Warlocks of the Sigil (The Sigil Series Book 1)

by Peri Akman

“That’s because we get good at hiding it,” Kole snapped. “He’s the type of warlock that’s going to end up dead before he’s thirty. From suicide. Because his terrible master of a warlock taught him that he has to work himself to the bone!”

  Kole continued her rantings the entire time to the hospital, littered with colorful metaphors and salty language. Quinn tried to listen, but his mind drifted elsewhere to a far more important decision to make: did he give Sennta the glasses now at the hospital, or should he wait for when they hung out on the roof, where they would have more time to talk? The selfish part of Quinn wanted more time to bask in Sennta’s gratitude, rather than a quick, dumbfounded look before being whisked away to return to work. The impatient part of his mind, however, wanted to deliver the gift at the hospital immediately, for instant gratification.

  They were heading to the hospital anyway, and Sennta would need it as early as possible…

  Definitely the hospital. Instant gratification it was. Quinn grinned, anticipation already taking hold.

  When they reached the hospital, Kole stopped him. “Don’t stay out too late tonight, Quinn. We’re gonna spend some time taking a crack at your powers, all right?”

  Quinn nodded. He was excited for that, but, for some reason, he was slightly more excited about the gift.

  Quinn clocked in, still trying to decide when to give Sennta the sunglasses, but as it turned out, his decision had already been made for him: Sennta wasn’t at the hospital today. Apparently Sennta had nearly passed out in the hallway, and was taking a sick day.

  Most of Quinn’s jobs in the hospital had involved providing assistance to Sennta, so without him, he was relegated to the dullest and most simple of paperwork. It wasn’t too bad; it meant he stayed in one place, and he got to listen to the gossip going on between the other warlocks.

  One seemed to create “bubbles” of healing in a small area; from what Quinn had observed, Kole mimicked his abilities the most amongst the staff, since it meant no need for physical contact. He specialized in purification, and could sober up almost anyone with ease. It also meant he had stopped a few poisonings before. Quinn learned that last part because the healer managed to slip it into an hour-long conversation about six separate times.

  The other was mostly lamenting about her terrible family problems, but she specialized in growing cells rapidly. Unfortunately for her, she needed to directly touch whatever was damaged, and in the proper order; if a stab wound went all the way through the gut, she needed to reach in there and heal the gut first. Also apparently her sister (warlocks could have siblings? News to Quinn) was being a jerk and accused her of giving her dog cancer or something.

  They discussed Doctor Travitz, and how she was working them too hard, and they even discussed Kole, mostly expressing their strong desire for her to shut up. They discussed the weather, and the fact that once their paychecks came in, they were going to go spend them on alcohol.

  They were just getting to gossiping about Sennta when one of them turned and saw Quinn filing the paperwork, and the two got quiet. They shuffled off to gossip elsewhere.

  If they hadn’t noticed Quinn, would they have eventually discussed him? Probably not, he wasn’t exactly noticeable. But it was still something he desperately wanted to know. Would they have bad things to say? Maybe he was too timid, or useless? Something? He couldn’t really complete the thought, but the anxiety was unpleasant nonetheless.

  His shift ended without incident, and he bounded back to the apartment, leaving Kole in the literal and figurative dust.

  It was in the rickety stairwell of the apartment that he ran into Sennta. His hair was not tied back as tightly as it normally was, stray strands of hair fraying every which way. He had dark circles underneath his eyes, and his lips seemed dried and cracked.

  Sennta gave a vague nod to Quinn.

  “Sennta. I know you’re sick, but come to the roof with me, I got you a present.” Quinn whispered. He tried to sign what he knew, but he flat out forgot the movements for “follow me” and instead just flailed.

  Sennta blinked in surprise, but turned to follow Quinn.

  Quinn nearly jumped up the stairs, two to three steps at a time. Once he reached the top, he couldn’t wait any more. He whipped around, took out the box, and practically shoved it in Sennta’s face.

  “What,” Sennta murmured.

  “It’s a present for putting up with me and my slowness,” Quinn explained, grinning ear to ear. “Open it!”

  Sennta gently opened the box, revealing the sunglasses.

