by Amos, Ashley
“That’s kinda the point.”
“But using your secret weapon on something so trivial is a waste. What if I grow immune?”
Their playful banter had caused everyone sitting at the table to quiet, all attention on the two lovers, some beaming, others exasperated and yet others clouded with something indiscernible. Trent noticed the looks first, clearing his throat and releasing Drey to wash his hands, then strapping on an apron all with his face as red as the tomatoes he then began washing. Drey sat on a bar stool, watching as her boyfriend started to expertly chop various vegetables. When her brother sat next to her and yawned in the strained silence she elbowed him in the ribs, looking pointedly at Trent then their parents. Krys’s forehead crinkled in confusion before his eyes widened in understanding;
“What are you making Trent?”
“Ratatouille. Someone wouldn’t stop pestering me until I abandoned the bass I had planned to grill.”
Trent glanced at the druid leaning as close as possible to watch, indulgent smile adorning his face. Isabelle stood from her seat at the kitchen table, standing with her children to watch the mage begin to boil water and cook asparagus in a side pan.
“Where did you learn to cook like this?”
“I worked in one of Gordon Ramsey’s restaurants for a while when I was with the Order. Paid for my keep while I learned to control my magic.”
“That is incredible, you have a gift.”
“Not at all, just had good teachers, ma’am.”
He effortlessly tossed the asparagus in the skillet while he spoke, adding more and more veggies to the pan and never dropping a single piece.
“That is a talent, Trent. My daughter is a lucky woman to have someone with such skill cooking for her.”
Trent flushed, nearly dropping the contents of the pan on the floor. Drey was just as red, covering her face with her hands while her brother merely laughed at Trent’s near mess up.
“I don’t- I mean she is but-not that I think she should be! Uh-”
“Mama stop teasing him! I’m an adult now, you can’t control my life anymore.”
“Ah but I can still tease your boyfriend. Look at him, he’s handsome and so quick to blush. I bet you’ve made that happen plenty of-”
“Mama!”
“Gross mama! I don’t want to think about that before I eat!”
Isabelle laughed, hugging both twins close.
“I am just teasing. It has been so long since I saw you two, I couldn’t help it! You know how serious your father can be.”
She made a face and turned back to watch Trent as he set it on a low heat burner before he made a mess of the meal. Pulling out a casserole dish, he seasoned liberally with fresh herbs and garlic before spreading the mixture along the bottom of the dish. There was only the beeping from Krys’s gameboy now as Trent pulled a block of parmesan from the fridge. He set the oven to preheat and began to shred the cheese over the dish when a graveled voice from behind him made him freeze.
“What’s that thing you’re grandmother used to say? ‘Never trust a man who can cook’? Or was it ‘Never trust a wolf’?”
Trent grit his teeth, putting the casserole dish into the oven more forceful than necessary and set the kitchen timer before walking out the back door without a word. Drey immediately got up to follow, glaring at her father.
“What the hell was that?!”
“Don’t take that tone with me, Andreya.”
“No, you don’t get to act like you were the adult in this situation! You don’t even know him, Papa! You have no right to judge him for things that are beyond his control!”
She was slipping on her shoes, Deitrich now looming above her with narrowed eyes;
“And where do you think you are going?”
“This is my house, Papa. I can go wherever the hell I like and right now, I’m going to find my boyfriend.”
She stormed out the same way Trent had gone, Dietrich rigid and about to go after her when Krys brushed by.
“And where are you going?!”
His son turned, regarding him calmly with disappointment written across his face.
“I’m going to make sure my friend is okay since my dad was being a dick and is too childish to apologize.”
The last of Dietrich’s children went out the door just as the timer chimed on the stove. Isabelle sighed, pulling dinner from the oven and setting it on a rack to cool, then heading to the guest room. Her silence spoke volumes, letting the man know in her own way that he had managed to upset every single member of his family in one fell swoop.
Chapter 2: Necromancers
Drey found Trent exactly where she thought she would, seated in front of the entrance into the woods behind their house. He didn’t say anything as she came up behind him, just kept staring at the trees intently. She leaned against him, waiting patiently for him to speak. When he did, it was shaky. Voice cracking and spooked in a way Drey knew had nothing to do with her father.
“Drey.”
“What is it? Trent, did something happen?”
“Do you have any experience with necromancers?”
She looked at him sharply.
“No, that is a forbidden topic for us. Why are you bringing that up now?”
“I was madder than hell when I left the house and when I get like that, stuff can blur, you know?”
The druid nodded, dread feeling like a lead weight in her stomach.
“When necromancers revive someone, they pull from the life force of everything around them. Ironic, since they work with dead things, but they can’t create a new life so they steal one. Or lot’s of ones if they cannot find someone with a suitably strong aura. They can die if they don’t supply the spell with a sufficient amount of energy, as they will be used as a source if no others are available.”
