Same crap, different day. I was getting real tired of the dumb questions, overly obsessive new spellcasters, practicing magic all day, every day. Potion recipes, new spells they could learn on their own. Why all the questions? Let me read in peace.
Aidoneus approached me. “I have an idea for a plan to defeat Damien. But we need Marco and Jade for it.”
“Mhm.” I continued reading. He always had some idea about Damien. Damien this, Damien that. Leave the guy alone. The damage was already done. What did it matter anymore?
“So we lure him to Glimmerbrook, or maybe even here, and we cast a light magic spell. Then we-” he stopped, staring at me. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “Yep.”
He sat down. “You look like you’ve just given up.”
“I have.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. I’m tired of this. Tired of it all. We won’t defeat him. He and Marco always return to their ways and come back. It’ll never change.” I groaned. “Let Damien do what Damien does.”
He furrowed his brow. “Do you hear yourself?*
“Loud and clear.”
He growled in frustration. “I know for damn sure you haven’t lost hope.”
He wasn’t wrong. I could hear myself screaming to listen to him. Make this end. Return to normal. But something had a hold on me. Something dangerous. It made me indifferent. I didn’t care about Jade. I didn’t care if the realm was destroyed. I didn’t even care if Jade wasn’t who she was before. Maybe she loosened up a bit too. She was always so damn up tight. It was frustrating.
Aidoneus got up, pacing. “I know what’s going on here.”
I sighed and leaned forward. “Enlighten me.”
“You’re under a spell.”
“I’m immune.”
“Not to dark magic.”
I sighed. “I would have seen them,” I protested. “I didn’t.”
He tilted his head. “You know for damn sure they can cast spells from a distance.”
I shrugged. “Sure, but I’m fine.”
He returned to pacing. “No, you’re not, and this is just another problem to add to the list.”
I rolled my eyes, closed the book and put it on the shelf. “I’m going home.”
He stopped me. “No wait.”
I glared at him.
“I wanted to talk to you about something.”
I crossed my arms in front of me. “What is it?”
“Jade saw the legend.”
My eyes widened. For a moment, I actually felt like myself. “How do you know?”
“I saw the book was closed. It’s never closed. I focused and I felt her fearful energy near it. She saw it. She knows about Orion. Maybe even Marco.”
“God,” I buried my face in my hands. “Alright, change of plan. You’re right, I don’t feel like myself. I have a lot of dark energy that I’m trying very hard to suppress. I know exactly who did it, and I’m done trying to figure out a plan.” I grabbed his arm. “We are going to Newcrest.”
“I, uh- whoa!” He yelped as I pulled him with me, walking away furiously.
“Jade’s been through enough, and I know for a damn fact she isn’t on vacation. Damien has her. Maybe even Marco too.”
“Whose side is Marco on?” He asked.
“I don’t know. At this point, I barely even know which way is up. So I’m putting a stop to this. Now.” I clenched my fist angrily.
We stepped out of the portal into Glimmerbrook and I held my hands in front of me. “If I have dark magic, then I should be able to conjure those visions Marco could.” I focused my energy and a holographic screen appeared in front of us. “There we go.” I grinned and spoke her name. “Jade.”
I saw Jade with Marco. She pushed him down into the tall grass of a field. This wasn’t Newcrest. Where were they? I watched as they kissed, lust filling their eyes.
I looked away.
“Wait, Morgyn,” Aidoneus said. “Look.”
“I can’t,” I shook my head. “It’s too painful.”
“Look at their eyes,” he said.
I looked back at the vision. “Whoa.” Marco had bright red eyes, a far cry from his usual brown. Jade’s eyes were fully red, no whites at all. “Demonized?”
“No,” Aidoneus shook his head. “Their light magic has mixed with dark. They’re on the same side. The side of evil.”
I furrowed my brow. “I’ll kill him.”
“No, I doubt Marco did this.”
To my surprise, Marco pulled away from Jade after only a moment. He gave her an apologetic smile and stood up, pulling her up out of the grass. “What are they doing?”
Aidoneus studied their expressions. “He seems worried. He doesn’t look happy at all.”
Jade walked away from Marco, frustrated, and Marco closed his eyes, looking down at the ground with a sigh.
“You’re right,” I agreed. I focused my energy. “Past.”
