The Wanted

by Rory Miles

  Noah and Kace were already heading into the thickest part of the forest. I glanced up. The sky was still dark, sunrise still a few hours off. Where were they going? My brow wrinkled with indecision, feet shuffling back and forth to keep spiders or whatever else might be crawling on the ground off my shoes.

  “Screw it,” I whispered, setting off after the men.

  They didn’t glance back or check their surroundings. A foolish mistake for two men walking alone in the middle of the night. Why weren’t they more concerned? Red’s body crumpled on the ground flashed through my mind. Maybe they weren’t worried because they knew how to fight just as well as Erik or Bron. That still didn’t explain why they were wandering around the forest at this hour.

  Even though I didn’t need to, I ducked behind trees and bushes as I followed them. A smile crept over my face. I’d been a bounty hunter so long I wasn’t sure I could ever sneak after someone without hiding. After following them for twenty minutes, I considered turning back. Overwhelming curiosity spurred me on. They continued walking until they suddenly disappeared from sight.

  “What the hell?” Nearing the spot where I’d last seen them, I felt Lumi warm like she did when hit with magic. Frowning down at the stone and turning in place, I glanced around for the source. The trees were set ten feet apart in this part of the forest, and other than the grass and brush on the ground, there was nothing for as far as I could see.

  A faint movement made me turn, tensing for some sort of attack. When none came, I studied the empty space. A ripple like the air around a fire caught my attention. I brushed my fingers through the disturbance, furrowing my brow when my fingers dragged through a tar-like magic. Bright blue light blinded me when I stepped closer, Lumi glowing as she drained the magic away from the forest.

  The illusion faded, growing transparent the more my gem drained the spell. Hidden under the magic was a large cave set inside a huge stone wall, an unusual discovery considering we were in the middle of the forest. Pressure filled my ears until a loud pop sounded. The last vestiges of brown illusion magic spiraled into Lumi, a puff of power releasing from the sapphire like smoke exhaled.

  White-tinged air spiraled in front of the cave. I took a few steps back, looking at the portal—or whatever it was. Whatever magic had created this had only disrupted a portion of the forest scenery. What I saw in front of me now wasn’t actually a part of the forest. Judging from the terrain I could see, this cave was in Mountain Sector. It was one of the few places that had rock and stone formations like this.

  Taking a deep breath, I shoved my hand through the portal. When nothing happened, I stepped through, hoping Lumi wouldn’t destroy the white magic holding the portal together. A weird tugging sensation passed over me, like my clothes snagged on something. The white magic intensified, nearly blinding me. The portal held me suspended between the two sectors. Power circled around me, passing over Lumi. My palms began to sweat. If she absorbed the magic while I was in the in-between, what happened to me? When the bright blue glow failed to flare to life, my lips twitched down. As far as I knew, Lumi accepted all types of power. If she could handle deep magic, she could handle whatever this mysterious white magic was.

  Gravel shifted under my feet when the portal released me. I stared at the opening of the large cave. It was so quiet. Casting a tentative glance behind me, I saw the edge of the cliff drop away next to the portal. Gasping and scurrying closer to the cave, I spun, gaping at the horizon. One wrong step and I’d fall to my death rather than step through the magic. Recovering from the surprise, I glanced over the edge of the cliff, my hands clasped over my chest.

  At least, at least a forty-foot drop to the ground. The breath squeezed from my lungs the longer I stared down.

  “Are you going to jump?” Kace’s snarled words nearly made me fall.

  Only after taking three steps away from the edge did I turn to glare at him.

  “What are you doing here?”

  I crossed my arms. “Really? What are you doing here?”

  He stepped closer, narrowing his eyes at me. “How did you get past the magic?” When his eyes dropped to Lumi he pursed his lips, understanding flashing over his face.

  “I didn’t break it.”

  He pushed his hand through the magic, as though he wanted to check that the portal still worked. When he pulled his hand back, he let out a relieved breath. Turning his back to me, he walked into the cave a few feet before turning around and raising his eyebrows at me.

