Triumph of Chaos (Red Magic) (23 page)

He nodded, but his face looked wistful. “Look, if I help you get out, and if I ever come back home to the States, could I look you up?”

I hesitated, but he rushed on.

“Not to be creepy or anything, but I’d really like to know more Witches. Maybe you could introduce me?”

I smiled in relief. “Of course. My real name is Darlena Agara, and I live in North Carolina.”

“Darlena Agara from Carolina. I’ll remember you.”

I felt a prickling sensation on the back of my neck, and I looked at him closely. “Did you just do magic?”

He smiled, proud as a kindergartener with a drawing. “Right in one. I have a memory spell that helps me remember things. I’ll never forget you now.”

Something about his words sent a shiver down my spine, but I ignored the feeling. “Great. So, can you help me get out of here?”

“Magic won’t work. There’s mandatory resistance training we all go through: no one says it’s magic that we’re protecting against, but I realized it right away. So those mind games you were trying are out.”

I nodded, defeated. “So what do we do?”

He grinned. “Good old-fashioned escape plan: I cause a distraction, and you run for it.”

I stared at him. “That’s your plan?”

“Sometimes simple is better.”

I paused. “Why do you want to help me?”

“Like I said, I’ve never met another Witch. I feel like we ought to stick together, right?”

“Right.” I immediately felt guilty for the uncharitable thoughts I’d had about the old man. He was just trying to be nice.

“Oh, one more thing,” he added, opening the door. “Thanks for the information.”

“Any time. I hope I helped a bit.”

He grinned. “You did.” He slammed the door shut behind him, and I heard the sound of a key turning in the lock. For a minute, I couldn’t move, but finally I banged on the door. No one responded.

“Damn it!” I’d been so desperate to trust the man that I realized I hadn’t even asked his name. At least before I’d been sort of free. Now I was really trapped. The question was, who was that man working for? The embassy wouldn’t be the worst of my problems if he was working for Rochelle or any of my other enemies.

I felt a faint prick of hope. Maybe he was working for Hecate and he’d gone to summon her. I clung to that idea. As long as I kept my bargain with her, she wouldn’t harm me, and all this would be over soon. I couldn’t say the same for Rochelle.

I don’t know how long I waited in the darkness, but I began to get antsy. It seemed like days ago that I’d blown up the museum at the Parthenon, but time couldn’t have passed that quickly: all that had happened that morning. Kneeling on the cold cement floor, I conjured a small ball of light and left it floating over my head. It cast a red glow over my tiny cell, making me think of the darkroom at Trinity.

The only time Rochelle didn’t use magic was in art class, and although her resistance had puzzled me, I’d let her talk me into completing a mundane semester of photography. While everyone around me was making prints that looked professional on their first try, I spent two months struggling with my timing. The prints I made were either black as coal or completely washed out, but despite the constant failures, I really liked working in the darkroom. The chemical smells that were once overpowering grew familiar, and I could spend hours bathed in the red light that hung above the door.

I squeezed my eyes shut to hold back the unexpected tears. I hated to admit it, but I missed the way things used to be with Rochelle. I hadn’t allowed myself to think too much about our friendship or the life I’d left behind at Trinity, but suddenly I missed everything about it. That was another part of my life I would get back soon, and I smiled weakly at the thought. I might even try to stay out of Principal Snout’s office for a month if I could go back.

The tears didn’t stop, and I tried to force my thoughts in another direction. Why had that man betrayed me? I looked around the room, but the walls were bare cement. It looked more like a subterranean torture chamber than a room at a US embassy, and a shiver of fear ran down my back.

I had blown up a major tourist sight. What’s worse, I’d killed hundreds of people. It didn’t matter that I’d been trying to defeat an enemy. If anyone at the embassy connected me with the explosion at the museum, no amount of talking would save me from becoming an international terror suspect. Based on what the man in the suit had said before I tried to escape, he knew something about what had happened that morning.

I blew my hair out of my face in irritation. What
had
happened at the museum? Sometime in the middle of the aftershock, I’d lost control of my magic and blasted a bunch of Nons. But Samuel had been there; I hadn’t hallucinated him. A chilling thought flitted into my mind: what if Samuel had been the one causing the aftershock?

Greece is still part of Europe
, I reminded myself.
That means it’s in Rochelle’s territory. Samuel couldn’t cause mass chaos here—

My thoughts broke off in a jumble, and a single idea began to take shape in the mess. What if Samuel was working with Rochelle? She had told me in my dream that she wasn’t just a Red Witch, and Izzy said when she faced her, Rochelle’s aura was Black lined in Red. If a Red Witch could also be a Black Witch, could a Black Witch somehow share power with a Red?

Pieces clicked into place like a puzzle. Samuel and Roy had destroyed their Coven in an act of betrayal, but what if they’d made another alliance? Rochelle wouldn’t want the Coven to keep helping me, I realized with a sickening jolt. If she had ordered their deaths, then I really was to blame for the attack in Scotland.

I didn’t have any proof, but something in my gut told me that Rochelle had begun to look for allies. Whether she was somehow sharing her power with them or just using them to do her dirty work didn’t matter; anyone could be an enemy. I stood up swiftly, knocking my forehead against the light ball that I had made. It flickered and vanished, but I didn’t bother to make another one.

