by Nichols, TJ
“And they’ve had time to perfect the magic. I get one chance to take back what they’ve stolen. I need to be in Vinland, and the only way for me to get there is for you to turn me over. I can’t sneak in. We can’t cross the desert, and there is no doorway.”
Angus was making sense. He knew that. But he couldn’t. “No. I love you. They….” His voice broke. They wouldn’t treat Angus kindly, even if they didn’t kill him.
Angus bowed his head and pressed his fingers into Terrance’s thigh. “I know they’ll put me in magic-dampening cuffs, that I’ll be sentenced to a traitor’s death.” He lifted his gaze. “They won’t get a chance to kill me, though. You’ll open the void, and it will go to the waiting mages. They will overload the cuffs.”
“You’re assuming they don’t kill me on sight. I left with you. I’m just as much of a traitor.” The plan would never work. They were all doomed. They’d be better off making the most of what time they had left before ice covered the world and Demonside died. They should drink and eat and fuck until death consumed them. He’d rather die doing that than sending Angus to his death. But he couldn’t say that, not when all the demon mages had agreed to this, and everyone still had hope for a miracle. He’d seen Angus survive when he should’ve died. He swallowed hard. It felt like a pitz ball was stuck in his throat. “This won’t work.”
“You can convince them. You’ve witnessed my many crimes and debauchery with demons. You have to.”
“I like your crimes and debauchery.” He liked participating in the debauchery part quite a bit. Terrance pulled Angus onto his lap and hugged him close. He never wanted to let go, and he certainly didn’t want to hand him over to the very people they’d run from. “I don’t want to be the kind of person who betrays their lover.”
Angus stroked his cheek, and his words were soft. “They believe you’re that person. I don’t. I’m trusting you with my life, with the world. No one else can open the void for me.”
Angus had known he’d never be able to open the void in cuffs. That’s why he made Terrance memorize the stones and pillars. Angus might be wielding the magic, but Terrance had to be there to open the void or it was all for nothing. Angus’s whole plan hinged on the warlocks not killing him the moment they set foot in Vinland, but the void didn’t open to the village from Vinland.
“What if I can’t. What if it goes to the wrong place?”
“You have a connection to Saka, and you know the doorway.”
“But it might. Then what?”
“Then I do my best without the help of the mages. You can send me magic from Demonside.”
He wasn’t a good enough warlock… or priest… to be able to get that right. He was shit at magic and shouldn’t be such an important part of the plan. And the plan sucked. It was all kinds of awful. But if the mages and priests had come up with nothing better, what was left? It was the final play in a game of pitz where everyone died if they lost. They were going for the hoop, but it was sixty meters off the ground instead of six.
He needed to know the plan. “And once the void is open, then what?”
“Then I’ll strike Vinland and destroy where they’re keeping the magic.”
“Where is that?”
“It won’t matter. The clean sweep will find it.”
“Wizards and warlocks caught in it will die.” So many around the world had died already. If they did nothing, many more would die.
Angus closed his eyes. When he opened them, the blue of his irises was as hard as the stone he’d given Terrance when they were dabbling with telestones on the human side of the void. “That will be on my conscience.”
“I open the void, and the warlocks will attack.” They wouldn’t hold back. They would know he double-crossed them.
“You’ll go to Saka, so you won’t die. Two pillars make the doorway. You and Saka are mine. You’ll hold it open, and I’ll come through when the wave rolls back.”
“Alive.” Terrance stared at Angus and willed him to agree.
Angus was silent for a moment. “I don’t know.”
He wanted to tell Angus not to do it, but it wouldn’t matter what he said. The mages had agreed. Angus had agreed. He was prepared. Terrance traced the ridges of scars on Angus’s skin. They were on his back as well as his arms. Angus was changing every day. The first-year warlock he’d met no longer existed. “You truly are a mage, putting the world first.”
