She was out of her jeans in a matter of seconds, and out of her underwear soon after. Her instinct was to press her naked body against his, to stop him from seeing her fully—stop him from seeing her scars—but Isaac had already explored the landscape of her back with his fingertips, had felt every grove and bump, and hadn’t been turned away by them.
Because he’s a good man, she thought, and then she hooked her fingers into his boxers and drew them down. Slowly, she pushed him down onto the sofa and crawled onto him. He stared into her eyes, brushed wild strands of hair out of her face, and kissed her bare chest. She was shaking uncontrollably. This was the first time she had been intimate with a man in a long time; at least, intimate in a way that counted for something, that meant something.
“I missed you,” Isaac said.
Alice smiled, and her entire face seemed to light up. “I missed you too,” she said, and she kissed him again.
CHAPTER 22
The Chicken or the Egg
Alice thought maybe she had slipped into a light sleep after her brief interlude with Isaac on her living room couch, because her eyes refused to open. They had stayed there, wrapped around each other’s bodies without speaking, Alice listening to his breathing, and Isaac listening to hers. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had wrapped their arms around her like this, but was grateful for the closeness when her mind became restless.
She sat up after a time, covering herself with a crocheted blanket and realizing only when Isaac pulled her hair over one shoulder that in her try for modesty, she had neglected to cover her back. It was stupid for her to feel embarrassed, or ashamed, that he could see the lines of scars across it. Alice had worn a backless dress to the museum event not long ago, and anyone who cared to look had seen them. But this was… intimate. Alice went to stand, but Isaac drew his fingertips across the scars. She stiffened, then relaxed, like a cat that had just been stroked.
“Please,” he said.
She turned her head to look at him, but did so slowly and said nothing.
“You never told me how it happened.”
“I never wanted to.”
“Do you want to now?”
“Not really.”
“I won’t make you talk, but this is as much a part of you as anything else. I’m willing to listen and not speak, not ask questions, if that’s what it takes.”
“Isaac…”
He nodded. “I’m sorry, I’m pushing again.”
“It’s not that, it’s just—” The shaking had gotten worse. She could barely string a pair of words together without shivering like she had just been dumped in a bath full of iced water.
Isaac squeezed her shoulder. “It’s alright,” he said, and he pulled the sheet that was covering him off his chest and draped it around her back.
Alice reached with her other hand for the blanket corner and pulled until she was wrapped in it. “Thank you,” she said before standing.
Isaac nodded, stood, gathered her clothes, and handed them to her before starting to put his own clothes on. Dusk had come, and the last embers of sunlight were dying out. It would be time to move Raegan soon. They could probably do it now, if they wanted to. But something else cropped into her mind.
The corner of her mouth tugged into a grin. “You blew up my TV,” she said.
Isaac’s eyebrows furrowed. “What?” he asked.
Alice pointed over his shoulder, and he turned around. Her flat-screen TV was destroyed, and the wall behind it was covered in black scorch marks. Other points around the apartment where lightning had struck were also singed and burnt. Nothing a little paint wouldn’t fix, Alice figured, but that had been quite the light show.
“I did all this coming in?” he asked.
“Yeah. Thought you were going to rip my house apart.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll pay for the damages.”
She put her hand up. “It’s okay, but I’ve never seen you do anything like that before. Care to tell me where you learned that trick? Because if you can do it again, moving Raegan would be a piece of cake.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Trust me on this.”
“We’ll have to do it the old fashioned way, then,” Alice said, turning to look at the bathroom door.
“Yes, but that’s not so bad. I have things to tell you, and you have to tell me what happened to you and Cameron. Since he’s not with you, I gather he’s off on some mission?”
“Let’s move this body first.”
Alice didn’t want to immediately go into how she was starting to worry about Cameron, even though she was. He had told her he was okay—had sent the crows like he said he would—but if he was okay, then why hadn’t he contacted her? Why the radio silence? Focusing on moving Raegan from her bathroom to her car seemed like the kind of thing she needed to distract herself with.
They approached the bathroom door and opened it. Alice braced herself for the smell, but it wasn’t as bad as she had thought. Present, but not overpowering. Between the two of them they were able to carry Raegan’s body out of the apartment, into the elevator, and out to Alice’s mustang which was waiting just outside the door of her building.
Isaac shut the trunk while Alice slipped into the driver’s seat and started the car. The mustang grumbled to life, growled as she gave it some gas, and settled into a comfortable rumble. When Isaac was inside, Alice peeled the car out of the parking spot and onto the road, making sure not to skip a single red light or break a single traffic rule along the way.
“Where are we going?” Isaac asked.
“I know a place, but we’ll need to buy a shovel.”
“Or two.”
Alice nodded. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. How about you start telling me what happened to you? You said you broke out of the joint.”
“My lodgings weren’t entirely uncomfortable so I wouldn’t have called it the joint, but when the opportunity presented itself for me to escape, I took it. I had help. A friend of mine, Jim, he helped me get out and find what I was looking for. I only wish…”
“Isaac?”
