by Dan Wingreen
They had to go through Noah.
Lee must have had the same thought at the same time, because as soon as Aidan started to pull out his old, gray spell book he took his arm off Aidan's shoulder. Aidan had a brief flash of worry that Lee wouldn't be able to stand on his own, but he never even wobbled. He stood straight and tall, with his hands raised and a determined look in his eyes. Aidan didn't think he'd ever looked sexier. He pushed the thought away as he flipped open his book and stood next to Lee, three different spells torn out and clutched between the fingers of his left hand.
Noah lifted his hands slightly and Aidan tensed for an attack. Instead of casting a spell, though, Noah's lips pulled into a small, eager smile. The hunter glanced up at the ceiling and gave a small nod. It probably wasn't the smartest move, but he couldn't help following Noah's look.
Just below the ceiling, floating in the air, was a small crystal ball. Aidan frowned. Crystal balls really only did one thing—
A low, rumbling sound came from the wall to Aidan's left. He tore his eyes away from the crystal, but Noah still hadn't moved. The rumbling quickly built up into a roar as the wall next to them started smoking—
"Move!" Lee yelled suddenly. He pushed Aidan back before he even had time to react, adding a gust of wind behind the shove that hit Aidan in the chest and sent him flying back down the hall. Aidan had time to see Lee diving towards Noah before a thick wall of fire exploded through the wall, slamming into the other side and engulfing the place where they'd been standing seconds before.
Aidan cried out in surprise and pain as landed hard on his left shoulder, the heat from the flames searing the exposed skin on his face and hands. He scrambled back, keeping his grip on the one page he'd managed to keep a hold of after Lee threw him.
The fire died quickly, blowing out like a candle and leaving a hole in the left side of the wall and a dark black burn covering the entire right side of the wall opposite it. The floor where they had been standing was a charred mess. Aidan ripped out a healing spell and cast it on himself as he frantically looked for Lee through the rapidly evaporating smoke and the blurry, haze of heat. He'd been a lot closer to the fire than Aidan had and if Aidan had gotten burnt that badly…
Relief flooded through him as he saw an opaque shield slowly turning transparent, then drop completely. Lee pushed himself up off the floor, a relieved expression of his own on his face as he saw that Aidan was all right.
Aidan scrambled up and started running back to him, but he got less than ten steps before Barnes walked out through the hole in the wall and stood between them, the smoke billowing around him like a cloak. He'd changed into his white and gray police uniform at some point since Aidan had seen him in the basement. It was rumpled and a bit dirty, but otherwise he looked exactly like he had when he'd stepped out of that alley for the first time, from his dull brown hair to his wide, compact body and the cruel smirk fixed on his lips.
Aidan skidded to a halt.
"Run!" Lee shouted.
Aidan gave that idiotic suggestion as much attention as it deserved and stood his ground. Lee was trapped between Noah and Barnes; there was no way he was leaving him. Besides, even though he didn't really know all that much about combat magic, he could still recognize a stalemate. Noah could attack Lee, but Barnes couldn't do the same without turning his back on Aidan who would attack him if he did. Noah and Lee could fight, and Aidan and Barnes could fight, and even though Aidan had serious doubts about his ability to win against a fully trained police officer, no one else knew that. All they knew was that he could somehow use magic. No one would want to make the first move.
He hoped, anyway.
Nobody moved. They all stood perfectly still, like figures in that diorama of Arthur's last battle with Mordred that Carl had kept in his office, frozen in time as the last of the smoke dissipated.
Then, the crystal ball fell from the ceiling.
It only dropped a short distance before being caught with magic and sailing through the air, over Aidan's head and down the hall behind him—
Right into Bryce's open hand.
He slipped the ball into the pocket of his perfectly crisp and clean uniform. There was a pinched look on his almost-handsome face, like he'd bitten into something sour, or maybe like he wished he was somewhere else, but his hard eyes never left Lee, looking right past Aidan like he wasn't even there. Aidan felt his blood run cold anyway.