Angus pressed his lips together, but no smile formed. There was nothing left to smile about. When this was over, he wanted to hear Angus laugh again, see him smile without the shadow of worry.
Terrance sighed. He wasn’t good enough. “I’ll never be a mage. I want to be boring. I want a house and a garden like my parents had, and the most magic I’ll do is making sure the plants are growing all year round.” He didn’t care if he never played rugby again. After playing pitz, he wasn’t sure he could pick up a ball without thinking of death.
Angus put his arms around Terrance’s neck. “That sounds nice… unless I’m not invited.”
“Of course you are… and Saka. So when you finish doing your mage stuff—and putting Vinland back together—you can sit down and have dinner. You need someone to remind you that you can be selfish.” He’d always been good at that. Angus had taught him that there was so much more, and now he was supposed go back to being that person, the one who thought only of what he wanted and keeping his ass safe.
Safety had been an illusion. Even the idea that he was somehow in control of his life had been false. He could refuse to do this, but Angus would be alone, and the plan would fail. He had to help. Only then could he be safe and selfish. Then he could have a home like the one that had been stolen when his parents were arrested.
He hugged Angus tighter and skimmed his hands over more of the scars. “Promise me you won’t hate me if I do this to you. They’ll hurt you.”
“I won’t hate you. I swear.”
Terrance closed his eyes and rested his cheek against Angus’s. It was wet. Now he knew why Saka had made him swear to do whatever Angus asked. Saka had known. Asshole. When he saw him again, there would be words… or tears.
“You will?”
Terrance nodded. “Yes.” There was nothing else he could do. To help Angus he had to betray him.
They stayed locked together, unwilling to let go, until someone knocked on the door.
Angus lifted his head from where it had rested on Terrance’s shoulder. “A moment,” he called out. Then he pressed a chaste kiss on Terrance’s lips and got up.
That was it. In his heart he knew that to pull this off, he wouldn’t be able to hold Angus again until it was over. He didn’t want to be hugging a corpse and wishing everything were different. He clamped his teeth together and tried to find the person he’d once been—the man who’d tell anybody what they wanted to hear and had quite happily worked for the college and the underground as long as his own skin was safe.
Angus opened the door. The person there said something Terrance didn’t catch.
“I’ll be there shortly.” Angus turned to Terrance. “I have to see Cadmael.”
Terrance studied Angus and tried to memorize every freckle on his nose and the way he held the door—casually, but his knuckles were white. He was worried but burying it beneath what he needed to do. He wanted to wait and have one last night… but they had to act before the world froze over. And he had to start the play. “I’ll be gone before you get back.”
Angus nodded. “Wishing you luck would be wrong.”
They needed more than luck. “You don’t know what it’s going to be like.”
He glanced up at the ceiling. “I have a pretty good idea. It’s why I thought trekking through the Demonside desert was a better option.”
“I don’t regret that… or sharing Saka with you… or you with Saka. I don’t regret any of it.” When the college first asked him to watch Angus, he accepted because he was curious about someone who’d been retrieved. He wanted to know why Angus didn’t
remember a thing about Demonside. Then the underground wanted Angus brought in slowly, and he’d been happy to do it because he’d seen through the college’s lies. He could’ve said no, but the college would’ve cut off his scholarship and probably arrested him. The underground wouldn’t have helped him if he refused to help them.
He never had a choice back then, but his choice now was between Angus and two worlds. He was going to have to tell some very good lies… or maybe the truth would be enough.
“I don’t want to know before it happens. Don’t warn me.”
Terrance nodded. “What if I can’t protect you?”
“Then we’ve tried and failed.”
“I don’t fail.” Terrance always came out on top. “I need to see if that priest is able to talk.”
He brushed his fingers against Angus’s, but he didn’t stop for a kiss goodbye.
