by Jamie Hawke
“Keep using those spells every chance you get,” Ebrill said, and I nodded as I cast the “Tarian” defensive boost on all of us.
“Quickly,” Fatiha shouted, and we charged after her.
More rumbling, and the dark form of the serpent crashed through part of the house, cutting off the hall as the walls collapsed and some of the floor gave out. Fatiha turned toward us, eyes wide, when more of the ceiling fell between us.
I jumped back, grabbing Ebrill and pulling her close. For a moment, the house continued to shake. We turned toward the door to our left and took a step, when it opened to reveal Steph.
“Stay back,” I said, hand out, ready to cast a stun spell her way.
Steph stood there, lifted a hand, and her death knights appeared behind her—three of them, at least, that we could see.
“Wait.” Ebrill leaped forward, hands on Steph’s head. For a moment, I thought she was going to suck the life out of my ex. Instead, a darkness floated away like smoke, leaving Steph without the death knights, confusion in her eyes… and then tears.
“Oh, no,” Steph said. “No, no, no…”
“Steph?”
She turned to me, hands on Ebrill’s, guiding them down. “It’s me. The real me, this time.”
86
“I don’t… understand,” I admitted, sounds of roaring and the shaking building around us as I stared at Steph, no more malice in her eyes.
“Maybe I can help with that.” Ebrill turned to me. “It was a curse. They’re sort of my specialty, and I instantly recognized the one on her.”
“She was cursed?” I took a step toward them, very confused about not only the situation but how I should react. I’d been fairly intimate with Ebrill, while assuming Steph was trying to kill me. Well, she was, but because she was cursed. “Steph, was that before or after… us?”
Steph’s cheeks went red and she bit her lower lip. “I don’t remember, exactly. I mean, I remember us, of course—how could I not? But… when the curse—”
Her sentence was cut off as Ebrill put a hand on her again. This time, the gargoyle’s eyes went purple momentarily, then she withdrew her hand. “Better?”
“It’s all…” Steph put a hand to her mouth. “Oh, God. There was this woman, she came to me and I remember her sitting with me in a coffee shop. I thought it was weird that she was talking to me at all, but then the barista came over with two macchiatos, and when she offered one to me it looked so delicious. But,” she turned to Ebrill, “what, she drugged me?”
“Maybe? More than likely, to get you somewhere secluded where she could then perform the real curse on you. An alley, a—”
“Car, yes. It’s all coming back.” Steph’s eyes were wide with sorrow and horror as she remembered.
“So, the death knights, those weren’t you, either?” I asked.
“The wraith knights?” she asked. “Those are mine, as is my magic. But I was coming to find you at your aunt’s beckoning. Gertrude called to me and… oh, no, no. It’s all coming back.”
“You killed her,” I said, nodding solemnly.
She eyed me, then slowly shook her head. “J… No. I didn’t.”
“Well maybe not you, but those others you were with.”
“Not us.”
I frowned, confused, noticing how her eyes had moved past me, widening. If she was about to accuse Ebrill, I was going to have to call bullshit. The gargoyle had been stone, only woken by my touch. But when I turned around, it wasn’t Ebrill that Steph was looking at. Fatiha stood there. Dust from fallen debris covered her sweat-soaked forehead, and her hair looked wild. It was her eyes that caught my attention, though, because they were filled with hatred as she stared at Steph.
“What’s she doing in here?” Fatiha hissed. “She’s evil.”
“Not anymore,” Steph replied, taking a step back. “And that was only because of you. Jericho, this is the woman.”
“It can’t be…” I shook my head, not accepting it.
“She was the one. In the coffee shop, and… after. I’ll never forget that face.”
“Jericho, this is ridiculous.” Fatiha took a step forward, hands out. “We were cuddling, lying in bed with my hand on your manhood and you—”
“She what?” Steph asked, and then looked at Ebrill with narrowed eyes, as if waiting for her confession next.
