Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue
Chapter 2

(Blue)

The look on his face was priceless.

“Blue? You’re Blue?” he asked, squinting. “That’s real cute. Just adorable. Are you seriously expecting me to believe that?”

I held up a finger. “One, if you didn’t believe me just a little bit, I have a feeling I’d be a pile of ash by now.” Another finger went up. “Two, if you give me a bucket of water, I can prove to you that I’m Blue.”

“No way. You might be a water-user. What, you think I’m stupid or something?”

I sighed. “And three: If I were a water-user, wouldn’t I have kicked your flipping behind already? We’re two feet from a sink.”

(Technically, it was the truth. I wasn’t a water-user. Not at the current moment.)

Red glanced sheepishly at the sink. “Oh. Yeah. Right. Forgot about that.”

“But I’m gonna get out of here first. The house is still burning, and I kinda don’t want to die today if I can help it. You coming?”

“Ah…” He rubbed the back of his neck, looking around the room. I could practically feel him trying to figure out the pros and cons of listening to what I’d just proposed, and patiently, I waited for him to hurry up and choose the inevitable solution already.

“Right. I’ll follow you out.”

“Good idea.”

I blew up the wall by expanding the air inside it, sending debris everywhere. (Don’t need fire to blow things up, unlike a certain red-eyed member of the Seven.) Red nodded admiringly, though a bit hesitantly.

“Nice shot.”

“I try. Let’s go.”

“Uh. Wait.”

I turned around, surprised, as he shoved a pair of sunglasses on his face.

“For my eyes,” he explained. “I don’t want the neighbors freaking out. That blast did the trick well enough.”

Hmm. So maybe he wasn’t completely dense after all. That was good.

“Good idea,” I nodded. “Okay, you ready?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I stepped outside, where all of Tartarus had decided to break loose. The explosion had smashed in a couple of windows and walls (oops), and their inhabitants were frantic.

“What’s going on?” a woman in front of me demanded. “Your wall just exploded and destroyed part of my house! What did you do?! Where are your parents? I want to have a talk with them!”

I pushed past her without replying. We needed to get out of here. Argot’s minions would be swarming the place soon. It was their job to investigate anything that might be magical or related to the Seven, and this was both. I definitely did not want to be here when they showed up.

I saw a man with his phone pressed to his ear, and my footsteps quickened. He must be loyal to Mask, and was hoping to get some money for reporting in this incident. He wasn’t the only one. All around me, people were screaming and dialing up the police. Not good.

“You have a ride out of this place?” I asked quietly. Red, who was right beside me, shook his head.

“Not here.”

My heart sank. There was no way we would be able to go anywhere at this point. The police were probably already blocking off the exits out of Sapphire City, making sure that the person who caused the magical disturbance (namely, me) didn’t escape. What to do…?

“Can you hotwire cars?” I asked hopefully. He probably couldn’t, but maybe…

“Yeah.”

“Seriously?!” My heart hopped up into my mouth. “Okay, then, while they’re distracted, we’ll just – ”

“They’ve probably blocked off the whole place by now,” he pointed out. “If we stole a car, they’d just zap us with a million magic detectors, and then we’d be goners. That’s not going to work.”

And there went that plan. I sighed.

“What’s the problem? You don’t think we can get out?”

“We’re probably gonna be stuck in a cell by tomorrow,” was my prediction.

His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You know, you still haven’t proven to me that you’re Blue yet. What if this is just a trick to trap me here?”

“You have a bucket of water, a hat, and about five minutes?”

“I’m pretty sure we can spare five minutes for whatever you have to do. And I’ll get you a hat.”

I bit my lip, hating the thought of wasting time like this, but it was evident that he wasn’t going to move until I showed him my Mark.

“All right, fine.”

Looking around for anyone who might be watching, I ducked into the café at the end of my street. The place was empty, thanks to the chaos going on outside. I headed into the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and dunked my head into the sink.

Each and every member of the Seven has a Mark that marks them out as who they are, and mine is my naturally blue hair. Since Marks are magically created to reveal themselves without much effort, the dye I’d used to hide my hair’s true color washed off with just a single dunk. Shaking the long, wet strands out of my face, I turned toward the door to see Red leaning against the doorframe. He tossed me a baseball cap, and I instantly twisted my hair up out of my face, tugging the cap on over it.

“So you were telling the truth. You’re Blue.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Now, can we get out of here? It’s an Air day, and the claustrophobia’s kicking in. This bathroom is really small.”

His eyebrows lifted. “An Air day?”

“My magic changes from day to day,” I explained, pushing past him and reentering the café. “From water to ice to air. Today it’s air. Come on, we really need to get out of here.”

“Yeah?” he quizzed skeptically. “What’s your brilliant plan, then? How are we gonna get out of this place?”

My shoulders slumped. “I don’t know. That’s the problem.”

“Well, lucky for you, ’cause I do.”

I spun around. “Wait, what did you just say?”

“I said, I know a way out of here.”

I just stared at him for a full five seconds. “… How?”

“Easy. We take down all the guys in our way.”

That one earned him another ten seconds of skeptical staring. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope. Totally serious here.” He walked past me to the doorway, then turned. “Now, are you coming, or do I have to drag you out there?”

“You can’t be serious. They have guns, and weapons, and Argot’s minions will probably be there…”

He calmly removed his sunglasses, crimson red eyes fixing me with a defiant stare. “I’ve faced off against Argot himself twice before. Trust me, I can take down a bunch of puny police officers. The question is, can you?”

I glared back, even though his gaze was literally searing my face with heat. There was some kind of magic in his eyes that burned like fire. It hurt, but screw that. There was no way I was backing down to anyone, let alone this random guy I’d just met.

“Oh, I can take care of myself all right. Just don’t hold me back, got it?”

“Cool. As long as we understand each other.”

And with that, he slotted the sunglasses back onto his face and strolled outside, whistling like he didn’t have a care in the world. I hesitated for a moment, then followed.

Oh, well. At least this way, if I died (which was alarmingly likely if one of Argot’s better minions happened to be there), I’d be going down fighting. And hey, it was better than sitting around waiting for Argot to come get us.

I just hoped that whatever Red thought he could do, it’d be good enough. After all, I’d been waiting my whole life to replace the others and start fighting instead of hiding.

It had so better last more than a day.