Storybound

by Emily Mckay

  “Which explains why you couldn’t find your sister earlier today on the island. She wasn’t here then because that was thirteen years ago. You couldn’t find her, because she hadn’t even been born yet.”

  “Yes.”

  “Is she here now?”

  Kane looks down at his hand, where the compass is held in his tightly clenched fist. Something like fear flickers over his expression. This guy—this guy who has faced down hellhounds and demons and monsters I can’t even imagine—this guy is afraid to look at the compass. And I know instinctively why. What if we’re wrong? What if we’ve gone through all of this and she’s not here? Because then, he has no idea how to find her.

  I cup his hand in both of mine and gently pry the compass open. His mouth twists in a wry smile that I take as a thank-you.

  I squint at the compass. Inside, there are three layers of glass. One like a compass shows N for north. The middle has a single hash mark that rotates around the center. The top layer is etched with a rune I don’t recognize. Like the compass layer, the rune face rotates slowly every time Kane moves it. It’s constantly aligning and realigning itself to Lucy, who, if the compass is working, is in the building. We both breathe a sigh of relief.

  “Okay, let’s go get her.”

  Before I can move, Kane stops me.

  “You didn’t really think it was going to be that easy, did you?”

  “This was easy? Seriously.”

  He shrugs, kneeling down to inspect something on the ground. I kneel, too, and see a line of gray powder. It looks exactly like the line of gunpowder cartoons pour when they’re planning to blow something up. Only this doesn’t go from a box of explosives to a lit match. Instead it circles the building.

  Kane trails his finger just above the powder. “This,” he says.

  “What is it?”

  “Inactivated bluestone.”

  “It’s not blue like the bluestone from your workshop.”

  “It’s inactivated bluestone. It won’t turn blue until it’s mixed with water. When it touches your skin, it will pull that water from your blood to mix with it and to bind with the copper in the powder. It will become brilliant blue. Then it will eat away at your flesh and boil your blood. Because Tuatha and halflings have copper in our blood—”

  “It doesn’t affect you the same way.”

  “Exactly. A Tuatha would probably have to drink it to have the same effect.”

  “That sounds extremely painful.”

  “It is.”

  “Oh.” I take a big step away from the line of inactivated bluestone.

  Except…it’s a really small line. No more than an inch tall or wide.

  Then it hits me. “Oh!” I stare down at the line of powder. “Goofer dust.”

  “What?”

  “In the books, Kane encounters something called goofer dust. It’s used as a binder in certain potions. Plus, it acts as a poison for Dark Worlders.”

  “Goofer dust?” Kane asks with obvious disdain. “That’s a stupid name.”

  “I didn’t make it up.” But I do have a much more vivid idea of the kind of pain it can cause. “But, can’t we just—I don’t know—step over it. It’s an extremely tiny line—”

  As I’m talking, I raise my knee to step over the line of dust…only to get knocked on my ass and blown back about ten feet.

  Wincing, I push myself up on my elbows.

  “You okay?”

  “You could have told me it was going to do that.”

  “You could have given me a chance to.”

  “Fair enough.” I suppress a groan as I sit up.

  “Bluestone is also a fairly stable magical conduit. So you can use it to draw a circle, infuse it with a little bit of magic, and—”

  “Instant force field, perfect for knocking Dark Worlders on their asses.”

  “Exactly.”

  “So we can find a way past this, right?”

  “Oh sure. We just need something to disrupt the magic barrier. If we break the circle of bluestone, we break the circle magic. The barrier goes down. The trick is to not stir it up in the air. Trust me when I tell you that you do not want—”

  “To breathe that in,” I finished the sentence for him. “Yeah. That happened to a guy in Book Two. Gave me nightmares.”

  Kane scans the plateau. “I’ll go get a branch from one of the trees near the house.”

  “That’ll take too long,” I say. “I have an idea.” I pull my Hello, Cupcake T-shirt up over my head and wrap the still-damp cloth around my hand. I try not to think about the fact that I am now standing in front of Kane wearing only my bra.

  Which is totally no big deal. I mean, a bra is basically a bikini top, right? And at least it’s my cutest bra. Green with pink polka dots. You know, just in case Kane was starting to think I’m a badass.

  I suck in a deep breath and hold it, before kneeling. I inch my cloth-covered knuckles closer to the line of bluestone. Gently I brush it out of the way. I feel the same resistance I felt when I tried to step over the barrier, but it’s not knock-me-on-my-ass strong.

  “Be careful,” Kane murmurs.

  I can’t answer—since I’m busy not breathing.

  After only a few seconds I have worn a spot in the line of Bluestone maybe an inch wide. Hopefully just enough to knock out the barrier. I don’t even exhale until I’m standing again and have taken a big step back. “Is that enough?”

  Frowning, he extends his hand until it passes above the line of bluestone. “Looks like it worked.”

  I waggle the shirt. “All due to the protective powers of hellhound drool.” I carefully unwind the shirt from my hand. There are spots on it now where the bluestone has turned brilliant, almost glowing, sapphire blue. “It’s really lovely.”

