Author: Benedict Jacka
Category: Science
Go to read content：https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/benedict-jacka/page,14,482328-fallen.html
Wait, no! That wasn’t—
Anne was staring at me. “I thought you trusted me.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you’ll know better for next time. Now how about we deal with the stuff that matters?”
“This does matter—”
“No, what matters right now is getting out of this mess that you put us in.”
Anne had been about to answer; now she stopped. “That I . . . ?”
“Yes, you. We’re here because of you. First you picked up that jinn in the Vault, then you used it to go on a rampage against a bunch of Light mages. I haven’t been saying anything because I figured that maybe I could cover it up, make it work. But you managed to be so incompetent, so stupid, as to let slip to the Keepers that it was you. And that was why they came down on our heads.”
“What? No! I didn’t tell anyone! Alex, I promise, I don’t know how they found out, but it wasn’t—”
“Then who else was it? There were exactly four of us there, and somehow I don’t think Morden and Vihaela are on speaking terms with the Council these days. That leaves you and me, and I know it wasn’t me. So who do you think it was?”
“I—I don’t—” Anne faltered.
“You’ve destroyed my life,” Crystal said. “Do you know how much I’ve lost because of you? I was on the Light Council. I had status, a home, a position. Now I’ve lost it all in a few hours, and if Richard decides he doesn’t need me, I’m going to be dead. Getting involved with you was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Anne was crying now. The tears in her eyes were painful to watch; the hurt and betrayal in them was a hundred times worse. Stop it! I screamed silently at Crystal. Okay, fine, you win! I’ll do what you want! Just stop!
Crystal didn’t answer, not in words, but I could feel her emotions. Amusement, satisfaction.
“I’m sorry,” Anne said in a small voice. “What do you want me to do?”
“There’s exactly one thing you can do that’ll save us,” I heard my voice say. “Call that jinn back and use it to get us out of here.”
Fear leapt into Anne’s eyes. “No. I can’t—”
“Yes, you can.”
“Alex, I can’t. You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“Why not? Wasn’t that why you picked up that stupid thing in the Vault? Because it was the only way out? Well, it’s the only way out now. So use it for someone apart from yourself for a change.”
“I can’t! If I call it back, if I call her back, I’ll be gone. They’re too strong now. Please, you have to—”
“I don’t care!” It was a shout this time, and Anne jumped. “This is the only useful thing you can do, so do it!”
Tears were streaming down Anne’s cheeks. She shook her head mutely.
“You stupid bitch!” My legs moved, carrying me close to Anne, looming over her. “How many times have I risked my life for you now? Now the one time it matters, you can’t even do this?”
“I—I—”
My hand hit Anne across the face. It caught her so totally by surprise that she didn’t even flinch. She went down to hands and knees, looking up at me in disbelief.
“Do it!” my voice shouted down at her.
Anne shook her head.
My body moved like an automaton, hitting Anne again. Inside, I was screaming, fighting. Useless. I was locked out; Crystal held the controls. I wanted to fight back, to rage, to look away. I couldn’t.
Anne tried to protect herself, but her movements were weak, shocked. I knocked her arm away and hit her in the face again, this time hard enough to split her lip and send her sprawling on the floor. She looked up at me with blood at the corner of her mouth and haunted, frightened eyes. It should have made me stop, would have made any decent person stop.
Crystal made me kick her. Anne fell back against the bed.
“No . . .” Anne’s voice was barely coherent. “Please . . .”
My body reached down, hauled Anne to her feet. Her eyes stared up into mine, wide and terrified. “I hate you,” my voice said. “I should have left you back in Fountain Reach.” I threw her away. Anne tripped over the bed, hit her head against the wall.
I stalked around the bed towards her. Anne was lying curled up on the floor, head down, her hair hanging over her face. “Get up,” I told her, and reached down to grab her hair.
Anne’s hand caught mine.
Fire flashed along my nerves, paralysing me. As I stared down, Anne looked up at me. Tears streaked her face, but her eyes were clear and alight. “You wanted to see the jinn?” she said softly. Slowly she rose to her feet, her eyes staying locked on mine.
