by Holly Hook
“Oh,” I said. “I get it.”
“Exactly,” Xavier said.
“Is that why everyone's leaving?” I asked. “I can't blame them. Politics are the scariest things out there.”
“War Mages can be corrupt,” Xavier said. “I'm saying that and I am one.”
I thought about the gilded buildings and the protection that only kept that area safe. “That's pretty bad,” I said, turning out of Trish's room and back into the nearby corridor. “Elsina? Are you out here?”
I sniffed the air. It was clearing out. There weren't many Abnormals in this part of the Underground. I had a feeling this was the slum area since everyone was living in alcoves.
But one scent rose above the others.
A woodsy scent that marked anyone with magic.
“She's out here somewhere,” I said.
Xavier and I found Elsina deep in her alcove, sobbing to herself and packing her trinkets into a large leather bag.
“You're crying,” he said to her, stepping over her peddling table and entering her space. “That's not good. What did you see?”
Elsina sobbed again and threw a necklace into the bag. Her stuff was everywhere on the floor, scattered around like she was in a panic. It wasn't a good sign.
“I had a vision,” she said.
She looked very small in her blue robe. Very small, and poor. I had thought that she just set up shop here to sell magical trinkets to anyone who passed by, but when I looked around the alcove I spotted a sleeping bag, a bucket of water, and a Styrofoam cooler that smelled like old food. Elsina lived like a homeless person in the sewer with no one to keep her company. No one, except for Xavier.
I would be asking him a lot of questions later.
Elsina hugged Xavier and her gray hair spilled out and toppled around the shoulders of her robe. Her hands were very wrinkled and arthritic. She wasn't as old as Leon had been but she was getting there. She had the hands of someone who had seen a lot.
“Oh, Xavier,” she said. “I always love it when you come and see me. You need to leave. I saw fire last night. Demons' flames, and purple flames. They consumed everyone down here. There were screams of the dying.”
He shot me a look.
“Leon's body was stolen,” Xavier told her, picking each word with care. “We think Thoreau has it.”
Elsina gripped him and stared him in the eye. Her eyes were as blue as ever, like a much younger woman's. They looked like the ocean, like her magic. “Then we are doomed.”
She was a Seer Mage. That meant her dreams were probably more than just dreams. I looked up and down the corridor to make sure no fire was racing towards us. I wanted to go find Janine and pull her out of here before that happened.
Xavier cleared his throat. “How long away is this?”
“A week,” Elsina said. “My visions always come from a week away.” She stuffed another trinket into her bag. “If he takes Leon's body to the Dark Council, they will be able to extract...” she muttered something again as she turned and buried her face in Xavier's leather coat. She smelled of adrenaline, like every other frightened person down here.
“What's this Dark Council?” I asked. “And how do we find them?”
Elsina lifted her head and stood up all the way. She was taller than I'd expected, at least one head over me. “It is suicide to go after them. People do not speak about them much and until now, I thought they may not be real even though I've had dreams. They are said to be five of the most dangerous, most powerful beings in the world. Together, they are supposed to have the power to extract magic from cells, among other impossible things like raising the dead. If Thoreau took Leon's body, they must exist. If they did not, the body would be useless to him. That is why there is panic.”
“What kind of beings make up this Council?” Xavier asked.
“No one knows for sure,” Elsina said. “Thoreau himself may be one of them. He is old enough. Powerful enough.”
“Does this Council have to do with this Dark Pentagram thing?” I asked. “I keep seeing this theme of five coming up again and again.”
Elsina paused. “I do not know,” she says. “My visions don't let me see everything. I can't control them. There are more powerful things than me out there and they have the power to block my Sight when it comes to their greatest secrets.”
Xavier wasn't done. “Do you know where we can find them? I believe your visions. You saw me falling off that ladder when I was eight.”
“Did it happen?” I asked.
Xavier faced me. He frowned. “I thought she was joking. But...it happened and I broke my arm. Trish had to fix me up.”
Xavier had known Elsina for longer than I thought. With a family like his, I could see why he got out of his house and hung out here. But why hadn't he helped them?
“I do not know where the Dark Council meets,” Elsina thought. “They have powerful wards that keep them secret. Only those associated with them would know. I do think that it would take some time to extract Leon's power from his cells.”
“Are you sure this burning thing is going to happen a week from now?” I asked. “And you saw purple flames?” That was Leon's magic, all right.
“It was War Magic,” Elsina said, training those very blue eyes on me. “There were people here.”
“But everyone's leaving,” Xavier said. “That doesn't make sense if this is supposed to happen a week from now.”
“Will it?” I asked, panic rising. “Thoreau could strike right now if he wanted.”
“Extracting magic is something that would take a lot of effort and probably time,” Xavier said. “Things like that are never easy. I don't know of anyone who's done it. I believe that Elsina's right about it being a week from now. Everyone's leaving, but we don't know if they'll still be gone in a week.”
“Thoreau would want that,” Elsina said. “He would want to wait until a good time to strike. He is not a stupid mayor. You must find a way to locate this Dark Council. The only way to do that, I believe, would be to ask someone who is close to Thoreau.”
