by Alicia Fabel
“Maybe I shouldn’t. Not if she has a chance with this Noah guy.”
“You’re doing it again. Trying to decide what’s best for her, in your opinion. Quit. Tell her the truth and then let her decide. If she wants to see where things go with Noah, then you’ll have to deal.”
“Even though I’ll hate it.”
“Yup.”
“For the first time, I think I feel sorry for Addamas.”
“It’s about time someone does,” said Addamas, stepping into the room.
“Uh-uh.” Mimi wagged her finger. “You both made your choices, and these are the consequences. You get to deal while the women you profess to love figure out what part we let you have in our lives.”
“So, where is she?” asked Kale.
“You are not crashing Vera’s date, Kalesius,” Mimi scolded. “You can wait here until she gets back.”
Addamas handed off the stained bag to Mimi, who tossed it aside. “Or you could meet her on her way back, so she doesn’t have to walk across campus alone.”
“You let her walk there alone?” Kale jumped to his feet.
“Chill out,” said Addamas. “I followed her. Discreetly. And I was about to go check on her and follow her home.”
“You two are impossible,” Mimi said with disgust.
“Why?” asked Addamas. “For making sure she has a safety net in place in case she gets in trouble?”
Mimi shook her head. “If she sees either of you following her, it won’t go well. Don’t come crying to me when she tells you to take your admission of love and shove it.”
“You’re finally going to tell her?” Addamas slapped Kale on the back. “It’s about time.”
20
“There’s the turn.” Vera pointed out the narrow road disappearing into the trees and bit her lip. “I think.”
The brake lights flared through the rear window. “Wow, it’s even harder to find in the dark. You’re sure that’s it?” Noah eyed the dirt trail.
“Pretty sure. It’s ridiculous, right?”
“There’s not even a sign.” Noah craned his neck around, like he was making sure he hadn’t just missed it.
“On move-in day, people gave up trying to find it and just lugged their stuff down from the upper parking lot.”
Noah turned down the road. After a minute, he checked the rearview mirror. “Do I need to be worried that you’re leading me into the middle of nowhere?” he asked with a teasing smile. “You’re not planning to kill me, right?”
“Promise.” Vera crossed her heart with her finger.
“Yeah, this looks familiar now. Let’s hope no one comes from the other direction.” Noah squinted into the distance.
“Or hope one of you is good at driving in reverse,” she replied.
The jeep hit a pothole. Vera bounced in her seat and grabbed for the handle above the door.
“Oops. Didn’t see that there.” He unwound the scarf from around his neck so he could lean forward to see better out the window. “The university should be able to afford a better road than this.”
“I think they’re planning to condemn this place after this year.”
“I’d heard that too.”
The green glow of the panel lit his face and glinted off the glass bead hanging from the chain around his neck. It must have come free of his shirt when he pulled out his scarf. Vera leaned closer to see it in the darkness. She’d swear it was a black tear-shaped charm. Which was a strange coincidence. It looked just like the one she’d lost. Of course, hers had been a magical cloak to keep anyone from sensing her magic. And Noah was human. Said human noticed the direction of her attention and lifted a hand.
“Damn,” he said, feeling the exposed charm. “You weren’t supposed to see that.”
Vera’s neck prickled. The brakes glowed as Noah stopped the jeep. The lights of the dorm building filtered through the trees ahead.
“Noah?” Vera looked for the door handle when the locks snicked down.
“I needed you to stay calm for ten more minutes,” he said. “I didn’t want to frighten you. If you hadn’t seen that, it would’ve been over before you even knew what was happening.”
“What would be over?” Vera yanked on the handle. No dice.
“My final assignment.”
“Assignment?”
“There’s something I’m supposed to take from you. In exactly nine minutes.”
“That’s rather specific.” Vera hit the unlock button on her door, but it didn’t work.
“Yeah, my boss is a stickler for playing by her time. Then again, she knows how each minute affects the entire future.”
“The librarian?”
“What?” His brow creased and then his forehead lifted. “No, different boss. Someone who has been watching you for a long time, tugging the threads of your life to lead you to this very moment.”
