Random Acts of Sorcery (The Familiar Series Book 3)

by Karen Mead

  “Hey, can you get me an iced cappuccino while you’re at it?” Khalil called.

  Cassie rolled her eyes; the world could be ending, and Khalil would still want to take advantage of free room service. It was kind of comforting, in a way. She placed her order and hung up the phone. The only noise in the room came from Aeka’s television show.

  Miri bit her lip and walked away, looking dejected. Cassie didn’t necessarily think that Miri was wrong, but she just couldn’t think about what the demons were doing to Sam right now. Thinking about his chances of making it back meant confronting the possibility that he might not come back, and she just couldn’t think about that right now.

  “Where is everybody?” she asked finally.

  “In their rooms, mostly,” said Dwight, finishing the last of his beer. “John babbled something about checking out the floor and then left, so I don’t know where he is, but I think everyone else is around.”

  She nodded, numb; she didn’t even know why she had asked.

  I just don’t care, about anything. Maybe I should summon Sammael and ask him to drag me down to Hell too, because I can’t stay like this.

  It was an absurd thought, not meant to be taken seriously, but the prospect actually sounded tempting, and that scared her.

  No. I’m not going to throw myself away, not for Sam or anyone else. I have to keep moving forward, somehow. Even if they stick me with Nathaniel Lewis, the creep.

  After having slept for such a long time, the last thing Cassie expected was to feel groggy, so she was puzzled when her head started to feel heavy. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Miri collapse on the couch, and heard Dwight make a puzzled sound as he fell back into his chair. Khalil stretched out on the floor, his iced cappuccino forgotten.

  This is a spell. Someone’s putting us all to sleep. I have to stay awake….

  But the chair was too soft and comfortable, and before she knew it, she was slipping back into blissful unconsciousness. However, before she could fall completely asleep, a sudden feeling of freezing, painful cold woke her up.

  “Aaaaah!” she screamed, opening her eyes to see Aeka standing in front of her, holding an empty plastic container in one hand; the girl had dumped one of the fishbowls over Cassie’s head to wake her up.

  That is the second time this week someone’s woken me up by dumping something on me. Why does this keep happening?

  Aeka crumpled to the floor in front of her, fast asleep. Apparently, whatever strange spell had been cast on them, Aeka had fought it the longest, and used the last of her strength to wake Cassie. Cassie stood up, soaking wet, then shivered as she felt a bizarre, disgusting sensation coming from inside her dress; there were not one, but two tropical fish flopping around inside her cleavage. Grossed out, she picked them both out as quickly as she dared.

  If we survive this, whatever this latest threat is, I swear I’m going to kill Miri for making me wear this dress.

  “You’re awake? How strange. I suppose nothing ever goes quite according to plan with you.”

  Cassie looked up and stared. “You!?”

  “Yes,” said Donatello Arrigio, his expression unreadable. He was missing his suit jacket, and the lack of formality made him nearly unrecognizable. “I want you to know, no harm will come to any of your friends. I wish to do as little harm as possible.”

  “What do you want?” she said, taking a step back. There was no point in trying to run from him, but she had to move, had to do something.

  “I only want for the world to continue to make sense,” he said evenly. “Sometimes, someone in power is forced to do something abhorrent in order to protect the greater good. I find myself at such a crossroads now.”

  “You want to kill me,” she said, grabbing a counter for support. She found she wasn’t surprised.

  His face puckered, like he was sucking on a lemon. “No. All I really want to do is to make it so that chaos child will never be born. I could curse you with infertility, but then I can’t discount the possibility that you could be uncursed, someday.” He sighed. “I would rather not kill you, but I admit, I am somewhat at a loss as to how else to proceed.”

  He doesn’t really want to do this. I can at least keep him talking for a while…probably.

  “It wouldn’t work. Even if you do kill me, that doesn’t change the fact that Corianne was here. She was here, and everyone saw her. She already exists, no matter what you do to me.”

