Arcane Dropout 4

by Edmund Hughes

  It wasn’t a lie to tell her yes, though maybe that was a lie he was telling himself to simplify his explanation. Lee suspected that Zoe, with Lucas’s help, might also be able to restore her own memories in the same way he had. It wasn’t the full truth, but it wasn’t a complete lie, and the words came easy to his lips.

  “In certain cases,” said Lee. “Part of it is the method that Constantine was forced to use on me. He covered up my memories instead of erasing them. I think I was too stubborn for the normal version.”

  “Okay.” She held a finger up. “I still need to know why you didn’t try to reach out to me. You could have given me the courtesy of a phone call. It would have simplified the situation immensely.”

  “I didn’t have my phone,” he said. “I couldn’t. It’s not as though anyone remembers phone numbers these days.”

  “I remember yours.” She recited it perfectly, barely even stopping to think.

  “Is there anything that you aren’t freakishly talented at?”

  Harper gave him a small smile. She reached her hand out and stroked his cheek, and then hesitated as though remembering something. She reached into her robe and pulled out a small weapon in a polished oak scabbard.

  “My kris dagger!” Lee grinned as she passed it to him. “Wait, why do you have this?”

  Harper shrugged. “Why do you think? I was under the impression that I’d never see you again, at least the you that I’ve grown to know. That we’d never speak again, never get a chance to… Anyway, it’s far more useful in your hands than mine.”

  It felt so familiar in Lee’s hand, and it was only then that he truly realized how much he’d missed the weapon. He shook his head, remembering his first arrival at Primhaven, when Harper searched his room and confiscated it. He took a step toward her and was about to give her a hug when the sound of an argument intruded on the moment.

  “She’s still nearby,” shouted Jack. “I know she is.”

  “Your point?” asked Mira. “Regardless of whether her having that sword affected the outcome, she still had it.”

  “It was Savoire Solaire, one of the blades made from the shards of Joan of Arc’s original sword,” he muttered. “It isn’t unbeatable and neither is she. We can finish this now. We have to finish this now!”

  The leader of the House of Shadows, the infamous Dealmaker, pulled himself to his feet. His sweatshirt was in tatters, and blood oozed from dozens of cuts, enough to make the simple act of standing impressive, if not outright unnerving.

  “You’re in no state to fight her again,” said Mira.

  “That changes nothing.” Jack spoke slowly, and his eyes settled on Harper. “We have her to bargain with, after all.”

  Mira acted on the mere suggestion, flicking a hand to the side and extending three tendrils of pure shadow to hold and gag Harper as efficiently as any conjuration binding. It might have been close to a fair fight had her ankle not been injured, and had she been a split-second faster, but it was over before it even started.

  “Get those off her,” said Lee. He drew his kris dagger and let his gaze settle on Mira. The night was still and quiet, with silver light pouring down from the moon overhead. The silence held as the reality of what Lee was doing brought the moment into crystalline focus.

  “No, I don’t think I will,” said Mira. She closed her fingers slightly and the tendrils tightened. Harper didn’t resist or struggle, which surprised him, until he saw her expression.

  She knew it was a fight they couldn’t win. She’d likely known this was coming from the first moment Mira intercepted them. The look in Harper’s eyes infuriated him. She looked scared, and it took him longer than it should have to understand why.

  She was afraid that he was going to get himself killed. Which, he realized, was probably valid.

  CHAPTER 27

  The wind blew through the clearing, a song of whipping branches and rustling leaves. Lee stood a dozen paces from Jack, with the restored well serving almost as a middle marker between them. Mira still held Harper in a confining embrace with her dark magic, and Zoe and Ryoko watched with horrified expressions from the sidelines.

  “I sincerely doubt that Harper will have any value to someone like Genevieve,” said Lee.

  “You’d be wrong, then,” said Jack. “Did you ever wonder why she was there in the first place? Hand-picked to go on a dangerous mission with the Order’s second-in-command?”

  “She’s a talented spellcaster,” he said.