  “Well? Do you want an invitation?”

  “Goddess, you need manners.” He didn’t hear my muttered words because he didn’t wait for me, turning around instead and expecting me to follow.

  The faint blue glow Lumi let off didn’t provide enough light for me to see my way. Pulling on the threads of my connection with the stone, I created a ball of light that hovered over my palm. Spider webs covered the walls, dirt coated the edges of the tunnel, and the air grew more damp the further we walked. I wrinkled my nose at the mildew smell.

  “What’s down here?” I asked, gaining enough sense to ask questions.

  “You waited months to find out, what’s a few more minutes?”

  Ass.

  I imagined all the ways Kace could meet an untimely end while we walked. His death wasn’t something I really wished for, but thinking of that helped me keep calm when the walls of the cave began to close in, pressing in until Kace’s shoulders nearly brushed against them as he walked.

  The tunnel gave way to a large room lit by magic torches. Noah stood in the center of the space. A man, gagged and with his hands and ankles tied, knelt on the ground before him. Behind Noah, a small disk of purple magic swirled on the cave wall. Purple tendrils snaked out from the disk, like the sun’s rays. Chains hung from the right side of the cave, reminding me of Daman. Panic bloomed in my chest, tightening my airways.

  Noah looked up when my breathing turned ragged. “What’s wrong?”

  The man on the ground mouthed the word help. As though he thought me capable of taking down two men who far out-weighed and out-magicked me. He didn’t know about the latent part, though. Most people didn’t. Kace stepped in front of the man, concern etching lines into his face.

  “Winter? Are you okay?” Worry bled into every word Kace said, snapping me out of my panic.

  “What are you guys doing to him?” My shout made the man flinch, causing my ire to rise. Purple magic, chains, prisoners. I knew this scenario all too well. “Get away from him.”

  Kace stumbled when I pushed him, face switching from concerned to pissed. Noah grabbed my hands when I went to shove him.

  “Would you just listen?” he growled the question. The angry huff of air he let out gave me pause. It was then I realized I hadn’t ever seen Noah angry.

  “Tell me what this is.”

  “I was going to explain it to you before you went crazy,” Kace said.

  My jaw clenched and I stared at Noah, refusing to acknowledge Kace because I was on the verge of throat-punching him. I wanted to hear it from Noah.

  “You wanted to know what our job was, right?” He loosened his grip on my wrists but didn’t let them go. “This is it.”

  “Do you work for the DMC?”

  As if hearing the name caused him physical pain, the man began to mumble into his gag. I narrowed my eyes even further.

  “What? No. Goddess, is that what you think?” Kace answered my question, coming over to stand next to Noah. “We would never work for those bastards. This guy works for them.”

  The prisoner frantically shook his head, eyes pleading with me to help.

  “How can I trust what you’re saying?” I furrowed my brow, feeling the deep creases lining my forehead.

  “Use Lumi, put a truth-speaking spell on him,” Noah said, removing the gag from the man.

  “Help me, please. You don’t—” His words were cut short when brown magic shot from Lumi and hit his head, his eyes glazing over with the spell.

 
; “Tell me who you work for.”

  His lips pressed into a hard line as he fought the magic, face contorting until the compulsion to answer forced the name from his mouth. “Daman.”

  I sucked in a relieved breath. My men weren’t part of the DMC. The purple disc on the cave wall taunted me. If they weren’t collaborating with them, were they part of something just as bad?

  “I see the questions racing through your mind,” Kace said, touching my shoulder. “Whatever you’re thinking or worrying about, it isn’t that bad. Just, let us deal with him and then we will tell you everything.”

  My eyes snapped to his hand, slowly traveling up his arm until finally they met his. My fingers itched to grab my knife. “Why are you being so reasonable right now?”

  He laughed, removing his hand quickly, as though he sensed my proclivity toward violence. “I guess I deserve that. We have a situation that needs to be handled. You have questions and I’m not convinced you won’t do something irrational.”

