Wild magic book one, p.14
Wild Magic Book One, page 14
I said I didn’t want to lose control to magic. I’d lost control to powerful emotions my entire life, but now wasn’t the time to get technical on you.
Now was the time to flee.
I lurched up to my feet.
The creature landed just beside me, one of its claws burrowing down 30 centimeters into the concrete and cracking through to a supporting beam.
The steel bent. Chips of concrete splattered up everywhere, covering me and spitting in my eyes.
I still twisted, still reached the door.
But the creature yelled. It had this final quality to it. It didn’t speak English – that didn’t matter. I knew what it was saying. I couldn’t run. I could only get out of here one of two ways. Fighting or death. It would ensure it was the latter.
I tried to spin out of the open vault door anyway.
I skidded toward it, but the creature leapt up, flipped, and landed in front of me on all fours. Down on my butt, I couldn’t get away from its face, from the glow in its eyes, from the death in its jaws.
It pounced toward me.
I opened my hands and pushed them toward its mouth. It would rip those fingers off, shred my palms, and tear me down to the bone.
If it could do one thing – if it could get past my magic.
My whole life, I’d never been strong. I’d wanted to be. Then strength had knocked on my door, and I’d realized I preferred control instead.
Life’s about give and take, isn’t it? You can’t control every circumstance. If you do, you’ll never grow, never change, and never find out what’s really inside you.
As the creature reached my hands and one of its claws ripped through my arm, piercing the flesh for ten centimeters, I let it happen. No. I made it happen.
I might have surrendered to magic in the past – now it felt like the most active moment of my life. I opened my arms, accepting magic into myself, dragging it into my soul, swallowing a fire that could never die, not because I had to, because deep inside, I wanted to.
As the force raged within, it pushed up through my sternum into my arms and catapulted into my hands.
The creature went to rip my arm off. Instead it got a face full of magic.
My full bridge force ricocheted into it and yanked it off my arm. It sent it hurtling back until it struck the half-open vault door.
It moved with such force, it rammed the door against the wall. Concrete and plaster rained everywhere. I stumbled to my feet, so shocked, I locked a hand over my mouth and couldn’t breathe for two seconds.
Then I staggered around the open door and stared at the creature. It half opened one eye, then snapped its jaws toward me, but it couldn’t move the rest of its body – I’d broken its leg or hip. I didn’t understand its anatomy and didn’t have to. It was down – functionally so.
I twisted to run.
I stared at my hands.
It was like they reminded me of the necklace.
I turned.
At the back of my head, I questioned why I even needed the necklace anymore.
This had been the stupidest moment of my life—
Amazingly, before I gave up and left, I saw it.
When the creature climbed into the shelves, it had disrupted some boxes. They lay open.
A necklace sat on the shined floor.
John hadn’t even described the necklace he wanted – but I knew this was it.
The stones glittered the same color as his eyes – the precise same sky-blue. I skidded over, grabbed it up, shuddered as I touched the nine crystals set in a chandelier style with pale gold filigree, and hurtled out of the vault doors.
The creature howled once, this low, dangerous moan.
I got the impression it said the fight wasn’t over. Maybe it was down – but its friends would come.
Remarkably, I ignored it, even ignored the sweat covering my body, the bruises too. How about the blood? That rained down from the massive gash in my face and the hole in my arm. But my facial injury felt different – permanent, final somehow as if that creature had done something to my entire being I’d never undo.
I clutched my arm instead of my face. While that gash was deep, the wound in my arm could slow me down. I’d lost so much blood, it covered my front.
I ran up the steps, woozy by the end.
I shook it off.
I stared through the main room of the bank to see a horrifying sight. To my left, climbing up a window, another of those creatures loomed.
It was stalking me. Oh, god.
The name stalker got stuck in my head as I saw the open doors at the front of the bank.
I ran.
I ran, and I ran, and I ran. I still kept the void opener in my bag, and I could deploy it now. I couldn’t pause to think – just had to get out of here.
I made it down Federation Street. Then down Hopley.
I twisted around Archer and reached the iconic bridge in the heart of the city.
It resembled something you’d see in drawings of the old London Bridge. No canopies, nothing over the top, just ornate brown stone with arches over the large river below.
I reminded myself that the river beneath the bridge of the Gothic mansion led to this one too. But Fairbridge River was much larger. You couldn’t span it without a bridge.
I ran to the bridge. I didn’t know why. I stared at the picturesque, towering black streetlamps. They glowed, and the light attracted me. Unlike most other illumination in the spirit realm, it blazed sharp and clear like lanterns leading me home.
Only when I got to the bridge did I realize I’d left the stalkers behind.
I finally reminded myself of the void opener.
I reached into my bag, trembling, and pulled it out.
My fingers wrapped around it.
I stared at the necklace. I didn’t have a wealth of time – probably seconds. But each one of them spread. They stretched out like a baker making a single teaspoonful of dough span a countertop.
If I hadn’t used magic back there, I’d be dead.
