by Mel Todd
Either I looked intimidating, or no one had time to mess with someone who was ambulatory and not begging for help from them. I ran towards the building, skirting through the entry gate and ran up to the main concourse that led to all the section. I stood there with people racing around to read the section labels. I'd never been here so I had no idea where to go.
There, section 115 is that way, and she's in row 20.
People might have yelled for me but I didn't pay any attention. I held Carelian tight to my chest and I ran. Jo dead or dying. Her parents. Stinky. Fear lent speed to my feet but it did nothing for my energy or stamina as I raced up the stairs.
If she lives, I promise I'll never whine about working out again.
I was puffing by the time I reached that section, and I swore Carelian had doubled in weight. At any other time, I would have stood there panting, trying to catch my breath. Instead, I lumbered towards that section, looking for anything familiar. While I was racing through the passageways to the seats and even up the stairs, it had been loud with people crying and running around, both first responders and fans. But up here it was like the convention times a hundred. People were screaming and begging but no one looked at the field. I glanced at it, to see people milling around down there, but no one laying on the ground.
So, something only the fans would get?
As I moved towards where the Guzmans should be, I tried to parse what I was seeing. Lots of people were yelling and screaming, but I didn't smell blood or anything caustic, so what could it be?
I found the right spot and started trotting down the stairs, heading to row 20. Then I saw the familiar shaved heads of Henri and Stinky, the glorious mane of Jo's hair, and Marisol’s luxuriant black shot with silver. But they weren't moving, and Jo was leaning down over her chair. My heart caught in my throat as tears welled into my eyes and I stumbled down the last few steps.
"Jo?"
Chapter 40
What lies on the other side of the rips to other planes is anyone's guess. But given that no one has ever come back alive, the odds are it is nothing friendly to humans. ~ Magic Explained
Her name was barely more than a croak and I got ready to have my heart broken for all eternity. Her head jerked up and she spun. "CORI!" She leapt off the seat and grabbed me in a hug that almost cracked my back and narrowly missed crushing Carelian. I responded by wrapping my arms just as tight around her, my relief almost making me sob.
"Oh, thank Merlin you're alive." I had to reach up and touch her face to reassure myself as she pulled away.
"I am, but Stinky and Sable aren't doing well." Her voice hoarse with something, screaming? She stepped back, and I saw what she had been hovering over. Stinky slumped in his chair, and the girl I'd seen in the bookstore was silent, almost looking dead, except I saw her chest rising and falling, barely. Henri and Marisol were trying to rouse Sanchez, while Paolo stood back, his arms clenched across his chest, and shoulders so tight I could see the line of his muscles through his shirt.
"Move," I said as I pulled gloves out of the side compartment of the bag. Carelian had crawled out and sat on the back of one seat, peering around. I worried, but only a teeny bit. He was a smart cat and knew more than you would think.
Henri moved, though Marisol stayed on his other side. I went through Sanchez’s vitals, looking at him, trying to figure it out. His breathing was slow, skin clammy, but his pupils weren't fixed or dilated, but he didn't stir as I evaluated him. I crawled over Marisol to check on Sable, who had Jo perched next to her. Her condition was the same.
They had been exposed to something, but what? Why aren't all of them affected?
That removed it being aerosol. That left ingestion or skin. I started to ask questions, but then the smear of color on Sable’s face caught my eye. Bright yellow, it looked like someone had wiped it off. I glanced at Jo. She didn't have any colors and neither did Marisol, but Henri and Paolo had bright orange streaks on their faces. I moved back over to Sanchez and looked. Sure enough, there were traces of yellow on his face, though mostly smeared.
"What is the paint from?"
They all looked at me blankly, though Marisol's grip on Stinky's hand tightened to make both of their fingers go white.
I touched my face. "Henri and Paolo have orange, Sable and Stinky have yellow. Where did you get the paints?"
