by Holly Hook
It was clear that Mack would be left behind, but he said nothing. He wasn't a Dark Mage anymore. Maybe he'd gained some conscience, which was something I had lost. Mack had gotten better. I had gone worse.
Footfalls rushed on the stairs behind us. We passed the third floor, then the second, and emerged on the first, next to the fake plants that marked the lobby. The receptionist had left her post, probably to hurry the mayor to his now-canceled speech. The backpack hung in my grasp. Thoreau wouldn't rest until he had his contracts.
If he got them, it was the end for all of us.
There was no one to stop us from running out the front doors. If the wards went off, I would never know. Xavier grasped my arm tight right along with Liliana.
It reminded me that we were supposed to love each other.
Fire truck sirens went off.
The three of us emerged into the early night, Mack right behind us. I glanced at the former Dark Mage and looked right into his brown eyes, eyes that were now free of real darkness.
"Good luck," he said, nodding at me before running down the sidewalk.
I didn't get the chance to respond. Magenta exploded around the three of us, and we fell.
It didn't take long to Transpose. When Xavier stopped the jump, I found myself standing on the roof of another building--the same one where I had sliced through his shoulder by throwing my sword at the gargoyle. Even though I had saved Xavier on this very same roof, I had also nearly killed him.
But he didn't let go of me.
Liliana broke away from her brother and put her face in her hands. But Xavier wasn't watching her. He eyed the now-distant ATC building as sirens continued to wail. His mouth fell open. I followed his gaze.
Flames now filled the windows of the fifth floor. Black smoke billowed out and rose into the night sky.
The ATC building was burning.
And all I could do was stand there and smile.
Chapter Fifteen
"Alyssa. We have to go," Xavier said.
I tore my gaze from the building and faced him. "You're right," I said. "Thoreau can still track us."
He scanned me while Liliana did the same. They had me under scrutiny. I knew what Xavier was trying to do: measure how much remorse I felt over setting the fire. I might have just doomed people to a horrible death. Before, I would have collapsed to my knees with guilt. Then Xavier would hold me and give me a pep talk, trying to make me feel better.
Now I felt nothing unless I forced myself to experience it.
No. Check that. A part of me was glad that the ATC building was burning.
I should feel terrible. People on the upper floors of the building would have no way down. They would have to climb to the top of the building and wait for rescue. Anyone still above the fifth floor would have to cross through Thoreau's real lair to reach the roof. At least then, his true nature would come to light. Maybe they would tell the world what the mayor of Cumberland was and what a lie the ATC had been the whole time.
Xavier grabbed my arm, and for the first time since leaving the building, remorse washed over me. There was something about his touch that made me feel more like the old Alyssa again. I wasn't sure what it was, but I didn't want it to stop.
"We have to figure out what to do next." He reached into his pocket with his free hand but didn't pull anything out. "Thoreau will be held up by the fire. He'll have to answer to everyone, so I don't think he's going to come after us right away. He has one more day to keep his fake face up. He has to make sure that people show up to the Water Adventure to listen to his speech."
Xavier was very, very worried about me. I could feel that.
"What's wrong with Alyssa?" Liliana asked. I could detect real fear in her voice.
I pushed the sunglasses up further onto my nose. "Nothing," I lied without effort. "I used the dragon powers that I have to blast through the wall and start the fires. At least, that's my best guess. Maybe Gaozu's genes are getting stronger."
Liliana eyed me with doubt. Behind her, the ATC building continued to burn. The smoke billowing out of the fifth floor rose above the building, blotting out the red letters. Already, a few people stood on the very top balcony, the one right outside Thoreau's office, waiting for rescue. They were some workers who had stayed late, maybe. They must have gone through the double doors Xavier had blasted down and gotten to see Thoreau's real secret office for the first time.
I wondered if the mayor would make efforts to squash any media reports of it. Maybe he already had the media Bound to him.
