Riley really didn’t care about any of this.
At all.
She tried sitting up, but her head immediately swam with pain.
“No, no.” William placed a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down. “You’re going to rest for a bit.”
“Where’s Mason? Is he safe?” Riley asked.
“Father and Mother bless us, you have a one-track mind. Yes, he’s safe. He’s back in New Perth.”
“And Rendal? Where’s he?”
“We don’t know,” William answered. “He may still be in Sidnie.”
“Or New Perth,” Worth chimed in.
Riley laid down back on the pillow, closing her eyes. “What the hell happened?”
“I ain’t sure. You fought Rendal and you saved Mason, but once again, you failed to kill Rendal.” William grinned. “I’m wonderin’ if you’re as good of a mage as everyone says, or if maybe you’re just foolin’ everyone.”
“She knows what happened,” Alexandra said, nodding to the other bed. “Linda.”
William turned to look at the woman on the other side of the room. “Yeah, I imagine she does, and I think it’s time she starts tellin’ us just what the hell is going on. What did Rendal do? How did you stop it?”
“Not even a thank you,” the old woman replied. “I should have sent you all packing the moment you showed up on the beach.”
“You wish you could. I’m too strong for ya.”
“You’re not strong enough to clean the crud from my shoe.”
“Okay, okay.” Riley didn’t want to hear them sparring anymore. “Please, William. Ma’am, even if he can’t tell you he’s grateful, I can. Whatever you did, I truly appreciate it. You pulled me from a dark place. I can’t even describe where I was or what it felt like. I am thankful. But we need to know what happened.”
The old woman sighed. “We call what we can do magic because that’s what it looks like. Fire and water and making the ground shake. Magic. In reality, it’s the nanocytes in our blood. Do you all know what those are?”
“We do,” Riley answered.
“I came here to explain those things, the nanocytes and energy. How humans can use this thing we call magic, and what we can do with it.”
“You brought that here?” Riley was confused. “Perhaps I should have started there. I don’t even know who you are. I just got caught up in what happened. Who are you?”
“No one, anymore,” the old woman explained. “I used to be… I used to be a disciple of sorts, I guess.”
“What do you mean?”
“A long time ago, I was a student of a man named Ezekiel. Maybe not that long ago. I was older than you are now but younger than I am now—”
“I’m sorry,” Riley interrupted, “but how old are you?”
“Ninety-two.”
The room grew quiet.
“Yes, I doubt you’ve met anyone my age before. Before the World’s Worst Day Ever, many people used to live this long. It’s a much tougher world we live in now. You’ve heard that term, ‘World’s Worst Day Ever,’ right?”
“Of course,” Riley answered. “Everyone has.”
The old woman grinned. “I’m the one who brought it here.”
“Oh, listen to the old biddy brag.” William winked at Riley.
“The moment I get my strength back, I’m going to do some very awful things to you, boy.”
“I’m forty-two years old. Hardly a boy.”
“You’re a boy to me, boy,” the old woman said with a sly grin.
“Okay, enough,” Riley demanded. “Please continue, Linda.”
“I have to keep from getting into it with him. Ezekiel helped me understand magic, and he gave me the tools I needed to both use it and teach it. He traveled a lot of the world—another part of the world—teaching people. He also trained people like me to go forth and do the same. It was my job to come to this place and make sure people knew how to use magic.”
“And Rendal? He was you completing your job?” William spat. “Because if I’m bein’ honest, ya failed.”
“He was my student, yes,” Linda answered. “But I never taught him to do this. He was… He was the reason I left society.”
“What do you mean?” Riley asked.
“Ezekiel put so much trust in me—in all of his students—and then I came across Rendal.”
Linda sighed, and Riley could tell she felt deep regret. Pain for what must have happened.
“He was an amazing student. He took to magic like a fish to water. He listened to everything I said, and he parroted it back. ‘Magic is to be used to help people.’ ‘Magic can make the world better.’ He went to New Perth to spread the ideas...”
“Yeah,” William growled. “A lot of good that did.”
The old woman turned her head, anger on her face. “I didn’t tell him to do what he did. He wasn’t supposed to force it on people. And if they didn’t want it? That was their choice. He should have gone elsewhere and continued spreading the ideas, but he didn’t.”
“You know what he did?” Riley was amazed. If she’d known and not stopped him…
“I kept up with him for a while. I knew he quit trying to do what we planned, but when I went to him decades ago, he told me I was wrong. That everything I thought and had been taught was wrong.”
“And what, you just gave up?” William asked.
“Rendal was like a son to me, you twit. Do you have a son?”
William shook his head.
“Then you don't know what it’s like to watch them wreck their lives. And maybe Ezekiel was wrong. Maybe I wasn’t the person for the fucking job. Either way, I came here, and here is where I’ve stayed.”
Riley heard the anger in her voice, at Rendal or herself or both.
“How did you manage to keep people from coming here? From rebuilding?”
“Oh, that was easy. When they show up, I scare them off. Ghosts and demons and storms. They run back to wherever they came from and say this place is haunted or some such nonsense.”
