by Lee Isserow
Along one set of walls were metal shelving units, on which clothing had been folded and stacked, and on the other end, rows of rails upon which completed garments hung. Abandoned and forgotten.
“What is this place?” Ana asked, her thoughts transmitted without a word spoken out loud.
“What does it matter?” Jules gruffly shot back. He began to separate his atoms from the cloud of the others, forked this way and that across the room in search of his family. “I can't work like this. . .” he grunted. “Can't see through shadows as mist.”
“Seeing through shadows is what might flag their wards.” Rafe replied, trying to send out calm and reassuring vibes to their companion, even though that kind of thing wasn't exactly his forte. “Let's spread out, send what we see back to one another. When we find them, we'll meet back up, coalesce, and be smart about rescuing them.”
He could see in every direction at once, and sighed internally, as he became aware that Jules was no longer with them.
“Can you tell where he is?” he asked Ana.
There was no need to wait for a response. The door of an adjacent room was torn from its hinges and spun through the air with a balletic grace. Desks were shoved aside from its sheer force, until it finally slammed into the windows at the far end. The glass exploded on impact, and sent a glittering rain cascading down on the street below.
“You gotta teach me how to do that!” Ana shrieked through Rafe's head, as she made all three of them solid again.
Jules's atoms coalesced over by the door, as if he had been bound to it just before it had been thrown out of the frame.
A man walked through the doorway with a slow, heavy strut. A clap echoed across the warehouse floor as he ironically applauded the three of them.
“I don't suppose you managed to kill the beast before you decided to come on knocking by?” he asked in a mocking tone.
“The only thing I'm going to kill around here. . .” Jules growled, through a mouth that he could barely move, “is the guy who thinks it's a smart idea to kidnap a guy's son.”
“Well, in all honesty,” the man said as he continued to approach Jules. His shrouded face contorted into a wide and sickly grin. “Given how successful you were in pooling the wellsprings and gaining entry to the Ethereal Forest, it still seems quite smart. . .”
“I'm going to kill you.” Jules grunted, trying with all his might to fight the mystical bonds that held him. “You, and everyone who works with you, for you, that you work for. . .“
The shrouded man's attention was no longer on Jules, it had shifted over to Rafe and Ana.
“I know your casting. . .” he mused in a whimsical, melodic tone. “Go on then, hit me with your best shot. . .”
Ana glanced over to Rafe, as it was a little perturbing how casual the abductor was being about the idea of her attacking him. Rafe took a look over to the man again, then back to Ana. He knocked his head back, and his eyes shot around ever so briefly.
She knew exactly what he meant for her to do.
Ana leaned back on her heels and fell, reality crashed around her as she flipped head over heels into the Mirror Realm.
As soon as she returned to her feet, she understood why the abductor had been so blasé about her attacking him. He was not alone, seven others under his command were dotted around the room, each of them cloaked just as the Circle's operatives had been. And seated directly ahead of him, bound to chairs that were cloaked just as they were: a man and a child.
She flipped back to the Natural World.
“Seven others,” she said, under her breath. “Kid and husband right in front of him.”
“Oh, you would just go and ruin the surprise, wouldn't you,” the man grumbled, casting to make the others visible.”Don't you think that would be a most elegant denouement? For the gallant hero turned villain to accidentally slay the only two people he loved in all the world, whilst attempting to seek vengeance for. . . what are you seeking vengeance for again?” he seemed bemused at the situation he had constructed.
“It's all good and well, being so arch. Playing the cartoon villain, and relishing the role. . .” Jules growled. “One thing you've forgotten, and it's a pretty key thing. . .” he scoffed, let a smile linger on his lips, and relished the fading grin on his captor's face. “The one thing that you've forgotten. . . Is that I'm not some magickian that got caught up in your little scheme. . . And I'm not just an adept either. . .” He laughed, using the natural narrowing of his eyes to hide just how black the irises had become. “The one, really dumb thing that you've forgotten. . . Is that I'm the Prince of fucking Darkness.”
Solid spears of shadows ripped through the eight men, liquefying their organs as they tore through their chests and backs. Needles shot across their eyeballs from every angle in the sockets that surrounded them, doubled back and bore through their grey matter.
Although this took the men by surprise, none of them fell to the ground. It was as though the ebony spikes that were cutting through their bodies were merely inconveniences, rather than life-threatening.
“Glyphs,” Rafe explained, pointing to the man closest to them, a tattoo on his wrist glowed subtly as the etching on his skin repaired the damage that had been done to his internal organs.
Ana took this as her cue to act, and she threw her hands across from one man to the next, a great series of cracks in reality cut the men into two, three, four and more. Their body parts slopped onto the floor, organs splattered, internal fluids seeped into the concrete.
She glanced to Jules, who appeared to be getting some movement back in his extremities, and forcibly tugged his hands from the surface of the door he had been bound to.
