Legion

by Catrina Burgess

  Luke, the one I loved, was now inside the body of a maniac. The tears were there again. I didn’t bother to wipe them away as they slid down my cheeks.

  I watched Luke slowly make his way down the rock pile. I kept pushing Luke away anytime he tried to be intimate, and every time I pushed him away I could see how much it hurt him.

  He was trying to be patient. He was trying so desperately to be the guy I’d fallen in love with at the magic shop. Only he wasn’t. A sob escaped my lips. The darkness inside of Caleb was morphing Luke, changing him. The old mage had told me if Luke’s spirit jumped bodies more than once that it could change him. What if, when Luke’s spirit jumped into the second body, it had warped him? What if he’d come back different? What if he’d come back wrong?

  The Luke climbing down the rocks to join his sister was so different from the boy I fell in love with. There was a great anger within him now. It burned so bright, and no matter how hard he tried, he could never really hide it. I watched him lose his temper over the slightest things. I watched him treat people, at times, with a cruel streak that turned my blood cold. I knew he wasn’t to blame for the change—he’d been thrown into a body that had courted darkness and evil. It was my fault this happened to him, and I was powerless to help as I watched him struggle against his dark emotions and new powers. A constant battle seemed to rage inside him, a battle I feared he would lose. What kind of monster might he turn into if I told him I no longer loved him?

  I suddenly felt very alone. I pulled my knees to my chin and watched as Luke walked through the trees to his sister’s side.

  Darla held up a lantern and turned my way. I leaned back against the rock, blending into the shadows. I didn’t want her to know I was out here. She had stepped into a void left by the absence of adults, wielded a huge amount of influence with camp’s remaining young people, and generally ignored the old people who were supposed to be in charge.

  She made it clear each day how much she wanted to see me pay for what I’d done. She still hated me, but she and the other death dealers were too afraid of me to do much. The show of power I’d displayed when we first came upon them in the woods kept them from trying to hurt me, but it didn’t stop them from demanding justice for what happened in the past. Yesterday I’d been told there was going to be a trial. I was going to answer for my crimes, they said. I would finally be held responsible for my actions.

  Luke told me it was just a way for his people to vent and that nothing would come of the trial, but I didn’t believe him. Everyday I saw the hatred in the death dealers’ eyes, and there was no way I would stick around to see if they’d show me mercy.

  I planned to leave before the trial started, but I hadn’t told Luke because I still wasn’t sure whose side he was on.

  * * *

  When I finally made it back to my tent, I dropped down onto my cot and fell asleep. It was a deep and dreamless sleep. When I woke, it was to the smell of freshly brewed coffee.

  I knew it was Freddy even with my eyes closed. Bringing me coffee every morning seemed to be his way of showing solidarity with me. He was the one person who didn’t hate me and the only person who had shown me any kindness since I’d been here.

  Freddy was Luke’s best friend. He’d helped us storm Macaven’s hideout and save Darla. When Luke died, Darla blamed me, and I thought Freddy had, too, but to my surprise Freddy had somehow found a way to forgive me. Freddy didn’t care that Luke was now in Caleb’s body—he was just happy to have his friend back.

  I wished my relationship with Luke could be that uncomplicated.

  I rolled over and pried my eyes open. “What’s for breakfast?” I asked as I sat up and reached for the mug.

  Freddy wore a red sweater and blue jeans, and his dark hair was slicked back. He handed over the coffee and sat down next to me on the cot, his face scrunching into a grimace. “Oatmeal with raisins.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at his expression. “I like oatmeal.”

  He shuddered. “I’d rather starve than eat that mush.”

  “I don’t think you’ll starve. I’ve seen Darla smuggle you sweet rolls on other oatmeal days.”

  He wagged his finger. “Do you have any actual proof?” He gave me a wide grin when I didn’t answer. “Ah, I didn’t think so.”