  His gaze flicked to my hand, which was clutching my knife. When had I grabbed that? I released the dagger, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “I want all of my questions answered.”

  Noah nodded. “Of course. But first, we need to deal with him.”

  The man still had the dazed look in his eye; the truth-speaking spell still held his mind captive.

  Kace noticed me staring at the man. “Maybe we should wait outside?”

  “Okay,” I mumbled, still frowning at the prisoner. What exactly did they mean by deal with him? Kill him? How was that any better than what Daman’s crew did? Kace touched my arm, tilting his head toward the tunnel. I followed him, tension easing from my shoulders when no tortured screams came from the room. At least they weren’t cruel.

  “What’s he going to do?” I whispered the question once we were far enough down the tunnel. The little ball of light tinged with brown was the only thing keeping me from tripping. Kace muttered something about patience under his breath before answering me.

  “He is going to question him.”

  I sighed, rolling my eyes. “I meant what is he going to do after that?”

  “We should wait for the others.” He glanced over his shoulder. “And before you say something about me being rude, I should tell you that we made a promise not to tell anyone. A promise that we all need to agree to break if we decide to explain what is happening.”

  He turned before he could see my scowl. I had been getting ready to call him out on being rude.

  “Fine,” I replied, knowing any further questions would fall on deaf ears. Kace was good at ignoring me.

  Sitting on a couch nestled between three men wasn’t how I expected to spend my evening, though I’ll admit I’d thought about it multiple times, just under different circumstances. Noah sat next to Corban who sat next to me on the gray one (A.K.A my bed). Erik sat on my right. Kace, Sloan, and Shawn sat on the tan couch. They glanced at one another, trying to decide who should start. My hands were clasped in my lap, my thumbs dancing around one another. All my focus zeroed in on the rotating fingers.

  Noah had finished doing . . . whatever it was he did to the prisoner and had come out of the cave alone, avoiding my questioning gaze. Questions were poised on the tip of my tongue. The look Kace had shot me made me keep my mouth closed. When we stepped out of the portal, leaving Mountain Sector and entering the forest, Kace had taken off to find everyone. Bron couldn’t—or wouldn’t—be found. None of the men knew about our fight and I didn’t feel particularly inclined to tell them about it. Especially not when I was close to getting the answers I was looking for.

  Corban sighed, rolling his head back to rest on the cushion. “He isn’t coming.”

  Shawn shrugged, brushing his hand through his auburn hair. “We can’t tell her without him.”

  Sloan looked at his brother. “Says who?”

  Shawn glanced at his twin, as though his question surprised him.

  Kace answered for him, shaking his head no. “We made a pact.”

  Noah sat up, resting his elbows on his knees. “The pact doesn’t matter. She saw things today that will only make her more determined to get answers. We either tell her now or wait until she follows us again.”

  “Or goes on her own,” Erik said, nudging me with his elbow. “You’ve already started planning that adventure, haven’t you?”

  I couldn’t help but smile.

  “We should tell her. Bron doesn’t make the rules.”

  Kace gave Erik a pointed look. “He doesn’t, but the pact—”

  “The pact doesn’t matter because I’m here now.” Bron took a seat on the arm on the gray couch, eyes passing over me like I didn’t even exist.

  My thumbs stopped spinning and I crossed my arms in front of my chest, tapping one of my feet on the floor.

  Kace raised his eyebrows at me then glanced at Bron. “Everything okay here?”

  “The pact,” Bron began, “formed just after we turned eighteen. You probably don’t know this but we all grew up together though we aren’t related.”

  I blinked, not sure how to respond when he gave me another indifferent glance, like he wasn’t really speaking to me when he talked about the pact.

  “We used to go camping every weekend, hunting for our food and lying around a campfire while we stared at the stars.” Bron stared at a point on the wall above my head, further irritating me. “One trip, when we were all sleeping, a bright flash of lightning and a deafening crack of thunder struck nearby. Or at least, that is what we thought it was. When the ringing in my ears subsided, I kept hearing a thrum of electricity.

