by DM Fike
Ramirez’s face mottled a deep red. “This was collected properly by my department.”
“And it will be used appropriately in our federal case.” Desert Rose continued to hold out her hands.
The detective hesitated only a moment before shoving the box brusquely into Desert Rose’s arms. “I’ll challenge this.”
“I would be disappointed if you didn’t.” Desert Rose tilted her head toward Avalon. “Now, if you wouldn’t mind unlocking the prisoner from the table.”
Ramirez called in the young officer again to dislodge Avalon. The officer then offered to escort Desert Rose and Avalon out to the agent’s vehicle. Desert Rose led the way, with Avalon in the middle and the officer in the back.
As Avalon passed a scowling Detective Ramirez, he shoved a finger in her face. “Don’t think this is over.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s just beginning.” Avalon brushed his finger aside to pass.
Desert Rose paused only for a few minutes at the intake station, gathering the recent police reports on her trespass at Fantasma. The officers behind the glass windows seemed as angry as Detective Ramirez, although Desert Rose ignored them as she signed off on all the necessary paperwork. She then led Avalon and the officer into the almost empty visitor’s parking lot. Above them, dark clouds hid the brightening sun as it dawned over the nearby Wasatch mountains.
The officer balked as Desert Rose opened the door to an aging gray sedan with Idaho plates, its rusting fender belying its tank-like ability to resist damage. “Isn’t that the car you pulled from evidence?” he asked.
Desert Rose threw the box and Avalon’s clothes into the back seat. “I’ve got to take everything with me back to headquarters.”
“That doesn’t seem like secure transport,” the officer stammered as Desert Rose motioned for a cuffed Avalon to enter next to the evidence.
Desert Rose narrowed her eyes at the young officer. “Are you trying to tell me, a federal agent, how to do my job?”
The officer took a step back from her. “No, I—”
Desert Rose leaned toward him like a predator evaluating prey. “Or perhaps it’s a woman you don’t like seeing doing a man’s job?”
“O-Of course not!” the officer stammered.
Desert Rose pulled back slightly, holding out her hand. “Good. Then I’ll take the suspect and her restraint keys from here.”
The officer took his cue, thrusting a key into Desert Rose’s hands and flipping on his heel back to the concrete correctional facility.
Flames sparked behind Desert Rose’s irises. “Get in the car now.”
Avalon slid into backseat of the car she had borrowed from Digs the previous summer. She stayed silent as Desert Rose turned the ignition and the gray sedan roared to life. The agent aimed the car toward the Utah highway, the roads still hushed, as if waiting for what the day might bring.
CHAPTER 3
AVALON WAITED UNTIL Desert Rose had driven away from the correctional institution to let freedom set in. She slunk back into the cracked vinyl, her muscles relaxing as she realized she had escaped prison.
“Thanks,” she called up to the driver.
Desert Rose adjusted the rearview mirror so she could pierce Avalon with her eyes. “You can thank me by getting us back to Llenwald.”
Avalon’s heart raced. “What?”
“You brought us to Earth.” Desert Rose made a tight swerve to pass a slow person in the right lane. “You can take us back.”
Avalon’s mouth went dry. “You mean, I teleported you here too?”
Desert Rose jerked her head up so that Avalon could see her snarl in the mirror. “Of course, you did. Why do you think I showed up after the police caught you at Fantasma?”
Realization slammed into her. “You were at the park. It was you who shut the doors on me! You let that security guard grab me!”
“I did what I had to do to save us both. You had already made enough noise to rouse the dead. The guard had to catch somebody. Better you, since I could bust you out later with my agent identity.”
“You’ve always got all the answers, don’t you?” Avalon spat. “And somehow someone else always has to pay the price.”
Desert Rose’s entire upper body tensed, her arms like taunt guitar strings between her shoulder and the steering wheel. She took a deep breath before replying, “My results speak for themselves.”