The stalemate was gone.
"Well, hello again, Mr Collins," Noah said, his flat, syrupy voice tinged with delight. "We’re so very happy you decided to come back to us." The hunter smiled, his eyes never leaving Lee even though he was speaking to Aidan. "Thank you so much for saving me the trouble of tracking you down," he said slowly, like he was savoring the words.
"You ain't gonna touch him." Lee moved so his back was against the wall, and Aidan could see him tensing.
"Oh, I think you of all people are well aware that I don't need to touch him to make him scream."
Aidan heard Bryce move behind him and his grip tightened on his spell book.
"Lee," Aidan yelled, his voice shaking slightly. "What do we do?"
Lee didn't answer.
"Lee?" Noah said, laughing with glee. "So that's your name? I must say 'Mr Mystery' is a better fit, but I suppose we can't choose our own monikers."
Lee glanced back at Aidan. The hard, trapped look in his eyes softened for a moment, and he still smiled briefly. "We can have 'em chosen for us, though," he said, never looking away from Aidan. "Sometimes what we get fits us better than the one we were born with."
Aidan had no idea why Noah's eyes narrowed when Lee said that, but the hallway suddenly felt colder. Noah opened his mouth to say something, but to everyone's surprise, Bryce cut him off.
"This is ridiculous," he snapped. "Can we just kill them already? Or are you going to keep talking until one of them escapes again?"
Noah slowly turned his head towards Bryce. "Was I less than clear when I told you we weren't killing them? Because if I was, consider this my correction of that oversight."
Bryce ground his teeth in frustration. More frustration than Aidan thought the situation deserved, since he had no idea what he could have done to make anyone want to kill him that badly.
Not that anyone seemed to need reasons, these days.
"But—" Bryce started.
"Enough!" Noah barked.
Bryce snapped his jaw shut, his eyes blazing with fury, and for a moment Aidan thought he was going to attack Noah. He held himself back though, jaw clenched and looking like he hated every second of his restraint, and settled into a sulk.
"Guess we're goin’ back to the questions, then, since you ain't killin' us and all," Lee said. He didn't sound any different than normal, but Aidan recognized the look in his eyes. He was trying to come up with a way out of this, most likely one that put all of the danger on him and none on Aidan.
Not gonna happen…
"You misunderstand," Noah said evenly. "If Officer Bryce had a little more patience, I was about to explain to him that we aren't killing both of you." He smiled at Lee. "I think it was pretty obvious that I was never going to break you, and while that blow to my professional pride is a bitter pill to swallow, I find myself fortunate enough that I'm no longer under the obligation to try. I have him now." He gestured towards Aidan. "And something tells me he won't be able to hold out half as long as you."
Lee's eyes narrowed. "Ain't gonna be easy to kill me."
Noah laughed. "Oh, I think it will be. In fact, you aren't even going to put up a fight. You're going to stand there and I'm going to cast a deathbolt right between your eyes, and you're just going to let it happen. And do you know why?" Noah didn't wait for an answer. "Because if you even breathe in a way that I think might be a casting, my officers are going to burn your wizard alive, right in front of you. And lest you think his suffering will be brief and his death will come swiftly, allow me to correct that assumption by telling you that they will b
e burning him in sections. I think starting with his feet and working their way up from there sounds good to me. How about you, Lee?"
Aidan's heart stopped at the look on Lee's face. He knew the expression, too. It was the cave all over again. Lee was just going to stand there and die to protect him, even though he knew Aidan was just going to be tortured afterward anyway.
Dammit, Lee…
Except it wasn't Lee he was mad at, it was himself. In the end, Aidan was a liability after all. One that was going to get them both killed. He clenched his fists in frustration.
And blinked in surprise when he felt paper crumpling in his hand.
The spell!
