Prologue – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8
Matt sat in the garage on a red stool.
He kicked the wall on every spin, a squeaky ritual that did little to relieve his boredom.
“You going to just sit there all day?” Nicky asked. He was neck deep in paperwork, and had ordered Matt out of the office soon as he walked-in. So Matt sat on the stool, squeaking the day away. Continue reading
Prologue – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 –
Chapter 8
Babbler
Matt caught the kick the angel aimed at his face.
Sarihanel was on her back, laying on the painted old steps, and on Nicole’s last nerve judging by the look on the leprechaun’s face. She was holding a foot as well, and looked ready to rip it off.
“Kick, again, and I break this one,” Nicole said. Continue reading
Prologue – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 –
Chapter 6
Spare Wings
Murphy Residence
Nicole wanted to ask him, but he was sweating, as the conversation ended.
A fever that broke then started again. The bite mark was clean, no sign of infection. She wrapped it back up, and gave him a few sleeping pills with aspirin. He was a human, but mages were tough, if anyone could kick the basilisk hangover it was him. He’d already been through the worst of it. Continue reading
Chapter 6
Left Hand Path
Murphy Residence
Fire, orange metal.
The road.
Screaming knives hurling themselves into him.
Cold river, old as the ages.
Songs around him, as the air burnt with life. Cold again, but shaped, heat at the edges, as his senses kicked in. Continue reading
Chapter 5
January 2010
Nicole pulled her car up to the motel late.
Someone named Marcie had been seen buying a bunch of bandages, and after what Cowell did to the Witch, they could only assume it was for her. One of her brother’s ‘special ladies’ had spotted the girl at a drug store, and she had driven over to get a proper description. Her brothers friend was the clerk, so she had provided her with a copy of the receipt as well. For all the good it did them.
They now knew one of them liked sour candy, as she spent twelve-bucks, of the eighty-five dollar total on it. Continue reading
Chapter 4
Murphy House
Nicole waited on the porch.
The kiss had been amazing, and she was fairly sure it was him, but that type of sharing would have to wait a few more days. He really didn’t smell that bad, his coat even smelled nice around her, but she needed a minute alone. Actually she needed about a week to think about things, but she knew he had nowhere else to go. He had lived with her family since he was eighteen. ‘Mage’, and ‘Underground Organization Leader’, weren’t very well paying jobs, especially in this world. Continue reading
Chapter Three: Slow, and Steady
Murphy House.
Nicole sat at the kitchen table, blue eyes hard on the candy-red fairy.
Annabelle quaked a little under her death glare. Nicky sat beside the fairy, in his wheelchair, face twisted in sympathy.
“Just call it,” he advised her. “No need to make this worse.” Annabelle turned to him outrage on her face.
“I’ve got this, you no-faith,” she said, her voice a caress of flutes across Nicole’s ears. Continue reading
( Prologue – Chapter One )
Chapter Two: Library Fines
The Mage stalked through the night, one long leg slightly off rhythm, a limp he allayed with his long staff.
Trees along either side of the road, thick as hair on a werewolf. Only half as welcoming, which was really saying something. Matt took his time adopting a low hunch. Fryhel was not a place to walk tall outside of the royalty. In this dark land walking tall, smiling, those sort of things got you noticed. Continue reading
( Prologue – Chapter 1 )
Chapter One
Taco Chess
Five years later….
Matt sat in the metal chair, fairly certain he had been dead recently.
It was green, and the table his elbows were on matched it. A cool breeze flowed through rattling the little trees that lined the road. A beer, cold enough the bottle dripped condensation, and two asian-fusion tacos on a paper plate before him. A couple of people at the next table over. He was on Ash street, a few taco trucks around him. They used the parking lot like a shared dining area, a dozen little tables between the trucks.
He glanced back at the tacos, and then at the beer. Neither were his favorite, and there was too much weirdness in this situation to allow him to eat anyway. Besides that the tacos were covered in red sauce, Matt could almost feel the heat from them, a red dwarf staining the paper plate.
The End at the Beginning
Interstate Highway 1-5
2010
The road was too close, Matt had to twist through the air to avoid smashing into a truck. Rain poured down on him, but despite the mild cover he knew he was visible. Flying higher in this weather was out of the question. Even with the goggles he wore the rain would make following the road nearly impossible.
“Give them a show,” he told himself spinning again his gold aura flaring around him. Continue reading
John Cordial 