As I came to, a murky feminine figure with glowing skin and a bright shimmering dress filled my vision. Her arms were crossed, and she was rhythmically tapping her fingers on her other arm while her eyes bored into my forehead. I glanced around, but there was nothing to see. I was floating in a vast white void that seemed to stretch on forever. At least I was not alone.
"You have exhausted your arcane reservoir, my host," the Aurora look-alike said, speaking with an almost melodic tone. "That is why you find yourself here."
"Whatever I did that let me talk to you the first time cost me so much energy, how was I able to summon her again without any magic left?" I thought, but somehow my words leaked into the space around us as sound with no discernible source. My eyes shot open and another thought escaped, "This is not good." I tried my best to empty my mind and focus only on my uninvited guest.
"The first time? What do you mean, Lucas?" The apparition slightly tilted her head.
"Oh no, not this again. I am not Lucas. My name is Laura." I said, this time entirely on purpose. "What in the hell is going on here?"
Probably-not-Aurora's face twisted in confusion, and she began to speak more slowly, "Guardian and bonded pairs converse with each other in this space. Have you adopted a new form of address because of the transformation? I am deeply sorry that happened. I know you reacted poorly in its aftermath."
"I am actually fine with it, even though Lucas was not. This body is a part of me now. But we are getting sidetracked." I started massaging my scalp as frustration began to creep in. "We already had this conversation."
"We did?" Her demeanor stiffened and she took an uncertain step closer to me.
I thought back to my magically enhanced conversation with the specters of Lucas and Aurora and tried to remember the specifics. As I did so a blue mote of light floated away from me and over towards the new Aurora. She reached out, grabbed it, and blinked a few times as it sunk into her hand. Then her focus shifted to me.
"Oh. I see now," her voice dropped and she approached me with a grim expression on her face. "I do not remember this conversation you have shown me, but that was me. Or a version of me at least. Something has gone horribly wrong. We are not bonded. How are you here?"
"You and Lucas both threw yourselves into a blender and created me," I said blithely and shrugged. "It has been about a week since then."
"You seem to have me at a disadvantage," Aurora said flatly. For a split second I thought I detected a hint of sadness in her voice. She paused, turned around, and then her entire form flickered in and out of view. With each flicker her form shifted between a seated position and standing.
"Aurora, are you okay?" I asked, taking a step towards her.
"I am fine. Or will be soon. And carefully considering this problem. But Laura, the current danger to the town is the more pressing issue," she flickered a final time to a standing position right in front of me. Her arms were crossed, and her eyes were boring into mine. "You must promise me you will eliminate this threat. It is the reason I was awoken."
"Of course. I am not going to make my friends take care of this by themselves," I said, crossing my own arms and mirroring Aurora's stance.
"Good. Perhaps my past mistakes will not prevent my duty from being fulfilled. It should not have been within my capacity to initiate your creation. You must understand that the supplantation and destruction of my host was not my intention. In fact it could not have been. Such an egregious violation of my oath should have been impossible. So, be careful. There are powerful forces and meta-arcane energies at play that I do not yet understand," Aurora spoke quickly and earnestly. It was both surprising and a slight improvement from the last time we had talked, but some of her words were lost on me.
"Aurora, I am sorry, but I do not follow," I interjected. Aurora's face fell and she shot me an almost sympathetic glance. Instead of explaining herself, she pushed onward with what she wanted to say.
"Though I do not know what force I was called to extinguish, I can speak to its severity. Situations requiring the involvement of three spirits are dire. Take care. I recommend perusing my anamnesis; specifically, the previous time I was needed, even if that was only a solitary affair." She paused for a moment then stared into space above and to the right of me before resuming. "It would seem that some events are missing, from my records. I know there were previously three and even four guardian scale threats, but the minutiae and more are lost."
"I lost everything from Lucas's history class as well. It has been quite inconvenient." I immediately recognized Aurora's frustration at my interruption in the sharpness of her acknowledging nod.
