Mind Games: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 6)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “Oh, you know. One of those hard lemonades would be nice,” I said, smirking. I didn’t normally drink alcohol or anything, but I wondered what he’d do.

  “Sure thing,” he replied which was weird. Was he seriously going to let me drink alcohol?

  A moment later, he plopped the drink in front of me, a silly grin on his face. I wasn’t sure what his deal was, but I snagged the drink anyway. Watching him the entire time, I put the glass bottle to my lips and swallowed. He didn’t say a word. It was weird because I wasn’t old enough to drink. So why hadn’t he so much as said a word about it? Curiouser and curiouser.

  Chapter 7

  I was pretty sure I was dreaming. I mean, I had to be dreaming because unlike usual, I actually remembered laying down in my bed, pulling my Inigo Montoya comforter over my body and counting sheep until I fell asleep. I remembered getting to six.

  So how the heck was I standing in a room with walls made of polished obsidian and a floor of green dungeon brick? And oh my God, what the hell was I wearing? Skin tight snake skin? I rubbed my hands over my body, incredibly annoyed at how the costume left extremely little to the imagination. Yeah, I had to be dreaming. There was no way I’d wear this on purpose.

  A scream echoed down the hallway to my left, and a blast of cold chilled the air, frosting over the cobblestones as I craned my head toward the disturbance. My body began to move forward with a purposeful nonchalance. Evidently, I wasn’t worried about whatever it was. Only I was worried. Really, really worried. I tried to grab my swords, only I didn’t have them. Why didn’t I have them?

  A flash of blue light exploded from the corridor as I approached. My lips curled into a smile. “So one has awoken,” I said to myself, which was crazy because I wasn’t trying to speak. I touched the blackened steel bangles around my wrists and felt a little zing of magic run across my skin. Both of the bracelets resembled a snake coiled around my flesh in the shape of an ouroboros. You know, the design where the snake is biting its tail?

  As I stared at it, my breath would have caught in my throat if I wasn’t dreaming and could actually, you know, control my damned body. The piece of jewelry seemed to shudder at my touch, clearly not ready to let me use it.

  A sigh escaped me. “Very well, Apep.” The name jolted through my brain, bringing back memories of the Dioscuri. When I was a Dioscuri, one of the spirits that had empowered my weapons was Apep, the Egyptian deification of darkness. I’d once had three spirits to call upon, but someone had shattered my swords and stolen two of them. I still didn’t know how that had happened, or worse yet, why. Not that it mattered because this was clearly some kind of weird dream, but then again, it felt like a dream even when I was awake.

  “You can have your way for now, but given enough time, I will pry you out of your shell. You won’t be able to stay on good behavior forever,” I said, grinning at the bracelets like they were alive. “I’ll be here when you fall once more.” The bangles around my wrists shuddered against my words like they knew it was true, but strangely, I felt like they were reaching out to me, trying to tell me something desperately. Only I had no idea what it was.

  Another crash came from the hallway, and I strode forward like an avenging god as the temperature fell several more degrees, making gooseflesh sprout on my uncovered arms. I licked my lips. I wanted this. This was what I had been waiting for… I just didn’t know why.

  I turned the corner in a rush to see a blond-haired blue-eyed boy standing there, his face twisted into a snarl. He seemed familiar. I’d seen him before, but I couldn’t recall where. He threw one hand outward, flinging a red-haired youth across the corridor. Ice exploded from his palm, enveloping everything around us in a flurry of sleet and snow.

  My body reacted to the cold, and I tried to cover myself but found I couldn’t. Instead, I walked through the room, one hand outstretched before me. His power was nothing to me, at least now, while he seemed untrained. If he could harness it effectively, well, I didn’t want to be around when he did.

  “Stop.” My voice cut through the blond like a razor and fear filled his wide eyes as he stood there. I called upon my power and was across the room in a moment. I grabbed him by his face and released a blast of gilded energy that knocked him unconscious. He slumped beneath my grip.

