Shift

SEVEN.1

Blaze sat in the large armchair in his living room. His hands gripped the leather sides; his teeth clenched painfully.

It wasn't your fault, a voice in his head reasoned.

But I was right there! I could have stopped him!

From what? the voice continued. From saying the incantation? It's not your fault that his magic acted up at the wrong time.

No. If I'd just...just...

Blaze massaged his face with his hands. He couldn't block the images from his mind as hard as he tried. He had stayed at Carlos' side for over an hour, answering the paramedics' questions and watching as they tried, and failed, to resuscitate him. Eventually, a potestas police officer arrived on the scene; Blaze had seen through the glamour on his badge. The man had talked with Blaze briefly and then stood under a store awning to call Carlos' parents. Blaze then left the scene, but not before hearing Carlos' mother's loud cries through the phone.   

Blaze could see his own mother now, the memory vivid. She was lying on a bed of bleached white sheets, clear tubes connecting her to machines. When she had first been hospitalized, Blaze, only ten, hadn't understood why no one could help her. Not the doctors with their needles. Not the healers with their runes. Not even his father, the most powerful person Blaze knew. After the funeral, Blaze had often thought that maybe if he had just studied a little harder or had paid more attention in class, he could have saved her.

His mother had been beyond saving, but Carlos was just a boy. A normal, healthy young boy the same age Blaze had been when his mother had passed. Blaze couldn't help but think that perhaps if he hadn't gone to Sir Mallard's, if he hadn't spent his morning working on the rune with him in Mr. Duval's class, then Carlos might still be alive.

Water pooled on the armchair and Blaze shivered. He had left his jacket with Carlos and he was thoroughly soaked, but he didn't have the energy to change his clothes. He didn't care if his father yelled at him for dripping onto the armchair or if he caught a cold from the damp clothing. He just wanted to sit and grieve in silence.

But the silence was suddenly shattered by a loud shout.

"What the hell?"

Blaze jumped to his feet and glanced around the empty living room wildly. He was certain no one else was home, and yet the shout had clearly come from inside the apartment.

He heard a few footsteps and then the sound of pots and pans clanking. Someone was in the kitchen.

Blaze's heart pressed against his chest wall painfully. He reached into his pocket, fumbling for a piece of chalk. He had never been particular adept with attack runes, but he knew he could whip up a mediocre one if he had enough warning.

Slowly, he crossed the living room, praying the wooden floor wouldn't creak. He inched down the hall, one foot at a time, and paused a second before entering the kitchen. He took a deep breath, chalk held tightly in his hand, and then peered into the kitchen.

What he saw made his jaw drop. "Kayden?"

The girl snapped her head towards him, looking just as startled as he was. Blaze was surprised to see that she was wearing decidedly less today: just a pair of cotton shorts, a white camisole, and socks. Her dark hair was slightly ruffled as if she had just been sleeping, and in her hand was a green tennis ball.

Her eyes narrowed as soon as she recognized him. "How the hell did I get here?" she demanded.

"I was about to ask you that!" Blaze exclaimed, utterly confused. "How do you know where I live?"

"I don't!" she said exasperatedly. "I was just lying on my bed at home when suddenly I felt this terrible tug on me... and then I was here." She looked him straight in the eye. "Did you do this? Did you bring me here to try to weasel your way out of our deal?"

Blaze stared at her in disbelief. "Trust me," he said, and he could hear the darkness in his voice. "I was dealing with much bigger issues today than you."

Kayden's face fell, but after a moment she shook her head. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "But I just want to go back home." She pointed. "You're the wizard. Send me ba—"

"What's that?" Blaze interrupted sharply.

Kayden stared at him blankly. "What's what?"

Blaze crossed the room in a few steps and reached for her raised arm. Before she could protest, her right wrist was in his grasp, and he jabbed a finger at her skin. Beneath her palm and marked on the underside of her wrist was a glowing green symbol.

"What is that?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly.

"It's a rune symbol," Blaze muttered emptily, his brain spinning as he translated the curved lines. "The symbol for a bond."

"A bond?" She looked up at him. "You mean like the Bonding Oath?"

Blaze's dark eyes widened. "That wasn't supposed to happen."

"What's not supposed to happen?"

"The mark!" Blaze dropped her arm, rolled up his shirtsleeve, and looked down at his wrist. He cursed loudly when he saw that he had the same mark, glowing faintly over his blue veins. "Something must have gone wrong with the spell. Neither of us should have this mark."

"But it's just a mark, right?" Kayden asked, holding her arm away from her body as if it were diseased. "It doesn't really mean anything, right?"

Blaze remembered enough from school to know that spell side effects were rarely benign. His heart started pounding in his chest. "I think it means we have a problem. There must have been a misprint in the rune... or I mispronounced something..."

It was the last thought that truly worried him. It's my fault. I'm the one who did this, he thought.

Kayden looked somewhere between nervous and furious. "Just get this thing off me and send me home." She set the tennis ball on the counter and rubbed her wrist feverishly, as if she could massage the rune away. "My mom and cousin are going to flip if they can't find me."

"I can't send you home," Blaze realized.

Kayden stopped rubbing her wrist and looked right at him, her green eyes dark. "What do you mean you can't send me home?"

"Something went wrong with the spell," Blaze said, trying to talk slowly. "It didn't just bind us to our oaths. It bound us physically together. That's why you're here; the spell transported you to me. And if I try to send you home, the spell's just going to send you right back."

"We don't know that for sure," she pressed, but Blaze shook his head.

"We're not risking it. Transport spells aren't entirely safe. There's always the chance you could end up in the wrong place, or lose a limb, or get stuck between the boundaries of time and space. And transporting without a rune circle to guide you is extremely dangerous, especially for non-ers."

"Well thanks for telling me," she muttered, her voice dripping with sarcasm. But despite her sharp remarks, she looked strangely helpless. "You have to do something. I'm not following you around forever."

"We have to undo the spell from yesterday," he said, waiting for her reaction. He expected her to not like that option, and he was right.

Her face deepened from cream to crimson. "You know, this is beginning to sound like some huge ploy to erase my memories."

"It's not," Blaze said firmly, but he knew she didn't believe him. He rubbed his eyes; his nerves were on edge, and the girl was not helping. He turned to leave the kitchen. "Follow me."

"Where are we going?"

"To get my father's book. I'm going to find a way to fix that spell."

Kayden groaned, following him reluctantly. "Do we really have to deal with that stupid book again?"

Blaze ignored her, tramping his way down the halls with the angry non-er at his heels.