by SF Mazhar
Kate left to help with the burial arrangements. Aaron, Rose and Sam helped the group of mages cleaning up the street, sweeping the debris to one side. They carried the remnants of the table and piled it before the Stove, or what was left of it.
They worked in silence, Sam and Rose avoiding Aaron’s eye. After almost three-quarters of an hour working like this, Aaron’s resolve broke.
“You both not going to say anything?” he asked.
Sam heaved a heavy piece of wood onto his shoulder and carried it away without replying.
“Come on, guys,” Aaron said. “Talk to me, please.”
“About what?” Rose asked, bending low to pick up a slab of the table. She began dragging it across the street. Aaron ran to catch up and lift it with her.
“I know you’re mad at me,” Aaron said. “You don’t think I should’ve called Kyran.”
Rose didn’t say anything but her jaw clenched. She let go of the table three steps too soon and walked away.
Aaron dragged the slab to the pile of wood by himself and dropped it. “Kyran didn’t do anything,” he called after Rose.
Rose whirled around. “What is wrong with you?” she asked, her eyes full of anger. “You heard what Skyler said – the vamages could only get in if a mage dropped the Gate. What other mage do you know that works for Hadrian? What other mage would let vamages destroy an entire city in one night?”
“It wasn’t Kyran,” Aaron repeated adamantly. “He wouldn’t let Salvador be attacked.”
“He warned me about this,” Rose said. “He told me to leave Salvador, said it wasn’t safe.” Her eyes bore into Aaron’s. “Kyran knew an attack was coming.”
Aaron stared at her, lost for words. Kyran may have known about the attack, but Aaron couldn’t bring himself to believe he would drop the Gate and let the vamages in to Salvador. He shook his head.
“Rose–”
“He lived here,” Sam interrupted, coming to stop in front of Aaron with an armful of broken wood. “He knew the layout. He knew where the Hub was and that’s why the vamages went straight there.” His brown eyes were serious as they held Aaron’s gaze. “Argue all you want, Aaron, but Kyran is the one who dropped the Gate. You may have called him, but he didn’t come for you. He was already here. He came with the intention of getting the Hub, annihilating everyone and everything in the process.” He threw the wood onto the ground and began walking away.
“Sam, wait,” Aaron said.
Sam turned. “But you know what gets me more than the fact that you called a known enemy to our doorstep?” he asked. “That you didn’t tell me that’s what you were thinking of doing.” He stared at Aaron. “You used to tell me everything.”
“Sam,” Aaron started. “I didn’t plan it. It was a spur of the moment thing.”
“What about the time he came to see you in Hunda?” Sam asked. “Why didn’t you tell me about that?”
Aaron didn’t say anything. He dropped his gaze.
“Friends don’t keep secrets, Aaron,” Sam said. “I’ve never hidden anything from you.”
“I know that,” Aaron said.
“Then why didn’t you tell me?” Sam asked. His eyes narrowed. “How many times have you met him in private?”
“Just twice,” Aaron said. “That time in Hunda and last night.”
Sam didn’t say anything, but distrust gleamed in his eyes.
“Come on, Sammy,” Aaron pleaded. “You know I’m not lying. It’s just...I was confused about Kyran and why he wasn’t attacking me, why he kept protecting me. That’s why I didn’t say anything. But now I know why. He protected me because I’m his brother.”
“He may be your brother,” Sam said, “but that doesn’t stop him being an enemy.”
“Sam,” Aaron protested.
“You can deny it all you want, but Kyran’s the reason Salvador was attacked last night,” Sam said. “He didn’t carry out the attack, but he dropped the Gate and let the vamages in. Every death in last night’s attack is on his head.”
He may not have used the same words, but Skyler had said the same thing to Aaron, and it hurt a thousand times more coming from Sam.
“Do you even realise that by dropping the Gate, Kyran made damn sure the human realm suffered along with everyone in Salvador?” Sam asked. “The Gate was gone, Aaron. There was nothing left to block the tear in the barrier. Every time a mage, or even vamage, used their powers last night, all that power went straight through the tear and into the human realm. God only knows how many people were killed or injured in our world.”
