The Last Spell 43.2

Sputtering with disbelief and shock, Leilan struggled against the magic binding to no avail. He couldn’t even lean forward, much less move his arms or stand up. The question of how screamed in his mind. There was no doubt this person was a mage, but at no point had he cast or made his own spell. Somehow, he seemed able to use other people’s— even after the fact.

“What are you doing?” he shouted, as the astronaut calmly turned his back and started to make his way towards Autumn.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” the astronaut said, scooping Autumn up with surprising ease and holding her in his arms. “It’ll wear off soon.”

“What—” Leilan gaped, feeling like he’d just been slapped in the face. “You can’t just take her.”

“I’m not going to hurt her, either,” the astronaut said, with strained patience. “She’ll be safe. The reason you’re trapped is for your own safety as well— you need to be out of the way so I don’t have to take action against you.”

“She’s a kid,” Leilan snapped. “I don’t know who you are or what you want, but she should be left out of it, whatever it is.”

“You’re an Heir,” the astronaut said. “You of all people should know there are forces at play that you can’t understand, even with your position.”

It felt like Leilan had had the air knocked out of his lungs a second time. He froze, the struggle to get free forgotten.

“How do you know that?” he breathed.

It wasn’t the only question he had. What else did this person know? Whose side was he really on? Had there been a danger greater than Sparrow and his Arcade under their noses all along?

“Your file’s an interesting read.” The astronaut carefully lifted Autumn a little higher, supporting her head. “Not too different from mine, in some parts. The same city raised us, and the same disaster shaped us— only some time apart.”

Before Leilan could make sense of that mind-boggling statement, he heard the thudding of swift, light-footed steps over the palace floor. He and the astronaut quickly snapped their gazes to the end of the hallway.

He almost didn’t believe his eyes when he saw Marius turn the corner.

“Leilan! There you are—”

Marius screeched to a stop, and his eyes went wide. Leilan watched with a pounding heart as his friend’s gaze darted around the scene, his expression turning more horrified with everything he saw. Marius’s stare lingered on the blood coating his shirt, and Leilan didn’t have time to worry about how he probably looked like he was on death’s door right now.

“What are you doing here?” Leilan shouted. “I told you to stay downstairs!”

“And I knew you’d be getting in over your head again!” Marius hollered back. “What is happening?”

Leilan looked to the astronaut, because truthfully, he didn’t know the answer to that question. The astronaut’s expression, previously composed and neutral, was suddenly wary.

“This is none of your business,” the astronaut said. “I recommend you leave.”

“Actually, I think it is,” Marius retorted. “My friends are hurt, and you look like you’re participating in the kidnapping of a young child.”

“I wasn’t responsible, and I’m not here to hurt them,” the astronaut said firmly. “Neither do I mean you any harm. But you need to get out of the way.”

“Then let him go,” Marius snapped.

“I can’t,” the astronaut replied. “Not until I can leave, which you really shouldn’t stop me from doing.”

“Listen to him, Marius,” Leilan pleaded. “It’s not safe.”

Too late, he recognized a stubborn glint in Marius’s eyes, the same one he’d seen when he’d told Marius to stay downstairs. His friend’s gaze drifted to the floor.

“You’re right,” Marius said. “It’s not.”

He lunged before Leilan could speak— but it wasn’t for the astronaut. Instead, Marius dove for the gun Kasumi had knocked out of Pia’s grip, now resting a short distance away from his feet.

The astronaut had set Autumn down and pulled the gun of his own by the time Marius was pointing the gun at him. His jaw was clenched, and he held the pistol with much more confidence, but there was no mistaking the determination Marius faced him with.

“Marius!” Leilan shouted. “What—”

“These two need medical attention,” Marius challenged, sweeping a hand toward Kasumi, then to Leilan, as he kept the gun aimed at the astronaut’s chest. “You say you don’t want them hurt? Prove it. Stop holding them hostage as a way to make your exit.”

The astronaut’s gaze briefly flicked down to Kasumi’s body, and Leilan followed it. His stomach twisted at the sight of the growing pool of blood around her head.

