by L. C. Mawson
When he brought it out to check the time, as they finished eating, her suspicion was confirmed. Before he could change the screen, she saw that he had a few dozen missed calls. There were actually a few less than she would have expected, but maybe that was just her underestimating Jamie. Yes, Freya felt that she needed to calm down a bit, but then, Damon was spending his Valentine’s Day with another woman. Even if it was his best friend. Freya liked to think that, in Jamie’s position, she would be more relaxed about it, but then she had never been anywhere even near a romantic relationship, so who was she to judge?
“You can go and see her, you know,” Freya told him. “It’s been really nice hanging out with you today, but I do understand that it’s Valentine’s Day.”
Damon looked, honestly, a little relieved at that. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
She did, in fact, mind, but that was neither here nor there. “Go,” she told him. “It’s fine, I swear.”
Damon grinned before hurrying out of the booth. They had already paid when they had ordered, so we left the restaurant with just a few words to their waitress. Freya assumed that he was tipping her.
Freya picked up her bag, deciding that she would pick up some ice cream on the way home. And maybe a birthday cake. If her foster parents had bought one for her, they hadn’t mentioned it.
Before she could leave, however, the waitress made her way over, though she was now without her apron or name-tag. Freya felt a little bad that she hadn’t been paying attention to the name on the tag before. It had felt too much like looking at her boobs.
“Hey,” the other woman greeted, as she swept her short, blue hair from her aqua eyes. “Your friend told me to bring these over.” She placed two plates of chocolate cake and ice cream down on the table. The one directly in front of Freya had a lit candle in it.
“Why two?” Freya asked. “Damon left.”
She blushed a little. “He, um... I told him that my shift was ending and he suggested that I should bring you some birthday cake. He also suggested that you might want to...” Her blush deepened. “You know, hang out and stuff. So I thought I would bring cake for me as well so that you weren’t eating alone...”
Freya had to close her eyes with embarrassment for a moment as she was sure that her face was bright red. Maybe even purple. “He told you that I liked you, didn’t he?”
“He said you thought I was cute.”
“Yep...” Freya managed, not sure what else to say.
The other girl shrugged, looking a little sheepish. “Well, I thought you were cute too.”
“I... Really?”
The girl grinned, sitting down opposite her. “I’m Chloe.”
“Freya.”
“So... I’m guessing it’s your birthday,” Chloe ventured as Freya blew out her candle and removed it from her cake. “How old?”
“Fifteen.”
“I just turned sixteen last week.”
“And you’re working in a restaurant? Don’t you guys serve alcohol here?”
“Yeah. I have to get someone else to pour it, if anyone orders any. My uncle runs the place and I’m just a temp until he finds someone older.”
“Must be nice to have the extra cash.”
She shrugged. “I’m not complaining.”
They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they focused on the cake.
“So, how come you’re here?” Chloe asked. “I mean, how come you’re with a friend, who isn’t your boyfriend, on your birthday? Didn’t your family want to spend the day with you?”
Freya shrugged. “What about you? Why are you alone on Valentine’s Day?”
“Being gay kind of limits my dating pool. I don’t know anyone who swings my way that I haven’t already dated. Well, except for the ones I can’t stand. I should probably get out more, but the thing about bars is that you can’t get in until you’re eighteen, gay bars included.”
“They should have, like, gay coffee shops.”
“I would actually love that.”
Freya laughed a little as she finished up her cake. To her surprise, Chloe had already finished hers.
“So, you didn’t answer my question. Why are you on your own for your birthday?”
“My foster mother had to leave town for work last minute. My foster father promised take away tonight, but I got the day to myself.”
“Foster parents?”
Freya sighed. “I’m an orphan. I know, I know, it’s terrible and sad, and I should probably start fighting bad guys in spandex, but it’s true.”
Chloe raised an eyebrow. “So, what, you’ve gotten over it?”
“Nothing to get over. My mother died just after I was born and my father was nowhere to be found.”
“You never tried to find him, or...?”
“Once. But it wasn’t a good idea.” Freya cleared her throat. The subject was getting way too close to magic for comfort. “What about you? What’s your family like?”
“Boring and nuclear.”
“Any siblings?”
“Just my little brother. He’s kind of an asshole, but I guess all twelve year old boys are.”
“Sounds nice.”
“Yeah, I gue-” Chloe was cut off by a yawn. “I’m sorry. I’ve been working all day.”
“We could get some coffee.”
“They have coffee here, but I could probably use some fresh air.”
“What about the cafe around the corner?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
FREYA FELT IT THE SECOND they left the building. Like a prickling on the back of her neck.
“Are you okay?” Chloe asked her.
Freya nodded, realising that she had slowed. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She did her best to smile, despite the feeling of dread curling around her stomach.
The dark lightning struck out at her and she lost all sense to the pain.
Her muscles spasmed and she knew that she had lost.
