Hunters in the Night (21 page)

It
took a moment for Kellar to realize what happened. I could see the shock on his
face. But he caught on quick. Once he figured it out, his eyes hardened and he
tightened his grip on my shirt. He was gripping so hard I could hear the fabric
tear. “Who taught you that spell?”

I
could feel Kellar drawing power from the Rift again. He was about to do
something nasty, I was sure of it. I tried to cast my own spell to defend
myself, but Kellar was blocking my magic. I was dead, I knew it. I saw a bright
light again, and figured Kellar had killed me so fast I hadn’t even felt it.
But then I heard Newton’s voice.

“Let
him go or I shoot you in the knees.”

I
knew that Newton was bluffing. He didn’t carry a gun. Kellar would figure that
out very quickly, but Newton’s light was bright enough to keep even Kellar from
casting magic. That meant he would run, and once he had fled far enough to
reach the darkness again he’d rain fury on us. But that light was our saving
grace. It provided just a couple seconds of distraction, and it was all I
needed.

I
felt Kellar use an arm to shield his eyes from the light, and I saw my opening.
A quick knee to his groin worked a special kind of magic and turned him into a
limp sack of potatoes in an instant. He fell to the floor in a motionless heap,
clutching his nethers in a fruitless effort to make the pain go away.

“I’m
sure he deserved that,” Newton said.

“Keep
the light on him,” I said. Kellar was lying on the floor, his breath coming in
ragged gasps. I made sure to stay out of his reach as I leaned down to look in
his pained face.

“Regretting
not voiding my memory now?” I said.

Kellar’s
face had been a twisted mask of pain, but suddenly it shifted to genuine
confusion. “I
did
void your memory.”

“What
are you talking about? I still remember everything.”

“Not
everything, apparently,” Kellar said. He sat up, the pain in his balls
apparently fading. “You remember the training, yes. But you’ve forgotten some
of the events outside of your lessons. That’s because the void spell didn’t
work well on you, not even with me casting it.”

I wanted to
believe he was lying. But Kellar never lied. He had no reason to. He would
never say one of his spells didn’t work unless it was true.

“You were good,
Kal,” Kellar continued. “Best student I’d ever had. You took to the magic like
you’d been born doing it. It was . . . frightening. The others were worried
that you would become too strong. It’s happened before you know — nightcrafters
with enough power to break the world. After you had your little mental
breakdown, Mater and a few other influential nightcrafters wanted you dead,
just to be safe. But I had to at least try the voiding spell. As much as you
disappointed me, you didn’t deserve to die for it.”

I could see it
on his face — the sadness, the fear, the disappointment. All this time I’d thought
he’d spared my memories for some special reason. Now he was telling me I was
special in ways I’d never even dreamed of. But he had still tried to make me
forget it all. He had tried to make me forget
him
.

“So,”
I said, “you didn’t leave me with my memories on purpose?”

Kellar
smiled, but there was no humor in that gesture. “No, quite the opposite
actually. I tried damned hard to make you forget everything. For your own
safety, and ours. I knew the spell didn’t work entirely. But I thought it would
have altered enough of your memory to keep you from seeking us out.”

Kellar’s words
were making sense. “When you came to see me in that cell beyond the Rift, you
didn’t think I was up to anything. You thought I was just regaining my memories
after all that time.”

“Nobody had
heard from you in years,” Kellar said. “You were all but forgotten, which is
exactly what I wanted. But then you got stupid. When Mater told me that she’d
captured you for kidnapping Madison, I genuinely thought it was just some
confused fragment of your memories making you lash out at the first
nightcrafter you met. And I
almost
had Mater convinced of that too. I was going to catch up with you later and do
a more thorough cleanse of your memories with some new magic I’ve been working
on. That, ironically, was the spell I was practicing when you found me here.
Ever since Times Square, I’ve been trying to polish the spell so I could void
your memories for good and end all this. I was on your side, Kal.”

“Was?” I asked.
“Can’t help but notice the past tense there.”

