Jar of Souls by Bradford Bates

Author:Bradford Bates [Bates, Bradford]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Marcus met me in the tunnel in just under five minutes. He carried a large katana across his back and had several pouches slung across his chest and attached to his belt. I felt better seeing him all decked out in his gear, because until he had arrived, I was feeling kind of silly wearing my own. I had my father’s swords crisscrossed on my back and his staff in my hands. I felt out of place going back into the real world dressed like something from a Tolkien series.

Adam assured me that the harness for the swords made their hilts invisible to anyone without magical abilities. And that the staff would appear as a walking stick. Still, I knew they were there, and I just wondered what someone would think if they saw me. Hopefully they would think I was another random cosplayer. Thank God for the rise of the nerds into the mainstream. That way a man and his swords never had to feel too awkward walking around in public. I felt a slight twist in my gut as I remembered heading to the Phoenix comic-con with Alby. Now we weren’t even friends and never would be since my new calling kept us separated.

One of Adam’s staff stepped forward. I was pretty sure her name was Sally. She opened the portal. “Remember, I’ll be opening this for you every hour on the hour for five minutes. If you run into an emergency or need assistance, use the number Adam gave you.”

I nodded to her before looking at Marcus. “You ready for this?”

“Born ready,” he said with a smirk before leaping through the portal.

I turned to follow him, and Sally grabbed my arm. “Be careful and remember we are dropping you about two miles away from your destination. You will have to make your way there unseen and on foot.”

I gave her a look to let her know I had read the paper Adam had given me, and I really didn’t need her instructions. Her gaze only hardened under my glare. I decided against pushing it further and gave her a curt nod and jumped through the portal to follow Marcus. As soon as my feet hit the ground, the portal winked closed behind us. We were now on our own for better or worse. This was our time to shine.

Marcus turned around, and his grin flashed in the night. “I say we go rooftop for this. Remember how I showed you to use your air magic to jump further and lighten yourself for the landing?”

“Oh, I remember.” Yep, I remembered that it hadn’t gone extremely well. Ok, that might be an understatement—it had gone terribly. When I hadn’t been overshooting my landing zones by a good fifteen feet, I had forgotten to lighten and nearly broke my legs. Marcus must have remembered the experience much more fondly than I did. Mostly because he kept laughing at the mouthful of sand I kept coming up with.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt like this was a terrible idea.

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