by D. N. Hoxa
“She’ll have time to train. If you can do it once, you can do it again,” Elisa said.
“You don’t even know what I did.” She hadn’t been there. Hadn’t seen the sword, or what it had done to the demons.
“You did something that killed those things. That’s good enough for me,” she replied.
“It’s a good plan, especially since it will make sure that we won’t get caught by the ECU again. Tied up to beds, we won’t be able to save anyone,” Luca said.
“I’m not so sure,” Fallon whispered.
“It’s only a few weeks. One month,” Ax said, but he still sounded angry, as if he were still trying to convince himself that this was the right thing to do.
“How would we even separate?” Fallon asked. “There’s five of us.” Her math didn’t add up, either.
“I’d be on my own,” I said reluctantly. Being a lying asshole was no fun, but this was a necessity. “I’m used to it. I work better that way. And now that I know what to look for, I’ll be much more efficient.”
“Grover and Ax would be together, and me and you,” Luca said to Fallon with a smile.
“It’s a wise decision.” Elisa nodded. “I’m very sorry, guys, but the first pair needs to get going very soon. The best way to do this is to wait three hours before the next leaves. That way, the first will be too far away for any demon or ECU device to catch and trail back here.”
“We’ll go first,” Ax said with a nod. My heart jumped for a reason I didn’t understand. The thought of not seeing him again was making me a bit anxious. I looked at him, trying to figure out what the hell he was doing to me, but meeting his eyes only made me feel it more.
“Are you all absolutely sure that this is the right thing to do?” Fallon asked, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
I was.
The reason why those demons had gotten into the ECU research facility was because of the kiss I gave to the green-eyed man. Somehow, in some way, he’d managed to bring them there to play his sick games, to test me, see how far I could stretch, how long before I figured out what the dragon could do. And I was the only one with a dragon on my hand, like Fallon said. I had the weapon that could kill those nasty creatures. Elisa was right—or I just wanted to believe her. If I’d done it once, I could teach myself how to operate the dragon again, how to turn it into a sword. On my own, it was going to be much easier to find the power-suckers, and to sneak up on them, just like Elisa had when she’d freed us from that abandoned hospital. With the lightning sword, there would be no risks. The demons wouldn’t come near me, and I’d chase them until all the others they took were set free. I would have thanked Elisa, if I’d dared to tell any of them my real plan. She was the one who insisted we separate, and brought this awesome idea to me—the only way to wash away my guilt.
“Your priority is the ECU,” Elisa said, and when Ax opened his mouth, she raised her hand to shut him up. It was impossible to make sense of her. She looked so young, yet spoke and felt like she was older than all of us together. “Doesn’t matter what you think. If they catch you, they won’t bother to keep you cuffed again. They’ll kill you. Nobody is going to save the others then. So make that your top priority.” She was right, of course.
“It’s just a month,” Luca said, nodding at himself.
“Just a month.” By then, hopefully, things would have changed drastically.
“What about Sienna?” Fallon asked and my heart jumped again. We’d left the witch with Mathias, but I had no idea if that had been a good thing or a bad thing.
“I’ll talk to Mathias,” Ax said, and Luca shivered.
“Ax, if he’s—”
“He wasn’t in on it. I know him. He had no idea, or he’d have never let us leave,” Ax cut him off. I believed him. Mathias could have been many things, but he was not a traitor against his own godson. “I’ll tell him to send her back where she came from.”
“If she wanted to go back, she wouldn’t have run away.” I felt bad for Sienna, but she was better off wherever she was raised, far away from this mess.
“I’ll get Mathias to take her there himself,” Ax said. “Where did she come from, Fall? Did she tell you?”
Fallon nodded, her face full of sadness. “Newton, Iowa. Her father owns a dairy farm.”
“What if she already left?” Grover asked.
“Could be. I’ll give him a call as soon as we leave.”
“Use a disposable,” Luca said. “And get out of the city as fast as you can.”
