They didn't have to wait long. As soon as they sat down, near the side fire doors, two men were wheeling out a screen and a projector. Alden breathed a sigh of relief—Brian wouldn't be at this meeting. Natalie's dad knew him. Alden couldn't afford to get anywhere near Brian if he could help it. If he was ever seen…

  The projector flicked on, and Brian Hendricks filled the screen, seated calmly on a bench somewhere in an empty room. Alden flinched instinctively—the last time he saw Brian, he'd been standing in the streets of a burning Rallsburg, while a golem dragged Mabel Walsh to the pavement.

  Stay calm. He's not here. He's hiding too. Nobody here will know me.

  "Hi," said Brian, weirdly casual. "I'm sorry to everyone watching this from another building. If I could speak to you in person, I would. They are everywhere, and they could be anyone, so for now, I have to keep moving. I can see you, and I know how afraid you are. I've lived that fear.

  "They destroyed my home. Now, they've destroyed more. The man Malton, as terrible as he might have been, was not given the due process we as human beings deserve. They aren't human. They don't respect basic rights like you and I do. They tore him from his home. They could have killed him.

  "The fact that they did not," Brian continued, sitting forward on the bench wherever he was. Alden got a brief glimpse of a crowd in the shot—just as enraptured as the people around him. Jonathan was fidgeting next to Alden, but the rest of the church was engaged, silent and attentive. "The fact they didn't kill him was part of a larger goal. See how their leader is now in the White House, meeting with our president. They've gotten inside our government. They were invited in."

  Alden gulped. Everyone's treating him like he doesn't sound insane. And… I don't think he sounds insane either. His words are crazy, but the way he's acting… this is bad. Really bad.

  "Someone tried to kill me yesterday," Brian added, almost as an afterthought. The crowd gasped. "In a church in Satsop, one of the awakened—" he spat the word with more vitriol than Alden would have believed possible, "—infiltrated our meeting. The good people there stopped him, but this is why we must not waver. We must be vigilant. They are among us."

  "Was that one of us?" Jonathan hissed.

  Don't even whisper that in here! Alden cried out in his mind. He very slowly shook his head, though in truth, he had no idea. He wasn't really aware of anyone else anymore. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a lens. There were cameras set up on both sides of the screen, looking out over the crowd.

  ...He was being literal. He can see us. This is really bad. If he remembers me...

  "We need to get out of here," Alden murmured. "Quietly. If I say go, can you turn us invisible?"

  "Not for very long," Jonathan whispered back. "I only got it down a couple weeks ago, and it's not my affinity. I'm Elemental and Movement."

  "Smoke?"

  "Yeah. I'm really good at smoke."

  Alden tensed up. Brian was starting to build up in his speech now. He'd stood up, and his voice was rising a little. Alden only caught two words, repeated over and over at the end of every paragraph: no more.

  "They must be stopped," said Brian again. He took a pause, finally, picking up a water bottle and drinking deep.

  A woman stood up in the crowd—their crowd, Alden realized, not the vague outlines on the screen. She looked around at the rest of the church, a pained expression on her face. "This isn't right," she said loudly. "This hate isn't Christian. I don't believe this."

  A murmur rolled through the crowd. At least a few people were agreeing with her… but more still sounded opposed. Another person stood up, and Alden didn't bother to wait for any more. As soon as they started to argue, Alden tapped Jonathan.

  "Let's go, right now. Stay low."

  Jonathan nodded. They started making their way down the row. Alden tried to keep his face away from the cameras. Brian hadn't started talking again yet; his eyes were fixed on something just off-screen. Alden caught a flash of a screen reflected in his eyes.

  "Wait!" Brian suddenly cried out. He pointed at the screen, his eyes wide. "You," he snarled, and Alden knew without a doubt—he'd been seen.

  "Do it now!" he snapped at Jonathan.

  Smoke billowed outward, engulfing the pair of them. Brian's men launched themselves forward. Alden grabbed Jonathan's hand, dragging him toward the fire door. They slammed through. An alarm began to wail as the bright setting sunlight pierced their eyes. Alden blinked away the spots, trying desperately to find their car.

  "Keep moving!" he shouted. Jonathan had faltered, stumbling out of the smoke with a dazed look. Alden grabbed at him again, yanking him into the parking lot and away from the church doors. "They're coming!"

  He spotted the car, a few hundred feet away from them. They could make it, though the mob behind them was growing steadily. Alden's head was pounding, and visions of Rallsburg were flashing through his mind. And then, Alden's true nightmare—the asphalt began to grow.

  "Where's my daughter?"

  A guttural snarl—impossibly loud for a man without magic—shook Alden's bones. The golem was rising out of the parking lot, forming quickly. Behind it, clutching the spiked black rod, eyes wild, stood the man himself. Brian had been there all along. The projector was a ruse.

  "What's going on?" Jonathan whimpered. Alden didn't bother to answer. He didn't even try for the car. If he did, he knew a golem would smash it to pieces—and Brian didn't know which car was theirs.

