Illumination

by M. V. Freeman

  “The shadows,” she answered him, her eyes fluttering closed at his touch. She was like a cat; caress her, and she’d purr. “They wait because my mother tells them to. They couldn’t follow a transportation spell.”

  “Ah, yes. Your mother.” Xander dropped his hand. Elspeth’s black, sclera-less eyes were something he’d found chilling. She’d never been a warm woman, but she was beautiful in the way of a Dark—flawless skin, long limbs, and fluid motion. Certainly something to look at but nothing he’d found attractive. Not like Mina with her heart-shaped face, perky nose, and generous lips. Ones he wanted to…

  Xander took a step back as the Darkling opened her eyes and frowned at the distance between them. He crossed his arms over his chest. It was time he stopped acting like an utter fool.

  “Elspeth wants to kill you, and now you can’t walk the shadows.” He couldn’t hide his irritation. As usual, Mina brought with her more than just one problem.

  “I can if you come with me.” Mina picked up some of his papers. “You can help me keep the nasty creatures away.”

  “No.” Xander didn’t even think. Go with a Dark? Never.

  “You have to.” Mina rolled up the papers in her hand. “She gave the monsters my silver.” She put fingers to her lip and nose where her piercings were now gone, replaced by the scars. “The rings have my blood on them. They can track me.” She looked down at the papers, unrolling them again—a nervous gesture he’d never seen in her.

  “Don’t let him get murdered.” The words came out in a rush as she rolled up the papers again.

  The unexpectedness of her comment caused Xander to lift an eyebrow.

  “You mean Voda? That’s not your business. What you need to worry about are the things Elspeth is sending after you.” Why did Mina care? Thomas Voda was a Mage, and this was his problem, not hers.

  “He was nice to me,” Mina explained.

  “Nice?” Xander picked up the scotch and took another drink. He really should appreciate this more, but had a feeling it wouldn’t matter. “At this point, nice is going to get him killed.”

  “You respect him,” Mina pressed on, watching him. “Or you’d have arrested him already.”

  Truth. What a bitch.

  “Respect has nothing to do with it, Mina,” Xander responded in a clipped voice. He didn’t like where this was going. She was right; it did bother him. This situation wasn’t like Sophia, the double-dealing spy he’d killed. That one had known the risks, and she was a Dark. Voda was a respected Mage and Board member, a man who was above reproach. The same man who’d helped train him. He had his orders—but when had it become his excuse?

  “It doesn’t?” Mina canted her head to one side. Her eyes narrowed, and with a sudden move, she snatched something gray and wiggling near his elbow.

  A low, vicious curse spilled out of his mouth, and Xander took another step back. He hated when she took an emotion from him.

  She put the thing pulled from him near her mouth, and before he could stop her, Mina’s pink tongue darted out like she was licking an ice-cream cone. She made a face.

  “Don’t do that again, Mina.” Xander’s temper made his voice vibrate with emotion.

  “Guilt is not tasty. Especially when you stay angry all the time.” She released the cloudy substance and let it dissipate into the air.

  “What is wrong with you?” Did she not have any boundaries? “Why the hell are you getting involved with me or Voda?” He stopped himself from throwing the bottle of scotch. No sense being that hasty.

  “Because I think my mother is somehow in the middle of all of this.” Mina fingered her healed ear as she looked at the papers she held. “Not just trying to kill me, but getting Voda murdered. It wasn’t until I read these papers of yours.” She flipped through, discarding a few to float to the floor at her feet. “He knows something the Chairman doesn’t want out. But what? He told me once my birth changed everything for my uncle, but he wouldn’t tell me why.” She tapped what was left of the papers with a finger. “Not sure how you are going to make some of these charges stick.” Looking up, she said in a resolute voice, “I don’t understand how my family is entangled, besides the war we wage with Mages. All I know is to keep Voda alive until I find out.”

  “Why should I care if he dies?” Her determination puzzled and frustrated him. “You are a fucking pain in my ass,” Xander bit out. He didn’t care when she winced at his tone. His meticulous plans were unraveling before his eyes, and if he didn’t do something soon, his road to recovering his family’s status and fortune was going to be closed.

