Friday. 3:16 PM

I got the hell out of the bathroom.

It was hard not to break out into a noisy run, but that would have given me away in an instant. I settled for speed walking to the back, keeping my footfalls soft. At least for a second, they were moving methodically and taking their time, which bought me precious seconds.

The door was up ahead, but I didn’t want to flee out the back just yet. Running for it wasn’t an option, not when they had magic to bind me down. It would only take one moment where they had line of sight to pick out my aura and hit me with a spell, and end the chase. Even if I got free, they might be able to trace my lifeline for miles.

I needed something to throw them off my scent. Lucky for me, I was in a garage stocked to the gills with magical catalysts.

I spun, facing the tool shelf. Neatly organized, labeled, and categorized bins of simple runes and conduits were stacked on top. Parts, to build anything from a summoning altar to a magical workshop, at least so long as it was on a small enough scale.

Scanning the labels, I looked down the row of shelves. Maggie’s methodical sorting made it easy to find what I was looking for.

Perfect.

Pulling open the right bin, I grabbed half a dozen rough, lopsided cleansing crystals.

Cleansing crystals were designed to cleanse a space of outside leylines, lifelines, and other trace magical background energy, the magical equivalent of an air freshener. They were so easy to use that even I couldn’t screw it up. And, if I didn’t have any lifelines surrounding me, they couldn’t hit me with spells that relied on aura tracing to pin me down.

At least, that was my theory.

On a whim, I yanked open a second drawer and took out a sending stone, turning it over in my fingers.

Nodding to myself, I said, “Okay, this’ll wo—”

“Freeze!”

I turned to face the female counsellor—Murray, though I didn’t know her name at the time—who had out a copper wand and was pointing it in my direction. I was about to obey, when I realized she hadn’t been giving a command. She’d been stating what was about to happen.

I froze. There was no pressure on my body, no physical force, my body just stopped responding to instructions. I wanted to walk forward, but my legs didn’t comply. I wanted to activate one of the cleansing crystals, but my hands wouldn’t move. It was the mother of all executive dysfunction, imposed on me by whatever spell Murray was using.

“Careful with this one,” Murray said, as Davis approached me, his own wand raised in one hand, a pair of plain steel handcuffs in the other.

Putting all my will into trying to move, to resist the magic… my fingers twitched. That was all. There was nothing else I could do.

Then, like a fae guardian angel, Maggie rounded the corner behind Murray. She had her fist raised, a glowing runestone gripped tightly, and she shouted, “Run!”

Light flashed, and my body kicked into sudden motion. There was a moment of physical lag, as my limbs tried to obey all the commands I’d sent them in the past twenty seconds, then my rational control took over and I broke out into a sprint.

Murray spun and hit Maggie with an open backhand. The attack disrupted Maggie’s counterspell, but she’d bought me the time I needed. Fishing in my pocket, I came out with one of the cleansing stones and twiddled it between my fingers to align the crystal with the lifeline on my palm. I squeezed, and the crystal grew warm in my hand.

I couldn’t turn to see how Maggie was faring, there was no time. The back door was unlocked. I threw it open, sprinting in the direction I’d parked my motorcycle, and I heard Davis bellow out a word in a foreign tongue.

The air grew suddenly dry and static, like the inside of an airplane at cruising altitude. A bell tone tolled and the crystal in my hand shattered, crackling against my palm.

Behind me, Davis swore loudly as I fumbled for another cleansing crystal.

I didn’t stop to watch. Hurrying around the building, I scrambled into the alleyway, sprinting a path that was perpendicular to the street my motorcycle was parked on. As I ran, I fumbled with the carabiner clip on my backpack, slinging the helmet onto my head.

When I tried to look over my shoulder, I realized I’d put the helmet on prematurely. My peripheral vision was terrible, and I had to spin almost completely around to see the two counsellors barreling down the asphalt behind me.

Murray raised her wand, flicking the copper rod with invisible power. A line of force began to glow around me as the power built up a static charge, fighting the cleansing crystal, tangible heat building up in the air.

With another brassy toll, the crystal in my hand shattered. Murray winced, dropping her wand as the magic recoiled down her wand and made it buck and discharge.

I had to grin beneath my helmet at foiling their magic. Great and powerful cosmic forces, meet a journalist with spare parts. I’d run out of crystals sooner rather than later, but for now…

Davis reached into his robes and came out with his Glock.

Jumping in alarm, I ran sideways, cutting through someone’s property to get to the street. A shot cracked out behind me and missed, but he held his fire once I got deeper into the yard. He didn’t have a clear line of sight, and wasn’t willing to let bullets travel into the homes behind me if he missed.

I came out onto the street, only a few long paces away from my bike. Jamming my key into the ignition, the engine roared to life and I twisted the throttle for all it was worth.

