Anna is sitting on the couch when we filter in. She is on the edge of the cushion with her back straight, leaning forward and rapidly bobbing her heel on the floor. Her body language tells me that she is ready to bolt at a moment's notice. That makes me glad, but also kinda sad. It's good instincts after what we've all been through recently, but I'm not super happy that she's in all of this because of me. When she sees us coming in through the door calmly, she lets out a breath and relaxes her posture.
“Hey,” I say, moving over to her. “You alright?”
She gazes at me and smiles weakly. “Fifty percent of the time someone new shows up, I've had to run. I wasn't sure which way it would break this time.”
I rub my neck and study the floor. “Yeah, I'm sorry about that. My life wasn't so crazy a few years ago.”
“Mine apparently was, I just didn't know it yet.”
I look at her sadly and she gives me the same expression. Reggie clears his throat, drawing my attention away from her and reminding me that there are other people in the room.
“If we could get on with this,” he says impatiently.
Mom is smiling, Eph is looking at the ceiling, and Vithar is inspecting his robes. Well, this is awkward.
“Right. Reggie, can you catch everyone up?”
He rolls his eyes and sighs, but he does it. As he finishes explaining what he told Vithar and I, Eph is actually the one to speak up first.
“How could you people let this happen?”
“Pompous ignorance,” Mom answers.
“I wish I didn't agree,” Vithar states.
“I have one question though,” I say. “I thought that rune was only of, and this is how my father put it, ‘willing supplication’. How were you branded if you didn’t go along with the plan?”
Reggie sighs. “The bylaws of the guild state that what is good for the guild as a whole, as is determined by the nominated ruling Archwizard, is automatically agreed upon by those within. As a member of this branch the guild, the decision was binding for us all.”
“You were okay with that? That is incredibly stupid.”
“We never expected anything like this to happen.”
“Sure, no one in history has ever been taken advantage of by those in power,” I say with a roll of my eyes.
Reggie twitches and rolls his shoulders, looking uncomfortable.
“So this may go all the way to the top within your branch?” Eph asks.
“It would seem at least that high,” Reggie says.
The room is quiet for another moment.
Eph sighs. “What's on this Dirge Crystal?” he asks. Reggie opens the bag slung over his shoulder and hands the contents to Vithar.
He takes them carefully and inspects them, sitting on the couch opposite the side Anna is sitting on. “Her spellbook, the crystal and . . . A journal?” Reggie watches Vithar flip through the journal intently. “This is all, it's all gibberish.”
Reggie deflates and sighs. “I had been hoping it meant something to you,” he says. “The key to unlocking that Dirge Crystal’s contents is somewhere in this journal, but we couldn't figure it out.”
“Is there something in it that is needed?” Vithar asks.
“I have no idea, but any knowledge left behind by an Archwizard is highly sought after.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Vithar says, flipping through some of the pages. He skips to the last page and almost closes it, but opens it again, tugging at the spine.
“What?! What is it?” Reggie asks and moves closer.
“There's something here. It's a code that she showed me in some of our training sessions. It'll take me some time to remember it, but this might help me decode this journal,” Vithar says.
Reggie beams excitedly.
“You guys nerding out over academia is great and all, but how much time are we talking here?” I ask.
“I don't know, it could take a couple of days or could be a year or more? There's a lot to go over in this journal.”
I look up at the dark sky and check my watch. “So, it won't be of help to us anytime soon?”
“Unfortunately, no,” he says.
I take a deep breath and clap. “Okay, so. We've got a wizard civil war going on that, if Reggie can be believed, will definitely spill into the streets if left unchecked. We've got a refugee of said war that will be staying here, two wizards of moderate to extreme potency, a witch or whatever my mom is, a Hellhound and me. How do we approach this?” I glance at Anna. “Regardless of whatever we plan, Anna, staying here is probably the safest place you can be in the city. You are protected from magic by the wards and protected from Reggie by the Oath.” He opens his mouth to object, but I respond preemptively, “Not saying you would do anything, just trying to keep her mind at ease,” I say. He closes his mouth.
