Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Boxed Set

by Sarah Noffke

  Wait, they weren’t snow globes. They were magic, and she was a magician. This was Plato. And there was still one more chance to save them.

  Her mind wasn’t gone yet, but it would be soon, and then they’d die there.

  But that wasn’t going to happen. This was not Liv Beaufont’s last day on Earth. Not even close. She reached out and grabbed the closest canister of magic.

  The snake lunged at her, its hiss growing in intensity.

  Liv jerked the lid off the canister as the snake shot forward. It struck, biting her in the leg and making her double over with a pain she had never conceived of. Its venom filled her veins, and she thought she’d die there from the bite rather than waste away in a hypnotic state. However, the canister was open.

  Liv forced herself to dip her hand into it. She lifted it into the air and blew, hoping against hope that it formed a portal. The reasoning was that personal magic couldn’t be used in the monastery, as if it was somehow locked. But a third-party source of magic could be used—like the canisters.

  The portal shone in the room, the best thing Liv had ever seen. She didn’t step through it like she intended but instead fell into the entrance to another place, carrying Plato and the canister with her, hoping the lophos didn’t follow. She didn’t want that magical monster taking over her thoughts for the rest of her life—if she had much more life to live, which she prayed she did.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Liv’s head hit the side table next to her couch when she fell out of the portal, into her apartment. With no time to worry about her newest injury, she closed the portal immediately, not wanting the lophos to follow her.

  She released Plato, who was still passed out, and cradled her leg. Blood was everywhere, soaking onto her carpet.

  Her head swam as she looked around the apartment, trying to figure out what to do next. She needed help but felt close to passing out from the snake’s venom. It burned in her veins, making her leg feel like it was on fire.

  With a shaking hand, Liv pulled out her cell phone. Barely strong enough to hold the phone to her head, she switched it to speaker and rolled over on her side, her face mushed into the carpet.

  The phone rang once.

  Twice.

  Liv’s eyes fluttered shut. Staying conscious felt impossible.

  Again the phone rang.

  “Hello? What happened?” Clark asked in a rush.

  “I need help—” Liv wanted to say more, but couldn’t. The venom sent her into a blackness that felt never-ending.

  “It would be a lot easier to know what bit her if she was conscious to tell us,” a woman’s voice said, stirring Liv from the haze holding her hostage.

  Impatient footsteps echoed on the floor one way and then the other. “How does it look?” Clark asked, his voice tense.

  “I’ve extracted the venom,” the woman replied. “But without knowing what kind of snake it was, I can’t treat her properly.”

  “L-L-L,” Liv muttered, still locked away.

  “Liv.” Clark rushed over, grabbing her hand. “You’re awake.”

  Not really, she thought, trying to break free of whatever was keeping her in the strange blackness. She sensed the light on the other side of her eyelids, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t open her eyes—something she realized she’d taken for granted all her life.

  “Why doesn’t she wake up?” Clark asked, pushing her hair back from her face.

  “I’m not sure,” the woman said. “What do you think she’s trying to say?”

  “L-Lo-Lo,” Liv stuttered, unsure if she was actually speaking out loud or just in her head.

  Clark leaned down, putting his ear close to her mouth. “What are you saying? Lo-what?”

  “Lophos,” Plato said, his voice groggy but clear enough.

  A gasp fell out of the woman’s mouth. “A lophos bit her? Where… Never mind that. I know exactly what I have to do now.”

  “What’s a lophos?” Clark asked. “Will she be all right?”

  “I need to work now,” the woman answered. “And she’s not going to wake up until I heal her of that bite. The poison will keep her asleep.”

  Liv reached out, finding Clark’s hand again. She squeezed it with as much force as she could muster, not knowing if it was enough for him to register. He gripped her back and rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. “I know you’re in there. Hold on and we’ll fix you. I promise.”

  “I told him that she had a bug,” Clark said from the other side of the room, his voice exhausted. “And then what? He told you?”

  “She’s been out for almost two days,” Rory’s familiar voice said. “I knew something was up. And John will think something’s up too if we’re not careful.”

  “I just don’t understand,” Clark stated. “When is she going to wake up?”

  “The lophos’ bite is lethal,” Rory replied. “The fact that she’s still alive is incredible.”

  “I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but it’s not working.”

  “I would never dream of making you feel better, magician,” Rory said.

  Liv called out in her mind, screaming that she was awake, and yet she knew they heard nothing. She was trapped. Trapped on the other side of a blurry wall where she could hear everything but no one could hear her.

  The recurring dream was always the same. The pack of wolves chased Liv, gaining on her. Safety was just up ahead. A house. Unlocked. All she had to do was get there. Throw the door shut behind her. This time the wolves wouldn’t catch her before she got to the house.

  Every time the dream ended the same way. First the claws, then the teeth. The wolves always carried her away screaming, pain radiating from where their teeth bit into her leg. Always the same place. And then the dream ended, only to start up again later.

  But this time, she was running faster. Getting ahead of them. This time, she wouldn’t lose.

  The house was close. So close. She ran onto the porch, leaping over the steps.

  Her hand was on the door handle when she looked back. The wolves had halted a few yards away, their teeth bared and their eyes narrowed.

