Stand Your Ground Hero

by Paul Duffau

  Her soft hand caressed his cheek and the gold in her gaze did the same for his soul. “My mother’s amulet blocked part of it. But that wasn’t the only thing.” She dipped her face and spoke so softly that Mitch strained to hear. “You were part of it, too.” When she glanced up at him, a faint crimson stained her cheeks.

  Mitch rocked backward and bumped into Harold. “Me, how?” Instinctively, he could feel it without her asking.

  “Quantum entanglement,” Harold stated. His eyes were wide in a mix of excitement and disbelief.

  “In English for those of us who prefer the biological side of the sciences, please,” said Mercury.

  “This is why everyone should take physics,” Harold lectured. It had the sound of a rehearsed argument. “Quantum entanglement, what Einstein derisively called spooky action at a distance, is an observed phenomena in which actions on one particle affect another particle instantaneously, regardless of the distance between them. This explains how Mitch was able to warn us that you were in jeopardy,” he said with a tip of his head in Kenzie’s direction. “The truly fascinating tidbit is that you and he are obviously not subatomic particles. If you are in fact entangled, physicists would need to reassess the entire framework of our understanding to account for organized systems in partial synchronization.”

  “Partial because we don’t react to every stimulus, correct?” replied Mitch. Kenzie’s expression showed she was having trouble keeping up, so he explained further. “If we were perfectly aligned, then we’d interact all the time, not just when events heightened the energy levels. There’s a minimum threshold we need to reach.”

  Kenzie absorbed the information. She touched her arm. “So what happened to you that hurt so bad?”

  Mitch took a deep breath. “Hunter’s Family snatched me off the street. I made the mistake of mouthing off to his mother.”

  Kenzie muttered a curse under her breath. “Tell me the rest of it, all of it.” Seeing his reluctance, she said in carefully measured words, “The Families need to be brought back together if the magic is to survive.”

  Mercury, standing behind the chairs, provided subtle encouragement. Mitch filled in the story. She asked questions as it unfolded, growing angry at his mistreatment by Cailida Rubiera. Mercury added occasional proddings when he glossed over important details. As he detailed the attack by the red wizard, though, Kenzie turned stone-faced and stood up, pizza forgotten on the side table.

  “What did she look like?”

  Mitch hesitated, not sure how to describe the woman to Kenzie. “She was, uh, blond, in her mid-thirties maybe, about five seven, flame-red robe kinda like yours, with, um . . .”

  “Big boobs?”

  Mutely, he nodded. His whole face warmed top to bottom and back to his ears.

  “Acts like an alley cat in heat?”

  Mercury spluttered and Harold choked. Mitch wanted to melt down and ooze away, but the fierceness of Kenzie’s scowl paralyzed him.

  She read the answer on his face and pivoted to Harold. “I told you she was behind a lot of this,” she accused him. “You didn’t believe me. It’s Belinda.”

  So aggressive was her tone that the elderly wizard backed up. “It can’t be the same person. Belinda didn’t show any evidence of such advanced ability. Plus she was a Wilder and it was a team that hit the Rubieras.”

  Switches and relays closed in Mitch’s head and another part of the framework came into existence. “Kenzie, how many spells can you handle at the same time?”

  Harold objected. “I told you that—”

  “Two.”

  Harold stood, mouth agape.

  “How do you know?” Mitch fired back at Kenzie.

  A flicker of anger materialized in her eyes. “Because I tried it.”

  Mitch shook his head. “Sorry, bad question. How do you know you can’t handle more than two?”

  Doubt grew plain on her features. She lifted a shoulder. “I don’t.”

  Mitch observed the two older wizards exchange glances. “She needs the other stone.”

  Harold went rigid. “No. It wouldn’t work for her in any case. If it is an amulet tuned to Elowyn, then it won’t work to match McKenzie’s . . . pattern.”

  Kenzie sat back down. “It will.” She lifted the partial slice of pizza and took a bite. “I helped make it, I think.”

