by Casey White
“I’m not handing myself over,” Daniel said. “We justneed to get around to their rear lines. This tracker guy is not coming up to fight on the front. He’s smarter than that. So we’re going to have to make do somehow.”
“But if they get you, they’ll-”
“They won’t,” Daniel said. “We’ll keep ourselves a back way out. A plan B. We’ll take two cars—two getaways.”
“So you’re going to steal another car,” Maya said. She kept her voice neutral, but Daniel heard the wry humor running through it.
“No,” Leon said. “Again. Let me repeat. Hell, no. This is stupid. You’re going to just wait for them to come to you? And then, what. Once they show up-”
“You and everyone else will be waiting,” Daniel said. “A safe distance away. When they show up, they’ll be off balance. Unsure. Confused. While they’re-” He bit the word off, shaking his head. While they’re closing in on me. “While they’re distracted, you guys can make for the back of the group. Bust in, find the big asshole who keeps ogling us. And then take him out.”
“And you?” Leon’s eyes flashed dangerously. “What about you?”
“Well, she’s not actually capturing me,” Daniel said, chuckling. “Before things get ugly, I’ll take off down an escape route. No harm, no foul.”
“We regroup after,” Olivia said. She was nodding along, by then. “With the tracking mage out of the picture, none of them will be able to stop us. We can leave.”
“Right.”
Daniel couldn’t bring himself to look at Leon. He could still feel his face burn under the force of his glare. He just stared straight ahead, watching the miles slip by under their wheels.
“Fine,” Leon muttered at last. “Fine. We’ll try it your way.”
“It’ll be fine,” Daniel said. “It’ll work out. And-”
“But how the hell are we supposed to fight back?” Leon said. “How are we supposed to do this?”
Daniel did glance over, then, starting to grin. “Well, you’re a mage, aren’t you? Figure it out.”
“Oh,” Leon said. He lifted a hand, eyeing his palm. “Right.”
“Um,” Maya said.
They stopped—and Daniel looked up. “Something wrong?”
Maya shook her head. Dark circles were starting to appear beneath her eyes. “N-No. Not really. I just...should we stop, somewhere? Should we-”
“Keep going for now,” Daniel said. “Leon, figure out what you can. Without getting too tired. And James…” He ran a hand through his hair, wrinkling his nose. “Try not to break anything? But, uh.”
“You think I’ve got this magic bullshit too,” James said. “Is that it?”
Daniel was forced to shrug. “Maybe. I don’t know. It’s a possibility. I can’t tell for sure-”
“Without going back into Alexandria,” Leon said.
“And we don’t have the time for that,” Daniel said. He leaned back, chewing on his lip. “We can...find somewhere good. Somewhere we’ll be alone.” He yawned. “A-And then...I’ll get us a second car.”
“Thief,” Leon muttered. This time, though, there was no venom in the word.
“We caught them by surprise,” Daniel said. “So we might have a minute. Let’s build the distance we can, and then…” He hesitated, but only sighed. “And then we’ll be the ones to make the next move.”
He glanced around as silence fell over the car, letting his gaze drift from face to face. All of them only nodded—some stoic, some resigned, but...there was agreement.
It would have to do for now. Soon, he’d have to act again.
But until then, he could think.
* * * * *
Daniel’s eyes slid open again.
He could see Leon’s fingers were moving back and forth at the edge of his vision. James was gazing down at his hammer, contemplative.
Good. Just like he left them. Leaning back, Daniel stared at the ceiling.
And tried to find a way out of their nightmare.
“How did I do it?”
At Leon’s hushed murmur, Daniel raised his head—and jerked away, stiffening, when he realized his temple had been laid against Olivia’s shoulder.
He hadn’t wanted to sleep. He really hadn’t wanted to sleep, not when sleeping meant going back to Alexandria for God only knew how long. He needed to keep his mind in the game, not take a literary vacation for a year.
Somehow, though, he’d wound up dozing off, floating in the space between wakefulness and the Library. Alex hadn’t pulled him in, though. He smiled, shaking his head to clear the last fragments of sleep, and glanced over. “W’ssat?”