"Oh," Henri's voice cracked a bit but he cleared it and pulled out two jars. One had a label from a local craft store, the other was unmarked and in a disposable plastic jar. "They were handing them out. I already had the orange from our local high school. Same colors but Sable and Sanchez wanted to root for the other team. Mostly to tease us, I think." I knew the orange team was Henri's alma mater, so that made sense.
I reached out and grabbed the small jar of paint. It just looked like something you'd do at home, simple and not at all dangerous. I opened it and sniffed it, but I couldn't tell anything. The last thing I wanted to do was touch it. I grabbed my phone and called Alixant.
"Where in the four fucking planes are you?"
"Take a look at the victims. I think they all have paint on their faces. They may have jars near them or on them that look like homemade disposable jars. The one I have is yellow."
"They had orange also," Henri interjected.
"They apparently had both colors." As I spoke, I moved over to across the row, giving Carelian a quick glance to make sure he was safe. He hadn't moved from his vantage point on the back of the seat. I bent over to look at a teenager whose father was in a panic, holding and rocking. The kid had the face paint, but it was yellow. The father had none. "See if all victims have the paint on them. Look close as people might have wiped it off trying to get them to respond."
I paused and turned back to the Guzmans as they watched me anxiously. "What did you wipe the paint on their faces off with?" My worry spiked, as the idea of that getting on their hands, if that was what caused it, hammered into me.
Marisol wordlessly held up the corner of her shirt. She'd worn a tank top, it was hot still, and a light over shirt. That was what she had used to wipe off the paint.
"And Sable?" I looked at Jo, knowing she'd been bouncing between the two of them worried and frantic.
"I used napkins from the hotdogs we'd gotten. I didn't touch it."
"Good. You hear all that, Alixant?" I hadn't moved the phone from my ear as I'd talked, looking around.
"Yes. We are collecting samples now." His voice was gruff but he didn't waste any more time trying to get me to obey him.
I turned slowly, looking at the hundreds, if not thousands of people laying slumped in chairs, on the stairs, on the landing areas. I didn't know how many were dying or already dead. That thought spurred me forward and I checked the pulses of both Sanchez and Sable. They were becoming erratic.
"Alixant. Could this be another transformation? Where it was changed to something else?" I couldn't even see distinct people on the other side of the dome. This place was huge. How could it be?
"Doubt it. If they were that powerful, they wouldn't need to be doing this." He stated it slowly and I clenched my hand so tight on the phone the edge hurt. "Is it working, are the rips forming?"
"I can feel the rips forming. They are almost fully made," I admitted. "They're huge. About a third of the field."
"Damn it. Cori," he said urgently. "Can you close them?"
I swallowed and forced out the words. "Maybe. But from what Indira told me and the other specialists I worked with, if we don't stop the flow of magical energy, it would be me putting my strength against all of theirs." All the thousands dying with their magic streaming out to rend the veil between worlds. There was no way I could compete. No merlin, no matter how strong, would be able to.
"Fuck," his curse was low and vicious, and I pulled the phone away from my ear. "We're working on it, but we don't know how long it will take to identify." He clicked off, saying nothing more and I stood there frozen, feeling helpless. I HATED feeling helpless.
Fuck this, I am not letting Stinky die. I'm not letting any of them die. I am so tired of letting people die.
I dropped the phone back into the bag and headed over to Henri. He and Marisol were hovering over Stinky, while Jo bounced between Stinky and Sable.
"Give me the paint," I ordered, holding out my hand. Henri said nothing just put the small bottle into my hand.
I'd been studying like crazy and still didn't know how to even begin to use my abilities, but I was a Spirit merlin, dammit. With my gloved finger I opened it and took out a small smear. It lay against my blue clad fingers. I tried to sense it like I did the rips but it slipped through my mind. I didn't know enough. From everything I had read, since I had a pale Non-Organic, I should be able to identify and even do things with this. But I hadn't played with enough compounds to recognize anything. Once more I was going to be a failure.
Stinky choked and began to seize. I could hear others scream as it seemed to be spreading. I moved over to him. "Get them both flat so they don't hurt each other. We need to wait."
