by Jamie Hawke
The expression in Fatiha’s eyes went from hopeless to confusion, followed by her standing. “Show me.”
With a glance of regret at my food, I took a sausage patty with me and my half-finished coffee, going with her to the room where my aunt had died and then her corpse had vanished. Along the way, I finished my patty, then my coffee as Fatiha explained that she lived in Bethesda but had known Gertrude since they were children, and had been involved in this Searcher business since my aunt had decided it was her role.
“Decided?” I asked.
“That’s correct. There was a book that spoke of things beyond our belief, our comprehension, really. But she started studying them, learning… dreaming.”
“I see.”
“And it led to riches, but all for the cause. It led to enemies, too, and eventually she was taken in by a group known as The Order of the Mystic Moon. It’s a group carried down by those first, early protectors of the Liahona. Lost to time but rediscovered in a book passed down for generations until it vanished, only to be rediscovered in the late 1800s. For years, they put pieces together, practiced spells discovered along the way, and searched for the Liahona.”
“My aunt…” I let that all sink in. The idea that she was all part of this secret order and had never told us. Or maybe my mom had known, but thought it too weird to share? I couldn’t believe my mom would have let me stay at my aunt’s place if she had known, though. My parents wouldn’t even let me watch Rainbow Bright when I was a child because they thought that show had too much to do with witchcraft. This was a whole other level.
“She discovered the gargoyles,” Fatiha went on, “and brought them here, but never learned how to wake them. At times, I wondered if she was mad, if the gargoyles were nothing but statues. Then, this morning… to see one in your bed like that…”
“We didn’t sleep together, I mean in that way, if—”
“Enough,” she waved her hand. “It would be none of my business if you had.”
I nodded, not really sure where I stood in all of this. We reached the hallway, each step feeling heavier as we approached the room. Stepping in, I frowned in confusion. The room was not at all how I had last seen it, but was completely put back in order, even with broken walls fixed.
“There.” I pointed to the spot where my aunt had fallen. “But I don’t… I don’t understand.”
“You will,” a stern voice said, and there was my aunt, standing in an alcove of the room. Only, it wasn’t quite her, as I could see the shelves behind her.
“A ghost?” I asked, not sure what would surprise me at this point.
“Not exactly,” Fatiha said, stepping toward her, but stopping at a shelf at her side, where a jade sculpture of a small tree was kept on display. “More like her… but not her.”
“I had myself linked to this Life Tree,” my aunt explained, approaching us. “This isn’t me, exactly, but like the essence of me. A part left behind, should you need my help.”
“Considering everything that’s happening,” I replied, “I’d say that’s a very real possibility.”
“With my last breath, I transferred magic to you, and my consciousness here. If I can guide you, I will. Fatiha…” My aunt turned to the woman, a sorrowful smile taking over. “You were my everything. I’m sorry it had to end like this.”
“My best friend, my rock.” Fatiha held up the tree, pricked her finger on the side of it, and chanted under her breath as she let a drop of blood fall onto the base. “I accept your sacrifice, and give of myself so that what remains may grow stronger.”
With those words, my aunt faded into a ball of light that entered the jade tree.
“Okay, what the fuck…?” Cringing at the look Fatiha gave me, I added, “Sorry, but this is all too much.”
I gave the tree one more glance, then turned to get out of there.
At the door, Fatiha caught up to me. “Where are you going? We have a lot to do, a lot to—”
“I just… need to think.”
I was out, jogging down the street, cursing that I didn’t have a phone to call a driver. Since I didn’t have a car, I walked. A stranger to this city, I had no idea where I was going but that didn’t stop me.
At the moment, all that mattered was being alone and away from all the crazy bullshit.
80
There wasn’t much to think about, really. Going from thinking I was a normal guy with a girlfriend and about to go to university, only to have it all thrown upside down with magic, time travel, and now what was essentially a ghost—it was a lot to take in.
