The Revenge of Magic

by James Riley

  The car stopped on the twelfth basement floor, the one above where the skeletons and crates were stored. Fort waited for it to unload, then peeked his head inside. Finding it empty, he pulled himself down into it and quickly pushed the B-15 button. The elevator beeped in response but didn’t move, and Fort noticed for the first time a place to swipe a security badge next to the button.

  Great. He sighed deeply. Taking the elevator would have made things easier, but whatever.

  He slowly bent down toward the floor and pushed his head through, judging the distance to jump down three more floors. It was at least twenty feet below him, and he didn’t like the idea of what his sense of reality might feel the need to do to his legs if he landed hard. Granted, he could heal himself with his magic, but that didn’t mean he wanted to break a leg.

  Instead, he settled for jumping back to the wall and sliding down farther using the trick he’d been using before the elevator arrived. This brought him safely to basement level fifteen, where he poked his head through the elevator doors to the hallway beyond. No one was around, just like the night before.

  Okay. He could do this. All he had to do was reach Sierra, wake her up somehow without losing his mind in the process, then convince her to wipe Damian’s magic. Easy.

  Fort crept down the hallway, keeping close to the wall in case someone came out and he needed to hide in a room along the way. As he reached the room where the doctors had been the night before, he stopped and pushed himself into the wall, just to check to see if they were still there.

  No doctors, but two soldiers were sitting in chairs, talking quietly.

  They seemed distracted enough that Fort could potentially make it past the doorway without being noticed, but he wasn’t about to get caught this far in, so instead he did a shallow dive into the hallway floor, just in front of the door. He swam beneath the door like a dolphin, kicking his whole body several times, then pushed himself up on the other side, emerging at the end of the hallway, right at Sierra’s room and peeked inside.

  Fortunately, the room was empty, other than its two patients. Fort moved through the closed door and slowly approached Sierra again, this time mentally preparing himself for what was to come. The pain had been immense, when her memories had flooded his mind uncontrollably, but maybe if he was ready for them, he could handle it better?

  He reached out a trembling hand toward hers, then paused, wondering if there was a better way. Could his Healing magic bring her back, somehow? Or maybe just screaming her name, really close to her ears?

  No, he knew what he had to do, and the only thing stopping him right now was fear of what might happen. But if he waited much longer, he’d be caught. It was only a matter of time before—

  As if to finish his thought, alarms began clamoring throughout the room and hallway outside.

  “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Fort whispered, whirling around. Had they found him already?

  But no. Out in the hallway, he could hear the two soldiers from the other room running toward the elevator. If they weren’t coming this way, then what was the alarm about?

  Oh, right. They must have discovered him missing from the disciplinary barracks, but they would still be checking for him down here next.

  Which meant he didn’t have any time left to worry about what might happen.

  “Please don’t fry my brain,” Fort whispered to Sierra, then grasped her hand tightly.

  “Damian!” Sierra shouted, staring in horror as the Old Ones began making their way to the portal. “Have you gone insane?”

  Damian looked back at her without recognition, and from his mind, a horrible darkness emanated. YOUR FRIEND NO LONGER EXISTS, the presence said in her mind, sending waves of agony through her skull.

  “Damian, stop—” Dr. Opps shouted, but Damian raised a hand and sent a magic missile flying into the doctor’s chest. Dr. Opps went flying, slamming into the nearest wall, groaning as he landed on the floor.

  Sierra immediately cast Mind Blast, sending it at the creature’s mind, but Damian waved his hand as if batting aside an annoying insect, and the spell seemed to have no effect. DO NOT INTERFERE, the Old One’s voice exploded in her head, and she dropped to her knees in pain.

  Before she could stop him, Damian began to whisper more words of power, and somewhere, she could almost feel something horrible had just happened.

  YOU KNOW NOTHING OF THE TRUE POWER OF MAGIC, the voice said in her head again, just as the floor began to shake beneath her feet. YOUR KIND REBELLED AGAINST US, TRICKED US WHEN WE RULED THEM MERCIFULLY EONS AGO. EVEN EXILED US FROM OUR TRUE HOME.

