Aiden didn’t have time to react – but I did. Planting my feet firmly on the ground, my hands shot out in front of me as I willed the blazing cyclone away from him. It hovered in the air, flames spinning, pivoted at the center of the triangle between Aiden, Savannah and Tom. For a fleeting moment, my eyes locked onto Aiden’s; he nodded at me in understanding.
I abruptly halted the wind, momentarily leaving only a towering plume of Fire, ripe for Aiden to draw from.
“Hey Savannah!” I called from the other side of the arena. “Catch!”
I flung a jet of Fire straight towards her, just as Aiden did the same to Tom. Both flung themselves to the ground; I heard their screams but didn’t stop to survey the damage we had inflicted. Frankly, I didn’t really want to know. I raced toward Aiden, grabbing onto his arm as I got to him. On either side of us, long black scorch lines tore across the ground of the arena in opposite directions.
“Come on!” I cried, pulling his arm toward the exit.
Just then, the stone door on the back of the Hydromancy wall swung open, and a dozen men in black uniforms piled out. They looked like some sort of police SWAT team, except the backs of their dark jackets were printed with white five-pointed stars, with the letters ‘S&C’ printed inside the pentagon.
A man with a black helmet and visor stepped forward. “Hands up! If you resist, we will use force!”
“No!” Savannah yelled from the ground behind us. “Don’t hurt the girl!” She stumbled to her feet, clutching the left side of her face. “Do whatever you need with him, but do not – I repeat, DO NOT – harm her.”
Two men roughly grabbed Aiden on either side while the rest watched me warily. In the scuffle, I watched the silver glint of his lighter drop to the ground next to him.
“Make sure he’s contained,” Savannah directed, her voice authoritative and hoarse. “And take this one,” she nodded towards me, “directly to my office. I’ll need six escorts. Mitch and Tom need to be taken to the medical center immediately.” She pointed to the two men lying on the ground. Strauss was moaning as he stirred.
Aiden’s eyes met mine. I nodded once. Deftly, he kicked the lighter to me, sending it clattering across the asphalt. Before anyone could react, I quickly scooped it up, flicked it alight, then coaxed the flame into a basketball-sized Fireball. I held it over my head between two hands. It grew larger and brighter as I stood there menacingly, the massive orb burning so hot the flames were nearly blue. The ball of Fire levitated in the air my hands, high above my head, illuminating the entire cavern in light. Savannah made a quick motion to the black-clad men to hold their positions, using her free hand. Her other hand was still protectively cupping the left side of her face. The room fell completely silent.
“Let us go,” I threatened calmly, “Or I’ll burn this entire place to the ground.”
“I was right,” Savannah whispered hoarsely, her green eyes flashing from the white-hot ball of Fire in my hands, “You are a Pentamancer.”
The room erupted in gasps and feverish, hushed whispers. I didn’t falter.
“I said, let us go. Now.”
“I’m so sorry, Rowan, but I just can’t let you do that,” she said, holding both hands in front of her apologetically. I could see that the entire left side of her face was badly charred. Before I could reply, the ground abruptly opened up below me, and I tumbled into a deep pit, smacking my head on the asphalt as I fell. I could vaguely hear Aiden yelling my name as everything faded to black.
***
I heard a woman’s voice. It sounded garbled and far-away, as though someone were talking underwater.
“How is she?”
“She’s stable,” came a man’s voice, slightly clearer. “She sustained a concussion and several bruises from the fall. She also has a fairly large second-degree burn across the right side of her shoulder and back. What exactly happened to her?”
“When will she be awake?”
A pause. “Sometime in the next hour or so. She’s on a lot of pain medicine,” he replied. “Because of that, I’ll have to insist you wait on the tattoo until tomorrow. Her blood will be too thin now.”
“Let me know the moment she wakes up – do not speak with her, do not engage in any capacity. Just call me immediately… As for her friend, you must implement Level-Three Pyromantic procedure; keep all flames and any sources of heat away from him at all times.”
“Yes, about your face…”
“I’ll deal with it later. I’ve got Heads from Istanbul calling. Just give me more pills for now…”
I drifted back into a troubled sleep. Around me, dark figures were moving in and out of my dreams. A green-eyed cobra was coiling itself around my wrist, sinking its fangs into my forearm. Aiden was calling my name, but he was trapped in the center of a dark maze and I kept coming up on dead ends. Strauss was watching me with narrowed eyes over a steaming cup of blood.