In my rear view, I saw the counsellors come out onto the sidewalk behind me, but I was already a block away, and I turned to get behind a building before another spell could be thrown at my back.

I had a second’s reprieve. Slowing to a more manageable speed, I took another cleansing crystal from my pocket and squeezed it, activating the magical properties before any sort of aura-seeking spell could come my way and blast me out of my seat.

“Computer.” I spoke in my best ship captain’s voice. “Make a call.”

My voice assistant beeped, cheerfully. “Alright. Who do you want to call?”

“Ben.”

“Calling.”

A digital dial tone played in my ear for a moment before he picked up the phone. “Hello?”

I cut straight to the point. “You want proof?”

“Uh… Levi?”

I nodded, though he couldn’t see the gesture. “Yeah. Do you want proof that magic is real?”

“I mean... Levi, your story was fun, but you’ve got nothing to prove. I don’t really—”

“I don’t have a lot of time. Either you’ll get to see real magic in action, or you’ll get a great story out of it.” I paused, then added the real prize to my offer. “I’ll pay you a hundred bucks.”

That got his attention. “What’s going on?”

“I need a ride, from someone outside the community. You already know more than anyone else I could call, and you’ve got a car. How soon can you be at the downtown airport?”

“Like… five minutes. I live by the River Market.”

“Meet me there. I’ll call you when I’m close.”

“Okay, but—”

“Promise me you’ll meet me there. If you can’t do it, I’ll need to call someone else.”

A couple seconds passed. “I promise.”

“And if you want to see magic, just watch the bridge. See you soon.”

I hung up the phone, pulling onto Grand and checking the mirrors.

A black SUV was speeding behind me, a couple blocks away but gaining ground fast. The windows were tinted, and it didn’t have front tags. Either it was a hell of a coincidence, or the counsellors had found me.

I twisted the throttle, putting on more speed, squeezing the crystal into the rubber grip on the handle. The counsellors weren’t going to take out their guns and start peppering me with gunshots on a busy road, but that only took away half their arsenal.

Crackling static power rippled into the ground, lashing out from the direction of the SUV and outlining the circle around me that the cleansing stone was warding. That circle of power followed me, closing in, growing tighter and tighter until the crystal shattered in my hand with a loud ringing tone.

Again, the feedback bought me a brief stay of execution. As I careened down the road, blowing through a red light, I barely had time to dig out the fourth crystal, and before I could activate it the front tire of my bike hit a pothole. The handle jerked as the tire was bucked sideways, almost sending me to the ground.

Grabbing the controls with both hands, I overcorrected, swerved, and got the bike straight. The crystal slipped out of my hand, falling to the ground and cracking on the pavement behind me.

Crap.

We were going through the Crossroads, coming up on the Power and Light district. Even with no shows today, it was going to be crowded. I had to cross my fingers and hope they wouldn’t go for any magic that was too visible in such a populated area. They were fifteen feet back and maintaining their pace, and for a moment, no spells were flying.

What are they doing?

I only had to wonder for a moment. A pulse of energy flashed, radiating out from their car, but it wasn’t directed at me. Energy rippled away, less like an earthquake and more like the light from a laser projector as it spilled out onto the street around them.

Though it was impossible for me to see from the inside, I knew what they’d done. An illusion, hiding our chase from anyone who might look on.

So much for getting somewhere public to keep their magic restrained. Now there was nothing to stop them from bringing out the big guns.

I went for the next crystal, squeezing it before I even got my fingers back on the handle. All the fumbling made me swerve, and it saved my life.

From the hood ornament on the SUV, a concentrated beam of pure fire burst out towards where my head had been a few seconds prior.

Unlike the last few spells, it wasn’t following my aura. It was pure, unfiltered power that could strike indiscriminately in a constant, unbreaking stream of flame. It was a massive expenditure of energy, but it completely circumvented my rather paltry defense, and as the spell followed me, I had to duck and pull into the oncoming lane to keep a hole from being burned through my back.

An oncoming semi truck bore down on me, and the driver didn’t even tap their horn as I turned sharply to avoid getting transmuted from a person to a splotch of red jelly on the pavement. The lance of fire fizzled out to keep from cutting through the semi as it blew past me.

Twisting the handle, I straightened out, taking a moment to catch my breath as we rolled over the highway and into Power and Light.

I was running low on crystals, and they had more than enough power to keep blasting at me until I either took a hit or crashed into something more solid than myself. The only hope I had was to lose them.

So, as we passed through the entertainment district, I leaned into a turn, jerking the handle as sharply as I dared. My leg nearly scraped asphalt as I oriented myself perpendicular to the road, twisted the throttle, and jumped a set of stairs, rolling through the central square.

