Chapter 04 — The Pledge

  Drew climbed into his passenger seat. Jonathan felt a tingle of anticipation and anxiety—he had no idea what he might have just agreed to, but no matter where they went, he was already excited. No more hiding.

  "Where to?" he asked again.

  "It's a club on the east side," said Drew. "The Box."

  "'The Box'," repeated Jonathan dubiously. "Seriously? Who came up with that?"

  Drew shrugged. "Ask him about it yourself if you want. He just bought it and renamed it like a month ago. He still gets a good crowd every night."

  They set off. Drew directed him through the dark streets—night had set in early, as usual for the end of December. Jonathan's foot tapped impatiently on the floor of the car, playing out the extra energy building up in his body. He just wanted to get there already, but unless he could fly like Hailey, they were already going as fast as he could safely travel.

  "Here," said Drew, taking them back off the highway. "It'll be on the right, and you want to drive around back when we get there."

  "So he owns this whole place?" asked Jonathan. "Are we safe here?"

  "Of course. Totally safe." Drew grinned. "Don't forget man, we can do magic."

  "Doesn't always save you," Jonathan muttered.

  He winced. "...Yeah. But that's why this group exists. We're not just gonna hold each other's hands and hope for the world to step in anymore. It's time for us to start doing something."

  Jonathan nodded. "Sounds good to me."

  "There it is," said Drew, pointing ahead.

  Sure enough, a squat building was approaching fast. Jonathan didn't see any kind of sign on the outside, but based on the people already gathering for the Friday night club scene, Drew was right—the place was doing just fine, dumb name or not. Jonathan pulled in and drove around the building to the back, finding seemingly the last parking space available for a block or more.

  "This way," said Drew as they climbed out. Jonathan followed, anticipation growing with every step. They were walking toward the dumpsters in the back, which stood in a small cutout of the square building, behind a padlocked fence. "You want to do the honors?" he added, gesturing at the padlock.

  Jonathan grinned. Reaching out with his essence, Jonathan felt for the tumblers inside, pushing each one until he felt them slide into place. A quick twist and pull, and the shackle sprung open. Jonathan flourished his hand, gesturing Drew forward.

  "How do you do that so fast?" he asked, relocking the gate behind them.

  A lot of practice at home. He smiled. "Did you forget I'm a magician?"

  "Ha ha." Drew rolled his eyes. "Come on."

  Jonathan glanced around at the blank walls surrounding them. He knew better than to assume there wasn't some kind of trick. Reaching out with his essence again, a spell pulsed against one wall, though he dared not probe further in case he interfered with it somehow—or worse, set off a trap.

  Drew walked forward without hesitation and reached out for the apparently blank wall. His hand vanished as it crossed the line of the spell, and suddenly a door swung open right in front of them. Drew walked in, and Jonathan hurried to follow, pulling it shut behind them.

  Immediately, he felt the pulse of the club beyond. The bass thump practically ignored the thin walls inside the building, and the backroom was no exception. Another doorway awaited, with another invisibility spell layered on it. Jonathan glanced behind him and saw the first was lined with gemstones—self powered. Gotta figure out how to do that…

  Drew waited a few seconds before walking through to the next area. There was no actual door this time, and as Jonathan passed through the opaque illusion blocking the entry, he finally saw the group Drew had been talking about. To his surprise, he already knew one of them.

  "About time," said Kyle Galverson, waving lazily at them.

  Two others sat nearby, both on their phones. The guy glanced up at them and nodded—but not an inch more response than that. Across from him on the couch, a girl with her arm in a sling, manipulating her phone with her other hand. She didn't acknowledge them in the slightest. Both seemed about their age, as Kyle was. Jonathan pegged the whole group as early twenties, without much variation.

  "Is he here yet?" asked the girl, not taking her eyes off the screen. Her voice had a perpetual exhausted quality to it.

  "No, and stop asking that," said Kyle.

  "I'm starting to fall asleep over here," she muttered.

  "Already?" He glanced at the clock. "It's only ten. Didn't you sleep til noon?"

  "New drugs."

  "It's worse?" asked the other guy, setting his phone down.

  She nodded, eyes still locked to her own. "My doctor's trying something different. Hoping it'll stabilize me."

  "Something happen to her? Bad ritual?" Jonathan whispered to Drew. Unfortunately, the pulse of the club wasn't as overwhelming as he thought—or she had really good hearing.

