by Jamie Hawke
Suddenly, another rune lit up across the way! I deactivated it, then another, this one causing my back to ache. It was like playing whack-a-mole, except the mole had some voodoo effect type magic.
Finally, I’d had enough of this and simply turned off all runes. The result was that I felt naked. Worse than that, all eyes throughout the world were turning in my direction, like the Eye of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings movies. I’d be spotted soon. That wouldn’t do.
I couldn’t make much more sense of the runes, but there were clear patterns like with the illusion spell. All I had to do was figure out how to understand the rest of the patterns, and we’d be set. For now, I activated the runes again, setting up that barrier to keep the magic eyes from seeing us.
Using the rune spell I’d just learned, I redirected the illusion spell up to where we had left Glitonea. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the shrieks of terror that came down from her moments later.
Distant, echoing shrieks.
Steph looked at me with confusion, then summoned her wraith knights. All were there, all looking down on us with their faces of darkness, hidden under their helmets. Then they were gone.
“Make it stop,” Steph said, clearly referring to the screams.
I nodded, then sent illusions to Glitonea not of her greatest nightmares, but of simply being cast out, sent into a prison of space and emptiness. Floating, forever. In reality she was still in the house, but unless she could look beyond the illusion, she wouldn’t know that.
She would figure it out soon enough, I was sure, but didn’t think she would be able to counter the runes I had put in place.
As far as I was concerned, I’d figured out the trick to keep her out of our hair for the time being.
But, if I had learned one new rune spell, I could learn more. In time.
“You… hungry?” I asked.
Steph laughed uneasily, clearly trying to push out the horrible images she had seen, and gladly took my hand as I helped her up. We made our way upstairs, discussing the various possible uses of the rune magic, and soon had downed some juice and chicken skewers. Steph found a couple of dark chocolates in one cabinet, and we sat on the couch, sharing those and simply being with each other, enjoying it.
“Come on, let’s get some rest,” Steph said, curling up next to me on the fancy cushions. She hadn’t even finished the words, when her deep breathing started, showing that she had already drifted off to sleep.
I considered getting up and carrying her to the bed, but hell, I was damn tired, too. Instead, I leaned my head back, closed my eyes, and drifted off to sleep.
108
We slept the rest of the afternoon, waking just before sunrise. Using the rest of the chicken skewers to make tacos, I couldn’t help but feel anxiety welling up in me at the thought of Aerona asking me to go back to that place in my dream.
“You’ll be fine,” Steph said, pouring two glasses of wine. “Here. I’d guess each glass is worth more than we can possibly comprehend wine being worth.”
“As least it won’t be that illusion bullshit again,” I replied.
Accepting the wine, I took a couple of sips and tried to focus on the taste—a bit earthy, but pure and rich—but mostly couldn’t take my focus from thoughts of Glitonea and the Drow.
“I want to think on the runes,” I said, handing her back the glass and heading for the door.
“You’ll be on the roof?”
“Yes, thinking… waiting.”
“I’ll be the welcoming committee.” She winked when I glanced back. “Let them know what to expect.”
“Sure, do that.”
I exited, moving the house again to create easy access to the roof. Fun, when you don’t have to go to the stairs, but can make the stairs come to you. The little moments in life, right?
Shisa was waiting for me on the roof, and glanced back with a welcoming wag of his little curled tail.
“Thanks for the help,” I said, kneeling and rubbing him behind the ears. “Let me guess, rune magic doesn’t alert you?”
Shisa cocked his head at me. That innocent look was too much. I chuckled, stood, and looked out over the city. Trees swayed gently in the cool breeze—a welcome thing on this warm evening. One of our neighbors, a large man, was exiting his car, lugging a box out from the back seat and heading inside. As I watched, he dropped the box and peaches rolled out, and then he set about trying to collect them.
“Don’t forget to get ‘em all,” I said softly, earning a confused look from Shisa. “It’s a bit much, sometimes. And I’ve barely just begun. Imagine what sort of craziness we’ll get into over the years?”
Apparently, that was enough for Shisa, because he turned and walked off, heading back inside.
“Thanks for listening,” I mumbled, then pulled up the rune screens, looking them over. As I did, I found there were two that I could activate easily, even from here. The illusion one—which I didn’t want to touch for now—and the protective one that turned magic on or off in the vicinity.
Nothing else was working for now. Instead I pulled up the llyfr sillafu, or spell book. The spells I had learned were highlighted, both the ones from the book and the new ones I had added on my own through fighting and experimentation. There was “gorffwys” for sleep, “hurtio” for stun, “tarian” for defensive boosts, “elfenol streic” for elemental weapon, and more. Then there were the easy ones, ones I could make happen without speaking the words, such as frost bite, ice wall, and… Frost Remnant. I still hadn’t had a chance to try the last one, and glanced around, wondering if I could make it work here.
I gave it a try, but nothing happened. To ensure the magic of the place wasn’t blocked, I cast an ice claw and watched as it snapped out, tearing into the night air. It was a beauty, making me even more excited to see how the Frost Remnant spell would work. In battle, I would likely have the opportunity.
