Magic at the Gate Read Online Free

safe and people unharmed from using it. That was worth fighting for.
    “I’m not putting dead magic inside you.” Dad’s voice was gentle. He shifted so he wasn’t pressing so hard on my collarbone. “I’m giving back the magic I used in a slightly different form. They won’t be able to see you here now—or at least you won’t stand out like a burning torch. It’s the best protection I can give you.”
    “Don’t,” I said. But he ignored me like he always ignored me, and didn’t move his hand. I was feeling better, stronger. Like I’d just taken a long crawl through the desert and he was tipping a cup of cool water to my lips.
    That sort of kindness did not make sense coming from him. I couldn’t look in his eyes, didn’t want to see the concern there. He was a confusing man. I liked it better when I could just hate him and not have to think he was capable of compassion. So I gazed past him, toward the end of the alley.
    The watercolor people walked past the mouth of the alley, smiling, and paying no attention to us.
    Weird. They looked like normal men and women. No longer twisted and zombielike, they moved down the street as if they were out shopping, going to work, enjoying the first day of spring after a hard winter.
    They looked like they had been healed.
    “What did you do?” I whispered. “What did you do to them?”
    Dad took a deep breath and finally pulled away. His hand, when he straightened his jacket, trembled a little.
    Stone, who had been grumbling like a bag of rocks in a washing machine, stepped up to me and leaned against my leg. That was nice. Since my dad wasn’t touching me, I needed Stone to breathe.
    “I took an educated risk with magic and saved your life. Again.”
    Oh, he had not just used that tone of voice. I glared. “You took my magic and used it without my consent.”
    “ Your magic?” He shook his head. “I thought you’d be pleased. The magic you carry healed them, restored them to a balance of light magic and dark magic together. It is how magic is meant to be. One. Whole. Not separated into two forms.”
    “You will never again take my magic. For anything or anyone,” I said. “Understand?”
    I pushed off the wall and strode past him to the edge of the alley. Stone paced me, a solid, breathable buddy. Not for a minute would I believe my dad was doing me favors. There was a reason he had agreed to let me step into death with him. There was a reason he hadn’t let me get eaten by the Veiled. He wanted immortality. And I was pretty sure he wanted to be the one who came out on top of this war, with magic ending up in his hands and him having final say over how it was used.
    Yeah, well, I wasn’t going to let him use me in the process.
    Except I had a problem. I had no idea how to find Zayvion. Just because we were Soul Complements didn’t mean I could find him in death. Right now, even the idea of touching the magic inside of me that Dad had messed with made me want to throw up. So Hounding was out.
    My dad told me he knew where to find Zay. Which meant I had to cooperate with him.
    I stepped up to the mouth of the alley. Watercolor people walked by, stopped to talk to one another, though I could not hear their words. They didn’t seem to notice I was there. At all.
    I waved my hand. Nothing. Not even a glance. I was a ghost to them just as they had been ghosts to me in life.
    Dad stopped next to me. “You have always underestimated your natural ability,” he said, with a tone I could not place. “Do you see what we have accomplished together? The healing of souls with the magic you carry. We have healed souls in death. With light and dark magic.”
    “We? No, you stuck your hands in my chest and stole my magic and threw it at them. If you try that again, you won’t have hands. Where’s Zayvion?”
    Okay, maybe I was a little rusty on the whole cooperation thing.
    “Where did I go wrong with you?”
    “You never listened to me, to what I needed from a .