Conjuring

by Ciara Graves

  I gave her a confused look

  “I mean, you know… we were kids together,” she reminded me.

  “True, but I think back then, we were content to throw mud at each other in the garden.”

  She frowned, but then her eyes lit up. She reached for my arm again, her skin cool to the touch, but the heat between us was unmistakable. “I remember. You got mud all in my hair, and I may or may not have rammed you into the biggest puddle I could find.”

  “We were quite the team. Even back then,” I agreed with a sad smile. “Too bad it ended.”

  “Just for a decade and some years,” she mused. “We found our way back to each other, and I’d like to think we still make a good team.”

  “Is that all?” I asked, knowing I was stirring up shit without meaning to. I told myself I would stay out of Brogan and Rori’s relationship, but here alone with her now, reminiscing like we hadn’t had the chance to since this war started, I realized how much I wanted her to be with me. The friendship that started when we were little had only made us closer now, fighting for our lives.

  My hand moved on its own, and I tucked a loose strand of her white-streaked hair behind her ear. Her breath catching sent my heart racing. This was more intense than our last sparring session.

  “Keep thinking I need to dye this mess,” she joked nervously.

  “Why? You look incredible with it,” I assured her and moved in closer.

  She did the same until there was no space left between us. Until this moment, I hadn’t realized how much I longed to be with Rori and hold her the way Brogan had.

  Kiss her until we were both struggling to breathe.

  Our lives had been nonstop chaos, and wherever we were, Brogan was there, or Agnes, or someone else. Never giving us a chance to have this moment. I thought of all the times I’d seen her hurt and bleeding The times I wasn’t sure if she’d wake up again or not. The times we’d gotten on each other’s nerves, and how I knew she smirked at me even when she was trying to be pissed off at me for doing one thing or another.

  My arm wrapped around her waist and I sighed at how perfect it was to hold her against me. I was lowering my head, ready to kiss her and if nothing else, let her know for certain how much I’d held back from her.

  Until she frowned and glanced over my shoulder.

  “Chas? There are two people staring at us,” she whispered.

  Cursing whoever the hell it was, I asked her what they looked like.

  “Familiar,” she replied, and she leaned in closer to me, not helping matters at all. “Chas, the guy looks like you.”

  “What?”

  Slowly, I broke apart from Rori. I spotted the two souls eyeing us closely. Their eyes lit up in recognition, and my stomach plummeted. Then they were running toward me, and it was all I could do to hug the man and then the woman, tears streaming down my cheeks, unable to stop them.

  “Mom? Dad?” I murmured.

  They hugged me to them. Overwhelmed, I couldn’t get the words to come and instead sank into their embrace like I was a little kid all over again.

  “Son,” Dad said, holding my face in his hands as he kissed my forehead. “We never wanted to see you so soon. What happened?”

  “What?” I asked, finally noticing the sadness beneath the joy in their eyes. “I’m not dead.”

  They sighed in relief, but then shook their heads.

  “How are you here?” Mom asked.

  I turned and nodded to Rori. “Remember her?”

  Rori waved hesitantly then wiped at her eyes as my parents moved toward her.

  “Hi, I uh, not sure if you know me or not. I’m Trevor’s daughter.”

  “Rori,” Mom breathed and then wrapped her up in her arms. “My dear sweet girl, you look so much like your mother.”

  “Except that hair,” Dad pointed out with a chuckle. “That is all Trevor. My God, you both have grown up so much.”

  “Charlie, right?” Rori said, and he beamed at her. “Mel?”

  “That’s right, hon. How is your mom doing?”

  “She’s good, she’s still running the bakery.”

  She glanced at me, but I had no idea what to think. We’d come down here looking for her dad and wound up finding my dead parents instead. I had a million questions to ask them, stories I wanted to catch them up on, but sadly, our time was short, and we were on a mission.

  “Mom, Dad. We can’t stay here for long.”

  “You shouldn’t want to either,” Mom insisted. “As happy as we are to see you, hug you, why are you here?”

  “We’re looking for Trevor,” I told her. “And we don’t have much time.”

  “I’m having some difficulties with following two paths at once,” Rori explained.

  Their looks of confusion intensified.

  “Is something wrong? Did Dad not come here when he died? I was supposed to be able to use his staff to track him, but it isn’t working. Think I might be doing something wrong.”

  Dad and Mom sighed together.

  Then Mom said, “I’m afraid his staff won’t be able to locate him. At least, not here.”

  “Why not? I have to find him, talk to him, figure out what the hell to do,” Rori said in a panic.

  “It won’t work because Trevor Griffith isn’t dead,” Dad said.

  “He’s—he’s alive?” Rori whispered.

  “He is. Perhaps it’s time we finally told you exactly what happened, all those years ago.”

  We didn’t have much time, but if they could tell us anything that might help us find Rori’s dad, now that we knew he was not dead, we could spare the extra time. Not like anything was happening back at the outpost.

  Except Brogan probably wondering why the hell I was sucked into the void with Rori.

  And not him.

  Chapter 11

  Brogan

  The jolt of power threw me back, nearly into the water. “Damn! Chas, you alright?”

