He’s angry and embarrassed, and he’s going to throw his largest spell at me yet. What I don’t realize is we’re no longer alone in the room.
It’s only because I’m watching him so carefully I notice his attention shift from me to the door I’m standing in front of.
His magic slides past me and reaches for the person at the door. The intention of his magic is unclear. I can’t tell if it’s meant to grab the person or kill them. All I know is they’re in trouble.
I spin and throw my magic to protect them, but I’m too slow. Rose’s eyes widen as she stares at me, and then she slowly clutches her chest and folds over.
In turning to help her, I’ve left myself open to an attack from Al. There’s nothing I can do as he tosses me like a doll across the room and into a wall. All of my breath pushes out of me in a single cough and my sight darkens and twirls as I lose consciousness.
“What the hell?” Sin’s voice forces me to remain conscious. And then all grogginess snaps away as Sin sees what’s happening and roars with rage.
She’s going to try to attack him. And he will kill her.
This time I don’t attempt to block the attack I know he’s going to throw at her. Instead, I go straight for Sin myself.
I grab her, toss her out of the room, and slam the doors closed. A touch of magic and the doors are locked beyond her ability to open them. I can only hope she takes the hint and uses up her energy trying to help Rose rather than break down the door.
Al pushes himself to his feet and turns to face me. He makes no effort to try to pass through the circle, and I can see why. The dark corruption is losing control and my Al is fighting back. He cannot be happy about being the one to hurt Rose, and he’s probably doing everything he can to seize his body.
It takes me a minute to find the strength to stand, but eventually I manage to get up and walk toward the circle. There’s no smile from him, good or evil, as I step over the debris to place myself directly in front of him. I put a hand on his chest before he tries to grab me or do whatever he has planned next.
“Would you still like my magic?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer. Behind his eyes, I can see control flicking back and forth between the two sides of Al. A stalemate.
“Then here you go.”
I weave my magic into every inch of what’s left of his. And then I set my power on fire, burning away every tendril of darkness within him. There can be nothing left if this is to work. Just like a weed, even a tiny root of corruption will only grow back stronger than ever.
The storage of magic inside of me disappears at an alarming rate as I push further into him. My knees buckle, but I can’t stop. There’s still more. It’s trying to hide within the corners of his being, trick me into thinking it’s gone. I press harder.
My eyes go blank and I can no longer feel the corruption, but there is still the faintest of bells warning me not to stop.
And then I collapse. Although I know Al’s wrapped his arms around me to keep me from hitting the floor, I can’t actually feel him. I can’t feel anything. I’ve gone too far. I’ve used up too much of my magic.
“Stop.” The word barely registers in my mind. It’s so faint, I can barely hear it. “Please, Lou. You’ve done enough. Stop.”
Al. The real Al. My Al. He’s the one talking to me. But his voice is barely audible. I need to listen. He’ll be mad if I don’t.
I break the flow of magic between us and sigh with relief as I slip into unconsciousness.
Aldric
Chapter Eighteen
Lou’s eyes roll back into her head and her body goes limp in my arms. I should know what to do by now. This has happened so many times, dealing with it should be simple.
I rub her face, pushing her hair away from her cheek. This can’t be happening. I didn’t kiss her. I didn’t drain her power. She can’t have forced all of it in me on her own. There’s no way her instinctive need for self-preservation would have allowed it. And yet, the proof is here. She’s gone. I see no sign of magic within her. Not even the tiny spark I left after our kiss.
It’s not possible. She has to be in there. I tap her cheek a couple of times in hopes of getting some sort of reaction. Nothing.
“Listen to me,” I whisper into her ear. “You can’t be gone. Want to know why? Because I told your sister to kill me if I ever hurt you, and I have no interest in dying today.” Nothing. Not a hint of a chuckle.
A drop of water lands on her cheek and it takes me a minute to understand it must have come from me. I roughly wipe my eyes with the back of my hand and do everything I can to stop the tears.
She’ll be okay. One way or another, she’ll be fine.
“You should have killed me,” I say. “Not saved me.”
I press my lips to her forehead and close my eyes, wishing I could kiss her lips one last time. But then again, there’s nothing stopping me. The worry I might take her magic is gone since she has none to steal. I can’t hurt her any more than I already have.
My lips linger against hers for a moment as I embed the memory of her taste in my mind. As I pull away, I imagine her sucking in a quick breath and moaning ever so slightly. If only it were real.
Another moan. This time I’m sure it isn’t my imagination. I cup her face in my hand and her head rolls into my touch, her lips curling up ever so slightly.
She’s alive. She’s unconscious, but she’s alive.
A throaty laugh pops out of me and I can no longer fight the tears. That was too close. If she ever does that to me again...
As I lean forward to kiss her again, I remember the others still stuck behind the door. They must be wondering what’s going on. Sin must be furious.
Rose.
I shift Lou out of my arms and into a comfortable position on the floor before leaping to my feet and racing toward the doors. Breaking Lou’s locking spell is easy with the amount of her magic she’s pumped into me. I might as well be breaking one of my own spells.
