3 Simple Steps

Thirty: Abasi

Thirty: Abasi

  The blizzard suddenly stopped blowing. In fact, everything stopped except for James and me. My fingertips had already started to turn a slight blue from the exposure to the cold.

“If I took the energy to freeze time it’s because I don’t want you to pass out on me before I can explain.”

I sucked in my breath. That was important information. It took James energy to be able to stop time.

“How did you learn to do that?” I asked, feeling my body temperature stay the same since time was frozen.

I was cold but wouldn’t be dying from frostbite as long as James kept time still. While James savored his victory, I racked my brain for ideas that could turn that around. Nothing came to mind. At least Cas wasn’t deleting still. That was my priority. To rip out Cas’ photo from the back of the book. If I could only get to it…

“Well, it wasn’t easy,” James started. “But it does take a lot of energy. I’m already feeling tremendously dizzy, so if you can shut up, I’ll tell you how my brilliant plan came together.”

I shivered again and nodded, swallowing hard. No plan had popped into my head yet.

“Well, I’ve always been looking for the book. My master, X, got the book from a very powerful wizard as a present before the old man passed away; X then gave it to his daughter because she was a very lonely maiden. They lived in the woods, so you can imagine that they were the only people around. It was the only thing he didn’t let me touch, the book, that is. He would sleep with it by his side and have it by him twenty-four seven. Its real title was Helios, like the sun god because it’s golden. He said the book could be dangerous and that he didn’t want evil people coming to life. He didn’t trust me too much. After all, he had murdered my family and made me his slave; he knew I would turn on him one day.”

I studied James bewildered. X…X…X….why did that name sound so familiar?

Of course! It was the name in the message on the first page of Helios.

For my beloved friend X who taught me that magic can be life-changing.

I remembered now, but still…Confusion must’ve been glued on my face because James laughed darkly and licked his lips.

“X was also a wizard but he wasn’t that powerful; no way could he have created a book like that. But he took credit for the book, despite the message showing that it was clearly a gift. Every wizard adored him. I was the only one who knew Zanthus had created it, and he warned me to be quiet or I would die. But he couldn’t kill me, so the threat was useless. My soul was bound to him and his daughter. If any one of us tried to kill each other we’d all die. Anyways, before all that, X had killed my family because they were gremlins but he kept me as a prize. I wanted revenge, so I stole the book and buried it. Only later on, X erased my memory when he found out so that if he couldn’t have it, no one else could. After X and his daughter passed away, my soul was no longer bound to them and I could be free at last. For the next billions of years that would come I would dedicate my immortal life to finding that book and creating a new breed of wizards who would be my servants and help me rid this world of idiot humans. Oh, your face is still confused. Don’t you see? I’m a gremlin. I told you my family was.”

My brain was slowly processing that information like a paper shredder that was jammed. A wizard and his daughter had had a gremlin as a servant who had wanted revenge. He buried HTHAAI3SS—no, Helios—to get back at them but got his brain wiped. Then he had searched all over for it…and had found it at last after billions and billions of years? And to think I had found it with Adriana when we had gone bottle-cap digging. So, no, I did not see how James could be a gremlin. Otherwise he was a very handsome gremlin. Or in a very good human disguise.