Fire Magic

by Holly Hook

  But Allunna didn't answer me. Xavier screamed at her to let me go and pulled at my arm, but I held up a hand and he stopped.

  “The ruins are where Normals used to come from all around to worship the most powerful beings in the world,” Allunna continued. “The Dark Council number five and all have survived to the present day. Every hundred years, they meet. The next meeting will be in three days. Why do you want to go there?”

  I said nothing. It was best to give her no information.

  “Anyway,” Allunna said, keeping her grip on my arm tight. “On the slim chance that you survive, once you do whatever you need to, you will resurrect me. Use the ancient library to find the correct rite.”

  “We...we will,” I said, knowing that we'd be in for a fight. We had killed Allunna, after all. Her hand was close to the victory mark on my arm and I was sure she could see it.

  “There is one more thing,” she said before letting go. “If you do not follow your end of the bargain, you and Xavier will die, consumed by flames from within. Well, the flames will kill Xavier, not you, but when he dies, you die. I wish you luck.”

  Chapter Seven

  She let go and sank all the way back into the lava on the other side.

  I yanked my arm back and cradled it. It wasn't painful, just hot. Heat remained and my left wrist felt like a hot pan out of the oven, but when I turned it over again and again, the skin was all intact and pale as ever.

  Except for one thing.

  An orange, sparkling lightning bolt.

  “Alyssa!” Xavier took my hand. “Are you okay? How bad are you burned? I tried to pull you away but I couldn't.”

  “I'm not burned at all,” I said, aware that the black mirror was returning to its normal form. It zoomed out from the lava lake, leaving it a distant speck in a sea of red and orange, and then faded to darkness.

  “Allunna is a Fire Wraith now,” Xavier said. “They always burn you when they touch you. You should have at least second degree burns.”

  “But I don't.”

  Xavier let go of my arm. “It must be whatever Thoreau did to you,” he said. “Alyssa—I think you might be fireproof.”

  “That's impossible,” Mack said. “No vampire is fireproof.”

  “But Alyssa is,” Xavier said. “Didn't you just see that?”

  “I did,” Mack said. Then he stood up in his flowing black robe and eyed me. “Are you sure you know what you are?”

  I shook my head. I wasn't going to bring up one bit of this Dark Pentagram stuff in front of him. That was probably another secret only known by the Dark Council.

  “So we get to journey to the old stomping grounds of this Council,” I said, changing the subject. “What is this Gobekli Tepe place, anyway?”

  Mack shook his head. “I don't know much about archaeology, to tell you the truth. You might have to hit Google to find that out and I don't have a computer.”

  “We'll do that right now,” Xavier said, facing me. “I think there's still enough night left. Come on. Finding a computer won't be that hard.”

  * * * * *

  Finding a computer was hard.

  It was eleven at night by now and nothing was open except for some twenty-four hour cafes. I had the feeling they wouldn't let us walk in and use the manager's computer to look up old ruins. We didn't have laptops or tablets to use anybody's free WiFi anyway. The Cumberland Public Library was way beyond closed and stickers on the windows announced that alarms would sound if anyone tried to break in.

  We stood on the massive stone steps of the dark building. Waiting until daylight would be disaster here.

  “Can we Transpose in?” I asked.

  “We sure can,” Xavier said. “Not in front of traffic, though. I'm not sure it's going to work smoothly. I've never been in the library here and I have to envision the place we're Transposing to. I have a pretty big one at home.”

  “I saw.”

  “Look, it's not my fault my family are hoarders.”

  We walked around to a dark alley and then Xavier stood there, extending his arms to me. “Transposing hug,” he said as we embraced.

  It didn't last long enough. The magenta light flashed around us and we were falling together, the wind screaming against us, and then we landed in darkness. Xavier held me tight like he was sure he was going to lose me and he wouldn't let me go for the first couple of seconds. His heart raced against my chest and he felt strong, like stone, but then I detected that he was shaking.

  “Xavier,” I said. “I'm here. I'm fine.”