“To be honest, I didn’t know it was her hand,” I said.
“The point is,” Fatiha continued, “how can you doubt me right now, after what we’ve shared?”
My eyes met Ebrill’s, and that was enough. If she said she had broken a curse on Steph, I believed her. Which meant that I wasn’t sure I could believe Fatiha. There was only one way to find out, as far as I was concerned. One thing I could say that would be the ultimate test.
“We’ll all leave here, together. Leave this all behind… and abandon the search for the Liahona.”
As I’d expected but hoped wouldn’t be the case, Fatiha’s reaction spelled out her position. While Ebrill looked confused and Steph relieved, Fatiha’s eyes flashed with fury.
“You can’t!” she shouted, stepping toward me, hand up and moving in a pattern I hadn’t seen yet. “I trained you for this. Taught you how to harness the magic your aunt left behind, and now you want to waste it?”
“I’m not wasting it. I’m saying that if the item is gone, maybe that’s for the best. The enemy sure seems to want it, so we should leave it hidden.”
“No.”
“No?” Ebrill stepped up next to me, staring intently at Fatiha.
“Don’t you start!” Fatiha turned on her. “You weren’t supposed to come back. That wasn’t part of the plan. Keep your trap shut.” Turning back to me, she finished with a movement of her hand and said, “I didn’t want to do this, but since you give me no choice. Gorffwys!”
As she spoke the word, my mind went into a daze, the house and all gone, me back with the elf version of Ebrill. She spun to see me, eyes wide as she held a leg of what looked like chicken to her mouth.
It only lasted a moment, not even long enough for her to set the chicken leg down, and then I was back as a shout sounded. Steph was there, shoving Fatiha with both hands so that the older woman went flying into the wall and slammed her head against it, crumpling to the floor. Fatiha shrieked in pain, then turned, pointed a finger at Steph and opened her mouth to cast a curse. But suddenly one of the shisas came charging in, snapping her hand clean off and then turning to her as blood fell from its lips. Damn, if it hadn’t been on my side that would’ve been terrifying.
The other shisa followed, when another section of the building tore out and the serpent appeared, mouth open and consumed the shisa in one bite. It spun around, coming back for us as Ebrill grabbed me and pulled me with her.
“Steph, was it?” Ebrill shouted. “You want to live, run!”
Steph was with us a moment later, wild eyes taking this all in, the surviving shisa at her side. A look of sorrow was in the shisa’s large eyes, causing Steph to pat its head as we ran.
“This is really happening?” I asked, shaking my head as I tried to comprehend everything. “You didn’t kill my aunt, but the woman I thought was her servant and was helping me did, and she had laid a curse on you. So, my girlfriend is innocent of that but has been under a curse to get me here and attack me, in a strange way, and… I kind of cheated on her.”
Ebrill scoffed, but Steph glanced at her and shrugged. “Since I wasn’t really myself, I’d say we can ignore that little part. Start over.”
“So, you’re not my girlfriend?”
“Would you want her to be?” Ebrill asked.
Turning to look at the stunning beauty that was this gargoyle woman, I was at a loss for words. With a shrug, I finally blurted out, “I have no idea what’s going on. I’m just trying to keep my head above water.”
She guffawed, but then smiled as I led the way to the roof. “We’re going for her?”
“Of course,” I replied. “
If they’re going to take this place down, we at least have to protect Kordelia.”
“What about the others?” Steph asked as we went, more rumbling and explosions sounding muffled.
“Others?” I asked.
“The rest of the gargoyles. I remember bits of what I overheard when under her influence, and there was talk of five in all.”
“Five of us?” Ebrill blinked, shook her head, and laughed. “Now this memory loss bit is starting to agitate me. All we know about is the one on the roof. Kordelia.”
“It’s possible my aunt never found the rest,” I admitted.
“Or that she never shared their location.”
“For now, the one.” I reached the ladder and climbed up, pushing through to the rooftop.
