Anna's Hope Episode One (17 page)

“Not for long. Not after a display of
magic that strong right outside of his house. Mark my words, he’ll
be home any instant.”

Suddenly the sound of
a door opening
loudly filtered out from the house. There was a series of strong,
quick steps, then the front door opened. Aaron, in his impeccable
grey suit, raced down the garden path, his sleeves rolled
high.

“Too late, you’ve already missed him,”
Luminaria snarled.

Aaron reached the gate, latching his hands
on it as he checked up and down the road. His eyes quickly settled
on the patch of pavement where the wizard had disappeared. After a
few seconds of staring at it with a narrowed, worried gaze, he
turned and quickly dropped to one knee. “It’s all right, it’s all
right,” he repeated.

It was? A pressure was building in her
chest. It wasn’t her imagination, she wasn’t being pathetic and
letting Scott’s words get to her – it felt like something was
growing in the center of her sternum. She collapsed a hand over
it.

“Come on.” Aaron gently helped her up.
“It’s safer in the house.”

“Are you sure about that?” Luminaria
hissed at him as she sat imperiously in the middle of the garden
path. “If I hadn’t stopped Anna from opening that gate, our friend
would have forced his way in.”

“I wasn’t going to open the gate to him; I
realized something was wrong with Scott,” Anna tried to defend
herself as she pressed her hand harder into her chest.

Aaron twisted his head down so fast, it
was a surprise he didn’t shatter his spine. “Sorry, what? Was Scott
here?”

“The dark wizard, it was Scott,” Anna
managed as she let Aaron lead her forward.

Though Aaron’s cheeks paled with anger,
his eyebrows also crumpled. “What are you talking
about?”

“I was in the garden, then Scott walked up
to the gate. He asked me to come outside, and when I wouldn’t, he
wanted to come inside. He was … the dark wizard.”

Aaron’s cheeks now paled so much it looked
as if the skin and blood and muscle had disappeared to reveal
nothing but smooth white bone. “That’s impossible,” he said
firmly.

For a man who hated Scott as much as Aaron
did, his admission was too adamant. Surely wizard Arana would take
glee in the fact Scott was a bad apple.

But Aaron shook his head again. “It can’t
be Scott, trust me. My brother is a lot of things, but if he were a
dark wizard practicing soul magic, I’d know about it by
now.”

Anna
gave a stage blink. “Brother? Scott
is your brother?”

“Yes. And he’s not the dark wizard. It
just means ...” Aaron trailed off as he turned over his shoulder to
stare at the street. You would be a fool not to note the worry
slackening his features.

“It just means what?” she prompted as she
took a hesitant swallow.

“That Scott has been captured,” Aaron
conceded in a quiet voice, “if that dark wizard is mimicking his
appearance and speech, it means he’s got Scott.”

Anna
inhaled sharply. “Oh my God. Is he
going to ... is the wizard going to—”

“He’ll do nothing until he has all of his
soul back.” Aaron helped her up the steps and through the door.
“Which we’re going to make sure doesn’t happen.”

Still rubbing her chest, Anna nonetheless
appreciated the feel of Aaron’s arms around her shoulders as he
helped her towards his drawing room.

“All we have to do is wait until midnight.
If my calculations are correct, the dark wizard only has until 12
o’clock tonight to get his soul back. If he can’t, he’ll disappear.
Then one of my agents will be able to track Scott down, wherever he
is.”

She wanted to believe that Aaron’s words
were dismissive of Scott, but that would be denying Aaron’s
expression. It was composed, granted, but only in a way that hid
the tension. His torso was locked, his fingers crooked as they
rested on her arm, and his jaw was straight and closed.

He led her over to a chair, flicking it out
with his foot and helping her sit. Then, with a worried glance
through his window, he walked around to the front of his desk. He
rummaged in a drawer for several seconds before pulling out a small
black book.

He sat down and started to
leaf
through
it.

....

He wasn’t going to start reading in front of
her again, was he? Aaron had a habit of ignoring her while he
immersed himself in his latest read. But now really wasn’t the time
for some light literature.

Before she could clear her throat, he
settled on a page, nodded, and looked up at her. “I think I have
something of interest.”

“What do you mean? Before that dark wizard
left, he threatened that he was still inside me,” she tapped her
chest with an open, sweaty palm, “and that he could take control
and breakout.”

Aaron nodded solemnly, still holding onto
the book, keeping the correct page with his thumb. “I know, that’s
what I’m talking about. I think I have a talisman somewhere that
might help you fight him off.”

“So ... it wasn’t just an empty threat? He
really could break his way out of me?” Her eyes became steadily
wider and wider until the skin along her temples and cheeks
threatened to crack.

“I’m ashamed to say I’ve been
underestimating this wizard. While Luminaria may be correct and the
wizard’s own magic may not be substantial, I cannot ignore he has
powerful friends. I doubt he alone has been calling the soul
catcher. It makes more sense to believe that somebody else, someone
far more powerful, has been telling him to do it. That same person,
or creature, or group,” Aaron qualified, his voice becoming
unsettlingly ominous, “could help to magnify the wizard’s
magic.”

“And if he gets strong enough, he’ll break
his way right out of my soul,” her voice shuddered as she sank
further into the comfort of her chair.

“He’ll try. But we will stop him.” Aaron
got to his feet, still holding onto the little black book as he
walked to the opposite side of the room and checked through his
bookcase. Neat, colorful-spined magical tomes were lined up, their
covers untouched by sun and age, despite how old they were. Aaron
looked thoughtful as he selected one and brought it back to the
desk.

“I don’t get it. Last night you seemed to
already know that this guy had friends. Or at least that’s what you
told Luminaria. That’s why you brought me here, right?”