  “True, but the Order has plenty of those. No, it’s all about trust. Gen trusts Harper because Harper is Gen’s former apprentice.”

  The fact changed very little about the situation, but Lee still wished Harper had told him earlier.

  “I’m still not going to let you use her as a hostage,” he said.

  “Let me?” Jack smiled. “Interesting word choice. It almost sounds as though you think you can stop me.”

  “Jack…” said Ryoko. Jack gave her a single glance, and she went silent.

  “You’d really sink this low?” asked Lee. “For what?”

  “You’ve never lost someone you’ve loved before, have you?” asked Jack. “I sincerely hope you never live to experience what that’s like. It changes you, molds you in a fashion that can never be undone.”

  “I care about Harper,” replied Lee. “Is this really what you want? To get your revenge by turning me into your enemy?”

  He looked toward his sister, who’d been suspiciously silent. Zoe refused to meet his gaze or acknowledge what was going on, as though she’d completely checked out of the situation.

  “I knew it would come to this between us eventually,” said Jack.

  Lee sighed. “I suppose we both did, then.”

  “It isn’t too late, Lee,” said Jack. “If Harper helps us willingly, there’d be no need for a fight. Convince her to cooperate.”

  “She’s not the one who needs convincing.”

  “After what you saw tonight, you’d still side with the Order of Chaldea? You’d pick them over us? Over your sister?”

  Lee gritted his teeth. “I’m picking the people I care about. You pretend like this is a choice between good and evil, or freedom and slavery, but you know it’s not. Sure, there are people like Genevieve on one side, but there are literal neo-Nazis, criminals, and lycanthrope terrorists on the other.”

  “I’m not going to back down,” said Jack.

  “I know.” Lee couldn’t help but smile, as inappropriate as it was in the moment. “I know.”

  He already had his kris dagger unsheathed, and the blade was a gleaming ivory tusk in the purified moonlight. He fell into a fighting stance and Jack did the same, shooting a hand out to the side to summon his blade of darkness.

  Several people spoke out in hushed voices, Ryoko among them. Lee could barely hear anything, as though his mind had tuned out all unnecessary noise to focus on what mattered. Jack was injured, but he was still dangerous, faster and stronger than Lee in almost every way that counted. He could fight at sword range and barely even expose himself to danger against Lee’s much shorter-ranged weapon.

  They began moving, though the exchange was slow and dreamlike at first. It reminded Lee of his theater troupe, standing in for the swordfight against Alex and swinging wooden sticks in predictable patterns with telegraphed strikes. It was brinkmanship in the form of simple violence, neither of them wanting to commit to snuffing the other out.

  Lee knew that he was outmatched, but he also knew that didn’t matter. If he focused his anti-magic ability into the tip of his kris dagger, a single stab to the heart or even the stomach would easily do the job. The real question was the price he was willing to pay in return.

  He ducked under Jack’s shadow sword and spun to the side as another, chopping slash came with supernatural speed. He slashed, catching Jack in the shoulder with the tip of his dagger. Jack kicked out, catching Lee in the shins and flipping him completely upside down. Lee rolled as he landed, stabbing twice wit
h his dagger, missing once and catching Jack’s thigh on the second.

  “I still have essence!” shouted Tess. She’d been repeating that for a minute or more, but her voice had been lost to him, tuned out with the other distractions.

  Lee could cast a spell, if he wanted. He was sure that Jack had a variety of options available outside of his sword, as well. It was as though they had a gentleman’s agreement to fight clean, or rather, as though their honor bound them as tightly as any chain.

  “You know you can’t win this fight,” said Jack. “My wounds might limit me now, but they’ll heal soon enough. I’m talking within minutes, not days. Why even bother?”

  Lee was panting, but he still managed a smile in return. He considered the question and found his gaze pulling toward Ryoko, who stood by the well wringing her hands with worry.

  “What was it you said, Ryoko?” he asked. “People shouldn’t die for doing the right thing? I guess I believe that, too.”

  Ryoko flinched, one hand reaching to her heart as though she’d just been stabbed. Jack was already taking a step forward to swing his sword again when she moved. She threw herself between them, arms outstretched, face tight with determination.