  I sat up, expecting to see him looking back at me. Instead, his eyes were closed, and his head hung against his chest.

  I nudged him carefully, but he stayed exactly as he was.

  Rori was in the same state.

  Then I realized what happened.

  “Shit.” Somehow, he’d gone with her into the void. Why hadn’t it let me go in with them? Or had it been Rori shoving me back? I got to my feet and slowly walked around the temple, trying not to overthink what happened. I assumed it was out of Rori’s control. If not, well, I’d ask her when they got.

  “It’s nothing,” I muttered to myself on my third pass around them both. “Or the girl you like doesn’t want you inside her head.”

  The last few weeks had been hard on all of us, and looking back, I hated to admit it that I might’ve been overprotective at times. How could I not be with all the crap we’d gone through? The fights during which we’d all nearly died. I thought back to the last few times I’d held Rori, the few kisses we shared and stopped my mad pacing. In the beginning, it had all been fun and light-hearted. We had good times together… but in the back of my mind, I always sensed there was something missing. I’d grown closer to her as a member of the same team, but at the same time, we’d grown further apart as a couple. Part of me thought I should be upset at that, but another part was wondering if we weren’t better off as teammates or friends. She and Chas had known each other as kids after all. They had a deeper connection than I could ever hope to have with her.

  “You sound like some confused kid,” I muttered, annoyed with myself. I was almost ready to sit down and wait for them to return—

  Blade rushed into the temple.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “What are they doing?”

  “They went into the void to find Rori’s dad. Blade?”

  “Shit. We need them back. Scouts reported a large group of soldiers moving toward us. Then they lost them.”

  “Are they coming here?” I grabbed their shoulders, giving them both a firm shake, but neither wo
ke up. “I can’t reach them in this state. If we’re attacked… they’re helpless.”

  “I would say yes. This is one of the more known bases. I would hazard a guess that Moran’s plan has finally paid off.”

  “Are he and Agnes still here?”

  “Left. We’re trying to call them back, but something’s interfering with our communications.”

  “I can’t just leave Rori and Chas down here.”

  “You’ll stay here and guard them, I’ll send a few other soldiers to help you. Brogan, if this turns into a fight, if they get in—” He stopped when the lights went out, and a loud humming noise filled the room, then emergency lights kicked in, dimly lighting up the temple. “Damn it.”

  “What was that?”

  “They’re attacking our power, that’s what,” he snapped. “Stay here.” And then he was gone.

  Why had we ever left the underground base? They would never have been able to pinpoint us there. Now, we were at a facility just like the one at Four Point. There was a barricade placed around this one, too, but we’d already seen what they could do to those.

  The ground rumbled beneath my feet, and I froze, straining to hear what was happening at the other end of the outpost.

  Steps rushed toward me. Two guys and a woman. The mark on the back of her hand said she was a priest and the other two were a fire and frost mage.

  “Blade said we were to stick with you and them,” she said. She was my age, maybe a year older. She had sharp cheekbones beneath smooth brown skin and eyes that were already glowing a fierce gold as she called on her power. She snapped her fingers, and a white staff appeared in her hand.

  “Right,” I managed to get out, finding it hard to form words as I caught her giving me a quick once-over. “Brogan.”

  “I know who you are,” she said with a brief smile that lit up her eyes even more. “Brunie. That’s Jackson and Greg.” The two guys nodded as she said their names.

  “You’re not a team, are you?”

  “No, just been together for a long while.” She turned her back to me, and they took up guard points in the hall outside the temple doors.

  I stood beside her, lightning crackling along my fingertips. Without Chas and Rori here, I was on my own. I shut my eyes to focus my power, listening all the while to the eerie silence that had fallen over the outpost.

  Every now and then, an order was shouted from some other hall, but no one came to us. I reached out slowly, trying to sense if Rori and Chas were close to coming back or not, when I brushed up against a warm presence that spoke to me easily. Tentatively, I brushed against it with my power and my eyes flew open as the same strong connection I felt with Rori, and Chas burst to life. No, this was much stronger, more intense.

  “What was that?” Brunie asked, eyes wide as she glanced at me.

  “You—” But it was all I managed to say, then an alarm wailed overhead, and the lights began to flash. “They’re here.”

  “Brogan, what was that?” Brunie demanded again.

  Gunfire sounded in the distance, and the walls shook as explosions were set off one after the other.

  There was no time to tell her much, but I took her hand. “You’re our fourth.”

  “I’m your what?”

  Shouts echoed off the walls.

  Jackson and Greg moved down to see what was going on. They barely made it to the end when they were yelling for us to get down.

  A split second later, another explosion rang out, and debris from the walls and ceiling fell on us.

  I expected enemy soldiers to pour in through the walls, but no one came. Yet, at least.

  I glanced back into the temple. Its walls were holding for now. Not willing to stand here while the others were attacked, I created a seal on the doorway with lightning, using my power and Brunie’s light magic to make it stronger. Her eyes widened as the power settled in, crackling blue and violet and gold.

  “We’ll stay within sight of the door, nothing gets past us,” I told the others, “but I’m not going to wait for them to come to us.”