I felt the pit drop out of my stomach. Oh no.
The room seemed to darken. The lines of Anne’s figure blurred and warped, black strands spreading from under her clothes. Shadows unfolded from around her, stretching from wall to wall like wings. Anne leant towards me, and all of a sudden she seemed to be the one taller, as though something was looming up behind her, looking down on me. “Wish granted.”
White-hot agony exploded in my hand, bursting through my body. I felt Crystal’s control snap and all of a sudden she was gone. I fell like a puppet with its strings cut, my head slamming into the floor. My hand was numb and pain was flashing through my body, but I was in control again. I looked up at Anne, fumbling for the words. “Anne—I—”
The door burst open with a crash.
Anne and I turned to see the doorway filled with people. Vihaela was there, dark and predatory, her eyes fixed narrowly on Anne, and to one side was Crystal, half hidden by the wall. And at the centre was Richard. He was ignoring me, looking straight at Anne, and in one hand he was holding something that thrummed with power.
Anne looked at Richard, and an expression of utter disgust crossed her face. “Ah, shit.”
Purple light shone from Richard’s hand. Magic reached out from him and the two women to Anne; mind, life, others. Anne’s eyes rolled back in her head and she dropped to the floor. The darkness around her winked out, the black strands vanishing.
“Bring her,” Richard ordered.
Vihaela walked forwards. I tried to pull myself up but there was something wrong with my hand. “Wait, don’t—”
Vihaela flicked a hand, as if shooing off a fly. Pain and nausea rolled over me and I fell. Through clouded vision, I watched as Vihaela reached down and picked Anne up without apparent effort. She turned and carried her out. From the doorway Richard and Crystal spared me a glance before turning away. Crystal looked satisfied; Richard’s expression was harder to place. Distance? Regret? Then both were gone.
I tried to pull myself to my feet but the aftereffects of Vihaela’s spell made me collapse. My vision greyed, and there was a roaring in my ears. Gradually it subsided. The pain didn’t. No, Anne, come back. Please . . .
Dimly I heard the footsteps of someone else entering the room. There was a pause; the door closed, and the foosteps drew closer. Turning my head, I saw a pair of women’s shoes. With difficulty I looked up.
“Hello, Alex,” Rachel said.
My eyes slid past Rachel to the door. I couldn’t make myself care about her, not now. Have to get to Anne. I tried to pull myself to my feet.
“Ah, ah.” Rachel gave me a shove with one foot, sending me sprawling. “Richard doesn’t want you interfering with what he’s going to do to your girlfriend. Not that she’d want to see you. You saw that look on her face?”
Vihaela’s spell was wearing off but my hand was still numb. I couldn’t feel it, and when I tried to use it to prop myself up, it didn’t work.
“We watched the whole thing on camera,” Rachel said. She pointed to the corner of the room. “Richard wanted to make sure his investment wasn’t damaged. I was just there with popcorn.” She tilted her head, looking down at me, eyes bright. “You really beat the crap out of h
er. I couldn’t believe she just sat there and took it. She really is a doormat, isn’t she? But I guess you always liked those sorts of girls. Wait, are you crying?”
I turned my head away from Rachel, blinking back the tears. “You are!” Rachel said. “Look at those tears! I love it when men like you do this. You act so tough, but as soon as something goes wrong, you cry like a baby.”
I’d never hated Rachel so much as in that moment. I stared at her, too filled with pain and rage to speak.
Rachel laughed. “Oh, you’re angry? What are you going to do about it? It pissed me off so much when Richard ordered me to keep you alive, but it was worth it just to see this.” She paused. “What, nothing to say? Come on, Alex, you’re supposed to be smart, right? Tell how this was all part of your plan.”
I didn’t answer.
