City of Magic (Happily Ever Afterlife Book 1)

by Patricia Thomas

  Too late. "When you arrived in Sanctum that afternoon, that wasn't your first day in the After. It wasn't even your first year. You’ve been here before, you've done all this before. Not specifically in this city, but when your book finished you arrived just like you were supposed to."

  "And we died," I said, finally getting up to speed. "When characters die in the After, they start over fresh as though their book had just finished."

  I was still trying to work out the puzzle, but Marc looked positively sick.

  "So, we had lives before this, jobs and houses and relationships. And our memories of all of that are gone now?"

  "Right on target," Jonathan said, gleeful.

  I could understand a little of what Marc was feeling. If I'd felt like a lackluster human before, just reading my story, that feeling amplified now. I'd had years to build myself up, and become someone new. I could've fallen in love, multiple times over the years. I could have kids. And now my memories of all that, gone forever.

  "What happened to us?" I asked. Any second Jonathan could go back to insisting that he was the one asking the questions, but he seemed all too keen to share the details with us. He seemed to still think he could get us on his side somehow, even though he’d made it clear he had no problem hurting us if he didn't get what he wanted. I needed to keep his focus.

  "It really isn’t important," Jonathan said with a wave of his hand. "You need to start thinking big picture."

  "No. You want us to cooperate, but it's time you started being honest. What happened to us? Why are we here?" Sure, everything he'd already told us was weird enough, but that didn't explain anything between our arrival in Sanctum right up to the marks on our wrists.

  "After your first lives, you were both brought here to the After. What you did from there, I don't know. I found you both years later, prosaic, and boring. Your lives weren’t anything special, I assure you. At least the little I saw of them." Jonathan turned back to look at Marc, but never truly turned his back to me, letting us both stand in his line of vision. "And I gave you more. I changed you at a level so deep that even the After had to acknowledge it. When you came back, the potential I had gifted you with came too. No more blank slate, no more drab nobodies with nothing to offer to the world."

  "You killed us," I said, my voice gravelly. Marc's head snapped up to look at me, but I knew I was right. "One after the other, for the entire length of time that we were appearing in Sanctum, that was you. Murdering us. How many people did you kill, Jonathan?"

  "Enough. Not everyone made it through, but their sacrifices were well worth it.”

  It was strange to think about the moment before I'd arrived in the After. At least, the time I could remember. But now I knew I had been standing on the cusp of the death of not one life but two. The truth of my origin story would follow me forever, but another life that I knew I'd never remember would haunt my dreams.

  "What about Meg?" Marc asked, all the anger sapped from his voice. Even his body seemed to have given up. "Where's my wife?"

  "I don’t know. But when I found you, you weren’t wearing a wedding ring. You didn’t mention Meg, or anyone else. I think part of you was even excited to get away from whatever life you’d created for yourself. You were in a prosaic city, working as a beat cop. The rest, I don’t know. It wasn’t important then, and it certainly isn’t now."

  It was then that Marc broke, almost roaring and sobbing at once as he let out a scream of frustration, like his beloved wife had been physically ripped from him and tossed away.

  "And what do you want from us now?" I asked, trying to give Marc at least the semblance of privacy by keeping Jonathan’s attention. "You've already taken enough from us."

  "No, you don't understand. I've given you everything. You’re capable of so much more than you ever could have been. All you must do is show me what you're capable of and together we can change everything. I just need proof that it worked."

  "I swear," I said, "for the millionth time, I can't do anything else. Can you tell me what it is I'm supposed to be able to do?"

  "Unfortunately, no. The procedure was anything but exact. All I did was open each of you up to the ability to connect with a magical source. Which one is anyone's guess. If I can see how each of your powers have manifested, I can make sure that the next batch goes more smoothly. And, with a little luck, I can ensure everyone wakes up again where they died moments before. No more hide and seek in the city. I'll do better next time. Soon, people will be lining up for the opportunity for a fresh start."

  "I think you’re overestimating how much people would be willing to give up to access magic." I looked over at Marc. There was no question in my mind that he would choose Meg over powers of any kind, every time. And me, I still hadn't seen any proof at all that Jonathan's experiment had worked as well on my body as it had on Devon's. For all I knew, I'd been perfectly happy before living my life. Getting older, and growing as a person. And now any progress I’d made was lost.

  "Could be you're telling the truth," Jonathan said after his men had double checked we were secured. "But the human body is capable of incredible things when put to the test. Let's see what you both manifest after a day or so without any food or water. I'll need to be getting back to the Archive. I can only be gone for so long before the others start to suspect that I’m not out helping with your search and rescue effort after all. My boys here will take good care of you, I assure you. Well, at least, they won't do any direct harm. Not without me here to see the results. Stay put, and I'll see you both soon." Jonathan's voice rang with the false perkiness of a flight attendant or shop clerk.

  So far, I wasn't loving the customer service.

  Soon, Marc and I were alone, though I suspected Jonathan’s guards were still close by. We were both sitting slumped against the wall, trying to rest.

