by Laynie Bynum
And if this was the end, then so be it. I was ready…
“Autumn!”
Warm arms held me and I would have been content to remain there. If this is what death was supposed to feel like, then I would welcome it—
“Will you open your damn eyes, Quinn?”
My body answered the call despite my mind’s resistance. Xander was above me, and the look of panic across his face quickly became one of relief as soon as our eyes met.
“Thank God,” he breathed, hugging me tight against him. I winced slightly but welcomed the comfort. Would have welcomed it longer if not for the nagging questions in my head.
“Draven?” I asked, looking up at him.
Xander shook his head. “I don’t know how you did it— I’ve never seen a white mage pull out that kind of power before, but…” He turned towards the clearing.
I followed his gaze and almost screamed. Not at what I saw, but at what I didn’t see.
There was nothing left in the clearing.
The ground was scorched black and charred. Anything that had been in the path of the magical force was decimated.
There was no way a human being, mage or otherwise, could have survived the blast, and I leaned against Xander in relief.
It was over.
Almost.
“We have to go,” I said softly, moving to stand, but his arms remained where they were, holding me in place.
“Autumn, please—just give me two minutes.”
His tone was soft and his eyes were desperate.
He had saved me. I could give him this.
“Two minutes,” I conceded, and relaxed back in his arms.
He didn’t waste any time.
“Your sister was the reason I left the Guild. She was the reason I knew it had gone too far, and it was because of her I knew Draven was working on his own and needed to be stopped. So I tried—I had tried so damn hard to end him on my own, but he got wind of it and betrayed me, framed me for more than I had done, and convinced the High Council I was more of a threat to the Guild than a help. I don’t know if they knew what he had done to me, had promised me about my mother, and I don’t know if it would have mattered after the story he told them.
“But that doesn’t matter, because I met you and I hated myself. I knew who you were and what my actions made you do, and I promised myself that I would find a way to make it better. That I would do everything I could to make up for the wrongs I had committed against you and all magekind—”
“Xander—”
“Autumn, you need to hear this. Please...”
I frowned but nodded and remained quiet while he continued.
“It didn’t matter who you were or where you’d come from, but I promised myself I was going to make it right. I had to, Autumn. And that was before I really got to know you. Once I did, everything changed. It wasn’t because I still felt I had a debt to pay, but because I knew I would do anything for you. I would give up anything for you. Because I wanted to. Because I am starting to fall in love with you.”
His words shocked me to my core, and would have continued to question it if not for the brush of his lips against mine.
I allowed him that. I allowed myself the moment. This one moment of peace. Of understanding, and perhaps even forgiveness.
But we would have time for that soon. We would have so much more time for it as soon as we found our way out of the damn forest and back to civilization.
My eyes fluttered open as he broke the kiss. I could still feel his lips on mine and I already missed their warmth. His face was flushed and I knew it matched mine. But we needed to move, and he knew it too.
Silently he helped me stand, and I brushed myself off as I assessed the aches that coursed through my body. Nothing was broken so no healing was needed—not that I had the energy anyway. But we were in a clearing in the middle of nowhere surrounded by dense forest and I had no idea where to go.
“Come on,” Xander said, taking my hand in his and leading back in the direction we came. Or at least where I thought I had come from.
“Where are you going?” I asked, though I followed.
“Remember that time I told you Kai would have wanted us to go to the shore to take advantage of the water sprites’ help?”
Vaguely. I was too mad at him to remember actually listening to him, and now I was cursing myself for it. “You found the camp?”
He nodded. “And when you weren’t there, I knew I had to come back for you. It’s a good thing I did too.”
I scowled but he was right. If Xander hadn’t returned, I would have been dead. So I let him take my hand, and he led us away from the clearing, back through the forest and towards the shore.
I was too preoccupied with the hope of our eventual escape that I ignored the bodies of the Grey guards that were strewn along the forest path. A glance at Xander answered all the questions I may have had.
Once we reached the shore, the water sprites led us downstream, their magical powers forming an air bubble to give us the breath to remain underwater as we escaped through the sewer and drainage pipes. Well beyond the reach of the Grey.
Bruised, battered and absolutely soaking wet we emerged on the banks of an island offshore from an undisclosed land mass. We were greeted by a camp of escaped prisoners and mages and even earthbounds, all appearing to be united by the same cause.
Shouts resounded through the camp as we were spotted, with healers and suppliers racing towards us to help us.
But the crowd parted as a familiar blue-haired five-foot-nothing female broke away from the group and hurried in our direction.
I wrapped my arms around Kai tightly after fearing I was never going to see her again as the emotions of all we had endured threatened to crash down upon me.
She pulled back slightly to give me an assessment of her own. “We’ll get you washed and changed and healed up to normal in no time.”
I let out a huff of laughter. I’d never thought I’d have any of those commodities ever again.
“You too, Williams,” Kai informed him. Xander gave the sprite princess a mock bow before she returned her attention to me. “Where’s Frost?”
