Shadows of Ourselves (2016 Original Edition)

FOURTEEN: Change of Rules

Ursa led us through the back room, out the rear entrance with polka-dot drapes I'd seen earlier, and into a dark stairwell that seemed to go up forever. Moss clung to the rock walls, patches of it glowing a luminescent blue, lighting our way. She clattered onto the steel staircase and we followed her, heading up the endless flights even as the sounds of a great fight were swallowed behind us. The stairs could have gone forever, and I would have just kept following Ursa and Hunter up, staring in front of me.

Did we just leave her to die? Or them?

I glanced at Hunter, but there was no emotion on his face but determination as he climbed the stairs beside me.

I looked ahead again.

There was a flash of memory from when I was small; the shifting orange light of some duplex hallway as Mom carried me up the stairs, cradled to her chest with my face buried in the folds of her winter jacket.

I felt cold sweat beading on the back of my neck.

All I could think was I'm in over my head, I'm in over my head, I'm in over my head.

Never should have gone to Temptation that night, never should have slept with Hunter, never should have thought I was capable of dealing with his world, never should have been stupid enough to have been born.

My head swam with unease, thoughts clouded.

There was the haze, and the echoing of our footsteps.

For a while the only sound was our heavy breathing, the clang of our feet on the stairs. We were a flood of motion being lifted by a tide of panic, rushing faster and faster the higher we got.

After a while the silence was too much. "Althea—"

"Can handle herself," Hunter assured me. "She's one of the strongest Charmers I know, even with just telekinesis."

Just telekinesis. Because that's nothing.

I wasn't as sure of her as he was, but I tried to quell my panic. "Is that really her only gift?" I asked as he nudged me to speed up again. Ahead of us Ursa kept a decent pace.

"Yes," he said. "It is now. Why?"

I bit my lip, unsure of how much to tell him. In the end, I decided to go out on a limb and trust him with just this much. A test, of sorts. "I had a dream last night, and Althea was in it. She said this crazy stuff, about a bloodline, and turning the tide—something about a flood of shadows?"

Hunter smiled. "Dramatic," he said. "Sounds like her."

"Then she fell of a cliff."

"Ouch."

"But it couldn't be—not if her only gift is telekinesis."

"General magik," Ursa chimed from above, and I wrinkled my nose. There was that term again. She'd said it in the kitchen.

The flood of information was almost too much.

"What?"

Hunter allowed, "General magik is a collection of small types of spellcraft that any Charmer can perform, regardless of their number of gifts, or what they are. Sending visions, influencing dreams, seeing the magikal world through wards that most mortals can't. Forming Pathfinders. It very well could have been Althea in your dream. You'll have to ask her the next time you see her."

And if I don't see her?

"And if it wasn't?" I lost my footing on the stairs and tripped, slamming my elbows into the edges. Hunter was kneeling next to me in seconds, helping me sit up. "I'm fine," I growled, pulling away.