by Sarah Noffke
The fairies formed an angry face.
“If you know how to fix things, you know how to break them,” Liv rushed on. “I should know. It’s called reverse engineering in my business. I don’t care what you do; I just need you to buy some time. Do you think you can help?”
The angry face dissolved as the fairies broke formation, looking at each other as if having a silent caucus. “Yes. Yes. Yes,” they sang in unison.
Liv let out a sigh of relief. “Perfect. Let’s get started.”
The fairies formed a giant hand.
Liv didn’t know what to make of that.
“I think they are saying to stop,” Plato said.
“Then why don’t they just say it?” Liv asked. “They are apparently capable of speech, even if only in chanting form.”
A single Zonk flew forward, making Liv lean back, prepared to attack if needed.
The other fairies formed a large model of Liv, making her head look a little bigger than she thought it was. A few other fairies bound together, creating a larger Zonk who flew next to the model of Liv.
“You want me to take one of you with me?” Liv asked.
“Yes. Yes. Yes,” they sang again.
Liv looked down at Plato. “I guess it couldn’t hurt.”
“They appear to communicate telepathically with each other, so having one of them with you will put you in contact with all of them,” Plato reasoned.
“Good idea,” Liv stated, holding out a finger for the single Zonk to shake. “I’m looking forward to working with you.”
The fairy buzzed loudly and smiled, and somehow the positive gesture made the creature uglier.
If looks could kill, the Zonks could just look at Valentino and smile.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Waiting was a virtue that giants held in high esteem. However, being forced to hang out in the tunnels and not help Liv was incredibly difficult for Rory Laurens.
He’d liked the magician from the beginning, before he was even certain that she had magic. Something about the honest purity in her eyes endeared her to him. She also had John’s favor, and there was no one whose judgment Rory trusted more. John was a good man, who did right by people, even if that meant he lost out. It was people like him who Rory went above and beyond to help.
“We got the Zonks’ cooperation,” Liv said over the phone.
Rory held it up, looking at her face on the screen. “Is that one with you now?”
“Yeah, he’s like my walkie-talkie to the pack,” Liv answered and glanced at the fairy flying next to her head. “Wait, are you a he? Or a she? Or a—”
“Would you shut your trap before you say something that gets you eaten?” Rory warned.
She rolled her eyes. “Those are reasonable questions. How am I supposed to use the right pronoun without the correct information?”
“Try talking less and doing more,” Rory stated.
“Fine, until then you can talk to my butt,” Liv said, and the phone went dark because she’d stuck it back in her pocket.
Rory heard footsteps in the tunnel, so he closed his eyes and activated a camouflage spell. They were a specialty of giants. That was how they’d gone relatively unnoticed for centuries. Most humans didn’t even know that giants were all around them because so many preferred to operate fully camouflaged all the time. Rory had once been like that, but being invisible also gave him a real look into people. When they didn’t know you were watching them, they didn’t hide their suffering. Rory dropped his camouflage, the first of his family to do so in a century, and worked to integrate himself into society as a strangely tall person. No one had suspected him of being anything more than a freak all these years. Well, until Liv Beaufont came along.
Rory slipped back another inch, hoping he was leaving enough room for the men to pass without noticing him.
“I’ve already unplugged the first store,” Valentino said over the phone he was holding. “And I’ve gone ahead and activated the second round. They want two to three sources of energy.”
They? Rory wondered. Who was Valentino working for?
“Yeah, I know we don’t have much time remaining,” Valentino said, hiking up his long suit jacket. It was a pale shade of green, like something a Leprechaun would wear, made from a special fabric. “Apparently someone is onto us, so I’ve ordered double security as the source powers up. Anyone who tries to intervene now will have a rude awakening. I have the power of a hundred ghosts in the store I’m carrying with me.”
Valentino climbed through the hole, his voice less distinct as he got farther away. “I’m coming that way. Let’s turn the conduit on high. We need to get this done and get out of here.”
Waiting was something Liv was horrible at. She knew that the Zonks had to do their job first, but hanging out in the dark tunnel waiting for the signal was excruciatingly frustrating. She’d put Rory on mute and parked her butt in a dark corner as the Zonks charged off to do whatever it was they were going to do. Beside her the single fairy bobbed up and down in the air, its bulging eyes visible in the dark. She noticed that up close the Zonk was…well, still super-ugly, but its features were also kind of interesting, as if a bat had gotten mixed with a rat and then bred with a moth.
Ahead Liv heard the charging of feet. She stiffened, listening for the direction. The sound dissipated. The Zonk looked at her and nodded.
Okay, here we go, Liv thought, tightness seizing in her chest. She started for the main room where the leeched energy was stored.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Three times Rory had tried to reach Liv with no luck. Valentino was onto them, or someone else was. He was accelerating the process. Worst of all, he already had a source of magic stored and was carrying it around with him, headed straight for Liv.
She didn’t stand a chance if she faced off with someone with that much magic. He would crush her before she released a single spell.
