Walking The Razor: A Montague & Strong Detective Novel

by Orlando A. Sanchez

  I took stock of my situation. It wasn’t looking good. On the downside, I had a shield I didn’t know how to use, a gun I didn’t want to use, and a blade I needed to use. The upside was, as far as I knew, my curse was in full effect. That would make dying difficult. The associated downside was that if Monty went full Darth on me, he would be putting the strength of my curse to the test.

  Not the kind of test I was eager to take part in.

  Dex had said Monty would be giving off a massive signature in the midst of a schism. I closed my eyes and focused my breath. All around me, I felt the pervasive, ambient energy of the Golden Circle. The Sanctuary felt dormant, as if waiting for the outcome of this interaction. It felt old, primal, and powerful, magnifying how small I felt in comparison.

  It’s almost as if the very stones I stepped on said, You are not a mage, but it was deeper than that. The very air of sacredness and quiet in such a large expanse of stone and power drove the point home.

  You do not belong here.

  I crossed the outer gallery as I entered deeper into the space. Each step I took reinforced what a bad idea this was. The immense walls were covered with symbols and runes I had no possibility of understanding.

  For all I knew, they could have been words of unthinkable power, describing the secrets of reality and the universe, or the Montague recipe for tea biscuits. There was no way to decipher their meaning. What I did know, was that every symbol was imbued with a palpable power.

  Other than the near sensory overload I received from the Sanctuary itself, I picked up no overt runic signatures except for one familiar source of energy…Monty.

  Blazing in the center of the temple complex, like some odd runic beacon, I felt Monty’s energy signature. I understood what Dex meant about Monty not being able to mask his presence. This energy announced his location easily, almost boldly, daring to be found. For a brief second, I considered turning around and looking for the Torii gate again. Monty had grown stronger since the beginning of his schism at Kali’s.

  Stronger and darker.

  The energy I sensed was not inviting me in for afternoon tea, unless that tea included ample servings of pain…with a dash of death for added flavor. The thought of deadly Earl Grey brought a smile to my lips as I climbed the steps to the main temple of the center complex.

  Another set of enormous doors sat open, and led to an inner stone courtyard, similar to the one Dex had recently thrashed me in. I poked my head in the entrance and looked around…empty. I stepped off to the side and followed the stone pathway to another larger courtyard. Whoever designed this place had a thing for courtyards.

  The door to this section was closed. I stood next to it and let my senses expand. A force of runic backlash, like a door being slammed shut in my brain, hit me as the door exploded outward, narrowly missing me. It sailed across the courtyard and shattered against a wall. I was fairly certain it was a runed, Buloke Ironwood door that had just been reduced to splinters.

  “I told you not to come looking for me,” Monty said from inside. I figured the space was cavernous, considering the echo of his voice. “I told you, if you sought me out, I would end your immortal existence.”

  “Immortality is overrated,” I called out without showing my face. “Besides, I was in the neighborhood and felt like dropping by.”

  “In the neighborhood?” Monty said. “Your attempts at humor only disguise your fear, Simon. Are you so eager to die, that you would come here? Who sent you?”

  There was no reason to lie.

  “Dex sent me. He’s worried about you,” I said. “We all are.”

  “Worried or scared?” Monty answered. “Which are you, Simon?”

  “I’m here to help,” I said, still remaining to the side of the doorway, and out of the line of fire. I didn’t feel like ending up smashed like the door. “You’re going through a…”

  “A schism,” Monty said curtly. “Do not pretend to tell me what I’m going through. What would you know of schisms or of power? You are not a mage.”

  “Power is dangerous,” I said. “I don’t think it takes absolute power to corrupt. The power a mage wields, the power you wield…can change you, twist you into something you’re not.”

  “Rubbish,” Monty answered. “You’ve been spending too much time with my uncle.”

  It was subtle, but I felt the energy spool into the temple where Monty sat. It meant it was only a matter of time before this talk became mage-conversational.

