The Wayfinder's Apprentice (Shadows of the Umbra Book 1)

by K Dezendorf

  Chad had Edward locked in a chokehold. Without thinking it through, Rose grabbed the closest, heaviest thing nearby -her desk lamp- and swung it at Chad’s head with all her might. It hit with a dull ‘thunk’ and he dropped Edward, stumbling back.

  Edward crumpled to the floor, coughing. Rose went to help him up, but Chad grabbed a fistful of her hair and she screamed as she was dragged back.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing bringing strangers into my home?” Chad slurred.

  Then his hand released her and she dropped to the floor. Looking up, Rose saw Chad gasping, hands clawing at his neck. Edward was behind him, using the very same belt Chad had used to beat her to strangle the man. It didn’t take long for Chad’s face to turn from red to a horrible purple as his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the ground.

  For a few moments, Rose could only stare. Her anger drained away, leaving behind cold sickening dread. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t be. How had all of this gone so horribly, horribly wrong?

  Rose felt something touch her head and she recoiled away. Edward was standing over her holding one of her shirts.

  “You’re bleeding,” he told her. His expression was no longer wild anger but intense and unreadable.

  Rose put a hand to her head and sure enough there was a gash just above her temple.

  Edward held out his hand to her. “Take my hand.”

  Rose tried nodding, but quickly found that was a horrible idea as dizziness struck. Shakily, she took his hand and he helped her up. She looked down at Chad’s body. He hadn’t moved at all. Dread and horror threatened to overwhelm her as she tried to convince herself that maybe he was just unconscious. She looked at Edward who returned her stare, looking perturbed.

  “I didn’t kill him.”

  Rose couldn’t even bring herself to feel relieved or disappointed. The panic was growing to a point where it left little room for anything else.

  “We need to go,” Edward said decidedly. “It isn’t safe here.” He began pulling her towards the door.

  “W-Wait…” Rose pulled her hand free and went to her bed. From underneath it she pulled out a backpack, slinging it over her shoulder. She looked down at Chad. “As soon as he wakes up, he’s going to call the police.”

  “Police?”

  “Police. The guards. People that will put you away in a cage if they find you.”

  Edward’s eyes widened and he looked down at Chad. He raised his hand, his face grimaced in pain. Rose thought she felt a stir in the air as his fingers darkened to near charcoal. Then he turned, grabbed Rose by the arm, and pulled her to the door.

  “There, let’s go.”

  “What did you do?” Rose asked him, looking at his hands.

  “I hurt myself,” he said angrily, showing her his darkened fingers.

  “Well, you’re hurting me!”

  Edward’s grip loosened, but he kept a hold on her. “Then hurry up. Because I’m not going back.”

  Still feeling shaken, Rose let Edward take the lead as he pulled her along by the hand. When they got outside the front door, Rose could hear sirens approaching.

  “Shoot, someone must have already called them,” she told him, panicked. “We need to run.”

  Edward groaned, looking down at his good hand, muttering something she didn’t understand. “I have a better idea.” He held out his hand. The air rippled and tore open creating another blue portal, but it wobbled unsteadily as though barely holding open.

  Then he pulled her through with him and Rose found herself on a rooftop under the starry night sky. It was difficult to tell, but glancing around, they appeared to be in the more industrial part of town. Edward collapsed onto the ground, his breathing heavy as he held his burnt hands close to his body. Rose plopped down next to him and let her bag slide off her shoulder. Her head was aching something awful and she vaguely wondered if she had a concussion.

  “Why?” she asked, her voice shaking. “I told you to hide. To stay put.”

  Edward looked over at her but she couldn't see his expression in the darkness. “He was attacking you.”

  “So?” Anger crept into her voice. “I was handling it.”

  “He was hurting you.”

  “I was handling it!” Rose's voice jumped so high it became shrill. “I’ve been handling it for years! You had no right to… to…” She had to take a breath to stop herself from going into a hyperventilation fit. “You shouldn’t have butted in.”

