by Jamie Hawke
“Yes, with runes.” She nodded enthusiastically. “A portal key of sorts, right? Brought Glitonea to you that second time—I saw, was there.”
“Great.” I smiled with relief, waiting for her to activate it.
She tossed the arrow over. “It was an example. Use something from your world—connect it, then bring us to the other side.”
“Oh? Right…” I ran my hands over my jacket and pockets, finding the card the senator had given me. A glance at Megha reminded me that I didn’t exactly want to show up in his house with her like this, but what other choice did I have?
Before I had a chance to go for it, though, a screech sounded, a figure rising above us.
“Fucking hell,” Megha growled, then stood and thrust her hands out, breasts bouncing. Sorry, I couldn’t help but notice.
While I had expected her to shoot out fireballs or something of the sort, what followed was much more confusing and exciting. One second there was a horrid creature swooping in—I’m talking like half-harpy, half-dragon person—and the next, Megha ran and leaped, hands glowing. The creature flew at her but not of its own accord, and suddenly she was on its back, those glowing hands of hers dipping into its head. The thing’s head became see-through, Megha’s hands seemingly caressing its brain, and then she was controlling it as the thing turned and attacked its companions. Not just attacked, either, but obliterated them, its strength apparently amplified with her influence.
Even with the magic I had seen lately, this caught me off guard. She was a flying, killing machine as long as she was on that thing. I did my part with stun and sleep spells, then a few ice claws and more.
As a few of our opponents fell, I realized that I still hadn’t used the Frost Remnant spell I’d been so eager to try. Focusing now on the enemy, I gave it a try. Nothing, but then Megha went soaring past with her meat puppet, killing the thing I had been targeting. A blast of silvery light shot out from me, connecting with the corpse as it fell. The silver hit, held it in place, and then, as the remains of the corpse fell away, the silver morphed into a version of the monster.
It was like I had created a ghost of it, or a replica of some sort. And without any sort of orders, it joined in the fight, turning on the others and helping Megha with her destruction.
“You need to see,” Megha said, “then look!”
I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, at first, but when my eyes rose to the army, the magic like a portal forming, a jolt hit me. Then again, and this time it was like my conscious was pulled through the monster I’d made into a remnant, using that connection to move out and through the portal.
There I was, in a basement. Looking through someone else’s eyes, placing an item on a pedestal. A blade, it appeared, with runes glowing on it. As the figure turned, I took in more magical items, and it became clear to me—this was how they were opening the portal. Using magical items, likely stealing them, and I needed to stop it from happening further. But it was more than that, I realized, scanning the runes around the room. They were runes that I had come across before… runes that belonged to Glitonea. I’d seen them on the arrow, the one that had allowed her to reach me in the Dark Lands!
The owner of the eyes I was seeing through seemed to sense me and pushed back, kicking me out. Before I went, though, I sensed more beings there, more magic. A coven.
In a flash, I was back on the wall, watching Megha and my remnant fight. Another second and they had cleared the immediate air space of enemies. Megha came flying back toward me, eyes wild with excitement as she pulled her hands from the creature’s head—no gore or guck—and stood while the creature started to fall away.
“Now!” Megha shouted and leaped, arms stretched out, and caught hold of my arm. As she fell, swinging toward the wall to slam against it, I grabbed the senator’s card and we were pulled out of that world.
I woke to find Ebrill leaning over me, eyes focused on mine. She smiled when I woke, and then kissed me. Not in the senator’s house like I had expected, but back in the mansion where I had fallen asleep.
“What was that for?” I asked.
“To remind you that I still exist,” she replied. “After you kept saying her name over and over.” Pulling back, she glanced around. “Where is Megha?”
“I thought for sure…” It hit me—and made total sense, but damn, this wasn’t good. “She’s still with Fatiha, of course. Only, now she’s on our side—freed, you could say. We have to get to her.”
