The shift ended with the shrill note of the whistle. Eden filed out with the others, relinquishing her post to a glassy-eyed woman who was all skin and bones. Eden always expected her to keel over by morning. The night bus belched gas and parked in front of the factory. The mundanes shuffled aboard, as animated as walking corpses. She’d worked during the day as a replacement before. The mundanes working that shift departed with happiness, excited to return home and play with their children or see their spouses. The night personnel was more subdued as the bus rumbled down the streets. It stopped at the factory dorms, and three-quarters of the bus’s occupants disembarked.
The remaining mundanes were older. Their families were too large for the dorms, or they possessed enough seniority in the company they’d attained different housing. Then, there was her. Eden shivered, considering all the ways she didn’t fit the typical mundane mold. Could that be the reason she had a target on her back?
The bus stopped twice more, the first stop at the apartment complex that housed mundanes with larger families. They were only slightly better than the factory dorms. The other stop was downtown near the transportation garage. The older people filed off, their faces drooping with exhaustion and age. Their destinations were the bars that stayed open until 5am; Eden wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t have homes.
Eden joined the old men filing off the bus, retrieving the backpack stuffed with clothes she had carried all afternoon. This was her usual stop, but instead of heading left toward her tiny apartment, she turned right. The route was familiar to her, but the late hour lent it a different atmosphere. She walked swiftly past the block of bars and the grocery store that never closed. A group of techie college boys whistled at her. Then, one of them nudged the others and pointed to her empty sleeve. Their laughter followed her down the street, but she didn’t respond.
The downtown area morphed into wooded streets and larger houses framed by manicured lawns. She envied the mundanes who pursued occupations in lawn maintenance or housework for the wealthy techie families. Her arm wouldn’t let her push a lawnmower or snip shrubs, but she would prefer working outside to the stale air of the factory floor.
The night was chilly, heralding the coming autumn. The old oaks’ leaves were already yellowing. Farther north than Brenville, the country experienced several snowstorms a year, but Eden’s entire life had been spent in this small town with its moderate temperatures. A dog barked, and Eden jumped, remembering the lurking shadow which had followed her home the last two nights. She peeked behind her, but the streetlights illuminated nothing but fences, houses, and the occasional car. Blinking stars and a half moon brightened her path when the electric lights grew farther apart.
All techies worked day shifts, causing the neighborhood to remain eerily silent, although a chorus of cicadas serenaded from the branches of the trees lining the streets. Some tech cities didn’t have trees or green spaces, but Eden couldn’t imagine such a lifeless atmosphere. She loved the towering giants, and they were often a frequent subject in her sketch pad. The missing book sent a pang of sadness through her; it was an odd object to steal.
She passed the neighborhood playground. The jungle gym and swings created strange skeletal structures in the dim light. Her steps faltered when she turned the corner. The huge dog sat ahead of her. She froze in her tracks, holding his intense gaze, uncertain why her mind was insistent on its gender. She had encountered many dogs and cats, but she’d never seen one so large. Sitting on his haunches, the tips of his ears reached her chest. Her heart beat fiercely, the sound drowning out the hum of insects. She would need to pass the creature to enter Izzy’s house.
The dog didn’t move. It watched Eden with glowing yellow eyes, another trait she’d never seen on a domestic canine. She swallowed hard, considering her next move. Running from a predator sounded like the worst option, and her feet hurt from standing all night. The dog would catch her quickly.
Squaring her shoulders, she stepped forward. A pink tongue lolled from its massive jaws, and he almost looked like he was grinning. Her limbs shook, but she continued to approach slowly. The beast didn’t twitch. A horrible image of it springing at her burst across her mind, but her heartbeat calmed and her fear decreased the closer she got. Its eyes radiated calm and intelligence. The intelligence wasn’t surprising, but the calm was.
