The Forgotten

by Bishop O'Connell

  “Wait here,” she said to the group.

  On just about every face was a look of apprehension.

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Shadow said.

  “It’s fine,” Wraith said. “I’m fine, or as close as I’ll ever get.” She turned and climbed the stairs.

  She wasn’t surprised when the gentle pull of the nickel lead her into the room she’d lived in. It was still furnished the same way: three sets of bunk beds, two tall dressers, two desks. On each bed sat a Bible, the props for anyone who came looking. Her eyes went up to the same crucifix still on the wall, then to the bed that had been hers.

  With slow breaths, her head bowed, Wraith pushed away the memories of cold, lonely nights, crying and no one caring. When the shadows in her mind receded, she opened her eyes.

  The hint of something under the bed was just visible. She swallowed, almost certain what was there. She didn’t kneel down—­it was the principle. No more kneeling. Instead, she wove a calculation into the information of the beds. Then she tore it apart, ripping the bed from existence, hoping it would take the memories with it.

  There on the polished floor, close to the wall, sat the nickel. She tried to picture how it had gotten here. The Order had likely brought Geek and Ovation here to—­she swallowed—­collect more kids for the ritual. She closed her eyes and imagined Ovation or Geek on the bed, and through a drugged haze, dropping the nickel between the bed and the wall.

  She ran her fingers over the feather that was woven into her hair. “No more,” she whispered, not to the empty room but to the countless tortured souls inside her. “I’m going to end this.” She bent down, picked up the nickel, and closed her hand over it. She turned to leave the room but paused as her eyes passed over the top bunk against the far wall. A memory sat just at the edge of her mind. She reached for them, and snippets came to her. A little boy and girl sat on the bunk together, asking for a story. But the memories felt wrong, tangled and confusing. Wraith wasn’t sure what was real. She was certain Josephine and Michael were her brother and sister, but she was also certain they weren’t.

  Then her eyes drifted down to the bottom bunk and her mouth went dry as more memories drifted past the far reaches of her mind. She reached into the bag, withdrawing the pictures. She began flipping through them, scanning each face for one she recognized. She stopped and smiled when she saw and recognized Josephine and Michael. They were clearing the table after a dinner, each carrying plates to the kitchen, smiling as sweetly as Wraith could ever remember. But they weren’t her brother and sister, were they? She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to untangle the corrupted memories. No, of course they weren’t, it was just the lingering effects of the corruption. But then her confusion increased. There in the kitchen, doing dishes and turned just enough to see his face, was Con.

  Had he been here at one time too? Or was she just imagining it?

  Then she found saw more faces that she recognized.

  “What the hell,” she said to herself.

  In this picture was a group of six kids, two girls and four boys. They were all looking up from bowls of ice cream with wide smiles. Among them were Sprout and Geek.

  She winced, head throbbing with the power still building inside her. When she opened her eyes, she looked at the pictures, but the faces she’d recognized were just nameless kids now.

  “You don’t have time for this,” she told herself. “You know what’s happening, let it go. You don’t have time for this.”

  As if in response to her words, the power inside surged and it took a focused effort for her to bring it under control.

  “It’s building too fast,” she said. “No time.”

  She picked up the picture and returned them all to her bag, then headed for the stairs. Con might be safe, but Geek and Ovation weren’t. They needed her, and she was going to do for them what she wasn’t able to do for so many others.

  “Come on, we’re leaving,” Wraith said as she came down the stairs, walking passed everyone and out the front door.

  They followed, everyone giving her a quizzical look as they gathered around her.

  “You okay, Stretch?” Shadow asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

  “Third time’s the charm,” Wraith said, holding out the nickel. “We’ve wasted enough time. I’m going to end this; I’m tired of playing this game.”

  “Aye, let’s give the bastards a right proper arse kicking, then,” Siobhan said, hefting her shotgun.