My eyes shot open.
I was lying in a small white room, surrounded by stainless steel medical equipment. The room was dim. A steady beep, beep, beep was sounding on the monitor beside my bed. My head was throbbing dully. The back of my right shoulder ached. My left arm was burning. I tried to sit up, but my shoulders were strapped to the gurney. I could feel my wrists and ankles were fastened as well.
I lifted my head to survey myself; my clothes had been replaced by a light blue hospital gown. An IV was stuck in my right wrist. My eyes followed the tube to a bag of clear liquid hanging from a metal stand beside the bed. My left forearm was covered in a square of white gauze, but I couldn’t reach it to pull it off.
An Asian man in his mid-forties entered the room, holding a clipboard. He was wearing a white lab coat and scrub cap.
“Rowan, hello,” he greeted me softly. My entire body tensed. “My name is Dr. Steven Chen; I’m the Chief Medical Officer here.” He pulled up a chair to the bed, tossing his clipboard behind him on the counter.
“I was at your assessment, but I got called away before we could meet… I’ve been told you had an accident during initiation tonight,” he said, his voice lowered. “However, it seems clear to me that you’ve been through some kind of trauma.”
I glared at him openly, saying nothing.
Dr. Chen leaned back in his chair slightly, regarding the restraining straps on my chest and wrists. He looked… upset. “I’d like to assure you that this isn’t how things are normally done in my hospital.”
I raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“I’m going to release you from these restraints now,” he continued, rising from his chair. “Savannah is expecting me to call her the moment you wake up, but I have some questions I’d like to ask you first. Can we have an agreement that you won’t do anything rash if I do that?”
“Where’s Aiden?” I asked. My throat felt raw.
“He’s recovering in a room, much like this one, on the floor below us. He is in slightly better shape than you are, with only a hairline sternal fracture and some residual fluid in his lungs. He’s extremely lucky,” he added.
“I want to see him,” I said quickly. “I’ll answer any questions you have if you swear you’ll let me see him once we’re through.” Dr. Chen nodded, leaning forward to unclasp the leather straps on my shoulders and wrists. Immediately, I sat up, removing the ointment-covered gauze from my left forearm. There, etched deep into my skin, was the five-pointed star of the Pentamancer, encrusted by my own blood.
Horrified, I traced a finger over the raised black skin on my arm. I let out a choked sob as my eyes filled with tears.
Dr. Chen was standing a few feet away, clenching his jaw in what appeared to be distress.
“I’m so sorry,” he said after a moment. “I told them not to do it, to wait until you were awake and the pain killers were out of your system. It must have been done when I was downstairs treating your friend.”
My shoulders shook as I tried to stifle another sob.
“I didn’t realize the tattoo was being given against your will,” he said quietly, taking a seat in the chair beside me again. I could see him eyeing the star, a peculiar expression on his face. I laid the gauze back over it, not wanting to have to look at it. “Would you please tell me what exactly transpired tonight?”
I don’t know why I chose to trust him just then; maybe it was the sympathetic look on his face. Maybe it was his soothing tone. But something inexplicable made me feel that I could.
“I came here tonight to find answers about my parents,” I started, my voice shaking as I spoke. “I found out that they killed them, this Chapter. It was in my father’s file.”
Dr. Chen’s eyes widened, but he let me continue speaking without interrupting.
“Savannah, Tom, and Strauss found us on the fourth floor and said that Aiden and I would be forced to join the Order. When we refused and tried to leave, they took us down to the arena. They… they almost drowned him,” I choked, my voice catching in my ragged throat. “The three of them, they attacked us. I tried to get them to let us go – I even threatened them with a Fireball when they tried to hurt him. But they called in reinforcements. We were surrounded. It was Savannah who knocked me out.”
Dr. Chen’s jaw had dropped. He raised a hand to obscure his open mouth. His other hand was clenched in a fist.
“Can you take me to Aiden?” I pleaded, trying to blink away the tears. “I just need to know that he’s okay. It’s my fault that he’s hurt. I brought him here.”
Dr. Chen glanced over his shoulder into the small, dark hospital.
“Savannah is waiting for you to wake up,” he said softly, leaning towards me. “She’ll be down here to check on you any minute.”
“Will you help me?” I whispered, leaning forward. “Will you help us leave?”
