by L. S. Emory
“Doesn’t look like it to me. I’ll be back.” I ran through the woods, dodging trees and trying to not make too much noise. I didn’t need Travis hearing where I was going. I also didn’t need to alert whatever else was in the woods that I was there.
When I was far enough away, I stopped and backed up against a tree. My heart was pounding and I was out of breath. I knew I couldn’t stop. But I also didn’t have a plan. What I really needed a way to get back into the camp and sneak all of us out. Of course, that would be hard with Travis right there in the middle of everything. And with our little stunt, he would be watching Kyra very carefully. And Kirby too. He wouldn’t want any more problems.
Then it hit me.
They weren’t the ones causing him problems. I was. He wasn’t in the forest to find them. He was here to find me. He wasn’t going to be worried about them getting away. He was going to be worried about me getting away. He was going to be coming for me.
Everything was happening so fast that I hadn’t had time to take it all in. But now, leaning up against that tree, it all seemed to hit me. At first it terrified me. Nobody, and I mean nobody, in the wizarding world wanted to have an issue with the Wizarding Authority. But now, that was exactly what I had. The thing about it that I didn’t understand was why they sent a bounty hunter after me. The Wizarding Authority had the Arcane Protection Division, similar to the human police, who were responsible for investigations, catching criminals, and general protection of the wizard cities. Why didn’t they come from me? Why hire someone from the outside? What had I done? Now I wished I had paid more attention in my Supernatural Governance class.
I rubbed my neck. My wrists still hurt from being tied up. I looked up at the sky. The sun was starting to go down. It would be getting dark soon. I didn’t need to be out in the forest alone. And I certainly didn’t need to out in the forest alone in the dark. That is, if Travis didn’t catch me first.
The whole thing was making me angry. All of this just because I had a spell that went bad. I didn’t deserve this. I just wanted to go back to the way things were. Even with Aunt Linda, things were better. At least then I didn’t have anyone trying to arrest me. I might have been miserable, but at least I was safe. But, really, I was just tired of how hard it had been since my parents died. I wished that this day had never happened. I wished that I didn’t have to go through any of it. I wished that I could just be invisible.
I wished that I could just be invisible.
That was it. That would be my plan. I could just cast a spell, make myself invisible, and go and rescue Kyra, Kirby, and Wonder. The only problem was that I had never successfully done the spell. In fact, I wasn’t even supposed to know how to do it. But I did. I had found it by accident last year when I was snooping through some of the scrolls my parents had in the basement. It was just a temporary spell, lasting only three or four minutes. I tried it a few times but didn’t ever get it to work. Well, I wasn't really sure. When you are invisible, you can still see yourself. It’s takes someone else to not see you. And you have to know that they are not seeing you, so it can be tricky. I just usually assumed that I got a spell wrong, since that it was kind of my track record. But I might have gotten it right. I had performed the spell enough that I remembered the words and hand gestures for it. At least, I was pretty sure that I did. There was only one way to find out.
I leaned up hard against the tree. I’m not sure why, other than it made me feel better. I gripped my sword with my left hand. That made me feel better also. Holding it gave me confidence. That left my right hand free for the spell.
I took a deep breath, taking in the warm air. I calmed my mind, focusing on nothing but the spell. I closed my eyes. The forest was quiet, and I felt like I was somewhere else. I raised my hand and began to move it as I spoke the words, saying each word clearly.
I wasn’t sure if it had worked or not. The only way to find out would be to be around someone else, to see if they could see me or not. I needed to head back to the camp. I was sure that the spell had worked.
Then, at that moment, I heard the crunching of leaves.
“Come on, girl. We can do this all nice and peaceful like, and no one gets hurt.”
Crap.
Chapter 19
“Where are you at Annabeth? I know your around here somewhere. I can smell you.”
And I could smell him too. The sickening odor of old grease and oil mixed with the need to bathe on a regular basis.