Lozim lay on a narrow bunk in a cell that had no window. He was reading as though he had no troubles. Lozim’s throat was a knotted mess. Healing wasn’t Terrance’s strength, and no one had bothered to take the time or magic to fix the traitor further. Terrance leaned against the bars. “Your carelessness nearly fucked up months of hard work.”
The traitor priest looked up from his book. “You.” His words were mangled, catching on the scars that Terrance couldn’t see. “If not for you, we’d have him.”
“No, he’d have flitted to Demonside. He’s quick to run.” He’d never seen anyone open the void so quickly. He’d shown Angus how to do it without walking, but Angus had quickly raced past him.
Lozim picked up his book. “You’re a traitor like him.”
“Like you? Why is a Mayan helping the Vinnish?”
“Why would I tell you that?”
“Why should I trust you with the information I have? I need to speak to the people in charge before the demons and their pet retaliate.” Was that too much?
“Aren’t you his boyfriend?”
Terrance pressed up against the bars. “I have spent months watching him, getting close to him, and gaining his trust. After your ill-judged stunt, I had to act against you because I knew something was being planned.” He shook his head and steeled himself for his lie. “Angus only loves demons. He’s a traitor, not just to Vinland, but to all humans.”
“Ah, got sick of you did he?” Lozim didn’t look up from his book.
“I’m tired of playing along. I’ve done as I was asked by the college, and yet the only contact I get is that you want to sweep in and grab him. You have no idea what’s happening.” That was the truth. He’d learned to always add truth when playing both sides. “He trusts me. I can bring him in.”
“I almost had him.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” Terrance turned away. He couldn’t seem too needy. “He knows how to stop your weapons, and he’s teaching others. Vinland will be defenseless. It will become another state in the Mayan Empire. Human blood, not demon blood, will spill.”
Lozim put his book down and walked over, his bare feet soft on the stones. Terrance didn’t turn. He strode away as though the conversation were over.
“Wait.”
Terrance smiled and then erased it before he turned. “What? I need to find someone who’ll help me stop him and who can get all the details out of him before it’s too late.”
Lozim licked his lips. “There is someone you could try, though she might kill you before you speak.”
Terrance snorted. “Someone in the college really needs to sort out their resources. I should be getting a medal for the work I’ve done.”
“Bring Donohue in, and you’ll get whatever you want. The bounty is large.”
“I know.” He smiled slyly. “But I also know that the demons’ plans are even more valuable.” The college would experience those plans firsthand if all went well. But there were so many steps where they could slip and fall. One step at a time. Like crossing the desert, it didn’t pay to think how far away the end was, only that it was important to take the next step.
“There’s a woman. She frequents a chocolate shop across town, has a lot of contacts. You’ll know her by the gold pin in her hair.”
“Lots of women wear gold pins in their hair.”
“It’s an oak leaf.”
That would be uncommon here. Terrance nodded and started to walk away.
“Tell her where I am. They’re going to execute me tomorrow.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Angus put the bells around his ankle and the knives on his forearm. They’d probably be taken from him as soon as he was grabbed, but he wanted them anyway. He tested his ankle again, but it had no more flex than it had yesterday, and it never would until it was cut open and rebuilt. There would be no running away.
Cadmael had offered his surgeons for after Angus executed his plan. Angus had just smiled and nodded. It wouldn’t matter after. Angus could walk. It didn’t hurt. In Vinland his foot was going to be the least of his problems.
There were reports that a clean sweep would be deployed at Kaan Pech on the coast. Officially Cadmael was sending him to stop it, but they both knew it was a lie. The Vinnish were preparing their trap. Angus hadn’t even been back a day, and Terrance had made contacts and started spinning his lies. They’d travel overnight and be there by morning. He’d be arrested before lunch and in Vinland a day or two after… or dead. Though he doubted he’d be killed so quickly.
His heart wouldn’t settle. It bounced and rattled as he packed up a few things. There was nothing he really needed or wanted, but he had to pack clothes to make it look like he was planning a short trip and not a one-way trip.
