Love Potion: A Valentine's Day Charity Anthology

by Graceley Knox

  A streak of light flashed through the sky. Then another, shooting across the stars.

  “The meteor shower,” Izzah breathed. “It’s beginning!”

  I snapped my gaze back to the door, and a few seconds later, a shadow passed through it—Icarus, once again visible with his cloak sweeping around him. He moved cautiously onto the terrace, his steps disturbing the layer of water. When he saw no sign of trouble, he strode to the twelve-foot glass panels that surrounded the space and pushed three of them open. Wind howled into the terrace.

  “Ready?” I whispered, my fingers pressed to the socket.

  Izzah’s hands closed on my shoulders in answer, and she pulled herself onto my back so her feet were off the ground. As Icarus faced the nexus, I planted my palm on the thin liquid coating, fixed my stare on my target, and unleashed enough volts to stop his heart.

  Electricity surged across the wet terrace and into Icarus’s feet. His legs buckled, his body hit the water, and the electricity blazed through his flesh. He howled in pain—and I knew something was wrong.

  That amperage should have paralyzed his entire body with involuntary muscle spasms. He shouldn’t have been able to scream.

  Letting the current in the water die, I pulled more electricity into my body—three seconds. In three seconds I could build a charge equivalent to storm-spawned lightning—something that could bring Icarus down despite his inexplicable resistance to my magic.

  But three seconds was too long. Icarus shoved to his feet, spat an incantation, and leaped off the ground. The golden wings of his sandals blurred as he shot six feet above the conductive layer of water.

  I thrust my hand up. As a bolt of electricity leaped at him, his hand appeared from beneath his cloak, clutching the small shield. “Egeirai, apothoumai!”

  My bolt rebounded off the shield and hit me. I channeled the power into the ground under my feet, leaving me and Izzah unharmed. As long as she touched only me and not the ground, she’d be safe. But we couldn’t stay put. Time for Plan B.

  The socket beside me was dead, the breaker blown. I shot to my full height and Izzah sprang off my back, pulling her wands from her pockets.

  Icarus raised his shield, its glossy face pointed at me, and began a ringing incantation. “Egeirai, blepson eis—”

  A jet of water shot up from the floor and hit the shield, tearing it out of his hand. I launched forward, pulling blades from my vest.

  Icarus chanted a new incantation and vanished.

  Izzah raised her wands again. A wave of water rose from the pool and swept sideways like a moving wall. It splashed across Icarus’s invisible body, coating his shape.

  Tiny throwing stars bristled in my hands. If he was resistant to my power, then I would punch a hole right through his protections—a bleeding wound conducted electricity far better than skin or clothes.

  Icarus, clad in a layer of glistening water droplets, swooped at me. I hurled the bladed stars at his chest—they hit him with loud clanks. As they bounced harmlessly off his body, I whipped three more into the air—not at him, but around him.

  As spinning blades whipped past him on either side, I threw a bolt of electricity at the nearest one. White lightning arced across all three bladed stars and the snaking power caught Icarus across the chest.

  The current blasted over him, and as he tumbled out of the air, his invisibility spell failed. The bolt should’ve knocked him out cold, but he hit the ground and launched off it, his winged shoes propelling him toward me like a cannonball.

  He slammed into my chest with inhuman strength. I flew across the terrace, crashed into the floor, and skidded between the open glass panels.

  The floor vanished as I slid off the edge of the building.

  “Kai!” Izzah’s scream rang out over the howling wind.

  My desperately scrabbling hands caught the open panel’s metal track. My fall halted, my feet scraping helplessly at the slippery window pane below. Wind buffeted me. I clutched the track as hard as I could, terrified to move in case I slipped, the metal cutting into my hands.

  Izzah’s head appeared above me, her face pale and terrified. “Kai! Hold on!”

  She leaned over the edge and grabbed the shoulders of my vest. I panted, my arms burning and hands on fire.

  “I’ve got you,” she cried. “On the count of three. One, two, three!”

  I pulled myself up with all my strength. She heaved me over the edge and back onto the terrace, and we tumbled onto solid ground in a tangle of limbs.

