Michael could not keep calm. Though he managed to keep his voice steady when he spoke and his hands still at his sides, it took every bit of concentration to do so. He had known playing with "magic" was a bad idea. He just hasn't realized it would all blow up in his face quite so dramatically.
And now, his very life depended on Alie figuring out how to use it.
As much as he wanted to say "I told you we shouldn't have come here," he kept his mouth shut. Picking a fight would not keep them safe. It wouldn't get them home.
Besides, it wasn't Alie he was really angry with. It was in her nature to crave the mystical. The constant stream of fantasy novels she read through was evidence enough of that. And with only her books to show her the nature of humanity, it made sense that she would trust those who showed her a bit of kindness. Books were always very clear about who was dangerous and who wasn't; and in her books, nice people weren't dangerous.
Unfortunately, Michael had never been able to convince her that real people were much more complex. Or that kindness could be a deception.
Her bridge led them into a deserted part of town. No one stood in the streets to watch the fireworks display. Shops were boarded up. Windows were missing or smashed in. Paint flecked off the walls. Roof tiles lay shattered on the road. The empty streets were blocked off from the rest of the city with high brick walls and signs redirecting traffic around the derelict blocks.
Every town had its slums, but this was something else.
As Alie's bridge set them in the middle of the deserted road, the fireworks overhead reached its finale. Hundreds of them erupted in tandem, illuminating the sky in a brilliant flash of colored light. When the last boom pounded the air and the sky at last went dark, the entire city let out a thunderous cheer.
All the firelight that had extinguished itself at the start of the show suddenly flickered back to life. But the empty street they stood on remained dark.
Alie glanced around, rubbing her arms as if she were cold. "This place gives me the creeps," she whispered.
Michael had to agree. Something had happened here, and it wasn't good. "You're sure he's here?"
"Just up ahead."
"Is he alone?"
Alie tilted her head, staring at the next cross street as if she could suddenly see through walls. "I can't tell."
"Then I'll go first," he directed. "Keep watch behind us, just in case."
She kept close as they slowly made their way down the street. Carefully, he crept toward the closest storefront. Better to hug the wall and keep out of sight from above. The streets were eerily quiet, but he wasn't going to take any chances.
He peered around the corner of the abandoned shop, down into the narrow space between it and the next building. Darrel sat on the ground, a half-eaten sandwich in one hand. His other arm rested on his knee, and his head was bent low.
He looked exhausted.
"Oh, hello," Michael greeted loudly, startling the thief so badly that he dropped his sandwich on the unswept ground. "What a coincidence meeting you here."
Darrel shot to his feet. He marched out to them, a mixture of horror and fury on his face. "How did you get here?" He glanced to Alie, frowning deeply.
"Magic," Michael shrugged, a smug smirk twitching at his lips. "What, did you think we were too stupid to figure out how to use it?"
"You've ruined everything," the thief spat. His blue-green eyes burned hot. "You were supposed to get caught."
"Why? So we would serve as a distraction long enough for you to make a get away?"
"They would have realized soon enough that you had nothing to do with me," Darrel nodded. "They would have sent you home and you would have been no worse for wear. And I would have been well on my way to the next world by now.
"But, no. You just had to escape. And now, they've put the whole city on high alert. All the portals out of here are on lock down. I'm stuck here - you're stuck here – until they find us. And they will find us, now that you've led them here. Thanks a lot."
"They we're trying to kill us!" Alie interjected. "And we weren't followed. I was watching for that."
Darrel's jaw tightened, nearing the end of his patience. "Doesn't matter. They're looking for high concentrations of magic. For some reason, magic clings to you like paper clips on a magnet. Enough that it served as the perfect decoy for the rock in my bag. But now, you're here, and the rock's here, and we're all just one big magic target waiting to be struck."
"Well, maybe you shouldn't have stolen it, then," Michael said flatly.
Darrel turned his icy gaze toward him. "How I got it is none of your business."
"It is when I'm being unjustly accused of committing your crime," Michael snapped back.
"Why don't you just leave it somewhere?" Alie asked, her voice soft and wary.
"Because it's going to make me filthy rich," Darrel said.
Alie frowned, struggling to understand his selfishness. "Money won't do you any good if you're dead."
"She has a point," Michael smirked.
"The magic seekers won't kill you," Darrel sighed heavily. "They'll just trap you."
"What about the plasma guns?" Michael asked.
Darrel opened his mouth, thought a moment, and closed it again. "They shot at you?"
"Multiple times," Alie nodded. "If it weren't for the magic, we'd be toast."
A shadow passed over the thief's face. The anger in his eyes cooled, but was quickly replaced by fear. "Well, that changes things."
"How?" Michael demanded.
"I was just going to wait out their search," Darrel explained slowly. "Stash my bag, hole up somewhere, give them some false leads, make them think I'd already left. But if they want us dead, then we can't risk sticking around. The teams they send when they're out for blood are way more fierce than the others. We'd be tracked down in no time."
"But you said we can't leave because all the portals are blocked," Alie reminded.
Darrel's face paled. "Well... All but one."
Michael had a feeling he wasn't going to like the reason there was still one avenue out of town available, but he had to ask anyway. "What's special about that one?"
"It leads to a dying world," Darrel explained. "It's just a monster-infested wasteland, now. The world's magic started getting corrupted, and it leeched out through the portal. It even caused a whole shop to disintegrate. People got scared and left. That's why this whole block is quartered off."
Alie paled, looking down the barren streets. "You mean, we're close to the portal? Is it going to destroy us, too?"
"Not unless you absorb the corrupted magic. It's fine for now, though."
Michael pinched the bridge of his nose to ease the stress-induced headache that was starting to form. "So, our options are to hide out in a dying, monster-infested world and hope we don't absorb its magic, or stay in the city with the over-zealous authorities and hope we don't get killed?"