Terrance had done his part and done it well. Angus wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what. Congratulations was wrong. It hurt that he’d been so convincing so fast, but at the same time, Angus was grateful that step had worked. It was the one he was most worried about. He had no other way to get to Vinland. Though Cadmael had a few military options, none of them would get him and Terrance deep into Vinland where they really needed to be.
With their bags in hand, Terrance and Angus made their way to the tram that would carry them through the jungle to the coast. Not many people were on it. Smart people were staying home and close to protection. Only idiots ran toward danger and a possible clean sweep.
If they were being watched, they needed to be the happy couple, so their smiles remained fixed as they took their seats. He should be excited about going to the coast and seeing some more of the Empire. It was what he’d wanted, but they wouldn’t get to explore the seaside town.
“This is it?”
“You didn’t want to know,” Terrance said without looking at him.
No, he didn’t. He couldn’t be expecting it.
Terrance glanced at him and squeezed his hand. “It’s not too late to run away, find a cabin somewhere in the jungle, and hide there until the world fixes itself.”
“Didn’t they say it would take two hundred years for the ice sheets to recede naturally?” They’d be long dead before spring came.
“That was the shortest estimate. There are whispers that they never will if the magic isn’t rebalanced.”
Angus nodded. He knew that. He was trying to make conversation because they couldn’t talk about what they actually should be talking about. He stared out the window as the tram started to move slowly through the city and gradually picked up speed.
“You should get some sleep,” Terrance said. He didn’t need to say why.
It might be a while before he could rest peacefully again. He laid his head on Terrance’s shoulder. He was as solid as ever, warm, and he smelled like soap and nervous sweat. The calm Terrance exuded was only skin-deep.
Angus’s stomach knotted itself around his other organs. His thoughts were lodged firmly in tomorrow, and there was no way he could rest. But he closed his eyes and tried to find a little calm.
Saka would remind him that tomorrow would come regardless, but he couldn’t rest. No matter how
many times he closed his eyes, he’d snap fully alert at the slightest sound.
He’d fight. He’d have to resist, and he’d have to say horrible things to Terrance.
“It won’t happen until daylight,” Terrance murmured as though he’d been trying to sleep too.
“I’m sorry you had to.”
“Let’s not do that.” He put his hand on Angus’s thigh. The heat from his palm soaked through but didn’t settle his heart or unravel the knots in his stomach. “Just remember, no matter what I say, you know the truth.”
“Same. Whatever happens—”
Terrance kissed him. “Happens. We’re stuck on the rails like a tram. We go to the end.”
Sleep still managed to be elusive, so by the time the sun rose and the tram stopped, Angus’s eyes were gritty and his neck ached from resting on Terrance’s shoulder.
The tram stop was right on the coast, and the ocean was spread before them. The water was as blue as the sky, and a day at the beach was so tempting. He’d expected to be able to see Vinland from the beach, but he couldn’t. It was too far away… yet far too close. Someone came up and asked Terrance for directions. Angus glanced over, wondering why anyone would ask two people who clearly weren’t locals. Terrance turned his back to him to respond.
His heart lurched. This was it. He started to turn, ready to fight, and then everything went black.
Chapter Forty
Via the telestones they were contacting any tribe they could and asking that they direct all magic their way in preparation. Not all agreed. Some needed time to prepare. Saka and Iktan took it in turns to reach out across the desert to make contact. Even with the other mages lending their strength, it was taxing. A headache had bloomed in Saka’s temples, and the doorway hummed with power.
Angus had three days before the five-day deadline.
While Saka tried not to think about it, he knew Angus would’ve been captured by now. Cadmael had crossed the void to talk with Iktan, and Saka hoped he had news, even if it only confirmed his worst thoughts. Angus would be on his way to Vinland or already there. He kept waiting to be summoned, but it didn’t happen. The warlocks would be careful not to let Angus slip away.
