Sleight of Hand: The Final Card

Chapter 9

Mac hadn't seen his twin brother since he had left for the war. That was even before Elite training started... months before. It had been at least a year since he and his brother had been together, not counting the twenty-five they'd been trapped in the cards. Mac had no doubt that Elyk was the one responsible for their car crashing, and its transformation into a ticking nuclear time bomb. He also knew that Elyk wasn't to blame.

The Mage was.

His worst fears were confirmed when he spotted Elyk approaching them in the fields they'd crashed into.

"This isn't good," Mac muttered. "We can't fight him here. That could be catastrophic. People could get hurt."

He glanced over to Aivilo, who was also panting with the effort of using her power. Her eyes still glowed brightly with blue light, not unlike Elyk's normal hues. But not now.

Now, his eyes glowed a sinister purple.

"Aiv... I'm sorry I keep asking you to use your power... but is there anywhere close to here that we can go? Away from people?"

Aivilo's eyes pulsed with power again. She stared off into the distance, her eyes cast slightly above horizon level.

"There's a forest not too far from here."

She closed her eyes, though her power still shown through her eyelids, and suddenly the scenery faded and was replaced by a clearing surrounded by trees on all sides. The storm that had surrounded them dissolved into the air as Alyakim released it. Mac realized they'd also been changed into the dry clothes they used for combat.

Thank you, Aivilo.

Whether Elyk followed them of his own will or Aivilo brought him here with them, Mac had no idea. He really did not want to fight his own brother. His twin. But he knew Elyk would unwittingly kill them all if they didn't stop him. Mac pushed out of Trebor's hold and stood taller.

"Elyk!" he called, wondering if his brother would even hear his voice while his mind was inhabited by the Mage.

Elyk stopped a few feet away. Mac was able to properly get a good look at his brother. They were iden­tical, which meant that in many ways they were the same. Same, shaggy blond hair. Same height, same face. The only differences were that Elyk was tanner because he spent so much more time outside than Mac did, his eyes were usually sky-blue, and he didn't have glasses.

He wore a simple, form-fitting athletic shirt and pants that seemed almost like a second skin. His shoes resembled athletic tennis shoes. The clothes seemed to shimmer oddly from black to silver to white and back, like it was covered in a thin layer of graphene.

Elyk sneered.

No, the Mage sneered.

"Talk about evil twin," Bacon muttered, and Mac glared daggers at him. Elyk wasn't evil. The person con­trolling him was.

"How do we stop him?" Aivilo asked. She was in a ready stance, Blitz positioned at her side.

Mac thought. His brother and him had always wres­tled as kids. They'd even squabbled when they were older, leading to miniature explosions that destroyed their neighbors' plants. But how could they stop his brother from unleashing his raw, kinetic power aimed to kill them? Before Mac could suggest anything, Elyk spoke.

"Surrender now, and I might not kill you!" he shouted. He sounded like Elyk, who sounded like Mac. But Mac knew it was the Mage talking through him.

"Elyk, it's me! Your brother! Listen to me—!" Mac started, but Elyk interrupted him.

"You're nothing to me. I will destroy all of you."

Without giving any of them time to react, Elyk lashed out, aiming a bolt of pure energy at them. It was almost invisible. The only reason it could be seen at all was because it had the slight blue tint of his power. Their group dove in different directions, and the energy slammed into a tree behind them. The wood creaked as it took in the brunt force and leaned dangerously to one side.

Mac shot to his feet and looked around desperately for something to stop Elyk. He didn't have any metal. Mac silently cursed himself, thinking he should have asked Aivilo to transport their totaled car with them.

Elyk was attacking them, summoning bits of his own energy to fire. Mac's team dodged and ducked, rolling out of the way if bolts of energy came too close for com­fort. Mac dug in his pockets. It was a good thing he always kept a little scrap metal with him. He focused his power on the scrap metal, his vision tinted with silver. He bent the metal and shaped it into twin bracelets, just big enough to fit on Mac's wrist. If it could fit him, it would fit Elyk.

"Aivilo, no!" Mac heard.

He spun around to find Aivilo positioned in front of him. Trebor was the one who had shouted. Mac hadn't seen what happened, but from what he could tell, Elyk had tried to attack him while he was distracted with the metal. Aivilo had jumped in front of him. She should have been killed by the blast that Elyk had directed at Mac, but she stood, knees bent as if she were holding a heavy weight. The energy Elyk had fired was writhing in between her outstretched hands. She grunted, trying to keep Elyk's roiling chaos of energy at bay. Slowly, the light blue ball of energy seeped into Aivilo, and for a horrible moment, Mac thought it was too much for her. But when it disappeared from between her hands, she stood up straight, her eyes pulsing with more light than Mac had ever seen.

"Thanks for the energy!" Aivilo shouted trium­phantly at Elyk, making him scowl. Mac realized that Aivilo had absorbed the raw energy Elyk had sent their way, supplying her with more energy to use her own power. It was kind of genius.

"Aivilo, I have a plan," he muttered. She didn't turn, but he knew she was listening. Mac briefly explained what he was about to do, and she nodded, glancing toward Rae.

Elyk laughed darkly. It sounded so foreign coming from his mouth.

"This has been fun, but now it's time for you all to surrender or die."

Two more figures appeared at his side, and Mac gasped. Immediately next to Elyk was a small girl with dark skin, and long, curly black hair. Her eyes also pulsed with the Mage's purple light, and she wore very human-like clothes; she had on a colorfully-embroidered denim jacket over a white-and-black, chevron designed shirt and a matching black skater-style skirt, and sparkly silver high-top shoes.

What had made Mac gasp, though, was the person next to the girl. She wore mostly black leather, had a head of curly white hair. She was so familiar expect for her eyes, which didn't glow their normal gray, nor the evil violet of the Mage. Now, they glowed with a more deadly shade of deep magenta.

The last figure was Alyakim, and her mouth was twisted into a cruel smirk.