"Take care not to consume all your aether again, it is wildly inconvenient for a conventional spellcaster with no guardian, such as yourself, to take the brunt of such exertions. I highly recommend st—"
All at once, like a light switch flipping off, the vast white void I found myself in went dark and Aurora's speech was halted mid-sentence.
"Laura! Wake up. It's nine o'clock and we need to talk." A familiar rough voice broke into my awareness.
I slowly opened my eyes to the familiar popcorn ceiling of Chris's living room. Dan's worry-stricken face loomed over me.
"Dan?" I said, confused. My voice was hoarse and pushing even that single word out took significant effort.
"Welcome back, sleepyhead. Chromos just finished giving you the rest of his magic. I was hoping it would be enough to wake you up. I think it knocked him out. Thanks, by the way." Dan said with a hollow laugh. "I guess that fight took a lot out of you."
A jolt of terror ran through me. We had been right in the middle of rescuing Chris when I was knocked out! Where was he? The last thing I had seen was him taking a lightning bolt to the chest! I scrambled, trying to pull myself upward and out of the couch I was embedded in. It would have been much easier if Chris's parents had invested in firmer cushions.
"Whoa, relax! Everything is fine. Everyone is safe," Dan said as he gently pushed me by my shoulders back onto a pillow. I nearly melted in relief as I let the softness of the sofa engulf me once again. Confident that I was staying put, he took a seat across from me. "Chris is sleeping in his bed upstairs. I bet he's even cozier up there than we are right now."
"I would take you up on that bet," I mumbled drowsily. Dan looked at me with something resembling amusement, but after a moment his expression darkened.
"So, what happened to you back there? I thought you said you were ready. You passing out like that really gave the rest of us a scare," Dan said haltingly. He almost sounded apologetic.
I felt my cheeks burn as my face betrayed my frustration and embarrassment. Dan's face shifted from concern to worry.
"I overdid it," I muttered.
"Well, if it makes you feel better, we still succeeded. You did good out there," Dan said with a smile.
"How is Sarah doing?" I asked as I looked around the room. It took a bit of stretching, but I managed to twist my head just enough to glimpse a shock of red hair on the third couch across from Dan.
"Still sleeping like a log from last night. She's got her earplugs in, so I figured I'd leave her alone. I woke up about an hour ago and Chromos suggested giving you a boost like he did last week. Like on Friday during the fight at the river? He said this time wouldn't be nearly as potent. No stored power to siphon from. He's on empty now," Dan's words felt a bit stilted. I got the vague impression that he was avoiding saying something, but in my exhausted state pressing the issue felt like a bad idea. After a moment, he filled the silence. "You should hydrate yourself. I don't think that's something that's covered by a magical infusion."
He motioned to a glass of water on the table. I moved to sit up slightly and eagerly drank the entire thing. My throat felt much better afterwards. This dry winter air was doing me no favors.
"So, how did I get here?" I asked as I stretched my legs.
"I sprinted back to Chris's car, drove it over, and loaded everyone in. And then carried you to the couch. All those football drills really came in handy," Dan said, clearly bragging.
"Chris too?"
"Nah, that witch gave him a nice electrically enhanced wake-up call."
"Dan, that is messed up," I said reflexively putting my hand over my mouth.
"Well, that's about all she accomplished with that spell. Between Chromos's reflection magic and his own ward it didn't even scratch him. He walked out of there just fine." Dan paused for a moment. "Okay maybe he's a bit shaken up. I'm not good at judging that kind of thing." He absentmindedly rubbed the back of his neck for a moment.
"Did Chris say what happened? Here at this house, I mean." My eyes darted towards the hall in the direction of the back door. It was around a corner so I could not see the damage from where I was sitting. Suddenly my eyes went wide and I gasped, "Wait, what about his parents? Was I passed out here on the couch when they got home?" I groaned.
"Well, you were asleep. We barely made it in before they showed up. I shoved some furniture in front of the back door to hold it closed. When they arrived, Chris told them someone tried to break in but ran away when they saw witnesses. We didn't talk about magic in front of his folks. Same rule as with my family. They're asleep now, but we should keep the crazy stuff to a minimum," Dan explained warily. "Oh, and Chris's dad said he knew a general contractor who could fix the door."
