Blood Magic

Jamison

Jamison took another hit, going down hard. His knee throbbed along with his shoulder and his stomach. He jumped to his feet narrowly avoiding another frisbee. He cursed under his breath as the opponent knocked the puck from his posession. He slammed him to the ground, a frisbee whistling by his head. He gritted his teeth, whacking the puck up towards the offensive third. It was a lousy pass, but his teammate managed to wrestle it from the opponent, continuing the play.

"Kid, you want to sit down for a second?" The coach's voice was distant, almost cloudy in Jamison's head. "Louis take him out," Jamison's head pounded as he walked somewhere, someone tugging on his arm. His vision was clouding up. His body was tense. "Grab him a cup of water!" the shouts were almost imperceptible. Even if he could tell they were right beside him. Everything felt so small…

It had just been sunny four seconds ago. Why was everything so foggy? His head felt like it was being torn in half.

"Jamison! Jamison, hey!"

His eyes flew open. Ron. "Dude what—"

"Gisa told me that it's important. We need to go now."

"But the game—" he protested, trying to sit up from where he had apparently passed out on the grass.

"We're up by three and the coaches have benched you for the game. You fainted a minute ago!" Ron sighed a second, his gaze somewhere else, "Look, I can't force you, but this is important, and it's— it's why you passed out just now. And why Emma passed out in the stands, and why I got so dizzy I couldn't stand up, I don't know what happened to Gisa but she felt it too. I'll tell him we're going to the clinic."

Jamison squeezed his eyes shut, his head pounding. The blood bond chuckled, it's laughter pounding everywhere in his skull, each ripple a new wave of pain. It slithered around his consciousness. "Fine,"

Ten minutes later, after seemingly headed for the nearest clinic, they jogged towards the coordinates that Gisa had sent to them. Not at all what he had been expecting. They had entered a forest without any clear paths but mercifully free of too much underbrush. "We are so lucky your phone works," Ron said loudly, trying to speak over the droning crickets and birds.

Jamison chuckled, looking down at the screen. Their location and the coordinates. It was all still so strange. "You know," he said, his head clearing up as they slowed to a walk, "I never thought this would have happened, you know? That we'd be able to come over here and try to live with these people. Look! I'm holding a cell phone!" he waved it around for emphasis. "It's early November and we are walking around in t-shirts. Granted the leaves are finally thinning from the trees, but look at them! The leaves practically glow."

"Yeah," Ron said. Quietly. But not with any forlorn notes, only… appreciation.

"I really hate Gisa's mom." Jamison sighed, "We either steal the wand and succeed in unleashing her mom back on the world, or we fail and are thrown in prison forever, or we refuse and are placed in mental institutions until we die. Good options."

"Your sense of humor is—"

"What's going… on?" Jamison's gaze swept across the open circle in the middle of the forest. A lone stump was sitting in the center, a few strange artifacts, a bowl, some weird stick, an empty vial... placed there along with a few jugs of water and, "Your mom's spellbook," he turned to Gisa, her eyes blazing green.

"I found a way to break the curse."

Her voice stopped his heart. "You… you—"

"Emma found it. I have to do it." Gisa stood stiller than should have been possible. Not even her hair moved as the breeze blew by. The crickets and birds fell quiet.

"You're sure you're al—" Ron began.

"No. But it doesn't matter. Emma and I cracked the code this morning. It was right here all along." Gisa said, leaning against a tree, staring up at the blue sky above the scorched clearing. He could still smell the smoke…

"Did you set this on fire—?"

"Yes. That was part of it."

Emma stood from where she was perched on a nearby rock. Her face was downcast, "This morning, I cut myself as I was stitching an article of clothing back together. A drop of blood fell on a blank page on the back of the book—"

"Only it wasn't blank," Gisa cut in. "The spell to create and break a blood bond was concealed there. Emma accidently found it."

"But only the magic of the one who created it can break it." Jamison said. That had been their problem from the beginning. He turned to Ron whose face had become slack. His dark skin was somehow ashen. "Emma… what am I not getting?"

Emma's voice was tiny, "Gisa shares Audenzitios's magic. It is Audenzitios's magic."

He turned towards Gisa in time to see her slice her palm, letting blood drip into the little bowl. Nobody said anything as they watched her heal the cut with no more than a few whispers. Gisa opened the book to the back where he assumed the hidden spell was. A chill traced his spine.

