The Magus Chronicles

From One Cage

Jack lay awake, listening to the thunder and his cellmate's snores. His cell was on a higher floor of the juvenile detention center, so he could still hear the outside world sometimes. Morning traffic on the highway woke him in the morning as much as the alarms did. His thumb worried over the amulet he always wore - a flat black opal, in old, tarnished bronze.

"God, this boy snores doesn't he?"

Jack threw himself bolt upright, to see Percy Wick standing against the heavy steel door opposite the two bunks in the room. Percy lifted a hand and grinned. "Hi Jack."

Jack hurled himself towards the man, determined to break his pretty nose on concrete, but Percy held up a long hand. Magic bloomed around Jack's bed, a hum and a crackle of white force field. Jack slammed straight into and bounced back, standing barefoot on his bed, fists raised. The walls burned bright white around him, then faded. He searched for a way out through the regular waves of white sparks. Percy watched, his smile lingering.

"Let me out," Jack said. "So I can pulverize you."

"Is this any way to treat a beloved cousin?" Percy crossed to Muhammed's bed. Jack's useless cellmate muttered "pigeons," in his sleep and rolled over. Percy sat down on Muhammed's bed, and gestured to Jack as though saying down boy. Jack ignored him.

"I do need some cooperation from you, Jack," Percy said. "Otherwise I won't ever get you out of this place."

Jack lowered his fists. "I have two more weeks until parole."

Percy shrugged. "Solomon's orders." He glanced back at Muhammed. Jack got a chance to study Percy.

Percival Wick, even though he was somewhere in his thirties, still looked gawky as a teenager. Tattoos curled up from under the collar of his t-shirt, and tiny occult symbols were picked out on his knuckles. Red poppies twisted and bloomed up his arms, their red stark against his pale, pale skin. Cheap black sunglasses were hooked into the collar of his shirt, and he had a twitch that always manifested somehow. Now his fingers tapped on his bicep as he stared down at Muhammed, bright brown eyes curious. He glanced up at Jack, his mouth half-smiling again. 

"Does he always talk in his sleep?" 

"Fuck Muhammed. Why are you coming to get me two weeks early?"

Percy straightened off the bed, putting his hands in his pockets. "It's the summer solstice."

"So?" Jack asked stubbornly, his heart descending into his stomach.

Percy huffed, glancing at the window. "Jack, don't be dense." Jack's expression didn't change, so Percy elaborated. "Family meeting is on the solstice. They want to make a final decision on you tonight. Thus they want you there."

Jack leaned back against the wall, and then slid down onto the bed. He thought he had two more weeks. He had been so sure he had two more weeks before this.

As always, the family went out of their way to kick him in the soft spot. In every soft spot.

"It might not be that bad." Percy's encouraging tone made Jack hate him even more. He glared up at Percy from between strands of overlong black hair and the white light of the forcefield. Percy gestured with one hand around at the tiny cell. "It might be better than here, at least."

Jack bit down the first thing that came to mind, at least here, I get an hour of sunlight every day. Instead, he settled for a question that might actually wound Percy.

"Why did they send you?"

"I volunteered." Percy stepped away from the bed. "Make your touching farewells to Muhammed. I doubt you will be seeing him again."