Rose is curled on her side clutching at her chest while Sin leans over her trying to figure out what’s wrong. The moment she sees me, her worried expression turns to ice and she leaps to her feet.
“What have you done?” She points my own sword at me to make it clear I’m not welcome to move any closer. “Where’s Lou?”
I raise my hands to let her know I have no intention of violence. “She’s in the other room. She’s fine. Just asleep. I promise. Now let me see Rose.”
Sin’s eyes twitch between the room with Lou and Rose until she decides her sister is higher priority to her. Without lowering the blade, she moves around me, keeping as far away as she can, and slips into the room. As soon as she’s inside, I drop to the floor and reach for Rose.
She jerks at my touch and tries to scurry away. When she moves, the pain overwhelms her until she’s leaning over the floor wheezing.
“I can help,” I say in what I hope is a soothing way. “But you need to trust me. Think you can do that? I know I haven’t earned it lately, but I promise I will do everything I can to fix things.”
I hope she understands it’s not just the magical damage I want to fix. I still have no idea how I can make things right between the two of us, especially now I’ve gone and nearly killed her, but I will figure it out. I have to. She’s my best friend.
Rose struggles against me for a few more seconds, but whatever I threw at her is making her weak. When I pry her hands away from her chest and force her onto her back, she doesn’t give much resistance. The magic inside her is ugly and dark, starting at her heart and spreading through her body like a weed. It’s made to cause pain to her and latch onto the magic of the person who tries to save her, corrupting them just as I had been corrupted. It was the darkness’ final card, played when it realized Lou was winning.
“Sin,” I call over my shoulder.
She’s closer than I expect when she answers, “What?”
“I need my sword.” I know she’s not going to hand it to me. Not when her sister is
lying unconscious on the ground because of something I did. So I’m not surprised when she doesn’t hand it to me right away. “The magic inside Rose needs to be destroyed. The only way is with the sword.”
“You’re going to stab Rose through the heart?” Sin says.
Rose moans. “Rather not...have…happen.”
I rub Rose’s shoulder to reassure her. “I’m going to draw the magic into an object, and then destroy it.”
“Cause...trouble...” Rose says between wheezes.
“You don’t cause trouble.” I say. “If anyone here does, it’s me.”
“I agree,” Sin says. “You do. But that’s not what she’s saying. I think she’s trying to remind you breaking things filled with magic is what caused this trouble in the first place. Remember Gran’s house and the trapped wizards?”
When Rose nods her agreement, she gets caught in a coughing fit, forcing her to roll back onto her side. Spots of blood drop to the floor where she coughs. She’s dying.
“One of your phones would do wonders right now.” I hold a hand out to Sin and wait until I feel the cool material in my palm. “Thank you.”
“It cost me two weeks pay, just so you know,” Sin says. “If you tell me later there was a better way to fix this, I will kill you.”
I place the phone on Rose’s chest and watch as the magic naturally pulls away from the foreign material. I drop a bit of magic within the machine, separating it from the source of magic within me as quickly as possible I do not want to give the darkness an easy route back inside me.
The moment my magic is inside the phone, the darkness reaches for it, greedy to consume and contaminate the new power. I leap to my feet and take a step back, my eyes never leaving the phone or the darkness building within.
“Use your dust,” I say to Sin. She doesn’t move. “Quicker would be better.”
“Why?” she says. “It’s made to create illusions, not trap evil spells.”
There’s no time to explain, but if I don’t convince her to act, Rose will be killed.
“You imbue the dust with the elements, right?” I say. “The elements are needed to complete any spell. I don’t see many other ways of adding the elements around here, do you? So dust on the phone now please.”
Sin digs into a hidden pocket in her dress and drops to her knees in front of Rose. My sword remains in her other hand. The moment she scatters the dust over the phone, getting quite a bit on Rose in the process, I grab Sin under the elbow and drag her back through the doors.
“Drop the sword,” I say.
She holds on while trying to wiggle free. “What are you doing?”
“The rest is up to you, Rose. Use the sword. Be quick.”
I’m not sure if Sin understands what I’m trying to accomplish, or if she’s just happy I’m not trying to use the sword myself. Either way, she drops the blade next to Rose and allows me to pull her into the room with Lou. I force Sin to leap into the circle, motioning for her to mind her step, and follow as fast as I can.
I can feel the darkness explode from the phone, its tendrils reaching in every direction, desperate to find some source of power to latch onto. When it touches the imbued circle surrounding us, it burns and shrivels, until there is nothing left of the darkness but bad memories and a whole lot of guilt.
Chapter Nineteen
No matter how much detail I go into as to why Lou is unconscious, Sin refuses to trust me. When I offer to move Lou out of the circle to allow more space for Sin to do her meditation, she flat out refuses, telling me to ‘go away,’ though she uses much more flowery words than those.
I guess this means our combined meditation is not going to happen. We’ll have to think of another way to destroy the spell trapping the sorceresses. Hopefully there is one not requiring me to pierce my sword through their stomachs.
Rose declares she’s fine, but she refuses to sit anywhere near me within the room, leaving me to a corner by myself. I’d feel lonely if I wasn’t so happy. Rose is safe, the darkness is gone, and Lou is going to be all right. I can feel her magic growing every hour she sleeps. Things are finally starting to look up.
