“I think he wants me to do it of my own free will.”
“Really? Completely of your own free will? He hasn’t tried anything?”
Matthew fell silent.
“There’s an escape tunnel in his quarters,” Kaitlin said, suddenly remembering. “Behind the fireplace, cloaked in illusion, but I saw it when I delivered breakfast. I figured it was pretty natural that he’d have one, so I didn’t think much of it, but can you imagine him having a way out that was very far from his greatest weapon? He’d take the blood with him – or if not all of it, then the most valuable supplies.”
Matthew stared at her. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“It’s in his quarters,” Kaitlin said firmly.
Matthew went silent for another moment or two, and this time when he spoke it seemed to be with some difficulty. “I’ll need your help. When I go to his room, you’ll be able to see through any illusions to find the blood. And then... maybe the escape tunnel would be the best way out.”
“What about Jay?” Kaitlin glanced at her son, who had nearly stopped his swing. As she watched, he jumped, making her heart squeeze for a moment before he landed like an old pro and took off running.
“We’ll have to bring him with us. Once we go into that room, we won’t come out again.”
Kaitlin’s heart froze. She had never counted on taking her baby into the thick of things. “I-I don’t know.”
“You can’t have second thoughts on me now.”
“I can. I can have third and fourth thoughts too.”
“Yes,” Matthew agreed. “Yes, you can. But please, Kaitlin. This is important. We’ll do everything we can to keep Jay safe. Yuki will be there, and I think he’d protect that boy with his life. Not that I think it will be necessary. Even if the worst happens and we’re all captured, they won’t hurt the boy.”
She wasn’t sure. She looked out at the playground, where Jay was now building a mountain of gravel. She wasn’t sure of anything anymore, and she wanted to be sure. But there had never been any certainty on this path anyway, had there? Maybe... maybe she could just tell Alexander she wanted to leave and that the only way for her to go would be by plane. He’d say yes, wouldn’t he? She wasn’t a prisoner.
“I think he’d try to convince you to stay,” Matthew said quietly. “I think he’d do it through subtle mind magic, and then through more powerful mind magic, and then finally realize exactly what you are.” Matthew paused for a moment before adding, “A liability.”
“Oh.”
“Please,” Matthew said. Just the one word. His eyes were on her face, studying her with an intensity that made her want to turn away or sink into them, she wasn’t sure.
“Okay.”
Chapter 19
MATTHEW DECIDED NOT TO WAIT ANOTHER day. Kaitlin had been a bit too perceptive when she’d asked about Alexander trying to manipulate him with mind magic – he’d been fighting battles every day, and he felt as if he were losing ground. An alarming part of him wanted to just give in. Wasn’t he after power, in the end? Wasn’t this a peaceful way to get it? Whatever Alexander had done in the past to get where he was, Matthew didn’t have to carry on that legacy. He could steer the entire movement into a bright new future.
Only when he returned to the solace and comfort of his own private rooms did he manage to settle back into himself and the important truth – he was not Alexander. Whatever he had done, whatever mind control he had used in the past, he hadn’t crossed the line. There was a line, and he knew where it was. Didn’t he?
Hideyuki was utterly triumphant when Matthew told him about the conversation he’d had with Kaitlin that morning. “I told you not to underestimate her.”
“I know she’s brave and clever.” He had known for a long time, he just hadn’t spent much time thinking about it. And now all he could think about was how much he wanted her, and how futile that desire was. No woman had ever wanted him without at least a little nudge.
“You should trust her,” Hideyuki said. “You should trust someone.”
“Did you two get together on this?” Matthew asked.
“If she says the same thing, it only means great minds think alike.”
“She didn’t say I should trust her, only... someone.”
“Maybe you need to start by trusting yourself then. You don’t have to be in control all the time.”
“Yes I do.” He said it automatically, without thinking, but it was the simple truth. He didn’t know how not to be in control, and he didn’t trust it.
Once they had finished their planning, Matthew retreated to the hangar where his airplane was being housed for the duration. He made sure it was fueled and did his pre-flight checks, all under the guise of taking a few members of Alexander’s inner circle for a ride. It was hard to concentrate on the safety of the Cessna and not on the beautiful face that kept haunting his subconscious. He remembered how her lips had felt that first day, when he’d kissed her, before he’d realized what she was. She’d done that of her own free will. She’d enjoyed it of her own free will.
When Matthew completed the mechanical checks, he did a series of magical checks. He had infused his airplane with a number of wards to prevent tampering and, if worse came to worst, he had a special trick to help keep the occupants safe if the plane went down. He had never tested that one – hopefully he would never need to.
Once those checks were complete, he had nothing left to do but wait. The first step in the operation would begin just before dinnertime, so Matthew grabbed a snack. Then he grabbed some extra snacks, just in case, storing them in the plane. He would have to leave quite a bit of his luggage behind; they all would. It couldn’t look like they were planning an escape. During his pre-flight checks, he managed to get his own backpack with his spellbooks on board. Hideyuki said he didn’t need material possessions. Kaitlin would have to bring what she could carry.
