by RJ Blain
“I do not like this conversation.”
“Surprise. Neither do I.”
“I could just leave. I can do anything.”
“Then leave, and I recommend against trying to take cities hostage again.”
“You would let me go?” Euthal’s brows furrowed. “That makes zero sense.”
“Neither does floating in this dark sea with a fish god who kills people in their sleep and eats their dreams. Let is a strong word. If you can do anything, go ahead and leave. I’ll do my best to stop you, of course.”
Euthal glared at me, and he grunted.
He grunted several more times before his eyes widened. “You’re holding me here. You’re really holding me here.”
As I couldn’t actually hold him anywhere, I made an assumption: Elizabeth must have left an echo of her power somewhere within me when she’d passed through me to the other side. A linker could bind someone to a location or place.
“It’s probably one of the others stuck here making sure you get what you’re due.” I laughed, and I gestured to the kraken. “You thought it was a good idea to go after a kraken.”
“An accident.”
“Maybe if you had a little more finesse, you wouldn’t keep making stupid mistakes and causing accidents.” I swam around the ice-encased fish. The kraken glided forward, and it reached forward with its arms, yanking Euthal through the water. The warlock cursed and struggled against the frozen chain binding him to the leviathan.
I coiled outside of the kraken’s reach, observing as it wrapped its arms around the ice and squeezed. Its mantle deepened to crimson and pulsed with a ruddy light.
My ice shattered, and Hypnos burst with a pop. Blue light flashed, and the nimbus bled into the water. Then, beads of light sped away from where the fish resided, streamers marking every path.
The tiny fish zipped through the kraken’s arms and darted towards me. I snatched Hypnos’s tail with the tips of two claws. He struggled, his whiskers swaying in the water.
“Release them, or I feed you to the kraken, you little shit,” I hissed. The fish stilled, and the kraken slinked forward, its arms reaching for me. I waved Hypnos at it. “You’ll wait your turn, Sir Kraken!”
The kraken halted.
Well. I could work with bossing a kraken capable of swallowing me in a single bite without chewing. I lashed my tail and contemplated smacking Euthal with his tiny terror of a fish.
“If I release them all, will you let me go? We’ll call it a draw.” Euthal’s expression darkened. “I think you’re bluffing about the nuke, but death would interfere with my plans.”
“If you release everyone here, and you leave Hypnos with me without attempting to reclaim him for any of your plans, I’ll take the fight back to the real world. We can duke it out before we’re nuked. Best offer you’re getting. You escape from me there, and it’s your win. If I keep you around until we’re incinerated with a nuke, it’s my win.”
“I might survive,” he hissed.
“I don’t think anyone’s walking from this nuke, Euthal. There’s a reason the UN kept it, and it’s not to make more supernaturals. We have enough of them as it is. That’s why Australia is a wasteland right now.”
The mention of Australia silenced Euthal, and he considered me with narrowed eyes. I waited, flicking the tip of my tail. Finally, he said, “Australia is a land of the dead. Haunted.”
I bet. “Release everyone, or you’ll join them in the same fashion.”
“That’s a rather potent threat. Tell me your name.”
“I’d rather not. Frankly, I’d rather if you disappeared forever and never darkened my door or city ever again.”
“Your city? You’re not the mayor. You’re not in the upper police force. You’re not in the upper FBI, either. You’re definitely not the one bastard who got away. Clever freak.”
“He was indulging at a fast food joint down the street from where you thought he’d be. A pity. He doesn’t run his tracker, so you couldn’t find him the easy way, could you?”
“You must be one of the quad members I missed. There were a few, plus a couple of troublesome cops. I got the important cops, though. Magicless freaks aren’t a threat to me. I’ve already eliminated the dragon of San Francisco. She’s in there, hiding.” Euthal scowled at the shield protecting the victims of Hypnos’s power. “I would’ve been done with this already if there hadn’t been a damned rune warden among them.”
Rune wardens were even rarer than warlocks, and everyone wanted a rune warden on their side, especially me. I didn’t understand how they could draw pictures and make protective magic happen, but I wouldn’t look the gift horse in the mouth.
In the water, I ruled, and I darted forward, wielded Hypnos like a weapon, and slapped Euthal with the fish. “That’s for Elizabeth.” I slapped him again. “That’s for the koppa oni you slaughtered.” Clouds of blue fog burst from the fish each time I hit the warlock. “If you don’t want to release them, I’m happy to beat you to death with your own fish. Try me. Go ahead, try. I have nothing to lose. Which one of you will die first? I’m game to find out.”
“You’re insane!”
I found that funny, coming from a warlock. “I suppose someone willing to slap you in the face with a fish is a little crazy.”
“A little?”
“You could just release the hostages so we can take this back to the real world. But the fish is mine, and I’ll probably be tempted to slap you with it again for making a mess of my day.”
“I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Can’t.”
“Then you better start convincing the little fishy here to release the hostages and make with your magic to return them all to their bodies—alive—if you want a chance to avoid eating a nuke. And that’s all I’m willing to offer you. We can keep dicking around here and both get nuked. That fits my plans nicely.”
