Shift

TWENTY-THREE.1

Blaze awoke with a jolt. His skin was cold with sweat and his stomach was searing with pain.

He was sitting at a desk, where a small lamp was shedding beams of light onto his arms. The thick copy of the spell was on the table in front of him, but a single page covered in his handwritten scribbles was pressed against his cheek, stuck to his skin with a thin glue of sweat.

Blaze peeled it off automatically, but it wasn't until he saw the odd objects scattered around the room and the old man asleep on the couch that he remembered where he was: Walter's workshop. He had come down to get some help reading the spell; he must have fallen asleep while poring over the words.

He glanced around, wondering why he had woken up so suddenly and why his heart was still racing in his chest. There was no alarm ringing, no sign of an external stimulus that had drawn him from his sleep. But his body hurt, and not just his stomach: his ears were ringing with a high-pitched squeal that made his eardrums pulse, and his shoulder was throbbing as if someone had shoved a hot brand against his skin.

He reached up to rub his shoulder—and saw a faint mark on his skin. It wasn't glowing; in fact, it looked more like he had fallen asleep atop some small plastic object and it had left a faint red impression. But Blaze didn't need to wake Walter up to interpret this symbol. He knew it as soon as he saw it, familiar from years of schooling and constant lectures from his father: a control rune.

He tried to rub the mark away with the palm of his hand, but it refused to go away. Had anyone cast it on him, it would have been glowing like the green symbol on his wrist, but the mark was dull. He knew that the rune had no power over him, but it didn't make him feel any calmer.

His shoulder throbbed again, a sharper pain paired with an increase in the ringing in his ears. He pressed his palms over them, trying to drown out the high-pitched sound flooding his head.

Screams, Blaze realized numbly. The ringing in his ears were screams, and they were all too familiar.

Kayden.

He jolted to his feet. Something was wrong with Kayden; he knew it instinctively. And he knew he needed to find her.

He darted into the hallway, and he glanced to his left, then to his right, his breathing shallow. The hall was empty, but the screams in his ears and the mark on his skin were signs he couldn't ignore.

He ran to his right, towards the elevator so he could get back upstairs to their room, but his stomach only pulsed more intensely with each step. By the time he reached the elevator, he was bent over, gagging as sharp pain shot through his stomach. He slapped the elevator button clumsily and tried to ignore the pain, but it was impossible. With each searing twinge of his stomach, all he could think about was the last time he had seen Kayden back in the room, when he had yelled at her. He could still see the way she had glared at him—with hurt, anger, and disgust—as she had stormed out of the room.

The room, Blaze thought, connecting the sharp jab in his stomach with his erratic thoughts. She's not in the room. His stomach lurched, and this time it had nothing to do with how far away he was from her. If she wasn't in the room, she could be anywhere.

No, he corrected himself. Not anywhere.

He turned back, running away from the elevator, realizing his mistake. With each step, the throbbing in his stomach eased slightly. He and Kayden were linked by the bonding rune. He could find her by feeling along that link, following the easing of his pain.

He ran, darting past Walter's room and continuing down the hallway until his felt his stomach twinge a little more. Blaze stopped and turned around; he had gone too far. He retraced his steps, a little more slowly, until he stopped in front of the supply closet on the first floor. The one Naven had trapped them in just a few weeks ago.