by Rain Oxford
He inched back, already pressed against the wall. Flagstone entered the room. “Get some color pencils and paper,” I said.
“What?” the baker asked, confused.
“And get Mr. Baker out of the room.”
“No, I’m staying until I’m sure you’re not going to hurt him,” the man argued.
Flagstone sighed, left the room, and returned a few minutes later with a sketch book and color pencils. When I took them, I realized they were Scott’s. I set them down and picked up the black pencil. “While Flagstone here takes the nice baker for a walk, I’m going to draw you, so stay right there, okay?” I instructed gently.
Flagstone took the baker out, despite the man’s protests. I found a clear page and started drawing. I didn’t have an ounce of the talent Scott or Henry had, so I made mistakes. Since that was the whole point of my plan, I announced these mistakes out loud and showed him every few seconds. Within ten minutes, the boy couldn’t take it anymore. Scott shifted and climbed out of the hole.
“No! You’re holding the pencil wrong!” he said, exasperated.
“You can hold a pencil wrong?”
“Duh! Look, my eyes aren’t that far apart! You make me look like a dog, Uncle Devon,” he whined.
“Okay, I think you’ve spent too much time with Darwin.” While he taught me how to draw himself, I called Kyle and told him to pick us up and bring clothes. Then I called Henry. “He’s safe,” I said when I heard him pick up.
He breathed the longest sigh of relief I’d ever heard. “I’ll be there as soon as I can, but there’s bad traffic all the way out here.”
“How bad?”
“It’s a crawl and I’m on country roads.”
Ten minutes later, Kyle and my mother arrived. They both apologized profusely as I put Scott in the car seat of Kyle’s Sedan. I went with them, hoping Flagstone would simply return to Quintessence. I sure as hell didn’t want to talk to Hunt about what I did.
Scott didn’t say a word until we got to my mother’s house. I took him to the guest room that was set up for him, sat him on the bed, and told him to explain what happened. He still sat there for fifteen minutes without saying anything. Fortunately, he realized I wasn’t going away. “I thought…” he stopped for another few minutes. “I thought I was going to lose Daddy again. I woke up and he wasn’t here and I forgot where I was.”
“So you thought you would just go out and find him?”
He nodded. “Nobody cares when I leave. I just knew Daddy was looking for me.”
I sat down. “Your dad has a job and he hates that it takes him away from you, but you’re going to be starting school soon and you won’t see him for four months. He needs to know that you can be okay without him.”
He started crying. “I don’t want to go!”
“I know, but think about what’s best for him. He wants you to have everything he didn’t, and that includes friends, and love, and choices like what you want to do with your life.”
“Then why is he sending me away?”
“That’s not what he’s doing. Yes, you are a little young to be at a school like that, but you will fit in a lot better there than at a human school. Soon, you’re going to meet other shifters and wizards your own age. I bet if you really like it, Henry will try to get hired at the school in January. Then he can be your teacher.”
His eyes widened with fear. “Will he give me time out in front of my friends?”
“Oh yeah. At least six minutes. But guess what— the rules are different. You can be a cat as much as you want there. All you have to do is go four months. I bet your dad can even visit you if you’re really good for your teachers.” I hoped I wasn’t wrong. I was never in boarding school and Hunt’s schools weren’t the norm anyway, so I had no idea how parents dealt with their little ones being away so long.
“What if I can’t?”
“Well, the one thing you can’t do is run away again. When your dad found out you ran away last night he was so afraid the bad guys took you.”
“I didn’t think about that. Is he mad at me?”
“He’s going to be. You have to understand that when you scare him that badly, he’s going to get mad, probably at everyone. I bet he puts you in time out for an hour. You just have to understand that he loves you and he’ll do anything to make sure you stay safe.”
I felt his presence before Flagstone appeared in the middle of the room. “You were spotted,” he growled at me.
“How bad is it?”
“Some friends of mine are making sure it gets played off as a stunt, but you’d better realize how close you came to exposing us. I should tear your throat out here and now.”
When Scott hissed, I put my hand over his mouth to stop him and stood. “If you do, make sure you find Darwin and tell him to call his father.”
Chapter 4
When the shadows cleared, I was in Hunt’s office with Hunt and Flagstone.
Hunt was standing in front of his fireplace, looking just as serious as Flagstone. I somehow had time to notice the new coffee table.
I always considered the office to be both dark and cozy. Against the north wall, in front of a large window with heavy drapes, was a bulky wooden desk. On the west wall was a fireplace with two black leather chairs facing it, while the east wall consisted of two bookshelves that were split by a doorway. A black leather couch was placed in the middle of the room, facing the fireplace. The scratched, wooden coffee table in front of the couch was new.
“Devon, please sit,” Hunt said. I did. “Rosin said you attacked a group of humans in the middle of the street.”
“I did.”
“For any particular reason?”
“I was more worried about Scott and I just didn’t think about it as hurting them.”
“Does that happen a lot?”
“No.”
“How much sleep did you get last night?”
“Not much.”
“Have you noticed anything weird? Anyone watching you? Any nightmares?”