“You’re right. They do.” Avalon leaned forward, her forehead nearly on the driver’s seat in front of her. “You tried to have me killed multiple times. You froze Kay and fried his brains for a while.” She refused to voice aloud any insecurities she felt about Desert Rose and Kay’s friendship.
“You’re still alive. And Marcus,” she emphasized the fairy’s real name, “was just fine the last I saw of him.”
“Which was fighting the Child of the Statue reincarnated, inside Scawale of all people.” Avalon gave out a dry laugh. She knew she should stop, but her bottled up grievances against Desert Rose had been bubbling under the surface for too long. “In the end, you were supposed to bring me back to Earth and keep your people safe. And as usual, you’re safe and sound, half of your objective fulfilled, while Llenwald is probably crumbling underneath a madwoman’s all-powerful magic.”
Desert Rose smoldered, literally. A bit of steam rose from her flushed cheeks, curling between the part in her beautiful hair.
Avalon managed to clap her hands despite her restraints. “Good job there, Covert K knight.”
The car’s internal temperature rose several degrees. Desert Rose snapped her arms, smoke rising from her knuckles as she made a sharp exit, tires squealing. Avalon’s shoulders knocked against the side door as the sedan screeched off the ramp, running the red light, heading toward a new housing development with homes in various stages of completion.
Avalon had no idea what Desert Rose planned to do until she made a sharp turn down a dirt path deep into the heart of the subdivision. Teeth chattered as the car bumped along an unfinished road, away from the wooden frames of future houses until Desert Rose came to a stop in a flattened field. She slammed on the brakes, and Avalon smacked her head against the window.
Before Avalon could recover, rough hands threw her out of the car onto the damp, cold ground, a light dusting of snow over it. Her restraints were unlocked, then jerked from her raw wrists, metal tinkling like a bell as it clashed to the ground yards away.
Desert Rose hovered over a reeling Avalon. “Get up!” she shouted, her voice echoing across the plains.
“Are you crazy?” Avalon asked, doing a crab walk backward.
Desert Rose grabbed her by the hood and hauled her to her feet. “I said get up!” A flame flickered behind her blue eyes. Desert Rose pushed her away, forcing Avalon to find her balance or topple over.
Desert Rose crouched into a fighting stance, no less intimidating in a business suit with no weapons. With an ice dagger forming in one hand and a ball of fire bursting into life in the other, she didn’t need a sword.
“Isn’t this what you wanted, little girl? A fight with me?”
Tendrils of fire trembled deep in Avalon’s gut. “I want you out of my life!”
“Then let’s finish this!” Desert Rose roared before pouncing forward.
Avalon did not have the years of martial experience that Desert Rose possessed. She’d been raised to go to college, not to become an elite knight. She could only throw her hands in front of her, drawing upon that spark of magic growing inside her, ironically originating from Desert Rose herself. Avalon let it boil to the surface, meaning to unleash it upon Desert Rose.
But before she could hurl the fireball, an intense, all-consuming pain suddenly snaked from her arm throughout her entire body. She seized, unable to move, a pounding sensation inside her, threatening to tear her apart. For a few seconds, all she could see, hear, and feel was her heart, beating in its chest.
Stop.
Avalon pushed past the pounding, focusing on that voice.
Ladybug. The other Child of the Statue.
Avalon tried to speak, but she couldn’t, spasming out of control.
Let go.
Avalon had no idea she was still holding onto that fiery rage until she felt it tugging inside her. She had it all bundled up tight, ready to fire at Desert Rose.
She released it back into herself.
Immediately, the pounding subsided. The dirt lot, the idling car, the gray winter sky came into view. So did a sharp point of ice, pointed right near her face.
“What cowardly tactic is this?” Desert Rose demanded.
Avalon realized she had fallen, fetal position, onto the ground. She slowly unwound herself, sprawling on her back. She didn’t have enough air yet to breathe properly, much less speak.
Desert Rose looked ready to murder her, right then and there, when her eyes roamed to a spot below her neck. The ice dagger retreated back into her hand. “What’s that?”