“I… watched a cave collapse on top of him. I couldn’t help him get out.”
“Isaac… I’m so sorry.”
“He was helping me get to where I needed to go, only he couldn’t come with me.”
“Sounds like he put your life above his own.”
“We tried to get him out but… the magic didn’t work. I don’t know. I’m hopeful.”
“Hopeful about what?”
“That somehow he made it out in time.”
Alice knew what that was like, to cling to hope against all odds, against all logic and reason. She had done so herself when Nyx stole her across to the Reflection. She didn’t think she would ever see the light of day, but here she was, alive and well. Hope was a good thing, and she was glad Isaac still had some.
“You said you went somewhere,” Alice said, “Where did you go?”
“A place called the Void.”
Isaac explained—as best he could—where he had been, what he had encountered, and what he had learned, but found himself unable to remember or articulate some of his experiences. He couldn’t even remember how he had escaped the Void. Coming back to the real world had been like waking up from a long dream. His memories were fractured and broken, and while they were coming back to him in pieces, he didn’t want to go too deeply into anything until more concrete thoughts formed in his mind. This wasn’t particularly worrying—the Reflection also had these effects on the human mind. What worried Alice the most was that the Void had changed him.
She had felt something when she had first laid eyes on him; a kind of familiarity that in all their time as a couple had never existed. This strange connection went deeper than the physical, beyond the emotional, and into the spiritual. It was almost as if she could feel his presence, taste his emotions, and hear his thoughts without even trying. This wasn’t true mind reading—it was more like she could hear random strings o
f speech in the back of her head, but was unable to string them together in any cohesive way.
The scariest part about all this was that Nyx and her Pain Children had the same effect on her. Hadn’t Alice heard the siren song? Couldn’t she sense when they were close? If Isaac was right and he had now connected with the Void—which was already connected to Nyx and everything she touched, including Alice—then wasn’t he now linked with Nyx in a way he hadn’t been before? There’s a scary thought.
“Alice?” Isaac asked.
“Huh?” she said, snapping out of her own thoughts.
“You haven’t said anything in a while.”
“Sorry… it’s just a lot to take in.”
“I know. It was a lot for me also. I was counting on… on Jim being here, to help me figure it all out. My Guardian insists I know as much as I need to know—enough that he can teach me—but I haven’t called him back yet. The Void drained its energy. When it returns, I’ll have questions.”
“Me too. I mean, this whole thing kinda throws your Lich story out the window, doesn’t it?”
“On the contrary; I think I now understand where Lich got his powers from, and by extension where he and his kind came from. I also understand that Lich and Nyx are separate entities, but that one may well have created the other. The only question is which came first—the chicken or the egg?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, did the Void infect Lich first, or did Lich inflict himself upon the Void first? If Nyx already existed at the time of Lich’s death, then she’s far older than we think she is and the problem originated long, long ago. This would solidify the theory that Nyx is the very same goddess the Greeks talked about in their writings, making her at least ten thousand years old. If it turns out she’s younger than that, it’s possible she just assumed the identity of this mythological figure—maybe as a way of grounding herself, as a way of becoming real.”
“I think I don’t care. Not right now, anyway. This is starting to feel too much like class, and I know you get off on this kind of stuff, but we have a body to bury and—”
“Message received.”
“I’m sorry, I just have a lot on my mind right now. It’s hard to process so much. I’m also kinda worried about Cameron.”
“Worried? I thought you said he was okay.”
“He sent the crows he said he would send to let me know it had all gone well, but he hasn’t called or anything.”
“It?” Isaac asked. “What’s it?”
Oh, Alice thought, that’s right, I haven’t told him.
It was Alice’s turn to explain, as the mustang rumbled along the highway, what had happened to her and Cameron, culminating at the part where the legionnaires came to the cat sanctuary. After everything that had happened to Isaac, talking about Logan seemed like a sensitive subject; and besides, Cameron had said he would be able to handle the legionnaires.
But there were six of them. Six. What if he wasn’t okay? Maybe it was this subconscious concern that had Alice driving along the same stretch of road she had driven down earlier on Cameron’s bike. She hadn’t gone far out of town, but the sanctuary was only a few miles out from here. Maybe we should go and check, she thought, figuring that whatever battle had taken place had to have been over by now. It had been hours.
“And he hasn’t been in contact since?” Isaac asked.
“No, and I mean, it’s been way too long, hasn’t it? Maybe he’s gone to ground? You know him better than I do. What do you think?”
Isaac considered this as the dark landscape blitzed past them. Alice was looking for a place to turn in, an exit onto a dirt road or something, but hadn’t found one yet.
“Logan is dangerous,” Isaac finally said. “He broke our rules when he attacked me, and has broken the rules again by attacking another mage’s holdings without authorization—because no praetor would condone this kind of behavior. Our rules are sacred.”
“Not to him.”
