by N. R. Larry
He leaned over the table, making me more than aware of his sudden proximity. “I’ve been wanting to ask you a question about that.”
I stared into his eyes, willing myself not to get lost. Finally, I nodded.
“Why do you talk about your power like it’s some other thing? Like it’s not a part of you?”
I frowned. “Because it’s not.”
He leaned back, eyebrow raised. It was the clearest, you’re full of shit look, I’d ever seen.
“Well, it’s not,” I insisted.
He raised his hands in the air. “If you say so.”
“What does that mean?”
He hesitated a moment, and then said, “It means I think you’re full of shit.”
My eyes widened.
“Yeah, I figured you’d have that reaction. I don’t mean it in an insulting way.”
I pressed my lips together. “How can, you’re full of shit, not be insulting?”
He sighed. “Listen, I think you’re afraid of this awesome power you own. So you separate yourself from it. Turn it into a foreign entity you can’t control, when really, it’s all you.”
I stared at him for several seconds, not knowing how to react. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He lifted that arched eyebrow. I was starting to notice how every inch of his face seemed sculpted by an artist’s hands, even the five o’ clock shadow gracing his jaw seemed painted on.
“I may not be a witch, but I am a magical person that knows a little about controlling a force that seems to be separate from you.”
I tried to pull my gaze from his, but I couldn’t. “It’s not the same thing.”
“It seems pretty damned similar.”
I shook my head. “No, shifting is… That animal part of you is still a part of you. This is cosmic. Otherworldly. It’s not even human.”
He stared at me for several seconds. “Not many things in this world make sense to me, except magic. Magic always makes sense. It isn’t always fair, but it always makes sense.”
I stared at him in silence, waiting for him to continue. He didn’t. Finally, I sighed. “What is your point?”
He moved the lantern that sat between us to the side and gazed at me like I was the subject of some science experiment. “What I mean is, if your power― and it is your power―wasn’t meant to be wielded by a human, then you wouldn’t have it, because you are human. Magic doesn’t go where it can’t be best used.”
Blinking, I was unable to come up with a single response. His gaze dropped to the crystal around my neck. “I mean, you said it yourself,” he went on, meeting my gaze again. “It’s not only taking off the crystal. You have to invite it in.”
I bit down on my bottom lip. Finally, I shook my head again. I was about to argue with everything he was saying, but his next words cut me off.
“Maybe that crystal is only serving as a crutch. Maybe not wearing it is the first step to you owning your power.”
Once again, I couldn’t think of a reply. For some reason, his words made me slightly defensive. I clutched my crystal as if he was going to rip it off to prove a point.
Of course I knew he wouldn’t. He only smiled and leaned back, letting out a slight yawn. “You must be tired.”
I opened my mouth, intending to tell him how wrong he was about anything, but I couldn’t find the words. Instead, I merely nodded. My eyelids were growing heavier by the minute. I used so much magic earlier that I could have slept a week.
He stood up. “We’ll work on solidifying our plan tomorrow. Let’s get some sleep in the meantime.” He gestured toward the bed. “You take the bed.”
I stood up too. “No, that’s okay. I’ll sleep on the…” Glancing around, I realized there really wasn’t anywhere else to sleep.
Beside me, he chuckled. “I insist.” He went into the corner and pulled on a cloak.
I frowned. “Where are you going?”
He lifted his arms above his head and let out a yawn. “It’s a beautiful night, girl. I’m sleeping outside.” He gave me one last smile, and then shoved the stone aside that served as a door, stepped outside, and slid it back into place.
I stood alone, in the dim house, his words circling around in my thoughts like a hamster on a wheel. My muscles started to feel heavy, like they were being filled with sand. Finally, I dragged myself a few inches to the bed, set my bow and arrow beside it, and laid down.
Every muscle in my body seemed to relax instantly. I didn’t expect his bed to be so comfortable. With a smile, I rolled over and sniffed the sheets. The smell relaxed me further. The bed smelled like him, like a damp forest and a mix of spicy herbs all at once. Much like a child, I rolled around, kicked my feet, and fluffed the one pillow I had available to me.
Then, feeling much more comfortable than I had any right to feel, I slid out of my pants, rolled over onto my stomach, and fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.
* * *
I dreamt of Ty’s words. There I was, in the darkness, surrounded by them. Maybe taking off that crystal is the first step to owning your power. I spun around in a circle, trying to find him, only to be confronted by more darkness.
It is your power. Your power.
I swung around again. More darkness.
“It’s not that simple,” I said in the dream.
Ty laughed. It was such a warm sound, that I had to move toward it.
“Come out,” I said.
You make everything so complicated.
I moved faster through the darkness. Then, just like in the warehouse, he was in front of me, giving me the same look he offered in the Underground. The look that was undeniable.
Breathing became difficult, like there was a plastic bag over my head. I started to struggle.
Relax. He was now behind me, slowly moving my hair off my shoulder. He lowered his lips and placed a kiss there. I wanted to enjoy it. My body screamed at me to enjoy it. I had wanted him to touch me, didn’t I? I wanted him to touch me since the moment I saw him for sale at the Birmingham Brewery.