  “Thanks,” the flame-haired youth said as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve, leaving a smear of crimson goo on his once pristine white sleeve.

  “You should have told me Fames awakened,” I said even though I had no idea what that meant. Only I did. Sort of. The knowledge came to me the instant I thought about it. Fames was the name of one of the four horseman of the apocalypse. But why was I calling this boy Fames? Was I dreaming about the horsemen? Why? “Famine is the one we wanted most. His hunger will be the undoing of them all.”

  I smiled. Yes, that was my plan. To turn the horsemen against each other. They were powerful, yes. A true force to be reckoned with. But if they killed one another off, well that would be good for everyone, and by everyone, I meant me. Only I wasn’t quite sure why I cared so much.

  “It just happened, Jormungand,” the youth replied as he stood and shook himself, but even though he seemed sure of himself on the outside, I could tell he was scared. And it was delicious. “The girl escaped. I will go after her.”

  “Don’t bother. Polyphemus just went through the earth portal to try for the others. He can surely take back one girl. You’re much too valuable to risk, anyway,” I said, and the name sparked something in me. Polyphemus had been the name of the cyclops I’d fought in the high school when I’d returned with Connor. But hadn’t that all been part of my fantasy? Then again, I was dreaming, but if I was, why did this seem so much more real than it did when I was awake? And why couldn’t I move my body? Why did it feel like I was just a passenger?

  I knelt down and twisted the slumped form of Famine until our eyes met. It was pointless because he was completely unconscious, but I wanted to be sure he wouldn’t wake up. To do that, I needed to drown him in power. It was the only way.

  What I saw in the boy’s unseeing eyes would have stopped my heart if I was in control of my body. My face was reflected in his empty gaze. My lavender hair was pulled back into a ponytail to reveal a pair of octopian eyes on my forehead. Just like Connor had in the mental hospital… just like Lang the police detective had when that spirit had possessed him. Was I under its control somehow and just seeing into the real world for the first time?

  No. No, that was impossible. I was just dreaming. Only how did I know I was dreaming? I hadn’t ever recalled knowing I was dreaming until after I woke up. I tried to swallow but couldn’t. My face grinned at me in the reflection of the blond’s eyes.

  “The cyclops won’t be able to take Bellum back by himself,” the redhead said, sidling up next to me like he was no longer sure of what to do with himself. “It would be better to have the pair.”

  “War and Famine together…” I tore my gaze from my reflection and shrugged at him. “It’s not necessary right now.” I pointed at the boy beneath me. “All we need is one. She will come for him after all. She has to come for him. It is in her nature. As long as we have him, she will walk right into our hands like a moth to the flame.”

  I released the boy, allowing him to slump against the cold stone floor. Already, the ice was starting to melt beneath my knees, soaking through my snakeskin and chilling me, but it didn’t seem to bother me as much as it should have. “Can you carry him back to his room? This body is too short for me to carry him myself.”

  The words coming out of my mouth made my blood turn colder than the water soaking through my clothing. Was someone admitting to inhabiting my body? No… no, that was insane. How could someone inhabit my body? Firstly, that was impossible. The doctors at Mercer & Mercer had assured me of that one simple fact.

  Still, this world felt more real than the one I’d been living in for the past however long. Besides, something about the way I had said those words made me think
I could potentially be possessed, even if I ignored the rightness of what I was experiencing in the here and now. If that was true, what was the other world? Was it just a prison designed to keep me occupied? If so, I had to escape, but how?

  “I still don’t know why you’ve taken that body. It’s just begging for trouble.” The redhead shook his head and hoisted the blond over his shoulder. He spun on his heel, heading down the corridor, his feet splashing through the icy water as he moved. “They will retaliate for this.”

  “My dear, Vali,” I called after him, a smile flitting across my lips. I ran one hand through my lavender hair, brushing it out of my face. “I’m counting on it.”

  Chapter 8

  My alarm clock started blaring at 6 AM so I threw it at the wall. It shattered with a satisfying crack that scattered bits of plastic across the room. I yawned and rolled back over. I was tired, what can I say, I had a stressful dream. Still, a moment later, it grew incredibly hard to sleep through my mother shaking me violently.

