Magic. Its the mysterious power that flows through and fills our world. Most of humanity cannot use its great power but a small percentage can access the infinitely large store and use it. Unfortunately for the rest of us, those who can use it generally use it to further their own power or selfish goals.

Then there are the SoulShifters, like my step-brother Jensen, who were born with a power and learned to use it naturally. From what I understood, spellcasters didn’t like SoulShifters at all. I could understand why they don’t. Most spellcasters spent a lot of time, usually years, to use their craft while SoulShifters could a lot more much quicker.

My name is Julianne March and I am one of those lowly people who can’t use magic but for the most part its alright. My step brother doesn’t have a fancy magical education but he still has power. But he was born special. Like in some of the comic books he was someone who had gotten his power naturally and actually used it to help those who couldn’t help themselves.

And its so cool.

Its been four months since Jensen had defeated the Steel Band Gang’s boss and he is still looking for its remaining higher ranked members. Both of us knew that there must have been a few that had gotten away during that battle or wasn’t there at all. There was at least one we knew was still walking free named Elaine and she was the one we were looking for personally.

“Another freaking dead end,” Jensen groaned as he plopped onto his ugly yellow couch and leaned all the way back. He just come back from a criminal grab and both of us had hoped that the pickpocket would know something about the woman’s current location. “He hadn’t seen her in a week and that’s useless. That woman is just devious enough to know to keep moving around if she hasn’t left town.”

“I don’t think she would,” I said contemplating the situation. I walked slowly through the room towards the couch and continued to vocalize my thoughts, “she said that the boss took care of his own and she seemed to believe it. She believed in him and trusted him. And you were the reason that he’s now gone. I think that she’ll want revenge and THEN go break him out of whatever hole Damian put him in,” she mused thinking of the FBI agent that helped in that final battle by fighting the Artificial Demon that had been created.

“That still leaves us with nothing to go on to find her. And I still have to figure out whats been happening with those kids,” he said darkly.

I nodded agreeing. Kids had been going missing over the last two weeks the oldest of which had been an eleven year old boy. All together there had been six that had gone missing and they all had to be related. At every suspected disappearing sight there had been actual gold dust sprinkled on the ground and that couldn’t have been a coincidence.

“The kids take priority,” I said firmly and Jensen nodded his agreement. The problem was that neither of us still had any leads. The unfortunate part of being a hero was that you did need something solid to smash before you could do the actual smashing.

Shaking my head, I smacked my lips thinking that some food sounded incredibly good right now and thinking on an empty stomach was never fun. There was a small taco place just down the street and it would only be ten minutes there and ten minutes back. I sat on the couch and slipped my shoes on as I told Jensen where I was going.

My purse was in my hand and I was half way to the door when Jensen called out from the couch, “Pick me up some too!”

I rolled my eyes as I walked out the door and into the dying light of the evening and made the trip to the shop. Fifteen minutes later and with a bag of tacos in my hand I started walking back to Jensen’s apartment.

It was then that a woman, maybe nineteen years old with long, straight, black hair hurried past me and I then heard the high pitched scream.

The woman turned off the main street and moved down an alleyway with me following the scream right behind her. While I know its a cliche that alley’s have a lot of trash bins and actual trash just lying around it this one did have a lot of it.

I entered the alley, I watched as a masculine, tanned figure in old Persian styled banded armor armor and a mask, both roughly painted a bone white stand over a kid. The child was trying to scamper away from the figure on his hands and knees but the figure kept getting closer to the kid.

As he got within arms length of the kid, the masked man reached out for the kid and the black haired woman spread her stance and flicked her left hand out fingers spread at the figure, “Hey! Scary guy! Eat this!”

A spear of flame sprouted from her palm and launched towards the man. The fiery shaft flew as fast as an arrow and impaled the man in the shoulder and though it flowed like liquid fire it still held its spear shape.

The armored man looked at her and two curved swords shimmered into its open hands out of a golden dust that congealed out of the air. It went from a walk to a sprint so fast that I honestly wouldn’t have had the time to react if it was attacking me. Luckily, it was attacking the raven haired woman and its blades connected with something that was invisible but had somehow made visible cracks in the air where the blade had struck.

As the masked man recoiled from the surprisingly solid blow. Spinning around the full three hundred and sixty degree’s she pointed her left index finger at the assailant. He reacted immediately by flying into the nearby brick wall and, upon impact, bursting into a cloud of golden dust as the warrior had probably sustained too much damage.

The woman shrieked suddenly and I thought for a horrible second that maybe she had still gotten only of his swords in her before she vanquished it. But the shriek was one of delight as she bounced around a little as if she was unable to hold in the happiness without moving. As she spun round and saw me she froze and her smile vanished, “uh, how much of that did you see?”

“Everything,” I said looking at her carefully. She stood just barely below six feet tall and her entire form was lithe and wiry. She wore a red button down blouse and a black leather belt with worn pouches on it that looked like they were meant more for a man that a woman. She wore a black skirt over black leggings that gave her a slightly goth-like vibe.

As the woman looked at me, the young boy had stood up and sprinted away from us and out of the alley. I briefly considered chasing after him to talk about the man who assaulted him but thought better of it a moment later. Between the boy and this woman in front of me it was obvious as to who would probably have more info on whoever that was.

The woman straightened up and walked towards me cautiously. He entire right hand was moving as if she was making sure she was ready should I do something. I held my ground as she got within ten feet and looked me over, “I assume you’ve seen magic before?”

“Yeah,” I said thinking of what else to say, “and I assume that you’ve… fought things before?”

She nodded smiling again, “yes, I have,” she said trying to regain her calm. And failing almost instantly, “Oh forget it, I’m just so excited. I’m so close to finding it. Yay!”

“Found what?” I asked curious.

“Oh. You don’t know what that this gold dust means, do you?” she asked shocked, her smile fading. Her eyes rolled up and down me as if coming to some sort of conclusion about me. It was disconcerting but I didn’t move. Something about her made me think that I was looking at someone not in possession of their entire faculties. Those are the people that you don’t give reasons to react to you. Though it could have just been me imagining it. She hadn’t given me any evidence of mental instability.

“No, I don’t. What does it mean?” I asked careful to moderate my voice.

“That guy was a magical construct made of gold dust. There is only one thing that that implies,” she said with her giddy smile returning.

“There’s a genie in town stealing kids.”

A few minutes later and I had managed to convince the girl to come back with me to Jensen’s apartment. Immediately upon entering she kidnapped one of the tacos that I was still carrying, walked up to the fridge, rummaged through it, and pulled out a can of orange soda. I hurried over to Jensen and quickly told him what had happened in the alley. He listened quietly and watched the girl as downed the soda in a few seconds of heavy drinking.

“So… you found trouble in an alleyway near here, watched as it tried to take a kid, then brought the spellcaster who beat the kidnapper into my home, and then we both let her take my last orange soda. Why?” he groaned as he kept an eye on her.

She eyed the soda can and flashed Jensen a grin, “last sodas do taste the best.”

“I want her out,” he said irritated and loud enough for her to hear it easily. “Besides, Now that we know what we’re dealing with we can do something about it.”

“I doubt it,” the unnamed girl said as she moved to the space in front of the couch. “Well unless either of you can manage any sort of tracking or wide area scanning magic to find the sand construct when it appears again. From the look of you two, I very much doubt it,” she said as she flicked the soda can twice and continued drinking from the supposedly empty can. She looked at Jensen skeptically, “besides. What can you do to stop it?”

Jensen eyed her and leveled his right hand with his shoulder. A moment later, a wide three foot long sword appeared appeared hovering over his hand. It first as a clear blue image of a sword, next as a solid glowing mass that gave off a sense of sharpness, then it was a whole sword with clean edges and colors that looked exactly like a forged sword.

“Ah, conjuration powers. That’s high-end shtick. I like it,” she said pointing her fingers like a gun, twitching her thumb, and clicking her tongue.

Both Jensen and I looked at each other for a moment then looked at the girl, “who are you?” we asked in unison.

“Oh, I forgot to say that didn’t I? My name is Selene Faemont,” she said as if that should mean something to me.

“That name doesn’t ring a bell,” Jensen said dismissing the hovering sword and I quickly concurred. “Who are you?”

Selene looked at us as if trying to see if we really didn’t recognize it. As if not seeing what she expected she shook her head and waved her arms dismissively, “ Never mind. I’ve just been tracking this particular genie for weeks. It was taken out of the middle east a few weeks ago and its been bouncing around the US since.”

“What could you want with a genie?” I asked before thinking better of it. The woman still gave off a sense of crazy and she might not like me nosing into her business.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” she said really quickly. “What you do need to worry about is the fact that a genie is taking kids off the street. That means that whoever controls it used a wish to take the children. I know of a lot of magic based rituals that can use kids in its rites. None of them are what is considered ‘nice’,” she said with air quotes.

“Can you find them?” Jensen asked almost immediately.

“I don’t know. I’ll have to try first,” Selene said crossing her arms. “Shall I?”

Jensen nodded, “hurry. We need to find them,” he said pleading.

Smiling, Selene produced a plastic bag filled with gold dust from the alleyway kidnapper from one of the pouches on her belt. She nodded at Jensen and moved into the small empty floor space behind the ugly yellow couch we were on. The woman centered herself in the clear spot and almost immediately magic seemed to flow through the air like a breeze centered on her. A spark of blue light emanated from the bag in her hands and arced around it in a ring as it hovered in her hand.

The bag evaporated and the gold dust flowed in the air above her hand in the vague shape of an arrow, “Well the tracking spell is done. Its good for ten miles or six hours.”

“Do you know where those kids are now?” he asked her seriously.

“First off, no. This is tracking the genie, not the children. Second, this functions like a compass not a GPS. It points in the right direction, not tells us exactly where it is. And lastly, I will not do anything for you unless you make me one promise. I want the genie so that I can make a wish. Just one wish and you’ve got a willing sorceress,” she said looking at Jensen with stern eyes that brooked no argument. Either we’d have to agree or she would not help.

“Julianne, what do you think?” he asked looking at me.

I admit that I was startled by him asking for my opinion on the matter. Compared to him and Selene I wasn’t important. I didn’t have powers or any sort of magic but yet he was asking me. It gave me a small bit of pride that he wanted to ask.

“It depends on your wish. Do we need to worry about it?” I asked her crossing my arms and eyeing her critically.

“No. You don’t. That’s all I’m going to say so don’t press,” she said adamantly. “Do we have a deal?”

As much as I don’t like to admit it, we needed her since she had the tracking spell, “we have a deal.”

She squealed excitedly, “Yay! Lets go!” she commanded the room. Selene then took on a fake British accent, “the game is afoot.”

“Is she for real?” Jensen whispered pointing at her as she moved towards the door.

Nodding and shrugging, I grabbed my bag and hurried after the girl who started out of the apartment with Jensen coming up behind me.

When we finally stopped walking an hour later, the three of us stood in front of another apartment complex across town. We had walked a circle around the red brick building twice and Selene had confirmed that it was the place.

I thought more about the building for a moment and just nodded. This building wasn’t ritzy enough to afford much if any security guards and it probably needed it if the rest of the neighborhood was any indication. Graffiti lined the outside of the bottom floor like tattoos and gave the building a dirty feeling.

“I don’t suppose your spell says where in the building the genie is?” Jensen asked eyeing the complex.

“No,” Selene said shaking her head. “a stronger spell could point up and down as well to narrow it better. I can do it but it takes more time.”

“Well we already know that its here. So why don’t we just go on in and look around while you,” I said looking at Selene, “keep that spell running so that if get close you know.”

“Yes, sir. Very good, sir!” Selene said smiled profusely as she took on a British Officers accent. Her right hand even flew to her temple in a salute that was aimed at me. The weirder thing was that it felt like she wasn’t mocking me. She was just having some sort of weird fun that made me uncomfortable.

I looked away from her and realized that I had just told her what to do. I had just told a sorceress who I was pretty sure was off her rocker what to do. And I definitely considered myself lucky that she was in a good mood.

