by Ciara Graves
“Are you ready to begin?” Dad asked in that growling voice that was not his.
“Yeah, let’s get this party started, old man,” I muttered and then lunged across the room, nailing him in the face without giving him a chance to move.
I kept up the attack, throwing everything I had into it, not letting him use his power against me—at least, not yet. If I could get the others to believe this was like any other day, they would turn their attention away. As the fighting raged on, I chanced a look up.
They’d all turned their backs.
Perfect.
Dad aimed a punch at my face, but I caught his arm and pinned it to his back.
“You have to listen to me,” I said quietly, but urgently. “You have to remember who you are, so we can get out of here.”
“You are delusional,” he snarled, flipping me over. “Enough of this nonsense.”
I was worried my pent-up power would hurt him, and hoped I’d somehow get to break through without using magic, but it looked like if this was going to work, it’d have to be done the hard way.
Frost covered my hands and as I whirled around, creating an icy storm cloud. I snapped my fingers and my staff appeared in my hands.
Just as Tabitha yelled a warning, I slammed it down with a shout, and the cloud exploded, shrouding me and Dad from the others.
Shadows flowed through it, blocking the two of us from the guards reaching in. Giving me the precious few seconds I needed.
“What is this?” Dad asked confused, panic and anger in his eyes. “Your power… this is incredible.”
“Yeah, it is because I got it from you. You are my dad, and you have to come with me.”
“You want to leave? I can’t let you do that!”
“You are my dad, Trevor Griffith. Your wife is Jodie Griffith. We have missed you for a very long time. And we love you. Dad, please,” I begged, holding out one hand, the other hand, gripped around my staff, kept the storm going. “Remember. Come with me.”
Shadows formed around his hands as he shook his head, taking a half-step back. “No…
“Fine. You leave me no choice then.” I snapped my fingers, and his staff appeared in my left hand.
His eyes went to it immediately, and he froze.
“This is yours. I want you to take it.”
He shook his head again, but the confusion in his eyes told me he remembered something. He blinked and then his hand rose, ready to take the staff. When he was a few inches from it, he hesitated.
Tabitha was screaming. “Get in there! We need to see what’s happening! What are you doing?”
Dad froze, hanging his head. He grunted, as though in pain. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can!” I urged. “Take it!”
Steps rushed around us. Any second now, someone was going to break through my magic. I might’ve been able to summon Merlin and the two staves, but this level of intensity wouldn’t last forever. Already, I was weakening from using so much magic so quickly after of being cut off from it for so long.
“Don’t listen to her,” I told him as Tabitha yelled his name. “Listen to me. Listen to yourself. Take the staff.”
He clutched his head, groaning and cursing. Then he raised it, eyes glowing a bright violet, his lip lifted in a snarl.
My heart sank, thinking I’d lost my chance, and this was it. This was when my world officially would crash down around me, but then Dad threw himself forward and grabbed his staff.
The second his hand made contact, a burst of ice and shadow exploded from his center, reinforcing the storm around us. His eyes cleared, and he stumbled, but stayed upright, gasping for air. He blinked, eyes wildly going from the staff then to me and he narrowed his gaze.
“Rori?”
“Dad!”
He rushed me, hugging me close.
There was no time for a proper reunion. “We have to get out of here.”
“I know where the exit is,” he told me, wiping quickly at his eyes. “We have to move fast, and I’m not sure how strong I am.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“The power I’ve been using… it was such a high intensity for short bursts… I won’t last long in a full-on fight against them.”
I wouldn’t either. “Great.” I snapped my fingers and Merlin shimmered into sight beside me.
Dad smiled at the sight of the wolf, closed his eyes, and snapped his fingers, too. The creature that appeared beside him was more impressive, to say the least. “We get out of this room, and we head left, take the stairs up, then straight on out the exit.”
“Do you know where we are?” I asked as the storm around us started to calm.
“We’ll have to figure it out once we’re out of here. Ready?”
“Not like we have much of a choice.”
He took hold of my hand. Our power flowed freely from him to me, and back again, but he was right. Our window was limited. Whatever fog he’d been living in for the last decade-plus may have lifted, but his power was all over the place and quickly wearing him out.
Tabitha shouted for someone to grab a grenade and make ready.
I held my breath.
Time seemed to slow around us.
Dad squeezed my hand.
Tabitha gave the go-ahead to attack.
Dad and I shouted, breaking through the ice storm with a flurry of shadows that lashed out and drained any being they touched.
Men scattered.
Tabitha screamed.
Both our familiars charged at her from the depths of the storm, my wolf and Dad’s polar bear. The beasts roared.
Dad and I moved as one, pushing back the guards with a wall of ice, smashing them to the other side, then sprinting for the door.
I whistled. Merlin and the bear came bounding after us.
Tabitha continued to scream.
On an impulse that could only be attributed to the shadow, I whirled around and slammed my staff into the ground. The staff’s stone shifted from blue to violet as life-sucking energy shot toward her, catching her wrists and lifting her off the floor.