"You can't help? Neither of you?" Marisol's voice broke as she looked up at me, her face pale, eyes red.
I fought down a scream. "I'm trying. Really." I looked at the bottle and brought it up to sniff it. The faint smell of oranges and lemons, with a dark hint of something tainted and bad under it. "They used essential oils to cover up the smell. What would they need to cover up?"
There were so many things that could kill people, how was I supposed to figure it out?
My phone rang and I dove for it, pulled it out. "You figure it out?"
"Yes. That son of a fucking demonspawn used nicotine. We already have people dying. It's an easy molecule structure and I have people here shattering it as fast as possible, but the strongest I have is a wizard. We don't have anyone who can do mass amounts."
My throat had gone tight. Nicotine, an easy poison to make and it killed with so little. "What do you mean you are shattering it?"
"We have Transform mages breaking it, but the strongest I have can only do an area about ten meters across and we are running out of offering fast." His voice sounded weary and defeated.
"Send the picture of the molecule to me," I snapped hanging up. I looked up at Jo crouched near Sable. "I need you. We all need you."
"What?" She climbed over the others and moved over to me. More and more people were succumbing, and I saw more than a few that looked at their hands and were shaking and wiping them on their pants.
"How much are you willing to offer?"
"For what?" Jo looked at me blankly.
"To save as many as you can. To save Sanchez and Sable?"
"My life if I need to." Her voice held no doubt. I watched her sink into herself, changing, becoming older in a way I couldn't define. "What do I need to do?"
I showed her the picture of the molecule. "I need you to break it. Shatter the molecular bonds. It's hydrogen and nitrogen. The body can handle those as free atoms. Can you do it?"
She closed her eyes, and focused. I knew that they had just gotten into how to transform… well barely. Merlin. For all I knew she didn't have enough training or skill to do it. Time seemed to stand still and rush by as I waited, hoping that she could find, recognize, and be able to break the chains. And while I waited that interminable amount of time, I heard the screams and wails of despair as people started to die, convulsing, and their heartbeats slowing. Plus, I felt the rips snap into existence. So huge and powerful. I fought to grasp how much they opened our world onto theirs. And worse, I could feel things on the other side, noting the access to our world.
Where do you think unicorns and dragons come from?
Indira's idle comment floated in my mind and I shot another worried look at the rips. I didn't know why everyone wasn't staring at them. They had to be visible to everyone. Didn't they?
"I got it." Jo’s comment took a second to register as I dragged my attention back to her.
"You do?"
She nodded her face pale and her mouth flattened into a line. "I can do it, but it will take everything."
I paused, then looked at her, my stomach curdling. "What do you mean everything?"
Jo swallowed but her shoulders stayed squared. "The place is drenched in it. It is almost everywhere. It will take more than I have to break them. There isn't any way for me to separate what is in the paints versus what is in the cigarettes and cigars, and even vapes in people's pockets. So I have to break them all. And there are lots. More than I have, using every trick I've learned or even heard of."
Left unspoken was the knowledge that she didn't know enough, that there wasn't anything she could do to learn what she hadn't had time to learn.
"Jo, I - " the words died in my throat as she looked at me.
"Would you not offer yourself to save Stinky? To save me? How can I do less to save them?" Her hand wave didn't encompass just Stinky and Sable, but the entire stadium.
The urge, the need to protest, to tell her not to do it, that I had no right to ask, died in my throat as I looked at her and the sounds of the dying filled the air worse than any cheer ever had.
"Okay. I love you," I blurted, needing to make sure she knew past any shadow of a doubt.
"I know."
I fought not to cry as I watched my best friend get ready to sacrifice herself for her family and strangers.
Chapter 41
Heroes exist. But you'll find the ones people idolize rarely think of themselves as heroes. ~ Scott Randolph
~I'll aid.~ Carelian's strong, clear voice shocked me as it cut through my haze of grief and fear. He leapt up next to us, pressing into Jo's legs.