  “Yeah. Until it starts eating away at your flesh.” Kane grabs the corner of the shirt in one hand and examines it. He glances at me and then quickly away before clearing his throat. “You know you can’t put this back on.”

  “Oh. Okay.” I carefully fold the shirt so that any remaining bluestone is folded in on itself. So far Kane has politely avoided looking below my chin. I can’t help but shiver, probably from the cold, but possibly because I’m standing here in my bra. And, believe it or not, I’m not as cool as I pretend to be.

  Kane sees me shivering, slips out of his coat, and holds it out to me. “Here. If you can’t put your shirt back on, at least take my jacket.”

  I don’t argue. The leather is soft and surprisingly supple. Just sliding into it makes me feel safer.

  Yeah. That’s much better. I just needed to be warm. And wrapped in something that smells like Kane.

  That’s a train of thought I can’t afford to hop on. So instead, I comment, “It’s not a good defense, is it?”

  Kane tests the barrier again to make sure it’s still down and then takes a wide step over the bluestone. “What isn’t?” Then he gallantly holds out his hand for me to take as I step over it. “Be careful here. You don’t want this on the bottom of your shoes, either.”

  I nod to let him know I’ve heard him, before answering his question. “Someone went to a lot of trouble to erect that barrier. Why go to all the trouble of laying all that bluestone if someone trying to break in can just brush the bluestone aside and the spell is broken?”

  “It’s a question of knowledge, not difficulty. Lucy is ten. Not a lot of ten-year-olds would know about bluestone.”

  The implication being that Lucy does.

  “She’s lucky to have you.”

  Kane shakes his head, looking like he wants to disagree. There’s a pair of steps that lead up to the door of the building. For some reason, Kane grabs my arm as I walk past.

  “There’s something you need to know about Lucy before you meet her.”

  “Okay.”

&n
bsp; “She’s…” Kane presses his mouth into a hard line, his gaze fixed on some spot off on the horizon. “Lucy is not lucky to have me. I am not the fantastic older brother you seem to think I am. Lucy is—”

  But Kane breaks off as the door to the portable building opens. He looks up, pain and then relief flickering over his face. A second later, he takes a half step back, as if something invisible has slammed into him.

  “Hey, kiddo,” he mutters, bending down enough to scoop the invisible something into his arms.

  It takes a moment—a rather long moment—for what I’m seeing to sink in. Or rather, what I’m not seeing.

  His last sentence hangs between us.

  Lucy is…

  “Invisible?” I ask. “She’s invisible?”

  But Kane doesn’t seem to hear me. He has his hands crossed in front of him, like he’s holding a child on his hip. His head is bent down as he murmurs something I can’t hear, even though his lips move.

  His words are magicked out of my range of hearing.

  They are not meant for me.

  In fact, as I watch, the whole scene seems to blur at the edges. I can feel the magic trying to pull it out of my mind. If I so much as blink, I won’t even remember that Lucy is here.

  I don’t blink.

  Kane. This guy who is so tough. Who I have doubted and questioned and loved and wanted, and maybe even feared. This guy who has fought hellhounds and demons and monsters. This guy loves his sister. And all of this has been to protect her.

  If I even blink, I won’t ever remember the truth about him.

  Okay. So I don’t know if that’s how the magic really works. I’m just guessing. Because it already feels like this moment is slipping away from me.

  Then Kane looks up at me. “I can introduce you.”

  “Okay.”

  “But I’ll need to know your name. Your binding name.”

  “Okay,” I say quickly.

  “You shouldn’t just give that out. You have to be sure you want me to know it. Because it will give me power over—”

  “Edena Allegra Keller,” I say quickly. And then, remembering that with binding names, pronunciation is everything—I repeat it. More slowly. Perfectly. The way my mother always said it to me—lingering on the -ena, rolling the r in Allegra. “Edena Allegra Keller.”

  Kane nods. “Edena Allegra Keller, I would like you to meet my sister, Lucille Marie Teegan Travers. Lucy, this is Edie. You can call her Cupcake.”

  Then she fades into my vision. Slowly, like her molecules are coalescing out of thin air. “Holy…” I manage to restrain my f-bomb, but just barely.

  There she is, this tiny, feminine version of Kane. He sets her down and she immediately slips behind him so that she’s looking at me from under his arm. Her hair is a mass of dark curls. Her eyes, like his, whiskey brown. Her gaze serious.

  I squat down beside her. “Pleased to meet you, Lucy.”

  She cocks her head to the side, looking at me with open curiosity. I’ve never met an invisible person before, but I’m guessing they don’t get out a lot.

  She looks back up at Kane. “I didn’t touch the bluestone.”

  He runs a hand over her hair. “Yeah. I noticed. Good job, kiddo.”

  “And I stayed away from the hellhounds.” She frowns, considering. “But I didn’t try to escape. I knew you would come for me. Was that the right thing to do?”

  For an instant, Kane looks pained. I imagine that he is thinking of all the ways this rescue plan could have gone wrong. All the ways in which Smyth could have been successful. Imagining his sister trapped here indefinitely, always waiting for him to come for her. And when he answers, his voice is thick. “Yeah. I’m here now, right?”

