by Ben Reeder
The click of the hammer being drawn back was all the warning we had. Kiya shoved me to one side, then cried out in pain as the gun in Talbot’s hand fired. I hit the floor with her on top of me, coming down behind the wreckage of the table. I turned her over, expecting to see a gaping wound somewhere vital. Instead, I saw the gouge along her shoulder. She grimaced in pain, but she was still very much alive. I stood.
“Surprised?” Talbot said as he waved the pistol at me. “Did you think I didn’t have more bullets? That I wouldn’t check? Did you think I couldn’t reload?”
“No, I counted on you doingexactly that,” I said. I held my hand up to reveal the ring on my middle finger. “Vocare!” I said. The pistol flew from his hand to mine.
“Look around you,” he sneered, sounding way too confident for a man who had just been beaten and disarmed. “This building is on fire, and we’ve been casting powerful spells close to volatile alchemical reagents. Any minute now, it’s going to either explode, or it’s going to collapse on itself.” I looked around, and sure enough, I could see the flicker of flames from the places where their shots had either missed or been deflected by our shield spells. The alchemical table that we had blasted Ginger and Stewart through was already starting to smolder, and as I watched, blue flames sprang up.
“What’s your point?” I asked as my eyes fell on the crystals, the souls of kids trapped against their will.
“My point is, you’ve castrated yourself by trying to be a hero. You’re not going to shoot me, and you can’t chase me and save your classmates at the same time. So it really means you only have one option.” He turned and looked back at me with a smug grin. “So, farewell, and-”
I pulled the trigger.
Chapter 18
~ Victory is often a hollow reward. ~ Col. Blaine Halifax, British war mage
“You shot me!” Talbot screamed as he held his hands to his left thigh.
“Yeah, I did,” I said as I walked over to him. “I’m still a little fuzzy on that whole good-bad thing.” Somewhere below us, a muffled thump sounded. “Kiya, grab those crystals. I’ve got dumbass here.” I knelt beside Talbot and picked him up, then hoisted him onto my shoulder. He let out a yelp at that, and I made sure to jostle him a little more. Ren’s super fuel seemed to still be working, and I got him down the ladder without too much strain. The fourth floor was already burning, and I would have bet that our fight wasn’t the only one that had caused some damage. Kiya followed me down the ladder, and Desiree’s spirit simply floated through the ceiling to join us. I headed for the stairs. Flames were dancing along the ceiling as we hit the hallway, and the air was almost black from smoke. We descended out of the worst of it by the first landing to the second floor, and the air was almost clear as we hit the first floor. I heard wood groaning, and the building shuddered as something collapsed above us. The we were at the door, and Kiya blew it off the hinges. I stumbled into the cool night air, then suddenly something hot kicked me in the ass and sent me flying.
My shoulder hit the grass and I slid for another twenty feet. When I finally stopped, I looked back to see the second and third floor pretty much gone, and the first floor now engulfed in fire.
“I am so expelled,” I moaned as I sat up.
“Worry about that later,” Desiree said. “Come on!” She floated toward the infirmary, and I got to my feet.
“Don’t move, Fortunato!” I heard Dearborn bark. I turned to see her facing me with her paramiir staff leveled at me. Without thinking, I reached for it, and it flew into my hand. Oh yeah, still magickally amped, too. I threw it back to her.
“I’m not the bad guy here. He is.” Her eyes flicked to Talbot, then back to me as her expression turned to one of disgust. “We still have to restore the souls of their victims,” I said.
“Go.” She didn’t have to tell me twice. Kiya and I got to our feet and took off at a run. Around us, lights were coming on in the residence halls, and people were starting to come out into the quad. I heard Hoshi’s voice behind me and saw him leading the rest of the scholarship students he’d recruited and the remaining Highwaymen toward the infirmary. The fight was over, but the hard part was just beginning.
The doors to the infirmary were open, the Sentinels on duty facing the quad, paramiir out. “This area is off limits!” one of them said in challenge. When Desiree floated past him, he lowered his staff.
“They’re with me,” she said. “Please, they’re trying to save us.”
“Let them go in,” Buchanan’s voice came from behind me. As one, the Sentinels stood down, and we followed Desiree.
She floated in the middle of the room, her hands out toward the bodies on the beds. “I don’t know if…if I’m strong enough to do this. If we are strong enough.”
“The damage was pretty bad,” Buchanan said. “I haven’t been able to figure out a way to undo it.”
“It is not about strength, or knowledge,” Kiya said, her voice serene. “This is about life. It takes life to create life, and to restore it.” She went to Buchanan and put her hand to his cheek. Her eyes were radiant as she smiled at him. “You love teaching because you see that life in your students.” She turned to me. “We are that life, Chance. Not just you and me, but all of us. We have it to spare because we’re young. You have to ask everyone for their help, for a little bit of themselves.”
I backed away and put hand hands up between us. “I’m not a big one for persuasive speaking. And I’m not all that popular, either.”
“This isn’t about you,” Kiya said. “And trust Mother Wata. You’ll find the words you need.” She gestured toward the door, and I…I couldn’t help but go. Hoshi stepped up behind me as I walked out the door with Buchanan on his right.
