by Holly Hook
At last we reached the bottom of the staircase. The cave stretched out in front of us to a chamber with a very large, circular pool of water at the end. There were skulls around the pool, all with candles sticking out of them that spat with blue flames. They were human skulls, wolf skulls, skulls with fangs...I had the feeling we were staring at the remains of Beatrix's victims. Our skulls might join the party unless we got this working.
“Dip your sword in that water,” Xavier said, running to the pool around me. “I can't hold up the wall much longer. It's draining me.”
I ran over and dunked the blade of the sword into the water.
The black demon blood washed off and spread across the surface of the water like expanding ink, snaking its way through the entire blue pool. I watched as the blackness spread, turning the pool into something that looked like Mack's black mirror. The blue flames of the skull lights reflected off it perfectly, giving me the feeling that we were staring into a mirror world.
“It's working,” I said.
“Now what?” Xavier asked.
“You're asking me?”
Neither one of us had used a portal before. “Take us to Gobli Tepe,” I ordered.
Nothing. The pool remained as black as ever. The energy in the room was intense, making my skin tingle.
“Did you pronounce that right?” Xavier asked.
I repeated the command and then Xavier tried. Still nothing. We were going to die.
Xavier grimaced. “I can't hold the wall anymore.”
I knew when the wall died, because the sounds of the Abnormals upstairs echoed down and feet thundered on the steps.
“Screw this,” I said, stepping forward. “Just take us to Turkey! Can you understand that?”
The water rippled and the energy in the room reached a new height. Buildings appeared on the other side of the water, including a spire that jutted into the sky. It was good enough. It wasn't here. I grabbed Xavier's hand and the shouts behind us got louder, along with growls and hisses.
We jumped, slid into water colder than I could imagine, and then we fell through nothingness.
Chapter Fourteen
My skin burned and I knew why right away.
Xavier and I still held hands in the middle of a city street, complete with moving cars and traffic signals and the sun was out in full force. We had jumped into a new time zone.
“Xavier!” I shouted, letting my weapon scrape the concrete on the street.
“Come on!” he yelled, pulling on my arm.
I could barely keep my eyes open. My head exploded in pain and I knew that if I was out here for more than a few minutes, a seizure would result. The air smelled of people and a variety of meals, some I couldn't identify. Xavier and I brushed past a man and woman—I caught only their shoes and the bottom of a dress—before he pulled me up some marble stairs and into the relieving coolness of a building. I blinked the agonizing light out of my eyes and caught my breath.
“I didn't think about that,” Xavier said.
“Neither did I,” I told him. The pain in my skull abated a little, allowing me to open my eyes all the way. The floor here was tile and polished and low voices filled the chamber, echoing off the ceiling above. I caught glimpses of people—mostly adults, but some children and families as well—in line in front of a ticket booth. A Normal lady in a maroon head scarf was taking payments and waving people through to a hallway lined with paintings. I had the feeling we were in the entryway to a museum. The glass doors we had come through were closed, letting in a beam of sunlight onto the sparkling floor.
We were definitely not in Cumberland anymore.
“Just sit here,” Xavier said, motioning to a bench against the wall that was well out of the sun. “We need to figure out what we're going to do about this.”
I did. One of the children in line stared at Xavier's leather coat and then, my sword. “Um,” I said, tapping it on the floor.
“Oh,” he said. “I forgot about that when we were about to get killed.” He took my weapon, putting himself between it and the crowd, and did his glamour work again. Hello Kitty tape appeared, wrapped around the fake cane. He handed it to me and I let the cane lean against the bench. I really did look disabled from the slumped way I was sitting.
The boy turned around and tugged on another boy's shirt, but by then there was nothing to hide. “Thanks,” I muttered. I still felt terrible but it was slowly getting better, minute by minute. “I hate being like this.” These people didn't know what kind of freedom they had.
Xavier sat down next to me. “I know you do.”
We watched more people come in, some of them obviously tourists, to stand in line for the museum. We must be in Turkey somewhere, in one of the bigger cities. The portal might have even dumped us in the capital. Maybe that was the default whenever you told it to take you to a certain country. At least we hadn't landed in some open field with no shelter. I would be having seizures by now.
“So how do we get home?” I asked.
“That might be a problem,” Xavier said. “We might have to fly.”
“And will Beatrix follow us?” I asked.
“If she could, she would have by now,” he said. “The portal must have closed after we fell through. I told her we were going after some ruins, but I didn't tell her which ones. Did I?”
“I don't remember. You did tell her we were going after the Dark Council.”
“Let's hope she doesn't try to figure out where they meet.”
“Her demon father was even afraid of them,” I said. “She might not want to go there. Maybe she'll be happy with the thought of us getting killed on the way.”
Xavier stood up. “I need to figure out exactly where we are,” he said, looking outside. The sound of buses, mopeds and foot traffic filled the air. “It's noon here,” he said. “I don't know if this city has a subway we can use or if they'll take my money. I don't know how to glamour money—just weapons. We'd need Euros or something, right?”