I was up, moving, buttoning my pants and finally throwing off that ridiculous suit jacket. I found my red one instead, then… froze.
“Where do we start?” I asked.
“Glitonea?” Ebrill didn’t look very confident in that answer. “She’s the only one who might know, right?”
“Let’s find the others, then pay her a visit.”
18
Aerona was still insisting that this was a bad idea when we arrived at Glitonea’s prison. The lady was one of the Nine, and a captive. Not likely to help us. Still, they were all at my side this time, ready in case there was trouble. We didn’t know what might be necessary to get answers.
Runes on my mind, ready to let her speak, I said, “I saw the arrow in that coven. The runes on it.”
How can I properly respond like this?
I considered my options, then set my jaw. Focusing on the runes below, I deactivated the ones that held her in place, mentally imprisoned. Her hands sprang out and I braced myself for an attack, but she was merely stretching.
“Ah, that feels good,” she said. “Release me, we’ll pay them a visit.” Glitonea grinned, purple coating moving along her body like liquid metal. “Come, let’s play this game.”
“No fucking way,” I said, but then had an idea. “Unless—”
“Jericho, what’re you doing?” Steph hissed at my side.
I squeezed her hand, hoping that would communicate that she needed to trust me on this. “Unless you swear an oath. Some sort that keeps you magically bound.”
She looked at me, then at my companions, and laughed. “Sure, I can do that. Just… unleash me from this building.”
“Agreed.” I stepped forward, made an adjustment, and then pulled up my screen to scan her. As soon as she made a move, my illusion of change was gone. No way was I letting her use an ounce of magic, but my little stunt had allowed me to trace her magic, to show me what she would have done.
The first move that showed up was an attack spell, one that looked damn powerful. I was glad I’d been able to prevent that, and logged it into my digital memory for future use. The next was an escape spell—and since I knew her runes were in the coven, I had to hope that’s where the connection led. Checking it against my scan of the earlier one I had seen, it cleared. Good to go.
“Well, Glitonea… enjoy your time in this fabulous home. You’ll be here for a while yet.”
She charged us, but the wall was back in place, a thud audible from the other side, and then we were off, walking away. As we went, I reactivated the runes below, locking her in place with the mental prison.
“I restored Megha—meaning, the version of her that was in there, and the version out here are now one, and she’s able to think for herself. Judging from what I saw of her, she’s not exactly… stable?”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Ebrill said with a sly smile.
“Right, well if that’s the case, she’s probably raising hell over there already. Right? So, let’s find this coven so we can raise hell with her, then get her out of there.”
Ebrill eyed me. The others noticed the suspicious look at the same time I did.
“What?” I asked.
“She was nude, wasn’t she?” Ebrill laughed at whatever expression my face must have made. “I knew it!”
“Her being nude has nothing to do with this,” I countered. “You all sent me in there after her!”
“To help her, not to fuck her,” Aerona said, but winked. She was apparently having fun with this. She s
hrugged. “Then again, if you ask her, that’s probably the type of help she needs.”
“Don’t we all,” Steph said, and laughed. When the others turned on her, she said, “What? I’m just saying, don’t slut-shame the girl. Wait, why was she naked?”
“It’s her thing,” Ebrill explained. “Kind of a rebellious type. Once, some asshole was talking about burning witches. She burned him. Argument over. Another time, someone made a comment about her nipples being perky through her shirt—she stripped right there, and got a real taste for the nudist lifestyle. From then on, any chance she got, she was naked.”
“It was… awkward,” Riland said from the back of the room.
I turned to see Shisa darting up. An instant alert went off. He was warning me of trouble. My hand shot out to the wall to sense the house, feel any magical attacks. Nothing. But there was something else, something I couldn’t quite make out.
“What’re these blue and red flashing lights?” Riland asked.
“Uh-oh,” Steph said, and I opened my eyes to see her joining Riland at the window. When she turned back to me, she grimaced. “The police. More than one car.”
“What?”
“Police?” Aerona asked.
