Sorry for the major delay in posting the next chapter! I was really busy. Anyway, I hope you like it and I still promise to dedicate my chapters to you if you are a loyal reader and have identified yourselves to me. ;) That's a promise! Anyway, there's a picture of Cedric on the side! :)
Chapter 16
Troy was stunned. How come he or Dahlia had never guessed that her father was a magician too? And Dahlia’s mother... why hadn’t she known that her husband was evil? Or maybe Dahlia’s father had had the correct magical genes and Dahlia’s mother had been mortal.
Troy jerked back to reality at the sound of guns clicking.
“You’re under arrest,” snapped a police officer.
“What for?” Troy demanded, still shocked into immobility.
“For blowing up Mr.McLean’s home,” the officer retorted, pulling out a set of handcuffs.
Troy heard a snap and spun around. Tamarak had brought a police officer to the ground and judging by the snap, had broken some of the bones in his body.
Tamarak lunged forwards.
“No, Tam!” shrieked Sapphire.
Too late. A police baton swung sideways and Tamarak crumpled to the ground. Sparks of electricity shot up his backside.
Guns were trained on all seven of them, including Dahlia and Tamarak who lay on the ground. Dahlia had been knocked unconscious by the dart and Tamarak who had been electrified.
“Raise your hands above your head. Don’t move!” snapped the police officer.
“Well, make up your mind. Which is it to be?” Troy asked.
“Don’t be cheeky,” the police officer retorted. “Raise your hands above your head!”
Troy raised his hands. With his powers rendered helpless, there was nothing he could do, even if he had the nerve to do anything. Deep in his heart, he knew that he was a coward, unable to attack the mortals who had them at gunpoint.
“What about us?” Kayla demanded. “We weren’t there. Let us go!”
She gestured to all of the others apart from Dahlia and Troy. They had been there with Helen, Ella and Olive, the only magician witnesses to the explosion.
Mr.McLean smiled. “He attacked a police officer,” he snapped, pointing at Tamarak. “And the rest of you are guilty by association.”
“She’s six!” protested Sapphire, pointing at Luna. “She’s way too young to be arrested.”
“There’s something called juvenile court,” Mr.McLean retorted. “Handcuff them!”
The police officers moved forward obediently. They locked metal handcuffs around the magicians’ wrists and ankles. Then they were divided into two groups and thrown into two different helicopters. The officers split up too and Mr.McLean went with Dahlia, Troy and Kayla.
The entire helicopter ride was not that pleasant. For one, they were rolling around on the base of the craft, with nothing to hold on to. If the doors slid open, they would topple in infinite space.
Troy grimaced as the metal handcuffs dug into his wrists. Now he knew what Dahlia had felt when her dagger had slipped. Maybe hers had been worse.
Once the helicopter had landed in the police station at Athens, Ohio, the seven of them were thrown into identical cells much unlike the one at Varmer’s castle.
The cells had hard, lumpy beds in the corner, barred windows in the wall and they smelled slightly like urine.
Their weapons were thrown on the metal table across the room mockingly. Apparently evil magicians had no imagination.
Mr.McLean sat down outside their cells and fiddled with his cell phone. That was something new; old immortal magicians using phones.
“What are you doing?” Troy demanded.
“Calling my lord, Varmer,” Mr.McLean said, smirking.
“You’re betraying us to the Fire Immortal?” Cedric shouted.
He began tugging at the bars of the cell with all his strength. Within seconds, his palm turned red and began to blister.
“Why is Varmer called the Fire Immortal?” Luna asked.
“Now that’s weird; Luna is asking a question,” Troy snickered.
“SHUT UP!” shouted one of the police officers and poked Troy in the stomach with a baton.
“Hi, Alyce,” Mr.McLean said.
Troy scowled. Alyce had also been one of Varmer’s guard, not the immediate guard though. She was also his receptionist.
“I’ve got them!” Mr.McLean continued smugly.
Troy strained his ears and managed to barely catch something like: “Well done, Philip. Can you hold them for another five minutes before the guard arrives?”
“Definitely,” he said, playing with his staff.
“Good.”
Mr.McLean snapped his phone shut. He pivoted around to smirk at Troy. Obviously, he wasn’t as nice as he had been to Troy a week previously.
“You’re dead, shadow boy,” he told Troy. “My lord will have you under his control forever.”
“How does that make me dead?” Troy asked innocently.
Cedric snickered, but the girls just looked tense. Mr.McLean advanced on Troy in a rage, but Sapphire interrupted.
“If I’m going to die, would you mind telling me what kind of magician you are?” Sapphire asked flirtatiously.
Mr.McLean turned to Sapphire slowly, and brushed the length of her cheek with one hand, letting his hand linger on her skin.
“I don’t think you’re going to die,” he said softly.
Troy almost puked. He grinned when he saw Sapphire trying not to recoil from his touch. Unfortunately, Tamarak had recovered from his electric shock.
He clenched his fists. Kayla shot his a warning glare.
“I’m a Magician of Earth,” Mr.McLean said.
“How’s that possible?” Troy demanded. “Dahlia is a Magician of Water, not a Magician of Earth!”
“Shut up!” yelled her father.
Troy glanced at his watch. Already two of his precious five minutes had passed. The ground seemed to rumble beneath his feet.
Was it Cedric or Kayla? A quick glance at both their faces told him that it wasn’t. Another rumble sounded; this time it came from above.
Was the ceiling going to fall down? Troy glanced upwards but there was nothing there. A bit of dust trickled down from the ceiling. Horrified, seven magicians looked up.
“Hug the walls!” screamed Kayla.
Boulders rained down on them. One boulder smashed into the bars around Troy’s cell, freeing him from the cage.
His eyes fell on Dahlia.
Unconscious.
With boulders about to crush her.