Spectrum of Magic Complete Series - Spell Breaker - Fate Shifter - Cursed Stone - Magic Unborn - Libra

by D. N. Leo

  “Why does your son want to kill Roy?”

  “What? Why do you say that? What does my son have anything to do with this?”

  “Is your son Michael Harris?”

  Rose nodded, then her eyes widened when the hologram-like image of the kid appeared. Tears rolled down her face as she stood up and approached him. “Michael!” He didn’t respond. Rose reached out to touch him, but he turned slightly and disappeared into the dimension that rendered him invisible. He appeared again in the dimension where Ciaran could see him.

  “He . . . My son . . . He disappeared!” Rose cried out.

  “He didn’t disappear, Rose. He just shifted from one dimension to another. I can see him,” Ciaran said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “He can transfer himself in between different dimensions, or exist in multiple dimensions at once. Did you know about your son’s special ability?”

  Rose shook her head. “No, I knew nothing about this. Is he here, I mean there? With you? I should have taken better care of him. If his spirit can forgive me, please let me see him!”

  “Spirit?” Ciaran arched an eyebrow.

  “Yes. He died four years ago. You said his ghost can move between worlds. Can I see him again, please?” Rose cried out.

  Ciaran looked at Roy, Mori, and Orla for explanation. He didn’t have much experience in the paranormal.

  “I don’t think he’s a spirit, Rose. If he is, trust me, I’d know,” Orla said. “But at the moment, if he’s only letting Ciaran see him, maybe he could ask him what he wants.”

  Ciaran nodded and turned toward the boy.

  “Is Rose your mother?”

  The kid shook his head. Ciaran turned to Rose. “He’s not your son. He just confirmed to me that you’re not his mother. I’m so sorry.”

  Tears ran down Rose’s face. “How could someone appear as my son?”

  Ciaran didn’t have an answer.

  “Shapeshifters can shift into human form, but it’s rare, and it’s evil. For me, it’s only a myth,” Roy said.

  “The Yakuz can,” Mori said.

  Before they could speculate further, the kid waved frantically at Ciaran and pointed toward the back door.

  “We can’t go back there. We punched a hole in the wall, and it’s now a dimensional funnel.”

  The kid picked up a loose brick and wrote on the floor, “RUN.”

  Chapter 29

  The building shook violently as if it was going to explode. It felt like an earthquake. Ciaran checked his wrist unit and asked it to call the Daimon Gate. He frowned at the screen then looked at the group.

  “The Daimon Gate needs more time to gather the resources for us. But they confirm that they have received our request to shift the dimensional point of our location.”

  “What the heck does that mean? We didn’t request anything!” Lorcan exclaimed.

  The building shook harder. Dust, cement, loose bricks started to crumble.

  “We have to get out of here!” Ciaran shouted and headed toward the doorway. A large column cracked and collapsed right in front of him, blocking the way to the entrance. They ran toward the back and headed toward the dimensional door. The suction had stopped, and the door was now closed. The building shook as if it was about to swivel. Lorcan, Ciaran, and Roy fired at the door until it collapsed. Then they all stormed out into the heat of the desert beyond. As soon as they exited the building, the doorway behind them swung away, and the building vanished.

  “Oh my god, where are we?” Rose said.

  “Don’t worry, Rose, we can find the way back to the island,” Orla said.

  “How?”

  “Werefoxes!” Mori cried.

  Roy nodded. “Yes, and the other wolf clan was here as well.”

  They pulled their guns out and scanned the surrounding area. “There’s nothing here but sand and heat,” Rose said. Ciaran glanced at his wrist unit, then looked at Lorcan. Lorcan looked at his wrist unit and cursed. “We’ve lost all signals.”

  Sounds of howling came from the distance. “Only shoot when necessary. The beams are not unlimited, and that sounds like a lot of wolves,” Ciaran said, trying to code his wrist unit at the same time.

  Lorcan approached. “Is this a dead zone?” he asked Ciaran.

  Ciaran shook his head. Then he looked at Lorcan. “It’s not a dead zone, but someone has blocked us from space.”

  “Like the way they shifted and blocked the island?”