“I'm not sure.” I had never gone overseas before or even out of the country.
“I can always try,” Xavier said, reaching into his leather pocket. “I don't know what a euro looks like.”
“We can find out,” I said.
We were in a bind. I couldn't step outside like this. Something like that ticket seller's head scarf might help a little, along with sunglasses, another blanket, and maybe--
“Your hat and coat,” I said in a low voice.
“What about it?” Xavier asked.
“It might buy me some time if we have to go outside. I might be able to stand being out for a few minutes instead of a few seconds.” I stared down at my bare arms. I hadn't thought we would be going out into daylight. I already didn't feel very good just sitting in here and I wouldn't feel great until we either got further from the front entrance or I covered up more. The sun was streaming in through the glass doors and even though it wasn't hitting me, I knew it was reflecting off the tile and filling the room in a weaker form.
Xavier slipped off his coat and hat, leaving him exposed in a white T-shirt and black jeans. I put them on. They felt strange since the leather coat hung down to my feet and the hat blocked out everything above me. How did Xavier walk around like this all the time?
“Sorry,” I said, but I was already feeling somewhat better except for the fact that my stomach was growling again. I had burned down some energy healing from the latest fight. I would have to find food in a strange city.
“Don't be sorry,” Xavier said. “I'm more than happy to lend you my coat. Really. Any time. I would have done this for you the first time we had to be out in the day, but I didn't have my coat at the time which made it hard.”
That was when Leon had tried to roast Xavier. “Now what?” I asked.
“Well, we can walk around the museum. We might get a sense of where we are. Besides, it looks like that woman is used to dealing with tourists. We'll probably get change in whatever Turkey uses for money. That'll help us.”
It sounded like a good idea. We had survived almost twenty minutes on this bench and Beatrix still hadn't come after us. We needed to kill time before we went back out into the city. Even with this protection, full noon sun would be hard to deal with. It would be better the closer it got to evening.
Xavier was right about the change. He got some colorful bills back from the museum fee. I wasn't sure what the currency was but I didn't think they were Euros. We filed through the museum, which turned out to be a historical one. We were in luck and since the museum seemed to be showing history in chronological order, it didn't take us long to come across a model of Gobekli Tepe behind some glass.
I had pronounced it wrong at the portal. I wanted to slap myself.
“That's it,” I said, tapping the glass. I couldn't read the words on the stand next to the display, but there was a small map of Turkey with a dot at the ruins' location.
“Let me see,” Xavier said, checking out the print. “I think this is the name of the town that it's near,” he continued as another Normal family brushed past us. He pointed to a word that started with an S on the information booth.
“San...san...I can't pronounce any of these words,” I said. “I think that's what screwed us up at the portal.”
The ruins looked small and insignificant behind the glass, but when I looked closer, I saw that there were other excavation sites and that there were a lot of stone rings made of T-shaped pillars. The ruins were larger than I'd thought. It was no wonder the most powerful Abnormals liked to meet there back in the day.
“We need a way to get there,” Xavier said. “I'm guessing we might be in a large city. The capital, maybe. If that's true, we'll have to travel across the entire country.”
“A cab?” I asked.
“I need someone we can talk to,” Xavier said. “I only know two languages. This one, and the old magical one that we don't name.”
“But even if we talk to some tourists who can understand us, will they give two strange people a ride?” I asked.
“Good question. We didn't plan our trip very well.”
Xavier and I hung out by the exhibit for what felt like a long time, watching people pass. Most were speaking languages that I didn't recognize and even the few I could understand hurried past us as if they sensed something off. Food smells filled the air and my stomach rumbled again. We were having so many problems.
“Are you sure you can't Transpose that far? It's a lot closer than across the world now.”
Xavier leaned closer to the glass. “I'm seriously thinking about it.”
“Don't do it if it's going to hurt you.”
Xavier's gaze shifted over the little ruins behind the glass. I knew what he was doing. He was memorizing how the place looked. He was really thinking about trying it. “We might be close enough,” he said. “I've heard of War Mages Transposing from city to city, but I'm going to need another big meal first.”
I gulped. “I'm not doing well, either.”
“We'll find you food,” Xavier said. “I was hoping you could have something at the club, but that didn't work out so well.”
We filed through the rest of the museum and by the time we came back around to the main lobby, the light outside had changed but hadn't gone in. We had stayed in here until mid-afternoon. Xavier slipped his hand into mine. “Do you think you can walk around for a little bit out there?” he asked.
“Maybe a little bit.” I felt like the coat would be almost as good as the Migraine Blanket but I wasn't sure how the Normals in Turkey would react to Abnormals. It was a bit different in each country, but some were harder than others. Nowhere were Abnormals completely accepted.
Xavier and I stepped out into the sun. My hand burned but Xavier made his best effort to cover my skin with his own, larger hand and it helped. The coat kept the vast majority of the sun off. My face burned a bit and I had to squint as I walked, but the brimmed hat was really helping with that area, too. Why hadn't I tried this sooner?
