Black City by Christina Henry Read Free Book Online Page B

without knowing who cast it, or even what exactly they cast. If we tried to pull apart the magic without knowing its provenance, we could kill everyone by accident.”
    “We can’t leave these people unprotected,” I said, thinking hard. “What if we cast a protective spell over the sleeping spell? Like a shield, or a veil?”
    “You are talking about magic that requires a tremendous amount of force. We would have to combine our abilities, and even then I am not certain we would be able to do it.”
    “We have to try,” I said. “I can’t leave them like this.”
    “Even if we succeeded, we would likely use up our magic for some time. We would be left vulnerable to attack.”
    “You have a sword. I have a sword. They don’t,” I said, pointing at the slumbering patient.
    Nathaniel looked doubtful. “Lord Lucifer would not condone any course of action that might lead you to harm.”
    “Lucifer can stick it,” I said. “I’m not kneeling to anyone. I don’t know why we keep having this discussion over and over.”
    “I have been alive for hundreds of years, and in all of that time I have had a master. First my father, then Azazel. And always Lord Lucifer ruled over all.”
    “I’ve only been alive for a few decades, but I have never had a master. And I’m not about to start now.”
    “You would not yield to Azazel, either,” Nathaniel murmured. “It angered him so.”
    “Yeah, well, you know what I did to Azazel,” I said.
    “You would not be able to do such a thing to Lord Lucifer, and I advise you not to even think of it,” Nathaniel said seriously.
    “I won’t go after Lucifer if he doesn’t give me a reason to,” I said.
    But I hoped he wouldn’t give me a reason, because despite my bravado even I knew that it was very, very stupid to go one-on-one with Lucifer. I’d felt his power and it was a thing of tremendous force. I also knew that he had shown me only the smallest fraction of it.
    “Sometimes I wonder if you are trying to commit suicide,” Nathaniel said.
    “Sometimes I wonder that myself,” I said.
    “I am not joking,” Nathaniel said.
    “Neither am I.”
    There was a long pause after this, as I contemplated the truth of my statement and Nathaniel watched me with his frozen blue gaze. I didn’t want my baby to die. I wanted to protect him. But sometimes, especially when a fight didn’t seem to be going my way, a fleeting thought would say, If you just let go, you can be with Gabriel. You and the baby.
    “We’re off topic,” I said, wanting to transition away from the awkward moment. “I want to protect the hospital.”
    Nathaniel rubbed his forehead. “I must consider how to do this.”
    While Nathaniel came up with a plan, I thought deep thoughts about who could have cast the sleeping spell in the first place and, more important, why.
    My first thought was that Titania was in league with the vampires. Amarantha had been colluding with Azazel before she died, so there was a very real possibly that the queen of Faerie had picked up where her subordinate had left off. And when I was in Titania and Oberon’s court I’d thought that they were deliberately trying to harm me in order to provoke Lucifer.
    At the time it seemed insane for them to try to tick off the Morningstar, but if they were working with this army of vampires, perhaps they thought they had an advantage.
    My second thought was that one of the Grigori had taken up Azazel’s personal mission. Certainly any of the Grigori would be powerful enough to cast the sleeping spell, and presumably they would also be able to control the army of vampires.
    “But who’s the contact?” I murmured.
    “Pardon?” Nathaniel said, frowning. He looked like hewas trying to do intense mathematical calculations in his head.
    “I was just thinking. There has to be a vampire overlord or whatever, right? They’ve got a pretty rigid court system, as far as I know.”
    “They do,” Nathaniel acknowledged. “And their heads