Chapter 14
The few minutes before, a Lemure had crashed through the window, sending Tempest running and charged on adrenaline. Tempest had run clear through the building and out to the courtyard, where, as he continued to run, he saw the groupies he had enchanted. As soon as they saw him, they shrieked in excitement and charged towards him with open arms. Alarmed, Tempest changed directions again, only to find Frionds, who were escaping Jake’s ability to make them implode, pouring out of a broken window.
Diverting himself again, Tempest ran between the maddened women coming for him, and the Frionds pelting forwards. Knowing he wasn’t going to make it, he dropped to his knees bracing for impact.
As the sound of screaming women became louder, and squealing Frionds grew, Tempest held his breath, though realized after a moment he was untouched. Instead there was the sound of groupies using lawn furniture, café parasols and their bare fists to pummel into the Frionds.
Tempest squirmed his large frame out of the affray and stood back in wonder. All of a sudden, he even broke into a smile. As the groupies slowed their fast paced attack on the Frionds. “And they said it was a mistake to use love spells! Thank you girls!”
Even as he spoke his last words, he knew he was going to pay for them. Finished with the Frionds, the groupies turn on him, running towards him, grabbing at him as he sprinted away, his guile fades, and his heart racing again at the look of their blood spattered, wild eyed psychotic-inspired expressions. A few even turned on eachother, fighting, clawing and biting. Tempest ran faster than he knew he could as they gave chase with unexpected speed. He pivoted around planters, hurtled around trees and pillars, and still they were on his heels.
As he ran, he tried to recall the session where Keterlyn had explained how to end a spell. “I release you!” Tempest fumbled with his memory to try and remember all the words. “As I will it be so… shit.” He couldn’t recall the right words. A woman actually grabbed his shirt, throwing her body into it to rip it from his body. Only slightly slowed in pace, Tempest suddenly truly realized the danger he was in. Now shirtless, he sprinted, calves burning, thighs pumping, as he wrestled with his mind to remember the words, and like a light bulb, he remembered.
“So mote it be! I release thee.” he yelled out, leaving them behind him as they stopped, stunned and with no recollection as to what brought them to this point.
Regaining his confidence, Tempest rounded a corner and slumped into the brickwork of the side of the building. He smiled in relief, gasping for breath.
Then, Tempest just disappeared in to thin air.
Though Will immediately feared for his brother, he never had enough time to ask Rebecca what she meant by ‘He’s gone’. Enraged Lemures poured from the building towards them. Rebecca immediately squeezed her eyes shut and imagined a shield around them. As Keterlyn drew power in to herself, her eyes glowing, the Lemures were pushed back by the expanding force field that Rebecca created to protect herself. The Lemures bounced back from it as though striking an electric fence. Holding on to the energy, she exercised it to encompass everyone.
Keterlyn didn’t waste anymore time. Now they were outside she could do what she knew needed to be done. “Get behind Ashleigh.” she called out, and everyone obeyed.
There was a trembling from beneath Keterlyn as the veins on her skin popped out, her eyes darkened and she stepped beyond the boundary of Rebecca’s shield.
Throwing her head back, extending her arms and opening her palm, Keterlyn releases an immense energy that tore across the ground, eviscerating the Lemures, any remaining Frionds, and tearing the very college to pieces, leaving concrete, brick and tiling in a jumbled mass. The rest of the group looked on, astounded by the devastation caused. Even though the energy was released, as Keterlyn turned back to her kind her eyes remained blackened, her face pale and wild.
The shield came down, and Keterlyn blinked, her eyes restoring to their normal state, but Keterlyn looked exhausted.
“That was amazing! I can’t believe you did that!” Anise said, stunned as the others.
“What do you think about your theory now. Still think you might be better off without Keterlyn?” Daniel couldn’t help but add.
Molly stepped forward as well. “What the hell was that? Was that Lormorian attacking us?”
Keterlyn looked back at the devastation she had wreaked. “No. They were not as much of a threat.”
“Had me confused then.” Micala said. “Looked frightening as hell to me!”
“They were a message.” Keterlyn uttered pointedly.
Anise was tight lipped. “That was a message?”
“What’s the message?” Abel asked. “We can kill you worse than this?”
“What do we do next?” asked Zara, but her answer was interrupted by Will, realizing his brother still wasn’t with them, and given what Rebecca had said, his insides were twisting.