Jensen smiled at me, amused, “I guess that I’ll lead the way,” he paused and his smirk became larger as he finished his statement, “Sir.”

I spun around and glowered at him. The main thought that went through my head was various forms of torture and murder with my brother as the unwilling participant who needed to be strapped down. I looked at him as some of the images flashing over my eyes and a wistful floated over my face.

There must have been something else in it too because he looked at me with a little concern on his face, “What are you thinking about?”

“Oh nothing,” I said still smiling. “lets just head inside.”

He turned around slowly as if trying not to provoke me to action and crossed the street to the building. I stayed with Selene and watched the sand just above her palm still flowed. It was odd but I got the impression that it was pulling Selene gently towards the apartment building.

“So,” I started nervously. “How does it work? Magic, I mean.”

Selene looked at me thoughtfully, “well that is actually extremely complicated and varied depending on your school of thought. I learned with the feelings it gave me. My first spell was, well, not the best choice of spell. Well, incantation really.”

I only stared at her with my mouth slightly open and my eyes slightly open, my expression was one of confusion, “what?”

“When I first used magic, it was an incantation. A four line spoken spell that generally rhymes to produce specific effects. If i just wanted to use some fire magic I wouldn’t need an incantation but if I wanted to summon a creature from the outside I would. Does that make sense?” Selene asked me as we stepped up onto the sidewalk in front of the building.

“Sort of. The only thing I don’t understand is the creature from the outside bit. Do I wanna know what that means?” I asked giving her a playful smile.

“Probably not. It’s just complicated. Continuing,” she said looking at the tracking spell. “when I first used an incantation spell, the feeling of the magic flowing through me was so intense that I felt like the subtle vibrating power of a live wire. And I feel that way briefly every single time I use magic.”

“I see,” I said thinking about what she had just told me. “Is it possible that I can learn how to use magic?” I asked her timidly.

Selene stopped and looked me over for a few seconds before shaking her head, “I don’t think so. I think I would be able to sense the magic if I focused on it and I don’t sense it, I’m sorry.”

I shrugged being disappointed but not surprised, “don’t be. Its not like I lost anything.”

“Alright,” she said quietly and quickly focusing in on the spell over her palm.

The three of us walked silently around the building to avoid drawing more attention to ourselves and looking around from floor to floor. We passed by several people in the halls who looked like the very definition of vagrants and no one noticed the magic that Selene was carrying around in her palm. I asked her and she gave me a brief explanation on how normal people just couldn’t perceive some of the less overt spells. Tracking spells evidently being one of the ones that fit that description.

We were on the seventh floor when Selene froze and slowly spun around in a slow circle, aiming the tracking spell. She was on her third rotation around when she pointed down the hall, “its down there.”

Jensen and I nodded as she took the lead and walked the hall for a minute until the spell tugged at the apartment marked ‘712’. Jensen had already created a short double edged leaf shaped sword into his right hand. I had nothing except my limited training in Aikido and the small amount real life experience I had gained since assisting Jensen. It had consisted of helping Jensen against the boss of the Steel Band Gang and once when I had stopped a criminal from escaping and that was luck.

I watched as Selene released the tracking magic and the golden sand fell into the palm of her cupped hand. She quickly produced another ziplock bag from her belt and carefully poured the sand into the bag before closing it and putting it back in her belt pouch. Selene quickly preceded to pull something out of a different pouch and put a silver ring with sigils etched in it onto her right middle finger.

“What is that?” I asked whispering to her to avoid whoever might be with the genie from hearing my question.

Smiling as me as she twisted the ring on her finger multiple ties over, “why are you whispering?” she asked and the hallway around us seemed to get just a little bit darker. “It is unlikely that the genie’s owner can hear-”

As we rounded the corner and saw a dingy down down the hall, it shook and suddenly exploded in a burst of blue magical energy and splinters that roared and continued on towards us.

Reacting faster than Selene and me, Jensen stepped in front of Selene and I and spread his limbs out to shield us. But before I could yell in protest he also covered his entire body in golden plate armor that appeared the same way he created his swords. The magical energy impacted the armor and rocked him forward a few inches even in what appeared to be heavy metal armor.

A moment later all three of us heard a man with a thick French accent, “You will never get me alive!”

“Any idea who that is?” Selene asked us curiously.

“No, I’ve never heard that voice before,” I said after two seconds of thought.

“Me neither,” Jensen added moving to the side so that all three of us could see down the hall. Standing in the doorways remains was a mountain of a man with short dark hair, thick muscular arms and chest that was easily seen through his black shirt, and a short metal rod that looked vaguely like a police baton his left hand.

Before any of us could talk to him, he swung the rod back and forth hurling bolts of magic towards us in several different colors. Selene sneered at the display and stepped forward, “I got this,” she said as she got in front of Jensen and knocked on the armor that he still wore playfully. The first bolt in line was a sizzling violet dart that Selene intercepted in midair with a small wave of kinetic energy. The second was a luminescent yellow orb that she caught with her hand that she’d encased in green sparks and threw it at the third bolt, a shaft of sky blue energy. They collided with a small boom that left the large French man stunned.

“Who are you?” he said for only a moment before the rod started to glow slightly and arcs of white electricity ran down its length.

“I’m Selene Faemont,” she said raising her right arm. She aimed loose fingers at the man and the smile deepened, “and what shall I call you?”

He ignored her question and instead his face drained of color at her name and he involuntarily took a step back. He looked down at his feet and scowled at them angrily. It almost as if he was pissed off that he was afraid of Selene.

“Hey El! The heir of Morgana’s here!” he yelled hoarsely. The Frenchman swung his baton as he took a step forward and and along white bolt of electricity arced along the wall towards Selene.

“I got it!” Jensen said putting his sword in the path of the bolt and with a sweep of his sword he threw the attack up into the roof and burst through it. Wood splinters showered onto the three of us.

Selene glared at Jensen for interfering but turned her attention forward when a woman with blonde hair stepped into view. She wore a faded jeans and a red sweat shirt and smiled as she spotted Jensen and me.

“Ah, You didn’t mention that Nobody and his little accomplice was here. I have to say, I was wondering when you’d catch up to me,” the Steel Band Gang’s still missing assassin, Elaine said.

“You,” Jensen said wittily.

“Me,” she confirmed smugly. Drawing her monster of a revolver, Elaine stepped past the Frenchman and leveled it at Jensen, “You like my new gun? You destroyed my last one and forced me to get a new one. I had to pay a lot to get this enchanted and even better than last time. Wanna see?” she said raising it and pointing it at him.

A really bad feeling rose as the woman’s smiled and lengthened became even more wicked. Reacting on instinct, I pushed Jensen to the ground as Elaine pulled the trigger and the big bullet not only had no recoil, when it collided with Jensen’s sword blade instead of him it shattered in half and both halves were immediately engulfed in green flame.

“What was that?” Jensen said looking at the remains of his sword as it faded into nothing. I looked up and saw Selene’s eyes go wide as she stared at the spot where the sword vanished away. “Selene?”

“I-” she broke off as she looked up at Elaine who was retraining her aim at the young woman. “I don’t wanna do this,” she said closing her eyes and playing with the ring on her finger.

Elaine pulled the trigger and the bullet encountered an invisible but incredibly solid shield. The crazy that I had been feeling from Selene vanished altogether and was replaced with a sense of impending doom. And for a moment I was more afraid of her then Elaine.

Then arcs of white electricity flowed around and past Elaine over towards Selena who writhed in pain for a moment before it threw her into a wall.

“I’ve got the lamp El! Lets go!” The Frenchman said running up to Elaine and grabbing her arm. She lowered the gun, turned on the safety and allowed herself to be pulled down the hall.

Jensen squinted and a double edged sword appeared in the air and launched itself at the pair. The Frenchman turned his head and saw the sword coming towards them in time to swing the baton, grab the flying blade with the white electrical energy, and throw it into the wall.

They rounded the corner and vanished from our sight with the a disney-esque gold lamp hanging from the man’s belt loop from a clip.

“That went well,” I said grumpily as I stood back up.

Both of them glared at me as they got back up to their feet. Jensen looked fine as the gold armor faded away with blue sparks. Selene however shook with exertion as she stood back up using the wall to prop herself up.

“Lets just go back to base,” Jensen said grunting. “Any objections?”

Selene’s stomach groaned and she looked away embarrassed, “food. If you don’t mind. And some coffee too.”

Both of us smiled and we all silently agreed get out of here quickly. We were making a lot of noise and the hallway was wrecked enough that the police would get called.

But yet I paused. I looked back at the broken door and I thought of that boy that the golden sand warrior guy was after. If the genie’s lamp had been here then that means that there’s a chance that the other missing kids were here.

“You guys go ahead. I’ll look around the apartment for a minute,” I said not looking away from the entrance. My voice became distance as I feared what I may find, “I’ll meet you two at home base. If I see anything weird I’ll take pictures and hurry out.”

“Okay. Hurry,” Jensen said as he hurried around the corner with Selene’s tired form only a step behind him.

I took a deep breath and walked into the apartment. Praying to whoever was listening that there wouldn’t be any children’s bodies.

After a half hour, I met them back at Jensen’s apartment and I was carrying a bag of donuts from the same secret place that I got the special coffee. Jeremy’s Secret Coffee place also made some of the best fresh donuts around. I had already eaten two of the dozen donuts because it helped ease the nervous energy that had built up when I searched the apartment.

Selene saw me with the coffee and the donut bag and she got up from the couch and approached me with hunger in her eyes, “feed me,” she groaned zombie-like.

I gave her the bag and the coffee that I was carrying and smiled at her lax and zany attitude. Selene immediately moved to sit back down on the couch and opened the bag gleefully, “So…” she started, taking a bite of a devils food donut, “what did you find in the apartment?”

“What did you find?” Jensen called from his bedroom.

“Fortunately, no bodies,” I breathed out. Selene looked at me expectantly and I continued, “I did, however, find a detailed plan for some kind of a ritual on one of the walls,” I said and pulled out my phone and showed Selene the picture of the wall.

The wall was white and drawn on it was a double ring surrounding a seven pointed star. At six of the stars points, a pin was inserted to hold up a small Polaroid of each of the kids that were taken so far. It was a simple design with evil connotations but so was the basic concept for splitting the atom.

“Thats… interesting,” Selene said finishing the first donut and moving on to the next. “The design of ritual circles always have some purpose to the ritual as a whole. The double ring is meant to contain the magic but to also allow it to flow within it. See how the double ring looks like a channel?”

I looked at it and nodded, “What about the seven pointed star?”

“Stars have special significance in magic because in some older beliefs they represent magic. The seven points means that it needs seven pieces of material components to work. In this case the kids. I can only guess what the ritual is supposed to do but its only conjecture without more information,” she said taking another large bite of her donut.

I internally started going through the various scenarios that would need kids to function as sacrifices. The various scenarios kept getting darker and more sinister and it gave me a case of the shivers.

“Did you find anything else there?” Jensen asked walking into the room.

“Just reference materials on genies and some hand written notes that I couldn’t get a good look at. I barely made it out of there before a pair of police officers came in,” I told both of them but not looking at them. I started playing with the thin silver chain around my neck. It was the remnant of a gift from someone who helped Jensen and I. It was a nervous tick that I had developed over the past few weeks and I didn’t know what to really tell them.

Jensen grumbled and started pacing the room as he thought about something. Selene however looked at me as if she knew that I was holding something back but I wasn’t sure that I wanted to talk about it. Especially since she would have been right about that.

Selene shrugged after a moment and swallowed some of her cooled coffee, “oooh, yummy coffee,” she said smiling at the cup.

“Yeah, it is. I’ll have to tell you where to get it,” I said looking at my phone and wincing. “I’ve gotta go. I’ll meet you both here tomorrow morning to talk about our next move. Sound good?”

She nodded though kept a skeptical eye on me as I walked out the front door saying goodbye to Jensen as I left the apartment.

I walked down the hall feeling guilty that I didn’t include them in what I was going to do. Both of them probably would have tried to stop me. To be honest I wouldn’t have blamed them for trying. My plan was reckless and probably not wise but I knew that I had to do this. For myself and not Jensen.