  A pale glow danced over the surrounding glass, blinding after so long in the dark. Icarus knelt at the nexus, a small object lying in its center. White light snapped and twirled across the symbols carved in the stone.

  Icarus finished his incantation. Leaving the Andromeda Spell to absorb the nexus’s power, he turned to face Izzah and me. Beyond him, blazing streaks shot across the inky sky. The meteors were increasing in number, the night filling with more and more burning dots and long white tails.

  “Well, children,” he said in a deep voice. “Your interference leaves me no choice.”

  Reaching up, he pushed his hood off. Wavy white hair fell to his shoulders and a grizzled beard covered his lower face. A laurel wreath made of silver encircled his head, each leaf glinting with a rune etched in gold. His pale, wrinkled eyes glared from beneath heavy brows as he unclipped his cloak and pushed it off.

  A bronze breastplate covered his chest. Rune-etched bracers glinted around his forearms, and the golden sandals fluttered at his ankles. He reached for the hilt of the great sword at his hip.

  I launched to my feet and charged him. I had to stop him from drawing the sword. Whatever its power was, I knew we couldn’t fight it.

  Icarus tried to wrench the sword free, but I dove for the ground and my boot slammed into his ankle. He pitched forward, releasing the half-drawn blade to slide back into its sheath. I spun on the ground, water spraying as I moved, and slammed my heel into his thigh.

  He dropped to one knee, but now he was low enough to strike back. When his fist flashed out, I rolled away. His strength was dangerous and I couldn’t afford to take a hit. As I moved, water flowed away from me, opening a dry patch of stone tiles—Izzah clearing the conductive water so I didn’t shock anything I wasn’t intending to shock.

  Icarus lurched up and growled, “Egeirai, thes me tachyn!”

  The runes on his left bracer shimmered with faint light. As I rolled to my feet and took up a fighting stance, he shot toward me—and his speed was blinding.

  I lunged backward, barely evading his fist. Inhuman strength, inhuman speed. Not a demigod’s inheritance, but sorcery spells set in his bracers. Still, knowing how he was so much stronger and faster than me wouldn’t help me survive.

  Skittering backward, I planted my feet and took a quick centering breath. He hadn’t defeated me yet. Icarus wasn’t the first opponent I’d fought with supernaturally enhanced speed and strength.

  As I propelled myself forward again, power crackled up my arms. We clashed in a flurry of blows, and each time my body contacted his, I delivered a blistering shock into his flesh. It wouldn’t stop him—but the pain was an effective distraction.

  We broke apart. My body sizzled like a live wire, and Icarus’s face twisted with anger, his breath coming in pained pants. Shaking himself, he charged.

  His attacks were fast but clumsy and basic, and they relied on his enhancements. I could do better. I would be better.

  I sidestepped his charge, caught his arm, and threw him onto the ground with a burst of white electricity. He rolled away from my kick and I sprang back, only to leap in again. We slammed together once more. When we broke apart, blood ran from his nose and stained his beard.

  He darted backward with impossible speed, then leaped into the sky. His winged sandals lifted him above my head, and he laughed as he grabbed the hilt of his sword. Desperation cut through me. Drawing on my power, I thrust my hand out and aimed for his face.

  Lightnin
g shot across the distance—and he swept his sword through it, dispersing the bolt.

  “A good try, mage,” Icarus said. “But—”

  Mist formed from the surrounding air and condensed around his head, cutting off his taunt. The water bubble engulfed him from the shoulders up.

  Icarus wobbled in the air, grabbing at his face. His fingers plunged into the water but did nothing to dislodge it. I raised my arm again, building another charge, but Icarus grabbed the hilt in both hands and swung his sword.

  A distorted ripple shot out from the blade in an arc. It flashed down, hit the terrace inches in front of me, and gouged a foot-deep rift in the stone. I backpedaled, almost knocking into Izzah, who stood a few yards behind me with her wands pointed at Icarus.

  The man flailed at his submerged head, then his winged sandals blurred and he shot skyward. Izzah whipped her wands up to move the water bubble with him, but he was too fast. He broke free of the liquid. Coughing and spluttering, he spotted us below him. His sword swung back.

