I channelled my mana into the clear thread on my brother at the same time as the other two stepped into the [Gravity Circle]. It was only a level two spell, but they were weak enough that it worked, but perhaps not as effectively as I’d wanted. The two of them could still move, albeit I could see they were rooted to the spot, trying to lift their legs and move forwards as if they were wading through sticky mud.

  Nathan found himself on the other side of the table, but it didn’t seem surprising to him. Like he had some idea of what I had done. Almost as if his mana-stone allowed him to retain the memory of his actions even with the time reversal. Or perhaps it just wasn’t surprising to another mana-stone user, just like his knives appearing in the air wasn’t surprising to me.

  I trained my weapon on the two men. I had the slightest hesitation, but then I pulled the trigger. Kill or be killed. And I wasn’t about to be added to the other eight that were already dead. Well, the ones I could see. There could be more anywhere in the house, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there was. I did short bursts. Three shots at a time.

  The first bullet was pulled down to the floor as soon as it entered the circle, and the circle vanished. No matter, the effect still continued on the two men. Ten seconds it was meant to last. It had been less than five. I took them out, using a couple of bursts right at their heads. I was getting better at that, and they were so close, it would have been hard to miss.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw the blades move towards me. The [Frost Circle] barely did anything. Maybe because Nathan was more powerful, or the effect itself wasn’t great. Three of the knives did slow down slightly and were travelling slower than the fourth, but that was going fast enough that I wouldn’t be able to get out of the way.

  I did my best, twisting and ducking for cover upon the dead bodies in the hallway but still got caught in the left shoulder by the knife. A moment later, the other three struck the wooden banister of the stairs above my head with distinct thwacks.

  Even as I grunted with the pain of the knife sticking into my shoulder, I placed [Gravity Circle] in front of me, [Frost Circle] behind me. Nathan appeared between me and the front door, but the [Gravity Circle] worked as he tried to stab down at me with another knife. He was moving faster than the other two had managed, but slow enough that I could aim my gun first.

  His eyes widened. The gun disappeared from my hands before I could pull the trigger. I heard it clatter somewhere behind me. To my surprise, I could feel the clear thread between Nathan’s start point at the dining room table and where he stood now. It was in a straight line between the two points. I channelled mana into it. Nathan flickered out of existence when the turquoise thread touched the ball at his stomach. I watched as it passed through the clear thread, and when it reached the starting point, Nathan reappeared.

  He looked at me through the open wall across the room. He was surprised this time. Just as I was. He laughed, a guttural sound from his throat.

  “Well played, River. Well played. Maybe you’re not as useless as I thought.”

  “River,” Kian’s voice came from the front door. He must’ve run over as soon as he heard the gunfire. I didn’t dare look his way, keeping my eyes on Nathan.

  “Don’t bother,” I said to him, seeing the hunger in his eyes at hearing Kian’s voice. That’s what cunts like him did. If they couldn’t get to you, they’d go after your loved ones. “Whatever power you think you have, I can assure you, it doesn’t compare to mine. But you know – if you want to test me, go ahead.”

  In truth, he was clearly the more practiced of the two of us. However he’d got hold of the bracer, he had figured it out better than me, with how quickly he had disarmed me, with the control he had over the knives, over himself. No doubt that was the Pantheon’s doing. It's the only thing that made sense. They gave him the bracer. Gave him the means and understanding to use it. Why him though, of all people? Surely there were better candidates. Why waste a Legendary mana-stone on this piece of shit?

  Nathan watched me as if considering whether he should test the theory or not. Find out which of us was superior. That’s the kind of thing that made him tick. He wanted to be superior. He craved it. But I could see the uncertainty in him. People like him wanted to believe they were superior. They didn’t like to be proven wrong. And they wouldn’t risk a situation where they were. He’d gone into this thinking I was still the same scared younger brother he’d known ten years ago. He wasn’t expecting what he’d got.

  “Why would you come for the artifact?” I asked. “If you could even manage to take it, Earth loses this war.”

  “And that’s meant to matter to me?”

  “What would you gain though? You’d just become a target yourself.”

  “Maybe.”

  The nonchalant way he said it made me think there was something else going on. “What did they promise you?”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  He raised his eyebrows, with a small smile on his lips. He knew who I meant by ‘they’.

  Then he disappeared. Blinked out of existence.

  I sprang up and ran forwards, grabbing my gun from next to the two men I had felled. Kian was close behind having made his way in. I was watching the clear thread as it expanded instantaneously in a straight line towards the back garden. I channelled mana towards the other end, as I ran through the kitchen entrance and past the dining table to the double-glazed door. It led to the back garden, a large window to its left. I pulled the handle down, but the door was locked. As I strafed left and moved the net curtain out of the way of the window to see, the clear thread and the anchor points dissipated before I could channel mana into it. Nathan was gone with them.

  “What happened here?” Kian asked, as he entered the kitchen.

  “Nathan happened.”

  “He did all this?”

