by B N Miles
“I’m not sure how I feel about that,” Jared said.
“Quit flirting,” Jessalene said. “It’s very, very disturbing”
Nikki laughed and leaned her head back on the headrest, her hands up above her head. She grinned her fangy smile at Jared and he couldn’t help but smirk back. Predator or not, she really was gorgeous.
“What are those mountains ahead called?” Lumi asked.
Nikki dropped her arms down and tapped at her phone. “Superstition Mountains,” she said.
“Seriously?” Jared asked.
Nikki held up the phone. “According to Google Maps, at least.”
“That’s a little creepy,” Lumi said.
The GPS led them to a small dirt road that split off from the main highway. Jared squinted at the old white and black rusty tin sign as he turned. “And this is called Shooting Range Lane,” he said.
“Okay, Arizona really is a stupid idea,” Lumi said. “Why would my family build a facility out here?”
“You know why,” Jared said. “And these names are just meant to scare people off.” He craned his neck and looked around. “And it seems like it’s working.’
They didn’t pass a single car as they bumped and bounced down the flat desert road. The van spit up dust and dirt behind it in a small plume, and Jared had the strange sensation that they were being watched.
But no, there was nothing around. He knew it was just the pulse again, flaring steadily deep below.
He felt it come and go, one moment strong in his senses, a steady presence inside the earth, a booming block of magic shoved down into the earth’s core. Other times it disappeared from his mind completely and he forgot all about it, until he caught himself sinking into it again, like dipping into a pool on a stifling day.
The dirt road wound its way toward the rocky mountainous region and skirted along its edge. There were a few signs scattered about, signs about hiking trails and national parks, directing people toward open sections of trails. Soon the dirt road ended in a wide, cleared parking lot, and though there were no other cars, someone had marked out spots with smooth, round rocks in nice, even patterns.
Jared pulled the van into one of those spots and killed the engine.
Nikki held the phone up in her hand then squinted out the windshield. “Looks like it’s in there,” she said, pointing straight ahead.
Jared followed her gaze, out toward the craggy mountains. The cliff walls were sheer but pitted and broken like they’d once been steps or covered in columns, but thousands of years had crumbled them into a random mess.
“Of course,” Jessalene said. “How much time do we have before dark?”
“About five hours,” Jared said. “We’ll scout it out and head back. We’re not making any moves tonight.”
“We can’t leave Cassie in there for long,” Lumi said.
“Assuming she’s even here,” Nikki said.
“She has to be.” Lumi stared out into the desert wild. “I don’t know what we’ll do if she’s not.”
“We’ll find her,” Nikki said. “One way or another. I still have tricks up my sleeve you haven’t seen.”
Lumi gave her a small, uncertain smile, then leaned over and popped open the door. She hopped out, followed by Jessalene. Nikki got out next, phone clutched in her hand.
Wade shifted and moved to follow, but Jared spoke up.
“Not you,” he said.
Wade looked up like he hadn’t expected anyone to notice him. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“We need someone to stay back here with the car,” Jared said. “Just in case something goes wrong.”
“You can’t just keep leaving me behind,” he said.
Jared looked out at the girls then shifted in his seat to face Wade.
“I can keep leaving you behind,” Jared said. “And I’m going to.”
“But—”
“I don’t trust you yet,” he said. “I don’t know how much clearer I can get about that. I know you’re Cassie’s cousin, but you were sent by the family she worked so hard to get away from. From my perspective, you’re still a threat. You understand that, don’t you?”
“I can see how you might think that,” he said, sounding exhausted, his eyes red and bleary.
He looked younger than he had when they first met, younger than when he’d been half dead and living in an abandoned mini-golf course. That felt like so long ago, like another life.
“Cassie wanted to help you, and like I told you already, I’m going to respect her wishes. But I don’t trust you yet. That’s going to have to be earned.”
“Yeah,” he said, sitting back. “I get it.”
Jared reached into his pocket and took out his phone. He tossed it onto the seat in front of Wade. “Use that if you need to,” he said. “Nikki’s number is in there, so you can call her if you need to reach us. Feel free to play games or whatever too.”
Jared went to get out, but Wade spoke up before he could push open the door.
“I didn’t want any of this, you know,” he said. “None of this was my idea. I’m loyal to my family, but I’m not a total asshole, you know? They told me I could get in and get out and that she’d listen to me. They never said… they never said I’d get stuck.”
Jared looked back at him. “Maybe you can understand now why Cassie would want to get away from people like that.”
“But they’re our family,” he said, hands outstretched and pleading. “I know you don’t understand, you’re not one of us. Family is everything to my people, and the idea of turning my back on them, even after all of this…” He trailed off and gestured helplessly.
“You’re judging Cassie for her choices.”
“She’s still one of us,” Wade said. “I don’t understand how she can live like this, separated from our pack.”
Jared watched the young man and really felt just how difficult this transition must have been for Cassie, and just how strong she really was.