“Law enforcement,” I explained, stepping over to the window. Sure enough, there were three cop cars down there that I could see—we were on the side of the house, them on the street in front, one with lights going.
One of them noticed us and we ducked back into the window, cursing.
“Ma’am,” the cop called out. “We found your car abandoned near the scene of a crime. We need to ask you some questions.”
“Tell them… fuck off.” I went back to the wall, hand on it, not sure what to do here.
“You’re on their side, technically,” Steph said. “You can’t use magic on them.”
I glared at her but nodded. Of course, she was right.
“And this coven?” I asked. “Megha?”
“We have to go,” Aerona said. “Clothes or no.”
That got me to smile again. Looking at our house, the blue and red flashing outside, I sighed. “You know they’re going to come in, right? Investigate, maybe find things.”
“They might.”
“Not if you hide it all,” Steph said. “Rearrange stuff, quietly, before we go.”
“And how are we all going?” Riland asked. “I didn’t see a lot of horses on the way… appearing.”
I laughed. “No, there wouldn’t be. You have a lot to learn about this land. Those fast things we rode in, maybe when you were only partially here? Those are called cars. We have—what, two more? Downstairs.”
“To the bat exit,” Steph said.
It was decided, so I put my hand to the wall, making sure anything that could be suspicious or out of place was hidden. I hated the idea of anyone snooping around in here while we were gone, and even more so the police. Would they cause trouble later, have someone watching for our return? Could they have been infiltrated? Those were questions we would have to find answers to later, after going to find Megha.
19
“This way will be faster,” I said, and Riland watched with amazement as I opened a direct route to the garage, where an SUV awaited us. We had started toward it when I paused, glancing back. “SHISA!”
A moment later, Shisa came bounding in.
“Taking him with us this time?” Steph asked, hopeful.
I nodded, and the lion-dog wagged its curly tail. Ebrill opened one of the SUV doors, letting Shisa jump in.
“The house?” Ebrill asked. “We can’t abandon it.”
“No, but what comes next is more important. And we can’t have the police trying to confiscate our little friend, here.” I stood next to Shisa, rubbing his head, then moved over to the driver’s side, finding the keys hanging on the wall nearby where I’d hoped.
“One problem,” Kordelia said, eying us all and then the SUV.
I saw what she meant. Even with the large size of the vehicle, we couldn’t all fit.
“Riland,” I said, and then gave him a ‘go ahead’ nod.
He sighed. “For the record, this is a bit weird.”
I laughed. “Just get inside me, you oaf.”
He glanced around, nodded, and then disappeared into a burst of blue light that moved into me.
I hope you’re not enjoying this, his voice said in my head. I chuckled. While in my time being homophobic and making jokes about a man entering another man might have been frowned upon in some circles, this guy was from another time.
“Shisa can ride up with me on the middle area,” I said, and then folded down the back seat to make room for the gargoyle wings. While Ebrill and Aerona were probably fine, Kordelia was larger and therefore needed the extra space. “There we go.”
Sure enough, we managed to all climb in. As the police were breaking in above, I created our Batcave exit, started the SUV, and we made our escape. For a moment, I simply sat there, enjoying the way the seat felt like it was embracing me, pulling me in with more comfort than I had ever felt in a vehicle. The drive was smooth, barely any noise and rumbling like I was used to. However, we were apparently being watched, because only two blocks away, lights and sirens split the night behind me.
“Shit,” I muttered. “Ebrill? Anyone?”
“Illusion?” Ebrill tried to turn and see, not having the easiest time with her wings or horns. “Wouldn’t it be strange to randomly disappear like that?”
“Next turn, okay?”
“I’ll try.”
“Block our plates, at least.” I sped up, hating that the cops were likely calling in backup. Hitting the corner hard, the SUV seemed about to flip. Shisa yelped, and I had to hold him to stop him from falling over on me.
“Should be in the clear,” Ebrill said, so I made for the next corner and turned again, hoping to make sure. They followed.
