Magic to the Bone Read Online Free PDF Page B

then his family is going to drag you through court and publicly expose Beckstrom Enterprises’ reckless Offloading practices. My testimony will be in their favor.’’
     
     
    He blinked a couple times, then looked away from my face to the rest of me, slowly taking in my cheap clothes and bruised hands. The corner of his lips tightened like he’d just bitten into something sour.
     
     
    I’d seen that look on his face ever since I turned nine and told him I wanted to play jazz tambourine when I grew up.
     
     
    ‘‘What happened to her?’’ he asked someone behind me. I looked back, and who should stroll in through the door but my old buddy Zayvion.
     
     
    ‘‘She Hounded a hit and forgot to set a Disbursement spell,’’ he said.
     
     
    I put two and two together and shook my head in disgust. ‘‘You bastard. You work for my father?’’
     
     
    ‘‘One contract.’’ He held up his hands like maybe I was going to hit him. He had good instincts. ‘‘I did one contract for him.’’
     
     
    ‘‘For what? To spy on Mama?’’
     
     
    ‘‘To look out for you, Allison,’’ my dad said.
     
     
    Oh.
     
     
    What girl doesn’t want to hear those words? What girl doesn’t want to believe her daddy is always going to be there to look after her and keep her safe?
     
     
    But I could taste the honey-sweetness of magic and Influence behind his words, could smell the bitter tang of something that was not sincerity in his tone. He wanted me to believe him. Too much.
     
     
    ‘‘Really,’’ I said.
     
     
    ‘‘I heard you had been Hounding up on the north side of town,’’ he said. ‘‘There have been so many cases of illegal Offloads over there, I was worried you’d get hurt.’’
     
     
    He sounded sincere. He looked sincere. This, from the man who had manipulated and Influenced every choice I’d ever made in my life. For all I knew, a man who still believed he could continue doing so.
     
     
    ‘‘Bullshit,’’ I said. ‘‘Save it for the court, Mr. Beckstrom. I’ll see you there.’’ I intended to spin around and exit dramatically, but I hurt too much. Even the bottoms of my feet were swollen. So I settled for a long, dignified stroll toward the door.
     
     
    ‘‘Allison,’’ my dad said gently. ‘‘It is the truth, even if you are too stubborn to believe me. It has been a very long time since you’ve seen how things work around here. Laws have been passed—you know that. There are more checks and balances and outside watchdogs Hounding the details of business and magic transactions than there ever were before. We use magic sparingly at this company—at all levels—and Proxy the Offload through approved channels, such as the penitentiaries and prisons.’’
     
     
    I wasn’t buying it. I just couldn’t fit the idea of a kinder, gentler man inside the skin my father owned. I kept walking.
     
     
    ‘‘If it would help you to believe what I’m saying,’’ he said, ‘‘you have my permission to draw Truth from me.’’
     
     
    That sort of magic involved blood, and drawing Truth, in particular, only worked between people who carried the same bloodline. I hated blood magic. Then again, I felt a powerful need to stab somebody right about now, and a girl shouldn’t turn her back on opportunity.
     
     
    ‘‘Fine.’’ I walked back to his desk and held my palm out for a needle. I hoped he wouldn’t have one on him because the ornate letter opener on his desk looked more my speed. He must have caught some hint of that in my gaze. He raised one eyebrow and pulled a very thin, very gold straight pin out of his lapel and dropped it onto my hand.
     
     
    I held it with my fingers and intoned the mantra for Truth. I placed my other hand on the desk. The desk frame was iron and carved with the patterns that allowed access to the magic held in the building’s storage network. I intoned a mantra to call the magic up through his desk and into my hand, and