Fire Magic

by Holly Hook

  “But The Pit is dangerous,” Liliana said. “You might get killed down there.”

  “Go home,” Xavier ordered her. “Alyssa and I have to go. You saw what the Elders want to do. All the Abnormals in the city are trapped until we get this taken care of and we're the only ones who will.”

  “Aunt Primrose will kill me.”

  “Tell her that I forced you to go with us,” Xavier said. “Heck, tell her you're mad at me and she'll like you better. It was me and Alyssa who interrupted the meeting.”

  “I did it,” I said. “The two of you were going to stop me. Let them be angry at me.” A thirteen year old girl had no business going on this mission with us.

  Liliana sighed and looked a lot younger as she stood from the chair. “Fine. I'll Transpose home but I'm not going to let you forget about this.”

  In the end, I walked her back to the women's bathroom and closed a stall door behind her and gave her the all clear when the place was empty. It took her a while—a very long while—to get the magenta column of fire to fill the stall she was in and take her away. Liliana had obviously not practiced as much as Xavier. It was no wonder Xavier had to do all the work back in the sewer.

  At least Liliana would be safer at home. I couldn't imagine the Elders wanting to roast Liliana. If Xavier and I died on this mission she would be the only one left to carry on the family line.

  “She's gone,” I said, exiting the bathroom with the plastic bat in hand. “She won't try to Transpose to The Pit, will she?”

  “I don't think she will,” Xavier said. “My kid sister is annoying, but I don't think she'd risk her life to get to me.”

  “I wish I had a sister,” I said. “My parents couldn't have any more kids after Dad got bit.”

  “That happens,” Xavier said. “Hey—thanks for not laughing when Liliana tried to humiliate me.”

  Liliana hadn't even given Xavier a hug or showed him any affection when she knew we were going on a dangerous mission. I hoped she wouldn't regret that choice. “There was nothing to laugh about,” I said. “I like My Little Pony.” I told Xavier about my collection at home.

  “So you like My Little Pony and swords,” he said. “That's awesome. My old battle partner didn't like my interest in superheroes. She told me I was too old for it.”

  “That's not cool,” I said. Was I winning some points here?

  But Xavier winced like something was hurting him. He was going into one of his moods again.

  “Xavier,” I said. “What's wrong?”

  “Nothing,” he said, pain overtaking his features. “We need to get rid of those pigtails. By time we're done, The Pit should be opening. It only runs at night from what I've heard.”

  “Can't wait to go there.” My stomach rumbled again. Something was seriously wrong with Xavier. Every time we mentioned his past or his old battle partner, he fell into this despair. It wasn't like he could go to therapy for this, unless there was some Abnormal who specialized in these things. People like us couldn't just walk in and ask for help with our problems.

  The dark cloud remained even when we walked into a salon where people were leaned back in leather chairs, having their hair cut and their eyebrows threaded. We had to wait about half an hour for our turn and I told the ladies that I wanted the pink gone.

  It took way longer than I thought, them running the chemicals through my hair, and Xavier waited outside the salon the whole time on one of those massage chairs. He wasn't using it and paying attention to any of the foot traffic outside, which was thickening as people flooded in from after work and school. My battle partner was lost. I almost wondered if I would have to stop having conversations with him. Every time I started to get close, this happened. It was frustrating and I had no idea why I couldn't just get to know Xavier. Going any further than just knowing him seemed like it was so far away, like on another planet. I really liked Xavier. He was a cool guy and he was so hot at the same time. We got along on so many levels and had so much in common, more than I thought possible.

  Maybe I really did need to bite him to tear down this wall. That could be part of it.

  Thoreau wanted that. It would take me one step closer to being the key to end the world.

  In the end, it took an hour to get the pink out of my hair. The woman re-dyed it black and made a bunch of small talk with me, about what school I went to. We talked about exams and teachers (it turned out she had also gone to Cumberland High) while I spent the whole time talking with my mouth mostly shut since my teeth had come back full force and I hadn't had the chance to file them. It felt so strange having them there and I felt more self-conscious than ever.

