Five: Out of the Dark (35 page)

The man that had nearly caught Johnathan and I the first night we came to explore the school spoke. “Yes, Master Brone, I suppose we can.”

Brone? I thought Jorgenson’s name was Brand. Obviously an alias
.

Johnathan stiffened beside me. I thought maybe the name Brone had touched a nerve somehow, but then he turned to look down the tunnel behind us. He cupped his hand around his ear again and pointed to Alec and Seth, pointed to his eyes then pointed down the tunnel back the way we’d come. They nodded and took off at a quick but silent pace.

I missed the first part of Brone’s explanation. “… an army of sorts. I’m tired of being considered a second-class Fae. They won’t even allow Warlocks to live among them in the Netherworld. We will conquer the Fae and become rulers over them. And then … we’ll have enough strength to conquer mankind. I will rule both realms. Isn’t that a wonderful opportunity for you two to be part of? A new order where the Fae and humans live in the same realm, ruled by me. Of course, humans will become the servants of the superior Magical Folk—as they should be.”

“I don’t even know what ‘fay’ are, why would I want to help conquer them? So I can become a
servant
to more
creatures
like you?” Chari asked. “Yeah, no thanks.”

“Oh, don’t you worry. I’ll teach you everything you need to know if you prove to be as strong as I think you are. You will even have the rare opportunity to learn and practice the art of dark magic. That is why I can recruit only the strongest young humans. Not just anyone can survive the initiations and training involved in becoming a Warlock. And, it takes time. Not to worry, though, once you’re a full-fledged Warlock you can live indefinitely and you won’t be a human any longer, really. You’ll be one of the strong.

“Now, no more questions. Let’s get on with this. After Brendon sees you drink willingly, maybe he will as well. Although, I don’t mind being forceful … in fact, I rather enjoy it.” I heard footsteps and then a liquid being poured.

I nudged Johnathan and mouthed
Now
. He turned to look back down the tunnel where Alec and Seth had gone. I turned as well, just as they appeared at the far end. Accompanied by none other than Mr. Grewa.

I must say I was
not
expecting that. I was hoping it would be Halli. They reached us and Seth put up a soundproof bubble around our group. “He followed us. He wants to help.”

I shook my head. “Mr. Grewa, it’s too dangerous. We have to go in now. You stay here.”

He nodded, eyes wide with determined fear.

Johnathan threw back the door and the four of us entered and spread out. The weak alarm ward sounded. I scanned the room, assessing where the biggest dangers lay. My gaze fell on Chari—her feet and one hand tied to the chair where she sat—just as she tipped the small cup to her lips with her free hand. “Chari, no!” I yelled.

Our eyes met and she thrust the cup away from her lips and dropped it to the ground. For an instant, I thought the smell of the liquid would cause me to have another episode like the one at the school. I fought it down, concentrating on my anger and the dangerous situation we were in. The smell wasn’t nearly as strong as it’d been earlier; I’m sure that helped.

The mayhem began with the Devil-hound,
Lucifer,
lunging toward Johnathan. I turned my attention to Jorgenson, who leered at me with a vicious smile on his face.

“
Sasha,
so glad you could make it,” he said. “And, you brought friends.” He reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a green sphere the size of a golf ball. He launched it at me and I brought my channeling rod up just in time to shoot it out of the air with a crackling bolt of blue fire.

I smiled at the Warlock, Brone. On each side of me, the battle raged. Johnathan had dropped his channeling rod and had the Devil-hound in a wrestler’s grip. Alec faced who I assumed to be Mr. Davis, while Seth warded off an attack by a group of apparent recruits—including the three losers who had attacked me at the party.

Chari and Brendon were helpless, each tied to a chair across the room from each other. Brendon, bruised and bloody, struggled to free himself.

I took this all in in a quick glance before turning my full attention back to Brone. He raised his hands, palms out toward me, and spoke the words of a spell. As he spoke, a blazing white sphere formed between his hands. I took advantage of the length of time his spell was taking and pointed my channeling rod at the forming sphere.

“
Explodus,”
I yelled. Another one of my made up Latin words.

This time, orange flames burst from my rod, hitting the sphere just as he released it. Instead of exploding as I’d intended, his sphere
engulfed
my orange-flamed bolt of magical attack—swallowed it like an oyster—and continued toward me. I didn’t have time to think about how to react, much less time to form a defensive ward to block the sphere.
I’m dead
, I thought. I took one step back on my injured ankle, toward the entrance, and ducked. A form flew from the tunnel and leaped in front of me, taking the full brunt of the dark magic sphere right in the chest.

I dropped to my knees beside Mr. Grewa.

“No! Mr. Grewa,
no!
” The effect of the sphere wasn’t anything I’d been expecting. It didn’t burn or explode or instantly kill. It
seeped
into his chest and spread tendrils of charged energy coursing over his body, encapsulating him in a cocoon of sparking cords. He looked into my eyes and struggled to speak. Nothing came out except drool. His eyes bulged and his veins swelled and burst beneath the surface. Purple splotches appeared all over his exposed skin. His eyes popped. Their fluid splattered my face. Frothy blood escaped his open mouth, then his nose and ears.

Then Brone made a big mistake. He laughed. “Grewa was a weakling—a non-talented weakling.”

“You’ll never understand the strength in kindness,
Brone,”
I said, quiet and deadly.

I left my channeling rod on the floor next to what was left of my beloved teacher and friend. I stood and faced Brone, electricity-like magic coursing through my enraged body, flying from my fingertips, standing my hair on end. I no longer felt pain in my ankle. The smugness on Brone’s face turned to fear—the blood drained from his face as he watched my advance. He reached in his jacket again and produced another glowing orb, this one green like the first. He threw it, not at me as I’d anticipated, but at Chari, still tied helplessly to the chair.