  “It’s rather telling that the most butch person here is you,” Elaine said to Siobhan with a smile.

  “Hey!” SK said.

  Both women laughed and Siobhan winked at SK.

  “When you’re ready,” Dante said to Wraith.

  “Almost,” Wraith said, turning back to the house. She drew in a deep breath, formed a long and intricate formulation. As it grew, she wove it through and around the house, each room, every piece of furniture. “Just need to tidy up.”

  The equation reached a zero sum, and its mass increased exponentially. There was a tremendous crash as the house collapsed in on itself, like a sudden vacuum had appeared inside. Wraith ground her teeth and increased the mass more and more. More cracks, crashes, crunches—­and soon the entire structure was a tight pile the size of a small car.

  “Efficient and dramatic,” Fritz said. “I approve.”

  Wraith smiled, but it was borrowed from a wolf. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Thirty-­Two

  Reality turned around her. Wraith and her passengers didn’t move, rather everything else did. Unimaginable amounts of information flowed through her, but all she saw was a single point in the limitlessness, a single penny calling to her like a beacon. The clarity and precision was surprising. It felt wrong, it felt—­

  Like bait!

  Her heart froze as realization dawned on her, and then she tripped midstride.

  Everyone was sent tumbling as if flung by the hand of God. Wraith reacted on instinct, reaching out and driving formulations into the fabric of reality itself, stopping herself and everyone else instantly, sending their inertia out in an unfocused wave of energy pointed straight down.

  There was an earthshaking boom and a massive cloud of dust filled the air. When it cleared, Wraith hovered twenty feet above a perfectly smooth and rounded inverted dome-­shaped impression in the ground. Around Wraith, hanging in various positions, were the elves, Siobhan, and her friends.

  “Um, wow?” Elaine said as she hung motionless, forty feet above the crater.

  “Please don’t talk,” Wraith said. The power surged through her now, a constant shudder, intoxicating and threatening to consume her. She focused with all she had on slowly unwinding the formulations, easing everyone to the ground, one by one.

  Last was Siobhan. When her feet touched the earth a few feet from the crater’s edge, she looked down at the trees, earth, and stones crushed flat, then at Wraith.

  “Thanks for that one,” she said.

  “You wouldn’t have survived at the speed we were moving,” Wraith said, eyes closed to everything but the flow of information and her manipulations of it. Of course, that didn’t mean she didn’t know exactly what everyone was doing.

  The winding formulae carried her across the open air and set her down gently next to Elaine and Dante. Letting out a slow breath, and fighting against the shaking that raked her body, Wraith opened her eyes.

  They were in the middle of a small wood, one of the rare patches in Kansas not being used for as farmland, with a small creek running just a few hundred feet away. The elves and Siobhan were in a circle around Dante, Elaine, Wraith, and her friends, maybe thirty feet in diameter, wide enough that they were all hidden among the trees.

  “What happened?” Dante asked Wraith.

  “And where are we?” Elaine asked.

  Wraith felt the
penny and every inch between her and it; she also felt the lingering darkness of the house she’d destroyed. “We’re 21.06 miles from the house,” Wraith said.

  Elaine blinked. “You couldn’t get it any closer than that?”

  Wraith gave her a level look. “21.067328473—­”

  “Okay, that’s good, thanks,” Elaine said, hands up.

  “Wraith, what happened?” Dante asked again.

  “It’s a trap,” Wraith said as she turned to the northwest, where the penny still called to her like a sad and mournful child. “The Order has the penny in a circle.”

  Dante and Elaine exchanged a glance.

  Wraith shook her head. “They must’ve found it on one of the boys, figured out what it was and knew I’d come for them.” She drew in a slow breath. “So they set a trap.”

  “That’s fairly brilliant tactics,” Elaine said. “Trap us all in the circle,” she nodded to Wraith. “Strip you of your power and kill us off at their leisure.”

  “Let me guess,” Siobhan said as she joined the group. “Them coins will only take you to one other, right?”