  He stopped himself from ranting at Mina—blaming her interference for costing him his status. What am I, five years old? What was it about the Darkling that unmade him?

  “And you would’ve killed a friend,” Mina told him in a small voice.

  The reminder of his past was too much for him. He needed her gone. “Get out,” Xander growled. “I’ve healed you. You have the smarts to avoid the monsters.” The tender feelings he had at her injuries dissolved. “I don’t want any more of your machinations or plots. I am not a party to solving your problems. You figure it out.” He pointed to the office door. “If you’re afraid of the shadows, little girl, you need to face it.” Mina’s eyes narrowed at him as he continued. “The humans have put down a curfew in the city as they rebuild. You’re clever; I know you can get around them.”

  He meant what he said, but he couldn’t suppress the tiny bit of disquiet as he looked at Mina. The origami in her hair stilled for a long moment. She stared back and lifted her chin a notch.

  “No.”

  He blinked. Mina usually melted away, never daring to face his temper.

  Not this time.

  She didn’t back down from his hard stare. Instead, she stuck out her pink tongue at him and crossed her arms over her breasts.

  A sudden urge roiled up inside him, like he wanted to vomit—he wasn’t sure if it was laughter or the need to apologize to this annoying woman. He opened his mouth, and before he could do something he’d regret, he drank the rest of his scotch. Anything to stop himself. He didn’t even taste it. It had too much of a cherry flavor anyway.

  Mina was going to drive him batshit crazy.

  “Tell you what,” Xander heard himself speak when he finished his drink, his vocal cords obviously deciding the matter for him. “I’ll bring you to Voda. You warn him, and then find a way to leave. I’m done. We’re done.” He slammed the empty bottle on the table with more force then he’d intended, and it shattered with a loud crunch.

  Mina smiled. It lit up her eyes and made her already pretty face beautiful.

  He was so screwed.

  Thomas Voda stood at his study window and watched the stocky security Mage with the buzz haircut direct the hired earth Elementals in removing the dirt of his once prized English garden. There, right in the middle of the rose bushes his wife had painstakingly cared for, hiring only the best Elementals to tend them, was a mummified corpse. Petals of pink, red, and white lay scattered about the area in a macabre celebration as the body was hauled unceremoniously out of the dirt.

  A body he knew hadn’t been there yesterday.

  The security Mage looked up at him and smiled. Even from this distance, he could see the flash of white teeth.

  A soft knock at the door startled him. Automatically, he called up his personal wards, and the energy rolled over his body like an extra layer of clothes. When had he ever had to put this protection on in his own home? Never.

  “Come in.” Thomas was surprised and pleased that his voice didn’t shake as he looked toward the door. A young, collared Tri-elemental, his shoulders drooping under the weight of the iron, shuffled in. He couldn’t think of the boy’s name. Brandon? Brian? He’d had so many over the years.

  His to train.

  His to siphon energy from to keep him strong.

  This Elemental was dressed in the sober dark blue Thomas required all his staff to wear. His neck was raw from
the thin iron collar, decoratively wrought to make it less like a slave collar and more of an accessory. Dark bruises of fatigue under his eyes gave him an older appearance than his fifteen years. Thomas never took in anyone younger, finding it personally distasteful. The boy looked up at him. Instead of a dull, hopeless look under his crop of short brown hair was a sharp-eyed gaze slowly rotating through a spectrum of color. A strong Tri-elemental. Good.

  “Do you have something for me?” Thomas held out his hand, and the boy dropped a spelled trac-phone in his hand. He’d given it to the collared Tri as he dealt with the security Mage who arrived with a warrant. No sense letting the Chairman’s henchman get his hands on this. He looked at the faceplate of the phone; it glowed with the words “Text Message.” He murmured an unlocking spell. How he loved human technology; it absorbed their magic as if thirsting for it.

  A single-word text popped up: Safe.

