Frost Prisms (The Broken Prism Book 5) (22 page)

“I’m not,” he explained. “I assume it’s for the same reason you came after me when I was ten, but I don’t remember much about that day and I never knew what you wanted with me back then.”

For the first time, his father betrayed a microscopic amount of emotion, his surprise registering as nothing more than a momentary lift of the eyebrows.

“Is that so?” he asked with an almost academic sort of interest.

“Yes, and it’s been driving me crazy for years.” Upon reflection, that maybe wasn’t the best choice of words, given the audience, but his father didn’t seem bothered by it. “Whatever you did that blew up the house, it left me with a massive case of light-sickness and warped my Foci in some legendary way.” He held up his wrists so that his Focus-correctors were visible for emphasis. “I’ve tried everything I can think of to get those memories back, but I still only have fragments.”

The Dark Prism took a few measured steps towards him, and it was everything Hayden could do to keep himself rooted to the spot and not run away screaming. There was something inherently terrifying about Aleric Frost, something that Hunter had lacked.

His father took one of his hands and examined it as though looking for defects, before dropping it carelessly so that it fell back at Hayden’s side.

“Why are you so eager to retrieve that memory?” he asked with mild curiosity.

“Are you kidding?” Hayden asked incredulously. “My entire life changed that day. You have no idea how frustrating it is not to be able to remember something so significant.”

“Don’t I?” he asked delicately, and again Hayden could have kicked himself for his choice of words. If there was anyone who understood giant, gaping holes in one’s memory, it would be the man standing in front of him.

“Oh, sorry…”

“By all means,” his father ignored his awkwardness entirely, “let me alleviate this particular concern of yours. It will make things less tedious in the weeks ahead.”

For a moment Hayden thought the man was simply going to explain what had happened that day, but then he saw his father lower the Black Prism in front of his eye and twist it rapidly in search of an alignment.

Not sure what would happen if the Black Prism was used on him, but certain that he didn’t want to find out, Hayden said, “Oh no, that’s fine, you could maybe just tell me—”

Then his father found the right alignment, and Hayden watched the world shrink away from him as he was flung back into the recesses of his own mind. It felt like his eyes had rolled over backwards and he was staring into the depths of his memory, his new surroundings springing up out of the blackness.

Suddenly he was ten years old again, hiding behind the door to his bedroom in his mother’s house. All of the things he had forgotten came rushing back to him: the sights and sounds, even the smell of bread baking in the kitchen….How had he ever forgotten that? He heard his mother’s voice from somewhere in front of him, and he leaned closer to the door to listen.

“You!” she cried out in surprise, and Hayden heard the sound of a dish breaking against the floor. Risking a peek into the kitchen, he could see the shards of the yellow ceramic plate scattered across the floor.

“What—what do you want from me?” his mother’s voice shook horribly this time. She looked like she was staring at a ghost, or a seven-headed hydra, but there was no one except for a handsome, youngish man standing in the kitchen. He had a strange circle of metal around his head, partially hidden by his hair, and a clear diamond glittered in an eyepiece on top of it, pointed towards the ceiling.

“You know why I am here,” the man answered evenly, almost lazily. “I have come for the boy.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” his mother lied terribly; she had always been bad at it. “There’s no one here but me.”

Is he talking about
me?
Hayden wondered in surprise.
But I’ve never seen that man before in my life. I would definitely remember someone with a giant diamond on their head…

“He is in the house; I feel his presence. Call him here,” the man replied calmly, as though there hadn’t been anything unusual about his request.

“No, please. He’s just a boy—he doesn’t know anything about magic, or about you. Please, just leave us be…”

Magic?
Hayden thought in alarm just as a loud slap caused him to jump. His jaw tensed in anger as he watched his mother’s body hit the floor, reeling from the unexpected slap. Hayden was beginning to form a much more sinister guess of who this stranger was, because come to think of it, the man nicknamed the Dark Prism was supposed to have a black diamond of some kind, even though this one looked clear. But legendary villains didn’t just show up in one’s kitchen for no good reason…

“I will go when I have seen the boy. Bring him here or don’t, but I will not leave without him.”