  “Woken from sleep and unable to rest until we identified the source of the noise, we went to find it. At first, nothing seemed wrong. The forest was dark, quiet even aside from the constant crackling. But then, Corban nearly walked into the portal, yelping when the deep magic struck out at him.”

  Corban grimaced when I looked at him for confirmation. “Nearly pissed myself it hurt so bad.”

  Bron’s lips twitched, the tension bleeding from his face for a second. When he noticed me watching him, he pressed his lips into a firm line and looked away.

  Kace picked up the story, scooting to the edge of the couch. “The sound we heard wasn’t thunder. Someone had used deep magic to pull apart the planes of the world, creating the step-portal you saw between the mountains and the forest.”

  “Daman?”

  Kace held his hands up. “The goddess showed up before we were able to go through and see who had created the portal.”

  “The goddess?”

  “Remember the white magic you saw swirling in the portal? That’s goddess magic. She used her magic to stop the deep magic from ripping the sectors apart.”

  Sapphires couldn’t absorb goddess magic, which was probably best. If they could, there was no telling what sort of chaos could be created with the ability to wield the power that created our world.

  “And the sun-shaped magic in the cave?”

  Shawn spoke next. “The beginnings of a gate to dimensions unknown.”

  “Like other worlds?” My nose scrunched with the question. Gates to dimensions unknown sounded ridiculous.

  “Other worlds, galaxies, voids . . .” Corban trailed off. “The deep magic that created the portal between the sectors is older and weaker than the magic used to create the gate.”

  “How do you know all of this, that the magic is different and what the gate is?”

  Sloan smiled at me. “Our official title is Guardians of the Dimension. After the goddess stopped the portal from growing, she placed us in charge of guarding it. Making sure the bad guys didn’t come back and pick up where they left off.”

  “Why didn’t she just close the portal? She created the deep magic; shouldn’t she be able to manipulate it?”

  He nodded, like my question pleased him. “You’re right. She created the magic and she can manipulate it to an extent, but because she gave it the ability to evolve on i
ts own, sometimes her magic can’t correct it. The deep magic learns and the power grows every minute it’s used. It feeds off of other power, kind of like Lumi.”

  “So the gate isn’t going to close?” I asked, picking at imaginary lint on my shorts.

  Bron grimaced. “Whoever created the portal knew what they were doing, but they weren’t able to finish whatever they had started. The gate showed up in the cave about a year ago.”

  “How often do you have to deal with people like the guy I saw today?”

  “He’s the first. Guarding the gate has been a relatively easy job. Aside from some rabid squirrels, we haven’t had to defend the cave and keep the gate secure.”

  Rabid squirrels? I shook my head, so not the thing to focus on right now. A gate to different dimensions? How was that even possible? Daman had used deep magic for a lot of crazy things, but I’d never heard him talk about dimensions or traveling through worlds. Had he grown even more ambitious than I thought after I’d left?

  The memory of the little boy Daman had turned into a man flashed in my mind. Daman had moved from ambitious to nefarious. I wouldn’t put creating a way to travel to other worlds past him. If there even were other worlds. If there were other worlds, would there be other beings? I stopped that train of thought before my brain short-circuited.

  “Do you guys have shifts? Is that why Shawn was gone for so long a while ago?”

  Kace said, “We’ve been pretty inconsistent with how we handle guarding the cave. Sometimes one of us goes, sometimes we all go. It really just depends on the day. Honestly, we haven’t had much of a reason to stick to a schedule”

  Right. That seemed odd, but I guess if rabid squirrels had been the only thing to worry about, I couldn’t find much fault in their reasoning.

  “So, your ability to fight?”

  Erik narrowed his eyes at me, probably still upset about me asking Red to attack him. “Comes with the job.”

  “You said it was the beginnings of a gate . . . What happens when someone comes to finish the job?”