For the time being, I went over by the garden and leaned against the tool shed, arms folded, and closed my eyes. There on the rooftop with the breeze rustling my hair and caressing my cheek, all I wanted was to remember simpler times, to go back to those days of ignorance and feel what it was like once more.
Laughter. My mom’s pleasant smile as she served her famous oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookies. Me and a friend, Max, riding bikes along a dirt path in the woods, trying to find jumps to go off. My first blowjob in a dark closet with a girl while her friends played some dance game just outside, oblivious.
A trip to Six Flags, zipping along roller coasters, overindulging on nachos smothered in fake cheese. I assume it was fake—that stuff in the pump machines couldn’t be legit. Getting ready for college, bent over SAT study books. My celebratory dance the day I had gotten in, and then time spent with Steph, telling her I would miss her. Funny, how that part turned out.
It had been my life. A good life. One that had brought me to this point.
As pleasant as that all felt, one word kept floating up—boring.
Fuck, that life before all of this magic and mayhem was boring. I laughed, then I laughed again, louder, until I was standing there laughing at the darkening sky and streaks of sunset, still laughing as the sky turned blue and then black.
Laughing as Kordelia and Ebrill emerged, each of them staring at me like I was crazy.
Kordelia chuckled, then Ebrill giggled.
We were crazy, standing up there and laughing, and I loved it. Not boring at all. Soon it subsided, and I took both of their hands, lifting them to my lips for a welcoming kiss to each.
“The others?”
“On their way,” Ebrill said.
“What exactly was that?” Kordelia asked. “It came out of nowhere and your laughter was contagious. I couldn’t help but join in.”
“I don’t know.” I wiped away a tear of laughter. “Sometimes you just gotta let go, right?”
“Sure enough,” Ebrill answered.
I stepped over to the railing, leaning against it and watching headlights
in the distance, then turned to the cathedral. “You think you’d ever get bored with this view?”
“Please.” Ebrill leaned against the railing with me. “Never.”
“It’s nothing compared to Avalon.” Kordelia wrapped an arm around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head. It was such an odd gesture, her being so large and therefore making it feel like I was her bitch or child or something. Yet, it was comforting, and I appreciated it. “Still,” she admitted, “the place has its own sense of magic.”
Glancing around and noting Steph and Aerona’s absence, I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering back to the dream land I had visited last night.
“And that place… what was it?”
“Aerona told you,” Ebrill replied. “You’re trying to get to something else, wondering if it’s what you think of as Hell, right? I can’t help you there, but I doubt it.”
“That concept was around in our time,” Kordelia said. When I gave them a confused look, she added, “Been talking to Steph, trying to catch up on the world.”
“Okay, so maybe not Hell,” I conceded, glad to be done with that train of thought. “But it sure felt like it. How do we even know there’s something in that place for us?”
“Because,” Aerona said, and I turned to see that she and Steph had climbed up to join us. “I have a connection to the others, one the rest don’t have, exactly.”
“A mental connection,” Ebrill explained. “As if, she’s the hub… and we’re spokes on a wheel.”
“And what’s the wheel?” I asked.
“You. This world… maybe the next. All of it, as long as we can keep it together. The minute it falls apart, we’re all fucked.”
I nodded, watching as Aerona held out her hand, my gaze locked on her golden fingers.
“Please,” she said.
That’s all it took. I sighed and took her hand as the other three ladies watched.
“Come on, then.” She guided me by the hand back down inside, pulling me into the bedroom. Steph looked uncertain, somewhat confused, even. At least I could understand that emotion.
109
Lying in bed this time, Aerona leaned up onto me, bit her lip, and said, “Thank you.”
Her cleavage was pressed together, almost begging me to look down at it, but I held her gaze. “I trust you.”
With that, she moved up on me, gave me a light kiss on the cheek, and then laid her head on my chest. The others stayed out of the room this time, and I lay there with images of demons in my head.
“Don’t tell anyone,” Aerona said, pushing herself up. “It’s important we make this work, so if it helps…”
This time, the kiss wasn’t on my cheek, but on my lips. Her tongue met mine, hand moving down along my abs, to my hips, and then off to the side.
Our lips parted and she smiled, nodded, and said, “There.”
“There?”
“I’ve heard, and found, that when your mind is focused on such things as I imagine it is now, you find sleep comes much easier.” Judging by the raging boner now pressing against my pants, I wasn’t so sure. Even worse when she said, “Why don’t you get comfortable,” and reached down, undoing my pants and pulling them off, eyes on mine the whole time.
“You’re… a tease.”
She giggled. “Only because what I’m saying is true.”
“Thoughts like this will help?” I glanced down, noting that she’d rested her hand on my thigh, very close to my bulge.
Her eyes followed mine, and she sighed. “I won’t pretend I’m not… curious. Interested? Sure, but… not ready.”
“I understand.” Although, that didn’t mean my cock understood one bit. He was lonely, pissed. About to give me blue balls. Lying back, not sure if I should be annoyed or not, I closed my eyes and let my imagination run wild.
