by Alicia Fabel
“Push me and find out,” Ian threatened.
The man didn’t flinch, but Ian’s words calmed the all-out terror in Annessa’s chest.
“He’s a charmer.” Ian nodded at the knife-wielder. “He can reflect your emotions back on you. So you might be a little afraid, but he’ll make you so terrified you can’t think straight.”
“How do I make him stop?” Annessa asked.
“You can’t, but if he does it again, I’ll make him tear his own head from his shoulders,” Ian promised.
The Phyton hissed and moved closer to each other.
“I don’t care who you are,” Ian said, answering something that only he must have heard. “You know who I am.”
The woman walked up to Ian and spat, “No one here cares.”
Ian swung a fist. It connected but the next one didn’t. A gust of wind knocked him off his feet. His head bounced against the floor and the two men converged. The woman grinned while they kicked the crap out of Ian. When Annessa tried to intervene, she went down without anyone laying a finger on her. All she could do was stare at Ian’s bloodied face and make sure his side rose and fell. He was alive, but he didn’t open his eyes.
“Why don’t you just kill us?” Annessa asked.
“You’re in a hurry to die?” taunted the woman.
“I just don’t understand what you’re waiting for.”
The woman tapped her watch. “Not what, who.”
And then Annessa understood. This was about Elion.
“Look at that,” said the tapper Phyton. “She figured it out.”
“He raced across the country to save your neck,” recounted the woman. “And then he carted you off to the Academy. We didn’t expect that. A norm at the Academy? That’s when we knew you were not just any acquaintance.”
“You should’ve stayed behind those gates,” said the tapper, giving Ian another kick. “You’re not the brightest to befriend a loose cannon like this guy.”
“Why do you want him so badly?” Annessa asked.
The tapper asked, “Do you know anything about the Titans from Greek mythology?”
It was such a random question, but Annessa answered, “They were assholes with a penchant for incest.”
The charmer guy growled.
“Sorry. Didn’t realize you guys had a thing for incest too.” Annessa coughed and sucked in a pained breath. “Although, I can see it now.”
Ian choked on a laugh. Annessa was relieved he was awake.
“Your Legend better get here fast, you’re not looking so good,” observed the woman.
“Titans were Phyton,” continued the tapper as if nothing had interrupted him. “They ruled the world until humans stole their arts.”
“You’re telling me this is all so you can be titans again and rule over humans?”
“No.” The woman shook her head. “We won’t risk them taking our arts again.”
“You’re just going to kill all the humans?” It sounded ridiculous but it was clear that’s what they wanted. “Why wait? Why not take out all the humans and then keep all the power for yourselves?”
“We can’t risk killing off someone who might be born with the Legend powers. But once we have all the Legends back in our possession, that won’t be an issue any more.”
Annessa laid her head against the plank floor. She figured she’d be better off if she didn’t fight dying. Then Elion could destroy these scumbags without worrying about her.
“She’s starting to sound like a martyr,” said the tapper.
“Honey, you aren’t going to die before we get what we want,” the woman promised her.
“Then you better give me back my shadow soon, or you’re gonna be SOL.” Even as Annessa said it, darkness pooled beside her. Zoom was back.
Instead of attaching to her, the wisp pulsed and spread, growing darker. If it hadn’t been for her, the Phyton probably wouldn’t have noticed. But the tapper plucked it right from her mind and moved to stand against the wall near the darkening circle.
Ian’s eyes widened. He tried to call out a warning just as Axton stepped through the wisp, like a portal. The Phyton’s blade stuttered mid-swing as it arched toward Axton. Ian’s focus was intent on the tapper, his face taut. And then the woman kicked Ian in the head. His eyes rolled back, and the knife continued its path to embed in Axton’s chest. He hadn’t seen the Phyton. He’d been too intent on getting to Annessa. Now his eyes dropped to look at the handle of the blade sticking out from the center of his chest. A patch of red began to spread around it.