The creature watched her, panting. Her muscles twitched, ready to run if it snarled. Two steps away, he whined and sank to his belly. Cocking his massive head to the side, he bared his furry throat in the act of submission, and Eden relaxed. She considered patting him but couldn’t force her hand to move. She only had one arm; she didn’t want to lose it between his jaws. Walking sideways to keep him in her sight, she traveled the short distance to Izzy’s wooden fence. The dog remained in the same position, his yellow eyes following her. She latched the gate behind her and opened Izzy’s front door.
A light shone in the living room, and Eden jumped when Izzy’s shadowy form shifted in the recliner to the left of the entryway. She pressed a hand to her hammering heart. “Izzy, why are you still awake?” she hissed. Izzy shrugged, lowering her book.
“I needed to know you made it here ok. You sounded so scared on the phone,” she whispered. “Besides, Jace fell asleep in my bed.” The toddler spent most nights between Todd and Izzy. They hugged, and Izzy grimaced at her work clothes. The factory uniform was as flattering as a burlap sack; the simple cotton pants and shirt were formless and gray. “I don’t see how you can stand those clothes.”
Izzy couldn't handle a mundane’s lifestyle. Eden shrugged as she backed away and pulled the curtain aside while her friend peeked over her shoulder. The dog had vanished.
“What? Did someone follow you? Are you ok?”
“Shh, Iz, I’m ok. No one followed me. I saw the dog again, but it didn’t harm or threaten me. It stood there and bared its neck when I got close, like a submission thing. But, damn, it was so big!” The curtain fell, sending long shadows into the darkened room. Now that she was safe, fatigue settled in with a vengeance. She had woken early to meet Izzy for coffee and hadn’t slept before beginning her shift. Their date seemed like days ago instead of that morning.
Izzy echoed her yawn, and the women shared a grin. “Go to bed, Iz. I can’t believe you stayed up.”
“I put a mattress down in the playroom for you.”
“Thanks, Izzy.” Eden hugged her friend again, and the girls crept down the hall past the room where the baby slept. Izzy veered off into her room, and Eden entered the playroom. Stacks of wooden blocks, plastic electronic toys, and dolls formed a strange mound of jumbled objects in the corner. A twin mattress filled the empty space, freshly made with sheets and blankets.
After visiting the bathroom and changing into sweatpants and a tank top, she settled onto the mattress with a relieved sigh. The moonlight streamed through the lacy curtains, highlighting the drawings of famous tech moguls and cartoon characters on the walls. She drifted off within seconds.
***
Eden awoke covered in sweat. Her necklace burned, a common occurrence after her dreams, but she was used to it heating at strange times. In seconds, she forgot about it. Tears streamed unchecked down her face in the darkness. The dream had evolved over the years. The first few occurrences ended right after the crash. Then, she began watching from a distance. Then, the man showed up. He'd only acknowledged her observing self once before tonight. Although she knew it was just a dream, it had felt so real. Her missing arm throbbed with pain as it did after every nightmare. She tossed aside the covers, checking the time on her phone. It was four in the morning. In her own apartment, she would get up and brew some sleepy tea until the dream faded.
In Izzy’s house, she sat in the center of the mattress, her hair heavy and matted with sweat. The dream always felt real. The pain burned as intensely as it had that night and for months afterward. Jon had survived with minor burns and a couple broken bones; the police had determined he had been thrown from
the car. Eden had lost a little more than half of her arm, had broken several ribs, and suffered a concussion for days. Jon never spoke to her again after the crash. The awkwardness between them had been so complete, Eden had welcomed his inattention. She’d completed her senior year medicated on a cocktail of antidepressants which numbed her to the cruelty of her fellow teenagers. When her adoptive father started to drink more heavily, she’d pulled herself out of her funk to care for him.
Eden sighed. Life was simple, if not easy. She worked, she paid her bills, she read and sketched, and she escaped to the mountains when she needed a reprieve. She had been content until recently.
Rising, she crossed the room and opened the curtains to stare into the dark night. She didn’t realize she was hoping to see the giant black dog until she became disappointed when she couldn’t find it. Clouds shrouded the moon, the night darker than it had been earlier. Eden pulled the curtains closed again.
