Brave New World
All Good Things Must End

July6, 2010

Reyna had not slept wellthat night. Anxiety had built up in herchest, and no matter which way she turned she couldn’t release thediscomfort. Her conscious drifted in andout the realm of sleep, never remaining there for too long before suddenlybreaking through the surface. When theclock at last read 7:00 A.M., Reyna decided to forgo trying to sleep and headeddown stairs to pour herself a bowl of Honey-Nut Cheerios. Turning on the small T.V., Reyna groaned whenthe news popped up and groaned again when she saw King Douche’s face popup. He sure did get around. Not in the mood to deal with the zealot, sheturned the channel until she found an episode of Arthur. It was the perfect combination of mindlessand familiarity, so Reyna stuck with it.

Around7:30, Sybil could be heard thundering down the stairs. “Hey, kid.” She greeted, heading for the fridge, “Didn’t sleep too well, huh? Anything you wanna talk about?” She poured herself a tall glass of orangejuice, then began to rummage in a cupboard for her coffee grounds. Reyna silently watched her as she went abouther morning routine.

“It’snothing. There’s nothing to talk aboutreally,” Reyna said before she began to massage the skin between her brows withher pointer and middle finger. She couldfeel a sleep deprived headache coming on.

“Sure,”Sybil snorted unattractively. “You knowyou can’t keep using the ‘it’s nothing’ excuse forever, right? You’re gonna have to face your demonseventually. So why don’t you just tellme what’s happening in that pretty little head of yours?”

Groaningaround her spoonful of cereal, Reyna rolled her eyes dramatically, “You’re thefreaking oracle. You already know what’s happened. Why doyou keep asking about it?”

Sybiladded a healthy amount of cream and sugar into her newly poured cup of coffee,taking her time to stir it all together and taste test it beforeresponding. Turning her cloudy white eyestowards her, Reyna felt a shiver run down her spine at the sight. She couldn’t help it. They were just so creepy. “You know,” Sybil drawled, “I do not need toput up with your snark, nor your rolling eyes. So enough with the teenaged melodrama. I may be the oracle but that doesn’t mean I always understand what’sgoing on in a situation. I also don’tknow how a person in that situation is feeling, or what is going through theirmind. The only way for me to knowexactly what’s bothering you—what’s really going on in your life—is if you talk to me.”

Reynabit her lip and looked into the creamy eyes of her friend. Sybil had a point, but she couldn’t replace itin herself to confide in the older woman. Not yet, anyway. Reyna still feltraw from Dunstan’s dismissal and she didn’t think she’d be able to handle it ifSybil were to act in a similar manner towards her sexuality. So with a long sigh, she scooped anotherspoonful of cereal and shoved it into her mouth.

Frowningat Reyna’s dismissal, Sybil shook her head, “Well if you ever do decide youwant to talk, just remember I’m always ready to listen. Okay?”

Reynamade a noncommittal noise, keeping her gaze on the nearly empty bowl in frontof her. Swirling some of the lastCheerios around in the milk, she decided she was full enough and went to rinseher bowl out and place her dirty dish into the dish washer. “By the way,” Sybil began again, turning thechannel to something other than a child’s cartoon. “Your Elven friend is coming back into towntoday.”

BeforeReyna could respond, her cell phone began to vibrate on the linoleumcounter. Barely containing herself fromrolling her eyes again, she flipped the phone open. “Melchiorn? Hi.” She greeted, making her way out of the kitchen and back up to herroom. By the time she closed the door,she’d made plans to have an early dinner with her friend at 4:30. Once that was squared away, Reyna preparedherself for her trip to the hospital by brushing her teeth and hair, and tryingto decide which clothes she had in the closet would be hospital appropriate,but also keep her cool in the summer heat. Deciding to forgo propriety, she threw on a holey white shirt withcropped sleeves and shorts that practically disappeared underneath the shirt’slength. Pulling her hair into a messybun on top of her head, Reyna grabbed her back pack out from underneath her bedand filled it with her notebook, book of Devils, and a black pen.