Xavier tightened his grip on my arm. I found myself hoping that Mack had reached safety. He had no way to defend himself. While Xavier held onto me, I felt loved...and I cared, at least a little. I didn't even want those agents inside the building to get hurt. They had just been doing their jobs, after all, trying to protect people from me.
"Liliana," Xavier said, reaching out for her.
"But where do we go?" she asked. "We can't go back home. Our parents are gone, and so is Aunt Primrose."
"I saw Mom and Dad," Xavier said. "They're alive. We hid them from Thoreau. He probably won't kill them."
"And my father," I said. My heart ached to see him again. How could I ever want to abandon him?
It was Thoreau's blood. I had to keep fighting. I couldn't let it win.
"Well," Xavier said. "We have to break all of Thoreau's contracts. If that happens, we stop the plan to merge the worlds. Staying a few steps ahead of him will help, too. We'll keep Transposing if we have to."
He didn't warn me that we were going to Transpose right then. I screamed as we fell through magenta madness, this time landing outside of a burger joint. It was clear that Xavier had stopped here because he needed a bite to eat. I sensed his fatigue.
"At least we didn't land in the mall again," I said.
"I don't ever want to repeat that," Liliana said.
Xavier coughed. He was still trying to remove all the smoke from his lungs. "I'm ready for Mountain Dew that's not warm."
"Warm?" Liliana asked. She was dying for a story. "Okay. How did you get to me? The wards around the ATC building are way stronger than before. I want an explanation as soon as we sit down."
"We're not eating in," Xavier said. "We walk as we mow down. There's no sleeping right now. Thoreau has a Blood Amulet of Alyssa, and even though the fire is going to hold him up for a bit, he won't let it stop him forever. As soon as he can, he's coming after us."
More sirens went off. Xavier had Transposed us to the other side of the city because I could no longer see the ATC sign on the front of the building, which towered in the distance. My stomach rumbled at the thought of sustenance. It looked like I was going to test whether or not I could eat real food now.
It didn't take long for the line to move in the burger joint. I eyed the fake patties and the food art on the menu, practically drooling. The Blood Orb remained a backpack and the sword, a cane. So far, none of the fast food workers were eyeing us with suspicion, even though a kid with a mop was looking out the window at the distant smoke. He said something about the ATC tower burning, but the other employees were too busy taking orders to pay attention to him.
"Xavier," I said. "I want to try a burger."
He eyed me with caution, then flicked his gaze to Liliana. But then he shrugged and placed an order for a double cheeseburger in addition to chicken nuggets and his sandwich. Xavier filled a large drink full of ice at the fountain. The ice and the pop didn't look appealing to me. I wasn't even thirsty.
Xavier must need it after the amount of sweating he'd done.
We left the burger joint, walking quickly down the dark street. It was quiet in this part of town. We appeared to be in a somewhat run-down suburb, and people stood outside, watching the distant smoke pouring from the ATC building. I imagined scores of firefighters running up five flights of stairs to deal with it.
I grabbed Xavier's hand before the dark thoughts could come.
Without him, I would sin
k into pure evil.
"You're hungry?" Xavier asked me.
"I think I am," I said.
I took a bite of the double cheeseburger.
Except for the bread and the veggies topping it, it tasted fantastic. I had not chewed anything in fourteen years except for my failed chocolate cake experiment, and it was the strangest sensation. So was swallowing anything solid. I had to stop on the sidewalk and do a double take.
Liliana stared at me. "Something happened," she said.
I wolfed down the burger anyway, realizing that there was no hiding the changes anymore. Liliana shrunk away from me as we walked, but Xavier didn't loosen his grip on my arm, even as he wolfed down his meal and slurped down his drink. The three of us didn't speak as we walked closer and closer to a convenience store on the corner. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I waited, thoughts turning to Janine.
We had abandoned her and George, who were both now homeless.
I had to care about that and of the people still trapped in the Infernal, Bound to Thoreau. We were almost to the point where we could break the Orb.
