The Apprentice's Apprentice

Part 41

Cora rubbed her hands dry on the sides of her pajama pants, hoping the slight dampness would fool Philippe into thinking she really had gone to the bathroom. She'd even sat on the toilet while she used her magic and flushed it afterwards. The spell at least had worked, even if her fear had made it difficult to explain things clearly. Warren said he was on his way, but she didn't know how quickly he'd be able to get there. She'd just have to keep Philippe from moving them until help arrived.

She swallowed hard and glanced briefly at the mirror over the cracked sink. Even in the darkness she could see how pale she looked, the whites of her eyes unnaturally wide. She hoped Philippe didn't notice, or if he did, that he thought it was fear for them not of him. Cora shivered but knew she couldn't put it off any longer, not if she didn't want to arouse his suspicions. And that was the very last thing she wanted.

Pushing the metal door open caused a wave of cool air to wrap around her. Without even the moon for light, the patches of star strewn sky that appeared between the clouds did little to give relief to the darkness, leaving the park covered in layers of shadows. Cora rubbed her arms as she stepped out, hearing the distant slamming of a car door and wishing she was in it. Or at least had her housecoat.

"Are you cold?"

Cora jumped and whirled to face Philippe, her heart jerking into full speed to hammer at her ears. He leaned against the corner of the building but pushed off as she stared at him. Cora forced herself to smile but was afraid the result was weak. She hoped the dark would cover for her. "It's a little chilly out is all. And I am only wearing my PJs."

Philippe came over and placed his hands on her arms, rubbing them gently. "I'm sorry. I should have given you time to dress more warmly. I promise we'll go somewhere warm soon. I had to leave my car at your place, but I'm sure we catch a bus or train. Or we can hitchhike if we have to." He grinned down at her. "I'm very persuasive."

She shivered again, but he mistook it for cold and rubbed her arms more, making even more goosebumps roll down her skin. Cora had to resist the urge to pull away. Just him touching her was enough to make her want to flinch away, to make her stomach sour and fill with shards of ice. She couldn't afford any response that showed him the truth of how she was feeling. She needed him to think she was okay with this. She needed him to trust her, at least until help came. She was stuck out here alone with him and she couldn't even...

A sudden thought gave Cora hope and she looked up at Philippe. "My magic feels warm when I use it. If I put up my shields, would that keep me warmer? Or could I shield myself from the cold? It's something I always wondered about." She hoped she'd used the right tone, interested and a little deferential, like he was still her hero.

Philippe gently touched her face and smiled. "That could work very well. Why don't you try it?"

She smiled back, the closest thing she'd managed to a real one since he'd appeared in her bedroom. She pulled at her magic letting its warmth reassure her as she wrapped herself in it. Having her shields around her made her feel safer, more secure. Braver.

Brave enough that she didn't immediately run when a figure burst out of the trees beside them. Cora and Philippe both turned to look at the person who stopped a few feet from them, his chest heaving, almost invisible in the dark colours he wore.

Tears pricked her eyes as Cora recognized Warren's thin form. Beside her, Philippe tensed, his hands balling into fists. "Again you try to come between us! Just leave Cor and I alone!"

"You're sick," Warren growled, his eyes just as hot as Philippe's. "Absolutely sick. You just fucking kidnapped her and you think I'm the one doing something wrong?"

"You're just like the rest of them," Philippe spat. "You don't recognize our relationship for what it is! Trying to tear us apart while knowing nothing. I imagine in your case it's jealousy, not that it matters. I'll just deal with you the same way I did with the others."

"You're the one who's going to die." Warren's voice was quiet and almost worse that way. Cora thought shouting wouldn't sound quite as deadly as the low tone her friend was using now. "Be glad that my master's still at Cora's or you'd already be dead. But she'll be here soon enough and maybe I'll leave a piece of you for her. She's pretty pissed too."

"An offensive mage is a threat, even for someone who's studied as much battle magic as I have. A spell breaker is a lot less so, especially one who's still only an apprentice. You wouldn't even be the first one I've killed," Philippe replied.

Cora's wide eyes darted from one boy to the other, not entirely sure what Philippe meant. The way he was talking made her wonder... Warren froze for a second before he slowly turned so he could stare straight at Philippe's face. "What do you mean by that?"

"Even you can't be that stupid."

Warren's arms began to tremble from how hard he had his hands clenched into fists. "If you're saying what I think you are, then you're the stupid one. Because I'll kill you if it's true." His voice wasn't entirely sane, the barely restrained emotions Cora could hear in it almost as frightening as Philippe.

"We might have shared a master, but we are different classes of mage," Philippe sneered. "And while some might have called Master Pembroke brilliant, the truth is he was just as close-minded as all the others, ready to stop me for no reason. Even after I explained it all to him. I thought he at least might understand, but no. He didn't threaten to declare me a rogue, though I knew he was thinking about it. He tried to trick me, to make me believe he was on my side, but I knew the truth. But I left him then, and had he not tried to call other mages to come for me, I would have left him be. Out of respect for his teachings, however brief they were. But he betrayed me and left me with no choice."

Cora gasped, her body going cold even with the warmth of her shields, her stomach dropping to her knees as it knotted in on itself. Philippe turned to look at her. "I had to. He was a threat to us. You understand, right?"

She didn't have time to respond, not when Warren roared. The rage fueled sound echoed out through the park even as light began to gather in each of his hands. The spell looked familiar and Cora realized that Selena hadn't only been teaching her apprentice visualization.

But Philippe was moving as the air took on the charged feeling Cora associated with magic. Even as she watched, the power around Philippe took shape. A whirlwind spun around him, defense and offense at once. Warren's attack was deflected off, much the way Cora's shields did. She swallowed and hoped it hadn't been her who'd given him that idea. She should have listened to the others, shouldn't have told him everything about her magic lessons. Guilt added itself to the churning mass of emotions that had her frozen in place as she watched the mage duel happening in front of her.

With the air swirling dirt, leaves, and bits of grass around him, Cora had a hard time seeing Philippe. But she did notice when the light appeared in the centre of the tornado. It was dark blue with a heart of almost black, but was somehow light nonetheless. She looked at Warren. He stood where he was, crackling white lines shooting across his one hand.

Cora knew instinctively, even without fully understand what each spell did, that Warren was outclassed. She didn't have a choice. Not if she wanted to live with herself. Or survive without having to spend the rest of her life trapped in Philippe's delusions. Cora ran.

She slid to a stop on the dew wet grass in front of Warren, her arms thrown out to maximize the coverage of her shields. She didn't have time to expand them. Not with the level of pulsing light she could see through the whirlwind. "Stop it!" she screamed, praying that she'd been fast enough and that Philippe's obsession with her was enough to override his obvious hatred of Warren. Otherwise she wasn't sure her shields were going to be enough and she might not survive long enough to regret anything.