The image shifted to Damien’s house in Newcrest. Damien looked to be commanding Marco to do something, but Marco was reluctant. Jade stepped in front of him. She looked scared, but determined, nodding slowly, reassuring Marco. I watched as Marco put his hands on her shoulders, closing his eyes as if he didn’t even want to see what he was doing to her. A mixture of red and black magic surged through both of them. When they opened their eyes, they were different. Damien seemed pleased. Marco seemed devastated.
“We need to find them,” I growled.
“Do you recognize that field they were in?” He looked at me.
I shook my head. “No. Maybe we can find more information at Damien’s house.”
We teleported there quickly, immediately rummaging through anything to find a clue on how to get to them. Where were they? Some type of countryside, but I didn’t know where.
And Damien’s house was yielding no results.
“Let’s go home and sleep on it,” Aidoneus suggested. “But first, let me try something.”
I stood still as he placed his hands on my chest. I felt a pull as the dark energy was lifted out of me. Aidoneus smiled and pulled away.
“Still got it,” he grinned.
I laughed. “Thanks, buddy.”
Get some sleep,* he said. “We have a long search coming.”
I nodded.
The next few days were a nightmare. We searched the house repeatedly, combing over everything several times, just trying to find any answers we could. I started asking people if they knew of any place that had fields like that. No one knew a thing. It was like this place was completely off the grid, in a town no one knew of. Uncharted territory. Where were they??
Aidoneus sat outside on Damien’s steps. “There has to be something we can do that we aren’t thinking of.”
I nodded in agreement, but didn’t say a word. We were stuck. And they slipped further and further away the more our searches failed.
“Maybe we should just…” he stopped. “I don’t know, buy an atlas or something? Go to every field we can find?”
“That would take weeks,” I said, shaking my head. “We could just wait here for Damien to come back.”
He glared at me. “Sure, yeah, because he will come here and just lead us to their little hideaway.” I knew he was being sarcastic.
I sighed. “You’re right. He wouldn’t do that.” I closed my eyes and tilted my head toward the ground. But it dawned on me. “Yes he would,” I lifted my head again, smiling hopefully. “He absolutely would. We are the enemy and he now has two people on his side. If he knew he could harm us, he would take us back there.”
“So, you want us to be bait?” He stared blankly at me. “Marco and Damien are the two most powerful dark magic spellcasters ever. Throw this brainwashed Jade into the mix, and we are completely outnumbered and overpowered.”
I shook my head. “Marco is more powerful than Damien, and he doesn’t seem to be a willing participant. If he sees us, he may join us.”
“But Jade.”
“She may follow him, right? Fight on his side, no matter what?”
He shook his head. “She is evil. And incredibly strong. If Marco switched sides, she would kill him too.”
I sighed. “It’s the best I’ve got.”
“But you’re willing to put three of us in danger over a hunch.” He growled.
“Do you have a better plan?” I snapped. “The longer we wait, the worse it will be. You just want to sit around and wait for an opportunity that may never come?” Truthfully, I knew Aidoneus was right. But what else were we supposed to do? Time was not something we had on our side.
“Alright. We’ll camp here. If Marco conjures a vision to check on you, which he will, he will see that. Damien will come for us, and lead us to what could potentially be our demise. But it is the best we’ve got right now.” He stood up. “That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“I don’t either.”
We walked inside and sat on the couch.
“Now we wait,” he said. “You should probably call Caleb to let him know what’s going on.”
“No. He will find a way to join us. I can’t leave Orion without both parents.” I shrugged.
“So you think Jade will die.”
I shrugged again. “I really don’t know. If she does, she has two people willing to revive her.”
He glared at me. “Three.”
“Right, sorry. Forgot you knew that spell.”
As the day turned to night, we fell asleep on the couches, turning on the TV for light and turning it down enough for it to be background noise. I knew Caleb would be worried if I didn’t return, but I couldn’t get him involved. If there was one thing I knew about Caleb, Jade and I, it was that were could be incredibly reckless. Our protective nature’s got in the way of rational thinking. But this was a spellcaster matter. No vampires this time. Even if Vlad was behind all of it.
I awoke the next morning and found Aidoneus gone. I sat up, rubbing my eyes and glancing around. Hearing noise from the kitchen, I stood up and walked out there. Aidoneus was making coffee.
“I hope there’s enough for me,” I said with a yawn. “I barely slept through my tossing and turning.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “A couch is not my particular bed of choice either.” He poured me a cup and I stirred in some creamer and sugar. Leaning against the counter, I took a sip.
“Ah, liquid gold.”
He laughed softly. “Yeah. Don’t get too comfortable. I’m sure Damien wouldn’t be too thrilled about us living in his home.”