Reaching into my bag, I pulled out a piece of printer paper with an address scrawled on it with the caption ‘ritual location’. If that was where the ritual was going to be then there was a chance that the kids or the lamp would be there. Either way, I was going to get something and get out.

The Address was a Community Center across town that was currently closed down for a lot of repairs. It certainly looked like it was down for a while with a portion of the building covered with protective tarp and the various equipment that was strewn around. The repairs must have hit a snag or something because the place looked like no one had been there for at least a week.

I had already walked around the building and found the only obvious entrance, a door, into the building and knew that that probably wasn’t a good idea. There was other entrances but they were unlikely for me to get to. The ladder to the roof was the first that I’d seen but it was caged and locked so I couldn’t get onto it and my ideas were increasingly less helpful.

Sighing, I walked up to the side entrance and turned on the handle gently, seeing if it was locked and grimaced at it as it opened. If it wasn’t locked that told my new paranoid mind that this was somehow was a trap but upon looking in, nothing screamed hidden pitfall or falling ceiling cage. It really just looked like an indoor basketball court that had the wooden floor torn up and the bleachers in shambles. The only thing that really identified that it was a basketball court was the hoops that still stood on either side of the room.

My eyes quickly locked on to something that was drawn on the concrete in the center of the basketball court. Painted on the floor was a double circle surrounding a seven pointed star with swirling symbols lining the entire outside of the circle. The scene with the dying sunlight filtering through the uncovered windows gave the ruined room an aura of sadness and loss. But with the circle in made the room feel like complete and utter despair.

I suddenly found myself not wanting to be in the room. I felt my heartbeat increase as I tried to marshal my will to force myself to stay and look around but that despair just got deeper. The emotion dragged on until it escalated into actual fear. Fear that made me want to run away home, hide in my bed, and never come out.

It was then that a thought occurred to me. I don’t cower and run away when I’m afraid. I stay and learn because knowledge lessens fear. Then my thoughts moved to something else that I didn’t understand either. Magic. Maybe this was some kind of magical fear trap to stop people from entering and staying here.

Then the fear seemed to lessen and I found myself able to move a shaky step forward. Confused but glad that whatever was causing the fear was gone I slumped to the floor and started breathing hard. The fear my have been gone but the effects that it gave me physically hadn’t faded yet. I wiped my hand over my forehead and it came back with beads of sweat on it.

A few minutes later minutes later my breathing normalized and my heart rate slowed. I stood up and my heart rate increased again as I looked up to see a bronze skinned young woman standing quietly only a foot off to my right.

“Ahhh!” I yelp as I fall back down onto my butt and scuttle backwards away from her. Then my scare was interrupted by a sudden curiosity. The young woman’s dark silky looking hair was tied on the top of her head compared to the back, she wore a red tank top that left some of her stomach bare above her belly button but below her rib cage, and the loose fitting pants were also a shade of red. I looked down and quirked an eyebrow at the fact that she was also barefoot.

The woman covered her mouth as she gasped at my reaction and she quickly hurried after me, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said quickly, her voice colored with a cultured middle eastern accent.

I quickly and literally shook away the sudden adrenaline and stood up, “then you should probably announce yourself before getting that close to someone.”

She nodded agreeing, “You’re right. I’m sorry, I just don’t get to talk to anybody really, ever. Not much practice I’m afraid.

“Why not?” I asked idly while swatting away some dust from my jeans.

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you,” she said lowering her voice sadly.

I smiled pleasantly, “Try me. I know a lot of really weird stuff. I doubt that you’d surprise me. The veil of disbelief has been lifted,” I said smiling as I imitated lifted something off from over my eyes dramatically.

She smiled back at me and it made her look incredibly pretty, “Until recently, I’ve… been stuck in a old gold oil lamp.”

Sadly that idea hadn’t occurred to me yet as I looked her over the concept made sense. With the exception that her clothes were all more modern it all was vaguely reminiscint of a classical genie garb. Well, modern expectation of genie garb.

“So… that makes you a genie?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said excitedly. As if this really was a rare opportunity of hers to actually chat, “My name is Aaliyah of the royal earth Djinn clan, Toriyam.”

My eyes went wide as I absorbed that bit of information, “wait. Does that mean you are a… princess or a queen?” I asked curiously. Just because she looked young didn’t mean that she wasn’t actually the queen. From what I understood supernatural beings didn’t exactly follow the normal rules of age and looks.

“Princess, though...” she paused and looked away for me to stare sadly into a window, “I may not in title be anymore.”

Aaliyah was making me more and more interested by the second. At this moment I was hooked into knowing as much as I could, “what do you mean?”

She shrugged, “I haven’t been home in a very very long time. Its possible that they gave my title to someone else. Its all complicated and political. Then there is the issue that once a djinn has been made to grant the wishes of others that djinn is shamed. Especially one who was magically bound to something in this world. Like my lamp,” she said sadly.

Muttering under my breath for not getting to the main reason I had for coming here I got onto the life and death stuff, “look I want to help you if I can. So if you help me I will do what I can to free you from your lamp. Deal?” I asked while smiling at her sincerely.

She nodded and rubbed her eyes as if to get out unseen tears, “sure. What do you need to know?”

“I guess I need to know what the french spellcaster and Elaine want with the kids. What do they have in mind for them?” I asked while hoping it wasn’t going to be anything that would give me nightmares.

“His first wish was that he wanted to know about a necromantic ritual called Second Life. Its not the darkest magic out there but its way up on the list. It takes the life children and creates a source of life that can resurrect the caster if he should die,” she looked away from me and took a step back too, “I wouldn’t have told him if I’d had a choice.”

Now I admit that I almost verbally freaked out. I almost started hyperventilating or any number of things that people do when they have a panic attack. But I knew that panicking wouldn’t help anything. Let alone the six kids that the french guy and Elaine already had.

“What about the second and third wish,” i asked nervously.

“He wanted me to get him the kids that would be most desirable for the ritual for the second wish. And for the third he wanted me to keep intruders out. So I created a fear ward. Its not my fault if you managed to overcome it,” she said and I saw her let out a small mischievous smile as she turned back to me.

“So he already used his wishes? Why are you still working for him?”

“The wishes are not completely fulfilled. I haven’t gotten him all seven kids he needs and his wording was specific for the third wish. I wish for you to keep this place secured until the ritual is ended. Until the wishes are complete I am in his,” Aaliyah said.

“What if I got the lamp away from him? What then?” I asked probing.

“Then he loses his right to command me and ownership of me goes to you,” she answered then looked at me hopefully, “why? Are you actually going to wish me free?”

“So its true that I have to wish you free from the lamp. Sounds like whoever put you in that lamp stole ideas from Disney,” I said a little happy that at least there wouldn’t be any complicated ritual needed to free her.

“Technically, I was bound to the lamp before Disney was even a twinkle in his great great great grandfathers eye. So Disney stole it from actual myth,” she said pointing out the obvious fact.

“Whatever,” I said ignoring it. “Where are the kids now?”

“I don’t know,” she said then flinched at nothing and started looking around the room. “you need to leave now. They’re back,” she hissed.

“Oh crap,” I muttered as I moved quickly, while trying to be quiet, behind the rubble pile of the bleachers.

As if on cue, the moment I had gotten past the pile the door opened and the french guy walked in. Aaliyah had also vanished while I was getting into position and I had no idea where she ended up. As soon as the French guy entered Elaine did too and slammed the door behind her.

“I cannot believe you ate that much,” she said mocking him. “that was four large cheese burgers and their combos.”

“Magic burns energy from the caster and I tend to burn more. So I had to eat to make sure I could cast again soon. I’ve only told you this already after I enchanted your gun with balefire and your welcome for that by the way,” he grouched at her.

“I’ll admit,” she purred, “that was pretty awesome. What does balefire do?”

“Its necromantic fire. It if had hit a living being not only would they have died from the fire they would have also been reanimated as a revenant or super zombie if you’d prefer. I told you this when I enchanted that freaking cannon of yours,” he said as he crossed halfway into the room and opened a door that was in plain sight but I hadn’t noticed. I was distracted by the fear ward whatever that was, and Aaliyah to notice it.

“Yes, you did,” Elaine said with sarcastic acknowledgment. She also stopped and her final step resounded through the building, “but you also neglected to tell me what makes a super zombie super.”

He stopped, turned, and looked at her, “its the fact that anyone turned into a super zombie keeps their special traits even in their unlife. So say if you’d shot that girl in that hallway then she would have been engulfed in the balefire and then quickly brought to back to life. Along with her magic under your control since you fired the shot.”

I internally gasped at the thought of Selene being turned into a zombie and a cold chill as the thought of Jensen being turned into one. But unlike Selene who is a sorceress, Jensen was a SoulShifter or a super human and his abilities were very specific. If he believed he could do something then he could do it or it could happen. Could he believe at all if he was a zombie?

The french guy turned back to the open door and stepped through it while Elaine yelled at him, “just because you did something useful doesn’t mean yo get to walk away from me,” she stomped after him and slammed the door behind her.

Waiting a moment to make sure they were a little more out of earshot before climbing carefully out from behind the pile. As I got fully out of the pile I stumbled on thin air and almost crashed to the floor but was caught by slim arms before I hit the ground. I was pulled up straight and saw Aaliyah with her finger to her mouth.

I nodded to her in acknowledgment and stood up straight then quickly crouched low again. Thinking it was better not to talk I thought back to lessons that I’d gotten back in middle school and started using the sign language that I hadn’t used in two years.

Signing to her and hoping that she knew what I was telling her, ‘I’ll be back.’

Surprisingly she signed back, ‘okay. Be careful,’ and I guess my surprise was evident on my face because she signed something else, ‘I absorb communication based knowledge so that I can communicate with anyone. Go.”

It took me a moment to absorb that and then hurry along towards the door and step out of it quietly.

Returning the Jensen’s apartment, I walked in and dropped my key to his apartment to the floor in surprise at the scene before me. Both Selene and Jensen were standing in the small kitchen, both of them holding each other and were making out. They’re eyes were closed until my keys clanged into the ground and both of them automatically stepped away from each other and stared at me.

I stared at them and they stared at me and the whole room became uncomfortable. Jensen rubbed the back of his head and was the first to speak, “Julie, I-”

I raised my hand quickly and interrupted him, “please don’t say anything. I really don’t want to know what happened to cause this or what was going to happen if I didn’t walk in. Lets just move on. Like my update on current events,” I said bending down to pick up my keys.

Selene looked at my quizzically, “like what?”

I smirked, “while you two were… what did the Harry Potter books call it, snogging,” I looked at Jensen’s obvious discomfort and mentally cursed that Selene didn’t seem to react. In fact, she seemed to smile at the situation, “I followed a lead and found their hideout and ritual location. Also the rituals name.”

Both of them were very surprised but Selene spoke first, “whats the rituals name?”

“Second Life,” I answered gravely.

“I’ve heard of it,” she said and started fiddling with a silver ring that was still on her middle right finger. It was because as I watched her I didn’t hear as much as feel something communicating to her through the ring, “by sacrificing the kids it will give the spellcaster a mass of life force that brings them back to life after they die. A very dark type of magic.”

“Do you know when they’re going to cast their magic?” Jensen asked me suddenly more serious.

“Not until just before midnight. It has to with the symbolism of the end of a day,” Selene answered for me. I thanked my lucky stars that she had because I had no idea, “besides they don’t have their seventh kid yet, right?”

“We can’t guarantee that they don’t,” Jensen pointed out. “Its not like we’re keeping a close eye on them.”

Selene nodded in agreement, “we have a little time. I need to prepare a few things for the encounter. Especially for that spellcaster. He’s actually not too bad. Too bad I’m way better. Do you think that you can take the girl?”

“I have once before,” Jensen nodded. “though that green fire is new.”

My eyes widened as I remembered the balefire, “Jensen! You can’t let it hit you! Its balefire!” I yelled with more fear in my voice than I meant.

“Balefire?” Selene mirrored me as she twisted the ring. “Thats not good at all.”

