Chapter 7: The Die Has Been Cast

Jered chit-chatted with her for the next dozen minutes. While Rainey had carjacked his original mission in going there, his indignation eventually tapered off as the clock ticked by and the conversation went on. Then that sharp smell cropped up out of nowhere, and he was almost left seeing red. His patience was being tested, and for a moment he considered taking a blunt object and smash his nose into a bloody mess. Arya stopped talking and pored him over, “What’s up? You look pale…”

“Can’t you smell it?” he returned with a question, frustrated at the constant odor following him around, “It’s so strong…” not to mention persistent. It was as if someone was playing with a switch, or turning the volume of television up and down on a whim. Sometimes it was there, right under his nose, tickling his anger. Some other time it was like he was hallucinating all along. Needless to say, if that kept up, he’d be doing something stupid very soon.

“Uhh… smell what exactly?” she sniffed a bit around her, trying to locate the source of her guest’s discomfort, but nothing came of it, “It’s pretty clean here, I mean, at least my side of the room is sparkly. I can’t speak for Chloe.” she finished with a shrug, defending her territory from any suspicion of dirt or funky smells. It was amusing, in an endearing way.

“Nevermind…” he raked a hand through his hair, “I think I’ll go out and take a breath.”

Arya was having none of it—if her expression was anything to go by. But just as she was about to make a fuss, a strong knock echoed inside the while walls of her room. It was at that point that her features went from a scolding mother to a royally pissed off teenage girl that had her joyride interrupted. It was not every day that she could laugh like that, and Jered’s visits had become far and in between. Her rage simmered quietly underneath the surface of her stoic mask. 

The door was swung open, and in entered a smiling Rainey and a couple of nurses. One of them was holding a small glass of pills, with an ever-present Chesire grin stitched on her face. Her porcelain skin and smokey eyes would have not looked out of place in a run-of-the-mill shop that sold haunted dolls. “Medication time, honey.” Arya was so sick of hearing that. It was all about medication, and she was never even told what those little things were for.

There was a bit of hesitation in her hand, but a raised eyebrow from the nurse killed off any shred of defiance she was stewing inside. “It’s for your good, come on…” her voice had an underlying challenging flavor that dared her to refuse. Arya didn’t want to find out what’d happen, so she reached out and took the proffered glass. Meanwhile, Jered’s vertigo had reached an all-time high, something that didn’t go unnoticed.

“Oh my, are you feeling alright?” Rainey approached him, and the more she did, the more he felt like throwing up on her face. It did not escape him how all of that tang seemed to stem from her presence. 

“I’m peachy…” he rasped out, barely able to muster up the force to speak. 

The clacking of her stilettos reverberated through his ears rhythmically, until it abruptly halted and he found himself snapping his gaze up in reaction. Her face was so close to his that he could count each and every wrinkle on her skin. Then a constant cracking noise sprung about inside his head. The new addition was not welcome, but he steeled his nerves. It was not wise to lose his s*** now. Rainey’s expression provoked apprehension as her hand snugged on his cheek, “Better now?” he unclenched his jaw as his shoulders loosened up. Everything was back to normal. No smells, no sounds. He was left with nothing but his nagging suspicion.

A suspicion that was proven correct, and that sparked no little amount of anger. “What was that?” but no, he had to rein it back, for now.

“You… seem to have an unnaturally high mana attunement.” he expected a snarky comeback from her—that was how most of their exchanges had played out so far—yet her tone had taken on a tinge of excitement and skepticism. “Wasn’t that why you were feeling so… overwhelmed?” she had gotten even closer now, their faces just inches away from a kiss that would surely be unwilling on his part. He craned his head back in response.

Her words carried a weight he couldn’t dismiss. 

Jered tugged at the collar of his shirt, a stiff smile on his face and a snappy retort at the tip of his tongue. Everything felt like part of a puzzle, and the pieces were slowly coming in. He knew he needed her answers, for she most assuredly had them. “How do you know?” he schooled his features and asked. 