I reached down for Steph’s hand to help her up, when her eyes turned red and her hair turned white and flowed out behind her. My life was forfeit in that moment, I was sure of it, but her death wraiths appeared and lunged past me, followed by the sickening sounds of blades on flesh. By the time I managed to spin and take a look, they already had three attacking demons on the ground, while one fell over the side of the roof, cleaved in two.
“Nice work,” I said, helping Steph up the rest of the way.
“Don’t try to pretend that you didn’t doubt me,” she said with a laugh, her voice sounding slightly off while her body was in this form, with her eyes still red. Apparently, this was a power of hers when not under the curse.
“Where’d you get that power?” I asked.
She arched an eyebrow while turning to thrust out a fireball as a short goblin climbed over the edge of the roof. It dodged and came back up, only to have its head chopped halfway down by a death wraith.
“Maybe that’s a conversation for another time,” I admitted.
“You think?”
Now it was my turn, casting “Tarian” to boost us and “Hurtio” to stun one of two witches who made it up to join the assault. Three strange flying beasts came from the sky, but Ebrill was up now and rose to meet the first two, tearing them down and pummeling them. Once they were on the roof, I was able to get a good look at the bat-like creatures with their eerily humanoid faces.
“Vampires?”
Steph scoffed. “Not even close. Vampires are hot.”
“Oh?”
“I mean, nothing compared to you, of course.” She grimaced, shooting off more fireballs. “Am I… I mean,” summoning two more death wraiths to charge at a wind golem, “am I supposed to say things like that?”
“Our situation is a bit murky, what with you trying to kill me before.”
“Right after going down on you, I have to point out.” She spun and attacked again, this time hitting a winged beast right out of the sky. “And again, curse.”
“Wait, so… you were cursed to go down on me?” I caught a flying beast with a stun spell, watching as it face-planted into the railing and flipped over, then fell over the edge. Two more hit me from behind, tackling me to the roof. Ebrill swooped in to take care of one, but a demon caught her from the other side while another flying beast joined the assault on me.
“Elfenol Streic,” I shouted, turning my fist to go with fire, and hit the first one square on the nose. As it fell back in a ball of flames, it hit the other one with it, which caught fire, too. I noticed that my level increased again! I made quick adjustments, knowing this wasn’t the best time, but now the screen read:
Level 3 MAGE
Statistics
Strength: 9
Defense: 8
Speed: 8
Luck: 7
Charisma: 7
Mana: 350
Current Spells
Passive: Situational Alchemy, AKA “Transmutation”
Active: Ddiogelu (protection ward), Elfenol Streic (elemental strike), Tarian (defense boost), Hurtio (stun)
I liked that my screen had adapted to the way I thought of myself more of a mage than as a witch, and that, while still not super impressive, my stats were moving along nicely. Soon, I would need to make time to check my scanned spell book pages and see if there were any new spells I could learn at this level.
“So…?” I turned to Steph, waiting for an answer regarding the blowjob—that she hadn’t finished, I wasn’t about to forget.
“That might have been more me than the curse,” Steph admitted.
“Any time you two want to stop batting eyelashes,” Ebrill cut in, gliding to land between us and the statue of Kordelia, “we have work to do.”
Was there a hint of jealousy in her eyes? I nodded, mind reeling with confusion over the female situation here, but very glad to have any sort of distraction from the fight going on.
“Right, just…” I searched for something cool to say, but she gestured to the statue and growled as a burst of blue light shot out from her hand, then ran through the nearest demon, seemingly sucking its life force from him and delivering it to her.
Without another moment’s delay, I knelt, hands on the roof. Searching deep within, I connected to it all and made the concrete and metal, everything I could, rise around us so that we were in a cocoon of materials to defend against the enemy’s attack.
For now, at least, it would hold.
87
As the barrage continued around us, my barrier all that kept us safe, I quickly filled Steph in on what had been going on with the sleep, and how we thought it was a clue to finding the Liahona.
