by Logan Byrne
“Yes, sir, we understand,” I said, my cheeks now red from smiling.
“Get out of here,” he said, shooing us away and shaking his head.
“Somebody has to tell Faus! He’s going to be so happy to get out of that lab,” Charlie said.
“Come with me, we’ll go tell him,” Britta said, grabbing Charlie and leaving.
“Looks like we’ve got a little vacation,” Blake said, smiling, his eyes soft.
“Too bad it’ll involve a sociopathic naga shifter and not a beach somewhere,” I said.
“I missed you,” he said, leaning in and kissing me. My butterflies flew high before I pushed him away.
“We’re on the job, we can’t do that,” I said, making sure nobody saw us.
“I understand,” he said, knowing it was far more important to keep our jobs than kiss right now.
“But I liked it,” I said, nudging him and walking towards Faus’s lab.
“But I have so much work to do here,” Faus was whining as Blake and I walked into the lab.
“We need you to run tech and help us out. Who else can we trust for a mission like this? Besides, Mirian gave you the okay already,” Britta said.
“Why don’t I just give you the tech and you guys can run it?” Faus asked.
“Come on, come out with us just like the old times. We never get a chance to be together anymore with work. Besides, consider it a break for a couple days and a chance to use your inventions in the field firsthand,” Charlie said.
Faus rubbed his chin, obviously in deep thought, as he mumbled to himself. “It would be nice to test out some stuff in the field,” he said wistfully.
“And you’ll get some fresh air and get out of the precinct. When was the last time you even left the building?” Britta asked.
“Six days ago,” he said.
“Six days!” Britta exclaimed. “Faus, you’re coming. Get your stuff ready tonight, and we’ll leave in the morning.”
“Good, so we’re all set on the plan?” Blake asked, rubbing his hands together.
I felt a great sense of excitement as I thought of the five of us roaming the streets of London trying to find this shifter. I loved Charlie, and I loved working with him—he was my partner and I trusted him with my life—but having another mage and a werewolf shifter there would be the icing on the cake to take down this criminal. Faus’s tech alone would shift the tide in our battle and make sure we found him. Now if I could only wash enough of this sand out of my hair in time, I’d be good.
“How about we meet outside my and Britta’s room around eight? We can teleport there in an instant and get on with the job,” I said.
“Sounds like a deal. Come on, Blake, we still have some paperwork to do before we leave for a few days,” Britta said, walking past him.
“See you later,” he said, smiling.
“Are you blushing?” Charlie asked, shaking me out of my trance.
“No way, it must just be from the desert. I bet I got sunburnt,” I said.
“Hey, we all know you two are dating. It’s okay to be honest about it, especially with me, of all people. I’ve got your back,” he said, nudging me before turning around to walk off. “I’m going to go wash this sand off the human way. My tongue can’t take it anymore.”
I shook my head laughing, before getting a whiff of myself. Maybe a long shower would help. I was sure sand had gotten into nooks and crannies I didn’t even know I had.
•••
“Notes for your assignment?” Britta asked later that night as she rubbed lotion on her legs in our room.
“Yeah, I’m just trying to figure out anything else I can on this guy. I don’t understand how he’s run around us so much. It’s like he’s a ghost or something. I don’t even have a picture of him,” I said.
“Well, he is a naga shifter, and they’re snakes, so it makes sense he would be slithering around,” she said, laughing.
“You’re so stupid,” I said, laughing with her. “But really, I just don’t know how we should do this.”
“You’re scared he’s going to get the upper hand on us,” Britta said.
“What if he uses some of his own venom on us? What if one of us is bitten, or he shifts and is huge and constricts us? So many things can go wrong when you deal with a criminal of this magnitude,” I said.
“If you believe something will happen, then it probably will. I don’t see it that way, though. I’m positive we’ll capture him and that nobody will get more than a few bruises, if that. Besides, you do have the mark,” she said.
“I can’t use that!” I said.
“I’m not saying to use it, I’m just saying if things go south, very south, you could always use it to subdue him and save the rest of us,” she said. “It’s better than death.”
Having the mark was both a blessing and a curse. To have it was an honor, or at least that was what Mirian tried to tell me. But I couldn’t help feeling like it really was just a curse, a big horrible curse that was trying to ruin my life. I had to keep my feelings and emotions in check more than anybody else here in the precinct. Not only would the power be too much to handle for me physically if it were unleashed in full force, but Kiren was bent on finding people with this ability. What if he kidnapped me and enslaved me? What if my power was the reason the magical realm fell? The thought of it made me sick.
“I don’t know, I’d rather we just used our wands and the boys used their fangs,” I said.
“And what about Faus?” she asked.
“I’m sure he has some contraption that he could use,” I said, smiling. “Besides, if he gets mad enough we won’t need my mark to save us because we’ll have a rage-induced Minotaur there to tear through the naga and make him into a cheap snakeskin handbag.”
“Oh my gosh, imagine him doing something like that,” she said, laughing. “I’m going to hit my pillow, though. We have a long day tomorrow, a long few days, actually, and we both need to get some rest. Goodnight,” she said, turning off the small lamp next to her bed.