Unable to stand being hidden any longer, Hayden darted out from behind the doorframe and ran into the kitchen. He pulled a knife off of the kitchen counter as he passed by, wielding it with shaking hands. It was still wet with pear juice, and smelled vaguely of the fruit his mother had recently been slicing with it.

“You leave us alone or I’ll hurt you!” he shouted, though his voice pitched high with fear as he faced down this unknown foe.

A moment of silence and then, “Do you know who I am, boy?” The man didn’t sound condescending when he asked it, merely curious, and suddenly Hayden knew who he was, though he wasn’t sure how.

“You’re the one everyone talks about…” he ventured carefully, “the one who wears the evil diamond on his head.”

He spared a brief glance at the supposedly Black Prism, though it still looked perfectly normal to him, despite being the largest diamond he had ever seen in his entire life.

“Correct in essentials,” Aleric Frost conceded mildly. “Do you really believe that you can hurt me with that knife?”

Ten-year old Hayden’s hands gripped the hilt tighter. “I don’t know, but I’m not going to let you hit my mom again.”

“I do not discount the courage it takes to face me like this, knowing you cannot win. Many full-trained mages have not managed it as bravely as you, though you are obviously very frightened.” He still sounded cool and almost bored, though the compliment seemed sincere. “Now put that toy down and come here. There is something I need to know about you.”

Hayden stood frozen in place, unsure of what to do. Here he was, threatening this guy with a knife, and the man didn’t look the least bit worried. If this was really the Dark Prism guy that everyone talked about, then he’d killed tons of people, and was probably perfectly capable of killing him too. And what did he even want with a ten-year old nobody in the first place? Hayden’s mom had acted like she knew him when he came into the kitchen, or at least recognized him…

“What do you need to know about me?” he asked without lowering the knife, trying to buy himself time to think. There had to be some way for him to get his mom and run—maybe they could hide until he gave up and left them alone…

“I need to examine your Source.”

This meant absolutely nothing to Hayden, but before he could ask the man to explain properly, his mother lurched up from the floor and said, “Hayden, stay away from him! Run and hide!”

“You cannot hide from me, boy; from others, perhaps, but never from me.” The way he said it made Hayden absolutely certain it was true. It also gave him goose-bumps because it was such an eerie thing to say.

Hayden’s mom tried to push him behind her, but the Dark Prism lowered his eyepiece so that the large diamond was directly in front of one eye. He adjusted it slightly, the monocle making a soft clicking sound as it rotated in place, and then he aimed it at Hayden’s mother. Without warning, she screamed as though in terrible pain and fell back to the floor, writhing in agony long after the screaming ended.

Stunned, Hayden looked from his mother to the man who had somehow hurt her without even laying a hand her.

It’s that diamond of his…it’s magic, and evil.

“Now come here and let me examine your Source, or I will kill her while you watch.”

Put like that, there was nothing Hayden could do but obey. He didn’t think this man would hesitate to murder his mother, and that was something that Hayden couldn’t live with. Silently, he lowered the paring knife and stepped closer.

The Dark Prism withdrew something from his pocket—two long, glass needles. For a moment Hayden worried that he was going to be skewered by them, but he relaxed when the man settled for touching one to his chest and the other to his forehead.

“What are you doing?” Hayden asked cautiously while the man stared at the needles through his Black Prism. His muscles tensed, preparing to be thrown to the ground like his mother, who was still twisting around in pain on the kitchen floor.

“Gauging your Source strength and compatibility,” the Dark Prism answered flatly.

This still made virtually no sense to Hayden, but it was clearly the only explanation he was going to get. His captor spent a full minute staring at the needles through his diamond before he seemed satisfied, tucking them carefully back into his pocket.

He met Hayden’s eyes briefly and then nodded.

