The Stone (Lockstone Book 1)

by Seb L. Carter

  And he’d have to survive. That may be the hardest part of all.

  Katina brought the ward stones over from the window. It was surprising how small they were, but then it was surprising that the stone that Liam had, the one stone that was the key to the whole thing, keeping the Fae at bay and out of the entire world, was something he could carry in his hands.

  “We’ll need to break both of them,” she said.

  “What?” Liam had thought they could only get away with breaking the stone that kept the water out.

  “If we don’t break the stone keeping the structure intact, water will seep in, but there won’t be a way out.”

  It made a sense—as far as nonsensical things went, which pretty much summed up everything he was going through.

  “Do you really think you can access the stone’s power?” Katina asked him.

  That’s what this came down to. Liam was going to have to try to tap into the stone’s power like he’d done before when the stone killed for him. And he wasn’t even sure he could, not after what happened upstairs and the stone wouldn’t work for him. Right then, he was beginning to agree with Eoin. This was a horrible idea.

  Katina took his hands. She grabbed him by the wrists, which made him a little self-conscious due to the scars and his bracelets, but that was the least of his worries. “Look, I got your back,” she said. “I believe in you.”

  He stared at her. “Why are you making this sound like a cheesy Pixar movie?”

  She smiled. “Come on, Dory. Work your magic.”

  Liam rolled his eyes. “Dory. Please. You’re Dory. If I’m going to do this, I’m totally daddy fish Marlin.”

  “More like Nemo.”

  “Whatever.” He was still grinning. Whatever her intent was, it did work. Kind of. He was a little more relaxed right now. Maybe she was working subtle magic on him that he wasn’t able to feel. He didn’t really care. All he knew was he had to try to make this stone do something he’d never been able to do with it before. No pressure.

  “All you have to do is make that stone do what it’s built for,” Katina said. “Create a wall. More like a bubble. I’ll smash these stones, and you’re going to keep us from getting killed.”

  “Well, when you put it like that…” Liam was being sarcastic.

  “Look, we’re all here to help.” She waved to the others, made them move close. They did until they were all huddled into one small spot in the center of the library. She reached up and put a hand on Liam’s shoulder. Everyone else did the same, touching him on his back, his shoulder, his arm. Patrick’s touch still carried with it that current, that familiarity he’d come to enjoy, even if it did still feel tainted somehow after he’d learned the truth. They all stood like some sort of close-knit prayer circle. “We’ll focus power into you,” Katina said, “and you visualize a bubble around us.”

  “Okay,” Liam said, still unsure what he’d really gotten himself into. All of this was sitting on his shoulders. If he failed, they were all dead.

  The pounding at the door resumed again.

  No, it wasn’t pounding. It was an explosion. A gout of flame shot up from the direction of the door, and a screech of Fae-touched voices filled the library.

  If he didn’t try, they were all dead anyway.

  “Time to go,” Katina said.

  Everyone around him began to focus. They made no sound. No one said anything, but he could tell they were doing it. A rush of something entered into him.

  So, he did as Katina instructed. He held the stone with both hands, and he stared at it.

  A bubble, Katina said. They needed to be in a bubble to survive this. He visualized a bubble.

  In his vision, standing close to him, he felt her first before he saw her. Apocalypse Annie, and she had a hand reaching out toward him. He would’ve felt cheated if she wasn’t there, he realized. She’d made herself known so often before. Why not now? No one else seemed to take notice of her, and that wasn’t entirely unexpected. He’d come to think of her as his personal ghost.

  This time, she didn’t try to speak. She had a hand on his shoulder. He couldn’t feel her hand, but he could feel the power. As soon as her hand touched him, the power flowed through him strong enough that he thought he’d start crackling with energy if he didn’t start doing his part.

  Fae-touched rounded the corner of the stacks. They moved almost like smoke, pushing together as one group, but undulating, clawing ahead.

  “Now would be a good time,” Katina shouted. And Katina destroyed the stones keeping them all protected from a great wall of water and the possible collapse of an entire house on top of them. The Fae-touched ripped toward them.

  He heard it before he noticed it. A loud crack from the direction of the water wall. He didn’t watch. He worried that if he watched, it would freak him out, and he would lose concentration.

  The water hit them along with a rush of debris. It slammed into them hard. They were shoved from their spot on the floor in the center of the library and shoved back towards the wall.

  Liam was sure he failed. The hands touching him were no longer there. He felt the others slam into him, tossed around by the water. He was certain they were all about to die.

  But when they hit the wall, it was more of a soft thud than the bone-shattering crunch of thousands of pounds of water pressure pulverizing them against a hard wall.

  He opened his eyes, and he saw they were encased in a bubble.

  His bubble, the same he visualized.

  No one stood. He was rolling inside the bubble like tumbled laundry in a dryer. The space around them was only barely large enough to contain them all, so it was pretty much a shuffling pile of people. And grunts as elbows met with chests, into chins, and other places.

  “Everybody here? Everybody okay?” It was Katina’s voice.

  Each of them said they were. Nobody was missing. That was a relief.

