(x) Irregular Magic

chapter 16 - adding oil to the fire

"Please let me go," Mattie begged. If only she had been thinking ahead, she would have already gotten to Yellow Flower. If only she had been thinking at all, she would have taken the tele-stop properly and already met up with Tara. Regret, as always, crashed like a wave—hard, heavy, and fast. "I have to go find my sister."

"At least let me thank you properly." That was what the boy said, but there was nothing remotely like gratitude on the boy's grimy face.

Mattie turned back to the barrier and grappled with the magic. Whatever triumph she had felt was gone, replaced by a sickening twisting of her insides. Desperately, her fingers skid across the smooth, glass-like surface, searching for potential weak spots she could exploit. In her mind, Mattie knew she was invisible. Somehow, she felt as though the boy knew exactly where she was.

"Why are you hiding?"

"I thought you were a normie," Mattie breathed with frustration, pushing against the barrier as hard as she could with her shoulder. Maybe if she had a strong enough will, it would crumble under her. That was the sort of bull that drove fantasy stories in the past, wasn't it?

"Why? Are you one?"

Mattie bristled at his tone, her fear momentarily overridden by the arrogance that he seemed to exude. Why was it that every mage she had ever known was pushy and so egotistical? All she wanted to do was find her sister and save Ren while she was at it. As a bonus, she might figure out what was going on with the magical order as a whole. "My sister might be in trouble, please."

"Okay."

The syllables had barely registered in her mind when Mattie redoubled her efforts against the barrier, thinking he had agreed to dispel it. But no matter how hard or desperately she thrashed against it, only undulating blue waves radiated from the point of impact.

Nearly overcome with the desire to pull her hair out, Mattie slowly turned around. Her hands were planted firmly on her hips, though the boy wouldn't be able to know. She had dealt with Tara—the magic-happy genius who would eat Yum-chips as her sole source of sustenance if Mattie wasn't there. She wasn't about to be pushed around by this kid, mage or no.

The boy's hand was outstretched in her direction. His eyes were wide and innocent, and a wide, infectious smile stretched from ear to ear. "I'll take you to her. Where to?"

She rocked back and forth on her heels, caught by surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I'll transport you there. Think of the trip as my thanks for helping me back there."

When Mattie stayed silent, the boy heaved a sigh and threw up his hands (oh, great, she thought, now he's going to have a tantrum). His grin faded slightly. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Mattie had opened her mouth to respond sharply, and then thought better of it. It would probably be easiest just to tell him. She would never have given in if she had been dealing with Tara but this wasn't her brother.

If he got to the wrong place, then she could find the nearest tele-stop and get home. On the other hand, if he did get her to Yellow Flower Quarter, then it would only be a plus for her. Besides, she could bolt once they got there. After teleporting all the way to Yellow Flower, the boy wouldn't have enough magic left to make a big enough barrier to trap her again.

"Yellow Flower Quarter," she said at last. "Flat sixty-seven." It wasn't her flat number, but one several blocks away. It was her hope that she would be able to shake him off her trail in time. Hesitantly, she took his hand.

"We're off."

The boy squeezed his eyes closed and muttered something under his breath. Mattie did the same but murmured a prayer for her life.

It was oddly similar to taking a tele-stop. There wasn't a purple flash but there was a churning wind all around her, almost painfully cold. It tore at the holes in her sweater and chilled her to the bone. It felt much more unstable than the routine teleport to her school and back. There were no stabilizing spells that kept them perfectly parallel to the ground, nor were there tamper-proof enchantments that would prevent the tele-stop from malfunctioning. It felt as though she was standing on something that was unceasingly shifting phases from liquid to solid and then back again.

For the entire trip—which amounted to a minute and a half, give or take some—Mattie teetered between horror and feeling sick. More than once she was reminded of the fact that her life was in the hands of a boy who looked scarcely older than nine.

Mattie nearly kissed the paved streets of Yellow Flower when they finally touched down. The ground felt wonderfully solid underneath her feet.

"Thanks," she said, almost too quietly for her words to be audible. Dropping his hand like a hot stone, Mattie broke into a sprint, towards a shortcut that would bring her a couple flats down from hers.

Behind her, she could hear the boy yelling something that she couldn't make out. Ignoring it, Mattie kept going. Whatever it took, she was going to avoid getting trapped by that blue barrier again.

With a start, she realized the boy was just behind her, tele-stepping to keep up with her movements. Her feet skidded to a halt when Mattie finally made out what he had been shouting at her.

"Something's on fire over there!" the boy said, pointing at a dusty plume of smoke rising into the sky in spirals.

Blood roared in her ears as she realized he had pointed in the direction of her flat. It couldn't be...

If she had been sprinting before, it was nothing to how fast she ran now. It felt as though every single muscle in her legs burned, but she didn't let up even a little. Her lungs, also feeling like they were on fire, begged for oxygen. It had to be a coincidence.

But the closer she got to the source of the smoke, the more worried she became. Black spots burst into her vision as her body protested the lack of oxygen.

When Mattie finally broke through the trees that lined the distance between Flat 107 and Flat 105, it became clear that her gut had been right all along. Of course it would be 102 that was on fire. It was Let's-Ruin-Mattie's-Day day, after all.

Bile rose in her throat as she fought to catch her breath, and she nearly threw up. She had caught sight of a group of familiar teens, watching the fire burn. From here, she could see them but it didn't seem they could see her. They were too preoccupied with the bellowing fire, which was growing in magnitude by the second. When Mattie drew closer, she realized there were a dozen large jet-black cylinders littering the lawn outside the flat she shared with Tara.

Heather's friends—the group Ren had called "the Mattie squad"—had used prohibited black marketplace magic to set her house on fire.