He was going to kill her.
“You don’t look fine,” Chloe said. “You look like you’re about to be sick.”
Freya shook her head, trying to rid herself of the memories of her encounter with the Demon.
She focused on her sense of magic as she realised why that was.
She could sense another Demon.
She can see nothing but the sky and she can’t move.
She knows she’s going to die.
“I’m fine,” Freya repeated, doing her best to ignore the Demon.
It only took her another second to realise that wasn’t going to happen.
She pulled her phone out.
“Sorry, it’s important,” Freya said, pretending it was ringing before holding it to her ear. “Amber?”
Thankfully, her guardian appeared in front of her without hesitation.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Another one,” Freya told her, hoping that she would understand. She couldn’t exactly start throwing around words like Demon in front of Chloe.
“Don’t worry,” Amber said with a smile. “It won’t be after you.”
“How can you be sure?”
Amber looked uneasy, pausing for a few moments before answering. “Because this city is crawling with Demons. That’s why the crime rate is so high. There has always been a high concentration of magic in this area, and magical beings are drawn to it. But the Demons outnumber the Creatures of Light, simply because more of them survived the War.”
Freya nodded, though it didn’t help her uneasy stomach. “So, what? I just leave it be?”
“It’s not your fight, Freya.”
“But what will happen? What will they do?”
Amber sighed, folding her arms. “I honestly have no idea. I can’t read its mind.”
“But nothing good, right?”
“I...”
Freya could see her looking for a lie, but it was a search doomed to failure. Freya knew too much to believe her at this point.
“No, nothing good,” she
eventually agreed.
“Will someone step in?”
“Doubtful. They’ll only target Humans and the higher-ups will make sure to cover it up. No one’s going to stick their neck out for that.”
Freya bit her lip, her sense of unease only growing.
He brings down his sword and Freya grips the charm Damon gave her.
Thinking of a friend.
Not of the sword, but of her friend.
She never wanted to be in that situation again. Doing her best to make her last thoughts happy ones... She didn’t have the strength to go through it again.
But if she didn’t step up, it would be somebody else.
Somebody else squeezing their eyes tight and making sure that their last thoughts are of the only person who ever made them feel like they belonged.
She couldn’t let that happen.
“I’ll do it,” Freya told her. “Tonight, I’ll do it.”
Amber gave her a disapproving glare. “You’ll be putting yourself in unnecessary danger.”
“I can’t just leave it.”
Amber looked as if she was going to argue, before thinking better of it with a sigh. “You’re going to go no matter what I say, aren’t you?”
“Yep.”
“Alright then. Tonight.”
She disappeared at that and Freya put her phone back in her bag.
“I’m sorry about that,” Freya said, turning back to Chloe.
“Everything okay?”
“It is now.”
Chloe smiled at her. “So, what questions have we yet to answer?”
“Almost all of them.”
“Well, we’d better get to it then.”
“Okay, you first.”
“Alright then. What abou-”
Chloe stopped in her tracks, seemingly distracted.
“What is it?” Freya asked.
“Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“That music...”
Freya frowned, but Chloe was already heading quickly down a side-alley.
“Hey, going down there isn’t a good idea!” Freya called before hurrying after her.
Quicker than Freya could see, someone jumped down in front of Chloe and hit her so hard that she flew into the wall.
Freya was next, her head hitting the wall painfully as the Demon swatted her away.
“I knew I could lure your friend, but I didn’t think you would be stupid enough to follow,” the Demon sneered as she loomed over Freya.
The world spun a little as Freya strained to get up. Her vision blurred and she assumed that the blow to her head had been bad. She tried to focus her magic in that area, hoping that it would somehow help with the healing.
She got a better look at the Demon and saw that, instead of the red eyes of the last one, this one was looking at her with eyes that were entirely black, except for a slight blue where the outline of her iris should have been.
“You were after me?” Freya managed to ask as she struggled up.
“Of course I was. There are competing bounties out for you. Nothing sanctioned, of course, but they’re there anyway.”
“What bounties? And what do you mean sanctioned?”
The Demon sighed, lifting Freya up by her hair, ignoring her cry of pain.
“Lord Uther will be glad to see you dead, but the counter offer wants you alive. I wonder which I should take...”
Freya clawed at the hands holding her hair, trying to pry herself free as the Demon pretended to consider it.
She dropped to the ground as something collided with the Demon. It took Freya a moment to realise that it was Chloe.
“Get away from her!” Chloe yelled, shortly before being lifted up by the Demon as if she was a scrap of paper.
The Demon sighed. “Fine. I’ll kill your friend and deliver you alive to the second party.”
“No!” Freya cried, launching herself forward with all of her might, causing the Demon to drop Chloe.
Her muscles refuse to move and she’s helpless.
Freya concentrated her magic into the muscles in her arms and shoulders, focusing her strength in her fists.