  Edward sat up and she could practically feel him scowling at her through the dark. “I may not fully understand how things work here, but where I’m from, if someone is getting attacked, you don’t just sit by and let it happen.” He wobbled to his feet. “I’m not apologizing for doing what’s right.” Then he turned and hobbled off to a corner of the building, no doubt to sulk.

  Edward didn't understand, and Rose didn’t have the words to make him. Her eyes burned as she remembered, when she was little, telling her mother about Chad’s beatings, only to be blown off. She remembered her mom scolding her, telling her it was no one else’s business what happened at home. She thought about all the lies and pretending over the years. She recalled her resentment towards everyone for having been so easily fooled by the charade. She remembered Macklass asking her about her home life, and then dropping it when she refused to talk about it.

  Rose had been so certain that no one would ever help her. That no one wanted to help her. Rightfully so, because it was her business and not anyone else’s. She had been resolved to just tough it out on her own, at least until she could escape. Yet here was Edward, helping her as though it were second nature to him, and she didn’t know if she should be happy or upset.

  Several times, the tears nearly came, but Rose vehemently bit them back every time. She would not fall apart. She’d held it together this long. She would not cry. She would not. Instead, she just shivered against the frigid night air. She wasn’t sure how much time passed, but by the time she was through her mental dilemma the full moon was overhead. Her fingers were going numb with cold and her ears were aching. She found Edward still in his corner, huddled up and shivering. Taking a deep breath, Rose picked up her bag and walked over to him.

  “H-here,” she said through chattering teeth, pulling out a thin blanket from her bag and tossing it to him.

  Wordlessly, he caught it. With trembling fingers he shook it out and wrapped it around himself.

  Rose hugged herself, shuffling back and forth, trying to warm up. “I’m s-s-orry for y-yelling at you,” she stuttered out. “You d-didn’t kn-know.”

  Edward looked up at her, and she could halfway see the details of his face in the moonlight. He took off the blanket and held it out to her. “You need this more than I do.”

  Rose thought about it for a moment. “I’ve got a b-better idea.” She sat down next to him and made it so half the blanket was covering her, while he still kept the other half. It was a large enough blanket to be shared by two people. She just wished it were a bit thicker. “I’m s-supposed to be the o-one protecting you. Remember?”

  If the fact that their shoulders were touching bothered Edward, he was at least kind enough not to complain about it. “Nice that you had a blanket.”

  “It’s f-from my GTFO bag,” she answered. “In case I n-need to ever… well, get the eff out. Make a quick get away. Like tonight. I stocked it up with a blanket, s-some food, a change of clothes. The basic essentials.”

  “Ah, so a travel pack,” he said at length.

  “S-something like that.”

  They fell quiet for a few minutes, letting their combined body heat fill the blanket. Occasionally a breeze caused the chill to seep back in and it was a struggle for Rose to not lean against Edward just for the sake of getting warmer.

  “Let me know if you’re uncomfortable,” Edward said.

  “Hm? How do you mean?”

  “Considering what just happened…” he sighed, looking like he was wrestling wi
th the words. “I don’t want you to be further distressed.”

  “Oh. It’s fine,” Rose assured him, wrapping the blanket tighter around herself. “I mean, I used to be pretty neurotic when it came to people touching me. But, thanks to Ma… my boyfriend, it’s not so bad anymore. As long as you don’t grab me or make any sudden moves I’ll be fine.” She examined his face, trying to gauge his expression. “Are you uncomfortable?”

  “A little,” he admitted. “But I’d rather be uncomfortable and warm than freeze to death, so I’ll endure.”

  “How are your hands?”

  “They’re fine.”

  “So, what did you do to Chad?”

  “I made it so that he wouldn’t remember what happened.”

  “So, him seeing you, and that whole scuffle, he won’t remember any of that?” When he shook his head, she felt a mixture of awe and trepidation. “That’s… scary.”