At 4:59 p.m., Matthew and Hideyuki exited the staircase at the lowest level and emerged into the lobby of the security department. The two receptionists – one young, blonde, pretty, and empathic, the other young, baby-faced, overeager, and wishing he had a chance with the woman next to him – stared at the pair when they entered. The empath studied the two men carefully, and Matthew could almost feel her frustration with being unable to detect his emotions. Practice, he wanted to tell her. Years and years of practice with my mom and brother. Hideyuki had no such practice, but he maintained such a calm presence – both inside and out – that Matthew hoped no one would suspect anything amiss from him. Indeed, they had no trouble when Hideyuki signed them in, saying that he was there to escort Matthew to a meeting with Mr. Quinn – Hunter One – and show him around the guild’s offices.
With that first minor hurdle jumped, the two made their way through a door just to the left of the reception desk, which led to the security department, the Hunters Guild, and at the back, the prison.
The door opened into a long corridor that stretched the length of the compound from end to end, except for the ten feet taken up by the lobby. It was a busy central thoroughfare, with other hallways intersecting it at regular intervals. Some led to offices, others to interrogation rooms, and still others to training facilities.
Hideyuki nodded as they passed the third corridor to the right. Matthew didn’t need the slight jerk of his head to tell him that the interrogation rooms were down that way, but they had agreed upon that signal and Matthew was glad that Hideyuki, at least, didn’t suspect he was a telepath.
Devon would be in one of those interrogation rooms now, completing his hour of forced magical draining with his daughter. They had no idea how many more sessions remained, nor how low on magic Devon was, but it hadn’t been something Matthew could take into account. He couldn’t rush this. Maybe sometime in the future they could reverse the process. At any rate, Matthew’s job was to get him
out of here safe and alive and with memory intact to add credibility to his own testimony about the blood.
They passed the interrogation rooms and kept walking, ostensibly towards the hunters’ offices. This was Matthew’s moment. This was the spell that would make or break their success here today.
He closed his eyes, found his quiet place, and spent a moment or two staring at the beautiful diamond and all its reflected glory. Then he started seeking outward.
There, ahead of him, were a handful of minds, but not the ones he sought. He pushed further, seeking others. There were more minds – at least four dozen of them, all making their way to the prisoner’s mess for dinner. A few guards were scattered among them, but Matthew couldn’t tell who was who and it didn’t matter. He held onto the minds for a few moments, focused the energy of the spell, and released.
The resulting roar from the prison made Matthew jump, even though he had been expecting it. It was just as well that he had jumped though, because it added to the illusion that he had no idea what was going on. Up and down the corridor heads were peeking around corners, trying to figure out what was happening.
The roar grew louder. Someone shouted, “Riot!” and the alarm began to blare. Matthew and Hideyuki flattened themselves against the wall as a dozen security guards, including many of the senior officers, ran towards the disturbance.
Slowly, Matthew and Hideyuki began edging back the way they had come, getting out of the way whenever someone else ran past. They continued until they had almost reached the interrogation rooms, where they saw Devon and the security guard who had been assigned to usher him back to prison. The guard’s mind was in turmoil. He wasn’t sure what to do – he couldn’t take the prisoner into that, but he was nervous about staying here alone with him. His partner had run off the moment the rioting had begun.
Matthew nudged Hideyuki. This was his moment.
“You go,” Hideyuki said to the guard. “I’ll take care of him.”
The guard’s mind flickered with confusion, but only for a moment. A gentle nudge had him answering in the affirmative, and then he was off down the hall to help quash the riot.
Devon’s mind was exhausted and full of pain, both physical and emotional. Matthew was glad he wasn’t an empath at that moment, as he only got the edge of those emotions instead of the full force. Devon scarcely recognized Matthew, had no idea who Hideyuki was, and didn’t care.
“Let’s go,” Hideyuki said, urging Devon along beside him. Devon did not resist.
They retreated the way they had come and for a minute, Matthew was sure that their plan had worked flawlessly. It was almost too good to believe, but the only thing between them and the stairs was the lobby, and the young receptionists were no threat or barrier. Matthew prepared to signal Kaitlin to start heading for Alexander’s quarters (he had woven a simple communication spell into a crystal), when they burst into the lobby and stopped short.
The two receptionists weren’t the only two people in the lobby. The head of security was there as well. Todd. Matthew had met him, along with most of Alexander’s inner council, in the past few days, although he knew Todd most vividly from Janelle’s memories. He didn’t look like the old white man she remembered. To Matthew, he looked middle-aged, with full, rich brown hair, a strong chin, a hawk like nose and piercing eyes.
“I was wondering when you’d make your move,” he said.
A spell crashed into Matthew’s mental shields, which seemed to vibrate but held firmly against whatever trick Todd had used. Hideyuki and Devon were not so lucky. They both fell to the floor, clutching their heads, screaming in agony.
Pain. A vicious trick.
Matthew returned fire, calling to mind a sleep spell that contained as much force as the pain spell, with a lot more humanity. The two receptionists instantly fell under its onslaught, but Todd merely smiled.
“I thought you would make your move long before now,” Todd said conversationally, though there was nothing conversational about it. This was Matthew’s kind of fight – mind to mind. Will against will. While Todd tried to distract Matthew with words, he poked and prodded Matthew’s mental shields, looking for a weakness he could exploit.