  “Sierra, shut him down!” Dr. Opps yelled.

  “I don’t know if I can!” Sierra shouted, not sure what to do. The darkness was just so strong . . .

  “Do it! Or we’ll all die!”

  Sierra gritted her teeth and reached out with her mind, flooding Damian’s head with her magic. Damian smiled as the darkness inside his head pushed back, and Sierra knew she had no chance against it. Instead, she slipped around its presence in his mind, even as it struck back, taking control of Damian’s body instead, just like she’d done the last time he’d communicated with the creature.

  But then, she’d just been dealing with Damian. She’d never be able to hold the creature off, not for more than a second or two. But maybe that was enough?

  THIS CHILD SPOKE OF THE PROPHECY, BUT IT HAS ALREADY COME TO PASS, the creature continued. ONE OF YOUR KIND MASTERED THE SEVEN FORMS TO HIDE MAGIC AWAY, TO ENSURE WE COULD NEVER USE ITS POWER TO RETURN. BUT MAGIC COULD NOT STAY LOCKED AWAY FOREVER. IT DESIRED THE RETURN OF ITS TRUE MASTERS, AND SO HAS REAWAKENED NOW, TO WELCOME US BACK.

  “Close the portal,” she hissed out loud, commanding Damian’s body to do the same. Using his voice, she picked the words to the spell from his memory and cast it, just as the first Old One reached the portal. The gateway collapsed, and both she and Damian screamed, though his scream was from anger, not pain.

  IF YOU INSIST ON INTERFERING, YOU SHALL KNOW PAIN! The creature’s voice roared in her head, and she shrieked. Damian started whispering another spell, then another, and the room began to shake violently.

  Fort shouted in pain and collapsed to his knees. A drop of blood fell from his nose to his hand, and he stared at it in surprise, then wiped his bleeding nose. Sierra moaned beside him, her eyes fluttering, and he hoped she was going to wake up soon, before this killed him.

  Because he knew what came now. He’d already lived out the memory of the next few minutes.

  This was when the monsters attacked.

  Please, Fort whispered in his mind. Don’t make me watch that again.

  Whether she heard him or not, her memory jumped forward a few minutes in time.

  “Sierra!” Dr. Opps shouted from across the room as the giant black clawed hand retreated, yanking down half the building with it. The outside wall crumbled, and sunlight poured into the room, fighting with the shadows pouring from the portal to the Old One’s realm. “There’s no time left. Free Damian’s mind now!”

  Sierra’s skull felt like it was about to burst, but she nodded. Half her mind she left at the National Mall, trying to get the civilians out of harm’s way, while the other half she turned back to Damian. But the Old One in his head wouldn’t even let her get close. It turned its attention down to her, and she screamed as it turned Damian’s mental spells back on her—

  “What is going on?” she heard someone yell, and abruptly the attack on her mind ceased.

  “Michael!” Dr. Opps shouted. “Take Damian down! He’s possessed by a supernatural creature. Do it!”

  “Damian?” Michael said. “Really? But how can I do that without hurting him?”

  WE GROW WEARY OF THIS, the Old One said in their minds, and they all screamed in reaction.

  Even through the pain, Michael launched a fireball at Damian, only for Damian to raise a hand and stop it in midair. The fireball suddenly grew to three times its size and turned from bright ora
nge and white to a sickly yellow, then whirled back toward the Destruction student who’d created it.

  With no way to protect himself against his own spell, Michael took the fireball right in the chest, letting out a piercing scream.

  His clothes on fire, he dropped to the floor, rolling to quench the flames, but the magical blaze refused to go out, and the boy continued to cry out in pain.

  “Jia!” Dr. Opps shouted, and the previously possessed healer crawled to Michael, a hand raised to put out his fires, until she was slammed out of the way as the giant black hand pushed up through the floor once more.

  The creature’s hand enveloped Michael’s burning body and pulled him away screaming, down into the darkness.

