by Lee Dignam
“You’re gonna fly away like Mary Poppins if you open that on the roof.” she said.
Isaac looked at the umbrella and returned it to the rack where he had found it. “Force of habit, I suppose.”
Alice put her hoody up. “Don’t take one. You look sexy when your hair is all wet and windswept.”
“I do, don’t I?”
She rolled her eyes and headed for the door, but Isaac stopped her when she got to it.
“What is it?” she asked.
He stared into her eyes, drawing long and deep, and Alice felt her cheeks begin to warm with anticipation. Her heart fluttered for an instant, and her eyes widened. Then he plunged his hand into her hair and kissed her deeply. Alice’s body tipped up toward his and she grabbed him by the collar, pushing into the kiss. When the kiss ended she was still holding onto his collar like she was going to fall off the edge of a cliff if she let go.
“What was that for?” she asked, her voice low.
“Nothing,” he said.
“Bullshit. I know you.”
“We’re going to get through this.”
“I know we are.”
He fell silent again but kept his gaze on her, smoothing the back of her neck with his thumb.
She ran her hand through his long, thick black hair. “Are you worried?”
“Always.”
“Good; it means you’re still alive, and it’s the advantage we have over the Void and over Nyx.”
“What, that we can worry?”
“No, that we can feel. That we can love.”
“Love,” Isaac said, letting the word linger like a puff of sweet perfume. “Are you trying to tell me something?”
The corner of Alice’s mouth tilted into a sly smile. “When have you ever known me to be direct with my feelings?”
“A fair point.”
“Then we’ll just leave that there.”
Isaac nodded and she let him go. She turned, opened the door leading to the hallway, and moved briskly along the corridor toward the fire escape. From there, it was only a short walk up to the roof where they would be able to stare directly into the eye of this bastard of a storm and send it back to whatever hell it had come from.
Let’s see Nyx deal with her own setback for a change.
CHAPTER 19
Silver Light
The wind sank its claws into the roof access door and dragged it across with enough force to rip it clean off its hinges. Alice, luckily, had been holding onto the door and put enough strength behind it to keep it from flying into the night. Thick clouds swirled and churned in the night sky, throwing arcs of lightning around at almost impossible angles. Her heart slowed after the fright, and she swallowed the last remnants of panic clawing at her throat.
“Jesus,” she said, and she glanced over her shoulder at Isaac. “You think it’s safe to go out in that?”
“It isn’t, but what choice do we have?”
“Move somewhere less prone to storms?”
“I’ll use magic to keep us grounded. It should help us get around.”
Alice nodded, and then turned to look at the open arch in front of her. The wind roared outside like a ferocious beast, rain and spittle were touching Alice’s face, and the air smelled like burned ozone. Using the railing on the inside of the staircase for support, she inched up the last step and set foot outside.
Isaac followed, and immediately the wind picked up the tails of his coat and the tips of his hair and began tugging at them. He put a hand up in front of his face to shield his eyes from the rain as he looked up. The occasional flash of lightning lit the clouds in the sky, making them seem like sinister, roiling shapes to their eyes—an endless cabaret of nightmares and shades.
“We need to work fast,” Isaac said over the howl of the wind.
Alice walked toward the center of the roof. Around her were several vents, as well as a swaying satellite hookup and a number of empty clothes lines, but this looked as good a space as any. There was room for her to move around, and she was close enough to the door arch that she could make a quick break for it if she had to.
“Here,” Alice said.
Isaac looked at her, scanned the area around her, and nodded as he approached. “This is good,” he said, pushing his voice above the sound of the wind. “Now listen to me. When my magic hits you, you’re going to feel disoriented and weak. You need to stay strong. I’m going to do my best to help, but this isn’t anything I’ve ever done before.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“There’s something else. You’re going to need to find the cracks in the shield, and then push my magic through it.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“I’m going to elevate your consciousness so your mind can soar above your body; your instincts will guide you where you need to go.”
“I noticed you didn’t mention this downstairs.”
“I didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily.”
“That’s one hell of a fine print.”
“You’ll be fine,” he said.
“Why do I believe you?”
“Because you don’t have a reason not to.”
“Alright,” she said, “So what do—”
“Wait,” Isaac said, perking up and turning around on the spot.
She had felt it too—a current, a vibration beneath the skin. Magic. But not just any magic, Void magic. Alice moved to Isaac’s left, her hands balled into fists.
“Someone’s coming,” Isaac said.
“Friend or foe?”
“I don’t know.”
The air in front of them, though streaked with falling sleet and punishing winds, seemed to ripple as if seen through a heat haze. Crackles of purple light began to tear their way through a distortion in space that, for some reason, didn’t seem to remain stationary. Whatever vortex was being created was a mobile one which left faint, glowing trails in the air as it opened.
Alice watched the vortex with some fascination and then she realized—if this thing keeps moving, it’s going to open over the edge of the building.
“Isaac?” Alice asked.
Isaac hesitated, until finally he blurted “It’s Silver!”
