Hells Magic (The Armistice Book 1)

by Leslie Vatenar

  “No!” Jayden roared as he ran.

  The spirit was startled, it saw Jayden running and crossed my force field, passing through Liam’s body. Horror choked me as the spirit disappeared into Liam’s body.

  Helplessness gripped my bones. I wanted to do something, but how was I supposed to fight a being that had no physical body? It was already complicated when they were physical. And, besides, there wasn’t one, there were hundreds!

  “Craid! You’ve got what you want. Give us the key to close the portal now,” I pleaded amid the chaos raging through the park.

  Craid remained in his brother’s arms. Then the twin turned and ran, fleeing the center of the cataclysm.

  Craid took the key out of his chestnut jacket. A tear ran down his cheek. “Come and get it,” he said with a sardonic grin.

  He spun and two huge magic balls escaped from him heading toward Jayden and me. I dived to the side, barely avoiding them.

  I remembered the effect that these balls had had on Jayden. However, the magic balls he had just sent had felt deadlier. I inferred that they wouldn’t just bring excruciating pain but immediate death.

  I searched for Jayden on the ground, thinking he’d dived like me, but I found him in the air. The wind had picked up; the trees in the park were raging. Jayden conjured his blue flames in both hands. The heat exuding from these flames was unreal. He was in perfect control of his power. If he wasn’t, breathing the burning air would have killed us all.

  He directed his flames toward Craid, who responded with his magic. But he couldn’t absorb all that power. Jayden’s infernal flames battled Craid’s beam of magic. Determination and concentration distorted Jayden’s features as Craid howled with rage. The two magics fought each other at an equal distance from the two men for a long time until Jayden slightly got the upper hand.

  Maurice had been afraid of this encounter. But opening the portal and casting the spell to resurrect his brother had probably drained Craid of most of the energy he’d absorbed. It was the perfect time to fight him.

  The air was laden with supernatural powers. The windows of nearby buildings exploded, trees uprooted and swirled in the air, thunder rumbled and the earth shook. The scene was worthy of the Apocalypse.

  I grasped the statue, which miraculously didn’t seem to be affected by the abundance of magic. I heard the sound of a landslide behind me. Part of a concrete building collapsed because of the earthquake. Cracks ran across the facades of another building. The other concrete blocks came apart. I held my breath, fearing the worst, praying to avoid the worst. But the worst happened.

  The last crack invited itself to the party, and the building collapsed on itself in a terrifying noise. A wave of dust spread through the air, and I had to shield my eyes. When it dissipated, I saw cracks had appeared on another building a few meters away. I heard another noise and saw another building collapse on the other side of the fight.

  Everything was crumbling, but, fortunately, the area was deserted. If someone were to die of natural disasters, it would just be me. Other than that, everything was fine.

  Jayden was winning. His flames grew in strength; his magic became more and more grandiose.

  But I had to help him before he destroyed the city. However, if I let go of the statue, the wind would fling me like a rag doll into the air with unprecedented violence. There was no way I could move.

  But then I realized I didn’t have to move. I touched the ground and my magic spread until it reached Craid. He screamed in pain and his left leg gave way. He held on with a knee on the ground. I used the energy in the nearby cars and flung them at him.

  His powers formed a protective barrier around him and my cars disappeared through his purple mist. However, I didn’t stop. My power might not have been powerful enough to defy the full power of his magic, but I knew I could do something.

  I hurled a series of energy blasts. I used debris from the collapsed buildings and sent them toward him. One piece of debris hit him in the back and he fell forward.

  The excitement that gripped me was unprecedented. He was weakening. He couldn’t fight Jayden and me at the same time. So I harassed him. Some of my attacks passed through his mist, which was losing power, and hurt him.

  I was about to launch a bolt of energy when a new portal appeared right in front of me, hiding the fight. The portal had a dazzling golden background. Alice and another man stepped out of it before it closed behind them.

