The Fire Escape
Maya's POV
"Move!" I screamed, grabbing Damien's armored hand and yanking him toward my bedroom window.
The door behind us exploded in a shower of purple sparks and flying wood pieces. Marcus stepped through the smoking doorway like he owned the place, his red eyes glowing in the dark like a demon from my worst nightmares.
"Running already?" Marcus laughed, and the sound made my skin crawl. "But we haven't even had a proper chat yet, my dear Maya."
How did he know my name? I hadn't told him anything!
I fumbled with the window latch, my hands shaking so badly I could barely work the stupid thing. Damien pushed me aside and slammed his sword handle against the glass. It shattered instantly.
"After you, my lady," he said, but his voice was tight with fear.
"It's three stories down!" I whispered.
"Better than staying here," Damien shot back.
Magic crackled in the living room behind us. The smell of burnt plastic filled the air, and I heard my TV making weird electronic screaming sounds.
I climbed through the broken window onto the metal fire escape. The cold night air hit my face like a slap. My bare feet touched the freezing metal grating, and I almost slipped.
Damien squeezed through after me, his armor clanking against the window frame. For a big medieval knight, he moved pretty quietly.
"Sir Damien!" Marcus called from inside my apartment. "You can't run from me forever. I've had five hundred years to plan this moment."
We started climbing down the fire escape as fast as we could. The metal steps were so cold they burned my feet. I tried not to look at the ground far below.
"Why is he doing this?" I whispered to Damien.
"Because he's evil," Damien whispered back. "That's what evil people do."
Real helpful, knight boy.
Above us, Marcus appeared at my broken window. In the darkness, his glowing red eyes looked like floating coals.
"Maya Chen," he called down to us, and my blood turned to ice water. "Computer science major, age twenty, lives alone, works part-time at the campus bookstore. Did you really think I didn't know everything about you?"
I missed a step and almost fell. How could he know all that stuff about me?
"Keep moving," Damien urged, but I could hear the worry in his voice too.
We reached the second floor fire escape landing. Only one more level to go.
"You see, my dear girl," Marcus continued, and his voice seemed to be coming from everywhere at once now, "I didn't send our knight friend to your apartment by accident. Oh no. That required very specific magic, very careful planning."
"What's he talking about?" I asked Damien.
Damien looked sick. "I don't know. But nothing good."
We started down the final set of stairs. My apartment building's back alley was almost close enough to jump to now.
"Tell her, Damien," Marcus laughed. "Tell her about the binding spell. Tell her why she was the only person in this entire city who could catch you when you fell through time."
Damien stopped moving. Just froze right there on the fire escape.
"Damien, come on!" I tugged at his arm.
"I didn't know," he whispered, staring at me with horrified eyes. "Maya, I swear I didn't know."
"Know what?"
But before Damien could answer, purple light exploded around us. The fire escape started shaking like an earthquake was hitting it.
"Time to come back up, children," Marcus said sweetly. "We have so much to discuss."
The metal stairs under our feet began bending and twisting like they were made of rubber. I grabbed onto the railing, but it was changing shape too, trying to curl around my wrist like a snake.
"The magic's controlling the metal!" I yelled.
"Jump!" Damien shouted.
We leaped off the fire escape just as it twisted into an impossible pretzel shape. I hit the concrete hard, rolling to absorb the impact like they taught us in my old gymnastics class. Pain shot through my shoulder, but nothing felt broken.
Damien landed beside me with a crash of armor. He was on his feet instantly, pulling me up.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'm okay. Let's go!"
We ran through the alley toward the street. Behind us, I heard Marcus laughing again.
"You can run, but you can't hide from destiny, Maya! The spell that brought Damien to you was just the beginning!"
We reached the street and kept running. The late-night city was mostly empty, just a few cars and the occasional person walking their dog. Everything looked normal, but nothing felt normal anymore.
"This way," I gasped, turning toward campus. "My friend Jessica's apartment."
We ran for three blocks before I had to stop and catch my breath. My side hurt, and my feet were bleeding from running on concrete with no shoes.
"Maya," Damien said quietly. "What Marcus said about the binding spell..."
"I don't want to hear it right now."
But I did want to hear it. I was terrified to hear it.
We ducked into a 24-hour diner to get warm and figure out what to do next. The waitress gave us weird looks – me with no shoes and Damien with a sword on his back – but she left us alone.
I borrowed Damien's phone to call Jessica, but it went straight to voicemail. Of course. It was like two in the morning.
"We can go to her place anyway," I said. "She keeps a spare key under her flowerpot."
Damien wasn't listening. He was staring out the diner window with a strange expression on his face.
"Maya," he said slowly. "Look at your phone."
I pulled out my cell phone. The screen was completely black, but as I watched, glowing purple letters started appearing on it, typing themselves out like someone invisible was using the keyboard:
THE BINDING SPELL CONNECTS YOUR SOULS ACROSS TIME. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE EACH OTHER. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME. THE GIRL'S MAGICAL POWER IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING. BRING HER TO ME, DAMIEN, OR WATCH HER DIE SLOWLY AS THE SPELL TEARS HER APART FROM THE INSIDE.
The message disappeared, and my phone screen went back to normal.
I stared at Damien. "Binding spell? What binding spell?"
Damien's face had gone completely white. "Maya, I think... I think Marcus planned for us to fall in love."
"What?"
"The spell that brought me here wasn't just about getting me out of his way. It was about bringing us together. But why would he want that unless..."
Damien's eyes went wide with horror.
"Unless what?" I demanded.
"Unless he needs both of us for something. Something that requires our combined power."
My phone buzzed again. New message:
TICK TOCK, LOVEBIRDS. THE SPELL GROWS STRONGER EVERY HOUR YOU'RE TOGETHER. SOON YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO BE MORE THAN A FEW FEET APART WITHOUT DYING. AND WHEN THAT HAPPENS, I'LL HAVE YOU BOTH EXACTLY WHERE I WANT YOU.
The phone screen cracked down the middle and went dead.
I looked at Damien, feeling like my whole world was falling apart. "So this isn't real? What I'm feeling for you isn't real? It's just some stupid magic spell?"
"I don't know," Damien whispered. "I don't know what's real anymore."
Outside the diner window, every streetlight on the block suddenly went out at once, plunging us into complete darkness.
And in that darkness, I heard Marcus's voice whisper right in my ear, even though he wasn't anywhere near us:
"Ready or not, children. Here I come."