  “NO!” Sierra shouted, and rage filled her mind, giving her some remaining energy where she’d all but run out of strength. She gathered her will, then put everything she had into one final Mind Blast. It exploded out of her and straight into Damian’s head, and this time, it was too strong for the Old One to deflect it.

  The Old One shouted in agony. And as it did, its cry turned from a shriek in their minds into Damian’s actual voice.

  “What . . . what is happening?” he said.

  “Damian!” Dr. Opps shouted. “Close these portals, now!”

  “I . . . I’ll try,” Damian said. “But it’s still inside my head. I don’t know how long until it takes control again!”

  “Sierra, burn that thing out of his mind!” Dr. Opps shouted.

  Almost too tired to even breathe, Sierra struggled to call forth another Mind Blast. Hoping for more strength, she withdrew her commands on the National Mall, releasing all the tourists who were now far enough away to be safe.

  And then, something strange happened. One of the tourists still in danger pushed back against her control. Almost in annoyance, she looked into his mind and saw that his father was in the other creature’s grasp.

  “No,” she whispered, feeling the boy’s terror and anger. But it was too late, and if she didn’t get him out of there, he’d die too. As she cast the Mind Blast at the Old One in Damian’s head, she sent her control back at the boy on the Mall, forcing him to leave.

  But he refused, and just as her power struck the Old One, the boy fought back. The struggle split her mind, filling it with the boy’s overwhelming fear and anger, and she couldn’t think about anything else.

  She screamed, and Damian did too, connected to her now, just like she was connected to this one last civilian at the National Mall, the only one who refused to run.

  And then her world collapsed in around her, blackness filling her vision, and she fell to the ground, not sure of anything except for one last word. . . .

  “Forsythe?!”

  Fort writhed on the floor in agony as Sierra bolted up in bed, her powers radiating out of her mind like a hurricane.

  And then, even through the pain, Fort heard another voice, and he realized that after all of that, he’d managed to do the one thing he’d been trying to prevent.

  “Sierra?” Damian said from the bed next to hers.

  - FORTY -

  DAMIAN!” SIERRA SAID, LOOKING OVER at the other boy. “Are you . . . yourself?”

  Fort slowly pulled himself up to the bed and watched Damian pat himself on the arms and chest. “I think so?” Damian said, sounding relieved. “Whatever you did, I think it pushed the Old One out of my mind.” He pulled his legs out from under the covers and placed them on the floor, then tried to stand up, only to wobble shakily. “What’s . . . what’s wrong with me?”

  “You’ve been . . . unconscious,” Fort said, not very stable himself as his head continued to pound. “In a coma. For a while. I’m not sure how long.”

  “I have?” Damian asked, leaning back against the bed while giving Fort a suspicious look. “Who are you?”

  “Fort, what are you doing here?” Sierra whispered, turning back to him with a concerned look. “Does that mean everything I’ve been dreaming . . . oh no. No no no! I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean . . . what have I . . . oh no.” She dropped her head into her hands. “I saw you come to the school, and you were so worried, I tried to help. But everyone had secrets, things they wouldn’t tell you. I wanted you to know what they knew . . . but you kept thinking about the attack in D.C., too, and I couldn’t help it, I couldn’t stop remembering—”

  “There was an attack?” Damian said, trying to stand again. “Did something happen?”

  Sierra’s eyes widened. “You don’t remember?”

  “The last thing I remember is you making me close a portal,” he said. “Then the Old One took over, and . . .” He started to look sick. “Oh, what did I do?”

  Fort pushed to his feet, for once just letting the rage build, not even caring. “Everything that happened . . . it’s because of you,” he yelled at Damian. “There was an attack. Two, actually. One of them killed Michael, your friend. And the other one killed my father.”

  Damian’s face lost all its color, and he fell back to the bed, shaking his head. “I . . . I’m so sorry. I didn’t . . . I never would have—”

  “Fort, it wasn’t him,” Sierra said quietly, also trying to stand, but her legs were too weak. “You saw my memories. The Old One had control, not Damian. He couldn’t help it. It wasn’t his fault.”