Maybe.
"Xavier, I think we have a problem," I said after taking another bite of the burger. I let the bun fall to the ground. I felt no need for it. I only wanted the meat that the sandwich contained.
"We have a lot of problems," he said.
"It's about the Orb," I said. "Thoreau can track us with that Amulet. If we break the Orb, all he has to do is search where we've been to find it."
"I haven't thought of that," Xavier said. "This won't be simple."
"Maybe we can burn the blood," I said.
"Alyssa--no!"
Xavier looked as if I had suggested that we blow the entire planet up. "Why is that bad?" I asked.
"They say that burning a Bound person's blood will condemn them to an eternity in the Infernal Dimension, whether or not they've done bad things. The victim burns alive, just like if they broke a demonic contract. It's one of the strings demons can pull to keep Bound people obeying them. We can't destroy the blood."
I thought of the receptionist who worked horrible hours for Thoreau. I still felt a bit of sympathy for her, right? I did while Xavier held my arm. "Okay. That's out." I put my hand in Xavier's, begging the inner darkness to stay away. Already, it tried to creep back and take over my thoughts.
I couldn't hold this off forever.
"What are you talking about?" Liliana asked. She was tired of being the one left out again.
"Horrible things," Xavier said, patting her on the head. "You don't want to know about it."
"I'm almost fourteen," Liliana said.
"Exactly," he said.
"We need another way, then," I said. "Can we break the Orb in a river and wash all the blood away?"
"That might work," Xavier said. "Water won't destroy it. It will only dilute it. But I'm worried about putting a bunch of Abnormal blood in the water supply. Bathory's blood is in there."
I shuddered, thinking of the backpack and what it contained. Death's blood was in there, too, if she even had blood, and so was the dragon emperor's. What if someone got exposed? We might create more enemies down the road.
It was worth the risk, I decided.
Saving ourselves had to come first.
No. Saving the world came before anything.
Then another idea hit me.
"Xavier--the Underground."
"What about it?" he asked.
"Could you please tell me what's going on?" Liliana asked.
"Thoreau is weak when he's in the Underground," I said. "That's where Leon can take over. Well, mostly. If we break the Orb down there, Thoreau will have a much harder time reaching it."
Xavier finished his burger. He looked so much healthier now. "You know what? I think you have a point," he said. "Underground we go."
"Are you crazy?" Liliana asked.
Liliana backed away from me as we walked. She flicked her gaze to me every few seconds. We hadn't told her about everything, but she knew that something was wrong with me. For one thing, I was eating. I never thought that it would trigger fear in people.
I couldn't win.
I let Xavier lead us to an alley. He looked around for a few minutes before he kneeled down by a trap-door. "I haven't used this entrance much," he said. "It will be a walk until we get to the Underground. There's a chance we'll run into some ATC agents who are waiting for Abnormals to try returning home."
"We can take care of them," I said.
"By using fire?" Liliana asked. She was prying and suspected the worst.
"Alyssa was using her powers from the dragon emperor," Xavier supplied for me.
He was protecting me the best he could, but it was clear that his sister didn't believe him. She scrambled down the ladder first, hurrying to get away from me. I had gotten along with Liliana before. Now she feared me, and rightfully so. Soon, Janine and George would, too.
The darkness swept over me, and I closed my eyes as I descended the ladder, urging it to go away.
Maybe Thoreau was right that I was born for evil.
To hurt people.
To fulfill the darkest destiny that anyone ever could. I had been wreaking havoc since I was eight years old, maybe even earlier.
We made it to the bottom of the ladder. Xavier squeezed my hand, rubbing his thumb on my skin. The shroud of darkness backed off.
He was keeping me from getting consumed. I had no more doubt.
"Come on," he said. "Alyssa. Try to hold it together. Please."
He could sense the conflict. Xavier leaned forward and kissed me again. This time, I sensed that it was easier for him. I had the glamour working. I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him close.