Rachel waited, then her smile faded. “No, you don’t have anything to say, do you? You never did, not when it mattered. It was all just bullshit.” She crouched down in front of me, her expression suddenly cold. “You want to know why this happened? Because of you. I hope you’re paying attention, because I really want you to understand this. Everything that’s happened, all of this, it was all your fault. Richard gave you so many chances. He took you in and you tried to betray him. He invited you back and you turned him down. And then after all that, he still gives you a last chance to play along, and you say no again. I mean, what did you think was going to happen? You thought he was going to say ‘oh well,’ and let you go? Or maybe you thought someone was going to swoop in to save you? Newsflash, Alex. Richard has been the one sweeping in to save you. Doesn’t work so well when you piss him off too. But I guess you never thought about that, did you? You just figured you could do whatever you wanted and it’d all work out.”
“Get out of my way,” I rasped. Anne was on the other side of that door and getting farther away.
“Or you’ll do what?” Rachel said. “You still don’t get it, do you? Richard doesn’t need you anymore. You don’t get to call the shots.” Rachel paused. “He’s going to enslave her, by the way. Use that focus of his and Crystal’s spells to bring the jinn under his control completely. Once that happens, you can say bye-bye to your girlfriend. She’s not coming back.” Rachel extended a hand. “Unless you want to try to stop him?”
I looked at what Rachel was holding in her open palm. It was my dreamstone.
Rachel was watching me closely. “This is yours, right? I took it off those Council idiots. It’s supposed to be a mind magic focus, isn’t it? Maybe if you had it, you might be able to do something. What do you think?”
I looked at Rachel, and even through the pain, I realised what she was doing. She wanted me to try to go through her, to start a fight. Richard hadn’t given her the go-ahead to kill me, and she was hoping I’d give her an excuse.
But she didn’t know what the dreamstone could do, and she didn’t know that I could use it without touching it. I could reach out to Anne, talk to her, and—
—what? Despair filled me as I realised how useless it would be. Arachne had told me that I could use the dreamstone to step into Elsewhere, but I couldn’t manage that now, not injured with Rachel ready to disintegrate me the instant I moved.
Maybe if I weren’t so beaten down, I would have tried to do something myself. But instead I reached out through the dreamstone and screamed for help, for someone, anyone, to listen and to come. It was fuelled with all my desperation and pain, and I felt barriers shatter as I threw everything I had into the call.
Rachel flinched, catching herself instantly. “What did you—?” She glanced down at the dreamstone, then back at me in sudden suspicion.
I was swaying. The combination of Crystal’s mental assault, Vihaela’s spell, and the drain from that call had left me barely able to hold myself upright. Seconds ticked away. Rachel stared at me, and I saw my life and death balanced in her eyes.
There was a bang from somewhere below and Rachel spun. Before she’d even finished turning, something flowed under the door and coalesced in the centre of the room. It was a humanoid figure sculpted out of transparent air, like an artist’s sketch drawn in vapour. To normal vision she was invisible; to my magesight she took the form of an elfin girl with slightly pointed ears and big eyes.
She was an air elemental, one that I hadn’t seen in almost six years, and her name was Starbreeze.
“Hi, Alex!” Starbreeze told me.
Rachel looked at Starbreeze in recognition. “You?” She brought up a hand, green light gathering.
Rachel is fast. Starbreeze is much faster. By the time Rachel had finished saying you, Starbreeze had enveloped me and turned me and my body to air. She started towards the door, turned around, reached out to touch the dreamstone in Rachel’s hand, turned that to air as well, then as Rachel’s hand came up, Starbreeze shot out back under the door and out into the corridor, taking me and the dreamstone with her. Ooh, you got one of those? Starbreeze asked. They’re fun!
Starbreeze, help! I need to find Anne!
Who’s Anne?
There was a pulse of water magic, and the door disintegrated in a green flash. Ooh, Starbreeze said in interest. Pretty. Rachel appeared in the doorway, eyes locking onto us, and Starbreeze whisked away around the corner and down a flight of steps.
She’s my friend, she’s somewhere here. Please, can you find her?
Your hand’s wrong, Starbreeze said in interest.
