Read Online Blue Magic by A.M. Dellamonica - Free Book Online Page B

a flash drive; the Alchemites took it,” Aran said. He looked nervous. The camera angle switched: Sahara was giving him her shark smile.
    Astrid put her hand over the player. “Give the newscast a rest for a night, guys. Join the dance?”
    “Too tired.” One, a pixie-faced kindergarten teacher from the team of seers, pocketed the player. “I spent all day in Marseilles, trying to figure out what’ll go wrong there when Boomsday comes. Now I just wanna kick back with a little TV.”
    “Couldn’t you find a good show?”
    The pixie’s medic boyfriend smirked. “Trial’s got the best ratings in America—it must be good.”
    “If you say so.” She left them to it, moving through the crowd to Will. “Want to say a few words?”
    “Me?” He frowned. “Surely that’s your job.”
    “I’m terrible at speechmaking.”
    “Comes with the job, Astrid. You may not like that they call you boss, but it’s you they need to hear from.”
    “Stand up with me.”
    “My mind’s far away, Astrid,” he said. His tone was gentle. “Maybe after St. Louis, okay?”
    Feeling absurdly crushed, she turned away, climbing up beside the band.
    The murmur of conversation didn’t wane. She hadn’t developed Sahara’s knack for getting everyone’s attention. Finally Mark started banging a couple wooden bowls together, breaking into the chatter.
    Where to start? “I want you all to remember this isn’t an attack. We’re not going to St. Louis to hurt anyone.”
    The words had a sobering effect.
    “We’re going to make things better,” she continued. “Yes, we’re going to leave vitagua there, but we’re also going to leave behind water weavers, food spinners. We’ll cool the air, clean up garbage, patch up busted houses. The government will call it terrorism, but people will see the magic improved things.”
    “They’ll all live happily ever after!” someone shouted.
    “Yes.” She raised her cup. “Um, to the Happy After.”
    “The more, the merrier,” replied the group, raising glasses. Will looked perplexed; she’d have to explain the toast to him.
    Right now, what he needed was a successful mission. She walked to the Chimney, with its dripping rills of vitagua.
    Astrid had been reluctant to shoulder this burden. Her father taught her to chant when she was a child, but when she realized how much responsibility it meant, she wimped out. She’d made a chantment that wiped out all her knowledge of magic.
    Then Dad was murdered. Astrid inherited the magical well—and thanks to her self-inflicted amnesia, she got Jacks killed and let Sahara run mad.
    “Stop,” she murmured aloud, as she always did when her thoughts started running this track. “No regrets.”
    The world had been in trouble before the well ever broke open, she reminded herself. The goal now was to steer everyone to that happy ending the grumbles kept talking about.
    Happy endings. Her and Will. Could she have misunderstood? The idea had a certain allure; he had Jacks’s steadiness, and he was so fair, so kind.…
    The vitagua pool in the ravine was glass smooth. A slow trickle lipped its edge, leaking into the swamp surrounding the camp, saturating the forest floor.
    Under Astrid’s direction, the blue magic roiled. She warmed it into mist, gallons of it, raising a blue fog above her head. As much as she dared, as much as she could hang on to … she all but emptied the lagoon surrounding the Chimney.
    Fluid gushed out from the gap between worlds. It would fill up fast.
    Drawing the magic around her like a cloak, Astrid took Bramblegate to the plaza.
    A cluster of volunteers was waiting, debating who should break a champagne bottle over the front bumper of the trolley.
    “Who’s newest here?” Astrid asked.
    “Amber,” Pike said.
    A young woman stepped up, reaching for the bottle. She christened the trolley Overlord: Clancy’s choice, in honor of all his dead Normandy invasion buddies. More warspeak, Astrid thought. Excitement