  “Get up,” my mom said, grabbing the edges of my covers and jerking them off me in a way that was very likely to end with someone saying, “prepare to die.” Cold swept along my flesh in an instant, making my bare legs sprout gooseflesh as I buried my head under my pillow like an ostrich.

  “Lillim’s not here. Please leave a message after the beep,” I groaned.

  “Lillim, if you don’t get out of this bed this instant, I swear—”

  “Beep,” I said and was rewarded by a wordless cry of rage. I snickered. I couldn’t help it.

  “Honey, it’s your second day of school. You need to get up, or we’ll be late,” my mom said in her best “trying to be calm and mostly succeeding” voice as she sat on the bed next to me and tried to tug away my pillow. She failed… barely.

  “Not going.” I peeked one eye up at her past the corner of my pillow.

  “Yes, you are,” she replied, face twisted into a mask of annoyance. She’d never been really good about hiding her emotions. “This is not up for debate.”

  I was about to tell her that I was, in fact, not going to class because she wasn’t real, and not only that, the school wasn’t real, but I refrained. How could it all be real? I mean, ignoring my crazy dream, how could a world where my dad gave me alcohol without even a word be a real one? And that bugged me too. Why could I remember that event and not others?

  Something fishy was definitely going on, and I wasn’t going to find out going to classes filled with gibberish where the answers to nonsensical questions were “the life, the universe, and everything.” My eyes widened as I stared at her. That’s where I’d seen the blond from my dream before. The one they had called Fames. He had been Ian from my class. Maybe I would go to school today…

  “Okay! You win!” I leapt to my feet, making a beeline past her toward my closet.

  My mom watched me as I threw open the closet doors before checking her watch. I knew because I could see her in the mirrored door. “You have five minutes.”

  “Good thing I showered last night,” I said, grabbing the clothes I’d laid out the night before and hustling into the bathroom. I sniffed at myself anyway. I didn’t think I smelled. And what was the rule? If you can’t smell yourself, you’re probably okay? Or was it if you can smell yourself, you’re probably not okay? Well, either way, I’d put on some extra deodorant. That is if my dad hadn’t stolen it again. Just because it was strong enough for him doesn’t mean it wasn’t made for me.

  I shook my head, still trying hard to dismiss the memory of him using my deodorant as I put it on. Evidently, he’d tried to steal mom’s deodorant, and she’d threatened to stab him in the eye with a fork. I was the less hostile one, it seemed.

  A second later, I’d pulled on my tan slacks and buttoned on a white dress shirt. I pulled on my lime green cardigan as I made my way into the hallway. Mom was already standing by the door, tapping her foot in annoyance.

  “Finally,” she said, offering me something that vaguely resembled a blue-speckled corn dog. “Here.”

  I eyed it carefully. “Is that food?”

  “Yes.” She took a bite off the top before jabbing it at me. “That’s your being annoying to mom tax,” she added around a mouthful.

  “Okay,” I said, accepting the half-eaten corn dog, and as I stared at it, I got the impression she was waiting for me to take a bite. I complied. It was delicious. I took another. The magic corn dog was gone and its loss filled me with sadness as I stepped out onto the porch and locked the door. My mother was already opening her car door.

  “How was your breakfast?” she asked, sliding into her seat as I approached.

  “Okay. It was only about two thirds satisfying.” I eyed her with mock annoyance as I got into the car and buckled myself in.

  “Well, next time don’t be a brat,” she said, reversing out of the driveway. “And maybe you won’t have to fear the mother tax. Although I make no guarantees where sausages on a stick wrapped in blueberry pancakes are concerned.”

  I harrumphed and looked out the window. She had won this round, but I wasn’t about to let her know that. Instead, I watched the street passing by in a blur of color. It was weird because it seemed to be going by really fast, but when I glanced at the speedometer, it made me think we weren’t going very fast even though I couldn’t quite make sense of the numbers.