  “Oh,” he said, blinking and letting me go.

  I was kind of disappointed. Something was up with him but I didn't have time to ask about it now. We needed to find where this whatever Tepe place was and we had to do it now.

  “Xavier? Are you okay?” I asked.

  “I'm fine,” he snapped.

  “Geez, you don't have to be rude,” I said.

  “I just have a lot going through my head right now,” he said with a sigh. “I'm sorry. I promised to stop being so crappy to you.”

  “You're not crappy to me. Well, most of the time. You've gotten better with the harassment, at least.”

  “It hasn't been easy. You're still pretty hot, especially with those pink pigtails.” He flashed me a legit smile. Whatever had come over him seemed to be gone. He sure had some mood swings.

  “And you were really hot with that longish hair,” I said. “It had better grow back soon.” I took off his leather hat and rubbed my hand through his now-short hair. It was almost feathery, like a bird. I wanted to do it again but if we got caught up in flirting and teasing each other we'd never get any work done.

  “It will,” Xavier said, flushing pink. “It was Janine's idea to cut it.”

  “Well, I'll have to take it up with her and get rid of the pink pigtails. Thoreau knows I have this color now.” I turned to face the library. Cumberland's public library was one of those old ones with multiple levels and long ladders. A pair of stone gargoyles stood at the top of the staircase, one on either side. Inviting. Shelves of books towered over us and the paper scent overtook even Xavier's wood smoke one. I tapped my fake cane on the floor, beckoning Xavier to hurry.

  The library had some computers on the ground floor. Xavier and I shared one, turning it on and waiting for it to boot up. It was a good thing the library's servers were still up, or our search would have ended right there. It took a few minutes but we pulled up the Internet and Googled the ruins. I had to spell it out a few times since I couldn't remember the name, let alone how to pronounce it.

  An image of some circular ruins popped up on the screen. A ring of stones and pillars was partially dug out of the ground in some desert-type area. I caught images of animals carved into the pillars and benches. The ruins were old, all right.

  “Twelve thousand years old?” Xavier asked. “Weren't people still living in caves back then?”

  “I thought so,” I said.

  Allunna had been right that the place was very ancient, even more so than the pyramids of Egypt. This temple had been around thousands of years before that. I could imagine people coming around to worship the scariest Abnormals back when the place wasn't buried. If I were an ancient Dark Council, I'd want to meet underneath there. It probably held a lot of memories and nostalgia for them.

  “It's in Turkey,” I said. “How are we going to get there?”

  “Plane tickets?” Xavier asked.

  “I shouldn't fly,” I said. “A flight that far would probably expose me to the sun no matter what time we left. And expose me, if I survived it.”

  “You're right,” Xavier said. “A flight like that would take about twelve hours at least. We'll need to find another way. There are magical ways to travel but I can't Transpose that far. No War Mage can. Trying would literally kill me.”

  “What magical ways?” I asked. I marked down the coordinates of the ruins. “Do we have to visit any more creepy relatives of Elsina's?”

  “No.
It's much worse. We either have to appeal to the Elder War Mages, who can send us that far with a combined effort, or we have to use a demon's portal.”

  “And I'm willing to bet the Elders won't want to send a couple of kids after the Dark Council,” I said.

  “And I'm willing to bet you're right,” Xavier said, getting up and pushing in his chair. “They might not know that I'm responsible for Leon and if they found out we made a deal with a demon it'll be even worse for us. Even if we tell them we'll have to resurrect Leon they won't cooperate. Heck, none of them really liked him. We really have nothing in our favor.”

  I thought about it. “We don't know how to use demon portals. We might have to risk flying after all. Or can any group of War Mages Transpose someone that far?”

  “Well, any group can probably do it, but it's illegal unless it's done by the Elders. It's also very difficult.”

  “You guys sure have a lot of rules.” I got up and eyed the staircase and shut the computer down. The light vanished and my sharp gray vision snapped into focus.

  “Xavier, get down!”

