by Zile Elliven
“You are planning on explaining these cryptic statements at some point, right?”
“The moment your soldier boy lets you up for air, you come find me, and I’ll explain it all.” Marshall said, with laughter in his eyes.
Aeyli’s felt her cheeks go red, but she didn’t protest. She already knew what she wanted. She just hoped it was what Fourteen wanted too.
Gripping Aeyli’s hand tightly, Marshall asked, “Ready?”
At her affirmative, he squared his shoulders and strode toward the battling figures on the moor. The wind picked up the moment they stepped forward. Soon Aeyli was holding on to Marshall, not just to support him magically, but to keep from getting blown away. He pulled her in close to his side and arranged it so he had one arm around her while holding tight to her with his other hand.
She burrowed into his warmth and focused all her attention on keeping her magic from invading his. It was only slightly less exhausting than pulling it back, so it wasn’t long before Marshall was supporting most of her weight again. He was even taller than Fourteen and didn’t seem to notice the added weight.
In fact, he didn’t seem to notice her at all. Instead, his attention was completely focused on the tall, gangly man throwing fistfuls of raw magic at a creature that appeared to be made up entirely of rock. Random flashes from the battle illuminated Marshall’s now-expressionless face. Aeyli felt a pull at her magic, and she fought hard to keep from spilling herself into Marshall’s essence.
They were right at the base of the tree now, standing next to the memory image of Marshall lying prone on the ground. Marshall’s father was only yards away chipping away at the demon, piece by piece.
Marshall bent down to touch the yellow shield covering his memory-self, keeping Aeyli tucked up against his body. She felt his body shake and saw tears falling down his face.
“Just take it off,” he whispered. Then he stood, dragging Aeyli with him, and turned toward the battle that was nearly on top of them. “Da, take it off!” he shouted brokenly.
A massive shard from the monster cracked off and crashed through the area they were standing, leaving them unscathed, but taking out the tree above memory-Marshall. The shield over him flared as it absorbed the impact.
A massive pull on her magic had Aeyli disoriented. After a moment, she felt like the scene had shifted, but she couldn’t place how. Then she shouted, “Take it off!” with a voice that was not her own.
An internal check showed her that, not only was her magic bleeding into Marshall’s, but the two were so entwined there was almost no pink or blue anymore, just a blazing purple that seemed endless.
Grief and guilt swelled in her heart with an intensity that overwhelmed her. She wanted to curl up in a ball and die. There was no point to her being there. What use was she/he to anyone? What good was magic if it couldn’t protect the ones he loved? The world would be a better place if he/she weren’t in it. Surely his loved ones would be safer if they weren’t constantly needing to sacrifice themselves for him.
Aeyli was lost. She couldn’t tell what thoughts and emotions were hers and what were Marshall’s. All she could feel was pain. And around the edges of the pain was . . . joy?
She had to fight through pain, anguish, and the unbearable weight of existence to reach it, but once she did, she inspected the joy and found it laced with white, cancerous evil. Camped right on the edge of the field was a familiar, monstrous presence.
Sekt.
The demon was feeding off Marshall’s pain with the joy of a child at Christmas time.
Grief-guilt-self-loathing. It pulled her back in, but now she knew what she was facing—this time she fought her way free faster. She couldn’t allow this to happen to Marshall. She had been marinating in his soul, and the core of it was filled with such kindness and gentleness that what was happening to him made her want to cry. There was nothing this man had done to deserve being literally eaten alive by guilt.
What could she do? All she had was herself, and that wasn’t worth much in a fight like this. Maybe Marshall had something more offensive at his disposal, but he was trapped in despair and didn’t seem likely to come to the rescue right now . . . Did she dare use Marshall’s power? Or would it be like the cemetery all over again? Overthinking this right now was going to get people killed. She searched for the endless wellspring of purple she shared with Marshall, and—inspired by his father—grabbed a handful, and threw it at the demon.
The demon’s joy turned to a rage that quickly ate through the power she’d thrown. Left with no other option, she grabbed another handful of the shimmering purple magic and threw it. Sekt roared angrily, and the purple melted away like a snowball in a fire.
She was only irritating Sekt with her actions, and that wasn’t going to get her out of here. Angrily, she switched tactics. Reaching inside once more, she pulled on their magic, but instead of breaking off a chunk, she pulled on it and kept pulling, treating it like taffy. Once she thought she had enough, she threw it at the demon like a lasso.
Rather than tying it up, once the rope reached Sekt, the magic shimmered out like a purple blanket and covered the demon, surrounding it and trapping it and continuing to pump what seemed like an endless supply of magic onto the thing.
“That’s one way to do it,” their voice said, and she realized it was Marshall. The thought sent her tumbling back inside her own body, but she could still feel Marshall’s grief like it was her own. “But unless I can get him out of me, he’ll keep feeding until we die.”
A wave of guilt nearly sucked her back into Marshall’s body, but she managed to hold onto herself. “No more of that, mister,” she snapped. “You didn’t do this. None of what I’ve seen here has been your fault.
The scene switched to the gutted house in suburbia. “This was my fault. If I had been stronger . . .”