Leon held something smooth and narrow between his fingers. A credit card, it looked like. His brow was furrowed, his lips pursed in concentration.
“I gave it to him,” Olivia said. She pointedly wasn’t looking at him, although he saw her flex her arm gently now that his head had been lifted. “He’s-”
“Trying to figure out how the hell this works,” Leon muttered. “I...I did something, didn’t I? Back there? I wasn’t just imagining it?”
“Not unless we were all having a shared hallucination,” Daniel said dryly. “You-”
“I made that tree stop,” Leon said. “Just like that. So-”
He tossed the credit card up into the air, catching it—and just as quickly, tossed it again. With each iteration, his fingers tensed. “Why- isn’t it- working?” he hissed.
“H-Hey,” Daniel said, masking a yawn. “Maybe-”
“I’ve got to figure this out,” Leon said. He deflated, letting the card sink back to his palm. “If we’re going to have any shot of this, I need to make this work.”
“Stop freaking out, then,” James said from the front seat.
Leon glared up toward him, leaning over half-onto Olivia to get a better angle. “That’s not helpful.”
The low rumble of him chuckling drifted back from the front. “Didn’t really mean for it to be.”
Maya backhanded the side of his leg. He stilled, but kept laughing.
“M-Maybe,” Daniel began, but stopped, banishing the last of his yawn. “Maybe you’re going into this a bit hard. If you can freeze things...maybe you shouldn’t start by, y’know. Throwing them.”
“Maybe,” Leon mumbled. “I just- I don’t know how to-”
“Hold the image in your mind,” Daniel said. It’s just like in the Library, he wanted to say. It’s just like I taught you when I showed you magic.
But Olivia was sitting right there between them, and even if she was pointedly looking anywhere but at him, she was close enough to catch anything he might say. She’d helped them. That didn’t mean he trusted her with secrets like that.
“Visualize it,” was all Daniel said, smiling faintly. For a moment, a tuft of mouse-brown hair waved at the edge of his vision. A woman smiled down at him, her face blurred by the years.
Leon blinked—and nodded slowly. A twinkle shone in his eyes, all new. “Okay,” he whispered. “Like that, you think?”
Daniel swallowed. Damn it, Leon. But Olivia hadn’t so much as moved. Ever so slightly, he inclined his head.
Raising his hand, Leon stared at the credit card, chewing on his lip. His brow furrowed again, more deeply than before. “So...if I’m going to stop this thing, then…”
Still gnawing at his lip, he moved his hand back and forth. Daniel waited, not daring to speak. Better not to distract him.
Eyes narrowed to slits and his face starting to turn red as a cherry, Leon lowered his hand.
This time, the credit card rocked once—and froze, going eerily still.
For a single, perfect moment, it floated in midair.
Just as quickly, it dropped, falling the scant inch to Leon’s palm.
Leon sagged, panting. “Shit,” he gasped. “That- That didn’t feel so good.”
“You did it, though” Daniel said. Elation shot through him. “You did it!”
“No, I didn’t. It fell right back
down.” Leon scrunched up his face, squirming back deeper into his seat. “I don’t get it. What the hell is different? That was a tree. This is a damn slice of plastic. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Well, you were-” Daniel stopped, eyes widening. “You were touching it, before.”
“I- What?”
Daniel leaned over him, gesturing madly to the card. Olivia made a noise of protest, and he sat back, but waved his hand still. “You were holding the tree. Maybe-”
“Oh.” Leon’s voice brightened—as did his eyes. That old spark was back, the one he’d had that first day when Daniel had followed him around Alexandria. He’d found another mystery. “Yeah, that’d make sense, wouldn’t it? Direct contact might make things easier.”
“Yeah,” Daniel mumbled. “Maybe.” That pit hadn’t left his stomach, even while he rested. He didn’t feel as desolate as before—as empty—but he still felt...wrong. Empty.
He watched, though, swallowing the bile in his throat, as Leon’s eyebrows pulled closer and closer together.
