Chapter Eleven: The Burden

When I woke up, the room spun all around me. I immediately moved my hand to my forehead and tried breathing deeply. A low groan escaped my lips.

"How do you feel?" I vaguely saw Nicole standing over me. She sat down on the mattress next to me.

"Like shit." She gave me a sad smile at my lame attempt to make a joke. "Come on... I'm alive, aren't I?" Her frown faded. "Okay, that was bad."

She shook her head and smoothed out my hair. "You're going to be fine." She kissed my forehead and stood, turning to walk away. But I grabbed her wrist gently and pulled her back into a kiss. I held the side of her face in my hand and felt at peace for even just those few fleeting moments. I released her and gave her a smile which she returned.

I watched her walk away over to where Chester was laying on a mattress. He was awake now with what appeared to be a broken wing. It broke my heart to see Nicole tending to his wound. She loved that dragon like her own kid, and he's been with her as long as I had known her. It would kill her to lose him.

"How is he?" I asked, slowly moving my legs to the side of the bed. I winced at the pain in my head, but I tried to cover it up.

Nicole glanced up, pretending not to notice my evident pain. "He's doing much better now... Thanks." She paused.

Something clicked in my head. "How long have I been out for?"

"When you met me on the porch, it was the first time you'd woken up since it happened... about a week. Today was the first time again since then... about four days ago."

I shook my head but instantly regretting it, nearly falling back onto the pillow entirely. "A week and a half...?" She looked at me, watching to make sure I was alright. I felt vulnerable then, probably how she felt when she woke up for the first time after she was in a coma. That was it for me though. Now more than ever, I was a burden on her. I was dangerous to her. My father could kill her because of me.

I paused, looking around the room before I remembered something. "Wait... Do we know what happened to Ambrose?" She looked down. "Nicole..."

"Wizard City was attacked that day too... along with Earth."

"You've gotta be freakin kidding me..." Earth? Of all places? "Why?"

"This..." Nicole reached into her robe's pocket and pulled out a newspaper from a week ago. It was The Times from Marleybone. She held it out to me. I snatched it from her hands. The headline read, "The Next Magical War Has Begun!" The moving picture on the cover showed Ravenwood School in ruins. My jaw dropped, and I looked at Nicole. She nodded, confirming my fears. I turned the page, my hands shaking.

More pictures of Wizard City on fire with Wizard students fighting off Skeletons and Banshees. Many of the Death School students had joined in the attack. I recognized some of my former students. I shook my head in disgust and crumpled the newspaper, throwing it across the room.

"I don't understand... What's happening?" My head was spinning but for more than just nausea this time. "All of my students... gone wrong."

"That's not true." I looked up at Nicole. "Only half of them joined in the attack on Ravenwood. The other half fought alongside the other students. You didn't finish reading it, did you?"

"No. I don't want to look at it."

"It's a rebellion. They're looking for us. Malistare is looking for us."

"No...no...no, no, no, no..." I just kept repeating the word over and over. I was losing my mind. "We can't keep running. We have to face my father." Nicole just shook her head. "Well why the fuck not?!"

"He wants you to help him..." she said slowly, "and he wants me dead."

I shook my head. "There's no reason for him to want you dead. He's using you to trap me."

"Malorn…." she said slowly. "Remember how I told you what happened to me?"

I winced at the memory of finding her… hanging there… barely alive. "How could I forget?"

"Remember that I told you he stopped feeding me altogether?"

I stopped and looked at her. "Yeah?"

"He does want me dead…. He recognized me."

My breath caught. "What?"

"He told me…. My father was the one that defeated him the first time. That's why he captured me… luring you to him was just a… perk," she said, gritting her teeth.

"You're really going to believe that bullshit?" I asked.

But she was shaking her head at me. "It's true. Mrs. Lin Zeng," she said, nodding to the kitchen, "she knew my father. She helped him hide from Malistare once, a long time ago. She knows Ambrose. That's why we're here."