  I launched at Izzah. Crashing into her, I threw us down as the deadly ripple of power slammed into the terrace. A new chasm appeared, and crumbling stone fell through the gap and hit the penthouse’s floor with hollow clunks. Flipping onto my back, I flung a bolt of lightning.

  He swept it aside with his blade. He had every advantage, and we had nothing. The part of me that was always analyzing, always logical, knew we couldn’t win.

  I grabbed Izzah and ran for the terrace stairs. She clutched my hand, racing beside me. Icarus whipped the shining blade down and I threw us to the side. We hit the floor again and debris sprayed us. A cleanly sliced fissure gouged the stone inches from my arm.

  Icarus swept out of the air. His sandals stopped at my feet, hovering just above the terrace, and he pointed his blade at my chest. The silvery glow of the nexus, only feet away, reflected off the blade.

  “I’m not the killing type,” he said in his deep, rough voice. “Stay right where you are and I’ll let you live.”

  Holding Izzah against my side, her breathing sharp and panicky, I stared into his pale blue eyes and searched for the truth. I couldn’t tell if he was lying, so I didn’t move or speak.

  Above, light blazed. Meteors streaked across the sky like an endless surf, pale flares coming thick and fast. The sky was on fire with them. Wind gusted and whistled through the glass panels as the silvery glow around the nexus faded.

  “I’ve waited my entire life for this,” Icarus murmured. Keeping his blade on us, he stooped and swept the small artifact off the stone nexus. “For this moment. This very one.” He squinted at the fiery sky. “Maybe it’s fitting that I have an audience.”

  He held the Andromeda relic between his finger and thumb—a smooth ruby set in a thick gold ring.

  “Everything I carry,” he told us, “is rightfully mine. I’ve reclaimed my bloodline’s heirlooms. Perseus, King of Mycenae, was my ancestor, and this is his final treasure. This will elevate me into the halls of the gods.”

  Triumph lit his face as he raised the ring toward the heavens. With his sword aimed at my chest, I could do nothing to stop him.

  “Philtate en to eschato kardias mycho, aneche: arrektos, atrotos, athiktos hos phlox en astrasin orchoumene!”

  The words thundered from his lungs, silencing the wind and dimming the fire-streaked sky. The air grew heavy with power and the sweet scent of flowers whispered across my senses. A faint light glowed from the ring’s ruby heart.

  Icarus clutched the artifact, staring at it with expectant awe. Gradually, his anticipation melted into confusion. He tilted the ring toward the blazing meteor shower, then twisted it in his fingers. His gaze darted to his hand holding the sword.

  I couldn’t tell before if he was lying, but now his thoughts were stamped on his face. The Andromeda Spell wasn’t working; he needed to put the ring on to gain its power. He was debating whether he should attempt to put it on one-handed or kill his hostages and free up his sword hand.

  As his attention flicked back and forth, his hesitation lasting a matter of seconds, water burst from beneath Izzah. The jet of liquid erupted under her back and propelled her upward with shocking speed.

  She lunged past his sword and snatched the ring from his hand.

  Icarus roared in fury and swung his sword at her. I shoved up, reaching desperately, knowing I couldn’t save her.

  The ruby flashed in the meteors’ light, and she slipped the ring onto her finger.

  Chapter 12

  Everything was happening all at once and too fast: Icarus’s sword speeding toward Izzah’s unprotected body, Izzah sliding the ring onto her finger, and me reaching out hopelessly to stop it.

  My body flashed hot.

  The electric charge inside me skyrocketed, power gathering in an instant. Suddenly, I was vibrating, bursting from within, electrified in a way I’d never felt before. My power didn’t need to build—it was already there, potent and overwhelming.

  I didn’t stop to think. I simply unleashed it.

  As Icarus’s lethal blade slashed for Izzah, thunder split the air. A crackling white bolt thicker than my arm leaped from my body and slammed into the man’s chest, flinging him sideways off his feet. His breastplate shattered, its magical resistance broken. Bronze shards skittered across the terrace.