Annessa didn’t know that shadows made a noise, and maybe normal ones don’t, but a wisp does when their person is dying. Zoom keened like a broken animal. Annessa’s labored breathing broke with a sob. The woman threw an orb of fire at the Zoom, but he split out of the way. When she threw a second one, Zoom snatched the shadow it cast and slung it back at her. She put the fire out before it reached her, but she didn’t try again. Zoom stopped shrieking to wrap Axton in a cocoon of darkness.
The charmer turned on Annessa when she tried to crawl toward Axton. Apparently, he’d only been having a little fun before, because all of a sudden Annessa’s world crashed. All she wanted was for everything to end.
“The girl doesn’t look good,” said the tapper.
“She’ll live until her boyfriend comes for her and makes a deal,” said the woman confidently.
“You shouldn’t have stabbed that one,” said the tapper. “Now the wisp is trying to save its master, and it can’t keep the girl alive.”
“Like I said, it doesn’t matter. He’s getting close.” The woman held up her watch to show the hands skipping irregularly around the face. “And he’s not in control.”
14
A Phyton waited for Elion as he pulled up to the outdoor entertainment center at the other end of town.
“If my friends are hurt…” Elion warned.
“Oh, they’re hurt,” the Phyton replied. “And whether they live is up to you.”
Elion glanced around, hoping to get an idea of how many more Phyton were in the area. Meanwhile, his mother screamed in his head for him to stand down. She had been bellowing like that ever since he’d raced away from the Academy without waiting for a team.
“My team is right behind me,” Elion bluffed.
“I don’t believe they are.” Then the Phyton added in Elion’s head, Your mother screams louder than mine. I almost feel sorry for you.
Elion threw up his shields. It blocked out the team, but it also blocked out the Phyton tapper, which was more important just then.
“If I were you, I’d stop dicking around,” said the Phyton. “Your girlfriend’s been without a shadow for over an hour now.” Elion flinched and the Phyton added quickly, “If you mess with my timeline, my sister will bury me and the girl’s shadow so deep inside the mountain that you’ll never get it in time. And if you try to take this whole mountain out of time, I won’t tell you where to find the man who brought your girlfriend to us. Now, I assume you wouldn’t care if he died alone right about now, but I bet your parents would disagree since he’s also a Legend. Correct?”
“If you know that, then why should I believe you’ll ever tell me where he is?”
“Because for now we want your cooperation and that’s more likely if we leave him here as a bargaining chip. But don’t worry. We’ll return for him another time.”
“What do you want me to do?” Elion asked.
“Come with us, without a fight.”
Elion glanced at the rental hut behind the Phyton. Ness was right there and he couldn’t rush to her side. “How do I know you won’t let my friends die?”
“I’ll let you give your girlfriend back her shadow yourself. Your team will be able to save your bender friend once we are gone. I know you have people who are good at healing knife wounds.”
“What about my other friend?” Although friend didn’t come close to describing Ian.
“You can relay the other Legen
d’s location to your mother before we’re out of range.” The Phyton smiled. “Do we have a deal? And before you think you can just get what you want now and then double cross me in five minutes, you won’t be conscious to do that.”
Damn. That’s exactly what he’d been planning. “How are you going to do that?”
“By making you drink this.” The Phyton held up a vial. “Once you drink it, you’ll be on the clock—ironic, right? You’ll have five minutes to save your girlfriend and the Legend. But you should be quick about it. I’m not sure the girl has five more minutes.”
Elion snatched the vile and threw back the sedative. “Now give me her shadow.”
The Phyton reached into his pocket and produced the shadowbox. But he seemed to realize something was wrong as soon as Elion did. A crack ran down one side of the glass cube. It was empty. Without an owner to bind to, Annessa’s shadow had dissipated. It was gone. The sedative and Elion’s rage demolished the last of his mental shields.
Ian contacted Quinn. His mom cried as soon as she could get through. She can find him.
The Phyton’s eyes widened. He didn’t even take the time to focus his thoughts toward his companions. He just screamed, run!
