I used to sit at this table with my family every night to eat dinner. My mother also preferred to sit here when she was working at home because she could easily keep a watchful eye on me in the living room. I had forgotten about this memory. It had long vanished from my thoughts, either to make room for Rezith or because remembering my lost family was just too painful to think about.
I stopped at the wide opening that led into the living room. A plush, sand colored sectional lined the far corner, with a large flatscreen TV diagonal from it. Why was I here?
“Looks like I found you this time.”
I jerked my head around to a spitting image of my older self sitting at the head of the table. He continued speaking, “Nice place. Not a big fan of the curtains though. Very out of style.”
“What do you want? Wait, if you’re here then…” I shuddered at the terrifying thought.
“Yup, that’s right. He’s trying to draw me out again. But don’t worry. The effects don’t appear to be permanent. Yet.” He shook his head at me and wagged his finger in the air. “I warned you not to trust that man.”
“So if we’re both here, then who’s out there?” I glanced up to the ceiling as if that was the exit to my physical body.
“No one. I refuse to succumb to that man’s games. But you’re pretty much an empty husk right now. With both of us here, your body will eventually shut down with no mind to control it.
“What?! You’re intentionally killing me? Send me back out there, right now!” I slapped my hands down on the fake wooden table, causing it to rock forward.
“Even if I could, I wouldn’t. The man needs to learn to stop messing with my life.” Rezith leaned back into the chair and laced his fingers around the back of his head.
“Your life? What about mine? Or are you waiting for him to kill me so you can take over?”
“You drank your poison when you decided to listen to Nolan and not me. You sealed your own fate.”
“Why would I ever listen to you? Whenever you pipe up, nothing but bad things follow. Besides, everyone in my life has betrayed me at some point. What makes you any different?”
“Have I ever betrayed you? All I’ve ever done is tried to help. I’ve healed you when you were hurt. Offered my power when you were in danger. What more do you want?” He raised his eyebrows as his questioning stare suggested I reconsider my words.
“You just don’t want anything to happen to this body until you take it over.” I backed away from the table and dug my hands into my hips, pacing from side to side.
“Did I ever say I wanted to keep your body? True, I do need to take over for a while. Who knows how long. But I need my memories back, my skills returned, to finish something I left undone.”
“And what happens when you’re done? You take over someone else? Let me die? Something tells me you aren’t just going to disappear and everything goes back to normal. I thought the spell couldn’t be reversed, anyway.”
Rezith shrugged. “That has yet to be determined.”
“This sounds like a scam to willingly make me give myself up. I still don’t trust you and I never will.”
“Your life has been full of hatred and betrayal. You forget I was right there enduring it with you almost your entire life. Lizzy exposed your secret behind your back. Nolan framed you for murder. Your co-workers despise everything about you. But if there was anyone you could trust, don’t you think it should be the man who has literally been living inside your head for seventeen years? I have never lied to you or caused you to distrust me. You chose to believe I had.”
His words sent my head spinning in a turbulent whirlwind. I tried to find fault in them, but I couldn’t. If everything he’s been telling me has been true, while he may have been deceptive at times, he’s never deliberately tried to hurt me. Have I gotten this all wrong? Again? Or was he playing me so that I would trust him and follow along with his plans?
Rezith cocked his head to the side, tilting an ear toward the ceiling as if a noise had suddenly garnered his attention. “Well, it looks like our reunion here is up. Sounds like something has happened back on the...surface. You better wake up or things won’t end well for you.”
“What? What’s going on? Where are you going? How do I get out of here?” Rezith rose from his seat and I ran to the doorway, extending my arms to block his exit.
“Idiot. You think I’m going to casually stroll out the front door back to my prison?” His body started to fade, like dust floating in the air and glistening in the afternoon sun pouring in from a window as he was ripped away from my memory. Now what?
I kept pacing back and forth before deciding to sit down on the couch. I crossed one leg over the other and placed an elbow on each knee, resting my head in my palms. When Rezith had taken over my body, I willed my Nullifier ability to absorb his power so I could regain control. But if Rezith wasn’t controlling me, what was I trying to overcome?
I closed my eyes and began to drink in the magic power around me. I imagined any magic in my veins evaporating, seeping out of my pores. Nothing was happening, so I squeezed my eyes and tried digging deeper, forcing it out of my blood, muscles, bones, and mind. There was nothing there holding me back. So why was I still here?
I thought about my empty body lying on the cold steel table back at Arcane Enterprises and realized that’s exactly what my life was: cold and empty. There was nothing left for me in that world to go back to. I had no friends. I lost my job, my entire life. Eventually, someone else would take it over. I didn’t want to go back.
I felt my body suddenly sway back and forth. That same familiar feeling of warmth and compassion that overwhelmed me the last time returned, and then a voice followed.
Adrian, come back!
The disembodied message came from a female, but I couldn’t tell who it was. The only person it could have been was Daphne. She was the only woman in the lab.
My mind searched to connect with my body. I reached out to it, to the voice, hoping it would accept me back. If I had one thing left to live for, it would be to keep my promise to make Rezith’s remaining time inside my head a living hell. No, I couldn’t give up that easily. Not yet. I had to go back. I needed more answers, more time to make things right. Save Daphne. Clear my name. I wouldn’t go out without a fight.