  A sphere with golden borders surrounded Alice and the man, protecting them from the raging storm. Seeing me on the ground, Alice took me in her arms and the sphere that protected her encompassed me, giving me some respite. No magic crossed the sphere. Within this force field calm prevailed.

  “My God, Katy! You’re alive!”

  “Barely,” I said, breathless.

  “What on earth is he doing?” the man next to Alice asked, looking at Jayden with confusion.

  “Craid has the key to close the gate.”

  I pointed to the famous portal. He looked down at me then followed my finger to the portal. He ambled toward the portal, made a fluid movement with his hand and it closed. I was shocked. Who was he? And why hadn’t he come earlier?

  “Who is he?” I asked Alice.

  “I’ll explain it to you later.”

  She helped me get up and the three of us turned to Jayden and Craid. Jayden had clearly taken the lead. He pierced Craid’s defense, and the flames burst Craid’s magic with such power that his beam of magic disappeared.

  Jayden put out the fire and closed his fingers into fists in front of him. Craid screamed in pain, his torso bulging, his back bent and his arms spread. He suffered the wrath of the most powerful mage on Earth. The ground seemed to cut out around him, forming a perfect circle. Then a cavity formed, dragging Craid into the earth’s depths, just before it closed as if nothing had happened.

  The wind calmed down; the ground stopped shaking.

  “It’s entirely my fault. I’m sorry, but it’s too late,” the man said. “I can’t. I made a choice ages ago. It’s too late.”

  “It’s never too late,” Alice whispered. “He needs you.”

  “No. I missed my chance.”

  The man seemed to be racked by deep sadness and regret was clearly rooted in him. His blue eyes glowed starkly in the darkness of the place. He was much taller than me and muscular. His beige shirt, light blue jacket, and navy-blue-striped tie fit him well. An impressive charisma oozed out of him.

  His smooth brown hair was slicked back. There wasn’t a hair sticking out, which amplified my idea that this man was as meticulous as he was important. He had an aura of superiority. I felt like I ought to bow down to him. He possessed exceptional elegance.

  In addition to his striking physical appearance, the power emanating from him seemed out of the ordinary. Gentleness and a potent presence shimmered on the surface. Without that aura of divinity, he looked a lot like Jayden. The eyes, the diamond-shaped face. They were as alike as two peas in a pod. The more I looked at him the more I saw…

  Oh my God… The information went to the brain.

  I turned to Alice, eyes and mouth wide open. I noticed the gaze of the man who was none other than Jayden’s father and I snapped my mouth shut.

  He frowned, disturbed by my reaction, but said nothing. He backed away and entered a portal that opened and closed around him.

  Jayden arrived. “Who was he?” he asked.

  “A friend. He helped us close the portal,” Alice replied.

  I was still shocked that I had seen Jayden’s father. He looked so young; he couldn’t have been over thirty. There was no way he was his father. But on second thought, Alice had mentioned that he was immortal. He must have been much older than he seemed.

  “Where is Liam?” he asked.

  The power rolling off him in waves was destabilizing. It gave me a headache and my breath hitched. It was obvious that, once released, his powers would
have a hard time regaining their morning calm.

  “Jayden…” Alice whispered.

  She closed her eyes and wobbled. I caught her, placing her arm over my shoulder to support her weight. If I had a headache—and I was a mage—Alice would soon vomit until her stomach was empty, or she’d faint.

  The first one happened faster than expected. She bent down and puked her breakfast out. I held her hair.

  “The Reaper and Zoe are still there; my force field was enough to protect them.”

  Jayden eyed the park, made his rounds and came back to us. “No sign of Liam.”

  “But… Where did he go?” I asked, intrigued.

  Alice heaved. We needed to keep her as far away from Jayden as possible for a few days until he gained control of his power again.

  Liam must have woken during the chaos, but he would never let Jayden fight alone. Where the hell was he?

  A memory rushed into my mind.