“You’re a fucking lunatic.”
“Says the warlock. You took an entire city hostage.”
“I need the power.”
“I really couldn’t care less. I’m quite content to take you out with me when I go. What would happen if I beat you to death with your pet fish here?”
“We could share power.”
“I have no need for any power from you or anyone.”
“Everyone needs power.”
I thought of Raymond, who did his best with no power at all. On the surface, he’d be the perfect candidate for the warlock’s offer, but the longer I thought on it, the more I realized Raymond wouldn’t seek power at the cost of others. I wouldn’t, either. “No, not at all. Only an idiot believes power is required.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I view this as a good thing. We can sit here and chat about this all day, or you can convince your fish here to release everyone while you help send them home. No detours, either. Safe and sound, all of them.”
“You act like I can do that.”
“I certainly hope you can, or you’re the most pathetic warlock I’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting. What happened to you being able to do anything? Was that just a bunch of hyped bullshit?” The idea I’d been panicking over a bunch of bullshit pissed me off almost as much as the idea of taking a nuke to the face. “I’m of a mind I should just beat you to death with your pet fish and sort the details out after.”
“You need me to free them.”
“You just said you couldn’t. You’re worthless to me. Actually, you’re worse than worthless. You’re utterly and completely useless. No wonder you need power. You don’t have any damned actual skill. That’s all on this little twerp, isn’t it?” I waved Hypnos around, and more of the blue miasma seeped into the water. “I’m going to get nuked because of a useless warlock with a power shortage?”
I screamed my frustration and smacked him with the fish again. “Un-fucking-believable!”
“Will you stop that?”
“Not until you convince fi
shy here to release everyone and return them to their bodies where they belong. Still living.”
“I can’t erase death.”
“Well, you better start praying to somebody, buddy, because I’ve about had it with you.” I lifted my other forearm and wiggled my claws. “You need Hypnos, I need those hostages released, and I bet Hypnos would love to have some scales left when I’m done with him. I’ve never tried to filet a koi before. Think they’re good eating?”
Euthal’s eyes widened. “You can’t.”
“If you’re not going to release them, and if Hypnos isn’t going to release them, then I see absolutely no reason to let you or him leave this cesspool alive. I’m tired of threatening you, warlock. There’s two options here: you give me what I want, or we all go out with a bang.”
“You’re insane. You’re really insane.”
I flicked my claws together, eyed my fish captive, and seized one of its scales between the tips of two claws. “I think this one should go first.”
The fish writhed, but it couldn’t escape my grasp.
“You’ll kill us all.”
I snorted, and steam erupted from my draconic nostrils. “You’ve already condemned us to death. That threat lacks potency.”
“You’ll kill them with us.”
“Unless you release them, they’re already dead. I’m just hurrying it along and being merciful about it.” I wished I bluffed, but without Elizabeth, without whatever had made my ruse the first time I’d met Hypnos work, I’d run out of options.
“That’s not what a good person would say.”
“Whatever gave you the idea I was a good person?”
That caught the warlock by surprise. “You’re not?”
“I’m a very pissed off person, and when I’m pissed off, I tend to be the exact opposite of good. I wouldn’t hesitate long to shred you like I’m about to shred your pet fish.”
“You’d really do it.”
I plucked the scale off Hypnos, and the fish screamed, a piercing sound that cut through the water. I hadn’t known fish could scream.
Perhaps fish with aspirations to be a god played by other rules.
“Enough, enough! You’ll kill us all. Stop it.”
“Already dying here,” I reminded him. “Decide. Release everyone and walk away from whatever powers Hypnos might offer you, or join me in a short bloodbath, where the fish gets descaled before I beat you to death with its body, after which we’re both nuked to smithereens. I think you’re better off facing me in the real world and giving me a run at your money and hoping you escape before the bomb drops.”
“They’re not going to drop a nuke.” Euthal curled his lip. “It’s just a ruse.”
“I could just finish descaling this fish and beating you to death with his body. I’m fine with this plan.” I picked a new scale, and the fish trembled in my grasp. “I don’t think he likes losing his scales for some reason.”
“I need that power.”
“If you need Hypnos’s power more than you need your life, then I guess I better get to descaling. That’s a lot of little scales I need to pluck off. He’s obviously not doing you any good anyway. If he were, you’d be doing more than just talking to me. You’d be fighting.”
Euthal’s eyes widened. “You really mean to kill us both.”
“Looks like it. All aboard the crazy train. It’s going to be a rough but short ride. You know your options. Pick.” To make it clear I wasn’t joking about killing his tiny fish god, I plucked out another scale. I flicked it away. It shimmered and dissolved into the water.
“Release them,” Euthal ordered. “Leave the bitch here to die.”
One for all had been the plan all along, which I could accept without regret. Hypnos stilled, and a pulse of pale light rippled from it. Everything it touched vanished from its dark waters. When it collided with the shield, it passed through.
Those within vanished.
In the time it took me to release Hypnos from my grasp, only Euthal and I remained. My chain of ice still remained shackled to his ankle, although it lacked substance in the dark sea.
