by R D Martin
In less than a moment, the brightness from their eyes disappeared. The great pressure weighing her down lifted as if it had never been, and to her immense relief, the club music crashed into her once again. She hadn’t even realized she’d stopped hearing it.
As though Bella had never existed, the Moirai returned to dancing with each other, something Bella was grateful for while at the same time feeling somewhat annoyed. Her annoyance won out.
“Excuse me,” she said, though this time she made no move to reach across the velvet rope. “Excuse me.”
“Ugh,” said the middle of the three.
“She’s still…” said the first.
“Here,” said the third.
As if they were still part of the same body, the three women spoke with the same Valley Girl voice with identical tones and inflections.
“I’m sorry, but I—” began Bella, but was interrupted.
“We know why you’re here,” said the first.
“And we can see what you’re looking for,” said the second.
“And we think you’re an idiot,” said the third.
Bella blinked. “I’m sorry, say again, please.”
“And she’s deaf too,” said the third to her companions, each of whom laughed.
Heat crept up Bella’s neck, and her cheeks started to flush at the insults. Losing her temper here would not be a good idea, especially around beings old enough to have witnessed the creation of the wheel.
“I just need some help,” she said, trying to keep her voice under control.
As one, the three women sighed and dropped onto their couch like puppets with strings cut. It was, in Bella’s opinion, very creepy watching all three of the women doing everything in unison. All three reached for their champagne glasses simultaneously, took a sip, and set them down again. Whatever magic controlled the Moirai seemed to affect the world around them as well. Only two of the glasses landed on the table. The third hovered in the air an inch from the edge as though it had expanded to support it.
“You do not know what you’re doing,” said the first.
“You do not know what you’re facing,” intoned the second.
“We will not interfere,” the third chimed in.
“What are you talking about? Interfering? I’m looking for a missing girl. She’s in trouble and needs help.”
“We know.” This time all three said the words.
“So can you, will you, please help me?” Bella begged.
Their reply came without pause.
“We will not interfere.”
“You cannot stop it.”
“You don’t have the power.”
“Stop what?” Bella asked. Trying to keep track of which woman was talking was becoming confusing. “I’m not trying to stop anything. I just want to locate a missing girl, and the Finder said you could help me.”
“Ah, the Moab,” said the first. As though she was remembering some distant fond memory, the woman’s eye glazed over for a moment. The other two turned their heads toward the first, frowning as if the memory was as unpleasant to them as it was pleasant to the first.
“We know the Moab,” replied the second as she turned from her twin.
“He is not relevant to this,” the third said, though this time it was to the first of her companions.
“We have a debt…”
“He sent her…”
“But it is not him.”
“This will not release us.”
“Perhaps…”
As the three continued arguing among themselves, Bella began wondering if coming here had even been the right idea. Just because they were seers didn’t mean they were all knowing. Well, not exactly true, Bella thought. They were all knowing, but watching them argue with each other, or itself, or whatever, was giving her second thoughts. As the argument grew longer and louder, she started to think she’d have more luck scraping together enough money to pay the Finder. Taking a step back, Bella turned to leave.
As if it were their signal, the three women stopped arguing with each other and stood up, shoulder to shoulder.
“We have decided,” intoned the first.
“We will not aid you,” said the second. The finality in her voice was startling, like a coffin nail struck with a hammer.
“But we will not hinder you, either,” said the third.
“Wait. What? I don’t understand,” said Bella, trying to make some sense of what they’d said. Why would they even think of stopping her?
“We have decided,” intoned the three.
“Now, like, it’s time for you to go,” said the first.
“Do not come back, either,” said the third.
“And do something about that outfit. It’s so last year,” said the second. Her companions both turned to look at her, causing the blonde to blush. “What? It is.”
“I,” Bella began. “But…”
Before she could say anything else, the three raised their right hands, palms facing her as if they were a singing trio. Pressure built in front of Bella and an instant later she flew into the middle of the crowded dance floor as if she’d been thrown by an invisible hand, bouncing off people and landing hard on the floor.
Surrounded as she was, Bella had no time to react when a foot lashed out toward her forehead. As the shoe made contact, bright stars appeared in her vision and her head started swirling. A woman’s heel dug into her calf, causing her to scream. Another foot caught her in the back while someone else’s slammed into her side, knocking the breath from her lungs.
With her head swimming and the rest of her body screaming in pain, there was nothing she could do other than curl into a ball on the floor as the mosh pit around her closed in.
Holding her head in her hands as she tried to protect herself from the unheeding dancers, consciousness slipping from her grasp, she endured kick after kick. She didn’t have the strength to cry out when she felt a pair of hands grab her arm. The hands yanked her up, dragging her at first until she could regain her feet, and pulled her away from the center of the dance floor. People and creatures on the floor continued to ignore her existence as they pushed and shoved each other in a parody of dance that would have been more at home in a pit of hell.
