During the day, while the enemy was weak and our gargoyles were asleep, Steph and I set out to locate the hideout. Only the shisa would be at the house to guard it, but I hoped my power would allow a connection so that I would be notified if there was trouble. I rented a car and drove out to Virginia with Steph, although traffic in the Belt was a bitch. At the moment, we were driving among tall houses with pillars, chandeliers, and all that fancy stuff I’d never been exposed to when growing up.

“You remember it being around here, right?” I asked, hating the humidity of the D.C. summer.

She nodded. “It’s like there’s a voice calling me back. A voice in here,” she held a hand to her chest, “and it’s… cold.”

“The voice?” I thought about it. “That checks out.”

Her hand reached out and found mine, although her eyes were focused on our surroundings. If she couldn’t locate the enemy’s headquarters, this journey would have been for nothing, but we had to try.

“I have to ask,” I said as we came to a stoplight, waiting. No cars there, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

“What?”

“The dunes…”

She laughed and bit her lip.

“So, you remember that?” I frowned, confused. “But…”

“Like the other times, not clearly. Not like it was me. When you say, ‘the dunes,’ I get these images like I watched a porn about two people going at it in a sandy, horrible situation.” She laughed. “Hey, I’m not sad to not remember all of that—sand shouldn’t be involved in certain activities.”

“Those were your exact words when we were done!”

“Really?” She motioned for me to go, as the light was green. “I’m thinking… it’s like it was still me, kinda like a zombie, you know? Basic instincts were still with me.”

“You got me that snow globe from the lodge where we met…”

“Listen, Jericho…” She ran a hand through her long, now-white hair. “None of this is easy for me, but yeah, that’s something I would’ve done. It’s also something a fake version of me would’ve done, or cursed version, to try and earn your favor, right? So, I don’t know what to say, because I don’t know if it was a latent version of me making some of those choices, or someone else for me.”

“Sure.” I glanced over as we came to a fork in the road. Her eyes flashed red, and she indicated the road to our right.

“Going forward though, that’s all going to be different. In part, because I’m sharing you with Ebrill, apparently.”

“That…”

“That.”

“So, it does bother you. Right?”

“Honestly,” she gestured for another turn, “no.”

“Why not?”

She laughed. “You want me to be jealous, don’t you? Well, sorry. I’m the type of girl to get myself cursed in a search for more magic, to have a wraith knight army, in a sense. To be honest, Ebrill’s hot. I kind of like the idea.”

“Damn. Nice?” I laughed. “This is all uncharted territory for me. I don’t know what I’m supposed to think.”

“Shut the fuck up, then. You get two hotties licking your nuts, you cum and smile. No doubting or wondering what to think about it.”

“True.” I was all grins, until a thought hit me. “Wait, you and the wraith knights aren’t…?”

“God, no.” She hit me. “They’re basically ghosts, if even that. More like forces with no other purpose but to attack—as far as I know, they were never actually alive. They certainly weren’t my lovers, or aren’t, or anything like that if that’s what you were implying.”

“Asking, not implying. And good.”

She gestured for another turn. The houses were much larger and spread out here. She perked up, eyes searching, glowing a slight red.

“We’re close?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Oh, shit,” she said.

“What?” I turned, looking for what she had spotted, and had to swerve when I nearly went right into oncoming traffic.

“Nothing like that,” she said, then turned to me, frowning. “I just remembered… Beaverton. That night at your friend’s place.”

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

I stiffened as I recalled that drunken evening. We had gone for my buddy’s birthday and crashed in his guest room, becoming quite intimate that night. The next day she had been sore, although neither of us had even remembered it until the day after that. She had been mad at me for a week, and I felt like a jerk for letting it happen while we were both so toasted. Then again, I’d been just as drunk and out of it, so I had a hard time accepting the guilt.

Still, now that I realized she had been cursed, the whole situation took on a new meaning. “Damn.”

“Yeah, I’d say.”

“I mean, it’s hitting me that all of this—I mean, it’s horrible. In a sense, if you were cursed—isn’t that like I was fooling around with a drugged-up chick?”

“First, you had no way of knowing,” she replied. “Second… you can make it up to me.”

“Oh?”

“You’re hot, and you seem nice. Everything I remember from our time was great, but I seem to remember myself being more giving than you were. At my insistence, I know, but…”

“Wait, what? I’d be happy to accommodate right now—”

“Aw, dang. We’re here.”

I pursed my lips in a pout and pulled over to what looked like a large church. “No way.”

She shook her head. “Not the church, but I remember passing it. One of these houses, for sure.”

The heat and humidity hit me hard when we stepped out of the car, but not as hard as the sight of Fatiha in the park nearby. She sat on a bench, posture straight, staring at us with hands folded in her lap. Both hands, as she had somehow found a way to heal it back on, or grow another. Then again, this was all magic largely beyond my comprehension, so what did I know?