  “Actually, I learned that from watching what’s happening with you.”

  “You have no concept of the forces at play here, no reference points, nothing that could inform you as to what a schism entails,” Monty said. “You couldn’t possibly understand. You’re not a mage, and you’re completely out of your league.”

  “You’re right, I’m not,” I answered, moving away from the wall as I sensed the energy grow inside. “What I am, is your friend.”

  “My friend?” he asked. “How could I ever befriend someone so weak?”

  “I’m stronger than I look?”

  I rolled to the side and away, as a black orb punched its way through the wall where I had been standing a moment earlier. He was definitely not in friend mode.

  “I see you’ve gotten better with those dark orbs,” I called out. I took a deep breath to calm myself. This was actually scarier than facing Dex, and that realization made this terrifying. “You don’t have to do this.”

  “Do what, exactly?” Monty asked. “What do you think I’m doing?”

  “You mean besides trying to squash me with a door, or perforate me with your bloody orbs?” I asked. “You’re making a choice.”

  Silence.

  “You’re correct,” he said after a pause. “Actually, I’m torn, and maybe you can help me. Why don’t you come in so we can discuss this like adults?”

  In my mind, Admiral Ackbar swiveled around in his command chair and slapped me upside the head, before sliding off to the deeper recesses of my mind.

  Don’t do it—it’s a trap.

  I nodded my head and stepped back even farther from the wall. Monty had demonstrated some of his power. I had no intention of turning into a Swiss cheese target from one of his barrage attacks. The hole left by the black orb he’d launched at me held a residue of power. Enough for me to want to make sure nothing he threw at me connected.

  “I’m correct?” I answered, surprised. “Why yes…yes, I am. I can help you, but right now, since you’re giving me a serious Darth Monty vibe, I’m going to help you from out here, if that’s okay with you.”

  “It doesn’t really matter where you are,” Monty answered with a low laugh. “You can’t escape from me.”

  “I’m not here to escape. I’m here to bring you back.”

  “That’s exactly what I need you for,” Monty said, appearing in the doorway. “You said I was making a choice. Right now, at this moment, I’m trying to choose the best way to erase you from existence.”

  For a few seconds, the words escaped me.

  The last time I had seen him, the sclera of his eyes had become shot through with black veins. Now, they were a solid black. Around him, small arcs of black energy jumped from his body to nearby surfaces, leaving small craters in their wake. If he wasn’t dark, he was damn close.

  “Easier said than done,” I answered, taking a few more steps back. “I see you’re really embracing the new look. Do you know what happens if you go full Darth?”

  “Power,” he said, looking down at the energy arcing from his body. “Infinite power.”

  “First of all, don’t be a dumbass,” I said—shocking him, from his expression. “There’s no such thing as infinite power. We’ve faced enough gods to know that’s not true. Second, if you go full Sith Lord, you’re going to be a permanent guest at Ezra’s table sooner than you’d like.”

  “Fool,” Monty said. “You’re not here to bring me back. You’re here to make sure I never leave…at least not alive.”

/>   “What?” I asked, shocked. “Dex said I needed to help you, that I’m the only one, because…”

  “You’re my shieldbearer?” he answered. “Incredible. How can you not see it?”

  “Illuminate me.”

  “Did you suggest calling the Dark Council?” Monty asked, derisively. “I’m sure you did, it’s so you. What did my uncle say? ‘This is mage business, too dangerous for the Dark Council’ or something to that effect?”

  “What are you saying?”

  “We’re bait…Well, I’m bait. You’re just a loose end. Evers will find me here soon enough, once my uncle lets her know where I am.”

  “He would never betray you like that,” I said. “He’s trying to keep you safe.”

  “By locking me in some pocket dimension from which I can’t escape?” Monty asked. “For someone so observant, you see very little. Who exactly is helping whom?”