“You’re very brave to be defending your friends,” the astronaut said. His tone was calm, but it held a warning. “I respect it. But the smart thing to do here is to stand down. Don’t be a hero.”

“Then don’t be the bad guy here,” Marius said firmly.

“Just listen to him and put the gun down!” Leilan yelled, straining to get free of the spell again. His panic only grew when it was just as unyielding as before. But Marius didn’t even give him a glance.

“I don’t want to be,” the astronaut cautioned. “And I want to let your friend go. But I’m not risking that until you’ll let me carry out this mission.”

“You mean a kidnapping?” Marius shook his head, keeping his aim steady. “Yeah, here’s the thing. I don’t trust you.”

“Marius, please,” Leilan begged. His voice cracked desperately in his ears. “Don’t do this. It’s not worth the risk.”

“There’s nothing at risk.” For a moment, a sad, solemn smile flickered over Marius’s face, but the ache of something that looked like love lingered in his eyes for longer. “And it’s worth it all.”

Leilan’s head spun, thoughts whirling by too fast to be tethered down and made sense of. He couldn’t understand what he meant by that. He couldn’t understand this.

The astronaut pressed his lips together, and for the first time, Leilan saw him with an expression of regret. Maybe it was even apology.

“I don’t want to do this,” the astronaut said quietly.

“That’s too bad,” Marius said. “I do.”

Leilan couldn’t watch for what he knew was coming, a moment before it happened. He closed his eyes.

He didn’t know who shot first, but it didn’t seem to matter. Gunfire erupted from both sides before the echo had faded. Leilan whimpered as he turned away, seized by a trembling he could not tame or control. Poison-like dread sickened him to the core. Suddenly, he wasn’t an Heir anymore. He was just a kid, trapped in place with the world crumbling around him, horribly aware of the disaster collapsing over his loved ones and powerless to do anything about it.

A grunt, a cry, and a stifled sob. Leilan knew that the last one was from him by the way it shook his entire frame.

Seconds upon seconds passed in terrible blindness. It took every bit of resolve to fight against the scream in his head and open his eyes again, weakly raising his head. He felt no surprise when he saw the astronaut and Autumn were gone, although their absence made his blood run cold. But it was nothing to how his heart stopped when he saw Marius. Marius, lying a few feet away from Kasumi. Marius, on his side with his back to Leilan, almost completely still.

He looked just like Shane had last night.

“Marius?” Leilan whispered, the word catching in his throat.

Marius didn’t respond. He didn’t even move.

“No,” Leilan choked out, shuddering as the fangs of panic sank into the back of his neck. He couldn’t breathe. “No, Marius—”

He had to get free. He had to get to him.

A strained groan turned into a pitiful whine as Leilan struggled to escape the binding weight of the Force around him. No amount of resistance was getting him even an inch closer to Marius, no matter how much he pushed or how far he tried to lean for it. He was losing all his strength from trying. Leilan found himself giving up entirely on technique as he thrashed frantically against the spell without hope, another sob tearing itself from his chest. He couldn’t see ahead of him through the tears anymore.

The astronaut said it would wear off. Saints, it had to wear off—

Leilan slumped forward from his own momentum a few seconds later as the Force spell suddenly winked out of existence, like the dying light of a burnt-out star. Ignoring the pain in his chest, Leilan dragged himself on all fours to Marius, shivering with each movement.

He was no doctor. He’d never seen a bullet wound in the flesh. Maybe that was why his brain refused to accept the sight of the crimson radiating out in all directions over Marius’s shirt, centered so perfectly above his heart that it couldn’t be real.

It couldn’t be real.

“Please,” Leilan begged, grabbing Marius by the shoulders and shaking him with more force than he meant to. “Please, Marius, please be—”

It was then he realized Marius was still breathing. He could see the weak movement of his chest. But for some reason he couldn’t explain, he found no relief in the sight.

Marius slowly cracked one eye open, then the other. He tried to smile when he saw Leilan, but it turned into a wince and a groan before it could form.

“I tried,” he rasped. “But his aim’s better.”