  Ciaran nodded. “Not many people would have the power to do that. What exactly did Bricius say to you?”

  “He said he’d come back to kill me, and when he does, there will be no Flanagan to protect me.”

  Ciaran arched an eyebrow in frustration. “And you really don’t know a Flanagan?”

  Lorcan shook his head. “Is he one of the people who could do this?”

  Ciaran shook his head. “Maybe. But I killed him. He’s the only one I know of who might be capable of combining magic and galactic matter and has an Earth connection. You’ve encountered him, Orla.”

  “What?” Orla asked.

  “When I dropped by your place in the Daimon Gate a few weeks ago. The person who possessed you and used dark magic to attack me was Hoyt Flanagan,” Ciaran responded.

  “All right, but I have nothing to do with him. Why did he protect me, and when did I need his protection?” Lorcan exclaimed.

  The howling had moved closer. It didn’t sound like a pack attack, it sounded like an army. Lorcan and Ciaran looked again at their wrist units.

  No signal.

  They pulled their guns. From the horizon, packs of wolves appeared like ants, forming a dark line that separated the sand and the sky. They had no chance of killing them all regardless how many guns they had and how skilful they were.

  “I’ll fire at them,” Orla said and curled her hands into fists.

  “There are too many of them,” Lorcan said. “We have no chance of opening a portal here, am I right, Ciaran?”

  “Unfortunately, no,” Ciaran muttered.

  The line of wolves started moving toward them, slowly and surely. They heard a growl behind them. As they turned, they saw that Mori had shifted into a stunning red fox. She took a stance and howled into the air, a haunting sound that was powerful and heart-wrenching at the same time. Roy looked at her. There was no need for anyone to ask what Mori was trying to do. It was natural for her to take the position of alpha fox. She howled again into the air, calling for a response from the Firefox clan that she had never interacted with.

  Roy gazed at Mori, the woman he loved with all his heart. He was filled with pride and love. Roy shifted into a formidable black half-fox half-wolf. Together, Mori and Roy looked magnificent. Ciaran fixed his eyes on the wrist unit Roy was wearing and smiled as it adjusted in size now fit tight to Roy’s front leg.

  Soon, responding howls to Mori’s came from everywhere. From the side and from behind them, hundreds of red foxes appeared. They approached and formed a pack behind Mori and Roy. The army of foxes charged at the sand hills.

  The wolves at the top of the hills howled and marched down. The foxes charged upward. The two armies stormed and merged. Howling, barking, and growling noises flooded the air. Lorcan wanted to shift, but Ciaran held him back. “You’re more useful in your human form, Lorcan. Focus on shooting, not biting.” They raced at the sand hills behind the Firefoxes and shot at any wolves that ran loose from the pack. They didn’t want to hit any foxes. The fighting ground was so dense that Orla couldn’t use her fireballs. They just had to wait patiently and let Roy and Mori take the front.

  From a distance, the fighting ground looked like a gigantic sand ball.

  Then the noise reduced. Bodies of foxes and wolves dropped in the sand. It was time for them to assist. Several wolves had run away. Ciaran, Orla, and Lorcan rushed in and shot at any moving wolves. The sand was soon littered with animal bodies and blood.

  They saw a mass of moving bloody black fur that shi
fted into Roy. He reeled a few feet away to pick up a pile of red fur. The little red fox lay in Roy’s arms. As a tear ran down Roy’s face, Lorcan pulled Orla into his arms and turned her away.

  Ciaran approached Roy. “May I take a look at her?” he asked.

  Roy didn’t say anything, he just released the fox. Ciaran checked her pulse. There was nothing. But he knew he could do something. There was no medical ground for this. He just had to use his instinct. He couldn’t explain where this thought came from, but he pulled out his knife and stabbed at the fox’s back leg. A cry came out, responding to the pain. Orla burst into tears. Roy pulled the little fox back into his arms.

  “Come back to me. I love you, Mori.” As his body shuddered with emotion, the little red fox shifted back into Mori. She moaned, and Roy held her in his arms and rocked her. He embraced the woman he loved as if his life depended on it. Indeed, his life might have depended on it, on her survival. For his entire life, that was all Roy knew—protecting Mori.

