Still nothing.
Flipping the sight of my mind’s eye inward, I found the space suspiciously empty. Where the hell had Roy gone? What was he doing? Why did he always choose the most inopportune time to throw a tantrum?
“Fine!” I snapped, but I couldn’t let it go.
Not this time. I needed him to help me. There was no time for his tender sensibilities. We had a job to do, and Roy needed to get over it.
“Come on,” I demanded. “Talk to me.” Scoffing under my breath as I took another step, I tried a new approach. “I already apologized. IF you need another, then you have to be present to get it.”
Opening my mind’s eye as much as I could, a cold chill skittered down my spine. There was nothing… Not one damn thing. No fear. No pain.
Simply, the absence of everything. It was as though someone had thrown a huge wet blanket over most of my soul, turned out the light, and locked the door.
And in that instant, I knew with absolute certainty that Roy had nothing to do with my Magical, Mystical blackout. But if not him, then who?
A crackle echoed from the room ahead and cut off my mental wandering. Centuries of training took over. The questions could wait. People– human or Magical- could not.
Adjusting my grip on the axe, I stalked forward. Locating the sound of the flames trying to take hold, I brought the blade down hard and fast against a charred section of flooring.
The wood split. A crack snaked in every direction at damn near the speed of light.
And that was when my world disappeared.
I had just enough time to think one very profound thought that flew from my lips with all the brogue of the Isle of Skye, “Oh, frekkin’ shite!”
In my next heartbeat, gravity claimed me like the last pastrami sandwich in a sea of cheese and pickle. The jagged edges of the broken beams cut through the sleeves of my turnout coat as if it were nothing more than a wet paper towel, as I was plunged into complete and total darkness.
Dropping like a stone into a whole lot of the unknown, ash and dirt–at least I hoped that was what it was–filled my mouth. Arms shooting out in every direction they could, and a few they tried on for size, I reached as far as my fingers would stretch. Clawing for purchase, I found nothing but air.
Opening and closing my hands, clenching my fist so quickly I felt the breeze, I roared, I yelled, and I even screamed, but it was no use. I just kept falling into the never-ending abyss.
“What the…?”
THUMP.THUD! “ARRGGGHHHHHH!”
Pain exploded over, around, and through every inch of my body. The breath I'd been about to suck into my lungs whooshed out in a humiliating grunt that I was really glad no one heard. Stars danced behind my eyelids, which would have been really cool had I not had a headache worse than the time I attended a Giant’s bachelor party.
For one terrifying moment, I couldn't breathe. I couldn’t move… I couldn’t think. All I could do was lie there, sprawled on cold stone, fighting for air.
Rolling about halfway to the right, then to the left, then onto my back, it felt as if I was doing my best impression of a turtle stuck with its belly facing towards the sky… or the hole I’d fallen through. Trying for what seemed like the hundredth time to get myself upright, I was finally able to breathe at the exact second that somewhere nearby someone laughed.
Not loudly. There was no echo.
Not kindly. There was an undertone of sarcasm.
But it wasn’t nasty. It was… Well, it was more like a man who'd been waiting for someone to appear and had decided I would do.
“Who the hell is there?” Yes, I was snarling. He needed to know I was not to be messed with. He needed to be afraid. He needed…
“Well, well, well,” a raspy voice drawled from the darkness. It damn sure took ya’ long enough.”
3
Pulling the cellphone from my pocket with such force that I gave myself an atomic wedgie, I pressed number one– Kai’s speed dial number and slammed the phone to my ear. The ringing seemed to go on forever. One after another, the most annoying sound ever created…
Well, second most annoying…
The first was the click to his voicemail.
