by Amie Gibbons
Quil went next.
But slower, like the power was pulling at him.
Huh.
Carvi took my hand, pulling me forward.
My stomach lurched as my toes hit the first wave of the water magic.
“It’s harder to cross, the more magic you have,” Carvi said, “but I swear you can do it. Just take a deep breath and come on.”
He pulled me across the line and I yelped as the magic seared my skin.
The next line was easier, more of a breeze than anything else.
The salt one scraped across my bare arms like someone taking, well, a salt scrub to my body way too harshly.
And the last was the easiest.
It barely tickled.
“Why was the water the hardest?” I asked, gasping for breath as we stopped in the middle. “Shouldn’t it be easier since it’s my element?”
Carvi looked down at me.
“What did you just say?” he asked.
I pressed my lips together, suddenly not able to meet his eyes as I blew out a breath and repeated myself.
“What makes you say water is your element?” Carvi asked.
“I, um, feel like it is.”
I looked over at Quil and he shrugged.
“Carvagio?” Quil asked. “Is this important?”
Carvi’s eyes were still glued to me.
“I don’t know,” he said, slow and careful. “We don’t normally associate with elements here.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “Associate with elements? What do you mean here?”
Carvi shook his head and kneeled down next to the box.
Pyro hovered outside the circle still.
“Pyro, baby?” I asked.
Pyro shook his top half and pointed to the circle.
“You can’t cross the line?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Why?”
Pyro pointed to Carvi.
“Because he’s the most magic of us all,” Carvi said. “It’s like a vampire crossing a threshold. He would literally run into a wall. You could barely cross and you’re at least part human.”
“But… we could’ve had him in here with his threads then,” I said.
Pyro shook his top third again.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because the spell is made for beings from this plane,” Carvi said. “A spell for someone from the demon plane who’s in this one would be calibrated completely differently. This spell is already going to be difficult. The forces will already be trying to tear us apart. And that’s just with us. If we added him?”
He looked out at Pyro and Pyro nodded.
Was he asking Pyro’s permission to tell me?
No way.
Not Carvi.
“This spell is built around his threads,” Carvi said, “and he wouldn’t be able to come on the same spell as us because of the difference in calibration required. The spell would eat him alive. It wouldn’t be able to differentiate between him and his threads.”
Why was telling me that so bad?
“What aren’t you sayin’?” I asked, crossing my arms and staring the vamp down now.
Carvi shook his head.
“Quil?” I asked.
Quil took a deep breath. “Since the spell is using Pyro’s threads, there is a risk, if there isn’t enough power from those, for the trip there and back, that it will reach outside the circle for more power, and grab onto the source of the battery.”
My heart dropped to my toes.
“You mean Pyro!” I yelled.
AB and Mama jumped.
“It’s a risk,” Carvi said.
“Pyro, you get outta here,” I said. “Get as far as you can go. How far does he need to go to be safe?”
Carvi shook his head. “He can’t. The spell would get him whether he was here or in India.”
My mouth dropped open. “What… you… why didn’t you tell me this earlier!”
Carvi’s face showed nothing. “Because we didn’t know until we were assessing the threads after we decided to do this, and then, then it was too late, we’d already started. That first little spell with the rose petals and one of the threads in the bowl? That got this going. We either do it or we have a massive amount of backlash. We’ve crossed the point of no return and we have no choice but to use the power now.”
“What are the odds of this taking him?” I asked. “I mean…”
I couldn’t think!
“I mean, what are the odds of needin’ more power?” I asked.
“Maybe twenty percent. I can’t say.”
“No,” I said. “That’s too high. What would cut down the power needed?”
“Less of a jump,” Carvi said. “But we already did the measurements. We already-”
“I could redo them,” AB said. “If we want to try one a little bit closer. I can go in and out easily. I can redo the measurements.”
I nodded. “I said ten years to give us some lead time, but I… I felt that it was no more than seven. If we hit seven and a half years ago, I can almost guarantee we’ll be before whatever happened. Would that be enough less power required that it won’t be risking Pyro?”
“Probably,” Quil said. “But sweets, are you sure it’s not further back than that?”
“Not positive, but, I feel it. There’s something about the numbers eight and nine. I think whatever happened was in August of two thousand and nine. Let’s aim for June to give us some lead time.”
Where had that come from?
I hadn’t known those numbers before.
“Is somebody helping?” I thought really really loud.
Carvi didn’t react. So if he heard me, he wasn’t showing it.
AB walked out of the circle like it was nothing and grabbed the book and her phone. She wrote out figures on the pad of paper she’d used before, using her phone as a calculator, mouth moving soundlessly as she worked stuff out.
She redid the candles with painstaking slowness and I resisted the urge to tap my foot with impatience.
She redid all that math to help us out.
I could deal with standing around for an extra fifteen minutes.
The first hints of sunlight were starting when AB walked back into the circle she’d remade.
“Sweet dreams, baby,” I said to my flying carpet.
