by Brea Viragh
“I agree.” Astix enjoyed watching the kids as they played. Their laughter reached her, light and charming. “They are sweet.”
“It was an amazing thing you did back there,” the man continued, his voice a resounding bass. “And to escape with your life is no small victory. You should be very proud of yourself.”
She glanced down at her hands. Blue veins were visible beneath nearly translucent skin. “I am alive.” She’d wondered. “This is not what I expected out of Nirvana, although I have to say I’m pretty content. I don’t want to leave.”
“Oh yes, it is delightful. I’m afraid it will feel worse being alive than dead.” The man chuckled to himself. “That’s usually the case.”
“Are you dead?” She had to know.
“No, I too am very much alive. Although not in the traditional sense, as you are,” he said with a heavy sigh. “As are they.”
“Then where are we? If we aren’t dead and this isn’t the afterlife, then…”
“We’re in the in-between. Sandwiched in the gray area between reality and the world of ancient magicks. What you see is a memory of the past, Chicago’s past. I come here sometimes. It reminds of me of who I was when I had my humanity. Now I exist outside of it all. Outside of reality.”
“This is the veil?”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “Not quite. Think of it as veil-adjacent.”
Something about the man put her at ease. Her shoulders relaxed and tension eased out of her, built up from years of being on edge. If it was Darkness she confronted before, she sat enjoying a conversation with its opposite.
Astix turned to look at the man. He sat tall, his frame regal with posture as rigid as a straight-backed chair. Dark hair led down from his forehead in a widow’s peak, the sideburns growing lower until they connected with a slight beard of the same color.
He gazed at her through hazel eyes that held a spark of charm and inherent happiness. There was a joy lacking in most normal folk. With a straight nose, wide lips, and impressive cheekbones, the man could have been anyone. If they passed on the street, Astix would not have been able to pick him out from the crowd. Only his demeanor set him apart from the horde. He radiated a sort of goodness, a sort of light.
He was Light.
Now the question remained what should she call him?
Picking up on her unspoken thought the man responded, jovial. “Vane. You can call me Vane. It’s been years since someone called me by name. I’d rather like to hear it again.”
His tone, musical in its deep cadence, rolled over her like water. It reminded her of ocean waves, the sun rising, flowers blooming in spring.
“Vane.” Astix repeated the name and nodded. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Yes, good to make your acquaintance as well. Although I should tell you, I have been with you all your life. With your father, and his father before him. I’ve been watching.”
“And that’s not creepy at all.”
“I prefer casual observer to creepy.”
“Why are you here with me? I mean, if you have been with me my entire life, why did you choose to make contact now?” Astix scoffed, but not unkindly. “Some kind of guardian angel you are.”
“I’m not a guardian angel,” he corrected. “The approaching eclipse, however, does give me certain abilities I didn’t have before. The veil thinning allows me to reach out. Just as it allows my antithesis to do the same. You’ve met my other half. I felt it only best to show myself. Give you a more accurate picture of the challenges you face.”
“Darkness.” Astix shuddered as a cloud passed over the sun.
Vane laid a hand on her shoulder and stilled the movement. “She can’t touch you here. You’re safe with me.”
“What does she want?”
“What do any of us want?” he parried. “A chance at life. An opportunity to escape the path destiny decreed for us.”
“And she needs me to do it?”
“She needs a willing host, yes. Someone to take her place.”
“They say I’m the one.” Astix stared down at her hands, at the lines there. Here in this peaceful park of the past she was young, perfect. When she returned she would bear the marks of her encounters. Scars slow to heal.
“Sometimes people need a label to feel more at ease. You are you.”
“I can’t stop her. I tried back there. I threw everything I had at her and still it wasn’t enough. She beat me.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Vane stated softly. “You have your life. You are not the paragon of evil she tried to turn you into. It’s a decent victory. You still have time.”
“Yeah, but it only counts if we win in the end.” Astix turned to Vane, arching an eyebrow. “And something tells me we might not have a chance.”
“The Harbinger witch can decide the fate of her reality. The fate of the balance of power for all witches. The elementals want her on their side.”
“Then whoever this Harbinger is better hurry up and get here. I can’t win on my own.”
“You have your sisters. Your brother. When the time comes, you will all know what to do.” Vane chuckled, the sound coming from deep in his chest. “There is always a way. You simply need to find it. There are hard times ahead of you and you are going to need all the stamina and mental fortitude you can muster. Oh, and Leonidas.”
“What? I’m going to need Leo, too?” Astix murmured, glancing over.
“Yes, and maybe, maybe, he needs you.” Vane cocked his head to the side, as if recognizing a sound beyond her hearing. He nodded once to himself as his hand began to fade where it lay. “It’s time for me to go. And for you to get back to your family. They’re looking for you. Waiting for your return.”
Already the park dimmed, outlines and colors becoming blurred. The hoots of childish laughter faded as birdsong trailed off, leaving them in blissful silence.
“What’s happening?” Astix asked desperately.
