by Ciara Graves
“It’s alright. You’re safe here,” I assured her. “If you tell us who your parents are, we’ll do our best to find them.”
She nodded, wiping at her face with the tissue.
Brunie sat beside her, holding her close. “Is there anything else you can remember? We need all the help we can get to find others like you.”
“And our friend,” Chas growled, barely holding it together. “She was taken, too.”
“Rori,” Macy said.
“Did you see her?” Chas demanded.
I shot him a look.
He took a deep breath and apologized. “We need to find her quickly,” he added.
“It’s ok,” Macy said with a soft smile and reached for Chas’s hand. “You said her name in the cage. Sorry I went off on you both by the way. Sometimes guards would come into the cage and beat us, or drag us out for their experiments.” Her hand slipped away, and she curled into Brunie’s side as if to hide away. “I never saw her, I’m sorry.”
Chas lowered his head and stalked away from the bed to glare out the window.
“These guards, you said they’re magic-users like us?” I asked.
“I asked them over and over why they were doing this to us. None of them answered,” she whispered. “Their eyes had this strange look, like they were in there fighting against… something.” She rubbed at her neck, eyes widening. “And their necks! They all had the same wound.”
“What do you mean?” I asked urgently.
“It was puckered, almost like a burn… but I’m certain, one time I saw something shiny in there.”
Brunie’s eyes darkened.
I was pretty sure she came to the same conclusion I did.
The Bogards had to have found a way to make magic-users submit. This war just got a whole lot darker and harder. If we did attack the main headquarters, would we be fighting the Cleansers or our own people?
“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Brunie asked. “Take your time.”
Chas growled at her last comment but said nothing and continued to stare outside.
“When I was first taken there, I saw a woman and a man,” Macy said slowly. “They talked to me, kept asking me questions about my abilities. Wanted to know if I was a necromancer. I told them I had no idea what they were talking about. The woman told me I was a liar. They kept talking about finding someone’s daughter. Something about the last piece to the puzzle. The one that would make their coming war a success. I’m sorry. They never said anything else.”
“That’s alright,” Brunie assured her. “Get some rest. We’ll see if we can’t find your family.”
She left the tissues for the girl as she settled back down on the bed.
We all turned to leave, but Macy called out. “Wait. You both saved me.” She looked from me to Chas. “Thank you, and I hope you find your friend.”
Chas clenched his jaw, barely made any indication he heard her, then was gone.
Macy watched him leave, sinking back to her pillows. “I am sorry I wasn’t her.”
“It’s alright,” I told her with a sad smile. “He’s worried. We all are.”
“He likes her a lot, doesn’t he,” she said.
Brunie cleared her throat and stepped away.
I thought over what to say. “Yeah, he does. We all care for her, but he—uh… it’s different for him.”
Macy took another tissue, dabbing at her eyes. “I do hope you find her.”
“Thank you, and if you think of anything else, let us know.”
She closed her eyes, and in a few moments, she was asleep.
The outpost was well guarded essentially, since we had a full army here now. I knew she’d be safe, but for some reason, I worried about leaving her alone, thinking of how afraid she’d been when we first found her.
And Rori, what condition would she be in when we finally managed to rescue her?
If we managed to.
Not finding her was not an option. That’s what we all said, but the truthfully, there was always a chance we would never see her again. Or we’d be too late. It would tear me up inside, but after seeing how Chas reacted minutes ago, it would be the end of him. Whatever he and Rori shared in the void had to have been intense.
“We need to find Moran,” Brunie told me as I joined her and Chas in the corridor. “Tell him what Macy told us.”
“About the Bogards using our own against us?” I puffed out my cheeks, shoving my hands in my pockets. “Nothing can be easy about this war. Nothing. How are they even doing it? None of our people would willingly listen to them, right?”
“Depends on what they have on each of them,” Chas pointed out. “If they’re holding family members captive…” He shrugged. “With all this other technology going on, I wouldn’t put it past them to have some way of controlling each person with electrical pulses or some other bullshit.”
He was right. Macy said it herself; she had no idea where her family was. They could be held captive still. Or they could be dead. If they’d broken her, she might’ve been turned into one of these controlled guards by using her family against her. Threatening to kill them if she didn’t do as she was told. We walked on, tracking down Moran, Blade and the other commanders in the war room.
“Well?” he asked as we entered.
“We have some news from one of the rescued victims,” I told him. “If you have time.”
“Always, for this shit. What did you find out?”
I took a seat with the others and relayed everything Macy gave us to work with. Every word made Moran’s gaze darken, and I thought the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees. When I was finished, he leaned back in his chair, spinning away from us all. A few curses slipped from his mouth as he rubbed his temples.
“So it comes down to a fight against an enemy that is using our own people against us,” Moran muttered as he turned back around and rose to his feet. “Do we have any word at all on where these other locations might be? Which one is their headquarters?” he asked Blade.
“We’re still going through the files and computers we recovered,” Blade replied. “So far nothing.”