The false figure of myself inside my mind began violently shaking back and forth. Was I having a seizure? Was it too late?
My apparition began fading, just as Rezith’s had. I watched my hands disintegrate into a powdery dust. It had no feeling, but the thought of my body disappearing was extremely unsettling and sent me into panic. I focused on the voice again. Someone was calling to me. Someone wanted me to come back, and I had to go. Now wasn’t my time.
My eyes shot open as they burned directly into the blinding overhead lights. I gasped to fill my lungs with air, quickly turning my head to the side to rub out the black dots fluttering in my vision.
“Adrian, you’re alive!” Daphne seemed surprised to see me breathing, then I noticed she was holding a defibrillator paddle in each hand. The jerking motion must have been her shocking me to jump start my heart. Which means...I had actually died.
An all too familiar headache crushed my skull, but this time it was in the back of my head. I clutched my neck trying to rub away the pain, and when I removed my hands a smear of blood coated my fingertips. How long was I out, and what had Nolan done?
It took a moment to realize Daphne was hunched over me much closer than the shy woman normally would get to any man. It was only when a test tube rack filled with colorful liquids came soaring in through the doorway and crashed to the floor that my ears registered the loud commotion happening just outside.
“What the hell is going on?” I shielded my face as a metal stool collided with a plate glass wall, shattering it on impact and sending the stool rolling across the room along with sharp glass missiles directly at my face. Machines were sparking, glass bottles and jars were exploding left and right,
and Daphne and I were trapped in this room with nowhere to go while the place was blowing up around us.
Thick white smoke began pouring down from the ceiling, blocking my view of what was going on. It blanketed the room, hovering near the floor like a heavy fog. I hopped off the table, my knees quivering from the sudden impact of my full weight. My vision blurred and I was reminded of the gash bleeding from the nape of my neck.
When I regained my composure, I motioned for Daphne to stick close to me while I thought of a plan to navigate our way through the war zone to safety. She nodded and positioned herself so close to me I could feel her breathing down my neck.
“What is this?” I questioned, slicing my hand through the dense cloud of smoke as it quickly devoured the floor where we stood.
“It’s supposed to be like a magic fire extinguisher. But I don’t think it’s working very well.”
She lowered her gaze to the white smoke masking everything below her knees, embarrassed at her company’s failure. But even if the smoke wasn’t effective against stopping magic, it was thick enough that it would help conceal our presence as we tried to make our escape.
I grabbed her arm and pulled her down with me onto our hands and knees. The dense smoke floated across the floor, and rose just enough to cover a crawling body crouched close to the ground.
“I don’t suppose you carry around any spell bombs or something we could use to defend ourselves?”
Daphne pressed a fingertip to her lips. She raised her hand to grab a small metal tray from the counter.
“Great. A shield. This will hold up about as well as tinfoil against a magic attack.”
I could barely see more than a foot in front of me. Afraid she might lose me, Daphne grabbed onto the back of my t-shirt while we navigated through the labyrinth of exploding machines, broken shelves, and overturned tables.
Get down.
Without thinking, I repeated Rezith’s words to Daphne, turning to push her head to the floor as I used my other hand to shield a sudden blast of magic traveling through the smoke. The spear of crimson magic hit the corner of the tray causing it to spin out of my grip. It silently dropped to the floor, unable to be heard over the cacophony of violence that surrounded us. Beaming a deep red, the tray began to disintegrate into ash on the floor.
Thankful that wasn’t my hand, I grabbed the corner of her blouse and yanked her behind a desk as we scurried for cover. I cautiously peeked around the corner, trying to get a better glimpse of what was going on.
The fog coated the floor of the entire lab space like clouds floating in the sky. But across the room, above the smoke and directly in line of our exit path, I saw a magical rainbow of colorful attacks zipping through the air. Raven, Daisy, and Isaac were throwing around their magic, trying to defend against an intruder...maybe multiple.
It could be the police, or maybe some employees who snuck their way in late at night. But I highly doubted this team of magical misfits would have any trouble taking them down. So who was it?
We slowly kept crawling our way to the exit, hiding behind shelves, pieces up equipment, and anything else we could find along the way. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I knew my top priority right now was to get Daphne out of here and to somewhere safe. My concentration was broken when I heard a crunching sound behind me followed by a hiss right into my ear.
“Aughhh!” Daphne was shaking her hand out, little drops of blood seeping from her skin. “I pressed my hand down against some broken glass.”
“Let me see it. Was there any residue on the glass? Magic or something else?” I grabbed her hand and tried my best to examine it through the thick white fumes around us. Whatever was in that magic gas, it was starting to make me a little woozy. We had to get out of here quickly.
“I...I don’t think so.” Daphne shook her head.
“It doesn’t look deep. You should be fine. Try pulling your shirt sleeves over the palms of your hands to protect them while you crawl.”
We meticulously slithered past a row of giant machines and cautiously scampered down the aisle closer to the exit, stopping behind a large broken piece of laminate that used to be the top of a counter. We were out of places to hide. We had to make a run for it to the exit.