"Do you think this will work?" His voice had dropped to a whisper. He didn't know why.

"I think so, but I'm worried about this." Emma said, her voice as low as his, edging closer to them. The three stood at the edge of the clearing, unable to tear their eyes from Gisa, her eyes flying across the page, "She's tapping into dark magic. She has the ability, but she's unpracticed. And her mind is… clouded. You know the loss she experienced. This could either fuel her determination, or derail her concentration."

"But won't the magic fizzle out? In the history of magic class I'm taking they said that—"

"Ron, normal magic is simply a tool. If you drop a hammer, you can pick it up and begin again. Blood magic, or dark magic, is not like that. It is a being to be wrangled and controlled. It's like the difference between a hammer, and a bull. They're both useful, but if you summon it and fail to manage it…"

"It will do worse than fall on our toes like that hammer could." Jamison breathed. They'd taken their eyes off the clearing…

The sky above the clearing dimmed. Turned green, and yellow. The blood bond in his mind hissed, and not with rage or pleasure but with— fear.

It roiled in his mind, spitting and hissing curses, writhing in pain, pocketing itself in the deepest corners of his consciousness it could find. The hair on Jamison's arms rose in warning, violent wind beginning to whip through his hair.

His eyes drifted to the center of the clearing where Gisa stood, eyes glued to the bowl. The droplets of blood lengthened, expanded. The color mottled itself. The wind began to shriek and whistle, whirling around the clearing, dragging the three of them, hand in hand, to the center.

Suddenly… The blood bond didn't seem so terrifying. Not as a demonic being made from whirling shadows, glowing from the life Gisa gave it stood before them in the middle of the whirling storm.

It was made of shadow. Dark as the space between the stars. Its figure rippled, not quite solid, but still tangible. Something emanated from its figure, the air around them chilling. His eyes looked fiery like lava from a volcano, but there was nothing but coldness as it stood there, a whirling mass of something and nothing with piercing eyes.

Gisa gasped for air as the creature extended something that resembled a hand, "Speak." a voice coming from no mouth, made from the very center of the earth said, its voice older than the forest they stood in.

"I want you to take back the creatures inside of us." Gisa said, struggling to stand, "Take it, and go back to your pit."

"Why?" it purred, "It is nice to let them out. When your realm is so precious so—"

"Because." Gisa said, unmoved by the slithering stillness and lethal precision of its voice. It was so in contrast to her low wavering voice "You feed on souls, especially those of the innocent. I have one to give you."

It laughed, the sound like boulders being hurled against each other. "You are not innocent, child."

"I was not referring to mine. I know a soul who suffers so much pain. Who was tortured despite that innocence."

Innocent… life in the balance. Emma squeezed his hand. Emma was talking about Camden. She was going to—

"Indeed, I can feel the pain itself, the horrors you have heard of." The creature said after placing a hand on Gisa's shoulder, it looked towards the sickly sky, the wind beginning to whistle shrilly. It looked at Gisa, opening a great black maw full or dripping fangs, "He was special to you. You had a bond. Something that I have not seen in my many years. The suffering and the anguish…He died recently?" Gisa flinched. The creature swelled a moment as if he was breathing in, "The soul must go willingly." He grinned.

"It will." she said with defiance. The creature broke the staring contest first, Gisa dropping to one knee, "He… he will." Her eyes were looking straight ahead, but seeing something entirely different.

Jamison shook his head. Was she… selling a soul?

"Consider it a bargain," it hissed, "Now continue."

She looked over to Jamison, Emma and Ron, "Let's get our freedom," she said quietly through the wind. She handed the knife to Emma, who paused, then winced, squeezing her eyes shut as she let the blood from her fresh cut splash into the bowl from which the creature ascended. Gisa mumbled something, the blood on the knife disappearing. Emma didn't blink twice as she gave it to Ron soundlessly, her face was as still as death.

