40°49'37.0"N 47°42'45.1"E – Qəbələ International Airport, Qəbələ region

20.05.2024 – 23.00 UTC +04.00

“Supposed to… what?” I asked and then finally snapped, “Who in all the hells are you? You are in my ward; one wrong word and I will hurl all that holds this ward together and implode us all.” Everyone in the crowd whimpered.

I was not bluffing. My ward would not hurt me, and yes, most people in it would regrettably die, but I had just about enough. Outside this corner of the airport, a battle between covens was claiming more lives by the second, and I could pretty much bet that all of us were doomed anyway if we were to sit here.

“I am Rəşid,” he said, “and this has nothing to do with you, little bird.”

He turned and nodded at Ramin.

“Do I fucking know you?” Ramin spat at him, his voice cracking like a scared teenager’s. I asked myself if this was all theatrics and Ramin held the answers all along, but the man looked more frightened and confused than I did.

“It does not matter. You cannot be caught in the crossfire. You have to come with me Shadow,” he responded and then turned to me, “If you care at all about him, you have to let him come with me.”

“How can I even trust a word that comes out of your mouth?” I asked.

“Try and see – do you reckon you can whisper faster than my screams?” He threatened. People scurried even further away, sensing that both of us could snap any moment and unleash whatever Curses we were holding back.

“No! No!” Ramin yelled and ran in the middle, “Whoever you are, listen to me, either we all leave safe, or you can fuck off!”

Rəşid’s expression turned sour for the first time in a while.

“This is not a game Shadow, this is bigger than all of these random people. They were plain lucky they were with you when Starling landed. She and her coven will unleash hell in Qəbələ,” he said, waiting for Ramin’s reaction.

“I am not following you, unless we all here leave this place safe,” he said, unwavering.

I felt a knot tighten up in my stomach. It was a combination of shame and second-guessing.

Confusingly, I was just another starling for years. I always thought we were the protectors and wardens of this part of the country. Shadows were unfortunate Cursed spawns, and Adil’s men were the evil men in black lurking in every corner.

But there I was, witnessing a massacre committed by Starlings, while men like Rəşid were trying to hold them off. And then Ramin, a half-breed shadow, was the only one actually asking to save lives risking his very own.

I looked at Rəşid. I could see he was thinking, but was he wondering the same thing? How unlikely was a man of Adil, a Starling, and a Shadow to collaborate to save a group of random travelers?

“We need a way out of Qəbələ. Once this airport falls, we cannot outrun the witches in starling form,” he said. He did not dare say out loud what was heavily implied: a temporary alliance.

“I can make us unseen, and you can make us unheard,” I said, “we have the means to escape if we make a combined hex.”

“But no means of transportation,” he retorted tensely.

“Are you both dim?” Ramin said and chuckled. We both looked at him. “This is an airport.”

He pointed outside the store, through the now raging battlefield. Airplanes stood still and waiting, some perhaps even half-boarded, judging from the light inside.

“I don’t know what we even do if we get into one,” I said.

“It is our best shot,” Rəşid said, his expression brightening up, “Starling could never catch us in an airplane.”

“And will Adil lose your tracks?” I asked him. I needed to hear him say at least, that his boss won’t come knocking. He could lie, for all I knew.

“For sure. Well, unless we crash.”

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I bit my lip.

“Okay listen up everyone!” Ramin turned to the crowd. "You all need to come around!"

“No,” Rəşid said, and I nodded. There was only one way we could use our Curses together to get through this.

“They need to form a line,” I said.

“Can you make a path with your dust?” Rəşid asked, and I nodded.

“Listen up everyone. You will all have to cross through the glass – the path will be lit up for you and will show you the way. We will all be unseen and unheard, even between among us.”

“If you stray from the path, we cannot protect you. Once you are out, you cannot be back again.”

“We cannot talk to you once we are out there, we cannot guide you. You will have to simply follow the path,” I added.