  I shoved him to the floor just as a very living gargoyle swooped in silence and nearly seized him with its long, razor-sharp claws.

  Chapter Eight

  The gargoyle swept over me as I joined Xavier on the floor. My cane changed to a sword in a blink and I sprang back up, ready to battle.

  Xavier swore as his magic surged through me. My sword blazed to life in magenta flames and the gargoyle reached the other side of the library, landing with grace on top of a bookshelf. It was bigger than me by maybe a factor of two with a wingspan of eight feet. I had never faced a living gargoyle before and it was thought to be a myth that they ever existed, but this had proven that wrong.

  “What the hell?” Xavier shouted, raising one hand. An explosive ball of magic erupted in his palm and he tossed it side to side, ready for battle. “Gargoyles aren't real.”

  “This one is!” I checked behind me to make sure the other one hadn't come to life. It was still being a good stone statue. But the other one was turning on the bookshelf, hissing at us with is distorted face, eyes stony and full of hate. Now I could see. It was still stone. We were fighting a golem that was shaped like a gargoyle. Demons and some mages were supposed to be able to make them. Someone in the library had set them up to deal with people breaking in.

  There was also a portrait of Thoreau on the wall, a very big one right next to the golem that I hadn't noticed before. The library was a trap.

  The gargoyle spread its wings—yeah, they were eight feet—and dove again, claws extended.

  Xavier threw his fireball but it wrapped around the gargoyle. Lightning bolts tried to penetrate its skin, but failed. The magic died and the gargoyle dove at me.

  Xavier didn't have time to shout my name. Its claws gripped my shoulders, tearing into my flesh, lifting me from the floor. The computers and Xavier got smaller as the gargoyle lifted me up...up...towards the skylight. Air blew against me and the creature hissed again. We were going to break through.

  I still had the sword.

  It hurt my shoulders to move with the stone claws gripping me. Despite the pain, I drove the sword straight up into the gargoyle's chest, not expecting it to go through.

  But to my amazement, the still-flaming blade sank into the stone.

  The gargoyle screamed and I let go of the sword. Its claws released and I plummeted two stories.

  Everything seemed to slow down as I fell. Xavier's mouth opened in the moonlight. The scream echoed through the library. Glass shattered from the sound. Slivers fell with me in a rain and Xavier had no choice but to move out of the way.

  I hit the floor.

  A crack sounded as a bone broke. At first there was no pain as glass shards rained around me, shattering and blasting my skin with slivers, but then the agony hit. My leg. It was busted. I was also being cut up alive and Xavier screamed my name. A shadow danced above. The gargoyle golem. It would fall on me and it still had my sword implanted in its chest.

  Xavier wrapped his arm around mine and dragged.

  I was bleeding. My jeans leg was soaked. It was almost as bad as the time one of Thoreau's goons had shot through my back. I tried to help, to get up and walk, but I screamed as bones crunched. I would have to heal.

  “It's falling!” Xavier shouted.

  Then I did manage to get up. My leg tingled as my body struggled to pull bones and muscle together. It still hurt but I grit my teeth and dealt with it. I let Xavier pull me towards the stairwell, right under the other stone gargoyle. We stood against the railing now, between the stairs and another high shelf of books.

  The gargoyle flapped its wings in near silence right below the now-broken skylight. But it flapped in agony. I hadn't imagined stone could feel such a thing.

  My sword was still trapped in its chest, no longer flaming.

  Veins of orange fire spread from the sword, as if it were injecting liquid flames into the golem.

  The gargoyle fell again, then rose higher, its feet clawing and trying to dislodge the sword, but it was too late. The fiery veins spread across its skin, through its body...and into its wings. The creature gave out one final scream, closed its wings in on itself, and fell.

  The deafening thud shook the computers as it narrowly missed and landed on a funeral shroud of busted glass. The gargoyle writhed in anguish. The stench of smoke filled the room.

  “It can't be dying,” Xavier said. “It's stone!”

