but the brain is funny. Trying to remember something that happened to you twenty years ago is hard enough when you’ve had twenty years to remember and reflect upon it. When you haven’t, it’s like seeing images from a movie you don’t remember watching but recognize anyway. You’ll never remember it all. Just pieces.”
“And we were . . . ?” Ewan motioned a finger back and forth between himself and Colby.
“We were friends.”
“So I was taken by fairies?”
“When you were an infant, yeah.”
“Why?”
“So they could turn you into a fairy and sacrifice you in place of one of their own.”
“Well, how did you end up out there?”
Colby shrugged. “I met a djinn. I made a wish.”
“For what?”
“To see the world. All the magical things there were.”
“So you just wanted to see monsters?”
Colby shrugged. “I was eight. It seemed cool at the time.” Ewan grimaced. “You know, I was just a tourist until I met you. It was saving you that drove me to make my second wish. To become . . . what I am now.”
“Why’d you do it?” asked Ewan.
“Because I promised you that I would.”
“So you’re saying it’s my fault?”
“It’s our fault. It’s their fault. It’s Yashar’s fault. It’s no one’s fault. It is what it is and now we’re left to deal with it.”
“So all this time, you knew.”
Colby nodded. “Yeah.”
“And all those times you came to visit me when I was a kid? All the times you checked up on me at my apartment and asked me stupid questions? You’ve been . . . ?”
“Looking out for you.”
“Why?”
“I told you, I promised you that I would.”
“I don’t know whether to hug you or beat the living shit out of you.”
“When you figure it out, will you give me a few seconds’ warning, either way?”
“Yeah. I owe you that much.”
“Speaking of beatings, where’d you get the cool hat?”
“Took it from one of those things.”
“Took it?” asked Colby.
“Snatched it right off his head and then put him through a wall.”
“But he’s okay, though, right? I mean, he got up?”
“Oh, hell no. His head is pulp on the pavement. The rest got away, though.”
“Oh,” said Colby gravely. “Oh, this is bad.”
“What, did you expect me to let him live?”
“I . . . I don’t know what I expected. But killing one of them only makes this worse. Much, much worse.”
Ewan jabbed his finger into Colby’s chest several times, punctuating each word with it. “Hey! They! Came after! Me!”
“Doesn’t matter. They’ll be back for blood, in force.”
“So what are we gonna do?”
“We?” asked Colby.
“Yeah, we. Unless you have some awesome spell that can fix this all up? You know, use your magic words and make this all go away.”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
“Well, whatever it is you say. You do know spells, right?”
“No. Magic isn’t about rituals and words. You don’t just speak a phrase in Latin and then bam! weird shit happens.”
“Then how does it work?”
“You don’t really want to know.”
“Yeah, I kinda do.”
The two stared at each other. Colby shrugged.
“All right, the universe is energy. All of it. Everything is energy that can be altered simply by willing it to be altered. It’s as if we are God’s waking dream, each gifted with a small piece of his consciousness; the beauty of that arrangement is that we create the dream for him. If you can understand that, if you can wrap your mind around it, then you can conjure up anything you want from out of the ether. Provided there is material enough to do it.”
“That doesn’t make a lick of fucking sense. Show me.”
Colby shook his head. “What? No.”
“Show me something,” insisted Ewan. “Show me some magic.”
Colby hesitated for a second. Then it dawned on him.
He breathed deep. Then, with a bit of theatricality, he waved his hand needlessly through the air. His fingers danced whilst he exhaled slowly, deeply. He pushed a clenched fist toward Ewan—as if battling a current—placing an open hand on his chest.
Ewan felt warm. His wounds closed up; the swelling about his eyes receded, their bruising eroding with it. Blood dried, flaking off like dead skin. In a few short seconds, Ewan was whole again.
“You didn’t tell me your ribs were broken,” said Colby.
“You never asked.”
“You walked all this way with broken ribs?”
“Yeah. You impressed?”
Colby nodded. “That’s actually kind of badass.” The two smiled weakly.
“Hurt like nothing else. I threw up twice.”
“I can imagine.” He paused. “So this girl of yours . . .”
“Nora.” Ewan stopped himself. “Well, she told me her