Page 5 of Hybrid Heroics

That much I already knew.

To my left, the thirteen-year-old version of myself sat on her knees, tears dripping onto her notebook as she furiously scribbled runes. Flightless wings sagged at her back, adding to the weight on her shoulders.

“What do you see?” my demented uncle whispered.

“Determination to find perfection,” I answered with an eye roll. “Which I did, by the way. It took me another year, but my wings are fine.”

“Too bad your mother wasn’t there to help you, to teach you how to be a mage and harness your dark magic.”

“Yeah. No. I grew up just fine without her,” I told him, striding past the rest of the memories he was showing me. “You want Amelia’s absence to matter, but it doesn’t. I didn’t miss out on anything.”

I marched through my first attempt at riding a bike, birthdays, family dinners, learning the mage side of my magic through self-taught disasters and help from my family… Only pausing for a moment to observe the aftermath of losing my virginity, the nightmare of an incubus I called a friend sitting at my side, worried he had hurt me.

“That’s taking it a little too far, don’t you think?” I hooked my thumb at the teenage versions of myself and Dolyn. “We’re only wearing a sheet. It’s kind of pervy.”

“I didn’t do that,” Alric said in disgust.

“I thought you were leading this field trip?” I quipped, enjoying his unease. “Did you take a right when you should have taken a left? Where’s the fucking map for this amusement park?”

“Where are you going?” he demanded.

I opened the wooden gate to the fence surrounding my father’s backyard, skipping through the lush garden as the figments of late July heat beat down on me. When I reached the iron doors in the opposite corner, vines slithered around the bars in carnivorous warning, parting away from the padlock as I stretched out my hand.

“This is my mind,” I reminded Alric. “And since you’re so set on hurting me, I thought I’d show you something useful. There are much darker places to play in. I told you that you didn’t look very far.”

I pushed through the iron doors, leaving them open behind me. The tunnel was pitch black, not an ounce of light penetrating the depths before me. But as I glanced over my shoulder, I caught sight of Alric’s physical form appearing in my mind.

“How confident are you in your powers?” I asked him, then amended. “The stolen and natural born.”

“Very.”

With a thought, the iron doors slammed shut behind him, the key to the exterior padlock landing in my palm.

“I hope so,” I murmured, a smirk tilting the left side of my mouth as I dropped the charade.

The tunnel lit in a spectacular display of dizzying strobes. Red and white lines began spinning, causing the platform floor to shift beneath us.

“Welcome to my circus, Alric. Please keep your hands and feet to yourself and inside the rides at all times. The food is edible, the games are free, and the circus master is about to crazy this shit up for you.”

I stepped backward, not taking my eyes off him. He swayed as the floor rotated, grabbing the handrail on his right. The metal bar disappeared under his touch, causing him to stumble forward.

Right-hand dominant. Check.

“Be careful. Reality isn’t always real,” I sang, then clicked my tongue. “Word of warning. If it looks helpful, it’ll probably try to kill you.”

I leaned to my left, peering over the platform at the gnashing teeth below. For all I knew, he could fall and be spat out of my mind. Or swallowed whole, left wallowing in my circus forever… Like the rest of them.

As I exited the tunnel, a circular wall of flames appeared at my back. A sign stood off to the side, reading, “You must be this tall to enter.”

Alric finally made it out, only to stop and glare at me.

“This is where I keep my secrets,” I confessed conspiratorially as I held my index finger to my lips.

I moved forward, gliding right through the flames as they licked at my skin. The heated kiss made me shiver, wishing I was anywhere but here.

Not anywhere.

I would rather be tangled in bed sheets, gloriously naked and sweaty, while at least two of my mates drove me to the edge of oblivion. It was probably best not to pull any of those memories up with Alric here, though.