Chapter 9

Straight from the bar, they boarded the subway and took it to the most run-down part of the city that they could think of. This place might have been a sprawling metropolis, but it still had its hardships. Logan lived in one of the more run-down parts of town, but their current location made his home look like a luxury resort. This part of the city used to be the home of dozens of factories that employed thousands of people, but once those companies began to outsource for cheaper labor, the people here were left jobless and hopeless. The sight made Logan appreciate what little he had even more.

A few blocks down from the subway station stood an old house that looked like it had been abandoned for decades. Pieces of its original brick exterior had fallen off and were now laying in the overgrown grass of the lawn. Several of the windows were boarded shut, and the ones that weren’t probably should have been, considering they were now broken beyond repair. As they walked through the threshold and into the interior of the house, Logan’s nose caught the whiff of mildew in the air. Probably from years and years of rainwater that had leaked in through the patchwork of a ceiling.

“I’m so giving this place a terrible Yelp review,” Rafe snickered sarcastically as he stepped in a puddle of murky water on the carpet.

“Zero out of five stars. Would not come again.”

“If it’s any consolation, most of this place is going to be destroyed by the end of the day.” Logan shrugged. “That is if my powers really are as strong as these two claim they are.”

“You’ve already got a decent handle on the ones we’ve taught you. We just need to make them stronger and get you familiar with your full potential,” Kelda reassured him. “This is as good of a place to start as any. As you already know, you have the ability to control Magicfire, at least in its flame form, but remember back in the ice cream shop? How your treat melted much faster than the rest of ours?”

“Yours didn’t really have a chance to melt.” Logan smiled as he thought back to the scene. “You guys went to town on them too quickly.”

“I’m quite aware of what my tongue was doing. I always am.” The blonde giggled and shot him a wink. “Anyway, much like the flame attack, you can harness the simple heat from the Magicfire and project it into the air.”

“You mean like a human heating unit?” Rafe questioned. “I don’t see how that’s going to help us whatsoever.”

“Just trust me on this. Reach deep down into your emotions. Think about something heartwarming, but not something that will get you riled up and angry,” she explained.

“I usually think of cute animals for this exercise.” Abina said.

Logan closed his eyes and tried to think of something that would make his heart melt. At first, he took Abina’s advice and focused on things that would generally be considered “cute.” He thought about the baby hippo he saw at the zoo a few months ago, and about the puppy he had back at his parent’s house. But nothing happened.

“Focus,” he heard Kelda say as she tried to help him relax.

Logan shook his head to try to clear out all the thoughts he was having. He started to think about the four of them sitting around the table at the bar, laughing as they clinked bottles and joked. Then he thought back to when Abina’s warm skin was wrapped around him as they slept. He thought about how he had comforted Kelda when she was in distress. He felt a dull heat throb through his hands, and his body temperature started to rise. When he finally opened his eyes, he saw all three of his friends staring back at him. Abina pointed excitedly to the ground where the puddle used to be while Kelda just smiled and nodded. The puddles in the room had completely evaporated.

“Pretty impressive,” he admitted, “but I still don’t see how that’s supposed to help us against Voidmoth.”

“Baby steps, Logan,” she retorted. “If you can get a better handle on your more subtle powers, it’ll be much easier to take your stronger abilities to the next level.”

“You’ve already slept with both of us. Pretty intensely, you might add.” He grinned. “Unless you’re saying we should be doing that more…”

“Well, yes. You’ve slept with both of us, and we’ve slept with each other—” she started.

“With each other?” He couldn’t believe his ears.

“Of course!” Kelda interrupted. “We’ve both been elves for centuries. Don’t you think that’s something that’s crossed our minds before? It’s a pretty common fantasy the people who summon us have. In fact, I believe that is actually on your list.”

“Yep,” he laughed. “I’m looking forward to that.”

“So, when is it going to happen?” His heart beat increased rapidly at the thought of sharing his bed with both of these beautiful women at the same time.

Kelda chuckled and looked around at their musty surroundings. “Not right here. Let’s finish the training, then we’ll talk,” she smirked.

“And… You think a threesome is going to make our bond stronger?” He asked. “Not that I’m going to complain!”

Abina shrugged. “I’m not sure. But if we could find a way to speed up the physical connection… It’s worth a shot, no?”

“Uh, I’m part of the group too!” Rafe piped up fearfully. “I don’t have to be in on this, do I? No homo and all that.”

“Let’s just let our connections grow naturally, Rafe,” Logan said as the elves smiled at him.

“You two already have a connection forged by friendship.” Abina shrugged.

“Oh thank God,” Rafe said with a nod.

“We can’t spend the entire seventy-two hours working.” Kelda smirked as she pondered their next move. “Once they are done with this portion of the training, they need to go and try to grow their connection. Hopefully at someplace nicer than Rafe’s bar or here.”

