Mind Games: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 6) (6 page)

My hand stretched across the table, running over the next picture. It was of a boy with his arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing a blue jeans and an open leather jacket with a plain white shirt underneath. I’d been a little older when I’d made this one. The outlines had been done in shaded pencil, except for his hair which had been done over with streaks of outlandish blues and greens. He seemed so familiar.

A knock at the door startled me, and I turned toward it as the lock turned. The door cracked open to reveal my father. He brightened when he saw me. “Hello, Punk’in,” he called, shoving the door open with his shoulder and pulling himself inside. His hands were filled with plain brown paper bags, but even from here I could make out the grease stains. “Ready for dinner?”

“I thought tonight was spaghetti night?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him, but even as the words left my mouth I wasn’t sure why I said them. Before I could ponder it, my mouth was moving again. “Monday is always spaghetti night.” It was? That was news to me, but then again, I’d said it. Even still, a cold chill ran down my spine. Why did I think it was spaghetti night?

My father’s face hardened for a split second before a smile spread over his features. “I know, but your mom had to work late to make up some reports or something. She asked me to take care of dinner and you know me. I’d burn water if given the chance.”

“Oh?” I asked, raising my eyebrow at him. “That sounds like something I’d like to see.”

He smirked, moving toward me and plopping the bags right in the center of the table, blocking my childhood pictures from view. “You might, but I assure you, your mother does not. And they know what they say about your mother.”

“Yeah, that she can speak and silence a storm,” I said without thinking, and the look of concern my father gave me upon completing that sentence chilled me to my core and made my veins fill with ice.

“Indeed…” He knelt down next to me on the carpet and brushed the hair out of my face with one of his rough hands. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah, why?” I replied, worried I’d said something I shouldn’t have.

“You know your mom can’t actually control storms, right?” he said, eyes boring into mine.

I looked away, my cheeks flushing. I did know that, right? Of course. My mom was just a normal person with a normal job where she… what? What did my mom do? For that matter, what did my dad do? I had no idea. No idea at all. Every memory I tried to conjure up was of them in their Dioscuri jump suits, weapons in hand as they combated the slavering horrors of the nightmare world. But that was fake. So why was that all I could remember?

“Of course,” I said, reaching past him and grabbing the first bag. I pulled it open. The smell of French fries and grease filled my nose. “Now let’s eat. I’m starved.”

He stared at me for a long time, face unreadable before nodding once. “Okay.” Then he got up to move to the kitchen. “What would you like to drink?”

“Oh, you know. One of those hard lemonades would be nice,” I said, smirking. I didn’t normally drink alcohol or anything, but I wondered what he’d do.

“Sure thing,” he replied which was weird. Was he seriously going to let me drink alcohol?

A moment later, he plopped the drink in front of me, a silly grin on his face. I wasn’t sure what his deal was, but I snagged the drink anyway. Watching him the entire time, I put the glass bottle to my lips and swallowed. He didn’t say a word. It was weird because I wasn’t old enough to drink. So why hadn’t he so much as said a word about it? Curiouser and curiouser.

Chapter 7

I was pretty sure I was dreaming. I mean, I had to be dreaming because unlike usual, I actually remembered laying down in my bed, pulling my Inigo Montoya comforter over my body and counting sheep until I fell asleep. I remembered getting to six.

So how the heck was I standing in a room with walls made of polished obsidian and a floor of green dungeon brick? And oh my God, what the hell was I wearing? Skin tight snake skin? I rubbed my hands over my body, incredibly annoyed at how the costume left extremely little to the imagination. Yeah, I had to be dreaming. There was no way I’d wear this on purpose.

A scream echoed down the hallway to my left, and a blast of cold chilled the air, frosting over the cobblestones as I craned my head toward the disturbance. My body began to move forward with a purposeful nonchalance. Evidently, I wasn’t worried about whatever it was. Only I was worried. Really, really worried. I tried to grab my swords, only I didn’t have them. Why didn’t I have them?

