“Nice warm-up. I know mages like you. Creating energy is an entertaining gift, full of possibilities. Now, why don’t you get a taste of your own medicine? Electrocute yourself, but take your time. Just to make the pleasure last.”
My eyes widened. Without my consent, my hands came to my chest and poured a powerful energy wave into my body. I fell to the ground.
“Katy, you’re in pain, I feel your pain. What’s going on?”
Alice bent down, holding me in her arms as I screamed. Discreetly, she touched me with the tip of the knife. I slipped my hand behind my back and clutched it.
“Give me two seconds.”
A loud noise broke Leroi’s concentration and I attacked him with the knife, stabbing him in his shoulder while the source of the noise distracted him. He cried in pain and pushed me to the ground, causing me to lose the knife.
Alice seized it and charged him. He grabbed her hand, turned her wrist, retrieved the knife and hit her head with the handle. She fell to the ground, unconscious.
I got up, panting. He opened his mouth, but I was faster. I threw a ball of explosive energy toward his face. He narrowly avoided it. But I didn’t stop there. I threw bursts of energy at him without stopping. He was strong, lively and agile. He avoided my magic with surprising grace given his imposing size. But I attacked until he couldn’t avoid it all.
A ball of magic hit him in the ribs and he fell to the ground with a thud. I picked up the knife he’d dropped in order to hold his ribs and stabbed him in the thigh. Once. Then in the other thigh with a burst of magical energy.
He cried out in pain. His eyes rolled back in his head and he lost consciousness. Armed guards broke down the door and entered the room.
I launched these same bursts of explosive energy at them. Struck by my magic, the two guards fell to the ground. Another explosion shook the building.
I lifted Alice, still unconscious, wrapping her arm around my shoulders, and I walked toward the exit.
“Jayden?”
“Where are you?”
“Top floor. Alice is with me.”
“I’m coming.”
I hardly made it to the elevator carrying Alice. I was horrified to appreciate that she had lost weight during her stay there; otherwise it would have been impossible for me to carry her over that distance. Blood was dripping from her temple and I hoped it wasn’t too bad. Once in front of the elevator, I pressed the button to call it, but it was unavailable.
I slid Alice onto the ground, and then I sat beside her. I removed the illusion. The only solution was the stairs. In other words, there was no solution. I wasn’t sure I could go down 23 floors with Alice in my arms.
“Jayden?”
“I’m coming, princess.”
And he wasn’t lying. The door to the stairs burst open and Jayden came running. As he approached us, his power whipped me, a sign that he had used it.
He examined us both but saw no irreparable damage. “Where is Leroi?”
The anger emanating from him matched the deadly storm that accompanied him.
“He’s unconscious in the room. We don’t have time to take care of him; we have to get Alice out of here.”
“There are guards everywhere, on every floor. I dealt with a lot of them but there’re still some.”
“Take Alice.”
He did as I said, and we walked to the stairs. Then he stopped. “We have a problem.”
“What?” I asked, alert.
“Alice is human now. If I use my magic that close to her, I’m not sure her fragile body will handle it.”
“I’ll clear the way.”
CHAPTER 27
I summoned my magic. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
We raced down the stairs. Then I heard footsteps, and I felt a magical wave coming up the stairs toward us.
I created a ball of energy and pinned myself against the wall on the last staircase on the 20th floor.
“There are three of them.”
I created a second ball of energy in my other hand. When I felt that the two guards were close to where we were, I released the two balls of energy. They exploded against the guards’ chests, plunging them into the wall. Without waiting, I threw an energy-laden kick at the last guard who came in behind. He was thrown against the wall. He slumped to the ground, and I saw a large crack in the wall that showed the shock he’d received. We went down the stairs and reached the end of the floor. The deep rumble of Jayden’s voice boomed in my mind.
“Stop. There’re way too many, we have to change stairs.”
I opened the 19th floor stairwell door. We crossed the central aisle and reached the stairs at the other end. We went down four floors without encountering any pitfalls.
Then an explosion rang out behind us. The shock wave propelled us, and we fell down the stairs. My head hit the ground and the dust of the explosion prevented me from seeing anything.
Where did this explosion come from?
The dust dissipated, and I saw that the explosion had come from the ground. A man came out of the corridor. His skeletal body, the vast hole in his chest and his red eyes answered my question. He wasn’t alive. And the explosion was the result of a portal created by a necromancer.
Where was this necromancer then?
The attack had also struck Jayden. The dead man threw himself toward us with supernatural speed. His feet never touched the ground. Jayden got up and ripped out his heart with shocking speed, precision, and brutality. Black blood flowed from the skeletal man’s mouth; then he disappeared.
“They must have found Leroi. If we come across Hells creatures, it’s because they have activated the emergency state. The place is full of necromancer traps,” Jayden said.
“We must find the necromancer.”
“The traps are set. The creatures can do their job without the necromancer.”
Great, we were dealing with independent creatures.
Jayden took Alice back in his arms. Only fifty floors left. I took a deep breath; I could already feel my magic faltering. But I’d hold on. For Alice, I promised myself I’d hold on. Fifty floors…
We continued down the stairs.