“Stop it,” she said impatiently as guilt tried to suck her in again. Then, feeling like she kicked a puppy, she tried again more gently. “Did you tell whatever these things are to come attack you?”
“There’s more to it than that,” Marshall began wearily.
“It doesn’t matter. I can already tell from our connection that you didn’t cause any of this.”
Aeyli looked for any part of her soul that still had pink in it. Even a scrap would do.
At first it seemed fruitless, but eventually she saw a small bit around the edges of the mass that was currently Marshall and Aeyli. This gave her hope she might also find a small bit of Marshall left over. She had no reason to think this could work, but her gut told her to try it.
Feeding a small line of her pink toward his spot of blue, she imagined it with a protective shield around it, much like what Marshall’s father had put over him. Only with this shield, she imagined it to be slightly porous. Carefully, she wrapped her shielded magic around Marshall’s.
“You are a protector. You help, you don’t hurt.” Then she willed Marshall to see the truth. “Don’t let the bad guys convince you otherwise. That’s not you. This is.”
She pushed an image of Marshall’s magic shining blue and bright at him, and she saw the scrap she cradled so carefully respond. It brightened and expanded, becoming blindingly incandescent.
The scene around them broke, and they were back outside in their actual bodies, both lying on the snow-covered field with Aeyli sprawled across Marshall’s chest.
Marshall sat up, tucking her body against his as he looked at Stella.
Sekt’s eyes glared out of Stella’s face, and he snarled. “I hope that pathetic display doesn’t mean you think you’ve won. I have more than enough demons and nightmares to pin you down while I eat you, Dreamwalker. You can’t unmake us all, and feasting on you will be enough to get me the power I need to cross over.” Spittle flew from Stella’s once-beautiful mouth, spraying Marshall and Aeyli. “I’ll save the girl for Hester. She’ll enjoy killing Aeyliana after what she’s done.”
Aeyli wiped her arm and crinkled her nose in disgus
t. “Then I’ll be around for a while. Hester pulled a runner a little while back. It didn’t seem like she felt welcome around you anymore.”
“Please.” Sekt sneered, causing Stella’s face to become painfully distorted. “She knows this body is nothing more than a tool. Stella and I had a disagreement on who was in charge when I first stepped inside her. She wanted her sister dead, and I didn’t, so I had to destroy her. Some of her orders might have made things messy for Hester, but most of the Blaikes are dead now, so it shouldn’t be a problem anymore.”
“That’s all I needed, love.” A bedraggled Hester emerged from the shadow of a nearby truck. “I was just waiting for you to get the troops back in line.”
He reached out an arm in invitation, and Hester limped over to where Sekt stood in her sister’s body, and kissed him. Aeyli fought the urge to vomit.
“Oh gods,” she moaned into Marshall’s chest. “I never needed to see that.”
Marshall’s large frame shuddered, and he squeezed her shoulder sympathetically. “I think they’re done now.”
“Sorry I haven’t been more help, love. That nasty little boy tied up my magic and is using it against us. Kill him for me?” She touched her tongue to Stella/Sekt’s cheek flirtatiously.
“Apparently I was wrong, sorry.” Marshall’s voice sounded choked, and Aeyli couldn’t tell if he was trying not to laugh or gag.
She knew which one she was trying not to do and just hoped she managed to keep her clothes clean if she failed.
“Anything for you, dear one. Let me just wrap things up here first.” Sekt squeezed Hester’s ass and then let her go. “Why haven’t we tried this before? The possibilities are delightful.”
“Focus, dear.”
“Work, work, work. Okay, where was I?” Sekt returned his gaze to Aeyli and Marshall, still huddled together on the ground.
“I’m going to need the reins for this.” Marshall whispered in her ear.
Aeyli realized she still had full control of their shared power and relaxed her hold, willing it over to Marshall.
White fire rimmed with blood-orange lightning formed around Sekt’s hands. It expanded outward into a circle, multiplying in size until a large dog, or small human, could fit inside. This didn’t bode well for her.
“Why don’t you save us the fight and just climb inside, kid? I promise we’ll eat you quickly, Dreamwalker, if you give her up.”
Aeyli looked around and saw monsters of every size, shape, and color ringing the field. There was nowhere to run. Sekt had these many demons under his control? What was he waiting for? He obviously had the power he needed to enter the demon realm in style. Adding her and Marshall to his essence was unnecessary gluttony.
Marshall wrapped his arms around Aeyli, pulling her tight against his hard chest and trapping her hands inside his. “No.”
Then he pulled.
In a flash, Aeyli was back inside Marshall’s mind. She cast around for her own pink magic, preparing for another onslaught of grief and pain, but she felt like she was floating on an ocean of calm confidence.
That was you, Stillbringer.
Great. More cryptic statements in the middle of a life-or-death situation was exactly what she needed.
She felt amusement from Marshall but nothing more.
Well, you might feel confident, but I’m freaking out. What the hell is going on?
In an instant, she could see out of Marshall’s eyes. Time had once again ground to a stop.
Nearly.