Gisa's magic must have been great to be able to master so much so quickly. He jumped as he felt the cool hilt slide into his palm. Was he okay with this? Letting someone like Camden pay for their freedom? He knew that spirits could steal souls before they landed in the afterlife, as long as the souls were willing. His breath shuddered when he realized. Willing. If the spirit explained, he knew that Camden would forfeit his eternity for Gisa's freedom. For all of theirs… and as he held his hand over the bowl, hesitating a moment, he understood. The creature radiated a heavy cool mist, sticking to him. It made it hard to breathe… "Do it for me," the creature cooed, the voice not at all comforting. But there was something deep inside him that wanted to yield to such a creature. The smaller creature huddled in the back of his mind, trembling, Jamison's mind screamed at him as he stuck the tip of the knife into the base of his hand. It stung, it stung terribly, the nerves in his hand bleated with so much pain as he pulled the knife from his palm and let the blood slide from the cut, gathering, before one little drop, plopped into the base.

The blood bond screeched with an unholy wail as it slid from his mind, from his soul, from his body, sucked into the bowl, out of his head, leaving a trailing mist in its wake, clearing up and…

Then he felt it. That warning. The creature, the spirit in the center… an embodiment of blood magic. It latched onto him, chuckling darkly. He was on the ground, black tentacles sliding into him. One through his arm, one through his stomach, his calf, his neck, more slid down, then halted, inches away from his forehead.

"You aren't human." the voice, that horrible dark voice said as it's tentacles leeched the warmth, the strength from his body, so slowly, so terrifyingly… without pain, leaving hollowness. But it wasn't talking to him.

It stopped. He glanced to where the creature's attention was no longer on the three humans on the ground, black shadows reaching into their bodies. It stared at Gisa with its red eyes, its mouth slightly ajar as it gazed at her with curiosity. Hatred.

A smile spread on Gisa's face. "You thought I was a witch," The creature's eyes widened in shock. Gisa let out a mirthless laugh. "Surprise." she smirked, before pure white light shone from her hands, smashing the creature's forehead, bashing in those beady eyes, shattering the black tentacles. Fire sprang from the bowl.

Jamison, Emma and Ron leapt to their feet. Something telling them to run, run.

"The creator of the blood bond—"

"Was my mother." Gisa finished for him. "I share her blood!" Gisa screamed, the light shooting from her hands. She was a far cry from the person hobbling on crutches, wounded by a mortal shape shifting creature. The creature shrieked, And tears dripped down Gisa's face, "When that soul comes to meet you, tell him I'll love him forever!"

"Enchantress, you're a liar!" it screamed.

The clearing erupted in darkness. Jamison grabbed a hand nearest him. The wind screamed and howled. The monster's shrieks joined it. Flashes of lightning and bits of fire whirled around them.

"Where's Ron?" Jamison shouted in Emma's direction. Everything was so dark he couldn't even see the pale hand in his. Her voice was so faint he thought it might have been imagined but she said she had his hand. So they ran blindly away from the origin of the sounds and flashes of light.

Emma went down as if she'd tripped, and the wind picked up. Jamison turned around to see Gisa's figure wreathed in white-hot flame facing a man of blackened shadow. A sword as dark as night appeared in his hand. Twin to the one Gisa was holding, aside from the opposite colors. He couldn't discern their faces, only shield his eyes from the light.

He turned to see Emma And Ron, staring, their faces leeching of color. The wind continued, whipping in circles uprooting the tiny trees and roots in the clearing.

The clang of swords ripped his attention back again before Gisa stabbed the creature through the stomach, the white light dissolving the flame bit by bit before he disappeared, the whole clearing exploding with blue flame, Jamison turning away and running as fast as he could before the flames licking his back could consume him.

He fell on his face, covering his head. He felt the heat of the flames pass around and over him, but he managed to be completely unscathed. He looked down at his hands as silence settled.

"What exactly was the water for?" Ron asked as they regrouped by the edge of the woods. The soot on dirtying his face made his attempt at humour miss its mark. The gravity of the situation couldn't be ignored.

Gisa inhaled a deep breath, "I can't tell if it's gone," she gasped, coughing.

Jamison closed his eyes, I won't do it. I refuse to assist her in getting that wand it won't happen I won't—

"Oh stars and heavens and everything holy…" Emma said, wrenching Jamison from his thoughts. "Gisa you freaking did it… how did you…"

Gisa shook her head, Jamison's heart sped up. They were free… this was permanent…

"We're free," she whispered, collapsing to her knees. The lights, the swords, the victor seemed to disappear as Gisa threw up again and again. "We did it."