by Rain Oxford
He opened his eyes, looked around, and flexed his fingers. “How long have we been here?”
“Well, you and Langril have been here for months.” He tried to reach for the straps, so I unbuckled them. When I undid the one around his chest, I had to steady him while he got strength back in them. “I’m sorry I didn’t come for you sooner. Krechea disguised himself as you and---”
“It’s okay. You shouldn’t have come at all; you could have been trapped there forever. If I were your father, I would ground you until you were eighty.”
“I think you lose grounding privileges when the son moves into his own house.”
“Not when it comes to wizards. Let’s go find your little friends.”
He was a lot friendlier when we were alone, as if he just forgot that he wasn’t my father. We went to the stairs and I helped him down. While I wanted to tell him Hunt lied to him, I had to ease into it. “I know about the potion Hunt gave you to make you unable to have kids.”
He tripped and I had to struggle to get him back on his feet. “Why would he tell you that?”
“Because I needed to know why you were so certain you weren’t my father. He said you regret it.”
“I don’t.”
Alright, I didn’t need a beating heart in my chest anyway. “In your letter, you said---”
“I know what I said. I should have been your father and raised you with love and acceptance. Instead, I made a coward’s choice. When I first found out your mother was pregnant, I regretted it so much I couldn’t eat for days. I lost your mother and Star because of that damn key, and then to have missed out on raising you… I thought I would regret it for the rest of my life. Then I saw you that day in the council room, ready to make a name for yourself in the paranormal world.”
“And that made you change your mind?”
“No; I thought you were a complete mess and I regretted it even more. Then I got to know you and I realized you were one of the most well-adjusted people in the entire paranormal world.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope. We’re all scarred, yet you turned out very well in comparison. I realized I made the right choice, because you did great in spite of John and Joseph, whereas you might not have with me.”
“A lot of that was Astrid.”
“Who you wouldn’t have had if you were my son.”
“My mother is at the castle.”
His face blanched. “I can’t see her. She doesn’t even remember me. I always made sure she was asleep when I visited her at the hospital.”
“You were there?”
“Of course I was! I loved her. Astrid visited her as well, also when Maria was asleep. She wanted to grow up to be a doctor in order to heal your mother. I explained that it would be a bad idea to be around so much blood.”
“I didn’t even know you knew her.”
“So many people loved you and would do anything to protect you. I know you grew up thinking you were an outcast, but the problem was that you grew up in the wrong world.”
“Earth?”
“Yes,” he teased.
I knew he meant the paranormal community. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know that the paranormal world would have been any better for me. I belonged in it now, but I had no idea who I would have been had I grown up in it.
At that point, I spotted Henry and pointed him out to Vincent. I was worried when I approached him because his eyes were open. “Henry?” I asked. “Can you hear me?” He didn’t respond. “I think he’s asleep with his eyes open.” Henry slowly blinked, making no further sign of awareness. I pulled the tubes off him and undid the strap on his left wrist.
“What took you so long?” he asked, suddenly and with complete clarity. He used his free hand to unstrap himself the rest of the way.
“There are over a thousand vampires in here!”
“I found Keigan,” Vincent said from the opposite side of the room.
The reason I hadn’t recognized the wizard on the first glance was because he was quite different. His clothes were torn and his body was bruised and bloodied just like in the prison, except there was also a long cut from his forehead all the way across the left side of his face and to his throat. He didn’t have that in the prison. “What happened to him?”
“When we arrived, the vampires didn’t immediately imprison us; they wanted to interrogate us about the tower. Keigan felt guilty for getting the doors mixed up and antagonized them intentionally to get the attention off me.”
“We can use our magic now, right? We can get back to the tower?”
“Yes, but we had better hold our breath.”
“I didn’t close the door behind me.”
“Well, that is unfortunate. Be ready to hold your breath twice. I’ll take Keigan and you take Henry. Don’t let him go, no matter what, until you are both on Earth and dry. Once we go through, I’ll shut the door. I’ll be a minute or so behind you.
“Alright. See you on the other side. Henry, take a deep breath. There doesn’t seem to be a shadow pass on this side and the tower is submerged. Take off your over shirt.” He did without arguing. Knowing we had no room for mistakes, I grasped Henry’s right arm with my left hand and used the shirt to tie us together.
“Hopefully there won’t be anything terribly monstrous in the water that we may have to swim from.”
“That’s okay; it’s pitch black, so we wouldn’t be able to see it anyway.”
Henry and I both inhaled and I focused on my symbol. As soon as the blackness cut off the rest of the world, I felt us back in the cold water. Unfortunately, I had no damn clue where the tower was.
Rough stone and sharp talons wrapped around my forearm. Opening myself up to her presence, I knew it was Rocky. The sudden motion of water told me she was flapping her wings, yet I knew she had to be using magic in addition to that, because the last time I checked, rocks sank in water. At least, that was how it worked on Earth. I let her guide us for a moment, felt the change in magic, and for an instant, I could breathe.
