by T J Kelly
Just because I could.
The third pile, mostly shards and lumps that gathered at the bottom of the bag, took longer. I ended up reaching out and yanking a little magic out of both Peter and Seth to add to ours and created something special. Like the wobbly air net Reg helped me create. All any of us had to do was toss a handful of the pebbles and dust at our target, and it would bind him.
We split the mechanicals evenly when I was done, despite my sneezing fit. I stuffed my volcanic rocks into my backpack, annoyed I didn’t think to buy a leather pouch to attach to my belt to hold them. I would have to create it using magic, probably during the second half of our drive.
Seth pulled out a ball and threw it at Harris’s head. Harris thrust out his hand and caught it before it caved in his skull.
“Cool,” I said. I sounded bored and unimpressed like any other elite socialite, but thought it was fantastic.
“You think so?” Harris asked. The tone in his voice warned Seth, who took off running across the field at top speed. Harris turned on his heel and launched the ball at him, who leaped unnaturally high to catch it above his head.
Those two were freaks.
“Let them work off some steam,” Peter said. “We’ll cram back into the car soon enough. Want to stretch your legs?”
“Sure. I’m not totally exhausted. Yet.” I smiled at Peter, and he took my hand, placing it in the crook of his elbow as we strolled around the perimeter of the field.
“Tell me more about the area where Ged’s located,” Peter suggested. “The more we know about that place, the better.”
I thought about my dream, tapping back into the power that linked me to my uncle and allowed me to see out of his eyes, to form memories in my own mind.
“Well, it was dark of course. I couldn’t see the ceiling, but he was in a massive cave. He was tied to a chair and covered in some kind of hood. I think it was magic, but fabric brushed his skin, too, so maybe it was a real bag. There’s a deep, deep pit nearby glowing red from the magma. Uncle Ged’s really close to it. I could feel the heat, and he’s thirsty a lot because it’s making him sweat.”
I felt a twinge of pain and guilt at the thought of him there, alone, waiting for a rescue that was taking too long. I shoved my feelings aside and concentrated on the image of the location in my mind. I wanted to know it like the back of my hand by the time I got there. I set it firmly into my head so I would be familiar with every inch of enemy territory.
“Lia!” Seth shouted in the distance. Peter and I turned towards his voice.
I gasped. In front of us, maybe ten yards from the road, was a vast pit forming out of nothing, filled with a dark, pulsating heat. Red and orange, a moving shell of black, and glowing yellow.
Lava.
Exactly like I had pictured in my mind.
My hand fluttered near my collar, but my star necklace was missing. How did I not remember to put it back on?
A strangled cry broke through my terror-frozen lips. Peter yanked on my arm, keeping me from slipping over the edge of the chasm. The heat felt like it was baking the bones inside me, but I shoved that thought aside, terrified I would somehow actually do it and kill myself since I didn’t have the silver star around my neck protecting me from the accidental use of my magic.
Peter finally stopped dragging me behind him once we were back on the street, just within Seth’s spell, which still hid us from view. There was no way the locals wouldn’t notice a pit of lava randomly showing up one day.
“Here,” Peter said. He sounded mad, and I shamefully took the necklace he thrust at me and clasped it around my neck. What kind of fool forgot to put on the only thing keeping them from destroying the world?
The kind of fool named Lia.
“Thanks,” I said. My voice shook almost as hard as my hands.
Back in control of my magic, I narrowed my eyes at the field, superimposing how it looked before we got there over the view of the newly created pit of doom. Thankfully, I still had the power of Peter’s Light bolstering me. The anger and frustration I felt towards myself brought the darkness surging up, and that was never helpful when I was trying to gain back my confidence. Not like there was a whole lot of that to go around. Not with the constant string of disasters I caused every time I let my guard down.
As soon as I could reach my center, look within, and pull the strength of my magic out, I blanketed the field in front of me with the image in my mind, calm and normal. And there it was. Plain, boring. No sign of lava or anything remotely dangerous.