She fought to hold on to him, keep him with her a moment longer. Her hand passed through him and fell on the cool metal of the bench. A concentrated nugget of light coalesced in the middle of Vane’s diminishing form.
She caught the wisp of a smile. “They’re calling you back. You have a lot of people worried. There is more love there than you know. Your family is going to need you, so try not to be too hard on them.”
Astix did not want to leave the sanctity of this place outside of time. More than anything she fought to maintain her grasp on this alternate reality. Already the pain crept inside, her body adrift in a sea of panicky confusion. She felt her soul torn in two as the different planes of existence vied for her attention, one more strongly than the other.
Vane sent her one last grin before vanishing. She felt a pulling in her gut as the sky turned to navy-blue. With a pop she woke in her body, gasping for air amidst the cries of her sisters.
“Oh, thank God! We thought we lost you!”
His final bit of counsel echoed in her mind as Astix came fully awake. She has a name. And this is not over yet.
CHAPTER 22
“Holy shit!” Karsia exclaimed, flopping back on the grass. She didn’t care when the moisture soaked into her blouse. The sensation made her skin tingle.
“You can say that again.”
“Holy shit!”
Astix wretched as she was physically forced back into her own body. Her stomach revolted, contents rising to burn the back of her throat. She gagged and coughed. Her very skin felt uncomfortable.
A pall fell over her eyes and turned the world to a blur. She struggled to find her voice when her throat felt raw and closed off. “Wha—”
Instantly she was crushed, a new swell of distress coursing through her.
“We thought we lost you,” Leo murmured, pressing his lips close to her ear. He rained kisses on her, moving from her chin to her brows and everywhere in between.
“We did lose you, for a fraction of a moment,” Aisanna amended, choking up. “Where did you go?
”
Astix groaned, her arms winding around Leo’s stout torso unconsciously. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try us.”
“Someplace far away,” Astix answered through the gravel in her mouth. Every muscle, bone, and fiber felt abused.
Sirens sounded in the distance as first responders did their jobs with efficient speed. Whatever building Herodotos had locked them inside no longer stood, reduced to a pile of slightly burning embers. Her magic had done exactly as she’d wanted. Unfortunately, she had a feeling Darkness was still out there lurking and she had not done enough.
“We barely got you out in time,”’ Karsia told her. “What you did was remarkable.”
“What you did was stupid.” Leo gave her a slight shake.
Only then did she realize he was practically on top of her, lying across the ground at her side with the lines of his body pressed to hers. Aisanna and Karsia both reached across the grass to her, linking their hands together. A show of solidarity.
“Terribly stupid,” Karsia agreed. “Thankfully we got you back in time before you went into the void.”
“Yeah, it was a close one.”
Weakened, Astix allowed Leo to kiss her. His lips moved over the dirt and sweat caked along her brow, uncaring of the cuts and blood, before landing softly on her mouth.
His joy eradicated everything else. “I guess this means you forgive me,” he rejoiced through kisses, wanting to lock her in his arms and knowing he would crush her if he did so.
“Not really.” Astix squeezed his fingers. The disconcerting jolt of awakening in her body lessened, her senses returning to normal though her strength was gone. “But you did come back for me.”
“Of course I did. Why wouldn’t I come back? You needed me.”
“How did you know where to find us?”
“I can’t bear to part with the obsidian. Sorry, not sorry.”
She smiled through the pain. “You jerk.”
“I couldn’t let things stand as they were between us. Not how we left them. I paced a hole in my apartment floor before that thing started glowing. It was a feeling, a bad feeling, but I used the stone’s connection to you.”
“You tracked us here?” she asked, easing back to look at him. “Seriously?”
“Like a bloodhound, baby.”
Aisanna cleared her throat. “Not to interrupt this cozy moment between you two, but can someone please tell me what the fuck you were fighting back there? And how did we manage to get rid of it?”
Leo helped Astix to a seated position, his heart swelling as she gripped his hand. “She, my darling sister, is our next big fight. I hope you’re ready for it,” Astix said.
“The police are closing in. I don’t have answers for their questions.” Aisanna rose, staggered, and fell to her knees, still dizzy. She tried again to get up, and this time succeeded. The sound of sirens grew until the banshee wail filled their ears. “Think you can walk?”
Leo closed his eyes and took a moment to unleash the last dregs of his magic. He used the power of carbon and silica to wipe any trace of their DNA from the scene, lest there be questions. “Let us leave, ladies.” He swooped Astix into his arms. “My car is just down the road. Let’s hope no one sees it.”
Dizzy with the need to be sick, Astix burrowed her head in Leo’s sweater and tried to block out the movement. Leo tried his utmost not to jostle her as they ran but his strides drew grunts of agony. She focused instead on the feel of the night on her skin, on the scent of him only slightly hidden by soot and blood. Back where she belonged, for however long they had together.
Back where they started, yet further along than she had ever been. They had a possibility now, forged in fire and tempered stronger from the experience. Her family was in her life again, wanting a relationship, her sisters there to pull her back from the abyss. Proving that despite time and distance, certain things never changed. She’d never believed those sayings about blood and water, but it seemed they were true after all.
