Fall of the Rightful King

Chapter Twenty-Two

Nick

I looked up through the dust and dirt that had been kicked up. There was a man standing in the middle of a small hole in the road, standing up from a crouched position. He was thin, dressed in a simple tunic and pants. He had short hair and an equally short mustache and beard. His entire body glowed a soft gold, and small flecks of gold light trailed behind him.

Alexander was here.

Derek shouted, pointed his arm at Alexander, and red lightning shot out. Alexander casually waved his hand, and the lightning bent into the ground, blasting up chips and gravel from the asphalt. The golems had almost arrived. Alexander waved his hand again, and the golems collapsed into metal gravel, the purple glow vanishing immediately. Then he clapped, and a brilliant gold wave shot out and hit us.

The second it hit me, I collapsed, completely drained of energy. I heard Paper Back hit the ground next to me and heard Derek fall as well. The ground crunched as Alexander stepped closer to me. I tried, I really did, but I couldn't get myself to stand up, or even move an arm. I felt myself shoot into a vertical position, surrounded by golden light. Alexander grabbed my shirt collar and looked me in the eye.

"So," he said in a strong baritone, "you are the one who used such blasphemous powers. But it seems you did so without knowing their true origin." His eyes flashed and he looked over me, then chuckled. "Finally. So that is the nature of your resistance. It is marvelous and beautiful to see magic returning to the Earth in such a manner. It seems you are truly ignorant of what that symbol was. I have little time, but suffice it to say that it represents ruinous powers far greater and more terrible than you can imagine. It draws attention to you, and you do not want that eye upon you.

"I ask that you come to my tower that we may discuss matters further. As it is, I must return posthaste, or great damage will be done." He reached for my head. I tried to get away, but I couldn't do more than tilt my head backwards.

"A gift, that you do not doubt my intentions."

His fingers touched me and I suddenly knew a lot that I hadn't seconds before. I understood the basics of the magic he, Derek, and the Order used. I understood the purpose of and how to use symbols and circles to redirect and focus energy. With just a touch, he'd given me a crash course in Magic 101. I fell to the ground again and he turned away. There were some more pounding noises and he disappeared with a crack like thunder.

I had no energy, everything in my body hurt, and I could barely move. Paper Back struggled to her feet and pushed her head under my arm, trying to lift me up.

"Nick, please, hurry, we have to go," she gasped.

"Come on, Nick," Alan added, "she's barely hanging on. Are you going to let some dick like Derek beat you?"

I sat up. Derek was finishing a circle. I recognized some of the symbols as having to do with transport, but most of them were beyond me. I guess the magic crash course didn't go beyond the basics.

Risa, Derek's snake girl, appeared in the circle and started quickly slithering towards me, her fangs out and mouth open.

"Nick, come on!" Paper Back shouted desperately. I got up, but Risa was faster than either of us. She moved around us in a lazy circle as Derek started to laugh again.

"Give it up," he said. "She's fresh, and you are at the end of your rope."

Risa lashed out with her tail, snapping it against Paper Back's side. She yelped and jumped, her horn starting to glow. Risa tried to smack her again, but this time Paper Back dodged it and delivered a brutal kick to Rita's abdomen. She hissed and moved her massive body back.

"I'm stunned," Derek said. "Truly and completely stunned. You are an amazing fighter. I thought about recruiting you as a worker, but you're too great to spoil like that."

Risa coiled around me in an instant and started to squeeze. I tried to breathe, but the breath was forced out of me and I couldn’t inhale.

"Nick!" Paper Back yelled, and started to run towards me. Risa squeezed tighter. I tried to scream, but I couldn't. My whole face felt intensely hot, and I felt like all my blood vessels were about to burst.

"Let him go!" Paper Back yelled again.

"Let me be clear here," Derek said. "I won. You lost. But here's the thing. You would be a pain and a half to capture, and I don't really need you. Now, I would love to have Nicky here alive and well, but if I can't have that, I'd rather him be dead than be some unfortunate loose end. You understand, that doesn't fit well into my plans. So let's work out a deal. You leave, Nick stays alive and comes with me. Keep playing action hero, and Risa squeezes Nick so hard he pops."

