Seasons of Chaos

by Elle Cosimano

  The boy drops his bag, tin and glass clattering inside it as I take him around the neck and hold a knife to his side.

  “Relax,” I tell him, “this will all be over soon.”

  “Doug! No! What are you doing!”

  The boy arcs forward as I plunge the blade in. He clutches his coat, the thick wool concealing the blood. Fleur’s panic sets the magic inside me buzzing. Her wide eyes leap from the windows of the boy’s apartment to the empty street behind us. The last toll of the church bell rings and dies.

  “The world needs Seasons, Fleur. He’s dying. Show me how to save him.”

  “I don’t know how! I can’t!”

  “I’ve seen you do it.”

  I search her eyes. See her mind search and grasp the same memory. She’s sitting in a glade of wildflowers. A butterfly’s perched on her face. Sommers freezes it, killing the thing in some stupid display of his magic, or maybe just to piss her off, payback after she’d hurt him. Fleur cups the butterfly in her hand. Blows into her fingers. The butterfly flies away.

  “You know how to do this,” I say, holding the kid up by his coat. “You can bring him back. It’s the same damn thing.”

  “That was an insect! That was small magic! It took me years to figure out how!” she cries, clutching her head. “He’s a human. A person. I’m not strong enough for that!”

  “Then he dies.”

  “You’re a monster!”

  “Maybe I am. But I’m a monster with a destiny, and you’ve become part of it, like it or not.” She’ll do this. She feels too much. Cares too deeply for life to let this boy bleed out in the street. I chose this spot, in the shadow of a hospital, its steeple visible behind me, reminding her where she came from. How she got here. That she’s only here because she was saved.

  Her choice is easy. Because I haven’t left her one.

  FLEUR

  The boy’s eyes are wide on me as blood seeps between his fingers. The church bell clangs in my head.

  I drop beside the boy, taking his hand as his eyes close. My touch won’t do anything to stop his death, but it seems wrong to let him suffer without offering any comfort.

  Doug paces through the slush in tight lines in front of me. “He’s out of time, Fleur!”

  “I can’t do it,” I shout up at him, blinking away sleet. “You control Gaia’s magic! Not me.”

  An angry muscle works in his jaw. With a grunt of impatience, he sinks to his knees across from me, glaring at me over the boy as he rolls him onto his back. Doug takes him roughly by the neck of his coat, tipping up his airway and pressing his open mouth to the boy’s slack lips. Doug blows two quick rescue breaths, pausing to glance uncertainly at me before dipping his head and blowing two more. A thin stream of gold light passes between them, and I feel the boy’s cold wrist for a pulse. Doug’s cheeks flame as he draws another breath and tries again. Over and over. The boy’s face only grows paler. His bleeding slows. Then his heart stops.

  Chest heaving, Doug breaks the seal. The boy’s neck sags against the ground. Doug reels to his feet, watching the dim glow fade in the boy’s throat.

  “You have Gaia’s magic! Do something!” I shout at him, angry that he’s giving up. That he would start something like this without any certainty that he could finish it. “We can’t just leave him here!”

  Doug’s lip curls with a callous smile. “You’re right. We can’t.”

  A cold hand grabs the back of my mind. A chill crawls down my spine as Doug’s magic slides into my muscles. My body arcs forward, my palms slapping on the icy ground, bracing me over the boy.

  “What are you—?” Heat roars through my body like fire over a fuse. I feel Gaia’s power pass from Doug’s body to mine, crossing the tangled bridge between us like magic over a ley line. There’s a buzzing in my head. My lungs are on fire. Stars creep into my peripheral vision as the magic fills my lungs.

  Light flickers, low in my field of vision. Brilliant beams of amber light radiate through the gap in my coat. I gasp, a tendril of magic puffing out on my breath. “What did you do to me?”

  “I rid you of your pathetic excuses. What the hell are you waiting for! My permission?”

  Doug’s mind forces me forward until I’m hovering over the boy’s lips. Static crackles in my hair. I focus my thoughts and feel Gaia’s magic rise up and respond, as if it already knows me. Doug thrusts my mouth against the boy’s.

  “Breathe!” he shouts at me.

