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

by D. N. Leo

  “Yes,” Roy responded quickly.

  Ciaran looked at Orla. “Don’t hate me, Orla.”

  “What are you—” Lorcan hadn’t finished his sentence when Ciaran drew the knife with the Indigo Stone and pressed it against Lorcan’s neck. Orla growled and threw herself at Ciaran.

  “Keep her still!” Ciaran shouted at Roy and Mori. “We all want to live, but something has to give.” He dragged Lorcan out onto the beach, pressing the knife harder to his neck. The creature had lowered its tail, focused on Ciaran. A stream of blood began to flow from where the knife had cut into Lorcan’s flesh.

  The creature recognized the knife and lowered itself for a closer look. “I don’t know who you are, but I have nothing to do with this. I heard you wanted him because he killed your woman. And you want the Indigo Stone as well, so here it is. You can have both. Just let the others live. Can we make a deal?”

  The creature growled.

  “Don’t come any closer. I’ll leave what you want here. Take it or leave it. It’s up to you.” Ciaran spun Lorcan around and stabbed him. Lorcan grunted and dropped to the sand. Ciaran raised the knife, stained with Lorcan’s blood, for the dragon to see. The knife with the Indigo Stone shone at the creature, stopping it from moving as if it had mesmerized it. Ciaran put the knife down beside Lorcan’s body. Then he stepped backward slowly, turned around, and ran as fast as he could toward the rocks.

  The creature appeared to frown at Lorcan’s dead body, then it lowered itself to sea level and moved inland. The water raised up, hitting Lorcan’s body and shifting the knife. Regardless of how gently the creature moved, the water hit Lorcan’s body and washed the knife further away. The creature suddenly stopped moving, began to shrink in size, and then walked out of the water as a man in lizard skin.

  When Ciaran saw that the creature had left the water and was moving toward Lorcan’s body in human form, he charged at it and blasted his laser beams. It turned and roared at Ciaran. Roy, Mori, and Orla also ran at it, guns blazing, covering the creature in beams. It roared with pain and slumped to the ground. From behind it, Lorcan stood up.

  “Yo!” he called. As soon as the creature turned to look at Lorcan, it jerked back, screamed, and burst into flame. Lorcan had electrocuted it. He did it again and again until there was nothing left. He slumped to his knees, exhausted.

  Orla ran to him, and he pulled her into his arms and embraced her. The water gently lapped at their feet, cool and soothing, rewarding them for a battle won.

  Over Orla’s shoulders, Lorcan smiled at Ciaran, “You could have been a little gentler with the knife.”

  Ciaran picked up the knife with the Indigo Stone and tucked it under his belt. “You could have been gentler when you electrocuted me. You can heal yourself quickly, I can’t. Besides, it was a cut, not a stab, don’t be such a wuss.”

  “Bastard,” Lorcan grinned, rolling his eyes.

  “What?” Ciaran asked. Lorcan nodded toward the back. Ciaran turned to see Roy and Mori were drowning in a passionate kiss. “No need to teleport them. They’re already in another universe,” Ciaran muttered and turned to search for Jacob. He heard a sound from behind him— it was Bricius. He stood with Jacob in Ciaran’s full view. When Ciaran glanced back, he could tell that the group didn’t see either one. Bricius smirked, his hand around Jacob’s throat now transformed into a blade.

  “One wrong move, and I’ll separate his head from his body.”

  Chapter 37

  Ciaran froze. He couldn’t even ask Bricius what he wanted because the others would see that he was talking to no one. As much as he wanted the others to read his eyes or his mind and do something about it, he wouldn’t risk Jacob’s life, which had already been savaged once.

  Bricius approached and whispered into Ciaran’s ear, “Don’t speak to me. When the portal to the Daimon Gate opens, I will get in with you. Once we get to the Daimon Gate, you will lead me to the key of Psuche. After I get the key, you will give me the knife with the Indigo Stone.” Then he stepped away from Ciaran and squeezed Jacob’s neck a bit harder, causing him gasp for air, to make his point. Ciaran shifted his stance and gave a slight nod. His eyes fixated on Jacob’s, and he let out a sigh of relief when Bricius eased his hold on the boy.