“Volumen sursum,” Buchanan uttered, and the air in front of my face changed. The quad was quiet. Students were milling around near the doors to their halls, and leaning out windows. I took a breath and hoped. Then I prayed. For the first time in a long time, I asked for Divine help. Please, help me get this right.
“Franklin Acadaemy,” I said, and my voice boomed, sounding stronger than I dared hope. “We need your help. I need your help. Not for me, but for your fellow classmates. If there was ever a single moment when we could be everything we hoped, a moment we could look back at for the rest of our lives and say that we saved a life, that we were truly human…that we were the best we could be…this is that moment. Your classmates need your help, they need you to be their heroes right now. Please, don’t look at me, look at your friends, and do this for them. But I warn you, what we’re about to do calls for a sacrifice. It takes life to restore life, soul to restore soul. You’ll be giving up a little bit of yourself to help save not just the lives of your friends, but their very souls. That’s what makes us heroes. So if you’ve got it in you to be something better, to be worthy of everything this school is supposed to stand for, then step up!”
A few students started moving into the quad, then more. Windows emptied, and more started coming out into the open. Scholarship students and Boston bluebloods came side by side, their faces determined. My chest went tight as I saw more and more join the group in front of me. Kiya came up to stand beside me.
“I told you that you’d find the words,” she said. Her hand was a gentle presence on my shoulder, and her smile sounded through in her voice.
“Or maybe they’re just good people,” I said.
“They are. I will begin here. Help Desiree guide the souls back home.” I turned and went in.
“Put the stones on the beds,” Desiree said as I walked into the infirmary. I didn’t hesitate, and in moments, I had each crystal nestled between the feet of the comatose victims. Desiree stood at the foot of her bed and nodded.
“Okay, looks like we’re good to go.”
“I’ll need to feed from you,” she said. “Is that okay?”
“Sure, anything you need.”
She pointed to her body on the bed. “Just hold my hand.”
&nbs
p; I went to her bedside and took her hand out from beneath the sheets. Her palm was warm and soft, and her hand closed slightly around mine. Outside, Kiya began a chant, and after a couple of minutes, Desiree started to glow, her soul turning from red to white. I felt all of the anger drain from me almost immediately, and I had to struggle to focus on things that might keep that emotion alive in me.
“No, Chance,” Desiree said. “Let go of that. I need something else now. Something pure. Just go with it. It’s okay.” I nodded and let the anger go. White energy began to drift like radiant smoke from Desiree, slowly reaching toward the other students until it hit the crystals. The moment it touched the red crystals, they glowed white as well. Vaguely human looking forms floated up from the crystals, then began to descend into the bodies below them.
Sudden relief and joy flooded me. I’d made a promise to make things right a year ago, and this moment was a tangible reminder that I was making good on it. Desiree glowed even brighter and the crystals cracked, so that the tendrils of white flowed directly into the bodies. The limbs began to glow, then the torsos, until finally, their heads and crown chakras lit up. Each of them began to float above the bed, surrounded by the blinding light. After a few moments, it resolved itself into different colors. Oranges, blues, bright pinks, vibrant yellows began to course through the glowing auras as the bodies descended. Then the energy strands were absorbed into the bodies, leaving Desiree standing there in the middle of the room, glowing, her smile as radiant as her body.
“Your turn,” I said. Desiree looked at me and shook her head.
“You can let go now, Chance,” she said.
“Don’t you still need to feed from me until you get back into your body?”
“Not my hand. Of me. You can let me go now.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice cracking. “Aren’t you…?”
“No, Chance. My body isn’t alive any more. Thank you for holding my hand until the end.”
“No, Desiree,” I said. “No, no, no. Please, not you. You helped everyone else. You’re supposed to live.”
“My fate was sealed the moment I broke my crystal, Chance. Even you have to know that. It’s okay. I knew what I was doing. I made this choice.” She floated toward me, beautiful and amazing.
“Why?” I demanded. “Why you? Why not me?”
“Because you still have other duties to fulfill, other promises to keep. I’m going to miss you, and all that might have been between us. You would have been my friend for life. But…part of me will always be with you.” Her ethereal hand reached out and touched my cheek. My skin tingled all over as she held the touch for a moment, and thin white glowing strands connected us for a moment as she pulled her hand away. Her hand touched mine, the glowing energy infusing my skin for a moment.
The room glowed around her as she began to expand and lose shape. “Desiree,” I said, pleading. “Please…”
“Let go, Chance. Let go of my hand, and let go of me.”
I opened my hand, and Desiree’s hand fell to the sheets, limp, unmoving.
“She didn’t die in vain,” I heard someone say behind me. I turned to see another bright presence, then my vision cleared, and it was the nurse who had talked to me the other night. “Sacrifices like that…her friends, her family, they’ll all know, they’ll all remember. It’s cold comfort now, and all you can do is honor her choice, her sacrifice.”
Tears rolled down my face unchecked as I shook my head. Something in my soul was missing, and nothing was ever going to fill that hole. Greif, sadness, something full of pain and loss welled up inside me, and came out in a wordless scream. I tried to push all the pain and sadness out in that one agonizing sound, to exorcise that particular demon, and find a place where that hurt didn’t exist. And when I got to the bottom of that scream, I found out that there was no place where that hurt hadn’t gone. There was no escaping it, no relief from it.
