Arcane Dropout 6

by Edmund Hughes

  Ryoko wrapped one arm around Zoe’s midriff as Lee lowered her into the water, and then used her free hand to pinch the unconscious woman’s nose. Her cheeks flushed slightly as she looked back toward Lee.

  “This will seem a little weird, but it works,” she said. “Otherwise, there’s no guarantee that she’ll get a full breath.”

  She leaned in and gave Zoe the kiss of life, holding the position as she quickly descended and disappeared into the magical whirlpool.

  Mira, Harper, and Lee quickly followed. The shocking cold of the Atlantic Ocean was, for once, comforting. Lestaron Island didn’t feel like home to Lee, but at the very least, it felt safe.

  Ryoko had parked the BMW by the shore. The four of them piled in, carefully placing Zoe in the center backseat. Wet, shivering, and defeated, they made their return to the mansion.

  CHAPTER 34

  Not much was said during the first hour following their arrival back. Ryoko kept herself busy, calling for a doctor before they’d even left the car, and then preparing a clothing change for Harper—whom she treated like a proper guest—as soon as they were inside the mansion.

  The time zones they’d crossed during the teleportation meant it was once again the middle of the night. The doctor came regardless, a tired-looking woman with gray hair and a serious disposition. Lee waited next to Zoe’s bedside as she performed the examination.

  “I can’t see anything wrong with her,” said the doctor.

  Ryoko and Harper were also in the room, and Lee exchanged glances with both of them.

  “You mean she’s going to wake up?” he asked.

  “I said I can’t see anything wrong with her,” said the doctor. “There’s no reason why she shouldn’t be awake right now. Some comas can be like that, though without a thorough examination, I can’t tell. If she doesn’t come to over the next few days, you’ll need to fly her to a hospital on the mainland for an examination.”

  Lee chewed his lower lip, trying to keep himself from jumping to conclusions. First Tess’s wasting affliction, now his sister unconscious without cause. Eliza was manipulating him, but to what end? What did she want, and why couldn’t she just take it by force?

  “Thank you,” said Ryoko. “I can take care of her here, in the meantime. It’s no bother.”

  “It’s a lot of work, but if you say you’re prepared for it, I see no reason why it can’t be done,” said the doctor. “I’m sorry I can’t offer you a more definitive prognosis.”

  They were quiet once she left, more out of sheer exhaustion than for lack of words. Ryoko gave them a rundown of easily accessible snack foods in the kitchen before excusing herself to set up Zoe for the night. Lee wanted to have a chat with Harper, but she slipped away to the room Ryoko had prepared for her. Mira was off on her own, though that was no surprise.

  “You did your best,” whispered Tess as she sat next to him on his bed.

  “I know.” He sighed. “That’s the worst part, isn’t it? I did my very best. From leading them all to that base to stopping the fight between Harper and Mira in the underground level, to facing down Eliza. Every step of the way I did my best… and here we are.”

  “I don’t like you when you sulk,” said Tess.

  “Another thing I’ve been doing far too much of lately.”

  “Lee Amaranth, you are sulking about how much you’ve been sulking!” Tess shot him a heavily exaggerated scowl and flicked him in the cheek.

  “Sorry,” he said. He pulled her into his mystic stream, and then almost immediately wished he hadn’t.

  Tess’s lower body was now entirely insubstantial, hanging in wisps like the tatters of a ruined skirt. She clung to him, burying her face in his shoulder, refusing to look for herself. It was a gut punch for Lee to see her like that, a blow as disconcerting as any he’d taken during the battle.

  “Tess…” he said, struggling to keep his voice steady.

  “I know,” she said. “It’s okay.”

  “I’m going to find a way,” he said. “If I can just face her one last time. She’ll be at Primhaven, Tess. I know she’ll be there. This time, I’ll…”

  “You’ll what?” Tess sniffled, pulling her head back, revealing a face full of tears. “She’s too strong, Lee.”

