Denise was walking me to part of the Zone I had never been to before, a sealed block surrounded by thick concrete walls. I had never been able to open the lock on the gate, but one of the guys did something magic and it popped right off.

Then everybody was standing around this empty concrete slab inside the fence. Men were taking their shoes off, and women were slipping on shorts under their dresses or changing into pants.

“Denise, what is this?”

“Think of it like surfing for mages. This was a sacred site for the Wampanoag before Europeans got here, the main reason Newbury built the tower so close. It’s a constant source of background magic that makes this the best casting location in the country. It was a quiet little ritual site for centuries; then, after your buddy from Mesopotamia got loose, it’s like something weakened the membrane around our universe and turned it into a kind of magic geyser. Now it opens up once every forty minutes or so and makes this huge pulsating tear in the ground.

“Professor Roon says this is a portal that never quite finished, like someone took advantage of the weakened membrane and tried to invade us, but the other end never connected.

“Now we’ve got half a portal in the ground here and the other end is swinging back and forth, crossing through some kind of power source outside our universe. This is where the power from Evan’s chair comes from. There are tantalum cables running underground from here in all directions. The tower used to use these to power magical defenses around town, but everything overloaded when this anomaly cut loose. DMA sealed it off, and we sneak in every month or so to take the ride.”

I squinted and tried to flex my eyes, but I still couldn’t see it.

Denise reached up and sent some magic into my neck again. She used more this time, and it felt really good. The world went gray again, and now I could see it, a long, forking rip in the ground, with blue-white fire roaring out of the concrete. It was expanding as I watched, getting longer, with flames rising higher as it grew.

“Denise, this is a wound, an injury to our universe. Can we close it?”

She was looking at me funny, reaching out to stroke my cheek. “I love that you see it that way. To most mages, this is just a cool toy. I like the way you view the universe, like it’s something worth protecting.”

The mages were lining up in front of the rift. Marcus was first. I watched as he stepped into the blue fire, glowed for a second, and shot up into the sky. Everybody clapped and cheered for him. He hovered for twenty seconds or so, then slowly came back down.

Everybody gathered around and patted him on the back. His sweater was smoking, but his breath was forming vapor in the air, like the magic fire was burning hot and cold at the same time.

Seven or eight people rode the rift back-to-back, rising up a little and sinking back to a round of applause. And as I thought things were about to wind down, Evan said, “Mister Kovak, I believe it’s your turn.”

I pointed at myself. “You really want me to do this?”

Denise said, “Evan…” as a low growl and shook her head like she was scolding him.

Evan held out his hand, inviting me to stand up, so I joined him.

“Pop quiz, Mister Kovak. What is the second rune in a levitation spell?”

“Talse.”

“And what does it do?”

“Restricts levitation to inanimate objects, so you don’t accidentally move a person.”

“Very good. Keep that in the front of your mind, would you? For the next few minutes.”

Simon said, “Hold on! Tim, you don’t have to do this. Evan, what is this peer pressure crap? This is not a frat party. We do not do hazing here.” He turned back to me. “It’s too soon for you to try this, man. Just work up to it for a few months and ride it with us next time.”

“Nonsense,” Evan said. “Mister Kovak is entirely capable of handling this.”

I shrugged, trusting him. “What should I do?”

Evan explained, “This rift is raw magic. Your body will try to absorb it, but you must resist that impulse. Whatever you do, don’t take it in. If your body takes in too much energy, you could hurt yourself. We’ll pull you out if you panic, but all you have to do is relax. Have you ever been surfing?”

I shook my head.

“It’s a lot like that. The magic is like a wave. If you fight it, it’ll break you in half, but if you relax, it’ll wash over and lift you up. Relax, and you’ll be fine.”

Of course, I was already tensing up. I was having second thoughts, but I couldn’t back out now, with everybody cheering for me. I took a deep breath and straddled the rift. Magic saturated the air. The coppery ozone scent was overwhelming. Under that, I smelled cologne and sweat and burning hair, residue from one of the riders.

