Arcane Dropout 5

by Edmund Hughes

  “I don’t think it’s that simple this time.” He reached his hand out and Tess came over to hold it.

  Lee was considering pulling her in closer for a kiss when the sound of an approaching argument reached his years. Nurse Susie was attempting to block, or at least quiet, Harper and Gen, as they stormed into the infirmary.

  “What’s happened here?” asked Gen. “The male initiates’ dormitory was in ruins. Who was the perpetrator?”

  “Willow…” Harper went to her cousin first, grimacing as she saw the burn wound across her cheek. “No…”

  Willow let out a sad, sedated mumble, but didn’t otherwise seem aware and together enough to give answers. Harper squeezed her cousin’s hand and then, unaffected by the presence of the others, leaned over Lee’s bed and gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

  “Are you alright?” she asked.

  He nodded, though it felt almost like a lie.

  “We need answers, Initiate Amaranth,” said Gen. “Who was responsible for this attack? What are we dealing with?”

  He felt a sudden impulse to lie to them and had no idea where it came from. He’d been so busy parsing through the situation and staying alive during the fight with Eliza, that he hadn’t stopped to consider what would happen and if she might be in danger when he explained what was going on.

  But no, Willow had been there too. She would tell them the truth. She would tell them all of her truths, including the ones about his true nature, the lie he’d been perpetuating since day one. Her soft, harrowed breathing suddenly reminded him of nothing so much as the ticker on a time bomb.

  “Eldon.” Harper set a gentle, encouraging hand on his shoulder. He exhaled through his teeth.

  “It was Eliza, under the influence of the Unavowed Queen. The pillar possessed her, or maybe just… changed her. She didn’t know what she was doing, but she was powerful, far stronger than anything the two of us could deal with.”

  “What was her motivation?” asked Gen.

  He shook his head. “She said right before she left that she wasn’t at her full strength yet.”

  “Interesting,” muttered Gen. “Well, if nothing else, it seems you and your friends managed to unlock the secrets of Kuh-Matton after all.”

  A cruel smile came onto the Acting Lead Instructor’s face. Lee wanted to throw something at her, unable to stomach her apparent lack of empathy. Harper reacted similarly.

  “Gen, this is entirely your fault.” Her eyes narrowed into a glare toward her former master. “You sent my apprentice and his friends, a group of undertrained initiates, into Kuh-Matton on their own.”

  “Do you think the outcome would have been any different, had you been there?”

  “It very well may have been.”

  Gen let out a single, sharp snort. “You overestimate yourself, Harper. And underestimate your apprentice. I didn’t send him out carelessly. It was a test, and in a very real sense, he both passed and failed.” Gen’s focus shifted toward him, a cold stare with colder eyes. “These are the stakes of the world we live in, Lee Amaranth. Every choice you make, every momentary lapse in judgment, every lost fight. There are always consequences.”

  Gen began to lean forward, pressing herself across Lee’s bed, across him, even. Harper seized her by one shoulder and roughly pulled her back.

  “I stopped playing your games a long time ago, Gen. Stay away from my apprentice.”

  The tension between the two women was almost palpable. Gen shrugged Harper’s hand off her shoulder and headed for the door.

  “I expect you to return to Kuh-Matton,” she said right before exiting the infirmary. “It’s where I would go, were I this Unavowed Queen. I would expect a fight.”

  The muscles in Harper’s jaw flexed but she said nothing as the Acting Lead Instructor of Primhaven and Vice Magister of the Order of Chaldea left the room. She ran her hand up and down Lee’s leg in silence. He wondered what she was thinking.

  “You should stay here,” she finally said.

  “No, I shouldn’t,” he replied.

  “Eldon, you—”

  “Let me rephrase that. There’s no fucking way I’m letting you leave me behind, Harper.”

  She watched his face, taking the measure of his words before finally giving a small, reluctant nod. “Alright. We have to move quickly, however.”

  “I can do that.”

