by Kimbra Swain
“You took the blast for me. I can heal cracked ribs, if you help me up,” I spoke in his mind, because I lost the ability to speak.
“No, you lay still. I don’t want to puncture your lungs.”
“Already punctured. I need to heal it, but I can’t breathe. What does it look like on the far side of the runway?” I asked.
“I don’t see anything but grass over there,” Tadeas said. “Cover us, Tony. This is going to hurt. Try not to cry out and draw attention.”
I nodded. He picked me up, and the fire erupted again down my chest. I winced and held the scream. He laid me down in the grass. I gasped, drawing power from the surrounding earth. Casting the spell of my head, “Consano.” I felt the ribs moving inside me, and I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming. I stared into the sky as my body healed. A swarm of ravens circled above the airport. A raven yesterday, and a flock today. Maybe, I was just paranoid of an old foe, but I thought she was dead.
He stood over me watching our surroundings. “I’m okay. It’s healing quickly.” I took deeper and deeper breaths. “Help me up,” I said.
“No, we will find a way out. Just lay still,” he said. I pushed myself up, and he gave me a hand when he saw I wasn’t backing down.
“I got this,” I said feeling much better already. I walked back out on the concrete. “Fulmen.” The lightning formed above my palm. I turned it on its side and expanded it with my hands. It enveloped me, and I pushed it further out until it reached approximately 18 feet in circumference. I slammed it to the ground. As I powered the circle, a large funnel of wind swirled up. Immediately, I summoned the desired object. “Currus!” I shouted.
A slick metallic black Mercedes S63 AMG appeared in the circle.
“I wondered how you did that!” he said smiling. “Give me the key.”
“No, I’m driving,” I said.
“No, you aren’t. Give me the key and get in the car. You patched yourself up, but I know by now that you are still sore and still hurt. You need to heal. Let me drive,” Tadeas argued.
I ignored him and went to the driver’s door. It was unlocked, and the key was inside the car. He grabbed my hand as I pulled the handle. “Tadeas, one day you will trust me. I can’t shoot a gun. The recoil would work against the healing spell. Let me drive. You shoot.”
“Why is it so hard for you to just say what’s going on in your head, Abby? You are so damn frustrating,” he yelled as he rounded the car. Tony got in while we were arguing.
“Don’t even say a word, Tony!” I shot at him.
He just grinned. He knew I was a pain in the ass.
“Go!” Tadeas yelled as he shut the door. I pressed the gas, we rounded the nose of the plane, and Tavaris stumbled out in front of the car.
“Subsisto!” I yelled, as I slammed the brakes. Between the power of the spell and the brakes, the car lurched to a stop just before we hit him. “Get him in the car.”
“What if he’s in on it?” Tadeas said.
“Then we have our prime suspect in our custody,” I said. Tony got out, dragged him to the back door, and shoved him in with us.
“Sit still, Williams, or I’ll blow your head off,” Tadeas growled at him. He didn't need to threaten him. Tavaris was bloody and dazed.
“And if he doesn’t, I will,” Tony added.
“Hold on,” I said, as I punched the gas again. I found an open gate along the runway, and hit the small road that led to an exit on Interstate 20. Ignoring all the speed limits, I headed east to downtown Atlanta.
“We are being followed,” Tadeas yelled.
I looked in my rear view. I could see several cars weaving through traffic to keep up with us. “Tadeas?”
“What?” he yelled.
“Would you quit fucking yelling at me?” I said.
“Sorry,” he said. “What do you want to do?”
“I’m going to drive. You kill them, or stop them.”
“We are in the middle of downtown Atlanta,” he said as we rounded the ramp on to 85 north. Turner Field sat off to our right, and the heart of downtown Atlanta was to our left.
“Yes, and we’ve got 40 miles to go before we make it to the estate,” I said. “I will drive. You and Tony take them out.”
He touched my hand, “Are you sure you have the strength to do this, Abby?”
“I don’t have a choice. Please just don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll get us there, but hand me the gun in the glove box just in case.”