“Which we’re not entirely sure we should even be looking for,” Ebrill pointed out. “But… it might be the only way to wake Kordelia.”
Steph nodded, glanced at me and asked, “And you, what do you think?”
“Until yesterday, I thought I knew you, thought you were just a regular girl. Then, until a few minutes ago, I was convinced you were evil this whole time, just using me. What the hell do I know?”
“Still… what does your gut say?”
I looked to Ebrill, sighed, and said, “That there’s a reason these dreams are happening. That whatever the reason was for the Liahona being gone, it’s over, and we might need to wake Kordelia to find out why.”
“Or the answers might come in your sleep travel,” Ebrill said.
“Each time, with the sleep… it’s not long enough.”
“With all this,” Steph motioned around, the sounds of attacks on the building as others tried to break in, “I don’t see that changing.”
“Unless… you two hold them off.”
Ebrill frowned. “What?”
“You two work together, keep them off us long enough for me to get the answer we need. Can you do it?”
Steph and Ebrill shared a worried look but seemed to agree. Steph nodded and turned back to me. “We’ll do our best.”
“That’ll have to do.” I turned to Kordelia, confused but ready. “When I dream, what exactly do you think is happening?”
“You’re opening up memories,” Ebrill said, “but… being there. The strange part for me is that I have no idea if you were in those situations the first time or not, since I don’t fully have the memories. So, you’re either time traveling, or accessing my memories in a way that unlocks them, but altered.”
“A form of time travel, perhaps,” Steph added.
Ebrill seemed unsure but nodded. “It’s possible, maybe, that his transmutation power is working to fix my memory in this odd way.”
“Yes!” Steph leaned in, eyes showing her excitement. “And that’s the key to finding it.”
“The Liahona,” I said, unease crawling up my spine. “Everyone seems to want it, even knowing it’s so… dangerous. Can we be certain this is the real you, now?”
“You never really knew me, but going forward, I hope that can change.” Steph put a hand on my arm, earning a glare from Ebrill that she ignored. “But you saw a side of me that is the only side I hope to show going forward. We’re on the same side, Jericho, and I want to kick their asses for doing what they did to me, and to you.”
“Good enough
, at least for now,” I said, and chuckled. “Well, here goes. Try to keep us alive while I go under.”
A barrage of attacks hit at that exact moment, causing the remaining shisa to tense up and growl while Ebrill’s hand lit up blue, and Steph’s red. With a wave of Steph’s other hand, several death wraiths appeared and dashed out through the stone mixture I had created to guard us, the sounds of steel on flesh following a moment later. Explosions came, too. Our little fortress rocked but held.
“How many of those can you send?” Ebrill asked.
“Seven,” Steph replied. “But I can replenish them… as long as I have energy.”
“We’ll have to keep up your energy, then.” Ebrill stepped over, hand on the other woman’s cheek, and smiled.
It was clearly an odd moment for Steph, but as blue energy flowed into her, she went with it, closing her eyes and forming more death wraiths as her others perished on the other side of the walls.
I was about to get to it, when a voice carried from the other side. “Are you a pearl, now, boy?” Fatiha, but… raspier. “Do I have to pry that clamshell open and pluck you out?”
“This won’t go the way you hope,” I replied.
She laughed. “Oh, silly Jericho. It already has, in every… single… way.”
The frown of confusion on Steph’s face matched my own, and she stepped up to the wall. “Let me out of here, so I can tell her what I think of her plan.”
“No,” Ebrill countered. “You might be strong, but alone out there…. No. Right now, we need to focus on this—on getting Jericho back.”
A barrage of attacks sounded, during which Steph closed her eyes again and sent wave after wave of death wraiths out. Even with Ebrill’s power refueling her, it was only a matter of seconds before both dropped to their knees, spent. The shisa nudged Steph’s side. A new round of energy flowed from it, and she grunted, pushed herself up, and waited.
The attacks had stopped. Silence carried on for longer than a moment.