  "Nope, just bipolar," she sighed. "Speaking of magic though, shouldn't you be doing something, Kyle?"

  "Oh, duh." Kyle turned to Jonathan. "This is gonna sound dumb, but since I actually haven't ever seen you do magic, I gotta scan you."

  "What?"

  He dug into his jacket and pulled out a plain grey stone, etched with a symbol on the top. Jonathan recoiled—he hadn't seen an identifying stone since Jeremy pickpocketed one off the guy who'd been tracking him. These days, everyone knew what they were. The cache of captured stones from Rallsburg had been reported as part of the preliminary hearings for Brian Hendricks and his people, prior to their full trial.

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  "Everybody here has to be awakened, no exceptions," said Kyle. "Can't trust a mundy here. But we don't scan people without permission. So… yes or no?"

  "Yes, obviously," said Jonathan with a shrug. "What would happen if I said no?"

  "We'd fuck you up," said the girl, but despite the attempt, it came off as tired and weak.

  "You'd have to leave," corrected the guy on the other couch. "Nina exaggerates."

  "Ya ikh ub'yu," said Nina. Jonathan recognized it as Russian, but he didn't have a clue what she'd actually said. Something rude, probably, based on what she's like so far.

  "Yeah, all good," said Kyle finally. He pocketed the stone again. "Anyway, that's Nina, and the other guy is Corbin. All that's left is the guy who owns the place."

  "Who?" asked Jonathan curiously.

  "Not yet," said Corbin.

  "Yeah, he'll want to make his big entrance for you," said Nina. She sighed. "Better be here soon, before I pass out."

  "I didn't think that was a side effect of bipolar meds," said Kyle.

  "It isn't," said Nina. "But it's pushing me way more to the other side and that's making me just want to go to sleep. I gotta get this adjusted."

  "Why not just take less?" asked Jonathan.

  "Because I don't have a medical license," Nina shot back. "I don't know how this stuff works, and technically some of it is basically poison."

  Drew had taken a seat by now on the open couch. There were four set around a round table in the center of the room. Nina completely dominated one, while Corbin was wedged into the far corner of the couch opposite, like he was trying to take up as little space as possible. Kyle was in the far couch, now with his own phone out, so Jonathan had to pick someone to sit with, or just stay standing all night.

  Feeling like he was making a commitment somehow, Jonathan took a seat next to Drew. Despite being the most obvious choice, it still felt like a huge moment. Of course, the moment he sat down, the whole room was just back to an uncomfortable silence, as the other three sat on their phones. He felt antsy again, waiting for something to happen, all that buildup for nothing yet.

  "So what's actually going on here, anyway?" asked Jonathan, glancing at his friend. "Do you guys just come here after group every week?"

  "It's a nice place to hang out," said Drew with a shrug. "Safe, anyway. Thanks to Kyle, nothing is getting in here without our okay."

  "Plus, y'know," said Kyle, jerking his head toward the pounding music. "Tons of hot girls right through there. All of us are allowed in there, even if you're not over twenty one like Corbin."

  "Clubbing's not my scene," said the other guy.

  I'm not twenty-one either… Drew is, though. "Aren't we going to… you know, do something?" asked Jonathan impatiently. "I thought that's why you invited me here."

  "Like what?" asked Kyle.

  "...Drew said this was a group for people who thought sitting back and doing nothing wasn't going to work. So… what now?"

  "We're still waiting on him," said Corbin.

  "Who?" asked Jonathan, now getting really irritated.

  "Me, 'course."

  A man strolled in through the door leading back into the club, brushing long brown hair out of his face. Under his arm was a huge roll of white paper. He flashed a crooked grin across the room, shrugging off his long overcoat and hanging it up before he went on.

  "See you finally brought the new guy, Drew," he went on, a faint drawl to his words. Jonathan felt like he should know the man, but couldn't quite place him. "Welcome to our little home-away-from-home here."

  "...Thanks," said Jonathan.

  "Well, I'm guessin' by your expression, you're gettin' a bit impatient sittin' around waitin', huh?"

  He nodded. Finally, somebody who gets right to the point. "I'm here to actually do something."

  The guy grinned again, toothy and crooked—the sort of smile that screamed something shifty and unscrupulous just under the surface. "Came to the right place, sure as sure. Lucky for you, we're recruitin', too."