“You, too,” Ax said with a nod. It was heartbreaking to hear them pretend they didn’t care that they were leaving.
“I’ll fix you up with a few weapons,” Elisa said. She was suddenly in a great mood to see us leaving.
Ax turned to me. “Right, so…I think you should come with us.” My cheeks flushed.
“Too much energy in one place.” Thank God Elisa spoke before I could.
“She’ll be on her own,” Ax said.
“Which suits me just fine. I was on my own before you found me,” I reminded him. I’d been happy, drowning in blissful ignorance, never knowing how much I missed belonging. That was why I needed to do this myself. If something happened to them before I figured out how to free the others, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
“Let’s get you boys spelled and ready for the road,” Elisa said, rubbing her hands together
The guys all wore Noah’s clothes. It was a guess because they looked a size too big on Luca and Ax, but close to fitting on Grover. Like me, Fallon wore Elisa’s clothes, though they fit her much better. My jeans were uncomfortable, but they’d do just fine for now. With any luck, by this time tomorrow, I’ll be wearing my own clothes and holding my own weapons.
It sucked to watch Ax and Grover go. They refused to say goodbye, merely a see you later, because goodbye was too definite. We were going to meet right where we first did, on the construction site where they’d found me, right before they got sucked dry by the demons I’d invited over there to fight. One month. It wasn’t a lot, but hopefully, it was going to be enough for me.
“What’s on your mind?” Elisa whispered to me while we watched the others. I’d said goodbye to both of them, and I’d given Luca and Fallon their space while I watched Ax. His eyes met mine every few seconds, too. I saw sadness in them. Maybe he was afraid he’d never see me again, too.
“Nothing,” I said to Elisa, but the truth was, everything was on my mind. Going back to my apartment, finding a way to sneak in to get clothes, money and weapons, and figuring out how to track the demons back to wherever they were hiding. And if I couldn’t do that, the abandoned hospital would be the perfect place to start. They’d taken us there, hadn’t they? Why wouldn’t they take the others to the same place?
After that, it was only a matter of figuring out what to do with the dragon.
A sigh escaped my lips. It was going to be a long month.
“Bull,” Elisa whispered, chuckling. “I know you’re hiding something.”
“Even if I was, you wouldn’t want to know.” She was eager to kick us out, and with right. With every second we stayed there, we made her easier to find by the ECU. I wouldn’t have wanted us there, either.
“You’re right, I don’t,” she said. “Don’t forget, guys. Straight out of the city. No stops!” She waved at Grover and Ax, a bright smile on her face.
Ax held my eyes for one last time before he stepped out the door and into the sunlight. Something tugged at my chest. I almost ran and jumped in his arms. Though I didn’t know him very well, my body behaved like it knew his. Like it had felt his touch before and it had bathed in his warmth, and it demanded a replay. Instead, I just waved my hand at him weakly, and hoped with all my heart that I’d get to see him again.
Three
Ax and Grover were headed for San Francisco for two weeks. From there, they’d go to Washington. Luca and Fallon would first go to Texas, then Louisiana, while I, we decided, would go to Florid
a, then up in South Carolina, before coming back to Manhattan. Little did they know, I didn’t plan to leave at all.
Elisa was very prompt. As soon as three hours passed after Ax and Grover left, she reminded Luca and Fallon that they were next.
“Be careful, Scarlet,” Luca warned me while Elisa did her spells on them.
“You, too. If something happens, run. Don’t try to fight, just run.” Elisa had given them each a small gun, but that wasn’t going to do much against the ECU, or the demons.
“Only if you do the same,” Luca said. The smile didn’t reach his eyes. He stepped to the side when Elisa began to chant her spell on Fallon. That’s when it occurred to me…
“Can I ask you something, Luca? How old are you?” It was a strange question to ask, but an answer I needed to know.
“Twenty,” Luca said. “I look much older, I know.”
My heart fell all the way to my heels. “What about the rest?”
