Lives of Magic (Seven Wanderers Trilogy) (19 page)

I sighed. This exchange was getting lengthy. Finally, eyeing the path to see if anyone was coming, Kian gently nudged Garrison out of the way.

“Moira,” he yelled into the tree.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Her questions were repetitive, but to her credit, she had not received a good answer yet.

“My name is Kian,” he yelled. He was still glancing back towards the path, but now he had a frown on his face. It made me turn around too. If someone came now we’d be done for. “You need to get out of the tree, because the branch you’re sitting on will break soon.” He looked to Garrison, who nodded when he understood the plan.

“No, it won’t!” Moira shouted back.

Kian nodded once to Garrison and there was a loud crack followed by a scream. Moira’s cry stopped as suddenly as it had begun when Garrison caught her with his magic before she hit the ground. He said he could move things, but I’d never seen it on this scale before. I was thoroughly impressed. Moira’s wedding outfit, however, was in tatters.

Garrison strained with the effort of keeping Moira afloat as beads of sweat broke out on his forehead. Still, he dropped her only a few feet off the ground. She fell and scrambled to get up, her hair matted and entangled with leaves.

Ultimate confusion played on her face as we surrounded her. She backed into the tree as if she was being hunted or attacked.

“What —” she began, but a bang sounded and forced us all to jump.

It was like another branch had snapped, but suddenly, I found myself hitting the ground with a thump. A fresh wave of fire burst up from my foot and into my leg. Seth had dropped me. I looked up at him with the intention of scolding, but stopped dead.

He was pale and looking confusedly around as a wave of red bloomed from the wound in his chest. His eyebrows were still knitted together in bewilderment when he dropped to his knees in front of me.

T
he next ten seconds flew by as if my world had been fast-forwarded. Familiar gunshots rang out and I was brought back to Central Park. My heart stopped. Magicians.

Leaves dropped from the trees as more shots rang out and birds fled. Kian pushed Moira so hard that she fell about a metre from where she had been standing. She landed and rolled on to her front, covering her ears with her hands. She was crying but I couldn’t hear her. Kian and Garrison then dove for Seth, pulling him behind a tree and dragging me along.

Kian hugged me to move me as we crept behind a makeshift shelter of an oak tree. As he covered my body with his, my face was pressed into his neck. I gasped and smelled the sea on him. It almost took me to a memory but then our surrounding chaos caught up. Even in the situation, I felt annoyance creep up on me. It was like a word on the tip of your tongue — just out of reach. I felt like I had almost figured out a mystery, but it escaped me.

I was placed behind the tree sitting across from Seth, who had been propped up against it. For the first time, I let the image sink in. I honestly thought I had beaten my past self’s feelings for him. I was in for a surprise.

Seeing a friend get hurt, even seeing a stranger like that, I assumed was traumatizing. But this was different. My soul felt as if it was about to jump out of my body to his aid. I wanted to throw up everything inside of me. I would do anything just to help him. It makes no sense in hindsight, but everything inside just wanted to get out. It was the most terrible feeling I had ever experienced.

I remembered my dream of running through the woods searching for him. I knew it was him I had been looking for. This is what I feared most. Seeing Seth hurt tore a hole inside of me and as I turned my gaze towards Kian, who was frantically pressing against the wound to stop the bleeding. I saw Seth’s face reflected in Kian’s. As if in a dream, I rubbed my eyes. My emotions were playing tricks on me.

Slowly, I began to pay attention to my ears again. My body felt like it weighed a ton. I felt my throat vibrating. Was I speaking? Sounds came back and the first thing I noticed was the absence of gunshots. They had stopped. Someone was breaking the silence.

“
Gwen
!”

Garrison would have shaken me, but he was tearing strips off his jacket to press to Seth’s wound. His face was as white as Kian’s. I wondered what my own looked like.

“Gwen,” Garrison was saying. I could tell he was repeating himself. “You are in shock. Listen to me.” He paused to look at me, so I made a thoughtful face to show him I was paying attention. He needed to help Seth, not stop to look at me.

“You are in shock, but you need to move. Help Moira. Get her up. We need to go.”

Inside, a voice screamed at me to start moving. It was like the message was delivered from my brain to my limbs carried on a wave of molasses. But it finally reached my muscles and I scrambled to get up.

In a rush, I realized my heart was beating a mile a minute and my hands were shaking uncontrollably. It was either an adrenaline rush or I was about to spontaneously combust again.

“Get up.” I hobbled over to Moira, my foot shooting pain up into my leg. I swayed slightly from the stabs of pain but then regained my composure. No time for coddling.