Jo rocked back on her heels blinking at the cat, as if coming out of a dream. Carelian head-butted her and her hand fell to bury into his fur. "You'll what?" Her voice broke as she looked at him. I realized he was talking to both of us. She could hear him, and he offered to help. I had to fight not to fall to my knees and worship the red fur clad body.
~I'll help. Reduce the cost.~ His voice had a firmness to it that sounded so much older than his kitten frame suggested. His long tail wrapped around my leg as he pressed into Jo. ~Will let my magic boost. Make very powerful.~
"Anything," I said. "Remember, I have to close the rips also. But first, can we do it?" I felt like ethereal claws were running down my back as the rips became more solid and I knew things were coming to the holes in reality. Maybe even slipping in.
~Easy. Seek, find the offering amount.~ His voice so calm and assured. Jo kept her eyes closed, but her hand stayed buried in his fur while her other reached out to me. I clutched it bruisingly hard, but neither of us cared. This was too important.
"Got it," she whispered, the rest of the world disappeared from my awareness. Only Jo and the rips existed.
~Offer,~ Carelian murmured.
I felt the magic explode out of her, crossing across the stadium, shattering the molecular bonds of that specific structure. It took less than fifteen seconds, but it felt like eternity before her offering was accepted and reality became fluid.
Reality blinked back into place around me as Jo sagged to the stairs. Her hair, her long gorgeous hair, had vaporized to stubble on her skull and she was pale and shaking, but she was alive. I quickly counted all her digits. I could see her nails were gone to the quick, but she had all her fingers.
"The cost?" I asked as I supported her and she sagged to the ground. Carelian curled up next to her purring loud enough he sounded like a buzz saw.
"Worth it. Stinky? Sable?" she asked, her voice weak and shaky. I wondered what else she had offered up, but I didn't press. Instead I rose and headed over to where the Guzmans sat, their faces as pale as Jo's.
"What did she do?" Marisol's voice was a higher pitch than I'd ever heard.
"Saved everyone, I think." I said it absently as I knelt in the seat next to Sanchez. His pulse beat in a steady rhythm and his breathing had become regular. Color was returning to his face and I couldn't see any
thing else other than unconsciousness that looked or felt wrong.
"Go to her, honey," Henri encouraged. "I've got Sanchez."
Marisol gave a jerky nod and got up to go to Jo as I moved over to Sable. She had a trace of bloody foam at the corners of her mouth. I checked and it looked like she'd bitten her tongue while seizing, but she, like Stinky, breathed normally and her heart rate was good.
Let's hope that worked. And I didn't miscalculate and sentence them all to being living vegetables.
My phone rang as I worried about what might be worse. I answered the call, but before I could say anything Alixant was yelling. "What just happened? What did you do? We felt the wave wash through. My Transform wizard says it was stronger than anything he's ever felt. All the molecules have shattered. They say they can't find any nicotine anywhere."
"Oh good, it worked," I sighed out the words. "Are people okay? Did it create anymore issues?"
"Cori! What. Did. You. DO?" He was almost shouting the words. And oddly, I sensed a bit of fear in the question. That made no sense. I looked at the rips in the air and stood.
"I'll explain later. I have to get those rips closed." I noticed movement on the field. It was the first I'd seen in a while as all the players had disappeared by the time I got to Jo and her family. Not even the cheerleaders had still been there. All movement had been in the stands as people frantically worked on the afflicted.
I also realized the sound, the feel of the stadium had changed. When I got up here it had been unrelenting panic and fear. Now, there was confusion, almost relief, as the noise changed from screams and pleading. Now I heard laughter, sobs of relief, evening crying.
"Something is going on at the field. I have to get down there. I feel things coming and the rips are closer to the field." And they were, which made me panic. When I'd felt them earlier, they'd been high in the air. Now they had moved or reformed or something, much, much closer to the ground and I just knew I could close them easier if they were closer to me.