Shattered Souls

by Karice Bolton

  “I think that’s what you’d call it in your language. Sometimes language is so inadequate…” her voice trailed off. “It’s kind of ironic, really.”

  “What is?” I felt my heart pounding with every passing second.

  “Well, your mom allowed Maddie to perfect her abilities on her. Play with reality and…”

  “That’s not being a muse. Was Maddie in on it with my father?” I asked. The fury building inside of me was unstoppable. My mom was used as a guinea pig before my father ever got his hands on her. I looked at Logan who realized the same things as I did. My mom wasn’t weaker than anyone else. It wasn’t love that wore her down. It was more logical than that. Her brain had been pre-wired by science experiments in the guise of magic by Maddie. She had been preconditioned to fall prey to the mind games.

  “No…no definitely not,” Dace said, flying over to stand next to Bakula. “In fact when she found out what might have happened with your mother she fell into a deep depression. She realized all of the practicing she did on your mother made your mom more susceptible to mind altering of any sort.”

  “That’s why Maddie’s so protective of you,” Bakula offered, glancing at Logan. “She knew your mother and father in good times and bad. I think she wanted to make sure it wouldn’t happen twice.”

  “We can say whatever we want about Maddie and her so-called good intentions, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust her. And I can’t believe my mom would send me there, knowing what happened to her.” I shook my head in disgust.

  “I understand your distrust, and that’s something we’re going to have to work on. But we actually have other things we need to discuss with you. Like getting you into hiding,” Dace said. “We’ve got a place—”

  “No. I told you that I’m not going into hiding. It won’t do anyone any good.”

  Dace let out a deep sigh and looked over at Logan who nodded in agreement.

  “If you’re that worried about me, though, I don’t want to put my mom in jeopardy. She’s planning on moving back here,” I said.

  Bakula marched along my knee and calf, hopping down to the couch.

  “The only person I want you around is Logan, and that’s even pushing it,” Dace ordered.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Logan asked.

  “Exactly what I said.”

  “You experienced something earlier today, didn’t you?” Bakula asked, attempting to take a different approach. “In that bounty hunter’s mind?”

  How’d she know about that?

  “After talking with Maddie, I realized I had more control over things than I realized. I didn’t expect to be able to jump right in like I did.”

  “Well, you’re lucky he wasn’t skilled in giving it back to you. He could’ve turned it around on you. Granted, your skills don’t need spells or potions to read others’ minds or cause transcendence among souls, but if you run into someone who can also manipulate worlds then it could be very rough on you. It’s an entirely different type of warfare. That’s why you need to be in hiding. At least until you can block others from entering your mind.”

  “So if someone knows how to cast spells to do what I can do naturally, there is still a potential issue? I thought my abilities could overpower that.”

  “Eventually your powers will trump anyone’s. Absolutely. But you certainly aren’t there yet. Your channels can still be tapped, so to speak. It’s something we have to be cognizant of. As more things get out into the community about your abilities the more of a liability they are until you can master them. That’s why it’s imperative that you go into hiding.”

  I shook my head. “No way. I’ll move to protect my mom, but I’m not going into hiding.”

  “As more coven members see your abilities firsthand, the news is going to spread like wildfire,” Bakula said. “It’s creating problems we don’t have time for. Most will be excited about seeing your strengths unfold, but it only takes a few to cause devastation. If you’d go into hiding while you’re learning everything it would make our lives much easier. How many saw what you were capable of today?”

  I thought back to the day’s events and there were quite a few…

  “Seven people saw what she was capable of. Four of them didn’t make it. One was captured and one was Maddie. Only one witch, Salinah, has the ability to spread what she saw, and I don’t think that can happen.”

  “And why’s that?” Dace asked.

  “I did a mind wipe,” I replied. “Kind of.”

  “Where did you learn that?” Bakula asked, narrowing her eyes on me.

  “I pieced together my own method,” I said, shifting uncomfortably.

  “If you have these eruptions everyday and leave people here and there who have seen your abilities, it will eventually catch up with us,” Bakula insisted. “Regardless of what you think you performed on Salinah, there’s always the possibility that something could go wrong.”

  “We will be more careful, but I’m not going into hiding,” I said.

  I noticed Bakula eyeing the ring on my pinky finger and wondered if she was reconsidering giving me the amulet. Not that I knew what it was for. I whipped the ring around my finger and caught her attention.

  “All we can do is trust your judgment.” Bakula sighed. “Hopefully, what we told you has resonated, and you’ll be more careful about who sees your gifts.”

  “If that’s what you want to call them,” I said.

  “Let’s get on our way,” Dace said, avoiding my gaze. “We’ll let ourselves out.”

  I watched the two as they fluttered away toward the entry and heard the door click and lock.

  “I think they underestimated your level of stubbornness,” Logan said, smiling.

  “Seems to be the theme,” I said, squeezing my brows together. “I’m not really being that stubborn though, am I? I don’t want to spend what remaining time I have left, hiding when I could be fighting.” I didn’t give him a chance to respond. “And on that note, I think we need check out that place tonight.”