  He shook his head. “No. If I…remove you, she will never be born, and the events of earlier today will vanish like a dream. Thus, order will be maintained.”

  “You can’t know that!” Cassie yelled. “How do you know that she won’t survive in some alternate dimension, where she can—”

  “There are no alternate dimensions!” Arrigio yelled. “That’s a fanciful, boneheaded idea that defies logic. There is only this life, and I won’t see it descend into chaos on my watch.”

  You’re very big deciding on what logic allows, aren’t you?

  “But they’ve already taken Sam,” Cassie said, feeling desperate now. “Without him, I can’t get married and have that little girl.”

  “There’s no way of knowing whether or not he’ll be back,” said Arrigio, moving closer to her now. “And whether he returns or not, I can’t kill him. You, however….”

  Cassie grunted as her back hit the wall; she couldn’t back up anymore. “If you kill me, Sam will make you pay. Even if he’s stuck down there forever, he’ll find a way.”

  To Cassie’s surprise, his face broke into a weak smile. “You think I don’t know that? It’s not for my own life that I do this, Cassie, but for the people I must shepherd. People who deserve to grow up in a world where magic hasn’t become a vicious cancer that devours all reason.”

  She was out of arguments, and from the looks of things, he was mentally preparing himself to actually kill her. She should have been breathing heavily, but instead, she just felt numb.

  If I were Aeka, I could knock him out with my bare hands. She would know just where to hit him so that his air would be cut off, and she could get away.

  But she wasn’t Aeka, and she didn’t know how to bring down a man without a weapon. She knew she should be fighting, but she didn’t know what to do.

  He put a hand on her shoulder, and she shuddered. “I am truly sorry, Cassandra. I had hoped to see you grow into a fine witch someday. I wish it hadn’t come to this.”

  He’s going to do it soon. This is it….

  Just then, she saw a blur out of the corner of her eye, and 220 pounds of English teacher smacked into Arrigio, sending him flying into a table. Cassie stood in shock, watching Arrigio struggle to get his bearings; he wasn’t out, but he was clearly stunned.

  “Go, now!” John yelled, his eyes bloodshot and frightening.

  Cassie took a step towards the door, then thought better of it and reversed direction. She kicked her shoes off as she ran, throwing open the doors to the balcony.

  I’ll get farther away if I jump from here to the pool than if I try to navigate the hallways. Besides, there are more people down there.

  She hesitated only for a moment before climbing up onto the railing. For once, the stupid dress was working with her; the high slits left her legs unencumbered as she climbed.

  The instant after she jumped, she regretted it. The pool seemed much further away than it had whenever she’d looked out the window previously.

  If I were Aeka, I could probably grow a big flippin’ pair of angel wings right now and fly away.

  But she wasn’t Aeka.

  When she slammed into the water, it felt like someone had hit her on the buttocks with a baseball bat. Pain spread throughout her back and legs, but she could ignore it; nothing seemed broken. She grit her teeth as the pain faded into an annoying pins-and-needles sensation throughout her lower body, but still managed to swim to the edge of the pool, relying on her arms.

  For the first time in her life, she was grateful to her butt. By ta
king the jump in the cannonball position, she’d let her fleshy lower areas absorb the impact. If she’d messed up her positioning and belly-flopped, she would probably be unconscious right now, if not worse.

  Thank you, butt, she thought as she pulled herself out of the water, sopping wet in her already skin-tight dress. People were staring and pointing, but that was good; Arrigio wouldn’t kill her in front of a bunch of people. Would he?

  She took off from the pool at a run.

  I need to get to Op/Dec. It’s close, and it’ll be so chock full of people on a Saturday night that Arrigio won’t even be able to find me, let alone kill me.

  As plans went, she’d had worse.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  The servant who came to fetch Sam looked like he’d seen better days. A giant brute of a man, wearing nothing but a few strips of dirty fabric around his crotch, his eyes were blackened and the skin around his mouth was burned. Roughly, he undid Sam’s chains and slapped him into some other kind of restraint; a set of hand manacles that connected to a collar around his neck.