Unless I considered the fact I was still there.
Which probably counted.
What a nightmare.
I could feel myself slipping under the dark, but Peter gripped my shoulder and gave me a shake. “That was my fault, not yours,” he said.
“No, wearing that necklace is my duty,” I shot back. I sounded crabby as well as stuffy.
“True, but I’m your partner and I was holding it for you,” he pointed out. “I forgot to give it back.”
Maybe he was mad at himself and not me. It was my responsibility, but Peter taking part of the burden still made me feel better. Maybe I could balance out the darkness after all.
“Well, okay. It’s totally your fault then,” I said.
Peter huffed out an exasperated laugh and tugged me to him, giving me a hug. He did that thing where he rested his hand on my head, gently stroking my hair, and I felt his Light flow through me. I heaved a huge sigh against him and closed my eyes. I squeezed my arms around him, still shaken by what I had done.
Seth and Harris reached our side. “You guys okay?” Harris asked.
“Yeah,” I said. I didn’t want to turn and face them. I was so embarrassed.
“Good,” Seth said. “That was some seriously freaky crap there, Rector. But so awesome. I can’t wait until Halloween. Can you imagine the kinds of horrors we can set up for the neighborhood kids to get through before they earn their candy?”
I burst out laughing. It was the most random thing to say, but it tickled my funny bone. I pushed away from Peter and turned to study the Andersson brothers. They both looked impressed, not angry. My shoulders slumped in relief.
No harm, no foul, I guess.
“Come on,” Harris said. “Let’s get back on the road. We need to be on our way and I think we have enough weapons.” We walked back to the car slowly, enjoying the last few minutes of freedom before getting back into the car. It really didn’t matter how roomy it was. We were all sick of it.
It dawned on me that Peter might still be mad at me when he sat across from me instead of next to me. I sighed and turned to the side, stretching out on the back seat, staring up at the ceiling.
I admit it. I was moping. But I deserved a moment to wallow in self-pity. Because of a stray thought, I had almost destroyed the world.
Well, okay, not the entire world maybe, but I could have definitely screwed up the local area. And since I had infinitely more magic available to me besides the amount I had already used by the time Seth shouted his warning, it could have been the whole world next.
Right when I thought I would end up losing the benefit of Peter’s Light, he reached out and touched my cheek. It wasn’t until then I realized I was crying.
What a baby.
“Let it go,” Peter whispered. “It was my fault. And you’re too sick to be doing all these spells. It’s too much. Try to sleep. You might see Armageddon again and then you can make sure he’s still okay.”
A sigh escaped my lips, but it sounded more like a sob. It had been a rough day.
Then things really did get worse. Once I fell asleep, my mother was waiting for me. She held out her hand, and when I reached for it, instead of grabbing hold, she used magic to throw me away.
I landed, crashing right into my uncle, who was still hooded and tied to that infernal chair. “Lia,” he said through dry, cracked lips. “There’s something I need you to see.”
And just like that, he threw me
away, too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The Best Day Ever
My body was hurled right into the enemy, who had been standing guard nearby.
It felt kind of slimy. And kind of good. I decided not to examine that too closely and instead concentrated on what was happening.
At that moment, I was inside the head of a little boy, sitting in the back seat of a car, holding onto his new puppy.
“Happy birthday, David,” my mom said.
Well, not my mother. His mom. David’s. Except she looked just like my mother to my eyes, probably because I was looking at her from David's perspective. Looking at her with the love a boy had for his mother. The same love I had for mine.
Part of me slipped, and I became less aware of who I was.
If I pulled back enough to remember I was Lia, the woman was a stranger. But she had the same look in her eyes that my mother always did when she looked at me. It really hit me exactly how much my mother had loved me even if it had been from a distance.
“Thank you, Mommy!” I said. Since I was a little boy, my voice was high. Higher than the voice I used, me, Lia Rector. My real voice was alto. But this boy was a pure, sweet soprano. “Thank you, too, Daddy.”