He slices across her back and her blood soaks her top.
She struck forward as hard as she could, as if she could punch away the memories.
She’s never been in so much pain...
Something cracked beneath her fists but she couldn’t concentrate on that.
She couldn’t let them get her.
She refused to be helpless again.
The next thing she knew, she was being hauled up from behind.
“Freya! Stop!”
Freya realised that Chloe had pulled her up. She spun around to make sure that the Demon hadn’t gotten back up, only to see that her skull was caved in.
She wasn’t getting up again.
“What the hell did you do?” Chloe whispered.
Freya wiped the blood from her hands before dragging Chloe out from the alley and concentrating her magic.
“Auferbulum,” she said, putting all of her remaining strength behind the spell. It would take everything she had to erase the last few minutes.
Chloe’s eyes unfocused for a moment before blinking rapidly.
“What was I saying?”
Freya held back a relieved sigh before answering with a sad smile. “I was actually saying that I have to head off now.”
“Aw, really?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, how about we see each other again?”
“I... I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Freya said quickly, hurrying off before she would be expected to give an answer.
She shifted once she was around a corner, away from prying eyes.
As soon as she was out of the way, her chest started to seize up, her lungs forgetting how to gather air.
Amber appeared next to her, looking concerned.
“Breathe, Freya. Just concentrate on breathing.”
She nodded, but it was hard. She could feel the blood on her hands and it wouldn’t come off.
She started waving her hands up and down, as if it would help, as her eyes started streaming.
“She was trying to kill you,” Amber assured her. “You did nothing wrong.”
Freya had no words. Her mind couldn’t find them. She waved her hand, as if to indicate that she had bludgeoned someone to death with her fists.
“It was you or her. Or, worse, Chloe or her.”
She was right. Freya knew that she was right.
Her lungs remembered how to take in air.
“Freya, listen to me,” Amber said, her voice urgent as she placed ghostly hands on Freya’s shoulders. “Demons are foul creatures. She would have killed you, or worse. I don’t like you killing, I will admit that. I would prefer that you found another way but... That is out of concern for you, not them. The city is better with them dead.”
Freya nodded. “I’m alright,” she finally managed to say. “I promise, Amber... I’m alright now...”
FREYA STOOD IN FRONT of the bathroom mirror, concentrating on covering her wounds with a glamour.
Her magic was getting easier to use, but she wondered if she would ever feel as if she was out of the magic equivalent of play group.
No more than five pages into your grimoire, is how Jessica had described her at Christmas, and she couldn’t help but agree.
Amber appeared next to her as she finished up.
“You’re getting better at that,” Amber told her.
Freya just nodded. She didn’t have the energy to say anything else.
Amber seemed to hesitate for a moment before saying, “She was one of the strongest people I’ve ever met.”
Freya frowned.
“Your mother, I mean. I promised to tell you about her.”
“Yeah, I remember,” Freya managed.
“She had an iron will. But she was always more likely to use it to defy authority than anything else. She always hated the idea of being c
ontrolled and fought against anything she perceived as boundaries.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Freya eventually asked. She was too tired for a heart-to-heart.
“I’m telling you because I want you to have some inkling of what it means when I tell you that she would be proud of you. You’re doing the best you can right now, Freya, and it’s better than most people in your position would be doing.”
Freya frowned, rubbing one of her hands over the knuckles of the other. “I just punched someone to death...”
“To protect someone you cared about. An innocent Human. I don’t like you putting yourself in danger, but it is so very much like something your mother would have done.”
Freya somehow managed to find it in herself to feign a smile before saying “Thanks. I feel much better now.”
Only she didn’t, she thought to herself as Amber disappeared.
Her mother’s example wasn’t exactly one she was looking to follow.
Test
“Okay, next one,” Alice said on the other end of the line. “Sometimes I have to cover my ears to block out painful noises.”
No, Amber taught me a spell for that, was Freya’s first thought as she fiddled with her bluetooth headset, unable to leave it alone. She didn’t usually use it for actually making calls. Usually it was just so that it didn’t look like she was talking to herself when Amber was in ghost-form.
“Yeah, I guess,” Freya replied as she made her way out of the car park. She was sure that she had sensed a Demon around there somewhere...
“You used to get really upset whenever Janet got the hoover out.”
“I know, I said yes. ‘Now and when I was young’. Why am I doing this again? Didn’t I already take one of these quizzes? It said I was borderline.”
“Yeah, but this one’s more accurate. Trust me.”
“Okay, fine. Next question.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Freya felt the familiar presence of Demonic magic behind her. She quickly shifted to reposition herself behind the Demon that had tried to get the jump on her.
“It can be very hard to read someone’s face, hand, and body movements when we are talking,” Alice continued, as Freya brought her sword down to the Demon’s back, completely unaware of what was happening on the other end of the phone.