"You're not sleeping over Cara's house, are you?"
Matt was standing in the doorway, one hand on top of the frame. That particular position had become a habit of his ever since he got tall enough to reach it with a generous bend in his elbow. Isobel thought he was just showing off. It hadn't been that long ago that she had towered over her little brother and it was still strange to her to reach up to ruffle his hair (in a way that always annoyed him) instead of down.
Knowing that her face would give her away instantly, Isobel turned her back to him, busying herself with the bag on her bed. It wasn't just part of the cover story. The clothes inside were her most comfortable sweatpants and a soft t-shirt, all set to put on when she got back from—
Well she didn't want to think about that. "What else would I be doing?"
It took him a minute to answer, mostly because there was an extremely obvious answer as to why she would be lying to her parents about where she would be that night. "So you're not going to a party?"
Hah. That only showed what he knew. But he was going to suspect something, and that was better than the truth. Sighing, she pushed her bag aside and climbed onto her bed, hugging one of the soft pillows to her chest. "Alright, you caught me."
He grinned like this was the coolest thing he had ever heard. "Have you ever even snuck out before?" His eyes, staring brightly down at her, were the exact same shade as hers.
Suddenly she could feel the moisture gathering in the corner of her eyes. Oh God, she was really going to do this. Ignoring his question, she stared down at her hands, which were clenched so tightly into fists that she was leaving red crescents on her palms.
"Hey, I'm not going to tell on you," he said quickly. She must have looked really upset if he was actually trying to comfort her, instead of making fun of her. She had to pull herself together. "Are you okay?"
Isobel blinked to chase away any possible tears and looked back up, smiling as brightly as she could. It was half-hearted but hopefully it convinced him. "Yeah, of course." She pushed herself off the bed, zipping her bag closed and slinging it over her shoulder. "Actually I'm leaving now."
She quickly zipped up her boots and then, before Matt could move away, wrapped him in a tight hug.
He pushed at her shoulders. "Get off of me," he whined. She pulled back. "Seriously, what is wrong with you?"
"Nothing," she said quickly. "Just… don't say anything. And I'll see you tomorrow." Her voice broke on the last part and she hurtled down the stairs and out the door before she could see his reaction.
Her parents weren't home, which was probably a good thing. She didn't know how to say this kind of goodbye.
Twenty minutes later, they were the only two cars in the school parking lot. Isobel hadn't driven today, since she wouldn't be around to drive back. Cara had picked her up and they had been the first to arrive, sitting in an uncomfortable, worried silence until the others came.
They had chosen the school fairly easily as a meeting place for this particular encounter. It was where they had been discovered once before, so the creatures were likely to look for them here. And they had to look for them, if they wanted this to work.
"Ready?" Isobel asked Grace.
Grace just gave her a look—something like 'are you really asking me that?'—before nodding reluctantly. Jonathan stepped back, leaning against the hood of Anna's car with the same surly expression that he had worn most of yesterday, and Isobel closed her eyes.
It took her longer to call up the Heart than usual. She could hear her own heart beating in the silence and it kept distracting her as she reached for the power. She fumbled for it, her stomach dropping for one terrible instant at the thought that she might not be able to do it, before she finally managed to grab hold. When she opened her eyes it hovered just above her outstretched palm, glowing with fuchsia light.
She hung onto the transformation as long as she could, focusing on nothing but the fire running through her veins. Even though she knew it wasn't possible, she could imagine it burning away her fear.
When they settled down to the ground, she gripped the Heart tightly one last time. It seemed to pulse through her, like a reassurance, and that made it a little bit easier to hand it over to Anna.
"Make sure they don't see you have it," she said, keeping her voice steady with tremendous effort. "It'll bring you to me when you guys are ready, but don't come too soon. Give me a little time so I can see if I can figure out what he's doing."
This was her least favorite part of the plan. It was an amorphous vision of dark and cold and whatever unimaginable horrors were holed up with the mastermind behind all of this. Whatever this person wanted to do to her, she was positive it wouldn't be pleasant.
She turned to Jonathan. "How can we make them find us?"
He clearly did not want to have any part of this. The anger helped to fortify her. So he thought she was stupid for coming up with this plan? Fine. She was going to do this, and it was going to work. "Use your magic," he said reluctantly. "They'll sense it."
