Queen barrels through the door, and I hear shouts and screams from inside. Quickly, Reta and I fall in behind her, the apartment full of life and gunshots.

  Sprinting behind cover, a carver blade comes from my forearm in a twist of metal before stabbing the man in the way, tearing through his throat and straight through the other side of his spine, enabling me to get behind cover easily.

  Despite now being coated in his blood.

  “Aghthl, vera, inne-”

  ‘The veil was already torn thin here by all these occult members, if he gets that spell off it might be the one to tear it open!’

  “Reta!”

  With a sudden snap that disorients me, everything goes silent, preventing the man from finishing whatever spell he was planning. Of course, we needed to use our own for that… but am I glad we have them.

  Queen leaps over cover and slams into the man, tearing through him with ruthless efficiency using several steel blades coming from her spine, before rushing into the next room, a mad grin on her face.

  ‘Sometimes I wonder if she’s really insane or not… but then again, we all go a little insane in this work. Especially her as the eldest member of this cohort of sorts… it makes sense.’

  Ignoring the shiver down my spine, I just count my lucky stars that she’s on my side.

  Vaulting out of cover and going into the side room with the fewest people, I find all the tomes of forbidden info, and a man panicking and backing up, reading words I can barely comprehend aloud.

  “Reta, I need you!” Rushing at him, I slam him to the ground, but the spell goes off anyways, tentacles flying out the ground and snatching my limbs, locking me and the now arriving Reta to the floor, her head banging off it.

  “Fuck!” My mind runs at 100 miles per hour. Queen is clearing out the rest of the building, while Reta and I have the main target here and may die instead if we can’t escape! I can use a spell… but the only one that would save us is illegal, we’ll be killed if they know we know it.

  ‘Fuck…what do I do? Wait for Queen?’

  Hearing Reta’s head hit the floor with another thud, I grit my teeth, before I strain my arms against the tentacles to make cuts in them.

  ‘I won’t let her die damnit, screw the rules! I’d rather die than let her die!’

  As my blood hits the floor, I mumble out a phrase, feeling my blood burn and the world distort around me. The stars become visible through the ceiling, as if it had no physical presence to block the light.

  Such a forbidden spell is such for a reason, if used wrong it could let something else in, and whoever knows it is a threat in and of itself. But at least this gives me death later instead of now.

  Reta and the man stare with wide eyes… before the blood shoots out like spikes, impaling him through the throat and killing him, finally freeing us from our binds. Not that I stand; I collapse from the mental anguish.

  ‘I’m probably dead anyways after being seen using that… Reta will kill me, or at least the Queen will. Guess it’s up to fate now, huh?’

  Grabbing me by the arm, as well as the journal of the man, Reta picks me up and starts dragging me out. “C’mon Salka… c’mon, we’re getting outta here together.”

  My head is spinning, but I can hear her voice, her will, cutting straight through the throes of my arcane whiplash.

  “Reta…? …why? You’ll be killed…”

  Shaking her head, she throws me into the frame of the car, and I’m confused for a moment when I don’t hit the floor, before remembering that normally there are seats to sit on… fuck, I think I realize why that spell is forbidden.

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  ‘This is our car… right..’ It becomes real to me again as I think on it, not that I get long before I hear a roar of rage from Queen.

  Flooring it, Reta flies down the streets, and I slowly try to get to my senses. “Where are we…”

  “To that cafe I told you about. I know people there, we’ll be able to hide.” Her voice is rushed, and quiet, worried someone will hear.

  “My… my family… I need to… to warn them…”

  Pausing to look at me, she hesitates, before hitting the gas and turning down another street. “Where to?”

  Mumbling out a street name, she turns around and starts going down a bunch of side roads.

  Slowly, my vision and senses mostly come back to mundane. “What… is the cafe like?”

  Even with the pressure, she smiles a bit as she speaks, neon lights flying by as we drive. “It’s… calm, and cozy. It was run by two girls and their mom, though now it’s just one, and her adopted sister. They’re great, and I think you’d get along with them.”

  Chuckling slightly, I look at her. “You think so?”

  Nodding, she pulls down another street. “Yeah, I mean the one girl is as sarcastic as you. Plus, she can bake a mean pie.”

  “Can she make pumpkin pie?”

  “Mm… yeah, though I never liked it.”

  Looking at her like she’s grown a second head- which for once isn’t from arcane induced truths- I speak horrified. “Blasphemous!”

  After a bit of laughter, the mood grows somber and quiet. Not that I mind; I always enjoyed the quiet, and with the situation, we need time to think anyways.

  ‘I’m just… we can fix this… right? Yeah… yeah, Reta’s getting us out of here, getting me to my brother… I can warn them in case she comes after them, and then we can go hide and sleep.’

  As I begin to recognize signs and streets, I realize we’re near my home. It’s been… years, since I’ve been here. Just sending the occasional money home to help with bills, but I don’t even know how my brother might look anymore.

  …what’s… this feeling.

  Like… a feeling in my gut that something is woefully wrong. No, I know that feeling. Fuck, tell me we’re not being followed.

  As we turn onto the street, it’s ablaze in a flickering orange glow. And the source of the flame is-

  “No. no, no no!”

  Jumping out the car just before it can fully stop, I sprint over to the burning building, Reta’s gasp barely audible behind me.

  Charging through the rubble and burning debris, then grabbing a burning board and shoving it out the way, I ignore the burns on my palms. My subdermal armor will have to take the brunt of the damage for me.

  Suddenly, I hear quiet cries, and following them I find him. Buried beneath rubble, pinned by his leg. I sprint over and try to lift it, but fail. I’m not strong enough to.

  His eyes are looking at me, barely conscious, I can tell he’s nearly dead. Is this what all those I’ve killed felt when I kill those near them?

  “Sis…”

  ‘I can’t lift it… if I give him my strength, maybe he can, I just need to use the right spell.’

  My eyes glow as I reach out, straining my mind and my will to give him my strength; to make him stronger.

  But… he just looks at me, tears in his eyes. “Sis… run… it’s okay…”

  ‘It’s no use… he can’t use the strength if he’s already too weak to move. Fuck fuck fuck!’

  Before I can even speak a word to him… as the spell hits me with whiplash for the failure, I see his eyes glaze over and focus on nothing.

  ‘He’s… he’s gone… he’s really gone…’

  I don’t know how long I stand there in the burning heat, staring at my brother’s corpse. Long enough I can feel the wind blowing past my face after a wall collapses near me.

  Long enough it’s already midnight.

  Long enough, that I suddenly hear a scream from the car, and I’m finally shocked out of my stupor.

  ‘Reta!’

  Turning and sprinting out, I find her on the ground, her leg broken at the knee, held in place by robotic tentacles belonging to Queen, who has a mad grin on her face.

  “Queen, you-”

  Reta interrupts me, her voice filled with confidence despite the pain. “Run! It’s alright, just get out of here!”

  Hesitating, I watch Queen bend down and grab Reta with a tentacle from her back, grabbing around her neck and lifting her by it, crouching down and putting her head next to Reta’s.

  The flames light her face in an orange glow, with shadows covering the crying and gasping Reta, terrifies me. “Oh yes… run, it’s all you’re good for. And I’ll find you and put you down like the coward you are.”

  Choking on my words, unable to even speak… I turn and run, run and run and run.

  Knowing it’s my weakness and cowardice that caused all of this. If only I were stronger… then I’d have been able to kill Queen there.

  If I were stronger, then I’d have been able to protect Reta and I without using that spell.

  If I were stronger…

  So weak…

  Weak…