by K Fisher
“Who are you?” Faye demanded.
Instead of answering her question, the woman rubbed her shoulder, grimacing before reaching behind her to grab the book perched atop one of the crates. “Stretching is important, you know. I can’t believe the Organization of Guardians allowed you all to go against the biggest baddie we’ve ever known without any sort of backup. Don’t fear, I’m going to get you and your friends out of here before you all die, that way we can give Danira a proper funeral when you are all actually fucking prepared.” With the words, the stranger gave Faye a mock bow and tucked the book close to her body as she approached the cell.
“Who. Are. You?” Faye repeated.
The woman leaned down in front of the cell, placing the book in her hands upon the cement ground. Opening the pages and laying it out before her, a dark, sapphire blue shine erupted from the center of the words, filling the room with light.
“The name’s Jodie, but you can call me your savior.”
Suddenly, Jodie froze, slowly turning to face the stairs as they both heard the door open and someone begin to come down the stairs.
“Hide!” Faye whisper-yelled, the words desperate as she urged her only chance at escape to get away from the middle of the room with her shining book. But Jodie did not move an inch, turning slowly to look at the stairs, and the man who had just joined them.
“This was written,” she said with a shrug, putting a hand up just as Nico caught sight of her and stopped walking. “Nico, is it? I think I have a pretty good idea of what you’re struggling with internally. So how about you go with your gut and help me with this cell.”
Faye’s big eyes were even larger as she stared between the two of them. There was no possible way Nico was going to free her and this newcomer was absolutely nuts. Still, there was a flash of hope when Nico’s light, chestnut eyes looked away from Jodie and fell on her. The intensity was unreadable, only broken when he approached the cell and pulled the keys from his pocket, looking down to unlock the cell.
He opened the door, glancing at Faye, a struggle on his features she would never be able to place. When he spoke, she thought her legs would buckle.
“Your friends are kept three doors to the left, better hurry.”
Faye slowly passed Nico, pausing when she was free of the cell. Without a word, she extended a hand and rested it on his shoulder for a mere second before making her way over to Jodie and the glowing book. Jodie was watching the two of them, eyes amused as she observed the interaction.
“Now what?” Faye inquired, eyes still darted over to Nico, not trusting him still.
“Climb,” Jodie offered, her finger pointing towards the book upon the ground.
“I am not touching that thing,” Faye retorted as Jodie walked away from the book and over to her side.
A yell tore from her mouth as Jodie’s hands pushed her from behind, just as she had done to Hazel the first time she met her. Her body was a bit smaller, however, and this newcomer was strong. Without a chance, Faye was launched towards the book, falling to the ground atop it. But instead of covering the book, the bright light emitted from within clung onto her skin, static racing up her arms as her body was pulled forward with immense force.
A mere moment later, Faye was nowhere to be seen, the book shutting behind her.
Jodie lazily walked over to it, bending down to grab it and pull it close to her chest as she turned to face Nico. “Third door to the left, you say?”
He nodded slowly, eyes wide as he stared at the book in her hands. Neither of them exchanged any further words, Jodie making her way up the stairs and out of the room. There were no guards to stop her along her journey and even though Nico was relieved to know Faye was in the right hands and away from death…
He knew he had secured his own.
Aiden felt Hazel’s distress instantly, her need for him pulled his body through the spirit realm she had temporarily sent him to, breaking through the barriers of death. When he was flung back into the world of the living and the floor of a dark hallway, he had no idea which direction to run.
All he knew was that he had to move fast.
While he was wandering in the spirit realm, he could not see Danira’s tricks of the mind, his body wandering around the landscape that resembled where he stood a hundred years prior. His mind was unable to replay his old memories, so far from his old home, but instead placed him in the same time as that of his death.
When he saw the maze of hallways around him, Aiden started his desperate race to reach Hazel, listening with all his might for her voice or her Affinity to call for him and give him a direction. But there was nothing, no sign of her anywhere and nothing to go off of.
A buzzing caught his attention, the smallest of metal things soared through the air towards his face at an alarming rate. The googly eyes on its screen stared at him tauntingly as it narrowly missed his face. Cursing and jumping away, Aiden tried to grab for it but was unable to catch it fast enough.
The little being circled his head, dodging his hands before heading down towards the hallway. When he didn’t follow, it turned around and started towards his face again, this time clipping the side of Aiden’s head.
“Fucking thing!” Aiden growled, taking the hint and following the metal fairy as it floated back down the hallway and started around the corner.
He didn’t have to follow it for long, sensing Hazel’s familiar power more and more with each sprinting step after it. The small floating device stopped outside a door, the screen and googly eyes turning to face Aiden once before buzzing away quickly. Aiden didn’t waste any time, grabbing the door and throwing it open to the scene within.