He quickly glanced down at the page in his hand, at the word written on it. Of course it's that one…
A barely there, wisp of a thought popped into his head then. A half-remembered conversation with one of his disastrous long-ago dates, of all things, came back to him. He had no idea what they had been talking about, but the conversation had somehow gotten around to problems and how they dealt with them without using magic. Not really an uncommon thing for wizards to talk about, especially wizards who were making the most painfully awkward small talk ever, but one question the man had asked him stood out, something about his fire hazard of a broken heater that would turn on randomly when he was out of his apartment. It was the first thing they had actually agreed on all night.
What was the best way to deal with a liability?
Get rid of it.
"Lee!" Aidan yelled. All eyes turned towards him. He had the strange feeling of being back in front of a group of WA kids, everyone staring at him, some with confusion, others with anger, some with quiet acceptance. It was a good feeling, because he usually knew what he was doing when he was with his kids. "Whatever happens, don't worry about me, okay? I can take care of myself—"
"Aid—"
"Shut up! Just listen. We're going to be fine." Lee looked at him like he was crazy, and Aidan couldn't help laughing. It probably didn't help prove his sanity, but he knew something that would. "Trust me."
He could see Lee had no idea what he was talking about, but that was fine, because after a few seconds, he nodded.
Aidan flashed him a quick, hopefully reassuring smile, then turned his attention to Noah. The hunter had been the boogeyman in the back of Aidan's mind for weeks now, always lurking over everything they did, always ready to jump out and grab them the second they slowed down or screwed up. He was the consequence of failure. The unstoppable monster even Lee was afraid of.
To say Aidan was nervous would be a huge understatement.
He's not the hunter, not right now. He's just another one of your kids that you need to talk down from doing something they'd regret…
"Hi. We never really met, but my name is Aidan. And you," he said, pleased at how steady his voice was, "have two choices. You can either let us go, now, and never try to follow us or find us ever again, or Lee's going to kill you. Either way, we're leaving here together."
Noah raised an eyebrow. "You are, are you?" His lips twitched in amusement. "Well I like having all my facts in front of me before making a decision, so perhaps you'd like to enlighten me on how you're planning on doing that?"
And, really, that was all the answer Aidan needed.
Aidan glanced at Lee, and grinned. "Somehow."
Before anyone could say anything else, he dropped to one knee and slammed the page onto the carpeted floor. "Cut!"
A rectangle of glowing energy spread out from the page, sprinting across the ground until it marked off a large area of floor. An area that just happened to have Bryce and Barnes in it, as well as Aidan. The rectangle glowed bright, then disappeared, leaving an inch-wide gap through the floor behind it.
In this case, though, you need to take away more than just the liability.
The floor fell.
Chapter 9
Lee felt like his heart was crashing down along with Aidan. It happened so fast he hadn't been able to stop him. Hells, he hadn't even realized what was happening until the floor broke away and started to fall. All he could do was watch, helpless, as Aidan dropped out of sight.
It was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do.
"We're going to be fine. Trust me."
Make that the second hardest.
But he did trust Aidan. He trusted him wholly and completely, and even though long years of experience were shouting at him that there was no way Aidan was qualified enough or practiced enough to make a promise like that and keep it, he still believed him. He had to. The fall didn't kill him. Aidan was going to be fine. He knew what he was doing.
It still took every ounce of strength he had to tear his eyes away from the newly cut hole in the ugly beige carpet and face the hunter.
Noah stared at the hole, arms hanging limp at his sides and a look of unguarded disbelief on his face. Lee grinned slightly at that.
"Not so trapped then, was he?"
Noah's eyes snapped to Lee and just before the wall slammed shut behind them, he could see hate boiling within him.
"It appears not," Noah said flatly.
"This don't have to go any further, you know." Lee knew it was pointless even as he said it, but he had to try. Even monsters deserved a second chance to make the right choice. He had to believe that. "Neither one of us needs to die today."