Cara stretched out her hands over the damp pavement where the snow was melting into a brownish slush. It rose towards her palms, quivering slightly. The girl frowned at this unusual response. "I think the dirt is interfering," she said, letting it drop again.
Marlie put down the coffee she had been sipping and crouched down to find the tiny weeds growing in the cracks in the asphalt. She coaxed them up with a hand until they danced around her knees. When she looked up, the slight smile on her face vanished. "Behind you!" she yelled to Cara.
The other girl spun around, directing her lump of snow straight into the stomach of a man in black. It wasn't heavy enough to knock him over but he stumbled back.
Marlie's vines grew higher, lashing out towards another one of the creatures. Grace faced down a third, her hands full of fire. Anna gave Isobel one last concerned look before taking a place next to Cara and bowling a fourth man over with a gust of wind.
The four girls formed an arc to face their enemies, holding them off. Isobel took a deep, shaky breath and launched herself into the air to come down on the other side of the creatures.
She clenched her fists against the urge to run as one of them turned towards her. Were they they same ones as last time? She couldn't tell. They all looked the same, like they had been manufactured on the same line, an endless army of them to find the girls and any other wayward magic in this world.
Isobel flew at him at top speed. She knocked him backwards but not to the ground and he grabbed her arm before she could fly away. Her heart hammered in her chest and her stomach felt as if it had turned to lead. Even thought it was what she had intended, she didn't want to let him hold her.
Struggling against his grip, she caught Grace's eye. The fear on the other girl's face was real. Isobel thought she should give her a reassuring smile but she couldn't have managed it even if she wasn't worried that it would give away their intentions.
The battle was still going on. What if her friends couldn't hold them all off? Jonathan had joined in the fight as well, elbowing one of the men hard in the nose as he reached towards Anna. But there were so many of them…
They stopped suddenly, turning towards Isobel and her captor. Isobel froze, forgetting her half-feigned struggle. For a second she was afraid that the creatures had seen through their plan.
The last thing she saw before the world vanished was the bright flash of the Heart, hidden in Anna's bag on the back of her car.
Isobel faded slowly into consciousness. She blinked, once, twice, three times, before the blurriness faded from her vision enough for her to see where she was.
The room around her was small and dimly lit. Heavy curtains covered the window, obscuring the time of day. Her attempt to sit up to get a better look was halted by a sharp pain in her forearms.
She was in what appeared to be a dentist's chair, although most of those didn't have metal restraints for her arms and legs with edges sharp enough to bite into her skin if she moved too much.
The girl let her head and shoulders fall back to the chair. She had always hated the dentist. This struck her as an odd thought to be having at the moment, and she wondered how she could feel so calm. Maybe being prepared to be a prisoner had desensitized her to the fear of waking up in a strange place, unable to move. Then again, she couldn't dispute that she was afraid. It was a dull sensation, hiding deep in her stomach, but it was there.
That sensation spiked suddenly as the door opened. Two men came through first. They were dressed differently and their faces were shadowed but Isobel thought they might be the same creatures as the men who had taken her.
The third man was different. He was clearly human, or something similar to human, and something about him made her wish for the expressionless features of the robot-men. The neat, dark suit he wore made him look like any of the businessmen that she saw getting on and off the train near her house, but his face was cruel.
The smile he gave her made her shiver. "Welcome," he said. "So nice of you to join us here."
When she spoke, her voice sounded rusty. Isobel wondered how long she had been unconscious. "Where am I?"
This made him smile wider. It was far from a kind smile. "Well I can't tell you that, can I? I confess I am not fully aware of your powers but there might be some way that you can contact your friends and tell them everything. I would like to meet them, of course." He stepped closer, running one hand along the edge of the chair until it reached the top. Then he leaned in. "But not quite yet."
It was futile, she knew, but Isobel struggled against the bonds, ignoring the pain. The man watched her with amusement, saying nothing until she gave up.
"I'm sure you know something of what I have been doing in this world," he said, standing up straight again. He turned around, busying himself with something out of sight. "Magic, after all, is a valuable commodity. And yours, well, yours is very special."