  Standing up from the couch, I walked toward Logan. “Let’s get the wound cleaned up. You’ve been dealing with it long enough.” I locked my fingers through his and pulled him into the kitchen with me.

  “I think you like playing doctor,” he murmured.

  “I think you like playing patient,” I said, sitting him in the kitchen chair. “You’ve been getting hurt a lot lately.”

  I flipped on the pantry light and grabbed some swabs and a couple tinctures that would heal his flesh wound and walked back over to where he sat. As I gently cleaned his skin, he wrapped his arm around my waist, bringing me in a little closer.

  “Don’t squeeze me too tight, or I won’t be able to properly tend to your cut,” I scolded.

  His hold tightened, bringing a smile to my lips. I placed a piece of gauze over the ointment and lightly tapped his shoulder. “All done.”

  “It feels better already,” he said.

  “I thought you said it didn’t hurt.”

  He shrugged his shoulders and loosened his clutch, allowing me to slide onto his lap.

  “Do you think I made the right decision?” I asked.

  “You mean about not going into hiding?”

  I nodded.

  “You have to do what’s right for you. I think Dace and Bakula have your best interest at heart, but they may not see things from the same perspective. And you have a unique one. I can’t pretend to completely understand it either.” He let out a sigh.

  “I’m not always sure that Dace and Bakula have our best interests at heart. Their number one goal, and I don’t blame them, is self-preservation. If anything threatens that, the plan seems to change.”

  “That’s true.” Logan shifted slightly, and I stood up, thinking I was making him uncomfortable. But he slammed me back down against him. “Where do you think you’re going?” His brows creased slightly as he smiled at me.

  “I was just going to take a bath,” I whispe
red.

  “Is that so. Would you like company?” He lifted my hand to his mouth, and kissed it softly. I wilted instantly at his touch and thought about sharing the bath with him.

  He began laughing and angled toward me.

  “What?” I asked, frowning.

  He touched my cheek gently and brought his lips close to mine. “Sometimes you are very transparent.”

  I blushed immediately and laughed. I must have had an extremely dopey look on my face.

  I slid off his lap and stretched. I wanted to act like today’s events weren’t bothering me, but they were.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Shoot,” he said, winking.

  “I don’t want my actions to resemble what my dad was doing to all of those poor souls,” I whispered. “And I feel like I crossed that line more than once today.”

  “You aren’t going out of your way to create a bunch of zombies, babe. It’s not like you’re seeking out people to brainwash.”

  “Yeah, but I’m messing with people’s minds. I’m messing with their mental well-being.”

  “It’s not the same. You’re not going out on the offensive. You’re using it for a just cause.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe so.”

  “It’s like immortality,” his voice lowered. “There’s a time and place for it.”

  “Let’s not go there,” I pleaded, wrapping my arms around his neck.

  “We’re going to have to go there at some point,” he mumbled, not looking at me. “Besides, what if they were on to it.”

  “Who to what?” I asked.

  “Would you really turn down immortality?” His eyes locked on mine. “What if I was able to achieve it too? Would that change things?”

  Chapter 10

  It was the middle of the night, and here we were driving to the address from Len. My hands were clasped around a cup of coffee as if my life depended on it. Logan and I had managed to grab a few hours of sleep, but they were interrupted all too soon by the alarm clock. I wanted to pretend that his words didn’t affect me earlier, but they did. If he could achieve immortality would I be so willing to let it slip out of my fingers?

  We whipped by the downtown corridor on our way to the industrial section of town. Using Google, the address looked to be in a large business park, but there were several warehouses edging the area, and we couldn’t actually tell if the address was in one of the warehouses or an office building.

  “You’re awfully quiet,” Logan said.

  “Sorry. Just tired,” I replied, smiling.

  Logan pulled the car onto the exit and the port lights glittered off in the distance. “I don’t know how I let you talk me into these things,” he muttered, glancing over at me.

  “You know you love it.”

  As we continued through the city streets, my hands got clammy. Chain link fences began replacing streetlights, and office buildings were replaced with windowless concrete buildings.

  “Babe, if things go wrong, we’re going to bolt. You know that, right?” Logan asked.

  “I completely agree,” I replied.

  Logan slowed the car as we crept into the parking lot and turned off the lights. I scanned the darkened buildings until I came across a sign that read Zelo Pharmaceuticals.

  “Nice. I think we’ve found another player,” I said, pointing at the sign.

  “Think you’re right about that,” Logan agreed, as we continued driving toward the back of the complex.

  They made it easy enough for us to find what we were looking for. The building was fully lit and a large metal door was wide open. Workers carried boxes from a large semi-truck into the warehouse. I wanted to know what was inside those boxes. Logan parked the car behind a dumpster and turned to face me.

  “I wonder who is playing who with everything going on?” Logan asked.

  “Only one way to find out,” I said.

  Logan shook his head and smiled.

  “I think it’s time to play hide and seek with a twist,” I said.

  “I hope that twist is that we’re invisible.”

  I grinned and began reciting the spell, watching Logan’s body begin to disappear. If he made sudden movements, he could be spotted, but if these were only workers we probably didn’t have to worry about being spotted. They wouldn’t know to be alert.