Hazel was on her knees, eyes closed as her Affinity’s energy floated out of her body and into Danira’s. The old woman was transforming in front of his eyes, her skin no longer wrinkled but smooth and filled. Her lips were plump and red, pursed in rage as her eyes fell upon the familiar face of her brother. Danira’s hair was no longer white, but thick, dark, and luscious as it fell around her shoulders and along her youthful body.
Tearing away from Hazel, she allowed the girl to fall to the ground as she faced Aiden. “Brother. I figured you would show up sooner or later.” She extended her hand, a shining mirage of power swirling around her fingertips as she summoned the Affinities she had harnessed. The energy in the room built around her, both hands throwing out towards him as she prepared to release.
The buzzing metal box came soaring through the air, hitting Danira’s face with as much impact as the thing possibly could, her hands dropping as she screamed out in pain and reached for her eye, blood immediately pouring from the gaping wound and onto the floor.
Aiden did not waste a moment. Running to Hazel’s side, he bent down and scooped her up, racing to the door as fast as his legs could carry him. But Danira had recovered quickly, her body lunging forward once more as she screamed out in rage, both hands extended once more towards Aiden. A blast of energy erupted from her fingertips, the multicolored swirl of color knocked him to the ground, Hazel falling with him.
Aiden reached out for her but his hand was stopped by Danira’s foot, his sister looking down at his weakened body below him. She was cradling her wounded eye, the other wide and crazed as she stared down at him in hatred.
Just as she had looked at him the day he died. The day she ended him.
There was silence between them for a mere second before she dropped her hand from her eye and extended them both towards Aiden once again, the power a heat that made his face erupt in sweat instantly. At the same time, his hands extended and he called upon every ounce of power he could muster, every bit of his own Affinity he had ever been able to use against her.
When their powers met, it erupted into an explosion that knocked them both across the room and into the walls of her illusion, the building shaking around them. Aiden groaned, his body slowly rising from the ground, only to fall back onto his knees in pain with the impact. With a groan, he tried not to pay att
ention to the way his leg was bent after hitting the wall, the pain that came with the impact. All he had to do was grab Hazel and drag them both out of there, run as fast as he could. There was no time to see if Danira was dead or not.
Dragging himself towards Hazel’s body, he leaned over her, hands on her shoulder as he shook her. “Wake up. Hazel…I need you to wake up,” he growled, trying his hardest to get her to wake. There was no way he’d be able to get them far enough away before Nico came to his sister’s aide.
Hazel’s eyes snapped open, glowing white as her body went rigid. She appeared awake, but there was no recognition in her pale eyes as she stared ahead at the wall. All around them the world shifted and flickered, pixelating as Danira’s illusion was replaced with Hazel’s power. The spirit realm and their own were merging, the woman before him making it happen.
Her hand reached out and grabbed him, eyes wide as they slowly faded back to her normal light brown. “Aiden…”
“I’m right here,” he responded, reaching for her. But she was shaking her head, eyes widening as the room around them started to dim, her body flickering and fading along with the confines of the illusion. Aiden reached for her, his hands going through her body as he tried to pull her back into the room and the world they both resided in. When he looked down at his hands, they too were fading from view.
Aiden heard one last word escape Hazel’s lips before they were both thrown into the spirit realm and away from Danira’s trap, the word repeated over and over in his mind as they plummeted into a world of the dead, a world neither of them could control.
“Help.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“What does Hedwig see now?” Tucker asked, grabbing onto Caden’s shoulders as the man channeled his little gremlin from inside the room they were locked in.
“She didn’t hit him, but I had to tell it to get out of there before she regained her composure. We showed Aiden where to find her, but now I need it to activate our release. Illusion or not, that door is going to open when I blow it up.” When his eyes opened, the cerulean blue was bright, glowing and lighting up the room around them. “He should be here any second, actually…”
Just on cue, the whirring of Hedwig was heard outside the door. There was a bang against the metal before a beeping filled the room. Tucker knew enough about the aggravating and repetitive noise to act quickly, knowing just what they were going to be enduring in less than ten seconds.
Sure enough, as soon as they were huddled against the corner and safely away from the door it exploded, the metal shooting inward and hitting the wall across from them with a bang. Smoke billowed out along the floor as Hedwig burst into the room, spinning in triumphant circles in the air.
“Well done, Hedwig!” Tucker yelled, jumping up from his position on the ground as he slow clapped in the bot’s direction.
“Return,” Caden said, extending his hand as the metal hunk soared through the air and into his hand. He tucked it away, standing to dust off his jeans.
“Well, that was easy, I was just trying to figure out how I was going to take that down,” a voice came from the doorway, an unfamiliar woman stepped into the room. She took a look at the two, a large book in her hands. One of the hands holding the book wiggled a hello at them before she leaned down and placed it on the ground, kicking it open. The bright light from within lit up the ceiling like a beam, energy flooding the room.
