by Lily Velez
“Magic is a living thing,” Jack said. “Think of it as taming a wild animal. It takes time to coax it into emerging. It takes time to win its trust. Even then, you still have to train it, grow with it. It’s a process.”
The dizzy spell at last subsided. “I want to try again.”
“Of course. But this time, let’s do something differently. You’ll focus on the same task, separating a single drop of water from the rest, but I want you to hold my hand as you try.”
As his fingers slipped into the spaces between mine, my stomach somersaulted. It was such a little thing, I knew, but I relished the warmth of his skin, that slight buzz of electricity that radiated off its surface.
He nodded at me, encouraging me to proceed just as a strange sensation began filling my hand, as if I were leeching warmth from him. He was giving me some sort of magical jumpstart, I realized. My heart picked up speed. The sensation coursed through me, racing up my arm and igniting points all over my body that soon went off like fireworks one by one. It was energizing, electrifying. A weightlessness came over me, as if I were filled with helium and could float into the air at any minute. I could’ve burst from the happiness that built up in my chest.
“Remember,” came Jack’s voice. “When we call upon the four Quarters, we do so with respect. Earth, air, fire, water—they’re all living things. Magic is alive in them the same way that it’s alive in you. So you have to almost merge with the Quarter you’re summoning. You have to get so lost in it that its magic and your magic come together as one.”
With renewed vigor, I concentrated on the water encasing my free hand. I moved my fingers through it as before, in a motion like plucking the strings of a harp. The water was satiny against my skin, so tranquil and at peace. There’s magic in this water, I thought. And with Jack’s help, there was now magic crackling inside me. I pushed out those threads of magic once again, embracing the water. If I needed to become one with it, I could do that. I drew close to it at the same time I drew it closer to me.
Thank you, I said. For your power, for your magic. Gently, I mentally eased myself into the water. I let myself dissolve into its essence until I couldn’t even feel my body anymore. Instead, I was every drop that made up the fountain’s pool, and I floated in the basin, buoyant and free. There was only the water now, flooding through every party of me until I was filled with it, until I couldn’t tell where one of us ended and the other began. We were one and the same now. Equals. It was one of the most amazing things I’d ever felt.
Finally, I held a single drop in my mind and beckoned it away from the others. Will you come away with me? I felt the drop’s initial resistance to my request, felt it pulling back to join its brothers and sisters, but I mentally cupped my hands around it, gently, kindly, and whispered to it. I won’t hurt you. You’ll return to the others. But will you help me in this one thing first?
The drop hesitated, testing the truth behind my words. I could feel Jack’s magic glowing around me like an aura, and I pushed some of that magic to the drop to ease it. Its resistance receded. It became compliant, slowly spinning before me, ready to do as I asked. Thank you. I guided it through the pool, past the fountain’s surface, and watched it in my mind’s eye as it rose into the air like a perfect, transparent marble. It gleamed in the moonlight.
“Scarlet.”
I opened my eyes, ready to see what I’d accomplished. My jaw fell open.
I hadn’t called forth one drop as planned. I’d called forth the entire pool.
I bolted to my feet. The water rose up in glorious, arching waves like flames of blue, tall enough to dwarf the angel at the fountain’s center, held in place only by magic. My concentration broke, and the water immediately came crashing back down into the basin with a loud splash, sloshing over the sides to wet our feet. The surface trembled as the water sought to calm itself.
I faced Jack, exhilaration bursting in my chest. The last embers of his magic were still smoldering inside me, falling all around my bones like volcanic ash. “How…?”
He smiled. “I channeled my magic into you. Sometimes, when young witches haven’t yet come into their powers, a mentor will do it to help wake up those first sparks of magic. It won’t be enough for you to summon the four Quarters on your own just yet, not without channeling power from another witch or a charmed object, but I felt your magic, Scarlet. It’s there. I’ve roused it from its sleep. It just needs a little bit more nurturing since it’s been dormant for so long. But with regular practice, it’ll eventually come. It helps that you already had an appreciation for nature in your heart.”