Reynayelled out a quick goodbye to Sybil as she half tumbled down the stairs and outthe door. As she walked down the streetin the direction of the nearest hospital, the sound of a familiar caw caughther attention. “Poe!” Reyna called, andafter a moments rustling in a tree across the street, the sleek feathered crowflew over to sit on her shoulder. Aftergiving him a proper head scratch and cooing some words to her pet, Reynarestarted her trek down the street.

Luckilyfor Reyna, Sybil’s house was located less than two miles away from ahospital. After leaving Poe in a treeoutside, she moseyed her way to the Nurse’s station. It wasn’t too hard considering practicallyevery wall in the building held signs and arrows telling people where to replacethings. “Hello,” she greeted one of thenurses with a shy smile. The womanbehind the desk was a large, elderly black woman with a stern, no-nonsenseexpression. She didn’t say helloback. “Um,” Reyna coughed to clear herthroat, “I’m doing a research project on coma patients, and I was wondering ifyou had, like, a list of the people in the hospital who were currently incomas? I just need to see how many thereare and how many are men and how many are women. It would, um, really help me out.”

Thewoman sighed and began to type on her computer, “Child, you’re lucky it’s not amad house in here today. Look, I cantell you what you need to know but I can’t print you out a list of names. It’s against hospital procedure.”

“Oh,that’s fine!” Reyna said, widening hereyes to make herself look more innocent. She pulled her backpack around and pulled out her pen and notebook, thenlooked at the nurse for her to continue. As the woman opened her mouth to tell Reyna the information on herscreen, Reyna focused on a stack of papers behind the nurse and with a twitchof her fingers made them topple over. The papers made a clattering sound, drawing the attention of the nurse. With a harsh curse, she got up out of herchair and went over to pick them up. Hoping the pages weren’t too important, Reyna placed her hand on theback of the computer monitor. With onehand on the screen and the other holding onto her pen, Reyna linked theelectronic ink from the document on the screen to the inked pen. Finished putting the papers back in order,the nurse muttered underneath her breath as she sat back down at her desk and thentold Reyna there were currently twelve coma patients in the hospital; sevenmale and five female.

Thankingthe nurse with a bright smile, Reyna quickly disappeared from the woman’s sightand found a waiting room to sit in. Placing the pen above a blank sheet in her notebook, she let go of thewriting utensil. Instead of fallingover, as one would expect, the pen began to move and twist over the paper,revealing the names, contact information, health status, and—mostimportantly—room numbers of the coma patients. Ripping the piece of paper out of the notebook, Reyna made her way tothe elevator and up to the room number of the first male coma patient on thelist.

Beelzebubhad a very specific type of body he wanted to inhabit. He wanted to be a young white male withblonde hair and preferably blue eyes. Reyna told him she’d do her best to replace a match, but it wasn’t likecoma patients grew on trees. Hopefullyhe understood that. After the first fourmales turned out to be aesthetic duds, Reyna found a match on the seventh floorof the hospital. The man’s name wasJoshua Phelps. According to his chart hewas 6’4, blue eyed, 194 pounds, twenty-eight years old, and had been in a comafor three years with no brain wave activity. He was perfect.

Nowall Reyna had to do was seal a Devil inside of him. Easy peasy. Taking a deep breath in through her nose and letting it out of hermouth, she closed the door and lowered the blinds to the room. Carefully moving his arm so that she didn’tdisrupt any of the wires or needles sticking into him, Reyna rested his handpalm up and with the tip of her pen pressed against the inside of his wrist,began to draw the summoning seal for Beelzebub. Besides the lines of the circle flashing gold for half a second, nothinghappened, though Reyna hadn’t expected anything to. Digging back into her backpack, she pulledout a red pen this time and around the summoning drew a binding seal. Reyna had to be careful not to overlap any ofthe lines or else the seals would negate each other’s effects. Instead she carefully lined up each detail sothe two seals cohabitated on the man’s inner wrist.