My bike and I dropped five feet, hit the ground hard, and kept rolling. Tires squealed behind me as the counsellors were forced to stop, but their SUV was too bulky to survive a jump like that. I checked my rearview mirror and saw, with satisfaction, that they were driving away.

There was another set of stairs in my way before I got back to a real road, and I had to swerve to avoid a pair of startled pedestrians before I could lean into the jump. The shocks on my bike bucked hard from the landing, but everything stayed in one piece and I kept moving. Revving the engine, I continued snaking through downtown.

My ringtone blared in my ears, and I answered before checking the caller ID. “Ben? Is that—”

“Please hold, while we connect you to a representative.”

I blinked, too caught off guard to hang up as I blasted through a yellow light.

“Hello, I’m calling for Levi Lawson?”

“Uh, I’m a little busy right now, but—”

“This is Neighborhood USA Bank, we’re calling regarding some suspicious activity on your card for KCWW LLC, we noticed—”

“The cash withdrawal? That was me,” I snapped. “This is a really bad time. Can you call me back, like, tomorrow?”

“Alright, sir, but are you aware that you’ve almost maxed out your line of credit?”

Shit. When did that happen? “Yes, I’m aware. I’ve got some money coming in soon to help cover that.”

“Alright. I’m going to mark this transaction as reviewed. If you have any other questions—”

The SUV pulled up in front of me, tires squealing on the road as it swerved and lined up, driving to match my pace twenty feet ahead.

The hatchback opened, and I saw Davis kneeling in a firing position, his Glock raised.

“Shit!”

“Sir?”

“Computer, hang up!”

The phonecall ended, and I swerved hard, pulling out of the way of Davis’s line of fire just as he squeezed the trigger. Leaning far into the turn, I juked onto the next street over, Broadway, and pulled behind a bus. The maneuver got me free of their line of sight just as a bolt of electricity arced over the top, blasting down towards my head.

The crystal in my hand shattered, and I let it go. I only had one left, and though I’d momentarily gotten away, they were only seconds behind me. I had to lose them for good.

Slowing, I reached into my pocket and grabbed the specially crafted node. Holding it against the handle, I gave a silent prayer.

Please work.

There was no more room for tricky maneuvering. I twisted the throttle as far as it would go, leaning forward and building up speed, rolling down the median so I wouldn’t have to weave around cars.

I was cruising at almost double the speed of general traffic as I blew across the overpass, and I only slowed a little as I came up on a busy intersection that led onto Buck O'Neil Bridge. Once I was on the bridge, it’d be a straight shot over the river with no side roads, no alleys, nowhere to escape to. A direct confrontation would be inevitable.

The SUV appeared in my mirror, not far behind, and I squeezed my hand tighter around the handle, pressing the little stone to my palm. Running another red light, I weaved around a car, trying not to stare into the mirror as I drove onto the bridge.

The counsellors had gotten wise. They didn’t know how many cleansing crystals I had, and continuing to throw spells directly at me wasn’t going to cut it.

So they threw a spell in front of me.

A block of pavement lifted up out of the ground, a sudden speedbump at the front of the bridge that completely shredded the front tire of my bike.

The motorcycle flipped forward and I was thrown clear. There wasn’t much time to think through my situation, so I relied on instinct. I knew not to try and catch myself: That would only break my arms, and I needed my arms if I wanted to come out of this alive.

Tucking my head and keeping my legs bent, I flipped through the air and landed on my back, rolling a few times, my leather jacket keeping my skin from being flayed away by the hot asphalt.

Whatever illusion was keeping me hidden, it didn’t cover high speed motorcycle accidents. People stopped on the road behind me, slamming their brakes, creating a barrier between the SUV and myself.

I groaned. My back ached, and my whole body felt like I’d been rolled through a tumble drier.

Looking around, I spotted my bike. It was mostly intact, but the front tire had practically disintegrated in the crash. There wouldn’t be any escaping on that.

I sat up, limbs shaky, looking around.

Counsellors were moving towards me, guns out, hands off the trigger and pointed at nothing as they moved to get a clean line of fire on me.

One of them shouted, “Stay on the ground!”

I had no plans of standing, at least not until my head stopped spinning.

Flopping back onto the pavement, hurt and exhausted, I listened and prayed as the counsellors approached. Once they were twenty feet away, I made a tight fist with my left hand. The smooth, polished sending stone was still in my grip, and I did my best to channel my energy into the stone.

I failed, successfully. The sending stone began to whine, sending out a high-pitched shriek that went far above the realm of human hearing. The mirrors on my bike shattered as the resonant frequency matched the glass, and my ears began to ache from the sound of it.

More importantly, beyond the noise, it was sending out pitches on a spiritual wavelength.

From beneath the bridge, loud enough to shake my bones, a creature that had no business existing on the mortal plane began to roar.