Felicity

Staring at my fingers as they drummed against the glass conference table, my mind kept recalling Sabine being brought into the medical wing. Seeing her rolled down to the Quartz Room, face bruised, and limbs broken. Something in me shattered at that moment.

Sabine has always been so strong. So willful. At times, her strength far exceeded even that of her cousins. Staring at her, all I could see in her face was the little girl. The one who always hugged my leg as soon as I would step through the front door from work. The little girl who would try to bribe me to stay home from work with drawings she made just for me. Lying there on the gurney, I realized she could very well have died, and the only memories she would’ve had of her mother would’ve been of me choosing to walk out the door every day. Choosing my work over her.

As the doors to the conference room opened, I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes and stood. Sheila and Robert stepped into the room. “Dr. Bordeaux. Professor Caldwell. Thank you both for meeting with me.

Sheila took her lab coat off before placing it on the back of a chair. “What’s this all about Felicity? Why are we in the conference room and not in the auditorium? You said you wanted to convene the council.”

Before answering her question, I snapped my fingers and manifested a red dome to keep our conversation private. “Because we don’t need to alarm one hundred and ninety-five countries before we have a better handle on the situation. This needs to stay in house for now.”

Robert walked to the other side of the conference table across from Sheila to sit down. “Well, then let’s please get this meeting started. I have a stack of tests to grade and a bottle of bourbon waiting for me at home.”

I gave Robert a withering look before sitting back down. “Over the last few days, there have been an unprecedented number of incidents occurring. The first of which happened Thursday at midnight. For the first time in its existence, the 13th Hour collapsed.” Sheila’s mouth immediately started to move, but I raised a hand to stop her. “It lasted for a brief moment before it reconstituted itself.”

Sheila lifted her hand this time and waited for me to nod so that she could speak. “Are the tears in the 13th Hour getting worse? I know the reports have shown an increase in escaped entities, but you mentioned in our last briefing that the kids have been doing a good job at retrieving the escapees and sealing up the holes.”

Before I could answer her, Robert waved his hand around expectantly. “I think the more obvious question is how many escaped in that brief moment?”

I took a deep breath while choosing the best approach for the next issue. “During a routine assessment Friday evening, the guardians were able to take inventory of the still imprisoned entities and found that none of those that are cataloged were able to flee in that frame of time.” Sheila looked understandably confused considering she had read the report detailing Sabine’s attack. With what I had to say next, standing felt more appropriate. “However, late last night, Sabine was attacked by an entity and, as Sheila knows, sustained severe injuries.”

Robert’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he looked back and forth between me and Sheila. “Severe injuries? They’ve been guarding the 13th Hour for centuries and have never gotten so much as a scratch.”

I cleared my throat before continuing. “Somehow, we have no record of this malevolent being. Even worse, this particular entity is unlike any the guardians have ever faced and as such, Sabine was vastly unprepared for what it was capable of. From what we have ascertained from the event, this entity is able to alter reality around its victims to the point of taking them into a pocket dimension.” Both Sheila and Robert looked shocked. “Secondly, and probably the most concerning, the entity is able to neutralize magic, making it impossible for any witch to use their abilities on it.” Sheila let out a gasp before covering her mouth, and Robert looked completely frozen in horror. With, yet, another deep breath, I went on. “On top of all of this new information--.”

Robert lunged forward in his seat. “There’s more?!”

I lightly nodded my head at him and prepared to continue when a knock came from the double doors. After quickly placing a finger to my lips for the doctor and professor to remain quiet, I snapped my fingers to bring down the red dome. With a steady stride, I made my way over to the doors. Gripping both handles, I pulled the doors open, ready to tell whomever it was that now was not the time.

As the woman on the other side of the doors turned to face me, my mouth fell open. “Prudence?”

She tucked a few strands of her raven-black hair behind her ear as she tilted her head and smiled at me. “It’s so good to see you, Felicity.”

I was in shock as we embraced one another. “What are you doing here?” My eyes looked behind her as we hugged and that’s when I saw him standing against a wall.

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Prudence let go of our embrace before seeing the look on my face. She rubbed my shoulder and smiled. “We have something important we need to discuss, but I’ll wait in the conference room to give the two of you a minute.

I gave her a small nod before she walked through the doors and closed them behind her. Taking soft steps, I approached my husband. “Hello, Ben.”

He kept his arms crossed while looking down at the floor. “I flew back as soon as I got your message.” With his left foot, he pushed off the wall and closed the distance between us. There were heavy bags under his eyes and his light-brown hair was messy. “I ran into Prudence on my way down from seeing Sabine and offered to show her where the conference room was.”