“Keep looking. I want someone working on it at all times. Understood?”
Blade bowed his head and exited the room, the commanders leaving with him.
“You three, rest and ensure you’re on point. We have no way of knowing when they might retaliate once they realize what we’ve done. This is far from over. They have our people, and I will not stop until we have them back. Every last one of them. You have my word on that. I swear it.”
Chas said nothing, just slipped out of the room, appearing to still be in pain.
Brunie and I left. There was nothing left to talk about, not until we had another lead to follow up on. There were plenty of prisoners to interrogate, but I doubted we’d be able to hold onto them long. The government was demanding they be handed over by tomorrow morning, giving us no time to get much out of them. I wandered with Brunie to the mess to eat, but Chas was nowhere in sight. I’d track him down later and make sure he was actually alright.
Night had settled in, and there’d been no sign of Chas since our meeting with Moran.
Brunie and I split up to search for him after checking his room and finding it empty. He wasn’t in the infirmary or anywhere inside. This left the woods. Moran put a ban on any of us going outside at night. Leave it to Chas to ignore the man’s orders. Again.
Brunie and I stepped outside, sighing in unison. “You want to wait here for him to come back? Or go find him?” she asked.
I glanced at the two men guarding the door. “Have you seen Chas?”
They both shook their heads. “He’s not supposed to be out there.”
“We know, it’s why we’re out here.”
“We can’t let you go wandering around,” the second guard said. “Moran will have our hides if he knows all three of you are out here.”
“I know, but we need to find him.” I squinted into t
he darkness of the trees.
“You can stay here and wait for him. You two are not going into the woods,” the first guard ordered. “If he’s not back in ten minutes, we’ll send someone out to look for him.”
I gave in and stood with Brunie, waiting.
Minutes ticked by.
I paced back and forth, muttering under my breath for Chas to get his ass back to the outpost before anything happened, but there was no sign of him.
At ten minutes, the guards radioed for extra men. I asked them not to reveal that Chas was gone over the radio. The last thing we needed when Chas got back was Moran out here, ripping him a new one for being so reckless.
The guards were sending three men out when branches crunched in the darkness.
The sound of a muffled groan followed.
“Chas?” I called out.
The groan turned into a growl. He sounded like he was hurt.
Ignoring the guard’s commands to wait, Brunie and I took off toward the woods.
A shadow that looked like Chas emerged from the trees.
Then a bright flash of green and blue light brought me to a sliding to a stop in the wet grass, throwing my arm out to stop Brunie and the guards.
“Chas?”
He was there in bear form, limping as if hurt, but then he growled, shaking out his head as his body reverted back to human form. He took another step, then two more, then fell forward, on his face. We rushed to his side.
I rolled him over.
Brunie’s hands glowed gold as she pressed them to his head. “There’s something wrong with his magic,” she whispered, eyes closed. “Physically he’s fine, but I sense a weakening in him.”
I thought back to the house, wondering if he’d gotten hurt after all and I hadn’t noticed, but then realized with a sickening feeling what this was. “The oath he made,” I muttered. “It’s starting to take its toll.”
“Oath? What oath?” Brunie demanded.
“Not here,” I said as the two guards approached.
“What happened. Was he attacked?”
“No, but we’re going to take him inside. Think he’s worn out from the fight this morning,” I lied.
Brunie pursed her lips, narrowed eyes saying I better tell her exactly what was going on once we were away from the guards.
Between me and another guard, we got Chas up, and inside the outpost without being spotted by Moran or Agnes.
Once inside his room, I thanked the guard and shut the door, leaving me and Brunie alone with Chas. I gave her the brief rundown on what Chas did.
Several interesting and vivid curses fell out of her mouth. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s pretty much the same reaction we had. I never thought it would affect him so soon.”
Chas groaned as his eyes fluttered open. “That sucked.”
“What happened out there?” I helped him sit upright as he shook out his head. “Hey! You here or what?”
“Yeah, I’m here.” He rubbed a hand down his face, shoving me to get up and trudged into the bathroom. He slammed the door. Then the toilet flushed, and water ran, after which he stepped back out, hair wet and face still a mess.
“Care to share what’s going on with you?”
He shrugged. “Sure you figured it out by now.”
“The oath is draining your power.”
“Looks like it.” He held out his hand before his face. “Can’t hold my bear form anymore.”
“What?” Brunie and I snapped at the same time.
“Seriously?” I added. “Damn it, Chas, this is why you don’t do stupid shit like run around and make oaths with your powers on the line!”
He glowered at me for a solid minute then lowered his eyes and weakly walked to his bed. “You’re right,” he muttered. “I was an idiot, and today I pushed myself too hard with my anger, let it get away from me.”
“If you can’t take bear form anymore, it’s only a matter of time before you’re limited on what else you can do.” I didn’t need to ask if he wanted to hide this from Moran. He’d flip if he learned the truth we’d been hiding for months now. “I suggest you limit your power usage until we need it.”
“Sounds like an excellent plan.”