  Wraith blinked. “How did you—­?”

  Siobhan shrugged. “You’re a smart one; that’s just good planning. The question though is, what do we do now?”

  “You know where the penny is,” Elaine said. “Can’t you just have us appear outside of the circle?”

  Wraith shook her head. “No, I can feel it drawing me to it. If I get close, the entanglement will pull us to it and into the circle.”

  Siobhan nodded at the woods. “We could just walk to the bleeding place.”

  “And knock on the front door?” Elaine asked. “Ask nicely for them to give all the kids back?”

  Siobhan shrugged. “I’m just throwing out ideas.”

  “A frontal assault on what must be a protected location is never a good idea,” Dante said. “Even if we had enough bodies and guns, which we don’t.”

  Wraith ran her hands through her hair and considered her next move, ignoring the debate happening next to her. When she came to the only conclusion there was, she looked around at those gathered with her. Her eyes met Shadow’s. In that silent moment, there was an entire conversation spoken only with their eyes.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Shadow’s eyes said. “Don’t you dare leave us behind.”

  “I can’t risk losing you,” Wraith replied. “Not again.”

  “Back at you, Stretch.”

  Wraith looked away, her attention drawn to the northwest again and the penny calling to her.

  “Is it nearby?” Elaine asked.

  Wraith glanced over. The three had stopped talking and were watching her now. She just nodded to the northwest.

  “You look like you’ve got yourself a plan,” Siobhan said.

  “I do,” Wraith said. “I’m going to get them out. I’m going to get everyone out.” Then she drew in a slow breath, turned, and took several steps back. Right away, Shadow, SK, and Fritz went to her side. “Alone.”

  Before anyone could move, Wraith reached out and grabbed the thread of information that entangled the penny, and reality turned around her.

  “NO!” Dante yelled and rushed forward.

  Siobhan caught his shoulder inches from the edge of Wraith’s teleportation. The ends of a few strands of hair were cut and vanished with the girl and her friends.

  “Are you out of your bleeding mind?” Siobhan shouted, shoving him back from the whirlwind.

  Dante wheeled on her, rage burning in him.

  Siobhan didn’t back down. In fact, she stood straighter and her eyes went hard. In that moment, Dante could see the ghost of her cousin Brendan. Dante glanced at Elaine, who was looking dumbfounded at the spot the four kids had just been.

  “Regent?” Maeve asked. “What happened?”

  Dante let out a sigh. “We were left behind.” At that moment, he understood more acutely than ever before what he was doing to Caitlin and Edward by trying to keep them safe and away from the realities of the world. He’d need to reconsider his thinking when this was done.

  “I’m too old to be relearning these lessons,” he said to himself.

  “We’re going after them, yeah?” Siobhan asked.

  “Right now,” Dante said, his eyes going to the northwest.

  In a moment, the marshals were around them and they were all moving quickly through the woods. To his surprise, Siobhan took point. Despite being at nearly a full run, she was making as little sound as the elves, wasn’t leaving any tracks, and didn’t knock a single leaf from the trees and bushes. Apparently, the Fianna still had the same training requirements. Though that gave him confidence, it didn’t quash the feeling inside that him that he and his group were about to step into something they were terribly unprepared for.

  As if tempted by fate, that thought came into stark reality.

  “Luíochán!” Siobhan shouted as she leapt over a trip wire, bounded off a nearby tree and into a bush.

  As one, the elves sprang up into the trees.

  Dante vaulted himself up, landed on the branch, and drew his pistol at the same time. He scanned the area, looking for the ambush Siobhan had spotted. All he could see was the magical trip wire and the ward connected to it. At first glance, it looked like a solitary entanglement spell, but a closer look showed the lines of magic stretching from the ward up into the trees. The same trees all the elves were now hiding in.

  “Down!” Dante shouted.