Rory’s heart raced in his chest. He had to help Liv but getting to her wasn’t going to be easy. This option had always been there, but using it was dangerous. Rory removed a smooth, round stone from the pocket of his jeans. It had been passed down from his grandfather to his father and then to him. Transport stones were rare and most giants didn’t have one, but his family had preserved theirs, taking care to only use it in emergencies. It had been many years since he’d chanced using it, knowing that its power would be diminished until it had time to recharge. Not only that, because its power was tied to the Earth, there were certain risks when using the stone—ones his father had learned about the hard way. Each experience was different, and Rory had no idea what might happen this time.
He rubbed his thumb on the top of the stone and his index and middle fingers over the bottom. The rock instantly grew hotter in his hands as he thought of the location he needed to travel to. When the stone was almost too hot to touch, Rory squeezed his eyes shut, knowing that the flash that would come next would be close to blinding.
Liv was unsurprised that ghosts were filing into the room ahead. What she hadn’t expected was the sheer volume of ghosts crowding into the space. They dropped from the ceiling or walked through the walls. None of them seemed concerned about her, their focus directed ahead of them.
An icy chill ran through her core as ghosts passed through her. Liv jumped to the side, but it didn’t matter. There were ghosts everywhere.
When she looked around the room, she couldn’t make out anything besides the shimmering white figures of the ghosts all marching forward. Then Liv noticed they were all entering a large prism in the middle of the chamber. As they approached it, the prism would blur and suck them in, making the ghosts look like they were being drawn in by a vacuum cleaner.
Liv blinked at the strange scene, noticing how shadows moved around inside of the prism. Those had to be the trapped ghosts.
Connected to the prism were multiple hoses. One led to a huge machine which had several lights flashing. On the other side of the prism was a similar mac
hine, but stuck into the middle was a large canister with a glass cylinder suspended in the middle. A bluish substance was rising in the cylinder.
“Is that…” Liv asked Plato.
“The converted magical energy,” he answered.
“Gross. It’s like he’s boiling down ghosts and making them into a magical broth,” Liv observed.
Plato’s ear twitched. “I think someone is coming. You better hurry.”
Liv looked at the Zonk, who hadn’t left her side. “Your friends? Aren’t they causing a diversion?”
“Yes. Yes. Yes,” the fairy answered.
“Then who is coming?” Liv asked.
“I don’t know, but we better get to work shutting this down,” Plato answered.
In the center of a dark tunnel, Rory landed, his head hitting the ceiling with a thud.
“Ouch,” he growled, rubbing his scalp. Even though he’d transported in a crouch, the stone always delivered him as it saw fit. That was part of the risk.
A low rumble rocked the ground under his feet.
There was the other risk. Earthquakes.
Dust rained from overhead. There couldn’t be a worse place to be when an earthquake struck. Rory ducked, covering his face as he raced after Liv. Not only did he need to warn her about Valentino, but he also had to get her out of this mess before she was buried because of him.
Sprinting to the first piece of machinery, Liv tried to take a quick read. This was the one that attracted the ghosts, she’d guessed. The other one converted and condensed their magical energy. She had to shut this one down first and then release the ghosts. That much she knew. Anything beyond that was still a mystery.
The ground suddenly shook under her feet and Liv spun, looking for Plato. He’d disappeared. The timing couldn’t be worse.
Beside her, she heard the buzzing she’d recently come to associate with her Zonk friend. “Hey, do you know how we can disable this machine? We need the ghosts to stop coming.”
“We fix. We fix. We fix,” the little fairy assured her.
“Yes, I get that,” Liv said as dust and rock sprinkled from overhead. She looked around, trying to figure out what was causing the commotion. Maybe Rory was stomping around somewhere.
“To fix the problem, we need to disable this machine.” Liv pointed to the giant box. “Do you think you can figure out a way to jam the sensors? I could pull the wires, but I’m afraid of what that would do. I’m going to try to figure out the prism. There’s got to be a way to release the trapped ghosts.”
The Zonk thought for a moment and then zipped over to the machine. “Fix. Fix, Fix,” the fairy chanted, almost blurring in the air as it flew.
Another tremor and Liv nearly lost her balance, falling close to the prism. Her hand went through the glass, to her surprise. As it did, she felt a sucking sensation, like the prism was trying to draw her into it. She yanked her hand back but it resisted, making her pull harder. She threw herself back and tumbled onto her bottom, rolling behind the other machine.
Liv was about to get up when two figures rushed into the room. She sank back into the shadows, watching.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Moving through the crumbling tunnel wasn’t easy for Rory, but he tried to slide through without causing further damage. The ground shook more violently with each new earthquake. Ahead, he could hear men shouting. He had planned it so he landed only a few dozen yards from the main room. He watched as two men ran into the room, charging through ghosts. Behind them were two others.
Rory yelled, making them halt. As if they were reluctant to see what had howled, they spun around slowly.
At the sight of Rory crouched in the tunnel, they shot each other anxious looks and ran in the opposite direction. They hurried past the room and kept running.
