There was an invisible SNAP! and she rocked back. Ozone filled the air. Her cheeks flushed and lighting crackled between her fingers. Which quickly disappeared.
Even she couldn’t pierce the shields Rachel had put into place on her brother’s mind.
A chill went through Hilario.
Oh dear. What if those shields weren’t there to protect Detective Marco? What if they were there to protect a secret hidden in the detective’s mind?
Like the secret of the long lost Green Realm?
No wonder the Sapphire Witch wanted inside the detective’s addled mind.
Another thing to ask Rachel about. Assuming they could catch up to her.
“Larry,” Hilario said, “Did Rachel divorce you because you didn’t want to have children?”
Hilario wiped ghostly tears from his eyes. “I couldn’t do it to her,” he said, “Not with that thing hanging over me.”
“Why did you do it?” Hilario said.
Larry gave him a fierce look. “Because I was an idiot!” he said, “I wanted a shortcut to greatness. I wanted perfection. Well, I got it. And what did it get me? Alone and then dead. My baby burned to the ground.”
Hilario drew in a sharp breath.
“Sinzerklaazz killed you?” he said, “To collect the debt you owed him?”
“He did not,” the Sapphire Witch said, “That is not the way he works. Someone else found out about the pact. And decided to help Sinzerklaazz without his permission.”
Odom the Paladin clapped his metal hands together. They rang with an ear piercing peal.
“I see it now!” he said, “This human was a weak link. A window between the worlds. To exploit Sinzerklaazz’s pact not only created a thin spot but also compelled the black angels to immediately go to collect him.”
“Which would have opened that window wide enough for the dark forces to invade the normal world city,” the Sapphire Witch said.
“Yes, yes!” Odom said, “A beautiful maneuver. Decadently evil. Why didn’t it work?”
The Sapphire Witch turned to Hilario. Odom raised a puzzled brow.
“Uh, I showed up,” Hilario said, “Just as Larry materialized as a spirit. He saw me. Imprinted on my van.”
“And then brought him to me to extract,” the Sapphire Witch, “And I didn’t realize who the clown carried as cargo in this ridiculous vehicle. I sent him away.”
Quite rudely, too, as he recalled.
“I had tried to shield Larry Sparrow in the months before his untimely death,” the Sapphire Witch said, “My sisters and I had been aware of his pact. Mother Alexandrite suspected he might become a pathway for the dark lords. We weren’t expecting…what happened. We had expected a more direct approach. His restaurant was magically charged. Yet also shielded. A perfect gateway.”
Hilario sunk down in his seat. How had he missed all of this? He had been to the Stung Sparrow dozens of times. And had never felt any touch of magic. Even though he suspected there were magically abilities involved in Larry’s cooking skills.
He rubbed his skull through his fluffy, purple wig. His head hurt with the convoluted devious of it. All the crossing and double crossing and triple crossing. It was making him cross-eyed.
“So why are we running around in the unseen world now?” he asked, “Isn’t the window, so to speak, closed now? I mean, Larry’s here, the black angels aren’t here. His restaurant is destroyed…oh.”
The Sapphire Witch gave him a tight smile. “You see now, clown?”
He did. Or thought he did.
My baby burned to the ground.
“Larry,” Hilario said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice, “Did you own any other restaurant before the Stung Sparrow?”
“No, of course not,” Larry said, “The Sparrow’s my baby. My one and only.”
“Your first born,” Hilario said.
Larry’s eyes went wide. “No,” he said.
“Yes,” the Sapphire Witch said.
Odom chuckled and shook his head. “Diabolical.”
“Could someone wake me up? Please,” Marco said.
Yes, waking up from this nightmare would be wonderful. If only.
He squeezed his eyes shut. Put the van and his unwanted passengers crowding his personal space with their stinky odors of rotten cabbage and musk and spice from his mind. And thought through what had been done to Larry, and his first born.
Sinzerklaazz had granted Larry magical abilities, that much was clear. But that was not a gift. No magic came without a price. Sinzerklaazz wanted Larry’s first born child. And why?
Because Sinzerklaazz somehow knew Rachel was from the fabled Green Realm. The old being wanted a path to lead him there. And there was no better path than the flesh and blood of one born to the realm. Or a child of someone who had been.
So Sinzerklaazz had tempted Larry with what he wanted most: perfection in the kitchen. And because Larry was too impatient to simply become skilled with experience, he accepted the offer.
Larry opened his restaurant. Rachel waited for him to give her a child. And eventually left him when he didn’t. Even though she still loved him.
And he her. So much that Larry knew it would kill her if their child was taken by the unseen world.
Meanwhile, someone learned of Larry’s debt to the unseen world. And saw an opportunity to exploit a weakness in the walls between the two worlds.
Through the arcane rules of the unseen world, the black angels were one of the few types of entities allowed to freely move back and forth between worlds. And as they retrieved Larry’s spirit for Sinzerklaazz, they would create a conduit between the worlds. A brief one, but if the massed forces of the dark powers were ready, they could power through it and capture a chunk of the normal world.
As Odom said, diabolical.
Diabolical
