Page 89 of Runaway Magic
“I know! We could be swarmed any minute by Astin and his circus of freaks!” Cym grinned, not giving three rotten oranges about their impending doom. Sterling’s elbow was digging deeply into his side, and Cym shoved him, knocking Sterling to the forest floor.
Suddenly, the bubbly, drunken feeling lessened, and Cym could think more clearly.
“What… what the hell was that?” Sterling’s laughter faded, and now he just sounded bewildered.
“I’m not sure. My magic has been doing some weird things since I ran away.” Cym pushed himself back to standing, keeping well away from his brother. “Shit. We need to move before they find us.”
“Yeah… Right…” Sterling’s dark shape rose unsteadily from the ground, and he swayed back and forth as he spoke. “I know the woods around here pretty well. If we circle around that way, we might be able to sneak back into the compound without anyone seeing us.”
“Which way? I can’t see you pointing, I can’t see anything in here.” Cym tried to imagine what Fourteen would say if Cymaccidentally got himself killed while stumbling around in the woods at night. Probably nothing nice.
Sterling said hesitantly, “Maybe you could hold onto my jacket and follow me? I’m standing pretty close to you right now, and all I feel is a little tipsy. I don’t feel angry or murderous at all.”
“Thank the gods for small favors,” Cym muttered. It might be frustrating to have such unpredictable magic, but at least it was finally doing more than just driving people into homicidal rages. There was a glimmer of hope in his mind that, if they got out of here alive, he might not have to spend his life locked away or on a deserted island somewhere.
Before they set off, Cym smeared more mud into his white pants to keep from standing out like a beacon in the night, but he might as well have saved himself the time and effort. Five minutes of stumbling and tripping after his brother gave him ample opportunity to wreck his clothes and cover them with dirt.
Once they reached the spot Sterling had mentioned, he said, “You know, I don’t even feel drunk right now, just mellow. It’s kind of nice.”
Cym patted his brother’s back. Even with the world crashing down around them, he was still trying to make Cym feel better about his freakishness.
Movement on the compound snatched his attention away from their little bonding moment, and Cym and Sterling watched as a beehive of activity swarmed through a break between buildings.
Three nightmare-tainted witches flew past a dormant rosebush. One smacked against a car, and white smoke shot out of her chest, only to dissipate like dandelion seeds in the wind. The other two collapsed to the ground, the larger one crushing the smaller one under his bulk. As soon as they landed, the same white smoke drifted away into the night. A deep orange shieldflared out, causing the entire area to stand out in sharp relief, and another two witches followed the first three, also losing their nightmares upon hitting the ground.
The shield became transparent, and Cym could just make out Adelle’s features.
“Yes! They’re alive!” Fourteen had to be okay if Adelle was. Cym had to believe it so he didn’t go nuts.
Cym stopped himself before running out to meet her. What did he think he was going to do? Stand off to the side and cheer loudly as Adelle fought twice as hard because she now had someone to protect?
Cym couldn’t just stand around and watch someone fight for their lives, but before he could figure out what to do, Fourteen came into view, brandishing a shiny new toy. As he fought a shadow made up entirely of beaks and eyes, he swung a massive staff that glimmered with the same nebula of colors Cym had seen in Jack’s impossible eyes. With every swing of the weapon, another chunk of monster fell to the ground and melted away.
Fourteen radiated the same grim joy and focus he had during the fight in the garage, but Cym was terrified—with good reason. The second Fourteen incapacitated the creature in front of him, a portal opened, releasing a fresh horror to take its place. Even seeing Jack come around the corner didn’t make Cym feel better since he had another monster nipping at his heels.
There had to be something Cym and Sterling could do to help.
“Can you do something? Anything is better than just standing here. Please!” Cym begged, grabbing his brother and shaking him like he could jar an arsenal of weapons from Sterling if he tried hard enough.
“I’m sorry, man. On a good day, I wouldn’t be able to defeat one of those things, and I’m fucking tapped out. Usually, only guardians are equipped to take on demons and nightmares.” Hegulped as they watched Fourteen lop off the head of a creature with a rotting clown face and seal flippers. “And that guy too, apparently.”
“What about the holes? Can we get rid of them somehow? If we could cut off their reinforcements…” He knew he was stabbing wildly but couldn’t stop himself.
Sterling snorted. “Those are portals to the Demon Realm. That’s so far above my level of training, I wouldn’t even know where to begin, and right now I don’t know if I have enough magic to scare a mouse.”
“And anything I try to do is only going to make everything worse,” Cym growled, frustrated with their collective uselessness. Then something occurred to him. Something incredibly, unbelievably stupid. “You should get out of here and look for help. Maybe you could find more guardians and bring them here.”
If Cym was going to pull off his incredibly stupid idea, he didn’t want Sterling around. Now that he had his brother back, he had no intention of getting him killed.
“And leave you here to frolic with monsters and such? Not happening, dumbass. What if Hester comes back for you?” Sterling’s voice cracked hormonally, making him seem like the opposite of someone who belonged on a battlefield and more like the child Cym had once known.
“Pfft. Like she wants to tangle with me again. At best we’ll end up in a stalemate.” Unless Hester hit him with another rock. Cym rubbed his sore head and scowled. “Besides, you know where to go to find help and I don’t. And with this near-concussion, I’d be dead weight slowing you down.”
“The chapter house is over an hour away! Any help I bring will come too late.”
Clearly Sterling was going to be a pain in the butt about being sent to safety.
Cym abandoned his first attempt and moved on to the next. “What about the rest of the family? You said not everyone was in Hester’s pocket, where are they?”
