by Giger, S. L.
My jaw dropped. How could they show this in a public place where any child could see it? I looked around to see that some people had an angry expression on their face and were already talking again, while others imperceptibly shook their heads, their face a picture of disbelief.
“I’m glad they got one,” the man behind the mustard booth said to an elderly woman. “I hope that intimidates the others. I’m losing business because the tourists are afraid to travel. Normally, there are at least a third more people here.”
“I don’t know. I mean, the man living in a cave is suspicious, but what is their proof that he was cursing the world?” the woman countered.
Only at that point, I noticed Roisin who had a confused shimmer in her eyes and was repeatedly muttering “Oh. My. God,” while pressing a hand in front of her mouth.
“I know. I can’t believe that they show this like a public execution either. It’s as if we live in medieval times.”
Roisin’s eyes were wide with fear. She composed herself and rummaged for her phone, making a few clicks. “I know this guy!” she whispered vehemently and showed me her phone, where there was a thumbnail of the video we had just seen. Roisin took my arm and we strode away from the market. I couldn’t ask any questions and tried to keep pace with her.
We entered a park where we were alone, and I looked at her questioningly. “I would recognize his face out of a thousand. He had a beautiful body,” she sighed.
I tilted my head. “Roisin, you are incredible. You are saying you have been with this man?”
“Yes. He is a Minotaur. Which means he can change from a human body into half human, half bull.”
I breathed out sharply. “There is such a thing?”
“Yes, we met at the Dance of Scheherazade. Normally, people wear a mask or transform themselves into something different, to diminish the risk of any fights taking place. But Minotaurs are a pure race. They don’t have any enemies and since he always has to disguise himself to appear human in public, he came to the dance in his Minotaur form.” She paused. “How did they catch him?”
“Um, I don’t know,” I was speechless.
“You know what I am thinking?” she asked.
“Um, no.”
“This whole thing has to do with something from the underworld. A simple human wouldn’t be able to catch a Minotaur and kill him.”
“And you are sure it’s the same guy?”
“Yes!” she almost yelled. “He even mentioned that they live somewhere in Cappadocia. We could go looking for them, but it would be hard to find one, even for us. It might take us days or weeks.”
“Do you think the people who killed him knew that he was magical?” I wondered.
“They must have. Perhaps not the ones who made the video, but the ones who caught him. But to kill him as if he was a bad sorcerer? Him, one of the most innocent magical races there are? That doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
“No, it doesn’t. But neither does a mysterious flu against which nobody finds any protection. There must be something bigger behind this.” We looked each other in the eyes.
“Someone in the magical world is overusing his power a bit too much,” Roisin said.
“But why create such a public fuss about it? It would make more sense if the person was human and wanted to expose and eliminate us.”
“No human would have such knowledge.” Roisin waved my words off. “But by creating chaos all over the world, perhaps they are distracting us from their true cause?”
I weighed the pros and cons of her opinion. “I don’t know.” My shoulders sagged. “One thing I am sure of is that once again, this is not a coincidence.”
“I need to go back and talk to Melissa about this.” She threw me an inviting glance.
I lowered my eyes. “How come you don’t want to use every opportunity to go back to Ireland and at least catch a glimpse of your family?” I felt a pang in my heart, knowing that my sister Isa was only twenty minutes of running from here, but I wouldn’t get to see her.
“I went through my big ‘I miss them, and the world is unfair’ phase in the three months that I lived in Ireland with Melissa and Claire.” She gave me an encouraging smile. “But somehow, moving to the US made it a lot easier for me. It’s not possible to juggle too many balls at once.”
“I guess so.” I pressed my lips together.
Roisin placed a hand on my shoulder. “Come on, let’s go. It’s already morning in New York as well, and Alex will be waiting for you.”
I returned to Alex’s apartment and I found him eating breakfast with his sister Rachel in the living room. Briefly, the three of us spoke about our weekends. Then Alex and I disappeared into his room.
“I can’t believe you have been to Germany,” he said in bewilderment.
“Yes, took us three hours to get there.” I smiled and shrugged.
“Wow, life for you must be so much easier.”
“Not in every aspect,” I said. “Anyway, we found out something rather alarming today. This whole chaos with the night flu might be of magical source.”
“Does that make it better or worse?” Alex asked.
“We don’t know yet. But if you ask me, magic makes everything even more complicated.”
And then, without a warning, everything went black.
Chapter 8
The beds were gone, the whole room had vanished, and I was standing in nothingness. I could still see my body but other than that I found myself in a black hole. My stomach had twisted itself into a knot because I had no idea where everything had gone. However, to my relief, my eyes found Alex, who was right next to me, looking frantically around him. He appeared as confused as I felt.
“Alex,” I said, my voice having a slight echo.
He turned his head toward me, wide-eyed. His shoulders sank in relief when he realized that it was me who spoke. “What happened? Did you do this?” he asked.