I turned and looked at my daddy, who was driving the car. He was the tallest man in the world. He told me so himself, at least a hundred times. I wasn’t sure if I believed him at first, but he was taller than all the other dads of the kids in my class so it had to be true.
No. Not in my class. Not in Lia’s class. It was David’s father who was taller than the other dads.
Internally, I wanted to cry, if I could cry with somebody else’s eyes, surrounded as I was by the luminous ache of David’s hero-worship and love. I saw my father instead of his. Donovan Rector, who was dead, and I had yet to see in my dreams. Donovan, the last CEO of Rector Enterprises, the man who spent his final day on earth trying to help me connect to my magic. A thing he always did. For me.
Suddenly, I wanted my father so badly I wondered if the boy David’s eyes glistened with the tears I tried to shed and could not.
I had less control over myself than when I merged with Armageddon’s mind through the Blood-of-my-blood spell. It hurt more, too as I struggled to maintain a sense of individuality and remember who I was. Lia Rector. Praelia Nox. Armageddon’s ward. All the parts of who I was couldn’t hold out against the self that was David, a little boy who had just gotten a puppy for his birthday.
Our eyes strayed to the small animal lying on the seat beside him. He thought the puppy was really cute.
So did I.
That’s when my natural shield crumbled. Our thoughts the same, the merge complete. Except for a vague sense I was still myself in there somewhere, I became David and the agony I was causing myself by fighting to remain Lia ceased.
◆◆◆
“It’s the best present I ever got,” I chirped in my soprano voice.
“I’m glad you like him. Do you know what you want to call him? I bet you can think of a really clever name,” my mommy said. She smiled at me again, and I felt so good. She was the prettiest mom in the world. Lots of kids were jealous because their moms were mean, but mine wasn’t. She was nice.
I knew exactly what I wanted to name my puppy. He was black, with brown parts on his face, but to me, he looked like a shadow, and that’s what he wanted me to call him. I could tell.
“His name is Shadow. Shadow Racer,” I said. “I’m going to teach him how to run really fast.”
“What a wonderful name,” Mommy said. “Shadow Racer.”
“Good choice, son,” Daddy said. He was still driving, but he slowed the car down, and I could see the smile on his face when he turned to look over his shoulder to make sure there weren’t any cars in the way that would make us crash. He pulled into a parking lot near a store with shiny lights that hurt my eyes.
“You two stay here,” he said. “I’ll grab the drinks and pay for the gas.”
He disappeared into the store. I forgot to ask my dad to buy Shadow something to drink.
“Mommy, do puppies drink milk?” I asked. I was scared that Shadow wouldn’t get enough to eat or drink and then he would get sick.
“Not this one,” she said. She was twisted all around with her back to the window so she could look at me and held out her hand. She stretched just far enough to pat the puppy where he sat. Her eyes crinkled at the edges like they always did when she told me she loved me. They were dark brown, just like Shadow’s. Her hair was as black as his was, too, but had shiny silver strands in it. I had the same color hair, and I imagined myself running in front of Shadow, showing him how to race, all the kids jealous because I matched my puppy.
Somewhere inside, the person who was still Lia smiled at the thought. Lia also used to like pretending that there was a connection between herself and her toys if they looked alike. She wasn’t lucky like David, though. She never owned a puppy.
“Will Daddy remember to get Shadow some water?” I asked.
“I know he will. I can see him through the window, and he just bought a small bowl to hold the water.”
My daddy always took care of everything. I leaned over and tried to snuggle my puppy, but my seatbelt got in the way. Since we weren’t driving, I unclicked it and bent over, carefully laying my head next to Shadow Racer, my hair blending into the fur near his belly.
I touched the puppy’s side, feeling it get bigger and smaller with each breath he took. He was so soft.
