by Brea Viragh
“No one gets out of the Vault,” Zee replied. “Don’t you understand? We’re stuck in here until someone decides we can go. Otherwise, you better get used to your cell.”
They’d let Leo out of the chair, for which he was grateful. His father had left him there to sit for at least twelve hours, until Leo was forced to…he didn’t want to think about it. His bowels betrayed him despite his best efforts. Emasculating, embarrassing, and a power play of the worst kind.
Afterward he’d been cleaned and transferred into one of the containment cells sandwiched between Zenon and Thorvald.
He’d been angry at first. Angry at the injustice of the situation. Angry at himself and his father. Angry at the world and pounding on the walls of his cell until is skin split and his hands bled. Then he’d passed out from the exhaustion. When he woke, he was less angry. More scared. More worried for the others who weren’t locked away. His girl. Her sisters. Her mother upstairs in a coma. And when there were too many people to worry about, Leo slept again.
There wasn’t much talk in the Vault. He’d tried when they first brought him, making conversation with his cell mates. Soon speech dwindled and he came to find solace in the quiet.
Not knowing how much time had passed made it difficult to know how close they were to the eclipse. Maybe the eclipse had already happened and the darkness hovering in wait around them had been banished by the girls.
Wishful thinking.
Hope swam briefly through him but Leo knew it was too much to dream for. When he woke, he ran through various plans for escape until he realized each of them hinged on his magic. Magic he couldn’t access.
That was the whole point of the Vault. To weaken the body and mind and spirit. To break you.
But Leo refused to break, because Astix needed him. He would do anything to get to her.
His last chance was to try to manipulate his father’s paternal instincts in a play to release him. Though he doubted Orestes would fall for it, what else was left? He had to try.
Leo was no use to anyone trapped here in the dark. He missed the feeling of sun on his face. There were great many things he missed.
He’d discussed the details of his plan with both Thorvald and Zee, both of whom agreed he was being stupid. He’d lost the ability to see clearly. For example, he’d missed the warning signs when it came to his father in the first place. A man he saw every day and worked under for years. No one escaped the Vault. Once you went in, there was no leaving. Period.
Every witch across the world knew. There was a Vault located in each Claddium headquarters.
“I’m still going to try,” Leo had insisted. He’d rubbed the bruised skin on his wrists where the synthetic rope dug in too deeply. “What’s the point of just sitting here?”
“You don’t think I’ve tried?” Zee had bitten out. “The first thing I did when I came in here was fight. Beg. Plead. Use whatever unholy powers I’d been given to try and free myself. None of it worked.”
“Your powers?”
Then something had clicked inside his head. How could Leo have forgotten? It was what started them off on this journey. As a null, Zenon was unable to manifest anything during his Awakening. Then out of the blue, magic. Sparks flying from his fingertips and levitation, which many believed wasn’t physically possible.
There were strange things happening, true. Things leading the higher-ups to believe the Harbinger was born. The veil was thinning; it was a fact. There were omens everywhere, from bizarre weather to blood-red skies and owls. Owls in the trees cooing about the end.
“Some of my colleagues believe you’re the Harbinger.”
“Yeah,” Zee had said sarcastically. “That’s what they were saying when they took me in. I only wanted a way to control whatever was happening to me. They seem to think I plan to use this magic for the dark. To find a way to keep the veil from being restored. I don’t know.” The sounds of him settling. “Whatever they think, I’m still here, and I’m not getting out.”
“Well we need to get you out. If you are the Harbinger, then we have to find a way to free you before the eclipse.”
“I told them that already. No one cares. It comes back to your father and the goons he crushes under his thumbs. I’m not sure the other elementals know I’m here. You see a water witch anywhere around? Or an air elemental? Because I haven’t.”
“No matter what he does, Orestes is still my father.” He’d told himself over and over. Refusing to believe the man who raised him—always distant emotionally, but physically present—the man who got him a job, was the same one who threw him in this pit to rot.