The hands pulling her were strong, and she soon found herself at the edge of the crowd. Her arms and legs ached from the pounding she’d endured. Even breathing hurt, though she gulped in as much air as she could.
“What are you doing here?”
Though she recognized the voice, for some reason her brain denied the connection. Looking at her savior, she felt as though all her knight in shining armor fantasies had come true at the same time. Standing in front of her, tall and lean with a sheen of sweat that matted down his dirty blond hair, stood her work crush, William. She’d never seen him out of the office before, and for a moment, she thought a kick she’d taken to the head had done her in. There was no way William, handsome, gentle, and quiet William, could be here. Not in this club. He’d have to be magic. She’d have known.
“I said, what are you doing here?” His tone was an overlay of worry with a tinge of anger. “This place is dangerous. How did you even get in? Are you here with somebody?”
“I. William? What?” Confused. That was what she wanted to say. Confused and exhausted.
As if sensing something was wrong, the look of worry intensified on his face. Looking around, he came to a decision and turned, pulling her again in his wake.
“We’re going to get you out of here,” he said. Though she understood what he meant and would even agree with him, she found the idea of being pulled out irksome.
“William,” she shouted over the music. “Listen, I appreciate your help.”
“Later. First, we have to get you out of here. What were you thinking coming to a place like this? What were they thinking letting you in in the first place? You could have been hurt, maybe killed. How stupid could you be?”
Battered, bruised and more than a little tir
ed of being dragged behind him, Bella had had enough. Letting a little of her magic loose, and taking a page from the club owners, she sent a spike of electricity running through her arm and into him.
The effect was immediate. Her savior stopped mid-step and turned to her, eyes wide open with shock.
“I was trying to say,” she shouted, wrenching her hand from his grip, “that I appreciate your help, but—”
She didn’t even see as, from out of nowhere, a glass hurtled through the air and smashed into the back of her head. Bella’s eyes rolled up, the music stopped, and the world around her went dark.
9
Stirring in bed, Bella wondered for a moment if Cat was responsible for the delicious smells of coffee and bacon that had somehow made their way into the room. The coffeepot was on automatic, so no problem there. But bacon? The more she thought about it, the more it seemed to both bother her and pull her from the warm embrace of slumber. And she’d just been having a wonderful dream.
Unable to fall back to sleep, she tried the next best thing and pulled her pillow over her face to block out the world. The pillow had a strange and musky scent both pleasant and not hers. With that realization, she sat bolt upright, hugging the blankets to her chest, and looked around.
If the room had been any bigger, she would have sworn it was in a cheap hotel. The room itself was sparse, covered in cheap wallpaper that looked as if it had been fashionable about two decades before she had been born. Off to her left, light snuck into the room through a small window covered with paper shades yellowed with time and exposure. One low dresser dominated the center of the wall opposite. On each side of the dresser was a door. Next to her right hand was a bedside table on which sat a glass of water and two pills. Across from that was a chair that may have once been well padded, but now looked as if it had taken too many hits and was just waiting for the right moment to give up the ghost. Someone had been thoughtful enough to put her shoes under its front edge.
Shaking her head to clear it, her mind reeled for a moment as pain billowed like a personal tsunami. It felt as though she’d spent the entire night drinking and was dealing with the next morning’s hangover. When the swimming stopped, she eyed the water and pills for a moment. They could just be aspirin, she thought, but even so. Every horror movie she’d ever watched was screaming against her taking any chances here.
Standing, trying to make as little noise as possible, she picked up her shoes and tiptoed her way to the first door. Trying the handle, Bella was surprised to find it unlocked, though she winced at its squeaking hinges when she inched it open. On the other side, much to her relief, sat a small half bath with a sink and toilet. There was even a window in the wall, though it was much too small to squeeze through. Try as she might, the frosted glass didn’t give her any clue where she was.
Leaving the bathroom, she crossed the room as she made for the window. Pulling the ancient shade to the side, she peeked at the world on the other side, and her heart dropped. Squinting against the rising sun, she was greeted with the familiar sights of the city from several stories up. The early morning light illuminated throngs of people below, small as ants, scurrying about while avoiding cars and each other. Huffing out an exasperated breath, she turned toward the last door in the room and summoned as much courage as she could.
“Someone wants to kidnap me,” she mumbled, feeling the bloom of anger spreading from her chest to suffuse itself throughout her. “They messed with the wrong woman.”
When her anger reached its peak, Bella opened herself up to magic, commanding it to come to her and batter its way through the door and anything on the other side. That would teach them, she thought. Let the magic have its way with them, destroy who- or whatever was on the other side.
Tingles ran up her spine, lodging in the back of her head, and she felt as though someone had doused her with cold water. She could feel the magic trying to come to her, but it was as if the power had run into a glass wall. It pulsed and vibrated, willing and able to do as commanded, but unable to reach her.