“Why’s that?” Matthew asked.
“I was the one who cast that spell against your friend Evan. I knew you were there, and that you would come here.”
“Are you saying Alexander didn’t know?” Matthew didn’t let his surprise become a weak point.
“He knew what I needed him to know, but he didn’t know you were there or he wouldn’t have let me cast the spell. He honestly wants you to be his successor.” Todd sounded incredulous. “As if the rest of us would stand aside and take that.”
Matthew thrust a memory charm in Todd’s direction, trying to use his incredulity as a way in, but Todd easily parried the spell that would have made him forget the last month of his life.
“Maybe he thinks I’m more ambitious,” Matthew taunted. “After all, none of the rest of you have stood up to him.”
“Why would I want to? He’s got all the problems of leadership while I get all the benefits of power.”
“By dealing drugs and stealing magic?”
“Among other things.”
Matthew felt a throbbing pain in his right temple. He’d let his anger become a crack and Todd had followed it in, but Matthew rallied, pushing the spell away. The man was strong, there was no doubt about it. He had no particular finesse, but in a fight like this it wasn’t necessary.
Neither of them were trying for long-term influence, only for the win. Matthew had no doubt that should Todd win, he would turn Matthew’s brain into mush and leave him a vegetable for the rest of his life. He tried not to let the idea get to him, but he couldn’t help but shudder.
Matthew had never stolen anyone’s magic. He had all of his honestly, which gave him a disadvantage in this fight. Already, he could feel his mental shield weakening against the pure force of Todd’s onslaught. Meanwhile, Matthew had barely made a dent in Todd’s defenses.
If he didn’t think of a way to outsmart him, Todd would win. He could only hold the other man off for so long. If only Hideyuki weren’t writhing on the ground in pain – a dagger to a sorcerer’s heart was just as deadly as it was when thrust in anyone else’s. But Hideyuki was incapacitated, leaving Matthew to stand alone.
Trust.
The thought came unbidden to the back of Matthew’s mind. Then he realized that it hadn’t come from him at all – it had come from Hideyuki. He was thinking it through the pain, almost like a prayer. Trust.
“I don’t plan to take Alexander up on his offer,” Matthew said, trying to buy time as he formulated his plan. “Why don’t you just let me go? I’ll get Devon off your hands, and Alexander never has to know about your role in it.”
“Interesting offer, but I think I’m okay. Besides, I have a feeling that you intend to hurt Alexander, and despite how it seems, I am loyal to him.”
Trust. And then Matthew got it. The only way out of this fight was to let go of his own control over the situation – which he was hanging onto by a thread – and trust someone else to handle it. It was something he had never done before, and something he wasn’t sure he could do.
But he had no choice. He felt a stabbing pain in his left temple, and he nearly ended up on the floor in agony just like Hideyuki and Devon.
Taking a deep breath, Matthew shifted his defenses. Instead of keeping Todd out of his own mind, he undid the spell tearing at his ally. The moment he did so, three things happened so quickly that Matthew couldn’t tell which happened first: Hideyuki stood, Matthew fell to the ground in agony, and Todd took a step backwards in confusion. Then, in a move as fast as thought, Hideyuki hit Todd on the back of the neck, knocking their nemesis out the old fashioned way.
The pain stopped. Matthew stood shakily to
his feet and tried to find the words to thank Hideyuki.
“Let’s go,” Hideyuki said.
Matthew hesitated, wondering if he should kill Todd, something he knew Todd wouldn’t have hesitated to do to him. He had no idea how long Todd would remain unconscious, and he still had a lot of work to do, making the man a threat while he still breathed.
Alexander would have done it in a heartbeat.
“Matthew?” Hideyuki asked.
“I’m coming.” He turned his back on Todd, hesitated, then cast a sleep spell on the helpless man. It might not last much longer than unconsciousness, but it would cause confusion for whoever tried to reverse it.
“Let’s go,” Matthew said.
Chapter 20
KAITLIN SAT IN HER EERILY EMPTY quarters, clutching a pale rose crystal to her chest, even though Matthew had told her that she wouldn’t have to hold it to get the signal. She just kept staring around the place that had been her refuge of sorts for the past few weeks. There wasn’t much to it – a twin bed for her, an adjacent toddler bed for Jay, a wardrobe, a small table with two chairs, a nightstand, and a tiny flat-panel TV hanging on the wall. She had packed everything she could into a backpack that hung from her back and the diaper bag clutched at her side, and now she waited for the signal while Jay watched a cartoon. She hated to put him in front of the TV, but she honestly didn’t think she could play with him right now without her hands shaking. Besides, his favorite toys were packed.
Kaitlin checked her watch: 5: 35. Matthew had said it would take him fifteen minutes to get out or something had gone wrong. Clearly, something had gone terribly wrong. So what now?
Suddenly, the crystal in her hand began vibrating. It grew warm and when she drew her hands away, she saw that it shone as brightly as the sun. That was it – the signal. Shoving the crystal into her pocket, she turned off the TV and grabbed Jay, who protested loudly at having his television program interrupted.
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