The trees began to thin out, and a gas station sign shined brightly in the distance. From here he could see the small convenience store and a car getting gas. As they got closer, it became apparent that the man at the pump was still. Not even his chest was moving to breathe. Through the window in the store was another man behind the register, staring blankly in space with his arm resting on the counter.
Nikolai ducked under the arm of a man frozen in the act of opening the door, and he couldn’t quite avert his eyes from the frozen yawn etched on his face. It reminded him of a photograph, except that it was three dimensional, and he could feel the brush of warmth as he passed.
Nikolai stepped over to a container of Slim Jims, yanking out a handful. Again, he found that it was heavy until he pulled it closer to his body. He ripped off the plastic with his teeth, and in moments was replenishing calories, salt and proteins. He paused mid bite, wondering if there were any consequences to eating food tainted by magic. Maybe. But did he want to starve or deal with the consequences of magic-tainted food? He was already stuck. This Slim Jim was probably the least of his problems. Might as well not face it on an empty stomach.
He collected a few power bars, a pack of almonds, a red Gatorade, and an overly glazed Danish that he put in a plastic bag. At the back of the store, Jun gazed through the glass doors of the freezer. As she tugged on the handle, Nikolai half expected another show of magic—that the objects would somehow comply with her demands and spring open for her. Instead, Jun struggled half-heartedly at it with nothing to show for her efforts.
She stepped aside when he grabbed the handle. Again, he needed both of his hands as he pulled. Nothing happened the first five seconds, but then it started to give, until it suddenly wrenched all the way open, cracking like the glass would shatter any moment. He left it open, reaching his hand through the sudden wall of cold air. He grabbed the cup of Greek yogurt with honey and a side of granola that Jun had been eyeing and handed it to her once it began to feel less like a bowling ball.
“Anything else?”
Jun shook her head, frowning at the shattered glass held perfectly still in front of them.
From a side pocket, he pulled out two twenty-dollar bills. It would be too much effort to pry open the register, but he could lay the bill on the counter in front of the man staring at the cell phone in his lap. “Breakfast is on me.”
“Charming.”
He didn’t quite get what was charming about it. He wasn’t about to go on a stealing spree just because they could. Nor was he doing this because he particularly cared if she ate enough or not, especially now that he had proved that she was the magician. He just had to wait for time to return to normal before killing her. This was about practicality.
Outside were a row of run-down benches with the white paint peeling from the wood. It creaked when Nikolai sat down on the one closest to the door. Immediately, he started on a power bar.
Jun choose a seat further down. Her hands shook as she tugged against the plastic seal on her yogurt, and she only managed opening it after she clenched her hands and fought with the lid.
There’s no way that she’s pretending that she can barely open a yogurt container.
Every magician he had ever seen was a monster. They clearly needed to be put down before they turned on civilians. Not looking up at him like a baby harbor seal, while he was the fur trader with the club.
Was it possible? Did she really have no idea what she was capable of?
He would just have to watch her until she became dangerous like the rest of them.
10
Hanging immobile in the purple and orange sky was the unmistakable silhouette of an airplane against a cream-colored cloud. On the road in front of them were silent cars. No engines rumbling, no tires crunching loose asphalt, no squeaking brakes. Just pairs of headlights illuminating the early morning gloom—though it shouldn’t be early morning anymore. If the rumbling in Jun’s stomach was any indication, it was well past the afternoon.
She unashamedly looked into each car.
The time on the dashboards glowed 6:53, the moment when time stopped. Some of the drivers had their hands fixed onto the steering wheel and looked resolutely ahead of them, but not all. The man in the beamer had his hand wrapped around a gas station breakfast burrito with his mouth open wide for his first bite. The driver of the brand new Tesla was looking down at his lap, in the middle of a text message that read: Miss having you in my b.
Had she caused this?
Jun had always known that she was unlucky. Was it really so strange to think that she could have caused something? If misfortune was going to happen to anyone, it might as well happen to her. Made sense that she would get the talent that brought a bunch of bloodthirsty assholes to her front door.
A rustle. Something brushing against the leaves.
What was that?
Jun stopped to listen. It hadn’t come from any of the bushes or trees that she could see; everything was as eerily quiet and still as it had been since the world stopped.
“What is it?” Nikolai asked from ahead.
She shook her head and began to walk again. “It’s nothing.”
It felt like hours before they took an exit off the highway to reach the next convenience store. As they approached the neon green and orange lights of the 7-Eleven gas station, Nikolai’s stomach grumbled loudly. Huh. It was good to know that she wasn’t the only one running on empty.
It wasn’t until they were close enough to see through the glass doors and the cashier frozen in the act of restocking coffee creamer that they realized the problem—the doors were shut.
There was no groove that Nikolai could grasp to force the automatic doors open. He ran his fingers against the metal seam, looking for a place to get a grip, before cursing.
Inside this 7-Eleven there was a cold sandwich display, and it was a mark of how hungry she was that Jun couldn’t tear her eyes away from it.
“I wonder how long it’s been,” she said aloud, not really expecting an answer. They hadn’t talked much since the last gas station.