  “Remember, honey, tonight is family dinner night,” my mother said, and I turned toward her, expecting her to be looking at me, but she was staring out the windshield, watching the road like she was supposed to be.

  “We have a family dinner night?” I asked, arching one eyebrow.

  “Yes, your father and I talked about it. We’re going to have a special family dinner night. We’re going to have pizza tonight.” She smiled, but still didn’t look at me. “I bought all the stuff so we can each make our own pizzas.”

  I tried to say something, but instead my mouth salivated, which was probably due to a combination of my stomach not being satisfied by the breakfast corn dog and my secret weakness for all things covered in cheese and pepperoni.

  “We’re here,” my mom said a second later, and I realized we were parked in front of the school again. “Have a good day, Lillim. I love you.”

  “I love you too.” I leaned over and wrapped her in my arms and kissed her on the cheek. “I’m glad we get to spend this time together,” I added, hoping not for the first time, that she was real and everything else was fake. Because if it wasn’t real, and I figured out how to oust the thing using my body like a puppet, I was never going to see her again. The thought hurt more than I thought it would as I turned and got out of the car.

  I stood there, watching her drive off until she disappeared from view. I spun on my heel just as the first bell rang. Charlie was approaching. Instead of waving to him, or even acknowledging his presence, I ducked behind a large eucalyptus tree, took a deep breath, and darted to the far side of the schoolyard.

  By the time I reached my math class and threw myself into my seat, my chest was heaving from exertion. Ian sat a few seats away, staring straight ahead, a puzzled expression on his face. His hair looked like it had in my dream. He must have seen me staring at him because he glanced in my direction, and instead of hiding my gaze and looking away sheepishly, I kept staring. Why not? If this was all a made up world, what did it matter?

  He nodded to me and looked away. A moment later, he glanced back at me again. When he saw me still looking at him, his lips quirked into a grimace. I smiled sweetly at him. His face hardened into a mask as his ice blue eyes searched my face. Then he turned pointedly away from me and stared straight ahead as our professor approached the front of the room.

  Only he wasn’t the same guy from yesterday. No, this was the milk-white male from the baseball game last night. He was wearing a black and red checkered dress shirt and slacks. He rubbed his bald head with one boney hand and smiled out at the classroom.

  “Hello,” he boomed, and the sound of his voic
e stirred something deep inside me. The image of a huge reptile shifting very slightly in its slumber filled my brain as I stared ahead. “I’ll be your substitute for the day.” He spun on his heel and wrote something across the board I couldn’t make out. It all seemed like gibberish. Why was I having so much trouble reading lately?

  I blinked, rubbing my eyes with my fists. The words on the board still made no sense at all, and the harder I stared at them, the more confused I became. What in the hell was going on?

  “Lillim!” our new teacher said, startling me out of my confusion. I looked over at him, still blinking as he stared right at me. “Can you come up here please?” he asked and something about the way he said the words made a chill run down my spine. What did he want?

  “Um, okay,” I replied, slowly getting to my feet as the entire class turned and looked at me. My cheeks heated up as I wove through the desks, found my way to the front, and approached the substitute.

  He leaned over me, placing one thin hand on the desk blocking us from the rest of the class. “We don’t have a lot of time, Lillim. Not before Jormungand realizes what I’m doing,” he hissed, and his breath smelled vaguely of snake.

  I tried to take a step back, but my wrists started to ache, burning like they were on fire as he looked into my eyes. His own were like the sucking void of the abyss. A shudder ran through me as I stared into the nothingness within, trying to keep myself from being pulled inside. Something told me if that happened, I wouldn’t be coming back out again.

  “Wha-what are you?” I squeaked like a mouse caught in a cobra’s gaze.

  He said something, but it came out garbled, and he sighed in exasperation. Annoyance crossed his face as he looked around. “I can’t tell you, but you can remember. If you do, call upon me, and I will come. I will cross the entirety of the world to help you. You must remember who I am. If you do, you can be free.”