  A breath he hadn’t realized he held released, and for the first time since he’d ended the Board meeting, he relaxed, but not by much. He’d sent his family to Europe, using every contact and favor he had to keep them out of reach of the Chairman. He’d even sent his security team with them as an extra measure.

  Another murmured spell and he crushed the phone, the crackle of the plastic loud in the room. He dropped the remains into a small potted plant.

  “Come here,” he directed the boy, who glared at him, but complied dragging his feet across the jewel-toned woven Aboussan carpet, a gift from Thomas’s father-in-law. With eyes glowing more white than black with fury, the collared Elemental stopped before Thomas and bowed his head, hands clenched, unable to raise them except when ordered. Not for the first time did Thomas appreciate how the iron cowed and controlled the Tri-elementals. He’d hate to think of what could happen if it didn’t.

  “Kneel.”

  Oh, the boy fought that, locking his knees. Thomas waited, and finally, with a thump, the knees bent, and the young Tri-elemental knelt. He placed a hand on the lowered head, feeling the clenched muscles, hard as the iron that circled the boy’s neck. Shoulders shook under his touch as he murmured another spell in words he barely comprehended. It was an ancient incantation, the words only the oldest of the Mages understood. The younger Mages memorized the sounds, not realizing the beauty of the language; what they recognized was the importance of what this spell did.

  Energy thickened along the base of the boy’s neck, sticky with the power the Tri held. A low moan of pain sounded, and Thomas hesitated for a fraction of a second. He’d siphoned from him a few days ago. Normally, it would be another month, but he was desperate, and this Tri had more power than the other two collared Tri-elementals in his home.

  He told himself he needed the extra energy.

  Shutting his eyes, he let his skin absorb the Elemental power. Skin-to-skin contact was the best. Some Mages would strip the Tri-elementals and lay with them. But he didn’t care for boys, and his wife got rid of the last powerful female. Tingles of energy traveled up his arm. Already full from the last siphon, Thomas quickly felt bloated from this one. After a few moments, he cut off the flow, and when he lifted his hand from the Tri’s neck, the boy collapsed onto the floor, breathing in rapid small pants.

  The extra energy made Thomas’s heart race as if he’d consumed that extra cup of coffee at breakfast. His skin felt thin, and the fear that sat so heavily in his belly no longer nauseated him. Absorbing an Elemental’s energy was better than any street drug. He’d never taken so much. He could see why a Mage became an addict, someone who siphoned their Tri-elementals dry—a truly disgusting practice.

  But he did need this after all. If he kept telling himself this, maybe it would make it all right.

  Thomas turned to look down at the garden. They were putting the planted corpse into a black plastic body bag. Even from here, he saw that it was the desiccated remains of a young girl he’d never seen before. He knew something like this was coming when he’d taken a stand against the Chairman. It was why he sent his family away. It was common practice to frame a rival or enemy. He’d done it himself to solidify his position as a Board member. At the time, the end justified the means, but looking at the husk of a girl, he realized it had only been a matter of time. If it wasn’t the Chairman, it would’ve been another scheming Mage. Soon, the security Mage would come find him, but Thomas didn’t plan on being here when he did. Stepping over the recovering Tri-elemental, he walked, but it felt more like floating, the extra power giving a spring in his step as he approached his ornately hand-carved desk. He picked up his waiting briefcase holding all the important documents for the negotiations he planned.

  He began the transportation spell when the wards around his room broke. He looked up toward the corner of the room at the thickening shadows, expecting to see the method of his death arrive.

  Chapter Eight

  XANDER WAS BEING SO DIFFICULT.

  Maybe he’d picked up on what Mina had done to get him here. How she carefully pulled bits of his stubborn and angry emotion, a little tug here, a bit there. She sure didn’t take enough; he was still furious, especially when he insisted they go through the shadows.

  Silly man. She could do a perfectly good transportation spell. He really cared. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was afraid—the sickly sweet taste and putrid color, although faint, was easily discernible by her. Xander was afraid she’d screw up the spell. Another reason why she loved him. He cared enough to fear for her.

  She stood before the shadow doorway, her fingers hovering over the entrance. The energy of the spells made her fingers itch. Behind her, the half-light of the shadow realm darkened.