  “I can beat her.” He cupped one of her cheeks, thumbing away a few of her tears. “I was so close, Tess. Could you feel it? The holy fire, the ability I got from Savoire Solaire; I can beat her with it!”

  “Lee…” She blinked, and her face scrunched up with the effort of holding back more tears. “What if she beats you? What if she… kills you?”

  “She won’t,” he said. “She’s doing this all because of me. Because, in her twisted mind, she needs to force me to… I don’t know. Love her, maybe? I don’t understand, but even if I can’t beat her, I still think I can save you. I’ll give her what she wants if it will save you, even if it’s swearing myself to her as a servant.”

  The slap came without warning, despite the fact that Tess had to fling her body sideways onto the bed to throw it in the first place. It was the first time she’d ever slapped him, and she was the one crying in the aftermath of the strike.

  “Lee Amaranth,” she said, voice sloppy with emotion. “Don’t you dare! Promise me you won’t!””

  “I’m sorry, Tess,” he said. “But I can’t make that promise. I love you. I can’t stand by and watch you die for my sake. I just can’t. I won’t!”

  “So, your plan is to make me do that instead?” she whispered. “Force me to watch you become whatever horrible thing she decides to turn you into?”

  “Would you rather die instead?” He winced at his own word choice. “Die, dissolve… stop existing, pass over to the other side. Just because you’re a ghost doesn’t mean you shouldn’t want to keep going, Tess.”

  “What do you want me to say, Lee? Do you want me to tell you I’m scared? Because I am, I’m so scared and so selfish. I’m a selfish ghost who wants to keep living and keep loving and stay with you for as long as I possibly can. It is selfish… for me to want that, when so many people alive and living never get a chance at it.

  “My fate has already been decided, Lee. It was a foregone conclusion nearly a hundred years before you were ever born. I’m lucky to have known you, and to have helped you in your life, and to have shared a love as fierce and pure as ours. It’s okay for you to let me go now.”

  Lee didn’t let her go. He kept his arms wrapped tight around her.

  “I don’t care.” He chuckled through his tears. “You just don’t get it. You’ve always been so naïve, Tess.”

  He felt her body suddenly lose form. He was still projecting his mystic stream, or at least he’d thought he’d been. Somehow, she’d still slipped out of it.

  “I won’t watch you give up on yourself,” she whispered, backing away from the bed in her ethereal form. “If it comes to that… I’ll break the pact between us, first.”

  “Tess!”

  He reached for her, but she was already moving, phasing through the wall of the room. Lee banged his fist against the bed’s headboard and flung a pillow at the door. He felt petulant, his thoughts jumping to the idea of breaking the pact with her first just because, though it ran completely contrary to what he really wanted.

  He stretched out on the bed, feeling tired, feeling alone, and fell asleep.

  ***

  Lee had no idea what time it was when he finally woke up. He was alone, and the sky was dreary and overcast outside the window of his room. He flicked the light switch, only to discover the mansion’s electricity was apparently out.

  He pulled on a comfortable t-shirt and some sweatpants and headed out into the hallway. The mansion was deathly silent, and it felt as though each creaking footstep he took was an intrusion into the peaceful domestic sanctum.

  He went to Zoe’s room, finding her right where he’d last seen her, asleep and unaware. Ryoko had taken the time to not only change her clothing but to bathe her as well. L
ee made a mental note to find a way to thank her once the situation had been resolved. The thought felt silly as he considered how preposterous such a resolution might ultimately be.

  He took a seat behind her and took her hand into his. It felt warm and far smaller than he’d have expected. How long had it been since he’d last held Zoe’s hand? Not since they were kids, years and years ago.

  “She’s doing well.” Ryoko’s voice caught him off-guard. “At least, as well as she can be.”

  She entered the room slowly, with near-silent footsteps. She looked well-rested, her black hair washed and combed, but there was a sense of forced calmness to her expression.

  “Thank you, Ryoko,” he said. “Has there been any change or… improvement?”

  “Not yet,” she said. “I helped her bathe and changed her out of the clothes she wore into the battle. The doctor gave her a saline drip this morning and will be by to talk about giving her a feeding tube if she hasn’t awoken within another few days.”

