Arcane Dropout 5

by Edmund Hughes

  The second island was above and to the side of the first. Lee used the same method to get himself onto it, though it felt as though he was pulling himself up a slightly greater height. The feeling only grew as he moved to the third and fourth islands until he was sure Eliza had done it intentionally.

  He stared at the fifth floating island, the one where Odarin had installed a small basketball court. He thought he could make it up, but only with a running start and a jump that, regardless of the outcome, he’d only be attempting once. Lee rubbed his sweaty palms together, briefly considering attempting to channel Widow for the sake of her silk line to give him some insurance.

  He didn’t have the patience or the essence to spare, not given what might happen when he reached Eliza. He took a few deep breaths and rushed forward, jumping with every ounce of strength in his legs.

  His arms hit the grass of the higher island and immediately began sliding back. He dug his fingers into the soft earth up to the second knuckle, gasping with terror as he kicked with his legs and only touched empty air. Slowly and with serious effort and resolve, he pulled himself up onto the island.

  A familiar but twisted laugh came from above. It was Eliza’s voice, except imbued with a cruel, mocking quality completely unlike her. Lee glared upward at where the crimson light peeked out over the edge of the highest island, unable to look directly at her.

  A flash of red power made him leap backward on reflex. A path formed between the rest of the islands above him, pulsating stairs of scarlet arcane energy that crossed over the gaps.

  He spent a minute testing them with the toe of his shoe before accepting they were capable of holding his weight. Even then, he made his way up with careful steps, lest they drop out when he least expected.

  The wind slowly began to pick up, dancing across his clothes and threatening to imbalance his movements. It was loud in his ears as he took the last step onto the final floating island. It was the one with the orchard atop it, and he could see crimson light spilling from in between the shadowed trees and branches at its center.

  He found her there, sitting in a throne composed of conjured crimson energy, smiling patiently. Her face was so much like the Eliza he remembered despite the fierce red of her eyes and the uncanny way she stared at him without reacting.

  She wore a dress of black silk with a plunging neckline and a single slit running down one edge of the skirt. Her legs were crossed, her hands folded, and as Lee began to approach her in her throne, one edge of her mouth quirked upward into a dangerous smile.

  “You’re right on time,” said Eliza.

  Despite all the time he’d had to think on his way up the tower, Lee still didn’t have a clue what he was supposed to say to her. There was a gap in one edge of the surrounding trees through which Lee could see the area below. The town of Gillum was aflame, a hideous orange scar across the dark night landscape. Her handiwork and likely only a taste of what was to come.

  “On time for what?” he asked.

  “Our reunion. Our new beginning. We start here, my beloved, from square one.”

  Eliza reached out a hand, and Lee could feel the thrum of arcane power on the air. A small serving table, of all things, flew toward her from within the trees. It landed upright, as did the bottle of wine and two stemmed glasses that followed. Eliza gestured for him to come closer and smiled as she began pouring them both a drink.

  “Are you insane?”

  She shrugged. “I suppose that would depend on who you ask.”

  “Eliza!” Lee’s hand shot out, finger pointing toward the destruction below. “Why? That’s Gillum. Nobody in that town did anything to you. Those people are innocents.”

  “Close, but not quite true. They enable Primhaven to be what it is. If Primhaven is to go, then Gillum… well, you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet.”

  “That’s your goal, then? Fire and death? Chaos?”

  “Close, but not quite.” She shifted in her throne, uncrossing and re-crossing her legs. “Lee, please, come closer. I feel like I’m shouting to you from over here.”

  Her smile widened and she beckoned to him with her hand. Lee slowly took a few steps forward, playing up his reluctance. Even though it was exactly what he wanted. The distance did him no favors, regardless of how the encounter ended up playing out.

  “I remember more now,” she said. “So much more. Primhaven, the Order of Chaldea, the inefficient rules of the current supernatural world, it all needs to go.”