  There was a grunt and a black-­clad form was sent flying from the bush Siobhan had leapt into. The Theurgic Order sentry, dressed in surplus military camouflage, hit the ground, rolled, and tried to get to his feet. Before he could, Siobhan sprang from the brush, landing astride the dazed man. He struggled briefly but stopped when Siobhan shoved the barrel of her sawed-­off shotgun into the underside of his chin, forcing his head back. She wiped blood from her face with her free hand as the elves landed in a circle around them both, weapons raised. Dante stepped in front of Elaine, and the circle closed to include her.

  “Where are you mates?” Siobhan demanded.

  Four more figures popped up from behind cover and took aim with small military-­style rifles.

  Dante pulled Elaine down as he tumbled, taking aim and firing as he covered Elaine with his body. At almost the same instant, gunshots rang out from the marshals as they rolled to one side.

  The four would-­be attackers jerked and dropped without firing a shot.

  Siobhan glared at the man still pinned below her and shoved the shotgun barrel harder into his neck.

  “You got any more fecking friends out there, sweetness?”

  The loud crack of a rifle shot rang out in answer, and a split second later a bullet struck a tree behind Siobhan.

  “Sniper!” Maeve shouted.

  Siobhan rolled off her captive and swung her shotgun down across his stomach. The man gasped and started to sit up. The Fian twisted, bringing her leg up high before driving it down hard onto the man’s throat. He fell back, slamming his head against the ground. There were a few wet gasps then he went silent.

  “Anyone see where the shot came from?” Dante asked.

  “Somewhere from the west,” Maeve said from behind a rock.

  “Keep your heads down,” Dante said.

  “Glad you told me,” Siobhan said from behind a tree. “I was about to get up and do a little dance number, I was.”

  “Keep clear of that entanglement trap,” Dante said, ignoring the Fian.

  Elaine reached into a pocket and drew out a length of chain with half a dozen disks of different metals attached to it.

  “What are you doing?” Dante asked.

  “You focus on finding the snipers,” Elaine said.

  She pulled a brass disk from the chain and tossed it toward the trip wire.
There was a series of popping sounds all around them, followed by flashes.

  Everyone glanced at Elaine.

  “It’s a sort of hexing charm for traps and wards,” Elaine said.

  Dante opened his mouth.

  “I like to be prepared,” Elaine said, tucking the chain back into her pocket.

  Dante couldn’t help but smile a little as he scanned the immediate vicinity. They were near the edge of the woods, and there didn’t appear to be anymore traps.

  Four more loud cracks of gunfire sounded, and everyone ducked lower as the shots bounced off the rock Maeve was using for cover.

  “I counted four,” Maeve said. “Bastards saw through my glamour.”

  Dante lay down flat and moved so he could see around the tree he was hidden behind. He moved slow, calling up a concealment charm to augment his glamour. When no shots came, he surveyed the area beyond the woods. It was a flat and open area that should be used for farming, but was apparently sitting this season out. It didn’t take him long to see the snipers, four of them. They were well camouflaged, but only to mortal eyes. Each was wearing a ghillie suit and was behind a very, very large caliber rifle.

  Just as slowly, he moved back behind the tree.

  Everyone looked at him expectantly.

  “I counted four as well,” Dante said. “They’ve got us pinned down.”

  “Retreat?” Maeve asked.

  “We’d never make it,” Dante said. “There isn’t enough cover and they’ve got a wide field of fire.”

  “On the bright side,” Siobhan said. “At least it’s not raining, yeah?”

  Chapter Thirty-­Three

  It happened in an instant, or would’ve appeared to be an instant to anyone outside the stride. Time being relative and Wraith’s mind spinning very nearly the speed of light—­or so it felt—­the instant seemed to drag on for days. She felt the circle well before reaching it. It was incredibly powerful, focused, and worst of all, felt well and truly perfect.

  She could be making a terrible mistake, but no matter what her friends said, it was hers alone to make.