by Rain Oxford
Over the weekend, I studied up on familiars. I didn’t actually learn much, and I realized on Sunday that Darwin could have told me ten times what I spent all weekend reading about. Late on Sunday night, I was looking through an old potions book I got from one of the libraries.
Hunt and Dr. Martin both said there was no better healing potion than the one they were giving me weekly. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t try to find one. I stopped in my tracks as a sick thought occurred to me. Maybe my life is what’s most important to me. Maybe that’s why I’m not seeing Heather anymore; it’s a subconscious defense. I wasn’t exactly a selfless man, but I wasn’t power-hungry either. If my own life was most important to me, I wouldn’t want be trying to get the key. I would get the key so I could save Astrid, defeat Krechea and possibly Langril, and destroy the tower to keep more of Krechea’s kind from getting here.
Astrid is from Dothra.
I still pictured her as the unusual girl I met when I had no one else I could trust. She was hesitant and secretive, but also brave and wise. Every word out of her mouth was wisdom far beyond her years and even then I knew she was the only one who understood me.
And she was a monster.
And I loved her.
Did that mean I was a monster? Maybe the paternity test was wrong and I actually was John’s son. Or maybe the sickness of John’s mind ran deeper in the bloodline. I actually wished I still believed Joseph Sanders, the abusive, cold-hearted bastard, was the one I was related to.
“It doesn’t matter, you know.”
Startled out of my inner turmoil, I turned to see Professor Langril. “What the hell are you doing here?” I asked. My outburst was at least partly due to the shame of being caught doubting my own intentions.
The professor smirked. “Trying to get into my room,” he answered with mirth.
I realized then that I was standing in front of his bedroom. “Oh. Sorry.” It wasn’t even close to where my room was in the original building, so I had no excuse. I just hadn’t been paying attention.
“Kein problem. Why don’t you come in for some tea?”
I wanted to argue, but couldn’t pass up the chance that the man would help me get to Astrid.
“I won’t,” he said easily.
“Get out of my head.”
“Oh, I have never once needed to see into your brain to know your thoughts. All humans are basically the same. There is even a type of science devoted to learning how humans think, which I find to be quite boring.”
It was still confusing that he called wizards from Earth human, whereas everyone in the paranormal world considered us to be non-human, along with shifters, vampires, and fae. Langril considered everyone from Earth to be human. Which, come to think of it, was very racist. “People are boring, or our thoughts are boring?”
“Both. It’s a bit like watching hamsters play in their pens. I watch you and wonder how that wheel can be so much fun. Sometimes, you even do something out of character that makes me laugh, but after a while, you’re still just a little pet, running around in your little cage, thinking your little thoughts.”
“Have I told you how much of an ass you are?” I asked as he entered his room. The gas lantern lit itself.
He gestured to the black leather couch and I sat. “No, but most people here have. If it’s any consolation, you are one of the most entertaining humans I have met.”
“It isn’t.”
“You humans are all about pleasure. You want to be happy, well-fed, and loved.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“You don’t like pain or suffering. You all try so desperately to stop it, that you would even hurt others to avoid it yourself.” He picked up two cups from his desk. The desk had been bare a moment before. Instead of handing it to me, he set it next to me on a small table. I stared at it. “Go on, I didn’t poison it.”
I took it, but I didn’t drink. I did laugh, though. “Green tea?”
“Logan likes black tea.”
“You hate him so much that you can’t even drink the same tea as him?”
His eyes widened in surprise. “I don’t hate him at all. He’s actually one of my few friends in this world.” He took a sip of his drink and nodded. “In fact, I think I’ve killed all my other friends,” he said thoughtfully, as if it was an afterthought. “Logan is the only human I know who can heal himself from my attacks.”
“So then, you just don’t want to be that British? And why does Dr. Martin sound German if you’re both from Dothra?”
“It was the first human language he learned.”
“And how long did it take him to learn German?”