I tried to relax, but it wasn’t working. I knew Evan was playing me. I knew this party was a trap. I was trying to stay cynical, but the damage was done. I wanted to impress these people. I wanted to belong.

Lost in thought, I didn’t hear the countdown start. The crowd was chanting, “SIX! FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO!”

The eruption caught me mid-breath. I was going to take one deep breath before the rift opened, but I timed it wrong. A moment of absolute silence, and the universe opened under my feet. The force of it snapped my head back and lifted me two inches off the ground. My body thrummed like a guitar string. Every muscle clenched and started to shake.

Terrified, I froze. My body reacted instinctively, sucking magic in huge silent gulps. For a moment, it was ecstasy. My body had been starving for magic, hungry since the chair. I’d been pulling in sips for days, but the hunger kept growing - a gnawing, restless feeling that I couldn’t quite place. The rift was an oasis. Paradise. Nirvana. Bliss. And it was killing me.

The pleasure made it hard to think, but I knew I was in trouble. I had to relax, but I’d never been so tense in my life. Cold tendrils of fear in my heart. Adrenaline flooding my body like liquid fire. My limbs were shaking, and I couldn’t turn my head. My teeth were chattering like a plastic toy. My nose caught the scent of burning plastic - smoke from the soles of my shoes.

I could see Evan and Denise through the flames, having some kind of stop-motion argument. Denise was yelling and pointing at me. Evan was calm, poised, with his hands locked behind his back. I couldn’t hear anything, but I read his lips. Evan said, “Wait.”

Simon was yelling, “He’s pulling in magic, but he can’t release it! Pull him out!”

Evan just said, “Wait,” again.

“Just relax!” Marcus shouted. “Just relax and let it pass through!”

“He can’t relax,” Denise said. “He can’t let the magic go because he’s a witch, and he’s having a panic attack.” She brushed the others aside and stepped up so I could hear her. She got right next to the fire and shouted, “Tim! I need you to listen closely to every word I say! You have to follow these instructions exactly!”

I focused on her voice and tried to nod.

Denise pointed to a nearby building and shouted, “My great-grandmother threw a Frisbee on that roof in 1974! I need you to go get it for me!”

It wasn’t a great joke, but it was enough. I started to laugh, and the magic rushed out of me as if I had just unclenched a fist. My body relaxed and I shot up like a champagne cork. When I finally looked down, I realized I was floating above the rift, a long fucking way above the rift.

I could see everything from up here. Burned-out buildings along the river lined up on either side of Nergal’s footprints. I could count them now, and measure the length of his stride, tracing the path from his entry point to Madison Tower.

I could see a huge line of wrecked cars down the highway. There were supposedly no bodies left in the Zone, since most of the dead people were brought back as zombies and burned as they tried to enter the city, but you could never be sure there wasn’t still some dead person, or not quite dead person, trapped inside a car that hadn’t been touched in fifteen years.

Evan’s students were like ants on the ground under me, but even from this height, I could tell there was something wrong. They weren’t clapping and cheering; they were screaming, cupping their hands at their mouths to try and shout, but I couldn’t hear them over the wind. It was so beautiful up here, I felt like I could float like this forever. Then the rift vanished, and I started to fall.

* * *

If the rift had vanished completely, all at once, I would have splattered across the concrete before anyone had time to react, but the rift seemed to be fading slowly as the energy was cut off, a bit like a garden hose that still has some water in it, even after you turn the faucet off. If I had been just a few feet off the ground, I could have floated down on the magical equivalent of a receding wave, just like Marcus did, but I was a good two hundred feet up, falling in a halting, start-stop pattern that would likely kill me in thirty seconds instead of three.

Denise took charge on the ground. “Oh god, he’s tumbling. Simon, can you catch him?”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Erratic rate of fall! I can’t grab him!”