“Well, while you were sitting here playing pattycake with yourself, Rendal was building up a fucking army.” William’s anger was clearly directed at her. “Now, what did he do to Riley?”
“He used a spell that a healer would use, one that attacks illness in the body. However, he manipulated the spell. It not only attacked illness, but once illness was eliminated, it continued attacking her body and her cells as if they were the enemy. Sooner or later, she would have died.”
“That’s possible?” Alexandra asked. “You can use magic on such a small scale?”
“Only the most adept practitioners can do such a thing, and the majority of the most adept practitioners would never dream of it. One, because those who are adept understand that magic is to be used for good. Two, because it’s a severe risk on the practitioner’s part. When casting that spell, there’s a real risk their own body could turn on them. Their own cells may misread the spell due to the fact they’re not thinking entities. The spell could hit both the caster and the victim.”
“But Rendal did it all the same.” William looked like he could breathe fire.
“You were able to reverse it?” Riley asked, ignoring him.
“I guess I was,” Linda whispered. “I didn’t think I was strong enough anymore.”
“Yeah, ya look as soft as baby shit.” William’s face relaxed, and he grinned. “It’s gone, though. That spell. She’s well and safe?”
“Yes, I believe so.”
“Then we have to get going,” Riley told them.
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Linda responded. “Your immune system is very weak right now. I’m surprised you’re not dead. You need rest and food.”
“Yeah, speaking of food,” William said. “You got any? Our rations are almost gone.”
“There’s food, although I think your large ass might eat it all and I’ll be left with nothing.”
Riley really did like the old woman. She gave it to Will
iam as hard as he gave it to her.
“Maybe you’ll starve to death, then,” William shot back.
“There isn’t time,” Riley said. “Rendal might already be heading to New Perth. He might already be there.”
“Can you see, Linda?” Alexandra asked. “Can you venture out that far and see where he is?”
“Maybe I could, and maybe I couldn’t. I don’t know anymore. I only know that I won’t try.”
“Why the hell not?” William growled.
“Because this was more than I wanted to do. I’m done with the outside world. You all can leave when she’s healed, but this isn’t my battle. I failed Rendal when I didn’t teach him well enough. I failed this entire place. I have no desire to participate anymore.”
“Sounds like something a failure would say.” William looked like he might spit on the floor, but he managed to hold it in. “I don’t have time for failures. We’ll rest first, Riley, and then we’ll leave.”
“Hold on,” Worth said, finally speaking up. “Riley need her. Riley need learn. Worth and Alexandra not enough. Linda can help.”
William turned his head to Worth, his eyes glowering at the bald mage. “Her? The washed-up old witch who couldn’t keep Rendal on the right path? That’s who you want guiding Riley?”
“She the best.” Worth nodded at the old woman. “She better than Worth. Better than Alexandra. She teach. Riley learn. Riley kill Rendal.”
Riley listened to them speak but started shaking her head at the end. “No. There isn’t time. I’m not going to sit here and try to learn more magic while Rendal lays waste to New Perth. We have to go. With New Perth’s army, we can stop him.”
Worth only shook his head.
“My Savior,” Alexandra whispered. “The Chosen will follow you wherever you wish to go, but this woman here? I must believe she was brought into our lives for a reason. You were meant to meet her. This mage…if he’s that strong, then this woman can teach you to defeat him. There is time because you’re the Chosen One, Riley. Stay and learn.”
“You all need to clean your ears out and listen. All this discussion around staying and learning from me is nonsense. I’m not teaching anyone anything ever again. Not Rendal, not Riley, not anyone else who stumbles upon my city. She can rest up, then she can leave.” The old woman’s eyes were closed as she spoke. She lay on her back, her face calm again. She was simply stating facts.
Riley heard the old woman, but she had a tough time believing her. It may have been what the old woman wanted in the past, but then why had she healed Riley? Why had she let them all in?
She looked at William. “What do you think?”
The big man leaned back in his chair and sighed. “You need to rest—that much is true. We also need to get back to New Perth...” His voice trailed off, but Riley could hear what he didn’t want to say. He didn’t want to give Linda any credit.
Yet, he finally spoke again.
“Something isn’t right yet,” he said. “It’s not that I doubt you, and it’s clear you’re getting more powerful. I mean, hell, you freed Mason, but you still didn’t kill that murdering bastard.”
“You all are talking like I’m not in the room, and like I’m not telling you no.”
Riley turned her head so that she could see Linda.
The woman was old, no doubt about that, but she’d cured Riley. She’d reversed Rendal’s spell, setting her right.
“Is he there?” she asked. “Is Rendal in New Perth?”
“Don’t ask me any more questions,” Linda responded. “You rest, and then you leave.”
Riley’s eyes narrowed. “Is he there? He is, isn’t he? He went immediately.”
“Yes, girl. He did. He’s got your kingdom under his thumb.”
Riley closed her eyes, tears behind her eyelids. “Can you see Mason?”
“I don’t know any Mason. I can see Rendal because I can see New Perth. I don’t know anyone else in there.”
Riley heard William shift uncomfortably in his chair. She knew that if she opened her eyes, he’d be gripping the armrests, the wood nearly about to break under his strength.