  All around them, the room was flooded with water. A body floated by them, the pale form of a Fae-touched. It was too dark to really see anything else, and he had no idea where they even were in the library. At least until Eoin formed a light with magic. From what Liam could see, the library—or what was left of the library—was in complete disarray. The shelves were no longer there. They were almost trapped behind a pile of shelving, but the bubble managed to keep them from being crushed, and it also created a tight tunnel.

  “We need to move,” Eoin said. He pointed. “That way.”

  But their way was blocked. Brodie, however, was on it, along with Katina’s help. In the space of the bubble, their magic cloyed to Liam like a thick haze. And the crushed shelving shifted to make way.

  Propulsion. That was something they hadn’t discussed. But he heard Katina whispering close to his ear, and he felt her magic take form. Soon, they were moving through the water. Eoin joined the whisper of her voice.

  A loud crack was heard, muffled by all the water surrounding them. It was followed quickly by another.

  “The house,” Patrick said. “I can feel it, the space of it. I think it’s coming down.”

  “We might want to speed this up,” Brodie said. He continued to work his own magic to clear the path for them.

  “There!” Patrick shouted. He pointed. It was the opening of the water wall, or where the water wall once was. Now it was a gaping hole leading out into Lake Michigan. Once they were clear of the back wall where all the debris had shoved, the path ahead was clear.

  They neared the opening, and the area around them started to collapse. Brodie also lent his magic to their ability to move, and their bubble sped up. They made it out just as the space behind them crashed down. Part of their escape was aided by the sudden push of water as the roof of the library collapsed in on itself.

  Their trajectory in the water curved upward and became an ascent toward the water’s surface. They broke through and jostled around in and on top of one another as the bubble settled then floated on top of the water.

  When L
iam looked back toward the house where they’d come from, he saw the obvious bow in the center of the house as if the center supports had all given way. He guessed they had. They were held up by magic contained in the very stones they’d broken to escape. Vast caverns suddenly opened beneath the house in a soil that wasn’t well suited to deep basements, especially that close to the lakeshore.

  As they floated in the water, the center of the house snapped, loud enough to carry out over the water as Katina, Brodie, and Eoin steered their bubble toward shore, heading toward a headland outcropping from the shoreline.

  Thirty

  Wilmette, IL - On the Road

  They stole a car. Liam never thought of himself as a car thief, but their particular situation made for as good an excuse as any to steal a car. Katina opened the door with magic, and they all climbed in. They didn’t have a choice.

  Liam climbed into the driver’s seat—he was the one driving. No one else knew the way, and he had every intention of getting there as quickly as possible. When he put his hands on the steering wheel, the car started up. One of them did it. He felt the magic crawl over his skin to start the car.

  The drive was only thirty minutes, thirty minutes where none of them said much. There wasn’t a lot of congratulations to Liam for keeping the bubble intact. No one said their way-to-gos for propelling them out of a collapsing library and a house that was utterly destroyed around them. It was as if everyone in the car was too stunned to really talk about it. Or exhausted. Somehow, they made it out, and that was something that they were all still trying to process. At least Liam was.

  Until he turned on his street where his house was located.

  As soon as Liam turned the car on the block to his house, he was forced to stop due to a police blockade and a crowd of people gathered to see what was going on. He threw the car into park, and, before anyone could stop him, he was out of the car door. He even left the stone behind. He pushed his way through the people gathered. It wasn’t thick with people, but it was enough on both sides of the street and even some standing in the middle of the street.

  A news crew was set up near the fluttering police tape and Chicago police officers stood sentry on the sidewalks, their cars parked at odd angles in the middle of the street in front of his Aunt Jonie’s house.

  “Liam!” Eoin was catching up to him.

  He wasn’t going to stop.

  “Liam, wait!” Eoin was at his side, and he put a hand on Liam’s shoulder.

  “I need to know what happened,” he said. The police were there. That was a good sign, right? It meant they were probably inside his house, and, he hoped, talking to his aunt and Nina to question them about an ordeal and a bizarre kidnapping. But the fact that there were still gathered people and news reporters didn’t sit well either. If they weren’t hurt, then there wasn’t much of a story. So why would they be hanging around still?

  He made his way to the barrier and moved beneath the yellow tape. Eoin was at his back.

  “Whoa!” A tall, thin male cop moved to block his way. Another shorter female cop stood not far off, her hand on her weapon.

  Liam pointed. “That’s my house.”

  “Hold up,” the officer said. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Liam Yates, and I live at that house.”

  The officer turned to look at where Liam was pointing. He turned back with a stern, stony expression. “You live in that house?”

  “Yes, I’m telling you. I need to know that they’re all right.”

  The officer stared at him for a moment before nodding. “Okay, I need to call it in.” He bent down to speak into the microphone attached to his shoulder.

  “Are they okay? I need to know that. Are they okay?”

  The officer paused before he started speaking. “Who?”

  Liam stared at him. “What do you mean who? My aunt and Nina.”

  “You’ll have to talk to the detectives,” the officer said.

