Silvertongue, page 10
part #1 of Remnants of Magic Series
“Let’s clean it up,” I heard Matt say, his voice still breathless.
The air-sucker turned to me as Matt walked past - Ben, he’d been called. He fixed me with an appraising look even as his boss crouched over my friend.
The muscles in his chest tensed as he swung his arm up - the hand clutching his gun. His stance settled, one leg sliding out and back to steady himself.
Shit.
The woman was still thrashing, fighting me every bit as hard as I was fighting her. My leg was on fire, just like my hand, and the first tendrils of nausea were beginning to spread from the pit of my belly at the pain and blood loss.
Somehow, though, I found the strength to pull the both of us upright, twisting to put her in front of me like a shield.
The crack of a gunshot echoed around the yard as the air-sucker fired.
Recon shuddered, her whole frame collapsing in on itself as the round tore through her back. I’d been half expecting it to come tearing out the far side, covering both of us in blood. She only coughed, though, her arms falling to her sides as though all of her strength had fled. Her eyes were wide and confused as she pressed a hand to her lips.
She crumpled a moment later, falling to the grass in a heap. The glasses she’d clutched with such desperation slid from her jacket, tumbling into the green beside her.
I knew what was coming next. Within moments she glowed, lit with a light from inside her.
And then she was gone, just as quickly as it had begun. I shuddered, seeing the dust already begin to vanish into nothingness.
“You….” I heard Matt say as I lay panting. “You absolute goddamn asshole.”
“You said-”
“What the fuck kind of demi are you?” he bellowed. “What was that? What the hell was that?”
“I-I don’t feel so good,” someone said from the balcony. Dan. He was still standing off to the side, his eyes squeezed shut, but his skin was bone-white. Even from across the yard, even at night, I could see the sweat pouring off him. “Matt, I t-think we should hurry.” Someone was beside him, a comforting hand on his back. Blue-eyes. Christian.
I pushed myself up on my elbows, trying desperately to catch my breath.
The air-sucker shook his head vigorously at Matt’s glare, his hands held in the air even as he glanced towards me. “Y-You said to clean it-”
“What, so you shoot her?”
“I was trying to shoot him,” he said plaintively.
The sound of Aedan laughing echoed off the apartments. He lay flat on the ground still, Matt’s knee in the small of his back. There was a cuff around one of his wrists. Even as I watched, the ringleader was trying to wrestle the other one on. Aedan was putting up about as much of a fight as he could, but from the way his limbs twitched and flexed randomly, his motor control was pretty shot.
“I-I didn’t….e-e-even have t-to-”
“Shut up,” Matt muttered, kneeing him in the side. Hard.
Aedan hardly seemed to notice. “Y-You killed her f-for m-”
Matt slid the lock home with a click, turning in the same smooth motion and punching Aedan in the nose. Once, and then again. At the third blow, Aedan finally shut up, curling his head down against his chest.
The sound of footsteps approaching pulled my attention away. The air-sucker was stalking towards me, red-faced but with single-minded intent. I flinched, turning to the woods beyond the lonely structures, but it was too late. I couldn’t exactly run, even if I’d started moving fast enough. I was screwed either way.
I gasped, feeling the breath slide out of my lungs, and collapsed from my half-run onto the ground. Ben had taken Matt’s comments quite personally, it seemed. A gun wasn’t going to be good enough this time. Lucky me. I writhed, trying to worm my way towards the treeline, but his foot slammed down onto my leg. I bit off another scream, doing my best not to throw up as a fresh wave of agony shot through my bones.
“We don’t know what his focus does,” I heard someone say. Their voice was soft, blurry almost, as though I was hearing it from a great distance. “I think we should-”
“Ben, cool it,” Matt called, his tone sharp and irritated. There was a grief hidden underneath the anger, deep and fresh, but it was already fading as he forced himself back under control. “Christian’s still shopping. Hold off for a little bit.”
“I’m not shopping,” Christian muttered. “I’m just being-”
“Asinine,” the air-sucker said under his breath, but he let up. I gasped for air, trying to calm my racing heart.