She came here alone, on purpose, to escape the only life she knew. But deep down, she was still a Were, and there was no doubt in his mind that Cassie still loved her family and still pined for them. It was part of who she was, part of being a Were.
And yet she’d managed to do it, which was a miracle in itself.
Then there was Wade. He’d been sent off on a suicide mission, more or less, left on his own with no real way back home. He’d been homeless, starving, half dead, and yet he still missed those people, still missed his home. He couldn’t see that it was the Grim family that sent him on this horrible mission, that trapped him in this world far, far away from everything he knew.
That was the pull of the pack for a Were, and poor Cassie probably felt it just as powerfully as Wade did.
“I don’t know what it’s like to be one of you,” Jared said. “I can’t imagine how it must feel to find yourself in a strange world, surrounded by strange people, with nothing to anchor you at all. But Cassie did it, she managed to find this place, to find a new family. She made this choice and she’s living with it, and there’s nothing you can say or do to change that fact. I know it’s hard on you, Wade, but you’re going to have to accept it sooner or later.”
He opened his mouth then shut it again and slumped back against the seat. Jared looked at him and saw only an unruly, angry young man, and knew he had a long, long journey ahead of him.
Jared pushed open the door and stepped out into the dry desert heat, the sun blazing up above.
33
The dirt itself felt supercharged with heat as they stomped along a thin path littered with rocks. Nikki took the lead with Lumi just behind her. Jessalene was in the middle, and Jared brought up the rear, hanging a few feet back from the girls.
Jessalene wore a wide brimmed hat and running shoes. Jared wished he had that hat as he ran a hand through his hair. Sweat rolled down his neck, and he kicked a rock out of the way.
The path was bordered by small, dark green plants, some of them g
one dry and brown, all of them brittle and rough. There were a few cacti in the distance, short, stubby little things with spines and branching arms.
They hiked into a valley bordered by high, sloping cliffs and littered with more light brown boulders and striated reddish brown rock walls. He breathed in the dusty, chalky air, and the hair on his arms stood up.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Jessalene said, looking back at him.
He caught up with her and they walked side by side. Nikki had the phone out, held up in front of her face, as Lumi looked over her shoulder and whispered suggestions.
“Why’s that?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s just so… open. There’s nothing around. It’d be so easy to get lost, you know?”
“I bet it happens a lot,” Jared said. “Hikers going missing and all that.”
“You’re not helping.”
“I’m just saying. I bet they all get found by the Medlar and end up in their secret magic experiments.”
“Jared.”
He put an arm around her shoulders. “I’m just teasing. We’re not that far from civilization, you know. I bet if you walked in any direction, you’d come across someone sooner or later.”
She shook her head and looked around. “I think this is a real national park,” she said. “Hundreds of acres of just… nothing.”
“Perfect place for a super-secret magic research facility.”
“That’s true. And still super creepy.”
“I thought you’d be into this,” he said. “Being a Dryad, and all. Aren’t your people all about nature?”
She shook her head. “Forests,” she said. “I love forests. I live for the forest. Big, dense, tree-filled forests. Places like this, where you can see for miles, without a single tree anywhere…” She trailed off.
“I guess I hadn’t thought about that.”
“The plants are different too. They’re… harder to communicate with. I’m not sure how to explain it, but they’re stubborn. I could probably make them grow if I really tried, but they’d fight me the whole time.”
“Can you feel most plants?” he asked.
“Every living plant, I can feel, at least a little bit,” she said.
“I can’t imagine what that’s like.”
“The world’s teeming for me,” she said. “They’re everywhere, you know, under every stone, under every street. Humans think they conquered nature, but they only keep it at bay.”
“Talk about creepy.”
She laughed a little bit and leaned her head on his shoulder. “I just hope we can find them soon,” she said. “The longer I’m out here, the more on edge I feel.”
Jared dropped his arm from her shoulder. “If they’re out here, we’ll find them,” he said.
“You really think they’re here?”
“That’s what Taavi told me before he died. I don’t think he had any reason to lie.”
“Even still, it seems a little…” She trailed off, gesturing around her.
“Secluded?”
“Right,” she said. “Even for them.”
“I know what you mean. But there’s a power out here. Lumi pointed it out to me earlier, and I haven’t been able to shut it out since.”
“What do you mean?”
Jared kicked a rock and sucked in a breath, pausing for a second to try and figure out a way to put it into words.
“Hard to explain,” he finally settled on and let out the breath. “You don’t feel it?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I wonder if it’s just a Magi thing.”
“Could be,” she said. “Metas use priori differently than Magi.”
“I didn’t think you used priori at all,” he said.
“Well, not really. I mean, we are priori, so I think that’s the difference. Humans have to bring it into them, and we’re just… it’s a part of us.”
“Interesting,” Jared said. “You know, that’s not the dominant theory about Meta magic in the Magi community right now.”
“Oh yeah?” she asked. “And what’s your theory?”
“Most Magi accept that Meta powers come directly from your gods,” he said. “That’s why you all have one particular ability. Whereas Humans have no particular god, and so we have access to more. We assume the priori flows into you through the god, and you’re like… a conduit for their power.”
