by Jayne Faith
He gave a small sigh. “He would be a catalyst into which the mages would direct their magic. He would have to go through one of the big rips and then remain there while the mages cast their power into him.”
I ground my teeth, trying not to picture my brother burning up in a storm of mage magic.
I pushed the fingers of my free hand into my hair and squeezed my eyes closed for a moment.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why Evan? He’s not even that powerful. What is it about him?”
“He’s much more powerful than you’ve seen. His extreme power and the unique nature of it, well, all I can say is there has never been anyone like your brother. Your mother managed to mask his true abilities with a spell.” He hesitated. “That spell, and the way it dulls his magical abilities, is likely at the root of Evan’s . . . troubles.”
I didn’t want to believe it, but I couldn’t help thinking back to when Evan first came into his magic. That was when all the problems started. The rampant drug use. His seemingly single-minded headlong plunge into addiction and trying to obliterate his own mind. He’d never had a chance. I saw it, and the truth of it stabbed me to my very core. My parents had conspired to create a child who might have the right magic to end the world’s suffering. And then my mother had regrets, so she tried to smother Evan’s power.
“My parents were truly willing to create a child and then sacrifice it?” I asked, feeling my face twist in horror.
“No,” Jacob said quickly. “They believed the child would wield the power and thereby close the rips. They hadn’t considered that sacrifice would be necessary.”
“Why didn’t you take Evan long ago? You could have. He was right here for years before he disappeared.”
“The spell,” he said. “It fooled us for a long time into thinking that Evan didn’t have what we were seeking. Then, just as we discovered the truth, your brother vanished. So you see, your mother was trying to protect him, and it actually worked for a few years.”
My chest hurt as emotions surged through me. Anger at my parents for treating their children as experiments, regret that I’d never be able to confront them about any of this, and devastation over what it had cost Evan. Fury at all of it surged through my veins.
“Evan’s never had any chance at a real life, Ella. He’s an addict who will never fully recover. He’d never be more than a burden, a drain on you and on society in general. Would it really be so terrible to allow him to give himself up for the greater good? Let him go. He’ll save lives far more valuable than his own.”
My rage exploded in a white-hot flash, and the sigils on my arms illuminated even through my jacket. Without conscious effort, I’d reached for the magic of the in-between. The silvery power lit up my body like a lighthouse on a dark sea. With it came searing pain, but I didn’t care. I relished the hurt.
In a split second, I’d gathered so much power I thought I’d explode. With a scream of rage, I hurled it at Jacob. Agony exploded in my head, but I got a moment of satisfaction as I watched him fly back, slam into the wall, and then crumble to the floor like a rag doll.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a series of flashes. My magic drained away, and I went rigid, and then my muscles all gave way at once.
I lost my hold on consciousness before I hit the floor . . .
Blood.
That was the first thing I noticed when my eyelids cracked open and I lifted my head.
I’d been lying on my side with my arm making a pillow under my head. Blood had leaked from my nose, across my cheekbone, and down onto the sleeve of my jacket. I was painfully stiff, as if I’d been lying in the same position for several hours.
I slowly sat up, and my head seemed to have its own pulse. It was ten times worse than my most epic hangover, and I knew I was in trouble. I’d pulled a lot of magic when I’d lashed out at Jacob. Too much. I swiped under my nose and found that fresh blood was still trickling from my head.
I looked around but couldn’t see much in the dark room. The floor beneath my palms was hard, so I knew I was no longer in the carpeted auditorium.
The lights came on, and pain drilled into my eyes as I squinted. Wincing, I stood up, not about to get caught sitting on my ass.
I was having trouble focusing, but when my vision finally cooperated, I found I was in a small room with a horizontal strip of window and a heavy door next to it. I was definitely still on the Gregori campus.
The box was gone. Jacob had no doubt discovered it was empty. So much for any leverage I’d had with him.
Half a dozen people stood at the window, peering at me like I was a monkey at the zoo. One of them was Jacob. Most of the rest I didn’t recognize, but there was something oddly similar—
My mouth fell open, and I went completely still.
There, at the left edge of the window, stood Damien.
At first, my heart leapt as I assumed he’d come to somehow bust me out.
But then I saw it. Even from several feet away, I could see the change.
His eyes. The sky blue had paled to a silvery cornflower hue. And his irises shimmered, swimming with tiny points of light.
The eyes of a mage.
He’d done it. He’s taken Zarella’s deal and received the reward.
Damien was now a mage. But what had it cost him?
The rest of the strangers peering at me were mages, too. Their lips moved as they spoke to each other, and Jacob appeared to chime in, too, but of course I couldn’t hear a word of it.
My eyes were drawn back to Damien. His face was stony as he looked at me through the glass, almost as if he didn’t recognize me. As my gaze flicked over to the others, it suddenly struck me that there was a strong resemblance between Damien and the stately woman who stood next to Jacob. She had Damien’s high brow and cheekbones. And the man on her other side bore an uncanny resemblance to Damien. Remove a couple of decades and thirty pounds, and he could be Damien’s brother.
Those had to be his parents, the legendary Steins. What were they doing here?
I walked a few steps toward the window.