Doublechecking that no one was about to burst through the door, Reyna pulled out ax-acto knife from the small pouch of her backpack and carefully made a smallincision on both the man’s forearm and her own. Dipping her index finger into his small pool of blood, she traced thesummoning circle, then did the same with her blood and the binding circle. After quickly healing the two cuts, Reynaplaced the flat of her palm against the decorated wrist, “Beka lokhu igobolondo angenalutho enhle. Ukubopha!”

Witha quick turn of her palm, mixing the seals and the blood, a bright white lightshone through the cracks between their limbs. The man’s jaw unhinged and as he took in a lungful of air, he soundedlike a dead man desperately taking in his last breath. His chest heaved off the bed, his backbending backwards, and his face turned sideways and buried into the pillow. Reyna took two steps away from thereanimating man in case he flailed about. She noticed his eyes began to flicker open once his body stopped itsthrashing, though all she could see so far were the whites of his eyes, whichthoroughly creeped her out.

Hiseyes finally opened, and after several blinks to clear away his blurry vision,he locked gazes with Reyna. “Why . . .why do I feel so . . . tired?” He asked with a heavy tongue.

“Probablybecause that body hasn’t moved in, like, three years.” Reyna explained with a shrug, “You’llprobably have to go through physical therapy or something.”

“It. . . worked, though. Right? I’m . . . I won’t . . . I can,” His facepinched with frustration and Reyna stepped closer to stand at his bedside.

“Itworked,” she confirmed with a nod. Aproud smirk adorned her lips, “Looks like I’m quite the bad ass. And yeah, you’ll be able to stay in that bodyfor as long as like. So long as youstick to the deal, of course. Oh, and aslong as this never gets broken,” she said as an afterthought while running herthumb over the now tattoo-like circles on his wrist. “But that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“CanI . . . see?”

Makingan affirmative noise, Reyna summoned a small mirror from her bathroom at thebrownstone and held it in front of his face. “Would you like to know more about yourself Beelzebub?”

Givingher a lazy smile, but not taking his eyes off the mirror, he told her, “You can. . . call me Bub. I think . . . you’veearned it. And yes,” he breathed out.

“Cool,so Bub,” she said with a cheeky smile, “your name is technically Joshuanow. Joshua Phelps. I’m sure you’ll get loads of Michael Phelpsjokes about that,” she joked, then continued to explain to him everything shehad read from the chart. “I’m not reallysure how Joshua came to be in a coma, but you can probably get away with, like,memory loss or something.”

Bub’seyebrows furrowed and he finally looked away from the mirror to take in hissurroundings. He rolled his head over tothe side and looked at the beeping machines next to him. “Shouldn’t someone . . . have noticed?”

“Thatyou’ve woken up? They will, but not ‘tilI leave. I, uh, kinda spelled your heartmonitor and stuff to give false reports for right now. Couldn’t have a nurse rushing in before Iclued you in now could I?”

“Smart,”he commented, making Reyna beam. “Whatif someone . . . notices?” He askedwhile slightly twitching the hand with the mark.

“Oh,right, hold on,” Reyna told him before digging back into her backpack and thenflipping through her notebook. Pullingout a piece of loose leaf paper with a drawing of gross looking fly, Reyna drewthe tips of her fingers over the image and then doing the same over Bub’swrist. The inky mess of circlesdisappeared with her fingers and an exact image of the fly was in itsplace. “There, now it looks like you’vejust got a really weird tattoo on your wrist. Cool, huh?” She said with a waveof her fingers, “Almost like the magic version of copy, paste.”

Anglinghis head to have a better look at the new image, he asked, “Why a fly?”

Givingthe Demon another shrug, “’Cause your Wikipedia page compared you to Lord ofthe Flies, so I thought it worked. Ifyou ever want a different image, just replace one and I’ll change it, but for nowthat’ll work dandy. I’m also gonna giveyou my cell number and leave it in your desk drawer, ‘kay?” She did as she said before letting out asigh, “Now I just have to let your nasty bro that it worked, ugh.”