Like a balloon with a hole, her anger fled, leaving behind a rising tide of fear threatening to choke her. Someone was blocking her magic. Someone was keeping it from her. She shuddered. She’d never been separated from the source before. It felt as though a warm fire, one she’d accepted would be there to keep her safe as it burned in the background of her life, had gone out. As the fear rose, she tried to take in deep breaths to control it, but couldn’t stop the rush of oxygen to her brain as she hyperventilated. Her magic was gone.
Afraid and vulnerable for the first time in her life, she stood frozen, unable to move from the spot as her mind raced. Every thought in her head seemed to disappear, leaving her an almost empty husk. Her stomach, already in knots, tightened down as her fear and panic became the center of her world. She needed to get out, to escape, but the column of ice forming in her core kept her from even opening the door in front of her.
Bright spots began exploding in the corners of her vision and she almost missed it as the door in front of her swung open. Almost as if on autopilot, her fear took control, and she leapt at her captor, screaming at the top of her lungs with her hands stretched out to claw out its eyes.
Bacon, she thought as she bit into another crisp piece, is a gift from the gods. She looked across the small table where she sat and admired William’s backside. Of all the places she’d imagined she could be, Bella never considered his apartment.
Her attack on William as he’d opened the door to what, it turned out, was his bedroom, had come as a surprise to both of them. Knocking the plate from his hands and trying to rip his hair out by the roots, she was startled to hear her name yelled by her captor. It was just enough to give her pause, and she found herself horror-struck at realizing the man she’d just attacked was the same person she’d been crushing on for weeks. After cleaning up the mess, he’d invited her to the kitchen to join him while he made another plate.
It took a bit of time for the whole of her story to come out. William had seen her in the club talking to the Moirai, something he’d admitted took a lot of guts. And he’d seen her fly into the center of the dance floor. Without thinking, he’d waded in and tried to drag her out, but before he could get her to safety, she’d taken a glass to her head. Apparently, a group of dwarfs had started a fight. The owners stepped in to break it up, and since he didn’t know where she lived, he’d brought her to his place.
“What I don’t get,” she said, waving a piece of bacon in front of her as though it was a magic wand, “is why the ward. I only freaked because of that. I mean, thank you for bringing me out of there and all, but why ward me?”
It was William’s turn to look sheepish.
“Actually,” he started, voice cracking a bit before he cleared his throat. “That was an accident. The owners have the whole building warded. It keeps the tenants safe and out of each other’s hair. I just forgot it was there.”
Learning the entire building was protected caused her stomach to flip. Though she preferred using mundane methods to magic whenever possible, she still couldn’t imagine not having it available to her whenever she wanted. It would be like living in an apartment without air conditioning. Sure, she could do it, but why? Besides, living in a warded building was expensive, too expensive for her, so how did he afford it? And what neighbors did he have that required that much protection? Questions upon questions.
Turning, his own breakfast in hand, William joined Bella at the table. Silence stretched for a time as they ate and then, with the last bites finished and the dirty plates in the sink, William spoke.
“You know, going to the Moirai was, well, kind of stupid. Not that I’m calling you stupid, of course,” he said, holding his hands up to stop her from taking insult. “There are other, less dangerous ways, to get information. Did you try a locater spell?”
“A locater spell? Now, why didn’t I think of that? Thank you for bringing it up. Gosh, a locater spell.” The sarcasm dripping fr
om her words would have made Cat proud. Staring at William with a look that shouted her annoyance, and yes insult, at the comment, she hoped it wouldn’t be necessary to tell him she also knew how to feed herself and cross a street without holding hands. If this was his way of not calling her stupid, there was no wonder why he still lived alone.
“Yeah, okay. But still…” Bella guessed he didn’t like the look on her face because, try as he might, every word just seemed to dig himself in deeper. “Look, I didn’t mean—”
“What did you mean, then?”
“I just meant, well, I just,” he stammered. It was plain the conversation wasn’t going the way he’d imagined in his head. Letting out a sigh, he looked her in the eye and continued. “I’m sorry. You are right and capable of taking care of yourself. It was stupid of me to suggest that you wouldn’t have tried something easy first. You wouldn’t have been in Club Luna without a good reason.”
Crossing her arms, Bella stared at him for a moment. If this was his idea of an apology, it was, well pretty good, she admitted to herself. Letting go of her rising anger, she kept the scowl on her face, though she let it soften. No use in letting him know how well he’d done.
“Okay,” she said with a voice that was just a touch softer than she’d intended. “Apology accepted, though next time…”
“There won’t be a next time. Promise.”
Nodding as if that were the last word on the matter, she rose from her seat. It was time to leave, though if she was honest with herself, she would have loved to spend more time with William. This was in fact the most face time she’d had with him since he’d started working at her firm. But she needed a shower and a change of clothes. She was also desperate to get away from the building’s wards. Having her magic just out of reach with nothing she could do about it was scratching at the back of her mind like nails across a chalkboard.