“Okay, Mom.”
“How was your day? Have you been able to entertain yourself?”
I almost chuckle. “Sure, it was fine. How about you? No fits?”
“None at all.” She sounds as cheerful as I feel.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am about that.”
“That makes two of us, honey. So what did you do all day? Boy stuff?”
I’m just trying to come up with an answer, when I see a flicker in the corner of my eye. My head swerves right and I gasp.
“Dante? Are you still there? I can’t hear you.”
I hit the brake and Phoenix comes to a grinding halt. “My phone is almost dead, Mom. So I’ll see you to-“
I hang up and blink at the patch of grass between the two houses on my right. There was another house there just now. It was vague, but it was there. I could even see light behind one of the windows.
I drop my head on the steering wheel and sigh. All the crazy things I’ve seen in the last couple of days are getting to me. I should go home and get some more sleep.
I rub my face and look up.
“No way.” Instead of just a house here and there, there are complete blocks on both sides of the road. Someone steps out of a doorway that shouldn’t be there.
“Charlie!” It takes me only a second to recognize my best friend.
As soon as his blond head turns in my direction, I fumble for the door handle.
I jump out of my car and flinch when I put weight on my wounded leg. I almost forgot about the gash that demon gave me. “Hey,” I pant. “What’s going on here?”
There’s no answer. Charlie is gone. So are the houses I saw.
“I need rest,” I tell myself.
I turn back to Phoenix, ready to get back in and drive home.
A car passes me in the middle of the road.
“Hey, you’re not allowed to drive on the grass strip!” I yell out of habit. But then my gaze is pulled towards the tarmac. Dark grey tarmac. No grass.
I blink rapidly. The asphalt disappears, making way for familiar green.
I take a step back, bumping into Phoenix. My vision blurs. No wait, not my whole vision, just part of it. The houses that I’ve always known are crystal clear. Next to them, blurry buildings appear and vanish with every heartbeat. Strips of color move past me. Sounds fade in and out.
Then I see him again. “Charlie!” He must have crossed the street while I was looking around.
The street returns to normal when I blink. There’s a loud panting in my ears and I whirl around. “What’s going on?” I hold my breath. The panting stops. “Oh, that was me.”
I scan the street and every patch of green in between. I’m alone.
When I pinch myself, it hurts. “No dream,” I whisper. “Maybe a premonition?”
A glance into the future, where building permits are finally granted? But why is Charlie in it?
Determined to find out, I cross the street. A weird sensation floods through me when I set foot on the grass strip in the middle of the road. For a moment, I see a pick-up truck coming towards me. Instinctively I step back onto the tarmac. A strong draft pulls at my body. It passes quickly and I shake my head. Just another figment of my imagination. Or a warning, who knows.
I reach the spot where I saw Charlie and turn in every direction, taking in every detail of what I see. “Charlie?” I call out. “Are you here?”
He disappeared very suddenly, so maybe he went into one of these houses? Or around them?
I take a step towards the grass between the houses, when another flash hits me.
I almost bump into the door of the building that has appeared in front of me. It doesn’t look real somehow, so I touch the wood. Instantly I pull back. The house reminds me of the ghosts in my Shield; transparent, yet very solid. For a second it vanishes again, only to come back clearer.
I push the door before I lose my nerve. Three people are sitting at a table. One of them is Charlie. When he sees me, his eyes grow wide.
“What are you doing?” I ask, stepping forward. “Where are…?”
I halt when the house and the people in it dissolve again. Under my shoes, the grass rustles softly. A door slams, but there’s no one here. Footsteps approach and I walk backwards as quickly as I can.
“Watch out!” Charlie’s voice says, and an invisible force grabs me and pulls me back onto the sidewalk. I yell when a sharp pain shoots through my leg.
Although I’m pretty sure nothing can hurt me in a premonition, I struggle to free myself.
My best friend blinks in and out of view. One moment the bright yellow of his flowery shirt blinds me, the next I see only grass.
“Charlie? Are you there?”
I hear voices mumbling.
“Just let me talk to him,” Charlie says. “Before he hurts himself.”
“Fine,” an irritated voice answers. “But he’s not ready yet.”
I roll my eyes. “Here we go again, with the not ready thing.”
Close to me I hear the creaking of a door. I follow the sound with my eyes, but there’s nothing there. Everything has turned back to normal.
Until a blond head manifests itself.
I cross my arms over my chest. “There you are. Finally.” I nod at the empty space under his head. “You don’t look so good.”
He follows my gaze. “Oh crap.” The rest of his body appears, wrapped in familiar flower patterns and shorts. “Sorry about that. I’m still getting used to this zapping thing.” He scrutinizes me. “You don’t seem scared.”
I shrug. “I think there’s a glitch in my premonition. Besides, I’ve seen worse.”
“Oh, right.” He scratches his head. “The demons. Yes, those were pretty nasty.”
“Demons, ghosts, the devil, nothing surprises me anymore.”
He’s still scratching. “Okay, let’s sit down for a minute. I have to tell you something.” He puts his arm around me and guides me back to Phoenix.