A monster with the head of a lizard and the body of a cat was a foot away, and Aeyli could see a colossal paw filled with razor sharp claws moving, ever so slightly, toward their bodies. Right behind it was a mass of rats grouped together in the shape of a rat the size of a motorcycle.
This does not make me feel better.
Try to relax if you can, I’m going to need everything you can give me for this.
This? What is this? Have you done this before? Aeyli had never felt less relaxed in her entire life.
If I say yes, will you feel better?
Probably not.
Then no, I haven’t. But it should work.
Maybe it’s better if I can’t see.
Suit yourself.
Aeyli was back to floating in the purple sea of their combined power. At first, it seemed like nothing was happening, but it didn’t take long for her to notice the sea growing smaller. A subtle tension filled the air as the edges of their power began receding at an alarming rate. The magic went from a seemingly endless sea to a large lake.
The tension continued to build in the air, and images formed overhead. Ghostly monsters came crashing down into the lake, and she floundered about, trying to swim out of the way. She had barely had enough time to build up to a proper freak-out before the first monster—the lizard cat—dove head first into the lake, inches from her arm. Rather than making a splash, it vanished upon contact with their magic. More demons followed close behind: the rats, a strange colorful mist, a mutilated buffalo. One after another, they all fell, succumbing to the stillness of the lake without leaving so much as a ripple.
She couldn’t take it anymore; she had to know what was happening.
This time she didn’t even need to say anything. The thought was enough to allow her access to Marshall’s eyes. Gone were the demons she’d seen vanish into the lake. In their place was the same shimmering smoke she’d seen come from the nightmares Adelle had destroyed earlier. Everything had taken on a purplish hue, and time had gone back to normal.
From several feet away, Sekt and Hester were giving them matching murderous glares.
A demon with the face of a goat raced toward Marshall and Aeyli, but shortly after running past its master, it burst into smoke. Behind it floated something dark and covered with spines, and it too met the same fate.
Aeyli looked closer and realized they were running into a barrier created by her and Marshall’s magic. So that’s what the lake was doing.
Demons were rushing the barrier from all sides, but nothing made it through. Aeyli was beginning to feel victorious when she felt a sharp pain in the center of her body.
What was that?
A complication.
Aeyli looked for their magic and saw nothing more than a glorified puddle being choked with monsters. The stillness of the pool hadn’t abated, but soon there would be nothing of it left.
It’s time for you to pull back, Aeyli. Find our friends and get out of here. Marshall’s confidence in his own authority was almost enough to get her to do it. Almost.
What will you do?
Hold them off until you all escape.
Yeah, that’s not happening. It hadn’t taken Aeyli long in Marshall’s company to figure out his MO—protect everyone, even at the cost of his own life—and she wasn’t going to put up with it. It would be no different than letting Sterling or Fourteen throw themselves away for her sake. She’d just have to come up with another option.
Aeyli hesitated. What if there was no other option? Whatever kind of special snowflake she might be, she was completely untrained. Everything she had done up to now had been due to extreme luck—or intuition. What if the best option was for her to run and save as many people as she could on the way out? As long as she stayed, Fourteen would never leave. If she couldn’t figure out a way to help Marshall quickly, she would be condemning Fourteen to death right along with her.
But abandoning Marshall to save Fourteen wasn’t something she could live with, any more than she could deal with the idea of losing Fourteen. Her mind ran in circles, and she began to feel a familiar void open inside her chest.
During her years of isolation, she had fallen into a stupor of despair many times. It rendered her insensate to the rest of the world around her until her mind was ready to come back to reality. Right now was the worst possible time for this to happen. She would be worse than useless if she went catatonic. She had to fight it.
Don’t resist.
Chapter Twent
y-Three
Aeyli
The soft, but strong voice, which was decidedly not Marshall’s, came from the same place she felt her magic reside.
Out of ideas, out of time, and very soon to be out of resources, Aeyli complied. The void opened wide and swallowed her whole.
Very good. Now follow me, and I will show you what you need to know. A tug at her center gave her something to latch on to.
Time meant nothing to Aeyli as she followed the voice through the terrible void. As she went, she felt her sense of self being stripped away. All the illusions she had built, in order to protect herself, were falling to the side as she continued on.
Aeyli watched them as they fell, and she could see how tightly she had clung to being a victim and the energy that had clung to the concept. Once it detached from her, it became a glimmering cluster of light that drifted off and vanished into the nothingness of the void.
This continued, with each illusion she had built around herself: her need for independence, her insistence that she was useless, her fear that the only thing that made her special was how Fourteen looked at her. They all fell away, each forming a light that faded from existence shortly after it left her body. And as each illusion left her, she felt more and more herself, like she was waking up and becoming the person she always was, but had forgotten.
Finally she was left with only her true self in this timeless place, and she realized the tug had stopped.
Remember this place, Stillbringer. You will have to find it on your own next time.
Aeyli could have sat and reveled in the stillness of Being for eternity, but she knew she had a job to finish. With intention, rather than panic, she willed herself back to Marshall and the shrinking puddle. Up she rose through layer upon layer of nothing until they gave way to form and thought. Behind her, trailing like a cloak, was the infinite stillness of the universe.
