Beyond the Stone, page 7
“You look like some pre-pubescent wet dream of a dark angel from hell,” Bane said.
Myko tipped his hat. “Why thank you, sir. I do aim to please. Now get your fucking ass in here, we’re not paying to warm up the outside.”
Bane chuckled. “Well, someone is in a fine temper.”
“Yeah, I am.” He closed and locked the doors. “And while I’m in this mood, can you please tell me why you can see beyond the glamour that my star can make? He’s so good it fooled the idiots from the Clocktower. How can you see past it?”
The anger in Myko’s usually warm and supple voice, as well as the words he had just said, wiped the smile off of Bane’s face. “What do you mean? What were the Clocks doing here?”
“You tell me, dipshit, as you’re the fucker that works for them. You told me that you were going to look out for me. What the fuck have you been doing, anyways? Playing house with that pretty boy dreamer?”
His whole body went cold. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh please, honey. You forget who you’re talking to, remember?” He pulled up one of the black leather sleeves and saw a crystal ball with a star in it. “I know all and I see all.”
“So you’ve been having me followed?”
Myko raised his arms in exasperation. “I keep telling you that I’m—”
Another grin broke out on Bane’s face. “I’m just kidding. Clairvoyant and Witch, I remember. I thought only women could be Witches, anyways.”
“Like magic knows anything about a fucking gender.”
“Sounds like you need to get fucked good and hard. Someone’s a little cranky,” Bane said.
Myko moved so quickly that Bane had no chance to protect himself. Myko had him up against the wall, the stone was cold against his back. Myko’s forearm pressed up against Bane’s throat underneath Bane’s jaw.
The stone came alive in his skin and Bane could feel it beginning to spread, moving along his body as if it were made of liquid smoke. Though he could feel the stone taking over his body, Bane didn’t move. He saw the look in Myko’s eyes and knew that if he did so, he would regret it.
“You listen to me, Bane, and you listen to me good. I’m going to speak to you loud and clear so that you can understand me. Okay?”
“Okay,” Bane said thickly, Myko’s arm still digging into his throat. “I’m listening.”
“When those men showed up today, it was only by the quick actions of everyone that works for me, everyone that lives and breathes here, that we are still alive. They are the reason that there is still a black market for you to walk into tonight. So, am I a little tense tonight? Yeah, I’m fucking tense. I need to get fucked and do some fucking but not until we make one thing perfectly clear.”
Bane swallowed thickly again. “What’s that?”
“You need to remember that you work for me. You need to remember that I could tell anyone that I’ve given you pixie dust to give to your mother and I would make sure that that piece of information would get back to you. I would make sure that you lose everything. Got it?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Also, you need to start doing your job. You said that you would protect me, so start protecting me. Capiche?”
“Capiche,” Bane choked out.
Myko took his arm away. “Good. We have a beautiful friendship and I’d hate to ruin that over a silly little misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding? You’re always trying to get down my pants and you just threatened to take my life away and blackmail me.”
“Like I said, a beautiful friendship.”
Bane gave Myko a dark look. “You’re a real fucking douchebag, you know that?”
Myko fluttered his eyes and held a hand to his chest. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but they will never break my boner.”
Bane sighed and rubbed at his throat.
“You’re too tense! Come, let’s have a drink, just you and me.”
“Just the two of us? You’re not going to try and poison me, are you?”
“Sweetie, you’re more valuable to me alive than dead. Come on now, don’t be a bitch. Come and have a drink with me.”
“All right,” Bane grumbled. “But you’re fucking buying.”
“Why buy if I don’t have to pay in the first place?”
***
Myko took him into his office again.
The walls that had looked comforting and warm when Myko had made him pixie dust for his mother now looked like they were closing in on him.
“Chill out. Here.” Myko took out a bottle and poured some of the liquid into a glass. It was clear going into the glass but changed to a multitude of colours once it had a chance to settle. Bane looked at it and could even see it sparkling.
“What the fuck is that shit?”
“This? Only the finest brew of fairy wine.” Myko lifted the glass for him to take it.
“That’s the gayest drink I’ve ever seen.”
“And you’re one of the gayest people I know. Just take the fucking drink already, okay?” Myko held out the glass. “It’s good shit.”
Bane grumbled something and took the glass. Myko poured himself a glass and put the bottle on the table. He held up his glass. “Salud!”
“Salud!” Bane said in response and they clinked glasses, and Bane took a sip. He had never tasted anything like it. The drink tasted like summer and had hints of fall; it smelled like spring and was cold like winter, yet it filled him with such warmth, such hope, that he couldn’t help but smile.
The sound that the glasses had created continued reverberating through the air and, as Bane watched, lights began to glow in the corners of the room and pulse softly. More light began to fill the room and Bane could make out a forest at the end of the room that had not been there before. He could hear water in the distance and feel wind on his face.
“Grab your drink, honey. Let’s go for a walk.”
Bane shook his head. “Is this real or did you put something in my drink?”