Somehow, they’d rallied together and in the darkest time managed to pull off a miracle. She was alive.
Leo made it to the car and deposited Astix in the passenger’s seat. Her sisters piled into the back, slamming the doors behind them as he turned the key. The engine turned over twice before grinding to life. They sped off, tailpipe spewing a thin cloud of grey smoke into the air. Leo punched the gas and took them away from the scene just as police cruisers arrived.
Astix watched out the back window as blue and red lights approached the crater. The time had come to relax. She found the request too steep, nearly impossible. She felt the burn somewhere deep. A part of her.
It may seem over, but she knew—had been told—it had only begun.
**
Three days had passed since the mess. That’s what she was calling the kidnapping and murder attempt. Better than facing the real-life consequences of what had happened. Mess seemed much cleaner. Less reality-shaking. Less life-altering.
Astix opened the newspaper to a two-page spread describing the explosion. There in bold black and white, the reporter told his readers about the farmhouse, abandoned for years after a couple who failed to pay their mortgage was evicted.
The fire made headlines across the state, with officials and law enforcement coming up with more questions than answers. Media outlets covered the story like sharks circling a school of fish in preparation for a feeding frenzy.
“Did you read this one?” Astix called out to Leo. “They found a really unflattering picture of Herodotos in his teen years. All acne and braces.” She crumpled the paper on her lap. “The police think he had something to do with the blast.”
“Will you stop reading those things? It’s not good for your psyche.”
“You’re probably right.”
“I am?”
Astix grinned. “Take a moment to enjoy. I’m sure it doesn’t happen often. Enjoy it.” When he gawked at her, she said, “What? You know I’m never going to say it again.”
He returned her grin. “Okay, I’ll take what I can get.”
The police released later that a single body was found trapped inside a seamless granite block. X-ray scanning had revealed the location of a man, his bones warped by heat and all forms of identification unusable until the granite could be penetrated. Police were baffled by the crime, having neither motive nor evidence.
Astix threw the newspaper in the fire and refused to read any more, as Leo suggested.
By the time they’d reached her house after dropping Karsia and Aisanna at home, she had fallen to the floor of the shower and wept in gratitude. Soot decorated every inch of her skin, and she allowed Leo to throw her mangled clothes in the garbage without a squabble.
Neither had she complained when he’d joined her in the shower, shedding his own garments and filling the space with his large frame. She accepted the sponge bath, enjoying the feel of the loofah when he brought it down her arms and legs, polished up the nooks and crannies of her body until they sparkled and squeaked.
He refused to leave her side, which had taken a bit of getting used to. A good-looking man stood up for her, watched out for her, kept her away from the brink. Anything she wanted was only a whispered request away. She loved watching him move around the house and make himself at home.
On day three of recovery, she felt strong enough to rise. Strong enough to begin the healing process and strong enough to manage breakfast on her own. Never mind that it was early evening. She was in the mood for breakfast.
Pushing herself out of the comfortable lounger in her living room, Astix moved to the kitchen and placed a small kiss on Leo’s cheek. “You have everything out for me?”
“All ready, sweet thing.”
Leo sat on those same Lucite stools watching her. As though no time had passed whatsoever. He’d managed to conjure fresh eggs from somewhere, and if she hadn’t known any better, she would have sworn it was magic. A sense of the surreal colored her e
very movement. At times the experience flashed back to her, the kidnapping, the confrontation with pure evil.
She still had no idea how she’d managed to call up the magma. It seemed far beyond her normal capabilities. It had her wondering at her true potential, what she could accomplish if she had properly trained. What a scary thought, all that raw power coursing through her, ready to be released.
She remembered the car ride after Leo’s bold rescue as he’d driven to the mansion in Lake Forest. Remembered staring at the house, the world that felt a thousand miles away. Somehow farther from her grasp than ever before. They’d delivered her sisters back to their parents and watched their shapes move in the blank windows. Both Thorvald and Varvara rushed to the door, awakened by the commotion, to receive their bruised and battered children.
Astix was unprepared for the emotional freefall when her parents hurried forward and gathered her close. Feeling their arms around her, their scents so prevalent, brought forth tears she hadn’t suspected were lurking there.
Together they cried as Aisanna and Karsia joined them, the curse broken and their magic whole again. A nearly complete circle. It was a certain type of power in itself, more magical than any of their abilities combined. Family. Love.
She thought back to Vane’s words, how there was more love here than she’d thought. Perhaps he was right, the mysterious man who shouldn’t exist. There were still more questions than answers, though, questions only her family could answer, and history to dust off and examine. All those things would come later.
Now Astix gave Leo a big hug, enjoying the contact. There was nothing like it in the world. “How do you like your eggs?” she asked.
She watched Leo finish the rest of his orange juice, the muscles of his throat working as he swallowed. He chuckled at her, noting the hesitation in her question. He took in the dark hair tumbling down her shoulders, disquieting blue, green, and amber eyes, and wry mouth. “Is that the first time you’ve ever asked a man how he likes his eggs?”
