Chapter 17: Sorcerer’s Shadow

December 31, 2025 — 11:47 p.m. Bethesda Terrace, Central Park.

The terrace was a frozen amphitheater under the indifferent stars. Snow had stopped falling hours ago, leaving a thick, pristine blanket that swallowed sound and reflected the city’s distant glow in cold, silver light. The fountain’s angel stood silent, wings spread in eternal blessing, basin iced over into a perfect mirror that captured the moon and the first tentative fireworks blooming far above Midtown. But beneath the beauty, the air thrummed with power—ley lines converging here on this night, this hour, amplifying everything: cold, desire, magic, dread.

Rikki Fire and Sophia Voss approached from the south ramp, hand in hand until the last moment—fingers intertwined, heat shared against the biting cold, a silent promise. Shadow padded between them on his leash, fur bristling, yellow eyes glowing like twin lanterns. Elara waited in reserve with Raley and Esperanza a block away—backup if the wards failed.

The wards were already failing.

Rikki felt them as pressure against her skin—static raising the fine hairs on her arms, making her leather jacket creak with every movement. Sophia’s magic flared in response—warm light flickering at her fingertips, jasmine scent blooming thick and protective around them both. The cold wasn’t natural; it carried the taste of ozone and old blood, the smell of something vast and starving uncoiling beneath the terrace.

Malachar waited in the exact center—standing on the frozen basin itself, cloaked in living shadow that writhed like smoke made solid, edges blurring into the night—tall, gaunt, face half-hidden under a hood that seemed to drink light. The sigil from Thorne’s chest glowed on his upraised palm—brighter now, pulsing in time with the distant countdown clocks across the city.

“Detective Fire,” he called, voice echoing unnaturally, layered as if spoken from every shadow at once. “And the little Voss witch. How delightfully predictable. You brought your pet ... and your heart on a leash.”