He waved a tassel and settled on the couch, ready to go down for the day.
Things made on the demon side couldn’t say alive on ours during the day. Pyro was just a normal rug during that time.
“Wait, since Pyro dies during the day, does his magic too?” I asked.
“Yes,” Carvi said. “Which is why we need to hurry this up.”
“Sorry,” AB said.
“No, we needed it perfect,” Carvi said, kissing her cheek. “You did great.”
Quil took my hand, I took AB’s, and they each took Carvi’s.
Completing the circle.
I looked around.
Somehow I’d ended up in front of the water candle.
Was that an accident?
No.
I could feel it.
We’d arranged ourselves so it was probably subconscious, but we’d lined up with the different elements.
I was water, Carvi earth, AB fire, and Quil air.
Maybe Carvi was wrong and humans did have elements they related to here.
Or maybe it was a coincidence on the others’ parts and they followed my lead after I lined up with the water.
“Get ready,” Carvi said. “This is going to suck.”
I closed my eyes.
Nothing happened at first.
And I almost cracked my eyes.
Then pain ripped through my middle and I doubled over, only keeping a hold of the others because of their grips tightening on me.
White hot pain like someone poking my intestines with needles took me and I fell to my knees, Quil and AB still holding onto me.
I screamed, and something answe
red me.
Some voice.
Somehow familiar.
Telling me this was normal.
And it sucked.
But it would pass.
And I just had to suck it up and deal because I was strong.
I was magical, and I could do this.
And he’d been through worse, so this, this I could take.
I held onto that voice, grabbed it in my mind.
It sounded musical and male.
Kinda like if I were a guy maybe.
Like he could definitely sing.
I saw green in my mind’s eye.
And a river took us away.
Chapter fourteen
I cracked my eyes to light that was way too bright, and my stomach lurched as I rolled over, slamming my eyes shut again.
“Guys!” came out way too loud and high.
I groaned, curling into the fetal position and clamping my hand over my ear facing the sky.
Grass, soft and tickly, scraped my cheek, and my nose itched as I breathed in a huge sniff of it.
“She’s awake,” the same loud voice said.
AB. Had to be.
No indoor voice.
Same as me, usually.
But not when I felt like I’d just spent the night doing shots and passed out after a party outside.
Not that I’d ever done that.
At least, I’d never passed out outside.
In the back room of a club, sure, but never outside.
“I’m gonna be sick,” I said.
“Here.”
Something cold was pressed into my hand and I cracked one eye enough to see it was a Sprite.
I tilted my head up just enough to see the red top and know it was AB.
She laid a plastic bag of saltines in front of me.
“And crackers,” she said.
“What happened?” I croaked.
How was I supposed to drink the Sprite if I couldn’t sit up?
“Well, you worked great as a catalyst,” Carvi said from somewhere. “But there were a few unforeseen consequences.”
My stomach lurched and I lifted my head, dry heaving at the grass.
I forced out, “Pyro?”
“No, he should be fine,” Carvi said out loud. “We still have enough of his threads to get home, most likely. I meant to you. The spell was supposed to take from all of us, to open the door, and it didn’t. The threads were the battery, you were the catalyst, and all of us were just along for the ride.”
“So I feel like I just woke up from a lost week on spring break because all the power came from me instead of all four of us?”
“Yes. You were supposed to open the door and we were all supposed to walk through. What happened instead was you opened the door and shoved us through.”
“Oh, bad me,” I said weakly. “Wait, where’s Quil?”
“Getting supplies,” AB said.
“Ugh, no, but…” I gagged. “Um, I thought we weren’t supposed to change anything?”
“We’re not, but we need you to feel better, so we’ll have to deal with balancing what we changed by buying these things back then, er, now, when we get back to the future, which is our now. Did any of that make sense?”
“Not even a tiny bit,” I said. “But I don’t care. Where are we?”
“A field just outside Montgomery,” AB said.
“Why are we here?”
“This is where we popped up.”
“Carvi, can you help me sit up?”
I felt him sit behind me more than anything.
He smelled good, like soap and sex.
And maybe kinda like lava rocks.
Or maybe I was a tiny bit high.
He put his legs on either side of me and strong hands grabbed my sides, pulling me up with such slow precise movements I almost didn’t feel it.
Almost.
My stomach lurched as my brain shifted and tried to leak out my nose and I gagged, flinching against his hold.
Then I was leaning back against him and relaxed into his strong chest, letting him support me like a big, solid teddy.
I opened the Sprite and took a few sips, letting the coolness spread to my stomach before I risked much more than that.
“Thank you,” I said, keeping my eyes closed.
Light was way too much.
Even the bit getting through my eyelids stabbed through my brain.
“You’re welcome,” Carvi said. “Quil will be back soon with some stuff to make a potion to help you feel better.”
“Will I be able to work magic after that?” I asked. “Get visions and track and everything? Cuz right now, I’m feeling kinda done.”
Or dead, but whatever.