  I took a sip of coffee and watched him over the mug. I wondered how he felt being among the death dealers. He didn’t possess any magic but was still treated with a certain amount of respect. Freddy and Luke’s fathers had been childhood friends, so Freddy and Luke had grown up together as brothers. I wondered, not for the first time: if it weren't for that bond, would the others treat him so well? Would death dealers normally tolerate a non-mage in their midst?

  I gave Freddy a thoughtful look and said, “You’d better be careful. If it gets out that you’re stealing from the pantry, the food police might come after you.”

  “You make it sound like the food is being rationed out.”

  “Isn’t it?” I demanded. Freddy might be someone who treated me with respect and friendship, but he’d made it clear he wouldn’t tolerate any disparaging remarks about the death dealers.

  He put his hands out and looked exasperated. “More and more people are making their way up here, and it’s a long way to get supplies. They’re just being practical by divvying up the food.”

  “Do you always have to defend them?”

  He shot back, “Do you always have to act like everything they do has an ulterior motive?”

  I didn’t want to fight, so I kept quiet. Freddy was the only friend I had in this place.

  He gave me a hard look. “You look terrible.”

  “Thanks,” I answered back. I knew I probably looked like a mess. My unbrushed brown hair hung tangled across my shoulders. I knew I had dark bags under my eyes from restless nights. My clothes were rumpled; I’d been wearing them for two days straight.

  “Luke says you haven’t been sleeping and you’ve taken to sneaking out at night.”

  “Lower your voice.”

  In a stage whisper, he said, “Luke thinks the lack of sleep is making you paranoid.”

  “Is it paranoid to think a group of people demanding I stand trial have it in for me?”

  He waved his hand in the air dismissively. “It’s a mock trail. There’s no real law behind it.”

  I took another sip of coffee. “So I’ve been told. If the trial doesn’t have any teeth to it, then what’s the point?”

  He looked through the tent flap that opened out onto the camp. “Because it will help everyone blow off some steam.”

  I followed his gaze. I’d slept in; it looked like the whole camp was up, dressed, and milling around. A few death dealers walked by our tent, and I lowered my voice. “Will that make everyone feel better? Shouting to the world that I’m guilty?”

  He was quiet for a long moment before he said, “Darla thinks—”

  I interrupted him. “Darla would be the first one in line to burn me at the stake. What happens after the trial if the group decides to take justice into their own hands? They could become a vigilante mob. They could string me up in the nearest tree.”

  Freddy shook his head, looking exasperated again. “That would never happen. Luke would never let that happen.”

  I put the coffee down and curled my hands into a fist. “I don’t need him to protect me.”

  He put up both his hands as if in surrender. “Oh, I forgot. You don’t need anyone. You’re self-sufficient now.”

  “I am,” I answered.

  “One of the most powerful dark mages.”

  “I didn’t ask for this power.” But we both knew that was a lie. I’d gone looking for the magic shop, desperate to learn the Death Arts, and I’d willingly taken on the three rituals—first strangled by Luke’s hands only to be brought back to life, then possessed by a spirit, and lastly reluctantly helped a dying girl pass to the other side. I’d done it all with the sole purpose of gaining dark magic for revenge, and now t
hat dark magic was inside me. Freddy might have been joking, but I did have strong magic within me. I didn’t want to hurt Darla or her people, but I wasn’t going to stand idly by if they tried to harm me.

  Freddy was watching me closely. He said in a low voice, “They won’t do anything violent.”

  My eyes met his. “So everyone keeps telling me.”

  “If you’re so unhappy here, why don’t you leave?”

  It was my turn to look exasperated. “You don’t think I’ve tried? They’re keeping me here.”

  “You’re a powerful mage, maybe the most powerful of the bunch. If you wanted to leave, you could.”