I hardly knew what to say. I was still a little bit in raptures as Jack’s magic continued to swirl around in my body, my stomach flipping as if I rode a rollercoaster. For a few moments, all I could do was stare at him, my face flushed, my skin warming with gratitude and wonder.
“If I’d never met you,” I said, “my magic would’ve stayed dormant for the rest of my life.” I shook my head, the reality almost incomprehensible. It wasn’t just that Jack had stirred my magic from its deep slumber. He’d changed my whole world, introducing me to a reality I would’ve never imagined existed. “I don’t know how I could ever thank you enough.”
“Scarlet,” he said in response, my name almost a whisper. He tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear, his fingers moving ever so delicately, as if not to startle me, as if to ensure the gesture was okay. He met my eyes. “You don’t have to thank me for anything.”
“Well, well, well. Isn’t that sweet?”
Jack and I spun toward the gravelly male voice and were greeted by the sight of a dozen onlookers spaced out around the area, all wearing sinister, black trench coats. My heart slammed against my chest when I noticed they were each holding a metal police truncheon by a hand gloved in black. One terrible word instantly shot to mind.
Hunters.
Jack’s face became hard, a dangerous gleam in his eyes. He moved me behind him. “She has nothing to do with this.”
“Is that right?” The man was barrel-chested, his bald head overrun with tribal tattoos. “Because we just witnessed the girl accomplish quite the magic trick.” He threw out an arm toward the ground, and his truncheon elongated with a snap. A spark of electricity sizzled at its end.
“You have no idea who you’re dealing with,” Jack said, his voice firm, threatening. It was a tone I hadn’t yet heard from him.
“Oh, but we do. We know all about you, Jack Connelly. They say you’re the most powerful witch alive.” His smile was cruel, his dark eyes wells of poison. “I think it’s about time we do something about that, don’t you?”
Thunder rumbled above us. Lightning struck out like the forked tongue of a snake, answering Jack’s summons as it speared the earth just yards from the hunter’s feet. A warning.
The man was undeterred, taking another step forward with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
Jack quickly twisted toward me and made to grab for my hand so that he could wayfare us to safety, but the man was quicker, his truncheon already extended our way. Electricity rushed out of the weapon in a river of brilliant white and came right for us.
31
I woke up in a cell.
My head was pounding, and it whirled like a spinning top as I tried to sit up. Nausea hit me quick, and I twisted to the side to empty my stomach onto the rock-hewn ground. Every muscle in my body was sore, as if I’d just run a marathon. It hurt to do so much as blink.
Cold dread flew through me then as I remembered why I was here. I’d blacked out from the hunter’s electric shock, but not before that angry current had pummeled me in a way that had felt like my insides were on fire. Heart racing, I took note of my immediate surroundings, guided only by the flickering light from the wall sconces just outside my cell.
Jack was nowhere in sight. My stomach flopped. Where was he? Was he okay? Was he still…alive? Bile rose in my throat as I thought about what the hunters might be capable of. These were the very people who’d killed Bree
, an innocent three-year-old girl, who’d killed many of the witches laid to rest in Crowmarsh’s cemetery. I needed to get out of here. I needed to find Jack before it was too late.
The bars of my cell were thick and made of iron. I curled my hands around them to test their strength—only to immediately yank my hands back with a yelp. The bars were scorching hot, and my palms pulsated with fiery pain from the contact.
The steady click of heels filled the silence, and I quickly drew back to a corner. A parade of yellow flames marched through the darkness. I could just make out the figures of the torch bearers and the outlines of their trench coats. There were half a dozen of them. They each set their torch in wall-mounted holders surrounding an expansive, circular space just beyond my cell. Under the glow of one torch, a man lifted a giant light switch that looked like something out of Frankenstein, the gears whining in protest, and overhead bulbs flickered once, twice, and then came to life in a loud buzz, flooding the area below with light.
My pulse stopped.
My heart, my breathing, my ability to think—all of it. Everything stopped.