He smirked again. “Five days. Silly little---”
“If you insult people for not being able to learn a language in five days, I will shoot you.” He sipped his tea. “Why did you take Astrid to Dothra? If you only wanted me to make a deal with Heather, why not trap me there?”
“Because Dothra is not Hell,” he said, his humor gone. “At least not to people like me and Astrid.”
“Astrid isn’t like you. You were the one who made her attack my family.”
“I saved her from Krechea’s hold over her. She is more likely to survive in Dothra than Andrew because she doesn’t feel fear. At least she didn’t until you came along. If she does die there, it will be entirely your fault.”
“If she dies there, I will kill you.”
He shrugged. “It happens. You never listen, do you? I feel no fear about anything. I don’t fear loss, death, or pain. Astrid never did either, until you saved her from her loneliness. Now she fears feeling that again, fears your death, and that makes her weak. It makes her biddable.”
“What do you care?”
“I care because if she dies before I get what I want, you will be useless to me. And if you save her before I get what I want, then I have wasted my time.” He glared at me. “I hate wasting my time.”
I set down my still-full cup. “Then I’ll get out of your hair.”
“Devon,” he said right before I left. I stopped with my hand on the doorknob. “I’m not your enemy. I do hope you survive this and I will help you as long as you help me. Krechea would happily destroy this world.”
“What do you care?”
“This is my world to conquer.”
“Is that why you threw Astrid in his path?”
“She asked to go after him. She knew what he did to her and she did what our kind does. Not only did he hurt her, but he poses a threat to what is most important to her. I honored her by---” He snapped his mouth shut when I drew my gun and aimed at him.
“Finish that sentence. I dare you.”
He smirked again. “I can destroy Krechea if we are both here or there. Make a deal with Heather and I will personally save Astrid and destroy the tower.”
“I thought you couldn’t destroy the tower without all four keys.”
“You have two options: make a deal with Heather and let me take care of the rest, or get the last key and spend the rest of your life trying to kill me to get the key to Dothra, knowing the entire time that you will never save Astrid because that is what is most important to you. Right now, saving her is what is most important to you, not having her.”
“If Heather comes to me, I’ll make a deal with her. Until then, I’m working on plan B. If it comes down to a fight between us, I’ll win.”
“How do you figure? I am the most powerful wizard of both worlds.”
“I know I’ll win because I’ve just figured out what you sacrificed to get the key.”
“Meet me here tomorrow night.”
“Why? You’re going to join in to teach me the air element?”
“I’m going to teach you how to survive when Krechea tries to tear your entrails out. You’re no good to me dead and he knows that. Key or no key, he can get to you easier than he can get to Heather. He wants me destroyed more than he wants the keys.”
“I’m not surprised.”
I re
turned to my room and found Henry and Amelia in the middle of one of their therapy sessions. Darwin and Addie were gone. “Where’s Darwin?” I asked. I didn’t care where Henry’s girlfriend was, but I wanted Darwin to help me do some research.
“Darwin’s wolf doesn’t find Addie’s ocelot threatening, so they went to the burn field to let out some energy. He does not seem to be taking to the local pack.”
“No, he doesn’t, which is odd because he’s fine with us and we’re not wolves.”
“We’re his pack and his wolf sees the others as a competing pack,” Amy said. With a sigh, she broke eye contact with Henry. “Do you even like Addie? Maybe your emotions are so repressed because you don’t want to love anyone.”
Henry had said he loved Addison, but it was only after she pushed. I had serious doubts myself about them; Addison swung from aggressive to clingy at the drop of a hat. Alpha Flagstone did say that cat shifters had a harder time controlling their emotions than wolf shifters because wolf minds were closer to human minds.
Darwin entered the room just in time to overhear Amy’s question. Addison wasn’t with him.
“I don’t know what I feel,” Henry said. “That is why you’re here.”
“You loved Zoe, right?” Darwin asked. Henry nodded. “Do you feel the same for Addison?”