I could see Christian glare sidelong at Ben, his lips pursed, but he didn’t say anything.
“Are we about done here?” Dan called, still sitting on the stairs. “I’m tired.”
“Everyone just shut up,” Matt snapped. Ben was distracted, still glaring at Christian. I took the opportunity to roll over a little, just far enough that I could see Matt.
He had Aedan on his side, patting him up and down. He was looking for something. Aedan’s relic, no doubt. I had no idea what it was, but it had to be worth something if Matt was going to all this trouble just to get his hands on it.
Aedan was still dressed in his uniform shirt and black pants, hardly any protection at all against the cold. I could see him shiver from where I lay. Of course, it might have just been the aftereffects of the electricity on his nerves, too. Ben stalked over, leaving me behind with one last irritated look. Aedan’s bag lay forgotten on the ground where he’d held Recon. Without a word, the air-sucker tore it open and began pawing through the contents.
“Where is it, you ass?” Matt said, pulling Aedan’s shirt up as he continued his pat-down. His face was getting more red with every second they wasted.
“Aren’t you going to buy me dinner first?” The words weren’t even loud enough to be called a whisper, little more than a breath, but I heard them.
Matt did too. A muscle in his temple popped out as he stared down at Aedan - who stared back at him bold as brass, as though he wasn’t handcuffed and beaten.
“Hey - It’s your lucky day, Christian,” I heard Ben say as Matt resumed his search. I tried to push myself upright again, hoping to be at least a little stealthy about it, but as soon as I moved the air pressure around me dropped again. I fell back into the dirt, my head spinning. Ben held a box up as though nothing had happened - Aedan’s box, hanging open to reveal the contents.
“Oh, nice,” Christian said, his eyes lighting up.
“Found it,” Matt said. “I found it, you little bastard.” His words were rough, falling out of him in a rush of excitement, but there was an odd reverence underlying his tone. I turned my head back to them, trying my best not to do anything Ben felt worthy of another air-draining.
He had a knife. I bit back a morbid chuckle. It was Aedan. It was probably one of about twenty on the guy.
Only, when I looked, Aedan’s pant leg was pushed up, and there was a leather sheath strapped to his calf. It wouldn’t be an easy reach for him, if this was just another murder-knife.
I blinked, the pieces falling into place. The others were quiet too, coming to the same understanding.
Aedan squirmed closer, throwing himself at Matt as he tried to bite the man’s ankle. Matt kicked him in the gut disinterestedly, stepping away. He held the knife up to the light, turning it this way and that.
Somehow, it did make sense that Aedan’s relic would be a knife.
“Perfect,” Matt breathed. “Awesome.”
Ben inched closer, simultaneously trying to watch me and check out the knife. “Is that-”
“Fuck all it’s going to do you,” Aedan said with a groan, rolling over onto his back so that he could glare at them. “You know that, right?”
“Can we go?” Dan yelled down again. “Seriously, guys, I don’t know how much longer I can-”
“Is the van ready?” Matt sait without so much as a glance at Dan.
Christian nodded, his attention still fixated on the box of relics. “Uh. Yeah. Should be good to go once we’re inside. Brewer said it’d keep him out for at least a day.”
“Cowards,” Aedan wheezed. “Let me up and fight me like men instead of-”
Matt kicked him in the gut again. Aedan fell silent, turning away as he coughed for breath.
“All right,” Matt said, turning the knife over and over in his hand. “All right. Good. Christian, if you want answers out of him, you’d better hurry up. Get the glasses, too. Ben, come help me carry him. Dan, just...keep us covered as far as the van, ok? Can you manage that?”
“Yeah. Just hurry,” the man said. He was trembling as he half-fell down the stairs.
He vanished from sight behind the approaching wall of Christian. I hardly had time to yelp before the man had me by the shoulders, rolling me flat. His hands searched my coat pockets, slid around my wrists.
His eyes lit up again as he found the chain around my neck. I heard him sigh as my necklace slid out from beneath my shirt, the silver rings glittering in the streetlights.