Then we were submerged once more and Rocky released me. Without letting myself worry, I focused on my symbol again. In a few seconds that felt like minutes, we were in the shadow pass. This time, I concentrated on being home. I concentrated on the castle, Darwin, Remington, my mother, and especially my bed. We walked for about five minutes in silence before the darkness fell away and we were in our room.
Darwin and Scott were there, and neither of them looked at their best. Darwin had circles under his eyes and Scott’s face was all blotchy like he had been crying. They both stared at us in shock, obviously afraid to touch us. Still without saying a word, I untied the shirt and sat heavily in my chair.
“Daddy, what happened?” Scott asked, trying to act calm.
“It’s a long story that I’ll tell you soon.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Just a little tired.”
“You smell different. Are you sure you’re not the bad man trying to look like you?”
Henry almost looked brokenhearted. “That’s really your dad, buddy, and I think he needs a hug,” I said. “He worked very hard and fought a lot of monsters to get home to you.” Scott hesitated for half a second before hugging the stuffing out of his father. Darwin, on the other hand, punched me as hard as he could in the chest. I certainly felt it, but he was clearly never taught how to hit someone. He gasped, groaned, and moaned, holding his hand like he broke it. “What did you do that for? Henry and I got back safe, minus a bit of blood.”
His eyes widened and he forgot about the pain in his hand. “You’re hurt? I’ll get Dr. Martin.”
“No, we’re fine. Tell me why you’re upset.”
“Why am I upset? Why am I upset?! You were gone for two weeks!” He grabbed an old copy of the student handbook and smacked me over the head with it. “Two weeks! I had to explain to Scott why his father wasn’t home yet for two weeks! He was frantic!”
Then, as if someone popped the air out of
him, he just slumped into his chair and put his head down on his arm.
“Sorry we worried you, Darwin. What happened with the shadow man?”
“I told Hunt that he was disguised as Vincent, but he hasn’t been seen since. Hunt has some questions about it, but everyone has been alerted of the situation.”
“Vincent and Langril should be here by now.”
“Well, Langril was unconscious when we left. Maybe that’s slowing them down,” Henry suggested.
Before I could say anything, darkness surrounded me and I felt a strange tugging sensation throughout my entire body…
Then I was right back on a round platform over a river of lava. “You’re fucking kidding me! I got out all by myself and you don’t have the right to do this!”
Janus appeared in front of me, just standing in thin air. Neither face looked pleased. “You cannot escape the penance,” the younger face said.
“I know, I know. There’s always a price for magic. I have a plan. If I give the key to someone I know who will protect it, will that absolve me so I wouldn’t have to make the sacrifice?”
“You would die.”
“But suppose I didn’t die. Would I be exonerated?”
“Yes.”
“Give me twenty-four hours. I’ll give the key to someone who will take much better care of it than me.”
“Why would we do this for you?”
“The elementals are all about balance. Are the gods?”
“Of course. That is why you must make a sacrifice to be one of the guardians of the tower. We do not choose what is most precious to you.”
“I want to even the playing field.”
Both faces pondered this. “We will humor you,” the younger face said.
“You have twenty-four hours to pass the key to someone else or you will live out the rest of your life here.”
I was suddenly back in my room and nobody looked as if anything strange had happened. I stood. “Let me know when they get here. I’m going to go make a deal with a demon.”
“What?” Darwin asked.
“Janus is going to trap me in the prison of Kadin for the rest of eternity if I don’t pass my key onto someone else.”
“But you would die!”
“Hence the deal with the demon.”
Understanding dawned on his face. “Oh. Go on, then. We’ll let Langril and Vincent know.”
I knew he would get it. Right before leaving, I stopped, pulled the red ball out of my pocket, and tossed it to Henry. He caught it easily. “Protect this with… Langril’s life.”
* * *
Ten minutes later, I was standing at Heather’s door. I raised my hand to knock.
“Come in,” she said before my hand even touched the wood.
I opened the door. “You are definitely your father’s daughter.” She was sitting on her bed, reading a novel, dressed in a pink t-shirt and superman boy shorts.
“Did you bring him back?”
“Vincent is bringing him. He’ll be back any minute. Can you prove that you’re you and not the shadow man in disguise?”
“Well, we’ve had a lot of private conversations.”
“How did we meet?”
“You sat beside me in Mr. Mali’s class and I knew you had to be in the wrong class, because there was no way you had been in the same school as me for four semesters. I thought you were a cop because of the way you glanced at every face as they entered. You also looked like you were mapping out the room and exits as soon as you walked in. Plus, you walk like you’ve got a firearm. I was going to ask you if you needed help about a second before you asked me if we were in potions. Now it’s your turn to prove that you are you.”
“When students died at Quintessence, I thought that it was just part of being in the paranormal world. I thought that dying by vampire attacks or shifter mauling was something you had to expect. I thought since those students made the choice to be a part of the paranormal world, it wasn’t as big a deal as when it happened to humans.”
