The Copper Gauntlet

Then everything seemed to vanish, the voices of Call’s friends fading into silence. All he could do was try to keep breathing as a roiling darkness rose in front of his eyes, a pure blackness he had seen before only when it had come from Aaron’s hands, the lightless darkness of the void. Chaos filled him, his thoughts shredded by it, his responses overwhelmed by the power expanding inside of him.

Slowly breath ebbed back into Call’s body. He raised his head, his face wet.

The room was in chaos. Stanley had obeyed Master Joseph’s command and attacked Call’s friends. He loomed over Tamara, who was backing away, summoning fire. She threw it, but it only seemed to singe the Chaos-ridden. It left a burned scorch along Stanley’s chest, but he barely seemed to notice.

Aaron jumped on Stanley’s back, his arm circling the Chaos-ridden’s neck, tightening as though he was attempting to pull Stanley’s head right off. Jasper was using air and earth magic together to throw dust in Stanley’s eyes. Stanley thrashed around but seemed more annoyed than damaged.

Alastair and Master Joseph were struggling over the Alkahest. Master Joseph cracked him across the face with his staff. Alastair staggered back, his face bloody.

“Leave him alone,” Call shouted, crawling toward his father.

Master Joseph spoke a word and Alastair’s legs gave out. He fell to the floor.

Constantine’s body was partially burned away, his chest concave and blackened. Call could see the burned bones of his rib cage through his charred skin. A fresh wave of magic washed over him suddenly, pushing him back into immobility. It felt as if he were watching something unreal, happening at a great distance.

“Call.” Tamara’s voice cut through the fog in Call’s mind. “Call, you have to do something. Order the Chaos-ridden to stop.”

“There’s something wrong with me,” Call whispered, spots dancing in front of his vision. The pressure inside him was still expanding, pushing outward against the limits of his control. He didn’t know what it was, but it felt as if it were going to break him apart.

Tamara’s grip on him tightened. “There’s nothing wrong with you,” she said. “There never has been. You’re Callum Hunt. Now tell that thing to stop attacking us. It will listen to you over Master Joseph. You can stop it.”

And so Call brought up one hand, meaning to thrust it forward to hold off Stanley, meaning to tell the Chaos-ridden leader to stop. But as he raised his hand, the pressure inside him broke through the thin shell of his control, like an explosion in slow motion. He stared in shock as his fingers flexed and opened, and for the first time ever, Callum Hunt summoned chaos into the world.

Darkness exploded from the palm of his hand. The shadows rose, circling Stanley, surrounding him with ribbons of blackness. The Chaos-ridden turned tortured eyes toward Call, and Call could see the feeling of betrayal in them. Stanley began to shriek, and Call understood the cries as words, each one stabbing into his ears: Master, you made me — why do you destroy me?

The shadows collapsed inward, crushing Stanley out of existence.

The darkness spread its tendrils as if in search of other prey. It reached out, spreading toward the others, reaching toward Tamara, toward Jasper, toward Master Joseph — who turned on his heel and ran, clutching the Alkahest, vanishing through the door in the wall that he and Alastair had come through. Alastair tried to stop him, but it was too late. The door slammed shut behind Joseph, locked.

Call couldn’t seem to stop the chaos magic. It flowed out of him like a river, and he felt himself flowing away with it. He remembered what it had felt to fly without a counterweight, to drift away without human cares.