The thought had crossed her mind that he would take the opportunity of having in her captivity to drain as much of her power as she could. Isobel gave an inward sigh of relief that the Heart was out of his hands. Hopefully, no matter what he took, the crystal could give it back. And even if it didn't, her friends would keep their magic.
He faced her again to fasten a second shackle around her right arm. This one was on the wrist. After he tested that it was secure, he undid the wider band. "Don't think that this will make it easier to escape," he said. "It's plenty strong, I promise."
Isobel had no intention of escaping, of course, but he didn't know that. She schooled her face into a scowl. "What do you want with me?" she demanded. The tension in her voice wasn't feigned.
Ignoring her, he dabbed at the crook of her elbow with a wet cloth. "You know, I didn't begin here until I had spent some time on Earth. I have learned so much from your world. It is truly remarkable."
It took her longer than she would have expected to realize what he was doing. Not until he tied a strip of fabric tight around the top of her arm did she recognize this series of actions.
Oh God, he was going to drain her blood. She had pictured magical means and rituals of all kinds, some more insane and elaborate than others, but this was completely unexpected. Isobel wasn't sure whether to laugh or scream, although she certainly didn't feel much like the former.
She turned away as he plunged the needle into her arm, flinching when the tip punctured the skin. Having blood taken didn't bother her as much as it had when she was younger and had to be held down, screaming, as the nurse searched for the vein. Still, it made her nauseous to think about the blood leaving her body. It didn't help that instead of this blood going to a doctor to make sure she was healthy, it was being collected by a psychopath after her magic.
Isobel breathed slowly, her head turned intentionally to the side, willing herself not to pass out. She could do this.
She couldn't see his face, but his voice suggested that he found her queasiness entertaining. "Blood seems to bother so many people in this world," he said. "I'm not sure why. It holds so much of a person."
The cool fingers on her chin made her flinch. He turned her head back towards the needle in her arm. Her stomach dropped at the sight of the tiny tube filled with her dark red blood.
"Look," he said, holding up the small bottle that he was using to collect it. It was half full. Something about it looked odd. He held it closer to her face until she could see the sparks of pink jumping across the surface of the liquid.
Isobel's eyes widened, some of her discomfort forgotten. The magic was really and truly in her blood. Maybe that meant that it couldn't be taken from her completely. Unless, she realized with horror, he took all her blood.
He seemed to be reading her thoughts, or at least her expressions, because he reassured her. "To get all of your magic right now I would have to drain you completely," he said conversationally. The words sent a chill across her entire body. "But if I don't do that, the magic will replenish itself along with your blood." He pulled the needle out and she winced. "You are an unending source."
The man wiped the blood away from her arm and wrapped her elbow in a bandage. It was unsettling how close his actions were to those of an actual nurse taking blood. Isobel tried to lean away but the restraints held her fast.
When he finished this he sat back, placing the blood-filled bottle on a table next to him. "Of course, that's not all that I need from you." He looked at her expectantly. "Where is it?"
Isobel tried not to look at the bottle. It wasn't nauseating like watching her blood move through the tube, but it still wasn't pleasant to think about. "Where is what?" she asked, honestly confused.
Something like annoyance flickered across his face but it vanished just as quickly. He leaned closer to speak in a conspiratorial whisper. "The Heart of Candracar."
"I don't have it."
His face was beginning to look more unpleasant. "Don't lie to me. You will not like the results."
Isobel clenched her jaw, trying to keep her face steady. "I don't have it," she repeated, glad that she was telling the truth. But what if he didn't believe her?
He beckoned to one of the creatures at the door and whispered something to him when he came closer. The creature gave her a long blank look and then shook his head slowly, just once back and forth. The next minutes passed in silence as Isobel hoped that it had just confirmed the Heart's absence.
When he turned back to her, there was fury shining in his eyes. "You cannot fool me, Guardian," he said. "I know that you left the Heart with the others so that they will be able to find you."
His words seemed to turn her blood to ice. Her eyes widened in horror and he laughed.
He knew. He knew they were coming, and she could do absolutely nothing to warn them.
"And they will find you," he said, his smile crueler than it had been before. "They will find you."
Another chapter for you, and this one with more action! Hope you enjoy it :)