There wasn’t much left alive inside the fence - a patch of weeds and some sick yellow grass, but Denise grabbed the weeds and started pumping in magic, trying to grow and stretch them into some kind of net. Denise grabbed Evan’s hand, and everyone made a chain, linking their power and feeding it to her. The pile of vines was growing faster now, but there was no way they would be strong enough to catch me.

“We’ve got to slow him down,” Denise shouted. “I can’t heal him if he hits this hard!”

It took me a second to realize I was about to die, and another second to wonder if I could do something about it. Then I remembered what Evan said about levitation and tried to work through it as my body fell.

Could I add something to the spell and levitate myself? I could remember the runes easily enough, but I only had five symbols to work with. But that’s what Evan meant. He hadn’t taught me an extra rune. He told me how to turn the safety off and make something that could wrap around my own body.

I don’t remember casting the spell, but I felt power wrap around me, lifting gently to slow my fall. I glided to the ground until I felt concrete under my feet, landing in front of the vines like I had done it all on purpose.

The students all rushed in to check on me, breaking their rules about touching, setting off little pops of power and emotion as they hugged me and patted me on the back.

“Thanks, everybody! Who caught me?”

Simon said, “You were falling too fast, man. You had to catch yourself.”

“Perfect cast under pressure, Mister Kovak,” Evan said. “I knew you could do it.”

But the other students were not happy. They were glaring at Evan, forming a protective circle around me, like my mentor was about to attack. Simon was about to start shouting, but Denise hit Evan like a strawberry blonde missile and dragged him off behind the fence.

* * *

Denise pulled Evan around a corner and slammed both palms into his chest. “Mother fucker! You almost killed him! Twice!”

The impact had driven him back a few steps, but Evan quickly composed himself. “Mister Kovak is fine. I gave him everything he needed to save himself, and he used it brilliantly. It’s a wonderful night for him. A real victory. Thank you for your help.”

Denise was appalled and looked like she was about to hit him again. “To take a boy who just got here, who just found his powers like yesterday, and almost bounce him off the pavement? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“You know what this program screens for, Denise. He’s useless if he can’t cast under stress.”

Denise whispered, “Motherfucker,” again.

“You need to know,” Evan said, “Tim Kovak red-lined my chair last week. We emptied that reservoir of magic and still didn’t find the top of him. My scale topped out at twelve forty-four.”

Denise snorted. “Oh, bull shit.” She made it two words. “I’ve been juicing him all night. He’s a puppy.”

“I assure you; he is not.”

“But twelve-forty-four, that’s not even human. That’s…”

“Say it,” Evan said. “Say it out loud.” Denise wouldn’t speak, so he said it for her. “I think that boy out there, that sweet, simple boy, could be the reincarnation of Captain Cobalt, and that is exactly what I need him to be.”

“So, you’re turning witches into superheroes now?”

“Why not?” Evan said. “You wanted to be the only one?”

Denise shook her head. “Your chair’s broken. It’s got to be a mistake.”

“You obviously won’t take my word for it, but he’s right there. See for yourself.”

* * *

Denise dragged me away, maintaining a death grip on my hand as we walked all the way back, all the way out of the Zone to a lovely little park, enclosed in a courtyard behind the tower, with a stream meandering down the middle.

She led me to a gazebo straddling the water and kissed me - so suddenly, so hard, I was absolutely helpless. She was much stronger than she looked, with a hard layer of muscle under everything my hands were trying to squeeze.

I tried to remember how long it had been since a girl had kissed me like this, and my brain kicked back on, immediately trying to find ways to ruin this. “I should tell you… it’s weird, scary, and complicated, but I kind of have…”

And then she was kissing me again, making it clear that she had no interest in hearing the end of that sentence, and while I might be an honored guest at this event, I was absolutely not in charge.

