“Max!”Necia says as we both move closer to him.“You’re alright.”
“I haven’t spoken to you in months.How are you, man?”I ask.I smile, elated to see him in one piece.When I see the chief’s look of concern, my smile falls.“What is it?”
“He went undercover in what presents as a community organization in Minnesota.When he missed a check-in, we detected where he was to extract him, fearing the worst.I found him sitting in the apartment we set him up in, just like this.”
“Max is fine,” Necia argues.“Right, Max?”
I turn to our old friend, and he nods.Then, he opens his mouth.“Zzxxbbuuooouhzzzuoh!”Inhuman, unintelligible sounds come from his throat, like a record playing backwards.
I gasp at the sight?as he talks, his face spins, fractured and wild, like a Rubik’s cube.It’s a shocking, almost incomprehensible image, as his jaw spins backward and the top half of his face spins the other way.
“He’s been hexed,” Chief Tuttle says.
Max’s face stops spinning and returns to its normal, not-Picasso state.“What…how…who?”Necia stands up, asking all the questions I have.
“A group of suspected warlocks.Our monitoring of the world’s ley lines has detected powerful dark magic for weeks.And we don’t know,” the chief replies.“In that order.”
“Why don’t we undo it?”I ask.
When I move my hand towards Max’s face, the chief bats it away.Max says more gibberish, and his face spins again.School taught us hexes are unpredictable, but we never learned about anything like this in a textbook.
“Of course I thought of that.Our best HQ agents have attempted for two days now to get Mr.Potato Head here fixed.”The chief rubs his eyes, and it’s evident he hasn’t been sleeping.“We’ve tried interpreting it, to no avail.It’s not any language, and the way his head is moving is clearly the result of dangerous magic.Max won’t follow directions; he just sits here, and I fear permanent brain damage if we let him remain hexed.”
“Cauldrons,” I mutter.I move closer to his face and put my hands out.Undoing hexes has always been complicated, but it’s my duty to help a fellow agent and old friend.I attempt to feel for the threads of magic keeping him in this entropic state.Hex-breaking can be complex, and all I sense is a tangled ball of natural entropy, like the most complicated knot of all time.After trying to pull apart the strands of arcana for almost a minute, I stop and catch my breath.“Nothing’s budging.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” the chief says.Necia attempts to undo the hex as well, but to no avail.“This all but confirms our suspicions.”
“What suspicions?”I ask.
“Typically, when we suspect magic is being used for destructive purposes, we’re able to identify and neutralize the threat.One single agent going undercover should have been able to sniff out the new wizard with uncontrolled powers.Or perhaps even a warlock practicing magic in a destructive way.Then, our agents could stop them.But this time…”
“They turned Max into a human slot machine,” Necia remarks with a frown.
“The amount of organized magic this required…” the chief’s voice trails off, and fear crawls up my spine.Max may have been hexed by multiple wizards working together.Or one powerful warlock.
“You sent him after what could be a…cult?”I ask.
“We had to be subtle.Our reports stated that they only let in folks who look like Max,” the chief remarks.“Young White men.But since things have gotten shaky…this is now a multi-agent case.”
“Send us in,” I say, ready to stop this threat before it grows.“I mean, I know I look nothing like my blond friend over here…”
“Which means you’re not right for the undercover mission.Besides, now that this has occurred, we have confirmation that foul mages are at play.We need more intel, but the only lead we have sounds like an old dial-up internet connection.”
The chief points at Max, and he opens his mouth, only to have his face spin again.“These are desperate times.So, I’ve called in a consultant.A new, temporary agent of SPELL.”
“What kind of consultant?”I cross my arms.We agents train and study hard, so trusting some random wizard isn’t easy.
“A newer member of the Union of Mages who wrote the book on complicated hexes.Literally.”The chief opens the bedroom door and leaves.Necia and I share concerned looks with each other, then Max.It hurts my heart to see him in this state.Sure, the hex will wear off eventually, but there could be devastating effects if we don’t act soon.On top of that, every moment he’s in this state is a moment we could lose our lead.Who knows what a cult of warlocks can do?
“Agent Westbrook, Agent Anderson.”The chief’s voice walking through the doorway pulls me out of my thoughts.“Meet our temporary consultant for SPELL.”
My breath hitches at the sight of the man leaning on the doorframe.With an easy smile and long blond bangs, it’s the boy I never thought I’d see again, all grown up.Taz Devries stands before us, and if his cocky grin is any indication, he remembers me and our school days all too well.
CHAPTER 3- TAZ
(THEN)
THE THREEwooden mannequins float towards each other in front of me.My hands glow with mystical energy, and in moments, blue light flows from my palms to the dummies.The three get pushed together, and I slowly maneuver them through the air.The class coos in interest as I place them down on the grass.Mission accomplished.