  Lee ran a hand through his hair. “She’s my sister. I should be the one handling all of this.”

  “It’s no bother,” said Ryoko. “Zoe is a part of our family too, Lee. She’s lived here with Mira, Jack, and me for years now.”

  Ryoko reached a hand out and gently stroked Zoe’s face. She looked so peaceful asleep, and the stillness felt foreign on his sister, usually so active and animated.

  “I’m going to pursue the Unavowed Queen,” he said. “My onetime friend, Eliza. I’m going after her, Ryoko, and any help you can offer…”

  “Lee…”

  “She did this to Zoe,” he said. “She did more than just this.”

  It felt tactless to lean on Ryoko’s pain for the sake of securing her as an ally, but he did it anyway, even though he suspected it wouldn’t work on someone like her. He did it with no hesitation, no regrets, knowing his fight against Eliza would be the fight for the people he cared about most.

  “I’ve never been a fighter, at least not like Mira, or Katie, or Jack.” Ryoko closed her eyes. “I can help as I have before, with my water teleportation, but I still won’t fight. I don’t want revenge, Lee. I just… want him back.”

  She opened her eyes, and the movement was enough to toss loose a salvo of tears. She was smiling apologetically as she cried, quiet and thoughtful Ryoko, only concerned with how the emotion she was expressing would affect others.

  “I’m so sorry, Ryoko,” he said. “That would be more than enough, as is. You don’t have to fight.”

  She sniffled loudly, reminding him a little of Tess. “There’s… breakfast downstairs already laid out on the dining room table. I couldn’t do much preparation because of the electricity being out, but feel free to help yourself.”

  “I will. Have you seen or heard at all from Harper?”

  “She went into town this morning, I believe.”

  Lee nodded and headed for the door. He paused before continuing down the hallway, shooting one last look at Zoe asleep in bed, and Ryoko next to her. He felt grateful that his sister had such close friends, borderline jealous, though it was an emotional mismatch given her current state. She’d made some friends, all right.

  CHAPTER 35

  Lee grabbed a Pop-Tart and a granola bar for the road and started into town. Despite the overcast sky, the weather was quite mellow, warm and windless. He didn’t see anyone else out walking, and he kept expecting to spot Tess or Harper around each corner, or on the next park bench.

  For the first time in a long time, Lee felt lonely. It felt like a premonition, a preview of how he’d feel all the time if he didn’t manage to pull off a miracle and find a way to defeat Eliza. He was forced to admit he was no good at being alone, not really cut out for the effort of taking care of his physical and emotional needs.

  He felt a wave of sympathy for Ryoko and Mira, who’d basically suffered the same kind of loss that Lee was trying to avoid. Jack had pleaded in those last few seconds, for Lee to protect them. Was that just another empty promise to add to the pile?

  He was still lost in thought when he reached the town. He spotted Harper standing outside the local tavern, frowning as two inebriated men did their best to converse with her. She smirked when she saw him and lifted her arm to wave.

  “Ah,” she said. “There’s my husband now. Eldon, I’d like you to meet… what did you say your names were, again?”

  The two men muttered a few words under their breath as they slipped away from the situation. Harper folded her arms. She looked recovered from the previous night, every hair in perfect order within the weave of her golden braid.

  “You husband?” Lee flashed a smile. “If I’m your husband, that makes you my wife. Which would either be incredible or incredibly scary.”

  He reached a hand out and tried to lead her by the chin, into a kiss. Harper rolled her eyes, still smirking, and slapped his hand away.

  “Nice attempt,” she said.

  “I’m surprised you bothered with the ruse. Why not just judo-throw them into the ground if they were bothering you? Or hell, blast them into the ocean with a spell?”

  “Not all encounters require a combative solution,” she said.

  She started walking back toward the mansion, and Lee fell into step beside her.

  “For some reason, I thought you’d be mad at me when I found you,” he said.

  “Mad,” echoed Harper. “I think we’re far beyond that, at this point. It would be like being mad at a child for accidentally burning the house down.”