“Dude, I don’t know what you see when you look at him, but there’s nothing in his eyes.”
Leo knew what he saw. And it was a scarily similar image to what he’d seen in that psychopath Herodotos’s eyes. An empty abyss with no remaining spark of humanity.
He didn’t want to think about what it meant for his family. Or for his poor mother, stuck at home.
In real time, Leo pushed his body up into a sitting position and ran large hands through his grimy hair. He would kill for a shower. “Do you remember what we talked about?” he asked both Cavaldi men.
Although he couldn’t see them, he liked to think they were both nodding. “You want us to keep quiet when he comes down,” Thorvald croaked out. “You’ll try to get him to lower his guard then rush him. If anyone can, it’s you. You’re built like a linebacker.”
“And whatever you hear me say, know none of it is true. Okay?” Leo continued.
Zee and Thorvald both voiced their agreement.
It sounded simple in his head. A linear plan he could have once executed with ease. He wasn’t sure anymore. His world had turned upside down.
He thought about Astix for the billionth time. He remembered her warmth, her sweet vulnerability. The little quirk in her smile when he said something silly just to see her laugh. She didn’t laugh enough, his girl.
He would give anything to hold her again. To feel her in his arms and draw her close. Feel her lips on his and hear her smoky voice calling him “Golden Boy.”
Which meant he needed to put on the best performance of his life.
He wasn’t sure how long he waited for someone to show. His stomach rumbled and he thought it was nearly time for food to arrive. The sound of footsteps broke through the deafening silence.
“It’s time, boys,” Leo whispered under his breath.
Trusting the other men to keep quiet for the time being, he twisted around to keep his back toward the door of his cell. He tried to keep his breathing even and his heart slow. Otherwise his father would know something was fishy.
“Leonidas.” Orestes’s voice echoed through the main chamber of the Vault. “Wake up.”
“I’m awake, Dad.”
Leo listened to the click of his father’s handmade Italian leather loafers across the plastic floor. “Then you’ll be delighted to hear we’re closing in your girlfriend and her little brigade of rabble rousers.”
“In other words, you’re here to gloat, not to feed us. Let me remind you how human bodies work. They turn food into energy. Which means a body needs to be consistently fed to be in optimum functional capacity. Got it?”
“I’ve employed a new mental dominant to seek them out,” Orestes replied as though Leo hadn’t spoken.
“A new…are you out of your mind?” Leo rose then, fighting the urge to wrap his hands around someone’s throat. “How on earth did you find a new mental dominant?” And the thought he kept to himself. Leave them alone or so help me…
Orestes stepped closer until his forehead was nearly pressed against the plastic bars of the containment cell. People used to say father and son were mirror images of each other, in the imposing width of the shoulders and the gold of the hair. The blue of their eyes.
Seeing him now, Leo knew they looked nothing alike. Orestes was dressed casually in tan corduroy pants and a red polo shirt. His gaze lit with disquieting satisfa
ction.
“No, in fact, I am not out of my mind. I’m seeing clearly. Should I ask my new friend to come down here and help cleanse your mind of the rot destroying your brain cells? I’m sure she would be able to do it with ease.”
Leo was about to say he was happy how he was and his father should shove his new “pet” somewhere tight, dark, and wet. It was more difficult than he could imagine, to keep the words inside. He felt like swallowing his tongue. “Dad. All this aside, I want to talk to you.”
“We’re talking now. Is there anything in particular on your mind?”
“I wanted to say I’m sorry.”
Orestes scoffed. “Leonidas, honestly. Stop telling me what you know I want to hear. It’s unbecoming of your former station.”