“No. Why?”
He looked thoughtful rather than angry. “Let me know if you do.” He turned to Flagstone and they stared at each other for a minute, obviously communicating in their minds like I could with Rocky.
“What, that’s it? You’re not going to threaten to kill me?”
Hunt frowned. “Of course not. You may be much, much younger than me, but you are an adult. You are older than Remington even. I know you better than you think. I know you would never intentionally hurt people unless it was life or death.”
“Then why did you want to speak to me?”
“Because your actions worried me. My first thought was that you were being controlled by Krechea, and my second was that you were possessed by one of his shadow walkers. I wanted to make sure you were in control of yourself, which you seem to be. I expect your lack of judgment was due to stress and lack of sleep.”
I considered it. I didn’t think I was stressed, but I had plenty to be stressed about. “Maybe,” I said.
“Either that, or the power might be going to your head.”
“If that were the case, I would have wanted to hurt them, and I didn’t.”
“Possibly. The fact that you did not even consider their wellbeing worries me.”
I stood. “I’m not like John, and his magic isn’t changing me. I put my friend’s child’s safety over the welfare of strangers who were surrounding him. I’m not going to say it won’t happen again, but I’ll try to be more tactful next time.”
At that point, Vincent entered the office. “It sounds like you’ve had a busy day,” he said to me.
“How did you… never mind.” Along with his visions of the future, he had Ghost. Then again, the cat had been making himself scarce for a few months.
“Now that we are all together, we need to discuss more pressing matters. It seems the shadow walkers have begun causing trouble,” Hunt said.
“It does seem so,” I said hesitantly.
“You don’t sound so sure,” Vincent said.
“No, I’m not. Regina was attacked and my apartment was searched, but Henry and Scott were unhurt. There’s also been a few storms and some traffic problems in my city, but that seems pretty passive aggressive for demons. Why wait until now to attack?”
“That’s not all that has been going on,” Flagstone said. “There have been incidences of people hearing voices and children seeing deceased members of their families since the shadow walkers escaped Dothra.”
Hunt pulled out a thick stack of letters from his desk and unfolded some of them. “On Sunday, a good friend of mine in England sent me a letter that his three children went missing on Saturday night. On Monday, I got a letter from his wife, who had walked into the kitchen that morning to find him dead.”
“Up until then, there had been no reported deaths. Unfortunately, most wizards are extremely solitary, so we can’t be sure of that,” Flagstone said.
Hunt held up another letter, not bothering to look at it. “I got another letter on Monday that the oldest, most powerful wizard family in Russia went missing on Sunday. Within twenty-four hours, four of them were found dead. The remaining six were found Tuesday morning, claiming that nothing happened.”
“That’s strange, but do we know it’s the shadow walkers at fault?”
“No.”
“Maybe give Darwin a copy of those letters. I bet he can use the dates and times to figure out how many shadow walkers we’re dealing with.”
“I will do that if I see him. In the meantime, I suggest we get our loved ones somewhere safe,” Hunt said.
“Like where? What is the safest place in the world?”
“From a magical opponent, Quintessence is the safest place.”
“Really? When did the school become safe? Are we talking about the same Quintessence? Last semester, we had a party because no one died. The university doesn’t exactly have a track record of being safe. You do realize we’re going up against the same demons that possessed your golems, right?”
“I do. This time, however, we have the advantage of knowing our enemy. We can fortify the defenses and screen everyone who comes in. It only takes one person on the inside to betray us.”
“Yes, only one person to make everyone inside just sitting ducks. Have you read ‘The Masque of the Red Death’? Krechea’s followers can use the shadows like we do, but they don’t need keys.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“I don’t know if it’s a better idea, but I think I might know where they can go that the shadow walkers can’t get to them. Out of all the paranormal worlds, would any of them be safe?”
“Skrev is just as dangerous as Dothra,” Flagstone said.
“Draumr is, too,” Vincent said.
“Draumr? Really? Who named these worlds?”
“They were in one of Keigan’s old books,” Hunt said. “Draumr, the world that Vincent’s key unlocks, is the original world of the fae.”
“What’s wrong with the fae?”
“The pure fae are just as powerful as Dothra’s wizards and feral as Skrev’s shifters. They eat the impure on sight.”
“Okay, then we definitely don’t want to go there. At least we won’t have to deal with the pure vampires. If we do, you know how to fight them.” When Hunt and Flagstone both frowned deeply, I rolled my eyes. “Silver. Silver bullets will make them burst into ash, so I imagine a silver blade will, too. There were several of them on Dothra. Do we have any idea who Krechea might be after?”
“The four of us for sure. He wants to get our keys. Right now, you are the youngest and least experienced, but you are also nearly indestructible.”
“Six months ago, I was a dead man walking. Now I’m indestructible?”
“Not entirely, no. Between your visions, mind control, instincts, and gargoyle, I believe you are going to be his second most difficult target.”
“Does he know that?”