“No! I have no idea what happened,” I exclaimed. “Where are we?”
“I wanted to ask you the same thing,” he replied. We were both still about five feet apart, not sure if we were standing on something solid, floating in the air or whether we were hanging sideways.
“Do you think it’s safe to take a step?” I eyed my feet.
“Are we on drugs?” Alex’s voice was high from the tension.
I had to stifle a laugh because he looked quite lost. “Do you remember us taking anything?” I slowly breathed in, trying to figure out whether this was normal air or if it might be something that would suffocate us in time.
“No. But everything is gone.” He pointed around him.
“I can see that,” I said reassuringly as if I was talking to a scared child. “You know, during the past year, I’ve come to accept that even if weird things happen, there’s always an explanation at some point.” I lifted my foot but didn’t feel a pressure difference to the position it had been in before. “I’m pretty glad you are here with me though.” I placed the foot closer toward Alex.
“Be careful,” he warned with a shaky voice. I could see beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.
I didn’t fall into an abyss and therefore I closed the gap between us. “Walking works.” I reached for his hands and gave them a squeeze. Instantly my nerves relaxed. “Now we only need to find a way to get out of here,” I said affirmatively, as if to convince us both.
“The more important question is: How did we get here?” Alex answered. “We weren’t doing anything special, which means that somebody or something must have brought us here.”
“Hello?” I yelled, my voice echoing.
“Are you crazy?” Alex hit my arm. “We don’t know what it is.” He took a breath. “Do you think it’s the Orbiters?” He added in a whisper.
“Maybe. In that case, we better get used to seeing a lot of black in our future.” My shoulders sagged. “But they had so many chances to snatch us from the world. Why now, when you have proven that you are on our side?”
“Hello.” A loud, bass voice resounded from everywhere around us and we both flinched. I slipped into Alex’s protecting embrace. “You are right in your assumption. We are what you refer to as the Orbiters,” the voice droned.
“Why are we here and where are we?” I said, looking up, but still only detecting a pitch-black mass.
“To the Why, we will come in a moment. About the Where, we cannot give you a satisfying answer,” a different voice said. This one was smoother, almost poetic.
“Any kind of hint would be nice,” I said, more to myself.
“You are in a parallel universe. You are still in your room, yet you won’t find anything the same as it was, as long as you are in this sphere,” the first voice answered.
“I’m sure they won’t just tell us the way out,” Alex whispered in my ear.
“Your friend is smart,” a third voice said in a whisper that sent cold shivers down my spine. “That’s what is of interest to us about him.”
“You need us to do something for you?” Alex asked.
“A need is something humans hold,” the second voice sang. “You must be accustomed to that.”
Alex let go of a breath. “If you think that I am only a simple human, then how could I possibly be of any interest to you?” he countered, his voice a little more stable than before.
“Not only to us—there is a greater cause.”
“Could you come to the point and tell us why we are here and whether we can leave again?” I asked, being fed up with this groping in the dark.
“Patience has never been one of your strengths, yet you have other important qualities,” one of them answered.
“Which in your opinion are?” I asked.
“Life is a journey and you are on the correct path,” the voice answered, and I couldn’t suppress rolling my eyes.
“And what has my path foreseen for me?” I asked. We listened into the silence, waiting for the voice to continue speaking.
“The two of you must fulfill a task together.”
“As a punishment because I know about the Sirens?” Alex piped up.
“It was your destiny to figure out this riddle. Since you were both born, a lot of cogwheels have turned at the right time to get you to the point where you are today.”
“You mean you don’t want to kill us right now?” Alex dug his fingers into my shoulder.
“You will understand that it’s in the majority's interest that you continue on your quest.”
“What quest?” Alex asked, but I cut him off.
“Wait, you are saying that us meeting was all planned out?” My eyes narrowed.
“It was likely that your paths would cross sooner or later because you are working toward the same goal. But however your collaboration works, that depends on you.”
“I still don’t understand what exactly we are working on.” Alex shook his head.
“Dark times are coming,” the three voices whispered together, sending shivers down my body. Then, silence was around us. I turned my head to Alex, looking into his questioning eyes. I could only shake my head.
“Does it have something to do with the flu?” Alex asked into the nothingness.
“There is more to it than what the human media tells you.”
After a short silence, I offered them Roisin’s theory. “We believe it has to do with something magical,” I said. “Some group that wants to become more powerful than another one.”
“It’s about magic, but the source of it is not,” the voice echoed.
“The source of it is human?” Alex asked.
“Yes, and the story is old—a person who is jealous of magic wants to expose the underground world and rid them of all energy. However, the power we face is new.”
“A few humans protected by guns shouldn’t be a problem for you to get rid of, I assume?” I said.
“The instruments alone are not the issue. We are facing targeted manipulation. An army against anything magical is being created, fueled by the fear of the unknown.” This phrase rang around us a few times until the voice continued, “and fear of magic is the strongest weapon against us, because it attacks the core of our being. The myth and the wonder are at stake. It gives magical creatures their power and at the same time protects them from the envy of humans.”
