Otherworld: A Son of Two Realms

Chapter 22: "Like Pulling Teeth"

Jack screamed and bent over, clutching his mouth in his hands. Pain exploded in his gums, like someone was jabbing them with an ice pick. His vision blurred and darkened and his stomach heaved and churned. Finally, he coughed violently and something hard fell into his hands. Jack stared down in horror at the tooth coated in blood.

"The adult body has thirty-two teeth," Cera said, his voice emotionless. "I don't think it will take another thirty-one to get the truth from you."

Jack shuddered, blood dripping from his open mouth. With every breath, air tickled the exposed nerves, sending shocks of pain through his whole body. He looked up at Cera, eyes wide in panic. "Please, I don't know anything."

"You're rather soft to be the son of Marcus Ward. I don't believe you could make the journey across worlds without help. You will tell me how you did it."

"I don't know," Jack repeated, shaking his head.

His top left canine began to tingle.

"How did Talon know you were coming?"

The questions no longer made sense as Jack felt himself falling away from the world, into a bottomless abyss of suffering. "I don't know."

"What did Marcus tell you?" Cera pressed. "How did he know?"

The tooth began to wiggle and, as the nerve endings were stripped from the bone, Jack screamed, "He's dead!"

The tooth stopped wiggling. Jack sucked in a breath. "He died yesterday."

Cera sighed, relaxing his body, but showed no signs of surprise. "I knew that already." Then, he waved his hand dismissively and returned to the bench across from Jack.

Suddenly, the pain stopped and all of the blood in Jack's mouth was gone. He felt around with his tongue and found all thirty-two teeth intact and accounted for.

"Marcus made a mistake not telling the truth," Cera said, his elder age creeping into his voice. "He should have known better."

Jack rubbed his jaw, terrified by Cera's abrupt calmness. Magic in the books had always been used for good, to defeat evildoers and defend innocents. He had never imagined it used like this and certainly not by anyone like Cera, the valiant defender of Guildron. He looked at the old warlock, who stared ahead, eyes unfocused. This man was not the hero Jack had read about.

"It's a shame," Cera finally said, rising again. "Captain!" The doors opened and the captain entered. "Take him to the dungeon with the fisherman. In the morning, execute them both. And make sure it's public. I want word to travel that the son of Marcus Ward is no hero."

The captain bowed, his lips twisting into an evil grin.

Cera turned to Jack. "I had so looked forward to meeting Marcus Ward's heir. Imagine my disappointment." He started walking away.

"Wait!" Jack shouted after him. Something had been bothering him, something he couldn't put a finger on until that moment. Cera paused in step, turning on his head to look back. "How did you know my father had died?"

Jack caught the faintest hint of a smile before Cera continued walking. "Ask Marcus when you see him."