Shadow Realms

by M K Mancos

  Sweat beaded on my forehead. I hadn’t been much aware of the heat in the chamber until that moment when the drops rolled down my brow and into my eyes. I blinked away the sting and kept working.

  Kells was up on her knees. Her color still hadn’t returned to normal and she labored to breathe. Guilt washed over me. I should have demanded she leave. Sent her up to Kara at Sebastian’s house. She’d have been safe there.

  Too late now. We’d have to do the best we could to fight off the hoards. At least until help came…if it came.

  I spun spells and incited chants. Then it hit me. I was going about this the wrong way. We were running out of time and I wasn’t working as efficiently as I should have been. Some war mage I made. I should have known what to do from the start, but too many thoughts were running through my mind at once, and it had thrown me.

  I picked up the tattered threads of the spells that had come before—the layers left from my predecessors. I sewed those together with the ones I created as I worked, much as a tailor might repair a jacket or pants that had unraveled at the seams. The work went much faster, but not nearly enough.

  Kells remained on her knees, but now she was at the gate, behind our wards digging through the packs and pulling out the bombs and a few illusion stones. “I want them handy if they manage to breach the circle.”

  A low guttural snarl came from behind us. I felt rather than saw her tense beside me. “The shadow dogs?”

  “Yes. They’re bad news. They were the ones that figured out how to break my circle before and get at me.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Smarter than they look in every way.”

  I took her word for it.

  “Has the epoxy hardened enough?” She continued to rifle around in the pack.

  I tested one of the smears. “No. It’s getting there, but not fast enough.”

  She came up with a lighter and spray bottle of alcohol. “Move over. I have an idea.”

  From the looks of it, her idea involved creating a flame thrower. Not that I had a personal fear of fire used that way, but I really didn’t want to blow us to kingdom come either.

  The snorts and growls of the dogs had gotten uncomfortably close. I turned to look over my shoulder and wished to hell I hadn’t. The creatures were out of a Wes Craven nightmare. First of all, I think they might have been a cross between a canine and a really pissed off dragon. Minus the wings. They were about crotch high, which made all those damn teeth even more frightening. One good snap and they’d get both junk and femoral artery.

  I took my hands away from the gate long enough to grab an illusion stone and send it through the perimeter. Lines of wavy energy shimmered outside the circle of protection. The shadow dogs started barking and jumping at the illusion spell, attacking it with a ferocity born of hatred and desperation.

  “That should keep them busy for a minute or two.” I went back to my work as Kells fired up her flamethrower below.

  I had to admit, I thought she was going to use it as a weapon. Instead, she ran the flame up the sides of the gate, heat sealing the epoxy in a quick version of a portable kiln.

  Pride and admiration filled my heart. My girl was amazing. Breathtakingly so.

  The higher she went the more light faded from the other side. It was working.

  I chanted faster, poured more emotion into closing the cracks with magic as she used science. Maybe together they’d be strong enough to keep the Shattered Lands closed forever.

  All light and sounds from the other side of the gate cut off. Howls of despair came from behind us as the shadow beings cried their lament. Their brethren had once again been denied entrance to our world.

  With the gate sealed we turned as a unit to face the angry mob that filled the chamber. There was no way we were getting out alive without good luck, a miracle, and help. The two of us against all the constructs the shadow realms poured into the room. Nope not going to happen. Not to mention the fact the well Melody had used to put us here was on the other side of the protection spell, wasn’t going to aid us in a quick getaway.

  I took Kells by the hand and pulled her to me, then I kissed her. I poured every ounce of love and passion—all my admiration and devotion into the act. Her arms came around me and held me close as she returned it with enough emotion to make my knees weak.

  We kissed for luck and for all that might not be if we failed. We kissed for what-might-have-been and what-might-be. Of all the things that moment represented, it also cemented our powers.

  The world shifted a bit more under our feet. Not as it did when a dimension burped. This was more of a key fitting into a lock and all the mechanisms of life finally came to me with clarity.

  I held her tighter and then finally let her up for air. A blue glow surrounded us as our powers mixed and melded, creating a field of protection that moved with us.

  I cupped her cheek and gazed down into her eyes. “That was some kiss, lady.”

  She gave me a saucy smile. “Wait until you see what I do for an encore.”

  The shadow beings inched closer. Dogs scratched at the illusion spell. Long tears left the fabric shredded. They were almost through it.

  I picked up the golem bombs. A quick look to Kells, and she had her hands full as well. No matter what, we were going down fighting. We’d done what we came to accomplish. Even if we died, we’d scored a victory.

  The battle might be lost, but we’d won the war. Now they fought us out of a sense of revenge. Nothing more. Nothing less.

  The illusion fell. Dogs leapt and ran straight into the barrier of our protection spell. They bounced off before getting back up to come at us again.

  “Make no mistake. They’ll find a way through.” Kells chucked one of the bombs over the spell and watched as it exploded, taking out the first line of golems.

  Shit!

  The percussion of the spell exploding had caused tiny pinholes in the wall of protection around us.

  “What are we going to do if we can’t throw these without doing damage to our border?” Kells’ eyes were huge with fear.