“Two guards on the way.”
I created only one ball of energy, I had to keep my magic for the Hells creatures. As we reached halfway down the stairs, two guards appeared before us. I launched the attack, sending the energy ball toward one guard who fell to the ground.
The other guard darted toward me, and I kicked him. He grabbed my foot and pulled me toward him. My other foot slipped down the stairs, and I fell. The edges of the stairs hit me in the back and the pain paralyzed me for a few seconds.
The guard let go of my foot and approached me with a black fireball in his hand. I threw a shock wave that hurled him against the wall. He fell back to the ground with a thud.
Two dead men fell in front of us, passing through the stairs of the upper floor. I threw balls of energy that disintegrated them before they could touch the ground. I got up, ignoring the pain in my back.
“Are you all right?”
“I’ll be better when we get out of this building.”
We arrived on the 14th floor. Then we continued to the 11th floor. Sometimes creatures would fall from the sky or come out of the ground, but I would clear the way every time. On the 10th floor, I was almost worn out. I fought non-stop. I was on the lookout all the time, my head was hurting, my hands were shaking and I was sweating hard.
The building was suddenly plunged into darkness. I stopped, my senses alert, and I tried to control my breathlessness. With silence reigning in the building, I felt like my breath and my heartbeats were performing a rock-and-roll concert.
“Keep going, there’s no one there. You’re doing great.”
I stuck my sweaty hand to the wall, leading me down. Something grabbed my shoulder and sent me flying against the ceiling. I fell to the floor with a thud.
A terrible pain spread through my chest and then all over my body. My breath whooshed out of me.
“Turn around!”
I whirled around and released an energy blast in front of me. The dead man disintegrated.
I struggled to get up as pain flared in my body. I begged my brain to ignore the pain.
We went down to the first floor. Victory was near. I took the handle to open the door.
“Wait,” Jayden blurted.
“What?”
“Um… Do you want the good news or the bad news?”
“You’re joking, right? Either one, I want to get out of here.”
“The good news is they’re just mediocre creatures.”
“What about the bad news?”
“Behind this door, there are about twenty of them.”
My legs gave out. I slumped on the last staircase. I thought Leroi had gone easy on us. I was expecting an army, and here it was. I got up and drew a deep breath.
“Stay with Alice, I’ll get rid of them, then I’ll come back to you.”
I nodded. He opened the door and went out. I was experiencing the most appalling sight of… the last hour. In the last few days, I’d been through some pretty surprising and terrible things; I couldn’t even classify them anymore.
The streetlights outside illuminated this show. People were walking outside without suspecting what was going on inside the building, probably thanks to another spell made by the same necromancer who had conjured what stood before us. Men dressed in torn military garb, army lattice jackets and trousers stained with dust and blood. Some had holes in their heads, others in their chests. Some holes were so big I suspected they came from a cannonball. Some soldiers had only one leg, others walked on two skeletal legs.
I met the gaze of one soldier placed in front of the others. Half of his face was missing. He raised his skeletal arm and pointed at us. And the fight began.
I was worried about Jayden. It wasn’t my fight, and this time my legs weren’t shaking with fatigue but with horror. I never thought I’d see that in my lifetime. Jayden raised both his hands to the sky and the bluish flames appeared. The wind rose around him. The flames grew and spread throughout the room. The soldiers rushed toward him. But a few noticed me and walked toward me.
When the first one approached, I slammed the door shut. My eyes bulged in horror when his hand passed through the door and grabbed me by the neck.
What the hell…
His body passed through the door, but his hand was real and firm around my neck. I kicked him, but my foot went through his body. He pulled a sharp knife out of the pocket of his jacket. His red eyes and his toothless smile froze my blood. He raised the knife just as I was creating a force field around me. His hand was still firm around my neck, but the knife lodged in the force field. He squeezed my neck. I couldn’t breathe. Blood was no longer circulating in my brain and I was panicking. I tried to grab his arm, but my hand passed through his body.
A powerful wind rose and the door ripped off. The soldier turned his head to the origin of the wind. And if I wasn’t close to dying, I would have laughed at the shock on his face and the scene that followed.
He opened his eyes wide; they came out of their orbits like in cartoons. A tornado of blue flames was raging in the lobby of the building. And Jayden was at the heart of this tornado, in perfect control of it. This explained why the high winds of the tornado didn’t carry me away, unlike all the soldiers, including the one who tried, almost successfully, to kill me.
I still kept the force field for safety. The bluish and devastating tornado was impressive; the dead men disappeared just as they entered it. They all disintegrated. I saw some hall furniture twirling in the tornado and disintegrating.
I turned to Alice, hoping that my force field would protect her from all this magical power. When there were no more soldiers, the tornado lost its intensity until it disappeared. I shuddered when the power reached my body like waves approaching the sand.
Jayden stood as motionless as I was, eyes shining. He brought his magic back to him. I heard a slight noise behind me. Alice’s pupils moved in all directions under her closed eyelids. Jayden came back and took her in his arms. We got back in the car, parked at the entrance and left the place.