“I am pretty sure he does… somehow. Now, your visions are not infallible, as Gale’s curse proved, but that takes practice. Unfortunately, our loved ones are our weaknesses, and you have more people to care about than Vincent, Keigan, or I do. That is why we must hide them.”
“Well, Henry and Darwin will insist on working with me and I know they can. Regina has a new protector and Astrid is in Dothra. Cody and Marcus are vampires now. Convincing Cody to stay low shouldn’t be a problem, but Marcus isn’t going to agree to hide here, because the magic would interfere with his electronics. He turns to his toys when he’s afraid.” While a scared child might have a security blanket, the first month after he saw his father kill his mother, he slept with a hard drive in his arms.
“What about your mother?”
“She’d have to stay here, if this really is the safest place.” I looked at Vincent, but he didn’t argue. In fact, his stoic expression didn’t waver at all. “Is that okay with you?”
“Of course. Her safety is most important.”
“And your brothers?” Hunt asked.
It was a shock to me at the end of the previous semester to learn that I had at least two brothers I never knew about. Once I thought about it, however, I realized it wasn’t surprising at all; John Cross had no decency.
I shrugged. “I only met them that one time, I’m old enough to be their father, and the fact that my only relation to them is John doesn’t exactly encourage me to get to know them. As far as I’m concerned, the twins have nothing to do with this and no one would go after them.”
“I suggest we also bring in all of the most powerful wizards,” Vincent said. “Have you thought of a way to save Astrid?”
“Not without someone getting trapped there. The only one who can open the door is Langril and he’s only concerned with defeating Krechea. Once the tower is destroyed, there will be no more deals with the demons, and anyone who stays behind to destroy it will be trapped or killed, so we have to save her before she does. What exactly is so dangerous about destroying the tower?”
“From what I can tell, it is an energy backlash. If the four of us destroyed the tower, the energy would be distributed between us and we should all make it, but we would be trapped on whatever world we are on at the time.”
“The entire point of Astrid destroying the tower from her side is so that we can trap Krechea between the worlds. We can just save Astrid and destroy the tower from this side if we can defeat him ourselves. Are we sure there’s no way to destroy him outright?”
“Not if he’s anything like Keigan, and Keigan himself was unable to destroy Krechea.”
“But there are gods, like Janus. The gods were able to drive the ancient Dothra wizards out before.”
“They were able to drive them out, not destroy them.”
“Unfortunately, Heather doesn’t know much about them. From what she’s said, her father didn’t tell her much about Dothra. Langril had the power to freeze even Vincent. How can I become that powerful?”
“That comes with time.”
“Then what about bringing Langril back here to fight them?”
“That would be a mistake,” Hunt said. “Right now, Krechea cannot get all four keys.”
“Unless he kills me. Then he can.”
“Because you’re so hard to kill, he’ll test you first, determine what it is you want most, and try to bargain with you,” Vincent said. I ran my hand through my hair instead of responding. Apparently, my uncle knew me better than I’d thought. “What? You’re not considering it, are you?” His tone was completely nonjudgmental.
“I guess that depends on what he wants. To be honest, I don’t give a shit about Dothra. If he wants to give me Astrid and return to Dothra, I don’t see a problem with it. If he wants to eat my entrails and rule Earth, then I do have a problem with it.”
“We’ll save Astrid,” he said.
Hunt frowned. “In the long run, her sacrifice is the most practical---”
“Absolutely not,” I interrupted. “
I will do everything in my power to make sure no one is sacrificed. I’ll do the Disney speech if I absolutely have to, but I think Darwin would prefer to do that himself.”
“If that is settled, I will begin reinforcing the protection over the university.”
“What about the kids’ school?”
“I will do the same there as well, because Krechea may still be after children.”
“I know children will be easier for him to get on his side, but can they really be that useful to him?”
“Would you kill a child?”
“No.”
“Then yes, they can be. I will take you back now, as I expect you have work. As soon as Quintessence is prepared, Rosin will tell you and help you bring your mother.”
“Are you going to have trouble keeping Remington inside?” The headmaster’s daughter was quick to anger and always had a weapon on her.
“Of course. Remy was born arguing with me,” Hunt said. Flagstone smirked. My phone went off and I reached for it instinctively.
“Wait,” Flagstone said, too late.
The instant my skin touched the phone, it sparked violently. “Shit!” I unclipped it from the harness and checked the screen, but it was dead. “I normally keep a few spare phones at home, but I’m pretty sure I’m out.”
“Try hitting the power button,” Flagstone suggested. I frowned at the phone. “I tried to have a mobile myself and half the time it was zapped, I could turn it back on.”
I pushed the button and gaped when it lit up. “Wow. Thanks. Damn, though… how many phones have I wasted by throwing them away? I tried that a couple of times at first and gave up.”
“It depends on the model. The disposable ones typically survive better.”
Before I could even check the recent list, the phone rang again. Henry. I answered it cautiously. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“You need to get over to your mother’s.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. “Is she okay?”
“She’s alive. Just… get here.”
“Okay. I’m on my way.” I hung up and turned back to the others. “I need to get to my mother’s place.”