I couldn’t enjoy the feel of his lips because I couldn’t breathe.
I began to claw at my throat. My lungs were screaming. There was a set of bright green eyes hovering over me that didn’t belong to Ty. Panic settled into my bones. I jerked my arms forward, trying to get the bag off my face, only to find that I couldn’t move.
I was no longer dreaming.
“Come on, Adrian,” a male hissed. “You’re going to kill her.”
There was a low growl. I blinked, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Shut up,” a female voice—probably Adrian, muttered in the darkness.
“I didn’t agree to this shit.”
There was a beat of silence. Then something was ripped from over my face. Wonderful air filled my sore lungs again. I gasped it in wildly, like it might disappear again at any moment.
I darted my gaze around and realized I was surrounded by members of Ty’s pack. I was about to ask them what the hell was going on when Adrian forced a piece of tape over my mouth.
My eyes widened, and I began swinging and thrashing my arms in the air. They bared down on me, grabbing my ankles and wrists. I was tossed over on my back, my face pressed into the blankets that smelled so much like Ty.
I screamed into the mattress. Something pressed into my lower back, and then my hair was yanked back. I screamed again.
“Shut the hell up, witch,” Adrian hissed into my ear. “Or I’ll leave you as a gift at the nearest Purity checkpoint. Maybe I’ll even let them know where your precious little Underground is.”
She flipped me over onto my back. I blinked up at her. Her jaw was set into an angry line. She gestured to the left with her head. “Cover her up.”
My eyes widened, and I shook my head. Cody, an eighteen-year-old I recognized because I treated his hand earlier, came toward me with a black sheet. He wrapped my face up in i
t.
The darkness of my dream was back, only it had turned into a living nightmare. I jerked against my restraints, but it was no good. Something smashed into the back of my head, and everything stopped.
* * *
The second time I woke, I was in the middle of a forest, leaned against a tree. Groaning, I reached back and rubbed the back of my throbbing head.
“Your bow and arrows are right beside you. And everything you brought with you to camp is in your bag to the right.”
Blinking, I tried to sharpen my blurry vision. Slowly, a clearer picture of Adrian pacing in front of me came swimming into view. She stopped and glared down at me. “You won’t be able to find your way back, so don’t even try.”
I tried to speak, but my throat was so dry, all that came out was a hacking cough. She huffed, stalked toward me, and pulled a canteen of water from my bag. She slammed it into the palm of my hand. “You’ll need to get to someplace with water, and soon.”
I took a modest sip of water, even though my body was screaming at me to down the entire thing. Peering up at her, I shook my head and asked, “Why are you doing this?”
Her expression hardened. “We don’t owe you anything. You don’t belong with us.” She flipped her stringy hair over her shoulder. “You’ve been hiding all this time, so go back. Hide. Got it? You don’t belong with us.” She knelt in front of me. “And for some reason, he’s too stupid to see that. I have to have his back.”
I stared at her, unable to think of something to say. She huffed and got back to her feet. As she started to walk away, I called out, “He’ll never trust you after this, you know.”
She stopped in her tracks. I knew she wasn’t reconsidering what she was doing, but I hoped my words would stick with her all the way back to her camp. Straightening her shoulders, she vanished in between a thick line of trees.
Closing my eyes, I leaned back and stared up at the stars, barely visible through the leaves blowing angrily in the breeze. When my head stopped pounding, I used the tree to steady myself on my feet and then strapped all my stuff to my body. I held my bow tightly in my right hand, darting my gaze left and right, trying to get some clue as to where I was.
A twig snapped in the distance. I jerked my head in the direction of the sound. It was followed by leaves crunching on the forest ground.
Something was coming.
The low buzz of speech that accompanied the crunching of leaves confirmed it was someone. My heart shot off. Without thinking, I scrambled up the tree. Branches snapped and leaves fluttered to the ground. I didn’t pause to curse my lack of stealth. I simply kept climbing as fast as I could. I did, however, notice that the buzz of speech had gone quiet.
Near the top of the tree, I paused.
The footsteps had gone silent as well.
I closed my eyes and cursed my stupid judgment. Ducking down behind a thick branch, I hid as best I could behind a thicket of leaves. Peering down, five or six figures entered the clearing. I had to force myself to quiet my loud breathing.
They were all dressed in white cloaks, which meant they worked for the Party. One of the figures lowered their cloak, revealing long, gray hair. There was a blinking collar around her neck.
A witch.
One of the traitors that worked for the Party in exchange for a few meager freedoms. Their collars were programmed so that the Party could control when, and how they used their magic.
The witch brought a finger to her lips, and the rest of the figures nodded. They separated, searching the area. After a few minutes, they gathered back at the center of the clearing.
“Are you sure it came from here?” the woman with her hood still down whispered.
“I could have been hearing things, but I’m pretty sure.”
My arm began to cramp as they spoke in hushed tones. Sweat beaded along my hairline, and I started shaking trying to remain still. A few leaves loosened from their twigs and floated to the ground.
