Fracture (Book 1)

by Craig Andrews

  “No! No!” Mason said, his voice high-pitched, almost whiney. Allyn wished he could gag him with air. “Don’t close your eyes.”

  “It helps me focus,” Allyn said.

  “Close your eyes to focus, and you’ll open them to find yourself dead.”

  “I’ll be dead if I can’t wield to defend myself, too.”

  “There are other ways to defend yourself.”

  “Graeme isn’t interested in me running and hiding, and neither am I. Let me try my way before trying yours.” Allyn started to close his eyes again when Mason slapped him across the face.

  “As long as I’m charged with instructing you, you’ll do it my way.” The man’s voice went up an octave as he grew more angry. “No closing your eyes.”

  Allyn refused to give him the satisfaction of rubbing his cheek, but it burned in the cold air.

  “Now do it again, this time looking into my eyes.”

  They went on like that for over an hour before Mason ended the session. It had hardly been the safe, nurturing learning environment Graeme had promised. And Allyn, too caught up in his disdain for Mason, hadn’t been able to successfully wield. As frustrated as he was, he was even more disappointed. It was like picking up an instrument years after putting it down. He knew he should be able to play it, but his body had forgotten how.

  Mason sent him to the kitchen for water and a hearty meal of red meat and bread, then to the second-story sitting area where the rest had gathered. Nobody expected Lukas that night. Jaxon had left only a few hours ago, and the word would need time to spread, but preparations had been made and defenses had been set. They wouldn’t be undone so he could sleep in his room. Now that the chairs, couches, and tables had been used for barricades, the sitting area would comfortably sleep nineteen—though, because a handful of people would always be on watch, it wouldn’t need to.

  Liam sat cross-legged beside Kendyl, who was sprawled out on her side, propping her head up with her elbow. Their laughter washed away Allyn’s irritation. He tried to recall the last time he’d heard that sound.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked as he approached.

  “Nothing,” Kendyl said, but Liam gave her a guilty look, and they burst into uncontrolled laughter. It made Allyn’s face burn.

  “Come on,” he said. “Tell me.”

  “We’re just trading childhood stories.” Kendyl’s grin suggested the stories were about him.

  “You aren’t going to tell me, are you?”

  “You don’t want to know,” Liam said.

  He probably didn’t, but it didn’t help satisfy his curiosity. “Just remember,” he told Kendyl, “I have plenty of embarrassing stories about you, too.”

  “The difference is I’m not as easily embarrassed as you are.”

  His face grew hotter, and he longed to change the subject. He sat down beside Liam. “That was an impressive display earlier.”

  Liam checked to make sure no one nearby was listening then leaned in closer and whispered, “It was a trick.”

  “A trick?” Too loud. He asked quietly, “How?”

  “It was pretty simple really. Everything in the house is part of the network. I can open and close breakers or turn power on or off with the push of a button.”

  “But you didn’t touch anything.”

  “A timer,” Liam said. “Like I said, it was really simple. You just believed because you wanted to believe.”

  “What can you do?” Kendyl asked.

  Liam shrugged. “I’m still trying to figure that out, but they needed something to fight for other than survival. Something real. Something they could see. Feel. Hear. Hope only goes so far.”

  Kendyl looked at Allyn. He laughed. “I told you he was an incredible kid.”

  “You weren’t exaggerating.”

  Liam’s face flushed. “Please stop,” he said. But there was pride in his voice. “Tell me something about her.”

  “What do you want to hear?” Allyn asked.

  “Something funny.” His words hinted at something else. It felt good to laugh.

  Allyn thought it was strange that with battle imminent and death all but certain, they would sit around telling funny stories, but it did feel good. And so they went on trading embarrassing stories far into the night. Some were about others, but most were about themselves. They laughed, cried, and held their stomachs while gasping for air, pleading for the storyteller to stop. They discussed secrets, longings, and ambitions, and for the first time in as long as Allyn could remember, he was happy.

  He knew it wouldn’t last.

  Chapter 21

  “Would you put that down and help me?” Allyn asked.

  Liam sat beside him on the burgundy-cushioned window seat, his back against the wall. He was supposed to be helping Allyn watch the northern grounds of the manor. Instead, he was reading the leather-bound book he’d stolen from the Hyland Estate. Liam sighed and carefully closed the book. He didn’t use a bookmark because he said doing so would damage the tattered pages. Opening his phone, he punched in something on the digital screen and pulled up the surveillance cameras from the front gate. Empty. He cycled through the other six, surveying each of the five entrances and the eastern and western edges of the grounds. All were still. Content that nothing was amiss, Liam returned his attention to his book.

  “You know that’s not the same,” Allyn said.

  “I know,” Liam said. “But I can only look at the same empty field for so long.”

  The manor grounds were still. Graeme’s magi had barricaded themselves inside the manor when the sun disappeared behind the tree line. The first stars were appearing in the sky, and with the moon but a sliver, it would be a dark night. Allyn had endured another long day of training, if it could be called that. It felt more like failing. Mason forced him to do things his way, and it wasn’t working. It wasn’t going to work. Mason—as stubborn as he was short—refused to let him try something different.