Bublaughed, “Yeah, Sam can be . . . intense sometimes. He’s . . . just protective. This will definitely . . . put you in his . .. good books, though. How do you . . .plan on summoning the others, though?”

“Whatdo you mean?” Reyna asked, “I figuredI’d just draw your circles when I needed you.”

“Yeah,but, what if you don’t . . . have anything to . . . draw with? Or if . . . you can’t remember the . . .circle?”

Thatwas a good point. Reyna titled her headto the side and tried to come up with something, but merely shrugged when shecouldn’t. “You could,” Bub said softly,and Reyna could see his eyes begin to droop with exhaustion, “always . . . getthem tattooed. That always . . . works.”

“Tattoos? But how would that work? Like, wouldn’t it just be a constant summon?”

Witha wobbly shake of his head, he explained, “No, not if you . . . only use it forsummoning us . . . here. You just needto amend the contracts. Then . . . addsome blood to the seal, and poof,” he said with a slow smile and slight jerk ofhis hands, “instant Demon.”

Abewildered laugh left Reyna’s mouth, making Bubs’ loopy smile widen. “All right, I’ll work on that. Thanks, Bub. Now before you fall asleep,” she said, fluffing his pillow, “I’m gonnago so the doctors will come and see that you’re not in a coma and stuff. Well kinda. Call me if you need anything, okay?”

Bubnodded his head—well, wobbled it, really—and Reyna smiled at him one last timebefore leaving his room. For a Demon,that guy sure was nice. Barely half waydown the hallway, high pitched beeps and the whirring noise of medical machinessounded behind her, and she could hear the frantic footsteps of the staffrunning in and out of Bub’s room. Pushing the down button for the elevator, Reyna tried a few times tocalm her smile—her cheeks were starting to ache—but soon figured out there was nodismissing her happy mouth, which made her smile widen even more.

Oncethe elevator doors dinged open, Reyna stepped in and pushed the button for theground floor. She pulled her phone outfrom her back pack while she descended and was shocked to replace ten missedcalls. All from Dunstan. Humming under her breath, Reyna flipped thephone shut and placed it in her back jean pocket. Getting off the elevator, and narrowlyavoiding the nurse who’d unknowingly given her the list of coma patients, Reynamade a quick escape out of the hospital.

Assoon as she felt the hot summer sun warming her air conditioned skin, Reynapulled out her phone again with the intention of calling Dunstan back. Poe flew down onto her shoulder as shepressed the green call button. The phoneonly rang once, “Reyna? Reyna, I need you to come to thebrownstone. Now.”

“Wow,can I get a please?” Reyna said withsome snark. She looked up at the sky andshielded her eyes from the sun. Thesmile that had just been on her face quickly slipped away thanks to him.

“Now, Reyna.” He said with impatience. Reyna could picture his jaw clenching so hardhis skin turned paper white. “I am not asking as you guardian. I’m ordering as your Master.”

“Ugh,fine,” Reyna groaned while massaging the skin between her brows. Poe picked up on her distress and flutteredhis feathers before picking through her hair with his beak, trying to socialgroom her into a calmer state. “I’ll bethere in a few hours.”

Reynadidn’t hear anything on the other end and after a few seconds pulled the phoneaway to see that Dunstan had hung up without a formal goodbye. Clucking her tongue, the Reyna sent a quicktext to Sybil that she’d be out with Dunstan, exchanged her phone for her iPodin her back pack, and found an empty cab to take her back to the brownstone. She hoped that whatever Dunstan wantedwouldn’t take too long. Reyna still feltuncomfortable in his presence. Beforeshe’d left for Sybil’s she’d tried to bring up the topic of different sexualitieswith him, but he’d only brushed her off with a long winded sigh and that lookof his that made Reyna almost start bawling all over again. After that the house began to feel toxic toher. Every annoying behavior, no matterhow small, of Dunstan’s began to grate on her nerves. Bad memories began flooding her thoughts moreoften than not, drowning out what little good ones she had of the man. Resentment began to fill her heart and shewasn’t sure how much longer she’d be able to take it before she’d burst.