Jack.
He was strapped to an upright, cruciform structure made of wood, ribbons of dry blood trailing from his nose, mouth, and ears. He was pale, the black shadows under his eyes emphasized against his pallid, sweat-drenched face. His hair was wet with perspiration as well, plastered against his forehead.
“Wake him,” a woman said, her tone bored. She wore knee-high boots with heels long enough to be lethal, and her white blonde hair fell in a shiny sheet down to her waist.
The bald man from Iveagh Gardens held something under Jack’s nose. Jack jerked against the board and then blinked several times, as if pushing through the fog in his brain. When his eyes cleared and landed on the woman before him, his body went rigid.
Her smile was cold, wicked. “Hello, Jack. It’s nice to see you again.” She clasped her hands behind her and approached him. Click, click, click. Her heels were like the talons of a menacing predator nearing its victim. “My colleagues tell me you aren’t being very cooperative with us. They thought you might benefit from a personal visit from me. I was happy to oblige. We do, after all, have history.”
The long, slender fingers of her ungloved hand ghosted over an assortment of instruments laid out on a table. I caught the gleam of silver off a blade and had to press a hand over my mouth to keep from getting sick again.
“I know what you’re thinking, of course. You’re thinking it makes no difference who stands opposite you. Even now, you intend on clinging to some lofty ideal of heroism. But let me share a secret with you, darling.” She drew to his side and ran a fingertip down the length of his jawline. “Your disobliging behavior won’t make you a hero. Only a fool. A fool who will suffer unnecessarily if he continues to test us.”
She walked a few paces away from him. Click, click, click. She turned back to him in one swift motion and held out her arms, gesturing to the other hunters. “But we are civil people, Jack. Which is why I’m offering you this promise. Tell me where your brothers are, tell me now, and you have my word the four of you will meet a quick end. Deny me this information, and when we catch your brothers—and believe me this, we will catch them—their final hours will be absolutely horrific. What my colleagues have done to you will be nothing compared to what they’ll do to your brothers. And you will be responsible for it all.”
Jack struggled against his restraints—worn, leather straps across his chest, arms, and legs, and iron manacles at his wrists and ankles.
“You know better than that,” the woman said. “Every piece of iron in this room is spelled to suppress your magic. Ironic, I know. To fight magic with magic. But it was the parting gift of a repentant witch centuries ago. She saw the errors of her sinister ways and cast the spell in exchange for mercy. You’d do well to learn from her example. So come now. Open your eyes to the light, dear boy. Your end has come. Make penance before it’s too late. Where are your brothers?”
Jack stared back at her, jaw set and eyes defiant.
The woman let go of a sigh. “Such a shame.” She nodded to one of the others and a man no less than seven feet tall stomped forward, holding the same truncheon the hunters had wielded at Iveagh Gardens. No! The truncheon’s spark of electricity cackled and glowed so bright I had to momentarily shield my eyes.
For the next few seconds, seconds that stretched for an eternity, Jack’s yells filled the space, echoing off the walls, filling my ears until I was drowning in his pain as if it were my own. I forced myself not to look away, if only because I thought the anger and terror and sickness overcoming me might finally call forth my magic. But no magic came. The spelled bars of my cell rendered me completely useless. There was nothing I could do for Jack but watch in absolute horror until the hunter finally stepped back and lowered his weapon.
Jack sagged against his restraints, fresh blood running from his nose, his complexion so pale it was practically alabaster. My heart was stuck in my throat. I could barely breathe around it.
“I can’t imagine that was in any way a delight,” the woman said, examining her nails. She clasped her hands behind her back again and sighed. “And I’d really rather not result to such tactics, but you’re forcing our hand. Can’t you see that? We’re here to help you, not hurt you.”
Click, click, click. She was inches away from him now. She tutted her tongue at his condition. “You know what we’re capable of. Don’t make this any harder than it needs to be. Spare yourself and your brothers. Tell me, darling. Where are they?”