He didn’t have the gun with him but did have some kind of machete that he swung back and forth as he walked. It shimmered with a dark red glow. Must be magic. I had never seen an enchanted machete. But then again, most of the weapons I had seen were considered more classical, like swords and daggers, which were more common in wizard history. The dark red glow meant Shadow magic. I had a feeling that any weapon that Travis had was probably from the black market of the magic world. He didn’t look like the type that would casually shop from one of the licensed magic dealers.
He started whistling, very quietly barely above a whisper. Not the kind of whistle that says “Hey! Over here!” It was the kind of whistle you hear from a serial killer in a horror movie, just before he finds another victim. That was pretty nerve-racking. I was starting to regret my choices of entertainment. I should have spent my time watching sitcoms instead. He looked around, sticking his nose up in the air. His eyes darted from side to side. He knew that I was there.
But he couldn’t see me. And I couldn’t see him. His voice did sound like it was close, but not near enough yet. I could hear the crunching of leaves getting louder. You would think that a guy in his profession would know how to be quieter when walking. But maybe that was the point. Maybe he wasn’t just trying to catch me, but to scare me. If I was scared, I would make a mistake, making it easier to catch me. Well, I wasn’t going to let that happen. I decided right then that I wasn’t going to be scared. I was going to keep my emotions under control. I wasn’t going to make this easy on him.
He started walking, slowly, like he was ready for me to jump out of thin air and attack. But that wasn’t going to happen. I knew that I didn’t have long. The spell had worked, but I didn’t know how long it would last. I needed to prepare for when it would. All I really knew was that I wasn’t getting captured again.
He suddenly turned, sniffing the air, and started to come toward me.
Step to the side. Trip him. And run.
There was that voice in my head again. That was getting annoying. But, the voice had not given me any bad advice yet. It was worth a shot.
I held my breath and tried not to move. I had to wait until the exact moment. I gripped my sword tighter. He came closer and closer. He had a real intense look in his eyes. My heart was beating faster and faster. I felt like it was beating so loud that he could probably hear it. He cracked a sinister smile on his face. Then, a split second later, he lunged at me with the machete.
I was barely able to lean to the side in time. I quickly ran towards his left-hand side and, and with as much strength as I could muster, kicked him in his ankle. With that, and the help of gravity, Travis went face first into a pile of leaves and broken off tree branches. I stood there for a second, before running up behind him and kicking him in the head. I wasn’t sure if he was unconscious, or dead, but he wasn’t moving.
That wasn’t really necessary for me to do, and probably cost me some time that I needed to get back to the camp, but it felt good. Catharsis, jerk, I almost said to him. I didn’t have time to gloat over my minor victory. I took off running toward the camp, as fast as I could. The air burned my throat as I ran. But I couldn’t slow down. The leaves crunched louder and louder with each stride. There wasn’t any need to try to be quiet. He would know where I was going.
It didn’t take long to get there. I slowed down as I approached the camp. I wasn’t totally sure that Travis was working alone. It didn’t seem like he had anyone with him, but I couldn’t take any chances. I thought about tryin
g another invisibility spell, but that would take too much time. I bent over and quickly scurried up to the edge of the camp and peered around. I didn’t see anything. I ran over to Kirby’s cage, since he was closer than Kyra.
“How do I get you out? Is there a key?” I said to Kirby as I grabbed the bars of the cage.
“What happened? Why did you come back?”
“No time. I’m not sure if Travis is dead or not. We have to hurry.” I looked around, trying to see if there was a key anywhere. “Where is the key?”
Kirby shook his head. “He has it with him, along with the key to Kyra’s cuffs.”
“I’ll have to go back,” I said. “I think I knocked him out back in the forest. He might still be unconscious.”
“If you knocked him out, then he might be conscious by now. You can’t take that chance. This isn’t just any hunter. He’s an Alpha. You got lucky. You might not get lucky again.”