“Which is why we have to avoid him at all costs. Cameron is a clever mage, incredibly resourceful, and he has the wits and instinct of an animal. If they were able to overpower him—if—it would have cost them. It’s more likely that he’s busy drawing them away from you, rather than hiding. I’ve never known Cameron West to hide from anyone.”
What Isaac was saying made sense, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something hadn’t gone well. The concern was there. If Cameron was so capable, then why was she still worried? Paranoia, perhaps, but she didn’t think it was that. Alice had adapted to living a life where invisible things stalked her waking and dreaming moments. If you can adjust to that, you never have to worry about being paranoid ever again.
Still…
“You did the right thing in leaving,” Isaac said, “I don’t think you would have been much use in a fight against Logan. At least, not then—but maybe now.”
His words jerked her thoughts back into the car, and she looked at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well,” Isaac said. A knowing grin spread across his face. “You raised the dead tonight; I think it’s time you learned how you did that, exactly. That… and much more.”
CHAPTER 23
Starry Night
The mustang hugged the road with all the grace of a panther stalking through the darkness. When Alice found a side road to take, one which seemed to lead to a forested area, the car took it with liquid ease. With the high beams on, the car surrounded by trees, and the moon high in the sky, it almost felt like they were driving onto the set of a horror movie, and weren’t they? They had a dead body in the trunk which now also shared space with a brand new shovel and a whole bunch of other random gardening equipment.
Because everyone knows what someone buying a shovel and a bag of lime is about to do.
When she found a good spot down the dirt road Alice stopped, killed the ignition, and the car sighed into stillness. She waited for a moment, enveloped in the sounds of the forest she had entered and the ticking of the cooling engine. An owl hooted nearby. Cars hissed distantly on the highway they had just left. When the smell of rubber and exhaust cleared the space, the car filled with the heady aroma of wet earth.
“This is as good a spot as any, isn’t it?” she asked.
“It is,” Isaac said. “I can do this on my own, you know.”
“We’ve only got one shovel, but I’m not about to sit here and let you do all the work. We’ll take turns, like we said.” Isaac nodded and stepped out of the car. Alice did the same. “Besides, I want you to tell me more about what you’ve learned about me.”
“Are you sure? There’s no going back once I do.”
“The way I see it, we’ve both gotten what we wanted. You got to learn stuff about me, and I didn’t have to allow myself to be scrutinized in order for you to get it. Now I’m curious.”
Alice popped the trunk and covered her mouth with the back of her hand. When the smell came up this time, it didn’t bother her much. Isaac rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and helped Alice heave Raegan out of the trunk, letting her rest gently on the soft earth. He then grabbed the shovel from out of the backseat, looked for a patch of soft soil just off the road, and plunged it into the earth.
“Are you sure there’s no magic trick you know that’ll help us do this faster?” Alice asked.
“There are mages who can make the ground itself open at their command,” Isaac said, “But I, unfortunately, am not one of them.”
“I guess that would be too easy.”
She looked around, taking the forest in. Darkness pressed around them and a thin fog snaked between the bases of trees. All they had for light were the low beams on the front of the mustang, but it was enough. They wouldn’t be seen here from the highway. Only if someone turned off and came down this same dirt road would they be discovered. Judging by the overgrowth along the road, this was not a well-traveled path.
“So, about me…” Alice said, prodding Isaac into conversation.
>
“Right,” he said, “I’ll start with Trapper, shall I?”
“Sure.”
“I know what made it. And, by extension, I know what made your Chest of Haunts. Or, at least, I know what kind of person made them—I didn’t actually find out who made them.”
“A Void Weaver made them, right?”
“Yes. Technically, Trapper is a magical artifact constructed by a mage. A mage like me.”
“You mean like you—now. You weren’t a Void Weaver before.”
“And I’m not entirely certain I am one now either. I feel different, I know my magic is different, but I haven’t allowed it to express itself through me yet, not since I arrived at your apartment. Until I open myself up to the Tempest and analyze my own power, and then figure out how to work the Void into the magic, I won’t be able to call myself a real Void Weaver. But I have developed an almost instinctual understanding about the Void, and I now know with full certainty that you are a type of mage—only your power comes solely from the Void. What you did at your apartment, reanimating Raegan, that’s only the start.”
“That’s… pretty cool,” Alice said. She approached the hole Isaac was digging and took the shovel, and then proceeded to continue the digging. “How do you know I have Void magic within me?”
“Because when I got to your apartment,” he said, leaning against the car, “I could sense it. The residue, I mean. I leave magical residue when I perform magic; you leave Void residue when you use yours. No mage can just sense that, though. The Void is out of our range—it’s like it doesn’t exist.”
“But it does. What I’m curious about is why all this business with souls? Stealing souls, feeding on souls, capturing souls… what’s the deal?”
“That I can’t tell you. Not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t know the answer. What I do know is that you are going to be much better at dealing with souls than most mages.”
Alice stopped shoveling and slammed the shovel head into the earth. “How do I do it?”
“Well,” Isaac said, “How did you make Trapper work?”
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