  Mitch shot her a startled look, closely followed by a deeper appraisal. “I’m beginning to think none of this is accidental.”

  At the edge of his vision, Mercury shifted a quarter turn away. The word “guilty” flashed through Mitch’s mind. Of what? “Your turn, Mercury. You keep telling me to spill what I know, so . . .” Mitch let it tail off but kept a steady gaze on those green eyes. Mercury looked away first.

  “Elowyn didn’t just . . . vanish.”

  Harold gave an anguished moan. Mercury stepped forward until Kenzie could see him from the chair without twisting herself into a pretzel. “She left us with a message.” His gaze went back in time. In a somber voice, as though speaking would conjure a ghost, he said, “She told us someone would ‘come to save her.’ We assumed that ‘her’ meant McKenzie. As for who that other person would be, we hadn’t a clue, so we’ve been trying to cover all our bases, and then boyo here flies into the street with more courage than good sense and settles the question.” His gaze drifted down to Kenzie. “We got there too late to prevent the showdown and we’ve all had to live with the guilt of that for all the years of your life.” He straightened himself. “Back to the matter at hand. Whoever this rogue wizard is, she’s started a war between us and the hechiceros. We also now have a major internal rift in the Family. We’ve got to figure out whether Sasha’s MAGE program is an actual threat or not, and who else is after it. And, clearly, Elowyn’s Star factors into this mess as well.”

  Mitch found his gaze drawn to the empty setting. He called up a mental picture of the sapphire he had stashed in the hidey-hole in the garage. Size-wise, they were a pretty close match. The emerald glittered with unearthly energy as though entertained by his attention and seeking to draw him in close.

  Mercury kept talking while Mitch stood mesmerized by the choker.

  “The easiest to resolve is the Family. They will follow the strongest wizard with a battle coming, especially since you will have the support of the Council of Protectors. By the time the hechiceros are ready, we’ll be ready, too.”

  “You can’t know that,” said Kenzie sharply. “I expect my father to fight me every step of the way as we reform the Family.”

  Offhandedly, Mitch commented, “Mercury put your dad on the council. That was one of the bases he covered.” He shifted from the necklace to her face. “This amulet you made, it had a blue sapphire about so big?” he asked, demonstrating the size of the stone.

  “Yes,” she said. “This setting is different, more complex. My mother put it into a ring.”

  Icicles speared down into the marrow of his bones. A ring. Like a kindergarten rhyme, the voice in his head whispered, a sapphire ring, a ruby ring, doesn’t mean a thing. Except it did, because of a piece of utterly useless, utterly frightening trivia that trailed along the connection from a blue gem to a bloodred one.

  Kenzie saw the change in him. “What?” she asked, and there was a tremor in her voice, as though she could feel his fear.

  Mitch gathered his wits. “I think we have a problem.”

  “We have a lot of them,” replied Kenzie. “Nothing scared you until now.”

  Harold and Mercury stood like spectators, waiting for the next volley of words.

  “Sapphire and ruby are both gems from the same mineral, corundum.”

  Kenzie stared at him. A glimmer of understanding appeared in her eyes. “My mother rejected a ruby. She didn’t trust it.”

  “The red wizard had a ruby ring and it glowed like that emerald,” said Mitch, pointing. “I think she has an amulet of her own.”

  Mercury moved with exceptional speed for an old man. His hands flew i
nto a series of complex movements. At the same time, he barked orders to his brother. “Get to the Glade and alert Raymond. Tell him to signal a recall of the Family to the Glade immediately. Close the known entrances. Be prepared to receive Kenzie on a moment’s notice.”

  Harold already had a portal open and was running for it, robe held up so he wouldn’t trip.

  “Why not get Kenzie to this Glade place?” demanded Mitch.

  “Because Belinda knows about the Glade. Kenzie is safer here for now.”

  Kenzie was on her feet. “How do you know she’ll attack now?”