“Shit,” Alice said, and she made a mad dash for the eye of the vortex which was rapidly sailing across the roof.
Isaac followed, but Alice was quicker on her feet than he was. Her boots hit the roof hard, her arms pumped, and her chest heaved. The rippling cloud of crackling air opened wide and spat out a human form, who immediately began to fall over the side of the building. Silver reached out with his hands at the last second to grab the ledge, but missed and went beneath the rim.
Alice threw herself blindly at the edge of the building and with her right hand swooped down, hoping to God she would catch him. Her arm screamed with pain, but her hand caught around Silver’s wrist and she clasped it tightly as her chest smashed against the ledge, knocking the wind out of her lungs, but she had him.
“Hold on,” Alice said, looking directly down at Silver and at the seven-floor drop beneath him.
“Don’t have a choice!” Silver said.
Isaac came up fast, also throwing his arm over the side of the building. “Grab my hand,” Isaac said, and Silver reached up with his free hand and grabbed it. Alice pulled so hard she thought her arm would dislocate, but with Isaac’s help they were able to get Silver up and onto the roof.
Silver stood as soon as he recovered from rolling onto the roof and raised his hands. Alice felt a pulse of power hit her, and then envelop her, and suddenly the howling of the wind, and even the hiss of the rain, stopped entirely. Alice looked around, blinking. The rain wasn’t touching her, nor was the wind; whatever shield Silver had formed was keeping the elements at bay. Cold lines of rainwater were trickling down her forehead and cheeks, but it wasn’t like she was getting any wetter.
“Thanks for saving my ass,” Silver said, panting.
“You’re welcome,” Alice said, standing
straight. Her voice seemed to echo inside this invisible bubble Silver had created. “What happened to your spell there? Looked like you missed the mark a little.”
“I didn’t miss anything. It’s the storm. It pulled my exit point like it was caught in a rip-tide. The moment I saw you running toward me I started getting ready to cast another spell.”
“You would have hit the ground in less than ten seconds. I doubt you would have had time to cast again.”
“Good thing you guys were here, then,” Silver said, smiling.
Isaac wasn’t happy with Silver’s reckless behavior, or his bravado, but Alice had been won over by it. He reminded her of… well, her. That propensity to leap before looking, to get by on instinct, duct tape and a little luck was all her.
Windswept, pissed off, and soaked through, Isaac stood with his jaw clenched. “Let’s get started,” he said. “We don’t need the others for this part anyway. We need them for the aftermath.”
“Aftermath of what?” Silver asked.
“There’s no time to explain,” Isaac said as he walked back to the center of the roof. “Just summon Bazor and be ready to lend me your power if I need it.”
As Alice followed both men, she became immediately aware of the other two entities that had fallen in beside her. On her left was a tall figure wearing a long, billowing robe, and a leather plague doctor mask. On her right, a creature strapped in a straitjacket covered in chains and padlocks floated along, smiling its gruesome, perpetual Glasgow smile. It looked at her, and Alice’s insides backflipped. She looked away.
“There,” Isaac said, pointing to a spot on the roof. His voice echoed inside the bubble of magic.
Alice stood where she was told and looked up. Watching droplets of rain silently strike an invisible window reminded her of simpler times, younger times spent curled up on a bed reading a good book while storms battered the city outside.
“Let’s get this over with,” she said, “I want to kill this storm before things get any worse.”
Isaac nodded, and he pulled his right sleeve up enough to expose the magic bangle on his wrist. At his will it began to glow with soft blue light. He turned his open palm into a fist, then opened it, and then closed it again. He looked up at Alice, nodded, and when she returned the nod, signaling that she was ready, he pressed his right palm against her chest and flooded her with his magic.
Her body felt like it had started to float, and maybe it had; she couldn’t say with any certainty. Isaac’s magic was like a warm rush swirling around inside her. First her chest started to vibrate, then her arms, and then her hands. When she looked at them she noticed they too were glowing from the inside, but none of this mattered. The world around her was falling, falling, falling away. She was floating, only she had left her body on the roof, just like Isaac had said.
“Alice,” Isaac said into her ear.
“Yes?” Alice said.
“Where are you?”
“Floating.”
“Good. Look down. Can you see the chord of light?”
Alice could. She had it wrapped around her right fist—a glowing, almost pulsing, chord of pure light. “Yeah, I have it,” she said.
“Find the crack in the shield, throw the rope in, and then use it to get back.”
Alice said “Okay,” though in truth she wasn’t sure if she was actually speaking or just thinking. She looked up and saw the shapes in the clouds again, and then she was floating toward them. Flying. Racing. Isaac had been right about her instincts taking over, and she wasn’t a clumsy bird straight out of the egg, either—she was fucking Superwoman.
She kept her eyes sharp, searching for these cracks she was supposed to be looking for, expecting them to look similar to the vortex Silver had used to get onto the roof, but the deeper she went into the clouds the less she could see. Was she supposed to use her eyes? She doubted it. If they were visible with the naked eye, or even with the astral eye, then mages all over the world would have been able to see them for years.
