room, the vault contained the big-ticket items, the truly powerful artifacts the Infected would kill for. If they got their hands on this collection, they would have the magical equivalent of a nuclear arsenal.

I couldn’t see much of the vault’s interior from where I stood, just what was on a few of the shelves by the door: a sword in a scabbard that glowed bright emerald green; a small statuette of a multiarmed figure that seemed to be vibrating like it couldn’t sit still; a fleshy, tentacled mass inside a Mason jar that thrashed its limbs angrily against the glass; and money. Stacks of it. I’d never seen so much money in one place before. I’d figured Isaac was loaded, he’d have to be to afford a place this big in New York City, but this was beyond the pale. If Forbes ran a list of the richest mages in the world, I was sure he’d be at the top.

Isaac emerged empty-handed from the vault, closed the metal door, and pulled the leather globe again. The bookshelf swung shut. “It’s safe now. Good work, everyone.”

A sudden, bursting splash of water came from behind us. I turned around. Thornton sat up in the tub with a guttural cry. Gabrielle, still holding his hand, nearly fell backward in surprise.

I rushed to the side of the tub with Isaac, Philip, and Bethany at my heels. What was left of Thornton’s shirt was translucent from the water, and through it I could see his skin had healed itself. The discolored patches of necrotic tissue were gone. The stitches had dissolved, and his scars had vanished. His face looked healthier, too. Fuller and less corpselike.

Gabrielle gripped his hand tightly in both of hers. “Thornton! Thornton, are you okay?”

“God!” he cried through gritted teeth. “It feels like I’m being skinned alive!”

“Your nerve endings are healing,” she said. “Give it time. The pain will pass, I promise.”

Thornton turned to her. He stared at her hands for a long moment, then murmured, “I—I can feel your hands.” He put his other hand over hers and laughed. “I can feel them!”

She kissed his hands. Her chin quivered with emotion. “Oh, Thornton, I’m so sorry. I should have been with you. I should have come running.”

“It’s not her fault, it’s mine,” Isaac said, putting a hand on Thornton’s shoulder. “But she put up one hell of a fight, believe me.”

Thornton smiled and touched Gabrielle’s face. “I bet you did.”

“I’m so sorry, Thornton,” she said again.

“I was worried I’d never…” He winced suddenly. “… see you again…” He grunted in pain. “Ungh … my whole body’s … on fire!”

“That’s just the Methusal spring doing its job,” Gabrielle said. “Your body is healing. Hang in there, baby. It’ll be over soon. You can do this.”

Gathered around the tub, Isaac and Gabrielle wore the same hopeful expression. Philip looked as enigmatic as ever, his eyes hidden behind his mirrored shades, his face neutral. And then there was Bethany. No matter how hard she was trying to hide it, she didn’t look happy. She’d had her doubts from the start that this would work. But she was wrong. She had to be. This time, just this once, maybe Bethany wasn’t right about something.

She’d said there was no spell that could bring the dead completely back to life, but Gabrielle’s plan was clearly working. Thornton looked like his old self again, the way he’d looked when I first met him. No, he looked better, actually—Thornton had already been dead the first time I saw his human form. Now he looked alive. This changed everything. It should have been impossible, but here he was, living proof that magic could conquer death after all.

Thornton finally noticed me squatting by the side of the tub. “You,” he said weakly. “Did anyone check this son of a bitch for a gun? He’s got a nasty habit of pointing one right at you.”

“It’s okay, baby,” Gabrielle said, stroking Thornton’s hair. “Everything’s okay. He’s with us now. We came to an understanding.”

“I’m sorry about before, Thornton,” I said. “I panicked and lost my judgment. I hope you can forgive me.”

Thornton looked up at Bethany. She nodded and said, “It was classic Trent, acting without thinking first. But it’s fine. Gabrielle read his mind. He’s not a threat.”

Thornton’s eyes focused on me again. “Fine, but do it again and I’ll bite your fucking face off. At least you stood up for us in front of those two creeps.” He winced in pain. Through clenched teeth he added, “Just tell me you didn’t give them the box. Tell me it’s safe.”

I nodded. “It’s in Isaac’s vault now, safe and sound.”

“See? Everything’s going to be okay,” Gabrielle said.

Thornton cried out suddenly, an agonized sound. He must have been in intense pain. We looked at each other around the tub, not knowing what to do. Even Isaac seemed at a loss. Thornton writhed in the water and banged the side of the tub with his fist, making Gabrielle jump.

“What is it?” she asked, her voice high with panic. She gripped his free hand tightly. “Baby, what’s happening?”

“The amulet,” he groaned. “Ungh, something’s wrong … Not now, I’m not ready…”