“What the hell is going on?” I demanded. Even if they couldn’t hear me, I was sure they’d get the gist of my question.
I just couldn’t for the life of me think of why a group of mages, including Damien’s parents, no less, would be interested in me.
I’d been so distracted by Damien and the mages that I hadn’t noticed how unhappy Jacob looked. His shoulders tensed, his mouth pinched, his jaw clenched. Not just unhappy, but miserably pissed. That was saying something, considering my uncle normally maintained a façade so smooth it would make a slab of marble jealous.
I went up to the window and rapped on it with my knuckles. I crossed my arms and looked back and forth between Jacob and Damien.
“What. The hell. Is going. On?” I mouthed slowly, exaggerating the words.
Jacob gestured to me through the glass. His mouth moved, and I squinted, trying to read his lips. I was pretty sure I caught the words “her brother.”
My heart punched at the thought that they were talking about Evan.
“You don’t have the authority to keep him, Jacob! I’m his sister. I demand you release him to me!”
I realized the irony of demanding custody of my brother while I was essentially imprisoned myself, but Jacob had no right. The mages had no right.
I’d found Evan. I’d saved him. Jacob only wanted to sacrifice my brother, and I had no reason to believe the mages had his best interests in mind, either.
God damn it.
My gaze locked desperately on Damien’s face, but his expression remained impassive. When he glanced at me, it was like he didn’t even know me.
Rage began to boil hot under my skin.
I’d searched in vain for five years. Evan was my family. My responsibility. I just wanted him to be left alone.
As my anger intensified, I began to reach for in-between magic again. In response, my head thumped as if I’d just
been boxed in both temples, and I had to back off. I gritted my teeth, holding back a groan, desperate to keep them from seeing that I was in seriously bad shape.
As I tried to get my emotions under control, thoughts whipped through my mind. Damien had turned. Rogan was gone. Who was left? Zarella. I needed the mad scientist and his underworld cronies. They’d kept Evan out of Jacob’s hands for years. They’d help me. Where the hell was Zarella?
Jacob and the mages were shifting around, and I realized they were getting ready to depart from the area outside my cell.
“Wait!” I hollered, but none of them turned.
In desperation, I reached out with my necro senses, searching for a mind to command. There were minor demons lurking outside, but I needed something closer and scarier.
I sensed several large rip spawn grouped together, probably in the same building. I’d never commanded an arch-demon before, but I had to do something.
But then I saw that Damien was hanging back.
He pointed up and said something. I squinted, trying to lip-read.
“Evan is up there,” I whispered to myself, imitating Damien’s words. “Up? Upstairs.”
My heart jumped into my throat as I watched a barely visible filament of white-mage magic curl around his index finger and then snake off to the side and out of view.
With my cheek pressed up against the window, I tried to get a visual angle on what he was doing. Something with the door? I went to it and rattled the handle, but it didn’t budge. I moved back to the window and shook my head.
Damien held up a finger, nodded once, and mouthed a word. Wait.
I sucked in a breath and stepped back. Damien disappeared from view. My heart pounded in my chest as I waited for a count of five and then tried the door. The handle gave under my hand, and the door opened with a soft click.
I leaned an eye around the doorjamb to make sure no one would see me, and something caught my attention on the floor. A slim line of pale magic led away to the right, the opposite way Damien and the others had gone.
Reaching for the in-between, I let myself fade from the realm of the living. A grim smile crossed my face as I saw that Damien’s line of magic was visible in limbo land, too. Perfect.
I slipped out of my cell and hurried after Damien’s trail.
Chapter 25
I SAILED THROUGH the hallway to the stairwell and ran up three flights taking two stairs at a time, unencumbered by the living and stirring misty eddies as I moved through the in-between.
My heart lifted with every step. Damien was helping me. Maybe his transition to mage hadn’t affected him in the way Zarella had expected. Whatever the Steins wanted with Evan, Damien was only pretending to be with them. He was on my side.
I followed Damien’s line of magic to a set of reinforced double doors. Mage power surrounded the handles in a shimmering white cloud. I grinned, sure I knew what it was. A spell to let me into a secure area.
Sure enough, the handle released under my touch.
The trail led me around a few corners and then stopped at a solid door. Again, the handle was dripping with mage magic. I let myself in to a space that reminded me of a hospital room. There was an adjustable bed and a partially open door at the back that revealed a small bathroom.
When I transitioned back into the realm of the living, I saw that my brother lay still on the bed, sleeping.
I went to him, trying to read his physical state in his face. He was pale and rail thin, his lips were cracked, and bruises in a variety of states of healing showed on the little bit of bare skin that I could see. Even in sleep, the rings around his eyes were shockingly dark. He looked like the life-long junkie that he was.
But there were no IVs or other indications of medical care. His breathing was deep and even, and he just looked like he was taking a nap. I hated to disturb him, but we needed to hurry.
I touched his shoulder. “Evan?”
His brow creased, and he inhaled through his nose before opening his eyes.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice hoarse but stronger than I remembered.
They’d definitely given him something to control his cravings or sedate him, most likely both. I gave him a brief smile before I started moving around the room, looking for some regular clothes, a jacket, and shoes. It was freezing outside, and it looked like Evan was bare-chested.