  Bricius had to whisper because his voice could cross dimensions and others would hear him, Ciaran thought. He gazed at Jacob and got the strange feeling that he could communicate with Jacob with his mind. He made up a plan in his mind and sent the thought to Jacob. The boy blinked.

  “That’s a disagreement,” Ciaran thought and sent his thought again to insist. Jacob’s eyes teared up, and he look as if he might not cooperate. “Stubborn boy,” Ciaran thought.

  A few feet away, Lorcan was walking over to Orla, her back to Ciaran, Bricius, and Jacob. Lorcan glanced at Ciaran and frowned. “Did you find gold in the sand, Ciaran?”

  Ciaran turned and smiled. “When we get to the Daimon Gate, there will be plenty of gold for you to dig.”

  “So stop looking for it here. Want to share a few rounds of air fencing while we wait for the gate?”

  “Air fencing?” Roy asked.

  Lorcan laughed. “People play air guitar, so why can’t we do air fencing?”

  “Ahhh . . .” Roy nodded with understanding.

  “It still requires a lot of energy, and I don’t really want to hear you grunt. It’s not a nice sound.” Ciaran grinned and turned around. He heard a low warning growl from Bricius. Bricius blinked a few times, revealing his wormy irises. Ciaran nodded as he understood that Bricius was now a Xiilok citizen and was invisible to the Daimon Gate’s system. He could sneak into their teleport without being discovered. Bricius smirked when he saw that Ciaran realized he was at a huge disadvantage.

  Ciaran turned to his side as if he was saying something to Lorcan and then, fast as lightning, he pulled his gun and blasted at Bricius’s head. He knew the beam wouldn’t work on him, but that was the only plan he could execute at the moment. As Ciaran predicted, he’d provoked Bricius and had broken his concentration. The blade arm pressed to Jacob’s throat loosened a bit, and Ciaran flew at Bricius. He dropped his gun on the way, pulled the Indigo Stone knife, and stabbed at Bricius’s head. Bricius had no choice but to raise his blade arm to block the attack. Jacob took the opportunity to duck down, and he disappeared from that dimension.

  Ciaran’s hand bounced back when the knife hit the blade arm. Half of Ciaran’s body went numb with the impact. Attacking Bricius with his human strength was a stupid idea, but Ciaran knew he didn’t any other option at the moment. Ciaran saw that Jacob had safely left this dimension, turning fifty percent transparent. It was time for Ciaran to flee, so he stabbed a few more times to keep Bricius busy blocking and then ran.

  Lorcan had aimed like a hawk. The fifty percent transparent Jacob pointed at Bricius’s position. Lorcan focused on that position.

  Ciaran made it a few feet away from Bricius and yelled, “I’m clear.” Bricius roared in fury. He could see he was in trouble, but he had allowed his anger to take over his rational mind. He extended his blade arm, pointing at Ciaran from behind. Jacob darted in front of Ciaran, pointing frantically. Ciaran stopped running and turned to see the sharp blade inches from his chest.

  It was too late for him to do anything.

  He felt the impact of the blade on his chest and, at the same time, the shape of Bricius jerked upward and turned red as he was electrocuted.

  Then Ciaran saw nothing else.

  Chapter 38

  Lorcan saw Ciaran go down and Bricius burning like a torch from the inside. He had been watching Ciaran closely. Ciaran had mentioned the Daimon Gate, which was not their destination, and he’d also mentioned gold in the Daimon Gate. Then he had hinted that he needed Lorcan to use his energy—meaning electrocuting someone. And that person was hiding in a different dimension, that person couldn’t speak out loud because he could hide his tangible form, but his sound might cross dimensions.

  Lorcan
didn’t think he could have done any better than he had given his limited time and information, but maybe he hadn’t been quick enough to save Ciaran. Lorcan picked the knife up from the sand and charged at Bricius. He would burn to ashes anyway, but it wasn’t enough. Lorcan stabbed at Bricius again and again.

  Then Bricius’s eyes fluttered open, and he chanted, “On this day, in this space, I curse your parents for the death of my son. I bind the curse with my soul and for that I shall go to Hell.”