I frowned, remembering another life lost to the Grey, and only then did I allow the tears to come. Kai wasted no time wrapping me in her arms again, and I buried my face in her shoulder.
Finally the tears subsided, and Kai looked me over with a gentle smile. A smile I knew would have struck Winter to her heart if she had just allowed the woman the chance to woo her.
She let go of me and moved to the side. Behind her I saw the curly hair I’d run my fingers through on nights when she cried herself to sleep when she first came to our house. The brown eyes that watched everyone around her with a careful gaze, now filled with tears.
“Lucy,” I breathed.
“I’m so sorry, Autumn,” she said as I walked up and wrapped my arms around her neck. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know.” I held her as she cried and I murmured it was alright and I didn’t blame her.
Kai waited patiently as Lucy slowly calmed before she placed a hand on my shoulder.
“I know you’re tired, but we need to prepare,” the water sprite informed me.
I looked around. The camp of rebels looked secure and safe. I couldn’t imagine what Kai was talking about. “What do you mean?”
“Escaping was only the first step. We can’t all stay here.” Kai shouldered her pack. “We have to cut off the head. Stop the poison at its source.”
“What?” I asked. I was tired and I wanted to rest. I wanted to rest with Xander next to me, with the reminder that we had escaped and could start anew.
But something in Kai’s gaze sparked my curiosity.
“How do we manage that?”
The expression on her face was warring between pride and pity.
“We’re going to have to go to the High Mage. We’re going to have to see your mother.”
The End.
The Daughter of Tim
e by Majanka Verstraete
Chapter One
The beam of magic hit me square in the chest.
My heart tightened in my ribcage; my blood vessels exploded. The world was nothing but pain. Breathing became impossible. Stars danced in front of my view. I was dying, the sheer force of that magic enough to tear me apart from the inside out…
With my last breath, I looked at my assailant: an agent of the Magic and Mayhem Control Agency, or the MMCA in short. He looked as surprised as I was at the hole in my chest, and the blood gushing out of the wound. The agent became as pale as a three-day-old corpse, which I would’ve laughed at, if the circumstances were different.
I used my last ounce of strength to snap my fingers…
The last minutes rewound in front of me. The agent moved backwards, the beam of magical energy pulled back out of me, the wound on my chest healed and the magic found its way back to the agent it had originated from.
I too moved back in time, switching to my position of a few seconds ago, before I was fatally wounded.
Then, everything snapped back to normal.
Instead of going straight ahead, like I had done the first time around, I threw myself to the right, and the magic bolt shot forward, missing me completely.
The agent cursed out loud as he continued to chase after me.
I grabbed the side of a door and held on to it to make a one-eighty turn, venturing into another room of the museum. My light-footedness made it hard for the agents to keep track of me, their task only made worse by the mini-portals I could make and jump through.
They had caught me by surprise, though. I had planned this heist for months. The intention was to steal the famous “The Night Watch” by Rembrandt from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and I thought I had been meticulous in planning it. Turned out that besides all the human alarms, which I had managed to evade, a supernatural alarm got triggered as well.
Even worse, when I wanted to turn back time to prevent the agents from bursting in, one of them had thrown a blocking spell at me, temporarily locking my powers. Since I couldn’t go back in time further than a few minutes—at least not without disastrous consequences—I couldn’t rewind to before their arrival, so I was stuck in here with four agents of the MMCA on my heels.
I cast a portal, just as the agent chasing me rounded the corner. Jumping into the portal, I vanished only to reappear three rooms over, right in front of another famous Rembrandt, “The Jewish Bride”.
Bolts of magic flew left and right, and I ducked and jumped to avoid them. Sweat dripped down my back and drenched my shirt, all thoughts of “The Night Watch” long forgotten. All I wanted was to get out of here before I ended up in prison, or worse.
I clicked the fingers on my left hand. Time sped up for me and simultaneously slowed down for everyone else. One of the mages was holding a magic orb in his hands, ready to send it flying in my direction. I kicked the orb out of his hands and rushed to the other mage, tying his hands behind his back with his belt while he was stuck in slow-motion. The third mage I completely turned around so she was facing the wall, and any spell she fired would hit her instead of me.
Then, I raced back to the exact spot I had been in when I made the first click and clicked my fingers again.
Time jumped back to regular speed for everyone. The first mage gasped as his orb fell on the floor, evaporating while completely missing its target. The second mage cursed while struggling to untie his hands, and the third mage looked flabbergasted when she turned around.
I chuckled, turned and was about to race forward when I collided with a wall. Not an actual wall, but a magic wall reverberating with energy.
The fourth mage, the one who had cast the magic blockade that had kept me stuck here, was standing in front of me.
A magical prison. She had locked me up in a freaking magical prison. I swirled around, discovering an identical wall behind me, to my left and right.
Inside this cell, I wouldn’t be able to use my powers at all.
I cursed and swung my fists against the magic wall, trying to break through.
The mage, a woman with long, silver-colored hair, smirked at me. “We finally caught you, time-jumper.”