“Whats that?” he asked looking between the two of us quizzically then locking his gaze on me, “and how do you all of the sudden know so much about magic and stuff?” Jensen asked.

I looked away and said what I was hoping they wouldn’t find out about, “the genie told me,” I said and spent the next few minutes detailing everything that happened while I was at their hideout.

Selene rolled her eyes, “you know the old adage ‘never trust a bunny’? well thats only slightly less important than never trusting genies. They are clever and devious. Due to the bindings that the spellcasters who put the genie in its lamp it cannot exact its rage on us directly. Instead genie’s tend to take our wishes and pervert them so that they do harm or kill their bearer. You wish to see a dead person again so that you can say good bye and poof you are stuck in that same loved ones coffin or worse sent straight to the afterlife to see them. Like I said, never trust a genie and if you want to free one make sure you are protected from it and send it straight home. Otherwise who knows what it will do.”

The look I gave her must have expressed my agitation well because she winked at me and gave me an exaggerated salute, “but you’re the boss. I’m sure you know best.”

Jensen smirked at me and I stuck out my tongue at him with as much dignity as I could muster and then looked away. Then a thought occurred to me, “think we should call Damian for help?”

He considered that for a moment before shaking his head, “as much as he would be helpful I don’t want to rely on him. Besides, its not as if we’re alone. We have-”

“Your make-out buddy?” I threw out trying to embarrass him further.

He groaned and Selene burst into a cackle, “make-out buddy! Oh that's good. I need to remember that one,” she said and just kept on cackling for a few quick and uncomfortable moments for Jensen before she started winding down and wiping tears out of her eyes.

“Thats enough!” Jensen announced and Selene stopped laughing after another second. “How long will it take you to prepare?” he asked turning to Selene.

She looked both thoughtful and malicious as she smiled at Jensen, “two or three hours if I can find what I need. Oooooo, that french guy is gonna get it,” she cooed thinking about it.

“Okay, you go do that,” he turned and looked at me. “Julianne, I think that you should stay here.”

“Why?” I asked him with a scowl on my face. “I will not be left behind.”

“I think I’ll go,” Selene said walking out the front door. Leaving both me alone with Jensen who looked both hurt and upset.

“Julianne,” he said speaking low. “You lied to us. You said you were going home when you actually went to that community center. That was more than a little reckless and whats worse is that I can’t fathom why you wouldn’t tell us. It feels like you don’t trust us.”

“I do trust you,” I said honestly. Doing my best to express my sincerity, “I just…” I paused nervous at what he might say to what I was about to tell him next, “I just don’t don’t really trust her. She’s kind of crazy.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” he said levelly. Breathing out and collecting his thoughts he continued, “besides if this is anywhere as bad as it sounds then I don’t want you going anywhere near there. You cannot defend yourself like Me and Selene can,” he explained trying to keep me calm.

“No,” I said simply. I looked right up into his eyes and continued talking, “If you don’t take me with you I will just follow you. I already know where the ritual is going down. How can you guarantee that I won’t go anyway?”

“I can’t,” he said giving me the point. “Julianne, I will get everyone out safely,” he assured me, “please don’t make me keep you here. I’d rather just hear you say that you’ll stay here.”

“You know that I won’t say it,” I said calmly.

Jensen shrugged and walked to the front door. He put his hand on the knob and looked back at me, “why did you not tell us that you went there?”

I looked away from him and shrugged, “I don’t know.”

Jensen then continued to turn the knob and walk out of the apartment. I stayed where I was for a moment, scared for reasons that I couldn’t understand but ashamed for the reasons that I could. I sat down and brought my knees up to my chest while I thought about how I screwed up. It would have been bad if Jensen had just given me a tongue lashing but the fact that he all but said that he didn’t trust me left me rolling in guilt.

When I looked up at the clock it had been a little over an hour since Jensen had left. A little over an hour since I started my own personal guilt fest.

But as I stared at the clock for a moment longer than necessary, I got an idea.

“Dante!” I yelled. “Dante, I need help!”

Waiting for him to appear felt suddenly foolish. The last time we had talked he said that he normally did the calling on, not the being called on. Besides, he also didn’t do anything for free. What did I have to offer him should he actually appear.

Then I heard the refrigerator door open and I spun around to see a figure in loose robes of light sandy brown and a piece of cloth that wrapped around his head. It looked like the kind of get up you’d see someone wear in the desert to protect them from the sun and sand. I could tell it was a man by the fit of his clothes and by the sheer way he carried himself wasn’t at all feminine.

“You have any water or lemonade or really anything cold? I’ve been dying in the heat all day,” the man’s muffled voice asked.

“D- Dante?” I asked tentatively.

“The one and only,” he said but kept his eyes in the fridge. Then with a call of triumph he pulled out a water bottle that had been tucked in the back and he pulled off his head gear, that poured red tinged sand to the floor, I saw that it was indeed Dante. Though he was covered in a layer of fine dust on any part of his body that was exposed to the outside. Like his eyes. “So, why’d you call me?”

“I need some help,” I answered looking down at my feet.

“Okay. What sort of help do you need?” he asked looking at my eyes specifically.

I breathed out a heavy sigh, “I’ve screwed up.”

“Yeah, you did. You are part of a dynamic duo and you didn’t show him that you trust him. In a team you have to show that often and a lot. Trust me when I say that you have to do that a lot.”

“How did you know whats going on?” I asked confused.

He gave me a crooked smile that just screamed ‘duh!’ at me, “oh yeah thats right. Time Wizard.”

“I prefer Chronomancer,” he said reminding me of that detail. He then looked at me and gave me a sympathetic look, “why were you there alone in the first place? You know that if you had told Jensen and Selene they would have gone with you.”

Lying to him was the first thing that I considered saying. I didn’t like the reason that I did it myself and it made me feel small that I felt like this. I swallowed nervously and spoke, “I wanted to see if I could get the lamp before anybody else. I wanted to use it to get something that would make me special like him or Selene. I want to really be able to help and not cower in the back because I don’t have powers.”

He nodded and drank the rest of his bottled water as he seemed to contemplate what to say to me. After a moment he spoke, “feeling left behind because you don’t have special skills is surprisingly common. But let me ask you something. Did you think that it mattered to Jensen that you didn’t have any powers?”

I shook my head after a moment of thought, “no, he never seemed to care.”

“Well there’s half the problem solved. You’ve acknowledged that Jensen, the only who does a lot of the fighting doesn’t care that you aren’t special. At least his kind of special. He does still relies on you. Now answer me another question. Do you think that Jensen wouldn’t have let you use the genie if you’d told him everything?”

I shook my head and then nodded and quickly just shook my head undecidedly, “I don’t know. I guess that I was afraid of what he’d say if I said that I wanted it. What if he did say no or suggested that he didn’t think it was a good idea?”

Dante shrugged, “I think he would have let you make the decision.”

I sighed and felt a sudden weight on my shoulders, “what do you think I should do?”

“Personally, I’d say to do nothing and slowly work to earn his working trust back. But I know that you can’t sit out of this. Especially since you know that kids are at stake. Double especially with creature they have to summon to work the spell.”

My eyes went wide at the mention of a creature, “what creature? This is the first I’ve heard of a creature.”

Realizing that he’d made a mistake he face palmed himself and groaned, “you weren’t supposed to know that yet.”

“Well cats out of the bag now. What creature?” I repeated exasperated.

“The spell requires a creature from the Darkness Realm called a Reapling. A sort of flying imp-like creature with a black scythe. Death itself uses them to bring newly dead souls to their afterlife. Reapling’s are dangerous unless you prepare for them with Alchemic Gold weapon’s.”

“Now I’m confused about something else. What is the Darkness Realm?” I asked before he continued and I might have gotten even more lost.

“Oh,” he said looking at me surprised. “You haven’t been told about the cosmology of the world have you?”

I shook my head and he continued, “I’ll give you the short version. There are five different dimensions that exist where actual sentient life is. Earth is one of them. The Darkness Realm or just The Darkness is another. Two of the others are Heaven, also called Paradise, and Hell, more commonly called the inferno. The last is called the Dream Realm. As a side note there are small dimensions that exist along side the giant ones but those are not important here. Are you following me so far?”

Nodding, I asked him a question, “what is the Darkness Realm?”

Dante shrugged, “the Darkness is literally just and empty field of dirt and stone with a black rolling mist flowing on the floor. It seems to go on forever though know one knows for sure if it actually does. Though no one knows what the true purpose of the Darkness is or was. Most in the know about the Darkness believe that I has some sort of hidden purpose but none none of them have figured it out. I doubt they will though. The Darkness is chaotic in the best of times,” he said snorting.

“If its an empty field where do the Reaplings live?” I asked feeling that it was a good question.

“Thats another mystery. We can summon a Reapling with magic but if the creature returns to the Darkness it pops out of this world. Poof,” he said animating the sound with widening arms.

“Why does the ritual need a Reapling?” I asked thinking then an idea hit me. “how do they separate the souls from the children’s bodies without killing them?”

“I knew you were smart. You’re right by the way, thats the point of the Reapling. They will bind the thing to the ritual circle and it will reap and hold the children’s souls until its time for the next stage,” he said informing me.

“If I we kill the Reapling will the ritual be ruined?” then another thought occurred to me, “what about if we kill the Reapling after it has reaped one or more of the kids souls?”

“I theorize that the souls would probably return to their bodies since death wouldn’t have severed the strings of body and soul,” He answered with a shrug. He then looked at me with a stern glare, “unfortunately, I agree with your brother. You should text him the information that I just gave you and stay here away from the danger.”

I crossed my arms and looked at him annoyed, “not you too, Dante. Not you who actually encouraged me to help him the last time. ”

“You need to earn his trust back,” he said raising his arms and putting his palms out trying to placate me, “You do,” he urged, “and unfortunately the danger is worse than any of you suspect,” Dante’s hand quickly moved to cover his mouth as if he said something that he knew he shouldn’t have.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked. My annoyance gone with the new information.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said quickly. “Just forget that I said that and lets get on to what you owe me for tell you what you needed.”

Without missing a beat I spoke with a fox-like smile, “Actually I called you for something else. You told me all that stuff on your own.”

He stared at me and his jaw actually dropped as he realized that I was right. His only movement was his blinking and even that seemed farther apart than it should have been. After a moment he burst into laughter and bent over with the force of it, “I can’t believe it!” he roared with the laughter, “you’re right!”

I couldn’t help it, I started laughing too.

It was a a minute before we’d calmed down enough that we could talk coherently and even then it was Dante who spoke first, “well if thats it. I guess I had better go.”

“No!” I called to him. “I need your help!”

“I already said that I think you should stay here. What makes you think that I will help you?” he said giving me an even look that told me he was serious.

“Name your price,” I told him just as evenly but with a little more steel in my voice.

He looked at me but it was almost as if he was looking through me as much as he was just looking at me. Dante was the Chronomancer, a practitioner of time magic. So maybe he wasn’t just looking at me, maybe he was looking at my past.

My price is a bit hefty. Are you sure? It might be better to just trust Jensen and stay here,” he said trying press the point across.

“What do you want?” I asked a little nervous.

He actually laughed at me, “Do you not care what kind of help I can offer? Why didn’t you ask me that?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said feeling a little extra heat in my face. I didn’t actually care what help he was offering but I also know that I should have asked.

“Your choice. Then here is what I’ll do. I’ll give it to you and if you use it I’ll exact payment later. Deal?” he said smiling.

“Done,” I said instantly.

He opened his palm and circles of copper appeared in his hand and multiple appeared larger bands appeared around me. One around each of my wrist, two around my neck, and two around each of my ankles. Then they tightened to my skin and searing pain attacked every nerve in my body and a pulling like sensation that made me feel like I was on fire. The pain endured for what felt like forever but then vanished as instantly as it came.

“Will there be anything else?” he asked as he stood up from the couch.

I looked at him as I sweated and panted from the memory of the agony that I had just been put through, “What was that?” I asked as I ran my fingers over my arms trying to add more sensation to my body that wasn’t absolute pain.

“If I told you it would ruin the surprise,” he said with a fox-like grin on his face. “Besides, I thought you didn’t care.”