  Lee slid his legs around to the side of the bed, running his hands over his face as he thought about what he needed to do. Tess was still in the infirmary, and she seemed to read his mind as their eyes met. She gave a defeated shrug which was both expected and close to how he also felt. He licked his lips, measuring the weight of his secret, knowing that of all the people he’d kept it from, it would land on Harper the hardest.

  “I have to tell you something.” He took a long breath. “Harper… I’ve—”

  “No…” Willow’s voice was only just above a mumble, but she repeated herself for emphasis. “No. Lee… I’m sorry.”

  “Willow…”

  “I… I’ve never been any good at making friends,” whispered Willow. “I always give people the wrong idea. I’ve never figured out… how to do it. Eliza, even. She hated me, so I just tried to tease and torture her, because it’s just… all I know how to do.”

  “You should get some rest, Willow,” said Harper. “You’ve been through a lot.”

  “What I did was so stupid,” muttered Willow. “I won’t… do… what I threatened to do. I’m sick of being hated like that. Just, please…” Her hand drifted up to her cheek. “Don’t let her… hurt me again. Don’t… please. I won’t tell, I promise, just… please…”

  Tears dripped down her cheeks. Nurse Susie swooped in with a clean tissue to dab the ones on the side of her injury before they reached the wound. Lee was conflicted over whether to take her at her word in her current condition. At the very least, he decided admitting the truth to Harper about Tess and himself as a mystic would need to wait for a better moment.

  He felt ashamed at the sudden rush of relief. It was safe to assume Willow would have blown his secret or blackmailed him had it not been for what Eliza, the “new” Eliza, had done to her. It left Lee feeling as though he shouldered his own share of the responsibility, and it was impossible to shake off that creeping sense of culpability.

  “Eldon,” said Harper. “Are you ready?”

  He nodded, and the two of them left the infirmary.

  CHAPTER 36

  Lee felt as though he was drawing from a new well of energy as he followed Harper across campus, and not in a good way. All his concern, anxiety, and worry had crystallized into a form of emotional fuel, except burning it gave off the kinds of fumes that were toxic for human consumption.

  “Lee. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Tess was following alongside him and Harper, so all he could do was give a small nod in response.

  “I’ll come with the two of you, alright?” she said. “I know you always tease about hiding when Harper’s around, and I guess in some ways it’s true, but… I’m worried about you.”

  Lee was already shaking his head, though he knew the refusal hurt them both. Eliza knew about Tess, and beyond the danger already present was the possibility that the pillar had given her yet-unknown abilities. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for her to have the mystic sight or another form of sensing supernatural entities akin to it.

  “I can’t just leave you…” Tess let out a shaky sigh, blinking her eyes closed and open in a losing battle against condensation in her eyes. “Lee…”

  She reached to take his hand. He stopped walking for a moment, pulling her into his mystic stream and bringing her fingers to his lips. Harper kept walking, and he waited for her to fall out of earshot before whispering a few words meant for Tess and Tess alone.

  “I can’t take you with me. If there’s one thing these past few days have taught me, it’s how easy it is to put the people I care about at risk. Tess… I don’t know
what I’d do if…”

  She pulled him into a fierce hug. “Just… promise you’ll come back safe?”

  “I promise.”

  He pulled away. Harper was already giving him an odd look and he had to make an effort to act normal as he fell back into step.

  The men’s dormitory was in shambles. Lee started looking for his stuff, taking special care to keep an eye out for Tess’s kitten. The window was open wide enough for it to have escaped, so he could only hope it had found a safer spot for it to call home for the time being.

  Harper frowned as she performed her own survey of the damage and watched him digging through the wreckage of his room for his jacket and boots.

  “We’ll need to prepare some temporary accommodations while this dormitory undergoes repairs.”

  Lee snorted. “You don’t say?”

  They headed straight to the supply shed where the snowmobiles they’d used earlier in the week were already parked outside. Harper shook her head as Lee moved to secure one for himself.