  "Weird day," Marc said. Instantly, my mind transported me back to sitting with Harper after our first day in the After. Back then, there had been no Archive, no previous lives to wonder about. Things hadn’t been simple, but they'd been a lot easier than they were now. What ability had Harper received that she’d never had the chance to experience? Was it one that would've been able to save her?

  And none of this answered the still looming question of who had been trying to do away with the new arrivals as they showed up in Sanctum. Clearly, Jonathan wanted to find us and hone our abilities, not get rid of us before he could see what we were capable of. At least, as far as I understood any of this, which didn't seem to be that well.

  Marc stuck out his chin defiantly. "That guy is a bit of a bastard."

  "I don't know about you," I said, "but I don't plan to be here when he gets back."

  Marc shifted against his chains, wincing a little as he moved. "Well, I'm open to ideas."

  "I’ve got nothing. But if you've been harboring any magical abilities, this is the time to tell me. The ability to melt through metal with your eyes would be particularly useful right about now."

  I was mostly joking, trying to lighten the mood. But as soon as I brought it up, Marc’s expression shifted. There was no denying it--he looked guilty.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  "Oh, you've got to be kidding me." I stared at Marc, trying to figure out what it was he was hiding from me. "You're seriously telling me you can change into a bird or something too?"

  "Not that," Marc said with a shrug. "But not nothing either. It just happened. The day before everything went down with Devon. I was sitting in one of the reading nooks on the sixth floor, and there were a couple of university students at a table across from mine. This guy and his girlfriend, arguing over some essay or another. The girl mentioned she’d finished hers already, and somehow, I just knew she was lying. I can’t explain it at all, and at first I thought it was just a weird gut feeling even though it was something she’d only said in passing."

  "Okay," I said, drawing the word out when Marc didn’t continue. At this point I was going to need everything spelled
out for me.

  "But it happened again that night. When the three of us were having dinner in the cafeteria and you said you weren't interested in Grayson like that, when Devon started pestering you about him. You were lying. Anyway, you’d done that before, but the feeling I had was so different from any other time the topic had come up, I had to think there was more to it." I flushed a little, but did my best not to break eye contact. Arguing now wouldn't get me anywhere, especially if he was telling me what I thought he was. "So, I started testing it out, and it became obvious pretty quickly that I can sense when someone's lying. Somehow."

  "And I guess that counts as magic," I said.

  "Well, it definitely isn't something I could do before this. Although, it would've been damn useful at work. It took me a little while to trust what I was feeling, but once things happened with Devon, there was no way I was going to come clean. At least, not until I saw how it played out."

  I sighed, closed my eyes, and leaned back against the wall. "So, Jonathan is right then? Whatever he did to us worked; it changed us. At least, you guys. Because I swear, I cannot do anything special. I mean, I'm flexible and know how to land a punch, but that's not magic."

  "Perhaps, whatever you have just hasn't manifested yet," Marc said, pointing out the obvious.

  "Or maybe, it didn't work for all of us."

  "Jonathan seems pretty confident. He absolutely believes whatever he did to us worked."

  I looked at Marc, measuring my words. "Why don't you just tell him what he wants to hear? He is obviously a monster; things can't get any worse than they are now."

  "I don't think so. I couldn't work out the specifics while he was explaining his master plan to us, but he was lying. Mostly. Whatever is going on, I can't believe he has our best interest at heart. And even if he did…"

  "Giving him what he wants probably means he kills more people to test his theories further."

  "Exactly. I've dealt with guys like him, and power will come before anything. He wants to make an impact, to change the world. And he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get there. I'm not exactly willing to be the catalyst that pushes that further."

  I flexed the muscles in my legs, trying to relieve a cramp in my thigh. "Where does that leave us?" I asked, not taking my eyes off my toes. "It's not like your new ability is going to help us get out of here. Can you get him to reveal something that might help? Or, give us some leverage?" I knew I was fishing, and kept my eyes glued to my toes because I didn't want to see the resignation cross Marc’s features, confirming what I already suspected, that we weren’t getting out of this.

  "The leverage we can use is exactly what we can’t give him. Which leaves you. I should think that whatever Jonathan did, it worked the same for all three of us. But it's not like we can figure out how to make your ability work when we don't know what it is."

  "Nothing has changed for me!" I said again.

  "I feel the same as I did before too, but the evidence suggests that I have at least picked up one new ability. We just need to find a way out of here, out of the building. If we can get that far, then at least we have options."

  "Neither you, nor Devon could control your ability when it first appeared. And if mine hasn't shown up yet, it seems to be a little more stubborn than what you guys got. Perhaps, all I can do is sense the kind of sandwiches a person would most like to eat, or always tell you the exact right time." I searched my mind, trying to come up with any arbitrary information that seemed to appear in my head like magic. Nothing happened. "Not only is there almost no chance of me pulling this power out of thin air, but it's probably not even going to be useful."

  "Alright, so what are our other options?" Marc barely waited for a response, since he knew as well as I did that I didn't have any. "Exactly. If nothing else, you have to try."

  Hours passed and I attempted everything from meditating to searching deep within myself, to saying words I thought might be magical. Nothing happened. It was possible I had a bit of a nap during what was supposed to be my meditation session, but even as my stomach started to rumble, I still felt the same.