“We’re walking at an average pace, so about three miles an hour, and the sign on the highway said fifteen miles to the next rest stop. So I’d say roughly five or six hours since we last ate.”
Fifteen miles? No wonder her feet felt like they wanted to fall off. She could already feel fat blisters forming on her toes.
“Do you know how long it is to the next stop?”
“I didn’t see a sign.” Nikolai stepped back and looked around.
“Now what? It’s not like we can wait for it to open.”
He went around back, and Jun followed a few paces behind into a cramped space between two buildings. Of course there was no back entrance, only a dumpster and folded up cardboard boxes lined the wall. The dumpster reeked. Nikolai reached for the lid. He wasn’t seriously going to go dumpster diving, was he? Jun was hungry, but she wasn’t past that point of starving. Thankfully, he only pulled himself on top of it. Then he lowered a hand for her to follow.
Looking up, Jun understood. There was an escape ladder within reaching distance from the dumpster across from them. Two stories up was an open window. “You’re not serious?”
“Would you rather walk six more hours back to the last gas station?”
Jun took his hand.
Effortlessly, he pulled her up. She wouldn’t have been able to reach the metal ladder if he hadn’t lifted her onto that, either. There was a faint smell of cigarette smoke. The rusted metal creaked under their weight. She ducked, easing her way inside when she saw the man facing her with a cigarette in hand. She started and raked her back hard against the wooden frame.
“Ow, damn it.” Jun rubbed the tender area along her spine.
“What is it?” Nikolai asked, and when he leaned closer to see, he smirked. “Really? What’s so scary about this guy?”
Nothing now that she knew that he was there. Jun frowned. “Did you even look at his mustache?
It’s big enough to crawl off his face and come after us.”
His eyebrow lifted, and then he slowly shook his head. “If that’s all, then I’m heading in.”
Jun followed after him. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the darkness and make out the living room. It was cramped, with dirty dishes, wadded napkins and mail strewn across every surface. The only shred of color was the faded burgundy couch that looked like it was as old as the apartment. Tucked in the corner was a TV, the glow of the screen advertising the price of an industrial strength vacuum.
There was an adjoining kitchen where Nikolai was already scavenging. He wrenched the yellowing cabinets open.
“This is depressing.” Nikolai closed one cabinet and started on another. “The guy is living off cans and microwave meals.”
Three slices of white bread were left in a bag. Jun grappled with the plastic, the tension slow to give way before breaking free.
Nikolai put what he could find on the table—pickle jars, tuna cans, noodle packets, diet Pepsi and the frozen meals he’d managed to take out from the nearly empty refrigerator.
Jun searched through the piles of stuff for a clean plate, going so far as brushing off awkward crumbs, before giving up and placing the bread on top of a napkin. Her hands flicked over the different options. Should she have a sad bologna or sad tuna sandwich? Was the bologna green in that corner? All right, sad tuna it was.
She opened the can and dumped a glob of gray fish mush onto the stale bread. She was hungry enough that her creation actually looked appetizing. There were no chairs, so Jun carried it over to the sofa and began to eat, feeling human again after the first couple of bites.
Plastic crinkled and then she heard a crunch. Nikolai, from where he sat on the counter, ate a dried-out square of noodles.
Jun polished off the sandwich and tried to sink deeper into the stiff cushions. She should probably get up and scrounge around for something else. She closed her eyes, just for a second. Just to think through the options and figure out what to eat.
Jun took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes, confused for a moment. Her neck was sore the way she was resting against the arm of the sofa, the metal and wood poking through the coarse material. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep. Jun turned over in hopes to dream silently once more. It was much better than facing what her reality had become. Magic was still more like an absurd dream. All she wanted was to get back home with her comfortable knitted blankets so she could finish her degree. Was that too much to ask for? She didn’t need any of this right now. There was the final in a month, and then she could graduate.
She would never have found herself waking up here, mouth dry and tasting of canned fish and preservatives, if it wasn’t for him. Snoring traveled from across the room. Jun craned her neck to see Nikolai slumped against the counter, exhausted. Jun came up with the perfect snarky comment, regarding the hard work kidnapping must be, when she froze.
He was asleep.
Slowly, Jun shifted forward, keeping her weight on the balls of her feet. She eased off the couch with a faint creak, then padded over to the window, slinging her bag across her back as she went. From here it was a very long drop from the escape ladder to the ground below. It wouldn’t take much of a margin of error for her to end up with a broken leg. Or worse. Jun clenched her grip on the ledge as the view down below made her dizzy.
Was it safer to stay? Was it safe for Jun to stick around and see whether or not Nikolai was going to kill her in the near future?
Jun gripped the metal tight. All she had to do was not look down. Just don’t look down. She could do this.
That thought worked with her first step, and even with the second and third. All the way until she reached the last rung of the ladder and clutched hard to the metal rungs as her foot met air. She nearly lost her footing completely.
The drop down was taller than she was. She carefully lowered herself until she was only hanging on by her hands before dropping to the ground. Her ankles felt the shock, pain shooting up to her knees, and she fell sideways to catch herself. Jun stayed like that, her eyes immediately going back to the window and expecting to see Nikolai any second. Seeing nothing, she moved, ignoring the scrapes along her palms and knees. When she was out of the alley, she ran.