It was obvious to me that he was having as much of a hard time with the situation as I was. Maybe even more so since he knew far less about what was happening. “If you like, when I finish with this meeting, we can go back and see her together.”

Ben ran his hands through his hair while looking up. “I think she just wants to be alone right now. I was barely in there five minutes before she asked to be by herself.” He let out a heavy sigh and placed his hands on his hips. “Anyway, I’m just going to head home and let her rest. I’ll come back tomorrow to see her in the morning.”

He started to turn, but I reached out to lightly grab his shoulder. “Wait,” I said before he looked back at me. “If you’re not too tired later, perhaps you and I can have dinner together. If I’m being honest, I could really use the company right now.”

Ben’s facial expressions twisted in confusion for a moment before changing back to normal. “Uh, yeah, I guess I could use some as well. Just call me when you’re headed home.” With a small nod, he excused himself and walked away.

I took a moment to calm the rising emotions inside me and turned to the doors. After stepping through and closing them, I brought the red dome back up while facing the three people in the room. Looking at Prudence, I gestured toward the other two people. “Prudence, this is Dr. Bordeaux and Professor Caldwell.” She gave me a light nod before I walked back to the head of the conference table. “They are both associates of mine and active council members for the Department of Metaphysical Security.”

Prudence stood up from her chair and waved a hand from Robert to Sheila. “And it is safe to speak freely in front of them?”

I looked directly into Prudence’s eyes. “Absolutely. They’re fully vetted and can be trusted.”

Sheila let out a small laugh. “And by fully vetted, she means she has our minds swabbed every other week.”

Prudence looked unsure for a moment but still spoke. “I apologize for coming here unannounced, but this couldn’t wait. A few days ago, I started receiving omens. They’ve been appearing to me in every manner from spectral figures to violent premonitions. At first, they were hard to understand, but with each day since, they’ve become clearer. Very soon, many people are going to die.”

I leaned forward in the chair as I studied Prudence’s words. “You’re sure about this?”

She quickly nodded her head. “That is the only thing I’m sure about. And that is not all. In my most recent visions, I saw the faces of your daughter and nephews. Something is coming for them and is going to kill a lot of people in the process.”

Robert jumped up from his chair with a look of aggravation. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be rude,” he said turning to me. “But who exactly is this person and what makes this twenty-something such a credible source.”

My eyes narrowed at him as I rose from my own chair. “Well, for starters, Prudence is a banshee. She is a living warning of coming deaths. Furthermore, she is over three hundred years old and has had more experiences dealing with death and danger than you ever will in three lifetimes. Now,” I said through clenched teeth. “Sit down, Robert.”

Prudence’s eyebrows were raised as she waited for me to sit back down. “That’s actually all I had to say. And, that I will help in any way needed.”

I gave Prudence a small smile as she sat back down as well. “Thank you, Prudence. Of course, we appreciate you coming to deliver this information and offering us your help. As I was explaining to my colleagues, we’re dealing with an entity that escaped from the 13th Hour, the likes of which we have never encountered. It would be quite coincidental if these events and your omens didn’t align. Along with this powerful new entity and strange development with the 13th Hour, there seems to be someone caught amid all this.” Looking around the room, I knew there would be no going back after this. “Alexia Drake. Sheila and Robert, the both of you met her on Friday. Her case may be the strangest of all. She has been visited three times by this dangerous entity, and yet, it seems more interested in observing her, rather than causing her any harm.”

Sheila gasped for a moment as she put her hand to her chest. “Oh, that poor, sweet girl. Why would an entity be concerned with stalking her?”

I rocked back in my chair for a moment before turning it from one side to the other. “That leads us to the final bits of disturbing information in all of this. Information that makes absolutely no sense,” I said with a sigh while rubbing my temples. “Sheila, you probably put this together already from seeing in The Quartz Room but for everyone else, Alexia is, in fact, a witch, and an extremely powerful one at that. What is so alarming is the fact that her magic only manifested a few days ago. Until Thursday night, she had never done magic in her life.” Robert looked incredulous and ready to make a retort, but I put my finger up to him. “One more thing, and then I will open the floor. Not only did Alexia’s magic just recently manifest, but the young girl possesses two forces of magic within her. And I don’t even know how this is possible, but the second force of magic within her is time-based. On two separate occasions, Alexia has been able to successfully reverse time. Worse of all, she has absolutely no control over either magic and is a walking, talking atomic bomb waiting to explode.” After finally having brought everyone completely up to speed, I raised my hands towards the room to let them know I was done.

Robert and Sheila looked completely stunned. Prudence, however, seemed intrigued. “You said the girl is able to freely manipulate time?” She asked to which I nodded. “I think I might know someone in Hartford that might be able to help her.”