  “They are tracking us,” Mina whispered to Xander as the icy breath of Dark magic brushed along her nerve endings. He stood behind her as he set up a spell.

  “No shit.” He bit out each word. “Why am I not surprised? Tracked by monsters, breaking the wards of a Board member. I wonder, what else will I do this evening to ensure my death? Take over a small country?”

  “No, you’ll save a bigger one,” Mina said matter-of-factly.

  He gave a short, soft laugh, but there was no humor in it, only the slight tinge of red and a bite of anger.

  “Is there any dictate that slows you down, Mina?”

  “No. Laws are meant to guide. I guide myself.” After watching her brother die so long ago, she figured if death was her fate, she’d die for something good.

  “Then guide your lawless hand to find a small place of weakness. He always has one,” he told her in a tight voice as he shut his eyes in concentration. “It should be a spot of softness.”

  Xander was the only Mage she knew, including the Chairman, who didn’t need to voice the spells out loud, but could chant them in his head. Not even she could work spells like that. He was so cool.

  Mina forced herself to continue running her hands over the ward, a part of her noting how it interlaced—something she’d have to try with Nicki. This spell was good, and a tiny part of her worried she wouldn’t find the bit of weakness needed as the chill of the Dark energy increased, propelling her to move faster.

  Xander’s body tensed behind her, and she knew he felt the rush of power directed toward them. Mina didn’t look around; she didn’t want to see what was coming. Something dreadful. Her mother always found the worst things. Probably bone eaters. They had long, sharp beak-mouths they used to suck up bone marrow as their curved claws ripped through flesh and bone…

  “Shut. Up. Mina.”

  Oops.

  Apparently she’d been talking aloud. Not one of her best habits.

  A clacking noise traveled faintly through the silence of the shadow world. Mina’s heart beat a bit faster. The indistinct scent of chalky stone, mold, and rotting things made a sweat break out on her skin. There were no emotions to pick up on. They didn’t have any.

  Bone eaters, and they brought the spiders.

  She’d rather face five of her mother than those things. They were from the darkest recess
es of the lower caverns, and they were kept there for a reason. The spiders were varying sizes from as small as her thumb to as big as her hand. They rode on the bone eaters, developing a symbiotic relationship. The spiders got the meat while their hosts were given the bones and marrow. It didn’t matter if the prey was alive or dead. She’d seen spiders swarm a living victim, hundreds stinging to paralyze, giving the much slower bone eaters a chance to arrive and partake of the feast.

  Uncaring anymore of the sharp tingles of the ward, Mina tried to find anything appearing soft. Xander’s spell increased the pressure in the air.

  “Find it, Mina,” Xander told her through gritted teeth.

  There, on the lower right corner, was a spot…It wasn’t soft, but there was a slight indentation.

  “There.” She grabbed Xander’s hand and placed it on the area.

  Loud clicks sounded from behind them as Xander released the spell. An explosion of energy erupted, and instead of throwing them backward, it sucked them through the ward as it splintered. She felt the sharp remnants of the spell tug at her as they fell rather than walked through.

  The shadows had to be closed behind them before the monsters followed.

  The crackle of splintering glass, thuds of heavy objects hitting something hard like a floor, a surprised shout, and Mina found herself gasping for air, her chest burning as Xander’s heavy body fell onto hers.

  There wasn’t time for breathing.

  Mina concentrated on shutting the door by dismissing the shadows, similar to a mental wave of the hand when dispersing smoke. The shadow door disappeared. A few spiders popped through at the last second, skittering around, looking for a dark place to hide. They couldn’t tolerate light and cringed from the bits of late afternoon sun. One even reared up and hit out with its long disjointed front legs, tiny claws stretching out to shred a sunbeam. A shrill inhuman sound, and smoke curled along its spindly limbs as it burst into flames and dissolved into ash. The others fought for the darkest places, no longer interested in pursuing the bigger prey now that their hosts were gone. One by one they turned to ash, except the tiniest, and Mina wasn’t going to go looking for them.