  And our time was running out.

  No, our time had run out. I heard the moment a car pulled back into the driveway outside of the building, far sooner than I’d expected, and my heart beat twice as fast, while my breathing nearly stopped altogether.

  "I'm sorry," I said to Marc. "I've got nothing."

  "And unfortunately, I know you're telling the truth."

  "That’s it, then?"

  "Whatever happens next, I wouldn't bet on it being that much fun. But I don't think he’s going to kill us."

  "Why? If we're not being helpful, why bother keeping us around? We’re a liability more than anything else."

  "I'm going to choose to ignore the fact that you believe that to be true, because at this point I just need to believe there’s some piece to the puzzle we don’t understand yet. But…"

  Marc never had the chance to finish his sentence because at that moment Jonathan returned with two new guards trailing behind him. I wondered if these guys were secretly librarians as well, all betraying the very thing they supposedly believed in most and vowed to protect. And for what?

  "Time for good news!" Jonathan said, striding into the room.

  Standing, I drew my posture up as straight and high as I could, doing my best not to look like a target. Right away, I considered that I might have taken the other option and made myself seem small, pathetic, and not a threat. But there was no way Marc was going to make himself look like anything other than ready for a fight, and I knew we'd have a better chance of getting through whatever this was if we stuck together. For whatever came next.

  Jonathan stopped walking and stood in front of both of us. I did my best not to squirm under his gaze.

  "So, anything you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" Jonathan's face was barely hanging on to its expression of boyish charm and ambivalence. I didn't know why he was continuing to put on a show at all.

  "Look," I said, before pausing to clear my throat. Not having had water in half a day had taken more of a toll on me than I'd realized, when I'd been focusing inside myself rather than on my body. "We want to help you. Or more specifically, we just want to get out of this. If I had something to tell you, anything to share, I already would have."

  "And maybe I believe you. This is new territory for all of us, and I'm more than willing to accept that whatever powers the After gifted to you may take a little more coaxing--an experience I'm sure neither one of us is looking forward to. I like you, Kadie, and I want to help."

  Inadvertently, my gaze shifted from Jonathan's face to Marc’s, right as my friend was rolling his eyes slightly. It was an expression that no one else would've noticed, but I chose to take it as meaning Jonathan was just as full of bullshit as I was imagining. This guy didn't care what happened to me. I was just another tool for him to use, with or without my permission.

  "I don't know what to tell you. Let us go, and we can figure out a way through this. If you have done what you think you have, wouldn't the people you work with want to help you figure it out? With a little time and a team effort, we can get what we all want out of this."

  Jonathan scoffed. "I'm sorry to say but you don't know my colleagues as well as I do. Those who are bound to the Archive, have a particular way of thinking. A way they all believe things should be done in, and that way is exactly as the Archive dictates. How its will is interpreted, is left to those most stubborn and unwilling to change. So, you see where that gets me?"

  "But clearly," I said, "you don't see things that way. So, there could be others. You don't know."

  "Don't try to lecture me, little girl. I have been here far longer then you will ever have the chance to be, no matter how today plays out. I know the people I work with. And I also know those who oppose them. There are so many possibilities we have yet to explore, but publicly allying myself with anyone other than my fellow librarians will only enabl
e me to be met with scorn. They won't see that I am truly trying to benefit all of us, instead it will only be the betrayal that defines me."

  I wanted to point out that betrayal had that effect on people, but I kept my mouth shut. A minor miracle.

  Jonathan shook his head, seemingly disappointed that I didn't have more to offer. At least, I wasn't being quite as obstinate as Marc. I had tried to help, and I hoped that would count for something--just not at Marc's expense.

  I wasn't even sure what I was hoping for anymore. I just wanted to skip ahead to tomorrow and see where I landed.

  Briefly, I closed my eyes and wished with everything I had to do exactly that. Could that be my power?

  Nothing happened.

  "Well, if that's all you have to say for yourself there is no more time to waste." Jonathan looked over his shoulder at the two men who seemed willing to obey his every command. "I suppose it's time to get started. Have we settled on a strategy for round two? Fenrix?"

  The first man, tall with a trimmed grey beard studied both of us. "The girl," he said, and I swear he licked his lips a little as soon as he fixated on me. "With a little encouragement, perhaps we can convince her body to be somewhat more cooperative. And I have a few new strategies I've been dying to try out."

  The second man shook his head. "As fun as that may be," he said, though he didn't look as enthused by the idea as his companion, "that's not going to be our best strategy. Our boy here is a fighter. Punch him, and he wants to punch back. As for the little lady, I suspect that seeing her friend hurt is going to do far more to encourage her along than harming her directly will."

  Jonathan considered both their perspectives for a moment and then finally nodded. "We’ll go with Dash’s plan; let’s start with Marc. If that doesn't work, then we'll call Plan B on Kadie." His head slowly turned to face me. "Don't think for a second that this is going to save either one of you. I'm a man who gets what he's after, and I'm not a fan of those who stand in my way."