“No? Do you know of any?”
The Good Doctor remained quiet and still. His form filled the room, and the shadows drew themselves closer to him, enveloping him, smothering him. He never moved, only when gesturing with a gloved hand or a nod. To the men and women of old Venice, the sight of a plague doctor’s mask was a terrifying thing; it was the last thing a victim of the plague would see before they were ferried to an island to be burned alive.
But to Isaac, the Good Doctor was a comfort—like a warm blanket to wear against the cold, or an umbrella to put up against the rain. Isaac, like all mages, had been born with only half a soul, a defect for many in early life, but the key that unlocks the Tempest—the source of all magic—to the mage once he is ready to inherit his birthright. If the mage can successfully take the plunge off the Precipice and survive within the roiling storm of magic, he earns the right to a Guardian, to arcane secrets, and to the other half of his soul.
All mages were reincarnations of a sort, or at least this was the way Isaac saw things. Many disagreed. On what all mages did agree, however, was that they had no access to any memory of their previous lives, and their Guardians were forbidden to offer their mages more insight or knowledge than what they already possessed. If Isaac knew the answer to a question, no matter how deeply buried within his subconscious it was, the Guardian could reveal it to him.
So when the Good Doctor refused to answer the question, Isaac couldn’t say he was surprised. He took a deep breath, and exhaled.
“If someone is lost on the other side,” Isaac said, “I must help them. I am honor-bound to do so. But there are many risks here, many variables I cannot factor.”
“Magic is not all variables.”
“Isn’t it?” Isaac stood and paced around the room. “I’m sure there are chaos mathematicians out there who would disagree with you. But I am not a chaos mathematician and have no time to find one.” He rounded on his Guardian. “Do I have the power to open a door into the Reflection?”
The Good Doctor nodded.
“And do I have the power to connect with Emily once the door is open?”
The Good Doctor nodded again. “But,” he said, “You already knew the answer to these questions. You did not summon me for help with the lost lamb; you summoned me for counselling with regards to the lioness in the room.”
Isaac turned to look at Alice. She was sleeping soundly with her eReader resting on her chest. He took the device from her hand, placed it in her bag without snooping around inside, and then covered her with the jacket he had hanging on the hook behind his door.
“There’s something about her,” he said as he stood over her. “I don’t know what it is yet, but there’s something about her…”
“She is unique,” the Good Doctor said, “We have not met another like her.”
“We haven’t. And this is what’s eating me inside, it’s the question I could never answer, and the reason why we didn’t work. I wanted to dig, to better understand her so she could better understand herself, but she wouldn’t let me.”
“She does not yet understand who or what she is.”
Isaac nodded. “But she knows a lot more now than she did then. I could learn so much from her.”
A sensation which was both cold and warm at once filled him, spreading from his right wrist and up into his chest. Isaac pulled the sleeve of his shirt up and saw how the bangle he wore around his wrist—a brass thing covered in simple jewels and etchings—had a faint glow the color of a bright ocean. He swallowed and watched the glowing light pulse, ebb, and dance as he considered for a moment, for a single instant, unlocking his magical senses and analyzing Alice while she slept.
There were so many things he knew about her, and so many things he didn’t know. Wanted to know. Needed to know. He was a Necromancer, and she was a Necromantic equation he could not solve. A question without an answer. This couldn’t be, of course. There wasn’t a single equation in the entire universe a mage with the right amount of determination couldn’t solve. But while knowledge was certainly power, power wasn’t
everything
, and Isaac would not undermine his own morals for a sliver of understanding.
He closed his mind to magic, and the bangle on his wrist ceased glowing.
“A wise decision,” said the Good Doctor. “You wish to strengthen your relationship with her again. Do this, and the answers you seek will come.”
Isaac nodded. “Thank you, doctor,” he said, turning to face his Guardian. “I would be lost without your guidance.”
The Good Doctor gestured toward the desk, and Isaac walked back toward his chair, stopping for a moment to admire the sword standing upright in his cabinet. Alice had been staring at it earlier.
“I must remember to send that up to the exhibit,” Isaac said as he went to grab his keys and his wallet from his desk. He then circled back around, came up to Alice, and gently tapped her shoulder.
Alice awoke like a cat, alert and in an instant. “Huh?” she said, “Fuck. Did I fall asleep?”
“You did,” Isaac said, “But now it’s time to work. I’m ready, and Emily is waiting for us.”
CHAPTER TEN
Return to the Royale
In the interest of limiting the amount of time she and Isaac would spend together tonight, Alice had insisted he drive his own car and follow her to the Cinema Royale. She couldn’t believe she had fallen asleep in his armchair, even if it had only been for a little while. That was stupid. Refreshing, but stupid. And not because Isaac was a bad guy.
He was classy and charming, and very much the proper gentleman. But his hard-on for magic and knowledge had bordered on obsession, and while this wasn’t the only reason behind her decision to end the relationship, it had definitely been top three. Alice hadn’t wanted to come and see Isaac, hadn’t wanted to ask for his help, and didn’t think—in the end—she would
need
his help. Of course, she would regret thinking that. But she
had
come to him in the end, had put a problem on his lap, and he had jumped at the chance to help.
The Reflection had changed her physically, mentally, and spiritually, and for a long time Isaac had wanted to know exactly how. But she had closed herself to him and refused to speak of the horrors she had faced at the hands of the wicked
thing
that had snatched her across. He had wanted to see what made her tick because there was no one else like Alice in all the world. But she wanted nothing to do with any of it, and in the end, it broke them apart.