Alice concentrated on her sixth sense, her Void sense, and reached out with psychic tendrils like a snake tasting the air with its tongue. The air up here was charged with static and crackling. She couldn’t smell it, or feel it, or hear anything, though. Wherever she had gone, whatever Isaac had done to her, she was now in a quiet place where the only sounds were coming from her own mind.
There, she thought, and she twisted her body around in midair. A bolt of lightning surged through the clouds, through her, and illuminated her immediate surroundings with the power of a thousand suns. A pair of human eyes would have been blinded by the intensity of the light breaking and cascading around her, but her astral eyes remained undamaged and there, amidst the light show in the clouds, Alice found what she was looking for.
She closed her astral eyes and allowed her mind to float toward the crack in the Void Weavers’ shield. When she arrived, she reached with one hand into the invisible rip between dimensions and pulled herself close. Alice could taste the emptiness of the Void on the other side of the seam in reality. She could hear the coldness, could feel the sudden surge of emotion welling up inside her. This worried her most of all; the feelings.
Curiosity overwhelmed her sense of conviction and an unmistakable feeling of belonging—of home—filled her and moved her to the point of tears. Alice got closer to the tear, gripping the chord of light tightly in one hand but choosing not to push it into the Void just yet. Not before she got a glimpse, just one, of what was on the other side.
One glimpse.
Just one.
Alice pushed her eyes into the Void and opened them, and her mind screamed when she saw what was looking back at her.
CHAPTER 20
Chaos
Alice shot into her body like a lightning strike hitting the ground. Her eyes opened wide, she took a deep breath, and didn’t exhale. Isaac came up beside her and tapped her gently on the cheek. He was speaking to her, but she couldn’t hear him. He was distant. Muted. A silent picture playing in front of her eyes. She could feel his hand on her cheek and the rain hitting her face, but these sensations didn’t register in her brain. In her mind there was only that thing she had seen—the unknowable, indescribable monster lurking in the Void.
She had looked at it, and it had regarded her in return with eyes like cold black holes. It, whatever it was, had seen her; had seen into her, and that wasn’t something that should have ever happened. This wasn’t conveyed to her as a conscious thought, but as the cold numbness she felt settling around her.
“Alice!” Isaac said, and he grabbed her face and turned it to him.
Finally, her mind snapped back into the moment and she could see him, could register his presence. She blinked fast, and finally let the breath escape her lips in the form of a shaky sigh—a sound she never wanted to make again for as long as she lived. Her hands were trembling, the muscles along her arms were twitching, and her mouth was chattering, but she was herself again.
“I saw it,” Alice said.
“What did you see?”
“It, Isaac! I saw it!”
Isaac’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Let’s get you back inside,” he said, and he hooked his arm under hers and helped her to her feet. Silver came up beside them and together they made their way across the rooftop toward the stairwell enclosure. But he suddenly spun around and looked out over the edge of the building, like a man lost and trying to get his bearings.
Isaac turned to look at him. “Silver?” he asked.
“Can you feel that?” he asked.
Isaac couldn’t, and neither could Alice. “What is it?” Alice asked.
“Wait,” Silver said. “Something’s happening. Something big.”
Alice’s eyes turned upward to the dark sky and the swirling clouds. What she had seen up there in the clouds, in the Void, had been ancient, and powerful, and hungry, and it had seen her. What if it had followed her? What if it had crawled through one of the holes in the shield? No, the
thing she had seen had been far too big. Not in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense. Come to think of it, she wasn’t sure if she had seen anything at all, but had rather sensed it as she could other creatures of the Void.
“There,” Silver said, and he pointed.
Alice unhooked herself from Isaac’s supportive hold and raced toward the edge of the building. From here she could see the city laid out before her. Their building wasn’t a tall one, an ant compared to the skyscrapers in the financial district, but it was tall enough that the horizon was full of Ashwood’s twinkling orange lights. Where Silver was pointing, though, was only darkness. For an instant she wondered what he was looking at, but then she saw it.
An entire section of orange lights died in the blink of an eye. Then another, then another. A wave of night was approaching—a cascade of darkness. One after another, entire city grids went down. The darkness swallowed the projects, the docks, and even the skyscrapers. In seconds, the city of Ashwood, a sprawling metropolis miles across, succumbed to the dark and became nothing. There was only the wind, the rain, and the faint impression of the moon against a sky filled with clouds.
“Oh, shit,” Alice said.
“Shit is right,” Isaac said, “We’d better get inside. Now.”
“Won’t argue with you there,” Silver said.
Distant alarms rang out into the night, the sounds faint against the hiss of the rain and the howl of the wind. The darkness around them became near total, but they were able to find their way back to the stairwell and into the building without much trouble. Once inside, Isaac drew the power of the Tempest into his bangle and they used the soft blue glow to navigate the stairs and find Isaac’s apartment.