At the moment, I wanted to look at the fun architecture of the nearby houses, the trees blowing in the wind, and birds soaring by. I wanted to forget all the insanity, and focus on what had always been real, what was simple. After a bit of walking, I hopped in a taxi and paid way too much to end up at the National Mall, where I checked out some museums, stood staring at a wooly mammoth recreation for like thirty minutes, and then walked over to the Capitol Building. After that, my legs were as exhausted as my emotional state, so I found an out of the way coffee shop, grabbed a green tea, and then sat in the back with my head against the wall. After a short nap, I woke to find a tour group crowded around, kids eyeing me and chuckling. I nodded and went on my way.
From there, I thought about calling my friends or parents, but what could they do? They couldn’t relate to me in this, and I had no interest in making up an answer for when they asked what I had been up to so far.
Instead, I found a food court, ate some mediocre Chinese beef and broccoli, and then started to make my way back toward the house. The summer humidity was a drag, but for a little while I welcomed it as something to focus my negative energy on rather than all the myriad other options. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I found a bus that took me halfway, and then got out to walk again.
Everything around that area reminded me of pictures of Rome or Greece, although it wasn’t like I had been to either to really know. The buildings had that grand, marble look, and when I stopped to look at a church, I couldn’t help but feel that the West Coast got screwed with its lack of amazing architecture.
A flock of pigeons flew past. One of them landed nearby, and gave me the distinct sensation that it was watching me. More appeared as I walked on. After the third time, I noticed a figure standing at the raised side of a park, white hair blowing in the wind. At least her eyes didn’t appear red anymore, or not from this distance.
Steph waited there, and I didn’t turn away.
Her hands were folded in front of her, and at least she was wearing normal clothes during the day, instead of the strange renaissance getup she had worn the night before. Now she had a look that was less like a demon summoner or whatever she was, and more of a punk rock wannabe. Her gray pants with holes were paired with a low-cut red shirt with black vest over it. The whole ensemble reminded me of the old Avril Lavigne look—some singer from the nineties my dad had always pretended not to listen to.
My instincts kicked in as I approached her, eyes darting about for trouble. Every ounce of me was screaming that I needed to turn around and run, but stubbornness won out. She had been my girlfriend and betrayed me. Words needed to be had.
“The fuck, Steph?” I said, as soon as I figured I was probably within ear shot.
She laughed. “I could ask the same of you. All I wanted was to look around, to have some fun. You spoiled it.”
“You killed my aunt.”
“It wasn’t me, exactly.”
“Bullshit.” I glared, then scoffed with a shake of my head. “Stop talking as if we’re two normal people having a conversation. It’s pissing me off.”
She cocked her head, smiling. “How would you like to talk instead?”
“Like you’re a traitorous bitch, a murderous piece of shit, maybe.” I shrugged. “What’s to stop me from ending this right here?”
“Really?” She motioned around. “Go ahead, and have fun with that, too. Have fun being the guy who
beat a woman to death right here in D.C. Although, truthfully,” she leaned in, smirking, “I think I could take you.”
A twitch at the side of her mouth. One I recognized all too well. “You’re bluffing.” She frowned, confirming it, and it hit me. “That’s why you’re not attacking right now… because your powers aren’t as strong during the day. Or maybe don’t work at all.”
“You don’t know what you’re getting into, Jericho.” She stepped close, hand going out for my arm, but I pulled back instinctively. The hurt in her eyes was quickly replaced by anger. “Fuck you, okay? I’m out here risking everything to try and give you another chance. When my lips were around your cock, you think that was fake? No! I fucking lo—er, like you. Okay? And I’m telling you right now, you have this one chance to make everything right. Don’t, and I can’t guarantee your safety.”
“Problem is, I think you’re full of shit,” I countered, taking another step back, eyes darting to two forms I noticed at the edge of a clump of trees in the park. “Safety? I need to find a way to be safe from you, first of all.”