  “What’s scary is that you don’t remember what I just told you.”

  “Wait, what?” she asked, feeling wary.

  “I just told you something, then said, ‘here, watch’, and I erased your memory. You didn’t believe I could do it, so I showed you.”

  For a split second, Rose felt panicked, but then she caught the trace of a smirk on his face. “You’re such a liar,” she said, giving him a light shove.

  “Watch it. You’ll let all the cold air back in,” he griped, quickly resituating the blanket.

  “Thank you,” Rose said softly. It was hard to say, but she knew it needed to be said. “Thank you… for stepping in.”

  “It was the least I could do,” he answered simply.

  Edward seemed to understand Rose wasn't keen to discuss her personal affairs, and they fell into a peaceful silence. For that, Rose was grateful.

  Chapter 4

  It was still dark when Rose found herself waking up on Edward’s shoulder. She hadn’t even realized she’d dozed off and she flinched away from him in surprise. He didn’t seem to notice. In fact, looking closer at him, she found he was also partaking in a catnap. His eyes were closed and his head lolled with his chin resting on his chest.

  Rose couldn’t believe she’d been careless enough to fall asleep after taking such a hit to the head. Other than a massive headache, she felt okay, so hopefully she managed to avoid a concussion.

  Being so close to Edward, Rose noticed things she hadn’t before. His face had faint traces of very thin scars, surgically fine and precise. Speaking of his face, was she imagining things or was it shifting? It was a subtle distortion that reminded her of a cloud of heat coming off a blacktop.

  “You’re staring.”

  Rose jumped, startled to find he was awake. She glanced away feeling embarrassed. “I wasn’t.”

  “So you say.” Glancing back, she watched him lift his head. He rolled both his shoulders and craned his neck from side to side with a soft groan before his eyes finally opened. “Glad you’re finally awake. My arm is completely numb.”

  “Sorry about that,” she said contritely.

  His eyes shifted momentarily to her, then glanced away. “Since you apologized, I suppose I can forgive you.”

  “I’m so glad you’re just overflowing with generosity,” Rose said, wryly.

  “You still have blood on your face,” he remarked.

  Reaching up to gingerly touch her head, she felt the crusting of dried blood. Frowning, she tossed off her half of the blanket. Now that the wind had died down, the cold was more bearable. She began rifling through her bag until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out her first aid kit and a compact mirror and began treating the cut. It looked a lot worse than it was; a bruised and swollen bump with a small cut on her forehead. Dang, that’s going to be tough to hide.

  Using an alcoholic wipe, she cleaned and disinfected the area. She’d have to remember to cover it up later. Edward quietly watched her, having cocooned himself in the blanket.

  “Now who’s staring?” Rose commented.

  The corner of his lip twitched up. “So you admit you were staring earlier.”

  “Maybe a little,” she conceded, taking two aspirin to help with her headache. “Where did you bring us anyway?”

  Edward stood up and stepped towards the edge of the building. “It’s hard to tell but… I’m pretty sure this is the same place. I didn’t have a lot of choices.”

  Rose packed the first aid kit and mirror back into her bag. “Same place as what?”

  “Where I jumped.”

  “You... “ Rose paused a moment to consider what he was saying. “Wait, so you didn’t fall from the sky?”

  Edward shot her a skeptical look. “I wasn’t aware people typically fell from the sky here.”

  “No, of course they don’t.”

  “Then I don’t understand why you would think that.”

  Rose groaned and rubbed her head. “Because you didn’t just hit the ground. You obliterated it. You left a crater in the road.”

  He leaned forward, peering over the edge. “It looks fine to me.”

  “What?”

  Rose went over to where he stood and looked down. Sure enough, it was the same street. She could even faintly see the outline of the condemned building across the road, with what little light the street lamps provided. As he said, the street below was very much craterless. Like it never happened.

  “Magic,” she murmured. There was no other explanation.