He smiled and dug out the subcompact Springfield 9mm. He handed it to me. “You got my back?”
“Hell yeah, I do,” I said reaching out with all my senses to feel all the cars and humans around us. Allowing the sounds of the world rush in on me, I spoke one word, “Derigo.”
“What does that do?”
“Um, kind of autopilot,” I said. He shot me a look of fear and anger. “I’m still in control. It just lets me drive with all my senses.”
He rolled down the window. The first of the cars approached on our right. He reached out and shot once. As the front windshield of the car shattered, it swerved into the traffic on the right. It missed a couple of cars and slammed a guard rail on our right side.
“One down, two to go,” he said proudly. The other two tried to move to each side of us. I used the other cars to block while weaving through traffic. “I can't get a good shot with you weaving.”
“They will catch us if I don't,” I tried to explain.
“I knew that I should have driven,” he grumbled.
“Shut up!” I yelled at him.
I looked at the road ahead. The right lane was ending. “I'm going to squeeze the one on the right. Make him get behind us. Take out this one on my left.”
I jerked the wheel to my right making the car on my right hit the emergency lane. As it slowed to get behind us, the one on our left caught up with us. When they were parallel to us, Tadeas reached across me trying not to block my view of the road, and I pushed the button to roll the window down. But Tony was faster, he pulled out a compact fully automatic rifle, and unleashed a barrage of NATO rounds into the vehicle. As it lurched to the inside wall, I saw it was going to T-bone a minivan full of kids. I could feel their panic. “Fulmen pulsis,” I screamed, reaching my hand out the window. A pulse of lightning flew from my hand and surrounded the van. It was the magical equivalent of a Lightning Electromagnetic Pulse. The engine stopped in the van, so it was dead in the water. The lurching vehicle of our unknown attackers swept past in front of it and struck the wall. Magic was powerful, but it was also draining. I was out of practice, and I admit, my stamina isn't what it used to be. I settled into feeling the world around me, and said, “I'm about out of energy. Good shots, Tony. No innocent casualties on this last one,” I said.
Tadeas looked at me with worry. The fire and frustration he had earlier was gone. The car behind us had decided it would be best not to give us a shot on the sides. I weaved through the traffic, but it was thinning out as we got further north of the city. They sped up and bumped us.
“They hit my fucking car!” I screamed.
“Keep them behind us, Abby. I'm going to try something,” he said.
“Try what?” I asked.
“If I spend time explaining it, we lose our chance. Plus, you wouldn't let me if I told you,” he said.
“Tadeas Duarte, now is not the time to be trying out new things!” I yelled at him.
“At least she didn't say your middle name,” Tony teased.
“No comments from the rear!” I said.
“I'll be right back,” he said. I shivered as I felt him pull on the veil between the planes, and he disappeared from sight. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw two bright flashes in the car behind us. It started to slow and drift off into the grass on the right side of the interstate. I started to panic. “Tadeas!”
“Pull over.”
I pulled to the side of the road. I saw a shimmer out of the corner of my left eye, and he tapped on the windo
w. He opened the driver side door seeing me in a panic.
“Climb over. I'm driving now,” he said calmly. I climbed over the center console, and he sat down in the seat. After checking traffic, he took off heading North on Interstate 85. Trying to calm myself, all I could think about was how foolish that was, whatever it was. I could have lost him. He took my hand, squeezing it. I jerked it away from him and stared out of the passenger window. The dash started to chime. “Put on your belt,” he said coldly. I clicked it into place.
“Where do I go?” he asked.
“Keep going up 85. We will merge left when we get to 985,” Tony answered for me.
The pain and uncertainty over the past couple of weeks came crashing down on me. I felt like I was back on the tarmac struggling to breathe. Tadeas was shifting at will now and could get killed. Lukas had kissed me, reviving old emotions. Meredith was Lincoln’s daughter. Sam and Travis were dead. Jay would have been a better driver in this situation than I was, but Jay wasn’t here. The Atlanta proxy was murdered, and someone tried to blow us up at the airport. The Boulder facility was gone, along with my portal home. Gabriel was my surrogate father. Gregory and the damned papers. Lincoln. George. Home.