Avalon glanced down above the hoodie’s neckline. A dark green and black bruise trailed down her shoulder and arm to her fingertips. Avalon raised her hand to her face and watched in fascination as it slowly healed itself, her normal skin tone returning. The bruise shrunk back to a very modest size with only a slight discoloration in a matter of seconds.
Desert Rose watched it too, her rage faded into detached observation. “How long has that been going on?”
Avalon shook her head as she sat up. “I-I have never seen that before.”
Desert Rose crouched down next to her, more to examine the nearly faded bruise than to offer comfort. “What caused it?”
“Magic?” Avalon said uncertainly. To test out her theory, she lifted the arm to form more ice crystals in her palm. The moment she seized on the swirling cold deep inside her core, shooting pains streaked across her arm. The bruise ballooned to the size of her fist, a dark angry color. Avalon hissed and again let go of the ice magic. The bruise faded once again to its normal negligible size.
“If I try to wield either ice or fire, it sends intense pain all over my body.”
“And your mark grows.” Desert Rose stood. “Can you teleport us back to Llenwald?”
“Teleport?” Avalon laughed without mirth. “Are you joking?”
“But you brought us here,” Desert Rose pointed out.
“In the middle of a huge fight, under a ton of pressure. It’s not like I can control it.”
The ice dagger reappeared to point at Avalon’s face. “You’ve doomed us with your inept magic.”
Avalon slapped the ice dagger away. “I saved both of us from getting squashed by Scawale, and you know it. Do I wish I would have kept us on Llenwald? Yes! A hundred times yes! But this is where we ended up. Sorry it isn’t exactly what you had in mind.”
Desert Rose kept the ice at her side, fist clenched around it so tightly that the hilt melted, dropping bits of fresh water on the powdered snow. Her scowl softened slightly, and she gave a sarcastic laugh. “Perhaps this evens the score between us then. You think that my decisions have caused you great inconvenience, yet here we are, most inconvenienced of all.”
“I would hardly call sacrificing me to the devil an ‘inconvenience.’”
Desert Rose shrugged. “Call it what you will.” She stalked back to the car, sliding back behind the wheel.
The car roared to life. Not wanting to be left stranded in the middle of nowhere, Avalon launched herself in the backseat. The moment her door closed, Desert Rose threw the car into reverse and backed down the bumpy dirt road.
“Where… are you… going?” Avalon asked through chattering teeth.
“Wherever it takes to get home, which means finding a piece of the statue.”
CHAPTER 4
DESERT ROSE ONCE again aimed for the highway. They passed a bank sign stating it was 9 a.m., but the roads, while busy, did not reflect a normal morning commute. Churches with cars brimming in the parking lots confirmed it must be Sunday.
Desert Rose drove toward Salt Lake City, the mountains a natural barrier against the east. Avalon could barely make out a “U” painted high atop one of them.
Her father’s old saying echoed in her memory. “If you can see the ‘U,’ remember, I can see it too from my office. Remember that ‘U’ are not alone.”
Avalon’s heart quickened as the car turned off the freeway. “You’re taking us to Saluzyme?”
“Where else should we look for a piece of the statue?” she replied, guiding the car past the edge of campus.
Desert Rose did have a point, even if Avalon did not like to admit it. Still, Avalon couldn’t shake that heavy sensation in her chest at the sight of the Saluzyme office building, its green hexagon logo stark against the brick façade. Although the front of the building appeared normal, plastic sheets taped to the side indicated internal damage. Bushes against the building had been charred to the ground, yellow police tape cordoning off otherwise exposed windows.
Avalon exited the car. “Are you sure the police aren’t watching the building?”
Desert Rose indicated her suit and fake badge. “I was here earlier to assume this identity. If no one has figured out I was here then, they won’t be here now.”
Avalon trailed her to the double glass doors. Desert Rose punched her passcode into the security box. “We’re going in and out quickly,” she said as the doors clicked open. “Just long enough to see if Bedwyr left a piece of the statue in a few key places. And if we find something, we leave immediately.”
Desert Rose held the door for Avalon. “No need to linger here longer than necessary.”