  “No!” she said. “I… should have done this to begin with. I’m not going to stand here and watch the two of you kill each other!”

  “Ryoko, this doesn’t—”

  Ryoko snapped her hand toward Jack’s face. A sphere of water the size of a beach ball fell into place over his head, blocking his nose and mouth in what must have been a terrifying surprise. She only maintained the spell for a few seconds before releasing it, but apparently that was enough.

  Lee felt a small pang of sympathy, given how he’d had a similar spell used on him once before. Jack’s resolve seemed to have left him when he finished coughing up water. He moved to stand near the edge of the forest, deep in thought.

  “Mr. Amaranth, Ms. Black, I can get you to where you need to be,” said Ryoko. “As long as it’s near a pool of water I’ve visited before, I can transport you there with water teleportation.”

  “That would be helpful,” said Harper. “Take us to the one near Primhaven. The pond.”

  “Primhaven isn’t safe,” said Lee. “The Melting Pack may have even sent word ahead of us to Mattis, Constantine, and the lycanthropes they likely have hidden there.”

  “Let them,” said Harper. “If they attack us openly, we’ll simply take the fight. We won’t be alone. We can trust Odarin and the rest of the instructors, not to mention the entire student populace.”

  “Good point.” He nodded to Ryoko, who moved to stand next to the well. She lowered her hand into the water, which nearly rose to the edge of the stone lip and began to stir.

  “I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, Lee Amaranth,” said Mira. “Let’s hope, for your sake, that they don’t bring you into conflict with us.”

  “Let’s hope.” Lee smiled at her and she gave him a small nod, her intimidating red eyes softening a bit around the edges. Then he looked for his sister, who’d been far too quiet for the last few minutes.

  “Goodbye, Zoe,” he said.

  Zoe walked toward him slowly, favoring him with a smile that looked like it had been painted on her face. “Goodbye, Eldon.”

  It felt like a real goodbye, a parting not just of people, but of paths and lives. It hurt, and like picking at a scab, Lee couldn’t decide whether he wanted it to be a slow, gradual process, or a quick tear.

  He hugged her. Zoe pressed wet eyes against his shoulder, which made him wonder if her long silence had been an emotional survival strategy, rather than a deliberate choice.

  “Take care of yourself,” she whispered.

  “I will,” he said.

  “You have to promise me something, Eldon.”

  “What?”

  He felt Zoe’s arms squeeze around his body, as though holding him in place for what she was about to say.

  “Don’t fall in love with her,” she whispered. “Anyone but her. Your ghost girlfriend, even. Just not Harper.”

  She pulled back, leaving no room for the questions he couldn’t have put into words, anyway. A quick kiss on his cheek, along with a generous ruffle of his hair, and then it was over. Zoe didn’t so much as acknowledge Harper’s presence or look in her general direction as she walked away from the well, moving to stand by Jack around the edge of the clearing.

  “We must be quick,” said Ryoko. “Are you both ready?”

  Lee raised an eyebrow at Harper, who nodded without hesitation. There would be no goodbye between her and his sister.

  “Take this with you,” said Ryoko. “It’s a key for the cabin near the pond. You’ll need to get inside immediately once you’re through. It will be cold… extremely cold. You’ll have to move quickly.”

  She handed Lee a small key, which he stuffed into his pocket.

  “Wait, wasn’t that cabin destroyed?” he asked.

  “We rebuilt it.” Ryoko shrugged, flashing a small, but proud smile. “It’s useful for us to have a base there, and building a cabin is a quick process with the right spells. Now, we’ve wasted enough time. You should go first, Lee. Remember: get inside the cabin as fast as humanly possible.”

  She gestured to the well with her free hand. He climbed over the lip, letting his feet drop into the cold water. The air in his pant legs was forced upward at a weird angle, and the water’s chill gave him an instant case of goosebumps.

  “Thank you, Ryoko,” he said. “Take care of my sister. And keep everyone’s head level, if you can.”

