*Quintin's P.O.V.*

Hecate, the queen of magic, rules over everything that is cruel and unjust. She's a vicious murderer who would stop at nothing to get her way. She's powerful and cruel. Her powers have no limits. Her words alone could send a man to Hell. That's the code I was taught at the academy where all Black Hands learn to fight and survive.

I used to live by that code. Key words: used to.

Hecate, the evil queen was sitting across from me now. Her legs were crossed and she was playing some weird game with my little brother. Her eyes were groggy like she hadn't slept in days. I honestly wasn't sure she had. The weirdest thing? She says she couldn't use magic right now.

Her head dipped a bit to the right, her grayish-blue eyes half lidded. Her light honey brown hair was static all around her, connecting to the metal walls of the van.

"Apple, bacon, crepe," she said, keeping up with the game, "donut, asparagus," she made a face, "fries, grapes, hamburger, ice cream, and I pick...jelly."

"So," I said, raising a suspicious eyebrow at her, "what's the point of this game?"

She looked at me, that usual lopsided smile across her thin lips. "Staring with 'A' you go through the alphabet and name foods. Well, that's not how the real game goes, I just really like food. In the normal game, it's not specific to anything really, just whatever you want."

"Could you explain something to me?" Hatchet asked from shotgun, turning back to look at her. "You're the queen of magic, right?"

"Yep, I guess so. I didn't come up with that, and I'm not really sure who did, actually. People just started calling me that so I just kinda went whatever and went with it."

"Right," Hatchet replied, holding out the 'i'. "So if you're this all powerful Hecate, how is it you're out of magic?"

She leaned her head back against the metal of the van. She looked almost like she was thinking, but I knew better. This girl, woman according to how old she said she was, is a lot smarter than she acts. She wasn't the type of person to lie, so I wasn't really sure what was going through that head of hers. I don't think anyone could ever guess at that.

Finally, she held her hand up, making a tunnel with her fingers. "Think of it this way. I like to call it a limiter. So, every magician, first of all, has a set amount of magic they can use in a specific amount of time. I'm really powerful cause I have a nearly infinite amount of it. My 'limiter' is like this tunnel thing. Heather, I'm holding my hand up and making a tunnel."

"Don't care," Heather called from the drivers seat. She could lie all she wanted, but I knew she was listening.

"Righty-o then. So it doesn't really matter how much magic I have, I have this tunnel stopping me. I can only use so much magic at one time. When I made those eighty-something barriers, I just about snapped my limiter. Which wouldn've been bad. And dangerous."

"So basically," I said, "you can have all the magic you want but this 'limiter' stops you from using it all at once."

"Exactly. So lets say there's someone has an infinite amount of magic, but a really small limiter. All they could do was make a small fire in their hands, they don't even have a trained enough limiter to move the fire somewhere else. But, with infinite magic, they can keep that fire going forever."

"You said something about breaking your limiter," Heather said from up front.

"So you are interested in it?" Hecate asked, sounding almost happy.

"I just want to know how dangerous it is."

Smiling, she replied. "If my limiter ever broke, I'd probably blow a small whole in the east coast. Maybe. Or just die, that's another option. A limiter isn't a bad thing at all. It's what keeps out magic down when I'm not using it. If my limiter broke-"

"-it'd be like using all you magic at once," I finished, "without a limiter."

"Or any control. Luckily for...the entire east coast, I know my limit."

"Didn't seem like you knew it back at the camp," Hatchet said.

"Oh, I did. If I'd made, say, a hundred barriers, that's when it would've broke. If I'd made ninety-something, I would've passed out. Actually, I'm pretty exhausted right now. And sore. My body hurts. What I did is like forcing a tunnel to expand wider than it should to, like...take more cars than it's used to at once."

"You should sleep," I told her. "That'll help, won't it?"

She shook her head. "I'm good, I can wait until we stop. Besides, if we're attacked you'll need more than two people shooting."

"I can shoot," Xavier said. "You just pull the trigger, right?"

"That's what I said," Hecate replied, smiling still.

I sighed. "I don't want people who's philosophy's 'pull the trigger' protecting us."

Still, I wouldn't be surprised if Hecate really did know how to shoot a gun.

"Go to sleep, Hecate," I told her. "We'll wake you up if anything happens."

She shook her head. "I'm good, I promise."

---

She fell asleep ten minutes later.

Her head sagged on Xavier's shoulder, and I'm pretty sure, by his reactions, she was drooling on him. I could even hear a light snore coming from her throat.

"The queen of magic, everyone," Hatchet said, clapping.

"I don't trust her," Heather said.

"You don't trust anything that moves. God, you'd start shooting at a tree if a leaf was blowing in the wrong direction."

"And I'd chop it down if it could move the earth like she did."