“What’s an Alpha?” I asked. I had never heard that term.
Kirby gripped the bars of the cage. “Alphas are high profile hunters. They have connections to the underbelly of both worlds, human and supernatural. They work with witches, tap into Shadow magic. Nasty, nasty stuff. They use Shadow weapons. Some even have Shadow spells cast on them. And not temporary. Permanent spells, powerful ones. Shadow magic does something bad to supernaturals. But Alphas? Shadow does something to worse to them. They become evil like you have never seen. The Alphas are unbalanced, becoming sociopaths for the highest bidder. That’s what we are dealing with.”
A sociopath with Shadow magic. That sounded like the very worst thing that this guy could be.
“Go to Kyra. Try to get her out of those cuffs,” Kirby said.
I turned around towards where Kyra was still sitting. She had her head down. I imagined that Travis wasn’t too happy with her helping me escape. I felt guilty for whatever he had done to her. It was my fault. Whatever had happened to her was my fault. The fact was that the three of us, and Wonder, had been captured because of me.
I ran over to where she was sitting. “Kyra?”
She lifted her head. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to get away from here, not come back,” she strained to say.
“I told you, all of us are leaving. Together.”
“Where’s Travis?”
“When I left him, he was unconscious in the forest.”
Her eyes widened and she sat up. “How did that happen?”
“I’ll tell you when I get you loose, and Kirby out of that cage. I don’t know how much longer we have. I don’t know if Travis is unconscious, dead, or what. How do we get these cuffs off of you?”
Kyra moved her arms behind her. “I don’t know if we can. He has the key. These kinds of cuffs are built to be tough. Their meant to dampen a person’s ability to do magic, so you can imagine that they are harder to remove than normal handcuffs.”
“There has to be some way,” I responded. I looked around for something to use to try to get them off of her. Maybe if I could find a big rock, or something in the tent, I could break them or pry them apart.
“Don’t worry about me. I can walk out of here. You need to get Kirby out of that cage.”
“He told me to come over here and get you loose,” I said. “The two of you keep worrying more about the other, which, you know is commendable, but it’s like the two of you should be in a buddy cop movie.”
“When you work so closely together, you become family to each other,” she said, with a weak smile. “Sometimes that doesn’t help. But seriously, I can walk. We can’t drag him in that cage out of here. And don’t forget about Wonder.”
I looked over my shoulder. I could see Wonder, still covered with some kind of tarp. “Is Wonder tied up?”
“No,” Kyra said, shaking her head. “Travis really wasn’t expecting a Pegasus. He snuck up behind us and jammed two syringes into Wonder. I think it must have been some type of powerful tranquilizer. Wonder hasn’t moved much. But I did hear him snoring for a while, so I think he will be ok once we get him revived.”
Snoring? I really wanted to hear that. But there was no time. “All right. Any idea how to break Kirby out? He said Travis had the key.”
She turned her head sideways, looking at me as if I had suggested that we build a boat and sail out of the forest. “Annabeth, you’re a wizard. Use magic.”
Yeah, I kind of already realized that. It was kind of obvious. But in this situation, I didn’t think that was actually as helpful as it sounded. “I don’t really know any spells on how to break a lock, or bend bars, or anything like that.”
“Think. Is there anything, any spell, that you have done that you could use?”
She was right. There had to be something. Think, think, think. I had survived this long. I knew I had it in me. There had to be a spell. If I could just remember…
“Annabeth!” I heard Kirby yell. “Behind you!”
Chapter 20
I jerked around and saw Travis running right toward me. He did not have a happy look on his face. He slowed down and began to move in a circle around the other side of the camp, still facing me.
“Oh, you are in for it now, girl,” he snarled at me. “We could have done this the easy way, but now you have chosen another route. You may think you’re smart, but when I get through with you and hand you over, you’ll know better.”
“Stall him, Annabeth,” I could hear Kyra whisper from behind me. “Buy me some time.”