  Mori opened her eyes and looked at Roy, her eyes filling with tears. She didn’t need to ask him, but he knew what she wanted to know.

  “All of your foxes are gone,” Roy said. “I’m sorry, Mori.”

  “They followed the code of honor, they protected me, they fought my battle even though they’re not even mine.” A tear rolled down Mori’s face. “I should have died with them.”

  “You are mine. If I failed to protect you, I would have no reason to live, Mori. But it’s hard for me to protect you if you don’t accept me. I know you won’t accept my mixed blood, but . . .”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “I said yes, if that was a proposal. Not exactly as romantic as I’ve dreamt about, but it will do for now.”

  Roy paused for a moment to digest the information. He looked back at others, looked down at Mori, then he grinned and kissed her.

  “Ow . . . you let Ciaran stab me,” Mori groaned.

  “I’ll deal with him later . . .” Roy kissed her forehead and then turned to Ciaran, miming a thank-you. Ciaran nodded and stood, searching the horizon as he contemplated the next move.

  Chapter 30

  The desert sun had gone down, giving way to a harsh, chilly wind whirling around the random rocks on the sand hills. They had no shelter, no food, and no water. Mori and Roy had recovered from their injuries, but they wouldn’t survive for long in this climate without food and water. They camped close to where the Raven house used to be, hoping it would reappear. Ciaran didn’t want to rely on chance—he stuck to his wrist unit, continuing to code it and try to fix it. Then something sparkled in the horizon like lightning bolt. Ciaran called out, “Lorcan, check your unit.”

  Lorcan looked at his screen and got a glimpse of signal.

  “I’ve got it,” Ciaran said and strode to the open space, staring in relief at his wrist unit. He read the text on the screen, then glanced up to the top of the sand hills. “The stone is here,” he said.

  “I thought it was under water,” Lorcan said.

  “It is. But we’re in a chaotic area of intercrossing dimensions right now. Things will change again, so let’s stay close together,” Ciaran said and stepped closer to the group. Then he looked up at the hills again. “The information I’ve got suggests the stone is hidden in a place that crosses two dimensions and is in the middle of nine thousand moving islands. Whatever that means,” Ciaran muttered.

  “Look.” Orla pointed to a stone at the crest of the hill. It was glowing in a deep indigo shade.

  “How can you fix that gigantic rock to the key?” Mori asked.

  “The stone is either inside or underneath it,” Ciaran said.

  “Let’s go,” Lorcan said. They ran up the hill toward the glowing rock. They’d been running for quite a while, but the distance between them and the glowing rock didn’t seem to change.

  “It’s shifting,” Ciaran shouted. “Stay together.” The sand under their feet flew like fast running water. In some areas, it sunk, creating enormous holes in the ground which sucked in anything on the surface. They looked up the hill and saw the same distance to the glowing rock. “We’ll never get there,” Rose said.

  Ciaran knew the distance was illusional. He pulled out his portable liquid map. “Follow me,” he said. He navigated based on the map, not on what they could see with their naked eyes. They appeared to run sideways. The sand kept sinking and flowing around them.

  “The sand flows like water, Ciaran!” Orla shouted out. Ciaran stopped a moment and nodded.

  “Yes. You’re right. If the sand is the water, then the black rocks are the islands,” Ciaran said.

  “There are nine thousand of them to navigate around,” Lorcan added.

  They kept running. Ciaran’s map seemed to lead them closer to the glowing rock, but not close enough before they were shifted away again by the flowing sand. Rose was not as fit as the young group of people with her, she fell behind and was sucked into a sand hole. Lorcan glanced back, seeing her sinking, he reached out to grab her and slipped in the sand. Orla grabbed at the edge of a small rock with one hand and gripped Lorcan’s leg with the other. Sand flew everywhere, muffling their call for help. Sensing trouble, Ciaran stopped and looked back. He called out for Roy and Mori. They darted back, grabbing Orla’s hand just before it slipped from the rock. They pulled Lorcan and Rose up.

  “Thank you,” Rose said. “You shouldn’t have done that, Lorcan.”