  Liv swung the door open and nearly bolted forward. However, she stopped herself. It wasn’t a house at all, but rather a bluff leading to a dangerous fall that ended in a rocky ocean.

  Liv turned back to the wolves, and then, without hesitation, she jumped off the cliff, plummeting to what she feared was her death.

  Shooting to a sitting position, Liv sucked in a loud gasp, her voice aching to be released. She clapped her hands to her chest, pressing against her heart, which had never beat so fast.

  Clark’s head whipped up. He was sitting on the other side of the room, but rushed over at once, his eyes wide with shock. “You’re awake!”

  There were a thousand things Liv wanted to say, and yet she had no voice. Every time she opened her mouth to speak, only ragged breath fell out.

  “Here, drink this,” Clark said. “We’ve been trying to keep your reserves up as best we could with magic, but nothing replaces eating and drinking the old-fashioned way.”

  Liv’s hands were shaking when she took the glass, nearly banging it into her teeth as she drank. She drained the entire glass, feeling like the cracks in her throat were mending already. “How…how…how long?”

  Clark nodded, seeming to understand her question at once. His usually perfectly slicked back blond hair was a mess, falling over his forehead. His clothes were wrinkled, the sleeves of his button-up rolled to the elbow and covered in spots of blood. “Three days. It’s been three days since you called me.”

  Liv looked around her tiny apartment, noticing potion bottles and other items that didn’t belong to her. Plato was curled up next to her leg, the one where she’d been bitten.

  She managed to smile at the cat, whose eyes glistened back at her in quiet appreciation. On the table next to them was the canister of magic, the one that had saved her.

  Liv swung her legs
to the side, wanting to stand, but realizing at once that her body was too stiff to move quickly.

  “Hey, take it easy,” Clark warned. “I’ll call Hester to have a look at you.”

  “Hester?” Liv asked.

  A dark shadow fell across Clark’s face. “I didn’t have a choice. When I found you, I didn’t know who else to call. She’s the best healer the House has.”

  “But she’s a Councilor,” Liv argued, her stomach aching with hunger all of a sudden.

  Clark stood, pulling his phone from his pocket. “I think she can be trusted. Anyway, I didn’t give her any information, and she didn’t ask. She just worked to fix you, and it appears that against the odds, she succeeded.” He held the phone to his ear, walking toward the door. “It won’t take her long to get here, but don’t try to get up. I’ll be right back.”

  Clark whispered into the phone as he paced to the door.

  Liv looked down at Plato, letting out a weighty sigh. “So we survived.”

  He pressed his head into her arm, affectionately rubbing the side of his face against her fingers as she petted him. “Because of your quick thinking. Thank you for saving me.”

  Liv smiled easily. “I was just returning the favor. You’ve saved me loads of times.”

  Clark returned a moment later, looking Liv over like he thought she might have changed in the minute since he’d left her. “She’ll be here soon. How do you feel?”

  “Like I’ve been asleep for three days and need a steak dinner,” Liv answered.

  Clark laughed, and it seemed to melt away some of the stress around his eyes. “Yeah, I second that. A steak would be perfect right now.”

  “Have you been here ever since you found me?” Liv asked.

  He nodded, looking down at his messy clothes.

  “What does the House think?”

  “Don’t worry,” Clark said, waving off her concern. “I told them I had other business, and they think you’re away working on your case. I never take a day off, so it wasn’t disputed.”

  “Yeah, but that’s just the thing,” Liv argued. “You never take a day off. Don’t you think that will draw suspicion?”

  Clark lowered his chin, exhaustion evident in his movements. “Liv, I thought you were going to die. I didn’t really care what the House thought.” When he looked at her, the pain he was usually so good at hiding was written plainly on his face.

  “I’m sorry. You must have been worried. If something happened to me, the Beaufonts would lose their place—”

  Clark shook his head, new conviction in his eyes. “No, you don’t get it. This has never been about us keeping our place in the House, Liv. This is about us. We’ve lost so much. Mom and Dad. Ian and Reese. I can’t lose you. The House is second in my priorities. Family is what matters now.”

  Tears ached in Liv’s dry throat, begging to be released. She managed a smile as a single tear rolled down her cheek. “Familia est sempiternum.”

  Clark’s eyes fell to the canister. He pointed, obviously trying to break the tension. “You got back the stolen canister of magic. That’s something.”

  Liv couldn’t stop herself from laughing, which made her think she might pass out. She lifted the glass in Clark’s direction, silently asking for more.

  “Actually, I brought back that one by mistake. Recovering all of the canisters would take several trips,” Liv said, telling Clark the whole story as he refilled her glass with water.

  “I don’t understand,” Clark said, taking a seat in the chair next to her. “What are they doing there? Why would someone store magic like that and use a lophos to protect it?”

  Liv drained the glass, feeling her strength returning. “I don’t know, but we definitely have more investigating to do. When I’m back to normal, I’ve got to check out the wall with the symbols in the library.”

  Clark agreed with a nod. “Yes, the ring. It sounds like it will explain a lot.”