“Fallon just turned twenty-one. Grover is still nineteen, if you can believe it.” Yes, that was really hard to believe. He looked so old, which just showed how difficult his life had been. “Ax turned twenty-one at the beginning of the year.”
Dammit, I was older than all of them.
But that didn’t mean that the green-eyed man was right. There was no freaking way that I was the first witch of our kind. There were others out there, so many others, and at least one of them was older than me, I just knew it. For now, I didn’t give it much thought.
With tears in her eyes, Fallon shook my hand, and Luca even hugged me, gave me a kiss on the cheek. It felt like we were real friends for a second, but it was just an illusion. I was no real friend to anyone. Real friends didn’t lie to each other.
I debated telling at least Luca what I planned, but I already knew he wasn’t going to let me go. He’d never leave there without me. He’d insist on coming with me, and I couldn’t have that. It was better this way, or so I told myself. When they left, the goodbye almost had me in tears. Instead of letting them fall, I focused on my breathing and sat on Elisa’s couch to pretend to watch TV while she went off in the kitchen and did whatever she was doing.
Frozen for a while, my mind had completely blocked. I knew what I was going to do, but somehow, time had suspended and it refused to pass by at its usual pace. The minutes stretched to eternity until every cell in my body was overflowing with panic and questions I was never going to find answers to, unless I did what I had to do.
“Here,” Elisa said, making me jump. She was much closer than I’d realized. I hadn’t even heard her sit on the couch beside me.
She offered me a bowl of popcorn and a soda can. Like a robot, I took them and put them on my lap.
“I’m trying to figure out how that thing could have turned into a sword, but it’s way beyond me,” she said, opening her own soda. “Can you walk me through what happened? I’d love to hear it, and we have time.”
It was true. I still had another hour to kill before leaving.
“I’m not sure what happened. I found this weapon, and—” but she cut me off.
“The best stories start from the very beginning,” she said with a wink. “I saw you fighting Finn’s agents when they came for me. I do appreciate that, but I wish you hadn’t bothered. Now, I almost feel like it’s my fault that got you into this mess.”
I laughed dryly. “Literally. The others were set on going into the ECU to help others like us, to set them free, but me?” Shaking my head at myself, I laughed some more. “All I wanted to do was find you. Get you out so you could tell me everything.” But now, that no longer seemed important. In my hand was a dragon that could kill demons, and it no longer mattered where they were from. It mattered that they died, and that we found a way to get the ECU to stop hunting us down. Maybe I was delusional for even thinking it, but ultimately, that’s what I wanted.
“So what happened?” Elisa pushed, and I told her. It was better than waiting for time to pass, anyway. I told her about Mathias, and about Oscar, and about the dragon. I told her about the research facility, how we’d gotten in, when we’d figured out that we’d been played, and everything that had happened inside.
Well, almost everything. I didn’t tell her about the fairy Gerin, or about the green-eyed man. The dragon was going to remain a secret to her for now, as well as my relationship to a psychopath who could walk through walls and bring a horde of demons to the ECU door.
“It’s probably fairy,” Elisa whispered when the story ended. She couldn’t tear her eyes off my left hand. To do something, I swallowed some soda and filled my mouth with popcorn. “I’d inspect it, but I don’t want to be thrown against the wall.”
“No, no. Don’t touch it,” I said, spilling pieces of popcorn in the process.
“Have you tried to get it off?”
There’s a question I’d been hiding from myself.
I hadn’t tried to take the dragon off. “Yes.” Don’t know why I lied. Don’t know why I didn’t try to take it off yet, but I was pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that it could kill demons. For two years, I’d tried to find a way to end their lives. So far, the dragon hadn’t activated again. It hadn’t eaten my skin like I’d feared. All it had done was kill demons. For now, I was keeping it, right until the witches they kidnapped were free.
“What are you planning to do?” she asked me.
“Go to Florida.” It seemed every time I spoke lately, I lied.