Magic had saved my life. I hadn’t surrendered to it. I’d opened myself to the experience, letting it change me, and though I hadn’t been in full control, that wasn’t the point.
I stared, not at the void opener and the necklace, but past them at my hands, at every mark, cut, and splatter of blood, then beneath them to whatever rested within.
The void opener suddenly twitched. I watched light cascade over it. I had no clue why. Wait, I’d brought the necklace too close.
Alarm spiked through me.
The void opener would take me back to John. Then I’d get the C9R, he’d get his necklace, and my life… would go back to normal. Whatever normal meant anymore.
The void opener started to spin. I freaked out. I dropped it.
It clattered onto the side of the bridge.
I stood just where the bridge connected to the road. If the void opener rolled to the side, it would fall through a gap into the river below.
I watched it emptily as magic twisted around it, stared at it as the last, most important question I’d ever ask rose from my soul. It felt like a spark of light to a man living in total darkness.
I looked at the necklace, looked at the void opener, then took another step back. I rounded a hand into a fist, and I felt the magic in my veins begging me to run, to accept its gift and never look back.
If I took C9R, I could be normal. If I kept magic, I might be free.
As the word free echoed through my head, I heard the stalkers. I’d never discerned their cries before, but I knew the shrill high-pitched shrieks that sliced across the city came from them.
They would come for me.
I could jump into the void opener – I could escape – but it would cost me my magic.
Don’t ask me how I came to this decision, what rush of intuition blasted through me, but I lurched forward and kicked the void opener.
It was just before it could initiate. It tumbled down the side of the bridge and splashed into the water.
Maybe the water did something to it, or the void opener needed more power from me to work. But it fizzled.
I slammed a hand onto my mouth, and I realized what I’d done – appreciated that for the second time tonight, I’d faced a point of no return and pushed right through.
And speaking of pushing – time to run. Still holding onto the necklace, I knew I had to escape the spirit realm.
I had no clue what to do. Saving myself from C9R was one thing. I had to get out of here before the stalkers reached me. Before I bled out all over the bridge.
I turned my head down to see blood marching over my left side and covering my body.
Seeing it, I realized how much I’d lost, and I freaked out. My head became woozy like I’d pumped it full of balloons about to lift into outer space.
I shook it, tried to regain my senses, and ran. I didn’t have a direction. Until I did. Until I realized subconsciously I could only head one place. As I reached the end of the bridge, I stared through several tall towers to the most iconic piece of architecture in town. The enforcement building. There. I could get there, and I could find William or another Enforcement Officer.
I didn’t think as I ran. I didn’t even hear the shrieks of the stalkers.
I moved because I had to, moved because I could, moved because somewhere deep inside me something shook free, and I couldn’t hold it down anymore.
Other spirits rose. I didn’t care about them now I’d met stalkers. They fell into the background.
I reached one of the small central parks. I just needed to run across its vast, clipped green lawns – the Enforcement Office was on the other side.
I saw stalkers at the edge of the park, saw them in trees, saw them running across the street.
I could not survive if they reached me. Luck saw me prevail at the bank, but a girl’s luck will run out at some point.
As I finally burst out the other side of the park and saw the Enforcement Office, I knew my luck was almost up.
A stalker chased me, only three meters behind. I heard every movement of its clawed feet as they gouged through the grass and dirt of the park. I felt its breath buffeting against me even from here.
I shook my head as my world blurred.
… Too much blood. I’d lost too much blood. I could barely focus. I felt like I’d run into a tunnel, but I couldn’t make it all the way through.
The Enforcement Office…. I staggered, fell, and dropped the necklace but grabbed it and lurched up.
The imposing door of the church was right there. I didn’t question if I could get through. I knew I could.
As another stalker joined the one three meters behind me, I ran up the steps at the front.
I had to open the door – just needed time to do it.
I wouldn’t get it.
My life came down to a point I could never get past. A point like a dagger right up against my throat. Someone had tipped me back, bent me over, revealed my neck, and pressed a weapon into my jugular. That someone was John Pierce.
The closest stalker slashed at me.
I grabbed one of the carved door handles and muscled it open with every gram of strength in my shaking body. I dodged one stalker as it snapped at my throat and ducked as the other splintered the wood with a swipe of its claws.
I rolled under them. Another claw swipe nicked my leg, blood splattering in a wide arc. I staggered, fell onto my knee, and stared up through my mangled hair.
I knew the rules of the spirit realm. You couldn’t see into the real world, yet something offered me a glimpse, something gave me hope. Right at the end of the room, standing by the pulpit, I saw a shadow of William.
Just get to him. Get to him now. Get to him right now.
The world slowed down while some of it sped up. Some things flashed by so fast, I couldn’t recognize them. The rest slowed to such a snail’s-crawl, I couldn’t cope.
One of the stalkers put on a burst of speed and ran alongside me, its head twisting with predatory glee as it stared into my eyes. It would ram me. I’d fall. Then the other one behind would pin me and rip out my throat.
