The Moonstone (Enchantment Book 1) (37 page)

“What did you do to Zach?”

“Don’t even say his name to me. I don’t want you to see him again. I’m telling you…he’s a bad person!”

“Ok, enough of your cock fights. Zach is my friend and you don’t have the right to tell me who I can hang out with.”

“I’ll ask my chauffeur to bring you over there. He’ll let me know if anything happens. Come straight home afterward.”

“Goodbye then.”

I leave him standing there, alone. I’m so fed up with all the “Don’t do this and don’t do that…”!

The Black I hate is certainly back. I don’t feel like telling him I’m going to meet Zach at the stables; I have a feeling he won’t approve. I’ll find a way to tell him later.

I have the chauffeur bring me right to the restaurant to join my team. We have a great time. It seems that making it official by signing a contract in front of everyone has made us closer; even Pyros seems more relaxed. We laugh and eat, ordering everything on the menu, and then we leave each other to rest up for tomorrow, which will be the team test. This test is the last step of the course, the one that must be passed to become full warriors. I meet up with the chauffeur and ask him to take a detour to the stables for a few minutes, but he doesn’t listen to me and drives me straight back to the manor.

“Lord Black was very clear with his orders, Miss Mills. I must return you to the manor as soon as you are done at the restaurant. He’s waiting for you and told me to tell you it’s crucial.”

Ok, what’s going on now? I enter the manor and since he doesn’t seem to be anywhere in the vicinity, I walk upstairs to my room where I see that his door is open for a change. I hear laughter coming from inside his room and my heart tightens ever so slightly. A strange feeling comes over me. I open the door and witness something I can only describe as horrifying.

Black is there…and he’s not alone. A naked woman is sitting astride him and laughs when she sees me. This scene is so familiar. From the look on Black’s face, I can assume he meant for me to catch him like this. My whole world crumbles and I run to hide in my room, locking the door behind me. There’s no way I’ll let him see me in this state, I don’t want to let him think he’s won, that he’s completely destroyed me in the worst possible way. Zach was right. Black is using me. All that he wants is that damned tablet. He’s just trying to remind me that I mean nothing to him. I know we’re not a couple, but he continued to seduce me in every way possible, pushing me away each time. And then he goes and does that with the first girl he meets!

I can’t understand what’s happening. I thought he was saving himself for his wife. In fact, he hates me! There never was an Orpheus at all. In fact, Orpheus died when his wife went into the underworld and Black was born. Black…I hate him!

My heart is in pieces. I promised myself never to fall into that trap again, and, like an idiot, I jumped right back into it with both feet. I need to go and find Zach; I need to escape. I’ll find a way to meet up with my team later, but for now, I need to get away from this craziness. I pick up my backpack and fill it with a few pieces of clothing while wiping away tears of humiliation and confusion.

“If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word “freedom” out of your vocabulary.”
Malcolm X

Black, you won’t have the last word…I could kick myself for thinking that he could even have an ounce of humanity in him. I’m sure now that he must have other motives than finding his wife. Maybe he’s intending on wiping out humans when he finds the Emerald Tablet. He’ll never give me back my freedom. I feel like an idiot for leaving without my powers, but I’ll find a solution somehow. I’m sure that Charles can create a potion to counteract Black’s spell. Anyways, for the moment, all I want to do is get far away from here. Even if I never get my powers back, I can’t see any problem because he’s the real danger. I managed to survive without my powers before, and all humans live without having any of the gifts and manage fine without them. Take Zach, for example; he has no powers and does fine. Anyways, it’s only for the weekend, because I’ll go and see Charles on Monday. I want to disappear for a while to make plans, and if I go to Charles’ right away, Black will know where to find me. For now, the only person who can help me is Zach; he’s the only one who saw through Black from the beginning. Now all I need is to find a way out of here without being found by my control freak of a host.

I’m so anxious and it’s been a while since I’ve felt like this. In fact, I never was the kind of girl to sneak out of her bedroom window for a weekend party.

I don’t know the first thing about escaping, but I do know I can use my powers right now to help me escape. I grab the window frame and open it to judge the distance between the ground and me. I’m no acrobat, but I’m pretty sure jumping from this height would hurt pretty badly. There’s nothing around me that looks like a ladder and leaving by the front door is not an option. As I rub my hand over my face, I notice a detail I might have otherwise missed, and that would have ruined my chance for escape...my watch. Black would have noticed me leave immediately as he would see the number of meters between us increasing until it reached higher than the fateful number of one hundred. He wanted me to believe he gave me the watch for my protection, so I would know he was near me in case of danger, but I can now see that this watch was his way of controlling me. I take it and hide it under the covers of my bed along with items of clothing, creating a shape that looks somewhat like my body. I stand back and look at my work of art and remember why I never got good marks in art class. It looks more like a giant bag of potatoes. Oh well, I only need it to gain a little time and from what I can tell, with his little adventures going on next door, he won’t be coming into my room until at least tomorrow morning, so this little ruse will be good enough… I hope.