  "More smoke!"

  Jonathan managed it, and another wave of thick white fog erupted into the air. Immediately, Alden picked up the nearest heavy object—a metal trash can—and flung it backward toward Brian, burning through every gem in his pocket as he did.

  His legs nearly gave out from the sheer effort. Alden had never thrown something so heavy, but it worked. A loud thud echoed through the smoke. He ran, without looking back, Jonathan only a few steps behind.

  They reached the car. Jonathan dove into the passenger seat, while Alden sprinted around to the driver's side. He struggled through his pocket for his keys, desperately hoping Brian hadn't had time to recover. He didn't believe for a second the trash can had actually knocked him out.

  The golem burst through the smoke, like a mountain cutting through clouds.

  "Drive!" Jonathan screamed at him.

  Brian emerged a few steps behind, charging like an angry bull. He was outpacing his own golem, and raising a pistol in one hand.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  "Where is my daughter?" he screamed, a raw agonizing sound that pierced through everything.

  What am I supposed to do? Alden cried. This was so far beyond him. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins, speeding up his thought process. He thought of using Time magic somehow, but he'd already burned all his gems, and only had a few topaz stones left in the glove compartment—if he could even get to them in time.

  The golem was almost to his car. Jonathan was screaming in terror. Alden was fumbling to get the key into the ignition. A massive fist rose to punch through the glass. Brian's hand was squeezing the trigger.

  The dark barrel hovered right at Alden's head.

  He couldn't move.

  Help. Anyone. Please.

  A massive wave of magical force rumbled through the air. The golem was shoved backward, evaporating into dust as it went. Alden's car suddenly clicked on. The engine purred like a hungry cat.

  "Drive!" shouted a female voice, somewhere nearby.

  Alden couldn't. He was still frozen, his mind overwhelmed. Brian tried desperately to pull the trigger, but his hand shook on the gun. A fresh golem pushed forward, and another behind that—but they all stopped at a single wall, a massive emanation of magic so strong that Alden could feel it without even trying.

  She appeared, back to the car, hands up in midair, holding them back. Alden's mouth fell open.

  Grey-eyes?

  Brian's eyes were widening too. He stared at her with such pure, abject hatred that Alden instinctively flinched away, even though Brian's gaze wasn't directed toward him at all. Grey-eyes glanced back over her shoulder. Her face was scrunched up with exertion… and fear.

  "Zack, drive!" she shouted again.

  Something clicked in his head. Alden threw the car into drive and slammed the gas pedal. They shot out of the parking lot. The car drifted across the open road, swerved into the oncoming lane and nearly crashed headlong into another vehicle. Alden wrested it back onto the right side just in time.

  They sped into the sunset, away from the horrors unfolding behind them.

----------------------------------------

  He dropped Jonathan off at a bus stop, heading back to Tacoma. Alden thought he should come to the Greywood too, but Jonathan insisted on going home. Even though he might have been identified, he still wanted to go home to his family.

  Alden couldn't blame him for that.

  The real rendezvous was a makeshift camp south of Rallsburg. Jonathan said it had become a sort of way station for pilgrims, people seeking to awaken and flocking to the Olympic Forest en-masse. The town itself was still essentially quarantined, though not terribly well, and the pilgrims were trampling through the forests heedless of regulations. By now, the forestry service had all but given up on maintaining the region, lacking the manpower to really enforce park law.

  Alden pulled into the grassy lawn that served as a parking lot and finally turned the car off. Though his heart had long-since stopped racing and his breath was steady again, Alden still felt the terror creeping through the edges of his mind. He'd come so close… again…

  Now he was practically in sight of Rallsburg. The trees were too thick to actually make out any of the town, but he knew it was there, just around the bend.

  He couldn't bring himself to move.

  Oh god… He almost… I almost… oh god.

  Alden shoved the door open and threw up again, for the second time that day. He fumbled through his glove compartment for a paper towel, while a curious onlooker passed by with a sympathetic look. To Alden's relief, they didn't say anything, just continued on toward the camp. After a few minutes to try and calm himself down—which didn't really work—Alden got out and started toward the tents.

  It reminded him of the Market, in a way. They weren't in a black, perfectly-lit void, but the arrangement was the same—eight points on a circle of tents and stands, with a larger half-built hut in the center, filling for the original Laushire mansion. People were selling food, drink, even magic lessons. Small flashes of light and smoke issued from one closed-off tent. No one was outright selling Scraps or anything, to Alden's relief, but this was the most open, casual display of magic he'd ever seen before. It was such a stark contrast to where he'd just been that he laughed aloud.

  "What's so funny?" asked someone walking past him. Alden shrugged, ignoring them. He wandered forward, no idea what he was supposed to do next. Jonathan hadn't known either. Without any better ideas, and feeling a distinct sense of déjà vu, Alden headed straight for the hut in the center.

  "I wouldn't bother," the guy next to him added, nodding toward the hut, a half-built log cabin with tarps covering one side. "They never let anyone in."