It took me another minute to realize what she was doing. She was deliberately withholding the magic now, so for a moment, we were just a man and a woman under this open sky. She was using her body to ask a question, testing to see if I still wanted her without the magic, to see if I wanted her as a woman, and not just as a witch.

I had been completely overwhelmed by this night, intimidated by this amazing creature who appeared in my arms out of nowhere, but I knew her question required an answer, and I did the best I could.

Denise backed up and took my hands. “Okay, we’re gonna go slow now. I want you to take in some power. Not from me. Just take a breath and try to draw some magic from the air. This is a place of power, but it’s not alien or violent like the rift, or that obscene chair. You’re touching the Earth now. I want you to relax and take in real Earth magic for the first time.”

So, I tried. Holding her hands seemed to center me somehow, like she was guiding me to the power. “What am I feeling?” I asked. “This is lighter. Warmer. The rift and the chair, that power is so cold; I didn’t realize how cold it was until I felt this. This feels…” I looked into her eyes. “This power, for the first time, it feels like it belongs in me.”

Denise said, “Welcome to Earth. This is your planet. This is where you belong.”

Nobody had ever told me I belonged anywhere before. The word hit me so hard, for a second, I couldn’t speak. I brought more power in, and it felt better somehow, like the whole planet could feel me, and the whole world was saying hello.

She put her hand on my heart. “You feel it? You feel the power right here?”

I did.

“I want you to take that power now and move it to your hands.”

I was about to say “I don’t know how” but it was already moving, until I could see my own aura again, glowing softly from both hands.

She stepped lightly into my arms again. “Now I want you to put both hands on my back and give it all to me.”

So, I did. I put both hands on her and gave a little push. Denise made a quiet “Mmmm” noise and said, “More.”

So, she got more. She made some louder noises and said “More,” again, more urgently this time. “Take it all in, fast as you can, and give it all to me.”

There was such hunger in her voice, I had to pull back again. “Denise, I cannot control this yet. They told me I have to be careful with surges, and if I just unload on you…”

Denise didn’t even lean in, just a straight-arm palm strike, right into my chest. A tidal wave of delicious, bubbling power came out of her and overwhelmed all my senses, all at once. Wham. It felt so good, for a few seconds, I swear I went blind.

It didn’t feel like sex, not localized to organs and nerve endings. I felt this in my whole body, like an electric shock to my soul. If she hadn’t been there to catch me, I would have gone to my knees. I can’t remember all the noises I made, but they were probably pretty funny.

I got back to my feet, and she was rocking back and forth in some kind of playful fighting stance, daring me to come at her.

You wouldn’t know it from reading this far, but up to this point, I had actually been proud of my newfound capacity for self-control. Even with Lydia, I was proud of myself, the way I had been able to hold my own with her, even when I was ambushed, exhausted, in the middle of the night.

I had been able to sit there and crack jokes when Evan strapped me in his chair and hit me with an overdose of alien magic. I had been able to keep my shit together and adjust that levitation spell in mid-air. I had made a game out of testing my willpower over the years, trying to fight the compulsive streak that consumed my father.

Judy was my first, and I loved her for it, but she had never been playful like Denise, or teasing like Lydia. All sex is fun when you’re young, but Judy never really cut loose with me. She never completely trusted me. She loved me for my sense of humor and for the way I worshipped her, but the whole package that was Timothy Kovak? She always wanted something more.

I felt lust for her in the simple, predictable way all young men feel for young women, but overwhelming desire? When you meet someone and something about them, the way they look, or sound, or smell just turns your brain off and rips the animal out of you? I had never felt that. I had never even imagined that.

So, when it happened for real, for the first time, I had no defense at all.

I charged Denise Hardy like a bull, lifted her off the ground, and slammed her into a support pillar, rougher than I had ever been with a woman. She wrapped her legs around my waist, and it was on. I wasn’t just putting magic in my hands anymore. It was surging through my whole body while I held her.