Will walked up to Rebecca and near shook her. “Hey – where’s Tempe?” Abel pushed him away and was about to render a scathing remark when Lily disappeared in front of everyone.
Abel’s skin crawled. “Where’s Lily. Where did she go?”
“He’s coming.” Was all Keterlyn said. Daniel looked over to her, her face vacant, her eyes seeming a thousand years away. She gulped, becoming pale, looking troubled and her fingernails digging in to her palms. He knew what that meant. And if he was coming for them, it would be for every one of them.
As though snapping out of a trance, Keterlyn looked back up, looking them all over momentarily. Then she walked away leaving the others behind her.
Will called after her “Hey where are you going? What about Tempest?”
“And Lily.” Anise followed.
Without looking back, Keterlyn responded. “I am running. You should too.”
Everyone who was left stared after her in disbelief. She was leaving them after all.
Daniel took steps forward. “You can’t run now. He knows how to find you. Find us all.”
“Like I said before, I’m no hero.”
“But she was so strong, she wiped out all those creatures. Why would she run?” Ashleigh stammered
Micala calmly replied what they all knew. “Because that was nothing. Wait until Lor comes for us for being in cahoots with her.”
Zara ran after Keterlyn and Daniel. “You’re actually just going to leave us here, on our own to die?”
Ashleigh disappeared and Micala yelped in response.
Looking back and seeing what had happened, Zara wrenched on Keterlyn’s arm, turning her around. “Where are they being taken?” Zara demanded.
Keterlyn shuddered inside, though remained stoic on the outside. “Hell.” Keterlyn answered. Zara’s eyes opened wide just in time for her to disappear.
Keterlyn felt the brush of wind as Zara dissipated, and didn’t wait another moment. Keterlyn ran away in to the night.
Back at her apartment, Keterlyn was stuffing a few belongings into a bag. She hadn’t had time to stash an emergency bag like she had the last time. Candles, lighter, matches, food, water, chalk and ash all went in to the bag. She cam across the bog wood carving Daniel had bought her and she stared at it transfixed for a moment.
Back at her apartment, Keterlyn was stuffing a few belongings into a bag. She hadn’t had time to stash an emergency bag like she had the last time. Candles, lighter, matches, food, water, chalk and ash all went in to the bag. She came across the bog wood carving Daniel had bought her and she stared at it transfixed for a moment.
For a brief moment she had almost made all the mistakes she longed to. She had almost let them get under her skin. Almost-she reasoned. Now there was just one thing left to do, and that was run, taking her powers with her.
When Daniel pushed open the door, Keterlyn barely looked up. She knew he would come to try and dissuade her. He was naive enough to think there was a way to stop all of this. She didn't want to tell him she knew there was a way and it was only
because of that reason she was still alive, and it was more than just sharing power across a random group of individuals.
"Don't you like your new tricks anymore" Keterlyn remarked of the fact Daniel hadn't transported to her, just walked and opened the door, clearly avoiding using magic.
Daniel resented her tone. Her sarcasm hid all the virtues he had come to see. But maybe she had been right, and he had seen what he wanted to see, because right now she stood emotionless over a packed bag. He understood her fear, her instinct to run, but he had not truly believed she would just walk away until now. He wanted to scream at her she was a coward, but after seeing that hell place when he had been unconscious, he understood why she wouldn't risk being caught. "Anise and Molly are gone."
"I know. I felt it."
As Daniel took a step back, she did the same. She no longer looked like the strong, willfull, all powerful being she had until now. Now she looked more like a frightened child. He decided to keep his words specific. "Can you stop this?"
"There's nothing I can do."
"Not if you don’t try, no. I know you don’t think you can beat him, but what if by some miracle…"
Keterlyn cut him off. "I don’t believe in miracles. I believe in surviving." with that Keterlyn actually felt tears welling. She opened eyes wide trying to let the tears dry before they had a chance to form. Picking up her bag she headed for the front door, but Daniel reached out and stopped her moving past him.
"You can't live like this. You can't just use people then discard them." Was that what he thought? Keterlyn was suddenly incensed.
"That is the only way I have lived for so long and it isn't as if they don't get some thing out of it. They just usually get longer, that’s all."
"Before they die or are tracked down by some nasty in the dark? And it isn't them...it's me too."
