Magic's Memories

Chapter Thirty-two

"Wait here and don't leave without me," Desden had told him. That had been hours ago.

Now he was crouched in an alleyway struggling to decide if it would be safer to leave. The pounding of his head, endless since Desden had shown him some of his memories, had risen to a crescendo as he continued to wait in the old alley only a few streets away from the healer's guild house.

Where was Desden? He'd decided to move them both to a new location just to be safe before they...they...

Reiden swallowed. Before they began the next stage of Desden's—of his brother's?—plan. The word still felt strange. Reiden shook his head, not rejecting the connection but avoiding claiming it for now. Desden had said he'd gotten as far as he could using what skill he had, even going as far as to consult a sorceress who had made a powerful spell involving memories. What was it called? Disastrous Daydreams? No, Mutilated Memories. That was it. But Des had said the spell wasn't a direct fit. He needed those healer notes.

The problem was what it would take to get them.

Reiden swallowed again. He slumped back down behind the crate Desden had left him by and clutched his stomach, trying to physically hold the cramping at bay. No, no, he couldn't do this. Reiden stood and began walking away. His steps landed against the ground smooth and firm. That firmness left him a few minutes later when he broke out into a run.

Nothing chased him yet Reiden ran like flames were licking the bottoms of his shoes. He ran to escape his brother's burning gaze, he ran to be free of the sweltering summer heat, but most of all, he ran to rid himself of the fire that choked his head.

He ran to forget. The memories found him anyway.

Hunger. Not the sharp bite of a missed meal but the dull ache that came from constantly never having enough to eat. The too-big eyes of his brother staring back at him. "Where's Ma?" he asked even as something behind his wide gaze broke at the answer he already knew.

Dormaeus told him it was just the two of them now and that it always would be.

Reiden gasped. He crumpled to the ground mid-step and clung to the steps of the building he'd landed by. He rubbed his face but the image of that slight, hungry Desden remain visible even behind his eyelids. Before the walk through his memories, Reiden had never seen the glimpses so clearly. Something had changed. His head pounding like a battering ram on a door, hammering out that image of Desden again. Des... He'd promised, or at least Dormaeus had promised they'd stay together. What had happened?

Reiden pulled Laryssa's handkerchief out of his pocket, falling into an old habit forged by long, lonely nights spent staring out the window of his cramped rented room and praying that someone, anyone out there was missing and searching for him. Desden hadn't been who he'd had in mind.

His thumb stroked the faded embroidery before he brought the material to his nose and inhaled it like the most addictive of substances. Memories washed over him gently.

"I love you."

"You shouldn't."

"I know." Her voice was soft as a breeze. It slipped through the night and took his heart with it.

Reiden shuddered as the words wafted over him like the perfume's scent. He stumbled to his feet. The street swam before him. Where was he again?

The buildings before him stretched and shrunk, swimming before his eyes worse than the memories from Desden's spell. He cast his eyes around aimlessly but his feet drove themselves toward a purpose. There was something close by. Something important. Something he'd forgotten.