“A magic user,” Aerona said. “Shisa?”
Shisa grunted and a moment later there was an energy shield flying out from behind us, and this time when I turned, they didn’t follow.
“Great, now we’re using magic against the police,” I said, careful to swerve as I nearly hit a parked car. Someone yelled at me and I glanced back, hoping I hadn’t hit anyone.
“You’re good,” Steph said, but then nervously cleared her throat and sent out two wraith knights.
“What was that?” I asked.
“A pursuing shade. Keep driving.”
“Wonderful.”
When I realized that I could make a digital map of the D.C. area based on what I’d seen and where I had been, I started to feel like a real badass. With my magic attacks, house remodeling, and all this, I had to wonder if transmutation was one of the most badass magic forms ever.
Fuck that—it was. Decision made.
And on that note, I had an idea. Sorry, cop car that had just turned onto the street behind us in pursuit, and sorry to Public Works or whoever had to fix streets. With a wink, I caused the street to separate and rise, so that the cop car came to an abrupt stop. The back flew up, but not enough to flip, then fell back down with a loud thud. Another cop car came around the corner behind the first, getting its hood slammed down.
No one was hurt, I hoped, since I didn’t know who was on which side and had to assume they were all just doing their jobs, and treat them accordingly unless they proved otherwise. We sped out of there, through a tunnel, and were back on our way toward Georgetown to find the senator’s house.
For a few minutes at least, we simply drove in peace. I even turned the music on, a low piano song playing. Steph rolled down the window and stuck her hand out, letting it roll with the wind, and we shared a loving look. Then I glanced back to see the others smiling, too.
“You’d think we all just got back from a day of hiking,” I said with a laugh. “A bit worn out, but… relaxed. Enjoying ourselves.”
“Fighting assholes can be relaxing,” Kordelia said.
Riland chuckled. I could
get used to this, honestly.
Aerona sighed, and the others turned to her, waiting for her to speak. I found her whole thing a bit melodramatic, but kind of cute.
“It’s not a game,” Aerona said.
“We know,” Ebrill replied. “But it’s also not something we can make stop, so we might as well make the most of it.”
“Until we have the others, until we check back with Rianne and she can tell us no more are out there waiting to be found… I just don’t know if I can relax.”
Silence.
Ask if this is about Draedar, Riland said.
I shook my head, confused.
The other man who was with Gertrude. The one who… didn’t make it back.
Damn, I’d forgotten that the other man was in some sort of weird, maybe dead state in that dark land place. I mentioned him, and immediately the others froze, all but Steph and Shisa.
“Do you… know something about Draedar?” Aerona asked, voice shaky.
My mind emptied, hoping for an answer from Riland. But no, he knew that I was every bit as able as he to answer that. Except, I had never been in a situation like that before. How does one tell a woman that someone she cared for has gone on? Or… is mostly dead?
“I see,” she said. Apparently, my silence had been enough.
Still, I felt the need to elaborate. “He was there, in the other place. Where I found Riland… but… yes.”
“I’m sorry,” Riland said, partially moving out of me as a ghost would, then fading back into my chest. It was unsettling, to say the least.
“Life moves on,” Aerona replied. “So should I. Especially when it’s been so many years.”
We drove the rest of the way in silence, each thinking about loved ones, each other, and the journey ahead. Soon, I started recognizing the houses as ones we had been near that night, so I focused on the song playing—now violin—in order to try and curb the rising nerves.
I was, for those few minutes before we arrived, taken back to a time in high school when me and some friends had thought it would be fun to get dressed up and go see Vanessa Mae in concert. Totally worth it, although I fell asleep during the show. Great dinner, a fun night out with the guys, and my boy Billy Zeke had met his future wife that night. Thinking now about the night I’d gotten back together with those guys over beers and McGuire’s Pub, I couldn’t help but wonder how I was going to make any guy friends in my new predicament.