I can’t lose another second, so I go to the window and decide to try something else. I create a small tornado and throw myself into it, attempting to control my descent as best I can. To my great amazement, my usual awkwardness is nowhere to be seen; maybe it took pity on me. Once on the ground, I lay there for a moment. The night is cool and the fresh summer air, which I normally find comforting, leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Great Black, thanks for ruining my memories! Black, I wish I’d never set eyes on you. I spot a shadow in the window of his room and take that as my cue to leave. Normally I like to walk at night, alone in the dark, but tonight each second counts and I run as fast as my feet will carry me. I’m so thankful for my newfound physical fitness! But, the farther I get from the manor, the stranger I begin to feel. It’s as if part of me, part of my soul, is disappearing with each step. I’m losing my powers! A few more steps and I fall down, tripping over an exposed root on the side of the road. Obviously, my skills as an athlete have disappeared along with my powers. I take a moment, now that I’m far enough from the manor, and text Zach.

*I MUST speak to you now. I’m heading to the stables, wait for me if you’re already there. Otherwise, go there ASAP!*

No answer, so I get up and continue on my path. After a few minutes, I spot the lights of the stables and, thankfully, Zach’s motorcycle. Going into the grotto, I hear sounds coming from the hall of peaceful creatures. What I see when I get there is depressing. Sitting in front of the leprechaun cage is Zach, surrounded by empty whiskey bottles. From the way he looks I understand that Black wasn’t the worse off from their little altercation.

Zach has a black eye and many bruises.

“Oh, Zach! What did he do to you?”

“Lou…What are you doing here?” he says, blearily.

I hear the leprechauns calling my name in their singsong way and when I look over at them, I realize they’ve also participated in Zach’s improvised drinking party.

“Zach! I need to talk to you, but I doubt this is the right moment.”

“In my pocket…” he points to the pocket of his jacket as best he can. Oh, what am I going to do? We need to leave here quickly. As he’s insistent, I look into his pocket.

“You’re wonderful, Lou,” says Zach, rubbing his hand over my cheek. He probably thinks he’s touching me softly, but his hand feels like sandpaper on my skin.

I reach into his pocket and pull out a small tube. The vial has the same logo I saw on many bottles at Charles’, and on it were the words “the morning after.” I presume this is another of his concoctions and could help Zach out, but I don’t want to take that chance and transform him into a toad, so best is to contact the inventor personally. To my great relief, Charles answers quickly and tells me that it is indeed a sobering potion. He’s impressed I found it in Zach’s pocket. He tells me I can give him some, but not more than three drops since he is human and I do so as soon as I hang up. It works in a matter of seconds and Zach is quickly back to normal.

“Thanks, Lou. I’m so sorry, I didn’t want you to see me like this. Why are you here? You didn’t come earlier. I waited for you.”

I sit down on the floor next to Zach. The air in the cave is humid and it seems more so now that I’m without my powers.

“Listen, Zach. You were right about everything. Black is a manipulator and I need for us to get out of here as soon as possible.”

I take a minute to explain everything to Zach, who isn’t pleased, especially when I tell him about the spell Black put on me. It’s hard to convince him not to go to the manor immediately to confront Black in person.

“Do you know where we can go?”

“In fact, I was already thinking of taking you away for the weekend as a thank you for all your help here. I have a friend who’s an enchanter but doesn’t belong to the community and lives in Vegas. I mentioned him to you the other day. He’s the one who owns Pegasus. I was going to meet him for the weekend and I think it would be a good idea to go there. It’s all the way across the country and it’ll give us time to hatch a plan.”

That works for me. The further I get away from here, the better.

“I want you to do something for me before we leave.”

“What do you want?”

“We need to release the animals in the stables,” he says, looking at me hopefully.

“Zach, even if I want to as desperately as you do, I know it’s not a good idea. We risk creating pandemonium in the city and Black would suspect we did it. We need to take advantage of the night and make our getaway now. We’ll come back for them soon, I promise, but not tonight.”

We get on Zach’s motorcycle, riding through side streets to avoid passing anywhere close to the masters of illusion who watch over the city.

We reach Las Vegas as the sun is coming up and even if I managed to sleep on the plane, the emotions of the night before hit me like a punch to the face. I keep having flashbacks of Black and that woman. He knew how much I suffered from my earlier betrayal, and he did it anyways. He must’ve wanted to hurt me badly. Either that or he’s heartless and I mean nothing to him, just an ant as he so cruelly put it. In the end, I imagined the whole thing; he never wanted to do anything but use me.