I clasped Daphne’s injured hand, knowing she was probably scared out of her mind right now. She had been doing well, but the last stretch of twenty or so feet was all completely open space, covered only by the wisps of white smoke that now slowly began starting to lift.
I watched as a dozen bladed feathers soared above me, shattering the glass wall that separated the office space from the main hallway. Red rose petals, I assumed Daisy’s, were sucked into the whirlwind from Raven’s attack and fluttered around us. Unfamiliar with what they did, I was certain I didn't want to find out. I nodded to Daphne, letting her know it was time.
I imagined any magic touching my skin, or Daphne’s, repelling like rain on a windshield. I wasn’t sure if I could actually extend my ability to others. It seemed to work in the illusion, so I thought it was worth a shot.
We rose from our crouching positions and bolted toward the door. I kept my focus directly on the exit in front of me, dragging Daphne along for the ride.
Halfway there, I leapt over a filing cabinet, but Daphne could match my speed. The tip of her foot caught the handle of a drawer, and the thundering sound of bone against metal resonated through the air as she smashed her knee into the unforgiving side of the filing cabinet. She threw out her hands, saving her face from being sliced by the sharp edge of the drawer.
“You alright?” I bent down on one knee and placed my hand on her elbow. She squeezed her eyes tight, no doubt trying to overcome the immense throbbing pain from the straight on hit. But she nodded slightly, determined to go on.
“Come on, we can’t say here.” She grabbed my hand, and again we raced toward the exit. My palm was on the door ready to push it open, when something clanked above me and dropped to the ground. The sound of metal rattled against the tile floor. I stopped in my tracks and stared at it in disbelief.
“Why did you stop? What’s wrong?” Daphne placed her boney hand on my shoulder, observing the door in front of me wondering why I wasn’t moving.
“You need to go. There’s something I have to do.”
“What? N—No! I can’t leave without you!”
“You can do this, Daphne. I promise I’ll come find you when this is all over. Now go, call the cops.”
“But if they see you here…”
“Daphne, he is literally destroying your company. Do something about it! Don’t worry about me. I’ll find a way out.”
She hesitated for a moment. “The table where I was eating dinner...I left a syringe filled with a new, uh, hopefully better, version of the magic inhibitor. Inject it into Nolan to block his magic or he’ll just vanish before anyone gets here.”
“Right. Got it. Go!” She cringed at what sounded like one of her prized magic machines exploding into an epic fireworks display. Then she pushed through the door and dashed down the hall.
With Daphne gone, I could now deal with my next headache. Lizzy.
Chapter 35
I searched the floor around the table where Daphne had been eating. No longer in its upright position, the table had been knocked over and everything on top of it had been dispersed in different directions. I dropped to my hands and knees, trying to find the vile filled with neon green liquid. I finally found it, luckily unharmed, nestled in a glob of chicken lo mein next to a garbage bin. I picked off the pieces of noodles and stuck it into my back pocket. Retracing my steps, I canvassed the room and could now make out Blair and Eli in a dangerous dance against Raven, Isaac, and Daisy. Blair, with a crackling ball of lighting ranging across her fingertips, hurled the electric projectiles one after the other with a determined vendetta against Raven. With a flap of her hand, Raven sent Blair’s magic, along with half the lab, directly back at her.
Blair was slammed into a suppo
rt pillar in the middle of the floor, but refused to give up. She rolled a tube of lip balm to Raven’s feet. Confused, she attempted to kick it away when the wax erupted from the plastic and spilled onto the floor. Raven quickly lost her balance and slipped on the slick substance. At that moment, a whip of lightning lashed out from Blair’s hand, catching Raven’s arm right before she launched her feathered blades through the air. So much for the magic smoke extinguisher. It was more useless than an ejection seat in a helicopter.
Eli was facing off against Daisy and Isaac, the man Rezith called the Termite. With all the metal in this place, Eli was in his element, but still struggling against two sneaky opponents. A tall shelf ripped away from the wall and zoomed across the room, trapping the powerless Daisy underneath a scrapyard of metal. I almost felt sorry for the only poor sucker taking part in this chaos without an innate magic super power of her own.
Daisy didn’t go down without a fight. Eli began sneezing uncontrollably as I watched her super pollen permeate as leafy green swirling speckles across the room. Isaac, whose dust magic was mostly invisible to everyone else, glowed a vibrant crimson just for me. Eli didn’t stand a chance as Isaac thrust out his hand and the scattered dust particles latched onto him, burning through his clothes right down to his skin.
A loud crash came from my right and I whipped my head around to see what was happening. My outrage bellowed over the sound of warfare. “Lizzy!”
The thunderous roar turned all eyes on me, causing the fighting to temporarily cease and everyone to freeze in their place. The room grew almost silent, the only sound coming from the broken machines struggling as they breathed the last of their life.
A rogue spear of lightning singed the hairs on the top of my head as it soared by, exploding against the wall behind me. By now, the emergency system stopped dispersing the magic smoke and it had mostly disappeared. Emerging from the remaining haze was a short female figure with buttercream white hair.
How to Hunt a Menacing Magical Shadow Page 29
