Page 27 of All Out of Flux
The Quartz Spider snapped his fingers. Tina disappeared, the only trace of her existence a blur in the darkness, like her entire body had been made of wet paint, nothing but a smear across a blackened canvas.
I lunged forward, stopping only because Leon was holding me back. “You fucking monster. What did you do to her?”
Brendan shrugged. “Sent her back in time, but at a much faster pace than the human body is used to. But she’s conditioned to the influence of magic, isn’t she? Your friend will be fine.”
My mouth hung open in horror. Tina was going through the motions of her day in reverse, everything happening backward, and there was nothing she could do to break out of it. All the warnings were true, and they were never enough. Time magic was far deadlier than anyone realized.
“In a few minutes, she’ll be back in bed, exactly as she was this morning,” Brendan said, pulling off one glove, inspecting his fingernails. “And tomorrow, she’ll wake up refreshed, as if nothing had happened. Well, provided a truck doesn’t run her over between here and her apartment.”
My hand went to his face, pointing, accusing. “If anything happens to Guillotina, I will make sure you live to regret it.”
“You could have killed us,” Leon said. “Multiple times you could have ended us, and yet you didn’t. I’m asking you again. Why?”
Brendan Shum tilted his head back and sighed, curls of misty air rolling from his nostrils, tumbling like dragon smoke. The stars reflected in his eyes, twinkling, distant pinpoints. Again I considered how he could have become an actor or a model if he wasn’t so committed to being a total psycho.
“This was never about killing, you understand? Any steps I’ve ever taken to neutralize you and your friends — that’s all it was. To remove you from the situation so I could carry on with mywork. I would, however, argue that it has everything to do with death.”
I didn’t react quickly enough. The sudden cessation of pressure from Leon’s muscles should have clued me in. He nudged me out of the way, practically stomping up to Brendan Shum, the two of them almost face to face.
“What the fuck are we doing here? You keep going on and on with your cryptic bullshit. Meanwhile, the rest of the magical community in Dos Lunas is supposed to just follow you around and clean up your mess.”
Brendan’s forehead creased with thought. I reached a hand out to paw at Leon’s back. He shrugged me away.
“Leon,” I said, tautening my voice with warning. “Get back here. Calm down, buddy.”
“No, I willnotcalm down. He’s put us and our friends into too many dangerous situations already, and it is pissing me the fuck off not knowing what it’s all for. Why do you do the things you do? Who is this for? What is this for?”
Then came the shove, both of Leon’s palms slamming against the Quartz Spider’s chest. The look of somber introspection on his face quickly turned to anger.
“Will you knock off the brooding supervillain schtick already? No one’s buying it. Speak up. Fucking say something.”
“Leon,” I said, stepping forward, swiping to grab at the back of his shirt, to pull him away.
“Enough.”
Brendan Shum clicked his fingers. My hand closed around thin air. Leon was gone. I snarled, throwing myself at Brendan, ready to rip his face off.
But I never made impact. I shouted at him in confusion, never hearing the sound of my own voice. Again and again my feet left the ground as I made a running leap, and my fist never connected with his face.
Yet I felt every shudder in my bones, the tensing of all the muscles in my body as it went through the same motions again and again. My momentum all running on adrenaline and rage, my heart thumping so loud I could hear it in my ears — over and over and over.
“I can keep this going,” Brendan said, sweeping his hand left, then right, like he was swiping on the screen of some invisible device, scrubbing and scanning to rewind my place in time. “We can do this over and over again until your bones splinter from the impact, or your body starves for breath, or your heart gives out. Whichever comes first.”
Warm wetness dripped down my chin, tears of anger and frustration. “Where did you take him?” I shouted, without words, without voice. “Where did you take him?”
“He’s safe,” Brendan said. “Somewhere the two of us can speak without interruption, without angry, overprotective boyfriends getting in the way.”
That time my arm slugged so hard a stab of pain erupted in my shoulder’s socket. How much longer could I keep this up?
Without another word, the Quartz Spider slipped into darkness, vanishing into the night. And I screamed, and ran, and screamed, and no one was there to listen.
13
LEON
Iopened my eyes to blistering, searing white. I groaned, my hand flying up to cover my face. My eyes squeezed shut as I struggled to adjust to the light.
The brightness seemed to be pouring from every direction, as if floodlights were staring me dead on. A ring of cars with their high beams set to asshole, burning my retinas even with my eyes closed.