“I don’t,” I said quickly. “But how am I supposed to know how to do what you did to me if I don’t know what you did?” I countered, smiling with the victory.

“Thats the easy part. All you need to do is break the chain. It will hurt but thats another trigger for the magic,” he explained walking back to the fridge. He looked through it again and grabbed another bottle, this filled with chocolate milk. “Now will there be anything else before I go?”

The memory of the pain was receded and I was able to think clearly. Well, clearly enough to actually ask something, “any advice for a mortal stuck in their own time,” I asked trying to be a little funny.

He shrugged, “you have other friends. Why don’t you ask them for help. Now if you’ll excuse me, the deserts on Mars circa 2143 are waiting for me.”

And before I could question that statement, he vanished in a flash of copper light.

It was less than a minute after he’d left that the question I should have asked enter my mind. What chain?

I walked into the bathroom to wipe down my face with some cold water and a towel when I realized what that sneaky guy meant. Around my neck was a thin copper colored chain with only just enough room between it and my neck to allow my fingers through.

Luckily, it wasn’t uncomfortable but I did know that I would not want them there long so I focused on the task at hand. Dante had given me a clue and only one name had come into mind and as I though about it, no others came.

I moved into Jensen’s room and grabbed an item that I knew he had in there. I grabbed the black canvas duster jacket that I thought looked cute on me and hurried out the door. I rushed to the street and hailed a taxi. I climbed in and told the Pakistani man behind the wheel where to go.

Ten minutes later I was left outside Tactical Survivalist Unlimited and was fifty bucks poorer. The store looked similar to when I’d last been here except that the window was covered with a new type of body armor with the Logo, ‘Protectorate’ stitched into the fabric. I smiled as I looked at the store. Since the event that had brought me here that first time, I had returned a few times to talk to the shops keeper, Lisa Carlyle.

I stepped inside and hurried past the survivor guide book stands and a few clothing racks to the woman that was reading a novel behind the register counter. She was a little older having touches of gray in her hair but still she kept lean and relatively pretty.

She looked up and smiled at me, “Jules?” she called as she closed her book which upon closer look was a cheap paper back. The kind of cheap paperback that indie authors could make easily. “Oh, its great to see you,” she said stepping around the counter and hugging me.

“Its great to see you too,” I said responded.

She went still and pulled away without letting me go. Her eyes tracked up and down my body as she seemed to think about something. Lisa spoke after a few seconds, “Uhm, sweetie… is there a reason you’re wearing a trench coat?”

“Its not a trench coat. This is a duster. Dusters stop at around the knee and trench coats go to the ankles. I’m borrowing it from Jensen because-” I stopped, wondering if I should tell her about the magic. Was I allowed to tell people about these things. Dante failed to tell me these things.

“Jules?” she asked looking at me worried.

“Have you heard of the Chronomancer, Dante?” I asked and told her everything. Everything about the kids kidnappings, about Selene or what little I had learned, my trip to the community center, and my talk with Dante.

A few minutes later and she was shaking her head at me, “Julie that wasn’t a smart move. You should have at least figured out what he was doing before accepting the deal. Even though making deals with anybody with powers is never a good idea.”

“I know,” I admitted. “I just wanted to do something to help Jensen and I think I needed something… abnormal.”

“Oh sweetie. If you wanted that you could have just asked me,” she said smiling sadly at me. “but its a little late now. I don’t have anything magical here to offer you. If you’d given me a little warning I might have cooked you up something amazing.”

If I was being honest the thought hadn’t occurred to me to come to Lisa and ask for help. The older lady and I had become friends over the past several weeks and if I had told her she probably would have offered to help me.

The thought occurred to me that almost everybody I knew would have been willing to help me if I had just asked.

“As it is-” she started but was cut off.

A loud male voice coming from the back of the store called out, “Hey Lisa! I finished moving those boxes! Do you need any more help?” he called, the distant voice coming closer. A moment later a young man a little older than me came into view. He was maybe five ten, had short brown hair, and a pale complexion as if he hadn’t seen the sun in a while.

“I’m sorry, Jason. I actually forgot that you were here,” she said waving an arm a me. “You remember Julianne?”

“Do I?” he said excitedly and smiled widely at me. “Its good to see you again.”

“Likewise,” I said being polite.

Just then, Lisa’s eyes went as wide as her smile which went from ear to ear, “Jason, you want to repay that favor that you feel like you owe her?”

His immediate nod surprised me, “what? Why do you owe me?”

Lisa looked at me as scoffed, “you forgot that you helped save him when he was captured by the Steel Band Gangs boss? I guess you feel like he shouldn’t help you save children.”

“I can do that,” he said giving me a wolfish smile. “whats the foe?”

“A spellcaster and a normal carrying magic gear. There might also be a Reapling joining the party,” Lisa informed him.

“Sounds like this could be fun,” he said then hedged. Jason looked then looked right at me a little sheepishly, “that’s if you want my help.”

“I-” I started and then Lisa continued my sentence.

“Would love to take your help,” Lisa told him. “Go get ready. Meet her at the messed up community center in half an hour.”

Jason nodded and hurried out of the store, heading out the back from where he’d come, again leaving me alone me Lisa again. She smiled at me and shrugged, “I think he’s excited.”

I shook my head, “I never understood why men got excited for this kind of thing. I know that I’m not excited about this whole thing. Yet he’s running in there to help and he isn’t getting anything out of it.”

Lisa’s smile changed to something a bit more distant while she spoke, “Jason is more unique among the people I’ve met. If he gets into something dangerous at all he does so for someone else. I’ve met some with similar ideals who fought for duty or honor. In the end all that matter is what they fight for something instead of for the sake of violence itself,” she said sadly.

I listened but wasn’t paying that much attention to what she was telling me. Instead I was thinking of what was going to happen soon at that community center. I was scared for myself and I was sure of that. But what kept me moving forward and trying to do what I could was that I was terrified of what was going to happen to those kids.

The woman took my hand and that simple act calmed me a little as I looked at it and noticed something. On the back of her hand was large straight line of pale skin that looked like a stab wound. It was definitely an old scar but something about it made me cringe internally at the pain that it would have caused.

She patted my hand as she held it and nodded, “you can do this. And I’ll tell you what. If you can’t do it, call me and the Calvary will come. I’d come as it is but with Jason it will probably be overkill,” she said chuckling.

I nodded and looked at my watch. It had been almost two hours since Jensen had first left me in the apartment and sundown was coming soon. That meant that Jensen and Selene would probably be starting their attack soon. Hopefully they’d wait until they confirmed that the kids were there before attacking but I couldn’t guarantee it.

“I guess I had better be going,” I said taking a step closer to hug Lisa. Wrapping her arms around me we embraced for a solid minute before I broke the hug and took a step back. I looked at her while trying to not look scared or shake, “thank you for everything.”

“Of course,” she said calmly. “Come back soon and tell me how it went.”

Nodding I walked out the door. I checked my watch again and checked the maps app on my phone for travel time. Of course it would take almost an hour due to existing traffic. I groaned and hailed a cab with a classic sharp whistle.

I hurried up to where I saw Jason and without looking too closely I spoke, “I’m so sorry for being late. Traffic sucked.”

He nodded and I blinked, “what are you wearing?”

Jason Adelaide was wearing a black button down dress shirt that was left open to show off his gray tank top that clung to his chest and implied his muscles underneath. His pants were a pair of weighed down beige cargo pants and a pair of army boots over his feet. Jason adjusted the pack on his back which really just looked like a five foot long and thin canvas bag with a single opening at the top end.

“My gear… why is there something wrong with it?” he asked looking down at it worriedly. Jason twisted around trying to look at his back and even looked under his shoes as he tried to figure out what I meant.

“No, nothings wrong with it. It’s just more normal than I expected. I expected tactical combat stuff like guns and stuff like that,” I answered and smiled at how he was now looking at me with a relieved expression.

“Trust me. This shirt,” he said and adjusted the black shirt, “will help keep me safe. There’s more stuff but I don’t think we have time. I didn’t get a chance to tell you because you distracted me but you arrived just in time for the show. Your step brother and Selene only just arrived like a minute ago. I think they’re discussing strategy before they move in on the building. Speaking of which,” he said putting in his own segue, “holy crap that place is warded. Who set them up?” he asked no one in particular.

“Warded?” I asked, unfamiliar with the term.

“Protective magic,” he explained easily.

“Oooooh, probably the Genie,” I answered.

“That would do it,” he said grumbling quietly under his breath. He raised his hand towards the building and the air around it shivered. It looked almost like heat shimmers were flowing off of his hand and hovering in the air around it. It looked odd and wasn’t like anything that I had seen so far. Though if I was honest I knew that I hadn’t seen a lot.

“What are you doing?” I asked quietly, trying not to ruin his concentration.

He lowered his hand after another few seconds but the clear shimmers were still there though it had clearly diminished. Then Jason looked at me and there was something different about his eyes. There was a shimmer in his emerald green eyes that I was pretty sure hadn’t been there before.

“I was looking at the wards. Pretty nasty stuff but extremely new. It looks like it was only erected a few hours ago. I wonder why,” he mused stroking his chin with the shimmer encrusted hand.

I thought about it for a second but was interrupted by a deep rumble from Jensen and Selene just across the street. Selene was standing between Jensen and the building and around her arms flowed a pink flowing energy that was somehow similar to both fire and water. With a wide swing of her arm a gout of the energy flew off her arm and impacted the building.

Only it didn’t. The energy impacted an invisible wall and dissipated almost instantly, leaving only prismatic cracks in the air for a moment before it started to fade back into the air. Only Selene threw another pink colored energy bolt and the cracks reappeared and grew both more distinct and larger.

I looked over at Jason and his hand was pointing at Selene and his mouth was open with excitement. His eyes watched her as if trying to absorb whatever she was doing. After giving him a moment I decided it was time to speak, “Jason, what is she doing?”

He turned his head and looked at me with that open mouth turned into a wide smile, “this is so cool. She is using ward buster magic. I’ve heard of it but I’ve never seen it and its just as cool as I’ve heard.”

“What is she doing and actually explain it please,” I said in a way that was meant to sound a little annoyed.

“Wards are like walls,” he started. “Big, trap filled, and highly customizable wall. These walls can be designed to do anything from create phantom pain, confusion, or bursts of flame at anyone who tries to get past them. Ward buster magic is like bringing a canon to that wall. It may not break through it in the first shot but it will burst through eventually. Do you get it now?” he asked as Selene’s magic impacted the wards again.

I scowled at him and nodded, “Yeah, I got it. Does it only work on wards?”

Jason shook his head as the wards shook again, “no. It’s designed to break down purely magical constructs. Wards are the largest example of that. Hence the name,” he said.

“Can you do that?” I asked then quickly shook my head. “Of course you can’t you just said that you had only heard of it.”

“Actually, I can now,” he said smiling wickedly.

From what little I knew it shouldn’t be possible to learn magic just by watching it like that. Lisa had explained some things about the way people normally learn magic and it commonly took a little time to learn something knew. Even if it was just to learn the framework of the magic.

“What are you? Spellcaster? Soulshifter? Or something else?” I asked letting the burning question override my good sense that the question might somehow offend him.

He just smiled as more ward buster magic rumbled the ward again only this time it instead of just the dull rumble it boomed out and the prismatic cracks in the air had spread around the whole building. If I had to guess it was probably one or two more shots from shattering completely.

As if on cue for the most dramatic moment, Elaine walked out of the front double doors brandishing her monstrous S&W 500 revolver. She looked almost exactly the same as the last we’d seen her only this time she also wore an assault rifle that looked like the common AK-47 strapped to her back.

“There’s magic on that gun,” he said then quickly amended the statement. “Both of them. Whoever enchanted them did a good job,” he commented.

“Yeah,” I said but kept watching Elaine.

“So we have our resident Nobody and his new sidekick. What, got tired of the other one so you traded her in for the better model?” she taunted as the cracks in the ward were slowly regenerating and fading back away.

“She’s buying for time. They’ve started the ritual early,” Selene said and I felt my heart skip a beat with fear. Those children must have been terrified.