“You can’t keep this up forever,” I snapped at her. Prisons like this drained magic-user’s energy. I had seen this first-hand when another MMCA agent had used this exact same prison against my best friend, Mica, before they captured her.
“No,” the silver-haired woman said. “But I can keep it up long enough.”
Before I could say anything else, someone grabbed my hands and slammed handcuffs around my wrists. I struggled against the grip of the MMCA agent—the one whose orb I had kicked on the floor earlier.
The cuffs were magic neutralizers. Whatever powers I had, the handcuffs kept them locked up inside of me, impossible for me to use them. The MMCA agents had done the exact same thing to Mica before they whisked her away to a prison designed especially for people like us. People with powers we barely understood ourselves.
Fear washed over me like a flood. I was going to end up in prison. Like Mica, like so many others before her.
“Those are some nifty powers you have,” the agent behind me said while he twisted me around, forcing me to look at him.
He adjusted his suit and put his glasses back in place. The MMCA agents tried entirely too hard to look like Men in Black. “Too bad you won’t be able to use them where you’re going, little girl.”
Little girl? Sure, I was quite small, but despite him having the upper-hand, I wasn’t about to let him talk down to me. Powers or no powers, I kicked him straight in the groin without hesitation. “Call me ‘little girl’ again, and I’ll rip your throat out,” I growled at him.
“I warned you, Malcolm, she’s feisty.” The voice came from the silver-haired woman. She seemed to enjoy that I had kicked Malcolm where it hurts.
I realized I recognized the woman—not only did she use the exact same tricks as were used against Mica, she was the exact same woman who had landed Mica in prison.
Time had a strange way of working against me, despite my abilities to manipulate it. History had caught up with me, and we had come full circle. Months ago, Mica had been caught risking her own life so I could get away, and now the MMCA had captured me in their trap anyway.
Malcolm glared at me while he lifted a taser. “Goodnight, time-jumper,” he said before he pushed the taser against my neck and the whole world turned black.
Chapter Two
I woke up feeling as if a train had waltzed over me, all my bones were cracked and put back together, and then an elephant had stampeded over my head.
Groaning, I struggled to sit up, holding on to my head while the world spun around. Where the hell was I?
I strained to make out my surroundings. A grey, soulless piece of wall on the other side of the room, concrete flooring, and a ceiling painted in a dull white. I looked down at my feet and noticed I was lying on a slab posing as a bed. The bedding was all crumpled and had been white years ago, its color faded from being in the washer too often.
Looks like this isn’t Kansas anymore, Dorothy.
“Ah, you’re awake.”
That voice.
I recognized that voice out the thousands.
I jolted out of the bed. “Mica!”
My best friend stood next to the slab, an image I thought I would never see again. She held out her arms for me, and I flew into her embrace, pulling her close.
“How? It’s been so long.”
We hugged for a few minutes, and then she let go, holding me at arm’s length. Her eyes had teared up just like mine. “It’s been months.”
The two of us couldn’t look more different, but we had always been two peas in a pod. Mica was dark-shinned, with black hair tied in dreadlocks, and the most beautiful, violet-colored eyes I had ever seen. I, on the other hand, was pale enough to be mistaken for a sheet, my hair was hazelnut brown and usually tied back in a ponytail, and my eyes
were grey like the sky right before a storm. Despite our difference in appearance and in personality, we were best friends, sisters. She was the closest to family I had ever had, at least that I could remember.
“I had no idea where they had taken you.” I held on to Mica’s hands. “I searched high and low, tried to find the location so I could at least visit…”
“No one visits here.” Mica shook her head. “There are no visitors, no contact with the outside world.” She lifted up my chin, forcing me to look at her. “Don’t worry about it. I know you did everything you could.”
Still, the question had haunted me for the past few months since she had been caught. Had I really done all I could? Was there no way for me to do more? I could’ve made sure I got caught as well… But we had promised each other, a promise we swore over and over again as the years went by, that if one of us got caught, the other would do everything humanly possible to stay out of the MMCA’s claws, and I had tried to keep that promise. Until today.
“Aiden, I mean it.” Mica pulled me in for another hug. “There’s nothing you could’ve done. If anything, I’m sorry you got caught.”
I returned the hug, still feeling guilty. “Well, we both knew what we signed up for, I guess.”
Not that we had much choice. The reason the MMCA was after us, wasn’t because we had opted for a life of crime, although admittingly Rembrandt’s masterpiece wasn’t the first famous painting or sculpture Mica and I had stolen. Any unauthorized use of magical powers anywhere in the world, and all the red flags went off with the MMCA. Our powers had us doomed from the start.
We were both orphans, both of us inheriting powers we had no idea how to control. When I was younger, the MMCA agents had come for me once, trying to take me to a reformatory where I could learn to control my powers—or so they had said. I hadn’t trusted them back then, and I still didn’t trust them now. As a child, I had managed to escape from them using my powers, but now they had me in their clutches.