Shadow Bound

"No."

Gabriel Callisto didn't even look up from the grimoire spread across his lap. I couldn’t see the text from the doorway of his crumbling apartment, but I could see his long fingers move delicately across the embossed symbols on the page.

"You didn't even hear what I have to say," I said, hating how my voice came out— quiet, meek, wavering, and desperate. It was one syllable away from a beg.

"Don't need to, darling." He finally glanced up, dark eyes catching the dim yellow light filtering through grimy windows. "Whatever brings a Kade to my door is something I want no part of."

I stepped inside anyway. The floorboards groaned, and I had to mind my step to avoid the holes in the wood. "I wasn't aware you had standards. Given that you sell all kinds of illegal charms."

That earned me a sharp, jagged smile. "Oh, I have standards. They're just not the ones your pretty little lot would approve of."

"My lot?"

"The prestigious. The pedigreed. The perfect." He snapped the grimoire shut, sending a cloud of dust up into the air. "Tell me, how is the illustrious Kade family these days?"

My jaw tightened. "I'm not here to discuss my family."

"No?" Gabriel stood, unfolding himself from the decrepit armchair. "Then what are you here for, Jasper Kade?”

"I need your help."

He laughed—a low, dark sound that raised bumps across my skin. "Oh, this is rich. You need my help. You, the girl who can barely cast a proper shield charm after five years at Metro State."

"Six years," I corrected before I could stop myself. "I'm starting my sixth."

"Even better." He moved closer, walking slowly, his arms clasped behind his back. He looked like a professor about to deliver me a failing grade. "Six years and still struggling with basic defense. Must be hell, Kade. I’m surprised they haven’t turned you out into the streets yet."

Heat rose in my cheeks, his words prickling my pride, "Are you going to help me or just keep insulting me?"

"I'm still deciding." He stopped directly in front of me, close enough that I had to tilt my head back to meet intense gaze. "See, helping you would require me to care about your problem. And right now, sweetheart, I'm far more entertained by watching you squirm."

His attempt to intimidate me didn’t faze me. Gabriel wasn’t my first choice, or my third. But he worked out of alleyways, selling potions and charms to anyone desperate enough to seek him out… and for someone dealing in contraband, he was remarkably easy to find.

Which meant he wanted to be found.

That, more than anything, was why I was here.

He gestured to the door, and I took a tumbling step backward.

“Your the only person who knows enough about—”

He counted off his fingers, “Any professor at MSU? Elizabeth Ann? Any other Kade? Hell, half the school can probably solve your little problem for you.”

"This isn't the kind of problem I can take to professors. Or family."

"Ah." Understanding dawned in his eyes, and with it, that awful predatory smile returned. "You've done something naughty, haven't you?Something that could get you expelled, or worse." He leaned in, voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Something that would prove, once and for all, that the Kade family's little disappointment was the black stain on the family tree."

"Will you help me or not?" I snapped.

“Depends,” he hummed in consideration, “how deep did you dip your toes into the dark side before it all went tits up?"

"I'm not playing games with you, Gabriel."

"Then you can leave." He turned away, retrieving his grimoire with indifference. "I'm sure you'll figure it out on your own. You're a Kade, after all. Resourcefulness is in your blood. Well. Some of your blood."

Frustration bubbled inside of me.

Maybe I should leave. I turned, reaching for the door. I was half expecting him to break. To give another dig into me before leaving.

My hand reached for the handle.

"I can see it spreading,” I added, “The shadow magic. Threads connecting people, draining them slowly. All of them leading back to the incantation circle like—"

"Strings."

“I would have gone with the word ‘tendril’ but yeah. Strings.” I responded quietly, turning around slowly. He hadn't moved, still rooted in the same spot as before. The grimy windows outlining his face in a concerned glow. The grimoire hung limply in his hand now forgotten because I became more interesting.

A long silence filled the room as if neither of us wanted to break it.

"Sit down, Kade,” He straightened, gesturing to the shabby armchair he'd vacated before. "Sit. Tell me everything. And I'll decide if your problem is worth enough to warrant my attention."

“Fine,” I said, the word tasting a bit like defeat. For all of the back and forth we had done, trusting Gabriel still felt like giving up.

“Your secrets are safe with me, sweetheart ,” he said, obvious satisfaction evident in his voice. “I’m nothing if not discreet.”

I doubted that. But I was out of options.

“I uh… stole a book.” I said quietly

“Stole a book? Your problem isn’t dark magic, darling, it's kleptomania.”

“Will you stop that!?” I snapped at him

He put his hands up in defeat, “No need to get prickly, Continue.”

“The book was from the restricted vault. I don't know the title. It was... old. Leather-bound, no markings on the spine. It was hidden between volumes on spatial theory."

"And?"

"I was looking for something to help me pass my class. Something to help me complete my magicalium." I paused, “it looked interesting. It had logical information on dimensions, practical webbing, and an easy incantation circle. The magic and theory was quite solid. So I flipped through the spell. I realized it was Shadow Magic, but it wasn’t— didn’t look dangerous.”