Las Vegas is a good way to forget your problems; the busy streets, the lights, and the sounds create a thick fog that blurs the mind and dulls the pain. I’m blown away by all the life around me and wonder how many people here are actually enchanters. Probably not, I can hear Black in my head telling me that all the excess is a human trait, and the excess is the reason to be in Las Vegas. We hire a limousine to drive us around, courtesy of Bethany in the end, as she’s the one who pays all Zach’s credit card bills.

“Won’t she be mad?”

“Bethany gives me unlimited credit, and anyways, she never looks at the bill. She often has me do research here for her, that’s actually what I was doing here when I met Aaron. You’ll see, he’s a real celebrity! Of course it’s hard to compete with an enchanter, the other magicians don’t have a chance against him.”

“Didn’t you tell me he isn’t part of the enchanter’s community; was he banished?”

“No, not at all. In fact, Aaron chose to live apart. He’s a demi-God, Lou so he can do whatever he wants.”

I feel like telling him what I know about demi-Gods who do what they want, but I don’t want to reveal anything about Black’s past. I hate the man he’s become, but I respect the man he was, Orpheus, a mirage that no longer exists.

“What’s his gift?”

“He’s a necromancer!”

“Are you telling me he can bring back the dead?”

Images from a thousand zombie movies come to mind and chill my blood.

“In a way, yes. They don’t really come back to life; they only obey his commands for a certain period of time, usually long enough for a battle. He also has strong powers of illusion. I learned many of my battle techniques from him.”

“Why doesn’t he live with the other enchanters?”

“You know about Hermes, right? He was the one who created the Emerald Tablet. Well, Aaron is his son. Hermes was a god who had a penchant for humans and dreamed of giving them the power of the Gods. That’s why he created the Emerald Tablet. But then the other Gods hid the tablet and it can only be found by a pure soul. Only a Moonchild, like you, as a matter of fact, can open the tablet.”

“And what does that have to do with his not wanting to live with his own people?”

“Like his father, Hermes, he feels closer to humans than to enchanters and always wants to restore powers to them to find balance.”

“Did you tell him about me, Zach?”

He looks angry and turns to me, grabbing me by the arms.

“Lou, I’m not Black! I would never put you in such an awkward position. You’ll know how best to find the tablet; I have faith in you. In time, you might find Aaron can be of help, especially since it was his father who created the tablet. You’ll see, I know you’ll love him.”

We arrive at our hotel, which is utterly incredible. Zach thoughtfully asked for a suite with two rooms. In fact, his friend made the reservation and the view of the city is superb. I stand there, amazed at the immensity of the world around us, and am suddenly overcome with a sense of relief. For a moment, I feel like myself, with nobody to tell me what to do, or how to act. Zach comes up behind me and gently runs his hand over my hair.

“The view is magnificent,” he says. That’s when I turn and see that he’s looking at me, not out the window.

I back up, now feeling uncomfortable.

“Zach, you and I can only ever be friends. That hasn’t changed, you know that, right?”

He isn’t pleased with my answer and turns to go to the bathroom without looking back.

“We’ll go and have lunch with Aaron before his show this afternoon. Be ready in half an hour.”

I don’t want there to be this coldness between us.

“Zach?”

He turns just before going into the bathroom.

“I know, Lou. I get it.”

Then he goes into the bathroom and closes the door behind him. Time has flown since last night at blinding speed. I haven’t even bothered to check my cell phone since I’m sure Flicka has texted me, at least, a hundred times, not to mention Black must have left messages as well. I don’t feel like hearing his voice at the moment. Maybe I should contact Charles since I assume Flicka has called him by now, but I feel like waiting until tonight. That’ll give me time to tell him and to decide what my next step will be.

Zach comes out of the bathroom a few minutes later, and we leave to join Aaron in his suite. At the door of his room, a valet greets us and guides us to the dining room of the sumptuous penthouse. The luxurious suite he set us up in doesn’t hold a candle to the over-the-top display of his magnificent roof-top apartment! I presume his little shows here have been lucrative, to say the least. In the room, we find that there are already other guests seated at a long table. There are, in fact, one man and four young women. The man is seated at the end of the table and holds a cane encrusted with a sort of black stone that reflects the light in a way that looks like flames. He reminds me a little of Johnny Depp with his mid-length, wavy hair and the mischievous look in his eye. His cane and his hat add to his personality. The women who surround him seem to form a harem and are what I would consider, minimally dressed.

“Miss Mills, I presume?” starts our host, without bothering to stand and greet us.

“So, my friend tells me you’re a powerful enchanter, is this true?”

From the tone of his voice, I gather that he’s either in an advanced stage of inebriation, or he’s completely eccentric, but whatever the case, it’s hard to tell the difference! I hope that Zach hasn’t revealed too much about me to him.