  “I plan to learn the ancient language. I believe it holds the key to this mystery.” They both looked up, having the same epiphany.

  “Key,” Clark said in a hushed voice.

  “Do you think that was what Reese was referring to when she said, ‘Olivia has the key?’” Liv asked.

  Clark nodded, running his hands over his stubbly cheeks. “Yes, and you said Ian left the ring for you. If you’re right and it opens something in the library, well, we need to check it out.”

  Liv tried to stand again but was met with defeat, her legs too weak to support her. Clark darted forward, catching her and helping her back down.

  “But for now, you need to rest. The ring and the wall can wait,” he told her sternly. “You need to recover.”

  Reluctantly, Liv agreed, pushing back on the sofa. “Yes, and we don’t know what the other part of Reese’s message means, about you having the heart.”

  “I’ll figure it—”

  The front door opening cut off Clark’s words.

  Hester was a strange sight as she strode into Liv’s apartment, her traveling cloak partially covering her spikey gray hair. She smiled sincerely at Liv when she laid her eyes on her. “Well, I haven’t seen such a wonderful sight in a long time. It is nice to see you awake.”

  Liv looked down at her bandaged leg. “Thank you for healing me. I can explain—”

  Hester hurried over, gesturing for Liv to put her leg back up. “Let me have a look, and then maybe you can explain. Or maybe you shouldn’t.” She tilted her chin down, looking at Liv over her half-moon spectacles. “I mean, the Council doesn’t need to know everything. A girl is entitled to have a private life.”

  Liv smiled, putting her legs back on the sofa.

  “And I might have healed the surface wounds, but if you awoke from the lophos bite, it was due to sheer determination on your part,” Hester continued, unbandaging her leg. “Sometimes the most amazing things in life have nothing to do with magic.”

  Liv wasn’t ready for the disgusting sight of her leg when the bandages were removed. Two large black puncture wounds covered the side of her calf, red spider-like veins fanning out from them.

  “Well, this looks much better,” Hester said, a smile springing to her face.

  “This looks better?” Liv asked with a laugh, grimacing at her leg.

  “You should have seen it to begin with,” Clark said, looking over Hester’s shoulder at the wound. “Your leg was covered in blood. I didn’t even know it was a bite until I called Hester.”

  Nausea hit Liv’s stomach. She remembered falling through the portal and looking down at her leg and thinking it was the end. It appeared that she had been given another chance. A chance to solve the mystery of the House of Seven and bring the justice her parents fought for, and to be a part of the family she didn’t think she wanted for so long.

  The tender knot has risen in Liv’s throat again, making her fear more tears would spill from her eyes. “Will the scar fade?” Liv asked Hester in an attempt to cover her emotion.

  The healer ran her hand over Liv’s leg, her fingers vibrating but not touching. She opened her hazel eyes and gave Liv a thoughtful look. “I can’t say. Bites have their own way of healing, and it is usually unique to the person it happens to. But I do think you’ll make a full recovery.”

  “That’s great,” Liv said, taking a deep breath and feeling some of the weight evaporating.

  “I’m truly happy to tell you that,” Hester said. “Bites aren’t my specialty. Between you and Stefan, my healing abilities have really been challenged lately.”

  “Stefan?” Liv asked, surprised to hear the name. “He was bitten? By a snake?”

  Hester’s expression gave away her mistake. “Oh, no. And it was nothing. I shouldn’t have said anything. My apologies. Spending this time here with you and your brother away from the House of Seven has brought down my walls.” The healer stood, giving Liv a sudden serious look. “But at the House, we should remember our places and act as prescribed. I think that is for the best. Don’t you?
”

  Clark stepped forward, nodding. “I agree. And I’m hoping that you won’t make the same slip about Liv and me in anyone else’s company?”

  Hester thought for a moment. “Yes, I think it would be best if we all forgot about this. I’m not sure what you were up to when you were bitten, Liv, but I urge you to be careful in the future. Things in the House are shifting, and I daresay you might be the cause of it. Whatever the case, I trust the Beaufont family. I can’t say that about many in the House.”

  Relief filled Clark’s face. “We trust you, and Trudy too. Thank you for your discretion.”

  Hester’s gaze drifted to the canister of magic sitting on the table. “I believe we have a rough road ahead of us at the House. There are those who are good, those who are bad, and those who are in a gray zone. That’s how life works, though. Many of us at the House are afraid of what will come if we fight back and afraid what will happen if we don’t. I’m not happy to say that’s created cowards of many of us, and yet, I believe our hearts are in the right place. What we need is someone to reset the balance. That was the goal of the House of Seven all along, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Liv said, her pulse echoing the excitement building in her chest. “That’s what we’re—”

  Hester held up her hand, cutting Liv off. “I believe the less I know, the better. I am a Councilor, after all, and our job is to be objective. Yours as a Warrior is to have courage, and I think you’ve exemplified that through all.” She looked around as if she might be forgetting something, then nodded in the direction of the door. “Yes, I think I’ll be taking my leave now. Goodbye, Liv.” Offering Clark a polite nod, she said, “I’ll be seeing you later, Clark.”

  He escorted her to the door and returned a moment later with a small package wrapped in brown paper.