I don't have to wait long before the magicians arrive. Probably because they're drawn to me like every other person due to the shitty, useless, and now very broken concealment spell.
They cuff me, remove the sticking spell from the carpet, and break the circle. There's some conversation going on between them and my quickly recovering Grandma but I don't hear it.
I stare at the cuffs. A symbol is seared into the metal. The same symbol Grandma has burned into her wrist. The one that seals her magic away.
As we leave the building it finally stopped raining. But the sky is still overcast, making everything look gray and dull and unreal.
The waiting police car is parked on the street where I learned to ride a bike. The street where I got cheated out of all my prettiest marbles by Melvin and Melinda. I will never see this street again.
The taller magician opens the door and helps me in before following. The inside smells like cigarettes, fried food, and strange perfume. There's a thick mesh obscuring and protecting the driver from what's going on in the back.
The shorter magician gets in on the other side and buckles my seatbelt without a word. It presses against my chest, making my breaths shallow and dizzying.
After one of their silent conversations, the tall one knocks on the window and the car starts. No one says anything, probably because there's nothing to say. The only sound accompanying the hum of the motor is the occasional message from the static voice on the police radio.
"Need a car asap at Central Station for a 10-40, goblin assaulted. Ambulance and additional patrols are on their way."
We stop outside a nondescript brick building surrounded by a wall of rosehip bushes alongside three other police cars. The magicians have another wordless conversation and by the way the taller one sighs and slams the door as they leave, I think this one was a game of rock, paper, scissors.
"We need to fill in some forms and then we take him to the castle," they say to the person in the driver's seat and my heart stops.
No night in jail, no lawyer, no trial. Straight to the castle where the magicians perform all their magic, hidden from prying eyes.
I stare at a kink in the mesh, trying to empty my mind and get oxygen into my lungs.
I fail and the world goes dark when there's another announcement by the static voice.
"Attention all units, dark elf wanted for crimes against the Queen sighted outside 'The Black Desert'. Capture at all costs. Suspect highly dangerous, proceed with caution."
Before I can get my head around which dark elf that has to be, the shorter magician opens the door and is talking to the driver.
"Take him inside and watch him till we get back."
"But that's...Yes. Understood." She does not sound happy being put in charge of me.
Through the tinted window, I see the magicians meet up outside the building, and without a word, they get into another car and pull out into the road.
"Don't try anything," the officer says through the mesh before getting out and opening the door for me.
I don't move. "Was that about Li? The owner of Black Desert?"
She's short and maybe ten years older than me. The skin under her eyes the same color as her dark blue uniform.
"Get out," she says, and her hand hovers over something long and black hanging from her belt. A baton. Great. Not even this pink, sparkly hoodie can counter the fear of illegal magic users and the chaos they drag in their wake.
YOU ARE READING
The Cost of Conjuring: A Bargain Beyond Blood
FantasyLevi is a nineteen-year-old asexual wizard with too many problems and not enough friends to help him with them. The magic and the price for using it is taking its toll but he refuses to give up before he has fixed what he broke eight years ago. But...
