Page 35 of Dark Night Golden Dawn
Something bloomed deep within her as she hailed a cab of her own, something fierce and primal, protective. The fibers of magic in the air around her snapped, as though she’d done something to alter reality, but she was too focused on her plan to pay much attention. Her vision focused sharply and all her senses heightened in a way that made her feel like a cat stalking prey.
Harlow gave the cabbie Mark’s address. He’d taken her key back, but it didn’t matter. Today was the day she was taking Axel, and the final shreds of her self-respect she’d left behind, back. The elite human sector downtown in Greenvale Slope was as lovely and well-kept as any of the Orders’ sectors, but Harlow barely registered the scenery. Something inside her was writhing, changing, begging to be let out. She paid the cabbie without speaking a word and swept into the building she’d lived in for nearly two years.
Salvatore, the human doorman, waved to her as she passed, looking worried. She knew he’d be too afraid to stop her, and as she expected, he was dialing the phone at his desk as the elevator doors closed. She had at least a half-hour, given traffic at this time of day, to get Axel and get out before Mark could make it back to this side of town. She closed her eyes, waiting for the elevator to reach the fourteenth floor.
Harlow floated out of the elevator, as if in a dream. She wasn’t sure if it was the shock of coming face to face with Mark and Olivia, or if she was finally losing it, but her vision was blurry and she could have sworn magic crackled around her from elsewhere, beyond the threads that made up everything on Okairos. She would have to consider that later. Right now, she had only one goal.
“I’m coming, baby boy,” she murmured, though she wasn’t exactly sure how she would achieve that. Some force in her, whatever bloomed on Mulberry Street, urged her on.
From somewhere inside the apartment, she heard Axel howling in response. He could hear her. Absolute fury overcame her and her vision went completely dark for a moment. Her eyes shot open to the sound of the door flying past her, into the hallway. She’d just torn it off its hinges. That was something new, but she would have to think about that later. Someone had opened the door to their apartment, so now she probably needed to worry about the city guard, in addition to Mark returning.
“Axel?” she whispered, not wanting to step foot inside her former prison. For that’s what it had been after he’d persuaded her to quit her job at the human bookstore: a prison.
Inside, the sounds of frantic yowling and a loud thud echoed through the cold hallways. Axel was shut up somewhere. Whatever new power seethed in her propagated at an unbelievable rate, filling her to the brim with an undulating force begging to be let out.
Harlow stepped inside the apartment, her skin prickling as a flood of memories threatened to wash her new confidence away. The dynamic force of the power in her fluctuated, changing by the moment. Harlow rode the waves of it as best she could, and found that she sailed along the currents of the storm within her with ease. There was no danger of her losing control now.
“Axel. Baby boy, where are you?” she called. The sound of her voice was alien, deep and resonant, shaking the walls and doors.
The volume of Axel’s yowling increased and there was another loud thud. He was locked in the hall bath. She ran down the tiled hallway, willing her fear to subside enough to carry her through this. Harlow yanked on the door, which always stuck a little, and it flew open, releasing the stench of feline urine and feces. Mark hadn’t been regularly cleaning up after the cat, and the bathtub was full of waste. Harlow tamped down her rage, focusing on searching for Axel. Her eyes met two golden pools of wrath.
Axel was sitting on the counter, enraged by his captivity, but clean enough, given the circumstances. His usually silky coat was dull though, and the fur around his middle sank into the impression of his ribs—not much, but enough for Harlow to know he hadn’t been eating enough. Mark and Olivia would pay for this, but not until she got him away, made sure he was safe. Tears streamed down her face as she opened her arms. Axel cried, the piteous sound breaking Harlow’s heart, as he jumped into her arms, clinging tightly to her.
He’d been a sleek, muscular eighteen pounds when Mark kicked her out, and now he was skinny and far too light. She held him close as she ran for the hallway and the stairs, everything behind them a blur. Harlow refused to look back, knowing that her window of time to escape without question was narrowing. As she went, the elevator showed that a car was coming up and she didn’t want to be on this floor when it arrived.