I clenched my eyes shut. My world was turning on its head. "This can't be happening…."

She put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry. I only found out in the past few days we've been here."

I reached out to her then and pulled her close to me with what little energy I had. "Never leave my side."

"You know I won't."

*One week later…*

We had been taking it easy lately, not going out of the house unless it was to one of the stores across the street. We stayed in to help Mrs. Lin Zeng with taking care of the house and tending to the dragons. Nicole took care of most of the healing and I cleaned the house, took out garbage, and various other stupid shit.

I found it all pointless because none of these things were preparing us for war. No one knew what was going on with Wizard City after the attack.

Thankfully, all of Malistare's minions had been kicked out before we came to the village in MooShu by Nicole's team of wizards she used to travel with. At this point, they would have been to Dragonspyre by now, but all the wizards were called back to Wizard City to help Ravenwood.

As for Nicole and I, her levels shot through the roof after surviving the last attack as well as her constant healing.

That morning, Nicole and I decided it was time to see the village. We were walking hand in hand when Nicole stopped and turned to me.

"Malorn," she breathed. She kissed me full on the lips and then rested her head on my shoulder in a tight hug. I wrapped my arms around her small frame.

"What's the matter?" I pulled back and looked into her eyes.

"I'm so afraid of losing you." She looked down. "Back in that attack, when you got hurt…and then you didn't wake up, and-"

I cut her off, pressing my finger to her lips. "Shhh… It's alright now."

"No it's not!" she yelled suddenly, and I did a double take. "You could have been killed! What if you were really hurt? What if Malistare came back?"

I sighed. "Nicole…. I know. We both know what could happen. But do we really have a say in whether or not we're a part of this mess?" She shook her head.

"No…. I know that. But I just want you to know how much I love you… and how scared I am of losing you."

"You won't. I'm not leaving you. I couldn't fight for him. Never."

Just then, we saw black fog encroaching on the town. We looked at each other when we heard a scream.

Nicole gasped. "Malorn!" Before I could blink, Nicole tackled me at the waist into the pavement. My eyes snapped shut and a wave of frigid energy shot over us. I opened my eyes.

There were ten wraiths floating above us, closing in. The one had summoned a Vampire and the energy was the wraith trying to suck the life out of me. Nicole jumped up and used her wand to summon a Meteor Strike, hitting four of them, sending them flying backwards. They quickly recouped and started to close in. Nicole looked at me, eyes wide. "RUN!" she shouted.

"I'm not leaving you!" I held up my staff and shot beams of black energy out. They just passed through them without a second thought. I did a double-take.

"They don't want me!" she yelled, summoning a Fire Dragon. "They want you!" I summoned a Banshee and pointed it toward two of the wraiths in front of me. She started to scream as the wraiths fell back. "MALORN!"

The next few seconds were the longest of my life. My head turned just as a wraith glided straight for me. I held my staff up and beams of black energy shot out when the wraith fell on top of me.

My staff exploded and the world went dark.

*A few hours later…*

"My boy…"

I snapped my eyes shut as a piercing slap slashed across my right cheek. I kept my eyes glued to the floor.

"Time to wake up!"

I looked up, shaking from the shock.

I was staring straight into my father's glare.

"How are you, my son?" I glared back, not even blinking. My arms were tied up to the ceiling by cables. The room was dark and cold, with only one light shining directly on me, the white walls on all sides seemed to close in.

He tilted his head to the left slightly and narrowed his eyebrows. "You know, this troubles me." He moved his staff and turned his back from me. "Now, don't try anything silly, my boy. You see, you are powerless here." I harnessed as much energy as I could without my staff, but before I could even think about unleashing it, a current of energy shot down the cables and electrified my entire body. My arms and legs jerked around violently as the pressure in my face nearly reached a breaking point; just before it did, the shocks ceased and my body went limp. "If you couldn't already tell, those are magical energy cables, and they will continue to shock you if you even think about using your magic against me. So I'll have you know that I intend to break you, Malorn." He walked to the door on the opposite side of the room. He turned back to me, and I glared into his eyes, struggling to control my breath.