“It's not over. . .” Rafe said, as the torn and tattered organs on the ground tried to crawl their way back towards to the bodies they came from.
“What is that, some kind of Franken-glyph? Why won't you people just stay dead?!” she shouted, as she walked over and started physically stamping the organs into mush one by one until they stopped attempting to snake their way back into the bodies they had come from. “Wanna help split 'em up?” she asked Jules, who nodded as he wrenched his back off the door.
The two of them proceeded to disperse the various body parts between the Shadow and Mirror Realms, making sure that they were evenly spread out, so not enough of any one man could return to wreak revenge.
As soon as the men's bodies were gone, Natan and Akif began to move in the chairs, freed from their mesmerisation by their captors absence.
Ana and Rafe stepped back as Jules embraced his family.
“I'm so sorry. . .” he said, through a steady stream of tears. “For all of this. . . for everything.”
“Where are we?” Akif asked, trying to get his bearings in the unfamiliar surroundings. “Who are they?” He motioned to Ana and Rafe, who both clearly felt like third wheels in the midst of the family reunion.
“Friends.” Jules glanced over to them. “They're friends, who did more than any friend should have to earn that title. . .”
“We just did the right thing,” Ana said, as she tried to hold back tears of her own that were welling. “Following your husband's example more than anything.”
“I don't understand any of this!” Akif said, rising to his feet and backing away from Jules. “How did we get here? Why does it look like there is blood all over this place? What. . . What happened here?!”
“Daddy did what he had to,” Natan said, taking his father's hand and smiling at his confused patriarch until his calming aura asserted dominance. “He saved us. He kept us together, like he did before, and like he'll do again.”
Akif stared at his son, and forgot that he was talking to a young boy. The words and the understanding that came from his lips felt as though they were coming from someone much older, much wiser, than a child should be. He looked over to Jules.
“I'll explain everything.”
“There are things you haven't told me―”
“There
are―”
“That our son seems to know, that I don't.”
“I know.”
“You think I haven't noticed it, but I have.”
“I've noticed, I've just tried to ignore it. . . but I can't any more. . . you need to know the truth, about me, about everything―”
“I'll know if you're lying.”
“You won't, but I'm not going to lie, ever again.”
“How can I believe that?”
Jules glanced down at their son.
“Because Natan might as well be a human lie detector. . . He's never lied to you, he's never lied, period. And it's about time I did the same.”
Akif stared at him. He didn't know if he could believe a word that came out of Jules's mouth. As much as he loved the man―or at least loved who he thought the man was, he wasn't certain he could ever trust him again.
“You can,” Natan said. “And you will.”
Akif's eyes dropped to their boy. “How can you know what I was thinking?”
The boy smiled wide. “I know more than that. . .“ he said, with a glint in his eye.
Akif knew he should have been afraid of such a statement, and yet he could not find a fearful bone in his entire body. All he could feel was love. And that love would guide him, no manner what his husband had to tell him.
Jules walked to the door, and held it open for the two of them to lead the way down the staircase that ran along the outside of the building.
Rafe cleared his throat, and Jules stopped in his tracks before he followed them down.
“Thank you.”
“You're welcome, I guess. But that's not really important right now. . .”
Jules glanced from him to Ana, and he suddenly realised “I'm still a fugitive. . .”
“We'll straighten that out too,” Rafe said, indicating that there was something else he had forgotten.
“Three!”
“Ironically, third time's the charm. . .”
Jules glanced behind the two of them, and a portal of shadows erupted into existence.
“That's if. . . You wouldn't mind taking him home. . . I should be with my family. . .”
Rafe and Ana were more than happy to accommodate his request. This whole debacle had been because of his family, he had suffered at the hands of those who wished to capitalise on his love. And both of them felt that they deserved to be reunited without the burden of one last magickal jaunt getting in the way.
Jules had no last words for them. The extent of his gratitude couldn't be put into words.
He left the building to join his family, who were waiting patiently on the street. Ana watched them from what was left of the grimy windows as they tried to work out where the hell they were, and seemed to toss a coin to pick a direction in which to walk.
“That's beautiful,” Ana said, as she watched them turn the corner.
“Which part?” Rafe asked, as he leaned around her to look out the window.
She cocked her head back and rested it on his shoulder, caught his eye and squinted. “They get to start their relationship over, with truth as the basis or foundation or whatever. With the man he loves knowing everything about who he is, after years of having to keep it all to himself. . .You don't think that's beautiful?”
“I think. . . it's a risk.”
She huffed, and pulled away from the quasi-embrace at the window. “Can't you just agree and leave it at that?”
“I wish I could, but. . . some truths are better left untold. . . if his husband doesn't like what he tells him―”
“He'll not only like it, he'll love it. Because it's coming from the man he loves.”
“Life isn't always that straightforward,” Rafe muttered, realising that it was neither the time nor place to be playing devil's advocate.
“You talk too much,” she chuckled. “Sometimes it's better to just shut up and nod.”