“She’s right,” Jason confirmed to me. “I can feel the magic in there altering for the ritual. We are running out of time,” he said as he took the canvas bag off of his back. “Shall I go in?” He asked and opened it to reveal a gunmetal blue shaft. He pulled it completely free to reveal a five foot long full metal spear complete with a bladed tip. He held it in his non shimmering hand and waited for me to give the word.

How did I get the burden of command, I wondered for a second before shaking my head, “Lets wait a moment. Once Elaine’s engaged we’ll go in. The kids are the first priority.”

Elaine leveled her gun on Selene and pulled trigger only to have Jensen move in front of her and intercept the bullet with a giant metal shield. The bullet impacted the shield and it burst into the same green flames from earlier and I silently was grateful that Jensen was quick on his feet. The flames engulfed and started to eat through the conjured shield and he threw it at the community centers wards in a style reminiscent of Captain America. It shattered in a spray of green flames and Elaine fired again.

Selene this time intercepted the bullet with a burst of her magic and the bullet stopped in midair, all its kinetic movement arrested. Then Selene quickly spun and threw one final and large bolt of pink energy into the wards, shattering them with a echoing boom that sounded like a cross between a sonic boom a lot of shattering glass.

“The Wards are down!” Selene yelled. “Go get her. I’ll go after the spellcaster,” she said as the energy around her arms dissipated into the air. Selene hurried past Jensen who conjured a Japanese katana and hurried at Elaine to intercept her before she targeted Selene.

“Alright, lets go,” I said hurrying around towards the backdoor that I had entered from last time. I skirted around the battle and through the shadows to avoid catching either Jensen’s or Elaine’s notice. If Jensen saw me he’d try to protect me compared to focusing of Elaine.

Jason followed me closely and we both watched their battle and I was impressed at how well the assassin lady was doing with Jensen in such close proximity. He swung the sword and she ducked and fired the monster revolver up towards him. He shifted his head and avoided the bullet only awkwardly swing the sword and narrowly miss her as she fired two shots in quick succession. One missed him and the other impacted the katana. The blade burst into green flame and Jensen again let go before the flame touched him.

Jensen leaped back and conjured a knife into each of his hands. I looked behind to make sure that Jason was still following and furrowed my brows at how he was watching Jensen’s fight and was doing something with his hand stretched out and the heat shimmers coming off it.

“What are you doing?” I hissed. “We’re trying to get inside!”

“I know that,” Jason said as we moved along, kiting the edge of the street that was somehow still oddly empty. “But the display of power here is great and you never when anything you see could come in handy.”

I rolled my eyes as we hurried on and the last sight I had of Jensen before we rounded the corner of the community center was Jensen conjuring a half dozen floating and shimmering swords.

“Wow,” Jason said as we both lost sight of the fight. “He’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah,” I said quietly. “He really is.”

Thirty seconds later we were at the door that I had entered from earlier today. I jiggled the handle to see if it wasn’t locked and it still wasn’t. I turned so that I could see him and held the doorknob ready to open it with Jason holding his spear ready. I held up three fingers and started counting down with them.

Three… two… one… I opened the door and a wave of sound and heat blew out the door and Jason was forced to cross his arms in front of his face with the same heat shimmers flowing over his arms defending him. The wave passed a moment later and I peaked around the door and found the french spellcaster locked in combat with Selene in the middle of the ruined basketball court. He was holding his metal rod and popping electricity was firing at Selene who was holding it off with an invisible quarter dome shield. The shield had been absorbing the most of the energy but arcs flowed around the barrier and was striking her.

A moment later, Selene smiled and the shield flared a bright electric blue. With a wave of her hand and and something shattering in her hand, an arc of electricity and pure kinetic force flew out and caught the french guys own shield which was promptly overwhelmed and shattered.

The french spellcaster scowled at Selene and with a flick of his hands the floor under Selene was changed into sand. Scowling at the sand under her feet Selene’s eyes widened as the grains underneath started glowing and congealing into a a mass of cloudy liquid glass. Selene had to dive out of the liquid sand pit and into a patch of sparkling green mist.

“Thats not good,” Jason said as he stretched out his hand and the shimmers around his hand seemed to vibrate and glow. Then with a small push of his hand the green sparkles seemed to change slightly and pull towards Selene who smiled in surprise.

“What in the world?” she asked no one and an oily green power formed around her hands. Just looking at the power in her hands made me feel dirty as if the power that she was using was naturally just wrong. Selene brought her hands together in a loud clap and thrust her hands and the power forward.

The French guy stared wide eyed at the green energy flying at him and thrust his own hands forward and a flat plane of white light appeared in front of him. My eyes went wide as I watched the magic embed itself into the plane of light and corrupt it into the same oily green as the magic. Exploding towards the French guy, the green energy wall blew him away like a foul wind blowing away a leaf.

The Frenchman stood up shakily and smiled at Selene. He must have bitten his the inside of his mouth because his teeth were covered in a layer of red and he spat it out to his side. He crouched a little and I got the impression that he was getting ready to run for it. Instead he stumbled to a stop in the middle of the magic circle in the middle of the court.

He pressed his thumb into his mouth and pressed the now bloody appendage onto the painted line of the circle. He then flew backwards as Selene had thrown a blast of invisible force at him while he had run forward but was a moment too late. Thick odorless black smoke roiled from the blood and the circle started to hum with the power of the magic. Every line, every curve, every geometric symbol of the magic circle glowed with a dull gray light and though the smoke was filling the entirety of the inside circle the circle was still clearly seen.

As I watched, the smoke thinned and a new form that wasn’t there before became visible through the haze. It stood maybe four feet tall with dull black skin that was visible underneath its loose grim reaper robe. Its eyes glowed with red malevolence which glinted of the dark metal of the scythe it carried in its right clawed hand.

“Kill her!” he commanded the creature that I assumed was the Reapling.

It raised its free hand and a moment later the Reapling vanished from view. My eyes darted around as I tried to see where it was going to appear next and gasped as it dropped from above Selene with it scythe raised and drawn back for the strike.

Without thinking I charged in and hoped that I’d be able to get close enough to push her out of the way. A second later I knew that I wouldn’t make it in time to do anything for her. I just wasn’t fast enough. Yet again I wished that I had some kind of power or magic to even things up between me and whoever I was up against.

Luckily, Jason was a lot faster than me. He moved past me with supernatural speed and shoulder shoved Selene out of the scythes arc and intercepted the blow with the center of his metal spear. He yelped when the blade slid over the metal shaft of the spear and stopped only mere inches from Jason’s side when the scythe’s haft hit the spear.

“Whoa! That was close,” he said gritting through his smile.

The Reapling pulled away from Jason and vanished again in a burst of black fog. When it reappeared it held its scythe reversed so that the back of the weapon was pointed at me. It thrust at Jason who managed to spin the spear theatrically and turned it aside before it could bruise or batter him. But with the spin the Reapling moved the scythe with the parry and brought it down like a guillotine at Jason’s neck.

Luckily for him now, I hadn’t stopped running. I tackled Jason to the floor away from the scythe’s path. Apparently unable to stop the momentum, the Reapling’s weapon continued down into the concrete and sunk halfway to the handle.

For a moment as I tried to get up a bit of triumph bolstered hope flowed through me and as I smiled because of it the thing looked at me. Its red eyes brightened malevolently and it spoke, Its voice like a fresh graveyard tombstone coated with honey, “foolish mortal female,” it said calmly. It adjusted its grip on the scythe handle and then pulled it out of the concrete with contemptuous ease, “that hope you feel will not save you. In fact it is quite the opposite. Hope will be the death of you.”

Selene stood up from the floor with a scowl on her face, “I could have handled that.”

“Sure,” Jason said giving her a a knowing look. “but only if you used all the knowledge at your disposal Miss Heir of Morgana. Otherwise I doubt that.”

She shot him a look that could have melted steel but was interrupted by the Reapling appearing behind Selene and swinging its scythe. Selene’s left hand had moved to her right and was twisting her the ring which started giving off white ghostly light. There was the clang of metal on metal and the scythe rebounded off a clear shield that shimmered momentarily as a spherical shield around her.

Then with a dancer-esque spin she raised her arm and flicked it at the Reapling as a shaft of ice formed and launched at the thing. A muted groan escaped it when the ice pierced the creature in the chest area and pierced it all the way through. Its hands grasped the misting shard embedded in it then toppled over and fell still.

“See?” she said turning at Jason with contempt in her tone and posture, “I had it.”

I looked at the Reapling which lied still on the floor. The air in the room dropped several degrees and a wind blew through the space. Its robes rustled and a sudden thought struck me and my blood drained from my face.

“Uhhh guys? Reaplings can only be defeated with Alchemic Gold. I think that its still alive,” I said and looked at the two for only a few seconds to make sure that they heard me. They did and we all looked at the Reapling at the same time only to find its body gone.

“Impressive Heir of Morgana,” the same deathly smooth voice said. Its voice echoed through the community center without any discernible source, “but unfortunately the actually intelligent mortal is correct. You cannot do so without the glittering bane.”

Jason took a step forward and took a deep breath, “I can.”

The Reapling actually seemed amused at Jason, “is that so? Well then,” it said and appeared at the opposite side of the room, leaning against its scythe in an odd shadow. “Care to try, demigod?”

Selene looked at Jason as he took a few steps towards the Reapling. He looked at me and flashed me a weak smile, “don’t worry. This will be interesting, I promise.”

His assurance didn’t help my nervousness at all. The Reapling had been besting both of them and neither of them had Alchemic Gold that I was aware of. Jason might but if he did why didn’t he use it earlier. No, logically Jason had something else in mind but how he expected to best the creature was beyond me.

Jason whispered something. It was quiet enough that if it wasn’t so muted in the building and I wasn’t close to Jason I probably wouldn’t have heard it.

“Dhaliah, I summon thee. The Angel of my blood’s Afterlife, my familiar in the magic arts, my adviser in all that I do, I call you into the physical world with my mind and my magic come,” he whispered.

Suddenly the feel of the entire building changed from the dark almost evil atmosphere to cold and Serene like a graveyard in the afternoon. Then a presence filled the center that was somehow… black and cold but not oppressive or anything that I would have called evil. I blinked and leaning onto Jason’s shoulder was a woman.

I blinked again and the woman was still there. I could only see her from behind but I could see a few details about her. First she was tall enough to easily lean on the above average height of Jason. Next, she was wearing a black goth-like floor length dress that looked like it was made with satin and silk. Lastly, her skin was pale like moonlight and her hair was long and slightly curled as it fell down her back. Her posture was affectionate against Jason but not… romantic.

“Jason, you couldn’t have just brought the Alchemic Gold like Lisa told you to do, could you?” she asked him with both amusement and chastisement in her cultured voice. “I swear you never listen.”

“I do so,” he retorted instantly. “You know as well as I that Alchemic Gold takes days to make and shape properly. We would have had to find some from someone willing to part with some and hope it was in a shape we could already use then hope it wasn’t too expensive. So unless you had a stash somewhere that I was unaware of-” he ranted but was interrupted by her.

“You still should have tried and I’m ethereal normally. Where would I have kept a stash even if I had wanted to?” she questioned him and waited.

“Point taken,” he said then nodded his head at the Reapling. It had stood there in the same shadow not moving and I was pretty sure not breathing either. Though to be honest I don’t think it did breathe at all. “Think you can beat that thing?”

I could almost hear the smirk in her voice as the woman named Dhaliah spoke, “yes. But I have one question first.”

“Great and what would that be?” Jason groaned but I could hear his humor in the noise.

“how flashy would you like it to be?” she asked wickedly.

“This should be the only other challenge that we have to deal with so…” he paused and I think it was him being deliberately dramatic. “Be as flashy as you’d like. Just remember that I can’t keep you physical long so don’t dawdle.”

“Just because I’m technically your familiar Jason, does not mean you can boss me around, got that?” she asked in a very non-serious way that implied that this was part of their normal banter.

“Yes ma’am. Now the Reapling if you please,” Jason said giving her a little bow pointing towards the Reapling.