  There was an edge of accusation in her voice, enough to tell Lee that she wasn’t really joking.

  “Is that how you see it?” he asked. “That I was the one playing with fire? That I’m… responsible, for what’s happened?”

  She shrugged. “In some ways, yes, in others, not so much. I do wish you’d been more communicative and come clean with the truth on your own. I wish you’d learned more from me, though I suppose I should have taught more in that same regard.”

  Lee was silent for a few seconds, considering her words. He glanced at Harper and then back toward the tavern.

  “I never had you pegged as much of a day drinker,” he said.

  “The bar is the only establishment open at the moment,” said Harper. “The island’s electrical grid is down. I doubt it’s a coincidence. The patrons at the bar told me the last thing they heard on the news was a report of a number of major cities being attacked by some type of new weapon of mass destruction. One with a crimson glow.”

  “Fuck…”

  “New York, Chicago, Toronto, Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin… The list goes on and on. It’s not just the supernatural world that the Unavowed Queen has sown carnage through.”

  A leaden sensation took root in Lee’s gut. He still had to face Eliza, regardless of how increasingly foolhardy it seemed. Hearing of the breadth of her destruction only added to the weight of responsibility on his shoulders.

  “Why?” he asked. “What’s the point? I don’t understand what killing innocents, mundane people who don’t even know or care about the supernatural, would achieve.”

  “Why, indeed,” muttered Harper. “Perhaps the Unavowed Queen, like a good enraged demoness, is simply making up for lost time. Perhaps she holds a grudge against the world for her imprisonment. More likely, I think it’s not one simple answer, as much as we might want it to be. She might be doing it just because she can.”

  Lee took Harper’s wrist, feeling the softness of her skin against his fingers. She stopped walking and looked at him, her blue eyes as piercing and intimidating as they’d been on the first day he’d met her.

  “I’m going to stop her,” he said. “I don’t think it’s much of an exaggeration to say you could very well be the strongest mage left in the world. Will you help me, Harper?”

  She stared at him, her face as still as a statue, her braid fluttering ever so slightly in the wind. Instead of answering, she took a step forward and planted a soft kiss on his lips.


  “I’m leaving, Eldon,” she said. “That’s why I went into town this morning. I wanted to see if the airport was still active. It’s not, but my plans haven’t changed.”

  “We can’t just leave her!” hissed Lee. “If we don’t stop her, then who will?”

  “If we die trying to stop her, then who will take care of the people we leave behind?” asked Harper. “I’m going to look for Willow. She was at the Order base in New York. I made such a terrible mistake leaving her there. When… if… I find her, I’ll bring her to my mom and brother, and then, Eldon, perhaps I’d be willing to accompany you on a suicide mission.”

  “It’s not going to be a suicide mission.”

  Harper gently ran her hand across his cheek, flashing a fond smile of the variety a master might offer a naïve pupil. “Stay here. Watch out for Zoe. I do think she’ll wake up on her own if you just give her some time.”

  He nodded, more to prove he was listening to her than out of a desire to change his mind. He felt a swell of emotion for Harper. Even if she was on a different path, that fact that she was speaking to him about her motivations so openly felt like they’d gone back to normal, or as close to it as they’d ever been.

  He held her hand as they walked back up the hill. When they reached the mansion, he was surprised to see Tess sitting outside on the front porch, and it must have shown in his outward reaction.

  “What is it?” asked Harper.

  “There’s… somebody I want to introduce you to,” said Lee. “Honestly, this is long overdue.”

  Harper frowned at him. “Are you talking about Tess?”

  He nodded. He saw both women reacting to the idea, Harper looking skeptical, while Tess immediately began fidgeting and glancing around as though in search for something to hide behind.

  “Lee!” she hissed. “Why would you spring this on me without asking first?”

  It was long overdue, but Lee’s real motivation had more to do with sowing distraction. He didn’t pick up with Tess where their last conversation had ended, revisiting her threat to leave him if he continued with his plan to face Eliza.