  “If he hadn’t saved you when he had the opportunity, he wouldn’t be the man I love,” Orla said as Lorcan grinned.

  “The sand here isn’t moving.” Ciaran was astonished. “The sand around the rock was fixed, while the sand in the open space moves like a river. What if the rocks are not the islands but the gateways, and the flowing sand is the traffic,” Ciaran spoke his thoughts out loud.

  Lorcan chimed in. “The Daimon Gate has nine thousand gateways. The hunt for the key of Psuche began at gate 131. That can’t be coincidence.”

  “It’s moving!” Roy called out and pointed at the glowing rock. Ciaran looked at his map and could see that a surging energy beneath the surface was moving rapidly. Anticipating the direction of the glowing rock, he charged. They group jumped back into the flowing sand, heading toward the rock.

  The sand seemed to move faster. They heard a rumbling noise from behind them, and saw a three-story high sand wave rolling toward them. Lorcan and Roy grabbed Orla and Mori. Ciaran pulled out his gun, increased the power, and shot at the sand wave and in a panning motion. The laser beam cut off the wave where Lorcan, Orla, Roy, and Mori were standing, breaking its structure. It collapsed and sand rained down on them. The tail of the wave hit Ciaran, lifting him from the ground and smashing into a nearby rock like a rag doll.

  He dropped to the base of the rock and was quickly covered by sand. In a short moment, there was no sign of Ciaran.

  Chapter 31

  Lorcan, Roy, Mori, and Orla dove at the site, digging frantically with their bare hands. It seemed to take forever. They couldn’t find Ciaran.

  “Are we digging in the right place?” Orla asked. Mori and Roy shifted into their fox form and poked their noses into the moving sand. They whirl around, digging with their forelegs. They sniffed around, pushing toward the left, then the right, doing a circle. It had been five minutes. They searched more frantically. Seven minutes later, Roy wagged his tail and shifted back into human form.

  “Here. Right here!” he shouted and dug at the same time. They all darted over and dug. Ciaran’s hand came into view. They reached down into the sand, and grabbed his shoulders, and pulled him up.

  “He’s not breathing,” Mori said.

  “Come on, Ciaran,” Lorcan said, checking his pulse and finding none.

  “CPR,” Orla said as she jumped on top of Ciaran and started pressing his chest. He gasped, opened his eyes, and took in a deep breath. He looked perfectly normal, as if nothing had just happened.

  He squinted at the sight of O
rla sitting on top of him and smiled. “Thanks for the offer, Orla, but I’m taken.” Orla climbed down to the sand.

  “You were just dead!” she exclaimed.

  “No, I just shut my body down because I knew it would take you a while to find me. Thank you all for digging me up.”

  “How can you just put your body on hold like that?” Roy was astonished.

  “That’s what you get for being Eudaizian. How can you heal your injuries?”

  “We’ve all got our talents,” Lorcan commented.

  “Where’s Rose?” Mori asked. They looked around, and Rose was nowhere to be found. Mori and Roy shifted again and searched, but they couldn’t find her.

  “Does that mean she’s dead?” Orla asked.

  “Not necessarily. Until we find the body . . .” Ciaran said.

  “There!” Lorcan shouted and pointed at a sand hill in the distance. There, they saw Rose racing up the hill, approaching the flickering image of the boy. They rushed in her direction, calling out for her, but Rose didn’t seem to hear them.

  “Are you seeing the kid?” Ciaran asked. Everyone nodded. They were approaching Rose, but she still didn’t hear them calling, and she kept walking up the hill to reach the boy. Ciaran looked at the kid standing in the middle of the hill, gazing at Rose. There was something about him that wasn’t right. “This might not be the same kid we saw in the house,” Ciaran said quickly and stopped the group from running.

  “What’s that, Ciaran?” Roy asked.

  Lorcan squinted his eyes, seeing a bright halo around the kid. “You’re right, Ciaran. Something’s wrong,” he muttered. Feeling a prick at the back of his neck, the energy in his body started to surge.

  “We’re running away from the stone,” Orla noticed. The group turned around. By running toward Rose, they had moved a great distance away from the glowing rock.