  His reaction was not what Quinn expected, but it was no less satisfying. Sennta gave a laugh, an actual laugh with noise, even if it was only the smallest of gasps.

  He opened them up, and held them to the light.

  “These are amazing. Thanks,” he said. His smile seemed as wide as Quinn’s. He put his glasses on his face.

  Quinn grinned a bit more, and shifted his weight back and forth. “You’re welcome!”

  Sennta hugged Quinn, suddenly. It was tight, warm, and made Quinn’s heart flutter. Quinn smiled and buried his head in Sennta’s shoulder. Sennta was oddly soft for someone with such a tall and gangly frame.

  Sennta withdrew the hug slightly, and lowered the sunglasses, his dark black eyes practically sparkling in the sunlight.

  “You mean a lot to me, you know?” he said, propping Quinn’s face up by his chin.

  Quinn felt his face turn hot. “Thanks.” He grinned. No one ever told him anything like that before. That he meant a lot to someone… Quinn chewed the inside of his cheek, feeling like an idiot smiling so much. He forced through the embarassment to make eye contact with Sennta’s smiling face. It was weird, looking into his eyes, it was like some tanner, prettier version of Kole telling him that…

  They had the same eyes.

  That… that couldn’t be right.

  His eyes had been amber. That was one of the first things Quinn had noticed about him in the first place.

  Kole’s eyes were just black. She’d used magic in front of him, expressed knowledge. That was normal. But Sennta… if Sennta had black eyes…

  Quinn swallowed dryly.

  “Uh, Sennta, if you don’t mind, I’m uh… really tired. I’m going to be right back, I swear… I just need to go get my… medication. From my bag.” Quinn lied. “Mackie told me I needed them. Remember?”

  Sennta nodded, as if this was the most sensible thing in the world for Quinn to say.

  Quinn practically stumbled down the stairs. Demon. He had just given Sennta’s sunglasses to a demon. Or a demon possessing Sennta. Wait, could warlocks get possessed? Quinn honestly couldn’t remember, which was worrying as he had been taught this extensively in the Academy.

  He practically slammed open the door, but Kole wasn’t home yet. Curses rang throughout his head. Stupid stupid stupid.

  Noises came from the stairwell, coupled with annoyed yelling. Of course.

  Quinn raced down the stairs, and sure enough, midway through, was Kole struggling to climb the stairs, Doctor Travitz helping her up.

  The two looked at Quinn, panting and heaving, and immediately sensed something was wrong.

  “Quinn… are you hurt?” Doctor Travitz asked.

  Quinn took a deep breath. “Sennta has black eyes.” He tried to keep calm, but failed to stop himself from babbling. “He has black eyes he didn’t call me by name and he started talking way too loudly and I’m afraid he’s a demon.”

  Kole, dumbfounded, took a step so she was on the same level as Quinn. “And your first instinct was to leave the area and find us?” she asked, as if Quinn had done something wrong.

  Quinn shrank. “…yeah?”

  For the second time today, Quinn was hugged. Kole practically tackled him to the ground.

  “MY APPRENTICE! MY WONDERFUL PARANOID APPRENTICE!” Kole cheered. Quinn flailed underneath her weight.

  “Kole,” Travitz stated, her voice wavering. “Can’t you do this… later?”

&n
bsp; Kole nodded. “True. Sorry. I’m just so proud of this man. He’s three for three by this point.” Her voice was filled with glee before turning serious. “Now, what is the plan here?”

  Doctor Travitz clenched her hands into tight fists. “It can’t be a possession. Sounds like a swap. But we have no idea how long he’s been gone. He… Sennta could be dead.”

  Quinn felt the blood drain out of his face.

  “Well, there is one good part. He’s been missing for less than a day,” Kole muttered. “I still have his powers.”

  Travitz’s face flashed with relief.

  “Quinn, are you trained to fight?” Travitz asked.

  “What? Me?” Quinn practically spat.

  “You did just have a conversation with him, right?” Travitz persisted.

  Quinn paled.

  “Travitz is right… and I’m not making it up an extra chunk of stairs.” Kole heaved. “You two go up now. Make something up. I don’t care. Once we have the demon, we can go find Sennta.”