  “Shut up!” Lorcan yelled and stabbed some more, but Bricius continued to chant the curse. It took both Orla and Roy to drag him off of Bricius’s dead body.

  Ciaran opened his eyes and saw Jacob and Mori sitting next to him. Jacob looked at Ciaran’s chest and seemed to be happy with what he saw. He smiled. Ciaran smiled weakly as his chest hurt when he tried to move any muscle on the upper half of his body. He tried to sit up. Mori gave him a push from the back. “Slow and steady, here you go,” she said.

  Bricius’s body had started to disintegrate into worm puddles. Orla and Roy dragged Lorcan toward where Ciaran lay.

  “You see, he’s already up. He didn’t die. Don’t be upset,” Orla comforted.

  Lorcan shrugged Roy and Orla off him and slumped to his knees, puffing in exhaustion. He knew Orla thought he was upset because he’d assumed Ciaran had died because he was too slow to shoot Bricius. He would let her think that. Lorcan watched Ciaran trying to sit up with difficulty and wincing with the pain.

  Ciaran’s shirt had been pulled open, and looking down, he could see a large purple bruise had formed at the position of his heart. Ciaran looked at Orla for an explanation.

  “You were saved by a bagel,” Orla said. Ciaran looked at his chest again and recalled the impact when the blade hit his body. Lorcan’s strike had reduced the power of the blade and had pushed Bricius backward, but he’d still managed to reach Ciaran’s chest. When he hit the stone box, he must have thought he had done damage. Because Ciaran’s shirt was covered in Lorcan’s blood stains, Bricius wouldn’t be able to tell whether he had wounded Ciaran. Still, the hit was, after all, hard enough that it had it ground the box into dust.

  A beam flashed down in a large circle onto the sand.

  “About damn time,” Roy mumbled.

  Lorcan stood up, squinted at the light, and then approached to give Roy a hand with helping Ciaran to the teleport. As soon as they entered the light circle, Jacob appeared in the same dimension with everyone. He could feel it when Ciaran and everyone else could see him at the same time. A smile flashed on his face when Orla crouched and opened her arms to him. “Hello stranger. Come give me a hug.”

  A short moment later, at a station in Alphi, a satellite station of Eudaiz, Ciaran manned the control panel and executed many complicated programs. Rows and waves of data and code flowed on the screen, each creating a visual change in a map-like picture displayed on another large monitor.

  Ciaran pointed to blue dots in the middle of the map. “That’s the island where it’s supposed to be. Using the data and resources provided by the Daimon Gate, I have rechanneled some of the astronomical energy forces elsewhere and have shifted the shield that covered that island, blocking its dimensional view from other universes, including Earth.”

  “So everything is back to normal now?” Orla asked.

  “Yes, for now.”

  Chapter 39

  The spaceship they traveled on looked like a mini bus shaped like a capsule. There were no windows to see outside. Ciaran explained that these internal capsules travel in connected tunnels, and there was nothing to see. In addition, they traveled too fast for human eyes to see anything. Orla smiled to herself. Yes, Ciaran had called this vehicle a capsule. Ciaran assured everyone that English was the official language in Eudaiz, especially in the Sciphil zone—more terminology that they would have to learn. Sciphil was a short form of Scientist Philosopher, a powerful and important position in the committee that governed this universe of six hundred billion people. Orla shook her head, trying to register the information. It was a world different from the Daimon Gate, and it made what she and Lorcan had experienced there feel rather ordinary.

  Lorcan turned aside and saw her smiling at him. He kissed her cheek. “What are you thinking about, dreamer?” he asked.

  “This is a new life for us.”

  “Yes, indeed. Why aren’t you happy?”

  “I am. What are you talking about?” Orla shook her head and smiled. Something hovering in the air bothered her. The look in Lorcan’s eyes was distance. She had caught him a couple of times avoiding eye contact with her. What was that about? Orla pushed away the black cloud in her mind, a dark thought that would only turn into a nightmare and made her weep for nothing—the fear of losing Lorcan.