Aaron didn’t answer immediately. Instead
he peered up into the furthest reaches of his bookcase, clearly
searching for something important. Only when he found it several
seconds later and brought it back to the desk did he look at her.
Setting the book down slowly and pressing one hard-knuckled fist
into the cover, he shook his head. “There’s something you need to
know about magic in Marchtown. This city isn’t particularly old,
and neither is it placed over some hell portal or magical site. And
yet ...” he trailed off and looked pensive as he clearly tried to
sort through his thoughts, “I have faced more magical crime here
than I have anywhere else, and that includes Vale. It’s varied,
it’s chaotic, and no matter how many criminals you wipe off the
street, more grow up to replace them. That’s why I’m here. I head
up security for the Council of Eight, and out of every city in the
world, I choose to live in Marchtown, because I’m needed here more
than anywhere else.”

“What are you saying?”

“That I have been guilty of
underestimating a threat before, and I’ve done it again. I want to
tell you I know what we’re dealing with. I want to tell you that if
you stay here behind these walls you’ll be fine. But I can’t know
for sure. If that wizard managed to capture Scott ...” he trailed
off and shook his head, bringing two fingers up to press them hard
into his brow. “There is every possibility he has access to people
or a source of power I don’t know about. And if I don’t know about
it, I can’t predict what will happen next. I thought bringing you
here would be enough, and I hope it still is, but I realize now we
should prepare for the worst.”

Anna
brought a shaking hand up and pushed
her hair from her face. It had gone back to being a mess. Either
the magical wonder product she’d used on it this morning hadn’t
lasted, or her fright had frazzled her body and hair
too.

“Come with me, that talisman is in my
storeroom.” He shrugged towards the door.

She got to her feet, latching a hand on
the armrest as she pushed the other hard into her sternum, trying
to chase away the growing tingle building there. “Hold on, you said
before he might have access to a kind of magic you’ve never
encountered.”

“It’s possible. There are things out there
both extremely ancient and extremely new that are not documented.
It’s very unlikely though. It’s far more likely that new powerful
criminals have moved into town and they are helping
him.”

There are things out there both
extremely ancient and extremely new.
Aaron’s words echoed in her
mind.

She pulled her hand off her chest and
brought it up to stare at it. She remembered the awful prickling
tingle that had escaped across her body when she’d met that wizard.
When she had felt him practice that strange magic.

Her allergies had reacted to it in a mega
way. And her allergies were proportional to power. The more magic
she encountered, the worse they got.

Should she say something? Or was she just
being an idiot? Aaron was right; the likelihood that she, Anna Hope
Summersville, had somehow encountered a completely new kind of
magic was astronomically low.

Yet the lifeblood of magic was possibility
– making the unlikely real.

She trotted quickly behind him until she
reached his side. Wiping her sweaty hands on her jeans and tucking
her hair behind her shoulders she took a breath. “I know this is
going to sound weird, but maybe there is a possibility he’s
practicing some kind of new magic.”

Aaron looked like he ignored her as he
reached past, grabbed the door handle, and muttered a quick spell
under his breath. The door was bright fire-truck red and had a
single gold symbol painted in the middle encircled by a dragon
eating its tail. It swung open gently to reveal a massive room. The
room had to be much bigger than the house. It looked as though it
sprawled for acres. In the style of a hangar, with a tall rounded
ceiling, it had stacks after stacks of shelves, all full with
boxes.

As Aaron walked in, he flicked his finger to
the side, and rows of lights lit up from above, turning on with a
hiss and a buzz.

“You might not want to breathe too hard
when you’re in here; there’s a lot of concentrated magic. I would
leave you out in the corridor, but ...” he didn’t finish his
sentence. Did he have to to?

If he left her out in the corridor,
unsupervised, she might suddenly crack in half as a dark wizard
claimed her soul.

She hurried up and slipped into step behind
him.

Though he’d completely ignored her before,
she cleared her throat again. “I know you’re not going to take much
stock in what I say. I’m just a stupid little witch with allergies.
But listen, I think those allergies might be trying to tell me
something.”

Aaron stopped, just as he reached for a
box on the shelf before them. He turned over his shoulder and
locked her in his gaze. “I don’t think you’re stupid,
Anna.”

Well you sure act like you do,
she thought bitterly. She didn’t say it out loud, of course – she
wasn’t that kind of girl. What she did instead was try hard to keep
his gaze.
“My allergies are proportional to what I face,” she said,
suddenly sneezing and making her point perfectly. She gestured
around the room. “This place would be enough to give me a headache,
a rash, and a nasty case of tingles. But whatever that wizard was
practicing,” her eyes drew wide, “it was awful. I’ve never felt
anything like it. And I know you may think I’m not up to much, but
I did work on the Vale police force for several months. I’ve
encountered demons, vampires, dark magic, you name it. I have never
felt anything like this though.”

Aaron looked like he wanted to ignore her
and turn around to keep searching through the boxes. Or maybe that
was just her impression of him. Maybe she had trouble reading his
smooth brow and blank gaze, because maybe Aaron never let his true
feelings show.

She swallowed, waiting for him to dismiss
her or laugh her off.

He did neither. “Are you sure it wasn’t
just soul magic? It is a very rare form of magic, and it wouldn’t
surprise me if you’d never encountered it, even in
Vale.”

She shook her head impassionedly, her hair
scattering over her shoulders and cheeks. “No, I know it’s not soul
magic. It ... I felt it most when he called the soul catcher. I
thought my back was going to burst into flames.”

Aaron looked at her. His expression was
irritatingly blank. Even a team of magical psychologists wouldn’t
be able to predict what he was thinking.

After several agonizing seconds he sighed.
“I want to tell you you’re wrong, and that it’s impossible, but I’m
starting to realize I know nothing about this city. I’ve been
working here for several months, and I have barely made a dent in
crime.”