  “Except you were the one who let it in,” Fort said to Damian, slowly rounding the beds, trying to stay calm so that the other boy wouldn’t run. Fort wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep up in his current shape, and there was no way he was letting Damian escape, not now. “Even when Dr. Opps told you not to communicate with them. But you thought you could handle it. And because of you, people died.”

  Damian looked up at him, his mouth hanging open. “They could have taught us so much,” he said, his voice almost too quiet to hear. “I saw it in that thing’s mind. They discovered magic! I knew it couldn’t be trusted, but I thought that we could learn from it and send it back. And the risk would be worth all the good that would have come from it. . . .”

  “Fort, back away,” Sierra said, holding out a hand toward him, and he felt a gentle pull on his mind, less an order than a suggestion that he move away from Damian. “You . . . you shouldn’t be here right now.”

  “I shouldn’t be here?” Fort said, his voice rising. “The attack in D.C. was his fault! My father died because of him. And you want me to just go back to the dorm and forget about this?”

  “It wasn’t me,” Damian said, his voice sounding more gravelly now, like he was about to cry or something. But Fort barely noticed, trying to decide if he should cast his Paralyze spell on Damian first, or just use his fists.

  “Fort, STOP!” Sierra shouted, and this time, her voice echoed in his mind, a telepathic command he couldn’t ignore. His legs froze to the ground, so he slowly twisted around to look at Sierra, who was trembling wildly from the effort of holding him in place. “You don’t know what’s happening here. You don’t want to do this!”

  “You don’t know me,” Fort growled at her, pushing back against her command. “You have no idea what I want!”

  I know everything about you, she shouted in his mind, slowly sinking back to the bed as her magic took a toll on her. I’ve been inside your mind for months, Forsythe Fitzgerald. I was in it during the attack, just like I was in everyone’s mind there. But you wouldn’t leave! The rest of them ran, but you stayed, for your father. I had to push you harder, and I saw everything, everything you did! Don’t you think I wanted to help him too?

  Fort clenched his jaw, exerting all of his might to break her spell, and he could see the effect his struggle was having on Sierra. But her thoughts in his head just pushed him onward. She didn’t get to just explain away her role in his father’s death. If she hadn’t pulled him away, his dad might still be alive!

  It wasn’t your fault he was taken! she thought in his head. If I hadn’t made you run, you would have been on the steps with your father when that monster grabbed him, and the only difference wou
ld be that you’d be gone now too. The creature is the one to blame for all of this!

  “You’re wrong!” Fort shouted. “I could have saved him. All it would have taken was one extra minute, maybe even less. But you made me run!”

  “The Old One knew so much,” Damian said, sounding even worse now, his voice fading in and out. “It promised it would open my mind to the universe and all of reality. It could teach me things about magic that no book could possibly contain. Humans wrote our books of magic, it said. And for that reason, they were all flawed . . . we never understood the true power, it said. We put limits on it. . . .”

  “I’m so sorry,” Sierra said out loud, almost flat on the bed now, one hand clasping her head like she was trying to hold it together, the other pointing at Fort. “Everything had gone wrong, and I couldn’t let anyone get hurt. We had no idea what we were doing! We just wanted to help people!”

  “And what about him?” Fort shouted, pointing at Damian. “Was he helping people when his creature killed my father?!”

  “You know what it’s like, trying to learn from the books!” Sierra said, groaning from the pain now. “And look at how I helped you get ahead. Think what you would have done in Damian’s place, just to learn the first three Healing spells! We didn’t understand what the Old Ones were, that they’d been waiting for us, waiting for magic to return!”

  “It was in my head,” Damian said, and now Fort barely recognized his voice at all. “I . . . I couldn’t take it. It had seen the beginning, and will be here until the end. Thousands, millions of years. I felt its hatred for us, that humanity betrayed them, exiled them from their home. But it told me that I could . . . MAKE UP FOR . . . HUMANITY’S MISTAKE, IF I JUST UNLOCKED THE DOOR—”

  Fort slowly turned back to Damian, disturbed by the boy’s words, but even more so by the fact he’d heard the last part in his head. And that was when he saw something that made his heart stop.