"Defiant."

He shut the door behind him.

I stared at the floor, my breaths shallow. I knew what was going to happen if I didn't hold onto myself. If I lost touch with who I was, I would have become the monster we all knew that I was destined to be. But I wasn't about to think about that. I needed to focus on the one thing that kept me safe from the horrors of the Spiral and insanity.

Nicole.

*One week later…*

The door screeched open, and I knew what was coming.

"Hello Malorn! Good to see you again!" The whole week, he hadn't come in the room. In fact, no one came in the room. No food. Only a few drops of water that dropped out of the ceiling kept me alive. I made no move to look at him. His cheery, condescending attitude pissed me off.

"Something wrong, my boy? Why won't you look at your father?" I was growing angrier by the second. But I knew if I just rolled with the punches, he'd be kinder to me. "Is everything alright with school?" He paused as my nostrils flared. "Oh dear, you look rather weak…. Have you been eating right?" He waited before snapping his fingers.

The scent made my senses go wild.

I finally looked up without a second thought and saw a plate with meat. I didn't care what it was. All I could think was food.

"Oh! You want this?" he asked. I just kept staring at the plate. A fork appeared in his hand and he stabbed the slab of meat. "It just looks so very… delectable." He raised it to his nose and took the deepest breath and sighed heavily. He walked toward me and went to wave it under my nose, but I just snapped my head forward and tore a piece off with my teeth. The speed made him drop the meat to the floor. "Tsk tsk, Malorn." He reached down and stabbed it again with unnecessary force. Your food is going to go to waste now…." He clicked his fingers and the meat disappeared with the fork.

"What do you fucking want?" I snapped.

"Now, now, is that any way to address your father?" Immediately at the last word, the cables holding me upright attacked my body in a rage of magically energy. I yelled in obvious agony, my body contorting, insanely.

When the energy stopped flowing, I panted. "What… do you… want?"

"You."

"No shit." He simply raised his staff and shot me in the chest with a beam of energy.

"Still defiant, are we?"

"Just fucking tell me and I won't keep ignoring you."

"Fine then…." He walked away from me, pacing around the room. "Sigh…." I was seconds from screaming again. "You take all the fun out of everything. You see, I need your help."

"Why would you need me?"

"There is someone in particular… that is getting in my way."

"Who?"

"Your little pet."

"Nicole?" I thought about Nicole, and her light, her beauty… utterly astonished. Then it hit me. "Her dad."

"Ah! Now we have something to go on, don't we?"

"The one that originally banished you from the Spiral… that was Nicole's dad."

"You're getting warmer, my boy. Why would I need you?"

"If her dad died but managed to defeat you… having me on your side…."

"Yes…?"

"Would guarantee your victory against Nicole…. She's the one you think is destined to defeat you."

"And there we are! You've figured it out!"

I started chuckling, then laughing, then full on hysterics. Malistare used the magical energy on me again and I stopped immediately.

"Why would you laugh at me?"

"Like I'd ever join you."

"Oh, but you will!"

"Give me one good reason why I would?"

"You're here." He pointed at my cables. "Nicole is somewhere out there. How do you expect to save her when I just…?" He made his hand into a fist and magical energy glowed around his hand, "could kill her in a heartbeat," he said, his voice now harsh, dropping the fatherly approach. "Give me your choice."

"You'd kill Nicole either way. The choice wouldn't change anything."

He smirked. "Oh, don't be so sure. If you don't join me willingly, I could just make you."

"You can't control me."

Are you sure Malorn? Do you really love her? It was his voice in my head. I tried to shake it, but it was like trying to block out a fog horn. She's so frail. You could easily prove your worth and crush her! Her small little neck can be cracked if you just-

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" I shouted at him. The voices ceased.

"You see what I can do to you now?" Malistare walked slowly to the door. "In due time, my son."