In Plain Sight

“What…what have…you done?” Sorsha gasped. Her face flickered in and out of his vision; it was contorted with pain and her mascara was running. “We’re still in New York…the castle.”

“Is at the bottom of the north Atlantic,” Alex managed. “Along with Davis.” He felt light-headed, and a pleasant numbness was spreading out from his chest, erasing his pain.

“You couldn’t have…have moved my castle a thousand miles,” Sorsha said with a groan. “Even I couldn’t have done that.”

“It’s not the distance,” Alex said, his voice taking on a dreamy lilt. “It’s the mass.”

“What the devil is going on here?”

It was Iggy’s voice. Alex’s enhanced escape spell had dropped them right where it was supposed to, in the library at the brownstone.

“Hi Iggy,” Alex said. He was starting to feel drunk.

“A German spy tried…” Sorsha groaned and rolled more onto her side to take the pressure off her hip. “Tried to drop my house on Empire Tower. Alex did something…something to his escape rune. Sent my castle to the coast of Greenland, then brought us… ngg…here.”

“Good God,” Iggy said, his face going whiter than Sorsha’s. “You’re shot.”

“Hip,” Sorsha gasped. “What about him?” She pointed at Alex. Iggy’s face grew stern and sour.

“He used his own life energy to power the escape rune. Traded years, probably decades of his life for the power to transport your castle.” He leaned down and grabbed Sorsha under her arms and knees. “Brace yourself,” he said. “This will hurt.”

To her credit, she didn’t scream when he picked her up, but from where he lay on the floor, Alex could see her biting her lip so hard that it bled.

“Don’t worry, Sorceress,” Iggy said. “I’ll fix you right up. I’m a doctor, remember?”

“What about Alex?” Sorsha gasped.

“If he still has some life energy left, he’ll be all right after a good long nap.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Then the damn fool’s nap will be of a more permanent nature.”

That sounded ominous, but Alex’s mind was drifting now. He couldn’t seem to make the words and sounds he was hearing make any sense. The room began to recede, as if he were sinking into the floor, until all that was left was a tiny dot of light far, far away.

Then even that was gone.

* * *

A knock at his door woke Alex sometime later. The light of midday streamed through his window, and he winked against its brightness. He wanted to bid whoever had knocked to come in but when he opened his mouth, nothing came out.

Swinging his legs off the side, he tried to stand, but slumped to the floor instead. The door opened and Iggy came in, carrying a glass of water.

“Drink,” he said, kneeling down beside Alex and pushing the glass into his hand.

Alex had trouble raising the glass to his lips, and it took him a moment to remember how to drink. During that moment, water spilled down his front.

“How long?” he croaked once he’d got the water down. “How long have I been out?”

“Less than a day,” Iggy said. “You and your Sorceress girlfriend dropped in on me last night.”

Alex ignored the dig. “How is she?”

“No doubt resting comfortably in her suite at the Waldorf.”

Alex shivered, remembering Agent Warner’s corpse. There was no way Sorsha would go back there.

“Once I got the bullet out, she started regenerating quickly,” Iggy said. He offered Alex his hand and pulled the younger man to his feet.

“Regenerating?”

“Oh, yes,” Iggy said. “Why do you think sorcerers age so slowly? Their bodies are constantly regenerating.”

“It must not work if they’re in lot of pain,” Alex mused.

“I imagine they have to be in conscious connection with the source of their magic for it to work,” Iggy said. “Miss Kincaid’s level of trauma kept her from healing herself until I got the bullet out.”

Alex filed that particular bit of information away for a rainy day.

“I’m starved,” he said. “Is there any food in the house?”

“A bit of chicken from two nights ago,” Iggy said. “I’d make you something, but we don’t have too much time. The funeral for Father Clementine and the others from the Mission is this afternoon.”

“Right,” Alex said, and nodded soberly. “Let me take a shower and we’ll go down to The Lunch Box on the way. I’ll introduce you to Mary.”

“I’ve been there since she started working,” Iggy said. “Everyone knows her, including me.”

“All right,” Alex said, moving toward his little bathroom and its even smaller shower. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

“How many minutes have you got left?” Iggy said, his voice quiet.

“What do you mean?” Alex asked, stripping off his shirt.

“You know damn well what I mean!” Iggy shouted, making Alex jump. “The only way you could have transported that sorceress’ castle was to power the escape rune with your own life force. So how much did you spend? A decade? Two?”

Alex started to smile, to brush the old man’s concerns away, but as he met Iggy’s gaze, he saw tears in the old man’s eyes.

“Iggy,” he said, struggling to explain. “I…”