  “This isn’t the way to do it,” he said. “You don’t need to kill people! You could find a way to work for change from within if you’d just be patient.”

  She let out a shrill laugh. “You, of all people, are going to make that argument? I think above all, what having this new perspective allows me to do is be honest with myself. I find it rather unbecoming to bear witness to self-deception in others, now.”

  “You want me to be honest?” He held his arms out, gesturing to the campus below and the town beyond. “It’s not worth it! If changing the system, breaking the Order’s control, if it costs this many lives, then it just isn’t worth it. Eliza, the real Eliza, would have seen that.”

  Eliza slowly rose from her throne, which dissipated into tufts of arcane energy as soon as she broke contact with it. She strode toward him, coming to a stop only a few feet away.

  “This would all be so much easier if you could accept I am the real Eliza,” she said. “I know I’m probably, well, not acting like myself, or the person you knew. But I’m still here. I’m still me. I still… want the things I used to want.”

  The glow faded from her eyes and it almost seemed to slide downward as a red flush came across her cheeks.

  “I’m not crazy, Lee. I just didn’t know before what I know now. I didn’t think about these sorts of things, and I guess because of that, I never realized how angry it all made me. None of it is justified. None of it!”

  “Come with me. We can head down and meet with Gen and Harper. You can explain it to them.”

  “It’s far too late for that and you know it. Not that they ever would have listened to begin with.”

  “I’m listening, aren’t I?”

  He took a step forward, drawing a little too close to her. The danger was real but there was more than just that in the air between them. There was a tension, a prickling heat, a sense of not knowing whether he needed to kiss her or kill her.

  “I knew you would listen, at least.” She slowly licked her lips. “Whether you agree with me or not, I knew your ears would be open.”

  “Just because I’m listening doesn’t mean I like what I’m hearing.”

  “Should I speak in a different tone, then?”

  Eliza moved closer, cheeks blushing, chin jutting up defiantly. It took a force of will to keep from seizing her by the shoulders and shaking some sense into her. It took a second force of will to keep from grabbing her by the waist and pulling her against him.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  “I want you to stop pretending to be something you’re not,” she said, voice a whisper. “The pillar changed me, Lee. There’s no going back. They’ll hunt me for what I am, just as they’d hunt you if they knew the truth.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I do. We’re the same.”

  He shook his head. “We aren’t the same.”

  “Oh, but we are. They’ll never accept us, not now. You can try to keep pretending, but time runs short.”

  “Please, Eliza. Stop this.”

  “Maybe I’d be willing to if you asked me nicely.”

  She smirked and held her arms out to either side. Lee felt an overwhelming sense of an impending trap, or rather as if he’d already stepped into one and was in too deep to escape.

  He had no other choice. He reached his hand forward, cupped her cheek, and kissed her. There was no instantaneous release of evil energy, no collapse of psychic bindings, no unnatural surge of manipulated emotions. Just her lips
against his, the soft crush of her feminine body, and the wind through their clothes and hair.

  “Were you expecting me to bite your head off?” she whispered.

  “I don’t know what to expect from you anymore.”

  “Good.”

  They kissed again, and then she was pressed against him, aggressive and eager. So unlike the Eliza he’d known, or perhaps just Eliza unchained. She let out a soft moan and began grinding into him, hips gently rolling as though they were already naked and coupled.

  He was mad at her, and the anger led to fury, enflaming other heated emotions along the way. Had this side of her always existed in the background, merely biding its time? He seized one of her thighs and almost fell forward on top of her, only getting his other arm out in time to keep them from sprawling out in a clumsy, four-limbed heap.

  He was mad at her, and he pulled her dress down, as though revealing how easy it was to expose her would prove another point. Eliza gripped his hand and pulled it to cup one of her breasts, nodding, smiling, urging him on. She undid his belt, unzipped his jeans, deft, freeing movements to reveal him in the same way.