Okay, maybe I was being a bit dramatic, but that spell had really sucked.
Like literally sucked the life right outta me.
“Like the Princess Bride,” I said, taking another sip.
“Huh?” AB asked.
“The machine that sucks the life outta ya. That’s how I feel right now, like someone took that machine to me. I think it got at least five years. Of course, I could just be being dramatic. I think I already said that. Not sure.”
AB chuckled, but it was strained.
“Is she going to be okay?” she asked in what she probably thought was a whisper.
“She’ll be fine,” Carvi said. “She’s strong. She… she did great.”
Lips pressed to the top of my head and I reached to the side with the free hand, groping till I found Carvi’s arm and stroked it.
“I love you,” I said.
The world felt fuzzy. Like I was seeing soft edges without seeing.
And everything was lightheaded.
Or… maybe just I was?
“Um,” someone said. “Did she just tell you she loves you?”
“I know you don’t see it,” I said, not even sure it was out loud, “but there’s so much of you to love. You’re worth loving. I promised Milo, and I’m agonna keep that promise. I’m gonna save you.”
The world went dark.
###
“Sweets? Sweets? Come back to me.”
I’d know that voice anywhere.
Something smelled nasty and salty and I gagged.
But wait!
I only gagged cuz of the smell.
My stomach was fine!
I opened my eyes with a few slow blinks.
The sun was high in the sky and bright as a beauty queen’s smile, but my head didn’t rebel against it and my stomach didn’t try to dump everything outta it.
It took a second for me to realize I was still propped up against something.
Shade and branches hanging about ten feet above my head said I was up against a tree.
Quil squatted in front of me, holding a vial.
That must’ve been what had woken me up.
Carvi sat a few feet away with his legs crossed, looking for all the world like a very realistic statue.
AB stood next to him, stretching down one leg.
“You bringing me back to life now?” I asked, smiling at my vampire.
AB jerked up at the sound of my voice.
“You want your Sprite?” she asked, picking up the can from where she must’ve dug it into the ground so it wouldn’t fall over and rushing to me.
“Thanks,” I said, taking it back and sipping on it.
I nodded after a few more sips and then a long chug. “I think I’m good. And wow, it’s just so beautiful today. Hot, but it’s June. It is June, right?”
“Yes,” Carvi said, opening his eyes.
Still no other motion to indicate he was alive.
Well, more than undead.
“Hey, wait a flipping second!” I yelped, looking at Quil then the field.
The beautiful, sunny field.
Quil burst out laughing. “I was wondering when you’d notice that.”
“What?” I pointed behind him to the sunny world. “How?” I flipped the finger to him. “But
…”
Quil caught my hand. “We used some of Pyro’s threads to weave a spell to protect me from the sun. It didn’t take very much; it’s basically very strong sunblock.”
“Then why don’t you do that all the time?” I asked. “And I thought his magic threads didn’t work during the day?”
“We made the spell before we left,” he said. “Once the magic has been converted into whatever spell, it’s no longer bound by the Other Side’s rules, it’s been changed enough to work in ours, even during the day.”
“Oh, okay, sure,” I said. “That… makes no sense, but I’ll take your word for it.”
“Okay,” Quil said, smiling.
“What now?” I asked.
“You’re the psychic,” Carvi said. “You’re the one who said you could find this river of power and figure out if we’re before the event and who that kid you saw was.”
Was it just me or was he sounding kinda snippy?
“I’m a little drained,” I said. “I’m not sure I can. I mean, I feel better, but I’m still pretty done.”
Carvi didn’t move from his spot, didn’t move his head so much as an inch, but his eyes landed on mine.
“Lea,” he said slowly, “the longer we’re here, the greater the risk of changing something, the more disturbance, and the more we’ll have to balance when we’re back.”
“I’m not arguing with you,” I said. “But I’m telling you I’m wiped. I don’t know if I need food, or a nap, or vamp blood, but I literally can not right now. I’d be surprised if I got any visions besides a First Impression right now.”
Carvi still didn’t move.
Wow, that was getting creepy.
“Fine,” he said, voice cold and crisp. “We will get you some food. But that is one more thing we are taking from this time that shouldn’t be, so it’s one more thing we’ll have to balance.”
“Is like one burger gonna make that big a difference?” I asked.
“We don’t know,” Carvi said. “That’s the problem with time travel. There’s no way to know what will throw things off and what won’t. No way to know how great the butterfly effect will be until it’s too late. We are most likely taking something that would end up being thrown out at the end of the night anyway, so hopefully not.”
Ooooookay.
If he kept up that cold tone, I was gonna get frostbite, even in this heat.
“I can go,” AB said. “I’m not magic, so I figure I’m the least likely to set anything off.”
Carvi shook his head. “It won’t make a difference. Long as the magical people here don’t do any magic. I don’t want anyone alone if we can help it. Quil going off was a big enough risk. We can split up. You and I will get food, Quil can stay here with Ariana.”