  “Hand to hand combat.” I knew I could. I had no idea if she had any self-defense training, and honestly, this was a hell of a time to find out.

  She let out a breath and gave a decisive nod, then picked up the lighter and alcohol. “I like the odds better with fire.”

  “That’s my girl.”

  We stood there for a moment, getting our bearings, watching as the shadow beings picked at our defenses. Each time we countered, they found a way around it. Time was running out.

  “It wasn’t too soon,” Kells said as she sent another bomb over the wall.

  I spared her a glance, my mouth still moving as I wove another layer of protection into the fast deteriorating shields. It took me a moment for my brain to catch up with her meaning. When I did, I felt like the Grinch when his heart grew three sizes.

  “I love you, too, Malachi. I wanted you to know.”

  She didn’t have to finish the sentence. I knew what she meant and why she’d said it when she did.

  Despite my efforts, the first wall came down and we were surrounded, separated by the thinnest of spells that covered only our bodies. Kells used the flame to drive the beings back. I attacked with my retractable staff and throwing knives.

  Golems were incredibly hard to cut through, but they were easily baffled by a direct charge. They weren’t expecting me to be the aggressor, and it took them a bit to wrap their collective heads around my assault.

  They also fought like bumbling turd mountains. In other words, like shit. However, getting hit by one was equivalent to being hit by a New Jersey transit bus. The one coming at me wasn’t consequently the one that rammed me hard enough to knock my soul sideways from my body. That was a different guy. A bigger one. This being made from rock.

  Solid rock.

  And it hit me with the force of an earthquake. I had no idea that lungs could actually occupy a different time-space continuum than the body they’re supposed to
reside in. I bit my tongue so hard it drew blood. No other choice but to swallow it since spitting it out would be akin to giving them carte blanche to attack me on both a magical and physical level. Not that they couldn’t at this point, but with blood, they’d have the ability to control me as well.

  Turn me against the Convention.

  That wasn’t going to happen in my lifetime.

  At least not willingly.

  Conversely, using the blood to power a spell made it more potent. I spit into my hand then clenched my fist around the bloody loogie as I raised energy to a level that had my teeth vibrating.

  A quick twist of my wrist made a ball of white flame. I pitched it underhand to a level that swept right over the golems’ heads. It landed in the middle of the constructed horde. An explosion of rock, powered cement, and goo flew out in all directions.

  Reflex made me duck, even if the debris didn’t make it through the shield. The dogs continued to paw at the perimeter. Tiny sparks showered around what passed for their front feet.

  Menacing jaws snapped at the field. I threw another energy ball—well, more like tossed it—on the shadow dogs. The impact reduced them to a smoking ooze, but it also had an unintended result.

  The second shield came down.

  Thirty-Two

  Kells

  When the barrier fell, so did my heart.

  I was on my knees with my impoverished flame thrower in my hand. Unfortunately, the bottle didn’t hold that much propellent. It ran out long before the golems and other constructs from the shadow realms exhausted their anger.

  From the corner of my eye, I watched Malachi as he bashed, clubbed, and cudgeled with great success. Much to my horror, that brief moment of inattention caused me to take a hit so hard it knocked me back against the gate and caused my ears to ring. My arm felt as if it had been hit by a sledgehammer. Pain radiated from my forearm to my shoulder.

  I slid down the face of the gate and sat on the ground. The bag of supplies was within my reach, much to the detriment of the assclowns from hell.

  When I reached out, a pain shot up my arm and I felt the bone snap, despite the fact I guarded the injured one against my body.

  I almost blacked out. Desperation made me shake the pain off and keep moving. We were all we had, and I was pretty damn sure we were done for. Malachi, though impressive as hell, wasn’t going to be able to hold out alone for long.

  Me…I was injured and unarmed. Literally.

  I grabbed a couple of the bombs and started chucking them with my left hand. It had neither the power nor distance I got from my right.

  Dear, sweet suffering Hazel.

  This was both our Normandy and Pickett’s Charge rolled into one. I threw the last of the bombs at about the same time bodies began to fly upward. Malachi was to the front and left of me, but the disturbance came from at least ten feet in front of him.

  “Kells! Kells!”

  The voice was loud, female, and familiar. I eased myself up to my feet and stood on shaking legs as my sister, Venetia, came through the crowd with a weapon that looked like something from a steampunk cosplay on steroids.

  Nothing I saw made sense. She was dead. Had died years ago. We’d never made peace, and as a ghost, she’d ratted me out to Kara.

  The hand she used to grip the stock of the gun was adorned in a ring similar to the one Gemma had worn and matched the one on Malachi. My sister, the woman who had been a spoiled and spiteful bitch for the entirety of our lives, was a damn member of the Convention.

  I didn’t know whether to let out a breath of relief or go on guard. She’d never liked me, so why was she here to save me?

  She unlatched a gun from her belt and handed it to me. This version of Venetia was hard, muscled, and had a look in her eyes that suggested she’d seen a lot. A complete opposite from the sister in my reality.

  I took the gun in my left hand. “Thanks.”