  He was mad at her… and they were kissing again. He slid her dress up, unsure of what he was doing or why, his anger intermingling with his lust until he couldn’t tell the two apart. Eliza smiled at him and there was a teasing, almost mocking quality to it. He pinned one of her arms and gritted his teeth.

  “There!” he snarled. “Is this what you want?”

  He pulled her thigh up and thrust into her, being anything but gentle. Not that it made any difference, really. Her face seemed to soften from the pleasure, head nodding slightly as her hips and legs urged him forward.

  “Yes!” she cried. “It’s exactly what I want. You’re really talking to me, instead of just saying words.”

  “Shut up.”

  He thrust into her faster, still pinning her with enough body weight to make it hurt. Was he trying to hurt her? Part of him wanted to, that insidious voice whispering that if he dominated her completely, he could force her back into her old self.

  “I love this side of you…” cooed Eliza.

  “Shut up!” He slammed her arm down hard and leaned his shoulder into her chest.

  “Oh!” she moaned. “Mmm… You think you can stop me, but you can’t.”

  “I can.” He took hold of her cheek, turning her eyes to meet his as he pumped into her. “Enough.”

  “Is it enough, Lee?”

  Her legs wrapped around him. Lee seized her by the hips and twisted himself loose, barely pausing before pushing his cock back into her and picking up right where they’d left off.

  “Oh…” she breathed. “I dreamed of this.”

  “Of what?” snarled Lee. “Of being hated? Of being used?”

  He took a fistful of her hair, feeling his emotions boiling over. Eliza bit her lip as he pulled her head back, exposing her vulnerable neck. He squeezed one of her pale breasts with his free hand, confused and a little disgusted by what they were doing.

  “You can use me,” whispered Eliza. “Use me however and wherever you want. I’m yours.”

  “Shut up!” he shouted.

  He covered her mouth with his palm. He felt her licking the skin underneath and then sucking on one of his fingers as his hand shifted. He took her roughly, the pace of his thrusts as punishing as he could make it, as though he expected the intensity of the sex to be what finally snapped her out of it.

  “Lee! Oh, Lee! You are everything, and so much more!”

  He was breathing hard and pumping into her harder. He knew it was pointless, and worse, as he felt himself sprinting toward his finish, he felt like she’d won.

  “I… don’t even know you,” he muttered.

  Eliza wrapped her legs around him, this time too tight for him to pull out of. “Of course, you do. I’m the mother of your future child.”

  His ears heard those words without really hearing them, and certainly without unpacking them as a promise or a threat. He moved on reflex, pushing, rolling, twisting, trying to get away from what he’d spent the last few minutes flinging himself toward. Eliza kissed him, biting his lower lip hard enough to draw blood.

  At the last second, he saved himself, pulling back just far enough to release on her stomach and chest and the black silk fabric of her dress. Eliza let out a satisfied sigh, followed by a mocking giggle.

  “Well, there’s always next time,” she said.

  CHAPTER 42

  The full specter of night had arrived, bright stars and the brighter moon poking out from behind the cloudy sky. It was snowing lightly, small flakes that melted as soon as they touched down. Lee pulled his clothes back on, trying to shake off the odd tension left in the wake of having sex with one’s former friend and current enemy.

  “Why?” He shook his head, staring into Eliza’s eyes. “Why let me get this close? You’ll fuck me after killing people in Gillum and attacking Primhaven? Eliza… What’s happened to you?”

  “You have a destiny, Lee.” She’d ditched her dress and stood before him naked and sweaty. “This is just the beginning for the two of us. The destruction is only the first step. We’ll rebuild once we’re done, a world where the people the Order hunts won’t have to be afraid.”

  “I have a destiny?” He felt the muscles tightening in his neck. “What is that even supposed to mean? Eliza, are you hearing yourself right now?”

  “It isn’t just your destiny. Both ours, and Tess’s, too. Is she here now? I hope she didn’t mind me having my way with you. I miss her, you know. She was my friend. We were closer than I think you realize.”