She wouldn’t sleep for a while, so she sat back down on the bed and flipped on the light. The first object she saw was Alena Frank’s business card, sitting right next to her phone and wallet. She picked it up and turned it over in her hands. The paper felt energized, like she held a living thing. Worried it might be enchanted, she released it, and it fluttered to the floor. Mage or not, Alena might have answers.
***
“You didn’t sleep last night,” Izzy accused her when she entered the kitchen in the morning. The two-year-old bounced in his highchair, burbling as he played with his cereal. Jace, the four-year-old, pushed a fire truck across the floor, making car noises. The moment he saw Eden, he flew over and clung to her legs. His enthusiasm almost knocked her over.
“Auntie Eden. You never come see me anymore!”
Eden hugged him. “I know, Jace. I’m sorry.” Izzy handed her a mug of black coffee, and Eden accepted it with a pleased sigh. She poured cream into the cup while Jace babbled about his fire truck. The baby gurgled, and Eden ruffled the downy fuzz crowning his head.
“How are you, Kai?” Eden asked him. He threw a wheat circle at her in response. The clouds of the deep night had burned away, allowing the sun to send rays of light into the kitchen windows. Eden basked in the glow, closing her eyes and lifting her face to the sun.
Izzy sat across from her, sipping her coffee. She still looked beautiful in the morning, with her curly brown hair caught up in a clip and dressed in nothing but loose pajamas. She studied Eden, making her question how bad the circles under her eyes were.
“Just another dream,” Eden told her as Jace scrambled into her lap.
Izzy frowned at her. “Are they coming every night?”
“Pretty much,” she sighed. “They took my dreamcatcher. I thought it might have been helping, as weird as that sounds. Izzy, there was a mage consultant with the police. She seemed interested in the break-in, far more interested than the other police officer.” Eden bounced Jace on one knee as he drove his truck across the table and up her arm.
“That’s not surprising considering they wrote mage on your wall in big black letters. Todd says quite a few mages live in town, acting as liaisons or whatever the techies need them for. The dreamcatcher looked mage-made, and it seemed to help you. Dreams are odd; I’m not surprised that magical objects affect them.” Izzy scrunched her nose. “The dreamcatcher might be understandable, the sketch pad not so much. If your drawings show up in an art gallery, I will be pissed.”
Eden laughed at her friend’s righteous anger on her behalf. “Maybe both are buried in the mess of my apartment. The landlord is fixing the lock this morning; afterward, I need to go clean.”
“You should give it a couple days,” Izzy protested. “What if they come back?”
“If they meant me harm, they could have shown up while I was home. The entire thing could be a random coincidence, too.” Neither of them believed that. “I have tonight off, so I should work on it before the weekend.”
Izzy squeezed her hand. “Whatever you want to do, babe. The first bus comes at 10:30. I’ll walk with you down to the bus stop since I was planning on taking the boys downtown, anyway.”
“Thanks, Izzy.”
Eden watched the kids while Izzy showered, playing with them on the mat in the living room. They built towers of blocks together, but her mind was far away. The business card burned in her pocket, but she couldn’t conjure a valid excuse to dial the number. She couldn’t call Alena just to ask if her company name had something to do with the giant black dog that was following her around.
Izzy chatted all the way into town, and Eden replied in monosyllables, deep in thought. Cleaning her ruined apartment was daunting; daily cleaning was difficult enough.
Izzy waved goodbye at her stop, and Eden climbed the stairs to her apartment, her palms sweaty. Standing in the mess of her tiny studio, she felt like crying. Sniffing back the tears, she dived into the pile of books and papers. She stood to relocate a stack to her desk when a movement outside caught her eye. The books fell from her hands.
A man leaned against the streetlight on her corner, staring straight at her window. His lips curved. Without a doubt, this man was the same one from her dream, even though she hadn’t clearly seen his face. She ducked below the edge of the window, her heart pounding. Double checking to make sure she had slid the shiny new bolt across the door and the safety chain was in place, she fumbled her cell phone off the desk.