  Magic gushes from my lungs into the boy, a flood of amber fire. A soft glow kindles in his chest. I feel Doug’s mind hovering, watching the light brighten with a sick curiosity as my lungs empty completely.

  The cold hand releases me. I jolt upright and cough, breathing hard. A few stray sparks slip between my lips, and I wipe them on my sleeve. The boy’s cheeks fill with color and his chest expands. I fall back on my hands, light-headed, as Doug calls the earth magic back to him.

  The boy stirs. Doug reaches down and opens the boy’s jacket. The wound is gone, leaving behind a faint scar and the musky-sweet scent of fallen leaves. With a smug smile, Doug snaps a transmitter around the boy’s ear.

  “Lixue,” he says, reaching into the boy’s pocket and withdrawing a ring of keys, “bring the Autumn home.”

  Needles of light begin to pierce through the boy’s skin. I shield my eyes from the flare as his body dematerializes, and with a static hiss, his magic soars toward Greenwich Park.

  I shake the red slush from my trembling hands. “You’re sick! You just ripped that boy’s life out from under him! What about his family? And his friends? He had his whole life ahead of him, and you took it!”

  He hauls me up by the back of my coat. “I don’t know why you’re so upset about it. I was the one who killed him. You just saved his life.”

  “You could have revived him yourself. You didn’t need me.”

  He leans down into my face. “You’re wrong. You were the one who said you have to feel something for the magic to work! You have to want to save someone. And I didn’t give a shit about that kid,” he says, throwing a finger toward the bloody slush he left in the street.

  Doug’s jaw rocks back and forth as he fidgets with the boy’s keys, his mind holding tightly to some emotion he doesn’t want to reveal to me.

  “Let’s go,” he says, turning back for the parking lot. “It’s too cold for you out here.”

  49

  And Goes Down Burning

  JACK

  Amber shakes her head, frowning over Poppy’s shoulder as Poppy ties off the last of my stitches. “I don’t know, Jack. This plan feels like a long shot. You’re trusting an untested theory. We could be risking Fleur’s life. We have zero assurances this will work.”

  “My theories have held up before.” I tense my leg, testing Poppy’s handiwork as the muscle flexes under the stitches. Our escape from the Observatory—hell, our very survival off the ley lines—was based on a theory. We’ve made it this far. Lyon believed in me. Enough that he and Gaia sacrificed themselves to make sure Fleur and I survived. He prepared for his death, knowing I would come. He left me the letter, the eye, and my smaze for a reason. I have to believe this is the right path. “There’s no undoing what Doug’s done. Doug is Chaos. He’s entropy in action. Eventually, he’s going to break. We have to find a way to untangle his magic from Fleur’s.”

  “Then I say we do it.” Julio’s arms loop around Amber so their skin touches. He presses a kiss to her temple and the color returns to her cheeks. She leans back against him, letting him hold some of her weight. “No way are we letting that power-tripping asshole take Fleur down with him.”

  Chill admires the wicked retractable barbs on the arrowhead he pulled from my leg. He slaps the bloody thing into my palm like it’s some kind of souvenir. “I’m in. What about you?” he asks Poppy, ruffling her hair as she leans over my thigh, surveying her work.

  She offers me a grim smile as she bites down on the thread, snapping it off the spool. “We’re not l
etting Fleur go through this alone. Of course I’m in.”

  “So how do we do it?” Marie asks, leaning against the wall, destroying a piece of spearmint gum with her teeth.

  I drag my pant leg down and ease gingerly to my feet. I fish the second transmitter from my pocket and toss it to Chill. “We need a working stasis chamber.”

  Marie raises an eyebrow. “You said Fleur demolished the chambers you found in the cavern.”

  “The power is still running in the Autumn wing. If Julio and Amber can sniff out an empty dorm room, I can get us in. Chill shouldn’t have any problems getting a stasis chamber online.”

  “How do we get the transmitter to Fleur?” Chill asks.

  “We find a way to get a message to Doug and use the eye to draw him out. We tell him we’ll only bring the eye if he brings Fleur. That we want to negotiate her release. Then we find a way to pass her the transmitter and haul her out through the ley lines.”

  Julio glances down at Amber. She nods against his back. “Amber and I can get the transmitter to Fleur. We should be able to distract Doug long enough for Chill to get Fleur out of there. Between the two of us, we can probably take him down.”