My feet slipped in the fall leaves that had covered the forest floor. Half-running and half-crawling over the uneven flora, I dragged her up by her arms. Any protests died in Moira’s throat when she saw Seth’s prone form behind me. He had stopped moving. Stopped groaning.

As I saw her go pale, I willed myself not to look back. I couldn’t risk freezing up again. How was I supposed to escape the magicians when I couldn’t even protect my friends from them?

We scrambled to leave the forest the way we had come. I limped and the pain flared again. It would soon cause my entire leg unbearable pain. For now, I kept moving, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, and supporting my weight on Moira.

I heard Garrison and Kian working behind me to carry Seth. I couldn’t look back. I could feel his presence, or lack thereof, at my back. I was coming apart at the seams. Something deep inside me knew I couldn’t exist without him. I didn’t know who was controlling me anymore — my past self or my current self. Either way, I needed her to get me out of these woods. I leaned on Moira and struggled through the pain in my ankle.

It seemed like ages, but we reached the church. Everyone was gone now save for a few people cleaning up. Kian signalled to take Seth into the church. We filed in through the back door, Seth and Garrison leading the way, carrying Seth between them. It was a strange sight.

They made their way to the back office, where I deftly cleared everything off an administrator’s table, including a computer, with one swift movement of my arm. Kian and Garrison lay Seth down gently and I could not avoid looking any longer.

Seth’s eyes were closed and his face was grey and sweat-soaked. His hair hung limply against his face. Garrison ran out of the office to get help. I put my hand on the clothes Kian had used to put pressure on the wound. They were soaked red.

My hand came away stained and I stared at it, surprised at my lack of — what? Disgust? Fear? A small part of me was happy the blood was bright red. It meant his heart was still beating. It hadn’t dried while we carried him. I stifled the thought.

Pulling up chairs, Kian and I sat and huddled by Seth’s head. I wiped the sweat from his forehead and smoothed down his hair. Kian kept a protective hand on his shoulder. Something instinctive drove me to put my hand on his forehead.

A bright flash of a memory danced before my eyes — I walked through a battlefield littered with bodies. The smell of it filled my nose. My first-person view of the scene included watching myself place my hand onto the foreheads of lifeless bodies, some staring, some peaceful. I was checking to see if they were cold. If not, I needed to finish the job and put them out of their misery.

I yanked my hand off Seth’s face and ran to the corner of the room, where a small garbage can was luckily lined with a plastic bag. I threw up for nearly a minute before I felt like I had purged the smell and taste of the battlefield from my senses. The memory remained, though.

I put the garbage outside the office and sat back down. Kian hadn’t said a word. His eyes shone bright with worry as he looked meaningfully at me, silently asking if I was fine. I nodded. A lie.

At that moment, Garrison rushed in with the minister of the church, a man carrying a large bag, and a woman. They had to push Moira out of the doorway to get in. I had forgotten about her. She was standing in the doorway, eyes wide, tears streaking her cheeks and her hands clutched to her throat.

The man introduced himself as the town doctor and the woman as his wife. At that moment, I felt eternally grateful for their lack of questions. Without mentioning the disaster in his office, the minister simply told us that everything was going to be fine, while the doctor began working. They said an ambulance would take an hour or so to arrive.

“What is your friend’s name?” the doctor asked.

“Seth,” Garrison and I said in unison.

“Seth?” The doctor called to Seth, peeling his eyelashes back to shine a light into his eyes. “Can you hear me?”

I held my breath until I heard his voice. “Yeah.”

It was a weak response that sounded more like a grunt, but it was better than nothing. I allowed myself to breathe again.

“Are you allergic to anything?” the doctor yelled into Seth’s face.

“No,” he replied.

His voice sounded too far away. An overwhelming desire to touch him swept over me. I felt if I could just hold his hand and transfer my energy into him, then he would be all right.

Just like before,
a small voice inside my mind said.

I reached for him without thinking but Kian grabbed my hand.

“No,” he said sternly.

The minister gave us a raised eyebrow, so Kian took me by the shoulders and led me to one side of the office. A worn leather couch looked comfortable as it sat boxed in by two bulging bookshelves. Kian pushed me down onto it. It was cold against my legs.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” Kian said in a whisper. We were getting stares from the minister but I didn’t care. “You can’t give him your energy. He can’t handle it right now. He is in and out of consciousness. You’ll just absorb his injuries and gain nothing.”

Kian was still pale. His face gleamed with sweat and his bottom lip shook a little. It was a small shake but it made him seem very human. His vulnerability frightened me. He was the strongest. What did that make me?