  “What does that mean? Are they alive?” Liam made to move past the officer as other police officers came to stand near them.

  “Sir. Mr. Yates.” The officer made a grab for Liam’s arm, but Liam shook him off. “There was no one in there,” the officer said.

  Liam stopped and faced him again. When he turned, something caught his eye. Not something, but someone. Apocalypse Annie, again. She stood in front of his house, and even at the distance from her he was, he could tell that she was looking at him. It gave him pause. She was someone he’d come to almost trust, especially after seeing her when they flooded the library. But what was she trying to tell him now? Seeing her made him even more nervous.

  “They didn’t find anyone in the house,” the officer said. “But the detectives will have some questions for you, I’m sure.”

  “What?” Liam’s attention snapped back to the officer. “What are you saying?”

  “There wasn’t anybody in the house when we entered.”

  “Are you sure?” Liam asked him.

  “I was one of the first on the scene,” the officer said. “If your aunt and friend were in there, they got out safely.”

  Not likely. He considered briefly showing him the video on Patrick’s phone, but he decided they didn’t have time. Liam wasn’t paying attention to them anymore as the officer started calling it in. Instead, he looked to Eoin. “They’re not there.”

  “I know,” Eoin said. “Let’s go.”

  Eoin was right. The last thing he needed was to get caught up in answering a bunch of endless questions from police detectives about things he knew nothing about. They had to figure out where his aunt and Nina were taken. And how they could get there to save them. That was his number one priority. Liam turned back the way he came and started under the crime-scene tape.

  “Mr. Yates, wait.” The officer put a hand on him.

  Liam turned to shoot an angry glance back at the police officer.

  The officer was blown back from Liam to land on the hood of a police car with enough force to shatter the front window glass. The other officers nearby were thrown to the ground. Even the police cars rocked back a few inches on the street. Bystanders were knocked off their feet. It took Liam a second to realize what happened.

  To realize that he was the cause for what happened.

  He stared at the officer who touched him. He was moving, at least. Not quickly, but he was moving. That meant he wasn’t dead.

  Eoin was down on his knees, too. He had his hands over his head, and he peered up at Liam. “That was not subtle at all,” he said.

  Liam didn’t have a response. He didn’t have time to think of one. “Let’s go,” he said.

  Eoin fell into step behind him as they stepped through the crowd of bewildered people righting themselves.

  Chicago, IL - Norwood Park

  Zach had just overheard the name Liam Yates spoken by one of the detectives when the sight of the woman he’d seen before at the house suddenly stood before him, about seven feet away in the living room, near the front door. She had a serene expression on her face as she turned to look out of the front door of the house.

  The explosion outside caused everyone to duck. When Zach looked for the woman again, she was gone. He was one of the first who ran out of the front of the house to stand on the cement porch, and he looked first in one direction then the other.

  One man stood up in a spot on the street where there had been more officers stationed. A police officer lay in the caved-in front window of a police cruiser.

  Go to him. A whisper at his ear. You’re running out of time.

  The standing man, Zach squint as he took a closer look.

  “Liam Yates!” Zach shouted as he stepped off the front porch of the house.

  The only standing man stopped and turned to look in Zach’s direction. There was no question now. He was staring at the owner of the face on the school ID, the man they’d come to this house to see when they discovered whatever had happened here, something about which they still had no expla
nation.

  Liam Yates turned again and hurried away, and Zach started running. He heard Glenda call his name, but Zach didn’t lose sight of his target. He had to weave through the police officers and detectives all on the ground, some of them crouching behind cars. Maybe he was running into an armed situation, a guy with a bomb. He was probably taking a big risk.

  But someone with possible answers was about to get away.

  “Liam Yates! FBI! Stop where you are!”

  But Liam didn’t stop. Instead, he got into the backseat of a car being driven by a woman, and they sped off.

  Zach had no choice but to stop his pursuit, and he turned to the nearest officer still getting to his feet. “I need a car,” Zach said.

  When the officer didn’t say anything, he instead went to the nearest police cruiser, the one without the officer resting in the caved-in windshield, and he opened the front door. The officer that Zach had spoken to started to protest, but Glenda came up to the passenger side of the car, flashing her FBI identification and badge.

  “And just where in the hell do you think you’re going,” Glenda asked him as she got in.

  “I saw our guy. Liam Yates.” Zach started honking the horn for people to get out of the way, some of whom were still getting to their feet. They scrambled out of the way as Zach started inching the police cruiser forward.

  “You sure it was him?” Glenda asked.

  “Without a doubt.”

  The car made its way through the people, and Zach tried to figure out where the car carrying Liam Yates might have gone to.

  The woman. She was there again, standing in the intersection just up ahead. When she pointed to the right, Zach knew where to go. He slowed like he was going to hit her, but, by the time he entered the intersection, she was gone.

  When Zach turned the police cruiser, he saw the lit-up brake lights of the car, and he recognized it as the same make and model of the car he’d seen Liam Yates get into. The car was moving fast, so Zach reached down and flipped on the police siren as Glenda got on her cell phone to call it in that they’d just borrowed a Chicago city police cruiser.