My eyes closed as emotions surged in me, as my body gave me one last ditch blast of energy to save my life.
I screamed.
I thought I saw the impression of William twitch.
Two meters. One meter. I reached the platform. I threw myself up it.
I lurched toward the impression of William. My last chance. My last hope.
Chapter 11
I fell through the air, tumbling as I tripped over my feet. This was it. If I couldn’t get to William, I was dead.
The pulpit stood just beside me. The book that let you into the rest of the Enforcement Office lay open. A soft yellow light emanated from it, as gentle as the glow from the bridge.
It too felt like it was leading me forward. Light can only do so much. Hands – strong muscular vampire hands – can do so much more.
As I fell against the shadowy impression of William, two things happened. The stalkers reached me. But so did William. It turned out he was far more than an impression.
He felt like a gate, like a door I could always access to return to the real world with just one touch. As I barged into him, his arms opened, and they tightened around my back. In a single snap of magic, he yanked me back into the real world. I tumbled against his chest and knocked him to the dusty stone floor.
That’s when I saw people filled the room.
Someone had moved pews in, and they’d arranged them one meter apart.
I gasped.
I looked at everyone.
I stared across at William. His face crumpled in surprise, shock, then something close to terror.
He assessed the side of my face then my arm with desperate sweeps of his wide green eyes.
Blood didn’t just cover me – I drowned in it.
The necklace tumbled out of my hand and rolled to a stop at the foot of the pedestal.
I gulped. “Stalkers. Stalking me. Monsters. They’re—” I pointed over my shoulder wildly, flicking more blood over William’s once pristine white shirt.
William didn’t need to be told twice.
He lurched to his feet. I watched his eyes, couldn’t look away. But I saw them in a way I’d never seen them before. The fixed look of total concentration felt a little like the way John stared at me. A little.
John wanted something I could get him. William wanted something he could get for me.
I thought opening a gate to the spirit realm took time. Just as William had yanked me out of it, he could yank himself back into it so fast, it felt like someone tearing through a paper wall.
I couldn’t let him go.
My body – my magic – told me to hold on. I punched a hand up and grabbed his leg. I didn’t intend for him to pull me into the spirit realm – but that’s what happened.
He twisted his head down and realized I was there. He paled, but that didn’t stop him. He spun.
Another stalker joined the original two, skidding through the door, its mouth opening and snapping at the air with a saliva-filled crack. As for the original stalkers, they stood either side of the pedestal. As they saw me, they bent forward, powerful bodies crumpling like springs, stomachs sucking in as they screeched.
I froze, shoulders lurching up toward my ears as I crossed my arms in front of my chest. I winced my eyes closed – but it didn’t matter. With a snarl, his long white fangs prominent against his lips, William spun, vampire light blazing through his eyes.
He struck a stalker on its chest. Just one hit. One single hit, and the thing went flying. It slammed into one of the stained-glass windows and turned to ash by the time it tumbled through the fracturing glass onto the street below.
The other stalker lurched for me, but William got there first. Pivoting hard on his left foot, he rammed it. It tumbled onto the floor. William followed it down. He jammed a knee into its sternum then yanked his elbow around. He stabbed it into the thing’s throat like his elbow weighed a ton and was as sharp as a sword.
The stalker gurgled then turned to dust.
That left one more.
It lurched toward William.
I don’t know why I did it, don’t know what I thought I could do, but I powered to my own feet. Something inside me snapped – and I could tell you what it was. Magic.
Bridge magic had to be used. It couldn’t allow you to just sit there and do nothing. Not when someone was in trouble. Not when your heart needed you to act.
Blood still covered me. Injuries dotted my entire body, no section of flesh free from them. I shook, so nervously exhausted, I’d used more adrenaline in 20 minutes than the rest of my life combined.
I still rammed into the stalker, still knocked it off its feet before it reached William. I scrunched a hand into a fist. I called on my magic, but it wouldn’t come. Oh God – it wouldn’t come.
William reached me. He wrapped an arm around my middle and folded me forward. He didn’t push me toward the stalker’s open mouth. He twisted his body until he protected me, until his arms and hard chest blanketed me from the world.
My head fell against his torso as he punched the stalker.
The monster turned to dust right in front of my eyes, but I didn’t glance at it once. Couldn’t rip my gaze off William.
His shoulder-length hair fanned in front of his brow, momentarily blocking his eyes until he faced me.
I took one breath. Just one. It was the most important breath of my life. No other inhalation would ever match the force, the poignancy, the beating, exposed heart of this moment.
Sometimes you look at something and see it. Sometimes you look at something and really see it.
And sometimes, when that happens, you’ll never look away again.
“William—”
His gaze turned from soft to hard, his lips paling as he fired out the words, “What have you done?”
Chapter 12
I shook.
“Lillian, what did you do?” William growled.
He twisted his head. I knew he heard more stalkers. I heard them too. Their constant scratching made my skin itch.