“Chas,” I snapped.
“What? I get it. I messed up. I won’t use them unless I have to. Happy?”
“No. I’ll be happy when we kill those sick psychos who started this mess, we have Rori back, and you’re back to normal.”
I marched out of the room with Brunie, warning Chas that I’d sic Agnes on him if he did anything else that was stupid.
Without his bear form, Chas was still strong, but it was a sign of how much he was about to lose and how quickly.
We needed to find Rori and fast.
Maybe with all four of us together, we could slow the process down.
Chapter 6
Rori
Blood spurted from my nose. I fell backward, thrown off balance by an icy wind.
“Again!”
I wiped the blood from my face, even spat some out, as I glared across the room at the man that used to be Trevor Griffith.
For days we’d been at it, sparring for hours and hours.
My power was slowly coming back to me, but I was playing this smart. No way in hell was I going to show Tabitha and Simon everything I could do. Oh, no. I was going to drag this out as long as I could, make their plan take weeks. Months if I could. I would make them regret taking me prisoner and breaking my father down.
Then, when they were weak and distracted, pissed off and vulnerable, then I’d return the favor. I’d break them.
At least that was the plan. And it was most likely not going to work. Not even close.
I glanced upward to find the Bogards speaking to white-clad men and a few guards. Every now and then they shifted their gazes my way. No emotion ever showed on their faces aside from aggravation at my lack of progress.
Every time I was on the way here and on the way back at the end of the day, I asked the same shaman to give me more information. Each time, he refused to say a word.
I’d been tasered more than once for opening my mouth and cursing them all for keeping me here like a caged animal.
Just yesterday, Tabitha had two of the guards beat me up for spitting at her. It’d been worth it yesterday. But today, my ribs ached, and my right shoulder kept making this weird clicking sound. I was pretty sure that was a bad sign.
“I said again,” Dad snapped as ice formed around his hands.
“I am not back to my full strength yet,” I snapped. “What do you want me to do?”
“Get back to your full strength. My job is to train you, and that is exactly what I’m going to do no matter how hard I have to hit to wake you up!”
Ice flew at me.
I ducked, rolling back to my feet and swinging around with a kick aimed at his face.
The kick landed, but then he reached around, grabbed me, and spun me into the far wall.
I grunted as I smashed into it, shaking out my head. I barely had a split second to react to the fist coming at me.
First, I jabbed him hard in the ribs then followed it up with a kick to the chest. He slid backward but stayed upright.
He was my dad. I knew that, but right then, beating the shit out of him sounded like a damned good idea. Though I held back my magic. I did not have to hold back my hand-to-hand moves.
And after learning we could be without our powers during a fight, Brogan, Chas, and I had specifically trained for exactly this type of situation.
I released all my anger at the Bogards and charged forward, dodging each ice attack to get in close, jabbing him in the jaw, following it up with an elbow to his gut, then a fist into his nose.
He cursed and made a wild grab for me, but I was smaller and much faster.
“Use your magic!” he shouted as I came after him again, ducking in quick to attack, then slipping out of reach again. “Fight like a mage!”
“Why?” I
shouted back. “What’s the point?”
His eyes flared violet, and the magic at his hands changed from ice to violet-tinged shadows. They pulsed in time with his anger then lashed out at me.
Deep within me, my own power wanted to respond, but I forced it to stay hidden, not ready to reveal all I could do. I’d been testing it out in my room. In the shower stall, actually, since I had no doubt there was a camera in my room, waiting for me to do something while thinking I was alone.
I flattened as a bolt of shadow flew across the room and smashed into the wall, breaking away the white paint and created a rotting hole in the stone beneath. The low hum of voices overhead silenced as Dad used his necromancy.
Tabitha’s face was expectant. Clearly, she believed this to be the moment my true colors would emerge.
Not going to happen.
I gritted my teeth and prepared to get my ass kicked again. A whisper of anger flooded my mind, but I mentally yelled at it to shut up. Dad wasn’t going to kill me. I hoped.
The attacks increased, and a bolt of shadow caught my right shoulder. I screamed as the immediate sensation of being burned swarmed me, making me miss the chance to block a fist aiming for my face.
Next thing I knew, I was on the ground and staring up at the ceiling, waiting for it to all be over.
Dad stalked around me, spitting curses and yelling, but I tuned him out. That man was not my dad, not really.
When we fought, I strove to get a good look at his neck, but there were no markings on there to indicate anything embedded in his skin.
If I could get Dad to wake up, to understand what he was doing, if I pushed him hard enough… maybe that tiny hint of familiarity I caught the first day would grow, and he would snap out of it.
“Get up,” he snarled.
“Why?” I held my shoulder and grimaced.
“Because that is what’s expected of you. Get up and fight me!” He blasted the floor to the left of my head. I flinched, but made no move to get my ass off the floor. “Get up, or there will be pain. Is that what you want? Is it?”
“I’m already in pain!” I yelled. “This man you think you are now? It’s not you!”