  Poppy frowns as she closes her first-aid kit. “Whoever kills Doug will just take the brunt of all that power. We’ll be in the same boat Doug is in now. No,” Poppy says, rubbing blood from her hands with a wet wipe as she thinks, “we already know how this works. The magic is anchored to the objects. Chronos’s magic was tied to his scythe. Ananke’s was tied to the crystal eye. If Amber or Julio strike Doug down, the magic will be free. Time will jump straight to whoever’s in possession of the staff, and Inevitability will find whoever’s in possession of the eye, but if Fleur’s gone, Gaia’s magic will be lost all over again. It needs someone to jump into. And I think that someone has to be tied to the earth.”

  They all look to me, each of us silently answering the question. Fleur is probably the strongest Spring in this place. Had Gaia and Lyon seen this moment coming all along? Is that why Lyon never told us what he knew about our future—that Fleur would be kidnapped and brought here—because he knew this was the only way she’d come? Did they let it happen, knowing the role Fleur was destined to play in all this? If so, that only makes my role in Lyon’s overarching plan clearer.

  “It has to be me. I have to be the one to meet with Doug.” I fight back a wince as I shrug on what’s left of my blood-stiffened shirt. “Doug won’t see me as a threat because I can’t take his magic the way you can. I’ll meet with him alone and get the transmitter to Fleur.”

  “Then what?” Marie asks around her gum.

  “Then I take the staff.”

  She stops chewing to stare at me. “But you already said you can’t take the magic for yourself.”

  “No, but I can steal his toy for a while.” I think back to what Kai said. About how we all have the ability to wield a little magic. All this plan needs is a little sleight of hand. “We’ll use Fleur’s disappearance as a diversion. Fleur’s flash should be all the chaos we need to pull this off. While Doug’s distracted, I’ll steal the staff and run. Poppy will ensure Fleur makes it through the ley lines. Chill will be my eyes and ears, making sure I have a clear path of escape with the staff.”

  Chill grins, holding his knuckles out to me like he always did before I left for a hunt. “Just like old times.”

  I tap my knuckles to his, wishing this was a hunt I could finish on my own. “I’ll try to keep Doug away long enough for you to wake Fleur. How long will she need, Poppy?”

  Everyone turns to Poppy as she thinks. “If she’s conscious and strong when I pull her through, I can open her chamber and wake her right away.”

  Julio shudders. “Better give her a barf bag for that flight.”

  “She’ll be fine,” Poppy assures me. I look to Chill, satisfied when he nods.

  “I’ll buy her as much time as I can. As soon as I make it back to you, one of you will have to take the staff and finish Doug. Once you cut him down, the magic will be loose. It’ll be up to us to harness it. We already know Gaia’s magic will be drawn to Fleur. Ananke’s magic should be drawn to whoever has the eye. And Chronos’s magic will be drawn to whoever has the staff.”

  Amber and Julio exchange grave looks. Whoever takes the magic will be bound to this place, responsible for all of it—time, natural order, inevitability—indefinitely. It feels like too much to ask. We only just got free of this place. But I already know what Fleur would do. The same thing I would do, if only I could. She’d sacrifice anything to save the rest of us.

  “I’ll take the staff.” Julio squeezes Amber’s hand. She nods tightly.

  “I’ll take the eye,” she says. Amber glances at Marie. For once, Marie doesn’t argue. What choice do we have? Amber holds out her hand for the crystal. I reach inside my pocket and freeze.

  “What’s wrong?” she asks.

  “The crystal. It was here, zipped inside my pocket.” I take the torch from the wall and wave it over the ground. I get down on all fours, scraping aside loose dirt and pebbles, eyes peeled for a glimmer, but it’s not here. My hand stills as I retrace my steps. I’d been facedown in the dirt after Kai hit me with the flashlight. She leaned over me and patted my side. No, the side of my jacket. Then here, right before I put the transmitter in her ear and sent her into stasis, she’d reached inside her pocket.

  “Damn it, Kai!” I throw down the torch, pacing the chamber. “Kai. She took it. She has it with her. It’s in her hand. We have to find it.” It’s the only bait I have.