“I don’t know her as well.”
“It’s a simple question, mate. Do you feel the same or not? Do you feel happy when she looks at you? Do you think of her a hundred times a day? Do you imagine touching---”
“You read too many romance novels. I honestly feel very little of anything when it is not the full moon. I do… like her presence, though. The problem is that she frustrates me more often than not. She has too many nosy friends, acts like I am arm candy most of the time, is too needy, and is too pushy. I really cannot think of any quality of her personality that I like.”
“She’s trying not to bug you,” I said.
“Only because I stopped sleeping with her on the full moons until she changed.”
“Then why are you with her? That doesn’t sound like love,” Darwin said.
“It is too difficult to explain. I feel more when I’m with her and I want that.”
* * *
On the way to feed the kappa some cucumbers, I heard Henry’s name and stopped. I was standing outside of Addison’s friend’s room and her door was cracked. I started to move on until I heard Addison’s friend speak again.
“He’s an asshole, he’s rude, and he only uses you for sex.”
Addison sighed. “He can be a bastard sometimes, but only when he’s frustrated. There’s another side to him. I can feel it. Even when he’s ignoring me, I know he wants me with him. He wants me quiet, but he wants me there.”
“What about you?”
“He pisses me off like no one else could. He also acts like I’m helpless because my cat is smaller than his. When I’m not with him, I get angry with his behavior or I miss the little half-smile he gives me when he’s drawing. Then, when I see him again, I feel safe and appreciated. I mean, he really appreciates me. I told him about a glass vase my mother made me before she died and that I hated putting flowers in it because they always withered and died. He made me glass flowers. He actually made them. I know he’s not good for me, but I feel more alive when I’m with him. Besides, he’s been much better about showing affection lately.”
“Are you sure it’s not just---”
“We didn’t even have sex this month,” Addison interrupted. “I wasn’t feeling good, so he just wanted to cuddle and kiss for three days. At first, I couldn’t stand him when the moon wasn’t full because I felt like I was losing him every time. Now, I think we fight because it’s the fastest way to get an emotional reaction out of him. He tries to show me affection, but it feels like he’s not being himself with me… or maybe that I’m not who he wants me to be. I prefer when we’re fighting because I know it’s me he’s thinking about.”
I walked away then, feeling pretty guilty about overhearing such a personal conversation. I listened because Henry was my friend and I didn’t want him to get his heart broken, and I wouldn’t apologize for that.
* * *
The next day, I went back to Professor Langril’s room after dinner. I was early, but I didn’t think it mattered much on a Saturday. I reached out to knock and froze. There was a voice; one I would recognize anywhere.
I opened the door. Langril was standing over a large iron cauldron in the middle of his floor with his hand outstretched. Blood dripped from his wrist into the cauldron. After a moment, he pulled a cloth out of his pocket and wiped the excess blood off. His wound was already healed.
“It’s rude to enter someone’s residence uninvited,” he said without looking up from his task.
“Where is she?”
He indicated the cauldron. I closed the door and approached the cauldron. Like the bowl Hunt usually had in his office, the cauldron was filled with a silver liquid. Unlike in Hunt’s bowl, however, the liquid was calm, creating what looked like a mirror. It wasn’t me that was reflected back.
Astrid was in a dark, abandoned house that looked like it had been through a fire. Her eyes lit up when she saw me. “Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine. I haven’t gotten to Krechea yet, though. He has too many followers.” She glanced at Langril. “You need to be very careful. I don’t know what Krechea has planned, but it’s not going to be good.”
“Have you seen Heather?” Langril asked her.
“In passing. She’s safe.” She looked back at me. “I’ve been trying to contact you for months. You need to guard your thoughts, watch what you say, and be wary of who you talk to. He’s got another plan to get out of Dothra, but I don’t know what it is.”
“Why does he want out?”