“I had a good day,” I whispered. “Mommy and Daddy took me to the zoo, and we had cotton candy and ice cream, and we ate lunch, and I asked for macaroni and cheese at the lunch place and Mommy said it cost too much but Daddy told her it was my birthday, so I got birthday macaroni and cheese at the zoo, anyway. Then we had a piece of cake and Mommy said not to eat too much or else I’d throw up because of too many sweets, but I ate the whole thing, and I didn’t get sick at all. Then they stopped by the store on the way out of the city, and they picked you up and gave you to me, and this is the best day ever.”
My mom’s hand rested on my head and lightly scrunched my hair. I didn’t shake her off. I hated when people patted my hair, but since I had such a good day, I let her.
Besides, it felt nice.
My eyelids closed slowly, and it was hard to open them again. I wanted to look at Shadow and see his belly rising and falling and count how many times he took a breath in a minute but I couldn’t because I was sleepy and it was warm in the car, and my mommy was playing with my hair.
I probably would have fallen asleep if the monsters didn’t shatter the windows with a roar. It felt hot, and all the air got sucked out of the car, and I couldn’t breathe for what felt like forever.
Then I screamed. A piece of glass cut my cheek, and I was scared because Mommy was screaming, too, and I had never heard her scream before. She had never been scared before. She was the one I ran to when I had my nightmares, and she always looked at me and told me it was okay because she wouldn’t let any of the bad things I saw in my sleep ever happen for real. She said she was really good at killing monsters.
But that’s not what happened. Mommy screamed and threw my daddy’s jacket over me, and everything went dark. I tried to tug it off, but the car was shaking, and I wasn’t sure what to do. The puppy was squirming, so I held onto to him, sliding my hands around his belly to keep him still.
Shadow Racer kept trying to wiggle away. I pulled him up against my chest. Mommy stopped screaming. She made another sound, a horrible sound, and then it was quiet in the car.
I peeked out from under the jacket. The puppy wanted to get away, but I wouldn’t let him. I took him with me when I climbed into the front seat even though there was broken glass everywhere.
There wasn’t any glass where my mommy had been sitting. I knelt in her spot by the door and stuck my head out the window, trying to see where she went.
Before I could call out, the sound of her name froze in my mouth. She
was on the ground, on her side. Her legs were bent, and her arms were above her head, and even though I didn’t know what the word really meant, I knew she was dead.
Gone.
Just like the wicked witch in the story. She died, too. Mommy told me only the bad guys died, but she was on the grass, and she didn’t move, and I had never seen anybody real die before, but that was what happened.
I tried to call her name again, but I couldn’t do it. I turned to scream for my daddy instead, but when I looked his way, the store wasn’t there anymore. There were a lot of broken things on the ground, and smoke came out, but the store was gone.
My mouth was open, but I couldn’t make a sound.
A crunching noise came from the darkness on the other side of the junk pile where the store used to be. Footsteps in gravel. The bad guys were coming! I slid into the back seat again and pulled the jacket back over my head the way Mommy wanted it to be. It was really big and heavy. My daddy wore it when it got cold and he needed to work outside, and my mommy borrowed it from him.
“Come out!” I heard a man yell. He had a scary voice, and when he shouted, thunder boomed and shook the car.
I didn’t want to. He scared me. I stayed where I was. The jacket slipped when the car started to shake, knocked around by the wind and rain that was suddenly hitting the car.
“You can’t stop me!” It was a woman who said that, but not my mommy. My mommy was still lying on the ground.
“There you are,” the bad man said. He sounded happy, and the thunder boomed right over the car, making my ears pop.
Then it was quiet. I waited a really long time, Shadow Racer pushing against me. I thought maybe he was scared because his heart was beating really fast.
I heard crunching outside again, the sound of the bad man’s footsteps. I held Shadow tightly and scrunched my eyes closed, and then the footsteps moved away from the car. After a few minutes, I slipped out from under the jacket and looked over the edge of the window again.
Mommy was gone!