Aaron was staring at him with horror. He’d forgotten that the ramifications of last night involved the human realm too.
“All of that is on Kyran’s head,” Sam said. “He had the power to stop the attack, but he didn’t. Just like he didn’t stop vamages from murdering my parents.”
There was nothing Aaron could say. Sam’s brown eyes had never looked so serious. Sam turned and walked away. Rose gave Aaron a long look before following after her twin, leaving Aaron all alone.
***
The sun set that day to the mages standing in a circle around the shrouded bodies. Wads of white cloth had covered each dead body, from head to foot, leaving only their faces bare. The mages stood in quiet mourning, listening to Neriah deliver one of Aric’s sermons. Aaron tried to concentrate, but Neriah’s speech was nothing more than mere words that made little to no sense to him. His mind felt clouded, his thoughts in disarray as he looked at the bodies on the ground. Twenty-four mages and one human – that’s who they were burying today. How many would it be tomorrow? What was going to be the final count at the end of this war?
Aaron snapped out of his thoughts when he saw several mages step forward to each covered body and sit next to it.
“It is from Heaven that we came,” Neriah said. “It is to Heaven that we shall return.”
The mages seated beside the bodies lifted their hands and touched the soft grass. Before Aaron’s eyes, the twenty-five bodies began to slowly sink into the ground.
“Bodies perish,” Neriah read from memory, his deep voice laced with pain. “But the heart is immortal. It goes on living, forever alive in the whispers of the air it once breathed, in the current of the water it once swam, in the core of the fire it used to spread warmth, and in every grain of sand it walked on.”
The bodies continued to sink down until they were gone. Slowly the ground reformed again. Small mounds of freshly dug ground marked each grave. Mages from the gathered circle stepped forward, each carrying a small headstone with the name of the deceased carved into it.
Aaron watched as a teary-eyed Ella carried a white tombstone to Skyler, who was kneeling next to the grave he had buried Armana in. Ella knelt at Skyler’s side and silently handed him the stone. With shaky hands, Skyler took it and gently placed it at the head of the grave. Skyler’s eyes hadn’t dried. His tears fell on the grave as he fixed the stone. Even after it was placed, his fingers lingered on Armana’s name, as if taking their last feel of her. Skyler’s head dropped and his shoulders shook. Ella hugged Skyler from behind and buried her face into his neck as she cried. They stayed like that for a moment or two, lost in their pain, before Ella pulled back and urged Skyler to his feet. Skyler’s pain was visible, raw and brutal on his tear-stained face. He stood but swayed a little. He clutched at Ella’s arm, holding her close, but his eyes were still on Armana’s grave.
Slowly, the crowd thinned. Everyone left, except for Skyler, Ella and Aaron. Wiping a sleeve over his eyes, Aaron approached Armana’s grave and knelt next to it. He placed his hand on the ground. Pale blue forget-me-not flowers grew under his command, at the base of Armana’s tombstone.
Getting to his feet, Aaron looked at Skyler and Ella.
“Skyler,” Aaron started quietly, stepping towards him. “I’m so sorry about Armana–”
Skyler grabbed Aaron by the neck and pulled him close. His eyes were bloodshot, the blue as cold as ice.
�
�Listen close, Adams,” he growled. “You tell that brother of yours the day I find him, that day will be his last.” He shoved Aaron back and turned, walking away.
“Skyler?” Ella called. “Skyler! Wait!” She ran after him but Skyler didn’t stop. He didn’t even look back at her.
After a few minutes, the newly set up Gate flashed as Skyler left the City of Salvador.
***
Most of the cottages were left uninhabitable after the fire. There were only a few that had survived the attack. The mages crammed into the available space, taking the beds, sofas and even the floors to get some rest. If they had their Controller and the Hub, they could have easily set up a portal and gone to another city, but their journeys from now on were going to have to be made on foot or on their bikes.
Aaron slipped out of an overstuffed cottage and went for a walk. He needed to clear his head, to get peace from the tranquillity of the glassy pool. But it seemed someone else had the same idea. Aaron paused at the sight of Neriah at the bank of the lake. He turned to go back when Neriah called out to him, “It’s okay, Aaron. You can come.”