  The veins turned to ponds, then lakes that spread across the gargoyle's body. At last, the golem looked like a fire wraith for a few seconds, before finally exploding into embers that sank to the floor. The embers cast a bit of light on the area around it and then began to fade.

  My leg was still really, really sore and I was leaning on Xavier. My sword lay there, clean and sharp. It shimmered in the moonlight, begging me to use it again.

  “There that was again,” Xavier said, pulling away from the steps. “The same thing happened to Russell Fox. That is a seriously hot power, Alyssa.”

  I didn't have time to laugh. The cuts across my skin tingled as I healed, but I was weaker now. Hungrier. Xavier still smelled like wood smoke and his scent was overtaking the paper and the regular smoke. I had to have a meal and it had to be soon. Terror overtook me as I realized we were far from the hospital and that breaking into the basement so soon after Trish and I had might be a bad idea. “So what is it? Some kind of fire magic?” Something terrifying had woken inside of me when Thoreau hit me with those flames.

  “I don't know,” Xavier said. “There are no Fire Mages if that's what you're asking.”

  “Why, hello.”

  I grabbed my sword and whirled around on the second gargoyle, which was still.

  Someone else was standing at the top of the stairs. A man. He was an older man in spectacles who must be the library manager or a professor. He had his arms crossed as he studied us and he smelled like Taco Bell. He'd had a burrito for dinner along with a fruit punch. He was as Normal as you got.

  “Oh, crap,” I said.

  After fighting a stone gargoyle golem, a man who might be a professor scared me.

  “Enjoying the free Internet after hours?” he asked in a scary pleasant voice. “That was also quite a display. I've had lots of Abnormals creep in at this time of night. Thankfully, Thoreau's donations keep us open and serving the public so long as I give him my own donations in return. I'm sure you won't mind if I have Thoreau's other golem take you to the ATC.” He ran his hand down the back of the other gargoyle.

  The stone golem blinked.

  I was shaking. Weak. This librarian had watched the whole fight. We had no secrets now.

  “Did you know Thoreau's a demon?” I asked.

  “Of course I know,” the librarian said. He removed his hand from the gargoyle as it slowly spread its wings. “But the general public doesn't need to know that. He will provide for those of us who serve him when his plan comes int
o being.”

  “Do you really believe that?” Xavier asked. “Just because you're Bound to him doesn't mean he's going to be nice to you in the future. He wants to enslave all of us. Right now he's all divide and conquer.”

  “I can back him up,” I said, tightening my grip on my sword. Already Xavier's energy pulsed through me again, providing me a bit more strength, but I wasn't sure I could escape a second gargoyle. My legs felt like rubber. Trish's lectures to take blood from the source swirled through my head. I couldn't bite Xavier. Even if it wasn't what Thoreau wanted it would weaken him for battle.

  I couldn't do it.

  I had to do it.

  The new gargoyle hissed and stood tall on its perch.

  But instead of diving for me, it went for Xavier instead.

  He wasn't ready for that. He threw a second fireball, but it missed and sailed into the bookcases, casting them in purple light. Purple embers rained to the floor and the golem seized Xavier by the shoulders, lifting him.

  “No!” I shouted, swinging my purple flaming sword at its leg.

  It struck, slicing a narrow line into the gargoyle's haunch. The cut glowed with fire but the gargoyle flew on, taking Xavier with it. It rose as my battle partner kicked his legs, seething with pain, and sailed up and through the skylight.

  Chapter Nine

  The creature was taking him away. I was left standing there as the purple fire around my sword died along with the embers on the floor. The librarian stood there, very silent now that I was left alone with him. The gargoyle still rose, struggling with Xavier's weight. It would carry him over the city. I'd never get him back from the ATC if he even got there. The golem's leg still burned. It might die in midair and drop him. If Xavier didn't have the strength left to Transpose to the ground or get out of the creature's grasp--

  Xavier yelled my name. He was still just above. Any second the gargoyle would take off.

  There was no way around it. I knew what I needed to do to follow. I was too weak to run after the creature.