Tucker stood in front of Caden, eyes on the stranger as his fists extended to either side of his body, the green swords sliding free of his skin and glinting in the light that escaped her book. “Get out of this room and out of our way. We’re getting our friends.”
“Put away your thick, girthy swords, big guy. I’ve got your friend Faye right here, and Hazel will be quick to follow,” She pointed to the book on the ground. “So jump right in and don’t waste anymore time. I’m here to save your ass.”
Caden coughed at her words behind him, stifling laughter that was, in no way appropriate given the circumstances and lack of time they had at their disposal. He walked across the floor, passing Tucker as he approached the book.
“Cae, get back here,” Tucker growled, taking a step forward to cease his friend from going any further, but stopped himself. Caden was not slowing down, eyes on the book as he spoke to the strange woman who had entered the room.
“You are the Wordsmith,” he said simply, finally looking up at her. He’d recognize the book she held in her hands from anywhere.
“And you’re the Inventor. It’s good to finally meet the guy who once made my work a little bit easier. Now, are you going to jump in first, or are you going to help me drag this big guy in so I can get moving?”
“Tucker, just trust me and listen to what she says,” Caden called over his shoulder, turning to face Tucker with a smile before he jumped backwards, the beam of light erasing him from view as he was ripped down towards the book and out of the room.
Tucker slowly approached the book, eyeing the woman before stopping in front of it and beside her. She was at least five-foot-six-inches, coming to the middle of his chest, beautiful, but her clothing indicated nothing special, a hoodie and dark wash jeans. This was the Wordsmith he had heard Caden and others talk about?
“I don’t trust you, Wordsmith,” he said under his breath, leaning close to her as he spoke.
“Likewise,” she spat back, her strange, mix-colored eyes flashed between an amber and green, brows furrowing as she fixed him with one hell of a pissed-off stare.
He said nothing more to her, turning away as he faced the book upon the ground and weighed out his choices.
Nope, it was a no-brainer, he trusted Caden with his life. Jumping forward, his body was consumed by the ray of light, sucked downward into the book and away from the horrors of Danira’s grasp. Staring above him, he watched as he fell through the sky, a hole above him reflecting the Wordsmith’s peering face and the room they had been in.
Her small hand gave him a dramatic wave, the last thing he saw before his body made contact with the ground.
Jodie closed the book, picking the heavy thing up from the ground and cradling it close to her. Running from the room, she froze in the hallway just in time to watch the room behind her crumble to pieces. Something was happening to the illusion and there was no way she was going to be in the building when it finally came falling down.
But where was the girl, Hazel?
Nico passed her without a second glance and Jodie kicked up heel to follow him. If he was going anywhere in a hurry, it was surely to his Maven. Despite freeing Faye and allowing them to go and get the others, he was still contracted to be with her. At least until she realized what he had done and finished him off once and for all.
He was faster than she anticipated, escaping behind a door and into an office. Once she got to the doorway, Jodie peered inside. He was at a young Danira’s side, the woman’s eyes were closed as she lay in a heap upon the ground, surrounded by broken chairs and debris from where her body had made impact with the wall. Nico reached for her neck, searching for a pulse while his head rested against her chest. He looked conflicted when he moved away, looking over to Jodie as he pulled Danira up into his arms.
“You know we’re going to kill her, right? If she isn’t dead already,” Jodie spat out to Nico.
“For both our sakes, I hope you do,” he said back.
All around them, the building was shaking and breaking down, the ceiling starting to cave inward as the ground groaned. Jodie left the room, book clutched tightly as she started down to the right and caught sight of the hallway. If Danira was hurt and there was no dead body or merge with the spirit world, it meant that Hazel must have somehow escaped.
There was no need to spend extra time searching when everything was about to be destroyed. Stopping where she was, Jodie laid down the book for the final time and opened the pages, looking into the beam that erupted. As much as she loved a good fight and wanted nothing more than to stop Nico and ensur
e Danira was as good as dead, she knew it was important to wait.
Besides, it was not what she had seen written, despite how impatient she was. They would all see Danira again, but until that point they needed to train, hide, and be safe before the world was punished for their rash decisions.
Jumping forward into the beam, the book closed behind her, quickly engulfed by the falling walls of the illusion that finally crumbled to the ground, sucked up into the dirt like quicksand.
Leaving nothing behind in its wake.
The end.
Thank you so much readers.
If you enjoyed the story, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Reviews from readers truly help in so many ways, and are greatly appreciated.
Hazel and the others will return in Affirmation, coming December, 2019.
About the Author
Relaying stories of fantasy, K. Fisher hides from reality and spends her time with her husband and dog in the Pacific Northwest. She believes, above all else, that the journey of self discovery is most important, and cannot wait to share her adventures with you.
Contact: K Fisher Author
Other books by this Author
Tales of Desin Series:
Alni – Book one
Taber – Coming fall 2019
The Guardians Series
Affinity
Affirmation – Coming 2019!