  “With some help from the two near the door you just walked through.” My focus was still on the back garden. It was about ten metres long, six metres wide, and shared fences with the houses to either side, and the house on the street over. No sign of Nathan. I didn’t know why I thought there would be. Either he knew my anchor on him would disappear if he got far enough away, or he had hoped. I wonder just how much help the Pantheon had given him.

  “Let’s go,” I said, turning to Kian, as I let the net curtain fall back into place. As I walked through the open wall, Kian going back through the kitchen door, I took a final look at my dad. Even though I knew what he had done, he was my father. If my mum had been here, she would’ve made me bury him properly. That’s the kind of woman she was. Always with a good heart and a concern for others.

  I didn’t have the time to give him that, but I walked over to him and held his head as I pulled the knife out. There was barely any blood that seeped out. Gently, I laid him on the sofa and put his feet up with his arms across his chest. It was the best I could do.

  I became aware of the throbbing pain in my left shoulder, the knife still pinned there. Fortunately, it hadn’t hit any bones. Guess I’d get to test out just how weak Charlotte’s healing was. I took one final look at my dad with some relief that he was gone. It was mixed with a little sadness that it had to go this way, and a fair amount of anger for my mother and what he had done. Maybe I’d learn to forgive him over time.

  “Come,” I said to Kian, who was waiting by the lounge entrance. We made our way over the dead bodies, neither of us even so much as contemplating proper burials. If Nathan wasn’t on the loose and possibly still nearby, I would have done so.

  Outside, the sky was a damp light blue, the sun still leisurely making its way up. Kaelyn was stood by the passenger side of Charlotte’s SUV, knife in hand. Charlotte was outside the vehicle by her open driver’s door, rifle in hand, aimed at the house. Carmen was the same ahead of us. We walked past the overturned spiders on either side of the path and got back to the cars, Carmen wrapping her arms around my neck. I could feel her slightly trembling but doing her best to not let me notice.

  “Kian, help me with this,” I said, as I let Carmen go. Charlotte and Kaelyn came over to the black SUV.

  “What happened?” Charlotte asked.

  “I’ll tell you later,” I said through gritted teeth as Kian dragged the knife out of my shoulder. I did my best not to scream, grinding my teeth together. Once it was out, I could feel the blood staining the t-shirt under my hoodie. Charlotte didn’t need to be asked and cast [Light Heal].

  What had she said? It might make a cut hurt a little less. It hadn’t even done that. I could feel no benefit from it whatsoever.

  “Thanks,” I said. “It feels much better.”

  She beamed a smile at me, green eyes glinting. “Really? So, it’s helping?”

  “No. It’s useless. It might even have made it worse,” I said with a smile. Kian cracked up.

  If we don’t laugh, we die. Always keep moving forwards.

  “If you weren’t injured, I’d punch you,” Charlotte snapped back.

  “Let’s go. Let’s head back to that military checkpoint we were at. Time to make myself known to them.”

  “You don’t want to head on to parliament?” Carmen asked.

  “No need, is there? The PM sent out that message – to make myself known to the closest military personnel. Just need to hope they don’t have plans like Nathan did. Kaelyn, jump in with us.”

  Charlotte narrowed her eyes at Kian. “You better make sure you tell me everything you speak about.”

  “Just get your parents to drive. We’re only going round the corner.”

  You could almost see the lightbulb turning on. It wasn’t that Charlotte was dumb. None of us were. But sometimes you get so focused on the wider picture, you don’t always notice the obvious.

  A few moments later, the five of us were in Kian’s black SUV, Charlotte’s parents following in their car. Kian was driving, Charlotte in the passenger side. Carmen was sat in the middle of the back, with me on her left. I didn’t want her head near my injured shoulder as it continued seeping blood, but the flow had slowed. Hopefully, the medics would still be there to see to it.

  “Nathan has Kaelyn’s bracer,” I told them. “The Legendary mana-stone that lets him control space. He must have got it from the Pantheon. To what end, I don’t know but I think he has some sort of deal with them, if he can take my stone.”

  “Even though it will doom Earth?” Carmen said.

  “He gave me the impression that whatever happens to Earth won’t affect him. Nor would the quest.”

  “Why him though?” Kian asked.

  “I’m asking myself the same question. Maybe ‘cause he’s a sick bastard. You saw the inside of that house. My dad.” When the others looked at me with questioning eyes, I told them what he had done.

  “I can see why you didn’t want anything to do with him,” Charlotte said from the front seat.

  “He might not be the only one who thinks like that though. We’ll need to be careful. There’s always going to be people looking for an advantage and to hell with everyone else.”

  “You’re always going to be a target,” Carmen said. “You’ll always need to be looking over your shoulder.”

  I looked out of the window, as the car went silent and we were coming towards the checkpoint we had been at earlier. She wasn’t wrong.

  But I wasn’t one to wilt.

  Once we got to the soldier we had encountered earlier, who was trying to wave us through since we were going in the right direction this time, Kian stopped the car, Charlotte’s parents right behind us. All of us got out. At first, the soldier was confused, trying to shout at us to continue on, but then he stopped. He looked at my head with widening eyes.

  “That’s right. I’m River Clarke.”