Rəşid looked at me. We both knew how this could go wrong in a lot of ways, and this would be the most difficult for the two of us.

“This does not sound so hard,” Ramin said to us, “Alright you heard them! Line up!”

There were exactly twenty-seven people in the store. Ramin would be in the front, Rəşid and I would be in the vanguard holding the path together. It was the only way to have a combined hex, besides, I would not dare have him outside my personal ward and vision.

Eager to join the line in the front, a group of five young men volunteered to be behind Ramin. They were heading normally for their holidays if I were to judge by their flower shirts. No one wanted to be the first, but the youngest among them, perhaps around twenty years old, volunteered the group.

“We all have to escape anyway,” the man said optimistically.

Behind them was a group of six middle-aged women. They did not know each other, I thought, but they seemed ready to form a group together right after. Right after them was a family of four: two middle-school boys and their parents. The father worried me a lot, he was very shaken and hardly spoke, while the mother was commanding the two boys.

As I walked past heading to the back of the line, the father grabbed my arm.

“Will I be able to see my boys?”

“Not once we start walking. They have to follow the path, and they will be safe.”

Rəşid was already trying to clear a dispute with the last of the nine men behind the family. An old man wearing a white shirt insisted he had to be right after the family until a younger man said worryingly:

“What if the old man trips and falls, and we all stumble on him? We all die!”

This was a possibility. Rəşid tried to find a compromise and rearrange the men, but, besides a man in his forties, somehow overweight and with a kind smile, no one wanted to be in the back of the line.

As I took my position at the back of the line, a scream echoed outside the store. Glass was raised from the ground, and hurled into the fight’s heart, somewhere outside our field of vision from the store. Gunshots were heard in response.

“Perhaps the army will get here and save us from the Əziyyət,” a thirty-year old man yelled, still holding onto his suitcase.

I looked at Rəşid who nodded negatively. We both knew if the military reached this store, they would trust no survivors to tell the story of two Cursed and a Shadow.

“You can stay here if you want, and try your luck,” I said, “but we have to go now.” Gunshots in the background further accentuated my command. There was no time to spare.

Rəşid and I sat at the back of the line, as everyone quickly fell into shape. I saw the father who had grabbed my hand before, quickly kissing his son’s head on his front.

I heard some of the women pray in the front. That was good. Whatever could keep these people’s spirits alive for the trial ahead, was useful.

“Let my hand trap your whisper,” Rəşid said.

I glanced at him with my peripheral vision. There was a hint of shame in his voice. Perhaps, because he had already done that in the past, when he tried to kill me.

Rəşid placed one of his hands on my back, almost embracing me, and his other hand in front of my mouth.

I nodded in consent, and I whispered.

Show us the path, I said.

I felt my breath taken away, not by violent, but rather gentle hands. Not depleted by oxygen but guided away by other lungs.

“Sh,” Rəşid shushed reassuringly, and as he did, he released my breath again, to fly through the line of people in front of us. The wall of glass and sugar dust lit up. From the very front, Ramin looked right back at us. Rəşid and I nodded in unison, and he stepped through the golden whirl of dust.

The young men behind him followed, then the women and the family of four. Then the men in front of us, led by the man who had previously pondered staying back.

And finally, we crossed the boundary. The golden divide of our combined curses was now levitating in front of us, creating a path amidst the chaos. Bullets crossing diverted, witches fighting avoided it, and hexes turned into autumn leaves as they hit its wall, keeping everyone inside safe.

Rəşid and I could see and hear everyone. This was our Curse to bear after all, and within our wards. I could hear the women in the front, they still somehow prayed in unison, although they could not hear each other.

“They might make it,” Rəşid said.

“This is not how a Hex of Lot goes,” I said, trying to remind myself that this would still be the only real chance of survival for everyone. Once we reached any of the airplanes, these people would have a real chance of escaping. And with them, Ramin and I.