Magitech Rises (The Exceptional S. Beaufont Book 3)

by Sarah Noffke

  “Then what do you think this Thad Reinhart will do?” Talon asked.

  Hiker shook his head. “I don’t know, but I sense he’s got something…a technology of some sort.”

  “You sense?” Talon questioned, a laugh in his voice. “You want us to band together to follow you based on a sense?”

  “You have to believe me when I tell you my feelings on this should be trusted,” Hiker argued.

  This was such a strange way to hear Hiker talk, but it also endeared him to Sophia. She wanted to yell, “He’s right! Listen to him.”

  Instead, she stayed quiet and watched history unfold.

  “And technology, really?” Talon asked. “Whatever are you talking about?”

  “Magitech,” Hiker explained to Sophia’s surprise. “I know Thad has been working on something called that.”

  “How do you know?” Talon questioned.

  The leader of the Dragon Elite simply shook his head. “I can’t say. If you don’t listen to me, there will be a battle. That is inevitable. The Dragon Elite will be at the epicenter, and then it will ripple out and affect both the magical and mortal worlds.”

  Talon sighed as if he were growing bored with the conversation. “I really don’t think you’ve given us enough evidence to do anything. We, the House of Fourteen, are strong. The magical economy is the most stable it has ever been. Our relations with the other races are in good standing. The mortal and magical worlds work together seamlessly. There is no reason to believe we are in any peril.”

  Hiker growled, balling up his fists. “You don’t understand—”

  “I’m not sure I do, but at this point, we have to move onto other business,” Talon said dismissively.

  Hiker turned. His eyes swept over the stoic warriors before he shook his head and charged past Sophia and out of the Chamber of the Tree.

  She knew no one could see her in the reset point.

  She also knew she’d just witnessed the moment before everything changed and sent the world into the dark ages.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Sophia couldn’t believe it; Hiker had been right since the beginning. He had seen the catastrophic events before the storm. He knew the Great War was coming. Knew Thad Reinhart was a part of it. He apparently hadn’t realized the Sinclairs were also central to it.

  As she followed Hiker out of the Chamber of the Tree, Sophia considered her options. She needed to find the hidden closet, which was apparently visible in this time. Part of her wanted to follow Hiker Wallace out as he marched toward the entrance, but that wasn’t what she was there for.

  Instead, she went through the door to the residential wing, knowing the mission before her was more important than understanding the Viking. She already had more compassion and understanding for the man who just an hour ago had been trying to get her to see him as a leader. It was ironic to her that she saw him in this era as one of the most competent leaders.

  She shook off the vision she’d seen and focused on the black and white reality before her. Before, when she was operating blind, finding this mysterious closet had been tough. Doing it now with the clue she needed to be in a different time period was still tough. There were still hundreds, maybe thousands of closets to check. Sophia didn’t know how many it would take or how long, but she was prepared to do what needed to be done.

  As she stood at the bottom of the stairs that seemed to go on forever, she hoped, silently prayed, to the angels it wouldn’t take too long.

  To her utter astonishment, when she opened her eyes, there was the same glowing, sparkling dust running up the stairs as when Quiet led her to Devon’s bow. She blinked at it for a moment, wondering if she was really seeing what was before her. Gold dust sparkled on the stairs, snaking its way up and disappearing.

  Sophia wished Lunis was in her head so she could consult him on these events. She knew all his energy was centered on Tala, as it should be. She was alone, yet she didn’t feel that way. In this strange black and white world where she was the only color, it felt like someone was watching out for her and helping her when she would have otherwise been lost.

  Sophia climbed the stairs, deciding to follow the strange gold dust that hadn’t steered her wrong before. It had led Wilder to a sea monster that had almost killed him, but the end result was they recovered Devon’s bow, which Subner quickly destroyed.

  Sophia shook her head, not knowing if she was doing the wrong thing, but knowing she’d come this far and needed to continue forward. Even if it was for nothing, she had to know whatever she’d done was for something. She had to know how this ended.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  The gold dust ended at the entrance to an unmarked door. Sophia found that strange since most of the doors were for family residents. She didn’t even remember seeing this door on that level, and she’d been through the area thousands of times over the years.

  And yet there was this strange unmarked door the gold dust disappeared into. Deciding to take a chance, she looked over the shoulder and checked to ensure she wasn’t being followed in the black and white world before turning the doorknob.

  It opened without incident, and Sophia pulled back the door, expecting to find a magical world.

  To her surprise, all she found was a small closet. It was about like when she found the closet-like cave where Hydra had lived before they killed the ancient beast.

  Sophia’s eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkened space. She stepped into the small closet, finding brooms and dustpans and something she could have sworn was a magitech rocket. She decided not to touch it.

  The gold dust ended when she was inside the closet, but she stepped outside immediately to check.

  It led into the closet and went nowhere else. She decided this was her only plausible option, so she stepped back into the closet and shut the door.

  It was only once she was shut in the dark with the cleaning tools and the rocket Sophia saw it.

  She knew once she laid her eyes on the object, it had to be what she was looking for—exactly what the Castle wanted her to find.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  A switch.