Please, you have to help. I could feel the seconds slipping away and I was desperate. She’s been taken over by a jinn—
Starbreeze fled, zipping down the staircase and several corridors. I saw a mage flash past, eyes wide in surprise, there and gone. No, wait! You need to find her—
Jinn are bad, Starbreeze said decisively.
But you could reach her!
Mmmmmm . . . I felt Starbreeze shake her head. No.
From above I could hear shouts and the sound of an alarm. Starbreeze! I shouted. Please!
You’re hurt, Starbreeze said curiously. Home?
What?
Home.
Starbreeze zoomed off down the main hallway. I had an instant to see a double door approaching at terrifying speed before we hit a barrier.
It felt like being thrown through a jet engine and out the other side. Everything went white and I was falling through space.
chapter 8
I slept for a long time. I drifted between dreams and nightmares, filled with confusion and flight and danger, but they never became clear enough for me to become conscious. From time to time I would start to swim up towards wakefulness, and each time I would resist. I couldn’t remember much, but I knew I didn’t want to wake up. At last I couldn’t stay asleep anymore and slowly, reluctantly, I returned to the waking world.
You know things are bad when waking up feels worse than the nightmares. My memory came back piece by piece, and each bit made me want to run and hide. When I finally opened my eyes, I found myself staring up at the ceiling of my house in the Hollow. Birds were singing, and it was daytime outside. It was the same place I’d woken up . . .
. . . Jesus. Yesterday morning? Was that all it had been?
There was a rustle of movement and I turned my head to see Luna rising from a chair. Her clothes were rumpled as though from a long night, but her eyes showed no signs of sleepiness. “You’re awake? Stay there. Don’t get up.”
I tried to get up. I made it about six inches before collapsing.
“I said don’t get up.” Luna crossed the floor quickly, kneeling beside me. “You were in really bad shape when I found you.”
“How—?” My voice was weak, and I had to draw a breath and try harder. “How long have I been out?”
“It’s Wednesday noon. You’ve slept a little over twelve hours.”
It was still hard to take in. “You found me?”
Luna n
odded. “I can tell you the story, but you want anything to drink or eat? Klara said you’d be hungry.”
I was hungry, but the thought of eating made me sick. I felt terrible; my muscles were like water, and my right hand was numb. “Tell me what happened.”
“I’d closed up at the shop.” Luna’s face looked drawn and troubled. “Vari and I were supposed to be meeting, but I’d been waiting for—Well, it doesn’t matter. Two Keepers came calling, they wanted to know if I’d seen you or Anne. One of them I didn’t know, but I recognised the other, nasty piece of work called Saffron. She just kept staring while the man was questioning me, and I could feel this weird pricking, like she was looking inside me. I remembered you’d said she was a mind mage, and I figured she was reading my thoughts. So I told the truth, and when they asked when I’d last seen you both, I told them it had been a couple of days. I guess she could tell I wasn’t lying because they let me go, though they warned me to call them if I saw you again.
“So they left and I called Vari. He told me that he was being held on standby and they wouldn’t tell him why. Except he also told me there were arrest warrants out for you and Anne and that they didn’t seem to care too much about whether they brought you in alive or dead. I tried to get in touch with you and Anne and I couldn’t, and that was when I got really worried. Tried calling Arachne and she didn’t answer either, and at that point I ran out of ideas. Just stayed in the flat, waiting for someone to call and getting more and more on edge.
“I was starting to wonder if I should go out looking when I heard a bump on the roof. I ran out and climbed up and found you lying there. I thought I saw something flitting away—it made me think of that elemental you used to be friends with—but then I was on my own. I didn’t know what was going on but I knew the Council was looking for you, so the first thing I did was use a gate stone and take you here to the Hollow. Then I got in touch with Vari. I knew I couldn’t tell him anything where anyone could hear, but we’ve worked out a code for this stuff. He sent me a message back that said help was coming, and twenty minutes later Landis showed up with this German life mage I’d never seen before. I was a bit dubious, since, you know, Keeper, but I let him in. She’s been the one taking care of you. She and Landis left again early in the morning, but she’s due back soon.”