“Wizards of Earth aren’t as powerful as those of Dothra, but humans are numerous,” Langril answered for her. “If he can get the keys and build an army of humans, he can take over the other worlds and be unstoppable. He wants powerful followers and a vast supply of cannon fodder.”
“Devon, I have a plan. It’s going to take a month or so, but I need your help.”
“I can be there as soon as Langril opens the door. How do I find you?”
“No, you can’t come here. I need you to be there so you can---” The rest of her sentence was cut off as the liquid in the bowl was disturbed.
Langril shook his head when I looked at him. “Incoming call.” His expression was of suspicion, but there was hope in his eyes.
Instead of Heather appearing, as I knew Langril was hoping for, it was the malevolent, inhuman face of Krechea. Langril pushed me away from the cauldron. Simultaneously, yellowish-orange fire consumed Langril’s hand and blue fire lit the surface of the silver liquid. After a second, both went out.
Only in the following awkward silence, when the professor leaned heavily against his desk, did I realize that he was hurt. More specifically, his hands were. “What happened?” I asked. His skin was severely burned.
“You were purified by the fire salamanders; that’s what happened.”
“Yes, I know I was… wait, I did that? You got burned from pushing me out of the way?”
“The elementals are not fond of my people. No one from Dothra can touch you or even see into your mind unless you complete a ritual to invoke the fire elementals. Since your human body can’t handle that, have fun trying to touch your girlfriend.”
“That’s why Heather and Astrid can’t contact me?” That must have been what happened in the shadow pass when the creature touched me. “I can’t make a contract with Heather then.”
“You can, you just can’t touch her.”
“How do I get rid of it?”
“That depends. Why did they purify you?” he asked, sitting in the chair at his desk. His skin was simultaneously charring and healing. As the burned flesh blackened and flaked off, new skin was forming underneath it.
“I don’t know.
I just needed the sword. I didn’t know what the purification meant.”
“Have you had any visions you did not invoke?” he asked. I shook my head. “You said you promised that you would destroy the tower. They must be trying to protect you until you fulfill your promise.” He stood. “I’m going to teach you the only magic that can kill a pure wizard.”
“But I thought if you kill someone with magic, you get theirs.”
“You will.”
“I don’t want it. I have enough with mine and John’s.”
“If you kill Krechea and take his magic, you will never need to worry about your heart again.”
I paused. “Can you make a potion that can break the curse?”
“I can break it very easily, but not with a potion. All magic comes at a price. The greater the magic, the greater the price. You’re asking for a life, so you must give one in return. If you ever get to the point where you’re ready to sacrifice a life for your own, I will help you. Until then, you’ll have to settle for learning better magic. Stand in the center of the room.”
“Shouldn’t we go somewhere else for this?” I asked.
He looked around his room and back at me. “Whatever for? Now, teaching you earth magic was rather simple. This time, you will learn what air magic is.”
“It’s all about mental powers, right? I should be good at this.”
“Save the practicing for Logan and Vincent. You need to learn to kill a being you cannot hear, see, or touch.”
“How am I supposed to---” Before I could finish the questions, shadows swarmed around me. The flame of the gas lamp died and I was left in utter darkness. The air was cold and still. The gravity was heavier.
I was in the shadow pass, the space between the worlds. I sensed something reach out for me and reacted with fire… or I tried to.
Nothing happened.
“Your magic doesn’t work the same here, just like mine on Earth,” Langril said from somewhere behind me.
Yet he was still extremely powerful on Earth, so I knew it was possible. “So what am I supposed to do?” I asked, although I knew I wasn’t supposed to talk. A thin, clawed hand wrapped around my wrist. Fire consumed the hand and while the flames did touch my skin, it didn’t burn me. The creature I saw was horrendous. It had greenish-tan, slick, slimy skin with no eyes, slit nostrils, and a circular, gaping mouth full of rings of sharp teeth. It made a pained, rasping sound as if it were trying to yell without the vocal equipment to do so. The fire died.
