Breaking Magic

Chapter 26: Felix

Adam and I clamber into the backseat of a taxi and sit in tense silence as it takes us further and further away from the bright lights of Rennes, back into the darkness of the French countryside.

I clench my hands tight together in my lap to keep them from shaking. I'm still full of adrenaline from the scene at the airport, and the fear is only belatedly hitting me now. At the time I was alarmed, even panicked, but that was just the instinctive reaction to being chased. Now that the sudden change in the situation has had time to sink in, the fact that we're being actively pursued by members of the MRF leaves me feeling embarrassingly scared.

They won't kill us—at least, I don't think they would. They know who I am, and they know my family's politics. They'd talked about kidnapping me for ransom, but killing me? I doubt even the most extremist members of the MRF would be down for executing Council supporters—there just aren't enough magicians in the world to bounce back from losing almost half the population. Then again, I have heard rumors that some among the MRF have been calling for more and more radical action to be taken against the Council and its allies. I'm still a student, a teenager—but at eighteen, I'm also a legal adult, and if I fall into their hands, they might decide that I'm old enough to be held accountable for my family's political alliance.

Okay, so that isn't a great thought. But they definitely won't harm Adam if they can help it, since they want to use him as a weapon against the Council.

Although... if he refuses... if they take him and try to force him and he doesn't give in...

I shake those thoughts away. There's no point in thinking about that now. I don't know enough about the MRF to guess how they would react to that situation. All I can do now is try to keep it from coming to that.

I glance once or twice at Adam, but he's facing away from me, looking out the window at the dark trees rushing by. It's too dark to have been able to make out his expression anyways.

It's thirty minutes before the taxi driver pulls up to the side of the road to let us out.

"You sure you want here?" he asks in thickly accented English.

"Oui," I say, opening the door and almost flying out. "This is fine, merci beaucoup." I throw a wad of cash at him, wait anxiously for Adam to take his sweet time getting out of the car, and then start walking down the lightless road at a fast clip. I hear Adam's footsteps behind me, jogging to catch up, and I half turn to see him outlined in red, illuminated from behind by the tail lights of the taxi as it drives away.

"Where the hell are we?" he demands as he comes up beside me.

"Don't you recognize it? We were just here a few hours ago," I reply shortly. It came out sharper than I intended—stress, verging on panic, is making me tense enough to snap like an over-tightened guitar string. I glance guiltily over at Adam, but he's too busy looking around the dark, tree-lined street, his brow furrowed.

"This is... we're back in Paimpont, in Brocéliande," he says. "Why did you bring us here? We're out in the middle of nowhere now, and you just sent away the only god damned car in this entire forest!" His voice is rising, and I can tell his own frayed nerves are about to break.

"Keep your voice down. I have an idea," I tell him, increasing my pace even more so I pull ahead of him.

"Oh, great!" he laughs. "Another one of your amazing ideas! Like the one that got us into this mess in the first place!"

I come to a sudden halt and whirl around, glaring hard at Adam through the darkness. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He squares off in front of me, as if readying himself for a fight. "We wouldn't be here, being hunted by the MRF—by our damn Astronomy teacher—if you hadn't shown up at El's house and dragged me into this!"