“Rori! There’s no time!” Dad yelled.
I hardly heard him. I eyed her darkly, waiting to see the fear in her eyes as I drained her of life.
Guards were shouting orders, and steps thundered closer. We’d be surrounded before long, but I had to do this. Kill her and save everyone else that she intended to harm.
But as the shadows continued to surround her body, she smiled. When she laughed, I frowned, not sure if I was that weak or if something else was going on I didn’t understand.
“You truly believe I would start a war against your kind with no way to protect myself?” Tabitha snapped. “Your magic will not harm me! Not now. Not ever!”
“Rori,” Dad whispered, gripping my shoulder.
My magic might not be able to drain her, but I could still knock her out. With a smirk, I moved my staff to the right, and the shadows launched her through the viewing glass on the second story. Her scream of pain would have to suffice for now.
I turned and ran with Dad, sticking close to him as we charged through the compound. The guards had formed a line near the exit, ready to take us down.
A yell sounded, and Jake was suddenly there with more magic-users, tackling the men to the ground to give us our chance to escape.
A guard yelled a code red, and all the magic-users cried out, jerking from the shocks of electricity rushing through their bodies. I wanted to help them, but Jake was right. I had to get out, get back to the outpost, then come back and save them all.
We burst outside to find it was night.
A siren wailed, but we never slowed down. Merlin ran up next to me, and then I was on his back as Dad’s bear did the same for him.
A fence rose from the ground.
I yelled, thinking we were trapped, but then Merlin launched us over it.
The four of us cleared the base and took off into the night, heading as far away from the compound as we
could, toward any sign of civilization.
Our familiars ran and ran until the sound of the siren finally faded away, and our power could no longer sustain their presence.
I sent Merlin away.
The polar bear nudged Dad in the chest. He hugged its neck, then it too disappeared.
Only then did Dad actually look at me. And then we were hugging, and he kept saying he was sorry over and over for what he put me through. For what happened the whole time he’d been gone. He was crying. Then I was crying. And then we ended up sitting in the grass beneath the trees, talking and laughing, then crying again.
We were exhausted, our power was slipping away from us, and it would take days to recharge.
“We have to keep moving,” Dad finally said. “Where did you say…?”
“Idaho,” I told him as he helped me up. “But I have no idea where we are.”
“Then we find a road, follow it to town, and go from there.” He cupped my face in his hand and sighed. “So much time I missed out on with you. With your mom.” His eyes widened, and he cursed. “She’s going to kill me when I get back to her.”
I beamed at him, knowing he was probably right. “We have to end a war first.”
“You are an Elite Guard, with my abilities… Damn it. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to teach you any of this.”
“I know, but it’s not exactly your fault.” I covered his hand with mine. “We end this then we’ll have all the time in the world to make up for lost time, right?” Tears burned in my eyes.
He wiped at his again, nodding. “Right, you’re right. I’m proud of you, kiddo, so damned proud.”
Together, we found north and started walking, hoping we’d find a road to follow and get our asses back to the outpost and to safety.
Chapter 8
Rori
Feet aching, I sighed in relief when we finally spotted lights from cars after at least three hours of walking.
Dad was growing weaker with every step, and he wasn’t going to make it however much further it was to a town, at least not on foot.
My own power waning, I summoned my staff, and when a truck came down the road, I placed my hand to the ground and summoned a wall of ice. The truck screeched as the driver slammed on the breaks, staring around wildly. I stepped out from my hiding place.
The guy spotted me and frowned. “What the hell are you doing, girl?” he snapped. “Trying to kill someone?”
“I need your truck,” I said. “And I need to know where we are.”
He laughed at me. “You think I’m going to answer you because you have magic? Piss off,” he muttered, flashing his druid mark at me.
“Look, I’m an Elite Guard. I need to know where we are.”
He eyed me up and down, shaking his head. “No, you’re not.”
I shouldn’t have done it, already at the edge of my strength, but this guy was pissing me off. After everything I’d been through trying to put an end to this war against him and the rest of our kind, he was going to seriously stand there and give me shit? I said nothing but snapped my fingers. Merlin appeared behind the guy, and I smirked as he bit him right in the ass. The guy took off running and cursing as Merlin chased after him.
“Thanks. Asshole,” I muttered then went back into the trees.
Dad was barely conscious, leaning against a tree.
“Come on, found us a ride.”
“What did you do?” he asked as he draped an arm around my shoulders and I guided him to the road.
“Don’t ask. Just get in.”
Merlin came back by the time I got Dad settled and I thanked him then snapped my fingers. He disappeared, and I searched around the truck for any indication of where we are. In the center console was a map of Oregon, matching what the plates said, and when I poked around more, found the guy’s cell phone. Dad grunted in pain, but when I glanced over, his eyes were shut.
“Hang on, Dad,” I whispered, pulling up the GPS to see where we were exactly.
I had no address for the outpost in Idaho, but I had a general area. I searched how to get there the best I could, then tossed the guy’s cell out the window. I threw the truck in drive, backed up, turned us around, hoping the almost full tank of gas would get us close to our destination.