  Alden shrugged. "I don't have anywhere else to go."

  "Good luck, then," the guy said, wandering off toward the food and leaving Alden alone. Alden headed straight up to the hut's heavy wooden door, laden with carvings and symbols that looked like pure gibberish to him, and calmly clicked the brass knocker three times.

  A curtain in the lone window shifted slightly. Someone was there. Alden waited, patiently. A minute later, the door opened—and he found himself face to face with Julian Black.

  "...What?" said Alden blankly.

  "Could say the same of yourself," said Julian. "Get in here before everyone else starts gettin' ideas."

  Alden stumbled inside. Julian quickly shut the door behind him.

  "The hell are you doin' here, Zack?"

  "I…" Alden shrugged. "I was looking for anyone who could get me out to Cinza's."

  "Shit, ain't you heard?" Julian frowned. "Even I heard, and they don't got a clue I'm in the country."

  "Heard what?"

  Julian gestured to a few comfy chairs over by an empty fireplace, where a fire immediately burst into life. One of the chairs still had a price tag attached. "Got the whole story from Joe. Some chick infiltrated them. Kidnapped Xerox Laushire and took her out to London. S'why Cinza was there."

  "So they're—"

  "Locked down tight as hell," said Julian, leaning back in a chair. "Want a beer?"

  "No thanks," said Alden uncomfortably. Julian shrugged, as one zipped out from a refrigerator and into his hand, the cap popping off all on its own.

  "Nobody gets in right now. Only people out are Ruby's little supply trips. One of them's coming today."

  "Who?" asked Alden impatiently.

  Julian smirked his toothy grin. "Lookin' for your girlfriend, huh?" He shrugged. "No idea, they don't give me advance warnin' or nothin'. Unless Joe's on the trip, I don't even know when they're comin'." As if on cue, his phone buzzed, and Joe's face popped up. "Speak of the goddamn devil. On their way now."

  Alden nodded. "I'm trying to find Rika."

  "Well, last I saw, she came in with the group yesterday. Didn't do much, stood around while everyone else did the work." Julian shook his head. "Girl's got problems. Don't she know we're in a fuckin' war?"

  "No kidding…" Alden murmured.

  "Shit, sounds like you've got a story to tell."

  He shook his head. "I can't."

  "Fuckin' secrets, man," said Julian, gulping down his beer. "Y'all need some damn perspective."

  It's not a secret. If I start thinking about it, I feel like I might completely break down. I can't do that right now. "How long til they get here?"

  "I mean, you went out to Cinza's place. It ain't far from here."

  He winced. "I don't really remember it that well."

  Julian shrugged. "Thirty minutes, probably. Depends how many tourists they gotta dodge." He glanced out the window again, and Alden realized the curtains were completely transparent from the inside. "Makin' good money out here lately. Could use the help, if you're interested."

  Alden shook his head.

  Julian took another draw from his beer. "Suit yourself."

  "Who went to London?" he asked. If he had to wait, he might as well get caught up.

  "Well, Hailey obviously," said Julian, as a bag of chips flew over to join the beer. "Then that spy chick plus her cargo. Cinza, 'koto and the FBI guy took off after 'em, draggin' along Original Flavor Laushire."

  "Agent Ashe was here too?"

  "Shit, where you been, kid?"

  "...Around," said Alden, a bit embarrassed. Even Julian Black was better informed than he was. Going off-grid was a terrible decision.

  It's not like I could have known how insane the world was going to get…

  "I actually met the guy," Julian added, leaning back again and popping out the footrest on his chair. "Pretty chill, for a fed. Played a round of cards with him."

  "Did you win?" asked Alden, vaguely remembering someone telling him that Julian was terrible at cards, a long time ago.

  "Fucker cheated," he grinned. "Bet me a ride home and won easy."

  "Magic?"

  "Nah, he ain't one of us." Julian munched through a few chips loudly, crumbs spilling everywhere. He wiped his face on the back of his hand, then his hand on his pant leg. "Just quick on the draw, I guess." He stood up, downing the rest of his beer. "I gotta get back out there. You good?"

  "Yeah." Alden nodded. "Thanks."

  Julian shrugged. "You're one of us, kid. Always here for vets of Rallsburg." He got up, and his appearance shifted into a completely different person—without the crooked smile or greasy hair, just an average looking guy with a thick black overcoat. "Should be easy to see through the windows. Just lock the door on your way out," he added, nodding at the deadbolt. "It's got spells that're tied to the lock bein' turned, so once it's locked, don't try to open it again without me. Got it?"

  "Yeah."

  "Cheers." Julian tossed the bottle into a box nearby, marked with a recycling symbol. Alden raised an eyebrow. "Shit, I can't care about the planet too?"

  Alden laughed, a welcome bit of mirth to cut through his exhaustion and dread.

  Julian grinned. "Bout time you stopped looking so damn depressed." He opened the door and stepped out. "See you 'round, Zack."