Kellar nodded.
“Now you apparently know the resonance spell, and that makes you dangerous. We
can’t risk having you around anymore. Voiding your memory isn’t going to cut
it. Everything has changed, Kal. I can’t protect you anymore. I don’t want to.”

The
dam broke. A wave of emotions crashed over me. My guts churned and my head
swam. It was all so overwhelming that I took my eyes of Kellar just for a
moment, but that was all he needed. I had just enough time to register his fist
hurtling towards my chin. Then I saw the perforated, yellowed ceiling. Then I
saw the floor.

* * *

It
felt like I had been lying there for hours when my eyes opened again. The world
was still blurry, but I could make out figures. Kellar and Newton were still
here. I saw their figures silhouetted by the light of Newton’s lamp, which was
now on the floor with me. They were locked in an embrace. Hugging? No,
fighting. Kellar is bigger but Newton is scrappier. The scuffle continued for a
handful of seconds before Kellar scored a vicious elbow strike to Newton’s
temple. Newton went limp and crashed to the floor in a heap of limbs. Kellar
left my field of vision for a moment. When I could see him again, he was
holding something in his hand. A pipe.

“I
hate doing it this way,” he said. “But with your talent for unexpected magic,
this is the most certain method. I tried my best to help you. I’m truly sorry
it didn’t work out.”

Even
with my brain confused and befuddled, it only took me a second to realize he
was going to kill me. I felt a strange sense of resignation in that moment. It
was like some part of me had always believed it would come down to this. But
another part still had some fight left. I thought about using a spell to defend
myself, but Newton’s lamp was still going strong. I figured that Kellar had
left it on purposely, just to make sure I didn’t have any other magic tricks up
my sleeve. I closed my eyes, and waited for the end.

Then
I heard a manic yell. My eyes flew open, and I saw Newton spring from the
ground and grab Kellar. Newton had him by the throat for a second, but Kellar
wrestled his hands away. The two of them fought frantically in a desperate
hand-to-hand battle. With the lamp still on, Kellar couldn’t call up a spell to
get rid of Newton. That meant it was a fair fight. Newton fought with a
ferocity that I’d never seen out of him before. His punches were awkward, but
he was throwing so many it didn’t matter. He was making headway for a while,
but then he slipped on an old sheet of paper on the floor. Kellar saw his
opportunity and toppled Newton with a tackle that would have made any pro
football linebacker proud. Newton coughed and sputtered as he tried to get air
back into his lungs. I was just clearing my head of the cobwebs and getting
back to my feet when Kellar grabbed the pipe again.

“Bring
. . . it,” Newton said, breathlessly.

Kellar
just smiled and stepped forward. I steeled myself. But Kellar didn’t come for
me. He moved sideways, and smashed Newton’s lamp with one well-aimed swing. The
light flickered and died, and the dark came rushing back to fill the void. The
greatest living magician in the world was back in his element.

“Oh,
shit,” Newton said.

I
could feel Kellar making huge waves in the Rift. Again, I acted on instinct and
tried to cast a spell to bind him. It worked, for a brief a moment. Then my
magical binds fell away like wet toilet paper. Kellar reached towards me, and I
felt incredible force grabbing me by the neck and lifting me off my feet. I
heard Newton choke and gurgle, and I knew the same was happening to him.

Kellar
had always been stronger. He would
always
be stronger. There was no way
I could beat him. So I had only one option.

“Madison,”
I gasped.

Kellar
paused. I felt the crushing, smothering force lessen. “What did you say?”

I
could breathe and talk easier now, but still felt pain from my neck all the way
down to my toes, which were still dangling inches from the floor. “Madison.
Kill me and you’ll never see her again.”

“What
makes you think I even care?” Kellar said.

“You
kidnapped me to get her.”

“Mater
and her cronies did that,” Kellar said. “Not me.”

Good
point. I had to shift my approach. “But you
are
the one who failed to
stop us from cutting off the ability for nightcrafters to go into the Rift.”

“What
are you talking about?”

I
laughed as much as I could with the invisible hand still gripping my throat.
“Try it.”

Kellar’s
expression didn’t change at all, but my Rift-sense told me that he was trying
to work a different spell with his mind. When his eyes narrowed and he bared
his teeth, I knew he had failed, and we had won.