“Stop it,” Sin says.
I lift my gaze from Lou and realize Sin has been staring directly at me for I’m not sure how long.
“What?” I try to look innocent, but as Ma has told me many times, I’m not a good player. She can probably easily see through my act. “I’m just sitting here.”
“You’re smiling while watching her sleep,” she says. “It’s creepy. So stop it.”
I can’t stop smiling. Things feel too good for the first time in too long. But I can stop staring. Lou would probably be just as uncomfortable as Sin if she woke up to find me watching her. However, it’s harder to avoid looking at her than I would ever have imagined. My eyes keep sliding in her direction no matter where else in the room I try to focus them. She seems so peaceful with her arm tucked under her head and her lips parted to allow the slightest of snores to escape every few breaths.
Touching her might be off limits right now, but it doesn’t stop me from remembering the soft silky feeling of her skin or the moist pressure of her lips against mine.
“If you don’t stop,” Sin says. “I will make you see Farah’s butt every time you look at her.”
“Very mature,” I say. “Aren’t you supposed to be concentrating on finding your creatures? What does it matter where I’m looking?”
“You’re distracting me,” she says. “Why don’t you make yourself useful by taking a walk around the building? Make sure none of your Sword friends have found us yet.”
“We would both know if they were near.” I’m not entirely sure what I’m saying is true, but I have no interest in letting Lou out of my sight. “Part of the package of becoming a wizard. We always know when one of our kind is around.”
Although we can sense each other, there is a limit in distance. With this building being as large as it is, I’m not sure we would be able to feel someone before they got inside.
“Maybe so,” she says. “But we still won’t have any idea if one of their minions, such as the cops from earlier, shows up. We don’t want any more surprises, do we?”
Another valid point. As much as I would rather stay, I need to go. Keeping Lou safe is much more important than watching her sleep.
“Make sure you let me know if anything changes,” I say.
Sin growls. “Just go.”
I stand and brush away the dirt clinging to me from the floor. I hate to imagine the state of Lou’s dress after all of this. Shame. I like it. Though that might have something to do with the fact it doesn’t make it past her knees. Not something I’d ever imagine a woman in my world would wear.
Before I leave, I take a last look around the room to make sure there are no dangers I might have missed. I meet Rose’s gaze for just long enough to see her turn bright red and shift her head away.
Perhaps leaving is a good thing after all. It gives me a little longer to think about how I’m going to deal with her.
I don’t make it three steps out the door before I hear Sin exclaim in excitement. When I barge back into the room, she’s still sitting cross legged with her eyes closed. Her back seems to be a little straighter and a smile spreads across her face, revealing every one of her teeth.
“I did it,” she says. “I found them. They’re safe.”
As quick as her smile came, it fades away again.
“Wait, that can’t be right.” Her head tilts to the side as though she’s trying to examine something from another angle. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“What?” Rose asks. “What doesn’t make sense?”
I don’t need Sin to answer. Her frown tells me enough. I race to Lou, lifting her into my arms before Sin has a chance to explain. Lou doesn’t wake, though she shifts her weight, snuggling into my chest.
“They’re close,” Sin says. “Farah and Nyx are almost here.”
“You know what that means,
” I say. “Victor would never have let them go. Not unless there was a very good reason to. He’s using them to track us. We need to leave.”
Sin and Rose stand at the same time, but Rose is much slower to straighten. She hasn’t quite recovered from the damage I dealt her earlier, and it’s taking its toll, slowing her down. Sin notices the same thing and gives me a look.
I recognize her expression. And I don’t like it.
“We aren’t going to make it far,” she says. “Between Rose’s injuries and you having to carry Lou, they’ll catch up in seconds. Farah’s very fast.”
“You’re not going alone,” I say. “You’ve no magic to protect you. They’ll kill you the second they realize what’s happening.”
She begins kicking out the circle to keep it from being used by someone else.
“Farah and Nyx will be looking for me,” she says. “They won’t have any reason to search for you. So long as I keep out of sight, I can lead Rilla and Victor on a wild goose chase for a while.”
“How long’s a while?” Rose asks.
“A few hours,” Sin says. She notices I’m about to protest and interjects. “Possibly days. I have ways to put them off my trail. And you know this is our only chance. You would do the same thing if they were tracking you.”
I clench my jaw closed. She’s right. I would. I’d do anything to save Lou, and right now Sin’s plan is the only one we have.
“Which direction are they coming from?” I ask.
“East,” Sin says. “I think they must have tracked me to my car and were only able to pick me up again when I started to do the meditation.”
I nod. “They’ll expect us to continue travelling west, so we’ll head north.” She starts to head out the door, but I stop her. “Sin.” She gives me an expectant look. “Stay out of sight, and stay alive. Lou’s going to be mad enough when she wakes up. You don’t want to make it worse.”
Sin wiggles her eyebrows once and grins before turning and taking off full speed down the corridor.
The Box Omnibus #1 (The Box, The Journal, The Sword) Page 41