"Shadow magic is never simple, sweetheart. They call it the devil's magic for a reason.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Heat crept up my neck. "Like I said I thought it was spatial magic.”

“No need to justify the call of the darkness to me.” He tapped the grimoire he was reading, “this book is full of all kinds of potentially lethal potions, deals, and magic. Not the kind of thing MSU views as proper.”

“Well, something went wrong when I cast the spell. I was trying to manipulate space. A simple threshold-opening. The instructions said it would create a minor gateway—something to move small objects from one point to another without a conduit. The instructions said it would collapse naturally after the object passed through. It was supposed to be my masterpiece for the mid-term practical.

“After casting it, lines like black tendrils, crept through the earth. Before puffing out in a cloud of gray dust. I thought it was over. That this was another big fizzle. But then I could trace one of the signatures to a professor, and I could see it. The black veins, almost like an infection.”

Gabriel was silent. Which was unnerving by itself. But he was deep in thought. “A leather bound book on shadow magic between spacial theory? I don’t remember seeing anything like that, it must be a new addition to the archives. What else can you remember?”

“I’ve traced the tendrils, and it seems its growing. One or two more every day,” I pull out my note book, sliding it across to him, “twelve so far. I can’t tell a pattern. It seems random across the Metro Valley. I can’t tell the purpose, but I can feel it. A pull, as if it’s draining magic from the victims. A completely different spell than the magical teleportation I was trying to cast.”

Gabriel picked up the notebook and flipped through it. “Cute drawings.” He grumbled and heat rose to my cheeks.

“I’ve tried to stop the spread. Tried finding a counter-spell but there is nothing. Nothing in the history of arcana that matches what’s happening.”

“Do you even know what you cast?” He asked, handing my notebook back to me, “you said it was shadow magic, and spacial theory. Contained an incantation circle, and black tendrils? And is it making people sick?”

I nodded.

Gabriel leaned back, running a hand through his dark hair, and for the first time since I'd arrived, the mockery was gone. He seemed genuinely rattled. "Christ. Do you have any idea what kind of ritual that could be part of?"

"That's why I'm here." My voice cracked. "I need you to tell me how to fix it."

"Fix it?” He let out a dry, humorless laugh. "Darling, I can't fix something when I don't know what's been broken—"

"You said you knew the archive intimately." I protested, “You're a dark wizard. You live for collecting grimoires and dark charms. Surely you have an idea of what this is?”

“I… might have an idea. However, without seeing the book, without knowing what the spell was supposed to do…” he trailed off, but I could fill in the rest. Without that information, he was as lost as I was.

“I still have it,” I said, “the book. I can show you it.”

His expression shifted from alarm to a look of horror. “You stole a dangerous text from the university’s high security vault, cast a very obvious shadow spell that is connecting people, and you kept the evidence?”

“I had to study it. To understand what went wrong and try to fix it.”

"Where is it?"

"Hidden. In my dorm room."

"Of course it is." He pressed his palms against his eyes, muttering under his breath. "Of course you're keeping dark magic contraband in university housing. Why not? Go big or go home, right Kade?"

"Can you help me or not?"

The question hung between us. Gabriel lowered his hands, and when he looked at me, there was something calculating in his expression.

"I can help you," he said slowly. "But it's going to cost you."

"I'll pay whatever—"

"Not money, sweetheart." He smiled, "If I'm going to clean up your mess, dig through whatever nightmare you've unleashed, risk drawing attention from the authorities..." He paused, letting the weight of it settle. "Then you're going to become my apprentice."

The world tilted slightly at his declaration. "What?”

"You heard me. Do you want my expertise? My silence?" He moved closer, and I fought the urge to step back. "You work for me. Not the other way around. My direction, my timeline, my methods. You do what I say when I say it until this is resolved." He extended his hand. "Agreed?"

I should have asked more questions. Should have read the fine print hidden behind his smile. Should have remembered that Gabriel Callisto hadn't survived three years in Lower Dale by being a generous and kind person.

I took his hand.

The binding hit like a cage slamming shut around me. Magic flooded up my arm, dark and invasive, weaving itself through my core with uncomfortable intimacy. I tried to pull back. His grip tightened in response.

"What—"

"Insurance," he said pleasantly. "Can't have you changing your mind halfway through."

"You didn't say it would do THAT."

"You didn't ask." He released my hand and reached for his coat. "Come on then, apprentice. Let's go get that book.”

I stood there, cradling my arm against my chest, feeling the binding pulse, like I had been branded. Even though the pain had receded to a dull thudding. I could feel it, like his presence sat at the edge of my awareness. Like a thin purple thread connecting myself to him.

“Take me to this book,” he said, words clipped and sharp and a bit of an order. My feet moved before I decided to move them.

I wasn’t a rag-doll, but the compulsion was there, undeniable. His words seemed to wrap around me. Not my physical body, or my soul, but around my magic. Like a boa tightening on his prey.

“Welcome to your apprenticeship, Jasper Kade,” he said behind me, dark satisfaction threading through his voice. “I have a feeling it’s going to be very educational. ”