“Do you know where you are?” I asked over my shoulder. “I’ve come to take you home.”
He let out a sharp, humorless laugh. “I don’t have a home. But old Uncle Jacob is really trying to make this look like something other than a prison, isn’t he?”
I found a bathrobe, some sweatpants, and a zip-up hooded sweatshirt hanging in the tiny closet, with a pair of slip-on canvas shoes on the floor below. I grabbed everything but the bathrobe and piled it on the foot of the bed. Evan had made no move to get up.
With my hands planted on my hips, I faced my brother. It was time for some tough love.
“He wants to murder you, Evan,” I said bluntly. “He thinks sacrificing you will save the world by closing the rips. I think Jacob and a bunch of mages are fighting over you, and I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason he hasn’t already killed you. I’ll leave you here if you’d like. But if you think staying alive might be a priority for you, it’s time to get your ass moving. Now.”
His eyes widened, and he stared at me for a second. Then he pushed back the covers and swung his legs to the side of the bed. He wore only boxer shorts. I tossed him the clothes. I could tell he was trying to hurry, but my heart plummeted as I watched him. He was weaker than I’d realized. The way he fumbled, I wondered if there was some permanent nerve damage.
Once he had the pants on, I had him sit on the edge of the bed so I could bend down and slip the shoes onto his feet while he pulled on the sweatshirt. On impulse, I went and grabbed the robe and had him put it on over the sweats.
I wrapped my arm around his waist to support him, and he leaned heavily on me as we moved slowly toward the door.
I said something encouraging to him, but inside I honestly couldn’t imagine how we would escape without notice. I could vanish into the in-between, but I couldn’t take Evan there with me. The campus had to be under heavy surveillance.
But Damien had led me here. If he truly wanted me to escape with my brother, maybe there were some things in place to help us get out.
“If I disappear suddenly, just hang in there and do the best you can, okay?” I said to Evan. “I’ll reappear, I promise.”
He shot me a questioning look.
“I’ll explain later,” I said hastily. “Keep your head down.”
If only I were a mage, I could disguise us both as campus personnel.
As we stood there, an alarm began to blare throughout the floor. My entire body jolted in panic. Had we set it off?
I carefully opened the door with my fingertips.
“Let’s go,” I said.
Hurrying Evan as fast as I could drag him along, I went for the first turn—a left just up ahead.
People in lab coats were scurrying around, and there were shouts here and there. I expected armed men to surround us at any moment, but after a few seconds, I realized people were trying to leave, not storm us. I heard someone holler something about evacuating, and I suddenly wondered if this was Damien’s doing.
Regardless, it created enough chaos that no one seemed to be too concerned about me and Evan. Until they were.
“Hey,” one of the labcoats said. She’d been hurrying toward us with her gaze cast down the hall but stopped short and peered at us. “You shouldn’t be—”
I drew earth magic, and pain bolted through my head and down my spine. Ignoring it, I cast a ball of green energy into her midsection. She let out an oof sound and doubled over as my magic knocked the wind out of her.
I tried to pick up the pace, but Evan kept stumbling. We were going to have to take the elevator. Either that or I’d have to sling him over my
shoulder, but I probably wouldn’t be able to pick up any speed that way.
“You’re bleeding,” Evan grunted.
I swiped at my upper lip, and my hand came away streaked with blood. “Don’t worry about it,” I muttered.
The only advantage to moving so slowly was that everyone else seemed to be evacuating much more quickly than we were, and the hallways were emptying.
I somehow remembered how to get to the elevators, and when the doors opened, fortune gave us the ride all to ourselves. We got off on the ground floor and headed toward the nearest exit. I was starting to think we might actually sneak away in all the chaos when I stepped outside.
“Oh, shit,” Evan and I said in unison.
The door slammed closed behind us. We’d exited into what looked like a little plaza, and apparently most of the rest of the people who’d evacuated had decided to convene here too.
“Head down,” I said and started aiming us to the right, hoping to skirt the edge of the crowd and get around the corner. We made it about twenty steps.
“Stop,” a male voice commanded behind us.
I kept going, and I reached out for the nearest rip spawn. Zarella had to have plenty of them lurking close by.
“Hey! You, stop right there!”
A zombie. There was a zombie heading this way. Odd, but whatever. I just wanted to command it long enough to distract the guard coming after us. I probed for the zombie’s mind, but found it blocked from my control.
Actually, there were a bunch zombies coming.
I cringed just as they came into view. But I recognized one of them. It was the zombie Zarella had sent to talk to me on the desert highway, the same one who’d spoken to me after the underworld induction ceremony.
Evan sucked in a breath as the zombies sped over to us.
“It’s okay,” I whispered to him. I swallowed hard. “At least, I’m pretty sure it is. Not like we have many options at the moment.”
The small horde surrounded us with a precision that was almost comical, considering.
“Come this way,” the one just ahead of me said.
I looked back at the guard who’d been pursuing us. Two of his buddies had joined him, but they’d stopped where they were, obviously put off by the zombies. They were all hollering furiously into their walkie-talkies.