A flash of blue light exploded from the corridor as I approached. My lips curled into a smile. “So one has awoken,” I said to myself, which was crazy because I wasn’t trying to speak. I touched the blackened steel bangles around my wrists and felt a little zing of magic run across my skin. Both of the bracelets resembled a snake coiled around my flesh in the shape of an ouroboros. You know, the design where the snake is biting its tail?

As I stared at it, my breath would have caught in my throat if I wasn’t dreaming and could actually, you know, control my damned body. The piece of jewelry seemed to shudder at my touch, clearly not ready to let me use it.

A sigh escaped me. “Very well, Apep.” The name jolted through my brain, bringing back memories of the Dioscuri. When I was a Dioscuri, one of the spirits that had empowered my weapons was Apep, the Egyptian deification of darkness. I’d once had three spirits to call upon, but someone had shattered my swords and stolen two of them. I still didn’t know how that had happened, or worse yet, why. Not that it mattered because this was clearly some kind of weird dream, but then again, it felt like a dream even when I was awake.

“You can have your way for now, but given enough time, I will pry you out of your shell. You won’t be able to stay on good behavior forever,” I said, grinning at the bracelets like they were alive. “I’ll be here when you fall once more.” The bangles around my wrists shuddered against my words like they knew it was true, but strangely, I felt like they were reaching out to me, trying to tell me something desperately. Only I had no idea what it was.

Another crash came from the hallway, and I strode forward like an avenging god as the temperature fell several more degrees, making gooseflesh sprout on my uncovered arms. I licked my lips. I wanted this. This was what I had been waiting for… I just didn’t know why.

I turned the corner in a rush to see a blond-haired blue-eyed boy standing there, his face twisted into a snarl. He seemed familiar. I’d seen him before, but I couldn’t recall where. He threw one hand outward, flinging a red-haired youth across the corridor. Ice exploded from his palm, enveloping everything around us in a flurry of sleet and snow.

My body reacted to the cold, and I tried to cover myself but found I couldn’t. Instead, I walked through the room, one hand outstretched before me. His power was nothing to me, at least now, while he seemed untrained. If he could harness it effectively, well, I didn’t want to be around when he did.

“Stop.” My voice cut through the blond like a razor and fear filled his wide eyes as he stood there. I called upon my power and was across the room in a moment. I grabbed him by his face and released a blast of gilded energy that knocked him unconscious. He slumped beneath my grip.

“Thanks,” the flame-haired youth said as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve, leaving a smear of crimson goo on his once pristine white sleeve.

“You should have told me Fames awakened,” I said even though I had no idea what that meant. Only I did. Sort of. The knowledge came to me the instant I thought about it. Fames was the name of one of the four horseman of the apocalypse. But why was I calling this boy Fames? Was I dreaming about the horsemen? Why? “Famine is the one we wanted most. His hunger will be the undoing of them all.”

I smiled. Yes, that was my plan. To turn the horsemen against each other. They were powerful, yes. A true force to be reckoned with. But if they killed one another off, well that would be good for everyone, and by everyone, I meant me. Only I wasn’t quite sure why I cared so much.

“It just happened, Jormungand,” the youth replied as he stood and shook himself, but even though he seemed sure of himself on the outside, I could tell he was scared. And it was delicious. “The girl escaped. I will go after her.”

“Don’t bother. Polyphemus just went through the earth portal to try for the others. He can surely take back one girl. You’re much too valuable to risk, anyway,” I said, and the name sparked something in me. Polyphemus had been the name of the cyclops I’d fought in the high school when I’d returned with Connor. But hadn’t that all been part of my fantasy? Then again, I was dreaming, but if I was, why did this seem so much more real than it did when I was awake? And why couldn’t I move my body? Why did it feel like I was just a passenger?

I knelt down and twisted the slumped form of Famine until our eyes met. It was pointless because he was completely unconscious, but I wanted to be sure he wouldn’t wake up. To do that, I needed to drown him in power. It was the only way.

What I saw in the boy’s unseeing eyes would have stopped my heart if I was in control of my body. My face was reflected in his empty gaze. My lavender hair was pulled back into a ponytail to reveal a pair of octopian eyes on my forehead. Just like Connor had in the mental hospital… just like Lang the police detective had when that spirit had possessed him. Was I under its control somehow and just seeing into the real world for the first time?