“You take one more step, and that will be the truest thing you’ve ever said.”
I stared her down, held up the finger, and stepped away. “Steph, didn’t you learn anything from our time dating? Take your ultimatum and shove it.”
Her magic might not have been very powerful during the day, but when she pulled out a taser, I fucking knew better than to delay this any longer than was necessary. My legs were already moving, my arms pumping as I took off in a sprint, propelling myself over a parked car and right into traffic. The taser missed, but a pickup truck almost connected. I fell back, feeling the wind gush by, then took off across the street, hoping to God the cars would stop. A gunshot sounded. A bullet hit a red sedan and caused the driver to swerve, hitting another car. As bad as I felt, I didn’t have time to wait around and check on everyone. Apparently, Steph’s friends were smart enough to not rely on only magic.
How stupid could I be? What had caused me to think it was okay to walk around in public after the previous night? It was beyond me.
I ducked around a deli, glancing around for options, when I saw a blue Volvo come around the corner. Fatiha was driving and waving for me, mouthing what I could only assume was, “Get in!”
Another gunshot went off as she pulled up and popped open the door for me, ducking as the rear passenger window shattered with another shot.
“Quickly,” she hissed.
I didn’t need to be told twice, and threw myself in, legs still behind me as I worked to get the door shut. She slammed a small crystal onto the dash and sat up, pedal to the metal. Another shot hit, and she ducked, then said, “Wards, dammit! Do you know them?”
Without even thinking, I shouted, “Ddiogelu!” and did the hand motion, our car lighting up so that the next two shots that hit a split-second later simply rebounded.
“There we go,” she said, grinning, and laughed as she did another U-turn, went over a curb, and peeled out as we made our way out of there.
81
“Your life isn’t going to be what you thought,” Fatiha said, turning the wheel hard and glancing over. “At this point, you have a choice to make.”
“Live or die?” I asked, glancing back over my shoulder.
“On a basic level, yes. But I mean that you need to commit, or likely die. The third choice is to go over to their side, but then I’d have to kill you, of course.”
I laughed, only to see she wasn’t smiling. Not a joke, apparently.
“You have nothing to worry about,” I said. “Maybe death, but not me switching sides. My aunt was committed. I’m even more so.”
“We’ll see about that.”
A screeching sounded and two cars appeared, closing in on us. Steph wasn’t giving up so easily. What I couldn’t have expected was how well Fatiha handled the drive through the city. She seemed to know every turn, every in and out of public parking lots, and was quick at the wheel.
In the parking lot of a church, the enemy cars drew close enough that they opened fire, seemingly aimed for our tires, but Fatiha drove right through a gate, came peeling out on a road where we almost flipped while a truck swerved to avoid us, and then we were going down a hill, turning again and again, and there was no sign of them.
We also didn’t seem to be headed for the house. “Where are we?”
“Taking you on a tour,” she replied, and winked.
I shifted in my seat to see the Capitol Building in the distance, a sign that said 14th Street, and then Dupont Circle.
“This is… I mean…”
“Yes, I’m taking you to see the White House.”
“I took a walk, saw some of the city.”
“Doesn’t matter,” she said, waving the comment off. “We need to be somewhere public. Right about now they’re going to look for you around the house, and as you might have figured by their use of guns, their magic is weak during the day.”
“Mine isn’t.”
She nodded. “Observant. That’s the problem with dark magic, even more so with shadow magic. During the day, they aren’t much better than common criminals, trying to shoot up the city. If we’re in a well-guarded, heavily populated area, our chances of survival rise drastically.”
That made sense. “But what about the car and the ward on it? Couldn’t we just hide in the car, or drive through whatever they throw at us?”
“Wards are temporary,” she replied. “The ones on the house are amplified by the same power that will allow your aunt’s Life Tree to work. Out here, not so much. A few good shots, and your ward breaks.”