"That sounds expensive," I mumbled. "So, um... now our enemy knows where Chris lives, right? Is it even safe for us to be here right now?"
"Chris thinks the witch who abducted him was working alone. She showed up with her shads when he was carted off, and she did all the driving herself. As far as he could tell she spent most of her time drawing circles in chalk in the basement. She didn't even call anyone. Or talk to him, barely even looked at him, he said. And well—" Dan said and trailed off.
"What?" I asked unsure if asking the question was even a good idea.
"We don't need to worry about her anymore." Dan looked around the room uneasily. "You and Sarah took care of all the shades, right?"
"Yeah, I think so." I nervously squeezed my wrist as I reviewed my memories from the previous night. I distantly felt like something was missing. "Sarah took one down outside and there were four more in the witch's bedroom."
"So, she slept surrounded by murder-ghosts? Creepy. I cut through two big ones in the basement," Dan said. "That witch zapped me while I was finishing the last one off."
"What do you mean by 'big ones'?" I asked, "The ones upstairs looked like all the other shades we've seen. We got a bit held up with the shades upstairs, sorry."
"They were physically larger with big swords instead of knives. Took a lot more effort to take them down. I was relying on you two to clear the first floor and make sure I didn't get attacked from behind. Don't worry about it. I just got a bit sloppy and got laid out from the front like a dumbass. Even with Chromos's mastery of a sword, a lighting bolt will still do that. Thanks for the healing magic by the way. I had no idea you could even do that."
"Something from Aurora's bag of tricks I guess. It just came to me when I checked your pulse," I said with a shrug.
"Did it use a lot of energy? I assumed the worst when you passed out after patching me up. Or did you exhaust yourself with the shades? You must have been throwing a ton of magic around." Dan was not trying to hide his worry, and I think I even detected some frustration in his voice. I guess he cared about me after all. Well, as far as I was an asset in combat, at least.
"Actually, it was neither. I made a mistake earlier at the library while researching skin stitchers. Did you see that huge spider in the basement? I am pretty sure it was one of them. Anyway, I somehow used a bunch of magic on accident while messing with memories. I had a chat with Lucas and Aurora. And Aurora told me about the skin stitchers," I explained. Dan's face shifted to confusion.
"You talked to ghosts? Using magic?" he asked nervously.
"No, they were not ghosts. I think it was just inside my own head. Built from my own memories. It was extremely uncanny and nearly burned me out," I said with open frustration.
"So, Lucas is alive?"
"No. Well, sort of? Lucas is as much a part of me as Aurora is. I have told you all of this before. I am both of them. They are both me," I said slowly and punctuated it with a sigh before continuing. "I did not ask to be the way I am. I woke up as a broken mess. And I still need so much help with everything. I just want my friends back. And that includes you, Dan." I could feel the tears starting at the corners of my eyes. I did my best to push them back. "Sorry that I am a bit different now, but I cannot put things back to how they were. Can we end this hostility between us?"
Dan let out a long sigh. Then he slowly said, "Yeah, I think you've earned that much. Thank you for helping us save Chris, Laura." Then in a much quieter voice I could barely hear, "I could have lost another friend tonight."
"Finally!" Sarah said. I could see her stretching her arms in the corner of my vision. "So glad that's over. Totally unnecessary drama. I'm rooting for you both by the way." I could not see her face, but I was certain she was batting her eyelashes.
"Sarah," Dan said frustratedly, "How long have you been listening?"
"Long enough to know that you'll be joining us at lunch on Monday," Sarah said, her bright mood ringing clearly in her words.
"So, is it over then?" Dan said as he looked down at the carpet.
"What do you mean?" Sarah responded.
"Well, I—" Dan faltered for a moment, "You know. It's over. The person who summoned all those shades is gone. Mission accomplished and all that. We fixed it."
"I do not think so," I said uneasily. My gut clenched. I had a strong feeling that our job was far from done.