For a second, I see all the extra houses light up again, but I ignore them and drop into the driver’s seat. “Shoot.”
He takes a deep breath. “You’ve seen some crazy stuff lately, right?”
I look him straight in the eye. “You could say that. But I’ve dealt with most of them. My lying friends are probably next.”
He raises his hand. “We’ll get to that later.”
I clench my teeth. “I can’t wait.”
CHAPTER 2
There’s a shout outside and our heads swerve to the left. The house we just left is still visible, but not so peaceful anymore. I blink when a girl with bright red hair flies through the front door. She’s probably a product of my imagination, like the blinking houses. But she doesn’t disappear and I duck when I realize she’s going to hit the car.
It’s a good thing my window isn’t fully closed yet, because Charlie raises his hands and a slick substance shoots past my face. It looks like melted caramel, but when it hits the ground, it forms a solid wall.
Just in time. The girl slams into it, and bounces back unhurt.
I move my gaze back to Charlie, who smiles apologetically.
“Wow,” is all I can say.
I take the keys out of the ignition and step onto the street. The girl is bent over, panting. I reach out my hand to her. “Are you okay?”
She grins and I meet her glowing yellow eyes. With a cry of surprise, I jump back.
She touches her face. “What? Do I have blood on my nose or something?” She looks down at her red catsuit.
I fumble for the car door.
Charlie appears at my side. He puts a hand on my shoulder. “It’s not you, Gisella. Dante’s veil is lifting.”
I frown at the gibberish coming out of his mouth. I know I’m dreaming. But this is not a premonition, like the ones I had before. It must be my mind trying to process everything that has happened. Only minutes ago I was in the middle of a supernat
ural fight. Days ago, I didn’t know magic was real. I didn’t know I was a Mage. A lot has changed lately.
“Oh.” The girl drops her hands and smiles. “I remember that. It can be frightening.” She steps closer to Charlie, which makes me flinch beside him, and brings her head towards his. It looks like she’s about to kiss him, but at the last moment she pulls back and winks at me. “It’s nice to meet you, Dante. Let me know if you have any questions.” With a whoosh, she turns around and walks away.
“Oh, Gisella! Wait!” Charlie yells after her.
She stops.
“Dante is hurt. Would you mind helping him out?”
She cocks her head and looks me up and down. Slowly she walks back to us, her hips swaying. “Okay, but only because he’s your friend.”
Her hands move along my body, almost touching me, but not quite. They stop at my lower leg. “You’ll have to remove the bandage.”
I gulp.
“Don’t worry, you can trust her,” Charlie says.
“Yeah? I’ve had some disappointments in that department recently, so I’m not so sure.”
“Look,” Gisella says firmly. Her yellow eyes glow. “I can heal you, or you can keep stumbling around and catch an infection. It’s your choice.”
She sounds sincere, so I lower myself back into the car and unwrap the bandage.
Her hands tickle my skin. I expect warmth to flow through my leg, but instead, it’s as if a hundred ants run over it. It stings and tickles at the same time. I feel the need to pull back, but Gisella holds on tightly. “Keep still.”
I close my eyes and wait for the feeling to subside. When it does, I look down… and let out a shriek. My leg has disappeared.
“What did you do?” I want to push her aside and scramble backwards at the same time.
Charlie grabs my arm. “Wait, she’s not done yet.”
“But-“
“Shh,” Gisella says. Her face turns as yellow as her eyes and she bends forward.
Fear immobilizes me. Is she going to eat me?
She sticks out her tongue, which is long and black. It glides slowly over the spot where my leg should be. A tingling feeling shoots through me and my whole body trembles. Bit by bit, my leg becomes visible again. The wound is gone.
I draw in a sharp breath. “Wow.”
Charlie slaps me on my good leg. “I know. She’s awesome, right?”
“I… I’m sorry. I just… Thank you.”
She straightens the shiny fabric of her catsuit. “No problem. See you later.”
She walks back into the house, that blinks out of view again.
I turn to face Charlie. “Well, this is the craziest dream I’ve ever had.”
He shakes his head. “You’re not dreaming. Like I said, I have a lot to tell you.”
I look at the greasy wall, slowly melting and disappearing into the tarmac. “Should I park somewhere else, in case more people come flying?”
“Probably. Can we go to your house?”
“Sure.”
We get into the car and drive in silence.
I try to ignore the extra roads popping up in the middle of the streets and the houses that were never there before. It’s hard, because sometimes there are also people walking in and out and cars zooming by out of nowhere.
A loud honking almost makes me drive off the road. Luckily Charlie grabs the wheel.
“Thanks,” I mutter, still not sure whether I should trust him or not.
I turn left and a minute later I park in front of my house. Charlie follows me inside and flops onto the couch. “Okay, tell me what you already know about magic.”
“Why don’t you just tell me everything?”
He chuckles. “Because we’d be sitting here for a week.”