  Without even waiting for Quinn, Doctor Travitz raced upstairs, gripping Quinn by the hand and practically dragging him with her.

  “What did you tell it?” Doctor Travitz snarled.

  “What?”

  “How did you get away from him?” Travitz continued to run, with Quinn practically tripping over his own feet.

  “I said I needed to take some medication!” Quinn sputtered.

  Travitz nodded. “Okay. I have a plan.”

  By the time they reached the roof, Quinn’s legs were on fire. Doctor Travitz, meanwhile, was perfectly capable of running a marathon, not even stopping to catch her breath when they came face to face with Sennta waiting, wearing the sunglasses.

  He stood up. “Hello.”

  Travitz paused, like she was concentrating intently.

  And then she sighed. “For a moment there,” she whispered, “I thought Quinn was wrong.”

  Sennta blinked in confusion. He tooked a few steps towards Doctor Travitz. Travitz prodded Quinn, and motioned towards the shaded area underneath the tarp. Did she need something from there? Quinn made a few steps towards it.

  Travitz immediately reached out and grabbed Sennta’s head. “Sennta” screamed. Boils and pus erupted from his face, and Travitz tightened her grip.

  “Grab a weapon, Quinn!” Travitz roared, her fingers digging into the boy.

  Then the form shifted, the back arched, the hair receded and the face started to melt off. It no longer looked like Sennta, more like some monstrous Sennta look-a-like. The demon forcibly tugged away, and moved back, falling onto all fours, hissing like an animal.

  Travitz positioned herself, her breathing ragged. The demon charged her, and she tried to grab him, but his body contorted around her grasp. Apparently the spine was just for display. The demon took a solid bite into her hand and wrist, ripping out a huge chunk of flesh.

  Quinn meanwhile was searching desperately for something, anything, to use. He had tried to grip an exposed piping, but as it turned out it was far too hot, nearly burning him. He needed to find something less searing, a rock or a bat or—a bat!

  Quinn spotted a bat on the ground as if by divine intervention. He dipped to the ground, snatching the bat, and rose back to his feet. He looked back at Travitz and the demon, and froze. He watched with wide eyes, his hand gripped around the bat like it was his lifeline.

  Bleeding, swearing, and possibly crying, Travitz gripped her wounded hand as the demonic facsimile of a man in front of her snarled further.

  It… did something.

  Quinn couldn’t actually tell what was going on, but it roared and suddenly a wave of nausea hit him. He felt like he was going to vomit, but steadied himself; Doctor Travitz did not react so well. She staggered back, retching and teetering as she tried to heal her own wounds. She could manipulate her own generated bacteria to do her bidding; healing a wound quickly did not come naturally to her. Especially now, it seemed like nothing was happening at all; the skin was barely shifting, and the blood continued to flow even as she tried to stop it.

  The demon snarled and attacked, but this time Travitz was ready. She didn’t bother with magic; instead, she drew her arm back and punched it in the nose. The demon fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Travitz slammed her foot onto his face.

  This was a mistake, as the demon became less Sennta-like, unhinged its jaw, and bit down on her shoe, piercing straight to the foot.

  Travitz yelped in pain, tripping on her own feet.

  Quinn gripped his bat. He had to act. He had to act now. But his feet refused to move.

  Just one step. He could make one step, right?

  He took a single step.

  Then he took another.

  And another.

  Now he just had to lift up his bat.

  Lift up the bat.

  Every single one of his nerves was on fire as Travitz scuffled desperately with the demon.

  His hands trembled.

  Thwack.

  The bat made contact with Demon-Sennta’s temple.

  The demon staggered. He turned to Quinn, snarling. Quinn lifted up his bat and yelped. The bat was completely broken in half. How?

  He barely had time to comprehend his combination of amazing and terrible luck when Travitz leaped and plunged her fingers into the demon’s eyes, causing fungus to practically spurt out of them.

  The demon fell to the ground, spasming.

  “Get some rope,” Travitz ordered quietly, wiping the blood off her fingers with her shirt. “We need to interrogate him next. We need to track down Sennta.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Kole was waiting for them in the apartment, massaging her left leg through her bandages.