That was easy, Rory thought.
Behind him, he heard more sounds. He turned to find two men holding weapons. Not the kind of weapons he could respect, like swords or mallets. These mortals were holding guns: a coward’s weapon.
“What’s going on here?” one of the men yelled as he charged into the room, looking at the conduit.
“What’s one of those gross-looking insects doing in here?” the other man yelled, running over and swatting at the Zonk.
Liv had faith that the fairy could do its job, but only if given a chance.
“Hey, ugly,” Liv said, jumping out of her hiding place. “Watch who you’re calling gross. That’s my friend.”
The men spun to face her, vengeance springing to their faces at once.
“We heard a pest might be coming down here to intervene,” the first man said, striding over, not at all intimidated by the sight of Liv.
“Pest?” she questioned, puffing out her chest. “I’m not the one who leeched energy off the innocent and made a mess for others to clean up.” She pointed at the balding man and then his friend, who had pulled out a knife. “You two look like the pests, if I'm honest.”
The man without a weapon held out his hand to the other man. “Don’t worry about this one. Just looks like some newbie magician got lost. The boss said these types aren’t an issue. We just detain her and he’ll deal with her.”
The other man laughed. “But we could tire her out before he arrives.”
Liv was relieved to see the Zonk had gone back to shutting down the conduit. She just had to ensure it had time to finish. Liv didn’t know how combat magic worked entirely, but it felt as though it responded to her needs. She held up her hand and muttered a phrase she’d never heard before. It literally sprang to her lips from nowhere.
“Hel-E-Hi-Cha,” she said in a deep voice.
The first man rose off his feet, suspended in midair. The other flew back and knocked into the far wall, his knife clattering to the ground.
Liv watched as the first man kicked in the air and the other shook his head, discombobulated by the sudden assault.
“Save your energy,” Plato said from a far corner or overhead or behind Liv. She spun, thinking she’d find him, but he was nowhere in sight and yet he seemed so close.
Liv nodded when she’d made a full circle. The feline was right. She didn’t need to waste her precious energy on these goons. She leaned down and grabbed the knife the man had dropped.
“You boys have five seconds to get out of here before I chop you up for dinner,” Liv said. “Newbie magicians are the worst because we don’t know our own strength or when to stop using it.”
Liv spun the knife in her hand, surprised when it stopped with perfect timing and she hadn’t cut her fingers off in the process. The first man returned to the ground and the second jumped up, and they both sprinted out the door and away.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Rory ground his fingers into his palm, heat building in his head, making his eyes red. The floor shook violently under them, nearly knocking the two men off-balance.
Usually, Rory would rely on his brute strength to take these men down, but in the narrow tunnel, he was at a disadvantage. Moving was tricky, and getting anywhere fast was impossible. With the ground shaking more with each passing minute, it complicated the whole situation. Rory had to deal with these meatheads fast and get to Liv.
He heard the click of the gun and narrowed his eyes at the man closest to him. With a simple brush of Rory’s hand, the man flew back through the tunnel, landing fifteen feet away, his gun clattering out of his hand.
The other man fired, the bullet hitting Rory square in the chest. He looked down, annoyance on his face.
“Seriously? This is one of my favorite shirts,” he growled, looking at the hole the bullet had made in his flannel button-up. He picked the bullet out and flicked it away, shaking his head.
The man backed away, realizing at once that he was absolutely screwed. Giant skin was incredibly tough, and when their magic was activated, as Rory’s was now, they were nearly unstoppable. Nearly. Magicians, the experienced ones, knew how to break through a giant’s defenses, but Rory didn’t have
to worry about that with a single mortal staring up at him.
The giant pushed his hand through the air in a quick movement. Although it didn’t touch the man, he flew back, landing in a heap next to his associate.
Rory turned in Liv’s direction, but it was too late. The tunnel ahead was in the process of collapsing, dust and debris falling in a rush.
The Zonk buzzed loudly, pulling several wires free from the big machine. The humming Liv didn’t even realize monopolized the room ceased. The prism paled for an instant, then grew brighter, and then went out completely.
The ghost who was about to walk straight into the prism halted and looked around, confused. Behind him, others did the same, as if they were waking from a daze.
“Go away!” Liv commanded, ushering them out the way they’d come. “Get out of here. This was a trap.”
The ghosts looked at her, many of them tilting their heads to the side as though trying to understand her better from a different angle.
“Seriously, get out of here!” Liv yelled, trying to push the closest ghost away, her hands going straight through the old man.
He blinked at her impassively, and a moment later receded like he had just remembered something he needed to do. One by one, the ghosts dropped through the floor or floated up through the ceiling as the room shook furiously.
Outside in the tunnel, there was a loud crash, followed by a cloud of dust. Liv covered her mouth and coughed, her eyes burning from the debris in the air.
She looked around. “Good work, Zonk. Now we need to figure out how to reverse the prism so that we can get the ghosts in there out.”