  This is hexed so that I can’t do magic. Not that I would bother to try; I saw how effective that was when I fought my father.

  As the silent servant prodded him forward, he thought about the panicked noise his father had made when Sam had managed to shatter his barrier, and smiled despite his situation.

  I may not be able to hurt him, but I did surprise him. He can’t take that away from me.

  Sam didn’t know how long they walked; the hallway had that strange habit, as some areas in Realm did, of warping when you weren’t paying attention. He found himself strangely bored; even terror didn’t make monotony less monotonous.

  “So what were you, up there? A stockbroker? A CEO?” Sam asked his companion. The man didn’t respond, but he paused in his gait long enough that Sam thought he was on target.

  “Let’s see. You must have been a rich, powerful man, because there’d be no need to humiliate you like this if you’d ever known humiliation in life. You probably had millions of dollars, a boat and a mistress, but it wasn’t enough. You wanted more. So you made a deal with a demon, thinking you were smart enough to think of a way out before it was time to pay what you’d promised.”

  The servant yanked on Sam’s chains, and he nearly tripped.

  “So tell me; was it worth it?”

  Other than a tiny shake of his shoulders, the man didn’t respond. Sam hadn’t really expected him to.

  If my father is to be believed, at one time, all of these demons were creatures of mercy, who took no joy in human pain and suffering. How did it ever come to this? And how can he say that whatever’s broken in me doesn’t come from him?

  Finally, a giant oak door appeared before them. The servant opened the door and pushed Sam through, then closed it with a slam. Unbalanced, Sam fell to his knees with a grimace.

  He was in a massive meeting room, filled with stately fireplaces and mantles stuffed with priceless trinkets. Directly before him was a long table, filled with men (or what looked like men) in all combinations of odd clothing. A half dozen pairs of red eyes turned his way.

  “I say we just kill him,” said a demon that Sam didn’t recognize. “Sammael, hear me out.”

  “Did I give any indication of stopping you?” said his father, leaning back in his chair in a casual posture. He was still wearing a black suit, a perfect copy of the one Sam had worn to court.

  The demon continued. “We have two problems: one, this half-breed is capable of Sorcery. Two, his offspring will be capable of even greater Sorcery, feats we don’t want to even contemplate. Get rid of him, and both problems disappear.”

  Sorcery? What are they talking about?

  Whenever he’d heard the term used before, it was used interchangeably with “magic”; but the Lords were talking like it was something different indeed.

  “There’s no need for that,” said another demon that Sam recognized as Asmodeus. “Killing him smacks of fear, and I don’t fear children. Simply take his magic away, and render him sterile; both problems solved, with no loss of life.”

  Sammael chuckled like that. “If you don’t fear him, you should try fighting with him. It’s not fun to have your form crushed, then have to weave a new one out of nothing. Hurts like a bastard.”

  Sam’s eyes widened at that.

  Asmodeus glowered at his father. “So what are you suggesting? That we kill your own son after all?”

  “No,” said Sammael, putting his feet up on the marble table. “Merely pointing out that you can’t have it both ways. You can’t drag my son in here on the premise that he’s too dangerous to be left alone, then still pretend he’s beneath your notice.” He smiled. “My little boy has graduated.”

  “Yes, thanks to that Paradox Maiden of yours. For the last time, what in blazes is she? She can’t be just a human,” said another demon from the far end of the table.

  Sammael’s smile turned into a cheeky grin. “The fact that you can say ‘just a human’ is proof that you wouldn’t understand even if I explained it to you.”

  “We’re getting sidetracked,” said Asmodeus, looking mildly irritated. “The fact is, in the past six months, we’ve seen more Sorcery on Earth than we have in the last 2,000 years—”

  “2,000? More like 5,000,” Sammael interjected. Asmodeus rolled his eyes towards heaven.

  “In any case, at this rate, Sorcery could transform the human world so thoroughly that we won’t even recognize it in 50 years’ time. Now, what do we do about it?”