“Isn’t there some magic?” I whispered back. My voice held the high pitch of panic. “Can’t we heal him or something? Fix it?”

I realized I was holding both his hands in mine.

“You can channel incredible powers,” he said, “but your bodies are too human. You cannot give your energy to a mind incapable of receiving it, and you cannot heal with a force.”

When I looked at him pleadingly, he went on.

“Your magic is energy condensed. A power. When you do things, you push them. Move them. Force them.” Kian squeezed my hand between each example. I wanted him to squeeze it until it hurt.

Wake me up!
I silently called to him.
Get me out of this nightmare.

“To create a hole in the concrete, or burn a bathtub, or to move solid objects is not the same as healing a human body,” he whispered. “It would be like trying to paint a miniature picture with a broomstick or put together a ship in a bottle with pliers.”

I stared at the wall in front of me. The scene felt unreal. I don’t know how long passed until four paramedics burst through the door. In a heartbeat, they bundled Seth onto a gurney and had him in the ambulance.

The minister gave Kian some directions on how to get to the nearest hospital. If he wanted to ask what had happened, he must have known he would not get the answers, so he stayed quiet. Instead, he turned to Moira with a questioning look on his face. She had calmed somewhat, but still shook.

“Shall I tell your father …?” the minister asked.

Moira opened her mouth but Kian cut her off.

“She’ll be back later today,” he said.

The minister nodded.

Thanking the doctor, Garrison and I ran from the office. I looked back to see Kian grab Moira’s wrist. The look on her face suggested it hurt, but he led her out of the office and into the car in silence. Opening the back door, he nearly pushed her in. She was frightened but didn’t argue.

“What the hell happened?” Garrison yelled. His voice felt too large for the small car. There was power behind it and it made me wince. “I thought you said they would try to steal our magic! Or at least use it while we’re still weak! Not try to kill us!”

“I don’t know,” Kian answered. His voice shook. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

“What was?” I asked.

Kian swatted at the question with his hand as if it was a fly then pressed both hands onto the steering wheel until his knuckles were white. Once we were on the highway, the speed of his driving scared me. We flew by the other cars as if they stood still.

Garrison proceeded with an onslaught of questions.

“I felt someone nearby,” Kian answered. “Seth must have as well. But I didn’t know this was going to happen. There was no reason for it to happen. Killing you doesn’t get them anything. It makes no sense. ”

“Why are they trying to hurt us?” Garrison yelled. “They’re magicians! Surely they …” He trailed off as Kian only shook his head. The mundane nature of guns had before only been a distraction to steal our magic. Did we do something to change their plan? Was it between stealing our souls and killing our bodies? The thought made me shake.

“If it was not a general attack on us or our magic, and they’re still waiting, then it must be something about Seth,” I reasoned.

“Impossible,” Kian spat, ending my train of thought.

Something didn’t feel right about the situation. There was something more behind Kian’s panic. Why was he so upset? There was a look in his eyes I didn’t recognize and it made me uneasy. More secrets from him meant more surprises for us.

We were a sorry bunch as it began to rain. Kian was staring at the road with both hands clutching the steering wheel. Garrison had his head in his hands. I was still shaking and my heart beat rapidly, but I was glad to be moving.

“Are you okay?” I asked Moira. She sat with her arms crossed protectively over her chest, staring deadpan at Kian’s seat in front of her.

“No,” she answered, and then turned to me with accusatory eyes. “Tell me what’s going on.”

There was haughtiness to her voice that I didn’t like. She was ordering me and expected me to comply. Despite myself, I realized I should explain. I couldn’t believe this fell on me.

“You are a part of a special group,” I said, trying to find a way to get all the facts down without going into a two-thousand-year saga. “We have magic … and … there’s these magicians trying to steal it from us. They have attacked us before to get our magic and use it to create disasters, but they eventually want to kidnap you and enslave you to them. They’re also trying to take over the United States when it dissolves into chaos.”

“What?” She stared at me blankly. I didn’t have the patience for this.

“You know what? Just wait for Kian.” I pointed a thumb in his direction. “He’s much better at explaining it. That’s kind of his job.”

I sat back, regretting starting the conversation.

“What’s happening to me?” Moira asked. The shaking in her voice made me pity her.

“Same thing that happened to me,” I answered.

“And what’s that?”

“Being close to someone from your time,” Kian said grimly from the front seat, “like me or any of your kind, rekindles something in your magic … or your soul, or your memories. I don’t know which it is. The disorientation will pass. Your body is just getting used to a whole new side of you.”

Moira nodded, wisely choosing to save her questions for later.