"You don't seem to understand," Noah said, his voice quiet and intent. "Mr Collins is dead, and you won't talk. Excalibur is lost and I've failed twice in one day. I'm dead no matter what happens. Which only leaves me one option."
"And what's that?" Lee asked, keeping his face blank. It was pure luck Noah thought Aidan was dead and Lee wasn't going to give him any reason to think otherwise.
Noah held his arms away from his sides, palms out towards Lee. Dust from the collapsed floor floated through the air between them.
"Atonement."
Even though he was expecting it, Lee barely got a shield up in time to block the two deathbolts that flew towards his head. Bloody hells! Noah was good. Easily as good as that last hunter he ran into, and Lee had been at his best back then and still barely beat him. Right now… He clenched his teeth as another spike of pain drove itself into his chest.
Right now, he was decidedly not.
He pushed those thoughts away as Noah broke off the deathbolts and sent out two gusts of wind. Lee kept his shield up, but instead of hitting him they swirled off to his left and right, forming mini-tornadoes. Those tornadoes pulled the plaster and wood off the walls on either side of Lee and launched them at him. Some of the debris hit him before he could extend his shield around his whole body, and he grimaced. It didn't even hurt, not really, but that wasn't the point. It took a lot of energy to keep a shield up, and even more when it was being hit with something. Noah had to know Lee didn't have much magic, even if he hadn't figured out where he'd gotten it from. He was just…draining it off. And doing it with the bare minimum of effort on his own part, too.
This hunter was definitely first-class.
But so was Lee.
Instead of standing there and taking it, he split his shield down the middle, throwing it out to either side and crushing the small tornadoes against the damaged walls, snuffing them out. Noah sent off another deathbolt the second he saw the shield drop, but Lee had been expecting it. Instead of throwing up another shield, he dived forward, rolling across the floor under the deathbolt and springing to his feet and running towards the hunter. He threw a few forcebolts at Noah, not at all surprised when he raised another one of those backward-curved shields and sent them right back at Lee.
Who smirked.
Time to do something stupid!
Maybe he should make that his battle cry?
Without breaking his stride, he called up a curved shield of his own, catching the bolts Noah had thrown back at him. Instead of firing them back, he closed the shield around them and started to make it spin, slowly at first, then faster and faster until the bolts of energy were z
ooming around the curve of the shield like water being spun around in a cup. He grinned as he saw Noah's eyes widen. He took two more running steps, bringing himself just a few feet away from the hunter, then spun around clockwise, holding his arms out in front of him like he was swinging a mallet. The rapidly spinning shield came around with him, hovering two feet away from his outstretched arms. He'd timed it perfectly, coming out of his spin and sending the shield ball, with the bolts still zooming around inside of it, smashing right into Noah.
He blocked it with a shield, of course. But that was fine; Lee had been expecting the move. There was a funny bit of trivia about shields no one really knew these days, though. Every shield is unique to the person who made it, because it was made up of their own magic. It was the reason why someone could split a shield apart or combine several shields into one: magic had no problem melding with like magic. Another person's shield, however, wasn't like magic. It was different, unique. Incompatible. Normally, that would mean that if two different shields came into contact, they'd just repel each other. If both shields were made of sorcerer magic.
Lee's shield wasn't made of sorcerer magic.
When Lee's shield, made of Aidan's wizard magic, came into contact with Noah's shield, both shields reacted the same way wizard shields always reacted when they touched sorcerer shields.
They canceled each other out.
Both shields popped out of existence at the same time. Usually this wouldn't be a problem because shields are easy to bring back up; which, aside from the fact that no one knew wizards could use magic properly, was probably why the knowledge fell out of use. Ninety-nine out of a hundred times, canceling out two shields when each combatant could just bring them right back up again didn’t really serve much of a purpose in a fight. Sometimes, though, there was the exception that proved the rule; like when one of those shields just happened to be holding magic that had been rapidly spinning around, gaining more and more momentum with every turn.