  “Orla, put that away,” she told herself. Ever since childhood, she feared she might not be good enough for him. Her parents had died when she was only a kid and had left her nothing except a black magic debt and a dysfunctional family. Until now, she didn’t quite understand it what was about her that Lorcan was head over heels in love with. He had left everything for her—family, wealth, connections, a world of opportunities. He had spent the life on the run with her and protected her as much as he could. Why? That fear, that question, clung to her body like a cancer cell, waiting to spread whenever her immune system was weak.

  It was weak now.

  The look Lorcan had given her after his encounter with Bricius was inexplicable. And then there were his nightmares, his hallucination when he was injured. When he was figuring out his werefox issues, Orla understood he was experiencing self-doubt and confusion, but he had gotten over that. So what was happening now was more than that, more profound. What was going on in his mind had to do not only with himself, but with her and their relationship as well.

  They had never kept secrets from each other. Orla sighed.

  Lorcan lifted her chin. “What’s that, Orla?”

  “Huh?”

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “Roy and Mori. They must be happily settled at their place by now. I was just wondering when we’ll have a chance to visit them.”

  Ciaran turned around from the control panel. “As soon as tomorrow if you like. They live in the residential area in District Seven.”

  “What’s the deal with the doctor you left Jacob with?” Lorcan asked.

  “He’s a good friend of ours. He helped Madeline and me when we first arrived to Eudaiz. He has a daughter Jacob’s age. He’ll take good care of Jacob.”

  A robotic voice announced their arrival at Ciaran’s residence. Ciaran opened the capsule door and led them to the private platform.

  “What a place!” Orla gasped. The private station shined with metal and stone, a mixture of contemporary design and medieval architecture. There were no green men walking around and no flying saucers in the sky. It was just like a palace somewhere in England.

  The grand entrance led them to the main hall with gigantic columns, arched ceilings, and stone statues. A robotic butler approached, greeted them by name, and asked if they needed anything. “How does he know us?” Orla asked.

  “The system must have updated and populated the moment we were accepted to Eudaiz,” Lorcan said.

  “Technology comes in really handy sometimes.” Orla grinned. From a wing, Madeline stepped out. She smiled graciously and greeted Lorcan and Orla. Then she looked at Ciaran. She fixed her eyes on his left shoulder where the injury was. Lorcan saw Madeline’s look and silently wished Ciaran luck. Because Ciaran didn’t have the ability to heal himself quickly, the wound wouldn’t look pretty when Madeline got to check it.

  Ciaran approached and rubbed his thumb over the dimple on Madeline’s left cheek. She touched his unshaven face, tucked away a strand of his long hair, and looked into those intense gray eyes that she hadn’t seen for days.

  “How are the kids?” Ciaran asked.

  “They stopped talking to me. They must be waiting for you.” She touched
his left shoulder. “Is this bad?”

  Ciaran shook his head. “Nothing is as bad as what I’ve missed.” Then he kissed her.

  Orla looked at Ciaran and Madeline, her eyes dreamy. Lorcan pulled Orla into his arms and kissed her. There, Orla let herself melt into his kiss.

  Ciaran asked Orla. “Do you want to see the twins?”

  “Of course! I’d love to!” Orla smiled.

  “Madeline, would you mind taking Orla to the children’s chamber?” Madeline smiled at him. She knew her husband, and that was a sign that he needed to have a private conversation with Lorcan.

  “Come on in, Orla. The kids will be thrilled to see you.” Madeline gestured to the corridor.

  “Aren’t you coming?” Orla asked Lorcan.

  “Of course. But I just need to check out Ciaran’s computer experiment first.” Lorcan grinned.

  Orla nodded and followed Madeline to the children’s chamber. When they had exited the hall completely, Ciaran asked, “Are you sure about this?”

  Lorcan nodded, raking his hands through his hair. “I have to leave now, or I won’t leave at all.”

  Ciaran nodded. He knew what it was like to have loved ones threatened. But he thought Lorcan’s decision was rushed. “I know what it feels like, Lorcan. But I think you should be better prepared. The threat wasn’t solid and yet . . .”

  “I know you don’t believe in magic. I don’t want to, either. But Bricius cursed my parents. I told you what happened to Orla and me in London. These curses are real.”