I still had the 9mm that Tadeas gave me out of the glove compartment. I didn't consciously decide to use it. I just couldn't breathe, and the shadow that lived inside me took over. Sliding my thumb across the gun, I clicked off the safety.
Suddenly I felt Tadeas panic. I looked over to him and his dark green eyes flared, and his hand shot to mine. He yanked the gun away from me.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Tadeas yelled at me.
“I just can’t,” I whispered.
He continued to talk at me, but I couldn’t hear him. The pain and grief pressed down on my head. The shadow swallowed me up like I was Jonah in the belly of the whale. My hair turned brown and a violet hue surrounded my vision. My shadow took over my weakened body and mind, and he stared at me in horror.
“Abby, talk to me,” I yelled at her. The glamour she’d used in Paris appeared, and her eyes were distant and void. “Abigail Davenport, you talk to me, right now!”
She didn’t respond. However, I clearly felt the pain and grief that had overwhelmed her. Hyperion warned us to take time and mourn those we lost. We didn’t have time for that between her gunshot wound, the flight to Atlanta and a car bomb.
“Please, Abby. How much longer to the house, Tony?”
“Just a few more minutes,” he said. “I can drive, if you want.”
“No, I’ve got it,” I pressed the gas, and the sleek black Mercedes wove in an out of traffic. I continued to hold her hand, as if this action would keep her here with me. It felt colder than normal. Her eyes locked on some distant object that didn’t exist. “You need rest and time to grieve. Please stay with me until we get to the house. Please say something.” She didn’t respond.
I heard Tony dialing his phone behind me. “I think you should come here,” he said. He handed me the phone.
“Hello,” I said. My voice was higher pitched and laced with fear.
“Tadeas, we should have come with you. I was afraid she couldn’t handle much more. Ichiro and I will be there as soon as you get to the estate. Tony will make a circle, and we will use a port crystal,” Ashley said calmly.
“What can you do that I can’t?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“It’s not what we do. It’s what we know about her. Tadeas, we will talk more about it when I arrive. Just do what you do, and we will be there soon. It will be okay,” Ashley assured me.
I clicked off the phone and handed it back to Tony. Stealing glances over to her as I drove, she looked serene. Before she looked down at the gun, I could feel her emotions building. I just thought she was about to unleash on me with one of her tirades because I shifted back to the car behind us. I didn’t know it would freak her out so badly. Gripping the steering wheel, I asked again, “Abby, are you there?” No response.
We drove, and it was about 30 minutes before we reached the estate. As I pulled up to the large iron gate, it slowly opened. Tavaris teetered in and out of consciousness, missing most of the commotion. Tony watched him and reminded him that if he moved, he’d kill him.
“Get her, if you don't mind,” Tony said. I got out and went to the passenger side and lifted her out of the car. She felt heavier than normal. As I turned toward the house, a grey-headed woman stood before me. She looked stern.
“Mr. Duarte, I am Mrs. Stapleton, the caretaker here. Please follow me,” I nodded and looked back to Tony who was dragging Tavaris out of the car.
“I'll secure him and put up the circle. Just stay with her until Ashley and Ichiro arrive,” he said.
We entered a two-story entryway with an enormous iron chandelier and dual circular staircases. The lady took the left one, leading me to a set of double doors. She pushed the doors open to a huge bedroom. It was larger than Abby’s room on the island. I walked over to the four-poster bed and laid her down. The lady nodded at me and left. Sitting there alone with her, I tried to piece together what happened. I felt the desperation in her like it overwhelmed her and replaced her with someone else. The dark hair and violet eyes were part of a glamour that she wore in Paris when we faced the necromancer, but she didn’t feel different then. She looked like Abby, but this didn’t feel like the woman I knew. Lying still on the bed, she stared at the ceiling, unresponsive when I spoke to her.