  “I’ll do my best, sir,” said Ryoko.

  Lee shot one last glance at Zoe and Harper, and then slipped forward into the well.

  CHAPTER 28

  It was Lee’s second time being teleported by a water nymph, and the sensation was still intensely jarring. The process felt like being spun around backward, which was an unnerving effect to endure while holding one’s breath underwater.

  The pond on the other side was extremely cold, and Lee almost exhaled his breath as pins and needles roved over his exposed flesh. Even more terrifying was the fact that the surface of the pond had frozen over, trapping him within its depths.

  He flailed at the layer of ice in the way of his freedom for a few seconds before calming down enough to think the situation through. As quickly and carefully as he could, Lee drew his kris dagger. He gripped the hilt with both hands and jammed it upward, focusing on the same spot each time, chiseling away.

  It felt like it took an eternity, but it was probably less than twenty seconds. The ice shattered into large pieces, like the glass of a broken mirror. Lee burst upward, expecting instant relief as he sucked in a fresh breath of air.

  The subzero ambient cold was frigid against his face, so intense that he felt his vision momentarily pulse white. Lee gasped and stretched his arms out across the ground, pulling himself ashore with the grace of an injured manatee. It was unbelievably cold, and his soaking wet clothing multiplied the nature of the problem by an order of magnitude.

  He heard Harper splashing and reacting to the cold in the pond behind him. The cabin was barely twenty feet away, but his clothes had already begun to freeze by the time he crossed the distance. He fumbled in his pocket for the key with numb fingers. It wasn’t there. Panic hammered in his chest as he tried the door handle, finding it stoutly locked.

  “Op–p–pen the—the—” Harper was behind him now, trying to form words through chattering teeth.

  Lee swore under his breath. He tried his other pocket, almost in awe of how absurd it would be to survive battles against zombies, a lich, and a vampire, only to die from exposure.

  “It’s still in your pocket!” shouted Tess. “No, not that one. The first one. You just didn’t feel it because your fingers are numb.”

  “Th—thanks,” he managed.

  He got the key out and fumbled it into the lock, feeling like he’d won the lottery when it successfully turned and did i
ts job. He and Harper both collapsed into the tiny cabin as soon as the door was open. The ordeal wasn’t over just yet, however.

  The room had a single small electric heater, which they turned on while stripping out of their clothes. For the next five minutes, they stood rubbing at their numb limbs, Lee in his boxers, Harper in her black bra and panties. The electric heater finally began to do its job and they both crouched in front of it, as though they were letting the creeping warmth sanctify their bodies.

  “That’s officially the closest I’ve come to dying in this past week,” said Lee. “Which is saying a lot.”

  “Ryoko did warn us,” said Harper. “Though, perhaps she understated the danger.”

  The cabin’s interior layout was different from the last time Lee had been inside it, though of course, that had been a different cabin. There was a queen-size bed in one corner, a few chairs, an empty minifridge, and a closet with a few winter jackets inside.

  “We’ll be taking these with us,” said Harper, pulling the coats out. “I’m sure they won’t be overly missed. I suppose we’ll need to wait here until the rest of our clothing dries. Which is convenient, since it will give you time to explain.”

  Lee was sitting on the bed, and Harper affixed him with her stern, no-nonsense gaze as she came to stand over him, still limping slightly. He’d forgotten just how gorgeous she was and did his best not to openly ogle the ample flesh her underwear left on display.

  Harper’s body was like the womanly equivalent of a Swiss Army knife, with firm, sizable breasts and a butt that straddled the line between defined and plump, all of it underlined by lean muscle. She would have seemed as comfortable in a beauty contest as she would have in a professional wrestling ring, both the scripted variety and the more intense, MMA-style bouts.

  Her black sports bra was small, with thin straps that curved downward into a plunging neckline, creating a v-shaped window of her ample cleavage. Her panties had a grey elastic waistband with a fashion designer’s name plastered across the length. Her long braid had survived the swim, and she toyed with it as she stared him down, squeezing water out of the tight, golden lock.