Magic Binds (Kate Daniels, #9)

by Ilona Andrews

“Black?” “No, put cream in it.” “Good man. Only two kinds of people drink their coffee black: cops and serial killers. Sit, sit.”

“Drinking yours black, I see,” I told him. He shrugged and sat on the couch. “Eh . . . goes with the job. So what can I do for you?”

“So did you come to invite me?” Roman asked. “Yes,” Curran said. “We’d like you to officiate.” “I’m sorry?” “We’d like you to marry us,” I said. Roman’s eyes went wide. He pointed to himself. “Me?” “Yes,” Curran said. “Marry you?” “Yes.” “You do know what I do, right?” “Yes,” I said. “You’re Chernobog’s priest.”

“When some supernatural filth tries to carry off the children, call Roman so he can wade through blood and sewage to rescue them, but when it’s something nice like a wedding or a naming, oh no, we can’t have Chernobog’s volhv involved. It’s bad luck. Get Nikolai. When he finds out who I’m going to marry, he’ll have an aneurysm. His head will explode. It’s good that he’s a doctor, maybe he can treat himself.”

He plugged the phone into the outlet. It rang. Roman stared at it as if it were a viper. The phone rang again. He unplugged it. “There.” “It can’t be that bad,” I told him. “Oh, it’s bad.” Roman nodded. “My dad refused to help my second sister buy a house, because he doesn’t like her boyfriend. My mother called him and it went badly. She cursed him. Every time he urinates, the stream arches up and over.” Oh. Curran winced.

“I have smoked brisket.” My fiancé leaned forward, suddenly interested. “Moist or dry?” “Moist. What am I, a heathen...

Roman whistled, then knocked on the wooden table and spat over his shoulder three times. Curran looked at me. “Whistling in the house is bad luck,” I explained. “You’ll whistle all your money away,” Roman said.

“Last week a flock of harpies attacked Druid Hills. It took the Guild six hours to put them down. One merc ended up in the hospital with some kind of acute magical rabies.” “Well, at least it’s rabies,” Roman said. “They carry leprosy, too.” “I called Roland about it,” I said. “He said, ‘Who knows why harpies do anything, Blossom?’ And then he told me he had two tickets to see Aivisha sing and one of them had my name on it.” “Parents.” Roman heaved a sigh. “Can’t live with them. Can’t get away from them. When you try to move, they buy a house in your new neighborhood.” “That’s one thing about having both of your parents murdered,” Curran said. “I don’t have parent problems.” Roman and I looked at him.

We got up, walked to the door, and I swung it open. A black raven flew past me and landed on the back of the couch. Roman slapped his hand over his face. “There you are,” the raven said in Evdokia’s voice. “Ungrateful son.” “Here we go . . .” Roman muttered. “Eighteen hours in labor and this is what I get. He can’t even pick up the phone to talk to his own mother.” “Mother, can’t you see I have people here?” “I bet if their mothers called them, they would pick up.” That would be a neat trick for both of us. Sadly, dead mothers didn’t come back to life, even in post-Shift Atlanta.

“You should’ve let me twist his head off,” Mahon said. “You can’t let people insult your wife, Curran. One day you’ll have to choose diplomacy or your spouse. I’m telling you now, it’s got to be your wife. Diplomacy doesn’t care if you live or die. Your wife does.”

“Yes, of course, this is all my fault.” “Yes, it is,” Barabas said. “All you had to do was walk in there and have a simple conversation with your father.” Simple? “You know what I don’t need, Barabas? I don’t need you to criticize how I speak to my father.” The mercs took a step back in unison. Curran put his hand on my shoulder. “Be careful, Kate,” Barabas said, his expression unreadable. “Your magic is showing.”

I loved them both. I loved my unborn future baby. I loved Curran, his eyes, his laugh, his smile. I woke up next to him, I ate breakfast with him, we went to work together, and we came home together. That was the core of who I was: Curran, Julie, Derek, even Grendel, the family I’d made. It was my life, the one I fought for, the one I built and wanted. We were together. That was how things were.

I opened my mouth. Nothing came out. There was so much.