  I shook my head. Things had become so complicated. Luke cared about these people—he loved his sister and his guild. What would happen if I had to kill one of them while making my escape? How would Luke feel about me then? At the thought, my blood turned cold. Yes, I was afraid of Luke. Every time he came near me I felt sheer terror I couldn’t seem to control. But a part of me wanted so desperately to just forget everything that had happened and to love him again. I wanted with all my heart to be with the boy I’d met in the magic shop. I knew I couldn’t hurt the death dealers because I didn’t want to see Luke looking at me with the same hatred everyone else did. I wished I could go back to that first day we met. It was a foolish wish; too many things had happened. Luke had changed.

  Then again, so had I.

  “My friends—” I started to speak but had to swallow hard when Dean’s face flashed before me. “My friends are out there, in danger. I need to find them.”

  A thoughtful look crossed Freddy’s face. “You really think they’re still alive?”

  “Yes,” I said, but I didn’t know if it was true. Were they still alive?

  “You saw the bodies and what was left of the town.” Freddy looked away. “I don’t think there’s much hope.”

  Anger filled me at his words. “Wendy left a note on the wall. Find me. Save me. She expects me to help her, and yet here I sit.”

  He waved his hand out toward the camp. “So go. We both know they can’t stop you.”

  “But if they tried, I would fight. How many death dealers would I have to hurt or kill before I was free?”

  He looked surprised by my answer. “You stay because you’re afraid of killing them?”

  I just stared at him in silence. Yes, I feared that, but I also feared something much worse. I couldn’t say the words out loud.

  He might’ve looked like Caleb, but inside he was Luke. If I had to fight, would I find myself facing Luke? Would I have to defend myself against his hellfire? Was I prepared to use my powers against him? Could I truly hurt Luke if I had to?

  * * *

  Freddy somehow wrangled me a shower and some clean clothes. The shower was brisk, cold water from the river poured from a large plastic bucket attached to the side of a wooden shower stall. As quickly as I could I soaped myself down and then rinsed my body and hair. I changed into a fresh pair of blue jeans and a black sweater. Once clean, I stood for a few minutes and watched the hustle and bustle of a hundred people going about their daily lives. I knew that somewhere, among all the mundane things going on, Darla and a small group of death dealers were meeting to discuss my upcoming trial.

  Did they really think they could force me to go through with it? Why were they so focused on trying to punish me when they should be looking for Gage and his people? Didn’t they care that he was out there somewhere with the demon at his side, plotting to release the Legion of demons?

  Hostile faces greeted me as I made my way through the camp, walking slowly to the makeshift kitchen—a large, green tent with picnic tables arranged in lines inside.

  I took a seat at one of the tables. Eventually a bowl of food was dropped unceremoniously in front of me. “Thanks,” I said to the cook’s retreating back. I took a bite of oatmeal and felt someone slide onto the bench next to me.

  “Did you get any sleep?” It was Luke.

  “Some. You?”

  He ran his hand through his hair. “Not enough.” Today his blond hair was tied back with a piece of black leather.

  To my surprise, he reached into his gray flannel shirt and brought out a small bouquet of wild flowers. A piece of pink ribbon tied the bunch together at the base. “I saw these flowers this morning and thought of you.” He suddenly looked unsure of himself as he handed them over to me.

  I looked into his eyes as I accepted the gift. How I wished I could see dark-gray eyes staring back at me, but they weren’t Luke’s, not anymore—but not Caleb’s brown ones, either. The eyes looking back at me were unique: a ring of gray spread from the pupil and a circle of brown lined the iris’ edges. Somehow the eyes I stared into now had combined into both colors. I still didn’t know what that meant.

  I held the flowers, and we sat there in silence for a long moment. There was something about the way he held himself, a tension in his muscles and expression… I put the flowers on the table and finally broke the silence. “What’s wrong?”

  “Has Darla spoken to you?”

  “Not today.” Even though Darla was young, she’d somehow worked her way into a position of leadership with the young people in camp. I looked around. Most of the members in the camp were under twenty. The older death dealers were out trying to bring the rest of their kind safely back to the armed encampments. There was a desperate rush to round up as many of the death dealers as they could before they were all annihilated.