His words were deadpan and monotone, not even stopping when Krys sat on his other side.
“On the way over here, something happened. Maybe it’s because of the wolf, or being around you all of the time, but I heard chanting. It was clear, as if they stood right next to me, and I could see them. They are kind of hard to miss, what with the body paint and piercings and nudity.”
Krys opened his mouth to question, but Drey shook her head.
“They had some poor bastard strung up and gutted him, just like that, with no hesitation. Then something must have gone wrong because they began bickering, said something about payment and that they needed more souls to…”
Trent fell silent, the twins leaned closer and Krys finally broke the silence;
“More souls to what?”
The mage swallowed and Drey intertwined their fingers, squeezing briefly to comfort.
“More souls to resurrect Merlin.”
“Merlin? Like King Arthur’s Merlin? Why is that bad?”
“Didn’t you ever pay attention in class?!”
Drey snapped at her brother, now looking just as spooked as Trent.
“He isn’t like those silly stories, Krys! He was a vile, ruthless tyrant who enslaved King Arthur’s entire court!”
“That’s impossible. To have that much ability you would have to have been-”
“The most powerful magical being to ever exist.”
Trent cut him off, looking like he was on the verge of a fit of nervous giggles as he explained.
“And to think that the most powerful magic user ever to exist was just a selfish prick with daddy issues and a mean streak.”
The giggles bubbled up and Krys looked to his sister with alarm only to have her meet his gaze with the most terror he had ever seen on her face.
“What is with you two?! Even if what you said is true, this was from thousands of years ago! It’s totally possible that any of us from this century are more powerful comparatively! Besides you guys look like you’ve seen him in person!”
The mage and the druid shared a look, making Krys groan loudly.
“Don’t do that thing Mama and Papa does! Just tell me
what’s going on already!”
“Fine, but you need to keep an open mind about this, Krys.”
“And you can’t freak out.”
Krystoff folded his arms, gesturing for them to begin and quirking an eyebrow pointedly. Trent sighed.
“I’ve been having these nightmares. Horrible things that kept me up at night and when Drey would ask me to talk to her about it, I couldn’t really describe what was happening, only that I would wake up terrified and seeing blood.”
“So I decided to walk with him. You at least remember learning about Dreamwalking, don’t you?”
Her brother rolled his eyes and scoffed, so she continued.
“It went fine the first time. We tried it during a nap initially and he remembered the entirety of the dream when I was there, so then we did it for real.”
Drey paused, trembling until Trent put an arm around her.
“It was awful, Krys. Every night Trent’s been dreaming about Merlin and the deaths he caused. It was far worse than any history book could have fathomed. He used to cut off limbs just for the hell of it, inflict diseases on people to see what would happen. He built his own torture chamber and had it running on its own so that the sounds of screams wafted down the halls. We saw all of it Krys. It was like we were there enduring every meaningless act of violence he had ever done.”
“You dreamt you were the victims?”
Trent nodded.
“ ‘Dream’. Present tense. But it’s easier to look past the carnage now and I’ve been paying attention to any little detail that might help bring him down if he ever came back. I thought that I was reliving history to help somehow, but I didn’t think this was the reason.”
The three of them sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts as they attempted to wrap their heads around it all. A chirp broke the quiet and Krys pulled out his phone, scrolling down the screen before snorting.
“Mom and dad are going to stay in a hotel since your father is not going to make Trent a guest in his own house”. Mom says to just come visit them when we have the chance since they will be staying here a while.”
Drey huffed, feeling justified in the win even as Trent frowned.
“I don’t want to inconvenience them like that, I can stay somewhere else until they leave.”
“What? Don’t be ridiculous, this is your home too now and my father doesn’t get to treat you that way. They're here for a month, so this works out fine.”
She pressed their foreheads together, smiling at her wolf until he hesitantly smiled back. Krys stood noisily and stretched, grinning as he nodded towards the house.
“Since they’re gone, you guys wanna continue planning for the end of the world inside where there is junk food?”
Trent laughed, standing and offering a hand to Drey, who rose a lot more gracefully than he had. Together the three of them trudged up the hill and into the backyard, Drey’s hand never leaving Trent’s.
Chapter 3: Shadow Magic
It wasn’t until the next morning that anything happened. They had stayed up until the wee hours of the morning attempting to find answers but it was like they had the world’s hardest jigsaw puzzle and were missing ¾ of the pieces. They had gone to bed exhausted and disappointed. When Drey woke up it felt like yesterday had been a bad dream. She burrowed into the pillow, humming contently when she felt the brush of something on her back.