“A public place it is, then.” I sat back, watching the tall buildings as we drove closer. D.C. was unlike anything I’d experienced back in Oregon. While Portland was a big city and had the most amazing bookstore, it was like apples and oranges to D.C. Soon, we were walking along the area next to the old war building. We took a tour of some apartment across the way that held significance but didn’t matter to me in the slightest at the moment, and then ate at the restaurant on top of the W, where we had a great view of the Treasury building and, past it, the White House.
She ordered meatloaf for herself and insisted I try the crab cakes. We sat back, taking it all in. A moment to relax.
“I’m going to miss her,” Fatiha said.
“Ah, yes. Me too.” I indicated her pocket. “But you have…”
“The tree?” She allowed a smile. “It’s something, sure. But imagine, if you will, having a favorite hamburger, and then one day being told you can hold a toy version of the hamburger, but never taste the real thing.”
“That’s got to be one of the worst—”
“I know, I know. But you get the picture. It’s not the same as having the real her.” Hand going to her pocket, she nodded in appreciation as the waiter brought us waters, then watched him walk off. “Ask me.”
“What?”
“Why here. Ask me why I brought you here.” She turned back to me, sipped her water, and waited.
“Wh—”
“Because it was the last place Gertrude and I went out to. We mostly didn’t go out anymore, at least not when it could be helped. But she had made a discovery, about the time when she told me you would be coming. So, we had to celebrate.”
“Was the discovery… me?”
“You?” Her smile faded. “I… actually hadn’t considered that. She kept a lot of her work private, only filling me in on what was necessary. And she did talk about your coming quite often, but I never put the two together.”
“You two—”
“Holy shit.”
I turned to her and frowned. “What?”
“I can’t believe I didn’t put the two together before. Here I was thinking we had a lead on another gargoyle or something, or finally anything to do with the actual location of the Liahona. But it was you.” She turned to me, looking me up and down, and then laughed. “You’re the piece of the puzzle. But sorry, you were goi
ng to say?”
“Just…” I ran a hand over my chin, massaging it, not sure how to take her burst of surprise and the way she was suddenly looking at me. “I was going to say that you two sounded very busy. Doing what, exactly?”
“Traveling. We found those gargoyles, Ebrill being one, apparently—”
“And the other is Kordelia.”
“You don’t… say.” She eyed me, took another sip, then nodded as the food arrived. When the waiter was gone again, she leaned in, lowering her voice. “Those names aren’t completely alien to me, you should know.”
“You’ve seen them before.”
She nodded. “In a book, one that Gertrude found. We can ask her about it sometime,” she tapped her pocket, “find out where the book is for the other names. But yes, Ebrill and Kordelia were two witches who are said to have been part of the magical war that actually ended much of magic on Earth.”
“How so?” I asked.
“That’s something we’ll have to ask Ebrill.”
“If she ever gets her memory back.” I took a bite of my crab cake and leaned back, enjoying it. Perfection.
“What—er, what’s going on with you two?” Fatiha glanced over, as if she knew this was a weird question to ask.
“Does it matter one way or another?”
She shook her head. “Curious, is all.”
“I think… we’re bonding?” Leaning forward and lowering my voice now, I added, “After seeing her in the dream… more so.”
“Good.” She nodded, took another bite of her meatloaf, chewed, and swallowed while we sat in silence, me wondering if this was really good in her mind. I finished my first and second crab cakes, letting my mind wander to my buddies back home and stories they used to tell. This guy Rob had always bragged about fingering girls, as if that was better than fucking, and how many fingers he could get in. Then there was Jason, who had brought us to his house one day and put a video on the projector of him and some girl fucking. I wanted to look away, but at least his dick was in her most of the time. All until the end, when there was a closing image of her with the tip in her mouth making a peace sign. Crazy bastards. I couldn’t help but imagine how they would react if I told them a fucking gargoyle had come alive and cuddled me.