  The Lords continued to discuss possible ways of neutralizing Sam and his bloodline, with castrating him (both magically and otherwise) ranking high on the list of preferred solutions. Sam managed to twist himself into a slightly more comfortable position, then realized that his head felt clearer than it had in the prison cell. He was closer to the human world here, on some level; while his senses were still dulled compared to what they would be normally, he found he could vaguely discern shapes of human emotion, like seeing the outlines of familiar furniture in a pitch-dark room.

  He felt a jolt of fear, deep in his stomach, and realized it had come from Cassie. She was afraid, and her fear was strong enough to reach him even here.

  Why is she afraid? What could be happening up there now?

  “Father,” he said, cutting through the latest conversation on how precisely to mutilate his body. “Listen; she’s afraid.”

  His father turned to him with a vaguely disgusted expression, while the other demons just looked scandalized that he had the nerve to speak. “So what? If I jumped every time that girl was afraid, I’d be bouncing up and down all day long. She can scream and cry all she wants, I don’t care.”

  “She’s your familiar too,” Sam said through gritted teeth. “She’s useful. You don’t want anything to happen to her.”

  “How conscientious of you to remind me of what I want,” said Sammael in an acid tone, but something in his face gave Sam hope. He didn’t know if Sammael had sensed Cassie’s fear for himself, or what he had said had hit home, but he felt like his father was not nearly as disinterested in Cassie’s plight as he let on.

  “Look at how arrogant he is,” a gravelly-voiced demon groused. “We’re discussing his sentence, and he thinks he has time to worry about his stupid witch.”

  “How can I not be arrogant? All you’ve been talking about is how terrified you all are of what I’ll do,” said Sam. He knew antagonizing them was dumb, but something in him refused to be cowed.

  His father shot him a dark look.

  I’m doing my best here. Don’t make things harder by being a snotty brat.

  Sam’s eyes widened at the sound of his father’s voice in his head.

  You’re trying to help me? This is news to me.

  Sammael turned away from him.

  Look, I’ve sent some help for our accident-prone little familiar, so the least you can do is keep your immense mouth shut.

  The “our” rankled, but
Sam looked down at the floor at that, satisfied. If Sammael had sent some kind of help for Cassie, he would do as his father asked. For now.

  Chapter Fifty

  The swimming complex/night club was every bit as crowded as Cassie had hoped. Still, she felt vulnerable standing on the patio; every party goer who passed behind her nearly made her jump out of her skin. After a few moments of terror, she shrugged and jumped into the nearest pool; it probably wasn’t any safer, but being in the water felt right.

  As she swam under the surface, she couldn’t help but marvel at her surroundings. The swimming pool had ornate carvings on the bottom, and the scalloped edges of the artwork picked up traces of the club lights from above, making the underwater area feel like the inside of a giant disco ball. She was surprised how clearly she could hear the music from above, then realized that the sound was being piped in underwater.

  They are playing ‘80s power rock at the bottom of the pool. I can’t decide if that’s awesome, or stupid.

  She weaved around a few undulating swimmers, then came up for air. At the deep end of the huge pool, there was a decorative island filled with cacti and flowers. She swam to the far side of it, hoping it would block Arrigio’s view of her if he did come looking for her here.

  She was just starting to relax, thinking that she’d found the best place to hide out that she was probably going to, when the water on her skin seemed to turn to ice. She looked around and saw the other swimmers frozen in mid-dance, and felt a faint stirring of hope.

  Sam? Did they let him go?

  But she realized her error soon enough. She heard slow footsteps, and realized that Arrigio was walking on the patio, slowly but surely getting closer to her location. He was wiping his forehead with a handkerchief as he walked.

  “Stop this. Running is only making it harder for yourself,” he called. “Come out where I can see you.”

  Cassie pressed herself against the island, biting her lip. She knew she couldn’t hide from him for long, but there was no way she was just going to walk out and let him kill her.