I
pressed my advantage. “What do you think will happen when your nightcrafter
peers find out that you let us do that right under your nose?”

“I
have no peers,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Mater
might disagree,” I said. “She seems to have quite a bit of pull these days. I
wonder how that happened. Who was it that invented that new spell anyway?”
Kellar flinched, ever so slightly, and I knew I had my opening.

“You’ve
messed up,” I said. “Can’t even stop one of your own students from ruining
everyone’s Rift-hopping fun? You totally ruined your rep on this one. But, if
you come out of this with Madison alive and well, at least it’s break even,
right?” I waited for Kellar to respond, not wanting to overplay my hand. But he
didn’t react. I had to press a little bit more.

“Kill
us and you still lose,” I said. “Trade us for Madison and it’s a draw. Your
choice.”

When
Kellar finally spoke, his voice was deep and steady. “There’s no way I let you
go, Kal. Not after what you’ve done. I let you go once. I am not one to repeat
my mistakes.”

“Fine
then,” I said. “Keep me. Lock me up in a black cell for the rest of my life.
Torture me if you want. Hold me up as an example of what happens when you go
against the nightcrafters. But let him go.” I pointed to Newton, who dangled in
the air just a few yards from me.

“Deal,”
Kellar said. Then my cell phone floated out of my pocket and into my hand. The
crushing invisible force around my neck disappeared and my feet returned to the
floor. “We make the trade in thirty minutes,” Kellar said. “Any longer than
that, and the deal is off. Call it in.”

I
dialed the fake information service number for the NATO operative emergency
line; the same one that I’d used in Times Square. The operator with the
cheerful voice came on again. All I said was, “Vermillion”. It’s my code word
for a hostage situation. The operator went silent, and a few seconds later an
unfamiliar male voice said, “Brief me.”

“Kellar
wants Madison,” I said. “He has me and the other field operative. We have to
make a trade.”

The
man asked, “Location?”

I
paused for a moment. I hadn’t thought things out that far. I didn’t even know
if Dominique was even keeping Madison in the same location, and Kellar hadn’t
given me any requirements on that. Then an idea popped into my head. It was a
long shot, but it just might work.

“The
trade has to be done immediately,” I said. “We only have half an hour. That
means we have to do it in the park near the facility. Blackstone Park,
westernmost lamppost. It’s a nice and open area. No tricks, or we’re dead.”

The
man on the other end of the conversation was silent for long seconds. For a
frightening moment I thought he was going to say something stupid and ruin the
whole thing.

“Affirmative,”
he said. “We meet in thirty minutes.” Then the line clicked off.

A
sinister smirk appeared on Kellar’s face. “If you think a lamppost is going to
stop my magic, you’re really grasping at straws.”

“The
lamppost is just an easy landmark to find,” I said.

Then
Kellar did that thing where it seems like he’s looking right through me and can
see all my lies. But this time he just nodded. “Good. You’re not lying.”

And
he was right. I wasn’t lying. The lamppost was just a landmark. I just hoped
that it was still an accurate one.

* * *

Our
current location wasn’t anywhere near Blackstone Park, and Kellar didn’t trust
having us in a car. So we used nightcrafter means of transportation.

We
flew.

Kellar
had bound Newton and I with unyielding magic and brought us along with him as
he rocketed into the night sky. We went from having our feet on the ground to
dangling above low clouds in about two seconds. Newton and I exchanged awed
looks. This was what it was like to travel with a real master of magic.

Once
we were beyond the clouds, our vertical travel ended and more unseen forces
pushed us forward horizontally. Kellar led the way, with Newton and I floating
behind him and utterly helpless. I’d never seen a nightcrafter actually
fly
before. It made me wonder what else a master like Kellar could do, and whether
my half-baked plan was going to work against him.

We
made the trip from Long Island to Springfield Township in about twenty minutes
and began our descent. As we slowly fell back towards the ground, the clouds
tickled my skin like a fine mist. It was a nice, quiet night. I tried to enjoy
it since it might be the last one I’d ever see.