“No, I mean what are you really planning to do?” At least she wasn’t buying it.
“I’m really planning to go to Florida.” Once the person knew they were being lied to, the lies flowed a bit easier.
“So you don’t mind if I see you to the airport?” She grinned.
“I’m not going to the airport. I’m going to steal a car.”
“Smart,” Elisa said. “And then what?” She was desperately trying to pry the words out of me. But I wasn’t going to give up.
“And then I’m going to find others like me, Elisa. I’m going to search every inch of those places until I get them, and I’m going to come back here.” My own mind commended me. I was so good at this, it was scary.
“Suit yourself, Scarlet,” Elisa said. Laughing, she stood up. “Suit yourself.”
“Can I use your bathroom? Then, I’ll be on my way.” Twenty more minutes—I could lock myself in the bathroom until they were up because I didn’t want to risk accidentally telling Elisa what I was really up to. Not that she’d care, but if she told anyone at all, word could get out fast, and the ECU had ears everywhere, especially around the Lair after what happened last night.
“Sure thing. Right after I’m done,” Elisa said with a grin, and she danced her way to the bathroom, leaving me all alone. That worked, too.
She didn’t take nearly as long as I’d hoped. I only had a little over ten minutes now before Elisa put her spells on me and sent me on my way, and every second made me more anxious. Now that I was actually about to walk out of the house, a thousand different scenarios invaded my mind. The ECU could be right outside, waiting for me, no matter that Elisa was sure we were protected. They could have already gotten the others, and if that was the case, and I somehow made it out of there alive, I wasn’t going to know for sure until the month was over. How do you live with something like that, I wondered. How could I live not knowing?
I would be busy planning. Hunting down the demons. Teaching myself how to use the dragon sword.
Besides, the others could take care of themselves. They could outrun the ECU. It’s the lie I told myself a thousand times, and still didn’t believe it.
“Make it quick,” Elisa said when I entered the bathroom. She was coming out of her room with three Pretters in her hand, and a small notebook with rainbow covers. She was going to get me ready to leave.
Splashing cold water on my pale face wasn’t helping. My heart beat loudly and my ears whistled. Even the air seemed to try to warn me that something bad was abo
ut to happen. But I was used to that, wasn’t I? I was used to expecting the worst. What was so different this time?
Getting my shit together wasn’t going to happen while I was in there by myself, so I walked out to find Elisa. She would be sure to distract me. Her rainbow notebook was on her lap, the mini pages filled with very messy handwriting. The green pen she’d used to write with glowed under the light.
“What’s that?” I sat on the couch beside her, focusing on controlling my breathing. I didn’t want her to realize how scared I was.
“I’ve got some spells here,” she mumbled, turning the page.
That little thing certainly didn’t look like a grimoire. My family’s was covered in blood-colored leather, our name embossed on the front, with a thick stainless steel lock to which only my father and mother had the key.
“Right, so.” She put the notebook on the table, and rubbed her hands together before turning them to my face. She began to chant fast as if she were in a hurry, the words of her spell the same as the ones she’d conjured on the others. Her fingers were slightly shaking, but I wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light.
“You’re shaking,” I whispered when she was done and small needles pierced the skin over my chest for two seconds before they stopped. It was her spell settling on me.
“I didn’t get the chance to rest properly, but I’ll be okay. So much spellcasting gets to you,” she said, waving me off. She gave me two Pretters, and put the third in her own pocket. “I’ll activate these for you as soon as we walk out, just in case there are demons around. One blocks any tracking spells, and the other blocks your energy inside you. If you use your magic, though, the latter is going to break. Keep away from your magic until you can buy more.”
“Wait, we walk out?”
“Yes, I’m going out myself. Got some things to do before nightfall,” she said and with the notebook in her hands, she went back to her room.
“What if I need to use my magic?” Both the demons and the ECU could be following me. I’d need to use everything I had to get away.