“It’s cool,” Aaron replied. “I’ll go.”
“Aaron,” Neriah called. “Please. Come, sit.”
Aaron hesitated, then slowly walked over. He sat under the floating lanterns, next to Neriah. For long minutes, both Aaron and Neriah simply watched the dark water before them in silence. Aaron glanced at him, but Neriah’s expression was unreadable.
Aaron took in a breath. “Are you still mad at me?”
Neriah looked around at him. “For hiding your encounters with Kyran?” Neriah shook his head. “Not any more.”
“Why’s that?” Aaron asked.
“You’re brothers,” Neriah explained. “The instinct to protect blood is perhaps the strongest in us mages.” He faced Aaron with a small, barely there smile. “You may not have known you were brothers, but your heart knew. Your core recognised his. You didn’t raise the alarm when he came to you because you were trying to protect him – it’s probably why you didn’t mention it at all. I can’t be angry with you for that.”
Aaron kept his eyes on Neriah. “Because you did the same,” he stated. “With Hadrian.”
Neriah stiffened. His eyes continued to gaze ahead of him. After a long moment, he answered, “Yes. Because I did the same with Hadrian.” He closed his eyes and pulled in a breath. “I protected him when I shouldn’t have.” He turned his head to look at Aaron. “I think about all the time I wasted, trying to find a cure, when deep down I already knew it was hopeless. I could have done the right thing. I should have done the right thing.”
“Meaning you should’ve killed him?” Aaron asked.
Neriah didn’t reply right away. He looked back over at the lake. “I saw what was happening to him,” he said quietly. “I saw the light in him go dark. I could have done something then. I could have saved all of us from this fate. How many lives has Hadrian devastated? How many will he go on to destroy? All of them, all of this death and misery he’s causing, it’s on my head. I had a chance to stop him and I didn’t.”
“I don’t agree,” Aaron said. “Hadrian is responsible for what he does, not you. You tried helping him. You tried to find a cure. What’s happening isn’t your fault.” Aaron paused, studying Neriah. “If you could do it over, would you kill him?”
Neriah didn’t reply. He looked conflicted, his head dropped, eyes full of pain and guilt.
“I don’t think you would,” Aaron said. “You would always try to save your friend.”
Neriah lifted his head, his eyes staring out into the darkness. “That’s my error,” he said. “I keep seeing my friend, when I should see a demon.”
“Becoming a vamage doesn’t erase the part of you that was a mage,” Aaron said. “How can anyone expect you to forget the mage who was your friend?”
“He was more than that,” Neriah said. “I cared for him like a brother. I loved him like he was my own blood.”
“Do you hate him now?” Aaron asked.
Neriah didn’t speak for almost a full minute. “Hate is a word that’s greatly misused,” he said. “It gets called on for everything, when really the word needed is dislike.” His voice dipped low. “Hatred is a strong, crippling emotion. It destroys you from the inside, because the fact is you can’t truly hate someone you never once loved.” He turned to Aaron. “It’s the abuse of the love we once had that gives us the ability to hate.”
Aaron dropped his gaze to the ground. They sat in silence as the wind picked up, driving the chill into Aaron’s body.
“What are we going to do?” Aaron asked quietly. “Hadrian has the Hub. He can now wipe out entire zones at a time.” He raised his eyes to Neriah. “He could build a Q-Zone around us and kill us where we stand.”
Neriah’s jaw clenched. “Hadrian’s done enough.” The words came out with great strain, like he was struggling to speak past his rage. He looked at Aaron with dark violet eyes. “Now, it’s my turn.”
31
Laying Traps
The plan was fairly straightforward. Neriah was going to take his Hunters and storm Hadrian’s zone to take back the Hub. It sounded simple enough, but Aaron knew it was going to be anything but.
The Hunters all crowded in the street around Neriah, who had mapped out a copy of the realm on the ground with sticks.
“Zone K is Hadrian’s securest zone,” Neriah said. “No matter which corner we try to get in from, we’re going to have to go through his other zones first.” He sat back, crouching on the ground, brow creased. “That’s where he’s holding the Hub,” he said. “At least, that’s what he wants us to think.”