“What’s it do?” he said, cupping it in the palm of his hand.
He was just window-shopping. What an ass. He was just going to ride around, waiting until he found one that suited his fancy, and steal it?
Fuck that. To hell with him.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I said, my voice tight and strained as I pushed the words past the wall of pain and dizziness slowly creeping over me.
He frowned down at me. And then he grabbed a stick laying in the bushes of our apartment’s hideously managed ‘garden’, slamming the sharp edge into my gunshot leg.
My back arched as I screamed again, every fiber of my being protesting the suddenly renewed agony. He held it for a long moment, the pressure building, and then let me go. I fell to the grass again, my throat beginning to ache.
“Christian. Hurry up,” Matt said. Dimly, through the fog that was layered over my vision, I could see him and the air-sucker trying to manhandle Aedan into a better position to carry him from. He was a small man, wiry and lean, and it wasn’t going to take them much longer.
Christian scowled down at me, his finger again tracing the necklace. “Look, you little shit,” he muttered. “If you tell me I’ll at least shoot you before I take it, all right?”
What, that was supposed to be his encouragement?
He seemed to see the resentment in my eyes. “If you make me try and guess what it is, so help me god, I’ll leave you here,” he hissed. “I’ll leave you behind to collapse. Don’t think I won’t. That’ll be for Recon.”
Oh. I swallowed hard, remembering the sight of those men shattering into dust on the wind. Of her disappearing, only a short minute before.
His fingers slipped through the rings, twisting them this way and that as he stared at me. And then he pulled the chain taut, his eyes narrowing as his patience dwindled. Behind him, Matt and Ben were lifting Aedan off the ground, trading curses under their breath while the man kicked and fought as best he could.
“Christian!” Matt bellowed. “Now!”
“Shit,” I heard him mutter. “Your choice, kid. Now.”
His hand closed around the rings. I reached up, grabbing at the chain, but he just tugged harder. He’d just break it - there was nothing I could do to stop him.
No. The necklace was mine. He wouldn’t - he couldn’t. I wouldn’t let him.
My mouth dropped open as I tensed, my grip tightening around the chain. My gaze was locked on his, blue eyes to blue.
Before I could say a single word, he froze.
I’d seen it too, from the corner of my eye - movement, from the trees and brush around our apartments. Someone was there. I could feel a bead of sweat drip down the small of my back as we both searched in the night.
There - a man. My pulse thundered in my ears as I gaped.
It was Jake. He crept along the edge of the woods, hardly making a sound. A gun was clutched in one hand.
What now? Why was he- how was he here? Had he followed us? What possible reason would he have to do something like that? The thoughts raced in my head one after another as he stiffened, eyes fixing on our little scene.
I tried to pull away as he straightened, bringing his arm up to aim, but Christian still had a solid hold on me.
The flare from the barrel of Jake’s gun was blinding, lighting up the night as he fired - again, and again. My head snapped around as I forced myself to the side, taking advantage of my captor’s shock.
I spun just in time to see Aedan sag, drooping in the hands of the two carrying him. His mouth fluttered as he crumpled, like he was trying to say something. His chest was a mess of red, though, his throat just….gone. My eyes were wide and unseeing. No. Not now. After all this, he couldn’t be-
The cracks spreading across his skin shone with a hot, angry light, every bit as bright in the darkness as the gunfire had been. They rose up from under his skin like morbid, glow-in-the-dark tattoos. Matt and Ben were yelling something, the words jumbled together and incoherent through the flood of sheer disbelief overtaking me.
Before I could blink, before I could move, Aedan shattered into a thousand pieces, dispersing on the nighttime breeze.
CHAPTER TEN
My mouth hung open. I stared, gaping, as the last fragments of silvery dust drifted away.
No. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Aedan wasn’t supposed to die. He was the one keeping me alive, dammit. He’d saved me too many times to end up like…that. He deserved better.
The others were shocked by his sudden collapse too. I could still hear Matt and the air-sucker screaming at each other. I didn’t care enough to try and pick out the words.