Cheers came from outside. I stood, and found my shield against all the pain. Rage ran through my veins, only this was not the cold, calculating rage I was used to. This was a hot, unthinking fury that was new to me. I scooped Desiree’s body from the bed and walked out of the infirmary, suddenly offended that anyone celebrate just now. I carried her to the open doors, and the cheering died when I stepped through. One by one, the faces of my classmates, of my friends, fell as they realized what they were seeing. A part of me felt bad for that, but I felt any sense of blame for them slip away. Then my gaze fell on Talbot. He stood there in manacles, his face set in a frown.
His anger pissed me off. I carried Desiree toward him, and the crowd parted before me, cheeks damp as they moved, even among the Sentinels. I set her frail form down at his feet with infinite care, and made sure to tuck her hand under the sheet before I stood to face her true killer.
“She was my friend,” I said. “And you killed her.” Talbot went pale as he recoiled from me.
“Please, Fortunato, you have to-”
His nose broke under my fist with an almost satisfying sound. “Get up.” He struggled to his knees, and I could see his death in his own eyes.
“It wasn’t personal,” he said.
“It was to me,” I said. “Get. Up!”
“Please, stop this,” he said. “I know you’re upset but… but…”
“Tell me what you want,” I said. “Beg me for mercy.”
“Sentinels!” Talbot yelped and held out his manacled hands. “I’m in your custody! You can’t let this happen.” Dearborn came forward and grabbed the chain between the spellbinders, then pulled them free with a yank.
“You attacked his family,” she said coolly. “He’s within his rights to demand justice.” She turned away from him, and every Sentinel did the same, symbolically seeing nothing. A high pitched squeal escaped his lips as he tried to crawl away.
“Adducite huc,” I intoned. The TK spell yanked him to me. I held him by his shirt and shook him. “Say it. Beg for mercy.”
“Yes, please,” he stammered. “You’re a good person. Don’t kill me. Please, mercy.”
“For Desiree,” I said, looking down. “For her, I’ll spare your life. But that’s all I’ll let you keep.” My hands flared with Hellfire, and his eyes went wide as I looked back up at him. I sent the Infernal flame into his body, feeding it all the hatred and anger I had, relishing his screams. I let it ravage his body, and focused it on his nervous system, burning away tissue as precisely as I could.
He sobbed and whimpered as I finished. “Please, no more.” His breath came in pained gasps, and I smiled.
“No more,” I said, and pushed him away. He fell to the ground in a boneless heap, the only sound coming from him a strained wheeze. “No more anything. I take from you everything. You’ll live, but that’s all you’ll ever do.” I knelt and picked Desiree’s body up, then turned and walked away, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down, barely able to breathe.
I could take no pride in what I’d just done, but I could take some small satisfaction. What I’d inflicted on Talbot wasn’t justice. I didn’t think that could ever happen. What I had done was punishment, nothing more.
It would have to do.
Chapter 19
~ To comfort them was our desire, but we were called to silence. ~ Briathos, angel. Unsourced text.
“While Mr. Fortunato’s time here has been beneficial both to him and to the Franklin Academy,” Headmaster Caldecott said, “it is the conclusion of both this institution and his family that the Franklin Academy is not the ideal environment for his academic needs.” The Headmaster’s office was pretty full, and as he set the letter down on his desk, I looked around the room. On my right, Mom and Dr. C looked almost as happy about me being kicked out of wizard school as I was. Even if they were being nice and gentle about it, there was no doubt I was being kicked out of the Franklin Academy.
Draeden was as unreadable as ever, but I couldn’t help but think he had gotten what he wanted out of this whole thing. Beside him, Master Po
lter overflowed his seat. He was less than enthusiastic, judging by his expression. Sentinel Dearborn sat to his left, clearly not happy.
“Mister Fortunato, you’ll be happy to hear that several of your teachers have included letters of recommendation for you in your file.”
“And the…other letters, Headmaster?” Polter asked with a greasy smile.
“Which other letters, Master Polter?”
“The numerous reprimands, and the infraction reports from the Sentinels? Do you think he will be happy to hear about those? After all, he shot one of his instructors!”
“You shot someone?” Mom asked in shock.
“Just a little,” I said. “Plus, he was the guy who attacked Dee.”
“Oh,” Mom said with a smile. “Okay.”
“All of Professor Talbot’s entries in your son’s file have been removed, of course, and there is only one infraction report from the Sentinels.”
“Preposterous,” Polter said. “I demand that he be censured for interfering with the Sentinels carrying out their duties! He carried out his own covert activities, there can be no doubting that. All of those supposedly anonymous messages could have come from no one else.”
“Sir, we have no evidence of anything outside what we’ve documented,” Dearborn said. “To censure him for what we think happened would go against our own code.”
“And in spite of your feelings on the matter,” Draeden said, “I know you’re not about to issue a direct order to do so anyway.”
“Of course not,” Polter said. “So long as he does not graduate from this institution, I am content.”