“Are you going to kill me?”
“Of course not. I’m just going to siphon something from you.”
Vera felt like the floor dropped out from beneath her. She tried to think of some sign of what he was, a red flag, something she’d missed. There hadn’t been anything. How had she not known? “You made the unnaturals.”
“Yeah, that was not my favorite use of magic. The horde served its purpose, though, bringing down that witch who wanted to drop Earth from the face of the world. Can’t say I was sorry to see her go.”
“Then we’re on the same side.”
Noah smiled a sad sort of smile. “Funny enough, we are on the same side. Even though you won’t believe it.”
“If you want magic, I can get you your own. Just let me go.”
“Eight more minutes.” Noah tapped the clock on the control panel. “Then I’ll let you go.”
“After you suck me dry,” she finished.
“I’ll try not to. I only have to take a piece of your magic, not all of it.” Noah ran a hand across the steering wheel, distractedly. “My control isn’t so great, though. Like with that girl at the library. I just needed a little. Something to keep me from latching onto Mimi that night—she would’ve caught me, and it would’ve ruined everything. But that other girl? She only had a tiny bit, and I knew she wouldn’t have any idea what happened to her.”
“You drained Carrie?”
Noah’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “It’s not my fault my appetite is so big.”
“I can help you. There’s a way to fill that void. You don’t need to be a siphon.”
“My boss said you’d say that, and she said you can’t help me even though you think you can. But don’t forget, you have a piece of magic curled up in you right now that doesn’t belong to you either. So don’t judge me.”
“Someone gave that to me. I didn’t take it.”
“You have stolen magic before, though, haven’t you?”
“Yes.” Vera’s heart ached at the memory. “But I stopped. You can too.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Noah slammed his hands on the steering wheel and swung around to Vera. “You don’t know what it’s like. You have a tiny void that’s not even all the way awake. Mine’s awake, and it’s grown. You have no idea!”
Vera pressed back against the door. She tried to reach for her seatbelt, but Noah covered it with his hand.
“I’m sorry. It was not supposed to go like this. I didn’t want to scare you.” He leaned his head back against the seat. “Just six more minutes and it will be over.”
“I’ll never let you take my magic.”
Noah gave her a sorrowful look and pulled the chain from his neck. He let the cloak fall to the floor between the seats. “You won’t be able to stop me.”
Vera gaped in horror at his yawning void. She couldn’t believe he’d been able to fight that for so long. “The fact that you have held on this long means you are a strong person. Don’t let this lady you work for turn you into a monster. Let me help you.”
“Maybe if you’d been like this
a few years ago, you could’ve helped me back then. But it’s too late now, after everything I’ve done. So please don’t fight me. It only makes it harder to stay in control. I promise I will do everything I can to just take what I’m supposed to.”
“What do you care?”
“You’re important to me,” he said simply.
Vera’s frustration spiked. “You don’t steal from people who are important to you. And don’t act like you know me. You don’t.”
“Not true. You know, I told my boss there was no way this plan would work. I thought you’d recognize me… I guess I hoped you would, because I’d know you whether you were covered in grime, begging on a corner, or reading a book in the library.”
Vera recalled the times he’d tried to convince her that they knew each other. She looked again for something familiar about him, but she couldn’t see it. She didn’t know him.
“You used to bring me a sandwich or sometimes a plate of leftovers on your way to school. I looked forward to seeing you every day. You were pretty jumpy back then, though. I think a few times you actually tossed a sandwich in my face and ran away.” He laughed gently at the memory, which Vera finally recognized. “I used to wonder what had happened to you, to make you so scared of people. But now, you’re a whole different person. You’re not afraid of anything.”
“You’re the homeless man that used to hang out by our building?” Even knowing who he was, Vera didn’t recognize him.
“Yep. Bad choices.”
“I looked for you. For weeks after Suzie died.”
“I wasn’t the same person anymore after that day.”
“What do you mean?” Vera narrowed her eyes. When he didn’t answer, she yelled, “What do you mean you weren’t the same after that day? Did you do something to her? Did you siphon her? Is that why she fell in front of that car?”