  “You’re not making sense,” I said. “He’s your uncle, your family. Why would he want you dead? He cares about you.”

  “You don’t know him. I’m becoming stronger, stronger than even him,” Monty said. “He feels threatened. If he lets Evers finish me, he can say he tried to help me, but it was too late. I turned dark and had to be eliminated.”

  “That doesn’t explain why I’m here,” I said. “I’m not a threat to him.”

  “How are you supposed to leave this place after you ‘rescued’ me?” Monty asked. “Where is your creature? The last time I checked, you hadn’t mastered teleportation. What were you supposed to do, place a call?” He pointed to my jacket where I kept my phone. “Please, make the call.”

  I pulled out my phone…no service.

  “No service,” I said. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

  “It means everything,” Monty said. “Once Evers arrives, this place will be untethered and set adrift. We will be lost in time and space. Eventually, we will perish, but not you. You will be here for the rest of your days, pondering your stupidity.”

  Monty was many things, but rude wasn’t one of them. All of this was the darkness speaking, creating a scenario where he was betrayed and felt he had to self-preserve, would justify stepping into darkness. Whatever was going on in his head was preying on any insecurities about his family and friends.

  “You’re not going to take him,” I said, letting the menace come through. “He’s not yours.”

  “You’re threatening me?” he laughed again. “What could you possibly do?”

  “I’m threatening whatever is trying to push you over the edge,” I said, my voice taking on an edge. “I’m here as your last chance. But the ones coming after me, well…those friendly folks are looking for an excuse to obliterate you. Don’t give it to them.”

  “Now who sounds delusional?” Monty mocked. “This is me, Simon. I know what I’m talking about. You just can’t see it.”

  “All I see is that you’re not thinking straight.”

  “I’ve never been more lucid,” he said. “Can you prove me wrong?”

  I had to admit, he was pretty convincing…just not convincing enough. Dex could have killed me before sending me here. The same went for LD and TK. They didn’t have to help me or Monty, but they did. Not because they felt threatened, but because they cared. Frankly, after my little sparring session with Dex, I realized I wasn’t much of a threat.

  “Let’s say, hypothetically, that you’re right, and this is all a nefarious setup by Dex to eliminate us,” I said. “What’s your plan? You think you can face him alone? What about all the other sects who want you blasted to dust? Can you take them all on?”

  “I will kill everyone they send after me,” Monty said, his voice hovering around the warmth of an arctic storm. “Every single one of them will die by my hand.”

  “Even Dex?”

  “Dex? Dex will be the first,” he scoffed. “That old bastard will pay for doing this to me.”

  “Doing what? He’s trying to help you.”

  “My uncle trapped me in here,” Monty said quietly. “He thinks I don’t know, but I do. I’m aware of the energy of this place; after all, it was my home. He thinks he can keep me trapped here”—Monty stared at me with dead eyes—“when all he did was send me the key to my cell.”

  That look made me feel about as safe as standing blindfolded before a firing squad.

  So much for Monty not knowing he was in one of Dex’s construct thingies. On a scale from terrifying to nightmarish, Monty took the scale and ripped it apart with his bare hands. If I survived this, Dex and I were going to have some words.

  “If you leave here, they will kill you.”

  “No,” Monty said, “they will try…and fail.”

  “I can’t let you go,” I said. “It’s my job as your shieldbearer to watch your back and protect you from the attacks you can’t see. Even if—especially if—you’re putting yourself in danger.”

  “Let me see if I can tactfully put this in terms your pitifully minuscule brain could comprehend,” Monty said, still absorbing energy. “As far as shieldbearers go, you’re absolute trash. I know first-year apprentice mages with more runic control in one hand than you will ever possess in your entire body.”

  Right now I wished I had a squadron of those first years with me to get through this. I pushed my fear back, telling myself that Monty was in there, behind the scary.

  “I may be a trash shieldbearer, but I still can’t allow you to go all dark side,” I shot back. “My job is to protect you.”