“This will work,” he said, seemingly to himself. He twisted the diamond slowly around into a new position. Hayden didn’t know what the man was looking for, but he lost his courage and took a step backwards, stumbling over his mother and falling onto his butt on the kitchen floor.

She was still in pain, sobbing quietly but apparently determined not to give the man the satisfaction of seeing her scream and beg. She did mouth,
Run!
to Hayden over and over again, but his legs felt like lead, and it was all he could do just to scoot backwards until he was nearly to the door that led to the living room.

The Dark Prism stepped over his mother’s twitching body and approached casually, dropping to a crouch when he caught up to Hayden so that they were at eye-level with each other.

“It is important that you hold still for this,” he informed Hayden casually, as though there would be serious consequences if he didn’t obey.

“What are you doing?”

“Removing your Source,” the man explained calmly. Hayden didn’t know what a Source was or why this guy wanted his so badly, but he’d do anything to get free of him at this point.

“Will it hurt?” he asked softly, voice quavering with fear.

“Terribly, I expect,” the Dark Prism confirmed without emotion.

Hayden swallowed hard and then asked, “When you’re done…will you leave my mom and I alone?”

One side of the man’s mouth quirked upwards momentarily, as though faintly amused, and then he became expressionless once more.

“Yes, when I have finished with you, I will leave.”

Steeling himself for the promised pain, Hayden asked, “What do I have to do?”

“Hold out your hands like this,” the Dark Prism instructed, holding his own palm-out to demonstrate.

Hayden did as he was told, still sitting awkwardly on the floor, and the man pressed his own hands against Hayden’s and interlocked their fingers so that their palms were touching. Hayden had no idea why they needed to hold hands, but maybe it was just to keep him from moving too much…

The Dark Prism stared at him through the diamond on his head, and from this close up Hayden could see little streaks of color in it from the light in the room. For some reason it made his head hurt, even though he’d seen the sun cast different colors through glass before and it had never bothered him.

Before he could think too much about it, the most hideous pain he had ever felt slammed into him like a wall of bricks. It felt like his entire body was burning up from the inside out, and he screamed as the pain exploded in his chest and shot down both arms. He was still screaming when the feeling changed from burning to tugging, as though something thick like molasses was being dragged from every part of his body and pulled into his protesting arms, which cramped terribly as the sensation moved from his shoulders down to his elbows and towards his wrists.

He could hear himself screaming, and his mother now as well, though both sounds seemed dim and faraway to his ears. It felt like his very heart was being ripped out of his chest, and he wanted to beg for it to stop—for the Dark Prism to just rip whatever he was pulling on out of his hands as fast as possible to make it all end—only he couldn’t stop screaming long enough to form words.

The tugging sensation was all the way down to his wrists…to his hands…it was going to come out soon…

Please hurry up…
Hayden prayed, staring into the pointy end of the diamond that was hovering over him.
Please just let it end…

Inexplicably, something recoiled inside of his hands and the tugging sensation stopped quite abruptly. For a moment it felt like a rubber band that had been stretched as taut as it would go had been released and snapped back to its original form, and then instead of something being pulled out of his body, it felt like something was being dumped back in.

The thick, fluid feeling in his arms shot back into his body and seemed to flood him, and at an alarmed sound from the Dark Prism, Hayden looked into the eye that was uncovered and saw fear. The man tried releasing Hayden’s hands and pulling away, but Hayden couldn’t unclench his fingers as pain continued to shoot through him like knives, and then the burning sensation was back, this time moving in reverse. He had shouted himself hoarse but was still screaming silently, fingers locked tightly around the Dark Prism’s as something bright and fluid surged through his hands and up his arms, streaming into him until he felt like he was overfilling and drowning inside himself. The burning sensation in his hands was agonizing and getting worse, and then all Hayden could see were explosions of light in front of his eyes, thousands and thousands of them flashing across his vision. It felt like his head was going to explode, like his brain was overheating and couldn’t process anymore, and then everything went white and the last sound he heard was his mother’s scream…