“Alena here.” The voice was brusque and professional, and Eden’s throat closed up. Why had she called the mage and not Izzy? It had been an automatic response; she couldn’t put her friend and the kids in danger. Eden cleared her throat.
“Hi. We met yesterday; uh - I called when my apartment was vandalized. There’s a guy outside, and he’s staring at my place.” She knocked her forehead on her bent knees. She sounded like an overdramatic teenager. Eden waited for the police officer to tell her she was overreacting. She couldn’t explain she’d seen him in a dream; the woman would think she was insane.
“Is your door locked?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t unlock the door until you hear my voice.”
Eden nodded before remembering they couldn’t see each other. She replied and hung up, wondering if the mage was taking her seriously or just bored. An apartment break-in and a stalker rarely happened in their small town and shouldn't require the skills of a Mage Consultant.
The ten minutes seemed to take forever. Eden remained frozen, too scared to stand up or look out the window. Footsteps pounded up the wooden stairs, and her breath caught in her throat.
“Edania? It’s Alena. You can open the door.” Eden crawled across the floor at the familiar, feminine voice and slowly stood to release the locks. She stared at the policewoman in surprise, noting her casual dress instead of a police uniform. The pale green sweater brightened her intense emerald gaze, and her red hair fell unbound around her shoulders.
“You’re not on duty?”
Alena shrugged away her question. “What did the man look like?”
“Tall, dark, maybe a scar on his face? I didn’t get a good look. Is he still out there?” Alena shook her head, and Eden’s shoulders slumped in relief.
“I’m sorry; I didn’t know you weren’t working.”
Alena’s green eyes evaluated her. “You’re not safe here.”
Eden blustered. “Maybe I’m overreacting; maybe he was just waiting for the bus.” She knew he wasn’t, though, and she knew he was the same man in her dream. Her phantom arm tingled with forewarning. Alena sighed heavily, and Eden wished she could read the other woman’s mind.
“Will you go for a ride with me?”
Eden tried to guess the emotions in her voice, maybe nervousness and hope. “Like down to the station?”
Alena’s answering smile transformed her face and weakened Eden’s knees. She scolded her overactive hormones; it wasn’t the best idea to be fawning over a mage when there was a stalker in her backyard. The adrenaline st
ill coursed through her veins, though, and Eden was already struggling to not fall to the floor in a puddle of nerves and fear.
“No. I want to talk. There’s been a string of these sightings, and you need more information.”
Eden considered the mage's words. That she was a mage should have set off an alarm, but Eden justified her trust because Alena was a woman and an officer of the law. Neither were grounds for reliability, but she needed an excuse to not be alone in her apartment. She grabbed her wallet and keys and locked the door behind her.
Alena’s car was a special model for mages; it didn't have a computer or electronic controls. There weren’t many in the Eastern Territory, and the shock made Eden hesitate. Once she associated with mages, the damage couldn't be undone. Alena smiled over the hood of the car, the expression easing the intensity in her gaze.
Eden’s eyes flashed toward where she’d seen the man. If her dreams were coming to life, a mage might be the only person who could help her.
Chapter Four
Alena
The young woman slid into the passenger seat and clicked the seatbelt. Fear rolled off her, but her body seemed steady. Her eyes were wide and alert. Alena scanned the surrounding block but didn’t see the man Eden had described. The Underground was buzzing. The man who had been killing innocent, registered mages had been found and apprehended, but an alert issued to the mage community warned he might not have been working alone. That was all the information they had received, though. No one understood the nature of the threat, how to identify this mysterious organization, or whether the hate group still operated in the Eastern Territory.
Eden's experience didn't match the recent murders, either. She wasn't registered. She wasn't even considered a mage, and she had been threatened instead of brutally killed. The killings were covered widely by the news. Anyone who hated mages could perpetrate copycat crimes, but Eden still didn’t fit the profile of the other victims.
Magic's Divide Page 4