  Still spasming and tied up, the demon looked less and less like Sennta every minute. Quinn was sore from trying to drag the demon down the stairs, and Travitz had a limp as well. Their arduous progress was rewarded by a nasal yelp from Kole, who staggered over to heal the bruised and bloodied warlocks.

  First she healed Travitz’s torn apart wrist and ankle, then she went to Quinn and healed the scratches he had gotten from trying to tie up the flailing demon. It felt like a sunburn as blood flowed to the wounds at a rapid pace.

  Doctor Travitz reached into a cabinet and picked out a small tinted bottle of liquid. She crammed it down the demon’s throat, forcing it to swallow. Her hand glowed, and its skin turned a bright red as the liquid travelled through its body at an inhuman rate.

  Demon-Sennta fluttered its eyes and went still.

  “That should give us some time to catch our breath,” Doctor Travitz stated, nodding.

  “You just… have poison lying around, casually?” Kole sputtered.

  “Yes,” she replied, wiping the sweat from her face. “It’s still conscious, but the restricted movement and the poison should keep it nice and calm.”

  “See, this is why we became friends,” Kole chuckled, but she also took Quinn by the shoulder. “Can I talk to you in private?”

  Quinn nodded, not taking his eyes off of the passed-out demon.

  They went into the musty stairwell.

  “Quinn, first off, are you all right? Demons are nasty pieces of work.” Kole asked.

  “Yeah,” Quinn muttered. He didn’t really mean it, though. His adrenaline had left him shaking. He actually had very poor memory of what happened.

  “Also I want to commend you. It takes guts to fight a demon. You did a good job,” Kole continued.

  “I got lucky,” Quinn said, not bothering to make eye contact.

  “Lucky?” Kole asked, perplexed.

  “Yeah. If Sennta hadn’t had a bat up there I would have been useless,” Quinn said. He paused and frowned, and looked down at his hand. He actually didn’t remember dropping it. He probably did so when he went to find rope, but it was a weird thing to not remember.

  “You mean a bat like this?” Kole asked, pulling the exact same bat, only unbroken, from behind her back.

  Qu
inn’s eyes bulged. “What? You fixed it!”

  Kole stifled what appeared to be laughter. She placed her stick against the wall, and pulled out another bat from her robes.

  “Or is it this bat?” Kole asked, her voice full of some sort of maniacal glee.

  Quinn frowned. “Okay, seriously, stop with the tricks.”

  “Hey, don’t blame me, Quinn, I just mimic the tricks of other warlocks,” Kole said dismissively.

  Quinn shrugged. “Whatever. Is it really that important that…”

  He stopped talking. There was something she was implying there.

  “Wait… when you said you were mimicking that skill… were you mimicking it off of…” Quinn began, not breaking eye contact.

  Kole nodded before he finished. She waved the bat as if it were a trophy, before it abruptly disappeared without a sound or a visual indication. “Congratulations, Quinn. You have your inclination—summoning.”

  It felt unreal, like this was some sort of weird dream. “I can summon… bats?” Quinn sputtered, not sure if he fully understood.

  “Most summoners have preferences and talents, like any other type of affinity, but at the moment you can summon bats. And a few other things right now—such as a broken bat, funnily enough. Certain paper forms. Were you struggling with paperwork or something?” Kole asked.

  Quinn nearly laughed. “Yeah. I guess… hah… wow… is that bad?”

  “No, but you’ll have to redo that paperwork. I don’t think any summoner is capable of getting things to stay here permanently,” Kole was clearly amused by this.

  Quinn ran his fingers through his air. He could summon things. What did this mean? What could he do with that? A lot, he assumed, but he couldn’t think of anything right now—wait.

  “Hey, Kole, what exactly can I summon?” he asked, suddenly worried. “Like, exactly exactly?”

  Kole screwed her eyes in concentration. “Uh. Bat. Broken bat. A cup. Pills. They don’t do anything, I don’t think. You have a fuzzy area of potential but you haven’t really figured that out yet so I can’t mimic that. Paperwork. A pen. Rope. Why?”

  The noise of something breaking in the house rang out.

  “Oh,” Kole muttered quietly, her eyes widening along with Quinn’s.