When Ashley and Ichiro came into the room, she gave me a half-hearted smile. Ichiro came over to the bed and checked her vitals. Ashley waved for me to come to her.
“I need to stay here. I’m not leaving her,” I said.
“Please come with me, and tell me what happened,” she pleaded.
“I’ll call you if there is any change,” Ichiro assured me.
She walked over and took my hand pulling me away. Reluctantly, I complied and followed her. Ichiro took my seat, watching over her. I followed Ashley out to the back of the house where a long porch conjoined with a pool. Beyond it you could see the lake and the sun dropping in the west. The air was humid, but pleasant, because the heat of the day left with the sun. My adrenaline settled, and the events of the day flashed through my mind. Ashley sat in a large rocking chair.
“You want to sit?” she asked. There was another chair, but I didn't want to sit. I leaned on one of the large columns and wished we were on the island.
“Tell me,” I tried to say calmly.
“She trusted you quickly, so I assume she told you about her death in New York City. After her death, and before I knew her, she came back to work for the Agency, but she struggled with the fact that she killed those men using magic. No matter what anyone told her about it being justified, it still plagued her, and every time she got in a situation where she had to use magic to harm someone she struggled even more. Lincoln stayed with her in the beginning to help her with this dark spot on her soul, her shadow. Occasionally during a fight, he said she would freeze up, and the shadow would try to take over.”
“Wait, the shadow is just a glamour right?”
“No, when I told her to tell you about the shadow before you went to Paris, I guess she didn’t tell you everything about it,” she said.
“She told me about the glamour. Then in Paris, she told me about the shadow. I didn’t connect the two,” I said. “But she was herself in Paris even with the shadow. That up there, doesn’t feel like Abby.”
“She controls the shadow. Lincoln taught her how to do it, and it became part of her. She had to accept that her magic can be used to kill. It made her stronger, but occasionally she would lash out in anger or shut down. That’s why she spent so much time on the island. It allowed her to retain control. Lincoln helped her realize when she’d done too much or started to lose her grip. He was connected to the shadow through the spirit realm and knew when she needed to take a break. He told me once that she tried to kill herself, but wouldn’t give me any details because it pained
him to think about it. When Lincoln died, she managed to control the shadow and spent a lot of time with Lukas, who has always believed in her. But after what happened to him, she couldn’t handle it. Fortunately, she made it to the island before the shadow took her over completely. She didn’t come back because she was afraid. She’s only back now, because we needed her. The world needs her,” she paused. I looked back at her, and tears rolled down her face. “She's going through the loss and pain again, but now there is no portal to send her through. We will have to find another way to stabilize her.”
“Tell me what to do. She isn’t talking to me,” I said.
“She always had the island as a backup. She was allowed to go there, only because she had died at one point and the shadow was a remnant of that death. Lincoln had a connection to the spirit world, so he could too. You have a similar connection. It was a big factor in her choosing you in the first place. You could go to the island where the rest of us couldn't. I have to think that your connection to her is what will stabilize her. I know I’ve pushed the two of you to be closer. Part of it, I admit is because I think you are perfect for each other. Mostly, it’s because I know she needs you,” she explained.
I understood completely now when she told me in Paris that I would have to take her out if the darkness consumed her. The shadow was the darkness, and it was trying to take her now. I would not allow that to happen.
“Perhaps she’s up there spaced out because of me. I pulled a stupid stunt to get away from the people that were chasing us, and it pushed her over the edge,” I was so confused and irritated.
“I doubt that, Tadeas. I’ve seen more happiness in her since you agreed to be her partner than I have in 20 years. She just needs to deal with the grief like she did before, except we don’t have the island to fall back on. A hundred years of death, blood, fighting, loss and grief can be too much to bear. The island and George once took care of her. Now, I think it’s your turn.”
“She dragged me into this, and she can’t opt out now,” I said. “We will find somewhere quiet and get away from it all. Gregory will just have to fight his own battles. He sent her those damn papers. I'm sure that did not help at all!” My anger was building. I needed to hit something.