Alice slept in the car, but she was alive and safe and sound. I looked at her in the rearview mirror. I couldn’t believe we had succeeded. But how happy I was! It wasn’t long before I fell into a restful sleep too.
Then I woke up with my entire body hurting me. Jayden helped me heal my wounds by sharing his magic with me. I missed the full strength of my healing power. Without Jayden, with the magic expense I had made, I wouldn’t even have been able to heal my little toe if I wanted to.
“Are you okay? I can take your place so you can recover a bit,” I said to Jayden, who’d been driving all the while.
“It’s okay, don’t worry. Rest, you deserve it.”
“Where do we go now?” I asked, looking at the forest through the window.
We drove onto a bridge, and I saw a river flowing below us. I looked at the water streaming at high speed.
“To a safe place.”
For several minutes we went uphill, and I thought for a moment that we would say hello to Jesus in heaven. Then we came to a house. A waterfall in front of the house poured its water onto the rocks on the ground. The small wooden house dominated the waterfall and the surrounding forest. It seemed to be a place of peace, calm and harmony. I stood in awe of the landscape’s beauty.
Jayden parked next to the house, got out of the car and carried Alice in his arms. He took her inside. I followed on his heels, entering this magnificent uninhabited house.
Dust reigned over the wood and cobwebs stuck to my face several times. He entered a room and placed Alice on the double bed within.
“I’ll go shopping, you must eat something,” he said, turning to me. “There is another room juxtaposed with this one, you can rest there.”
“Okay.”
I rubbed my arms. I was dead tired, but I was so happy to see Alice. Yet my heart tightened when I thought about all she’d gone through. I walked into the room and lay down next to my best friend, watching her sleep. She seemed peaceful, much to my relief.
I didn’t even notice Jayden had left. My gaze landed on the room. Now that she was human, she’d be more sensitive to the dust and all the microbes accumulated in this place. Despite the sound of the waterfall that soothed me, and the pervasive pain in my body, which screamed at me to rest, I got up and started cleaning the entire house.
Alice was more vulnerable; I had to make sure she didn’t get a weird infection from all the dirt and strange little beasts in this place.
I found a broom and a mop and cleaned the room and kitchen. I needed sleep, but I also wanted to be there when Alice woke up. She needed me to be strong. When I’d finished, Jayden came back. He blinked when he saw me with a mop in my hand. He held two bags full of supplies.
He went to the kitchen and dropped on the counter everything he’d bought. Everything edible in the store, I guessed, peering at the bags. He washed the utensils and cooked. He was distant, and he looked rough. I thought he was hiding his fatigue too. However, just like me, Alice needed him.
I helped him cut the tomato, onions, peppers, and cucumbers and prepare the spicy chicken in silence. He put it all in a giant, colorful and spicy tortilla. The delicious smell of the meal tickled all my senses, and I salivated with anticipation.
I went up into the room with a plate and found Alice awake, her eyes blank, staring at the forest visible from the bedroom window.
“Here, Alice, Jayden made this for you.”
I handed her the plate. She took it without even shifting her gaze.
“How do you feel?” I asked her.
“Empty.” Her voice was devoid of emotion. “That heat inside me, that power at my fingertips. I could feel it all. But now I hear nothing, I fe
el nothing.”
“I’m sorry,” I said with a dry throat.
“It’s not your fault.”
“We’ll try to get your powers back.”
She didn’t answer and kept her vacant eyes turned toward the dense, dark forest. My words had brought no hope.
“I feel many other emotions now. Fear. Sadness. But also worry. Anguish. As a queen, I’ve never let these emotions reach me. And whenever I did, I came to your room and emptied my heart. But now I can’t control anything. And Leroi, he has…”
Words struggled to leave her mouth. I rubbed her back, giving her the slightest consolation she needed.
“You’ve always been sensitive, Alice. Becoming a human must have amplified this trait.”
“Craid took everything from me and Leroi destroyed my self-confidence. He destroyed… I want to cry every second of my life. I have regrets when I’d never had one. I can no longer look at myself in a mirror.”
“You’ll survive all this. You’re a strong woman; no one can take that away from you. Not Craid, not Leroi. And you’re not alone; I’m here for you no matter what.”
She rested her head on my shoulder and a smile ghosted her lips. Then she ate. This meal was sunnier than our two lives combined.
After a few moments of looking at the forest outside, Alice got up. My stomach’s horrible noises must have annoyed her. My stupid efforts to avoid breathing and to bend and clench my stomach all failed miserably to silence it.
We went down to the kitchen, guided by the sumptuous smell of Jayden’s meal. Alice stopped at the door frame and I smiled when I saw the two plates of tortillas placed on the table next to each other. Alice looked at Jayden from head to toe. He turned and met her gaze.
“Hi, Brother.”
I lost my appetite.
CHAPTER 28
No, no, no, impossible. I kept repeating this mantra in my head, but the truth was out. I was close to taking it out on Jayden, but his expression was holding me back. He was almost as surprised as I was.
“I’m sorry, can you repeat that, Alice?” I said.
“Katy, this is my brother, but you already know each other. You got him back. I knew you’d make it!” She took my rigid body into her arms.
Hells Magic (The Armistice Book 1) Page 17