Paper Back's eyes were locked on to mine. I wanted to tell her to run, get herself, Brittney and Erin away from here. But I couldn't make any noise. My tongue was sticking out for some reason and I couldn't pull it back in.

"Blood will come up through his throat first," Derek said casually, "as his ribs puncture his lungs. Sometimes blood bursts through the skin when veins pop. If she's careful, Risa can even get the eyes to pop out before his head caves in."

"No!" Paper Back said. "Take me and let him go!"

"Not on the table!" Derek yelled back. "Now run off, bitch, or he dies now!"

Paper Back, sobbing, started to run away. "I'll find you!" She yelled back. "I won't let him take you!"

"Pathetic," Derek said. "Oh, Risa, you can let him go now."

The coils around me relaxed and I gasped. Immediately my body started to choke and cough. As my body went through spasms as it learned to breathe again, Derek came up to me. He patted me down, immediately finding the journal and taking it.

"Thanks for this," he said. "Oh, don't worry, we're keeping you alive. I don't know what you did that's got Alexander so interested in you, but I'm going to find out."

Alan

Paper Back and I ran around the corner of a building. There were sirens getting closer. Our heart was beating so hard we could hear it. Nick had just been captured by Derek. We had to figure out how to get him out. Problem was, Paper Back was fading. Whatever the fuck Nick did had felt like we were fucking dying. Then we had Alexander show up, make some stupid vague threats, and fuck off. God damn it.

Alan, Paper Back said, it's hard to... think. I need you to be... quiet.

Shit, sorry. Our ears twitched. We could hear Derek talking to snake-girl.

"Put him in the car. Let's go."

"Ohhh... but I can't quite fit, you know that..."

"Risa, we've got to find a way. The cops'll be here any second."

"Then I'll get to eat even morrrrrrre..." she said. Bitch really liked to pull her words out. We had to move. We were so tired there's no way we'd be able to get past Risa, or whatever else Derek had. Ok. Think. If they were going to take Nick we had to follow and find out where. We'd taken Manuel's car to get here. He... ugh... probably still had his keys. Fuck. We had to do this. We started to sneak around the house.

"No. Risa, please, listen to me. I don't want you to get hurt."

"And what happened the laaaaaast time you said that?"

"You... you ended up like..."

"Like thiiiiiiiiis. I'm fine. Just look at meeeeee. Don't I look even better than before?"

I could see Manuel's body. Smell it, too. We'd have to be careful. We crept closer. Paper Back reached out with her magic, found the keys in his pocket, and yanked them towards us.

Nice! I said.

Derek was struggling to fit Risa inside his car. I didn't see any sign of Nick. Manuel's car was on the other side of the house. So did we just make a run for it or sneak around?

If we run for it, he might see us, Paper Back said.

But if we sneak around, he might get away before we can get going, I said. Hooves aren't great with keys.

Alan, you have a horn.

Right. Anyway, we have to decide quickly.

I heard an engine start. We started galloping towards Manuel’s car.

Running sucked when I was human. I was fat and had a shitty heart. But Paper Back was an athlete. Her muscles just exploded with power, and even though we were exhausted, her body was so much more ready than I ever was. Our legs were like pistons and our hooves felt like they should be cracking the fucking ground. We flew at that car and ran right over the glowing red circle and symbols on the ground.

Wait NO FUCK

The car exploded. Paper Back got her shield up in time and we flew back from the explosion. Parts of our fur were smoking and our ears were ringing. Derek's car drove away. We got back to our hooves.

"Damn it, Alan!" Paper Back said. "I knew he'd have some kind of trap!"

"Hey!" I yelled back. "You said he might see us. You didn't say shit about any kind of fucking trap!"

"I almost died just now!"

"Hey, what a fucking coincidence, me too!" I yelled back.

"Well, now Derek's got Nick and the journal and Manuel's dead! What do we do?"

"We don't fucking stick around for the pigs to catch us!" I said. "We fucking run!”