“What do you mean?” Ella asked.
Neriah didn’t answer right away. He was staring at his makeshift map with narrowed eyes. He reached out and touched one of their neighbouring zones.
“He’s holding the Hub here,” he said. “In Zone J.”
Every eye turned to him.
“That’s the closest one to us,” Ella said. “It’s literally the next zone.”
“I know,” Neriah said. “That’s why Hadrian would put the Hub there.”
“I’m sorry,” Ryan said, shaking his head. “No disrespect to you, Neriah, but this doesn’t make any sense. Why would Hadrian steal the Hub and then put it in the zone right next to us?”
“Because he’s Hadrian,” Neriah replied. “He would find it deeply amusing if we fought tooth and nail to get past his defences, only to find the Hub isn’t there, but was under our noses the entire time.” He looked at the map again and slowly nodded. “He would put the Hub in Zone J.”
Aaron couldn’t help it. He knew what he was going to say would upset many, but he had to voice his reservations.
“Are you sure Zone J is even one of Hadrian’s zones?”
Neriah looked up at him with a frown. The Hunters, as expected, looked to Aaron as if he were mad.
“What do you mean?” Neriah asked.
“It might not be Hadrian’s zone,” Aaron said. “According to Kyran, Hadrian only actually has nine zones.”
Neriah’s narrowed eyes widened. The Hunters around him grew restless, shifting to look at Aaron.
“So who has the other ten?” Zhi-Jiya asked with a furrowed brow. “Evil, element-abusing fairies?”
“Demons,” Aaron replied. “Kyran said demons have ten zones. They’ve found a way past Gates and are taking over the zones.”
Murmurs of outrage rippled through the crowd. Aaron ignored them, his eyes on Neriah. The leader of the mages was staring back at Aaron, his eyes a dark purple.
“And you believe him?” Neriah asked.
“The Lycans that attacked us had found their way in without dropping the Gate,” Aaron reminded. “Maybe what Kyran said isn’t all that far-fetched.”
Neriah was quiet for almost a minute. “What else did he tell you?”
“That you lied about him,” Aaron replied. “That the attacks Scott reported as the wor
k of the Scorcher was really Raoul and his Lycans. Kyran was here, in Salvador, at the time of the attacks. So how could he be responsible?”
The Hunters shifted in quiet fury, glaring at Aaron. Their hands were curled into fists, eyes narrowed and jaws clenched. Aaron held his ground. He knew calling the leader of the mages a liar in front of his loyal Hunters wasn’t going to go down well. But he had to say it. He had to ask how Kyran could be blamed for crimes he clearly hadn’t committed.
Neriah didn’t move. He held Aaron’s stare for a long minute, and then nodded.
“He has a point,” he said quietly. “Maybe we were wrong about those attacks. Maybe some of them were in fact Raoul and the Lycans. I admit I don’t know Kyran well enough to judge if he was the one responsible.” His eyes grew fierce. “But I know Hadrian. And I know all nineteen zones belong to him. I know because he took them from me.”
Aaron didn’t fight back. Kyran had said the demons took the zones from Neriah, not Hadrian. Was Kyran lying? Or was Neriah blindly blaming Hadrian for something he didn’t do? Like the mages did with Kyran?
Ryan took in a breath and stepped forward. “When do we leave for Zone J?” he asked.
Neriah took a moment before slowly straightening up. He looked around at his Hunters. “The day after tomorrow,” he said. “I’m told by the Empaths that they hope Scott will have regained consciousness by then.” He scanned the crowd. “Let’s get our Controller his Hub back in time for him to wake up.”
***
Two days later, the Hunters prepared to storm Zone J and take back their Hub. They gathered in the street, weapons of all kinds in hands and strapped on torsos, arms and legs. It was the largest crowd of Hunters Aaron had ever witnessed. He saw plenty of faces he recognised, including the red-haired Bella. She gave him a small nod in greeting but stayed next to her bike.
Despite the large numbers, the usual excitement for a hunt was missing. There was no boisterous laughter from the Hunters, no cheering from the watching mages, no positive energy in the air.