  “I don’t, but I’d rather call out the cavalry and have egg on my face than end up dead. I reacted too slowly to protect Elowyn. I’ll be damned if I make that mistake twice. You’re not ready for another battle.” Mercury spun to face Mitch. “Go get the Star and bring it back here. Don’t drive too fast and don’t attract attention. Remember the lessons from Jackson.”

  Mitch frowned. He hadn’t told Mercury about the full range of training that Jackson had put him through.

  Kenzie looked from Mitch to Mercury. “Mitch knows where it is?”

  “More than that. Magic, for whatever reason, left it in his care after the shootout with Lassiter. I’d have taken it from him, but the same forces that put the Star in his hands set a gytrash to protect him. Let’s say it discouraged my efforts.” He put a hand on Mitch’s shoulder. “Get going. Stay alert.” The hand guided him to the door to the real world.

  “Wait.” Kenzie glided over, a fairy-tale princess in a rustling green gown.

  Mitch halted. “Do you really want that skinny little girl?” Mitch recalled the red wizard asking Hunter. Mitch knew his answer. Kenzie wasn’t a little girl, not anymore.

  She stepped up under his chin and tilted her face to his. “Be really, really careful,” she said, and kissed him on the lips.

  “I will,” he promised, heart swelling with unaccustomed emotion. “Always.”

  Chapter 43

  Exhaustion draped itself across his shoulders and whispered lullabies in Mitch’s ears. The deep, throaty rumble of the Camaro added a rhythmic bass beat to the music. The twin beams of the headlights reached up the damp asphalt, looking dimly into the immediate future. He wasn’t in a hurry; for once, he kept to the speed limit.

  He navigated the ten-minute drive home as the streets, lit by old-fashioned lampposts set along the narrow tree-lined lanes and the centers of the tight roundabouts, lay in restful slumber. An occasional house would have a light peering out, but he was alone with his thoughts. He rolled his head from side to side and surrendered to a bone-crackingly-wide yawn.

  The image of Kenzie stepping out from the Glade back to the real world—Mitch snorted at the thought—came unbidden. She had looked haggard. . . .

  He shook his head. No, not haggard. Honed and tired, but she carried a light about her now, as though the magic was always there and she was the embodiment of it. Her tiny form, standing up to Harold and Mercury, saying, “It’s time to heal the Families, to heal all of us” had hit him hard. She had stared right at him, and he’d looked away.

  Some things you can’t heal. . . .

  Motion at the edge of his peripheral vision pulled his eyes to the left. Nothing, until he shifted his attention back to his driving. He would have sworn it was Wuffie, the beast that kept following him. Mitch did a double-take, but there was no hint of the animal except for the leaden feeling that surfaced in his abdomen.

  Did Kenzie feel this?

  Harold’s explanation of the connectedness between him and Kenzie probably made sense to a physics professor. Quantum entanglement, he had explained, was when two particles interact across space, even very large spaces, where a change in one affects the other. He’d said it as though it were obvious. So when Kenzie hurt, Mitch felt it, and vice versa, as though it was as normal as raindrops failing, each minutely influencing the other. It sounded like a bunch of gobbledygook.

  Mitch, not understanding a bit, had nodded as Kenzie stayed folded into the safety of his arms. Maybe with some sleep he could make sense of it. Maybe not. Harold was odd, even for the wizards.

  He turned onto his cul-de-sac, toward home.

  That’s when Lassiter’s crew made their mistake.

  The low-slung black Tesla, lights off, swung to block the end of the cul-de-sac. Streetlamps reflected off the polished surface of the hood. Mitch saw it in the rearview. He knew that car. Bile, corrosive and bitter, rose at the back of his throat. Mitch wasted one second to pound the steering wheel over the injustice of it and went to full alert, eyes scanning ahead. They’d have more than one vehicle, but his fast survey of both sides of the street showed nothing. Maybe they haven’t had a chance to fully set the trap yet.

  He didn’t believe it. Where are you? He kept his eyes moving while he sorted through a dozen plans, all of which ended badly. One held a chance, a small one.

  He had leftover thermite in the garage, and an igniter. If he could get to it, he might be able to create one hell of a flash-bang distraction, enough to get away on foot.