  “Matter magic, if I had to guess,” Edward deduced. He shrugged and sat down on the rooftop edge, facing her. “Not that it matters. You still need to find a way to get me home.”

  “You’ve made things a bit difficult on that front,” Rose told him, crossing her arms over her chest. “Since now I can’t go home.” Well, it was more a place to bunk down in than a home, but she wasn’t about to go into that with him.

  Edward’s face fell into a scowl. “You don’t need to go back there.”

  “And where, praytell, am I supposed to live?” Rose demanded.

  The only reason she wasn’t already living with Macklass was Jenkto had made it clear that, while Rose was useful enough to hang around, they had limited space and since Rose had a home already, she wasn’t as in need as the other members. Which, yeah, Rose found to be a fair point.

  “Just come with me, to my world,” Edward said, as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

  The suggestion completely threw her. She honestly didn’t expect to hear those words from him. A spark of excitement lit her up from the inside. Finally, at long last, she could go back there. Except… she deflated when she realized he wasn’t the one she wanted desperately to hear it from.

  “I can’t right now…” She looked down, fingers lightly tugging at a loose bit of hair, as she thought about Macklass and the others. As eager as she was to leave this world, she couldn’t just up and abandon them. “There are still people here who need me.”

  Edward stared wordlessly at her for several moments, however, something else caught his eye. “Hm...”

  “What’s wrong?” Rose asked.

  “There’s someone down there.”

  Following his gaze, Rose caught sight of a figure down below, across the street from them. A light flashed on and she and Edward both ducked down out of sight, almost knocking into one another. They waited for several moments before she slowly peeked over the edge. Whoever the person was, they were gone.

  “That was close. We shouldn’t stay up here for much longer. Someone might find us.” It was getting close to dawn. She could see hints of light slowly creeping up from the horizon.

  “We’ll need to know our next move then,” Edward said, leaning his back against the rooftop barrier.

  Rose rubbed her hands together to try and keep them warm. “There’s one place I know of where we can lay low until I figure something out.” She’d been hoping to wait until she’d gotten to know him better, but from what little she’d seen, Edward seemed trustworthy enough, if a bit impulsive and abrasi
ve.

  Edward made a soft, grunting sound before wordlessly tossing the blanket over her. It was still warm from his body heat and Rose happily wrapped it around herself. “Sure you don’t want to just share it?”

  “I’ll be fine. The sun will be up soon.” He looked up at the sky. “Your sky doesn’t have very many stars.” He glanced around. “And only one moon.”

  “Just the one,” she affirmed. “And there are more stars. You just can’t see them well because of the city lights.”

  He made a soft, humming sound. “I’ve never seen a city this large. Or bright. Or noisy.”

  He sounded melancholic. He must be really homesick. She couldn’t help but think about what he said earlier. About how he had ‘jumped.’ She wanted to ask him about it, but she doubted he would tell her. They were still practically strangers after all.

  By then, the sun was starting to rise. Rose packed up the blanket and pulled the bag onto her shoulders. “We should get going. Think you’ll be able to get us down from here?”

  Edward opened his mouth to say something, but a noise startled them both. They turned to see the rooftop door being pushed open. Before Rose could react, she found her feet leaving the ground. A squawk of surprise escaped her as Edward hoisted her up into his arms.

  “Hold on,” he told her, then jumped on top of the barricade.

  “W-wait!” Rose screamed. Her arms fumbled around to grip his neck, torn between wanting to push away from him and hold tight to avoid falling down to the street below.

  Then he jumped. Rose’s heart stopped and her stomach lurched as the world slowed down. We’re going to die. They were both going to be smatterings on the pavement. Then the air rippled and a blue opening appeared beneath them and they fell through it. Rose felt the impact shake her as Edward’s feet landed hard on solid ground. He nearly lost his balance, however, he gripped her tight and regained his footing. Rose was clinging to him, her heart hammering in her chest as her brain collected itself.