  I sling on my pack and run, limping back through the tunnel toward the incinerator, the fresh stitches stinging with every step. Kai had a Guard’s transmitter. She would have materialized somewhere in the dormitory level, not down here with the captured Seasons. The Guards’ stasis chambers would be kept somewhere more comfortable and secure. Someplace with power.

  The Autumn wing.

  The footsteps of the others are close behind me. When I make it back to the incinerator, the heavy iron grate creaks as I swing it open and climb in. Shoes scrape metal as the others scale the rungs of the ladder after me. I’m almost level with the Administration floor when a rush of hot air rolls up from below.

  I look down. The heads of the others are silhouetted by a bright orange glow. Black smoke billows up from the bottom of the shaft, choking and thick. Someone’s lit the incinerator.

  “Climb! Hurry!” Poppy shouts.

  I scramble up the rungs, stitches pulling. The ladder shakes under our combined weight. Steam hisses up through the cylinder as Julio wrangles the moisture from the caves. The thin cool mist settles over us, insulating us from the heat, but it’s not enough to quench the fire. The metal bars are getting hotter by the second.

  I look up, gauging the distance to the Admin level, just as Lixue’s head stretches through an opening in the shaft. A flame ignites in her hand. It grows, stretching downward until I feel its heat on my face. Guards above us. A fire below. We’re trapped between floors.

  “Hurry!” Marie shrieks. “The bars are too hot! I can’t hold on!”

  “Holy crap, Chill! Your hand is cold! Let go of my ankle,” Julio snaps.

  “Sorry, buddy. I need a little juice for this. Everybody hold on!” Chill’s voice echoes up the shaft, carried by a howl of icy wind. The blast chases Lixue’s flame back. The metal rungs groan with the rapid change in temperature.

  “I can’t hold it for long,” Chill shouts. “Move it, Jack!”

  I start to climb, propelled by the wind. A screw cracks loose from the ladder, nicking my cheek as it flies past. The metal rung under my foot creaks.

  We’ll never make it to the dormitory level. The others have too far to climb, and the fire below us is blazing hotter. The access panel to the Admin level is only a few feet above me. I already know Lixue (and probably her team) is waiting on the other side, but it’s our only way out.

  I climb the last rung and crawl through the opening. Lathered i
n sweat and soot, I tumble into the thick haze of the hall. Smoke pours from the access panel. Marie coughs as I haul her, then Poppy, through it.

  Lixue’s voice comes from behind me. “You and I have a score to settle.”

  I turn, positioning myself in front of the opening. Lixue plays with a fireball, tossing it between her hands, staring at me down the length of the hall as if she’d like to skewer me and roast me for dinner. Two Guards flank her. Behind me, Marie shouts down to Chill, Amber, and Julio, screaming at them to climb faster.

  “Where’s your smaze?” Lixue asks me with a cutting smile. “Oh, wait. I’m pretty sure your guard dog—and your magic—just turned up in a stasis chamber in the gymnasium in the north wing. I guess Sampson turned on you, too. Too bad,” she says with a careless shrug. “You two defectors deserved each other.”

  I hold up my hands. Keep my voice calm. “Kai Sampson left because she knew this place was spiraling out of control. Doug’s going to bring this entire place down. All we want to do is put things back the way they were. To restore the balance. There’s still time to do the right thing and let us go.”

  “Put things back the way they were?” She barks out a laugh. Her eyes slide to Chill, Amber, and Julio as they climb out of the shaft behind me. “What do you think we’ve been trying to do? Do you have any idea how many Seasons are loose up top? Do you have any idea what happens when they can’t survive out there alone? They’re in the wind, Jack! Their territories are deserted! And these storms and quakes and fires and floods are the result. People are dying! They’re dying everywhere! And it’s supposed to be our job to keep the world balanced! To keep control of it!” Her eyes well with tears, all casual pretenses abandoned to rage. “This is all your fault! This all started when you and your girlfriend decided you were too good for this place. Your selfishness started the rebellion that got us here. All Doug wants to do is restore order to chaos.”

  “He is Chaos!” I shout. “Don’t you see what’s happening to him? He can’t control that much magic. It’s going to rip him apart. And when it does, everyone in this place is going to be in the wind right along with him.”