The Eldritch Trials

Chapter 18: The Showdown

Mac

I wake up contentedly curled up with my face in Jade's neck. She's warm next to me, damp with sweat from the thick blankets. I kiss her cheek gently, then rise my limbs aching in complaint. I may have been healed, but I'm still carrying two unbreakable curses, and I did die yesterday. I get to be sore.
"What time is it?" Jade asks, sitting up as well.
"I don't know, want me to go get breakfast?" I ask, more wanting to crawl back into bed.
"No, I'll come," she says, sitting up. She's still wearing her lavender shirt and practical jeans from yesterday. I for my part stripped off my shirt so she could tend to the curses. She tosses a sweater to me.
There's a rapping at the door.
"Hey, we can't find Gale. Because that is an emergency due to his mental state, I'm ignore that I know damn well there's more than one of you in there because at three am last night I decided I'm parenting everybody under the age of twenty independent of how I was told I'm related to them ow—," I open the door and smack it into Shane's face.
"What do you mean Gale is missing?" I ask.
"How many things could I honestly mean by that?" He asks.
"Right, you're still mad at me, fair—,"
"I'm not saying all of you were wrong, I'm saying it could have fucking come up in conversation but we're skipping it. He's not in his room," Shane says, leading us down the hall to Gale's room. My mothers are searching it to see what he took with him.
"His amplifiers are gone, his bed's not slept in," my mother says.
"You said you'd given him something so he wouldn't be suicidal," Anita says.
"I think he's being stupid," Shane says.
"Let's search the grounds, maybe he's just in the crypts," I suggest.
"Dumb-fuck is doing that—you two go question the pond nymphs, I'll go ask the paintings," Shane says. His ability to think of a different profane name for his brother each time he refers to him is outstanding.
Our search turns up nothing. The pond nymphs are more interested in flirting with me and trying to figure out why I'm even here, and Jade in true form argues with the wood faeries, but does get out that they haven't seen him.
The mothers search the manor, and Shane and his brother both search the various haunted rooms and secret passages and in retrospect this is a very easy place to get lost in maybe we should not have let the mentally unstable teenager have free roam of it.
We convene in the kitchen by noon, with no more answers. He's not answering his phone, considering we found it under his bed with no charge.
"I'm contacting the rest of the coven," Anita says.
"He has to be somewhere—he wouldn't—," Alec doesn't want to believe he'd hurt himself.
"Jade and I talked to him last, he was fine," I say, shaking my head, "I mean he was cross, but he wasn't depressed."
Jade narrows her eyes at me. We spoke to War yesterday, ergo if there was something significant we needed to know like 'stop him from killing himself' War would have told us, or at least Shane. But they made no such cryptic comments therefore he's fine, just missing which isn't something War would feel the need to warn us about.
"We should have watched him," my mother says.
"Yeah, that would go over well; he hates all of us," Shane says.
"He doesn't hate you; nobody told you anything either," I point out.
The door bangs open. Gale comes down the stairs ostensibly from his room. He's clearly freshly showered and looks spent as though he's been out all night, but he's in a neat ivory fisherman's sweater and jeans, hair slicked back and still dripping from the shower.
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"
"Genuinely thought all of you would still be asleep, anyway I didn't sleep, off to bed," Gale says, going and loading his arms with biscuits and sweets from the pantry.
"THAT DIDN'T ANSWER THE QUESTION WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" Basically all of us.
"I went for a walk, calm down," Gale says.
"You didn't tell us—," Anita, about to cry.
Gale holds up a note that was in retrospect, shoved with the breakfast things, " 'Went for a walk don't freak out—your son/nephew/kidnapping victim'."
"Oh," Jade takes it from him, "We didn't look there."
"Apparently. I've been thinking, hence the walk. I have a way to catch Angel, and get the amplifier back. Sadly, it's complicated, so I'm not going to tell all of you all of it," Gale says.
"Why?" Shane asks.