“No!” Brendon yelled.

I had to take my attention off Brone long enough to free-throw a bolt of energy at the flying sphere headed toward Chari’s face. There was a big chance I’d hit both the sphere and Chari, frying them both, without the channeling of the rod. I had to take that chance though because the alternative left her dead for sure.

My bolt struck the orb dead center and a small explosion ensued in front of Chari’s turned head. The left side of her face took the full brunt of the blast. Her skin was reddened and her hair singed, but otherwise, she looked okay.

I continued to advance on Brone, who had started to back toward a smaller version of the contraption the boys had destroyed at the school. I couldn’t let him reach it. I let blasts of energy fly at him with both hands—the biggest beams of energy I’d ever created. With a wave of his arm he diverted the blasts away from him and they flew past him and into the cement wall behind him.
I need to learn that trick
, I thought.

He crept closer to the device. I let loose with a barrage of power—a continuous flow rather than a short burst. He raised his hand in front of him; a shimmering defense shield blossomed from a bracelet that hung from his wrist. My barrage pushed him backwards, but did him no harm as the blasts ricocheted off his shield.

The smug grin reappeared on his face as he reached his goal. I decided on a different tactic. “
Paralyze!
” My hope that his shield wouldn’t defend a nervous system attack was correct; it just hit him a nanosecond too late.

He reached out and flipped a switch on the device just before my spell hit him. He fell to the ground like a severed tree branch, unable to move even an eyelid.

My satisfaction at seeing him fall was short-lived. I froze in horror as the runes carved around the bottom of the tank started glowing neon orange. When the glowing reached the single, larger rune carved on the tank, the liquid inside began to aerosolize and spew out of small nozzles around it. The smell hit me like a tornado. An angry and terrorized scream ripped from my throat as I turned away from the mist.

I pulled my shirt up over my nose and mouth, but it was futile. The smell and the need permeated my soul. I turned and saw Johnathan, bloodstained and sweating, standing over a dead and quickly dissolving Devil-hound. Alec and Seth had the thugs tied with duct tape. They worked at untying the cords that held Brendon to a chair. They all pulled their shirts over their mouth and nose when they saw me do it.

I was borderline freaking out and frozen in place, not knowing what to do, the
need
overcoming me where I stood.

“Sasha! Help me, get me untied,” Chari broke the trance, at least temporarily.

I knelt beside her chair and worked on the knots around her ankles. She’d worked the one on her hand almost loose. I was able to free one leg before the need for the drug took over. I curled into a ball at her feet.
I have to fight this.
The drug pulled at me—and I fought it. I fought the unbearable desire. I fought the hallucinations that crept in on my consciousness. I fought the ice in my veins and the sick in my stomach.

I felt someone kneel down beside me. “Paige, are you okay? What’s wrong?” Halli. She’d made it to the fight. Her anxious voice helped distance me from the torment of the drug.

“Hal, glad you could make it. It’s the drug … it’s spraying … breathing it,” I choked out.

She stood to her full four feet eight inches and aimed her channeling rod at the offending device. She blew it up so efficiently that all that fluttered down from the blast was ash. Damage had already been done, though.

Chari screamed and started yelling. “Get them off of me … get them off … get them off!!” over and over.

“What the
crap
…” Brendon shrieked as he scrambled backwards and fell over the chair he’d just been freed from.

I was shocked when my eyes fell on a newcomer to the melee. He was talking in a soothing voice to Alec and Seth, whose eyes were wide with fear. The man’s profile seemed familiar but I didn’t recognize him until he turned to face me. It was Joe, the grocer.
I must be hallucinating. Why on earth would Joe be here?

“Halli, we need to get these guys out of here, out into the open where they can breathe some fresh air. Help me gather them together over here.” He sure
sounded
like Joe the grocer.

Halli finished untying Chari’s foot and hand and led us over to Joe and the boys.

“Okay, we all need to be touching. I’m going to portal us out of here … I hope,” Joe said.

I’m forgetting something. Something important. Something dangerous. Think, Paige, think.
A noise came from the other side of the room just then, followed by a grunt of rage and flying debris.

“No! Joseph! It can’t be! You’re all dead. I saw it with my own eyes!” Brone was beyond furious.

“
Brone
.” Joe narrowed his eyes.

“Now I know who these kids are, why they embody such strong forces. They must
die!
The
Quinae Praesidia
must be abolished!” From the amount of spittle flying from his deranged mouth, I think he meant it.

He aimed his hands at us and roared a spell. It produced a vortex of spinning flame that sucked the air out of the room. Brone’s hair whipped around his head; his clothing wound around his body. The sparse furniture in the room moved toward the tornado he created. The vacuum effect pulled us toward the vortex, now infused with crackling light. Almost as one, Alec, Seth, Johnathan, Halli, and I yelled, “
Fiero
!” and blasted him and his mini-black hole with an impressive amount of firepower. The entire back half of the lair erupted in a ball of flame that seared our hair and skin.

“Hold on to each other!” Joe yelled over the roar of fire.

We all grabbed the hand of the person next to us.

“Now, lend me your power!” Joe yelled.

I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant, so I just did what Halli and I did when we closed circles together. It must have worked. I had enough time to look in the direction of where Brone had stood. He was still alive, moving toward us, engulfed in flames, screaming profanities.

Then we were sucked away. I don’t know of a better way to explain what happened. We were pulled into another dimension or something, surrounded by impenetrable and palpable darkness. I couldn’t breathe. The suffocation lasted for ten or so very long seconds. The darkness lifted, and my feet were on solid ground again. I opened my eyes and was relieved beyond measure to see the familiar surroundings of the Seattle street outside the entrance to our Underground.