“I can’t beat him,” she finally whispered. “I need your help. I need you to teach me what I’m missing.”
“I want nothing to do with you, girl. I want nothing to do with any of you. I did what I came to this place to do, and I failed. Or maybe Ezekiel was wrong; maybe humanity isn’t made for magic. Maybe we’re too damned corrupt. Either way, I’m too old. I’m too tired.”
“You’re going to help us or I’m gonna kill you.” William stood, unsheathing a massive axe from his back.
The woman’s head whipped around, her eyes red. Without moving, the axe in William’s hand broke in half, and the business end flew up to his neck.
He backed up quickly, the blade’s edge chasing his neck.
He hit the wall, shaking the entire room. The blade was at his neck, his hands grabbing what was left of the handle and trying to force it away.
Riley rose off the bed, her instincts taking over and forcing away any feelings of weakness or dizziness.
Her own eyes were red, and a part of her was focusing on helping William push the axe away, and the other part was sending a trail of fire from her hand.
It wrapped the old woman in a cocoon, although it didn’t touch her.
The old woman was strong, and she wasn’t holding back, yet Riley was able to keep her at bay. The axe was slowly, inch by inch, backing away from William’s neck.
“Release it,” Riley commanded, her voice a steel whip. Alexandra, Worth, and Eric didn’t move. They just watched the epic standoff.
Riley could see the old woman staring at her through the flickering flames.
A smile cracked her wrinkled face, and suddenly the axe fell to the ground. Linda’s eyes went back to their normal brown color.
Riley killed the flames.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” William shouted. “I’ll break your brittle bones, you old bitch!”
The woman slowly sat up, still smiling. “Hush, boy. I needed to see.”
“See what?” Riley asked. The adrenaline in her body kept the dizziness at bay.
“If she was worth my damn time. I don’t want to help—not you, nor anyone else—but I made a promise to Ezekiel a long time ago. I haven’t seen him, and I don’t know if he’s alive, but I did promise I’d do good with magic. If I’m going to help, I needed to make sure it’d be worth it. That you could actually do something.”
“And?”
“And you might have a chance. If that big lug doesn’t keep his mouth shut, though, I will rip his tongue out.” Linda was still smiling as she spoke.
William sneered. “Riley, whatever she teaches you, use it to kill her.”
“You two are going to be best of buds by the time we’re done,” Riley said. “Now we need to get to work.”
Chapter Five
Brighten lay on the other side of the cage, he, Kris and Lucie all looking as if they were sleeping close to one another.
Erin had snapped at them about three minutes ago when she’d heard keys jingling on the other side of the wall. Brighten didn’t know the plan, only his part of it—which was to lie here and act like he was freaking asleep.
Not gonna work. This is dumb as hell, and we’re all going to die. And right before we do, I’m gonna open my eyes and say, “I told you so.”
“Hey, big guy.”
Brighten had to really focus to keep his face from changing.
He’d never heard Erin sound like that—or anyone else, either.
Sultry.
Sexy.
What the hell was going on?
He cracked one eye slightly open. He was lying on his side in between Kris and Lucie, so being seen wasn’t a huge risk. Plus, he couldn’t help it.
“No need to leave,” Erin whispered. “You and I should talk for a minute.”
She was pressed against the bars, her back arched and her ass poking out beh
ind her. Her breasts were practically falling through the space between the bars.
The guard had been walking away, but he stopped.
Oh, dear Father and Mother, Brighten thought. What is happening?
“They’re asleep. And trust me, I can be quiet if I need to be.”
The guard turned around his face, showing all the confusion Brighten felt inside.
“I know.” Erin grinned mischievously. “Why would I want to have a good time with you? That’s what you’re asking yourself, isn’t it?”
The guard remained silent, but he wasn’t leaving.
He can’t be this stupid, Brighten thought. No one is this stupid.
“I have needs,” Erin continued in that sultry voice. “Just look at me. You know I’m used to getting what I want and getting it regularly, but down here in this cage? I can’t get anything. So just give it to me for a second, and I will never tell anyone.”
Her grin grew.
“I’ll be your little secret.”
“You’re full of shit,” the guard whispered, although Brighten could hear the longing in his voice.
He wants it to be true.
“First, look at you. You’re twice my size, big boy. Even if I was lying, which I’m not, what am I going to be able to do to you?”
A hell of a lot, Brighten thought. Erin could probably kill most of the guards in this damn place.
“But,” she kept going, “you don’t have to trust me. Just come to the bars, and I’ll show you what I’m talking about. We can do everything we need to through these spaces here. No need to come inside. Then, when we’re both finished, you go on your way, and no one has to know.”
This bastard is actually considering it. The guard’s eyes had narrowed, but Brighten could tell he didn’t think Erin posed any threat. Plus, with the bars in the way, he saw no danger.
Holy shit, this might actually work, Brighten thought.
The guard stepped forward. “You do anything dumb and I’m going to break your face, you understand?”
“Nothing dumb, baby. Just fun. Now get over here.”
The guard walked toward the bars and started unbuttoning his pants.
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