Xavier faced me. “We don't know anyone like that.”
“Great,” I said. “The only people I can think of would be Allunna or Marissa, but neither of them are going to talk to us. Wait. Is there a way to talk to the dead?”
* * * * *
We found Janine and her mother packing what few things they had once we got to Janine's little apartment. I realized Janine was living in a place way better than the slums and so was I. Maybe this was the middle class section of the Underground and the people in the slums were squatters.
Janine and her mom were the last people left in the area once Xavier and I got there. We had passed through the market and through lingering food smells, but the vendors were all gone and the booths empty. Even the lanterns were close to burning out in that giant room. The pubs and bars were vacated. I had only spotted one Normal bartender wiping up a table in a hurry on the way here.
“Oh. Good,” Janine said, facing me. “I wasn't sure I was going to find you through the streets. They're getting dark.” Her mother was in the back room, packing, so that was fortunate.
I had forgotten how much better I could see in the dark compared to Janine and Xavier. It was true that the candles were all getting low. I would be leading them out of here. I imagined a bunch of Abnormals escaping to the surface and scattering around the city until things seemed to die down and the Underground looked like it might be safe to return to. Then Thoreau would descend upon them when they all came back home. He would destroy his competition, his resistance to the ATC, unless Xavier and I stopped him.
I hoped Janine took a long time to get ready, because I wasn't looking forward to going to a bad part of Cumberland to meet Elsina's distant cousin who liked to dabble in necromancy.
Yes. Elsina had a distant cousin, Mack, who was a Dark Mage due to intermarriage in her family. Xavier had explained to me that different kinds of Mages could marry each other, just like they coul
d marry Normals, even though they usually kept with their own type. Their children went one way or the other so there were no hybrids.
The guy was supposed to be a loner, not with the Underground or Thoreau, and Elsina had wished us luck in meeting with him. It was the only way we'd be able to speak with Allunna or anyone else who had died.
If she even wanted to talk to us, but it was our only hope.
Janine didn't take as long as I'd hoped. I felt the paper with the Mack's address on it, making sure it was still in my pocket. Mack lived in a junkyard and managed the place. That sounded like the perfect place to talk to the dead.
“I'm done,” Janine said, standing in her doorway with a suitcase. “I just have to wait for my mom. I talked her into going to live with my second cousin. Dwayne Eastman. Remember that.”
“That's good,” I said. “I don't think you want to come on this next mission. Xavier and I have seen Dark Mages. They're not fun.”
“They've been known to sacrifice people,” Xavier said.
“Really?” she asked. “I know this isn't like me, but I think I'll bow out of this one. Mom and I need to figure things out. But you had better come and visit. I might be Normal but I want to be your best friend.”
“That might be a good idea,” I said. “The list of sacrifices doesn't include other Abnormals, I hope.” This would give me some alone time with Xavier. It would be awkward asking him about his last battle partner but it had to be done if we were going to get this wall out of the way and work together.
Chapter Five
I took my sword from Thorne's now-empty training chamber, which Xavier glamoured to make look like the Hello Kitty cane again, wrapped in its decorative masking tape. I had led Janine and her mother to a ladder to get to the surface and made sure they got out before coming here. While I was doing that, Xavier ran back home for something. Once I made sure Janine and her mother had climbed out of the Underground, Xavier and I met back at the intersection of Frankincense where I'd talked to Les earlier and made our way towards another ladder.
By then, the Underground was utterly empty. Everyone had fled.
By time we found another ladder that led up the surface—this one behind a pub that was empty and dark—the Underground was mostly dark and quiet. Only a few voices echoed down the corridors. Apparently, the power locked inside Leon's body was pretty common knowledge and no one had needed to tell anyone else to evacuate the Underground. People just left as if they had all rehearsed the worst in their heads. But the Elder War Mages were still down here. I could smell the wood smoke scent, faint as it was.
“What about your sister?” I asked Xavier as we stood next to the ladder.
“She was at the funeral,” he said. “My Aunt Primrose took her. They're at one of our safe houses. I talked to her when you were taking Janine and her mom to a ladder. I had to know where they were going.”
“What about you?” I asked. “Wasn't she worried? And we still haven't found Trish.”
Xavier remained quiet as he gripped the ladder, ready to climb. Then he spoke. “Trish must be worried about me. She told me to stay at the balcony. I didn't. But she'll be able to smell my absence down here if she's still even here. I don't think she is.”
“Will your aunt approve of me?” I asked.
“She's my mother's sister,” Xavier explained, putting his other hand on the rung. “She was Leon's favorite child, but didn't produce any children who inherited her magic.”
“So everything fell on you,” I said. After the underground mansion I'd seen, I was a bit nervous about meeting the rest of Xavier's biological family.
“I don't care if she approves of you or not,” Xavier said. “You're my battle partner and it's going to stay that way.” He began to climb.
His sleeve fell back as he did and I spotted his mark, the magenta crossed swords that said he was Bound to me. I had the same symbol on my arm, along with the slash mark that announced that one of us had killed a demon.
But there was something strange about his mark.
Even in the dark, I could see it well.