Withthe brownstone finally in sight, Reyna sent Poe away after a goodbye headscratch, put away her iPod and walked up to the front door. As soon as she walked in to the foyer, she knewsomething was amiss. Her magic twistedsharply in the pit of her belly, trying its hardest to lash out at whatever thethreatening presence was. Hesitantly,Reyna dropped her backpack to the floor and stepped lightly further into thehouse. From around the corner she couldhear Dunstan’s voice. He didn’t soundanxious or stressed in any way, so Reyna assumed whatever had her pulsepounding in her veins was due to something other than a home invasion.

“Dunstan?” She called out, almost timidly. Dunstan’s voice broke off suddenly and hestepped out from his study with a strange smirk on his face. Reyna didn’t like the look of it. It made her hair stand on edge.

“Reyna! Good, good, you’re here. Come along then, it’s time for us togo.” He said with a single nod. He walked past her and Reyna watched him gofor a second before more footsteps from the study drew her attention. Sucking in a sharp breath, Reyna nowunderstood what was making her magic go crazy.

Four Fairies stoodin front of her. They all looked as coldand as snide as she remembered from the time she met their Queens in France. One of them, whose skin looked slightlysimilar to the complexion of mashed potatoes and with hair as gold as freshstraw, stretched her terribly red lips into a smile. “Hello, pretty,” she cooed, “Would you liketo play a game?”

“Clochette,” Dunstan called sharply, “Wedo not have time.” The Fairy sneered athim, but didn’t try anything further. The other three followed her lead and all began to head for the frontdoors. Reyna stared at their backs asshe followed, not daring to walk any closer nor wanting to dash ahead and havethem at her back. She wondered if thatwas the Fairy’s real name, since she had actually listened to Dunstan and notblown him off. Or maybe it wasn’t butshe decided to listen for the sake of time anyway.

Reyna wanted toask where they were going, especially with an entourage of Fairies, but whenever she opened her mouth to ask she found shecouldn’t muster up the courage. Severaltimes on their walk to wherever it was, Reyna had to shoo Poe away fromswooping down to her. She didn’t want topoor crow to get hurt, and she couldn’t guarantee his safety if one of thosedreaded Fairies decided they liked the looks of him.

Dunstan eventuallyled them to an office building and with a flick of his wrist opened the doorwith his magic, almost talking them off their hinges. Footsteps slowing, Reyna looked at the doorsthen towards Dunstan’s back, wondering why he used magic for something somundane—and so violently, at that. Fingerstwitching, Reyna took a few quick steps to catch up to the group. She couldn’t help but notice that almostevery inch of the office space was covered with campaign posters that read Vote for King! After just learning how the man felt about themagical community, Reyna wondered what they were doing in his campaignheadquarters. Gulping, Reyna decidedthat whatever it was it couldn’t be good.

“Who’s in chargehere?” Dunstan bellowed out in his ‘you’d better listen to me, or else,’voice, causing many a head to turn his way. Definitely not good, Reyna thought. “Hmm,” he prompted again when all he’d received was wide eyes and mouthsagape. “Answer me!” This time he’dadded magic to his voice, causing it to boom as loudly as thunder and the floorto shake. The Fairies began to spreadout, all of them looking positively predatory. Reyna took a few steps closer to Dunstan, not understanding what washappening at all.

A man, who’d beenstanding in the doorway of a smaller office, took a slow step forward. He looked older than Dunstan, maybelate-fifties, with gray-streaked brown hair, and wore a suit that would makeany Wall Street worker proud. With hisface as red as a ruddy tomato and eyes practically glistening, he looked liableto break down any second. “I—I’m RandySmith. I—I’m in charge of this office.”He stuttered, making Dunstan sneer with disdain.