  Luke looked off into the distance.

  I took another bite of oatmeal and waited for him to tell me what was bothering him.

  He finally spoke. “Darla thinks she’s found a spell that can weaken the demon enough to kill it.”

  I dropped the spoon. It clattered against the bowl. “She found more information on the demon killers?” I couldn’t keep the excitement from my voice.

  He shook his head. “No. She came across a spell that would allow us to make the demon human—and vulnerable.”

  I picked up the flowers, twirled them my hand, and tried to make sense of his answer. “But the demon is already human. It was in the form of a little girl when we last saw it.”

  “Yes, but even though it was in human form, it wasn’t truly human.” Luke looked down at his hands. For a moment, small orange flames rippled across his skin before disappearing. “It had some power. The longer it stays in the child’s form, the weaker it gets. But this spell would force all the power out of the beast, and it would be completely human. Totally vulnerable.”

  “And we could kill it?” My voice rose in excitement.

  “Yes. In theory we could kill it, and once its human shell is gone, it will be banished from our world.”

  I’d been holding my breath while he answered. I let it out and gushed, “We can finally leave and go find the others! I know the most important thing is to track down the demon, but while we’re looking for it, we can search for our friends.”

  He looked away again. “We aren’t leaving. We’re going to force the creature to come to us.” He looked back at me, then reached out and covered my hand. “You’re the one that released the demon, which means you’re intimately connected with it.” He hesitated, and I could see fear in his eyes. “Colina, you have to perform the spell.”

  My heart jumped at his words. I stared at him in horror. When I found my voice again, I whispered, “When?”

  “Tonight. At the witching hour.”

  I pulled my hand out of his. “How long have you known about the spell? How long has your sister?”

  A guilty look came into his eyes, but he kept silent.

  “If you hadn’t told me, when would I have found out about the ritual? When they dragged me out into the night and shoved a book into my hands?” I demanded.

  “Darla is trying to be cautious,” Luke said.

  “She still doesn’t trust me.”

  He reached for my hand again. “Give her time. I know she’ll come around.”

  This time I d
idn’t pull my hand away. I knew he truly believed his sister would come to trust me, but I didn’t. Darla would never trust me. “Your people are okay with me doing magic?” They’d warned me that if I tried any magic in camp, there would be dire consequences.

  “You’re the only one who can do the spell.” I could tell by the way he was avoiding looking at me that he was holding something back. He said in a quiet voice, “I’m not sure Darla has asked the elders’ permission or even told them about it. Darla believes she can do this. That together we can do this.”

  “So I’m supposed to help Darla? And possibly get in more trouble with the guild?” I glared at him. “Why should I?” I could tell by his expression that my outburst surprised him. My words were laced with anger as I continued, “She wants my help now, but when the trial starts she’ll be out for my head.”

  His fingers squeezed mine. “This could help her finally see that you’re on our side. It will show the others, prove to them that you’re willing to do what you can to help destroy the creature.”

  A harsh laugh escaped my lips. “You really think this will make everyone forget about all the things I’ve done?” I knew deep down my actions would haunt me for the rest of my life.

  His voice took on a soothing tone. “Eventually they’ll come around. They may never forget, but someday they’ll accept.”

  “I think you give people a lot more credit than they deserve.” Did he not see the way the death dealers looked at me? How they treated me? I looked around at the camp. “These people will never forgive me. They’ll never forget.”

  He gave my hand another squeeze. “Don’t do it for them. Do it for yourself. I know you deeply regret letting the demon out. I know you want to see it destroyed. Now is your chance to make things right.”

  We sat in silence for a long time, staring out at the camp. I finally broke the silence. “Is Darla sure the spell will work?”

  I saw fear in his eyes again. “There’re no guarantees. No one has done this type of magic in a hundred years. It could be dangerous, but I’ll be there with you.”