Noah’s eyes hardened. “I didn’t do anything to her. She did this to me. She used to come and tell me things—things that would happen. She was like Lady Luck. If I was where she said to be at a certain time, I’d get food or a warm place to sleep. Then one day she said you were going to die unless I did what she told me. She asked if I wanted that. Of course I didn’t. I was half in love with the girl who tossed me food. You were what made me not give up when it was so cold out that all I wanted to do was fall asleep and never wake up. So, I agreed. Only her instructions turned out to be a list, which she embedded in my head.” Noah tapped his forehead. “It’s stuck in there. Then she funneled all her magic into me just before she stepped out in front of that car.”
“No.” Vera covered her mouth and shook her head. “Suzie wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t make you into this.”
Noah laughed without humor. “Oh, she did. Sometimes I wonder if she dragged you down that alley that first time, with a sandwich, so I’d come to love you. Who knows with what she knew. And the last thing on her list? The last thing I have to do? Take the magic that doesn’t belong to you. In four minutes.”
The world-thread. He’s planning to take the world-thread. “You can’t do that. If you take it, no one will be able to save Earth when the rest of the world finds out.”
“You’ll find a way to save Earth without the thread.”
“Did Suzie tell you I’d find a way?”
“No, but I believe you will. Anyway, Suzie said if I didn’t do this, you’d die.”
“You’re doing this to save me?”
“I’d be lying if I said that was the only reason. Honestly, my boss also said that this would end my siphon’s hunger. I won’t have to hurt people like Carrie anymore. Or befriend annoying people like Eldrid, who can regenerate his touch of magic, just to get a hit once in a while.”
No, no, no, no. “If you take the world-thread and destroy the world, you will be a monster. Don’t do that.”
“You might not believe in you, Vera. But I do. You’ll find a way.”
Vera’s mind buzzed as pieces of the puzzle snapped into place. Suzie had been like a master chess player, who could see the future. She’d had all her moves in place long before she’d died. Except Kuwari only received his prophetic package a year ago. “Is Suzie really dead?”
“Yes.”
Then who poisoned Kale in Summartir? “Did you poison Kale?”
“What? The Guardian? No, I didn’t poison him,” said Noah.
If it wasn’t Noah, then who else is Suzie controlling from beyond the grave? Does she have a whole network of manipulators? Her plans had to be something bigger than just keeping Vera alive. “What was her end game? What did Suzie want to happen?”
“For you to live and fulfill the purpose you were meant for. That’s all.”
Just like the concrete planters outside their old apartment. But what was that purpose as far as Suzie was concerned?
“If she’s not at the union and not on her way back, where is she?” Kale paced the cramped room.
“Maybe they went to the library?” suggested Mimi. “There was a new book Vera wanted to see. Which reminds me, there’s a professor I wanted to talk to you guys about, but we can discuss it later.”
Addamas stepped into a path, and a moment later, he was back. “It’s closed. And locked. No one’s there.”
“She’s a big girl, maybe they went for a drive and stopped to have a little fun along the way,” Mimi tried again.
Kale stopped moving.
“Um, Memes, maybe not the best thought to share with the angry mercenary right now,” said Addamas.
Mimi grabbed her tablet. “Look, she’s fine. Noah is cute, but he’s not muscly. If he tried anything, Vera would hand him his tail.” She scrolled through her photo collection until she found the candid shot of Noah and turned it to Kale. “See?”
“That’s him?” Kale lost the ability to fill his lungs.
“Yeah. Cute, right?”
“You don’t recognize him?” Kale asked Addamas, who leaned closer to the screen and then shook his head. “Because I recognize him. That’s the siphon who created an unnatural army and then knocked me out when I showed up on his doorstep.”
“Shit!” Addamas spun in a frantic circle, hands locked behind his neck while the tablet fell from Mimi’s hands. “I only saw him from the hills and with a hoodie on. Never up close.”
“Get Ferrox,” Kale told Addamas. “Now.”
Addamas vanished.
“Can Ferrox help?” asked Mimi.