Myko smiled. “Honey, you are made of magic and stardust and yet you have so much trouble believing in what is right in front of your eyes.”
“I’m not made of magic.”
Myko raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? You can turn yourself to stone.”
“No, I turn into stone, there’s a difference.”
“To-may-to, to-mah-to or some shit. So, you have to use that to your advantage. C’mon.” Myko held out his hand. “Let’s go for a walk.”
***
Bane followed Myko through more hallways than he could keep track of.
The black market looked small from the outside, as if it all fit into one building. Bane knew that, theoretically, the building took up a city block. But there was no telling how long that city block went on for. Bane was beginning to realize that his perception of space and time held no place in a building that positively hummed with magic.
The walls moved around him, and the floor looked as if it were shifting underneath his feet. The tiles were filled with what looked like sand and it kept swirling into different shapes. He stepped lightly, afraid of disturbing the almost dancelike movement of the sand.
“You’ve never brought me here before, Myko.”
“Never felt like a reason for it.”
“What’s the reason for it now?”
“I want to show you what you’ll be protecting. Why I need protection from the Clocktower. Why you can’t let them come in here again.”
They kept walking until Myko was standing in front of a set of double doors. The doors themselves sparkled softly, even in the darkness, and the air around the doors hummed. Bane closed his eyes and could hear the music held in the air around him.
“What is this place?” Bane whispered.
Myko said nothing. Instead, he put his hands on the doors. The hum that they were giving off doubled and the glitter in the wood intensified for an instant.
Then all was quiet. The silence sounded like an ending and Bane wondered what could be about to begin.
Giving the doors a soft push, they opened. Myko gave Bane his hand and they stepped over the threshold. They closed softly behind them and, for a moment, Bane wondered if he had died.
Bane turned to look at Myko. “What is this place?” he asked.
“This?” Myko said. “This is the place where dreams are made.”
Chapter Twelve
“What the fuck am I looking at?” Bane asked, his voice a low growl.
“What the fuck do you think it is?” Myko asked, a smile working along his lips.
Bane had no clue. He had no idea what he was looking at. Myko had closed the door and it was as if they were in a room that was filled with stars. The room pulsed with magic, simply vibrated with it. Indeed, Bane had never felt magic so powerful, or been so close to it.
“Go ahead,” Myko told him. “It’s magic. It won’t bite.”
Bane looked at the object in the centre of the room. The magic pulsed from it, a living thing that called to him, wanting to be touched, caressed; to be loved. As Bane got closer, he realized that it was a rose quartz with clear quartz running through it. As he got even closer, the stone seemed to shimmer and move, as if it were made of liquid and not crystal or stone.
He bent down to touch the stone and Bane could feel the warmth coming from it. Not a heat, really, but more of a pulsing vibrance, as if it had a heart. When the tip of his finger made contact, the stone slipped apart, as if his touch had been the final ingredient it needed to take on a different form. It slipped and slid around in its enclosure, the walls keeping the liquid in place.
Bane turned to Myko, his mouth opening wide in wonder.
“Honey, close your mouth unless you want me to put something in it,” Myko said, with a grin. “It’s all good. It always does that. It starts as liquid and slowly over time, it solidifies. It responds especially well to a person’s touch.”
“You’re talking about magic as if it’s a living, breathing being,” Bane said.
“What do you think I’ve been trying to tell you for all these years? How do you think it lives within us, yet takes on a different form inside of our skins?”
“Yes, but to think that magic is alive...”
“Honey, you can turn yourself to stone. You don’t do it consciously. It just responds to your emotions.”
“That’s all I can fucking do.”
“Don’t interrupt me while I’m teaching you a lesson,” Myko said, smiling and uncrossing his arms with a squeak of leather. “Listen, you can do more, I know you can. So does the magic. Look.” He motioned behind Bane and Bane turned to look at the magic pool.
It still shone brightly, an opalescent rose-coloured glow thrumming through it, but Bane could see people moving through the opalescent film. Bane moved closer and watched himself: speaking to Madison at his desk; getting pixie dust for his mother and then comforting her; standing next to Jackson and Bane could see the desire running off of him in waves; trying to protect his mother from the Clocktower officers; and watched as Jackson protected Eliza from herself.
“What is this? Some kind of fucked up memory bank?” Bane spat out.
“Close. More what has happened and how it will affect what will happen. Even more than that, what has the possibility to happen. How do you think I knew about you and Jackson?”
Bane felt his world shift. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. How do you think I knew about him? I brought you two together.”
Bane shook his head. “That’s not true, Madison gave me his number and I called him. That’s how we met.”
“Yes, that was quite a show, him teleporting into your bedroom while you were naked,” Myko said, with a soft laugh.
Bane turned away from the rose quartz and glared at Myko with fire coming from his eyes. “You had no right to see that, Myko. No right at all. Even less right than that to fuck with my life.”
“But don’t you see? Jackson is part of it, you and him together are part of it. You need to be together; you need each other.”