  "Recruiting for what?"

  "Julian, just get on with the pledge already," murmured Nina. Jonathan glanced over, and her eyes were drooping heavily. Every few seconds, she shook herself back awake.

  He turned back to Julian. "The pledge?"

  "Pledge, promise, as you like it," said Julian with a shrug. "You gotta swear loyalty."

  "Swear loyalty to what?"

  "To us," said Corbin.

  Julian nodded. "Either you're in or you're out. If you're in, you're with this group. Total loyalty, absolute secrecy. You seen… what do you call it? Fight Club."

  "Don't talk about it?" said Jonathan.

  "Right! Don't talk about it. We ain't a fight club or any shit like that, but you damn well better not talk about us." Julian grinned. "Asides, we got magic on our side. You talk, we'll figure it out, and you can bet your mother's best china we'll find you afterward."

  "What do you need me to do?"

  "Do your thing, Kyle," said Julian with a lazy wave of his hand.

  Kyle got to his feet, and almost immediately, Jonathan sensed a spell being cast. He couldn't quite tell what it was, but he knew Kyle was doing something, and the magic centered on him. Jonathan wasn't exactly afraid—he was confident that Mason's Law would protect him—but a shiver of fear ran up his spine nonetheless.

  "Go ahead," said Kyle.

  "Aight. Is your name Jonathan Hudson?" asked Julian.

  "Yes," said Jonathan—an instant before realizing that was a mistake.

  "Lie," said Kyle, glancing at Julian. The whole room perked up at that—both Nina and Corbin stared at Jonathan with newfound suspicion, while Drew simply looked confused. Jonathan winced.

  "...Well now," said Julian, rubbing his hand on his chin. "What's your real name, kid?"

  "It's my stage name," said Jonathan reluctantly. "My real name's Jonathan Waldstein."

  "True," said Kyle.

  "We'll let that one slide, I guess," said Julian. "Lord knows I've had to hide my name more than once with all this shit. Movin' along…" His voice became more pompous, as if announcing something, and dropped his accent almost entirely. "Do you plan any hostile action toward this group or any member of it?"

  "No."

  "Do you plan to tell anyone outside this group about anything we do here?"

  "No."

  "Have you ever worked with or for, knowingly or unknowingly, Brian Hendricks or any other awakened hate group?"

  "No."

  The questions went on like that for a while—Julian asking every variation he could, Jonathan answering clearly and honestly. Kyle never spoke again, to his relief, even on the answers where he wasn't as confident. After all, he didn't plan to tell anyone outside the group, but he did have a new session with his therapist… and depending on how the night went, it could definitely come up.

  "Do you want to strike back at them?" asked Julian.

  "Yes," said Jonathan firmly. "It's time."

  "...All true," said Kyle finally.

  "Well, then. Final question," said Julian, his accent finally back. "Round here, we've been takin' a pledge. Repeat it after me, mmkay?"

  As Julian spoke each phrase, Jonathan repeated it. With each word, he felt a growing sense of importance—of purpose. This was what he'd been searching for. No more hiding in fear or running off to the few openly magical places in the world. Now, he had real allies, instead of a support group too complacent to act. No more waiting for the enemy to strike before doing anything about it.

  Now it's our turn.

  "I pledge to the assembled here that I will work toward a better world for all awakened, no matter the cost. I will protect our fellow awakened and defend against those who want to do us harm. If I must, I will fight, steal, lie, and kill to further our cause. I will carry out the actions of this assembly to the best of my ability. Most of all, I will never reveal the identities or secrets of my fellow members, no matter the circumstances. I pledge all this in the name of Grey-eyes and of magic itself."

  "...And done," said Julian, sloppy grin on his face once more.

  "Too long," murmured Nina.

  "You wrote it," Kyle shot back.

  "Dunno what I was thinking…"

  "Welcome, Jonathan," said Corbin.

  Drew clapped him on the shoulder excitedly. Jonathan nodded, but his eyes were still locked on Julian.

  "Now what?"

  Julian dropped onto the couch next to Kyle, and finally unrolled the huge piece of paper he'd brought in with him. It looked like building blueprints, though Jonathan wasn't exactly familiar with them. Everyone leaned forward, even Nina, who finally seemed to perk up a little now that something new was happening.

  "Now, we get plannin'."