Elion took hold of the man and yanked his timeline forward, as he hadn’t been able to do with the potted seed. Right before his eyes, the Phyton aged into an ancient man in a single breath. In the next breath, he turned to dust. A twister touched down on a far mountain, whisking one of the Phyton away. A third one tried to run from the building but didn’t make it more than a few steps.
Elion didn’t pause as he passed the crumbling corpse. He barreled into the hut. Ax and Ness lay in the middle of the floor. Annessa was still, her flaxen hair spread over the floor around her. Her skin was porcelain white, where it should be tinged with shades of honey. Elion’s breath caught until her chest rose slightly. Axton’s wisp cradled him, keeping him alive. But the wisp shook with obvious distress over Annessa, who lay unconscious beside them. Zoom couldn’t save them both, even though Elion knew he wanted to.
“Ness,” Elion called. “Come on, Ness. Stay with me. We’ll get you another wisp as soon as one of the teams gets here.”
“El,” she mumbled and his throat tightened. “Can’t let them get the Legends.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Elion brushed her hair away from her face, blinking hard as the drugs worked their way through him. “We’ll keep the Legends safe. You just stay here.”
“Can’t.”
“Yes you can.”
“Poppy says it’s time to go,” Annessa whispered just before her eyes fell closed and her chest stilled.
Elion’s throat began to burn as Zoom started to keen. He wasn’t sure a wisp had ever mourned someone other than their master. Of course, Annessa wasn’t normal, was she? She wasn’t guilded, but that didn’t make her normal. She was extraordinary. Even a wisp had figured that out.
And then that wisp did something else that Elion had never seen. Elion was sure that no one had. He wasn’t sure that anyone knew it was possible. Zoom took ahold of Elion’s shadow and, with a frantic desperation that matched Elion’s, he tore the shadow in two. Elion swayed. Part of him wanted to command the wisp to stop, but the other part was glad. Elion was tired. And if he couldn’t save Ness, what was the point? While Elion’s vision blacked, Zoom wove half of the shadow to Annessa. Suddenly, she took a deep breath but didn’t wake. Her brow puckered as if she was having a bad dream, and for a spilt second, the timeline around them stuttered like a broken record.
Annessa opened her eyes to a gentle humming noise. Turned out it was coming from a horde of bees hovering over her head. She froze and then tried to slip out of the bed without disturbing them.
“Stay still,” commanded a voice that Annessa didn’t recognize. “Your body isn’t strong enough to be slithering out of bed.”
Annessa tipped her head and spotted a girl with chestnut brown ringlets sitting in an armchair. Her eyes were closed, her head tipped up toward the ceiling like she was taking a nap. The girl made a soft clicking noise with her tongue, and the bees swarmed her. But she didn’t care as they crawled all over her. What kind of bizarre-o-land was Annessa in now?
“You’re in the healing clinic at the Academy,” said the girl. “It took me most of the night to get you, Dumb, Dumber, and Lord Stupid stabilized after yesterday’s festivities.”
“Axton and Ian,” Annessa said.
“Huh.” Bee Girl cocked her head. “Both fine. Not the first names I expected you to say, though.”
Annessa frowned for a moment and then remembered that Elion had come too. She was too scared to ask if he’d survived until she realized that Bee Girl had said she’d been working on four of them.
“Elion’s okay?” Annessa needed confirmation.
“No thanks to you,” she retorted.
That was good enough. Annessa closed her eyes against the pooling tears of relief there.
“If you’re going to blame anyone, blame me,” Ian said from the door.
“Oh, trust me, I do.” Bee Girl pushed herself out of the seat. Her bees buzzed louder—angrily. When the girl opened her eyes, Annessa was surprised to realize they were unfocused. Bee Girl was blind, but she walked unerringly out the door. Ian had the good sense to duck away from her bee entourage, which followed her.
“She’s a sweetheart, right?” Ian muttered when the bees were gone. “Although, I do owe her for patching up my face and cracked ribs.”
“You look a lot better than I would’ve expected,” Annessa admitted.
“The perks of knowing powerful charmers.”
“Charmers are empaths, right?” Annessa tried to piece together how a charmer like the Knife-wielding Phyton could heal someone.