He paused for a fraction of an instant, then exhaled heavily. “I’ve had my misgivings about certain practices occurring throughout this place for some time; tonight, you’ve confirmed that those suspicions have been vastly underestimated on my part. I’m going to let you go, but for my own sake, if you’ll forgive me, I’ll have to make it look like I tried to stop you. If Savannah comes to check in the next few minutes, I’ll stall her as long as I can for you.”
I could only nod my thanks as hot tears spilled from my eyes.
“Take the stairs, three doors to your left, down one floor. Aiden is in a room directly across from the second-floor stairs. Don’t linger; I won’t be able to help you if you’re discovered. The stairs will exit outside on the ground floor, on the north side of the building.”
He rose to unclasp my ankle restraints, then came back around the bed to gently remove the IV in my wrist. He pointed to my clothes, which were piled on the table next to the hospital bed, then turned around to allow me some privacy.
Quickly, shakily, I pulled myself out of bed and began pulling on my black pants. Dr. Chen was rummaging through a drawer behind me. I pulled my shirt on over my head, wincing as the fabric dragged across my bandaged right shoulder. A huge hole had been burned into the cotton, but I couldn’t remember from what. When I carefully shrugged into my leather jacket, that too, to my profound dismay, had a gaping hole across the right shoulder and back.
The Fireball, I quickly realized. It must have fallen on me when I fell into the pit.
“You were badly burned in the arena,” Dr. Chen said from behind me. I turned around and watched him place a tube atop a pile of fresh gauze. “Take this.” He handed me the gauze and the tube of burn cream. “Change the gauze twice a day. Keep the burns clean so they don’t become infected.”
I took the small pile of supplies from him, stuffing everything into my jacket pocket.
“It’s also imperative that you monitor your friend for pneumonia,” he cautioned. “It’s not atypical for it to develop within twenty-four hours of near-drowning.”
“Thank you,” I whispered softly. “For everything.”
“Long live the Pentamancer,” he murmured, gently placing his hand on my left shoulder. I noticed his eyes were red-rimmed. Somewhere outside, we heard the elevator hum to life.
“Go! Now!” he hissed, hurrying me to the door. I took one last grateful look at him before I ran.
Behind me, I heard the sound of medical supplies and furniture clattering to the ground from my hospital room. Then the elevator dinged. I didn’t look back as I bolted into the stairwell, clambering down the steps two at a time until I got to the doorway that lead to the second level. I shoved through the heavy door and raced across the tiled floor to the small room directly across from the stairwell.
Aiden’s eyes had been closed, but they immediately shot open when I entered.
“Aspen!” he cried out hoarsely. “You’re okay!” I quickly raised a finger to my lips as I hurried to unclasp his chest and wrist straps.
“Get your ankles,” I instructed, “We don’t have much time.”
He quickly did so as I gathered his clothes from across the room. I tossed them to him as he pulled the IV from his hand, then turned to keep an eye out from the doorway.
“How did you escape?” he asked, pulling his shirt over his head. He had layers of bandages wrapped around his chest – to inhibit excess movement, I presumed. I heard him groan from underneath the shirt.
“No time, we need to go,” I urged him as his head poked through the top. He nodded, pulling on his jacket.
Aiden took my hand as we ran across the hospital floor to the stairwell. As the door clicked shut behind us, I was fairly certain I heard the ding from the elevator sound from across the floor. We bolted down the stairs, stumbling here and there from the fog of the pain killers, until we got to the ground floor. Aiden shouldered the door open and we burst outside into the cool night air.
“They’ve probably disabled the security gate code,” Aiden whispered. “We’ll waste time if we stop to try it – we’re going to have to climb the fence.”
I warily surveyed the ten-foot high wrought-iron fence in front of us. The wind was blowing the stooped branches of old oak trees, making them sway and snap against the top of the fence. How are we supposed to get over that? I thought disparagingly. Suddenly I heard Jo’s thunderous voice in my head.
Show me any old Water-monger who can fly!
“I have an idea,” I said, motioning Aiden to the fence. “On my count, jump.”
He gave me a skeptical look but obligatorily poised his hands over his head as I did.
“One… two… three… jump!” I cried, drawing the wind beneath us. It gathered under our feet and lifted us up, bolstering our jumps into a vault. As my hair wildly whipped around my face, I felt my hands close around the cold metal railing at the top of the fence. The raw skin on my back and shoulder protested painfully as I hoisted myself up. Beside me, Aiden was grunting in pain.
