Illusory

Chapter 2

"Can't you, like, track whoever did this or something?" I asked, bordering on panic, as we descended the stairs at a brisk walk. It turned into a jog through the living room, through the messy dining room, and I struggled to keep up while half holding my breath against the smell. "You're a magician. You can do anything."

"It was too long ago," Van said with a jerky shake of his head. He nearly sprinted out the back door and around the house to the car, leaving me to lag behind. I wanted to breathe normally, but the smell still reached me even out here. "Any remnants of that person's presence is long gone by now."

"Do you think it was only one person?" I asked, sliding into the passenger's seat as he started the car. I looked at him, his features tight and his eyes distractedly focused on whatever thoughts were emerging in his mind, and I couldn't help worrying just a little bit more.

"It looked that way, but there's no way to know for sure." He slammed on the gas, the back tires pelting the wretched little house with gravel and chunks of broken asphalt. We were headed down the street, opposite of the way we'd come, and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

"Where are we going now?" I asked, buckling my seatbelt while I watched the little needle on the speedometer move well past 50. The speed limit was only 25.

"We're going to another house," he answered simply. I waited for him to elaborate, but he never did.

"Another house with a spell book in it?" I supplied, gripping the door handle as he blew threw an intersection at a red light.

"Yes, another house with a spell book in it," he confirmed, his visage and his voice returning to their usual calm. He glanced at me, his eyes olive-green serenity, and said, "I'm sorry if I alarmed you. There's really nothing to worry about."

I cocked an eyebrow at him, unbelieving. "You yelled, 'Oh, shit,' ten times. There's obviously something to worry about."

He chuckled and turned his attention to the road ahead. We were flying by stores now, Walmarts and Krogers and fast food joints, weaving through traffic with that little needle on the speedometer growing ever-closer to the 100 mark. I would have been worried, either that we were going to crash and die or that we were going to get pulled over and taken to jail, but the cool smile that played across his pale lips let me know that we were going to be all right. We always were. "It's bad, yes, but it's not as bad as I made it seem."

"How is it not?" I asked, resting my elbow on the door's arm rest and leaning against my hand. "Someone killed a house full of people and stole a book filled with powerful black magic. I'd say that ten 'Oh, shit's are too few for our current situation." But I couldn't even get worked up now, watching the man smile as he was. He'd probably just gotten his fear under control and out of sight and wanted to calm me down before I had a freak-out, but if it was working, why fight it?

He chuckled again. "Whoever took the book probably has a limited, tenuous knowledge of magic. They used it to kill that family, and it was done incredibly sloppily. They probably won't make it very far with the spells in the book. Most of them are highly advanced – spells that I could barely do. I don't think a beginner is going to be resurrecting the dead or summoning demons any time soon."

"Couldn't they just have been in a hurry when they..." I swallowed, not wanting to say the word. "When they...you know?"

"Killed the family?" he asked, and I nodded. "They probably were, but that's not the kind of sloppy I'm talking about. Even a half-formed spell executed cleanly would have been more precise than that. This was a spell done completely incorrectly all the way through."

I frowned, and even his pleasant smile couldn't console me now. "What did they...do to them?"

His eyes flicked to my face, the smile falling from his lips, and he answered bluntly, "They tried to tear them in half, but the spell didn't cut deep enough." His gaze returned to the road. "I suppose their intention could've been to only cut into the bodies halfway, but the ragged, unclean cuts make me think they tried to go deeper and failed." We were passing peaceful fields and farms now, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't want to look at the pretty landscapes.