Page 65 of Up in Smoke

But what if I don’t want to scream?

Saturday, June 27, 2043.

Shady Grove, Oklahoma.

The Alley.

I understoodwhy my magic failed to offer any more glimpses of the prison for scryers. Sometime after my sole glimpse, the whole thing had collapsed in on itself, leaving behind a deep hole in the ground, rusted cages, and bodies. Judging from the smell, the bodies hadn’t been there long despite the evidence of the cages having been exposed to the elements.

I assumed nobody had bothered to counter the eventual formation of rust over the years. If anything, the rust would help contain the unwilling residents.

Sandro cursed, crouched down at the rim of the crater, and peered into the darkness below. “I can’t tell how old this is.”

Joining him, I peered down in the direction of the better building I’d remembered from my brief peek into the complex, and I pointed at the structure, which had somewhat survived the roof’s collapse. “That’s where they were keeping the behaved scryers.”

Staring in the direction I pointed, he grunted, rested his weight back on his heels, and narrowed his eyes. “It’s possible somebody survived back there—and might for a few weeks if they have water or food.”

Upon a closer look at the crater, I spotted where a spring had invited itself in, leaving pools of water among the cages. “Oh. There’s a spring there.”

“And that would be why the collapse had happened. Water makes a mess of a cave that’s carved out of soft rock or packed dirt. Asylum would have had that same problem if we hadn’t taken precautions using magic.”

“Or he learned to take those precautions because he saw the erosion here,” I growled.

“That’s another possibility, yes. Which makes him responsible for every death in this complex.”

I frowned. “And he would have known because he became worried about Asylum’s stability recently. He knew this place had either collapsed or was primed to collapse.”

“That sounds like a sound theory to me. Not something we can prove, but a solid theory.”

“That motherfucker,” I hissed through clenched teeth.

“We’re going to have to find a paper trail. There must be one, because the Alley simply can’t produce everything needed to build a place like this. We’d have to find the suppliers in a different quadrant and put together the paper trail and find some way to prove he was using everything to build a prison. But first, we need to see if we can get down there. If anyone did survive, they’ll need help.”

From our vantage, I counted at least thirty bodies below, and I had no doubt there were more hidden under the rubble—and potentially beneath where we stood. “It looks like some of the rubble got kicked out of the crater, Sandro. What the hell caused that?”

“Tornado.” Sandro pointed at something nearby, and I realized twisted metal came from what had to have been a support dome within the cavern. “Asylum uses this stuff, too. It can withstand a twister, but it can’t withstand the types of swarms those choirs like to dump down on a place, and if the twister parked itself over the dome, I could see it punching through with time, especially once the debris starts hitting it. This is a lot thinner than what is used in Asylum. I bet he had a choir wipe out the scryers to hide his tracks now that he’s closer to his goal.”

I could believe that. “You don’t think we’re just concocting conspiracy theories, do you?”

“No. I’ve known Mansfield for a long time, and this is the sort of shit he would do if he thought he could get away with it. Worse, I can understand why.”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you know about the current theories of magic?”

“Not much. It works, and that’s what I care about. I work with what I can and leave the speculation to the smart people.”

The look Sandro shot me promised some form of retribution later. “You’re plenty smart.”

“You just can’t abide by the idea you agreed to marry an idiot,” I replied, flicking my tail and getting up to circle the crater, picking up pieces of debris in the hope of learning Shady Grove’s lethal secret. My magic remained dormant, a reminder of its nature.

Magic did as magic wanted to do, and no amount of wishing on my part would change anything.

“I didn’t just agree to marry you. Technically, I did. We just get to pretend we’re having a proper ceremony later. It’s like a half-marriage. We get the benefits of marriage but we’re not off the hook for the ceremony. But you’re not an idiot. You’re just inadequately trained on the nature of magic. Ignorance isn’t idiocy.”

“Fine. I’m ignorant, then.”

“That’s an easily curable illness, so don’t worry about it.” Sandro got up and began circling the crater in the other direction. “Scream if you need me.”