“I don’t think that’s it,” she said. “I mean, not exactly, anyway. My clan taught that all Dryads were born from Mazea and the goddess gives us strength, but we were created with our own individual sparks, formed from pure magic. I think that’s what gives us our powers, that internal slice of magical energy.”
“A little slice of godhood,” Jared said.
“Exactly. Our souls are magic.”
“Never thought about it that way.”
“That’s because you’re a Magi,” she said. “You think you know everything already.”
Jared bumped his shoulders against hers. “That’s because I do,” he said.
The group continued along the narrow path, deeper into the desert, closer and closer to the looming, hulking mountains. They descended into the valley, the brush closing in around them, and soon the path curved left, skirting up along the ridge, but the GPS kept them headed straight.
Jared made the group stop twice for water. He had bottles shoved into a backpack along with a spare handheld GPS device, a long length of solid rope, a flashlight, a map of the area in case they lost GPS connection, extra bug spray and sunscreen, a fire-starting kit for some damn reason, and a bunch of granola bars Lumi insisted on buying at a gas station, just in case, so they wouldn’t have to resort to cannibalism.
They continued onward, the area getting more and more wild and untraveled. The vista stretched onward with cliffs on either side of them, and a hulking plateaued mountain loomed in the near distance.
“We’re headed straight for that,” Nikki said, pointing at the plateau. “Does that look familiar, Lumi?”
She shook her head. “Not at all. None of this does. I never came this far west.”
They continued on for another half hour, getting closer to the hulking plateau, when Jared called another halt, his eyes squinting up at the sun.
“We’re getting close,” he said and checked his watch. “I think we have another three hours of sunlight, and at least a couple hours hike back from this point. How close are we, Nikki?”
“Coordinates say it’s just ahead,” Nikki said. “I’m pretty sure it’s right inside that thing.”
“Let’s go for another hour,” Jared said. “But we have to turn back in an hour no matter what.”
“Fair enough,” she said.
Jessalene broke out a granola bar and shared it with the group. Lumi lingered a few feet away from them, sipping a bottle of water, staring out into the distance. She held a hand up over her eyes, shading them from the sun. Jared looked away, back down at the granola bar Jessalene offered him, and ate half of it. When he finished, he looked up and was about to ask Lumi if she wanted any, but she was gone.
He stood up and stared around them. The cliffs on either side were large and craggy, and there were any number of boulders that could hide little Lumi. But he couldn’t sense her anymore, nor could he feel her deep purple-black Magi mark.
“Guys,” Jared said.
Nikki looked up at him. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Lumi,” he said. “I think she’s gone.”
Nikki stood and scanned the area. “She must be somewhere nearby,” she said. “Bathroom break, maybe.”
Jessalene got to her feet, climbed up on top of a medium sized rock, and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Lumi!” she shouted.
There was no answer. Jared stood there, his body tingling, fear spiking through his chest as his heartrate doubled.
Another one of his girls was missing.
He didn’t know how this could have happened. Just a secon
d ago, Lumi was standing maybe twenty feet away, staring out at the plateau. He looked down, ate a little granola bar, then she was completely gone. There was no way the Medlar had somehow attacked and taken her, not Lumi, not without a fight.
And yet she was gone,
“Lumi!” Jared shouted. “Lumi, where are you?”
No answer. Just endless silence.
“Come on,” Nikki said. “Let’s go find her.”
They marched toward the plateau. Jared worked to keep his heartrate in check as they scrambled over rocks, kicked through small bushes, and called her name. The plateau remained in the distance, looming and heavy with promise.
“Guys!”
A voice cut through his panic. He looked over his shoulder and found Lumi standing back among a group of rocks, waving at them. He felt relief flood through him.
“Lumi,” he said, starting back toward her.
She smiled, tilted her head, and stepped to her left.
And was gone again.
Jared stopped in his tracks, looking around wildly. One second, she’d been there, and the next she was gone. He hadn’t felt any magic, hadn’t felt a flare of any priori. Jessalene grabbed his arm, standing close.
“I saw that too,” she said.
“She’s here,” Nikki said. “I swear I can smell her blood. But I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Lumi popped into existence again as though she’d jumped through a curtain. She was in the same spot, grinning huge at them like she just won some kind of prize.
“Jared, come check this out,” she said.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “What’s going on?” He took a few tentative steps forward, afraid she’d disappear again.
“It’s okay,” she said. “This place is warded out the asshole. Come look at it.”
Jared moved a little faster then, with Nikki and Jessalene just behind him. Lumi crouched down and pointed at a spot on the ground. Jared squinted and stared, and at first, he didn’t see anything.
But Lumi poked at a rock and Jared pulled back, sucking in a breath.
The ground was littered with wards, etched in pale reddish-brown colors. He hadn’t seen them because they blended perfectly with the environment. Even with Lumi pointing them out, they were hard to see. He had to blink, shake his head, and focus his eyes again just to keep them in his vision.