Ouch. A reminder that, in addition to being imprisoned, Leo was also fired. It filled him with a rage so keen and sharp he felt it slicing from the inside out. He cricked his neck to the side. Inhaled. Let it out slowly. “I’m not telling you what you want to hear.” He hoped his voice was genuine. “I’m being sincere. Being down here has allowed me time for introspection. I was wrong.” He racked his brain for the words he’d prepared. The speech he’d practiced under his breath where he listed the numerous things he could be wrong about. It was all gone.
“Wrong? In what way?”
“I should have never allied myself with the Cavaldi’s,” he replied. “You were right about them, too. About everything. I shouldn’t have gotten involved with—”
“That woman,” Orestes spit out.
“Exactly. You put me on her case and I got personally involved, swayed by a pretty face and backside.”
“There are other, more appropriate witches out there for you. Witches worthy of you. Not some banished, unnatural creation,” Orestes agreed, then took a few steps back and grinned. “Do you hear that, Thorvald?”
Leo continued. “I didn’t want to admit it…” he paused for effect. Heaved a great sigh bordering on dramatic. Reign it in, he admonished. “I’m sorry for how I acted. I was wrong.”
Orestes clasped his hands behind his back and stood very still, considering his only child. “You put me through hell. Do you understand how it looks? To have you here with the scum? The scourge of our society? It’s unbecoming, Leonidas. I’ve had to hide your presence from everyone.”
“I know.”
“You chose a witch with bastard magic over your own family. Over your career. You were on the fast track. What will we make of you after this?” He stared, perfectly immobile except for a glint in his eyes.
“I can only hope you give me the opportunity to prove myself to you again.”
“I’m not sure you can,” Orestes said.
“I’m sick of being down here. You and me…we’re not like them. It took the wrong cellmates for me to realize what you’ve always said about the Cavaldi’s being trash was true. Give me the opportunity to prove myself, and to do what it takes to win back your esteem. I want to be in your good graces again,” Leo finished. He hung his head, scuffed his shoe against the plastic. “Please. Dad…please.”
“You see that, Thorvald?” Orestes slid across the room to triumph a second time, raising his finger and pointing at the other man. “You see how my son denounces you for what you are?”
Thorvald took his time answering. “I see a man at rock bottom who doesn’t understand which way is up or down. A man so altered by rogue magic he doesn’t recognize the darkness. Even when it stares at him in the mirror.”
Orestes jerked back, his eyes widening for a split second before becoming narrow slits. “Your opinion doesn’t matter. I’m out here. And you’re stuck where you are until the end of your days. With your dying wife upstairs just out of reach.”
Thorvald stuttered out an answer but Orestes had already made his way back to his son.
“I’m ready for you to let me out,” Leo put in earnestly. “Please.”
“You know I don’t have the authority, son.”
It was a bullshit answer if he’d ever heard one. The anger was back, rage curling beneath the surface of his skin. “Goddamit, dad. If not you, then who?” Leo gave into the frustration for a split second. Then took careful pains to hide his reaction and run his hand along his stringy hair again. “Let me out. I can help you. I can be an asset. With the eclipse closing in, you’ll need everyone on your side you can muster.”
Orestes stood and considered him for a moment before raising his hand and snapping his fingers. “Kelsi. The key. Now.”
His assistant scurried into the room, her head down and ashy blonde hair hiding her face. Large, black-rimmed glasses took up most of the space on her face. Leo knew intelligent brown eyes looked out through those gigantic spectacles. It was too bad she’d never stand up to Orestes. She was invisible, slipping from place to place unnoticed. Just trying not to get eaten.
Leo hadn’t even seen her enter the room.
“Sir.” Kelsi reached into her pocket and removed a ring of several keys made from the same high-density plastic and engraved with runes. She crossed the room hesitantly, holding out the keys and wincing when Orestes snatched them. He didn’t even look at her.
Leo didn’t recognize the man he saw. It was still the same face, and the same haircut Orestes had boasted for the last decade. He still smelled the same, a low-lying undertone of spearmint. But the person looking at him through the bars, slowing turning the key in the lock and preparing to slide open the door, was a stranger.