  Plus they made me think about what I had done in the library...

  By time the woman was done with me, my hair was damp, straight, and jet-black. The color was close to what it had been naturally and it was good enough. I checked in the mirror to make sure my contacts were still in. Check.

  By time I left the salon and paid with Xavier's money, he had cheered up a bit. I was glad to see him back. I would have to be careful with him from now on. I couldn't have him going into despair in the middle of a fight and I hated to see him suffer like that.

  “I guess we're off to The Pit,” I said. “Should we hold hands and skip there?”

  It was a joke and it shocked me when Xavier reached out and held mine. “Sure. Let's do that.”

  So we skipped through the mall, ridiculous baseball bat in hand. We weren't holding hands just to Transpose or flee this time. This time we were holding hands. There was a difference here. I wished this wouldn't end, but we left the mall in just a few short minutes and walked out into the deepening night.

  Xavier let go as soon as we reached the parking lot.

  “I know where we are,” Xavier said. “This is Cumberland's North Mall. We're halfway to The Pit. We can catch a bus the rest of the way there now that the pink pigtails are gone.”

  “Good idea,” I said, disappointed. It was as if he couldn't decide if he liked me or not. Something was seriously up with that.

  It was no problem paying for a bus. By now, the evening light was very pale and orange on the horizon and the streetlights had all come on. The bus ride seemed to take forever, mainly because Xavier and I didn't talk on the entire way there. It was a roller coaster ride between us and it was really getting in the way.

  By time we passed Mack's junkyard, the glamoured sword started to feel tingly in my hands. Xavier was getting his magic ready. “I'm sorry we couldn't Transpose,” he said. “I didn't want to drain myself again. I'm still digesting my food and getting some of that energy in my cells.”

  I dug down for the blood amulet in my pocket. The red stone shined in the light of the bus. I couldn't believe it was made from something that had come from a battle injury. “You should have this,” I said, handing it to Xavier. “I trust it with you.”

  He took the amulet, closing his fist around it before it could float and point at me. “This might be a good idea,” he said. “We don't know what's going to happen in The Pit.”

  “Fights?” I asked.

  “You're always looking forward to fights,” Xavier said.

  “Well, I have to or I'll kill people.” I kept my voice low enough to hide it from the others on the bus. There was a man in a suit reading a paper and another one in the back, snoring and leaning against the window. The bus wasn't crowded.

  “I like that you enjoy fights,” Xavier said.

  I would have flushed if I could. I didn't even know what flushing felt like. I just never did it. Even though I'd keep aging until I hit my early twenties, my blood vessels didn't respond the same way a Normal's would. I didn't understand how it worked, but at that moment I was thankful for it.

  Mack's junkyard faded behind us. I searched around for any sign of him but he had already retreated to his hut. “I wonder what Mack's going to want out of us,” I said.

  “It won't be good,” Xavier said. “And if it is good, it won't be easy.”r />
  The bus stopped three corners from the junkyard. Xavier and I got off. By that time, he seemed to have returned to full strength. I could feel it flowing through me. If I needed to share his magic in that moment, I could have.

  “Where's The Pit?” I asked once a tired-looking woman got on at the stop we had just disembarked on. The bus rolled away, leaving us at the now-empty booth. This was a quiet, creepy and run down part of town.

  “From what I've heard, there's some stairs that look like they go down underneath an abandoned apartment building and they lead to some double doors. We're just going to have to look around.”

  “And then what?” I had never been to an Abnormal night club before, least of all one that was supposed to be run by a half-demon.

  “We knock,” Xavier said, “and hope for the best. If we're lucky, lots of other Abnormals will be there tonight, hiding out from the authorities.”

  “What if demons are there?” I asked as we left the booth.