“If someone purposely leaks their magical energy, then even a normal person can feel it. However…” Rainey took a short break between her words, munching over an abstract theory coming together inside her head, “… You had intense reactions when I was not leaking it as well. Right after we got out of the bus, for example. And now, you almost threw up from a Mana Sensitivity overload.” she nodded along with her explanation, as if her words made more sense out loud than in the secrecy of her mind. 

It was absurd how she so easily spat out the answer, despite the gazes drilling on them from Arya and the nurses. It looked like a joke, he wanted to laugh and wake up. “Magical what? Excuse me…” it couldn’t have been what he was thinking about, not a chance in hell, “I need a more practical… evidence—if you will—of what you just said. I’m having trouble keeping up with you.”

Rainey’s lips curled up slightly, “Yes… fair enough.” and then she snapped her fingers. A powerful rush of that annoying smell clobbered against his senses, and Jered had no time to react when he was lifted off the ground by a sudden absence of gravity. He was airborne, his limbs flailing around as his brain finally registered what happened. Arya had her hands cupping her mouth in utter befuddlement, while the nurses just stood there as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

What. The. Actual. F***.

“Better to see it for yourself than hear about it. We’ve just avoided a long-winded lesson about what is happening to you.” the old lady giggled quietly, “That is why I told you that you shouldn’t have taken the pills. That’s the result. You are now magically empowered, sort of.” 

Jered shot a glare at her, “Put me down…” his voice was so cold that had it been a magic spell, it would have frozen the entire room. She found it amusing, but complied nonetheless. His feet touched the ground, and the smell vanished.

He was mentally drained out, and his day had just started. 

“What the hell just happened!?” Arya’s voice was so high-pitched it sounded like she was about to have a breakdown. Rainey silenced her with a stare. Literally, because the mixed-blood girl fell asleep right then and there. It must have been another magical thingy, there was no way she fainted out of fear. 

“Let’s hope she wakes up a tiny amount of mana, at least.” the doll-like nurse droned, “We’re wasting an unimaginable amount of resources on her.” 

The other nurse, a fifty-or-so-year-old woman nodded. “I always told you that it was pointless. Now we’re running low on funds, and if at least half of them don’t wake up our plan will be foiled.”

“It’s okay.” Rainey waved them off, a genially smile lighting up her features as she squinted her eyes at Jered. “I think we’ve just found our proverbial ace in the sleeve.”

“Okay, okay… wait a minute. First of all,” Jered raised a fist to clear his throat, his artificial smile faltering. “I didn’t agree to anything. Just because you’re some supernatural freak, it doesn’t mean you can control me…” and when Rainey made a show to snap her fingers again, “Okay! Okay! You can… wait, you told me you didn’t want to intimidate me!”

“Ah, I’m not good with commitments either.”

“…”

“Don’t make such a face. There is nowhere for you to go even if I don’t rope you in.” her eyes glinted like an unsheathed sword, “You’ll soon find out how shitty both the world we live in and the magical one are. ‘A man’s got to take risks‘, right? What’s stopping you from taking my hand and be my handsome sidekick?”

“I don’t know… you look sketchy, that’s all. The devil would look more innocent.”

Rainey cupped her face in a cutesy fashion, batting her eyes at him. “I do?” a smirk split her face. And then, she faded from existence in a flurry of crimson, glowing embers. Jered stiffened. The sudden outpouring of mana overpowered his senses, leaving him almost blinded of his surroundings. A hand tapped his shoulder. He couldn’t see Rainey, but he knew it was her. Her presence stank of power and ashes, and that same presence was whispering to him from behind in a dulcet, mischievous tone. “We have good chemistry, don’t we?” her warm breath tickled his earlobes, “What do you want? I’ll give it to you… just work for me until my goals are accomplished, and then you’ll be free.”

He felt powerless. Whether to her power or her promises he didn’t know. But the thrill pumping through his veins was certainly more addicting than the pills. Wasn’t that what he wanted? Rainey’s hands snaked around his waist, hugging him tightly against her warm bosom. Jered titled his head sideways, and met her hopeful, heated stare. Whatever. The die had been cast anyway. “Fine, I’m in. For as long as your goals are accomplished…”