I sat awake, my elbow propping my head up as I looked over my case file on my dimly lit desk. I started to drift, catching my head as it started to slip down, though my determination was no match for pure exhaustion.
Suddenly I was standing in a dimly lit hallway with recessed pot lights providing the only illumination. There was a long aquarium on one of the walls, with tropical fish swimming around as corals of different colors and sizes swayed in the gentle oceanic breeze the filter was providing. Where was I?
I heard chatter down the long hallway, but when I looked behind me I didn’t see anyone; the area was longer and darker than pure black itself. Heading towards the chatter, there was a door with a faint shimmer of light shining underneath it. I pressed my ear to it.
“We have intelligence we believe you may want to hear, sir,” a man was saying.
“And?” another man said. His voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. I’d definitely heard it before, but it wasn’t one I’d heard often, or I was sure I’d be able to match a face to it.
“There are talks that the one with the mark resides in the tower,” the first man said.
“Who is it?” the second man asked.
“We aren’t sure of that yet, sir. All we know is that they are an officer and aren’t yet aware of our intentions,” the first man said.
“Is it a man or a woman? This is important to me,” the second man said.
“We aren’t sure, unfortunately. Our agents are working tirelessly to ensure we track them down, but we can’t afford to mess this up. We must be sure,” the first man said.
“I’m not happy, not at all. Don’t keep coming to me unless you’re sure of these things,” the second man said.
“Mr. Nightstorm, sir, I can assure you we will find out. We will flush them out if we have to. We will be conducting an officer audit and inspection come tomorrow,” the man said.
“Excellent. I trust that you’ll find wh
oever this person is. Once you do, and you bring them to me, I will be able to harness their power and begin the first phase of our operation. It’s all starting to come together. Now, please, leave me be,” Kiren said.
I panicked, looking around and noticing there wasn’t a single place to hide. I was trapped. The hallway was narrow and long, and the cover of darkness wasn’t going to be enough to hide me from them. The door opened, the small glimmer of light filling the immediate area, before the man walked out. I looked right at him, nervously, but he closed the door behind him and walked through me.
I turned my head, looking at the door and back at him three times before I realized he was leaving my view completely. What was going on? Was this a dream? This felt too real, and I was sure this was just a mistake. I heard rustling inside the office, and after five minutes of sitting there, unsure how to leave, I mustered a few ounces of courage and slowly opened the door.
Kiren was inside. This was the closest I’d ever been to him, or not been to him, depending on whether this was real, but he didn’t even look at the door or at me. I was invisible to him, like a ghost. He was sorting some kind of stones on his desk. I walked over, eyeing him, my hand curled into a fist and turning white as if I were going to punch him if he tried to scare me. He didn’t. I stood right by him, but he was completely unaware of my presence.
On the desk a bunch of stones with runes on them were aligned in a pattern. He put the final one in place and started to chant something that sounded as ancient as time itself. The writing on the stones started to glow blue, pulsating as he incanted his spell. The glow grew brighter and my eyes started to close, and I could feel the air vibrating around me. I was shaking, stumbling, before I opened my eyes and gasped for air.
I looked around panicked. Britta was standing over me and telling me to wake up. “Are you okay?” she asked. “I didn’t mean to give you a heart attack, but you need to get up if we’re going to leave on time.”
“I’m sorry, I just had a nightmare,” I said, sitting up and putting my palm to my forehead. It was wet. I looked around the room, our dorm room quite different from the office I’d just been standing in. I wanted to go to Mirian with what happened, but I knew it was just a dream and he would tell me some blabber about how it was my subconscious and my nerves and stress getting the better of me and that I needed to talk to a psychiatrist on staff, but we both know that would never happen in a million years.
“What was it about?” Britta asked.
“It was just a dream about a monster. Nothing to be alarmed about,” I said, smiling, before sliding out of bed. I couldn’t tell her the truth, not that it meant anything anyway. I was going to tell myself it was just a stupid dream, no matter how real it felt, and that I had nothing to worry about. Kiren wasn’t doing an inspection, they didn’t know about me or my powers, and those runes were just a figment of my imagination playing tricks on me. I was about to visit London for the first time, and I needed to focus my attention on the naga shifter. Nothing else mattered right now. Nothing else.
3
“We have a lot of stuff to bring, don’t we?” Blake asked, as we stood inside Faus’s laboratory.
“I wanted to make sure I had enough equipment in case of an emergency. I don’t quite have the ability to come back here myself, do I?” Faus asked.
“Britta and I have enough magic to take all of us, as well as the supplies. It won’t be a problem,” I said, easing any tension that might have been present. I looked around at the five of us. Each of us had a backpack with our clothes and other essentials, as well as Faus’s three bags of equipment. I puckered my lips for a moment, we walked towards one another, and Britta and I started the sequence.
A dancing stream of purple light wrapped around us and then engulfed us as Britta and I focused on the same destination, a cobblestone street which we had seen in on of her books. The tips of our wands glowed brightly. This was the furthest either of us had pushed our teleportation charms before. We were sucked through the air, our bodies twirling as flashes of light bombarded us from every direction.