Dhaliah took a step away from Jason and towards the Reapling. She planted a fist on her hip and just looked at the robed creature across from her. It hadn’t moved before but now it was flexing and moving its fingers along its scythe.

“So are you finally ready?” It asked calmly.

“Yes, shall we?”

It nodded and vanished in the same puff of black fog. Dhaliah took a single step forward and waved her arm out both movements carried all the fluidity and grace of a dancer. And from her fingers appeared black tendrils of almost transparent ghostly energy that flowed around her like smoke.

A split second later the Reapling appeared just off to her right and immediately moved into a scythe swing. Only to be flown back by the energy that Dhaliah conjured as it lashed at it but didn’t seem to hurt it. It landed deftly on its feet and immediately launched itself at the woman who immediately pushed her arm out forward and the ghostly energy solidified into motes of dust. She turned her hand and the black dust pulled into a single point and formed into a sharp point that looked like a dart.

Then with a flick of her forefinger the dart flew at the Reapling and though it vanished in a burst of black fog, Dhaliah swiped her finger through the air and the darts path changed. When the Reapling reappeared its sweeping attack was already mostly complete but the dart was somehow faster. It curved and punched into the Reaplings right bicep.

The creature’s swing was deviated but still caught Dhaliah in the forearm. She flinched back but really didn’t seem bothered by the cut. In fact she seemed to be waiting for this because as soon as she finished her step back she brought her other hand to the wound and pulled it free and immediately started drawing over the wounded arm. It only took a few seconds for her to complete the simple design and face the Reapling straight on.

Then the Reapling did something new. It released the scythe which promptly vanished in a burst of black fog and it pointed its sharp finger at Dhaliah. A burst of deep green light appeared at the tip of its finger and flew at Jason’s familiar.

Dhaliah took the attack and was forced back several feet but never lost her footing, “a ghost light spell. Thats a pretty high level spell for your kind. I have to admit, that hurt,” she said straightening up. “But now I’m ready to finish this.”

I was actually annoyed at the fact the the Reapling actually laughed, “I doubt that. Only the glittering bane you call Alchemic Gold can kill me.”

“Who said I was going to kill you?” she asked and touched the open wound again. The Reapling stiffened as she brought the wet bloody finger to her arm and finishing the design. Whatever it was the Reapling must not have like it because it brought up its other hand and fired off several of those dark green energy blasts in quick machine gun like succession. But none of the blasts managed to hit.

She finished a single stroke of the symbols on her arm and the flared to life with wispy black light. The light burst out like a explosion that seemed to only effect the Reapling forcing it back a step. In the center of the space between Dhaliah and the Reapling a maelstrom of black swirls like a black hole and all the air in the room was pulled towards the hole. The Reapling was the only other thing that seemed to again be effected by the magic and its entire body was pulled towards the hole.

Its resisted taking slow labored steps away from the hole but was quickly pulled back and closer to the hole. It howled at Dhaliah as its foot tried to move again but was instead pulled to the edge of the hole with the loss of traction to the floor. Then a second later its foot slipped into the swirling hole and it fell to the floor scrambling for with its claws to stop its movement. And with a howl of curses it was pulled into the hole and all sound the Reapling was making vanished as the hole sealed itself.

All three of us humans in the building made a collective sigh of relief as Dhaliah turned to face us. Her smile lit up her high cheek boned face and really showed off the glitter in her amethyst purple eyes. She took a few steps towards Jason and patted his head affectionately, “there all done. Now was that so hard?” she asked sounding playfully condescending.

“You know portals like that are so incredibly difficult. Even for me,” he said with a sheen of sweat on all the skin that I could see. It wasn’t hot out so my only guess was that he was somehow using his own powers, whatever they were, to summon Dhaliah and keep her here. Maybe his magic was used to fuel the spells that she used against the Reapling but that was theory. For all I really knew it just took a lot to manifest her in the first place and nothing more.

“Suuuuuure,” she said giving him a wink. “you’ll get it eventually. You’re very good at this sort of thing. Just keep practicing and maybe do a little less with that pointy metal stick you call a weapon.”

“I’ll do that,” he said letting out a small tired sigh. “Look I know you like the banter and the fresh air and everything but I am exhausted. So I think I’m going to stop pumping magic into keeping you physical.”

Dhaliah let out a huff and rolled her eyes, “fine. If you feel you must.”

Jason smiled and a moment later looked relieved as Dhaliah became transparent and faded away slowly. It was less than ten seconds later when the Angel of the Afterlife completely faded and even the little bit of her blood that was on the floor vanished into the ether.

Selene looked around the room and her sharp retort started me, “what happened to that French Guy?”

I instantly spun around and visually looked around and could not find him anywhere in the room. With the excitement of the Reapling, I assumed that he did not even have to be stealthy as he left the room and headed into the offices.

I headed towards the door that I had seen him walk through earlier today and pulled down on the handle. It was unlocked and I didn’t seen any obvious signs of tampering to the handle or door that would indicate a trap. Intellectually, I knew that the fact that I didn’t see any trap didn’t mean much. There was a whole other side of the door that I could not see but I doubted that it was trapped. This was their stronghold after all and… wait. No, that would be too easy if my mental musing was true.

Hurrying through the door, I saw four doors along the walls of the hall the first one on either side had clear glass on the top half of the wall showing the wrecked offices inside. The final two doors at the end of the hall were larger and I assumed were meant for sports equipment. One of the doors were shut and judging by the odd bend in the door it was shut tight. The other door was wide open and in the door way lay on the floor a set of legs that led up to a body that I hadn’t seen yet.

Moving closer, I saw the French guy on the floor and out cold and judging from the messed up nose he must have knocked himself out.

I looked down in the doorway and found the thin, nigh invisible wire that he must have forgotten about in his haste. I looked up into the room and my heart skipped a beat. Chained to the wall with a light weight chain were seven kids ranging from the age of six to eleven. Three boys and four girls of a small myriad of races with nothing really tying them together as victims except for the fact that they were here.

Jason walked up and with a slicing swing of his spear cut through the chains and one by one they were let out. I bent down and told all of them that they were safe and that we were here to take them to the police then home.

At the sound of home all of them stood up and gathered around me and I had to stifle my tears. This whole scene just tore at my heart with the knowledge that they were out of harms way. Well, Not yet. I still needed to get them out of here.

A hollow boom could be heard coming from outside and I honestly was confused for a moment. Jensen’s battle wasn’t done yet? That was odd. I would have thought that he would have had her in some conjured rope or handcuffs by now.

“Come on,” I told Jason. “We need to get them out of here before something happens to them.”

I looked at the body of the unconscious spellcaster and something around his middle hit an odd light and I could see something that I wanted. Hanging off to the side of his belt was the genie’s golden magic lamp.

Moving past the kids and reached for it only to have Selene’s hand beat me to it and her eyes met mine in a cold uncertain moment. Uncertain for me because I sensed murder behind those dark eyes if I didn’t give it to her. Besides, its not as If we didn’t promise her a wish in the first place.

Jason looked between both of us and pointed to the door, “I’ll, uh, just get the kids out of here.”

After giving him a tiny nod he ushered the seven children out of the room while I watched Selene as she rubbed the lamp and Aaliyah appeared before her. The Djinn girl gave a small bow and spoke politely, “Three wishes are yours to choose. For you, my master, the power is yours to use.”

Selene spoke before I could try and talk to Aaliyah, “I only have one wish genie. I wish for you to remove what makes me the heir of Morgana. I want my actual sanity back from pervasive personality.”

Aaliyah seemed to consider this for a moment as she stared at and through her. The Genie then shook her head, “I’m sorry. To subvert that would be to bypass a choice that you made and was written into your fate. I cannot remove it. I am sorry.”

Selene turned to me looked into my eyes and I saw the spectrum of emotions flashing in them. Rage, fear, jealousy, frustration, desperation and even sadness. But there was also happiness, relief, and satisfaction in there and it gave her that same insane look in her that I had seen earlier. But now I saw something else. I saw a young woman trapped by a choice that she made and surrounded on all sides by desires that she could not control.

That look hardened, “you tell anybody what I wished for and you’ll not live a week past it. Do you understand?” she asked and I actually felt the static of magic flow around her and seem to aim itself at me. Completing the threat.

“Oh yeah. No problem there,” I said quickly to stop her from destroying me or potentially doing something worse.

“Our deal is complete,” she tossed me the golden oil lamp and I caught it. “I don’t care what happens with that now. Do what you want with it.”

Nodding to her, I held it and looked at Aaliyah. Her gaze turned to me and I could sense the hope and yearning in her eyes as those dark orbs bore into me. Then she spoke and there was a little more life in it then when she was speaking, “Three wishes are yours to choose. For you my master the power is yours to use. Sorry, Julianne but I do have to say that to every new master.”

I waved my hand in front of me dismissively, “its fine. Its not the worse rhyme out there and at least it rolls off the tongue.”

“So… whats your first wish?” she asked.

“Lets start with something simple and that I actually want and need. I wish to know the best way to have Jensen trust me?” I asked and immediately wished that I hadn’t. I doubt that there was any shortcuts with this and to be honest the answer was obvious.

Aaliyah smiled and snapped her fingers and sparks leaped with the sound, “Thy wish is done. The answer you seek is actually two fold. First you will need to admit to him that you did put yourself into needless danger. To him its not as much of a trust issue as much as it is a safety issue. Second you will need to tell him that you won’t do it again.”

“Really? Thats it? Huh. I would have bet money that it it would have been more complicated then that?” I said contemplating what the genie told me.

“Usually when you ask a question the answer is simple but rarely easy,” she said with more wisdom in her words than I would have guessed. But she was a supernatural creature and for all I knew she was over ten thousand years old. She gave me a little bow, “One wish has been used and two remain. Choose wisely your next wish or you may soon regret it.”

I thought about it for a minute before I shrugged and looked at her, “what would you recommend?” I asked.

“Wealth,” Aaliyah responded after a few seconds. “with enough wealth you won’t have to worry about anything financially and you and your stepbrother could easily continue your hero work without worrying about money.”

Nodding in understanding, I spoke, “sounds like a good idea. Aaliyah, I wish for wealth and a lot of it.”

Aaliyah again snapped her fingers and again a spark flew from her fingers, “your wish is complete, mi’lady. Check your, whats it called… bank account.”

I pulled out my phone and my phone went more than a little wide at the sheer amount of money now in there. Without saying an exact amount because saying the number is a bit of a mouthful, lets just say that there were eight zeroes in the number. It was more money than I had ever expected to see outside of movies. I seriously considered going to the bank later and swimming in the cash that I’d withdraw.

“Wow. Thank you,” I said and nodded to myself. “Alright, I think its time I keep my promise.”

The glimmer of hope in her eyes suddenly became brighter, “you mean you’ll actually free me? Why? You could wish for anything and you could get it.”

I shrugged, “I just don’t think its right to trap you in that lamp. You ready?”

She nodded enthusiastically, “you have no idea.”

“Then Aaliyah, I wish for your freedom,” I said adding a little extra something to the words. I’m dramatic that way, I guess.

Aaliyah’s body started to glow with a silver light. It grew brighter and brighter for a few seconds before the was a sound of snapping metal and breaking glass and the light vanished leaving the genie girl looking no different but with a huge smile plastered on her face, “I’m free. I can’t believe it,” she said, her words barely more than a whisper.

“Now you can go home,” I said smiling at her.

“Unfortunately, I can’t. I told you earlier that because I was captured, bound to the lamp, and forced to use my powers as a Djinn royal to grant the wishes of others I am shamed. Unfortunately, there is only one way to redeem myself. That is to kill the person who bound me to the lamp but since he’s long since dead that means I have to kill the last person who’s wish I granted,” she said, the smile never wavering.

I was screaming in terror inside my head, “b-but I freed you willingly. Does that mean anything?” I asked glad that I only stuttered once.

“Luckily, yes it does. And the Heir of Morgana doesn’t count because she didn’t get a wish granted. That leaves him,” she said pointing at the still unconscious Frenchman. “If he dies I can go home without shame.”