  We ran down the length of the corridor, stopping to peer out a hole made during the explosion. We were on the second floor, looking out into a courtyard that had erupted in utter chaos.

  Electrical bursts were taking out our fighters.

  I reached toward the sky. Without Chas and Rori to pull on, I waited for my power to falter. Then Brunie was beside me, her hand on my shoulder giving me strength, as if driven to do so by instinct. Of course, now of all times, we’d found our priest, when we were potentially going to die.

  Dark clouds rolled in, blocking out the cheery sunshine and bringing torrential rain on the soldiers. Lightning crackled through the heavens then shot toward the ground where I directed it. I wouldn’t be able to keep the storm raging for long, but maybe long enough to turn the tide of the fight getting out of hand. The gate that stretched around the outpost had been flattened by the enemy’s armored convoy. What was left of the magical barricade was cracked and sputtering.

  I yelled as I brought more lightning down on them, aiming for the heavily armored vehicles and the men taking cover behind them. But as strong as I was, I couldn’t hold back the soldiers pouring into the courtyard. We had a good number of Vanguard here, but the enemy had those electrical grenades, cutting us off from our power and giving them the advantage.

  “Brogan, look out,” Brunie yelled.

  She placed her staff in front of us as bullets flew our direction, popping against the golden-white shield she’d created.

  I was telling her we needed to move, when I spotted the grenade land beside us.

  I grabbed hold of her, protecting her with my body as the explosion sent us careening off the edge and tumbling down into the courtyard.

  I managed to take most of the impact, grunting at the pain in my body.

  She’d cushioned our fall.

  I pushed up to see through the torrential rains, and found her unconscious, only a few feet away. Her staff had fallen from her hand.

  “Brunie,” I muttered, crawling to her through the mud and shaking her shoulder. “Brunie!”

  “Looks like we got a couple, boys,” a man yelled as his boots squished in the mud. “On your feet, now. We’ll take the girl, too.”

  The grenade they used had been electrical, but most of the blast missed me. My power was already coming back.

  I got to my feet, placing myself in front of Brunie, and held up my arms. “Look, guys, we can talk about this,” I said lightly.

  “Shut your trap,” the man snapped, aiming his rifle at my head.

  “I’m just saying there’s no need for all this violence, alright?”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spied soldiers working to get past the Vanguard at the main entrance. We had to stop them from getting to Chas and Rori. My power came to life within me. I readied to summon lightning.

  Brunie stirred behind me, but kept herself on the ground.

  I shifted, to block them from seeing her reaching for her staff, keeping the soldiers’ eyes trained on me. I had no idea how we were going to get out of this, but I was not going to go down without a fight.

  And I was not going to fail Chas and Rori. No way. Not now. Not ever.

  “Put your hands on your head and get down on your knees. Do it,” the man shouted.

  “Bad knees. Afraid I can’t do that,” I said with a shrug.

  “Do it now, or I’ll put a bullet through your skull.”

  Lightning lit up the sky overhead.

  I winked at him as I snapped my fingers.

  A bright indigo bolt struck the soldier, killing him instantly and blinding the others.

  I stepped to the side as Brunie rose to her feet and slammed her staff into the mud with a yell. Golden light blasted the remaining soldiers away from us, giving us the chance we needed to move.

  “We have to stop them,” I yelled at her, charging for the door. We were being overrun, there were too many soldiers, but until
Moran and Agnes returned, or Chas and Rori came back, we had no choice but to keep fighting and push through.

  I ran into the mass of soldiers, tackling them to the ground as I pulled lightning and winds around me, disarming them of their guns.

  Brunie used her staff to attack.

  Bodies soared overhead, and together, we cleared the doorway.

  Vanguard members rallied to us.

  I threw my arm in the air as I yelled for a charge.

  Blade and the other commanders were nowhere in sight, and I feared the worst.

  But until I saw dead bodies, I assured myself they were alive.

  One way or another, we’d survive this fight.

  That was my hope.

  Chapter 12

  Rori

  “I don’t understand,” I said as we all sat on a bench in the park.

  “Which part?” Chas muttered.

  I wasn’t sure if he was referring to finding his parents and the information they dumped on us, or the kiss we’d been about to share. That—I had no idea what to even think of that.

  I’d been so sure I was happy with Brogan. I liked him a lot, but there was something between Chas and me. I hadn’t realized I’d been hiding from it until this moment.

  We were finally alone and that it seemed was all we needed to understand there was a lot more going on between us than bantering and being teammates.

  His arched brow caused butterflies in my stomach, and I had to force myself to get back on track with the real reason why we were here, and not think about finishing what we started.

  “Start with what happened the night everyone thinks my dad died,” I said, still in shock that he was alive and out there somewhere.

  Mel and Charlie tensed, but nodded.

  She began. “I think we should start before then. We were on orders to observe several people that had popped up on Moran’s radar. Potential troublemakers, but nothing serious. At least, not at first.”

  “The leaders of the Cleansers?” I asked.

  “Back then, they didn’t have a name yet. Weren’t as organized as they were the night everything went to shit,” Charlie said. “We had no idea who the leaders actually were either. They were merely another anti-magic group. We thought they would stay that way. We were wrong.”