  “At least he could have given us something interesting to watch,” Liam said.

  Allyn smiled. Liam had a point. Watching the tree line was challenging. The darkness played with his eyes, and shadows moved every time the wind blew. If he squinted, half of the trees could be mistaken for a man. “I’m content with it being uninteresting. That means the battle hasn’t begun.” Two days had passed since the McCollum Family had splintered, and they hadn’t heard or seen anything. No sign of Lukas or his intentions.

  “The wait is killing me,” Liam said.

  “It’s better than someone actually trying to kill you.”

  “You like to argue, don’t you?”

  Allyn laughed. “I do it for a living. Or did.”

  “You miss it, don’t you?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “How?”

  “It’s not as simple as missing it,” Allyn said. “I don’t really know how to describe it. My life had a purpose, and I don’t know who I am without it. But it’s more than that. I lost my mom when I was just a little older than you are now, and I got a job that I thought my mom would be proud of. So turning my back on it isn’t easy for me because it means turning my back on everything that made me who I am.”

  “I think I know how you feel,” Liam said softly as though he were sharing a secret. “I lost my mother, too. I wish she didn’t have to die, but I wouldn’t be the same person I am today. And I like who I am.”

  “What happened to her?”

  Liam pulled his knees close. “She got sick.”

  Allyn studied him for a moment. He knew how hard it was to open up. Some wounds never healed entirely. “What kind of sick?”

  Liam shrugged. “My father refused to take her to a specialist. Refused to let anyone other than our clerics treat her. If he’d taken her to a docto
r, then who knows, she might be here today. But he didn’t.”

  It clicked. His wife’s death had backed Graeme into a corner. He wouldn’t use technology even to save her life. Embracing it later would trample her memory. But Liam hadn’t been a part of Graeme’s decision. He saw how helpful it could be and how their lives could benefit from it. That was when he embraced it. And that also had to be why Graeme never pulled Liam away from it. Sure, he would rail against it, but deep down, where no one was privy, Graeme was encouraging his son because Liam could right his wrongs.

  Beep! Beep! Beep! Liam’s phone sounded the alarm. Liam stared at the screen, his eyes growing wide. “Allyn?”

  A sinking feeling grew in Allyn’s midsection. “What is it?

  Liam turned the phone so Allyn could see it. Four police cars with flashing lights were parked outside the front gate. Officers crouched behind open doors, guns drawn, while another was hooking a cable to the gate.

  This can’t be happening. Of all the things they’d prepared for, this had never entered the conversation.

  “They’ve found us,” Liam said.

  “No,” Allyn said, watching the cable grow taut. The gate bent, then ripped off its steel hinges, and a stream of police cars raced through the opening. “They’ve found me.”

  “Step back!” Graeme shouted. He was in the grand entryway with a handful of his magi. “Get away from the doors and windows. Keep your hands in front of you and don’t do anything stupid!” Gray dust billowed as police cars raced up the gravel driveway. “Find everyone. Find them and bring them here.”

  “Wait!” Allyn shouted, rushing into the chamber, careful to stay away from the windows. “It’s me they’re after.”

  “I know,” Graeme said.

  “Let me go out there, surrender myself. You don’t need to be involved in this.”

  “It’s too late,” Graeme said. “They’re already here.”

  “You’re herding everyone up together,” Allyn said. “They’re going to run background checks on everyone, and when they don’t find anything on anyone—no drivers licenses, no student ID cards, not even a library card—they’re going to think that’s more than just a little odd.”

  Graeme looked at Allyn dead in the eye. “I know.”

  “Do you?” Allyn asked. “They’re going to arrest me for kidnapping. They will arrest you for harboring a fugitive and probably arrest everyone else until they know what to do with them. Even after Kendyl clears our names, the damage will have been done. We’ll be broken apart with nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, and Lukas will pick us off one by one. Meanwhile, the police will storm the house and find a treasure trove of historical artifacts belonging to a previously unknown race of men. The magi existence will be discovered. And Lukas will win.”

  “What would you have me do?” Graeme asked.

  The first cars outside screeched to a halt, and officers jumped behind opened doors, their guns raised.

  “Run,” Allyn said. “Have the magi hide in the forests. The police don’t know these woods like you do. They won’t be able to follow, not at night. But you and I need to be here when they crash through those doors. When I’m in custody and Kendyl is presumed safe, the case is closed. They will have what they came for, and it should give the others the time they need to escape.”

  More cars screamed to a halt. Teams of police gathered outside, ready to storm the house. Graeme tapped his foot, thinking.

  “Whatever you’re thinking,” Allyn said, “think fast.”

  “Do it,” Graeme said. His magi fled the room in an instant, racing to the common room where the rest of the magi were gathered.

  “Find my sister. Hide her in a bedroom. Bar the door. Make it look… make it look bad.”

  Nodding, Graeme rushed out of the room.

  “And Graeme?”

  He stopped and turned. “The first opportunity you get, break free of your cuffs and find her, okay?”

  Graeme nodded and disappeared into the manor.