Reyna knew thatsneer. He’d used it on her only ahandful of times, but she knew it well enough. Suddenly her mouth felt dry, because Dunstan only used that facialexpression when he was about to get violent. Before he had a chance to do anything, however, a sharp cry rang outfrom one of the other workers. Reyna felta twinge in her neck from how fast she turned it, and had to cover her mouthwith her hands to keep herself from screaming.

One of theFairies, a dark skinned one with ruby eyes and hair, stood proudly over thecorpse of a female campaign worker whose neck was twisted at an unnaturalangle. Kicking her indelicately, theFairy looked at Reyna with a gleeful fling in her eye. “Someone was naughty. She tried to call the policy-weecy. Fat lot of good that’d do ‘em,” she said witha shrug.

Head swivelingback to her Dunstan, Reyna didn’t know what she expected from him, but sheexpected something. Dunstan apparently hadn’t taken his eyes offthe campaign manager, not for a single second. “Now that you know we mean business,” he said conversationally. Dunstan moved through the crowd of people—whoparted almost as if they were the Red Sea and he Moses—and took a seat. “It’d be a good idea for you to get yourcandidate down here. We need to have atalk.”

“You—what the hell are you?” Randy Smith asked, his face now sheetwhite. “You’re what we’re campaigning against! How—how dareyou come in here and think you can just—just,” his face turned red while hesputtered and raged. Reyna thought himvery brave, if not very stupid, because if the man was really looking at Dunstan’sface, he’d be able to tell Dunstan was looking much too gleeful for someone whoshould look angry or chastised, or something. But no, he looked way too happy, making herthink he wanted the man to go off in such a way.

In one fluid motion, Dunstan wasout of the chair and in front of Randy Smith with on hand covering hisface. Seeing movement out of the cornerof her eye, Reyna saw what must have been a security guard of some sortpointing his gun straight at Dunstan’s turned back. “No!” She screamed, hand thrusting outwards andmagically pushing the guard back against a wall with a sickening crack. Breath stilling in her lungs for just asecond, Reyna forced her legs to move towards the injured man. First checking that he was still breathing,she let out a shaky breath when she felt his own on the palm of her hand. “Oh no, oh no, oh no,” she whispered againand again, seeing blood now seeping from a crack in his head.

“Reyna,” Dunstancalled, looking her from over his shoulder. “Leave him,” he ordered. Dunstanturned his attention back to Randy Smith whose face had gone blank and pupil’sdilating so much no color could be seen.

“What?” Reyna bit out, raising shaky hands to hover over the wound. Dunstan couldn’t be serious. She may have stopped the guard from shootinghim, but that did not mean she would leave him for dead.

Dunstan noticed Reyna’sintention, and with another flick of his wrist, Reyna felt herself being thrownacross the room. “I said,” he repeated, “leave him.”

With a painedgroan, Reyna lifted herself off the ground and stared wide eyed at the manwho’d raised her. In all her memories ofthe two of them together, she could recall being scolded, reprimanded,ignored—hell, he’d hit her more than once—but she could not recall a time whenDunstan had used magic on her. Never. Not once. He’d crossed a line. Performed a taboo. Whatever trust Reyna had in him just crashedto the ground like a flaming meteorite.

Looking over atthe terrified faces before her, Reyna turned her face upwards glared at thestill grinning Fairies that stood above them all. Magic hummed in her veins, begging to beunleashed. Randy Smith was moving freelynow. He pulled his cell phone out of hisjacket breast pocket and Reyna could see more clearly now what was happening tohim. Dunstan was playing puppeteer withthe man’s mind, completely blocking out every ounce of free will Randy Smithhad and replaced it with his own.

Dunstan looked outto the cowering people now, like some Tyrant over a conquered people. “Would you look at that? The sun’ll be setting soon. Looks like you lot will be good forsomething. Vampires need to eat, too,you know. And it’s been so long sincethey’ve had such a feast thanks to your laws.” He told them with a slight tut of his tongue, as if these people werethe ones at fault.