  “There could be,” he said. “It's not a hangout for Abnormals like Seer Mages and pixies. We might pass. Well, you. And if they serve, um, something you can have there, you might want to take it.”

  “I'm sure a place like that does,” I said, horrified at the way Xavier was talking. I still wondered if he knew about the librarian. I wanted to keep stuff like that off screen as much as I could. “Where would they get it, though?”

  “From Normals,” Xavier said, facing me. “Chances are, the donors wouldn't be as willing as the ones we're used to in the Underground. It won't be like Thorne. The best case would be if they're Normals who are trying to become like you.”

  “It doesn't work that way,” I said. “You have to have the rare gene or you don't turn when you get bitten.”

  “Some people don't want to believe that.”

  I knew all about that. A lot of Normals thought it was a choice to turn if you got bitten and the ones like Hannah were proving it wrong all the time, and why did everyone who got bit by a werewolf turn, anyway? That was another one that blew the whole stupid theory out of the water.

  Xavier and I searched around for a long time, walking around creepy old apartment buildings, but none of them had stairways leading to any basements. I smelled the air and caught faint whiffs of werewolf, but the wind was blowing in every direction tonight, making it hard to pin down where it was coming from. “There are definitely other Abnormals around here,” I said. “The Pit must be shielded pretty well because I can't hear any music.”

  “Maybe there are wards around it,” Xavier said. “I heard that you need to be recommended by someone who goes there in order to get in. It could just be a theory, though.”

  “Then how are we going to do that?” I asked.

  Something was moving in the shadows up ahead. There was a very dark alley that branched off from the end of this street, so dark no human could see down it, and two figures were walking away from us with silence that definitely wasn't Normal. My gray vision snapped into place and I saw that a man and woman were both heading down a set of stairs. The woman was dressed in a black robe—a possible Dark Mage. The man had scales on the back of his neck. An incubus.

  “We wing it,” Xavier said. “Wait. Do you see something?”

  “I think we found it,” I said, pointing to the alley. The people vanished down the steps and didn't come back up. “I just saw a couple of patrons heading in.”

  “I wouldn't have thought to look over there,” Xavier said.

  I could see why. The building The Pit was under wasn't an old, abandoned apartment like Xavier had heard. It was actually a place called B's Market and Produce that smelled like veggies and fruit. The place was closed and a sign on the front door read that it was only open a few days a week. Bananas and lettuce heads sat behind the window. Underneath where Normals shopped in the hopes of being healthy was The Pit.

  “Does 'B' stand for Beatrix?” I asked. “A half-demon runs a farmers' market?”

  “You'd be shocked,” Xavier said. “We met a banshee that ran a lingerie shop. We might as well see where that goes.”

  The fake plastic bat tingled in my grasp. I shook it out and it took the appearance of Thorne's very sharp blade. Xavier snapped his gaze to it, then up to me. “Not yet,” he said. “If we can settle this in peace, that would be great.”

  “What are the chances of that?” I asked.

  “I don't know. Maybe one or two percent? Beatrix is a crime boss.”

  “And if we do settle this without spilling blood? Do we each get another one of these?” I held up my wrist with the fire symbol on it. “I don't think we should be taking on any more of these potentially deadly deals.” I was so not looking forward to bringing Leon back from the dead. I guessed that the chances of his forgiving us also sat at one or two percent.

  Allunna would be coming back, too. Xavier had killed her. Therefore, we would be enemies for eternity.

  “I'm not sure about that either,” Xavier said as we entered the very quiet and creepy alley. “This is our only option for getting to the ruins. Only a demon's blood can open portals.”

  I remembered the portal I'd seen on the top of the ATC building before the Shadow Wraiths had caught up with us, the pool of water. I had no clue how to get one of those to work but if we wanted any chance of saving our families, we would have to learn. “Xavier,” I said as a thought hit me. “Could we use the portal in The Pit to get to the Infernal Dimension?”