  “My turn,” I said, turning the cast to my own body.

  I’d be lying if I said watching my limbs slowly vanish wasn’t a little disconcerting because it was actually terrifying.

  “We’ll go out my door,” I said. “That way two doors won’t open on their own. I doubt anyone can see our car from here, but we might as well be smart about it.”

  “Agreed.”

  “It’s really weird hearing you but not seeing you.” I reached for where I thought his leg might be and watched my finger reappear as it touched his body. “Whoa. Aren’t we supposed to stay invisible? That’s not normal, is it?”

  “Not at all,” he replied. “We’ll have to make sure not to bump into each other.”

  “Definitely. We need to work out the kinks when we get home, though.” I opened the door slowly and slid out. I took a few steps backward to ensure that our bodies didn’t collide and bring attention to our already precarious situation.

  The door gently closed, and I felt a breeze tickle my skin as Logan walked by me.

  “After you,” he whispered next to me.

  We walked along the side of the building in front of our target, and stopped at the corner. There were about fifteen men cycling through the assembly line to unload the truck. They were carting the boxes to the back of the warehouse, but it didn’t look like anyone was checking the contents of the boxes. That could make it more difficult. We’d have to snake our way back there and attempt to open a box without being noticed.

  My heart began pounding as I tried to estimate whether or not we’d make it out if we got caught.

  “We’ll make it out of here no matter what,” Logan channeled. “Let’s get a move on. We want to be out of here before the sun comes up.”

  I nodded and immediately wanted to kick myself as I remembered he couldn’t see what I was doing.

  I felt the air shift around me once more as Logan walked by. We were only a few yards away from the entrance. I followed behind Logan, staying as close to the wall as possible. The men moving the boxes were laughing and chatting about football. There were hundreds of boxes stacked at the back of the warehouse. There were several rusty tables that were scattered throughout the space with packing material on top.

  A big gust of wind whirled through the room and a packing peanut flew right into my hair. I stopped walking and plucked it out of my strands. Releasing it from my fingers, the peanut continued to float to the floor. I scanned the room quickly and none of the men noticed the rogue peanut. Phew!

  “Hey,” a man yelled. I froze immediately, my heart racing, and slowly turned to face the direction of the voice. “Do you know when the next shipment’s coming in?”

  Thank God, he wasn’t talking to me. I watched the man turn around and walk to the truck and grab another box.

  “No idea,” another guy said, walking into the trailer.

  “I’m to the left of the stack, in the back. There’s a little cubbyhole where a few boxes have been stacked. I think we can check them out without being noticed,” Logan said telepathically.

  As relief flooded through me, I scurried through the rest of the warehouse, careful not to bump into the random stepladders and tables. I reached the area he directed me to and felt my heart pounding. I wasn’t sure what I thought I would find inside these boxes.

  I felt Logan standing next to me, and we quickly worked to open the box. There was a thick layer of packing material that I removed. I peeked inside and an unexpected gasp escaped. I quickly looked around the warehouse, but it didn’t look like anyone heard except Logan. Looking back down into the container, my heart fell. Tears filled my eyes. I wondered if Dace and Baku
la knew this was going on.

  “What do you see?” Logan channeled.

  I choked down the lump that was forming in my throat and gazed at the box full of fairy wings.

  They were wrong. Whoever was doing this was very wrong. Fairy wings didn’t carry the key to immortality. I wasn’t sure what did, but this wasn’t the answer, and now thousands of fairies were dead. And by the look of things, it didn’t look like the operation had any intention of slowing.

  Chapter 11

  “Dace and Bakula are on their way over,” I said, still sick to my stomach. “And my aunt and mom should be here any second.”

  We’d made it back home by sunrise, but I still felt like I was in a nightmarish fog. I didn’t know exactly how to bring up what I saw at the warehouse to Dace and Bakula. My hunch was that they might well be aware of it.

  “Jennifer’s going to be here today,” I said, tucking my legs under me. I couldn’t wait to see her. “Winter break has started. God! Winter break. It’s hard to believe my friends are just finishing up their first quarter in college and I’m doing… I don’t even know what I’m doing.”

  “I had this really weird dream last night that Angela was one of us,” I whispered, rubbing my eyes.

  “Your friend in Colorado? Wow. That’s weird.”

  “I’m sure it was just a dream, but—”

  “What if it wasn’t? Would you be okay with that?” he interrupted.

  “It’s not really my choice.”

  “No. I know. I just mean it seems weird to have anyone want to learn our way of life right now. It’s a dangerous time to make a change.”

  I nodded in agreement. I would have been ecstatic if she would’ve wanted to do this back in high school when everything seemed so normal and safe. But now it worried me. I didn’t want to put any other friends in danger, but it wasn’t really my choice.

  “She’s coming back home for Christmas break, right?” he asked.

  “Yep.”

  “That’s probably what it is. Your dreams are just combining everything.”

  “I kind of hope so,” I confided. “My mom’s coming over with Aunt Vieta to find out about our visit with Maddie, but something tells me they already know what happened.”