Page 105 of Strange Familiars
The memories slam out of me again, and I’m weakened by their effects. Danny is hauling me through the cleft that’s splitting reality in two. And as I’m dragged through the rippling opening, all I can think about is Gwendolynne, back at that hotel room, reading the note that I scribbled…
Promising that I would come back.
Pudding stares at me from where she’s sitting, stone-still upon her perch.
“Pudding.” My voice is choked. “Help me.” I don’t know how she could even save me, but I’m rapidly running out of options.
She just tilts her head slightly, a look of despair clouding her beetle-black eyes.
I’m sorry, son, she says, as I’m pulled right into the Void.
44
Harrisford
When I next come to, I’m tied to a chair, my hands bound behind its back.
My eyesight is blurry, as are my memories. At some point, when Danny was dragging me through the portal, I’d woken. He’d looked at me for half a second before whacking me on the side of the head. Lights had exploded in the outer corners of my vision before my consciousness slid back into blackness.
I shake my head, trying to clear it. And as my eyes begin to focus, I realize: My vision isn’t hazy because my eyesight is poor. Everything is hazy because I’m in the Void.
I’m ensconced in what appears to be a cavern, entirely clad in stone. There’s a small steel table set up beside me; an unopened autoclave bag, presumably filled with surgical instruments, sits atop its surface. The air is opaque with curling spirals of mist that choke my throat and nostrils.
I raise my head when I hear footsteps. Danny Wong, my oldest friend, bends over me, frowning.
“Sorry about the hit, Briggs.” He touches his hand to the side of my head. “And the little whiff of ketamine. But you were struggling pretty bad.”
I bare my teeth at him, chafing against my bindings. “Can you blame me? You sedate me, kidnap me, drag me into the Void, then fuckingknock me out, and you want me to accept your apology?” I shake my head, incensed. “Unbelievable!”
“Listen, Briggs.” Danny sighs, then straightens, crossing his muscular arms over his chest. “This isn’t what you think it is. We haven’t kidnapped you—”
A second voice sounds in my head. Pudding’s voice, slightly echoey, as though she’s speaking to me from a distance.We’ve saved you.
I gulp, my mouth all dry. “Puds.” The word sounds choked in my head.Puddingis involved, somehow? What the fuck is actually happening?
She’s still in my dorm room, I assume. I clearly remember my last view of her on her perch. It’s hard to believe that she and I can still communicate so clearly across the Void.
I struggle against my restraints again, to no avail. “What do you mean ‘we’? Who is ‘we’?”
Danny looks away from me before sliding his gaze back. “The Magical Liberation Organization.”
I gape at him. “You’re in the MLO?” Something dawns in my drug-hazed mind. “Wait. You’re opening portals. Areyoubehind the surges?You’retrying to bring down Magecorp?”
Both of us are, Pudding cuts in.
“Bothof you?” My mind is buckling, not comprehending that my childhood friend and my familiar are behind the Magecorp sabotage. Can familiars even be part of the MLO? I had no idea.
Calm down, Pudding says.Let me explain…
I let out a roar and thrash, the ropes rubbing raw lines in my skin. “Explain what? That you’re trying to destroy my father’s company? The one he’s devoted his whole life to? That you’ve been lying to me this whole time?”
How the hell did I not know? I thought Pudding and I knew everything about each other. But now it just feels like, all this time, I’ve had a stranger living inside my head. The betrayal is a punch to the gut.
Harry, please.Pudding’s voice is pleading.
I stop. My mouth drops open.
I am…gobsmacked.
