Rise of the Magi Read Online Free PDF Page A

it. That meant as much to me as my saying it had meant to him.
    Once I found the will to tear myself out of his arms, we finished our journey to the Court garden. Gallagher still lay on the same dais, staring into the wilderness of his own thoughts or maybe at the spirits. By the grim set of his lips, and the even deeper grooves in his brow, I took it he’d already gone spelunking into my head and knew about Brígh’s vision.
    “What do we do?” He sat up as we neared him, groaning as if in pain.
    “No, Gallagher, you don’t ask me that.” I shook my head and jabbed a finger at him. “You’re the aide; I’m the newbie in this joint. I’m coming here to ask you what to do, and you’re supposed to know.”
    The lost look in his opaque eyes shredded the remaining thread of hope I’d clung to. Guilt skewered me. “I wish … I do not know what to do,” Gallagher said. “This level of threatis unprecedented and beyond my comprehension.”
    Yeah, good thing, too. If it wasn’t unprecedented, none of us would be alive to worry about it.
    Liam rubbed his thumb over my knuckles, his mind such a hurricane that I shut him out. “I think the other races need to be warned,” he said. “The remaining Seelie and Unseelie, too.”
    I made an unhappy sound between a snarl and a cough. “And how do you suppose we’re going to do that? The last time we went to the Black City, we were treated like rapists at a preschool. They’re not going to listen.” When I realized how pissy I sounded, I softened my tone. “But I think you’re right about the rest. Good idea. It’s the smart place to start.” At least I’d noticed my gaff that time. Baby steps, and all that.
    He flashed a knowing smile, suggesting he knew just how difficult it was for me to give praise where it was due. I hated that it didn’t come naturally to me, like it did to my mother, but at least I’d gotten better. Liam brushed a kiss across my forehead, his breath warming my skin.
    I shrugged, embarrassed. “What?”
    “Your big girl panties are showing again. I love you.”
    Squirming under the invasion of warm fuzzies, I stepped away and shook off the grin that tried to ease my lips up from their downward curve. “I love you, too. Now stop with the sappy shit.” Before you make me cry, you dick.
    Smile fading, he turned back to Gallagher. “So, what about Raze’s team. Any word yet?”
    “Alas, no, and I fear for them.” Gallagher rocked up to his feet and straightened his rumpled suit, twirling one of the white starflowers in his fingers. The way he focused on it, with an absent sort of fascination, made me think he was trying to hypnotize himself. If only it were that easy to escape reality. “Shall I send another out to them? Perhaps Meredith has simply fallen ill and cannot respond to me?”
    “I think we all know that’s not the case.” My sigh didn’t expel much of my dread, the bulk of it settling in the pit of my stomach like a thousand pound stone. “Send a team of two. If they find nothing within a day’s search, pull them back. In the meantime, you need to set up a meeting at the coalition headquarters with the Mounties, the Feds, the selkies, elves and whoever else you can think of. If we’re all about to be tree lunch then everyone should at least be given a chance to dress for the occasion.”
    Both of them nodded.
    Thoughts of Brígh’s sacrifice stirred up darker thoughts. “I’m worried about Brígh and what she did today. She’s normally not very brave, but … you should have seen her face, the way she just seemed to … I don’t know … break inside when she decided to tell me what the Overseers had forbidden her to tell. Will they really strip Brígh of her gift?”
    Silence accompanied a quick bob of Gallagher’s head. A shiver rocked him as he turned away from me.
    “Gallagher?” Following, I grabbed his arm with one hand and his chin with the other, and made him face me. “Your wrinkles just grew