“Fine.” I put all my annoyance into my gaze as I sit down in the chair opposite him. I start counting on my fingers. “Ghosts are real. So are demons, the devil, Hell and, hopefully, also heaven. There might be angels, too, but I’m not sure yet.” I’m not ready to tell him about the voice, so I’m skipping that detail. “Apparently I’m a Mage and so was my father. And at least two of my friends told me they were on vacation, while they weren’t and they were fighting each other.”
At least he has the decency to look guilty at my last words.
He brushes his fingers through his long hair. “That sounds pretty accurate. And I figure you saw the roads and houses for the first time today?”
“Yup.”
“You probably thought you were going crazy, right? I did when it happened to me, you know.”
“No, I already covered that when I met my Shield and found out I had to save the world.”
Charlie’s mouth falls open. “You have a Shield?” He shakes his head. “I’m so jealous.”
He pauses before adding. “And hungry. Do you have anything to eat?”
I gape at him. “You’re really thinking about food now? I know you’re always hungry, but-”
“It’s because of my power. It needs fuel, you know.”
I frown. “What?”
“Where do you think the gel comes from?” He grins. “It’s basically grease.”
I remember the caramel-like substance shooting from his hands. “Oh, yuck.”
He shrugs. “You get used to it.”
With a sigh, I stand up. “I guess that explains why you can eat so much junk without getting fat. We’ve probably got something greasy somewhere.” I walk to the kitchen and rummage through the cabinets.
“Did you say you had to save the world?” Charlie calls.
“Yes, from the Devil. It’s a long story.”
How would I even explain everything that has happened? I can hardly wrap my head around it myself and there are still things that I don’t know or understand. Like why saving Mr. Timson kept the Devil in Hell. Or how the demons that attacked knew I was the one destined to save this man. Why I have a Shield of ghosts to protect me.
The questions roll around in my head and I really don’t feel like telling Charlie everything so he can come up with even more questions.
Instead, I focus on what’s in the cupboards.
The only greasy things I can find are chips and chocolate. I drop them on the kitchen counter and open the fridge for something to drink. Time to change the subject. “So that yellow-eyed girl, she’s your girlfriend?”
There’s a short silence. “Not yet.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about her? Or introduce us?”
“Well, I didn’t know what to tell you, since I couldn’t explain about the magical world yet. And even if I could, she doesn’t like to step into the human world, you know.”
I almost drop the can of orange juice. “The human world?”
Charlie doesn’t answer, so I put the bottle under my armpit, take two glasses in my hand and the snacks in the other and walk back into the living room.
“The human world?” I repeat.
He pushes a blond lock behind his ear. “Yes, that’s what I wanted to tell you.”
I put everything on the table between us. “Okay, go ahead.”
He leans forward to open the can and fill the glasses. “You already know there are magical beings on Earth. You’re one of them, a Mage, like me. Only more powerful, since you have a Shield.”
“My Shield was summoned by my grandfather, and partly by my father.”
Charlie empties his glass and opens the bag of chips. “That’s what I thought. But Shields can only be formed by powerful Mage families. I could never do it, you know.”
I hide my look of satisfaction behind my glass.
After swallowing a handful of chips, Charlie continues. “As you already know, there’s more than just Mages in the magical world. Creatures that don’t look human. They can disguise themselves as humans, but most of them don’t like it. That’s why half of Blackford is hidden to humans.”
For a moment I just stare at him. Is
he serious? “You’re pulling my leg.”
“Nope,” he says between bites.
I open the bag of M&M’s and chew for a while. “So, you’re saying what I saw was real and no one can get a building permit in Blackford because all those spaces aren’t actually vacant?”
“Exactly! And those grass strips we’ve got everywhere? Those are the roads of the magical world. Of our world.”
I reach for another handful of chocolate. “So why didn’t I see it before?”
“Most of us get our powers at sixteen. Soon after, the veil will lift and you’ll be able to see everything and everyone in the magical world. You can switch between the two worlds, too, choose whether you want to be visible in both worlds or only in the magical one. Pretty cool, right?”
Just when I want to agree, a realization hits me. “So, while pretending to be on vacation, all this time you were still in Blackford.”
My craving for chocolate fades and I drop the bag on the table. “You could have told me sooner.”
He shakes his head. “There are rules. Laws. We can’t just go around telling people about our world.”
“Not people, no, but your best friend? Come on, Charlie!”
He finally lowers the bag of chips. “I wanted to tell you, but some things are physically impossible. I actually wasn’t capable of telling you. Something to do with you not being ready.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” I take a sip from my juice. “But you can tell me everything now?”
He grins. “I hope so.”
“Great.” I slam my glass back onto the table. “Tell me about Paul. Is he evil?”
Charlie opens his mouth to answer, but at that moment, a soft rustling reaches my ears. A familiar sound I was hoping never to hear again. My head swerves right of its own accord and there it is, drifting up the stairs peacefully, as if it’s only bringing good news. Another white envelope with meaningless lines on it. I don’t really want to know what’s inside, but if I want to keep my Mom, my friends and myself alive, I’ll have to take a look.
Without a word I get up, climb two steps and pick up the envelope. The soft feathery feel of it confirms my suspicions.
Cards of Death Box Set Page 23