"She saved our lives," I cut in, watching Xavier. "More than once."

"Are you going soft for the magician?"

"No," I replied, a bit more bite in my voice than I wanted. "It's just...I don't feel like she's bad."

No one replied.

"Shit," Heather mumbled.

"What?" I said, suddenly alarmed. "What's wrong."

Xavier was at my side, grabbing onto my arm.

"What's going on?" He asked, his voice soft and quiet.

"There's a checkpoint up ahead," she replied, gritting her teeth. "It wasn't on the map."

"It looks new," Hatchet commented. "They probably set it up after the camp, you know, blew up. So, what do we do, Quin?"

I ground my teeth, peeking through the front window. I turned to the magician sleeping besides me. My hand fell on her unusually cold shoulder. "Wake up, Hecate."

She didn't move.

"It's no use," Heather said. "Even if you wake her up she's out of magic."

I let out a light curse under my breath. It was too late to turn back without looking suspicious.

"Go through it, try to drive past them."

"We're going for a get away?" Heather asked.

"We don't really have anything else to go with."

I leaned back and started picking guns from the racks on the walls. I passed a shotgun to Hatchet and set a pistol in Heather's lap.

"Don't start shooting unless they shoot. Got it?"

We stopped behind another car.

"Hold on to Hecate," I told Xavier. He scooted over to hold onto her arm.

We moved forward a bit and then stopped. Ten minutes of slow moving before we were pulling through the checkpoint. I pressed against the wall behind Heather's seat, right next to Xavier and the witch.

The window rolled down.

"Identification please," a woman's voice said.

"Sorry," Heather replied, "don't have any."

There was a long silence.

"Please pull up on the right," the woman's voice said. "Keep your window down."

"Right."

I could hear the window pulling up. The other woman was yelling. Heather slammed her foot on the gas and we went flying forward.

"Cars up ahead!" Hatchet yelled.

Gunshots started from behind us. Lucky for us, the back of this specific van happened to be bullet proof. Perks of it being a Black Hand's special ops van, I guess.

"Pull off the road," I called back.

I grabbed onto the back of the chair and the Xavier while we lurched around the traffic. The van shook on the rough and bumpy dirt.

"They're catching up," Hatchet warned, peeking in the mirror. "Seriously, they're really close. And they're aiming for the tires."

"Hold onto Hecate," I told Xavier. "And don't let go."

He nodded, gripping onto the magician for dear life.

I crawled back, grabbed a gun, and laid a hand on the latch for the back door. Taking in a breath, I let out a sigh. "This would be a great time for a magic barrier."

I opened it. A bullet shot passed my ear and hit the front window.

Two cars were chasing us, both with guns trained on us and they were gaining ground, fast.

I lifted my shotgun and aimed.

One of the front tires blew to the car on the left.

"Shit!" Hatchet's voice yelled.

"Hatchet's been shot," Heather said, filling me in.

I took aim again and shot. I barely missed, the tire. Another bullet came by my ear. I hear this one shatter the front window.

"So much for bullet proof," I mumbled.

I took another shot, hitting the man aiming at us instead of the tire.

"This gun doesn't have any aim." I yelled. "I'm going for the tire, but we shouldn't be taking anymore bullets. We're good."

"Yeah," Hatchet grunted back. "Not so good. Definitely not so good."

I took another shot. Finally, their one blew out the ti-

"They're in front of us!" Heather yelled, slamming the brakes.

The van stopped, sending me barreling out the back. Xavier and Hecate weren't far behind, hitting the cold dirt behind us.

I wiped dirt out of my eyes and looked up. Two people were stepping out of the car from behind us.

I took action, taking my gun and firing. One of the, fell.

This shotgun really needed to decide if it was with or against me.

I glance behind me told me Xavier was kneeling over the unconscious Hecate. His big, beady eyes were locked on me. Gunshots were coming from the other side of the van.

I got on my knees, did a quick roll to dodge a bullet that I knew was coming, and took aim.

There was a yell from behind me, but I wasn't sure who from.

I pulled the trigger, firing.

The Black Hand fell. I let out a quick sigh of thanks to whatever force was out there, helping me.

"We're good over here," Heather yelled. "You good, Quin?"

"Yeah," I said, turning around. "We're good."

My eyes drifted over to where Xavier was kneeling over Hecate.

"Xa?" I asked. "You good?"

There was no reply. I crawled over to him. He was laying on Hecate's back, not responding.

"What happened?" Heather said, running over to my side. She had blood seeping from her arm.

"I think he was shot," I said, turning him over.

I bit back a gasp. Blood covered his head and Hecate's back, but I wasn't sure where it was coming from. My hands went to his forehead first.

There, in the center, was a little whole.

He was already dead, shot by one of the bullets I'd dodged.

-Authors Note-

Sorry for another short chapter.