  The driveway was filled with his uncle’s Dodge pickup. No lights were on outside, so he could use the darkness as a cover. He let the Camaro glide to the curb on the wrong side of the street so he could get out closer to the pedestrian door to the garage. He shoved the gearshift into Park and, every nerve screaming at him to run, opened the car door and got out like he had all the time in the world. He measured steps across the lawn by the bang of his heart against his ribs, one hammer beat at a time.

  He didn’t look. Geez, how he wanted to, but he did not look. Jackson would have been pleased. Mitch wiped his palms on his jeans.

  A dozen feet from the door, the sinuous shape that had stalked him for months materialized like a malevolent vapor coalescing from a gas to a solid. In front of him stood the crouching nightmare of a wolf thing. Mitch’s steps faltered. Fight-or-flight reflexes shrieked for action.

  He charged.

  In an instant, he was on his back, head bouncing off the turf. The wolf-like creature huffed fetid air into his face, and the weight of the two front paws, each the size of saucers, pressed his shoulders into the ground. Mitch stared up, unable to breathe, the massive snout inches from his face, so close he couldn’t see those razor teeth. The red eyes held him paralyzed.

  One more huff and the creature stepped off him and took up a guarding position. Mitch scrambled backward, crab-like and, once clear, launched himself to his feet.

  Up the street, car doors slammed. They were coming. He had to hurry.

  Trembling, he hustled to the left to flank the beast. It moved to cover the action and a realization dawned on Mitch. The creature wasn’t there to attack him. It was there to protect the amulet, Elowyn’s Star.

  I’m screwed.

  The sapphire gem with its inner fire was stashed in the same hidey-hole as the thermite. No time. Mitch bolted for the street, to the closed end of the cul-de-sac with its staircase and a promise of escape.

  She stepped from the shadows right in front of him. Instinctively, he dodged the woman to avoid knocking her down. Off balance, he slipped, slid on the grass, and recovered to his feet like a base runner stealing second. He pivoted to face her.

  “Hello, Mitchell.”

  The voice was familiar, but it took a second to register. When it did, he dove, but too late. The Taser hit him. Just like the last time, it bit and burned and wouldn’t let him go. He tried to fight it this time, but all his muscles were rocks of pain, clenched as the discharges continued.

  Through the lightning exploding behind his eyes, he heard her amused voice. “We’ve been looking for you.”

  Lassiter’s team had found him.

  Also by Paul Duffau

  The Accidental Hero Series

  Got To Be A Hero – When Mitch Meriwether saves a girl from abduction, it plunges him head first into a foreign world of magic and intrigue.

  Where to get it:

  Amazon (Kind
le)

  Other Novels by Paul Duffau

  Trail of Second Chances – When Olympic wannabe Becca Hawthorne gets caught in a wildfire, she runs for more than gold! A page-turner adventure story set high in the Montana mountains.

  Where to get it:

  Amazon (Kindle)

  Barnes & Noble (Nook)

  Apple iBooks

  Finishing Kick – Callie let down her team at the State Cross Country meet. Now the team captain, she seeks redemption as she leads the team back for one last chance shot at the winner’s podium.

  -“Paul really understands both running and kids and tells a great story about magic season for a high school cross country team - the joy and rewards of effort regardless of talent.”

  Where to get it:

  Amazon (Kindle)

  Barnes and Noble (Nook)

  Apple iBooks

  Audible

  Apple iTunes

  Short Story by Paul Duffau

  A Walk with Rose – A heartwarming short story in the tradition of Hallmark Movies, A Walk with Rose tells the story of a young girl’s bravery, an old man’s loss – and the love of a dog.

  Where to get it:

  Amazon (Kindle Unlimited)

  Thank You!

  Writers don’t say that often enough. I wanted to make sure I didn’t forget. I hope that you enjoyed reading Stand Your Ground Hero. If you did, please do me the kindness of leaving a review at the retailer that you purchased it from and let your friends know about Hero, too.