“So, what? You pushed us together? The love that Jackson says he feels for me is fake? What, did you manifest the dreams, too?”
“No. It’s real and true. I just helped it along a little, brought it more to the surface and faster. The emotions are real and true so you should know that he truly loves you.”
Bane let out a snort. “Fuck you. He’s just your fucking puppet. But to hear the way you’re talking, so am I. I never realized that you liked fisting so much.”
Myko smiled. “It has its uses, to be sure. But Bane, I haven’t been manipulating you, you’re not my puppet or plaything, much to my eternal torment.”
“Then why are you showing me this?” Bane asked. “What’s the point of showing me this and telling me all this? It won’t do anything.”
“It will. Knowledge is power, my friend.”
“But telling me still doesn’t change anything,” Bane said. “I’m still afraid of loving Jackson, I still have to set up the task force and the Clocktower have already been to my house once. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it. What have you seen? Or what have you been able to see?”
Myko rubbed his eyes. “Sometimes, too much. Come here, look again.” Myko pointed to the area beside him.
Bane moved so that he was next to Myko. “What?”
“Look,” Myko said.
The sparkling mist that filled the air began to move and shift until it floated in front of them like a television or video screen. Bane watched as a dark shadow moved across the surface of the magic, so dark that it even took away the light in the room. The soft glow of the rose quartz faded and, though he could feel it move and thrum, the glow remained dark.
Watching the screen, Bane saw the dark shape take out towns and cities, rushing over buildings and turning them into rubble and dust. He marvelled at the power that this force had and wondered what it was.
He watched as the force of darkness rippled over the sky, over mountains and ripped them all to shreds as if they had never been before. Then the dark shadow seemed to sense them looking and it rushed at them, filling the chamber with a roar of wind and angry waters thrashing. It was a hiss that seemed to fill Bane’s head and, though he wanted to look away, he didn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t.
The shadow came at them, moving faster and picking up speed and for a moment, Bane thought that they were goners, that this was the moment his light went out. He could feel the stone moving across his skin with wicked fast speed, sensing the heightened danger that Bane found himself in. It almost felt comforting, which was something that had never happened before. He could feel the stone thickening and, surprisingly, he could move quickly. He stepped in front of Myko to shield him from the force of the shadow.
The roar of the wind grew deafening and Bane tried to extend himself, to make himself grow bigger, so that Myko would be protected. Myko gripped his arms. “It’s okay,” Myko said, loudly. “Watch!”
When the wind had reached an almost inaudible wail, the dust broke apart and floated softly away.
Bane stood there in silence for a moment. He was shaken on the inside but could feel the stone along his skin lessening as the world righted itself again. He noticed a golden sheen on the stone and a grey one, shining like gold and silver, before the stone disappeared from the back of his hand.
Looking from his hand to Myko, Bane asked, “What the fuck was that?”
“That is what we’re up against.”
***
They were back in Myko’s chambers, each with a drink in hand.
Bane didn’t know what to say, didn’t think he had any words in him that would describe what he had just seen. However, being an optimist, he opened his mouth and hoped for the best. His mother often told him that that’s how he got into so much trouble.
“What the fuck was that?” Bane asked again.
Myko shrugged, sipping his drink. It sparkled like the night, dark blue glitter floating in the beverage. “Darkness, the shadows, it’s whatever you want to call it, but it’s a mean fucker.”
“I assume it’s magical,” Bane said, with a wry grin.
Myko made to dump his drink on Bane’s head. Bane’s grin disappeared. “This is no laughing matter, Bane. What do you think the Clocktower would do if they knew about that? What do you think they would do if they ever got in here?”
“You’re not in danger, though, are you?”
“You’re pretty thick, you know that? You’re almost a mortal. Be a fucking Rook for fuck’s sake. The Clocktower wants all the magic it can get its hands on. Why do you think we’re not allowed to leave?”
“We can leave the district,” Bane said.
“Yes, as long as we have documented proof we’re coming back. We’re not living in a city that’s been rebuilt after a war. We’re living in the world’s largest prison.”
“It’s always been that way.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean it always has to be that way, Asher. Do you want patrolmen showing up to your house every day, making a mockery of your mother? What do you think is going to happen now that the Clocktower know you and Jackson are dating?”
“Jackson is as supernatural as you and I are—and there’s no law against one of us dating one of them.”
“He’s not in the catalogued files, Bane, and he told you that. He’s a fucking mortal. Sure, they put on a good face about interspecies dating, but it’s all for show.”
“What do you think I can do about it?”
“You. Are. A. Fucking. Rook,” Myko said. “It’s time you took charge.”
“You know, I don’t even know what Rooks are. No one Rook is like the other, their powers are different and respond to different stimuli.”
“Yeah, so you use that to your advantage. You need to learn how to defend yourself. Come here tomorrow night and bring Jackson with you.”
“Why? What does he have to do with anything?”
“Are you kidding me?” Myko said, finishing his drink. “He has everything to do with this. Are you going to finish your drink?”