  “You’ll ride on the back of mine,” she said.

  “I can handle a snowmobile, Harper.”

  “In your current state of mind, I’m not so sure.” She crouched down in front of him and began tying one of his shoelaces, which he’d apparently forgotten to do. “We mustn’t rush, not now. The stakes are too high, especially for you. I need you to focus on clearing your head.”

  “I’m fine. Quit treating me like a child.”

  “You’re not fine.” She set her hands on his shoulders. “Breathe, Eldon. I know better than anyone what you’re going through.”

  He scowled, but he knew she was right. It was already late in the afternoon, with the sun seeming to shrink inward on itself as it sank toward the edge of the horizon.

  The air was cold and as they set off, he felt appreciative of Harper’s body warmth on the seat in front of him. She knew the way as well as he did, and while she didn’t set any snowmobile speed records, they made good time.

  ***

  They continued into Kuh-Matton, saying little to one another as they passed from chamber to chamber. The squeeze of the collapsed tunnel was a little less claustrophobic now that he’d traversed it before and confirmed it did have an actual exit.

  They came to a stop just outside the final room, the one with the pillar. Lee had already explained to Harper that this was the most likely place within the tomb that Eliza would return to, if she returned at all. He took a step toward the entranceway. Harper set a hand on his chest, holding him back.

  “Eldon. If she is within this next chamber, and… if it comes to a fight…”

  “What?”

  “You know what I’m asking.”

  Lee scowled and refused to meet her gaze.

  “I need to know that you’ll side with me,” said Harper. There was a forced confidence in her voice, assured and desperate at the same time. “It’s not enough for you to just sit on the sidelines this time.”

  Her words cut deep. He remembered the first fight between Harper and his sister, a fight Harper had lost. He’d tried to stop them but he hadn’t sided with either one. It had let Zoe escape but something told him that this time around, the consequences of inaction would be far more dire.

  “Eldon, I need to hear you say it,” pressed Harper. “I need you to—”

  “I don’t know!” he snapped. “I just… don’t fucking know. I’m so sick of having to fight against people I love.”

  Harper took his hand into hers, gloved fingers clumsily intertwining together.

  “If she attacks you, I’ll fight to stop her,” said Lee. “But I can’t just... I won’t attack her first. There has to be another way! This isn’t Eliza; she’s being controlled or influenced. There must be a way to free her from it.”

  Harper’s silence was like a slow suffocation of his hope. She squeezed his hand but offered nothing else to him. Lee took a breath and nodded, and the two of them made their way toward the entranceway.

  He didn’t see Eliza within the expansive chamber, but there was clear evidence of her having been there recently. The pillar, which had held a central location within the room atop the raised dais, had crumbled into pulverized chunks of stone.

  “That’s what she touched?” asked Harper.

  “Yeah. It was definitely still in one piece on our last visit.”

  Harper folded her arms and scowled. She crouched down next to the pile of ruined stone and reached out a hand. Lee intercepted it at the wrist.

  “I let someone touch this thing once,” he said, firmly. “It’s not happening again.”

  “I’m wearing gloves.”

  “Idiot.”

  Harper smirked at him and pulled her hand back. “Well, she isn’t here. I somehow doubt she’ll be coming back anytime soon.”

  “When Eliza first touched the pillar, it looked as though she was drawing something, or someone, out of it. I used my force spell to break the contact she was making with it. If she came back here, it might have been to absorb whatever was left inside.”

  The words tasted sour as he spoke them. If he was right, Eliza could be moving further away from her original self, warped by the cursed power of the ancient artifact. He hoped he wasn’t, hoped there was still the possibility it was just a form of possession, one he hadn’t encountered before. If that was the case, he could still help her.

  “It’s late,” said Harper. “I made sure the tent was on the snowmobile before we left. We’ll have to camp here tonight.”

  She started toward the chamber’s exit. Lee continued staring at the crumbled pillar, shifting his eyes and breathing to stare at it with his mystic sight. Nothing. Whatever power had once been held within the chamber was no longer there, which was worrying in its own right.