Fingers curlinginto fists, Reyna could feel anger digging itself deep into her heart anddisgust tainting her tongue. Herbreathing came quicker and quicker and her skin tingled as her magic unraveledand prepared itself. Movement from oneof the Fairies, the ruby haired one again, caused Reyna’s head to turnagain. This time, when she saw the Fae’smalicious smile and raised hand—prepared to strike an elderly man—Reyna lashedout. Gripping onto the Fairy’s hearts—bothlocated where a human’s kidneys would be found—her eyes widen almost comicallybefore Reyna swiftly jerked her arm back, pulling the two organs through layersof bones, muscles and flesh. The organsfell to the floor with a squishy thud, and Reyna probably would’ve gagged overit if she hadn’t had to immediately turn and deflect another Fairy’sattack.

Reyna was in nomood to play, though. The kid gloveswere off—just like the Fae’s head once she was finished with it. Reyna turned to look at the last tworemaining Fairies, her blood singing for more. Cocking a brow, she silently dared one of them to come at her. It was a sigh from Dunstan that next caughther attention. Looking at her Master—ifshe should still call him that—Reyna wasn’t too sure what would come out if sheopened her mouth: words or bile.

“Reyna, what areyou doing?” He asked, an arm held up toRandy Smith’s body who had paused in his motion of dialing.

“What am I doing?” She hissed. “What are youdoing? That—this is crazy Dunstan! What thehonest hell are we doing here?”

“We’re making astand for magic kind,” he said in a tone that suggested it was obvious. “We can’t let King continue. He’ll be a terror to our society.”

“So what? You’ll just kidnap him? Killhim? Don’t you think that’s a bit overdramatic?” Reyna thought it was terriblyironic that she, the teenaged girl, was calling out a grown man on being overdramatic. She’d have to laugh about itlater. Maybe.

“No, dear, Idon’t.” Dunstan said through a clenchedjaw, his patience wearing thin. “Perhapsif you paid more attention to the current political events happening to ourcity instead of those vapid T.V. shows of yours, you’d understand.” He told her condescendingly, which in turnmade Reyna’s jaw clench. Seemingly donewith the conversation, and apparently ignoring the two dead Fairies at Reyna’shands, he once again turned his back on her. Randy Smith’s fingers started up again and soon a shrill ringing couldbe heard from his phone.

“I—I won’t let youdo this!” Reyna shouted. Dunstan’s spine noticeably stiffened, but theshe was already in motion. A faint voicesounded from the phone, but before Randy Smith could raise it to his ear, Reynasummoned the object into her hand and pressed the red button. Then, with a surge of magical strength, shecrushed the phone in her hand.

Brows set indetermination, Reyna looked up at Dunstan. He was furious. He’d turned toface her completely now and the air in the room seemed to thin out before thesound of crackling could be heard. Quickly ducking to the floor, a bolt of lightning shot past her head andhit the wall behind her, causing it to burn and sizzle. Thankfully it did not set ablaze. Exhaling sharply, Reyna’s fist relaxed forhalf a second before tightening again. Dunstan let out a surprised yelp as his body jerked towards the groundas the gravity around him became heavy.

The last twoFairies took threatening steps towards Reyna, but Dunstan quickly ordered themnot to interfere. “So you think you’reall grown up now, huh?” He panted as he broke away from the gravitationalpull. “You still have a lot to learn, dear.” He shoved out both of his arms,intending to once again knock Reyna off her feet.

She was preparedfor it this time, though, and only skidded a few feet backwards. “Maybe,” Reyna responded to his earlierstatement while snapping her thumb and middle finger together, creating a lickof fire, “but it won’t be from you!” Holding onto the lick of fire in the palm of her hand, Reyna lashed awhip of fire towards Dunstan and smirked when it singed his beard. She pulled her arm back, and while Dunstanprepared himself for another whipping, flicked the fire towards a little redbox on the wall behind her that read ‘Fire Alarm’.