There was a second pair of crossed swords, much paler than the first, underneath the fresh mark. I knew Xavier had a battle partner before, but if she'd been turned into a Shadow Wraith, why was it still even kind of there?
Now wasn't the time to ask. I could smell early night from above, that cooling, crisp air. Traffic whizzed in the distance. Fast food and restaurant smells mixed in. Peoples' dinners, flowing through their blood. I was a little hungry, but not to the point where I was going to fall over yet. Trish had let me have a couple of blood bags before the funeral (calling me an Imposter the whole time) so I would be fine.
I wouldn't bite anyone unless things got very, very bad. People didn't forget when you bit them. Hannah sure hadn't and the last and only time I'd done it, I'd ruined my life.
We climbed the ladder and Xavier undid the trapdoor that led into yet another alley. All entrances to the Underground, not the sewer, seemed to pop out in alleys. I climbed out after him to see that we were on the edges of downtown. The ATC building's red logo towered over us and I could spot the top of Dad's building from here.
I ached inside, knowing he was somewhere on the other side of that portal that neither I nor Xavier knew how to open. He was sleeping. Unaware.
I was lost and I needed Dad. But as soon as we found Thoreau again, we'd be closer to getting him back. It was one of the biggest reason I had to speak to Allunna.
“It sucks to look at that,” Xavier said. “We can't go back in there yet.”
I had to turn away. The sight of the ATC building made me feel helpless and lost. From here, I could spot the tiny balcony Xavier and I had jumped from to escape the army of Shadow Wraiths inside. We'd failed and Thoreau had brought me a step closer to being the key that would end the world...whatever the Dark Pentagram was.
“So, where's this junkyard?” I asked.
“This way,” Xavier said. “I've never been in there, but the place will give you a bad feeling once you're near it.”
“Does this guy work with Thoreau?” I asked.
“I don't think so,” Xavier said. “But keep that sword. We both know that sooner or later we're going to need it.”
* * * * *
We didn't speak much on the way to the junkyard. The buildings got smaller around us and turned into apartments. We weren't too far from the burned husk that used to be Janine's.
Once we had left downtown and could make out some stars above, I got up the bravery to ask Xavier the question.
“So, are pixies good fighters?” I asked.
Xavier shifted with discomfort and a bit of adrenaline pumped through his veins, metallic. This was bothering him. “She was. Elora. That was her name. I chose her to be my battle partner because she was good with archery. Pixies are technically fae and archery is a strong suit of theirs.”
I imagined the green girl ready to fire an arrow that was flaming with war magic. “Who did she have to fight for her test?” I asked.
“The werewolf you were supposed to fight before Leon rigged the whole thing,” Xavier said. “She did well. Leon was happy with my choice and wanted us Bound right away. The family loved her.”
I had figured that much from the painting. I thought about the faded mark underneath the one Xavier and I shared, left over like some scar or echo. He was still carrying it. Xavier's shoulders rose with tension and pain. He had his moods and he was slipping into one.
“I'm just curious,” I said. I had to tread carefully here. “The thing that battle partners have to do to make their bond strong is different for each species. I'd have to bite you to make our bond stronger.” I had to approach the subject slowly. “What did Leon and Allunna have to do to make their bond strong?”
Xavier grimaced at me. “Do you really want to know? Allunna was a succubus.”
“Oh.” I grimaced back. “I get it.”
“Which is why Grandma left him,” he said. �
��I wish I had met her. She sounded like a great woman.”
“So, how would it be with werewolves?” I asked.
“Biting. Again. It doesn't turn the War Mage, thankfully. Mages are probably the only humans who are immune.”
“So it must be easy with pixies.”
Xavier tensed again.
“How would that work?” I pressed.
“The pixie would have to bring us food from a fae garden, food that they've touched or grown themselves. Fae are very good gardeners. Did you see that garden near the testing room? Fae.”
“And then you'd eat that food,” I finished. “Did you ever get a chance to try it?”
Xavier whirled on me. “Why are you asking me this?”
I stopped on the sidewalk. Somewhere, a baby was crying behind a window. A dog barked somewhere and someone's blood in the building next to me smelled like beer and pizza.
“I was just wondering,” I said innocently. “I'm sorry. I know you don't like talking about this. I went too far.”
The adrenaline calmed down and the smell got less strong, leaving only Xavier's wood smoke one. I had a feeling I knew the answer to my question.
Xavier had strengthened his bond with the pixie, Elora.
He had loved her and then lost her.
“You're right,” Xavier said. “I don't like talking about this crap. Now, let's find that junkyard. I think it's another mile up the road.”
We were silent again after that. I felt like there was a wall between us, a wall that I couldn't find a way to tear down. Elora hadn't actually died. She was still sort of alive, a Shadow Wraith serving Thoreau somewhere, a dead soul, and I had the feeling that Xavier still had a tiny bit of a link to her. Ours was there but weak.
I hoped the only way to bring us together wasn't to bite him and do what Thoreau wanted.
Risking the world wasn't worth that.
I saw the junkyard before Xavier did. We stepped away from the yellow sodium streetlights and away from the food smells that the apartment inhabitants were giving off. The street got a lot darker and I held onto Xavier's arm. He didn't protest.