  It was clear to Sophia as soon as she saw it. She had been looking for the switch on the wall before her in the dark closet.

  She had no idea what the glowing blue switch did or why it was there, or why she’d never seen anything like it at the House of Fourteen before.

  All Sophia knew was the switch needed to be flipped.

  Her hand didn’t hesitate as she lifted it even with the lever. The entire time, she’d felt like she’d been led, and something told her she had to follow through.

  Strangely, she felt more fear right before she flipped the switch than she had before she helped to kill Hydra. A line from her father’s book came back to her.

  It’s the things we think change nothing that create the most pivotal moments in our lives. They are game-changers. They are the irreversible we would never reverse.

  The switch was stuck from disuse. Sophia had to really pull to get it to come down. When she finally wrestled the lever down, nothing happened.

  She worried she’d been wrong or misjudged.

  Then she felt something warm in her pocket. Sophia pushed her hand in and pulled out the gold token that controlled the reset point in the two histories. Spiraling around the coin was the sparkling dust.

  Sophia didn’t understand but was smart enough to follow the clues. She held the coin in her hands and opened the closet door, not sure what she should expect. When she glanced into the hallway, the area was still black and white.

  I’m still in the past, Sophia thought.

  She pulled the door shut, holding her breath as she held the coin, a speculative thought in her head.

  Leading with her thumb, Sophia turned the coin over until it read, Present Day.

  A flash of light punctuated the movement and the switch disappeared. A feeling of familiarity filled Sophia.

  She tensed, having no idea what she
’d done but sensing it was of momentous importance.

  With a tentative hand, she pushed open the door of the closet to find something that was utterly impossible.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Sophia was in the Castle.

  Somehow, she’d been in a closet in the House of Fourteen several hundred years ago and ended up in the Castle in the present day, or at least, she thought it was present day.

  She didn’t allow herself a moment to figure out if it actually was the present day. Instead, Sophia stepped into the closet and shut the door and found the switch she thought had disappeared. She flipped the lever and stepped through the door.

  To her amazement, she found herself back at the House of Fourteen. A few speculative steps told her it was the present day.

  Sophia, or actually the Castle, had created a portal between the Castle and the House of Fourteen. Or someone had, and she’d just reactivated it using the token for the reset point. The implications were overwhelming and the consequences? The wrath of Hiker.

  Maybe he wouldn’t find out, she thought.

  This should have been impossible because no one could enter the Castle directly, and no one but the Dragon Elite and those who served them could step through the Barrier into the Gullington. And yet, Sophia had found a direct path from the House of Fourteen into the Castle. Actually, she now believed with the Castle’s help, she had created the portal, and she expected to pay for it bitterly.

  She put herself back into the closet, closed the door, and prayed she could fix this problem and get The Complete History of Dragonriders before Hiker figured out what she’d done.

  Sophia stepped through the door of the portal she’d accidentally created to find the second person she really didn’t want to know about what she’d done.

  “What have you done, S. Beaufont?” the shapeshifter yelled, her face so red it matched her auburn hair.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Sophia clenched the gold token in her hand, clenching her fingers around it as her pulse quickened. She was suddenly lightheaded.

  “I-I-I can explain,” Sophia stuttered.

  “Can you?” Ainsley asked, her voice as tight as the expression on her face. She strode past Sophia and poked her head through the door Sophia had just come through. Looking around, Sophia realized she was in the corridor beside her room, and the door was brand new. Unlike the other doors in the Castle, which were arched and covered in crown molding, this one was rectangular and done in the design of those found in the House of Fourteen.

  Ainsley stuck her head through the door briefly before disappearing. When she returned, she looked madder than hell, her eyes fuming.

  “Can you explain?” she spat. “Because for the love of the angels, I’ll never get the dust out of the Castle now!”

  “Well, you see, I didn’t actually know what I was doing,” Sophia said in a rush.

  “This seems like a great story,” Ainsley said, cocking her hip and sticking her hand on it. “Spoiler alert: it ends with your death, I’m thinking.”

  “Because you’re going to kill me?” There was a strange hope laced into her tone.

  The housekeeper shook her head, seeming to enjoy this. “Oh, no. I mean, I’ll probably go back to not washing your towels for a bit, but I can’t stay mad at you for long, S. Beaufont.”

  Sophia blanched. “Wait, you weren’t washing my towels?”

  Ainsley waved her off dismissively. “That’s old news, and you didn’t even notice, so what’s the point?”

  “I did, actually,” Sophia replied. She had wondered the other day why her towel was stiff and dirty in places.

  “Okay, so out with it,” Ainsley encouraged. “Tell me why Hiker is going to kill you.”

  Sophia looked at the new door. “Do you think he will? Maybe he won’t notice.”

  The shapeshifter laughed before morphing into the form of Hiker Wallace, complete with kilt and sour expression. The only thing to give her away was the distinct scar over her right temple in the exact place it was when Ainsley was in her usual form.