“Yes.”
“I seriously need a cheat sheet to keep you all straight.”
“There’re only nine guilds,” Ian pointed out.
“Yeah, plus wisps, flutterfires, magmamanders, gargoi, Phyton, and Bruce the Moose.”
“Don’t forget Wilt’s bear, Henrietta… Okay, maybe some flash cards wouldn’t be out of order,” Ian relented.
“Ian, what happened?” Annessa asked, now that she felt steadier.
“I didn’t do my due diligence with some contacts,” Ian replied. “And after what happened with the suits, I wasn’t thinking straight, either. I never should’ve taken you with me.”
“Does that happen a lot when you mess with people’s minds? Reckless decisions?”
“To be fair, I don’t need help making stupid decisions,” Ian said cavalierly.
“Ian,” Annessa said seriously, “are there consequences for you when you manipulate a person’s thoughts?”
Ian sighed. “It messes with my own memories. Like, they get a little scrambled and I have to reorganize them.”
“The guilds know this?”
Ian didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. Because of course they did.
“What happens if you can’t unscramble your memories some day?”
Ian quirked a smile. “I’ll be a lot of fun at parties, I guess.”
“I’m not laughing.”
“Not yet,” he teased.
“I’m serious,” she told him.
In a rare display of sentiment, Ian cupped a hand to her cheek. “Don’t worry about me. As long as I wake up every morning, I’m still in good shape.”
“What does that mean?”
He pulled back, tucking his hands into his pockets. “People with my particular talent occasionally stop being able to tell the difference between being awake and dreaming. Our memories eventually become chaotic and nonsensical like a dream, so it’s hard to distinguish between the two.”
Annessa was appalled. “And you’re willing to risk that?”
“You did hear what the Phyton want, right?” Ian shrugged. “What choice do I have, if it will help stop them?”
Just like Elion. What choice did he have? Or all of them, for that matte
r. They were fighting for mankind.
You ready to join the Academy ranks? Ian asked.
No. But at least I understand you all a little better now.
Why wouldn’t you want to join the fight? Annessa felt Ian’s sincere curiosity in the question. It is the survival of your species, after all.
First of all, I’m a norm, Annessa reminded him. So I don’t qualify for recruitment. Second of all, I don’t think all Phyton are bad, and I won’t be a part of wiping them all out.
It’s like you and I didn’t go through the same thing yesterday, Ian mused.
Only we did, and yet, I still cannot condemn them all. So I understand what the Academy is doing, but I won’t join it. Once I get my shadow back, I’m leaving.
Annessa frowned, her thoughts scattering like dust particles on the wind.
“Annessa?” asked Ian.
Annessa plucked a tissue from the box on the side table. She crumpled it and threw it to Zoom. He didn’t catch it.
“Zoom?”
He didn’t respond.
“Annessa there’s something—”
“That’s not Zoom,” she said, pointing at her new shadow.
“No.”
“It’s not mine either,” Annessa said. “I don’t know how I can tell, but I can.”
“You can tell because your senses are changing,” Elion said quietly from behind Ian. He gave Ian a dark look and the guy’s shoulders fell.
“I’m so sorry, Annessa,” Ian said and then he walked away, stuffing his hands deeper into his pockets. Annessa had never seen him look so small. But at the moment, she had another concern to address.
“Whose shadow do I have, Elion?”
15
“Why did I agree to this?” Annessa mumbled to Sam.
“Because after you were almost killed yesterday, you decided it would be a good idea to take Mr. Marks up on his offer to learn more about our world,” Sam reminded unnecessarily.
It had seemed like a good idea until she’d walked into the auditorium filled with psychic students. Until the professor had thought an introduction was in order. Fun times. Then, even after that special torment had ended, the staring had not. She wanted to point out that her introduction was over, and they could all resume their regularly scheduled programming. Thank you very much. “I had a head injury. I shouldn’t have been allowed to make decisions like this.” Annessa waved to a cluster of girls, whose staring was becoming a little much.