“Too late to take it back?”
“Get in the damn portal before it vanishes. . .”
Rafe gestured for her to step ahead of him. She rolled her eyes, and shoved him face first into the tunnel of shadows.
Chapter 51
Kindred
“We do not take offence,” Three said, as Ana and Rafe approached them in the Shadow Realm.
“Offence?”
“Your kindred believes us to be. . . gross.”
Rafe glared at Ana, who shrugged in response.
“As beauty standards go, we are aware we are lacking somewhat. . .”
“You're much more wry than I remember you being,” Rafe observed.
“A sense of humour has always been present within us, we have had little chance to use it under normal circumstances.”
“About that. . .” Ana said, trying to find the best way to phrase her impending request.
“They will understand that You and Jules Nicholls acted under duress, and we shall impart that it was our wish to aid in his task. No punishment will be issued.”
“You can't guarantee that,” Rafe said.
All three heads turned to him. “We are responsible for the majority of transport and intelligence gathering in the Circle. Thus we hold greater sway that any other. There is little we cannot guarantee.”
“How do you go to the toilet?” Ana asked.
It was one of many questions she had lined up for the triplets who appeared to be fused together in an upright position, with no hand to direct their effluence, let alone wipe up afterwards.
It was the first time Rafe had seen Three smile, and something about it creeped him out a little.
“How do you sleep?―How do you bathe?―How do you eat?―I have a thousand of these. . .”
“Can we get Three home,” Rafe asked. “It's been a long couple of days, and I'm pretty sure none of these questions are important enough to require an answer right now.”
“Spoilsport. . .” Ana grunted, as she grabbed hold of Rafe and Three, all five of them flipped from the shadows through mirrors, back to the cavernous lair in which Three lived. She looked around, a little confused as to how they got there.
She had never translocated via realm of her own volition before, not for lack of trying. . . Transport between the Natural World and Mirror Realm was, at least as far as she was aware, restricted to the same spacial dimensions. She didn't have the control Jules did, the ability to create portals via her realm to relocate anywhere else.
“We helped,” Three explained, aware of her confusion. “Widened your reach, shall we say?”
“Can you teach me?!” she shrieked.
“Your kindred―”
“Please don't call me that. . .” Rafe muttered.
“Will teach you as and when the time is ready. Changes will come before that time though. Many changes. And only you can protect him―”
“That just makes it a day of the week. . .” she scoffed.
“And only he can protect you.”
Her eyes slowly crawled over to meet Rafe's. And for a moment, they smiled in silence. Neither of them sure they could vocalise what they felt for the other. And secretly, both relished the distraction of the extended favour for Slugtrough so they wouldn't have to talk about it for just a little while longer.
“You should go now,” Three instructed. “It is happy hour.”
Ana giggled with glee at the suggestion, and Three directed them to the door at the end of the long stone hallway, which they had already set to take them to Day Drinkers for celebratory alcohol.
“You are doing well to look after her, Rafe Clarke,” Three whispered, as she made her way down the hallway.
“Cut it with all that kindred crap,” he shot back.
“She knows not what it means, and thus its use it of no consequence. You must protect her―”
“She protects me most of the damn time.”
“You must protect her nonetheless. She is important.”
“Trying my best, given the circumstances. . .“
“The status quo of your lim
ited magick will not remain status quo for long.”
“Hear that all too often. Mostly from the cryptic older generation. . .”
“You should listen to elders. With age comes wisdom―”
“And foresight―”
“Indeed. But be assured, time heals all wounds. . .”
“All wounds?”
They nodded.
“Are you coming or what?!” Ana shouted from the door at the end of the ancient corridor. “Mallory's got a bottle of whisky with my name on it, and if you quit taking your damn time, I might feel like sharing a sip. . .”
Chapter 52
Old lies
“What do you mean, 'magic exists'? And you're a magician? How does that even make sense?! And our son―our son isn't 'our' son? I'm meant to just take that as fact, that he wasn't born, that Melissa didn't spend nine months carrying him around, that I imagined the entire thing! How do you expect me to just take that―take any of what you've told me and just deal with it? Am I meant to accept it, just say 'that's fine, I understand these insane lies don't make a damn bit of sense, but that's just fine'―and then just move on? Do you think I can have a relationship with you after this? That for a second I'll let you anywhere near our son, when you're this God-damn delusional? What the hell did you think would happen when you told me this? Did you think I was. . .”
The words stopped coming from Akif's lips, but the lips themselves kept moving for a short while, the muscle memory continuing to contort them into shapes of words he would have got out, if his tirade had been allowed to continue. His pupils were the size of pinpricks. His mind blank. And Jules took his hand as he stared off into nothingness.
He couldn't stop crying. Sixteen attempts at explaining the truth. First slowly, then all in one go, then on a point by point basis, then with a powerpoint presentation, another time with a letter. . . and Akif couldn't handle any of it.