“And you've got a demon that–”
“I know what I've got, Mom,” I snap, cutting her off. I take a breath to collect and redirect my anger. “Sorry, I was going to get to that, but I'm trying to tackle one problem at a time.”
She scowls and Vithar raises his hand.
“I'm actually interested in what she was saying. You've got a demon what?” I sigh.
“We were aware that someone had Anna's phone and that that individual turned out to be Rhal. While we were letting Reggie in, he called again.”
Vithar's eyebrows rise.
“Yes, he called again and made a challenge. He said I have to show up tomorrow before noon.”
“Or?” Eph asks.
“Or, he'll start killing the people I care about.”
“He'll try,” Mom says.
“There are people I care about that don't have a means of protecting themselves from demons. And some that aren't quite ready to face a demon of Rhal's level.” Everyone glances at Anna in response to my statement. “It's not only her,” I say. “But, yes. He threatened her.”
“I'm sorry,” Anna says.
“Please don't be, none of this is your fault.”
“Can't we all just go and try to get a handle on the guild then team up on this guy?” Vithar asks.
He, Mom and Eph stare at me expectantly.
“I would love that. But Rhal is a fighter, and he's not stupid. He's careful and brutally efficient. I'm sure he has some sort of contingency for if that were to happen. I would actually prefer to do this on my own with you all taking action if it's necessary afterward.”
“By, if it's necessary afterward, you mean, if you're dead,” Mom says.
I don't respond.
“No.”
“Look, if you guys get things figured out at the guild and I haven't returned yet, you can come and help,” I say.
“Why can’t we just go now?” Mom asks.
“That wouldn’t be a good idea,” Reggie chimes in.
“At night time, the protection spells and wards placed on the guildhouse are increased exponentially. It’s an automatic empowerment and it will start in a few minutes,” Vithar adds.
“Why?” Mom questions.
“I assume it’s because that’s when more members of the supernatural community are out and about.” I say. Reggie and Vithar nod.
Mom clicks her tongue.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“So we’ll handle the guildhouse first. I’ll break off when I need to with you all coming for backup when you can. I'm sure with that much time passing, he'll think no one is coming. But he’ll either run, or do something horrible to someone–anyone–innocent if someone else shows up too early. I know it. Please, listen to me.” I can hear her grinding her teeth. “I know you don't want me to go fight him. Hell, I don't want me to go fight him. But there's more than just me at stake here. Besides, I'll have Brimstone with me.” I finish and pat my Hellhound's head.
“He's right,” Eph says. It draws a death glare from my Mom. “Look Amara, if you or anyone else goes there, he's gonna be worried less about himself and won't handle the fight right. The boy's tryin' to tell you that he wants to save more lives than just his own. And he does want to save his own, right?” He looks pointedly at me.
“Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to articulate. I'm not trying to die. I've seen Rhal fight. I have a plan, and he doesn't know about Brimstone being on my side now, so I've got some surprises. Okay?”
“I will say okay, but don't for one second think I mean it. I will do what I have to to protect my son. You didn't tell me about anything from last year until there was nothing I could do. What do you think I would have done if you had died?”
“Well, I'd be dead. So I don't know.”
“That is not funny, Mikael,” she yells. Her lip quivers and tears fill her eyes. “You could have been dead. You could have been killed and I wouldn't have known until I came here to find out why you weren't answering my calls,” she says more quietly, wiping under her eyes.
I can't tell if she’s crying because she is so frustrated with me or because she is thinking about getting that news, but I know I have crossed a line. I had no idea she was this angry about me not telling her. She has hidden it well.
“You're right. I'm sorry. But also, I had no idea who you were until a few days ago. For all I knew, I’d be calling in someone just to get them killed… So, in some respects, we're kind of even?”
There’s a collective hiss of breath drawn in through clenched teeth and everyone else gives me disapproving looks.
Mom stares at me. None of the anger has left her expression.
“Okay, so maybe not. Maybe I’m grasping. But, had I known, maybe I would have told you or asked you for help.”