"It is a simple task to dispatch a single mage with ease. It would not require guardians in threes," Corona's voice broke into the conversation which immediately devolved into a fit of giggling from Sarah.
"Corona, that's terrible!" Sarah said after her laughter subsided.
"Huh?" Dan said, his head swiveling between me and Sarah.
"She's been on this rhyming couplet kick for a few days now. Ever since she saw some examples on the board in English class."
"Silly poems aside, I think she has a point," I said, gesturing towards Sarah and Corona. "That... encounter was quite one-sided."
"Which means we must go back and investigate," Chromos's voice replied through Dan. "Corona and I must still discover what we were awoken to do."
"Weren't you asleep? Whatever, we don't have to listen to you Chromos," Dan said in a frustrated and bored tone. "I could make you go to sleep right n—"
"You know this is important," Chromos cut in.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to go back to the scene of a mur—" Sarah began.
She was also abruptly cut off by Corona, "Our duty is not done. We must complete all our tasks, every single one."
Part of me agreed with Dan and Sarah.
Unfortunately, a louder and much more commanding part of me demanded we return.
Pure longing for the safety and simplicity that Lucas had once paralyzed me for a moment, but I silenced it.
"It is our only lead," I said resignedly. "I do not think we have much of a choice. Do either of you have any better ideas?"
My two friends gave me a wary look and then they both looked elsewhere in the room. Neither of them disputed my reasoning. Dan's face was locked in a sour expression while Sarah wrung her hands in worry. The two spirits were for the investigation while the opposing side was Dan and Sarah. It seemed that without Chris here I was the deciding vote.
"I think Laura's right," Dan said after a long pause. "We need to find out where all these shades came from. I doubt that woman could have made an army like the one we fought after meeting the guardians by herself. There were more than thirty!"
"But returning to the scene is like the number one mistake in TV and movies," Sarah said.
"Only for the bad guys, Sarah. We should still bring some supplies to board up the front window if we can though," Dan said carefully. "It gives us a reason to be there."
"Yeah, sorry about that," I mumbled.
"I should have moved out of the doorway. We should practice more fighting tactics if we're going to keep running into mages," Dan said.
"Practice knocking down doors?" Sarah asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You're thinking too small. Might as well upgrade to just knocking entire buildings over, just in case" Dan said with a grim tone.
"How are we all going to fit if we fill Chris's car with plywood?" I said, waving vaguely in the direction of the driveway.
"Don't worry about it, Laura. I'll borrow my Dad's work truck. It's Sunday so he'll be watching hocket all day," Dan said.
"Wasn't he into football? Guess he's branching out," Chris said sleepily as he meandered into the room.
Dan, Sarah, and I shared a concerned look.
"Wait, how much of that did you hear? Are your parents awake?" Dan said, speaking at a much lower volume than before.
Chris wobbled his hand noncommittally in the air and then shook his head slowly. It was pretty clear he was still drowsy.
I sat up on the couch, patted the now open spot, and Chris dropped heavily onto it.
"Are you okay, Chris?" I said warily. He gave me a little smile and a nod as he relaxed into the deep cushions.
"Dan, are we really going back to that godforksaen place just to patch a window?" Sarah said severely, taking care not to raise her voice above a whisper.
"If we don't, it's going to attrackt a lot of attention. It's a necessary precaution so that we can scour the place for clues and figure out whatever the hell it is we're supposed to be doing next," Dan said.
"Wait, we're going back to the house we just blew up? Since when?" Chris groaned. "What are you three even talking about?"
"She, that witch, was one of the people the guardians were called to deal with," I said. "They think."
"So, they don't know for sure?" Chris sounded even more skeptical than before.
"It's a lead at least," Dan shrugged.
"I still think it's a terrible idea," Sarah said.
"But it is our only one so far," I said.
"Should we even be talking about this here? What's stopping his parents from waltzing in here right now and getting all up in our business?" Sarah said gesturing with a hand toward Chris.
"They were out late. Some sort of big business party at an expensive restaurant in Traverse City. I think one of them closed a big deal. Trust me, they won't be up until we're long gone," Chris said.