“Hold on, baby boy,” she cautioned. “We’re going home.”
The cat nuzzled against her face, purring happily, which shattered her heart even further as she raced down flight after flight of stairs. It was impossible to imagine how he could be so happy to see her when she left him behind. It didn’t matter now. All that mattered was getting him out of here.
A shout rang out from the flights above her; the city guard she supposed. Footsteps clattered down behind her and she ran faster, but they were gaining and she had several more flights to go—and then what? She hadn’t asked the cabbie to stay, and even if she had, they wouldn’t have run from the city guard for her.
She’d be caught and they might even make her give Axel back to Mark. Somewhere, deep inside, a voice reminded her that was unlikely to happen, that her mothers were important people, that Finn might even help her, but the protective instinct that drove her on overrode that logic. The same instinct bade her to halt, suggesting something she didn’t even know was possible. But she wouldn’t question it, not now, with Axel in her arms and freedom just a few flights of stairs away.
“Hold tight,” she warned Axel, who stared murderously up at the guards clambering down the stairs.
Aether crackled around her, flowing through the threads of magic she pulled at with her free left hand, holding Axel close with her right. Midnight blue shadows spilled from her fingers as she wove sigils of protection, the most basic she knew. It was all she could think of to do, but when she’d finished, nothing happened. The threads of magic didn’t shift the way they were supposed to. In fact, nothing happened.
She’d somehow pulled a door off its hinges on her way in, but couldn’t do a simple protection spell?What was wrong with her?
The most basic tenet of magic occurred to her then: magic is will, woven into reality. The aether was the power, but magic, at its core, was a matter of will. Harlow felt something stirring within her, and her spirit eye snapped open in the limen, the world between all worlds, where her spirit form flew as if on giant wings towards the heart of the limen, where all magic came from. It was full of inky blue shadows, just like the ones that came from her. They seemed to sing when they saw her coming. Power coursed through her spirit form, into her material body.
Harlow blinked and was back in the stairwell. The city guard was nearly upon them, their feet pounding the metal stairs. She didn’t have time to think, but she glanced down at the shadows swirling around her and whispered a plea, “Protect us.”
By Akatei’s grace, the shadows dancing at her fingertips came alive and the aether crackled once more as the shadows billowed out of her, filling the stairwell, until the light from the fluorescents disappeared entirely. The sounds of the guards’ shouts muffled to a dull roar as Harlow walked calmly down the remaining flight of stairs, out the back door and onto the concrete stairs that led to the alley. She pressed her hand to the closed door, more shadows flowing from her touch, and wished she knew a way to lock the door.
Something vibrated softly under her hand, and a lock appeared and turned of its own accord, looking as though it had always been there. A key appeared in her hand and she tucked it into her purse, clutching Axel tight, relief edging each breath she took. She couldn’t explain what was happening with her magic, but they were almost free.
As she turned to walk down the steps she felt her second sight engage. A glassy wall, opaque and treacherous, rose up before her. She and Axel had been here before, the night she and Mark split up.
“I don’t have time for this now,” she breathed, holding Axel just a bit tighter.
Her second sight refused to disengage and Harlow had the distinct sense that she was falling, as if in a dream. The shadows that had filled the stairwell flooded her mind’s eye now, pulling her back into the reality outside her connection to the aether.
Thank you, she thought to herself. Whatever it was, this primal force was helping her. The glass wall was gone and she could move again. Inside the building, she heard the city guard shouting, pulling on the door. They would go around the building eventually. If she didn’t want to be caught, she had to leave now.
Harlow walked as calmly as she could out of the alley onto the street, and hailed another cab, stepping into it with only a quick glance behind her. No one followed as the cab pulled away, and the shadows had disappeared.
“Don’t usually let animals in the cab, miss,” the cabbie remarked as he pulled into traffic.