“He can link minds with Vera. I should’ve left the tracker on her.”
“You had a tracker on her?” Mimi asked with indignation.
Kale glared.
“Sorry. I’m just freaking out. I cannot lose her.” Mimi twitched, barely reining in her lion. “Let’s get you downstairs. Last thing we need is for someone to get footage of an unnatural charging through the dorm, once your other half gets here.”
“She’ll hang on until we can get to her,” Kale said, to himself and Mimi. “She’ll be okay.”
We’re here. Ferrox let Vera know. Where are you?
She nearly cried with relief. In Noah’s jeep. On the road that leads to the dorm. Hurry. There’s less than a minute left.
Noah watched the numbers of the clock. Vera watched the road. The numbers changed first.
“Keep the rest of your magic tucked away, so I don’t take it by accident,” Noah instructed.
Invisible claws latched onto her as soon as he’d said it. Noah’s assault tore through her, right to her void. Almost immediately, she flew backward into Kale’s arms. He’d pried the jeep’s door from its hinges. The clawing didn’t stop, though. Vera whimpered as the world-thread lifted. She tried to hold onto it, but she was quickly losing the tug-of-war. Noah was going to take the thread—Gage’s thread. Kale seemed to realize what was happening and passed Vera to Mimi. Mimi? Her friend cradled her as easily as Kale had. In a flash, Kale had Noah out of the jeep. As soon as the Siphon Master slammed into the side of the truck, Mimi stumbled.
“No,” cried Noah. Only
he wasn’t looking at Kale or Vera. He was looking at Mimi, whose eyes flew open wide. “I can’t stop it.”
Mimi dropped to her knees, taking Vera with her. The claws inside Vera had found a new target, and not just one. Addamas fell to his knees too. Noah was siphoning them both. Even as Addamas cried out, he dragged himself to Mimi’s side.
“Stop.” Vera’s voice broke.
“I can’t.” Noah hung helplessly as Kale lifted him into the air by the front of his coat. “I can’t.”
Vera tried to intercept the flow of magic and wrestle it from Noah, but she couldn’t even slow it down.
“Kill me,” Noah pleaded with Kale. “That’s the only way to stop it.”
Kale’s face hardened with determination. He wrapped a hand around Noah’s throat. Then he shook his head like he was shaking off a gnat. Noah slid from his hands. Kale wobbled. His equine legs could not hold him up. Terror spread through Vera. The powerful Kale arched his back and roared as Noah’s siphon latched on to the meadow magic threading through his spine. Vera’s siphon hadn’t been able to pull the smallest thread of magic from Kale. Noah’s took it all like it was nothing. Noah scrambled back, clawing at his face.
“I told you not to fight,” Noah wailed. “I told you I couldn’t control it.”
“Take the world-thread,” Vera said. “Take the thread. You’re right, I’ll find another way to keep Earth safe.”
“I can’t, not now. It won’t stop now that it has a taste for that.”
“Then give it a taste of something else.” Vera held up the world-thread, dangling it like a carrot. Noah’s siphon was too busy stripping the meadow magic from Kale to notice. If Noah destroyed the meadow, the world would fall to pieces. Was that what Suzie had intended all along? “Come on. Try this,” Vera called to the siphon. Inside her void, the demas sat up and began to howl with a fury that rivaled hers. Even the timid kargadan railed against the siphon’s theft. The silver twister began to spiral the void, pounding on the doors. The demon, scorpion, and satyr all took up the cry too, a desperate plea for help. The doors rattled.
Emboldened, Vera shoved the entire world-thread at Noah, forcing it down his throat. She’d make his siphon pay attention. Noah choked. Combined with the magics he’d already taken from Kale, Mimi, and Addamas, the world-thread was too much. The threads still attached to Vera’s friends hung in the air. She urged them to flow back to their owners, hoping Noah’s siphon was too distracted to notice. It worked for a minute. Long enough to free Addamas and Mimi, but the meadow magic was too deep. There was too much to steal back without Noah noticing. His siphon clamped down, and then it began to reel the meadow back in. Vera couldn’t hold on to it.