11
A rough vibration like a garbage truck by his ear jostled Nikolai awake. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep, hadn’t even realized he had done it.
He rubbed his hand down his face to force himself to wake up. How was Jun so loud? What was she doing? Last he had seen of her, she’d taken just a few bites before passing out. That girl needed more calories in her. With twenty miles to go through steep California hills, she’d soon feel depleted without an energy boost. But she was picky about food. Nikolai frowned and slipped off the counter. She wasn’t on the sofa—not anywhere in the cluttered living room.
He crossed the room, scanning over the rickety furnishing. “Jun?”
He turned back and knocked on the partially open bathroom. “Hey, you in there?” When no response came, he peered in and found the empty toilet mocking him.
What the hell? She wasn’t anywhere in the house. Where could she have gone…
Oh fuck.
Nikolai swallowed hard and went to the window. No sign of her outside. He climbed down the fire escape and tried reading the ground for clues on which direction she’d headed. There were no secrets spilled on the dirty pavement.
He took off running, heading back toward her campus. He doubted she’d go the other way. Nothing was usable or familiar to her in the arid countryside. For three miles he charged down the highway, weaving around frozen cars—the only sound was the grating of his own breath. He had to catch up, couldn’t fall any more behind.
After another mile with no sign of her, he slowed to a stop, breathing hard. This was useless. She could be anywhere. That was, if she was even still here to be found. What about that noise that had woken him up? Could that have been her magic as she left? What if he was stuck here forever? He crushed the rising panic in its tracks.
He was an assassin, not an idiot. He had been trained to handle the worst. Nikolai unclenched his jaws and took a deep breath, easing the headache pounding in his ears.
She’d hide out somewhere familiar to her. But where was familiar?
He memorized entire life histories for those in the class deemed suspicious. But her? She’d been overlooked. With time stopped, it wasn’t as if he could research Jun.
But then again, why not? Obviously, he wouldn’t be able to access electronic data, but hard files? There had to be records of Jun at the university or the pizza joint.
Nikolai broke out in a brisk jog that he could hold for miles. The entire time he looked out for Jun or clues to where she could have gone. It must have been hours before his luck turned and he spotted a bike.
A man in a cowboy hat was stopped in the process of opening a garage door. Behind him was a racing bike, covered in dust and cobwebs.
“Sorry about the bike,” Nikolai said as he passed the man and ducked into the garage. Clear tubs lined the wall. In one there was a box with Capri Sun and pretzels. “And the food,” Nikolai added as he forced open the flimsy lid that now felt like it had been sealed with wet cement. He lined his pockets with pouches and pretzel packets.
At first the pedals wouldn’t give an inch, but after some forceful kicks, they shifted and broke free. The chain was rusty and the gears didn’t work, but the bike lifted his mood. The absence of time flew by. He passed through towns, crisscrossing between cars as he went. It was impossible to tell just how long he biked, but when he finally made it to the pizza place, his legs burned from exhaustion.
Feelin’ Saucy was closed, the doors and windows shut. His only option was to break in. Nikolai hurled a rock a dozen times before the window cracked, then shattered all at once. Mindful of fingerprints, he wore gloves—though he wasn’t sure if traces of his activities would remain once time restarted. Luckily h
is gloves hadn’t fallen out when he’d saved Jun from drowning. Nikolai avoided the loose glass as he lifted himself through the ledge and stepped into the dark space.
The aroma of stale pizza greeted him, and his mouth watered. Behind the counter, a small drawer looked promising. Tricky—not much purchase on the thin wooden panel. But Nikolai wrenched it open with brute force. Inside were paper records of the employees, including Jun Bear’s resume. Complete with her current address at the campus.
After memorizing the important information, he folded up the paper several times and tucked it away in his jacket. He turned, ready to leave, when his stomach growled.
In the back, he found a mini fridge. One quick tug like he was grabbing a fifty-pound free weight and it was open.
Bingo—grease-stained plates held slices of the best pizza in town. Flavors hit him in a rush. Even cold and with grease that stuck to the back of his throat, this was heaven. With two more slices stacked together, Nikolai sat on the desk and continued to eat. He was mentally mapping the fastest route to campus when a low rumble like slowed down rotations of helicopter blades cut through the silence.
Nikolai dropped the slices and turned, knife in hand.
The sound was loudest in the back corner of the room, behind a closet door. Nikolai shifted his hold on the blade to a pinch grip as an unsettling chill filled the air. He wasn’t alone.
There was something in the closet.
He crept closer.
The air hummed with static energy, all tinged with the scent of burnt ozone.
Creaking, the door slid open all on its own. Slowly, it swung wide, until the wood thudded against the wall. Inside was nothing but black shadows.
Something shifted in the darkness.
Nikolai hurled his knife into the closet. As the blade hit plaster, the rumbling stopped. Once again, it was quiet and still.
Magician Rising (Divination in Darkness Book 1) Page 8