She presses her lips into a hard line. That usually means she doesn't have a response, so I'll stop here.
“I am sorry, Mom. I mean it.”
She wipes her eyes again and Eph touches her shoulder, giving her a pleading look.
“Continue,” she says with a roll of her eyes.
I take a minute to reorient myself and remember where I left off. I clear my throat before beginning again.
“I plan to go with the group to the guild. If they have the usual wards up, I can help in trying to bring them down.”
Reggie takes a vial of sand and pours it on my coffee table in front of the couch.
“Yeah, that's where I like a jar of sand to be emptied,” I say.
“Oh, calm down,” he says and puts the empty vial back in his robes. He gathers energy–for something small if the ringing in my ears is an indicator–and starts to cast. The sand on the table shifts and forms lines spanning the length of the small rectangular table. It gets more intricate the more energy he channels into it and a map of the wizard's guildhouse is the finished product.
“The main door is here,” he points a finger at it. “But there are more entrances that are hidden by illusions here, here and here,” he says, moving his finger across the drawing and pointing at three spots indicating additional entrance doors I didn’t know about.
“Where do these entrances open up to?” I ask.
“It depends on the time of day,” Vithar says.
I remember Olvira asking me what time it was when we were leaving the guildhouse after the scrying last year. I thought it had something to do with the wards, but maybe she was confirming where we'd come out? That's confusing as hell.
“The wards are strongest in front of each point of egress, but that doesn't mean they're 'weak' anywhere else. I think having the–” he pauses and points to me. “Having you focus your negation technique on each door until you can bludgeon your way through the wards is our play.” I stare at him with my head tilted to the side, squinting.
“What negation technique?” I ask. I've never used them in front of him. Not in front of any wizard except…
“Archwizard Duchesne informed me of the ability and said it would be useful. I hope she was right.”
If she wasn't dead, I'd be cursing her. I don't like my enemies to know my abilities ahead of time. They have a tendency to prepare for a defense when they know–I'm not happy about it.
“Fine. I'll focus on breaking the doors.”
“You three should be covering him by any means necessary,” he says, pointing at the other three casters in the room. “There will most likely be a counter attack when his presence is made known.”
He opens his robes again and pulls out a key, placing it in the center of the map. With another effort of will, some of the sand turns red.
“Each of these lines represents a bastion of warding magic. I will monitor these and send a message when Mikael has broken through enough that he can move on. One of you can stay and work to dispel any additional defenses so that they don't manage to put them back up once you move on to the next target. I would suggest only bringing down three doors as for the fourth you would have no cover. This in and of itself will split their forces' concentration and make the infiltration all that much easier. After the third door, you can break off and engage the other demon, Mikael.”
My heart skips a beat at the thought of my showdown getting closer.
“I don't know how much resistance you'll meet. There is no telling how many they have converted or how many there were to begin with. I do wish I had that information, but I don't. This is a very dangerous task ahead of you, all of you. I thank you on behalf of the non-influenced wizards of the guild. I know it is not my place to make requests as you are doing this and I am not, but I beg that you keep as many dissenters alive as you can. For questioning and, perhaps, rehabilitation.”
There is a chorus of groans that fill the room.
“I can't believe I'm going to help wizards and not my son,” Mom says, shaking her head.
“I can't believe I'm going back,” Vithar agrees.
“I believe it. This place has been mismanaged for centuries,” Eph says.
I glance at him sidelong. He says it like he knows from experience, and I believe him.
“So, given what we know about the guildhouses defenses, we attack at dawn?” I ask. Everyone makes gestures of agreement.
The plans are finalized, and we break our meeting to all prepare in our own ways. As I head up to my room, Anna follows me up the stairs and catches my arm, causing me to turn around.
“Mike, can I ask you something?” she asks. I look at the door to my room then back at her.
“Yeah, what's up?”
She averts her eyes. “What makes you such a good guy?”
My brows draw in, creasing the space between. I don't really like the question. It makes me think of, like, 'nice guy.'
“I don't think I'm a bad guy, but I don't think I'm a good guy either. I have never liked that term. It's like calling myself a nice guy. It sounds whiny.”