Worse, a stranger with blank eyes. As Zee had said. It was eerie and startling and heartbreaking.
“If I let you out, do you promise to be a good boy?” Orestes asked with a smirk, holding back from the final key twist. His last word was sneered.
Leo forced himself to nod. “You know I do.”
He was weak, from lack of food and having his body be empty of magic for too long. He only had one shot at making an escape. His muscles tightened in anticipation. Shivering, he stood taller.
Orestes slid the door open, keys in hand. “Now, Leonidas—”
Leo made a break for it, surging forward and plowing his massive shoulders into his father’s gut.
A rush of adrenaline took him and he roared. He whirled around and kicked Orestes in the chest, then plunged toward the door at the far end of the central Vault chamber. The man went down with a howl.
Leo wasn’t stupid enough to look over his shoulder. He had seconds if less. His father wouldn’t stay down for long, dazed and moments away from launching up and pouncing.
“Dammit!” Orestes’s voice wheezed out. “Kelsi, stop him.”
Kelsi was no match for Leo. He pushed her aside easily and nailed her on the side of the head. A horsetail flicking at a passing fly. She offered up no resistance. If he could just make it to the door, he thought, urging his body forward. If he could just make it outside the confines of the rooms then he would have his magic again. And there was no way his father could imprison him a second time.
He didn’t have the time to properly deal with either of them.
Leo was within feet of the exit when a body fell on him. He was kidney-punched from behind as his father used his heel to trip him. Orestes was filled with unnatural strength. Normally no match for his son, who was much more muscular, he used his forearms to force Leo into position, then flipped him to the ground and lunged.
Leo cracked his head against the floor and tried to throw Orestes off him. He had microseconds to decide what to do next. The tide shifted.
The other man refused to be moved, manhandling his son like he weigh nothing at all. He tried to scramble to his feet. Orestes locked his knees to keep them both immobile.
Despite Leo’s muscles and the difference in size between them, he was no match for Orestes and whatever possessed him.
“You stupid boy.” The voice spoke chillingly close. “When will you learn not to try and best me? You aren’t getting out of here for a long, long time. I can promise you that.”
“Get
off of me,” Leo grunted. Blood throbbed through his limbs and an elbow bit into the skin at his side. Breathing heavy and having difficulty seeing through the sweat on his brow, he tried once more to throw his father aside. Had no success.
Kelsi scuttled out of the room and the door snapped shut behind her. Orestes used his legs to haul both he and Leo to their feet. Leo found his arms yanked behind his back. No matter how hard he fought against the hold, there was no breaking it. He knew without looking at a calendar they were closer to the eclipse than before.
He’d thought those in the Claddium were immune to the leaking magic despite its impact on their community. Apparently, he was wrong again. He saw the situation with startling clarity, perhaps for the first time. Darkness wasn’t just targeting the Cavaldi girls.
“You are going to pay for this,” Orestes said, spit flying.
A piercing pain cut through Leo’s back and he felt disoriented, his head swimmy when Orestes muscled him into the cell.
“There’s a war going on, and you’re too blind to see it!” Leo tried to reason. “You let whatever Darkness is seeping through from the other side take over you… and for what?” The cell door shut with a quick snick and he stumbled, cracked his knee on the cot. “What did she promise you, Dad?”
“The war isn’t coming with the eclipse, son. It’s already here.”
Angrily, Orestes stalked through the door and wiped the side of his mouth, cursing his son with every step. Somehow the boy had managed to land a single punch in the fracas. Of all the possibilities of this conversation, he’d never thought his son, his flesh and blood, would try to trick him. Worse, he fell for it! Walked right into a trap and was shocked when it sprang on him. What kind of a fool did such a thing?
Never again.
The streak of blood he saw on his skin was more annoyance than anything. It was insult that couldn’t be borne. How had Leo tricked him? Or thought he had the strength to push his way out of the Vault without magic?