The man stopped him, not allowing him to get close. Danny was then carefully escorted out of the courtyard and into the back of a waiting van. A bag was thrown over his head. “Is this really necessary?” It felt pretty cliche to him.

Nobody replied to him and then he felt the van take off. The trip was uneventful but he noticed that the van was definitely circling blocks every now and then, too many left turns in a row. Eventually, the van pulled off the road, if the bumps were anything to go by. The vehicle stopped and people got out. “Get up,” A voice ordered.

Danny sighed but complied. He felt strangely unafraid. He had been in some dicey situations while on the job, but he’d never experienced anything close to this. I think my brain is a little cooked. He was led around for a while before being made to sit in a chair. The bag was unceremoniously ripped from his head and his eyes were assaulted by harsh downlights, forcing him to squint.

Before him sat a very gnarly-looking fellow. A short Asian man in a suit with a ghastly scar across his face. He was well-built, the clothes barely masking his muscular frame. His eyes were cold, certainly having seen their fair share of horrors.

“G’day,” Danny felt like he wasn’t supposed to speak in a situation like this, but he felt a little giddy.

He looked around the room and found that there were half a dozen large men standing around the edge of the room, all holding bladed weapons. He didn’t fail to see that the chair he was on was placed in the middle of a large plastic sheet. Oh, this is very real. Danny’s body finally seemed to catch up with the gravity of his situation.

He had been around criminals for a few years and heard plenty of their stories, but he’d never been directly exposed to any of it. It had all been words he had been able to ignorantly dismiss. This was different. He was here.

“Danny Skala.” The scarred man finally spoke. “I’ll keep it simple. We want to know whatever that magic stuff you were using in the video was.”

Welp. “You wouldn’t believe that I don’t actually know, would you?”

The man paused for a moment. The silence was unbearable for Danny. His eyes flitted around the room eratically. The men here were killers, real kilers. Danny had been in hundreds of fights, but that’s what they had been, sparring, sanctioned fights with rules, at worst drunk idiots who got too aggressive while he was working. Danny was confident he could fight anyone, he could probably at least hang in there with the pros, but this was leagues apart.

Danny had never once felt scared during a fight. He felt fear now. These people were going to kill him. Adrenaline was dumped into his system and his heart raced. His brain seemed disconnected from his bodily experience though.

“Maybe. Nobody has any idea what’s going on these days. Things are going to get very messy. I’ve heard that you’re looking to be a pretty big figure in this magic stuff.”

Danny blanked. What was he supposed to say to that? At least it confirmed that Meylin was likely tied to this.

“I also know that you have ties to the Agostinos.”

Danny’s stomach dropped. “I used to, but nothing criminal. I’m not associated with them at all these days. I go to uni, I work in a homeless shelter, I don’t work for them, I don’t see them, I don’t talk to anyone who is even remotely connected to them. It was years ago, I have literally no ties to them anymore.” Danny’s heart was thundering in his chest. This had been his worst nightmare for years, something he thought he had finally put behind him.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“You were dating the daughter of Anton Agostino and you worked security at their venues, and you expect me to believe you have no ties to them?”

“Jesus dude, we met at a competition. I had no idea who she was. She was nuts, she cheated on me, we broke up. I stopped working for them and I haven’t had any connection to them since. C’mon man, this is ridiculous.”

“You met with Anton Agostino a few days ago.”

Danny’s wheels spun, he struggled to find any words. He knew that if he said nothing then he’d look even worse, but anything he could think of saying didn’t sound any better. “There was an incident at the place I work, I ended up in hospital. I was looking for the guy who hit me, I heard he was at the Station, I went there, Anton wanted to know why. That was it, you’ve got to believe me.”

The scarred man just looked at him and Danny’s heart dropped. It dawned on him that it didn’t matter what he said. The guy in front of him had already decided what was going to happen before he had gotten here. Danny’s breathing grew erratic. He felt his body begin to heat up. His thoughts got cloudy and he just couldn’t breathe properly. I can’t breathe. Danny gasped for air. I’m so hot. He felt sweat running down his head.

His vision was shaking, he felt like he was going to throw up. He wanted to speak, to try and talk his way out of this, but he could barely get a breath in, let alone a word out. Danny saw the man in front of him stand up and pull out a gun. Danny’s heart screamed in his chest. He felt is body roar to life. Energy flushed out of him and a large orange ball appeared before him. The ball shot forward faster than his eyes could properly register.

In the next second, only a pair of legs was standing in front of him. The building behind the man was blown open and the night sky poured in. The sounds came crashing in next. An explosion and concrete crashing against the ground. The metallic clack of a gun falling to the ground, a hand still holding it. The surprised shouts of the men in the room, those that hadn’t been hit by the blast or the collapsing building.

The remaining men charged Danny all at once. Danny stood and worked on autopilot. Suddenly the room was filled with a giant orange wall, separating most of the men from Danny. There was one man on the same side of the divide as him and Danny rushed toward him. The man was shocked by the sudden appearance of the glowing wall and was unprepared for the punch that turned his jaw to dust. Danny wasn’t sure if he was still alive, but he wasn’t moving. The wall disappeared and a new one separated another person from the group.

There were confused shouts in a language Danny couldn’t name. Not that he was really listening. He pounced on the man before he could properly react to the change in the room. Danny knocked the blade out of his hand and slammed a fist into the man’s head. There was a sound that shouldn’t have been made by a human’s punch connecting with another human’s head, and the man dropped to the floor.

Danny dropped the mana shield and found that there was nobody left in the room, the others had run. Danny collapsed on the floor. His mind was blank. His body was hot. His breathing was ragged.

Danny tried to get his breathing under control. Breathe in for four seconds, hold, breathe out for four seconds, hold. He wasn’t sure how long he repeated the breathing exercise, but eventually, his mind began to calm down. Danny looked up and jumped. A large man was standing across from him, watching.

It was the guy who had turned up the first time he had set off the alarm yesterday. He wasn’t sure he had ever gotten his name.

“Impressive kid. You blew up half a building. Killed what looks like three men as well. You’ve certainly got the chops for this.”

Danny’s blood went cold. He had killed three men. He was shocked at how little he felt. He felt nothing. Tears were running down his face, but he felt nothing.

“You haven’t thrown up, that’s usually what happens the first time. Don’t take it to heart kid, from what I’m seeing, they weren’t going to let you walk out of here.” The man walked over and put a hand on his shoulder, crouching down to Danny’s level. “It was you or them.”

The tears continued to run down his face, but his heart felt cold. “What happens now?”

The man shrugged. “Nothing. I’ll tell Madley what happened, I doubt he’ll punish you, he might want to meet you though. Life goes on. Scum like this won’t be missed by anyone.”

The man stood up and looked around the room. “Any idea why they kidnapped you? Got history with them?”

Danny just shook his head. He wasn’t in the mood to try and explain what had happened.