Chương 28: Chapter 27 - Unexpected Results

Darius, Northrop, and Big Jacky were standing ten feet back from the spell that had been painted on the ground. The base of it was a circle, meant to contain the power, but a series of asymmetric elements had been painted along its cardinal edges in Ashworth's efficient script. To create balance, Olivia Oliversen and Cosmo Uhler, who were powering the spell, were standing on opposite sides of the circle. They held their open hands away from their sides, palms toward the ground.

Beside them were several battery-powered lanterns, casting light over the scene. Darius couldn't see magic, but he could smell a change in the air, and at the edge of his supernatural hearing, he thought he could sense something. He imagined that was what the universe sounded like when it was bending.

"More power, Olivia!" Ashworth ordered. He was standing beside the witch.

"Slowly!" Reynell shouted.

"Something's out of balance."

"It's not the balance," Uhler muttered. There was a sheen of sweat building up on his forehead.

"There's something wrong with the spell." Ashworth called from across the circle, "There's nothing wrong with the spell."

"It's twisted."

"That means it's out of balance!"

"It's not the balance!" Darius's hands were aching. Pain was not a sensation that vampires had to deal with often. He looked down. He was clenching his fists so tight, they were hurting. He forced his hands to relax. That hurt too. He swallowed and looked back up.

"Olivia—" Ashworth started to say.

"Something's pushing back on my power," she said.

"It's sideways—" The spell exploded. There was no flash of light, but the ground under the spell ripped itself apart and scattered in a fraction of a second with the sound of a detonating grenade. The four magicians were thrown back from the center of the circle. Reynell and Uhler hit the ground and rolled, but Ashworth and Olivia crashed into the trees behind them. The lanterns were sent flying. Darius had dropped to one knee and braced himself, but he'd still been pushed back by a foot. Northrop had staggered.

Only Jack Noctis had remained where he was and on his feet. Darius's ears were ringing. His heart was pounding. His fangs were out, and he felt the terrible urge to tear something apart. He stayed where he was, breathing and trying to calm down. Big Jacky ran over to check on Olivia and Ashworth. Northrop recovered before Darius could. He straightened up, beat the chunks of dirt off his moldy coat, and straightened it.

He went over to one of the lanterns, picked it up, and walked over to the place where the spell had been only moments before. Darius followed the corpse with his eyes. Northrop put his free hand behind his back and gazed at the churned ground by his feet. Not a trace of paint was left.

"Well," he said in a bitter voice, "I hope our next experiments go better than this one, or there won't be a mountain for the mansion to return to." Darius felt a flush of anger. Before he could react, Big Jacky appeared in front of Northrop. His face was less than an inch away from the sorcerer's face, and his hands were locked onto the man's lapels. Big Jacky wasn't quite yelling, but it was somehow worse than if he had been; it was a sound that made Darius feel as if someone was dragging a saw down his spine.

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"If I could kill you again, Northrop, I would. It would be the greatest honor in my long existence. People who are important to me are risking their lives, working with the magic that you wreaked on this world, while you stand there making flippant remarks and doing nothing." Darius staggered to his feet. The ringing in his ears grew louder, and a wave of pain washed through his head, but he managed to stay upright. If someone had to intervene, it would be him.

"Nothing!" Northrop was yelling—no question of semantics there.

"I have answered your questions, worked with your magicians, given my input, inspected your spells, and stood beside you— you! Mister Jack Noctis! —while the spell was being cast, and that, to you, is nothing!" The fury in Big Jacky's expression drained away. The tension was still there, but the energy behind it was gone. He looked like a man who'd seen something terrible that he couldn't understand. His grip eased, but otherwise he stood frozen. Northrop knocked his hands away.

"I know—believe me, I know —it isn't much, but I've given you everything I can!" He slammed his decaying hand against his own chest.

"Despise me! Doubt me! Call me a liar! But I care about this more than you will ever understand!" Darius stumbled closer to the two men. Northrop put his hand on Jacky's shoulder and shoved him to the side so he could step past him. The corpse held up the lantern as he walked into the wreckage of the spell.

"Now, if you're done with your tantrum," he said over his shoulder, "maybe I can start examining what happened—add some more 'nothing' to all that nothing I was doing before." Northrop stopped in the center of the debris and looked down. Darius came and stood next to Big Jacky. Part of him was watching the undead sorcerer work. The rest of him was waiting to see how Jack Noctis would react. Darius had seen Jacky get angry, but he'd never seen him grab someone before.

Big Jacky curled his hands into fists, turned, and stormed off. Darius closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He would find Big Jacky—he was one of the few people who could—but first he would check on everyone else. He wanted to make sure they were all right, and it would give Jacky some time to process his thoughts. Ten minutes later, he tracked Jacky to a small clearing. The incline of the mountain leveled out when it met a large rock shelf that ended abruptly in an eight foot cliff.

On either side of the small cliff, the ground sloped down, unbroken, with small trees trying to break in and make a place for themselves in the rocky ground. If you stood on top of the rock shelf, you could look over the trees, into the valley below. He could see a small triangle of lights shining in the darkness. Quicholt.

"Mr. Noctis," Darius said as he approached. Jacky turned to glance at him, then looked back out over the valley.

"Darius."

"Olivia had a few scrapes, and she'll have a bump on her head, but I don't think she has a concussion."

"What about Ashworth and the others?"

"Ashworth claims he's fine, but I'm keeping an eye on his wrist. He doesn't seem to want to use it. Uhler and Reynell only have a few bruises. Everyone except Northrop is taking a short break."

"Everyone except Northrop," Jacky repeated in a dull voice. He turned to Darius.

"Is this what it feels like to hate someone?" Darius took another step forward so that he would be standing beside Jacky, looking over the same view.

"Dark? Heavy? Painful—""Yes, that's right," Noctis said.

"I think it might be."

"When does it go away?" Darius rubbed his jaw. He needed Iset for something like this. God, I miss that woman. He let his hand drop.

"No one knows, Jacky. Hatred isn't the same as anger. Sometimes it fades with time. Sometimes it disappears when something unexpected happens or when you understand something you never did before. Sometimes it stays."

"For how long?"

"We don't know. People usually die before they find out." Big Jacky faced forward again.

"It's ugly." Darius nodded.

"I don't want to hate him," Jacky announced.

"It's uncomfortable." Darius sighed through his nose but didn't answer. There was nothing to say to that—at least, nothing he knew to say.

"What do you think of Northrop?" Big Jacky asked.

"I think that he's selfish, egotistical, pompous—" Jacky interrupted: "Do you think he's lying?" Darius considered the question before he spoke.

"I don't know, Jacky. I know he's hiding something, but I can't tell if he's lying." Jack Noctis stood abnormally erect and peered over the scene. His chest never moved when he breathed. There was no heartbeat for Vasil to listen to. Life made noise, even when it was holding still. But Big Jacky wasn't life.

"I believed him, Darius," Big Jacky said.

"When he said that he cared—that look in his eyes—I believed him. But he's right. I don't understand it. I don't know why he cares, and that upsets me."