  Shadowy figures slipped past the windows as Allyn knelt in the center of the entryway. He placed his hands behind his head and waited. Muffled footsteps preceded a knock. Then the door crashed inward. Armed officers wearing flack jackets and wielding shotguns, Glocks, and assault rifles streamed into the manor. “Get on the ground! Get on the ground!”

  Allyn went to the ground, face first, keeping his palms on the back of his head, barely glimpsing a team of officers climbing the stairwell. He hoped the magi had enough time to flee. Someone took his hands, wrenching them violently behind his back, nearly ripping his shoulder out of its socket. Allyn cried out in pain, instinctively trying to roll away.

  “Stop resisting!”

  Allyn gritted his teeth, trying to keep his body relaxed. He felt the cold steel of handcuffs slip around his wrists before he was hauled to his feet.

  “It’s him.”

  “How many are with you?”

  Allyn remained silent.

  “Get him to the car.”

  The first officer passed Allyn off to another officer, Grimes, who led him outside. With his thinning blond hair parted down the middle and kept long enough to cover his ears, Officer Grimes looked like the kind of man who refused to admit he wasn’t as young as he used to be. He didn’t wear a coat, and his sleeves were rolled up, exposing arms that could have been carved from stone. Officer Grimes gently led him down the stairs.

  The manor grounds were a flurry of activity. There were close to twenty squad cars outside, and more officers poured into the manor while others searched the grounds with flashlights and spotlights, looking for anyone who might have slipped out the back. They’re not going to make it. Too many magi were trying to hide, and too many officers were looking for them. They would be found, hauled back, and thrown into squad cars.

  Grimes opened the back door of his car and guided Allyn inside. “Watch your head.” He closed the door, spoke into the walkie-talkie on his shoulder, and joined a nearby circle of officers.

  Allyn shifted, trying to find a spot that would allow him to watch without having the cuffs dig into his lower back. He caught a glimpse of Graeme being shoved into another squad car on the other side of the driveway. Kendyl was led out sometime later. They’d thrown a blanket around her shoulders, and a woman dressed in a gray pantsuit, probably a trauma specialist or psychologist of some kind, was saying something to her. Kendyl didn’t appear to be listening. She scanned the grounds, looking for something.

  Me, Allyn realized. She’s wondering if I’m okay.

  He tried to think of some way to get her attention. But the door was locked and could only be opened from the outside, and its glass was thick enough to muffle anything he shouted. We’ll see each other soon enough, he thought, resigned.

  As the minutes wore on and nobody else was escorted to a squad car, Allyn began to feel a little better about his plan. The magi, it seemed, were better at hiding than he’d given them credit for. He shouldn’t have been surprised. They’d been hiding for centuries. He imagined them hidden deep in the forest, cold and wet, not knowing how long they would have to hide. All because he had been too stupid to march straight into the police station with his sister and clear things up. He’d tried, of course, as soon as Kendyl was healthy enough to walk, but she’d insisted on staying for the funeral, after which they had been caught up in the magi conflict.

  The car rocked to the side as Officer Grimes climbed behind the wheel. The car was already running, so he gave the siren a quick chirp and made a U-turn through the grass and back onto the driveway. An officer at the end of the driveway waved them past the mangled remains of the gate.

  The winding, two-lane country road was cut directly into the hillside. Overgrown branches stretched over the road like long, weathered fingers, and fallen limbs littered the edges of
the road. A small ditch cut between the road and the hillside, and the road fell away into a deep ravine on the other side. Because the country lane had no streetlamps, Officer Grimes turned on his brights and drove slower than the posted forty-five-mph speed limit, carefully avoiding the potholes that plagued the neglected road.

  They rounded a bend and—

  “Shit!” Grimes bellowed.

  Allyn jerked forward. The seatbelt caught and ripped into his chest as the brakes locked. The car slid forward with a screech. A black sedan was parked in front of them, blocking an entire lane. A fireball appeared out of the darkness, streaking toward the car. Grimes swerved, but the fireball hit the underside of the car, flipping it onto its side. The world turned upside down as the car rolled onto its top, coming to a stop in the ditch.

  Fighting with his seatbelt, Grimes kicked open his door.

  “Don’t!” Allyn yelled. “Run!”

  Grimes didn’t respond. He crawled out of the car, pulling his gun out of its holster.

  “He’s not who you think!”

  Grimes shouted something inaudible as he raised his gun. A dark figure stepped forward. Allyn didn’t need to see his face. He knew that confident walk. Lukas. Allyn thrashed in the back of the squad car. He had to get free. But his hands were still cuffed, and the seatbelt held him upside down. Pressure built in his eyes and nose as blood rushed to his head. He had trouble seeing.

  Pop! Pop! Pop! Grimes shot at Lukas.

  A concussion of air blew Grimes against the squad car. He looked down in shock where a twisted piece of metal stuck through his abdomen. He didn’t suffer long. He didn’t even have time to look up again before Lukas hit him with a fireball.

  Lukas walked over to the car and knelt, peering inside with an amused look. “That worked out rather well, wouldn’t you say? Come on, let’s get you out of there.” He reached for Allyn’s buckle, drawing closer to Allyn.