“Neither of us should be awake, Trent. Go back to sleep.”
She waved her hand in his direction, meaning to bat at the mage but her hand fell onto cold sheets. It hit her that she could smell something cooking and that that cold wet feeling tapping her camisole didn’t feel like fingers at all. She shrieked, slapping at herself and smacking something gel like that made a solid thunk as it fell over on the mattress. Seeing what it was made her flat out scream, holding her pillow up defensively. Trent and Krys came busting through the door, both ready to attack and looking severely confused at seeing no one else there. She pointed wordlessly at the bed and the dog sized tarantula sitting there, its body a solid black and mysteriously matte, even over each of its soulless eyes. The thing perked when it saw Trent, scuttling towards him happily and leaving a smoke trail behind it the same color as its body. The mage jumped back, pressed against the door as the spider sat at his feet expectantly. Krys looked like he was about to cry, afraid to move and attract any attention.
“Can spiders hear? I don’t think so. I mean if I don’t move, it can’t see me right? Or is that a T-rex? Oh god it’s looking at me.”
“Shut up Krys, you aren’t even the one it’s staring at.”
“Both of you hush”
Drey carefully set the pillow on the ground, inching closer to the beast and inspecting it carefully. Krys squeaked pitifully when it turned towards her and Trent hissed through clenched teeth.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
“I think I know what it is.”
“Drey get away from it!”
She ignored her boyfriend, close enough to see the vapors coming from the spider and how it was patient as it sat, awaiting instructions. She sighed in relief, picking up the pillow and sitting on the edge of the bed closest to it as if there wasn’t a giant magic spider sitting in their room. Both boys stared at her like she had lost her mind.
“It’s shadow magic.”
They still stared and she just rolled her eyes.
“It’s a part of someone here, so we are taking turns trying to touch it and whoever it belongs to will know it.”
“And what about the other two it isn’t attached too?” her brother peeped up, making her scoff.
“Nothing will happen, stop being a baby.”
She pat the bed next to her and the spider cocked its head before scuttling onto the comforter. Drey held out her hand, palm up like one might do a strange dog, and waited. The spider inched forward, little mouth working excitedly and rubbed its head in her hand. She pet the thing tentatively, relaxing the longer she stroked its putty-like surface. It made little happy chirps as she turned to the cowering men by the door with a smirk.
“Next?”
“But it looks happy with you!”
“Come on Krys, we both know that’s not how this works. It will try to meld with its true user.”
Her brother walked over slowly, stiffly extending a hand only to yank it back when it hissed.
“Cool not mine. Well I’m leaving have fun with your new pet Trent!”
Krys all but ran from the room, his door slamming shut and the sound of water running coming from behind the door. Trent gulped, looking from the spider to Drey and back to the spider before inhaling and reaching for its back. The second he touched it, it was like a bolt of lightning went up his arm. It felt like liquid nitrogen was filling his veins, burning and hardening every cell in him. He tried to pull back, attempting to scream but not making any sound. Drey watched in horror as Trent went rigid, eyes turning completely black before collapsing, convulsing on the floor before being still. She was at his side in an instant, the spider following and scuttling back and forth rapidly while she felt for a pulse.
“Trent?! Trent, open your eyes!”
No heartbeat could be felt and she could feel tears welling as she shook him.
“Don’t you do this, you jerk! You can’t just die like this, it’s not fair.”
The spider was watching and she glared balefully.
“You did this, fix it! Fix him!”
The spider hesitated, then placed one leg on her chest and it honestly felt like dying. She was breathing but it felt like all of the air was sucked from her lungs, like the warmth was being sapped from her body and every single atom within her was being ground to dust. She barely registered the thing touching its other leg to Trent, saw but didn’t see his body jump and then the spider scuttled back onto the bed, curling in a way that shouldn’t have been possible and hiding its eyes. Drey grabbed at Trent, shakily feeling for a pulse once more and sobbing in relief when i
t beat strong beneath her fingertips. She hugged him tight, gasping when he groaned.
“Drey I need to breathe.”
That just made her squeeze tighter and the mage awkwardly patted her back, trying to comfort her while he attempted to gather his wits. When she finally pulled back he just blinked a couple of times, still not exactly sure what was going on. Suddenly he shot up, pointing at the cowering spider accusingly.
“It tried to kill me!”
“It did kill you.”
Drey sniffed, wiping her eyes as Trent looked between her and the tarantula on their bed rapidly.
“What?!”
“But it also brought you back.”
She got up and sat next to the spider, petting it gratefully and smiling when it chirred in response.
“It just revived a dead guy? How?!”
“I think it transferred a part of my soul.”
Her hand rested over the spot on her chest, smiling at the arachnid.