“You thought I deserved it?” she asked, appalled.
“Not so much that you deserved it, just that humans deserved it less, like paranormals were endangering themselves by associating with vampires. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I invited Astrid into my life and my parents paid for it. When you died, I saw it differently. I knew you— not well, but enough that I didn’t think you instigated anything. You just wanted to live your life and spend way too many nights in the library. I got to know the students at the university and realized that they are all people, as much as humans are. In a way, you were the one who made the case personal, instead of just a dangerous job. And since then, every paranormal who was murdered was personal and just as important as a human murder, because they were part of my community. That includes vampires.”
“I guess something good came of my death. That, and at least I’m only dead from a human standpoint. I’m sorry you lost some friends during your first three semesters here.”
“The fourth was better and the fifth will be casualty-free as well. Can you tell me what is most precious to you?”
She didn’t even hesitate. “The memories of my mother.”
I sighed and sat next to her on the bed. “Crap. That wasn’t what I was expecting. I was thinking you could take the key from me, but I can’t ask you to give up something so important. Do you at least have pictures of her?”
She sat up and wrapped her arms around my neck. “You misunderstand. I loved my mother and my memories of her are what’s most precious to me, but I would give anything to lose them.”
When I tried to pull away, she held on tighter, so I stopped. “How could you want to lose your memories?”
“Because I’m not that person. I never was. And you know the worst part about the Dothra blood in me?” She held out her hands in front of my face, palms up. “We heal too damn fast.”
I smacked her hands away and stood up. All paranormal people are fucked up. You once offered to make me immortal like Astrid. Can you still do that?”
She smirked. “That would require a deal. I can do it, but---”
“Then here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll make a deal with you. You’re going to make me immortal like Astrid, but with an out. I want to be able to die if one very special, silver dagger is stabbed into my heart by myself or someone I purposefully appoint.”
“Why would you want that?” she asked, horrified.
“I don’t want to live forever. Then, you will take the key from me. That will conclude our deal and you will be free. Clear?”
“Yes.”
“And I would still be alive.”
“Of course. Why not save Astrid while you’re at it?”
“I’m trying to restore balance, not offset it even more. I have another plan to save Astrid and defeat the shadow man, and I’m going to do it with as little dark magic as possible.”
“You’ll lose the ability to use the shadow pass.”
“Then I’ll rely on my familiar when necessary. I was fine before I could use it and I’ll do fine without it. Do we have a deal?”
“Yes.” She held out her hands in a gesture of offering and a goblet identical to the one Astrid had drunk from appeared.
“This won’t affect Astrid’s immortality, will it?”
“No. This will have the same exact effect on you. You can be shot in the head and survive with no injury.” When I reached for it, she pulled it back a few inches. “Just to clarify… you can get injured. It’s only mortality it protects you against. You can get sick, cut, burned, whatever, but you can’t die from it. If you get shot or stabbed in a vital organ, it will heal the damage instantly and completely like it never happened, but if you get shot in the shoulder, you’re going to be in pain until you take something for it.”
I nodded and took it. The chalice was heavy, yet there was only about half a cup of water inside it. “What about the knife?”
She held out her hands again and a dagge
r appeared. It was obviously ceremonial. It had a little sheath and both the handle and sheath were black with silver art all over it. The care and attention to detail that went into it was extreme. I pulled the cover off to examine the straight, double-sided blade.
“Where did you get it?”
“My father made it. He showed it to me my first semester here and wanted to give it to me when I graduated. I found it in his office. It really sucked to go through everything and end up dying by bad luck.”
“You’re not dead. You can still have the life you wanted.”
“It’s not what I want anymore. Dip the blade into the water and put it back in the cover.”
I took it from her and submerged the blade in the water for a few seconds before slipping it back into its sheath. I drank the water, expecting it to taste weird or at least feel something different. Instead, it just tasted like water. “Did it work?”
I sensed her presence and turned around just as Rocky appeared. “Yes, it worked,” she said in my mind.
I held out the dagger and she took it in her claws. “Are you angry?”
“This has been the most sensible thing you have done since you called me. You are no longer a burden on me.” With those parting words, she vanished.
“Well, that’s a start. Onto part two.”
“Already? You have me for as long as you want, until I take the key.”
I did have twenty-three and a half hours left. “No. I don’t want something to go wrong. Are you sure you’re okay with losing your memories of your mother? Are you sure they’re what is most precious to you?”
“I am sure on both. I can’t move on until she’s really gone. I can’t forgive myself when I still hear her voice begging my father to save me and leave her.” She pulled another dagger out of the nightstand and aimed it at my heart. “This is going to hurt, but it won’t even scar.”
“Why does it always have to be the heart?”
When she stabbed me, I felt white-hot pain that made lights flash behind my eyes. It was worse than getting shot by far, but that probably had more to do with the location than the object that was used. Part of me worried that I would die despite drinking from the special chalice. It was probably natural to have doubts, though, when getting stabbed in the heart with a dagger.