  “The spirit,” I murmured. “He went into Liam. Tell me that’s not what I think…” I glanced at Jayden, whose eyes were dancing in every direction.

  He didn’t hide his panic. If Jayden was panicking, there was a genuine place for concern in my heart.

  “Alice, how does a spirit take possession of a body?”

  A new retch prevented her from responding.

  I changed my question. “When it enters a living body, can he take possession of it?”

  She nodded, and I trembled. My legs could no longer support me. The news felt like a stab in the heart. Cold plunged through my gut.

  Jayden bellowed in rage and punched the air, his hand throwing a huge fireball that targeted the building behind the one that had just collapsed a few minutes ago. The fire took hold of the building, which exploded into flames.

  “Do you know how to extract the spirit?”

  “Yes,” Alice said. I helped her stand up straight. “But first you have to find the body. If the spirit has taken possession of your friend, it won’t be easy to force him out.”

  Her eyes turned white, and she collapsed.

  “I have to take her away from you, you’ll end up killing her,” I said with a dry throat and trembling hands.

  “I’m going to find him,” Jayden assured me with determination.

  He stole a nearby car and left. Even with fewer windows and dents almost everywhere, the car started and Jayden drove away from Alice.

  LAST CHAPTER

  “Fortunately, there are no casualties. Those present a few hours before the disaster said they left the area for no apparent reason but were happy to have done so. Children accompany most. Scientists are still trying to find the cause of the catastrophe; they have detected no seismic anomaly. The unusual phenomenon in this area has caused inexplicable material damage… ”

  The television in the bar broadcast this news on a loop all week. Since the disaster, humans had been concerned. When I saw the pictures, I understood why. I had only seen a third of the damage. There were rough roads, uprooted trees, cracks on walls of houses and floods.

  Jayden hadn’t regained control over his power and wherever an explosion or building was destroyed, we knew he had been there.

  “How did Craid do that? Force everyone out of the zone?” I took a sip of my tequila sunrise while watching the television in the Warrior Cries bar in which Ruby and I spent most of our time.

  The bar was quiet that day. A couple watched the news and a group of men played cards at a table, sometimes heckling when one of them lost or won.

  “He drank Heth’s blood to absorb some of his powers. Mental manipulation is only one tool among his artillery.”

  “Oh.” After a few minutes of silence, a question came to mind. ‘You’re much more than you seem. You already knew that Jayden was the son of an Entity.”

  She nodded. “It took me some time to recognize him. I’d never seen him, but I’d always heard of him.”

  “Maurice knew that, too, I think. But he treated him as if he were the devil incarnate.”

  “Jayden’s mother was the queen of mages at the time. She was much respected and much loved by all. When she died, many cried, and many blamed Jayden, including Maurice who saw Jayden’s birth as the antichrist birth. He was convinced that Jayden would eventually kill us all because Jayden had killed his idol when he was born.”

  “It’s not fair, it wasn’t his fault.”

  Ruby shrugged.

  “But if you knew that Jayden was the son of an Entity, then how didn’t you know Heth had fed Craid’s magic?”

  “I had my doubts. But it never happened. I couldn’t tell with certainty. Heth left no trace in his magic signature. The only obvious thing was that Craid and Jayden were both at another level of power. But as Entities we avoid showing ourselves, except to the Order.”

  “We? Wait, you’re an Entity?”

  “Of course. Zoe, Liliane, and Aviva as well. That’s why Craid was looking for our hearts.”

  My eyebrows went up to the sky. “Why not Zoe’s?” I asked, trying to understand everything Ruby was revealing.

  She shrugged. “Zoe has benevolent powers. I don’t think Craid was interested in that. As I was saying, we’re trying to keep a low profile. But if Heth helped a supernatural in his revenge, that’s not a good sign. Heth is the worst, his magical statue in the park testifies to that. He’s the one who made it to mark his territory. It’s because of him that most wars have broken out.”