First came the image of her there on me, cleavage begging me to seize her top and rip it off. Then I was grabbing her by her red hair in one hand, a horn in the other while I plowed her from behind. Going animal style on her, and she loved it, about to howl when…
…A different sort of howl sounded. Distant, cold. I started, realizing darkness had taken me. Not the darkness of the room I had been in, but that of a cave. It smelled of dirt and stale water, and I could almost make out a sky above. No stars, but a sky.
Her trick had worked—I was asleep! Well, asleep and therefore taken to this land of the others. This place that wasn’t Hell although you could have fooled me. I knelt at first, glancing around, looking for red eyes. After a moment, and when my eyes had become more accustomed to the dark, I started to notice areas where more ledges led up and up. I stood and moved toward the closest one.
Pulling myself up and over, I took my time, not rising in case there was trouble. The ground here was hard like rock, but slick and, in places. rough. My gut kept telling me to be on the lookout for Glitonea or the Drow army that had attacked me last time, but so far there was no sign of either.
If my runes were working on Glitonea, it made sense that she wouldn’t be able to use them to access this place again, or my subconscious. But since the Drow weren’t in sight, either, I had to wonder if she had controlled them in some way? Had shown them to me as an answer to the question of how she was making changes. Had them attack me… for what?
Maybe she planned on bringing them back, them and all of the other vile creatures Rianne and the others had been fighting against long ago in Avalon. From what I had seen from her so far, that wouldn’t come as a surprise.
And if so, I had to ensure that didn’t happen.
Stepping up to the next ledge, I turned to look out over the valley of darkness, seeing wisps of what I had thought to be clouds, but were clearly not—they had more of a silver glow, and I swore I could see movement within, faces even.
Chills ran up my spine.
There had been a time when seeing visions like this would’ve caused me to curl up in a ball and puke my guts out. Was pissing one’s pants in fright a real thing? I didn’t know, but this kind of shit would’ve been right up there with the worst of it, I’m sure. In this case, however, part of me thought of it as a dream, of a strange world that I could simply pull myself out of if necessary. That helped. The fact that I had fought some pretty nasty enemies lately, with the help of Steph and the gargoyles, meant that even if I was stuck there, I could handle it.
In sum, I was becoming quite the badass, and I knew it.
Still, being cautious was likely the smart move, so when a rumbling sounded followed by a distant whistling sound, I pulled back into the shelter of the rocks. What had been wisps of silver before now filled the sky with a torrent of wailing and gnashing, hands reaching and fog swirling. Thick rain pelted the rocks and I huddled deeper into my hiding spot, wondering about the faces I could dimly make out above, through the sheets of rain. It splattered me and I was surprised to find that it was hot, filling the air with the scent of juniper.
I had to have come to this specific location for a reason, so I turned, scouring the darkness for anything that might hint at why. Heavy fog, dark gray in this world, seeped through the openings between jagged stone cliffs and my surroundings.
The cave was intimidating, the darkness threatening to suffocate me, but I had to get away from the chaos outside. As I went farther back, there was something compelling me to go in that direction. Something other than wanting to avoid the rain and the possibility of being spotted by whatever was in that torrent of spirits. Like when you feel someone watching you and you turn to see who it is, that’s what I felt but magnified. It was like they were pushing at me with a magical connection, trying to get me to see them.
When I searched, the reason for that sensation made sense. Deep in the cave, where the gloom wouldn’t show any footing, I came across a point where the darkness appeared to move, then noticed a section that was maybe less black than the rest. Not a reflection or opening in the cave, but something moving. It only took a moment to realize that it was the silh
ouette of a person.
“Do I know you?” I asked, voice shaky. My experience here so far led me to believe it would be one of those red-eyed sinewy creatures, but a gut feeling told me this was different, told me I might even have some sort of connection to this being.
Darkness gave way and what sounded like a sigh of relief followed. The figure moved deeper into the caves, and I followed, slowly able to make out more and more of it. A dress trailing behind, I thought at first, then saw that no, it was a robe. A man—a sorcerer of sorts? He turned and now I could make out his eyes, his nose.
The face was coming more into focus, one I was starting to recognize.
He beckoned me forward and I turned from him to see that we had reached a place where water rippled, light from somewhere in there reflecting off it and hitting the ceiling.
“Gone,” a voice seemed to say, as if carried on the wind.
I looked at the figure and it indicated the water, so I stepped forward. There was a form in there, at the bottom. Lifeless, a face—one I recognized. I couldn’t recall his name, but knew him from the days of Avalon. Then it came back to me.
“Riland…?” I asked the figure beside me, the name rising up in me like a ship from the fog. “Can it be…?”
As he turned to me, his face became clear, eyes full of wonder, he materialized more right before my eyes. “Yes, that… Riland. That was me, once. It is again.”
“How?” I asked. “Weren’t you… I mean, I thought we saw you die.”
He considered this, then nodded. “That might be true. I think that magical creatures… most of us don’t die out there, exactly. I’m not sure if that all changed with the separation of Avalon, or how it came to be. But this is where we are for now.”
“But he… he seems dead.”
Riland looked at his companion in the pool, and nodded. “Dark magic took him, in here. Death is a complicated mistress. Is this her, or one of her sisters?”