Lydia had been teasing me for days. She had turned my living room into a debate tournament, where the winner got my soul. I had to be so strong with her. So lost, so lonely, knowing any moment I could just say her name and let her take it all away. To take a man who had already lost everything, and make him fight for his last scrap of dignity like that? For just a second, I forgot to feel sorry for myself, and let the anger in. My sadness was changing to something else, and this little witch was about to get it all.

The magic was coming in hard, fast, and clean. So strong and pure, I felt like I could move the world. Denise moaned and started to shake. I couldn’t tell the difference between good shaking and bad shaking, so I started to back off.

She grabbed my hair and hissed “Is that all you got?”

And we were on again. I swear the trees were moving, leaves shaking like the magic was a strong wind, blowing straight through us.

Denise yanked my collar over and sank her teeth into my shoulder. A moment later, she slammed her feet back on the ground and gasped, “Okay! Okay, you win!”

Something in my head went snap and I was just me again. I jumped back and threw my hands up, breaking contact.

Panting, she grabbed my face, “Timmy, after Evan put you in the chair, when it was all over, what number did he say?”

I almost forgot to lie. “One-eighty-four.”

Denise laughed and leaned in to kiss me again. “One-eighty-four, my ass.”

* * *

I sat on one of the benches with her head on my shoulder. I had done nothing to deserve this, but here she was, giving herself to me, with no idea what it meant, or what was waiting for me back home.

I looked up at the sky and wondered how late it was. I could find out with a flick of my wrist, but I was deliberately not doing it. As long as I didn’t know what time it was, I could stay. As long as I didn’t know what time it was, we had forever. I could just stay in this night under the stars, and never go home again.

And then I remembered, really remembered what was waiting for me, and reality came crashing in. It was almost three in the morning. I pushed Denise away and stood up, as gently as I could. I walked to the opposite corner and put my back against the pillar, sliding down to hug my knees.

She came and sat beside me, puzzled by the sudden change.

“I really was not expecting to enjoy myself tonight,” I said. “I thought I would be here twenty minutes and decide you were all assholes. But Evan set the most transparent ambush in the world, and I walked right into it. I wanted it so bad. A simple college party, with good conversation and pretty girls. It felt like old times. And worse, it felt like maybe I could start school over again, walk in here like a five-star recruit and do everything the way I should have done it the first time. But it’s a fantasy. A stupid one. I can’t just have that. If I want a normal life now, I have to fight for it.”

Denise leaned in. “Tim, are you in some kind of trouble?”

And god help me, I almost told her everything. I wanted to collapse in her arms and beg her to take this curse from me.

But I smiled. “Sorry. I’m just being dramatic. I’m kind of fighting with my girlfriend and it feels like the end of the world. We’re most likely gonna break up, and I’m definitely gonna have some trouble with her dad, but until I know for sure, to carry on like this, to pretend I’m free when I’m not, it’s not right. It’s not fair to you.”

I looked into her eyes again. “God, if I had met you last week, or last month, or last year. Imagine if I met you last year, back when I had all the time in the world. I wonder, would you have even looked at me? If I had just walked up, made you laugh, and bought you some coffee? Just some guy, without a drop of magic in my blood?”

Denise didn’t answer.

“What’s killing me right now is that I think you would have. I think you would have given me a shot, with no magic at all. But trying to remember the guy I was a year ago? I would have taken a beating before I talked to you. And if you had so much as looked at me, I would have run out the front door, rather than sit there hating myself, admitting that I couldn’t do a goddamn thing.”

I stood up and brushed myself off. “So, next time some mundane guy has the balls to walk up and invite you for coffee? Give him a shot, okay? Just for me.”

I think she tried to call my name, but I was already gone.

* * *

And that’s how I met my best friend, the woman I would have married, if we hadn’t had an army of demons standing between us. I still wonder if she could have saved me, if I had just trusted her a little sooner.