  He felt the hairs on his arm standing up straight as he watched Eliza glancing around, as though she might catch sight of a ghost that she’d never seen with her own eyes before.

  “She’s not here,” he said.

  “What do you think she would say to my offer? Do you truly believe she likes living with the possibility of you being discovered by Harper, or Gen, or whoever it will be when you’re finally outed for what you are? Would she not prefer an alternative where the two of you can live openly?”

  What would Tess say? It wasn’t a hard question, and it led to what he’d known he’d need to do when he first stepped into the lift on the bottom floor.

  He took hold of both of Eliza’s wrists firmly and looked directly into her eyes. “No. I’m not letting this go any further. Enough.”

  She let out a rather amused snort. “I remember when I was the serious one. Will you commit to your stand now, after what we just did? It’s your choice to make, but people will die because of it.”

  “People will die if I don’t stop you!”

  Red light flashed, and Lee’s hands were suddenly empty. Eliza had teleported out of his grasp in less time than it would have taken him to blink his eyes. She stood at the edge of the island facing away from him, once again fully clothed, the wind ruffling the skirt of her black silk dress.

  She’d given him an opening though he was too conflicted to know what to do with it. He could attack her. He could rush forward with his dagger or even simply fire his gun into her back. He could, but he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He felt like an idiot for insisting he could stop her with words or even sex. He’d been so sure, clinging to his resolve like a stubborn child convinced of the impossible.

  He took a step and then started running. He slid to a stop directly behind her and tried to seize her by the shoulders. He realized an instant too late, that she’d never been there in the first place. His fingers cut through open air as he took hold of nothing more than a projection. Eliza’s mocking laugh echoed from behind him, and a blast of energy along with a burst of crimson light exploded over his head.

  He dove to the side, wary of what another strike of her magic would do if properly targeted. There were several illusions of Eliza beyond the one he’d already been fooled by. She’d always been the only person strong enough with them to muddle his mystic sight.

  He h
ad other means with which to counter them, however. Lee centered himself and focused on using dispel, drawing his breath inward as he directed the ability out through the palms of his hands. It wasn’t directed at a point, but more like a sphere surrounding him, a sphere within which magic failed and crumbled.

  Two of the illusions of Eliza were near enough to be immediately affected, both washing out like a projected image exposed to the sun’s light. The other three were outside of his range, but all standing to one side of the island, rendering their escape moot.

  Eliza seemed to come to the same realization, waving a hand to dismiss the idle copies. She jutted her eyebrows up and grinned at him.

  “You have so much talent and ability,” she said. “A unique skillset, rare and full of potential. Was it ever appreciated here? Stop and think, really think, about how powerful we would be together.”

  He dropped into the conjuration casting stance, briefly considering attacking with his force spell before opting to channel Thumper instead. He was in the middle of focusing his will when Eliza moved, or rather, teleported.

  She closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye, reappearing so close that he could feel her breath on his chin. She punched him in the stomach with enough force to double him over, then slammed her elbow down on his shoulder, dropping him to his knees.

  “Remember when we dueled?” asked Eliza. “You said you weren’t the type to care about the fact that you lost to a girl. I hope you still hold that conviction…”

  Lee could barely breathe, let alone pull himself back to standing. Eliza took hold of his head with a hand more gentle than forceful. She pulled his face into her thigh, stroking his hair and letting out a tender sigh.

  He finally managed to gather his strength and used it to throw himself forward, tackling her legs. She laughed and teleported again, leaving him to fumble onto his stomach. He hurried back to his feet.

  Eliza stood ten feet away from him and casually pointed a finger at his chest. Before he had time to dodge, or react, or even utter a syllable, a blast of crimson energy struck him across the midriff. He went flying as though he’d been punched by a giant, and he landed hard on his shoulders, head thumping against the grass as he began to roll out the last of his momentum.