They looked up.
I ducked down behind the leaves, loosening a few more of them.
The following silence was brutal. It was the kind you were forced into before everything turned to shit.
Below me, a throat cleared. “Whoever you are,” the witch woman sang. “We know you’re up there. Make this easy on yourself. Come on down.”
Pressing my lips, I quietly loaded an arrow into my bow. There was no way anyone from the Party was taking me.
“Come on.” This time it was a male voice that echoed up to me. “All we need to do is search your papers and confirm why you’re so far from the city after curfew.”
I drew back on my string.
A few more seconds of silence passed.
“Listen. We will see you out of that tree.” The gray-haired witch removed a wand from her cloak. The air shivered with magic. Even from here, I could sense that she was strong.
Sweat stung my eyes, but my hands remained steady.
“Fine,” she said waving her wand in the air. “If that’s how you want it.”
“Confusion,” I whispered to the arrow before I let it go.
It screamed through the air at the same time every leaf on the tree I was hidden in shivered and dropped to the ground. I leaped backward from the tree, landing lithely on my feet. There was movement in front of me. The gray-haired witch was cursing.
I spun around, hugged the trunk of the tree, and hid behind it. Peeking out the side, I saw the arrow had lodged into her left shoulder. Her wand was on the ground, and her four companions had whipped their wands out and were forming a circle.
“Where are we?” the witch wailed.
The fact that my simple spell was working gave me little comfort. There were still four more of them to deal with. At least Adrian dumped me with my weapon.
The witch’s companions tried to calm her, but she started running in circles, screaming that she didn’t know where she was or, what she was doing. I took advantage of the temporary chaos to turn on my heels and run.
“There! There she is,” a male voice called out.
I cut left through a line of trees and forced my body to move faster than it ever had. Footsteps crunched on the ground behind me. I didn’t look back to see how close they were. I only zigzagged my way through the forest, trying to create as much confusion as possible.
I leaped over a pile of leaves, and lost my footing, rolling for a few feet, before launching myself back to my feet and pushing myself to run harder. One of the males shouted something I couldn’t make out. A blast of energy gripped my right leg, rooting it in place. With a grunt, I pulled another arrow from my quiver, loaded it, and let loose. Summoning a bit of magic into my right palm, I tapped my leg, removing the mobility spell cast onto it, and shot off again.
A scream rang out behind me. For some reason, I glanced behind me. A male was on the ground, an arrow sticking out of my chest. My heart tightened in my chest. I didn’t realize until then that I hadn’t aimed that last arrow, and when I wasn’t specific with these arrows, they went for a kill shot.
I had taken out another witch.
I turned around and kept running, but it was too late. I ran full force into someone else. Falling onto my back, I stared up into large, blue eyes. A wand was aimed at my chest.
“You,” a female said, lowering her wand slightly.
I stuck out with my bow, knocking her off her feet. Before I could run again, she muttered the word, “submit.”
My feet stopped moving against their will. I opened my mouth to utter a counter spell, only to find I couldn’t push any words past my tongue.
“Lawrence Kincaid,” the female said, coming up behind me, cuffing my wrists behind my back. As soon as I was bound, I could feel my magic grow useless inside of my body. “You are under arrest for the following crimes against the Party: Murder of upper Party members, destruction of Party property…”
The list went on and on. All I could do was stand there, sobb
ing as she led me through the woods, and into the back of a white van, useless, alone, and scared out of my mind.
Chapter 10
Apart from a few vehicles identical to the one I was riding in the back of, the city was empty. I darted my gaze around the vacant, steel box I was in. The low buzz of energy swarmed around me. There was an energy flowing through the floor that worked to make me feel sleepy. I guessed it was another magical deterrent. My head grew heavy with sleep.
I was harnessed to the bench, and every time I wiggled, trying to get free, the restraints seemed to tighten. By the time the van came to a stop, I could barely keep my eyes open. The back of the van was snatched open, letting in the blistering, city lights.
I was unharnessed and led out of the van by two sets of arms. I couldn’t make out any features. I could barely keep my head up straight.
“This catch is going to get us in good with the Party,” one of the men said in an excited voice.
Someone else scoffed. “It’s not about that.”
I blinked the blur out of my eyes, trying to get a sense of where I was. All I could make out was bright lights and the white clothing of Purity officers sweeping the ground.
“Yeah, then what’s it about?” the male asked.
“It’s about keeping our society pure. About keeping dangerous ones like this…” Her grip on me tightened. “Off the streets.”
The male snorted. “I still find it hard to believe that you buy into that crap.”
Blinking again, I glanced up to find the replica of the Statue of Liberty that used to be a popular tourist attraction to Birmingham visitors. Reminding me how much I hated irony, I was led behind the statue and through the back door.
Darkness.
A match struck.
Dim yellow light bounced off the steel walls and once again I was dragged on my feet, in the arms of two strangers that were most certainly sending me to my death.
We came to a table. A purity officer was seated behind it, staring into the blue glow of his tablet. He set aside a cup of noodles and stared up. When his gaze rested on me, his brown eyes widened.