So I told her about my dad and the crosses, the slap, the urge to crush him, snapping at Barabas, the witches, and watching Curran and my son die. Andrea sat still for a long moment. “Well, that fucking sucks.” “Yeah.” “Can you kill Roland?” “I’m not sure I want to.” And that came right out. “Of course you don’t want to. He’s your father.” I stared at her. She rubbed her stomach and grimaced. “The kid won’t settle down.”

“It could be worse,” he said. “How?” “We could be fighting him and your aunt.” My memory served up Erra dying on the snow. “She talked to me before she died.” “What did she say?” “She said, ‘Live long, child. Live long enough to see everyone you love die. Suffer the way I did.’”

“Well, it bit him in the ass. I told him that even his own sister didn’t want to live in the world he made.” Curran laughed. “What?” “You always know how to get under someone’s skin.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” “It’s your superpower. Trust me, I know.” He looked at me and laughed harder. “What?” “I love when you bare your teeth at me. All the shapeshifter living has been rubbing off on you. You’d make such a cute shapeshifter.” “I will fucking throw you off this tower.”

“Do you remember when we went to the Black Sea and you pretended to be infatuated with Lorelei?” “Not that again.” His face shut down. “I’m going to do something very dangerous and stupid. I’ve done some idiotic things in my life, but this takes the cake.” “Tell me.” “No.” Gold rolled over his eyes. “What do you mean, no?” “If I tell you, you will stop me from doing it.” “Now you have to tell me.” I shook my head. “I’m calling in the Lorelei favor. You have to let me run with this.” “Kate!” “No.” He would blow a gasket. If someone had told me my brilliant idea an hour ago, I’d have laughed and then bashed their face in. “Tell me.” He was a cat and a control freak. It was killing him not to know. “No. But I wanted to be up front and tell you that I have a plan and I’m going to have to leave the city for a few days.” If I just disappeared, he would freak out and tear Atlanta apart to find me.

“Julie’s avoiding me.” “Can you blame her?” Curran asked. “She knows she’s in trouble. She’s hoping you’ll cool off.” “Avoiding me makes me more pissed off. Eventually, I’ll go and find her, and she won’t like it.” “No, you won’t,” he said. “You’re too busy with—what was it again you were going to do?” “Ha. Ha. Nice try.” “Tell me.” “No.” “Tell me.” “No.”

“We saw you carry the djinn,” Martha said. “We were both there and we saw you give it up and hand it to Curran and then we saw him give it back to you. What the two of you have is a rare thing. We don’t love Curran like a son. He is our son, one of our children. Mahon may be an old stubborn bear, but he isn’t blind or stupid. He knows Curran won’t do better. We are lucky to have you for a daughter-in-law.” It was the stupidest thing, but I felt like crying.

“Every time I use my magic, everybody gets so concerned. I defend them, I bleed for them, and the moment the immediate danger passes, they let me know how much they disapprove. As if their fucking disapproval matters. As if I should ask their permission, like a servant, to do what is in my power.”

“Why the hell would you do this to me?” “Because you deserved it. Jim came to you with this nonsense and you got all concerned.” “I told Jim to go to hell. I also told him that if he ever told me that my wife is a ‘potential threat’ again, I would become a real and immediate threat.” I laughed and opened my arms. “My hero.”

“Marry for safety. Marry for power. But only fools marry for love.”

So far I had the god of evil and the god of terror on my side. My good-guy image was taking a serious beating. Maybe I should recruit some unicorns or kittens with rainbow powers to even us out.

“It’s occurred to me that this would all be much easier if I were evil. I would have serenity of purpose and none of these pesky problems.”

“And this.” I pulled out the dagger and showed it to him. “You made a magic knife?” he asked. “Yes. In a manner of speaking.” “But you still have to get close enough to stab Roland with it,” Derek said. “That’s not how it works.” Help me, somebody. Curran was looking right at me. “Kate?” “It’s more of an advising kind of knife.” “You should come clean,” he said. “Whatever it is, it’s done and we can handle it.” My aunt tore into existence in the center of the room. “Hello, half-breed.” Curran exploded into a leap. Unfortunately, Derek also exploded at exactly the same time but from the opposite direction. They collided in Erra’s translucent body with a loud thud. Derek fell back and Curran stumbled a few steps. Erra pointed at Curran with her thumb. “You want to marry this? Is there a shortage of men?”