  I hated to tell her I didn’t know the first thing about shooting a magical weapon. Oh, I knew how to shoot a basic nine-millimeter handgun, but that so didn’t fit this by any margin.

  I flipped a lever that looked like the safety and nearly shot off my own foot. I stepped to the side and almost dropped the damn thing on my toe.

  Venetia looked at me as if I’d grown another head. “It has multiple firing capabilities. That’s for a quick burst. The trigger delivers a wide stream.”

  “Yeah. Thanks for that.” What Venetia referred to was the output of the weapon, which shot a particle beam not unlike what my finger did when I’d charged it with the charm Malachi made me.

  I raised my arm and started firing. Between my efforts and that of the Convention, we soon had the shadow beings neutralized.

  I wiped sweat off my brow and continued to hold my arm in front of me. The steady throb of pain had gotten worse.

  Astrid walked through the war mages and straight to me. She lifted her brow in what passed for a question. “Injured?”

  “I think it’s broken.” I raised my good shoulder. I’d made it this far without falling apart, I didn’t want her to think an injury would put me down.

  She turned to look behind her. “Merriweather, we need you over here.”

  A tall, dark skinned man with the grace of a dancer came over and gave me a quick once over. “You’d be the granddaughter.”

  I cast my gaze around to see if anyone knew what he meant. “If by that you mean, Gemma’s. Yes. Great-great-granddaughter actually.”

  “She’s a legend.”

  I was beginning to see just how much she meant to the witching community and world as a whole.

  Over the next few minutes, I was subjected to a series of rather painful spells used to reset the bone and speed healing. Merriweather wrapped it in a makeshift sling then told me to take it easy over the next few days.

  I still hadn’t seen Malachi in the crowd. I’d lost sight of him about the time I got pushed against the gate.

  “Where’s Malachi?” I asked everyone and no-one.

  “He’s being debriefed.” Astrid placed her hand on my shoulder. “You’ve done an amazing job. If you want to, there’s a place for you in the Convention.”

  Gobsmacked, I sat there without speaking. Venetia nudged me.

  The weirdness of the moment wasn’t lost on me. Being offered a job in an alternate reality while fighting alongside my dead sister sort of short-circuited my brain functions.

  Why did Venetia care one way or the other? She never liked me.

  “I’m not your sister. I’m not even supposed to be in this timeline.” Tears filled my eyes, and I bit my lip as the enormity of it all finally caught up with me. “I’m supposed to be collecting information for my dissertation.”

  “Hey. Hey.” Malachi pushed through the crowd surrounding me and sidled over and took me into his arms. “What’s this, sweetheart?”

  I sobbed for a moment then rubbed my nose on his shirt. “I’m just really tired and hangry. I want to go home.”

  “All right. Then we’ll go home.”

  I spent the entire night and most of the next day trying to figure out what I wanted to do. The offer from Astrid was a dream come true, but I didn’t know if I could live this life. When did it slow down? When would I be allowed to return to academia? When were the realities going to shift back again? So far, we were stuck in the one where my sister was still alive.

  Any attempts we’d made to return to our dimension was met with resistance. It seemed the universe wanted us to stay put.

  It was all too much. I wasn’t cut out to be a war mage. I didn’t have the capacity for constant danger and against-the-odds action.

  Rather sobering after all I’d been through to realize what I wanted was to be a professional student.

  Well, I did want one other thing: Malachi.

  No matter if I did return to North Carolina and my timeline, I’d never be able to find another man to measure up to the one I loved.

  What had kept me tossing and turning
all night was the thought that there had to be a compromise. I wanted to stay with him, but I needed a job. I wouldn’t be happy until I helped to provide for us. I already knew I’d write my dissertation. That was a given. What about after that? Studying the Dorans had been my life’s work. Up until this point, I knew what I wanted—to teach Myth and Folklore at the university level. Now…well, let’s just say my eyes were open to the wider world, and teaching a subject so near and dear to my heart when my entire perspective had changed wasn’t going to cut it.

  As unsettling as it seemed, there was a strong possibility that in this life, I hadn’t made it to a doctoral program in the first place.

  I sat on the porch overlooking Malachi’s backyard. He’d gone into the office that morning to clear up a few things and write some reports. Apparently, even in the battle to rid the world of the shadow beings, bureaucracy ranked supreme.

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. A cool breeze blew, sending my hair into my face and with it the scent of Aunt Rallie’s perfume.

  A smile lifted my mouth before a pang of homesickness hit me. I needed to go home. That couldn’t be denied. I had loose ends to tie up and decisions to make, and I didn’t think I was able to do so with Malachi in the same house.

  My phone vibrated against the wooden slats of the deck. I’d had to get a replacement for the one I’d lost in the past. I looked down at the screen and wasn’t surprised to see Rallie’s name.

  “Hey. What’s up?”

  “You’re brooding.” The fact she knew me so well and felt my emotions so far away didn’t surprise me. I was relieved that some things hadn’t changed.

  “I have some tough choices in front of me and I want to know I’m doing the right thing.”

  “Do you love him?”

  I gave a snort of laughter. “How do you know this has anything to do with Malachi?”