"Okay well, I think I've had quite enough of this conversation. I'm going. I'll get the truck." Dan lurched off the couch and looked sullenly around the room.
"This is such a dumb idea. I—" Sarah said, raising her face from its resting position cradled in her hands.
"I will go with you," I said. Sarah stared at me in shock.
"Sarah, you in? The truck only carries two, so you'll need to go with Chris."
"Of course I'm not! Were you even listening to me at all?" Sarah sounded exasperated.
"If you two don't feel like getting arrested, you should probably make sure the cops aren't already there before you jump through the front door with a hammer and nails," Chris said, the argument had clearly raised his level of alertness.
"Scoping out the place is a good idea, Chris, but you're just encouraging them at this point. Honestly, Laura, I can't believe you are going along with this madness," Sarah said as her eyes bored into me.
"Maybe it's dangerous and stupid, but it's not like it's any riskier than giving up and sitting here waiting to be attacked again. You have no idea how it feels for a witch to blow down your door and cart you out with magical ghost things. I don't feel safe anymore, anywhere," Chris said as he held his arms close to his chest.
"She's dead, Chris. I protect my friends," Dan stated flatly. He looked at Sarah and continued, "We need to take care of this. Together."
She huffed, crossed her arms and looked away. After a pause she spoke slowly, "Fine. I'll go. For Chris."
"I'll drop you off at your parents', Dan," Chris said.
"No, you're not. You're barely awake. I'm driving," Sarah said.
"Uh? I guess that's fine," Chris said with a flash of frustration that died quicky.
"The house is close, so we'll go there first. Then we'll drop off Dan and meet back up at the main road," Sarah said.
I collected my backpack, Chris tossed his keys to Sarah, and we moved out to the driveway as a group. As we exited, Chris got a thoughtful expression on his face and darted back into the house. After he reemerged, I saw him toss the oversized compass, several sharpies, and a box of candles into the Volvo's trunk. Sarah got in first and took the driver's seat, Dan claimed the front passenger seat, I sat behind Dan so I could get a good look at the house, and Chris took the one next to me. In his hands he clutched a Polaroid camera which he had not entrusted to the trunk.
-*-
The roads were quiet as we approached the house. I had been on edge the whole trip, fearing that if I broke the silence the fragile equilibrium of our group would break and bring the mood down even further. But soon enough we were near our destination, which Dan announced with a simple, "It's ahead on the right."
The witch's former lair was set back from the road by a few hundred feet with a few evergreens shielding it from road noise and prying eyes. Sarah kept our speed constant as we drove past the driveway. I was able to catch a clear line of sight to the front of the house through the trees. In the morning light the shattered window was blatantly obvious. It was a patch of yawning void on the otherwise pristine cedar siding, like someone had thrown a bucket of black paint against the wall. Someone had clearly turned off the lights in the living room and on the porch sometime after I had passed out. There was a car in the driveway, but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary. No one else must have noticed the battle playing out just next door.
"Was that her car?" I asked. "I do not remember seeing it last night."
"Yeah. I got a good look at it when I drove us out of there. It hasn't moved an inch since then," Dan said. "Also, I forgot how big that window was. It's going to take like four sheets of plywood to cover it."
"I can help," I said. It seemed only fair. "I did break it after all."
"Satisfied?" Dan said while looking at Sarah. "Now that we know that the coast is clear, we need to tear that place apart and shut down whatever evil shit that hag left behind." Sarah only sighed in response. "Sarah, we have to. Remember those three ghosts we saw last Friday that acted like they knew us? She probably killed Jess, Will, Jordan, and who knows who else. Shades are made from sacrificed humans after all."
"I know!" Sarah shouted. As we approached an intersection, she stomped the brakes and the car skidded to a halt. She slammed the vehicle into park, fully turned to face Dan, and at an intensity just short of yelling said, "This whole thing is just so fucked up! Don't you understand? We just broke into a woman's house and murdered her! She wasn't a shade, she didn't disappear. She was human! What moral lines do we have left to cross? Is arson next? Actually, sure. Why not? We should just burn the whole place down and be done with it!"