“I fear for my grandnephew,” Erra said. “He will be an idiot.”

“This is Mary Louise Garcia,” Roman said. “She is the head baker for Clan Heavy’s Honey Buns bakery.” Mary smiled at me and waved her fingers. “Mary very kindly agreed to bring over samples so you could select a wedding cake.” “I did.” Mary nodded. “Mary turns into a grizzly. A very large grizzly.” “I know who Mary is,” I told him. “I met her before, at Andrea’s wedding.” “If you don’t pick a wedding cake, Mary will sit on you and stuff all this cake into your mouth until you make a selection.” “Mary and what army?” Mary smiled at me. “I won’t need an army.”

“Roman, if I don’t do this, Atlanta will be destroyed.” “Atlanta is always getting destroyed,” Mary said. “Eat some cake. It will make you feel better.”

My aunt peered at the drawings. We waited. “Moron.” Erra rolled her head back and laughed. “Oh, that sentimental fool! This is what happens when a man is thinking with his dick.” Curran and I looked at each other. “It’s a poem. A beautiful, exquisite love poem to your mother and you, written in the old tongue, in the high dialect, and fit for a king. The scholars of Shinar would weep from sheer joy and the poets would murder themselves out of jealousy. He tells your mother she is his life, his sun, his stars, the life-bringing light of his universe. I’d translate for you but your language is too clunky. He goes on about all the sacrifices he would make for her and how much he adores his beloved and how you are the ultimate expression of their love.”

“And all the princes of the land would kiss the earth beneath her feet—that would be you—and should she fall, I will fall with her, for we are as one, and the despair would dry the spring of life within me. Do you understand? You are bound together. He can’t kill you. If he does, he will die with you.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to find yourself some shapeshifter heifer and have a litter of kittens, rather than deal with all this?” I thought we were over this. “Well, if I’m banging a heifer, technically the kids would have an equal chance of being calves and kittens,” Curran said. “So it might be a litter or a small herd.” “If Curran and I have a litter of kittens, will you babysit?” Erra stared at me like I had slapped her. “They will be very cute kittens,” Curran said. I smiled at the City Eater. “Meow, meow.”

“If you remove adversity, you remove ingenuity and creativity with it. There is no need to strive to make something beautiful or better if it already is.”

“You are a challenging child. You ask difficult questions.” “I think I’m a very easy child.” “How so?” He sipped his beer. “You never had to bail me out of jail, chase my boyfriend out of my bedroom, or try to console me because I missed my period and cried hysterically, worried that I might be pregnant. Cops were never called to the house because I had a giant party. I’ve never stolen your car . . .” He laughed. “You almost destroyed a prison that took me ten years to build. And you upset your grandmother.”

He squeezed me to him, his gray eyes laughing. “I brought you something.” He pulled out a folded piece of lined paper and held it in front of me. New Plan Get Awesome Cosmic Powers. Nuke my dad. Retire from the land-claiming business. Below in his handwriting, he’d added several lines. Get married and start a family. Have children. Hopefully not screw them up too badly. Live a life we’re proud of.

“You remind me of me.” Erra groaned. “You are the punishment for all my transgressions.”

“The Guild won’t fight without a lot of money on the table,” I said. “We can’t afford it.” “Pay them out of your dowry,” Erra said. “I have no dowry.” “Your father will give you a dowry.” “We are preparing to fight him on the battlefield.” “Those two things are completely separate,” my aunt said. “No princess of Shinar ever went to her wedding without a dowry.”

Curran bent forward and said something to Roman. Roman nodded. I was getting married. Dear God. “Is he worth it?” Erra asked. “Always.”

“Love is a complicated thing,” Roman said. “For some it’s fleeting and fickle. People fall in love fast and then they fall out of it faster than they can blink. For others, it’s a lifelong commitment. It can render you helpless or give you power. It can bring you bliss or misery. But true love, the one that endures through time, love that is pure joy, love that nothing in this world can shatter, that kind of love is rare. The two people standing before me today have it. They fought for it, they endured for it, and they earned it. Tonight we are privileged to celebrate their love with them.”