She was waiting.

“What brings you two so far from home?” Her voice carried, barely more than a whisper, but audible from far away.

We approached, reaching the gate of the park, where we stopped. “You can still pull back,” I said. “Call it quits Nobody has to be hurt.”

She laughed. “If your aunt had known how simple you were, I doubt she ever would have entrusted so much of her plan to you. Lucky me.”

I glared, holding her gaze. After a few beats of this, I grunted. “Then we’re done. One thing, though—how is it that my aunt didn’t recognize you for who you are?”

“She only ever knew me as the one with magic,” she replied. “When my magic was gone, or mostly gone, so was my imprint, the way she would have recognized me after so much time.”

I scrunched my nose, processing this, then nodded. “And you… what, want your magic back?”

“So much more than that,” Fatiha replied with an evil smile. “My powers, yours. All.”

“For what ends?” Steph asked.

“Magic should never be hidden. Never be stolen, certainly.” Her eyes penetrated my soul, boiling deep within.

“And never, ever be used to hurt others,” I countered. “Unless they need to be stopped, unless they are the ones using it to commit evil.”

Her lip twitched. She turned, waving me off. “You have until midnight to hand over the Liahona. We will come to collect.”

We stood there for a while, watching her walk off. Cars passed, all oblivious to the fact that evil incarnate was hiding out so close to their homes. A breeze rustled the leaves above, as if none of the chaos mattered, as if peace could really exist in this world.

Of course, the Virginia heat and humidity served as an annoying reminder of what was to come. My hand went to the inner pocket of my jacket where I had stored the Liahona. With our powers, safer to keep it close.

“We’re still coming for her, right?” Steph asked, opening the gate and going in to sit on a bench. I followed and did the same.

“You have a good idea where she’ll be?”

Steph grinned. “One of my wraith knights is following her right now. If she still had her full magic, she would know—but she doesn’t.”

“Sly dog.” I chuckled. “But, I thought your type of magic doesn’t work in the day?”

“It works, but on a very reduced level. They could attack us right now and still prove to be a challenge, but with your transmutation spells, I can’t imagine they would have much chance of success.”

“Speaking of which.” I pulled up my screen and focused on making transmutation spell options appear. “I’m hoping I can get more specific with that side of my magic. And…” Sure enough, a new page appeared. I gave Steph a satisfied nod.

“What do you see?”

“A few options, such as ones I already know. At my level—er, power level, I guess—there’s what I’ve done so far, like animating objects as I did with the house, kind of.”

“Badass, I might add.”

“Ooh, here’s a fun one. It looks like I can change the air to basically be poison, or even make it… solid?”

“So, you can attack people by changing the air they breathe, nice.” She leaned back in thought. “I guess the latter can be used for shields?”

“Or making a temporary prison.”

“Nice.” She eyed me, waiting for more.

“Aside from that, it’s mostly silly stuff, but… no way.” I stared at the words for a moment, then grinned. “Shape-shifting.”

“As in… you can actually become a wolf and stuff like that?”

I shrugged, glanced around, and tried it. My whole body was instantly wracked with pain, my skin feeling like it was being torn off. Blood formed in lines on my arms, and I stopped, staring in horror at what I had done.

“Fuck me,” she said, eyes wide.

My mouth was dry, everything hurt, and I felt like an idiot. So much so, that all I could do was sit there and stare as the blood started to trail my skin, forming lines between hairs.

“What… was that?” Steph asked.

“A spell I’m never trying again,” I replied. “No way in fucking hell.”

She nodded, slowly. “Maybe when you’re much more powerful? When you can heal? Speaking of… can you? Please, because this… is disgusting.”

I almost laughed, but it was the sort of hysterical laugh that was almost a whimper. My screen was still up, and while I didn’t see anything about healing on there, I focused on my wounds and timidly pressed with my mind. Nothing. Licking my lips and thinking instead of it like an ‘undo,’ I tried again. This time, while the pain was still lingering and blood still on my skin, the wounds closed.

“Undo,” I said, and shrugged. “As close to healing as I can get, for now anyway.”

With a sigh, she said, “I’m glad I don’t have your magic. No offense, but… it’s too much.”

“I’m right there with you, at the moment.”

A shimmer of light appeared, and movement as if a shadow leaped up, and then Steph shuddered.

“Your wraith knight?” I asked.

She nodded. “We have their location.”

“Good.” The pain was starting to subside, at least, so I stood and motioned back to the car. “Let’s prepare for tonight. You should drive now, though. I’m a bit… shook up.”

“I’d imagine.” She caught the keys, moved to the driver’s side and got in.

Once we were on the road, the AC blasting, I closed my eyes and relaxed, only noticing as sleep took me that the pain was finally gone. And this time, when I slept, there was no travel. Not even any dreams.

Just sleep.