  Before she can respond, he scoops her up in his arms and walks back to the line of bluestone. He steps over it before extending a hand back to help me over as well. Only once we’re both over does he set her down.

  He squats down to her level and takes one of her hands in his. “I’m going to open the loop to a boat,” he says. “I’m not going to introduce you to everyone there. So I want you to be quiet and stay close to Cupcake. She can keep you safe. But first, I need to talk to Cupcake, okay?”

  She nods, giving me another one of her too-serious looks. Then she walks maybe fifteen feet away, keeping Kane in her line of sight.

  Kane watches her carefully before looking back to me. “Don’t look at me like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “You know what I mean. Like I’m that guy. Kane the Traveler.”

  “I hate to disappoint you, but you are so Kane the Traveler. You have never been more Kane the Traveler than you are at this moment.”

  “No, I’m not. You want to know why Lucy is invisible? That’s my fault. I tried to replicate the rune magic my mother did on me, and this is what happened.”

  “How old were you at the time?”

  “Does that matter? I screwed up. I did magic beyond my reach, and she will have to pay for it. Forever.”

  “So how does that work exactly? She’s invisible to everyone?”

  “Yeah. If someone knows she’s there,” he continues. “They might be able to see her residual impact, but until I’ve introduced them with binding names, she’s invisible.”

  Residual impact. So that was why I could almost see her.

  “You can’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have been more than thirteen or fourteen when you did that magic. It was far beyond your skills. And even if it didn’t work, it’s kept her alive. That counts for something.”

  “Look,” he says harshly. “I’m not telling you this because I want you absolving me. Now that you know, now that you’ve been introduced, you could introduce her to someone else.” He scowls at me. “I’m trusting you not to do that.”

  His voice may be hard, his gaze even harder, but I hear the truth behind his words. His sister is the most important thing in the world to him, and he has placed her life in my hands.

  “Got it,” I say simply. “No introductions. Ever.”

  A moment later, we are back on the deck of The Blossom, and Lucy is sitting beside me on one of the benches while Kane goes to rescue the princess and Ro from Crescent Island.

  While we wait, my mind races.

  If Smyth was able to kidnap Lucy, that means someone introduced her to him, and I doubt it was Kane.

  If Kane didn’t do it, that means someone else did. Someone Kane trusts.

  Maybe even the same person who is going to try to kill him.

  Excerpt from

  Book Five of The Traveler Chronicles:

  The Traveler Undone

  Every once in a while, everything works out. You save the girl. Save the kingdom. Bring peace to the world.

  Maybe you even make a little money for your trouble.

  I could tell this was going to be one of those days. I could feel it in my bones.

  Turns out my bones are lying bastards.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  Lucy and I haven’t been back on The Blossom long when Crab comes to sit beside me.

  Feeling unexpectedly weepy, I have to fight the impulse to throw myself into his arms. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  He claps a hand on my leg. “Well there, missy. I’m glad of that, too. I can’t say I’m going to miss this place, but I sure will miss you.”

  Frowning, I say, “But aren’t you coming back with us to Austin?”

  “I don’t believe I am.” He gives his head a solemn shake. “I suspect that your lot will be wanting to get on just as soon as we cross over this barrier. So this is probably goodbye for you and me.”

  I can’t help but feel that when we cross through the Crimson Miasma, I will be more vulnerable.

  I’m one step closer to home. Once we cross through the barrier, Kane will ope
n a loop back to Austin, and we will all return to Morgan’s house. Then I’ll have no reason to stay in the Kingdoms of Mithres. I’ll open a threshold to the Dark World—presumably one closer to the ground—and return to my home. Return to the unanswered questions about my mother. About the lies she has told me my whole life.

  I want answers. I need them.

  But some part of me wishes I didn’t. Some part of me wishes I could return home and forget everything I learned about my mother and myself.

  Almost as though Crab senses this, he wraps an arm around my shoulder and strokes my hair. “You’re going to be okay, Cupcake. Yes. You’re going to be just fine.”

  I know that he is talking to me, using his Siren skills to comfort me. And I don’t even care. Instead, I reach out my free hand and brush it on Lucy’s arm. She leans her head against my arm, and I let Crab’s reassurances flow through me into her. We both need this.

  “I’m going to miss you, Crab,” I say.

  “Yes, you will.”

  I have to laugh at Crab’s absolute confidence. But, maybe that’s another one of his Siren skills. There is a kind of magic in believing in yourself that much.

  Then I stop laughing when Crab adds, “But not as much as you’re going to miss him.”

  Crab nods toward the bow of the boat where a loop forms. A moment later, Kane, the princess, and Ro step through onto the deck of the boat.

  I don’t answer Crab. I wrap Kane’s jacket more tightly around my body.

  I will miss Kane for a long time after I return to my world. Maybe for my whole life.

  Excerpt from

  Book Five of The Traveler Chronicles:

  The Traveler Undone

  I live in a world of monsters, demons, and criminals. Everything and everyone is either trying to kill you or trying to betray you for money.

  Sometimes, just walking away alive is enough to put a check in the win column.

  Other times, you want a little more than that.

  Today, I wanted her.