The muscles in Jack’s jaw moved. He seemed to be working against the daze inflicted by the electrical currents. He moistened his lips and then parted them as if to speak.
The woman’s eyes glowed hungrily. She drew closer. “Yes, that’s it. Go on. Tell me.”
Jack forced three words through his clenched teeth. “Go…to hell.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed into poisonous slits, a vein twitching in her neck. “Fool,” she hissed before turning on her heels and storming toward my cell. Click, click, click. “I wonder. Would this petty insolence of yours persist if her fate hung in the balance?”
There was the briefest flash of alarm in Jack’s eyes when he saw me. “This doesn’t concern her.”
“Such a pretty girl,” the woman said, ignoring Jack as she studied me. “Weak, though. She wouldn’t last very long opposite the Chamber Master. I can already picture the colorful afflictions he’d subject her to.” She turned back to Jack. “This is your final opportunity. I won’t extend my mercy again. Loud and clear, tell me where your brothers are.”
Jack’s eyes switched to me, a conflict warring in them. He was clearly tortured, and in the end, only apologetic, guilt-ridden. I gave my head a quick shake. There was nothing to be sorry for. I would never ask him to betray his own blood for me. I knew he could never bring himself to commit such an act. And besides, I didn’t trust the woman to keep her word anyway. Mercy? The word was surely foreign to her.
“So be it,” the woman said at Jack’s silence, turning on her heels. She nodded to the others. “You know what to do with him. When he regains consciousness, deliver him and the girl to the Chamber. It’s time they meet their end.” She stormed out of the room, disappearing from sight. Click, click, click.
The hunter with the truncheon stepped forward again.
“No!” I cried out at the same time Jack’s yells returned. “Stop it! Please!” But my voice was overpowered by Jack’s, and the hunter paid me no mind.
“Jack, you have to wake up.”
I stroked his damp hair, combing it away from his face. I tried to ignore the pinch in my throat, but Jack wasn’t stirring. By looks alone, anyone would’ve guessed him dead, but the faintest of pulses rapped against his skin, slow and faltering. Dried blood stained the corners of his mouth. He’d most likely bitten the inside of his cheeks when enduring the onslaught of electricity at the hunter’s hands. They hadn’t bothered to give him
a mouth guard. Not that that surprised me. We were their prisoners, not their guests.
“Jack,” I said again, leaning close to his ear. “Please wake up.”
When they’d finished with him, the hunters had undone Jack’s restraints, not even bothering to keep his body from sagging to the floor like a puppet cut from its strings. They’d dragged him to the cell by the back of his shirt and had tossed him inside like an animal. Once I was sure they were gone, I’d rushed to him, turning him onto his back to try and revive him. That had been at least half an hour ago.
“Jack, please.” My voice broke on the last word.
I took his cold hand, closed my eyes, and tried to picture a current of magic racing out of his body and into mine, something powerful enough to spirit us away from this place. But the iron bars of the cell wouldn’t give. Magic didn’t exist so long as they stood.
There was no way to call for help either. The hunters had apparently taken our phones away, though being that we were presumably underground, my guess was I wouldn’t have caught a cell signal anyway. My frustration festered in the pit of my stomach and then bubbled up my throat as I cried out in anger. I was powerless. Totally and completely powerless. I hadn’t been able to stop the hunters from torturing Jack, and I could do nothing now to free us from this prison and from whatever awaited us in the ‘Chamber.’
“Jack.” I gently shook him. He was so cold. They’d taken his black coat from him, and he had nothing but a thin shirt underneath to keep him warm. I used the damp parts of the fabric to clean away the blood from his face, but in the absence of the crimson marks, his face looked even sicklier. I shrugged out of my cardigan and set it over him like a blanket.
We were going to die here. The realization hit me in such a powerful blow I thought an invisible hunter had struck me with his truncheon. The others wouldn’t know what became of us, and if they didn’t continue the quest to stop the Reaper, there would be no one left to save my dad’s soul or the souls of all those witches.