Somehow, we managed to pull ourselves up and over the fence, then dropped to the sidewalk on the other side. My ankle stung as I landed on it awkwardly. Aiden fell on his knee, grimacing in pain. We helped each other up, then ran, limping, across the street to his car.
As I flung open the passenger side door, the door to the building simultaneously flew open. I recognized Savannah’s curvy silhouette standing in the light of the stairwell before she was flanked on either side by about a dozen more people. Aiden saw them, too.
He shoved the key in the ignition as the ground below us started shaking, hitting the gas pedal the instant the engine growled to life. The entire car jolted as the back tires abruptly dropped. I looked in the sideview mirror just in time to see the street behind the rear wheels of Aiden’s Jeep crumble away into a gaping abyss.
“Aiden!”
“I see it!” he yelled, turning a knob on the dashboard and flooring the gas. We shot forward, flying down the street at a speed that made me sink into the back of the leather seat. My stomach lurched into my throat.
Aiden let out a whoop. “Thank God I opted for all-wheel drive!” Then he started laughing, almost maniacally.
I stared at him, dumbfounded, but a moment later I couldn’t help but cackle myself. We devolved into hysterics as we sped away, slap-happy from having escaped the horrible events of the night. In hindsight, the residual pain medication may have also had something to do with it.
“Dr. Chen helped me escape,” I said breathlessly, once my own maniacal giggles had finally subsided. “He told me where to find you. I guess that means not all the Chapter Heads are pure evil.”
Aiden nodded thoughtfully, his expression serious again. We got onto the highway, westbound, cruising about fifteen miles an hour over the posted speed limit.
“What do we do now?” I asked, absentmindedly reaching for my necklace. Thank God I didn’t lose it back there, I thought, washed by momentary relief.
“I don’t know,” he replied grimly. “But I know we can’t go home.”
We were both quiet for a moment as we dismally considered the full weight of our present situation.
“What did you find back there, in those files?” I asked quietly.
He opened his mouth to answer; just then his cell phone started vibrating in the cupholder.
“It’s Robert,” he said, reaching for it. “Evelyn might be with him.” My stomach knotted. I looked at the clock. It was nearly one in the morning.
“Robert?” he asked, taking the phone, “Is that you?” He pressed a button on the steering wheel and I could hear Robert’s voice crackle through the car speakers.
“Aiden, yes, it’s me. Sorry for the late-night call. I have Evelyn here with me. We caught an early flight back to Colorado at her insistence. We’re outside Aspen’s house but she’s not answering. Any chance she’s with you?”
“I’m here,” I answered quickly. “Get away from my house, and from Evelyn’s. The Asterians will be looking for us. You can’t stay there.”
I heard Evelyn’s frantic, muffled voice in the background.
“Meet us at the University, Aiden,” Professor Borstein instructed. “At the place where we had that argument over Bacon – you know the place I’m talking about?”
“Yes, I remember,” Aiden answered. He glanced at me to make sure I was okay with meeting them. I nodded, giving him an accompanying quizzical look. “We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“Wait,” I remembered suddenly. “Robert, can you and Evelyn do me a very quick favor before you leave?”
“Yes, of course…?” His reply came out as a question.
“Evelyn knows where I hide a spare key near the front porch. Can you ask her to go inside and grab the envelope under the right side of my mattress? Please tell her not to put the key back when she’s done.”
Robert said something muffled to Evelyn, then a moment later he came back on the line.
“Okay, we’re doing that now, then coming straight to meet you both.”
“Listen, Robert,” Aiden said, “I need you to stay on the phone in the meantime. A lot has happened since last week…”
I looked out the window at the passing lights on the highway, tuning out the rest of their conversation. The events of the evening were coming back to me, flooding me with panic and about a dozen negative emotions. My head ached as I tried to block the unrelenting images flashing before my eyes… Aiden slumped motionlessly over the pool, Tom’s bloody face, filled with menace and ire, Savannah’s dark silhouette in the courtyard as she tried to prevent our escape… The words in my father’s file…
… their public resistance resulted in the need for critical measures…
…unauthorized neuro-electrocution, which was wittingly administered by her mother…
…presumed deceased…
Those last words hit me like a punch in the gut. I tried to force it all away, not ready to deal with those emotions yet, but one haunting line from my father’s file stuck with me in that moment, refusing to be pushed aside: Rowan’s only other known surviving (non-biological) relative is her step-grandmother, Evelyn…
Why? I wondered, numbly, as the passing lights outside became hazy blurs. Why didn’t she tell me?