No. No, that was impossible. I was just dreaming. Only how did I know I was dreaming? I hadn’t ever recalled knowing I was dreaming until after I woke up. I tried to swallow but couldn’t. My face grinned at me in the reflection of the blond’s eyes.

“The cyclops won’t be able to take Bellum back by himself,” the redhead said, sidling up next to me like he was no longer sure of what to do with himself. “It would be better to have the pair.”

“War and Famine together…” I tore my gaze from my reflection and shrugged at him. “It’s not necessary right now.” I pointed at the boy beneath me. “All we need is one. She will come for him after all. She has to come for him. It is in her nature. As long as we have him, she will walk right into our hands like a moth to the flame.”

I released the boy, allowing him to slump against the cold stone floor. Already, the ice was starting to melt beneath my knees, soaking through my snakeskin and chilling me, but it didn’t seem to bother me as much as it should have. “Can you carry him back to his room? This body is too short for me to carry him myself.”

The words coming out of my mouth made my blood turn colder than the water soaking through my clothing. Was someone admitting to inhabiting my body? No… no, that was insane. How could someone inhabit my body? Firstly, that was impossible. The doctors at Mercer & Mercer had assured me of that one simple fact.

Still, this world
felt
more real than the one I’d been living in for the past however long. Besides, something about the way I had said those words made me think I could potentially be possessed, even if I ignored the rightness of what I was experiencing in the here and now. If that was true, what was the other world? Was it just a prison designed to keep me occupied? If so, I had to escape, but how?

“I still don’t know why you’ve taken
that
body. It’s just begging for trouble.” The redhead shook his head and hoisted the blond over his shoulder. He spun on his heel, heading down the corridor, his feet splashing through the icy water as he moved. “They will retaliate for this.”

“My dear, Vali,” I called after him, a smile flitting across my lips. I ran one hand through my lavender hair, brushing it out of my face. “I’m counting on it.”

Chapter 8

My alarm clock started blaring at 6 AM so I threw it at the wall. It shattered with a satisfying crack that scattered bits of plastic across the room. I yawned and rolled back over. I was tired, what can I say, I had a stressful dream. Still, a moment later, it grew incredibly hard to sleep through my mother shaking me violently.

“Get up,” my mom said, grabbing the edges of my covers and jerking them off me in a way that was very likely to end with someone saying, “prepare to die.” Cold swept along my flesh in an instant, making my bare legs sprout gooseflesh as I buried my head under my pillow like an ostrich.

“Lillim’s not here. Please leave a message after the beep,” I groaned.

“Lillim, if you don’t get out of this bed this instant, I swear—”

“Beep,” I said and was rewarded by a wordless cry of rage. I snickered. I couldn’t help it.

“Honey, it’s your second day of school. You need to get up, or we’ll be late,” my mom said in her best “trying to be calm and mostly succeeding” voice as she sat on the bed next to me and tried to tug away my pillow. She failed… barely.

“Not going.” I peeked one eye up at her past the corner of my pillow.

“Yes, you are,” she replied, face twisted into a mask of annoyance. She’d never been really good about hiding her emotions. “This is not up for debate.”

I was about to tell her that I was, in fact, not going to class because she wasn’t real, and not only that, the school wasn’t real, but I refrained. How could it all be real? I mean, ignoring my crazy dream, how could a world where my dad gave me alcohol without even a word be a real one? And that bugged me too. Why could I remember that event and not others?

Something fishy was definitely going on, and I wasn’t going to find out going to classes filled with gibberish where the answers to nonsensical questions were “the life, the universe, and everything.” My eyes widened as I stared at her. That’s where I’d seen the blond from my dream before. The one they had called Fames. He had been Ian from my class. Maybe I would go to school today…

“Okay! You win!” I leapt to my feet, making a beeline past her toward my closet.

My mom watched me as I threw open the closet doors before checking her watch. I knew because I could see her in the mirrored door. “You have five minutes.”