Allie Beckstrom 09 - Magic for a Price by Devon Monk Read Free Book Online Page A

haven’t met me, I’m Allie Beckstrom. I don’t think I’m the best person to lead this fight. I only joined the Authority this year, have never been a Voice or held any other position of leadership, and I tend to think like a Hound more than a commander. Please reconsider Zayvion’s suggestion. I am sure there are other people more experienced than I who should lead.”
    “I will follow Allie,” a voice called out from the back of the room. It wasn’t Jack. No, that voice was Davy Silvers, who was pretty much my right-hand Hound.
    Davy sat on the edge of the fountain, his girlfriend, Sunny, who was both punk-rock chic and a hell of a Blood magic user, right next to him. They were both eating cookies. He grinned and raised his hand in a wave.
    Great.
    “I will follow Allie,” another voice called out. This, to my surprise, was Detective Paul Stotts, who stood near one of the exit doors with his team: officers Roberts, Garnett, and Julian. They all seemed very interested in the entire assemblage, probably because this sort of stuff had never been seen by the police before.
    I guess Stotts had decided that since we’d been through so much together, he might as well stick it out with me. Also, I expected his feelings for Nola had something to do with his loyalty.
    The next voice was Maeve’s, behind me. “I will followAllie.” Then Victor. That started off a chorus of people, a rising river of voices, carrying my name.
    Not everyone said they’d follow me. As I scanned the faces and the body language, I could tell not everyone was happy about the decision. But no one was angry enough to leave, or to stand up and throw their hat into the ring.
    Which meant it was time to come up with a plan. Fast. I shook my head, not believing I was about to do this. But who else would? No one had come forward when Victor had left the microphone open. Only Zayvion. Only me.
    We had probably just sealed our deaths. Might have sealed the deaths of hundreds.
    I couldn’t think about that now. All that mattered was curing magic, stopping Seattle, and killing Leander and Isabelle.
    It was certainly what I was aiming for.
    Right now we’d be lucky to pull off two out of the three things.
    No, we’d be lucky if we managed to do even one of those things.
    The crowd quieted.
    “Seattle is coming to Close us and lock down Portland,” I said. “We’re not going to let them do that.”
    That got their attention.
    “We know they’re going to use magic to shut the city down. We know they’re going to use magic to Close us, hold us, and whatever else their orders might be. We know using magic will make us ill—and it will make them ill too.
    “So we are going to take magic off the playing field. We are going to shut down the networks so that no one can use magic.”
    Silence filled the room.
    “The hell,” Shame’s gleeful voice called out. “We can do that?”
    Can we, Dad?
I asked.
    There is a way.
    “Yes,” I said, “we can. And we are going to. What I need from everyone are two things. One—do not draw upon the magic from the wells. Magic is too damn dangerous for anyone to be using right now, and that includes the people who are going to defend the city—us.
    “The Seattle crew knows about the wells, so the sooner we can cleanse the wells and close them, the less we’ll have to worry about them pulling on the tainted magic and us needing to do the same to fight them.”
    “Then how are we going to fight them?” a voice in the crowd asked.
    “Once we shut down the wells and there is no magic to draw from, it shouldn’t be that difficult. Detective Stotts? Is there some way we can legally keep them contained until we deal with the Overseer?”
    All eyes turned to Detective Paul Stotts.
    “There is,” he said. “I will expect that the people in this room, and all other members of the Authority, will leave their detention to the police. We will, of course, also expect that everyone here will work closely with us if