Perhaps, if luck was with me, the kraken would enjoy a meal of warlock.
“I hope he gives you the worst of nightmares,” Euthal hissed before vanishing, too.
Hypnos remained.
“Look like it’s you and me, punk.” Without anyone sustaining it, the sphere broke into countless pieces and disappeared. The waters turned still and quiet. “I don’t know what your game is, but it works like this. I’m going to pluck every scale off if you even think about trying to siphon any energy out of me. I don’t know what your dietary requirements are, but I’m not on the menu, especially not when I’ve seen what you did to Elizabeth. You bring anyone else here as long as I’m around, and I’ll resume plucking out your scales before treating you as a very tiny appetizer.”
For a fish, Hypnos had a pretty good glare.
“Yeah, I’m not the easiest bitch to get along with, and I’m pretty upset you killed Elizabeth and those koppa oni. I’m putting most of the blame on Euthal, but he used your powers to do it.”
“I hunger,” the fish announced.
“Too fucking bad. I’d like to go home, cuddle in my chair, drink so much coffee I create a shortage in Columbia, and be waited on by Detective Hunk. Since that’s not happening, you’re just going to have to sit there and be hungry. Go the fuck back to sleep and leave me alone.”
“I didn’t awaken by choice.”
“That’s also too fucking bad. When you woke up, you killed a woman who didn’t deserve to die. I’m really not happy about that.”
“I didn’t mean to. I feed on dreams. And nightmares. And everything that could be but is not. I hunger.”
“Well, you’re just going to have to figure out how to feed yourself without hurting anyone else in the process, or I’ll be plucking your scales out before feeding you to a koppa oni.”
“You’d have to awaken to do that.”
“Well, I’m not terribly concerned about that. Unlike the asshole warlock, I can’t teleport. Sure, I’m a water elementalist, but I can’t outrun a bomb.”
“You no longer have a dream. Or a nightmare.”
Great. Even the damned death fish pitied me. “That’s a consequence of staring death in the face. I’m not usually a defeatist, but I’m not stupid, either.”
“He is angry he is chained to the kraken. You have bound him beyond my realm.”
“That’s something. This day hasn’t gone completely to hell, then. I’m not a linker or anything like that, but Elizabeth was.”
“She is the one who gave me life.” The fish swam around me, flicking his whiskers. “However unwilling. I didn’t mean to kill her.”
I supposed some remorse was better than no remorse, although it didn’t change my opinion on the woman’s death. “You killed those koppa oni, too.”
“They were fragile.”
“That they are,” I conceded. “But it doesn’t make killing them right.”
“You would kill my master if you could.”
“Without hesitation. Had he not held so many hostages, you would’ve been picking out bits of his flesh from beneath your scales. Anyway, he’s not your master now. I am. Elizabeth gave your statuette to me, and it’s mine by right. He’s just a petty, worthless thief seeking power.”
“And what is it you seek?”
“Nothing you can give me, Hypnos.”
“I could give you many things.”
“And you have nothing I want.”
“Power.”
“I’ve a surplus of that. I don’t need more power than I already have. I’d say I don’t need the power I have, but I’d get pretty pissy if I couldn’t do my job later.”
“Your job?”
“I guess you’re not an all-seeing god, are you?”
“It’s been a long time since someone called me a god.”
“I’m just rolling with what little I know about you.
From all we’ve guessed, you’re Hypnos, and your domain is sleep and dreams.”
“Yes. That is what I have been called. I feed on dreams and nightmares. I’m hungry,” the fish whined.
“Well, if you could stop hurting and killing people when you feed, I’d appreciate it.”
“He demands I give him all my power.”
“And I just told you that your scaled ass belongs to me. You’re no longer permitted to help the idiot warlock.”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
“Why the hell not?”
“It just doesn’t.”
“I say it does. The statuette belongs to me, which means you belong to me. What I say goes, and that’s that. Unless you want your fins shackled to a kraken, too? I’d be happy to oblige.”
“Please, no. That one is cranky.”
“I’d be cranky, too, if I was minding my own business and got sucked into your little death sea here.”
“This is fair.”
“I certainly thought so. So, what’ll it be? You listen to me and stop feeding that warlock power is your first option. Your second option is to have your scales plucked out before you’re chained to the kraken.”
“I don’t like the second option.”
“It wasn’t included to make you happy.”
“He has ordered me to give him my power.”
“You have a choice: obey him, or obey me. If you obey him, you get your scales plucked. If you obey me, as long as you don’t hurt anyone while you feed, I don’t give a shit what you do. I don’t want your shitty power, and frankly, I’ll probably pluck your damned scales if I find out you’ve given your shitty powers to anyone else. But one thing is for certain: if you hurt someone feeding, I’m plucking your scales and mounting you on my wall.”
“I don’t want my scales plucked.”
“Then I recommend you do what I want, because I’m in a pretty shitty mood right now.”
“If I’m not obeying him, I can release you.”
“On one hand, I like the idea of that. On the other hand, with my luck, I’ll wake up just in time to have a nuke dropped on my head.”
“The choice is yours.”