  “We could,” he said. Then he spoke like he only just realized it. “We could. The one here might not come out in the part of the Infernal Dimension that we want. It could drop us on the other side of the Infernal world for all we know. I think only Thoreau's portal will come out near where our parents are. Surviving there long enough to find anybody might not be possible. You saw what the Infernal looks like.”

  “So it's too risky.”

  “Once we're in,” Xavier said, “only a demon can let us out. At least, that's the legend.”

  “So it really is too dangerous to try.” My hope deflated like a week old balloon. My father was still in there, sleeping, and the portal to him was close but so far away. I turned around and eyed the top of the ATC building again. I couldn't see the logo from here, but the tower rose tall into the night, blocking out the stars.

  Xavier was right that the stairs led down to a set of closed metal doors nestled under the market. We walked down and I eyed the top of the doors, searching for a camera. Nothing. The place felt dead like there was nothing here. No Normal would pause here for a second.

  “Let me see your sword,” Xavier said. “Ready for Hello Kitty again? We don't want to walk in with weapons drawn.”

  I handed him the sword and he ran his finger down the blunt side, muttering again, and my cane with its Hello Kitty tape appeared in all its glory. It felt so much better than carrying around the bat. He handed it back to me.

  Xavier raised his fist and knocked. There was nothing for several seconds and then he tried again. We waited and waited. Then he cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled. “Hey! Is this The Pit? We need a place to hide for the night.”

  At last, the air got warm and tingly. A flash of bright blue appeared above the doors and I jumped back, ready to raise the cane, but then I realized that it was a glowing, ghostly eye that looked like it belonged to the world's largest cat. Bigger than a baseball, it trained its slit pupil down on Xavier and then on me. I remembered that blue was Seer magic. I hadn't expected to find this here.

  “Hello?” Xavier asked the eye if this were normal. “My name is Xavier Lovelli. War Mage. This is my battle partner, Alyssa. We need to hide for the night. The authorities are after us.”

  The eye looked at us in turn again. I wasn't sure what to do so I waved. There had to be someone on the other side of this surveillance system, watching.

  The ghostly eye blinked and vanished, leaving us standing there for several seconds and then a full minute.

  “Well, that was worth a t
ry,” Xavier said in a low voice. “We might have to break the door down next.”

  But right as Xavier closed his fist to summon his magic, one of the double doors opened.

  “What is a Lovelli doing here?” a gruff voice asked.

  There was a very short man, so short he only came up to my chest, standing there with tan skin and greenish hair. He was wearing a black T-shirt that read The Pit, Staff across the front. I had seen men like them down in the Underground and I wasn't sure what they actually were. I guessed he was some sort of fae, a dwarf maybe. I hadn't studied them too much in school mostly because teachers didn't like talking about Abnormal society.

  “I need asylum for the night,” Xavier said. “I made my family angry again.”

  That seemed to get the dwarf to let down his guard. “So you're the rebel Lovelli,” he said with a grin. “It runs in the family, doesn't it?” His teeth were very blunt and greenish like his hair. He smelled like earth and compost to me. “What did you do now?”

  “I interrupted an Elder meeting,” he said with pride.

  “I did that,” I said. “You tried to stop me.”

  The dwarf turned his gaze to me. “That takes some guts,” he said. “But you still cannot enter The Pit unless you are recommended by a member here.”

  I had to go on a guess here. “Mack recommended that we come here,” I said. “Is he around?” I hoped he wasn't as much of a hermit as I thought. This seemed like a place where a Dark Mage would want to hang out. I already smelled wood smoke, dinner-infused blood and other scents wafting out of the place. Faint techno music met my ears.

  “Oh. Mack!” the dwarf said. “Let me go and ask him.” He closed the door and whatever cloaking wards there were must have gone back up because I couldn't hear his footsteps or the music anymore. It was almost like The Pit was in another world and this was the gate.