“And you can’t just do what you usually do and make this person disappear somehow?” I asked.
“The source of the problem knows exactly what they are doing. Insanity gets you more results than you might expect. Any magical reaction we have tried so far has ended in an exposure of magic and unnecessary deaths.”
“What have you tried?” I asked.
“After bringing them into our dimension did not work, we sent magicians in to fight. That resulted in mass attacks with deaths on both sides in London and Paris. And other magical creatures are too obviously magical. You are the ace up our sleeves. And since our other approaches have not worked, it’s time to play that card now,” the first voice explained with a patience that I hadn’t expected. “A more controlled approach is required.”
“And Sirens need to control their emotions and abilities with every step they take in every moment of their lives. They are the most controlled mystical creatures there are,” Alex stated.
“They are, and yet they are not made to fight,” the other voice sang.
“But obviously, you think we can contribute something or otherwise we wouldn’t be here,” I stated.
“Your friend Luke is a particular key element.”
“A male Siren,” I said in a low voice.
“You want me to become a Siren?” Alex asked slowly.
I looked at him and held my breath out of hope. If Alex could become a Siren and we could be together eternally, this would be something I’d be happy about.
“If it were in our power, that’s not something you’d get to choose, just like none of the Sirens had a choice. It’s not the natural course for a man to be a Siren, yet it’s the solution to the issue we’re facing.”
“I’m kind of sick of this guessing game.” I tapped my foot but there was no sound.
“I think I know what they want,” Alex said.
I looked at him questioningly.
“You want us to create male Sirens, who are likely to be stronger than female Sirens, so that we can fight their army with ours,” he stated, and my jaw dropped.
“You want us to start a war?” I was outraged.
“The ambition is to end the war. The next step is to create the necessary force.”
“By creating male Sirens,” I repeated. My insides tensed up. I’d only heard bad stories about male Sirens. Luke was a big exception. If the Orbiters had helped Alex to become one, that would have been one thing. But wildly creating multiple male Sirens could result in a massacre and the exposure of magic after all.
Alex swallowed. “Do we even get a choice in this?”
“Your destiny will be fulfilled as it needs to be.”
“What does that mean again?” I asked, annoyed.
“Telling the future is a vague task, but however it plays out, you are the key figures to how the world continues.”
“This doesn’t get me any further.” I gritted my teeth. “What happens if we don’t do it?”
“If you like the world and the people you live in, you should start listening now,” the third voice said more firmly, so that his voice vibrated in my bones. Alex threw me a pleading glance.
“How should we approach the matter?” I sighed. “Because, obviously, if it were so easy to create male Sirens, we’d be doing it already.”
“We deliver messages and ensure that the balance of right and wrong is leveled.”
“But what if we need you, how can we contact you?” I demanded to know.
“We are everywhere and nowhere and yet we only act as the last intervention.”
“So, basically, you give us this task, but we won’t get any support.” Silence was my answer. “At least te
ll us who we are up against.”
Silence.
“I guess they have said what they had to say,” Alex offered. “How do we get away from here now?” he wondered.
And in the next blink of the eye, we were back in a bright place so that we both groaned, and I had to shade my eyes. When I glanced through my fingers, I realized that we were back in Alex’s room.
“Great.” I fell onto the bed.
“Oh boy.” Alex puffed his cheeks. “My knees are shaky.” He dropped onto the bed next to me. “It’s one thing seeing you running on high speed, but it’s completely different when somebody just transports you to a black hole. Can they do that any time they want?”
“That’s what I heard. Yes.”
“We better do what they say,” he said, a little pale in his face.
I softly massaged his neck. “The good thing is, as long as they need you, they won’t harm you.” Then I snorted. “But they want us to create an army and fight a war. That sounds so brutal. Moreover, we have such an active role in it. This has to be a bad joke. As if we are acting out a movie script and can go back to our trailer at the end of the day.”
Alex smiled and rolled on top of me, towering over me in a push-up, so that I could see the muscles in his upper arm. “Would we be together off the set or not?” He kissed me on my lips. When we parted, I looked him in the eyes and chewed my lower lip to soak up the tingling feeling he had left behind.
He dropped to my side again. “I guess that’s what you get for lightheartedly wishing something. I so wanted to be a part of your world, and now your gods place some task in front of me which not even they can complete.”
I pressed my lips together and stared at the floor. Their request would bring all kinds of other dangers that we weren’t even aware of. I moved closer to Alex to lie against his chest and feel the strength in his upper body. “If anything happened to you, I could never forgive myself,” I quietly breathed against his neck.
“Most likely, I’ll be working with DNA in a lab. An environment I feel very comfortable in.” He kissed my forehead.
“I still don’t like the idea of this. But to keep the Orbiters friendly, it’s probably best if you at least pretend to work,” I stated looking at my knees.