My mind latched onto a single fact, even as the grief inside me yawned open. Christian was distracted, buried in Aedan’s bag still. He’d flinched away at the sound of gunshots, just like the rest of us. It would only last a moment, but I had a chance.
Swallowing the surge of pain that stabbed through my leg at the motion, I threw myself forward and away from him. I wasn’t going to be fast, but maybe I could hobble to the-
His hand snapped out as I took another shuddering, staggering step, seizing my ankle. I tipped forward with a muffled cry, every bone in my body complaining as I hit the ground for what seemed like the hundredth time that night.
“Where is he?” Matt bellowed.
Ben was a pale, tight-drawn figure on the edge of my vision. “I-I don’t-”
“Find him!”
Find who? I glanced over as Ben took a step towards the trees, hesitating.
Jake was gone. I realized it almost immediately, once I actually took the time to look. He must have taken off as soon as Aedan was- once he’d died.
Something caught in my mind, screaming for attention. Aedan….died?
Aedan?
The sight of him falling in the McDonald’s parking lot flashed in front of my eyes. He’d been shot in the head. There was no mistaking it - and no one popped back from a wound like that in an hour or two. I doubted anyone would even survive a wound like that.
What exactly was happening? Was it his relic? But Matt took his relic away.
My eyes snapped over to Matt. He stood stock-still, holding Aedan’s knife out flat. His fingers twitched on the hilt, tapping a harsh beat against the leather-wrapped wood.
I exhaled slowly. No. Matt had Aedan’s relic. Even if his ability was...special, could he even use it? That was the whole point, wasn’t it? After Aedan had borrowed mine, he’d spoken some bizarre language that I hadn’t understood at all. My power hadn’t worked.
So that meant that Aedan was…dead. That he’d-
“Get him over here.”
Get who, now? My head snapped back up, my thoughts interrupted by the angry, strident tone in Matt’s voice.
Aedan’s knife was crumbling in his hands, splintering into fragments and chunks and collapsing to the ground. I stared, caught completely off guard. I...hadn’t known they would do that. What did it mean? The rest of his things were already gone, the backpack just a pile of dust on the ground.
Even as I gaped, though, Christian’s hands wrapped around my shoulders. He had me upright before I could say a word, my leg hanging limp under me. It had finally had enough of me and my mistreatment of it. Perfect.
“Ben!” Matt snapped, spinning on his heel. “I told you to-”
“I’m going,” the air-sucker said, rolling his eyes. “But are you sure you’re going to be fine with-”
“He hasn’t used his focus yet, has he?” Matt said, folding his arms across his chest as the last of the dust drifted away. “I’m fine. Go get that sleepy fucker and bring him back.”
Ben nodded, turning and dashing into the forest with one last look at me.
Jake. A surge of mixed emotions welled up at the thought of him. We’d saved him - and he’d come back and shot Aedan? That was how he rewarded us? Did he think that was the kinder option?
I gasped as Christian stumbled, nearly dropping me. The wound in my leg pulsated, seething with agony at the disturbance.
“You good, Dan?” Matt called, tearing his eyes off me long enough to look back towards the apartments.
“Not really,” the squat little man said. He leaned against the railing, a hand pressed to his face. “Can we-”
“We’re going, so get up,” Matt snapped.
Wait, what? I flinched, my steps slowing.
Matt didn’t miss my apprehension. He chuckled, his dark eyes narrowed. “Oh, don’t look so surprised.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Matt,” Christian said, his hands tightening further. “We still don’t know what-”
“If he’s got something so dangerous, he would have used it already,” Matt said, his chin raising stubbornly. “We’re at a disadvantage now, thanks to fucking Jake. A hostage might help.”
“I-I know that. But, he’s probably long gone. There’s no reason to think he’d hang around.”
“He’s never traveled with allies before, either,” Matt said. “Not since we split up. If he’s changed the game, we need to adapt with him.”
“Are we going?” Dan said, stumbling up to us. His bald head gleamed in the dim light.