The coat was also infused with Xavier's scent. The wood smoke and a hint of something more exotic was overpowering now. My stomach rumbled, louder this time. This was getting dangerous.
“I think we're in Istanbul,” Xavier said. “I'm seeing the word written all over the cabs here.”
“That's the farthest we can be from the ruins,” I muttered.
We walked for several minutes and Xavier pulled us into a restaurant. I might guide Xavier at night, but it was his turn to guide me during the day.
Food smells overtook his scent and I breathed a silent sigh of relief. We found a booth and Xavier ordered us a random dish that he pointed at on the menu. “We need to look like we're sharing,” he said.
The dish turned out to be lamb and Xavier wolfed it down in anticipation of what we'd have to do. I could sense his nerves. He had never attempted a jump this far before. I pretended to take some bites. The restaurant was crowded. I didn't know who was watching.
“You smell nervous,” I said.
“I am nervous,” he admitted. “I've never tried to Transpose over several hundred miles before.”
“What's your record?” I asked.
“Um...thirty-five miles?”
I let my face fall to my hand. “We're doomed. Maybe we should figure out how transportation works here after all.”
“That might be even riskier,” Xavier said.
“Why?”
He leaned close. “You have that hat on so you can't see what kinds of stares we're already getting.”
I took the hat off and the daylight diffusing through the restaurant made me squint. We were dressed differently than the locals who were in here and to top it off, I was wearing a guys' jacket that conveniently shielded me from the sun. We were also in the booth furthest from the windows, in the darkest part of the restaurant.
A man in a business suit went back to his meal when he caught me looking. Xavier was right that people were wondering at the very least. This was like Cumberland and the rest of the world. I'd been hoping for a break but we weren't going to catch any.
We finished and Xavier left a colorful bill on the table to tip the waiter. “I hope that's a good enough tip,” he said.
“I'm sure it's fine,” I said, slipping the hat back on. “Should we Transpose now?”
We stepped back out in the fresh air. I was hungrier than ever. I looked back inside the restaurant to find the waiter picking up his tip and turning it over and over again in disbelief. His jaw fell open.
“Not in the street,” Xavier said. “I don't want to bother people or freak them out. I'm also not sure where we're going to land. The ruins don't have any shade.”
“I'm doing fine,” I said. “My hand's just on fire. You might need to hold it again.”
“No problem.”
Tingles raced through me as he did. An airplane sounded overhead. I'd been hearing them since we got here and they'd faded to background noise, but this one was close. We were near an airport.
Xavier squeezed my hand. Here he was again, sending me the green light that we could be more than battle partners. Without his jacket hiding him, Xavier was perfect in every way. His body...his hair...everything was so evenly matched up that I swore he had to be a character in an animated movie come to life. He was the hero for sure.
We walked, searching for a quiet alley, but this city was very busy and some parts reminded me of Xavier's underground district. The cars around us became classier and the buses were a bit further apart. The scents surrounded me like always.
Until one stood out.
A stretch limo approached from the direction of the airport. It was black with tinted windows that even I could not see inside of.
“Xavier...” I managed.
The scent that hit me was so strong and terrifying that I stopped right in the middle of the sidewalk. If an entire field of oil were lit and left to burn, this was what it would smell like. The stench was so horrific that I had to reach up and cover my nose. The limo r
olled past, carrying the horrible scent with it.
“What's wrong?” he asked.
“Someone forgot to put on deodorant?” I asked. “Something really, really bad just passed us, Xavier. You didn't smell that?”
He sniffed. “Human nose,” he said, moving to the side to let three older women pass.
I turned and watched the limo roll further away. I uncovered my nose and the smell faded, little by little. “You're lucky. It was coming from that car.”
“The limo?” he asked. “I can't see inside of it. What did it smell like?”
The car continued on and turned a corner. “Like burning oil,” I said. “It wasn't a demon smell. This was something I've never come across.”
“Well,” Xavier said. “It might be someone going to the big Dark Council hundred year party. Maybe they came from the airport. We'd better get there before they stink up the place.”
“We don't know that,” I said, shuddering at the thought of what might have been in that limo.
“Well, that car was coming from the direction that all the planes are landing in,” Xavier said. “The thing is, I can't think of any creatures even werewolves say smell like that.”
“I hope you're not right about them going where we're going,” I said. “Whatever that was, I pray we do not run into it.”
Chapter Fifteen
We didn't encounter any more burning oil smells on our walk through the city and I spent the rest of the time holding a mild headache back, but Xavier did say he spotted an alley up ahead that looked quiet.
It turned out to be another narrow street, one with apartments overhead that also reminded me of the underground War Mage district. Flowers hung over us and he looked to make sure no one was watching.
“I don't smell anyone nearby,” I said, watching the traffic that was going past out on the main street. “I think we're good. Are you sure you can do this?”
He grinned and released my hand. “The worst case is that we end up in the women's restroom again. I hope.”
“You might be really drained when we get to our destination,” I said.