She sighs.
“But maybe that's not how you mean?” I ask.
She takes a deep breath.
“Have you noticed me sticking around? Even through all of this crazy stuff?”
I give an affirmative nod. “Of course I have.
“Did you ever wonder why?”
“This may not be the right choice of words, but I haven't really put a lot of thought into it. Like you said, there's been a lot of crazy stuff happening.”
“Well, yeah,” she says, going through a circuit of fidgets with her hands. “But, why would I stick around through it?”
“Well, you've been through something kind of traumatic. I thought maybe you felt safe, and I wasn't going to mess with that. I've asked you to run when I wasn't sure I could keep you safe.”
She's quiet for a moment, and her eyes squint slightly. It looks like she's trying to pinpoint a thought or trying to choose her words carefully. “Do you remember that night that I asked you over?” she asks, changing the subject.
“Yeah, I thought you were… Nevermind.”
“Have you thought about that?”
“Yes, but again you went through something real. I wouldn't want you to think I was taking advant–”
She sighs, growls, then leans forward and presses her lips hard into mine. So hard that, if I wasn't superhuman, it may have hurt. She, however, doesn't seem to be bothered and clutches the front of my shirt. It's been awhile since I've had someone this close. While it's not unfamiliar, it feels different. I can't say that I didn't think about what it would feel like to kiss her, to be this close. I built it up in my mind, but even that didn't do it justice. There's an urgency and it's clear after my lips finally start to return it, that it’s not just from her. I know we have been locked in this for only a moment, but it feels much longer. It's like we've been dancing so close to each other, never touching–until now. Her skin is flushed and so warm that even I can feel its heat. It mingles with mine, but my own heat increases in my cheeks and my pulse beats loud in my ears. The rest of my body moves to respond just as she pulls away, and I am left standing there like an idiot with my lips pursed and my eyes closed.
“I just didn't want there to be any confusion on how I–” she starts, but I interrupt her, finally acting on my feelings.
She gasps as I grab her high on the back of her thighs and lift her, pressing her back against the wall and leaning in to return the kiss. She wraps her legs tightly around my waist and pulls me in closer, running her hands over my head and neck. My hands come up and run through her hair as well, tugging slightly on it then moving my hands back down her frame. We pull each other closer and tighter, the deep kiss becoming more intense by the second. Our tongues dance and our hands grope for more, never seeming to get enough.
I lose myself in it, and nearly forget that I'm about to go into the toughest fight of my life. The tension of the past few days melts away with this sweet release. A growl rumbles in my throat and she tenses, holding me ever tighter. I kiss down her neck and bite lightly at the skin just above her shoulder. She rewards me with an excited trill of her own, and my tongue slides across the skin gripped by my teeth.
I don’t know how much further this would have gone, but my ecstasy is cut short when something thumps on the stairs below followed by an “Oh.” I pull away, gasping, only to see Vithar standing at the foot of the stairs with Brimstone next to him. The Hound's front paws are on the first step, and they are both looking up at us.
“I was just gonna,” he starts, then his eyes shift back and forth and he turns his body stiffly away. “Um, nevermind,” he says, turning around as his face turns red. Brimstone cocks their head to the side.
(Sport?) they ask. They don’t mean it in any appropriate way.
“Go, please,” I say.
They huff, but acquiesce, stepping down and trotting away. Anna uncrosses her ankles and slides down from my height. She lets out a shaky breath as she plants her feet back down onto the floor. I hook my finger under her chin and turn her face up to look at me. Her eyes are half-lidded but bore into mine, daring me to do it again. I lean down and give her another kiss, but this one is softer–breaking away before it becomes more intense, regardless of how much I may want it.
“I,” I start, but have no idea what I want to say at this moment. “That . . . You,”
“Yeah,” she says, “Me too.” She looks up at me with a stern expression on her face. “Make sure you come back tomorrow,” she says, and smacks my cheek lightly. I watch her hips sway as she walks away, then down the stairs.
Oh, shit. I'm in trouble.