I scrambled to my feet as the blinding light surged towards me, casting a stark shadow against the shimmering walls that surrounded us. With a surge of adrenaline, I dodged to the side just in time, narrowly avoiding the searing blast. The force of the spell tore through the air with a deafening crack, leaving behind a scorch mark on the ground where I had been sitting moments before.

The wizard smirked, his eyes flashing with amusement as he raised his hand once more, conjuring another spell. I knew I had to act fast if I wanted any chance of escaping this strange and dangerous place. Without hesitation, I bolted towards the nearest corridor, my heart pounding in my chest as I sprinted away from him. There was no end in sight in either direction, only the blinding light of this realm and the limitless voids ahead.

The magic crackled in the air around me, twisting and warping the very fabric of reality. My mind raced as I tried to outpace it. To evade the impossible magic that trapped me here.

Fire burned in my lungs as I pressed faster. My heartbeat was a resounding drum in my ears. Just when I thought I couldn’t go any farther, when I thought my legs would give way, a blood-curdling shriek echoed from behind me.

It was so sudden that I jolted out of my skin and almost fell onto my stomach to avoid the power in which he would strike at me.

But as I turned over my shoulders, I saw the old wizard enveloped in glistening purple threads of magic. Like a vine, it slithered across his chest, snaking between his side and arms, before snaking down to his ankles and linking them together so tight that he lost his balance.

He stumbled forward, flailing whatever appendages could push against the restraints. The magic that had bound him seemed to pulse and writhe, tightening its grip with each passing second. When he fell onto the side of his face, I grinned.

Who the hell was this guy?

Powerful enough to summon an entire realm, but stupid enough to lose his own fight?

I inched closer, kneeling down a little so I could maneuver out of the way should he throw one of those wizardy-tricks at me.

It was when he started to laugh that I slowed to a stop.

“Well, this is rather unfortunate,” he wheezed and rolled around, groaning as he stretched his arms enough to make the restraint hiss, sparks flying into the air, but not enough to break free. When he jerked his head back to capture my stare, he bared his teeth. “You! Stop right there. I am not done with…with you! By the…by the gods, I am Rennick Edwards the Great, and you will wait!”

Slowly, I stood upright, arms crossed over my chest with a twitching smirk crackling across my lips. “Oh, I don’t think I have any choice but to wait.”

For minutes, I watched Rennick roll around. Back and forth from either side of the hallway. The noises that this man was making was akin to a mating cat. Or, worse—

Actually, I don’t know what would be worse than mating cats.

His struggles slowly faded into exhausted huffs as he rolled onto his back, his chest rising and falling with labored breaths. To think, this man scared me shitless, conjured up the sort of magic I’d never even dream about—which says a lot considering the shit I was put through as a kid—and yet…lost control of it all. I took a few hesitant steps toward him, the realm around us quaking. Fizzling in and out of focus, in fact.

I knelt next to him just as the blinding white halls faded into a wet, dripping dungeon. My eyes flicked across the room. A winding stairwell that led up, up, up; dozens of discarded books and broken vials; the faintest stench of swamp.

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My head dipped back to look up the swirling stairwell, seeing the top of a impossibly tall tower.

Dong!

Okay, it didn’t ring again. But in my head, that would have been a really cool way to realize we were in the fucking clock tower. My head whipped back in his direction, unable to conceal the pure, bemused, hysterical grin that overcame my features.

“You’re the reason for the giant dragon from hell earlier?”

Rennick jerked his body in another feeble attempt at breaking free. “Are you going to kill me, thief?” he hissed up at me. I cocked my head. He had pointed ears, but his skin wrinkled unlike any elf I’d ever seen. He aged like bread, moldy and rotten, but had this eternal aura that radiated off him.

Maybe he hadn’t learned how to rejuvenate his youth. In fact, if this fight was any representation of his power, he hadn’t learned how to do much of anything.

“Now, why would I do that?” I asked and stood. “I might be inclined to break a finger or two, if you don’t tell me where that hag’s necklace is?”

“Hag?” he asked, brows furrowing together. Then, his face settled into realization, and he started to wheeze again. Laughter bubbled out of him and he rolled onto his side for relief. “Ha-Ha-Hag? That lady is no more useful to me than a puppet.”

“How kind.”

“No, truly!” he said between broken laughter. Slowly, he sat up, the magical threads hissing as he pushed against them again. “She’s not real, lass. She’s no more real than that dragon, the chaos, and that wretched labyrinth of white halls. I am honored you thought so, though.”

My face fell. “What do you mean, ‘she’s not real’?”

The wizard's cackling laughter echoed off the damp stone walls. Then, it faded into a sigh, and he twisted in all sorts of directions. It was like watching a bug trying to escape a web. Futile.

“Well…well, can you blame me? It’s quite positively the most depressing thing to show up to one of those functions alone. The men look at you in envy, sure, but the women see me as a lost…lost puppy. I cannot live with myself if I am pitied like that. I am a wizard! A bloody wizard!”

“Yes. Your power is…unnerving.” My gaze flicked down the length of his restraints and sighed. “What about the necklace, old man? Your trick was realistic enough that it captured the attention of a very important, very dangerous man.”

Rennick’s eyes lit up. He twisted his head in my direction, shooting me this toothy grin. “I’ll tell ya what. You help me out of these restraints, and I’ll get you the necklace. I’ve conjured up more for less.”

I narrowed my eyes at Rennick. He was a bumbling fool, but his promise was the only way I could stay in the capital city, Petria, without fear of losing a finger. He might be clumsy, but he was powerful enough to alter reality for long enough that I considered it real.

“Fine,” I hissed, “but make one wrong move, and I’ll take your eyeball and make it a necklace.”

“Please, make sure it is the left one. I can’t see out of it, anyway.”

I glared, but he cackled like a crow and twisted hastily onto his knees. He first showed his bound wrists.

“Take the threads bounding my hand and pull like you’re trying to dismember my arm. I am going to pull the other way, and if we try hard enough, it should break the restraints. It’s like a thin chain, you see. I’m just too weak to do it myself.”

I eyed the magic wearily. “Remember, old man. I’ll take your eye. The right eye.”

Reaching out to grasp the shimmering purple strands, I pulled with as much force as I could muster. Rennick mirrored my movement, the hot magic sizzling against my palm. Sparks of magic bounced off into the air, licking my fingertips with the idlest burn. With a final surge of strength, I yanked back and a sharp snap echoed into the air like shattered glass. Rennick stumbled backward—

Into the same type of vortex he’d nearly escaped in last time.

“Rennick!” I screamed and lunged forward, but the portal closed before I could even taste the tang of magic.

My chin skidded against the stone floor as I floundered forward. For a moment, all was still as I wallowed in my failure. The tower seemed to press in on me. At any moment, I expected the walls to taunt me before smooshing me to pieces.

But then wind whooshed over the back of my head. Silver clattered next to my ear, and as I turned my head, I saw the necklace I’d been hired to steal.

Rennick’s laugh swirled around me before the portal closed. “You smell like shit, thief.”

I smiled, blood prickling out of the rash caused by skidding against the coarse stone.

After breathing in deeply, I cringed, my lips curling into a sick scowl.

Yeah, I did smell like shit—

But at least I’d be rich for a month.