"I won't let him take you then, I’ll fight to keep you safe, I wont let anything bad happen to you. Is that what you want to hear? I'll be damned if I'll let him take me again, I don't care what it costs."
She pushed past him.
"Then he already has you, because this is no way to live."
Now Keterlyn couldn't help herself. The fact she had thought he could grasp how he worked, what she needed -He didn't understand at all. "Don't say that." she screamed, turning around to face him one last time. She felt the desperation etched on her face. "You don't know what it was like. Over 600 years of hell. Literal hell. Watching the world break. It's a miracle I got out at all."
"I thought you didn't believe in miracles."
His comeback threw her. Her chest rose and fell heavily as she tried to steady herself. Then without bothering to debate it further, she walked out the door in a huff.
Daniel strode behind her, just close enough they could still talk. A speechless Keterlyn was better than a screaming ranting one. He reasoned there might be the scope to find out more, because it sure as hell looked like see wasn't going to be saving anyone. She didn't give a toss about anyone except herself clearly. "There has to be a way to end this."
"It's too much." she conceded.
"So there is a way."
The two reached the front door and exited into the cold air that smelt full of potential for snow that night. The air almost hurt as Daniel kept up with the quick steps of Keterlyn as she approached a random car, and clicked her fingers with purpose. The car beeped as the doors unlocked, Keterlyn opening the door and tossing her back inside. She decided to come clean. If Daniel was going to die, which he might, he might as well know why she wasn’t willing to fight. Daniel rested on the side of the car, and she wanted so badly to grab him and run, but she knew that wasn’t an option.
"When Eerie showed me how to escape," she explained calmly, "there was a catch. She taught me how to use the magic, bind it to myself so I could use it to get away. Lormorian may have given me a new life, but I didn’t used to carry his power – not like I do now. I stole it Daniel. I took it from him to survive.”
“That’s why he is chasing you?”
“No. Daniel, that’s not why he is chasing me.” Keterlyn sighed and looked away. “I got closer to him, pretended to stand with him – just like Eerie did, then cast a binding spell to immobilize him, and take his power when he rested. Since them, he and I, we are bound together in all the wrong ways. I share his life force.”
“If he dies, you die!” Daniel declared.
“No, maybe. I don’t know – but I do know if I die, he will. Harm me, he dies.” Keterlyn took a step forward and into Daniel’s space. “So if you want to save yourself, if you want to kill him, all you have to do is kill me.”
Daniel didn’t have anything left to say. She was just staring at him expectantly. Part of him thought she wanted him to reach out, try and hurt her, as if he could. After a tense moment, Keterlyn backed away and leaned through the car and placed her hand on the dashboard, starting up the engine. Before she climbed into the car, she wanted to say goodbye, she needed to.
“I thought you couldn’t use magic.” Daniel said absentmindedly.
“The trick is to use so little he can’t detect it. But I think we are long past that now.”
Daniel smiled to himself. “You’re taking it back. Leaving us to fend for ourselves. You need to know I’m going to try and help the others. Come with me.”
“You don’t let up do you? Tell you what I’ll do Daniel. I wont take back the magic for what’s left of tonight. Use it to get as far away as possible. Tell the others – whoever is left. Then I’m taking it, all of it.”
Daniel thought she had turned to stone, but she wouldn’t have made the gesture, given them time. Still, he stared hard at her, unwilling to move on his accusing stance, his efforts to get her to change her mind – even though he had decided he knew it was hopeless. Just then, something happened that confirmed his thoughts. As Keterlyn dropped into the car seat, the bog wood piece he had bought her fell onto the road. They both heard the sound as t hit the ground, and Keterlyn looked up at him as though she were somehow caught out.
Daniel’s expression softened and he knelt to pick up the piece. "Ket..." he began, and she looked to him trying not to feel anything. Trying not to know he could see through her. When he spoke, she hung riveted on his words, looking for an excuse not to run. “Keterlyn. Don’t…” Daniel started, but then he disappeared….
Cut to her core, Keterlyn made a whimpering sound before she pulled the door shut and drove away, barely keeping the wheels on the ground as she sped through the side streets, along the major roads, and eventually onto the highway. All the while, Keterlyn gripped the steering wheel, her knuckles white and just wishing she could transport herself across the globe. But not for tonight, she had promised him she would leave her power with him for the rest of the night, so she would follow through.