“That bar was the shit, and you know it,” the goblin crossed his arms and stuck out his tongue.

“The shit? Or just shit?” the blonde retorted before she turned back to Logan.

Turning to the elves and patting his head. “Random question before we move on to the harder stuff,” he said. “Why don’t you guys have horns? Isn’t that something that’s a common trait among dark elves?”

“Just like our wings, it all ties back in with your power level,” Kelda explained. “You may or may not know that all of dark elve’s magic is taken from demon lord– Morning Star– himself. As somewhat of a token of their appreciation to our Lord of Darkness, horns sprout from their heads whenever they call upon him to use their powers. Kind of like a visual homage to the Devil. The stronger a elve is, the more Lucifer-like in appearance they become when using their magic.”

“When we were still under Voidmoth, they would sprout enormous horns whenever they would do battle. But that was because they’d been serving him for eons,” Abina added. “Now that we have started fresh, with a new master, it’s going to take some time for them to grow back to their normal size.”

“What about me? If I’m tapping into the powers of Magic. Dark magic through you, why don’t I have horns?” Logan asked.

“We don’t know,” Kelda shrugged. “We’ve never taken on a mortal as a master before, despite what Voidmoth has tried to tell you.”

“Random question,” Logan said. “I know I have a lot of those, but is each different type of Magicfire magic a different color?”

“Yes,” Kelda said with a nod.

“So if red fire is offensive, and purple fire is defensive, what does black fire do?” Logan asked. “I saw Beth use it Voidmothier, and it seemed like Voidmoth used it to heal.”

Kelda and Abina turned to each other, and they each took deep breaths.

“What’s wrong?” Logan asked.

“Black fire is fear magic,” Abina answered. “It is very dangerous, and not something to be learned right away.”

“But what does it do?” Logan asked.

“It depends on the user,” Abina answered with a shrug that shook her full breasts. “We won’t know until you try it.”

“Then let’s get started,” Logan said as he cracked his knuckles.

“Fear is a fickle thing,” Kelda warned. “It is by far the most difficult emotion to control, and it manifests itself differently in every being with these powers. Voidmoth’s fear of death allowed him to heal, but I’ve seen other elves unintentionally use their fearful emotions to create havoc and chaos around them. One of them accidentally summoned an uncontrollable beast from the deepest pit of fire that took an entire army to bring down. Another one created a sinkhole that engulfed an entire island in the Mediterranean!”

Logan raised an eyebrow, amused. “Are you talking about Atlantis? One of his elve pals was behind the sinking of Atlantis?”

Rafe pointed his finger at Logan in victory. “I told you it wasn’t just a conspiracy, bro!”

Abina didn’t find it as funny. She grabbed Logan’s face and stared deeply into his eyes with her deep purple pools. As she pulled him in close, her eyes felt like they were piercing into his very soul. Abina was supposed to be the fun one, and seeing her in this state was jarring, to say the least.

“Logan, this is serious business,” she calmly explained. “I was there the last time somebody tested out their fear-based powers, and it was not pretty.”

“What happ—” the word started to leave Logan’s mouth before Kelda cut them off.

“I was in a coma for days.” Kelda looked up and zoned out into the ceiling. “It was about ten thousand years ago, right after I had fallen. The two of us thought it would be fun to try out all of my new powers, so she tapped into all the negative emotions she had about her future as a fallen angel. How the world was going to look at her. If other elves were going to accept her as one of their own. The horrible things she was going to have to do for some of her elve lords. It took her to a dark place. Literally. She was trapped in what she assumed was Purgatory for four days before she finally woke up.”

“Logan’s a tough cookie,” Rafe proclaimed. “I know he can handle it. And if not, the Rafester’s always right here to help!”

As always, baked-Rafe was Logan’s roommate at his most philosophical. He was glad that Kelda and Abina cared enough to tell him these horror stories, but Rafe was right. Logan had already faced down a elve lord and lived to tell the tale. He had convinced two of the most treasured elves in the universe to stay with him on Earth at the risk of eternal torture. Now he was learning to harness powers that most men would only dream of. He was Logan, and he could do anything.

“I wants to do it,” Logan nodded to Kelda.

“Then you knows what to do,” the blonde reluctantly agreed.

His eyes slammed shut, and for the first time in his life, he let all of his doubts, insecurities, and fears take hold of him. Normally, he was the kind of guy who pushed away his worries for another time. Life was too short to fret about trivial shit like his rent being due or his job being shit or getting cheated on by his girlfriend. But now, if he really wanted to see what he could do, he needed to let it all bubble to the surface. He let himself get lost in the negativity, and he felt it for the first time in years, true fear.