This time, he didn’t bring his whole hand away. When he moved, he kept one fingertip pressed against the smooth plastic.
And the card held. It floated there, impossibly suspended.
“Wow,” Leon breathed. His eyes were wide, round as dinner plates. “Holy shit. Is that- That’s me, right? You’re not doing anything?”
“Nope,” Daniel said with a chuckle. “What could I do? That’s all you.”
“W-Well,” Leon said. A grin spread across his face. “You did that- that thing, back there. The water. I just thought, maybe-”
“Nope.” Daniel shook his head, sitting back at last. “Not me. This is your own magic.”
“Holy shit.”
“Dammit, Leon,” James said, twisting in his seat and leaning back toward them. “Would you just-”
Maya groaned. “I’m trying to drive, here?”
“Hey, don’t-”
No matter how Leon squirmed, though, James’ thumb and forefinger zeroed in on the plastic card. Grinning wickedly, he flicked.
“N-No! Don’t-” Leon flinched once, but his protests died away as the card didn’t budge at all. He leered up at James instead, the card hovering beside his hand. “Ass.”
“Stop crying,” James said, rolling his eyes, and sat forward again. “Can we be serious, yet?”
“I’m being serious,” Leon mumbled, dropping back to his seat. “This is serious work. This is important. I need to-”
Olivia yelped, shying away as the card smacked into her midsection. “W-What the- What the hell?”
Leon sat frozen, his hand palm-up. “I...I didn’t-”
“It’s fine,” Daniel said, nudging Olivia’s knee with his. “He didn’t mean to.”
He watched Leon, though—and caught Leon’s eye as he glanced over. Again. And again.
So Leon knew it too, then. That the way the card moved had been...something. More than just a blip. There was too much new, too many things to try and work through. Leon was doing about as well as could be expected of him—so if Leon wanted to leave that mishap alone for the moment, then Daniel wouldn’t force the topic.
Instead, he turned his sights forward, leaning back enough to kick James’ seat.
“Stop kicking me,” he heard James mutter. “Christ.”
“Hey, you said it,” Daniel retorted. “Let’s be serious. So how about it?”
James glanced back, scowling. “The hell you talking about?” Ahead, Maya’s hands tightened on the wheel, but she didn’t so much as look in their direction. She’d be listening, though.
Daniel put a casual smile on his face, forcing himself to stay casual. Damn it, he’d just done this with Leon. He didn’t want to have this conversation again. But...he didn’t see a way around it. They needed answers, and they needed to make the most of the tools they had.
No matter how unhappy it made them.
“Do you want to tell me about your hammer, now?” he said.
- Chapter Twenty-Seven -
The SUV rattled, bouncing its way down the exit ramp.
“You’re sure about this.”
Daniel sighed, scratching at his head, and peered out into the darkness. It was still night, but only barely, with the sort of inky, murky haze to the air that came in the hours before dawn. “I’m not thrilled either,” he muttered. “But we’ve got to do something.”
“But...here?” Maya said. She shrank back in her seat. “This part of town sucks.”
“Right,” Daniel said. “That way-”
“That way no one will notice when the bad stuff starts happening,” Olivia said quietly. She’d been almost silent for the last few hours, but she hadn’t slept. It’d been her and Daniel left staring through the windshield, mute, as Leon and James snored their heads off.
Maya licked her lips, nodding. “Right.”
Another snore tore through the cramped cab. Olivia jumped—and jabbed her heel toward the sleeping form of Leon. “Hey. Wake up.”
Leon didn’t move. Olivia rolled her eyes, kicking harder. “Leon. Would you-”
“W’ssat?” Leon jolted awake, sitting bolt upright fast enough Olivia lurched back. “Where? I’m good. I’m good.”
“You’re fine,” Daniel said. He had to say something—from the way Olivia turned her face away from Leon, pressing a hand over her mouth, he knew she was hiding a chuckle. “We’re just...we’re nearly there.”