Stall him? I had no idea how to do that. My strategy to deal with Travis so far had involved sneak attacks and running. It didn’t look like either of those was going to work this time. But it sounded like Kyra had a plan. She seemed to know a lot more about whatever we were doing than I did, so I had to do something to give her time to do whatever that was.
I pulled my sword out and held it in front of me. It had some magic power, but I still wasn’t sure what exactly that was or how to activate it. I also didn’t know how it compared to his machete. The one thing I did know was that Travis was probably a lot better with his machete than I was with my sword. A straight on attack wouldn’t be a good idea.
“Why are you after me? Who do you work for?” I yelled at him as I started slowly circling in the opposite direction.
“We’ve been through this, witch. I’m arresting you and turning you over to the Wizarding Authority.”
“For what reason?”
He gritted his teeth at me. “I told you before. You are in violation of Wizarding Education Code of Conduct.” Then he smirked. “At least that’s what I was told to say.”
I didn’t understand. “What do you mean that’s what you were told to say?”
“You ask a lot of questions for a girl in so much trouble.”
I could feel my hands getting sweaty. I didn’t know how much time Kyra needed, but wished that she would hurry up. Or give me a sign, or something.
“Now you put that sword down before you get hurt,” he said, pointing a me with his machete.
The blade of my sword began to crackle with a bluish tint. “Not going to happen.” I thought for a moment. “But I’ll make you a deal. You answer my questions, and I’ll put the sword down and go peacefully.”
He stopped moving. “Now that is an interesting proposal. But your going to put that sword down and go, peacefully or not.”
Before I even realized it, he was running toward me. I swung my sword toward him, even though he wasn’t close enough for me to hit him. Blue lightning burst from my blade, knocking Travis backward onto the ground with a loud thud.
I could hear him loudly grumbling from across the camp. “Now how did you manage to do that, witch? Doesn’t matter. You’re going to be sorry for that.”
I kind of wished I knew how I did it too. It was the same kind of lightning that had knocked Cody down earlier. Not only did I not know the extent of the sword’s power, I also did not know how to make it use whatever powers it had.
Travis slowly got up. �
��You are cagier than they let on. No wonder they want you.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “I thought they wanted me because of what happened at school today.”
Travis spit on the ground. “Yeah, sure, that’s it. Like I said, that’s what they told me to say. All official like.”
I didn’t like what he was saying. What other reason could there have been? I hadn’t been in any other trouble. At least recently. Well, at least not this week. And nothing I had ever done really seemed like it was serious enough for the Wizarding Authority to get involved. “Tell me the real reason.”
Travis slowly began to move. “It doesn’t really matter. But do you really think your governing body sent me out here because of something you did at school?”
I stopped moving. So, it wasn’t what happened at school. It was something else. “Well...of course not. But they probably wouldn’t tell you the real reason anyway.”
I could see Travis breathing hard. Not from being tired or out of breath. He was getting mad. I wasn’t going to let that go to waste. “I mean, they didn’t hire you for your intelligence. You are more of the ‘go pick up the girl and bring her in and try not to do anything stupid’ type.”
He was getting red in the face. I had obviously hit a nerve. “Really, all you needed to know was where I might be. No need for you to need to know anything else. After all, you’re just the hired help. Don’t want to overload that little brain of yours,” I continued.
He was seething by this point. “Whatever it is that you’ve got that they want, I hope they can get it from your remains,” he said, his voice getting louder and more intense. All of sudden, he glanced over at Kyra. “Maybe your little friend over here will help you to realize the inevitable.” He then started slowly waving his machete through the air as he walked towards her.
I couldn’t let him make it to her. Travis didn’t seem to have any problems hurting people. I had no doubt in my mind that he would hurt her until I gave up. I also had no doubt that I would give up to get him to stop hurting her. I had to get to her first. I took off running. The problem was that Travis was already closer to her than I was when he made the threat.