A shrill ringingwent off in the building. The two Faeglanced between themselves before looking at Dustan. It was a Kodak moment, for sure. His mouth was agape, eyes wide, and the linebetween his mouth and cheek twitched with a horrible realization. The fire department was coming. “Looks like I learned something from my vapidT.V. shows,” Reyna said snidely. Takingadvantage of Dunstan’s surprise, Reyna used the hand that wasn’t holding a whipof fire to fling him into the two Fairies who’d lined up nicely next to eachother in their confusion. “Run!” She yelled to the trembling people.

Pulling on thesmall tendrils of smoke from the still sizzling wall behind her, Reyna createda smoke screen to slow Dunstan down. Notforgetting about the unconscious man, Reyna quickly went to his side, and withthe help of two other captives, got him out of there. Thankfully, it seemed that there was a firestation not far from the office building, and several trucks and ambulanceswere waiting for them as they escaped.

Seeing the fire-menpreparing the hoses, she hurried over and waved her arms to get theirattention. “It’s—it’s not—it’s not onfire,” she pushed the words out as eloquently as she could, but it seemed theadrenaline and magic high was leaving her system, making her speech almostslurred. “It’s not smoke,” she repeatedto the concerned looking fire-men. “Just—just magic. I can clear itout in . . . in just a sec.”

Letting out ashaky breath, Reyna bent over and placed her head between her legs. A heavy hand rested on her back, causing herto shoot straight back up. Her shouldersrelaxed when she saw it was just a paramedic. “Miss? Are you all right?” Heasked, “Come over to the truck, all right? I’ll give you a once over.”

“No, no,” shereassured. “I’m fine.” Turning towards the building and takinganother deep breath, Reyna unleashed her magic again and dispersed the blacksmoke. With the smoke gone, Reynaexpected to see a pair of pissed looking Fairies and one terribly angry Dunstanstanding inside the building. Blinkingtwice, and then rubbing her eyes for a good ten seconds, Reyna was surprised toreplace the office bare of anyone. “Shit,”she whispered.

“Miss? Are you sure you’re okay?” The paramedicasked again. Reyna wasn’t paying him anyattention, though. Fairy Doors, shementally cursed. They must’ve escapedthrough Fairy Doors. A cold shiver ranup her spine. Would Dunstan come backfor her? Try to attack her in revengefor ruining his plans? Would theFae? Reyna felt her body begin to shakewith the aftershock of it all. She wasdamn lucky to be alive.

The sound of a newsiren brought Reyna out of her daze. Itwas a police car. Someone must’vealerted them to what happened. Turningback to the paramedic who still looked so terribly concerned, Reyna tried togive him a half smile, “I think I’d like to lay down now.” The man nodded and help her sit down withsome of the other victims before fetching her a blanket. Reyna was very thankful for the blanketbecause her teeth had begun to chatter so hard she worried they may neverstop.

A gurney passed onits way to an ambulance. Reyna could seeit was the security guard. Standing up abit too fast, Reyna shook away the dark splotches that appeared in her visionand asked one of the other paramedics, “Will he be okay?”

“He should befine,” the woman told her. “Just a nastybump to the head knocked him out. We’llhave to wait until he’s awake to replace out if he has a concussion, though.”

Releasing a sigh, Reynawatched as they loaded the man onto the truck and drove away with blaringsirens. Sitting back down on the curb,and clutching the blanket closer to her, Reyna looked over the rest of thepeople. A few of them were staring intospace, but most were staring at her. Half of those who looked at her, looked at her like she was theanti-Christ and the other half looked on with something akin to awe. Turning her gaze back down to her knees, shethought about what to do next. It feltalmost trivial now, but Reyna remembered that she was still supposed to havedinner with Melchiorn. Huffing out ahalf laugh, half scoff, Reyna summoned her backpack from the brownstone andpulled out her cell phone, texting him if he could be so kind as to meet heroutside the King campaign headquarters.

Then, with stilltrembling fingers, Reyna dialed up a number and waited as it rang. “Marcus?” She sniffed, then laughed in anattempt to cover it, “You won’t believe what I’m about to tell you.”