The red light popped on as the gas gauge slipped to E.
“No, damn it come on!” I smacked my hands against the wheel, but that was it, the truck was out of gas.
I got us onto the shoulder then it stopped completely. From what I could tell, we were an hour away from the outpost. Possibly closer, maybe further, there was no real way to tell. I’d been looking at the map every so often, but I was beyond tired now.
My limbs were heavy as I forced myself out of the truck and around to Dad’s side. He hadn’t woken up yet, and as I shook him now, he opened his eyes for a second, then passed right back out. When I snapped my fingers, my power flared, then cut off, as if shorted out.
I cursed, took a few breaths, then snapped them again, grimacing from the amount of energy it took to summon Merlin again.
He appeared, whining as he nudged my side.
“I can’t leave my father,” I told him. “I need you… to get to the outpost,” I whispered. “Find Chas and Brogan, bring them to me, alright?”
I had no way to know if he would make it or not. If the power I summoned him with would be enough, but I had no other choice.
After I got Dad out of the truck, I got his arm around my shoulders and walked along the side of the two-lane road in the middle of nowhere. It was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other, talking to myself and Dad, talking about anything I could just to keep going. My wounds from the last few weeks burned and ached, but I pushed onward. My magic dwindled more and more, until I suddenly sensed nothing at all inside me. No cold. No shadow. Nothing.
At some point, I realized I was rambling about Mom and the bakery. A while later, I realized I had tears running down my cheeks without even knowing why I was crying. Not that I was crying really, just tired. So damned tired.
I veered off the road and into the trees, not even sure where I was going at this point.
I walked and walked. Dad stumbled along beside me.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I should’ve collapsed by now, and what drove me on now, I had no freaking idea. But I just kept on walking, letting my feet guide me. I paused, hearing the wind rustle the leaves overhead and the chilly air of the overcast day sent a shiver down my spine. I felt the cold and that if nothing else was a bad sign.
A whisper of a familiar voice said my name, but we were alone in the woods with no way of knowing how far away safety was.
My vision blurred and then we were falling over into the leaves. I reached for Dad’s hand, holding it securely in my grip as I fought to keep my eyes open. It was a lost cause. Every part of my body was weak and defeated. I closed my eyes, waiting to be found by Tabitha and her guards, then dragged right back to that damned cage.
I waited, quietly apologizing to everyone I’d just failed…
Leaves crunched, and I flinched, but my eyes stayed closed. Had to be an animal of some kind. Or Tabitha.
I willed my eyes to open, to see what was going on around us, but my body didn’t obey.
The crunching increased and then there was yelling.
“Here! Over here!”
That voice, I knew that voice, didn’t I?
“Rori! It’s her. She’s here!”
“Chas?” I thought I said his name, but all that came out was a croak. Hands were reaching for me, smoothing back the hair from my face. I blinked but couldn’t focus.
“Hold on, just hold on,” Chas whispered urgently, scooping me up in his arms.
He’d found us. Somehow… Merlin, he must’ve made it. I smiled, knowing we were saved, then everything went dark around me. The only thing I felt was Chas holding me close.
Everywhere there were shadows, but not dark or scary. They were peaceful, comforting. The
temptation to stay wrapped up in them forever sounded like a great idea… but I couldn’t do that. Why couldn’t I? I was supposed to do something, something important… Dad. I’d found him, right? Or had that all been a messed-up nightmare, part of Tabitha’s torture.
A shudder raced through me that turned into uncontrollable shaking. My whole body seized up in pain, and I screamed. This was it, I’d been taken captive by her after all! They were going to torture me again and again!
“Rori, calm down! Grab her! Hold her down before she hurts herself!”
“Careful! Her powers are flaring!”
A warmth spread over me, but I twisted away from it, not sure I could trust it.
I screamed again, flailing.
Then the shaking took total control of my body. Ice poured out of my limbs followed by a rush of shadow that was bound to hurt someone. I tried to tell them to get away from me, that I had no control over myself at all, but the words were lodged behind another scream of pain.
“Knock her out! Do it. Quick!”
A warm hand pressed to my forehead, and then I was back in the shadows.
I found myself standing on the blue path surrounding the violet. For once, the shadow didn’t appear annoyed with me. A hand rested on my shoulder.
I turned my head. Merlin. He hugged me as tightly as I did him.
“You did it!”
“I did. I shimmered out about two miles away from you, but they found you. You’re safe, Rori. You and your dad are safe.”
I sighed, leaning into him. “I wasn’t sure if I was or not—I didn’t hurt anyone, did I?”
“No, they’re fine.”
“So is Tabitha,” the shadow muttered. “You do remember what happened right before we escaped, right? You saw what she did? Or didn’t do, I should say.”
“My magic, it couldn’t hurt her,” I whispered. “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know, but with everything else going on, you can’t forget that. She won’t be easy to stop, and I bet her husband is the same way.”
“Am I so messed up you think I won’t remember?”
Merlin and the shadow exchanged a look.
