Chasing Magic

Chasing Magic
Stacia Kane

The fifth book in Stacia Kane’s gripping and gritty DOWNSIDE GHOSTS urban fantasy series, perfect for fans of Charlaine Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton and Kim Harrison.A DEADLY HIGHMagic-wielding Churchwitch and secret addict Chess Putnam knows better than anyone just how high a price people are willing to pay for a chemical rush. But when someone with money to burn and a penchant for black magic starts tampering with Downside’s drug supply, Chess realizes that the unlucky customers are paying with their souls – and taking the innocent with them, as the magic-infused speed compels them to kill in the most gruesome ways possible.As if the streets weren’t scary enough, the looming war between the two men in her life explodes, taking even more casualties and putting Chess squarely in the middle. Downside could become a literal ghost town if Chess doesn’t find a way to stop both the war and the dark wave of death-magic, and the only way to do that is to use both her addiction and her power to enter the spell and chase the magic all the way back to its malevolent source. Too bad that doing so will probably kill Chess – if the war doesn’t first destroy the man who’s become her reason for living.

STACIA KANE

CHASING MAGIC

Book Five of the Downside Ghosts

To the doctors, nurses, and surgical staff at Lister Hospital Stevenage, without whom I would literally no longer be alive

Table of Contents

Title Page (#u791d6ae3-5ebc-5ae4-b5bc-249dfd42b5d6)

Dedication (#ucfe93a10-8336-5274-9161-3f7c63c606a7)

Chapter One (#u6cd1442a-6c90-533d-9146-a27279e7e7a5)

Chapter Two (#ub86e05e4-03e3-5860-b101-1650c9b073b5)

Chapter Three (#uddb6dfe4-f483-5537-bb86-ae0d46d4e2f9)

Chapter Four (#ua35af901-d9b9-54a5-bce2-71e48fd5cab8)

Chapter Five (#u28338559-53c0-581b-8082-03affc307623)

Chapter Six (#ue9c5f5a4-0ee0-5bf3-aac4-5cad91301185)

Chapter Seven (#u495a74c4-19d4-5b87-bdad-55a125f46611)

Chapter Eight (#u4684ad6f-7cbc-5667-af62-5b8f5a669759)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-one (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-two (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-three (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-nine (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Stacia Kane (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One

The pursuit of material goods must never eclipse the pursuit of Truth.

—The Book of Truth, Veraxis Article 1745

All of the documents were in place: the Affidavit of Spectral Fraud, the Statement of Truth, two Orders of Imprisonment and two Orders of Relinquishment, and, of course, the list of Church-approved attorneys. The Darnells would want that—well, they’d need it, because they were about to be arrested for faking a haunting.

At least, they would be when the Black Squad got there to back Chess up. She didn’t always want the Squad to come along; police presence tipped people off, made things more difficult, and most people came pretty quietly once they realized they were busted, anyway. The Darnells didn’t seem like the come-quietly type, though. Something told Chess they weren’t going to take this well.

But she’d told them she’d be there at six, and it was five past already and their curtains kept twitching. They knew she was there.

Right. She’d taken a couple of Cepts before leaving her apartment in Downside, so they were starting to hit—smooth, thick narcotic warmth spreading from her stomach out through the rest of her body, a pleasant softness settling over her mind.

That was the best thing about the drugs, really; she could still think, still be coherent, still use her brain. She just didn’t have to if she didn’t want to, and it was so much easier to keep that brain from wandering into all those places she didn’t want it to go.