“I’m sorry about all this stuff but I can’t let you kill him or anybody else so don’t think I’m just protecting this slime,” I said harshly. He was willing and about to sacrifice children to live longer, to me the term applied. “but I do not allow killing if I can help it.”

The area around us seemed tremble with power but there was no quaking under my feet. It took me a second to get it. She was a royal earth djinn and earth was the important word there. From what I was feeling around me that title was more than an ornament for her to show off.

My hand immediately went to the thin gold chain around my neck, “please just go. I will not let you kill him and I’d rather not hurt you,” I said and hoped that whatever Dante did would help me here.

The Djinn looked at me with curiosity and caution in her expression. She placed a hand on her hip and let her other hand hang loose at her side, “really? You are a normal mortal girl. One I do like but one I am still willing to tear apart first. Going home means so much more to me than you. So step aside,” she said and walked forward with her loose hand swinging and her hand still on her waist.

As I stared at Aaliyah and got the impression of a literal immovable object coming right towards me. Trying to move her without any sort of power would be like moving a whole mountain with my bare hands. Jensen might be able to do something against her but he wasn’t here right now. It was up to me t stop her so I did the only thing that I could. I tore free the chain around my neck, breaking it.

I yelped from the pain in my neck and my whole body as it erupted in copper colored flames for a few seconds. When the flames curled into my body and vanished, my vision seemed to focus in as if I was looking at something through a pair of someone else’s glasses. The sensation was so odd that for a second I wondered what was going on.

Then my vision focused on on Aaliyah and I could see her clearer light. She was powerfully built but lithe so she was strong and fast. Then there was the subconscious feelings that I got off of her and I somehow knew that it was a nigh immovability that was a passive power of hers that the lamp had diminished while she was bound to it.

“What was that?” she asked suddenly a little unsure. Nothing about her posture had changed but the sense of grim calm wavered a little, “what was that magic?” she demanded.

“A gift,” I said being intentionally vague while more information flowed into my head and flooded my senses. Information not just about her specifically came to my mind but also about her type of djinn and about other things too. Like how to send her back. Even without magic.

She resumed walking and as she got within an arms reach of me she put a hand on my arm and pushed with what felt like minimal effort on her part. My world spun as I flew into a wall and felt my shoulder burst into fiery pain. When I looked after a few seconds of blurry vision, I found the djinn standing over the Frenchman with hands held forward with palms facing down and fingers curled and moving as if she was a working marionettes with both hands.

What was scary was the fact that the earth, wood, concrete, and anything else around us that came from the earth like plants or rock swirled around the unconscious man. His body then started to sink into the ground and even some of it began to glow with heat and flame like molten rock. Nothing seemed to be hurting him yet and he was starting to wake himself from his injury.

Groaning as I stood up, I looked at my arm and found the one thing I needed a piece of wood had broken my skin and had bled a little but just enough for what I was going to do. I took the blood and drew an empty circle around a symbol that looked kind of like a sideways eye on the back of my hand. Now all I needed was to touch her and speak the phrase and she’d be sent back home to the Dream Realm.

I breathed in and out several times quickly and ran. Either Aaliyah didn’t expect me to be able to do something or didn’t sense what I was going to. My hand managed to touch her shoulder and I practically screamed, “I send you back to the realm of your birth. To the land of Dreams and Nightmares I bid you by my blood and my word, begone!”

I repeated the phrase two more times but after finishing it the reaction was almost instantaneous. The Djinn princess whirled around to look at me with shock and rage plastered on her otherwise regal face. The air around Aaliyah shimmered like glass for an infinite second before it shattered and collapsed in on Aaliyah. She vanished into the rift of reality that I had created to force her out of our world and back to her original one.

“Holy- how did you do that?” I heard behind me. Spinning around, fists balled and reared back to throw down against whoever was behind me only to find Jensen breathing hard with bloody holes in his biceps and right shoulder. He was hunched over and was forced to use a sword that was partially transparent and still trying to form and failing.

“Uhhhh, that depends on how long you’ve been there,” I asked giving him a small smile and trying to be witty.

He eyed me, “long enough to see that you’re here and not back at my apartment. Though from what I have seen and what Selene told me I’m glad you found back up.”

“Yeah, he was itching to help us out apparently. It was really just good luck,” I said shrugging. “I got some help from Dante too. He’s how I knew how to force her home,” I added feeling that I should explain that before he asked again.

“Dante? Wait… you’ve met the Chronomancer?” he asked incredulous. “where did you meet him? Wait, don’t answer that. The important question here is you made a deal with him? Don’t you know making a deal with any being of the supernatural isn’t a good idea? If you got unlucky he could decide to take your soul or your heart, literally or figuratively.”

“He’s right, you know,” came Dante’s voice from behind Jensen. My brother did his best not to flinch as Dante appeared from a copper colored light behind him. I think he would have yelled or something else from the pain if he did. Instead he moved closer to me and eyed Dante with cation, leaving this to me I guessed. “You do owe me something. I’m here to talk about that debt.”

I swallowed. We didn’t actually say what I would owe him but he did say that I would owe him. Cursing my impatience to ask what I’d owe him, I spoke, “so… what do you want? Hopefully not anything that I can’t do without,” I chuckled nervously.

“No, it’ll be fine. Let me ask you something first. Do you know what I did for you?” he asked giving me a small smile.

I shrugged, “you gave me knowledge. I didn’t know how to defeat Aaliyah before I triggered your magic but then I did. Is that what you did? Gave me knowledge of how to forcefully send her back to the Dream Realm?”

“Yes and no. What I did was a lot more complicated than than seeding a little knowledge into your head. I’m the Chronomancer, I do time magic. What I did was link some of your future knowledge and muscle memory to your current self. You literally had three minutes of your future knowledge of hemomancy in your head, which doesn’t need magic,” he added as a side thought. “By the way thats knowledge, not memories I tied to you so don’t think that you’ll have flashes of your future,” he said smirking at my expression. I guess he saw my curious smile.

“Wow, thats pretty awesome actually,” I said smiling at the thought. That was all me and not something that Dante had implanted in me. Admittedly it wasn’t me from now but it was still me. Then my stomach sunk as I looked back at Dante, “so what does that mean I owe you?

“Simple. I gave you use of three minutes of your future so I want three minutes of your time in the future. One three minute period of absolute control over your actions. Not today, not tomorrow but eventually I’ll cash this in. That or I can just take your metaphysical heart. I have uses for that too,” Dante said smiling sardonically.

I flashed him a sarcastic smile, “I’ll take the three minutes if you don’t mind.”

“Smart choice,” he said and gave me a little bow. “With that I think our business is on hold for now,” Dante said sticking his hands into his pants pocket. He shook his right hand and withdrew the hand, “actually if you’re interested I got a trinket that I have no use for. It’s a small ring made of an unnamed Martian metal,” he said unfurling his fingers. The small ring was just that, a small ring made of a silver orange metal.

“What will it cost me?” I asked.

“Free of charge,” he said and flipped it to me like it was a coin.

I caught it and looked down at the ring and found nothing that seemed special about it. It was about one inch in diameter and definitely too big to be worn on my finger. I looked up at Dante only to find him gone with only the remains of a fading copper glow to show how he left the room.

“Well… that was brief,” Jensen said with a groan.

“He seems to like to be that way. Mostly business with a little banter,” I said looking at Jensen. While his injuries looked painful he seemed definitely seemed more tired than anything else.

“What about the kids?” Jensen asked.

“Jason took them. I think he was going to take them to the police station but I don’t know for sure. Honestly, I got distracted by the magic lamp,” I said and pointed to the lamp that I hadn’t even realized that I’d tossed it aside. I walked over and picked it up and rubbed a little of the dust away. For a second I thought I felt a trace whatever magic was used to seal Aaliyah in it still intact.

“Well I hope so,” Jensen said turning to look at the barely conscious French caster. “What are we going to do with him?” He asked eyeing him cautiously.

It was something I had been thinking about and I had an idea, “I was thinking of calling Damian for a pick up. He has that prison for power users and is willing to help us out.”

Jensen shrugged, “I don’t have a better idea. Would you mind calling him while I sleep for the next year,” He groaned falling to the floor with his backside hitting it hard.

“What happened to you? You weren’t this badly hurt when you fought the Steel Band Boss,” I said curiously.

“Her second gun was enchanted too. Or at least I hope it was. If technology is advanced enough that we’ve created bullets with an electric charge I think we’re in trouble. Her first shot was luck and the next few were because I couldn’t move fast enough after being hit. At the end she dropped both an incendiary grenade and a flash grenade and she got away and thats how I got the scorch marks,” he said rubbing around his wounded shoulder.

“Scorch marks?”

Jensen turned onto his side and showed me the back of his shirt which had a large black mark with burn holes flecked around it burns starting from the top of his jeans to his shoulders.

“Wow,” was all I said.

“Yeah, so you call Damian. I’m just going to take a nap,” he said, leaned back his head, and closed his eyes.

“So I hope we’re good again,” I said quietly in case he was already asleep.

“We’ll get there. You did good bringing in the cavalry like you did. Just trust me from now on and I’ll trust you. Besides, I have faith that we’ll be awesome,” he said and I swear that he slurred into a snore. A single snore that moved into silence.

I pulled out my phone and pushed the call button on Damian’s contact information. It took a few rings before Damian’s familiar voice answered, “ah hows my favorite hero duo doing?” he asked jovially.

“Tired and a little battered. Well, Jensen more than me,” I said with a small chuckle. “We just finished dealing with a situation and could use a bad guy pick up.”

“Sure, thats no problem at all. What is it? A vampire? Evil sentient robot? Soulshifter?” he asked as if he was reading a list.

“no, a spellcaster. Really, an evil sentient robot beats out spellcaster on your list?” I asked with a little humor in my voice. Every time we talked to Damian I felt myself liking him more and more.

“Well, I was hoping for something more unique,” he said chuckling. “I just sent off an email to a guy ironically named Guy who will head to your location and before you ask I got the location from the gps location of your phone. Interesting place for a confrontation by the way.”

“Well we didn’t choose it, they did. How soon will this guy named Guy be here?” I asked unable to keep the amusement out of my voice.

“Probably around an hour to an hour and a half. He’s sort of near you just not really close. Oh I got a message from a mutual friend of ours, Dante a few minutes ago,” Damian said with a smirk in his tone. “He did his usual cryptic thing on me and left me a one sentence suggestion. Julianne March could really use a warning about the rogue Necromancer from the Association. That is what he said verbatim. So I’d take it seriously if I were you. It’s the whole time magic thing.”

I nodded in agreement and instantly felt stupid because I knew he couldn’t see me, “What Association?”

“I keep forgetting you are still new in the know. The Association is the short name. It’s full name is The Gravekeeper’s Association and they are a group of Necromancers who advocate control over the naturally darker magical art and act as a police force against those who… overdo it.”

“Oh, so if they have a rogue member that’s not good at all,” I said hoping I was wrong but Damian kept the line suspiciously quiet. It was a moment later when I swallowed hard, “well this aught to fun, right?”

“Thats the spirit,” he said with gusto. “Besides you know what they say. Whats life without a challenge?” Damian chuckled followed by a woman calling his name. He responded to her after covering the phone to make what he said indistinct and then started talking to me again, “look I’ve gotta go. My wife needs me to go get our granddaughter. If you need help call me and I’ll do what I can, okay?” he said and I agreed with a grunt.

“But why would he come here?” I questioned and waited as if waiting for anybody to respond. But nobody would. Jensen was out cold and the French guy was still too dazed to speak.

I guess I’d just have to wait and see.

Later, I’d find out that Jason did indeed get the kids out and then to the police department and that they’d all gotten home safely. A little later then that on the news I heard that Jason gave all the credit to Jensen by announcing that the Sentinel had saved them. Though why I had no idea. I guess not everybody wants the limelight.

But for now I guess that we did good in saving those kids. I honestly hope but doubt that we will get a break. Especially since Elaine was still loose and would probably gunning for us harder now if she wasn’t before.

But that’s something for tomorrow. Tonight, I’m napping.