Chris and I looked uneasily at each other in the back seat and Dan took a deep breath before answering. "We had to do it, Sarah. She was about to kill Chris." Chris's face grew more pained at the mention of his name. "It isn't over yet. Chromos is still in my head. If there are more monsters like her running around summoning shades, then a lot more people are going to die."
I watched several emotions battle for control over Sarah's face. Her initial rage and despair ran out quickly and for a moment it looked like she was about to cry, but she took a deep breath and centered herself.
"Fine. I'll drop you off at your house and we'll meet up around here," Sarah said slowly. She sounded numb.
The conversation had died completely and the car was silent as we pulled into Dan's driveway. I broke the silence, "Do you still want help with loading the plywood into the truck?"
"Nah, I'll meet you three at that intersection," Dan replied easily. It seemed he still needed some time to get over his problem with me. He hopped out of the car and ran off to the house.
"He's going to take at least an hour to get to the home improvement store and back, do either of you want to go do anything while we wait? Maybe get some coffee?" Sarah asked forcing a positive note into her voice.
"Coffee sounds good, actually," Chris said, perking up.
"I could use some breakfast, but I would feel bad going without Dan." I said. Including him seemed like a good idea, especially since he finally seemed to be making an effort to tolerate my presence.
"Yeah, you're right," Sarah said before she rolled down the window. She waved at Dan as he came out of the house and headed toward the truck. We were still blocking the driveway, so he changed course and walked over to see what was up.
"Why are you three still here?" Dan said, frustration creeping into his voice.
"Meet us for breakfast. We shouldn't be doing any of this on an empty stomach," Sarah said.
"Now that you mention it, I am a bit hungry," Dan said. "You up for Toni's?"
Sarah turned back and looked at Chris and me. That was one of Lucas's favorite places to get sandwiches, so I just shrugged and nodded in agreement. Chris also approved so Sarah gave Dan a thumbs up and said, "Seems like a winner. We'll eat, then you'll go shopping, and we'll meet back up as planned." Dan turned and jogged over to the truck and Sarah carefully backed out of the driveway.
"What happened last night?" I asked as we headed into town. "After I passed out, I mean."
"Not much. Dan and I had to carry you out to the car. It was frankly a bit terrifying to get shocked awake and then see you pass out. I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there after that," Chris said hollowly.
"Yeah, we were expecting her friends or more shades to show up at any time," Sarah added. "I closed the curtains as best I could on that huge window you smashed in the front room. I had hoped it would make it less obvious that it was missing."
I shook my head. "Yeah, too bad it still stands out so much. Maybe it will keep leaves and snow out at least. Not that the witch would have cared too much given the state of her bedroom. When we are there later, we will have figure out who she was," I thought aloud.
"Was," Chris echoed quietly and distantly.
I started to say something reassuring to Chris, but he had his head down with his hands clenched around his camera and all the supportive words I could think of to say suddenly felt hollow. I gingerly reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. The action felt unfamiliar and strange compared to when I had done this in the past. Wait. That was from Lucas's memory. But why would it feel different now? At least it did not seem like I had done anything wrong by offering him physical reassurance. Chris's head lifted and his eyes flicked towards me. The emotions I saw in them were a tumult of fear, pain, and maybe appreciation.
"You do not have to come with us," I whispered quietly enough so only he could hear.
"Laura, don't forget, I was there when you three met the guardians. I saw those ghosts, too. I have to do anything I can, even if I don't have any borrowed powers. I can still do magic so I have to help," he replied. His intensity wavered as he spoke, and I could tell that he was both determined and terrified. We had just watched a woman die. That could have just as easily have been one of us. Even if her death was to save our friend and the lives of her future victims, we had still killed her. And yet, it had not affected me nearly as much as it had affected all of my friends.
I had done things like this many times.
Or, at least, Aurora had.
At that moment I knew now that no matter what Sarah had said yesterday, I was no longer the same person as Lucas. I was something worse, something colder. This alone proved it. I withdrew my hand from Chris's shoulder and remained silent for a long time.