“Don’t talk.” Leilan wiped futilely at his eyes as he tossed his suit jacket off, holding it to the wound. “Not while you’re hurt. We can—”

“Whatever it is, probably not.” Marius let out a faint chuckle.

“It’s not funny!” Leilan snapped, but the tremble in his voice took away any of the authority he’d hoped to muster. His hands were shaking as he maintained the pressure. “Don’t say that.”

“Leilan,” Marius wheezed, pulling one of his hands away from the wound. “You’re fooling yourself into thinking you can do something. Don’t fall for it. This isn’t the time for that.”

Leilan shook his head, his heart on its way to sinking into a void. The blood was seeping through his suit— how was it doing that already? There was too much red. He choked again, more tears springing to his eyes as the hopelessness he’d been pushing back sank over him.

“Can you just… be here?” Marius breathed, his voice tight with pain.

It was all Leilan could do to nod, struggling with the next breath that didn’t want to enter his lungs. His other hand slipped from where he’d been holding his suit in place. As it fell aside, revealing a dress shirt that was more red than white, he realized it had been pointless from the start.

He couldn’t win this.

“Why?” Leilan whispered. “Why did you do this?”

“I’m about to lose it all anyway.” Marius coughed, trying to smile again. “Might as well lose it for something good.”

“I don’t understand.” A tear fell from Leilan’s face, vanishing in the spreading pool of crimson.

“A family member came up to tell me soon after you left— just before the lights went out.” Marius drew in a shaking breath. “I got indicted. There’s police at the doors, and they’re waiting for me to leave.”

Leilan stared at him, dizzy with the shock of realization.

“For… for the prototype theft?” he breathed.

Marius nodded tightly, closing his eyes as pain flickered over his face again.

“We would’ve gotten you out, Marius,” Leilan insisted, words heavy with a urgency that was no longer necessary. “You wouldn’t have to serve a minute of time. We could’ve—”

“No, you couldn’t.” Marius shook his head weakly, and seeing the exertion it took for even that slight movement sent a stabbing pain through his heart. “You’d have tried, but you would’ve wasted your time. That prototype was meant for a federal project, and if they’re charging me with its theft, it means one of two things. They either think it’s me and won’t bother to find anyone else responsible, or they know I didn’t do it and they don’t care.”

Leilan was burning to tell him he was wrong. But every word he could’ve summoned in defense of the Houses was dying on his tongue, and he realized he didn’t believe any of them anymore. His head hung with a helpless sob.

“Either way, I’m the scapegoat, and their minds won’t be changed because they need someone to blame. I’m not going to spend the rest of my life paying the price on their idea of justice.” Marius opened his eyes again, meeting Leilan’s gaze with a tender look. “I’d pick this fate instead every time.”

“But I can’t lose you.” Leilan choked on another sob. “I can’t.”

“You’ve lost worse than me before,” Marius soothed. “You’ve lost family. You’ll make it.”

“That’s exactly what I’m losing right now.” Leilan shuddered, wiping at his eyes.

Marius faltered, a sorrowful ache flashing across his expression. He reached for Leilan’s hand, and Leilan squeezed it tightly, blood warm and still-drying between his fingers.

“You’ll have to get through it,” Marius said quietly. His voice was failing, his words tapering off in places they shouldn’t be. “You need to. And you’ve got to give that guy hell for me, too.”

“I’m going to.” Leilan’s promise was tight with tears.

“Good.” Marius let out a shaky exhale, just barely smiling. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Leilan could feel Marius’ pulse stuttering, fading in and out through his hand. He clung to it as long as he could. As long as it was still there.

The smile on Marius’ face ticked a hint higher. “Avoid the paparazzi.”

Leilan wasn’t sure his heart was ever going to find its way back together. That was their inside joke— the one they’d exchanged several times this week even— that featured at the end of almost every conversation. It was their way of saying goodbye. And now it was up to him to complete it for the last time.

“Won’t that be hard,” Leilan whispered.

And it was. It was one of the hardest things he’d ever gone through when he watched that smile freeze in place, never to fade again, and when all that was left for Leilan to do was let his shoulders slump and weep through the silence that followed.