  She turned around and paced away several steps before casually turning back around and stomping through the corridor. In the form of Hiker, she halted in front of the new door, which stood out like a sore thumb in the Castle. “Something seems different here.” She sniffed. “I’m sure it’s just the immaculate care Ainsley is showing to the Castle since I’ve given her a pay increase, and by that, I mean I’ve actually started to pay the beautiful lassie.” She then glanced around speculatively. “Well, I’ll just stomp over to my office, passing through this corridor I’ve crossed every day for the last four-hundred some odd years and not notice anything that’s out of the ordinary.”

  Sophia slouched with defeat. “Okay, so there’s little chance Hiker won’t notice I’ve created a portal to the House of Fourteen?”

  Ainsley returned to her normal appearance, a proud smile on her face. “You can try creating a disguise on it.”

  Sophia’s face brightened with a smile. “Oh, that’s genius. Thanks, Ainsley.” Pointing at the new door, Sophia conjured up a cloak she hoped would mask the door and make it blend into the rest of the stone wall around it.

  To her relief, the door faded away completely, replaced with the brick and stone appearance it used to have. After only a few seconds, a crack appeared in the middle of the area and spread out like a spider’s web before exploding with dust and smoke to reveal the portal door once more.

  Sophia sunk again. “For fork's sake. Why won’t that work?”

  Ainsley's laughter was high-pitched and slightly evil. “Because you can’t façade the Castle. It won’t even allow me to change my wall color after four hundred and some odd years.” She looked around, getting the distant expression she often wore when she was about to talk to the Castle directly. “I’ve never liked putrid green.”

  She paused, listening to the response. “Well, you changed S. Beaufont’s room to pink. I don’t get why you can’t give me what I want.”

  Another pause.

  “I think cheetah print is classy,” Ainsley declared with a defiant expression on her face. “And I know you only redesigned S. Beaufont’s room to be more in line with her taste to get her to do this, but she’s going to wise up to your antics.”

  Sophia shook her head. “Wait! First off, you know the Castle got me to make this portal door?”

  Ainsley rolled her eyes. “Haven’t you been listening to this conversation?”

  “Umm, just the one side,” Sophia answered. “And what do you mean about ‘wise up to the Castle’s antics?’”

  At this, Ainsley gave a cunning smile. “Go on then, S. Beaufont, and tell me how this portal door came to be in the Castle?”

  “Well, it all began when I asked the Castle to pretty please with sugar on top lead me to The Complete History of Dragonriders,” Sophia started.

  Ainsley held up a hand, pausing her. “Hold up a second, dear. I want to get comfortable for this. I sense it’s going to be good, although it will end in tragedy.” She swiped her hand through the air, and the high-backed chair against the far wall slid out and across the corridor until it was just behind Ainsley. Without turning around, she took a seat, casually crossing her ankles and daintily laying her hands on her knees. “Now, please continue, S. Beaufont. I want to hear every detail of how you get swindled and die.”

  Sophia’s eyes fluttered with annoyance. “Swindled? What? No, anyway, the Castle told me to go find a closet in the House of Fourteen—”

  “Told you?” Ainsley asked.

  “Well, so to speak,” Sophia answered. “Then I couldn’t find the closet, and a magical talking lynx informed me I needed to find the closet at another point in time.”

  “So far, this is all sounding very boring,” Ainsley said with a yawn.

  “I’ll skip most of the details,” Sophia replied. “I fought Hydra to get this token thingy—”

  “Nearly getting the only dragonrider I actually like kill
ed,” Ainsley interrupted.

  “Well, yeah, but…wait, you don’t like me?”

  Dismissively, Ainsley shook her head. “It always depends. I’m an extraordinarily fair-weather friend. There is no unconditional love in my heart for anyone.” The housekeeper’s face shifted suddenly to anger as she got that distant expression again.

  “You watch your insinuations,” Ainsley warned, obviously talking to the Castle once more.

  “Okay.” Sophia went on, “Anyway, I got the token, went back in time, found the closet, flipped a switch, changed the timeline again, and then voila.” She held up a hand to the portal door. “It appears I’ve created or found or whatever a door that connects the House of Fourteen and the Castle in the present day.”

  Another yawn spilled from Ainsley’s mouth. “May I suggest that when you tell that story again, you use hand puppets or something? It’s all very boring and predictable.”

  “Yes, maybe Hiker won’t kill me if I have visual effects to add to the story.” Sophia groaned. “I know how much he loves technology.”

  “Oh, this is going to be worse than when Evan created a fire spell that caused the Expanse to burn continuously for a solid decade, making us all smell like barbeque and constantly have to fight the fire to keep the Castle from burning down,” Ainsley said, still sounding bored.

  “Wait, how is this worse than that?” Sophia questioned. “And that really happened?”

  “It did indeed, S. Beaufont,” Ainsley told her. “But that was during the blackout years, and we didn’t have anything else to do, so I guess it was all right.”

  “Ainsley, do you really not get paid to work here?” Sophia asked, remembering what she’d said earlier. The question irked her suddenly, even though she had many other questions for the housekeeper.

  She shrugged. “No, I just work here for the thrills and excitement.”