I yawned again. “It’s for a good cause.” My mind flashed back to Damien and Marco’s realm takeover. They said everything bad or uneasy was “for the greater good”. I shuttered. Yeah. The greater good.
“So, we have a general plan, but what do you plan to do once we get there?” Aidoneus asked, sipping his coffee.
I studied the pattern on the floor. “Fight.”
“Well yeah, but we can’t exactly come in swinging.”
“Comply, survey the situation and then fight.”
He sighed. “Morgyn, do you come into anything with a plan?”
I thought back to the dragon war, then to the right with Marco and Damien, and lastly to creating a spell with Marco and Jade. “Sometimes.”
“Yeah, well this time we need a solid plan. It’s been days since they disappeared. I’m sure by now Marco is in a losing battle with his own dark magic. Going in without some form of a plan would be deadly.”
“I can’t really form a decent plan without being there,” I said quietly.
He shook his head. “Of course not, but we at least need some type of guide.”
He was right. I thought for a moment. “Okay, so they bring us there, probably incapacitated in some way. However, we survey the area, find potential escape routes, see just how bad the situation is and plot our attacks.”
“And if we are separated?”
Oh, I hadn’t thought of that, but it was exactly what a smart villain would do. “Uh… I-” I stopped. “Form our plans separately and somehow come together with them when we have the chance?”
“You’re relying on having a chance we may never actually have.”
Dammit. He was right. “I don’t really know.”
“Attack separately?”
“We’d be killed.”
“Not if Marco helps us.”
“If he has been completely taken over by darkness, he won’t help.”
He growled. “I am starting to think this whole plan is a bad one.”
I stared at the floor again. “It is.”
“What if we act like we are here to help?”
I looked up at him. “Brilliant!” As I thought more about that, I remembered what Damien forced Marco to do to jade. “Or maybe they would cast their spells on us. They could essentially create a dark army. With enough people, they could infiltrate the realm. And this time, there wouldn’t be a good outcome.”
He held his hands out in front of him. “Tell me that spell you did, for the visions.”
“Do you have enough dark magic to try it?”
“I guess we’ll find out.”
I taught him the spell, and he focused all of his energy into it. Finally, he got something.
“Say one of their names,” I said.
“Uh, um. Marco.”
Marco appeared, holding his head as he sat on the couch, rocking back and forth. He was clearly in pain.
“What’s going on?” Aidoneus asked.
I studied what I was seeing. “I don’t really know. Stress? Confusion? Anger? Internal struggles?”
We watched as Damien came into the room, trying to talk to Marco. Marco waved his hand, then clenched his head again. He was trying to tell Damien to leave him alone.
“He looks like he’s in pain,” I observed. “These aren’t his thoughts driving him crazy.”
Aidoneus nodded and watched as Damien stepped closer, tilting his head and saying something with a sly grin. Whatever he said set Marco off, and he got up, pinning Damien against the wall, yelling at him.
“I really wish these things had sound,” I said.
He nodded, still watching. Jade came in and pulled Marco away, standing between them. I read her lips as she spoke to them.
“Play nice, boys. We haven’t finished the spell,” I translated as she spoke. She gazed at Marco apologetically and turned to Damien, angry. “You know he gets these headaches. Leave him be. You can’t get angry over something you caused.”
“Oh,” I said quietly. “Chronic headaches, most likely caused by Damien’s attack.”
“No, don’t start again,” Jade continued, glaring at Damien as he tried to step closer. I assumed Marco had made an antagonistic remark. “We all have the same goals. Stop it. Both of you.”
Marco walked away and Jade followed. The vision followed them as they made their way upstairs into a bedroom. Jade sat back against the headboard and Marco sat in front of her, leaning his head against her. She massaged his temples, and he immediately relaxed.
“She helps his headaches.” Aidoneus observed.
I furrowed my brow. “Using a tactic I used on her.”
“Really?” He glared at me. “Now is not the time for jealousy.”
After a few moments, they sat up. Marco got up without a word and left the room. Jade sat alone, seemingly angry.
“So there’s a rift between everyone. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows in their little evil fantasy.”
“Because Marco is still fighting the darkness,” I explained. “You can see he doesn’t truly want this.”
“If he’s not careful, Damien will cast that spell on him. Then we’ve officially lost Marco as an ally.” Aidoneus shook his head.
Marco went back downstairs, conjuring a vision. They saw themselves in the vision. Marco looked shocked.
“He found us,” I said.
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