Page 39 of Changeling
“No. Will you two listen to yourselves? You’re not taking that kind of risk just to see if there’s some secret way to save me from my mark in there.” Nathan wasn’t stupid; he knew what they were looking to the future for, and that’s what would get them in trouble. In any other situation neither of them would be so foolhardy.
Nathan was tempted too, not only for himself, but to see what the future might hold for all of them, especially for Jim and what his growing powers might lead to, but he wasn't about to fall for some dark fae trap.
Jim and Sasha both had downcast eyes because, of course, they knew how foolish even thinking about doing what they were suggesting actually was.
Nathan walked up to Sasha, opening the incubus’ dark leather jacket, and plucked one of the black markers they had brought along out of his pocket. “Even I know the right runes for neutralizing a spell. Once we've done that, burning the place should be enough. We're here for whoever's responsible for all this, remember? We need to draw them out.”
Reluctantly the others nodded, giving in to Nathan’s authority over the situation—which actually amazed him for a moment, considering Jim was the smart one and Sasha was the seal, but he’d take what he could get as long as they listened to him.
At first, everything seemed to go fine. Nathan scrawled neutralizing runes over the first door, while Jim took one of their other markers for the second one, and Sasha started spraying the part of the upper landing closest to both doors with lighter fluid.
The first words of a neutralizing incantation were barely out of Sasha's mouth before the house started shaking. Nathan staredhard at Sasha, and the incubus kept on speaking. They would light the place up and run for it as soon as he finished.
They were all crouched low to avoid toppling over as the shaking of the house intensified. The more Sasha spoke, the more the place shook. The magic put into this place was strong, and it did not want to give up its dominance over the house.
Nathan pulled out his lighter. He didn’t smoke, but having a lighter around came in handy in many situations. Matches were too unpredictable.
There wasn’t much left of the incantation, but Sasha was starting to lose his footing. Jim moved carefully over to him and grabbed onto Sasha's shoulders from behind to steady him. They were closer to door #2 while Nathan was standing by door #1 with his lighter out, waiting.
Sasha was only a few words from the end of the spell when everything went sour.
The house shook more violently than ever, as if an earthquake was cracking the foundation. Then, as the house gave a great shudder, an impossible wind rose up out of nowhere, and suddenly Nathan went down, landing hard on his side. He had never cursed himself so much for being overly prepared; he had already readied the lighter. When he fell, the flame hit the floor and a blaze erupted.
Jim was still hanging onto Sasha's shoulders. Nathan tried to yell to them over the roar of the shaking house, but he couldn’t even hear his own voice when it left him.
With a BANG both doors flew open outward so that the doors themselves slammed into the wall. All Nathan could see was bright light emanating from both of them. He shielded his eyes and looked to Jim and Sasha, trying to yell louder, because he couldn’t move and the fire was already lapping toward him and climbing up the walls.
Jim and Sasha stared into room #2, barely noticing the fire. Their eyes went wide at whatever they saw inside, and then the wind spun into a vortex, lifting Jim and Sasha into the air and sucking them right into room #2 without ceremony.
Nathan screamed but no sound came. He tried to move, tried to crawl, but the vortex spun toward him next, unseen but definitelyfelt, and lifted him into the air towards door #1. White light may have been emanating from it before, but when Nathan went through the door marked ‘Present’ everything went painfully black.
Chapter 16
Nathan'schestburnedfromhis still tender wounds, and a pain in his shoulder screamed as he came to. He had almost forgotten that it was still sore and bruised from being dislocated the previous night, considering everything that had been happening in the Animus House.
The house.
Nathan’s eyes sprung open and he immediately sat up, pain be damned. He was sore in a lot more places than just his chest and shoulder, and it was no wonder. Nathan was lying on the lawn of the Animus House in the early morning sun, not too far from the sidewalk. This was good considering if he had been any closer, he might have gotten caught in the debris that was left of the building.
“Nathan! Are you all right?” Walter called, there beside Nathan and crouching down as though he might help Nathan stand. “I wasn’t able to accompany you to the third floor. The power was too concentrated. What happened?”
Nathan didn’t yet answer Walter as he looked toward the house. The whole place had collapsed and was still smoking from the fire. Thankfully, the walls coming down must have smothered the flames before they could spread too far. That would have been a comfort if Nathan didn’t know that Jim and Sasha were buried somewhere amongst the rubble.
He thought for a brief moment that maybe they had been expelled like he had, but there was no sign of them. They had to be in the debris. Nathan didn’t even think, he just ran, straight for where he thought it made most sense for them to be after being sucked into the future room. As Nathan scrambled forward, he couldn’t help noticing how there didn’t seem to be enough debris to make up that whole house, like maybe half of it had been sucked away into nothing.
Oh, god.Nathan didn’t want to think that that’s what had happened to the others. He would rather find them broken and bloody than just find nothing.
“Jim! Sasha!” he screamed as he climbed over on top of everything in search of some sign as to where they might be. At least it was still early so that no one seemed to be around. That didn’t mean a house collapsing wouldn’t bring company quick. He had to find them. “Jim! Sasha!” he called again.
“Nathan, over here!” Walter waved to him from a short distance away.
Nathan spotted movement beside Walter beneath the rubble, and started scrambling that direction. His shoulder burned with the effort as he started tossing pieces of debris aside. He had to lift what was left of a door and, since none of the normal rooms had doors attached, he guessed it was from the Future room. Underneath that was a piece of broken wood from the 1st floor. He could still see the Gaelic writing of the number ‘twenty’ that had been above the last first floor room.
“Jim!” Nathan continued to call as he dug. He was so relieved when he finally spotted a hand and the cuff of Jim’s jacket that he broke into a grin.
As he was pushing and tossing more rubble away, he noticed that the rubble was pushing up towards him too. That meant Jim was conscious. Jim was okay.
“Jim!” Nathan cried in relief as he finally reached his brother. It shouldn’t have been possible but Jim only looked dirty and out of breath. He didn’t even have any cuts on him. “Jesus, are you okay?Howare you okay?”