  “Do you think he’ll come back?”

  “We’re safe from nothing.”

  “More work for you. More wars. No unemployment for you.” I winked.

  “Do you think I enjoy it?”

  I shrugged. She had incredible powers. To me, if she was doing anything it was because she wanted to. No one could force her to do anything.

  “Someone has to do the dirty work. It’s up to me to kill the worst monsters out there so you can sleep soundly every night. A monster has many faces, not all of them are ugly. And it doesn’t always come from the Hells either.”

  I nodded.

  Ruby and I had spent much more time together than it was healthy to spend with a woman nicknamed “Death”. But, strangely, she understood me. She’d become accustomed to my presence. I was now immune to her lack of tact, her terrifying presence, and her black humor. So I could understand what she was telling me now. And, most importantly, I didn’t judge her. She did what she thought was necessary. She was ruthless toward her enemies, but she’d been listening to me talk about Jayden for hours. She could empathize. So I accepted her as she was.

  In hindsight, I also understood that there was only a physical attraction between Jayden and me. In reality, I knew almost nothing about him. He was my crush, nothing more. The percentage of people who end up with their crush is infinitely small.

  Ruby stayed with me and listened to me. Of course, with her legendary tact, she told me I was ridiculous to give myself grief about a man and I could seek happiness somewhere else, or she offered me torture sessions on others to ease my pain. She judged my obsession, but she was listening to me and that was all I was asking for.

  Things had calmed down, but they were far from back to normal. It was the calm before the storm. Jayden was looking for Liam in every corner of the world; Alice spent her days with Jayden’s father trying to find the Order members in the Hells; Leroi had disappeared from the face of the earth with the hearts of three Entities and spirits had taken possession of humans and supernaturals all over the world. We needed to deal with these issues.

  “You get to sleep at night after you’ve… um… killed?”

  She slid her hair behind her shoulder. “Like a baby.”

  “A lone baby,” I said, thinking of the life she must have.

  She shrugged.

  “I know someone who would love to keep you company.”

  I was expecting a black look or an insult. To my surprise, an almost imperceptible smile pulled her li
ps.

  An imposing figure entered the bar. Receiving the first wave of power, I rushed to the silhouette.

  “So?” I asked, full of hope… and alcohol, for I staggered to walk.

  “We have to talk,” he replied.

  I waved at Ruby, who nodded.

  Jayden and I went outside. The sun blinded me and I placed both my hands in front of my eyes. Drinking alcohol at noon wasn’t a splendid idea. Jayden understood my problem and guided me behind the bar into a small alley in the shade.

  “So?” I asked again, now that I could see him.

  He seemed worn out. Black circles encased his eyes; his clothes were the same as three days ago, with extra bloodstains. His black jacket and T-shirt barely hid these details. But I didn’t need to see his appearance to know that he’d had the worst week of all of us.

  “Are you sure you don’t need me?”

  “Sure. There is nothing you can do. All I do is look and ask without a clue. And I come into contact with people far from being choir children. It’s better if they don’t know you. People are on the lookout for him; if he shows up, I’ll know.”

  “Do you have any idea who the spirit might be?”

  “No, none. But he isn’t a normal civilian; disappearing like that isn’t a simple task, especially when people are looking for him. But I’ll find him.”

  “I’m sure of that.”

  A silence set in between us as I stared at the ground. I was thinking about the horror of the situation. Liam possessed. There was nothing worse. I missed him so much.

  I raised my head and saw the anxiety and fatigue in Jayden’s eyes. He was staring into space over my head.

  I put my hand on his cheek and forced him to look at me. “You’ll find him.”

  He put his hand on mine and closed his eyes. I stroked his cheek with my thumb. There was nothing I could do for him other than support him.

  He placed his forehead on mine, and we stayed like that for several minutes. Nothing existed except the two of us. We breathed the same air, we lived in the same adventure, and we were there for each other.