There were a few gasps as we landed, stumbling a little, but we were all standing with no obvious side effects. I had heard once of an inexperienced witch coming in with her legs on backwards after failing to do the spell properly. Luckily we were all fine and our limbs were on correctly.
“Mirian gave me this,” Britta said, pulling out a piece of parchment with an address and a symbol on it.
“Any idea what the symbol means?” I asked.
“He didn’t say, he only said that this would be our safe house while we’re here,” she said.
“Procurus 672 Mingelard Way,” I whispered, flicking my wand. A faint stream of light appeared, almost like a GPS showing the exact way we needed to go. “Beautiful,” I said.
“Is that safe?” Charlie asked, looking around to check if the mortals could see it.
“Only magical creatures and people can see this, so we should be fine,” I said. “Let’s get moving before it gets dark. Remember, we’re five hours ahead here.”
There was an overwhelming sense of charm and pure Britishness within the streets of London. The buildings were so old, brick or stone, and they exuded a European elegance that we just didn’t have back home. A red phone booth sat on the corner as the smell of frying fish emanated from the chip shop a block away. We looked around, walking past a chip shop and a few theaters that were selling tickets for a show tonight. “Wish we could go,” I said, watching the posters light up.
“Maybe another time,” Blake said, a small smile on his face.
We turned down an alleyway and continued to follow the line until it disappeared into a brick wall at the end of the street. “What is this?” Britta asked.
“Wait, is that the symbol?” Charlie asked, pointing up to the wall.
“Candelae,” I said, a small beam of light protruding from the tip of my wand to illuminate the symbol. “It looks like it, but what does it mean?”
“Revelatius,” Britta said, flicking her wand. Nothing happened.
Getting closer to the symbol to try to read anything inscribed about what to do, the tip of my wand touched it, and the entire thing began to glow. The brick turned translucent, like a bubble with a stamp on it. I touched it and my hand went through. I pulled it back out. The shield was like a doorway, so I jumped the gun and walked through it.
Candles and torches burned throughout the room as a few spiders scurried across the thick wooden plank floor. The others came through in awe. Our home was a few stories high, and it was definitely charmed because there wasn’t any room outside for this. A long wooden table with cracks and knots sat in the center of the room, the same symbol as outside carved into the tops of the legs. This was a safe house if I’d ever seen one.
“I’m going to check out my room!” Charlie said, running up the stairs. “Oh, yeah!” he shouted, before running back out to the railing. “They’re huge!”
We all dropped our bags and started to follow before I stopped, turning around, and went back to the door. I tapped my wand to the inside symbol, and the translucent bubble that allowed us passage quickly transformed back into a sturdy brick wall that denied access to anyone, or anything, that tried to come through.
“It looks like we all have our own rooms,” Britta said as I walked up the stairs and joined the group.
“You mean I don’t have to hear Charlie snore tonight?” Blake asked, laughing.
“And I don’t have to hear you howl out for Lexa in your sleep. Oh, Lexa, Lexa, I like you so much,” Charlie quipped. Blake grabbed him, wrestling him and telling him to shut up, but Charlie didn’t stop, teasing him like a brother would. Britta looked at me giggling, my cheeks feeling warm, before I rolled my eyes and walked out of the room trying not to laugh.
“I know we’re having fun, but we still have time to get out there tonight before it gets too dark. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not too keen on trying to fight or arrest
this naga shifter at night,” Faus said.
“Faus is right. Why don’t we all get unpacked, settle in, and meet in twenty minutes downstairs for our game plan. Sound good?” I asked. I grabbed my bag, picked a room that didn’t look too dusty, and tossed my stuff on the bed before looking out a tarnished dusty window that looked like it had been abandoned for decades. This mission was my chance to prove myself, for Charlie and I both, and I knew we had to do whatever it took to bring in this criminal. There wasn’t another option.
•••
“What’s our first lead?” Blake asked as the five of us stood in Trafalgar Square looking around for clues.
“I’ve heard of a magical district here in London that’s only accessible to magical creatures. It’s enchanted, so mortals can’t see it, and standing guards dissuade would-be visitors from entering,” Charlie said.
“Great, where is it?” Blake asked.
“Right there, I believe,” Charlie said, pointing to an old-looking wooden box with papers posted on it.
We approached the box, which was a few feet taller than me, with a rusted handle. It was plastered with posters and papers that looked damaged from the wet English weather that had curled and yellowed the edges. “This can’t be it,” I said, looking at Charlie.
“Oh, that’s it, all right,” he said.
“Where are the guards, then?” Blake asked.
“Right there,” he said, pointing up. We looked, and two hulking gargoyles looked back down at us, before seemingly nodding, knowing that we were of magical backgrounds. “Let’s go.” Charlie opened the door and walked into the darkness, vanishing before our eyes, even though the cabinet couldn’t have been more than two feet deep at most.
“Well, here we go,” Britta said before walking inside. Faus followed, and then Blake. All of my friends had disappeared before my very eyes. Sometimes this magic stuff was a lot to take in.
I took a deep breath, holding it, before walking inside and hearing the door slam behind me. I was transported into a magical space that looked like it was topped by a dome.