Leon blinked, rubbing at his eyes. He turned back to the window, leaning close enough to press his nose to the glass. “What...What d’you mean? We’re nearly where?”
“To our giant mistake,” Maya mumbled from the front seat. She reached out, though, slapping at James’ shoulder. “Hey. Time to wake up.”
“You remember,” Daniel said, more quietly. “I explained before. We talked.”
Leon kept blinking, but his brow furrowed. “I...I don’t-”
“It’s time we make our stand.”
Finally, some recognition—Leon’s eyes went wide. “Oh,” he mumbled. “Right.”
“I still think this is risky,” Maya said. She hit the brakes, turning them onto a surface street, but glanced to Daniel. “This. It’s-”
“I know,” Daniel said. “But I don’t know another way to get them off our trail. We need to get rid of their tracker. That’s all.” He squeezed his leg again, wincing. The ache had gotten worse. He needed medical attention soon, he knew. Actual medical attention, not a handful of college students with hotel towels. “Once he’s out of the picture, we can leave. For good.”
Maya’s face hardened—and even Leon sat back in his seat, quieting again.
Daniel understood. Oh, he knew. It was easy for him to say they needed to ‘get rid’ of someone. All of them knew what that meant. Even if he could get them out of this alive, they wouldn’t get out with clean hands.
“This looks pretty good,” he whispered, when the storefronts around them turned to industrial warehouses and rolling garage doors. “Anywhere in here.”
“W-What, um,” Maya began, easing off the gas and onto the brakes. “What are we looking for, here?”
“Somewhere I can hide,” Daniel said, peering around. “Somewhere I can get up high, ideally. They won’t expect that.”
“Because this is a dumbass plan,” Leon said.
“Well.” Daniel snorted. “Yeah. There’s that.”
He caught sight of a ladder, though, peeking out from behind one such dingy building. “Okay. Here’s fine.”
The SUV screeched to a halt. He gave one last appraising look around, searching for anything that screamed stop. A light through a window. A security guard on patrol. Someone working late.
Nothing. All he saw at this hour were tired, run-down streets and a few cars that looked like they hadn’t moved in decades.
Popping the door open, Daniel headed for the vehicle closest to that ladder. “Help me,” he whispered.
Olivia tumbled out behind him. “W-What?”<
br />
“The door.” He pulled on the hinge, making a face, and pulled the knife back out of his pocket. “I-I need to-”
“Again?” Leon slipped in alongside him, elbowing Olivia out of the way. “I didn’t realize you were making this a habit.”
Daniel grinned. “G-Gotta do what we gotta do.” With Leon’s help, he eased the blade through the seam.
With a final heave and a twist, the door popped open. He fell back, panting for a moment. His leg throbbed beneath him, offset by the pounding in his head that hadn’t let up since he’d cast magic at Rickard’s group. Pushing all of that aside, he started cutting through the column.
“They’ll come right toward me,” he said quietly, his eyes glued to his work. He didn’t want to see their faces, anyway. “They’re probably following...I don’t know. My signature. My blood. To them, it’ll look like we’re just exhausted. Worn out by the stress of running. They’ll think we holed up here for a quick nap.”
Heavy footsteps drew closer. “And then?” James said.
Daniel grinned, slicing neatly through the wires. “They’ll be focused on me, without realizing I’m not on the ground at all. You guys...you’ll stay back far enough they don’t see you. Wait until they think they’re clear. Until they’re focused on me. And then-”
“And then we attack,” Leon said.
The fear running through his voice was like a punch to the gut. Daniel sat back, hesitating. “Yeah,” he said at last. “You’ll have the SUV. If you...If you can just hit them, that would be easiest. If not...both of you have magic, now. You could-”
“He didn’t want to be involved in the fights,” Olivia said. “He’ll be...toward the back of the group. It should be possible. If you move quick, and get him before he catches on to the game-”
“We’ll figure something out,” James said.
Daniel heard Leon groan. “You don’t have to sound so happy about it.”
“Just sayin’. If this ends with me getting to beat the shit out of them, I’m down.”