"Because, I've decided that rather than want to kill myself because my entire life is too upsetting, I'm going to just generally blame all of you for lying to me my whole life, and being incompetent in general causing this entire fucking mess! Kind of not you—," he points at Shane, "But a little bit because I'm still a bastard thank you very little."
"Okay, so what's your plan?" I ask.
"Again, none of you proved very trustworthy or very good with critical information, so I'm not telling you, right now. I'll tell you in bits, because last night I decided I'm the only person in this horrible family capable of executing something properly," Gale says, loading his arms with more snacks.
"Okay, what's our first bit?" Jade asks.
"I'm challenging Angel to a duel. He'll come, because he knows damn well I'm no match for him with the amplifier. Which gets him and the amplifier out in the open," Gale says, "You will all be right there, ready to apprehend him when the duel is over."
"No—just no—you're going to lose the duel," Alec says.
"Look, Gale, I've never beaten him with the amplifier, not once, and he's a worse warlock than me, you and Mac said yourselves Angel could best you and your friends even with a regular amplifier," Shane says, nicely.
"Yeah, well I've got a plan, don't I? And now, after being the most untrustworthy people on the planet for the last sixteen years—kind of not you—," he points at Shane.
"I appreciate you saying that each time but—,"
"—but not completely. You are all going to have to trust, you know, me," Gale says, almost laughing, "Fun, isn't it? Having to blindly trust someone."
"Gale, we understand why you're angry at us but you're going to get yourself killed."
"I'm really okay with that— but no, I plan on living to see the plan through," Gale says, lightly, "I may die later, no promises there."
"No!" Several people.
"Or not, whatever. Either way, I don't really care. This is all the information you get because my plan slightly hinges on all of you somewhat competently arresting Angel and taking back the amplifier."
"We can do that," Jade says.
"Just tell us your plan," I sigh.
"Does he not have a plan?" Alec, very worried.
"No. Now, I put the challenge out in the coven, we meet a Wrigley field at nine tonight, because I want to go to sleep for at least seven hours. I am not responsible for my actions if someone tries to wake me up pleading with me and crying. I'm sleeping with my amplifiers for obvious reasons should Angel decide to get a head start on our duel. Night—day, now, actually." Gale nods and leaves, carrying his arm load of snacks very seriously for somebody who clearly plans on curling up in his bed and eating two pounds candy.
"We have to stop him," my mother says.
"If Angel's already accepted the challenge they're bound to duel," Alec shakes his head, picking up his phone, "I'll find out."
"Of course he has! He thinks it'll be funny to slaughter him—has— I ask this with love—has he ever actually won a duel? Even against Mac who was dying?" Shane asks.
"We've tied a couple times—no, he's not a great duelist, he's better at witchcraft honestly," I say.
"He has a plan," Jade says.
"Yeah, probably to die in the duel and exhaust Angel enough to steal the amplifier," my mother says.
"Yes—that's probably it, and why he's not telling us he knows we won't agree," Shane nods.
"He's right though, exhausted the four of us could possibly take the amplifier back," I say.
"He's accepted," Alec puts down his phone, "Gale lists myself, Shane, and Jade and Mac as coming. I don't know why. Angel listed just the horror which is weird but all right."
"We're coming," Anita says.
"Not if the participants didn't agree," my mother shakes her head, "He probably is sparing us seeing him die."
"That's nice—what?" I ask, when everyone looks at me, "It's considerate. Next time I die I won't invite either of you either."
"Next time!?"
"I will die again at some point," I shrug.
"Not soon," Jade says, pushing my arm. I push her back.
"There's nothing to do but go along with his plan now," Alec says, shaking his head, "He's contracted the duel now. And yes he more than likely intends to die."
Anita begins to cry, quietly.
I look at Jade, wondering if he will actually die. She shrugs. War might not have told us because they tend to try not to upset us like that. It doesn't always help.
"Not if we have anything to do with it," Shane says.
"You can't interfere with a duel," my mother says.
"He has a plan," I say. Dear gods he'd better have a plan.