"I love you," I said once we came up for breath.
Xavier smiled. "Keep up the happy thoughts. They're helping."
Liliana sighed. "Are you sure that's safe to do, Xavier?"
He faced his sister. "Don't talk like that about Alyssa," he demanded.
I closed my eyes. The pits between my thoughts deepened again. Who was I kidding? I knew what I was.
"I know what's wrong," Liliana said. "We can't trust her anymore."
"Liliana, shut up!" Xavier shouted with so much force that I heard her snap her jaw shut. He faced me, keeping my hand in his. "Come on. Don't listen to her. You're still good, Alyssa. You have to believe it."
That was easy for him to say. Xavier didn't understand what it felt like to have your nature rewritten in flames.
"The Underground," I reminded.
The three of us got moving, Liliana well in front of us. My phone buzzed again. I took it out with my free hand. A message from Janine filled my screen.
Where R U? George and I are hiding in a warehouse. Please tell me you're alive.
It was hard to text Janine back with only one hand, but I didn't want to risk letting go of Xavier. I felt that it would mean letting go of my old self. He was the only thing keeping me anchored at all to it.
Alive, I texted back.
Did you go to the Infernal? She had added a scared face.
My heart fell, and anger filled me. Two could play this game. I texted before I could stop myself. Have you Turned yet?
Janine didn't text back for a few minutes, which was unusual. But at last, she did. So we both have problems, then.
I was a jerk. Well, that came with the territory. I focused on the fact that I was still capable of not being selfish and vindictive with Xavier here.
Sorry. Have you? I typed.
Janine hesitated. Not all the way. Teeth are fine.
"That's good," Xavier said, peeking at my phone. "There might be a way we can help Janine, too."
"Maybe," I said, trying to make myself feel some hope. I didn't want Janine to see me like this. She would know something was wrong. Liliana had picked up on it. She would, too.
I feared it would end our friendship for good if it hadn't ended already.
Janine sent another text, but our
walk through the sewer was ending. I spotted a closed, wooden door that was taped off by the authorities. Liliana still led the way, a purple ball of light floating above her hands. I hadn't even realized that my night vision had abandoned me. I needed that light to see as much as Xavier and his sister did.
"The ATC has been here," Xavier said. "I'm not looking forward to seeing what they've done with the Underground."
He let go of me for a bit and blasted down the plywood barrier. The tape hung, purple fire trying to eat at it as the embers died on the floor. Only Liliana's light remained.
The Underground, when we reached it, was very, very quiet.
Our stairway dropped us onto a cobbled street close to the market. Every single candle and torch were out. The magic had fled. Only Liliana's purple light illuminated the place, giving it an eerie glow. I could smell spoiling meat. It was awful. The stalls all lay empty, and two of them had toppled. We walked into the middle of the large, domed room that used to buzz with noise and life. Some pendants lay on the ground, shining in the light like some long lost treasure. No one spoke. Liliana swallowed down tears.
"The ATC just ravaged everything," Xavier said.
"Jerks," I said. "We paid them back, though."
"I agree," he said. "We did. Well, you did." Xavier faced me and smiled. It was real. "If we rescue our people, you're going to be celebrated."
"What? Me?"
"You're the one who burned down the ATC headquarters."
"That's because--you know." I didn't want to say it out loud with Liliana so close.
"Well, you might not have burned down all of it. But you did some damage. It's possible Thoreau's secret will be out to the public tomorrow. That means no one's going to show up to his speech. No human sacrifices, no merger."
"You're just saying that to cheer us up," Liliana said.
I had to agree with her. The media hadn't covered the missing ATC agents if Mack was right. They might not report the uncovered secrets of the mayor, either.
We crossed the barren market and into another corridor. Xavier was leading us into what I secretly called the slum section of the Underground, where the poorer residents lived in alcoves that were one step above caves. Xavier hung out here a lot, mainly to get away from the wealth and arrogance of his family.