Somehow, I had to warn Izzy. Samuel and Roy’s betrayal was bad enough, but if it was just a part of this bigger mess, then Izzy and Dr. Farren were still in danger. My throat clenched, and I couldn’t breathe for a minute when I remembered that Justin was running around India with Dr. Farren.
If she’s in danger, then so is he.

I groped around in the darkness. Standing in the center, I could sweep the tips of my fingers along the walls on either side of me. I tugged on the door handle, but it didn’t budge. Slowly, I started running my fingers over the walls, from the floor to as far up as I could reach, but they were solid cinderblock.

“I could really use a little help,” I spoke in exasperation, not expecting a reply in the empty room.

Something rustled to my left, and I turned toward the noise, conjuring another light ball quickly. There was nothing in the room with me, but I swore I heard another sound, this time over my right shoulder. I whirled around, but I still didn’t see anything.

“Whatever you are, this isn’t funny,” I hissed, trying to mask my fear. “I need help, not games.”

A cement block in the wall I was facing shifted an inch. I stared as it turned around slowly, the sound of rock grating on rock ringing in my ears. Another block started to move, and then another, and the room was filled with the most awful noise. When the rocks stopped moving, it took me a minute to notice because my ears were still ringing, but I finally saw the small hole in the far wall.

The bricks had shifted around, leaving a space large enough for a toddler to walk through. I eyed it warily, and then dropped onto my knees. It was a tight fit, especially my hips, but I wriggled through the hole and crept into the darkness.

It smelled like chalk and wet earth, and I tried to breathe through my mouth as I crawled through the narrow tunnel. Nothing spoke to me, and even though my red light didn’t illuminate anybody, I had the sickening sensation of being watched. Sweat beaded on my brow, and I began to have a hard time breathing.

The farther I went, the hotter and more miserable I became. The tunnel felt like it was closing in on me, and it took all my strength to keep moving forward in the tiny space. I tried shutting my eyes, but everything started spinning. I thought about going back to the embassy to see what fate awaited me there, but every time I started to inch backward the rocks pressed in on me, squeezing the air out of me in an uncomfortable embrace. The tunnel was forcing me forward, and it occurred to me that I might not like wherever I was going to end up.

Still, I couldn’t stop moving. The pressure from the tunnel walls was only bearable as long as I was inching forward, so I went on. By the time I finally saw a pinprick of natural light ahead of me and let my red light die out, I was convinced that I was crawling into a trap.

The tunnel spit me out into the blinding light, and for a minute, I could only see the white glow that surrounded me. I blinked a few times, and gradually my eyes began to adjust. The sun was white and brighter than I’d ever seen it, high in the pale sky above me. It was as if all the blue had been sucked out of the sky, leaving a milky tint behind.

The heat from the tunnel had only intensified, and I swayed as I stared up at the sun, sweat streaming down my face. Finally, I felt steady enough to look around.
Where the hell am I?

I was kneeling on coarse sand, and as soon as I realized this, the palms of my hands started to burn. I scrambled to my feet and looked at the desert surrounding me.

Everything was white. The sand, the sun, even the sky. I squinted and looked toward the horizon, and I could see the flat line shimmering without obstruction. There were no trees, no plants, just rocky sand and sun as far as I could see.

My clothes were plastered to my skin, and I realized I was thirsty. As soon as I had that thought, I couldn’t focus on anything else. My throat felt parched, and I began to wonder frantically how long a person could go without water. A couple of days? It felt like I’d already been standing there for hours, and I swayed dizzily.

“You’re a Witch, you know. Nothing is out of reach for you.”

The voice was vaguely familiar, and I suddenly felt cold. I took a deep breath and glanced around. Set was standing a few feet to the left, watching me with his canine head cocked to one side. It almost looked like he was thinking about having a snack.

The god laughed in surprise, and I silently cursed myself. I kept forgetting that some of the more powerful gods could read minds. “I’m not here to do you harm, Darlena. Let’s sit, shall we, and discuss this matter like civilized people.” He waved his hand, and a low tent appeared behind him. It looked like it belonged on the set of
Lawrence of Arabia
: tassels hung beside the opening and a richly patterned carpet sat in front of the tent. The god turned and walked across the threshold. I kept expecting him to drop on all fours, but he carried himself almost like a human.

I hesitated. I really didn’t want to be alone with Set, but the heat had become unbearable. I followed him into the tent and stared around, stunned.

It was furnished entirely in shades of red: scarlet silk fabric draped gracefully across the ceiling, and silk floor pillows in every color from cranberry to plum were piled on the floor. A golden brazier sat in the center of the room, supporting a black tea kettle. Nervously, I sat down on a pillow.

Set folded himself up gracefully and sank to the floor beside me. “The riches of the desert,” he said, offering me a tray of dried fruit. I shook my head.

“What do you want to talk about?”

He chuckled. “All in good time. First, tea.”

On cue, the kettle began to whistle, and Set pulled two glasses out of the air. They weren’t the teacups I had been expecting, but tall glass cylinders that looked like overgrown shot glasses. Each cup had a green leaf in it, and the god poured tea out of the kettle over the leaves.

“Mint gives it a special flavor. I’d recommend a lot of sugar. That’s the way they drink it here.”

“Here?”

“In Egypt, of course!” His eyes flashed dangerously, and his lips folded back in a snarl. “Some gods are confined to their native lands, although you wouldn’t know that after talking to my sister.”