Shelly and David sped past the barb-wires, their fists pumping by their sides. Behind them, the first outpost sounded the alarm. Soon, another answered the call, and another, then all of them.
“You know,” David said, “if we survive this, I’m going to kill you.”
“Good luck with that, frog face,” Shelly said. “I’m not alive anyway. And you are not really here.”
“Don’t touch that,” Hannah yelled and slapped Liz’s hand.
The harmonica fell to the ground.
Hannah picked it up and dusted it off gingerly, almost caressing it. She glared at Liz. “Don’t you ever, EVER, touch it again.”
“What’s the big deal with your stupid harmonica anyway?”
The big deal is that I just saved you life, Hannah thought. One wrong note and the harmonica would have seared your flesh.
“No, I told you. You only pay once,” the dark-skinned, white-haired, pointy-eared creature said. “You pay once upfront, and you get access to magic. Simple as that.” She snapped his fingers to drive the point.
George scratched his chin. “Yeah, but two litres of blood? That’s like all of it.”
The pointy-eared creature sighed. “You have more than that in you and you’ll replenish it in a couple of hours or so.” The creature flashed a row of white teeth and put a slender arm around George’s shoulders. “Besides, it’s not like it’s going to kill you or anything. I wouldn’t allow that, would I? We’re partners.”
“I don’t know…”
“OK, listen. Do you want to learn to use magic yes or no?”
Audrey laboured dragging the body from his legs. What is he made of anyway? she thought. Stone?
She stopped at the top of the stairs panting, and wiped sweat from her forehead. “Jonas!” she shouted. “You better get your ass here right now, boy.”
No reply.
She shook her head and lumbered downstairs, the body trailing behind her. Where is Death when you need him the most? she thought.
Her victim’s head thudded hollowly on the first step. And then he slipped her grip. The body rolled and bounced and tumbled down the stairs, until it came to rest at the bottom.
She folded her arms, tapped a finger on her lip, and nodded. ” Well, if my touch didn’t kill him, that fall definitely did.”
Jonas materialised out of thin air and inspected the twisted body. “Seriously? Another one? Trying to break a record or something?”
Jimmy glanced behind him and gnawed on his lip. The shouting was distant, but getting closer. “Are you going to will the wall go away by staring at it or something? It’s a dead-end. We’re trapped. Come on.”
Ramona reached out, grabbed him, and shushed him. She traced the mortar between the bricks with her finger and closed her eyes.
Jimmy tapped her on the shoulder. “Hate to have to disturb you, weird lady, but they’re coming.” He glanced over his shoulder at the mouth of the alley. By the sound of it, a small riot had broken out not far from them and was headed their way.
He put his hand on her shoulder to shake her, but she slapped his hand without sparing him a look. “If you don’t want to end up encased in the wall, or land in an off-world volcano, or at the bottom of a quicksilver ocean, I suggest you stop interrupting me.”
Jimmy moaned and wrung his hands together, his gaze oscillating between Ramona and the other end of the alley. Weird lady will get me killed, he thought. “Come on, come on. They’re getting -”
“There,” she said. She brought out a small metallic bundle of spheres and a tiny crystal hammer, then clinked a few of the spheres with the hammer. The spheres rang, floated to the wall, and the mortar glowed. “Take my hand and don’t let go.” She cupped his jaw and squeezed. “You don’t want to let go, understand?”
He nodded awkwardly, the way she held on to his face. Really weird lady.
She patted his cheek. “Good boy.”
The bricks vanished, and a bright light engulfed them. Something pulled at Jimmy – not only physically, but mentally – a force unlike anything he had ever felt before. At some point, Ramona’s hand burrowed into his, warm, strong, soft, radiating confidence.
“Trust me,” she said over a harrowing whistling sound, and winked at him.