  Gasping in pain, Icarus shoved to his feet and drew his sword back, aiming for me. Having just attacked, I had no time to build up another charge powerful enough to stop him. To have any chance, I would need to draw on an existing current, but I’d already blown the penthouse’s breakers. There was no power in reach.

  Except I could feel it—the current flowing through the rest of the tower. I could feel it energizing the city, miles upon miles of cables, transformers, substations, generators. Power waiting for me to take it. I’d never drawn electricity from this far, but—but somehow, I knew I could.

  So I did.

  Electricity tore out of the power cables running through the building and surged toward me. Erupting from the floor, it leaped into my body in a twisting net of white light. It should’ve electrified the puddles of water on the tiles, but I could prevent that now. Not a single spark would touch Izzah. Every volt, every ion, every minute electron was under my control.

  As Icarus flung the blade in an arc, I unleashed the maelstrom inside me. The bolt arced across the distance and hit the swinging sword. Last time, the weapon had dispersed my attack in an instant.

  This time Icarus was hurled backward and he slammed into a metal post between two windows. He fell to the ground in a heap, his clothes smoking and glass raining down around him. The stench of charred fabric and flesh caught on the wind.

  The sword lay where Icarus had dropped it, the glowing steel melted.

  Groaning, Icarus stirred. Power vibrated through me, and I waited, not keen on attacking a downed man. Curled forward and holding his middle, he raised his bloody face. An enraged sneer twisted his mouth.

  He shot into the air, his golden sandals a blur. With a backdrop of fiery rain lighting the stars above him, he flew backward through the broken window into the tower.

  For the third time, I pointed at him and cast a bolt of lightning that cracked the air with thunder.

  Something shiny gleamed in his hands—his round, reflective shield.

  My blast hit the artifact and rebounded. The lightning struck my chest—and rebounded again. Bolts exploded out of my body in every direction, but I caught the escaping energy and sent it surging downward. The tower’s electrical cables couldn’t handle the current, so I sent the power through the steel beams of its outer structure. The tidal wave of electricity raced down sixty-one stories and met the city’s underground power lines.

  With distant cracking booms, Vancouver’s lights blinked out.

  Icarus lay in an unconscious sprawl among the debris of the penthouse’s windows. His bracers had shattered and the silver leaves of the laurel wreath had blackened. The wings of his golden sandals were nothi
ng but crumbling black ash.

  As steam rose from my clothing, I looked across the darkened city. It took a long moment for the sight to compute. Had I … had I taken out the entire downtown power grid?

  “Kai?”

  Izzah’s faint call snapped me out of my numb disbelief. She sat on the ground beside the nexus, hunched forward as though in pain.

  “Izzah!” I rushed over to her. “Are you hurt?”

  As I slid my arm carefully around her shoulders, she smiled wanly. “I think I’m okay. This spell—putting the ring on was … was very intense.”

  The ruby glowed deep in its center, and inside me, effortless power vibrated, awaiting my command. Despite the magnitude of magic I’d channeled, I wasn’t tired. I felt energized … unstoppable … invincible.

  Izzah’s dazed eyes ran over me. “You make a magnificent demigod, leng chai.”

  “Is that what I am?”

  “I think so. What does it feel like?”

  I considered the sensation of limitless electricity coursing through my veins. “Intense.”

  She laughed, her gaze turning to the ring. Her expression softened. “I understood as soon as he said the incantation. Do you know Ancient Greek?”

  I shook my head.

  “I only caught one word. Kardias. It means ‘heart.’” She lightly touched the ring. “This isn’t the Andromeda Spell, but Andromeda’s Spell. Do you see now?”

  I pulled her closer. “Explain it to me.”

  “Andromeda created this spell for Perseus. It doesn’t make the wearer invincible. It lets the wearer give strength to someone else—someone they care about.”

  Now that I knew it was there, I could feel the invisible thread that connected this power to the ring … and to Izzah. The impossible strength thundering inside me—she’d given it to me. How long would it last? No spell was eternal, but I could wield this power for hours, for days, for … who knew.

  I closed my eyes. Limitless power. Invincible strength. Blindly, I reached out, following the nebulous link between this magic and its source. My fingers brushed against the smooth ruby, then I closed my hand around Izzah’s.