  “Allow me?” Monty scoffed. “Protect me?”

  “Yes…protect you,” I said. “Even if it’s from yourself.”

  “While you’re worrying about protecting me, who is going to protect you?”

  “Excuse me?” I asked warily. “Does that mean you’re planning to let me help you?”

  “Not even remotely,” he answered, forming a large, black orb in one hand. “Once I kill you, my uncle will know you failed. He will come here and try to ‘stop me in my tracks’ before letting Evers know of my location. In so doing, he will need to open a gate. I have a little surprise waiting for him.”

  Monty had just ratcheted the scary vibe up a few notches.

  “In order for this surprise scheme to work, you have to kill me,” I said, extending my arms to the side and looking down at myself, before returning my gaze to him. “I’m still here…alive.”

  “Allow me to rectify that,” he said with a chilling smile.

  “Dissipare.”

  He released the orb.

  It hovered in the air for half a second, rotating slowly as if looking for a target, before racing at me.

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  Time has a way of being elastic at the strangest moments.

  Time is not your friend. Dex’s voice echoed in my head.

  Three seconds of drinking my favorite javambrosia felt like an instant. Three seconds of watching an orb of death coming at you…that was a lifetime.

  I realized a few things in those seconds.

  One: Monty was a few steps from Darthness. Thinking his uncle wanted him dead meant he wasn’t processing thoughts rationally. Dex loved his nephew. Monty knew this, but whatever was happening to him had inverted his perception of the world to one of persecution.

  Two: Monty’s awareness that Dex had trapped him meant that his power had grown to the point that Dex wouldn’t be able to hide him much longer. Evers would soon find him. This would feed into Monty’s betrayal narrative, reinforcing it and possibly launching him off the deep end into embracing the darkness once she appeared.

  Three: I seriously needed to consider a career change, or an extended vacation, some place far away from mages and monsters, as immediately as humanly possible. If not, I was the one who was going to lose it.

  I drew Grim Whisper and fired.

  The persuader rounds did nothing to the incoming orb. I wasn’t expecting them to. My real target was standing behind the orb. The rounds punched into Monty with no effect. The orb slamm
ed into me, propelling my body backward at speed.

  I hit the courtyard wall with enough force to destroy the stone behind me. The orb spread out and covered my body with black energy as I crumpled to the floor, landing on my rear, sitting against what was left of the wall.

  “Goodbye, Simon,” Monty said, glancing down at my broken body before turning around to enter the temple. “Even an immortal needs a body…that orb will disintegrate yours. The pain will be excruciating. I warned you. You shouldn’t have come after me.”

  Kali’s words blazed in my mind as the orb started to go to work.

  You will be the one in the gap, no longer a shieldbearer. You will be my aspis—my shield- warrior. It is not only Tristan that depends on you now.

  The orb was powerful. I could feel the effects of the blood magic trying its best to help me shed some unnecessary pounds by melting the skin off my body.

  Then it stopped.

  The pain came to a crashing halt.

  That’s when I started laughing.

  Monty turned around with a puzzled look on his face.

  “I’m not laughing with you,” I said, getting to my feet. “I’m laughing at you.”

  Monty narrowed his eyes at me and slowly reached behind him, drawing the Sorrows. The soft wails filled the temple as he approached.

  “How are you doing this?” he asked. “You should be dust right now.”

  “I had an appointment at Kali’s pain spa earlier,” I said, standing as the black energy slid off my body and evaporated. A thin layer of violet energy covered my body, reminding me of Dex’s green aura shield. “Your orb hurt, but excruciating? Not even close.”

  “You’ve…changed, somehow,” Monty said, stepping out of the temple. “You’ve grown stronger. What did she do?”

  “I told you,” I said, feeling the center of my forehead burn with power. “Kali gave me a pain makeover. You should try it. It gives you a new perspective on life…and death.”