The memories made her eyebrows pinch together and her teeth grind. Her opinion of Isaac Moreau was a tug-of-war. On one hand, he was a good man with good intentions, which, in Ashwood, meant he was a damn walking miracle. On the other hand, he was obsessed with magic, with history, and with Alice. And this obsession, in the end, made her wonder whether he had meant it when he told her he loved her, or if he would say anything to keep his pet Guinea pig from escaping its cage.
She pulled her chrome Mustang into a parking spot half a block away from the Cinema Royale. The car purred as it slid into the gap like a glove, and Alice listened to the rumbling engine for a moment before killing it. Then she grabbed her backpack from the passenger seat and waited. Isaac’s car rolled up alongside, slowing as he searched for a nearby parking spot. She saw the tail-lights flash red, and then Isaac pulled in. A moment later, they were walking side-by-side down the quiet, wet street with only the crows as companions.
They’re singing
, she randomly thought.
“Did you have a good nap?” Isaac asked, out of the blue. She figured it was his attempt at small-talk, but didn’t much care for it.
“That arm-chair is pretty comfortable. I hope you haven’t had sex with anyone on it.”
Isaac’s aura flared up like a heat-flash. What she had just said had stung, and she hated herself for saying it. Hadn’t she meant it as a joke? Why, then, had it sounded so fucking cold?
“Not that I know of,” he said, “In any case I have a maid, and she’s quite thorough.”
Alice fell silent as guilt swept through her. It had been unfair of her to judge him for what he had been doing when she came to his office. They had been broken up for years. Alice hadn’t been shy of taking lovers, so why should she chastise Isaac for it?
“Theater’s coming up,” she said, pointing, and was glad for the change in subject.
As they closed the distance between where their cars were parked and the once grand Cinema Royale, Alice began to get the impression she was walking against a wall of some kind. The sensation was like walking into a soft wind, of being gently urged away. The phantom resistance made her skin crawl all over, a feeling she now associated almost explicitly with this place, but she ignored it and moved on until she arrived at the theatre’s main doors.
She slid the key into the lock, turned it, and opened the door expecting Isaac to step inside, but he didn’t. He was looking into the darkness, his eyes narrow, lips pressed thinly. Isaac took a deep, calming breath, and then stepped through the doors and into the lobby. Alice followed, and she felt the resistance push against her chest again, this strange wall of wind. Once she made it inside and closed the door, the sensation abated.
The lobby was black as pitch. Except for the sounds of Isaac’s shuffling feet, the building seemed to be devoid of all sound, and now heat too. It was like walking into outer space. Alice rubbed her shoulders with her hands and then pulled the flashlight out of her pocket. Flicking it on, Isaac’s profile came into view. He turned around, and for a moment his eyes seemed to reflect the light as if they were silver.
“Can you feel that?” he asked. She could see puffs of steam forming at his lips as he spoke.
“Feel what?” Alice said, fully aware of the way she was feeling, but curious to know how a Mage saw the world. They had, after all, never worked together in a professional sense.
Isaac stretched his right hand out to about chest level and flexed his fingers. From beneath the cuff of his jacket, a soft blue glow began to radiate. “They don’t want us in here. They’ve known we were coming for a while, probably hours.”
“Is it the woman?” Alice asked, “The one whose hand I saw in the picture?”
“I don’t know… I can sense more than one person. It’s possible Emily is among them.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“Not precisely,” he said, lowering his hand. “I shouldn’t be doing this. Neither of us should.”
This caught Alice by surprise. “We need to help Emily,” Alice said, “That’s why we’re here. Don’t chicken out on me now.”
“That’s not what I mean. I mean that we shouldn’t be here because every second we spend here we’re giving them energy to use.”
“I know that. I’m probably giving them more energy than you are.”
“Exactly,” Isaac said, frowning, “How did you know I was going to say that?”
“Because I feel the same things you feel, only to you they’re facts you’ve learned. To me it’s instinct. I don’t think they’re too fussed about your presence, so we’re good.”
“You’re probably right, but when I start using magic…” Isaac trailed off.
“What? What do you think will happen if you start using magic?”
“I don’t know, but it won’t be good. Bringing magic into the world is dangerous enough as it is, especially Necromantic magic which is what I would need to use if I wanted to open a door into the Reflection. If you think you’re giving them energy to feed off, bringing magic here could be like tossing a match into a propane tank. It could blow this whole place wide open, or it could give them stores of energy.”
“So we’ll be ready for whatever happens once you open Pandora’s box.”
“I don’t know if we
will
be ready.”
“And I don’t know what you’re trying to say, Isaac,” Alice said, an angry heat rising in her chest. “We’re here to help Emily. If you’re too much of a pussy to take a risk for her, then I’ll do it on my own.”
“I’m not saying we shouldn’t help,” he said, easily maintaining his calm demeanor. “But I like to know how things are going to turn out, and I simply don’t know what will happen once I start. That makes me nervous, and if it doesn’t make you nervous, then you’re even more ignorant than I thought.”
“If I’m ignorant, then you’re malicious,” she said, almost snarling. Her heart was beating hard inside her chest, and her skin was tingling with warmth. But Isaac didn’t speak. He stared at her with those eyes of his which, whenever the light happened to catch them, seemed to glint as if they were marbles.
“We have to do this,” she said, “Because as dangerous as it could be for us to try this now, it will be much worse later. They’ve already gotten stronger since the last time I was here, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.”
Isaac took a breath, stepped back, and nodded. “Alright,” he said.
Alice also took a breath—a breath of relief. Her heart calmed, and she swallowed the last of her nerves.
“I’ll need space,” Isaac said, “Somewhere wide enough to cast a circle.”
“We should go in the auditorium. That’s where she went missing.”
Isaac nodded, and together they pushed through the door on the other side of the lobby and walked into the auditorium.