With her back to Saluzyme’s lobby, Desert Rose didn’t notice a gigantic figure leap from the shadows within, arms raised above his head. “Look out!” Avalon cried, too late.
The figure’s hands smacked down hard against the back of Desert Rose’s neck. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head as she fell.
Avalon scrambled back out onto the sidewalk. The front door would have shut again, if not for Desert Rose’s unconscious body propping it open. The hulking figure stepped over her to pursue Avalon. His square shoulders barely fit through the entryway, his black suit as pristine as the one Desert Rose wore.
It was Boxer, Bedwyr’s trusted henchman.
Eyes hidden by sunglasses and moppy hair over his ears, Boxer’s beefy hands aimed for Avalon. “Come here,” he snarled in a deep baritone voice.
Avalon let instinct take over, running back into the parking lot. She heard Boxer stumble after her. She made it to the gray sedan and had thrown open the driver’s door before she realized she didn’t have the keys to drive it. Glancing over the car hood, she saw Boxer lumbering after her and decided to cut her losses, sprinting back onto the sidewalk, away from the building.
Boxer’s heavy footfalls continued to follow her for a block down the deserted university street, but she clearly gained a lead. She was about to swing down an alley when Boxer halted, puffing as he put his hands on his knees to catch his breath.
“Go on! Run!” he boomed. “But if you leave, the mercenary dies.”
Avalon hesitated at the alley entrance. She glanced down between the narrow research buildings into freedom, then back at Boxer, the Saluzyme building looming like an omen above him.
“Call my bluff!” he called. “I don’t have anything to lose.”
Avalon weighed her options. Her mind told her to run. Desert Rose had already left her at the whim of the police once today. And finally, she might have the chance to turn the tables on the mercenary by putting her in harm’s way for a change.
But even as she tried to justify leaving to herself, she knew she couldn’t. Avalon did not have the skills to save Desert Rose later. She couldn’t use ice or fire magic in her current state. And even if a part of her despised Desert Rose, she would never be able to live with herself if Boxer carried out his threat.
Sighing, Avalon lifted her hands in surrender and shuffled back to Boxer.
* * *
Boxer insi
sted on searching their car before going back to the Saluzyme building, taking the police evidence box with him. Balancing it under one arm, he had no trouble flinging Desert Rose over his shoulder as he ushered Avalon inside.
With winter clouds once again blocking out the sun, very little natural light filtered in from the lobby skylights, casting all the plants into obscurity. Their outlines drooped, large fronds littering the floor as they slowly withered. The water feature had been disconnected, stale water pooling at its base. A musty smell lingered in the cold air, further accentuating the air of abandonment.
Boxer made Avalon sit in a circle of plush chairs underneath the modest tree that grew inside the building. He plopped the evidence box on a coffee table in the center, then draped Desert Rose in a final chair. He stared at the mercenary, hunching over her as if ready to fight.
Avalon smirked. “Worried she’ll wake up?”
“She won’t be waking up soon.”
“What do you want, Boxer?”
Boxer folded his arms. “I want to know what’s happening on Llenwald.”
The last time she had seen Boxer, he was still trying to capture her for Bedwyr. He must have been left out of the loop. “It’s all sunshine and rainbows. They even solved the whole human and Aossi hatred thing. So sorry you missed it."
Boxer snarled. “Don’t act like your gremlin friend.”
His mention of gremlins sparked rage mixed with misery. “Leave Nobody out of this.”
Boxer raised an eyebrow. “Touched a sore spot, did I? Did he finally betray you?”
Avalon grit her teeth. “Shut up.”
It was now Boxer’s turn to smirk. “What did you expect? He’s a gremlin. They care for naught but themselves, Nobody even more so than the others. He’d sell his sister for a meal, or haven’t you heard?”
The rage burst through Avalon’s ability to reason. “He’d never hurt anyone he cared about, not like Scawale! She fried her own soldiers for a lick of power.”
Confusion flickered across Boxer’s face. “What are you babbling about?”