Darrel scowled. "Pretty much. Except we'd be traveling through the dying world, not hiding out in it. Even I know better than to stick around there for very long."
"How long would that take?"
"I don't know. A couple days?"
"Days?!" Michael felt sick. They were already late getting home. He dreaded the lecture that was due to him from Alie's dad. And he hated the thought of either of them being grounded the rest of the summer. But those punishments were nothing compared to the nightmare that would await them if they just showed up after having vanished for a few days.
"Getting back will take longer. You'll have to take the safer route through Tambrin, Song's Pass, and Azure Plains. That will take at least a week, maybe more like a week and a half. But, that should be enough time for the authorities here to realize we're long gone and stop looking for you here."
"That's way too long. Alie and I have to get back home tonight."
Darrel gave him an unsympathetic stare. "You're in a magical realm and you're worried about breaking curfew?"
"I have my reasons."
"Fine. Whatever. Be that lame." He rolled his eyes. "But you really don't have anything to worry about. Remember when I said you were in a different plane of space and time? The days pass here a lot faster than they do back on Earth."
Michael narrowed his gaze. "How much faster?"
"I've been here five years, give or take a month. The last day I spent on earth was Saturday, August 11, 2018. Now: what day is it for you?"
"July 9, 2019," Alie answered, her eyes widening in awe.
Michael turned his glare to her. She was just encouraging him, now.
The smug look on Darrel's face said everything. "There, see? It hasn't even been a whole year, yet."
"You could be lying," Michael pointed out.
"What would it benefit me to lie? You ruined my plans, remember? I don't want you tagging along with me. You'd slow me down."
"If you're going into monster-infested territory, wouldn't you want some help?"
Darrel pointed to Alie. "As quick as she was to figure out magic, she'd last all of two seconds in a fight."
Alie blinked at him in surprise. "Hey!"
"And, no offense, but I don't trust you not to stab me in the back," Darrel continued, ignoring her.
Michael matched the thief's half-snarl with one of his own. "The feeling's mutual."
"We're obviously not compatible. So, why would I bother lying to you to try to convince you to come with me?"
"I don't know. To get a kick out of tricking us again?"
Alie took a step closer to him, hugging her arms to her chest. "Uh, guys?"
"Wow, you must really think I'm some sort of egotistic maniac to think I'd go to that kind of trouble," Darrel chuckled. He shook his head at the thought.
"I'm sorry, what part of 'Follow me, I'm a tour guide, oh no, I'm just a thief who was using you to get away with crime' isn't egotistic?"
"Guys?!"
"You're no picnic yourself." Darrel hardened his face into a flat, vacant expression. "I'm Michael. I'm in a world filled with magic and wonder and all I can think about is getting home."
"You don't know anything about me," Michael spat.
"SHUT UP!" Alie threw up her hands, and a golden shield of light formed above them. A moment later, a ball of blue energy erupted against it, splattering out like paint on a canvas.
Darrel and Michael both gawked at her, too shocked by the eruption to know how to respond.
"Move now, talk later," Alie scolded.
Darrel shook his head, as if clearing himself of his aggression. He grabbed his pack off the ground and threw it hurriedly over his shoulder. "Right. Portal's this way. Guess it's all we've got, now."
Michael glanced up to the rooftops. A swarm of officers in black uniforms were gathering around them. Several of them had pistols aimed in their direction, the blue energy building within their barrels.
"Keep that shield up," Michael instructed, grabbing onto Alie's arm.
As a unit, they advanced into the street. Darrel took the lead, and Michael followed closely behind, pulling Alie along with him. Alie kept her arm extended above her, holding the golden shield in place with all her concentration.
Three blue balls of plasma energy rained down on them. The shield caught them all, protecting them from the subsequent blast that took out sections of the vacant shops around them. The blinding light that followed their explosion nearly made Alie lose her footing. Michael pulled her upright, tugging her close to keep her on her feet.
They rounded a corner and raced for the end of the street.
Something was very wrong with the road. Light from the surrounding city didn't quite reach the stone. Shadows stretched over the surfaces of the old shops and apartments like ghosts, twisting and contorting the brick into a black hole of endless nothing. Tendrils of darkness licked out like black flames across the ground, threatening to consume everything in its path.
Maybe Michael couldn't feel magic the way Alie could, but he could certainly feel the chills sweeping down his spine at the sight of the corruption leaking out from the end of the path.
If it weren't for the authorities shooting at his back, Michael would have turned around and never looked back.
The portal glowed up ahead. It took the form of a large blue, round spot on the ground that emanated a florescent glow. Black smudges swirled within it. Darkness, complete and cold and all-consuming, leeched out from the portal's edges, eating up all light in its path.
Darrel whirled around, drawing a pistol from somewhere that Michael hadn't seen. He fired one round of plasma energy straight for a rooftop. The bright blue ball exploded against a chimney, throwing dirt and bits of brick everywhere. The structure collapsed into the street, blocking the way they had come.
"This is going to be a bit rough," he warned, waving them toward the corrupted portal. "See you on the other side." With a quick, playful solute, he stepped onto the blue spot.
Golden magic rushed up from the portal and swallowed him whole. It sucked him down through the blue spot, causing him to vanish almost instantly.
"Go," Alie urged, her hands shaking. So far, her magic shield had held. But, judging by the sweat forming on her brow, she wouldn't last much longer. Another round of plasma rained down on her shield, making her wince.
Gritting his teeth, Michael grabbed her around the waist and tugged her onto the portal with him. No way would he go on without her. They were in this together. He clamped his eyes shut and held onto her tight as the magic swept over them, praying to whatever gods controlled the Realm that they would make it swiftly and safely to the other side.