The ground exploded, and I used the cover to erect my own dome around the park, trying to keep the fight away from the residents of the town, who were spilling from their houses in response to the noise.
The people here would never know what had taken place—even now their phones were dropping, and their eyes were going vacant. The suppression magic would prevent them from remembering, like a vague daydream, and delete any visual evidence on their devices.
But if I let things get out of hand, they would die, and no one from the Department would resurrect them.
I threw out a device to extinguish all lights, then another—one horribly full of fear and flight to force the people to return to their homes. Screams and pounding footsteps echoed the directive.
I gritted my teeth at the changing news reports. We had moved up the First Layer “excuse list” from causing an earthquake to triggering a gas main explosion. The feral’s family was going to think he had been killed in a natural disaster, in the same way my parents had attributed Christian's death to an electrical explosion that had blacked out the city.
Fury rose within me.
My cloak whipped out wildly against the shrieking shadows.
I needed fifteen more seconds. Fifteen seconds in which to activate the device that would spirit me elsewhere without endangering the people or the layer any more.
“They will all die,” Stavros' voice said, just off my left. “Just like your dear brother. By your hand or by mine, they will die. At least if it's by my hand, the world will have a new and glorious path.”
My fury was all encompassing, yet I managed to rein it in at the last moment. Five seconds. Hang on.
Stavros’s face flipped into an exact replica of Christian's. Teal eyes beseeched me. “You killed me, Ren.”
Black-and-white patterns swirled in front of my eyes, and the sky ripped in rage as I blasted the puppet wearing my brother's face.
Reverberations echoed through the layer immediately and ten more hunters appeared in the street, Stavros's face flipping inhumanly between them. “Oh, dear, did someone get angry?
The device clicked, and a gentle slice tore through the First Layer. I dove and flipped myself through the crack, sealing the slice as I emerged on the other side. Black-and-white patterns slid across my view. I wasted no time, hobbling to where I had pushed the Awakening mage. He was shaking, and lightning was sparking against the warding field I had placed around him.
“What… How… That man made that object fly, and that other shot lightning, and you made the sidewalk wrap around me before sending me under the ground. Please say this isn’t Hell.”
I touched the field and sent soothing vibes to ease his shaking. His Awakening magic was reacting forcefully, bursting against the confines of the protection field.
“We are in the Second Layer of the world now. Magic is real. That's what you feel rousing inside of you,” I explained, out of breath, but without pause. “You will be in danger until it settles. I'll get you to safety. Meditate if you can, put your headphones back on, if you can't.”
I lifted my hand and pulled. A portal appeared in the air and spit out the hunter I had ejected from the First Layer. At least he was no longer wearing Christian's face. I shuddered, then twisted the man's life force and rendered him unconscious.
I paused for a precious moment, putting my left hand to my eyes, trying to reject the overlay of the black-and-white patterns that had taken over everything in view, and trying to reject the tumultuous set of emotions that were swirling through me.
“What are you doing?” the boy asked.
I couldn’t do it. There was too much.
I pushed the boy back, and paint abruptly spilled from my mouth. A swirling chasm of prismatic color opened on the ground. Lightning crackled in the view.
“What. The. Hell?”
I ignored him and shakily pulled the vortex into a storage paper, then healed the breech the paint had caused. Unfortunately, nothing would grow there for a while, and a corresponding spot in the Fifth Layer was probably experiencing a similar fate.
“Did you just barf paint?”
I put a trembling hand on the forehead of the unconscious praetorian. Kaine's shadows tickled the edges of my fingers and I had to fight to keep my hand in place.
“What are you doing?”
Random bits of information surged through my mind, but also something unexpected. A shape with blurred edges and points.
I could feel Kaine's shadows on the praetorian—feel how they were reaching out toward something in the distance.
“We need to go,” I said, wrapping air around my hand and trying to pinpoint how long we had until we were once again surrounded.
Stavros was smart. And giving in to his taunting was always a bad choice.
The Awakening mage looked at the downed praetorian while shaking and flexing his fingers. Magic flowed through him as he tried to gain some control of the new force permeating his body. “Will he be okay?”
“Vermin always creep back,” I said darkly as I finished patting the man down, gathering all items from his pockets and putting them in a sealed pouch. “How are you feeling?”
As if the question suddenly snapped him out of his panic, his eyes unfocused.
“I…I can hear everything,” the boy said, weaving a little unsteadily. “I can hear the leaves, the animals, the weird wind, like it’s the music of the world. I thik' I migh' pass ot',” he slurred as he tilted precariously.
I ducked under his arm and lifted it around my shoulder, then started walking as quickly as my damaged leg would allow.
“W'are yu doig?” he asked drunkenly, and the music accelerated in tempo as it escaped the shield. I used the freed magic to make him lighter, then patched the leak with two b flats that were floating between us. Going through the layers had torn a section of the shield. I'd have to tweak the design again later—get Neph to help me harness the music. I wondered—
I shook my head at my random thoughts and pushed us toward a spot of earth that would do nicely. “We need to move fast. They are coming.”
I had used far too much magic in both layers to remain hidden. And whereas I had the slightest advantage in the First Layer, there was no way the Department wouldn't find us in the layer they controlled, especially with Kaine's shadows leading the way. I could feel them coming.
“Nothing makes sense,” he slurred, but I could understand his words better now. Magic was patching them and making them whole. Awakenings were wonderful.
My heart ached each time I saw the beauty of one.
“That tree is asking for water.” He pointed unsteadily. “And the wind is drumming a marched beat, like it's readying for war.”
I picked up our pace. His second observation was a bad omen.
“I can hear the birds...talking?”
I cocked my head reflexively, but couldn't sense any avian conversation. The strength of his Awakening, my lack of auditory talent, and the forced cloaking of my powers, gave him the decided sense advantage.
“What are they saying?”