  He didn’t say anything, not even as they began setting up the tent next to the snowmobiles, and not even as Harper fixed a simple meal of beef jerky, granola, and chips. She stared at him expectantly as he sat in the tent, not eating, not talking, defeated in spirit if not in body.

  Surprisingly, she let him be. Lee eventually nibbled at some of the food, setting the rest aside as Harper rolled out the sleeping bags for them. He muttered a quick thanks as stretched out on top of his, thoughts still a tumult of guilt and what he should have done differently.

  The tent was dark, and the only ambient noise was the sound of the wind whipping at the canopy. He had no idea what time it was but was dimly aware of having fallen asleep at some point.

  Harper was sitting next to him, gently running her hand through his hair. It was an unusually warm night, and from what he could see of her silhouette, she was completely naked. He stirred, sitting up and sliding in closer to her.

  She watched him, holding the same silence she’d held earlier, giving him room to vent, space for his emotions. He wasn’t sure what he felt. Tired, disappointed, a little scared of what was to come. He felt a sense of need, too. Need for a distraction. Need for the closeness of a warm body.

  Need for Harper, his friend, his lover, his teacher, and so much more.

  They kissed. For once, she let him take the lead, responding to his movements and touch instead of guiding him in her usual way. He ran his hands up her naked body, cupping her breasts and letting them drop loose from his fingers.

  He lowered her down on top of his sleeping bag, straddling her in his boxers. Her hair was out of its usual braid, and she looked messy and defenseless with it splayed out behind her head and shoulders, her large breasts lolling to either side at oddly seductive angles.

  His lips found hers, and then he was grinding against her, his cock hardening at a record pace. She helped him take it out, and then Lee was shifting, pressing, and angling. It felt surreal to experience Harper as she was, passive, gentle, resigned to his control.

  It was as though she was listening to him with his body, letting him vent through her. Even as Lee speared forward and thrust into her, she remained subdued. Her hands slid over his bare chest, but
rather than pushing or pulling as she so often did by default, she just caressed him.

  It made him wonder if his current state was worse than he realized. It was also mind-bogglingly arousing for reasons he couldn’t quite decipher. Harper Black, Primhaven’s dueling prodigy, his master mage and a rising star within the Order of Chaldea, naked and submissive.

  He pumped into her faster, looping his arm around her neck and pulling himself against her tight. His thoughts were spurious, shifting back for whatever reason to the date he’d gone on with Eliza and the intimacy they’d shared afterward. She’d been just as subdued, just as open to letting him take the lead. Where had he led her in the end? Straight off a cliff.

  “Eldon.”

  Harper cupped his cheek, forcing him to look at her. Forcing him out of his thoughts, out of his worries, out of anywhere other than that very moment. She let out a small, shaking moan and wrapped her legs and arms around him, a cocoon of perfect, naked female form.

  He let himself go, thrusting into Harper harder, and harder, venting his frustration on the end of his cock, with her urging him on. A lewd, satisfied sigh escaped Harper’s lips and then he was bucking into her faster, pulling her sweaty body against his.

  She nuzzled her cheek against his as they both came, pleasure pulsing, bodies tensing, joined in the moment. They slipped out of the cold and into their sleeping bags, and Harper went straight back to running her hand through his hair as though nothing had just happened.

  “Do you love her?” Harper’s voice was a tentative whisper, a sliver away from the hazy edge of vulnerability. “Do you love Eliza, Eldon?”

  It was a simple question, one he should have known the answer to, but didn’t.

  “Does it matter?”

  “It very well might.”

  Lee reached his hand up and found Harper’s fingers. He gently caressed the side of her hand, tracing the groove in between her forefinger and thumb.

  “Do you think it’s possible for a man to love more than one woman?” he asked.

  She was quiet for a long time, long enough for his exhaustion to begin to drift him off to sleep.